MLB Rivalry Weekend, Skubal playing catch, Jordan Westburg done for the season, Batter kryptonite

00:00:04
Speaker 1: What is a tg if hellas welcome back to hel Territory. Uh, I am not Scott Brown. I'm Katie Wu. You guys thought it would be a good idea to let me host the show. So let's let's set our expectations accordingly. Happy to be here with Eric Kratz, Todd Frazier. Gentlemen, how are we on this fantastic Friday?

00:00:28
Speaker 2: Doing great? Doing great? Better, better face than Scott. We're good to go. That's always a good day for how about you, Katty?

00:00:37
Speaker 3: Scotty, I mean, Scotty is very good looking, but it's much better to see Katie's smiling face in your smiling face, Todd, because anytime that I get to I'm just upset. It's baseball season for me. I haven't been to the Jersey jerse for a little bit, but I'll get back out there so that we can we can wrap it out in the lab.

00:00:55
Speaker 4: I'm ready, I'm ready. Thank you.

00:00:58
Speaker 1: As always, we got to get into the the technicalities. You can subscribe tweet us at FT Live. We're on YouTube and Twitter today by our merch ah, so please please please at the Pole Territory shop, I have several of our shirts in my closet, which is a little bit of a disaster right now. But you guys understand, and you know, Cratzy, I thought it was funny here for you to be so excited to see me because I have some some evidence of yesterday where that wasn't really the case.

00:01:26
Speaker 3: Did he did it when I'm not here? Of course, we're gonna talk about Dodgers tomorrow. Get my Dodgers hat out. We're gonna talk about Dodgers tomorrow.

00:01:37
Speaker 4: Get my Dodgers hat out.

00:01:39
Speaker 3: That'll be great. We're going to Dodgers Los Angeles. I know they've lost some games, but it's unbelievable. We got Katie Willard here.

00:01:51
Speaker 5: We're gonna talk about the Dodgers and show hey Otani and Tate and to ask her her nandez and like how Mookie bet is back and unbelievable rotation, so deep and some unbelievable. How great we are in sunny every day. Oh, it's so great.

00:02:07
Speaker 3: I'm so glad Katie's on here.

00:02:10
Speaker 1: That's right, Dodger lovin this morning afternoon on foul Territory. I actually had a nice little game yesterday, beat the Giants five to two. Emt She and six Indians two and runs. Jung Huli did become the first Giant to hit an inside the parker at Dodger Stadium, so that was a little bit of entertainment. But the Dodgers for for as rough as that homestand went salvage the series against the Giants. They got some good production out of the bottom of their order. They win Thursday's game with no show Heyo Tani or Mookie Betts in the lineup. You guys talked about this yesterday, Otani getting a little bit of a blow as he kind of struggles through a pretty significant slump for his standards to start the season. Dave Roberts said, we're just gonna give him a little break. He should be back in the lineup today leading off against the Angels down in Anaheim. But yeah, guys, that's uh. We got a lot a lot going on and what is officially MLB Rivalry weekend, But I'm looking at some of these matchups, not a lot of them scream rivalry to me.

00:03:10
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, for me, if in the East Coast, I mean you think about the Yankees and Mets. I think that's the biggest thing for me, first and foremost I know Kratzy understands that Kratzy is going to talk about his series, the Old whatever you call it. I'll let him talk about it.

00:03:24
Speaker 4: But yes, this is a rival for sure, Yankees Mets NonStop.

00:03:28
Speaker 2: It's going to be a battle here. I know the Mets have been struggling, but the Yankees have been up. Up Yankee or our Yankees have been up, Mets have been down. But a nice sweep from the Mets coming off a good series against the Tigers. So yeah, there's there's a couple. There's not many, though I agree with you totally. There's there's only a handful. If that many, Well.

00:03:47
Speaker 1: Let's let's get to a let's get to a big one. Uh, Phillies Pirates, Let's charge them ounds, all right? The Phillies don't call it a comeback. They're all of a sudden tied with the Washington Nationals per second in the NL East, though the Braves have a pretty hefty nine game lead over them in first place. What a weird division, it's been so far over there. But Phillies Pirates all weekend long, a lot of good pitching matchups, Wheeler schemes. On Sunday, let's backtrack a little bit, because in April, though, we were talking about Philadelphia and it wasn't so great. But since Don Maddingley took over, the Phillies are twelve and four. And I'm not at all suggesting that Rob Thompson was the problem by any means, but sometimes, you guys, know this, a team with that much talent and getting off to such a rough start needs a bit of a shakeup. And firing Thompson when they were nine and nineteen, all of a sudden they're twelve and four cents. Then they've won all five series under Don Maddingly. I say this all the time, winning teams win series. And we're seeing a lot better brand of baseball for the Phillies. You know, this is a team where you look at the talent and you just see how they were in April and you thought this cannot be sustainable. This team is so much better than their record, and they're starting to play that way. They've committed just one error since Madden Lee took over as manager for contact guys. In their previous twenty eight games, they had nineteen total air. So the offense is better, the pitching is better. They had a big win over the Red Sox yesterday. Kyle Schwarberg go ahead, two run homer in the eighth. Heyesus Lozzardo, six shuddy Rangers. Swarez for Boston struck out eight over five and a third retired the first eleven batters you faced before Bryce Harper drew a walk to give their Phillies the first base runner with two outs in the fourth, and then the Phillies came to life. But what are our thoughts about this Phillies team as of late.

00:05:37
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm just gonna go straight to the Yes, they're winning, and you have to beat the teams that you're playing in front of you, blah blah blah, all that stuff. The Phillies are in the National League. I know that's not any news to anybody else, But the National League has a lot of good teams. They now Central has teams over five hundred. Then they do more teams over five hundred than they do under five hundred. And they've been playing the National League teams that are the Giants since Mattingly has taken over the Giants under five hundred, which had Tony Vitello not kind of blown the game and not sure why he did. What he did in the one series there. They ended up getting too walkoffs in that series. Then they played the Marlins, okay, Then they played the Athletics, who I think were the best team of this stretch. Then they played the Rockies, and now they are playing the Red Sox in which they just like Katie said, they took that series. You have to win those series all teams under five hundred, except I think the Athletics were not under five hundred when they played them. But there's a stretch coming up here where they got to play some teams that are playing better. The Guardians are playing better the Pirates right now in the poop series. They have the Reds coming up, the Padres and the Dodgers and back to back series. So I'm not necessarily saying what they're doing as fools Gold. I'm saying that there hasn't been this massive uptick in offense like we thought we would see from this lineup. There's been a massive regression back to the mean for their pitching where they were pretty unlucky. What was going on for them, like they weren't they weren't getting out of jams. All the runs that were being left on base were getting cashed in by the relievers. So their pitching has been as dominant as we think it should be over this Mattingly stretch. The defense, clearly one air has been amazing. The offense, I'm still wondering how they're going to do against the upper echelon of pitching the sale Strider. I'm thinking of the East al Conte al Contra. I think they did okay or they didn't face them. Either way, they lost to Max Meyer. But through this I got to see this offense not just being the bottom bottom ten in offense. Yes, they're hitting a lot of dingers, but they have to put together good at bats and you see some resurgence from Boom. You see some better played appearances from the top of the lineup in Trey Turner and Schwarber's been really carrying them through this time, leading the league in homers.

00:08:14
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00:08:53
Speaker 2: You can use code territory ten for ten percent off your next set of tickets at seat geek. That's ten percent of any ticket with promo code territory ten. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. With over thirty five million downloads, see Geek is the number one rated ticketing app. Thank you, See Geek. Yeah, and I think to kind of piggyback what you said. They're finding ways to win games, they're finding ways to win close games, and they're not scoring a lot of runs. So I mean that, if you think of it in a nutshell like that's actually pretty Okay, if I'm a Phillies fan understanding when it all does click, they're going to start running.

00:09:34
Speaker 4: Here a little bit.

00:09:34
Speaker 2: They got wheel her back, they had a fantastic outing the other day.

00:09:38
Speaker 4: Swarber's just doing his thing.

00:09:40
Speaker 2: Man, It's been really fun to watch over the years, just watching him light up scoreboards all the time with home runs and what have you. Jesus Lizardo. You know he'll have one good outing and then you know he'll you know, tread back and then have two good outings. You know it's hit or miss, but he's always a good, good starter for them. And then you know Ranger Suarez, you know, absolute beasts, racking up the strikeouts, not overpower people. So I can't wait to see what's in store for this Philly team as they move forward. Nine games is a lot, though, but you get on a run here, you never know what can happen.

00:10:12
Speaker 3: Ranger was striking out a lot of the Phillies last night, and that was cool to see him X teammate of there striking out the Phillies. So that was that was cool. But to me, I think the division's out of reach on it. We had Cano on Hasu's Cano, the writer for the Athletic from that follows the Braves, and I asked them, I'm like, what are the Braves need to do or what could the Braves do that would like get them out of this because they are leading the league and pitching, leading the league and hitting and they have a nine game lead over the Phillies. All we said, you can't win it in April, but you can lose it in the Phillies. I just think nine games is just too much. It's too much to overcome with as good of a team. If they were like four games under five hundred and the Braves were like four games over, five games over five hundred, you know that would be close. But the Braves are just they're train right now. They are running downhill. I get it they lost last night, But to me, I think the Phillies have to start looking at the wildcard. What does that wildcard look like? You know, there's still four and a half out of the wildcard. I know it's early, but who are the teams ahead of them? Well, every freaking team in this n EL Central. So they have to be able to start. They have to be able to start or continue to win series. But they have to be able to start dominating these teams that I don't feel like they're quite dominating. I get it, they're winning, and winning in the big LEAs is a big thing. But when you get to these better team, these teams that are playing better, you gotta be able to put some wins together against those two. And they got a tough stretch coming up.

00:11:54
Speaker 1: They do they do, guys, and we'll see them kick it off against the Pirates. We mentioned the Nlcent, we'll talk about weird divisions. I spent a lot of time in the Nlcentral and this is not the kind of quality of baseball I was expecting from this division. But we'll get a good test here looking at the probables. We got Aaron Nola, Braxton Ashcraft today, Christopher Sanchez, Bubba Chandler on Saturday, and again Wheeler Schemes that's a big one on Sunday. Do we think the Pittsburgh Pirates are a legit team. We're gonna spend a lot of time talking about the Cubs fool a great you can never come out of the Brewers, the Cardinals playing really well. The entire NL Central really all about five hundred playing competitive baseball. Are we seeing the Pirates turn a corner though, and establishing themselves as a better team. And dare I say a team to get excited about.

00:12:46
Speaker 4: I'll go, I'll go on this one.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, I've always been a believer how the Pirates come out. They always come out hot and then they fizzle. Now all of a sudden, they're finding these little trend here of winning series, fighting their way back to you know, get into the game at least not always necessarily winning it. But I mean, I talk about guys. I know the pitching staff's been great, but O'Neil Cruz has been fantastic.

00:13:10
Speaker 4: You talk, You think about where he started first.

00:13:12
Speaker 2: Game of the year with the dismal outfield performance, and next thing you know, he's you know, he's making catchers diving for balls and hitting the ball really well. So you know, honestly, yeah, this could be a different Pittsburgh Pirate team moving forward. I mean, you've got veterans and Mitch Keller who have come in and still throwing the ball hard. We talk about Paul Skeens. You got guys that are hungry, and when you're hungry, you never know.

00:13:38
Speaker 4: What can happen.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: And you know, Don Kelly over there and the crew are letting these boys play and letting them have some fun.

00:13:44
Speaker 4: And I think that's the big difference right now.

00:13:47
Speaker 3: To me, if the Pirates do anything this year, are they a better team? Katie? Absolutely, definitely a better team. There's no doubt. Anytime you bring Paul Skeins back and for another year, he's gonna learn more, They're just automatically gonna be a better They added the offense. To me, I talk about it with my high school baseball team. How much free basis free ninety feet are the Pirates going to give away? That? I think is where this season will end up hinging. They have great pitching, obviously, Paul Skenes, Mitch Keller, Jared Jones is coming back, Ashcraft is doing what he's doing. Buba Chandler. I think they haven't quite tapped into it yet because of what I'm saying about the free ninety feet. He's walking too many guys, which is elevating his pitch count, which is elevating his his era, and he's not able to go deep into games. The outfield right now. Ryan O'Hearn really didn't play much outfield. He had played a little bit before, but now he's out in right field every day because they hamstrung himself signing a guy like marcel A Zuno. Ozuna's locked down a DH and he hasn't produced a ton obviously, really really slow start. But to me, is the outfield going to give too many extra bases away? I'm not just talking about are they giving away doubles, turning the you know, turn to triples. I'm saying O'Neil Cruz didn't catch the ball that would have kept Paul Skins no hit, or intact he gave him a hit later on. But it's not just O'Neil Cruz, it's Brian Reynolds and O'Neil Cruz. Brian Reynolds is playing left field now because he was a right fielder, which there's something ridiculous. I forget how many extra square feet you have to cover in left field in Pittsburgh and now you have two guys that are kind of new out there and O'Neil Cruz and Brian Reynolds. Is that going to are those things the walks from some of their key pitchers and just the not being able to make those big league plays that I think some above average defenders at different positions make now. I think Connor Griffins the guy you need, and I think Triolo's absence on defense is huge. He's a gold Glove utility guy and so when you're able to move him around the infield. It's the old it's the old adage, how much offense do they want without sacrificing the defense? So that's where I think it will hinge if the playoffs are a playoff or if the Pirates are a playoff contending team.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: All Right, the Baltimore Oils are in a little bit of a slide here. Their closer that they signed over the offseason, Ryan Helsley on the IL. But Cratsy wants to give some love to Rico Garcia ozero point four to seven ERA, that's third in the MLBU Kratzee, what you got on our guy here?

00:16:36
Speaker 3: I mean, I need a show of hands between the two of you. Have you guys heard of Rigo Garcia before we brought it up today? Yeah? Exactly, And that's exactly what. This guy has gone sixty four straight batters dating back to last year, and he's given up one hit, one total hit, and we're like, how do we not know? About this guy. Anytime a guy bounces around kind of a I guess it would be journey man. But like he's in and out the big leagues, is in triple A. Like the Orioles are trying to The Orioles look down south to Tampa and they're like, oh, man, Bakers, they're closer. We don't have a closer right now. We got rid of him because why last year, we're not sure. But hey, you know what, we could find a closer somewhere. They have one. To me, you have to slot guys in and we'll probably talk about it later with another picture. But you slot guys in when they're doing well, when the other guys aren't doing well. And I think if if you give him a shot at the closer role, I think right now he's hot. Ride the hot hand, as Todd.

00:17:39
Speaker 2: Says, ride that wave. That's all you gotta do. And you want to listen. Going unknown is not the worst thing possible. Keep doing what you're doing. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. But now once it gets out there, people start collecting his cards and all that good stuff.

00:17:59
Speaker 1: All right, the athletic We got to call him from our colleagues. Tim Britton and Will Salmon. Two certified great dudes with a good debate here, Nolan McLean or I'm gonna mess his name up, Cam Schlittler, Okay, I've never had to say that live before. Passed it for igniting the debate about New York's emerging aces. This is a hard one for me. Guys Kratzy, I'll start with you. If you got to pick one, who are you picking?

00:18:22
Speaker 3: Yes? Is that all right? I don't know. There's something about Nolan McClain's athleticism, and I've seen him struggle in games and still get through them. Yesterday, yesterday, you know, he couldn't quite find, couldn't quite find that sinker, kept running off the plate, running off the plate. He got dinged up for a three run homer early. So I've seen him struggle and I love his athleticism and competitiveness to still get deep into games. Cam Slitler, I haven't seen him struggle yet, so I don't know how he's gonna do when he does struggle. I just something about Nolan McClain. He doesn't have as many miles on that arm. He just really started pitching. He's this good and he's just learning something about Loa MacLean. I guess I have to choose him.

00:19:11
Speaker 4: You don't have to.

00:19:13
Speaker 2: I don't know why you say you have to choose him. Listen, he had a really good World Baseball Classic. Put his name on the map. He's got a nasty sweeper, slider, curve all mixed in one that's one of the filthiest I've ever seen. I love watching him pitch. Whenever he pitches, I know the Mets always have a chance to win that ballgame. When he went down yesterday, I'm like, oh, oh, a little chink in the armor and boom nothing. He came back and did fantastic. Cam Schlitzler's had one bad outing and that was three runs so one time this year. So for him, I think it's Cam Schlitzler. And I'm going to say that with all dred percent positivity. I think they need to sign this guy to a long term deal. He's absolutely fantastic. Can't wait to see him throw tonight. He's tall and stif, he throws hard, and he's gonna mean muggy when he does it. So he's one of those guys you definitely want on the bump as they call it, anytime you can get him on there.

00:20:10
Speaker 3: So he has a better career. Cam Schlailer has a better career, said Todd Frazier. And I say, Noel McLain has a better career. So we'll go back to May fifteenth in ten years and see who see who's right.

00:20:25
Speaker 1: Some breaking news here from Andy Cosco and Baltimore covers the Orioles. For the Baltimore Banner, anfielder Jordan Westburg is set to have elbow surgery. Per a source, he'll miss the rest of the season. Another brutal blow for the Orioles. Can't seem to catch a break here. Crassey, what you got on this?

00:20:43
Speaker 3: I was just on the Baltimore radio station and I said, yes, one player doesn't change your season. But if you look at the record when Jordan Westburg's in since he has been called up, the Orioles win a lot of games. And you were hoping, okay, this injury would give them something that okay, maybe he'll be out for a month. But as the last few days, last few like the last week, it started leaning towards this doesn't look good. And now you finally get this information. It's tough. You can't you can never be behind the eight ball in the American League East, because there's always going to be one or two teams that are just gonna outpace you and just not let you come up for air. And the Oriols have to figure it out. They got to figure it out now without Jordan Westburg. They have to figure out how to score runs and actually play good defense because their defense is letting them down.

00:21:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's Peter Alonzo like, there's some stuff going on.

00:21:42
Speaker 4: It's just you know, you hate.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: I don't want anybody getting hurting baseball, man, it hurts. It hurts MLB hurts everything. Alonso's struggling a little bit. Yeah, I want the Oriols to do good. I was happy they made all these moves. We've I've talked about him for years, how they needed to get rid of some guys to make them better, and they haven't.

00:22:00
Speaker 4: Just struggle right now, but hopefully they'll get off the schneid.

00:22:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a well disappointing there. I really liked what Michael Lias did to kick off the off season. He went out and said exactly what he wanted to get and then he did it. I loved the Hellesley pickup. I know that hasn't gone according to plan all the way with that right elbow soreness. He's on the AL four and just seems to be big blow after big blow for Baltimore in a juggernaut of a division. The Ale East is not a division you want to get behind. And as you guys said, so, hate to hear it for Jordan, hate to hear it for Baltimore. Just hate injuries in general. Ban We talk a lot about banning things in baseball. Let's just ban injuries. I think it makes a long.

00:22:39
Speaker 3: I like it. Let's ban him. Injuries are gone. Oh wait no, Teams don't care about injuries until you get hurt. Then they're like, huh, how did another picture get hurt? We need them all to throw one hundred miles an hour.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back to foul Territory and welcome to the hot Corner. Just an athletic takeover on this show today. I'm all about it. From our writer out in Cleveland, Zach Mazel. He has a good one up today. For every superstar MLB hitter, there is that one pitcher who gives them fits. Fellas, you know exactly what I'm talking about. There are so many different pitchers mentioned by all of these prolific hitters in this article. I'll do some skimming. Kyle Gibson, old friend held Pete Alonzo hitless in seventeen at bets. You go through the list. Jose Ramirez one for seventeen against Journeyman reliever Taylor Rogers loved this quote from Ramirez, sometimes baseball is stupid, before flashing two thumbs up. Sometimes baseball is good. Now, you guys have some stats here that are kind kind producers. Put us up here, Kratz, you crushed some of these guys. Can you name the person or the picture that you crushed the most.

00:23:56
Speaker 3: I mean it's kind of relative. I think of the most I've ever hit against a picture like most at bats, I think is like fourteen at bats. So it's a little way different than for Todd. Guys who play every day crush the most. I mean, I remember Mitchell. But okay, there's some good ones. I mean, anytime I have a dinger, it's good. Mike Minor, James Shields. Where at wago g see one that's not on here? Owned me see look like oh for five. That's like one game for Todd, oh for four? See loves me. She doesn't.

00:24:31
Speaker 4: She puts up there.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: People she puts. There's just not a lot of people that own me, Todd. That's what that stat says, even though my Baseball Reference page would say different. Mitchell Bobs is not up there. Mitchell Bobs, I was two for three with two three run homers off of them.

00:24:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, nobody cares unless his first name is Wade Bogs. Okay, nobody cares about Bob.

00:24:54
Speaker 3: I cared. I care.

00:24:57
Speaker 2: Listen, Yeah, Now for me, the one and the Hall of famer, you're he's probably gonna be a Hall of Famer in my opinion, the role as Chapman.

00:25:07
Speaker 4: You got a homer off him.

00:25:08
Speaker 3: I was.

00:25:08
Speaker 4: I think I was over against the guy. It's the one.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: Dude I always wanted to get because I was one of the first guys he's faced in baseball when he came over from Cuba. I got up there in the first pitch. He hit me on the back of knee. I just had miniscu surgery on the inside part of my back knee hit the same spot and I just came back after two months stint of rehabbing ninety eight on the back knee.

00:25:31
Speaker 4: I took a day.

00:25:32
Speaker 2: Off I had black and Blue like nobody else, oh for seven, and he lets me know every time. Oh Cookie three ninety one. I'll take that some Marge. I all right. Jeff Locke was a lefty. Brian Shaw. I got one hit off him in the playoffs. That's not showing that.

00:25:50
Speaker 4: Chapman.

00:25:51
Speaker 2: Aaron Nola my last bat against him, Uh, he hit me. I got hit by a pitch, So I'll take that, and it caused a three run double. Corey Klueber absolutely filthy, probably three singles. Annabel Sanchez, my goodness, gracious, not so overpowering either.

00:26:08
Speaker 4: That's terrible. One double off the wall against him in Detroit.

00:26:12
Speaker 3: I remember the one, the one that I looked up. It's great that you remember the one hit. And that's usually what happens. These got like the really good hitters. It's like they get that one hit off of somebody and you're like, did it locked him in? I know it, But the one thing, do you know who struck you out the most? Todd This was something I was researching before the game, because you tend to forget, you tend to forget strikeouts. You tend to forget guys that strike you out the most. If you get hits against them, because the world as Chapman, Yes, I have a I have a go ahead double in the ninth inning off of them in Cincinnati, and I have a game tying homer off them in Philly in the ninth inning. But he struck me out. He struck me out every other time I faced him. So but I could care. Yes, Like to me, it's about how you do against the guy, and you sit there and you go. But anyway, lance Lynn, I found out he struck you out fifteen times. Lance Lynn threw a fastball.

00:27:11
Speaker 4: That's it to me. Don't say that he's in the book. He's in the book a couple times though, too.

00:27:18
Speaker 3: I wonder, there you go. That's how hitters. That's how hitters think, Katie, And there are guys for whatever reason. For me, like without looking at the stats, I would have said, Bronson Arroyo owns me. Bronson Arroyo would throw a slider that I swear he could have told me it was coming and I would have still swung at it and missed it. I felt like the slider that he would throw was like gonna come back to him. It was like a boomerang slider he'd throw like a little one, then he'd throw a bigger one, and I was like, no way, this is gonna be a little one, and I'm just swinging at it as last at bat in my career against him. It was my third at bat of a game, and Jimmy Rollins goes, well, if you can't hit the slider, why don't you just move up in the box. And I was like, what are we in Little League? Like, no, I'm going to stay in the same spot. He goes, well, it's not working out for you, is it. I'm like all right, And sure enough, he threw me a sinker and I got a base hit through the hole. Soon after that, he got his first ever stin on the ILLI and Tommy John surgery. But if everybody had learned to throw like Bronson Arroyo, my career would have been over in twenty thirteen. But everybody, everybody wanted to throw like Eradis Chapman and Craig Kimberl And I was like, all right, great guys that throw four seam fastballs and they come after you love it.

00:28:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, So do you guys know, do's know stepping into the box like this guy owns me because I have Maybe I never forget anything, and I would be so rattled in my head if I'm like, oh no, I'm one for twenty against the sky, it's about to be one for twenty one. How often do you remember these things? I mean, top fother. You just brattled off an entire encyclopedia of your career. No, No, in your head somewhere.

00:28:57
Speaker 2: You want it that much more just to hit. I don't care what it was. I wanted to hit so bad Max Scherzer. I find my last bat against him had a double off the wall and I wanted to lift the base up because I finally got got to him.

00:29:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, you just want it that much more.

00:29:14
Speaker 2: And you knew, you know, when you're facing Chapman and whatever team he was on here, like if they were up in the ninth, I'm looking at the score, I'm like, h all right, I'll be a fourth.

00:29:23
Speaker 4: That next inning if this guy gets.

00:29:24
Speaker 2: Out, like you know when that picture's coming and Aaron Nola, Man, that pissed me off because I knew the curve ball was coming. You're getting at least one or two of them in that bat, and the fastball would freeze you on the outer half and it would come back and then he'd get that ball off the plate and I'd look at Joe West or whoever it was.

00:29:43
Speaker 4: I said, no, you can't do that to me right now, come on, man. So whatever, Cratzy, it is what it is.

00:29:51
Speaker 3: It is what it is. But I mean, we're out of it now, Katie. But you asked that question, like, did you ever know that somebody owned you? You knew it, and I think sometimes that was your that was the kryptonite. Even good hitters they're like, oh, I know this guy owns me, so they're gonna change their approach and now oh for ten turns the oh for thirteen, or oh for thirteen, turns oh for twenty. But players think hitters, especially think every single time up you're gonna get a hit. If you do not think you're gonna get a hit, you're cooked. Even guys that were like, oh, this is gonna be a tough at bat, like you're already cooked. Like I was never good enough to like give away and at bat I wanted the at bat against every guy. My career would have shown I probably should have been like you guys, you guys been hitting for me, Like is this not now, No, I got this, okay, but you just have this mental approach that you're like, I'm better than that guy. I'm gonna get them.

00:30:50
Speaker 1: You can take a swing each day and bet MGM's exclusive free to play a swing for the Fence's game play as the batter and select an area of the strike zone. If you get a hit, you'll score, which could include bonus bets, odds, boost tokens, and more. Gambling problem more concerned called whet hundred gambler guys. Let's talk a little. JJ Blude former No City Athletic two homers, six RBI night and the Reds fifteen to one route of the Nationals Bay has a seven to fifty five slugging percentage this year in sixty six played appearances. He's running away with one of the outfield jobs with the Reds team that actually really needed some outfield offense. We got some Reds guardians this weekend. What do we think about mister bludey here?

00:31:34
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, listen, those stats are absolutely incredible. I mean, for if you could start off your first what sixteen games doing that, I think the stat that pops out to me he's doing all this, he's got thirteen walks in sixteen games. I mean, I think, look, he's got eighteen RBIs, seventeen hits, ten extra base hit, six home runs. Awesome, and he's walking too. That means every time he's getting to the plate, when he puts the ball in play, he's doing damage. And he's laying off the pitches he's not supposed to swing at. That is every baseball player's dream. This guy is leaving living out a dream that he does not want to wake up. And guess what, I hope he never does, because this is absolutely fantastic. This is only good things for the Reds. And I think for him, man, that those are numbers that I wish I got in a three month span.

00:32:24
Speaker 4: I think that would be perfect, right, Cratzy, what.

00:32:28
Speaker 3: Three months, man? I mean, let me season's over seasons over. I'm good. I mean twenty four we thought JJ Bday was going to be a one of the pieces of that A's outfield. And you know what, that's the beauty of the game. The beauty game is sometimes you're legit, because I mean I think that I think he had twenty or twenty one homers in twenty four, Like you heard JJ Blday's name all the time, and you're like, Okay, maybe he's not that upper echelon guy and struggled a little bit last year. Maybe you find your footing with a new team. But who doesn't want to hit in Cincinnati? Even Todd did good when he was in Cincinnati. Like that's crazy.

00:33:08
Speaker 4: I know.

00:33:10
Speaker 3: I love when people say that. People are like, oh, his numbers were inflated by by playing in that Like all right, well, at the end of this series, at the end of these three games, let's see how many homers you hit, since this is just like a launching pad, Like you're you're gonna probably leave here with six homers, right, Like, no, they end up rolling over to third because they think every ball they put in the air is going to be a homer.

00:33:34
Speaker 2: That's like, that's like playing in Colorado too. You got a three game series there, better come home with three, all right?

00:33:41
Speaker 1: Some Ale Central News courtesy of John Hayman. Trek Scooble is already playing catch barely a week out of elbow surgery. He had that elbow surgery to remove loose bodies about a week ago. He might beat the initial estimates of two months out six weeks remains possible. That would be huge obviously for one of the best arms in the game.

00:34:04
Speaker 3: Eric, what you got, I mean, I definitely think that's I mean, that's hopeful, especially when they went in there and they said there was no issue with any of the ligaments. There was nothing like where it broke off and they had to wait for that to heal. I had the same similar thing. Fortunately for me, it was the off season. I was back throwing within two and a half or three weeks. I forget now. Obviously I'm not throwing at the speed, the velocity, the the exertion level as Tarrek Scruball needs to to get back. But like you start, you just it gets out of there. For me, I couldn't straighten my arm and I couldn't bend it the whole way. So I was here and I was there, and it was just it was just in the way. When I got it out of there, you had full range of motion. I had no pain before and no pain after. So hopefully it's very similar where there's nothing structurally wrong like they said once they went in there, and hopefully it's a quick, quick rehab process. But anytime pitchers don't throw for a little bit. There is like there's a double, there's a twice. The amount of time that they don't throw is how long it takes for them to build back up to be able to throw on the mound. So it's a long process, but hopefully it's quicker than.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: The two months Crotchy. I've had the same thing Arthur Scott. But you can't really tell here. But I can't really even straighten my arm. I'm going the wrong way. So like you had bone chips, yeah, at all anything you could think of in there. I had corn chip, bone chips, ice chips. It didn't matter they got I had three different Arthur scottic surgeries there and I can't uh yeah, no, it's bad, but it didn't stop me, you know from throwing. Yeah, it took a little bit. It was always in the off season. But yet when you hear anything about an elbow or an arm for a picture, you get worried and it could lead to other different things. I'm just glad he's out there throwing. Hopefully no setbacks and he can just get his butt on the mound sooner than later. And you know, pick up this Tigers team because they need some help. Right now, need their leader back out there. But yes, it's a good breath of fresh air if you're a Tigers fan knowing that he's throwing again and hopefully next day he feels better and feels fine.

00:36:13
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little Mets LGM. This is the third time in Mets history, per our Girl Sarah Langs, that the Mets have swept a series of three plus games despite trailing by multiple runs in each game. The you know, I'm all about letting the kids play. Five homers from the baby Mets, but the Tigers, we talked about them not looking so hot in Detroit right now. And ajween, he's a big Leigger, guys, first homer in his third game, big exit vlo. Here are we cautiously I don't want to say believing back in the Mets, but do we have something to look into to be positive about?

00:36:46
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, I like this you and kid man, he's got some spunk, Cratzy.

00:36:52
Speaker 4: This guy's got some spunk.

00:36:53
Speaker 2: And when they show them his dad and the crowdbo gets me all fired up. Man, they are so excited for this guy. He's got great batspeed. Dude, you watch this guy play. He's fast. He's got energy. The dugout is getting juiced up watching this. Nothing better than winning. But when you got a guy come up, put a little spark into this team. And tell you what, he's not the biggest statue statue guy.

00:37:20
Speaker 4: He's not. He's not the guy that's.

00:37:21
Speaker 2: When you walk into the the room you're like, oh, we got to watch out for him. But he's got spunk, he's got grit, and I like everything about that. And I hope they keep him along for the ride because this is one guy that can help your team turn things around.

00:37:34
Speaker 3: I mean, that's what one of the things that I always I always use the quote Michael Young said when he played for the Rangers. The young guys need to play with energy and play like young guys. Don't try to be calm, cool and suave. That's for the veterans. And the veterans need to look at the young guys and be like, whoo, when I look at that guy, that's like a shot of shot of espresso for me. That's like, this guy's giving me energy. So there's a there's a dynamic of that. Don't be that cool guy when you're a rookie, Be that guy that Todd just said, spark plug. They look at you out on the field and you're like, God, he is that guy on fire. No, he's just bouncing around, he's stealing bases. He actually hit a dinger like maybe this soul pump some life into the veteran guys, maybe a little shot of youth in there. But do I still think it's enough. No, I don't think it's enough. I don't think they have enough pitching. I don't think they have enough guys that are playing consistent positions. Their outfield defense is a little bit better.