Fair Territory: Rookies sizzle, Viral ABS, Yankees & Blue Jays sweep

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Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. We are coming off a rollicking opening weekend of Major League Baseball. We have a ton to get to. I want to go through the things that struck me the most. We could really sit here all day and talk about that, but I'll go through my highlights. Obviously it's not going to be a complete list, So don't start complaining, what about this? What about that? No, we're not doing that. We're going to try to get through as much as possible, though, because a lot of cool things have happened. All right, let's start with the series that I was at, the Yankees Giant Series. Yankees look great. They allowed one run in three games, swept the series. As I said on the broadcast on Saturday, the thing that impresses me most about the Yankees is obviously, yes, their team on the field is very good, but the depth that they have in their organization with players on the injured list, Garrett Cole and Carlos Rodin and Clark Schmidt, and then prospects who are close to the majors And who am I talking about Carlos Legrange, the other pitcher, Elma Rodriguez. Excuse me, and then the outfielders Jason Domingiez, I know, we struggled on that ball at TRIPLEA the other day. Off the wall, Spencer Jones, George Lombard, Cumming and others. They are in a position where if injuries strike, as they inevitably will, they're in a reasonably good spot to carry on without much loss. Obviously, you lose a judge or a stand and that's a big deal. But that's what I like about the Yankees. And obviously their offense, which was one of the best in the elite game last year, is back and still rather potent. The Giants, we're gonna be talking about them a lot this season. They need to hit, and if they're not going to hit, then the whole thing is not going to work. It's three games. No one should be panicking yet, Let's see how this plays out for them. They faced some great pitching Freed and Schlitler and Warren. The Yankee starters were really good, though not quite as good, perhaps as the Blue Jays starters in their season opening sweep of the Athletics. Let's look at something right here that really impressed me about the Blue Jays and kind of an unsung thing right now about where they are. Perhaps we all thought their rotation would be good. This good, though, I'm not so sure. Look at the strikeout totals for each of their starters in this opening series. And Eric Lawer is not at the level, of course of Gossman and Cease. But my goodness, eleven for Gossman, twelve for Seas, nine for Lower thirty. Two strikeouts in sixteen and two thirds innings for the Blue Jays rotation. That is pretty good, all right? Elsewhere excuse me elsewhere? Blue Jays, Yes, they've been great. The Brewers too. I know. They had an inferior opponent in the Chicago White Sox, and they came back on Sunday. They did some really good things in that series. They are the Brewers of old again, even with their pitching questions, already a two game lead up on the Cubs, and the Cubs, well, they didn't have a great opponent either. They played the Washington national and lost two of three in the opening series. So here we go in the NL Central also want to mention with the Nationals, Joey Weimer Waiver claim reaches in each of his first eight played appearances for Washington. Good for him. Great weekend for Joey Weimer. Now, the thing that struck me most about this weekend perhaps would be the performances of some of the ballyhooed rookies we had all across the league. And I can go right down the line. Let's start with Murakami coming from Japan, three home runs in three games, and then go to some of the other players we're talking about. Chase the Laughter from the Cleveland Guardians. My goodness, four home runs first three games, first player since Trevor Story and the only other player since Trevor's Story to do that, and three of the guys he took deeper among the better pitchers in the game off that Seattle staff, Andre Munos Andres Munos, George Kirby, and Logan Gilbert. Pretty good group there. He also broke up a no hitter on Sunday. Pretty good weekend for Chase the latter Now Kevin McGonagall. He had a fantastic debut four for five in that game. He's five for twelve overall. He was robbed of a home run by Jackson Merrill on Saturday and then came back with a ten pitch at bat against Wandy Peralta, in which he laced the go ahead single. This guy looks like he's going to be a stud in the game for a long time. The same might be true of the Marlins. Owen Casey, what did he do this weekend? He was pretty good too, to run walk off home run yesterday. That would be Sunday five for ten overall with three extra base hits. He of course was the big prize for the Marlins in that Edward Cabrera trade, and then the Cardinals Jj weatherhold home run and his debut for his first major league hit, and then a walk off two run single on Saturday. So some really spectacular performances by rookies, and yes, I probably of leaving off one or two, but those were the ones that stood out perhaps most of me. They were really good, these guys, and they're going to be really good. They're going to be fun to watch. At some point, we'll get Connor Griffin up here as well, and we'll see other rookies impressed in the same way that these guys have done. The Rookie of the Year races in both leagues could be rather good. Now, on a lighter note, perhaps some closer entrances that we saw this weekend that were, I don't know, pretty cool. Mason Miller of the Padres coming out to the group. Well, it's the ah, I'm screwing up this all right. I'm not gonna say this song because I'm not sure what it is, but Mason Miller has a new great entrance song. You see it right there. Obviously, the light's going back and forth, and it's really cool. It's a heavy metal song. Korn's Blind, I believe, is what it is. So yes, Korn's Blind, all right, Sorry for the brand cramp there. The other one, well, Edwin Diaz. We've seen his act before. We've seen what he does coming into Narco with the Mets, and of course he did it with the Dodgers as well. You remember timmy trumpet would play live once in a while with the Mets when Edwin Diaz was there, he would be the guy playing the trumpet part from Narco. The Dodgers brought in someone with the same initials, Tatiyana Tate. She did the same thing and the Dodgers had kind of a raucous time with Edwin Diaz doing the Narco entrance. So some cool entrances by closers and a lot of good things happening. Now, one thing that was a little more troubling, at least in the opening game that the Pittsburgh Pirates played O'Neil Cruz in centerfield. Now, you saw some discourse after opening day about Paul Skenes and Matthew Boyd and Logan Webb all having rough starts. Well, yes, by the pitching lines they did. Problem was Paul Skeins would not have had a rough start if not for two misplays in centerfield by O'Neil Cruz. The sun obviously was a factor here, it was an issue for him. You see the tweet there from Noah Hale's of our own network, the Foul Territory Network, about this about how O'Neal Cruz in centerfield could be an issue. Now, yesterday the play that's cut down Lindor at the plate in the Pirates extra ending victory over the Mets. O'Neil Cruz started that relay with a good throw from centerfield. So he's a work in progress. It remains to be seen just how good he's going to be or not good out there. But O'Neil Cruz with Pittsburgh trying to take a step forward here. That's a bit of an issue right now. So with that we close out my initial impressions of Opening Weekend. We're going to get to ABS and the Inside Dish. Trust me on that, and trust me as well, I will never forget Korn's blind again. Just a brain cram, Folks, Calm down, relax, We're having fun. It's Opening Weekend. We'll be back with the Inside Dish after this.

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Speaker 1: Right, time now for the inside dish to part of the show where I talk about maybe a story I've written, a trend in the game, something else entirely, And today it will be a combination of both a COMMI I wrote for Today's Athletic and a trend in the game, actually an innovation in the game, the one we know as the Automated ball Strike System ABS. And I want to show you a post on x to start with from the Democratic Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy. Now we're not getting political here, but I just want to show you this, he tweets last night. ABS is not making the game better. He was ratioed like you wouldn't believe. Fans love ABS. And that's what I want to talk about here. The one unexpected thing from ABS, at least for me so far, was and has been the entertainment value. And it was perhaps most exemplified by what happened in Cincinnati on Saturday, when two straight strike three calls against Ajohanni Osuarez by C. B. Buckner were overturned. By the system, and the crowd, with the bases loaded and the Reds leading but looking to add to their lead, went nuts on each of the overturn calls. The play by play announcer for the Reds kind of got into it too, so it's allowed, as the crowd has been all day and the Reds have hit two home runs, and it was just really an example of how abs can be part of the crowd experience. Now we all knew obviously it would be on the scoreboard and it would go about it that way, but to see it in action and to see it in ballparks all across America. I had a game Saturday, the Fox Game in San Francisco, in which there were seven challenges and all seven were overturned. That's how good the teams were that day in making their educated guesses, so to speak. So this was something I didn't expect. And there was also a sequence Sunday where you saw Minnesota Twins manager Derek Shelton ejected for arguing not the call by the robot, but whether it took Baltimore Orioles closer Ryan Helsley too long to challenge. Now, Hellsley did tap his cap quickly. It wasn't clear whether the umpire saw it, so he did it again, and that's where Shelton probably saw, Hey, WHOA, what's going on here? But it seemed to me that it did happen quickly enough. And that said overall, when you watch ABS unfold in a park or on your television screen, it does move quickly. In fact, I remember, or I've seen in tennis when the Hawkeye automation comes into play and they're showing it on the score, where the crowd will clap rhythmically as if like, wow, this is something cool that's coming. In baseball. So far, it seems to me it's happened so quick that there's not even time for the crowd to get into it in that fashion. So ABS, so far, and I emphasize the words, so far is a hit. Now. What's interesting is that we're in the shiny new toy phase of this. Right. We have seen nothing too egregious as far as overturned calls. We've seen good things happen, but we've also seen the possibility of not bad things is happening, but outcomes that might not be all that desirable. We've seen some calls decided by a tenth of an inch, and as Jason Stark informed us in his article on March twenty fourth in The Athletic. And actually we've written about this before, Jason and I ourselves, there is margin fer error here, and I want to show you what Jason wrote. League officials told The Athletic that MLB is ninety five percent confident that a pitch would be within zero point thirty nine inches of the location where the ABS system pinpoints it. The league also is confident, it is ninety I'm sorry, ninety nine percent confident that the location would be within zero point four to eight inches. That's about a half inch of where ABS said it landed. That's not one hundred percent, it's ninety nine percent, or it's ninety five percent. And the problem with that is, as Jason has written, let's say a World Series game comes down to a tie score in the ninth inning with the basis loaded and a three to two count, and a call gets overturned by a tenth of an inch. You're within the margin for error. And that's a problem. And we're going to see games decided that way. Maybe not Games seven of the World Series, but it could happen. We had Games seven of the World Series get down to a pretty nitty gritty last year in the ninth inning, so we will see how this all plays out. And in his article, Jason wrote how some players were in favor of a buffer zone in which umpires would be permitted some grace where if a pitch is within a certain margin for error, say a half inch as an example, then it could be a call stands situation, much as we see with instant replay right when the call is not overturned. There are problems with that. It creates confusion, and ultimately the league decided it didn't want to go there. So we're going to see a lot of interesting things happen. And as I wrote in my story my column today, we've already seen star players regretting not doing certain things with abs, either not challenging or challenging too early and burning a challenge. We saw that with Roman Anthony and Kyle Schwarber. They expressed remorse about not a I'm sorry challenging when they shouldn't have perhaps, and we saw Spencer Torkolsen express regret about, hey, I should have challenged earlier in the game when I had a real shot there and I didn't and it cost us. You're going to see that there are new forms of strategy here, new forms of scrutiny, and new things for us to debate. And in my view, with baseball, it is the best talking sport. It always has been. It's a sport where the action is not so fast, where you can't talk about things between pitches, between innings, even though it's faster with the pitch clock, And it's a sport which, because it plays out over six months and one hundred and sixty two games, gives us endless opportunities to talk about things and debate things and all of that, and that's where the strategy element here comes into play. It's really interesting to see how players are handling it, and it will be really interesting to see how players and teams evolve in their thinking with how aggressively to use their challenges. Remembered, you're permitted to per game. If you are correct, you can keep going. You retain your challenge. If you're incorrect and you lose your two by the ninth inning, well you're out of luck. And Jason has pointed out too that what happens if a team loses its challenges, and then we see an agreeious call occur in the ninth inning. Well, that's too bad. That's part of the system. So I am all in favor of anything in baseball that encourages more discussion, more debate, more decision making. And I've actually in the story in the column mentioned that I would like to see draft picks traded. I would like to see a second trade deadline at the winter meetings. Again, more decision making, more things to discuss, more things to debate and have fun with. That is what ABA is proving to be so far. You might have seen the hilarious Randy A Rose Arena helmet tap after he was three steps up the line so convinced of his correctness with a challenge the other night in Seattle, and it proved to be correct in his case, not by a lot, but he was right. So we're gonna see an entertainment aspect here that perhaps some people didn't anticipate. I sure didn't. And the game is supposed to be fun. ABS is making it fun. We're gonna see some unintended consequences. We're gonna see some unfortunate things happen at the same time. On balance, I'm down with this. I'm good with this. ABS, in my view, is a success. All right, with that, we will take a break. Grilling Can is coming up right after this. All right, time now for Grilling Can the part of the program where you guys get to ask me questions. Let's get going. First question comes from videos two seven. Is Murakami better than we thought he was? Fair question? And actually at the start of the off season the predictions for Murakami in free agency turned out to be much higher than what he actually got from the White Sox, and there were some questions about swing and miss, questions about defense, questions as they always are about Japanese players adapting to major league pitching. Well, so far, so good. He had the three homers in three games against the Brewers. Obviously you want to see a play out. Obviously we are in the small sample overreaction phase of the season the opening week. But again it's very encouraging and there's no question he has power. That was not a question coming over from Japan. So the question will be as major league pitchers adjust to him, how will he adjust in kind, and whether he will be able to saying not a one hundred and sixty two homer in one hundred and sixty two game performance, but a level that is comparable to what he was able to do in Japan. All right, next question, This one comes from Texas or a fan Rangers fan. Is McCutcheon making enough of an impression on the Rangers that they'd be willing to buy out Jack Peterson should his struggles continue? Okay, slow down, we're talking again about the opening weekend, And yes, Andrew McCutcheon had a great opening weekend. I could have mentioned him in the open to the show when I was running through the things that made the strongest impression because that exchange that he had with the Phillies fan after his home run yesterday in which the Phillies fans saying, come on, Cutch, give us a break, and he was like, hey man, I'm sorry. That was great. That was hilarious. So obviously, over time, if McCutchen has that big an impact, yes, they could be looking at a different perspective on Jock Peterson, but they go to they are going to need Jack Peterson to be really good too, and offense has been an issue for the Rangers. We need to see more from Cutch. We need to see more from Jock. Again, It's the opening weekend, not time to overreact. All right, Let's get to the next question. This one comes from John C. Ninety who says, if a team like the Pirates suddenly had as much money as the Dodgers, where they develop the same level success of success or is it more than money? Great question, and I would say to you, it is more than money, And yes, the Dodgers spend more than other teams. But I will point you to a story by the athletics Fabian our Diet last week about the Dodgers' culture and about the way players hold each other accountable and how the emphasis there is on winning and winning only that's part of it. With the Dodgers. They are also excellent at developing players in the minor leagues, identifying which players to draft, identifying players to or who might be undervalued by other teams but could play valuable roles for them. There have been countless examples of that. So the Dodgers, at every level of evaluation are operating on a higher level than every other team. So the Pirates would not be the Dodgers if they were simply spending the same amount of money and you see this in other leagues as well, salary cap pleagues. Certain teams are run better than others, and that is how they are enabled to be so successful over extended periods of time. All right, next question from Foul Territory Show. Are you worried about Bobashett? I will point you to a column by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, my friend and someone I admire greatly, who writes about Bobashet on Monday today and basically says, don't worry about Bobashet. If you're the Mets, You've got other issues. Maybe Bobashet's defense a little bit Polanco's defense at first, Maybe Sean man I is lack of velocity. There are other issues that are surfacing with the Mets. Bobashet being able to hit is not going to be one of them. Bobashett is going to hit. They have every reason to believe that. It was interesting to hear his own view of his opening start with the Nets. Basically said he was surprised it took the fans as long to boo him as it did. So Bobashett clearly knows what is ahead of him. Clearly knows what he has to do for the Mets and him hitting, I do not expect to be a problem. All right, let's get to another question here. We're ripping through him. This morning. Video Game Nation twenty six asked, do you think teams at some point in the future will need three ABS challenges instead of only two? There is a reason it's only two, and that's because Baseball wants to keep the game moving and they want teams to approach this not as oh, we can challenge at any time, but to use those challenges selectively and only in certain situations where they believe it's the most leverage. Okay, so I am quite certain the system at some point will require tweaks. I don't know that baseball is ever going to want to get to three, four or five challenges. Now, the next question to come out of that would be why not full ABS? And I address this in my column. I don't want full ABS. I don't know that anyone should want full ABS. You're taking the human element out of it entirely. At that point. You're taking framing out of it from a player's perspective, and there's still great value in framing. And you're also removing the homeplate umpire. And let's face it, these guys do a great job on balance, and you see that by the percentage of pitches challenged, it's not a great percentage. The umpires, if anything, with ABS are only going to be helped because yes, on occasion, when they miss a call, it does happen. We're all human. This will be able to help them this system. So I don't see an increasing challenges being something that Baseball looks at in the future, and I don't see full ABS being the answer. This system is pretty good right now the way it is, at least based on the opening weekend, and again small sample, we haven't seen some of these unintended consequences that I have feared come to pass yet in a big way. I'm sure we will in time. And then in time also MLBU can look at the system and decide whether tweaks are necessary. All right, let's get to another question here. This one comes from Slice Life, who asks, with the struggle of the top of the star lineup of the Phillies, would you make a lineup change to switch things up? What would your approach to this be. You're talking there about Bryce Harper, and I understand it. But at the same time, my goodness, this is the smallest of samples, and I am referring all morning to Opening week overreaction. This is a case where if the Phillies made a change now, it would be Opening week overreaction. Are going to settle down. If in two months we have the same kind of problem, even two weeks, then maybe maybe you look at it a little bit differently. But right now it's not time to start changing lineups or anything like that. And I'll refer also to another team in this kind of category. San Francisco Giants just saw them all weekend again. One run in three games not ideal, and that offense might not be as good as the names on paper would suggest. But Tony v. Teller the managers basically said, this is who we're sticking with. We'll tweak at times. They tweak their lineup Saturday, but overall they're gonna stick with the guys who at least have gotten them to this point, or at least the guys that they've envisioned getting them to where they need to be. It's not time yet to change anything dramatically, all right. I want to thank everyone for watching and for listening. Foul Territory coming up at one pm Easton. That's Todd, Eric Kratz and Scott Broun, Mason Miller discussing coins, blind and brewer territories. Kurt Ho will be joining as well as Katie Wu. We're back Thursday with Ilana. We'll talk to you then, Thanks for watching, Thanks for listening again. Have a great week everyone.

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