Fair Territory: Orioles & Giants slipping, Bloom rebuilding Cards, Remembering the great John Sterling

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. We begin this show on a solemn note. News this morning, John Sterling, the legendary Yankees radio play by play man, passed away this morning, age eighty seven. John Sterling. If you didn't know who he was, and you probably did, just play his signature calls. He was the Yankees radio voice for thirty six years. He called at one point five thousand and sixty consecutive games, not including two hundred and eleven postseason games, and to put that in perspective, that's twice as long, or nearly twice as long as Cal Ripkens consecutive game streak. He was an absolute legend. He was known for his home run calls, which bordered on ridiculous at times. But there was one of a kind, and John was one of a kind. And my earliest memories of him were growing up on Long Island as an Islanders and Nets fan. He was the announcer on radio and for both those teams, Radio for sure, and his signature call for an Islander goal was simply Islander goal, Island the goal, I can't do it in his voice, and my dad was a Ranger fan. He hated the Islanders, and he would say, who is that guy? He's ridiculous.

00:01:17
Speaker 2: Well, that guy was on the air for five decades. That guy crafted a signature career. John Sterling rest in peace.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: Now, the baseball world, we've got a ton to talk about, literally a ton. Pirates sweep the Reds after getting swept by the Cardinals, the Rays sweep the Giants. We'll get to the Giants, but I want to start off with another team in the AL East, one that has been well, has lost three of its first four games to the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, A team that many of us thought was positioned to take a step forward, and they have not, at least to this point. That team is the Baltimore Orioles. And the Baltimore Orioles they're fifteen to nineteen right now. Now, they're already eight games behind the Yankees, eight games in the AL East.

00:02:04
Speaker 2: After spending all.

00:02:05
Speaker 1: The money that they did in the offseason in their offense, while it's missing the second baseman Holiday and the third baseman Jordan Westberg, offense is twelfth in the league in runs per game, and that's with Alonso not doing all that much just yet.

00:02:21
Speaker 2: He's heating up now.

00:02:22
Speaker 1: Their offense has been okay, maybe not as good as we thought, but good enough.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: Again, with this team, it's the rotation.

00:02:30
Speaker 1: It was the rotation that was the demise of the twenty twenty five Oriols, and it's the rotation that is a.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: Problem right now.

00:02:37
Speaker 1: If you remember, the Orioles did not sign Dylan Ceas or from ber Valdez, so the two perhaps top starting pitching free agents. Instead, they brought in Zach Efflin, who immediately underwent Tommy John surgery out for the season, Chris Bassett, another free agent, and they traded for Shane Boz. They thought, and I didn't think it was an unreasonable thought by but it was a little bit of a gamble for sure. That with Trevor Rodgers coming off a great season and Kyle Bradish first full season coming off Tommy John surgery, they thought they'd be okay.

00:03:10
Speaker 2: They're not okay.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: Rogers started off great, struggled, Bradish struggled really the whole season, and they're kind of a mess right now. So the Orioles a team that we all thought would be maybe a contending club and still might be to this point, and this Yankee series has shown it. They are outclassed.

00:03:30
Speaker 2: They are not in their league.

00:03:31
Speaker 1: Yankees' news over the weekend as well, Anthony Volpi, this was to me an obvious move gets optioned to Triple A rather than reinstated to the major league club.

00:03:41
Speaker 2: Jose Caballero has simply played too well. The Yankees have simply played too well.

00:03:46
Speaker 1: They'll need Vulpi, I would imagine at some point, but not just yet. Another team I want to talk about, and this was a team that was swept over the weekend by an Als East club, the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in the middle of a great run sixteen of twenty one. That team is the San Francisco Giants, and this team is a mess right now, an absolute mess. The Giants are coming off an zero to six trip to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. As we mentioned, they were outscored twenty six to nine on that trip. They were shut out three times, they were walked off three times. They are a team that has right now a walk rate of five point six percent, lowest in.

00:04:28
Speaker 2: The majors historically low. In fact, they are a team also not only do they not walk, they don't hit home runs. They don't really do much of anything. They're last in the majors with nineteen homers. Keep in mind Judge and Murakami have thirteen each. And this is a team that is calling up two prospects for tonight's game, Jeseus Rodriguez and more importantly, Bryce Eldridge, a first base prospect, one of the better prospects in the game, a power guy. And yet even that is.

00:04:58
Speaker 1: Problematic because this will take Casey Schmidt out of seemingly a full time role.

00:05:04
Speaker 2: Casey Schmid has been a guy enjoying so far a breakout season, and yet now with Eldridge, a first base DH type coming up, there's not an obvious spot for him in that infield, an infield that includes the struggling Raphael Devers the struggling William Damas. Those are the two guys with the most expensive contracts in San Francisco Giants' history. Matt Chapman, also the big contract, hasn't been much better. Their bullpen has been a little bit disappointing. At the back end, I would say, the closer role, and this is a team that with the new manager Tony Vytello, has been an extreme disappointment to this point of the season. So you can see with Susan Slester tweets right there, there's a quote, we literally have nothing to show for this road trip. You end the day searching for any positives.

00:05:54
Speaker 1: So the next quote there or next tweet refers to a possible shakeup. Well, that's the shap that they announced last night. Bryce Eldridge coming to the majors, Hiss Rodriguez more of a utility guy coming to the majors as well. I don't see a way out for this club unless Devers starts going nuts and he looks like the guy he looked like at times with the Red Sox when he was overmatched by fastballs. He needs to get going, Adamis needs to get going. And they're bringing up Bryce Eldridge at a time when you do not want to bring up a prospect, at a time when he almost has to play something of.

00:06:30
Speaker 2: A savior's role.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: So those are the giants not good by any stretch of the imagination. And the other thing I want to go into before we move on to the next segment of our show, some big injuries this weekend. Ronald Acuna Junior of the Atlanta Braves twenty three game on bass Streak out now on the injured list with what they're calling a Grade one left hamstring strain. That is the mildest they expect. He won't be out long. They always expect that.

00:06:59
Speaker 2: Let's see how long Ronald Cuny Junior is out, Hopefully not too many games missed. Joe Ryan Minnesota Twins. Now, this seems another mess. But the Twins. The one thing they had going for them, at least in the early part of the season, even without Pablo Lopez, who was out for the year, was a rotation that looked decent. Joe Ryan now has the elbow issue. Mick Abel is a guy that was pretty good early on. He's out with elbow inflammation. They don't think that's a big deal either. Again, teams never say it's a big deal until it's a big deal. But something of a concern there. The Red Sox, we're gonna get to them. They've already got Garrett Crochet and Sonny Graham the injured list. Ranger Suarez yesterday lost only four innings before leaving with right hamstring tightness. This too, sounds like it's not going to be a big deal.

00:07:48
Speaker 1: Ranger Suarez has dealt with this before and it has not kept him out too long, so I would say this one is not alarming. But the last one I'm going to mention is at least concerning, and that's for the Seattle Mariners Cal Raleigh.

00:08:01
Speaker 2: Now cal Raley has missed the last two games.

00:08:03
Speaker 1: We've been out of the line of two straight days with right side discomfort. He went for an MRI. They are awaiting the results. The Mariners so far have been at disappointment. Let's face it. They're below five hundred, I believe, and this is kind of what they do every year. They're not good until they're good. But without Raleigh that would be obviously a significant blow. So the initial diagnosis, as Ryan Devish said, there was general sorens but they later explained that it's been right side discomfort. Sounds like an oblique type thing, which for a switch hitting catcher would obviously be a problem, but we wait to see exactly how serious that is.

00:08:42
Speaker 2: So again, a lot to go through there. But the big news of the day so far the.

00:08:47
Speaker 1: Passing of John Sterling, and again we all will miss him so much. He hasn't really been a part of the Yankees broadcast of Lady of course was eighty seven.

00:08:56
Speaker 2: He was ill. But for people of a certain age and for Yankee fans everywhere, John Sterling was a monumental.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: Figure in club history. So John again, rip, We love you man. We'll be back with the inside dish after this.

00:09:13
Speaker 3: You know, we don't always have to do things because that's how it's always been.

00:09:17
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00:09:32
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00:10:21
Speaker 2: Time.

00:10:21
Speaker 1: Now for the inside ditch, the part of the show where I talk about a story I've written, a trend in the game, or perhaps as I will talk about today, a figure in.

00:10:29
Speaker 2: The game who was down and now he.

00:10:33
Speaker 1: Is reviving his career in a big way in Saint Louis, and I'm talking about Heim Bloom, formerly of the Red Sox where he was the chief baseball officer, now the Cardinals president of Baseball Operations, and the Red Sox, well, they're in their usual turmoil since the change in managers. There three and four change in managers and hitting coaches. They're averaging two point six runs per game. They've lost four of their last five with these new hitting coaches and manager, and in those five games they scored only eight runs. Wilson Contrera's had some quotes yesterday about how the young players aren't maybe doing what they should, how the team is.

00:11:11
Speaker 2: Looser with al Alex Cora et cetera, et cetera. It's Red Sox Drama one oh one. Not long ago. Hein Bloom was a central figure in Red Sox drama and a figure who a lot of fans had big problems with and ultimately ownership had problems with as well. They fired him.

00:11:29
Speaker 1: They fired him after less than four years on the job. He is now with Saint Louis. Saint Louis a rebuilding team. Is twenty and fourteen. They're tied for second in the NL Central, two games behind the Cubs. This after trading Wilson Contreras, Noan Arnado, Sonny Gray, and Brendan Donovan. This is a team that finally is building again around young talent. They've got a clear mandate, a clear direction, and heim Bloom is the architect of what they are going forward. So let's look back a little bit on his Boston days, because he didn't always have a clear direction and mandate at times there and ultimately what they were asking him to do was to restock the farm system, reset the luxury tax penalties.

00:12:17
Speaker 2: Do all of that.

00:12:18
Speaker 1: And then after the twenty twenty one season, which was a surprise, Red Sox go to the Alcs, suddenly it.

00:12:25
Speaker 2: Was whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:12:27
Speaker 1: We've got a win now. And it's hard to do both things at once.

00:12:31
Speaker 2: Teams do it.

00:12:32
Speaker 1: The Dodgers obviously develop and win at the same time, but it's a difficult thing. And yes, Hein Bloom had his missteps as the Red Sox head of baseball operations. People will talk about the Mookie Bets trade forever. That was an ownership driven trade. He did his best there.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: There was not much he could do.

00:12:50
Speaker 1: Obviously, the Yashida signing looking back, not great. Trevor's story signing not great. Some other things had happened as well that you can question, from bringing back Jackie braw to extending Matt Barnes, signing Corey Kolub.

00:13:03
Speaker 2: But we can go on and on.

00:13:05
Speaker 1: A lot of moves didn't work out. But looking back, a lot did work out for Heiin Bloom in Boston and it's working out in Saint Louis as well. What worked out the drafts and going back, yes, they had Marcella Meyer, he was a number four pick overall, and Kyle Teel one of the figures who went for Garrett Crochet. He was a top fifteen pick overall. You could say it's easy to hit on those guys, though no team always does. But they also had some successes in the later rounds. Roman Anthony was a second round pick. Christian Campbell his career is not yet over. He was a fourth round pick. Conner Lee Early, a guy who is going to be a fixture in the rotation a fifth rounder. The system went from a bottom ten system to a topsen ten system, and heim Bloom also traded for William Orbreu in what at the time was kind of a controversial deal. They were shipping out Ramon vass Case and I'm sorry Christian Vasquez, and it just wasn't at the time seemingly something that seemed like a great move. Christian Vasquez popular in the clubhouse. The team was kind of out of it, but not totally out of it. And again that move worked out better than it looked at the time. So in retrospect, heim Bloom did what he was asked in rebuilding that farm system and putting the Red Sox on a path to where they should be in good position today to go forward and have a strong young nucleus. It still might turn out that way now what happened there. Alex korra heim Bloom power struggle, Alex Cora wins, ownership backs him, heim Bloom's out, Craig Wrestlow's.

00:14:47
Speaker 2: In, and here we go again.

00:14:49
Speaker 1: And now people look back at heim Bloom and say, what's so bad was it? And again positives and negatives as there isn't any general manager or head of base operations tenure. But look at what is going on now in Saint Louis, with again a clear mandate. This team is going back to its roots, trying to build through young players, and they've assembled some young players, They've had some that heim Blum inherited from the previous John Mazzelac regime, and suddenly some good things are happening. We've seen the Jordan Walker emergence. We've seen JJ Weatherholt top ten pick who has been an absolute star for the Cardinals, and we're seeing them play a brand of baseball that, while not yet attracting fans back to the ballpark.

00:15:40
Speaker 2: The Cardinals fans are pretty mad at ownership for the last couple of years, and understandably so.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: But in time, I expect that Cardinal baseball is going to be back, and back in a big way. Now you might ask, okay, what happens here if the Cardinals are in position into deadline, to you maybe contend, do they go forward? Do they make the same mistake the Red Sox did under Bloom and sort of abandon the plan or at least shift the plan. I would expect if they're in it, they're going to be reactive to that, and they'll make moves, modest moves perhaps, but they're not going to disrupt what they've done.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: If there's one lesson Bloom learned, it's to stay the course. He's going to stay the course.

00:16:25
Speaker 1: They're going to commit and stay committed to their young talent. It's simply a case of knowing who you are as an organization, knowing where you are, and knowing how you want to go forward. Now, do I expect the Cardinals to stay at it? Not really, And the reason for that is their pitching staff, which while so far, okay.

00:16:46
Speaker 2: They've done some good things. They've got a back of the bullpen that is at least formidable, and they've gotten good work out of their starters. But this is a team that is.

00:16:56
Speaker 1: Last in the majors in strikeout rate. They don't miss bats, and that's how the is play today. So ultimately, do I believe that catches up with him.

00:17:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do. But at the same time, again, what they're doing and the way they're playing, they're an extremely talented defensive club, up in the top defensive metrics in both outs above average and defensive run saved, so that compensates a little bit for the lack of swing and miss. You watch them in the Fox game on Saturday, there were four double plays turned behind Michael McGreevy, some of them quite brilliant. They've got Walker who looks like a star, Weatherholt who looks like a star. Ryan Church pretty good player in left field. Some really good.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: Things are happening there. Ivon Herrera behind the plate another one. So again I don't expect it to happen right away, but what they're doing right now is far more than their fans expected, and it gives their fans hope now that okay, we're gonna be okay in the future and the last couple of years. And the reason Cardinals fans are so disaffected right now is because they didn't pick a direction. They were kind of trying to do what the Red Sox were doing, contend while developing and again it's not impossible, it's just difficult to do. Obviously, Cleveland does it, Tampa Bay does it, Milwaukee does it to an extent, but those are lower pay roll teams. They kind of have to go about it that way. Saint Louis Cardinals Boston Red Sox a little bit different. Red Sox of course above the Cardinals, at least in terms of what they have resource wise. But hein Bloom right now looking like a better head of baseball operations than he did toward the end in Boston. And again it's yet another lesson on the Red Sox dysfunction and where the Red Sox have gone wrong multiple times over the years. So keep your eye on the Cardinals as we go forward. Again, I'm not expecting them to be a playoff team, but they've been an entertaining team. They've been a competitive team, and Underheim Bloom, I expect this only to continue and only to get better.

00:19:06
Speaker 2: We'll be back with the Grilling Ken segment right after this.

00:19:11
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00:20:17
Speaker 2: All right, here we go with Grill and Ken. Summer is nearly upon us and the grills will be out. Let's get to your questions.

00:20:23
Speaker 1: First question from Chris Meeks fifty two seventy two. Are we going to show some love to the rays today?

00:20:29
Speaker 2: He's asking that of Scottie Braun Scott Braun, our host of Foul Territory.

00:20:34
Speaker 1: But I'll answer the question too, and yes, we are going to show some love to the race.

00:20:38
Speaker 2: I showed a little bit at the top of the show, as I mentioned sixteen and five. Since their five and seven start. The Rays are doing what the Rays seemingly always do. And what I like about them is they have an offensive trio that is really good. It's Yandy Diaz, It's Jonathan Miranda, and of course it's Junior Caminero. They also have, as usual, strong pitching. They're moving Griffin Jacks to the rotation now, which is an interesting move. Shane McClanahan looks like he's back. Drew Rasmussen always good, and even without Pepio who's out for the year, they are in a good position. Now.

00:21:14
Speaker 1: Are they going to threaten the Yankees and become a real legitimate contender for the Ali's title.

00:21:21
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure about that.

00:21:23
Speaker 1: I asked someone yesterday about the Rays and he said, look at their hard hit percentage.

00:21:27
Speaker 2: It's the lowest in the majors.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: Regression is coming. Okay, that might be true, and certainly the Rays caught a downcast Giants team this weekend. At the same time, this is what they do, this is who they are, and we see it nearly every year. So I like what the Rays are doing. I'm a big Chandler Simpson fan at the top of the order, and let's see how it goes the rest of the way.

00:21:51
Speaker 2: All right, time now for the next question, let's get to it.

00:21:55
Speaker 1: This one is from Hamilton on the Babe Porter. He says, I would love to know if Ken thinks Keith Law is onto something. Should the Angels trade Trout and should the Phillies.

00:22:06
Speaker 2: Go after him?

00:22:07
Speaker 1: Okay, Mike Trout is enjoying so far resurgence season. Mike Trout, and we've talked about this before, has never shown any inclination to want to leave Anaheim. Now, maybe as it gets later in his career, his mood is feeling might change. But the Angels aren't going anywhere. We kind of know that. We've seen their act over the last two weeks or so, and Mike Trout, if he wants to contend, probably needs to get out of there.

00:22:37
Speaker 2: Right. We've said this for years.

00:22:40
Speaker 1: Phillies outfield is short, and yeah, Mike Trout be a great addition, but there are so many obstacles in the way here. One would be Trout's own desire to win and win in Anaheim and not anywhere else. Two, you'd have to work out the finances. And if you're the Phillies, that's another big contract to take on when they've got a number of big contracts of aging, perhaps injury prone players on the books.

00:23:06
Speaker 2: I don't know that that is necessarily the way they want to go now.

00:23:09
Speaker 1: There are always ways to work these things out, but as of now, I would say this is a long shot.

00:23:15
Speaker 2: All right, let's get to the next one.

00:23:18
Speaker 1: This question comes from armand is amazing a great questioner always Ken. Which team do you believe is the best chance to get out of the basement, the Mets or the Giants?

00:23:28
Speaker 2: Wow, I would say the Mets, but I'm not confident in either team getting out of the basement. I believe the Mets will get out of the basement. The Nationals ultimately, I don't know that they can keep this up. But the Mets are leaking in virtually every part of their team offense, defense, rotation, bullpen. There's not a singular place where you can say, well, they're good Man Eventually they'll get lind Door back. That will help.

00:23:57
Speaker 1: Polanco should come back, Roberts should come back, and maybe at that point they score runs the.

00:24:02
Speaker 2: Way they expected to score runs. Not everyone expected to score like that, but people did think that their offense would be good. The rotation behind Holmes and Peralta and McLain is still a problem. Their bullpen at.

00:24:16
Speaker 1: The back end, Weaver and Williams, it's been disappointing. I don't see a great way out, but it's a long season. The Giants, they've got a hit.

00:24:26
Speaker 2: And so far no good for the Giants.

00:24:30
Speaker 1: Devers and a Damis we mentioned them in the first segment. Maybe Bryce Eldridge gives them a boost. But again, you're asking a young player to do a lot at a time of difficulty for the team. Generally not a great formula. So if you're asking me which team do I expect to climb out of the cellar, the Mets or Giants, I generally prefer the answer to be in this case, none of the above.

00:24:53
Speaker 2: All right, I want to thank everyone for watching and listening. Foul Territory coming up at one o'clock. There'll be a J.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: Persinski Eric in Scott Broun hosting Marlins Pitcher, Tyler Phillips, the San Francisco Chronicles, Susan Slusser, and the Boston Globes Tim Healy stopping by.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: It should be an interesting show. We will be back Thursday and we'll see you then.

00:25:15
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