Tim Kurkjian talks MLB early season chaos, Historic moments + How are the big free agents performing?

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Hey, Game Changers, hooking us up with this next conversation. It is our good friend Tim kirk Chin joining us right now. You can check out his show, Great Game or what we'll talk more about it. Tim, it's great to.

00:00:11
Speaker 2: Have you on.

00:00:11
Speaker 1: First off, how you doing. How you lik in the first month and change of the season.

00:00:16
Speaker 3: Well, as always, it's been wildly unpredictable. The most beautiful game in the world is the most unpredictable game in the world. I said last year, I have never seen a season that unpredictable, where a team lost six in a row and we thought they stink, and then they would win eight.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: In a row.

00:00:34
Speaker 3: Just look what has happened already this year with the Mets and the Red Sox and the Phillies. If that doesn't point out how great this game is. That good players suddenly aren't very good, and then all of a sudden something changes for no reason, and then suddenly they take off. No great NBA jump shooter shoots fifteen percent from the three point line for three months and then shoots four five percent for the rest of the season. It never works that way, but it does in baseball. And that's why we are not allowed to figure out what's going on on a daily basis. The game is too good to be predicted.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: What do you think about those teams so far? I mean, they've been the talk since the payroll is high. Two of them have already made manager changes. You know. How surprised are you that two of those teams have already moved on from their managers.

00:01:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm surprised. The Phillies on the day Rob Thompson got fired were twenty eighth in run score and twenty eighth in era. The day got fired, they were hitting two nineteen as a team, one seventy nine against left handed pitching. I didn't see any of that coming, and I thought this would be a good rotation and it has been a bad rotation. Now I think it's going to turn around. And not because Rob Thompson is gone. He is not to be blamed.

00:01:59
Speaker 1: For all of this.

00:02:00
Speaker 3: But I just think this team is too good to wallow like this. I don't think they're going to catch the Braves, but I just can't count the Phillies out of the playoff race at the end of April. And same with the Red Sox. They have played horribly the day Alex Cora was fired. They were tied for the fewest home runs in the major leagues, they had the fewest stolen bases, and they're really good starting pitching hadn't been really good. And then they're the Mets, of course, who they've been the lowest scoring team in the major leagues so far. They went in one stretch twenty innings without scoring a run, they went one for twenty four with runners in scoring position, and the last I looked, they had twenty homers all year. So none of this makes any sense. But I really think the Red Sox and the Phillies at least have a chance to get back into things. I'm not so sure about the Mets the way that they're playing right now.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: Tim, But what about the highest payrolls are ruining the sport and we got to have a lockout to fix it. But if you look up and some of those other teams are doing good, I don't it doesn't make sense. I thought, if you highest payroll, you automatically are the best team, and then the other teams can't compete. And then you look around and the Cardinals are way up there and the Pirates are way up there.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: Make it make sense, right?

00:03:22
Speaker 3: But aj, I can't. Nobody can make sense out of this game. We couldn't make any sense out of it last year, and same thing this year. But if we have, if we lock people out and don't play part of next year or all of next year just because of the payroll disparity, Look, if you know what you're doing, like the Rays do and seemingly like the Pirates do this year, you can win in today's game. The Tigers a few years ago prove that. Several teams have proven that you just have to run your team better. And as much as we can plain that the Dodgers have just bought a championship two years in a row, their organization is beautifully run. I don't care what anyone says. They do things on the inside, draft develop make players better, better than most teams. So I think I think it's an excuse that is kind of running out of time. Do we need to get closer between the halves and have notts? Of course, But when really high paid teams like this are struggling this badly, it does tell you that you know things. Crazy things happen, inexplicable things happen.

00:04:30
Speaker 2: All the time. Tim tinking of inexplicable things talking about it. Drew Romo hit his first two homers last night for the White Sox. Go White Sox, by the way, against the Angels. One left handed is first one, and then he hit one right handed. Pretty awesome that he did this right for his first two homer. Is this the first time it's happened in major league history?

00:04:52
Speaker 3: No? Yes, Moni Grandal did this, by the way, in twenty twelve, which I was another White Sox. Yet yes, so switch hitting catcher, he hits his first two major league homers and he goes left handed and right handed in the same game. That is so unusual. So I thought, Drew Romo, I bet this has been forty years since anybody did this. Instead, it's only been fourteen years. And then I looked up a bunch of switch hitters today who never hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game, like Ken Singleton, who we all know is a vastly underrated player, Orioles mostly in the seventies, really really good player never did this, And so what Drew Romo did was most unusual. But I thought, I thought it would have been a way longer time since anyone hit his first two homers in the same game, and one left handed one right handed.

00:05:49
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00:05:53
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00:06:50
Speaker 4: All right, is it more unusual than what Spencer Torkelsen did hitting five straight after not hitting.

00:06:55
Speaker 3: Any Yeah, so he went twenty three straight games and he's a power hitter. The first twenty three games no home runs, then he hit five homers in five He hit homer in five straight games. So the last player to forget at the beginning of the season have a twenty game or more homerless streak and then homer in five consecutive games was Greg Nettles in nineteen eighty four. That was forty two years ago. So again makes absolutely no sense. What is wrong with Spencer Torkelsen and then he heats up and hits five homers in five games. Just the craziness of baseball, and it's why I love it so much. I just slapped my forehead every single morning looking at the box scorer is drinking a die of mountain dew and wondering how in the world can this happen. It happens every day.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: Tim, You and I have ginormous foreheads, so we gotta be careful when we slap our foreheads.

00:07:54
Speaker 3: But mine's a five head now and I don't shave my head like you do, so I need to aren't wearing my hat backwards like you guys. But you know, I'm sixty nine years old and I don't think I've ever worn a hat backwards in my life. I think you got to be pretty cool to do that, and I am not very cool. I'm so square, I'm divisible by four. So I think you guys can get away with it because you played in the big leagues. I'm just a tired, little old man.

00:08:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:08:23
Speaker 4: Well, that's one of the only reasons that I caught was because I heard the catchers were allowed to wear their hats backwards and it wasn't disrespectful, opposite to what Twitter says that we look like idiots or we look like Fred Durst when we wear a hat backwards. But my question is still in the homers, what are you seeing from Munataki Murakama Murakami?

00:08:45
Speaker 3: Right, So he hit a homer in five straight games, and I hope you guys know this. The last White Sox to do that was a.

00:08:54
Speaker 1: You know it?

00:08:54
Speaker 2: Tim? Yeah, hasn't done that? Who hasn't done that? Tim? On the White Sox him. I mean, let's get serious.

00:09:02
Speaker 3: Hey, that's pretty cool. Five games in a row and the time.

00:09:08
Speaker 2: Really, that's so.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: I love that. So Colson Montgomery had a four game streak there, So he had a homer in four straight games. Why you're a commedy had a homer in five straight games. And that's the first time in major league history that two teammates had a five and a four game home run streak like that going at the same time. How bizarre is that? Again, baseball at its finest.

00:09:35
Speaker 2: By the way, Tim, I had my thumbs down because he only made it to four. He didn't get to five. So I mean, Colson's Colston's doing all right? But yeah, I was. I was giving you a thumbs down because he didn't make it to five.

00:09:45
Speaker 1: Also, he's got time, he's young.

00:09:46
Speaker 2: I know. I'm just saying a lot of people haven't done five in a row.

00:09:51
Speaker 1: Tim, were you surprised when you saw the number that he got in the offseason? I mean, I feel like the people who predict contracts per publication do a really good job. There's so much more math and comparables to use. It's a little tougher sometimes when you get a player from overseas, But I don't remember seeing that much of a discrepancy in a long period of time where people thought he's going to get one hundred plus million dollars, and so then he comes over here and you think, I don't want to say he's going to be a bust, but you're just like, oh, I mean most of the league just doesn't think very highly of him. And then you're like, wait, actually he's a slugger and he's got good play discipline, so this will play.

00:10:27
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was a little confused by the whole thing too, Scott, And I don't know. I just did the All Japanese team the other day in Major League history, the best player from Japan at each position, okay, each rows in the outfield show hey, obviously, and mir Kami was the first baseman because I couldn't find another first baseman who had come from Japan played the position, you know, exclusively and really produced. So maybe the fact that there hadn't been any or too many first base he's been to comfort Japan made the contract situation a little confusing. But he's got really good power. I don't think there's any way around that. I mean, he and judged last I look, we're tied for the American League League in homers with twelve.

00:11:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, Hey, what about big picture, any trends that you've noticed, abs, homers, strikeouts, anything else that you think has really stood out in the first month and change.

00:11:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, the strikeout rate is what it is, and it's been this way, frankly for forty years. I have tracked this back to the mid eighties, but the last ten to fifteen years, every year we set a new mark for strikeouts in a season because the pitching is so unbelievably good. I say all the time, I don't know how anybody gets a hit anymore watching the stuff that we see. But at some point we're going to have to make an adjustment here from our hitters, because on the same day on four different guys in the major leagues O'Neil Cruz, James Wood, Kyle Schwarber, and Gunner Henderson all got to forty strikeouts for the season on the same day. Now, I only use forty as a benchmark because I know different time everything else. Joe Demaggio never struck out forty times in a season, and four guys got there with almost a week to go. In April, Tony Gwinn's all time career high for strikeouts in a season is forty Now again, different hitter, different time. It's almost apples and oranges. But when four guys have forty strikeouts on April the twenty fifth, it just shows you what the game has become today. And I still love every second of it. I repeat, I don't know anyone gets a hit anymore, but at some point, when you're punching out at such a high rate, you're going to have to make an adjustment and see if you can put it in play a little bit better.

00:12:59
Speaker 2: Tim Two things. First of all, strikeouts don't matter. You get paid off power, So as long as strikeouts don't matter, you're gonna see strikeouts keep going up. And then, second of all, what do you think about these all these old guys that are going on, all these old bitter guys. Oh they're so old and bitter. They keep going on Twitter and saying, oh, Velocity's not right nowadays it's up. So I just want your feelings on both those things.

00:13:19
Speaker 3: All right, Well, first off, the industry has done exactly what you said, AJ. It has told the players we don't care if you hit a soft single to left field. We want you to hit it in the right field seats. That's what we want from you. And they don't care about the strikeout rate. So I don't even blame the players for this. If you're gonna blame anyone, and I'm not sure there's blame to go around, just blame the industry. This is what they are paying for. As for older players saying, now help me here, aj, are you saying the older players are saying the velocity readings are incorrect, They threw this hard when we used to play.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: Is that what you're saying, Yes, yes, that's Greg Zahon's been There's been a whole flew of them. Huh.

00:14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's on Tim Salmon said it on our Halo Tech.

00:14:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been a whole bunch of guys saying and why has nobody done this? This is this is just me asking. I've seen this also on social media. Why can't someone take a ray gun, a stalker gun, a jugs gun, a track man, a yakertech a da dah da da da line them all up and have a guy throw and see what the velocity is. That's it seems like a simple science experiment. My kids were still in middle school, I'd maybe be my science project.

00:14:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I look I'm not going to argue with Tim Salmon about anything, because he's one of the best, one of the best hitters I've ever seen, and I haven't seen ninety five in a long in a really long time. I think they throw harder today than they've ever thrown. But this thought that nobody threw hard when Aeric Kratz started his career or when AJ was in his prime, that's ridiculous. There have been hard throwers for a long time. And I am really dating myself since I went to Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland. Shirley Povich, hall of Fame baseball writer, told me twenty five years ago. He said, I've seen them all. I saw Walter Johnson in his prime. I saw Bob Feller, I saw Nolan Ryan, and I'm telling you, Walter Johnson threw harder than anyone. And that was one hundred and twenty years ago. Now I don't believe that for a second. But this thought that we were throwing eighty miles an hour in nineteen forty is just not true. But are is the velocity in two thousand the same as it is in twenty twenty six. No, today's guys throw harder. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

00:15:41
Speaker 4: I promise there was no rotation like the Brewers' rotation back in the day when I first came into the big leagues. All those dudes threw slow. I mean even Givanni Guyardo, his pitch was the change up. And then the Astros rotation was terrible. They threw slow like. There was plenty of dudes that when the team weren't good, it was okay to throw eighty seven to ninety one. But there were still dudes that were popping a hunch. But my question to you is about the Central. The National League Central, every team is over five hundred. The American League Central, every team is either at five hundred or below. Which one do you think has the best chance of happening throughout the entire season. The AL Central staying all below five hundred and then obviously only one team making it, or the NL Central all staying above five hundred.

00:16:33
Speaker 3: Well, somebody in the AL Central is going to finish above five hundred. The Tigers are much better than they've played, and the Guardians have won me over. Just when I look at them and wonder, how do they ever score enough? Runs to win a division and stay in first place. A couple of those teams will be over five hundred before it's over, but only I think, only two of them. As for the NL Central, that division is better than I thought. I mean, the Reds are real good right now, the Cubs can really score runs, the Brewers are always good. I did not see the Cardinals doing this well after twenty nine games, and the Pirates have lost three in a row, so I'm not sure where that's going. But three of those teams, the Reds, Cubs, and Brewers made the playoffs last year, and I wouldn't be surprised if all three of them made the playoffs again this year. That's a better division than people think, especially this year.

00:17:27
Speaker 2: Wait, in the a Essentral, the White Sox are going to finish over five hundred and the Tigers are those your two teams? Ten?

00:17:33
Speaker 3: No, no, no, The Guardians and the Tigers are going. If I said the White Sox, sorry, the Guardians and the Tigers will finish over five hundred in the AL.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: Central, White sod say the White Sox. I was just trying to correct you. I was trying to correct you.

00:17:51
Speaker 3: All right, I think I should wear my hat on backwards because I didn't understand the question right. The point is there are not every team in the Al Central is going to finish under five hundred. Of them are going to finish above. That's the point I am attempting to make very poorly here.

00:18:09
Speaker 2: No, you made it perfectly. I was just correcting you because you said the Guardians and the Tigers, and I said, oh, so the Tigers and the White Sox. I was correcting you from your original statement.

00:18:19
Speaker 3: So you think the White Sox are going to finish over five hundred.

00:18:22
Speaker 2: He doesn't believe it.

00:18:25
Speaker 1: He doesn't even want to say it himself.

00:18:27
Speaker 2: He's not right, That's what I was le I was letting tempt to that forman.

00:18:30
Speaker 1: I know the entire time we've had the show, Tim, this is what season four, the White Sox have been good. So AJ's just waiting for his time to erupt and be like they're decent.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: Year are decent.

00:18:39
Speaker 1: They're decent.

00:18:39
Speaker 2: Anyways, Tim, by the way, did you steal my phone for your guest list? Because you have Joe Buck and Max Shur's are on recently on your show, So have you been going through my phone and picking out all my friends to have on your show. And I mean I haven't been invited yet.

00:18:54
Speaker 3: I don't think I have your phone number, AJ, So why don't you just tell it to me right now? Eight six nine, Tim, we had Joe buck on a couple days ago. We had Max schures Are on. Both of them were great And no, I am not stealing guests from you and AJ. We would love to have you on at any point. You two Eric Krats. I've told Eric Krats we're gonna have him come to my son's studio in his basement in skip Back or Collegeville, Pennsylvania. How about that, Eric Kratz comes to our house and does a podcast in person. We're still gonna do that.

00:19:35
Speaker 4: As long as you make me chocolate chip cookies. I love warm chocolate chip cookies.

00:19:40
Speaker 3: Well, I do all the cooking at home, and we pray after we eat at my house, so I would be careful about allowing me to make any sort of food for you.

00:19:50
Speaker 2: That's fair, that's fair.

00:19:51
Speaker 1: I'll try anything twice that is true. Well, Tim, it was awesome to catch up with you. We were all over the map as we expect. Thanks for joining us. Good to see you. Shout out to game changer. They are hooking us up with this segment, and they also do a lot with Great Game or what. It is the number one youth sports app and it helps you coach smarter, connect, live and replay the action. Tim and Jeff Kirkchin have received some really cool notes from parents learning about the app and how it's really changed their world because there are many traveling parents that are now watching their kids play their games that they can't make them. It's awesome. Learn more at GC dot com. Todd Father, it's getting a little warm out, and that means let's hit some concerts, let's hit some baseball games. And where am I going to go to find those tickets? And if you want to sing the answer, you can.

00:20:43
Speaker 5: We're going to see gee, hey, hey, listen. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it is getting warmer and people want to leave the house and it's time to leave, go see a ball game. I guess where you can find the best tickets, best spots, best places to go seat. Geeks got it all, man, They got their red and their green signs like you know, which could embed all that good kind of stuff. They make it really simple for you. At the end of the day for a guy like me who's running around, I just need five minutes. Bing bang bom, I got my seat.

00:21:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Each tickets rated on a scale of one to ten, so you know you're getting a good deal. And of course the code for you Territory one zero for ten percent off your next set of tickets at Sea Geek. That's ten percent off any tickets with promote code Territory tent. Make sure you click the link in the description to download the app and then have the code automatically added to your account so you can use it later. Thank you to seed Geek, MLB's official ticket marketplace. Let's start with our free agent check in on Kyle Tucker ends up signing for four years, two hundred and forty million. There's opt that's in there, and so far this season, if we go by Baseball Reference war, he's got point one more that's not great, and at the plate he's got a ninety six ops plus it's a little bit below average. He had a slow start. Dave Roberts talked a lot about how he felt like he was pressing a little bit. Joining the new team, they got things a little simplified. He's playing better lately, it's a long season.

00:22:10
Speaker 2: He'll be fine. I'm not worried about Kyle Tucker.

00:22:13
Speaker 1: He had to walk off for them the other day.

00:22:14
Speaker 2: He'll be fine. No, I'm not not worried about I'm just not. I mean, he'll be fine.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Will he be a superstar? No?

00:22:21
Speaker 2: I never thought. I never thought he was. I mean, maybe I was wrong in this crouchpright disrude me. I never thought he was even in Houston. When he was, they were talking about him being an MVP. He never had superstar vibes, right, And that's not a knock. Some guys just don't have that. They can be unbelievably good players. But he fits in perfect in La because he doesn't have to be the superstar guy.

00:22:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he doesn't. He's quiet, he isn't like doing any of that.

00:22:45
Speaker 2: He doesn't attention. He's supposed to do his job, which is fine. There's a lot of those guys, but like he, you know, Aaron Judge, say what you want. He has superstar vibes when you see Mike Trout, even though he doesn't do a ton of stuff. He has super when you walk up to Mike Trout. And this is not a knock. On Kyle Tucker at all because he's an unbelievably good player. He just doesn't have the There's just certain players when you're around him, they they just they have an aura, right, And Kyle Tucker, even on the astros like Carlos Korea, Altuve Jordan, because he's such a big guy, like they have this You're like, whoa. I mean, Kyle Tucker was always kind of like in the corner, like kind of I would say hiding, but kind of just chilling in the corner. I don't know, it's it's again. I don't want if people think I'm knocking on him at all, because he's not. He's gonna he's gonna be fine. He's gonna have a great year. If he stays out, he's gonna be fine.

00:23:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jen z introvert, That's that's his game.

00:23:38
Speaker 2: That's cool. Yeah.

00:23:41
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say he's ever. He's had flashes where he could be a superstar, but I think he's a star. I think he absolutely changed the landscape on what guys are gonna make in free agency at some point, like when you have essentially he has two years guaranteed for one hundred and fourteen million, like he took the money. He's gonna go be a integral piece to this team. And I think for Dodger fans, if you say it's a waste of money, he'll start. He'll get right back to you know, one twenty five to one forty ops plus. Like that's where he is the years he stays healthy. The one year where he wasn't healthy, it looked like he could have won an MVP. He was going in that direction, but could have, would have, should have he didn't stay healthy. So to me, he's you know, he's a five he's a five war player, which you're paying sixty million dollars for for one year. It's probably a little expensive, but the Dodgers can handle it, and he absolutely makes this team better. And I don't really care that he's started out with a would you say point one war for the season.

00:24:49
Speaker 2: He'll be fine.

00:24:51
Speaker 1: Yep, there's the last ten games. Still not great, but he's fine.

00:24:56
Speaker 2: He's fine.

00:24:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody's looking at him saying, what's their record? Them all the wins? It's really good. Let's do one more for now and then we'll get back to these later. Boba Schett.

00:25:10
Speaker 2: Homer yesterday, first pitch, right Abotaco. I think Bo's gonna be fine. Listen, he switched teams for the first time. He switched positions to third base, the place he had never really played before. I think I think Bo's gonna be fine too. I think he's gonna hit in this contract, and I think he's going to be fine. Now will the Mets be fine? We'll see, But I think Bo's gonna be fine. But remember when we had bow on in spring training and I said something to him and he's like, oh, I remember what you said about my leg. Have you seen me hit? That's confidence and I don't I don't know that you can shake that confidence. So I think he's gonna I mean, the numbers are the numbers. But again, switch teams for the first time, switching positions. They're not doing well, and that adds up to a lot of pressure. He's thinking, this is all my fault, this is all my fault. It's all my fault. And if you notice, he's gotten so much out of the zone when he used Tod not go out of the zone this much, and that shows me that he's pushing way too hard.

00:25:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, they threw a lot at him. I mean, you should be playing second, he.

00:26:05
Speaker 4: Makes a lot of contact with pitches out of his own. He's not gonna walk a lot, so he's gonna be kind of I don't want to say he's just gonna be different than Wan Soto, but the same person, Same New York fans gonna complain about Wuan Soto.

00:26:16
Speaker 2: Why didn't he swing at that pitch? It was two inches off We needed the RBI.

00:26:20
Speaker 4: Well, you know what, Now you got a guy in a line up, Boba Schett, who's going to be able to drive those guys in. And when the Mets start getting guys on and Juan Soto on him play an entire season, if he's hitting behind one or you know, if he's leading off or from him, he's gonna have one hundred runs or one hundred RBIs, whatever it is, because just a lot of stuff happens around Wan Soto. When you have a guy like bo who is able to hit a lot of different pitches for hits, not just and right now he's just making contact with him and he hasn't gotten he has racked up those hits, he'll.

00:26:53
Speaker 2: Be right up there in the league lead of hits by the end of the season.

00:26:57
Speaker 1: His bad and ball metrics have been pretty good. I mean he's had two thirty seven batting average expected batting to eighty eight. I know you guys don't love this stuff, but you can get unlucky for a few weeks. We know that, right if it's over the course of the season. You want to make a case, fine, but average exa blow is well well above average and a good spot. You know, there's a good amount of red on the stack cast page is what you be hard hit squared up all.

00:27:18
Speaker 2: We're talking about two of the best players in baseball the last yeah, five years. They'll be fine. This happened in the middle of June and they hadn't switched teams, he'd be like, ah, they're going to a little bit of a thing. But because they switch teams and all this stuff and everyone's like, oh, they're doing Oh no, he'll.

00:27:37
Speaker 1: Be fine and commanded a big contract in the off season. So far doing great. That's why you sign a big guy like gat.

00:27:48
Speaker 2: He takes the ball every fit day, he gets the strikeouts, he gives you innings. He's a he's someone you look to. I mean, he's doing great.

00:27:56
Speaker 1: Seven in six starts. What's wrong?

00:27:58
Speaker 2: Crats does he get enough innings or do people not care about it? He gives you enough strikeouts, and he gives you I mean, he gives you one hundred and seventy five to one hundred and eighty innings every year, doesn't he?

00:28:09
Speaker 1: In baseball? That is a full fledged course.

00:28:12
Speaker 2: Yes, he takes the ball thirty two times a year. That's that is a just and he changes most He went kind of a different motion. He was like looking like Fernando Valezuela. Did you see that the other day? When he finished, he like, we get to the top of his motion, here would.

00:28:26
Speaker 1: Go looking up.

00:28:29
Speaker 4: I think that gives a heaven. Yeah, I mean I think obviously. I think anybody that makes all their starts, I think that's legit. I think, do you want him to give you more innings? Does he have it? Does he have a decline if he'd say, hey, we want you to have less strikeouts and more you know? To me, I think it's the walks that if he can cut the walks down, he would go to that like elite status in my opinion, Yeah.

00:28:57
Speaker 1: Of course. Well, yeah, he strikes out the world to strike out forty nine punches in thirty one and a third.

00:29:06
Speaker 2: And he only had five, but he hit my under the other day.

00:29:10
Speaker 1: He did next up Tatsuya. I can you even judge him yet? I mean, the one thing I will say is okay. So he's trying to work his way back from the IL and had fifty nine pitches in Corpus CHRISTI with five and run six hits two innings. I mean, I don't really care. It's nice to have good minor league results, but I still think he can be good. I kind of believe the guy when he said, hey, it's been a little tough for me to adjust. Not everybody adjusts perfectly. I thinkwise he's got it. He's got big league stuff krats. Now, is he going to have to figure out the command? Sure, but I mean he made strikes.

00:29:50
Speaker 4: Some dudes oubt he's got a big league pitch. His slider is a big league pitch, and I think he needs to be able to throw enough of his fastball to be able to keep guys off the slider. Because as a starter, even if you're a two pitch pitcher, what are we looking at with Roki. I know they're both Japanese and so maybe that's not fair, but like two pitch pitchers on one night. They just say that we're we're not swinging at one They eliminate that for me, when a big leaguer goes down to a minor league, whether it's rehab, whether it's just getting your mind right, whatever, your minor league appearance is the big the minor leaguers go. It's a big leaguer. I want to hit a big leaguer like I want to. I want to, so they're coming out swinging. My concern there is that he had three walks, because when you're in Double A, the best way to make a name for yourself. Oh did you see what Joe Smith did against Tatsuyoo My when he came down. Yeah, he squared it up like that's shows you can hit big league pitching. The three walks, that's that's the part that's concerning to me. It cares how many hits he gave up or earned runs he gave up. Of course, that one dude, you know, there's a bunch of dudes. I wanted to clip him and hit a homer, and one dude did. But the walks is what's concerning to me.

00:31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, if a guy's having trouble adjusting to the majors in the US. You know, it's worse the miners. So I'm like, this dude can't catch a break. He can get dudes out. I know he hasn't used the splitter much yet three percent, but I think he'll up that usage. I know right now he just was using the four seemer and the slider. But I mean I watched a few of the outings and I'm like, uh, he's got it.

00:31:29
Speaker 2: He's got stuff.

00:31:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got stuff.

00:31:31
Speaker 2: It's just a question is Kenny harness? But this is the question going in with him, how many innings would he give? And he's kind of just been the same as whom the innings is going to give you. I don't know. I don't know. Is he going to be able to pitch? Is he going to be hurt?

00:31:44
Speaker 1: I mean, what's It's he going to be a reliever.

00:31:47
Speaker 2: That was what a lot of people thought. That's why a lot of teams were scared to sign him. They thought he would be a reliever.

00:31:51
Speaker 1: That's a possibility. Just a couple others. I'll give you pick one. Ajad of Murkami Ranger Suarez, Pete Alonzo, Framber.

00:32:01
Speaker 2: Murkcanbie, Jackpot, Alonso TVD Homer yesterday. Ranger pitch really well. His last time out was the last one. Robert Rumer has been okay, but he's been okay. Yeah, three four, one and six about what he's been though. That's I mean, he's low threes. He's always a low threes guy. He's been fine.

00:32:23
Speaker 1: He has those starts where.

00:32:24
Speaker 2: He has one starter to like one start a month where you're just like, what the heck happened? And then he'll go four starts in a row where he's just like unhittable, and then he just has one blow up and you're like, how does this happens.

00:32:34
Speaker 4: That's why teams don't want ground ball guys because sometimes those ground ball guys people start getting under it. I think Framber has been fine. I think the one person is not on this list that I love that has had an incredible start to his free agent year, ryde Hearn. He's killing it in Pittsburgh and he's playing a new position. So when we talk about the Pirates, like I mean, when we talk about the Mets, you say, oh man, you know all these guys are playing new positions.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: Rana Hearn's trying to.

00:33:04
Speaker 4: Figure out how to play right field with another guy that's playing in center that's like kind of still trying to figure it out too. So they're figuring it out together, and he's he's acclimated to Pittsburgh really really well. So good for Pittsburgh for making that signing.

00:33:20
Speaker 1: Great call. Three twenty three five homers, twenty RBIs in twenty eight games, a nine to twenty five ops and a one to fifty seven ops plus. That's a signing.

00:33:34
Speaker 2: Two years value. But they but they also spent money.

00:33:38
Speaker 4: It's not like they were like, ooh, let's see, we'll take a we'll take a risk with like a one year, eight million dollars signing and it paid out. The Pirates went out on a limb and signed a guy who's had two and a half really good years once he started to get more playing time. But man, like you, you are getting your money's worth. Not that they couldn't have used Kyle Swarber. Also, not that they couldn't have used a Henyo Suarez. But this is a great signing by the Pirates. And you know, I love I love Ryan o'harn.

00:34:10
Speaker 1: This is the whole point. You have some holes in the roster. They don't feel them for ten years, they finally decide to try to do it. And anybody in baseball, any team, do you think that twenty nine it cost two years twenty nine mil. Do I think they'll hang on. I don't think they'll make the playoffs, but I think they'll hang around this season. Yeah, I think they'll just miss. But I think the bullpen might cost them. We'll see.

00:34:35
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, are they gonna let their starters? That's that's where I think. I think the bullpen is going to cost them too. But are they gonna let their starters say, yeah, we're gonna We're gonna let you go. We're gonna let you go deeper because they got young starters, and the fear is don't let Bubba Chandler get hurt. I know he's got to stop walking as many guys, so go deeper. But are they gonna let them go that seven innings instead of six and die? Because if they go to seven and now, all of a sudden, your bullpen doesn't have to be as good. So I think there's gonna be there's gonna be some tough calls for Don Kelly. The last thing with O'Hearn they're letting him play against lefties. He's almost hitting like two ninety. I think his OPS is right at eight hundred against lefties this year.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: No, I'm sorry, it's over eight hundred. I thought it was so like you.

00:35:22
Speaker 4: When you have a team that paid somebody, you get an opportunity to play. Maybe these dudes actually play better when they get an opportunity to play.