0:06

Welcome to Rates and

0:09

Barrels, it's Wednesday, May

0:11

1st. Derek

0:17

the Riper, Eno Saris, Britcherolli here with

0:19

you one day later than usual. Life

0:21

happens, as they like to say on

0:23

this episode. We've got some news

0:26

and notes from around the league including a

0:28

disappointing turn of events for Mike Trout, who

0:30

was off to a good start, at least

0:32

from a power perspective this season. We're gonna

0:34

dig into a home run celebration that would

0:36

probably draw a health grade F from

0:41

most municipalities. And

0:43

we've got a question about the Nats rebuild

0:45

that we're gonna dig into. How far along

0:47

is the Nationals rebuild? Kind of a big

0:49

picture question for us today. We're also gonna

0:51

talk about a few early series that we've

0:53

been excited about that are in progress and

0:55

I think each of them got more exciting

0:57

for different reasons since the time that we

0:59

put them on the rundown on Monday

1:02

morning for this show. So lots to dig

1:04

into today. If you haven't joined the Discord

1:06

yet, you can do that using the link

1:09

in the show description. Let's

1:11

talk about Mike Trout first. This was the

1:13

fresh news of the day on Tuesday night.

1:15

Mike Trout has a torn meniscus. Ten

1:17

homers through 29 games this season. He even

1:19

stole a base again on Monday night before

1:22

this injury was announced on Tuesday. Phil's

1:24

making a little shuffle in the outfield

1:27

that DFA'ing Aaron Hicks, adding Kevin Pilar

1:29

is sort of the depth adjustment here.

1:31

But this is just the latest in

1:33

a growing list of disappointing mid

1:35

and later career injuries for Trout that are

1:37

really keeping him from showing us if he's

1:40

still even 80 or 90% of the

1:42

player he was at his peak. From a power

1:44

perspective and just by the fact that he's being

1:46

aggressive on the base pass again, I was becoming

1:49

increasingly optimistic that he was still that

1:51

guy based on what was happening through the first

1:53

month of the season. tell

2:00

that he was struggling to not

2:02

cry. Like this is something that

2:04

I think people forget that these, because they're like,

2:06

well, it gets paid anyway. Like these guys care.

2:09

And I think it was Ken Rosenthal for us at the

2:11

beginning of the season who did this story of a trout

2:13

that was like, he really

2:15

this spring wanted to prove to people that

2:18

he can still be that guy. Like this

2:20

in his head was a season that he

2:22

had targeted as like, you know, I'm

2:24

going to silence the doubters, the people who said I can't

2:26

stay healthy and I can't stay on the field and you

2:28

know, my best years are behind me. And then he goes

2:31

out and he has a ridiculous start.

2:33

I mean, you look at what he's done home

2:35

run wise. And I think there are some teams

2:37

that are pretty close to him in terms of

2:39

team home runs. When I wrote the White

2:41

Sox column, they only had like three more home runs than

2:43

Mike Trout through the first month of the season.

2:45

So really frustrating. I

2:48

think even if you're not an Angels fan, if you're

2:50

a baseball fan, because unfortunately, you know,

2:52

people are going to say, well, it's the same

2:54

old thing. Can't stay healthy. Yes. It's

2:58

not season ending. I think four to six weeks

3:00

was the initial timeline. But you wonder, you know,

3:03

four to six weeks. And then does he rehab

3:05

to come back? Right? Like, is

3:07

he is this something that kind of lingers all year

3:09

at his age? It's just it really

3:11

sucks. There's no other way to put it. I

3:13

enjoyed watching him. I felt

3:15

like he was a man on a

3:18

mission this year and he booked like it for that first

3:20

month. And now we're not going to get

3:22

to see that anymore. And whether or not the Angels were going to

3:24

be a playoff team or not, it's still exciting

3:26

to watch the best player in the game

3:28

play on a nightly basis. And we're just

3:30

not going to see that. And I just

3:32

wonder how much this accumulated injuries over time

3:34

is just going to continue to compound itself.

3:36

It's the back. It's the leg. It's

3:39

the knee, right? Like he's older than he

3:41

even appears to be, I think, because of all the

3:43

injuries that he suffered. So I wonder how we're going

3:45

to look at his career. Are we going to look

3:47

at it as what could have been? Because

3:49

no doubt he's a Hall of Famer. But are we going

3:51

to say, what if he had stayed healthy? I

3:53

think that's going to be a huge part of

3:56

his legacy. Yeah,

3:58

it's that. The news actually came out. came down

4:00

while I was talking to Brent Rooker

4:02

about injuries across the sport and even

4:04

hit her injuries. And we were talking

4:06

about just the fact that these

4:09

players are pushing themselves as far

4:11

as they can go. We

4:14

just saw that Tristan Casas

4:16

has internal injuries akin to

4:18

being in a car crash

4:20

because he's turning so fast.

4:23

And when I look at Mike Trout, I see

4:25

a guy who looks like a free safety, looks

4:28

like a linebacker and

4:31

he's really pushed himself to swing the

4:33

bat as hard as he can, run

4:35

as fast as

4:37

he can. And

4:39

I think we're seeing some of that kind of,

4:42

it's a little bit like guys throwing as hard

4:45

as they can every single time. He's

4:47

been, when he's in, he plays as hard as

4:49

he can. And it's

4:52

too bad because if you, I don't know if

4:54

he's necessarily the very best player in the sport

4:56

anymore, but by WRC+,

4:58

which is just a park adjusted

5:01

number for offense, Aaron Judge, this

5:03

is the, over the last three

5:05

years, Aaron Judge, Jordon Alvarez, Hosey

5:07

Altuve, Shohei Otani, Mookie Betts, Freddie

5:09

Freeman, Mike Trout, that is the

5:11

top seven. They

5:14

all have like 1200 plate

5:16

appearances or more. He's

5:18

about 300 plate appearances behind most

5:20

of them, even Aaron Judge. So

5:23

yeah, it's definitely part of his legacy.

5:26

I think he's a Hall of Famer

5:28

already. I think he would have been

5:30

kind of an inner circle kind of

5:33

in the same sentence as Babe

5:36

Ruth and Barry Bonds. Now

5:38

I think he's more a guy

5:41

you talk about, like you talk about Mickey Mantle.

5:45

That's not that far off. It's

5:47

not like a Sandy Kofax package, I don't think,

5:49

where he's only good for like five or six

5:51

years and what could have been. But

5:55

he still has some work to do to get

5:57

into. you

6:00

know even the Mickey

6:02

Mantle territory he's about thirty war short

6:04

of Mickey Mantle so. You

6:07

know we we gotta hope for some some

6:09

better help from him maybe maybe just stick

6:11

in a d.h. You know

6:13

like maybe preemptively say hey we're trying to

6:15

keep you healthy can you just bat for

6:17

us. I think that's a big

6:19

part of it or even just doing that more

6:22

part time which was never an option when otoni

6:24

was there because that was spot otoni had i'm

6:26

surprised see this if you look at. My trout

6:28

career is put over fourteen hundred games in the

6:30

big leagues only eighty one

6:32

appearances as a d.h. Like that's

6:35

because of his initially get a lot of value is

6:37

going to be one of the he's playing there yeah

6:40

i want to be part of it or yeah but

6:42

at some point you know if you say one way

6:44

we can take some of the wear and tear off

6:46

your legs people underestimate. How much out

6:48

fielders are running and moving around during the game

6:50

in a field runs more could be ever they

6:52

cover more if you could take some of that

6:54

off that would help. Some guys

6:57

like to like it it translates into their vast and they're

6:59

not as locked into the game there's a there's

7:01

a there's a statistical component that's called the

7:03

d.h. penalty you are ten percent

7:05

worse than you are normally if you're not

7:07

playing in the field. Yeah so

7:10

because like you're sitting there you're sitting on each at

7:12

bat you're not like you know you can impact the

7:14

game and make a great catch after you strike out

7:16

with the baby. You're staying warm to you're staying

7:18

warm like physically so i don't know

7:20

actually if the stop and start for my trout

7:23

keeps them that much healthier i don't know

7:25

i don't. Could you play

7:27

in the first base we saw bryce harper make that

7:29

move i think that's sort of the compromise you're still

7:32

moving around you're not as inactive

7:34

i mean d.h. is have things they can do that

7:37

can go underneath the tunnel and ride

7:39

a stationary bike and do stuff like that they want

7:41

to stay loose at the same. What

7:43

you know jd davis point out to me if

7:45

you do that you're not acclimated to the lights

7:47

so there's actually this weird from this weird part

7:49

where like somebody says hey you're up and you

7:51

come from the tunnel in the dark and you're

7:53

like. Yeah

7:55

that's a good point i

7:57

just felt yeah i think first base is a good. Compromise,

8:00

I don't know if you can put him

8:02

as DH and that solves all your problems.

8:04

Then you're also clogging the DH spot for

8:07

the Angels. Um, for guys

8:09

who need a blow. They've been used to that. Yeah, they've

8:11

lived that life for a while. Teams

8:13

don't like that though. Teams would prefer to be able

8:15

to use that to give guys a blow. I think

8:18

the first base plan would be the thing I

8:20

would try to go to trout with. I'd say

8:23

let's do what the Phillies did with Bryce

8:25

Harper. You know, let's just see if we

8:27

can get you back to 130, 140 games by taking

8:29

wear and tear off your legs. Show

8:33

him with data. Show him how much he's

8:35

moving in the outfield versus how much

8:37

he'll still move at first base by comparison. It's

8:40

not gonna... People have this

8:42

impression that first baseman are statues. They're not.

8:44

I think you run in the outfield. You

8:46

run like a couple miles a game. And

8:48

I don't think first baseman are running a couple miles

8:51

a game. No, it's less. It's less. But it's probably

8:53

the happy medium. And for all of the things that

8:55

we just said about trout, there's a few things that

8:57

still jump off the page statistically. More

9:00

stolen bases in 29 games this season. He had

9:02

six already and seven attempts. Then he had in

9:04

the last three seasons combined. He had five over

9:06

the last three seasons together. Lowest strikeout rate for

9:08

Mike Trout. That's part of what Britt is talking

9:10

about. Yeah, he was motivated. He was there. Everybody,

9:13

I'm still here. Yeah,

9:16

he wanted to kind of silence the doubters. I

9:18

thought he was a little spicier than we've ever seen with

9:21

some of his quotes this spring. You

9:23

just did a Q&A with Sam Blum last

9:25

week that went up on the athletic as

9:27

well. Lowest strikeout rate that we've

9:29

seen since 2019 for Mike Trout. So

9:32

hopefully on the other side of this meniscus injury,

9:34

four or six weeks from now, two months from

9:36

now, whatever it ends up being, we can see

9:38

a nice productive second half from him. A little

9:40

bit of a fly-by here. We knew things weren't

9:42

going well for Jose Abreu in Houston. They

9:44

decided to option him to West Palm Beach, their

9:46

rookie level affiliate, which is basically a way to

9:48

getting him back to their spring complex to

9:51

let him sort of revamp his swing, given

9:53

that he's a veteran with, I think it's five years

9:55

service time he had to approve this, so it's something

9:57

that he and the organization sort of came to an

9:59

agreement with. agreement on, I'm

10:01

just wondering if it's going to work. Like, are we going

10:03

to see Hosea Breu figure it out,

10:06

mechanically rebuild a swing, come back and offer

10:08

something to the Astros later on this season?

10:10

Or is this just sort of the first

10:12

step on the way out the door for

10:14

an early release? Because you suggested they would

10:16

just eat the contract. I thought they were

10:19

going to try and suck it up, get

10:21

through this season in a maybe cut bait

10:23

early next year if they couldn't get them

10:25

back on track. Well, I think

10:27

this is them going through the, like you said,

10:29

the first step, right? Now, what's fascinating is he

10:32

had to agree to this. Like,

10:34

he could have said, nah, forget you. But he,

10:36

you know, has said to reporters, and Chandler Rome

10:38

had a good story about this, about how embarrassing

10:41

this is and how he wants to put

10:43

things back together. And it's been

10:45

such a dramatic tumble for a

10:48

guy who was a silver slugger and an MVP to

10:50

this. I do think this still

10:52

ends in a DFA. The

10:54

other factor is he's not even helping them on

10:56

the field. He's like a negative three, defensive run

10:58

saved. So he's killing them.

11:01

And the Astros are, as we know, not

11:03

off to a great start. So I'm

11:05

good on him for agreeing to do this.

11:07

I don't know how many players would have

11:09

been okay with this. I

11:12

do think there is some pride there. And like he said, he

11:14

is embarrassed. I just am not sure

11:17

he can get back to that prior

11:19

form, right? Like, what is it that needs to

11:21

be unlocked? That the, you know, the Astros have

11:23

done such a good job of maximizing these guys.

11:26

What is it that, you know, Chris

11:28

Knicker and the rest of their coaches can't figure

11:30

out? You know, that

11:33

to me is a little confounding. And I feel

11:35

like we're going to look at this contract, which

11:37

was made by Jim Crane. Remember they signed him

11:39

before they had a GM. This is when they

11:41

had got rid of James Click. We're

11:44

going to look back on this deal and say this was

11:46

one of the worst deals that they've made in recent history.

11:48

And they've avoided these deals, right? But there

11:50

was no GM and there was an owner who loved

11:52

stars. He wanted Josh Hader. He

11:54

wanted a Breu and this is going to end up blowing up

11:56

in their face. So no, I'm not

11:59

super optimistic about it. this. I think it's a

12:01

good first move, but what do you do? How long does

12:03

he stay down there? What does he have to do? It's

12:06

so hard to evaluate how guys do in

12:08

the minor leagues. We just have a Jackson

12:10

holiday. So what does he have to do?

12:12

Crush at the West Palm

12:14

Gulf Coast League? What does he do? Does he move

12:17

up through the system? Right. He's a 37

12:19

year old. Because I don't think it's

12:21

like a confidence thing, right? He's not a

12:23

22 year old kid. So what he's going

12:25

to tear it up in their AAA or

12:27

the Sugarland. And then you

12:30

bring them up and he has a bad couple games. I

12:33

don't know what this does. It's by time. Organizationally, I think

12:35

they're going to figure out what they have in

12:37

low profito a little bit. If

12:39

you can get to, if you can get a month before

12:42

Bray who says, Hey, what's going on? A

12:44

month is actually a decent amount of

12:47

time. People make decisions on a month. We see, you know,

12:49

we see young kids get a month before they go back

12:51

down. We see people do waiver claims, give

12:53

them a month and then let them go. A month

12:56

is enough time to see what you can

12:58

like see certain things in bad at ball

13:00

stats. For example, in a month, a barrel

13:02

rate is important. A break who

13:04

has not hit a barrel in the first month. And

13:08

so that's important. We're about to

13:10

get bat speed numbers from baseball

13:12

savant in the next couple weeks.

13:15

And when we do get those numbers,

13:17

I will assume that we will see that a

13:19

break is bat speed is in the bottom quartile

13:21

of the league and that he's lost his bat

13:23

speed. That's what I see when I

13:26

don't see a max CV over 109. He's always

13:28

had one over 113 in the past. When I

13:30

don't see barrels, when I see

13:33

a hard hit rate at 27%, the worst

13:35

of his career. And I think this

13:37

was a long time coming because that we all remember

13:39

last year, he started out poorly and then he kind

13:41

of rallied. But when he rallied, I think he did

13:44

enough to say, Oh, you know, he got it back.

13:46

He got it back. Well, his

13:48

rallying that second half where he rallied,

13:50

quote unquote, he was 9% above the

13:53

league average. That's basically average

13:55

for a first baseman. And then

13:57

on top of that, it would have been

13:59

his worst career

14:01

season if he had done that.

14:03

Like what he did in the second half last

14:05

year was also worse than he wasn't before. So

14:08

we already kind of saw, oh, his rallying,

14:10

like his bounce is more of the, mm-mm,

14:14

the cat variety than the like, than

14:17

the like, oh, he's back variety, you know?

14:20

And so I think we saw basically

14:22

last year the harbingers of what's happening

14:24

now. So it's on low

14:26

for Fido to hit the ball hard and

14:28

showed him that, you know, he can be

14:30

above average first baseman. And then

14:32

I think you're right. I think it's headed for

14:34

the DFA. Do you guys

14:36

think you could barrel up a ball in one month,

14:38

one? No. I

14:41

don't either. My max exit velocity, I know

14:43

this because I did a little bit of

14:45

training, 74. Ah.

14:49

All right, all right. Let

14:51

everyone know when you think you can play better. When

14:53

you're screaming at the TV thing, you think you can still

14:55

do better. Me as an analyst, I'm like, well, he has to

14:57

hit a ball 110, so he's totally

14:59

toast. Yeah. I hit a

15:01

ball 74. They're literally hitting

15:04

the ball harder than that. Would that even bruise

15:06

if it hit me, you know? You'd

15:08

be able to just get out of the way. I

15:10

don't think it'd hit you. Yeah, you could see it

15:12

coming. You could just dodge it. Oh,

15:15

gosh. And I love how you said it takes a month

15:17

for people to make decisions as a good chunk,

15:19

except for Peter Bendicks. Did you guys see

15:21

that press conference? No. In

15:24

the Marlins? The Express Conference. Was

15:27

he talking about his catchers? Oh,

15:29

yesterday people were asking him. They're the worst, I think, are

15:31

they the worst team in baseball right now? I didn't check

15:33

this morning. Oh, boy. Them and the White Sox have

15:35

been duking it out. Peter Bendicks basically

15:37

said yesterday, and this made the

15:39

rounds. Oh, they have one more win than the White

15:42

Sox. On social media that

15:45

a month isn't enough time to make any decisions

15:47

that they, you know, he's still optimistic that they're

15:49

gonna turn it around this year, and that

15:52

he just kept hammering that a month wasn't enough time

15:54

for him to make some roster

15:56

moves, to shake things up. You

15:59

know, people are... a little upset by this because

16:01

they didn't upgrade the Major League roster at

16:03

all either. Well,

16:06

I think the plan for him is give

16:08

me five years. But

16:10

you only gave Kim Ing one. Yeah,

16:13

no. Yeah. I

16:16

mean, it's a double standard, you're right.

16:19

Definitely a double standard. What buttons are

16:21

you pressing? The state of

16:23

the organization was they were lucky to get to the

16:25

playoffs last year. There was still work to be

16:27

done. It's a

16:29

partially built roster because they've had injuries. They've had

16:31

major injuries to key pitchers. Their

16:34

strength is pitching and they've lost key pitchers. I

16:37

think if I want to comment a little bit more

16:39

about a single player, if

16:42

you take 26 players, then

16:44

you're multiplying all the noise.

16:47

But to not make any shake-ups at all

16:49

has bothered people. And then they sent down

16:51

that one. Lopez? We

16:54

do know from source reporting

16:56

that they are talking. And

16:59

that they are considering moves. It's not like

17:01

they, you know, we know that like

17:03

Arias is semi on the block. Right, right.

17:06

We know that's happening. I mean, is

17:08

Josh Bell going to be a Marlin at the end

17:10

of the season? Probably not. Luis Arias, probably not. But

17:12

who do you have to call up to be like,

17:14

well, Bell? That's what I'm saying. I don't think there's

17:17

that many toggles other than bringing back Max Meyer. And

17:19

then, of course, Max Meyer gets knocked around a little

17:21

bit of AAA. They have him working on his pitch

17:24

mix. He's not throwing his slider as much as he

17:26

did when he was with the big league club. So

17:28

like there's an adjustment there. Oh, is that really what's happened?

17:31

That's what happened in his last outing. Oh,

17:33

interesting. But it reeks of a rebuild.

17:36

And like no one is talking about that. They're like,

17:38

well, in the short term, we're going to turn it

17:40

around. Like just, I think just like be honest and

17:42

own up to people that it's going to take five

17:44

years. If that's what you were tasked with. Cutting payroll,

17:47

going more heavy into analytics, and having a down couple

17:49

seasons. Just be honest with people. Yeah,

17:52

I'm with you there. Now to

17:54

pigeons bemoaning the fact you can

17:57

stream Directv satellite free isn't. As

17:59

a family watching baseball on Direct T V

18:01

with no satellite dish and site that's excellent.

18:03

You call that changing the channel. Show up

18:05

on the Rumble Bloody. I'll get an all

18:07

Games on. Direct T V makes up for

18:10

your mother, not preach you and your sunflower

18:12

seeds. Directv has the most Mlb games

18:14

call one eight hundred Directv claim based

18:16

on total going to on Sports Networks

18:18

Sport availability varies by state. building requires

18:20

choice. Baggage terms are restrictions apply. High-speed internet service required. Terms

18:22

and restrictions apply. Let's get to

18:25

a new home run celebration in Minnesota because I

18:27

haven't seen a lot of celebrations with food. I

18:29

just wanted to get a kind of fair foul

18:31

assessment from each of you on this one. I'm

18:33

glad we get confirmation from Rocco Beldelli on

18:35

this. The sausage that you've seen the twins

18:38

tossing around after home runs, courtesy

18:40

of Ryan Jeffers, is a summer

18:42

tangy sausage. Rocco's head's in the

18:44

right place because he was talking about his

18:46

concerns that when the packaging opens they're still

18:48

keeping this thing in the plastic. It's

18:51

going to be a problem, like it's gonna

18:53

smell because it hasn't been refrigerated, it's been

18:55

at a warm temperature, cooled off

18:58

at night, warmed up again. Not really

19:00

the way you want to store even

19:02

a very well-preserved meat like a summer

19:04

tangy sausage. So where does this rank

19:07

on your scale of bad and gross

19:09

home run celebrations? This is

19:11

the first, like what other home run celebrations have you,

19:13

oh I know what's a little bit gross? The

19:16

Homer hose? Homer hose. That's

19:19

a little gross. I

19:21

mean that's like if there was COVID they'd all

19:23

get it pretty quickly. You

19:25

said that and I was paying attention, I've been

19:27

at the last two games with the Yankees and

19:30

like they don't put their mouth on it. Oh,

19:32

they kind of squirt it out of the zone. You know

19:34

when you're drinking out of the hose, like when you were

19:36

a little kid you didn't physically put your mouth on the hose. You

19:39

kind of got the water. Yeah, okay, alright, alright.

19:41

That makes it a little bit. So

19:43

the Homer hose is a one grossness

19:45

factor, the sausage is like an eight

19:47

or nine and I don't know that

19:49

there's any in between and there's and

19:51

every other one is zero. Like what

19:53

other one has been gross?

19:55

An eight or a nine. An eight or a nine would be if

19:58

they started eating it. It's

20:00

like many of us can't. It's

20:02

gonna start growing things. It

20:04

could be green soon. Listen, I'm all for the

20:07

wacky home run celebrations, but does

20:09

it have to involve E. coli? No.

20:14

We don't want that. All

20:16

the twins are out. With a

20:18

stomach bug. It's not

20:20

gonna make it to summer. It's May already. Maybe that was

20:22

an April celebration. A little cool this time of year. You

20:24

can get away with it. It's warming up now. It's

20:28

a bit of a corollary for me. We

20:30

have a little league team in our

20:32

league that has taken an empty water

20:34

bottle. This is obviously just trash. And

20:37

tied it to a stick. And

20:39

that's their mascot. And

20:42

they are undefeated, I believe. And

20:45

so there is, I think the value is,

20:48

people I think want to ascribe the value

20:50

of something like this to superstition and like,

20:53

you know, sort of belief that we can

20:55

win because we have the Homer sausage or

20:58

the Homer

21:01

trash thing. I

21:04

think what it actually is, is

21:06

shared experience. I think

21:09

it's the value of shared experience. Because teams

21:11

are disparate groups where you have little clicks,

21:13

you know. You have the starting pitchers, you

21:16

know. You have the guys who only speak

21:18

Spanish playing cards. You know, you kind of,

21:20

you have these little clicks in clubhouses that

21:22

you can kind of identify almost

21:24

by walking in the door. You know, you

21:26

see little groupings of people. If

21:29

you bring, if you have something like this,

21:31

it's something that they all are experiencing together. And

21:35

so I think that's what sort of brings

21:37

them together. It's a team building experience. A

21:39

little bit more than like a superstition,

21:43

like, you know, wearing the same underwear over

21:45

and over again. That's nine out of ten.

21:47

Ten out of ten gross. Stop wearing the

21:49

same underwear every day. The summer tangy sausage

21:52

is, it's unique. I'll give them that. It's

21:54

not nearly as good. Last year they had

21:56

a good celebration. They had the

21:58

fishing vest. It was the land of tangy. 10,000

22:00

rakes because they call Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes

22:03

fun fact Wisconsin has more lakes than Minnesota

22:06

Yes, I live on that side of the border here

22:09

to educate I

22:13

like Minnesota so much like it's weird

22:16

find it to be the silliest rivalry of all People

22:19

on opposite sides of that border have any

22:21

sort of bitterness towards each other. It's passive-aggressive

22:24

most the time anyway In

22:26

this part of the country That's how

22:29

we roll one of their aesthetic

22:31

question for you I think you're right the shared

22:33

experience makes a lot of sense more city connect

22:35

uniforms dropped And I'm waiting for these to be

22:37

a total disaster because of the other uniform problems

22:39

we're experiencing this year So here's if

22:41

you're watching on YouTube you can see it We have the Mets and

22:44

we have the Rays a lot of gray Interesting

22:47

thing you might able to see on this particular

22:49

shot. I noticed that they've got the bridge on

22:52

the Mets cap That's a

22:54

nice pull. That's a really good design What

22:56

they do adding helmets yeah, they got on

22:58

the batting helmets, too I think

23:01

that's a really nice touch I think

23:03

that's a way to like take something

23:05

that's a little bit like bland by

23:07

color But make it really interesting by

23:09

design so I think those are those

23:11

are probably a thumbs up for me as a neutral

23:13

I don't have a Rooting interest with the

23:15

Mets and it's hard to see if you're looking at

23:17

YouTube right now And you haven't seen the Rays one

23:19

is that it's kind of it's not

23:22

black or white or gray. It's like

23:26

black with It's

23:28

supposed to kind of look like Like

23:31

a chalkboard. Yeah, if you erase

23:33

the chalkboard. Yeah, there's still remnants of chalk

23:35

on it That's sort of the texture of

23:37

or also like like like

23:39

a asphalt. Yeah Because

23:42

it's it's like a skateboarding Kind

23:46

of graffiti thing going on. I also like

23:48

their hats their hat is The

23:51

bridge as well, but it's

23:53

a ray. It's like a ray with a

23:55

bridge on it. It's a pretty cool hat

23:58

these I think are automatically they to

24:00

the top two or three in the

24:02

sport. And they might

24:05

rescue the whole enterprise because I

24:08

have to look at the San Francisco

24:10

ones, which I think are bottom two

24:12

or three in the sport. I mean,

24:14

these things are the awful creamsicle, just

24:17

they look terrible and they don't really make me

24:19

think of the city at all. Like it's like

24:22

all white and like I get the fog idea,

24:24

but then make it gray. Like I don't, it

24:27

doesn't make any sense to me. It looks

24:29

awful, I think. I saw these, there were

24:31

these three guys behind home plate in a

24:33

game I covered recently that wore the whole

24:35

City Connects head to toe with their own

24:37

name on the back of their jerseys. And

24:40

I couldn't have myself, I pointed

24:42

and laughed. That's

24:45

rude, man. It's pretty rude, but I was

24:47

like, look at those guys. So. I'm

24:51

gonna agree with you. I think, I honestly, that the race

24:53

had it won for City Connects. I don't know if there's

24:55

a better hat. Nationals

24:57

are pretty good too. I put

25:00

the Nats, see, I think when you go

25:02

with jerseys, we're going with uniforms. The top

25:04

three to me are the Nats, the Padres

25:06

and the Rays. And I don't have an

25:08

order for them. I think I appreciate them

25:10

all in different ways. They're creative, they're

25:12

cool. You know, it's right. We

25:14

haven't had a real big hit. It feels like since

25:16

the Nats or the Padres, whichever one came most

25:20

recently. I think the Philly one is pretty bad

25:22

actually. Philly one is awful. Like, I think the

25:24

Met's. The daughter's one is terrible. They put most

25:26

in front of their, like it's just. Yeah, no

25:28

risk at all. And I think the Met's

25:31

hat is good, but I think the uniform top is

25:33

safe. It's really safe. Very safe. It's

25:36

not bad. And I think Baltimore went with safe to the,

25:39

to the sad. Also safe. It's just

25:41

a white, it's just a black, bluey Baltimore

25:43

and white and across it. Like. Baltimore

25:46

is in like rainbow-ish colors. And it's like,

25:48

you can't clip these wings and like. It's

25:51

bad. They had so many cooler things

25:53

they could have done. Yeah.

25:56

I think Texas is safe and boring. With

25:58

the mahjong panel. Yeah. I

26:01

mean, at least they tried a little bit like yeah, like to me

26:03

if you're gonna take a risk take a risk and I think

26:05

The Rays just does the right way.

26:07

Like I'm gonna get a hat. I might even get

26:09

a jersey too Like I haven't bought anything. I think

26:11

they're awesome. I think they're really cool looking the San

26:14

Diego ones are Popular in our

26:16

household. We have a bunch of San Diego City

26:18

connects. We even have a City Connect poncho That

26:21

that's being passed around the family Yeah,

26:24

you know my family's out there and like I've been to

26:26

a decent amount of games But I feel like you it

26:28

is very common to see those in the stands. I

26:31

guess Colorado's okay. I Don't

26:34

think though. It's just okay to me. I don't know.

26:36

Do you guys have anyone else in the top three? The

26:38

Brewer ones are okay I don't know if they're as

26:40

good as some of the better ones, but they're not

26:42

they're not bad It's the light blue with the brew

26:44

crew It kind of looks like the Santa Cruz logo

26:46

lettering on it, which is if you've

26:48

seen that stuff you'll oh really It's bad. I

26:51

owe I don't want to put the white Sox one in

26:53

the top three or Fighting for

26:55

it. I like the white Sox one. It's safe and

26:58

it's kind of boring, but it's cool. I think it looks

27:00

cool I don't know. It's it's it's like

27:03

I would want one kind of if I had to pick a

27:06

City Connect Jersey to wear every

27:08

day for a month. I

27:10

would want the Nationals cherry blossoms

27:14

Get me a Victor Robles one. I'll own it.

27:16

I'll wear it every day for a month

27:18

PJ Max $29.99 Send

27:20

it my way. I'll pay you back on

27:22

Venmo make it happen I guess brew cool

27:24

kind of like you find one around here the roofer reminds

27:26

you of the old Brewers jerseys a little bit Yeah,

27:29

they're a little bit of a throwback Miami's

27:31

red ones aren't bad. Those are

27:33

you know, they're kind of like soccer jerseys Yeah,

27:35

those are not those were a nod to the

27:37

sugar talking about top five. Yeah That's

27:40

the next next three might be Milwaukee the white

27:42

Sox and the and the Marlins Yeah, I like

27:44

the Marlins ones. I think a lot of them

27:46

are just kind of like yeah, it's fine And

27:48

that's good enough. But the ones that are bad

27:50

are bad. I think the Philly ones are pretty

27:52

bad Philly yeah, probably already has

27:55

so many cool like the powder blue like

27:57

the alternate jerseys that like it was just

27:59

gonna be hard to do another like, oh

28:01

man, must have this, you know? Yeah,

28:03

their regular jerseys are pretty cool. I like their regular

28:05

jerseys. Every team that has

28:07

good regular uniform struggles with all of the,

28:09

this happens across other sports too. Wrigleyville. Yeah,

28:12

like, you get a pretty good classic uniform.

28:14

I like the Cubs pinstripes, you know? And

28:16

then Wrigleyville, you're like, ugh. Or

28:18

the Dodgers, like really? Yeah, the Dodgers ones

28:20

are stupid. In

28:23

football this happens when they do the color

28:25

wave jerseys. Packer stuff never looks right. The

28:27

Packers green and gold stuff looks the way

28:29

it does and it's great. Every weird

28:31

jersey they wear looks stupid. This

28:33

happens across every sport. Is

28:36

this gonna end or are we gonna deal with City Connects

28:38

forever? Like once they hit all the teams, are we done?

28:41

They'll call it something else. They'll make up a new name.

28:44

I don't know what they'll call it. jerseys of

28:46

the future or double

28:48

inverted retro. Like they'll come up with some

28:50

stupid name and start a whole new

28:52

series every single time. It's awkward.

28:55

We already have like the camo, like

28:57

we already have the Mother's Day and the Father's

29:00

Day and like at some point we

29:02

tapped out or no. I guess no. Capitalism

29:04

has no limit. There's no limit. No,

29:06

we will continue making new uniforms forever. The

29:08

military ones, ugh. I know.

29:11

The camo. Not a

29:13

fan. Let's move on to the

29:15

Nationals rebuild since we're talking about those cherry

29:17

blossom jerseys which have been retired, right? They're

29:19

not using those anymore. Or they're going

29:21

to be retired after this year if they haven't stopped

29:23

wearing them. I thought they wore them this year. I

29:25

heard they're retiring them. You're taking the

29:28

best jersey that you've had in your

29:30

franchise's brief history and you're just stopping.

29:33

Sure. Supply chain issues I guess.

29:35

Hard to make a lot of those cherry blossoms

29:38

apparently. Well that is

29:40

the reason they're not doing player weekend jerseys because they

29:42

can't get pants for the

29:44

regular game. They're so struggling to find

29:46

pants to rip off their butts. So

29:48

they announced they're redoing players weekend. They're bringing

29:50

it back but they're not letting players make

29:53

their nicknames on their jerseys because they can't

29:55

get the jerseys in time. Yay!

29:58

That's a big question. for

30:00

the day how far along is this

30:02

Nationals rebuild? Are things going well in

30:04

DC? I mean Brit you're there you're

30:06

witnessing this firsthand I think about

30:09

them as having a good

30:11

head start on a rebuild because they've

30:13

done well in the Juan Soto trade

30:15

in particular right they didn't crush every

30:17

single player in the deal but James

30:20

Wood looks like he is going to be a

30:22

well above average regular if not a star so

30:24

to get a player like that back and to

30:26

get Mackenzie Gore and to get other guys that

30:29

should at least play in the big leagues that's

30:31

a nice haul and when you hit a trade

30:33

like that and get it right and you get

30:35

some early draft picks you connect on oh and

30:38

CJ Abrams looks amazing too like

30:40

that's it that's a franchise altering trade when

30:42

you get it right and it could

30:44

be a franchise altering or destroying trade when

30:46

you get it wrong am

30:48

I putting too much weight on

30:51

that because I think you look at that plus

30:53

like Brady House and the

30:56

way that system starting to come together Dylan Cruz

30:58

their first rounder last year it looks

31:00

like their core might be coming together a

31:02

little faster than most rebuilds. Yeah

31:05

well it's tough because just down the street

31:07

is the Orioles would feel like rebuild was

31:09

like supercharged. Just took a long

31:12

time though like it's like it's hit this crazy

31:14

high level but that took a long time to

31:16

do. Yeah but they were really good last year

31:18

and they were really good the second half of

31:20

2022 so if you look

31:22

at it they bottomed out in 18, 19, 20 is

31:24

kind of a wash and 21 so really

31:26

wasn't that bad.

31:29

It wasn't like they rebuilt for seven years they

31:32

were just so bad. So I think the Nationals if

31:34

you if you consider in 19 they

31:36

win the World Series, 20 let's call

31:39

it a wash they were terrible, 21 is

31:41

when they really were like okay let's fire

31:43

sale right they started trading guys. Schurzer and

31:46

Turner went at the deadline that

31:48

year and then of course one photo goes

31:50

in 2022 and so I do

31:52

think they're moving quickly. I think

31:55

next year is going to be the key

31:57

because if they really they kind of sent

31:59

out. the back signal, right, in

32:01

not really improving the majorly roster and saying

32:03

like, hey, let's see how these guys do.

32:06

We think we're still a year away from even trying

32:08

to supplement. But I think if

32:10

they're going to have these guys continue to improve the

32:13

way they have, and they've played well. You look at

32:15

their record, and honestly, they could easily have like three

32:17

more wins. They had a couple games that were decided

32:19

by like a bad call or a bad bounce. So

32:22

you look at how they've been

32:24

able to perform, and

32:26

I agree with you. If they don't

32:28

make that Juan Soto trade, they are five

32:30

years behind as an organization. And

32:33

people didn't think that the 10 of Mike Russo could

32:35

even win that trade. People

32:37

were like, you can't trade Juan Soto

32:39

for anything, but because AJ Preller exists,

32:42

they were able to get so many

32:44

guys. And I've heard numerous times that

32:46

people in the Padres organization were pounding

32:49

the table saying, don't include

32:51

James Wood, who was 18 at

32:53

the time. And obviously, you

32:55

had that high ceiling, but you never know the guy

32:57

that young, what they're going to be. And

32:59

he's looking like, he said, he's still looking

33:02

like he's going to be the centerpiece of

33:04

that deal in terms of his ceiling talent

33:06

wise. Let's not also forget that Kate

33:08

Cavalli, where you're having from Tommy John surgery,

33:11

could be a factor next year, too. So

33:13

I do think the rebuild is headed in

33:15

the right direction. My main

33:17

question with them remains, are

33:19

they going to be able to consistently develop?

33:22

Because the rebuild is over. But

33:24

their pipeline is so good because

33:27

not only did they pick

33:29

first and yes, they tanked their way to winning

33:31

ball. Some of these guys that

33:33

are coming out are not. Weren't these like

33:35

pet heralded guys, like look at Ryan O'Hearn and

33:37

what he was able to do. Look

33:39

at Colton Kouser. These are

33:41

not like the Adley Rushman picks of the

33:43

draft. So I do think

33:46

for the Nationals to truly take

33:48

that next step, they have

33:50

to be able to draft and develop. And there are some

33:52

signs for the first time since

33:54

I was there in 19, you look around and

33:56

you can see some guys who are home grown

33:59

on the Bigley ground. The question

34:01

is, can they keep that pipeline going and

34:03

have they finally figured out a way to

34:06

develop the guys? Because they revamped

34:08

that player development system again and I

34:10

think they knew it was a problem. And if they're

34:12

not able to develop these guys, then all these guys

34:14

you got in the trade are great

34:17

and all, but they're not going to improve

34:19

the way you need them to improve. So

34:21

I think this is a big year for

34:23

the national coaching staff, the big league staff

34:25

and the minor league to get these guys

34:27

better and see where you go from here.

34:29

Like if these guys are coming up and

34:31

they're getting shelled and they're regressing, I don't

34:33

think you can blame the Dodgers or the

34:35

Padres for sending you like bad goods, right?

34:38

It's on the nationals to continue

34:40

these guys development to finish them as players.

34:42

And if they can do that, I think

34:44

next year they can start to be a

34:47

fringy wildcard team if they go out and

34:49

supplement that roster appropriately. Yeah,

34:51

I am ill prepared to say nice

34:53

things about the Nationals. The

34:55

player development. I've been saying bad things all along,

34:58

but I will have to say they

35:00

deserve some flowers and this is what

35:02

I really, really was surprised

35:04

by this. The

35:06

Washington Nationals right now have

35:09

the third best pitching staff

35:11

in baseball. Well, that's a mind

35:13

blowing first month stat because... But exactly,

35:15

yes. Even though it's only

35:17

a month. I am speechless. You

35:20

couldn't have seen that coming. Even if you're trying to

35:23

say, what spicy take can I put out

35:25

there for the first month of the season? What

35:27

small sample size voodoo can I get lucky

35:29

with? You still wouldn't have picked that. No,

35:32

but aren't the Red Sox up there too? April

35:34

is a great pool. But I both predicted

35:36

the Red Sox to having a good pitching

35:38

staff, but what I said was it would

35:40

be top five in the American league, not

35:43

second best in all of baseball as they

35:45

are right now. When are their

35:47

best start in 100 years or something pitching

35:49

staff wise? So

35:52

April is a little bit of a fooler. It

35:54

is. So yeah, I do

35:56

think there's some long term question

35:58

marks on the pitching side. But the fact that they've

36:00

gotten it to this point, I think speaks

36:03

well of, like, McKenzie-Gore

36:06

is now, I think,

36:08

hitting sort of 60 and

36:10

70th percentile outcomes for himself. You

36:12

know, like, it's, they didn't screw

36:14

him up. You know, like, one thing you

36:16

can do in public development is screw people up. You can't

36:18

be too much in it and twist

36:21

too many dials. And that's kind of what was going on

36:23

with McKenzie-Gore in San Diego, if you ask me. Too

36:25

many dials were being pressed, too many buttons were being pressed, and

36:27

he didn't know what the hell was going on. And

36:30

now it's been more simplified, and he's one of

36:32

the better outcomes for himself than you could see.

36:35

And I think that speaks well to, like, you

36:37

know, adding Sean Doolittle, changing up the processes a

36:39

little bit, being a little bit more

36:42

statistic forward and progressive as an organization.

36:44

So that speaks well of that. So

36:47

maybe Kate Cavalli will come out of

36:49

this rehab and, you know, be one

36:51

of the better versions of Kate Cavalli.

36:53

Maybe that's possible. If that is possible,

36:56

their batting right now is what's behind.

36:59

Right now, they're the 19th best in

37:02

position player war, and by WRC+,

37:04

they are 20th. So

37:07

they're a bottom third team offensively,

37:11

and that's where the excitement is. You

37:13

still got James Wood and Dylan Cruz coming. You

37:15

know, so I think,

37:17

like, they are set up. And

37:20

then the last pit, the

37:22

money bit, which is something that usually bring

37:24

up, I

37:26

think they, it's hard to

37:29

know what they will do in a

37:31

post-TV agreement environment if

37:33

they will go back to their spending ways. But

37:37

they have $62 million on their payroll next year,

37:42

of which $35 million goes

37:44

to Steven Strasburg. So

37:48

they are about to get

37:50

really, really cheap. And

37:54

maybe everything lines up for 2027

37:56

being a big spending year, or maybe even

37:59

in 2027. 25 and 26 they start

38:01

spending because they know in 27 they're going

38:03

to get 35 million dollars

38:06

back. You know, yeah, well, they

38:08

also restructured that feel a little bit when

38:10

you agreed to retire they deferred some of

38:12

it because it is crushing them. Yeah.

38:15

And so Patrick Corbin the big deal is Patrick Corbin is

38:17

up after this year. That's another part of it. That

38:19

takes off a big load. Yeah. I mean,

38:22

they're really the only person on a regular contract in

38:24

2025 is Capered Ruiz for

38:27

5.4 million and an

38:29

option on Joey Gallo for eight. That

38:32

will not be exercise. I

38:34

think you got to spend starting next year even if it's

38:36

just a little bit to show these guys that you like believe

38:39

and it's going to be you know, it's going to

38:41

be it's going to be what they did

38:43

last time. It's going to be a starting pitcher. That's

38:46

how I see it. I see them buying free

38:49

agent starters. They do. And

38:51

he's super interesting. He signed some of the better deals. Strasburg

38:54

might be one of the worst deals. The second Strasburg. The

38:56

first Strasburg deal wasn't that bad and the Scherzer

38:58

deal might be one of the best free agent

39:01

deals for a starting pitcher ever. Yeah,

39:03

I agree. And when

39:05

I got Corbin it was seen as a coup and they wouldn't have

39:07

won the World Series. That was one of the worst ones. Yeah,

39:09

now it is. But that first year they got him a

39:11

19. It wasn't. Right. Exactly.

39:15

So I see I could see him playing in the starting

39:17

pitcher market next year and maybe you know,

39:19

maybe adding some bats. But

39:22

I don't know if he'll go like, you know,

39:24

buy one Soto back or anything. No, no. I

39:27

don't think they're going to that Soto spending level. I think

39:29

you're right to question whether or not they'll go back to

39:32

earlier payroll levels. That might be something that

39:34

a new ownership group down the road would

39:37

end up doing. But yeah, do

39:39

they get sold when they're at their leanest? Do

39:41

they get sold when they're at have a $50

39:43

million payroll and all the kids are like a

39:45

bunch of kids? Clean sheets. Yes

39:47

and no, though, because you can argue that

39:49

they still had one Soto ownership would like

39:51

the new owners would like having a star.

39:53

I think they have to figure out the

39:55

mass in situation because when the Orioles changed

39:58

hands, David Rubenstein took over. at the

40:00

beginning of this month, one

40:02

of his top to-dos was figuring out massing. And I

40:04

think once they figure out the TV rights, like are

40:06

the nationals gonna own them? Are they gonna sell them

40:09

to MLB? Is the money gonna go

40:11

up that they're gonna be owed? That I think has

40:13

a big part in all of this.

40:15

I think that's probably hanging over both the Orioles

40:17

and Nationals when it comes to spending. The Nationals,

40:19

it's harder to see because they're in rebuilding and

40:21

they wouldn't be spending much anyway. But for us

40:23

to all yell at the Orioles for not spending,

40:25

maybe some part of it is we don't know

40:27

how much money we're gonna get from our TV

40:29

deal, which then puts them in the bucket of

40:31

the Rangers and the

40:34

Dbacks and the Padres where

40:36

they are all kind of wondering how much money they'll

40:38

get from the TV deal. It's hard to spend when

40:40

you don't know exactly what's coming in. I

40:42

said the Nats are a playoff contender

40:45

in 2026 based

40:47

on where things sit today. Is that fair?

40:49

It's not impossible, dude. I believe it, yeah.

40:51

Wild Card, yeah. I

40:54

think they could be fringing next year. I think they could

40:56

win 70 games. Maybe a 500 team

40:58

if everything goes well next year and then

41:01

playoff contention the year after. I'm

41:03

here to say, I guess I'm wrong

41:05

about them. This is way

41:07

better. It's funny how CDA

41:10

games break out and Gore kind

41:13

of pitching well. It

41:16

might just be enough to change my opinion. Plus,

41:18

their balance sheets are so, I'm surprised at how,

41:21

I kind of in my head was like, oh, they have all

41:23

that deferred money they're gonna be dealing with it forever. And now

41:25

you look down and you're like, oh, they have two more years

41:27

of Strasburg. And that's it. Yeah,

41:29

the Osher gets the money, but it's small. Yeah.

41:32

Well, it's not showing up on, I

41:35

don't know. The Oshers are money because he

41:37

deferred a bunch of it, but it's not a lot,

41:39

I don't think. A lot of deferrals in

41:41

that organization. They love deferrals. So

41:43

strangely they offered Soto no deferrals when they offered

41:45

him that 440. So

41:49

yeah, I think they could, I

41:51

think they could be like the Orioles where next year at

41:53

the end of the year, they're playing really well. And we're

41:56

like, ooh, not enough to get there, but

41:58

like kind of exciting. watch these guys and

42:00

then the following year you're like okay you know

42:03

I don't think they're gonna maybe when I go out

42:05

and win the NLE but look at the Phillies the

42:07

Phillies are gonna how like the window is now on

42:10

the Phillies and so

42:12

you're like is there is there a pass and

42:14

and what's the Mets sort of up and down

42:17

like what's the Mets plan looks like here's

42:19

your spicy toss-up question who makes the

42:21

playoffs sooner the Mets or the Nationals

42:23

right I think you'd assume the Mets

42:26

because they're already in a position right

42:28

now where they're just spending they're in

42:30

the middle deeper pockets we

42:32

trust that they're going to put it all together the right

42:34

way with the Nationals is a few more questions but things

42:36

do seem to be trending in the right

42:38

direction because if they're going to keep the

42:40

pace long term in that division it

42:43

seems like some combination of three out

42:46

of Atlanta Philly and the Mets and the

42:48

Nats will be consistently good the Marlins will

42:50

be the up-and-down team that doesn't spend that

42:52

when they're good they're from when they're not

42:54

they're a doormat that's

42:56

a tough place to win consistently

42:58

if you don't develop and hit

43:00

on waiver claims and minor trade kind

43:02

of want to see a little bit more success on

43:04

the pitching side like I I'm watching

43:07

Kate Cavalli pretty closely because they don't

43:09

have any pitching prospects you know in

43:11

their top sort of ten prospects that

43:14

are that are there's nobody there's

43:16

no pitching name that we're waiting for yeah

43:18

that's gonna be the size key yeah

43:20

besides hey yeah yeah whereas like the Orioles you look

43:22

at them they have a ton of bats we talked

43:24

about all the bats they have extra bats they have

43:27

Norby they have Mayo they have all they have more

43:29

bats to come but

43:31

one thing that doesn't get talked about as

43:33

much about the Orioles is they actually have

43:35

some interesting arms to an arm brister and

43:37

Kate Povich and there's some guys coming up

43:39

that are interesting to there that I would

43:41

rank ahead you know I might

43:44

put Povich ahead of Kate Cavalli you know and he's a

43:46

guy that people don't talk about I think the other thing

43:48

that's a little underrated about what

43:50

the Orioles have done is that they

43:52

get good mileage out of guys like

43:54

Dean Kramer and Tyler Wells I realized

43:56

they're not aces they're not 200 innings

44:00

starters very few guys are anymore. Ask

44:02

only what they can get out of them. Kramer

44:06

looks legit. He looks like at least a

44:08

good back end starter. Wells for the first

44:10

half of last year was like a 3-10

44:12

ERA with a mere one whip. That,

44:14

even for a half season, is really valuable

44:17

and you can pull guys like that into

44:19

roles and get that kind of result. If

44:21

the Nats can start to find ways to do things

44:24

like that, that would be one way to bridge some

44:26

of the gap between the lack of prospects and then

44:28

the kind of top heavy nature of their pitching staff

44:30

right now. Someone to watch also is

44:32

like Jazai Gray. What

44:37

will they do with him? He's

44:39

been okay at times as a starter. Would

44:41

he be better in like a 3-0 stint?

44:44

Would you be a better reliever? It

44:47

seems like there's some potential in

44:49

there, but the fastball is not that good. Maybe

44:51

he just needs to be a reliever and

44:54

throw it really hard so

44:56

that the shape doesn't matter as much. Jazai

45:00

Gray and K Kavali have a lot to

45:02

say, I think, in the next few months

45:04

about where this

45:07

organization is going pitching with. They

45:10

may not even run away as

45:12

starters until after next season, which just based

45:14

on the depth or lack of depth means

45:17

they've got time to figure it out. That

45:19

ends up being all you need as a starting pitcher. A

45:22

few early season series that caught our interest, we'll get

45:24

to these as a fly-by. Oriel's

45:26

Yankees, like we said a few weeks ago,

45:29

this is a potential budding rivalry in the

45:31

A.L. East. Britt, you were on hand for

45:33

at least the first game of that series

45:35

on Monday. That was Grayson Rodriguez's strong pitching

45:37

performance against the Yankees lineup that was putting

45:39

tons of runs on the board over

45:41

the weekend. So what did you see at

45:43

the yard on Monday night? I saw the Orioles

45:46

pitch really well. I mean, it's crazy because they had

45:48

lost 2-3 to Oakland. Obviously,

45:50

the big deal was Craig Kimbrel

45:52

having back issues. But you

45:54

look not only at Monday, but last

45:56

night too, and they've pitched. They've

45:59

pitched really well. They've played these

46:01

close games against the Yankees and really missing

46:03

now their two best relievers because Bautista is

46:05

out as we know and now down Timbrel

46:07

and they've been able to piece it together.

46:10

And I think you know the highlight of that first game

46:12

is going to be Gunnar Henderson hitting another home run before

46:14

he's 22. The guys are

46:16

star there's no question about that. But I

46:18

think and Brandon Hyde said this after last

46:20

night's game the fact that they've been able

46:23

to hang with them release pitching wise because

46:25

they were really beat up coming out of

46:27

that Oakland series and take the first two

46:29

so at worst they get a split here

46:31

in a huge series. I

46:33

think speaks volumes about this Desorious team right

46:35

because they're young and you know we're so

46:37

wondering how they respond to adversity and I

46:39

think you look at games like the last

46:41

two nights and you're like okay

46:44

you know this this team has it they have

46:46

it going on and what

46:48

I thought was so interesting we talked about Kramer he

46:50

had a little incident I don't know if you guys

46:52

saw with Juan Soto last night Soto

46:55

hits this mammoth shot I think

46:57

it was the first one on Utah Street

46:59

this season and he stares at Kramer and

47:01

then after the game he said well Kramer

47:03

didn't like my Soto shuffle so I felt

47:06

the need to stare at him which I

47:08

thought was a little bush really gonna lost maybe

47:10

keep the snack talk to yourself right the

47:14

Orioles fans definitely were like and you

47:17

lost yeah you know something after you

47:19

win you could kind of like throw the shade

47:21

that way but they didn't win and I don't

47:23

think they were up the

47:25

whole game I don't know I'm well Soto

47:27

this year has been more rambunctious I

47:30

think than usual like he's got an

47:32

edge yeah he's been throwing the battle

47:34

harder on homers he's been you know

47:36

he's been more sort of outspoken and

47:39

I don't know if it's trying to prove he's

47:41

a leader or just

47:43

trying to rally the troops or just being on

47:45

a on a different type of team than the

47:47

Padres but it seems a

47:49

little different this year one thing

47:51

that that you know I see

47:54

going forward is you know Corbin Burns against Luis

47:56

Hiel I'm taking Corbin Burns Kyle

47:58

Bradish and John Meehan come back

48:00

in the next two games after that

48:03

and Bradish like his Vila was not

48:05

back to normal on his rehab so

48:07

there's a little bit more riding on that

48:10

than I think they might have expected or

48:12

then maybe people realize I think

48:14

that they are a World Series contender

48:17

if Bradish can can

48:19

pitch to you know 90% of where he

48:22

was last year but

48:24

and John Means himself you know

48:27

sometimes doesn't strike anybody out but sometimes still gets

48:29

the outs like can they can they get along

48:31

is that like is it more the Rangers package

48:33

where they're just gonna slout slug and just figure

48:35

out the pitching maybe I

48:37

mean they got burns for the theory reason right

48:39

but you're right they still could use another starter

48:41

maybe they do it at the deadline right I

48:44

don't know there's that opportunity and then one last thing

48:46

I just want to point out real quick that's kind

48:48

of funny because we were talking about this in terms

48:50

of rivalries my

48:53

my son is reading like a

48:56

graphic novel it's like historical I'm not my worst

48:58

like foot forward as a baseball writer and analyst

49:00

is history like I don't know it that well

49:02

I came to this country like I I

49:05

didn't it doesn't grab me as much as maybe

49:07

other people I didn't know

49:09

this before and and sorry it's

49:12

like everybody knows this but the

49:14

Yankees were originally the Orioles

49:18

did you know that I didn't know that

49:20

so the Yankees were originally the Orioles

49:22

and then the Orioles went defunct and

49:25

in 1903 the Orioles were purchased and

49:27

moved to New York and and renamed

49:29

the New York Islanders so

49:32

there is that is kind of an origin

49:34

story for a rivalry you know it's like

49:36

you're kind of like we were the same

49:38

team at one point but

49:41

I just thought that was a cool a

49:43

cool little side angle to this to this

49:45

budding rivalry as we split as we put

49:48

it yeah all right that's one

49:51

twist in franchise history that I actually

49:53

had not previously read it you look

49:55

at every franchise's history page oh

49:58

my god half the team's at least here's a Multiple

50:00

it would be a so there were

50:02

13 charger members in

50:04

the American League and the National League

50:06

and Some

50:09

of them have stayed in their same city But

50:11

only one of the American League the

50:13

original 13 Only

50:16

one of the teams has stayed in their

50:18

same city and kept their same

50:20

name Often huh? Boston

50:24

they I think they

50:26

were like the the the red stockings was

50:28

like there's you know, like you're right They're the

50:31

red stockings, which I still consider the red. I

50:33

know it's really close So it's kind of

50:35

nitpicky kind of bit of trivia But there's

50:37

one team that kept their name the whole way

50:39

through it's very surprising the Tigers. It's

50:41

the Tigers. Oh Everybody

50:44

else had like different names and and and a

50:46

lot of them move cities, you know, yeah Even

50:50

the the rich these

50:52

original these Orioles were originally the

50:54

st. Louis Browns. Yes. Yes

50:57

Yeah, I've been on that beat for nine years.

50:59

I was a familiar probably more than anyone with

51:01

the history But

51:04

it's interesting to know and there definitely

51:06

is a rivalry the atmosphere The

51:09

last two nights doesn't remind you of like an early May

51:11

game at all It's

51:13

you know These games mattered Orioles fans and I

51:15

think they've had it at the Yankees now for

51:18

a long time It was a very one-sided rivalry.

51:20

The Yankees would just come in and fill the

51:22

stadium and the madman thing I don't think about you

51:24

at all Speaking

51:29

of getting pretty heated though for this

51:31

time of year brewers raised like two

51:33

organizations that are very similarly They're

51:36

the spider-man meme in a lot of ways like getting of that.

51:38

I miss that well, so

51:40

I Think it

51:42

was just a Chris Guccione umpshow for

51:45

most the game Freddie

51:47

Peralta was pitching. Well Jose Siri hit a home run-off

51:49

from early in the game. The Brewers were up big

51:51

and Peralta with a 3-0

51:54

pitch Hit Siri in

51:56

the upper thigh Like

51:58

a running inside fastball Missed badly and he

52:01

was really brother doesn't have great command Peralta

52:03

was really good last night and They

52:06

showed the replay the home run and they asked him

52:08

about it to the game Jose Siri didn't really do

52:10

much of anything After hit the home run he flipped

52:12

the bad little slowly walked out of

52:14

the box and jog around the bases It was nothing

52:16

out of the ordinary There were

52:18

a couple hit batters in the fifth. I think

52:20

Harold Ramirez and Reese Hoskins got hit so

52:24

the the pitch that hit Siri

52:27

was the third hit batter in like

52:29

two innings and they started to

52:31

think there was like a beanball war developing Maybe

52:33

but even in this postgame comments Chris

52:36

Guccione didn't really do himself any favors You could

52:38

dig into that kind of on the side But

52:41

then it got it got even crazier bedtime happened

52:43

in the van Riper household I

52:45

come back downstairs and I see highlights

52:47

of Abner eBay throwing punches. Yeah

52:50

Siri so Siri grounds out

52:53

Every day covers the bag. It's not even a

52:55

close play and you could tell a rebay says something

52:58

to him based on the Where the cameras I don't

53:00

know if Siri said anything first But a rebay says

53:02

something kind of whips the ball over to one of

53:04

his infielders And then bench is clear

53:06

and have to try to separate these two guys,

53:08

which I have no idea where

53:10

all that came from We

53:12

may never know but the Brewers have had a few

53:15

random calls kind of working against them. They had won

53:17

a Monday night There was a Jake

53:19

Bowers followed through on a strike three and

53:21

clip Renee Pinto in the back of the

53:23

head with his backswing But that

53:25

was a would have been a wild pitch where the

53:27

runner on third would have scored But it was a

53:30

dead ball because of it Pat Murphy got ejected Then

53:32

he got ejected on Tuesday after all the crazy stuff

53:34

that was happening So tempers had been

53:36

running a little hot hot in Milwaukee here

53:38

over the last weeks But this

53:41

is a series we had circled that has just

53:43

gone completely in a different direction

53:45

Like maybe both these teams have a

53:47

strong narrative of disrespect, you know, like

53:49

the chip on their shoulder Yeah, a

53:51

chip on their shoulder kind of it

53:53

might make sense because if you think

53:55

about it Maybe

53:57

these two organizations don't get as much respect as they

53:59

should Maybe that's something that that's aligned

54:01

with them. It's like yes, they don't spend

54:03

as much but also You

54:06

know the another thing that's kind of common is

54:08

that you know I myself did not think the

54:10

Brewers were a candidate to win this division this

54:12

year and even

54:14

projection systems don't love the Brewers a lot

54:16

of times and And

54:19

like, you know the Rays. Yeah,

54:21

they you know, they have like one reporter You

54:25

think about in terms of media to like

54:27

how many people cover those two teams? Yeah,

54:30

that's fair Dodgers D

54:32

backs of the other series we were gonna talk about we

54:34

have time. There was a bee delay Let's

54:38

talk about the bees men the best part

54:40

I thought was that the bee guy

54:42

throughout the beekeeper Sorry throughout the first

54:44

pin. That's so good Yeah,

54:47

he was a little bit logo with the

54:49

beekeeper in it Little

54:53

league game like talk about like a call right?

54:56

He's watching his kids play little league get the call There's

55:00

a bee situation which I don't know if

55:02

that happens on yeah, like Somebody

55:05

you to call in so he might have been called

55:07

before Yes,

55:16

you're at the game you get the call you like who

55:18

is this the D backs what do you

55:20

need what's going on? Oh, yeah,

55:22

like uniquely a baseball II kind of

55:24

situation like yeah Can you imagine like

55:27

what would they do in a football game if the

55:29

guy came and got rid of the bees? Like is

55:31

there a way with the bees live no way to

55:33

like celebrate the beekeeper?

55:37

Like coin flip what do you call you aid flip

55:39

the coin? Yeah, you get to go on the field

55:41

for the coin toss Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Also

55:43

the stadiums are not set up for bees. Where would

55:45

the bees live? Right. Yeah,

55:48

I'm a little surprised they lived was it in LA or

55:51

was it in Arizona? This was

55:53

in Arizona. Yeah, I

55:56

mean how often is that roof open? I don't

55:59

know He's found their way in if they're

56:01

gonna find their way in yeah, it was an exciting

56:03

game last night to Christian Walker hit two homers Including

56:05

a walk-off evening out that series Dodgers

56:07

sort of the bees ran things on Monday night Maybe

56:10

there's gonna be an all like a bee night now

56:13

There you go. It's gonna be

56:15

an unusual delay series jerseys. They'll get

56:17

to that before they stop making extra

56:19

jerseys To

56:22

not bring live these into the dugout of celebration

56:26

Yes, that would be I'd be worse

56:28

than the old sausage Might

56:30

be funny, but would also be terrifying at the

56:32

same time We have to go on

56:34

our way out the door reminder You can get a subscription to athletic

56:37

at the athletic comm slash rates and barrels find

56:39

Brit on Twitter at under score Duraly find you

56:41

know at you know Sarah's find me at Derek

56:44

the Riper find the pod at rates barrels We

56:46

are back with you on Thursday Thanks

56:49

for listening