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#27 | Yankees March Through the AL and is the Giants's Season Over?
10 Plays2 months ago
The Yankees got out of their stumble and dominated their opponents while the Giants were on the verge of turning things around before collapsing so badly, it has Andrew thinking the season may be over.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
0:55 Andrew declares the Giants's season is over
2:04 Louis CK talk
8:10 Yankees SWEEP the Red Sox
9:50 Red Sox Fire Alex Cora
17:56 Giants beat the Bums 2-1; Susac on the IL; Haase brought up
29:29 Yankees beat the Astros 2-1; Volpe Optioned to AAA
42:09 Is ABS why Webb is struggling?
45:37 Giants beat the Marlins; Kapler returns; Brandon Belt Day
53:26 Yankees beat the Rangers 2-1
1:02:21 The Giants get SWEPT by the Phillies
1:10:45 The Yankees SWEEP the Orioles in four games
1:18:45 The Giants get SWEPT by the Rays
1:20:00 Home run drama; ejections; Giants file a complaint against the umpires
1:25:50 Bryce Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez called up; Giants's roster questions; Ryan Walker
1:37:32 Combined Arms
1:48:57 Upcoming Series
1:51:41 Outro
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Personal Updates
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Two Front War, bi-weekly podcast that covers the Yankees and Giants' 2026 season. I'm Andrew and with me as always is Liam. Hey Liam. Hello Andrew.
00:00:21
Speaker
I've had a great start to these last two weeks and then it just petered out horribly. Just atrocious. What about you? What about you? We're the best team in baseball technically. That's cool. That's cool.
00:00:32
Speaker
Got a lot of family stuff going on. Got a lot of career stuff. some Some changes going on in the personal life. But we're rolling with it. Some good baseball is a nice nice bonus. Okay, so good stuff's happening. Good family stuff. Yeah, I'm...
00:00:47
Speaker
Oh boy.
Giants Season Overview
00:00:49
Speaker
I think the, i think the giant season might be over. Over? I think it might be over. That's the consensus. Yeah, it is. We're recording this on May 4th. This goes up on May 8th. And I think that the the season is over. Season doesn't end until September. Call it now. May 4th. It's over.
00:01:06
Speaker
A great end would be we end third in the division, but fourth might be a neutral end. What about lower than that? Last? Yeah. That would be bad, but where we are trending. there Is there anyone in your division you think you're better than right now? ah No.
00:01:20
Speaker
No, I don't. No. No, I know. You're thinking the Rockies. Surely you're not worse than the Rockies, right? No, we are worse than the Rockies. By one game, we are thirteen and twenty one Rockies are fourteen and twenty one D-backs. It's really going to be a fight for third place. D-backs are 16-17. Really a fight for third place for for the Giants, I think, in the division. But in the league, if you're trying to hint at the Mets, ah we lose in less spectacular ways.
Louis CK's Career Discussion
00:01:51
Speaker
It's just sad. It's enough of the tease. Let's just get into it. We can just get into it? Yeah. yeah let's you Let's just let's go. fucking We're starting! There's a Louis CK bit where he just kind of starts his special and then jerks off in front of a woman.
00:02:12
Speaker
fuck fuck it Fuck it. We're just going to start. I'm just going to it. It has a half-hearted apology. It's like, turns out, can't do that. you know I wonder what his life is like. Probably overall good. It's been comeback. Somewhat, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think that he was probably past his peak after, like before that, that came out or like a little bit after. him But he had a show that went on for a few seasons. I watched a few episodes and then... He has the craziest movie that he directed. What's that? After that. Well, first off, it's inspired by Woody Allen movie like woody allen movies, like most specifically Manhattan. So already we're off to a bad start.
00:02:47
Speaker
But it's about kind of like this enlightened pedophile who starts a relationship with his daughter. Okay. Okay. So
Baseball Series Highlights
00:02:54
Speaker
there's commentary on Woody Allen? somewhat kind of like how Woody Allen figures are are kind of like cool guys.
00:03:01
Speaker
Cause like Louis CK's character is a showrunner and the Woody Allen stand in is a film director. And he's like, yeah, I'm like whatever. And your daughter is like, I forget if she's like 17 or 18. Either way, it's just like, yeah, we're starting this romantic relationship, whatever. And he's like waxing philosophical on like the innocence of like this fucking barely child.
00:03:22
Speaker
Barely adult. And no, it gets, it gets crazy. Well, I think more importantly than that is daughter. But at the end, he's just like the Woody Allen character, like walks away, like in high spirits and all that. And it's the Louis CK character is just like, I'm an idiot for looking down on Woody Allen. What am I doing? Oh, he's got it all figured out. That's like how the movie ends. Interesting.
00:03:46
Speaker
I think I vaguely remember something about that movie. Couldn't tell you what the name of it was. is like sorry daddy I like this a bit about Jesus going to the where he's just like literally reads the Bible as Jesus goes to the wedding and they don't have wine and Mary is like Jesus they don't have wine do you're like mom what do you want me to do I'm gonna segue this look how thoughtfully I segue this Louis CK born in Washington DC looks like a Bostonian now we're gonna be talking about the Boston series first okay There we go. Very, very Bostonian face. I think it's the gingerness. You made the joke at the beginning, because in the top of my script, I put Series 1 at AA Red Sox. AA Red Sox. I've seen quite a few actual AA Red Sox, the Portland Seadogs games on TV, because, yes, Network was just showing them. Okay, that's so i saw a lot of somerset patriots versus portland sea dogs games okay maybe more than the last i maybe see more of those games than i have the of the oriole series coming up at the very end are those the double a teams that's the double a teams yeah double a teams have such interesting names double a is an interesting place to be because triple a it's like okay you got a little bit more serious names right and then you get to uh double a like what's the giants double a team is like the eugene gemstones or something like that their logo is a their logo is a foot richmond flying squirrels oh no it's not is it Single A teams have wild names. Oh no, it's High A. EG and Emeralds. Double A's the Flying Squirrels. Triple A's the Rivercats. Witchmen Flying Squirrels. Former Yankees affiliate, so I hear. The Flying Squirrels? Yeah. Yeah, it's weird that we associate AA, AAA with the teams, but they're not. They're almost like independent ball. They just have relationships with the AAA teams. Very much. It's a unique situation. Because you think it's the organization all the way down. Nope, not completely. Because Somerset Patriots used to be an Atlantic League team, I believe. They used to play against the Ducks. The Long Island Ducks? The Long Island Ducks.
00:05:41
Speaker
Oh, boy. Well, if we keep talking about the Ducks, we're going to go on a big tangent. We have so much to talk about this episode we saw already. who We do. We've got to do that. Setter twice. Yeah. Let's keep all this in.
00:05:55
Speaker
Alex, yeah yes, Michael thoughts about that Louis C.K. movie. I know that he is. Andrew, I'm not even going to bother with a response to this. Thank you. um Let's see. What am I doing? I'm responding to Andrew about their thing on their podcast about something that happened with Louis C.K. seven years ago. all
Yankees and Red Sox Rivalry
00:06:15
Speaker
right. Way to stay relevant, you guys. Okay. Okay.
00:06:17
Speaker
I will answer your question. Let me answer your question. Can I tell a small story? and Maybe this will answer that. I just want to tell a small story about redacted and how they can help you focus. Okay. This is now I don't even know if I should tell this, but it does show how effective redacted.
00:06:34
Speaker
can be. A friend of mine, let's call her Erica, she's had a wildlife, this woman. She was in Romania, she had an orphanage, she was on a reality show, she married this famous guy, she was an intelligence asset, and I said to her, how do you do this? And she says, Michael, it's Redacted. And I says, but how do you do it after the guy, your husband and father of the kids gets murdered and you're out there doing all kinds of stuff and you're doing fundraisers and you're dancing around in glitter pants? how do How does this happen?
00:07:04
Speaker
She goes, I could lie to you, but I'm telling you it's redacted. I said, really? She goes, sure. I said, how are you running this organization? Seven hours after this guy got popped. She goes, a lot of people speculate, but it's redacted. And i go, really? she said, yeah. Redacted. Powered by a n*** for column focus. and I said, really? she goes, yes. And you could also find redacted.
00:07:27
Speaker
I said, okay. i said, that's how you've been able to stay so focused? She goes, you have no idea what I've been able to do with these redacted. And I said, it's kind of a weird thing to say, actually. She you have no idea what I've been able to do with redacted. And I said, ugh, kind of leaves me with a bad taste by them in my mouth, but whatever. um But I hope that answers your question. i like Lucy Kaye.
00:07:48
Speaker
I like his comedy. I don't like him anymore. If you guys have ever heard of or seen the movie, you just want to... You can only watch the movie on, like, Daily Motion or something. Daily Motion? not What about his website? No, that's, like, the only thing he doesn't have up on his website.
00:08:01
Speaker
Oh, that's possibly telling. Probably because it looks very bad. right. All right, Double Red Sox. Let's go. Double A Red Sox. All series wins. all I get to talk about all series wins here.
00:08:15
Speaker
And Double Red Sox are our first up. Heal on the mound for the first game. Max Fried on the mound for the second game. Cam Schiller on the mound for the third game. Heal had, I'd say, his first truly great start of the season. He went 6.1 innings off two hits, three walks, no earned runs. This was a four-nothing win. Jazz had two hits. I guess I marked it down because it might have been one of his first two-hit games of the season. Grischik had two hits on top of that with a single in the second and an RBI double in the eighth. And Stanton started just eating up against the Red Sox like they like he normally does. As per usual, a home run in the first, two RBI double in the sixth, and he ends the series with the highest OPS of the team.
00:08:54
Speaker
Game two, Ahmed Rosario had a three-run home run in the first, and they just never kind of looked back after that. Freed was on the bump with the series MVP performance. His final line was eight innings pitched off three hits, zero earned runs, two walks and nine strikeouts. Eduardo Rivera had a great debut for the Sox. No runs allowed. I didn't put down how many innings he pitched, but he pitched multiple innings. And Hedricks gave some worries in the ninth, allowing a run off two hits, but they still lock it down for a 4-1 win. And then game three, Cam Schiller came in and he was talking like big shit coming into this game.
00:09:27
Speaker
back He backed all of it up. He backed all of it up because he's a Boston boy. And this goes back to the playoff game last year, coming down to the wire, where he literally gets off the mound and goes, fuck Boston. So he kept that energy up going eight innings, eight innings, of four hits, one earn run, one walk and five strikeouts. And a lot of people attribute the end of this game specifically or this entire series <unk> really to Cora and the coaching staff getting canned.
00:09:52
Speaker
Right. So it's like Boston season is over, right? Basically. I think they're in the same spot you guys are. It's like, as far as like fireings go, I think that's like a big sign that like a team is like, okay, like that's it. And it's them and the Phillies, although they seem to have complete turnaround with their interim manager, which we'll get into. And then I guess soon to be the Mets, although they don't seem to have any indication to This is very interesting because anonymous Red Sox player who I think they identified later on after he gave the quote, he gave an anonymous quote originally off the firing of Alex Corr and the coaching staff. He made the analogy that it's like, you know, you shit your pants and you try and fix the problem by changing your shirt yeah when it comes to firing these guys. Because how much can you attribute their current state to what the manager is doing? You know, the the manager can't take the at-bats.
00:10:40
Speaker
No. Which is why I'm kind of against the Mets moving on from their manager right now. What's his face? He was our bench coach. Mendoza. Load. Load, goddammit. Yeah, it was Carlos Mendoza.
00:10:51
Speaker
I knew it. Also, ah live. Hold up. Live but breaking news real quick. Oh, okay. That's going to be like four days late by the time he comes up.
00:11:03
Speaker
He gets busted. What happens? News. All right. I checked. ah I was looking on a Wikipedia for that, and it said the GM spot was vacant. So I'm like, did I miss that they just fired the GM?
00:11:17
Speaker
For the Mets? For the Mets. Oh. I have to double back on that. Maybe Wikipedia is breaking the news before every major sports network. All right, well, we will keep an eye on that while we're doing recording. Yeah, I'll keep that up.
00:11:31
Speaker
Because that that is a lot of David Stern's fault. He constructed the team around, you know, just kind of trying to fill out star power, you know, the money slots, and not really thinking how much this team would now really come together. Because I don't think this team is that much better if you put Pete Alonzo on it. You know, if you keep Trumpet Man as your as your closer.
00:11:50
Speaker
is who's out for the needs a while Yes, who is already out for a while, but who knows if he gets hurt pitching for the Mets? Yeah, but you know who who says that makes your team better results don't really indicate that you know you're you're bad at running prevention and You know you're i don't think they rank all that high on putting the ball in play either Apparently like the Giants caught them when they were like super hot. So that's rough. We caught them at their best I think you guys got another another series in the in the in the future, so so we'll we'll see with how beat up you guys might be coming down later. Game three, yeah, Schlittler was dealing Tole or Tole on the the Red Sox was also dealing the 11Ks off a six innings pitch. Jazz opened up the Yankees offense for this first home run of the season in the fifth to make it 1-1. And then the Yankees loaded the bases as soon as the Sox went to the bullpen. Belly Judge both sent people over the plate. And
Venture Capital in MLB
00:12:40
Speaker
Bednar closes it out clean in the ninth for a 4-2 win. Game three, that's how the series closed out. I gave my MVP to Freed, and I guess I'll give my LVP to Wells for either going no hits throughout the series or for Hedrick for giving us a glimpse into that collapse in game two. Red Sox firing Korra and their entire staff.
00:12:58
Speaker
How you think this is tied to Korra, his managing of the team versus how much of it is a player's fault versus who I think, once again, sneaky villain. That's not so sneaky. Venture capital.
00:13:09
Speaker
I just don't think it was the right move to make if you're looking to make the move away from him. I always don't think it's it's good to do it, you know, this early on in the season, regardless. Like, I wouldn't recommend you guys fire Tony Vitello. Oh, absolutely. Right around now. And Tony Vitello didn't lead you to a World Series.
00:13:25
Speaker
That was core it did. Once again, just point my finger at Venture Capital that these collapses do not happen in a vacuum. You know, they make decisions. The same it was at Fenway Sports or whatever they're called is the group that owns the the Red Sox. Fenway Sports Group. Fenway Group. They own Penguins and Arsenal FC, I believe. And they also own. Yeah, they they own that soccer club in England. They're not well liked over there.
00:13:50
Speaker
And now they've got to balance these spreadsheets. And we look at the previous moves they made. Trading Mookie Betts. How's that worked out for them? Trading Raphael Devers. How's that worked out for them? Now, Raphael Devers right now, not doing great. And you might argue, oh, did they win that trade with the Giants? Jordan Hicks? Terrible. I don't think he's on the Red Sox anymore. And neither is ah Kyle Harrison, who he traded to the Red Sox.
00:14:10
Speaker
Also not with the team anymore. He's in Milwaukee, I think. So they trade, you know, a dude who's who is expected to to be hitting crazy amounts of homers for Jordan Hicks, who's been a as a starter, and Kyle Harrison, who I miss every day that I watch this that i watch the Giants.
00:14:27
Speaker
They trade him away. They keep doing these cost-cutting measures, and we're going to be surprised that the team is... is struggling. I think we' we're getting to a, we'll see how how how things go with the economy as a whole and the new CBA. I do think that venture capital is, makes everything worse. Once you once you're like, okay, like is it's no longer about the team. We have spreadsheet that we got to balance across. how many other teams that we own. And we just got to get it to the right point where we have players who make enough money to create enough infighting. We get them to do a salary cap. And then from there, everything's just going to fall. Like you think that like, okay, you know, you look at the Dodgers with Otani and Kyle Tucker and Yamamoto and Sasaki and how much they're paying just for those four guys alone. Right. So like, like you see like what they're doing, like, and you're like, okay, how are they going to pay for this? Right. I'm thinking that maybe what's going to happen is they don't really have an intention to pay. That is your sneaking suspicion. Yeah, and when the 10 years is up, they're just going to sell the team. The team that owns the Dodgers owns the Lakers, or the the company that owns the Dodgers owns the Lakers.
00:15:27
Speaker
And then we're going to at, with Red Sox, maybe Red Sox just screwed it up. You know, maybe like, oh, maybe we're not as as savvy as as a BlackRock is. Maybe like, we we thought we could do what they were doing, but but but we can't. But I think we're going to see the a huge increase in that we're seeing it right now, the huge increase in in salary for certain players. And then we're going to see the CBA. We'll see how that comes up in 2027. And then we're going to see possibly a a salary cap. And then we're going to they're going to cap their expenses for the labor. But is that going to translate to lower ticket prices? Is that going to translate to lower concessions?
00:16:00
Speaker
Concession prices? Don't think so. Mm hmm. i think that I think the firing of Korra is just part of this. It's just like one step into the into that. You think it was his salary, or it was just like... Not salary. I think that it's just like they clearly want to... They're they're kind of like doing like the John Fisher thing. you know Like, okay, what if we just keep shaking things up? you know It's May. April just ended. What do you mean like you're firing your your staff right now? Because you have a a terrible start. where do they Where do they stand right now, the Red Sox? I know that they're last in the division. 13 or 14 wins 13 21 that's that's slightly better than the mets that's the same as the giants and it's the same as the angels they are 10 games behind first place uh what does that wild card even look like where are they they're uh three three games behind the wild card right now which that's kind of crazy
00:16:49
Speaker
that but who use the there's a three-way tie for the AL health card between Toronto that that's the rest of the other thing we gotta talk about the AL is not good right now the AL is definitely the AL is the Yankees and Rays and then the rest crazy I don't know like I think that we're gonna be seeing ah a shift or more radical shift in the way that that baseball goes and the the core thing is is how much how much longer did he have with the team I had no idea let me check your ICU type yeah of course that was 27 games in the second season of a three-year deal. So next year was his his last year.
00:17:26
Speaker
I ran through 2027, paid him $7.25 million annually. He was one of the MLB's highest paid managers before his termination. It's going to take a while. It's going to take a while. and MLB did not allow venture capital into the sport until 2019. And I think we're already seeing them kind of do their, do their thing, extract the value and then just suck everything dry. we should probably get like a Red Sox fan. I don't know any, so that'd be hard. That's kind of my series.
00:17:54
Speaker
You start off on a high note with the Giants. So that's good. Giants right now, what's not good is that they they're they currently rank last in the division, standing at 13-21 as of recording. But cool thing is their first series for this period was against the Dodgers.
00:18:09
Speaker
And the Giants win the series 2-1. So we did the impossible. Gave us hope. This series the next series gave us hope. We were so close to 500 and turning things around before everything just came crashing down. But before we get into the series, the Giants did make a move,
Giants vs Dodgers Series Recap
00:18:24
Speaker
unfortunately. Daniel Suzak gets placed on the IL with elbow neuritis, which I guess is a fairly common injury form, which really sucks. Can't wait till he comes back because his bat is sorely, sorely missed. He gets replaced by Haas, as backup catcher. He's been okay. So game one, the most overrated and underhated team in and MLB visited San Francisco, believing that they were in for an easy sweep and some great stat padding. and They decided to bring out the so-called MVP of the 2025 postseason, Yamamoto, and he gets shelled immediately, gives up three runs.
00:18:56
Speaker
Landon Root, impressive former Cardinal, only gave up one run in his outing. The game was close, but the batting average, slugging, and home run leading team just couldn't seem to see the Giants pitching. only scoring one measly run in nine innings. Closest they got to scoring a second run was failing to get a runner on third on third home when there were zero outs. Their superstar hitter went full selfish mode, just trying to keep his little streak alive with one little do-nothing hit getting the job done. There scary moment when Lee was sent home, took his time getting up. He he had injured his... Not injured, but like he did something to his quad in...
00:19:26
Speaker
where was it? Cincinnati? and He just aggravated again. He was slow to get up. Camera pans to Dodgers backup catcher, Dalton Rushing, who looked back, saw Lee on the ground, shrugged, and then clearly says, F him. This comes from Dalton, something's fishy about the Rockies, Dalton.
00:19:41
Speaker
Or Dalton, something's fishy about the Rockies, Rushing, ah who was forced to put out a chat GPT thing to claim he didn't say what he clearly said. In some ways, his cowardice is worse than just being indifferent to Lee possibly being hurt. Too bad he wasn't good enough in game two where things would certainly be interesting. But he got his in game three. We'll talk about that later. Dalton Rushing is an interesting guy. He's a fun to hate. He's kind of the big villain of Major League Baseball right now. He's like the villain without the substance. People comparing him to the 1.9 GPA kid in high school. Yes, yes. Like, he's not doing anything, but he is.
00:20:14
Speaker
You know, he does that with Lee. In game three of that series, he does an illegal slide into Willie Adamas. And then against the Cubs, he calls a dude who is just about his height in like his his height and weight ah oh fat. And surprisingly, nothing came really came of that. i thought Nico Horner was going to. Nico Horner should got in at him after he heard that. That would have been to see. For highlights, we had Landon Roop, pitch great. Adamus on offense, he forced an error in the first. and Dodgers shortstop, Ha-Sung Kim, not to be confused with the other Ha-Sung Kim, the former Padre, throws it into the dugout, so he gets to go to second. Pretty cool. Chapman got a walk and loaded the bases in the first inning. Devers got an RBI single in the first. Schmidt gets a sacrifices on a pop-up, and then Lee gets his RBI single in the first. The Giants scored three runs in the first inning. Don't ask me about how they scored after. They didn't, but that's not the point. That's how this team plays. They get one inning of scoring and whatever they scored, that one inning is what they get for the the rest of the game.
00:21:11
Speaker
A defense was all all around and it kept the bones from scoring. My MVP for that outing is going be Landon Roop. Nobody really on offense. All things really considered. Maybe Lee for the RBI single. there's gain rbis The only low light was on the pitching side. It was when Landon Roop walked the bases loaded and walked in a run as well. In game two, the face of the sport of baseball was beaten on both sides of the field. No number of rule changes is going to change that. They had Otani on the mound. On top of that, his little base on base streak ended, most likely to due do his lack of discipline, believing Daddy Manfred was insuring a guaranteed on base considering the matchup. I mean, he's batting against Mailey, who had an atrocious start in Cincinnati not long ago. Surely he wouldn't have you played for the fool, right?
00:21:48
Speaker
Wrong. That whole lineup was uninspired, very nearly hitless, and all around terrible. The Giants, on the other hand, were theatrical, with the struggling Bailey doing what he does best, embarrassing bums. and scored himself an amazing three-run homer to take the lead. Jaren shut out the Bums 3-0.
00:22:01
Speaker
The postgame highlighted the disrespect the media has for Tony, one reporter asking him the thought process of letting Bailey hit for himself on that amazing appearance. Tony was polite, but I think as a team turns things around and gets winning, he should be just as disrespectful back. Imagine double-thinking a game-winning batter with the, why did you do that?
00:22:17
Speaker
So that was the postgame. I don't know who it was. Just ask, what was your thought process on letting Bailey hit for himself in the ninth inning? Now, Bailey, he's struggling offensively. We don't have Suzak. I mean, that's like the truth, right? Is that we don't have Suzak and we weren't going to let the new, the backup backup catcher in that spot into a big moment. Let me go to the scorebook here so I can see how he did.
00:22:43
Speaker
Two. Game two. There it is. So the the game was tied. Game was tied through the six. In the seventh inning, that is when we get Lee gets on with the single. Ramos gets on with the single. Gilbert sacks.
00:22:56
Speaker
And then Bailey. ah That's when Lee scores. That's when Bailey gets his three-run homer. He just really hates the Dodgers. Who do we have on the bench? We have Encarnacion, who's venged to be this whole time that he's been up, has had the chance to prove himself to be play, has not done that, has been all around not great. Right now, his spot on the roster is we have a lefty on the mound, so you're going to be in right field until the lefty comes in and then you're to replaced by Gilbert. That's that that's really his only purpose right now. And well what do we think about Gilbert right now? um I like him. His stats, his recent stats are not, I think, really reflective of his ability, mainly because he had some really bad matchups. Tony decided to keep him in to face some lefties and Gilbert's the lefty. So not a very good matchup. He is terrible against the lefties. But when he's on against the lefty, he does pretty, pretty well. I think he's like, ah he's well, he's if you've seen anything about him, you know he's crazy. And I think that's that level of craziness is what gets you to a shot. You got to have someone crazy like that. He definitely fits that. Him and Blade Tidwell could be a good closer, I think, because he's also crazy. He refuses to have, he just eats burgers plain. He just eats what? No, he just eats burgers plain. He's crazy.
00:24:08
Speaker
Just a patty in the bun. No condiments. No toppings. cheese? strange. No cheese. Nothing. No cheese, no ketchup, no no mustard, no mayo. Yeah, nothing. it's it's It's a choice.
00:24:19
Speaker
It is a choice. For my highlights for that game, I put Bailey because he outlived Otani. Bailey getting his three-run homer in the eighth. On defense, Giants kept the bones from scoring despite having two runners in scoring position and no outs. And the defense ended Otani's on-base streak. How do you feel about his 50-something game on-base streak, counting last season?
00:24:38
Speaker
They were picking it up from last season? Yeah. ah Interesting goes just goes to show, you know, even though I think everyone's saying he's gunning for the Cy Young this year, he's still like no no schmuck at the plate. Maybe he's not.
00:24:51
Speaker
Maybe he's taking a little edge off, ah swinging for home runs and all that, but... I mean, it goes to show how good of a player he is, but we're also carrying this in from from last season. yeah I like a clean, fresh start, you know, at the beginning of the year and all that.
00:25:05
Speaker
Not to, you know, throw a shade at the numbers, but yeah I just feel like it's a little fudged. so Yeah. It's like, ugh. Their love of him it gets old. It gets old. My MVP for pitching was Mailey. 17-inch pitch, 91 pitches, five strikeouts, two walks, three hits, no runs. And on offense, I put Bailey, who goes one for three, one home run, one run, three RBI. Low lights. On offense, I put Gilbert, after I just gave him some praise, because the Bums challenged ball four. That turned a walk into a called strike three. That sucks.
00:25:37
Speaker
ABS. Turns a walk to a strikeout. Sucks to be on that side of it. On defense, also Gilbert. He had a bad break on a fly ball, allowing Freddie to single, but nothing came of it. So that's good. My LVP, no one on pitching or defense, but on offense, I put Schmidt, who I really like because he is the Giants' best hitter at the moment. And he went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts. Game 3, I was like, i don't know what was up with Game 3. Game 3 was bad. I took no notes for it because at that point I was like, whatever, we won the series. One thing that's notable is you sent me a message, how dare you, about, I think you asked if we were nearly perfect gamed.
00:26:10
Speaker
No, we were never almost perfect game because in the first inning, a Arise walked. a Perfect game. Okay. So first off, how dare you? I just saw one hit and I assumed, oh, why did that one hit come out? That was the fourth inning. That was Arise.
00:26:24
Speaker
He's the only hit for the team. That's what we call foreshadowing. This game is foreshadowing. oh They struck out a lot. They struck out eight times. They had the three base runners the entire game. In the second inning, Ramos gets on because of an error. Thank you, Ha-Sung Kim. And then Uriah singles again.
00:26:38
Speaker
But nobody, we only had one runner and a scoring position the whole game. That was Uriah's in the first inning. it was rough. It was Glasnow on the mound, which I'm like, whatever. That's like another reason I was like, whatever, we lost. No big deal. Like, it's still early in the season. And not enough time has passed for Glasnow to blow his shoulder out, as he does every year, chasing that velocity. We had Logan Webb. He struggled. He did pitch seven innings, 98 pitches, struck out five, one walk, seven hits, three earned runs.
00:27:01
Speaker
This one was fun because when Dalton rushing came back on to think he got to play again and gets drilled in the ribs with but like a 90-something mile an hour fastball. That's when he takes his walk and then on the next play, he tries to take out Willie. During the post-game interview, when they ask about they asked Logan Webb about like hitting him, they asked him if it had anything to do with what he said to Jung-Hoo Lee during game one. And obviously, it was, right? But also, obviously, Logan Webb can't say that. So he just looked at the he just looked at the the reporter, and then I think it was Susan Slessor he was looking at, and asked the question. He just looked confused, and he was like, what thing was Jung-Hoo? don't know if missed it. What?
00:27:38
Speaker
And then, uh, just, just moved on with the the, the next question. It's pretty interesting as we were like entering the, as like the old school baseball dies and we're getting into like this new form of it where, uh, hitting batters is, uh, on purpose is, is not seen or it's not as expected as it once was. Logan Webb is like, you know, at the end of that, he's definitely on the, uh, One the last pitchers of that ilk casino. His mentor was none other than Madison Bumgarner, who was not above that. dave Roberts also got asked about it. Dave Roberts being also from that era, he was just like, did nothing to defend Dutton rushing, which is pretty funny. yeah We were talking like not too long ago that how I was against like hitting pitchers and all that. It was like, you know, i kind of grow up. I don't know why I was for this instance. Well, part of it is Dalton rushing is just not likable. I think maybe all of it might be Dalton rushing, but like it's it's like all of it. you
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah. 100%. you don't do that because like people were like, okay, well, like if he plays game two, he's going to get hit. Right. but he doesn't play games so then it's like okay so who's getting hit in place of Dalton rushing it's like well nobody because like they weren't involved with it like this is a Dalton rushing thing like you hit Freddie Freeman it's gonna be like what'd you hit Freddie for yeah you know like you hit Will Smith like he wasn't even playing what'd say fuck me for yeah like like so like yeah I get it like so i don't know it's like yeah grow up but also man sometimes you get someone who's unlikable and like oh please It's like same thing if you hit like Javi Baez when he was, you know, swinging at everything. Like, what'd you do that for? Easy strikeout. He swings at everything. Although you could probably hit him on purpose at that time and, you know, also strike him out. But yeah, like when you're unlikable, it's those feelings definitely change. Also, those feelings for me tend to change when you're talking about, you know, the Dodgers hit them all for all I care. Yeah. So game three was a loss. Eh, whatever. I'm not I'm not that bummed out about it. The offense did leave a lot to be desired, but it was whatever. Who did you guys face after the double-A Red Sox? Double-A Red Sox? Triple-A Houston. Triple A Houston. Yeah, they are also I shouldn't say that they they won a game. Well ah game one seems like it was like a Jose Altuve is awful.
00:29:37
Speaker
Is he? Jose Altuve is awful. Yeah, let me check his stats. I saw it was mainly, ah you know, in the field where I was just looking at him and like good lord, man.
Yankees' Performance Analysis
00:29:46
Speaker
Oh, defensively. He's Defensively, he's he's bad and I think he's only been going down for a while and i don't know if you want to DHM in the future So start looking for maybe a couple other positions. He might be able to play. 22-48, three home runs, eight RBIs, one stolen base.
00:30:02
Speaker
How good could a 5-6 first baseman be? Well, they tried to put him in the outfield. Remember that? Maybe barely. they They tried that. They stuck him in left field and it did not go well. It's not the best place to put him either. It's a lot of ground to cover. It is.
00:30:15
Speaker
Yeah. But no, yeah, a lot of lot of great stuff. This series game one, however, Stanton left with a calf strain. He's still in the aisle at the time recording and he's replaced by Gritchick. And then some stuff happens with Gritchick on the 29th, but I'll get to that later. For game one, Yankees, this was the offensive explosion. This was 12-4. Now I'm going to really talk about here except a bunch of solo home runs. The entire infield homered game one.
00:30:38
Speaker
Jazz, McMahon, Rice, and Cabby, they became the third group of infielders in Yankees history to do that. Stands on the 10-day IL as of the 2nd, so that puts him retroactive to April 25th, so he should be back soon. Yeah. Judge went 0-2, but still worked three walks. And Will Warren allowed ah two runs on seven hits with a seven strikeouts and six innings pitched. Pretty good performance. Pretty good performance. The bullpen, I think, consensus is that the bullpen is going to be a lot different come playoff time, come trade deadline. So if... The bullpen, not that reliable. Uh, it could be a lot better. I'll say that. I'll say that much. I joked maybe last episode that Paul Blackburn was the only name that really was really doing something for me. And I think he pitched this series, but he wasn't seen up until that point until like, since like the 18th. So I pitched the game on the 26th. It was a long time for him to not be pitching. So I guess, you know, some, a little more people stepped up. So we're like, Oh, Paul Blackburn's back, but he gave up an RBA single when he probably shouldn't have, uh, in game three. So even then he's, i think he just, just might be an old guy. How was Paul Blackburn? Blackburn.
00:31:44
Speaker
He's 32. Wrong side of 30. For pitchers, 30 anything is kind of... Pitchers are just getting younger and younger. So they got that to look forward to. oh That was game one. I brought that up because ah i think Will Warren is staying where he's at, but Ryan Weathers, could be ah who's starting right now, could be moved to the bullpen at some point. I think he has a good enough pitch mix that even if he just spams a lot of off-speed stuff,
00:32:07
Speaker
I think he has the potential to get a lot of guys out in, you know, high leverage one inning position. ah Will Warren, I'd be shocked if he's moved at all because he's been pretty good. He can be a good four or five guy. But we got a Rodan and Cole who are rehabbing right now. So when they come up, the starting rotation is going to be scary. It's going so scary, dude, because Freed and Schlittler are leading Cy Young conversation right now. So would be, at the moment, Freed, Schlittler, Will Warren, I'll make the decision. Will Warren would be the other guy. And then... Rodan's looking like his usual self, and Cole could be his usual self. That's going to be a scary lineup for rotation. the dead Deadly five men right there. Deadly five men right there. And then, you know, you trade a middle prospect for a high-leverage reliever or two at the trade deadline, and you got your entire back end at least put away. Because there's a lot of long-relieve guys right now that are just working inning by inning in the bullpen. So it'd be nice to have like a true, like solid, locked-down, three-at-back kind of guy that you can just go to, one or two of them. you Got that to look forward to. Game two, eight to three win. Game only really broke out offensively in the seventh. It was back and forth before that, giving up solo homers to Carlos Curry in the second and the sixth. Ryan Weathers came back from paternity leave, pulled in the sixth that they're giving up. Two-run runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
00:33:22
Speaker
Wells, Grisham, and Cabby all had solo homeruns in the seventh, third, and fifth, respectively. Okay, cool, cool. Cabbie got caught stealing twice, and he hasn' something and I don't think he was caught stealing before that. And then he gets caught stealing in, if not this series, the next series, he got caught stealing again. don't know what kind of trend it is there. I think they were really confident in him stealing on lefty catchers, going to second and third.
00:33:45
Speaker
Going to third specifically, which is usually not the normal. I think they just relied on his speed for the most part. They were always going to outrun that. But why would you have Cabbie Ero steal you have...
00:33:56
Speaker
Cabby might be getting on base more. Get out of 50-50, right? Yo, wait. True, true. I got to check how many bags is Jazz stolen now she in I don't think they're i' think they're really going to bet for Jazz with that. That's kind of Jazz's endeavor. He has nine stolen bases this year. that thought they'd trust him to to steal. How many stolen bases? He has nine stolen bases this year. son base How much does Cabby have now? Cabbie was just reliable. i think you would he I'll wait for you to tell me the number before I say something. Jose Caballero has 13.
00:34:35
Speaker
Okay, so so more. So he's been far more reliable stolen bases. He's doing it more. And I think he's faster than Jazz by a bit. Quite a bit. I don't know. that They probably don't have their 40 times up. Something to look at coming down, i guess, in the future. You don't have him steal in that position. Or if you do, you take a look at, you know, specifically the catcher. is Yeah, and ga how good the catcher's arm is. Game two, Ryan Weathers. He's a dad. Congratulations. I think you're... Yeah, he's caught stealing twice. and Both times at third. Seventh inning, Yankees work to load the bases. Belly RBI walks. Jazz RBI walks. Nice.
00:35:09
Speaker
The eighth, two walks between. McMahon single, load the bases again. Rice took a long sack fly RBI, make it sixty two And in the ninth, ah Wells got an RBI single, scores Belly. McMahon RBI single, scores Rosario. Cruz, Bird, Duvall, all give up no hits. Hill lets Christian Walker, Homer in the ninth for a final score of 8-2-3.
00:35:30
Speaker
Remember how I i said ah know a little little ways back when that you know it was small ball Yankees again? I guess they ruined their head you know coming down to the wire. But for the most of the series, it's been solo home runs, not even people on base you know to come across the plate for a lot of this.
00:35:43
Speaker
okay Fun at the the time, but then not sustainable long term. I guess not. I guess had not. But I mean, it worked out for that game. That's good. Yeah. Game three, loss This was the end of an eight-game win streak, I believe. I might have miscounted. Maybe I lost a win in there. But I'm going with eight-game win streak. You can take that to the bank.
00:36:01
Speaker
Heal was on the mound, and he was pulled after the fifth. but Walker homered again in the first. So I guess carrying over game-to-game rather than season-to-season. Like I was just saying about Otani, he would he had a back-to-back home runs, could say. Christian Walker. Jazz challenges a pitch in the second and is dead wrong. This continues Jazz's trend of being very, very bad at challenging pitches. He still reaches first, though. Then he steals second. Goldie and Ascara leave him stranded. You were right, Liam. Guys did win an eight-game win streak.
00:36:27
Speaker
Eight-game win streak. Game three ended the eight-game win streak. Yes. Louis Hill was on the mound. He was pulled after the fifth. And Christian Walker, going back to the Otani thing, season to season, they were carrying it over. He could say, k Christian Walker had back-to-back home runs if you count last game. He homers in the first.
00:36:42
Speaker
Jazz continues his errors with challenging. He is not very good at challenging pitches. But he's still able to reach ah first and then steal second at the set bat. But Goldie and Ascara leave him stranded. Gabby is very good defensively, which we should cover. I think he's one of the best defensive shortstops in the league right now. And... His offense, maybe not the beginning of the season, is kind of dragging his numbers down. But as of recent, he's also been very good offensively. I think the current streak he's at, he's 333 plus average bat. And okay we could talk about it now because they finally made the decision. Anthony Volpe is staying in the minors. He's being promoted to AAA from AA. But his rehab assignment is over and he's just been flat out optioned.
00:37:24
Speaker
This is kind of the first sets of precedent. This is kind of the win by all means Yankee. So Cabby's defense has been really good, which was the kind of the kicker for Volpe last season, where they could somewhat excuse his performance at the plate for his defensive bonus. But after his defense started slipping, everyone was kind of coming for his head. So Cashman had to make the decision. He got Caballero at the trade deadline from the Rays, just as a, you know, put up or shut up kind of He could be a little bit better than this guy, and we could justify keeping you in.
00:37:54
Speaker
But Bolfi has been down in the ma and the minors rehabbing. yeah And while Capadero's offense, beginning of the season, has been dragging his numbers down, he has kind of since been, if you look if you pick a random date and you start from there, he's kind of been a 300-plus average bat. So it made the decision...
00:38:12
Speaker
Somewhat stressful for Yankees fans where they were like, oh, God, are they just going to promote Volpe and, you know, end the conversation there, leave it at that. Where it turns out, no, either yesterday or the day before it was announced that Volpe has been optioned to AAA Scranton after his rehab assignment was completed in AA Somerset.
00:38:30
Speaker
So Cabadero, what it looks like, is the starting shortstop going forward. And then if any, you know, lackluster defense or offense happens and Volpe's numbers have been up to a considerable point, he will just be promoted and slide right back in. Hopefully taking over where he last left off rather than, you know, promote him now. And, you know, he doesn't have the refs that he should be and everyone's coming for his throat again.
00:38:53
Speaker
Well, and good news for Volpi is that this is only his first option being exercised, so he still has two. Yep. So do you think he gets traded, or is he kind of like damaged goods? It would be—I don't think he's damaged goods. I think there's a team that would that be willing to take a chance on him, and he could be an interesting trade piece come something, because there are a lot of—at least a pair of shortstop prospects in the minors that you might want to give a chance to. and they become probably more appealing from a team construction standpoint because they're cheaper than it would be to re-sign or hold on to Volpe, and you have more years of control. So who who who knows? Who knows what happens there? George Lombard Jr. got promoted. Keep an eye on that. Spencer Jones, I think he's he's doing pretty good for the last time I checked it.
00:39:36
Speaker
How you feel? how How I'm feeling on that. See what the future could be like. I know Yankees Twitter is very happy. But yeah, Caviar is making some good plays in this game three. Jordan, it's Jordan Alvarez. Jordan Alvarez having a pretty good game. Maybe not a great series, but a really good game here. 455 batting average and comes around and scores twice this game.
00:39:55
Speaker
Paredes scores him and himself on a two-run home run in the third with two out. Heel is then pulled in the fifth after getting no one out and putting two on on the on second and third. Blackburn comes in, who's been cold. I mentioned a little bit earlier, hasn't pitched the 18th. It's the 26th now. Paredes Paredes RBI singles to make it 5-0, making it a 3-0 RBI day for him. Christian Walker then doubles and scores Paredes and Jordan to make it 7-0 in the fifth. ah inning only The inning only ends when Walker makes a running mistake and Jazz makes an on-time relay. Bad on Walker, but also really good on Jazz. Very good defensive play. Was that a play at the plate? It was a play, i think I think it was on second.
00:40:34
Speaker
On second, if I believe. It was him doubling back to second. Got ah Judge Homer's on his birthday in the sixth to put New York finally on the board. Spencer Argetti, who has been the starting pitcher up till this point for the Astros. That's the that's his only run allowed in seven innings off three hits and eight Ks. He retired nine straight before that home run. And then the Yankees kind of try to put together like a a comeback with already two outs. Jazz starts it with two outs and gets on on a single and scores ah on a Goldie double.
00:41:04
Speaker
Goldie scores on an Ascara double. Ascara scores on a McMahon single, make it 4-0 thing. But then Cabby lines out to Paredes, finishing out the game with a loss. Had some magic there.
00:41:14
Speaker
So some nice magic, some nice theatrics, some nice fireworks coming down to the end. Yeah. am My MVP, I'm going to give to Jazz. Jazz. Okay, I'm sorry for making fun of you earlier, Jazz. Clap, clap, clap, Jazz.
00:41:26
Speaker
I'm sorry, weve we've, you know, there's been some disappointment surrounding you, especially, i think, maybe last episode, that those series of games. But he had a 417 batting average with ah five hits, a home run, five RBIs, and four runs scored. And if i bet I bet if I checked his defensive metrics, they'd be pretty good, too. And his LVP, I'll give to Luis Heal.
00:41:46
Speaker
He was sent down to AAA Scranton after this. Oh, Heal was. Okay. Yes. That's not good for him. I was thinking Heal was going to operate in the space that Will Warren was going to be operating in, but that doesn't seem to be
Giants' Strategy and Player Insights
00:42:00
Speaker
the case. Who knows? Maybe we'll see Heal in the bullpen later on, but he's getting some reps in in Pennsylvania.
00:42:06
Speaker
So we'll see how that goes. The Giants continue to turn things around. Liam, isn't that great? I was about to ask, like, because I know, you know, it says we're gonna have a lot of talk about this episode. And you're alluding to your, your disappointment, you know, less than the vision as of recording. So I was gonna say if the if based just off the Dodger series, would you be confident in saying that the Giants look like they were turning things around? Oh, yeah, 100%.
00:42:31
Speaker
Like, the offense struggles were still, like, there, but, like, defense was great. The bullpen's great. The rotation is pretty good, even with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray having, like, those slow starts. And Logan Webb also still struggling. I think, was it Kruko?
00:42:46
Speaker
I think talked about, was talking about Logan Webb's struggles. And he puts blame on, well, not blame, but but he he points, like, it might be the ABS. Mm-hmm. ABS might be what's causing his struggles because he's a sinker baller, right? So he his whole point is to get people to chase low, to induce ground balls, get a lot double plays, right? Now, because of ABS, batters can challenge. They're not chasing as often as they would. And because of the locations, you know, the umps don't have a really good view of like the bottom of the zone. And so a lot of ball calls will get overturned. So I think we're going to be seeing like the third phase, third form. Logan Webb, his first form, he he he threw, he was like more like a fastball guy. Then he had Tommy John surgery. So he comes back, has to change how he pitches. And he did. He became a sinker baller. And then we saw last year where he was going for a lot more strikeouts than he was going for ground balls to mixed reactions. Because like one is like, you know, one one thought was like, well, you're the workhorse.
00:43:45
Speaker
You're always like, you're pretty much guaranteed that you're going to do You know, in today's game, right? Five innings is the standard. Six is a great start. Yeah. But Logan Webb, six for him was standard. Seven was a good game.
00:43:57
Speaker
Then there were times where like Logan Webb could easily get to eight innings pitch before he even starts touching 100 pitches their own. But you become someone who's going for more strikeouts. Well, that leads to more full counts, right? and That leads to more pitches being thrown per inning, which reduces the amount of innings you can pitch. So I think maybe him going for the strikeouts. I don't know if like that was him preparing for ABS. Last season was prepare for ABS because I got the do more strikeouts because people aren't going chasing as much? Or was it just year after year? He's constantly in the talk for Cy Young, never gets it. It's definitely a snub because very clearly and MLB likes strikeouts and not a pitcher that can consistently give you seven innings. He led the league in innings pitch last year for the entire season, and that doesn't seem to be accounted for whatsoever. He does have, you know, at least one inning per game that's like, oh, that was scary. Usually first or second. Obviously, what happened this year is...
00:44:51
Speaker
That's gone. That's done. It's just really frustrating to see. But i think we're going to be seeing like a a third version of we're going to like Logan Webb version three. So that'll be interesting to see as he kind of goes back to going for for strikeouts and not going not trying to do as many ground balls. So maybe maybe like the strategy is to I don't know how how well it works, but the bad framing like reverse psychology, bad framing that some catchers are trying to like do like where they frame a ball bad to make the batter think that the ump called the strike wrongly. Mm hmm. And then once you get to the the two challenges expended, then you can go back to being ah to go back and try and get ground balls. Maybe that's like Path Forge. I don't know how possible that is, but yeah only two challenges. So we'll see how he he evolves again. um I have high faith in him. I'm not going to ever be like webs washed. So the Marlins come to town. We had Brandon Belt day for game two. It was interesting. Gabe Kapler was there. He's the new GM for the Marlins. He was there as former Giants manager.
00:45:46
Speaker
So that that was really fun to watch. it was really fun to see Brandon Belt, you know, hear talk, see him one more time. And then ah Gabe Kapler got, a he was well received by the fans, which i think I think some people were like, oh, how's he going to be received? I like, well, it's not really about him. Yeah. Even if you didn't like him, you're like, you're going to polite thing and, you know, clap. right and yeah And even then, do you think you only kind of remember the good stuff? Yeah. One one fun thing about Kepler and Brandon Belt is Kepler said that if he could, he would have a whole, his whole roster would be just Brandon Belt's.
00:46:14
Speaker
so So game one was a loss. I had D&D that day, so I was not able to watch it. But important for notes for game two, Casey Schmidt overran second base and was tagged out when he tried to go back, but slipped. In game two, that was Brandon Belt Day. Giants tied the series after an amazing sixth inning, going eight at bats and three runs. The low light for the game was in the second when Casey Schmidt once again hit a double, thought about going to third, changed his mind, slipped and was tagged out. He was very clearly angry at what happened, and when he hit a two-run homer in the sixth, he did not smile or celebrate. ah The early game was horrific, with Robbie Ray going 31 pitches in the first inning.
00:46:46
Speaker
Somehow he managed to go a full five innings and ended under 100 pitches and only giving up one run. Robbie Ray, like he, oh boy, that was that was an ugly, ugly start for him. 31 pitches after the first inning. 47 after the second. Not too bad. 74 after the third. 86 in the fifth.
00:47:03
Speaker
So not too bad. And then 97 when he finally gets pulled out. He goes after the the fifth. So he goes five full innings. Kind of surprising. He had four strikeouts, three walks, four hits, and only one run. My ah MVP for offense is going to be Schmidt, despite his overrunning of second base in the second inning. It sucks because that was he was the first at bat. He was lead off lead off double and he just slipped. He ends up going two for three with one run. That run that he scored, he got on base through a walk. So that that's good. oh I'm sorry. No, he didn't. I was looking at Lee. He goes two for three with a run and two RBIs with his his two home runs. And then his fourth at bat ended up being a walk.
00:47:42
Speaker
Or not a bad plate appearance. It ended being a walk. My LVP for defense or for offense. We'll start with offense. Goes to Adamas, who is struggling bad. Him, Devers, and Chapman are are struggling real bad. those Particularly Adamas and Chapman struggling horribly. Adamas goes 0 for 5 with two strikeouts. His best at bat was in the It his last at bat where he flew out to field. It was almost a home run. Almost.
00:48:07
Speaker
But he got oracled. And then my LVP for defense goes to Bailey, who was charged with an error. No no one I'm pitching really was like, ah, especially outside the Robbie Ray. It's really weird. Tony Vitello's management of the the bullpen is very interesting. And sometimes, most times, incredibly frustrating, particularly with his use of of Ryan Walker, which we will get to when we go to we talk about the Phillies and the Rays. Okay, so I won't i want to ask you about that right now.
00:48:37
Speaker
But when you have a relief, what is your ex or how how does how do the Yankees do? How does Boone do the bullpen? We'll say that something similar. if Five innings, the starter gets pulled. The relief pitcher comes in. Fresh inning. How long is he expected to stay in? Or how long are you expecting him? Usually depends on the guy. i think for the most part, he's looking at like one guy per inning, at least most of the time. Even though a lot of the guys we have are like long innings guys. I think that's historically been Boone's MO.
00:49:01
Speaker
I'm open to being corrected. It's the matchups really that most of his criticisms come down towards. A lot of people don't understand like why he puts certain guys in in certain situations. I think the crowning jewel was putting in Nestor to go up against Otani and Freddie when his pitch mix is like not that completely, you know? is a guy that's either going to put it into the either far corner of the zone. It's either going to be very, very in or very, very out. And those are the two things those guys love. So I don't know. That's like textbook, you know, why I put that guy in, in that situation type deal.
00:49:34
Speaker
Basically, because the way that I'm um looking at it is after game two, Ray gets pulled. gets replaced with Gage. Gage only pitches one inning, which I'm fine. Fine with that. don't really have any issues that because in that one inning, he pitched 23. He had 23 pitches, one walk, one hit. Okay, you look at that and you go, hmm, yeah, maybe, maybe not, right? Like, maybe you're not coming in for a second inning. Then we go to Keaton Wynn, who is also like, there's like a three-way race for closers. You got Ryan Walker, who's probably out. Keaton Wynn and Blade Tidwell. Keaton Wynn also only pitches one inning. Only threw 11 pitches. No strikeouts, no walks, no hits. And then, so that's going to be, so that's the seventh. And then in the eighth inning, he gets replaced with Eric Miller, who's probably also like in contention for the closing race as well. He throws 21 pitches in the inning. Two strikeouts.
00:50:18
Speaker
One walk, no runs. And then he gets replaced with Ryan Walker, who pitched 11, had 11 pitches thrown in his ninth inning. And also, guess what? Gave up a home run. There's like a lot of that. i was like, like just someone could pitch like 10 pitches and then they get pulled for the next inning. And I'm like, ah maybe keep them in. Maybe keep them in. Obviously, it's different if it's like we're going to bring in a lefty for the matchup for this one inning. Got it. Well, like sometimes like it doesn't it just feels like, ah, like they could they could use. No, they could do another.
00:50:46
Speaker
It won't be that big of a deal. Then the Giants finish off the the series with the game three win. They continue. They win six to three. This was great. They were scoreless. They got they get a, well, it starts off very, very frustrating, actually, because you've got Lee, who's who's leading off, right? Lead off triple. Lead off triple. First pitch of the game. Don't don't tell me they can't bring him home. Chapman strikes out. Arias flies out to center. Schmidt called strike three. Lee does that Then we finally score in the third inning. Once again, it's Lee who scores. It starts off with Bailey who strikes out. Lee gets a single. Then you go Chapman who gets hit by pitch.
00:51:21
Speaker
Arias hits into a fielder's choice, so Chapman is forced out. Arias makes it to first, but actually gets to second because of an error by the second baseman. I believe that is when Lee scores. and Then Schmidt flies out for strike three.
00:51:35
Speaker
And then we don't get a runner in scoring position until the fifth. Once again, it's Lee who starts off with a double. And then Chapman walks. And Koss Bailey. Koss struck out. Bailey lines out to the center. That's when Lee comes up and gets a single. Chapman walks. Two runners on. One scoring position. And then Arise flies out to the left we score again in the sixth that starts off with Schmidt who starts off with walk Devers it's a double RBI double and then Ramos lines out followed by Gilbert who singles it's an RBI or then Koss rounds into a fielder's choice Gilbert's forced out for out two and then Bailey lines out to the shortstop we score again in the seventh it's Lee who scored after getting a single Chapman scored after getting a walk and Schmidt gets his three run home run
00:52:19
Speaker
And then Devers also walks. And that's the last time we score is a seventh. This was another great one. My MVP for pitching goes to Landon Roop. 103 pitches, 7.2 innings, six strikeouts, two walks, two hits, two and three earned runs. Then Miller closed out the game going 1.1 inning with 11 pitches, one strikeout. My MVP for offense goes to Lee, who goes a crazy four for five. This is when Lee really starts heating up.
00:52:42
Speaker
isn't Four for five, two runs. MVP for defense goes to Devers because he just had some crazy plays. A lot of line drives and a lot of like 3-1 plays, you know, force outs, which is always scary to watch.
00:52:55
Speaker
Yeah, when you got to throw it to the pitcher to get the the tag out at at first, right? or the foresight at first. Yeah. my LVP for offense goes Ramos, who goes a disappointing 0-4-4 with a strikeout. That is when the good times end. before No more good times after this? No, it's all sadness after this. It's all sad. Sad and disappointment and frustrating and rage-inducing and causing slew problems for Tony and the front office and and everyone.
00:53:25
Speaker
Before we get to that, played against ah the Texas Rangers, huh? We get to talk about the Rangers, who have been good, so I hear. they have. The Rangers, notably not led by Bruce Bochy. No, not this season. Not this season. I'm just
Yankees vs Rangers Series
00:53:39
Speaker
checking on the Rangers. Last time I did check on them, they were they were doing good, but they kind of fell to the wayside with the rest of the AL, hovering around 500 perpetually. And we face them again with our deck series starts tomorrow. So that's something to look forward to. Oh. I hope they can continue the dominance here because they won this series 2-1. Game 1, pretty good, but before anything there set it up, Heal was sent down to AAA after his last outing. Grichik was... This is gone.
00:54:06
Speaker
That's so ominous. Gone. Yeah, he it was on track to getting demoted, but he elected for free agency, so he's gone. Stanton on the IL. So Dominguez, Schumann, who's a utility infielder, and Elmer Rodriguez, we're all called up. Elmer Rodriguez, one of our top start in pitching prospects. So he'll get the start in game three. Elmer, huh? Elmer.
00:54:28
Speaker
All right. Hopefully he's the glue to keep the team together. I think his, I forget what is his nickname is. He might be ECR. That's just initials. That's not a nickname. ECR bro. ECR. ECR. Game one, get started. Judge is hit by a pitch in the first inning. So, already not happy. Just kind of kicking the hornet's nest right there. Cabby is caught stealing again in the third. Rice and Judge go back to back in the third. So, I mean, there'd be at least like one more run on the board if Cabby doesn't get caught. But Judge and Rice kind of in a somewhat friendly friendly game of who's going to end the series with the most home runs.
00:55:00
Speaker
Which... is going to have some sort of update coming around next series. The game that I literally just watched a little bit. Jazz solo homers in the fourth to make it 4-0. That's kind of the end of the Yankees offense, if you can tell by the final score. Breed was on the mound. He had 89 pitches in six full innings.
00:55:18
Speaker
No earned runs, four hits, two walks. I forget Jock Jock Peterson's on the the Rangers now. yeah Yeah, dude. And he was somewhat making his mark. He, at least story-wise, he was, he has become, he was coming up throw throughout the pitching battles and all that. Duvall comes in in the seventh and gives up a home run on the first batter. He sees Jock Peterson to make it 4-1. On the eighth, Tim Hill gets, Rangers hitting the double play, but he puts two on for birthday boy Corey Seager, who goes, who he pitches way inside.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah, he pitches him way inside. Nearly hits him, and they're, they're a little bit uppity about that on the Rangers side. They just don't want to be seeing any of that, but he still gets up and he lines out to Jazz soon after that. On the ninth, Cabby is, uh, hit in what the broadcasters were saying was retaliation for Seager. And then Seager gets him out. Well, he's going to second. But then Cabby argues that Seager pushed him off second. So he has, it was the Rangers who were challenging and they get the call over turn.
00:56:12
Speaker
But he was kind of uppity and Boone had to come out to kind of calm Caballero down. Like, hey, hey, hey, hey. Can't be having you make a scene right here. I don't want you to be, know, thrown after the rest of the game. Yeah. There's some bottom of the ninth drama. Jazz throws a ball towards the Rangers dugout and nearly goes in. Challenge called the next better. Did he miss throw? like,
00:56:28
Speaker
was it like Basically, yeah. It just so like was nowhere near on target. Okay. and And the Rangers took that personally? Yeah, little bit. All right, then. A little little bit. There's about to be two runners on, but Jazz called over to the dugout to put the challenge through, and turns out he was literally just in time. It was enough information to get it overturned, and you know if he does if he doesn't get it on, I think the whole momentum kind of shifts one way. Osuna gets on and scores a burger. Osuna of the Braves? No, Osuna.
00:56:58
Speaker
Osuna. That's how they were pronouncing it. Osuna. Oh, okay. I think he was the catcher, though. Alejandro Osuna. like hundred I thought you just mispelled Osuna's name. Where is he No, no, no. He's on the Pirates. Osuna from the Pirates. Yeah, he scores Berger and the tying run gets on the bases.
00:57:16
Speaker
But Cabby puts the last one out, get our final score, four to two. Easy win. Game two is kind of like, yeah, everyone's looking game three for, you know, the kid on the mound. But game two is DeGrom versus Schlittler. This is like for the for the baseball, for the pitching fans. Like pitcher still I'd want to recount all like specific atbats and at and look at the line score. Yeah, that was a pitcher's duel.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I'd break down the at-bats, but at-bats are kind of like a, you know, it's a whole visual thing. You want to see how a pitcher kind of dissects batters. And they were dissecting batters all throughout. They had very, very compatible stat lines. They'd be identical if it wasn't for a Judge handing a two-out single against DeGrom, then Belly followed it following it up with a double off the right field wall, which would score Judge. So DeGrom would end it with six innings pitched, three hits, one-on-run, five Ks off of 78 pitches. And Cam would also come out around the same time in the sixth off ah three hits, zero earned runs, eight Ks, two walks off of 85 pitches.
00:58:12
Speaker
On the seventh, Wells would hit a solo home run to extend the Yankees to 2-0. And in the ninth, a Judge would solo homer off win. Rangers would try and mount a comeback attempt against closer David Bednar, whose relay started with a throwing error by Ryan McMahon. Danny Jansen hit an RBI triple, and Josh Jung followed up with an RBI single. Bednar eventually gets the put-out.
00:58:32
Speaker
Final score, 3-2. And then game three was, you know, all eyes were on our man Elmer Rodriguez. And he, was typical, like, guy getting called up to pitch kind of start. A lot of pitches in the zone. A lot of 3-2 at-bat duels that would just go on forever. And he would get pulled. didn't put down where he got pulled. Hold on, let me put that up.
00:58:53
Speaker
Where'd you get pulled, Elmer? Yeah, he got pulled in the fifth after getting after failing to get anyone out in the fifth. So final line, he went four innings, four hits, two earned runs, four walks, and one hit by pitch. So a lot of nervousness, just a lot of you know jitters. And I wish there was more to talk about, ah but the Yankees didn't score a run.
00:59:10
Speaker
So there kind of is nothing else to talk about. I'll say Elmer is my anti-LVP. Anti-LVP? What does that mean? Sure, he had the worst performance, but no one else put up any numbers, so they were technically also worse. He's just the only one I can associate is something like negative negative to. You know, sometimes, I would argue, you don't always need an LVP. I would argue the same thing. So this this is the first anti-LVP. First anti-LVP, okay.
00:59:34
Speaker
First bizarro LVP. Because sometimes it's just like, there's nothing he can do. Yeah. First time pitching. And, you know, it's only it's only up from here. You know, can only reach your ceiling. A 3-0 loss is not insurmountable.
00:59:46
Speaker
No. When did he get pulled? Fifth. The fifth? Yeah. That's more on offense than it is on him. On a young guy. A young pitcher. On his debut. I'll give him my MVP to one Aaron Judge. Batting 4.55, five hits, two home runs, two RBIs, three runs scored in three games.
01:00:05
Speaker
judge is going to be on here a lot probably yes yes yes again him and uh caviar i think it's uh him rice and the south side samurai they're the three home run leaders right now at least in the al um so pretty good pretty good when you when you look at the team playing you're just like this is good baseball they're playing good baseball it is like even in their losses are you like pretty good baseball not not this probably Not this series. Maybe maybe retroactively, last last episode, I should have been harder on their their missteps. But these ones, i'm I'm not seeing much. It was just like, you know, ah and even then, I can't really go all that hard on them for the Game 3 loss because it's the first time in a while that the bats have gone cold.
01:00:48
Speaker
Other games, you know, you're at least, you know, doing doing your John putting people across the plate through any means necessary. You know, a lot of solo home runs and all that. But there there was some late game theatrics of a, you know, a small ball in it, that one game. So shows that, you know, you're not relying on one method to get it done. There are, this team is multifaceted. They can...
01:01:08
Speaker
They get a little bit of everything if the situation calls for it. It's just I want to see a you know maybe next series how they adapted to the Rangers and how they can make this Rangers series maybe look a little bit more like the last two.
01:01:21
Speaker
think they're second. They 16 and 18 last checked. Literally a couple seconds ago. Nice. Two games behind.
01:01:31
Speaker
sixteen eighteen nice to athletics Crazy. Oh, boy. I'm the first place athletics. Well, you want to hear some bad baseball? just I'm down to it. I got to use the bathroom real quick, though. Oh, okay. We're taking a quick break. All right, we're back. I'm slowly losing my mind. I thought I...
Giants' Challenges and Management Changes
01:01:50
Speaker
I'm hearing things. The Giants are making me schizophrenic, I guess. I was hearing... I've been hearing stuff all day.
01:01:56
Speaker
this whole podcast, I've just been, like... Just hearing... They're just like, yo, there's a guy running. There's a yeah crowd of people. I heard someone ready to running in the background before we started recording. Like, Leo, who's running behind you? Because they're certainly not behind me.
01:02:10
Speaker
but brothers My brother's downstairs doing nothing, like getting some shut-eye in.
01:02:19
Speaker
No one else is here. All right. So I'll probably get that. Probably keep keep monitoring that. So the the Giants. One thing I didn't hallucinate is their terrible Noga series in Philadelphia after they beat the Phillies the first go around, I believe. i I'm pretty sure they did. We remember baseball. Yeah.
01:02:39
Speaker
Baltimore. They play against each other panel all? Maybe not. Let me take a look at that schedule. Because the Phillies had been getting beaten up. You know, some people were were even going so far as saying that the only thing keeping the the Phillies from being talked about, about how bad they're doing, was that the Mets were also doing just absolutely terrible. Yes, okay, they did play against each other in April. Giants did win. They took two out of three, winning with two shutouts. The Phillies, struggling. You know, their season is also presumed to be dead, but, you know, maybe. not giants get swept and the first game was a bloodbath giants were demolished this game 7-0 on the day that topper was fired philly should have been at their lowest and instead of leaping on them the giants just rolled over they just rolled over and died there's i mean there's really nothing to talk about it was mainly starting he pitched five plus innings three strikeouts three walks six hits five earned runs that it was tidwell who gave up the final two runs which at that point is like whatever This was bad. Like offensively, just disgusting. First inning, 1-2-3 inning.
01:03:36
Speaker
Second inning, 1-2-3 inning. Third inning, double. Ronald gets a double. Then strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. Fourth inning, strikeout, double. Runner gets the third. 5-3 ground out, 5-3 ground out. Fifth inning, fly out to left. 5-3 ground out, 4-3 ground out. Sixth inning, strikeout, 3-1, called strike three. Seventh inning, fly out to left. Popped it up to second, 4-3 ground out. Eighth inning, strikeout, strikeout, 4-3 ground out.
01:03:58
Speaker
Ninth inning, Encarnacion is pinch hits for Bailey. Called strike three. 4-3 grand out. Strikeout. And that's game one. Just terrible. Just strikeout. Huh? Just strikeout. That was the name of the game. Strikeout. Oops, all strikeouts. Game two, the Giants had another heartbreaking loss against the Phillies. This time it was Webb on the mound, who pitched a great seven innings, only giving up one run. The office offense was once again dead, only scoring twice in the first. They left eight runners on base, four of them in scoring position. Walker was a closer and it was not a good outing. He gave up a triple, the tie-in run, and eventually the walk-off single.
01:04:31
Speaker
Probably not fully his fault because of how bad the offense was. They were weighed down by an unproductive Devers and Adamas who combined for one for seven with two strikeouts. Quick thing for game two and three. Game two was postponed because of weather. It was originally moved up a half hour just to get canceled. And then game two and three was a doubleheader. Highlights, Webb, he had a nasty strike three to Trey Turner. Pitched seven innings, 92 pitches, six strikeouts, two walks, seven hits, one earned run. Offense, Ramos, leadoff first pitch double in the first, single in the fifth, facing the first base runner since the second. Chapman had a double in the first. Arise, RBI, so sack ground out, which is interesting.
01:05:07
Speaker
had a sacrifice ground up. RBI single the first, and they had a great first inning. They had two runs after seven at-bats. On defense, you had Webb, or no defense. No real highlights on defense. My MVP for game two, Webb. Offense, Ramos, he went three for four, one double, one run. On defense, it was Chapman. He had a heads-up. Baseball, gets a tag out at home, preventing a run.
01:05:29
Speaker
Low light is for Webb. He gives up a one out full count home run to Schwarber in the first offense. No runs after the set, after the two in the first inning. defense, ah aff Phillies bunt the bases loaded in a bizarre move with two outs, which is really just an insult to the defense, you know? Like you're going to do a two out bunt to load the bases?
01:05:50
Speaker
Crazy. LVP is going to be Walker, one inning pitch, three hits, two earned runs. On offense, Lee, 0 for 4, two strikeouts. So they had game three was just, oh my God, game three was a mess.
01:06:02
Speaker
It was a mess, Liam. Doubleheader. You're sounding like this is the worst game of the season so far. Maybe the game one was game three was just kill me. Like it was just like because it was a double header. So there were a few hours between game two and three. And then there was a rain delay. There was another disappointing loss. And the Giants are swept to yet again, this time by a team that they had no business losing to, let alone being swept by. So game two threatened to go into extras. Game three delivered at a relatively short rain delay, 24 minutes and immediately having to fly to Tampa. And you just have an ugly, no fun series. The lowest of the lowlights comes from the third base coach misreading the ball's location. Hector Borg is the third base coach.
01:06:39
Speaker
Misread the ball's location and did not send Gilbert home, who was already halfway between third and home yeah and most likely lost the game and cemented score. he got the brakes on that from the third base coach right yes he did and he was already halfway the crazy thing is like the balls hit up the middle and it bounced off the glove of the second baseman and just kind of died in no man's land and that should have been yeah go go go but it was given the stop sign and giants failed to score which could have potentially prevented the uh extra innings highlights Schmidt he triples in the fifth Devers Sacfly scores Lee he walks scores in the sixth Gilbert doubles in the sixth and scores Arise has a two RBI single in the sixth and Bailey walks the bases loaded with two outs on defense Gilbert yeah have you seen this defensive play I should have I should have recorded it for you it was the it was the the the winning hit for the Phillies
01:07:31
Speaker
Drew Gilbert tried to Hail Mary Deke. Crazy. He caught the ball as low as he possibly could, like pretty much glove on the ground. Let the ball fall into the glove, right? Hoping to get role as Chapman to leave the base, to leave second base early. Unfortunately, did not work. It wasn't going to work, but like if it did, it would have been, it would have completely overshadowed the loss.
01:07:50
Speaker
but it did not work. And then, you know, Gilbert is in, to give you like context real quick, you know, Chapman is on, did I say Aroldis Chapman? Is that the right guy? i don't think you said it. I, if you did, my mind just corrected it to Chapman. Not Aroldis. The D. E. Chapman. Matt Chapman.
01:08:07
Speaker
I don't know why i said Chapman. It was Adelise Garcia. I don't know why got them confused. Is that Elise? Oh, I said, he's a pitcher, isn't he? Yeah. What's he doing on base?
01:08:22
Speaker
Just a body. just a body Yeah, is that at least Garcia? He's on second. So scores from second. So the ball is hit pretty deep, right? Gilbert catches the ball super low, trying to get him to get off base early. It doesn't work, obviously. Gilbert throws the ball from center field to home without a bounce.
01:08:40
Speaker
And it was like the time of of Bailey catching the ball from Chapman. garcia crossing home a lot closer not competitive but a lot closer than you you think it would be low lights hauser first pitch of the game is a home run he's a starter first pitch of the the game is a home run he gives up back-to-back home runs in the first gives up a one-out triple in the second and then borucki he walks the bases loaded allows two runs to score and one is also low light is the defense giants lose both challenges guess when the giants lost their their challenges fourth inning second
01:09:12
Speaker
Damn, bro. Second inning. Giants lose their challenges. Crazy. Yeah, I don't really have... Got nothing. Got really nothing. Nobody was... It just was not good.
01:09:24
Speaker
It like it does does not sound good. Not a good series. Giants get swept. I really thought... ah Like, I was afraid going into it, you know? That, like, hey, maybe this is the game... I'm always nervous whenever we're playing a game against a team that like is currently struggling or in the middle of like a loss. Because I'm like, it always seems to be that like we're the ones that get them to turn it around.
01:09:44
Speaker
You know, like we're never going to go into like a team that's like sliding out of control. And then we're like, OK, we're just going to add on to your losses. No, like we're like, what if we give you a morale boost? And losing your your manager, who's taken you to the the postseason quite a few times already, no who's well-liked by the players, and not capitalizing on that, like, is is crazy. So that makes Don Mattingly the the interim manager, and I believe he is currently undefeated as interim manager.
01:10:12
Speaker
I believe he is 4 or 5-0 as the manager. Let's take a look here. He's a great manager. He's great guy. Great Yankee. No, they had a four-game win streak, and then they lost one game to Miami before taking the second game, or the third game of that series. They have a four-game series. Fourth game today. Well, yeah, it was just so sad, just so disappointing. It was just a slog to watch, and it doesn't get better. Yeah. It does not get better. So let's move on to something that's maybe a little bit more fun. A little bit more fun. Your last series of the episode against the Orioles.
01:10:48
Speaker
Against the Orioles. Still incomplete series. This four game series and they play today. little later on. We obviously can't record that. Okay, so looking for a four-game sweep. Crazy, very difficult to do. Yeah, four-game sweep. And game three was was something. The final score doesn't indicate it, but let me start with game one just because it was the easiest one of the series, just logistically speaking. don't have formal notes for this. I just have it jotted down.
01:11:12
Speaker
So... Yankees got out to a, you know, they gave Will Warren an insurance run immediately at the beginning of the game to make it 1-0. The lead would be short-lived by inning two as Pete Alonso hit no-doubter oppo field. So we were 1-1 right back at it again. Warren continued to keep the Orioles off the board for the most part. It was only really ah into the seventh where Yankees pitching started to falter.
01:11:34
Speaker
But even then, it was already out of reach by that point. New York broke the game open in the third. Caballero hit a solo home run followed by three-run home run from Ben Rice to take a commanding lead 5-1. An unearned run for Warren did come up a little bit later off a Trent Grisham error, so he kind of saves his stat line. through a yes, I'm Grisham just knocking it around a little bit, become five, two ah and the seventh. But the Yankees even then would answer back with Ahmed Rosario, who would make it a six, two in the seventh and in the eighth judge hit another insurance run with an RBI hit, make it seven, two in the eighth. But it was literally just all Yankees for the most part, which is not what I can really say for the next two games. I'm maybe a little bit more skeptical on how game three turned out just because maybe it was the only one I was able to watch in full. But if you put your hand up to the box score and cover it up just like by half, you can see that these games were maybe a little bit more closer at a lot of points than it did become in the back half.
01:12:29
Speaker
High scoring games. Very high scoring games. And I honestly wasn't expecting this just because maybe I didn't do my research enough on the Orioles who aren't nowhere near as hot as people were saying they were bringing in Pete Alonso. They were expecting a lot of things. Well, you know, if you saw them play against the Giants, you would have been like, oh boy, these guys might be a threat. Yeah. They currently sit at 1519 as of Monday, May 4th. Yes, yes. And the headlines from Game 2, you'd expect maybe something a little bit... You know, you wouldn't expect me to be talking like this, because Bellinger went 4-4. Two home runs, four RBI. This is for Game 3? This is for Game 2. Oh, Game 2. Okay, wow. This was Game 2. Even then, the games were like back and forth right until they weren't. They were just kind of waiting for an offensive explosion. So, at least when you're sitting there watching it live, you're thinking like, oh boy, oh boy, boy. Like, kind of sweating. You're just kind of...
01:13:17
Speaker
I don't know. i didn't have I guess I didn't have that kind of optimism that I normally had. you know Game three, again, was the the one I was able to watch the most, but you know all things considered, we're unsuccessful. Belliger went four for four. Grisham also had a two-run homer in the fourth, and Jazz had a run-scoring single in the seventh. ryan wet Ryan Weathers? I don't know how much I want to really talk about him. He went five innings, which is kind of standard for him. Only one earned run off a homer, two walks, 5Ks. Again, new father.
01:13:45
Speaker
um He's starting pitching material, I want to say. He just needs like more reps in the spot, which I don't know how an eventual bullpen spot is going to feed into him. It's going to you know help him out in the long run because he's going to be asked to you know throw a lot of his off-speed stuff. But you know it could be interesting. Could be interesting. Offensive explosion really came... in In game three, but specifically for game two. Only really came in the seventh when they got all their really big insurance runs.
01:14:11
Speaker
Okay. Because it was four or five at one point, and then they put on three. No, yeah, I'll just i'll just quit beating beating around the bush and get to the part that I really want to talk about, which is that Ben Rice is day-to-day now. Okay. He exited the game in the third. It was... game three.
01:14:24
Speaker
a it was a pickoff attempt it was in game three it was a pickoff attempt two first and hit his glove fine i don't know it must have came down weird or something because he immediately looked over to the dugout and was like hey hey can i you know yeah gotta get someone out to check up on this real quick and what made it doubly kind of weird is that he still took his at bat but he was pulled after that so you know just yeah this is just give him hand contusion make sure it's negative yeah who sports says that he is bat so you like you said day to day so He's fully back? Or, no, that's the last I checked he was day-to-day. was probably still day-to-day.
01:14:58
Speaker
That was six hours ago. So this a rise after the moon. It's a position that, you know, is filled by Goldschmidt either way, but you hate to see, I don't want to see a guy who's as hot as this and also this young kind of be dealing with something, hopefully not for the rest of the season, because the Yankees are bad at this, yeah of not yeah properly diagnosing, like, yeah stuff that we're told is very little, very, you know, just stuff that's not a big deal, and it turns out, no, it was actually a it's actually been a huge deal the entire season, and that's why this guy is... Three dudes, you know... Like for someone who doesn't watch the Yankees, like already know three of them. Giancarlo, Rizzo, and Volpe. And like, we're going find out like mid-2027. Yeah, it turns out ah his whole hand was dislocated from the wrist. Yeah. And we just let him play like that. We just got let play like that. he's got little play that he hit hurt Which is that a lot of the sentiment I heard at least when it was initially breaking it was just like oh boo boo hoo poor him you know play on it. would This was like actively well I think he got like a scan mid game and results mid game. That's when the articles first started coming out. It was taking me the wrong way about that because, don't know, as Yankee fans, we should be hypercritical of anything Yankees doctors have been saying yeah until we see otherwise. Yeah, yeah absolutely. Like that's that crazy saying, boo-hoo, play on it. What? yeah that that does That does not make for good good plays. That does not make for a productive player playing on an injury. like that yeah And then ah Yankees busted open in the eighth with a seven-run inning, but it was very, very close coming up until this point. It was a Breed, who I think, I don't want to say if this is a season high for him, but he gave up three runs on six hits on 5.1 innings. I have to dig every time to see how many pitches he started pitchers throw, so I won't waste time here because we've got a lot other stuff to get to. Freed, Cruz, Hedrick, Bettinar, relievers didn't give up any runs. All that stuff was good. But I was on the edge of my seat a lot of the time because simply because the Orioles haven't kind of ran away with it up until this point. And I was thinking like, oh, what I think is going to happen in game two is now to happen in game three until it didn't. So like, I'm happily surprised. I just don't really expect these games to be coming up close this like late into the game. And then, you know, we're having offensive explosions, you know, on the other other half of the fifth inning.
01:17:03
Speaker
So it's catching me off guard. Something for me to dig into the numbers on and get a diagnosis for. I won't give an LVP. I'll give an MVP to Rice for right now. even though now I think I'm going to give that to Belly, actually. Not that Rice has a bad stat line. He's hitting 500 right now. Belly is hitting 583. So I think just for that stat alone, i'll i'll give him the I'll give him the ups.
01:17:23
Speaker
How are you feeling about game four? Are you going for the sweep, or is it like are you kind of like indifferent? The sweep would be interesting. I wonder if this is the game where I think, you know, the Orioles are finally going to have answers to stuff. Because, I mean, if they lose four straight to the Yankees, they got to, them as a team, I don't think they're going be doing all that hot. Which, you know, when you're playing in the division, fine. Like, good. I don't, I can't really spare any sympathy for the Orioles of all teams. But I wouldn't be shocked if, you know, they have their one good game and maybe the, i don't know they set the lineup yet, if the Yankees throw out a punt lineup. Bunch of utility infielders. Don't really care about lefty-righty matchup and all that. Yeah, let me take a look at... Let's see if they have lineups. What is the game supposed to be? i don't know. Maybe not until like 7. Dang. yeah. Jeez.
01:18:06
Speaker
Let's see what they might have. guys will be having Schlittler? Schlittler? Schlittler? Shit hit. that is Okay, so never mind. It's the Schlitler bump day. So. Versus Baz.
01:18:17
Speaker
Looks like you'll have Bellinger, Cavallero, Chisholm, Dominguez, Ascara, Goldschmidt. Wait, what is this? That's just the whole bench. Lineups are not out yet. Okay. That doesn't sound like a bench lineup. I was like, are you going to tell me they're going to say judge next? Yeah, like, wait where's Judge yet?
01:18:34
Speaker
Who is that? Yeah, where's Judge? There he is. He's way down there. Yeah, so good luck. Hopefully you guys can get that four-game sweep. Those are always fun. Are we ready for the Giants? I am. All right, cool. They got swept again.
01:18:45
Speaker
By who this time? the By the Rays. Oh, okay. The only other good AL team. You warned me about them. I will say their ability to steal was pretty much completely negated by Bailey. And and even Hase. Interesting. As well. They were not a threat that way. That's what I was harping on. Yes, exactly.
01:19:01
Speaker
I missed game one because of, once again, D&D. Pretty much every Friday. But we missed those games. But they lost. They lose. Yay. Game two. You will never guess who played some bad baseball. The Giants as a whole. They were only able to have a runner in scoring position three times and scored once. They left five runners on base, two of them in scoring position. On top of that, there were catwalk shenanigans that led to two Giants being ejected and the umps looking absolutely terrible. More on that in the low lights.
01:19:29
Speaker
Highlights on offense. You had a rise doubles in the sixth Devers gets an RBI double on defense. Bailey throws out the runner stealing second. He throws out a total of three runners, a giant strikeout and throw out the runner to end the seventh inning MVP. I gave to Bo Rucky. He pitched 1.1 innings, 16 pitches, one On offense, give it to Arise. He went three for four with a double and a run. His parents were in the stands watching him the the whole series. And defense, gave it to Bailey. He throws out three rays. Lowlights goes to Roop. He walks in a run in the fifth. For offense, I put the umps. Well, actually, we'll do this. The Giants get struck out and thrown out in the fourth inning.
01:20:05
Speaker
So not fun, but the umps. So Ramos hits what is believed to be a solo home run in the second inning, right? StatCast showed it as a home run hitting over 400 right? It's like 420 something feet, right? But it's Tropicana. And the runner, the the ah the center fielder for the raise, he was at the wall before having to run back in, right? So he was expecting it to go over his head. Yeah, the the announcers were saying, oh, they were he was like playing around. He was like fooling people. But no, he did not look like he was playing around. There was no like, ah, you thought when he caught the ball. Like, because usually they'll do that. He'll look at the runner. It was Ramos. Like, they'll look at Ramos and be like ah, you thought. Right. and then like maybe do like a like a pumping iron motion, right? But the second base help didn't see. So didn't see if the ball actually hit the catwalk or not. So they called Ramos out. In fact, after StatCast put out that the ball traveled 400 whatever feet and was a home run, they adjusted it saying it only actually went 300 something feet, which I don't think I've seen before. Have you ever seen StatCast like be amended like that? No. Dave Fleming was not happy about that. So Ramos was out. So this caused problems as the first base umpire threw out both the pitch. I don't even think he's a pitching coach. The pitching coach and relief pitcher Adrian Hauser. First base ump was caught saying, I don't care. And guess who the home plate umpire was? i don't know Hunter Wendelstead. He must've been confused. He must've confused Tony for Boone because he nearly threw Tony out as well, despite Tony not actually saying or doing anything. This of course angered Tony and he argued with Hunter causing Hunter to ask, who do you think you are? And also, ah
01:21:33
Speaker
Drop in a few F-bombs at some of the Giants as well. Classy, classy, classy. Meanwhile, StatCast's deathly changed the home run to a flyout that traveled 380-something feet. With the new roof, you would think they would have thrown some cameras up there too, but no. And the Giants have lodged a formal complaint with the and MLB over the umpires, over the way that they they spoke to the team.
01:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, it was it was something else, man. I do not like Hunter Wendelstead. Don't like him. i don't like You know what was that cemented me not liking him? What? it was when he Remember when he threw out Boone? Boone was just standing there? Yeah, it was the fan was the fan behind him that called him. Yeah, it was so funny, the fan change shirts after that. Hilarious. But it wasn't that moment that actually like caused me to be like, i don't think I like this guy. But it was during that same and game. When I saw on his chest plate, he has his name on the chest plate, the chest protector. And i was like, oh, I don't know what it was about that. But that was like, don't like it.
01:22:17
Speaker
Don't like him. So the lowlights, a no out bunt leads to the Rays loading the bases. Once again, the the giant's getting bunted on when it makes zero sense to get bunted on. It's just, to me, looks like middle fingers from the offense. Bailey is charged with a an error on a steal from second to third, and the runner scores. I put that error on Chapman, not on on Bailey.
01:22:36
Speaker
It was given to Bailey. don't think was Bailey's error. He throws a ball to Chapman, who's on third, right? The ball hits the ground. It's, like, not in Chapman's glove, but Chapman has it stopped by, like, stopped with the glove, and the ball just kind goes away from there, gets away from him. don't know if I put that on Bailey. LVP I gave that to for pitching I gave it to Roop 88 pitches 4.1 innings pitch six strikeouts two walks eight hits three earned runs and on offense I gave that to Chapman he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and then also on defense I gave it Chapman because I really think that error was on him not For game three, the Giants complete the disastrous road trip. Yeah, so they were home for Dodgers, Marlins. They were on the road for Phillies, Rays. The Giants complete the disastrous road trip by game swept yet again. It was Mealy on the mound, and he pitched great. 5.1 innings pitched and kept the tight 1-0 lead. Disaster struck again with Walker, who walked the first batter and collapsed again, and the game became tied.
01:23:24
Speaker
would be Tidwell to take the elbow after the Giants pathetically swung the 10,000-pound bats and went down 1-2-3 in both the and the 10th. Giants chose to intentionally walk the first batter of the 10th, hoping to reduce the double play at third and first, but an opposite hit bloop into the right, killed it, and they were walked off yet again. They got walked off like three times on this road trip. My highlights go to for pitching is Mailey. He had one, two, three, fifth inning. On offense, he had Devers, who had a one-out double and scored. Also, he had a two-out walk in the third. Schmidt had an RBI single in the first. He had the most unethical hit in the season.
01:23:52
Speaker
The ball had a 38-mile-an-hour exit velocity, a negative 44-degree launch angle, and it traveled three feet. Gets on first base. when the catcher accidentally knocks a ball the ball foul. And then he stole second.
01:24:03
Speaker
Stole second in the sixth. Hayes had a one-out double. Lee had a lead-off walk in the fifth. Adonis had a one-out double in the seventh. And Ramos had a one-out double in the eighth. You would think with all these extra base hits, they would have more than one run, but you would be wrong. On defense, I gave it to ah a highlight to both Adonis and Hayes. They had a beautiful relay. Tags out the tie and run attempt to steal second. Hmm. Chapman had a big brain move at the end of the game. Gets a line drive, right? Line drive, catches it. He gets an unassisted double play. Catches a line drive, battered runners out. The runner's still we're going home. Chapman tags third, so that's the second out, end of the inning, right? But then it's like, don't know what happened, where the confusion was, because the runner was still going home. Hayes looked like he still wanted to get the ball. So Chapman just throws the ball home, pegs the runner for no reason. The Rays were mad about about that. They thought that he was the runner was called the runner on third going home was called out because he was hit by the ball, and that's considered interference or maybe obstruction. can't remember the difference. It's like that to be cleared up, and they're like, no, he was already out. like Why did Chapman throw the ball? Nobody knows. Yeah.
01:25:04
Speaker
ah So that's like a little little highlight. I don't have any MVPs. Lowlights, nothing on pitching. Offense, incarnation. He had the dukiest challenge known to man. He challenged a middle, middle pitch. Middle, middle. on the middle He challenged the strike. Middle, middle.
01:25:20
Speaker
What does he think he is? don't know. Gerard Jazz Chisholm Jr. Encarnacion. This is a new name. A defense that was Adamus and error leads to no outs and kills a double play. The bases eventually get loaded. For that particular play, had Adamus just toss it to second instead of first, there would have been one out. oh But other than that, no OLEPs.
01:25:40
Speaker
Hmm. So something to talk about is that the Giants have made roster moves coming in today, Monday, 4th. Just today? Well, last night. Oh, okay. But they made roster moves for today's game against the Padres. They call up Bryce Eldridge. They've been very like, we want to take him his development seriously. They don't want to rush him because we we had that with Marco Luciano where he got called up possibly too early. He is a first baseman slash DH. That means, so in I have his stat line here. He has 30 games played in AAA, 3-3-3 batting average, 445 on base percentage, 518 slugging, OPS 963. He has five home runs and 22 RBIs. Jesus Rodriguez also gets called up from AAA. He is a utility guy. He can play catcher and left and right field. He has 24 games played.
01:26:28
Speaker
What? Those are very different position catchers left and right. Yeah, that is that a true utility guy. We'll see how that works out. has a very specific set of skills. yeah Do not put that man in center.
01:26:44
Speaker
Good lord, don't put him in center. 24 games played, 330 batting average, 400 on-base percentage, 440 slugging, 840 on-base or OPS. He has two home runs, 14 RBIs. That's going to lead to my next segment on Giants roster questions. Okay, we have Bryce Eldridge, who is first base DH. Your best hitter is Casey Schmidt, who's the current DH.
01:27:04
Speaker
You have Devers on first. You have a Arise, who is probably not going to get extended despite his out-of-nowhere gold glove performance this season. grant We got him for the offense, and he has no power. But, you know, that but like this was like the thing, right? like he was always It was like his whole thing. was like, yeah, he just kind of like hits where defenders aren't. The defense isn't.
01:27:22
Speaker
Don't expect many home runs. I mean, what's his career home run? career home runs are 36 career home runs his first season is in minnesota in 2019 so obviously not a uh a power hitter but whatever then you have devors struggling at first slash dh you have adam is struggling as shortstop you have chapman also struggling on offense at third so then it's like okay well what do we do then you got this left fielder right fielder and catcher you have bailey who's struggling suzak's gonna be back soon So Hayes is probably going to get sent back down. Then you have left field. Elliot is struggling. Right field. Lee is struggling. And he's not getting in the stolen bases that he needs to get, you know, considering that your name is grandson of the wind. You keep grounding out. Lee keeps grounding out. Is there four three ground outs or six three ground outs? It it makes you want to pull your hair out. Then you have Gilbert's in center field, but center field's not play.
01:28:11
Speaker
So now it's like, okay, it's been made pretty clear that Adonis Chapman endeavors have went to Tony. They say they don't want days off because of their struggles. they They don't want to reset. They want to play through their struggles and hopefully like force it to get better. Clearly the front office says not anymore because we brought up, we we have three first basemen and three DHS. Got a little bit of a math problem, huh? Mm-hmm. So the expectation is probably, or the assumption, not expectation, the assumption is that Devers, Chapman, and Adamas are going to be alternating days off. It's pretty much every day from now on. One of them's not going to be playing. They're going to replaced by Casey Schmidt. Casey Schmidt can, or Bryce Elders for that matter If it's Devers off, you could either have Casey at first or Eldridge. If Chapman's off, then you'll have Casey Schmidt at third with Eldridge de-aging. If Adamus is off, you'll have Schmidt at short and Eldridge de-aging.
01:29:04
Speaker
that's what people think are is going to go for bailey uh with jesus rodriguez getting called up suzak i don't think patrick bailey is i don't think he is uh i don't think his fate is in his hands i think it's too late for that it's it's gonna be his defense is amazing you know like he threw out three runners in a single game as catcher but his offense is atrocious right now which is a continuation from last season which is really funny because i was like man i don't count last season and stuff but Here we are.
01:29:31
Speaker
He currently sits at 152 batting average, one homer on 12 hits. 221 on base percentage, 190 slugging, OPS 411. OPS plus of 20. If you're like, well, does he walk? Well, that on base percentage says no. 2026, the stats here say for walks, seven walks this season at eighty with 86 plate appearances.
01:29:52
Speaker
So now the question is, is his gold glove defense worth the offensive struggles? It looks like the answer is probably trending towards no. So that means the only way he gets to stay on the roster is if when Suzak comes back, does he continue to be as good as he was before his injury? Is Jesus Rodriguez going to be any good? There's still time for Jesus to like kind of, he has he's got to prove himself. If he's not a good catcher, then we're going to take a look at the outfield, left field and right field. Jesus Rodriguez is a right-hander. So it could be that if, oh, because Encarnacion's gone. He's gone. Like he's been, he had his, he had his shot to like cement his place on the bench.
01:30:28
Speaker
Failed completely. No
Giants' Roster and Performance Issues
01:30:30
Speaker
good. No good. If sometimes felt like he wasn't taking things seriously. He left his glove in the clubhouse. How do you do that? Yeah. Did we talk about that at all? We did. We did. Okay, good. So he's gone. So so even if Jesus is not as good as Bailey or Suzak, that means he's to be platooning with Jung-Hoo or Elliot. Most likely Jung-Hoo in right. And if whenever there's a lefty starter, Jesus is going to start. It's going to be my assumption. And then if a lefty, once the lefty is placed, takes a mound as a relief pitcher, that's when Jesus is going to replace Jung-Hoo right. I, that's going to be my guess on how that is most likely going to play out. If he's a great defensive catcher, if he's great on the offense, which is triple a stats seem to imply pretty good, but we'll see how that triple a you know, it doesn't always translate. You there's questions around Bryce Eldridge. Bryce Eldridge has still in spring training. He had a 30% strikeout rate in triple a, still a 30% strikeout rate. And what don't, and what do they not throw triple a breaking balls? Hmm. So we will see how that how Bryce Eldridge translates his AAA success to the majors. Hopefully it does because this team needs to turn around. And that's kind of like very sad because like that's where the the Giants are like, usually you're not seeing your AAA guys getting called up until like your season is officially dead towards the end of the season, right? Then you call them up and be like, well, let's see what you guys got. you're You know, almost like as ah almost like a very, very early spring training, right? So we will we will see how that all works out.
01:31:49
Speaker
Walker, Ryan Walker. Closer by committee is not working. I highly recommend. Hasn't worked the last two seasons, three seasons. Has not, it has not worked since we traded Duval. It worked a little bit because Ryan Walker was actually really good. So not sure what's going on. I highly, highly recommend. I thought about getting it, having soundbites for today. Chose not to because I think the whole thing is worth listening to and we don't own the rights. Look up on YouTube, you know, KNBR Sports Leader, the interview they did with Mike Kruko talking about Ryan Walker. Kruko is, he's color commentator for Giants home games. He's a pitcher. Not happy. He's not happy with Walker right now. And I've never heard these guys be like this negative for a tail player. Ryan Walker, has two pitches and Kruko is saying that he needs have a third. He needs to throw. has a two, he has a two seam fastball and a slider. I think it was what Walker has during one of his outings. I forget which one I think it against the Rays.
01:32:39
Speaker
He threw nine consecutive sinkers. Another interesting wrinkle to that story is that it was usually it's Bailey calling the ah the pitches. It was not Bailey calling the pitches that time. It was the dugout. Yeah, we will see how that how that played. Obviously, did not work because they lost. I was trying to figure out like how many blown saves Walker has. The best I can figure is that he has because I'm looking at baseball references does not have save. up It doesn't have blown saves. It just has saves.
01:33:05
Speaker
So we could take it look at his I guess his. loss right he has three saves this year and he has played 14 games that has one loss he has three saves for the year i gotta yeah i wish they had his bone saves but it's it is not a a a good we're not in a good place right now Three days ago, he had his third blown save. So that's probably, yeah, they don't blown saves. Not even on the MLB has ah blown saves. He's had, oh, well here we go. Here we go. 2026, he has six save opportunities. he has three blown slaves saves.
01:33:38
Speaker
Three blown slaves. Three blown slaves. So that is just terrible. I don't know. I don't know what to do. Send him to AAA to try and figure it out. Maybe that doesn't work. I don't know. But you need a closer. you need someone to close. And Tony keeps going to to Ryan Walker. And I just don't understand it. Like, don't go to him until you absolutely have to. Is kind of like the way that I see. I think a lot of fans see it as well so yeah giants not in a good spot right now to be doing these call-ups you know not because they think that eldridge and jesus are ready but because they need something to happen and guess who's not going to make the team any worse bryce eldridge and jesus i don't know i think the season's dead i really do like i like i don't i don't think that there's a
01:34:20
Speaker
Oh, a road back. path either ah When the Giants finished the homestand, they were like two or three games under 500. And now they're right back to where they were when they started the homestand. They're eight games below 500, eight games behind first place.
01:34:35
Speaker
How many games would they need win to, know, get into a wild card spot? Because you at least got to be 500. They are seven games behind the wild card. But, like, I think even the wild card is, like, out of reach. I mean, you're, because, like, you think about, like, okay, I said it, like, after the, was it the second episode? I was like for the second episode of the season where I was like, okay, we' I'm now on like just win series. Don't worry about win streaks just or sweet series, just win series. And you know, you think about like, you think about the math, right? Three game series, win two, lose one. That's a net positive one. And to do that eight consecutive times for, through a consecutive series just to get back to 500. And then from there, it's like, okay, now we got to get some sweeps. And we already knew that April was going to be a tough month for the Giants. And it's it's only getting worse. Like this next episode is going to be, yeah, the next episode is going to be like another gauntlet. And the gauntlet in some ways was not expected to be a gauntlet. We looked at, we were looking at it and was like, okay, this is like where things get a little bit soft and we can get some good wins here. And now it's like, oh, don't know about that. I think I'm going to do it. I think I'm, I think I'm calling the Giants season dead. Calling it here. I hope I'm wrong, but I, I don't think, I don't think there's a way for them just end with a, I guess crazy. Cause like the goal was like, okay, make it to the playoffs. You guys played great. The first half of last year. Don't know what happened the second half, but let's not do that again. Unless we they're doing an opposite of last season and they just completely turn it around after the all, like leading it up to the all-star break that continue it.
01:36:02
Speaker
Are able to, but, It's not looking like it. I don't know. would How much giant stuff have you seen outside of the podcast? It's just all the the bad stuff. You know, it's the it's the Gilbert being held up. It's the catwalk. Cardassio for getting his glove, the catwalk. It's getting in the glove. It's the ball off the catwalk and then the arguing with the umps. Also, hey, shout out Close Call Sports on YouTube. Lindsey tried to figure out like where did it hit, and she believes that it did hit the catwalk.
01:36:30
Speaker
That creates a home run. Because they have the four rings, the a A, B, C, and D. If it hits the A, B ring, the ball is in play. If it hits the C, D ring, it is a homework home run. Weirdly enough, you can get a, do you know that with the rules, you can get a home run, even if the ball is in foul territory? I mean, it's the catwalk.
Stadium Rules and Player Comparisons
01:36:46
Speaker
No, I had no idea. Yeah. So what a strange, strange ballpark.
01:36:51
Speaker
Hopefully they're out of it soon. should just give them, giving them a traditional roof that can open like they do in a lot of places. and though That would be hard to to remain to to do during the the repairs, yeah. If they even wanted to expend that money doing that. yeah Put some cameras up there, at the very least. Put something up there. Something. I don't even know what other events that that place holds, aside from maybe like pro wrestling. Yeah, I couldnt could not tell you. Such a unique atmosphere there, too, because you got, like, the weird, like, sculpture man coming out the wall of a raised player. Yeah.
01:37:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's like, it's trapped in time in, like, so many aspects of it. Yeah. All right, Liam. i have to pee, so I'll pause the recording. Okay. Okay, it's time for our next combined arms.
01:37:33
Speaker
So where we're going to take a look at our players, and for this one we're going look at just their war. That is a stat called wins above replacement. I'm using baseball reference for my stats. What are you using? I got fan graphs so we can kind of compare. I'm using B war Liam's using F war. yeah, that works out. the The way that wins above replacement. That's what war means does is ah the definition is a single number that represents the number of wins the player added to the team above what a replacement player would add. This value includes defensive support and includes additional value for high leverage situations.
01:38:03
Speaker
So we're going to start off with our starters. Who'd you go for Liam? My starter I put in is Max Fried. He has pitched 11 more innings than Cam Schlittler. So that's reason he got the bump over him. And how does your end calculate a pitching war? Because I have two ways of calculating mine and then a 50-50 split. So I'm going off 50-50 split. Baseball Reference just has a flat number.
01:38:26
Speaker
for but don't have They don't have one for a pitching war. All right, just curious, just curious. Editor, feel free to cut that in or out. But wait what other stats can I give right now? Whatever you think is necessary. What what is his war, by the way? What is his war? 1.9.
01:38:42
Speaker
we're to compare that to my choice. Logan Webb, 2026. He has started eight games, pitched 39.2 innings, and has a season war of 0.1. What? Yes. For real? pi yeah He's he's your highest is your highest? I just went with ah the ace. I was like, you don't want to with Logan Webb. Honestly, kind of high key what I did. How many innings do Webb have pitched? 44. 44? Frida's at
01:39:11
Speaker
So, yeah, I don't think there's any question about that. that one Our April team is going to be max free. All right. Next, we're going to move to catcher. Who was your pick? Austin Wells. He is our regular everyday catcher, apart from where they rest him for JC Oscara, maybe for defensive reasons. So I'm told. Let me pull him up real quick. Austin Wells, current war, 0.6. 0.6. 0.6.
01:39:34
Speaker
All right, I went for Patrick Bailey. Glover. He has played a total of 97 games. He sits at, or I'm sorry, did I say 96 games? I meant 27 games.
01:39:45
Speaker
96 games already. did twenty seven game He's outworking everyone. bay Average of 152, has a one home run, and a war of zero. what this is This is crazy. I thought Patrick Bailey was at least guaranteed to take over Austin Wells here. I mean, we look more in the other stats, like more defensive stats, perhaps. But for this one we're just going off war. No. All right. Inkies two for two.
01:40:08
Speaker
First base. Who did you choose? It's going to be little fair here. Ben Ben Rice. What do you mean you got to be fair here? It's not going to be fair here. Oh, yeah. No, it's not. not going to be fair. We got an ah MVP candidate. Someone coming up here with a four of 2.1. 2.1? Okay, what's the batting average? Batting average on Ben Rice at the moment? If you have a... I'm going to double check this. Oh, yeah. 343 batting average.
01:40:36
Speaker
but Second in Major League Baseball. bush because you got rafael devers here with a whopping zero point or sorry negative 0.9 war 28 hits batting average of 214 200 all yankies go three for three three who's your second baseman second who's did you choose for second base Jazz Chisholm Jr. Okay.
01:41:02
Speaker
Jazz Chisholm Jr. Sporting a healthy.4 war currently on the season off of 118 at-bats. He's got a.212 batting average,.299 on base percentage, and a 6.2 OPS. ESPN is telling me his war is zero. Interesting.
01:41:22
Speaker
Which is interesting. All right. Let's compare that to my second baseman, Luis Arise. He sits at 1.2 war. Batting average of 308 and OPS of 710.
01:41:33
Speaker
Luis Arise. No contest right there. actually not. Giants are finally on the board. On the board. Let's go, baby. Luis Arise. Luis Arise. All right.
01:41:45
Speaker
Third base. Base? Who did I put at third base? i think I haven't put someone at third base yet. Oh. hello loda Why don't you talk about your third baseman first up? All right. I chose Matt Chapman, everyday third baseman. He sits at a shocking 1.2 war, batting.246, slugging.331, and an OPS of.655.
01:42:08
Speaker
Oh, boy. Oh, boy. That's fun. Is it we're picking our starter or we're picking our best third baseman? Because I can go a different way here. Well, we don't have a backup third baseman, so...
01:42:21
Speaker
um Though he is worse defensively, i will be going with Ahmed Rosario. Ahmad Rosario sporting a 267 batting average, four home runs, 14 RBI. He's got a 830 OPS.
01:42:37
Speaker
Fangraphs war. Show me the money here, baby. Ahmad Rosario sporting a.2 war. oh my God. The Giants take it again. i don't know how Matt Chapman has a 1.2 war. That's a comfortable defense.
01:42:49
Speaker
All right. Congratulations, Matt Chapman. Yeah. Made the team. Giants, two for two. All right. Shortstop, who do you have? I'm going with Jose Caballero.
01:43:01
Speaker
r Jose Jose Caballero. Caballero. Two L's. I'm going start pulling up their... Not that I haven't already. i'm putting I'm putting up their ESPN stats to help me out here. Cabby. Caballero sporting a 259 batting average home runs, RBI,
01:43:19
Speaker
seven twelve op p s in a war of point nine point nine a point nine And I chose Willie Adamas. He has zero war.
01:43:34
Speaker
A rating average of 195, six RBIs, 12 reds, 236 on base percentage, 346 logging, 582 OPS. Pull him up on ESPN real quick because yeah ESPN's war is radically different.
01:43:49
Speaker
Can be radically different at least. Okay, let's take a look at what yeah ESPN says. yeah ESPN. ESPN. Where do they have war? It's all the way in the back.
01:44:00
Speaker
All the way down? ah If you go to your team, ah you go to batting stats and splits, and just scroll all the way to the side. Full splits. There we go. Looking, looking, looking, looking for war.
01:44:11
Speaker
Is it in full splits? No, no, no. Go do go to stats. Go to stats, then scroll down to batting average. All splits. okay there it is war okay uh where do they have it for the season there is zero okay okay sorry that's the sorry that's stolen base where's war oh there it is oh no that's career zero offensive wars negative 0.1 geez yeah so that will be caballero left field we got left field
01:44:46
Speaker
I got one Cody Bellinger. Where are you at, Belly? Belly sporting a 1.4 Okay. ESPN tells me 1.7 of 120 at-bats, sporting a 275 average OPS of 857. 857. of a hundred twenty at- batts sporting a a nice ah two seventy five average ops of eight fifty seven Okay, compare that to my left fielder, Elliot Ramos, 0.1 reward, 270 batting average, 12 runs, 15 RBI, 308 on base percentage, OPS 7.8. So it looks like that's going to Bellinger.
01:45:20
Speaker
Centerfield, who do you have? I have one Trent Grisham. Trent Grisham, huh? Trent Grisham. ESPN is telling me zero war. ESPN is telling me zero war off the 105 at-bats. Trent Grisham has a 162 batting average.
01:45:37
Speaker
OPS of 649. And redact official war partner. Not true. Not true. Editor, cut that out. Bleep that out. Get he ourselves sued by that. Like that. Where are you, Trent? Trent Grisham war 0.1. He's more than tell you. All right. Well, we will compare that to Drew Gilbert. might need to bring out the yeah ESPN stats because we got a little bit of have a little bit of a tie here. Oh, boy. So according to baseball reference, he has zero war, banging 271, five runs, five RBIs, two home runs, 314 on base percentage, slugging 417, OPS of 730. ESPN stats.
01:46:18
Speaker
yeah ESPN has him with a war of zero as well. Trent Grisham barely squeaking it out. Squeaking it by, squeaking it by. I think if we dug in deeper, it could be arguable, Drew Giller, but we're going by war. Right field.
01:46:33
Speaker
It's a hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby. Coughing baby. Who do you have? We have perennial MVP candidate Aaron Judge. I'll tell you right now, 1.9 Crazy. One month in. 1.9 war.
01:46:46
Speaker
crazy one month in one point nine war And amazing batting stats, i assume. Yes, of course. I won't iie well i won't even... No, I'll give you a taste. I'll give you a taste. Okay. No, no, no. Oh, Junker 0.5 war. 281 batting average.
01:47:03
Speaker
Pretty good batting average. He'd certainly he certainly kick a couple members off this list if he was out of position. On base percentage. Slugging, 413. OPS, 744. seven forty four So see what Aaron Judge can do.
01:47:15
Speaker
Coffee baby Aaron Judge. Yeah, let's compare their stats come September, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Come June. So we're going to Aaron Judge? Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Sounded like, oh yeah.
01:47:30
Speaker
All right, DH. Who do you got? DH. I'm going John Carlos Stanton. Okay. Okay. John Carlos Stanton. Highlight batting average real quick, ESPN. John Carlos Stanton is sporting a two fifty six batting average, And he has war op p s is all across ninety at- batts and he has a war of point one point one Really? Okay.
01:47:57
Speaker
Casey Schmidt is my choice. He has 0.64, 104 at-bats, 32 hits, 4 home runs, 308 batting average, on-base percentage 354, selecting 519, OPS 873.
01:48:10
Speaker
So I'm kind of surprised there that Casey gets the ah the DH. All right, so just for a quick review... Our combined team, starter, Max Freed, catcher, Austin Wells, first base, Ben Rice, second base, Luis Arise, third base, Matt Chapman, shortstop, Jose Caballero, left field, Cody Bellinger, center field, Trent Grisham, right field, Aaron Judge, DH, Casey Schmidt.
01:48:34
Speaker
If only there was a way to figure out how this team would do. Gotta find a way to simulate it.
01:48:41
Speaker
You good? You fall?
01:48:45
Speaker
Oh, hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. um Well, we'll see each other in two weeks. How's that sound, Liam? Sounds great as usual. All right, so let's take a look here at what to expect. You have a three-game series versus the Rangers.
01:49:01
Speaker
Is that correct? Yes, that is correct. three-game series at the Brewers, a three-game series at Orioles, and a three-game series at the Mets.
Upcoming Series Expectations
01:49:11
Speaker
So big road trip coming up.
01:49:13
Speaker
And considering that like it's basically or almost a repeat of this episode, you got at least two series wins over here. Maybe first three game series against the Mets. I've even heard about a while.
01:49:27
Speaker
That's going to be a rough one. It's usually two series of two, but it's going to be a yikes. Yikes. I do not envy the Mets ah for the Giants.
01:49:38
Speaker
Three game series versus the Padres. Three game series versus the Pirates. Then we end on the road. Four game series in l L.A., against the bums three game series in sacramento against the a's how do you feel about your series just as like a like a just like okay you got four series what's your what's your what are you expecting to come back for four o four oh four or three one two two at least two and two who knows maybe they're the rangers find something now the look at you just hedging really I'm hedging. I'm hedging. I'm staying realistic.
01:50:13
Speaker
Okay. Staying realistic. Mets, I expect complete domination. So as long as we sweep them, that'd be pretty cool. right. For my Giants here, think best case is split the series. Split that four-game series, best case scenario. I'll take that as a victory. Padres?
01:50:29
Speaker
I'm not sure about that one. Could you be lucky and not get skeins when you go play the Pirates? ah Do we? Do we luck out? Who's to say? Is that too far out?
01:50:39
Speaker
Pittsburgh. What's the probable matchup? Nah, they have TBD versus TBD on Pittsburgh. It's possible that we could miss skeins, but doubtful. So we'll see. We will see. I'm thinking if we can go to no. Yeah. Two one one. It's playing that four game series. to Be great.
01:50:57
Speaker
I think it's going to end up. if I think we can beat the A's hopefully, but they're first place. So who knows? But they're also the A's, but it's also in a triple A ballpark and the A's do terrible at that ballpark, but the Giants also play to the level of their competitor or worse. So.
01:51:10
Speaker
Too many variables. I think that maybe we could definitely be take the three-game series against the A's. I think we're going up being one and three when we come back. My faith in the team is at an all-time low, way too early in the season. But I think i think one for three is reasonable. I think the best case is 2-1-1. And I think middle of the ground would be 1-2-1. 1-2-1.
01:51:33
Speaker
Split that four-game series. that's I think that's imperative to split that series, at the very least. Split it. Liam, you got anything to plug? Nope. As usual. All right. I do. I got something to plug.
01:51:44
Speaker
Plug it. My friend, Michael, he streams on Twitch and has a YouTube channel. You can find him on Twitch, twitch.tv slash cindervarella, C-I-N-D-E-R-V-A-R-E-L-A.
01:51:55
Speaker
And you can also find him on YouTube, youtube.com slash cindervarella as well. He has a lot of highlights. Sometimes I'm on stream and We have good time. We're waiting for Total War Warhammer 40k to come out. It's going to be a time.
01:52:12
Speaker
Goodbye, Liam. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.