OPENING DAY! + League Award & Playoff Predictions

Playoff/World Series predictions, as well as predicting the AL/NL CY YOUNG, MVPS, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, and COACH OF THE YEAR. Then, breaking down our top thoughts from opening day weekend.

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Inside the Diamond is your one-stop shop for everything MLB! From in-depth analysis of the latest games and breaking news, to minor league prospects we've got you covered. Join us for insightful discussions on the game's history, current events, and future trends. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just getting into baseball, Inside the Diamond has something for everyone.

welcome back everyone to

inside the diamonds podcast

this is episode four I'm

your host jc and I'm joined

tonight with cj how you doing cj

after a long crappy day,

I'm excited to talk some

baseball and watch some baseball.

So I'm happy to be here.

Yeah.

Hopefully my internet will hold out.

Like I said, I'm in a hotel in Buffalo,

so hopefully it'll hold out

and that I don't get

bombarded with a bunch of hockey kids.

So, uh, we'll see how it goes, but yeah,

I can't wait to get

baseball back on the TV now

that I'm here now that the

boy's out of the room.

So, uh,

Why don't we start this

episode by quickly going

over our predictions,

finishing up from the first

two episodes that we did

where we were discussing the divisions,

the winners.

Let's get into the playoffs.

Let's talk that.

Then let's talk the awards,

and then we can hit on

everything that happened

this past first weekend.

So to kick it off,

why don't you walk us down

through what you have

happening in the American

League and then the

National League and then who you have –

we'll wait on the World

Series until I do mine.

How's that?

That sounds good to me.

All right,

so as far as the American League

Championship Series, again,

this is before the season started.

Yeah.

I had the Orioles over the Mariners.

Okay.

And the Orioles look like that's the case.

They look good after four games.

We're not going to get ahead of ourselves,

but the Mariners –

wow,

that was an interesting weekend as far

as their pitching is concerned.

Yeah.

And then going to go right

into the National League,

Braves over the Phillies.

And people might say

something about this with

not having the Dodgers,

but I got Braves over Phillies.

I think the Phillies are good.

Even after this weekend

where they just trounced them?

Well,

that's why I say the Braves over the

Phillies.

I didn't say I had the Phillies winning.

Did the Phillies?

I feel like the Phillies signed somebody.

No.

Not that I remember.

Either way, I'm still comfortable.

I'm still comfortable with

Wheeler and Noel leading the charge,

and then that lineup is just good.

Yeah.

I have a strong feeling that

the Phillies are actually

knocking out the Dodgers in

the round before this.

Did you see Schwarber this

weekend hit that smoke shot off a sale?

Was that yesterday in the first inning?

I watched that.

As soon as sale threw it in

the crack of the bat,

he ducked like flinched.

That's how quick Schwarber hit that ball.

That boy can hit.

All right.

So I don't have.

I want to make my bold

prediction here on why I

said what I just said.

So the Phillies eliminate

the Dodgers in the NLC and the NLDS.

And the reason why I have that.

This is my bold prediction,

and some people have heard me say this,

whether I've seen you in

person or whatever.

I have a strong feeling as a Red Sox fan,

Alex Cora is not under

contract for next year.

I think he's leaving.

I think the Dodgers, with all that talent,

are going to look at this and go,

Dave Roberts isn't the guy.

He's fired after they lose

in technically the first

round because they'll have the bye.

And Alex Cora gets the bag

and is the manager of the

Dodgers next season,

which could be what leads

them to a World Series title.

Wow.

Otani's taking that bet.

So that's nice.

Otani will take that bet all day long.

He will put that money on

Cora being the next manager there.

Now, briefly,

I would love to go back and

see the numbers and the

gambling on any site.

or anywhere out there, out west,

when it came down to

Yamamoto and where he was going to sign.

I want to know a little bit

more in regards to the

interpreters where he had his money.

Because that right there is

something that is interesting.

But either way, doesn't matter.

That's a good, bold prediction.

I have Baltimore beating the Astros.

I have the Astros and

Mariners going seven games

and the Astros beating them

with Verlander on the hill against,

you know,

probably George Kirby or Luis Castillo.

I do have Baltimore just really,

I think Baltimore is going

to make a move at the

deadline to grab another

arm and just really,

really crush that division.

I don't have any doubt.

They don't win more than a

hundred games this year in the NL and,

I have the Braves and Dodgers.

I think the Dodgers will get there.

I think that you're going to

see the Phillies pitching staff.

Something's just off with

Nola the past two years,

and he's starting out the same way.

I don't think they're going

to be as dominant this year.

I also think the Phillies

are going to end up getting

taken out by the Reds in

the opening series.

But that's just my bold prediction.

So Dodgers, Braves.

Astros Baltimore and I think

that'll all depend for the

Astros preseason before

they got swept by the

Yankees was in regards to

Verlander and Hunter Brown

how those two came back I

think Hunter Brown's gonna

have a good year but right

now that's where I had it

before the season actually

kicked off so who's winning

the World Series I went

back who's who's going to

the World Series for you so

I think I already gave that

away I got Orioles and Braves um

I went back and forth

because both of these teams are very,

very talented.

You right away just kind of

almost made me change my mind,

but we're sticking with

what we had before the season.

I'm going with the Braves over the Orioles,

and the reason why I almost

changed my mind is I agree with you.

The Orioles are going to get

someone at the deadline,

a number two or a number three starter.

They will go get someone.

Will that be able to beat the Braves?

That's where I started to question it.

I don't think so.

But I think I also said in

the National League, it was two weeks now,

so I can't remember what I

did yesterday sometimes.

I think I did say that this

is the year that I think

Chris Sale stays healthy

and is a Cy Young candidate.

All that said, as a number three,

four starter, especially in the playoffs,

there's less stress on him.

I mean, Strider and Freed and Morton,

I think they're just miles ahead.

I think the Orioles are good,

but I think the Braves win,

and I actually have it in six.

Okay.

So I have Baltimore beating

the Astros in six games.

The Dodgers and Braves go the full seven.

Now, I had to do this for both divisions,

and everything is as they stay healthy,

right?

if the Braves stay healthy

and the Dodgers stay

healthy or come back healthy,

meaning Walker Bueller and their arms,

Clayton Kershaw comes back.

That's just as good as

adding a veteran arm at the

trade deadline,

getting him back mid season.

I think the Dodgers are

going to actually surprise

the Braves in seven,

but there'll be something controversial,

whether that's Otani

pitching as a closer in the playoffs or

There's going to be

something that'll be spiced up,

that'll come into play,

that'll heat up that series

if everyone's healthy.

So I have the Dodgers against Baltimore,

and I have the Dodgers.

That's a bold prediction.

Otani pitching a closing role,

that's a bold prediction.

I like it.

Somehow,

he's going to come back and do something.

Because now, all of a sudden,

now you're in late October, right?

So...

He's close to being back to ready,

perhaps.

Will they waste it?

Maybe.

But I think that he'll be

kept quiet as well.

You know what I mean?

I think that this is

something no one expects.

He comes out,

they end up beating the Braves in seven,

but they beat them in

Atlanta in game seven.

because the Braves will win

more games in my mind.

But then I have the Dodgers

beating the Orioles in five

games in the World Series,

just overpowering them with

their pitching and their young bats.

I like the Orioles,

but I just think the Dodgers,

if they can get past the Braves,

the Orioles will steal one game away,

maybe when Burns is pitching.

But other than that,

I think the Dodgers run away with it.

And I hate saying that

because I don't want them to.

Here's a question for you

before we move on.

Is Jackson Holiday on that roster?

Yes, he's on that roster.

So I think you saying that

we're both in agreement

that this in AAA is the

same as Chris Bryant was

for the Cubs a couple of years back.

It's just an extra year for him.

Yep, okay.

That's where I'm at, too.

When I was thinking about it,

my big thing with the

Orioles are they're built long-term,

and they're going to be

like that team that goes in and gets beat,

but then they're going to go back.

Now they've got that chip on

their shoulder.

They're going to have that added –

for these young kids.

I think, like I said the last time,

I think Corbin Burns

doesn't leave Camden Yards

again for a long time.

I hope so, too.

So that was kind of, again,

trying to keep everything

that we've done so far to

remember it was before the

season started.

Because then once the season started,

there's a lot of different

things came up.

You know,

pretty hard to look at the

Yankees crushing the Astros,

not having them making the

playoffs for myself at all.

But that's where I have them.

And I think that's, you know, the Dodgers,

much as I hate it,

I think that there's going

to be some silly things

that happen at the end of the year,

in that NL championship when

the Dodgers are playing the Braves.

But that's what I have.

Almost.

And I've written this and

I've talked about this.

I almost want the Tigers in

the ALCS just because I

think they are this year's Diamondbacks.

So I would be surprised if

they somehow shock

everybody and reach the World Series.

Absolutely not.

think they have the I think

I said it last week in the

american league preview

they have the pitching and

the depth and the bullpen

and the lineup that can do

it so I think they could

really shock people and

don't be surprised if

they're there I almost did

it almost but I talked

myself out of it I just

like the mariners pitching

just a little bit more

because they to me are a

top five rotation yeah yeah

it's it the tricky thing

for the mariners as we said

last week is if they get

off to a slow start again

There's so many teams that

are deep that they're not

going to be able to make up

that difference to get in there.

There's just so much talent now,

and there will be moves made.

And I think they may panic,

and they may panic and end

up shifting off one of

their arms if they had to.

I hope not.

But, yeah, there's a lot.

It'll be interesting.

We'll have to revisit this

halfway through the season,

right before the trade deadline,

and just see how off we are

and what the surprises are.

We should do at the trade deadline, Rick,

right before or even after it,

because I forget what day it is.

We should re-evaluate our

predictions and see if we

change anything.

It's like a free pass.

You get a free one-time change on anything,

and then you can go from there.

I actually would say the

all-star break before the trade deadline.

That way you can't let the

trades change your decision.

Yep.

Makes sense.

Actually,

you know what we could do now

that we're talking midair, but...

during the Home Run Derby.

We broadcast on Monday nights.

We can do it while watching

that and have that in the

background or whatever.

We can figure that all out.

So now that we have given

you our World Series predictions,

why don't we jump right

into the awards for we're

going to do the American and NL Cy Young.

ALNL MVP, Rookie of the Year,

and then Coach of the Year.

So why don't you go ahead

and give me your AL Cy

Young Award winner?

Make it quick.

I'm going Tarek Skubal.

I mean, and again,

this was before the season.

I said that he was,

I think I said it actually last week,

that he is a dark horse for it.

I might have said it two

weeks ago as well.

Even more so, I think,

watching his start on Thursday and

solidified that and what he can do.

I mean, he is pumping.

And as long as he stays healthy,

he can compete as one of

the best pitchers in the American League.

Okay.

I wrote an article in

regards to bold statements

for the Mariners,

and I said they were going

to have two of the five top

vote-getters for the Cy Young.

I'm going George Kirby.

And after what he did,

his opening start with nine

strikeouts and just basically dominated.

And he doesn't have, knock on wood,

any health concerns.

I think he's going to

surprise some people.

And hopefully if that

Mariners team does well,

better than the Tigers, for instance,

that he can sneak out that

Cy Young and take that award.

Because other than him,

the only other name that I

had even considered was Burns.

That was the other one for me.

But George Kirby's the guy for me.

He's so young.

He's just talented.

And out of that rotation in their bullpen,

I think he's got a good

opportunity this year to do that.

I think the only thing that

hurts him is the rotation.

And because of all the arms

and the talent they have,

it's going to hurt his votes.

And that's the reason why I

didn't go that way.

I'm right there with you

because I think Gilbert is

another option.

I like Gilbert a lot.

So I'm right there with you.

All right, who do you have for the NL,

Cy Young?

Spencer Strider.

I love this Braves rotation

from top to bottom.

Again,

this might go back to what I just

said to you.

What his rotation has might

hurt his votes.

But I actually want to pull it up.

I believe his stats last year,

he was a candidate to be a Cy.

He was in the Cy Young

conversation before he got injured.

I want to pull him up right now.

But I love Spencer Strider

and watching him pitch.

He's another name I don't

talk about much that we've done this.

He is a lot of fun to watch.

Oh, no, he made 32 starts last year.

So, never mind.

I'm thinking of Freed.

But I still got Strider as my Cy Young.

He's got to get that ERA

down a little bit.

To me, the 386 is a little high.

His strikeouts, he had 281 last year.

I think he's one of the best

pitchers in the National League and,

to me, one of the most fun to watch.

And I don't know who else really –

I mean,

I guess you could go Logan Webb is

another option,

but he's the runaway to me

in the National League right now.

Not even right now, before the season,

and right now too.

Before the season, I had Strider.

Before the season, I had Strider, Wheeler,

and then Gallon.

I landed on Zach Gallon just

simply due to what we said

earlier in regards to the

supporting cast in the rotation.

Zach Gallen is going to be

head and shoulders above

the rest of that rotation.

Not saying that they're not good,

but his stats and everything,

he's going to lead that

Diamondbacks team back to the playoffs.

And he's going to win over 15 games.

And he's my pick for the Cy

Young this year.

I like that.

There was somebody else I

wanted to throw in there

after Saturday's performance,

but I won't.

This is all preseason.

Who?

Now I'm curious.

Bobby Miller.

Again, he's too young, but you know,

recency bias when someone's

out there just dominates

the game and just throwing BBs.

If that kid can stay healthy,

that's part of the reason

why I was okay with the

Braves beating the Dodgers

is they just have arms, a ton of arms.

So

I hate doing this one.

MVP, American League, who do you got?

Julio Rodriguez.

Okay.

I see it as he – I mean,

Shohei ran away with the award last year,

and very well deserved.

Yes.

But I think with Shohei

being in the National League,

now it opens up the

conversation for other names.

And Julio Rodriguez, to me, stays healthy,

gets to the top of that list.

He finished behind Seager, Simeon,

and Otani last year.

And we talked –

I don't know if it was the

first episode or second

episode where we had to

talk about what team has the biggest fall,

like the Cardinals.

The Rangers.

So take those two names out.

Otani's gone.

I think the award is Julio Rodriguez.

Okay.

I had Marcus Simeon and Juan

Soto along with Julio.

I didn't pick Julio simply

because I think...

He's going to get off to a slow start,

and I think he's going to

have an average year for Julio Rodriguez.

Not an average year for anybody,

but an average year for himself.

Marcus Simeon,

simply because I think that

team's going to fall off,

and I think there's going

to be other hype around

that team that he'll get

lost in the shuffle again.

So my pick, as much as it kills me,

is Juan Soto.

I think he's going to single-handedly –

we'll find a way for those

Yankees to get into the playoffs,

even though I don't have him picked to,

but I think his offensive

ability is going to lead

that team into the playoffs

and make some noise,

not get anywhere far and

disrupt what we've just talked about,

but I think he'll lead that team.

I mean,

and he's starting off hot with one

home run, four RBIs.

He's hitting 529 with a 1.365 OPS and,

And that was – he hasn't

even played in Yankee Stadium yet.

Yeah.

So, I mean, that was my pick beforehand.

I didn't expect him to come out.

I didn't expect that opening

series to be the way it was.

But I just think in that

short porch where he

doesn't always hit for power,

but he's always hitting –

he sprays the ball around

when he's hitting his home runs.

You know, he's going opposite field.

I think you'll see some of

those – that short porch

and right is going to

generate at least five to

six additional home runs for him.

And I just think he's going to eat –

behind Judge, in front of, you know,

wherever they put him.

If he's in front of Judge,

where he ends up for the season,

in between the rest of those bats,

I think he's going to have a huge season.

Yeah, I can see it too.

All right.

Who's your NL MVP?

Mookie Betts.

And...

Realistically,

he would have been it last year.

Not should have.

He would have been it if

Ronald Acuna didn't have

that historic season that he had.

And, I mean,

like you just rattled off Soto's numbers.

Mookie, I mean,

granted the Dodgers have

played more games than

anybody else because of the

series in South Korea.

He's hitting .500.

I mean,

that move to shortstop may have

been something.

We talked about it, I think,

a couple weeks ago where we

were iffy on it

But the way he's playing

with the move to shortstop,

he's a whole different player.

I mean,

it's just he's got a 1.136 slugging.

He's got a 1.757 OPS.

He's 10 RBIs, four home runs.

I mean,

he's just stroking the ball right now.

So I had him before the season,

but watching what he's done in the first,

I think where they played six games.

Sorry, six games.

It's just solidifying it for me.

It's case closed.

I think it's Mookie.

Mookie is the type of guy I

remember when he was with Boston,

they moved him from second

because Pejoria was there

and they moved him out to center.

And he had that great year.

And he's the type of guy

that puts a chip on his shoulder.

He's moving from second over

to short position.

He's never played in the pros, right?

So everyone's watching that

and he's just continuing to rake.

I think he, I agree.

I think he's going to have a good year,

but,

My pick on the other hand

was someone that I have

been beating this drum all

spring training.

I think say a Suzuki for the Cubs and yes,

it's a Homer pick,

but I think that he's going

to put it all together this

year with Bellinger behind him with Morel,

all the talent that's there.

I think he's going to have a

surprise year and drive

that team deep into the playoffs.

And I think he's going to

have an out dark.

He's my dark horse to win the MVP for the,

uh,

and that's what I'm going to stick with.

It's an interesting pick.

It's not where I thought you were going.

Last year he had a great year.

He's still getting kind of comfortable.

He's had some nagging

injuries each of the first two years.

I think this year he's going

to stay a little more healthy.

I think Craig Council is

going to have the ability

to get him some time at DH.

to rest him some.

He's a great fielder too.

But I think what he can do is like today,

I watched on my drive.

He just takes the ball.

He takes what the pitcher

gives him and drives the ball,

drives the opposite field.

He does a lot of the good,

the little things well.

And I think his power numbers this year,

I think he's got a chance

to hit 30 doubles and 30

home runs and steal 18 bases.

and drive in 100 runs.

Now,

that's not probably going to beat some

of the other power numbers,

but I think what he does in

the field as well is going

to be enough to get him into the race.

Out of curiosity, because you named,

for all the other awards,

you named who you had as your other two.

Who were your other two?

I had Tatis.

Okay.

As one healthy.

The other one was Matt Olson.

Okay.

So there's my other two as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

We did agree there, but it's pretty tough.

I mean,

I had more people in the national

league to pick from than

the American league.

Cause you can pick, you can pick Mookie.

You can pick Matt, uh, Freddie Freeman.

You can pick a Tony.

You can pick a Kuna.

You can pick Matt Olson.

I mean, Austin Riley was another one,

but I just,

He's just not there for me yet.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised.

But, yeah,

the National League has got so much.

What about Bellinger?

I don't think he's going to

have a repeat year.

Okay.

I agree.

In my opinion.

I think he'll be similar but

down a little bit.

in my opinion,

but average will be average.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think he'll, I think,

I think he'll be right around last year,

maybe a little lower in some of the, the,

the average in some of the power numbers,

but it won't be the dip

that he had when the last

few years he was with the Dodgers.

All right.

AL rookie of the year.

This one

I almost, almost,

and I'll give this a little tease,

I almost went Colt Keith.

But I was really thinking

that he was going to make the roster,

and thankfully he did,

and he's looked good so far.

I had Wyatt Langford, and I actually,

as a Tigers fan, as well as a Red Sox fan,

I can't tell you.

I had a game during the draft,

so I wasn't able to actually watch it.

Or actually, no,

I was driving home after a game,

and I saw it come across my

phone that the Tigers took

Max Clark at the third pick,

and Wyatt Langford went four.

And I said, are you kidding me?

I have followed Wyatt Langford since his,

what was he in June?

I believe last year was his junior year,

since he was a sophomore at Florida.

He, to me, was the lock at three.

I was surprised.

I mean,

if Cruz and Skeens weren't in this draft,

he's number one.

He should have been a Tiger,

and there's no question in my mind.

But they went Max Clark.

Wyatt Langford is a Ranger.

He's the defending World Series champion,

and he makes the team out of camp.

And I think he's going to

make that team a lot better.

Again, we talked about it.

Their pitching is a question.

That's why I have them as

the team to follow,

and I have them where I do.

But I think adding his bat

to the lineup is fantastic.

I think he is going to

surprise some people.

And I know people have said,

his counterpart, his teammate.

I like Wyatt Langford more

than I like Evan Carter.

And my rankings may not reflect that,

but I think Langford will

end up being a better player.

So for me, heading into the year,

I had Jackson Holiday.

Before we started this, he was sent down.

And knowing what they have

there and not knowing how

he was going to respond or

when he would come up, I shifted.

And I, too, have Wyatt Langford.

And after watching him this

weekend in those three

games against the Cubs and

the pain in the ass that he

was for the Cubs pitching, that kid,

like you said,

he may not be ranked or may

not have been drafted ahead

of some of these others,

but he's just going to be a

better player all around

because he's going to get

the – he forces the Rangers –

to play by how he plays he

doesn't need the

development he's coming

there he's already there

doing it he's good

defensively and I really

like his bat I really

really like his bat and as

much as I hate to agree

with you on that that

that's who I had as well

him and holiday and if

holiday would have made the

team I probably went with

holiday right out of the

bat just because of the hype and

And this, to be honest,

there's not a whole lot of

options that are already on

pro clubs right now.

There'll be someone maybe that comes up,

you know, may could surprise us all, but,

but that's why.

Could Raphael.

He's such fantastic to start.

One thing I wanted to mention,

did you see the video of

Langford tonight?

No, not yet.

He was on first base and.

He stole second,

or maybe it was a ground ball.

Oh, it was a ground ball shortstop,

and he was advancing to second.

He saw no one had third,

so he went to third.

And granted,

he ended up being out on the play.

But he realized smart base

running on his part.

The catcher was covering third.

The pitcher was somewhere else.

He went home,

and the pitcher just beat him,

which my guess is because he's got speed.

He must have just been gassed.

But the pitcher just barely

beat him and he was out at the plate.

But that's to me,

that's heads up base running.

I mean,

he took third base on a routine

ground out and had the chance to score.

And just to me, like I said,

it was barely I mean, he was out.

It was clear that he was out,

but it was close.

And you love seeing that.

And that's just the kind of

baseball player he is.

So Rangers fans got lucky

with him and they're going

to enjoy him for, I would say,

a long time.

yeah definitely 100 effort

you know he's got all the

all the skills all the bat

involved but he's also just

smart he's not afraid I

think that's probably the

one thing that sticks out

with what you just said is

a lot of these guys come up

worried about making

mistakes taking that

opportunity right there it was risk but

where there's no clear coverage,

because there's no

guarantee that that pitcher

is going to be awake and aware, right?

Yes, you're supposed to.

You practice this.

But chances are, nine times out of ten,

you've got to catch them sleeping.

Yes, steal a run.

Steal a run, help your team.

I like it.

I like the aggressiveness.

All right.

Who do you have in the National League?

I actually went Jung-Hoo Lee.

Okay.

And this was before the season started.

Yep.

I went back and forth.

Listen, I wrote, and again, I said this,

one of the podcasts,

probably the National League one,

but I wrote,

could Yoshinobu Yamamoto be a bust?

I don't think he is,

but based on what his last

two spring starts and what

his first start was,

I just couldn't find it to

put him as my NL rookie of the year.

And then as I went through it, I really –

Really, like you said with Jackson Holiday,

I wanted to do Paul Skeens.

But he's starting a year in AAA,

and I don't know if that's

in the situation like we

mentioned with Jackson Holiday,

if it's a year of contract thing.

But he's in AAA,

and I just couldn't find it

to put him as my pick.

If he comes up and we do the

conversation of changing our picks –

He might find his way as my pick,

but right now, Jung-Hoo Lee is my pick,

and he was a guy that I

wrote back in November that

I wanted the Tigers to sign.

Yep.

So I'm glad he's a Giant

because I don't have to

deal with him in the

American League as a Red

Sox and Tigers fan,

but I think he is going to

be somebody that wasn't

talked about as a free agent signing.

He was a top 10 guy on a lot of lists,

but once he signed,

he wasn't talked about as a

difference maker to the Giants lineup.

And I think as he starts to

get comfortable, you'll see it.

So a couple of things to that.

First, we'll start with Skeens.

He only threw three innings

for Indianapolis in his first AAA start.

Do you think that they're

going to just baby him all year long?

No.

And just limit his innings?

No.

One thing I've noticed over

the last couple of years

covering minor league

baseball is that's typical

for minor league teams,

especially like I followed

the Tigers a lot last year

with their minor leagues

because I'm a big time Madden fan.

And a lot of his starts, even a double A,

he would go three to four innings.

So I think that's a minor

league issue or a minor

league thing where they

keep the innings down,

where they keep the pitch count down.

And especially with it being

his first start.

So I think he's going to be fine,

and I think there won't be

any restraints on him whatsoever.

Mind you, it was a perfect three innings.

Didn't allow a hit, didn't give up a walk,

and struck out, I think, five.

So I was just curious in

regards to how was

Pittsburgh going to play this with him,

and what are they going to do?

So for me,

Lee was another one I thought about, but

I don't believe Yamamoto's,

I think he's going to be

the third best free agent

signing out of Japan this year.

I think Lee is going to be the second one.

But I think the best pitcher

this year from Japan is

going to be Shota.

There's something all spring

when he came over,

they're trying to get him

to throw up in the zone.

Because,

and I was listening to today when

I was driving,

when he was pitching against the Rockies,

they said that launch angle

is not a huge thing over in Japan, right?

So it's more level swing, more, you know,

line drive.

They're not worried about the launch.

So when he came over,

he was concerned with

getting up in the zone

because he didn't realize.

that the launch angle up

here at the major leagues,

you're going to get a lot

more swing and misses

because they're going to be

swinging under it.

And he's lived there.

He had nine strikeouts today.

He had 25 and I think 12.1

innings or 12.2 innings in the spring.

I think he's going to come

out and I think he's going

to be the best pitcher

Even with Justin Steele there,

I think he's going to be

the best pitcher for the

Cubs this year as long as

the wind is in his favor

because he is a fly ball pitcher.

But I think he's going to be

the best pitcher this

season signed from Japan.

And as much as I like Lee,

I think Lee is going to go

kind of unnoticed because

of where he plays in San Francisco.

There's just something about

that not being a huge baseball –

mark it or they just keep it quiet.

I think he's a great player

and probably deserves it,

but I think Shota coming

out of Chicago and being

their best pitcher and then

making the playoffs,

I think he wins National

League Rookie of the Year.

If they win the division,

it's hard for me to

disagree with you on that.

He looked good today.

He looked really good today.

Two hits, no runs, nine Ks.

Did he have a walk?

I don't think he had a walk.

No.

He doesn't walk many batters.

He only walked two this spring.

Yeah, no runs.

I mean, he looked good.

0.33 whip.

I like it.

That's a good pick.

It's the Rockies.

It's the Rockies.

But that's who I had from the spring,

just with what they're

trying to do there.

And he's a control guy, right?

He throws for control.

Didn't give up many walks in Japan either.

I think he struck out 177 and walked 22.

Don't quote me on that,

but I think that's what he

did in Japan last year.

So in terms of control...

I think that he's underlooked.

So now let's move to the

coach of the year.

Who do you have in the AL?

I'm biased.

A.J.

Hinch.

Okay.

And the reason I have that

is I have the Tigers

winning the American League Central.

And we talked about I had the Orioles.

I like Brandon Hyde,

but I think the Orioles are expected.

I had the American League West.

I had the Mariners.

That's a little kind of,

they're right there with the Astros.

So, I mean, either way,

one of those two managers

kind of expected.

A lot of people don't have

the Tigers winning the division.

They have them finishing second or third.

And I think if they win the

division and they surprise people, A.J.

Hinch wins the manager of the year award.

And that's why he's my pick

is the Tigers win the division.

Okay.

Who was – so you didn't want

to go with Hyde.

Mm-hmm.

All right.

So I'm going to go with in

the American League.

Hide is who is the easy one, right?

So I had told you before

that I like the Indians a

lot more than anyone else.

above that I like steven

volt the guardians don't

want to vote as a character

the guardians yeah

guardians sorry the

indianapolis indians which

I'm surprised they got away

with it but the cleveland

guardians uh steven boat is

a guy that I loved watching

play when he was with the

ace and him coming over

he's a smart baseball guy

an old catcher I just think that the

Guardians are going to do

much better than expected,

and I think he's going to

be the one to win for the

American League.

It's a dark horse because I

think Baltimore and Hyde is

going to be kind of an easy pick,

but I think if the Indians

can sneak into the wild

card as I have them,

Voight is going to be right

up there in the running too,

and that's who I'd like to see win it.

I have a wild card as well besides A.J.

Hinch.

I think John Schneider could

be a game to be talked about.

I mean,

the Blue Jays are projected a lot

of places I've seen to have

finished fourth with the

Yankees and the Rays

finishing second and third.

If the Blue Jays surprise

people and they make the

playoffs and that lineup

performs the way it can and

the pitching does what it does,

John Schneider's a name to watch.

And he used to, I believe,

as a person who lived in New Hampshire,

he coached the Fishercats.

So he's somebody to watch as

another name for the

Manager of the Year award.

Okay.

Who do you have winning the

coach of the year for the

National League?

Bob Melvin.

I said when we did the

National League that I like

the Giants this year,

and that was before Blake

Snell that I like the Giants.

I like the idea of adding Chapman.

I like the idea that they added Lee,

and I love Solaire.

I love the Solaire signing.

that I think the giants are

going to be a playoff team

when they're not they

people don't have them I've

seen a lot of people having

the padres over the giants

I think the giants will

surprise people and I think

that leads to bob melvin

being the national manager

of the year okay david bell

from the cincinnati reds is

my pick um I think I liked

him beforehand I like him even more now

given the adversity he's

going to have to face with

Marte gone for 80 games, McLean out,

TJ Friedel out,

and just how he's going to

have to patch that together

in the early going.

And I think the Reds are a

team that are going to

surprise some people the

way they finish out with

some of those things.

They have adversity.

And I like David Bell.

I mean, obviously,

I'd love to see Craig Council win it.

But that would be too easy.

And obviously, you know,

there's some other good

managers out there.

Melvin's a good one.

But I think David Bell will

sneak in and take that

award this year in the National League.

Can we agree that Craig

Council feels like the

favorite right now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think the only way he

doesn't win it is if the

Cubs fall apart and just don't make it.

But I think he's just –

You know,

I'd really like to see him go

back and be the Diamondbacks coach.

That's where I – when I

think of Craig Council,

it was weird seeing him with the Brewers.

And it's good but weird to

see him with the Cubs.

But just for me and his playing time,

I think he belongs out

there with that crew with

the Diamondbacks.

Nothing against their manager,

but just for me personally when I see him,

that's what I –

think about.

I see him in a Diamondbacks uniform.

Now again, this is our preseason pick.

After four games,

how crazy is it to start

talking about Eric Shelton?

We'll get to that.

We'll save it.

I'm fine with that.

It's early in the year.

Obviously, this is preseason.

I think that

Between Rookie of the Year

and Coach of the Year,

that's the one where we'll

probably have the most shifting.

I think Cy Young and MVP,

I think you'll hear some of

the same names,

maybe another surprise name pop up.

But I don't think there'll

be any shock in those two conversations.

Coach of the Year and Rookie of the Year,

where I think there's some

some definite shakers and

movers and different names

that'll pop up yeah because

you got the surprise teams

yep exactly and with that

there could be some guys

that you know are driving

that surprise that that

walk into the cy young or

the mvp but for the most

part I in my head those are

the two that I could see

myself shifting from um

once we get into the uh

the all-star break and see

what's happening.

So I think that, I mean,

I don't think there was any

big surprises there with

our picks to start.

I think it'll be more

interesting to see who we

advocate for come July and

see how we switch.

And I think that'll be a

little bit more interesting.

So yeah,

Right now,

let's take a break and we'll get

into this weekend.

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All right.

Big first week of baseball.

You and I have discussed

some things back and forth

between our busy schedules,

but I want to hear from you,

your biggest surprises from this weekend.

So the first one for me was

the Baltimore Orioles.

I mean, we've talked about there,

I think both of our picks

to win the American league East,

but are they a bigger

problem than anybody thought?

I mean, in the first two games,

granted it was the angels.

They put up like 24 runs, I believe,

in the first two games.

And then, I mean,

Sunday they kind of hit a wall.

But tonight they got four.

Yeah, they had 24, one,

and then tonight they got four.

And Corbin Burns looks like

he's a problem.

But the big name to me that

stood out on the weekend

for the Orioles was Grayson Rodriguez,

who six innings, four hits,

one earned run, one walk,

and nine strikeouts.

That's a solid day.

I mean, can he keep it up?

That remains to be seen.

But as a number two,

that's a pretty good stat line.

So they could be a bigger problem,

especially with a number

two starter like that.

Tyler Wells didn't look so good yesterday.

Today was – who pitched today?

I'm pulling it up.

Creamer.

Creamer.

He didn't have a great day,

especially against the Royals,

but the Royals are another

surprise team that

everybody can talk about.

But the top half of their lineup today,

Henderson 1-4, Rushman 2-3, Santander 1-4,

Mountcastle 2-4, O'Hearn 1-3,

and Mountcastle had a home run.

That team is a lot of fun to watch,

and if you want to watch

some good baseball,

don't miss an Orioles game.

Gunnar Henderson was hot.

Red hot.

Nine for 18 to start.

And they still don't have

their number one prospect there yet.

No.

Think about what they're adding.

I think we talked about this.

Six in the top 100.

Maybe five.

Like we said,

there's a move to be made to get better.

They're not done.

And they have a new owner.

They're not close to done.

So that was my big one.

You want to do your first one?

You want me to keep going?

My first one was the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And I watched, listened, I should say,

listened to some of their game today.

And I wrote about some of

the things they did this offseason where,

yes, they've got some talent coming.

We mentioned Skeens.

You've got some other young guys,

especially pitching and in the field.

But they signed Michael Taylor.

They re-signed McCutcheon.

They signed Marco Gonzalez.

Or they actually traded for

him from the Braves after

he was traded from the

Mariners to the Braves.

The Braves then traded him to the Pirates.

And they signed Perez.

They've got all these

veterans on a one-year deal,

show-me kind of deals,

but also come trade deadline,

if they're not able to hang,

they can still ship them

off and just continue to

build to that farm system.

But for me, the big thing is Kebron Hayes,

Brian Reynolds, O'Neal Cruz, Henry Davis,

and even Jared Treillo,

who's starting at second for them.

He's getting on base.

Everyone's getting on base for them.

And they've got Kebron Hayes, Connor Joe,

Brian Reynolds, Michael Taylor,

O'Neal Cruz, and nope.

He's not.

So those five guys are all

currently hitting over 300.

And Brian Reynolds has eight

RBIs on the year already.

That team to me is a fun one to watch.

I enjoy writing about them

simply because of the youth.

And I like, well, I think it's,

I think baseball is better

when Pittsburgh is a better team.

Agreed.

I just think that's,

it's sad for a city such as

Pittsburgh when it's got

the Steelers who are

normally eight and eight or better.

And then you've got Sidney

Crosby and the Penguins who

have been good for years.

it's time for Pittsburgh to shine through.

And if these guys can stay healthy, I do.

I really, really, really like this team.

I think Kebron Hayes is maturing, not just,

you know, mentally,

but physically into his body.

his health concerns.

I think,

I think this is going to be one

year where he's, he may not,

he may play 150 games and

the 10 he misses are just spelled.

And if he can do that, this, this team,

I said it when we were

doing the national league,

I had them better than most.

And I think they could be,

if they get the pitching,

I think they could be a

surprise team and they

could push to make a wild

card in that division and

them starting out five and

O and beating the Marlins,

who was a team that,

You know,

I think we both had somewhere in

the middle of the AL East.

Yeah, towards the bottom.

But they came out and I

thought maybe split, beat them.

And then today they look good again.

Again, it's the Nationals.

So they have a pretty easy

start to the year.

But then they go to the Phillies.

That'll be the two tests this weekend.

They play the Phillies.

And to me.

That was the biggest surprise.

I did not see that coming from Pittsburgh,

the pitching especially.

Martin Wallace was terrific today.

Again, against the Nationals,

but he was terrific.

So their team for me that

I'm excited to watch this

weekend against the Phillies,

just to see how they measure up.

And also Philadelphia can't

start too slow.

I mean, they got trounced by the Braves.

If they come in and lose

that series to the Pirates,

That's not good for them either.

So that was a big thing for

me this weekend.

So I'm going to piggyback off of that,

and it leads into mine anyways,

but I want to add something

to what you said.

You talked about the pitching.

And so I'm going to assume

that this is after their game today,

while games are still being

played right now.

But as of right now, looking it up,

their pitching is 12th in

the league in ERA,

5th in the league in strikeouts,

and 7th in the league in width.

the pitching through five starters,

assuming that includes Gonzalez today,

if they can keep that up, that, again,

the NL Central is wide open.

They can compete.

I had them finishing, I think,

either fourth or fifth with the Brewers,

and they could easily,

if they keep doing this,

sliding right up to the top,

which leads me into who I

was going to talk about next anyways,

was Jared Jones.

who's in my top 100,

made his big league debut.

Was it his big league debut,

or has he pitched there before?

I think he's pitched there before,

but I can check.

He pitched there last year.

So he made his first start of the season.

We'll go with that for right now.

And five and two-thirds, three hits,

three earned runs,

but the mind-boggling stat

was the 10 strikeouts and two walks.

Now, is the Marlins lineup, you know,

one of the most feared

lineups in baseball?

No.

But Louisa Rice won for four,

so you kept him pretty much at bay.

And I don't know,

was that hit without him in the game?

Because his first at-bat was a line-out.

His second at-bat was a – where am I here?

Ground-out.

And –

He flew out.

So, yeah,

he didn't do anything against

Jarrett Jones.

That was his first career start.

Okay, so first career start.

Which is even that much more impressive.

You know, he just, the three hits,

three hits to me, three earned runs,

I get it.

Probably that's going to happen.

I mean, it's his first career start,

nerves, the Marlins.

Like I said, I like the Marlins.

I think they have their issues,

but he looked really good.

And that's somebody I want

to watch now a lot more this season.

He's made his name to the

list of pitchers that I

want to tune in and watch

when he makes a start.

His next one, I do believe, is what?

He's number three, so I think he starts.

They don't play Thursday,

so it's going to be Friday.

Oh, they do play Thursday.

No, it's going to be Friday.

I think Friday right now is

up against the Phillies.

It looks like he's got the

Orioles on April 5th.

Why is that the case?

Is it not the Phillies this weekend?

Yeah, no, it's the Orioles this weekend.

So he's got the Orioles on Friday.

The Nationals must play.

The Nationals must play the Phillies.

Yes.

All right, that's my fault.

So he's got the Orioles.

So, again,

a team we just talked about and

how they've had a hard start.

And so here you go,

your second career start.

You get one of the best

teams in baseball that

everybody's expecting to be either –

in the World Series or to be

advancing deep in October.

So Friday night, 4-12,

I'm assuming he's on the

mound because he pitched

after Perez to start the season.

So my guess is then if Perez

is starting Thursday,

then he's got Friday.

Yeah.

No,

definitely a strong opening start for

Jared Jones.

My second –

Kind of comes as a surprise.

We talked about this in the

ITD fantasy baseball draft,

and we were kind of

laughing who was going to

take Mike Trout.

He's got three home runs on the year,

but he also hit the very

first home run of the

season when he was playing the Orioles.

He's got three right now.

I don't see a way that Mike

Trout finishes this year as an angel.

I don't know what it's going to take,

but I don't see if he wants to win.

and get back into the

playoffs that he sees that

realistically happening with the Angels.

And seeing how he's coming out,

I think he's got a chip on his shoulder.

With Ohtani gone and everyone thinking,

you know, world's coming to an end,

that he wants to go out

there and prove that it

wasn't just Ohtani that was there.

He was the one getting all the hype,

but Trout's been doing this

for how many years now?

Since he came into the league.

So I think he's got a big

chip on his shoulder,

and there's just something

in me that says that

someone's going to make a

swing for Mike Trout.

I don't know if it'll ever happen.

I don't know if he ever wants to leave,

but if he ever wants to

return to October baseball...

He's going to have to leave the Angels.

So that, to me,

was a shock because to see

him come out and already

have three home runs with that team,

still not going to be a very good team,

but I think he's going to

have an impressive year

just to kind of show people that, look,

don't forget me.

Just because Shohei's gone,

don't forget me.

I was doing this long before he was here.

He's having a hell of a

night tonight as well.

Yeah.

Two for three, two runs scored, two RBIs,

and two home runs.

Two home runs?

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

He hit one in the – sorry,

I closed out of it.

He hit one in the fourth and

one in the sixth.

So back-to-back at bats,

he's got a home run.

He's only got four hits on the year,

so three of them being home runs.

So he's definitely out there.

He's definitely got the ability.

Now it just determines on his health.

Can he hold up?

He's a great fielder,

but he's going to have to

be one of those that gets

moved to DH or corner outfield,

one of these things.

Yeah.

It's good for baseball.

It's good for him because I

do think that he was overshadowed,

and not just by the stats,

but by the publicity of

Otani being there.

I think that really bothered him,

and I think he's going to come out,

and I think he'll have a great first half,

and it'll be interesting to

see where it shakes out for him.

Well, that's the thing.

Before Otani,

everybody talked about him as

he was the face of baseball.

Him and Harper were the two

faces of baseball.

And then Ohtani comes in,

and because he pitches and

because he hits the way he does,

Ohtani got the baton passed to him,

which it was because Trout got hurt,

and Trout's been hurt.

You know, Harper had his injuries.

But Trout's still a name

that everybody likes to see.

I mean, you go to Fenway.

I mean, you and I both go to Fenway.

And you go there,

and the Angels are there.

The amount of Mike Trout jerseys you see,

they're still out there.

So I don't know how much I

agree with you on the idea

of he's an angel because of

his comments this past

offseason that he wants to stay there.

But I could see it, I guess,

in the offseason.

If they don't do anything this year,

I could definitely see him

not being an angel his whole career.

yeah I just I think it would

be I don't know where the

hell he would go mind you

um or what it would even

take to pry him away or a

landing spot for that

matter I can't I can't find

a home why why for some

reason as I'm sitting here

watching the scores the

rage just feel like what if

mike trout went there

Jesus Christ.

They can't even feel the –

Is that what it takes for the attendance?

They're building a new stadium.

They are building a new stadium,

but that is one of the

toughest places to get to for a stadium.

There's a reason why no one

goes to those freaking games.

I mean, even when they were really,

really good,

they struggled to fill that stadium.

I mean, shit,

I don't even think you can bring –

I mean, not that the – I think the – oh,

Jesus,

the Rays and the – when's that new

stadium being built?

I have no idea.

That's a good question.

While we're talking about it,

the one place I've always

seen Mike Trout going,

and it just – it still

makes sense now even more so,

is being a Philly.

Him playing with Harper,

it makes so much sense.

and harper's not playing

yellowfield anymore he's

going to be a first baseman

I think for the rest of his

career yeah I it just has

always made sense in the

two of them together being

what they were hyped coming

in that just will always

make sense to me what about

the texas rangers what do

you give up the angels are

gonna want pitching

I mean, granted,

they did spend their draft

two years ago drafting

nothing but pitching, the whole draft.

You give up Carter?

Give up Carter to start

because Langford's off the table.

In my opinion.

Evan Carter.

We talked about Leiter.

he's still or rocker I mean

if he they need young

pitching they need young I

mean they have ben joyce

but I think ben joyce is a

closer of the future I

don't think he's I don't I

don't necessarily think

he's got the the stuff of

the control to be a starter

long term that's a team

that to me I could see him playing there

Yeah.

Whether it be a DH, you know,

move Langford over to center or Garcia,

one of the two.

Carter's been playing corner outfield too.

I just, not that it's going to happen.

This is all speculation, but to me,

Trout being showing out in

the first half of the year

is good for baseball.

I think it'll be interesting

to see what he does,

but I do think that come trade deadline,

it'll be interesting to see

some of these names floated around,

but the angels aren't going anywhere.

Yeah.

a lot of holes and they need

to get him a lot of help

what was your third so

before we jump uh yeah 2028

on the race stadium is when

it's expected to open so

four years from now and

yeah that's that's too far

out so I guess going now I

got I guess two left and this one

I guess both of these are actually biased,

so I'll make it as quick as possible.

But Red Sox,

are they as bad as everybody

thought they might be?

I mean, the lineup hit.

Other than Friday night,

the lineup looked good this weekend.

And realistically,

I think they should be 3-1.

I mean,

if they don't make the decision to

bring in Joely,

who I've said time and time again,

Bernardino should have been

on this roster.

Joely does not look right on

this team anymore.

I think Bernardino should be the lefty.

Then they throw in Slayton

to here's your major league

baseball debut and enjoy, you know,

I forget what the situation was,

but you got Julio Rodriguez

up in the game on the line,

and he gets up a single,

which I'm not going to fault the kid.

He got put in that situation.

But then that goes to I had

the conversation.

They had a great bullpen,

and they have a bullpen

that I think is in the top ten.

Well,

your closer comes out after that game

and says, well, I have a bad back,

and if I threw tonight,

I'm out two weeks.

what are you here for?

Like he,

he's the one that called out

ownership all off season

about not making moves.

And then he can't go out

there and pitch in a game

that you could win and be

three and one year team

starting the season with a

winning record and are

forced to be reckoned with.

But the main story here is

that's my anger just coming out.

So I'm sorry as a Red Sox fan,

that was my frustration from the weekend.

But the main thing I really

talked about this off

season was we need Yamamoto.

We need Jordan Montgomery.

Okay, we didn't get those two.

You know,

Montgomery went on as long as it did.

We need Amanaga.

We need this guy.

We need this guy.

What did we see this weekend?

Andrew Bailey looks like he

has something figured out.

The starting pitchers,

we saw Bayo had opening day,

Pavetta had game two, Crawford game three,

and Whitlock game four.

Now, this is before health pitches tonight,

which we're hoping to end

this before that so I can

go lay in bed and watch it.

But –

The four starters this weekend,

22 innings pitch combined.

They had a 164 ERA and a 0.68 whip.

Now you're talking about a guy, Brian Bale,

making his first major

league opening day start.

Pavetta,

if the Red Sox offense could have

gotten him a run on Friday night,

this team could have been 4-0.

Crawford looked fantastic

and I said all year he

might be one of the best

number five in the rotation

starters in the whole

league I mean what he

pitches with if they had

added two more arms he

would have been the number

five guy it might have been

one of the best ones in the

league but he's your number

three I don't know how I

feel about that still but

he looked he looked

fantastic and he settled in

after a couple of rough

shaky innings he could have gone one more

And, you know, if he does,

are you throwing Joely in extras?

Now we're talking you're pushing Weissert,

who looked great, to the 10th.

And you might win that game.

The final one was Whitlock,

who had his hurdles yesterday.

But once he settled in, he looked good.

Now I'm curious to see what

Houck does tonight and if this continues.

But what Andrew Bailey has

done to a starting rotation that –

people and Red Sox fans did

not like or talk about.

Everybody said the lineup could produce.

This lineup could win games.

And, yeah,

you're going to have your games

where they don't score a run.

That's going to happen.

It's baseball.

You have 162 games.

But people talked about this

pitching rotation like it

was a problem and you had

to go get a big arm and you

had to do this and you had to do that.

What they've shown me

through four games is that

if you're a pitching coach

that cares and actually does something,

you can be a different team.

Now,

will this hold up for the whole season?

We'll see.

Can Whitlock stay healthy

for the whole season?

We'll see.

But what they did this

weekend against a good

Mariners team that I had

picked to win the American League West,

you come out of there 2-2,

which is what I had because

I have them coming home at 6-4 at worst.

That pitching rotation looked very good,

and I'm excited to see what

happens over the next, I guess,

this whole month and see

where they're at after three, four,

five starts for most of them.

I don't want to jinx anything,

but there's something going

on at Minute Maid Park

right now with the Astros

and Blue Jays game.

And right now,

Ronnell Blanco through five

and third has six

strikeouts and no hits

against the Blue Jays.

You're making me switch off

the Tigers game.

This is something.

I have it on game day

because I don't want to

hear it in the background,

be too distracted.

But I was interested to see

what the Astros were doing

after the series with the Yankees.

And Ronell Blanco is not

someone many people other

than perhaps Astros fans would know.

And that lineup for the

Toronto Blue Jays was Springer, Guerrero,

Turner,

who had his first home run as a Blue Jay.

Varshall, Kirk, starting Clement at short,

Kiermaier and Ikeaft playing third.

Right now there's two outs

because he just struck out Vizio.

That's something to be interested to see.

He's got 69 pitches,

49 of them are for strikes.

Is it too early in the

season to let this play out?

That's the question.

I wanted to know your

thoughts on this because I

was just wondering it too as I looked up.

With a situation going on...

It's all in the wording.

It's your first start of the year.

How long do you let them go?

I don't know anything about this guy.

I don't know what his background is.

I don't know much about him either.

I saw him slated to start

when I did my Blue Jay

series preview today.

I was like, oh,

I thought it was somebody

else getting the five spot,

but it's Blanco.

And talk about making a statement.

He's out of the sixth.

That's yep.

He ground out Springer ground out.

So that's interesting to watch.

But I agree with you to just

bounce it back.

Now they're in between innings here,

pitching for the red Sox.

Everyone was fucking up in arms.

Got to sign somebody,

got to sign somebody.

But all those,

you see all those deals that

people were signing.

And quite frankly,

none of them to me was a good signing.

I think Sonny Gray,

Sonny Gray's deal was a good deal.

But you talk about anyone

that was signed with Boris

is all bullshit.

You know,

they're all asking for big money.

They didn't wait.

So they did nothing.

It's going to be very interesting.

I don't even want to talk about

Rodriguez coming into that game.

Cause I do agree.

Bernardino belonged on that

team anyway from what he did last year.

But my last thing was going in.

The reason why I pulled up

the Astros was what the

Astros have done so far

this year and going in and getting,

you know,

beat up by the Yankees and being

on four to start the year.

That's a tough look.

And now seeing this now, cause we talked,

up previously that I'm not a

huge fan of the astros

lineup I like tucker like

alvarez other than that

they got some guys bregman

and altuve that hurt pena

fell off last year he's

better at the bottom of the

lineup um that's a team

that can really struggle

and but to see this tonight

this is something I'm going

to obviously be paying

attention to because

they're pitching without

verlander there who's going

to be making his way up but

It's interesting to see

because these teams can't fall too deep.

You know what I mean?

In a division like the West,

with the Mariners, with the Rangers,

you can't dig yourself too

deep of a hole before it

becomes too tough.

The only thing that saves them,

and this is the one thing I

don't know if I like it or not yet,

is the 13 games against division rivals.

Oh, I like it.

Compared to what it used to be.

I mean,

I like it in terms of being able to

see other teams,

and I like what they're trying to do.

But if you're going to do that,

you also have to make these

games a little bit more

easy to view for the fans

so they're not having to

pay out of their nose to see these games.

So it was just something to me.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

You've got to have four different devices,

four different ways to view it.

It's just tough.

But, like,

tonight when I was looking at

that and seeing them

starting season 0-4 and

thinking about that

division and the hole they were digging,

then I thought, well, shit, you know,

they're going to end up

playing against a lot of

these bottom feeders too.

So there's ground that they'll make up.

And but then again,

some of their opponents, you know,

Mariners play the same teams.

So the Rangers.

So it'll be very interesting

to see how the rest of this

game shakes out.

But the Astros, to me,

was kind of a surprise.

I did not see that happening

when they were facing the Yankees,

especially with the question.

Excuse me,

the questions with the Yankees pitching.

So that to me was the.

The big shakeout,

and I also kind of was

eating some of my words

watching the Cubs-Rangers

series and seeing the Cubs just struggle.

Of course,

it didn't help when Steele went

downfield in that bunt,

but he was throwing today,

so I don't think April is

the time frame for him.

But the Rangers, to me,

as much as I think they can

very easily be the

Cardinals of this year and fall flat,

I think we might be

underestimating that lineup

and how good they are.

Yeah, they're going to steal games.

That's for sure.

Yeah, so that was really, for me,

the first, you know,

the Bucs were the big one.

The Pirates,

I don't want them to beat the Cubs ever,

but I do enjoy watching them play.

I've watched probably more

of their games than I have

the Cubs this year just

because of the times they're playing,

and I've watched them.

We just talked about the Reds,

and you had the –

their manager is the manager

of the year yeah they just

took the lead four run

tenth inning take a six two

lead so I guess with all

that said I'm gonna get to

my last one then we're all

done with this yep with the

tigers and the weekend they

had I mean there's four

undefeated teams left the

pirates the yankees the

brewers and the tigers the

tigers now they played the

lowly white socks who I

watched today's game it was cold there

I mean, the Cubs played at home, too.

So, I mean, Chicago was just cold today.

And it's coming to New England.

And so we're going to get it soon, too.

We're getting a more Easter.

But the Tigers played the

White Sox this weekend.

And last year they had 35

wins against the American League Central.

So they beat up on the division.

And the question I said that

if they're going to win the

division again this year is

they have to continue to do

that and figure it out

against the American League East.

If they go 500 against the

American League East, they'll be fine.

Right now,

they're in a 0-0 game in the

bottom of the ninth against the Mets,

which is interesting.

But that tells me this bullpen looks good.

This rotation looks good.

And Casey Myers is getting

the ball tomorrow.

But 1-0 to win an opening day.

Scoogle, like I said, my Cy Young pick,

looked fantastic.

And on Saturday, I was driving home.

So they were off Friday.

I was driving home from my parents' house.

My son slept at my parents'

house on Friday and Saturday.

And when I was driving home,

I was listening to Tigers

the first couple innings.

Maeda struggled,

and he's going to keep that

home run ball down.

But the one thing was the

fighting back from this team.

I mean,

they were down 6-3 going into the

fifth inning,

and they scored three runs

combined in the fifth and seventh inning.

They didn't score in the sixth.

And then they forced it to extras,

and they take a 7-6 win in extra innings,

which Shelby Miller,

who I had as my prediction

to be their closer, went two innings,

didn't give a run or a hit or a walk,

and he struck out one.

Love to see that.

That's the Chris Federer effect,

which is what I think is

also happening with the Red

Sox and Andrew Bailey.

So pitching coaches, love it.

Yesterday,

I was watching the game with my nephews,

and I was telling them, like,

watch this guy, watch this guy, whatever.

They went down 1-0.

And, you know, then the game was 2-1,

and they got tied 2-2.

And there was never a doubt

that this team was going to

come back and take the lead again.

And that's just what this lineup does.

The pitching, there's no worries.

You know,

Mize is going to have his hiccups.

He's coming back from Tommy

John and his back and all

the issues he had.

There's going to be hiccups.

Olsen's going to have his.

But the lineup with Maeda,

especially his start,

and they climbed right back into it.

Flaherty is one name.

I mean,

I didn't even mention him in his start.

The Orioles traded for the deadline,

got to make a playoff run,

and he struggled,

and they moved him to the bullpen.

I was looking for a way to figure it out.

And a name that popped into my head.

Now, granted, I'm not going to overreact.

It was one start.

He looked great.

But think of what Chris

Fetter as the pitching

coach for the Tigers did to

Michael Lorenzen last year.

Yeah.

And the numbers he put up

and then leading to him getting traded,

which got the Tigers highly, you know,

and then now he got a contract.

What he did, again,

the pitching market was

what it was in the offseason.

So him being around as long

as he was is what the issue

was with the pitching market.

But, you know,

Flaherty in his first start as a Tiger –

looked like a different pitcher.

Like he did, you know,

in the COVID year for the Cardinals.

You know, six innings, four hits,

one earned run, seven strikeouts,

and didn't issue a walk.

And to add that to your rotation,

which has Skubal as a Cy Young candidate,

Maeda is Maeda.

He's probably a 500 pitcher.

And then I said it last week

with my Tigers prediction.

I don't want to go too much into it, but,

you know, the four and five of Olsen and

and then you have all of the

depth in the minor leagues

of pitching that they're

just going to have Federer

getting better and better.

They're a team that is going

to be a problem.

And I heard tonight when I

was watching MLB tonight

before I switched over to

the Tigers game that the

Royals to people are this year's Orioles.

Let's not count out the

Tigers and what the Tigers are.

Because all of this pitching

can turn into bats.

It can turn into something

like the Orioles did.

They have the bats.

They went and acquired Corbin Burns.

And again,

we talked about they didn't give up much.

But if this team is built to

go trade some pieces or get guys ready,

that they're going to be a

bigger problem than people think.

So there are after three games,

I don't want to overhype

and say I was right and do

all these jumping jacks and

all this stuff.

It's 162 game season.

But if you're a baseball fan,

tune into a Tigers game and

this game going extra inning.

So, you know,

this isn't going to go live tonight,

but tomorrow tune in and

see Casey Myers back on the

mound and they are a team to watch.

Blancos through six, no hits.

Guess I'm switching back.

Yeah.

So the last two things I had,

two bits of news,

and the last thing I had

was really mine was the

Reds and more about

something I wrote about in

regards to preseason and spring training.

Jonathan India was first

rumored to be traded.

He was one that was

mentioned to be going to

the Red Sox to play second.

Then it came out they were

going to keep him,

and they were going to start

giving him some reps out in the outfield.

Then Marte gets suspended for 80 games.

So now all of a sudden the

log jam they have,

they move Jameer Candelero over to third.

Christian and Carson on strand.

Now he can play first.

India gets at bats at DH.

Simple enough.

Then TJ Frito goes down.

Who's going to replace him?

So they moved Fairchild.

They moved Benson around a little bit,

and they moved Jake Fraley.

Then Matt McClain goes down.

We really don't know about

Matt McClain yet because

they're still quiet on that.

So now Jonathan Indy is back

starting at second base.

All that log jam that you

had freed up and almost at

the point where you need a bat.

Nick Martini.

and the weekend he had.

It just goes to show that

given some guys some opportunity,

because everyone was pissed

off the fact that they

didn't sign Mike Ford,

who is now back with the

team and everything.

So the Reds are another team

that's fun to watch and why

I picked Bells,

because all the early

season adversity is going

to be fun to watch.

And I think that pitching

staff is going to be a lot

better than everyone thinks.

And Nick Lodolo pitched –

this weekend for the

Louisville Bats and look strong.

Didn't win the game, but look strong.

So he'll be back as well.

The other piece of news here

before we get into our

final closing is Mike

Clemmerger signed with the White Sox.

He's back with the White Sox.

So they're going to finish

dead last still.

But he's back with the White Sox.

The next name to fall is Trevor Bauer.

Where is he going to end up?

And that's something I want

to focus on next week.

If he does.

If he does, and he may not.

It's funny that Clevenger

signed today with the White

Sox because I was sitting

at work watching the Braves

and White Sox game,

and it dawned on me as I'm watching them,

what do they have for pitching?

I know I said they were

going to finish them last

in the American League Central,

but then it really hit me

watching this game that

they have nothing.

And then, of course, Clevenger signs today,

so that gives them a starter.

So who is bumped out?

Is it Crochet?

Because he was a reliever,

and this was really his coming out.

He looked good, though.

He did look good.

I'm not going to discourage that.

But, I mean,

they're going to bump somebody.

Are they worried about Soroka?

I like watching Michael Soroka,

and I feel bad for him.

I root for him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was fun to watch as a Brave,

and then he had his issues, and

Here we are.

Now he's a White Sox.

He's trying to figure it out.

And they need pitching.

And that's another name.

I mean, if you want to know about Bauer,

I don't think he's getting it signed.

And that's more about things

I guess I've seen lately.

I don't know the full story.

But I just think they need something.

I don't like the idea of

moving Kopeck to the bullpen.

I really don't.

Because you need something.

Yeah.

I mean, the division's a hot mess.

That team's a hot mess.

Even with the division wide open,

that team is a hot mess.

Um,

but it was a very interesting first

week weekend of baseball.

I think, you know,

there'll be more stories to

talk about next week.

Um,

before we get into the closing,

I just want to remind

anyone that's listening and

anyone that follows us and

subscribes that if they're

interested in getting any merch,

you can go to the store

inside the diamonds.com and pick out,

you know,

whether it be a t-shirt hooded sweatshirt,

there'll be more to come.

But if you're looking to

support the brand and wear

the gear by all means, you know,

go to the store on the site,

pick something out and be

paying attention because

there will be more to come.

know we're discussing hats

we're discussing a bunch of

other you know fun things

to include so while you're

watching your games you're

out at a barbecue you have

stuff to support the brand

and uh just go to the store

on on on the website and

pick out something and I've

got stuff coming myself so

hopefully next time on the

um one of the upcoming

podcasts I'll have my own

gear to be showing you um but just

Go and support us.

Go on to the store, pick something out.

And if you haven't already,

make sure you subscribe to

this podcast and follow all

of our social channels as well.

So you can catch all the

news that we're putting out for everyone,

all the content.

So, CJ, I know that we've talked.

I wanted to give you this

opportunity before we close

out the show to kind of

open the floor for you and

give your story.

So I want to take this

moment just with today,

and I'm going to try this

without getting emotional.

I should be all right.

But we'll see.

Today is April 1st, April Fool's Day,

which to people is a joke day.

But to me,

today would have been my

grandfather's 89th birthday.

And he is the reason I'm a Red Sox fan.

He is...

The reason I love baseball

the way that I do,

we used to watch every game

that was on TV.

I mean, granted,

back then you didn't have MLB TV.

You didn't have the options you had.

So it was Braves, Red Sox,

and then whatever was on

Fox that Saturday,

which always felt like it

was Pedro versus Clemens or

Pedro versus Messina.

But that was what we watched.

And I played baseball,

like I said previously,

that I just retired after

25 years of playing.

And up until the day that he passed away,

he would never miss a game.

Always came to every single

one of my games.

And I won a championship the

month before he passed away.

So today, he would have been 89.

And I just want to say a

little something about him

and that this game means so much to me.

And the reason why I love it

and the reason why I love

talking about it is because

it feels he's still here

and I'm still able to do this with him.

So,

Now having a platform to be

able to talk about this,

I want to take a second and just mention,

give a happy birthday to him.

And I know my dad and my mom listen,

and I think some family does as well.

So I know they'll be happy

to hear about this and happy birthday,

Pepe.

And we all miss you.

So with that,

I'll let you go next and

we'll go from there.

That's awesome, CJ.

I mean,

everyone's got a reason for the game.

And I think there's a lot

more of those stories out

there than not in regards

to maybe it's a father,

maybe it's a grandfather,

maybe it's a brother, uncle, whatever.

There's someone close to

them that introduced them to the game.

And that's why the love for

the game is there.

And I think you said it a

couple of different times.

It's tough not to be

romantic about baseball.

something along those lines

from the movie and there's

a lot of stuff in this game

that makes it special you

know with loved ones um the

last update I have in happy

birthday by the way hold on

actually can I add one

story yeah go ahead um for

those of you who are

listening who don't know me

or whatever he passed away

from a brain aneurysm um on

july 6th of 2008

But a little story just popped in my head,

and I don't know why I

didn't say this when I was

giving the little happy birthday.

But back in that summer,

I had written the Red Sox

and saying that he was

going through some blood transfusions,

going through some things,

and asked if he could throw

out a first pitch,

knowing how much the Red

Sox meant to him and what

they did for his life.

I got a letter back with Fenway Dirt,

and I actually got the

letter back the day after he passed away.

So for those of you who

believe in the karma and

stuff like that and the fitting stories,

I think that's something I wanted to add.

But he actually was at Beth

Israel in Boston,

and I remember the day that

he had the surgery,

the Red Sox were playing

the Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball.

And so that was actually –

you could see the lights of

Fenway as everything was going on.

So I just wanted to add that

in that baseball is, like you said,

romantic.

Yeah.

you have relationships with

people and you have that

bond with people and

somehow without even

knowing it that you go

through all that and it's

right there with you and

baseball helps us get

through a lot of things in

our life so that's all I

wanted to add no that's I

mean baseball the reason

why I'm into baseball is my

father you know my dad

coached me all the way up

He only coached me,

he didn't coach me one year,

didn't coach me one year Little League,

that was my first year.

And then he coached me all

the way through that Babe Ruth,

even kind of subbed in at

times for middle school.

Didn't coach me in high school, but

know all summer long he you

know he worked and traveled

for work growing the

business and I'd go on

trips with him and we'd

always you know buy

baseball cards that's what

that's what built our link

you know what I mean we'd

do the baseball cards we'd

pick teams we'd have teams

and then we'd do the stats

and then we got into

stratomatic baseball and we

would do that with friends

and just baseball sports in

general with my father um

you know with the travel

that he did early on when I

was younger and the

sacrifices he made,

but how he made it up to not just me,

but my sisters as well.

It was just something in that year,

the Red Sox won it all.

I watched every single game

while I was living at home

in 2004 with my father and mother.

And that's just something

that I try to do with my kids,

but it just goes to show that

there's that connection and

you want to share that.

And I know you're doing that

with your son as well.

So,

It's passing it out,

and it's a tremendous game.

And that's why, you know,

we both have busy lives,

but that's why we're doing

this right now.

As foolish as it may seem to some,

that's why we're doing this,

is because of the impact

that these loved ones have

had on us and just for the

love of the game.

So it allows us to take time

out of our busy schedules

to kind of talk the sport that we love,

and we're very fortunate

for it and the opportunity

we have with those loved

ones to learn this game.

absolutely so I think

that'll do it for this this

week's episode I think the

big thing uh moving forward

you know like subscribe

follow us we're gonna get

more in depth I think that

there's talk that you know

you and I once our

schedules kind of calm down

that we'd like to get to

have this episode be you

know the the one bouncing

off the weekend be an hour

and then do something for

like a quick hits or hit

and run 30 minute episodes

that we're covering

everything so it's not just all

jumbled into that Monday for a full week.

So keep liking, subscribing,

paying attention, share it, whatever,

tell your friends about it.

We're going to try to grow

this and continue to talk to the game and,

and let you know what we're thinking.

And, you know, again,

talking about what's happening during,

during the broadcast as we're right now,

we're still bottom seven,

six outs left for Blanco.

And right now,

It'll be interesting.

So if you have MLB or you

have the ability to turn on

that Astros-Blue Jays game,

I suggest you do so because

it's going to be a very

interesting ending to that game.

Only E1 pitches, so good chance.

Let it roll, right?

Thank you, everyone.

I hope everyone has a great

rest of your week.

Enjoy some baseball and join us next week.

Like and subscribe and

follow us on all the channels.

Have a great night, everyone.