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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.
what's up and welcome back
to the inside the diamonds
podcast you might figure
out it's not jc it's cj
you're stuck with me and me
only apparently tonight uh
jc is feeling a little
under the weather so I'm
gonna try to roll this
thing out on my own and uh
we'll see how this goes the
one thing is uh we know I
can talk we all know I can ramble but
We're going to try to keep
this short for you,
but I can't let us miss out
on what happened over the
last week or so.
So I got my phone ready to roll.
I got JC's layout ready to roll.
And we're going to do the
best we can with what we got.
So let's roll this out, huh?
So the first thing JC and I
talked about doing tonight
and getting this going was
our quick recap of the last week.
And so let's start this off
with the one team I don't
want to talk about,
and that's the Yankees.
And they are just...
I thought without Garrett Cole,
they were going to be a problem and,
you know, struggle out of the gate.
But it's the exact opposite.
They look good.
They look good right from the jump.
That lineup's a problem.
The pitching's a problem.
And it's going to be them and the Orioles,
I think, right now.
I mean, granted,
we're two weeks into the season,
so everything can happen.
Anything can change.
But it's a marathon, not a sprint.
And being from the New England area,
Marathon Monday,
we know full well how a marathon works.
So they look good, though.
They look good.
And as a Red Sox fan,
if they can sign Juan Soto
to an extension, I don't like it.
Also,
if you're a Yankees fan listening to this,
you got a full experience
of Alex Verdugo yesterday
in that play at first base.
That should not have been a double play.
He should have run that ball
out and he should have been saving first.
But here we are.
Out at first and the
Guardians won that game.
But that's sometimes what
you're going to get with him.
He's hit or miss.
He's either going to have a
good day or he's not going
to have a good day.
Another team I want to talk
about from the second week of the season.
Second week?
Really?
Wow.
The Cleveland Guardians.
Another team in the division
for a team that I root for that
I don't know how they're doing this.
I mean,
I saw Bieber went down for the season,
and they're still finding a way.
They're still rolling.
I don't like it.
I really don't like it
because I had them finishing.
I don't remember if I had
them finishing second or third,
but they're still rolling.
Like, didn't even skip a beat.
Xavier Curry today.
Xavier,
I don't even know how you say his name.
Curry looked damn good.
Damn good after I said to
all my friends today that
he wasn't going to look good.
I thought the Sox would
score three-plus runs.
That looked terrible.
I don't know how the
Guardians keep doing this.
And, you know,
the Naylor brothers are killing it.
Jose Ramirez is doing his thing as always.
Always an MVP candidate.
And now Otani's out of the AL.
So,
Jose Ramirez could be an AL MVP
candidate.
And he's continuing to do it.
That team wins the division.
Everything about them is up for an award.
I mean, Jose Ramirez going MVP.
Steven Vogt could win manager of the year.
I believe it's Steven Vogt.
And you name your pitcher.
Tristan McKenzie looks great.
He reminds me of Marcus Stroman.
I mean,
the guy's not going to strike out
anybody.
I think he's got six
strikeouts in the year.
But he'll get guys out.
He'll take care of business.
I mean, the Guardians look fantastic.
And the final team I want to get to,
Pittsburgh Pirates.
Still, I mean,
the Brewers are in first place right now,
but the Pirates.
And to think of what they have coming,
I mean, we haven't even talked.
I'm going to get into them a
little bit later,
but Paul Skeen still isn't up.
And I've said this on podcasts.
I mean, we're on episode six,
and we've talked about this
and that team and the
prospects they have for a little bit now.
We've got time.
That team's not going anywhere.
I mean, this year they might fall off.
They fell off last year.
They might fall off this year.
We'll see.
But Paul Skeen's coming up.
Add that to that rotation.
They look good.
They look really good.
Also, a little quick congratulations,
Andrew McCutcheon,
his 300th career home run.
Really, I mean,
one of the best hitters I like to watch.
The guy is fun.
He's got a great plate approach.
I wish he was a Pirates whole career.
I really do.
Because him in a Pirates uniform,
the fact that he signed a
one-year deal this year,
got back there last year,
he just continues to do it.
And I like seeing him in Pittsburgh.
It's just where he fits.
There was nothing better.
I don't remember what year it was,
but that play-in game in
the wildcard when they used
to do that one game.
And it was Pirates-Reds,
and Quato was on the mound
for the Reds at Pirates game.
That was fantastic.
I was so happy watching the Pirates,
you know, moving on.
So I'm happy for that.
But they're a lot of fun to watch,
and they got a lot of things coming.
O'Neal Cruz looks great.
That team is good.
That team is really good.
And we've seen – JC and I
have talked about this nonstop.
That division is wide open.
It could be any of those five teams.
And right now it looks like
it's the Pirates division,
and they're just going to
run away with it.
And I can't really say
anybody's going to take it away.
I mean, the Brewers,
I didn't think the Brewers had a shot,
and they came out of the gate,
and they're hot.
You know,
I thought that was a team that
was going to be sellers at the deadline,
and Adamas was an option,
and they were building for next year.
That's why they sent
Woodruff for a two-year deal,
thinking he's going to
rehab for one year and
he'll be ready to go next year.
Not the case.
They look good, too.
And Yelich has figured it out,
it looks like.
So that's my three teams to
start the week that jumped
off the page of me.
And I guess it goes right
into what I was just talking about.
What's the highlight of the week?
Well, the highlight of the week,
Jackson Holiday, got to call it.
The number one overall
prospect in baseball.
Got to call it.
Now, granted, has he done anything?
No.
No.
But his presence, I mean,
I'd have to pull it up,
and I'm probably going to
do that right now.
Since he got called up,
so he made his first appearance on,
I want to say it was Wednesday.
Let's make sure on that.
I want to stat check myself.
His first game was, yeah, so Wednesday.
I was at the Red Sox-Orioles
game on Tuesday.
Of course, they call him the day after.
I'm not there.
Since he's been called up, they are 3-2.
They're currently up 7-4 on
the Orioles right now.
I mean the twins, Jesus.
And has he done anything today?
I don't even know.
Has he gotten his first hit yet?
He is 0 for 3 today,
and he did get his first hit.
He got his first hit on Sunday, yesterday,
against the Brewers,
going 1 for 4 with a run scored.
But he made his presence
known against the Red Sox,
even though he went hitless.
He had a RBI,
I believe it was in that
first game on Wednesday,
just a ground out that drove in a run.
You know, he'll figure it out.
It's a little speed bump.
He's figuring it out.
But adding him to that team,
and I've said this before,
the reason why I picked him
to win the World Series or
be in the World Series for
the American League is they
have the prospects to go
out and get whoever they want.
They could go at whatever's
on the deadline.
I mean,
At the end of the day,
right now we're in the
second week of the season.
And, you know, somebody falls off,
and they're going to be
selling at the deadline.
Now, right now,
I don't know who that is
because it's such a wide-open thing.
But they could look to move an arm,
and the Orioles will come and say,
I got six prospects in the top 100.
No, Holiday is not one of them,
so they got five.
And they got logjams everywhere,
but they have no pitchings.
So they come in and say,
we'll dangle some of our
prospects to go to pitcher.
And what team's going to say, well,
we're not there right now.
Let's go get a couple bats
to our lineup for the future.
And the Orioles all of a
sudden are one of the best
teams in baseball because
they got a one-two punch.
And let's also not forget to
mention John Means isn't back yet.
There's another arm right there.
He could be a number one when he's on.
But he isn't pitched yet this year.
He's coming back on Tommy John.
He threw a no-hitter.
I believe that was 2022.
It's another arm to that rotation.
I mean, they're just loaded everywhere.
Cade Povich is... I figure
where I had him ranked in
my top 10 for the Orioles.
But that's another arm.
That's the prospect that's coming up.
I mean, they got arms.
They got arms.
And Grayson Rodriguez is another one.
He looked good the other day.
He's looked good all year.
So that's another arm to watch.
They just... They have the...
unlimited amount of talent
to go get somebody to make
their team better.
And they have what they have right now,
where Corbin Burns looks
like a Cy Young candidate
like everybody expected him to be.
Now, granted, I still picked Tarek Skubal.
And aside from that Oakland start,
Tarek Skubal looks like a
Cy Young candidate.
He pitched good last weekend.
Or what was that?
I forget what day he pitched.
But he looked good.
He looked dominant.
I don't even think he gave
up a run against the Twins.
Oh, it was Friday.
I don't think he gave up a run.
That was a serious split for the Tigers.
So that was good to see.
You know, the offense for the Tigers,
it is what it is.
They've got to figure that out.
Javi Baez, Homer,
Torkelson still doesn't have one.
So they're working through
some things there in Detroit.
They'll get there.
My next thing.
Let's do an ad read.
Again, I'm working on this on my own.
So I'm sorry.
I am sorry right from the
get-go if this is not what
you're used to.
Granted.
JC and I can feed off each other.
We can do whatever we want,
but I'm trying to do this on my own.
Try to make this work.
I want you guys to get everything you can.
I don't want to miss a week.
So, you know,
there might be a weekend
where a Monday I can't,
I'm sick and I can't do it.
And JC is that a cover for
me and do it by himself.
There might be a Monday
again where JC sick and he
can't do this again, or he's busy,
but we're here for you.
And we want to continue doing this for you,
which brings me right to the,
what am I doing here?
Making this work.
We're making this work.
We're going to do this.
And we're going to go right to this.
This is what I said.
I mean,
you don't want to hear me talking
about myself?
Then help us out.
Come join us.
You can come be a writer, an editor.
You can come do the podcast with us.
I mean,
you can be a fill-in for the podcast.
I go out and I'm out for
Monday or JC's out and
you're helping me out.
It is what it is.
You can come help us out.
We can use all the help we can get.
We need writers,
and we need people that
just want to care about baseball,
that want to be a part of
the game and help us out
and continue to grow is what we're doing.
You know,
we've got something special going here.
We've got something really
special going here,
and we've got a great group of people.
You know, we're a close-knit family.
You know,
I've reached out to a couple of
writers who have been
written lately and just
checked in on them.
So that's just to tell you
where I am as a senior editor.
where I care about my
writers and I want to make
sure everybody's doing all
right I want to make sure
everybody's okay you know I
like this I've been here
for over a year this is
actually I think my 15th
month so you know we're
getting there and there's a
lot of good content coming
out there's a lot of things
we're doing there's a lot
of things I want us to do
but we can't do that
without you and this isn't
your full-time thing like
don't worry we all have
jobs we all have jobs outside of here
And, you know, we come in, we do,
because we care about baseball.
We care about the game.
We love the game.
We love what we do.
That's all it's about.
So, you know, if you can come in,
commit one article a week,
and you want to write on
Mondays and do a series recap,
please do not hesitate.
You know, I've shared this to, you know,
join us to multiple fan groups,
and I feel like people look at it and go,
I don't want to leave my current job,
and that's why they ignore it.
It's not that.
All it is is, you know,
Part-time.
When you get home from work,
you've had a long day,
and you want to just get
your frustration out after.
And your team is not good,
and you want to get the frustration out.
And this is a place to do that.
I mean, I've written articles, good, bad,
ugly, happy, sad.
You know,
it was one day I literally was
sitting here on my couch on
a Saturday night, and I said,
I want my Red Sox to sign Trevor Bauer.
And did it come across in a bad way?
Probably.
Because he was willing to
sign for a league minimum.
And the Red Sox need pitching.
And so I was frustrated about that.
But I let my feelings out in
an article about the team I care about.
You can do that.
You should come be a part of us.
You know, we're a voice for the fans.
And your opinions are your own.
So if you want to join us,
the link is posted right there.
You should come be a part of this.
We have a lot of fun.
We have a general chat group
where we talk about everything.
You know, we get it all out.
And, you know, we're an exciting group.
So if that's what you want to do,
shoot us an email.
I have two Facebooks now.
I have a CJ LaValle one,
and I have my actual Facebook.
Reach out to us there.
Reach out to us on Facebook.
Reach out to us on Instagram, Twitter.
It's all inside the diamonds.
So if you like what you hear,
you can join.
If you want to talk about your team,
whatever it is, just reach out.
Come in.
Join us.
And I'll talk to you.
We'll figure something out for you.
We'll find a place.
We'll find what you can do.
And, you know, we'll make it work.
We're an exciting group.
And I might be boring everybody by now.
I'm 15 minutes in.
I'm sorry.
But I have a lot of fun doing this.
And I love what I'm doing.
So I'm going to leave the link up.
And I want to take this off
and put my ugly face back on.
If you want to come deal with me every day,
please.
Really.
I'm a lot of fun.
I mean,
I write probably... I'm on a 76-day
streak of writing,
so I've written every day
for the last 76 days.
That's telling you right
there what I love.
I love this game.
I love everything about it.
I've told you the stories
about my relationship with
my dad's dad and my grandfather.
My other grandfather,
I have another story on that,
which if I'm by myself and
we're going to publish this,
I'll tell you before we end it.
But, you know...
this is a great group and
we're only growing and we
can only continue to grow
if we get more people.
So if you like what you're here,
please come join us.
So that leads me into my next thing.
JC wanted to talk about the
rookie standouts and
because I'm the big prospect guy,
I am going to keep this really short.
Um,
my big one of the week was Paul scenes
and I have a big issue with this,
which I'll get into in a minute, but,
He made a start this weekend.
He went three and third innings,
gave up three hits, didn't allow a run,
walked one, and struck out eight.
Guy's pumping at 100 miles an hour again.
Now,
why he's not in the Pirates' starting
rotation, it'd be on me.
A team that is clearly in the race,
but not... Why is he not there?
My biggest issue with minor
league baseball, and I don't get this,
is the first that I said,
three and third innings.
Why are we not pitching...
Guys, longer.
If you want guys to be
starters in the big leagues,
why are they not going five, six innings?
Now, I get it.
You don't want to burn a guy out.
But let's not forget that
this is the same guy that
last year for the LSU
Tigers that won the
national championship was throwing 105,
110 pitches every start.
Every Friday night.
Now,
if you're not familiar with college
baseball...
The ace of a staff gets Friday nights.
Your number two gets Saturday.
Your number three gets Sunday.
And then the weekday starts,
you kind of throw guys out there,
see what they got,
and you mix and match kind
of thing and just figure it out.
So this guy was throwing 105,
110 pitches last year.
Now he's throwing – I don't
even know what he threw in that start,
but he went three and a third of innings.
We've got to figure that out.
That's an issue.
That is an issue.
And I've noticed it.
I've been going to AA games,
being in New Hampshire with
the Fisher Cats.
I'll be there May 8th.
I wrote a great article the other day.
If you haven't had a chance, look it up.
I covered the Fisher Cats in
their 20th season this year.
But this is an ongoing issue
that I've had a problem
with for a long time.
Why are we not stretching guys out?
AA, I get it.
Single A, I get it.
High A, I get it.
They're not there yet.
But if you're in AAA...
and we're maxing guys out in
the fourth inning, we're pulling them,
that's a problem.
Unless you view a guy as a reliever.
But in this case of Paul Skeens,
nobody's viewing him as a reliever.
He's a starter.
And he's probably the ace of
that staff when he gets called up.
Nothing against Mitch Keller.
Mitch Keller's a good pitcher.
Jared Jones has looked fantastic.
But the things Paul Skeens does,
he's a future ace.
So we can't be having guys
go three and a third innings.
Just that can't happen.
So that's the one thing we got to work on.
But once again,
he continues to show that he's ready,
and I don't get why he's in AAA.
Same thing I said about
Jackson Holliday at the
start of the year.
I want a new number one.
I don't want it to be Boston
because it's going to be short-lived.
So I have a little chaos
with the prospects.
I'm going to have to update my top 100.
That will probably be coming out,
I want to say, the first weekend of May,
maybe the second weekend.
I got to update that.
I do have a new one.
I have about seven players I
got to update.
Sadan Raffaella just
graduated from the Red Sox.
Probably by the time I update it,
Colt Keith will graduate
with the Tigers and a
couple of others that I
forgot to mention.
Parker Meadows is off,
but he was only in the top 10.
He was in the top 100.
So I did update the Red Sox
and Tigers top 10s.
And Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford.
Carter will probably be off.
Langford will probably be on until June.
But I like the fun of
looking at prospects and saying,
this guy moved up.
He's graduated.
What's next?
Who's the new guy?
Who's the new talent coming
in that we got to watch?
So watch out for that.
I'll work on that probably
in the next couple of weeks,
but we'll get there.
The other prospects I want
to talk about were the big
three for the Red Sox.
And I'm a Red Sox fan,
so I follow a lot of them.
I do down the farm for Red Sox, Blue Jays,
and Tigers.
So these three are big ones.
I'm going to make it a plan
this summer to get a trip
up to Portland and watch these guys play.
Hopefully they're there.
I mean,
I wouldn't be surprised if one or
two of them are in
Worcester by this point,
but that's my plan.
So right now the top three
prospects for the Red Sox
are Marcelo Meyer, Roman Anthony,
and Kyle Teal.
And, I mean,
that's how you want to build a
farm system.
You got a shortstop, a catcher,
and a center fielder.
Anthony's a center fielder.
Mayer, shortstop, Kiel, catcher.
They say it all the time.
Build it right up the middle.
Catcher, short, center.
Now, you need pitching.
We all know that.
Red Sox don't have any right now.
I mean, their staff looks great,
but there's nothing in the system,
and that's what they're working on.
So, let's start with Meyer.
This week, Meyer went 9 for 24.
He had a home run, had five RBIs,
seven runs scored, one stolen base,
and two walks.
That's not bad,
and I know a lot of people
are calling for him to be
at the Red Sox right now
with Story being out.
That's not happening.
The guy has not played a
full season in a couple years.
He was hurt last year.
Let him get some AA experience.
Let him make his way to AAA.
We'll get him up here.
He'll be up here.
Don't worry about that.
This season,
he's hitting .357 with an .887 OPS.
The one home run in the five RBIs.
But he's riding a seven-game
hitting streak since the
season started for Portland.
I mean,
the guy looks good out of the gate.
Didn't look good in spring training.
Didn't look good in the spring breakout.
Give it time.
He's getting that swing down.
He'll be fine.
So do not overreact about what you saw.
He will be here.
Let's go Roman Anthony, number two.
This week, six for 20, three doubles,
two home runs, four RBIs, six runs scored,
two stolen bases, and two walks.
He's hitting .333 with a 1.093 OPS,
and he has two home runs and four RBIs.
Now,
both of those home runs came in a
doubleheader this past weekend.
So, he's figuring his swing out.
He's still going to be a problem.
All three of them hit a home
run this weekend.
We're going to go right on
to Kyle Thielen now.
Teal went six for 16 with a double,
a home run, five RBIs, three runs scored,
and three runs scored.
He's hitting .300 with an .891 OPS,
and he has a home run and five RBIs.
I don't know why you could
ask for a human catcher.
The two stocks catchers they
have right now in Connor
Wong and Reece McGuire, they look good.
Kyle Teal is going to be a problem.
The thing is with Kyle Teal
and Meyer and those two at least,
I don't think Anthony is.
The Red Sox have a lot of
left-handed bats.
I mean,
there's been conversations about
extending tosses.
They have Devers.
Yoshida's a lefty.
Duran's a lefty.
They have left-handed bats.
I mean,
today I think I looked at the
lineup and I literally sat there and said,
I think seven of the nine
hitters were lefties.
You add Teal to that and you
take McGuire out, I believe.
No, McGuire's a lefty.
It's just lefty loaded.
They need a right-handed bat.
You got to keep Tyler O'Neal here.
That's for sure one.
But it's a good week for college, I mean,
minor league prospects.
The Red Sox look good.
Portland, you know, figuring things out.
If you get a chance,
if you're in an area of the
East Coast in the Eastern
League and you can go watch
a Portland game, I highly recommend it.
Even if you're not a Red Sox fan,
just go look at those three kids.
They got talent.
There's a lot of talent in
that Eastern League.
I know I'm going, like I said, the 8th.
I believe they're playing Harrisburg,
which is the Nationals affiliate.
And Dylan Cruz is there,
who's in my top 10.
Dylan Cruz is one to watch.
The next thing we want to
get into is the Angel Hernandez thing.
And my God,
how is this guy still umpiring?
How in the world is this guy
still umpiring?
He had the Rangers and
Astros series this weekend.
And I don't know if you saw the video.
He called out Wyatt Langford
on three pitches,
and none of them were in the zone.
None.
JC put it in the manifesto
to talk about robo umpires.
Now,
I like the aspect of a human umpiring
game, but if we're going to trot this out,
my goodness, that's terrible.
That is terrible.
You can't call that.
All three of those pitches
were so far out of the zone.
And I go back to, as a Tigers fan,
I remember, what was it?
I forget his first name,
but it was Galarraga in that no-hitter.
He was out at first.
And even Jim Joyce,
who was the umpire at first base that day,
came out that night and said,
I missed the call.
He was safe.
I mean, he was out.
I just,
I don't like the idea of a robot or
a robo-umpires.
I don't like it.
The one thing I do like that
the minor league is doing,
and I hope this is a – I believe it is,
but I'm hoping it's true,
is they're doing a thing in
the minor leagues now where
they just do this,
and they can argue balls and strikes,
and they review it,
and they make decisions.
That's the thing I want to see.
If you have a problem with a call,
just this, and they review it,
and we go from there.
I saw it the other day where
somebody literally had two strikes,
struck out 10 in the inning,
reviewed it,
and the very next pitch had a double.
There we go.
Keep that going.
That's fantastic.
Do that.
Umpires are human beings.
Just like we as baseball players,
everybody who plays this game,
we're all human beings.
You know, we're not, you know,
like Ted Williams said,
Baseball is the only sport
or only endeavor where you
can succeed three times out
of ten and be considered a
great performer.
It's not wrong, but we're human.
There's going to be weeks where we go, oh,
for whatever.
It's a part of it.
And are we critical because
they're our favorite, you know,
of a player on our team?
Yeah.
Yeah, we are.
It happens.
But at the end of the day, just like that,
we're critical of an umpire.
Umpires are human beings.
Yeah.
They're going to make bad calls.
It happens.
As a player, I played, like I said,
multiple times.
I played for 25 years.
In the last 10 years of
running a team and doing all that,
I've had my run-ins with umpires.
I literally had an umpire at
one point a couple years
ago that I didn't agree with the call.
He called me out on a strike that was,
I thought, outside and below my knees.
I didn't like it.
I voiced my opinion,
and I had the feeling
umpire walked next to the dugout,
and he said, are you good?
Did you get everything out?
I said, no, I'm not happy with it.
And he said it was a bad call.
I don't disagree with you.
But it is what it is.
They're human beings.
We're all human beings.
So Angel Hernandez is the
worst of the worst.
I'm not going to disagree
with you on that.
I mean,
I'm going to go back to 2021 when I
was a Red Sox fan.
Last year, it cost the Sox a win.
They should have won that
series against the Astros
and should have been in the World Series.
Did they beat the Braves?
Probably not.
But they should have been there.
And that's an umpire making
a bad call that costs you a game.
It happens.
Does it suck?
Yes.
And if you're a Red Sox fan,
you probably really don't
remember that call.
Unless you're really bitter about it.
But I let it go.
You know, it happens.
It happens.
You can't let it control you.
You can't.
So, move on.
I don't know how Angel
Hernandez still has a job.
I mean...
Is he the one that's making
everybody want Robo-Empires?
Probably.
But he's not that.
I mean, he's bad.
But the rest of them,
there's a lot of good ones.
There's a lot that I see there.
They might make one bad call
here and there.
That happens.
Like I said, we can't all be perfect.
We can't.
So, get Angel Hernandez out.
Don't go Robo-Empires.
And let's roll with what we got.
That's all we can do.
Let's go into,
I guess we'll roll into this.
So we're going to the store
and do another little ad read.
So we're looking for some good apparel.
I had some friends say to me today,
actually,
we were celebrating Patriots Day,
having our typical Patriots Day party,
doing our thing.
You know, had mimosas.
We had steak and eggs.
Celebrated every year.
We washed our socks.
We did our thing.
But they even said,
get some Inside the Diamonds apparel.
We have some.
The link is right there.
Want a sweatshirt?
Want a t-shirt?
Don't like what we have and
you want something else?
Shoot us a message.
We'll figure it out.
But there is stuff there for you.
There's a lot of good options.
I actually have a sweatshirt on the way.
Probably going to order myself a t-shirt.
Summertime's coming.
You know,
I wear the... What I'm wearing
right now a lot in the summertime.
I need a Red Sox Columbia.
But stuff's lightweight.
So...
I don't know what this apparel is like.
I'm assuming it's good.
I like what I've seen.
If it's anything like what
I've gotten for our sister
company or the company inside the drink,
I like everything we get.
So if you want something,
the link is right there.
Please represent us.
Say nice things about us.
It's all right there.
So now we'll get rid of that.
I'll leave the link up.
Again, if you want something,
It's right there.
Represent us.
Be a part of this.
So now I'll hide the link
and we'll get into the last thing.
And then I got a I'll tell a
quick story and we'll get out of here.
So let's let's get into the big story.
The Shohei Otani scandal.
And I'm really just I've
tried to stay out of it
because I like Otani and
he's he's innocent.
Ipe, or however you say his name, Ipe,
whatever, he's a piece of shit.
Terrible person.
Terrible person when he did.
And the more I see about it,
the more I hate him.
You know, and I was a big fan of him.
I liked everything about him because,
you know, the story was back in,
I think it was 2020 when COVID happened,
Otani kept him on so he
could be his translator, hired him,
whatever,
and he was a part of everything.
And now,
the truth comes out about what he's done.
And he, it came out,
I believe it was this week,
earlier this week, or last week,
I'm sorry,
where he shut off the
notifications every time he
made a deposit or whatever,
withdrawal from Shohei's account.
It's just continuing to get worse.
He's in custody, he's arrested,
but it's just, he's a piece of shit.
And I can't imagine doing that to a friend,
especially somebody who
went out from the story from 2021
Went out and put their back
on the line for me.
It's just, that's a shitty thing.
And, you know, I feel for Shohei.
I really do.
And clearly he's not letting
it bother him because he's
been on a roll.
But that's just a terrible human being.
Terrible.
And I don't know what's going to happen.
I don't know what the
sentence looks like for all of that.
But the more of this story
that comes out about Ipe...
the more and more I can't stand the guy.
And the more and more I feel
bad for Shohei.
And Shohei, from what I've seen,
just looks like a nice guy,
looks happy to be in the baseball field,
be around teammates, be around friends,
you know.
And, you know,
he looks happy every time he was with Ipe,
too.
But, you know,
this guy is doing what he's doing.
Makes you question things.
You've got to be careful
who's around you and what
they're doing because –
It really tells you, like, we've all known,
I guess,
for a long time you can't trust anybody.
You got to keep your guard up.
But I don't really have much
to say about it.
I try to avoid the whole
situation because I just don't like it.
I just don't like the whole
shitty person aspect.
I like Shohei Otani.
You know, I like watching him play.
I really do.
And so I'm glad he's not
letting the outside noise distract him.
That's one thing I will say.
I really am happy about that.
And I'm sure we're going to
learn more over the next coming days.
I'm sure there's more to come out,
because every day that
seems like it's something.
Like the fact that he shut
the notifications off from
Shohei so he wouldn't see
the money he was transferring out.
I just, to have that kind of control,
it seems like he tried to
control everything.
It does,
I've heard a lot of people say it
does make the contract that
Shohei signed with the
Dodgers look interesting.
But I don't think it does.
I mean, the guys,
it sucks for Shohei now
because he agreed to, what,
two mil a year,
and this guy was shoveling out 16.
It's just a whole weird situation.
And I don't like talking about it.
I really don't.
I want to talk about baseball.
I want to talk about the game.
I don't want to talk about
the shitty things going on.
I really don't.
I mean, right now, granted,
I have two hockey games on
because I'm a Red Wings fan,
and the Red Wings are
fighting for their life,
and the Bruins aren't helping us out,
so...
and the Tigers already lost 1-0.
So, um,
so let's go into the last thing I
wanted to say.
I told everybody I'd tell a story,
and I want to take this
opportunity to do that.
So I've had a few people
reach out to me via social media,
via whatever,
and they said they
appreciated the story about
my grandfather from April 1st.
Um,
I don't know where this is going.
I don't know how long.
I'm hoping we can do this for a long time.
I'm hoping this podcast is a
thing and it continues to
grow and people tune in and
they want to hear the
stories and they want to
hear our life stories and
what we have to say about
the game we love.
So I want to get into the
reason why I'm a Tigers fan.
So you all heard, you know,
why I was a Red Sox fan.
My dad's dad, Matt Papilla Valley,
was a big Red Sox fan.
Um,
so my reason why I'm a big Tigers fan
is my mom's dad is from
Michigan and he's a big Tigers fan,
big Lions fan, big Red Wings fan.
And I really gravitated towards, uh,
the Lions and the Red Wings,
the Red Sox and Tigers.
I tell everybody I'm a 55,
45 split where I root for the Red Wings.
I mean, the Red Sox, 55% and the Tigers 45,
2013.
I rooted for the Sox more than Detroit.
And when it comes to basketball,
I'm a Celtics fan.
But in 2006,
or it was actually before 2006,
it was 2000.
I want to say it was near the end of 2004.
My mom's dad got diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer.
Now, if you're familiar with that,
it is a cancer that your
life expectancy is not that long.
He told me he was going to
live five months.
He went 14.
That's just the kind of guy he was.
And, you know,
he always fought and struggled.
I had a great relationship with them.
And one thing I will always
say is I had a great
relationship with all four
of my grandparents.
I had a great relationship
with both my parents.
I still do.
I'm thankful for everything
they do for me.
But back in 2006 in October,
and if you're a Tigers fan,
you know this story.
Maglio Ordonez had a
walk-off home running game
four of the ALCS and sent
the Tigers to the World Series.
They ended up losing that
World Series to the St.
Louis Cardinals.
I watched that game with my grandfather.
It was actually very,
I wouldn't say planned,
but I think he planned for
us to sleep over and
We ended up doing a sleepover that night,
and he had taken three naps.
He was going through chemo
and everything he was going through,
and we stayed up.
We watched that whole game.
We watched the home run.
Very emotional moment.
He ended up passing away a month later,
and obviously the Tigers, like I said,
did not win the World Series,
but that was one of the
special moments in my life
that I will never forget.
You know, we watched that home run.
We cried because...
We thought we had a chance to win it all,
and we were going to do
that before he passed away.
And obviously it didn't happen,
but I am happy for the
memories that it did make
and something that I will
carry with me for the rest of my life.
And my son now has multiple
Red Sox and Tiger stuff,
and the kid's not going to
know once he gets older who
he actually is a fan of, and that's okay.
He can root for whoever he wants.
But I'm hoping he has those
memories like I do,
And I'm hoping I get to
share some with him where, you know,
my love for baseball,
I get to pass that down to him.
It's one of my favorite memories.
It really is.
I mean,
that home run will live forever
within me.
And I'm happy it happened.
You know,
I wish they won the World Series.
I wish there was more to the story of it,
whether we actually had a ring.
But we did get to celebrate
multiple Detroit Red Wings Stanley Cups.
So we have that.
um but I didn't want to tell
that story my mom listens
to this and my dad um
apparently I made my mom
cry when I told the story
about my other grandfather
so probably hearing the
story about her dad will
make her very emotional um
but I had to tell it so
there's a lot going on in
the game of baseball
there's a lot to be happy
about I know that was a sad
story to tell at the end of this but
And, you know, like I said,
I've had people reach out.
I've had people ask me my
story and why I'm a Tigers
fan and why I'm a Red Sox fan,
especially living in New Hampshire.
Why am I the way that I am?
Oh, you know what?
We'll end this on a more positive note.
So I've had a lot of my
friends message me and they
see that we share this and they say, oh,
CJ, what's with the CJ?
I don't like that.
Your name's Chris.
Yes, my name is Chris.
and the story of this goes
to I was writing for two
companies back along about
a year ago and I was trying
to not double down so I
made my initial cj never
changed it we I've been
writing here for 14 months
like I said 14 15 months
whatever and jc and I
became very close became
friends you know we talk a
lot we text daily
I thought the idea of the
podcast with JC and CJ was
a cool idea with the initials, you know,
so I left it a CJ.
I said, you know, let's do the podcast.
I'll be CJ on the podcast.
So here we are.
If you don't like it and you
listen to this,
please comment or whatever.
And if you want me to go by Chris on here,
I will.
If you're okay with CJ, that's fine too.
Just that's the story though.
That's why I'm CJ.
Um,
My name is Chris.
I go by LaValley.
I go by Chris.
I go by a lot of things.
But on here,
I go by CJ because the idea of
JC and CJ with the initials
backwards both ways, that was cool.
So that's why we did what we did.
And while I've rambled on for 40 minutes,
I told you I could talk.
But there's a lot to watch this week.
One thing that JC did
mention that I actually didn't cover is
I guess I should do that now,
is one series we want to watch this week.
So I'll look at my schedule
and let's see what we got.
A lot of good baseball going on.
But this weekend,
one series I am looking forward to.
I do want to watch the Red
Sox and Pirates.
because I want to see what goes on there.
I want to see what's
happening with the Red Sox.
Another series that I'm
actually really excited for
is the Rays and Yankees.
That looks good.
Tampa's in fourth.
They might be in third.
I don't know if they played today,
but that's a test for the Yankees.
And another one, right off the bat,
I'm going to get right into it.
I want to watch Orioles and Royals.
Royals are good.
They're right off the jump.
And the Orioles are the Orioles.
We've talked about they're a
World Series favorite.
So that's a series to watch this weekend.
And one final one that I'll
give you is Blue Jays and Padres.
Blue Jays got off slow.
Padres,
I think they played the Dodgers
five times,
and they're 2-2 against the Dodgers.
So Padres are another one to watch.
So that's another series.
I'm looking forward to this weekend.
A lot of good baseball.
Watch the team.
Watch whatever.
Watch the prospects.
There's a lot of good prospects to watch.
I've mentioned this before.
I don't like the aspect of
MLB TV where you've got to
change your favorite team
to watch your favorite prospects.
But that's what you've got to do.
And I've been doing it.
I've rotated through being
from New Hampshire.
I watch every Fisher Cats game,
whether it's my main TV, my little TV.
with all the time
differences between the Red
Sox and the Tigers,
and I've been watching the Fisher Cats.
Like I said,
there's an article out that I
wrote about the Fisher Cats.
That's there if you want to read that.
But there is a lot of good baseball,
a lot of good prospects to watch.
There's a lot to cover,
and next week I won't be alone.
So, you know, thank you for joining us,
and I hope I did all right,
and I hope you enjoy,
and have a great night and
have a great week.