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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 is up welcome back to
the inside the diamonds
podcast and I am your host
tonight chris again we went
over this last week nobody
commented so I don't know I
don't know what people want
chris cj where are we
feeling but I'm back again
just me and we got some
stuff to address um usually
I have my phone with me
every time I record this and
I did last week,
and I didn't get the
notification until probably
right after I ended.
And, again,
we recorded last week on
Tuesday because I had some
stuff going on Monday with
the Celtics winning the championship.
I went to go watch Game 5 at
my friend's house.
So,
Willie Mays passed away because we do
this once a week,
and I wanted to address it
to kick the podcast off.
Personally, Willie Mays,
as far as I'm concerned,
is the greatest baseball
player of all time.
Now, this is honestly, I mean,
there's debates in every sport,
basketball, football, you name it.
There's debates.
I mean, people say in basketball,
it's Jordan, LeBron.
People also go to different names.
Okay.
Football, it's Brady, Montana.
Hockey, you hear Gretzky.
People say Crosby now.
You hear Gordie Howe.
Different names.
Baseball, it's
the most wide open people go
Willie Mays Ken Griffey Jr
Barry Bonds um be with that
as you may if what your
opinion is on the steroid
situation um I've heard
Babe Ruth you know
obviously there's so many
names and it's one of those
sports where you can say
well pitching hitting best
player of all time the
other day I really think
Willie Mays might be the
best player of all time and
I heard this stat the other day,
and I don't remember the
full length of it,
but I did my own little one.
The only player in all time
history to have 500 home
runs plus 100 triples, just over, sorry,
2,000 runs scored and 1,900 RBI.
All of that together.
And he was just, you know,
he's not first in every category.
and really whoever is but
you know a little story you
know he obviously I never
saw him he retired in 1973
and I was born in the 90s
so I never saw him to me
the best player I ever saw
with wasn't for injuries
ken griffey jr I'd say
barry bonds picturing wise
randy johnson pedro like
you know we might be seeing
it now with otani he might
be end up being the best
player ever but to me right
now the greatest player of
all time is willie mays and
I just I'm going to bring it
right in with the game that
was played the other day at
the field in Alabama.
That was fantastic.
Everything that MLB put together,
the way that was handled,
the way that was ran.
Fantastic.
And now I think, you know,
from what I've understood
is Willie Mays was supposed to be there.
He came out Sunday or Monday and said,
I won't be there.
I'm in poor health.
Little did we know that
literally it was that bad.
And he passed away 48 hours,
24 hours later.
But I thought with his son
coming out to start it and
saying that my dad wished
he could be here, it was fantastic.
The whole thing was awesome.
But I looked into – I wrote
an article the other day,
and I talked about the
legacy and career of Willie Mays.
And ironically,
the last weekend – two weekends ago,
actually,
right before – the weekend
before he passed away,
we didn't have my son.
He was staying at his grandparents' house.
And so randomly, just that night,
I watched old highlights of
baseball players.
And one of them I watched was Willie Mays.
And the more and more I watched,
it was just,
he was such a pure hitter and
so much fun to watch.
And as I wrote the article, you know,
I went through it, and it really,
I wish I got to see him.
Like,
it sounds like that time period was
some great baseball.
And as I crunched the numbers, you know,
I went through and the fact that, you know,
you go through a 24 time all-star,
you know,
that's numbers like New Zealand did that.
I don't think it was ever 24.
Williams was also up there
and all-star appearances,
but a 12 time gold club award winner.
And the more I watch,
especially after his passing,
everybody shows the catch
and the catch is great.
Love the over the, the full facing,
like the catch and,
But the fact that he turned
around and threw that ball
in the way he did and
prevented the runner,
just fantastic fielder.
And as I went through the numbers,
you know,
his batting average 197th all time,
you know, games played,
he was ninth all time.
And now let's also remember
that he also took a year
off from military service.
But the home run sixth all time.
I mean, this guy did it at the plate.
He did it with his gloves.
He did it everywhere.
I mean, this war, 156.2, third overall.
Offensive war, he was 136.5,
fourth overall.
Defensive war, 18.2,
which is tied for 69th overall.
So he was just a fantastic player.
If you have a chance,
go on YouTube and just
watch any Willie Mays highlight.
Overall, his statistical achievements,
two-time MVP, could have been more, but
It was also the writers and
the time frame that he was
in and the racial issues
that were going on then.
But 1951 Rookie of the Year, like I said,
24-time All-Star,
12-time Gold Glove Award winner,
1954 batting title,
two-time All-Star Game MVP.
So...
Just one of the best,
and he was the godfather of
Barry Bonds and taught him,
say what you want about
Barry Bonds and the whole steroid issue.
I get it.
I have this argument.
My girlfriend does not agree
that Barry Bonds because he cheated.
I think Barry Bonds is one
of the best hitters of all time,
and I grew up watching him.
But I go back to, yes, he did steroids,
or whatever they say.
But before he even joined the Giants,
he was one of the best players to watch.
He was a Hall of Famer
before he left Pittsburgh.
He went to San Fran.
It got paid.
And that's when it seems
like things started to change.
He became a home run hitter,
a power hitter.
But he was still a Hall of
Famer before that.
And at the end of the day,
Willie Mays is his godfather.
And so what did he take from him?
And Willie Mays
realistically is the
godfather of all baseball.
I've seen that from a lot of
people after his passing,
that he was just the
godfather to them in all baseball.
So I wanted to just touch on that.
Wish I saw it when it came
through because I would
have just ended the podcast
with that last week,
but I obviously didn't see it,
and it was probably halfway through.
So rest in peace to one of the best,
and the game of baseball will miss you.
He seemed to be all around,
and I'll have a little bit
more to say about him and
his presence in the game.
So...
Last week we started this
and I'm going to keep it going this week.
And we talked about the
hottest teams in baseball and with the,
you know,
we're getting to the dog days of summer.
It's officially summer now.
And so we're going to do the
three hottest teams and the
three coldest teams.
Now every week it won't be
three and three.
It just so happened that
this week I worked it out
perfectly to have three and three.
So the hottest team that I have right now,
one of the hottest teams is
the Boston Red Sox.
And yes, it is my favorite team,
but you can't fault what they're doing.
mean they've won eight of
their last ten they went
five on one last week the
one thing that's always
fascinating about them is
they struggle on fridays
like I've learned to not
bet them on fridays they're
three and ten on fridays
and it's just it seems to
be whenever it's a series
opener they just can't win
that so I mean friday they
faced the reds and they
were riding a five game
winning streak and they
lost it was a 3-2 game all
on home runs and then cam loser made a
Tough play and flipped it over.
Connor Wong's head and two
runs scored in 5-2,
and you felt like they
weren't coming back.
That was just the way the game went.
But then they came out Saturday,
and they fought back.
And then Sunday, it's Sunday.
They're 12-1 now on Sunday.
And that one loss, if you want to call it,
it is what it is.
It's a loss.
I mean,
it stands in the standings that way.
But realistically,
that was a bad call at
first base in that game.
The guy, they called him safe.
He was clearly out.
He missed the base.
And the Tigers end up
scoring four runs in that game,
and the Red Sox go on to
lose on a Sunday.
That's their only loss.
So it's really,
you can put an asterisk on it.
Are they really 12-1?
But as I went through last week,
crunching the numbers on
who had good weeks and who didn't,
or who did for the hot part of it,
it was really the bats.
I mean,
Jaron Duran threw six games last week.
And I love the fact that he
– if you haven't heard this story,
this is one of my favorite
stories of this season.
So he has played in every
game to this point.
He was called into Alex Cora's office on,
I believe it was Saturday.
And I'm going to quote this
because language.
Alex Cora pretty much said,
you're getting the day off today.
And Duran said, fuck that.
I love that.
Jaron Duran is probably one
of my favorite Red Sox players.
Like I just –
David Hamilton's another one
that's growing on me,
but I love that whole idea of Raphael 8,
Hamilton 9, Durant leadoff,
and you just roll that in
and get to your power bats.
It's fantastic to watch.
So with that, Jaron Durant, six games.
He's hitting 393 in those
six games with a 1.036 OPS, two home runs,
five runs scored, five RBIs,
and three stolen bases.
Next one's Tyler O'Neal.
He played six games.
He's hitting .333 in those
six games with a 1.297 OPS,
three home runs, four runs scored,
and three RBIs.
He's hot.
And, ooh,
I'm watching the Red Sox right now.
What a beautiful play by Durant.
He's doing with the glove, too.
Robbed a home run on
Saturday to keep the game.
The next one is Zidane Rafaela.
I mentioned him before.
One of my favorite players
to watch for the Red Sox.
Just everything he does with the glove.
He can play short, stop center field.
He's getting hot with the bat.
So last week in five games,
hit .333 with a .924 OPS, had a home run,
four runs scored, two RBIs,
and a stolen base.
Guy's just doing it with a glove,
with a bat.
The last one is Connor Wong.
Four games,
he's hitting .294 with 1,000 OPS,
two home runs, three runs scored,
and four RBIs.
Now he's out.
He's on paternity leave,
so congratulations to him
and his significant other.
But they're hot.
And they're on a playing spot now.
So in this week,
they got three against Toronto.
They're playing right now.
It's 2-1.
Rafael Devers with a two-run
home run to give them the lead.
Justin Turner doing his thing as usual,
just tormenting the Red Sox
because they let him go.
And then this weekend,
and I'm debating on going on Friday,
but Xavier Bogarts will
make his return to family.
And the Padres are in town,
which the Red Sox are
dodging a bullet there.
Fernando Tatis was placed on
the injury list today.
So they're not going to face
him this weekend.
We're going to move right along.
The next hottest team in
baseball was the Houston Astros.
And I said it weeks ago with
JC on the podcast, and I said,
don't ever count them out.
You know, he was talking about selling.
We were both talking about selling,
and I said, don't count them out.
They're coming back.
You can't.
And they get hit with everything.
Like, they just keep losing pitching.
They keep losing guys,
and they come right back,
and they're still in this thing.
And that's after a great
week last week where they went 5-1.
They're 7-3 in their last 10.
They took 2-3 from the White Sox,
and they swept the Baltimore Orioles.
So they're coming.
And as a Red Sox fan,
that makes me nervous
because I like catching the
Royals and the Twins,
but now you've got the Astros coming.
And if they keep doing what they're doing.
Most of the reason why
they're doing what they're
doing last week was Alex Bregman,
six games, 462 average, 1.077 OPS,
five runs scored in RBI.
So he's not even doing it
with the long ball.
He's just hitting the ball.
The next one is really surprising to me.
It was Chaz McCormick.
Four games, hit .333, 1.225 OPS,
two home runs, four runs scored,
and three RBIs.
The final one, this guy is just clutch.
He shows up every single time.
Jordan Alvarez.
He played in four games last
week at .250 with a 1.055 OPS,
two home runs, three runs scored,
and four RBIs.
But then you turn around.
go to the mount and now
they've lost christian
javier uh jose your kitty
and berliner didn't even
show up for this so the two
names I want to talk about
are hunter brown he went he
faced the white socks but
he went six innings gave up
seven hits one run run
didn't allow a walk and
struck out six the other
one and this guy has just
come out of nowhere this
year is ronald blanco
sevenings pitch he faced
the orioles give up four
hits one iron run three
walks and four k's like this guy is just
Dominant.
I mean,
not dominant in Luis Gil's kind of status,
but he's been pretty good.
And they got an easy week this week.
Easy schedule-wise.
So start it.
They got two against the
Rockies and then three against the Mets.
The Mets had been hot.
They kind of cooled off a little bit,
but they're right there, too.
And we'll talk about them later,
right towards the end of the podcast.
The final team that was hot this week.
The Atlanta Braves.
And five and one.
And no slouch.
They swept the Tigers.
That's okay.
Maybe that one is.
But they took two out of
three from the Yankees.
They did their job.
And they're 8-2 in the last ten.
You know, this team loses Spencer Strider.
They lose Ronald Acuna Jr.
They don't miss a beat.
Don't miss a beat.
They hit the ball.
They have great pitching.
It's amazing to watch.
And it's guys you don't even expect.
Like, obviously,
the first one I'm going to name,
Sean Murphy.
Four games, 400 average, 1.305 OPS,
two home runs, three runs, four RBIs.
Then you got Austin Riley.
Six games, 350 average, 1.085 OPS,
one home run, four runs scored,
and an RBI.
Ozzie Albies, six games, 280 average,
973 OPS, two home runs, five runs scored,
six RBIs.
And, again,
this is the team that won the
World Series a couple years ago,
and Ronald Cooney was hurt
for the year that year,
and they came out and did it.
But the name that really
stuck out to me was Ramon Lariano.
Six games, a 375 average, a 1.125 OPS,
a home run, two runs scored,
and two RBIs.
He's been great.
But where they're really
taking off right now is the pitching.
And you lose a guy like Spencer Strider,
and you call up a guy in
Schwallenbach who, you know,
has come into his own.
You know, he's made, what,
four starts as a big leaguer?
Yeah.
He paced the Tigers last week,
won six innings, gave up three hits,
one run, and two walks and seven Ks.
What can you ask from the guy?
He's doing his job.
Overall,
their starting pitchers combined
to go four and one, pitch 33 innings,
a 2.45 ERA, a 2.87 FIP, a 1.21 WIP,
and a 9.6 K per nine,
a 3.8 walk per nine.
And that's behind, I mean, Chris Sale.
As a Red Sox fan, I said it all along.
This guy's going to be healthy.
He's going to pitch great.
I hate to say it.
I hate seeing it.
I mean, I shouldn't say I hate seeing it.
I love seeing it,
but I hate the fact that
it's not in Boston.
But he faced the Yankees.
He went five innings, gave up one hit,
one run, three walks, and eight Ks.
It's a great job.
It's a great team.
Max Freed made two starts.
He faced the Tigers and the Yankees,
combined to go 11 and a third,
gave up 10 hits, two runs, three walks,
10 Ks, a 1.59 ERA last week.
The final one,
and I have a buddy who's a Braves fan,
and he had texted me saying, you know,
are you ready for this series?
And I said,
I think the Tigers should swept.
I said,
the only game that I'm curious
about is that third game,
and that was Terrick
Schoolville against Reynaldo Lopez.
And Reynaldo Lopez has come from nowhere.
Like, the things he's done –
You know, wow, what a season for him.
And when he faced Scooble,
that was the game I wanted to watch.
Five innings, he gave up seven hits,
didn't allow a run, walked one,
and struck out six.
It's a great start.
And he faced Scooble,
who had probably his worst
start of the year.
So, and this week the Braves will face,
they have an interesting schedule.
They'll have the Cardinals for three,
which we'll get to that a little later.
The White Sox, for one,
will make up on Thursday,
and then they've got three
against the Pirates this weekend.
So...
It's a good week for them if
they can stay hot.
And they might be featured
again next week on this if
they continue to do what they're doing.
And we'll see what they do.
I mean, we'll see what the bats do,
but the pitching is dominant again.
And that means, what are they?
Are they trying to lead down to seven now?
I mean,
they're catching up to the Phillies.
So, we'll see.
We'll see.
I don't know if they can catch them.
I mean, a long way to go.
I mean, but...
They're right there.
I'm not changing my World
Series pick to start the year.
It was Orioles-Braves.
I mentioned a couple weeks
ago I might be changing to
Orioles-Phillies.
I don't know.
I don't know yet.
I'm leaning Orioles-Phillies.
But we'll see.
The cold teams.
This first one, I really was surprised.
And maybe it's time.
Maybe we knew it was coming.
But the Yankees.
three and seven in their
last 10 they went two and
four last week went one of
three against baltimore one
of three against the braves
the big stat that I saw was
alex verdugo now I
mentioned he came made his
return to fenway uh two
weeks ago and that friday
night went off home run
double like he was just
driving the ball everywhere
and he seemed to be loving
it and but after that since
then seven games he's hitting under 100
With a 241 OPS.
Hasn't hit a home run.
He's scored one run and has zero RBIs.
Oops.
It's a tough look.
I'm sure he'll figure it out.
It's a rough stretch, but we'll see.
The next one was Juan Soto.
The big one that everybody
was talking about is the
MVP before Judge got hot.
And over the last week,
he's played in six games.
He's hitting under 200.
He's a 565 OPS.
Has not hit a home run.
Has four runs scored in an RBI.
And the other one is Gleyber Torres.
Five games, he's hitting on 150.
He's got a 692 OPS,
so he's getting up there on
the OPS side of things.
One home run, three runs scored,
and four RBIs.
So he's there,
but Aaron Judge is carrying
that team on his back right now.
The other interesting one,
we'll go Carlos Rodon.
He faced the Braves this weekend,
and he had one of his worst outings.
Like, he looked good to start the year.
He has a great record.
But is he starting to get
back to the Rogan of last
year where he didn't look good?
He went three and two-thirds,
gave up 11 hits, eight runs, seven earned,
two walks, and three caves.
And we finally saw a
Louisville start where he struggled.
I like him.
I like watching him.
But when he faced the Red Sox,
I was locked in.
This guy was fantastic to watch.
But...
You just wondered,
is there a point where he's
going to regress?
And I'm not concerned with him.
I mean, it's one bad start.
So it could be a bad stretch maybe,
but I don't think he's a bad pitcher.
I think he'll figure it out.
But this is his first year,
and this is where he's
going to learn to adapt.
Guys are starting to adapt to him,
so he's got to change his
game a little bit.
It's all about adapting.
Everything about this game is adapting.
You face a lineup a second time, adapt.
You face a team for a second time,
like Tanner Houck's a perfect example.
I said it earlier.
He struggled in his first
start against the team or
was fantastic in his first
start and struggled in his second start.
It's all about adapting.
And so Luis Gil, his first bad start,
came against the Orioles,
won in the third, eight hits,
seven earned runs, two walks,
and a strikeout.
That's not Louie's heel
numbers that we've seen this year,
and that has made him a Cy
Young candidate,
let alone a Rookie of the Year candidate.
So they have a chance to
turn things around this week.
They have the Mets for two,
quick subway series,
which I didn't even put
that in my series to watch.
I love a good subway series,
so I'll be watching that tomorrow.
And then they got four
against the Blue Jays this weekend,
who are right into it.
The next team I want to talk about,
they had a bad week.
You thought the Yankees week was bad?
This team didn't get a win.
swept by the Red Sox,
swept by the Guardians.
Now they faced two hot teams,
two good teams, but 2-8 in their last 10,
and they were outscored 37-18 last week.
The tough news for them,
my second overall prospect
for the Blue Jays system,
or Elvis Martinez had gotten called up,
made his big league debut.
Well,
he's suspended for 80 games for
performance hands and drugs.
Tough start for his career, but
Going to move right along, Dalton Varshow.
He had a bad week.
Five games, a 0-53, sorry,
under 100 batting average.
A 196 OPS, has not hit a home run, a run,
or an RBI.
Now,
this is a guy that led the team or
leads the team in home runs
and is tied for the team leading RBIs.
If you're going to win games,
you need your guys to show
up and perform.
The next one is George Springer.
and I've heard this everywhere,
and I agree with it, and I've heard it.
I mean, watching it, I see it.
George Springer's taking a step back.
He looks older.
He looks like he's getting to that point.
Six games,
he's hitting under $1.50 with a
420 OPS and doesn't have a
home run or run or an RBI last week.
This team right now,
even though they went 0-6 last week,
is really being led by Vlad Guerrero Jr.,
Justin Turner, and Isaiah Kainer-Falefo.
which who would have thought
that Connor Falefa would be
a name you mentioned with those other two,
with the bats they have.
And in the last six games,
they've combined to hit
.339 with five home runs, 11 runs scored,
and eight RBS.
There's your offense for this team.
And then Spencer Horwitz,
who they just called up recently,
but that's your offense
right now for this team.
You got to find somebody.
You need Bichette, but he's hurt.
You got to find something.
You need somebody else to pick it up.
The starting pitching, not good.
0-5, 24 innings pitched, a 9 ERA,
a 7-5-2 FIP, a 1-9-2 WIP, a 9.0K per nine,
and a 3.8K walk per nine.
And right now, you know,
you're watching Chris Bassett,
Tanner Houck face off.
This is Monday night.
I'm recording,
so you'll probably hear this Tuesday.
But Chris Bassett, we're in East 3-5,
and he's not pitched bad.
He is not pitched bad.
Another team I'm going to talk about, now,
you can mention every team
in the bottom of the standings.
Like, they have had bad weeks, too.
But I really wanted to focus
on the teams that were
talked about as a playoff team.
Like, I talked about, you know,
the Yankees.
I thought they were going to
finish second or third.
Blue Jays were actually second,
and the Blue Jays third.
And another team that I talked about,
and they had a playoff spot,
was the Kansas City Royals.
And the week they had has
allowed the Red Sox to move
into a playoff spot.
The Royals went 1-5 last week.
They're 3-7 in their last 10.
They had one of three against the A's,
and they got swept by Texas.
They lost their playoff spot,
and now a half game out.
I mean, I like the Royals.
I think they're going to get there.
I mean,
they're going to have to really
compete with the Red Sox, the Twins,
and the Astros.
I mean,
I didn't think the Guardians were
going to be as good as they are,
but I really thought the
Royals could be a playoff team.
now I see the Red Sox
playing in the way are if
they keep this up and they
get better with the
deadline people getting
healthy like Tristan Koss
comes back they could be a
problem so the Royals have
a tough stretch and they
haven't faced the Red Sox
yet either so they got that
coming up I think it's the
series before the All-Star
break but last week this is
what I mean is you need
your stars to perform Bobby Witt Jr.
who arguably between him and
Gunnar Henderson are two of
the best shortstops in the
American League right now
and they're showing it
All-Star voting wise
Had six games.
He hit 125 with a 417 OPS, a home run,
a run scored, and two RBIs.
Salvador Perez,
who was their best hitter
to start the year.
In six games, he's hitting a buck 36,
272 OPS.
Doesn't have a home run.
Scored one run.
Doesn't have an RBI.
And then the starting pitching,
which was one of the best at the time.
I mean, Seth Lugo is great to watch.
Walker was doing his thing,
but he got hurt.
They went 1-5 last week with
four innings pitched, a 5.51 ERA,
a 4.55 FIP, a 1.59 whip, a 7.7K per nine,
and a 4.4 walk per nine.
Alec Marsh was a big part of that.
He had two games started,
eight and two-thirds
between those two games.
That's not ideal.
Gave up 10 earned runs on 15 hits,
four walks, 8Ks for a 10.38 ERA.
Yikes.
You need better than that.
So the next one, I'm sorry,
so we're going to continue.
They have their next coming up games.
They have three with the Marlins.
That could get things turned around,
and that could get them
back in the conversation
with the Red Sox below the
game this week.
And they got four against the Guardians,
so they really don't make a
statement that week, this weekend.
So those are the three hot teams,
the three cool teams.
We'll do that again next week.
We'll go over who had a good week,
who had a bad week.
But the storylines from the last week,
Sorry,
when Max Scherzer has made his return,
since we're going to talk about, you know,
what happened with the
Rangers this past weekend,
he faced the Royals.
I'm sorry.
So he faced the Royals.
They're struggling.
And that's, I guess,
a good statement to come back to.
You got to win.
Go in five innings.
He only allowed one run.
I mean, one hit.
He didn't allow a run.
Didn't walk anybody.
Struck out four.
And he got, out of his 12 outs,
four on the ground and
eight were in the air.
So you have some fly balls, which,
you know,
you're used to bigger strikeout
numbers for Scherzer, but first game back,
it was good to see that he looked good.
And if he's back and they're healthy,
that team could start
making a run with the Astros,
and they could be in a
conversation with the Royals, Twins,
and Red Sox.
They just need everybody healthy.
They have the pitching, Eovaldi, Scherzer,
DeGrom.
I mean, if you hear that in the playoffs,
I don't want to deal with that.
So they could be right back there.
Another one that happened
last night on Sunday,
Sunday Night Baseball,
and I had it actually on
the little TV because I was
watching something else on the bigger TV,
and I looked over and I saw
the commotion.
Edwin Diaz got ejected.
They said he had a foreign
substance on his hand.
And so he was ejected before
he even threw a single pitch,
a single warm-up pitch,
and automatically 10-game suspension.
My question to this is,
Normally,
I thought they were allowed to go
wash their hands.
Now, he said the foreign substance.
I saw it when I was watching it.
I saw it on the little TV,
but I got up and went
closer to it just to see
what was going on.
His hands looked dark.
Like, there was definitely, like,
a substance on there.
You could see it.
But he said it was rosin and sweat,
something he's done all year.
And I heard somebody say that out of, like,
the five ejections they've
had for pitching,
three of them are on the mats.
So...
But Edwin Diaz has no history of cheating.
He didn't throw a pitch.
He should be able to wash his hand,
come back out, and be fine.
And then they check him
again at the end of the game,
and then there's consequences after that.
I don't know what the ruling is on that,
but suspension automatically.
But the fact that he was
just ejected was interesting to me.
So the Mets obviously didn't matter.
The Mets went on to win.
Now they don't have their
closing though for 10 games.
I don't like that, but
The next thing,
we can keep moving right along,
keep flowing,
is we're going to talk about
all the opportunities we have with us.
You know, I'm by myself.
If you get sick and tired of
hearing my voice,
all you got to do is email
me or reach out to me,
reach out to anybody here.
We got spots.
People want to talk baseball.
I'm open to it.
We also got plenty of
writing opportunities.
There's, what, 26 teams open right now?
So there's plenty of writing
opportunities if you want to do it.
and I'm happy to help.
I'll get you ideas.
I find things all the time where I go, oh,
that would be a good one.
That'd be a good one.
I mean,
there's so many things you can
write about.
As a Red Sox fan, I watch this team,
and there's nights where I get frustrated,
and so I write about it.
Earlier in the season,
I'm sure I talked about it on here,
but there was an article
where I got frustrated with
the team's play, and I said,
why do I do this to myself?
And again,
that's an article you could
write for your team,
but it literally translates
to every team as a fan.
You know, I write.
There's so many different
things you could write about.
So if you're looking for an outlet, really,
you can write whatever.
And I'm happy to help.
So reach out to us.
The link's right here.
Insideofthediamonds.com.
Join us.
Or you can email me,
sealavalleyatinsidethediamonds.com.
And I'm happy to help.
So we're going to continue
right along here.
I got two more things before
we get into the prospects
and the matchups for the week.
The next one.
is the Orioles-Yankees.
They played last week.
Is there a rivalry going?
We saw it on, I think it was Tuesday night,
where Aaron Judge got
drilled on the hand and didn't play.
And I saw Yankees fans were
calling for retaliation.
And I don't know if this was retaliation,
but I saw the next day
Gunnar Henderson got hit.
And again, like I said,
I don't know if that was retaliation.
I don't know what it was, but
It's something that's coming.
And the Yankees love to get
something going with a team
that they're either
trailing in the division or
are second behind them in the division,
where it's like one of
those worthy alphas.
And I love it.
It's great for baseball.
And like I said a couple weeks ago,
I wished when Verdugo threw
his antics on Friday that
the Red Sox retaliated and
did their thing, stood up for their team.
But I think they're all too
many friends with Verdugo
that it didn't happen at
the end of the day.
The rivalry side of things,
like I obviously don't want
anybody to get hurt, none of that,
but I like the idea of the
intensity and the rivalry in the game.
So the next time these two teams face,
which will be interesting to see,
is the weekend before the All-Star break,
July 12th and the 14th this season.
The Orioles are 5-2 against them,
so they've loaned the seven games so far,
and the Orioles have
outscored them 39-21.
So that's something to watch.
That's for sure.
The final thing I'm going to
talk about before we get to
the other stuff is the
National League is absolute chaos.
Right now,
the Cardinals and the Padres
hold the playoff spot.
Behind them is everybody jumbled up.
You got the Nationals a half game back.
You got the Diamondbacks and
Mets one game back.
You got the Pirates a game and a half.
You got the Cubs two games back.
You got the Reds two and a half.
You got the Giants three games back.
Honestly, I said a couple weeks ago,
I think the Padres and the
Cardinals are the two teams to get in.
They just have all that talent.
They have veterans that could get in.
Obviously, the Diamondbacks right there,
they made a run last year.
The Mets have gone on a run.
Maybe it's too early for
them to even think about it, but the Cubs,
their offense is lacked,
so they're still there.
The Giants could also get there,
but they're missing people.
It's wide open, but
At the end of the day,
the idea of the Pittsburgh
Pirates making that final spot,
that could feed families.
The idea of you going to a
playoff series and a
three-game series in the
wildcard round and
essentially the ALDS is a best of five.
So you can go into a playoff.
Typically,
playoff rotations are three guys
at that point until the ALCS,
and you get a fourth one in there.
But the Pirates get in,
and you have a rotation of Paul Skeens,
Jared Jones, and Mitch Keller.
That is must-watch TV.
That series is going to be
on most baseball fans' households.
You're going to have two
guys that throw over 100,
and then you're going to
have Mitch Keller,
who they just extended and
got the ball on opening day,
and he throws hard too.
I don't care who they face.
They could be the 60,
and they get the Brewers or the Cardinals,
and that's the series for
the first round.
They could move on,
and now we're talking they
got the Phillies,
which they'll probably get waxed and lose,
but –
Could you imagine that?
You've got Jared Jones, Paul Skeens,
Mitch Keller,
and the fourth one you could
have a toss-up on.
But they're facing Bryce Harper,
Nick Castellanos, Trey Turner's healthy,
JT Realmuto.
That's must-watch TV, too.
And the reason why I put the
question in there about the
Cardinals is I wonder,
are the Brewers going to
blow their division lead?
The Cardinals are only five back.
So is there a chance like
something's going on in
Milwaukee and they're starting to fade?
And one of these teams,
like they're all jumbled.
Like I literally said,
the Cardinals hold the playoff spot.
And then you got, you know,
the Pirates are a game and a half back.
The Cubs are a half game behind them.
The Reds are two games behind the Pirates.
Like they're all right there.
So could something happen?
One of these teams sneaks in.
The other one gets a wild card.
And then we got chaos.
And the Brewers may not get in.
You know,
I had them not making it in the
start of the year.
But all these teams are right there.
So it could be interesting
to watch down the stretch.
Another team that I said I
was going to mention with
the Willie Mays story,
the Giants could be a team
to watch to get in.
And that's because I've been big –
I've been big on the storylines.
Like, 2013 happened with the Red Sox,
and they won the World Series after that.
And, you know,
somebody's – a player dies from a team,
and they get hot,
and they go in the playoffs,
and they make a run.
And we saw nothing like that
happen with the Diamondbacks,
but they got hot at the end.
They made the playoffs,
and they went on a run and
made the World Series.
Because I'm going to be with
– this was the Willie Mays story,
and this team just gets –
because you can – after it all happened,
they were emotional.
They had a hard time getting through.
They obviously played that
game in Alabama.
They were emotional on the field.
Could that be something that
lifts this team to get hot
and they make the playoffs?
And they're all wearing 24
patches on their jerseys.
So could they get hot and
make the playoffs and they
become the sixth seed that
can make a run?
It's just that's something to watch.
Like I said, that is wide open.
And that might be something
we talk about every week is
where are they now?
Where were they last week?
Where are they now?
Like what's going on?
What's changing?
Because it seems like it's
going to be a daily thing.
Washington gets to sneak in tomorrow.
You know,
we can wake up on tomorrow morning,
Wednesday morning,
and Washington is now in a playoff spot.
The Padres just lost Tatis.
You know, that's a bad out of their lineup,
but in the lineup struggling.
The Mets could be in tomorrow.
The Vandex could be in tomorrow.
You could be the weekend,
and the Pirates are now in.
You know, that's a wild race to watch,
and one I'm probably going
to watch a lot of.
The final thing I forgot to
put this on my list was a
tough loss for the Angels,
who seemingly are falling out of it,
and this will probably open
up more to being sellers of the deadline,
which is only six weeks away.
They lost Patrick Sandoval.
And I watched the video of
it the other day, and I wish I didn't,
so please don't look at it.
But he threw a pitch and
immediately went to the pitching staff.
They came out, and he pulled himself.
He had gone two and a third innings,
and Tommy John came out today,
right before I hopped on the record.
So his season's over.
This season he's made 16 starts.
He's 2-8, a 5.08 ERA, a 1.51 whip,
a 4.0 walk for nine, and 9.2K per nine.
And when I see stuff like
the ERA being high and the
whip and all that,
like the whip's not even bad.
It makes me wonder, like,
obviously the ERA goes up every start,
like you make if you give
up runs and stuff.
But I see stuff like this.
Is it something that's built up?
So, like,
was this something that happened
three starts ago, doesn't really feel it,
and then all of a sudden he
throws one pitch against
the Dodgers on Friday and here it is.
And I hate seeing it.
I mean, it's, like I said,
everybody knows if you
listen to this that I love pitching.
I'm locked in on pitching.
And when we get to prospects,
I have two pitching
prospects for the week.
Everything pitching.
Like, pitching matchups.
I love certain pitchers when they go.
Like, I grew up,
my favorite player was Pedro Martinez.
I loved watching Randy Johnson,
the Braves big three.
I'm big on the A's big three
back in the early 2000s of Mulder, Zito,
and Hudson.
Just, I grew up that way.
And so I hate seeing, you know,
good arms go down like this.
So it's a tough story for the Angels,
and they're most likely out of it.
They got a series with the
A's this weekend.
So it's a tough story for them.
Although I do like watching Tyler Anderson,
so if you get a chance to see him pitch,
he is fun to watch right now.
And Jack, who covers the Angels for us,
wrote a good article about
him and his progress this season.
So something if you want to check it out.
So now we'll move right
along to the prospects.
My hitting prospect for the
week is my 14th overall prospect.
He's playing AAA in the
Minnesota Twins organization at the St.
Paul Saints, and that is Brooks Lee.
Lee last week in five games
went 10 for 22 for a .455
batting average.
He had 22 total bases, three doubles,
three home runs, 11 RBIs,
seven runs scored, two walks,
and a stolen base.
This season he's hitting
.367 with a .982 OPS, four home runs,
20 RBIs, 20 runs scored,
and two stolen bases.
This kid has a chance.
I mean,
they kind of block the shortstop
with Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa.
So I don't know what they're going to do,
but this kid's just
knocking on the door to get called up.
So that'll be interesting to
watch as the year progresses.
An injury happens,
he gets a chance to see what he does.
We'll have to see.
The next one is that this
team needed more pitching
prospects to watch,
but the Pittsburgh Pirates,
Bubba Chandler,
he's the 64th ranked
prospect pitching a double
A for the Altoona Curve.
Last week, I think his start,
Got the win.
Went seven innings, gave up two hits,
one walk, and ten strikeouts.
Didn't allow a run.
It's a dominant performance,
and I've been high on him.
I went to the Cubs-Red Sox game,
and the family sitting in
front of me was talking about, oh,
the division and all this stuff.
And I said, the Pirates are coming.
And you think Skeens and
Jerry Jones are it?
They got more, and they're coming.
And they could – honestly,
they could move in one of these arms,
not Skeens or Jones or –
They can move one of the prospect arms,
two of them, and get a couple bats.
And they could be a big problem.
So we'll see.
But this kid, 13 games this season,
11 of them are started.
He's 3-5 with a 4-3-7 ERA, a 1.23 whip,
57 strikeouts, and 47 in third innings.
Not a bad arm.
The final one is Jacob Misioroski.
He's a 23rd-ranked prospect
for the Brewers,
23rd overall-ranked
prospect in the Brewers system.
In his start, he got the win,
going six innings.
He gave up one hit, didn't allow a run,
hit a batter, did not walk anyone,
and struck out five.
This season, he's got 13 starts.
He's 1-2 with a 3-4-4 ERA, a 1-3-4 whip,
two and a third innings pitched.
Throwing the watch for Milwaukee,
a team that traded Corbin Burns away and
That was my big question
mark for the year is their pitching.
So this is a guy that could
move up to AAA very soon.
Another on the watch.
So finally,
we're going to go right to the
matchups for the week.
I got two for the weekday,
one for the weekend.
The one series for the
weekday that I want to talk
about first was the Cardinals Braves.
That's because the Braves
are hot and the Cardinals
are right there for a playoff spot.
This could be
Essentially, like I said,
the Cardinals could win the division,
essentially,
and they could get that three seed.
They win the first round,
and it's Cardinals for the – or I'm sorry,
the Cardinals are probably
going to be the four seed.
So you could even see the
Cardinals be the five seed
like they are now,
and this is your wildcard matchup.
Could very well happen.
So this is a good series for
the Cardinals where they
can make a statement,
and the Braves just – they can say,
all right, so that's one to watch.
The next two feature the same team.
Wow.
The Baltimore Orioles and
the Cleveland Guardians,
two teams that are going to
be playoff teams or should be.
Baltimore definitely should be.
Cleveland,
who knows what's going to happen
with that division.
But that's a potential
playoff series to watch.
And this weekend,
the Rangers and the Orioles.
And that's Sunday night baseball as well.
It's good to see Baltimore
getting some primetime love.
It's going to be something
to watch this week.
So right now I'm watching –
I got the Red Sox and the
Big TV with the Blue Jays
and the Little TV.
I actually went with the
College World Series.
I like Tennessee.
I thought Tennessee was a team to beat.
We're going to have a lot of
draft coverage coming up
over the next couple weeks.
There's a couple draft
player profiles out there.
I know Jack Tagliano is one.
I believe I have one for
Chase Burns and one for Hagan Smith.
I'm big on Trey Savage.
He's one I want for the Red Sox.
There's
some good prospects to watch.
If you haven't watched this
college world series,
obviously it's ending now.
So I wish I talked about this earlier,
but if you want to go back
and watch a game, this was fantastic.
All of this whole
tournament's been awesome to watch.
So that's about it for me.
Been a good week of baseball.
Love the storylines that are happening.
You know, love watching what's going on.
The door's wide open for so many teams.
So there's a lot storylines coming out.
And like I said,
A lot of good stuff going on.
If you want to write about it,
we've got a place for you.
Have a good week, everybody.
Enjoy.