We're Cursed

CJ & JC talk about the past week of baseball. Are the Astros back? Ozuna's hot start. Skubal Cy Young talk. Is Alek Manoah back? Paul Skenes first 2 starts. Devers Homers in 6 straight. Matchups to watch and MUCH more!

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Welcome back, everyone,

to Inside the Diamonds podcast.

This will be episode 11.

I'm your host, JC,

and I'm joined again tonight with CJ.

How are you doing, CJ?

Fantastic.

Glad you're back,

so it's not just me talking

for 45 minutes aimlessly

about random things that

I'm sure people are like,

where is he going with this now?

Yeah, no, I apologize.

As we've said in several of

the other podcasts,

we both have other jobs,

and mine has been rather

demanding as of late with issues getting

getting ourselves back to normal.

So I do apologize for that.

And I know that last week

there was no other days

that matched up for, for you and I to,

to connect.

So I appreciate you moving

forward without me.

And hopefully we won't have

to do that too often.

If we do foresee it,

that we can jump into another day.

So another great week of baseball,

a lot of exciting things.

Just wanted to kind of get

your feel to start and kick

off your thoughts on the past week.

Well,

I texted you on Saturday and said I

was going to start the

episode off with this,

and we're probably going to

name it the episode of this.

We're cursed.

You and me.

Everything we talk about on here,

it goes the opposite way,

like within a week.

So let's start a couple things.

Red Sox is going to be the

worst in the division.

Red Sox is going to be the

worst in the division.

Well, you said that.

I said fourth, maybe even better.

No, I'm just trying to jinx it.

I'm just trying to jinx it.

I'm just trying to jinx it.

Yeah, let's hammer that down.

Red Sox are terrible.

Wyatt Langford,

we talked about him a couple weeks ago.

Jesus.

Max Freed, we talked about.

I think he was doing it

while we were talking.

And what a week later, hurt.

Nolan Jones,

you brought it up in

requesting his struggles.

He immediately went three

for six right after that.

And then now he's on the injured list.

Two weeks ago, I said to everybody,

let's see what the A's do.

Maybe they're not as bad as

we think they are.

Yeah, well, they proceeded to go, what,

2-5 that week,

and then since then they're

2-12 and have lost now

eight straight entering today.

Yeah.

Nice job on my part.

And then last week I said

the Padres may be sneaky good.

The first three games after

that they got swept by the Rockies.

But then they've had, you know,

changing the title a bit with the Braves.

But, again, you get swept by the Rockies,

it's a different conversation.

So whatever we talk about today,

make sure you watch for the

next week because it might

not be the same.

That's a beautiful play by Rafaela.

Well, I told you they stink,

so maybe they're going to turn it around,

although tonight they're already up 5-0.

Yeah,

we probably should have waited on

saying that until they were

down or something.

Yeah, should have waited.

Going to jump out too far ahead.

So, yeah, no,

it does seem that... And again,

this is not par for the course,

but it's early in the year.

There's still a lot going on.

There's still a lot of guys struggling.

A lot of guys...

uh working their way back

from injury or back on the

injured list there's a lot

of things happening right

now that neither one of us

uh you know really

predicted the one I won't

give you too much crap

about is your detroit

tigers and because I was

thinking they had the

pitching the bats just have

not supported it right now

and meta hasn't been what I

what I anticipated for them and uh

The Cincinnati Reds are the

other one that I really

thought that they were going to do well.

And I also am surprised by

the Arizona Diamondbacks

and their struggles.

The other one too, the Brewers.

I think we both had them

finish at the bottom of the division.

Yep.

Yep.

That was another one.

I'm waiting.

I am patiently waiting for

something to happen there.

But I've done it when

writing the roster moves

for the Brewers –

You can see they're making the right calls,

and they're not waiting.

They're making a bunch of them,

moving them up and down,

and I kind of now,

watching a lot of what the Cubs do,

I see where Council's getting it.

He's making a lot of moves,

letting guys play the first six innings.

He'll play Morell at third,

and then Madrigal comes in

at the seventh to play defense,

and he's making all these

moves with what he has.

but they're also doing it

with what's in the minors

and moving people around,

pitchers up and down, giving them rest.

It's really interesting to see,

and I can still see that

effect in Milwaukee.

I don't know what's going to

happen there because they

still have Devin Williams coming back too,

unless something is

announced tomorrow that

he's going on the 90-day IL

instead of the 60.

We'll have to see.

So what for you was, you know,

other than the fact that we

can't seem to get anything right.

Go ahead.

Are the Astros back?

You know, I said to you a couple weeks ago,

they could be a team, you know,

that you don't count them out.

They might get off to a slow start.

Don't count them out.

Since then,

they've taken two or three from

the Tigers.

They swept the A's,

two or three from Milwaukee.

They were six and one last

week with a run differential of 22,

plus 22.

And in their last 10 games,

they're 8-2 with a run

differential of plus 25.

And they're right back in that race.

They're four games back.

That's entering tonight.

I don't think they might play tonight.

But they're a team that, like I said,

don't count them out.

Everybody was talking about

Verlander and Bregman

getting traded at the deadline.

That looks like it could.

Obviously, it's May.

I mean, we're approaching the end of May,

and it'll get interesting

when June hits where –

You're in the dog days of summer now,

and you get conversations

about who's really good,

who's going to compete.

And then everybody says it too,

that extra playoff spot now

where six teams make it.

That makes teams hold off a

little bit longer before selling,

unless you're the Marlins

and you trade Luis Arias when you do.

Yeah.

My next one,

it's somebody that you

actually probably know

quite a bit about because

you cover this team, Robert Gasser.

Okay.

I've been impressed by him so far.

If you're not familiar with him,

he was acquired in the Josh

Hader trade with the Padres.

He's so far for the Brewers this season.

He's made two starts.

He's 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA, a 0.82 whip,

six strikeouts,

which I'd like to see that

number a little higher.

He's pitched 11 innings.

He goes tomorrow.

He's previously pitched

against the Cardinals and Pirates,

so not –

Great teams, but, you know,

it's interesting to watch.

He's got nice stuff.

And there's a couple of videos.

I think it was Pitching

Ninja or something like that.

Somebody like that tweeted

out a couple of videos of him pitching.

He looks good.

Only one walk so far.

That's the other thing.

One walk and one hit batter.

Well, that's, I mean,

I think for any guy that's coming up,

From uh,

the minors is is being a be be

around the plate You don't

necessarily have to be a

paul skeens and strike out

a ton But as long as you're

not giving up the hits and

you're not giving up any free passes.

You're giving yourself a

shot So he's a guy that I'm

excited to watch I'll

probably have that on one

of my screens tomorrow And

tune into that start

because he's interesting.

I mean, that's you know,

that that pitching, you know

It's not big-name guys,

but it's part of the reason

why they're doing what they're doing.

I mean, yeah So he's in now.

Yeah him if he is the real

deal if he keeps doing what

he's doing He's gonna be an

arm to watch the rest of

the season and we know I

love talking about arms Yeah,

yes you do Next one and

this was an interesting one to me.

I wasn't expecting this and

as I watched Tonight

baseball last night and he

got a hit and it was an

interesting hit that not

many people are getting

Marcelo Zuna's off to a hot start

And if it wasn't for the

fact he's in the National

League with Shohei and Mookie Betts,

he probably is up there in

the MVP conversation.

Right now, I'd probably have him third,

and if not fourth,

because you never know what

Freddie Freeman's going to

do going forward.

I mean, he's still hitting the ball, too.

But Ozuna is riding a

12-game hitting streak

entering tonight's game.

I don't know.

It's 3-0 at the top of the ninth right now,

so I don't know if he's

even playing or if he's

getting hit tonight.

But entering tonight's game,

he had a 12-game hitting streak.

He's 16 for 41 in that time

with a 390 average.

He has a double, four home runs, 10 RBIs,

five runs, five walks.

In this season,

he's hitting 323 with a 1.020 OPS.

He has 13 home runs, 42 RBIs,

and 25 runs scored.

Now,

if you had told me before the season

started that that was

Ronald Acuna's numbers, I would have said,

yeah, that sounds about right.

Marcelo Zuno, I did not see that coming.

And that makes me question, like,

did the Braves not see that coming,

and that's why they brought Duvall back?

And now he's doing this,

and so now they're kind of in a logjam?

Well, he's only 33 years.

I mean, I think a lot of people,

just myself included,

and I think we talked about

it early on when we were

talking about another

person that's been

suspended that we'll touch upon earlier,

is that he was suspended a while back.

Right.

And kind of came back in

that first year back.

He was really kind of, he has the talent.

He did it when he was with

the Cardinals and has done

it with the Braves,

but he had that down year.

So kind of, again, you've got Riley,

you've got a Kuna, you've got LVS,

you've got Matt Olson.

He's typically,

if you're looking at normal stats,

he's the fifth, maybe sixth guy, you know,

with, um, uh,

Sean Murphy also in that lineup.

Yep.

That one actually loaded

from top to bottom.

Oh, it's unreal.

Yeah.

I mean,

and they got hit with the injury bug.

You know, Strider's out.

I think he's – I believe

he's out for the year, right?

I believe so, yeah.

So, I mean,

they got hit with the injury

bug in their rotation.

But next man up mentality.

Reynaldo Lopez,

who saw the journeyman

coming in and doing what he's doing.

Chris Sale stayed healthy,

and he looks filthy.

I mean – Yeah.

So,

that's – he was the most – he's the

most interesting bat in

that lineup to me to the hot start.

Like, it's just – Acuna is not Acuna yet.

And –

Right now, I mean, granted,

going into today,

I don't know where they're at right now,

but going into today,

they were five games back.

I think they're actually

five and a half after this

afternoon's game.

So five and a half back of the Phillies,

which is,

if the Phillies keep playing

like they're playing,

they got a good series coming up,

but I'll get to that later.

So that's going to be interesting.

That division, like we said before,

it's just a two-team race.

You said it too.

It might be the Phillies

division this year,

and it's looking more like that, but

One come playoff time,

you can't count this Braves team out.

And you know they're getting it.

Yeah.

I mean,

there's no doubt in my mind they're

getting it.

I mean,

they're my pick to go to the World

Series.

Yeah.

So, my next one,

and this is a little bit

because I like them as one

of my National League teams.

The Marlins had a good week.

Yep, they did.

Going four and two and three

straight shutouts.

Of all teams, I didn't see that coming.

shut out the tigers twice

with two what two nothing

or one nothing and two

nothing one whatever I

might have those flipped I

almost sent you a message

this weekend when I was

watching those I was like

man that was tough I mean

that's part of what we said

was the tigers lineup is

struggling but then I

couldn't believe saturday's

game I had the I had it on

for a little bit because I

believe at that time it was

the only game on and I had

to shut it off because I

was like this game's over

I'm gonna go find something

else at that point I think

another game had started

And then all of a sudden

they scored four runs in

the ninth to force extras,

and then they walked it off

with Otto Lopez,

which where did he come from?

He had a great week.

I shouldn't say a great week,

but he had a good week.

He went six for 22 with a double home run,

five RBIs, two runs scored, and a walk.

The big one, though,

for the week was De La Cruz.

He loved facing the Tigers.

I mean, he had a game-winning run scored,

and he had the walk-off home run.

So he had a hell of a week.

He's loving Miami.

He loves facing the Tigers.

So keep him away from the AL Central.

Whatever we do,

do not let him join the AL Central,

especially if they start

selling off more pieces in

the next coming weeks.

Don't let him be one of them.

Yeah.

Going into that, though,

let's feed right into the

Tigers for a second.

Terrence Google.

Unreal.

Is he, you know, I think, I believe,

I know he was in my top three,

but he was my Cy Young pick, right?

Yeah.

He was yours too, right?

Or do you have somebody else?

Oh, God.

I went with one of the Mariners.

I think I had Gilbert or Kirby.

So I was interested by this,

and I was like, I know he's been good,

but where does he rank

right now across all of

baseball and the American League?

The 6-0 record is the best

in the American League,

only second to Ranger Suarez,

who's 8-0 for the Phillies.

He's got a 1-8-0 ERA after

his start on Friday against

the Diamondbacks,

which now puts him entering play today,

the sixth best ERA in

baseball and the second

best ERA in the American League.

He's got a 0.78 whip,

which is the second best in

baseball and the best in

the American League, and 66 strikeouts,

which is sixth in MLB,

fourth in the American League.

Now, I know, like I said last week,

record doesn't really matter.

I mean,

your team could be terrible and

your record's three and eight,

but you have an ERA of one

something and a whip of just under one.

How are you not in the conversation?

So he's the reason why the

Tigers are even still in this right now.

And, of course,

I feel bad for Gage wrote a

great article about Reese Olsen and

And how that guy gets no run support.

And it seems like they just

took all their run support

from Reese Olsen and just

gave it to Tarek Scouble at

the start because it was 13-0.

Which I can't wait for.

And I think right now, from what I've seen,

it lines up that next week

they have a two-game series

against the Pirates.

And from what I've seen,

it looks like those two

games are going to be Jared

Jones and Paul Skeens,

which we'll talk about in a little while.

But I believe that Skeens

game is going to be against Scooble.

That'll be a good one.

So that'll be,

if you like watching

pitching and watching a pitcher's duel,

that might be the game to watch.

The future, well,

I guess technically the future,

both future arms,

because Scooble is very young.

Yep.

So, but...

Another interesting pitcher

that I wanted to talk about,

and I don't know if you

watched his start this past weekend,

is Alec Manoa.

Yeah, I didn't watch it,

but I did watch the

condensed game afterwards.

Could he be back?

I mean, so he got called up,

and his first start was not good.

He came against the

Nationals going four innings.

He gave up seven runs,

six of which were earned on six hits,

four walks, and six strikeouts.

Since then...

He's gone 14 innings, given up three runs,

none earned, five hits, two walks,

and 13 strikeouts.

And those two games didn't

come against bad teams.

One was the Twins.

The other one was the Rays.

So he's an arm that – and

we'll talk about this in a

little while with the other

Blue Jays stuff that you want to cover.

If he can get back on track –

I think he's good for baseball and he not,

he reminds me of a player

that we'll talk about later on, but he,

uh, I liked watching him pitch last year.

I actually had him as my Cy Young pick.

And then obviously that didn't go right.

And he's just been a

rollercoaster ever since then.

And they didn't have a spot

for him in the rotation to start the air.

They didn't really want to

have him as a spot for him

to start the year.

Cause they planned on,

from what I've heard,

they were planning on my

top prospect in the Blue Jay system,

Ricky Tiedemann, uh,

being in the rotation, and he got hurt.

And so then they went to – I

think there was a

competition between Yariel Rodriguez,

who they signed from Mexico, Manoa,

and Bowden Francis, and Francis won.

And then all of a sudden

Rodriguez got a look.

He came up,

and it was kind of like he was

the starter, but he would go four innings,

and then they'd go to Francis.

And then both of those guys go down.

So what do you do?

You turn to the third option

you have in Manoa –

And aside from the first start,

he's looked good ever since.

I mean, so right now through three starts,

his numbers are 1-1 with a 3 ERA,

a 4-7-1 FIP, a 0.94 WIP, 19 strikeouts,

and 18 innings pitched.

Not bad.

No.

But something to watch for

sure over the next couple weeks.

I don't remember when he pitched Saturday.

No, he pitched yesterday.

Yeah.

Yesterday.

I think Brios is today.

So he pitches again against the Tigers,

I want to say,

on Friday because they have

a four-game set with the

Tigers this weekend.

So I believe he'll have Friday's game,

I think.

Let me think.

Barrios, one, two, three, four, five.

Yeah, Friday.

Yeah.

I'll get Friday's game.

So I'll be tuned in for that

because it'll be Barrios.

I think it's going to be

Casey Mize or Reese Olsen,

one of the two.

Yeah, yeah.

I think Mize is Friday night, I think.

I've got him on one of my fantasy teams,

and I believe I was looking at that.

I think it's a Friday night.

If not Friday, it's Saturday.

I'm trying to think right

now who's throwing today.

It's Olsen today, Mize tomorrow.

So that means Skubal Wednesday.

So Mize might be Sunday.

Yeah, I think Mize,

because I think they avoid Skubal.

The Blue Jays avoid Skubal.

Yeah.

So it's got to be, I think it's Flaherty,

Manning.

or I might have those two flipped, Olsen,

and then Mize.

So Mize is Sunday.

Yep.

Because I'm going to miss

Scooble next weekend.

Ah, that's right.

That's right.

So my last one from the weekend,

or it's really not even from the weekend.

It's from the whole first, what are we,

eight and a half weeks in the season now?

Seven and a half weeks?

Eight and a half weeks.

Yep.

Um,

I wrote an article a while back.

It was right after you wrote

yours about Ellie Dela Cruz.

And I wrote that he could do

something we've never seen before.

And at the time I was like, this really,

this really isn't going to happen.

Like, it's just, it's not, I can't see it.

Something's going to happen.

But the things he's doing right now,

it very well could.

And that is a 30 home run,

80 stolen base season.

The home runs is now the iffy part.

The stolen base, he really might get 80.

Yeah.

Right now, so I did the numbers today.

He's on pace for 103 stolen

bases this year.

Yeah.

And at that point,

I got to say he's got to reach 80.

I mean, he graded in his last five games.

He's only got four,

and they all came in one game.

Yeah.

But if you can go five games

and steal four bases and

four of them come and run one game,

I mean, I'll take that any day.

Yeah.

So I wrote that.

If you go back,

I think it's like the sixth

or seventh article down on the Reds tab.

If you want to go read that.

But I'm curious,

do you think he could

actually get 30 home runs,

80 stolen bases?

I did the article before

just in regards to the pace

he was setting at that point.

I think he was at like 100

stolen bases per.

Over 100 stolen bases at that point,

and he was over 30 home

runs on pace at that point.

He was right in the middle

of his hot streak when he

was starting to get heating up.

I think it was 45 and 110.

Yeah, 45 and 110.

I think that my hope, I should say,

for the Reds in general is

I would like to see 80

instead of 100 because if he's at 80,

that means more than likely

he's starting to –

hit the gaps a little bit

and drive the ball a little

bit more and get some

doubles rather than steal

second and then third.

Um, that that's,

he has been walking more was,

and I think for him, the other thing too,

is I'd like to see some

runners on in front of them, you know,

that would kind of,

I think that's another

reason why he's had this

free reign on the base pass,

not just because he's got

the ability and the speed,

But there's generally no one else on base.

So he's trying to do it all himself.

Spencer Steer is kind of

slumping off a little bit.

Jonathan India hasn't done anything.

But I really think my hope

would be is that 80-30.

You know, I mean,

obviously to see someone

steal over 100 bases would be amazing.

But my hope would be for the

Reds and for him that they

get some more runners on

base in front of him.

So instead of stealing, you know,

both bags.

to get on third base that he would be,

you know,

maybe a single drive guy to

third or whatever,

and then still second to

get in scoring position.

But, you know, 80,

I think is well in reach

given what he's doing right now.

Can we just get him stealing home?

I was thinking about that the other day.

I don't know who the hell I

was talking to now,

but it was someone talking

about stealing home.

And in regards to, you know,

what it takes and how rare it is.

And I'm like, well, Duran did it, you know,

and I think,

I think that it's going to be

interesting.

It would be really cool as

if it's in a game that matters,

you know what I mean?

And the school is close and

he pulls it off.

Cause I think that right now

I could see that with the

reds that are sputtering so

much offensively,

that being the spark plug he is,

especially depending on,

who's at bat and who's pitching,

I can see him trying to pull it off,

especially if there's a guy

on first base because they

just totally forget about it.

Yeah.

Mike,

one last one I just thought of that

popped in my head just

because it happened tonight

and I forgot to write it down.

And I'm just trying to

crunch the numbers right

now to see if it's possible.

And I don't think it is, but I'm curious.

I want to see if you think

it could happen.

Jaron Duran breaking the

triples record this season.

The record's 36.

Oh, Jesus.

36.

And what's he at, like 10?

Eight after tonight.

After tonight, eight.

We're a third of the way.

What's he tripled in like

three straight games now?

So here's another reason why

this is very much so like

De La Cruz and hitting the 100.

Not a lot of guys are

getting on base in Boston right now.

Yeah.

So in terms of him being

slowed up and having to

settle for a double, he's got the,

you know, once he gets those wheels going,

if he gets a little bit of a window,

he's taking it.

And that's pressure on the

outfield arms and the relay arms,

and he's taking advantage of it right now,

and he's hitting the ball really well,

and he's utilizing the

green monster really well as well.

Let's be serious, though.

Yesterday's,

do we really want to count

that as a triple?

I don't know if you – did you see it?

Yeah.

They literally said on the Roku,

which I want to talk about

that towards the end of the

episode and your thoughts on that.

But I thought it was funny

that they literally said

right after the play,

let's see how they score this.

And then it just came right away, triple.

Yeah.

Yeah.

which I get like it was the

sun played a factor so that

is a hit it's not an error

but no it triples that's

wow to get a trip on they

said it too in the

broadcast that might have

been the shortest triple in

baseball history yeah

without a throwing yeah I

mean it was it's definitely

if not the shortest it's a

tie for second there

shouldn't be any others

quite like that that was

he's electric he's electric

yeah watching him is so much

fun and like you know they

were talking about I

started somewhere today

they were talking about it

he changed from a power guy

to he's just a contact guy

now he's got the speed that

he can make it an inside

the park home run too yeah

he's driving the ball to

all fields right now he

pulled one I don't know if

it was this weekend or

whatever he hit a home run

to right and that I don't

know if it was lou merloni

or or if it was uke in the

box at the time talking uh

through the game.

That's good to see.

He's going to all fields.

He's utilizing everything.

During that game,

he might have been the best

move that wasn't made this

offseason by the Red Sox by keeping him.

He is electric.

If he can keep this pace,

I think he's either going

to beat the triples record

or come close and maybe have over 20,

but he's going to

Some of these triples are

going to end up turning

into more doubles.

Right.

And more home runs.

And he's just going to be well-rounded,

which is what this Boston

team needs in the future.

And he kind of recently,

and I hate to bring him up,

recently he's been kind of

reminding me more and more

of Jacoby Ellsbury.

Yes.

Using the wall and it just,

I kind of see it a little

bit more and more each time

and as he's developing.

So, which isn't a bad thing, obviously.

But, yeah, he's a fun guy to watch.

They have a big question on

their hands for 2025, that's for sure,

with Abreu, Rafaela, Duran,

Anthony all coming.

And that's with Ref Snyder

and you got Yoshida.

I think Yoshida's gone.

But, you know,

you create a logjam now

where what are you going to do?

I think Rafaela's your

center fielder once you

have a shortstop back.

I think you really have to

make the conversation of

Duran and Anthony,

and then that kind of puts

Abreu in a tough spot.

But I also debated this the other day,

and I'm curious your thoughts.

This is completely off topic.

This wasn't from my weekend,

but both being New England

fellas and being Red Sox fans.

What about the idea of he

played there the other day, too.

Rafaela goes to third.

You get rid of Yoshida, Devers DHs,

and then you could keep O'Neal, Abreu,

Duran, and Anthony,

and you have four outfielders,

and you could rotate,

and then Devers is your DH.

So I haven't seen enough of,

or Meyer third.

Well, that's what I was just going to say.

Like Raphael seems to have more,

he seems just to be a

little bit quicker and a

little bit more reaction time and speed.

Now his glove compared to Meyer,

I don't know, or mayor.

I think in that situation there,

if I was going to do

anything and I don't even know if,

Jesus, now I'm looking in deeper.

What if you moved Marcel Mayer to second,

Rafael at short, and Story to third?

Then you question the elbow

of Story that he's had, I think,

a surgery or two.

Two of them.

So I would actually move him

to move Rafael at either

short or third with Mayer, vice versa,

and then put Story at second.

but then you could trade

Grissom for something.

I like Grissom, but who knows?

He's looked like shit to start the year,

and he hasn't had spring training.

I get that.

He was sick.

He lost 14 pounds.

That throws off your timing.

It's weird.

It seems like they've gone

away from him because right

now we've got Gonzalez at second.

He hasn't looked bad.

He's a good utility guy.

Compared to what we have,

he's not horrible.

He's not bad at all.

The other thing that, you know, with Story,

he's probably another big

injury away from thinking about things.

Right.

I don't want to wish that on

anyone because I actually

love Trevor Story,

and it sucks that he had

that injury he had this

year because it was a hustle play,

you know what I mean, an effort play.

It wasn't like pulling up a lame,

running down.

Yeah, it is what it is.

And I really think that really –

him being in this lineup every day,

especially right now,

changes the outlook of them

offensively a little bit more.

Because you think about it,

they don't really have –

they have Tyler O'Neal, they have Devers,

and then that's really it for power.

They're trying to just stay

afloat until Costas comes back,

which good news on him.

He's coming back in June.

He's coming off the first day.

He's actually allowed to be

off the injured list.

Which is good.

They need that bat and

hopefully he can get back

to where he was going.

But yeah, no,

that's an interesting one because I mean,

I've been trying to I'm

blacked out from watching the Red Sox.

So I have to watch every

game on replay because of

the network I've got.

I don't have nothing yet.

I'm going to figure that one

out and getting that back.

But when watching it, it's kind of.

I already know what happened

to a certain degree,

so I'm not paying as close

attention as I should be on

every play to see the positioning,

to see how he gets to the ball,

just to see how he is using momentum,

picking up the ball.

Does he wait on it?

Is he relying on his arm?

There's all those little

things that when talking

about Rafael at short that

he's obviously an athlete.

He's not Mookie Betts,

but he's a great athlete.

to be jumping around like he has been.

And I think it does open up that door that,

and I agree with you, Yoshida,

as much as I liked him last year,

just for some reason,

it seems like he has fallen

right out of interest with that team.

And now that saying that,

I wonder if there's a team

in California that might want him.

I'm sure there's a bunch of

teams that might be interested.

I just don't think they want

to take the money.

No.

The only team that has the

money for is the Dodgers.

You know who I wonder would

like the money?

It's the guy that signed him,

sitting in St.

Louis,

who might be the future GM of that team.

They are a hot mess.

I think he would be a guy this year,

if they become sellers,

he would be the bat other

than perhaps O'Neal that would be

on the market.

And I don't even like the

idea of moving O'Neal.

Me neither.

It's a one-year deal, but still,

I think he's so far, he's, yeah,

I'd be for that.

But like I said,

that further is the log jam

where you might have to put

Raphael in the infield or

you're going to move one of

those guys in the outfield.

Yeah, I don't, it'll be interesting.

I think a lot will be told

over the rest of the season.

and to see what Breslow's trying to do.

It'll be very interesting to

see when people come back.

That's all I had.

All right.

No,

I think the only thing I was going to

mention when you were

talking about the Tigers

that's kind of surprised me

is Jack Flaherty is 8Ks per

game right now, 8Ks per start,

which is good.

I mean, I think that.

He's starting to turn the

corner a little bit,

and perhaps he could be one

to watch second half of the

season if he stays healthy

for the Tigers to kind of

round into form and kind of

get back to his old self.

He's definitely missing some bats.

He's allowed 50 hits, but, I mean,

he's someone to watch out

for because they've already got school,

like we've talked about, Reese Olsen,

Casey Mize.

They've got the pitching,

and once those bats

actually start to heat up,

I'll be very interested

because those win totals will change.

I think he's gone.

I think he's gone.

Really?

I think he's gone at the deadline.

I think he's on a one-year

deal and the way they're going right now.

And this is the one thing

I've said nonstop.

If you read any of my down on the farms,

even my roster moves,

I mentioned it quite a few times.

The Tigers are like one of

the teams in baseball that

are just loaded with arms.

Loaded.

Where...

Ty Madden, yeah,

he struggled at AAA right now.

And Jackson Jobe, at least on MLB,

mine hasn't been updated.

It will be, I think,

on tomorrow's Down the Farm,

I mentioned it will be

coming up in the next week or two,

where I'll have a brand-new

top 10 for them.

But Jackson Jobe on MLB has

jumped into the top 10 for

prospects in all of baseball.

And he's hurt right now,

but he's looked good this year,

and he's just up and coming.

You know, and there's a couple more,

like Cater Montero.

Wilmer Forrest is more in a

relief role right now.

Think about that.

That's a top 10 for them.

Those forearms I just named,

they might be a fifth one

that I'm completely blanking on,

but they got nothing but arms.

Oh, Sawyer Gibson Long's out for the year.

That's another arm that's

coming back next year.

The whole thing with Casey

Mize and Reese Olsen

getting the last two spots,

and Olsen's looking like he

could be an ace of the future,

just like Scoogle,

and he's just not getting

the run support right now.

But Matt Manning got forced out.

because they signed Flaherty and Maeda.

And I was thinking about it the other day,

and it's just this Tigers

team needs a bat.

So it was a move for Flaherty for a bat,

a possibility with somebody.

And that's something I might

end up writing about in the

next couple of days.

We'll see what happens in his next start,

which I think is coming up here soon.

It might actually be against

Toronto in the first game.

But Maeda's here in a two-year deal.

So if it was the other way around...

you probably can't get Maeda

traded for that.

Whereas Flaherty with what he's doing,

you could.

And it's a great bounce back year for him,

especially after he

struggled last year in St.

Louis and then got traded to Baltimore.

And even when he got to the Orioles,

the Orioles put him in a

relief role after a couple of starts.

So I think it's just,

it's something to me that

it seems like he's going to

be an arm that could be

talked about at the deadline to get moved,

whether the Tigers are in it or not.

It could be something that's

floated out there.

Now, if they're in it,

I say you hold them and keep

them and try to make a run,

but if somehow they stay

where they're at right now

and that Central is so crowded together,

it's something that could be entertained.

So this is off topic and

definitely wasn't planned for us,

but as we're talking and

we've mentioned their

bullpen and the back end

specifically being not

desirable situation for them.

Flaherty has given up

more hits than I would like,

but he's striking out

batters and he's missing

plenty of bats and he's had

injury issues in the past.

Could he be someone in the

future that could move to that ninth,

eighth inning role?

I don't hate the idea of him

being the closer because

that's one issue they've got.

Although Foley's looked

pretty good there and took

it away from Alex Lang.

And there was talk of Shelby Miller,

but he's got something going on.

Who knows what that's going to look like.

But it's not a bad idea.

Like I said,

the only issue is you've got Foley.

And if Lane can figure his stuff out,

he's electric too.

Or he can be.

Can be.

So it really, at the end of the day,

becomes what are you seeing

in the next month,

month and a half or so.

Like I said, really at the end of the day,

all this conversation

should be happening in the

middle of June.

Where are you at and what do

you see your team looking like?

Yeah.

And, and then again, it would start really,

it's to me,

it starts your observation of

your team is the middle of

June till the all-star break.

And then you have all that

time to figure out, okay, who do we,

who are we moving?

And then you can dangle them out there,

see what's available.

And that's when you start to

see the trades happen.

Cause I mean,

realistically the trade

deadline has been quiet the

last couple of years with, you know,

a little bit of moves here and there,

but everything happens

before the deadline.

Yeah.

Everyone's trying to jump

ahead and get as much value as they can,

which the Padres did right away.

Yep.

All right.

No, I think,

I think my notes are going to

be a little bit similar.

And I think obviously

there's a few things that

we both would have wanted to talk about.

So I've only got a few

that'll be that we can talk about,

but in the meantime,

let's take a break and discuss, you know,

like we have so many other times,

If you're a baseball fan, you're listening,

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or about the minor league

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There you go.

Perfect.

So I think my first note is

something that you and I

have obviously been talking

back and forth about.

Paul Skeens,

who was the number two ranked

ITD prospect to start the year.

Paul Skeens came up, made his first start.

in Pittsburgh against the Cubs.

In that start,

he started the game off by

striking out Mike Tauchman off a foul tip,

and then he completely

owned Seiya Suzuki in his first start.

Started him with a breaking

ball on the outside,

then came in and finished him with a,

I want to say it was a

fastball right on the corner.

He painted the corner on the

second strike and third strike.

He basically reverse-pitched him,

where he threw his strikeout pitch first,

came inside.

I think it was maybe either

the split or whatever you

were calling it.

A splinker.

A splinker, and he hit the inside corner,

and then he just pasted

another one on the outside

corner fastball.

Totally had him guessing the hole at bat.

The first start,

he didn't get the decision.

He left the game after five

innings when they were up 6-0.

They went in to a rain delay, tied 6-6.

So it was no matter,

wasn't going to be in the decision.

The biggest thing I took

away from that game for him

was he didn't have the

control of his fastball.

And I was a little

interested to see what he

was going to do in game two.

Well, game two,

he came out and just kicked their ass.

Struck out the first seven

batters he faced in Wrigley on the road,

ended up with 11 strikeouts,

and then ended up winning the game.

He got his first win.

was perfect he was perfect

he was electric his I don't

know if you saw the

interview in regards to

when someone asked him what

he was going to do to make

like when the batters were

going to make adjustments

to him and he just goes I i

I don't even know good he

said good luck something

along those lines good luck

and just the confidence he has

I mean, he's been doing this in AAA.

He did it in his college career.

You know, the Pirates do need a bat.

I don't think they'll pinch hit with him,

but he can hit the ball too.

He did that in college.

He can hit too.

Yeah, he's an athlete.

So when looking at this,

Jared Jones pitched the game before,

and Jared Jones has been lights out too.

And I was just thinking right now,

Is there a better duo, young duo,

in the major leagues than these two,

currently, the way they're pitching?

No.

I mean,

I think the future is very bright

in Pittsburgh.

Yeah.

And I mentioned this last

week with somebody that I

really like watching pitch, Tanner Houck.

Yeah.

Where I mentioned his numbers,

and I said along the lines of, you know,

so far this year,

he has his best starts in

his first appearance against the team.

Now that changed against the

Rays where he had his worst

start against them and

looked better tonight, obviously.

So my question was with Skeens,

it's really tough your first two starts.

You're going against the same team.

So how do you, in your first two starts,

how do you adjust to a

lineup you just saw five days before?

And he came out and he adjusted.

The thing I didn't like was

his first start.

And I don't know if I said it to you.

I said it to somebody.

But I didn't like how, you know,

obviously in the minors, he went, what,

probably averaged three and

two thirds or four and a third.

He felt he never went fifth

at five innings.

But he got into trouble early on.

Maybe it was the second and

he had the bases loaded or

second and third or first and second,

whatever.

And they let him get out of it, which,

good.

That's the second inning of

his big league debut.

Let him figure it out.

In the fifth inning,

when they took him out, wasn't it?

It was one or two outs.

I didn't like the fact that,

I don't even think, was it bases loaded?

But I thought it wasn't bases loaded.

It might have been.

But they didn't let him finish it.

Let him finish it.

You had the lead.

It was 6-2 at the time.

He was at like 89 pitches, I think, too,

if I could be mistaken.

And the guy just threw 116

all last season pretty much

every start in college.

You know, let him finish it.

And, you know, worst case scenario,

it's 6-6,

which is what it ended up being

anyways after you took him out.

So let him finish it, see what happens.

Then you're in line.

Maybe he's in line for a win

in his first start.

That's what everybody wants

to see is everybody's tuning in for him.

I get you got to win a baseball game.

I understand that.

But, I mean,

let him try to see if he can

get out of it.

That's your future right there.

So you got to figure out if

he can get you out of jams

when you need him to.

Yeah.

It was very interesting.

Very interesting.

Because I agree.

He only pitched four innings

in that first start because

they pulled him when they

got two guys on.

And he was only sitting at 84 pitches,

54 of strikes.

But they were hitting .353

against him that game.

The Cubs were.

But then the second game, he throws 100.

And the average dipped down to 171.

He had a .90 whip in that game.

But he was electric that game.

And I think it was...

part of me was thinking in regards to,

was he, cause he, you know,

like you had mentioned in the minors,

he didn't pitch for shit in regards to,

they didn't want to waste him.

Right.

But was he,

did he have a chip on his

shoulder in game two?

Because he felt like they

didn't trust him to get out of that.

So he never put himself in that situation.

So these,

these two guys in the last 15 days, uh,

Skeens is 1-0 in two starts

with 10 innings pitch, six hits,

three earned runs,

only giving up one home run, you know,

three walks, one hit batter,

18 strikeouts with a 2.70

ERA and a .90 whip.

Jared Jones has started two

games going 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA,

12 innings.

Five earned runs, two home runs, two walks,

and 11 strikeouts with a 1.33 whip.

There's a guy, Mitch Keller,

who's in the middle of it all,

who got his new contract this year.

It's 3-0,

1.29 ERA over the last 15 days

and three starts,

one of which was a complete game.

He's thrown 21 innings, 15 hits,

three earned runs, one home run,

six free passes with two of

them being by means of hit-by-pitch.

and 15 strikeouts,

and he also has a .90 whip.

So as good as Jared Jones

and Paul Skeens have been, Mitch Keller,

the veteran of the group,

has done just as well.

And this Pittsburgh team,

if they can start giving

the run support to Jared Jones,

which he has lacked, this team –

Give them a bat here.

I really think they need a first baseman,

a right-handed bat or a

switch-hitting bat at first.

I'm not a rowdy-to-leaves guy,

but they have some guys.

They're scrappy,

and Jack Swinski hit one

out the other day,

so maybe he's starting to heat up.

But this team,

I like watching the Pirates play.

They're scrappy,

and I like their pitching staff.

You know who's also turning

on is O'Neal Cruz.

So...

If you didn't know baseball

and you just knew Cruz was

the last name and you

watched O'Neal Cruz run and

swing the bat and make

contact and Ellie Della Cruz hit, swing,

and run,

would you be able to tell the difference?

No.

I thought the same thing

watching Della Cruz last season.

I thought that's the same

player it reminded me of.

I'm happy to see him back

hitting the ball.

I mean,

he got off to a little bit of a

slow start.

I agree with you.

The Pirates are now in the bright future,

great future,

and they got a couple

prospects that I like coming up.

But all of a sudden, to me,

they become a team now that

they're still in the

nationally central race.

Skeens is up.

They got their big three right now.

Like you said, Keller, Jones, and Skeens.

When lineup starts hitting,

they're a team that could

be a lot of fun to watch as

the weather gets warmer.

Yep.

They are an interesting team to watch.

And I'm here for it.

I just love – I think I said

it in another podcast.

The Pirates having a good

team is good for baseball.

It makes that NL Central

that much more fun to watch.

And having the pitching that they have,

to me, they've had pitching before,

but it's only been one,

and the team's been horrible,

so they get moved.

I think you hold on to these three,

and if you're going to move someone,

move one of these one-year

deals to try to see if you

can get a bat and make a

run for this and see if you can't get in.

Get some playoff experience

with these young guys so

that as you keep getting

some of these prospects up,

You've got that experience

and you just build off it.

And I'm really impressed with Jared Jones,

obviously Paul Skeens,

and Mitch Keller is just

finally getting some run support.

And he's not the only guy anymore.

You know what I mean?

They don't need him to be the savior.

They've got these two other

arms that can just jump in

and shut another team's

down and face an ace and hold their own.

So the Pirates are going to

be fun to watch the rest of the way.

And I think we'll probably

be talking about

Paul Skeens, Jared Jones,

and the rest of this

Pirates team quite a bit as

we move forward.

The other one,

when I was looking over and

just kind of picking up in

the last 15 days,

actually even just even better than that,

the last seven days,

let's bring it down the last seven days.

The San Francisco Giants

called up Luis Matos to

play in the outfield.

He's played in five games.

In 22 at-bats, he has only two runs scored,

but he has nine hits,

three of which are doubles, one home run,

and 13 RBIs.

He's hitting .409 with a .409 OPB,

slugging .682 and an OPS of 1.091.

I know they've got

Yastrzemski playing right.

They still have Soler.

They have – oh, what's his name there?

And who's the other outfielder,

for crying out loud, that they had?

It was Lee.

He's done for the year.

Yeah, Lee's done for the year.

Conforto, Michael Conforto,

who's been hitting the ball well also.

But Matos coming up and playing and,

you know, whether he –

takes that job and fills the

role of Jung-ho Lee,

I'd be interested to watch this kid.

I was one of my best friends

as a Giants fan,

and I think it was Mother's Day, perhaps.

I was watching the Reds-Giants game,

and I just like watching

the San Francisco Giants play.

I'm not a fan of their team, perhaps.

And but I like watching what they do.

I like their bullpen.

They have depth pieces.

They may not have the

superstars like they did in

the early late 90s, early 2000s.

But I'll be watching this

kid and to see what he does

and see if he carries it on,

because right now he's got, you know,

the next highest RBI total

is from Ramos and he's got eight.

So he's been leading the way,

doubling up and he's

hitting the ball well.

So I'll be very interested

to see what he does.

this coming weekend so Luis

Matos is one to watch the

other guy um that has

gotten red hot for Boston

is Devers who had his sixth

home run in the sixth game

but he only has nine RBIs

and this kind of goes to

previously what we were

discussing in regards to

Duran and even Eli De La

Cruz they're just not

getting enough people on in

front of him so that these

home runs are devastating

They're devastating in a

manner where it's one,

maybe a two-run shot.

But you get two guys on,

he's hitting three-run bombs.

That changes the course of a

game real quick.

Endeavors is just one of

these guys that when he gets hot,

he's red hot.

It doesn't matter if it's a

left-hand pitcher or a

right-hand pitcher.

He's going to take it to left field.

He's going to hit it to dead center.

He's going to take it to deep right.

He uses that ballpark amazing.

That ball was crushed tonight.

Oppo.

Oh, yeah.

He's just an amazing hitter,

and he's one of the funnest

players to watch when he

gets red hot because he

loves the game too.

That's the other thing.

He loves playing the game.

He's got that big energy, and like I said,

with Travis Story not being there,

it stinks not being able to

see more guys get on base

ahead of him to see him do more damage.

It's the story of the whole

Red Sox season.

Tyler O'Neal, I mean, he put 11 home runs,

17 RBIs.

17 RBIs, like such an awkward number.

Which is too bad because

they do have the power.

It's just that it comes at

the times when they need the home run,

but they don't have anyone on there.

The question I have, though,

is so over the last two games,

yesterday and today,

they've scored – what was

yesterday's score?

11-3.

So they got 16 runs in the last two games.

Is the offense waking up?

And Cutter Crawford said it

last week – or two weeks ago.

He made a start,

and I think he actually got

shut out where –

He's been part of the culprit,

him and Houck, where they pitched well,

but the team just doesn't

score when they pitch.

And he even said it after

one of his starts, and it might have been,

I forget what start it was,

but I think they got shut out,

and he ended up giving up like two runs,

and they just lost.

But he said, the offense wasn't going,

and when we do, we're a good team.

And, you know,

it was fun to see the other night,

Durant scored, and they tied it at twos,

and then obviously in the

ninth or eighth inning,

things got away from them

after they tied it, but

Now the question becomes,

is this offense waking up

and are the Red Sox

potentially going to be a problem?

I mean,

I'm not going to get ahead of myself.

It's two games.

See what happens the rest of

the series against the Rays

and get the Brewers this weekend.

Again, now I might have just jinxed them.

Hey, you never know.

The Brewers are a team that

I think is beatable.

I think their pitching has been good.

but I'm trying to think if we miss Peralta,

I can't, I can't remember, but either way,

he's a guy that if you just

are patient and don't swing at the stuff,

his breaking ball that just

starts in the middle of the

zone and dips out.

If you can be patient with

him and get him out of there in the fifth,

sixth inning, you can have a chance.

And sometimes that slider

will stay up and O'Neill

will take advantage as will Devers.

So it'd be a very

interesting series to watch.

Um,

I hope to see Devers

continue his hot streak and

maybe perhaps this weekend

see a few more runners on

base when he does.

My next note,

and I've been kind of holding

back on this, but holy shit,

Shota Imanaga might be the

best pitcher in baseball right now.

He started nine games.

He's 5-0.

His ERA is

.84 in 53.2 innings.

He's only given up 40 hits.

Five earned runs.

Of those five earned runs,

three home runs in that mix.

He's walked nine batters in 53 innings.

And he's struck out 58.

His whip is .91.

Opponents are hitting 200 against him.

Again,

we've had a conversation in regards

to what happens in Chicago

when it starts to get muggy

and humid in the summer.

How's his ball going to play

there when he's trying to

beat the top of the zone?

But this guy,

I was trying to think about

it in regards to if I've

seen a pitcher coming from overseas,

have this much fun with it.

He has got a lot of personality.

He, in one of his press conferences,

said that he was changing

his ringtone to the crowd

of Wrigley because he likes it so much.

And seeing him in the dugout

when he's not pitching and

standing there with Seiya

Suzuki and right now, you know,

Javier Saad has pitched

really well for the Cubs as well,

filling in

filling in these gaps.

Justin Steele is by proxy their ace,

you know,

because of what he did last year.

Steele's only pitched in four games.

His ERA is 5.21 in 19 innings.

He's got 18 strikeouts, five walks,

a whip of 1.21.

I think showed us the ace of

this team and he's the

number three in the rotation right now,

but he's pitching like an ace and he,

He is of the two high-priced

Japanese pitchers coming

from overseas this year.

I think right now, yes,

Yamamoto showed signs,

but showed us looked great

from start one to start nine.

And he is so much fun to watch.

And if you haven't been able

to see him start a game, try to dial in.

Or if you've got MLB...

you know, watch a condensed game.

He has a lot of fun to watch

pitch and he's kind of

quirky on the mound.

He does some different

things with his motion and

the way he'll stare in at

the ump trying to get a call.

Not disrespectful, not showing him up,

but he'll just wait and

then he'll smile and turn around.

You know,

he knows he's having fun with the game.

And for me, that's just,

that's even that much more

reason to root for a guy like that.

He doesn't take it too serious.

He's out there for the fans.

He just loves it.

And I didn't really know

what they were going to do

this offseason.

There was rumors about Otani, this, that,

and the next thing.

There was rumors about Snell

and Montgomery.

And I didn't really know much about Shota.

And then I started paying

attention a little bit more,

watched him in spring training,

and how he was shocked that

they wanted him to pitch up in the zone.

and we talked about this

where the Japanese hitters

generally are more level swing.

They're not playing the

launch angle game and he is

eating it up right now for the Cubs.

And like I said,

if you haven't got a chance

to see him pitch,

I highly recommend it

because he's a good one.

And I think he is going to

be the ace of this team

with Justin Steele or not.

And even if Justin Steele

comes back and pitches the

way he did last year, um,

I still think Shota is right

now the guy for this team.

And the Cubs will go as far

as he can continue to go, I think,

in my opinion.

Like I said,

I want to see what happens

when the weather gets warm.

And I just looked it up.

I don't know if he's going

to pitch this series

because it's too far away

to even figure it out.

When they face the Phillies in July,

Fourth of July weekend,

if he pitches that series, to me,

that's the decision right there.

Because, I mean,

what they have coming forward –

Could he struggle?

Maybe.

But the lineups that I've seen,

what they're going to have coming up,

I'm not overly concerned with.

And, again, that could change.

But, I mean, that Philly series,

that's the best team in

baseball right now.

Yep.

Or at least the best team, I think,

in the National League.

Facing them,

if he gets one of those starts,

that's the test for me.

If he comes out of – I mean, granted,

that's, what, a month and a half away?

Yeah.

So things could change by then, but –

if he's doing what he's doing right now,

and we're talking it's 4th

of July weekend, he's pitching game two.

Let's see what happens.

And he comes out of there, lights out.

He's might be the best

pitcher in the national

league or up in the top five.

So that is a good segue.

You know,

I want to talk about a guy in Boston,

but I'll,

I'll go down and talk about

Aaron Nola first.

Aaron Nola kind of had a,

few down years where he wasn't horrible,

just wasn't the guy he was

from previous years.

Right now, in the last 15 days,

Aaron Nola's made three starts.

He's 2-1 with a 2.49 ERA,

one complete game shutout, 21.2 innings,

15 hits allowed, six earned runs,

two on home runs, only walked three,

but struck out 20.

Zach Wheeler,

who is the strikeout pitcher

on that roster, has 19 in three starts,

but only in 18.1 innings.

So with a whip of .83 and

opponents hitting 190 off him,

this is a guy that if can

continue this route and

continue to pitch the way

he's been pitching for the

Phillies with Zach Wheeler, Ranger Suarez,

pitching the way they have been,

They're an extremely deep team,

especially – Who saw him coming?

I mean, 8-0 and nine starts.

What was it?

It wasn't last year because

he was injured.

It was the year before where

he kind of came on second

half of the year and showed

signs that he – World Series year.

Yeah, the World Series year.

He doesn't throw overly hard,

but he misses bats.

He is a bulldog, I guess,

is another way he battles –

He's 2-0 in the last 15 days

without giving up an earned

run in two starts.

He's pitched 12 innings,

so he's going at least over five,

six innings a game,

which is what they need.

Seven hits, only two runs scored,

none earned.

One hit by pitch, four walks,

and 12 strikeouts,

and they're hitting... He's

got a 0.92 whip and a 1.63

average from the opponents.

This...

This pitching staff is deep,

but Aaron Nola being that

guy who slotted in after

Zach Wheeler and Zach

Wheeler being their big

money extension this

offseason is the guy that

they look for for the future.

But Aaron Nola pitching the

way he has been along with,

like you mentioned,

Ranger Suarez is a guy that

kind of gets overlooked

because of Ranger Suarez's

success so far this year.

Zach Wheeler signed the new

contract and pitching well

Aaron Nola, if he can keep this up,

that's a pretty good 1-2-3 right there.

That's your player rotation.

Yeah.

And even, I mean, shit, even Walker.

Yeah.

Warren Walker hasn't pitched horrible.

He's not lighting the world on fire,

but this Phillies team is deep.

Chris Sanchez is another one.

Yeah.

Chris Sanchez is another one.

Not pitching bad either.

Yeah, they're a deep team.

Yeah, yeah,

and they got a lot of stuff coming.

Yeah.

People don't talk about the

prospects they have coming,

Andrew Painter, Mick Abel,

and they even have bats, you know,

Justin Crawford, son of Kyle Crawford.

Yeah.

And Aiden Miller, future third baseman.

They're going to have some

issues coming up,

and those guys are already

what they're going to do.

Decisions, oh, yeah.

Decisions, decisions.

They're deep.

They're very deep,

and they got a lot of players coming.

So the other guy that I

mentioned from the Red Sox

is Nick Pavetta.

You and I talked briefly

before jumping on in

regards to being able to

keep him afterwards.

When he's healthy,

he's a strikeout machine.

You know,

he's pitched 15.2 innings in the last 15,

struck out 17, only one walk.

His ERA, though, is 4.6-0.

Eight earned runs,

six of those were home runs.

You know, he gave up six home runs.

Out of the 12 hits he gave up,

half were home runs,

which inflates his ERA, obviously.

But with a whip of .83,

if he can eliminate, you know,

half those home runs,

his ERA most likely will

drop down somewhere in the three range,

if not lower, depending on the results.

how much of that do we

equate to him coming back

and getting accustomed again?

Because if you think about it,

his first two starts before

the injured list,

and he was the culprit of a one,

nothing win and a one, nothing loss.

Yep.

So I don't have it in front of me.

Did he give up a home run to

the Cardinals?

I think he gave up one.

I think it was that bomb.

Yeah.

I'm pulling up his game logs right now.

So as you mentioned before the,

before the injury,

On March 29th, he pitched against Seattle,

gave up one earned run,

pitched six innings, three hits,

struck out 10.

Then he faced Oakland, got the win,

gave up no runs, one walk,

only three strikeouts.

And then he came back.

He missed the rest of April

after the April 3rd start.

In May, he faced Atlanta,

gave up five earned runs,

three home runs right there.

and only struck out one.

The next two starts,

one against Tampa Bay and one against St.

Louis.

He won the game against St.

Louis.

Wasn't factored into the

decision against Tampa.

In the Tampa game, he pitched 5.2 innings,

struck out eight, no walks,

but he did give up two home runs.

St.

Louis, he gave up one home run.

It was a solo shot,

but he did strike out eight.

And

He only pitched 81 pitches against Tampa,

61 for strikes, and against St.

Louis,

only 72 pitches in those six innings.

He was very efficient, 51 for strikes.

That one.

Yeah.

He should have gone further in that game.

Yeah, I agree.

So they're obviously easing him back,

but he's a guy when he's on,

and I do agree that's a

tough start coming off the injured list.

to face Atlanta and that lineup,

obviously giving up five

home runs is not ideal, but you know,

he's obviously, he wasn't,

he's given up a total of

nine home runs in five starts.

So, and I,

I would like to think that would

improve over the year, but you know,

striking out 16 in his last

two and only 11.2 innings.

He's, he's a guy for me.

Hopefully they,

get situated and into this race.

So he's not an arm that gets moved.

Um, but he, he's a guy for me.

I just like watch pitching and I hope he,

he's another one to root for.

Cause he battles this year.

He looks a lot better this year.

And you can say the name.

Why does he look better this year?

Andrew Bailey.

Now CJ's right.

Andrew Bailey is the second coming of,

you know, the next best thing.

Matos is the giants.

I like,

But their pitching is not as

good this year.

Why is that?

It's not.

It's not.

It's Andrew Bailey,

which is the Andrew Bailey effect.

You were the guy that brought it up.

We talked about before we hopped on.

I just got this breaking news on my phone,

so I figured we're talking about Pavetta.

We might as well bring it up.

We talked about,

I think I said to you right

before we hopped on,

that Pavetta could be a guy

that enjoyed the last year

of him out and he's coming back.

Yeah.

I think you have to bring them back now,

even with G Alito being back next year.

Uh, breaking news,

Garrett Whitlock has a

ligament damage in his

elbow and surgery is a real possibility.

So yeah, for those of you that don't know,

if you're not a Red Sox fan,

he actually was pitching

well as a starter this year,

went down with an oblique injury,

made a rehab,

a startment rehab start in Portland.

I believe it might've been Worcester.

It was either Portland or Worcester.

Um,

didn't pitch bad.

I think he went five and two

thirds or at least five.

And all of a sudden he was getting set.

They were going to go to a

six man rotation with the

way Cooper Criswell has

been pitching to just, you know,

give how could Crawford,

especially more time to

rest and get them situated.

So we don't deal with an injury with them,

but he ended up not being

able to make that start.

It was bail on Sunday

against the Cardinals and,

And Whitlock was flown back

to Boston for further

evaluation of his elbow,

and the news has come out

today that there is a

possibility of surgery.

So with that being said,

I liked him pitching as a starter.

I think it's time we end

that conversation.

And we've had this

conversation before the

season started that Ken Lee

is likely to get moved to the deadline.

It's clearly obvious he

doesn't really want to be here.

Disengaged big time.

Chris Martin is getting up

there in age where he's been good.

He's had his hiccups,

but he might be an arm that

is here for the rest of this year.

I forget how long his contract is.

We could talk about the

potential of a Slayton

Whitlock back into the bullpen,

and we also have Liam

Hendricks coming back in August.

Yeah,

I'm very interested to see him come back.

That creates a potential for

a three-headed monster at

the back end of that bullpen,

even if you keep Martin this year.

It gives you four solid arms.

If you can make the playoffs,

that's good arms in the future.

Obviously, I think Whitlock,

it sounds like,

is going to be done for the year.

I'm sure based on what they

did with Yoshida,

I'm sure there's a second opinion coming.

I'm sure they're going to

look more into this.

But he had an elbow injury last year,

and that's all coming from

him as a starter.

So I think it's time we got

to stop with the starter conversation,

have him be a reliever.

And let's go into next year

with a rotation of,

if you want to go find a guy, fine.

But let's plan for the

rotation next year of Bayo, Pavetta, Howe,

Crawford, and Giolito.

And I'm okay with that.

From what I've seen from Andrew Bailey,

and I've hyped up Andrew Bailey to no end,

what I've seen from him,

I'm okay with that rotation.

Yeah,

especially the way Criswell's pitched.

You can always, you know,

if Giolito is a guy that,

doesn't pan out and doesn't

come back and doesn't show

any promise um you've still

got him in the mix there's

a name in double a that

I'll actually like he's

been hot I think he was

actually just named uh

eastern league player of

the week zach penrod yeah

I'd like to see him move up

to triple a hopefully soon

and maybe he could be

somebody next year you're

talking as a such a long

reliever maybe even a

starter if something goes

wrong um but it's an arm to watch

I also talked about it on down the farm.

I've talked about it for a

couple of weeks now.

I think he had a bad start last week.

I like Luis Perales.

It's another name to watch,

but he's down in high a Greenville.

So you're talking probably

two more years before you

really see him start to

make a name and see what he can do.

Cause obviously, like I said,

for time Madden earlier,

he's struggling to triple a

just Jack lighter's.

Another example of he

struggled since he got

called up and he was a big

name prospect after he got drafted.

So yeah,

Because these guys that look

fantastic and they're down

to lower levels,

they get called up to a

couple of higher levels and

they don't look great.

But there's arms.

And clearly, like I've said,

Andrew Bailey seems to know

what he's doing.

So let's trust him.

But it's tough news for Whitlock.

Yeah.

We don't like that.

That's too bad.

Too bad.

Sorry to interrupt you.

I just had that brief.

No, no, no.

That's impact news.

And it played well with the Pivetta.

The last player that kind of

caught my eye is a pitcher

from the Angels, Jose Siriano.

Last 15 days, three starts, 1-0,

2.55 ERA in 17 innings.

He's given up five earned runs,

one home run, walked seven,

struck out 17 with a whip of 1.13.

Opponents are hitting 200

against him on a team that

really has not a lot going for him.

And that was something I

actually snuck up on that

when I was doing an article in regards to,

I was actually looking up

Taylor Ward's information.

I looked at their pitching

to see if there was

anything there for the Reds,

for the bullpen,

and it just stuck out to me.

So I want to shout out to him,

someone that I'm going to

just pay attention to

because I don't know a lot about him.

So I want to watch his next

start and see how that goes

for him because he's the

lone bright spot right now for that,

other than Tyler Anderson

and Sandoval who have been so-so.

But Soriano is a guy that

I'm interested in watching

to see what he can't become

for the Angels in a team

that's pretty much destined

for last place at this

point right now or in a

battle with the Oakland

Athletics or Sacramento Athletics,

whatever one you want to talk about.

The last thing that really

in terms of notes for me

was I caught John Heyman

breaking down kind of some

trades and some different ideas.

And he brought up the

blowing up of the Toronto

Blue Jays roster.

And this for me is kind of

more of a discussion with

you to see your thoughts on it.

And we did touch upon it

before we jumped on.

Again,

I did an article for the Reds and

how they could kickstart

their offense and

And I did include Vladimir Guerrero Jr.,

who might be a guy that

needs a change of scenery.

Now,

I don't think they blow it up completely.

Me personally,

I could see a piece or two

move to try to just

kickstart some things.

They have some pitching

starting to improve,

but it's the offense that

has been a little lacking.

So I want to get your

thoughts in regards to the news,

John Heyman, or the idea of

John Heyman brought up about

blowing up this Blue Jays roster.

So,

and I mentioned it when I talked a

little bit earlier about their pitching,

Ricky Tiedemann and Alec Manoa,

which I think opens the

door that you could see

Manoa as an arm that gets moved.

Yeah.

Gosman or Barrios.

Justin Turner's another one.

I've heard rumors of him to

many different places.

But realistically, I think that team,

you know,

they had the big three come up with

biggio guerrero and bichette

yeah things didn't pan out

and now the conversation

became what do you do going

forward and it's tough

because I like I mentioned

it with you I mentioned it

I think last week or

whatever but I like arovis

martinez I think he's a

good piece to come up and

could play that middle

infield and I think biggio

is a guy that you could see

get moved because he can

play any position you need

him to um except for pretty

much catcher in first base

But, yeah, this team,

they're in a series right

now where I think they won

today that if they can find

a way to sweep,

the conversation could change.

But they went out and got

Springer from the Astros.

They signed him,

and he hasn't looked right

since he got there.

He just looks old, and I get it.

And the reason why he left Houston was –

You know,

the whole cheating scandal in 2017,

he wanted to create a new

name for himself, same as Correa,

and show that it wasn't the

cheating that made them the

player they are.

Yep.

And in a way, I feel like maybe it is age,

but at the same time,

maybe it was the cheating

that made Springer the player he was.

He has moments.

Oh, no, he absolutely does.

It's just he just hasn't

looked like he did in Houston.

I mean, he was clutch that whole 2017 run,

and that makes you wonder.

He was healthy.

Right.

And they also, you got to remember,

they let Kiermaier walk.

You know, Kiermaier's not a bad... Oh, no,

sorry.

They got Kiermaier.

Yeah.

And, you know,

Kiermaier's not a bad...

He's a great glove, but... Yeah.

They make interesting signings.

Like... Strange signings.

IKF didn't make sense.

Justin Turner made sense.

They needed a bat to play

the corner infield.

I don't know why they didn't

bring back Matt Chapman, but...

Yeah.

Bring Turner in made sense.

He produced last year.

And so adding that to your lineup,

it makes sense.

He's the only one, though,

right now that really seems

– Vlade's gotten hot.

I mean, Vlade leads the team in RBIs,

and I believe he has one of

the best batting averages on the team.

He only has four home runs.

That's the sneaky thing to me.

Dalton Varsha leads the team in home runs.

Yeah.

But their pitching hasn't been bad.

I mean, think about it.

Jose Barrios, I just saw it tonight.

He got the start.

And he leads the league in quality starts.

Yep.

So, but is that an arm you want to trade?

Or is that an arm that you

build as an ace and you bring up to him?

Well, that's what they wanted him to be,

and he hasn't been until this year.

Right.

So I don't think,

I don't know if you move him now.

I think that goes back to

the Gausman hasn't looked the same.

No.

He was, I mean, granted,

I wanted the Red Sox to

sign him so bad when he was a free agent.

Yep.

But now he doesn't look right.

Manoa coming back to form.

However,

I do want to see Manoa face the Yankees,

and I want to see that

Verdugo rivalry just steam right up.

I don't know.

They could get hot.

They're a team with Bichette

and Vlade and Springer.

If two of those three warm

up at the same time, it's different.

I mean,

you talked about Barrios in having

the most quality starts.

What if he gets run support?

Now what are we talking about for him?

He did tonight.

Yeah, tonight he did.

Eight or nine runs tonight.

Yeah.

So I said – and that's the

team I said the other day.

I don't know if I said it last week,

but I said I gave four

teams that I was completely wrong about.

That's the team so far at

this point that I was

completely wrong about.

I had them finishing second.

I mean – That's still not far-fetched,

though.

Again,

if they don't make moves or if they

do make some minor moves –

they they can still get hot

and they do have some

pieces like you mentioned

down the minors that could

could potentially

contribute um so that was

an interesting one I think

it's too early to tell

right now I do think that

there if it continued down

this path and the way the

season's going I think

there will be some pieces

moved which ones all

depends I hate to put it on

one guy and one guy only

But – and I mentioned him before.

I actually mentioned him

when I did my thoughts.

If Alec Manoa really is back,

could that save their season?

Because before the injury,

Ariel Rodriguez looked good too.

So you keep him, he comes back healthy,

and you have him, Manoa –

Barrios, Bassett, Kikuchi.

Kikuchi even looks good.

And Gausman, that's six guys.

That gives you a chance to

potentially look into

moving somebody because

they want Tiedemann up soon.

And he comes back.

I believe the only place I

saw was maybe Juni comes back.

So that gives you the chance

to move somebody early and

get a sell high.

So if Manoa is good,

pitching at what he is, is he the guy?

I mean, really, his whole thing,

he could be the one that

saves their season,

whether it's he pitches

like he is and he brings them right back,

or he pitches like he is

and he's the arm they move

to bring in a piece that

makes them better and gets them there.

Because he's young enough to

still have an impact and draw.

Right.

So that's why I say,

do you put the Blue Jays

season on one player like that?

Because the lineup's there,

and you know Vladdy can get going.

You know Bichette can get going.

Bichette was mentioned at

the offseason about being

traded to the Dodgers.

I heard the Cubs at one point.

Yeah, which made zero sense to me.

There is that possibility.

Uh-oh.

That's not Taylor Ward, is it?

No.

It says Taylor Ward on my screen,

but there's an Angels

player down at second base,

and it doesn't look like Taylor Ward.

Oh, Jesus.

I just mentioned him in a

trade potentially to the Reds to, again,

another guy.

It's not Taylor Ward.

He's up right now.

Okay.

Who is that?

Rengifo?

Oh, Luis Rengifo?

Yeah.

So before we take our next

little break and get into

matchups and prospects,

I want a yes or no.

Will Trevor Bauer pitch this

year in the major leagues?

No.

I think the longer it goes,

the longer that is the correct answer.

He was bragging today.

I saw a tweet from him about how he was,

striking out and defeating

the um the home run

champion voight like geez

big deal you can strike out

lucas boy the best two

tweets I've seen from him

as of late I just I had one

in my head I just lost it

so maybe I'll go with the

one tweet he is the only

pitcher in the history of

baseball to be an all-star

in the mlb the japanese

league and the mexican league

There's no doubt the talent's there,

but there's something that

the rest of the GMs and owners know,

have been told.

Hire up.

Hire up.

You really think so?

Hire up.

Hire up.

I don't know if you saw that tweet.

You replied to somebody's tweet.

Yeah.

And he said something about

how the GMs want him,

the coaches want him,

the players want him.

Everybody wants him.

Yes.

Hire up.

That's the one we were talking about.

So what do they know?

He hasn't been charged with anything.

I think it's the sponsors to

Manfred saying we don't

want the backlash of bringing him back.

That's my personal opinion.

I think it's the sponsors

coming and saying we don't

want to deal with this.

Or it's Manfred.

It could be that too.

It could be Manfred saying I

don't want to deal with this.

I mean, let's be serious.

The guy... Nobody will ever

forget Terry Francona

coming out trying to take

the ball from him in Cleveland,

and he turned around.

It was not in Cleveland.

He was playing for Cleveland.

They were at Coffman Stadium

in Kansas City.

He turned around and threw

the ball over the center field wall.

I mean, the guy is an asshole.

But is he fun to watch?

Absolutely.

Is he a good pitcher?

Absolutely.

Could he still be a top

pitcher in the game of

Major League Baseball?

Absolutely.

But...

what happened has punished him.

And I, you know,

I've seen so many tweets

with people coming out and saying, well,

something happened.

Nobody's talking about it

and stuff like that,

which I'm not going to get into that.

Cause it's all, he said, she said,

and nobody knows the truth.

And, you know,

all we can say is we know

the truth of what happened

on the other stuff.

And the girl that he claimed she's going,

she comes back all the time

with him and his, um,

agent they it's just they go

back and forth on twitter

all the time and who knows

not a good look so that I

mean not a good look

because when we were

talking about someone

earlier who's been

suspended but you didn't

hear a peep from him when

he was suspended he was

convicted you know was

charged with what he did

and but he would there was

nothing said he served his

time came back all the

classes he needed to go to

yep and he did what he had

to do and came back and it's just

But I think that's part of

the problem is I think

Bauer has been blackballed,

and that's why you hear so much from him.

He doesn't shut his mouth either, though.

It's weird the girl has said a lot more.

She still keeps going.

That's where I have some issues.

Like I said, it's all he said.

She said,

we'll never know the whole story.

Baseball might know,

and that's part of the reason.

I don't know.

But it's an interesting

situation because I would

love to see him in any team.

I mean, there's so many teams –

I thought the tweet that I

found was interesting.

It said,

I'm better than any of the top

three on any team.

And I went through and I was like, well,

you're not better than the

whole Mariners starting rotation.

Right now,

I would take four guys on

Baltimore that you're not better than.

And the Red Sox had the best

ERA at the time, starting-wise.

I wouldn't take you over the

four that I expect.

I would still gladly take

them as a Red Sox.

Don't take that any different way.

But, you know, you just,

that's the thing he said.

And I just went through and I'm like, ah,

it's not true.

Well,

look at the competition he's facing

right now too.

Right.

That's, that was the other thing.

So, so that was just something that,

you know,

you and I touched upon briefly and,

you know,

I agree that I thought that

maybe after April,

maybe it was some of the

injuries that we saw that

maybe someone would reach out.

But if no one has now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm a little surprised on that one,

but that's where we're at, I think,

is it's just... It could

get interesting to see what happens,

because if someone gets desperate enough,

come late July, early August,

because he's a free agent.

You know what I mean?

He can be signed at any point in time.

And he costs nothing.

A league minimum with incentives.

What do you have to lose?

That's where I scratch my head.

That's what tells me it's higher up.

You're right.

It's owners,

but who's saying it to the owners?

Who's telling them?

What's the fine?

What's going to happen if you do this?

Before we get into the key

matchups and the prospects,

I want to just touch again

on anyone that's listening,

anyone that reads the

articles on the site, visits the site,

fan on any social.

If you're interested in joining us,

and kind of teaming up and

writing about baseball,

whether it be the major leagues,

minor leagues,

or even any specific topics,

go to the website,

inside the diamonds.com backslash,

join us backslash and reach out.

Or you can email CJ at,

at cjlavalley at

insidethediamonds.com and reach out,

let us know what you're

thinking or what your questions are.

And we can get you any of

the details you're looking

at to see if this might be

a good fit for you.

We have plenty of teams that

are still looking for some

coverage and we have some

topics that need to be

covered and any kind of

support would be good for

growing the website and

growing awareness that what

we're trying to do here at

Inside the Diamonds.

So if you're interested,

Go to the website, insidethediamonds.com,

backslash join us,

and let us know what you're

thinking or any of the

questions you may have.

And if you listen to the podcast,

you can just write into

where you're listening, any questions,

and we can get you the

answers you need so that

you can join part of our team,

hopefully here at Inside the Diamonds.

We've got a good group of

writers and some editors.

So if you're interested,

reach out so that we can

get you some details so you

can see how you can come and join us.

All right, CJ,

what matchups are you looking for?

I actually kept it light

this week because I wasn't

really impressed with this week's slate.

The first one I want to talk about,

which isn't looking good right now,

is I want to talk about the

Tigers and the Royals.

I thought this was the

series for the test for the Tigers,

where if you can beat the

Royals in three games,

then you're back in the race.

Yep.

eight three royals right now

and granted they're gonna

have school won the finale

so I think that looks good

for them if they can steal

one of the other ones I

think we're looking okay

but right now eight three

yeah the one thing I did

find when I was doing the

preview for the series was

salvador perez leads all

the offensive categories

for the royals he just doesn't quit he

It's wild.

And I think Bobby Witt's the real deal,

too.

Like, this team could be a problem.

Yep.

Lugo.

Lugo has been unreal.

Lugo's a problem.

But Welko looked good tonight, too.

Yeah.

Although, it was interesting.

I don't know what's going on with him.

He was doing some weird

stretches in the dugout in

between innings,

like holding his hand up

his arm and stretching his

elbow and his shoulder.

So, I don't know.

I mean, granted,

I could be overlooking that

as a Tigers fan,

thinking something's going on there, but

He looked good, though.

Another one,

and the only one I have for

this week before I get to the weekend,

is Rangers-Phillies.

Yep.

Where I like the fact you're

going to see Wheeler and

you're going to see Ranger Suarez.

I believe Ranger Suarez has

the first game.

Wheeler has the finale.

Or maybe it's Chris Sanchez

I have in the first game.

But you're going to see

Wheeler in the series, that's for sure.

Yep.

And I said it last week.

I know you weren't here.

I don't know if you had a

chance to listen to it.

But I mentioned the Rangers

are an exciting team.

They're right there in the

race for the AL West.

And they're going to get

DeGrom and Scherzer back.

So going up against the

Phillies team without those two guys,

not great.

But if they can find a way

to take two out of three

from the Phillies, that's a good look.

But the Phillies are a lot

of fun to watch right now.

So if you've got anything

you want to watch,

like if there's a team you want to watch,

the Phillies are must-see

baseball right now.

This weekend, not thrilled by the slate.

I was going to say Red Sox

Brewers was one of them,

but the Red Sox had looked

bad against the Cardinals,

so I wasn't thrilled about it.

They've looked good over the last two.

So that's a test.

I will mention it because

I'm interested to see can the Red Sox –

go against a team that's

leading a division and come out hot,

whereas they came out cold

against the Cardinals team

that's in last place in their division.

The other one is the

Cardinals and the Cubs

because it's rivalry weekend.

As bad as the Cardinals are

and as good as the Cubs have been,

it just seems like whenever

there's a rivalry,

the bad team always gets

pumped up for their chance.

So,

and the Cardinals are up 5-3 on the

Orioles right now.

So I'm going to even more

back that up because the

Cardinals could be turning

the ship around right here,

taking two or three from the Red Sox.

And now all of a sudden

you're up 5-3 on the Orioles.

And they have pitching.

Yep.

So, I mean, Sonny Gray,

is it Sonny Gray tonight?

So Sonny Gray is going to

pitch this weekend against the Cubs.

Yep.

Probably Sunday night

baseball if it is him tonight.

No, that'll be an interesting series.

It's not one for me on the weekend.

I have two for this week.

One is Toronto going against

the White Sox.

If they sweep that series,

as Tampa Bay and the Red

Sox continue to kind of slip, slide,

and are wishy-washy in

regards to what's going on with them,

Toronto can start to climb.

And then...

Again, this weekend,

Toronto takes on Detroit.

And if the Blue Jays

pitching can stay strong

and the Blue Jays bats come alive,

that's a series if they win

that and they sweep the White Sox,

we could be watching

Toronto get hot right in

front of us this weekend to

ride into June.

So that's the break.

Then no school this weekend.

So that's correct.

So that's an interesting one for me.

The other one, uh, during the week is,

and I'm not going to

mention the Cubs Braves cause that's,

that's something that to me

is interesting and it'll

prove their worth.

But,

because they've got a tough

weekend with the three games with Atlanta,

which they lost that series most recently,

and then the Cardinals

being a home division.

That's just a division rival.

That's going to be a tough one.

But the other game for me,

or the other team for this week,

I should say, it's this week period,

is the Cincinnati Reds.

They host the San Diego Padres,

and then the Dodgers come to town.

So they have seven.

They play seven games.

No, they play six games this weekend.

There's seven.

They play tonight?

No, I don't think so.

So they play Tuesday, Wednesday,

Thursday against the Padres.

And then they face the Dodgers.

They're two and five in their last seven.

Taking one of

Four against the Dodgers and

only one of three against

the Diamondbacks.

If the Reds can't win one of

these two series,

they're already in last

place in the NL Central,

and they're eight and a half games back.

They could fall to 10, 11 games back.

Now,

the Mariners or the Marlins did beat

the Brewers tonight.

Yep.

That helps.

But those two series for the

Reds are big in terms of

they were a team that

everyone had high hopes for.

Yes, they're dealing with injuries,

but that to me is a very

crucial series this week

against the Padres and then

again against the Dodgers.

The other series this

weekend that I'm interested

in is the Red Sox Brewers.

They miss Peralta, and I think at home,

if the Red Sox can beat up

on Tampa Bay during the

week and can win the series

against the Brewers,

they keep that hope alive

while they're waiting for

Casas to come back.

They're waiting for, you know,

Grisham to kind of get his

feet under and get back into his body.

You know,

losing 14 pounds in a hurry due

to an illness, you know,

takes a toll on your body.

So that'll be a very

interesting series for me.

Um, and other than that was,

those were my only two, um,

except watching out for Kansas city.

Cause they do have Tampa Bay this weekend.

So if they can stay hot this

week and then get Tampa Bay

and can win that series, uh,

the guardians are going to

have someone knocking on

their door really quick.

What's with the reds get 19

games against the NL West right here.

Their, their schedule sucked.

They're just getting beat up, but I mean,

I get it, but Whoa.

Diamondbacks for three

Giants with three down

backs three Dodgers for

Padres three Dodgers three

and then back to the NL

Central It's a trial No,

I'm mixing the Rockies

there and get a little

momentum at least Here's the four teams.

They're gonna fight for that.

Well Three of the four teams

are gonna fight for the

wild card in the National

League Enjoy Yeah,

it's it's gonna be rough

It's going to be extremely rough.

The Reds have to find a way

to get their bats going

because their pitching

hasn't been horrible.

Their bats have been so inconsistent.

We talked about it earlier

with Eli De La Cruz.

Steer's not been horrible.

He just was hotter earlier

in the year and has kind of

cooled off and come back down to earth,

but there's no one else to

support them right now.

They've got TJ Friedel out.

the aisle again this time

with a fractured thumb Matt

McClain I'm not sure if we

see him until maybe after

August if if then and

Candelario has done nothing

CES is on I believe the IL

he hasn't done much will

Benson has not done

anything at all Jake Fraley

is a fourth outfielder at best.

And the same with Stuart Fairchild,

that they're not bad defensively,

but they're certainly not

doing anything at bat.

And Jonathan Indy has been

so inconsistent.

It's really tough to watch right now.

And the Reds do have the talent.

They just aren't all there

together and they're not firing.

So if they have a rough week this week,

it's going to be a big hole

to climb out of with the

way the Brewers and Cubs

have been playing.

And even the Pirates, as we mentioned.

So,

It'll be interesting.

So with those matchups,

it leads us right into your

top prospects for the week.

So the first one I'm going to go,

I actually did this week the right way.

Okay.

Last week I did two hitters

and I think what a couple

weeks ago I did two

pitchers and this year I

actually have a hitter and a pitcher.

The first one is now before

I get into this, I want to say,

That I'm working on.

I know I promised it.

It's not up yet.

But right now we still have

March for the top 100 prospects.

I'm hoping to have a new one up.

I guess at this point I

might as well say for June.

So we're going with the same rankings.

I have a spreadsheet that

has a new top 100.

Don't worry.

So when the time comes that

will be updated.

But for right now he's

ranked 25th in my top 100.

Shortstop.

In the Tampa Bay Rays system,

he's playing double-A Montgomery,

Carson Williams.

This past week,

he went 8-for-18 for a .444 average,

three doubles, a triple, three home runs,

six RBIs, nine runs scored, five walks,

and a stolen base.

On the season,

he's hitting .346 with a 1.057 OPS,

seven home runs, 20 RBIs, 34 runs scored,

and 10 stolen bases.

The pitching prospect is my

82nd-ranked prospect.

This guy has made his way to

a couple of different

systems in the offseason.

Right now,

he is currently pitching in AA

with the Birmingham Barons

for the Chicago White Sox.

It's Drew Thorpe.

And if you don't get the reference,

he was traded from the

Yankees to the Padres for Juan Soto.

The Padres then flipped him

to the Chicago White Sox in

the Dillon Seas trade.

This past week, he made one start.

He got the win,

went five and two-thirds innings,

gave up two hits, didn't allow a run,

walked two and struck out seven.

The interesting stat line is

his season so far.

In eight starts,

he's six and one with a 5.0 ERA,

a 0.93 whip.

He has 40 strikeouts and 42 innings.

Now,

I would like to see a call to AAA

coming soon for him.

Yep.

So that is my prospects for the weekend.

So I want to throw a twist

in for next week to be thinking about.

I want you to think about

someone that's in the top

100 that's performed so

poorly that could drop out.

Okay.

Just to be interesting.

Just one, one or two, whatever.

I can ask you for one.

I know we're going to get three.

You kind of remind me of Moneyball.

Here I did 52 player evaluations.

Actually, I did 57.

It's hard.

You're passionate about it,

and there's so much

information that you can't just pick one.

So it'd be interesting to

kind of get an idea,

especially I know it's a

little behind in regards to

getting the rankings out,

but it'd be interesting to

see who's falling out,

not because people are overplaying them,

but they're just performing so poorly.

Now, you want it from March's rankings?

Wherever is best for you.

Because I have a top 100 for

May that I haven't been

able to get out yet.

on the website that I have a

player that off the top of

my head right now is already.

Who is it?

Arjun Namala.

And I was very high on him.

He's the third rank prospect

for me in the blue J system.

He's currently playing at Dunedin.

He's hitting way under the Mendoza line.

He's at a buck 57 right now

for the season.

That's rough.

I had high hopes from coming

into the season.

I thought for sure he would, you know,

jump up into double a New

Hampshire at some point.

but he's just struggling

this season at the start.

He has his moments.

He's had a couple of weeks

where he's been hot,

which has been part of the

reason why I've debated, you know,

putting him in the top 100.

But to me, he's definitely falling out.

And I think he's going to

get replaced with a Marlins

pitching prospect,

which that seems to be all.

So it's crazy.

Well,

think it was a little longer

tonight than we had planned

but I think there was some

conversations that had just

in regards to what's been

going on uh it was good to

get back into the swing of

things I know that last

week didn't work out for me

and the timing was just

poor with work and

everything but I'm looking

forward to you know next

week I'm looking forward to

recapping a little bit of

what we the matchups we talked about um

Looking forward to seeing

some of these things we

discussed to see you know

How Dela Cruz does how

Duran does over the next

few weeks and just see how it plays out?

So and also hopefully to see

the new prospects list as

well to see who's moving

who what are some new names

that we can look at?

so Before I want to give my

final two thoughts.

Yeah,

that's some interesting ones for you

The Red Sox

I've discovered today after

listening to a couple

things and then doing some research,

they're God's team.

Okay.

And I say that because

they're the only team in

baseball this season that

are 8-0 on Sunday.

Really?

They haven't lost a game on Sunday.

And I went through every team.

Every team has lost at least

one game on Sunday.

That's good for those of you

who like to bet.

Bet the money line on the

Red Sox on Sundays.

And coming forward, or going forward,

I'm sorry.

I believe when I looked it up,

and I might be wrong,

but I know these four teams are correct.

It's the Brewers, the Tigers,

the White Sox,

and the Yankees the next four Sundays.

So do with that information what you want,

but the Red Sox are 8-0

right now on Sundays.

So I'm going to be hammering

the Sox on Sunday.

Yeah, money line all day long.

Yep.

I thought that was

interesting when I heard that.

Somebody said they were 8-0,

but they didn't say the

rest of the league,

anything about the rest of the league.

So I looked up the rest of the league.

Everybody else has a loss, at least one.

So they have the Brewers on Sunday.

I don't have the pitching matchup yet.

Actually, hold on.

Let me see if I can tell you

who's selling for the Sox.

I think it's Houck.

Hammer, that money line.

Yeah.

I don't know what the Y is going to be.

I don't know if DraftKings

or FanDuel or any of those

are going to hear us.

If anybody there listens,

the line might be minus 200

at that point if they hear this,

but I'm just telling you, there ain't no.

That's a good one.

The other one,

I wrote an article this past

weekend that was meant a lot to me, but

as the red sox struggled

they lost before sunday

they had lost four straight

again they won sunday

shocking um they lost four

straight and I think we

mentioned it earlier in the

podcast where it was two

two at one point and all of

a sudden became seven two

in the eighth inning and I

ended up laying in bed I

went to bed right after the

game which is not normal

for me on saturday but I

was laying there and I

thought why do I keep doing

this to myself

Like, I love this team.

Why do I watch 162 games?

Whether it's DVRing it,

going back and watching a

condensed game or finding

clips and going to watch.

But I find everything.

And so I know what's going

on every Red Sox game.

And, you know,

losing four straight and the

talk of the full throttle

offseason and everything that happened.

And I found myself asking,

why am I such a fan?

Now, granted,

the article is about the Red Sox.

But I think if you listen to

this as a baseball fan,

you could go read that

article and you could tie

it to your team.

It could be like JC for you,

Cubs related from what

we've talked about.

I can tie it in even for the Tigers.

I've done one for the Tigers.

I could have done it anyway,

but I wrote it the way that

I did because that's how I

was feeling that night.

But I think it's relevant to

all 29 other teams.

So if you get a chance,

go find that and read that.

It's called Why Do I Do This?

It's under the Red Sox tab.

It's under the Cardinals tab.

It's under the A's tab.

You'll understand why when

you read the article,

but that's the tab that's on there.

I'm going to find one more,

but I can't remember.

But if you get a chance and

you care about baseball and

your team's struggling this

season and you find yourself saying,

why do I do this?

It's an article I highly

suggest you check out.

Yeah.

No, being a Cubs fan, you know, and even,

you know,

growing to pay attention to

these other teams,

I could certainly share

first and foremost,

the Cubs struggles and what

it means to me.

And then even, like I said, growing,

even though they're in the

same division a little bit

more with both the pirates

and what they've done in

the past with some of the

young prospects and not

turn them into anything.

And then the reds this year, the reds,

particularly this year,

I was pretty high on them and,

And almost like them more

than I did the Cubs going into it.

So, no, it's a great concept.

And, no, definitely the Red Sox,

when I saw that pop up and seeing that,

especially knowing what

happened the night before,

I took a look and it hits home.

Yeah,

I was definitely in my feels that

night and was frustrated.

It's a good one.

So...

I appreciate you jumping on tonight.

Again, sorry for last week,

but for all the listeners,

we appreciate it.

Like, share, follow,

join any of our social

channels that you want so

you can catch up on any of

the information,

any of these articles that

we're mentioning so that

you can read those, get caught up,

check out CJ's Top 100 that

is listed right now so you

can at least see what's there currently.

all the player profiles.

And then, you know,

we've got several down on the farms.

So if your team is out there,

check that out.

Cause a lot of us have been

covering the top 10

prospects for those teams too.

So there's plenty of content

there for you to check out.

Um, like we said,

we really appreciate you guys listening.

There's eight teams now for

down on the farm.

That's perfect.

It's great.

You got blue Jays, Phillies, Red Sox.

Um,

Tigers, Reds, Cubs, Rangers.

Yankees has been missing for

a couple weeks.

I think that's coming back soon.

So we will have seven this week.

One actually came out today, the Phillies.

We will have eight moving

forward throughout the summer.

I shared that Phillies one

for you just so you know.

Thank you for the channels I had.

So no, a lot of good content,

a lot of interesting stuff there.

So there's plenty of things

for you to be interested in,

but it also gives you a

feel for what we do.

And like we've said, if you're interested,

reach out.

We're always looking to add

more people to the family.

So appreciate everyone for

listening and tuning in and

look forward to next week.

So thanks again, everyone.

Take care.

Thanks, guys.

Have a good week.