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Inside the Diamond is your one-stop shop for everything MLB! From in-depth analysis of the latest games and breaking news, to minor league prospects we've got you covered. Join us for insightful discussions on the game's history, current events, and future trends. Whether you're a die-hard fan or just getting into baseball, Inside the Diamond has something for everyone.
What's up, and welcome back to the Inside the Diamonds podcast. I am solo again. Yeah. CJ is stuck at work and got some stuff going on. So I wanna keep the show on the road, keep some things rolling.
Speaker 1:What happened this weekend that I wanna get into? It's Tuesday night. We're recording while I'm recording. We decided to take the holiday off and come back Tuesday. So I'm gonna dive right in.
Speaker 1:You know, I've had a chaotic day, and I just want my hour of therapy. I'm hoping you guys do the same with this, but if you don't, you don't, and it is what it is. So it started off. Ron lacunier junior, the news of the weekend, done for the year. And, you know, I hate seeing it because he's one of the best players in baseball.
Speaker 1:There's a reason he won the MVP last year. But it was just a freak accident. You see in football all the time, you know, going back to 2nd and just his leg gave out, and he went right down. But it the other crappy part about the whole thing is it's the opposite ACL that he had torn. I believe it was 2021.
Speaker 1:Just one of the best hitters in baseball. Yes. He was having a down year. Wasn't his numbers weren't exactly what you expected from him to start the year. But you never wanna lose a guy like that that can once the summer months come in June, July, and August, and things start to heat up, he can heat up with it.
Speaker 1:The other interesting thing about the injury was let's not forget, in 2021, he suffered injury. He was out for the year. I believe it was his ACL then. And the Bears won the World Series. Now granted, they had Freddy Freeman then.
Speaker 1:They have Matt Olsen. Sean Murphy's coming back right now. The difference is Spencer Strider's out for the year for them. That's not the same. Not the same as what you had.
Speaker 1:But you do have Chris Sale, and as long as he stays healthy look, I debated all day. And if you listen to our nationally prediction podcast, I had the Braves going to the World Series. Now watching what I've watched over the last, what, I think we're 8, 9 weeks into the season now. Yeah. I might walk that back in the Phillies within the team DB, but we'll get to that a little bit later on.
Speaker 1:The one thing about the Braves with this whole injury is that signing of Adam Duvall in the off season gives you a bat. He's not Acuna. He's not gonna steal bases. Like, he'll steal some bases, but he's not gonna put up what did Ocunya put up 70 last year? He's not gonna do that for you.
Speaker 1:Not even close. He's not gonna even sniff that. Cleopra, 30 bombs, he very well could. If he gets hot, stays healthy, like, yes. But that makes that signing a lot better for them, and it opens up a spot.
Speaker 1:And the season Ozuna's having, they're still okay. Again, it all comes down to the injuries. If everybody they have still right now stays healthy, they could be a problem. Are they gonna win the division? I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Well, they could very well stay healthy. The next big one from this weekend that I had was being in the Boston market. I see a lot of, tweets, and I follow a lot of Boston writers and stuff like that. So I see a lot of things. The interesting one was Kenney Jansen.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like they're all out on him in Boston. Whether it's he just leaves at the end of the year in free agency or he's traded the deadline, which if he listened or read everything I've written, he's gone at the deadline. Gone. I mean, the writing is on the wall. He's going back to LA.
Speaker 1:If he doesn't, I'll be shocked. But it's they need an arm in the bullpen. The Red Sox have an arm that they can deal, especially come dead by any time because you're gonna get Liam Hendriks back. It just makes sense. And his tenure with the Red Sox has not been what he expected.
Speaker 1:I mean, he made his thoughts known this off season about what they needed and what they needed to do, and the Red Sox didn't do it. And here we are. So, I mean, so with his time in Boston, he is 47, made 69 appearances, got a 3 4 7 ERA, which is the highest he's had in his career for any team. A 3 30 FIP, also high. 126 whip also his highest.
Speaker 1:He has 75 k's and 62 under 30 innings with 38 saves. I think him back in the Dodgers bullpen makes sense. I think his back issue is a thing though. That's something you gotta watch. So is that make again, you gotta keep him healthy because if you don't, you can't train him and then you'll lose him losing him for nothing.
Speaker 1:So as long as you keep him healthy, and he stays healthy and that back doesn't bother him or anything like that, he's the guy you gotta move. Another one, I actually was surprised by this and I don't know if we mentioned again, we last episode was called We're Cursed. We might be, but Cardinals might be back. And this past week, they went 5 and 1, which was surprising. And after last week where they was it last week or the week before?
Speaker 1:They took 2 or 3 from the Red Sox. I wanna say it was last weekend. They took 2 or 3 from the Red Sox, and then they entered this week, and they had a 3 game series against Baltimore. I thought for sure Baltimore was gonna win that series. Nope.
Speaker 1:Cardinals swept them, and then they went into Chicago. Excuse me. And they took on the Cubs in a big rivalry weekend, And they're supposed to have 3 games. One game got rained out. They didn't take both games against the Cubs.
Speaker 1:So now they currently sit 5a half back in the division. They're 1a half back in the wild card. And they lost last night to the Reds. So if we had recorded yesterday, we normally do, then they were 5 and 0 last week. However, it brings to the conversation that's that division's wide open.
Speaker 1:The National Central is anybody's division. The Brewers look good. They're playing good baseball. They're fun to watch, and I don't know how they're doing it. I've had like I said, I had them 4th or 5th, last place, but they're just finding a way.
Speaker 1:The Cardinals are alive, though, and that opens the conversation of, you know, the teams that were looking for help at 1st or 3rd base. Goldsmith and Arenado may be staying. You stay in that way. Again, that's the thing about that 3rd wildcard spot. It opens up another chance for another team, and that takes teams out of the market, which leads right into my next topic of the Marlins.
Speaker 1:The Marlins might have a pulse. It's unlikely. I mean, they trade a rise. Unlikely, but they just might have a pulse. They won 4 straight series.
Speaker 1:They took 2 or 3 from the Tigers, 2 or 3 from the Nets, one of those being a comeback, 2 of 3 from the Brewers, 2 of 3 from the Diamondbacks. They're let's let's face it. We can say this till we're blue in the face. They're done with division. That again, I said it for the Braves.
Speaker 1:I'll say it again here. It's the Phillies division. I mean, I have that as another note. I should've just jumbled the NL East altogether. I didn't.
Speaker 1:But they the wild card is still a possibility. I mean, they're not in back right now. They have a little every team in front of them, every team. But it's the end of May. You got June, July, August, and September.
Speaker 1:You keep winning series, take 2 or 3, 3 or 4, split a 2 game series, and it whatever you do, you're still in the race. You just win series. All you have to do. And their arms are coming back. I mean, again, like I said, that extra wild card spot opens things up.
Speaker 1:Could they move an arm? I expect them to not be in it, and Lazaro's gone, and there may be another one. AJ Puck might be another one that gets moved. There might be other arms. I mean, I I wrote a few weeks back that Jazz Chisholm was a guy that I wanted the Blue Jays to go after, and that might be off the table.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know why they would change, trade Jazz Chisholm. I mean, you got the rotation. You need a superstar player or hitter that can help your franchise. That's Ches Chisholm. Why are you gonna move him?
Speaker 1:So I would have liked him in Toronto. I think they're selling as well, but that's it's it's the end of May. It's now we're into it. Now it's all a race. And this is where things start to heat up.
Speaker 1:Teams get hot. Teams figure out what they have, what they need, what's coming next for them. You know, I'm sitting here. I got on the big TV, obviously, over the Red Sox, but on my little TV, I have, MLB big inning. And it's just every night, this is what I do.
Speaker 1:And you you see something different every night where a team surprises you a little bit. Right now, a little TV, so I gotta squint. We have Diamondbacks, Rangers. Diamondbacks are beating the Rangers, rematch of the World Series. And, you know, that's team of Rangers.
Speaker 1:They've struggled a little bit, but they're getting guys back. You know, they yes. They just lost Evan Carter, but they're returning Wyatt Langford. So you lose a young stud and you get an outside bat. Now we're talking a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:You could have Scherzer back, DeGrom back. I I'll say that's on blue on the face. Like, that rotation is going to be filthy. Absolutely filthy. One thing I actually I didn't put this on my notes, but since I'm by myself, I'll bring this up.
Speaker 1:For those of you, we've all talked about Paul Skeens and watching Paul Skeens pitch. For the love of God, can we get this guy a nighttime start? Every time it's his data pitch, it's a 1:30, 2 o'clock. Can this guy get a 7 o'clock prime time after dinner on your TV viewing because he is must watch TV. I mean, he's made 3 starts now.
Speaker 1:His 4th will be tomorrow, and it was supposed to be a 1 o'clock game. Tigers and Pirates got rained out today. It'll be a 4:10 start. Okay. That's great.
Speaker 1:You get home from work. He might still be in for the 5th or 6th inning. But can we get this guy on a 7 o'clock game? His first one was 210. His second one was 12 10, I believe, in Chicago.
Speaker 1:No. 210 or 1 135 and then a 12:10 start. How do you not put your I I'm it's all scheduling. I get it. But this guy is the most marketable guy or not the most, but one of the most marketable guys in baseball.
Speaker 1:He's the prospect everybody wants to see. He's a prospect everybody talked about. You gotta put him on during prime time. Gotta have it on at some point. And it was nice to see him last start.
Speaker 1:You know, he came out the first two starts, did it with the pit the pitching I mean, the strikeouts. He struck out 7 plus, both starts. And then last start, he had 3, but he went 6 innings, gave up one run. He's got ways to get guys out. It was his first time seeing a team that wasn't the Cubs.
Speaker 1:And of course, the Pirates bullpen blew it, and they lost that game. So I just wanna see Paul Skins at a night game. And I don't even know when that could possibly happen because I feel like the pirates play a lot of day games. So and tomorrow, you get a feast. I will I'm not gonna jump ahead, but because we're doing Tuesday recording, I excluded the series ahead for the week weekday or the, yeah, the weekdays, and I just did a weekend one.
Speaker 1:But that Tigers Pirates series would have been my weekday look ahead one because you would have had Terence Skubal against Jared Jones, and then you would have, Jack Flaherty who has some the most strikeouts in the American League. It might be he's up there, against Paul Skeens. And so you had 2 of the Pirates phenom starters taking on 2 solid Pirates, Tiger starters and the Tiger one of them, the Tiger's ace, who is potentially a Cy Young award winner. We don't get well, we get it all in one day, but it's 1210 410. So if you're at work and you can watch, I I'm happy for you.
Speaker 1:I can. Or I'll have it on my phone. I'll listen to it. Whatever. I'll I'll be tuned in.
Speaker 1:However, if you can't, you're missing Paul Skeens again. The first one was on a weekend, so that was nice. You got it on Saturday. After that, everything else is weekday. You're working.
Speaker 1:You can't see it. We're missing out on this guy. The next thing, we're gonna stick with the NL East. I think, actually, every note I have here, except for the Nationals, the NL East is covered. So the next one is the Mets, and they are just allergic to winning baseball games.
Speaker 1:Allergic. They, Friday night, they're up 6 to 2 against the Giants. They gave up 5 runs in the 8th inning. 5. So that way you said 76.
Speaker 1:Then they gave up a run-in the 9th to make it 8 6. The Mets got one back, but they ultimately dropped that game. You had a 4 run lead, and you need 6 outs they lost. Now there was Saturday. They were up 2 to 1 going into the 9th inning.
Speaker 1:The Giants would tie it, and then the Giants end up scoring 5 runs in 10th. You have Edwin Diaz. Now Edwin Diaz has not been his norm his normal self this year. There was even conversation of moving him out of that role. They gotta figure that out because that's games you gotta win.
Speaker 1:You're up going into the 8th, 9th. You gotta win those games. And it goes back even even further than that. Back on 18th, they gave it 4 runs to the Marlins, and the Marlins won the game. This team just does not wanna win.
Speaker 1:And until you figure that out, you're not a playoff team. Now they miss Kone Asenga. That's a miss right in the rotation. But there's been conversations going on nonstop. Pete Alonso, what are we doing?
Speaker 1:Is Alonso staying long term? Is Alonso going? What's going on? If you're not in it, do you have the conversation? Unless you can get them agreed to a contract.
Speaker 1:You can keep them here, keep them to stay, then fine. But if you can't, that's a bet you may have to think about. Get some pieces. It's a conversation. It's an interesting one that I don't I'm glad I'm not a GM or an owner.
Speaker 1:I don't wanna have that conversation because that's a bad I don't wanna lose from my lineup, and the fans will not be happy if you trade him. Keeping on right along here, the, Royal's race played this weekend, and that wasn't on my series to watch or anything like that. But it's the story of 2 teams trending in the wrong direction. The Royals, last week, went 5 and 1. The one loss was on Sunday as they wrap up their series with the Rays.
Speaker 1:But going into that well, going, yeah, going into Sunday, they had won 8 straight games. They swept the Tigers, and they looked like I said it in the off season when we did our predictions. I thought the Royals were a good team. I thought they were scary. I didn't think they were this good.
Speaker 1:Seth Lugo looks fantastic. Michael Walker is in there. They look and Bobby Witt junior is a face of a franchise, and he's locked up long term. The Royals are not going anywhere. So as a Tigers fan, you can get used to the Royals being a problem.
Speaker 1:The twins might fall off, the Guardians might have their issues. The Royals will be a problem. On the other side of that, the Tampa Bay Rays, last week, went 1 in 5. They had dropped 6 straight before they won Sunday's game. They had gotten swept by the red slots in their home ballpark, and then the Royals took the first two and they finally the race finally went on Sunday.
Speaker 1:That team, I I said it in the off season, injuries. They're not a bad team, but they go they live and die by their pitching. That's their secret. They just seem to have a way with pitching. And the line is good, the line is gonna hit, Paredes looks good, Rosemarin is there.
Speaker 1:You know, they have the pieces, but they need the pitching, and they're missing their best arms. That's why I just didn't think 2024 was the year for them to contend. And right now they're in 4th because the Blue Jays have been terrible. They might drop down there too, and you might see some moves being made. They're like, move Tyler Glasnow.
Speaker 1:Glasnow is gone. They moved a couple other pieces. I and even Rosarina was mentioned as a package deal with Klaus Noah, and that just didn't happen. So can the race figure it out? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Will they? I don't know. The next thing, going back to the NL East, again, like I said, I really should have just jumbled the of these altogether, but I didn't do it. The Phillies, I set up for the Braves, I set up for the Marlins, the team to beat. The the Dodgers have had their struggles.
Speaker 1:They've dropped they dropped 3 at least over the weekend to the Reds. The Phillies just find ways. They they had it's a rough weekend as well. I believe they dropped 2 of 3 to the Rockies. But they just it's that's the thing, though, is Dave Dombrowski is their GM.
Speaker 1:And he sits there, and they sees them lose to a bad team. And here's how to fix it. He's just gonna go out there. If the owner gives him the, permission, he'll go spend your prospects and go get you what he wants for that championship. Did it in Detroit in 2013?
Speaker 1:That team was the team destined to win the world series until everything happened in Boston with the bombing. The restaurants became that team that year, and they just were on a mission. That's what happened. That was that Tiger's team should've won it all. Things happen in Boston.
Speaker 1:Team became on a mission. You know what? You know the rest of the story. 2018, he went out. There was talk with Giancarlo Stanton coming.
Speaker 1:He didn't want that. He didn't want that contract. He went out and signed JD Martinez, got him on a team friendly contract, I think. And the Red Sox had the most wins that season and went on and won the world series. And they only lost 3 games that post season.
Speaker 1:And at the deadline, he went and got Iovaldi. He went and got, Eduardo Nunez, or maybe Nunez was here. But he went and got Steve Pierce end up being the world series MVP. He knew what he needed. He went and got it, and he got a championship.
Speaker 1:He knows how to build a team. He but his problem is forever. It depends on how you feel about the team. He's going to blow up your future to go get you a championship. So right now, the Phillies have the question of, do you want the championship right now, or do you wanna be sustainable for the future?
Speaker 1:Because you have 2 arms in the minors who aren't bad and can be a part of this nasty rotation that might be the best in baseball right now. And we Zach Wheeler, Ranger Suarez, Chris Sanchez, and Aaron Noah. Those 4 right there can win you a postseason series. But do you go sell off a bell or something and go get a big name, a big name. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Bryce Harper playing 1st base opens things up for you. But the Phillies just seem like, like I said, I've when we actually do the episode to change our picks for the World Series, I might just change mine to the Phillies and do Phillies' Orioles. Because the more I've watched the Orioles being a Red Sox fan, and they swept the Red Sox back in April when they were at Fenway, and they look good. Tonight, they're losing, but they just look good, and the pitching looks good. They have a setback with John Means.
Speaker 1:Grayson had a little hiccup today, but Corbin Burnes looks like himself, and they just find a way. I it might lean towards Phillies' Orioles. I don't know. The next one I'm gonna bring up, these 2 will tie together. We, last week, had the show again, resurfaced its ugly head.
Speaker 1:And on Thursday, if you watch this game, I'm sure you everybody's heard about it. If you have Twitter, I'm sure you've seen about it. But Thursday night, it was White Sox, Orioles last week, and it was a runner on 1st and second, a 2 run ball game with 1 out. And there was a fly ball in the infield. Umpire called an infield fly, and it was Gunnar Henderson in short, I believe.
Speaker 1:He was coming on the ball, and the runner on second kinda just stood there. I mean, he ended up getting Gunnar Henderson ran pretty much right into him because of the they got rid of the shifts, so they slid him over. Now you have to have 2 fielders on each side of 2nd base if you're not familiar with the rule. And but you can have them play pretty much almost not directly behind, but pretty close to behind 2nd base. And so Gunnar Henderson was almost on the outfield grass playing behind 2nd base a little bit shaded over.
Speaker 1:And he came in on the ball. The runner was in his way. He ended up making the catch, but the umpires ruled it as interference. Called the called the runner out as well. Double play ends the game.
Speaker 1:Now the MLB League office came out the next day and said, that wasn't interference. The Chicago White Sox manager came out and said, that wasn't interference. And the fact the league comes up the next day and says that wasn't interference. Now, would the White Sox gonna win that game? Probably not.
Speaker 1:But again, we gotta figure this out. I mean, you gotta all be on the same page. That's not interference. The first time I saw it, I thought it might have been. And then the more and more I've watched it, it definitely wasn't.
Speaker 1:And it was just he's there. If Henderson's playing his normal spot, it's a routine catch. Nothing happens. The rule is weird. It's an interesting thing, but it's, again, the umpt show.
Speaker 1:You know? And they reviewed it, didn't change the call. What what's the point of having a review? And then you have, like I said, you have the league office the next day come out and say, it wasn't interference. So you review it, you call into New York, and they're not telling you.
Speaker 1:That's you gotta fix that. You have to fix that. Going on to the umptrend, Angel Hernandez, everybody knows him. Nobody likes him. All done.
Speaker 1:And that came out of nowhere. Just last night on Twitter, Bob Nightingale had it, and I don't trust Bob Nightingale. So I waited for more, and then Jeff Pascin came out with it. That's my guy to trust. It came out of nowhere.
Speaker 1:No idea what that came from. He's all done. Now am I upset about that? No. Bye, Angel.
Speaker 1:The only reason I'm upset is we're gonna miss the clips of the terrible calls he cost teams. The best video out there, and if you wanna look this up, is Kyle Schwerber losing his mind on Angel Hernandez. One of my favorite ejection videos. Because you just see him take the bat over his head. And if you're watching on YouTube, you're watching me do this and just hucks it like this and turns around and says, here and here.
Speaker 1:What's this? And then you see Joe Girardi. Again, that's that's how that's how long ago that was. You just see them both go like Kyle is losing his mind and Kyle does not lose his mind like that unless it's a bad call. And I don't I looked it up, and I don't know if this is the stat behind the plate or altogether.
Speaker 1:8 games for Angel Hernandez this year. Now if that's behind the plate, okay, that's fine, because we're about 50 games in, so you figure they rotate. So, I mean, that makes sense. If that's 8 games as an umpire this year, that tells you he was getting forced out. My favorite thing I saw on Twitter with the retirement was that they gave him a contract, and he thought he was signing an extension contract and didn't realize he was signing his retirement paperwork.
Speaker 1:Thought that was kinda funny, but now it brings up the question of, you know, we've had this conversation with Robon because I know all that stuff. The real thing you wanna talk about here is, at least I wanna talk about it, what's next? Who's the next umpire that replaces Angel Hernandez in this aspect? To me, there's 2. CB Buckner, he is just, he might be worse than Angel Hernandez, but he doesn't get the recognition because of how bad Angel Hernandez has been for a long time.
Speaker 1:But CB Buckner is up there. He has to go soon too. The other one and this is a fan biased one, and I'll stand by it forever. Les Diaz. Cost the Red Sox a chance to come back in the series against the Astros and force another game and ended up calling it a ball and then the rest is history.
Speaker 1:Their Astros homer and then they moved on to the World Series, ended up losing to the Braves. I don't know if the Red Sox would be beating the Braves, but that's another one. That's it. That was terrible. He's on my shit list for umpires.
Speaker 1:And if those 2 go, you're always gonna have disagreements with umpires. You're never perfect, but we're making progress, making progress. We'll continue. I'm all done with the umpires. We can we don't need to talk to umpires anymore.
Speaker 1:We'll go into, Pete Crow Armstrong. And I was saving I was saving this for JC. This is the one that I wish he was here for, but Pete Crow Armstrong is a top 15 prospect, I believe, on our website. It's all changing now because I'm working on the new updated list. But the other night, he was thrown at twice.
Speaker 1:And you could tell he was aggravated by it, and everybody looked pissed in the dugout. And the very next pitch, he smokes a ball over 400 feet. That's how you answer. It's not something, like, worthwhile or, like, a big thing. And I just I thought it was impressive that the whole the whole sequence of that at bat.
Speaker 1:So I was just quick what I wanted to touch on. And I Pete Carroll Armstrong's had a rough go of it. You know, he struggled up in the with the Cubs, and he's back in AAA trying to figure some stuff out. I'm sure he'll you know he's gonna be back. Cubs are one of those teams.
Speaker 1:They got, like, 6 pieces in the minors that just are in the top 100. They're gonna make a statement. They'll be back. The Orioles are the same way. Those are 2 teams that have a future.
Speaker 1:They have a piece to sell off. They wanna get better. The Cubs are still in the race. They're at 500 entering today. So I don't think Pete Roe Armstrong is gonna be one of the pieces moved.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying that they have the pieces if they need to do something. The final thing I wanna talk about from last week, and it's Reese Olsen. And I don't remember I don't think I've mentioned him at all, but it's time we get him some love. It's time he gets some recognition. I talk about Tarek Skubal nonstop, and, you know, we talk about all the pitching.
Speaker 1:And if you haven't figured it out by now, I love watching pitching. I tune in on Red Sox soft days or other TV pitching matchups. I wanna see pitching. I like watching pitching, and I could never pitch. I was a hitter, But I like watching good pitching.
Speaker 1:And Reese Olsen has gotten the short end of the stick. And I said it a couple weeks ago that it's time the Red Sox give a little respect to Tanner Hauck and Cutter Crawford to get them some run support because Cutter I mean, Tanner Hauck should not be 4 and 5. Reese Olson should not be 1 and 5. Should not be. He's got a 1.92 ERA.
Speaker 1:A 1.92. That's 5th in baseball and 3rd in the American League, and the guy has one win. He's going out there and pitching his balls off for you, and you can't get him runs. I said it oh, oh, maybe I did say a lot 2 weeks ago when we talked about the school will start, and now the Tigers got 13 runs. They say, well, their runs were school.
Speaker 1:They couldn't give any of those to Reese Olsen who made a start 2 days prior. This guy is just pitching fantastic baseball. Probably not the way I word that, but I'm not good with words sometimes. Instead of 1.05 whip, which is 19th in all of baseball and 11th in the American League. His strikeout numbers aren't there.
Speaker 1:He has 47, but he's pitched 56 in the 3rd innings. It is time that we talk about Rees Olsen. He is going to pitch this weekend against the Red Sox. I'm trying to think of what they have lined up. I believe he is pitching Friday night against Tanner Houk.
Speaker 1:You wanna see a must watch TV? Tanner Houk versus Rhys Olsen? That's a game to watch. Oh, wait. Sorry.
Speaker 1:Let's get into my next argument that I didn't have on my list. All of these streaming services. I am glad the one thing I will say I am glad about is we got rid of Peacock, and they've shifted to a free streaming service so you can watch games. But can we stop with this Apple TV plus games? I'm tired of it.
Speaker 1:I literally all last week tried to figure out how I was gonna watch this if I didn't have to buy it. I caved. I got it. I'll be locked in on Friday. But I got I I can't even watch it on MLB TV.
Speaker 1:That's a blackout game. That shouldn't be happening. It put that I mean, the I used to watch it, and I know it's been around for a while. I used to just watch it and I don't leave the beginning. K.
Speaker 1:But you got rid of Peacock. Why are we still doing Apple TV plus? I want I would love to know, and I I tried to find it today, and I just maybe didn't look it up the right way what the contract was for that. But I don't I'm not a fan of all these streamings. It's the same with the with the hockey.
Speaker 1:I know everybody at baseball, they got the issues with their ballet sports, and everybody's got an issue, seems like, with that. Make things easier. You wanna grow the game, but you're not growing the game. You're making it harder for everybody to watch. It I had to get ESPN plus to watch any hockey game I wanted to.
Speaker 1:You know, football, I saw you're gonna spend $800 to watch every game if you want this season. It should not be like that. NBA does it great. They have NBA game time or whatever. You spend a $100, you watch any game.
Speaker 1:They don't black you out, I don't believe. I or at least if they do, I haven't heard anybody bitch about it. That's how you fix things. But, you know, you wanna make America's pastime great again or a good product, and you wanna market these players, you got Shohei and all of them. You wanna market these players?
Speaker 1:Let's get it so everybody can watch it. Let's fix this. But that's my rant. I like Roku. Roku's free.
Speaker 1:It's easy to use. If you don't have a smart TV, there's other ways to get it. I mean, it's it's really easy to use. I have the Tigers, Blue Jays 11:30 game. I also love 11:30 baseball.
Speaker 1:I think 11:30 on Sunday is great for baseball. I think it's fantastic. Keep doing it. And so I don't even know what this Sunday's game is. I'll pull it up, but I think you keep doing 11:30 on Sunday.
Speaker 1:That's great. People get home early morning to do brunch, Watch a little baseball. It's fantastic. Great idea. Keep doing it.
Speaker 1:Well, I liked it on Peacock, but that's what I'm saying. June 2nd, the 11:30 game. Oh, there is no 11:30 game. That's good. What's the 105?
Speaker 1:Oh, 105. Twins versus Astros. Another game I'll tune in for. It's a good one. And then what do we got the following week?
Speaker 1:June 9th. I thought I saw there was a 9 o'clock, 11:30 game, 9th. And no. It's oh, 10:10 AM. It's the world tour in London.
Speaker 1:That's Mets, Phillies. That's on ESPN. And then Giants, Rangers, a rematch of the 2014 World Series. 2014? Nope.
Speaker 1:2012. 2012, because the 2014 was the Giants Royals. So 2012. Rematch of the 2012 World Series where the, Giants came out on top, another World Series that the Rangers lost. They went back to back in 2011 and 2012.
Speaker 1:2011 was the best World Series in game 6 of all time. So now we're gonna move on, and usually, we this is where we would probably typically come in and tell them about joining us. So we'll do that again. If you wanna write and cover a team, let me know. For some reason, I thought I made our down on the farm pretty marketable.
Speaker 1:I still have people reaching out to me about it, so that probably will grow. You wanna cover prospects? You wanna cover umpires? You wanna cover anything? We got something for you.
Speaker 1:I can talk at length on end. You know, I'm sure there's stuff. Every time I end this episode, I forget something. If you wanna join us, you wanna be a part of the podcast with me and JC, come do that. But there is chances to do something, and there's always opportunity, there's always stuff to grow.
Speaker 1:Just come and have a conversation with me. We can talk. We'll go from there. So next we're gonna move on to, excuse me, the, prospect of the week. And I went back and forth.
Speaker 1:My pitcher, I had walked in. Beginning of the week, I had walked in. The hitter of the week, I went back and forth on a couple, and I had went through 3. If you haven't seen it now, and I wish I got the link earlier, we changed our down on the farm first, at least what I'm doing, a lot of people will be doing teams. I am doing the Eastern League and the International League.
Speaker 1:If you're not familiar, the Eastern League is double a, and it includes 12 teams. And then the International League has 20. It is all the American League East, American League Central, National League East, and National League Central teams. So those are the 2 I'm covering, and I give you an in-depth of what the schedule is for the week, what the scores are for the week, what the standings were entering the week, and what they were at the end of the week, how the prospects in the top 100 performed for their team. And if your team doesn't have a prospect in the top 100, I picked my top one from, my top ten rankings, and I put them in there so you get an update on how your team's top prospect at that level is doing.
Speaker 1:So every team gets covered. There's another team left out on these. And then I do the week ahead. What's their next series? Because the way that minor league baseball does, and I've talked about this, is they're off Mondays for the most part.
Speaker 1:Some teams did play this past Monday because of the holiday. But for the most part, they play Tuesday through Sunday against the same team, 6 games. Or they didn't do makeups and they have double headers. But for the most part, it's 6 teams. And then you go from there.
Speaker 1:So if you wanna check those out, they are on the website. You could search, just look, go to the top of the website, pick your team, go to drop down, and it's probably there if as long as your team is one of the teams covered in those 2. If you're a Rangers fan, a Reds fan, and a Red Sox fan, we do have Down on the Farm still for those. We probably got other teams covered going forward that we're having covered before, but that's a project in itself that I'm working on. So with that, let's get into the prospect of the week.
Speaker 1:The hitter of this week I have is and my number 10 overall prospect, and I updated my top ten recently. Is Max Clark, outfielder for the Detroit Tigers. He's playing at single a Lakeland. Now if you're not familiar, I think I actually did say it on here, I was not a fan of the pick of Max Clark. I wanted a white length for the 3, and I was a big advocate of white length for the 3 all last college baseball season.
Speaker 1:I said one is either Skins or Crews, 2 is the opposite, 3 should be Langford, and you got 3 great first round, 3 overall picks that are gonna be solid in the big leagues. Tigers by Max Clark. Now he might be solid in the big leagues, but he's also 19 years old. They got after him out of high school. You're not gonna see him for some time.
Speaker 1:But last week, he had a great week. In 5 games, he got hit in every single game. He went 9 for 20 with 3 doubles, a home run, 9 RBIs, 6 runs scored, 5 walks, and 4 stolen bases. Talk about getting on and just causing havoc. For this season, he's hitting 277 with a 766 OPS, 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 30 RBIs, 30 runs scored, 28 walks, and 14 stolen bases.
Speaker 1:Now think about that. And during last week, he had 10 stolen bases. He had 23 walks. He had 24 runs scored. He had 21 RBIs, 9 RBIs.
Speaker 1:It's wild. And he had 3 doubles, or I'm sorry, 2 doubles entering the week. So he beat his doubles for what he had entering the week with just that 3 game that 5 games he played in. Heaney also had a home run when he had one coming into the series. So he's a player to watch.
Speaker 1:I don't know how long it's gonna be until he's at high a. Might be a little bit because of his age, but he should be there by the middle of the season after the end of the season is my guess. We'll see what happens. My pitcher, like I said, I had him picked the beginning of the week. And he had a bad start yesterday, so he won't be make this list again next week.
Speaker 1:But he's 85th right now on my list. It's Hurston Waldrop. He's from double a for the Atlanta Braves. He was drafted, if I remember correctly, out of Florida. Last week, he had he went 6 in the 3rd innings, picked up the win, did not allow a run, gave up 4 hits.
Speaker 1:He walked 1 and struck out 8. That's one of his best starts to the season for a team that, you know, like I said, they lost Spencer Strider. They called up, AJ Smith Schaubber, who I have in my top 100. He pitched well in his 1st start of the year, but is now on the injured list. So they just made another call today.
Speaker 1:They're working just different pitching prospects coming in, trying to get through. And they're they're gonna make the playoffs. They're a playoff team. But the logic's a couple maybe maybe you see him at the end of the season for the call ups, but I would think next year, you might be in triple a, and you'll see him better chance of seeing him next year, which could make the conversation of what do you do with Max Fried. That's a conversation with JC here, so I can see what his thoughts are.
Speaker 1:But this season, Waldrop is 3 and 4 with a 292 ERA. He has a 1.40 whip, 48 strikeouts, and 49 of third innings. So those are the prospects of the week for this week, and I'm gonna work on for next week, making sure I can put the link up for either the well, I can put up the top 100 here, But going forward, I wanna put up a link for the international and, Eastern League articles. So if you're a fan of those teams, you can see what's going on. Now Waldrop would not have been covered, and Clark would not have been covered because I didn't do double a for the whatever league that is.
Speaker 1:I forgot what the name of it is. And Clark is single a. I do double a and triple a. So we'll move on into the final thing, and that is the series of the weekend. And so the first one I have, and this is one that I love and I will be there in the house on Saturday, It is Red Sox, Tigers.
Speaker 1:And I love this series. Obviously, we've talked about at length that I am a Red Sox and Tigers fan, so I love watching this. It's a 4 game series. And so on Thursday, we got Kent and Maeda versus Nick Pavetta. On Friday, it is Reese Olson versus Tanner Houk.
Speaker 1:Again, that's at 7:10. That is a must watch game. I checked the pitchers, do expect low scoring. If you're a gambler, take the under. That's just the way I see it right now.
Speaker 1:On Saturday, the game I will be at, it is expected to be Casey Mize versus Cooper Criswell. We'll see. Cooper Criswell did not look good last night. There is a chance something that happened there, and it's on him that if you look at certain sites, they don't have a starter for that game. And then on Sunday is the finale at 1:35, and that's that's another pitching matchup to watch.
Speaker 1:Brian Baio, who struggled in the first inning tonight, but looked good after that, going up against Tarek Skubal. So that is 4 games. I think it's split. That's my personal opinion, but I don't put anything past the Sunday Sox. I have the Houk game, and I have Saturday's game as the 2 wins for the Red Sox.
Speaker 1:I don't put Friday and Saturday. Right? I did say that. Okay. And then Sunday, the Red Sox are 99 on Sunday.
Speaker 1:But I it's it's Google. So that's why I'm torn on that one. It could be, and the Red Sox win the series. But that Scuba's a tough matchup, so we'll see what happens in that one. The next series I have coming up is the Padres versus the Royals, which is a 3 game series.
Speaker 1:And that starts on Friday, and we will have there's no pitchers decided yet. But that'll be a fun series, because like I said, the Royals are a team to watch right now. As much as I don't like the AL Central, I mean, they that whole division's wide open. It's gonna be a crapshooter on who wins it. The Royals are gonna make a name for themselves in that division, and they're gonna be a problem for a little while.
Speaker 1:The Padres, I talked about them a couple weeks ago with what they did against the Dodgers, and then they fell off. They're still in a playoff spot. I believe they are holding the final wild card spot right now, and they're 5 and a half back against the Dodgers. The Dodgers had a little bit of a rough streak. So it's a series though to see what the Padres got.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch. The final one is a team that I talked about tonight when we first started, and that was the Saint Louis Cardinals. They're heading into Philadelphia this weekend with 3 games starting on Friday. Friday night's game as of right now looks like it's gonna be Miles Nicholas against Aaron and Noah. Saturday's game does not have a starter yet, and neither does Sunday's.
Speaker 1:So that'll be a series to watch. Maybe you'll even get a series preview from me for that one. So stay tuned. There might be a series preview. Maybe I'll do one.
Speaker 1:I have the Philly stuff all set up. I can just have the Cardinals and do it out. So that is about it from me. Again, like, subscribe, do whatever you gotta do so you don't miss these episodes. I'm sorry again, it's me.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry I got you listening to me ramble for right now, 43 and a half minutes, but I wanna keep the show on the road. I wanna make sure you get your baseball coverage for each week in case you miss something. But if there is, like I said, if there's something, maybe next week what I'll do is we'll plan for a Monday episode. And on Sunday, assuming I remember, I'll put it out and say and I'll have people comment if they wanna hear something on the podcast, and we'll go from there. But for right now, I hope you enjoy your week of baseball.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of games on right now. The Red Sox are about to beat the Orioles for the first time this season. Right now, I see the Cardinals are up 7 to 1 on the Reds, so they're gonna go to 61 in the last 8 games or I mean, last 7 games. I see the Braves are up right now. We got the A's are beating the Rays.
Speaker 1:Again, the Rays are a team going in the wrong direction. I mentioned the Diamondbacks and Rangers in a rematch of last year's World Series, and the Rangers put up 4 runs since I said it was 2 nothing Diamondbacks. It's good baseball going on right now. It's a lot of fun to watch. There's a lot of, spots open, again, with that extra wild card spot.
Speaker 1:So, you know, tune in to what you wanna see, but I highly suggest, you know, watching every team play. And I hope you enjoy your week of baseball, and we'll talk again next week.