What's up and welcome back
to the Inside the Diamonds podcast.
I am your host tonight, CJ.
And I am solo again,
if you haven't figured out
by the fact that I said I'm
your host tonight.
Sorry, if you get sick of my voice,
I'm here to talk baseball.
And I'll keep the show
rolling and do the best I can.
So I know a lot of you are
expecting the Mason Miller
trade conversation tonight.
And if JC is back next week,
we will have that.
if not uh maybe I'll do it
myself I have it all listed
down here to talk about
tonight but he got stuck at
work and you know it is
what it is hey we all have
lives we all have things
outside of here we have
families so sometimes we
don't make it work I plan
this out where I have my
son go to bed at eight and
I'm ready to roll right
when he goes to bed so
you're stuck with me
tonight sorry if you don't
like it hey I'm happy to be
here if you do so
We'll start right off.
The first thing I want to
talk about is every week I
bring up a team when I do this.
And somehow that team ends up collapsing.
And this team has a tough
stretch this week.
I'm going to pull up their
schedule right now while
I'm talking about them.
But I'm going to talk about
the Toronto Blue Jays.
And I literally wrote in my
notes for tonight, cue the curse.
And the reason why I say the
Toronto Blue Jays is
they've been a topic of
conversation at a lot of
outlets this past couple weeks.
because they were in fifth
place going into tonight
they're in fourth place um
there was a lot of
conversation of who gets
moved who stays like vlad
guerrero jr is he an option
to move is boba shed an
option to move I've seen a
lot of trades the last
couple days of vlad
guerrero to the cubs it
makes sense it does make a
lot of sense I mean they've
been trying a lot to play third base
And, you know,
is that a showcase to other teams?
Like, hey, he's not just a first baseman.
He doesn't have to just be a DH.
He can be a third baseman.
But since May 27th – no,
if you don't remember, May 26th,
they lost to the Tigers at
the end of their series.
Since then, they are 9-4,
and that includes a sweep
over the White Sox,
two of three from the Pirates,
a split with the
second-place Baltimore Orioles,
and they took two of three
from the Oakland A's.
This week they have three
games with the Milwaukee
Brewers and three games
with the Cleveland Guardians,
two teams that currently
lead their division.
So this is the real week.
Are they really back?
Are they the team that
everybody thinks they could be?
Like I had them, like I said,
in the preseason finishing third.
Is that what we're getting right now?
You know,
the lineups are starting to click.
Since that loss to the Tigers,
the games they've played since then,
Isaiah kind of full effort
is hitting 289 with two runs and 12 RBIs.
Justin Turner,
a big key offense offseason
signing that I wish the Red
Sox brought back.
11 games hitting 278 with
three runs and three RBIs.
Flagler Jr.,
the piece we just talked about, 13 games,
255 batting average, six runs,
two home runs and five RBIs.
This season is slugging is down,
but he's starting to get hot.
And that's all you can ask for.
George Springer,
another name that I've
heard mentioned being moved potentially,
is hitting 268 in 12 games
with 11 runs scored, two home runs,
and four RBIs.
The lineup's getting there.
It's the pitching.
And Chris Bassett has
started three games in that stretch.
2-0 with a 2-0-0 ERA, a 1-11 whip,
a 1.50 walk per nine,
and a 10.5K per nine in
that stretch of three games.
Kevin Gosman, the guy who
Started the season with an injury.
They looked to replace him
in the rotation.
He came back.
He's getting back his footing back.
He's made three starts.
He's 2-1-1 with a 2.95 ERA, a 0.84 whip,
a 1.3 walk per nine, a 6.8 K per nine.
And on Saturday,
he got his first complete
game shutout as a member of
the Blue Jays and a key
against the Oakland A's.
He pitched nine innings, gave up five hits,
one walk, and ten strikeouts.
So they could be back.
It could be a team to watch going forward,
too.
So we'll see what happens there,
especially if the Red Sox
keep playing 500 baseball.
But I have a little
something on that for you later on.
The Braves, they're in big trouble.
They lost Spencer Strider,
which we've talked about.
We talked about it last week.
Acuna went down.
Now that Acuna's down, they're 2-4.
They went 2-4 last week.
That's with a loss to the
Red Sox in a two-game series.
and they dropped three of
four to the Washington Nationals.
In that stretch,
they're starting pitching
four different starting
pitchers with a three-plus ERA.
And that's great that they
made the call-up of
Schwellenbach the other day.
He made a start,
and then his most recent
start did not go well.
Hurston Waldrop,
a big prospect I have in my top 100.
They see big things with him.
I see big things with him.
I think he could be a great
pitcher in the league.
His first outing did not go well.
He has a 17.18 ERA right now.
Charlie Martin with a 7.20
and Reynaldo Lopez with a 3.0.
So they're currently nine
games back of the Philadelphia Phillies.
That's a big mountain to climb.
I mean, I think the Nationals are 21 back,
16 and a half, something like that.
Let me look at hold on.
They are 15 games back.
So not 21, so 15 games back.
That's a big mountain to climb.
The Phillies are the real deal.
So the Braves losing those
two guys in the little
stretch they're on right now, not ideal.
Going to the big series of the week.
We'll start with the first
one that I talked about last week.
That's the Dodgers and the Pirates.
And the reason why I said I
was interested in those two series,
in that series, was because the pitching.
In the first game,
you got Jared Jones versus
Tower Glass now.
That final was 1-0 Pirates.
It was a pitcher's duel.
Jones went six innings, gave up three hits,
didn't allow a run,
walked three and struck out six.
Glasnow went six innings,
gave up three hits.
He allowed the one run.
So that turned into the
pitcher's duel everybody
thought it would be.
And he gave up two walks and
nine Ks also in that outing.
The next one was the big day
of Paul Skeen's
against the Dodgers, the big prospect.
He went five innings, got a win,
gave up six hits, three earned runs,
walked one, and struck out eight.
The big thing that everybody
wanted to talk about and to
watch was his matchup against Shohei.
That first at-bat, the first three pitches,
over 100.
One, two, three, over 100.
Struck him out.
Second time, Shohei, two-run bomb.
Third time, Shohei got a single,
Well, Paul Skeens got his third win.
He is undefeated.
He has not been beaten.
He's had some shaky starts in there,
but you face a lot of, like, the Dodgers,
and you give up three runs on six hits.
You only walked one,
and you struck out eight in
your first season.
And, again, this is, what,
his fifth start?
You can't ask for much more than that.
You got thrown to the
gauntlet of the National League,
and you came out, and you did your thing,
and you looked good doing it.
The Pirates have a real one,
and they have a good
one-two punch with Jared Jones.
I mean, he double-dueled Tyler Glasnow.
So the Pirates won the first
two games of that series,
and they dropped the finale
to the Dodgers.
The Dodgers then moved on to the Yankees,
and what people said was a
potential World Series preview.
Now, is it going to be?
I don't know.
It could be.
It definitely very well could be.
I think Baltimore has a better team,
and I think the trade
deadline will determine
who's the World Series teams,
because I think this is the
year we finally get
no surprise team sneaking
into the World Series.
I think it's a team,
the two best teams in
baseball will actually face off,
especially because it's so
loaded at the top.
But in the first game,
the prized pickup of the
offseason was Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
He got the start.
And he went seven innings,
gave up two hits, didn't allow a run,
walked two and struck out
seven against a very good Yankees lineup.
Now,
the Yankees lineup didn't have Juan Soto,
so...
Make with that what you will,
but that's a solid start from Yamamoto.
The middle game was a good game,
a lot of fun to watch, good offense,
but the finale was the one
I was glued to.
Sunday night baseball,
you got Tyler Glass now against Luis Gil,
or Gil.
And both guys walked into the season,
two of the top pitchers in
their respective leagues.
It was Glass now going six innings.
He gave up eight hits, five earned runs,
one walk, and struck out 12th.
Heal went five and two-thirds.
He gave up five hits, three earned runs,
one walk, and five strikeouts.
Both guys got lit up.
I shouldn't say lit up,
but both of them had rough outings,
and they faced good lineups,
so it's expected.
The real big part of the
series was Teoscar Hernandez.
What a series.
He went six for 12 with two doubles,
three home runs, a grand slam on Saturday,
and nine RBIs.
The other bat, and he's heating up,
and I'll show you the numbers.
Aaron Judge went seven for
11 with two doubles, three home runs,
five RBIs, and four runs scored.
Before May 1st,
Judge had played in 31 games,
had six home runs, had 12 runs scored,
18 RBIs, had a 207 average,
and a 754 OPS.
Now remember those stats,
because now after May 1st to now,
Judge in 36 games has 18 home runs,
39 runs scored, 41 RBIs, a .398 average,
and a 1.498 OPS.
So that's 67 games.
He has 24 home runs, 51 runs scored,
and 59 RBIs in that time,
in the whole season.
So May 1st, he's gone hot,
and he's turned into an MVP candidate.
Now,
are we going to see a record-breaking
season?
Probably not.
But you could start the conversation,
24 home runs with well
under 100 games left.
So we could do the math, though.
24 home runs,
I think it will say he's played 63 games.
I think, actually,
I can pull up the Yankees.
I have it open.
So the Yankees have played 87 games.
No, 67 games.
67 divided by 24 times 162.
He's on pace.
That ain't happening.
That ain't right.
I don't think we're going to
get 73 home runs this season.
I just don't see that happening.
But could it?
Absolutely.
I mean, he's hot,
and things are only heating up.
And that Miki Stadium, I've said it before,
and I'll say it again.
It's a small football park.
So he could definitely do it.
Definitely could do it.
I just don't know.
I mean, everything could happen.
Tough weather days, injuries.
I mean, he said before the season,
that foot's going to bother
him the rest of his career.
So we shall see.
The next thing I want to
talk about is the AL pitching.
And there is five of them
right now that lead the
American League in ERA.
And all five of them are Cy
Young candidates, in my opinion.
The first one I'll talk
about is Tanner Houck.
I'll get that out of the way quick.
6-5 with a 1.91 ERA.
Last week in his start
against the White Sox,
he went seven in his pitch,
gave up three runs, allowed two earned,
didn't walk anybody, and struck out nine.
Guys,
I hate going by win-loss record
because that's just a
statement of your team.
And if his team gets shut
out and he gives up one, two runs,
then he loses.
So the 6-5 record,
I think you throw out the window.
Absolutely a silent candidate.
Right now he's at the point
of the season where he's
pretty close to reaching
his career high in his pitch.
So does the fatigue and the
wear and tear on his arm get to him?
I hope not because I love
watching him pitch.
He's must-watch TV when he's pitching.
He is set up to pitch on Thursday.
So I'll be watching that game.
The next one I'll talk about
he pitched yesterday, Tarek Skubal.
Again, I said it before the season started,
my Cy Young pick.
He's proven why with an 8-1 record.
Again, don't go by win-loss record.
Visit a 1.92 ERA.
He's started two games this past week,
one against the Rangers and
one against the Brewers.
Combined, 12-2 thirds innings, 12 hits,
two earned runs, four walks,
16 strikeouts.
The guy is dominant every time out there.
He is dominant.
The next one I will talk
about is Luis Gil or Heal.
Again,
I'm just going to say Gil and Heal
every time because at some
point somebody's going to correct me.
And he's got a 2.04 ERA.
That is after last night's start.
In those two starts this past week,
I gave you his numbers
against the Dodgers,
but combined he faced the
Twins and the Dodgers.
He went 11 in two-thirds innings.
He gave up six hits, three earned runs,
four walks, and struck out 11.
Another dominating
performance this past week.
The Twins one was more
dominating than the Dodgers,
but not a bad week overall.
The fourth pitcher I'll talk
about is Seth Lugo,
and who saw this coming?
This guy, I wanted him in Boston,
was not talked about by many people,
and just sneakily signed to Kansas City,
and he has provided
everything for the Royals
and gotten to where they are.
He's at 213 ERA,
and he faced the Cleveland
Guardians this past week,
the team that leads the
American League Central.
He went six innings, gave up six hits,
five earned runs, one walk,
and five strikeouts.
That was his worst start of
the 2024 season.
And that caused him to drop.
He had the best ERA in the
American League.
The fifth and final one is Corbin Burns,
who has a 2.26 ERA,
and he faced the Toronto Blue Jays.
He went seven innings, gave up four hits,
one earned run, one walk,
and five strikeouts.
Burns and Lugo are both
pitching right now.
I literally have Burns here,
Lugo over here.
And Lugo is having a tough outing again.
He's in the top of the second.
It's 2-0 Yankees.
Tough outing.
Tough team to face.
A team that's coming off,
dropping to the Dodgers.
They're not happy,
so they're ready to roll on this one.
The Orioles are covering Burns' start.
It's 4-2 Orioles in the top of the 7.
Last I saw, Burns was still out there.
So, not a bad start for him.
And the Rays are, you know, the Rays,
they got arms coming back.
So we'll see what happens with that.
If you want me to keep doing
the segment of the pitchers
of the top five,
I could rotate each week
too and do the top five
pitchers in the American
League and the National League.
My new thing that I'm doing,
and I'm hoping to roll this out for June,
I think soon, maybe I did June,
maybe I'll do July now,
is my power rankings for pitching.
So if you haven't seen that,
it is available online.
The article is on Inside the
Diamonds website.
The graphic is on the Facebook,
the Twitter, and the Instagram.
So if you want to take a look, feel free.
We'll talk about,
I guess we'll get right into this now,
and we'll do the joining us.
So if you're looking to write,
we've got so many spots open.
I mean, I need help everywhere.
We all do.
You can take more than one right here.
You want to cover a team and
you see somebody's covering your team,
you might have a different opinion.
Opinions work.
I got roasted for my Jesus
Lizardo opinion.
Didn't work out well.
If you want to talk prospects,
if you want to do a down the farm segment,
we got that available for you.
There is always something to talk about,
something to write about.
I come up with at least
seven thoughts a day.
I got to limit it.
I got one coming out
probably Wednesday where
we're going to talk about the, you know,
final eight teams going to
college world series.
And I'll talk about
prospects to watch there.
There's always something to talk about.
You know,
we didn't do a great job covering
the gambling thing that
happened last week.
You want to talk about that?
There's an outlet.
And again, this isn't full time.
It's just when you have a
chance and something to do.
So if you're looking to get
your voice heard about
baseball and get your
thoughts heard and see what
people think and,
come join us come right for
us so with that I there's
so much to talk about and I
just wrote down so little I
mean I really so we'll go
to the nationally central
and this is where I i wrote
this specifically and had
this in here for jc but
he's not here so I'm going
to roll it out beside the
brewers there is nothing but chaos
You have the Cardinals,
who went 3-4 last week.
They lost.
They went 1-2 against the
Astros and 2-2 against the Rockies.
The Cincinnati Reds picked
up some serious ground,
and they're right back in that race.
They went 6-1.
They swept the Rockies,
and they went 3-1 against the Cubs, who,
they had a tough week.
They went 3-3.
They went 2-0 against the White Sox,
but then 1-3 against the Reds.
And then the final team that
needed to make up ground,
Didn't have a schedule in their favor.
They had to face the Dodgers
and the Twins.
They went four and two.
They took two or three from
the Dodgers and two or
three from the Twins.
So they did their job.
And then I believe they hop
back tomorrow night and it
will be Paul Skeens on the mound.
I don't remember off the top of my head.
I didn't write it down
either who they're facing.
So I'm going to pull it up
for you right now.
And like I said,
Paul Skeens is must watch TV.
They have the Cardinals tomorrow,
so a team that they're
fighting for spots.
Like I said, I had this for JC,
so my question was going to be for him,
was the bottom two spots of
the National League playoff
picture is available.
And there's, what, eight teams?
Eight teams available that
are fighting for it?
Padres, Giants, Diamondbacks,
all four of the teams I just mentioned,
and the Nationals.
Now,
the Nationals probably won't be that
team.
All right.
They could.
They could shock everybody,
and they could be that team,
and they could sneak right
in and cause some chaos.
But I just don't see that happening.
So I was going to ask JC,
and I had my two already picked.
If the season ended right now,
or not right now,
but if the season had a week left,
who would get the last two spots?
The first one I have is the Padres,
and I just think there's
too much talent there for
them to not make it.
even despite Bogarts' rough season.
But Tatis, Machado, pitching,
you've got Darvish and Cease,
and King hasn't been bad.
They have a lot that could get them in.
And they could be a team
like the Diamondbacks last year.
They get in, and they cause problems.
Could very well do that.
So I had them as the first team in.
The second one, I flip-flopped.
I went between the Pirates
and the Cardinals.
And I know the Reds, I say, went 6-1.
I just...
We all know when we've
talked about this for –
this is the 14th episode,
so we've talked about this
for 14 episodes.
I love pitching.
So which of those four teams
have the pitching?
I don't think the Cubs have the pitching.
Kyle Hendricks has been down this year.
Steele has been decent.
I mean, he got hurt,
so that injury is always there.
The Reds don't have the arms,
I don't think.
I had the Cardinals and the Pirates.
The Cardinals I like because of Sonny Gray,
Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn,
all guys who could do a job
for you in the postseason.
The other one I have is the Pirates.
And the Pirates I picked
because you put Paul Skeens
and Jared Jones in the
playoffs in their first season together.
Now we're talking.
And they just went 2-1
against the Dodgers.
They could be a team of surprises.
So out of those two,
I leaned the Cardinals.
I really think it's going to
be the Pirates.
I really do.
If right now, if there was a week left,
I really think the Pirates.
I just – I went the
Cardinals on – and I should
rephrase that.
I did the Pirates on if the
season ended this week.
With the season left,
I think you're going to see
guys like Aaron Otto,
Paul Goldschmidt start to heat up,
and Mason Wynn's having a great season.
But you have the veterans,
the guys of Goldschmidt and Aaron Otto,
that I think –
Get them there.
I mean, the Giants very well could,
but not having Blake Snell,
a guy you spent all that money on.
The Diamondbacks could be that team again,
but pitching.
Injuries to the pitching.
Zach Gallin,
I believe actually he's healthy.
Merrill Kelly, though,
that's the tough one.
Montgomery hasn't looked good.
There's just too many
question marks in their
rotation for me to pick the Diamondbacks.
Corbin Carroll's having a down year.
So they had to be one of the
two essential teams.
The Cubs, like I said, no pitching.
The Reds,
their bats could carry them there,
but they don't do anything
once they get there.
The Pirates and the Cardinals,
if they get in,
they have a chance to make
some serious noise.
So, again, I put this in for JC,
but it is a conversation to
have because of the leaks
they've had and that now
it's all wide open.
I mean, I'm going to pull it up right now.
But the standings,
especially in the wildcard,
are wide open.
So we'll go right through it.
The nationally in the wildcard.
So the Phillies, Dodgers,
and Brewers are 1-2-3 based
on division leaders.
Braves hold a 4.5 game lead
for that first wildcard spot.
Padres hold a half a game lead.
But then after that, you have the Cubs,
Reds, Giants, and Cardinals all tied.
You have the Pirates a half game back.
The Diamondbacks are one game back.
The Nationals are a one and a half back.
I could have put the Mets in
at three games back.
I just don't know with them.
That Sango loss, it kind of hurts.
And then you have the
Rockies at eight and a half
and the Marlins at nine and a half.
I took them completely out.
The Nationals, like I said,
they're skipping Mackenzie
Gore's start tomorrow against the Tigers.
Is that the right move?
Who knows?
The other thing I wonder is
if they stay in it.
Is there a call-up of James Wood?
And I've talked to one of
our Nationals writers, Chance,
about the chance of
bringing up James Wood.
I don't know.
I think they should.
I don't know why he's not up there now.
Absolutely be a boost to this lineup.
But I don't think that they
get close to that.
I mean,
this might be the closest they get
is one and a half.
Diamondbacks to be one game
back with the struggles of
Corbin Carroll?
Surprising.
Pirates, a half game back,
you're seeing what they've
done with the plugging in of schemes.
Now they could be a team
that looks to move and get something.
They're going to need a bat.
They definitely need a bat.
The Cardinals, I don't know what you move.
You've got pitching.
You've got hitting.
You might need a bullpen arm.
So this goes all back to
what I said with the Blue Jays.
It's who adds what at the deadline.
If the Cubs go and get Vlad Guerrero Jr.
and he's hot,
and the Cubs propel over everybody.
They don't have the pitching,
I don't think, to do it.
But their lineup propels
over everybody else by a landslide.
So now you're talking
pitching versus hitting.
I'd give the Cubs a slight
edge on the lineup,
especially with Guerrero being a veteran.
You've got Guerrero,
Bellinger over Arenado, Goldschmidt.
Trade deadline is going to be a wild time.
And it might not even be the
trade deadline.
It might be the all-star break.
And then things are just happening.
So that's the race to watch right now.
And I have a little nugget I
saw today on Twitter.
And once I know it, once I mention it,
you all know who I got it from.
But it's worth mentioning.
And that's in my final thoughts.
So we'll get to that.
The next segment we do every week,
and it's my favorite, is the prospects.
And so last week, my two prospects,
one of them is a homer pick.
And I was torn between two.
But this guy has been hot now.
He just came back from an injury,
and this past week he went hit 8 for 19,
had a hit in every single game,
hit four doubles, two home runs,
four RBIs, seven runs scored, one walk,
and one stolen base.
On the year, he's hitting 263, 835,
has five home runs, 17 RBIs,
and 27 runs scored.
And that is my 15th overall prospect,
Roman Anthony,
and he's a double A for the
Boston Red Sox.
And if you're not familiar,
we put it up before,
and I didn't make one for tonight,
but this week, this last week,
my new top 100 prospect rankings came out,
where guys have graduated,
all that stuff.
So the brand new top 100 is out,
and a lot of new players are debuting.
So if you haven't had a chance to see that,
check it out.
I highly encourage it.
And again, like I said last week,
we're doing a AA and a AAA league,
Eastern League and
International League rankings.
down on the farm.
And so we're talking about
every prospect in the top
100 that is playing at that league.
So if they're in the Eastern League,
if they're one of the 12
teams affiliated with that,
on the featured image is
the 12 teams logos.
So if you're not sure,
the article is available.
If your team is a part of that,
one of your top 100 prospects is there.
If you don't have a player
in the top 100 prospect playing there,
like, for instance, the Red Sox,
all of their top 100 prospects are in AA.
So in the International League,
I do an honorable mention.
And it's just, they might be hurt,
but I do it so that way you know,
like not every team is missing somebody.
So for instance,
like I think the AAA for
the Pirates was Skeens,
would have been Skeens.
He's obviously in Pittsburgh.
So I had to put somebody in
so that way that team is covered.
I ended up putting somebody
in who was injured.
He's out for the year.
He's in there.
But, you know,
I wanted to include somebody.
And there's not many Pirates
guys that are AAA that are
in the top 10 to 15 of
prospects besides him.
So there is something for
everybody in there.
And if you just want to see
how the team is doing,
like a AAA affiliate of your team,
it's there.
The next one I want to talk
about is the Pitcher of the Week.
And that is my 55th ranked
prospect from the AA
Chicago White Sox and Birmingham Barons.
It's Drew Thorpe.
And if you're not familiar
with Drew Thorpe,
I wrote an article the
other day about him because
he got called up.
So he went right from AA to
the big leagues.
He will make his debut.
I saw it Tuesday,
but it could be Wednesday or Thursday.
So he's making his debut
against the Mariners.
And last week he made one start.
He went six innings, gave up three hits,
one run, one walk, and seven Ks.
Now,
if you're not familiar with Drew Thorpe,
This guy this offseason was
in the Yankees system,
was one of their top prospects,
probably in the top 10,
I believe is what I had him in.
He was traded from the
Yankees to the Padres in
the trade for Juan Soto.
Then the Padres got him,
and they decided to flip him.
So then he went to the White
Sox in the trade that
brought Dylan Cease to the Padres.
So this season with the White Sox,
he's 7-1 with a 1.35 ERA, a 0.87 whip,
56 strikeouts, and 60 innings pitched.
Now his next start will be
as a big leaguer.
The next thing we'll talk
about is Adele Amador.
He is a second baseman slash shortstop,
was playing his minor
league ball at AA for the
Hartford Yardgoats,
which is part of the
Colorado Rockies organization.
He got the call.
So that's two prospects this
week getting the call from AA.
And like I said, you may not care about AA,
but just know there's
prospects in your system
that can get the call, which –
When I saw those two,
it kind of made me think,
is there a chance that
they're going to call up
Meyer soon for the Red Sox?
Or Kyle Teal?
An injury happens with Reece McGuire.
They're probably going to go
Tyler Heineman because he's
on the 40 man.
But Kyle Teal could be the guy.
Outfield depth,
do you need an outfield guy?
Could Roman Anthony be the guy?
Probably not.
He's only 20.
But there's options.
And you never know.
That's why I like covering AA,
especially the Eastern
League because it's all
teams I like to see and I
care about watching and
want to see the prospects of the future.
And then AAA,
when I do the International League,
that's 20 teams.
That's all of the AL East,
all of the NL East, all of the AL Central,
all of the NL Central.
So that's 20 teams.
There's one prospect covered
in that article,
and the layout of it is pretty simple.
An intro sentence,
the standings entering the week,
what the matchups were,
all the prospects,
how the teams did, the results,
what did they do in their series.
They played six games, so did they split?
Did they win the series?
How many games did they win?
It's all right there.
And then underneath that is
the standings after the week.
So where are they after
their series this past week?
And then the final paragraph
is the matchups.
So who are they playing next week?
Is it in your area?
Do you want to go see,
say you live in the middle
between Boston and Worcester,
and Marcelo Mayer is
getting called up next week
to AAA Worcester.
Now you know the schedule.
You can just go look.
You see it right there.
It literally tells you
everything you need to know right there.
So you can see who they're playing.
Are they home?
Do I have a chance to go?
I do all the time, especially with AA.
I got AA Portland, you know, an hour away.
I got Fisher Cats about 15,
20 minutes away.
It's right there.
So I can see, you know,
say somebody gets called up
from high A and they're a
big prospect and they're playing –
the fisher cats that week or
they're on the fisher cats.
I can go.
So it's a big thing to watch
if you care about if you
want to see the future of your team.
It's even too like you could go and say,
Hey,
so and so from double A looks like a
prospect that I could move
our team could move
wouldn't be a bad option.
You'll see a good player but
we just don't have a spot for him.
Why not move a big arm for us or
Be a bat.
You can move an arm and get a bat.
It's something to watch.
I definitely, like I said,
I'm locked in on pitching.
So I like watching pitching.
So when Drew Thorpe starts on Tuesday,
is what it says, I'll be watching.
I want to see how he does in
his first big league start,
especially against the Mariners.
So with that,
we're going to move right
along into the series to watch this week.
So my first one, we'll do the midweek.
Neither one of these are today.
because the Orioles are
wrapping up their series
with the Tampa Bay Raiders right now.
But I talked about them a
little bit tonight.
It's the Atlanta Braves and
the Baltimore Orioles.
That was my World Series pick.
And so it's happening this week.
The Braves have some
injuries from not the same team.
The Orioles, well,
Corbin Burns won't be facing the Braves.
So, it's still a series to watch.
It's a good young team
against another good young team.
I mean,
the Braves just lock up their...
It's really the same thing,
but in different forms.
I mean, the Braves had all their guys.
They locked them all up.
All young guys.
Ozzie Alves, Ron Lacuna, Austin Riley.
I mean, there's names.
They just locked them up.
The Orioles are certainly the same.
You know, they got Gunnar Henderson,
Adley Rushman, and the
The difference between the
two is really the Orioles
have more coming,
and they have more that
they can trade away than the Braves.
The Braves traded one away
because of a log jam.
Von Grissom was traded to
the Red Sox because they
didn't know where to put him,
and they went and got an
arm that has been their
best arm this season.
Max Freed's making a case for that,
but that's a series to
watch between the Orioles and the Braves.
I think it's going to be a great one.
The other one,
and it's solely for pitching,
is the Red Sox and the Phillies.
It will be out tomorrow,
my series preview for the
Red Sox and Phillies.
The Red Sox,
they split with the White Sox.
Can't do that.
But it's also the most 500
Red Sox thing I've ever seen.
I mean,
it's a team that they have a
gauntlet of a schedule this week.
Three with the Phillies,
three with the Yankees.
It wouldn't surprise me with
how the Red Sox season is
going if they finish week
three and three.
What series they win two of three,
I couldn't tell you.
But the pitching matchup in
this one is what
is what you're going to want to watch.
On Tuesday, which is tomorrow,
they have Cutter Crawford.
They bump Cutter Crawford
back a day to get him extra
day of rest and hope that
helps his velocity,
which has been down a couple ticks.
He'll be going up against Zach Wheeler,
who is a side-down
candidate for the National League.
The middle game, it'll be...
Wow, why am I drawing a blank right now?
Oh,
Nick Pavetta facing his former team in
the Phillies,
going up against Christopher Sanchez,
who has quietly had a very good season.
And when you talk about the
Phillies rotation,
everybody talks about Nola, Wheeler,
and right now, Ranger Suarez.
And Christopher Sanchez is
storming the back burner,
but he is quietly having a
very good season.
So that'll be another good
pitching matchup.
And then the finale on Thursday,
we've got Tanner Houck,
who I talked about, facing Aaron Nola.
So if that doesn't make you
want to watch this series, I don't know.
I don't know what you're
watching or what you want to see.
But, and go back to what I said before,
Coven Burns was in,
so he just got pulled.
This weekend, I call this rivalry weekend.
We're starting off with the first one.
It's the race I just talked
about at the NL Central.
We have Cardinals-Cubs.
So the Cardinals are going
to face the Pirates and the Cubs.
So that's, and they're two rivals.
They don't like each other.
So it's rivalry weekend.
And I just said the other
series I'm going to talk about.
Red Sox Yankees.
I don't know what the
pitching matchup looks like
when I saw it earlier today
from what is the probable.
It looks like Luis Gil is
going to go on Friday.
Don't like that.
And he's going to face Cooper Criswell.
Don't like that even more.
And then Brian Bale is
supposed to be the other game.
And I saw Sunday was right
now slated for Marcus Stroman versus...
Cutter Cropper.
So, Sunday Night Baseball is that.
But the must-watch series.
And if you follow along,
if you follow along on my
articles on the website, on the weekends,
I do my series to watch.
And it's just a series
preview of what I think is
the series of the weekend.
And I did last week was Dodgers-Yankees.
The week before that,
I had the Phillies and I forget who else.
Cardinals.
Because the Cardinals were
hot at the time.
And this weekend...
you're going to get what I
think might be my new World
Series prediction when we
get to that point in the season.
And that's the Orioles and the Phillies.
And you know who's going to
pitch in that series?
It's Colvin Burns.
You know who else is going
to pitch in that series?
It's Zach Wheeler and Ranger Suarez.
And I also saw Grace
Rodriguez from the Orioles
this late to go.
That is a great series to watch.
And I will be locked in on that.
And that will be probably
the top thing we talk about next weekend.
Because the Orioles got the
Braves and the Phillies,
and that's a tough couple games.
And the Phillies,
they got the Red Sox and the Orioles.
Again,
the Red Sox aren't the same Red Sox
they've been.
And I got a little bit
something to say about that
here in about two seconds.
But that series will be fun to watch.
And it's two good lineups
against some really good pitching.
So that is must watch.
So be locked in on that.
I find that to be a point of viewing.
And I'll actually give you
the times right now as I pull it up here.
the series will be played in – wow,
why are you taking so long?
It will be played in Baltimore.
Friday's game is at 7.05.
That right now is slated to
be on normal TV.
So if you have MLB TV, MASN,
or NBC Sports Philly, it will be on 7.05.
Saturday is 4.05.
That game is on the same.
And on Sunday,
because of Red Sox Yankees
getting Sunday Night Baseball,
it's on at 135 on the same
two channels or MLB TV.
So I will be watching all three of those.
That will be a great series.
And, again, on Friday morning,
my series preview for that will be out.
So if you want to see who's
confirmed pitching and see
where the numbers lie and
see who the top players are
going into that series, that will be out.
The final thoughts.
And this is something we're
going to start implementing where just –
Little tidbits you saw, maybe,
like I do notes.
So I have notes of
everything I want to talk
about and just little stats
and stuff that I do my
research throughout the week.
But then something comes
across as I'm wrapping up
and I don't know where I
want to fit it in or where
I want to squeeze it in.
So I save it for the end
where I want to talk about it.
So the first thing I want to
talk about is let's go to
the nugget that I heard today.
And that is right now, and like I said,
you all know where I got
this from the second I say it.
there are 10 teams above 500.
The Yankees, the Orioles, the Guardians,
the Royals, the Twins, the Mariners,
the Phillies, Braves, Brewers,
and Dodgers.
There's one team at 500,
and that's the Boston Red Sox.
After that, there's 19 teams above 500.
And for retrospect,
17 teams last season
finished with a winning record.
Even more so on that,
Out of the 12 playoff spots,
six teams from the American League,
six teams from the National League,
10 of them currently hold
the playoff spot.
Or 10 teams over 500
currently hold the playoff spot.
The two other teams
currently holding the playoff spot.
And again, I named it before.
There's like three or four
of them tied for that last
final playoff spot in the NL Central.
But the team that the MLB
website currently has in,
two of them are under 500.
Two of them.
And that's the Padres and
then the Cubs with the Reds, the Giants,
and the Cardinals.
All of those are under .500.
So it's going to be an
interesting race at the end,
and that's literally where
it comes in with the
expanded playoff of six
teams where now the five,
six teams we talked about before,
even the Nationals if they
stay where they're at,
so technically what,
eight teams in the National League?
Even the Red Sox at .500.
If it was right now and
we're getting to the trade deadline,
those teams are all buyers.
Probably talking about the Marlins,
the Rockies, the White Sox.
And realistically, that's probably it.
Maybe the Mets, the Angels, maybe the A's.
And depending upon what happens,
if it was right now, I doubt it.
The Astros.
All those teams could be sellers.
And the Astros are the Astros.
They're just dealing with
arm injuries this year.
Losing Christian Javier and Jose Urquidy.
It's just been a struggle for them.
But they're still a team that,
no matter what,
they can get hot and they
can go on a run and make the playoffs.
But right now, that's a little surprising.
Toronto's another team, like I said.
The Tigers were my favorite
team in the AL Central.
They haven't looked all that great.
They've looked great with
Flaherty and Scooble.
But they're on a little
downtrend right now.
So, it's just a wild fact.
You know,
17 teams last year above 500 made
the playoffs.
And right now, there's only 10.
Just 10.
And it's really...
three of those are in the
American League Central.
It's just surprising.
The final thing,
and this is coming from a Red Sox fan,
so if you're a Yankees fan,
thanks for tuning in and
you want to listen,
or a team that just doesn't
want to hear about my Red
Sox rant for a minute, then thank you.
But Alex Verdugo had some
comments today about the
Red Sox in his time in Boston.
And
I go back to last year.
And why do you guys do this?
Why do people do this to other teams?
Why, in the regular season,
right before you're about
to face that team, make comments?
They always do.
The Celtics are playing in the NBA Finals.
Kyrie Irving just made a
comment after Game 1.
How'd that go in Game 2?
I just don't get it.
So, for instance, last year,
if you're not familiar, Nestor Cortez,
a pitcher for the Yankees,
made a comment and said...
about the rivalry with the Red Sox,
it doesn't feel what we
have with Tampa now or with Toronto now.
You could argue that the Red
Sox haven't really been who
they are or who they really
are the last couple of years.
After that comment,
it was right before I see this here,
it's the Red Sox.
The Red Sox took two out of
three from them.
And then the following
weekend they played again
and the Red Sox swept that series.
So they went five and one in
those six games.
They outscored them 32 to 15.
The Red Sox finished the
2023 season against the Yankees.
Now, again,
the Yankees weren't good last year.
They finished in fourth.
The Red Sox were fifth.
But the Red Sox finished 9-4
against their rival.
And they outscored them 67-39.
So, I mean, again,
why do you wake up a
sleeping giant or piss off a team?
Now, I just said it.
The series to watch this
weekend is Yankees-Red Sox.
Alex Verdugo asked about his
time in Boston,
about him facing his former
team this week.
Made the comments,
I really love the organization.
I really loved wearing the
Red Sox jersey and playing
for my teammates.
It was just more of wanting
to be a part of a winning atmosphere.
Which, as a Red Sox fan,
I don't disagree with,
especially with the
comments made by the owner
the past couple weeks.
But why?
Why do you have to make
these comments before going
into the series?
Just say I love playing there.
Miss it.
Miss my teammates.
Miss my friends.
I'm happy where I'm at, though.
You got to add in the winning atmosphere.
Now you know there's going
to be something said in
that clubhouse for the Red Sox,
and I don't know how this
weekend's going to go.
The pitching matchup kind of scares me.
I don't know where the Red
Sox are going to be at injury-wise.
Devers is out.
O'Neal is out.
Costas is obviously still.
He's not supposed to be back
until July 1st.
But there is a chance that those two,
Devers and O'Neal,
could be back this week.
Yoshida's rehabbing.
He could be back this weekend.
Abreu could be back this weekend.
Now you're talking about
four big key parts of the
red sox lineup that could
be back for the series
against the yankees and
you're gonna make a comment
now you might have just
pissed them off like I said
the red sox are such a
three and three team maybe
that's the series to take
two out of three because
now they're pissed I don't
know but I just don't I
don't agree with comments
being made uh especially if
I say before the season but
sometimes you can make them
just but they're not like
It's June.
The Red Sox and Yankees are
playing their first series of the season.
Why are you making a comment
right before you're going to play them?
You had all this time.
You could have made a
comment then when it
doesn't mean anything.
Maybe, yeah,
they frame it and they hold it
up like the – so they did
the post pregame before
game two last night.
Maybe they hold it up and
frame it or whatever.
But now it's just fresh.
Like now you just did that
going into this.
Like you're facing the Royals for four.
You don't have an off day.
You're traveling from Kansas
City to Boston.
Are you going to be tired?
Like the Phillies,
they're coming from London.
They could be jet-lagged for
that series with the Red Sox.
There's some factors there.
But now you're making
comments that you don't need to make.
So that's all for me.
I mean,
there's so much else I could talk
about that I just didn't have.
If you want to like, subscribe, share,
please do.
I'm always here.
I'll be here next week, ready to go,
whether it's just me or not me.
series.
Have a good week, everyone.