Tomahawk Chop

JC and CJ hit on the week that was, discussing the Marlins disappointing efforts, the White Sox doubling their win total, Braves and Dodgers depth, surprising ERA leaders in the American League, and top prospects from the week! All of this and much more!

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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.

Hey, welcome back everyone.

This is episode 8 of Inside the Diamonds.

I'm your host JC and I'm

joined tonight by CJ.

How you doing CJ?

I am fantastic,

especially with everything

going on right now.

Yeah, I bet you are.

Just for you, just for you out there,

so you know, right now we're watching,

it's 8.30 right now on, let's say Monday.

Okay.

And right now we're paying

attention on what's going

on in the top of the eighth

inning at Citi Field,

where the Chicago Cubs are being no,

you know what?

No something.

No something by Severino right now,

who has looked pretty damn good.

The Cubs haven't put a lot

of decent at-bats together.

They just had Michael Bush walk,

but it's 1-0 Mets.

Brandon Nimmo actually led

the game off with a home run,

and that's been about it.

So it's 1-0 Mets, top of the eighth,

runner on first,

and we're going to keep an

eye on that right now.

So I got that game on my phone up above,

paying attention to that,

and perhaps for the second

time in our podcast recording history,

we could potentially see a second one,

which is,

would be pretty unique this

time we're watching it,

but I just want to kind of

throw that out there that

that is kind of may distract us a little.

There it goes.

Yeah, there it goes.

Dansby Swanson.

So nevermind.

And we cursed it.

We did.

Hey, I'm okay.

I'm okay with that right now.

Being, you know,

rooting for the Cubs in this one.

I'm good with that.

So Severino on a plus side,

I thought he looked really,

really good this spring.

His first start against the Brewers,

who were red hot to start the year.

But ever since,

he's looked pretty damn well.

And this Mets team just got J.D.

Martinez over the weekend, called up,

and they've been playing good baseball.

Mark Vientis had the game-winner.

I believe it was yesterday.

Home run.

Yeah,

that was a line drive shot that he

just drove the fuck out of.

I liked him.

I didn't think that was out

when he hit it.

I thought it was just going

to be a routine fly ball

center and then all of a

sudden it just went.

Just laced it.

But I liked him this spring

too and I was a little shocked,

especially after the

signing of Martinez knowing

he was going down to

uh, or going to Syracuse to,

to get his spring training in,

if you will,

that he didn't stay up with

the club as like a DH type.

Uh, you know,

I know he can play third bases.

Uh, I believe he's, uh, he's left-handed.

Um,

so to kind of alternate and kind of

maybe perhaps spell Beatty, but, um, yeah,

this Mets team isn't as, as bad.

It hasn't been playing as bad as of late.

Um,

that's only just recency

bias right now with what's

going on and what was going

on in new york so speaking

of uh I want to jump right

into it and kind of speed

things up what were your

biggest takeaways from this

past week I know you've got

a lot that you've got uh to

talk about but what was uh

some of your biggest

takeaways so the first one

was um a little surprising

this weekend uh last week

I'm gonna start with

chocolate white socks

Last week,

they were swept by the Minnesota

Twins in a four-game series.

Outscored 25-11.

And so, you know, the Twins are the Twins.

They got off slow.

They're fourth in the

American League Central.

Correa's on the injured list.

He's coming back.

Yeah, he's not back yet, though.

No,

I think they're going to call him up

this week, is what I heard.

Red.

But then, this weekend, they face Tampa.

And I was like, oh, that might be

they might be lucky to win one.

No, they come out and sweep the race.

I was scoring them 21,

13 and the rays don't look good.

They don't look good.

No, I will take credit for that.

By the way, my preseason prediction,

I said,

the rays aren't going to be as

good as everybody thinks they are.

They don't look at so far, but no,

they're a strange team to me.

Just they, they've,

they're always a strange

team to me because they

somehow are either at the

very top or right at the very bottom.

And,

They get red hot,

and they're tough to figure out.

But right now, you're right.

They do not look good.

They don't have Josh Lowe,

who's still out there with

an oblique that's missing.

And their pitching has not been great.

I mean, granted,

they're missing a shit ton of arms.

Zach Eflin's been all right,

but they don't really have the offense.

They don't have that power bat.

Not a lot going right for them right now.

Obviously,

if you get swept by the White Sox,

it's not a good sign.

Yeah, I mean,

I'm not saying the White Sox

are back or anything.

I'm just saying that was the

most surprising thing from the week.

It was taking all three

games against the Rays.

And like I said, the Rays aren't good,

but the White Sox are very not good.

Yeah.

So that was the biggest surprise.

Number two I had on my list.

Now,

who had this on their bingo card to

end the month of April?

Now, granted, there is one more day,

so this could change.

I don't think actually any

of them are pitching tomorrow.

Who had your American League

ERA leaders being Jose Barrios,

Cutter Crawford, and Tanner Houck?

Did I not say it in the

preview episode of the American League?

Andrew Bailey is going to

have an effect on this rotation.

You've been big on Cutter, though,

for as long as I've known

you and spoke about the Red Sox,

you've been big on Cutter.

I've always said I thought

he was the best number five

or one of the best number

five in a rotation starters.

I'm not saying top five overall.

I'm saying in a rotation,

you're one through five.

He was number five,

especially if you went and

signed somebody.

He was the best number five

guy going into this year, I thought.

And I like Tanner Houck.

I've always liked Tanner Houck.

I think he reminds me of

Chris Sale with his arm delivery,

which makes me nervous for

an injury in the future,

especially with all this elbow stuff.

But from what I've heard,

and I'm not going to go

into the dimensions because

I can't remember them,

but his slider is falling

off more than it ever has.

His splitter is dropping

more than it ever has.

And the problem is it's

starting right in the zone,

and it's going out,

and everybody's chasing it.

I don't know as a hitter if

you can adapt to that.

I think that dominance that

he's posted this year is

going to continue.

I think he is proving that

he could very well be a

top-of-the-line starter.

I'm not going to say I'm not

giving that label out,

but he could be a

top-of-the-line starter if

he continues this and keeps

working on what he's got and

From what he's done so far,

I don't see how he can't be.

But the big one I wanted to

touch on was Jose Barrios.

This is a guy that came over

from Minnesota a couple years ago.

He was expected to be a

top-of-the-line starter.

Then they went and signed Kevin.

I believe Kevin Gosman came

after he got there.

I believe so.

Kevin Gosman was expected to

be the ace of that staff.

But Barrios this season, the start –

He looks good.

A 1.23 ERA.

Let me give you the numbers

on the three of them with your ERAs.

Crawford, by the way,

went in with an 0.66 last weekend.

Got lit up.

Didn't have his best off.

I mean,

you could see that from the first inning.

So, Berrios has a 1.23 ERA.

Crawford has a 1.35.

Tanner Houck has a 1.60.

Most of you don't know.

The last two are two Red Sox pitchers.

And, again, I'm not being biased.

I'm looking at the stats.

No, stats.

Two.

I mean,

who would have thought Shota would

have had the ERA he has for the Cubs?

Yeah.

And, you know,

he leads the National League.

Funny, though,

he doesn't show up on the

stats page on MLB.com when

you pull it up.

I think it's because there's

a certain quota to meet,

and I think they're at that

point in the season he

doesn't have enough starts

to meet the quota.

Because I think it does go

by qualified players.

Yeah.

But then you hit all players,

and now you're getting

bullpen guys and stuff like that.

So you've got to sort it out.

But when I was doing my Red

Sox series preview over the

weekend because they played the Cubs,

Imanaga didn't show up,

and that's what tipped me off to it.

I was like, huh, he's got a very low ERA.

Even when you look up on –

Like ESPN, same thing.

Like you go pull up a series preview,

like a first game of a

series or whatever.

He's right there.

He's not there.

He's not.

So you go to pitching and

you go to ERA and it says

somebody else from the Cubs.

And I was like, I mean, I've got a point.

I think it was, what was it?

0.84 going into the game.

Didn't show up.

It was somebody else.

And I was like, there's a better ERA.

How is it not showing up?

So I included it in my

series preview for that one.

But I think it's a quota, a quota issue.

but I mean,

if you had those three on your bingo card,

having the best ERA in the

American league going into this year,

kudos to you.

Cause I thought Brios was

going to be good.

I didn't think he was gonna be that good.

I really liked him.

I don't mean to cut you off.

I really liked him when he left Minnesota.

I did not,

I didn't like him going to Toronto being,

you know, you know, Red Sox, uh,

supporter.

Um,

But I think this is the best

he's looked so far in that

Blue Jays uniform.

Agreed.

100%.

I mean, something clicked.

And he's just on it.

I mean, who knows if that continues.

He had a rough start against

the Royals last week.

I believe he's facing them

on my series preview keynote today, too.

I should know this off the top of my head.

I believe he's got them

again on Wednesday.

Wednesday.

So that'll be the start to watch for him.

If he's on,

then I'm going to put the count.

I mean, it's May 1st,

so April is going to be one

of the best ERAs in the month.

But, I mean,

it goes to the question of one

of these three or Tarek

Skubal are going to be the

pitcher of the month, I think, for April.

They should be at least.

They've got a good argument right now.

I mean, Scooble's just been as dominant.

I mean, his ERA is not there,

but it's close.

I think he's actually,

he might be in the top like

10 for American League.

I think it's 1.84 off the top of my head.

I'm not pulling it up right now,

but I think it's 1.84.

He's been impressive.

But I mean, when you, and I didn't,

I looked at this briefly.

I didn't dive into that,

those numbers that you sent over,

but you've been harping on this

since we've started talking,

Andrew Bailey.

You can't deny it right now,

especially with these two arms.

Hulk in that complete game

he threw was lights out.

The most impressive thing

for me was Cutter's start

against Pittsburgh where he

struggled to get through six innings,

but he battled.

How many pitchers will end

up in those situations

coming out and not being

able to get the outs that

he needs to extend his outing?

My favorite moment from that

series was Cora coming out.

I think it was the bottom of

the sixth with two outs, and he said,

this is your last batter.

Go get him.

And Crawford unloaded the tank,

and he looked good in that last batter.

The other thing, it will come out tomorrow,

my series preview.

The Red Sox are facing the

Giants for three games this week.

That'll be good.

I'm excited for it.

I will be there tomorrow.

It'll be Logan Webb versus

Cooper Criswell.

The one thing I thought was interesting,

though,

and I'm pulling it up right now

because I want to have the stats here.

So before joining the Red Sox,

Andrew Bailey was the

pitching coach of the Giants.

And it's funny when I was

putting all the stats in

for the like where they

rank or whatever entering.

I did it for today,

so it's not updated for

tomorrow because things will change.

But the Giants without

Andrew Bailey now are in

the bottom of the league.

Lower half of the league in

every pitching category.

Whip, ERA, and strikeouts.

They're in the bottom half.

One of them, they're 16th.

But the other two, they're in the 20s.

So, again, I go back to,

is that the Andrew Bailey effect?

He's not there.

I also have seen things,

and I don't know if we've said it on here,

but we've talked about this,

where my bold prediction is

Alex Cora is going to be

the manager of the Dodgers

if they don't win the World

Series next year.

Is Andrew Bailey the manager

of the Red Sox next year?

Because if we go back to

that Oakland series to start the year,

there was a game where I

believe the runner would

have been a pitcher and

Bailey was the one that said to Cora,

that can't happen.

You can pull this off.

Cora didn't know that rule.

So Andrew Bailey knows those rules too.

He's not just a pitching guy.

He knows his stuff.

So I'm just pointing that out.

But I'm big on Andrew Bailey.

I have been for a long time.

I like what he did with Logan Webb.

I want to, you can take it away from me.

I'm going to pull up Logan

Webb's numbers on baseball

reference and see how he's progressed.

Yeah, no, I mean, you've,

you've harped on it and I

think it's easy to kind of

just look at these teams.

And you mentioned Logan Webb,

Logan Webb's always been decent,

a decent pitcher,

but something just clicked.

And for the average fan,

just looking at it and not

paying attention to who's

there and maybe not giving

credit where credit's due.

You just assume that with age and,

you know,

veterans around him that he just

figured something out and

maybe picked up another

pitch or picked up a different arm angle.

But, you know,

oftentimes what that is is

just collaboration between

someone in the bullpen or

the pitching coach.

And who better to have than

a closer who only was there

to get three outs, right?

And this guy, but he had to know,

here's the other thing, he had to know

as a closer you have to know

every batter that you could

face right it's not like

the starters who are going

to learn and pick things up

they don't have to pay as

close attention because

they're going to see them

two three times in an

outing the closer has to

know at detail at length

who they're facing what

they need to throw where

they like it and know it

from top to bottom because

they're only going to maybe

see them once but they have

to know right so

in regards to Bailey's

intelligence that you were just saying,

knowing the rules and all this,

I think that it's an

interesting aspect to look at, you know,

some of these stats and see

how the rest of this year goes.

But I like Andrew Bailey.

I liked him when he was a

pitcher for the A's.

And then when he came over to Boston,

I think it's interesting.

I always like to see,

catchers become managers I

mentioned steven vote out

there with the cleveland

guardians I think veritech

if he ever wants to would

be great but I think that's

another dynamic out in the

bullpen you've got veritech

that's out there working

with people you've got

you've got andrew bailey

who threw to veritech I

believe unless I'm totally

off off base here I don't

know if bailey was there

with veritech throwing I

believe he was but it's

just an interesting dynamic the minds of

the pitchers,

especially a closer and then

a catcher and how they

succeed or how they,

how successful they are as

managers and in the thought process,

you have to really be a

cerebral player to become a good manager.

And I'll just, I think Andrew Bailey being,

being a head coach is not

far fetched as I just see

an error made by the Cubs

that make me want to choke on my chew,

but,

So perfect example,

I pulled up Logan Webb's numbers,

and 2019 was his first

season with the Giants.

He made eight starts.

He went two and three with a 5.22 ERA.

Andrew Bailey got there in 2020.

And now, again,

Andrew Bailey is not making

his stamp of approval yet in 2020.

Three and four, 13 appearances,

11 of those starts.

Now let's go to 2021 with Andrew Bailey.

11-3 in 27 appearances,

26 starts with a .303 ERA.

Yeah.

2022, 32 starts, 15-9 with a 2.90 ERA.

Last season with Andrew Bailey,

the Giants weren't great.

11-13 in 33 starts,

but still he had a 3.25 ERA.

Finished second in the Cy

Young Award voting last year.

Yeah.

Finished 11th in 2022,

and 2022 was his better season.

Yeah.

You know what would be interesting?

Again, I'm cutting you off,

but it would be very interesting to see,

go back in Baseball Savant,

look up Bailey, look at his best pitches,

and see if he has any of

these guys that he's worked

with that have all of a

sudden started either using

more or getting more strikes or avoiding.

That would be a much deeper

dive to look to see where

his impact's coming from.

from but that that was

something when you when

you're going through those

numbers to me and again a

lot of my reaction is to

things that you make me

think of and that would be

something interesting to

look into in regards okay

what is the andrew bailey

effect even better one I

just pulled it up because

it popped in my head while

we were talking kevin cosman

his last season before he

became a free agent was 2021.

Yep.

He made 33 starts, had a 2.81 ERA,

which is his lowest of his career.

Yep.

Also was 14 and six,

which before his time with the blue Jays,

which is where he is now.

Yeah.

Was the only season he

finished above 500 as a starting pitcher.

No shit.

Andrew Bailey,

teach him something and got

him into that mode.

And now here we are, got him paid.

He's a big sinker ball pitcher,

if I'm not mistaken.

If you look at the Red Sox,

look at what they're throwing.

They're throwing sweepers, sliders,

splitters, sinkers.

Keeping it down.

They're going away from the fastball,

and they're going more off-speed.

They want him to top it and

hit it into the ground and

let the defense do their job.

So, the numbers are there.

I mean,

that's why I was so big on him as

I've looked into all of this.

Yeah.

I think he is a pitching guru,

which is not somebody you'd

expect to be a pitching guru.

He's not a Randy Johnson, a Pedro.

He's a reliever.

But he knows what he's doing.

I mean,

that's evident with what the Red

Sox staff.

I believe they're still

maybe they're in the top

three of almost most of the

pitching categories.

They're up in the top three.

I believe they're still in

the top two strikeouts.

They've dipped off.

I think they're 10th now in strikeouts,

but

And that's including the bullpen.

That's how much it starters.

So there's the effect of

Andrew Bailey to everybody.

No, that's interesting.

I mean,

I don't think we intend on spending

that much,

and I don't mean to steer you

in directions because I

know these are your thoughts,

but when you speak about that,

these are all things that

are real and appear to be

real at this moment.

So those are three impressive,

as you mentioned, potential –

Definitely have a big

argument for April Pitcher

of the Month along with Schuble.

But what else caught your

eye this past week?

The Atlanta Braves.

And they're 19-7 entering play tonight.

I don't think they actually play tonight.

But they're 19-7 right now.

And that's despite their

reigning MVP's slow start.

I think he just hit his

first home run maybe last week,

if not the week before,

but he still only has one.

Yeah.

And I came out,

I don't know if you read it, but I had,

I asked you to share it.

And I mentioned about how

last year he had a 40, 70 season.

And I mentioned Ellie Daly

Cruz potentially having a 30, 80.

If you haven't seen it,

it's on the website.

Yep.

Ellie Daly Cruz is on pace

to do something we've never seen before.

And something you should check out,

but I don't want to

sidetrack from the brave.

So the reds here, um,

But my biggest takeaway,

and on top of all of that,

is I had them to – I don't

remember if I had them off

the top of my head to win

the World Series,

but I know they at least

were in the World Series.

Yep.

And that was a big part

behind their pitching with Max Fried,

Spencer Strider, Chris Sale,

Charlie Morton.

And those were the four I talked about.

Yep.

The one name I didn't talk

about who's the number five

starter is Ronaldo Lopez.

And he's made five starts.

He's 2-0.

With a 0.72 ERA.

And sorry, four starts.

With a 0.88 whip and 24 strikeouts.

What a difference when you

don't have to go out,

like in a mindset wise,

if you have an offense that

you know can support three, four runs,

maybe five a game,

you don't have to be

perfect and you can just fucking pitch.

The guy's got talent.

And you're doing it without

your best pitcher.

Yeah.

And your best hitter is not

even getting hot yet.

Which, again, goes back to me.

This team is just so deep and so talented.

That's why I picked them to win.

Again,

we're going to probably run into

something with them where I

like the Braves.

I've always liked the Braves.

Again,

I grew up with them on TBS every day.

They were always on TBS.

But it's back to, like,

people – if you're not a

big fan of that team, like,

they're not your number one team,

you get tired of seeing teams win.

People got tired of the

Yankees in the 90s.

People got tired of the Astros, you know,

a couple years ago.

You know, and we'll get into them later.

But, you know,

that's the thing with the Braves, though,

is they – it's – I just –

I said Braves-Orioles for

the World Series this year,

and I'm wearing an Orioles hat now.

I know as a Red Sox fan,

it's probably a bad idea,

but they're playing the Yankees,

and I can't send the Yankees.

And so Red Sox aren't playing,

Tigers aren't playing,

so I'm with a different hat.

Yep.

But we're going to run to a point, I think,

in a couple of years where

we have the potential, or even this year,

starting this year,

we have the potential where

every World Series for the

next three to four years

could be Orioles-Braves.

That's just how good those two teams are,

and they lock up the young talent.

Look at what the Braves did.

They locked up Acuna.

They locked up Albies.

They locked up Austin Riley

to a team-friendly deal,

but it's still good money.

Michael Harris locked up.

Those are good to see, though.

Right.

The team-friendly deals are good to see,

especially after the

bullshit we saw out in L.A.

Not bullshit, but the creative way.

I'm assuming you're talking

about the Angels of the L.A.,

I'm talking about the Dodgers.

Granted,

Otani's deal was probably

orchestrated by his

interpreter who knew he was

going to need more money

further down the line.

Well,

I don't think he liked the idea of

we're going to push it down

the line more.

Yeah, no, we need that now.

How about a bigger signing bonus?

I have a big bet on that.

What a fucking debacle.

I mean, Acuna this year isn't hitting bad.

I mean, it's nothing, I'm not saying he's

Just hasn't slugged.

He's not hitting the long ball.

I mean,

we saw 30 bombs from him last year.

Actually, more.

I think it was close to 40.

He's only got one.

And he's played in 26 games.

He's got one.

His RBIs, he's got six.

Like, that's not what you expect from him.

And I'm a big Ronald Acuna fan.

I'm not saying he's terrible.

I'm not saying that whatsoever.

I'm just saying he's off to a slow start.

How many runs does he have scored, though?

Cause he hits lead off most

of the time for them.

That, that to me is, you know, that,

that almost shows a little

bit RBI wise shows a little

bit more of a struggles at

the bottom of the order than it does or,

or success at the bottom who, you know,

you had Darnell hitting those home runs.

So he does have 26 runs.

He has 11 stolen bases.

So he's not, like I said,

he's not struggling as a hitter.

It's just along the lines of,

he's not a pop bat that

you're used to seeing from

Acuna to start the year.

You said the same thing I think it was two,

three weeks ago about Julio Rodriguez.

Same thing.

I mean, there was a thing I heard,

a graphic from MLB.com or

MLB Network or something

where it was like,

who hits the first home run?

And it was names you don't

think you're normally going

to see on that list.

And that's just, you know, I mean,

he's getting on base.

I mean, he's got a 7.15 OPS,

a 3.82 on base, and a 3.33 slugging.

He's not hitting bad.

but he's just not producing

the home runs that you

expect from Ronald Jr.

That's where his RBIs would

come from right now because

I think if you look at it,

and this is just eyeball

test in regards to seeing

what's happened with the

rest of that team,

I don't know if he's had a

whole bunch of

opportunities with guys in

scoring position.

That's an assumption, but

It's going to be impressive

when we're here talking in

September and he ends up

with 35 home runs and 65,

70 stolen bases.

And April, he did nothing.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, like I said, by the way,

Correa is back tonight.

Okay, so I did read that.

Yeah.

But, yeah, it's not out of the question.

He does what he did last year.

It's just you're not used to seeing it.

And like I said, they're doing it.

They are 19-7 entering play

tonight with the best record in baseball,

and your best player isn't doing that.

Get the fuck out.

Get out.

Chris Morrell just went deep for the Cubs.

Love that.

Take the lead,

3-1 in the top of the ninth.

The other one,

and this is going to pain us

as Red Sox fans, Chris Sale.

Five starts, 3-1 with a 3.69 ERA.

An under one whip with 33 strikeouts.

Again,

I've said it in my prediction that

they're going to go as far

as Chris Sale stays healthy.

Yeah.

If he stays healthy,

they're my pick to be in the World Series,

if not winning.

And to feed into that,

we're going to get a great

preview of what this team

is this weekend.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're going to get the

Dodgers for three games.

Now,

the Dodgers are not going to see Sale.

Sale goes – and this is a

good week for the Braves.

They get the Mariners for three,

and they get the Dodgers for three.

And so,

Sale's going – I think it's Wednesday.

I think it is three.

Oh, no.

Actually, I don't think they play tonight.

So,

I think Thursday it's going to be Sale

on Thursday.

Okay.

So,

it's Charlie Morton versus Tyler Glass

now Friday.

Okay.

Saturday is Bryce Elder.

I put Michael Grove in what

I sent you because he was

the opener for the Dodgers the other day.

And then it's Freed versus Paxton.

So, I mean,

that's three arms right there

besides the two I named of

Lopez and Sale that I want

to see against the Dodgers lineup.

You know, can you guys get there?

Freed, last time I think we talked,

went that night and he went 9-8.

Can we game shutout?

Yeah.

So...

Can Freed do that against the Dodgers?

I want to see it.

Actually, I want to look now.

Is that Sunday Night Baseball?

I would assume so.

Nope.

It's not?

It must be a 4-10.

Is it in L.A.?

It is in – where is it?

It's in L.A., 4-10.

4-10 game.

Sunday Night Baseball is Giants-Phillies.

That's a missed opportunity.

I agree because you're going to get,

like I just said,

it's Freed versus Paxton.

Paxton is not pitching bad.

No.

So it's not a bad matchup.

I mean, granted,

this all comes out before the season.

So they sit in there going,

we give every Sunday night

baseball game to the Dodgers.

We give every Sunday night

baseball game to the Braves.

Correct.

Let's just not overdo this.

But I think it's a missed

opportunity for a series

that's going to be really

good with two teams that –

everybody has finishing one

and two in the national league.

Yeah.

You know, I mean,

the Dodgers potentially the, you know, to,

to play for the world series.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That first game will be interesting.

Glass now is one against that lineup.

That's interesting.

And then on the, the backend of that,

that series is freed versus

the Dodgers lineup.

It's a great test and great, you know,

it's going to be a great

series to watch and pay

attention to because the,

both high powered offenses,

but both have great pitching as well.

Yep.

It's going to be a fun matchup.

And again, I mean,

the Dodgers still aren't at

full strength.

No, we haven't, you know,

Clayton Kershaw is still out.

I don't think has Bueller come back yet.

No.

So those two big arms.

I mean, I said, when we did our preview,

the Paxton is going to feed

right into Kershaw.

Yeah.

So, I mean, that's just replacing, I mean,

Kershaw is better.

So it's just, what if he's healthy?

Yeah.

I mean, I don't want to sidetrack you,

but what if he's healthy?

There goes Grove to the bullpen.

Now you've got Paxton and

Kershaw right there at 4-5.

Or there goes Gavin Stone

back to AAA if he's not already there.

I haven't followed the

Dodgers as much because

they're the Dodgers,

and I think they're just as

good as everything.

So I haven't been like, oh, the Dodgers.

Their depth is in their pitching,

in the minors at least,

that is ready to contribute

right now where,

The so is the Braves have so much depth,

too.

So this will be a very

interesting early May

series to see what we see

from both teams pitching lineups,

how they go.

It'll give us a good preview of, you know,

potentially what's to come in October.

It'll be a fun, fun one to watch.

Here's my bold prediction for the weekend.

All right, let's hear it.

Acuna gets hot and hits two

home runs this weekend.

I would not be surprised if

we see him go hitless

against Glass now and hit

one off of Grove if he's to start,

and then lefty being Paxton.

Paxton's got that history of

keeping the ball up.

He's a power pitcher.

Acuna is going to catch one

up in the zone and just drill it up,

you know, 12 rows up in left field.

And I easily see I can

easily see him hitting to be in game.

You know,

I'll be interested to see how he

faces glass now,

but definitely in game two, game three,

especially against Paxton.

I think he will light Paxton up.

I might take it on Sunday

night baseball leadoff home

run if he's batting leadoff.

That's a that's a tough one on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It'd be interesting to see

what the odds are because, I mean,

that's going to be a fun one to watch.

I can't wait until next week

to kind of recap that one

where we've already

addressed it a little bit,

talk about that series,

and then also talk a little

bit about the

Yankees-Orioles series

because that's the other

one on the American League

side that's a big series

preview of the top two

teams in the American League East,

which tonight I don't know

what the score is now.

Two-nothing, top nine.

Yankees had a guy on second with one out.

Is it Kimbrell?

No, it's Colombe.

Okay.

I was going to say,

they have a lot of nerve

going back to Kimbrell.

But, yeah,

there will be two interesting

series for us to recap next

week when we meet up on Monday next week.

I was going to make a bold

prediction saying if the

Braves win that series,

I'll wear a Braves hat next Monday,

but the Tigers play,

so that ain't happening.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hector Nias is in for the close.

The Braves get the Red Sox next week,

so that ain't happening even more so.

Yeah, you'd be torn.

No,

interesting that the Cubs brought in

Hector Nias to close the game out.

Against the Mets.

That's interesting with

Adelzai being there named

closer to start the year,

but has struggled.

I saw he was done out of the role.

I think I saw that last Thursday.

I wouldn't doubt it.

Because I think at that

point he'd given up four

home runs and four innings

or something like that.

I saw council said he's all done.

All right.

So anything more about the

Braves-Dodgers series?

Nope.

That is about it.

I'm excited for that series.

It's probably what I'm going

to watch on my little TV,

although it all depends on

what happens with the

Bruins and Celtics because

that changes everything

with the Red Sox as well.

A Bruins series is over tomorrow,

so you'll be freed up.

All right, then.

Well, with that said,

we're at the time now.

We've been talking about

this for the past few weeks,

every episode.

If you like baseball,

you're looking to join.

our party and just kind of

team up with us and talk baseball, right?

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If you've got a favorite team,

reach out to us on the website,

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Join us.

Let us know who your team is

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Reach out to us.

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And let us know what you're thinking,

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So always looking to add

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minds to kind of add to the content.

All right, CJ.

So what else?

I know you had eight total.

We've gotten through three.

What was number four?

We had none, actually.

I remember I added one.

Oh, that's right.

That's right.

So the fourth one was one

you actually want to talk about as well.

I want to go to the Marlins

and the Nationals.

What a shit show.

My biggest interesting one

was yesterday where they

went up 7-0 in the first two innings.

Yep.

And then, you know,

most times you would sit

there and good baseball team.

That's the game.

I'm glad I tuned in for this.

No, no.

Not the Marlins.

Not that dumpster fire.

Forget that.

Who's the Nationals?

Who's the fucking?

Not that the Nationals are

horrible because they've

got some young talent.

But Jesus.

7-0.

The Nationals came out of

nowhere and put up five in

the fourth to make it a 7-5 game.

And then in the fifth,

put up four more just to make it 9-7.

Then just for a little insurance,

I had one in the sixth.

The Marlins, they come back,

make it a better ball game

in the seventh with two

more runs to make it 10-9.

And then the Nationals put

away in the eighth with two more runs.

And the Nationals came out on top.

And I saw on Twitter people

were commenting with the 7-0 lead.

Yeah, we'll find a way to blow this.

They've lost all hope.

They've now,

even though they have six wins

and so do the White Sox,

they actually physically

have the worst record in baseball.

just because they've played

more games and they've got

more losses than the White Sox.

It is sad.

Now, with all that said, Lizardo's out.

Yuri Perez is out.

Yeah,

basically anything that they have is

gone.

And it's sad for me because, you know,

the Marlins are a team that

in their history, what they do,

they pile up and they make

a run deep into the playoffs,

whether it be the World

Series or whatever,

then they sell everything off.

They have some nice pieces,

and I think if Perez,

you think about who's injured, right?

Sandy Alcantara, you've got Lizardo,

and you've got Perez that I

can think of just off the top of my head.

They're not horrible in the field.

I'm not a huge fan of what other pieces.

They've got Chaz Chisholm.

They've got Luis Arreaz,

and they've got Jake Berger.

Tim Anderson's not a bad one.

Josh Bell.

Nope.

They've got some talent,

but it all shows you that

if you can't pitch,

you don't have the pitching,

you're not going to go very far.

You can only put up so many runs.

When you come into a season with A.J.

Puck as your number two.

He was your closer.

How many saves did he have from last year?

He was your closer last year,

and he's your number two

starter entering the season.

You've got a problem.

And why they didn't sell off – I mean,

as Red Sox fans,

we were all calling for Jesus Lizardo.

Why you didn't sell off – I mean, granted,

did you expect to lose Perez?

No.

And Eduardo Cabrera – or Edward Cabrera.

And, you know,

it was – the one thing I

will say about them is it

was nice – I forget what day it was,

but it was nice to see

Sixto Sanchez make his

return to the mound for the

first time since 2020.

And from what I saw,

I don't think he actually looked bad.

I don't remember off the top

of my head what day he

pitched and how bad it actually was.

But, you know, there's something there.

They do have the pitching.

It's just everybody's hurt.

Like,

you're dealing with everybody being out.

I'm trying to pull up what

day it was he pitched.

I think I thought it was.

He was a top prospect for

the Phillies that everyone

was talking highly of.

He didn't really pan out in Philadelphia.

And I forget.

He was part of that JT Rilamuto trade.

Along with Olifaro.

And then he's been hurt, I think,

pretty much ever since.

And they've got, between Cabrera, Perez,

Lizardo, and then Sandy Alcantara,

they've got,

if everyone was healthy and

pitching the way they could,

they've got probably one of

the more talented, pure talent potential,

one of the better younger

pitching staffs in the National League.

Ryan Weathers is good, too.

He's pitched well lately.

And I was wrong.

Sixto actually didn't pitch well.

He faced the Braves.

He gave up three runs, two thirds,

five hits, three Ks, and one walk.

The fucking Cubs are going

to blow this game.

God damn it.

It's all right.

Two runner on second, runner on first,

one out.

Nearest is lost DJ Stewart.

Nope, nope.

You got to figure out who won there.

Oh, God.

It's pretty bad right now,

but that's that.

Yeah, the Marlins right now, unfortunately,

due to their pitching injuries situations,

I think it won't be too long.

The two big names that I see,

Chisholm's not going anywhere,

but I did an article

earlier for the Reds in

regards to a cheap power

bat at third to kind of

solve some of their issues there.

Jake Berger,

and uh could be moved

eventually and then luis

arias both have decent

contracts burgers on a

one-year deal under a

million dollars so it's

going to be fairly cheap

for someone to grab if

they're looking for a power

right hand bat um but

unfortunately the marlins

just have too many injuries

right now and I don't even

know where lizardo's going

to end up you know with

this injury he's got so

they say it shouldn't be long term but

How often do you hear that?

They come back, make one, two starts,

then not the same,

and then they're done for a

little bit longer.

I think he was thrown today.

Hopefully he makes a healthy

return because that's good.

He's a good arm.

I do think he's a trade piece too,

unfortunately,

given the fact of what they're doing.

The Marlins are a mess.

That was just something to

me going up against the Nationals.

Again, the Nationals aren't horrible,

but to pitch

Which leads us right into

this other shit show, the Chicago Cubs.

Well,

I wrote when they were facing the Red

Sox that, you know,

they were one of the

hottest teams at that point.

They had won five of their last seven.

And then, you know,

they swept the Astros

coming into the series and

they won Friday night.

to go six of their last eight.

And then all of a sudden,

the Red Sox decided to, you know,

have the lineup wake up a

little bit and put up 17 on

them on Saturday.

I'm glad you were there and not me.

Yeah, I was having a great time.

Especially with all the

tough fans sitting around me.

The only I was hoping for

was Joel Rodriguez to come in the game.

And then last night,

I don't know if anybody

watched that's listening to this,

but that was a tough play by Gansby.

I mean, that should have been...

You know, I've heard people say,

why didn't Duran still second?

Well, then they walked Devers,

and it's first and second.

Nobody out with O'Neal, whatever.

Ends up being Devers at first,

Duran at third.

And Duran's your best base runner,

I think.

Yeah.

And then it was that fly ball to Dansby.

Granted,

I don't know what Duran was doing

halfway down the line.

He should have been at third,

at least trying to tag.

That ball shouldn't have

been tried to be caught by Dansby.

No, that's Ian Haps all day long.

Should have been.

But he was playing at the

wall for a double.

which, again, the guy's at third.

I don't know why you're

playing for a double.

Yeah.

So a double, you lose the game.

Yeah.

So I think it was a missed

defensive alignment.

The Red Sox come out on top.

They take two or three from the Cubs,

and the Cubs seem like they

might have cooled off,

except for right now,

unless they blow this game

with a one-two count,

two outs in the ninth inning.

We'll see.

I don't know.

That's an interesting pitch.

Yeah.

The Cubs were, you know,

they looked good going into

the Red Sox series,

and all of a sudden they

seemed to have cooled off in that weekend,

and then now they're back,

seem like they're going to

do what they're going to do.

But that's their bats this year.

Their bats have done that.

Watching every single game

they've had this year,

their bats cool off,

and the good news is is

Justin Steele is going to

be making a rehab start, I believe,

Wednesday down at Iowa.

They did just win.

Thank God.

3-1 against the Mets to open the series.

Thanks to Murrell.

Murrell's home run.

But yeah, they are a very,

they still have a good

chunk of their lineup, the Cubs,

that isn't hitting.

Swanson's not doing real well hitting.

I think he's hitting under two.

He's hitting,

or he was opening the day at 238.

Corner's not really hitting.

He was starting against the Astros.

Didn't do much against the Cubs.

And Bellinger's out.

So up the middle,

they're not really

supporting the team the way they can.

They've gotten some timely

hitting like they did tonight,

but they've yet almost like Acuna, Acuna,

that a lot of their players

have not yet warmed up.

And in order for them to do

what I picked them to do

and win the central,

they're going to need to

get everyone firing on all

cylinders because their

pitching has not been horrible.

And they stand to get...

So it'll be interesting.

That was a very disappointing weekend,

Saturday, Sunday, against the Red Sox.

Against a team, on paper,

in the way they've been playing,

the Cubs should have taken that series.

Yeah, except for Saturday.

Saturday was just... Well, no,

Saturday... When you have

to have two position

players pitch... I mean,

that was a 17-0...

The Red Sox gave Pablo Reyes

a going away present.

Here's a pitching appearance for you.

Yeah, I saw that.

Again, like I said,

I'm glad I wasn't there.

The debating back and forth

I had of going down there,

as much as I want to be at

Fenway to see the Cubs,

because most likely the

next time they come around,

it'll be during a weekday

and I won't have tickets.

But it was a good decision.

I still got some stuff done,

and I'm glad you got to go

and enjoy that.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Hey,

you enjoyed it more than I would have.

I had a great time.

And then I watched,

we had the phone propped up.

I watched the Celtics on my

phone on the ride back.

There you go.

The Bruins on the radio.

Yeah.

It was a great Boston day.

I think I saw somebody said

today that they outscored

their opponents combined

between the three.

What was it?

39 to nothing or 39 to yeah.

They had plus 39 for a run

differential for all three games.

Unreal.

So it was a good day.

The next one.

The biggest Astros series to

this point of the season is right now.

I mean, they just,

I think they came out on

top this weekend when it was the Rockies.

Yeah, they needed that to get right.

I said it last week that

they're a streaky team.

If they get hot,

they're right back in this.

Now they're facing the Guardians,

who have the best record in

the American League.

You can come out of the

series winning two out of

three before you go to a

division opponent.

You could turn things around.

But that's the question.

You're facing a good

Guardians team this week.

Got to win two out of three.

And the pitching matchups

line up to where it's

Hunter Brown versus Carrasco.

Carrasco hasn't impressed me,

but Hunter Brown has not been good.

You're looking at game two

is Verlander and McKenzie.

McKenzie's on a pitch count, it seems like,

still.

Verlander,

I don't know what they've done with him.

He's 1-0, 10.1 innings pitched,

10.3 innings pitched.

A 1.74 ERA, 11 Ks, and four walks.

So he's back to being Verlander,

it looks like.

So I think the Astros win

that game no matter what.

And then the third game,

there's no starter yet.

So the Astros have a very

good chance to win two out of three.

And if they do, I think here they come.

Yeah.

I just don't know what to

think of the Astros yet.

But I think very much like we said,

you just said,

and then last week we said that they –

They'll get hot.

They've got the bats to get hot.

The biggest thing for them will be,

can Verlander be a spark

plug for that pitching rotation?

Can he be that?

Yeah.

Which he's 41, I believe.

He's up there.

I don't know, 41.

I thought he was in his 30s still.

Maybe he's 39.

That may be just wishful thinking,

but it's pretty impressive

what he's done year in, year out.

But they need that kind of

veteran presence to be like, hey, look,

get your shit together.

Let's go and like feed off each other.

And they are a team that I

think that could very

easily struggle all April

and get shit together in

May and then June, July and August.

Okay.

But they could very well,

they could definitely piece

it all together and they

can be right back in the thick of this.

I mean,

nobody in that division is running

away with it.

No.

so I mean and I mean what

are they sitting I think

they actually are not

almost eight games out yeah

six okay six games out but

they're not out of it I

mean by any stretch of

anything even if it even if

the division does get away

like I know the rangers

have shares are coming back

to grumby back like they're

gonna get their arms back

the ashers can make the

wild card spot and they

could make a problem in the

playoffs they've been there

they have the I mean that's

what the story is you've

been there experience yeah

yeah so don't rule the

astros out I mean we can

all as people who don't

like the ashes for the

whole 2017 season enjoy

this because they could

very well get hot and be a

problem I don't know how

much you laughed but I

laughed my balls off when I

sent you that little reel

of that kid that little

mime or the little

mannequin that that to me

it just goes to show that

was pretty funny a lot of

people disliked that but unfortunately

cheating, whatever they did in 2017,

they're still a very

talented baseball team.

Yes.

And they can do it.

So it'll be interesting.

So that leads us right into the next one.

It does.

I'm going to go with, this is a bold one.

This is interesting from

what I've seen so far.

Are the Oakland A's not as

bad as everybody thought?

I enjoyed watching them

against the Orioles.

I enjoyed it.

And I actually wrote this

down before we actually hopped on.

And just from what I've seen

from the season,

and everybody went on about the Red Sox,

oh, congrats, you swept the A's.

Nice job.

They stink.

Yeah.

Let's go through after that series.

They took two or three from the Orioles.

They split with the Yankees in four games.

Yep.

They took two or three from the Rangers.

Also took two or three from the Tigers.

Are they?

I'm not saying, well,

let's hold the phone on the A's,

but like.

Yeah.

We all had them as, you know,

they're going to lose 100 games.

So, uh, good.

Yep.

So I saw something the other

day and I can't remember where,

and I meant to send it to you,

but I saw it and just in

quick passing in a lot of

these memes are coming out right now,

but like for the A's and

the ownership and what

they're trying to do, you know,

send to a minor league park next year.

That is just a dumpster fire,

but major league,

when that owner was trying

to tank to move to Miami,

a lot of that stuff was

showing up this past week.

And, you know,

what better like motivation

than just effort, you know,

screw management.

Let's prove we're better

than what we are or what

people think we are and

just go out and win.

And their team,

we've talked about Tampa

Bay that just is very kind of,

don't know what to think of

them and confusing,

but the A's always just

find a way to compete.

They're always either they're in a game.

You can never count them out.

They don't have a true, like, I guess,

superstar, if you will,

but they're always just, they're scrappy.

Yup.

And now they're pitching is

like impressive.

Yeah.

Aside from the guy we talked

about last week, Mason Miller.

Yeah.

The only guy, well,

a couple other guys here, but

He's got a 1-4-6 ERA.

It's just their starters.

Paul Blackburn, I think,

is a nice name to watch.

I like watching him when he pitches.

Stripling's been okay.

He still can't get a win.

Sears has been all right.

Alex Wood has been terrible.

He's got a 7 ERA.

They're hanging around,

but that just tells you that division.

The Angels aren't that great.

And the Astros, the Astros, like we said,

they'll get hot.

They'll be fine.

They'll probably end up switching spots,

but right now, I don't know.

The A's might get finished

fourth the way they're going.

Yeah.

Well, the angels are just,

I feel bad for Mike Trout

and what he's doing so far

and leading the wealth tied

with Gunnar Henderson for

the league lead and home runs.

But you know, it's,

it's pretty interesting.

Um,

And the A's, they're fun to watch.

The A's are fun to watch.

The Astros are starting slow,

but they will, you know,

unless they suffer a

serious injury or someone

just doesn't turn it around,

they are a tough one to watch.

And I'm watching Tampa Bay,

as we just talked about, bottom seven.

They're beating the Brewers.

The National League Central

leading Brewers won nothing.

Yeah, they're here to miss, though.

Peot's pitching or whatever,

however you pronounce his last name.

He's the one pitching right now,

but very interesting.

They went to the bullpen.

I got Armstrong in the

bottom of the seventh.

Yeah, you're right.

I'm pumped because I thought

there was an injury,

but I might be wrong.

I thought they were missing somebody.

I guess not.

What did you think of the

Met City Connect jersey?

I don't mean to extend it any longer,

but what did you think of

that jersey they had?

I wasn't impressed by it.

Me neither.

I mean, I'm excited for what's coming.

Detroit,

I think the Tigers come out next Monday.

Yeah.

That leads us into the last one,

and we'll skip the other one I had,

and we'll talk about that in a second.

I think the Ray City Connect, I mean,

my favorite.

Yeah.

That was pretty impressive.

I like the fact that they

went back to the old

double-raised look with the

purple brim and the logo and everything.

I like the black unis.

I think that's a nice, that's a nice, uh,

design.

Yeah.

It might be in the top five for me.

I don't know.

I might have to sit down

after they all come out

this year and do a top 20.

Take a look at them.

Yeah.

The Red Sox is always in the

top for me as a Homer.

Cause I like the yellow,

I like the Boston marathon, you know,

Patriots.

The connection.

So, all right.

The last one of my thoughts is,

the series I actually really

like right now that I want

to watch this week.

And it's not a series.

It's going to jump off the paper,

everybody.

But I told the story,

I think the week you were actually out.

And I talked about the Oh

six season with my

grandfather and everything.

And we get a rematch of that

world series this week with

the Cardinals and the Tigers.

And it was supposed to be on right now.

And I would be wearing a tiger's hat.

I'd have my tiger shirt on.

Like I would've been watching that,

but got rained out.

They had a double header tomorrow.

but that's a,

I like watching throwback

world series matchup.

That's the one thing I do

like about this whole,

everybody plays everybody

at some point throughout

the season is you get

something like that.

Like at some point when you

get Red Sox Dodgers, 2018 world series,

you know,

we're going to get throwback

matchups from world series.

And I like that.

So I'm,

that's a series I'm excited to

watch this week.

I obviously won't be

watching tomorrow cause I'll be at,

I'll be at Fenway, but, uh,

Actually,

I'll probably watch the first

game at work.

I think it's at 340 or something.

So I'll probably watch the

first game at work.

And then game three I'll

probably watch whenever I get home.

I don't think the Bruins play.

The Celtics probably are on,

so I'll probably have

something on my phone.

The Bruins play tomorrow night.

So I think they're Tuesday, Thursday,

Saturday.

So I'll have the Celtics on

my phone probably.

I'll put the Tigers on the

little TV and the Sox on

the big TV and we'll roll with that.

But that is the last of my thoughts.

And I killed an hour trying

to not kill an hour.

Hey,

there's a lot of stuff that kind of

comes up.

And I think that's the

biggest thing here when

we're talking through this

is like there's so much that goes on.

We can have an agenda and we

stick to that agenda.

But there's always going to

be something that pops up,

goes on throughout that

just kind of pops up and

makes us think about

different things that we

want to dive into.

It's only two of us, right?

And we're trying to cover as

much as we can.

And we can't write about

everything that we talk

about because we just we have other jobs,

too.

So to end it out, you know, basically,

I interjected with a lot of

my thoughts throughout the whole process.

There was a lot of stuff you

covered that kind of

connected with what I thought.

But I'd like to end out each

week with your top prospect

in the prospect of the week.

So who do you have there?

All right, well,

so I really said I hate last week.

I hate doing two,

but I just couldn't eliminate a guy.

So maybe I have to find a

way to do this differently,

whether I do three hitters

a week and three pitchers

out of the top 100 or something.

But I got two hitters and I

got two pitchers.

And I actually went away

from Paul Skeens for once.

Okay.

He gave up his first run.

So you're done with him?

You're done with him?

No, no.

He's still going to be a stud.

I mean, it's just digest.

I like what else.

I wanted to avoid him.

So I looked up his numbers,

knowing he still gave up one run.

And I was like, you know,

I'm just not going to do him.

So my hitter of the week, the first one,

is I got catcher Harry Ford,

who is the 42nd-ranked prospect.

He's playing for the Seattle

Mariners AA affiliate,

the Arkansas Travelers.

This week, he went 6-for-19.

in five games with three home runs,

six RBIs, eight runs scored, seven walks,

and two stolen bases.

Wow.

So on the season,

he's hitting 203 with a 758 OPS,

three home runs.

All those came this week.

Seven RBIs, so six of those came this week,

and four stolen bases.

My next one is a guy that

you'll actually appreciate.

The 98th ranked prospect in

my top 100 until next week.

I'm hoping to have all that updated.

Okay.

Is James Trientos.

Yep.

He's playing a double A for

the Cubs and the Tennessee Smokies.

This last week,

he went 23 with two doubles, a triple,

two home runs, five RBIs,

four runs scored, and two stolen bases.

On the season,

he's hitting 288 with an 818 OPS,

three home runs, 12 RBIs,

and six stolen bases.

Yep.

He's impressive.

So far, so good.

Yep.

We're going to go to the pitchers now.

And the first one I have

before we get really

in-depth is the 36th-ranked prospect,

right-handed pitcher Rhett Lauder,

who I watched a lot at Wake Forest.

Yep.

Pitching at high A, Dayton,

for the Cincinnati Reds.

Last week, he got the start on, geez,

I really wish I wrote the

date down instead of,

or the day instead of the actual date.

He pitched on the 26th, which was Friday.

He got the win, going six innings,

gave up three hits, one run,

wasn't earned, one walk,

and nine strikeouts.

This season, through four starts,

he's 1-0 with a 1.86 ERA, a 0.98 whip,

20 strikeouts,

and 19 or 30 innings pitched.

Wow.

He's going to do pretty good.

He's their top pitching prospect, too,

so that's great.

I'm high on him.

I'm very high on him.

The next one is another guy

I think you actually wrote

the player profile for.

39th-ranked prospect,

and I don't know how to

pronounce his last name,

but it's right-handed

pitcher Jacob Misurowski.

Yeah.

For the Brewers,

he's pitching at AA Biloxi,

and he made two starts this week.

So in the first start on Tuesday,

he went 4-3, gave up a hit,

didn't allow a run, walked one,

and struck out seven.

And then he got the ball again.

Usually if you get the ball on Tuesday,

you get the ball again on Sunday.

He pitched again on Sunday,

going three and two-thirds.

Didn't allow a hit,

but he gave up a run on one

walk and six strikeouts.

So he ended the week going,

combining it all, eight innings, one hit,

one run, two walks,

13 Ks for a 1.12 ERA and a

0.37 WIP for the week.

He's a big boy.

He is a big boy.

This season through five starts,

he doesn't have a decision

yet with a 3.44 ERA, a 1.09 whip,

28 strikeouts,

and 18 no fair games pitched.

Yeah,

he was one that when I wrote the

write-up that I started

paying a little closer attention to,

and I saw one of his bullpen sessions.

And I could be getting this wrong,

but I think he's over 6'8",

and he's a right-hand power pitcher.

And that's probably why the

Brewers were okay with

getting rid of Corbin Burns,

knowing that he probably

wasn't going to resign anyway.

But this kid is one to keep

an eye on because he's

going to move his way up.

He'll probably pitch half

the year in Biloxi and then

move up to AAA and see what

he's got there.

Cause he,

he is a talented kid throws hard

and just is a great arm for the Brewers,

uh,

you know, organization.

So that's, that's a good one.

He had a great week and

Rhett louder is another one

that's to watch in the NL

central that for the reds, he's going to,

he's going to be another good one.

I also saw,

and I want to give this

prospect update really quick.

He's not in my top 100,

but a right-handed pitcher

time adding for the tigers.

He's in my top 10 for the tigers.

He got promoted to triple a Toledo today.

And I saw,

I'm trying to remember all these

Tennessee guys.

I was a big Tennessee baseball guy.

I liked watching them the

last couple of years.

Drew Gilbert got promoted.

I believe he's actually to

the big leagues now.

Really?

For the Mets.

If I remember correctly.

Christian Scott's the guy

from the Mets that I'm waiting for,

for them to pull up from Syracuse.

Making sure,

but I believe he was called up today.

And I saw somebody talk about, oh,

there's all these other

guys from Tennessee that are waiting.

And there's a lot of Tennessee talent.

Like Chase Dolander from –

he's with the Rockies organization.

Maybe it wasn't Drew Gilbert.

I thought it was.

Maybe I'm wrong.

There was somebody called up

from the Mets.

Yeah.

I thought it was a Gilbert.

But I believe he went to

Tennessee as well.

But he got called up today,

whether it's to AAA or to the Mets.

But he got called up.

there's a lot of talent from

college that's moving up

more than I think probably

the past 10 years.

Um, that's going to be coming in.

Um, I can't wait, you know,

hopefully you get a chance

to get that done.

The updated list top 100 so

that we can maybe, maybe next week,

if you,

whatever week you get it done the

following week,

I'd like to have you kind

of just discuss a little

bit of who moved in,

who dropped out and why.

Um,

Cause I think that's,

that's one of the fun things,

especially now with MLB

being able to go and watch

these minor league games.

And I get yelled at in my

house when I turn it on and what's,

what's wrong with all the, uh,

the graphics.

It doesn't look right.

The, the, the TV, why is this,

why are they showing that angle?

I'm like, well, you know,

this is Myrtle beach Pelicans, you know,

the Cubs single aid team.

Why are we watching this?

Well,

I want to keep an eye on so-and-so and,

it's, I'm watching more baseball now,

you know,

at home and I'll turn off a

major league game just to

keep an eye on something

else that's going.

So I'm looking forward to

your updates with this and kind of,

you know, seeing who moves in,

who moves out and, you know,

we've had some discussion,

but this prospect thing for

me is one of the more

exciting things to kind of

keep an eye on.

Cause I don't think a lot of,

Major League fans,

I think they focus a lot of

the time on what's on the

active roster and maybe

missing what's to come.

And that sometimes is just

as exciting because some of

these people don't have a

clue what's to come because

of the coverage.

But I think what you're able

to do for Inside the

Diamond hopefully can be

useful to these fans so

they can get a look at

what's to come up the

pipeline and get excited.

And if they've got a chance

to go to a game

to a minor league park to

see some of these guys.

It's well worth it.

It's great baseball.

It's fun to see.

It's cheap.

And it's exciting.

So I really enjoy getting

your point of view on these

prospects and kind of seeing it.

So looking forward to seeing

what's to come with the

moves in the top 100.

Well,

that's the big thing is the future is

the minor leagues.

And so, for instance, we all just saw,

and we didn't touch on it tonight,

but Jackson Holiday just

got sent back down to AAA.

And so I think I mentioned

last week when we were

talking that Paul Skeens

will be the soon-to-be number one.

He ain't coming anytime soon

because Holiday's not graduating.

But as a perfect example,

there's a lot of talent in the minors.

Um,

I'm going to the Fisher cats next

Wednesday and I'll be covering that game.

Um,

the reason why I circled that game and

one of the big reasons why

was I want to watch the Fisher cats guys,

but also Harrisburg is in town.

And so my number five prospect,

Dylan Cruz is currently on

the Harrisburg senators and

I want to go see what he does.

Um, I was really hoping my eighth,

my ninth rank prospect,

James would be there,

but he actually is at triple a, but,

if you had MLB TV, you got anything,

any way that you can watch it,

I suggest you tune into

whether it's your team,

whatever your prospects, um,

you do a good job.

We got Jamie.

She has a good job.

Um, Brett does a good job.

We cover it's down on the farm.

It comes out every Monday.

I want to make a plug for

this really quick.

I wish I had more, but,

We do it down on the farm every week.

It comes out on Monday.

So if you're not familiar,

minor league schedules are

Tuesday through Sunday.

Mondays are all off.

And so that's why we release

it on Monday or early

Tuesday before games start

so we can get – and we cover, you know,

who the, you know, triple A, double A,

high A, single A affiliates are playing,

who they got coming up in the next week,

and what our top ten

prospects for each team does.

and how they produce and

what their numbers are for

that week and for the

season so far so if you're

a fan of I do the tigers

the red sox the blue jays

jc does the reds and the

cubs jamie does the rangers

and brett does the yankees

so there's seven teams that

get minor league prospect

coverage and I'll do a plug

for joining us if you want

to cover and do it down on

the farm once a week

there's an opportunity

right there yeah I mean

I'll gladly I'll do

down on the farms for all 30

teams and do one coming out

every half hour on a Monday.

Yeah.

We've got the format laid out for you.

So it's pretty easy to do.

It's, it's simple,

but it also gets you involved.

I mean, for me, you know,

paying attention to the Cubs and the Reds,

I wish I could do more,

but it gives you an idea of

what's to come.

And it,

it makes you end up watching more

minor leagues and,

on specific days than you would normally,

and it's just more baseball.

And if you love baseball,

CJ's got a great format for it.

He's done a lot of hard work

on the top 100, and it's going to be,

for me personally,

I'm looking forward to as

the year evolves and how

that list evolves and then

working into next year.

So that, to me, is one of the bright spots,

and I look forward to doing each week.

And if you're not familiar with it,

I don't know if I have the

website still up here.

I don't.

But we had the link.

It's right on the homepage.

So if you go to InsideTheDiamonds.com,

in the top bar,

you'll see it says Home

American League National

League Prospects Shop.

On the dropdown of the prospects,

when I come out with them,

it will have each month's top.

and I'm working on,

I'm hoping we can get this done,

that once the season ends,

it'll go to 2024, and then once 2025 hits,

it'll roll into the new top

100 for the next year.

So it'll be something that's

archived forever.

So 10 years from now,

you want to go look back and see.

I'm going to do an article, I think,

probably in the next couple weeks,

where I take a look back

five years from now,

who was in the top 30 for a

team on MLB.com for prospects,

and where are they now?

It's a good idea for an article,

a good idea for a piece.

For anybody.

For any team.

Where's my favorite team at?

You can even do the top 10.

It doesn't have to be the top 30.

I just know it maxes out at 30.

Where's my top 10 at from there to now?

Honestly, if you do that,

it takes a look at where

your organization is in the

standpoint of your top 10

prospects could have been

all gone by now.

It could all be somewhere

else as part of trade bait.

And it could be gone.

And, you know,

your team developed and they

just trade prospects to get better.

Prospects are a fun thing to follow.

And I got made fun of a couple weeks ago.

I came out.

I put all my baseball

sweatshirts away in the closet.

And once the baseball season comes,

I rotate hockey and

baseball sweatshirts and

football sweatshirts.

And I have my baseball

sweatshirts all out.

So I broke out my Fisher

Cats sweatshirt two weeks

ago on a Friday night,

and I threw a Fisher Cats game on the TV.

Being from New Hampshire,

I'm a big Fisher Cats fan.

I was there in 2018 when

they won the Eastern League Championship.

So I threw the game on, and it was funny.

They were down.

I forget what it was.

I wrote about it, too.

It was like 9-1 going into

the sixth inning or whatever,

and they came back and won 10-9.

What a great game to watch.

I mean, it's good baseball,

and it's young talent that

you're going to see

At some point, like, for instance,

I'm watching the Blue Jays

game on one of my screens.

Actually, it might have ended by now,

but it was 5-4,

and I just noticed who scored a run.

It was Addison Barger.

I forget how you say his last name.

Barger?

Barger?

He was in New Hampshire last year.

So there's a perfect example.

Somebody who was in New

Hampshire last year got called up,

was at AAA Buffalo to start the year.

He's in the Blue Jays now.

because of Kevin Kamar being injured.

So it's somebody who's in my

top ten for the Blue Jays prospects.

So there's always something

to watch with the prospects.

Always a team.

If you have MLB TV,

you pick your favorite team,

and you scroll down a couple pages,

and it's right there.

It tells you triple-A, double-A, single-A,

high-A, and you can watch all of them.

If you're a baseball fan,

there may not be a better value.

I mean,

I know the Sunday ticket's great

for football.

But if you're a baseball fan

for dollar per game that you can watch,

there may not be a better

value because you don't

just get the major leagues.

You get that all the affiliates.

It may not be quality wise

in regards to the TV quality,

but you get to watch everything.

It's still great.

There's still commentators, the angles.

You may not get all the

reviews and angles that you

would in a pro game,

but there may not be a better value.

for a sports package than

MLB TV when you think about

all the prospects that we're discussing.

Also, the other thing I wanted to touch on,

and I've heard it from Paul Skeens,

he was on the Pat McAfee

show a week or three ago,

something they're trying

out in the minor leagues.

So they do everything,

even the pitch clock,

everything that we're seeing now,

they test in the minor leagues.

So I've heard,

and I don't understand fully how it works,

but I've understood that

three out of the six games a week,

is real umps, and they have robo umps.

So they're testing the robo

umps out in the minor leagues.

So if you want to get a test run on that,

which my understanding is it's simply,

it's still a normal umpire behind you,

but I believe, again,

this is all my understanding,

so if I'm wrong, please, in the comments,

tell me I'm wrong and explain it to me.

But for three games at least,

a batter gets to,

if he doesn't agree with the call,

just taps his helmet and they review it.

And there's literally like

you see on a strike zone

where they show the pitch where it went,

and it says that was a ball,

and it changes the call.

The pitchers can do the same

thing where the pitcher

doesn't agree with the call,

and he just sits there, taps his hat,

and they review it.

I've watched a couple times.

It's actually a really interesting thing,

and I'm actually a fan of it.

So that's something that, again,

if you're interested,

see where the game is,

not just the players,

but the game itself and the

way it's going.

And where it's going to be.

Right.

Check it out.

If you want to see when

Angel Hernandez is soon to retire,

as soon as this gets

brought to the major leagues,

you'll tap of the hat.

You'll be done.

There'll be no more Angel Hernandez.

Funny you say that.

So I said Saturday, the Sox game,

I was sitting in the section.

It was all Cubs fans around me.

And every single fan,

when they showed the

umpires for the game,

All of us snapped our heads

up to the screen to look to

see who was umpiring,

and I heard at least four people say,

please don't be Angel Hernandez.

Yeah.

So just to give you an example, though,

this is the way we're going.

I mean, if you want to see it in a game,

if you have MLB TV, tune in.

If you don't,

I don't know how it works if

you select team by team

because there is an option

to select your favorite team.

but or wait till the

all-star break at the

cheaper value and you can

still tune into you know

everything but There is so

much that MLB TV does offer you.

Yeah,

I mean I'm watching beginning right

now Yeah,

you want to do what we can plug

it right now if you might

as well So right now the

plan is and I'll probably

post it if it's confirmed

we're planning right now to

do a watch party on Wednesday and

where we're going to watch

beginning like this.

Cause MLB MLB is a, uh,

can't show the games.

So I can't tell you what we're watching,

but we're told how the way

everything going on for an hour,

maybe an hour and a half, two hours,

but probably max at two

hours just so people don't

get bored of us.

Um, I'm going to do it.

I think Emily beginning

starts at seven 30 on Wednesday.

So the plan is,

My son's still awake,

so he might make an appearance.

My girlfriend might make an appearance.

Your kids might make an appearance.

Yeah, never know.

Who knows who's going to show up,

but there is a plan.

As of right now,

we're going to try this out.

I'll make an event, I think, on Facebook.

I don't know when we're

going to get this out.

My guess would be probably tomorrow.

Tomorrow, yeah.

Our plan is if you're

available Wednesday and you

want to come watch baseball with us,

we'll sit here.

We'll talk about everything.

I don't know how the live works,

so I don't know if we'll see comments.

If we do, I'll tell you.

comment we'll talk like

we'll gladly talk um but so

if you're available

wednesday night 7 30

between we'll say 7 30 to 9

yep and come tune out come

to or come tune in jeez

words um but it happens

yeah so it'll be fun we're

gonna do that and again you

know like cj said if you're

interested in joining us

just go to the web page

Join us and let us know what

you're thinking about or reach out to us.

Comment here or even on

Facebook for Inside the Diamonds.

Just reach out to us.

We're looking to add to this group.

Kind of excited, not nervous, but excited,

anxious for Wednesday.

See how that goes.

And watch those games.

But, again, another fun episode.

We try to keep it.

as short as we can.

So everyone can listen to in

one short car ride,

but there's so much going

on with baseball and

there's only so much we can

write about that.

It seems like as we start

talking more pops up and

we're trying to keep them

shorter for you guys and

produce more content.

So, you know, like subscribe, you know,

write in the comments what

you'd like to see us do and

we'll keep it up.

And next episode,

we'll kind of hit on the,

the Orioles-Yankees,

the Braves-Dodgers series,

and then we'll have some

more interesting content.

And I'm sure Wednesday,

depending on what's going on in the games,

but we'll probably also

have some series preview

talk and just talk about

different series coming up

for the weekend.

So if you hear this and

you're interested and you

don't have much going on Wednesday,

join us and see what we're all about.

So another great episode,

fun to talk about.

Just to give people an idea,

on Wednesday night, we're looking at 730.

What will be going on?

We'll have Red Sox Giants.

We will have, wow,

probably the end of Philly's Angels, Reds,

Padres.

We will have the third game,

which will have Corbin Burns.

We have Yankees, Orioles.

We will have Rockies, Marlins, Cubs, Mets,

Nationals, Rangers, Guardians, Astros.

That's the Verlander game.

And we'll probably end up, no,

we'll be done before then.

So that's probably the last

game that we'll start while

we're on live.

So if you're interested in

any of those teams,

you want to come talk with us,

come on in.

Last thing I'll say is Ellie Daly Cruz,

another home run.

1-1 for the Reds and Padres right now.

I mean,

I won't be shocked if he doesn't

steal 100 bases this year.

With the new base rules,

his walk rate is up,

strikeout rate is down.

This guy is something to watch.

He is electric,

and I would not be shocked

if he doesn't steal upwards of 80 to 100.

That's something that's real this year,

and he's got the power,

and he's got his eye going

for him right now.

So another great episode, CJ.

Really appreciate it.

Like, subscribe, comment,

whatever you want to do, let us know.

But thanks again for tuning in.

Thanks, guys.

Everybody have a good week.

We'll see you next week.

See ya.