Splash Considerations Ep. 34: At the Core of it All (feat. Dieter Kurtenbach)

WEBVTT
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Welcome to another episode of Smash Considerations.
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My name is Justice Delos Santos, San Francisco Giants B reporter for the Bay Area News Group, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, whatever you want to call us, as long as you read, as long as you subscribe.
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And speaking of subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow us on Apple, follow us on Spotify.
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A lot of things in this world cost a lot of money.
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Have you seen gas prices lately?
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But subscribing to following those things remain free 99 and just the moment of your time.
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And I'm joined now by my teammate.
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The straw that stirs the drink.
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To quote Pete Weber, love him or hate him, you watched Deater Curtainbog.
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Welcome to the show.
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Who do you think guy you are?
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I am.
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I am.
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Yeah, I have never, because I'm a bigger gentleman, uh, to say the least, I've very rarely ever been called a straw.
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So thank you.
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Appreciate that.
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Is that a saying that alludes to like a certain physique?
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I never thought.
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Correct.
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I believe that would be uh that'd be a skit, a skinny feller.
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Uh tall skinny fella.
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That would be me.
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That would be me.
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Although to quote uh Kyle Haynes referring to Giant Level, I'd like to think I've got some uh small man power.
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I'd like to think it's in there uh a little bit.
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But no one no one questions my power here.
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It's just a it's it's it's a legitimate issue of is there too much power?
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Should we maybe tone down the power a little bit?
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That's how I like to describe it.
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80 grade power on the on the on the airwaves there, Deter, as always.
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But there we go.
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Dieter, we have we have hammered this team all year long.
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You've done it in print form and audio form.
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I guess we've both done it.
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I guess we've both done it in print form and audio form.
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But why have we done that?
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I I don't know, but but Dieter, I'm happy to report that the 2026 San Francisco Giants, we're gonna start with some good news here.
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Cool.
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It took until the last month of the year, but they have swept a team.
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Yep.
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No, no team allows the Giants to go like what, however many like 50 series in a row without recording this week.
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They still haven't won four in a row, but uh, they're also one loss away from avoiding 100.
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They have 11 games left.
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Uh statistically speaking, probably gonna avoid it, but yeah, you know, we'll we will we will see uh where this team kind of stands uh last week.
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But a lot of things to get to uh over the course of the past week.
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But the place where we got to start is with one uh Mr.
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Rafael Devers, and he's gonna be out for the remainder of the 2026 season.
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And you know, the announcement itself kind of came out of nowhere.
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Like we knew that Devers was wasn't exactly 100% healthy.
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There was kind of a stretch there where he was pretty much exclusively DHing.
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You could kind of see it uh in times and how he'd run, especially with how hard he would be going first to third.
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Um, but you wouldn't have guessed, based off how he's performing at least, that he had been battling something like this for the whole season.
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Because, you know, aside from April, the numbers have been really damn good.
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And Vitello said he's been dealing with this most of the season.
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Uh, he also said it's been affecting him for several years.
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And he talked about Devers getting some relief uh now that he's got a got an idea of what this thing actually is.
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I think he's supposed to get surgery uh today.
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Might even be as we're speaking, but Dieter, before before we get into Devers, I thought I told you we were gonna start somewhere fun.
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Oh, I love it.
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It's trivia time.
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Oh boy.
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Raphael Devers became the 16th player to go on the Giants 60-day I.
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How many of those 16 guys can you name?
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And remember, but during before step rosters expand, we only got 26 spots.
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We're only we've got we're more than halfway to a full roster here.
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Okay.
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I gave you one of them, so we got Rafi.
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Rafi, uh, Casey Schmidt, uh Matt Chapman.
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That's three.
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Um, I will say some of these are yeah, some of these are kind of sicko adjacent.
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Like there's one in here.
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There's we're we're gonna fade and we're gonna fade fast, don't get me wrong here.
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Um uh uh wizen hunt.
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Yes.
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Um I'm missing somebody on the uh on the on the infield here.
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Um who am I missing?
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This is a good question.
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Um uh Adamus?
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Adamus.
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No, not not 60 day I.
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What?
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It's kinda it's kind of semantics at this point.
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Like they they haven't officially ruled him out for the season.
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Like, there's still Oh, I think they should bring him back.
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I think that he should absolutely they should get him on the first train back.
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Um I I'm just gonna cheat now.
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Uh, some of the pitchers.
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I mean, it's just the elbow explosions uh across the board.
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Uh what's Victor Barracotto doing?
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Have they put him on the 60?
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Not on the 60.
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He's actually in rehab games with Sacramento.
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Here, I'll give you I'll give you some of the one of these guys actually, two of these guys are rookie catchers.
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Oh, so Jesus.
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That is one.
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Who is the other rookie catcher that they had this year?
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Who did they call up?
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Oh, what was his name?
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No, yeah, no, what was his name?
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Um not Andrew.
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Not not Andrew Kinzer, no, he's playing.
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Um damn it.
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You see, now now my credibility of whatever I had, which was minimal to begin with, is completely shot.
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Just list the goddamn names, Justice.
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Yeah, okay, so the the guys that you're well, okay, one of these the one that's Buddy Kennedy on the 60 for no good reason?
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No.
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Um the one the one that I need you to get.
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Yeah.
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Uh he he may not play another game as a giant ever because of the way that he ended up on the 60-day I.
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Oh, oh, uh Harrison Bader.
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Correct.
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Thank you.
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So as far as as far as the other catch.
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That one, that one.
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I presumed, I presumed he was on like a Brandon Ayuk left team list, and there was some sort of underpinning that was like, hey, we're not because they're not paying him, right?
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Like he's still under investigation.
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Currently not paying him, but among the others, uh, Daniel Susek, that is the other catcher.
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Uh Randy Rodriguez.
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I was unaware that Daniel Susek was on the 60-day aisle.
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I just presumed he's stunk.
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No, he's he had a really good solid rookie season, especially defensively.
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But he's a rookie?
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He's a that's the thing with this team.
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Like, there's been some guys where because of the roster turn, you're like, that guy's not a rookie.
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Like in my head, like Bryce is might as well be a five-year vet.
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Oh, yeah.
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I mean, I yeah, well, he was he was a rule five, so I guess kind of inherently he had to be a rookie.
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Rule five guy.
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Kind of.
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But the the rest of the guys, Randy Rodriguez, who's actually gonna be in the uh Arizona Fall League for the Giants.
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Randy Rodriguez, is that count?
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So like Randy Rodriguez was never in.
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So okay.
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But they still got to put him on the 60-day I.
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He's still part of the 40-man roster.
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So he never he doesn't count towards a 40-man spot.
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But I'm I'm actually I'm not going to do this, but I'm excited to see someone who does do this.
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Like, I'm excited for the dispatch from the Arizona Fall League.
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I'm a big Arizona Fall League guy.
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Uh Arizona Fall League kicks ass.
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Mainly the hats.
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But otherwise, pretty like the cigar.
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Oh my God.
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So good.
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And there's I gotta go to Fall League one year.
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I'll never do it, but I I gotta do it.
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I I always say the same.
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Um, but they've got some intriguing guys in the Fall League, Dakota Jordan uh being one of them.
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But among the rest of the 60-day IL guys, Aiden Bird song, Trevor McDonald, Matt Gage, Jose Bruto, Adrian Hauser, and the one sicko guy, and this is no disrespect to him, it's the fact that he hasn't I haven't even seen him with my own two eyes, is Rowan Wick, who they of course signed.
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Rowan Wick.
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They signed to the one-one deal uh in spring training coming off of TJ.
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But anyway, let's that that's a player option, I presume.
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That is uh I have to go ahead and double check, actually.
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I think it might be a team option.
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It has to be a team option.
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Why would you do just give him the two-year deal?
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Like, what the I get you know what, fair enough though, actually.
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Like, if the recovery's not coming along well, you can do a very cold-hearted thing and just cut his back.
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And he he got paid.
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He got paid anyway.
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But let's circle back to one Mr.
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Raphael Deber's uh whole reason we were talking about the 60-day aisle, because just watching him like the last like three weeks, basically, like pretty much since he returned to Boston, and it and in front of the program, Andrew Bagley brought up an interesting point, like whether or not like going back to Boston kind of closed a feedback loop for him, like getting some closure, but whatever it was, pretty much since going back to Boston, just been unreal.
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And you know, he has been one of the best hitters in baseball since May.
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But and so just your thoughts on Rafael Debra's first full season as a San Francisco Giant.
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Well, I mean, the the last I would say it was even before Boston.
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Um, the man didn't see a ball that he couldn't hit and hit very hard and uh ends the season with 37 home runs.
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He surely had three stolen from him by Oracle Park, 98 RBIs.
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He had at least five, actually.
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I looked this up.
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Oh, functional.
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Yeah, I mean sometimes it gets a little on the line, but like I there were a couple where it's like 111 off the bat and it hits the top of the brick wall, and you're like, that ain't right.
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There was like four that I saw.
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I went on Savant.
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There was at least four where they would have been a homer everywhere else but Oracle Park.
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The man absolutely laces it, and he made he made major league pitchers and good major league pitchers at that.
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The not not announced to this was the Willie Adamas, we're in Colorado cheapies.
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Um made good major league pitchers, the guys that they were bringing into games specifically for him, starters that were in early innings.
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He made them look like batting practice for the last like two months.
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And that is the Rafi Devers that was promised.
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Um, I'm not gonna read into the RBI thing because you have to have ducks on the pond to get RBIs, uh, but he sure drove in a lot of runs for a team that doesn't score a lot of runs.
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He had a sub 700 OPS as recently as June 12th, and he ends the season with the 865, 37 home runs, 98 RBIs.
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Like that is in fuego.
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Info just preposterous performance from Rafi Devers.
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Um it it's a it's a weird market, too, and it's a strange, strange time to be a San Francisco Giant, to say the least.
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Um, he was brought in on these expectations of compete now, we're fighting the Dodgers, we're putting together our own super team, which I don't know a lot about comic books, but I can't imagine that was a very well-selling comic book, the the super team that the Giants put together.
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It's like I'm have you seen the other one?
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Um, or the other two, uh, but there's uh there's something reassuring to the fact that after all of the nonsense, and there was a tremendous amount of nonsense this year with the Miami situation being top of the list for me, that he just figured it out.
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He just figured it out.
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He figured out he's he's a pretty inscrutable guy.
00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:21.919
Uh, you know him infinitely better than I do, because you can't divide by zero.
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But uh, from what I can tell with with chatting with people who who have covered him before and have been around him before, like pretty inscrutable guy, um, but a pro's pro.
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And I don't know if he was pressing or not.
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I can't make that analysis.
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I can't hit a baseball like him.
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But for him to be able to figure it out amid all of the nonsense was very encouraging.
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And there's been a couple of giants like that where it's like we got a lot of nonsense going on with this team, and some guys fought through it, made some adjustments, and made it happen.
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And that's what we were really looking for, uh, I would argue, Justice, over the last couple of months here.
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They're not like a good baseball team now, but they're a better baseball team than they were, with you know, Rafi, Eldridge, and then you know, the Sacramento Rivercats in effect.
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Rafi and the Rivercats, new bands.
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That's the hat you're wearing.
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Go Rainier's.
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Um, and so uh you can get an unbelievable hot dog deal at the Chacoma Raineers games.
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Um, but it's uh it's encouraging.
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I also then just kind of you know, my general pessimism comes in, and we go, I don't know if this is now standard operating procedure in perpetuity for Rafi Devers and the Giants.
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Like we can't, but we've seen now some high end.
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I would argue we've seen the high end of Rafi Devers.
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That's not something we had seen before for a prolonged period of time.
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And that's the kind of stuff that gets guys paid, like Rafi Devers got paid.
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So at least being able to see it gives us rightful hope that next year, the years to come, this guy's going to be a performer because we hadn't seen it.
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And we were running up on like a year of Rafi Devers being a giant and we hadn't seen it.
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And you're starting to wonder after about a year of not seeing it, are we ever going to see this?
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And then here it is, it's in all of its glory.
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And uh it really, it really did kind of save the season from the worst case scenario that was very much coming into play.
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And I think it also, because he's the highest paid guy on the team, I don't know if he's that's functionally true or not, but he's this he's the guy on the team.
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He's the one that when you have all these kids around, they're gonna be like, well, what's Rafi Devers do?
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Even if he's not chatting them up and being, you know, Mr.
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Outgoing or whatever, he's still the pros pro.
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He's still the guy who's, you know, been the middle of the lineup bat and won a World Series.
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He's still that guy.
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He still has that cachet.
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And he deserved that cachet because he did all that great stuff in Boston.
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When he starts to click in, I think maybe everybody else figured out, okay, well, here's where we slot in around that.
00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:58.000
But without that sort of anchor of a lineup, without that anchor of a rotation, which I'd argue they still don't really have outside of maybe we'll talk about them later.
00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:02.480
Um when you have that, it helps everything else.
00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:04.720
I mean, I I'm in football mode right now.
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I'm looking at a lot of offensive lines around football, and there's a lot of young offensive linemen.
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Well, it's a lot easier to be a young offensive lineman if you're playing next to somebody who's been in the wars for a while, and they can give you some tips and hints and they can help you out a little bit.
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Um, it's not, you know, it's not necessarily the best way to build a team, in my opinion.
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I would start with all the young guys and let them figure it out and figure out their slots as they progress together.
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But the way that the Giants are built, this is the way that it always had to be.
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Rafi Devers finding his form um gives the Giants a little bit of structure in what has been a very structureless season, in my army.
00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:52.000
Yeah, and to the point that you were mentioning about the young guys, like a lot of young guys have really just raved about Rafi because, as you said, like I'm sure they knew like what he was battling through the entire season.
00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:55.039
And this is a guy that's already gotten paid.
00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:58.720
He had pretty much every incentive to take some days off here and there.
00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:03.200
He didn't take his first day off as a giant until last week.
00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:09.200
It broke a 309 consecutive game or streak of games played dating back to when he was still with the Red Sox.
00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:15.279
And it's it's such a baseball thing to say, but like regardless of what happens over the course of the season, he posts.
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:17.519
And like you mentioned the Miami thing.
00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:21.279
It's pretty much since then, it's been really smooth operating, smooth sailing.
00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:45.279
Like, yeah, the only context in which we've really talked about Devers since then has been just how well he's been hitting the ball and kind of extrapolating this out to you know, Lar to going into next season, you know, even in a season so bleak, I think the Giants have to feel really good going into the offseason, not just with Devers having had the season that he had, but with Bryce Eldridge also having had the season that he continues to have.
00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:47.759
And it's a legitimate one-two punch.
00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:52.879
And you know, we talked to both of them, you know, I think it was two weeks ago at this point in Pittsburgh.
00:15:52.960 --> 00:16:00.960
And I have what, you know, we talked to both of them, and Bryce said, you know, when they acquired him, all he could think about was forming a battery with him, being a one-two punch.
00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:07.120
And yeah, I think Devers, I forget what the question was, but when he was asked about Eldridge, he said there's not much I can teach him.
00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:07.440
Right.
00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:19.600
And when there's a when there's a guy that's a three-time All-Star and a two-time silver slugger saying there's not much I can teach this guy, yeah, you gotta be feeling really good about a potential tandem that this is a legitimately lineup carrying tandem.
00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:31.440
And to echo a point made by other friend of the program, Grant Brisbee, uh, a big red button with a placard reading, Giants lose 90 plus games, a Bryce Eldridge is who was promised, would have been awfully tempting to mash.
00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:32.960
And yeah, this season's been awful.
00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:35.120
It's been objective from a wins and loss perspective.
00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:44.399
But you can now go into next season saying, like, hey, like these are the legitimate anchors to a major league lineup that can feasibly compete.
00:16:44.559 --> 00:16:51.120
And that's before you get into everybody else that's gonna be coming back from the the 50 other guys coming off the the 60 day IL in a couple weeks.
00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.360
Who knows what the bottom end of this roster is gonna look like?
00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:55.200
They got some decisions to make with the 40.
00:16:55.279 --> 00:17:12.400
Uh I I think back also to that Miami situation, and listen, it was a big deal at the time because he wasn't performing and he was overtly churlish, and you're like, man, this is a manifestation of everything that's gone wrong.
00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:21.119
And it's understandable, he's frustrated, he's not playing well, he's Rafi Devers, like he's probably never been in that spot before in his life, but at the same time, like you can't be showing up your manager.
00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:34.160
I remember talking to Kruko after that happened, and he was relaying a story that he had heard about how Rafi and Tony Vitello hashed it out on the plane coming back from Miami.
00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:44.480
And Kruko's phrase, and I kind of I mean, earnestly, I rolled my eyes when he said it was Tony Vitello became a big league manager on that plane ride home.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:48.559
And you're like, okay, you know, we all know who cuts the checks, this and that.
00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:59.119
I don't buy into that a hundred percent, but I do also think that Tony, and maybe this is this would have just happened with time anyway, and this, you know, the timeline's aligned here.
00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:05.759
But uh, I do think that Tony has found more of himself since Devers has had that moment.
00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:07.039
They had the blow up.
00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:12.240
Sometimes he doesn't need to have the fight, so that it all clears the air.
00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:14.160
And there was a lot of weirdness.
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:26.559
There's still weirdness, not arguing there isn't, but Tony, I think, started to become a bit more, and uh you can speak to the clubhouse element of this, um, which is usually from what uh all things I've heard pretty good.
00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:36.480
But um it felt like he was maybe a bit more authoritative from that point on, and now you get all these kids around him now, and you're like, oh, Tony's in his element.
00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:40.640
And that was unquestionably the big question coming into the season.
00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.359
Like, how does Tony Vitello handle all of this?
00:18:43.440 --> 00:18:55.519
And there are reasons to buy into Tony Vitello now, whereas a couple of months ago, just I mean, a matter of weeks ago, you would have looked at it and said, listen, if they want to fire him, they can fire him.
00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:58.319
Like, no problem, no, no harm, no foul.
00:18:58.400 --> 00:18:59.519
Like, you gave it a go.
00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:04.480
It's gonna cost you some money, but you know, fun effort, get in a big leaguer.
00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:08.160
And now you're like, okay, I'm not saying it's gonna be great.
00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:20.079
It still might end up being the the O-ring of this whole rocket ship, but there's something there that I'm willing to explore again next season, whatever next season might be.
00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:40.240
That Miami situation was a turning point for this baseball team, not with the record, not in any sense like that, but in just maybe getting some solid footing as an organization, as a baseball team, and kind of understanding what the hierarchy is, because now Tony knows, okay, Rafi's blowing up now.
00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.440
Rafi's now absolutely taking out his anger on the baseball.
00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:45.519
Okay, here's where I fit in with that.
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:47.519
And that that was that was always the tricky part.
00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:52.240
You're bringing in a guy with no major league experience to a clubhouse with a couple of guys who are getting a quarter of a billion dollars.
00:19:52.319 --> 00:19:53.599
Like, where do I fit in here?
00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:54.799
Where do I fit in here?
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:59.119
And once him and Rafi Devers figured out where they fit in, you don't have to worry about William Damas.
00:19:59.279 --> 00:20:00.720
You don't have to worry about Matt Chapman.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:02.559
That's for next year, maybe.
00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.200
And uh now you have all these kids.
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:07.920
Tony Vitello's like, this is where I slot in.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.079
This is the hierarchy, this is the the way of the world, this is the jungle.
00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:14.880
Uh, and I think that that's been beneficial.
00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:19.839
And again, they're playing better ball to the point where they can sweep a team since that moment.
00:20:19.920 --> 00:20:22.480
Uh, but it's all Rafi in the middle of the lineup, right?
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:26.400
Like, but the alpha, the alpha needed to uh establish his territory.
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:28.480
We all needed to figure out what was going on there.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:37.680
Yeah, I'm I'm not gonna explain the context of why we were talking about trickle-down economics before the podcast started, but it's because we're very high-minded thinkers with justice.
00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:39.759
We rarely talk about this silly baseball thing.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.240
We've got the 80s, yeah.
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:43.839
It's just the world writ large.
00:20:43.920 --> 00:20:45.519
I mean, I have many thoughts on the bond market.
00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:46.480
We can get into that right now.
00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:48.400
I don't know what Besson's doing.
00:20:48.799 --> 00:21:00.079
But, you know, there is kind of that element of, you know, once, you know, these are two of the most important, not even like kind of they are the two of the most important figures on this team, Rafael Debras and Tony Vitello.
00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:04.720
And once you get that dynamic figured out, that bodes well for everything else going forward.
00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:12.000
Now, it is gonna be, you know, to the point that you mentioned, it is gonna be interesting once next year rolls around and you get Willie Damas back and you get Matt Chapman back.
00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:17.440
Because this Giants team, like the in sweeping the Cardinals, like they had to come back from a five-run deficit.
00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:25.279
Like, they've shown I don't want to say grittiness, I want to say being like an irritability in a positive way.
00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:28.000
Like, it's just like they're not a fun team to play right now.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:39.440
It's like and isn't that what we were promised with Vitello that they would have this sort of collegiate dirtbag energy where it's just like, man, I just don't hard to love unless you're rooting for them, unless you got the hat on.
00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:48.559
And even with you know, they were swept by the Padres this past weekend, but in every single one of those games, like they were pretty much one swing away from tying that game.
00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:53.440
I think it was the game on maybe Saturday in particular where they're going up against Mason Miller.
00:21:53.680 --> 00:21:57.599
I think it's it was Nate Furman comes off the bench, draws, draws a walk.
00:21:57.759 --> 00:21:59.680
Jonah, Jonah Cock's later.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:05.680
Down a bunt on a hundred and one mile an hour fastball one count.
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:10.640
And then Rafael Devers draws a walk and that brings Bryce Eldge to the plate with a chance to hit another walk off Grant Slane.
00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:12.799
That penultimate swing that he had.
00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:13.200
Yeah.
00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:18.079
Where it balls in the dirt and he's like, what if I we're not playing cricket, Bryce?
00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.240
Yeah, that was you gotta have the you gotta have those reps to figure it out.
00:22:22.559 --> 00:22:24.960
Mason Miller has done so much worse.
00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:27.039
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:28.640
I'm not holding it against Eldridge.
00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:32.319
I I saw some reaction online, which is a silly place to go for reaction.
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:35.759
And um like I don't know if Bryce Eldridge is the guy.
00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:37.039
And it's like, I don't know, man.
00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:38.799
I think Mason Miller's pretty good.
00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:42.079
That was a I think it was a 2-1 pitch, too.
00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:44.079
It was like a two-one down and away slider.
00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:53.759
And you know, you understand from Bryce's perspective, that pitch is where he ends up, that ball's probably going like 500 feet, and then strikes out on like that just a perfectly dodd to four scene.
00:22:53.839 --> 00:22:57.200
But like even in that game, it's like Mason Miller is one of the best closers in baseball.
00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:01.039
And you are making life, he might be the best pitcher in baseball.
00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:03.519
And you are making life very difficult for him.
00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:10.559
So to see you know this scrappiness, this kind of irritability, I think it really bodes well for you know this team next year.
00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:13.519
But the biggest question is can you sustain that?
00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:22.799
Because it took until Bryce Eldritch's walk-off grand slam, whenever it was, for them to finally win a game in which they were trailing after six runs.
00:23:23.119 --> 00:23:34.720
But now they have now once that broke through a little bit, and there was a lot of very grand proclamations after that game for a team that I think was just fending off the Rockies by a game and a half at the time.
00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:38.400
Um, but there, you know, a lot of like face of the franchise and stuff.
00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:39.599
And listen, I wrote it too.
00:23:39.680 --> 00:23:53.599
Like we you get caught up in it, you're looking for anything positive, so you get this ounce of positivity and kind of a shocking game, and it's just like just dump unload the truck of all the positive we need we've been backed up for a while.
00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:56.880
Uh, I won't make a terrible analogy, but you don't y'all know where I'm going.
00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:06.400
And um it was a glorious evacuation, and um it's uh they they have now had some comeback wins since then.
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:08.400
They they kind of saw that they could do it.
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:16.480
Um, it's just a very weird spot for this organization to be to where it's like you come in thinking, maybe I don't know, 90, maybe they can win 90.
00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:26.240
They're supposed to be on the up and things are going, and then you bring in Vitello, and now you're kind of having to treat them like a team that's a rebuilding team because you look at the roster and it sure gives you that impression.
00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:29.839
But you're kind of like, oh, they had to learn how to win, they had to do all these things.
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:35.680
Okay, a little annoying that we're talking about stuff like that, but also if that's the case, they're doing it.
00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:41.839
Like, would you prefer it the other way around where they're not figuring out how to do these things that you'll need to do to be successful?
00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:44.240
So I'm with you on the scrappiness.
00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:46.319
I I I that's what Vitella was brought in to do.
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.799
That's what Sleepy Bob Melvin couldn't get this team to do.
00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:56.799
And I don't know if Tony's a good manager or not, but I do like the tenor of this team a lot more right now.
00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:02.799
And to your point, again, which is a piggyback off of my point, which means that we should probably move to a different point.
00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:09.200
Um, to your point, like, how does this all fit in when you bring in the high-priced guys again?
00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:26.400
When you know Rafi figured out where he fits in amid amid the kids, the kids seem to have a little something to them now, not necessarily the most talent across the board, though there's some players that are going to stick around to be sure, but um they they have an energy to them, they play the game a certain way.
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.559
There's a repeatable output that you can kind of expect from them.
00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:33.920
How does Willie Adamas and Matt Chapman fit into that?
00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:37.920
Do they hop in, get in line, now they're playing that way too?
00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:49.440
Or does the big money, do the big money guys, you know, run it a little bit more calmly, if you will, saying, hey, you know, we're we're in it for the long run.
00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:54.400
We put in a lot of years of major league service, maybe we cool it down with all this scrappiness, we'll get them again tomorrow.
00:25:54.559 --> 00:25:56.720
Um, it's that's gonna be a huge question.
00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:00.559
Then again, you might have a sprint season next season, so you know, figure it out.
00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:04.160
Yeah, and one one point that we need to kind of pin a ball on this.
00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:14.240
Yeah, there so if there's 60 or if there's if there's 16 guys on the 60-day IL, that means a lot of the guys on this current team are going to be DFA'd in November.
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:18.319
So a lot of that scrappiness is kind of a you know, these are guys fighting for job security.
00:26:18.400 --> 00:26:19.039
Like, that's kind of a problem.
00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:20.240
Nothing wrong with that, though.
00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:21.759
Like, and there's that's the thing.
00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:27.599
I mean, it you don't want to go full Farhan, but like it's not as if Farhan's methodology was incorrect.
00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:33.279
It's not as if he didn't understand that look look at the brewers, look at the Rays.
00:26:33.440 --> 00:26:39.279
Like the pressure of major league baseball is enough, but it also sharpens you a little bit.
00:26:39.440 --> 00:26:41.279
It makes you stay on your toes.
00:26:41.599 --> 00:27:05.920
And maybe, and not to get too deep into like labor negotiations, maybe having that possibility of making obscene money for the doing the exact same thing you've always been doing, and in fact, more often than not, less than you've ever been doing, um, is enough to keep guys motivated to lock in every day and to play game, you know, play the game in an entertaining and correct manner, though correct is very subjective.
00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:12.640
Like, I don't know, but um it is I like the energy of this team a lot better.
00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:22.480
It makes a lot more sense with the manager that they have, that it's all kind of clicking is ridiculous because they're still a losing baseball team, but like that it it feels more right.
00:27:22.799 --> 00:27:30.480
Um, and I just have no it it kind of again, maybe even points to the larger point of just like what a weirdly built team in the first place.
00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:39.759
What a strange environment we entered in that it's basically taken five months to figure out what the hell they are and what the hell they're supposed to be doing.
00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:47.359
Uh, that they had to go through all of these growing pains just to find a spot to where it's like, oh, okay, there's a little bit of an identity here.
00:27:47.519 --> 00:27:51.759
Um, that that kind of goes on the front office, not so much Tony Vitello and all.
00:27:51.839 --> 00:28:02.319
And the front office, um I don't know if they'll be heeding the information that is being presented to them currently or if they want to continue this moving forward, because you see the attendance.
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:11.920
I mean, obviously school's back and all the tourists are gone and all that, but like it's not as if you know the town's abuzz with the scrappy kid giants.
00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:22.880
So I'm I'm curious as to the business decisions that come into all this, because as we know from the trade deadline, business decisions have a big play in how the San Francisco Giants go about building their rosters.
00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:34.480
I'm glad that you said the phrase business decisions, Dieter, because uh the Giants kind of have a business decision to make in regards to their current face of the franchise, and that being one Logan Webb.
00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:34.799
Yeah.
00:28:34.960 --> 00:28:36.559
Because Rafael Divers is done for the season.
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:38.160
A lot of other guys are done for the season.
00:28:38.240 --> 00:28:44.720
There are 11 games remaining for Logan Webb, that pretty much equates to two starts.
00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:45.279
Right.
00:28:45.519 --> 00:28:50.079
And when you consider everything, and there's a lot to consider.
00:28:50.319 --> 00:29:06.799
Boy, is there um I tried really I legitimately tried hard to think of a counter argument to what I'm about to say, but like I did, can you think of a valid reason, like a legitimately valid reason why Logan Webb should throw another pitch this year?
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:10.799
Um, because his ERA is 431 and you're trying to trade him in the offseason.
00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:13.920
So if you can get two more starts in there and he lowers his ERA, that's good.
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:17.920
But if he continues to be bad, that's par for the course.
00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:20.000
Um, but that's not where they're thinking.
00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:21.599
They won't even entertain that thought.
00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:27.839
So no, there's no good reason for Logan Webb to start another couple games outside of who the hell else is gonna start these games.
00:29:28.079 --> 00:29:30.400
Well, I'm glad that you asked that, dear, because thank you.
00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:38.799
So Landon, so Landon Rube, that I think that's also a consideration because I think he's now at 160 in two-thirds innings.
00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:44.480
His next yeah, and in that case, you it's an easy thing to just be like, nah, we, you know, inning limit, this and that.
00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:50.720
With Logan Webb, who's you know led major league baseball in innings many times, it's like, but what about the bulldog of it all?
00:29:50.880 --> 00:29:52.319
Like, are we undercutting that?
00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:54.799
Yeah, I who who the hell's gonna start?
00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:56.000
Who the hell's gonna start?
00:29:56.240 --> 00:30:06.880
So your current considerations, like let's just assume that Roop stays in the rotation, but they limit him to like 75 pitches, not only throw 90 in his last couple starts.
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:15.839
So you have, and I'm not saying this is the greatest you know rotation that's ever been built, but you do have Cesar Perdomo, Anthony Molina, uh, Junior Marte.
00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:18.880
There's somebody else that I'm forgetting despite the fact that I have my notes here.
00:30:18.960 --> 00:30:20.720
But give Spencer Bivens a start.
00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:21.839
He got DFA'd.
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:23.119
He's on the Royals now.
00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:23.599
I know.
00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.079
I'm just he'll come back.
00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:27.920
He'll like he's like Buddy Kennedy.
00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:29.200
Jeez.
00:30:29.759 --> 00:30:32.880
But yeah, it's regardless of I actually look this up.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:39.839
Even if he was even if Webb was to end his season with back-to-back nine-inning shutouts, his ERA could only go as low as 385.
00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:47.519
So, regardless of if he was to pitch these last couple games, it's gonna be the worst ERA uh of his career since he became an established start.
00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:48.880
It's probably gonna be the worst FIP-2.
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:54.799
He's 40 innings short of 200, so that that's not even a box that you can check off.
00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:56.799
He missed a month of knee injury.
00:30:56.960 --> 00:31:02.319
Right, there was also the WBC in March, and this is the ultimate like correlation causation.
00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:03.759
Like, did it actually affect him?
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:05.759
Like, we're never gonna really know.
00:31:05.920 --> 00:31:08.079
But it also affected Paul Skeens, Tariq Scooby.
00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.079
Not an issue for Tariq Scuble.
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:11.920
He just he just ducked out.
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:15.200
He he missed a little bit of time, even if it was just the one inning.
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:17.200
But you know, that's gonna be one of those questions.
00:31:17.279 --> 00:31:19.920
Like, he's been asked, he says, no clue, not sure.
00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:24.079
And it's you know, again, correlation, causation, yada yada yada.
00:31:24.559 --> 00:31:33.920
But yeah, yeah, it's I can understand the pride element, and sure, like he's at he's at eight wins right now, like he's got two more starts.
00:31:34.079 --> 00:31:38.319
He hasn't not had a season where he hasn't had 10 wins uh since that game.
00:31:39.119 --> 00:31:43.519
And but you're also going up against the Dodgers, so that'd be a tough draw anyway.
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:48.640
But I given where this season has gone, they're already out of playoff contention.
00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:53.599
They just feasibly they could be able to win one more game without him in a void 100.
00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:56.799
I just I just think I'm gonna ask you a question.
00:31:56.880 --> 00:32:01.279
I I could have looked this up, but this would have required me to be more professional.
00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:03.359
Using AI cloud?
00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:05.519
No, that's gonna end us all.
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:06.640
Yeah, yeah.
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:11.039
Oh, congratulations in the same way that don't don't don't start me.
00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:15.359
Um I love being astroturfed by idiots online.
00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.279
Um, so uh it's gonna end us all in terms of the economy.
00:32:19.519 --> 00:32:20.240
So you started me.
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:28.559
Um so the uh the question that you need to ask here isn't should he?
00:32:29.039 --> 00:32:32.000
It's how many of those starts are at home?
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:33.359
One.
00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:34.799
One of them would be at home.
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:39.359
The next first or second start at home.
00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:41.200
Uh it would be the second one.
00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:43.759
So it'd be the his last start of the year would be at home.
00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:44.960
He's pitching.
00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:49.119
If they were both on the road, they might have shot him down.
00:32:49.440 --> 00:32:51.599
But if he has another home start in him, he's pitching.
00:32:52.799 --> 00:32:53.599
Business.
00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:56.799
I think it would be against the Dodgers though.
00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:00.559
So do you really I think that the the draw is kind of there?
00:33:00.799 --> 00:33:02.960
I don't know if Shohei's gonna be there, but you know.
00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:03.920
Fair enough.
00:33:04.079 --> 00:33:04.640
Fair enough.
00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:06.079
Interesting, interesting.
00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:08.640
Yeah, but eh, we'll we'll see.
00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:10.160
We're I I don't know.
00:33:10.240 --> 00:33:11.920
I love this front office so much.
00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:18.000
The fact that the fact that you can't immediately be like, that's ridiculous, Dieter, kind of says it all.
00:33:18.480 --> 00:33:25.759
But yeah, to the point about whether or not they're gonna do it, uh, we asked Tony Vitello after Webb's last star, which he allowed six runs over five innings.
00:33:26.160 --> 00:33:28.319
Um, they said it would be a conversation.
00:33:28.480 --> 00:33:30.880
Webb said we'll have that talk.
00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:36.400
Um, it is worth noting that Webb is also allowed 23 earned runs over his last five starts.
00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:39.680
That is the most he's allowed in a five-star stretch in his career.
00:33:39.759 --> 00:33:42.559
That includes nine against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:47.279
Uh, that includes, I think, six over two and two-thirds innings against the Boston Red Sox.
00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:53.759
So it's it's not like he's also like has like full steam ahead, like all the momentum in the world.
00:33:54.079 --> 00:34:02.640
And again, like there's it's regardless of what happened, even he well, I'm not gonna say even if he threw back-to-back perfect games, but it's just not a great season for him.
00:34:02.799 --> 00:34:05.039
Can I can I ask you, is he still calling his own games?
00:34:06.079 --> 00:34:11.519
To my knowledge, no, and that actually that actually brings up a a point that I wanted to make.
00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:24.800
Um I think it's it's again correlation causation, it's hard it's tough to say, but I think it is worth noting that Logan Webb has been caught by six different catchers this year.
00:34:24.960 --> 00:34:29.679
Daniel Susak, Jesus Rodriguez, Eric Haas, Andrew Kisner, Drew Kavanaugh.
00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:31.119
Who am I forgetting?
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:32.559
As a catcher?
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:34.239
Oh, why am I forgetting?
00:34:35.360 --> 00:34:36.239
Why are you forgetting?
00:34:36.320 --> 00:34:37.599
Because it's the sixth catcher.
00:34:37.679 --> 00:34:41.119
Um, Zach Morgan, okay.
00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:45.280
Side note, Zach Morgan also needs to make his major league debut at some point in the next two weeks.
00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:48.639
They had him up here for like eight games and didn't play him.
00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:50.960
You can't let this man be a Phantom Ball player.
00:34:51.039 --> 00:34:52.800
The season's whatever, the season's the season.
00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:54.239
Call him up, let him play a game.
00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:57.599
But there's one more catcher that I'll I'm really Did I say Bailey?
00:34:58.239 --> 00:34:59.119
Oh, no, you didn't.
00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:00.079
He absolutely caught it.
00:35:00.480 --> 00:35:01.519
Bailey, the obvious one.
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:06.639
But Patrick Bailey was Logan Webb's catcher for years, and they kind of knew each other.
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:18.159
And Webb has even said, like, it's hard for me to like the way I call a game is pretty complicated, and Patrick Bailey knew the formula, and the reason he started calling his own games was because these other guys did not know the formula.
00:35:18.400 --> 00:35:26.320
But and it's kind of one of the reasons I'm not like super concerned going into next year, okay, is the FIP, you know, FIP is solid.
00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:33.440
A lot of the underlying stuff is really solid, but Webb's last five starts with Susac because he kind of handed the reins over to Susac by the end of it.
00:35:33.599 --> 00:35:38.880
Uh 276 CRA, 283 FIP, pitched at least six innings in each of those outings.
00:35:39.119 --> 00:35:49.440
I don't think that's entirely a coincidence either, because talking to Susac about it, what he would do when Webb was calling his own pitches was he would like say, like, okay, what would he call in this moment?
00:35:49.599 --> 00:35:52.480
He would like put the fingers on he was phantom calling.
00:35:52.639 --> 00:35:53.760
He was phantom calling.
00:35:53.920 --> 00:35:56.880
So, and he was like, Yeah, I think I got like 90% of them.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:35:57.679
So that's great.
00:35:57.840 --> 00:35:58.559
I'm not super concerned.
00:35:59.119 --> 00:35:59.760
That's a good bit.
00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:00.480
That's a good bit.
00:36:00.719 --> 00:36:01.760
That is a good bit.
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:05.679
But I don't know about you, I'm not like super duper concerned.
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:11.519
Like, yeah, like he is about to turn 30, which, you know, turning 30 for any athlete isn't exactly great.
00:36:12.079 --> 00:36:12.880
Share your concern.
00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:13.760
Share your concern.
00:36:14.159 --> 00:36:17.679
My concern is that he can't steal strikes the way that he used to.
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:23.360
And without being able to steal strikes, he has to come into the zone, and his stuff is not as good as he thinks it is.
00:36:23.599 --> 00:36:24.079
It's good.
00:36:24.159 --> 00:36:28.559
Don't give me, I'm not like implying that he has bad stuff, but his stuff is not as good.
00:36:28.719 --> 00:36:35.840
Uh, he tried to turn himself into a fast or a strike uh strikeout pitcher by using the four-seam fastball over the last couple of years.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:53.039
It's not that good of a four-seam fastball, but when you can steal strikes because Andrew Bailey was the best framer in baseball, um, you get to play with a wider zone, and he had the kind of control that allowed him because he's a smart guy who can, you know, very complicated way to call games.
00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:57.599
Um, he was able to sequence things up to where it played his stuff up.
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:04.960
Now that you can't steal strikes, unless you're in a very weird, bespoke, oh, they used all their challenges in the third inning situation.
00:37:05.199 --> 00:37:10.159
Now that you can't steal strikes, he has to he has to come into the zone.
00:37:10.480 --> 00:37:19.039
And it's you you see what's happened with the strikeouts, you see that the four seam doesn't play the same way that it used to, because he would just do that four seam up in the zone.
00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:26.320
But because it was so well sequenced with the sinker and the changeup, and he's the changeup sometimes on and sometimes off.
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:29.199
And then, you know, I'm gonna be a sweeper pitcher now.
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:30.320
Well, not really.
00:37:30.480 --> 00:37:33.760
Um, he it he is dependent on his stuff.
00:37:33.840 --> 00:37:46.079
He's a location-based pitcher who can call a really good game, who will attack, and when you're stealing strikes in that environment, you get to play with a cushion, and that cushion is gone.
00:37:46.239 --> 00:37:48.559
And so when it's on, it's fantastic.
00:37:48.719 --> 00:37:54.159
And when it's off, it's really rough because guys can sit knowing, hey, the changeup's not there today.
00:37:54.320 --> 00:37:56.880
So I'm just gonna lay off everything at the bottom of the zone.
00:37:56.960 --> 00:38:15.119
And let's see if he wants to put that sinker in there because he'll he'll let the sinker ride up a little bit sometimes, and he ain't gonna come in with that fastball high in the zone if I'm not hit biting on anything down low, and kind of the whole tower of cards falls apart, at least to my estimation as a non-ball knower in this regard.
00:38:15.280 --> 00:38:24.159
But like it is I watch him and I I really do wonder what his elite trait is, other than tenacity.
00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:27.119
Like, I is it still even control?
00:38:27.920 --> 00:38:35.760
Because how much of the control was that you just had a dude who would give you a strike zone that had nebulous corners as opposed to straight lines?
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:39.360
Um, I I really I just don't think that his stuff is good enough.
00:38:39.440 --> 00:38:46.960
And I don't think that sinkers in this day and age can play well enough to be the anchor pitch for anybody.
00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:53.440
And he's never been a big, you know, I his his four-seam fastball is just not that good.
00:38:54.239 --> 00:39:06.000
It's not that good, and that's now his go-to pitch because it has to be I'm not bullish about that at all moving forward because you think that four-seam fastball is gonna get any better?
00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:09.039
I I don't, not without the elbow going first.
00:39:09.280 --> 00:39:18.320
So I'm uh I'm deeply concerned, and this is why you know I didn't put all of this in every column I wrote about it, or every radio segment I did about it, or any podcast hit I did about it.
00:39:18.400 --> 00:39:34.239
Like I wasn't, you know, I wasn't leaning into the super nuanced stuff on it, but like I you just project this thing out for the next couple of years, like what evidence is there that this isn't the new norm?
00:39:34.639 --> 00:39:38.400
Like oh, he's got a new catcher, he's got to figure it out with a new guy.
00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:40.880
Yes, okay, it's better when Susac's back there.
00:39:41.280 --> 00:39:42.559
Is that elite?
00:39:43.119 --> 00:39:51.519
And he's always been in a weird spot as a pitcher where and and I like to make NBA comparisons on stuff like this.
00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:55.119
Like, are you the best player on a bad team?
00:39:55.679 --> 00:40:01.440
Cool, you should be then the second best player on a mediocre team and the third best player on a great team.
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:09.360
And starting rotations, five five a spot, unless you're the Dodgers or some nonsense with that six-man rotation.
00:40:09.519 --> 00:40:14.079
Um lot like you're starting five going into the NBA finals or whatever.
00:40:14.400 --> 00:40:28.880
And if you are leaning on Logan Webb, the current state of Logan Webb, the Logan Webb that can't steal strikes the way that he used to, that just reeks New Orleans Pelicans to me.
00:40:29.199 --> 00:40:33.199
And if he was on, he'd be an unbelievable number two for a playoff team.
00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:36.960
He'd be a World Series winner if he was the third best pitcher in that rotation.
00:40:37.199 --> 00:40:52.320
But so long as he's the best pitcher you have, and there's not even really competition for that job, you're probably not going to be a very good team because he's kind of a Mendoza line of starting pitchers right now, of like good starting pitchers, like borderline all-stars.
00:40:52.559 --> 00:40:55.840
But I think he's riding a lot on reputation right now, if I'm being honest.
00:40:56.079 --> 00:41:02.159
And I think he needs to prove that he's more than that because this is a guy who's kind of reinvented himself once.
00:41:02.639 --> 00:41:04.559
Hardest thing to do is reinvent yourself twice.
00:41:04.639 --> 00:41:06.800
Because sometimes you just go back to what you were.
00:41:07.360 --> 00:41:08.880
Tell us how you really feel, Deter.
00:41:09.199 --> 00:41:13.519
I just I you know, he Yeah, that's how I really feel about it.
00:41:13.599 --> 00:41:36.559
And I I thought that it was a total mistake for them not to trade him because I think that a I think that a front office that is not enamored with star power, that is not driven by business decisions or doesn't have that input given serious cachet.
00:41:36.960 --> 00:41:42.320
I think uh a a forward-thinking people will call it analytical, but that's baseball.
00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:46.480
Find me a non-analytical front office and I'll show you a guy's about to get fired.
00:41:46.719 --> 00:41:52.800
Um in this day and age, like I would have sold high.
00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:57.440
I would have sold high to somebody who thought, hey, okay, the Giants are doing this wrong.
00:41:57.519 --> 00:42:00.719
And I mean, you look at Molly, it's like guy sucked for the Giants.
00:42:00.880 --> 00:42:03.840
He goes to the Braves and they're like, yeah, we fixed this, that, and that.
00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:08.559
You look at a Freddie Peralta, who, you know, he goes to the Mets, they put him in the wind up again.
00:42:08.719 --> 00:42:13.199
He goes to the the Rays and they go, Okay, stand over here and don't do the wind up anymore.
00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:29.039
Like, I would have sold him to a team like that that needed somebody like Logan Webb to help their rotation this year and next year because they're competing for a title and he's gonna fit in really nicely in that meaty middle because we already have our top two guys.
00:42:29.199 --> 00:42:37.920
I would have sold to them, and I know that there would have been I know for a fact that there was one team that would have been extremely interested and did call about it.
00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:45.840
Uh, and the Giants just did not entertain the notion at all because, well, if we don't have Logan Web, then what are we?
00:42:46.079 --> 00:42:48.639
Well, if you do have Logan Web, what are you?
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:56.000
And I don't think that that's ever taken into consideration uh that this guy I think we've seen the best version of him.
00:42:56.079 --> 00:42:59.679
I think the rules have changed, and I don't think the rules are going back.
00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:13.280
So is Logan Webb gonna change again, or are we just gonna wish cast for the next couple of years that you know Logan Webb's gonna figure it out and he'll have a really nice start and you'll go, Oh, he got it, he got it, and then whoop, nine runs against the pirates or something.
00:43:13.440 --> 00:43:15.519
Like I'm I'm I'm I'm over it.
00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:22.400
I'm over it, and I know that that's unsentimental, and that's fine because baseball is terribly unsentimental until you start winning.
00:43:22.639 --> 00:43:26.559
This feels like six months worth of pent-up thoughts on Logan.
00:43:26.880 --> 00:43:33.679
Well it is because the other thing too is then you know, he's revered for someone who's never won a goddamn thing.
00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:39.840
He's revered in this market because you know, what else do you have to hang on to?
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:53.599
And you know, he's local, nor cal, and he's very public facing, and he's a nice guy, unless you catch him on the wrong night, but like online, which is not gonna happen anymore.
00:43:53.760 --> 00:43:59.519
And like all of these things of you know, it it's it's kind of the larger.
00:44:00.559 --> 00:44:07.760
More complicated issue that they ran into with Jung Hu-Li this year, which is like, you could sell Jung Hu-Li right now.
00:44:07.920 --> 00:44:09.039
You could do it.
00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:16.079
Except, well, you know, the marketing department thinks that it's a bad idea to sell Jung Hu-Li because we got this promotional item coming up.
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:19.840
And like, you know, we really want to keep this Korean market in play.
00:44:20.079 --> 00:44:22.079
And it's like, well, how's that working out for them?
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:23.519
How's that working out for them?
00:44:23.599 --> 00:44:30.159
And they're not, they're letting the they're letting the tail wag the dog in a lot of cases at the top end.
00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:31.920
And it's the same issue that they came up with.
00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:35.280
It's like, oh, let's go spend all this money when we get Buster in here.
00:44:35.360 --> 00:44:36.400
Let's we're we're close enough.
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:44.000
It's like you're not taking a proper look at what is being successful in Major League Baseball right now and where you fit in on that.
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:46.159
And you have to build bottom up.
00:44:46.320 --> 00:44:52.480
You can't just buy your way to relevance because that, even if you can get relevance, is fleeting by the moment.
00:44:52.719 --> 00:45:05.920
So it's been so nice in a way, and and Webb has been part of this in a positive way, to see this team kind of find some direction, even if it's on a small scale of these last couple of weeks.
00:45:06.159 --> 00:45:12.800
And I'm very concerned come this offseason that none of these lessons are going to be heeded because they'll just go, oh, it's too small of a sample size.
00:45:12.960 --> 00:45:14.159
It was just a weird time.
00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:16.559
And now they're still not going to have a direction.
00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:19.039
It's like it has presented itself to you.
00:45:19.280 --> 00:45:21.679
Take it, take it, understand it.
00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:24.079
They don't want to talk, they can't even say the word rebuild.
00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:24.880
It's verboten.
00:45:25.199 --> 00:45:25.840
Okay, that's fine.
00:45:25.920 --> 00:45:26.880
Don't call it a rebuild.
00:45:26.960 --> 00:45:28.320
Come up with some other catchy title.
00:45:28.400 --> 00:45:38.159
Use that, let that marketing department actually do something other than tell you not who not to trade and come up with a cool name for whatever the Giants 2027 team is or beyond.
00:45:38.400 --> 00:45:47.440
And instead, they're just going to try to take they're going to go up to the the the catering table and just take a little bite of everything.
00:45:47.519 --> 00:45:49.039
And it's like, well, that's not a meal.
00:45:49.119 --> 00:45:50.079
That's snacking.
00:45:50.239 --> 00:45:53.280
And snacking ain't gonna get a damn thing done in baseball.
00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:55.440
I'll pin a bow on this conversation.
00:45:55.840 --> 00:45:56.239
Yes, thank you.
00:45:56.719 --> 00:45:56.960
Thank you.
00:45:57.039 --> 00:45:58.239
Because I will keep going.
00:45:58.559 --> 00:45:59.280
I'll say this.
00:45:59.440 --> 00:46:02.320
I don't think they're gonna trade Website, and I'd be kind of shocked if they do.
00:46:02.400 --> 00:46:03.679
I think that there's I agree.
00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:04.880
I don't think they can now.
00:46:05.039 --> 00:46:09.920
Yeah, I do think that there is you know a valid, you know, argument on both sides of trading him and keeping him.
00:46:10.079 --> 00:46:15.840
I personally, without getting, you know, super quasi-numbered big brain.
00:46:16.079 --> 00:46:16.639
No, do it.
00:46:16.800 --> 00:46:20.000
I that that we this podcast will go like another 30 minutes if I did.
00:46:20.159 --> 00:46:20.960
I think he will be okay.
00:46:21.119 --> 00:46:22.719
Justice, I got nothing but time for you, buddy.
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:23.519
Lay it on me.
00:46:24.159 --> 00:46:32.000
Uh I do think that you know, with the framing stuff, I think you know, you can't steal strikes as much as you used to, but you still can.
00:46:32.079 --> 00:46:45.039
Like you only got two couple challenges a game, and Susac has been, you know, again, it's it's not like the one thing you're gonna come out of this season with, but you know, and it's admittedly very small sample, but Susac has done an excellent job as a catcher.
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:50.719
I have to look at the numbers, but the last time I checked, he was worth more defensively than Patrick Bailey.
00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:55.360
And I think that speaks to the infrastructure they have here as far as developing catchers, and part of that is framing.
00:46:55.679 --> 00:47:00.239
I just I just think it was a really weird year overall, starting with the WBC, starting with the knee injury.
00:47:00.480 --> 00:47:13.599
I when you talk about like the elite uh characteristics he have, I don't know if I would prescribe it as elite, but definitely above average as far as the location because the walks are still down, the grab all rate's still great, and he's not allowing a ton of homers.
00:47:13.679 --> 00:47:15.920
I think it's still then less than a homer per nine innings.
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:19.199
So those are the things it's not it's not great.
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:23.280
Like again, this is gonna be a this is the worst season since he's been an established starter.
00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:42.239
I don't think that there's like a repeat of this next year, especially go into the offseason, kickstart it, get everything healthy, go into 2027, and whenever the season starts, maybe it's March 25th, maybe it's April 25th, maybe it's April 25th, maybe it's maybe it's June 25th.
00:47:42.639 --> 00:47:44.719
Let's just say it's March 25th, right on the dot.
00:47:44.800 --> 00:47:46.960
Logan Webb will be there for the Colorado Rockies assuming.
00:47:47.440 --> 00:47:49.760
Let me ask you this though, just to then finally put a bow on it.
00:47:49.840 --> 00:47:55.519
Okay, if we're going to ascribe, and I think there's validity to this argument, that hey man, I got a crap defense behind me.
00:47:55.599 --> 00:48:01.920
I'm a ground ball pitcher, and that's my thing, which is why his FIP is better than his ERA and all that good stuff.
00:48:02.159 --> 00:48:08.880
Like their whole thing this year was, oh, we're gonna be better on defense, and they're not good on defense.
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:15.440
Like, how how can we expect the Giants with now some established players that they kind of know about?
00:48:15.519 --> 00:48:20.880
I mean, we'll figure out what's going on at second base, but you know, how do you ever replace Luisa Rise's glove?
00:48:20.960 --> 00:48:24.239
Um, which is emphasis on the weird season.
00:48:24.400 --> 00:48:27.119
Um he's had a he's he's not played well in Philly.
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:27.920
No, he hasn't.
00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:28.639
Of course he hasn't.
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:31.920
Again, it goes back to the the motivation aspect of things.
00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:34.880
And it's like, dude, no one no one believed in you.
00:48:34.960 --> 00:48:36.320
They gave you the second base shot.
00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:41.280
You absolutely kicked ass, and now someone's in and they're like, okay, keep doing that.
00:48:41.440 --> 00:48:46.800
He's like, ooh, you see, that was more of a I need to show the world that I'm good situation.
00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:49.599
And uh now that they all know, it's kind of a little weird.
00:48:49.679 --> 00:48:53.920
And uh it regardless, like I'm I'm a oh, Chapman will come back.
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:56.960
Well, Chapman's not the same third baseman that he was, he's still very, very good.
00:48:57.119 --> 00:49:01.119
Elite has a long way to fall to become average, but like he's not that guy anymore.
00:49:01.280 --> 00:49:02.320
Uh Willie Adonis.
00:49:02.639 --> 00:49:04.960
I will push back on that in a in one sense.
00:49:05.599 --> 00:49:08.880
Matt Chapman hasn't played strictly from third base defense perspective.
00:49:08.960 --> 00:49:11.679
Like, yeah, he's he's not the same, like Justice.
00:49:11.760 --> 00:49:13.119
We were there for the Oakland days, baby.
00:49:13.280 --> 00:49:13.679
No, I know.
00:49:13.760 --> 00:49:16.559
We from an athleticism perspective, it's not the same.
00:49:17.199 --> 00:49:17.920
It just can't be.
00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:20.559
It's it's like seven years removed from Oakland.
00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:22.639
But I will say, I will give him this.
00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:26.480
He hasn't played a game since like June, and he still leads all third basemen defensive run save.
00:49:26.559 --> 00:49:28.079
Now, say what you will about defensive run save.
00:49:28.239 --> 00:49:29.280
Yeah, that's where I was going.
00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:33.039
Say what you will about it, but it's still like plus four, plus five OA.
00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:34.320
Yeah, he's still he's still a good defender.
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:34.960
Now, will you have a big one?
00:49:35.119 --> 00:49:37.199
Because he's got that, he's got the canon, yeah.
00:49:37.280 --> 00:49:46.320
He's got stuff, but there was a lot of like there were just a lot of kind of like fringe routine plays, like routine turning into like, oh, that's a tough one.
00:49:46.639 --> 00:49:47.599
It was kind of rough early on.
00:49:48.320 --> 00:49:48.960
It was rough early on.
00:49:49.039 --> 00:49:49.519
I think you guys are.
00:49:51.039 --> 00:50:00.079
Um, but uh uh and but then you know, like I I can't I can't wait, and I I appreciate so much of what the beat writers do.
00:50:00.239 --> 00:50:01.039
I really do.
00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:10.880
But like whenever spring training happens, the whole Willie Adamas is actually working with Ron Washington and is going to be better on defense storyline that's gonna come out next year.
00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:17.519
Is that's gonna be tough uh once the season actually starts and you're like, and what changed?
00:50:17.679 --> 00:50:18.239
Nothing.
00:50:18.400 --> 00:50:22.639
Like it's very difficult to be a ground ball pitcher when you have a crappy shortstop.
00:50:22.719 --> 00:50:26.880
And Adamus is unquestionably a crappy shortstop.
00:50:27.039 --> 00:50:34.159
I don't know what they're doing at second, but now do you have to prioritize defense over hitting as to make up for that?
00:50:34.480 --> 00:50:37.280
Eldridge has played better than I think anyone expected.
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:42.159
I don't know if we should get crazy with the uh the statements about Bryce Eldridge's defense yet.
00:50:42.239 --> 00:50:47.599
I think he could actually be an above-average first baseman, but that's probably his ceiling and he ain't there yet.
00:50:48.159 --> 00:50:53.679
Like if this is a ground ball pitcher who needs the whole operation to work well for him.
00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:55.360
First off, not very AC.
00:50:55.920 --> 00:51:08.719
Uh, and two, uh I'm not really quite sure how the Giants get there unless Casey Schmidt's at second base every day, or preferably it's short, and you have another great glove behind him.
00:51:08.800 --> 00:51:15.840
Uh, or maybe you have to do like a platoon situation where you're like Logan Webb's and we're going defense first with the lineup today.
00:51:16.159 --> 00:51:18.639
That's a fun, fun ball game to play.
00:51:18.880 --> 00:51:22.320
Another question, another question for another day.
00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:24.320
But if we're gonna stick with pitchers, sure.
00:51:24.559 --> 00:51:27.760
One guy that is gonna probably for sure pitch again this season.
00:51:27.840 --> 00:51:28.320
It might be today.
00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:31.119
I don't think it's today, but it's for sure this week.
00:51:31.519 --> 00:51:32.400
I haven't checked it.
00:51:32.559 --> 00:51:33.039
Probably this week.
00:51:33.760 --> 00:51:35.039
What a great transition I just made.
00:51:35.119 --> 00:51:36.639
Uh, it's it's just so funny.
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:38.960
Like, we're in a situation where it's like, who's pitching today?
00:51:39.039 --> 00:51:40.719
And I'll find out when I get to the ballpark.
00:51:40.960 --> 00:51:46.639
But someone that will at least get one more uh appearance before the season is all said and done is Jackson Flora.
00:51:46.800 --> 00:51:49.280
Fourth overall pick in the 2026 MLB draft.
00:51:49.360 --> 00:51:54.159
He is the Giants uh number four prospect, I believe, by baseball uh America.
00:51:54.239 --> 00:51:57.519
I had an opportunity to see him pitch last week in San Jose.
00:51:57.760 --> 00:52:02.880
Two scoreless innings, walked two of the first three batters that he faced, and then proceeded to strike out the next four.
00:52:02.960 --> 00:52:12.239
Uh, that includes the beer batter, and it incited one of my favorite minor league promotions, which is when you strike out the beer batter, uh half price beer for 15 minutes.
00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:24.000
And if you want to see a mass exodus of people in a very quick amount of time, like I'm surprised they're not like I would like to know if there's ever been like a beer batter-related like injury because they they get out after it quickly.
00:52:24.239 --> 00:52:30.960
But before talking about quickly say RIP to the uh the five dollar buds in the fifth inning at the Oakland Coliseum.
00:52:31.119 --> 00:52:31.840
Oh, geez.
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:33.679
Bring bring them back.
00:52:33.920 --> 00:52:34.559
Just bring them back.
00:52:34.639 --> 00:52:35.119
Just bring them back.
00:52:35.760 --> 00:52:36.800
Everybody loves a good promotion.
00:52:36.880 --> 00:52:38.400
Don't bring back 10 cent beer night.
00:52:38.559 --> 00:52:41.920
Keep that, even even if it's like a dollar beer night, keep that in the past.
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:44.880
I think no, no, Larry Bear would never.
00:52:45.119 --> 00:52:50.079
He lowered the price to 680 for a day on the lowest year.
00:52:50.239 --> 00:52:53.039
Yeah, well, but I love the victory lap.
00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:55.119
Shout out to GameBr.
00:52:55.440 --> 00:52:58.800
But uh But Dr.
00:52:58.960 --> 00:53:01.119
I I will say I will say this real quick before getting to Flora.
00:53:01.280 --> 00:53:05.440
Uh, you could have given me a thousand guesses as to what Jackson Flora's walkout song would have been.
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:06.320
Yeah.
00:53:06.559 --> 00:53:11.199
And uh it was Clumsy by Fergie, and we were talking about walkout songs on the last episode we did.
00:53:11.280 --> 00:53:27.119
I just want to give a very big shout out to to Flor for the creativity because in a in a world full of very in a world of very mid repl like replacement level walkout songs to have something that makes you go, What?
00:53:27.440 --> 00:53:28.079
Huh?
00:53:28.800 --> 00:53:30.000
Gotta give some credit.
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:30.480
Yeah.
00:53:30.880 --> 00:53:31.679
No, I'm not sure.
00:53:31.840 --> 00:53:34.719
And he was if you're wondering, he was barely one year old.
00:53:35.440 --> 00:53:37.920
Yeah, no, no, I I was not wondering.
00:53:38.079 --> 00:53:44.639
I uh I was I was just doing my own math because that song came out when I was in college, uh, which is so much fun.
00:53:44.800 --> 00:53:45.920
We're having a blast.
00:53:46.159 --> 00:53:53.519
Um, it's uh also like it's not a song that was in the rotation for your boy on an actual iPod.
00:53:53.760 --> 00:53:54.320
Yeah.
00:53:54.559 --> 00:54:02.079
Um, so uh I had to when you're like put it out, I'm like, okay, I don't want to come across like a complete idiot here with justice.
00:54:02.159 --> 00:54:03.519
Let me look this up real fast.
00:54:03.679 --> 00:54:05.840
And uh I'm listening to it and I'm like, I don't know this.
00:54:06.079 --> 00:54:08.400
And then you get to the chorus, and you're like, oh, I know this song.
00:54:08.559 --> 00:54:09.760
This song sucks.
00:54:09.840 --> 00:54:11.440
Um but hard disagree.
00:54:11.599 --> 00:54:12.159
Hard disagree.
00:54:12.480 --> 00:54:23.360
No, no, no, you kids, you kids are now you know co-opting our terrible culture from the aughts as somehow like cool and funky, and it sucked at the time, and it sucks now.
00:54:23.519 --> 00:54:35.599
Um, so it awesome, awesome that um that things that happened like 18, 20 years ago are now you know quirky and fun and weird for the younger generation.
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:36.320
But I appreciate it.
00:54:36.480 --> 00:54:38.320
I'm kind of liking the cut of this kid's jib.
00:54:38.480 --> 00:54:49.280
Yeah, that's how I feel about the uh like you remember you remember the swag era like 2010, 2013, when people were wearing like the backpacks and the polos, like the that we're like two years away from that coming back.
00:54:49.440 --> 00:54:50.639
I'm just I'm just letting you know.
00:54:50.719 --> 00:54:52.800
We're we're it's almost back.
00:54:53.039 --> 00:55:05.599
I l I live three blocks from Alameda High School, and uh it is wild, wild when school lets out, and you're like, I wore that exact same thing to high school.
00:55:05.840 --> 00:55:08.800
That's not good that we've circled all cycles, yeah.
00:55:09.039 --> 00:55:09.679
It's all cycles.
00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:15.760
I get it, but it's like nope, like they were wearing Junko jeans a couple years ago, and I'm like, nope, nope, don't like that.
00:55:15.840 --> 00:55:16.960
It's just a 20-year cycle.
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:17.599
So you're right.
00:55:17.679 --> 00:55:23.840
I do think that the uh the Kanye West preppy look is coming back, uh, and hopefully nothing from that beyond with Kanye.
00:55:24.159 --> 00:55:39.760
But um I'm I'm the Flora was in the um, I was coming back from a Niners practice, I was listening to the game, and Flora was in the booth with Fleming and Miller after like you know, the day that they kind of make him do the car wash.
00:55:40.079 --> 00:55:43.440
And uh I I like him.
00:55:43.760 --> 00:55:48.079
I this kid, this kid, he's got something to him here.
00:55:48.239 --> 00:55:55.039
He ain't just a uh you know, just another dirtbag baseball player, just you know, keeping my nose to the grindstone.
00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:56.159
Don't you know don't bother me.
00:55:56.239 --> 00:55:58.480
No, this kid's got some personality to him.
00:55:58.639 --> 00:56:00.960
He's a little funky, he's funny.
00:56:01.119 --> 00:56:02.079
Uh, I like him.
00:56:02.239 --> 00:56:02.800
I like him.
00:56:02.960 --> 00:56:04.800
I really hope it works out for him.
00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:12.480
I really do, because we could all use, you know, a Bay Area kid with all the ability to reference inside jokes and things like that.
00:56:12.559 --> 00:56:13.360
Like it'd be great.
00:56:13.440 --> 00:56:14.079
It'd be great.
00:56:14.239 --> 00:56:17.440
Um, but I I do have to say this again.
00:56:17.519 --> 00:56:19.119
I said it the last time we talked.
00:56:19.360 --> 00:56:25.840
All this prospect talk, I understand 100% why it's happening, and I really do appreciate the people that do a really good job with this stuff.
00:56:26.079 --> 00:56:29.199
But we have to be clear, this is loser talk now.
00:56:29.440 --> 00:56:31.360
This is a hundred percent loser talk.
00:56:31.519 --> 00:56:41.360
Uh when you spend all of your time into someone who's done a more K and Br shows than I could count, where it's like Giants stink, let's talk about Marco Luciano.
00:56:41.679 --> 00:56:43.679
That's danger zone.
00:56:43.840 --> 00:56:44.400
Danger zone.
00:56:44.480 --> 00:56:46.400
And again, I understand 100% why we're in it.
00:56:46.559 --> 00:56:54.320
And we I'm very happy to talk about Jackson Flora, but like I I we we have to move on from this as a fan base.
00:56:54.559 --> 00:57:00.960
They need to start winning baseball games so that we don't have to engage in this loser talk as the opening point of discourse.
00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:10.320
Well, I will say this as far as the transition into the major league team itself, you know, Flora's pitching to again sometime this week for double A Richmond.
00:57:10.480 --> 00:57:13.519
Now, whether or not he starts next year, Richmond, that's been undecided.
00:57:13.599 --> 00:57:15.440
I don't think they've had that conversation yet.
00:57:15.679 --> 00:57:25.920
But I think it does bring up an interesting point that when you see how some college level, some advanced level college guys have really flown through the miners the last couple of years, think, you know, Paul Skeins is obviously the upper echelon.
00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:27.199
Like that's the ultimate outlier.
00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:34.079
But guides like Chase Burns, Chase Dolander, Gage Jump, like these guys drafted really high, just fly through the minors.
00:57:34.559 --> 00:57:38.480
Name a White Sock, and I'll give you a guide to the minors as a college pitcher.
00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:40.159
I'll give you, I'll give you Los Angeles.
00:57:40.559 --> 00:57:42.079
I'll give you a former Tennessee Vol.
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:43.360
I'll give you Ben Joyce.
00:57:43.599 --> 00:57:44.079
There you go.
00:57:44.320 --> 00:57:45.119
How'd that work out?
00:57:45.360 --> 00:57:47.840
It does let's talk about it.
00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:51.599
But it does bring up interesting, you know, at least conversationists right now.
00:57:51.679 --> 00:57:53.360
Like, is he gonna be on the opening day roster?
00:57:53.519 --> 00:57:54.159
Like, no.
00:57:54.320 --> 00:58:01.840
That that would that would take like the ultimate like Well, I don't know, man, if they have a minor league season for some reason and the baseball season doesn't start until July, maybe.
00:58:03.760 --> 00:58:06.559
That would that would anyhow, anyhow.
00:58:07.039 --> 00:58:12.079
He needs a lot, he he's gonna need some season in here, and they're gonna do a lot of it, I imagine, at Richmond instead of in Sacramento.
00:58:12.400 --> 00:58:13.679
He he will need some season in here.
00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:21.280
I would not be shocked if, especially if he shoves today, if it kind of nudges them a little bit more towards like, hey, maybe we could just start this guy in Richmond.
00:58:21.360 --> 00:58:29.199
But I think the larger point is I wouldn't be shocked if this same time next year, again, assuming we have a season, um, he's pitching for the major league giants.
00:58:29.440 --> 00:58:33.519
Yeah, that that's not that's not a shocker, and that's the perk of taking a college arm, right?
00:58:33.599 --> 00:58:43.440
Like you that they should be further along, um, and you can get a little more juice out of them a little bit sooner, though maybe the Ryan's a little bit tougher, and that's not a good thing.
00:58:43.599 --> 00:59:03.280
Um, I'm just having a hard time figuring out w kind of comps for him, and it's not fair because Andrew Paint like Andrew Painter of the the Phillies feels like multiple breaking ball, fastball that maybe isn't as good as we think it is, but very good still.
00:59:03.440 --> 00:59:08.880
Like not like 80 grade or anything like that, but like 65, like pretty good, gonna play.
00:59:09.039 --> 00:59:16.000
Um but Painter was like gonna make the rotation as an 18-year-old or like 19-year-old until he had Tommy John.
00:59:16.400 --> 00:59:19.599
Um, some like Joe Ryan in there.
00:59:19.840 --> 00:59:20.320
I don't know.
00:59:20.400 --> 00:59:22.320
Is that that is that any of these hitting for you?
00:59:22.559 --> 00:59:23.679
A little higher than Joe Ryan.
00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:25.760
Okay, little Logan Gilbert.
00:59:26.880 --> 00:59:28.559
He is lanky, I will say that.
00:59:28.719 --> 00:59:31.440
And then little Logan Gilbert, are we going with Logan Gilbert?
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:35.679
I mean, you said you are winning the hat, so okay, fair enough.
00:59:35.760 --> 00:59:36.000
Yeah.
00:59:36.239 --> 00:59:38.400
Um just, you know.
00:59:38.719 --> 00:59:46.880
But then uh I I I read Lance Brozdowski, who's as good as it is when it comes to um pitching analysis.
00:59:46.960 --> 00:59:49.599
Uh, I go nowhere else for my pitching analysis, Justice.
00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:50.400
Apologies to you.
00:59:50.639 --> 00:59:51.440
Shout out to Lance.
00:59:51.920 --> 00:59:52.800
He's the man.
00:59:53.039 --> 01:00:10.000
Uh his concern, as I'm reading here, the tighter MLB ball is gonna contract this force seam movement and maybe limit that IVB, um, which is a preposterous statement for someone who just watches baseball, but for dorks like us, you're like, oh wow, okay, there's a lot to chew on there.
01:00:10.159 --> 01:00:19.679
Um curious as to how that plays because you won't really find out until spring training uh with the major league balls.
01:00:19.760 --> 01:00:23.360
That's even in spring training, it's it's Arizona, so like they can do a lot.
01:00:23.760 --> 01:00:33.119
So I we really I mean, this is the the weird thing about baseball is that we don't have a standardized ball, like even going into college.
01:00:33.199 --> 01:00:38.159
Like you would you would think like yeah, that we're gonna go down a rabbit hole if we do this turn.
01:00:38.559 --> 01:00:41.440
I mean, they they have they kind of have that issue in college basketball too.
01:00:41.599 --> 01:00:48.159
College basketball's uh uh it's the same size ball, but it's like a little like doughier, if that makes any sense.
01:00:48.239 --> 01:00:49.599
They're not as worn in.
01:00:49.760 --> 01:00:52.880
Uh there's no standardized ball across college basketball.
01:00:53.039 --> 01:00:54.719
Every team supplies their own.
01:00:54.880 --> 01:00:56.239
Uh there's a lot of that.
01:00:56.400 --> 01:01:04.639
Football, football, every team uses their own, so it doesn't really matter, but that's not but yeah, at the pro level, I mean, at the highest level, it should be standardized.
01:01:04.880 --> 01:01:08.400
And the issue is that it's not even standardized at the pro level.
01:01:08.480 --> 01:01:09.679
It's like, oh, that's a tight one.
01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:12.719
That's not like a tennis ball.
01:01:12.800 --> 01:01:14.880
You know, that's what my guy Bradford William Davis.
01:01:14.960 --> 01:01:19.920
We've he's reported on this many times about how the baseballs have varied so much year to year.
01:01:20.079 --> 01:01:25.599
But yeah, you know, he did you know the fastball again, San Jose was two innings, so he had an opportunity to let it eat.
01:01:25.679 --> 01:01:26.320
He touched 100.
01:01:26.559 --> 01:01:30.639
It was sitting in the upper 90s, probably gonna be more mid-90s when he's starting.
01:01:30.800 --> 01:01:32.079
Over the course of five, six scenes.
01:01:32.159 --> 01:01:33.840
I'm really intrigued by the kick change.
01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:40.719
He picked it up, I think it was his junior year, and he's trying to get used to all the movement that it creates, has multiple breaking balls as well.
01:01:40.880 --> 01:01:42.159
So very lazy.
01:01:42.400 --> 01:01:45.280
Yeah, I'm love uh you know what I'm loving my Logan Gilbert comment.
01:01:45.519 --> 01:01:48.800
I've sat on it for a little bit and I'm feeling right it in uh in stencil.
01:01:49.039 --> 01:01:50.079
In stencil.
01:01:50.320 --> 01:01:52.079
Yeah, especially especially the lanky side.
01:01:52.159 --> 01:01:55.599
The one thing I love about Logan Gilbert is he pitches like somebody has long levers.
01:01:55.679 --> 01:01:58.719
Like it is like it's very like awkward the movement.
01:01:58.800 --> 01:02:01.440
I will say Flora's movement's a little more fluidity to it.
01:02:01.599 --> 01:02:12.800
Not an athlete as awkward, but you know, we're gonna need more than three innings of Minor League Baseball to determine whether Johnson Flora, you want to bring him up to the majors right now?
01:02:13.119 --> 01:02:14.800
He probably to the major right now.
01:02:15.440 --> 01:02:16.800
I mean, for this team, sure.
01:02:16.880 --> 01:02:20.800
Um, yeah, it's uh yeah, it's gonna be a while.
01:02:21.119 --> 01:02:27.679
And I think that this is the issue that we run into consistently when we you're looking for hope anywhere.
01:02:28.000 --> 01:02:43.519
And right now there's not a lot of hope that can be found at the major league level outside of like Rafi Devers, who's now sidelined uh, and then whatever you're getting from Eldridge, you know, Cox, like you're you're kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel a little bit here when you're looking for hope for reasons to believe the Giants can be competitive sometime soon.
01:02:43.599 --> 01:02:45.760
So you start looking at the minor leagues, right?
01:02:45.840 --> 01:02:47.440
Because that's just hope, right?
01:02:47.599 --> 01:02:51.199
No one's really getting in, no one wants to say bad things about prospects.
01:02:51.360 --> 01:02:55.599
Uh, you're always looking for the upside with them because it so rarely works out.
01:02:55.840 --> 01:03:02.880
And if we're talking about a guy who has three minor league innings, and that's the the main like, oh, wait until Jackson Flora comes.
01:03:02.960 --> 01:03:04.719
It's like, buddy, we're gonna be waiting a while.
01:03:04.880 --> 01:03:11.119
Like, there's this stuff takes longer than you think, and it's a pitcher.
01:03:11.280 --> 01:03:19.199
So, like, it might not work out the first time he comes up, or the second time he comes up, or you know, and then who knows what's going on with those elbows.
01:03:19.440 --> 01:03:26.159
So, like pinning it all, pinning all of your hopes to Jackson Flora, I would recommend against it.
01:03:26.239 --> 01:03:31.280
That does not feel like a good pathway for uh feeling good about Giants baseball.
01:03:31.440 --> 01:03:36.719
Though him and a lot of other young players, as a collective, should give you some hope.
01:03:36.800 --> 01:03:41.760
They they have built up this farm system to be in an impressive spot, but here's the hard part.
01:03:42.000 --> 01:03:46.719
Now they have to not just be a farm system, they have to promote them, they have to perform.
01:03:47.280 --> 01:03:48.719
That's that's the tricky part.
01:03:48.880 --> 01:03:54.960
The hardest thing to do, perhaps in sports, is going from a minor leaguer to a major leaguer and staying as a major leaguer.
01:03:55.119 --> 01:03:59.679
And um yeah, they're all suspects until until proven otherwise.
01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:02.719
Yeah, we've we've waxed poetics about this farm system a lot.
01:04:02.800 --> 01:04:10.800
The one thing just to kind of pin a bow, just to spring a little more prospect talk, is uh if you have an opportunity to I think they have to win.
01:04:10.960 --> 01:04:15.519
I think San Jose has to win today or to or tomorrow to stave off elimination.
01:04:15.599 --> 01:04:17.199
But if you have an opportunity to fight and Joe Rittos.
01:04:17.440 --> 01:04:19.360
The fight and Joe Rittos, shout out to Joe.
01:04:19.519 --> 01:04:24.239
But if you have an opportunity to watch Josuar uh in person, I I would highly recommend doing it.
01:04:24.320 --> 01:04:27.199
If for no control, it's out of control the Joshua stuff.
01:04:27.440 --> 01:04:30.320
Like no one's arguing that he's not sick and awesome.
01:04:30.480 --> 01:04:31.760
He's in single A.
01:04:32.800 --> 01:04:33.440
Breaks.
01:04:33.840 --> 01:04:35.519
Breaks, they read this stuff too.
01:04:35.679 --> 01:04:36.159
That's fair.
01:04:36.239 --> 01:04:37.280
I will not help.
01:04:37.599 --> 01:04:38.800
I will just say this.
01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:41.920
The defense is like it's for an 18-year-old.
01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:44.079
It's not even the flashy plays, just like the fluidity.
01:04:44.159 --> 01:04:47.440
I've seen I don't question for a second that he's the best.
01:04:47.679 --> 01:04:49.679
I just he's so far away.
01:04:49.840 --> 01:04:50.639
He's so far away.
01:04:50.719 --> 01:04:53.519
It's like in the NBA being like, have you seen this eighth grader?
01:04:53.760 --> 01:04:58.320
Like, just pump the shout out, shout out to the one dude who had like the Paige Becker's tweet.
01:04:58.400 --> 01:05:00.960
It's like this sixth grader is gonna be a problem.
01:05:01.360 --> 01:05:04.800
Yeah, I mean that that's the that's the one in a million shot right there.
01:05:04.880 --> 01:05:06.159
That's the one in the million shot right there.
01:05:06.320 --> 01:05:13.360
I mean, to be fair, like you you there's a lot of players where it's like, you know, like that's gonna that that they're there, it's gonna get there.
01:05:13.599 --> 01:05:17.920
Josh Ross, probably that, but it's a long road.
01:05:18.239 --> 01:05:23.039
And it's great that you have these high-level theoretically can't miss prospects.
01:05:23.280 --> 01:05:24.480
It's a long road.
01:05:24.800 --> 01:05:26.719
I want to see what he does in Richmond.
01:05:26.960 --> 01:05:28.960
He's gonna have to play in Sacramento.
01:05:29.199 --> 01:05:32.800
You know, he's not he's not a Jonah Cox, he's not just gonna skip triple A.
01:05:33.039 --> 01:05:37.519
Um, so like just just I I'm gonna say it.
01:05:37.679 --> 01:05:38.480
I'm gonna say it.
01:05:38.800 --> 01:05:41.679
I think we all just need to trust the process a little bit.
01:05:42.320 --> 01:05:43.599
Shout out to Sam Hankey.
01:05:43.840 --> 01:05:44.719
Shout out to Sam Hankey.
01:05:44.880 --> 01:05:45.679
What is Sam doing?
01:05:46.079 --> 01:05:47.039
What is Sam doing?
01:05:47.119 --> 01:05:48.639
He's probably you know talking about bonds.
01:05:48.880 --> 01:05:56.719
But you know, we are with a lot of these minor leaguers, we're a long way away from knowing whether or not that they are studs or duds.
01:05:57.039 --> 01:05:59.119
Ah, ah, I see what you have done here.
01:05:59.360 --> 01:05:59.760
I'm glad.
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:00.800
You see what I've done here.
01:06:00.880 --> 01:06:05.760
And that's that's my transition because Dieter, after every 49ers game, you write the studs and the duds.
01:06:05.840 --> 01:06:06.079
Yep.
01:06:06.159 --> 01:06:07.679
And it's pretty self-explanatory.
01:06:07.840 --> 01:06:08.079
Yep.
01:06:08.320 --> 01:06:10.800
Who's a stud, who's a dud, who did well, who didn't do well.
01:06:10.960 --> 01:06:15.920
So now we have an entire season to play with here.
01:06:16.239 --> 01:06:19.840
So I'm gonna ask you you can give me as many or as few as you want to.
01:06:19.920 --> 01:06:22.079
You've already I know how you feel about Logan Webb.
01:06:22.159 --> 01:06:24.480
We don't have to reiterate.
01:06:25.679 --> 01:06:32.639
We don't have to reiterate that part, but who are your 2026 season, looking back on this season in its entirety?
01:06:33.039 --> 01:06:34.239
Who are your studs?
01:06:34.400 --> 01:06:35.280
Who are your duds?
01:06:35.360 --> 01:06:38.079
You can rattle through them, you can provide the explanations as you see fit.
01:06:38.239 --> 01:06:39.440
We've talked about Rafi Devers.
01:06:39.679 --> 01:06:41.440
He was both a dud and a stud this season.
01:06:41.519 --> 01:06:42.880
Congratulations to Rafi Devers.
01:06:43.119 --> 01:06:45.519
He figured out a way to get into the studs category.
01:06:45.599 --> 01:06:48.559
That was hard doing because he was at the bottom of the duds for a while there.
01:06:48.880 --> 01:06:56.320
I'm gonna give you four studs, and this is not everybody, but these are four guys that I do think needed a shout out in this department.
01:06:56.480 --> 01:06:56.800
Yes.
01:06:57.039 --> 01:06:58.960
Casey Schmidt was a stud this season.
01:06:59.119 --> 01:06:59.840
Absolutely.
01:07:00.079 --> 01:07:00.880
Without question.
01:07:01.039 --> 01:07:03.440
It's easy to forget that because he hasn't played in a minute.
01:07:03.599 --> 01:07:06.480
He was their best player this season when he was playing.
01:07:06.719 --> 01:07:10.000
Not a great sign for the Giants, but a great sign for Casey Schmidt.
01:07:10.239 --> 01:07:12.159
Did literally everything that they could have asked.
01:07:12.320 --> 01:07:13.199
Played everywhere.
01:07:13.440 --> 01:07:14.000
And you know what?
01:07:14.159 --> 01:07:16.559
More power to him because he knew that it was kind of now or never.
01:07:16.719 --> 01:07:17.920
Again, the pressure.
01:07:19.280 --> 01:07:21.199
Pressure makes diamonds, right?
01:07:21.360 --> 01:07:22.400
Like that's how it goes.
01:07:22.559 --> 01:07:25.199
Um, Jonah Cox is a stud for me.
01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:30.239
I I need some more Jonah Cox in my life next season.
01:07:30.880 --> 01:07:32.239
You can cut that one up if you want.
01:07:32.559 --> 01:07:37.360
Um it's it's it's almost like someone's about to publish a story on him in the next couple days.
01:07:37.599 --> 01:07:39.920
But I'm in I'm in.
01:07:40.320 --> 01:07:42.719
He can play center field at a very high level.
01:07:43.039 --> 01:07:45.360
He's hitting way better than I thought he would.
01:07:45.519 --> 01:07:47.519
I like his approach at the plate.
01:07:47.840 --> 01:07:49.920
I say we explore the space.
01:07:50.159 --> 01:08:02.960
He is, uh I'll let you get up, move on to your next set after this, but I went on um Michael Monriel's podcast a couple weeks ago, and we were talking about Jonah Cox, and I try to abstain from cussing, from using adult language on the podcast.
01:08:03.039 --> 01:08:07.280
That's what I but there is only one way there just from my soul.
01:08:07.599 --> 01:08:08.239
I get you.
01:08:08.480 --> 01:08:11.679
There is only one way to explain Jonah Cox's speed.
01:08:11.840 --> 01:08:12.239
Yeah.
01:08:12.400 --> 01:08:14.000
And he is fast as fuck.
01:08:14.159 --> 01:08:16.319
He is fast as fuck.
01:08:16.720 --> 01:08:20.079
It it is like like and he's quick too.
01:08:20.159 --> 01:08:22.960
Like some guys, like I always mention O'Neill Cruz.
01:08:23.119 --> 01:08:25.039
Like it, he has the long levers, it takes him a while.
01:08:25.199 --> 01:08:27.279
The second like he is shot out of a cannon.
01:08:27.439 --> 01:08:30.479
Like this the five-run comeback against the Cardinals, yeah.
01:08:30.640 --> 01:08:33.359
He kept that inning going by beating out a routine grounder.
01:08:33.840 --> 01:08:35.359
He had and this is the thing too.
01:08:35.520 --> 01:08:37.680
He has speed and he's not afraid to use it.
01:08:37.760 --> 01:08:39.600
He's attempted 13 steals.
01:08:39.920 --> 01:08:41.840
Which it should be like 30, but yeah.
01:08:42.079 --> 01:08:45.279
Yeah, it we and we can even like push the envelope a little more.
01:08:45.439 --> 01:08:48.399
But like for this Giants team, that is a breath of fresh air.
01:08:48.479 --> 01:08:49.520
So Jonah Cox.
01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:56.640
He's slashing 279, 316, 441, and that's with some real growing pains at the beginning.
01:08:56.800 --> 01:08:59.920
Like, there was he struck out like nine times in a row at one point.
01:09:00.079 --> 01:09:02.000
Yeah, like he's figuring it out.
01:09:02.079 --> 01:09:03.680
And I think that's maybe the theme of this.
01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:04.640
Like, they figured it out.
01:09:04.720 --> 01:09:10.720
Casey Schmidt figured out how to become a day-to-day, I need to start major leaguer.
01:09:10.960 --> 01:09:27.119
Jonah Cox is figuring out after getting called up under strange and frankly malpracticed circumstances, like how to be a major leaguer, um, and to give them positive output and to help set the tone that I hope carries forward.
01:09:27.439 --> 01:09:31.920
I will make one, I will make one well, technically two quick points on him with the offense.
01:09:32.159 --> 01:09:37.680
The one thing that's still unsettled for me is the strikeout rate be again, because of how bad it was at one time.
01:09:37.840 --> 01:09:39.760
You mean the 37% strikeout rate?
01:09:40.079 --> 01:09:44.079
It has gotten better because he did make a mechanical change, which will again will be in my story.
01:09:44.159 --> 01:09:45.600
Um, beginning with Boston.
01:09:45.680 --> 01:09:48.880
I think it's more like 25% since then, but it is small sample size.
01:09:48.960 --> 01:09:51.439
His baby is also like 462.
01:09:51.600 --> 01:09:52.560
It's 435.
01:09:53.199 --> 01:09:54.239
Yeah, it's not sustainable.
01:09:55.840 --> 01:09:56.880
But he is fast.
01:09:57.119 --> 01:09:59.279
So those are the things like that.
01:09:59.359 --> 01:09:59.920
No, I'm with you.
01:10:00.159 --> 01:10:02.800
Yeah, what that's gonna be it might not work out.
01:10:02.880 --> 01:10:08.159
It probably doesn't work out, but I would like to see it fail before I just presume it won't.
01:10:08.239 --> 01:10:09.600
Like I pencil them in.
01:10:09.680 --> 01:10:11.039
What who's taking this job?
01:10:11.359 --> 01:10:13.279
Let this guy let this tallion run.
01:10:13.520 --> 01:10:14.079
I'll say this.
01:10:14.239 --> 01:10:21.680
Even if he is like a an 85-90 OPS plus guy, he can still play a damn good center field.
01:10:21.760 --> 01:10:25.359
He's also been playing like a really solid second base, right?
01:10:25.520 --> 01:10:27.840
Probably get you 20 steals over the course of a season.
01:10:28.079 --> 01:10:31.199
Even if he's not an everyday player, that is damn valuable.
01:10:31.439 --> 01:10:33.439
Jonah and like a sneaky slug.
01:10:33.680 --> 01:10:34.479
A sneaky slug.
01:10:34.720 --> 01:10:36.479
I'm not going crazy, but sneaky slug.
01:10:36.720 --> 01:10:41.039
Uh, this guy, this guy's gonna win a fantasy baseball league for you next year.
01:10:41.119 --> 01:10:42.640
That's kind of my Jonah Cox call.
01:10:42.720 --> 01:10:43.600
You'll be like, oh, I don't know.
01:10:44.079 --> 01:10:45.359
I'm down on my second baseman.
01:10:45.439 --> 01:10:46.560
Can tell Marte's injured again.
01:10:46.640 --> 01:10:47.359
I don't know what we're gonna do.
01:10:47.439 --> 01:10:49.199
Oh, Jonah Cox has second base eligibility.
01:10:49.279 --> 01:10:50.000
I'm gonna play him.
01:10:50.079 --> 01:10:50.560
Oh, look at that.
01:10:50.720 --> 01:10:56.479
20 steals and like 14 home runs, and you know, just on base all the time, scored a bunch of runs.
01:10:56.560 --> 01:10:57.920
Like Jonah Cox, big fan.
01:10:58.239 --> 01:10:58.720
That'll do it.
01:10:59.359 --> 01:11:02.159
Um Landon Root figured it out.
01:11:02.399 --> 01:11:12.479
Like, I'm not saying that he's anything special or this, but like he looked to me like somebody who figured it out as to how I can remain in a major league rotation in perpetuity.
01:11:12.640 --> 01:11:14.319
That makes him a stud for this year.
01:11:14.479 --> 01:11:19.520
Because there was some real touch and go there for a minute, where you're like, this is kind of falling apart.
01:11:19.600 --> 01:11:22.319
We might have reached the limit, and then he he made a fix.
01:11:22.560 --> 01:11:24.640
He is him and Jung Hu.
01:11:25.760 --> 01:11:29.760
Actually, no, I think he's the only guy on the opening day roster that's made it the whole way through.
01:11:29.840 --> 01:11:31.520
Like, no IL, no nothing.
01:11:31.680 --> 01:11:32.319
He's the only guy.
01:11:32.640 --> 01:11:33.760
Oh, that's hard to believe.
01:11:34.000 --> 01:11:41.119
I think I'm I'm pretty sure it's only him because like even Jung Hu's been on the IL, Logan Webb's been on the IL, but I think it's I think it's only him, so fair point.
01:11:41.359 --> 01:11:41.920
Shout out.
01:11:42.079 --> 01:11:44.399
Um, and this is what you want from young pitchers.
01:11:44.479 --> 01:11:47.760
It's not going to be straight and positive and everything's wonderful.
01:11:47.920 --> 01:11:51.199
Uh, if it's going like that, you're wondering when the fall's coming.
01:11:51.439 --> 01:12:04.319
How do you respond to how Major League Baseball hitters who are the best in the world at what they do and truly special specimens of intelligence and athleticism, like they're going to figure you out.
01:12:04.560 --> 01:12:06.239
How do you figure them out again?
01:12:06.319 --> 01:12:12.000
And how do you keep playing that cat and mouse game and seeing Landon Root get into that game?
01:12:12.159 --> 01:12:14.479
Because there's a lot of times where it's like, oh, adjustments made.
01:12:14.560 --> 01:12:15.359
I got nothing else for you.
01:12:15.439 --> 01:12:16.479
I've been giving you everything.
01:12:16.640 --> 01:12:17.840
Figuring that out has been huge.
01:12:17.920 --> 01:12:20.000
And then Bryce Eldridge in the same realm.
01:12:20.159 --> 01:12:23.439
Like it goes without saying, like, Bryce Eldridge, what a you know, positive thing.
01:12:23.600 --> 01:12:30.479
But like there have been, I would say, twice this year where you're like, oh, shine's coming off old Bryce here.
01:12:30.720 --> 01:12:33.119
Not sure if uh not sure if this is working.
01:12:33.359 --> 01:12:35.359
Feels like the pitchers have figured him out again.
01:12:35.520 --> 01:12:38.159
And then he just goes on a he just starts lacing it again.
01:12:38.399 --> 01:12:46.399
And uh I can tell you this as a Bryce Eldridge fantasy baseball owner, extremely exhausting because I have timed it wrong every time.
01:12:46.800 --> 01:12:53.119
I I tweeted this out a couple weeks back, I think it was August 13th, it was before a game against the Astros.
01:12:53.520 --> 01:12:59.920
I talked to him about some of his struggles, and then pretty much since then he's had like a 950 OPS, like beginning with just a few.
01:13:00.479 --> 01:13:06.399
If you can let me know um when you're gonna do a Bryce Eldridge conversation, so because you know, my it all fell apart.
01:13:06.479 --> 01:13:10.800
I was in first place all year long, and I made some moves and I thought, okay, here it is.
01:13:10.880 --> 01:13:12.960
This is the year, and we're 25 years into this league.
01:13:13.039 --> 01:13:18.880
I've won it once, I wanted it real bad, and uh yeah, uh didn't work out.
01:13:19.039 --> 01:13:23.039
And it was because I dropped Eldridge because I'm like, nah, it's it's not going great.
01:13:23.119 --> 01:13:24.640
This is the second time around, I can't get it done.
01:13:24.720 --> 01:13:26.960
And then, you know, I just didn't know that justice was about to talk to him.
01:13:27.039 --> 01:13:27.840
So I will let you know.
01:13:28.399 --> 01:13:29.600
That's bad, that's bad reporting.
01:13:29.840 --> 01:13:30.960
I I will let you know next year.
01:13:31.039 --> 01:13:32.000
Okay, those are the studs.
01:13:32.159 --> 01:13:32.720
Those are the studs.
01:13:32.880 --> 01:13:34.479
We've mentioned Logan.
01:13:34.640 --> 01:13:36.239
You'll leave it at that.
01:13:36.399 --> 01:13:36.640
Okay.
01:13:36.960 --> 01:13:38.800
Um, it's it's really straightforward.
01:13:38.880 --> 01:13:42.079
We could go on for a while here, uh, so we're gonna keep this tight.
01:13:42.239 --> 01:13:44.479
Um, Willie Adamas is a dud.
01:13:44.960 --> 01:13:48.880
I don't want to hear about, oh, he's fought through injury all year after you know what?
01:13:49.039 --> 01:13:52.720
You know who looks really bad after this Rafi Devers injury?
01:13:52.880 --> 01:13:53.840
Willie Adamas.
01:13:54.159 --> 01:14:10.319
I know it's apples and oranges, I know it's not fair, but as someone who covers football and knows about all the little injuries that are happening behind the scenes and knows about how you know the reputations that guys earn in a clubhouse based on how they handle it, because a lot of guys have the same thing.
01:14:10.479 --> 01:14:11.520
I'll just give the story.
01:14:11.680 --> 01:14:22.960
So last year, Dominic Pooney, the 49ers right guard, injures his PCL in a preseason game on a kick as a blocker on a kick, uh, and it it injures his PCL.
01:14:23.279 --> 01:14:26.079
PCL is not one that you typically surgically repair.
01:14:26.239 --> 01:14:29.760
And so he has to fight the entire regular season on a bad PCL.
01:14:29.840 --> 01:14:35.039
And you can see it, he's got a dead leg all season, and he is just scrapping and fighting and clawing.
01:14:35.119 --> 01:14:36.960
And every week I talk to him, I was like, How's it feeling?
01:14:37.119 --> 01:14:38.239
He's like, It's not good, Deter.
01:14:38.399 --> 01:14:39.600
It's not, it's not going great.
01:14:39.840 --> 01:14:42.399
I'm dying out there, but I gotta do it.
01:14:42.479 --> 01:14:43.199
I gotta be out there.
01:14:43.279 --> 01:14:44.319
Like, this is my job.
01:14:44.479 --> 01:14:46.159
And he just put his nose to the grindstone.
01:14:46.319 --> 01:14:55.119
I don't know what else happened internally, you know, certain shots in certain places, but um, he gutted through that season and he still played well.
01:14:55.199 --> 01:14:59.680
And if you didn't know the details of it, you would think, yeah, this guy's kind of regressed.
01:14:59.840 --> 01:15:00.319
Not really.
01:15:00.479 --> 01:15:04.079
He was playing on one leg and frankly impressed, and he was so impressive.
01:15:04.239 --> 01:15:06.159
Everyone raved about him, this and that.
01:15:06.399 --> 01:15:14.319
And then they would mention that there was somebody else in the locker room who had a PCL injury and maybe wasn't gritting it out as hard as old Dom Pooney was.
01:15:14.479 --> 01:15:25.359
And I'm not gonna name the name, but it's not that hard to reverse engineer this, and that's the kind of stuff that is talked about, and so I'm gonna talk about it now a little bit.
01:15:25.680 --> 01:15:36.479
Rafi Devers is playing his entire season through a thing that now has to be surgically repaired, and meanwhile, Willie Adamas is out there and he's playing through a thing, he's got the back issues, unquestionably.
01:15:36.560 --> 01:15:40.880
We've we saw it flare up a couple times there before they finally just said sit it down.
01:15:41.439 --> 01:15:45.920
Well, why is Rafi Devers able to perform and pull it together?
01:15:46.239 --> 01:15:48.319
But Willie Adamas never really was.
01:15:48.640 --> 01:15:54.560
And then a lot of excuses, a lot of a lot of weird energy about it.
01:15:54.880 --> 01:15:56.479
Willie Adamas is a dud.
01:15:56.560 --> 01:16:03.039
And uh, I think that I I'm in a very weird spot between a fan of the team and then someone who covers the team.
01:16:03.119 --> 01:16:06.399
So I do have to remove myself and kind of jump back in every now and again.
01:16:06.560 --> 01:16:17.199
But as someone who lives in this market and loves having local baseball, and like, you know, we used to have two and now we have one, like it Giants are a companion to everyone in this market.
01:16:17.439 --> 01:16:21.760
And if you don't feel some sort of way about your local baseball team, then you don't like baseball.
01:16:21.920 --> 01:16:28.479
And I feel some sort of way about if Willie Adamas never plays another inning for the San Francisco Giants, I wouldn't shed a tear.
01:16:28.640 --> 01:16:30.640
Um, that's where I'm at right now.
01:16:30.880 --> 01:16:33.680
And that it was just an absolute dud of a season.
01:16:33.840 --> 01:16:40.159
And at some point, he's gonna need to start kicking some ass in the same way you know Devers figured it out and he started kicking ass.
01:16:40.239 --> 01:16:40.640
He had a year.
01:16:40.880 --> 01:16:42.399
Adamus has had what, two now?
01:16:42.479 --> 01:16:48.720
So, like, not not happy with the Willie Adamas Giants relationship as it stands.
01:16:48.880 --> 01:16:52.239
Nice guy, but not loving it on the diamond.
01:16:52.319 --> 01:16:53.680
You should stay silent there.
01:16:53.840 --> 01:16:58.880
Um, and then uh old Zhung Hu Lee, I'm gonna put as a dud.
01:16:58.960 --> 01:17:03.439
It's a little bit of recency bias, of course, because there was that stretch when Jung Hu Lee could do no wrong.
01:17:03.600 --> 01:17:06.560
Uh, well, now there's a time where Jung Hu Lee can do no right.
01:17:06.880 --> 01:17:21.920
And I thought it was malpractice to not try to move him at the deadline, especially looking at his contract and seeing the situation at hand where teams were looking for a player just like him, uh, knowing that you had a bunch of outfielders that you wanted to give a look to.
01:17:22.159 --> 01:17:23.840
Jung Hu's a dud for me.
01:17:24.079 --> 01:17:25.600
One quick point about Jung Hu.
01:17:26.000 --> 01:17:26.399
Sure.
01:17:26.720 --> 01:17:28.159
What's he fighting through?
01:17:28.399 --> 01:17:35.840
Uh nothing to my knowledge, but he does have a 102 OPS plus, which is crazy to think given where he was for a while.
01:17:35.920 --> 01:17:39.119
And just I I think this was kind of the the big season for him.
01:17:39.279 --> 01:17:43.359
Like, yeah, rookie season, he only played 40-something games, had the shoulder surgery.
01:17:43.439 --> 01:17:46.159
Last year was like his first technically like full season.
01:17:46.399 --> 01:17:49.439
Plays through it, they move into right field, expected.
01:17:50.239 --> 01:17:51.279
Oh, it's been bad.
01:17:51.680 --> 01:18:07.680
Yeah, it's his defense isn't bad in the way that Elliott's defense is bad, where it's like he's gonna be these highlights, but it just he's he's not obviously the Giants were spoiled for a number of years by Mikey Strzemsky, but it just hasn't been the same quality of defense.
01:18:07.920 --> 01:18:13.439
I think he does technically have a career high in steals, but he's still like not pushing the envelope a ton.
01:18:13.600 --> 01:18:13.760
Yeah.
01:18:14.000 --> 01:18:21.199
Hasn't hit for a ton of power, and it's just been a very especially when you you know transitioned him from center field to right field, like you lose a lot of value in that.
01:18:21.279 --> 01:18:26.000
And to kind of recuperate that value, like the offense has to be there, and the offense hasn't been there.
01:18:26.159 --> 01:18:28.560
I just I I'm not I'm not seeing it.
01:18:28.640 --> 01:18:34.800
And at a certain point, we've we're now at a runway where it's like it ain't happening, it ain't happening.
01:18:34.880 --> 01:18:42.560
Like he's a major league ball player, it's not as if he's some scrub, but it's like, how does this guy help winning outside if he gets hot?
01:18:42.720 --> 01:18:47.119
Um, and that's just no way to live, especially when you have a team with a lot of guys who are streaky.
01:18:47.199 --> 01:18:50.960
You know, Chapman's super streaky, Adamus is like the definition of streaky.
01:18:51.039 --> 01:18:57.039
You have all these streaky guys, and now you have Jung Hu Lee who's streaky, and I'm starting to think it's an overall trend of why this team might not be all that good.
01:18:57.439 --> 01:19:03.920
You know, these guys are all just streaky, and it's like, I don't think they're all going to be streaking when they get to October simultaneously.
01:19:04.000 --> 01:19:07.520
I think that you kind of need some consistency here, which we of course saw from Devers.
01:19:08.079 --> 01:19:09.199
Two other names.
01:19:09.359 --> 01:19:12.079
I was very disappointed by Trevor McDonald this year.
01:19:12.319 --> 01:19:13.760
Unfair statement, right?
01:19:13.840 --> 01:19:16.159
Like who expected anything from Trevor McDonald?
01:19:16.319 --> 01:19:17.199
This guy did.
01:19:17.439 --> 01:19:22.800
I staked a lot on the Trevor McDonald reputation, and uh he did not come through for me at all.
01:19:22.960 --> 01:19:28.880
And it just one of those guys where major league hitters adjusted and he's like, got nothing for you.
01:19:28.960 --> 01:19:31.199
Yeah, sorry, uh, we'll figure it out down the line.
01:19:31.439 --> 01:19:34.319
And we probably don't see him next year because of the TJ problem.
01:19:34.560 --> 01:19:36.399
Or you tech technically UCL reconstruction.
01:19:36.479 --> 01:19:38.560
UCL reconstruction, TJ, not the same thing.
01:19:38.720 --> 01:19:40.319
Not the same, very important distinction.
01:19:40.479 --> 01:19:43.760
Um, and then uh uh Caleb Killian was a dud for me.
01:19:43.920 --> 01:19:47.199
I mean, this is this is when we get into the of course he's a dud.
01:19:47.279 --> 01:19:48.800
He's not even on the team anymore.
01:19:49.039 --> 01:19:52.640
Um so then let's get into two other duds.
01:19:53.119 --> 01:19:54.800
Tony was a dud this year.
01:19:55.039 --> 01:19:57.119
I appreciate the direction that it's going now.
01:19:57.279 --> 01:20:04.640
This thing was directionless, and I thought he was walking on eggshells and still is uh this entire year.
01:20:04.880 --> 01:20:06.079
Was it to be expected?
01:20:06.239 --> 01:20:07.920
Should we have foreseen this more?
01:20:08.079 --> 01:20:08.800
Absolutely.
01:20:09.039 --> 01:20:10.800
So obvious in retrospect.
01:20:11.039 --> 01:20:20.479
But when you're looking for the good, you know, when you're looking for optimism, when you're looking for change, when it's new and fun and different, this is not new and fun and different.
01:20:20.720 --> 01:20:42.399
And uh I'm hoping that there's some there's some cachet that's being built up now that can carry into next season to where we get the real Tony Vitello experience because not just it felt like the team didn't have an identity or anything like that, which really should come from the manager, if nothing else, the manager fostering it in the right places on the roster.
01:20:42.720 --> 01:20:49.119
Uh I I think Tony's funny and interesting, and there's a he's a very good talker.
01:20:49.279 --> 01:20:56.399
The mansplaining of baseball thing that he was doing, particularly early in the season, uh, really ground my gears.
01:20:56.640 --> 01:21:02.079
Where you'd ask him a basic question about what happened there, which you know, basic baseball, like what happened on that play?
01:21:02.239 --> 01:21:06.319
And then he'd explain the rules like we've never seen a baseball game before.
01:21:06.479 --> 01:21:10.479
Uh that was really annoying, and he was gonna be very hard to get him off the duds list.
01:21:10.560 --> 01:21:13.760
And then uh Buster is a dud this year.
01:21:14.319 --> 01:21:16.640
I don't need to expand on that, do I?
01:21:17.039 --> 01:21:22.079
I don't think you do, but Dieter, I think you're missing one very significant dud.
01:21:22.640 --> 01:21:23.279
Sure.
01:21:23.920 --> 01:21:28.159
Uh and this guy elevated to dud status because of what happened around 2 a.m.
01:21:28.319 --> 01:21:29.199
in the marina.
01:21:29.520 --> 01:21:31.439
Oh, well, I mean, obviously.
01:21:31.600 --> 01:21:41.039
No, I would I would actually put him as a stud um because let's be honest, that's what he views himself as, and I'm not here to tell him that he's not a stud.
01:21:41.359 --> 01:21:44.479
Um any Harrison Bader's how old?
01:21:46.640 --> 01:21:47.119
33?
01:21:47.520 --> 01:21:51.039
Okay, so Harrison Bader is like yeah, he's 32 years old.
01:21:51.279 --> 01:21:53.039
Um he just turned 32.
01:21:53.439 --> 01:21:55.520
He is five years younger than me.
01:21:55.920 --> 01:21:57.199
He was born in the 90s.
01:21:57.520 --> 01:22:02.000
Why is he dressing like a travel ball player from Kansas City who's 12?
01:22:02.560 --> 01:22:06.000
Like I red flag automatically.
01:22:06.239 --> 01:22:09.760
This is I will come to the defense of the fashion.
01:22:10.640 --> 01:22:18.319
I know this is not gonna be the dominant Harrison Bader discourse, but I will say it's when you have outfits like his, it is it's a lot of volatility.
01:22:18.399 --> 01:22:22.560
I'm not gonna say all them hit, but again, it kind of when they hit, they hit hard.
01:22:22.720 --> 01:22:34.159
It's in it's in line with the walkout songs thing where when you see a lot of very basic like this is this is one of the things I want to give like shout out to um oh why am I blanketed?
01:22:34.239 --> 01:22:36.640
Who was the first baseman last year?
01:22:36.880 --> 01:22:38.079
Left-handed hitter.
01:22:38.239 --> 01:22:39.359
Why am I blanketing on his neck?
01:22:39.680 --> 01:22:40.239
Dom Smith?
01:22:40.399 --> 01:22:42.319
That that that's that's the one thing I will say about Dom Smith.
01:22:42.399 --> 01:22:44.159
It's some of the most adventurous outfits I've seen.
01:22:44.239 --> 01:22:45.600
So I will give credit.
01:22:46.079 --> 01:22:48.640
I appreciate you can wear whatever the hell you want off the diamond.
01:22:48.720 --> 01:22:50.640
That's your own time, that's your own personal business.
01:22:50.720 --> 01:22:55.359
When I'm watching you every night and you're got the sleeves and you're all pink and purple.
01:22:56.159 --> 01:23:01.520
Yeah, and it's like, dude, dude, you got a 49 WRC plus.
01:23:01.760 --> 01:23:08.880
Like maybe we again, this is just me being an old man and this and that, and it's not for me, but yeah, he's also kind of an old man.
01:23:09.119 --> 01:23:13.119
Well, I will I will say this, Dieter, you didn't really have that many opportunities to see it this year.
01:23:13.199 --> 01:23:13.920
So it's true.
01:23:14.399 --> 01:23:18.640
And you may not 30 games depending on what happens this offseason, you may not see it again next year.
01:23:18.800 --> 01:23:26.640
Um But the the thing with the duds, too, is that you had to have some expectations, and I don't think anyone came in being like, Oh, Harrison Bader, that's gonna fix that.
01:23:26.800 --> 01:23:27.840
Everyone's like, Really?
01:23:28.000 --> 01:23:28.319
Why?
01:23:28.479 --> 01:23:35.359
And it's like, oh, plausible deniability so that Buster doesn't have to answer any more questions about why they didn't do anything in the offseason.
01:23:35.439 --> 01:23:39.840
Like, let's just sign this guy and get everyone off our back and get a good storyline in.
01:23:40.079 --> 01:23:42.399
I will say, and again, this is not the dominant discourse.
01:23:42.560 --> 01:23:45.359
No, when he when he was playing center field, the defense was good.
01:23:45.439 --> 01:23:52.239
It's just that he's a good defender, he was just never out there, and again, I he just may never out be out there for you know the Giants.
01:23:52.720 --> 01:23:55.520
He's he's been on what he was on St.
01:23:55.680 --> 01:23:59.520
Louis, he was on the Mets, played another year somewhere else.
01:23:59.760 --> 01:24:01.359
There's been a lot of these the twins.
01:24:02.239 --> 01:24:04.319
I mean, uh come on now.
01:24:04.479 --> 01:24:12.000
Like giving a guy a two-year contract when he's been yeah, when he's been on how many different teams, like there's a tell there.
01:24:12.239 --> 01:24:13.359
There's a tell there.
01:24:13.600 --> 01:24:22.560
Like, sorry, man, like Journeyman or something if you're kind of fringe and middling, and maybe you can make the argument he is, but there's also just like, can we just get rid of him?
01:24:22.720 --> 01:24:25.199
Just no one was like, we gotta keep this guy around.
01:24:25.359 --> 01:24:37.039
Maybe he just hadn't gotten to the Giants yet because you know, as we saw with Luisa Rise, it's like he's giving you this in the amount of emails that I got, Justice, of like, we gotta sign him, we gotta sign him long term.
01:24:37.119 --> 01:24:39.520
It's like, no, you get no, that's not how this works.
01:24:39.760 --> 01:24:46.640
I I got so many and I had to there's this one guy who emails me all the time.
01:24:46.800 --> 01:24:47.920
I'm not gonna say his name.
01:24:48.079 --> 01:24:50.079
There's never a subject line.
01:24:50.720 --> 01:24:57.039
He keeps emailing me about Matt Chapman, despite the fact that Chapman hasn't played a game in two months.
01:24:57.279 --> 01:24:57.760
Yeah.
01:24:58.399 --> 01:25:04.960
It is it I think he was like big on the Yaz hate last year, and I was and I was like, I'm fighting a losing battle by replying to this guy.
01:25:05.039 --> 01:25:05.359
I'm just not gonna.
01:25:05.760 --> 01:25:07.359
Yeah, that's that I'm I'm that's about to be.
01:25:07.680 --> 01:25:08.239
A lot of those.
01:25:08.399 --> 01:25:11.760
I will the nice emails I will always reply to and say thank you.
01:25:11.840 --> 01:25:15.199
The ones that are just like you're it's like, why are you yelling at me?
01:25:15.359 --> 01:25:16.800
Like, this is like Yeah.
01:25:17.279 --> 01:25:25.760
Well, it's like that guy who walks in front of the press box and yells at Pavlovich to tell to tell Tony Vitello to be a terrible like stop being a terrible manager.
01:25:26.239 --> 01:25:28.319
It should let him manage the last game of the season.
01:25:28.720 --> 01:25:31.600
It's like once a month it's always there.
01:25:31.840 --> 01:25:36.479
And I I I every time I see him, I'm like, oh my god, he's gonna like it's like you know it.
01:25:36.640 --> 01:25:37.439
You know it's coming.
01:25:37.520 --> 01:25:48.800
He's had he's had$172 of course light, which is roughly six, and uh he's just ready, he's just ready to tell you that Tony Vitello it can't manage a major league baseball team.
01:25:48.960 --> 01:25:51.680
And then you're watching it and you're like, I'm pretty sure this isn't Tony's fault.
01:25:51.840 --> 01:25:59.680
Like, like I'm not sure what you're watching here, but like I don't know who this pitcher is, and I don't know who three of the people in the lineup are.
01:25:59.840 --> 01:26:05.199
I'm not sure what Tony's fault is here, but that old old drunk face has got it.
01:26:06.800 --> 01:26:12.239
I think the the more funny reality is if he's just stone cold sober, just has all this hatred kind of built up.
01:26:12.319 --> 01:26:13.760
Any anyhow, we've talked.
01:26:13.840 --> 01:26:14.880
That's the studs.
01:26:15.039 --> 01:26:16.079
That guy's a dud.
01:26:16.239 --> 01:26:22.159
That guy's a dud, the guy who yells at pavs and last dead of the year, that guy's and it's only pavs, which doesn't make any sense.
01:26:22.319 --> 01:26:30.319
Yeah, anybody who somehow recognizes me in the presence of pavs, that guy's a stud because that that's a real ball nowhere.
01:26:30.399 --> 01:26:31.680
That happened to me in the San Jose game.
01:26:31.760 --> 01:26:33.920
This guy's like, I love your podcast, he's point of paves.
01:26:34.000 --> 01:26:35.600
And I'm just gonna be like, Oh, I'll miss her anonymous again.
01:26:35.680 --> 01:26:36.880
He's like, I like your podcast too.
01:26:37.039 --> 01:26:38.800
I'm like, Yeah, so shout out to that guy.
01:26:38.880 --> 01:26:41.520
But Dieter, before we get out of here, we've talked long enough.
01:26:41.600 --> 01:26:43.039
This is my favorite part of the show.
01:26:43.119 --> 01:26:44.239
It's becoming a routine thing.
01:26:44.319 --> 01:26:45.680
We're at the end at the very end.
01:26:45.920 --> 01:26:48.079
Yeah, we're clearing out the wing.
01:26:48.239 --> 01:26:48.560
Cool.
01:26:48.640 --> 01:26:50.239
We're going, we're we're pulling up the diamond.
01:26:50.319 --> 01:26:51.600
We're we're going ISO.
01:26:52.319 --> 01:27:02.800
And this is the last pod we're gonna do together before the end of the season, which means this is the last opportunity we're gonna have to talk about uh the end of Mike Krugot's broadcasting career.
01:27:02.880 --> 01:27:07.119
Krug and Kite coming in, and Mike Krugo's obviously hanging it up at the end of this year.
01:27:07.680 --> 01:27:09.439
So, my good man, yeah.
01:27:09.600 --> 01:27:10.800
ISO and you on the wing.
01:27:11.039 --> 01:27:12.800
Yeah, what do you have to say about Mike Kruko?
01:27:13.600 --> 01:27:19.439
He is a lot of people are gonna say that he's the best who's ever done it.
01:27:19.760 --> 01:27:21.199
I don't know if that's true or not.
01:27:21.439 --> 01:27:24.159
I will say that no one's ever done it like Mike Kruko, though.
01:27:24.560 --> 01:27:27.840
And so in that way, he is absolutely the best who's ever done it.
01:27:28.079 --> 01:27:36.000
Um Mike Kruko's energy levels, and this is something that I'm picking up more and more on as I have kids.
01:27:36.159 --> 01:27:40.880
Like, I keep commenting to my wife, like, isn't it weird that we just have strangers that live with us?
01:27:41.039 --> 01:27:42.720
We don't understand these kids.
01:27:42.960 --> 01:27:47.520
We think, oh, that's a that's a mom trait, that's a dad trait, oh, that actually is more like my brother.
01:27:47.600 --> 01:27:49.760
But they're also their own things.
01:27:50.399 --> 01:27:56.720
But what you pick up on these kids is like, especially when you you know run into a classroom, you're like, I don't like the energy on that kid.
01:27:56.880 --> 01:27:58.479
Uh that kid got good energy.
01:27:58.560 --> 01:27:58.960
This and that.
01:27:59.039 --> 01:27:59.760
You're you're kind of playing.
01:28:00.239 --> 01:28:01.760
This almost metaphysical game.
01:28:01.920 --> 01:28:06.159
No one has better energy and more zeal for the sport of baseball.
01:28:06.239 --> 01:28:15.600
And in particular, more zeal to have a conversation with you, anybody, about baseball than Mike Kruko.
01:28:15.840 --> 01:28:24.399
And um, this has been evident his entire life, but it's something that we have been truly a party to for the last 30 years.
01:28:24.720 --> 01:28:26.880
And uh it's gonna suck.
01:28:27.119 --> 01:28:27.760
It's gonna suck.
01:28:27.840 --> 01:28:30.000
It's because it kind of sucked for the last couple years.
01:28:30.239 --> 01:28:39.920
This guy gets hit with just a brutal disease that has not taken his mind in any way, shape, or form, but has taken his his physical abilities.
01:28:40.239 --> 01:28:42.640
And uh that's the reason he's retiring.
01:28:42.800 --> 01:28:50.399
It's not because he's lost the love of the game, it's not because you know he doesn't have his best friend in the booth, it's it's because he can't physically do it anymore.
01:28:50.560 --> 01:28:58.720
And life is cruel like that, and it's gonna hurt him a hell of a lot more than it's gonna hurt us, and it's gonna hurt us hard, hard.
01:28:58.880 --> 01:29:04.800
And it's not to say that the Giants don't have extremely capable announcers that you know in other spots.
01:29:05.039 --> 01:29:09.359
Um I think uh Javi Lopez is fantastic.
01:29:09.600 --> 01:29:35.520
You can rotate through anybody, but it's kind of an end of an era for Giants baseball in some ways, and that sounds hyperbolic because it's just an announcer, but the announcer is the MC of Giants baseball, and they're the ones who bring the axe onto the stage, they're the ones who are conversating with you, even if it's one-sided, throughout the entire game, throughout the entire season for a buck 62.
01:29:35.600 --> 01:29:41.840
And the fact that we're only getting 60, 70 Kruko games a year makes Giants seasons a little less warm.
01:29:42.000 --> 01:29:44.159
And damn, we need some warmth right now.
01:29:44.319 --> 01:29:51.520
And not having them moving forward um in just that companionship is gonna really suck.
01:29:51.680 --> 01:29:53.119
It's gonna really suck.
01:29:53.359 --> 01:30:01.119
Uh, we're lucky, we're the lucky ones because if we ever want to know what Mike Kruko thinks, we can call Mike Kruko.
01:30:01.600 --> 01:30:02.880
We're lucky like that.
01:30:03.119 --> 01:30:08.960
Not everybody's lucky like that, but we were all equally lucky when he was in the booth calling the games.
01:30:09.279 --> 01:30:12.560
You and I are both big M VPO5 heads.
01:30:12.880 --> 01:30:15.119
I mean, it's as good as it gets.
01:30:15.359 --> 01:30:17.279
Um it sucks.
01:30:17.439 --> 01:30:21.279
It just totally sucks because it didn't, it it shouldn't be this way.
01:30:21.439 --> 01:30:23.439
Uh, it didn't have to be like this way.
01:30:23.600 --> 01:30:28.800
He's not, you know, it'd be one thing if he was just like, yeah, I gotta hang it up, you know.
01:30:28.960 --> 01:30:31.279
Let's go hang out on a beach, let's go play with some grandkids.
01:30:31.359 --> 01:30:36.159
It's it was taken from him, and he's being taken from us, and that that's it's just shitty.
01:30:36.319 --> 01:30:42.479
And um, but because it's Mike Kruko, it's important to just spin the positive way.
01:30:42.800 --> 01:31:06.319
And uh, I've rolled my eyes many, many times as Kruko has tried to spin some absolute garbage baseball in a positive way to me, but that is him, and it is deeply authentic, and it is a hundred percent unique, and uh there's just not that many genuine articles out there anymore, uh, especially genuine articles who always bring a smile to your face.
01:31:06.479 --> 01:31:24.640
Those are the best kind of people, and uh, we're lucky to still have him with us uh and in in our lives, you and me, Justice, and and all those who are lucky enough to know him on a personal level, but um for the entity that is Giants baseball, it is an incalculable loss.
01:31:24.800 --> 01:31:28.960
And uh people will talk about replacing, there's no replacing Mike Kruko.
01:31:30.079 --> 01:31:37.760
One of the phrases that's used so much in modern-day vernacular, and it's it's obvious it's overused, is the phrase one of one.
01:31:38.000 --> 01:31:40.720
Like some of some of y'all are not one-on-ones, but Mike Kruko.
01:31:41.119 --> 01:31:42.640
No, I know a lot of not one-on-one.
01:31:42.960 --> 01:31:44.560
I mean, I and that's the other thing too.
01:31:44.640 --> 01:31:52.720
Like, okay, it this is ridiculous because me and Kruko should never be in the same sentence, but like a lot of people are like deater's a one-of-one, pejorative.
01:31:52.880 --> 01:31:57.520
Uh, but Mike Kruko is a one-on-one complimentary, like that's what it is.
01:31:57.680 --> 01:32:00.399
Like, that is the guy that everyone wants to be around.
01:32:00.479 --> 01:32:02.960
He has a gravitational pull to him.
01:32:03.199 --> 01:32:07.680
Um have you ever seen like a true movie star just out in the wild?
01:32:08.640 --> 01:32:09.840
Ooh, have I?
01:32:10.000 --> 01:32:14.560
I can I can I drop some like random justice lore on you real quick.
01:32:14.640 --> 01:32:15.680
I don't think I've already told you this.
01:32:15.920 --> 01:32:16.399
I would love it.
01:32:16.560 --> 01:32:20.880
Uh 2022, we're like veering up way off course now, but 2022.
01:32:21.119 --> 01:32:22.560
You dated Zendaya?
01:32:23.439 --> 01:32:26.479
Brother, if I was dating Zendaya, I would not be talking to you right now.
01:32:27.359 --> 01:32:28.720
Again, one off one pejorative.
01:32:29.199 --> 01:32:44.960
Um but so 2022, I don't know if you want to count him as a movie star necessarily, but my job ended up with me, it led me in a direction that ended up with me doing a 15-minute one-on-one interview uh with Brian Cranston about baseball.
01:32:45.119 --> 01:32:45.520
Yeah.
01:32:45.760 --> 01:32:47.760
So that's my closest.
01:32:48.079 --> 01:32:50.720
So I don't know if Cranston has it, if I'm if I'm being honest.
01:32:50.960 --> 01:32:54.000
Yeah, and that's fair because I don't think about him as movies, I think about him as television.
01:32:54.239 --> 01:33:00.319
But uh it's not even the movie star thing, it's just, and this is what the kids would say, but like there's a there's some legitimacy to this.
01:33:00.399 --> 01:33:11.199
Like there is an aura and an energy and this like tractor beamness, like your peripheral vision goes away when you see somebody who's a star.
01:33:11.359 --> 01:33:19.680
And it's I and there's there's you go, well, that's just because you know who they are and you're kind of placing them, contextualizing them in your mind, and you're like, oh, that's weird that we're in the same spot, this and that.
01:33:19.840 --> 01:33:24.000
Um, you know, like I worked at Fox, like it I lived in LA, I was I was in circles.
01:33:24.159 --> 01:33:30.560
Like, there's also that to people who aren't discovered yet, and they just say, Oh, they have that it factor, right?
01:33:30.800 --> 01:33:40.880
So there is something that justice, I'm sad to say, you and I do not have, which is just this inethable energy.
01:33:41.840 --> 01:33:42.960
There's something to them.
01:33:43.039 --> 01:33:44.399
There's that it factor.
01:33:44.640 --> 01:33:52.399
Mike Kruko does not have that on the same level as like a movie star or TV star, but in baseball, Mike Kruko has the it factor.
01:33:52.640 --> 01:33:56.479
He it is he is the pied piper to people who love baseball, man.
01:33:56.640 --> 01:33:59.039
And I have seen it firsthand countless times.
01:33:59.279 --> 01:34:05.199
If he's on the road, oh man, just he can't he can't escape.
01:34:05.359 --> 01:34:06.399
Everyone loves him.
01:34:06.479 --> 01:34:07.680
There's something about him.
01:34:07.840 --> 01:34:09.279
We know exactly what it is.
01:34:09.439 --> 01:34:11.199
They can't quite put their finger on it.
01:34:11.279 --> 01:34:15.520
And even if they didn't know, they'd be like, There's something, there's something to that guy.
01:34:15.680 --> 01:34:18.239
He had it, he had it, he still has it.
01:34:18.479 --> 01:34:23.920
And um, again, the fact that we won't have it moving forward is uh is our loss.
01:34:24.079 --> 01:34:26.000
And uh I know it's a it's a huge loss for him.
01:34:26.079 --> 01:34:28.479
I know that I know that he's he's feeling it in a big way.
01:34:28.560 --> 01:34:31.760
So um send him out the right way.
01:34:32.000 --> 01:34:32.880
Send him out the right way.
01:34:33.039 --> 01:34:36.800
How do you how how what would be the appropriate like they're gonna do the whole thing?
01:34:36.960 --> 01:34:46.880
They're gonna do the whole thing, but um uh Willie Mac award I don't think they're gonna do the Willie Mac award for him.
01:34:47.119 --> 01:34:49.680
Uh I who would they give it to, by the way?
01:34:50.159 --> 01:34:51.119
That's a good question.
01:34:51.359 --> 01:34:56.399
I mean, he he did win it twice as a player, and I think it's one last Willy Mac.
01:34:56.800 --> 01:35:02.319
Yeah, I don't know if they're gonna go that direction or not, but I can imagine like that last game.
01:35:02.560 --> 01:35:05.439
And this is I was thinking about this this morning.
01:35:06.640 --> 01:35:13.439
Just if we're gonna if we're gonna send this man out the right way, because the Giants say what you will about them.
01:35:13.840 --> 01:35:20.479
When it comes to when it comes to the sentimental stuff, Pompin' Circumstances, their ballgame, they know how to put on a show.
01:35:20.720 --> 01:35:21.279
They do.
01:35:21.600 --> 01:35:23.199
And I was thinking about it this morning.
01:35:23.279 --> 01:35:32.399
There is a certain giant, former giant, who has not appeared at Oracle Park since 2019.
01:35:33.039 --> 01:35:38.159
I'm not this is not sourced, I'm not saying this is going to happen or it's not, but that would be something.
01:35:38.399 --> 01:35:44.239
If there was ever a circumstance for Tim Linsicum to make one more trip, like I I think it would be this one.
01:35:44.399 --> 01:35:45.920
I don't I'm not saying it will happen.
01:35:46.000 --> 01:35:47.439
I'm not like again, this is a big thing.
01:35:47.520 --> 01:35:51.920
Isn't that incredible that Tim Lindsacum, like his mere presence?
01:35:52.079 --> 01:35:56.399
It's like it's like the equivalent of like Prince being at a party or something.
01:35:56.640 --> 01:36:02.640
No RP to Prince, but like there's just like just this little guy, just again, aura, just energy.
01:36:02.720 --> 01:36:06.880
There's Tim Lindsacum actually does not have it, but was an unbelievable picture.
01:36:06.960 --> 01:36:10.239
But now his he's created this Salinger level.
01:36:10.479 --> 01:36:14.880
In San Francisco, like he had like it's every time someone sees him, it's like Bigfoot.
01:36:14.960 --> 01:36:16.800
It's like, oh my god, Tim Lindsacum's here.
01:36:16.880 --> 01:36:18.720
So isn't he just living in Seattle?
01:36:18.880 --> 01:36:20.640
I know he had some some personal issues.
01:36:20.880 --> 01:36:22.399
Yeah, I'm not sure about his situation.
01:36:22.720 --> 01:36:28.239
It is very fascinating that in a social media era he is as anonymous as he is.
01:36:28.319 --> 01:36:32.079
But I dude, I you know what, in retrospect, that's what I would have done.
01:36:32.720 --> 01:36:35.439
I would have just go live in the Pacific Northwest, you'll never see me again.
01:36:35.600 --> 01:36:39.600
I have my books and uh uh Starlink, and you'll never see me again.
01:36:39.760 --> 01:36:41.199
Yeah, there's some good ones on there.
01:36:41.359 --> 01:36:42.399
There are some good ones on there.
01:36:42.640 --> 01:36:44.640
Any any any current recommendations?
01:36:45.279 --> 01:36:47.600
Ooh, what am I let's turn around.
01:36:47.680 --> 01:36:48.560
What do I got?
01:36:48.800 --> 01:36:51.039
I'm reading London Calling by Keefe.
01:36:51.199 --> 01:36:51.840
Pretty good.
01:36:52.000 --> 01:36:52.319
Yeah.
01:36:52.479 --> 01:37:00.239
Well, so not on behind here, this is on the floor, but I have a buddy's wedding that's uh coming up next week.
01:37:00.399 --> 01:37:04.000
And so I started re- I reread uh All About Love by Bell Hook.
01:37:04.079 --> 01:37:09.760
I really hate how that book became like co-opted by the performative male movement.
01:37:09.840 --> 01:37:12.319
It's like, oh, like look at me with my toe bag and my much.
01:37:12.800 --> 01:37:18.239
I'm so glad I'm much older than you, and I have like I know all those words and what they mean, but like I had no idea.
01:37:18.560 --> 01:37:19.600
Don't do not look it up.
01:37:19.680 --> 01:37:20.640
It is is not worth it.
01:37:20.880 --> 01:37:21.840
I have no interest in looking it up.
01:37:21.920 --> 01:37:23.279
I read it.
01:37:23.359 --> 01:37:25.119
I read Carl Hyacen, an old man.
01:37:25.520 --> 01:37:32.560
One, this one up here, though, uh, on the calculations of volume, it's uh part of a seven-part series.
01:37:32.800 --> 01:37:34.640
Four of them have been published so far.
01:37:34.800 --> 01:37:44.800
It is about a woman named Tara who is stuck in November 18th uh in perpetuity, and she is trying so desperately to find her way out.
01:37:44.880 --> 01:37:46.159
So I would recommend that one as well.
01:37:46.239 --> 01:37:47.279
So four of them are out.
01:37:47.359 --> 01:37:49.119
Uh it's part of the seven-part series.
01:37:49.279 --> 01:37:52.800
Not sure when the other three are coming out, but have you read any Jordan Harper?
01:37:53.439 --> 01:37:53.760
No.
01:37:54.399 --> 01:37:55.840
Read Jordan Harper.
01:37:56.000 --> 01:37:57.680
I will add that to the list.
01:37:57.760 --> 01:38:02.560
I will add that to the list once we find at long last wrap up here.
01:38:02.640 --> 01:38:06.239
Dieter, we work at the same place, but for the hell of it, where can we find your work?
01:38:06.560 --> 01:38:08.000
Where where can we find my work?
01:38:08.079 --> 01:38:12.800
Um, yeah, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, whatever you want to call it, so long as you're reading it and so long as you subscribe.
01:38:13.039 --> 01:38:15.359
So long as you read it, so long as you subscribe.
01:38:15.520 --> 01:38:16.479
Dieter, this was a lot of fun.
01:38:16.560 --> 01:38:19.119
I'm looking forward to doing more of these over the course of the offseason.
01:38:19.199 --> 01:38:23.039
Of course, when you are not preoccupied uh with your 49ers coverage as well.
01:38:23.199 --> 01:38:28.560
Just as El Santos, Dieter Gurtenbach, the straws that stir the drink is Blasphemations Podcast.
01:38:28.720 --> 01:38:30.319
We'll catch you in the next one.
01:38:33.119 --> 01:38:33.680
Awesome.
01:38:33.760 --> 01:38:34.239
Thank you, sir.