The Sunday Hail Marys

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Cleveland scored one more total run than the White Sox in the four-game series. So who's the real winner here?

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You're listening to the Selby is Godcast with Zach Meisel and T.J. Zupi PERSON. Fly ball, deep right field, back is Spencer PERSON. That's the one that could get the wall.

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It's good, it's going to.

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Subscribe to Selby Is Godcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify ORG, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Unbelievable.

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It's really not known?

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It was the white socks.

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Oh, it was the white side.

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Okay. There are so many different threads to pull on here. Oh, wait. Fittingly, pun not intended.

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But there are just quite a few threads to pull on here.

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And we can go in that direction of trying to name whatever the Sunday.

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We had Shulish Joe Schmoe suggests the Sunday salvage, which is the Guardian ORG's patented series sucked, but we're going to save face on the last game of the series, often on a Sunday, just before Zach PERSON is going to sit down and pen an article, or TJ and Zach PERSON are going to sit down and do the Selby as Guidecast. Thank you for being here, by the way. And we're just going to take that off the board.We're going to take a little bit of the edge off. So I threw it out in our Discord PRODUCT. What do we call it? And I got the Sunday PRODUCT Salvage. What was your suggestion to me?

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Well, I wanted to rhyme with Sunday scurries. So I said the Sunday Hail Marys.

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It's like you're just praying that you don't get swept by maybe the, probably the American

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league's worst team, right? Oh my goodness. So we'll get there.

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And then also we make light of it here in the beginning. But I want to reflect back upon just a few short days ago. For those of you that are Patreon supporters, you get the additional show per week. Patreon.com ORG slash Selby has got cast.

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And so much more.

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And you get access to that Discord I just mentioned, which is just a community of us talking during the games. We're talking about roster moves and people creating different channels. I mean, it's no longer our animal. It is their animal.

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Whatever our listeners want it to be.

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It's like a legal gambling ring now. I'm telling you. So on top of all of that, you also get Zach PERSON randomly dropping emojis or just hinting at leaks. And Zach PERSON, I love you, buddy. And this is why I'm worried about you, because I don't want Major League Baseball to come looking and investigating where the leak came from of the Cleveland City Connect ORG uniforms. You mentioned it. You joked about it on Friday.And then over the weekend, they actually leaked. Can we confirm that you had nothing to do with that, by the way? No.

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I knew they were dropping this Sunday night. And I, when it happened, when the leak, first of all, I learned about the leak through our discord, which is reason enough to subscribe to the Patreon ORG. You could have seen the jerseys there before anywhere else. But yeah, I mean, it was kind of fitting, right?Like, they spent two and a half years keeping this to such a tight inner circle. When they showed players the uniforms during spring training, they did it in a room without windows because they couldn't risk some random person walking past,

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peering in, seeing the uniforms on display, and taking pictures. Hold on. Hold on. Imagine being a player that's on the bubble of the roster and they tell you, hey, can you come join us in this room over here? And you know that room has no windows. What are you thinking is happening in there?

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I don't know if you're going to be granted access if you're a non-raster invitee. But yeah, I mean, it was, like this has been really buttoned up. And so, of course, 24 hours before they plan to unveil it, it gets out there.You know, I don't know how you felt about them. I walked into a little sneak peek meeting really unsure of what was about to happen because I was thinking, if I think these look like absolute trash, are they going to be able to see that on my face? Am I going to have to feign interest and excitement? Like, what do you do in that situation? It's like when you're opening birthday gifts in front of a family member and you have to, even if you're like, oh my God, why do you another freaking tie? What am I supposed to do with this? Your face has to show excitement and appreciation.

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I love it. That's exactly what I wanted.

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So, I don't know, but I thought, I thought they were solid.

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I like, the piping is probably the best part of them.

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When I was dreaming up what I was hoping they would be,

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I've wanted them to wear

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and I had forgotten that they did this once, maybe like 2017. The 70s, I think they were in the 70s, the blue alternate tops, they said Indians ORG in like that font that we're all familiar with, like that block lettering,and they had the piping down the sides. And they wore those for a throwback night once in, like, 2017 or something. I thought those were great. I thought they should bring those back for, like, regular throwback nights. Obviously, they weren't going to go Indians or Chief Wahoo PERSON or anything on these. But that color scheme is so strong.And they only wear Navy now on the road. So you get the Navy with the gray pants, right?

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So it doesn't look quite as sharp, I think. With the contrast with the white pants, it looks real, real sharp. It does.

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And in 2016, they wore those throughout the playoffs, home or road.

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So it was such a good look, sharp.

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So there are a lot of elements I like. I almost said elephants. Those two.

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I like the new Guardian ORG logo that you'll see on the socks.

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I think you'll see on some T-shirts. I think there's a decent amount to work with here. I also maybe wrote my story. People are going to love them. People are going to hate them. You just don't want them to be apathetic, I think.

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And I think that a lot of people, like, if the guardians would have swept the white socks and we're sitting here like 28 and 13 or something, do you think the approval rating for these would be higher than they are after a rough year?

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No, I just think it'd be easier to sweep it under the rug if they were bad.

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Yeah.

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Luckily, I don't think they're bad.

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No guitars.

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No guitars.

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You may be saying to yourself, guys, it seems like you're focusing a lot on the City Connect ORG uniforms instead of the series that just happened.

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You might be right.

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You might be on to something. And we'll get there. Don't worry about it. Yeah.

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No. Well, we have lots of thoughts and feelings to share. I was pleasantly surprised. I was scared blankless to be honest that they were going to be, they were just going to suck.Just because this team's been on a role lately of they can't quite get things right in certain areas. Even, you know, I saw our pal, Anthony Castavans ripping into their new uniforms and saying that these ones should have been closer to what they wear on an everyday basis.Even I had seen that Josh Naylor suggested these should be our everyday uniforms, essentially. They're sharp. Now, I don't think you could wear CLE across the front as an everyday uniform, but imagine that font and lettering, shrink it down and actually just says Cleveland ORG. I like, and even the C, I was looking at, so I zoomed in on the C part of the CLE, and I wondered, what if that was your everyday look? Instead, I don't mind the C now. It's better than the block C they had before, which was very bland.

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Very bland in vanilla.

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But I think I might actually like that C that's part of the CLE a little bit more, the design there. You disagree. Okay.

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I don't, the one that I don't love the font.

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I also will never have strong opinions about this. Well, that's the thing. No one should be asking you. I mean, look at this. This is like the 47th consecutive show. I'm wearing a black shirt with nothing.Like, that's a pullover. We're not some fashionistas here. We don't know shit about any of this stuff. It's just how does it make me feel when I look at it? And that really, City Connect ORG, it might have been our pal, Justin Lada PERSON, that said,it's really all about how the fans connect to the uniform. It doesn't matter what White Sox fans or Nationals ORG fans or fans of anybody else thinks of the jersey if you like them. They're supposed to connect with your city. It's supposed to be something that you enjoy wearing. I even like the hat a lot.We have seen a lot of love for the hats that they're wearing during batting practice.

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Well, these should be those.

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Because the Diamond C on those looks so much better than the split finger fastball.

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I know the different colors.

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Butterfly wings.

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That's hit and miss for it.

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It kind of looks like the nationals have a cap like that that's white on the front. And there's some different color variations.

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With the Walgreens ORG logo? Yeah, that goes like 50-50 with some people. But I think these look sharp. I really do. I think these uniforms, I'm not going to say it's, there's a massive home run.I don't know. It's a City Connect ORG jersey, but my baseline for what I like of the City Connect ORG jerseys is way down here. I think 80% of the onesthat have been revealed to this point over the years,

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I mean, I like a very small percentage of them.

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I just, I don't like them.

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There are very few that I love,

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but there are a lot that are just, they're fine.

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You can really do with these.

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You can wear these and not be embarrassed by it.

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In fact, I think you can wear these

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and feel like you look sharp wearing it.

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It's not groundbreaking. It's not, I don't know what would be groundbreaking in the uniform game. We've seen teams go for that. The Diamondbacks ORG having 42 different combinations. Okay, that didn'tgo over well a couple of years ago. I don't know what the next step forward is for uniforms, but I can tell you this one looks nice. I like it. It's not the greatest thing I've ever seen, but that you didn't have to clear that partI like these I think they look sharp I like the hat I think you could take a bow Good job, they look fine

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So they'll have them for three years And They'll wear them every Friday home game this year This coming weekend They'll wear them Friday Sunday And thenThe pitcher chooses the next day's jersey, as long as there's nothing getting in the way, you know, special holiday or something. So they have liberty to wear them at home whenever they want. I think you're going to see them pretty often. I think the players like them a lot. Curious to see what this means moving forward. I think, like, the socks look really cool. Those socks that you saw at Dick's sporting goods like two weeks ago.Yeah, those were the real thing, I think.

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Nobody could keep a secret. No one.

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And so I just wonder if that logo picks up momentum. I think people are going to like that logo a lot. I think like the one thing I appreciated throughout this process is they've not beaten us over the head with, well, you know, the sleeve has a little symbol that is supposed

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to mean togetherness because Cleveland ORG is all, like, they're not beating us over the head with the thing. Yes.

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They went with the logo and the thing. Yeah, the wing of G ORG logo is like a split finger fastball to honor our rich tradition of pitching. Like, come on when i'm seeing that logo i'm not thinking like oh that's right sam mcdowl PERSON no so i think they limited that in this instance and i i do wonder if the guardian logo that's on the socks will eventually pick up steam in just like the public perception and becomemaybe in the future like part of i have no knowledge on this they yeah this is not something they've decided or hinted at but i just you know this is not going to be i don't think they're like tied to the current setup remember when they the timeline here is really interesting because the name change happened July of 2021. They unveiled guardians. They had the uniforms mocked up at that point. And they were, you know, they were as ready to go as they could be. They were so afraid thatleaks were going to get out that they just ran with it then, even if they weren't quite ready. But you notice, like, the uniforms didn't change much.

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The minute Tom Hanks PERSON finished that voiceover, they had published. Right.

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We can't have Hanks ruining this for us. We need to get it out. And Hanks was in a windowless room, too, you know.

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So you think about it.

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So that was July. The jerseys were pretty similar to what they already had. They just altered the font and they just replaced I-N-D PRODUCT with G-U-A-R-D. I-N with G-U-A-R. And that was it. You still had the red.You still had the navy. You still had the gray and the white. Like, not much change there. You know when they started the conversations with Nike ORG about the city connects? Well, first of all, they changed, they officially changed the team name mid-November of 2021. And like three weeks later, they're in a room with Nike ORG talking about city connects.So this was a chance to, like, they didn't want the name change, the rebrand to be completely different. Like they could have gone lime green uniforms and the logo could have been a, you know, a puppy. Like, they kept things pretty similar to make the transition easier. Then they get in a room with Nike ORG and it's like, blank canvas. You can do whatever you want.Yeah.

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So I just, I just wonder if,

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if this Guardian's logo will eventually become something more important to them than just a three-year twice a month thing?

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I don't know.

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Isn't that what it should be?

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Isn't that what, because there is no connection to guardians.

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As much as they tried to force that, there was no connection at the time. The connection is going to be forged over time and memories and just organically.

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You can't force that. And as new fans come in and don't know anything other than Guardians ORG, there is going to be several years from now, but there's going to be a time where no one's going to even remember. I mean, people will know that they used to be the Indians ORG, but they're not going to talk about it. It's not going to be part of their thought process as far as being a fan.This is the Guardians ORG. This is the baseball team that I love, and they've always been the Guardians ORG for me. And so you should, I feel like as this continues, this process, I agree with you. They didn't want to shift too much. They didn't want to be this. I don't think they wanted to blindside anybody with here's a completely new different thing.And we already are trying to win over anyone that was just a feeling a strong connection to Indians ORG in the past. We don't want to go such a big left turn here that we throw them completely off.So I get it to an extent. Should they have taken more risk probably? But still, I can understand where they're coming from. But then as this evolves, you have to pay attention. You have to see what do people connect with?You can't just continue to force something that nobody feels any sort of connection with. See what people gravitate toward. And then gradually move away from the things that people didn't gravitate toward that they didn't feel a connection with. And I mean, this is just, in this case, it's just you. You feel a strong connection, not necessarily from a fan perspective, but just looking at it, feeling like it's a good match for this team and this fan base.I don't know how anybody else is going to feel about that. But it is something as a team you have to pay attention to when you're trying to forge a new identity and move forward away from what you used to be to when you're trying to forge a new identity and move forward away from what you used to be into what you're going to become.

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It's very hard to have something like this be widely like the Nationals ORG Cherry Blossom ones or awesome. Are there any other ones that are Everybody's on board?

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I'm telling you.

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I'm telling you.

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No, no, there's going to be none.

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And I like, like, I love the Braves And those are pretty similar to their uniforms from, what, 50 years ago? I don't mind the Mariners, the Reds ORG. There are some bad ones, like the Rangers ORG. Baltimore ORG's.Like the Padres ORG. We don't need to do this, but I do think... Tier list coming up. Let's do the tier list. Yeah. I think most of them are harmless.And if they're bad, you just hope they just don't wear them like every home game. Yeah. I think you just... If they're bad, you just, you hope they just don't wear them like every home game. Yeah.

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I think you just, if they are bad, you say, hey, we took a giant swing, and we missed. And the bottom line?

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Don't try to pretend like they're great, but just say, hey, we took a chance.

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I respect that more than trying to pretend like you don't see the giant dumpster fire.

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Yeah.

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It doesn't matter if they're wearing white, blue, red, gray,

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or navy sandstone with art deco-inspired font. Gabriel Arias PERSON still has to catch the ball and hit the ball.

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Speaking of which, we have lots of thoughts about this weekend. Boy, this felt like a series against Chicago ORG given the twins have been surging. The Royals ORG continue to be playing good baseball. The tigers are going to hang around. This is the one team you're supposed to beat up on. Now, granted, over the course of 162, you don't just continue to beat up on every bad teamand sweep them all and take two out of three, three out of four, or else they would end up in the season with 20 wins.

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They would end up with 20 wins.

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That doesn't happen over the course of the season, but this felt like the stretch in the schedule where it's like, okay, that should be an easy layup for you to take three or four from them. I know all the games were close. There were some plays not made. There was also a lot of offense and there was a lot of not scoring some runs. But not only did it feel like a giant missed opportunity to not take three out of four or now looking at it seems crazy to sweep this series, given the way that it went, to drop three or four to this team. I mean, it would have been extremely unacceptable to get swept by a team like this.But three out of four, I mean, dropping three out of the four doesn't, that to me is not too different from getting swept. Even if you manage to come back and score seven runs and actually score one more run in this series than the White Sox ORG in the matchup.

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They're in such a weird place. It's so hard to analyze them at the moment because if you just, if you remove what

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you know and you look at this, let's start with the standings, okay, 25 and 16. 25 and 16, 610

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winning percentage. Excellent. Hard to argue that. If I would have told you that in March,

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you would have signed up for it. You would have been thrilled.

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Run differential plus 42. That is right in line with all the other heavy hitters in baseball. You know, the Dodgers are plus 74. I think they're playing a different sport. The Phillies who, if you want to talk easy schedules, they've notoriously played like 95% teams under 500. And they've done what you should do against them.They're 28 and 13. Congrats to them. They're plus 62. But the Guardians are not far off from the Yankees, the Orioles, the Royals ORG. So run differential. Like that shows, that's healthy, right?Against teams over 500, they're 13 and 8. Home and away, Winning record both. If you don't know who they've played when, how they've played, how each individual on the team is done, you'd be like, hey, this is great. Sign me up. On pace to win, like,98 games. Sounds great. All right. See you in October. But that's it. Like, if you look individually. We have seen. We do know a little bit more. If you look individually.

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We have seen.

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We do know a little bit more.

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That's the thing.

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Individually, the season makes no sense.

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And I think we said this the other day before the series started.

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We said, look, there is a way for this to be sustainable. And it is for your key

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players to play how you need them to play. That's Ramirez, it's Nailer, it's Jimenez PERSON, it's,

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it's getting Kwan back, it's getting Gavin Williams back, and it's getting Tanner, Bibi PERSON, and Trista McKenzie PERSON to pitch like they can pitch. And that's not inconceivable. You know, you would certainly think Ramirez and Naylor PERSON will be fine. You would think Jimenez PERSON would be fine. Like, I don't think that's too much to ask, and that's probably just what you need for this team to be in the hunt all year. And then if they can do that, you would think that they would add at the deadline, maybe,you know, you would think. And then, like, you'd be in good position. The problem is that everything else is a train wreck. I don't even know where to begin. You can say, like, if you asked people, what's the first problem they need to tackle?You're going to get some who say Luriano PERSON, some who say the shortstop position, some who say center field, some who say catcher, some who say the rotation. I don't know where to begin. There are a lot of holes on this ship.And I'm not saying it's going to sink, but I'm saying losing three or four in Chicago wasn't the most shocking thing in the world. Especially like Garrett Crochet PERSON, like that seemed teed up for him to pitch well against them. He's really good. So I just, I don't know where they go from here because you're getting close to the time where you have to make decisions. And you just, you know, if you're the guardians, like you wish either the results were better or the information was clearer, maybe?Because it seems like, you know, like, Floreal looked completely lost and miserable for a week. And then, like, he does what the guardians do on the last minute when you've written him off. Then he has a couple of hits. He's an extra base hitter. He has a home run. Or he looks the part.And he's not the only one who does that. So

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I don't know. Where do you begin

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here? I think

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that's the point. You could just take

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a dart, throw it at the dartboard and hit

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somebody, just their name, not actually hit them. And you could have, we could have a whole conversation about what we feel

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about them in the moment.

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And I think we're at the point of the season

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where you're teetering between still being

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able to say, it's early, calm down, it'll be fine, and also, ah. And I think that would be a fun line to walk today. I have an idea. Let's run through some of these players. And between the two of us, I want one of us to pick the calm down side of things.Everything's going to be fine. It's early. It's not so bad. Just take a more measured approach. Then I want the other person, might be me,to overreact a little bit and tell you what the other end of that spectrum is and try to talk you into why this team is in trouble. And I think maybe through that we find our way to the middle where the truth is somewhere in between.

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And I have enlisted special help from a third party here.

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He has no idea that I've enlisted his help.

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I take that back. He saw me recording him and clammed up. But I have 16 more years to do this. You know how my son, who is about to turn two, has memorized the Guardian ORG's media guide. He's working his way currently through theBaseball Hall of Fame annual program. We were in a store the other day and he's just blurting out Craig Beggio PERSON, George Brett, Nolan Ryan PERSON. It's insane.

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Your son does that with baseball players. My son can name the top grossing YouTubers ORG and their net worth so yeah take that for what it's worth.

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So some of these you might not be able to to quite understand I can translate for you, but he has, I have, he will introduce some players for us.

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Oh, goodness, I can't wait for this.

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All right, let's do it.

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All right.

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So let's start with his favorite player. Did you catch that? That's the other thing.

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He talks really fast.

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Andres Jimenez PERSON.

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It sounds like Andre Semenez PERSON, yeah.

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I want to start there because when he filed the ball off his knee on Sunday and was crumpled and writhing in pain for five minutes, didn't you know he was going to hit a home run on the next pitch? Seems to go that way.

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I will take, well, what do you want?

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You want the rational

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the rational take or the chaotic take

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I feel like I could go both ways on

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so I'll take the chaotic I'll take the overreaction you give me the measured take on Jimenez the measured take is

Speaker 31596.1s - 1636.8s

what I just said is what you can point to he is so good that he's and so smooth that he can just hit a home run two seconds after you know like knocking his kneecap dislodging it from his leg so that's in there so he'll be fine he's so well-rounded he's so calm and you know there's more in there than a six forty nine ops you knowthere's more power you know he's on pace to steal like 20 bases. He could probably even do a little more. He's going to be fine. And you know you're getting gold glove defense. I mean, he every single day he makes a play that no one else would have made in that same situation.

Speaker 21637.5s - 1638.52s

I mean, that's great.

Speaker 31638.64s - 1639.4s

That's great, Zach PERSON.

Speaker 21640.02s - 1714.64s

Good. You just keep building that war total because I need it for my own war team. And we both need the help at this point. But I'm not paying him to just be a solid guy that plays some defense steals a few bases. You might say, well, you're not really paying him to be the 142 WRC plus he was a couple of years ago.Okay. But he needs to be better than 97 last year or 87 entering today, up to 91 today with that home run. Needs to be better than that. And so my panic take is the more time in between 21 and, or excuse me, 22 and today, and he's not quite that guy, you can't keep falling back on. Well, he'll get there. He'll get back there.He'll have that another Robbie Alamar type season. He'll put that together. He'll be just fine. So I'm worried not that I think he's a bad player or even that the Guardians ORG are ever going to regret the contract. I don't feel that.But I do get worried when we see him only have a couple of bombs so far this year still not ever getting into a consistent rhythm offensively the way he did a couple of years ago

Speaker 41714.64s - 1718.44s

so you kind of need to get it in gear a little bit more

Speaker 21718.44s - 1739.06s

Andres PERSON and especially with without that guy in front of you in the lineup that is so key to this lineup maybe the most important hitter on this team, given the fact that they all fell off a cliff. The minute he's no longer in the lineup in Stephen Kwan PERSON,there is more pressure. They need him to be more than just a semi-solid player. He needs to be close to an All-Star for that to really work for this club.

Speaker 31739.86s - 1777.12s

Yeah, I actually agree with you. Forget everything I said. And also, you can keep cycling through Floral and Freeman and Rochio and anyone else who has never really shown signs of life this year in the leadoff spot. Or here's an idea. Just move everybody up one spot. Hit Jimenez first, Jose second, Naylor third, fry fourth,left or righty, and go from there. You don't have to stick someone else in the lead-off spot just because Kwan PERSON was hitting lead-off. Mike Freeman PERSON doesn't have to hit third

Speaker 21777.12s - 1778.72s

just because Jose PERSON is getting a day off.

Speaker 31779.22s - 1780.08s

Who mentioned that?

Speaker 21780.16s - 1787.18s

Who brought that up last week? I don't know. Didn't both of us? I'll give you credit. I think you came up with the first.

Speaker 31787.18s - 1788.76s

You were fawning over my ideas.

Speaker 21789.38s - 1795.9s

Yeah, I was backing you up the way a good hype man does. All right.

Speaker 31795.96s - 1803.56s

I don't know if you're going to be able to understand these, but we'll keep going with Charlie PERSON. That was Estevan Floriel PERSON.

Speaker 21805.64s - 1882.52s

He's reached the point where he's just, this is too easy for him, so he just blows through all these names. Okay, let me go first here. I'll take the measured response. This kind of goes back to what I said last week over at Patreon ORG. I am just fine with him being my Hail Mary off the bench, not just on Sundays, but every single day. And I will continue to carry him because there are times, despite his deficiencies at theplate and the ways you can attack him, major league pitchers are still capable of making mistakes. They might be looking for high velo, they may be trying to get it past him up in the zone, but guess what? Guys aren't perfect all the time. So I will take the chance that he's going to impact one game every single week for me. Not in an everyday role right now, but coming off the bench, being able to change the game with his hitting it past the center fielder and sprinting around the bases like a monster.Or being able to change it with a home run. The problems with Floriel is because you're asking more than you should be of him. I think if you're asking what you should be, you're gettingnot maybe what you want right now, but you're getting what is acceptable out of a guy that's sort of a bench reserve bat at this point.

Speaker 31883.06s - 1884.44s

Do you think he would agree with that?

Speaker 21885.24s - 1888.24s

Of course not. Do you think he's like, hey, stop putting me in the lineup every day.

Speaker 31888.88s - 1893.42s

I know I was a top 50 prospect and I put up enormous numbers every year in the minors.

Speaker 01893.42s - 1893.84s

I tell you what.

Speaker 21893.84s - 1905.88s

Including last year at AAA when I hit 28 home runs and I stole a bunch of bases and hit a bunch of doubles and drew a bunch of walks and look like this behemoth in the minors beating up on inferior

Speaker 01905.88s - 1912.08s

pitching at 25 years old. Stop playing me every day. No, no, no, all that. All that was just

Speaker 21912.08s - 1917.14s

hype. It was Yankees ORG minor league prospect hype. No, I'm just a part-time. That mindset,

Speaker 01917.6s - 1923.56s

if he had that thought process, then I would join you on the panic side of things. If he didn't

Speaker 31923.56s - 1925.18s

want to be in the lineup every single day.

Speaker 21925.8s - 1927.76s

He ranks 10th on the team and at bats,

Speaker 01928.06s - 1929.42s

but second in strikeouts.

Speaker 21929.9s - 1931.54s

And you knew there were going to be strikeouts.

Speaker 31931.62s - 1958.54s

He's got swing and miss in his game, but you have to then find a way to hit more than three home runs in 80 at bats or be hitting better than 200. And especially in the leadoff spot, I mean, I just, I've never been behind that. I understand hewalks, but he's not Carlos Santana. He's not even Kyle Schwerber. And maybe, maybe your dream for him is one of those guys, probably more Schwerber PERSON, but he's not there yet and he might never get there.

Speaker 21958.7s - 2008.52s

So you got to start small. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're thrusting him into more because you have a lack of Kwan PERSON right now. So now you're asking him for more. If you're asking him to do this, then I don't like this. I don't want him to be in an everyday role at this point. If he earns more of it by just showcasing that he should have more playing time, that'd be one thing.But having to play him, no. No, I don't necessarily like that in this part of his development. Then I would be joining you on the panic side of things. All right. Let's see who's next. Tyler Freeman PERSON.Tyler Freeman PERSON. Tyler Freeman PERSON. What do you think? I'm kind of ready to panic. You want me to be measured then?

Speaker 32009.84s - 2011.4s

Let me tell you why I'll panic.

Speaker 22011.48s - 2079.52s

We won't keep it in the same order all the time. Yes, he did. He hit the home run the same day we said, hey, where did this power go? Where did some of the better contact and impact in the ball go? This guy looks like he's kind of lacking confidence at the plate.Then he goes deep. And so maybe I'll just continue this. I'll just say, where did the ball go, this guy looks like he's kind of lacking confidence at the plate. Then he goes deep. And so maybe I'll just continue this. I'll just say, where do the power go? Where do the impacting the baseball go? I was excited in the first month because it seemed like he had changed a little bit about him underneath the surface to be more than just the slap hitting guy. And I was willing to go along with him on this journey as he tried to figure out how to become that.Because it's not something that happens overnight. When you're changing mentalities and trying to be a guy that does bring doubles and home runs more than he ever did before. So I was willing to give him some time there. But we just haven't seen enough of it consistently here. And it's not like, it's not like he's really showcasing a lot here other than playing a more capable center field than some otherguys have in their, in their opportunities. I'm just, I am salivating at the thought of going to the

Speaker 32079.52s - 2098.26s

AAA ORG depth chart and starting to see who I could envision playing center field. Wait, wait, wait, wait, the triple A depth chart and starting to see who I could envision playing center field. Wait, wait, wait, wait, the AAA ORG depth chart where you could find... Manus PERSON 12. Tell me why I shouldn't be panicked about Tyler Freeman PERSON.

Speaker 22098.38s - 2108.94s

Tell me why everything is going to be fine here. I can't. I want to take the rational take.

Speaker 32109.58s - 2111.02s

But it's hard.

Speaker 22111.78s - 2112.88s

Throw the segment away.

Speaker 32113.5s - 2119.1s

It's hard because I believe, like, there's,

Speaker 22120.18s - 2124.26s

look, just because you put up good minor league numbers does not guarantee anything.

Speaker 32124.42s - 2125.2s

We know that.

Speaker 22126.4s - 2129.02s

But there is a good hitter in there.

Speaker 32129.52s - 2207.3s

Like, it's not everyone who has good minor league numbers becomes a universally beloved top 100 prospect. He was top 50 at certain points, I believe. And there is a good hitter in there. I'm kind of wondering if,'s caught in between offensive profiles. Like, what do you want to be? Are you that contact hitter who wants to spray the ball around like Kwan PERSON and just needsto rely on line drives? Or do you want to access more power? I mean, he's got four home runs, which seems like a lot for him at this point in the season, but he's not hitting. And I just don't know what the best approach is for him.And look, him, he's smarter than I would be at this. The hitting coaches have done more research than I have on this. But, you know, I look at his metrics and like, yeah, the exit Velo way better this year. The hard hit rate, way better this year. That's great. The barrel rate leaps and bounds.That's awesome. The whiff rate and strikeout rate are up a little bit. You know, the walk rate is marginally up. That's fine. The whiff rate and strikeout rate are up a little bit. You know, the walk rate is marginally up.

Speaker 22208.38s - 2212.64s

The chase rate, though, we've said it so many times.

Speaker 32212.64s - 2221.76s

If you're going to be a contact guy, that's your calling card. You can't chase because you're going to make weak contact. It's just going to kill you.

Speaker 22223.38s - 2225.22s

And so I've got to be a rise up there. You've got to have just the most elite hit. so I got to be, like if you're going to have,

Speaker 32225.22s - 2254.12s

you got to be a rise up there. You got to, you got to have just the most elite hit. You got to be Stephen Kwan PERSON to survive. That's what I'm saying though. So, like, pick a lane here. Who are you? Because I don't know if he's got the goods to be Kwan PERSON light. And it seems like now he's trying to hit, like I haven't looked, I guess I can look at the launch angle. Yeah, launch angle is more than doubled. So you're hitting the ball in the air and you're hitting it harder, but it's not, you know, you're not some huge hulking slugger here. And you're still trying to be a contact.

Speaker 42254.12s - 2262.9s

I just, I just, I don't know when I try to envision, like, try to envision Tyler Freeman PERSON at his peak of his powers.

Speaker 32263.16s - 2266.76s

What does that even look like? I have no idea. It's certainly not,

Speaker 02266.96s - 2268.5s

after seeing him the last six weeks,

Speaker 32268.56s - 2270.92s

it's not what I used to think it was,

Speaker 22271.6s - 2272.96s

which was like Kwan PERSON-esque.

Speaker 32273.62s - 2276s

Maybe Will Brennan PERSON is just further along

Speaker 22276s - 2341.02s

in this journey than Freeman PERSON is. But the biggest thing about Freeman PERSON, if he was still performing the same way in May that he did in April, we're talking about the type of contact that he was making, then I would still be on this measured train. I don't want to panic about him. But it's just, can you maintain that? And I will give you the credit as much as you deserve when the process is still good. Like with Will Brennan PERSON, he's not a finished product in trying to be a guy that hits the ball harder.He's not because a lot of contact has been on the ground. It's limited some of his expected numbers, despite the fact that there's some good things happening. But the good things continue to happen. It's just a manner of, man, it's just about massaging your way to getting everything else to where it needs to be to optimize the level of contact that you're making now. And that continues for Brennan PERSON.And so that's why, I don't know if you have a clip here for him, but if you were to play a well, Brennan PERSON clip, I would say he is, he is someone that I am not.

Speaker 02341.12s - 2341.56s

Silly Willie PERSON.

Speaker 22342.52s - 2428.2s

I'm not panicked about Brennan PERSON right now. And he's fluctuated for me as a guy that I liked when he first came, Willie. I'm not panicked about Brennan PERSON right now. And he's fluctuated for me. He's a guy that I liked when he first came up, but I saw some potential warning signs going through last year. I really... I don't want to say, stopped believing, but I wasn't as big of a believer. I didn't have as much faith as I had initially when he was in the minor leagues. But now he's continued the good things enough that I'm going to give him therunway to figure out how to best optimize it. But for Freeman PERSON, he was doing still some of those same things and even finding his way to some home runs. But he hasn't continued that. It's not like he's hitting the ball hard, but he's just not hitting it where he needs to and you're working through that, like we're seeing with Brennan PERSON. With Freeman PERSON,it hasn't been as much of that recently. So if he gets back to that, if he gets back to finding the stronger contact, and it's just a matter, okay, we're hitting the ball a little bit too high now. So we need to maybe adjustand try to work more for some line drives. You know, however, a hitting coach has to get to a hitter, but I will buy into that. But right now, it seems more like, line drives or, you know, however, a hitting coach has to get to a hitter, but I will buy into that. But right now, it seems more like a, well, that was a really good two to three weeks stretch where he was hitting the ball and now we're kind of getting back into not doing any of the good things that you were doing before, but also still working through the bad things thatwere happening alongside the good things. And now it's just all bad. I don't know if any of that made sense. I can't get this. I have it in my head, but I can't get it out.

Speaker 32428.7s - 2489.92s

I think part of the issue, too, is they're evaluating all these guys who play the same position and are at similar points in their development. And you're going to have to make calls on them soon. I'm with you. Brendan PERSON's metrics look really good. You can see the improvements.The walk rates up a decent amount where it's getting close to being tolerable. You know, he still doesn't strike out a ton. The hard hit rate is up a giant amount. The launch angle is up. The exit velocity. Like, if you didn't see his actual stats and you just looked at his metrics and some of the below the surface numbers, you'd think he's having a really good season.So I don't worry too much about him. I'd like for him to like really go on a tear against righties before you're just throwing him in there every day against lefties. But in saying that, I don't think we need to rule out him being an everyday player yet. I think he's earned a longer leash in that regard, whereas other guys, like, I don't know.

Speaker 22490.64s - 2494.56s

Like, I don't want to see Floral against a lefty anytime soon.

Speaker 32494.56s - 2501.16s

The way I think about it with Brennan PERSON, he's a major leaguer because he has some skills that I think you can tap into.

Speaker 22501.48s - 2503.18s

I don't know if it's an everyday player.

Speaker 32503.3s - 2509.18s

I still am skeptical about that. But I think this is a guy that you have on your bench at worst that helps you.

Speaker 22509.86s - 2522.1s

And then Freeman PERSON looks, I'm still asking this question about it. Are you a big leaguer? And to me, Freeman PERSON is a big leaguer right now because of his versatility, because of the positions that he can play and the fact that he swings from the right side

Speaker 02522.1s - 2523.12s

that helps out this team.

Speaker 22523.32s - 2555.42s

But yes, versatility is the skill. But I'm also looking, like, what is the other skill that you're bringing that I'm looking to get your bat into the lineup? For Brennan PERSON, I'm seeing some of that. Now, this could all change in the next week. If Brennan goes the other direction and Freeman PERSON starts to tick back up, that's the difficulty here of trying to evaluate this in the smallest of sample size bubbles.But how do I feel about this right now? That's, I'm seeing Brennan PERSON underneath the surface doing some better things. Freeman, I'm looking for him to get back to what he was doing in the first several weeks of the season.

Speaker 32557.32s - 2560.84s

I don't have a audio for this, but let's shift to shortstop.

Speaker 22563.18s - 2566.22s

Roku and Arias PERSON are going to be intertwined for eternity.

Speaker 32568.06s - 2586.32s

So to me it's more the position. I mean, if you want to break these guys down individually, we can. But to me, it's like shortstop is in the right handswhere they've found, like, can either of those guys be the solution? What's the rational take there? What's the chaotic take?

Speaker 22588.98s - 2695.46s

I would love to find some glimmer of hope right now with Arias PERSON. And it seemed like he was really starting to grasp it. Like, towards the end of April, it really felt like he had found his little niche here and maybe was eager to bite off a little bit more of the playing time with Rokio PERSON. And since that point, my God, it's just gone off a cliff for him offensively and defensively.And I've seen some takes. Obviously, I'm not around the team anymore. But I've seen some takes trying to read between the lines of what people are saying about Arias PERSON and his defensive work. To me, I looked at that as more of a Arias PERSON. This is just my read from the outside, is trying to do some psychology, which I probably shouldn't do. To me, it's probably the case of Arias PERSON has always been so good defensively that it's tough for him to kick it up another notchbecause it's always come so easily for him, defensively, no matter where he's at. And so now you're running into a stretch here where you're missing some balls or you're going to go play a new position and you're not looking great out there. And so you're going to get calling into question. Are you putting in the work to try to be better?And for him, I mean, that's up to him to answer in between him and the organization. But he's not doing anything with the bat that justifies trying to continue to work him in right now. And just when I want to give him some credit for seeming like he's maybe showing some polish to his game and refining elements of it, he'll get back into these, these situations. He's just swinging at everything or he'll just he'll take a fastball and swing at a rotten breaking ball. And it's like,what is the thought process? What are you trying to accomplish up there? It's tough. This was

Speaker 32695.46s - 2764s

the issue last year. It seemed like he didn't have a plan. And there was a perfect at bat Saturday. Mike Clevenger PERSON fidgeting on the mound, had him O2. And he threw three straight sliders, I believe, that didn't sniff the strike zone.I mean, it was like he was facing Javier Bayez PERSON and just assumed, hey, if I throw it in the neighboring zip code, he'll swing at it. And Arias PERSON didn't. He took them all. But then he also, I think he swung through a 94-mile-hour fastball down the middle. And it just said to me, like, you don't know exactly what you're looking for and when you should be looking for it. And I'd like you to show me a successful hitter who walks twice for every 27 strikeouts they havethat's just not a recipe for success I can look at Rokio PERSON and say yeah he hasn't hit for any power but at least he's walking a decent amount 14 walks to 24 strikeouts like Rokos PERSON not hitting like don't let meI'm not saying he's the answer there I don't know

Speaker 22764s - 2769.56s

but I'm more comfortable seeing a trend upward like at me, I'm not saying he's the answer there. I don't know. But at least it's, we're seeing a trend upward. Like, at least there's some, the bats he's

Speaker 32769.56s - 2773.78s

giving. If there's a run around third and nobody out, I'd rather have Rokio up than Arias PERSON.

Speaker 22773.94s - 2779.42s

If there's nobody on base, I'd rather have Rokio up than Arias. And Arias is one home run.

Speaker 32779.42s - 2807.36s

Like, it, you know, it's not like he's, the one thing he could be is a defender with an elite arm who you hope like there there's 20 home run power in there but you don't know that he is a good skilled enough hitter to unlock itso I I don't know what the answer is at shortstop but we've joked for like years that like, hey, there's no measure.

Speaker 22807.64s - 2808.78s

There's no measured take.

Speaker 32808.86s - 2810.22s

It's all just panic at this point.

Speaker 22810.22s - 2811.26s

Yeah, man, I collect.

Speaker 32811.46s - 2825.96s

I collect Pokemon ORG cards, man. I've been collecting them for decades. Yeah, they're all squirtles, but is that a bad one? Like, if you're going to be collecting something, you got to make sure that there's some gems in the collection, right?

Speaker 02826.34s - 2831.08s

And then you look at AAA and you wonder like, okay, if it's not Rokio, if it's not Arias PERSON, is it?

Speaker 42831.8s - 2832.58s

Jose Tena PERSON.

Speaker 32833.48s - 2859.5s

Jose Tena PERSON? Like, I don't know. Is it? Daniel Schneeman PERSON? That one's hard to say. He's been just raking.I know he's 27 years old which is like ready for AARP in terms of prospects but I don't know Is he worth a shot Or do you even go toJuan Brito He's finally starting to pick it up After a really slow start I like the way he said that

Speaker 22859.5s - 2860.72s

Give me that one again

Speaker 32860.72s - 2861.92s

I want to hear that again

Speaker 22861.92s - 2864.76s

Womito

Speaker 32864.76s - 2867.44s

Womito. What bito?

Speaker 22869.2s - 2870.68s

There's going to be some... I like that.

Speaker 32871.34s - 2872.28s

A lot to figure out.

Speaker 22872.68s - 2874.82s

I don't know what they do there.

Speaker 32875.44s - 2881.16s

And it's got to be embarrassing. You became known for just stockpiling middle infielders.

Speaker 02881.7s - 2883.36s

And yes, Jimenez PERSON has worked.

Speaker 32883.56s - 2885.72s

I mean, you just said that he's not very good.

Speaker 02885.8s - 2889.08s

But yeah, he's, he has worked. You got one right there.

Speaker 22889.08s - 2891.44s

It needs to be better. It needs to be better.

Speaker 32891.62s - 2892.68s

Not, he's not very good.

Speaker 22892.94s - 2897.22s

You're still searching for a shortstop and you have no, there's no end in sight to this.

Speaker 32897.94s - 2898.7s

That's crazy.

Speaker 22898.7s - 2904.84s

Yeah, no, nobody really feels like there's no, it, it sort of feels like Rokio PERSON has to be the guy.

Speaker 32906.04s - 2908.18s

He has to. Because there's no other perfect fit feels like Rokio PERSON has to be the guy. He has to because there's no other perfect

Speaker 22908.18s - 2915.98s

fit. You know, Brito PERSON's not playing shortstop for you. God, people don't even think he's going to play second base. People don't, you don't wonder if he's going to even have a

Speaker 32915.98s - 2921.54s

position to begin with. Can you imagine if Daniel Schneeman PERSON was the guy? Like that's like he's the guy.

Speaker 22922.88s - 2924.08s

I'm trying to think of like

Speaker 32924.08s - 2929.92s

the comparison. That's like Dorian Thompson Robinson being the answer at Brown ORG's quarterback after all these years.

Speaker 22931.48s - 2934s

I'm going back and watching old episodes of Monk WORK_OF_ART.

Speaker 32934.06s - 2937.24s

I don't know if you ever watched Monk WORK_OF_ART back when it was on, but I don't know.

Speaker 22937.32s - 2956.96s

It's just been a good comfort watch late at night. And he'll just randomly pick like the most obscure character. He's like, that's the guy. And somehow by the end of the episode, you realize he's right. And that'll and he's like, that's the guy. And somehow, by the end of the episode, you realize he's right? And that'll be at Schneeman ORG, that's the guy.How? How would, he was that even in the same zip code to commit that crime? No, that's the guy. And you find out by the end of the episode.

Speaker 32957.4s - 3004s

It was a cute story in spring training because he was the guy who always hustled and did whatever they needed and could play any position. And the way they fawned over him in spring training made me think, hey, like this guy, like, if they have an open 40-man spotand someone's on the injured list and they need someone to come up for 10 days just to play middle infield, he earned his shot, even though he's 27, not a prospect, not a top prospect by any means. It was a 33rd round pick six years ago. And now I'm like, is this guy the dude? Is this, is this the guy they've been waiting for? I don't, I don't know. OPS over a thousand. He's just crushing the ball, drawing a ton of walks. I don't know. Sure, let him try it. What could, can hurt?

Speaker 23004s - 3044.58s

That's quickly trying to pull this up again to get the most updated statistic I had. He's second on the team in expected weighted on base average, which again takes into account the quality of contact, the strikeouts, the walks, your X velocity launch angle, all that stuff. He was second only to Kyle Manzardo. So it's not even like he sort of lucked his way into having better numbers or he's batted ball lucked his way into getting there. Below the surface, it suggests he's actually hitting the ball extremely well.Sure. I mean, I was going to ask you, and this doesn't have to be a full segment, but I was going to ask you who we're going to see first, Brito, Jonathan Rodriguez, or George Valera PERSON.

Speaker 33045.36s - 3049.32s

It might be none of those guys. Jeffin Rodriguez PERSON.

Speaker 23050.82s - 3052.94s

He's been saying his name for days.

Speaker 33053s - 3090.08s

I couldn't even say it. He's getting it out perfectly. Or you said him. I mean, so Jonathan Rodriguez PERSON to me seems like the eventual replacement for Ramon Luriano PERSON, both right-handed sticks, outfielders,and they're very worried about losing Luriano PERSON, not because losing a guy who has a 514 OPS and has struck out 31 times in 67 at Bats ORG. I did not realize that. Good Lord, three times as many strikeouts as hits. Is that good?But they need a right-handed presence, especially with Kwan out because he could play every day. You do, you're having a right hand of presence, especially like with Kwan out, because he could play every day. You do, you're having a presence is that.

Speaker 23090.98s - 3096.98s

But, yeah, but the Luriano they were hoping to see that they paid $5 million for.

Speaker 33098.24s - 3138.26s

Um, yeah. Because otherwise you've got, you know, I think we both agree Frye PERSON should play more. And he'll certainly play against lefties, and we're seeing him play against more righties. You're seeing him working at catcher, left field, first base, whatever, that's great.But you also want Manzardo in there, as much as makes sense, and you want, you don't want to overexpose, like, Florial against lefties, or maybe Brennan PERSON againstlefties,'re are you losing patience with Freeman PERSON like there are ways to mix and match this but the bottom line is like they don't have a ton of right handed bats so if they get rid of Luriano PERSON it would make sense if they called up

Speaker 23138.26s - 3171.72s

Rodriguez because he's a right handed stick who has pretty much proven all he can prove a AAA ORG well here's here's the thing with Luriano PERSON. I still, I believe if you just kept him and let him continue to play by the end of the year, he'd still be helping you someone against lefties. I really don't think he just forgot how to hit against left-handed pitching. I don't know.Looks bad. But, but here's the thing, Zach PERSON, I, while he's doing this, I have another guy potentially in Rodriguez that might be able to fill this role. But in the meantime, I'm learning nothing about Rodriguez. And I would just like to test Rodriguez.

Speaker 33172.92s - 3174.06s

Let the lab.

Speaker 23174.06s - 3175.56s

It's not like Loria is going to be here past 2024.

Speaker 33175.94s - 3177.32s

There's no upside here. That's what I mean.

Speaker 23177.86s - 3201.72s

That's what I mean. So, like, maybe there's not a drop off. Maybe there is. But I'll take the risk because I would rather just find out if this other guy down in the minor leagues is capable of filling that role for me or more. Or he sucks. But either way, all of those outcomes I cross another guy off the list and I go on to the next man, whoever that happens to be in the next year or so.

Speaker 33202.4s - 3203.3s

And it could be.

Speaker 23205.3s - 3206.44s

That's George Valera PERSON.

Speaker 33207.22s - 3238.44s

He seems like the Floriel PERSON replacement to me. He's, they're in a weird spot because they're going to have to treat him differently than they normally treat prospects because you need an answer on him. I don't, I believe he's got this year left on the 40 and that's it. And I know this guy is in that boat where this is, I believe his last year with an option.

Speaker 03239.36s - 3241.78s

And then you need, and so you need an answer on him.

Speaker 43241.78s - 3245.22s

And I don't, I don't know how you're going to get a good one that quickly.

Speaker 23245.84s - 3247.38s

I think Valera ORG's in the same spot.

Speaker 43247.48s - 3248.48s

He might have one more year.

Speaker 33248.54s - 3280.22s

I don't remember when he was placed on the 40. But the point is, the guy was at AAA last year. He's a AAA this year. And I think you have a decent idea of the type of hitter he can be where he's going to be three true outcomes heavy. And he might struggle against lefties, but he can draw walks and he can hit for power. And that's what you're hoping Floriel PERSON does too.So if Floriel doesn't take advantage of his time, like maybe Valera ORG could. And so you can make that switch at some point if you want.

Speaker 23281.38s - 3286.26s

That's one option remaining for Valera ORG. Okay.

Speaker 33287.84s - 3290.04s

So this year, and then that's it.

Speaker 23290.2s - 3297.94s

So, well, if you were to bring them up and then, I mean, you've already burned, right?

Speaker 33298.02s - 3300.42s

You've already burned it to put him down in the minor leagues.

Speaker 23301.48s - 3310.94s

So this is the option year? Well, what does Noel say? They're on the same. He's is the option year. Well, what does Noelle PERSON say? They're on the same. He's got one, too. So then...

Speaker 33310.94s - 3316.8s

I'm just trying to figure out how they're, when they listed here, how it's listed. So in any case, yeah. They're on the same timetable.

Speaker 23317.18s - 3334.94s

But here's the thing. Oftentimes you're looking for who's tearing it up at AAA ORG? I want to give them the opportunity. I think at some point, I don't know if we're there yet with all of them, but at some point, if it's Brito, whether it's Rodriguez or Valera ORG, I'm not even caring what they're doing at

Speaker 03334.94s - 3341.32s

AAA because they've been on the radar, especially Valera ORG, he's been on the radar so long

Speaker 43341.32s - 3345.28s

that even if he's just being averaged down at AAA ORG, it's time to call him up.

Speaker 03345.78s - 3350.6s

It's time to give him something at the major league level and quit searching for the right time.

Speaker 23350.6s - 3392.9s

I mean, he's had so many hurdles in place because physically he hasn't been able to stay on the field. And that's unfortunate. Lots of guys have just never, their major league careers were either delayed severely or never got going because of injury. So that's unfortunate. But still, I'm to the point where I don't care what his triple A, unless he's over his last 40 with 37 strikeouts, I really don't care what the AAA ORG numbers say about him. Because at some point, you just need to go.You need to call him up, get this over with, see what happens. Because I can't see a scenario where you never call them up and you never find out unless you traded him for something else that you needed. And that's the only scenario.

Speaker 33393.1s - 3395.2s

And then you're trading him for 25 cents on the dollar.

Speaker 23396.12s - 3440.74s

Yeah. You invested all this time and energy and you never called him up. It'd be one thing if everybody was just kicking ass at the major league level, well, that's not the case right now. So I think at some point, whether it's Luriano PERSON, whether you said it's Floriano, somebody, I need to find out about Valera. And Brito PERSON's going to be there too. Maybe not as soon as Valera, but Brito, it's like, if he's just, he's just okay down there, I don't care. Time to get him up. Time to see what you do under the big league.See working with Major League ORG data and Major League coaches and better lighting or whatever the case may be. You unlock your finally your full potential. You're just going to have to test it. You just have to run them out there and see.

Speaker 33441.64s - 3448.28s

Should they regret sending back Davidson de los Santos?

Speaker 23448.48s - 3449.8s

That's a mouthful for a two-year-old.

Speaker 33451.14s - 3452.12s

You seen his numbers?

Speaker 23452.12s - 3454.36s

Did you imagine De Los Santos PERSON and

Speaker 33454.36s - 3456.3s

yeah and he's doing it, what,

Speaker 23456.32s - 3458.04s

against double-A pitching where he should be?

Speaker 33458.04s - 3464.26s

Yeah, the same level as last year. But OPS bordering on 1,100, 11-1 home runs already.

Speaker 23470.14s - 3608.86s

You imagine Floriel and De Laosanto PERSON trying to figure out where you're getting those at-bats? Supply enough wind energy to power. Then again, how many strikeouts for Luriano PERSON? They put themselves in this situation because I've always tried to figure out how to, I've had this thought internally. How do I get this again outside my head? And it's how do they keep running into situations where other guys go and they're not even stars like Palacios PERSON? It's not a star with Tampa Bay ORG, but they find a way, just give him an opportunity and occasionally I see him helping.I don't know if that's a long-term thing. I don't know. But I picture Gabriel Arias getting away and going to the Tampa Bay ORG raise somehow or something. And it's not that he's a starter,but they're finding a way to make this work. What they're doing with Rosario right now Rizario PERSON was on fire for a while. And we've seen that before. We see how that, that goes for him. And to me, I'm wondering, they always are asking these players to be the answer at any given position.And when they're not the answer, they have somebody else that's pretty close in talent and they have equal question marks about. So they have to move on because they have to make room for this other guy that may be better, maybe, maybe, maybe not. But they have to ask themselves whether or not they are better. And so then they jettison the other player.And it's like if you had a team where you didn't have to make Gabby Arias PERSON the starting shortstop and you were absolutely fine with him being this guy that only plays three times a week, maybe less, helps spell you defensively, moves around the diamond, whatever. And then he had to slide up into a starting role in a pinch because somebody got hurt or whatever the case may be. I just wonder if they put themselves in this position because they don't,because not enough guys have grown up to be the guy, the unquestioned guy like Josh Naylor PERSON has. And so because everybody's so close in this, in this range, in this bucket, you move on to the next guy. In a more perfect situation, you just hold on to him and let him be on the bench and let him grow and get older and see if they ever improve.

Speaker 03609.78s - 3625.48s

I still don't know if that makes sense, but I think that I think because of where they've been at in this evaluation for so many years, they've ran into some bad choices because they're always having to make, it's not a question of, is this guy a major leaguer, we want to keep him around? They have to ask, is's not a question of, is this guy a major leaguer, we want to keep him around? They have to ask, is this guy a starter?

Speaker 23625.58s - 3633.88s

And if he's not, then they have to move on to the next guy that might be a starter. And they end up missing out on a guy that's a role player, but still is a helpful player.

Speaker 33634.38s - 3770.72s

I think a lot of it can be the situation, too. I mean, the phrase of this guy needed to change his scenery, I think it's, it's so cliche, but what it really boils down to is if it's not working and you're in the same environment, there's just natural pressurethat's going to mount and mount and mount. And eventually that bursts and you go somewhere and you succeed because one, there's less pressure on you. You've technically failed somewhere and you get humbled and you go somewhere new and the pressure on you. You've technically failed somewhere, and you get humbled, and you go somewhere new,and the pressure's off, and you just have a new voice in your ear. Maybe a coach uncovered something that your previous coaches didn't. Maybe you just connect better. Maybe it's a placebo effect. You just think that the change of scenery is going to do you good because it's a change of scenery.And nothing really changed, but you're just, it is mental pressure that you're removing from yourself because especially when you've been in an organization, you've come through it and like, you know, like these guys know.You think Tyler Freeman PERSON doesn't realize like, hey, you've made the transition to center field. You've done a great job on defense. Like, we've teed this up for you. Just take it and run with it, and he can't. I'm sure every single night he struggles to go to sleep because he's thinking like,God, I'm hitting 185 and I, like, I've never struggled like this at the plate before, and I've done everything I can defensively. Why can't I? Like, I'm sure that just that pressure just keeps increasing. And it's tough to escape. A lot of times it doesn't until you keeps increasing and it's tough to escape. A lot of times it doesn't until you succeed, whether it's here or elsewhere.So I think they have a lot of guys dealing with that. I mean, Floreal has to have so much pressure on him. He knows he's out of options. He knows the Guardians ORG traded for him and that they're, you know, he wants to make good on that trade for them. And they have, you know, not a ton invested in him, but enough that they aren't comfortableparting with him right this minute. And he knows that like if it doesn't work in Cleveland ORG, like, who's going to, he's probably a non-raster invite guy next to him. So it's hard. And we can talk so much about all these hitters and they need answers. But the bottom line is they also need Gavin Williams PERSON and the rotation.Good morning.

Speaker 23774s - 3776.3s

Get well soon. Later.