Speaker 1: Episode three ninety seven of Bucco Banter. We are going
Speaker 1: to recap the series loss in Cincinnati, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: preview the upcoming road trip to Milwaukee and maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit of trade talk. You're listening to the Bucko
Speaker 1: Banter podcast, brought to you by the Just Baseball Media
Speaker 1: Network's music I feel.
Speaker 2: One O one.
Speaker 3: You see a couple of me in My Taste with
Speaker 3: me and my lemonade because I let the way taste
Speaker 3: Beth Seats had the pirates and he let me run
Speaker 3: the base. Yeah, my time is like my money because
Speaker 3: I can't.
Speaker 2: Afford to waste.
Speaker 3: Oh why see is a llawyer take my date to
Speaker 3: my dates? Or to stick by the plate Sinney case
Speaker 3: keep the case from my race at my pace cleared Brant,
Speaker 3: that is snake.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to another episode of Bucco Banner. Adam, you
Speaker 4: were returning from Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: I stayed back this week. You and Debo held down.
Speaker 4: The fort dig disappointing series. Nonetheless, you go in to
Speaker 4: the last place Red's Ballpark in Cincinnati, hoping to maybe
Speaker 4: gain some momentum and loose three or four. Tell us
Speaker 4: about the vibes the overall trip and how did that
Speaker 4: go for you guys?
Speaker 1: For us, fine as human beings, We're good. We made
Speaker 1: it back alive. As a ball club man, when I
Speaker 1: tell you the vibe shift from game when we got there,
Speaker 1: from Friday to Saturday and then today was just something
Speaker 1: I've never seen before. And we go back to Friday,
Speaker 1: you get into the clubhouse after some mental errors, you
Speaker 1: lose Rhino to the quad strain. It was a funeral man,
Speaker 1: like you could hear a pin drop in that clubhouse,
Speaker 1: and rightfully so just so emotional, right because not only
Speaker 1: of the circumstances, you're losing ballgames that you should be winning,
Speaker 1: but your leader goes down, a clubhouse voice goes down.
Speaker 1: Somebody that you've relied on a lot this year in
Speaker 1: order to make this a winning culture is likely out
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season.
Speaker 5: Now.
Speaker 1: I know he recovered in pretty record time last time,
Speaker 1: so maybe fingers crossed we get the same type of result.
Speaker 5: But it was really, really bad.
Speaker 1: And I remember Deb and I walking out of there
Speaker 1: just saying, like you got a fuel for some of
Speaker 1: these guys, because it's we're in August, it's hot out,
Speaker 1: it's tough. You've already gone through a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: where it's doubleheader, it's extra.
Speaker 5: Innings, and then this happens.
Speaker 1: You can't catch a break, and then they win on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and you go in in there, in there, and they're
Speaker 1: blasting Lonely Island.
Speaker 5: I'm on a boat. It's electric.
Speaker 1: Marcelo Zuna is in the corner dancing like he had
Speaker 1: a good game. You're like, all right, we're back right,
Speaker 1: and and we put out the meme. It's like season
Speaker 1: back on. Because baseball's reactionary. Fans are going to react
Speaker 1: the most after every single game. And one thing that
Speaker 1: I loved that they had on the whiteboard in the
Speaker 1: clubhouse was let's go one and O today. And that's
Speaker 1: the mentality that we've been talking about. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've heard some guys say it, but it was the
Speaker 1: first time I seen it written on the white boy
Speaker 1: right before you enter the field, and something felt different. Right,
Speaker 1: It's like, all right, you still believe in these guys,
Speaker 1: you still know it's a good team.
Speaker 5: And you're like, I don't care now, you right the ship,
Speaker 5: you go out and split this series. We're fine, We're
Speaker 5: still in it.
Speaker 1: And you get absolutely mollywopped today and It was a
Speaker 1: weird series with these rain delays and Donnie getting ejected
Speaker 1: because they're doing god knows what to the field out there,
Speaker 1: but we got to score runs. And it's starting to
Speaker 1: become a little bit of an issue with this team,
Speaker 1: Scott not being as productive as they once was early
Speaker 1: on in the year, along with obviously color color struggles,
Speaker 1: which we'll get into, but the offense has struggled as
Speaker 1: of late. Even when they won this week, it really
Speaker 1: wasn't because of offensive production.
Speaker 5: It was because of Abbott not having control.
Speaker 2: And who they've is the one left in that they've
Speaker 2: been able to hit all year.
Speaker 4: They faced like three or four times and they've had
Speaker 4: really good rormans against him every time. But here's the thing,
Speaker 4: They're getting cold at the wrong time. And you know
Speaker 4: it's a long season. You're gonna go through rough stretches.
Speaker 4: This rough stretches just happens to be coming at the
Speaker 4: wrong time the time that you just don't want it
Speaker 4: to happen, right, But I mean, this is this is
Speaker 4: a team that is very capable of going on a run.
Speaker 2: And you see it.
Speaker 4: Guys that you typically circle on the calendar, Ret Louder,
Speaker 4: Brandon fought. Who's the other righty we face for Arizona
Speaker 4: at the beginning of.
Speaker 2: The week, Mary Kelly, Merrill Kelly.
Speaker 4: These are guys like, Okay, this team's gonna put up
Speaker 4: close to double digit runs today because this offense has
Speaker 4: performed for that standard this year. They just haven't done it.
Speaker 4: They've been struggling even more against guys that they should
Speaker 4: hit well. And you know those games are gonna happen
Speaker 4: in a long season. But at the same time, you know,
Speaker 4: I think we're we're both you know, believing that this
Speaker 4: team's capable of going on running. When you look at
Speaker 4: the wild card standings, Yeah, they're getting further out, but.
Speaker 2: They're still in it. Yeah, they're still in it.
Speaker 4: As much as I want to be negative and and
Speaker 4: feel like the sky is falling, there's still very much
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 2: So anyone's saying that they should sell, no, they should not.
Speaker 1: It hasn't worked for you in the past, right, Like,
Speaker 1: let's look back at the whole Ben Sherrington era has
Speaker 1: selling it the deadline worked out for you? So like
Speaker 1: what's to say? Still buying into this team doesn't turn
Speaker 1: things around? Right, Like you still have to hold out hope,
Speaker 1: just per producer Jay, Here real quick, they have an
Speaker 1: eighty one WRC plus as a team since July seventeenth.
Speaker 1: It's twenty fifth in baseball seventh highest team strikeout rate
Speaker 1: since July seventeenth. Which I'm glad you brought that up, Jay,
Speaker 1: because before the show I looked up this team leads
Speaker 1: the league in strikeouts at one thy sixty three.
Speaker 5: They're in first, they're not tied for first.
Speaker 1: They're in first, and that's gonna be okay if you're
Speaker 1: living and dying by the long ball. But then you
Speaker 1: look a little bit deeper into it, they're twenty first
Speaker 1: in the league in sackflies, and then they're tied for
Speaker 1: last than the league in sack punts. Don't care about
Speaker 1: the sack bunts as much, Jay, They're not the only
Speaker 1: one with a thousand. I think the Yankees are right
Speaker 1: behind them with one thousand and sixty, but twenty first
Speaker 1: in sackflies, tied for last in sack bunts.
Speaker 5: Again, don't care about the buns too much.
Speaker 1: But what that shows me is if you're striking out
Speaker 1: a lot and you're also not hitting the long ball,
Speaker 1: we're not slugging, and you're not gonna win by death
Speaker 1: by single and driving in runs and playing strategic baseball,
Speaker 1: you're putting yourself in a really bad position, a really
Speaker 1: really bad position where you're just not getting guys on base.
Speaker 5: And it's concerning.
Speaker 1: You can't get cold at this time of the year,
Speaker 1: the absolute wrong time when we've seen collapses before. I'm
Speaker 1: not ready to call it an absolute collapse, but just
Speaker 1: not ideal.
Speaker 2: There's an opportunity to write the ship here.
Speaker 4: And I mentioned it earlier on on my Twitter just
Speaker 4: saying like you can't.
Speaker 2: We've been saying it from.
Speaker 4: The very big you gotta make a move, you gotta
Speaker 4: like you gotta go for it. And I know you're
Speaker 4: not gonna get a closer in June, as we've said,
Speaker 4: but you're not gonna get that closer in May. But
Speaker 4: like they ran Downtana out there way too long and
Speaker 4: some other guys out there way too long.
Speaker 2: They could have made changes. They should have short leashes.
Speaker 4: On guys, right, But I understand having like a longer
Speaker 4: leash with like an Isaac Matts and this is a
Speaker 4: guy that has produced for you more than not, but
Speaker 4: you could have you didn't have to run some of
Speaker 4: the guys out there that you did in the high
Speaker 4: leveled situations.
Speaker 2: Now we're a day away.
Speaker 4: From the trade deadline and you're in this position, and
Speaker 4: I think some of that is self inflicted. I you know,
Speaker 4: I think even a lot of people in the in
Speaker 4: the Pirates organization would probably look in the mirror and
Speaker 4: say the same thing. I hope they would, right. They
Speaker 4: played this a little bit conservatively. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: there's time. There's time, right, and I think, you know,
Speaker 4: this is a big twenty four hours coming up, an
Speaker 4: opportunity to write the ship.
Speaker 2: Now, Ryan O'Hearn, losing him is is a gut punch,
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. He's a leader in the clubhouse.
Speaker 4: He's a leader in the lineup, Like this is the
Speaker 4: best all around hitter that you can put in the
Speaker 4: lineup right now, right, he does it all. But you
Speaker 4: also you also are getting reinforcements back. I'm gonna play
Speaker 4: a little bit glass half full here, right. I know
Speaker 4: a lot of Piratescreans probably don't want to hear this
Speaker 4: type of attitude right now.
Speaker 2: But you just got Spencer Horwitz back. That's huge.
Speaker 4: Andy Rodriguez is healthy. You're gonna get O'Neill Cruz back,
Speaker 4: pretty soon ish, and then they're also there's rumors about
Speaker 4: them going out on to uh grab a right handed
Speaker 4: outfielled bat. The name that's been floated around is Taylor Ward.
Speaker 4: Another one Joe Atdell. Both names I'd be very happy
Speaker 4: with to add to this lineup. So it's not all
Speaker 4: doom and gloom. You can't you can't underscore the loss
Speaker 4: of Rhin O'Hearn right like, that is an impactful loss,
Speaker 4: but we're also getting guys back, we're getting reinforcements on
Speaker 4: the way, and this offense is still really good.
Speaker 5: Jay, you want to come in and say something guys.
Speaker 6: When it comes to buying to I feel like people
Speaker 6: who have been looking at this through lens of either
Speaker 6: it's just like we're gonna go all in sell the
Speaker 6: entire farm to make this happen, or we're gonna do
Speaker 6: no right. And I don't think that you have to
Speaker 6: necessarily do either one because you look at the guys
Speaker 6: that they're interested in, aside from Luke Weaver, who is
Speaker 6: really going to cost you a whole lot right now
Speaker 6: on the trade market. You mentioned this before we started
Speaker 6: recording about Taylor Ward. He's a one year rental who
Speaker 6: can help you right now kind of feel that be
Speaker 6: that stop gap between now and when we get Ryan
Speaker 6: and Hern back, whether that's next year or at the
Speaker 6: end of this year, and then fit in against Lefty
Speaker 6: something like that. He's not going to cost you more
Speaker 6: than like a top a top like fifteen to thirty prospect,
Speaker 6: and that's even generous, to be honest, lower level arm
Speaker 6: maybe yeah, maybe lottery ticket dominic, a lottery ticket like,
Speaker 6: you don't you don't have to go all in or
Speaker 6: not go all in, like you can really start to
Speaker 6: rebuild this team and fill some of these holes without
Speaker 6: really blowing up your farm system, especially whenever you get
Speaker 6: to the bullpen you constantly see these maybe intriguing arms
Speaker 6: moved around who aren't aren't like super super established closers
Speaker 6: or anything like that. You can you can make this
Speaker 6: happen and still like manage to keep your future and
Speaker 6: whatnot going forward.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to mention that really quickly.
Speaker 4: And if anyone knows our low low levels, it's the
Speaker 4: Baltimore Orioles just being an earshot away in Sarasota.
Speaker 2: They've definitely seen a system.
Speaker 4: Just don't please don't touch rint on the Barrow or
Speaker 4: Carlos Mateo. Those are two guys I really like and
Speaker 4: hope to keep in the system. But hey, I think
Speaker 4: if Taylor Ward is the guy coming back, Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: gonna be It's not gonna cost a whole ton, but
Speaker 4: this is a guy that could rotate around the corners
Speaker 4: and provide some power from the right side, which is
Speaker 4: what this team really needs.
Speaker 2: This is what they were hoping to get from Marcelo Zerda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then we talk about bullpenhelp. They did trade
Speaker 1: for Kamilla Duval this week. You traded amaral Fonso, who
Speaker 1: obviously sad story this year, promising prospect, He's going to
Speaker 1: be a free agent at the end of the year,
Speaker 1: minor league free agent, so you had to make a
Speaker 1: move with him. And then you include Louis Cruz, who
Speaker 1: is still in the dr at age nineteen. The Pirates
Speaker 1: are paying Duval seven hundred and fifty K. He had
Speaker 1: his debut on Sunday, let up a home run. This
Speaker 1: stuff is there, I mean, the pedigree is there as well.
Speaker 1: He's had success at the big league level, But at
Speaker 1: the same time, there's a huge concern that he could
Speaker 1: just be Gregory Soto.
Speaker 5: From the right side.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes if this stuff is on, you're like, wow,
Speaker 1: how does this guy ever get hit?
Speaker 5: But if not, then it's.
Speaker 2: A bowling balls. It's like, yeah, kind of, I'd be
Speaker 2: pretty scared to be in that box. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's I like the bet on it, right, I do.
Speaker 1: I think it's a fine trade and absolutely fine trade. Now,
Speaker 1: if we're looking back at on it tomorrow after six
Speaker 1: pm and that's it, then there's another discussion that needs
Speaker 1: to be had because this is absolutely not enough for
Speaker 1: this team. You're looking for stability. You're not looking for
Speaker 1: incredible stuff to mold right now. You're looking for stability
Speaker 1: somebody that's going to make you feel comfortable going into
Speaker 1: the seventh, eighth, ninth INNY. I don't want to come
Speaker 1: on this show tomorrow after the trade deadline and start
Speaker 1: hammering icy lights like I did last year.
Speaker 5: Okay, like I want to be in a good.
Speaker 2: Food We could do that in celebration.
Speaker 1: Though exactly. Icy light is good for any type of mood.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have happy icy lights. I don't want sad
Speaker 1: icy lights. Happy icy lights are always better. So tomorrow
Speaker 1: at six pm, this team needs some stability on the
Speaker 1: back end.
Speaker 5: Duval.
Speaker 1: It's fine, it could work out well, but it's still
Speaker 1: oh my god, he's coming into the game. Which type
Speaker 1: of guy are we going to get right now? If
Speaker 1: that makes sense?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, absolutely, And you know, I expect more than
Speaker 4: one move, guys. I wouldn't be surprised if something happens
Speaker 4: while we're recording here or later tonight into tomorrow. I
Speaker 4: think they're going to be very active. But I want
Speaker 4: to talk about another topic before we move on Mitch Keller.
Speaker 4: I just feel like we have to talk about it.
Speaker 4: Love Mitch, but I think it's hard to ignore that
Speaker 4: just hasn't been his year, and you got to decide
Speaker 4: what to do with him, probably sooner rather than later.
Speaker 4: He's notoriously dropped off in the second half in years past.
Speaker 4: He hasn't been good since April, right, And this is
Speaker 4: a guy that you can't continue running out there in
Speaker 4: the starting rotation in meaningful games.
Speaker 2: It's tough to watch man, it really is. He's susceptible
Speaker 2: along the ball.
Speaker 4: He's given up four to five runs almost every outing,
Speaker 4: and while the offense is slow, that doesn't help matters either.
Speaker 4: And he had like fifty plus pitches through to it
Speaker 4: in the second inning today, Like it's not giving us
Speaker 4: meaningful innings either.
Speaker 2: This is a guy that used to be our workhorse.
Speaker 4: This is why everyone said you can't trade them away
Speaker 4: in the off season, because you got all these young arms.
Speaker 4: You need a guy that's gonna be able to go
Speaker 4: out there give you six.
Speaker 2: To seven or a sort. He can't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: The problem also lies you have braxt Ashcraft who's coming
Speaker 1: up on a career high bub a Chandler who's coming
Speaker 1: up on a career high Jones who's on an innings
Speaker 1: limit or a pitch limit, and then Mitch Keller. If
Speaker 1: you take him out of this rotation, you absolutely need
Speaker 1: to add other guys that are going to step in.
Speaker 5: Scott.
Speaker 1: He's only averaging ninety one point nine on the fastball
Speaker 1: right now, and he threw sixty nine pitches today. Only
Speaker 1: thirty of those were in the strike zone. Like there's
Speaker 1: days where I see the old Mitch Keller and I
Speaker 1: start to believe, and I'm like, all right, maybe he
Speaker 1: gives up two or three runs today, but we get
Speaker 1: six innings out of him and he keeps us in
Speaker 1: the ballgame. But it's just not going to happen if
Speaker 1: he's not staying in the strike zone. Jay brings up
Speaker 1: that Connor Wickgriff who we had on the show. Great interview,
Speaker 1: by the way, go check that out. He is a
Speaker 1: two seven six ERA and forty two and a third
Speaker 1: in Triple A right now, so he's killing it.
Speaker 2: September call up six man rotation.
Speaker 1: It could be he's a college arm, right, but it's
Speaker 1: just very hard to tell. Like at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the year, we thought Barco is going to be the
Speaker 1: lefty that this team needed in the rotation. We said, hey,
Speaker 1: forget going out and getting a lefty. You got Hunter
Speaker 1: Barco in the system, and it just really hasn't worked
Speaker 1: out to date.
Speaker 5: Maybe Connor Wickgriff is the answer there if.
Speaker 1: You're just looking something internally, but you probably have to
Speaker 1: go and get another starting pitcher. Right you're running into
Speaker 1: a weird zone where, hey, we need to compete, but
Speaker 1: we also need to make sure that these guys' arms
Speaker 1: don't fall off.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean absolutely a lot of these young arms,
Speaker 4: they're reaching their career, hi, right, I mean that's that's
Speaker 4: a problem, not just here, but it's all the young arms.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I would not mind adding in a guy,
Speaker 4: and it doesn't have to be a sexy name. It
Speaker 4: could be a guy that's going to go out there
Speaker 4: and give you five or six relive winnings. Think of
Speaker 4: a guy in the Martin perezmol right, soft tossing lefty,
Speaker 4: get a different look in there, and I think that'd
Speaker 4: be helpful.
Speaker 2: I'm also you really hope that Bubba Chandler has like
Speaker 2: a strong the last two months here.
Speaker 4: Because although he's reaching at career high and innings as well,
Speaker 4: you've seen flashes of it through July of what he
Speaker 4: can be.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think this is a.
Speaker 4: Guy that's just going to be a late bloomer, right
Speaker 4: We know he has the stuff and we know he
Speaker 4: could be top of the rotations upside here, but.
Speaker 2: You know, this is a guy with skeins not pitching
Speaker 2: at his best right now.
Speaker 4: We could really use a step up from him and Ashcraft,
Speaker 4: who has been gassed as of recently, even though his
Speaker 4: last start was better.
Speaker 6: Guys, I want to pitch you guys on one other
Speaker 6: starting pitcher we could potentially go after here now that
Speaker 6: the first Domino's kind of fallen with Scooball Tigers aren't
Speaker 6: going to just sell terror scooball this deadline Casey Mys
Speaker 6: is also on the trademarket like case, and that salary
Speaker 6: is not hefty at all. And he's kind of the
Speaker 6: definition of a workhorse honestly, even though he's been he's
Speaker 6: been hurt. When he's healthy, he's just a guy that
Speaker 6: posts so far this season through sixteen games, eighty six
Speaker 6: point two innings two point seven You're not a huge
Speaker 6: strikeout guy or anything like that, but somebody can give
Speaker 6: you length and just kind of fill these holes and
Speaker 6: almost be the Mitch Keller that you were hoping to
Speaker 6: get out of mitche Keller this season, just me that splitter. Yeah,
Speaker 6: someone to keep in mind. He's gonna get you swing
Speaker 6: and miss, even if it's not K's And I think
Speaker 6: that honestly with the defense right now too that I
Speaker 6: don't know if we're gonna talk about that at all,
Speaker 6: but we could also use a guy that could just
Speaker 6: get some swing and miss as well, and maybe he
Speaker 6: can maybe find his way towards some more strikeouts in
Speaker 6: Pittsburgh too, who knows.
Speaker 5: I liked it swinging and miss and somebody that could
Speaker 5: put the ball on the ground.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 4: I like that, Well, let's talk about that defense is
Speaker 4: that's a good segue because you got a guy like
Speaker 4: Nikki g who's leading, practically leading the league in hits,
Speaker 4: multi hit games, hitting.
Speaker 2: For high average. What do you do with him?
Speaker 4: Because he's been a liability at third base to say
Speaker 4: the least, and you look at some of the met people.
Speaker 4: I haven't really looked at it myself, but people have
Speaker 4: brought up that he actually grades better at shortstop than
Speaker 4: Treolo does, and Treolo is great better at third base?
Speaker 2: Does it make sense to make that switch? Like, I
Speaker 2: just don't see Nicki g as being.
Speaker 4: A four to five day shortstop while Connor Griffin's out.
Speaker 4: But there's something that needs to be done here because
Speaker 4: when you can't take Nikki g out of the lineup right now,
Speaker 4: ideally he'd be a second baseman. But we got our
Speaker 4: the best hitter in our lineup at second base right.
Speaker 1: Now negative four ounce above average for Gonzo, and it's
Speaker 1: become an issue. Man.
Speaker 5: The arm. I don't know about putting him at shortstop.
Speaker 5: The arm is just not there, man.
Speaker 1: And I think the game time to time speeds up
Speaker 1: for him at third base. I'm not going to spend
Speaker 1: too much time on the mental air. I mean they
Speaker 1: credited Lao with the air, and Lao after the game
Speaker 1: said like, listen, I need to catch the ball.
Speaker 2: That's fun and horrendous.
Speaker 4: It just it seemed like he had a mental block
Speaker 4: there as he's like transferring and throwing the second base right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have maybe one of the slowest runners
Speaker 1: in the league in Nathaniel Lowe running down the line
Speaker 1: at a one hundred mile per hour ground ball that
Speaker 1: was fielding cleanly.
Speaker 5: You have all the time in the world, That's what
Speaker 5: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I think mentally the game speeds up on him a
Speaker 1: little bit over there, and there's still more of a
Speaker 1: learning curve.
Speaker 5: I don't know, man, it's a weird situation. Like do
Speaker 5: you feel comfortable putting Nickensols at shortstop right now? Is
Speaker 5: that the move?
Speaker 1: Or do you feel comfortable moving him to second base
Speaker 1: in giving Lao some days off dhing like there are
Speaker 1: moves that you could do to rotate some guys in
Speaker 1: and out, but I don't really feel comfortable putting him
Speaker 1: at shortstop.
Speaker 2: I think you just said the answer.
Speaker 4: I think that the end of Marcelo Zuna and Pittsburgh
Speaker 4: is very near or it should be, because as we
Speaker 4: mentioned many times over the off see, let's use that
Speaker 4: DH as a rotating cast, right, You don't need a
Speaker 4: full time DH.
Speaker 2: And I think that for a team that.
Speaker 4: Really emphasizes versatility, they're limiting themselves with him on the roster,
Speaker 4: Like you could have a Merland Valdez there, especially if
Speaker 4: you come in bring in a Taylor Ward is Merlin
Speaker 4: vald has complained DH most days.
Speaker 2: And then when you want to spell Brandon Law in
Speaker 2: the field and give.
Speaker 4: Him some rest, put Nikki g at second base, Brandon
Speaker 4: Law at DH. You keep the bat in the lineup.
Speaker 4: But I think there's a lot of different ways you
Speaker 4: can utilize that position to the line up.
Speaker 1: I want to give some flowers to some guys. I
Speaker 1: think it is deserved. One hundred Mirrors has been pretty
Speaker 1: nails coming out of the bullpen. Give credit where credits
Speaker 1: due man. The guy's gone through some struggles and he's
Speaker 1: looked pretty good. Mason Montgomery has been lights out as well,
Speaker 1: So really really pumped for those guys to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Noah Murdoch got.
Speaker 5: Some time this week. You could see why.
Speaker 1: There might be some promise there with the ground ball
Speaker 1: rate and just being able to produce that. The control
Speaker 1: still needs a little bit of work. I think he
Speaker 1: would tell you that himself.
Speaker 2: His wife would tell you that.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: When we had him on the show, they said, listen, like,
Speaker 1: this is something we're working on. This is something that
Speaker 1: we recognized in the off season and that they needed
Speaker 1: to attack. I liked what I saw out of him
Speaker 1: in terms of what could be. Just needs a little
Speaker 1: bit of more work there, So I'm hoping that.
Speaker 2: He gets it. And then yeah, I also liked what
Speaker 2: I saw from Antoine Kelly.
Speaker 5: I was just about to bring it up.
Speaker 2: I loved what I suffered. I thought he.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to choose my words carefully here, but I
Speaker 4: think he shoved, like he threw through some confidence and
Speaker 4: something you didn't see the first two times up in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 4: I thought him coming up, I get there with this
Speaker 4: seventeen game stretch or however many games it is. They
Speaker 4: need arms, fresh arms. But I thought he'd be up
Speaker 4: here for a little bit longer, maybe stay. I don't
Speaker 4: think we've seen the last of Antoine Kelly this year
Speaker 4: in Pittsburgh, and I like the potential there to be
Speaker 4: someone like an Ashcraft later in the season from last year.
Speaker 1: Through one hundred and two, and that outing three innings,
Speaker 1: three innings, two hits, two walks, three k's. After the game,
Speaker 1: he said, I think I've learned from the past couple
Speaker 1: of outings. You know, again, we talked about the game
Speaker 1: speeding up on you. That's a lot to ask for
Speaker 1: a young arm coming out of the bullpen, and he's
Speaker 1: been stretched out in Indianapolis. He told us after the game, like,
Speaker 1: I think I could have gone more, but you know,
Speaker 1: he did what the team needed to do and he
Speaker 1: put them in a good situation to win.
Speaker 5: So no complaints there. Again.
Speaker 1: Ramirez, Monty and then Antoine Kelly really really good weekends
Speaker 1: out in Cincinnati, but just unfortunately outside of that, man
Speaker 1: couldn't get it going.
Speaker 5: Couldn't get it going.
Speaker 1: And then hey, we got to bring up Carmen as well,
Speaker 1: because not only did I really like Carmen's outing coming
Speaker 1: in and giving you those solid three innings, one hit,
Speaker 1: one walk or case, but after the game was a
Speaker 1: different Carmen that we're not really used to hearing. And
Speaker 1: you know, you don't get Carmen in front of the
Speaker 1: media that often. But When he was asked about his
Speaker 1: performance and coming out of the bullpen, he gave credit
Speaker 1: to the Pirates for allowing him to ease into it
Speaker 1: a little bit, which people are going to complain about
Speaker 1: here and there. Sure, that's fine. Everybody can have their
Speaker 1: own opinion on that. But if the guys says he
Speaker 1: needed some time to like get ready to pitch multiple
Speaker 1: days in a row, that's fine. But it seems like
Speaker 1: he wants to do that, and he said, I want
Speaker 1: to be available on back to back days to help
Speaker 1: this team down the stretch.
Speaker 5: I want to pitch more.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if it's an organizational like we
Speaker 1: want to keep easing him into this until we know
Speaker 1: for certain he could recover on back to back days
Speaker 1: or what exact situations we're putting him in. But Carmen
Speaker 1: the player seems to be embracing the role a little
Speaker 1: bit more, which is encouraging because he's really good at baseball.
Speaker 5: Scott, he's really good.
Speaker 1: Coming out of the bullpen, and I would love to
Speaker 1: have him in more high leverage situations.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. I think you can get creative with him. Right.
Speaker 4: The arm talent is there, It's pretty obvious and even
Speaker 4: though the arm talent is there. He doesn't miss a
Speaker 4: ton of bats, but he gets out and he works quickly,
Speaker 4: and I think that's valuable. I think you could use
Speaker 4: him in a high leverage situation. I think the stuff
Speaker 4: wi play up a little bit more in a high
Speaker 4: leverage suation. I also think you can stretch him out.
Speaker 4: I think this is a guy that can be your
Speaker 4: utility guy in the bullpen if you will.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there's really nothing to talk about the offense.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately for this weekend, like again, we brought it up,
Speaker 1: Abbott struggled.
Speaker 5: The weather was weird if anything. With this team.
Speaker 1: Rallied around a couple of singles in Game two, but
Speaker 1: they just couldn't get anything together. Nikki g has been
Speaker 1: on fire. I think the hit streak came to an
Speaker 1: end yesterday, but just been really solid. And then the
Speaker 1: Jake Mangum Homer just absolutely snuck one right over the fence.
Speaker 1: So let's, as Clint Hurdle would say, shower well, because
Speaker 1: you really got to get the funk off of this one,
Speaker 1: and you have a really important series and Scott just
Speaker 1: bringing it full circle here, you mentioned they're still not
Speaker 1: out of it right this is not the time to
Speaker 1: give up. We just mentioned years past when they're buying
Speaker 1: or doing a little bit of both. It hasn't worked.
Speaker 1: So why not keep investing in this team and just
Speaker 1: see it out, see it through. Okay, if they don't
Speaker 1: put if they don't win ball games, so be it.
Speaker 5: How is that different than any other year? It's not.
Speaker 1: Okay, at least put yourself in a position where you
Speaker 1: know you did what you could to win ball games.
Speaker 1: And as we're talking, I'm just scrolling through Twitter because
Speaker 1: I am itching for a trade. I'm itching just to
Speaker 1: see this organization. I don't have anything for you. Do
Speaker 1: you have something for me?
Speaker 2: I don't. I'm doing the same thing. So I was
Speaker 2: wondering if you beat me to the punch.
Speaker 5: I mean, this is really Jay's job, all right.
Speaker 2: I mean, Jake, get on it, come on by the trade,
Speaker 2: you get.
Speaker 1: On the phones. But I'm excited. I'm still excited. We're
Speaker 1: still playing meaningful baseball. Don't get me wrong. This weekend sucked.
Speaker 1: This month has not been great, but they've still weathered
Speaker 1: the storm. Despite all of the injuries that they've faced
Speaker 1: and everything that's been thrown at this team, they're still
Speaker 1: hovering around that five hundred mark. So, Jay, did you
Speaker 1: break your kiddie news on the pod with us? I
Speaker 1: mean maybe you should set it. Yeah yeah, maybe maybe
Speaker 1: that's a bad thing. I forgot about that. So yeah,
Speaker 1: no more for you. Okay, get out of here. We
Speaker 1: got the Brewers.
Speaker 5: You're going to get a bullpen game, which is a
Speaker 5: good transition.
Speaker 1: Before we get into that transition, a couple of shout
Speaker 1: outs here one forty four gloves.
Speaker 5: You're going to see a lot of them in Milwaukee.
Speaker 5: Abner Uribe.
Speaker 1: Jacob Mazerowski has, I mean, obviously some of the coolest
Speaker 1: forty fours. If you use code Buco twenty at forty
Speaker 1: four pro dot com, you get twenty percent off a
Speaker 1: fully customizable glove, like fully full. You want to put
Speaker 1: a baseball card, a Pokemon card in the glove, you
Speaker 1: got it. You can do it. That's how cool it is.
Speaker 1: And we're going to be giving one away this weekend
Speaker 1: when the Mets come to town. Freddy peralta kind of
Speaker 1: pissed about that trade today, Scott because he has some
Speaker 1: of the coolest forty four pro gloves we've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and I was really really looking forward to chopping it
Speaker 1: up with him again. We talked to him a little
Speaker 1: bit last year. I wanted to see those gloves. So
Speaker 1: unfortunately we're gonna have to catch him next year. But
Speaker 1: forty four pro is killing it, man, So bucco twenty
Speaker 1: you get twenty percent off. And then if you're feeling
Speaker 1: like you're gonna commit some crimes and you're just you
Speaker 1: don't have an outlet, I promise if you just go
Speaker 1: scream into a pillow, it's probably better than going to jail.
Speaker 1: But if you find yourself in that situation where you're like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I gotta do it. I gotta go
Speaker 1: commit crimes and there's no way out of it, you
Speaker 1: could always call it the fine folks over at Farrell
Speaker 1: Weaver in Oakin because they are fighting for your rights,
Speaker 1: providing aggressive criminal defense and appellet representation when the stakes
Speaker 1: are the highest, when it counts most experience matters, call
Speaker 1: Farrell Weaver in Oaken for any of your legal needs today, Scott,
Speaker 1: what do we got going on in Milwaukee?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: So luckily four game series in Milwaukee and we happened
Speaker 4: to miss the miss again, So that's a positive note, right,
Speaker 4: But the Brewers enter sixty nine and forty two. They're
Speaker 4: doing really well first in the division tomorrow, which by.
Speaker 2: The way, is my birthday, and no big deal. I
Speaker 2: just want to put that out there also, okayadline day.
Speaker 4: Bub, but Chandler is going against Brandon Sprote. Brandon sprot
Speaker 4: pitched in Pittsburgh on June eleventh, went three innings, two hits,
Speaker 4: two earned, three walks, three k's, gave up a home
Speaker 4: run to zemeryland Valdez on the year three and six
Speaker 4: with a five O five era ninety two and two
Speaker 4: thirds innings, ninety six k's and a one three nine whip.
Speaker 4: We'll come at you with a sinker four seam cutter,
Speaker 4: three different fastball variations around twenty five to thirty percent
Speaker 4: of the time, and then a curve, sweeper and change.
Speaker 4: He was acquired in that Freddy perolt to trade this
Speaker 4: off season. Freddy Perlta was flipped to the race today.
Speaker 4: By the way, elite Velo generates both strikeouts and we
Speaker 4: contact deep arsenalized in the turno over a lineup multi times.
Speaker 4: Stuff has played noticely better since his mechanical adjustments in June.
Speaker 4: So guys, another variety that can run it up there
Speaker 4: in the mid to high nineties and a guy that's
Speaker 4: a rookie that has struggled to start his first year
Speaker 4: full season and pro ball.
Speaker 1: Tuesday, August fourth, you get Jared Jones, Verus right handed
Speaker 1: pitcher Logan Henderson. This year, Henderson is five to one
Speaker 1: with a two six to six ERA in nine games,
Speaker 1: forty four innings, pitch fifty four k's with a point
Speaker 1: nine to one whip. The Arsenal's a four seen change cutter, sweeper,
Speaker 1: elite strikeout ability, outstanding command here, as you could see
Speaker 1: by that whip not really allowing runners to get on
Speaker 1: base tunnels. His fastball and change up exceptionally well, making
Speaker 1: them both pitches that play up heavy fly ball profile.
Speaker 1: Frequently attacks with the fastball at the top of the zone.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you want all of these breakdowns
Speaker 1: and more, go to bucobanter dot com throwing your email
Speaker 1: hit send, then go to your email opt in, and
Speaker 1: all these will be sent to you right before every
Speaker 1: single series, along with everything else happening in the Banter universe. Scott,
Speaker 1: what do we got going on on Wednesday and then Thursday?
Speaker 4: Well, so Wednesday's gonna be TVD maybe a bullpen game
Speaker 4: for the Brewers, but Paul Skeins is going in Thursday.
Speaker 4: We've got Braxton Ashcraft going against Shange rowing. We faced
Speaker 4: change rowing twice this year. This guy was acquired this
Speaker 4: offseason from the Red Sox. I believe in the Caleb
Speaker 4: Durban deal. Six and four with a three forty eighty
Speaker 4: r a lefty, twenty two games, I think, twelve starts,
Speaker 4: eighty eight innings, pitch eighty nine k's, one seventeen whip.
Speaker 4: On the twenty fourth of April, he piggybacked Brandon Wooldriff
Speaker 4: in a six and nothing Pirates win four innings, four hits,
Speaker 4: one earned, one walk, two k's in Milwaukee, and then
Speaker 4: on July eleventh in Pittsburgh he started six and the third,
Speaker 4: five hits, three earned, no walk, six k's and three
Speaker 4: to two Pirates when as Marylin Valdez took him deep
Speaker 4: as well. We'll come at you with a four seam sinker, slider,
Speaker 4: curve cutter. Change the four seam, not a soft tossing left.
Speaker 4: He can get up ninety five ninety six bove average command,
Speaker 4: changes speeds well, excels once he gets ahead because he
Speaker 4: can expand with the change of inslider fastball can be
Speaker 4: a elevated as it can't be elevated as it has
Speaker 4: some swing and miss traits. Guys, this is another lefty
Speaker 4: who's probably going to be more of a swing man
Speaker 4: if they acquire another arm. But uh, you know someone
Speaker 4: to note because they've struggled against this type of arm
Speaker 4: this year.
Speaker 1: You swept the Brewers last time, right before the break.
Speaker 1: You gotta the House of Horrors. Baby, you gotta go
Speaker 1: to Milwaukee, the city then ever sleeps.
Speaker 2: That's what they said.
Speaker 1: They cheese, a lot of cheese. Bring your lactid pills
Speaker 1: and figure something out. Man, you gotta figure it out.
Speaker 1: You gotta dig deep. We're gonna dig deep. But we
Speaker 1: got our hitter and picture of the week before we
Speaker 1: get out here. That's brought to you by Smashed Waffles
Speaker 1: in Oakland. Go to Smash Waffles in Oakland. Mention the
Speaker 1: Bucko Banter home run of the week. You get twenty
Speaker 1: percent off your entire order. They got a Bucko Banter waffle.
Speaker 1: It's delicious. Go try it.
Speaker 5: Scott.
Speaker 1: Our hitter of the week is Brandon Lau eleven for thirty,
Speaker 1: hitting three sixty seven with three doubles, two home run,
Speaker 1: six RBIs in a stolen base. Good to see him
Speaker 1: get back on track after struggling a little bit.
Speaker 4: Picture of the week, we're gonna go with a reliever.
Speaker 4: Johann Ramirez was honorable mention, but we're gonna go Carmen Machinski.
Speaker 4: We talked about how he's looked as of recently and
Speaker 4: gonna be more available more often going forward. Six innings
Speaker 4: this week and two outings, three hit, snower and one walk.
Speaker 4: Five k's generate ten whiffs. Did really well in both
Speaker 4: of those outing one against Arizona and one against Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: A guy that is going to be crucial for the
Speaker 4: success of this team going forward to coming out of
Speaker 4: the fen.
Speaker 1: All right, well we were in Cincinnati. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: be in Milwaukee, but we'll be back home versus the Mets.
Speaker 1: So again, come say hi at the ballpark. Hopefully got
Speaker 1: some news cooking up here pretty soon. It might be
Speaker 1: up to something season.
Speaker 2: These guys always cooking up news.
Speaker 5: Always cooking up news.
Speaker 1: So excited to just keep bringing all the pirates content
Speaker 1: that we possibly can right to your doorstet again, subscribe
Speaker 1: to the newsletter. Leave a five star review, comment that
Speaker 1: helps us out a ton guys. I can't emphasize us
Speaker 1: enough how much we love our listeners and everything that
Speaker 1: you guys have done to keep this show flowing and
Speaker 1: your support does not go unnoticed. So five star review,
Speaker 1: leave a comment, subscribe to the channel, anything you can
Speaker 1: do to help us out and Scott until next time,
Speaker 1: ost it oist.
Speaker 3: It best seats as the parents can it.
Speaker 2: Let me run the base.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my tab is like my money because I can't
Speaker 3: afford to waste. Oh why see years a Llowyer take
Speaker 3: my date to my dates or to stick by the
Speaker 3: plate Synick