Speaker 1: Yea one on one. You see a couple of them
Speaker 1: in My Taste with ye and.
Speaker 2: My lemonade because I let the way it tastes best
Speaker 2: cease at the parents.
Speaker 1: Can't he let me run the base? Yeah? My tame
Speaker 1: is like my money because I can't.
Speaker 2: Afford to waste. Oh why see is alloyer to my date?
Speaker 2: To my dates or to stick by the plate sending case?
Speaker 2: Have the case from my race at my pace.
Speaker 3: Claric grass a Snack Episode three ninety four of Bucco Banter, myself,
Speaker 3: Adam Shore, Scott Moore, Jim Stam as always on your
Speaker 3: mid week live episode. If you have any comments, concerns, questions,
Speaker 3: drop him in the comments below. Will be more than
Speaker 3: happy to answer them. As this live streams on Facebook,
Speaker 3: YouTube and X.
Speaker 4: Boys. Not great, not great at all.
Speaker 3: What we deem to be the most important homestand and
Speaker 3: probably the last ten years ends.
Speaker 4: On a pretty low note in the CUB series.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about a little bit, but we've already discussed that.
Speaker 3: We tried to move past it. We had the Wolf Game.
Speaker 3: Shout out to everybody that showed up for the.
Speaker 5: Wolf Games Best Game of the Week.
Speaker 4: Best Game of the Week was the world.
Speaker 3: Fifty people around showed up to the rotunda and you, Howard,
Speaker 3: your faces off was incredible. It was worked, incredible, and
Speaker 3: it worked. The power of the Wolf game is strong.
Speaker 3: The Buccos are two to zero Wolf games the rest
Speaker 3: of the series, and I'll go through it real quick
Speaker 3: before we get into a more in depth conversation because
Speaker 3: I feel like this might go in a bunch of
Speaker 3: different directions. Game two was maybe one of the sloppiest
Speaker 3: baseball games we've seen the Pirates play all year, up
Speaker 3: until the eighth and the ninth inning when they came back,
Speaker 3: and then you're like, Okay, the battling Bucos. This is
Speaker 3: the offense that I've grown to love throughout the season,
Speaker 3: where you never feel out of it. Down six runs,
Speaker 3: who can you can come back?
Speaker 4: Swing of a bat?
Speaker 3: Tie the ball game up didn't go their way. We'll
Speaker 3: discuss extra innings throughout this episode. And then what Scott
Speaker 3: rightfully so deemed to be the toughest game of the
Speaker 3: series proved to be true today on Wednesday, because you
Speaker 3: just got absolutely dealt on and the curse of facing
Speaker 3: lefties in this twenty twenty six season continues. Boys, I
Speaker 3: don't know if you saw this stat they are nine
Speaker 3: and twenty three this year first left handed pitching, the
Speaker 3: lowest in the league, nine and twenty three. So, Scott,
Speaker 3: you mentioned Game three was gonna be the toughest, and
Speaker 3: it proved to be the toughest. What did you see today?
Speaker 5: Yeah, a lot of uncompetitive and bets guys. They went
Speaker 5: righty heavy.
Speaker 6: They brought up just Sincant Garcia to not to face
Speaker 6: necessarily lefty, but to get another right hitd and bat
Speaker 6: in that lineup right into check. Maybe a change of
Speaker 6: scenery for everybody involved. Tyler Callaghen was getting cold. Send
Speaker 6: him down to Tripay. I didn't really have a qualm
Speaker 6: with any of the moves made today. But at the
Speaker 6: same time, this is what you brought in in Marcelo
Speaker 6: Zuna to do right is to face your left handed pitchers,
Speaker 6: especially these types of the guys, and he just hasn't
Speaker 6: really shown up this year in these instances for the
Speaker 6: most part. And yeah, it was really disappointing because the
Speaker 6: first two games in this series were against Meryl Kelly
Speaker 6: and Brandon Fought. Brandon Fought has been better since his
Speaker 6: recall in Tune, but at the same time, Meryl Kelly
Speaker 6: has been one.
Speaker 5: Of the worst pitchers in baseball this year.
Speaker 6: And they were unable to do anything offensively or string
Speaker 6: together some runs together at all in either of these
Speaker 6: two games. Very low scoring on the offensive side. Kind
Speaker 6: of disappointing for a team that ranks in the top
Speaker 6: five in a lot of offensive categories in the entire league.
Speaker 7: Jim, Yeah, well, yeah, disappointing, guys. I mean.
Speaker 8: Maybe some people think, hey, you know that that series
Speaker 8: was a player two away from us whinning it. I
Speaker 8: felt like they could have easily gotten slept, Like in
Speaker 8: my the way I view those games, short of that
Speaker 8: spurt here in the eighth and ninth inning where they
Speaker 8: came back and got the game high just they woke
Speaker 8: up just in time. You know, bats were sporadic, non
Speaker 8: exists in the final game.
Speaker 7: Defense was problematic.
Speaker 8: I mean, that's something we've dealt with all year, and
Speaker 8: you know, they keep talking about trying to clean things up.
Speaker 7: But I was just really really kind.
Speaker 8: Of disappointed in the showing against Look that the Cubs
Speaker 8: are one thing the Diamondbacks. I felt like that was
Speaker 8: a series we should have fared better and it should
Speaker 8: have looked better and quite honestly, guys.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you get both teams and you're like, this is
Speaker 3: the Pirates are a better team, right, Like I'm saying
Speaker 3: that is.
Speaker 4: You know, we're a Pirate's podcast.
Speaker 3: We covered the team, but from afar just looking at
Speaker 3: it as maybe from a journalistic standpoint, you probably take
Speaker 3: the Pirates squad over the Diamondback squad, right.
Speaker 6: We said this in the Cleveland series too, Adam, and
Speaker 6: I don't think the difference was that Stark as Stark
Speaker 6: this series between the two clubs, like I would take
Speaker 6: Arizona over Cleveland. But at the same time, I think
Speaker 6: this roster, when you line it up, you know, position
Speaker 6: by position, pitching against pitching, I would take our team
Speaker 6: nine times out of ten and just they didn't show up,
Speaker 6: and you're gonna have those series, right, But you'd hope
Speaker 6: in a in a homestand of this magnitude that they
Speaker 6: would have maybe showed up a little bit more.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: It was quieter than I expected.
Speaker 8: I'm not I just don't know what they're gonna do
Speaker 8: against these lefties, because it's clearly clearly the Achilles heel.
Speaker 7: Of this offense.
Speaker 8: Right anytime, like I sat at that game today, the
Speaker 8: final game of the series, and they could not look
Speaker 8: any more lifeless offensively. And I'm sitting there watching a
Speaker 8: guy in Eduardo Rodriguez, who I mean, his numbers are good.
Speaker 7: It's not just against the Pirates, mind you, but sits
Speaker 7: anywhere from eighty five to ninety two.
Speaker 6: You know, I don't think the fastball gets over ninety five,
Speaker 6: he he, I don't think.
Speaker 7: I don't think it did today.
Speaker 8: You know, he reaches back and gets it up in
Speaker 8: near ninety four occasionally, and they just they just couldn't
Speaker 8: square him up at all. And anytime they had anything going,
Speaker 8: they hit into a couple of crucial double plays. And
Speaker 8: but you know, and I think the move when they
Speaker 8: got password up was a clear sign.
Speaker 7: That they know how problematic this is.
Speaker 8: Right, Like they were willing to get him up here
Speaker 8: just for today, if nothing else, to try to get
Speaker 8: his bat in a line line, to try to get
Speaker 8: something going. And yeah, you know, I know we're missing guys,
Speaker 8: but you know, Horwitz and Cruz or lefties. So I mean,
Speaker 8: like the righties just don't get it done when we
Speaker 8: face those types of pictures.
Speaker 7: They just don't.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Marcelo Zuna is essentially a zero at this point,
Speaker 3: even against right handed or left handed pitchers.
Speaker 4: Right, it's just not getting the job done.
Speaker 3: And as Marilyn Valdez, who's been very, very good, it's
Speaker 3: starting to get figured out a little bit more. Right.
Speaker 3: It's not going to be like, hey, he's going to
Speaker 3: put the ball in play every single time. Right, he's
Speaker 3: still having good at bats where he's working counts and
Speaker 3: he's not chasing, although some pretty bad chases and extra innings,
Speaker 3: which I want to get into a little bit.
Speaker 4: But it makes you think about the trade deadline a
Speaker 4: little bit more.
Speaker 3: Right, because if you get into the race, if you
Speaker 3: get it into the playoffs, is it just hey, let's
Speaker 3: close it up. You're facing show to e Minaga, you're
Speaker 3: facing Edward Rodriguez.
Speaker 4: It's done. Good season, boys, that's all it takes.
Speaker 3: Right, So do you need to add some type of
Speaker 3: platoon option or another bat that it just gives you
Speaker 3: a better opportunity to drive and runs here, because it's
Speaker 3: something you just can't ignore. I'm obviously we're in July,
Speaker 3: we're going into August.
Speaker 4: You can't ignore anything anymore.
Speaker 3: But it was a little bit more excusable at the
Speaker 3: beginning of the year, but it's just.
Speaker 4: It's bad you can't hit lefties.
Speaker 5: They are what they are, what they are.
Speaker 8: We know what this problem with this team is defense, uh,
Speaker 8: suspect against left handed pitching in the bullpen.
Speaker 7: This is what this is what their deficiencies are.
Speaker 4: I mean I already touch on this real quick.
Speaker 3: Griffin will be in the lineup, but are you when,
Speaker 3: like it might be late by then when Griffin gets
Speaker 3: back in the lineup.
Speaker 6: And Horwitz just suffered a set back. I mean he's
Speaker 6: he's got a concussion cruise. I mean, they're ramping them up.
Speaker 6: He's gonna start baseball activities, but he's starting baseball activities.
Speaker 8: So yeah, and Griffin's halfway through this like at best,
Speaker 8: at best.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I just think every day is.
Speaker 6: You're you're you're losing an opportunity to You're that much
Speaker 6: further from contention.
Speaker 5: So they can't really afford to waste any more days.
Speaker 5: And they continue to do so.
Speaker 6: And you got a six game homestand winning two out
Speaker 6: of those games is not okay. And now you go
Speaker 6: into Cincinnati and on a road trip, you're happy with
Speaker 6: taking the majority of the games, but like, I almost
Speaker 6: feel like they have to go to Cincinnati and sweep,
Speaker 6: and I don't see that as a realistic option, right,
Speaker 6: Like you're gonna go up against the Chase Burns again,
Speaker 6: you're facing him on the on Sunday. You know, I
Speaker 6: I do like their chances Againstrhet Louder tomorrow.
Speaker 5: But.
Speaker 4: Starting tomorrow, It's true, and I like their.
Speaker 5: I like their chance.
Speaker 6: This is against Merril Kelly and that didn't work out.
Speaker 6: So like they gotta start playing big dog. They gotta
Speaker 6: play above their competition here a little bit more.
Speaker 5: And they just haven't done that, and.
Speaker 6: It's gonna cost them, guys, It's gonna cost them, and
Speaker 6: they've got to make changes. Like August third is Monday.
Speaker 6: August third is Monday, that's the trade deadline, three pm
Speaker 6: Eastern time.
Speaker 5: Like what are we waiting for?
Speaker 6: Let's if you're serious about contending this year, the n
Speaker 6: L is as a gauntlet. This isn't the American League.
Speaker 6: You're just you may cost yourself by waiting two extra
Speaker 6: days to improve this team.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, you we've We're beaten the drum over and
Speaker 3: over and over again that you have to make moves
Speaker 3: before August third in order just to stay afloat. And
Speaker 3: then we were worried that if you don't stay afloat,
Speaker 3: if something like this happens, what happens to the narrative
Speaker 3: at the deadline. I really hope it doesn't change. I
Speaker 3: don't think it has yet. It hasn't gotten that bad
Speaker 3: because this team still shows that they can compete with
Speaker 3: the best of the best, that they can turn around
Speaker 3: a game at any point. The bullpen has been much better.
Speaker 3: Can we at least acknowledge.
Speaker 8: That they had a good series against the Diamondbacks.
Speaker 4: The bullpen's been better.
Speaker 3: Outside Isaac struggled, Isaac got sent down, but the.
Speaker 4: Bullpen has been better.
Speaker 3: Marnaccio has been pretty good outside of the first start, right.
Speaker 3: Scott's pumped about that. We'll have an episode with him
Speaker 3: coming out. What tomorrow, Scott, We're.
Speaker 5: Gonna put on Friday?
Speaker 6: Yeah, depending, Yeah, Well, we'll put that out soon. And
Speaker 6: he was a fun conversation guys. He was He was great,
Speaker 6: and you know, maybe he can catch fire and regain
Speaker 6: some of that steam he had in the Yankees bullpen.
Speaker 6: But the bullpen was much better. I do think Hunter
Speaker 6: Barco is an improvement over Brandon Eisert.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 6: I think a lot of people would be. So I'm
Speaker 6: not sold on Hunter Barco as a reliever. I thought
Speaker 6: tomorrow would have been. It would have been a golden opportunity
Speaker 6: for him to start a game, even if you pitch
Speaker 6: him three innings, use him in that role that you're
Speaker 6: planning on using Johann Ramirez in.
Speaker 8: Well, let's let's talk about the pitching real quick, in
Speaker 8: the sense of guys, what do you are you okay
Speaker 8: with the use of Carmen Macjinsky in the final game
Speaker 8: of this Diamondback series when I think he came in.
Speaker 8: I think Alex Stump put out that when he entered
Speaker 8: the game, the Pirates had eleven point seven percent chance
Speaker 8: of winning that game. And then afterwards they come out
Speaker 8: and they're saying they're gonna start Johann tomorrow. So obviously
Speaker 8: the question is is that a wise use?
Speaker 5: No, I mean, like listen, hindsight, like.
Speaker 6: If I'm in that position three to nothing, like I
Speaker 6: want to just, you know, stop the bleeding.
Speaker 5: I want to get someone out here that's going to
Speaker 5: be reliable.
Speaker 6: And in Karmen Magensky, it is one of the guys
Speaker 6: I would call upon, but they've used him as this
Speaker 6: multi inning guy after Jared a majority of the time,
Speaker 6: and it just needs to stop now today.
Speaker 5: I'm like, it's a different situation.
Speaker 6: I get it, So I I get the argument, but
Speaker 6: they need to utilize Carmen in different situations.
Speaker 5: They just need to The.
Speaker 3: Problem I find with it is we've kind of told
Speaker 3: this tale before, but in a different way where we've
Speaker 3: prevented the use of Mason Montgomery and others because of
Speaker 3: looking out for the future, right and saying, okay, well
Speaker 3: down the road, hey, we're gonna need to preserve him
Speaker 3: for an important game on Friday. Got an important game today, right,
Speaker 3: And I understand again wanting to stop the bleeding, But
Speaker 3: when you're also using that logic, it's like, all right, well,
Speaker 3: we do need a starter for tomorrow. We do need
Speaker 3: somebody to eat up a lot of innings tomorrow when
Speaker 3: you have what could be a platoon of what Johan
Speaker 3: Noah Murdoch, Hunter Barco guys, yeah, and a lot of
Speaker 3: new guys when you really trust Carmen, so hey, why
Speaker 3: not say hey, we're using these other guys. I know
Speaker 3: we've been taxed a little bit it because of the
Speaker 3: extra innings and what we've had to go through this series.
Speaker 3: But we really wanted to conserve him for Thursday. It just,
Speaker 3: you know, no matter what way you look at it,
Speaker 3: I don't think you win here, right because it's like,
Speaker 3: all right, we're up three to nothing. We don't want
Speaker 3: to go down anymore. We know our offense could get
Speaker 3: us back in this game. So say you put in
Speaker 3: Johann Ramirez and he walks a couple of guys, they
Speaker 3: give up runs. We're having a totally different conversation, which
Speaker 3: is just baseball generally.
Speaker 4: But it is odd and it's fair.
Speaker 8: You have to look at it from both sides because
Speaker 8: we we do complain and people do complain about not
Speaker 8: trying to win the game in front of you today.
Speaker 8: So you know that's fair Devil's advocate, Uh but yeah,
Speaker 8: you know then that puts you in game one of
Speaker 8: this four game red series, go into a lot of
Speaker 8: guys that you know, who knows right, So.
Speaker 7: You don't want to get off to a bad start
Speaker 7: there either. Yeah, It's it's tough. It's tough.
Speaker 8: They this roster has put them in a lot.
Speaker 7: Of tough spots.
Speaker 8: With depth positions defensively, things like that.
Speaker 7: It's just not a well enough built roster to get
Speaker 7: around some of this stuff unfortunately.
Speaker 6: Agree to one hundred percent, and I want to I
Speaker 6: want to revisit the conversation Adam brought up a little
Speaker 6: bit ago about buying versus selling, Like, I don't think
Speaker 6: there's any conversations within the Pirates front office about selling
Speaker 6: at all.
Speaker 5: I really don't.
Speaker 6: Like. This is a front office that is fighting for
Speaker 6: their jobs at this point. You're seven years and you're
Speaker 6: the deadline is a weekend away. Like, they are absolutely buying.
Speaker 6: And to what degree that's going to be the next question.
Speaker 6: But they're absolutely buying. I'd put everything on it that
Speaker 6: they are. But my our whole argument the last month
Speaker 6: or more has been you could have bought sooner and
Speaker 6: it doesn't have to be a closure because no one's
Speaker 6: going to give you a closer in June, right, But
Speaker 6: they could have done more to improve this roster earlier
Speaker 6: and they're gonna suffer the consequences now, and.
Speaker 4: They are anything can happen down the stretch man.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it's it's just gonna be tough to look
Speaker 3: back on it at the end of the season and
Speaker 3: say what if?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 7: For sure?
Speaker 8: Yeah, the only thing I'll add is I told you guys,
Speaker 8: and I'll let our listeners hear this. But last night
Speaker 8: I had a meeting with the MLB Fan Counsel and
Speaker 8: we had Derek. Let me make sure I don't butcher
Speaker 8: olb right, Derek Fouby, who is the.
Speaker 7: Former Twins president of baseball and business operations.
Speaker 8: We had a big conversation with him, and it was fantastic,
Speaker 8: by the way, guys like, I'll fill you guys in
Speaker 8: and I got tons of notes from it and whatnot.
Speaker 8: But we talked a good bit about the trade deadline
Speaker 8: and how that comes together and what and he basically
Speaker 8: he was there for I think nine years and it
Speaker 8: was in Cleveland working his way up to theres too,
Speaker 8: could have been, but he's definitely he's got small market
Speaker 8: experience under his belt for sure. And the one thing
Speaker 8: that did stick out to me that he said that,
Speaker 8: you know, and people may not want to hear this,
Speaker 8: you know, and we've even railed against this, and Scott,
Speaker 8: you just mentioned it with the fact of trying to
Speaker 8: get things done earlier than you know, two three weeks ago,
Speaker 8: and he said, as this has shifted and evolved, he said,
Speaker 8: it's really, really, really difficult to.
Speaker 7: Get anything done with.
Speaker 8: From a week at from a week out, you have chances,
Speaker 8: but before then you're just not seeing it.
Speaker 7: And that's kind of the way that's evolved over the years.
Speaker 8: So you know, I thought that was an interesting nugget
Speaker 8: because we've pushed pretty hard.
Speaker 7: For them to do something two or three weeks ago.
Speaker 8: Maybe it's just not Maybe it's just not possible in
Speaker 8: the landscape of baseball now.
Speaker 6: So I know, like it's not possible to make a blockbuster,
Speaker 6: and like there's teams that have made decent sized traits.
Speaker 6: But like my whole thing was, hey, maybe Nike a
Speaker 6: Rod may Nacho Mayonaccio type of signing in June, Like
Speaker 6: Dennis Santana should have gone a long time ago, right,
Speaker 6: And I love Dennis, loved what everything he contributed to
Speaker 6: this organization, had a very positive mindset every day, but
Speaker 6: like they ran him out.
Speaker 5: There way too long, way too.
Speaker 6: Long, And those are the type of moves like you
Speaker 6: brought in Dennis Santana in that way, right, Like he
Speaker 6: came off of the way for one exact thing, and
Speaker 6: you could have done something like that that could have
Speaker 6: been a temporary not even a temporary, but a a
Speaker 6: slight patch to the the obvious hole that you had.
Speaker 5: On this roster.
Speaker 4: Extremely obvious.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mentioned guys like Dennis Santana, Johan Ram Mirrors.
Speaker 3: You know those two guys have in common. They both
Speaker 3: wear forty four pro gloves. Oh snack, and look at
Speaker 3: this thing that forty four sent us boys.
Speaker 4: I mean, oh my god, the details on this.
Speaker 3: You ever open up a new baseball glove and you
Speaker 3: just get that ooh, that whiff of new leather that
Speaker 3: you got to break in its stiffs. Oh god, dude,
Speaker 3: this is this is what it's all about right here.
Speaker 3: And as much as I'd like to keep this bad
Speaker 3: boy for myself, we gotta give it away. We got
Speaker 3: to share the love with the people and what forty
Speaker 3: four is doing for the game. So this is my
Speaker 3: call to action for the next weekend series when we
Speaker 3: were back at P and C Park, We're giving this away.
Speaker 4: We're gonna give this away.
Speaker 3: This is a legit baseball glove, Like talk about a
Speaker 3: glove you might have for life, probably could be.
Speaker 5: This is the.
Speaker 4: Biggest giveaway we've ever had.
Speaker 3: This is a legit signature series glove that they made
Speaker 3: for us, black and yellow, just for the Pirates and
Speaker 3: we're gonna give it away at P and C Park.
Speaker 3: How we do that is to be determined, but we'll
Speaker 3: have more details in the meantime. You can go to
Speaker 3: forty four pro dot com. If you use Bucco twenty
Speaker 3: at check out, you get twenty percent off of a
Speaker 3: custom glove that could last your lifetime. And the options
Speaker 3: are limitless here.
Speaker 4: They really are.
Speaker 5: I can attest to that. Go customize the glove.
Speaker 6: Adam and I both customize our softball gloves two years ago,
Speaker 6: maybe longer on the website. I have not one, but
Speaker 6: two Italian flags on my glove and.
Speaker 4: They didn't stop them. They didn't, and then it stopped me.
Speaker 5: They're like, this is excessive.
Speaker 6: They shouldn't do They shouldn't shouldn't they should have right,
Speaker 6: But they did it. And that's the point. So the
Speaker 6: customization process is definitely an amazing sealing point with forty
Speaker 6: four but not just a customeration. It's the quality of
Speaker 6: the glove too, that is it goes a long way.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm gonna have that softball glove for the
Speaker 6: rest of my life.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's really great. Boys.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about the extra innings on the
Speaker 3: second game, Okay, I was watching from the press box. Admittedly,
Speaker 3: I planned on going home early that day. I showed
Speaker 3: up to the park early to get some stuff done.
Speaker 3: I went home around the seventh inning, and I thought
Speaker 3: I was doing myself a favor, to be honest, because
Speaker 3: the game just did not live up to what followed
Speaker 3: the day before. Right. You had the Wolf game, you
Speaker 3: win an extra innings, you dig deep, and then I
Speaker 3: get home and I see they tie it.
Speaker 4: I'm like, all right, ball game, let's go.
Speaker 3: Let's get back into it, and you get those juices
Speaker 3: flowing again, and you find a way to scrap back
Speaker 3: and tie it up after the Dbacks.
Speaker 4: Go ahead by one.
Speaker 3: But some of the bats that were in that game
Speaker 3: late in the game, we're just not very inspiring, right,
Speaker 3: And I think that's when baseball gets really baseball, if
Speaker 3: you know what I'm talking about, in terms of playing.
Speaker 4: Old school small ball.
Speaker 3: Having to do everything the right way when you're starting
Speaker 3: off with that ghost runner on second base, which we
Speaker 3: could sit here and.
Speaker 4: Argue about all day.
Speaker 3: Whether you like it or not, I personally do not
Speaker 3: like it, but you know, sometimes I yeah, it sucks.
Speaker 4: You like it, Scott, I do?
Speaker 5: I do I love, I love, I love.
Speaker 4: Well you like small ball or do you like the
Speaker 4: ghost Runner?
Speaker 5: Oh no, no, no, I thought you were talking about
Speaker 5: small ball. Sorry.
Speaker 7: Oh okay, I thought you were. I thought you were
Speaker 7: all over the ghost Runner.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 6: No, I'm old school man. I like the I like
Speaker 6: laying down a bunch moving runners, right.
Speaker 8: But I the little bit of respect I had for
Speaker 8: you was gone when I thought you liked ghost Runners.
Speaker 5: Here's the thing.
Speaker 4: You take the respect away like you just did, Jim.
Speaker 3: You could get it back, but it's still a little
Speaker 3: bit less than it was before.
Speaker 4: So it's running out.
Speaker 6: I used ghost Runners in my front yard in Newcastle,
Speaker 6: Pennsylvania as a ten year old growing up playing will football.
Speaker 5: I don't think major League Baseball should be doing that.
Speaker 4: Okay, good.
Speaker 3: So the point being is we are getting back in
Speaker 3: extra innings to having to execute right, to having meaningful
Speaker 3: at bats, to playing that small ball right because if
Speaker 3: we're not doing that, if we don't have the ghost Runner,
Speaker 3: you're just playing baseball.
Speaker 4: At this point, it has to become a little bit
Speaker 4: more strategic.
Speaker 3: And while at some point during the game, Callahan laid
Speaker 3: down a nice bunt right, there was some good stuff.
Speaker 4: There was some at bats where Baldez.
Speaker 3: Who has been really good with not swinging at stuff
Speaker 3: outside of the zone, you're trying to do a little
Speaker 3: bit too much. Nikki g in the first pitch of
Speaker 3: it at bat pulls a ground ball on a pitch
Speaker 3: outside the zone. It just there was a lot of
Speaker 3: stuff where you look at it, it's like, man, like
Speaker 3: I wish you'd dug deeper a little bit there.
Speaker 4: And obviously the game of baseball is hard.
Speaker 3: Just saying it is a little bit easier than going
Speaker 3: out against a guy trying to get you out and
Speaker 3: doing it like I get that I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be here, and like, well, you should have just done
Speaker 3: your job, Like if you just hit a ground ball
Speaker 3: to the right side, it's all easy. Like obviously they're
Speaker 3: trying to do a job, but you just have to
Speaker 3: get a little bit more nitty gritty about it. And
Speaker 3: when you're in that type of situation and the game's
Speaker 3: really going into that ten to eleventh, twelfth inning, it
Speaker 3: gets a little you boil it down to the very
Speaker 3: very specifics, and they just weren't able to play as
Speaker 3: clean of a game throughout you know, twelve as the
Speaker 3: Diamondbacks were Obviously, they gave up the lead and the
Speaker 3: Diamondbacks had to fight their way back.
Speaker 4: But in the eleventh and twelfth inning, the Buckos just did.
Speaker 3: Not do a good enough job of playing that small
Speaker 3: ball game and getting runners over and having calculated at
Speaker 3: bats that needed to be done.
Speaker 6: Can we stop playing doubleheaders and extra innings like I
Speaker 6: just yeah, I mean so much of that in the
Speaker 6: last two to three weeks. It's just worn out our
Speaker 6: staff and it's not.
Speaker 8: A great idea for a team with a shaky bullpen.
Speaker 8: Let's just put it.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 6: And I thought for the most part, outside of Isaac
Speaker 6: Matts and who we love and I you know, obviously
Speaker 6: Phil Horror he's been optioned to Triple A, I thought
Speaker 6: everyone looked pretty solid out of the pen, like we
Speaker 6: mentioned uh this week, But yeah, not a great way
Speaker 6: to play ball or to survive in a very important
Speaker 6: time of the season when your bullpen is the weakest
Speaker 6: part of your team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you had any Rodriguez, Chase Valdez Chase, and then
Speaker 3: the Nicki Gonzalez. It was just some really uninspiring at
Speaker 3: bats from guys that have had pretty good at bats.
Speaker 3: But you know, again you mentioned playing doubleheaders and going
Speaker 3: extra innings the game it's already hard enough, Like the
Speaker 3: longer it goes on, the more difficult to get.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think too, Adam.
Speaker 8: You mentioned it that those are the innings where it's
Speaker 8: it's it's it's.
Speaker 7: Pro baseball time, like professional at bats. You got to
Speaker 7: know what you're doing.
Speaker 8: You have to do the little things that matter, and
Speaker 8: they just were not good enough in that game and haven't.
Speaker 7: Been good enough in that situation.
Speaker 8: And I think too, like you know, you can get
Speaker 8: young guys out in those situations a lot because there's
Speaker 8: a little bit of over anxiousness.
Speaker 7: I think you saw that in the Valdez at bat.
Speaker 8: The Nick nzals A bat really disappointed me, Like I
Speaker 8: you know, Nikki g has has turned himself into a
Speaker 8: pretty useful baseball player this year, but that was about
Speaker 8: as stupid of an at bat as I can possibly
Speaker 8: remember someone having. And it was a short at bet
Speaker 8: because he swung at the first pitch and guy on
Speaker 8: second leading off the innings.
Speaker 5: Which is not unusual for him, Jim, it isn't.
Speaker 8: But but again we're talking situationally here, like you cannot
Speaker 8: do that and if you are, you're not hitting a
Speaker 8: week chopper to third. I just thought it was it
Speaker 8: was poor IQ baseball. I don't know if that's selfish
Speaker 8: baseball or not, but I absolutely hated that at that
Speaker 8: and I thought it was a huge, huge problem.
Speaker 5: I hated out at bat too.
Speaker 6: I think this is where a guy like Nikki G
Speaker 6: you can kind of expose him for being the aggressive
Speaker 6: hitter that he is. Coming into a situation like that
Speaker 6: where maybe you need to see a few pitches or
Speaker 6: you need to get yours. This is a guy that
Speaker 6: the first pitch he sees that is remotely his, he's
Speaker 6: going to jump on and in that moment it happened
Speaker 6: to be in a chopper of the third base. It
Speaker 6: was the worst possible scenario, right, And he's done so
Speaker 6: much for us this year, like he's been the most
Speaker 6: consistent bat, but that situation.
Speaker 5: Where we need him the most, you know, it.
Speaker 7: Didn't work out.
Speaker 5: So you're trying to do too much, trying to do
Speaker 5: too much? Yep.
Speaker 8: Yeah, And I think too, it's like, you know, people
Speaker 8: are talking about why aren't you button in there? You know,
Speaker 8: I can live with Nikki G typically handling the bat
Speaker 8: well enough to get something to the right side. I
Speaker 8: even saw people talking about why I wasn't as Merlin bunting.
Speaker 8: I thought, that is nothing. That is not something you
Speaker 8: probably want to ever see, because it is Merlin's squaring
Speaker 8: around has probably done that less than a handful of
Speaker 8: times in his life, and I just don't think you'd
Speaker 8: want to see that.
Speaker 4: I also just got hit in the hand with a baseball.
Speaker 7: Great point, like, you know.
Speaker 3: It's fine again, you have to deal with who you
Speaker 3: have up at the plate. But just at that point,
Speaker 3: I started to realize, like, while this game has got
Speaker 3: my juice has flown a little bit, and it's exciting,
Speaker 3: and hey, we could be talking about a series win
Speaker 3: here with a disappointing game on Sunday.
Speaker 4: It's just the other way around right now.
Speaker 3: And now you're you're in a situation where you go
Speaker 3: in the road and you got what seventeen games straight.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's it's a hall before we get too far
Speaker 8: away from it, Adam, you mentioned about how the Pirates
Speaker 8: picked up Santana, and those are the type of moves
Speaker 8: you're talking about before that last week the tread trade deadline.
Speaker 8: Looking back, Pirates picked up Santana on June eleventh in
Speaker 8: twenty twenty four. So exactly what you're talking about, which
Speaker 8: is trying to do something a little bit early and
Speaker 8: earlier in the cycle, even if it's not somebody sexy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as much as I love sexy, sexy's great.
Speaker 5: Who doesn't like sexy?
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean, who doesn't let me know right
Speaker 3: now if you don't like sexy?
Speaker 7: Yeah, if you, if you put it into comments, we
Speaker 7: want to know.
Speaker 8: Yeah.
Speaker 5: You expose yourself.
Speaker 4: Expose yourself.
Speaker 6: Quite choice words there, Scott, Should I say, reveal yourself?
Speaker 4: Reveal yourself.
Speaker 3: Hey, let's take a step back and give some credit
Speaker 3: where credits due.
Speaker 4: Mitch Keller has looked really good.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: After the All Star break Game, won the Wolf Game again.
Speaker 3: Do I think it's a coincidence? I do five and
Speaker 3: a third six hits to earn one walk or strikeouts.
Speaker 4: Almost no cutter, only three whiffs.
Speaker 3: This is what I love about this, almost no cutter usage,
Speaker 3: only three whiffs.
Speaker 4: Heavy four scene change up.
Speaker 3: Slider goes to what's been working for him, and it
Speaker 3: was like vintage Mitch Keller of just getting through a ballgame,
Speaker 3: trying to eat innings, not overpowering guys, not missing a
Speaker 3: lot of bats, but getting a job done. So he
Speaker 3: did everything that he could to keep him in that game.
Speaker 6: Did you guys think that maybe got I don't want
Speaker 6: to say screwed a little bit today, but like I
Speaker 6: don't know, uh dnked and dunked a little bit, you know,
Speaker 6: I mean eight hits, it's a lot for four innings.
Speaker 6: He threw ninety one pitches foreign runs, but like the
Speaker 6: walks are down, the command is definitely better than.
Speaker 5: It has been.
Speaker 4: He got paper cuted to death.
Speaker 5: He got paper cutted. That's a great way to play.
Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, he look he wasn't He didn't look ass sharp.
Speaker 8: But I think those numbers were a little misleading.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 3: So I mean we're looking at the pitching staff. Not bad, right,
Speaker 3: Jared Jones.
Speaker 7: Jared Jones looked great today, Brady Person, I thought he
Speaker 7: looked great today.
Speaker 4: He's looked really good.
Speaker 3: So it's still a weird situation that this team finds
Speaker 3: himself in where the starting pitching is starting to go a
Speaker 3: little bit better. The hitting now, well, they're still showing
Speaker 3: the ability to put up six to seven to eight
Speaker 3: runs a game. It's become a little bit stale, right,
Speaker 3: You're not getting as coractic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's sporadic.
Speaker 3: You're not getting a consistent and attack throughout a ball game, right,
Speaker 3: You're getting a little bit too quiet throughout the game,
Speaker 3: and then you're having a couple of innings here and there.
Speaker 3: But I don't know if that's just going to be
Speaker 3: a matter of adding some new blood to the lineup,
Speaker 3: like people are mentioning with Spencer Horwitz and O'Neal Cruz.
Speaker 3: But I want to remind people, like these guys haven't
Speaker 3: played baseball in a while.
Speaker 4: Like Orwitz has rehabbed, he's looked pretty good. I'm worried when.
Speaker 3: O'Neill comes back that people are gonna get back to,
Speaker 3: oh my god, what is he swinging at or he's
Speaker 3: striking out or he's not slugging too much, because we're
Speaker 3: dealing with a hand injury here, folks. We're dealing with
Speaker 3: a guy who relies heavily on hitting the ball really
Speaker 3: hard and slugging. And we're also talking about a guy who,
Speaker 3: while this year has done much better at hitting lefties historically,
Speaker 3: has not, so like, does that change, Like you're putting
Speaker 3: your eggs in a lot of the Hey, we just
Speaker 3: need these guys back in the lineup. We got to remember,
Speaker 3: these guys were doing a pretty good job of figuring
Speaker 3: it out when they were gone. And while I think
Speaker 3: getting them back will be beneficial, I don't want to
Speaker 3: just say like, hey, this is the missing ingredient right now,
Speaker 3: like there there's more that needs to be done other
Speaker 3: than just getting those two back.
Speaker 8: Definitely. I look today because I was curious, I'm like,
Speaker 8: when when is O'Neill Cruises. When was his last at bat?
Speaker 7: It was June sixth. I mean, like, do the math
Speaker 7: on that.
Speaker 8: He's he's probably not going to hit the ground running,
Speaker 8: So yeah, that's gonna you know, Spencer, I think is.
Speaker 7: The type of hitter that probably.
Speaker 8: Does a little bit better in that situation than a
Speaker 8: Cruise would. We'll yeah, yeah, still knows the strike so well.
Speaker 7: Enough, works counts, locks, whatever.
Speaker 8: But yeah, so these are guys you can't just automatically
Speaker 8: count on right away when they come.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what, having a Horwitz in the lineup
Speaker 3: to work deep counts would have paid off today when
Speaker 3: you got a guy like Edward R.
Speaker 4: Rodriguez just what like through.
Speaker 3: Seven innings had like sixty pitches or something like that.
Speaker 3: Like we've talked to mang him in the past about
Speaker 3: just like him being a past and maybe not getting
Speaker 3: a result in at bat, but driving a starting pitcher
Speaker 3: out of a game by having a ten pitch at
Speaker 3: bat or working deep into counts.
Speaker 4: Like we just didn't see that today.
Speaker 8: No, I mean he was, you know, I think it
Speaker 8: was the seventh inning and he was possibly entering complete
Speaker 8: game territory.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know, and.
Speaker 8: Especially if you're having trouble hitting these guys, at least
Speaker 8: make them get their pitch counts up. We you know,
Speaker 8: accomplish that part of it at least. But uh, it
Speaker 8: felt like he was gonna go an easy eight today.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think we could talk about this Diamondback
Speaker 6: series a lot, but do we want to maybe recap
Speaker 6: or re preview. I guess I should say the upcoming
Speaker 6: series in Cincinnati because we've got four straight games against
Speaker 6: a team in the cellar of the NL Central. I
Speaker 6: think this is an important series. I think this is
Speaker 6: an important series to feast on a rival.
Speaker 4: Right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Before we do get into that, I will mention that
Speaker 3: myself and Debo will be in Cincinnati this weekend, and
Speaker 3: I know for a fact the Laws are different no
Speaker 3: matter where you go. But so help me God, if
Speaker 3: they can't put up any runs, I'm gonna have to
Speaker 3: call the fine folks over at Pharaoh Weaver and Okan
Speaker 3: because a Faraoh Weaver and Oakan they fight for your rights,
Speaker 3: providing aggressive criminal defense and appellate representation when the stakes
Speaker 3: are highest. Guys, at this time of the year, when
Speaker 3: the pirates are fighting for a wild card spot boy,
Speaker 3: the stakes are high, and you might find yourself in
Speaker 3: a sticky situation. And I guarantee you the fine folks
Speaker 3: over at Pharaoh Weaver in Oakin can help you out
Speaker 3: when you are in a bind, because when it counts,
Speaker 3: most experience mean matters. Call Farah Weaver an Oaken today
Speaker 3: for any of your legal needs.
Speaker 4: That being said, if.
Speaker 3: You're in Cincinnati and you commit a crime, I'm not
Speaker 3: so sure they could help you out. But when you
Speaker 3: get back to Pennsylvania, good old Keystone State, Faraoh Weaver
Speaker 3: and Oakin has you covered.
Speaker 7: And I'll tell you what's a crime is the skyline
Speaker 7: Chili I.
Speaker 6: Food like you should just maybe, I don't know, cancel
Speaker 6: yourself as a city like it's that that can't be right,
Speaker 6: that's disgusting to quote.
Speaker 8: Scott last week he said, I'll put almost anything in
Speaker 8: my mouth and uh, true story. By the way, he
Speaker 8: did say that, and uh, I'm not doing Skyline Chili.
Speaker 7: I can tell you that much.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I don't remember that, but I don't doubt it.
Speaker 5: I don't remember the other, but probably, oh it happens.
Speaker 6: Let's go into the rest series on that note, the
Speaker 6: Reds come in. They haven't played yet tonight, but they
Speaker 6: come in fifteen fifty six, last in the Central.
Speaker 5: That's going to remain the same regardless of the outcome tonight.
Speaker 6: Tomorrow, Johann Ramirez gets the spot start in Cincinnati against
Speaker 6: Rett Louder and Red Louder's guy we've already.
Speaker 5: Faced this year.
Speaker 6: This is a first round pick out a Wake Forest.
Speaker 6: He's already battled Paul Skins in the.
Speaker 5: College World Series.
Speaker 6: He's three and seven with a five to sixty one
Speaker 6: ERA this year sixty five k's a one to five
Speaker 6: to seven.
Speaker 5: Web has struggled this year.
Speaker 6: On May second in Pittsburgh, one in one third, he
Speaker 6: didn't even get it out of the second inning. Five hits,
Speaker 6: eight earned four walks, one K in a seventeen to
Speaker 6: seven pirates win, We'll come at you with a sinker
Speaker 6: slider forteen change.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: He's got the He's a prototype of a modern command
Speaker 6: and pitchability starter. He doesn't have overpowering stuff, compensates with
Speaker 6: elite strike throwing, sequencing, and just phil for pitching.
Speaker 5: He know limit walks.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 6: He's got a high floor lax elite below the fastball
Speaker 6: system like ninety two to ninety three range. But this
Speaker 6: is the guy we jumped on right away in the
Speaker 6: beginning of May, and he hasn't really thrown it much
Speaker 6: better since then. So I again, like a Merrill Kelly,
Speaker 6: this is the guy that we could start off the series.
Speaker 5: With jumping on. Hopefully they do it differently this series.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then Friday you got a five star matchup
Speaker 3: with Paul Skins and Hunter Green. This year Green two
Speaker 3: and two with the seven six ERA four games twenty
Speaker 3: one and two thirds obviously dealt with injuries twenty nine
Speaker 3: k's they won three four whip. The Arsenal obviously has
Speaker 3: that four seam fastball that sits high eighties, and you
Speaker 3: compliment that with a slider split sinker, elite velocity, high
Speaker 3: strikeout rate. Command has been inconsistent since returning from surgery.
Speaker 3: The fastball can be the homer prone pitch when it
Speaker 3: leaks into the middle of the plate avoid chasing slider
Speaker 3: below the zone.
Speaker 4: This is where he gets most of his strikeouts. Scott.
Speaker 3: That brings us to Saturday with Braxton and Andrew Abbott.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Braxton Ashcraft will face Andrew Abbott, another stop tossing
Speaker 6: lefty who we faced twice this year. I think fur
Speaker 6: of the show, Dan, say Grilly, I think he was
Speaker 6: going to put this sweet. I was like, if the
Speaker 6: Reds were smart, they they'd throw Andrew Rabbit game one.
Speaker 6: The Ghosts of Warren spawn, and he named these other
Speaker 6: couple lefties to face the Pirates this week.
Speaker 5: Get a great tweet, Dan, great tweet.
Speaker 6: But Andrew rabbits this year five and six, three eighty
Speaker 6: five ERA, one hundred and seventeen innings, ninety four k's.
Speaker 6: On April first, that second series against the Pirates in Cincinnati,
Speaker 6: five and two thirds, five hits, four earned three walks, five.
Speaker 5: K's in a Pirate win.
Speaker 6: And then on June twenty six, you guys read that
Speaker 6: game Adam where I was in Europe. Uh, he went
Speaker 6: five and a third, six innings, three earned, one walk,
Speaker 6: six k's. He gave up three home runs. The Connor Griffin,
Speaker 6: Marcelo Zuna, and as Merlin Valdez. Zuna Valdez are those
Speaker 6: guys that we expect to hit lefties right. So he
Speaker 6: has not overpowered us this year. He has in the past.
Speaker 6: Because Andrew Abbott has been a pretty solid mid rotation
Speaker 6: starter for the Reds. We'll come at with a four
Speaker 6: seam sweeper change curve cutter. The four seam has a
Speaker 6: ton of ride at the top of his zone, not overpowering,
Speaker 6: but missus bats because of its deception. The curve is
Speaker 6: the primary swinger. Mispitch disrupts timing and he's more of
Speaker 6: a pitch ability over peer stuff guy. Again, the fastball
Speaker 6: will sit ninety two to ninety four range.
Speaker 7: Sounds really familiar.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it does extremely Sunday, Hopefully we're closing this
Speaker 3: out on a positive note. You get Mitch Keller again
Speaker 3: versus right handed pitcher Chase Burns. He's faced the Buckos
Speaker 3: three times this year. Back in March, he went five innings,
Speaker 3: one hit, no earn, three walks, seven k's and a
Speaker 3: two to nothing Cincinnati win five to three at Pittsburgh
Speaker 3: seven innings, three hits, no earn, one walk, seven k's
Speaker 3: and a one to nothing Pittsburgh win. And then recently
Speaker 3: June six innings, nine hits, five earned, no walks, ten strikeouts,
Speaker 3: gave up a home run to Brandon Low in the
Speaker 3: ninety seven Cincinnati win. The arsenal again, you're getting high
Speaker 3: nineties fastball fifty seven percent of the time. And then
Speaker 3: the slider in the change is a power pitcher with
Speaker 3: elite velocity. Guys wipe out slider front of the end
Speaker 3: rotation upside, still refining that change up consistency and the
Speaker 3: command consistency can waiver. But have not really played well
Speaker 3: against Chase Burns in his short career.
Speaker 6: Mostly a two pitch guy, Yeah, mostly a two pitch guy.
Speaker 6: And this is also a guy that has struck out
Speaker 6: almost twenty five to thirty pirates this year in three starts.
Speaker 5: So you know the k's are going to be there.
Speaker 5: Just know that.
Speaker 7: In this series.
Speaker 8: You hope that because Hunter Green is going to put
Speaker 8: it together soon. For sure, you hope it's after this
Speaker 8: series because his numbers don't look too impressive, but he'll
Speaker 8: eventually kind of like Jared Jones in the sense of
Speaker 8: you've got to get a few starts under your belt.
Speaker 8: It might not look pretty, but then you kind of
Speaker 8: lock it in. Let's hope we miss that. Let's hope
Speaker 8: the Bats get going in Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: Two, take advantage of great American small park.
Speaker 7: Yep, while we're there.
Speaker 3: Okay, you're going into a city who already has disgusting food.
Speaker 3: It's a wanna be Pittsburgh type of place. It's yeah,
Speaker 3: you look at it. It's like, oh, you put a
Speaker 3: stadium on a.
Speaker 4: Less impressive river.
Speaker 5: Cool one river, we got one.
Speaker 8: Yeah, dollar dollar Store Pittsburgh, if you will, Dollar Store Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: Love that, love that, And you know, don't quote me
Speaker 3: on this, but the place sucks and you go there
Speaker 3: and are it's just super unimpressive. It tries to be
Speaker 3: the north Shore when it's not. We've tried to go
Speaker 3: down there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just you know, it's Ohio at its finest.
Speaker 7: Even even the Reds don't like playing there.
Speaker 8: There's six games under five hundred at home, right, so
Speaker 8: even the team doesn't like it.
Speaker 6: Have you ever heard anyone say I'm gonna go to
Speaker 6: vacation in Cincinnati. I think Cincinnati is cool.
Speaker 3: I think it's cool vacation Inincinnati, although I am going
Speaker 3: there this weekend, which again really.
Speaker 4: Not a good look.
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, that's business. We're business business now.
Speaker 4: Because it's a business trip, we'll be there.
Speaker 3: So if you do make the trip out there, if
Speaker 3: you're an unfortunate Pittsburgh fan living in the area just
Speaker 3: by you know, circumstance, come say hi. We're gonna try
Speaker 3: and make our way around the ballpark. Have a good time,
Speaker 3: hopefully right the ship guys like I hate to keep
Speaker 3: talking about it, but staying afloat until the trade deadline,
Speaker 3: until you figure something out, but now running out of
Speaker 3: excuses where it's like, all right, well the bullpen didn't
Speaker 3: blow it this time. Yeah, they didn't do anything, you know, egregious.
Speaker 3: They didn't blow any late game wins or you know, leads.
Speaker 3: So we just got to play better baseball. That's what
Speaker 3: it boils down to, Like, as a team, we got
Speaker 3: to play better.
Speaker 5: Baseball team there.
Speaker 6: Yeah, come on, we've been facing some some quality ofs right,
Speaker 6: but like we've also faced inferior opponents that we're playing
Speaker 6: down to the competition. Let's go to Cincinnati and show
Speaker 6: them who's the better team in the Central.
Speaker 3: It's like the Steelers, dude, it's like the Steelers.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you know, look, some teams are scuffling right now.
Speaker 8: We're one of them, you know a little bit. So
Speaker 8: there's there's the door has been opened. The Phillies have
Speaker 8: have come back to the pack. There might be two
Speaker 8: wild card spots here. Somebody's got to get their act together.
Speaker 8: And you know, the Pirates, if they just got their
Speaker 8: act together a little bit here, there's some real opportunity.
Speaker 7: But they got to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the season can't depend on myself and Scott creating
Speaker 3: bits to keep this thing going, like ideas, right, like
Speaker 3: the Wolf game hits they're two no during the Wolf game.
Speaker 3: There's only so many different games we can create. Yeah,
Speaker 3: to keep this thing interesting. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you got to go out there and play really good
Speaker 3: baseball at this time of the year. And hey, we're
Speaker 3: still playing meaningful baseball and we're still talking about it, right,
Speaker 3: So that's good. While you're at it and you're watching
Speaker 3: baseball and you're trying to maybe immerse yourself into the
Speaker 3: sport a little bit more, and you go to sports
Speaker 3: card Junction you buy some baseball cards, I know, tops chrome.
Speaker 4: Just dropped and people are pretty excited about that.
Speaker 3: So the Pall Schemes Manion super Fractor card just got pulled.
Speaker 3: And I don't know what that's worth at all, but
Speaker 3: based on the reaction, it looked pretty cool and it's
Speaker 3: probably gonna sell for a lot of money to somebody
Speaker 3: that has that money. And maybe you want to get
Speaker 3: your chance at pulling a really cool card just like that.
Speaker 3: Well you could buy that at sports Card Junction Baseball, football, hockey, soccer, basketball, Pokemon,
Speaker 3: whatever your heart desire. Sports Card Junction has you covered
Speaker 3: ninety eleven Perry Highway, or you can go to sportscard
Speaker 3: Junction dot com. I think there are nationals right now
Speaker 3: over in Illinois. The biggest card convention I think in
Speaker 3: the world is happening this weekend, and sports Card Junction
Speaker 3: is represented there. But you could still go to the shop,
Speaker 3: or you can go again to sportscard Junction dot com.
Speaker 3: Or if you're more of a memorabilia person and you
Speaker 3: want a nice Paul Skins autograph, a Billy Cook signed comb,
Speaker 3: I don't know, maybe they have it, you can go
Speaker 3: to Total Sports Enterprises or TSE shop dot com.
Speaker 4: Boys any closing.
Speaker 3: Remarks to get out of here, because, you know, tough
Speaker 3: week of baseball, tough homestand going back to PNC Park.
Speaker 3: Although I was happy to be home, I'm almost glad
Speaker 3: to get on the road and try and just reset.
Speaker 6: Jim you first, do you have anything, I would just say,
Speaker 6: what'll we maybe six.
Speaker 7: Days out from the trade deadline right now? Yeah.
Speaker 8: I will go back to what Scott said earlier, which
Speaker 8: is I fully expect.
Speaker 7: Them to be pretty involved here.
Speaker 8: I don't know what direction that's gonna go as far
Speaker 8: as you know offense.
Speaker 7: Pitching is certainly going to be on them on the menu.
Speaker 8: But I do think you're going to see them make
Speaker 8: more than one or two moves.
Speaker 7: I really do.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I would bet on that for sure. And this
Speaker 6: is a big week, guys, It's a very big week.
Speaker 6: I know there's been some disappointing games here in this
Speaker 6: homestand it's didn't go the way we wanted. But like
Speaker 6: there's a there's still too much of the season left.
Speaker 6: I know we keep preaching that every game that you
Speaker 6: go by and you don't improve this team, you're you're
Speaker 6: you're you know, you're costing yourself, right, But there's still
Speaker 6: two months of the season left, and this team can
Speaker 6: go on a run. And I think they've been do
Speaker 6: to go on a run all season, right, So just
Speaker 6: keep that in mind. This season, they're they're still playing
Speaker 6: meaningful baseball by every meet, every definition of the word.
Speaker 6: This is going to be an exciting next couple of
Speaker 6: weeks of baseball here for the Pirates. So stay tuned
Speaker 6: and we're gonna have a lot coming your way.
Speaker 3: Scott, real quick, it's your birthday on August third, which
Speaker 3: is the trade deadline. Do you have any birthday wishes
Speaker 3: that you have to make come true?
Speaker 5: Yes, I do.
Speaker 6: I've been looking at all the trade options and I
Speaker 6: think my favorite one, if they can make it work,
Speaker 6: is getting Luke Weaver and Aj Minterer from the Mets.
Speaker 6: I think that would be a bang for your buck.
Speaker 6: A lefty and alrighty that have been really good this year.
Speaker 6: Aj Mincher is a guy that we talked about in
Speaker 6: the off season, is a potential free agent option for
Speaker 6: this pen.
Speaker 5: Those are my two top wish list guys.
Speaker 6: I mean, I love Mason Miller, but I realized that's
Speaker 6: like the the you know, David and Goliath situation. Here,
Speaker 6: where's he's the top dog and it's going to take
Speaker 6: everything to get him. I'd rather get more than one arm.
Speaker 5: To fix this bit bullpen and feel comfortable going forward.
Speaker 4: Good.
Speaker 7: So it's basically Pirates. Good for the birthday boy, if
Speaker 7: nothing else.
Speaker 4: Look at everything that Scott's done for you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's my thirty second Bertha. You don't think that
Speaker 5: is it's big, big, more than thirty one.
Speaker 6: It's it's one year older than thirty one.
Speaker 5: The fact that I made it this long is is
Speaker 5: a it's impressible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, from the things that I've seen you do, it's
Speaker 3: it's crazy that you're here today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm proud of your buddy.
Speaker 3: Well, hey, we will be in Cincinnati covering you with
Speaker 3: all of your Pirates baseball needs. Make sure you go
Speaker 3: check out all the social media content on Instagram, X
Speaker 3: geez o, man TikTok. You lose Sky Sky We're everywhere
Speaker 3: space dude.
Speaker 4: We got to my Saga pans.
Speaker 3: It's only feet there, so don't get your ideas, you know, crazy,
Speaker 3: just feet. It's pretty pricey too, so well, speaking about
Speaker 3: paying a little bit extra, for a little bit more,
Speaker 3: you can go to the Patreon and only.
Speaker 4: For three dollars a month.
Speaker 3: You can get the breakdowns, h swing adjustments, pitching adjustments.
Speaker 3: We're even continuing some twenty twenty seven banterboard draft prospects.
Speaker 3: Jay and Scott will have you covered there. So really
Speaker 3: pumped to keep all that going. Subscribe likely have a
Speaker 3: common Tell a friend, to tell a friend, and then
Speaker 3: until next time, raise it, raise it, hoist it.
Speaker 2: Best seats at the pirates? Can he let me run
Speaker 2: the base?
Speaker 1: Yeah? My tame is like my money because I can't.
Speaker 2: Afford to waste. Oh, why see is a lloyer take
Speaker 2: my date to my dates? Or the stick by the plate?
Speaker 1: Synick