Speaker 1: It's time to raise the roof for our latest regular
Speaker 1: season episode. Welcome back to the plot everyone, I'm host
Speaker 1: Ax Murphy with me today, my co host Evan Lynch,
Speaker 1: and Gibby's gonna be coming on later, so stay tuned
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 2: But Evan, how are we doing?
Speaker 3: Man? Good? Good?
Speaker 4: How are you doing?
Speaker 2: Can't complain? The Rays have been way better than I thought.
Speaker 4: I am prepared to eat a lot of my words.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I know it's still early in the season, but I
Speaker 4: am prepared to humbly accept that I at this point
Speaker 4: of the season at least wrong, so we can get
Speaker 4: into that a little bit later, which I am pleasantly
Speaker 4: surprised by. But no, yeah, I mean six out of
Speaker 4: seven winning, it's a It was a weird series. It
Speaker 4: was a weird road trip, just a three gamer on
Speaker 4: the road, which is kind of strange. But beeping getting
Speaker 4: that in a little bit, Yeah.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at what the race have
Speaker 1: done recently, especially you know that series in Cleveland, I
Speaker 1: do wonder how much the rain did play a factor
Speaker 1: into it, whether that killed momentum.
Speaker 4: For the raz or whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: But to take two out of three there and then
Speaker 1: coming off a home stand where you were able to
Speaker 1: take four or six, especially sweeping the sweep, sweep swee
Speaker 1: sweeping the Twins. As you mentioned, the six wins in
Speaker 1: last seven games overall, that dates back to the last
Speaker 1: game in the Red Series, of which Nick Martinez pitched
Speaker 1: an absolute gem. He pitched another gem against Cleveland, which
Speaker 1: I think he's only given up what.
Speaker 2: Is he not?
Speaker 1: I think I said it in just like as an
Speaker 1: opening to the last spot. He's given up like one
Speaker 1: run in his last fifteen innings.
Speaker 2: I get now.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much you should actually take into
Speaker 1: account and affect everything when it comes to training, but
Speaker 1: I do legitimately. I mean, it can't all be legit
Speaker 1: like he had to have been working on stuff because
Speaker 1: no one, I think expected this kind of success from
Speaker 1: him after what he did.
Speaker 2: Like if he put up like a four.
Speaker 1: Era, I would, you know, maybe there was something to it,
Speaker 1: but like a one to seventy RA and one of
Speaker 1: the best pitchers in baseball, I did not expect.
Speaker 4: No, he's been. I mean, he's been the sign of
Speaker 4: the offseason. He's been. I mean, you could argue he's
Speaker 4: been our best player. Like he's been unbelievable. I mean
Speaker 4: he went Yeah, like you said, he went eight innings,
Speaker 4: and I mean he probably could have gone nine. He
Speaker 4: could have. I mean he was at like ninety something pitches.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he could have gotten more in the game
Speaker 1: against Cleveland too. It wasn't like he was out of
Speaker 1: gas or anything like I think he was only at
Speaker 1: like seventy or eighty pitches. Yeah, he was under I
Speaker 1: believe eighty five pitches almost guaranteed ninety pitches for sure,
Speaker 1: so he could have gone into the.
Speaker 2: Eighth if he wanted to.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, but he's been spectacular, Like, I mean,
Speaker 4: he's kind of been the ace of this this rotation
Speaker 4: so far. And like you said, he did not have
Speaker 4: a good spring training, but he did say I mean,
Speaker 4: it's kind of cool that he he was like, don't
Speaker 4: he kind of had that mentality of don't worry about it,
Speaker 4: Like I think he's I'm reading the quotes he said,
Speaker 4: He's like, a lot of this spring was me trying new,
Speaker 4: trying new things that they were recommending, and a lot
Speaker 4: of it was, yeah, trying to feel out. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean when you when that happens and then you
Speaker 4: kind of back it up with your play in the
Speaker 4: real season. I believe that. And he's been incredible. He's
Speaker 4: what he got paid what twelve thirteen million, which has
Speaker 4: been which is looking like.
Speaker 2: I believe it's thirteen.
Speaker 1: It was it was nine, and then there was the
Speaker 1: mutual like he was gonna end up getting thirteen, but
Speaker 1: it was base salary of nine million this year and
Speaker 1: then a.
Speaker 2: Mutual option whatever it is.
Speaker 1: The buyout was like four mil for next year if
Speaker 1: they don't want to resign him again, which I doubt
Speaker 1: that they would considering what the option would be for
Speaker 1: twenty seven.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, and he's thirty five, but whatever's that's
Speaker 4: in that's a next season type issue. So I mean,
Speaker 4: I mean, his stats are incredible. He's two and one
Speaker 4: with a one to seven ERA and a one even whip,
Speaker 4: which is fantastic especially for what he's kind of our
Speaker 4: fourth or fifth starter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, coming into the year, I think he
Speaker 1: was projected to be what I'm trying to think. I
Speaker 1: think Matts was probably gonna be the five if you
Speaker 1: think about it, because Matts was kind of at times
Speaker 1: he was stretched out last year, but in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things, he was more of a long reliever
Speaker 1: than he was a starter. So I think if we
Speaker 1: were going to categorize things, he would probably have been
Speaker 1: the five, the four.
Speaker 4: And maybe even three, just because Shane hasn't pitched in
Speaker 4: two years, so you never so.
Speaker 1: Like, at best the three, at worst the four is
Speaker 1: what I would have presumed.
Speaker 4: And I guess you could move him up even further
Speaker 4: because Pepio is probably going to be our second so
Speaker 4: and he hasn't pitched an enning the season yet.
Speaker 1: Well, I think if you look at the rotation, I
Speaker 1: think that the expectation was that, of course Papio was
Speaker 1: going to be healthy, and then who was the Yeah
Speaker 1: it was I mean I thought in my head it
Speaker 1: was gonna be Drew was gonna be the one, pap
Speaker 1: was gonna be the two, Shamee was gonna end up
Speaker 1: becoming the three, Martinez was going to be the foreign
Speaker 1: match was going to be the five.
Speaker 4: Yeah that's fair.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Now like Jesse Schultens is essentially the.
Speaker 1: Five, which I mean, he's he's fantastic that he's looked great.
Speaker 4: He didn't heed that Reds game. It was what two
Speaker 4: mondays ago. I think he had the he that definitely
Speaker 4: had some mistakes in the Reds offense is good enough
Speaker 4: to take advantage of that. But whatever that was, that
Speaker 4: was a while ago. But anyway, going back to this
Speaker 4: the series against the Guardians, it was all I mean
Speaker 4: the Monday game that was a textbook steal. I don't
Speaker 4: know how we won that game, Like that was a
Speaker 4: game we I don't think we deserve to win. Ryan
Speaker 4: Valaide is incredible.
Speaker 1: He's he has been another guy who I'm eating my
Speaker 1: words about because yeah, I didn't expect And again when
Speaker 1: the Raids pick up these guys, considering how some of
Speaker 1: these players have done, and I don't want to put
Speaker 1: in the direct comparisons of guys, but if we want
Speaker 1: to do direct comparisons.
Speaker 2: Like you know, a hundred food should being brought in.
Speaker 1: Like we we've already seen what Alex Jackson did in
Speaker 1: a large, rather large sample size with the Rais and
Speaker 1: was not successful. So that was a guy that people
Speaker 1: had concerns about. Valaide. I'm sure people had concerns about
Speaker 1: him kind of looking like Christopher Morrell to an extent
Speaker 1: of someone who was was good or supposed to be
Speaker 1: good against a certain type of pitcher and then wasn't
Speaker 1: fully good or I guess not fully good in the
Speaker 1: sense of Morell not having a good season. But Vlaide
Speaker 1: has been fantastic. He's been a very good bench piece.
Speaker 1: I've wanted the Rays to have good bench pieces, like
Speaker 1: I not as much this year, but I use the
Speaker 1: Phillies as what I would consider to be a team
Speaker 1: that has some good bench pieces. So like recently you
Speaker 1: know ed Mundo Sosa, Otto, Kemp West and Wilson, guys
Speaker 1: like that are good pieces to come off the bench
Speaker 1: and do things. And I think that Valaide is fitting
Speaker 1: in that role nicely for the race.
Speaker 4: And I just feel like, I mean, this is based
Speaker 4: on total total field, no statistics whatsoever, So if anybody
Speaker 4: wants to prove me wrong, please do it. But I
Speaker 4: feel like this team is a heck of a lot
Speaker 4: better than last year's team was against lefties, and maybe,
Speaker 4: and like Vlaid is a huge reason for that. Like
Speaker 4: I mean, you look at recent past and ever Ray's
Speaker 4: hitters they were more so power hitters, but like the
Speaker 4: platoon guys like Hunter Renfro you mentioned Morell, they just
Speaker 4: they didn't come close to what Vlai is doing. Granted,
Speaker 4: like I said, it's it's only been half a month
Speaker 4: or what it's been a month of the season, so yeah,
Speaker 4: but I mean it.
Speaker 2: Is better that he's done at all, like in his
Speaker 2: entire career.
Speaker 4: Right, So, but he's he's kind of give me the
Speaker 4: Moderizario vibes from what three years ago when he just
Speaker 4: was very good against left handed hitting. And I mean
Speaker 4: Parker Messik, who started that game on Monday for the Guardians,
Speaker 4: he has been one of the best pitchers in the game. Like,
Speaker 4: he has a point eight eight whip one point seven
Speaker 4: to three and the Rays they didn't score a lot
Speaker 4: of against him, but they made him work. I mean,
Speaker 4: he went five and two thirds with ninety five pitches.
Speaker 4: He did have nine strikeouts, but they made him throw pitchers.
Speaker 4: He didn't get through six and they were able to
Speaker 4: get to the bullpen. So and Stephen bats also looked
Speaker 4: great too, don't you can't can't he spends that.
Speaker 2: He's been strong this year.
Speaker 1: I know that he hit some blips here and there,
Speaker 1: but in the general sense, he's been a very strong
Speaker 1: pitcher for the Rays, which I've been very happy about.
Speaker 4: He I mean, I wouldn't even say the home run
Speaker 4: that Schneeman hit was a mistake. It was a good
Speaker 4: pitch and I don't I still don't know how Schneman
Speaker 4: hit that out. But yeah, he went seven innings for
Speaker 4: four hits, two earned, one walk, only two strikeouts, which
Speaker 4: I know he's not a strikeout pitcher, but that's pretty
Speaker 4: insane and ninety five pitches.
Speaker 2: So I was gonna ask you quickly about Mattz.
Speaker 1: Did you like coming in were your expectations of him
Speaker 1: higher than they were for Martinez? Because mine, for for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I felt way more confident in Nats.
Speaker 2: Than I did in Martinez.
Speaker 4: I'm the opposite. I don't know, I don't know what.
Speaker 4: In spring training. Maybe I think when they signed each player,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go based on that because spring training.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no, no, that's what I was talking about.
Speaker 1: I wasn't talking about spring just just signing.
Speaker 4: When they signed him, I was definitely more optimistic about Martinez.
Speaker 4: I don't know why. Maybe, like it could be a
Speaker 4: reason just because I had Martinez on my fantasy team
Speaker 4: like a year or two ago and he was awesome,
Speaker 4: and I just had that like mentality ingrained in my
Speaker 4: brain this like, hey, this is a good picture. Thirteen
Speaker 4: mil might have been a lot, But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I didn't think Mattz really stood off the page a
Speaker 4: whole lot, but he's once again, I couldn't have been
Speaker 4: more wrong. Like this is this is an episode of
Speaker 4: me just eating all of my words, and I am
Speaker 4: ready to do so, and I'm happily doing it because
Speaker 4: the Rays are playing really good baseball. Also, Ian Seymour
Speaker 4: is another guy I think we need to talk about
Speaker 4: in this series again.
Speaker 1: He's He's had his struggles.
Speaker 4: I know he hasn't looked good this year this season,
Speaker 4: but he had two really really awesome outings in the
Speaker 4: Monday and Tuesday game where he didn't still didn't look great,
Speaker 4: but he was able to get through get an inning.
Speaker 4: I think he only went two and a third on
Speaker 4: the Tuesday game, but he got to He was able
Speaker 4: to get get in there on Monday and got an inning, pitched,
Speaker 4: gave up a walk, but struck out two and got
Speaker 4: through it, got the hold and then Brian Baker locked
Speaker 4: it down. And I don't know he and he I
Speaker 4: think he was thrown into a pretty crazy situation on
Speaker 4: the Tuesday game and he was able to get through
Speaker 4: it without giving up a run. So he deserves some
Speaker 4: full hours for those two performances too.
Speaker 1: I will say I've been bit too many times by
Speaker 1: Ray's pitchers not doing well and then go elsewhere, or
Speaker 1: just having bad seasons after you know, being like like
Speaker 1: Kevin Kelly pissed me off a lot last year.
Speaker 2: He has not.
Speaker 1: Been nearly as bad as as he was last year,
Speaker 1: which is like that was That's a positive for this
Speaker 1: team considering how many guys are currently on the IL,
Speaker 1: I mean on top, like Pepio was moved to the
Speaker 1: sixty day, who said it was moved to the sixty day.
Speaker 1: Clevenger is still working his way back. Those are three
Speaker 1: I mean Riguez, yeah, yeah, yeah, Man Rod is out.
Speaker 1: You know, on the bullpen side of things, probably your
Speaker 1: three best relievers, well, depending on how you want to
Speaker 1: look at Brian Baker, but coming into the season, I'm
Speaker 1: sure how people viewed things. Potentially your three more I
Speaker 1: don't know, because those five, if you include Baker and Jackson,
Speaker 1: but your best five relievers in a general sense, were
Speaker 1: either hurt coming into the year or got hurt earlier
Speaker 1: in the year.
Speaker 4: And if you want to throw I mean of comparing
Speaker 4: to last year, you also lost your best reliever to
Speaker 4: free agency. So that's another like you're kind of without
Speaker 4: your six best receive relievers from last year, which is I.
Speaker 1: Mean four four of your four of your six best
Speaker 1: relievers aren't there, and I know that not all of
Speaker 1: them were that are started the season four of them were.
Speaker 1: So your best four relievers technically to start last season,
Speaker 1: depending on how you consider Manrod knowing that he was injured,
Speaker 1: but when healthy, your four best relievers are.
Speaker 2: No longer there.
Speaker 1: Or are all either not there or hurt, and then
Speaker 1: Jackson Baker kind of doing their thing. Still not convinced
Speaker 1: on Jacks by any means. It's a lot of things
Speaker 1: that he needs to work out. I know that like
Speaker 1: spots start quote unquote, he looked pretty solid in that.
Speaker 1: So I do wonder if the Rays are considering trying
Speaker 1: to like stretch him out more turn him potentially into
Speaker 1: a starter if they too, because maybe just the the
Speaker 1: high leverage thing, it doesn't seem like it seems like
Speaker 1: Baker has more of that like closer type energy that
Speaker 1: the rings want, Like.
Speaker 4: He's a psycho. He's a psycho, and and I mean
Speaker 4: then the nicest way possible, he's It's exactly you need
Speaker 4: you need like an insane person to be a closer.
Speaker 4: That the more insane you are on the baseball field
Speaker 4: as a closer, the better you probably are.
Speaker 2: And and I don't know if Jack's quite has what
Speaker 2: Baker has.
Speaker 4: He definitely you can tell, I mean he has. He
Speaker 4: was unbelievable for the Twins. He has the talent, maybe
Speaker 4: a centle thing. But you but going back to your
Speaker 4: point about the bullpen, I think it definitely is, Like
Speaker 4: I don't, I still don't think it's like a top
Speaker 4: ten bullpen in the MLB. It's it's talented, but it's
Speaker 4: it's definitely finding its rhythm a little bit more. I think,
Speaker 4: like you said, they were kind of out of place,
Speaker 4: and I don't think Cash necessarily knew how to manage
Speaker 4: it earlier in the season just because of how many
Speaker 4: moving pieces there were.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got a lot better job of managing the bullpen.
Speaker 4: Right because because I think people, I think they've played
Speaker 4: their ways into their roles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, I agree with that.
Speaker 4: And Kelly, Kevin Kelly's a guy who and I think
Speaker 4: that's actually Ian Symour and Kevin Kelly are two guys
Speaker 4: who have kind of have maybe it was a mental thing.
Speaker 4: And I don't know, maybe they had the yips kind
Speaker 4: of earlier this season, but they have definitely found their rhythm.
Speaker 4: I mean, Kelly is down to a four to six,
Speaker 4: which is unbelievable.
Speaker 2: I mean, considering how horrible he was last year.
Speaker 4: Like he was he was the season, he was unpitchable
Speaker 4: last year and earlier this season, and he's down to
Speaker 4: a four to six, like that's a win. Ian seymore
Speaker 4: down to a six, seven to five. I mean his
Speaker 4: first outing this season, he gives up what seven runs
Speaker 4: in that one in that game against the Cardinals. Yeah,
Speaker 4: that was and Cole Sultzer, I'm going to just go
Speaker 4: and alund the line of the bullpen in the Tuesday game.
Speaker 4: He has been on a roll recently. I don't have
Speaker 4: the stats in terms of.
Speaker 1: And the not, like you know, these guys are expendable guys,
Speaker 1: like the Rays have needed these guys because of the
Speaker 1: injuries that have occrued in.
Speaker 4: The bullpen, right and he's he I mean he was
Speaker 4: able to give Brian Baker off on Tuesday in that
Speaker 4: one zero win. He got the save, not a one
Speaker 4: two three inning, but sixteen pitches got the got I
Speaker 4: mean he's a three two four era Like that's I mean,
Speaker 4: he's not gonna be He's not a closer, but still
Speaker 4: not bad for he's probably one of our worst arms
Speaker 4: in our bullpen, and he's been incredible in the last
Speaker 4: couple of weeks. So it is nice to see the
Speaker 4: bullpen kind of figure out what's going on and the
Speaker 4: Ray's record as the team reflects that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a slowly but shirley thing.
Speaker 1: As our other co host gave you joins from is
Speaker 1: it gloomy Ohio?
Speaker 2: Like like, what what's the vibes in Ohio right now?
Speaker 3: Oh? It's pretty, it's gloomy.
Speaker 4: Oh it's blue sky.
Speaker 2: Oh it doesn't look too bad. Look at Ohio.
Speaker 4: It is Ohio, though we can't. It's not that nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're not Columbus right now. I was. I was
Speaker 3: closer to Cleveland. I guess they weren't.
Speaker 5: Too gloomy about the Guardians losing the series, but they
Speaker 5: cared more about, you know, just the weather always being
Speaker 5: like this, but you know it's good when I got
Speaker 5: before I got here, it was like seventy degree weather,
Speaker 5: and then when I got here is like stayed at
Speaker 5: fifty found. Yeah, I mean It's great to be here.
Speaker 5: You know, the Rays are playing great.
Speaker 3: Well that's the last game in that series, but who cares.
Speaker 5: You know, we went on a little five game winning streak,
Speaker 5: more than I was expecting you from this.
Speaker 3: Stand we had ah, but you know, I don't have
Speaker 3: very much time. Uh, I'd like to pick.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, mine blade's been a badas it's
Speaker 5: very good. Uh Yandi was great this whole series and
Speaker 5: he just continues to prove and be the most underrated
Speaker 5: player in the MLB.
Speaker 3: And then Paul Salcer has really turned it around.
Speaker 5: I really like what he's been doing. Brian Baker is
Speaker 5: a badass. When you guys are talking about the bullpen earlier,
Speaker 5: the pieces they're coming together a little bit better. So
Speaker 5: it's been it's been a pretty good situation going on
Speaker 5: for the Raids. Not what I was expected. You know,
Speaker 5: it was a very quick turnaround. You know, we were
Speaker 5: very mad like the first two weeks, and then you
Speaker 5: know they kind of went back to normal.
Speaker 3: Nick Martinez is a badass.
Speaker 5: I mean, I don't even know when we've had guys,
Speaker 5: but we ever had a guy who's pitched two back
Speaker 5: to back, seven eight plus games.
Speaker 3: I can't remember the last team that.
Speaker 2: Even happened, So yeah, that happens a lot of this team.
Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. So, I mean he's just super effective. He
Speaker 5: munches on innings.
Speaker 3: Who else m Jonathan Ronda's been on his comeback?
Speaker 4: I want to in the al in RBI, right, is
Speaker 4: he Is he a home run hitter?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 4: Like? I because he I mean his average is still
Speaker 4: pretty low, but I mean he's second And like I
Speaker 4: was thinking, it's like, does he did he change his approach?
Speaker 4: And I wanted to get your guys opinions on that,
Speaker 4: Like it seems like he's kind of a power hitter guy.
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, I mean he's definitely.
Speaker 5: I feel like, you know, when you have Yondy who's
Speaker 5: like basically suppose you would think he's a home run
Speaker 5: hitteror but he's not really. I mean he does hit
Speaker 5: home he doesn't hit bombs when he wants to. You know,
Speaker 5: he's more of that, uh, just productive, get on base
Speaker 5: kind of guy. And then we have a lot of
Speaker 5: kin get on base guys, you know, like Chandler Simpsons.
Speaker 5: So I bet you know there might be a reason
Speaker 5: to that. You know, maybe Kevin Cash told him having
Speaker 5: in the power a little bit more.
Speaker 3: Uh, show show it off a little bit more. So, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's been really impressed.
Speaker 5: That one game Junior and Aronda hit two home runs.
Speaker 5: That was one of the best games I've ever I've watched,
Speaker 5: because you know, you know, I don't even know when
Speaker 5: less than that happened, you know, to two raised.
Speaker 3: Hitters hitting two home runs in the same game.
Speaker 5: Uh, it's kind of unbelievable for this franchise at least.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean Jonathan runs. He was a little
Speaker 5: slump at the beginning of the season, but now he's.
Speaker 3: Right back to her.
Speaker 5: So I hope he just keeps the climbing and bringing
Speaker 5: back into the MVP conversition like.
Speaker 3: He was last year.
Speaker 5: Kind of Uh, but yeah, I got to get back
Speaker 5: to where I was going, So.
Speaker 2: Well, give me where I am.
Speaker 1: Give us your give us your players because I know
Speaker 1: that you don't have much time. Give us your your
Speaker 1: keys to the series against the Giants, and then your
Speaker 1: players are.
Speaker 3: The uh Keith Joan hu Lee in the park.
Speaker 5: But you know, he's not been as good as he
Speaker 5: was getting into twenty twenty five, so that doesn't really
Speaker 5: matter too much that I forgot what that one angry
Speaker 5: bulking guy's name was But when you're.
Speaker 3: Just like fucking, fucking fucking.
Speaker 5: To all the players, and he tried to start a
Speaker 5: fight with.
Speaker 3: Who was of Smith something else.
Speaker 4: I have to go back and remember that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, but but it was that guy's a firebacker.
Speaker 5: So let's try not to anger them, so we don't
Speaker 5: get any of our players injured from ball to the
Speaker 5: ridge or something. You know, Let's play ethical baseball, you know,
Speaker 5: just for this series. Because the Giants seemed kind of
Speaker 5: hot this year. I've never well I've seen that from
Speaker 5: the Giants. I haven't you know, I haven't seen that
Speaker 5: since like Linsey come left, you know, like that era
Speaker 5: of Giants.
Speaker 3: Ah.
Speaker 5: So yeah, they got they got a little bit of
Speaker 5: fire new So just keep them in the ballpark, you know,
Speaker 5: don't bringer the boll pain. Don't get into a sling
Speaker 5: in baseballs match.
Speaker 2: No, no kerfuffles, no kurfuffles.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: So then and then and then who your players for
Speaker 2: the series.
Speaker 4: If you had to pick a cup, guys.
Speaker 5: Oh give me Ryan de Lad because I said that earlier.
Speaker 5: I mean he's just been I've never like usually this
Speaker 5: pinch hit or ship it doesn't really work out you know,
Speaker 5: like we try to bring in a guy like that
Speaker 5: who can't really adjust to the moment out of out
Speaker 5: of the being ice cold, you know, on the bench.
Speaker 5: But you know Ryan Vloyd's multiple times and when he
Speaker 5: gets his start, you know, he does good and he's
Speaker 5: just been that has been climbing. You know, he doesn't
Speaker 5: have many patch as the other guys when he's super effective.
Speaker 5: So I mean he's gonna be my hitter. And then
Speaker 5: pitcher Snick Martinez pitching the series?
Speaker 2: No, because he pitched on Well, he might pitch the
Speaker 2: Sunday game because he No, No, he pitched a Tuesday
Speaker 2: game of this sea, so that means he wouldn't be
Speaker 2: available for this. He'll put enough money.
Speaker 3: Yah, gimme clinster, gimme clanster.
Speaker 2: All right, there we go. I like it. That's a
Speaker 2: good pick. All right, all right, well we'll leave you
Speaker 2: to it. Enjoy Ohio. Well, Gibby reporting live from uh the.
Speaker 1: How do we describe? Well, I guess he's not in Columbus,
Speaker 1: or is he? I don't I didn't think he said
Speaker 1: he was in Columbus.
Speaker 4: The Buckeye state, right, Yes.
Speaker 1: I mean it is the Buckeye State that is true.
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's any Raised players who are
Speaker 1: from Ohio necessarily or went to a school in Ohio.
Speaker 2: Well, no, Brian Peppy went to Xavier. No, he went
Speaker 2: to Butler. I'm an idiot.
Speaker 1: He went the Butler because because he's an Indiana guy Midwest. No, No,
Speaker 1: it doesn't count. It doesn't count.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: But yeah, thanks to Gimby for joining us for a
Speaker 1: uh but I mean he he brought up a lot
Speaker 1: of good points about this team, and points that we've
Speaker 1: already talked about. I think that there is a lot
Speaker 1: to like about this team. There's also a lot of
Speaker 1: things to not like about this team in a general sense,
Speaker 1: Like there are a lot of holes that still need
Speaker 1: to be patched. The bullpen is a major one. The
Speaker 1: defense has gotten better, but there's still holes in the defense.
Speaker 1: Chandler Simpson keeps trying to not hit the baseball on
Speaker 1: the ground, which is probably a big reason why his
Speaker 1: average is dipped as much as it has now. Hitting
Speaker 1: you know, four hundred is unsustainable at least in this world,
Speaker 1: this era of baseball. But I mean, he keeps trying
Speaker 1: to lift the baseball and he does not have that power.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he's still batten three to fourteen. The
Speaker 4: OBP is kind of low for an average that high too. Oh,
Speaker 4: it's actually really low, three forty nine. He's not walking,
Speaker 4: he is striking out a lot more too. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: do not understand. He should be swinging down on the
Speaker 4: baseball every single time. The ball should ait the ground
Speaker 4: every single time he swings the bat, like, no, no offense.
Speaker 4: Maybe he hits a home run one day, but that's
Speaker 4: not what you're in the lineup for. And Chandler, if
Speaker 4: you bat three above three hundred, you never hit a
Speaker 4: home run. That's cool with me, Like, I'm not I'm
Speaker 4: not expecting you to hit.
Speaker 1: A home run, and like hit the ball, but like
Speaker 1: line drives, like not try to not not not fly balls,
Speaker 1: like try to hit line drives to the gap, hit
Speaker 1: line drives down the line. Like that's what he should
Speaker 1: be focusing his energy towards. And I'm sure that he is.
Speaker 1: But in the in the general sense of he needs
Speaker 1: to like that is his bread and butter, because he
Speaker 1: is fast and he does not have a lot of power,
Speaker 1: So you need to utilize what you have in order
Speaker 1: to make both of those things work.
Speaker 4: Right, And this like like you said about the holes, like, yes,
Speaker 4: there are. Like the offense has been a little like
Speaker 4: I mean the series against the Guardians, the offense was
Speaker 4: not great, but I think I'm gonna give that more
Speaker 4: so credit to the Guardians pitching staff. They had three
Speaker 4: really good starters out of the mound that we had
Speaker 4: to go against, So I'm going to more so blame
Speaker 4: it on that. Just hopefully that doesn't linger too much
Speaker 4: against the Giants. Hopefully the offense can have a breakout
Speaker 4: game or two this weekend against the Giants. But the
Speaker 4: starting pitching has been incredible. I will say the starting pitching,
Speaker 4: I think is how we thought the starting pitching would
Speaker 4: have been last year. I thought last year's was a
Speaker 4: little bit underwhelming, Like I mean, the guys who are
Speaker 4: no longer here, Taj and Shane bos did not kind
Speaker 4: of take that next step that I was expecting. And
Speaker 4: this season the guys we brought in to replace it,
Speaker 4: Like I mean, we've already gone into that, but Matt's
Speaker 4: and Martinez have replaced boj and Bradley and then some
Speaker 4: so their success has helped make this team a lot
Speaker 4: better too. And we're back to kind of winning old
Speaker 4: race game old Raceways the one run low score game.
Speaker 1: So well in the same vein, I think like the
Speaker 1: middle infield is now a glaring hole with this team.
Speaker 1: Like Gavin Luck still hasn't played one game this season
Speaker 1: because he's been hurt the entire time. Taylor Walls was
Speaker 1: effective early on and has basically been non existent recently.
Speaker 1: Ben Williamson has been what I would consider good defensively,
Speaker 1: and I think in a general sense good defensively, but
Speaker 1: like the offense still isn't there. Like when you lose
Speaker 1: someone like Brandon Law and then you really don't have
Speaker 1: anyone to be able to replace him, it creates an
Speaker 1: issue because other guys need to produce, and if those
Speaker 1: guys don't produce, then you know you're in a bet spot.
Speaker 1: Like Johnny DeLuca has been solid this season offensively. Jake
Speaker 1: Fairley in a general sense has been pretty solid, not amazing,
Speaker 1: but pretty solid.
Speaker 2: Cedric Mullens has basically been an afterthought.
Speaker 4: He's becoming unplayable.
Speaker 2: He's not good.
Speaker 4: He at the point is like it's getting to the
Speaker 4: point where De Lucas should be in regardless of through
Speaker 4: the starting pitching.
Speaker 1: Yet yeah, I mean has been like he hasn't really
Speaker 1: played as much. Fortes has been the main guy, which
Speaker 1: is what I expect to come in and Fortes has
Speaker 1: been solid this year, which is good. Like that's someone
Speaker 1: who I really wanted the Rays to to kind of
Speaker 1: put their trust in, and they have and that's really good.
Speaker 1: Same thing with the Luca. The Race and I think
Speaker 1: are putting more of their trust into Luca and he
Speaker 1: is producing as people myself included expected him to.
Speaker 2: But like I mean, outside of.
Speaker 1: That, it's just the middle infield is so is such
Speaker 1: a glaring issue and I know, like maybe Gavin lux
Speaker 1: fixes that problem when he gets back, but he's not
Speaker 1: back yet. Like maybe Williamson develops more than we expect
Speaker 1: right now, shows a little bit more power, is more
Speaker 1: fun to watch in that aspect, But it's just I wish,
Speaker 1: I wish that the Rays had a better solution for
Speaker 1: what they were doing with the middle infield to an
Speaker 1: extent only because I'm a Sixers fan. The whole thing
Speaker 1: with them trading Jared McCain and them not finishing, like
Speaker 1: they basically traded him to try to get pieces to
Speaker 1: get another trade going, and they only completed half of
Speaker 1: it because they weren't able to get the other trade going.
Speaker 1: I feel like, to an extent, the Rays came into
Speaker 1: the season with ideas on how to replace him and
Speaker 1: then never fully found the way to replace him. And
Speaker 1: maybe that's me thinking that it's the first month of
Speaker 1: the season and nothing's really manifested in terms of players,
Speaker 1: but it feels like they had an idea and then
Speaker 1: never finished the idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I think I think Lux might have
Speaker 4: just been the idea and to platoon him with Williamson,
Speaker 4: which I don't hate. I mean, if if Lux can
Speaker 4: around too. Actually, I don't know what is Lux is
Speaker 4: like career batting.
Speaker 2: He's a contact hitter, he's not. He's got kind of
Speaker 2: that's fine. He's more of a.
Speaker 4: Contact hitter, that's fine. If he's batten. His career batting
Speaker 4: average is two fifty six. If you can bat like
Speaker 4: what two sixty five and Williamson can kind of be
Speaker 4: around that same ballpark, I'm fine with that. It's just
Speaker 4: right now. I mean, pulasios Is he's another guy who
Speaker 4: started off the season really hot and he's coming back
Speaker 4: down to earth significantly. I mean, he's been two thirteen now,
Speaker 4: Like I'm sorry, Like.
Speaker 3: And and.
Speaker 4: I don't know, I mean the shortstop position as well.
Speaker 4: I mean, Ben Williamson has been a fantastic fielder. We
Speaker 4: talk a lot about the race defense and a bad
Speaker 4: in a negative light this so far this season, but
Speaker 4: he's been very Surprisingly, He's made a couple of bad throws.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying he's perfect, but that play in Cleveland,
Speaker 4: I think on Monday Night. I mean, that was one
Speaker 4: of the best line drive catchers I've seen in a
Speaker 4: long time. But no, I totally agree what you're saying.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's something that I always said when we
Speaker 4: were thinking about trading Bilao. I mean, my first thought
Speaker 4: was we should just extend, extend him instead of trading him.
Speaker 4: I know, he only had one more year year left,
Speaker 4: but we didn't have It's not like we there wasn't
Speaker 4: like a logjam at second base. We didn't have anybody
Speaker 4: to replace him. It's not like it's not like the
Speaker 4: first base position where we have Xavier Isaac and Trade
Speaker 4: Morgan and I mean Yandi obviously Yadi the ages a
Speaker 4: lot now but in Ronda, but second base is wide open,
Speaker 4: Like it's not like we had some stud that was
Speaker 4: ready to like I mean I think the best example
Speaker 4: of that was Adamis in wander Like I mean, Adamis.
Speaker 4: I don't think we ever really wanted to trade him,
Speaker 4: but we had Wander ready to come up, and so
Speaker 4: we had to trade him. And it's we did the
Speaker 4: same thing with Bilao, except there was nobody else to
Speaker 4: replace him. So I totally get what you're saying there, But.
Speaker 1: Like, the Race have solutions like where they don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have solution the second base, and maybe Williamson just is
Speaker 1: that solution moving forward because he's controllable. The Rays kind
Speaker 1: of have something at shortstop. But again, I just feel
Speaker 1: like coming into the season, I don't want to try
Speaker 1: to dwell on too many things, but you know, someone
Speaker 1: like Jose Cabairo probably would have been a better option
Speaker 1: if they had him and Williamson up the middle.
Speaker 2: It would have been a better option overall.
Speaker 1: But again, like he might have not even mattered in
Speaker 1: the grand seam of things because the Rays want Carson
Speaker 1: Williams to work, and Carson Williams has been better in
Speaker 1: Durham than he was to begin his tenure there last year,
Speaker 1: and I know that the strikeout rate is down, but
Speaker 1: at the same token, he's not.
Speaker 2: I'm not fully convinced yet.
Speaker 1: Again, there is progress, but when you look at his
Speaker 1: small sample size in the big leagues, he hasn't quite
Speaker 1: adjusted to that. So I don't know if that means
Speaker 1: that he's not quite adjusted to things on the minor
Speaker 1: league side and then that's not helping him on the
Speaker 1: major league side, or if he's fully adjusted on the
Speaker 1: minor league side and he just hasn't found a way
Speaker 1: to do that on the major league side.
Speaker 4: No, yeah, I like, I think Williamson has shown some
Speaker 4: some real potential. I I think I like the role
Speaker 4: he has on this team. But yeah, i'd go and
Speaker 4: I I do not understand why we traded Caballero, Like
Speaker 4: I really don't get that at all. Like once again,
Speaker 4: we didn't. I mean, I know, I know we have
Speaker 4: Corson coming up, but he's not. I mean, he's.
Speaker 1: Close to be and also was controllable, right and he
Speaker 1: had like cheap yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: And we didn't get much for him. I mean the
Speaker 4: guy we got for him with DFAD and he's on
Speaker 4: the White Sox now, Like I didn't.
Speaker 1: Prospect for him, but like, who knows what's going to
Speaker 1: happen with the prospect, but that's going to be years.
Speaker 1: I mean, that guy was in I think was in
Speaker 1: low A or single A, and now he's in high A.
Speaker 1: So like it's gonna be a bit before we see
Speaker 1: him if he even comes.
Speaker 4: Up, right, And I just I never really understood that,
Speaker 4: and he's anyway, that's whatever, that's old news. But I
Speaker 4: agree that that there is a glaring hole in the
Speaker 4: middle lead field. Hopefully Carson can figure out whatever's going
Speaker 4: on and hopefully he can come back soon.
Speaker 1: Because are you are you encouraged by him and Durham, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to need to. It hasn't been anything flashy,
Speaker 1: but he's hit some some homers recently. Like I mentioned,
Speaker 1: the k rates down from where from where it was before,
Speaker 1: which is has always been the biggest glaring issue with Carson,
Speaker 1: is that the k rate's way too high. I know
Speaker 1: that on like a defensive side of things, the defense
Speaker 1: was not as advertised in spring training and then at
Speaker 1: the start of the season as people expected him to be.
Speaker 1: Uh So I don't really know what's going to be
Speaker 1: happening him with that moving forward. I'm sure that he
Speaker 1: will be fine in the grand scheme of things, but
Speaker 1: like I mean, they like everything needs to work out
Speaker 1: in their favor in order to get the whole Carson
Speaker 1: thing working out, because right now it's not quite at
Speaker 1: that point.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, yeah, two sixty nine with for home
Speaker 4: runs eighteen RBIs three forty one OVP, which still is
Speaker 4: not great either. Yeah, he's he's not ready. I'm still
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm still not losing hope on it. I mean,
Speaker 4: he's twenty two years old. He's still super young, obviously.
Speaker 4: It's just it's frustrating because I thought, I think a
Speaker 4: lot of people thought that this would be the year
Speaker 4: where he would make it, not not his debut, but
Speaker 4: he would play his full season with the Rays. He
Speaker 4: maybe he won't be spectacular, but he would be you know,
Speaker 4: you could see glimpses of him becoming that franchise franchise
Speaker 4: short stop, which I think will still happen. It's just
Speaker 4: it's a little bit more delayed than we all expected,
Speaker 4: which is frustrating.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that I agree.
Speaker 1: Another minor league guy, Xavier Isaac, if you guys followed
Speaker 1: everything that happened with him in the offseason, Thank god,
Speaker 1: he's just playing baseball. Like the fact that he's healthy,
Speaker 1: playing baseball is the most important thing here, so that's
Speaker 1: incredible to hear that he's doing as well as he
Speaker 1: can right now.
Speaker 2: And he's been a stud in terms of power for
Speaker 2: Montgomery recently.
Speaker 1: The I guess it's the Rays seem to be finding
Speaker 1: guys that have strike out issues because he also has
Speaker 1: strikeout issues.
Speaker 4: But he's except except for the major league team, though,
Speaker 4: we don't strike out much.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, you know, in a general sense, they
Speaker 1: have guys that, like Junior is probably one of the
Speaker 1: worst offenders of it, but like Aronda doesn't strike out much,
Speaker 1: Yandi doesn't, or a Ronda doesn't, I would I think
Speaker 1: is below league average or it doesn't strike out a
Speaker 1: crazy amount. Yanni definitely doesn't, you know, Chandler definitely doesn't.
Speaker 1: So there are guys that do not strike the big
Speaker 1: leage level. I will agree with you on that.
Speaker 4: I think I think we're like second to last in
Speaker 4: strikeout rate per nine innings.
Speaker 1: Well, what I do know is that Xavier Isaac earned
Speaker 1: Player of the Week honors. I'm almost positive earned Player
Speaker 1: of the Week honors because we have like six home
Speaker 1: runs last week something like that, he hit like five.
Speaker 4: We have the second few with strikeouts on the on
Speaker 4: the hitting side and in the whole league. So yeah, no, that's.
Speaker 2: That I'm sure is also a massive and like a massive.
Speaker 1: Reason why they've been doing as well recently is just
Speaker 1: because they're putting the ball in play, they're they're working
Speaker 1: out walks and they're not striking out.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: No, it's a huge, it's it's it shouldn't be a surprise,
Speaker 4: but the things like that it leads to wins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but uh yeah, quickly on Isaac, he's just he's
Speaker 1: he's hitting home runs at a tour at pace right now.
Speaker 1: So hopefully he'll be in Triple A soon and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll see him in the big leagues at some point
Speaker 1: later this year. If everything if if he goes absolutely off.
Speaker 1: But I think targeting that twenty twenty seven debut is
Speaker 1: probably what's going to happen with him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, unless there's I assume that too, unless there's an
Speaker 4: injury or something. Yeah, but yeah, he's i mean, two
Speaker 4: fifty nine six home runs. It's he's he's in bonts
Speaker 4: him a long way too.
Speaker 6: Hi everyone, Alex here with a quick word from our
Speaker 6: sponsor Seki sea Gek is your one stop shop for
Speaker 6: tickets for everything from live theater and concerts to sporting
Speaker 6: events like Raise games. Sekk uses a color coded scale
Speaker 6: to show you where the best deals are, with green
Speaker 6: being good and red being bad. If you haven't used
Speaker 6: sea Geek before, we have a special deal just for you.
Speaker 6: Use code raise the Roof. That's raised spelled r a
Speaker 6: ys at checkout for twenty dollars off your first purchase
Speaker 6: with sea Geek. Again, that's code Raise the Roof for
Speaker 6: twenty dollars off your first seat Geek purchase. Thanks so
Speaker 6: much to sea Geek for sponsoring us, and let's get
Speaker 6: back to this latest episode of Raise the Roof.
Speaker 1: Going into this weekend, the Rays are playing the Giants.
Speaker 1: Is some exciting stuff back in the Tampa Bay area.
Speaker 1: If you guys didn't see, the Rays are doing their
Speaker 1: Raise Rush specials throughout the season. Seems like every series
Speaker 1: they got something new going on. For the Giant series,
Speaker 1: they had twenty nine dollars tickets in the Matenx sky Deck,
Speaker 1: which is the all you can eat section up in
Speaker 1: left field. I guess the three hundred level whatever you
Speaker 1: would consider it to be. So you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of people have taken advantage of those and for good reason,
Speaker 1: because that was a really really good price. I think
Speaker 1: normal prices on the weekend, specifically, I think Friday's still
Speaker 1: in that like forty dollar or like forty six dollars range,
Speaker 1: and then the weekend goes up to like seventy eighty
Speaker 1: ninety bucks depending on the opponent. Whi's just it's at
Speaker 1: least sixty I think it's at least sixty eight, and
Speaker 1: then it goes up from there potentially, But yeah, twenty
Speaker 1: nine bucks the entire weekend is pretty freaking good.
Speaker 4: I mean, even seventy eighty ninety dollars is good for
Speaker 4: a ballgame ticket and all you can eat.
Speaker 2: And it also all you can drink except for liquor.
Speaker 4: I mean, sign me up.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I will say for the Blue Jay series coming
Speaker 1: up next week, if you guys want to take advantage
Speaker 1: of that, they have it was it like nineteen dollars
Speaker 1: tickets down down the first baseline.
Speaker 2: There's three different sections.
Speaker 1: Those tickets are normally what did I say, like thirty
Speaker 1: one dollars and up on the weekdays, and like fifty
Speaker 1: dollars and up on the weekends. It's it's a week
Speaker 1: day series. But still I mean, that's incredible value. It
Speaker 1: seems like the Rays are doing it in different parts.
Speaker 1: It's not like last year where it was just out
Speaker 1: in the outfield basically for the twenty hour ticket and
Speaker 1: they eventually included the the Budweiser first based Tarist stuff
Speaker 1: or the all all you can eat stuff at s
Speaker 1: time Renner. But it seems like the Rays are doing
Speaker 1: things in different places, which is good.
Speaker 4: So everybody can sit in every section at the most
Speaker 4: beautiful ballpark in this beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah America's yeah it is. It is bright, it is
Speaker 1: very bright, is incredibly bright. And also this weekend is
Speaker 1: the Mini Trap light Up giveaway, so for those that
Speaker 1: want to go get that, it's a good weekend.
Speaker 4: Ago do they need more reasons?
Speaker 2: I don't know. If they do well, what about the
Speaker 2: pitching matches? Maybe if they don't have enough reasons, I mean,
Speaker 2: we'll convince them otherwise.
Speaker 4: So we are recording this on Thursday. So Tomorrow Friday
Speaker 4: is Robbie Ray versus Shane McClanahan. So what is this
Speaker 4: Shane second? Start back at the TRUP second or third?
Speaker 4: I forget third, and then it is Land and Roup
Speaker 4: versus Jesse Jesse Schulten's on Saturday. Another six to ten
Speaker 4: start on Saturday, which is that? Is that a new
Speaker 4: thing that I missed?
Speaker 2: No, they normally the way that it is is usually
Speaker 2: like a four or five.
Speaker 1: And then like a one forty that's right, yeah o'clock start,
Speaker 1: and then like a one thirty one forty start, and
Speaker 1: then I think normally the weekdays are well like six
Speaker 1: thirty five, six forty maybe seven five, seven ten.
Speaker 4: But this is the second time this season the Saturday
Speaker 4: game has been at six. I remember the Yankees game
Speaker 4: what was that two or three weeks ago, was at
Speaker 4: six o'clock two, And I remember, I mean home games
Speaker 4: on Saturdays are always at four ten, like last week
Speaker 4: it was a four ten game.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I think that there's a couple to start
Speaker 1: the season out that were like that, but most number
Speaker 1: four ten.
Speaker 4: It's strange, huh. Anyways, and then Sundays back to that
Speaker 4: one forty time. Tyler Maylee versus Steven Mattz.
Speaker 2: Should be pretty I mean, the Saturday matchup might be
Speaker 2: a stinker.
Speaker 4: Landon roope is Is is pretty darn good.
Speaker 2: Though, Okay, I'm not well versed enough on my so.
Speaker 4: North Carolina native I only know that because I had
Speaker 4: an injury in my fantasy baseball rotation, so I needed
Speaker 4: a new guy and he was available. And he's he's
Speaker 4: five and one with two five five e and a
Speaker 4: point nine to one whip. So he's having a pretty
Speaker 4: heck of a season.
Speaker 2: So then, yeah, I mean it should be three solid
Speaker 2: outings then no stinkers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, it's and we're coming off and off day,
Speaker 4: which is extremely helpful. And I think the Giants played
Speaker 4: a double header today which is huge for us. Yeah,
Speaker 4: figure who they played the double header against. They're playing, well,
Speaker 4: they're playing the Phillies. They played they Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4: They beat They lost the Phillies in the first game,
Speaker 4: and they're starting the second game.
Speaker 2: Justin Crawford did his second walk off of the year.
Speaker 4: Nice. That in and of itself is huge. I mean
Speaker 4: they're playing a doubleheader and then they have to travel
Speaker 4: down to Tampa and no off day, Like that's a
Speaker 4: expect to win tomorrow just based on that, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean their bullpen should be shredded.
Speaker 4: They'll probably have to call it the guy, but yeah,
Speaker 4: and I mean they're thirteen seventeen like our boy Willie's
Speaker 4: coming home though, Yeah, I mean bring him back.
Speaker 1: I mean Adamas has been back at the drops since
Speaker 1: he's been traded, right, yeah, I think it's been like
Speaker 1: six years. There's no way that he hasn't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he was back with the Brewers, I think.
Speaker 1: Okay, but it's it's not It's happened a lot because
Speaker 1: of the fact that he's been.
Speaker 3: In the n L.
Speaker 4: Right exactly, I know you're right on it, You're right
Speaker 4: with that. Can we bring him back? We I mean
Speaker 4: that he's not had a good start to the season,
Speaker 4: but just for vibes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I'm down, even though maybe he'll actually
Speaker 1: be able to see.
Speaker 2: The roof this time because it's bright.
Speaker 4: Is that a theory?
Speaker 2: I mean no, no, that was the thing he said it.
Speaker 2: He was like, no, no, no, that was.
Speaker 4: That was that? Was that ever thrown around as the
Speaker 4: reasoning because you couldn't see because it was.
Speaker 1: The thing that he said, and a couple of guys
Speaker 1: said that, like they couldn't see it. But now that
Speaker 1: the the roof is a lot brighter because they had
Speaker 1: been using i mean literally the same canvas. You have
Speaker 1: to realize that over what it opened up in nineteen ninety,
Speaker 1: so that over like thirty four years probably had you know,
Speaker 1: had significant wear to it and also probably got a
Speaker 1: lot darker over time. So now this one, this new
Speaker 1: roof being brand new, is a lot brighter to start
Speaker 1: things out, and will probably get I would assume, unless
Speaker 1: it's a different material, whatever it is, I would assume
Speaker 1: it'll kind of get weathered in the same way over time.
Speaker 1: I just don't think probably not that much in a
Speaker 1: couple of years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, it should be a good series. Giants
Speaker 4: are kind of struggling though they're thirteen seventeen, so I
Speaker 4: think not gonna get confident. But they're two cocky. But
Speaker 4: I think we should take two out of three. I
Speaker 4: think that's fair. I think Saturday is probably with the
Speaker 4: likely loss. I need to know. I'm not sure how
Speaker 4: Robbie Ray's been pretty good. I actually know he's been
Speaker 4: really good so far. I did not know that another
Speaker 4: tough pitching matchup. Same thing with the Guardians early this season.
Speaker 1: Earlier this week, the Rays have had a lot of
Speaker 1: good pitching matchups or something, and have also faced a
Speaker 1: lot of top prospects, including Travis Bazana. Yeah, because you know,
Speaker 1: if that didn't need to persist any further. Just in
Speaker 1: the first freaking month of the year, they had JJ Weatherhole,
Speaker 1: they had Noah Schultz, the pitcher for the White Sox,
Speaker 1: and then they had Bizanna and they faced them in.
Speaker 2: The first month of the year. All three of them
Speaker 2: are like top forty five prospects in baseball.
Speaker 4: And never never forget when Roman Anthony made his debut against.
Speaker 1: Us, everyone makes the like is it is it me?
Speaker 1: Or does everyone this is this is side thing? But
Speaker 1: I want to address this. Every fucking top prospect makes
Speaker 1: their debut against the Rays, like it's not even funny
Speaker 1: at this point, like every it's it's it's almost like
Speaker 1: they because Treya Savage did it, Christian Scott did it,
Speaker 1: Roman Anthony did That's.
Speaker 2: Three guys last year. Three guys in the first month
Speaker 2: of this year.
Speaker 4: If it's a pitcher, you can you can you can
Speaker 4: chalk that up to a win. Regard I don't care.
Speaker 4: I remember I.
Speaker 2: Think six guys.
Speaker 4: Did Noah Cameron for the Royals do that last year too?
Speaker 4: Do you remember he? Do you remember his performance against
Speaker 4: us last year?
Speaker 2: Did he make his debut against the Rays?
Speaker 4: I don't know if it was his debut but he
Speaker 4: went like six, am I going.
Speaker 2: But like, am I going crazy?
Speaker 1: And thinking that, like it is weirdly abnormal that so
Speaker 1: many top prospects are making their debut against the Rays,
Speaker 1: like like like I'm not just pulling this out of
Speaker 1: my ass.
Speaker 4: It was against Yeah, no, I was. I was dead
Speaker 4: right on that it was against the Rays. Last WHOA,
Speaker 4: that's actually crazy? Holy shit? What it was a year
Speaker 4: ago today?
Speaker 2: What this anyway?
Speaker 4: Who is this that Noah Cameron made his MLB debut?
Speaker 4: What are the odds on that is insane?
Speaker 3: That's weird.
Speaker 4: Look up Noah Cameron because he went he took a
Speaker 4: no hitter into the seven perspect I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much I know, you know, he's
Speaker 1: pitched a decent amount. I don't know where where was
Speaker 1: he at in the road in the in the prospect,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just remember he had I mean
Speaker 1: he shoved. He took a no hitter into the seventh inning.
Speaker 1: He went six and a third, hitless and scoreless. Well,
Speaker 1: like I gotta be I mean, there's gotta be something
Speaker 1: with that. That's really weird. Oh Cameron? Is there fifth
Speaker 1: overall prospect right now? According to MLB pipeline, So like
Speaker 1: every guy that I've mentioned, for the most part, has
Speaker 1: been like the guy.
Speaker 2: Like it's just so, it's just so weird.
Speaker 4: I kind of get it from the pitching side, just
Speaker 4: because the Rays typically do have weaker offenses and better
Speaker 4: pitching steps, but I don't really understand it in terms
Speaker 4: of the hitting side because I'm just confused.
Speaker 1: But like it lines up all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: we just named how many guys? Was that that we
Speaker 1: just named seven.
Speaker 4: Guys in the last year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like a year and a month.
Speaker 7: Isn't that a little bit weird that that's a little
Speaker 7: bit matulier that it's that that there's been that many.
Speaker 7: And again, none of these guys are like like maybe
Speaker 7: Christian Scott is the only guy that like could be
Speaker 7: perceived as a scrub, but I wouldn't consider him a scrub.
Speaker 4: So they're all good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, wasn't there wasn't there a guy on the.
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 1: Didn't didn't George Kirby make his MMB debut against the Rays?
Speaker 1: Am I going crazy and thinking that, Like it's like
Speaker 1: Aaron Nola made his debut against I mean, this was
Speaker 1: like a decade ago. I was there to see it.
Speaker 1: But Aaron Nola made his debut against the Rays completely random.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think George Kirby did. He went six shutout,
Speaker 4: allowing four heads. I mean, if if, if the.
Speaker 1: There's I don't know what the stats all on this,
Speaker 1: but there's gotta be something on like how many times
Speaker 1: that a semi decent to elite prospect has made their
Speaker 1: debut against the Rays Because I know Kirby was a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, but like, it's just it is
Speaker 1: so uncanny and kind of annoying.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie. It's very.
Speaker 1: Something that I wish wasn't happening as is, but you know,
Speaker 1: I can't help it at this point. But going back
Speaker 1: to the Giant series, because I don't think that there's
Speaker 1: any top prospects that the Giants are gonna call up
Speaker 1: hopefully or hopefully.
Speaker 2: Who do you like?
Speaker 1: How are you feeling about the series? What do you
Speaker 1: think that the Rays need to do in order to
Speaker 1: keep the winning ways going?
Speaker 4: I think I think tomorrow is probably gonna be the
Speaker 4: flip game because I think Saturday is like, in terms
Speaker 4: of the Vegas odds, I'd say Saturday, the Giants are
Speaker 4: gonna be favored and then Sunday we are gonna I'd
Speaker 4: say we are gonna be favored. So just based on
Speaker 4: those odds, I think we're probably gonna win on Sunday
Speaker 4: and then we're probably gonna lose on Saturday. But if
Speaker 4: Shane can give us six quality innings, like I mean,
Speaker 4: it was awesome that he gotta he gotta win. What
Speaker 4: was that two starts a go, I think, And he's
Speaker 4: still his numbers still aren't bad at all, Like he's
Speaker 4: still there's still a lot more in the tank that
Speaker 4: I think he has yet to show us, but he's
Speaker 4: still there, Like there are glimpses of the old Shane,
Speaker 4: the pre injury Shane, and his once again, his numbers
Speaker 4: are still not not bad. And I mean, if you
Speaker 4: asked him, he probably would say they're horrendous and he
Speaker 4: needs to be much better. But I think tomorrow is
Speaker 4: going to be like like I said, the Flip game,
Speaker 4: if if we can get to Robbie do what we
Speaker 4: did against the Guardians and the Monday and Tuesday game.
Speaker 4: I know we didn't score a lot of who runs,
Speaker 4: but we were able to get those starting pitchers out
Speaker 4: decently early considered. I mean, like we said Biby and
Speaker 4: who was blanket on the Cleveland guy's name again, parking mess.
Speaker 4: That's right. Piece of the series. Continue to not strike out.
Speaker 4: I know that's as dumb as that sounds, but just
Speaker 4: continue to make them work and draw walks, especially considering,
Speaker 4: like we said, their bullpen should be pretty depleted after
Speaker 4: playing a doubleheader and no off day and they travel,
Speaker 4: so get to their bullpen. If we can get to
Speaker 4: their bullpen early tomorrow, that'd be huge for the rest
Speaker 4: of the series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely agree. I echo all that sentiment. I
Speaker 1: know Gibb gave some good stuff earlier. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: just capitalize on solid pitching, find ways to have the
Speaker 1: bullpen continue to be effective, Utilize small ball to the
Speaker 1: best of your advantage, like you know, lay down bunts,
Speaker 1: hit and run, steal that sort of stuff. If the
Speaker 1: race can continue to do that, and then just you know,
Speaker 1: strong performances from guys like Junior didn't really do anything
Speaker 1: crazy in that series, but like, if Junior can do
Speaker 1: some big things this weekend, that'll certainly help out. You know,
Speaker 1: there's there's some milestones potentially on the horizon. YONDI Diez
Speaker 1: is only five hits away from one thousand in his career,
Speaker 1: and he'll be relatively close to or he's getting close
Speaker 1: to a thousand hits as a Ray, which I think
Speaker 1: he's all time fourth place now, but he'll be I
Speaker 1: would assume, the fourth player in race history to have
Speaker 1: a thousand hits with them, which is pretty damn impressive.
Speaker 1: So he's getting close to that. He'll probably, if everything
Speaker 1: goes well, he'll hit the one k mark with the
Speaker 1: Rays later this season. He'll hit the one k mark
Speaker 1: here just in his career in the next couple of
Speaker 1: days if everything works out. Yeah. Yeah, So who are
Speaker 1: your players for this series?
Speaker 4: It's one more key, I guess, yeah, and more stats
Speaker 4: to throw out there as well. The Giants are the
Speaker 4: last in the league, their offensive struggling. Their average actually
Speaker 4: isn't terrible. Their average is twelfth in the league, but
Speaker 4: they are dead last and home runs RBIs and run scored,
Speaker 4: so that's another thing to keep in mind. I think
Speaker 4: considering if considering our rotation has been really strong, like
Speaker 4: we've already covered, our bullpendance kind of trending in the
Speaker 4: right direction. If we can just scratch across four or
Speaker 4: four runs in each of the games, I think that
Speaker 4: should be enough considering the Giants struggles at the plate
Speaker 4: this season.
Speaker 3: I mean they have.
Speaker 4: Ninety nine runs. The Mets are next close at one
Speaker 4: of six. So yeah, if we can, if we can
Speaker 4: just clow across four or five runs every game, I
Speaker 4: think that should be enough for a sweep. But my
Speaker 4: pick a player, you can, well you go.
Speaker 2: First, Yeah, I mean posthumously. He's not dead, but how is?
Speaker 3: How is?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but you know, he's always there.
Speaker 4: I haven't I haven't seen his stats in a while.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so just you know, just him and spirit.
Speaker 4: He's down to earth. He's Do you want him to
Speaker 4: be good or do you want him to be bad?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just I don't know. I haven't
Speaker 1: figured that out yet. It's like, do you want him
Speaker 1: to be good just because you love him so much?
Speaker 1: Or do you want him to be bad because I mean,
Speaker 1: at this point they're not playing the Rays anymore, so
Speaker 1: like I could give a shit as to what the
Speaker 1: Pirates do like it.
Speaker 2: As long as he's still successful, then that's all I
Speaker 2: care about.
Speaker 4: He's been two forty five, three thirty six OBP and
Speaker 4: seven home runs, so in nineteen RBIs he came down
Speaker 4: to earth a little bit.
Speaker 1: I mean that's about what he's done in his career
Speaker 1: in a general sense. I think last year was kind
Speaker 1: of an anomaly of that because he was hitting really
Speaker 1: well average wise, and then came down to earth towards
Speaker 1: the end of the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: His career batting average is two forty seven, so two
Speaker 4: points below that. Yeah, you're spot on with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah the so.
Speaker 1: But like in all reality, who do I want to
Speaker 1: go with Chandler? Because I want him to hit line
Speaker 1: drives and ground balls and not fly balls. So we'll
Speaker 1: go with Chandler and then we will I don't know
Speaker 1: how many times Soulcer is going to be used in
Speaker 1: this series, but do where where you were take them?
Speaker 3: Take them?
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he probably won't pitch tomorrow. He'll probably pitch
Speaker 1: Saturday or Sunday. But considering that the Rays meet him desperately,
Speaker 1: I would love for him to have more good.
Speaker 4: Outings in the bullpen. Nice is it? Who should I
Speaker 4: go with? I'm gonna go with We're facing what two
Speaker 4: righty's and Robbie's a lefty, so I'm not gonna go
Speaker 4: I was gonna go with the valid if we were
Speaker 4: facing two lefties, I'm going. I'm going I'll go with
Speaker 4: I don't want to go, so I'll go with Richie.
Speaker 4: I go with Richie. Like I said, we're you're facing
Speaker 4: two righties. I assume he'll probably get in the lineup
Speaker 4: at least two or three games. We kind of covered
Speaker 4: that he is falling off the last couple of weeks
Speaker 4: after a really hot start of the season. But I
Speaker 4: don't know. I'm thinking maybe a couple more, maybe not.
Speaker 4: A couple of multi hit games might be a little
Speaker 4: bit much, but I don't know. Just he's gonna make
Speaker 4: a difference. He's going to be getting big stolen base,
Speaker 4: maybe even a pinch run situation where we're down one.
Speaker 4: Maybe in the Saturday game we get on basically in
Speaker 4: the eighth inning, he pinch runs and he steals a
Speaker 4: base and comes around to score or something like along
Speaker 4: those lines. And then on the on the pitching side,
Speaker 4: I'll go. I'll go with Shultens. I don't know, like
Speaker 4: you covered, you covered him a little bit earlier. He's
Speaker 4: he's been I think a pleasant surprise three twenty year
Speaker 4: or a one point one two whip with nineteen point
Speaker 4: two innings like He's been pretty solid, pretty darn good,
Speaker 4: and fill in a hole that is much needed at
Speaker 4: this point in terms of the rotation and or not
Speaker 4: a hole. But he's filled a hole left by injuries,
Speaker 4: not because of talent, I guess. So just continue to
Speaker 4: eat up innings. If you can go out there and
Speaker 4: get give five or six strong innings, give up a
Speaker 4: couple runs, that'd be huge. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the last things that I have are updates on
Speaker 1: other sports. Reuben Bain, Welcome to the Bucks. The Lightning
Speaker 1: can't beat the Canadians, and I'm really pissed off about
Speaker 1: that because you already know my feelings on the city
Speaker 1: of Montreal and Quebec as a.
Speaker 4: Whole, and we are going head on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's all right. The Flyers and Canes are
Speaker 2: going at it.
Speaker 3: We are.
Speaker 2: I am so ready to.
Speaker 4: Be okay, No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: You beat the Penguins and I hate Sydney Crosby. So
Speaker 2: you guys, God, you.
Speaker 4: Guys won the Pennsylvania Civil War. That was That was
Speaker 4: a heck of a series.
Speaker 1: I was, I mean, I was on pins and needles
Speaker 1: last night, but they won, So that's all that matters.
Speaker 4: That shot was off the pipe is always cool New York.
Speaker 2: And then he throws the stick into the stands.
Speaker 4: Yeah that was I mean, I.
Speaker 1: Mean the crowd pop on that, Like I watched the video.
Speaker 1: The crowd pop on that was nuts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 4: And I mean the Penguins dominated that ot. The entire
Speaker 4: ot was in depends lost and then Mark Mark schron
Speaker 4: got that sick look and then like.
Speaker 2: Yeah he had the open net. Then he bottled it.
Speaker 4: It was a great save by it was it was.
Speaker 4: It wasn't a great shot by him, but it was
Speaker 4: a great save by what Slovas. And then yeah, York
Speaker 4: absolutely nuked that from the blue line. So congratulations on
Speaker 4: your series win.
Speaker 2: Yes I needed that.
Speaker 1: But more importantly, let's go Bolts because I hate the Canadians.
Speaker 2: Please do d away.
Speaker 4: But I mean, well, I guess this favors the Bolts.
Speaker 4: What I'm about to say, but go seven. I don't
Speaker 4: care who wins. Just go seven because that those games
Speaker 4: have been awesome. Oh those games have been so odd.
Speaker 1: I thought, you mean, I don't care who wins Game six,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, if one team wins Game six
Speaker 1: and that means the series.
Speaker 4: I don't care who wins the series, but all these
Speaker 4: series are awesome. The Stars Wild is one of the
Speaker 4: best series I think I've ever seen, The Oilers Ducks.
Speaker 4: I mean, can McDavid leave that team back from a
Speaker 4: three to one lead like or deficit? Like? Everything has
Speaker 4: been awesome. That Flyers for series was incredible, Hockey is fun,
Speaker 4: and Boston's alive again.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, if you all want to go
Speaker 1: get tickets to a Bolts game, if they if they
Speaker 1: have a game seven or any of that, like, go
Speaker 1: get yourself, go use our CKE code because you can
Speaker 1: get yourself some tickets that they'll still be expensive, but
Speaker 1: they'll be slightly less expensive using our SKI code. But
Speaker 1: with that being said, it's going to include things on
Speaker 1: the slatest eup set of Raise the Roof. We appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys always for your support. Do you guys want
Speaker 1: to follow everything that we have going on? We have
Speaker 1: our ten k giveaway still going on that is going
Speaker 1: through the weekend, so be sure to enter that on
Speaker 1: our social or on our Twitter which is Raise the
Speaker 1: Roof TV on you know, Twitter, slash x, Instagram, and
Speaker 1: Blue Sky. We're also going to be doing a giveaway
Speaker 1: soon on Instagram as well, so be sure to look
Speaker 1: out for that. Our YouTube channel is Raise the Roof.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe to us there turn on those
Speaker 1: postentification so you guys know when new uploads are happening.
Speaker 2: And then our podcast. We need to support us as
Speaker 2: you guys have been.
Speaker 1: Be sure to like share, leave us a review, hopefully
Speaker 1: a five star review, or like subs fuck that up
Speaker 1: and and our podcast. Be sure to like subscribe, leave
Speaker 1: us a review, hopefully a five star review, and share
Speaker 1: this with your family, your friends, anyone to know who's
Speaker 1: a Raised fan or baseball fan. Then one side a
Speaker 1: podcasts into their podcast feed. We'd love to be part
Speaker 1: of it. A shout out to our sponsors already mentioned
Speaker 1: SEEKI in the Clutch, JKS Prince and Homage again Homage
Speaker 1: really really happy to be with them.
Speaker 2: But for the first.
Speaker 1: Three you could Raise the Roof, ri a y s
Speaker 1: the Roof and I'll have to check out to save
Speaker 1: us some money help us out in the process. With
Speaker 1: all that being said, thanks so much for listening and
Speaker 1: as always, Raise up, Raise Up, baby,