Speaker 1: He's sad.
Speaker 2: Your legs, the girls frizy s there we will sit
Speaker 2: in tows the Gunner.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Welcome back to the Just Baseball Show. It is Wednesday,
Speaker 3: February twenty second, and we continue our top tens, but
Speaker 3: now we're taking a slight detour. Instead of individual players,
Speaker 3: we're judging double play combinations. We got and we have
Speaker 3: the writer of this article. These are his rankings that
Speaker 3: don't get mad at Rham and I specifically. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, we do back these rankings and you
Speaker 3: can find them on Just baseball dot com. The top
Speaker 3: five double play combinations. We're going to go through honorable mentions.
Speaker 3: We're going to debate. It's going to be a fun show. Ryan,
Speaker 3: you are the host, well you also are the managing
Speaker 3: editor at Just Baseball dot com, but you are the
Speaker 3: host of the new podcast on the Just Baseball network,
Speaker 3: and that is Who's Better Baseball. I was just on
Speaker 3: a debate with you NL West versus NL East. I
Speaker 3: love the show. It's a debate show. We love the debate,
Speaker 3: so we decided to bring that on here. How are
Speaker 3: you doing, my friend doing good?
Speaker 2: Doing good?
Speaker 1: I think Peter told me he waxed me in that conversation.
Speaker 1: You guys can go back to watch it. I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. You know, I think that you're just
Speaker 1: a little bit more aggressive, but I'm more level headed.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: People can go back and look at it. You know.
Speaker 1: I think Peter's always going to think he wins that
Speaker 1: end debate, but I think it was a good conversation.
Speaker 1: We'll find up at the end of the year who
Speaker 1: actually won it. When the NL East wins more games
Speaker 1: in the West, it all comes down to arms Marlins.
Speaker 1: Can they win seventy five games? That was the big thing.
Speaker 2: The hell you want to die on? Brother?
Speaker 1: You had our last year.
Speaker 3: So before we get into the rankings, I have to
Speaker 3: ask you, guys, because Jack and I were arguing yesterday
Speaker 3: on the show about In and Out about the best
Speaker 3: burgers that you can find. Now, I'm slightly biased, of course.
Speaker 3: I'm from California, grew up on In and Out, but
Speaker 3: I've lived in New York, I've been to the middle
Speaker 3: of the country. I haven't really enjoyed a lot of
Speaker 3: the burgers down south. But I feel like I have
Speaker 3: a decent understanding of burgers in America, and he ranked
Speaker 3: listen to this he ranked Culver's number one.
Speaker 2: Now I've never had Culver's.
Speaker 1: That's a guy's been living in Indiana. I'll tell you
Speaker 1: that right now.
Speaker 4: I mean what a loser Jack is, right, Arm, Okay,
Speaker 4: I think In and Out is more of like a
Speaker 4: regional passion thing, kind of like for me being from
Speaker 4: South Florida or Florida in general, like people are with publics,
Speaker 4: right think as a Florida guy, like it's at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, it's a grocery store. I do
Speaker 4: think that it's nuts. I don't even know what Culver's is.
Speaker 4: There's no way it's a better burger than In and Out.
Speaker 4: There's no way. There's just no way. So that's why
Speaker 4: trying to be different, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, it's
Speaker 4: him trying to be artsy and just straight up wrong.
Speaker 3: I mean probably as you know what, I think, one
Speaker 3: of his worst takes that's ever been smoking into a bike.
Speaker 3: So before we get into our top five, I need
Speaker 3: to hear your top burger chain. Ryan will start with
Speaker 3: you then, Arm. Then we'll finally get to the baseball
Speaker 3: part of the Just Baseball Show.
Speaker 1: That's tough, man, it's tough, you know, as someone who
Speaker 1: worked in McDonald's for a long time. I just try
Speaker 1: to stay away from all fast food burgers. I like
Speaker 1: to get a burger from a restaurant. But I will
Speaker 1: say I did go to school in Pensacola for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Uh water Burger was pretty fire out there.
Speaker 1: So what a burger underrated? Underrated?
Speaker 3: I'm fine with that being your favorite. I'd say it's wrong,
Speaker 3: but I'm fine with it. I can understand it. It's
Speaker 3: it's sort of like when we talk about these double
Speaker 3: play combinations finishing third fourth Seeger versus Korea.
Speaker 1: I've only had I yet once. Man, I've had it
Speaker 1: once and I was like seven, So I can't say
Speaker 1: in and out when I haven't really had it.
Speaker 2: You know, you're on culture. It's okay. At least you
Speaker 2: admit it. Hum is Burger fi like.
Speaker 4: A national change. Is that considered a big enough chain?
Speaker 2: Never even heard of that?
Speaker 1: It's down here?
Speaker 4: Is that only Florida?
Speaker 3: That's your number one? Over five guys, Over five guys,
Speaker 3: five guys.
Speaker 4: I'm a big fight the fries. I'm going to bake
Speaker 4: the fries into it. Five guys is probably my answer.
Speaker 4: I like the peanut oil situation I like the bacon.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go five guys with my answer. But
Speaker 4: if you're if you're in Florida, try try burger fight.
Speaker 4: It's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Okay, two answers that I'm not upset about. Culver's.
Speaker 3: I was extremely was cover and it almost it almost
Speaker 3: ruined the Top ten shortstep episode for me. Thankfully, Yeah,
Speaker 3: thankfully we got to talk about in fields, which we
Speaker 3: will do in this episode, and.
Speaker 2: Let's finally get into it.
Speaker 3: So Ryan again wrote the top five double play combinations
Speaker 3: on Just Baseball dot com. You can find that article. Ryan,
Speaker 3: these are your rankings, Arman. I look through the list.
Speaker 3: I agree on most of it. Some were going to
Speaker 3: debate a little bit, but it's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 2: How did you rank these guys for me?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So, I mean originally I think we were
Speaker 1: discussing top ten, top five, what do we do? Ultimately
Speaker 1: I went with the top five because I felt like
Speaker 1: the back half of that list it was more based
Speaker 1: on one player, right there was you know, you go
Speaker 1: to the braves like Ozzie Alby's is established. Is von
Speaker 1: Grisham going to be that guy? He might be, but
Speaker 1: weren't ranking at the beginning of the season. I don't
Speaker 1: know if we put it there. You know, Boba Schett
Speaker 1: is awesome, Santiago Espinal with Maryfield, who's the second baseman,
Speaker 1: and how do we kind of rank them? So that
Speaker 1: was why I went with the top five. It was
Speaker 1: interesting trying to look at really, I think when we
Speaker 1: get into the nitey grid of the list, the top
Speaker 1: three is pretty clear to me, and then the four
Speaker 1: to five and the honorable mentions. I almost would not
Speaker 1: be met if anyone wants to have an argument with
Speaker 1: any of that kind of group of five, because I
Speaker 1: feel like there's the honorable mentions was more based on
Speaker 1: maybe not being as established as the two that I
Speaker 1: put behind our top three that we'll get into here,
Speaker 1: But ultimately, I mean, there's some really good dope play
Speaker 1: combination in baseball. I think one of the things that
Speaker 1: I found most interesting about this list is not a
Speaker 1: lot of double play combinations have been together for a while,
Speaker 1: and we'll kind of go through it, but like most
Speaker 1: of them, it's they've been formed over the last one
Speaker 1: to two years. And the number one team shockingly has
Speaker 1: been the longest form double play combination and it's only
Speaker 1: three years running.
Speaker 3: And how do you balance offense and defense? Because looking
Speaker 3: through it seems like some you just believe in the
Speaker 3: bat a little bit more, some you rely on their
Speaker 3: defensive acumen. Like, how did is it fifty to fifty?
Speaker 3: How do you rate defense and offense for a double
Speaker 3: play combination?
Speaker 1: I think, you know, you want to make sure that
Speaker 1: there's at least one plus defender between the two. But
Speaker 1: it was really just, uh, you know, we could kind
Speaker 1: of go, you know, you know, each team by team,
Speaker 1: and you'll kind of see where my head was at.
Speaker 1: But a lot of it just came down to, you know,
Speaker 1: what they just did. And I leaned a little bit
Speaker 1: more towards this past season than projecting out, because I
Speaker 1: think if we project out, there's a couple of double
Speaker 1: play combinations that I look at and I say that
Speaker 1: the potential is there for them to be maybe the
Speaker 1: best in baseball over some of the ones that are
Speaker 1: ranked ahead. I went a little bit more towards who
Speaker 1: just did it this season, for particularly the top two
Speaker 1: that I ranked there.
Speaker 3: Arm without giving it away, is there anything when you
Speaker 3: look at the list? Anything egregious? I don't want you
Speaker 3: to say it right now, but is there anything that
Speaker 3: jumps out at you where you can't wait to debate that,
Speaker 3: or do you think it's a pretty fine list with
Speaker 3: some holes that we want to uncover.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I don't know if I if I would really
Speaker 4: disagree with with any any of it. The interesting part
Speaker 4: that I wanted to build off of Fink's point was
Speaker 4: that the honorable mentions could each be like number three
Speaker 4: at some point if they have years that we think
Speaker 4: that they can have right like, and just to highlight
Speaker 4: one of them, Wander Fronco and Brandon Lau could like
Speaker 4: those guys if they play to their potential next year,
Speaker 4: that's arguably like that could arguably be the number number two.
Speaker 4: And it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility if
Speaker 4: they both had their one hundred percentile outcome that it's
Speaker 4: the best middle infield duo on baseball. Somehow, it'd be
Speaker 4: really hard to do. But like just the fact that
Speaker 4: like there's a even a one percent chance of that
Speaker 4: is a testament to just how talented even some of
Speaker 4: these middle and field duos are that are not in
Speaker 4: the top five. I think where you could get a
Speaker 4: little bit nitpicky. The one area Peter I would say
Speaker 4: is five versus the honorable mentions, and that's where it
Speaker 4: becomes a challenge of like how much do you wait
Speaker 4: the superstar and then the other guy versus like really
Speaker 4: solid player, really solid player or a superstar and like
Speaker 4: emerging player. It's a tough balance. So that's going to
Speaker 4: be fun to kind of break.
Speaker 3: Down and Ryan getting straight into the first honorable mention.
Speaker 3: Like our mentioned Brendon Loo and Wander Franco talent wise
Speaker 3: their top five, but availability is important. Brandon Low has
Speaker 3: been banged up. Wanner Franco has played one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty three games in his career over two seasons. I feel,
Speaker 3: and maybe I'm wrong, tell me if I'm wrong. Now,
Speaker 3: if they play one hundred and thirty games each, this
Speaker 3: is a top five double play combination. It's just about
Speaker 3: doing that correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of times with
Speaker 1: these top tens, I like to put this type of
Speaker 1: a group or that type of a player in an
Speaker 1: honorable mention because it's almost like you're kind of taking
Speaker 1: a pass on ranking them. Like if we put Wander
Speaker 1: Franco as an honorable mention in our top ten short stuff,
Speaker 1: he did crack the list. To me, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: about you know, not acknowledging him as a top ten shortstop.
Speaker 1: It's he didn't play all of last season. We know
Speaker 1: that once. It's more just, hey, we're mentioning the fact
Speaker 1: that this guy has this question. But we know that
Speaker 1: if he's healthy, you know, that's where he's going to
Speaker 1: be on the list. So yeah, a Wanderer in Low
Speaker 1: like that could be the best double play combination in baseball,
Speaker 1: as Arm said, but they're coming off a year where
Speaker 1: they were both injured, and Low wasn't that good when
Speaker 1: he was on the field. We saw what Loud did
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, where he might be,
Speaker 1: you know, the best power hitting second basement in all
Speaker 1: of baseball. And we know wander is supposed to be
Speaker 1: this stud that could be the best shortstop in baseball.
Speaker 1: I think both of them were in like the eight
Speaker 1: to ten range of our top tens on second base
Speaker 1: and shortstop, so I think that it was fair to
Speaker 1: mention him, But I didn't believe that I could put
Speaker 1: them above the five teams that we ended up going with.
Speaker 3: And here was I guess my first issue, Because I
Speaker 3: believe this should be a top five double play combination,
Speaker 3: and that's Nico Horner and Dansby Swanson just straight defense alone.
Speaker 3: I think they're number two to you know, the Mets,
Speaker 3: which we will talk about in this top five, but
Speaker 3: even offensively, like Nico Horner is a really good bat.
Speaker 3: We've talked to pitchers on this podcast who said Nico
Speaker 3: Horner is one of the toughest aabs that they've had.
Speaker 3: Kind of a name that we were surprised about. And
Speaker 3: when we spoke to Justin Steel, who was on his team,
Speaker 3: he called him the most underrated player in all of
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball. And that's not even mentioning the guy
Speaker 3: coming off a six and a half war season. Are
Speaker 3: Before we go to Ryan to get his kind of
Speaker 3: opinion on this, because of course it's his list, I
Speaker 3: want to go to you would this should this have
Speaker 3: cracked your top five? Or do you agree with Ryan
Speaker 3: where they're probably on the outside looking in.
Speaker 4: This is the one spot where it's tough because it's
Speaker 4: kind of that exact question that I post.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: I know Dansby had like a all like a superstar
Speaker 4: ish season in the department of f war, but I mean,
Speaker 4: I don't think anyone's looking at Dancy Swanson is a superstar,
Speaker 4: and that's not a slight. He's a really good player.
Speaker 4: Nico Horner really good player. Those are two really good players.
Speaker 4: You get to number five, you have a superstar and
Speaker 4: an emerging young player. That's where it's it's a really
Speaker 4: tough juggle.
Speaker 2: On one side.
Speaker 4: And this kind of goes into like one of your
Speaker 4: first questions to Ryan Peter, which was, how do you
Speaker 4: wait this? Because Swanson and Horner could both be one
Speaker 4: hundred WRC plus guys next year, and I think they'd
Speaker 4: combined for like seven or eight war right, so maybe
Speaker 4: more so that gives them such a high floor. And
Speaker 4: then I think Horner's bat's going to keep getting better.
Speaker 4: I don't know how Swanson's going to hit. I won't
Speaker 4: pretend to have an idea there, because he is kind
Speaker 4: of really tough to fully project offensively and has improved
Speaker 4: in some areas regress and so it's it's weird. I
Speaker 4: think that if you believe in to spoil it, if
Speaker 4: you believe in Bryce and Stott, then you can really
Speaker 4: make that case. And I wonder if that's why I
Speaker 4: think has the Phillies duo ahead to spoil number five, like,
Speaker 4: is is it the belief in Bryson Stott or is
Speaker 4: it maybe that you don't know how Swanson's going to
Speaker 4: bounce back or not bounce back, But I mean build
Speaker 4: off of what was.
Speaker 2: A career year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think for me that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 1: It was trying to look at our honorable mentions and
Speaker 1: then weighing the fact that Trey Turner is the second
Speaker 1: best shortstop of baseball. To me, it was Trey Turner
Speaker 1: is that good? He is the best player of the bunch.
Speaker 1: And as much as Swanson had an unbelievable season, it's
Speaker 1: wondering is he gonna do it again? Whereas Tredye Turner,
Speaker 1: I know he's gonna do it. And the more I
Speaker 1: looked at Stott, if we throw out the first two
Speaker 1: months of his season where he was trying to get
Speaker 1: his feet wet, he wasn't that much different than Niko Horner.
Speaker 1: His WRC plus was one or two compared to one
Speaker 1: zero six for Horner. The defense he was playing shortstop
Speaker 1: knock second. Now, granted's so is Horner, and he was
Speaker 1: better at short stop. But I don't know if the
Speaker 1: gap between Horner and Stott is that great where I
Speaker 1: feel that the gap between Trey Turner and Swanson is bigger.
Speaker 3: So that's why I went that way. Actually, that's a
Speaker 3: really good argument. The way you put it that way,
Speaker 3: I can I can totally see that, because it's like,
Speaker 3: if you were to rank these guys, you're Trey Turner,
Speaker 3: then a big gap, then dance by Horner Stott or
Speaker 3: dance Mey stot Horn like it's it's not that far off,
Speaker 3: but the gap for Turner puts them at number five.
Speaker 3: And before we really truly dive into number five, Correa
Speaker 3: and Polonco again another one where I'll.
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, they could probably be a top five.
Speaker 3: Like this is why this list is so fascinating to me,
Speaker 3: because there's so many good arguments here. Because Carlos Korea
Speaker 3: is a top five shortstop. You coul put him at five,
Speaker 3: You could put him at two, and I don't think RM,
Speaker 3: you or any of us would be upset with that ranking.
Speaker 3: So but and then you have Jorge Polonco, who you'll
Speaker 3: find on our utility rankings didn't rank him within the
Speaker 3: top ten second basement because play some shortstop play some
Speaker 3: DH has played other positions before so we thought a
Speaker 3: good spot for him would be the utility rankings. It
Speaker 3: might be wrong. He might just play a full time
Speaker 3: second baseman, and we apologize for that. That's where we
Speaker 3: put him initially. So that's where we're gonna rank him.
Speaker 3: If you're upset, I don't know what to tell you. Well,
Speaker 3: it's interesting to know.
Speaker 4: The one thing I want to add on that is
Speaker 4: the Twins were oscillating between having Correa or not, you know,
Speaker 4: were they gonna bring him in, which that would make
Speaker 4: Polanco either play short or not. And then depending on
Speaker 4: what happens with Rice Lewis, he could play second, he
Speaker 4: could play short. I don't think he's gonna play center.
Speaker 4: Now Correa is in the Fold League. I am interested
Speaker 4: to see how they how they handle Polanco there. So
Speaker 4: we we definitely should have probably mentioned him in one
Speaker 4: way or another. I think he got a little bit
Speaker 4: lost in the shovel there. But I think, you know,
Speaker 4: it makes more sense for us to rank him as
Speaker 4: a utility guy, and I think that's what we're gonna
Speaker 4: do if he ends up playing all his games at
Speaker 4: second base. Sorry about that, but he was a weird
Speaker 4: one to try to like land in a spot, especially
Speaker 4: with you know how interesting the twins in field situation is.
Speaker 4: But that into the final honorable mention, which it was
Speaker 4: another tough one because I think you can make the case,
Speaker 4: as you said, Correa is elite Polanco similar to Law
Speaker 4: really good twenty twenty one a little bit, a little
Speaker 4: bit of a step back last year, a little banged up,
Speaker 4: more of there's just a step back and almost don't
Speaker 4: know what's worse. Is it better to be unavailable or
Speaker 4: available and take a step back, Like, I don't know,
Speaker 4: So how did you consider that?
Speaker 2: Think?
Speaker 1: Honestly, the twins, just to be completely brutally honest, have
Speaker 1: like fallen off my radar for a lot of it.
Speaker 1: When we made our top tens, Carlos Correa was supposed
Speaker 1: to be a third basement for the Mets. When we
Speaker 1: were having our big zoom discussing, We're like, all right,
Speaker 1: he's either the fourth best shortstop or the fifth best.
Speaker 1: I mean, we didn't know where to put them. And
Speaker 1: I feel like because of that, the twins have kind
Speaker 1: of got lost in the sholf a little bit. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: I still don't believe they're a top five doll play
Speaker 1: combination because again, it gets back to how much I
Speaker 1: value Trey Turner compared to everybody else. Like as great
Speaker 1: as Correa is, Trey Turner, I feel great knowing that
Speaker 1: he's going to play one hundred and fifty games with
Speaker 1: the Phillies this year. I don't know how many games
Speaker 1: Korea is going to play. Not to say that it's
Speaker 1: because of the ankle, but you know, throughout his career,
Speaker 1: we just don't entirely know there. And we think it's
Speaker 1: Planco playing second, but it could be Nick Gordon, it
Speaker 1: could be a lot of guys. They have a ton
Speaker 1: of infielders. It could be Royce Lewis. So it's also
Speaker 1: that where we don't really know exactly what the double
Speaker 1: play combination is going to be in Minnesota and Polanco, Sorry,
Speaker 1: real quick.
Speaker 4: Planco played one hundred and four games last year and
Speaker 4: had a one point eight f war, right, Like, this
Speaker 4: guy's not a great defender at second base, they stretch
Speaker 4: him at shorts top. He's definitely not a great defender there.
Speaker 4: And with with ariahs out that that could be a
Speaker 4: guy that ends up daching a little bit more than
Speaker 4: I think we thought, especially with Lewis eventually returning. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I think when you bake in defense too. None of
Speaker 4: these guys on this list are bad at defense. Most
Speaker 4: of them are good, and a lot of them are great.
Speaker 4: I think if you go through all of the defenders here,
Speaker 4: if I'm not mistaken, I would probably say Polanco is
Speaker 4: the worst defender of all these middle infielders. Would that
Speaker 4: be fair, Peter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going through it. Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think.
Speaker 3: He's a short stuff and buthet the Blue Jays combination
Speaker 3: isn't on this list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he he was a mention in the introduction,
Speaker 1: not even honorable mention.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and we'll get to the uh, you know,
Speaker 3: the Padres double play combination. But I guess you can
Speaker 3: make the argument for Bogarts at short. But I still
Speaker 3: think Blanco is the right answer of worst defender on
Speaker 3: this list, and he had that downyeard defensively, when his
Speaker 3: calling card is power and he had sixteen home runs,
Speaker 3: it's not like he had four, but it's not like
Speaker 3: he had thirty like he can. So it's a balance.
Speaker 3: And that's why I do appreciate number five getting now
Speaker 3: into the list, Trey Turner and Bryce and Stott, because
Speaker 3: you're right over the over. Bryson Stott's full season last
Speaker 3: year eighty three WRC plus, threw one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: seven games, But he really, really, really struggled in those
Speaker 3: first two months. And if we're talking about a balance
Speaker 3: of upside and floor, we know what we're going to
Speaker 3: get from Trey Turner. We're going to get the second
Speaker 3: best short stop in Major League Baseball. We're gonna get
Speaker 3: one of the best overall players in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3: And then if Bryson Stotton is above average second baseman,
Speaker 3: there's almost no debate that this can't be a top
Speaker 3: five But it's just what are we going to get
Speaker 3: from Bryson Stott. Switching over to a new position. It
Speaker 3: should help him because now he has more of a home.
Speaker 3: He knows his role there with the Phillies. I think
Speaker 3: Arm especially has been a Bryson Stott guy. I'm curious
Speaker 3: Arm before Fink kinda gets into the overarching idea of
Speaker 3: having them at five. I just want to hear your
Speaker 3: I guess projection of Bryson Stott in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I thought what I saw in the
Speaker 4: second half was exactly what I thought we could see
Speaker 4: which was you mentioned the or you know, in the
Speaker 4: balance of flour and a little bit of upside. Is
Speaker 4: like when I was pitching you guys on the Just
Speaker 4: Baseball Show ahead of the season on Bryson Stott, after
Speaker 4: watching him in the Fall League and watching him, you know,
Speaker 4: through the minor leagues, I was like, look, this guy's
Speaker 4: nothing's gonna jump off the page, but he's pretty good
Speaker 4: at everything. We saw down the stretch above average or
Speaker 4: at least average power. We saw an average or above
Speaker 4: average approach, we saw above average speed. We just saw
Speaker 4: a guy that's just fifty grades across the board or
Speaker 4: a little bit better. And that's really darned good. And
Speaker 4: you know, you can't account for the learning curve for players.
Speaker 4: It's gonna be different for everybody. What I can tell
Speaker 4: you is almost all of them do have learning curves,
Speaker 4: unless you're a freak like Julio Rodriguez or Michael Harris
Speaker 4: or the very short list of players that instantly you know,
Speaker 4: settle in. But you look at the WRC plus from
Speaker 4: first half to second half again, that second half was
Speaker 4: exactly the Bryson Stott that I saw in the minor leagues.
Speaker 4: Fifty eight WRC plus in the first half. He effectively
Speaker 4: doubled it in the second half to one oh six basically,
Speaker 4: so it's insane. It's nearly your WRC plus in the
Speaker 4: second half, and then had some success in the postseason.
Speaker 4: This guy's just a really well rounded player. And I
Speaker 4: think at second base, we're going to see the defense
Speaker 4: tick up.
Speaker 3: And I guess if you had to, if I gave
Speaker 3: you a WRC plus of one hundred and you had
Speaker 3: to bet over under, you going over, I'm going over, Okay,
Speaker 3: then they probably deserve to be top five, right Ryan,
Speaker 3: because I think you're in the same boat. And then
Speaker 3: of course we're all in the same agreement about Trey Turner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he was a two to f four
Speaker 1: player after he hit his first home run at the
Speaker 1: end of May, and so I think about him at
Speaker 1: second base, and you know, can he be worth three
Speaker 1: and a half wins this year? I think that that's
Speaker 1: a realistic outcome for him, and a Trey Turner six
Speaker 1: and a half wins, I mean, that's going to be
Speaker 1: one of the best double play combinations of baseball.
Speaker 3: So number four is fascinating because when I saw number four,
Speaker 3: that was my big issue with the list. I almost
Speaker 3: coined the term egregious, but then I really thought about it.
Speaker 3: And you have Xander Bogarts, who is one of the
Speaker 3: best shorts ups in Major League Baseball. Even if he
Speaker 3: is a fricking scarecrow at shortstop not being able to move,
Speaker 3: he's gonna hit, and he's gonna hit everyone. He's gonna
Speaker 3: hit three hundred, He's got plenty of doubles, and even
Speaker 3: if the power is a little bit down, I just
Speaker 3: think this is a This is one of the best
Speaker 3: bats's kind of our era, kind of one of the
Speaker 3: more all around bats. Like you look at run value
Speaker 3: each pitch. He hits every single pitch. It doesn't matter
Speaker 3: if it's as speeded, it doesn't matter. If it's high,
Speaker 3: ve low, fastball's, cutters, splitter, doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: He hits it.
Speaker 3: But then you have has Young Kim who was really
Speaker 3: really solid last year. He's not a guy again who's
Speaker 3: super flashy. You know, he's not Fernando Tatis Junior with
Speaker 3: the tools, but the man at shortstop can pick it
Speaker 3: with anybody. And he was a slightly above average hitter
Speaker 3: and now moving over to second base kind of similar
Speaker 3: to Nico Horner, he could win the Gold Glove while
Speaker 3: being an above average hitter. So I went from egregious
Speaker 3: to no, this is actually probably pretty spot on, right
Speaker 3: right or right.
Speaker 4: Arm, dude, I am a hostile Kim believer. We used
Speaker 4: to talk about it, you know, in the group chat
Speaker 4: in the offseason. I was like, man, I wouldn't mind
Speaker 4: the Marlins going and getting him, And I may have
Speaker 4: mentioned the best player. He's a good player, and you know,
Speaker 4: I think he could be a guy that continues to
Speaker 4: get better. I think what people forget is, you know,
Speaker 4: he debuted in twenty twenty one coming over from the KBO,
Speaker 4: had an obviously bad offensive season, and then this was
Speaker 4: his second year, like getting acclimated. He didn't have a
Speaker 4: double A or triple A experience like that kind of
Speaker 4: was his double A, triple A experience, and he got
Speaker 4: another guy. Great second half. Horner is you know, I
Speaker 4: think a higher floor bat in terms of just the
Speaker 4: way he puts back to the ball. He's a little
Speaker 4: bit better athlete. But I think Kim can run into
Speaker 4: some baseballs. Man. I think he's had a little bit
Speaker 4: more power, and I think the glove is right there.
Speaker 4: You mentioned what he did is short. He was five
Speaker 4: defensive runs saved at second base in what was I believe,
Speaker 4: twenty four games there, Like this guy barely played there
Speaker 4: and was five drs. He was ten drs at shortstop.
Speaker 4: I think be one of like it could be between
Speaker 4: him and Horner for a gold Glove at second base
Speaker 4: this year, which alone, you know, complementing a superstar like
Speaker 4: you mentioned with Xander is great. And then I think
Speaker 4: Xander's improvement defensively, We'll see if it holds up again
Speaker 4: this year, but Xander having a career year defensively has
Speaker 4: to really help, you know, And I think this is
Speaker 4: going to be a sneaky decent defensive middle infield duo.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 4: Obviously Xander is one of the weaker defenders of this group,
Speaker 4: but it helps when you have one of the best
Speaker 4: defensive second basemen and Xander improved there. And then I
Speaker 4: think you see Hassan Kim improving offensively and Xander already
Speaker 4: being one of the best bats of this whole group here,
Speaker 4: So I think there's that high floor of an establishedness
Speaker 4: like that we have with still a little bit more
Speaker 4: of like they can do some more. Austin Kim almost
Speaker 4: at a four four last season, like, it's not bad
Speaker 4: at all.
Speaker 3: It's not bad at all too. And I was just,
Speaker 3: you know, reading the list too, and it's weird not
Speaker 3: seeing Fernando Tatis Junior there because he's most likely going
Speaker 3: to be playing in the outfield. And I was also
Speaker 3: watching MLB Network and people are really excited about Tatis,
Speaker 3: you know. So he talked about you know, I think
Speaker 3: he had shoulder surgery in the offseason. He had risk
Speaker 3: surgery as well, and the soldier the shoulder is doing
Speaker 3: really well. The risk is a little bit behind, but
Speaker 3: the shoulder looks great. He looks ready to go. He
Speaker 3: looks ready to prove people wrong. And when you already
Speaker 3: have the talent of Fernando Tatis Junior and then you
Speaker 3: add a little bit of motivation, he could have an
Speaker 3: incredible year. But he's not even here. But the great
Speaker 3: thing about the Padres Ryan is they have Bogarts and
Speaker 3: has Hung Kim too. I mean this is a really
Speaker 3: good team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean on my list, I said, if it
Speaker 1: was to teas at Shorten Bogart's at second, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: do we just put him one? Because like the talent alone,
Speaker 1: you'd be thinking about it but the reason why to
Speaker 1: teases in the infos because Kim is that good of
Speaker 1: an infielder. And you know, I wrote in the article
Speaker 1: like if he's fifteen home runs, fifteen stolen bases in
Speaker 1: a gold glove second baseman, and that's your robin to
Speaker 1: Bogart's batman, I think he had They had to be,
Speaker 1: you know, fourth on this list, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what we see with a lot of these double play
Speaker 1: combinations and why the top three you stand out, It's
Speaker 1: because the second basement are that good in our top three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so maybe it's my Cory Seger belief boiling over,
Speaker 3: but I would have the Rangers double play combination at
Speaker 3: two instead of three. But at the same time, we're
Speaker 3: splitting hairs because the next three are all incredible.
Speaker 2: They're all the best in baseball.
Speaker 3: You put each name into a hat and you draft
Speaker 3: it any way you want, whatever order. I'm probably going
Speaker 3: to agree with you, but for the sake of this episode,
Speaker 3: I disagree with you. So you have Cory Seger and
Speaker 3: you have Marcus Semian and Semyon. We ranked really high
Speaker 3: on our top ten second basement, and Cory Seger, of
Speaker 3: course was top five as well, Pania was an honorable
Speaker 3: mansion while two Vey, not to spoil it, number two
Speaker 3: is one versus honorable mention, both top five. What was
Speaker 3: the deciding point to kind of have a debate between
Speaker 3: these two Sieger and Semion versus al two Vey and
Speaker 3: Jeremy Pania at two and three.
Speaker 1: It's tough because I think that by season's end, if
Speaker 1: Seger stays healthy, this is probably gonna be the best
Speaker 1: doll play combination in baseball. Like, it's the only double
Speaker 1: play combination where I could say they might hit eighty
Speaker 1: home runs this year and that's not a laughable statement,
Speaker 1: which is insane. But we have to look at what
Speaker 1: they just did. And it's hard for me to look
Speaker 1: at Altuve and Payna where Altuve was a six and
Speaker 1: a half F four guy and Paynia was not a
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year, but you had a Rookie the
Speaker 1: Year type season. He was above average offensively, he won
Speaker 1: a Gold Glove, and then he won the NLCS MVP
Speaker 1: in the World Series MVP. Like I look at it
Speaker 1: all together and I think, I mean, that is the
Speaker 1: double play combination that's coming off the best season other
Speaker 1: than our number one maybe, But again, when you combine
Speaker 1: the postseason the regular season. I just felt like it
Speaker 1: was more acknowledging what they just did, knowing that if
Speaker 1: Seger and Simmy in playoff to their potential this year
Speaker 1: and they don't both get off to a little bit
Speaker 1: of a slow start as they did, they're gonna be
Speaker 1: the best one. And you look and Simmey didn't hit
Speaker 1: a home run until I think May twenty eighth. From
Speaker 1: that point on, that duo hit fifty one home runs
Speaker 1: from basically June on, So that shows you what they
Speaker 1: can be. But they weren't that last year. So that's
Speaker 1: why they're three.
Speaker 2: L Where do you sit on this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Jeremy Panney is a really interesting case
Speaker 4: and it was a big topic on our top shortstop
Speaker 4: list right of like, how do you it's such a
Speaker 4: talented position. This guy won a Gold Glove and hit
Speaker 4: twenty two home runs, but he also got on base
Speaker 4: at a two eighty nine clip and doesn't walk and
Speaker 4: chases a lot, and it's a risky offensive profile and
Speaker 4: he had that rough second half, right, and again we're
Speaker 4: splitting hairs and a half here, But even though it
Speaker 4: was a thirteen game sample size, what Jeremy Pania did
Speaker 4: in the postseason and on the biggest stage really like
Speaker 4: kind of gave me a little bit of pause and
Speaker 4: calm of what he's going to be able to do.
Speaker 4: I think going into to next year, I think, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know if we're going to see a sophomore
Speaker 4: swamp even with the approach, inefficiencies like those things would
Speaker 4: have got exposed on the biggest stage in the World
Speaker 4: Series or you know, in the ALCS, and instead he
Speaker 4: hit three forty five and so six thirty eight during
Speaker 4: that postseason run, hit four home runs. So you know,
Speaker 4: I think Payny is gonna build off of that year.
Speaker 4: I don't know if he's gonna have like a superstar season,
Speaker 4: But three point four four last year, why can't he
Speaker 4: get on base at a slightly higher clip, hit twenty
Speaker 4: plus home runs again and play the great defense again
Speaker 4: and be.
Speaker 2: A four to four and a half f four guy
Speaker 2: if he does that.
Speaker 4: With what Jose Altuve is doing, we just talked about
Speaker 4: the top second basement in baseball, and Altuve is a
Speaker 4: guy that you know, has had career career year like,
Speaker 4: that's a really tough one to beat. On the flip side, though,
Speaker 4: is there a better second basement on this list now,
Speaker 4: Marcus Semion other than jose al Tuve, Right, like, other
Speaker 4: than al Tuove, is there a better second basement than
Speaker 4: Marcus Semion? I guess it would be Jeff cors.
Speaker 2: Hey, don't don't ruin it. Don't ruin it.
Speaker 4: I think people probably inferred by now. But I guess
Speaker 4: what's interesting is it's like we're talking about the balance
Speaker 4: of like superstar and then guy down here. The Rangers
Speaker 4: are like this weird in between of like two almost
Speaker 4: superstar kind of guys, Like, I know Seeker has been
Speaker 4: a superstar, but in terms of what the level they
Speaker 4: played last year was kind of like almost superstar. It's
Speaker 4: a really interesting balance. So I lean with the way
Speaker 4: that it's ranked. But that's one that like the nuclear
Speaker 4: ability that the Rangers middle endfield has that it could
Speaker 4: be number one.
Speaker 2: Ryan, be honest with me.
Speaker 3: Were you courced by uh Jeremy Paine's TRICEP picture?
Speaker 2: Were you?
Speaker 1: I was not? I was not, but honn't believe I
Speaker 1: know I was. I'm like, I'm like the old man
Speaker 1: that's just like rings and what did you do for
Speaker 1: me in the playoffs? And that type of thing where
Speaker 1: you know, I was more swayed by what he did
Speaker 1: in October than anything else. For U, It's just it's
Speaker 1: hard for me not to believe in a guy when
Speaker 1: he rises to the occasion, you know, and think that
Speaker 1: I almost feel like he had his sophomore slump during
Speaker 1: the season. I feel like the first half everyone was
Speaker 1: kind of discovering who Jeremy Payna was, and then he
Speaker 1: had to go through it. And then when you're facing
Speaker 1: the best possible pitching in the playoffs, he made his
Speaker 1: adjustments and he delivered in the biggest way. How many
Speaker 1: times have we ever seen a guy go from NLCS
Speaker 1: MVP to World Series MVP, Like, I don't even remember
Speaker 1: seeing that, So to me, that was ultimately why I'm
Speaker 1: a little bit higher on Paanya. I think I definitely
Speaker 1: had him in the top ten when I originally ranked
Speaker 1: our shortstops, so I think I'm higher on him than
Speaker 1: a lot of us are just baseball, But I just
Speaker 1: think that the defense gives him such a high floor
Speaker 1: that if he's hitting me twenty five home runs, I
Speaker 1: feel like he's going to be one of the most
Speaker 1: consistent starting shortstops in the game.
Speaker 3: I guess that's fine. But when Seager and Sammon combined
Speaker 3: for twelve war, you go eating your words. But I'm
Speaker 3: okay with it.
Speaker 1: And but if he either plays sixty five games this
Speaker 1: year or if.
Speaker 3: He gets on a three toh eight clip, all right,
Speaker 3: all right, fine, there's baub that of the negatives to everyone.
Speaker 3: Let's move on. This is about to be an echo chamber.
Speaker 3: And the reason I say it's about to be an
Speaker 3: echo chamber is because we all agree with number one,
Speaker 3: and we're just going to shower the praise of our
Speaker 3: number one double play combination. And it's not just because
Speaker 3: Fink has a Mets flag behind him. This is the
Speaker 3: best double play combination because we have the number one
Speaker 3: shortstop in baseball according to all of us, and we
Speaker 3: have the number two second baseman and Jeff McNeil, Which
Speaker 3: why I love him so much is because, yes, he's
Speaker 3: one of the best second basement in baseball, but he
Speaker 3: could be one of the better third basement in baseball.
Speaker 3: He could be one of the better cornerilefielders in baseball.
Speaker 3: Like he's been a utility guy kind of his whole career,
Speaker 3: really found a home at second base. He's found a
Speaker 3: little bit of power, but the contact is always going
Speaker 3: to be there. Find a guy who has a better
Speaker 3: zone contact than Jeff McNeil. Find a guy who had
Speaker 3: a better batting average last year. You can't because he
Speaker 3: had three twenty six. And then you have the best
Speaker 3: shortstop in baseball and Francisco Lindor. So not only does
Speaker 3: this duo probably end up being the best defensive duo
Speaker 3: in Major League Baseball, they might be top three offensive also.
Speaker 3: And think we're gonna go through our you know, MVP picks,
Speaker 3: award picks, and I don't want to give it all away.
Speaker 3: And I don't even want to really talk about this
Speaker 3: because we have so many other episodes to do. But
Speaker 3: I am looking at Francisco Lindor as my MVP pick.
Speaker 3: Now who I really am? I think the value is there.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at these guys like, I think he could
Speaker 3: put together a career year, settled in third season in
Speaker 3: New York, best defense in baseball at the position, drive
Speaker 3: in one hundred and ten hit to eighty hit, thirty bombs.
Speaker 3: Be that guy for the New York Mets. And that's
Speaker 3: not even mentioning Jeff mcneilo could at three thirty shower
Speaker 3: the praise my friend. This is this is your time
Speaker 3: to shine. They have to fly behind you.
Speaker 1: I'll yeah, I appreciate that, I will say, just building
Speaker 1: on that, I had a whole show about Lindor's MVP
Speaker 1: case on Lockdown Mets on Monday, and the odds for
Speaker 1: Lindora now plus twenty five hundred. For Trey Turnert's like
Speaker 1: plus fourteen hundred. To me, I'm like, if I'm betting,
Speaker 1: you know, on those two guys based on who they
Speaker 1: are as players, give me the odds on Lindor if
Speaker 1: they're that long. But look, I think when you look
Speaker 1: at this Mets team, they're built to win a ton
Speaker 1: of games and these guys are maybe the biggest reason
Speaker 1: because of it. The fact that the Mets are so
Speaker 1: strong off the middle is why they won one hundred
Speaker 1: and one last year. And it was those guys. It
Speaker 1: was McNeil, it was Lindor, it was Alonso and really
Speaker 1: Nimmo last year that drove that team. And with Lindor,
Speaker 1: you know, you look at his first season with the Mets.
Speaker 1: He was dreadful to start, but from June on he
Speaker 1: was really good. He got hurt, so that kind of
Speaker 1: messed up his numbers a little bit too, where there
Speaker 1: was some time where he was struggling off the injury.
Speaker 1: This guy is so consistent. He's going to go out,
Speaker 1: he's going to hit at least twenty five home runs,
Speaker 1: He'll swipe over fifteen bags, and I think the elimination
Speaker 1: of the shift this year is going to make that
Speaker 1: defense standout even more. And Jeff McNeil, if you're not
Speaker 1: watching Mets baseball, there's a few guys that are more
Speaker 1: exciting to watch than Jeff McNeil. The jersey's always dirty,
Speaker 1: he's always, you know, two hits a game. Uh so, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course I love my Mets mid infield. But when
Speaker 1: we were going through this list, when I was doing
Speaker 1: all the research on it, the second best combined F
Speaker 1: four of any dope play combination that's formed was actually
Speaker 1: Swanson and Horror last year at ten point four. Lindora
Speaker 1: McNeil was over twelve. It was twelve point seven. So
Speaker 1: that's why you know, f wour alone, it was kind
Speaker 1: of a clear cut answer on who the best dope
Speaker 1: play combination was.
Speaker 2: M Do you totally agree or do you definitely agree?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's a slight.
Speaker 4: Snub of Joey Wendell and Louis Arriaz up there. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: I think you got a look out for that duo.
Speaker 4: They might combine for.
Speaker 2: Eight and IKF and uh Glabor.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think I think Ariahs and Wendell might combine
Speaker 4: for eight home runs this year. So he'll look out
Speaker 4: for them. But no, I mean everything that he said,
Speaker 4: you know that think just said is true and we
Speaker 4: talked about it just on the on the second basement.
Speaker 4: So like the way that McNeil has took that down year,
Speaker 4: that was kind of a plague that was spread across
Speaker 4: the whole Mets team and hitting philosophy and analysis paralysis,
Speaker 4: and that kind of scrapped a lot of the people
Speaker 4: that were perpetuating some of that. I mean, he just
Speaker 4: went back to the basics. Man, this guy, like you
Speaker 4: mentioned Peter, You're gonna be hard pressed to find a
Speaker 4: more pure hitter in baseball. It's just he makes hitting
Speaker 4: a baseball like he hurts our case. When we tell people, hey,
Speaker 4: hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports,
Speaker 4: if they just look at Jeff McNeil, they'll be like,
Speaker 4: what do you mean it doesn't look that bad? Like
Speaker 4: it looks pretty easy. And then Lindor his floor is
Speaker 4: so high because he's gonna always be one of the
Speaker 4: best defenders and he's always gonna run into twenty plus
Speaker 4: home runs. Like maybe he's not putting up thirty three
Speaker 4: thirty five like he did in Cleveland, but he's twenty
Speaker 4: plus every year for the last five full seasons. He's
Speaker 4: gonna steal bags, he's gonna have pitch calm in his
Speaker 4: year and be annoying about just knowing where to be
Speaker 4: at all times. I don't even know if you can
Speaker 4: put that in number, like he is just that kind
Speaker 4: of player I like. I think I would pretty much
Speaker 4: if there's a gun in my head. I think I
Speaker 4: brought this up with with Jack. I would pick this
Speaker 4: middle infield duo to pace the league n F four,
Speaker 4: And I think I'd sleep pretty well for all one
Speaker 4: sixty two cross that bridge when we get there. But
Speaker 4: I don't think i'd be losing sleep at night wondering
Speaker 4: if if that that trigger is going to be pulled
Speaker 4: come October third or whatever.
Speaker 2: No, And it's funny.
Speaker 3: The Mets double play combination is so good that it
Speaker 3: automatically puts them in the best infields in baseball, even
Speaker 3: though when Wardo Escobar plays third, I mean, of course
Speaker 3: you have Pee Alonso to help. But because it's so good,
Speaker 3: and because Pee Alonso was so good, they could have
Speaker 3: rom at third, who is a poor man's Josh Rojas,
Speaker 3: which is a perfect kind of confidence.
Speaker 4: I can pick it. That's all they need me to do.
Speaker 3: It's all they need him to do, and that's all
Speaker 3: they're gonna ask for. But ward O Escobar too, So
Speaker 3: that's the top five great list. The more I think
Speaker 3: about it, I think you got it pretty spot on.
Speaker 3: I would argue for Dan's being horner, but we're splitting hairs.
Speaker 3: Who were the double play combinations? When writing? Because I
Speaker 3: know you said at the beginning it was a top ten,
Speaker 3: but the back half it's kind of challenging. You held
Speaker 3: it to three honorable mentions. Who might be nine and ten?
Speaker 3: Like who was the one you left off where you
Speaker 3: thought to yourself, I could easily make an argument for
Speaker 3: them in my honorable mentions.
Speaker 1: I think the Blue Jays and the Guardians were maybe
Speaker 1: like nine to ten, you know, with Jimenez and Rosario,
Speaker 1: with Baschett and Espinal, and then I get the Braves
Speaker 1: are the other one. I mean, you know, if we
Speaker 1: made a top ten, there would have been maybe one
Speaker 1: honorable mention of how to try to figure that out,
Speaker 1: but you know, it was tough. Again, it ultimately came
Speaker 1: down to the top three was pretty clear to me.
Speaker 1: I had some trouble like Rangers Astros. That was one
Speaker 1: of the things. And then you know, rounding out the
Speaker 1: top five was tough. But ultimately I felt like these
Speaker 1: were the five best double play combinations. And when you
Speaker 1: add in the honorable mentions, I think from that collection
Speaker 1: of eight teams, that will be the top five at
Speaker 1: some point, you know, at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: I think any of those honorable mentions could easily crack
Speaker 1: this list by year's end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say the Guardians, that's the one that
Speaker 4: I think could could have easily been an honorable mention.
Speaker 4: It's kind of weird when there's a big difference, like
Speaker 4: you look at the the Astros. Yes, there's a decent
Speaker 4: gap between al Tuove and Penya a. Penia a lot
Speaker 4: better than Rosario. When there's a gap, when you're better,
Speaker 4: when the better middle infielder is the second baseman by
Speaker 4: a decent margins, I feel like it's kind of harder
Speaker 4: to push that that team across and Rassario is a
Speaker 4: good player, but you know, not the caliber player of Pania.
Speaker 4: And I think Jimenez is closer to Altuve in terms
Speaker 4: of value from this past season as a lot of
Speaker 4: people think, but just below that. So obviously it's it's
Speaker 4: just outside there. But I would say that's a really
Speaker 4: underrated middle infield duo that is gonna probably only get better, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, there was a six war player from Amenez
Speaker 4: last year. Rosario seemed to have a lot of things
Speaker 4: clicked for him. That's a really fun middle infield doing.
Speaker 4: That's one that I would not be surprised to enter
Speaker 4: the top five, you know, for maybe next season or
Speaker 4: at some point mid season, if both of them perform
Speaker 4: the way we think they can.
Speaker 3: So Arm is churning out top ten prospects by system,
Speaker 3: and he's done a really great job. I've been on
Speaker 3: his ass about the Yankees because all I want to
Speaker 3: do is talk about Will Warren and Jason di Mingez
Speaker 3: and Volpi and all these different guys. I'm curious Arm
Speaker 3: because in the minor leagues, from listening to the call up,
Speaker 3: it seems that the shortstop position in particular, of course,
Speaker 3: and it normally is. But it seems like this shortstop
Speaker 3: crop in the minor leagues right now is about as
Speaker 3: rich as it's been in a very long time. But
Speaker 3: with that said, there's a lot of shortstops coming up
Speaker 3: for teams who already have shortstops who might move over
Speaker 3: to second base for the teams that weren't mentioned here,
Speaker 3: for the For the fans of teams who are looking
Speaker 3: towards a great middle infield duo in a couple of years,
Speaker 3: who are some teams with great prospects coming up that
Speaker 3: you feel have a you know, a path right a
Speaker 3: path to play second, a path to play shortstop. Who
Speaker 3: could form a duo like I think to myself O'Neal
Speaker 3: Cruz and Nick Gonzalez or O'Neal Cruz and Jiwan Bay
Speaker 3: for the Pirates. The Reds have so many good shortstops,
Speaker 3: someone's going to move over to second you know, Bobby
Speaker 3: with Junior, who's going to be the second baseman for
Speaker 3: the Royals, Like all of these teams who aren't mentioned
Speaker 3: yet but will be in a couple of years.
Speaker 4: That's a great question. Do not sleep on this, Brewers
Speaker 4: duo of now the established and top ten shortstop in
Speaker 4: our game in a Damis and then Bryce Turing Man.
Speaker 4: I think he's cut from the same cloth as Nico Horner.
Speaker 4: I think he's going to be a high four guy
Speaker 4: off of the defense and speed and run into ten
Speaker 4: to fifteen home runs and you're like, whoa, that guy
Speaker 4: had a four f or last year. That's a middle
Speaker 4: and field duo that I think could be really really good.
Speaker 4: And then Peter, your Yankees man, like the combination of
Speaker 4: Volpi and Parazza. If both of these guys hit their
Speaker 4: ceilings or even close to it, like, that's a really nasty,
Speaker 4: defensive and offensive middle infield. It is, Peter for those
Speaker 4: listening puts on is pit vipers, which are nuts. Those
Speaker 4: are not crazy. Those are crazy. Yeah, that is That
Speaker 4: is a middle infield duo that I think is nice.
Speaker 4: And I think Paraza is a pit viper guy. If
Speaker 4: I'm not mistaken, I couldn't agree with you more. Vulpi
Speaker 4: Parazza labor ever incredible.
Speaker 3: What we got over here at pitch a little bit
Speaker 3: of what we were talking about the Yankees just just
Speaker 3: humor me, Like, just just humor about the Yankees. Farm
Speaker 3: system for a little bit, just shower me and break
Speaker 3: look forward to the Call Up.
Speaker 4: We'll be breaking down what I think is one of
Speaker 4: the better I think still a top ten farm system
Speaker 4: in baseball. The Yankees pitching philosophy continues to just shock
Speaker 4: me with how they're able in a good way. Sixth
Speaker 4: round pick in a good way and just develop that
Speaker 4: guy immediately. I'm really excited to put the system out.
Speaker 4: I think it's gonna be a really, really fun breakdown
Speaker 4: that should be out in the next If you're listening
Speaker 4: to this, good chance it's either out by the end
Speaker 4: of day today or tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Check it out.
Speaker 3: It'll be live on Just Baseball dot com. The full
Speaker 3: episode will be available on the Call Up Podcast. Make
Speaker 3: sure you just subscribe to the call Up podcast as
Speaker 3: well as the YouTube channel if you want to watch arms,
Speaker 3: beautiful face talk about prospects, and of course Jack too,
Speaker 3: and maybe I'll make an appearance with my pit vipers.
Speaker 3: Ryan is the host of Who's Better Baseball? It's an
Speaker 3: awesome debate show. We need more of that here for
Speaker 3: baseball because it's fun to debate different areas in Major
Speaker 3: League Baseball. Ryan's doing that, bringing on riders. I've been on,
Speaker 3: arms gonna be on, Jack's gonna be on. The whole
Speaker 3: game is gonna be on. And of course, one thing
Speaker 3: that I have to tell you guys, because I'm very
Speaker 3: excited for it, make sure to download Prize Picks. It
Speaker 3: is in the episode description. Use code just Baseball because
Speaker 3: we are about to unleash long props and they will
Speaker 3: be only on Prize Picks because we get the best
Speaker 3: value there. And then you get a deposit match if
Speaker 3: you use code just Baseball up to one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3: You deposit fifty, you get fifty. You deposit one hundred,
Speaker 3: you get one hundred. If you're not much of a gambler,
Speaker 3: but you think it might be fun to throw ten
Speaker 3: bucks on a season long jury and sweat it out
Speaker 3: and have fun with us as we talk about it
Speaker 3: all year, you get ten free dollars. Anyway, put that
Speaker 3: free ten bucks on and let's just have a really
Speaker 3: good time. That link is in the episode description. Of course,
Speaker 3: not gambling advice. Can't wait for that to begin again.
Speaker 3: Daily MLB bets, College baseball bets, the whole nine yards,
Speaker 3: and of course you can find all of this on
Speaker 3: Just Baseball.
Speaker 2: Dot com.
Speaker 3: If you're listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, we'd greatly appreciate
Speaker 3: a five star review. It's the best way to support
Speaker 3: this podcast. If you could leave a written review, it's
Speaker 3: even better. And of course we have merch in the
Speaker 3: episode description if you want to support the podcast. And
Speaker 3: with that thank everybody.