Speaker 1: Episode three eighty six of Bucco Banter. The Buccos stay hot.
Speaker 1: They take two of three in Cleveland. We recap that
Speaker 1: series in preview the upcoming series versus the New York Yankees.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Buco Banter podcast, brought to you
Speaker 1: by the Just Baseball Media Network. Hey music, I feel
Speaker 1: one on one.
Speaker 2: You see a couple of them in My Taste with
Speaker 2: Ye and my Lemonade?
Speaker 3: Does I let the waite taste Beth seats at the
Speaker 3: Pirates get it?
Speaker 2: Let me run the base.
Speaker 3: Yeah, My time is like my money because I can't
Speaker 3: afford to waste. Oh why see is Alloyers my date
Speaker 3: to my dates? Or to stick by the plate? Senny
Speaker 3: Case peptic Case from my race at my pace, Clintic
Speaker 3: brass edis Snakes.
Speaker 4: Welcome back to another episode of Bucco Banter, and we
Speaker 4: literally just returned from this city that they call the
Speaker 4: Mistake on the Lake aka Cleveland, Ohio.
Speaker 2: Boy, am I glad to be home.
Speaker 4: From that business trip not a vacation, by the way,
Speaker 4: a business trip.
Speaker 2: And we come back feeling good.
Speaker 4: Right as always, It's a roller coaster with this team,
Speaker 4: but winning the series is most important. I think we're
Speaker 4: more on the optimistic side going forward.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be back from that miserable, miserable,
Speaker 1: miserable town. Listen in the wise words of a man
Speaker 1: who played professional sports, who goes to Cleveland to vacation.
Speaker 1: You ever heard anyone say they're going to Cleveland to vacation.
Speaker 2: I think it's cool.
Speaker 1: I think it's cool. There. No, it's not cool. But
Speaker 1: the Bucos went in and they took care of business.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna spend the first part of the show
Speaker 1: talking about why this team deserves a shot. And when
Speaker 1: I say that, I mean from the front office, why
Speaker 1: they deserve to buy Bye bye right now, because they've
Speaker 1: proved to the fan base, they've proved to the front
Speaker 1: office that this is a winning ball club. And I
Speaker 1: know we're a roller coaster of emotions. We talk about
Speaker 1: it every single episode, how reactionary baseball is, how much
Speaker 1: of a roller coaster your emotions could be on after
Speaker 1: Game two on Saturday. I understand it feels that way,
Speaker 1: But this is a really good baseball team right now, Guys,
Speaker 1: this is the best offense in baseball at point blank.
Speaker 1: They score runs, they're running the base as well, right now,
Speaker 1: they're playing much much better defense. The starting pitching is
Speaker 1: doing what you needed to do. There's just one problem
Speaker 1: and that's what needs to be taken care of in
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I completely agree with you, Adam. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is a team that is without Connor griff and your
Speaker 4: franchise cornerstone, without Spencer Horowitz, without O'Neil Cruz, and the
Speaker 4: offense is still looking elite. I mean, this is a
Speaker 4: deep team. This is a team that is very capable
Speaker 4: of going to October.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, Adam, watching.
Speaker 4: This Cleveland team at home this week didn't inspire a
Speaker 4: lot of confidence in that team who is winning their division.
Speaker 4: I am fairly confident in saying that if the Pirates
Speaker 4: from the Al Central, they'd be at least ten games
Speaker 4: above five hundred with this bullpen. That's how much better
Speaker 4: they look than the Guardians on the field this week.
Speaker 4: I mean today, Billy Cook and Jack Manghan put out
Speaker 4: on clinic in the outfields, made some key defensive plays.
Speaker 4: They were all over the place in terms of base
Speaker 4: running on the other side, but.
Speaker 2: Made some key defensive places.
Speaker 4: Even last night before Dennis Santana gave up that walk off.
Speaker 4: Brian Reynolds made an incredible throw home that Raffie Flores
Speaker 4: was able to tag the runner before he stepped on
Speaker 4: home plate, which extended a game just one more batter.
Speaker 4: But still, Adam, you know, I think the front office
Speaker 4: really needs to see what they have in front of them.
Speaker 4: This is a team that's very capable of competing with
Speaker 4: the best, but you need to patch some of those holes.
Speaker 4: And you don't just need to put a piece of
Speaker 4: tape over the hole to cover the water.
Speaker 2: From spewing out.
Speaker 4: You need to bring in reinforcements that are strong enough
Speaker 4: to go deep into October.
Speaker 1: You win this series outright, you sweep the Cleveland Guardians
Speaker 1: if you have one more high leverage arm. Okay, one
Speaker 1: more high lever drum. I'm almost happy that Game two
Speaker 1: happened the way it happened on Saturday. Now, obviously I
Speaker 1: want them to win every single game. I would love
Speaker 1: if they swept the series. That would have been incredible
Speaker 1: winning six games in a row. But it kind of
Speaker 1: just was the cherry on top of the cake of
Speaker 1: what we've been dealing with all season. And I know
Speaker 1: there's so many examples to point to. But now that
Speaker 1: this team is in a wild card spot, that they're
Speaker 1: been inching closer and closer and closer, and then that happens.
Speaker 1: The offense obviously didn't have the best game in the world,
Speaker 1: but they did enough for you to win. And all
Speaker 1: you needed to do was rely on a couple of
Speaker 1: guys to close the door, and you simply couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: That should have been if you didn't already have the
Speaker 1: alarm going off. Sirens are outside the front office right now, sirens,
Speaker 1: loud noises, because that's what every single Pirates fan has
Speaker 1: been dealing with every single series for the whole year.
Speaker 1: This team would be much much better competing for the
Speaker 1: Central if they just had a couple more lever drum
Speaker 1: Scott and they got through it. Anyways, we talked to
Speaker 1: Donnie today in the scrum. He mentioned just the bounce
Speaker 1: back and the resiliency, and I know he says that
Speaker 1: a lot after. You know, the grit of this Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: hard working, launch pale type of team, but it's true.
Speaker 1: These guys you go in the clubhouse and they they
Speaker 1: want to win ball games for each other. It's a
Speaker 1: good clubhouse man. It really is. And they brought in
Speaker 1: Jacob Gonzalez, which we'll get into in a second, which
Speaker 1: is paying off. But Scott, it is open.
Speaker 4: It starts with Jake Mangham, a guy like that, and
Speaker 4: didn't start exactly with him, but it starts with people
Speaker 4: like that bringing in a guy like that, which I
Speaker 4: don't understand the hate.
Speaker 2: I've said that multiple times. I don't understand that he
Speaker 2: gets because this is a guy that is a leader.
Speaker 4: And we go to his locker today post game and
Speaker 4: he talks about how, you know, we've talked as the
Speaker 4: team as we're not happy, like.
Speaker 2: We want to go on a run.
Speaker 4: We know we're better than this, and I just feel
Speaker 4: like they haven't had that voice, you know, the past
Speaker 4: couple seasons in this clubhouse, especially on the offensive side.
Speaker 4: And now you have him, Brandon Lawe, Ryan O hurt.
Speaker 4: When you look at the lineup today, you were like
Speaker 4: before the game, oh boy, Jared Triollo in the two hole,
Speaker 4: Billy Cook's playing, he never plays like Brandon Lowe's on
Speaker 4: the bench. This is gonna be interesting against you know,
Speaker 4: Joey Cantillo, who's a really solid mid rotation starter, right,
Speaker 4: And they did more than hold their own man.
Speaker 2: They fought.
Speaker 4: It was next man up mentality, and you love to
Speaker 4: see that bounce back from a game from like last night.
Speaker 4: I feel like a game like last night would have
Speaker 4: taken it this last year's team out of it right.
Speaker 4: They would not have been able to bounce back like
Speaker 4: they did today. It's almost like it didn't happen.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: They came in today, new day, and they showed up
Speaker 4: and punched back, and boy did they punch back hard.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to believes that they would be
Speaker 1: competing in the centro if they just had one or
Speaker 1: two more leverage arms. Per producer Jay in the chat.
Speaker 1: Right now, Brewers are ten and a half games up
Speaker 1: on us in the division. We've blown seventeen saves this year.
Speaker 1: They could absolutely compete with a competent pen. Just a
Speaker 1: couple of more arms and Scott will get into some
Speaker 1: trade ideas that we have. But this offense, man, I
Speaker 1: just can't say it like we might never see an
Speaker 1: offense this good and are like they have to capitalize
Speaker 1: on it. They are second in baseball and WRC plus,
Speaker 1: only behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ever heard of them.
Speaker 1: They're tied for fourth in homers. Homers. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know you were allowed to hit a homer last year.
Speaker 1: I thought that might have been illegal because they didn't
Speaker 1: do it. This team just continues to hit and as
Speaker 1: Maryland Valdez. They asked Donnie today, like did you picture
Speaker 1: him being this good coming out of camp? And he
Speaker 1: looked at the reporters straight in the eyes and said,
Speaker 1: absolutely not, dude, what he not this good? Like this
Speaker 1: is insane Scott and he hit that home run for
Speaker 1: insurance in Game three today and we just looked at
Speaker 1: each other and shook our heads because it's over and
Speaker 1: over and over again, and the most important thing. I know,
Speaker 1: I'm ranting, I'm talking about this offense, but going back
Speaker 1: to is Merlin and how important he's been, and Donnie
Speaker 1: confirmed it himself, how professionally at bats have been. He's
Speaker 1: not just going up there and withing a ton. He's
Speaker 1: getting successful challenges. He's understanding the zone, he knows what
Speaker 1: pockets to do damage in, and by god.
Speaker 2: He does it.
Speaker 4: But brother, that at bat today, I think it was
Speaker 4: his first at bat red challenge to strike Cox and
Speaker 4: the a bat and earned a walk. I mean, that
Speaker 4: was a professional bat. That's not something you see from
Speaker 4: a rookie often. I want to right off this stat
Speaker 4: real quick per our friend Dan Zangrilly as Villain Valdez
Speaker 4: is the first pirate since Wally Stargule.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you've heard of him. Maybe possibly he's.
Speaker 4: The first pirate since really Stargel during his monster nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy one season, have an extra base hit in an
Speaker 4: RBI in seven straight games. He's like the first player.
Speaker 4: He's like only the fifth or sixth player in major
Speaker 4: league history. You have twelve homers and thirty plus RBIs
Speaker 4: in a certain amount of games. Just what he's doing
Speaker 4: is not something we expected. We expected him to contribute,
Speaker 4: but not at this level. It was never something you
Speaker 4: can expect from a rookie. So you know, that's obviously
Speaker 4: a positive and Adam not to make it negative, but
Speaker 4: I want to turn the corner real quick and talk
Speaker 4: real quick about Dennis Santana, because this is a guy,
Speaker 4: the guy Dennis Santana we really like.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think the whole clubhouse likes Dennis Santana.
Speaker 2: He comes to work every day with a positive attitude.
Speaker 2: He's like I've been through worse.
Speaker 4: Love it right, He's definitely trying on the mental side
Speaker 4: of things. But boy, oh boy, man, I don't think
Speaker 4: you can go another day with him on the roster.
Speaker 2: I just don't think you can pitch him.
Speaker 4: Get They got themselves in a situation yesterday in a
Speaker 4: doubleheader where he was the only guy really available to pitch,
Speaker 4: so they.
Speaker 2: Had to bring him in in a ninth inning. But
Speaker 2: you tweeted out that stat today. You pulled those stats
Speaker 2: eighth and ninth inning this year. It's alarming you.
Speaker 4: If you're contending you can't have a guy like this
Speaker 4: on your roster, you just simply can't.
Speaker 1: That stat or stats, I should say, was jaw dropping.
Speaker 1: And I was talking to Jay last night and I
Speaker 1: wanted to put together these stats, but we figured let's
Speaker 1: give it a day until last night. Registered on fangrafts
Speaker 1: in high leverage situations. For the people that did not
Speaker 1: see the tweet that we put out in the eighth
Speaker 1: or ninth inning, he has a twenty point twenty five
Speaker 1: er an opponent batting average of four point fifty eight
Speaker 1: nearly half the time guys are getting hits, opponent on
Speaker 1: base percentage of five point fifty two, opponent slugging of
Speaker 1: one thousand, forty two home runs, four earned runs twelve.
Speaker 1: This is just somebody, forget even low leverage middle relief.
Speaker 1: This is somebody you just can't have generally on a
Speaker 1: competing ball club. Again, you said it beautifully. I love
Speaker 1: Dennis Santana. You see him come to work and it's
Speaker 1: so hard. And I was thinking about it as we
Speaker 1: were going to the stadium today. Imagine having just absolute
Speaker 1: worst stay at your job, just horrendous. You blow it,
Speaker 1: the office is absolutely pissed at you, and you got
Speaker 1: to show up and do it again the next day.
Speaker 1: A lot of people mentally just can't do that. You're
Speaker 1: not built that way. And this guy's been able to
Speaker 1: show up to work and you know, continue to try,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's been a couple of reasons where
Speaker 1: we thought maybe the tides returning a little bit and
Speaker 1: spin rate was getting a little bit better, and he
Speaker 1: had a couple of good outings. It's just not happening.
Speaker 1: We have to to cut dead weight right now. And
Speaker 1: I know we're getting closer to August third, and people
Speaker 1: want to talk about Christian Curtis, which again we are
Speaker 1: going to talk about Christian Curtis on this podcast today.
Speaker 1: But the Dennis Santana experiment is over. Guys, it has
Speaker 1: to be. It has to be. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you need to just put him on the I l
Speaker 1: if you're afraid the DFA the guy for whatever reason
Speaker 1: with a phantom injury. Hell, Chris Devenski's been on nil
Speaker 1: with an underclosed, undisclosed illness for three months now. Who
Speaker 1: the hell knows, but you got he's burned, He's burned
Speaker 1: his eyeballs. You gotta get him out of here.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I hate talking about people's jobs like this,
Speaker 1: but unfortunately, you have to face reality in these types
Speaker 1: of situations. And right now, I think you're the team
Speaker 1: would agree, players would agree.
Speaker 4: Especially a guy like that, especially guy like that. I
Speaker 4: don't want to belabor the topic too much. I think
Speaker 4: everyone we all know what needs to happen there. And
Speaker 4: I think you can add multiple arms, and let's talk
Speaker 4: about arms that they've had added. Brandon Eisert is a
Speaker 4: guy that is interesting. He was in the trade during
Speaker 4: the door before the draft with Jacob Gonzalez and we'll
Speaker 4: get into Jack Gonzalez.
Speaker 2: I feel like we have a lot to talk about
Speaker 2: here after this weekend.
Speaker 4: But Brandon Eisert. I'll just put it out there. He's
Speaker 4: nothing more than a specialist and that's all he should
Speaker 4: be used as. Like last night, he came in with
Speaker 4: two outs in the seventh inning and he got Patrick
Speaker 4: Bailey out. That should have been the end of his night.
Speaker 4: Greg Risotto should have came in right away, but instead
Speaker 4: we saw Stephen Kwan and we saw Travis Bozanna, two lefties.
Speaker 2: Come up in the eighth inning. We're like, we're gonna
Speaker 2: run him out there.
Speaker 4: As soon as Stephen Kwan hit that ball, got a
Speaker 4: single on that first a bat should have been in
Speaker 4: the night, but we kept riding him. This is a
Speaker 4: guy that only touches eighty nine guys eighty nine. I
Speaker 4: know there's a lead extension, but lead extension doesn't nine Jerry.
Speaker 4: A lead extension is great when you throw ninety three
Speaker 4: perceive philosophy could be ninety six eighty nine guys eighty nine.
Speaker 4: And he does have a weird We're talking about this
Speaker 4: up in the press box very just as a lefty hitter.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be deceptive, right. He lands like super closed
Speaker 4: off and it's a cross body delivery. It's funky, it's weird.
Speaker 4: But still he's not gonna blow it by anybody. He's
Speaker 4: not gonna fool anybody. And Stephen Kwan was I felt
Speaker 4: like nine for twelve this week against US, like it
Speaker 4: was just hit after hit. He's finding himself this year.
Speaker 4: And Travis Pazana, you know, has that power as well,
Speaker 4: so you know, getting in a position bring him in
Speaker 4: the eighth inning. I just thought was a weirdition, but
Speaker 4: also I acknowledged the fact that this is it's a doubleheader.
Speaker 2: And your options were limited unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who else are you going to? That's the problem
Speaker 1: you're thinking about it. Who else do you go to?
Speaker 1: Maybe you go to Soto earlier, not like Soto did
Speaker 1: any better. And I know Rafa had a tough.
Speaker 2: But US did do better. If he comes into a
Speaker 2: clean inning.
Speaker 1: Yeah maybe possibly. We'll never know. But it's a shame
Speaker 1: that Christian Curtis's debut got spoiled and people are not
Speaker 1: going to remember it as much. I hope they do
Speaker 1: despite everything that happened, because this guy shoved. He went
Speaker 1: in there on a debut in an away series, a
Speaker 1: double header, and he just grinded it out. He got
Speaker 1: deep into counts, he was able to throw all of
Speaker 1: his pitches confidently, Scott. We were talking about the poise
Speaker 1: that he showed. He did not look like a rookie
Speaker 1: out there. And people want to argue, Hey, the numbers
Speaker 1: didn't look great, and screw the numbers, Okay, you could
Speaker 1: talk about Braxton Ashcraft last year didn't have great numbers
Speaker 1: going into the season. It's not about that. It's about
Speaker 1: the stuff, okay. And you combine the stuff with the
Speaker 1: type of person that Christian Curtis is and you trust
Speaker 1: him to go out there and take care of business.
Speaker 1: When we saw him walk onto the field, we were
Speaker 1: just hanging out by the dugout. We got there way
Speaker 1: too early. We were just chilling by the dugout and
Speaker 1: the players are walking in and we're like, is that Christian?
Speaker 1: And when we tweeted out like Christian Curtis is here,
Speaker 1: it was such a full circle moment and like, just
Speaker 1: to talk about us for a second, I don't want
Speaker 1: to take away Christian Curtis's moment. But if you go
Speaker 1: back to episode thirty six, Scott, episode thirty six of
Speaker 1: Bucko Banter, that would have been July twenty third of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, almost two years to the date we
Speaker 1: had Christian Curtis come on the podcast in his first
Speaker 1: professional season as a baseball player, and he was our
Speaker 1: first professional baseball play ever to be on the show. Okay,
Speaker 1: he probably didn't know that before agreeing to it, but
Speaker 1: he came on the show and we talked to him
Speaker 1: that episode for about an hour and his story I
Speaker 1: beg you episode thirty six if you want to throw
Speaker 1: back two years ago Christian Curtis came on the show.
Speaker 1: He also came on the show in episode one fifty
Speaker 1: five as well, but go back to episode thirty six
Speaker 1: and listen to his story. It is so unlikely that
Speaker 1: this kid would make it to the pros. He had
Speaker 1: all the talent in the world. He got screwed by
Speaker 1: a doctor who messed up his surgery. He was losing
Speaker 1: all feeling in his arms, and up until twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four maybe still today, he didn't have feeling in his
Speaker 1: ring finger and his pinky on his throwing hand, which
Speaker 1: would affect a lot of his secondary pitches. Because they're
Speaker 1: fuel pitches, you got to have a good feel for it.
Speaker 1: Scott could talk about that all.
Speaker 4: That you put certain pressure points on the ball with
Speaker 4: different fingers, on different pitches. So like, yeah, if you
Speaker 4: don't have a feeling in your ring finger you're trying
Speaker 4: to spin the baseball, that could affect the the pitch overall.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this guy didn't have it. He just didn't
Speaker 1: have feeling and he worked and he grinded. And we
Speaker 1: mentioned when we saw him in the breakout game, like
Speaker 1: he could be a guy. And he just kept going
Speaker 1: and going and going. And you didn't expect him to
Speaker 1: debut this early, but my god, Scott, like he did
Speaker 1: everything he could do to help that team win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 4: I not that I didn't expect that, but like that
Speaker 4: was that was awesome and and also I'm just really happy,
Speaker 4: unfortunate that we were there to witness his debut. I
Speaker 4: think Christian Curtis is very near and dear to our hearts,
Speaker 4: being the first player to join us on Bucko banner
Speaker 4: as we were building this passion project, and you know,
Speaker 4: to see him walk on the field and know the
Speaker 4: type of guy that he is and how great of
Speaker 4: a family he comes from, I mean, it was so
Speaker 4: cool to just be there to watch him just shine
Speaker 4: and to see him just go out there with such
Speaker 4: confidence too. Man, I mean, like I think tweeted out
Speaker 4: from my account that he's pitching with the poison a
Speaker 4: vet right now. Like he did not look like a rookie.
Speaker 4: He did not look like a guy that was trying
Speaker 4: to aim the ball or be a perfectionist. He was
Speaker 4: out there throwing, and like you mentioned Braxton Ashcraft, this
Speaker 4: is a guy that came up last year. His numbers
Speaker 4: weren't sexy out of Triple A, but the stuff way
Speaker 4: believed in the guy they believed in. The same is
Speaker 4: true with Christian Curtis. This is a big league arm
Speaker 4: and I'm super excited. I don't think we've seen the
Speaker 4: last of him in Pittsburgh, and I think he's going
Speaker 4: to be a big part of the future of this organization.
Speaker 1: Really really cool. The only thing I want to talk
Speaker 1: about or touch on before we take a break and
Speaker 1: then get into our preview for the Yankees is Jacob Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: We interviewed Jacob Gonzalez Saturday morning, the newly acquired pirate
Speaker 1: that was traded for the competitive Balance pick, and Jane
Speaker 1: Woods has made his mark already with Pittsburgh and a
Speaker 1: lot of people were screaming and hollering about the trade fire,
Speaker 1: Ben Charrington, this is atrocious right now now like down
Speaker 1: with the system R E. L a X. Relaxed, let
Speaker 1: things play out. You're not a GM for a reason.
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to like, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: yell at people or or say your feelings aren't valid
Speaker 1: as Pirates fans, you're a bit jaded. I get it, okay,
Speaker 1: but that should be a quote part.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1: A guy with you know, pedigree, a first round talent who,
Speaker 1: in just based on our sources alone from people that
Speaker 1: we know that have worked with him directly, has made
Speaker 1: significant strides in the past year to be more contact oriented,
Speaker 1: get a little bit more separation with his hands, and
Speaker 1: get his hips the line. We talked about that in detail.
Speaker 1: It's going to be out on our bench banter episode
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. But my God's god, he crushed his first
Speaker 1: home run as a Pirate and then he continued to
Speaker 1: hit throughout the series.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 4: I didn't think he's st today because it splits against
Speaker 4: lefties aren't great and we're facing We faced another lefty
Speaker 4: to start today, Joey Cantello. It was a solid arm
Speaker 4: like I mentioned before, and he had some really hard
Speaker 4: hit balls. I mean he hit one to the center
Speaker 4: field warning track. It was like one hundred and seven
Speaker 4: off the bat that was caught. He also hit it
Speaker 4: was it a double. I think it was double RBI
Speaker 4: double later on in the game. But yeah, man, I mean,
Speaker 4: Gavin Williams is the power arm. He does struggle with
Speaker 4: a putty away, put away pitch against left handed batters.
Speaker 4: But he was sitting fastball. He said this in the
Speaker 4: in the post game. We talked to him in the
Speaker 4: post game. He said, he was sitting fastball and he
Speaker 4: got a hanging, breaking ball and he just got the
Speaker 4: best of it. Man. And the swing changes that we
Speaker 4: talked about with him have really shown he's hitting the
Speaker 4: ball hard. He mentioned at the end too, that when
Speaker 4: he put on the welding mask that he was, it
Speaker 4: was a little bit scary at first because it was
Speaker 4: really dark, which is pretty funny.
Speaker 1: If you go back and watch the video and he's
Speaker 1: walking down, he's just like movie. He's like, oh my god.
Speaker 4: But it all seriously, I was laughing when I was.
Speaker 4: We were video dating that as he was saying it.
Speaker 4: But great kid had a fun conversation with him. That'll
Speaker 4: be out Wednesday. You know, this could be the future
Speaker 4: third basement of this team. You know, this could be
Speaker 4: an answer in the infield. He can play all four
Speaker 4: info positions and probably a blow average runner, so I
Speaker 4: think long term he would end up on a corner anyways.
Speaker 4: But he played a fine short stop this week.
Speaker 1: Really like, he made some really nice plays, man Like
Speaker 1: it wasn't unnoticed. DK brought it up after the game, him, Gonzalez,
Speaker 1: Low Callahan, They all made really nice plays in the
Speaker 1: doubleheader and then going into Sunday as well, but just
Speaker 1: really positive, like an immediate impact, something that you knew
Speaker 1: you needed. And as the famous quote goes, f them
Speaker 1: picks right if you're gonna get a guy right now
Speaker 1: that's guaranteed to be on the major league roster, the
Speaker 1: twenty six guys that are there, and he's going to
Speaker 1: contribute and help you win ball games right now, or
Speaker 1: at least even give you a chance to win ball
Speaker 1: games right now, by all means, do it. And people
Speaker 1: wanted it to be a reliever. I get it, but
Speaker 1: you also needed this as well. You can't. You can't
Speaker 1: complain about Jared Triolo and then also complain about this.
Speaker 1: You just can't do it.
Speaker 2: You mean the Jared Triolo that we faced four times.
Speaker 1: Today, exactly, the guy that got two hits and walk twice.
Speaker 4: He was in.
Speaker 2: THEOL and everyone was crying about it. Yeah, that's exactly Jared.
Speaker 4: In all seriousness, I feel like the anger around Treolo
Speaker 4: is mostly that he comes up in big situations more
Speaker 4: often than we would hope. Like it just seems like
Speaker 4: he's up in these high leverage at bats all the time.
Speaker 4: But if you look at the season for a super
Speaker 4: utility guy compared to last year's hitting around two forty,
Speaker 4: I'll take it. I wish he had a little bit
Speaker 4: more power, but like it hasn't been a wash of
Speaker 4: a season compared to last year's offense.
Speaker 1: I want to see what he does in high leverage situations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's pull that up. And then after that, I
Speaker 4: want to get into a trade offer that Jay has.
Speaker 1: He's hitting one to fifteen.
Speaker 6: I was gonna say, I have the numbers pulled up
Speaker 6: for Triola.
Speaker 1: All right, we don't have to go into it. We
Speaker 1: don't have to go into it.
Speaker 4: Well, let's pull Ja in here real quick, because I
Speaker 4: want to talk about let's let's got more positive things
Speaker 4: Jay brought to our touch, which I actually love this offer.
Speaker 4: Talk about a potential trade offer that could maybe improve
Speaker 4: this team in the second half, especially in the bullpen.
Speaker 5: So this was tossed around by a friend of mine
Speaker 5: named Ben Uh. It's a pretty interesting trade. Met's are
Speaker 5: going to trade us Luke Weaver and aj Minter, two
Speaker 5: really powerful back end.
Speaker 2: No Mentor was healthy.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at his numbers twenty games and he's one
Speaker 4: eighty or a looks like he's having to Really he's
Speaker 4: a lefty JWO power lefty.
Speaker 5: Yeah, two guys you can immediately stick at the back
Speaker 5: of the bullpen. And the Pirates side would be Hunter, Barco,
Speaker 5: the Password and Connor Wickgriff.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: There's a lot to part with there on our side. Obviously,
Speaker 5: we like the Password and we like Connor Wickgriff quite
Speaker 5: a lot as well, and Barco seems like he has
Speaker 5: some potential too. But to me, this this feels like
Speaker 5: a move where you go all in on and just say, Okay,
Speaker 5: we're going to cut our losses here for guys that
Speaker 5: can impact us and help us now, because this is
Speaker 5: what we really need, especially because you get another year
Speaker 5: of Luke Weaver at the end of this two So
Speaker 5: it's not just a one and done.
Speaker 4: I think I say yes to this like almost immediately,
Speaker 4: and I signed the Builders.
Speaker 6: The only question I have is do the Mets say
Speaker 6: yes to this instantly?
Speaker 1: I think pass on their side a little bit because
Speaker 1: Hunter Barco is injury prone. He's injured right now. Justinson
Speaker 1: Garcia has limited major league time but has not shown
Speaker 1: that he is an everyday guy yet ton of potential there.
Speaker 1: Connor Wickgriff is probably the best guy in this deal
Speaker 1: that I would be super pumped about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 5: Do you think that the Pirates would have to add
Speaker 5: another leg to this deal? And if so, could it
Speaker 5: be like a Rule five eligible guy. I know that
Speaker 5: we've talked a lot, just in text and whatnot about
Speaker 5: moving some of these guys because the Pirates have a lot,
Speaker 5: they have a lot of decisions to make coming up
Speaker 5: with these Rule five US guys that have had good
Speaker 5: years and couldn't impact big league level.
Speaker 6: But you just can't reason with putting on the forty
Speaker 6: man right now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I for sure, I think you might
Speaker 4: have to add a leg to this. The Connor Wickriff,
Speaker 4: I think, is like, you know what you're getting with him?
Speaker 2: And I love that.
Speaker 4: I think you got more obviously more upside with the
Speaker 4: password and and Hunter Barcoe and Hunter Barco just got
Speaker 4: back to triple A.
Speaker 2: Through three innings.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yesterday, I believe so, I mean, but obviously durability
Speaker 4: is a concern there. These are two older relievers, guys
Speaker 4: hither're in their thirties. And I know Luke Weaver just
Speaker 4: signed a two year deal with the Mets. AJ Minter
Speaker 4: what's what's his deal is?
Speaker 1: It?
Speaker 2: Was it one year?
Speaker 4: Because I know this, Yeah, this is the guy we
Speaker 4: talked about, and I thought he was injured to start
Speaker 4: the season. But two, like, I think that's I think
Speaker 4: that's you could add a I would add a leg
Speaker 4: and be fine with that.
Speaker 6: Years.
Speaker 2: Two years.
Speaker 4: Okay, you probably need to add a leg. But still,
Speaker 4: these are older relievers and I think this would be great.
Speaker 4: I think you could feel comfortable about this bullpen going forward,
Speaker 4: because I would love a bullpen where.
Speaker 2: Gregory Soto is a sixth or seventh inning guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is also the two years has ended.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, this is standard two years? Okay, Well he's
Speaker 2: a free agent next year at thirty three.
Speaker 4: So but yeah, again, that point remains, like Sono this
Speaker 4: year and people have been frustrated with him because hes
Speaker 4: got what five or six blown saves. This is what
Speaker 4: Soto's always been, and this was you know, I like
Speaker 4: the signing as a power lefty, a guy that throws hard.
Speaker 4: Maybe Bill Murphy can work with him a little bit
Speaker 4: and cut down on some of those bad outings where
Speaker 4: things blow up, but this is what he's always been.
Speaker 5: He's also been putting some really tough situations too, Like
Speaker 5: asking him to get at five out save is pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 5: But that's just where you're at right now. That's just
Speaker 5: where you're at right now. You don't have a better,
Speaker 5: better way.
Speaker 1: To go with that. So rock Wall also didn't do
Speaker 1: him any favors behind the plate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was bad. That was bad.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean I think getting Gregory in like
Speaker 4: less high, high leverage situations would be ideal for this bullpen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, push everybody down the line a little bit. I
Speaker 1: say yes to this trade. And it's just a matter
Speaker 1: again if it needs to be tweaked with a little
Speaker 1: bit on our end.
Speaker 6: Do you talk money? Is Long White crazy for this?
Speaker 1: At this point, I'm so bought in to this current
Speaker 1: team and doing anything you can. I just don't want
Speaker 1: to look back on the twenty twenty sixth season and say, hey,
Speaker 1: they could have made this move, or they should have
Speaker 1: traded this guy, or they could have done this to
Speaker 1: try and help them. If it doesn't work out, it
Speaker 1: doesn't work out. I just want to say they did
Speaker 1: what they could in order to help this team win,
Speaker 1: that they provided the necessary pieces at the right time.
Speaker 1: If I can't say that, I will look back and
Speaker 1: I'll i'll moan and I'll pout about it. But right
Speaker 1: now I need to be somewhat positive that they're going
Speaker 1: to make these moves in order to at least assist
Speaker 1: a little bit in pushing this across the board. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, if this were to not work for some reason,
Speaker 4: like I would not be upset with the trade. I
Speaker 4: would be upset that and bum that it didn't work out.
Speaker 4: But I'm like, all right, I can I can rest
Speaker 4: easy saying that they went for it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And here's the deal. If the trade doesn't go well, Okay,
Speaker 1: say Louke Weaver doesn't play well, AJ Mintro doesn't play well,
Speaker 1: You'll lose them going into next year. That's fine. All
Speaker 1: you have to do is just go out and commit
Speaker 1: a crime, and then Farah Weaver and Oakin we'll get
Speaker 1: you out of jail. It's that easy. Okay, here's the pass. Okay,
Speaker 1: you commit a crime, you get a free consultation from
Speaker 1: Faraoh Weaver and Oakin because they fight for your rights,
Speaker 1: providing aggressive criminal defense and appellate representation when the stakes
Speaker 1: are highest, when it counts most experience matters. Call Faraoh
Speaker 1: Weaver and Oakin today for any of your legal needs. Disclaimer,
Speaker 1: please do not commit crimes, but if you do, call
Speaker 1: Faral Weaver and Oakin again. That's Farao Weaver and okin.
Speaker 2: Incredible, incredible, that's so good.
Speaker 1: Why don't we talk about the Yankees.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's talk about.
Speaker 4: The Pirates left Cleveland after the game just like we did,
Speaker 4: but we came back to Pittsburgh.
Speaker 2: We did not head further east New York City.
Speaker 4: They're gonna go face the Yankees, the second team in
Speaker 4: the Al Eas right now. They're entering fifty four and
Speaker 4: forty four. They lost to the Dodgers day. I guess
Speaker 4: if you're looking for a positive, they just got banged
Speaker 4: up by the Dodgers a little bit. Coming out of
Speaker 4: the All Star break, and we're avoiding Cam Schlitler this week.
Speaker 4: It's gonna start tomorrow with our dog, Brax and Ashcraft
Speaker 4: versus Ryan Weathers, third left in a row. We faced
Speaker 4: Logan Allen, we faced Joey Cantaella. Now Ryan Weathers. This
Speaker 4: Ryan Weathers three and seven with a four to fifteen
Speaker 4: R eight this year ninety seven to two innings, two
Speaker 4: thirds innings, pitch one under ten ks. There's a four
Speaker 4: scene change sweeper, sink or slider. He's comfortable attacking both
Speaker 4: right he's and lefties. He has above average change up
Speaker 4: that allows him to neutralize right handed bats. He generates
Speaker 4: ground balls when his sinker is working. But the big
Speaker 4: problem with him has always been durability. This is a
Speaker 4: guy that has been tried in the bullpen or in
Speaker 4: long relief roles, even an eye lever trolls and is
Speaker 4: now a starter with the Yankees. Durability has been a concern.
Speaker 4: He's not a soft tossing left. This is guy's gonna
Speaker 4: pump it up ninety six ninety seven from the left side. Uh,
Speaker 4: you know, don't let him beat the don't let him
Speaker 4: get you at the bottom of the zone and beat
Speaker 4: the ball into the ground. But this will be a
Speaker 4: fun matchup, guys, fun matchup between him and Ashcraft.
Speaker 1: And then Tuesday you got Bubba Chandler VERSU right handed
Speaker 1: pitcher Will Warren. This year, Warren is seven and four
Speaker 1: with a four h three ERA in nineteen games ninety
Speaker 1: eight in a third innings pitch ninety six k's with
Speaker 1: a one to three six whip. The arsenal you're going
Speaker 1: five pitch mix allows him to navigate the lineup multiple times.
Speaker 1: That includes the four seamer, sinker, sweeper change curveball. Above
Speaker 1: average strike throwing and willingness to attack the zone generates
Speaker 1: a decent number of ground balls with the sinker changeup combination.
Speaker 1: He doesn't possess a true putaway pitch against elite hitters
Speaker 1: despite the deep arsenal, so strikeouts often come after sequencing
Speaker 1: rather than overpower powering stuff. The fastball is susceptible to
Speaker 1: hard contact due to lack of bats and missing traits,
Speaker 1: So you got to attack him early on. And this
Speaker 1: is somebody that the Pirates can definitely thrive against.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think this is a matchup I'm looking forward to.
Speaker 4: I think this is a guy that can jump on early.
Speaker 4: But let's go to Wednesday, Mitch Keller is to get
Speaker 4: right game for him against old friend and Vett Garrett Cole.
Speaker 4: Garrett Coles since returning to the league three and five
Speaker 4: with a three nine three ERA, fifty five innings, fifty
Speaker 4: five k's and one one six whip. We'll throw the
Speaker 4: forcing slider, change, curve, sinker at you, forcing almost fifty
Speaker 4: percent at the time. He's still up in the ninety
Speaker 4: six to ninety eight range. Elite strike thrower. He gets
Speaker 4: ahead consistently generates plenty of swings and misses with elevated
Speaker 4: fastballs and sliders below the zone. Don't chase those excellent
Speaker 4: sequencing and exploiting hitters weaknesses. Like most power pitchers, mistakes
Speaker 4: left over the middle of the plate can be hit hard,
Speaker 4: And boy am I.
Speaker 2: Excited to see this Pirates offense again.
Speaker 4: Scare cool because I think this is a guy that
Speaker 4: could hit hard with those mistake pitches if they come.
Speaker 1: Also at a Yankee stadium, which is just a Mickey
Speaker 1: Mouse ballpark.
Speaker 2: Makes you really want to see O'Neil Cruz, Spencer Horowitz.
Speaker 1: Huh, it really does, it really does. But you got
Speaker 1: Brandon Lowe, you got Ryan O'Hearn, Yeah, it's Marilyn Valdez.
Speaker 1: I'm pumped about this team. Man, It's it's really exciting.
Speaker 4: I told Adam walking out of Progressive Field today that
Speaker 4: you know, last year, with this team going into the
Speaker 4: behemoth that is Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, that I
Speaker 4: would have felt nervous because these are young guys, they're inexperienced,
Speaker 4: Like the offense just wasn't even remotely the same as
Speaker 4: it is this year. But this year they're going in
Speaker 4: there with Brandon Low and Rhin Ohearn, two vets, two
Speaker 4: season vets that have experienced in the al at Al East,
Speaker 4: experience in this type of environment. They've got season vets
Speaker 4: that they haven't had before. And you know, I think
Speaker 4: they're gonna give the Yankees a run for their money
Speaker 4: because I don't know about how many teams are better
Speaker 4: than the Pirates in the AL. I really don't call
Speaker 4: me crazy, but I don't think you can name I
Speaker 4: don't think you can name five teams in the AL
Speaker 4: that are better than the Pirates.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think you're crazy. I'm gonna validate
Speaker 1: your feelings right now. I don't think you're crazy at all. Hey,
Speaker 1: If you want all these matchups and breakdowns and whatnot,
Speaker 1: all you have to do is go to Bucko Banter
Speaker 1: dot com, put your email in it send, go to
Speaker 1: your email, opt in and you'll get all this in
Speaker 1: more every single series. This episode is also brought to
Speaker 1: you by sports card Junction. Every card that we give
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Speaker 1: ninety eleven Harry Highway, Basketball, Baseball, football, hockey, soccer, Pokemon,
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Speaker 1: We're back from Cleveland. We got a little bit of
Speaker 1: an away series here in the Bronx, and then we
Speaker 1: come back for yinzer Palooza weekend against the Cubs, another
Speaker 1: massive series. We say it every episode. Let's make a
Speaker 1: habit of it. One game at a time, one game
Speaker 1: at a time. I think the fresh faces will come.
Speaker 1: We'll get some moves here soon. I think the wheels
Speaker 1: are in motion. Hope to god they are. But this
Speaker 1: offense man is so fun to watch it. It makes
Speaker 1: me happy to watch baseball like, I'm pumped about it.
Speaker 1: I can't. I haven't said that many days in my lifetime.
Speaker 1: Besides just playing myself, watching baseball generally has been an
Speaker 1: excruciating experience for me. Now it's not now anything can happen,
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited. I'm excited for us, I'm excited
Speaker 1: for the guys. I'm excited for the fan base to
Speaker 1: play meaningful baseball right now on July nineteenth and moving forward.
Speaker 1: And let's just keep the train moving, man.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, let's do that.
Speaker 4: They will be in New York until Wednesday, and then
Speaker 4: we have Thursday off, Friday through Sunday, like you said,
Speaker 4: begins or Palooza. The Cubs are coming to town, so
Speaker 4: we will be back at PNC Park. Excited to get
Speaker 4: back there after the U All Star break. But until then, boys,
Speaker 4: let's uh, let's do a little hoisting.
Speaker 1: Huh toist it be.
Speaker 3: Thiefs at the parents and they let me run the base. Yeah.
Speaker 3: My time is like my money because I can't afford
Speaker 3: to waste. Oh wife, hears a lloyan, take my date
Speaker 3: to my dates or the stick by the plate, Synick