Speaker 1: Hey, we have Pennsylvania's finest with us, the great Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer Jason Stark, joining us right now. Jason, great
Speaker 1: to have you on. Good to see you, and I
Speaker 1: can see the look on your face. To me, the
Speaker 1: look is I just took a deep breath and finished
Speaker 1: putting out my epic article about my thoughts on awards.
Speaker 1: So how do you feel now that you put quote
Speaker 1: penda paper and it's released to the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a relief to actually get that thing written.
Speaker 2: It's not a relief to actually read the comments because
Speaker 2: you guys know how this works. When you make picks.
Speaker 2: I feel like ninety nine percent of America disagrees with
Speaker 2: every pick. Like there's sniping about how could you leave
Speaker 2: how could you put this guy in the tenth slot
Speaker 2: in your al MVP. Right, So that's kind of the
Speaker 2: fun of it, the debate. But it's overwhelming how people
Speaker 2: react to every little picky. Why we do this.
Speaker 3: We won't react to your ninth and tenth pick. We're
Speaker 3: going to just react to the standard ones, but as
Speaker 3: soon because it's fresh. When the when the article came out,
Speaker 3: did you ever did you get any comments that you
Speaker 3: were like, dang it, How could I have forgotten that
Speaker 3: point even though it may not have swayed? Why you
Speaker 3: made the pick? Did anybody make any solid points? Or
Speaker 3: was it just like? How on earth could you not
Speaker 3: put Ellie Daya Cruz in here? Mom shot wrong?
Speaker 2: Yeah? All right, Well we're just going to talk about
Speaker 2: who won. I would say nobody has raised anything that
Speaker 2: I hadn't thought about, because I'll be honest, man, I
Speaker 2: give this so much thought. I really try to think
Speaker 2: about everything, so I'm ready for that stuff. And I
Speaker 2: don't even have an actual vote on al MVP. But
Speaker 2: it was hard to sleep for a few nights there
Speaker 2: just thinking it through because I really wanted to vote
Speaker 2: for cal Raleigh. I wanted to pick that guy. I
Speaker 2: couldn't get there. I thought I would, but when I
Speaker 2: really looked at it, I couldn't get there. And I
Speaker 2: feel awful about that part. So that's not a thought
Speaker 2: process situation. That's just purely my emotions as someone who
Speaker 2: appreciates something special, something historic, something great, but didn't vote
Speaker 2: for that guy who did that thing.
Speaker 3: Why couldn't you get there? And how close did you
Speaker 3: get there? Like what factors made you get that close?
Speaker 3: But why couldn't you quite get there.
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't a catcher for a living. I'm thinking
Speaker 2: that's probably one of your criteria. But I actually went
Speaker 2: into the process thinking I'm going to pick cal Raleigh.
Speaker 2: I'm going to make sure I talk myself into cal Raleigh.
Speaker 2: And then I couldn't do it. See, when we talk
Speaker 2: about history, it's a lot easier to follow history when
Speaker 2: you're counting home runs. Cal Rawly has hit sixty home runs.
Speaker 2: We all know it. It's a special number in the
Speaker 2: history of the game. It's a special number in our lifetimes.
Speaker 2: We know what sixty homers means. But there are other
Speaker 2: ways to make history. And you know, are we numb
Speaker 2: to how good at baseball Aaron Judges. This is a
Speaker 2: guy with a two to ten OPS plus. He is
Speaker 2: literally twice as good as the average player in his sport.
Speaker 2: And when I started looking at the gap between Judge
Speaker 2: and the next best hitter in his league, this was staggering.
Speaker 2: Man on base he's sixty five points ahead. Slugging, he's
Speaker 2: almost ninety points ahead OPS one hundred and seventy seven
Speaker 2: points ahead of cal Raley. And I went back and
Speaker 2: this took a long time. I thought to myself, how
Speaker 2: often could anybody have done this? Like? Who has had
Speaker 2: this season? So I went back. This is the ninety
Speaker 2: fifth season of MVP voting. In all that time, Eric,
Speaker 2: only two guys have had that big margin over the
Speaker 2: next best player in their league. I'm thinking you've heard
Speaker 2: of them. Ted Williams is one, Barry Bonds is the other.
Speaker 2: Now that's a form of history we don't keep track of.
Speaker 2: But wow, right that.
Speaker 3: Is that is and that's what we're doing. We're comparing
Speaker 3: they're not. You're not comparing Aaron Judge to the average
Speaker 3: player or cal Raley to the average player. You're comparing
Speaker 3: them to cal Rally to Aaron Judge. But yeah, what
Speaker 3: that's exactly right. What is your decision because in your
Speaker 3: article you said, I'm not going to make my vote
Speaker 3: until the season is over. Cal gets to sixty three?
Speaker 3: What say you, mister Stark?
Speaker 2: Look, I had to write this column for today, and
Speaker 2: right now, this minute, I think I wouldn't change my mind.
Speaker 2: But stuff can always happen that changes my mind. Like
Speaker 2: I'll know it if I see it. I'll know what
Speaker 2: if I feel it. Right now, I think that I
Speaker 2: got this right. I can tell you that if cal
Speaker 2: Raley was in the National League and I was debating
Speaker 2: Raleigh versus o'tani or Schwoerber or Soto or whoever else
Speaker 2: you want to put as the main competition, I would
Speaker 2: have gone cal Raleigh in the National League. But I
Speaker 2: don't get to make that choice.
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Speaker 5: Interesting. I love all your answers. They're so intricate, and
Speaker 5: you have a smile on your face when you do it.
Speaker 5: It's just incredible. I kind of wish you can go
Speaker 5: down the line and ask, like other ballplayers what they
Speaker 5: thought to kind of not sway you one way or another,
Speaker 5: but the feel like this is what these ballplayers feel like.
Speaker 5: Now on contraria, another guy Christopher Sanchez, he's one in
Speaker 5: the nl CY Young No, what say you there?
Speaker 2: I think the answer is no. You know, I picked
Speaker 2: Paul Skins. And if you're asking me, is there a
Speaker 2: case for Christopher Sanchez? There is definitely a case. But
Speaker 2: what is it? Where would you look at Sanchez versus
Speaker 2: schemes and say the answer is Sanchez other than what
Speaker 2: Baseball Reference wins above replacement and that is essentially a tie.
Speaker 2: Last I looked they were separated by what was it
Speaker 2: a tenth of a point? On under a point? That's
Speaker 2: a tie. Look at everything else, e er strikeouts, strikeout,
Speaker 2: ray Whip. Tell me where Christopher Sanchez would get your
Speaker 2: vote over Paul Skins.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, no, I wanted to hear what you had
Speaker 5: to say to that. That's why I was being funny.
Speaker 5: You know, think about this debate.
Speaker 2: If Paul Skins pitched for a normal team, you know,
Speaker 2: he pitched for a team where he could actually win
Speaker 2: a game where he gave up more than one run
Speaker 2: that did not happen to him this year, what would
Speaker 2: he have been like eighteen and three. We wouldn't even
Speaker 2: blink twice. But because he's ten to ten, he's gonna
Speaker 2: be the first starting pitcher to ever win this award
Speaker 2: without having a winning record. But how exactly is that
Speaker 2: his fault?
Speaker 3: Felix Hernandez almost almost did it, But yeah he was.
Speaker 3: He was kind of in the same situation American League,
Speaker 3: Cy Young. Is it cut and dry or should we
Speaker 3: look a little bit deeper into the other two candidates?
Speaker 3: I really only think there's one. It's Scooble and Crochet
Speaker 3: with Todd's Yankee love to Max freed in the back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Crochet is amazing. I love watching that guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is the first year where I've ever
Speaker 2: actually had a chance to talk to him, and I
Speaker 2: really I love the way he thinks about not just pitching,
Speaker 2: but being a number one that's really important to him.
Speaker 2: He really accepts that responsibility. But there's something about Tarrek
Speaker 2: scubel Man that just separates him from everybody else. And
Speaker 2: when I watch him, here's that thing. He's that rare
Speaker 2: guy in our sport who has no fear of the bat.
Speaker 2: He doesn't fear anyone or anything, and all he does
Speaker 2: is fill up the strike zone and nobody can hit him.
Speaker 2: You know, this is the most simple way to explain
Speaker 2: that he throws the highest percentage of pitches inside the
Speaker 2: strike zone of any starting pitcher in the sport, and
Speaker 2: yet the contact rate against pitches he throws in the
Speaker 2: strike zone is the lowest of any starting pitcher in
Speaker 2: the sport. Who does that? I can find anybody like,
Speaker 2: there's some Randy Johnson had some close calls, and Pedro
Speaker 2: had some close calls. But in the twenty I think
Speaker 2: it's twenty two years at sports Info Solutions has kept this.
Speaker 2: I couldn't find anyone with that higher percentage of pitches
Speaker 2: in the zone and that lower contact rate in the zone.
Speaker 2: He's amazing to me. And it all starts with that.
Speaker 1: Jason, give us something else that you really enjoyed writing about,
Speaker 1: award Wise within the article, tell me.
Speaker 2: Who the American League Manager of the Year is. I
Speaker 2: don't have an answer for you on that one. I've
Speaker 2: changed my mind seven times this month. What's What's what's
Speaker 2: the right answer?
Speaker 4: M guys? What do you think?
Speaker 1: Todd Kratz, Do you guys have an answer?
Speaker 5: I would say I would go I'm just drawing a
Speaker 5: blank here, but I go with the Mariners manager the
Speaker 5: way the way they Wilson.
Speaker 1: That's a good pick. And I think John Schneider is
Speaker 1: a good pick too with the Jays. Kratz, what do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: You gotta go with your first ever roommate we snored together.
Speaker 5: This is why, this is why he can never vote
Speaker 5: on anything, because.
Speaker 2: It actually don't don't we think the answer is steven
Speaker 2: vote if they complete this comeback, and that would mean
Speaker 2: it would be the first year in the history of
Speaker 2: manager the year voting that the same two guys won
Speaker 2: two years in a row. I mean, I think that's
Speaker 2: where it would wind up. But it's impossible, always impossible.
Speaker 2: Manager of the Year never been more impossible than this.
Speaker 3: Wow, all right, we'll give it to us. You got
Speaker 3: one vote this year. You're n L m VP.
Speaker 2: I've got n L m VP, and you're not gonna
Speaker 2: get me to give this up. He's not allowed.
Speaker 3: Can you give us the top What what you see
Speaker 3: as the domineering traits of the guys that are in
Speaker 3: the top five for the n L m VP.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I did write a lot about that show. Hey,
Speaker 2: Otani guy just amazing to me how good he is
Speaker 2: at so many things before we even get into the
Speaker 2: pitching part where he's got a higher strikeout rate than
Speaker 2: Paul Skein's. Okay, so there's that. But then when you
Speaker 2: start ticking through the other candidates, kylesh Schwarber, what's the
Speaker 2: metric that measures Kyle Schwarber. I'm always afraid that my
Speaker 2: fellow voters are hung up on wins above replacement when
Speaker 2: they vote, and that's all they look at. And so
Speaker 2: no DH is ever going to be that guy who
Speaker 2: blows you away in the winds above replacement column. And
Speaker 2: yet the value of Kyle Schwarber exceeds is wins above replacement,
Speaker 2: It exceeds fifty six homers. He's the man on that team,
Speaker 2: one of the best teams in the sport, and we
Speaker 2: should all keep that in mind. I looked long and
Speaker 2: hard about Juan Soto because he's having a year between
Speaker 2: the on base, the power, and all the stolen bases
Speaker 2: that only Barry Bonds has had. And I don't know
Speaker 2: exactly where he lands on the ballot, but it's going
Speaker 2: to be high no matter what happens to the Mets.
Speaker 2: And then Herald Perdomo is a guy. I think it's
Speaker 2: clear now. We don't talk talk about him enough. I
Speaker 2: know it's not true in this show, but if you
Speaker 2: ask me who's the most underrated player in baseball right
Speaker 2: now today as we're talking, I think he's the answer.
Speaker 2: So I'd probably start with those four guys. But it's
Speaker 2: never easy to vote of these awards. That's a great call.
Speaker 4: I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think Perdomo's the most underrated player in the sport
Speaker 1: right now for what he's putting together. I got one
Speaker 1: more for you on the awards, and we'll finish with
Speaker 1: the clinching scenarios for you. I love that you do
Speaker 1: the LVP and the sayyuk. I know it's not always
Speaker 1: easy to put that together, but hey, we're analyzing the league,
Speaker 1: the good and the bad. I'll mostly leave it for
Speaker 1: people to actually check out the article. But can you'd
Speaker 1: give me one out of the four that you picked out?
Speaker 2: Yeah? The lvps were especially hard this year, and I
Speaker 2: could not settle on an American League Least Valuable Player.
Speaker 2: You know, I had a few that I did the
Speaker 2: work on, including reaching out to executives on their team,
Speaker 2: you know, because so of course they all talk me
Speaker 2: out of it. And then I made this incredible discovery
Speaker 2: that the starting center fielder in the All Star Game
Speaker 2: for the American League, jave Baiez, has been the worst
Speaker 2: offensive player in the American League since that day. This
Speaker 2: guy has walked one time since June twenty fourth guys,
Speaker 2: one time. He's got a fifty to two to one
Speaker 2: strikeout to walk ratio and a weighted runs created plus
Speaker 2: since the break. Are you ready? Of thirty two thirty two,
Speaker 2: the average player in his league is three times better
Speaker 2: than he's been in the second half. And I didn't
Speaker 2: want to pick on him, even though I've given him
Speaker 2: this award before. But when his team is in the
Speaker 2: midst of this epical collapse, picking Hobby Baiaz kind of
Speaker 2: makes him the symbol of that collapse. Not to say
Speaker 2: he's waiting for it, but that's how I got there.
Speaker 5: A lot of scenarios going on this weekend here, which
Speaker 5: one you more intrigued on? I mean, you know the
Speaker 5: Yankees and the Blue Jays. You know, whoever loses is
Speaker 5: gonna find his way to be the top team in
Speaker 5: the AL.
Speaker 2: You got the Tigers, you got the Red Sox.
Speaker 5: One of those teams could be essentially kicked to the
Speaker 5: curb if they lose two out of three and Houston wins.
Speaker 5: Talk to me about this weekend and what you think, man,
Speaker 5: this is this is gonna be a fun, fun weekend.
Speaker 2: Se you guys root for chaos? I do, yeah, big time.
Speaker 2: So I have an article on the athletics site just
Speaker 2: posted talking about the potential tiebreaker chaos, And so I
Speaker 2: did this just because I was confused myself. So I
Speaker 2: started writing down on every possible scenario, and then it
Speaker 2: came to me we could have a four way tie.
Speaker 2: There aren't four spots left, but the Guardians, the Tigers,
Speaker 2: the Red Sox, and the Astros could all wind up
Speaker 2: with the same record. And I thought I knew how
Speaker 2: everything worked, but I wasn't a hundred percent sure at
Speaker 2: a check with Major League Baseball on that. But like,
Speaker 2: think about it, couldn't you see the Astros sweeping the
Speaker 2: Angels in Anaheim? I could? Couldn't you see the Tigers
Speaker 2: and Guardians both winning two or three this weekend, which
Speaker 2: would mean the Red Sox would win one out of three.
Speaker 2: If that happens, they all have the same record. So
Speaker 2: you want to know how we'd sorted out. I figured
Speaker 2: it out. First thing we do, we would break the
Speaker 2: tie in the Al Central. The Guardians hold that tie
Speaker 2: breaker won the season series from the Tigers. And then
Speaker 2: we've got a three way tie with the Reds, Tigers,
Speaker 2: and Astros, but only for two spots, the two and
Speaker 2: three wild card spots. The Astros would go home. And
Speaker 2: I mean that's based on mutual head to head records
Speaker 2: against each other. But I'm going to give you a
Speaker 2: rule of thumb as we head into this weekend. This
Speaker 2: is tiebreakers in fifteen seconds in the American League, the
Speaker 2: Astros lose every possible tiebreaker in the National League, the
Speaker 2: Reds win every possible tiebreaker. I have a much longer
Speaker 2: article that explains every possibility here, but just keep that
Speaker 2: in your head because that'll help you sort this out.
Speaker 3: All right, quick answer from you on this one. Do
Speaker 3: you regret writing the article part way through the year
Speaker 3: about cal Raley and me being parallel players or has
Speaker 3: it really come to fruition like you thought it was
Speaker 3: going to.
Speaker 2: You know, I thought at the time it was almost
Speaker 2: impossible to separate you guys. I'm thinking now he may
Speaker 2: have done that about you. You still think you guys
Speaker 2: are bonded.
Speaker 3: I think we're still together. I think we have a
Speaker 3: lot in common. We both have big butts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Betted power threats.
Speaker 3: I love that. I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a different award category Jason hasn't gotten yet.
Speaker 1: Maybe one day, Jason. This was awesome. Great to catch
Speaker 1: up with you. Glad you got the article out for
Speaker 1: the world to absorb and attack and do whatever they do.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the final weekend. I am with you. My favorite
Speaker 1: team in baseball is chaos, so this is perfect for
Speaker 1: us this weekend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it, guys. Always fun to appear on
Speaker 2: foul territory