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Speaker 1: That's incredible. Does it make him the greatest right handed

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Speaker 1: hitter of all time? I think there are some other

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Speaker 1: players who might want to join the conversation. Welcome everyone

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Speaker 1: into the Monday edition of Fair Territory, the first show

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Speaker 1: of the season, with the season actually in full progress,

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Speaker 1: and of course over the weekend we had a lot

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Speaker 1: of interesting things happen. I'm going to get to some

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Speaker 1: of the great performances that we've already seen from some

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Speaker 1: great players, and a performance from one great player that

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Speaker 1: hasn't gone exactly well.

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Speaker 2: But first I want.

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Speaker 1: To get into the controversy of the day, or should

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Speaker 1: I call it the stupid controversy of the day. This

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Speaker 1: revolves around the torpedo bats, the new bats actually not

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Speaker 1: even so new that some of the Yankees were using that.

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Speaker 1: Michael Kay, their broadcaster, pointed out on their broadcast during

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Speaker 1: that wild game on Saturday, the nine homer game in

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Speaker 1: which the Yankees came within one home run of the

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Speaker 1: Major League Now you might have seen in the aftermath

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Speaker 1: a quote from Brewer's pitcher Trevor McGill. This made its

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Speaker 1: way around the Internet and social media yesterday, and Trevor

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Speaker 1: McGill was quoted as saying it's the Yankees, so they'll

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Speaker 1: let it slide, referring, of course, to the redesigned bats.

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Speaker 2: Trevor McGill, if I'm not.

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Speaker 1: Mistaken, later said he was taken out of contact and misquoted. Whatever.

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Speaker 2: A lot of other.

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Speaker 1: People on the internet chimed in with similar reactions, including

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Speaker 1: Dave Portnoy, the head of Barstool Sports, you.

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Speaker 2: Heard this all day long Saturday and Sunday. Uh oh,

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Speaker 2: what are the Yankees doing?

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's something illegal, the usual conspiracy theory garbage that

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Speaker 1: we get on social media. So let me point out

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Speaker 1: one that Major League Baseball came out immediately and said

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Speaker 1: these bats were legal. And let me point out too,

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Speaker 1: and most important, because no one's gonna believe major League

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Speaker 1: Baseball of course, because why not start another conspiracy pointing

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Speaker 1: out too that, oh, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Every other team seems.

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Speaker 1: To be doing this as well, or at least a

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Speaker 1: number of teams and a number of players.

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Speaker 2: Let's start.

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Speaker 1: Let's go right in rapid fire through the Al East

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Speaker 1: Baltimore Orioles.

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Speaker 2: Did the Baltimore Orioles use torpedo bats?

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Speaker 1: Uh? Ools Heading coach Kody Ashley says a couple of

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Speaker 1: their players have dabbled with the torpedo bats that the

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Speaker 1: Yankees used in their nine homer game. Pretty good business,

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Speaker 1: right there, right, all right, that's the Baltimore Orioles.

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Speaker 2: Let's go to the next one.

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Speaker 1: This would be hm, the Tampa Bay Rays. Oh yes,

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Speaker 1: raised Junior Karen Aarrow confirmed he was using one of

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Speaker 1: those torpedo style bats that are suddenly all the rage

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Speaker 1: during his pinchhit appearance. Mark Topkin of the Tampa Bay

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Speaker 1: Times later added Yondi Diaz was using the bats as well.

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Speaker 1: All right, here we go with the Toronto Blue Jays,

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Speaker 1: another team in the Al East. David Schneider, who has

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Speaker 1: used a torpedo bat and will continue to use the

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Speaker 1: torpedo bats, said it's a big ass barrel, and I

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Speaker 1: like big barrels. So let's see, that's three teams in

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Speaker 1: the Al East besides the Yankees. Alex Korra, the Red

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Speaker 1: Sox man, was quoted as saying, you know what, our

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Speaker 1: guys tried them in spring and some of them didn't

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Speaker 1: like them, so they're not using them. This is just

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Speaker 1: a way of redistributing the weight of a bat to

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Speaker 1: give the hitter a better chance to hit it on

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Speaker 1: the sweet spot. There is nothing illegal about it. And

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Speaker 1: this is the kind of stuff again that circulates only

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Speaker 1: in this day and age, only in this age of

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Speaker 1: social media, where everyone is an expert, everyone has an opinion,

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Speaker 1: and very few people are actually informed.

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Speaker 2: I want to go back now also just to.

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Speaker 1: Refer to a story that I wrote two years ago now,

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Speaker 1: and this was about Austin Riley visiting the Maruchi bat

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Speaker 1: factory in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And you see, it's inside

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Speaker 1: the high tech hitting labs where Austin Riley and other

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Speaker 1: MLB stars test their bats. And in that story I

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Speaker 1: explained how baseball players now are doing what golfers doing,

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Speaker 1: getting bats fitted for them, similar to what golfers do

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Speaker 1: when they get their clubs fitted to them and their

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Speaker 1: specific deeds and styles or whatever. Well, in that story

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Speaker 1: I dealt with the hockey puck knobs, which are those

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Speaker 1: new handles that came out a few years ago which

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Speaker 1: several players continue to use. That was another modification of

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Speaker 1: the bat that people use and was perfectly legal. Folks,

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Speaker 1: calm down, stop with the insanity, stop with the stupidity.

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Speaker 1: This was perfectly legal. Lots of players are using torpedo bats.

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Speaker 1: Lots of players are going to continue to use them,

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Speaker 1: and like a lot of other technological advancements in the sport,

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Speaker 1: they're designed to help players. That's what we want, the

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Speaker 1: players performing at their best. Nothing illegal about them, nothing corked,

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Speaker 1: nothing doctored.

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Speaker 2: In any bad way at all.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's get back.

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Speaker 2: To the field.

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Speaker 1: Let's get to the real stuff, the actual baseball that.

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Speaker 2: Occurred over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: And I want to talk about three huge stars in

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Speaker 1: the game and their performances. Start with Let's see Juan Soto.

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Speaker 1: Let's start with him. Wan Soda opening day, strikes out

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Speaker 1: against Josh in the ninth inning. Kind of a weird

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Speaker 1: swing for Wan Soto against the Haters slider looked like

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Speaker 1: a really weak hack, the kind that you rarely ever

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Speaker 1: see Sodo take. Well, what happens the next day he

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Speaker 1: comes back, He's facing Hunter Brown of the Astros, and

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Speaker 1: he notices Hunter Brown against the Mets other left handed hitters,

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Speaker 1: Jesse Winker and Brett Batty was kind of going with

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Speaker 1: cutters and doing some things that Soto picked up on,

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Speaker 1: and he noticed that Hunter Brown was throwing those.

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Speaker 2: Pitches to those hitters.

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Speaker 1: The cutters to the left handed hitters, and Sodo picked

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Speaker 1: up on this, and Sodo thought, Okay, that's what I'm

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Speaker 1: going to sit on. Well what resulted his first hold

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Speaker 1: run as a New York Met. Now, this is typical

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Speaker 1: of Sodo. He is among the most talented.

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Speaker 2: Hitters in the game.

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Speaker 1: Besides that, and among the most disciplined hitters. Besides that,

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Speaker 1: he is one of the smartest hitters. Mets hitting coach

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Speaker 1: Jeremy Barnes told me that he basically is playing three

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Speaker 1: dimensional chess up there, and that was an example of that.

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Speaker 1: Instead Saturday's game, the third game of the series, Hater

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Speaker 1: and Sodo were added again.

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Speaker 2: In ninth inning, Hater.

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Speaker 1: Threw him six straight sliders, walk Sodo off to his

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Speaker 1: usual good start. This guy is an amazing player, but

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Speaker 1: he's not the only one. Of course. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: after a quick word from our friends at foul Territory, Alana.

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Speaker 3: We love our pups dearly, and we want to shout

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Speaker 3: out Spot and Tango for taking care of our pups

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Speaker 3: with their unkibble. They are a game changer.

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Speaker 4: A game changer is right, Scott. And you know anything

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Speaker 4: about me, you know that I love dogs and I

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Speaker 4: want them to live forever. My own rescue pup, Bentley

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Speaker 4: is my passion and she loves Spot and Tango. Thank goodness.

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Speaker 4: It's one hundred percent human great ingredients, so you know

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Speaker 4: exactly what your dog is getting. Oftentimes, in other forms

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Speaker 4: of dog food, you have no idea what's in it.

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Speaker 4: It's a bunch of fillers. She loves it. It helps

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Speaker 4: keep her healthy. It's perfectly customized for her age, her breed,

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Speaker 4: her weight, and her level of activity. Makes me happy

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Speaker 4: to give it to her, And.

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Speaker 2: You don't have to go to the store. They'll deliver

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Speaker 2: it right to your door.

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Speaker 3: for fifty percent off your first order one more time

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Speaker 2: Let's also talk about Mookie Bets.

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Speaker 1: Now, Mookie Bets, you've read about him. He lost weight

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Speaker 1: because of his stomach alement, dropped from one seventy five

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Speaker 1: to one fifty five. Now lookie at one seventy five

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Speaker 1: is not exactly the biggest guy in the world to

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Speaker 1: begin with, and when he dropped to one fifty five,

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Speaker 1: of course, he did not play the two games in Japan.

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Speaker 1: He was questionable for the Dodgers opener, but returned to

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Speaker 1: the field and played Opening Day and then in his

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Speaker 1: second game Friday night, home run in the eighth inning,

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Speaker 1: three run walk off homer in the tenth two homers

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Speaker 1: for Mookie Bets in his second game back.

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Speaker 2: He still didn't weigh one seventy five is full weight.

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Speaker 1: He was about one sixty five in his estimation, and

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Speaker 1: yet he did this, and you saw how emotional he

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Speaker 1: was going around the bases. This for Mookie is pretty demonstrative,

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Speaker 1: I'll say it that way.

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Speaker 2: And why was he.

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Speaker 1: Demonstrative, because, of course he had been so frustrated with

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Speaker 1: the weight loss and everything he was going through, and

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Speaker 1: he was happy to be back being Mookie Bets again,

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Speaker 1: even ten pounds down. Mookie Bets does a lot of

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Speaker 1: remarkable things on a baseball field. Friday night was one

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Speaker 1: of them. And finally I have to mention, oh, mister

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Speaker 1: Aaron Judge. Three home runs Saturday, including the grand Slam

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Speaker 1: and the Yankees nine homer eruption another home run on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: His OPS is something like two point.

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Speaker 2: Five zero zero right around there. He already leads the

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Speaker 2: major leagues in ops. He is just an amazing player.

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Speaker 1: And Joel Sherman wrote an interesting column of The New

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Speaker 1: York Post over the weekend, saying, you know what, with

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Speaker 1: Soto and all the talk about him, you kind of

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Speaker 1: forget how good Aaron Judge is. Now on the other

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Speaker 1: side of the spectrum, he got another big star off

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Speaker 1: to a horrible start. Of course, I'm talking about Raphael Devers.

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Speaker 1: His numbers are astonishing, oh for sixteen, twelve strikeouts. Now,

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Speaker 1: with all of this, you have to remember it's early

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Speaker 1: in the season, and these sample sizes are ridiculously small,

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Speaker 1: and you have to remember as well, with Devers, he's

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Speaker 1: gone through these funks before. Maybe not oh for sixteen

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Speaker 1: with twelve strikeouts, but.

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Speaker 2: Probably he has.

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Speaker 1: He has had periods in his career where he just

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Speaker 1: looks absolutely lost. I am quite confident he will come

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Speaker 1: out of it. But the issue now with Devers is, Okay,

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Speaker 1: he's at a new spot. He's dhing for the first

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Speaker 1: time full time.

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Speaker 2: In his career.

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Speaker 1: Can he become and still be the player that he

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Speaker 1: was as a third baseman. That question is going to

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Speaker 1: hang over Devers until he starts hitting again, which I

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Speaker 1: fully anticipate he will. And the Red Sox you can

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Speaker 1: see why now they wanted this alignment. Devors at DH,

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Speaker 1: Alex Bregman at Third Christian Campbell at Second Christian Campbell

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Speaker 1: is really good. They knew he was really good, and

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Speaker 1: this is why they aligned it this way. Devers is

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Speaker 1: going to have to get used to this. He will

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Speaker 1: get used to it. Dhing is not an easy thing

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Speaker 1: to do. I've talked with David Ortiz about this other

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Speaker 1: dhs over the years, and they will tell you you've

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Speaker 1: got to develop a routine. You've got to get to

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Speaker 1: a point where you're comfortable in that spot.

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Speaker 2: It will happen for ol Field Devers.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it will happen the way it

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Speaker 1: did for Mookie and Judge and Soto. But again, one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons we love this sport is watching great

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Speaker 1: players do great things. And a lot of great things

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Speaker 1: happened over the weekend.

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Speaker 2: Well well, well, time now.

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Speaker 1: For the inside Dish, the part of the show where

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Speaker 1: I talk about maybe a story I've written, a trend

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Speaker 1: in the game, or something from my deep dark past.

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Speaker 1: And I'm going to go to the deep dark past today.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about a game from nineteen eighty

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Speaker 1: seven again that.

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Speaker 2: Came to my mind over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: As I watched the Yankees nearly tie the record from

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Speaker 1: most home runs in a game by a single team.

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Speaker 1: I was at the game in which the record was set,

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Speaker 1: happened in nineteen eighty seven. The record, as I pointed

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Speaker 1: out on X for home runs by an al NL

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Speaker 1: team and a single game, is ten, set by the

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Speaker 1: Toronto Blue Jays against the Baltimore Oriols September fourteenth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty seven. I covered the game for the Late Baltimore

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Speaker 1: Evening Sun. I said late because that paper no longer exists.

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Speaker 1: It was the night Calrichn Junior's consecutive inning streak ended.

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Speaker 1: He was replaced by none other than yes Ron Washington.

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Speaker 1: The game was at the Old Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

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Speaker 1: Ripken's father, cal Ripton Senior, was the Orioles manager. Ernie

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Speaker 1: Witt hit three homers, Rans Melinicks two, George Bell two,

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Speaker 1: Lloyd Boseby, Rob Deosey and Fred McGriff each had one.

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Speaker 1: I'm laughing at the middle of this. That's why I

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Speaker 1: can't get through it. I remember these home runs.

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Speaker 2: Like they were yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Now, this was my first year covering baseball. I was

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Speaker 1: just about to turn twenty five, and I really didn't

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Speaker 1: have a clue about what was going on, and I

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Speaker 1: was very inexperienced as both a reporter and a writer.

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Speaker 1: And that night I did write a story about the game.

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Speaker 1: Of course, it was a game story working for an

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Speaker 1: evening paper, so I had a lot of time to

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Speaker 1: work on it. Evening paper deadlines were like at six

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Speaker 1: in the morning. So basically what I wrote was a memo,

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Speaker 1: an open memo to the Commissioner of Baseball at the time,

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Speaker 1: Peter Uberoth. That's how long ago this was. And I

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Speaker 1: basically pleaded for you both to suspend the Orioles season

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Speaker 1: right then and there, because, let's face it, it wasn't

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Speaker 1: going all that well. Well you Beroth did not suspend

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Speaker 1: the season. There's the story right there. That's actual newsprint, folks.

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Speaker 1: You still see that from time to time. Today. There's

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Speaker 1: no link to this story on the internet because there

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Speaker 1: was no internet back then.

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Speaker 2: That's the story.

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Speaker 1: And obviously, as I said, the season was not suspended.

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Speaker 1: And next year, coming off a ninety five lost season,

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Speaker 1: the Orioles even worse. They lost their first twenty one games,

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Speaker 1: and I couldn't pull out the memo to the commissioner

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Speaker 1: card because I had already played it. Anyway, that wasn't

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Speaker 1: the only thing that happened that night the ten homers,

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Speaker 1: as I alluded to earlier, that was the night also

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Speaker 1: that Cal Ripkin Senior, the mager of the Oriols at

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Speaker 1: the time, ended the inning streak of Cal Ripton Jr.

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Speaker 1: Now most fans know about Cal Ripton Junior's consecutive game streak.

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Speaker 1: He of course has the record he broke Lou Gerig's mark.

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Speaker 1: It is one of the most famous records in baseball

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Speaker 1: and one that I'm sure will never be broken. Well

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Speaker 1: before the game streak, actually during the game streak, he

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Speaker 1: also had, for more than five years, a streak of

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Speaker 1: over eight thousand innings in which he played every inning

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Speaker 1: of every game, never came out, not even in blowouts.

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Speaker 2: Well, this was a blowout.

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Speaker 1: The Oriols lost eighteen to three, and Ripkin Senior decided

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Speaker 1: that night, you know what this ining streak, this particular

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Speaker 1: thing is too big a burden. Let's end it right now,

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Speaker 1: Ron Washington, go take shortstop. Ripton Junior was very surprised.

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Speaker 1: Bill Ripton, playing second base, was very surprised. It was

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Speaker 1: a crazy thing that happened, or a very unusual thing

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Speaker 1: that happened, because it had not happened before in a

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Speaker 1: game that was of course quite unusual in its own right.

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Speaker 1: So because I was working for an evening paper and

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Speaker 1: had the time that I mentioned, I could work until

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Speaker 1: six am. I wrote not just a long story about

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Speaker 1: the Tan Homers, but a long story about the inning

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Speaker 1: streak and what went into Calprin Senior's thinking and why

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Speaker 1: it ended the next day. First of all, I decide

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Speaker 1: to get to the ballpark faster than anybody, earlier than

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Speaker 1: anybody I was competing. And I've talked about this a

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Speaker 1: lot against Tim Kirkton of the Baltimore Morning Sun only

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Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame right now, and Richard Justice

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Speaker 1: of the Washington Post, who was a great beat writer

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 2: These two guys were extremely competitive.

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Speaker 1: They beat my brains for the whole first year and

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Speaker 1: most of the second year as well.

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Speaker 2: Really the whole time that we were competing against each other.

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Speaker 1: So I determined I was going to get to the

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Speaker 1: ballpark early and talk to Cal Senior about whether he

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Speaker 1: thought his job was in jeopardy. Remember, I'm still twenty

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Speaker 1: four years old, about to turn twenty five. I am

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Speaker 1: still quite inexperienced, and Cal Ripkinsenior is about the toughest

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Speaker 1: man that I've ever met before and since Tim that

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Speaker 1: year would ask different people kind of a funny question.

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Speaker 1: He liked to ask players and managers, Hey, if you

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Speaker 1: get locked in a room with the doberman, who gets out? Well,

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Speaker 1: most of the players would kind of block up the question,

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Speaker 1: say I don't know the doberman. Cal Ripkins, when Tim

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Speaker 1: asked the question, said squinted, smoked his cigarette down to

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Speaker 1: its nub as he always did, and looked at Tim

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Speaker 1: and said that goddamn dog doesn't have a chance. That's

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Speaker 1: what he said. And I'm going into his offer the

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Speaker 1: day after the Ools give up ten homers in a game,

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Speaker 1: the day after Cal Junior's consecutive inning streak ends, and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to ask Calera mnnor if he's worried about

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Speaker 1: his job. Needless to say, I was scared out of

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Speaker 1: my mind. Now, this was back in the day when

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Speaker 1: manager press conferences were not formal, when the clubhouse was

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Speaker 1: really open from the moment the ballpark opened, and you

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Speaker 1: could walk in at one o'clock or two o'clock in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon and find the manager, who would probably be

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Speaker 1: there by then.

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Speaker 2: So that's what I did.

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Speaker 1: I beat them to the ballpark. I beat Richard to

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Speaker 1: the ballpark. I sat down and ripped Senior's office and

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Speaker 1: I asked him the question, are you worried about getting fired?

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Speaker 1: He looked at me. I thought he was going to erupt,

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Speaker 1: and it was quite the opposite. What he said was

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Speaker 1: last night was one of the most embarrassing displays in

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Speaker 1: Major League history. Of course, I'm worried about getting fired.

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Speaker 1: I am sure they are thinking about firing me. Why

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Speaker 1: wouldn't they be.

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Speaker 2: Thinking about firing me after a game like that?

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Speaker 1: So that was a big relief. But also in the

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Speaker 1: clubhouse that day, cal Junior approached me. Now, cal Junior

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Speaker 1: was thinking about the end of his streak, and he

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Speaker 1: had been made aware because there was no Internet. Somebody

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Speaker 1: must have told him that I had written a long

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Speaker 1: story about the end of that streak, And he asked

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Speaker 1: me why I wrote a long story about that streak

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Speaker 1: or the end of that streak when Tim and Richard

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Speaker 1: had not well. Tim and Richard were working for morning papers.

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Speaker 1: The game had dragged on and on because the Oriols

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Speaker 1: had given up ten homers and they didn't have time

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Speaker 1: to really write more than a few paragraphs each well.

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Speaker 1: That day was kind of the beginning of the end

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Speaker 1: of a great relationship that I hoped would develop with Rip.

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Speaker 2: We had a good relationship, I would say for most

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Speaker 2: of the.

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Speaker 1: Time, but there were times where I wed questioned things

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Speaker 1: and he didn't like that very much. So despite writing

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Speaker 1: positively about him, I would say, I don't know ninety

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Speaker 1: ninety five percent of the time, that five.

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Speaker 2: Percent wherever he thought of was negative. That was what

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Speaker 2: lingered with him, and that was the first one that kind.

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Speaker 1: Of set us on a path that I don't know.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't so great at times. So that is the

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Speaker 1: story of the ten homer game. The night Calrican Juniors

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Speaker 1: consecutive inning streak ended.

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Speaker 2: One more thing.

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Speaker 1: About that game months later, I guess it was the

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Speaker 1: Oriols general manager at the time, the late Hank Peters,

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Speaker 1: put together a video a video.

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Speaker 2: Of the ten Homers.

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Speaker 1: Now he did it on VHS and there wasn't advanced

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Speaker 1: video techniques back then. You couldn't get on your computer

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Speaker 1: and do things. He put it together, I guess, one

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Speaker 1: by one each home run on this VHS. He called

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Speaker 1: it the barrage, and what he did with it was

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Speaker 1: distributed to different Orioles pitching coaches, including the pitching coach

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Speaker 1: at the time, Mark Wiley, and I guess he distributed

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Speaker 1: it as well the following spring to virtually every minor

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Speaker 1: league pitcher. The Orioles had the barrage. He didn't want

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Speaker 1: to ever see anything like it again. Virtually every pitch

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Speaker 1: was down the middle, and it was kind of a

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Speaker 1: crazy thing. Ten home that night at Exhibition Stadium. And

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Speaker 1: as you can tell, that night, even all these years later,

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Speaker 1: nearly four decades later, is indelible in my mind.

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Speaker 2: I still think about it.

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Speaker 1: I still remember it because of the aftermath, because of

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Speaker 1: Rip Senior, because of Rib Junior, and over the weekend

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Speaker 1: after the Yankee game was over, I sent Tim Kirkton

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Speaker 1: and the Orioles PR director at the time, Rick Vaughant,

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Speaker 1: We're on a group text together, and.

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Speaker 2: I sent them a text that just said, hey, long Live.

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Speaker 1: The nineteen eighty seven Orioles. Time now for Grill and Ken,

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Speaker 1: Let's get to your questions. The first question comes from Drew,

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Speaker 1: who asks, is Aaron Judge the greatest right handed hitter

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Speaker 1: of all time? If you watch them over the weekend,

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Speaker 1: you might think so. If you watched them the last

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Speaker 1: few years, you might think so.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that.

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Speaker 1: I want to be a prisoner of the moment here

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Speaker 1: and get caught up in recency bias. Aaron Judge certainly

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Speaker 1: is a great right handed hitter. And look at this

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Speaker 1: tweet from Sarah Langs over the weekend, which shows you

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Speaker 1: just how accomplished he is so far in his career.

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Speaker 1: Aaron Judge now has three hundred and nineteen career home runs,

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Speaker 1: Sarah wrote forty more than any other player in his

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Speaker 1: first one thousand career games. That's incredible. Does it make

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Speaker 1: him the greatest right handed hitner of all time? I

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Speaker 1: think there are some other players who might want to

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Speaker 1: join the conversation, just from the recent generation. Miguel Cabrera,

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Speaker 1: Albert Poohols, two guys with an asteris Manny Ramirez and

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Speaker 1: Alex Rodriguez. Then there's Mike Schmidt going back a few years,

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Speaker 1: and then, if you really want to go back even further,

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Speaker 1: Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and further than that, Jimmy

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Speaker 1: Fox and Rogers hornsby greatest right handed dinner of all time.

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Speaker 1: Let's hold off on that Aaron Judge is really good.

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Speaker 1: Let's say that for now. El Gallo four nine seven eight.

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Speaker 1: Who says, how worried should I be as a Diamondback fan?

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure you should be worried at all. In fact,

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Speaker 1: you should not be worried at all.

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Speaker 2: Your team is.

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Speaker 1: Two and two. Had a pretty good opening series against

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Speaker 1: the Cousins. Not everything went perfectly, but except for Zach

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Speaker 1: Gallen and the opener, starting pitchers were really good. I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about Merril, Kelly at Water, Rodriguez Brandon fought. Thursday

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Speaker 1: was a ten to six loss. That was the game.

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Speaker 1: Gallon started the opener. It didn't go well for him.

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Speaker 1: Ryan Nelson gave up some runs as well. Friday and

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Speaker 1: eight one win Aohano Suarez two home runs. Saturday, Diamondbacks

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Speaker 1: lose a run run game, and then Sunday they're down

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Speaker 1: six to two in the eighth and they score eight runs.

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Speaker 2: To win the game.

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Speaker 1: Even the series. So I know people get upset with

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Speaker 1: every moment of every game at times.

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Speaker 2: That's the world we live in.

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Speaker 1: If you're two and two coming off an opening weekend

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00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,000
Speaker 1: against a pretty good Cubs team, a Cubs team with

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00:21:38,119 --> 00:21:40,879
Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker hitting two home runs in this series, I

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00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,719
Speaker 1: don't think you should be particularly worried about what's going on. Kaito,

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00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:47,240
Speaker 1: who asks, out of the teams with a realistic shot

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00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 1: of winning the World Series, who had the biggest glaring

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00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,399
Speaker 1: weakness after the first weekend? Kaito, I like this question,

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00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 1: and yes, we all.

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00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 2: Get crazy this time of year.

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00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,560
Speaker 1: We overreact to what's happening earlier. That's just the nature

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00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:04,120
Speaker 1: of human emotion. But you do see things that kind

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00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:06,320
Speaker 1: of make you scratch your head at times. And there

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00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:09,159
Speaker 1: was one team in particular that got swept that I

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00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:12,199
Speaker 1: picked to actually win the World Series. But there were

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00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 1: two glaring weaknesses that came up with this club over

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00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:17,520
Speaker 1: the weekend. One I don't believe is a weakness at all.

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00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,679
Speaker 1: That's their offense. I'm talking about the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta

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00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,840
Speaker 1: Braves were really shut down by the San Diego Padres,

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00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:26,960
Speaker 1: who had a great opening weekend, sweeping a four game series.

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Speaker 1: But my bigger concern for the Braves is their bullpen.

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00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:34,400
Speaker 1: They really didn't address their bullpen after the season ending

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00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:36,639
Speaker 1: injury to Joe Jimenez, and they're at a place with

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00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 1: their payroll where they have the ability to spend a

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00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:42,160
Speaker 1: little bit more money and still stay under.

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00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 2: The luxury tax threshold.

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00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 1: They're about eight million dollars under by one estimation.

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Speaker 2: And yet their off season was kind of curious.

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Speaker 1: They kind of held back.

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00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:51,919
Speaker 2: They cut payroll at the start.

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Speaker 1: We're kind of trying to just be flexible. Ultimately signed

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00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,840
Speaker 1: jerks and profar, but with their bullpen, they brought in

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00:22:58,880 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 1: some guys on minor league.

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00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 2: Hector Norris is one.

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00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 1: Craig Kimberl starting the season at Triple A is another.

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00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: And I'm just worried whether the Braves bullpen is going

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00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,320
Speaker 1: to be good enough. Why I didn't see this earlier

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00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 1: as I was making my predictions, I don't know. I

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00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,600
Speaker 1: probably should have seen it, but that's one concern I have.

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00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: And maybe Brian Snicker and the staff there will figure

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00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:19,880
Speaker 1: it out.

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00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:22,600
Speaker 2: Maybe it'll turn over that bullpen as the year goes on.

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00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 2: That's a likely scenario.

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00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,800
Speaker 1: As I said, they have room for the payroll to

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00:23:26,840 --> 00:23:30,400
Speaker 1: grow a little bit come the deadline. But that thing,

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00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 1: that bullpen kind of stuck out to me immediately. So

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00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:37,600
Speaker 1: that's my biggest concern. Perhaps a glaring weakness for the braves.

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00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:41,520
Speaker 1: Perhaps not. And finally, I have a question coming from

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00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:46,040
Speaker 1: my colleague at the Athletic, John Greenberg, who asked, quite graciously,

484
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,240
Speaker 1: quite nicely, do you want me to buy you this

485
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: T shirt? Answer T shirt from the White Sox Angels

486
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,119
Speaker 1: opening series of the season. I will answer this question,

487
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: not on ex John, I'm going to respond to you publicly,

488
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:03,200
Speaker 1: in a public form. I'm good without the White Sox

489
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:06,439
Speaker 1: Angels opening series T shirt. It's not quite Dodgers Cubs

490
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: in Japan put it that way. So John, thanks so

491
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:13,199
Speaker 1: much for asking, But yeah, I've got enough T shirts

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00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: without adding the Angels and the White Sox. Want to

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00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:19,359
Speaker 1: thank everyone for their questions, everyone for watching, for listening.

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00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 1: You know where to find us YouTube, Apple, Spotify. We

495
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,440
Speaker 1: will be back Thursday at our normal time, twelve thirty

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00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: Eastern Live. Myself and Alana Rizzo have a great week. Everyone,

497
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:31,280
Speaker 1: don't overreact too much.

498
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,440
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