Luke Maile, Brady Feigl, Mike Petriello & Jeff Frye join; Royals pull even | Foul Territory

can I get hold it much longer got let go so I can't be free yeah yeah oh I yeah hey can I ask a we question and then we'll get into serious Baseball Playoff relevant talk no I can't oh because it's only a baseball show is that what you wanted to throw out there did I steal your Thundercats that was my chance for some reason I knew what you were going to say based on your facial expression if that made sense and maybe that means we talk to each other too often every day just right we're talking to each other just right go ahead question just the right amount so four pitches one minute is is there a better way to know if there is torrential downpours coming usually you talking about the white sock game yeah it was one minute you you usually usually the white socks are pretty good about this okay I don't know what the sodfather was doing when he came up with this Roger bostard because normally he's pretty darn good with this kind of and for some reason he missed this one okay that's nothing like him that's fine I just wanted to see if there was any good insight there no normally they nail it normally they're very keen on not doing this okay and I mean but it does get crochet a game started but not any Innings so maybe they were trying to do that you think it's that much of a conspiracy theory I don't know wait to what level like they that was a kid was a joke I know did they shoot the clouds and then they got them to rain down his his pitch count was going to be 20 but they got it to four yep I gotta love it all right so let's get to real baseball playoff this stuff charging the mound right now with the same team we charged the mound with yesterday and that's rare he's charging the the Kansas City Royals have won three in a row to start this series against Cleveland they double header swept them on Monday they beat him again on Tuesday despite Michael lenzen who's been great for them leaving very early what did they end up calling it dehydration I think for him yeah he came out quick yeah cramped up whatever it was so anyway Paul D young big home run for them he's been a huge pickup add it all up and their 6-1 win makes it 25 straight games yielding four or fewer runs in a game tied for the longest streak in franchise history this according to Bob Nightingale who also pointed out that there has never been a major league team that has gone from 100 plus losses they had 106 last year to a division title the Kansas City Royals as of Wednesday August August 28th are in first place in the American League Central matched with the Cleveland Guardians good night what did we say yesterday they were yesterday I mean they were gonna tie him they have a tough schedule too that includes what they're doing right now they have a ton of games they're in a stretch of seven games in 10 days against Cleveland that's working out they might win five of them yeah they might win seven out of them and they win these first four and they up a game Cleveland dver SE what happened yeah there's still a lot of baseball to go we can do some schedule watching even though some people hate to do that we of course on this show love to do that it is a completely relevant thing to do in our sport I'd like to keep reminding people that because I kid you not I heard it yet again yesterday schedule doesn't matter it does matter no you're the one that always said it didn't matter you can't change your mind if you C did he not say at the beginning of last year when Tampa Bay was 13 and0 oh the schedule the schedule does matter schedule matter schedule doesn't matter all a if you believe that schedule doesn't matter you're that kind of baseball fan this show might not be for you but if you do do believe that there are different Talent levels on teams then this is a good show for you so let's look at the schedule really quickly here for the Royals the rest of the way now that you know if they finish a drop better or even equal to the cleeveland Guardians because they won the season series they will be the AL Central Champions if the twins don't catch up to them okay so here's the finish line for Kansas City first they've got one more against Cleveland that's the Day game going on right now then they go four games against Houston three more games against the guardians but that's back at home in KC three against the twins three at the Yankees three at the Pirates now this is where not every schedule is created equally because three at the Pirates could be skin Jones and maybe even Bubba Chandler if he gets called up by the Pirates who's a good-looking pitch pitching process ECT then they have a home stand against the Tigers and the Giants then they finish with three at DC against the Nationals and three in Atlanta that's a pretty tough schedule right yeah okay now here's Cleveland they at the one more against Kansas City today three against Pittsburgh three at KC three at La three at the White Soxs which you usually would say oh that's great but they've only been about 500 against them yep and then they have a home stand against the Rays and the twins and then they're back on the road for three against St Louis and then back home for two against Cincinnati and three against Houston it's actually pretty similar I don't feel like one tilts that heavily some people have said oh Kansas City's really got a gauntlet when you look on paper Cleveland's pretty close I agree I think it's close I think it's just right now Kansas City has all the Vibes and Cleveland does not to me that's the biggest difference Kansas City's feeling it Cleveland is like we had a big lead not long ago we had the best record in the league and all of a sudden now we're in second place what is going on so I think that's more of the challenge for the Guardians and the The Royals are just like we're just going to keep on winning We're Young we're dumb we're excited we're just going to keep rolling this was a niname lead at one point for Cleveland cratz and they have been playing sub 500 baseball for the last what two three months now since the start of June for Cleveland I think they're now two or three games under 500 since the start of June Kansas City's second half of the season has been great I think they're either 23 or 24 and 12 at this point and Cleveland also had been in first place since mid April they were in control the entire time here so add this all up give me your take on this race but also your boy Steven votes done a great job with Cleveland does he potentially lose the manager of the Year award if Kansas City takes the division yes I mean no way oh he gone he gone wow did I bother him that much has taken this team from nothing to a lot does he not hear me he's just in his own world yeah we should probably kick him out okay let's kick him out for now reset him restart him but I'll give you the same question is Matt Karo now the front runner for manager of the year and does it really just come down to if the royal Jo SP what about him I mean they were 10 games down 12 yeah now they're in first place but does that mean the Astros should have a manager of the year if the expectations were what they were like are you are you rewarding him for the comeback or are you rewarding him for well you got to reward you got to reward the Royals for a comeback too then I think most voters go off expectations they say oh cool Kansas City did some things in the off season they should be better they should go from 106 losses to maybe 88 would be wow that would be an amazing accomplishment that would be a 18 game improvement now they might win the division how do how does Matt crao not win manager of the year because nobody knows the criteria nobody real criteria for that's what I'm saying there's no it's just like oh he had a good year let's vote for him we'd like him he's nice let's try him there really isn't a criteria because sometimes guys don't make the playoffs they still get manager of the year so what's your criteria if you had to draw it up how how do you vote if I hand you a piece of Pap right think Matt Cortaro the one good thing about Matt Cortaro is they had higher expectations in Kansas City now and they went out and did some things this offseason did some things at the trade deadline now the Guardians didn't do anything right Matt Matt was there last year step vote was not there last year so I I think you know then this gets back to the MVP race what's your thoughts on the MVP race do you put the MVP has to be in the playoffs I I think they should be or at least close to the playoffs to be the MVP but the manager of the year it's like well I I guess you could make a case for I mean why is Grady seore not the manager he has a betting winning percentage than Pedro GLE does all right CR your back you get last word I just say voters voters ultimately done more with less the Royals built this team to compete this year did they know they were going to compete did they think it was enough I don't know but they put qaro in a position to hey you know what we want to we're giving you veteran guys we're giving you guys to to win I don't know that Cleveland was like hey you know what this is the team that's going to hit 60 more home runs than they did the year before by the end of August I think he's elevated I think right now he he's winning it but if they collapse here at the end and they don't win the division it'll be a fun race cool okay so the winner of the Central gets manager of the yeari the Royals or Guardians no he doesn't get it people know him already you're an idiot your argument doesn't make were the Front Runners to win the division so what okay so here's my quot why can't we throw again I don't understand why we can't throw Joe a spot in there throw him in there I'm just telling you the way that the award is judged by most is what were the expectations of the team in the mind of the public or the writer and then how did they exceed it so Alex should the manager of the year because everyone thought the Red Sox were going to be in last place Royals are story though you said it's on expectations expectations was the Royals would still be pretty bad they would just be better than awful I I dis now they might win disagree we we met a lot of guys picked them to make the playoffs this year there's going to be a lot of disagreeing then today a lot of people a lot of people picked them to make the playoffs this year the Royals yes really go back to our tapes okay we have tapes all right let's bring back L mey who's going to join us from the Cincinnati Reds on the other side here on Ft and we'll keep going and yes there's going to be some heavy debate we have Mike petriello and Jeff fry joining us for a combo segment [Music] later I'm holding your new Tropic starter kit the brand is called thesis there you go looking good if you're dealing with procrastination in your life and let's be real who isn't in some degree of form then I encourage you to go take a look at what thesis brings to the table and also you can use our promo code fou F at take thesis. comom for 60% or $60 sorry off your first order Eric Katz take it away on your neut Tropics Journey right now are you more focused increasing your energy level maximizing your mind and maintaining more long-term memory how's your cognitive functioning going I can't spell cognitive I know AJ can spell it but I'll tell you the clarity the clarity John's the packet I just started the Box you get like four different boxes when you when you go on and you scan this QR code but the four boxes I'm on the clarity box right now oh baby I thought I was the motivation box but this is the second day of clarity locked in like I feel like I haven't blinked all day there it is nice boom there's your Clarity box yep creativity motivation Logic the whole deal every brain is different thesis is not one siiz fits all during your first month you can test different blends to discover the ingredients that work best for your brain that's what Katz is going through right now so head to take the.com and use code foul to save $60 off your first sub description order when you sign up for thesis maximize your mind with thesis today again that's t- a ke t sis.com with promo code Fu L be right back with Luke meley of the Reds [Music] we're back on Ft first guest of the day Luke mey from the Cincinnati Reds joining us right now Luke how you doing good man thanks for having me on good to see you guys good to see you too great to have you on we'll get into a lot here I actually want to start with a former teammate of yours Joey vad recently announced his retirement I feel like we didn't talk about it a ton but the best way to go over it is to get firsthand experience so what was your reaction when you saw Joey make that announcement and do you have any good stories or just scouting reports on what he brought to the mix for you and the Reds oh I mean where do you begin I guess right like um I mean Joey's been baseball in Cincinnati for virtually you know whatever it's been almost 20 years right and um You Me growing up in the area first first of all was it was just such a huge honor um to share a clubhouse with him and to be his teammate and and kind of get to see everything that he was about firstand um uh as far as stories I mean the first thing that comes to mind um playing against him in 2017 when he was just on top of the world I mean I think he woke up one morning uh in the offseason and just said I'm gonna get on base 60% of the time that's basically what he did but uh kind of in the middle of that they came to Toronto which was special for him him being from that area and um you know he's having this like really long at bat fing balls basically out of my mid in the first inning and uh he was doing that thing where he like puts the bat like in between his legs and kind of leans on it and uh you know I'm still pretty young and just trying to make sure that you know I don't uh call the wrong pitch to what was at the time the greatest hitter in the game and he just goes hey I really like your swing and then he just like gets back in and you know fouls off another ball and he's like it reminds me of Mark Trumbo and he's just having this conversation in between pitches with me and I'm like I like Joey first of all that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said to me and second of all I'm not really sure what to call um now that you're in you know analyzing my swing and sure enough he a couple pitches later hit a homer um off the West Jet sign in Toronto and I just couldn't believe it I was speechless you you fell right into his trap you can never talk back to you can never talk back to the wizard so you can't you should have just told him look bro my swing is not like Mark trombos at all he would have been like he would have gotten defensive he would have tried to build you up and then you would have buzzed the speedball right by him I know I was young and naive I fell for the Trap I I really did you're 100% right but I've grown since then thank God yes yes you have but that's okay that's okay we all we all grow and learn now we talk about him retiring when you're done playing are you gonna say you're retiring from baseball or quitting that's such a great question I mean if they rip the Jersey off of me then I guess I can't really say either I say that I got shown the door but uh I I think um you know sometimes it feels like quitting might be the the best word but if you finish on a high note it feels a little bit more like retirement you know how this game is man like one day you wake up and and you feel like you're on top of the world with it and then the next day quitting seems pretty appropriate so it just is going to depend on how we go out I think there I like it all right so let's get into your ball Club obviously the Reds aren't in a spot where you'd want them to be this year what's your analysis of this team going into the season and how it's played out with a month left to go like when you sum up the 2024 campaign for the Reds what will you say well I think like it's obviously frustrating when you're not able you know to put enough wins on the board to get yourself in a position to play in the playoffs right and by no means are we giving up I mean stranger things have happened we come to work every day and that's one thing I will say um this is one of the best clubhouses that I've ever been a part of if not the best and what I mean by that is just there's truly there's genuinely good people on this team so you know the we've been given a lot of opportunities to fold throughout the year I mean even going back as far as April and it just never happened and uh I'd like to think that a lot of that has to do with the people here um we've got a great manager we've got a great coaching staff just kind of top to bottom it's it's a really great place to work um so you know that definitely comes to mind but you know at the same time since I got here in 23 uh with the exception of the last game of last season every single game has been meaningful you know we've been in it and while it doesn't look great right now like there still is a sense of urgency and as you guys know there's nothing worse than than playing meaningless Games quote unquote like toward the end of seasons and um that hasn't happened here yet and we take pride in that I think that there's a lot to be said about being competitive and going out with with a purpose and going out with intent you're talking about like the good people house is there is your third base coach doing some catching stuff with you guys but everybody that we've had on we usually like asking like who's that leader who's the guy I like going to who's on the mic in the bus and unequivocally every single person has said L's on the bus so give us some insight into what you're asking the rookies on the on the bus to talk about so as you know I mean it's it's a bit of an art um there's different ways of going about it um you know I got as I'm sure you guys did too I got traumatized early I mean it was kind of part of the old school back when I was a rookie so um I've got a couple bullets to fire if I really need with some some pretty slick one minor and whatnot but uh my thing is you know I try and and not to make them uncomfortable I I kind of want them to open up and make it make them feel a part of the team I think that's kind of what it's there for and that's I think that's the best use of it so when they come up there um I'll challenge them a little bit I like when they challenge back and basically the Only Rule I have is just entertain me you know what there's no rules it doesn't need to be a story tell us a little bit about yourself and just entertain me and um and usually I I read the room and go from there I like that okay so I'm going to ask you about a teammate of yours but I'm bringing in the whole crew for this because I feel like if I ask it I'm just going to get made fun of even though it's just a simple question Luke my current favorite player in Major League Baseball is Ellie De La Cruz I have been a big fan since he was early in his Prospect days talking up how I think he's a future Superstar I'm looking pretty damn good right now to be honest but my teammates here on Ft make fun of me for being a big fan of a particular player so a would you like to ask Luke a question about his team no you don't want to ask him anything about Ellie deor Cruz Katz do you want to ask Luke mayy anything you guys won't ask a question about him he's one of the best players I want to know I want to know obviously you can answer Scott's question after you answer since you're a local guy since you're essentially if you had a better arm you could throw a ball to your high school over the river but you can't get it all the way there how many autographs are your friends and your old high school mates and everybody from Hometown asking to get from la de la Cruz oh um you know what I got a I got lucky I've got a pretty good camp in my corner they're they're not like huge memorabilia people so I've gotten like they've been really respectful about that and I think they understand that the whole world's trying to get autographs from them and and want a piece of them so they they mainly just want me to tell stories about them or just you know explain um just how ridiculously talented he is or some of the things that how he gets ready and and you know just things like that just getting to know him a little bit so they're curious about him for sure um but Scott I I'll go back to I know you're just dying and and gushing at the brim to to find some stuff out what would you like to know man like let's not make this awkward what do you want to know I'm an open book no of course yeah I mean I want to know if you think he should be in a in an MVP conversation this year because you watch him every single day right I get it otani's the front runner I get it but should he be in that conversation he certainly is on on some metrics that some of the new school people like like wins above replacement from fan grafts but you see him every day and I watch him most days too and this is why I'm like he passes the it test for me I get it he he strikes out a lot he would be the first person to tell you that but then there are not many other flaws in his game so do you want to lay out the scouting report and if you had a vote um and let's let's put Otani maybe out of it would you vote for Ali De La Cruz yeah I I definitely would I think if you look at the games that we've won he's almost always right in the middle of it in some in some way whether that's running bases or I mean the most ridiculous thing that I've seen um and I've seen it multiple times is some of the balls that he tracks down the left field line that have been hits since the beginning of time and he does it so effortlessly um it's just amazing what kind of space he can cover like just little baseball plays like that I think are the ones that kind of go underappreciated and are probably not even um reflected enough in even some of the new school metrics um but the other thing that comes to mind with him is like the jump that he's made since last year is really astounding and like I think that anytime you have a guy that's athletically gifted um like I remember I played with vad Guerrero Jr and it was kind of the same way it's like you sort of assume that it's just this natural talent and that's it but uh with both guys and talk talking about Ellie um his baseball IQ is extremely high and I know he makes some outs on the bases but that's because he has more opportunity to make outs on the bases because he's running so much and he's aggressive and the way he's gotten better with defense his fundamentals with just his technique uh Fielding ground balls the way that he has done dirt ball reads um some of the adjustments he's been able to make to draw a few more walks than he did last year just all these things are coming together and um I don't care who's alongside the race moving forward he's going to be in MVP conversations because he's only going to get better Luke uh I got to ask you about your injuries right now I mean four fifths your four fifths of your rotation from the beginning of the year is on the iil right now what is going on in Cincinnati I know you can't you know it's no one's fault it just happens like that sometimes but it's got to be devastating when you look up and you see no green no ldo it's just like whoa who are these guys sometimes yeah man I mean it's part of the game I think um you know it's almost unfortunate because you have some guys that like I mentioned about Ellie like they're really turning a corner and hunter green is one of those guys I mean his his jump from last year to this year is uh is one of the biggest I've seen out of a starting pitcher in my career um it's deflating there's really just no other way to say it it's deflating and in order to be competitive and and play in the postseason you really do need at least one one or two guys that are kind of your Staples and at the very minimum are going to cover Innings and and give you a chance um so it's unfortunate it sucks I mean there's no way about it at the same time we we've also got an opportunity to see some guys step up and I think we're going to see more guys step up moving forward um never really a a fun thing to have happen as a veteran player because you obviously want the absolute best in your organization at all times but you know being especially being a catcher as you guys know there there's opportunity for growth and I've had a lot of examples of guys that weren't really given a shot in the minor leagues that by necessity come up to the big leagues and and turn themselves into regular players and um that's what we're going to try and do here and it's a it's another rewarding part of the job who do you think has more influence on that DJ or you you being the backup catcher you being the guy that's coming in you know when a guy doesn't have a good outing he's like I don't want to throw to Stevenson I want to throw to Luke and it's like who has who has more of an influence on those young guys because I know what DJ can do I know his his skills as a pitching coach are you know I think he's one of the best yeah I I think it's always collaborative man I think uh it's it's part of part of the job is understanding how your pitching coach and the other pitching coaches speak to guys because you have to nurture that you have to kind of use that verbiage sometimes and then vice versa you know as a catcher if you come up with something that really works or a queue or mentality or pitch sequence anything um you're always kind of playing off of the other one's strengths um DJ is incredible at it and I've certainly learned a lot from him I mean just uh these last two years that I've spent with DJ it definitely humbles you because it shows you just how much more there is out there and uh you can't ever think that you got stuff figured out because you'll meet somebody like DJ and uh you'll learn very quickly that you don't have all the answers because he certainly knows he knows his stuff I can probably get this answer at least a version of this answer from our guys too but to get it from a current catcher how does change of scenery work for a pitcher so I think the example here is Frankie Monas he signs a one-year deal he had a great start I know then he was going through it a little bit but now he's pitched really well with Milwaukee I'm always curious you know if you get to see any perspective of when you guys say bring in a new pitcher and then whether it's the coaching staff or front office or combo bring some ideas to them because I read really deeply into US kikuchi's situation he goes from Toronto to Houston he was super coveted at the trade deadline and Houston's like yeah we don't really like your curveball we're gonna use your slider I'm just thinking like why didn't the last team tell him that right um you know what I think man I think I think a lot of times it can get filed under like mechanics or pitch decisions pitch calls whatever I think a lot of times in this game um I look at this with the bullpen a lot lot you know there there's guys that at any given time in a bullpen for example where they really want the outs and what I mean by that is like things have been going well for them they've they've got a little bit of credibility they maybe they've you know kind of strapped it on and covered multiple Innings and and can feel the energy that they've provided for the guys and then a few days later there's a big spot it's like I really want these outs and sometimes the flip side now I'm not just talking about Frankie I'm speaking in general I think sometimes the flip side of that is you just kind of want a fresh start and you just kind of want to be in a situation where um you don't have sort of these skeletons of giving up a lead or you know walking a few guys to after the team scored a beginning or whatever it is I'm just throwing examples out but I think that's what changes scenery is for me and along the way sometimes there can be some technical stuff but I think it's just you get a fresh opportunity to make a good impression and once you do or if you do um it just makes that confidence level go up that much more and I think there's just more conviction all right the Ft crew comes in to Cincinnati once twice a year we have the Todd father so he's kind of like he's kind of like Joey Vado 2.0 like he's not as popular as Joey but Todd's got some clout where are we supposed to go to eat in Cincinnati lot of good spots um all the rubies restaurants come to most people's mind I actually uh I live near the precinct which is my favorite rubies restaurant um it's about 10 minutes east of the stadium um being from the Kentucky side I got a shout out Walt's Hitching Post really recommend you check that spot out they have great Stakes um but also don't don't be shying away from their ribs and it's a really cool kind of hole in the- wall type restaurant so I would recommend that um and then in the Covington side as well I mean shoot I mean you can pretty much walk down Main Street and uh you're not going to go wrong down there Luke speaking of that you grew up you grew up across the street pretty much from the red Stadium who was your favorite player growing up had a lot of them uh Barry Lin would probably lead the charge um he was there the longest I I was playing shortstop when I was a little kid I just I loved his game I loved um just how consistent he was how he ran bases obviously really smooth with the glove and and he was the captain um I remember I remember when when Ken Griffey Junior uh signed with the Reds I mean that was pretty much like the biggest day of my entire life Junior was absolutely on top of the world and uh I just I couldn't believe that my team was actually going to get the best player in the game um but man as I got older I started watching catchers a little bit more Jason Laro was back there a lot um we had Santiago for a little bit um gosh I mean I bet you if if you gave me a year I bet you I could do just about every single batting stance of the whole lineup that's how obsessed I was with the Reds it's awesome now you get to play for him all right last thing I know FD is going there in a couple weeks I'm probably not going to go I'm going to get my fill of Cincinnati this weekend where do I need to go and is there anything at the stadium that I need to do because a couple weeks ago I did was in Milwaukee I did the sausage race I've done the slide in Milwaukee well the Brewers are coming into Cincinnati this weekend and I'm calling the game for Fox so was there anything I need to do in Cincinnati at the stadium there's a there's a lot of local breweries that have been around like since the beginning of pretty much the city um I can't really drink while I'm doing the game so that's going to be would actually be a before the game guess I could but I don't know how that would go that'd be a fun broadcast what about post I mean before before the game before the game you just need to make sure that you get um a breakfast that includes ghetto have you ever had that before no okay get geta it's a breakfast meet it's an old German thing um local Del delicacy highly recommend um but then postgame man hit up a brewery I'm telling you that's uh there's some strong stuff around here it's really good and the place it's a weekend place will be vibing if you're ever around for October Fest um that's a that's another really solid Cincinnati thing and then the fireworks are this weekend too so I don't know if you can stick around for uh the webn radio station fireworks on Sunday night but that that's that's a treat if you're into that Oh I thought it was W krp I don't know I get them mixed up sometimes but I think I got that right all right uh last all right on my before your time Luke sorry there was a show called WKRP in Cincinnati before your time that flew right over me too um lastly quick hitter questions for I got three um one go to pregame meal uh chicken salad sandwich that's my go-to nice uh historical pitcher batter matchup um you would either like to see or just someone you would have liked to either face or you know game planned against P pitcher hitter wherever you want to go here uh we just saw Chapman throw a billion miles an hour for like the 30th straight year the other day so he's fresh in my mind I'd like to see Chapman go up against bonds I would love to see that nice that' be like the G bonds Homer Homer probably or hits him um lastly uh who is now like the Joey vad at first that's like either talkative or even at home plate with you right is there is there a joey Vado that exists in the game today I I can't put that stamp on anybody because Joey is just that unique I mean he just had a way you guys know how he was he just had a way of doing it um Freddy Freeman is always really Pleasant to talk to at first base he kind of jumps uh into my mind first um although much different um both Canadian I don't know maybe there's something to that uh but Freddy's always a real treat to talk to over at first I like that yeah that could be a little Canadian nice like the Midwest nice Canadian nice from Freddy well Luke this was great appreciate the time great to talk to you we will we'll see you in Cincinnati I guess you'll see AJ this weekend sober AJ this weekend in the clubhouse all right sober AJ can't wait to see you thanks for having me on guys thank you this was great see you soon Luke mey from the Cincinnati Reds with us on Ft coming right back to hit hot corner and some transactions actually made that stand out [Music] here we are we're back actually so let's see here I might bring up a couple things that you might not have time for um in I don't I want to save Hot Corner actually but um get to some questions here is there a bigger disappointment Bourbon and baseball asked than the ERS collapse so far this season is there any other disappointments we went I guess sparking from the top of the show we went over some surprises like KC who else stands out as like a man I really didn't see this coming from them well I think the Braves because of their injuries I mean yes they're probably going to get in the playoffs but I think the Braves would be one I think the Cubs going out and get Council yeah I think that's the Reds you could throw the Reds in there too because I picked them to win the division thinking they were going to take the next step and they've been hurt um Rangers yeah there's a lot more disappointments than there are surprises true right yeah I mean I think obviously C the white socks in there no one thought the white socks were GNA be this bad Ian we thought be bad but we didn't think they were gonna be this bad that's why their season is so historically bad is because when you see 105 plus loss Seasons from teams right they're usually in like uber tank mode like we are tanking hard the what's actually kind of they were trying they didn't trade all their guys before the season they signed a few veterans I mean they traded CE before the season I think as soon as they traded ceas the day after we locked in our plus 600 for their for the worst record in the league easy 600 bucks for everybody by the way on B MGM they yeah they've been brutal to me I know the season as soon as the season started how however after the off season they didn't do anything the Marlins are so so disappointing that they didn't try this year and this goes back to the off season this goes because they were they were so exciting to watch so it's a little it's a different ver it's a different idea of disappointment yeah I mean I guess yeah I I I would say about half the teams are either a big surprise or disappointment and then there we expect no half who's half if you go leave okay half no half come on in the East I expected the Phillies to be good right so that's on that side the Braves are a surprise I think the Mets are a surprise they're in it I think bra areof team the Mets no but the brave surprise is that they're not you know win team they're not going to take the division the central is full of surprises which one's a surprise the Brewers being this good the Reds being this bad the Cubs being this bad I feel like you go division by division there's there's about 15 surprises in terms of good or bad no [Music] [Applause] all right we're doing better than box scores first up did you guys see Jackson Marell hugging Victor Scott after the Home Run robbery you know there was there was talk yesterday about Randy Rosara not visiting the clubhouse is this one okay yeah it's fine okay I got no problem with this I got no problem with we said this yesterday so all the people are saying get off my lawn I got no problem with fraiz I got no problem like going to dinner I got no problem meeting guys in the locker or outside the locker room in the tunnel on the field no problem with that just the clubhouse is sacred and it's your space that's it that's it that's that's it just you can go anywhere you want just don't come in my Clubhouse so I got no problem I actually like this I I wanted I wanted to yeah I have no problem with this and I even wanted to add one more thing when I would get DFA when I would get fired set down I didn't even want to be in the clubhouse long because I wasn't on that team anymore to just reiterate what we were talking about there's a feel of being in that Clubhouse and that being the place where the dudes are going to get ready to go out to beat the other team's brains in and it's just it you can say it's sacred you can say whatever it is just trying to explain the feeling Merill like that's that's cool maybe they knew him from know knew each other from playing in the minor leagues or playing you before that like it's cool I think it's fun and what if they don't know each other at all Victor Scott's like oh man I was getting a hug I didn't know a hug was coming my way it's still cool though no I know I agree I like it's fine Tor robberry bonds and bonds picked him up on his shoulder like a ragd doll and threw him around a little bit I mean fun yeah it doesn't happen often so in in a the right moment I feel like it fits yeah it's cool I wasn't a homer by the way no it was you're right it was a homer yeah yeah good catch it was a robed a rob a great catch but it wasn't a homer a robbed extra base hit whatever you want to call it it still a great catch when Barry did that when Barry when Barry did that by the way that was the moment when I think everybody if they step back and look they were like holy crap Barry Bonds is ginormous because it's kind of like you you keep you keep guys around each other you keep basketball players who are all six6 next to each other nobody looks that much taller until a seven-footer comes in when Barry picked up Tory Hunter I was like whoa cuz I had never played against Barry big strong dude so is Aaron judge which does make this stat really cool this was before the game yesterday from Jack Curry incredible nugget on judge from Sports info Solutions since 2018 he leads the majors with 252 homers cool that's a known fact but judge also leads the majors in home run robberies since then with nine chaparo was the latest victim in that robbery from 29 go actually chaparo then hit his first big league Homer off Cole he's actually got a great story so he's going to tell his kids or grandkids so I almost hit a homer but Aaron judge robbed me but then the next day I hit my first Dinger off of Garett Cole anyway judge is I'm mad at gar Cole why because he lost yesterday that was part of my luck oh well you can't you can't be mad at him I mean that he he didn't know I know he tried his best Tri did he tried he gave 100% served up some heaters in wrong part of the Zone how many home run got robbed of yours in your career you do you remember them I only remember one you know the person what is it Nick marus Baltimore but I don't know if it was going out Jay Bruce got me foul one time and I was mad at him because I'm like dude it was foul you could have missed it did you say that to him yeah and then he because we knew each other and he came he still come every time I see J Bruce he's still like remember that time I robbed that foul Homer for me that was cool and I was like but it was foul you could have missed it on purpose that is true got me in Baltimore once but I don't know if it was going out it was going to be close but he jumped up the only one ever in my career and I bring it I asked you that because it's so ironic that this came up today it was in the minor leagues I had no big league homers robbed we were playing in Binghamton New York and the person who robbed it from me Jeff Duncan who was a prospect with the Mets at the time got a little bit of Big League time he called me today because he's a coach in a college now but ironic ironic Story Only home run that's ever been robbed from you wow and you remember it there you go the rest of the times you were lucky nobody robbed your homers they went over the wall one more I hit some wall scrapers too one more Aaron Nola shuts down the Astros what was it seven scoreless first time he went seven in a couple months Phillies are starting to put some good things together um the Astros are hitting a little rut again they've lost six of eight I think it is the problem is is that the the Mariners can't make him any room no I watched most of that game yesterday oh Nola pitched great last night though yeah Nola pitched really well the Astros kind of were kind of all over the place a little bit it was it was a weird showing some balls fell in that were you know Verlander didn't have it he gave up the home the who' he give up the he give upos curve in hang yeah I mean Verlander obviously he's not where he needs to be for SE for September and October but the Astros yeah are in it right now they're they they again it goes back to you put all this energy into get into 500 and then they jump and they're like oh man breather and then all of a sudden boom nope not anymore here they come again yeah they're three and a half up on Seattle I mean it's four it's four in the Lost column though right four in the Lost column Seattle you know went scoreless for five six Innings with Gilbert and springs pitching well I believe the Rays who do strike out quite a few people on the pitching side I think they set their season High I think it was 17 strikeouts against the M yesterday like strikeout who they're hting it is a nightmare unbelievable you're watching a nightmare L Logan Gilbert was freaking brilliant again double digit punch outs on his side and they got a nice little manufactured run from Victor OAS who just basically stole his way home but Colin Snyder gave up a homer to yandi Diaz and I think it was shua to the Jose Siri Homer that made it 2-1 so the bullpen lets them down but really I mean 17 strikeouts and one run or two runs like you're not GNA many games that way so it's a nightmare it's over and over again watched almost that entire game and the place was pretty lit like yeah place is been yeah there they're showing up so anyway um lastly also I just I thought the quote from Chaz McCormick on the Astros side I have to do it myself I'm the one effing going out there I love the advice E's been trying to help me it's been six months I need to go out not being a b word he was just like laying it out like we got Lance Lynn last year on the show when he was going through it and he just cussed himself out and said it's not on coaches it's not on anyone I'm just not playing well it's your career at the end of the day people can tell you all they want but at some point you got to filter out the noise for the good stuff and you have to know yourself more than anything and that's one of the hardest things to for especially young players to figure out is there are times where a coach will tell you something and you just have to be yeah yeah and then let it go right out the other ear because you don't think it's right I'm serious it's it's one of the hardest things to learn you got crappy advice and it's not even crappy advice but it might be the wrong verbiage to you and it might actually make you worse so especially when you get in a rut like McCormack has been in then everybody is coming at you and you got to figure out the one thing that you can that you can do to fix yourself whatever that word is is some maybe you had as a kid that that says okay I'm this is the thing but it's it's hard to do because as a young player especially you want to please everybody because this guy wants to put his touch on you this guy wants to put their touch on you and this guy so they can all tell the organization look I helped this guy get to the big leagues and I hope this guy succeed when at the end of the day there might only be one guy that helps you and the rest are just there and you're not going to be root to him but you're also not going to listen I love the honesty from chass he's a great interview our next interview is going to be with Brady figel who made his MLB debut at 33 years old with the Pirates on Monday we're gonna chat with him on Ft about his journey his experience and what makes baseball so damn special with these kind of storylines [Applause] [Music] shout out right now to mintmobile to get started on a 15 Buck a month plan for your first three months it is mintmobile.com territory if you want to support ft and go check out the mintmobile plans that are offered go to mintmobile.com territory so you just want to make life easy you want to be able to know what your money spent per month is and still have the nation's largest 5G Network then where you going Katz easy mint mobile like it's a it's kind of a no-brainer everybody's got a cell phone except for my daughter and she'll let me know about that but everybody's got a cell phone scan the C like why would you not why would you not at least give it a try give it a try and go ahead why I'll tell you why someone might say you know what I don't want to go through that hassle of of being put on hold and all of that with my old provider I feel like me that's exactly that's why I need I need you to give the pep talk sorry you don't like saving money you don't want things to be easy for you all three Monon plans are only 15 bucks a month including the unlimited plan it's high-speed data it's unlimited talk and text Kats can't take over and do the phone call for you AJ I think probably would be fun on the phone call because he's really good on prank calls I've heard him yes but if you do want to make the change that's the spot to go to new customer offer thre Monon premium Wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mobile.com territory that's mintmobile.com territory to cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month $45 upfront payment required equivalent to 15 bucks a month new customers on their first three-month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on Unlimited Plan additional taxes fees and restrictions apply see mintmobile for details and we'll be back with Brady figel [Music] [Music] he [Music] and we're back on Ft right now with Brady figel who just made his MLB debut at 33 years old with the Pittsburgh Pirates the other day currently designated for assignment we'll go over that in a sec but let's go over the positives first here Brady great to have you on and I can see the smile on your face because damn man what a journey it's been for you C can you put into words what that feeling was like for you the other day to finally make it and did you think you would get there uh first of all thank you guys for having me on um it's an honor um I guess the word that I just kept using was rewarding um you know it' been 10 plus years uh since you know I started the the minor league Journey um I I always thought in the back of my head you know as long as I had the ability um you know back in 2015 I was very very close um and just kind of kept that close to me and knowing that you know I know I can give back to that and and still have the ability uh to you know be at the top of my game and um you know they're there needs to be a little bit of luck involved um you know unfortunately Straton went down with that that injury and opened up the door for me to you know make it up there first of all Brady I mean we played together for a short short amount of time and so I was super happy I hope Rowdy actually said good things about me for once because I told him to pass on my congratulations to you I was super happy for you um are you the right briy figel though because before we dig into your story like there is two of you that look similar you know both wear the glasses one's righty though one's Lefty so did we get the right one on here oh yeah you did for sure you can say I'm the left I'm the left Brady FAL okay I'm and didn't they do like a DNA test there there's the picture which is it's pretty unbelievable honestly trippy it's so trippy it is same name same everything and and they're not related well who's the other guy he's a f I know that like what's the what's the backstory he's wasn't he a right-handed pitcher in another organization yeah someone realiz he was with the Oakland A's um back in 2018 I believe uh they flew me out so Round Rock our season ended and he was in Cedar Rapids um and their their team was still in the playoffs so they flew they flew my wife now out um and I to to meet him um and meet some of his teammates and and kind of just get us on the same screen um just wild I mean the fact that I don't think Brady's a very common name and then fle for sure is is not very common at all um and then the both the fact that we we both have red hair we had the the big bushy beard the glasses um just a lot of similarities do you guys keep in touch like family reunions and stuff do you guys meet up for family reunions uh unfortunately we do not okay okay because that would be it's just it's wild to me that there's two guys same name both pitchers both wear the glasses both redheads I mean it's like it's amazing all right now I want to get into your story because I told this story the other day and people are like I don't understand but you were gonna make the team in 2015 I I know you were you said you were close but I mean it was done I listen you were going to make the team you were going to be like our low leverage Lefty coming out of the bullpen in 2015 and then they claimed uh mccahan off of waivers for the Marlins he obviously made the team and then you went on and blew out uh like like two it was like two weeks later you blew out I think it was pretty quick right and then M end up getting pop for steroids yeah then mcar H end up getting pop for steroids and then it took you almost 10 more years to get there that's why I was so happy but can you describe what that was like from your end because for even for me I was like man this guy might never get a chance and then when I saw you were called up I was like we got to talk to this guy because it's one of the great stories of all time uh I mean obviously it's frustrating um you know it is what it is um but like I said knowing knowing that I was that close then um you know that that kept me kept me going and um kept grinding it out um and just just knowing that I still have the ability and was just hoping that a team would would give me a shot to uh you know showcase my ability and you know all the hard work and dedication and literal Blood Sweat and Tears and scars um that I've I've put into this this game um you know I guess the hardest thing was seeing him down in Orlando um while I'm rehabbing and he's kind of like joking around and stuff like that that kind of that kind of unfortunately rub me the wrong way but um you know it didn't let me it didn't you know I didn't let that get to me and just continued to work hard and you know hit the pavement you are an absolute grinder I use the word grinder AJ thinks he was a grinder he grinded he did not anybody who doesn't make it to the big leagues till they are older than 29 grinder so you are a grinder but had you made the big leagues in 15 how do you think it would have changed you in the sense that I say that because I thought I was going to make the big leagues in 2007 which was my sixth year I didn't end up making it until 2010 and I feel like if I had made the big leagues in 2007 I wouldn't have had the career that I had because there were still things I needed to learn so how how would it have changed you for better or worse uh I'm a firm believer in everything happens for a reason um you know it's it's hard to see that at the time um but I I think probably right along the same lines as you I don't you know who's to say it I I wasn't ready and you know mentally I might not have been strong enough say I struggle and you know I don't you know stick with it and you know maybe hang it up earlier than than I should have um but I think you know like I said things happened for a reason and you know I stuck with it and you know still made it you did by the way are those the balls behind you they're authenticated that is that like your first pitch and your your first Punch Out balls that you have you're like kind of showing them off behind you uh I didn't have a punch out but it's uh my first pitch uh thankfully it was a strike and then first out okay nice all right well that's awesome that's something you they will never take away from you listen the only thing I'll say is no matter what people say no matter what people do you can always say this I pitched in the major leagues and to top it off I got relieved by Rowdy tles afterwards so not many people can say that okay because then Rowdy PES went on and threw a 4 M hour pitch that was like this far outside and high and they called it a strike so I mean at least you always have that going for you absolutely I don't know if I don't know if you know it or not do you know what number big leager you are did you ever have you looked that up in the last few days I know you got a whirlwind of stuff going on but I actually have tried to look it up I I don't think my profile is updated yet but you it was cool because I was talking to Rowdy um he kind of took me under under his wing after the game um and just set it up and he was like you know all the hard work and dedication you put in you know they can't take it away You're forever a big leager and then you know he he mentioned his number I think it was like 19,000 something um which I thought was really impressive you're number 23,000 323 it's a freaking cool number too absolutely yeah you guys know your numbers no I don't know no I don't know up yeah you can look it up you can definitely look it up um all right so let's fast forward here oh jeez bless you AJ's allergic to me so now what so obviously you you hit your moment you hit that goal that you'd been waiting for for a long time and then what happened since then because of course this is the business of baseball you get the call that you're designated for assignment at the moment so you know what was that process like for you over the last day or so um you know a little nerve-wracking but you know it's it's all part of the business um you know obviously the job's not finished um this this isn't over for for me and my family and everything um you know worst case scenario I I uh I go back to Indie uh keep doing what I was doing before that helped me get here um you know maybe dive into the the analytics a little bit more um which I started to do a little bit this year which I think has has helped me out a lot um I was more of an Old School pitcher just feel and go out there and and do my job but uh you know diving into the analytics and um you know seeing what works more against you know lefties righties situations um getting ahead of guys how to put away guys um you know my agent's been been a huge help with that and his team um yeah so you know you know if a if a team takes me great if not go back to Indie keep doing what I was doing um and then look towards you know finishing out the year strong and then see what happens next year last one for me um you know this might be more of your basic reporter question that we usually don't do but like what what would be your advice and will you use this always you know this moment obviously you know hopefully you'll be back in The Bigs anyway but either way the story is always there too just like I said you can't take this away you can't take away your story which is so unique right you spend a lot of time in the M miners most dudes would quit and you stick through it and you make it to the big leagues so you know how can you use that when you're talking to Young ball players or just anybody in life um just just sticking with it um you know I feel like I feel like nowadays people kind of give up on things a little too early um you know if you you firmly believe in in everything that you know you You' put into and it's not just Sports you know your everyday job um you know being a you know great dad great mom whatever um you know if you're you're a firm believer in what you're doing and and follow that track um you know I I think things can happen um you just got to keep your faith believe believe in yourself um and like I said you just got to put in the work um you know I feel like nowadays kids thinks kids think things are going to come to them very easily um it's it's the little things behind the scenes that that no one really sees um that that go a long way um um and just you know just got to stay positive um you know positivity goes a long way as well you know as soon as those those negative thoughts kind of creep in you know um you start second guessing yourself and you can kind of be be in a bad spot um yeah I just I just want to also thank you know the pirates for giving me this opportunity um apologize uh we have the we have the Pirates game in the background uh think someone might to hit a home run um if you heard the fireworks yeah like I said just want to thank the pirates for giving me an opportunity um believing in me and you know obviously my family friends trainers you know I've had multiple injuries and stuff um but you know I think the biggest one is is my wife um she's been the biggest rock um she's she's kept us afloat she's the you know the main reason that has allowed us to to kind of keep this journey up and um you know I owe pretty much everything to her Conor Joe by the way just went deep Conor Joe just went Deep by the way there you go good job him and his hair made made an impact in the interview all right last looks go ahead last one you going back to you're going back to winterball that's undecided um see how see how many innings I'm at this year uh I did I did go down the Dominican last year uh which I also think was a was a huge help um huge success uh down there um playing for lisay hoping I get a ring um you know because they won it last year um but hav haven't decided yet kind of see how the the year finish out uh where I'm at Innings wise and then and then kind of go from there nice all right Brady by the way KZ was 19,7 182 uh he was number and I was 17354 now what's amazing not just what were you 23,000 what was it 23 323 383 323 okay 323 so all right so here's what's amazing so I was 17 354 that was in 1998 okay Kats in 2010 it was 19,700 now we're already to 23,000 like dude the turnover now is like we have an arm injury issue in baseball I don't know if you've heard about it well not only injuries but just like they're like oh you've had a good couple good years you're out kid next it's it's I mean Rich chill we'll bring him back going on in the game yes I mean just Brady just remember if you can learn to drop down and throw a curve ball at 62 right the dudes in high school are like man this guy stinks richel still doing it in the big leagues true I mean listen he does it he flips that curveball in there those two pitches so Brady just remember drop down you can get like six more years in absolutely I'm I have had a I've had a knuckle ball I kind of finish my throwing program every day with a knuckle ball so um I might might have to break that out in a couple years if you know I'm still around I would love to see D Lefty knuckle ball that would be filthy yeah Ryan Fe did that pretty good who Ryan fand has there ever been a lefty knuckle ball in the big leagues wasn't the white suck guy a lefty knuckle baller he was in the big Lees was he must have been quick because I never heard of him I heard of Brady figel I never heard of ryer fand well Brady this was awesome man thank you for doing this and again I'm so excited I'm so happy for you I know it didn't end up obvious the way it did but at least at least puts a good ending on a on a on a story that I've had for a long time that kind of left a bad taste in my mouth so I'm I'm excited for you and happy for you I really appreciate it thank you guys for having me thanks Brady appreciate you good luck dude thank you [Music] here we are we're back all right so that was great first of all I mean like AJ mentioned some guys got really screwed out of jobs over the years still do but it happens I guess less right now supposedly less yes supposedly yes yeah stop don't don't make sure make sure everybody knows dudes are still doing it don't don't don't get it twisted like the Juicy Juice yes they couldn't catch the all the dudes from the anti-aging Clinic they they got one anti-aging clinic and they caught what 11 13 guys not one of those guys tested positive so all of a sudden now there was just one anti-aging clinic in all of America stop if you if you don't think guys are still using it you are you're missing the boat there's still dudes that are using it not as prevalent as it was but also I mean I don't want to speak too much about that place but I don't think it was the most state-ofthe-art from what I read about it well no but they knew what they were doing I mean probably places that were on another level wait are we on are we on b or is this a break we're on a break dude dudes are putting patches on their nuts yeah and that's and it would be like a three-hour booster for them and then they take it off and then they could then they could test negative because they' go in the hot tub and they'd pee in the hot tub and they drink water water water water water until they diluted their Pio so they stop letting you go in the hot tub they stop letting you take a shower like they've changed all these rules now I mean if you go into a clubhouse now there's a CBT CDT whatever it's what is it CDT Center for drug testing cgt guy they're like in there like every day and they they used to kind of fall you around like if it was your turn now they're like nope you can't do that no you can't take a shower no you can't go in the hot tub until you pee like in like a little cup that's crazy how we have to regulate that I give a lot of credit no what do you mean why is it crazy there's millions of dollars at stake if you take it as the person who took that stuff from that place he goes papy why would I not do it I set my family up for a life yeah I get it no I'm just saying I don't think people Canó get popped after he' signed his big deal come on come on Scotty A-Rod A-Rod got popped multiple times yep right I'm not saying that part's crazy I'm just saying I I think most people don't realize what's going on behind the scenes like there's a dude in the clubhouse that's regulating what's going on Haw Haw it's your turn dude it's crazy out your junk [Music] Ste [Music] right it's back the UMP show last night was raging so V Kaza has caught some sticky stuff situations in the past but social media was freaking out last night when Justin steel and this is from s Sharma star of North Side territory tweeted steel had a long meeting with the umpires now walking off the field they were looking at his glove and perhaps his hands he's back on the field and about to start warming up may have been told to get a new glove whatever it was still did not look thrilled people quickly pointed out Vic kapaza is the same person who booted Edwin Diaz earlier this year from a game for sticky stuff so the question and the frustration from people is transparency and consistency do we feel like that was accomplished with whatever the storyline is behind this no matter what there was some type of sticky stuff check and situation going on where a player had to go back somewhere in the past this happened from the same ump who kicked someone out the only like Kumbaya way that I can try to describe this to people that have asked me is maybe he got a talking to behind the scenes and they were like stop doing this or don't do this tell the guy to go fix it and let him come back out and give him a second chance why does he get a second chance I don't know that's the problem I have why do certain guys get a second chance and certain guys don't why did he why listen this is not a Justin steel thing this is you know whatever but why did he get to go wash it off why did Max sherzer go get told to wash it off have an MLB employee watch him wash his hands follow him back out to the mound and then he got popped why didn't Clark Schmidt have this last year where he could go yeah there's been multiple guys have been able to go wash their hand what what why did Edwin Diaz from the same ire not just hey just go wash your hand and come right back we have three layers one is I just check and I kick you out two is I check I tell you to fix it and you come back three is I check I tell you to fix it the dude says it's okay and then I still kick you out what the hell are we doing there's got to be a better way there has to be a better way has to be a better way there has to be something uniform that you can come up with I don't know remember we had Boris on last year and he's talking about sticky sticky vers tacky tacky versus just tacky and there's got to be some way again this all goes back to the original argument though give these guys something that is uniform that they can all use all whether it's on the mound in The Dugout Major League Baseball is enough money to have a guy sitting there watching a guy touching a guy in The Dugout saying all right you're good now you can touch this Sticky Thing and take it out to the m with you and that's it right there's got to be a way to do that Kat help me make make it make sense because when when I saw it live and then I was texting you guys about it you guys weren't responding quickly enough to me so then I brought it to Twitter and I was just like make it make sense I don't understand and fans are losing their mind obviously Mets fans are really losing their mind because they've been hit with Diaz and sherzer and some others so then you start to get the conspiracy theories online about you know the umple the Cubs and blah blah I'm like no no I just think there's severe miscommunication on how they're handling this situation and because it doesn't come up every day or every week it just gets kicked to the curb as problem number 100 and we'll deal with the other ones first that's how I'm looking at it right it's not a big enough problem but but sometimes even if something only occurs four or five times in a year it still has a significant hit on reputation transparency and ethics and that's why we I think as a show pointed out more than most it so you're saying you're you're confused that major league baseball who's the least proactive organization professional sports organization ever I think the NHL actually reacts sooner or is more proactive on things like you expect them to they know that this is just going to go away they know it's cut and dry there's no appeal process so as soon as it happens unless you're a Mets fan and you realize you're missing Edwin Diaz for 10 days because he got like the rest of the league doesn't care so it's not it's not front and center and they don't they they have a history of not having accountability for repercussions that will affect the Wild Card race the only way the only way is if one of these decisions affects betting outcomes and to me I think it's like major league baseball needs a check and balance because can easily do it I feel like they're close they got spider tech out of here spider tech out of there but we can't have nothing so where's the answer somewhere in there but it has to be players making the decision helping Major League Baseball figure this out to me I think it's on the ball it's the stuff they put on the ball make a uniform tacky ball and you can still do the checks but not the checks you know checks from before they come into the game before they come into the game back from The Dugout from the bullpen whatever it is but it's either you think there's a problem or there's not there's not like there already is a a gray area in terms of who thinks what is significant enough but then it can't be some umps and some situations are allowed to tell the guy go fix it and some aren't the only part you nailed it CR the only part where I strongly disagree is betting outcomes are are already affected Edmond Diaz got booted from a game and then miss 10 games and you don't even get to replace the dude on the roster plus you're missing your closer like that's affecting a win loss total that's affecting all kinds of outcomes yesterday player gets to St in a game that affects all kinds of outcomes I just don't think it's happening frequent enough that if this happened every week and it becomes a long national news story and it's getting picked up by places that don't usually talk about sports and people are losing their minds like I think that's when it starts to hit it just doesn't happen enough so they're just like people forget about it in a month that's where I think there's a problem okay okay let's get to ratty strike worst strike ever right in terms of metrics stat cast era so the last 10ish years since we could track to this extent ratty tles took over in a game and some people were like screw it game's over swing the damn bad at Rowdy T's pitches but I love this what do you love about it I just love it dude it's 40 miles an hour it's what was the score like 17 15 to six like what if you were at the plate would you be okay with it goes back to the time watch I mean it's 42 miles an hour I mean it was the first strike he's just telling he's just sending a message swing the bat okay I love this the game's out of hand Rowdy's probably like thank goodness I don't have to throw it closer than that because he might hit a comebacker at me it reminds me of the time Mike karp was facing uh David Murphy in a game in Seattle and Murphy struck him out on the knuckle Lefty knuckle ball murf and Mike karp got ejected from the game and next year I played with Mike Carp in Boston and I said bro you got kicked out of a game it was like you guys are winning whatever the score was and you got kicked out of game he's like it wasn't a strike I go bro it was like 15 to2 you guys are winning swing the bat I'm like you got kicked out of a game with a position player pitching yeah yeah so it's like that like you just have to know where you're at you have to know where you're at and you have to understand that when the game gets out of hand I am totally fine with the Empire going trust me I'm catching right there I'm like yeah call them all yeah of course you are make them swing if I'm hitting yeah who cares it's Patrick wisdom's like ha Rowdy got me on the first strike at 40 miles an hour a ball who cares whatever it's just funny to me but I I just think it's funny it's even more funny that it's Rowdy I agree last fine L Diaz we missed this from the other night but some people pointed it out his performance what do he do just add a lot of Misses everyone has everyone has bad games okay everyone has bad days congrats that's it I like have the I love LZ LZ was behind the dis we had F on made his debut in Pittsburgh I made my debut in Pittsburgh LZ was behind the dish LZ consistently is one of the worst performers balls and Strikes do we have the chart or we not have the chart maybe we don't have the the graphic but I think we have the calls you know I think we have the video oh we don't have scard I can get you the scorecard I I should be I saw I saw the scorecard I saw the scorecard and this is what I'm talking about it's all it's all over the place and I love that L that L just freaks out and then he and then he goes back and gives him this one and then it's just he just he tries his best I really like LZ he does a good job back there in a sense of like talking to you but he could not see every pitch that's it like he helped me get my first big league hit and he was just he was just letting that arm eat damn which game was this in the series I'm on trip Gibson in the series listen Laz La X Marine thank you for your service La you know he just had some bad games he's also an older School umpire that sometimes will allow you know he'll he'll move his Zone around a little bit and that's fine too that's why I don't want I'm against the ABS and I want the human element involved and system right you want the challenge system though the challenge system is fine yeah but for every single ball and strike I'm not I'm not for that yeah he was 93% called ball accuracy and 83% called strike accuracy the scorecard was bad but not terrible I mean we've seen much worse everyone has a bad it's hard to see in Seattle remember cu the batter's ey is slanted so that's why no one can hit there maybe that's that's not a bad game the batter's eye is sideways even for the fans the fans have a hard time seeing foul balls there too there's crispy grasshoppers everywhere man they they have a hard time seeing those foul balls off the bat too I start tripping when I eat those every time I do a game in Seattle I'm like oh man I feel awkward because the batter's eye is like one degree off it's the excuse of Life all right let's come back with a really fun segment we're excited to bring to the mix here Mike petriello and Jeff fry who might see the game very differently but love the game so we're going to bring everybody together to talk out where we're at with some of the modern [Music] [Music] stats I think the conversation now sort of moves moves to you know is Anthony number one for my money I've been in this train for the better part of a year I think you know you look at the production you look at the con uh the combination of quality of contact and just absolute legitimate power like 70 grade raw power you look at the I did an article last week where we looked at the percentiles in terms of you know hitters under 21 and where they ranked in the greater scape of the minor leagues in terms of the exit velocity numbers Marcel Meer is is 99th percentile it's you know right on par with James Wood it's not all that different it's a different package it's not quite as big but still a bigger guy a left-handed power hitter in Fenway Park that has that 70 grade power that he can hit it out to right field I think people forget just because they see pesky's bow you know how deep right field and the bullpens are to really hit the ball out to right field there you have to have legitimate power we saw Andrew Ben and tendi hit a lot of warning track fly balls because he didn't have that sort of Pop Anthony has that sort of pop with to ball skills with excellent approach he has the ability to play all three Outfield positions I think that he has you know multi-time Allstar upside I think of all these guys Anthony is the one I'm most excited about I think you have a franchise catcher or an everyday catcher and Kyle teal you know JJ will attest I sit and I watch this guy and I kept poking him at the Futures game saying Kyle teal good ball player just does everything really well all the little things you know we heard on this show you know at the prospect pad about the guy work ethic and and just the the amount of of over-the-top work this guy will do he's just a grinder and I think Boston fans are going to really gravitate toward that and then you have Christian Campbell who probably has the best chance of breaking Camp as an everyday player next year with the Red Sox the second base position has been a hole for a long time and I think Campbell has proven that he's hited every level of the miners it's continue to work you know he's hitting for contact he's hitting for power there's speed there he can play multiple different positions but I think second base is his best defensive position he's probably the best defender of the players they have available he surpassed Von Grisham for sure in my mind at this point [Music] Scotty unhit your mute I'm not hearing you but what Scotty was saying was Mike petriello from the new school Jeff fry from the old school and somebody's going to step on somebody's lawn with these two guys here Scotty are you back are you ready to go if not let's just take it away it's just going to be it's going to be us three today all right so hope you guys brought your lawnmowers I want to talk to Scott you guys you don't Mike doesn't want to talk to Scott Jeff do you want to talk to Scott or would you rather talk to AJ because they're they're muted right now yeah yeah man you're fine with me buddy I don't care it's uh it doesn't matter to me all right all right so we'll start with we'll start with you Jeff just from an overarching 30,000 foot view what is your biggest gripe of the current game right now statistically how things are coached whatever it is my biggest gripe well I would just say that um I think it's it's not as entertaining as it used to be I think it's just uh with the three true outcomes I've just seeing a lot of uh strikeouts and and guys seem you know a lot of solo homers you see a you know five to Four game with seven solo homers and I just don't see the action that you know made me love the game and and and I missed that part of it and I know that you know these guys are incredibly talented players and uh to me the game with with this quality of of baseball player out there should be more entertaining and I'm just not as entertained do you think do you think the players are better right now do you think the players are more talented than when you played I think probably physically they're more talented just because they train year round um you know they have a lot of different uh training methods they go through and nutrition's better and and things like that so I think overall probably athletically they are more talented but I don't believe they're better baseball players than the guys in my era and the guys before because uh you we had to learn to do everything we had to a guy like me I had to learn how to you know bunt hit and run get guys over play solid defense turn a double play run the bases and I think today we're seeing a lot of guys that are kind of one trick ponent you know they can hit some homers and but the rest of the time they're striking out and a lot of them are liabilities on defense okay Mike what's your rebuttal to to what he said is the biggest gripe of what is considered the current game because I'm gonna lay us out here Major League Baseball is never been more talented and it is in a great place but what is your gripe what is your gripe or what's your what's your rebuttal to what what Jeff just said about true outcomes and all that stuff yeah I'm not gonna rebut Jeff's opinion in this sense that he's certainly entitled to have that opinion just like everybody else but I would make two points to that uh one is you can go back and I've done this to like 1910 and you will find guys in the newspapers who played in 1890 complaining about the state of the game in 1910 right like every generation this happens every 20 years and I remember like six weeks ago or so in the athletic they did this big player poll right like what players do you like to watch who's the most overrated uh and what one of the questions was what do you as the current generation of players like what's your biggest gripe with the previous generation of players and overwhelmingly the answer was they don't respect enough how much harder it is now how much more difficult the game is and that's not coming from me that's coming from the guys in the field right now so I would say this I do not think Jeff is alone in that opinion at all uh but I also think the game has changed and we kind of do this all the time everyone will always look back to the way it was when they were younger and think man that was the best time and that's never going to stop happening all right Jeff I want you to respond to this first and then Mike right afterwards are we hurting the game because of that is is the article you read in 1918 about the 1910 players saying that a the game's not the same too many people are hitting home runs and Babe Ruth came along he's ruining the game are we hurting the game by being I'm just going to categorize it as get off my lawn or old school Mike go ahead buddy I mean I think you hear the younger guys say that right I mean they they want to have the flare they want to have the excitement you look at the WBC last year in Miami right when's the last time you saw the Miami ballpark packed and full of life and the reason for that is that style of play is so entertaining to people so I do think it's an ongoing thing you always want to get young kids into the game right and I don't think saying don't have fun is the way to do it they're line sure there's a line the line has probably moved over the years a little bit right it's not like there's never a line but things that are acceptable now probably weren't 20 years ago and definitely weren't 60 years ago so within reasonable limits I do think you want to make sure that the kids who want to play are able to express themselves and have fun doing so yeah go ahead Jeff well I mean I don't think the line has been moved I think the line has been wiped away um if we see some of the celebrations nowadays and you know hey you hit a walk-off Homer you know celebrate all you want want but but when you're losing six to nothing and you hit a solo Homer in the ninth inning I just don't I I'll never be able to accept that it's okay for you to dance around the bases and act like something you did something special your team is still losing you're a professional baseball player you get paid to win baseball games and I know that AJ and you guys that uh back when we played man if you did something like that and you came in The Dugout you're going to get an earful from your teammates because it's not about you it's about the team team and I think a lot of the emphasis today is is on the individual and um that's just one of the things I know you guys probably think I don't like anything about the game but I love the game and I just I just it hurts my heart to see some of the things happening in the game today that um you know it just makes it hard for me to watch if it's hard for me to watch something that I love then something's wrong with it in my way in my opinion yeah no and and like Mike said Everyone's entitled to their opinion that's why we're here discussing it youal Jeff you just talked about winning and winning the game that's that's the whole point and to me a lot of these how analytics and stats and how we're coached is to win the game yes we could argue about like your bat flips and all that stuff but to me bat flips aren't winning or losing the game so Mike I want to go to velocities and I want to you you have delved deep into the velocities in the game because it's about winning the game if you throw the ball harder tell me if I'm incorrect you have a better chance of striking somebody out not saying guys didn't throw the ball harder before but we have charts you've posted charts on your Twitter about just how much the velocity has improved and to me it's what Jeff is saying it's to win the game and this is how you can win the game at a easier clip yeah absolutely absolutely and I should say quickly too we talk about all this velocity in terms of fast balls it's also breaking balls right the the rate of breaking balls thr an 85 miles an hour or more has doubled between 2008 and 2024 like could you imagine when you guys were all playing ever seeing you know a 92 M hour slider or change up which you see now it's insane and we know that it matters because you have all these pictures openly going out there and saying I trained this winter I needed to add velocity that's what I did now does that lead to more injuries possibly that's like a whole separate issue but to your original point there they want to be better pitchers you know guys who don't throw hard generally don't succeed I know you can point to Kyle Hendricks guys like that it's never an absolute like you'll always find some outlier guys but you can see guys you've never heard of now coming out and throwing 99 this happened to me the other day there was a guy who I'd barely heard of a quad type and he's throwing 99 and has like a four and a half ER and maybe that would point to you well he doesn't how to pitch he doesn't know how to sequence and that's I won't refute that that's totally fine but when the numbers are absolutely saying it's harder to hit when you throw harder and when the Batters are saying I need to start swinging harder because I can't catch up to all this velocity and you have Aaron judge saying things like I've never seen a sinker that moved like that because now it's not just Belo right it's the science going into movement and stream shifted we the Batters are saying the way pitchers are throwing and with how many pitchers I have to see it is so so hard to hit I'm not sure how you could could argue against that because at the end of the day it's not not about ruining the game or whatever it's about these guys want to win they like you know Eric fedy goes to this performance facility after frankly being terrible for five or six years learns how to pitch in a way that works for his body gets a nice contract and now he's a pretty good pitcher right like I think that's awesome I love that guys are using every tool at their disposal to try to become better baseball players do guys have to swing faster or harder to hit velocity Jeff no I think you got to swing shorter and quicker um you know is that is that is that bat speed is that is that a way that increases like is a short swing faster I believe so I believe so and I think a lot of guys are being taught this longer swing you know so you start your swing earlier and you have less time to make adjustments and I think that's why we see a lot of strikeouts and I I have a lot of friends in the game a lot of guys who coach in the game and you know I just asked them Point Blank I said are guys guessing more and they said absolutely and so I think when we're seeing guys strike out at record levels and you see guys with two strikes take a pitch right down the middle and not even offer at it it's because they're sitting on a pitch and they're they have one objective and that is to try and hit that ball hard in the air with two strikes and they're not worried about adjusting if they get that pitch there's a good chance they're going to smoke it but a lot of times they don't get that pitch and they walk back to the Dugout like it's no big deal and that's just something that didn't happen happened it used to be that you know once you got the two strikes the ab was pretty much for your team now you got to battle you got to make that pitch of work anything you can do to get the ball and play and oftentimes in those situations you're shorter and quicker and you still drive the ball and so I I think that's one of the bigger differences I see in the game it looks to me like a lot of guys are up there guessing for pitches and to Mike's Point about um you know all the pitchers are throwing harder and stuff like that know you know there's nobody seems to give Credence to the the new radar guns the new radar guns that uh that read the ball out of the hand and we all know from the the information we've seen that the ball is going to lose velocity so if you're 100 miles an hour out of the hand what is it in front of Home Plate where they used to measure because I remember facing guys like Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson and Mariano that were 95 to 99 miles an hour and that was being registered at home plate and AJ you guys know that you know anybody can time a good fastball man you got Major League B major league hitters can can time a speeding bullet and if guys are just raring back and throwing it down the middle Major Leaguers are going to be able to hit that pitch in my opinion all right Mike well I mean I think it's clear I'm going to disagree about the radar gun part of it right like that the chart that they put up is just based on 20 2008 to now where everything's on the same scale with the same like it's clearly going up this right the red right there there that's percentage of uh hor seamers and sinkers 95 miles hour and that's I don't know how that could be disagreed with and as far as uh comparing it to like the old radar guns yeah like that's probably true that was measured you know closer to the plate I don't dispute that it's just that there were as you all know many kinds of radar guns over the years right like the hot guns and the cold guns and you've got some human error about whether they're pointing at the plate or a couple feet in front of the plate and either way there's no actual database to go look at like I could not go tell you right now what you know Mariana in 2002 that information just isn't there you've got just sort of Snippets of guys who wrote in the newspaper or remembered things it's not really much of a comparison point but again even within this context of the last 16 years the same technology it's up up up up and I'm just not sure how we could say the guys from 50 years ago who were not trying to throw with this kind of velocity and in many cases weren't as big and strong weren't throwing as hard I'll say there's outliers I I don't want to act like nobody thr 100 till 2008 I don't believe that's true do I think Bob Feller through 100 sure but you know not like 117 as he claimed he did no I I agree with that and you know I mean I faced Randy Johnson in 1992 um he strugg out 18 guys in eight Innings he threw 163 pitches and after the game Tom house was walking around going he was 97 to 99 the entire game and that was 1992 32 years ago okay so we all know Nolan Ryan threw incredibly hard Jr Richard there was a lot of guys that threw hard and now I know I agree that there are probably more guys today throwing harder but a lot of them are just raring back and throwing it and not pitching and a lot of those guys Mariano Randy Johnson those guys were pitchers and it wasn't just rear back and throw a by you it was throw a slider on the outside corner come inside it was just pitching more than I think we're seeing today so what you're telling me is those guys couldn't shorten their swing up against Randy Johnson he was thrown hard I don't know I mean I I I I enjoyed hitting against the guys who threw harder because that wasn't a power guy and I you know the way I felt about it was if I'm facing Roger Clemens or marianao or Randy Johnson one of those hard throwers I'm just going to relax and be as short and quick to the ball and let them provide the power and you know I could hit a good fast ball and you know was the guys who threw 88 who I'd never heard of who had all this other stuff that I had a hard time with that's I was gonna yeah go ahead Mike yeah I want to ask a question so in 1967 I believe it was was the year that Carl stry won the Triple Crum and he was the only hitter in the entire American League that year maybe it was 68 who who hit over 300 and he did it hitting 301 right and I'm curious if you think that people at the time were thinking that the hitters didn't care about making contact and putting the ball in play like no what happened was the pitchers got way too dominant and we changed all the rules to try to make it easier for guys to hit and that's that's happened a number of times over the years I think you'll probably see it happen again at some point like isn't that just the story of baseball that you go in these cycles and guys change and their bodies change and the approach changes and the rules change and then we try to figure out what what guys are doing and adjust to that yeah I mean I think that's one of the things but I think what we've seen with the rule changes has been like wholesale role changes I mean I can't we can't really argue that it's easier to steal a base right now than it ever has been in the history of the game and we got guys with 60 soen bases already it's not even September and and it's just with the one knee catching and the stolen bases the bigger bases The Limited pickoffs and we ban the shift it just if these guys are so much better than the guys from my era and AJ's era and Katy's era it's like why are we keep changing the rules to make it easier and the guys still can't hit 250 as a league to me it's because they're being they've been convinced kind of brainwashed by guys upstairs that we don't want you to shorten your swing with two strikes we want you to try and hit the ball in the air and do damage because it's too hard to string together multiple hits in an inning so we're just going to go for the solo shots and the home runs every chance we get and I think that's taken away from the overall beauty of the game and the excitement of the game I think it's not brainwashed Jeff it's wallet washed because the wallet the wallet gets bigger when the homers go further but you you mentioned one thing one knee catching I think Mike Mike has Mike and Mike did you work with uh did you work with J with a little bit of one knee like investigation stuff uh yeah mostly JJ Cooper uh did a lot of that and I listen I know we have two catchers right here on this show although maybe only one of you has a microphone that's working but yeah I would I would argue this right they do this because it works and the rate of pass balls is not anymore now wild pitches and pass balls right missed pitches and when you see smart catching people like Tanner Swanson from the Yankees or Jerry Weinstein who's a Rockies catching Legend as I'm sure you guys all know and they're saying yeah this works like we want our guys to do this because we can frame pitches better and help our pitchers and we're not going to have more balls go to the back stop and yes we might have more you know guys stealing but as Jeff said the rules have changed to make that you know much more difficult anyway uh I don't I don't necessarily have a problem with it like it works the numbers say it works and then I've also heard catchers recently I heard one on the show the other day and I can't remember who it was it might have been John flarity or Caleb Joseph or somebody saying man I wish I could have caught with one knee during my career because that would have really saved my knees and kept me fresher and let me play in more games and hit more and obviously I'd love to hear your opinion on that Eric but the the numbers seem pretty clear on this pass balls wild pitches are not up because of this catching style changing uh they have made adjustments and I my my rebuttal to this because when they they first started this you look back at the guys who had the highest receiving numbers when I played that was the only reason I kept playing it wasn't cuz I could hit whether I was shortening my swing up or longing my swing up I just wasn't a good hitter but receiving is a value and guys like yasmani grandal were probably one of the top in the league his pass balls were up there with Josh to who was catching a knuckle ball like so the pass balls they have curtailed them recently and you saw in JJ Cooper's chart there they've made the they've started to make the adjustment the whole reason this was brought in was because there was guys who could create a value in receiving because they could not create a value in throwing guys whose arms were cashed and migr to one knee and this is where I'm sitting in the middle just like on this picture is the value analytically of the of one base is .22 to but the value from third to home is way more valuable than first to second so to me if you're on one knee with a guy on Third and it could cost you because I've missed the playoffs by one one game it could cost you a run that loses you the game to me you have to be able to do both so that's where I'm in the middle on the one knee and throwing guys out is valuable but not as valuable as receiving yeah well okay to me the the one knee um I can understand how it can prolong your career um I understand that part to me with a runner on base especially a runner on third it's just it's just too risky it's not worth trying to steal a strike and you got a pitcher up there and faced a lot of guys in in my career that their strikeout pitch was bouncing the ball in the dirt maybe Steve Finley would throw his forkball in the dirt a few guys would try and bounce a ball in the dirt with two strikes and to me that limits what they're able to do in that situation because they're they have to not be able to be 100% convinced that if they Bounce It the guy's gonna gonna block it because he's gonna try and pick it I mean if you had Charles Johnson back there with two strikes you know at the end of the game and you're going to bounce a curveball you're pretty sure he was going to block it you had Jason Kendall or Todd Pratt and a lot of other guys AJ C Rodriguez you're pretty sure those guys were going to block it so you could still throw your best pitch but now these guys are not they look like middle infielders are first baseman trying to pick the ball and if they miss it it's oh well we lost the game and to me there's no way it's worth risking losing a game with a winning run on Third and being on a knee with two strikes I just don't I just can't will never be able to accept that that's okay what if doing that doesn't make it more likely there's going to be a pass ball I think if if there was evidence that clearly said that then I'd be totally with you and we're just not really seeing it and also you want the guy to be able to get the strike on two strikes too like that also helps your pitcher is is kind of the data way of thinking about it well I mean I know the I know your data says mike um but I just don't see how it's possible to block a pitch easier on one knee ask AJ and katzy I don't know they probably never did that in their career because nobody did it back in those days but I think it's all going to be a moot point once they put in the robo Strike Zone because once you can't steal strikes then what's going to happen to the one KNE catching and I don't know if I'm sure you guys saw Hosmer's um interview with h Salvador Perez about when he got to training and you know he was told that 83% of catching is his Framing and 12% is throwing and 5% is blocking or something like that and he said he didn't block a ball in spring training for a month so the guys aren't even working on a lot of that stuff they're just trying to pick it like infielders if you like this I don't see anything Eric cosmer says because he has blocked me on Twitter which I I think you'll get a kick out I also don't think we're ever getting to full robots I think the challenge system is probably coming in so so framing will always be value challenge yeah and I agree yeah I I totally missed that as well I don't I don't see much you know from that show unfortunately um but okay I'm going to jump in here to to finish this off so I was excited to bring you guys together because I see back and forth with two people that obviously have a lot of action going on on social media all the time I know Mike for a long time I've worked with him back in the day for years so I want to queue up one tweet here that just kind of brought you two together and that's why I'm like hey cool we have this show like let's bring two people together that see baseball differently that love the game and let's talk it out so so Jeff was like this is for the everyone throws 100 crowd the re and I know we touched on this a little but just to to kind of finish and get last statements here the reason batting averages are so bad is because hitters are trying to lift the ball not cutting down their swing with two strikes sorry you refuse to see it because it's painfully obvious to the rest of us mikee said this is objectively false we now have data that clearly says hitters are cutting their swings down with two strikes perhaps to their own detriment bat speed before 2K bat speed um with two strikes on them is 70.5 miles per hour versus 72 so Mike do you want to explain this one and then we'll let Jeff jump in here you know for last word as well yeah uh first of all no hard feelings Jeff I was being salty so I apologize for going at you like that uh listen that that's what the numbers say but um you know every this is the first year we've got these bat tracking metrics right and so there's like so much new information that's coming out that to your point that was one of the very first things I was interested in right or do we see guys make different swings you know when the count is in their favor or not and from the most advantageous count the three count to the least when they're down two strikes it's like a five mile hour difference in bat speed and like that's enough that it can't possibly be a fluke and so when I saw that number it was really interesting to me that almost every single guy in the majors and I think Jesse Winker for some reason is the outlier here he swings harder on two strikes uh everybody in the majors Cuts their swing down on two strikes now is that because they're protecting the plate is it because they're seeing different kinds of pitches could be a number of things uh I would actually argue that that's one of the most underrated parts of being down two strikes that we've never really thought about as much before which is just that if the pitcher can make you come out with a worse version of your own swing that's huge right that's now you're in the guy's head he's not coming out there giving you his a swing that's what those numbers show okay last word Jeff if you want it oh yeah thank you yeah um I mean I I don't put a lot of credence in the bat speed stuff we SE we've seen great hitters who don't have great didn't have great bat speed John Olo looked like he was swinging slow motion and the ball would rock it off his Bat I know recently he started measuring bat speed and a lot of guys you I think you can generate more bat speed if you start your swing early and get a longer swing and a lot of guys with two strikes I recommend shortening up your swing and just getting the barrel to the ball and probably doing it that way you're not going to have as much bat speed um so there's a lot of data I know the data all says that what I'm seeing with my eyes isn't really happening um but you know it's a fun thing to argue about Mike no hard feelings you know I I I love the game and you know I'm gonna continue to uh try and promote the game and grow the game because you know it's given me everything I have in my life and I know you're doing the same you love the game and we just looking at it from different perspectives but no hard feelings I respect that I like it all right well this was fun really enjoy it um and like bringing you guys together for something like this so thank you for doing for joining us appreciate you and yeah we'll try and line something like this up in the future right thanks guys okay I appreciate it good thank you see you uh you can follow Mike and Jeff on Twitter and you can get two very different [Music] perspectives that was cool um also anyone that likes blocks Mike petrello on Twitter is absolutely out of their mind I mean he is a nice harmless man that's pointing out a different side of the game so if you can't handle Mike on Twitter like wof sorry that's that's pretty rough you're really some people just get their feelings hurt easier that's really really rough though like Mike like puts everything like really professionally into the work that he puts on Twitter so anyway I've been a fan of can I say can I say one thing the one I wanted to say it at the end with Jeff like he said like we have all this analytical data Jeff said it's with his eyes guys who played for a long time to me need to understand that analytics and data are not lying it's what they have it's the information you have so when a swing is on average slower that is like to me that's irrefutable it is a slower swing speed-wise you are taking a slower swing than your normal average swing they're not manipulating that data to say anything different it's just and so analytics is only putting a number to what your eyes see and so that's why I'm on the side of analytics and numbers because they just don't lie you can't see everything with your eyes okay cool okay all right so I can't say anything because I yeah I missed three quarters of the conversation so I don't I so sorry oh good I'll take K's word for what he said I mean yeah well we'll do it again we'll do it again it was fun so Katz was just hogging all the mic time um it was so nice that was my moment you get it every once in a while Gremlin never leave me again don't ever leave me again Scott I was P I know I'm coming back soon I'm coming back soon I think next week [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] B MJM locks we'll look at yesterday quick and then flip right to our picks because we're getting tight on time so yeah I fell Dam Yankees Dam Yankees and Orioles for me man you you had some good part and C you didn't get the K yeah but by that time Derrick's team had already given it up so pin strip territory check it out uh Kats won though no sweat bet on the Padres Kats go first but everybody has to go Speedy today I'm going over two and a half runs against Walker buer and total for the game over eight and a half Bern's been given up a few runs there's a lot more stats but we're going quick it's plus 165 I'm uh I'm just going uh Astros aren't going to get swept so I'm taking them money line and Yankees bounce back from yesterday and that gets me to plus 191 there you go and I'll go minus 110 Baltimore almost even money with Corbin Burns to beat the Dodgers against Walker bu in the six plus ER and I know it's been a little better lately and burns has gone through a little bit of a rut sorry Corin Burns against the Dodgers I got a dub there for the Orioles so go check it out see what happens and you can play swing for the fences game if you've got the B MGM out and a funded account you can play once per day single double triple Homer or a fly out depending on the area of the strike zone that you pick as the batter and reward types include parlay boost tokens odds boost tokens and bonus bets all rewards expire in 24 hours gambling problem work concern call wi 800 Gambler we'll be right back on Ft [Music] I wouldn't say it happens on a day-to-day basis because it was quite unusual to see a two-time sa young winner out there as long as he was and even Jordan Montgomery a World Series hero out there as long as he was I don't know that we're making too big a deal of it Jordan Montgomery said what he did then Andrew B baggerly of the athletic went to snell and asked for his response and Snell gave his response different people have different opinions often Montgomery feels that Boris botched his free agency Snell feels that that Boris did not and they've made decisions along those lines Montgomery left as you said AJ and Snell stayed the real test will come this off season because if Snell gets the deal that he ultimately wants then it's all going to be okay he got 30 million this year a high aav and ultimately let's say it's I don't know 6 180 whatever the number might be then everything will be fine in his world that's the test though and Scott Boris has an amazing class of free agents this year it's one of his best goes back to the quality of 2019 when he had Cole and strawberg and rendone this year it's stto Alonso Burns bregman Snell Chapman and Bellinger if they opt out and I'm probably missing a few so it's going to be a big winter for him and yes with those particular players the ones who were part of the Boris for and didn't get what we thought they were going to get I feel really confident that he's going to do better Chapman's having a better year Snell's having a better year Bellinger probably just okay but he's still a guy that teams are going to want if he indeed decides to opt out but we all know those of us who follow this most fans what Juan stto is doing and that what he is doing is pretty remarkable in its own right he right now would be third on my Al MVP boutot he has a career high in home runs this is is one of his best seasons he's improved his defense though it's still not going to be his calling card and with regard to the question about the Yankees versus another team he definitely sees the value of being in the same lineup as Aaron judge now will that determine where he goes absolutely not what is going to determine where he goes is who makes the highest offer which team makes the highest offer that's what this free agency is all about and that's where it's going going [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] let's slap right to kattat Lehi B I don't pigs one of the teams that Brady figel didn't play for boom there you go an awesome shirt shout out baseballism the lake great Tony Gwyn love that shirt awesome collection if you want to go check that out fun one today ft fam all over the place thanks to all the guests we do this every day 1 to three live all year long weekdays only didn't get into Tristan casses today and whatever he was doing yesterday all right well let's save some things and we'll make sure we get to them tomorrow deal yeah yeah a [Music]