Good morning. Good morning, everybody. It is July 1st, 2023. We're back here on Four Guys and Still No Clue. I'm joined by Kenji and Joe today. We're recapping the last two weeks in baseball. Domingo Hermon through perfect game. All-star game starters are out. Got a lot of talk about. Let's hop right into it.
Good morning, my boys. Good morning. Maybe everybody's listening to this in the evening, but we're recording this in the morning. We do not have Brady today. He's off on a family little. What would you call the guys retreat retreat? Yeah, family retreat. We miss him. We'll get away special episode and get him back on here soon. But first and foremost, Kenji.
How you doing, man? Hi. Hi. Kenji's been up to four in the morning. Everybody went on a sunrise hike. No, no, I woke up at 330 in the morning. You've been up for like eight hours already. Yeah, and I went to bed like one too. Oh, good. Oh, boy. Oh, good. I watched that. You know, good start to your day. Yeah, great start to his day. Two hours. You're realizing like this is like the most depressing looking background. Yeah, I mean, are you being is somebody by?
Behind the door holding a gunpoint just like this. This is like he's in solitary confinement. No, no, this is just my game. There's nothing here. I need to decorate it. Oh, where's the Lars Newport jersey? All that stuff. It's just not even there anymore. Like, but like, where would I put it though? Because it's like, it's shelves. I don't know. You could just like, hang the jersey and just put something on top of like the there you go on the shelf. So it's like, okay. Yeah. All right. Just a recommendation.
It looks like you're you're in the process of moving out. Yeah, guys, I'm moving out of my parents basement finally. Yeah, go explore the world for myself.
Yeah, can you say now he's exploring? Yeah, Joe, how are you my good friend or Resident Rangers fan? I'm doing I'm doing very well. Obviously my room, you can kind of tell it's just like not decorated at all. It's got like a piano right there. But at least I don't have shelves in the background to show how empty my room is. It's just like my empty my room just empty to begin with.
Yeah, kind of in the same boat. I mean, maybe let the viewers or listeners in on this. There's a spot right behind you where I think the Dane Dunning.
A little little hook right there. You see that hook right there? Yeah, I think it'll go well. What was the bet Joe the Dane Dunning jersey bet. I think it was about a month ago we were talking in the chat we said, I said, it's Dane Dunning day, the day that he starts and if he throws, I think at least
six innings with only one earned run. Yeah, one or less. Yeah, one or less. I'll get a I'll get a Dane Dunning City Connect jersey. And although that hasn't happened since that we can I can talk about kind of his outing later this week. But yeah, I'm due to buy a Dane Dunning jersey. So
you're absolutely due to buy a Dane Dunning jersey. I think that's two starts in a row that he's had some great starts. So I think City Connect Dane Dunning should be hanging on. I think it's finally time. I think it's time. We got Kenji and Otani jersey because you need it. Yeah. Okay, so we'll hop right into the content then. First and foremost, the biggest news over the last week Domingo Hermann threw his perfect game about the worst guy you know that could throw a perfect game.
But he threw a perfect game. It's the 24th in Major League history. It hasn't happened in 11 years since King Felix did it. It was fun to watch even though if it was against a double A team in the local days. It was fun. Did you guys get a chance to tune in on it?
So I was working actually I was working that night so I didn't get to see it but I did just go on the MLB YouTube channels saw the last three outs it was electric man like even the A's. It was like it was funny because I was watching it and I didn't pay attention to the stadium what they were playing which was obviously in Oakland and everyone was cheering when he got the final out right and it was like oh and then I realized that they were playing at Oakland and they were cheering which was really cool. It was a really cool experience.
The baseball community comes together to celebrate this really impressive feat 27 outs in a row. It was kind of cool.
Kenji do you have any opinion? Did you watch it? Did you even know what happened?
Watching baseball was happening. I like to hear in there. It shows up one of the hitter going on. But I don't know when I saw Yankees and A's it's like one of the two teams I could honestly care less about.
Yeah I didn't really want to watch either team to be quite and Hermann is like the worst pitcher to have done it. But I mean he gave up 10 earned runs in the start before and then goes and throws a perfect game and start after that.
I mean Oakland sucks. That shows you how bad the A's are. But I still thought it was crazy impressive. I mean it's a perfect game. You don't throw a perfect game by just luck.
There's a reason why it's only happened 24 times.
Right. I think it's the rarest feat in all of sports. I saw a couple numbers on it. They've been counting stats since the mid 1800s and it's only the 24th time a pitcher has thrown a perfect game.
Yeah. Which is just crazy. Just crazy. I think I read the stats on the no hitter is a point two percent. Yeah. A point two percent chance of a no hitter. I don't know what it is for a perfect game. I think it's less than point one percent. Oh yeah.
Was it a perfect game or a no hitter? Perfect game. Perfect game.
Yeah, perfect.
When I was 11, I threw a no hitter one time for my travel team. So that was like that's when I peaked. I peaked 10 years ago.
At Lehigh Vets. I think yeah I was at the Lehigh Vets stadium.
And I still remember I still have that ball from a no hitter versus I don't even remember what team I played against. That's fantastic. That's when I peaked.
Kenji, have you ever witnessed a no hitter? You probably threw one didn't you?
I never threw one. I came close to one before.
But that was like 14-year. 14-year? 14-year? Okay. Yeah. One of the coaches used to let me pitch. Yeah. That's tough. Not anymore. No. Don't let him near the pitcher's mouth. No.
Okay. So we can move right along then. The All-Star game Stargers were also released. They're just actually just posted a blog post about the Stargers.
The actual rosters get released tomorrow, July 2nd. The full rosters like reserves, pitching stats, which everybody should go check that out whenever you're listening to it.
And then the jerseys. I know we have some design freaks here in this call, which not really.
But I guess first response to the jerseys, the Navy and the Teal. Joe, Kenji, how do you feel?
I'm going to look them up. Okay. Okay. Yeah. It says American National on it. They have a little camel green on them.
Here. I won't look at them. I'll give you a raw. This is a raw reaction. Wow. I'll give it. He just said I'll give it raw. That's okay.
Okay. Okay. I'm looking at judges right now. Okay. But I think they'll look cool on the field. I got to be honest.
I think they will. Well, what color are the pants? Do you know? They'll probably be white and gray.
White for the American League and gray for the National League. I mean, I like the first time that they all wore the same jerseys during the game itself was in 2021 in Colorado,
where they all had to wear the same jerseys on the field. In years past, they just wear like their own team's jerseys with like a special hat, which I actually am a bigger fan of.
But I think these I think these look good. If you guys are listening, then go just look up anywhere.
The All-Star jerseys or if you're watching this on video, maybe we can even crop in an image of the jerseys. But maybe we can't. Can I say something? Yeah, go ahead. These are hideous. They look hideous.
All right. Let's hear you. I'll hear you out. Kenji. Where are the hideous? It's like a green and a blue, right? I'm making sure I'm looking at it right. Yeah.
I don't know. It's like the most disappointed looking thing I've ever seen in my life. You think so? I mean, go ahead, Joe. Sorry. Would you rather have like a solid jersey with like a solid color?
Because maybe you're just not the fan that you're not a fan of like the kind of like the camo. I mean, the camera. It just doesn't feel like an All-Star jersey.
I don't know. It just looks like a soccer jersey. What's wrong with that? What? It looks like when I first look at it, it looks like I'm going to get a soccer jersey like the one I freaking received when I was like 12.
Okay. All right. Interesting take. All right. Yeah. I mean, we have no clue what's going on here. That's a given.
Yeah. So then I guess we can move into the Ross, the actual the starters, the ones that won the voting, which don't give me started. I'll talk for another 40 minutes on how much I hate fan voting.
That's the most it's utter and complete horse crap. I think it's the worst thing that anybody's ever done because like the Blue Jays. Oh, my goodness. They got Kevin Keir Meyer to the second round of outfield voting.
Kevin Keir Meyer. I came in like late season for the Cubs or is it the Blue Jays guy? He's a reason for the Cubs. Wait, I'm thinking of talk and I think.
I mean, he's a Blue J. Yeah. Sorry. I don't know anything about Keir Meyer. No, my camera was just in like 240 250 and he plays a good defensive outfield, but he had no business being in the same sentence as your dog, Judge Trout.
Yeah, but those kind of guys. So I get I'll run through the starters really quickly. I haven't both pulled up for the American League. Joe will be super happy.
Very happy for his Texas Rangers are here, including catcher Jonah Heim from Texas.
Yandy Diaz at first base from Tampa Bay. Marcus Simeon at second base also from the Rangers. Corey Seeger at shortstop from those same Texas Rangers. Josh Young.
Additionally from Texas at their base.
So how many is that you have four of the five infielding? We'll get his opinion on that in a second. And then the outfield is Mike Trout from the Angels, Aaron Judge, Randy Oras Arena, and then everybody's favorite designated hitter Shohei Otani.
So initial thoughts on the starters for the American League. How do we feel about that? Fan voting.
I think the reason why don't get me wrong, those four guys in the infield, the Rangers guys are really good. You know, they they're really impressive. They've been showing up.
But I think that us Rangers fans, we got a little too excited with the fact that like we got some suddenly got good this year. Yeah.
And so I think we were we were the only only like fan base that were just really excited about the voting. So we just took it to another level. And honestly, like, don't get me wrong.
Like Seeger was injured for, I think, a little over a month in May with his hamstring. And personally, I think what we said did deserve the shortstop spot.
Really? Well, I mean, he's got the best average. Man, I think the best average in the area right now. Are you really a Rangers fan?
I mean, like, don't get me wrong. Seeger's my guy. He's on my fantasy team. So as young, I was semi and was but someone else took him for me. And so is Jonah.
I'm Jonah. I'm on my. Yeah, he's on my fantasy team, too. I just think that, you know, like just because he didn't play for that month, but which has been a little more consistent with the hit and with his war.
And so I think maybe he did deserve it. But it was a really close vote. I remember. So honestly, I'm happy that Seeger really happy that Seeger took the spot.
But that doesn't take away from the fact that this is like he's not any any less any any less because of that.
All right. How good is Bo on defense? Like, pretty sure.
I guess that's another factor that we can kind of talk about his. I think in 2021, I think he had the worst feeling percentage out of all shortstop. I could be wrong. I'm probably wrong on that. But he did not have a good feeling percentage.
That's what I remember. I'm looking it up right now. He has on baseball. So Vaughn, which is the site I showed you Kenji for all the advanced stats.
He is he's in the 20th percentile and out above average, which is how good a fielder you are. So he's a very below average shortstop. Yeah.
He only has 33 arms. He's in the 33rd percentile of arm strength. So he's just not that great defensive. How has he survived the shortstop for this long?
I know it's a good hitter, but like, I don't know, because he's a good hitter. Yeah, you can.
He can move to that second base, like a little bit easier of a position to play on defensively. So he's less of a, because I can remember Tatis played shortstop. Yeah. He's like super flashy.
You were saying like, me and Joe are on a mission. So like we don't watch him. But I know you talk, you kind of talk to us about he's like the most flashy player ever. And he makes cool plays, but he makes so many.
Tatis? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, Tatis is dog crap shortstop. That's why they moved him to the outfield because they signed Bogarts, Kim.
And they obviously have Machado and Cronenworth plays everywhere. So, but yeah, that's I mean, Bogarts, I mean, excuse me, Bichette is a great offensive shortstop, but he does struggle defensively.
I'm not as familiar with Corey Seeger defensively. Joe, maybe you can speak to that a little bit. I mean, it's just like, it's nothing like super special. It's nothing like Nolan Arnado diving plays that third or Machado throws across the diamond, but it's solid.
Like he, he covers his ground and he might be, he not, might not be the fastest shortstop out there. Yeah. But honestly, out of all the Rangers games I've watched this year, I don't think I've seen him make an error.
Maybe, maybe he's made like one or two kind of like borderline, borderline plays. But other than that, it's just like really solid defensively. When he rolls double plays with semi and he always gets the ball quick out of his glove.
And I don't know, his transfers really quick. He's just overall really solid. Yeah. Shortstop that I mean, MLB is just looking for, you know.
Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at, I pulled up his stats page now too. First of all, his hitting stats are ridiculous. Yeah. He's no lower than 97th, then in the 97th percent on the league in every category. Exit below, hard hit, slugging, batting average, K's, barrel, on base.
Like all this K percentage. But he's, he's just barely a better defender than Bo. So he, his stats aren't that much better than both defensively. But yeah, they're just off the charts offensively.
Yeah. I just watched him and like the ball just flies off his bat. Like every single, like even when he gets out, it's either just like a line drive or like a really deep high fly ball. And like even his grounders that he hits, they're just rockets.
He produces that much power from like that's such a odd swing that he has. Yeah. It's still unorthodox. Yeah. Yeah. And like talking about like defense, like I don't, I again, I don't watch a ton of baseball, but, and he's not like the most athletic guy, but like I used to watch him a lot because I used to watch a lot of Dodgers games.
And I used to watch him like he's just, I don't know, it never seems to be the problem. Yeah. And he's always just been solid. I think that's for major league defenders these days, more so than they used to be. It's more, can you just like not be a liability defensively and can you hit?
Because if you can hit and play like average defense, then they're going to keep you, they'll always have a spot for you and you'll make a ton of money. At least that's what it more looks like to me.
Yeah. I think I want to say a quick word. Jonah Himes should be starting at catcher for the all star game. I know he beat out Adley Rushman by like 4% of the vote.
Adley kind of stuffled in June and Himes just continues to rake. He plays a little bit better defensively, plays on a better team right now. Yeah. Jonah's the goat. Yeah. Jonah, I'm going to give it to Jonah. I'm not even mad. I didn't even vote for Adley. I just, I neglected to vote period because I was like, I can't in good conscience vote for a guy that doesn't deserve the starting spot.
I think Adley should be at the all star game, just not as a starter. And then it was Josh Young. I'm so sorry, Joe. Jose Ramirez should be here 12 days out of 12. Yeah. Yeah. Why does he get Josh Young in there? I think it's fan voting. It's fan voting.
It's fan voting. And I think also just he was a rookie of the month to two months in a row. Yeah. And he's actually been really, he has, he wasn't that hot during June at all. He definitely cooled down a month in May. He was just going off. He had a bunch of homers. He honestly was consistently just scoring guys, batting guys in.
But he was really struggling the month of June and, and like, even like despite all that, he's still starting at third. I was, I was really kind of shocked at that. Honestly, I think it's because he's, he's a new face and like people are kind of excited and Jose Ramirez isn't too popular.
Yeah. I think that's why he, he took the starting spot, but by all means, honestly, I, I have no hate for Jose Ramirez. I think he's a great player and yeah, maybe he did. He did deserve that spot over Young. Listen. I mean, I, I'm not saying Young shouldn't go to the all star game because they'll have like two or three reserves at his position. Yeah. I think he's fully deserving of going. I just, if you look side by side at Ramirez and Young, I just think it's like clear that Ramirez has been the best player in the game.
I think he's the better offensive third baseman to this point. Young is great and he's, he's been a great rookie to watch. But I think it was interesting. I think it was more fan voting that he was there in the first place.
Yeah. Additionally, Marcus Simeon, I like him there. Yandy Diaz should be there. Trout. I don't know if Trout should be there. Neither with, neither with Judge. I mean, Judge was great, but he's been hurt the last month.
Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of controversy with fan voting. That's for sure. Like whether you have like a whole country, the whole country of Canada voting for the Jays.
I hated it.
You know, just people voting for like Judge and Trout because they're, they're big names, even though they haven't been producing as much as they have in the, in the past few years. It's interesting from that perspective.
Yeah, absolutely. A Rosa Raina should be there. My sleeper honorable mention Austin Hayes should be there.
He's hitting 315 right now on one of the best teams in baseball in the O's. I think he should be a reserve. I don't think he should start, but he should be a reserve because he's just, he's been a great hitter so far.
And then Kenji will round off the American league. Ohtani was the leading vote getter for the first round. So he was automatically in. I mean, I think that that's, he's the most insane baseball player I've ever seen in my entire life.
And we'll talk a little bit more about it later. Touch on that.
He's really good.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
I mean, for reference for the, for the listeners, I was with Kenji yesterday and he screamed at me from the bathroom when Ohtani hit his 30th homer.
Yeah, me and Guy were just chilling on my porch.
And he ran inside and he was like, Ohtani went yard! Well I had to poo. So I turned upstairs, it was like, it was like an instant poo. And I was like, oh frick I gotta go. And I ran up the stairs.
And I got ready to unleash and then I saw the notification on fantasy like Ohtani, Ohtani, homerun. And I screamed again that he hit a homerun.
Which I mean, if we want to, I'm going to get away from Kenji's poop as quickly as possible. And I see double bomb.
Kenji's been up for now going on nine hours or eight hours.
It was a 493 foot bomb off a lefty that Ohtani hit.
It was a nuke. It was his furthest homerun. Absolute nuke. Ohtani, yeah, just, I have no words.
He's leading the league in homers. Like, and he also seems to lead, he's like top three in the league in strikeouts from, like as a pitcher. And then he's number one in batting average against.
Yeah.
So it's just, he's, we've never seen anything like him before. I mean, he might be a Hall of Famer if he retired this year.
Additionally, I guess, I guess we move in nationally. Anybody have anything else about the American league?
No, I don't think so.
Catcher, Sean Murphy from Atlanta. I think that's, that makes sense to me.
First baseman, Freddie Freeman from the Dodgers. Thank you Joe for trading him the baseball.
Second baseman, Luisa Rice from Miami. That one, I'm just going to read them off and then we'll talk about it. Orlando Arcee at shortstop from the Braves.
Nolan Aronado from St. Louis at third. Acuna, Corbin Carroll and Mookie Betts on the outfield from the Braves, Diamondbacks and Dodgers.
And then JD Martinez is our DH.
So initial thoughts. I know if we, we can just jump right there. Kenji, Orlando Arcee is starting at shortstop.
He's already shaking his head.
How do you feel?
Yeah, go ahead.
Well, I mean, on paper he looked really good a couple of weeks ago.
But when I saw that he was somehow voted an All-Star, I was very confused because he looks like just the most mid-tier infielder I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah.
And he sucks now.
Yeah. He's at a, he's like scuffled a lot.
He's below sucking.
The guy can't even go for a hundred right now.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I'm a fan of the advanced stats and Arcee does not blow you away anywhere on the page at all.
And so for starting National League shortstop, I was surprised that he won.
But that's fan voting.
Yeah. I mean, who do you guys think the shortstop should have been for the, for the NL?
I like Lindor. I like Lindor a little bit more.
Even though Lindor struggled to and the Mets have been having a rough year. I liked Lindor a little bit better just purely based on statistics.
But I mean, Arcee is hitting I think 300 on the year still as of this reporting.
And he plays on the best team in baseball in the Braves. I guess Braves and Rays are like up there for the two best teams in baseball right now.
But I'm not mad at it. I just, it's just one of those names that I'm like, okay.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
No, no, you're good. Go ahead. Go ahead.
I was going to say like looking at like the National League. Like there, there isn't a whole lot of like standout shortstops.
Yeah.
In the National League, right?
Swanson maybe.
Like Swanson's good. I mean, like in the Reds you got McLean. He's playing pretty good. Like he's not all starboard.
He'll be a reserve for sure. McLean will be there for sure.
And the Giants, like they've had rotation of shortstops, Padres, yeah, Dynastax, like Perdomo is mid.
Yeah.
Yeah. And he makes sense. I mean, I guess you could make a case for Stott. He probably honestly has played better than Arcee.
Over Arcee?
Arcee or whatever his name is. Yeah.
Orlando Arcee? I don't know.
I mean, I get like, yeah. I don't know.
Okay.
How do you guys feel about Orlando for like a kid's name?
Like Orlando Bloom?
I mean, Orlando Bloom?
It's the name of a city. What if I name my kid like Denver or like Tampa?
I feel like most, like girls our age, probably like if you said the word Orlando, they would think Bloom in their head.
That's fair.
Yeah. You know, it just kind of pops up. I mean, he's very handsome in Pirates of the Caribbean. I'm just kidding. Caribbean.
He's very handsome guy. I'm not going to hate on him. Good looking dude. Anyway, without, okay.
Let's see. JD Martinez, a designated hitter. I thought that was interesting. I know if Brady was here, he'd be screaming for Bryce Harper to be in this spot.
I'm going to say it just so we can get out of the way.
There's nobody that blows me away here either.
Yeah.
For a designated hitter, JD was really hot for a period of time and he's kind of cooled off a little bit since Harper did not deserve that spot. I'm sorry.
No, you didn't.
So, I don't know.
The more time passes by, the more I'm happier that I got rid of Harper.
Yeah.
You should be.
Kenji traded Harper away in our fantasy league, which it consumes our lives, everybody.
Those close to us can tell you fantasy baseball is all consumer.
And I think just like going back to Harper. Yeah. Well, is he hitting above 300 right now? No, he's in like 280. 280. But even then, like his RB eyes and his his home runs, I've noticed that's definitely kind of a shocking factor.
There's a lot of hype around him coming back.
And when he came back, I mean, he had like two home runs in the span of probably like a week, a week and a half. I think ever since that he's been really cold.
I mean, JD's been hot this past month for the Dodgers. He's helped the Dodgers get to I think second place now in their division, which I think, you know, like, that's pretty deserving out of everyone in the all the DHS.
Yeah.
And then I think he's probably the number one guy, I would say.
Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm not gonna hate on JD too much. I just thought it was worth noting that he was in it with Harper, who our other member of this podcast is a Bryce Harper sexual.
Yes. Harp sexual or whatever.
Corbin, Carol, Acuna and Betts for outfield. I have no problems with those three at all.
Kenji, do you have any gripes with Corbin, Carol, Acuna and Betts for the outfield?
Who's playing center?
It's just three of them. I bet you they have Betts play center or Carol.
Yeah.
Doesn't Carol play center in Arizona?
He plays left.
Gotcha.
Mookie can I know Acuna can they just put in more. Yeah, trial plates center. I'm completely mixed.
I was wondering, I wonder if Mookie would if he cut down a swing, how well of an average are you going to hit for?
You think so?
I think so because like the guy hitting a ton of homers.
I think maybe he should be swinging big his first at-bat because he's got a lot of like first at-bat homers in games.
And then like maybe like the next few at-bats just kind of tone it down, maybe kind of stay within himself, not trying to go all out.
But I don't know. Yeah.
I've always wondered about like Mookie Betts like to me like watching him play like he just seemed like the guy that could easily hit 300.
Yeah.
Like kind of like what Acuna is doing this year, like almost like hit like that consistently just because he's such a good player.
Yeah.
But like he when he strikes out, it's because like he's got a really big swing.
Right.
And like I say that because like Ichiro said that he could easily hit the top of the league and make home runs every year if he wanted to.
Yeah.
Well, here you go Keji.
I could hit 250.
Yeah. So I looked it up.
So Mookie was on the Red Sox prior to getting traded to the Dodgers.
He won MVP in 2018.
He hit 32 homers, 80 RBIs, stole 30 bases and hit 346 on the year.
346?
346, 32 homers, 80 rebs.
Oh my god.
And he played in 136 games.
That's insane.
Had an OPS of 1.078, which is unreal.
That has to be like one of the greatest seasons, right?
Yeah.
That's why he won MVP.
That's just an unbelievable season.
He only struck out.
How many at best?
He had 520 at bad, struck out 91 times.
Yeah.
30 stolen bases.
He hit the 30-30 and hit 346, which is that's why he won MVP.
But yeah, Mookie being there, I don't have a problem with.
Dog.
Yeah.
Is that what everybody has to say about the All-Star starters?
Do we have any snubs who shouldn't be there?
Or did we already kind of cover RCA?
Well, I think a snub for me, it goes back to American League.
I don't think Vladi should be there.
That guy's done jack crap this year.
Yeah, but he's not a starter.
He might be a reserve, but he's not a starter.
He's not a reserve.
Oh, okay.
He made it to the second round of voting.
Yeah.
I'm glad he's not a starter.
Those Toronto fans.
If he would be an out, like, the endy guy.
Yeah, that would have been like the stupidest.
Yandy's been the best first baseman in the world.
Clearly.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, then we can move right along then.
We can talk a little bit about some other topics in the league.
We touched on a hair already.
Ohtani hits 30.
As this recording, he hit his 30th homer last night.
We're in the midst of one of the most unbelievable seasons we've ever seen.
I know we mentioned it briefly when we got together last night,
but he is on pace with Judge last year, which is, I just, I can't even fathom.
He's a pitcher too.
He's like a, he's a really great pitcher.
But he's not.
He's top four in strikeouts.
Yeah.
Yep.
And he's great in batting average against, as we already said.
Yeah.
I just, I can't believe it.
He's, Judge broke the record for American league homers last year.
And Ohtani is step-for-step matching it while pitching.
He's just trying to do whatever an ERA is and striking out, you know,
a hundred on a season and just, I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
It's, it's, it's kind of crazy too, because you see, you have this team like the angels, right?
Yeah.
They've, these past few years, they've never been good.
Ohtani comes in and he just like completely turns it around.
Yeah.
Like even Mike, he kind of has the help of Mike Trout, obviously,
but this year Mike Trout has been kind of underperforming.
You know, that angels have a winning record, you know,
they're kind of neck and neck with the Astros right now in the division.
Yeah.
And I don't know, it's just something about the angels team is different.
And I think it's because like, I don't know, Ohtani is just, he's a great leader
that just naturally kind of leads through his actions and his, his results.
Yeah.
Where he pitches and the way he hits.
And I think that's something that I think the other angels players saw
and they kind of take that and it motivates them to do better.
A lot of guys have showed up for the angels.
Yeah.
And you have a lot of, you have like Gio, you got Brandon Jury, you got Mickey Moniac,
just to name a few, you got a lot of people stepping up.
And I feel like they've been stepping up because they see Ohtani's like his natural leadership.
And, you know, they're able to have that good run that they've been on these,
the first half of the season.
Yeah. And I mean, they're right there in the hunt.
We'll get to the standings here in a little bit,
but they're right there in the hunt for the West.
And I think that's the back of the Rangers as of this recording.
And I mean, you're talking, you're close to the All-Star break, six back.
I think if you're the angels, you take it with how good the Rangers have played to this point.
And being in a division with Seattle and Houston as well, I think you take it 10 times out of 10.
Definitely.
So it's, I know it's been fun to watch.
I just, every night Ohtani pitches or hits, I just can't believe it when I see it,
I can't believe it when I see it, I can't believe it when I see it.
It's like, I know this is a baseball podcast,
but it's like Patrick Mahomes throwing for 4,000 yards.
Patrick Mahomes is MVP season, right?
Yeah. It's like Patrick Mahomes, MVP season.
But then he also like goes on defensive end and sacks 20 guys.
Like we've never seen anything like it in any other sport.
There's no way to describe what Ohtani is doing.
It's just crazy. It's crazy.
And like, I know people are like, oh, this is like the next generation of baseball players,
like more people are going to do this.
I say that's crap.
I don't think that this is, he's an anomaly.
There's no way this is not going to happen.
I'm sure in the next like 50 years, yes, there will be players who will do that,
but there's no way that they will come anywhere near the level that he does.
Yes.
If he's a pitcher, he's a top 10 pitcher.
If he's just a hitter, he's a top five hitter, right?
Yeah. Yep.
It's just, I don't know how you can be so dominant at two things at once
when somebody, when some people can't even be dominant that one.
Right. It's crazy.
It's unbelievable.
The influence is crazy too.
Why do people throw strikes to Ohtani? I don't know.
You see that clip when they were playing the white socks and,
what was that? No, it was the Rockies. It was the Rockies.
And that pitcher threw like the inside pitch and Ohtani hits a home run.
Oh yeah.
He's like, how the fuck did you hit that?
Yeah.
It's true, man. He has such a unique swing too.
So he can get to that inside fastball better than other guys can.
It's just, he looks like he can't hit an outside ball.
Like sometimes he over swings and like he's such an open stance.
Like he goes all like the opposite way so well too.
Yeah. He does.
His body just moves perfectly.
Yeah.
Like to the ball.
And like a lot of times too when he goes the opposite field,
it looks just like amazing. His swing is beautiful.
Most guys when they go like Oppo, it's usually just like, you know,
right in front of the right fielder, like right in like the right center gap kind of,
but Ohtani, he, and like, I guess their swings, they're not as clean as,
you know, when they go up the middle or when they pull the ball,
but Ohtani, it's like, it's arguably like almost as good.
He goes right back up the middle or hits the right side of the field.
And I don't know. Ohtani is just such a unique, unique guy.
He's so strong.
It's crazy.
Did you see that? Like he pretty much hit like Oppo against the wide socks.
One hand, like when he hit a second home run in the day, like I just.
Also the sound, the sound of the ball coming off the bat.
Whenever he hits a no doubters, it's just like, it's music to my ears.
Yeah. It's the best sound.
Yeah.
Like see that 493 feet home run. Just that swing was beautiful.
And I know Apple probably like plays up the audio just a hair,
but that Homer sounded so good.
Especially the one yesterday, like it just, the crack was perfect.
Yeah.
And the pitcher knew he just put his head down and he was like, yep.
And then he's like, next ball.
Yeah. So, I mean, well, we can sit here and talk about Ohtani for another hour
because of what he's doing.
We're going to move along because we'll have the rest of the season.
We're just going to keep talking about it because he's unbelievable.
So I'm going to quickly touch on this.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, their city connect jerseys are absolutely horrendous.
The PGH jerseys, I've never seen anything like them.
They're just disgusting.
Even though they did win a game yesterday and I'm Carlos Santana.
Joe, your opinion?
Yeah. I mean, just looking at them, it kind of reminded me of the B movie.
I don't know why it was just like so yellow.
I don't know why that just came up in my, came to my head.
But I mean, like Kenji just saw them in real time.
Kenji just saw it and is reacting.
How are they Kenji? Let's, I want to hear your opinion.
Live, live reaction, raw reaction.
These are worse than the All-Star jerseys.
Yeah. No, they're, they're really bad.
These are actual soccer jerseys.
That's a great, I like the B movie.
Yeah, that's a good one.
What kind of like, what changes would you guys make to the jerseys to make them like, okay?
I think personally, it's just too much yellow.
It's just too much yellow.
Like you need a balance.
I mean, excuse me. What the hell is PGH?
It's going to be Pittsburgh.
I think so. I think that's like the abbreviation.
The abbreviation of a Pittsburgh.
But like looking at the patch they did on the left shoulder is just a P.
Like there's not, it's just a Pirates logo.
There's like, there's no creative. It's just, it's like, they just slapped like a weird acronym for Pittsburgh on the front of a jersey.
They changed the yellow a little bit and they called it good.
They didn't even change the hat. It was just the same logo with the Jersey pattern on it.
It looks cheap.
It's so lazy, man. It's so lazy.
It reminds me of like the alternate jerseys you see, like when you play like Madden or NBA 2K, like compared to the actual jerseys, they're just like a lot more simple.
They got like a simple logo and then a number and that's it.
It's the color of those jerseys. Yeah.
Yeah. Literally.
I would have liked to see, I mean, Pittsburgh's jerseys.
I like what they've done in the last couple of years.
They've switched to like a more script across the front, which I like.
Yeah.
But I would have liked to see almost like an all black uniform or all white or something, because you can do like Pittsburgh has such a rich history of like the Steelers and you know, like teams like that where you can do like the steel city or the steel curtain.
And you can get super creative with that.
Just about PGH.
The heck man.
Not a fan. Not a fan.
And the letters are just hideous too.
Like it's just so ugly.
It reminds me of like kind of Great Britain's jerseys in the WBC.
Great Britain, you know.
It just seems like a really budgeted Jersey.
It's like a superlative travel ball team that like, you know, wanted to kind of save on save a little bit on money and decided to go with like the simplest jerseys possible.
Yeah, it just usually has a really good jersey.
Like I like their jerseys. They're cool.
They do.
I agree.
I think that they have a good, they have a good color scheme.
They have a beautiful like backdrop on that stadium.
Like they could have gone so many directions with this.
And it just seemed like such a lazy take on it.
I mean, here, I actually, not that this is planned, but I have the O's one right here.
I have those one right here.
But the part I like is even though it's like, it looks like the Great Britain Jersey from the front.
They have all this, they have the coloring on the inside and there was like an actual beam to it.
This is just like, they just slapped yellow.
PGH.
PGH on it.
And then that weird yellow and they were like, that's it.
That's the one.
Ta-da.
It's like they ran out of font or like they just couldn't put pirates on there.
Like, oh, what can we do?
PGH in fat letters.
Yep.
Yeah.
I want to see like the sales go to like the MLB store and like see the actual analytics
on how many sales we offer.
Zero, zero, zero.
They've got to be on sale by now.
I'd buy a Rich Hill jersey though.
Okay.
Rich Hill.
Rich Hill, Dick Mountain.
That's what I like to call them.
Moving into the standings.
Yeah.
So we'll go over the standings briefly.
We'll try and get everybody in and out of here in slow because we are already over 40
minutes.
So this stuff has been fun to record.
I'll start with the Ale Beast.
Tampa Bay still leads 57 and 28.
The Orioles are still in second place.
They're six and a half back at Tampa.
But I do worry as an OZE fan, maybe I do my own OZE like Op-Ed on the blog.
But the starting pitching has been bad lately.
Do you think the OZE have what it takes to make a playoff run?
I don't know if they have what it takes to make a playoff run.
I like the offense.
They've been a little cold lately, but when they can hit, like when Mullens is fully healthy,
when Santander is good, like Richmond's been struggling, I think they can, they can, yes.
Yes.
Kenji?
So I don't want to take away from talking about all the records, but I'm curious because
that's a bit more interesting.
So like for your team to make a playoff run, what do you need?
Like who are your team, because trade deadline, right?
Starting pitching. That's what I want.
Who do you think would be a good pitcher to go get?
I mean, I know we talked briefly about it yesterday.
I think Dylan Cease is a fascinating option.
The White Sox have said that they don't plan on trading their starters.
Idiots, idiots, idiots. That's why they suck.
Because I think Cease would be really interesting.
I think there's some other teams. I mean, who else is going to be selling?
I think we're in a unique spot this year because there are so many teams that are like within like six games of a playoff spot.
And so they might not be as motivated to sell.
What about Scherzer?
I think the Mets are going to hold on, man. At least until, because they're dead.
What is Scherzer going to leave though?
Like if you're still pitching that good.
I don't know if people want to pay him. I don't know if people want to pay him that much money.
How much is he getting right now?
He's getting like $40 million a year.
And the thing is, he's getting old. He's arguably, he's past his prime.
Yeah. He's had a few quality starts so he's strung together in a row now.
But he's just old and he's expensive.
Are the Blue Jays still in playoff contention?
Yeah, Blue Jays are carrying anybody.
Red Sox might, but I don't know if they have, Red Sox are too prideful for that.
They're not even like one of those teams that will sell.
They're like a retool kind of team.
So they won't blow up anything. They'll just kind of retool.
I mean, you could go to the AL Central sucks, but I don't really want any of the Royals pitchers or Tigers pitching.
I know that the Guardians are highly considering trading Bieber.
Because he's old, right?
Yeah, because he's getting older. He's not striking out as many people.
So I think that would be interesting to see.
But I think it's a small market for like starting pitching at the deadline.
And it'll be interesting to see who goes where and what happens.
Because I think if you are, say you're the Guardians and you're selling Bieber,
you know that there are going to be a lot of teams that are after your pitchers.
So you can ask for a high price.
So I think that they can get a good haul for that.
Definitely a demand of starting pitchers, especially at the trade deadline.
So yeah, it'll be interesting.
Look at Lake Snell, dude. That guy's on a, he's destroying.
Lake Snell's on a tear.
They're stuck right now, right? They're not making the playoff, I don't think.
Yeah.
He's kind of older.
We can run through the, I'll just go quickly through the divisions.
It's not that impressive. Yankees 10 and a half, 10 back.
Blue Jays 11 back. Red Sox 15.
It's crazy how good the East is.
Ale Central.
Twins are one game under 500.
They're 41 and 42, but they're winning the division.
And then there's Guardians, Tigers, White Sox, Royals.
Royals are one game ahead of the A's for worst record.
What an awful division that is.
It's so bad, man.
And then the Orioles are, that division is absolutely disgusting.
Yeah.
Whoever created them was idiots.
I mean, the last team in the Ale Central, the Red Sox, have the same record as the
Twins who are 41, 42 and are leading their division.
That's so stupid.
It's nuts.
Yeah.
I guess I'll leave Joe for the Ale West and some of those other ones.
Go ahead.
Yeah. Sounds good.
I mean, we've got the Rangers first four, nine and 33.
They've been doing so hot recently.
Kind of been on a downhill slope.
That's all right.
Houston on their tail.
Yeah, they are.
Honestly, you know what?
Yeah.
I do.
I will mention that yesterday, yesterday I was on my way to work and Gabe texted,
Gabe texted me.
He's like, yo, Chammons to the Chammons on the Rangers now, which was kind of nuts.
We traded Cole Reagan's a bum relief pitcher for him.
And some I'll feel that from AAA, but anyways, I'll get to the standings.
Yeah.
We got Rangers for nine 33 and then Astros four games back.
They were kind of five and six recently Rangers.
We weren't doing so hot, but like neither were the Astros Astros.
They've they've been on our tail.
They've been kind of fighting Rangers Rangers or sorry.
Now Rangers angels are six games back.
And then we got the Mariners 10 games and athletics with the surprising, surprising
28 games back.
Really?
They're pretty close.
Yeah.
They're kind of, we got to kind of watch 11 at home.
Hey, hey, hey, after the all star break, they're going to turn it around.
All right.
Three is starting 300 and everybody else is going to hit 230.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Good buddy.
All right.
I'll take, I'll, I'll take the NL East.
Okay.
Yeah.
We got, we got Braves second best record in baseball right now.
They're 54 and 27.
They've been so good.
It's just math, you know, all those, all those guys, you know, all the things.
Riley, Albie's Albie's.
I see you.
Not RC.
Everyone.
And they don't even have Max Fried yet back.
Free that even back their best pitcher.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
He's not even back yet.
Yeah.
Go ahead, Joe.
So yeah, I got the Marlins next team, seven games back, which is impressive.
Marlins been, they've been putting on a show recently.
They got jazz back.
You know, they, they've been putting it up.
You got the Phillies after that 11 games back.
Doing this, doing pretty good as well.
Shout out Brady.
And then you got, uh, Mets Mets going to met with 18 and a half games back.
And then, and then the Nats with a 33 and 48, 21 games back.
Wow.
So kind of, kind of an interesting, a lot of, a lot of diversity in the.
I mean, I don't know if I would have predicted Mets being fourth at the start of the year
and the Marlins being 13 over 500.
Um, what I do want to note about the NLEs, the Phillies have won some crazy high last
number of games.
Like they've, they're winning at a great clip, but they're still losing ground to the Braves,
which is the Red Hot, but the Braves are still pulling away from them because they've just
been on another planet.
I mean, they've been nine and one past 10 games.
Yeah.
And then you look, there's the Mets two and eight in their last 10.
Um, they just can't win the series in life.
It's, I, it's anyway, um, I guess I can take, I'll take the NL central then.
Um, Cincinnati has been super fun to watch.
If you're bored and you're a baseball fan, tune, tune on to Cincinnati and they're actually
really fun.
Um, Ellie de la Cruz, uh, Hunter Green, when he comes back, Matt McLean, Spencer Steer,
they got some studs over there.
Uh, they're winning at a 43, 44 and 38 Brewers one game back.
Pirates four and a half, Cubs five, Cardinals 10.
Cardinals being that bad is crazy.
Um, I, my heart goes out to, out there to any Cardinal fans.
Uh, and then, and then NL West, maybe the most surprising one of the whole year, Diamond
backs, um, two ahead of the Dodgers.
Um, and the Giants are two and a half back.
Uh, Padres are 11 and a half back.
And then the Rockies are 16 and a half back.
Padres are two and eight in their last 10.
Um, it just feels like they have, they lose heartbreaking games.
Is that what it is?
They're just, they're not hitting in.
They're not pitching.
Like they're pitching, I think is the big thing, but it's like they, when they get a
good pitching performance, they can't score.
And then when they get, when they score, they don't get a good pitching performance.
That's right.
Cause he has two wins on the season.
Even though he has struck it out, I think like 60 guys and his last like four outings.
Yeah.
I mean, it says right here, Padres are 20 and 22 at home, 17 and 23 on the road.
Um, so they're not one score differential that they have.
Oh, I don't know.
I mean, it, it can't be, it can't be good.
No, it can't be good at all.
No.
Um, but yeah, so that's, that's a bit of the division recap.
We're running out of time here.
So we're going to quickly run through, um, our DFA watch and players to watch.
So everybody go back through Kenji Joe.
I don't know if you guys have a player off the top.
Is DFA the one that sucks and then you say it out?
Don't say Arcia.
Um, he's an all star.
You can't DFA an all star.
But, uh, obviously terrible.
Give me a player you would think that should be gone from their team and then a player to watch over this coming week.
Okay.
Uh, well, I'm going to say, uh, Wilson Contreras should probably just get cut and kicked out from the league.
And he sucks.
The cardinals are so bad.
What makes you say that?
Are you just hating on him?
Dude, I, at the beginning of the year, the cardinals were fun to watch and I watched like almost every game.
I was like, wow, he seems good.
Yeah.
I mean, most of the tries are just terrible now.
I mean, yeah, he's had a couple of games in here there, but like, I mean, he's in like 212.
Yeah.
How much money did he get?
I mean, to put it in perspective, to put it in perspective, that's still better than Muncie and Kyle Schwaber.
So like you kind of have to take that the average South Korean assault.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like the cardinals, like, like I've watched a couple, like the announcers talk about like the deal about Contreras and how like teams were very hesitant of paying him because he sucks at catcher.
And yeah, like I know the cardinals pitching staff have told this, like the front staff, like we don't want Contreras to catch me.
Yeah, they did.
No, they did.
Right.
And like, if you can't catch, you got to at least hit.
Well, he's not even hitting anymore.
And they paid him a ton of money, right.
From the Cubs.
So to me, he's like, just.
Well, they're in a tricky spot.
I mean, just to touch on it briefly, they, because they have like shot his whole confidence, like they destroyed his confidence.
But now they're in a spot where no team wants to take that, so you can't trade away his contract.
You have to like find a way to build him back up now to be productive.
But you're only positioned in baseball, but hey, it's okay, bud.
Yeah, I don't even know how you do it.
They and he has impossible shoes to fill because you try.
They signed him for Yadi Molina, who's like one of the best defensive catchers of all time.
So it's I think they're in a tough spot.
So Kenji, do you have a player to watch or should we go to Joe with his guy?
I go to Joe's.
Okay, Joe, who are you?
Who are you DFA?
John King on the Rangers.
Relief.
He's a relief pitcher.
So I don't really want to get into it over a series with New York.
I think we were up 4-3, like going into the game ending.
And then John King came in, came up, I think, two hits and two earned losses.
Game.
And again, versus Detroit, I think two or three days ago.
He threw two innings for us.
First inning he did great.
Next inning three hits, four earned.
One walk.
I think maybe the Rangers optioned him to go to Round Rock and AAA.
I mean, it's just like, I don't know, the Rangers relief is, I guess, the only thing that's kind of holding them back.
Because you've got really solid starters on the Rangers.
And if you like their outing doesn't mean anything if you don't have a solid outing from the relief pitchers and able to not let any guys score.
So, I mean, like that was the kind of the big takeaway watching the Rangers games this past week is our relief, our bullpen just really needs help.
And that's why they picked up Chapman.
Yeah, I feel it's like that's why they picked up Chapman and they gave up Reagan.
Obviously Reagan's wasn't too bad for us.
I think arguably he was one of the better ones.
But recently he was doing badly.
They actually I think maybe last week he was optioned for AAA.
Okay.
So they were finally done.
And yeah, I mean, I think bringing Chapman was a good move.
Hopefully they can kind of kind of bring a spark to the dying Rangers bullpen.
We'll see. We'll see what happens from here on out.
Okay. All right. I can take that one.
I'll be brief with this one.
I'm going to go with another Oriole this week.
Keegan Aiken.
I hate his guts.
I hate him.
I want him thrown.
Ship him off to Korea.
Get the KBO and he's starting pitching.
I want him gone.
I want him off the team.
He's been in our bullpen.
It's kind of our long reliever lately.
What's his name?
Keegan Aiken.
Any guy named Keegan I have a problem with to begin with.
Sorry, Keegans.
But he is so to give you a sense.
So June 21st, he played in Tampa Bay.
So those are playing in Tampa Bay.
He went an ending in two thirds to earned four point two two year.
And then he went out two days later at home against the Mariners to he got two outs, two tenths of an inning, six earned seven runs total one walk six point five five.
He's just getting rocked.
He's getting rocked.
And then his last game just the other day we were playing the Reds in extra innings.
We like the huge rally at the end of the ninth to bring it close.
And then we put him in the tent and he gives up like four runs.
He's given up 18 runs already.
Yeah, no, he's just 18 runs in 23 and two thirds innings.
Just so bad.
I've never seen anything like it.
Tell me you don't have a better pitch than a guy.
That's what I'm saying.
I'm like, that's what I'm saying.
I'm like, this bum is not the O's actually just the other day.
He didn't get DFA.
But yesterday he got put on I.L., which is kind of funny because it's like it's like the old like when you just have to make him fake an injury because we don't want to actually send you now.
It's like we'll put you on I.L.
Just say you're back is so we can bring up another guy.
And if he's better than you, we're going to keep him.
But they did that yesterday.
I hate Keegan Aiken every time he comes in the game.
I turn it off. I'm not even joking.
When he came in the other day, I just turned it off.
I was like, yeah, we lost putting him in a tie game in the tent with the runner on second is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.
He just I don't even know.
I want to see.
I wonder what is like batting average against is really quickly batting average.
We have at least 300 at least has to be.
He's given up 35 hits in 23 in this part.
One point seven whip.
Thirteen point three hits per nine.
Just yeah, it doesn't look like they have.
Thanks. Booth him.
Yeah, you conditioning down a double.
Oh, I'm gone.
Not even can send him to China.
Taiwan probably need players.
Taiwan probably needs players.
Yeah, yeah.
But yeah, so that's that's my DFA for this week.
Really quickly.
Thirty seconds.
Kenji, who's your player to watch?
All right.
His name is Patrick Bailey.
The catcher on the Giants.
Okay.
He's playing really good.
Okay.
Joe, I must say Jonah.
I'm obviously he was called the he's going to be an all star.
But yeah, I'm watching him.
He's been doing really good.
He has one of the best averages with runners in the scoring position in the league.
I think it's for it's above 400, maybe even above 450.
But yeah, I'm like, I don't know, man.
His his two strike approach.
He's actually hit so many home runs against him on two strikes.
And so it's just nuts kind of seeing that that player being able to stay calm and like, you know, be able to get the ball and play and much more hit the ball out.
So yeah, Jonah Heim, he's a great catcher defensively.
He has a great bat and all around.
He's just he's awesome.
That watch.
Okay.
Jonah Heim.
I'm going to go with Ellie de la Cruz.
I think he's the most fun player to watch in baseball right now.
He can he's super fast.
He's got electric.
He's he's in for contact right now.
He plays a good he's a switch header.
I think he's one of the most exciting players to watch right now.
So I got Ellie and they're playing the Padres today.
So you get to watch Tati's now.
So yeah, that's what he says.
Bad.
Padres are playing bad.
Anything else from you guys?
Well, otherwise, we'll catch everybody next week.
You guys got anything to say?
I feel like Kenji has something to say.
Go to the gym.
Everybody go to the gym.
Yeah. Get your workouts in.
Hope you guys have a great week.
Take care, fellas.