Mike Trout goes down while Shohei Ohtani heats up | Deferred Collusion Podcast | Episode 4

INTRO you know we're in the full swing of the MLB season when the Anaheim Angels are completely malfunctioning losing all of their players it wouldn't be a baseball season without it it wouldn't be a deferred collusion podcast episode without my good friend Brandon Bullinger to join me and talk about it what's up Brando how are you oh Jesse I am great I don't know if you just saw me blowing kisses to the old baby my daughter's about to be n six months old you already forgot how old she is how dare you I tripped on my words but uh no we've missed a couple of weeks we've been sick I know I got under the weather and then that got my wife sick who got my daughter sick and then when I'm feeling better then my daughter got me sick and my wife's feeling better and I got her sick again it's just been a fun couple of weeks over in our house and uh happy to be on the other side of it and joining you again yeah we did miss some time and I'm sick I was sick as well but I was just sick of the injuries and all Mike Trout tears meniscus, out indefinitely the the stuff going on baseball so it was a nice to get a little break from having to talk about it and how are we starting off this episode with another injury which is just unbelievable it's Angels though so like we get to Revel a little bit in their pain even though this is not the one that we wanted to hear because the other day it was Anthony randone going down with a uh hamstring injury again I believe and this is like he's been having lower body issues for like the past few years he's out for a while but Mike Trout we just F out of nowhere I mean this literally came out of nowhere because he was having a good year I think that we were all getting uh a little bit like enamored by how many homers he was hitting but he was only hitting like 220 he wasn't actually like tearing the cover off the ball but out of nowhere we find out earlier just like a couple hours ago that he's getting surgery on his knee because he has a torn miniscus just awful news um he's not expected to miss the season uh according to the reports but regardless of that you lose rendone again you lose Mike Trout I mean it's I I feel bad for Angel fans man I actually have a good friend of mine who is an angel fan I haven't texted him yet because I don't want to like I don't want to rub it in because I know that he's in a terrible mood right now but I'm gonna rub it in at some point oh man you know nobody Revels in injuries and especially with not like an alltime good guy like Mike Trout I think like all you know Baseball fans that aren't Anaheim fans I think we were all collectively going oh is this gonna be the year trout is an Allstar gets back into form and then gets traded to a contender right I don't know is finally the cash in time you know they miss with the show sweep Stakes I think it is and I'll explain why in a second yeah um but now it seems like that's all Dash miniscus you know you don't know how long or uh how intense that comeback is going to be you know maybe he can come back as a DH before the year is over but at what capacity and it and how how old is he this year is this his 31 season I think he's 31 it's a good question I think he's 31 yeah it's just you know it sucks 32 he's he's off to a great year a great start to the year I know the average is a little down but man it just it just sucks all the joy and potential out of their season once again and H I mean where where do you go from here if you're an Anaheim Angels fan what do you do yeah and it sucks too because they actually haven't been playing bad baseball by by by any stretch of the imagination I mean they are well sorry that's wrong I I I I've I've actually completely I I I haven't paid attention to the standings for them over in like a week they were like a 500 team a week ago when I checked I checked again right now they're actually playing some bad baseball this actually it's worse than that because I haven't been paying attention either I thought they were 500 right now I thought they're 11 and 18 oh man where are they in the division they're fourth but they they are a game ahead of the Astros we're gonna talk about we got to talk about the Astros but we we will so that's what you got to hang your hat on you are a game up on the Astros and we're almost like fifth of the way through the season not bad Angels not bad at all uh but this is why it hurts even more I mean yeah obviously it sucks losing him it's it sucks I me there's no other way of putting it but they've been getting really good production from Joe Adell lately and Joe Adell is like their the guy that like a lot of Angel fans have been waiting to sort of take that next step we love Logan ohappy he's really good they have some good young players but like Joe Adell was the guy that was like who can we put in the Outfield to make this like a a true Superstar Outfield with trout and Joe Adell has been performing listen to Joe Adell is hitting 321 four homers 11 RBI and almost one a one dot Ops a 996 Ops he's been doing really well I think that's actually you might think that's a good sign if the Angels keep playing bad in the time that trout and randone are out it's a bad sign and I think that if if Adele keeps playing well but the Angels keep losing they're going to move Mike Trout at the deadline they'd be stupid not to do it and trout would be stupid not to accept it at this point I know that it really depends on what his recovery timeline is like I don't know it could be it's it's like if this is going to be something that's expand extended Beyond two months then that's a whole other thing I meniscus tears vary from case to case so we don't we don't really know but I mean if I'm if I'm putting on my you know if I'm getting in the DeLorean two months from now and seeing what the what the the landscape is like if Joe Adell is still playing well I think they're going to be trading Mike Trout so well that you heard it here first yeah I I disagree I don't want to spend too much time on it because I feel bad it's it is an injury and it is a bummer yeah saw the presser uh you know looked like he was fighting back some tears there and this is just a guy that you know you want that kind of U commitment from your a superstar on your team you know let me let me stop here for a second I I was making some like I I was joking like reving in this I'm actually only saying that because I genuinely like I hate this and I'm like I'm only reving in it because that's just that's my defense mechanism like I don't want to see Mike Trout miss any more time it's just been happening and like randone is a joke at this point but Mike Trout's like yeah arguably one of the top three or four faces in baseball is it's horrible I I I agree and you know just just with that Mikey we love you wish you a speed recovery you to Tony rone get back healthy let's go let's go angels I guess yeah go Angels um I we we've got a lot to cover here I'm sort of hesitant to go in any particular direction I guess let's just go go straight to this let's let's cover this quickly the uniform changes we MLB changing their uniforms after complaints from players talked a little bit about how MLB made some changes this year that like didn't need to be changed like ml you and I made this point point about like MLB loves to experiment with [ __ ] that doesn't need to be experimented on it's like something extremely unique to baseball for whatever reason they love to experiment on things that like don't need to be fixed and then they don't fix the things that need to be fixed um the uniforms they actually are going to go back and they're going to fix this problem because we've had what uh testicles are showing up in photo shoots and uh sweat is pouring in through the through the armpits and through the you know through the jerseys themselves um they're going back they're going to fix it after a players union complaint memo or sorry so per a memo uh MLB is going to address after the player's complaints so uh that this will be fixed so I'm just curious like wait sorry hold on this is what they're going to do they're going to make the letters bigger they are going to address um what else are they addressing oh the the sweat issue and they the memo blames Nike entirely which I thought was very interesting at its core what has happened here is that Nike was innovating something that didn't need to be innovated so I thought that was interesting you're laying all the blame at Nike what do you think I think Innovative is uh an interesting word I think it's just you know jargon for they made something cheaper that didn't need to be cheaper uh you know I think they got a cheaper Fabrics they use oh it's arer whatever that means look we you can it just didn't pass the smell test you know you could see it with your naked eye guys are sweating through their jerseys pants are not matching colors some you can see through it just didn't seem show at all and then you know I I even just went down this Rabbit Hole a couple like maybe two months ago but it was people that are very uh keen on Jersey collect and you know getting you know each version every year uh and just seeing the drop in quality from The Majestic stuff to the Fanatics Nikes Jersey it was it was startling and then going oh well these cheaper quality ones are actually even more expensive so it wasn't just that oh they're making a cheaper product they're making a cheaper product and selling it for more and now players are less comfortable in it and it's just again like I know we're going to spend some time talking about umps again uh again a little later but it's just another thing that the MLB seems to keep doing it's like for every one good thing we do there's two things that we're looking at that you don't need to be and it's like can can we just get back to the action on the field because there's some crazy great ball going around right now yeah but we're talking about terrible ejections bad calls and shitty new jerseys they uh this article it says like terrible yeah in the article it says they will return to the higher quality zipper used in 2023 so they were using a lower quality zipper it's how do you even make that decision to to change the zipper quality it's just bizarre it's so bizarre I I don't know I don't know it's interesting though that you know these uh you mentioned Nike and the lower quality fabrics and things like that you know you imagine that a lot of these was were manufactured in China so it's interesting that um you would have an issue with sweat when you know coming through the Jersey when these jerseys were primarily made in sweat shops you would think that they would have a handle on this by now anyways so uh sorry I just had to get that one out there bad joke this guy yeah def I'm gonna defer that one uh standup comedy um okay here actually Brandon I have a beer in my freezer that I've been cooling down for this very moment grabbing it really quick you know what I'm gonna refill too okay whoa let it be known cheers I got some some San Miguel light what do you got whoa M up dude one of my favorite beers of all time from the great country of the Philippines oh is it I didn't even notice that yeah came in like a one of those like a beers of not beers of the world but like a sampler kit like with a bunch of different beer in it dude enjoy that thing's like I think like six or something percent it's got a little kick to it yeah it is I'm just looking for where the uh it's actually only 5% oh whatever I'm drinking a K's light that's like 3% fude and packaged San Miguel Brewery Philippines you are correct um yeah awesome Cheers Cheers brother look say dude I'm a man of the world I got my Tokyo Giants uh shirt don't do that to me like we I'm planning a trip with uh with Michaela right now Michaela is my wife to the fans at home and we we she went she went to Japan last year and it like I got real jealous like we got into a fight and then like she goes out with her uh with her friend she comes back and they're like hanging out in the living room she's like and we haven't talked since we got into the fight and she's like by the way we're going to Japan like her and her friend and I'm like I've been wanting to go to Japan and to go see a baseball game at like the Tokyo Dome and everything for so long and I was just like you [ __ ] [ __ ] you're like only doing this oh we're gonna edit this out yeah no know um you're only doing this because I we got into a fight but uh no it was it was actually funny they were like planning it for a while but I took it that way you know what I mean this is all I'm cutting this all out um it's all good Shohei Ohtani's stats are absolutely insane but I will say that I am wearing this Tokyo Giant sure we did go and see a game at the Tokyo Dome back in 2017 but we missed Otani who was a bummer I think he just came through or something like that oh yeah well he played uh was it oric Buffalo is that who he played for I think that no he played the neon ham Fighters neon H Fighters yeah yeah so uh what team is there in toky at the Tokyo down which team is that uh the Giants oh the num yeah okay gotcha all right well um speaking of Otani uh well let's this [ __ ] guy has my do dud I want to go through show Brandon are you aware of how good shani's stats have been so far this season in his first year with the Dodgers I don't know but I think it's something to the tune of a 1.6 War thus far I think we're a 20 what what is it like let me let me go through the numbers for you I actually have to pull up his his baseball Sant individually before I get into the deeper stats so he's hitting 341 with a 406 on base a 635 slug a 1.41 Ops seven homers five stolen bases 25 runs I don't actually see it doesn't have how many RB he has here but I'm guessing it's a lot um he's been unbelievable he is in the 95th percentile of baseball for batting run value he is uh in the 100th pertile for EXA he is in the 100th percentile for expected batting average at three he's he has a 373 expected batting average that's insane he is in the 100th percentile of Ed slugging which is 723 he's in the 97th percentile of of average exit velocity at 94.7 Barrel percentage he's at 100 percentile 23.3% of the time he is barreling the ball 23.3% of the time I mean I could keep hard hit percentage he's in 100 percentile at 61 621 J if I can even interject can you find this stat for me what's his strikeout rate right now so his so he isn't that's the one thing where his strikeout rate is good he's in the 72nd percentile at 17.4% he's not striking out a ton he's walking a good amount at 10% of the time his wi percentage is a little high at 60 at 23% of the time he's in the 60th percentile so he is swinging and missing a lot that's to be expected for a guy that swings with as much power as he does yeah but it's strikeout numbers though that's below League average I think that's what 22% yeah and I actually have some splits for you though which are a little bit fascinating because after all of that I mean the Dodgers are still really good what are they what's their record here they are uh in first place by four games they're 19 and 12 they're doing just fine right what's interesting about this if you look at his splits uh is um and I have to find this I had it last night and I completely so if you look at his his splits um for batting with runners in scoring position he's actually been terrible and it's kind of perplexing as to why that is if he's if he's trying too hard but his batting with runners in scoring position is awful he's hitting 194 with a 2621 base a 250 slugging and a 512 Ops he's hitting really poorly Runners account how he got off to a little bit of a slow start this season no doubt I would say if you look at the last 10 games so maybe even 15 I would I I know that that uh runners in scoring position has been a lot better I know there was a ground out with the bases loaded yesterday that was um in Arizona right but he did come up with another knock RBI knock I believe in that game but anyways it doesn't matter I'm not criticizing him I'm just totally talking something war from a DH right now like this is crazy well how many stolen bases does he have right now five he has five but pretty crazy I mean not Ellie De La Cruz with freaking 18 or whatever he's at right listen to this though absolutely insane well we could talk about Ellie if you want but listen to this with Runners on second and third or sorry with Runners at third he's he's okay one for three right 0 for five with Runners at second and third 0 for 16 with Runners at second that's not great it's just wild and but it's like how is he even have good numbers you know what I mean how does he have good numbers he just he just knocks the [ __ ] out of the ball he's driving guys home from first that's what he's doing you know what I mean he's just he's just crushing I think he's pretty at first wasn't he just wasn't used to having any base runners when he was in Anaheim all of his RBI are coming distracting like whoa It's like a dog like I don't know what ball to hit get to First all of his RBI are coming from when guys are on first and third first and second or runner on first that's where all of his RBI are coming from which is super interesting and then uh five of them from solo home runs so um just interesting of the cap yeah keep Salvador Perez and the Royals have been awesome okay so he is leading the leak in a stat that I love okay it's I think it's indicative of of like whether or not a hitter is going to be good I had it pulled up give me a second here of um bar percentage of the time you Barrel per plate appearance okay so he's barreling the ball per plate appearance and this goes into so this question I'm about to ask you goes into surprise teams we want to talk about some surprise teams this year who's uh who's really surprised you who's really played Above the Rim a little bit above expectations so sh Otani is leading baseball at a 16.7% clip of percentage of time of plate appearances that he barrels the baseball so 16 .7% of the time he will Barrel it perfect he'll have a perfect Barrel who is second give a give a guess as to who is second in baseball in in all of Bas oh barrels per plate appearance can I use a Lifeline uh yeah I'll give you a hint all right uh is it American or national league it's American League oh I'll give you a second hint it is a team that that is exceeded expectations somewhat this year is it Bobby Whit my boy the same team he's on the same team I don't know Salvador Perez no I was on the tip of my tongue no way 15% of the time he's barreling the baseball Salvador Perez is having an unbelievable uh season he's hitting 346 with a 404 on base and a one dot Ops he has seven homers uh he's 36 for 104 to start the season he's been unbelievable The Royals are I mean they are they're second in the American League Central they're 17 and 13 but and that I don't think that that's really indicative how good they are they have a plus 42 run differential which is second in the American League only to the Cleveland Guardians okay and they uh and they are second so they're third in runs scored and they're best or they they are second best in runs allowed so they are scoring the most runs and they're giving up the fewest runs and Salvador Perez is a huge part of it and I was like that blew me away it blew me away when I saw it that that Patrick momes is rubbing off on that whole dang Town wow I love that take I I love the take that Patrick Mahomes greatness is a rubbing off on the Kansas City Royals look at it dude and guess when why wouldn't old s be getting the most of he's been in that town the longest you know he's seen it all I have there's a theory how old is he by the way he seem He's 33 it feels like he's been around forever right it feels like it feels like he should be older than that let me let me look at how old he is really quick Salvador Perez is hold on baseball Savant shows you everything except for a person's age which is hilarious there's D oh my God I'm gonna lose my mind if I'm [ __ ] older than him you probably he's 33 Jesus he's still got a few good years left yeah dude he does I love the idea like 38 I thought it was 38 no you know what it is he came around when he was like 18 or 19 that's what it is um he he's been playing for he's got 1 two three four five six seven eight 20 he came up in 2012 he's been 13 Seasons this is his 13th season I love the idea that Patrick Mahomes greatness is rubbing off on the Royals I love that but I also there's a theory that a buddy of mine and I have about great catchers in the middle of your lineup it's the Buster posie Theory I'm introducing this theory for the first time on the Deferred collusion podcast where if you have a catcher hitting third in a lineup or like third or fourth or second whatever like a middleof thee order catcher who is your best hitter on your team that you have an advantage above all other teams that that that is like a it's a precursor for great things it's a precursor for winning championships Buster posie Theory the Johnny Bench Theory I think the adley rushman theory is going to be playing a role Ro at some point Salvador perezz got to Two World Series as the catcher of the Royals and the Dodgers got Will Smith who's one of the top three catchers in all of baseball so I think that theory is pretty good right I honestly dig that I've always been a big fan you know I grew up a Dodger fan so I was you know big Patza guy absolutely love Mikey P how do you not love just a bopping catcher you know he's getting in the dirt he's digging out balls he's freaking blocking the plate I don't know there's something there's something just say like awesome right about uh an impactful offensive catcher well yeah when you have it's the lowest by by far of any position on the field it's a defensive position like Austin barens has a job in baseball because he's a great catcher not a he's a terrible hitter he's a great catcher you wouldn't have a job you wouldn't be able to do that in any other position like maybe short stop you could maybe in the old days you could do that but like not anymore you still you have to be an offensive player to play shortstop to be a catcher you don't have to be so when you have that and he's hitting third in your lineup and he's like an MVP candidate oh my God you have an advantage that no other team had like maybe four or five other teams have so uh kudos to the Royals man I really like what I'm seeing from them this year they are absolutely crushing it uh they all their off SE got a catcher too I just want to get tip of the cap Travis darod oh yeah Champion catcher with the Braves you know he's made his rounds from the Mets had a cup of coffee with the Dodgers hey brings it all back around how many at bats did he have for the Dodgers I I think he had like two at bats for the Dodgers I think he was there for one game yeah yeah Travis darno uh Dodger at bats how many did he have I guess I'll just have to look at his baseball reference hold on he had one at bat for the Dodgers how' It Go did he walk 0 for one he didn't strike out though put it in play put the ball in play and that was a that was a sign of great things to come no he's been awesome Shawn Murphy's been on the Shelf so you know that was that was a big trade that the Braves made to get Shawn Murphy he's been on the Shelf so they're lucky that Travis darno has been playing as well as he has um I'm I'd be interested to look into that trade because I think that the A's traded Shawn Murphy to the Braves right and I think it was a three- team deal if I'm not mistaken who what was that trade I want to look into that really quick Brewers have exceeded expectations without Corbin Burnes call sha Murphy trade Sean Murphy trade yeah it was a three- team deal traded up so the Brewers got William contras in the deal oh wow and speaking of a team with who's he William contras has been the best offensive catcher in baseball this year so it's no surprise that the Brewers have been as good as they are it's the Buster posie Theory man I'm [ __ ] telling you that theory is like is is is Rock Solid Rock Solid it is Rock Solid and you know what dude I'm Still Rock Solid for my ree Hoskins with the Milwaukee Brewers feels like a whole different town over there I don't know maybe it's because maybe it was nice to shift uh away from Craig Council you know maybe they are a little rowdier now over there and that's no knock at Craig or uh you know but uh it's a man there's something fun going on over there it's like it's like they giving them a little Brew before the games they're getting a little pepper it's a testament it's a testament to a great uh front office and a great team culture over there uh because a lot of people I think wrote them off when they uh when they traded away Burns a lot of people were writing them off but I think and also when Devon Williams went down for three months I think that nobody was really go I mean some people might have been thinking that they were going to surprise some people but they they've been really good this year so kudos to the Brewers um let's let's go on the negative side of The Astros have been an absolute trainwreck things here because we're talking about surprise teams that have been surprisingly good surprisingly bad has been the Houston Astros who uh I had as a lock I had them to be a lock to win the West they just beat the [ __ ] out of Colorado and max out of Colorado in Mexico City so you know all they all they got to do is play the Rockies at a higher altitude than they already play at at Coors Field up in Mexico City so they they they got right Kyle Tucker's doing his thing he's been awesome he's my MVP uh Dark Horse this year not a dark horse he's my MVP pick I should say um what do you think what's what is wrong in Houston man I mean they're hitting I'm pretty sure but see like they're not pitching well they're injured they they they don't have they basically have a whole staff on the with without ver Verlander back but they basically have like I believe um like framber went down Luis Garcia went Luis Garcia is that who it is no what's the guy's name oh my God I'm like blanking on the Astros pitching staff right now hold on I'm looking at their depth chart so um depth chart framber yeah Christian Javier is on the Shelf Jose 'I or or keiti he's on the Shelf um Luis Garcia he's on the Shelf Lance McCullers he's on the Shelf so they've got a lot of guys injured but they've gotten good stuff from ronell Blanco who threw a no hitter Hunter Brown has been a major disappointment I think that's that's key for them they were expecting him to be good he's been a major disappointment but like back guys have struggled as well has been terrible holy crap yeah I think does he have a home run yet this year hold on I'm looking at the stats right now he does he has one he's hitting 222 with a 291 on base he's got a 594 Ops that's not good also you know what sucks about that oh it's a contract year oh contract here that's bad man and people still think he might have uh well you know been aided by some uh technology hey man yep those cheaters cheated whatever dude they did uh I will say this about him he was he's had some good years since the uh Scandal broke so you know it's like like he had an 804 Ops last year an 820 the year before um he's been okay he's been like an 800 Ops guy since the Scandal so but the last say this I will say this just one quick thing since 2019 which was the year after that season that's when they got caught 2019 he had 41 homers with 112 RBIs he hit 296 with a one dot Ops since then his highest OPS has been 820 whoa so you know take that what you will but for Alex bregman just for the last season that the Astros were supposedly cheating bregman had a one do ops since since then he's been averaging 800 and he has a 590 right now he's a good player but is he that good of a player seems like he was better when he was cheating but yeah that sounds about right whatever um I'm gonna clip that and we're gonna go viral and we're gonna get [ __ ] on what actually I think people are gonna agree with us nine and 19 they [ __ ] on themselves um there's you know you got a negative 22 run differential uh I mean I I and this is what's sick I don't even think they're out of it I still think that they can make a playoff Earth I was just thought that Al is nasty uh and not for any good reasons um it just seems like nobody wants to win it um you know the Angels you said 11 and 18 Oakland baby 13 and Oakland let's go nice little start for you guys you can't score runs but you're pitching okay you're pitching okay but I mean look uh 15 and 14 they a game back Seattle 16 and 13 here's the problem some identity crisis in in that League you know what I mean like are we rebuilding are we pushing forward and if you know looking out in uh onto the season it was pretty much you know three horse race now now you don't really know what's going on it's it's it's interesting but I still think if you're a if you're a better you're still putting putting your money on the Astra so at least make the wild guard I would I no you're you're right and I think right now would be the time to make that bet while they've gotten out this horrible start because the odds are probably the best they're ever going to be to bet on them to come back and take the division or get a playoff spot or whatever yeah the Seattle Mariners man I The Seattle Mariners need to be better I that pitching staff is unbelievable but they cannot score runs dude like they they they have this opportunity with that pitching staff to be World beaters and they just like they just don't want to do it like they could be they should be so much better than they are they are to me like the Mariners are the most frustrating team in baseball like by far the most frustrating team in baseball they have like Logan Gilbert is going to win a Sai Young this year if he keeps up what he's doing go look at his numbers he's been unbelievable Luis Castillo's been off to kind of a rough start but he's picked it up lately George Kirby same deal but he looked amazing in his last couple of starts they got like Brian woo they got some great pitching and they cannot score a [ __ ] run if they if they're life depended on it and it's like well not all doom and gloom they did just get a walkoff against you know they were down one nothing in the ninth inning Brandon one nothing in the ninth inning and they needed a two-run walk-off to win the game like come on I get what you're saying but like you gotta be like you're [ __ ] pitching staff gave up one [ __ ] run and you needed a walk-off to win it who were they even playing was it the a I feel like they were playing some shitty team it was the Braves oh it was the Braves okay so they were playing a pretty good team it's great it was off of AJ M it was it was great you know yeah but like come on man but I get your point and look I I think you're speaking about you know being so frustrating is that you see the talent on the field you've seen some investment but it seems like it's all half measures right it there hasn't been a full push to winning culture and it's frustrating and and I'm I'm with with you on that but on the good side of things you're currently in first place and yeah could be worse no this is what's frustrating what's frustrating is that they probably could have traded one of their pitchers to get like a real impact betat and instead they are working on the margins like they go back and they get Mitch hanar they get like a mitch Garver they get these guys that are good but they're not like none of them are like the Yankees getting Juan sto right look how that move is paying off for the Yankees that's the move that the Mariners need to make and L you know we still don't know uh you know if Julio Rodriguez is that guy like he should be better than the way he's playing so they do need him to play better but regardless of that it's it's the front office in my opinion it's what Jerry tooto said where he basically said like what they're trying to do is win 87 games a year they're not trying to win 100 they're trying to win 87 they're trying to get it down to this like number and that they're doing the fan base a favor by doing that because like they're not going to like lose one year and then win a bunch the next year they're going to win 87 every year and I'm thinking like well why don't you try to win 100 every year you have the pitchers to do it you've you've locked up the pitching staff to do it that to is the problem and they have an offense that's going to win you 87 games you know and it's like okay so wa you're just trying to just trying to be the Diamondbacks and squeeze in and get lucky in the postseason like win the division win the division this is your chance the Astros are terrible right now winning the division doesn't mean as much anymore just to play Devil's Advocate know you know there is no excuse for just going like hey well we just you know sneak in that's all we can do and that's the best course of action like well no you can become a destination where players want to be which you know helps thus increase your you know product on the field which helps you make more money it all just seems like it's about saving money and at the end of the day they've made their projections you know they've done their little freaking you know in-house accounting and go well if we spend this much money we're bound to make this much money and that's how much we decided we're going to make to grow the company I guess I don't know it doesn't really feel like it's about winning baseball games or championships it's about increasing the bottom line and it's a bummer but it does seem like that that is more so the prerogative of a lot of these teams these days yeah than it is about you know having some pride and maybe you know I don't know having a reason for your City to cheer you on I don't know call me oldfashioned but a parade does sound great I know I know 2020 it we didn't get a prade whatever it amazing with my mask on I don't care dude it's out your own PA dude kiss my ass let's go yeah I I I'm looking at an article right here I think that the TV deal might be having some issues um because they they're owned by the TV sports easy easy we all know that's just a little [ __ ] razzled Dazzle dude Seattle is a agree Premier City in this country come on it's [ __ ] I better do better I really like Seattle do better do better Seattle you already lost the SuperSonics too soon um all right well uh Astros you guys got to do better too but I wouldn't give a [ __ ] if you missed the playoffs if I'm being perfectly honest but um I have a feeling they will so if you want to make a long shot bet I'm interested in what they are right now odds of Astros to make the playoffs I might put some money on that I'm interested to see what they are MLB playoff odds on fan graphs um the odds for the Astros are still a 47.3% at where they are they are higher than the Rangers that's interesting that's very interesting so that's that's disrespectful that's disrespectful we're gonna have to follow that's disrespectful as [ __ ] I'd be pissed if I was a Rangers Fan yeah I'd just be pissed if I was the ERS uh disrespectful to my man Marcus s and my boy Cory SS but anyways what you gonna do all right well we uh we I don't know how much more time we got here we got a few more things that we got to cover but um let's just tell let's just [ __ ] on the umpires for a second here we got a couple of MLB umpires keep blowing games controversies we got the judge oven mitt controversy and we've got the uh Ray Brewers ending from yesterday I don't know which one you want to talk about did you see that raay Brewers Ending by the way I you know I saw the I saw the highlight and I saw that back swing and and I just didn't get it like how that could be the interpretation on the field like oh no this is why the ball passed I I just I don't know is is the UMP not there what are you what is how do I don't know got past the ball got past the catcher before the back swing hit the catcher so it was strike three but it was a wild pitch and the Run scored but because the back back swing hit the catcher the Umpire ruled that it was batter interference and that the runner had to go back not only did the runner have to go back to Third and the Run didn't score but the runner normally you'd have to throw the run out at first because there was an open base on the wild pitch but they didn't have to do that either up so both situ they got [ __ ] on both situations and it's non-reviewable I think is what my issue is because like okay the Umpire made the wrong call he didn't notice that the guy actually never had control of the ball before he was hit but I it just feels like that's one of those things that should be like reviewable and like uh I don't know I don't know what you do is the problem like do you just give them the run I don't know I don't know what you do that was just a weird that was just a weird one to me uh I think it just goes It goes back to what we were talking about earlier you know it's just we're focused on the wrong thing uh about baseball and it sucks that there is still so much like just clear air uh on the part of the umps I I don't know it just we got to do better and I don't know what the solution is but it's been annoying you know from Boon getting tossed out uh security guards walking in front of uh coaches while they're trying to call a review uh that was it just seems like there's just so much like dumb [ __ ] happening this year does that seem silly to you is there just a lot of dumb [ __ ] happening year with um I don't know it feels like a lot of guys trying to assert big dick energy and it's just stupid like you look pathetic trying to intimidate a coach or a a player like do you remember God I forget the um's name but you remember a couple years back bum Garner was getting like his hand felt up for and he's just staring him right in the eyes just looking at him and bumg guard is like what the [ __ ] are you looking at it's I'll [ __ ] you up right I look I'm not the biggest bum grinder fan as a Dodger fan but he was great for some [ __ ] talking like he's the kind of guy you hate if he's not on your team but you love him if he's on yours but that's one of the alltime ones but my point remains umpires what the [ __ ] how do we get control of this Jesse how do we re him in and how do we have some like I don't know accountability is that too much to ask I I think that the account ility is sort of coming from the people a little bit I mean you have really great Instagram accounts right now like umpire uh audit or something like that umpire audit or something I think is one of the accounts I forget the name of it but basically like looks at every missed call Angel Hernandez has been a [ __ ] doozy this year I really do want to just dedicate an episode to all of Angel Hernandez's Antics from this year and all the Miss calls he's had because they've been great they have been you gotta get those numb we gotta get those Chef kiss we're gonna do it we'll do a full episode on Angel Hernandez um or a full segment letes Let's uh you know there might be some Dodger fans watching and they you know we can uh let's talk some Dodgers Dodgers win without striking out because this is really our bread and butter here because I love bread and I love butter we were off to a bit of a weird start I think some people would say a little bit of an underwhelming start we been playing very well since um and we did something last night that's actually more rare than throwing a no hitter oddly enough let's go baby zero goose egg zero strikeout what the hell is even that what the hell is even that um daddy chill uh my favorite my one of my favorite videos on the Internet by the way it is phenomenal it's an all you want to see just how rare this is um it's the first time in 18 years that the Dodgers have have gone a game without striking out the last time that it happened was in 2006 um I believe hold on I had I had it up here I'm sorry uh the first time I think it was against the white socks either way it was the first time since 2017 than any team has done this in Major League Baseball CLE the Cleveland uh Indians at the time had 46 batters not strike out and a 93 win over the Chicago White Socks that's what it was so um they didn't strike out so it's more rare than a no hitter which is awesome uh and it's for a team that does strike out a lot the Dodgers do whiff a lot because they are swinging for the fence a lot of time so pretty cool to see playing pretty well um yeah isn't that weird when I found when you found out that was more rare than a no hitter it seems like that's yeah things yeah no it's it's something I I just don't recall off the top of my head ever seen before you know uh uh it's it's Super Rad obviously doesn't win any Championship but it's school and it seems that guys are um really active and they're approach this year and trying to trying to cut down strikeouts I know that we have I believe there's like seven guys on the team right now that are under League average for strikeouts on the Dodgers um I don't know if we I can name all seven off the top but I think it's like young Annie pz crushing it uh migy row um uh Freddy show I think Will Smith um obviously mookie doesn't strike out and then I'm missing one uh might be Gavin Lux be Freddy Freddy doesn't strike out very much no I think I did say Freddy I thought oh you did okay sorry yeah it's like our big three well I guess big four with will uh Andy pz uh Miggy row and uh Gavin Lux yeah well so it's also the Dodgers have had trouble sometimes scoring a lot of runs if they don't hit homers and I think that was what was really encouraging about last night was not only not striking out and putting the ball in play but only one run was a came off of a homer that was a solo shot by Will Smith all the other runs came from just putting the ball in play doubles singles you know just moving the line so uh that's always good to see especially for the Dodgers because that's that's their that's what is going to win them a championship is just being that Relentless lineup that we know that they can be the problem has been the bottom half of the order has been pretty bad and the top five have been like the best of all time bottom four have been arguably like some of the worst in baseball that feels like that tide is turning though with the arrival of Andy pz because he has significantly altered the shape of that bottom half of the lineup um his numbers have been great he is uh he's hitting 298 with a 314 on base 532 slugging 846 Ops he's been awesome and I he's the exact shot in the arm that this team has needed especially with how bad Chris Taylor has been I hate saying this yeah but it kind of feels like if this keeps happening he's you know this might be this might be it he might be he might be released like we might just end up taking a hit on Chris Taylor he has to pick it up or that that's becoming a real possibility because you can't have a roster spot taken up with that sort of production you just can't yeah I think it's a little early to be thinking about releasing him but I I do agree that something has to happen um I don't think it's uh impossible that we maybe see like Miguel Vargas or something like that coming up maybe CT hits the I I thought Miguel Vargas was gonna do what Andy Paz is doing that's what I thought he was gonna do last year right um and and then even uh James outman you know uh really slow start of the season but to PA has his credit he's com to he's coming up and he's having really good at bats uh even even just like deep counts he SE in every every ab and it's it's it's somebody that looks like he's been here a little longer than he has so that's super encouraging um so far from what I've seen you know really like passes the eye test um you know what does that look like over the course of a season I don't know but um I really am uh concerned about outman ct3 and uh and our boy Gavin Lux we could talk about the negative but to talk about pz a little bit more because I am gushing over him a little bit what's funny about him is it does feel like he works counts really well right he gets into the he gets into he gets himself into great hitters counts he attacks The Zone very well which is important for a young hitter just attacking the strike zone I got a comp for you right now I got a comp for you on Andy P right now hold it the most interesting stat about him though he's working those deep counts he doesn't have a single walk this year zero walks which is you know which is like okay that's not the biggest deal in the world but you do want to see him maybe get some walks mix them in just to keep the to keep the line going especially when you're going to have you know like Lux then mooki hitting after you you know the high contact guys even though Lux has been bad uh you get have high contact guys coming up behind you you want to move the line a little bit more so you do want to mix in some blocks but what's your what's your com definitely something to watch but Dodger fans let me know what you think but he reminds me a little bit of uh Andre Ethier something about him at the dish that has that cool calm collected very balanced very attack driven uh reminds me a bit of Dre and obviously yet to be seen if that clutch Factor arrives or anything like that there's something that reminds me of a little Andre Ethier at the dish I don't know if it's the bat being up high or what I don't know but I'm liking it that's my comp I'm sticking to it I I like it too because uh Ethier was a guy that the Dodgers I always felt like Max munzy kind of had the Ethier uh comp a little bit only because it was so literally a comp where we traded the to the a we got we traded him from the A's it was like a nothing deal we gave up nothing and we got Andre Ethier from the A's and then all of a sudden he's like a franchise Cornerstone and the same thing with Max Muny we traded for him from the A's nobody had ever heard from him anymore and he is just playing MLB games right away and all of a sudden he's a franchise Cornerstone sort of like Max Muny is sort of the Andre Ethier of this version of the Dodgers but I like it because nobody was expecting Andy pz to sort of be right guy this year everybody's expecting Lux to really take that step for James outman to pick up where he left off and Andy paw has has surpassed all of them you know so Jesse you want to know something crazy is I believe pz was supposed to be traded to the angels in that jock Peterson deal a couple years ago that [ __ ] yeah I believe it was like Ross tripling jock Peterson Andy Paz for I forget even who and I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure AAS could have been an angel right now like in that Outfield hold on it was uh jock Peterson to the angels in exchange for Luis Reno this article doesn't have it all right maybe I made it up then dude no I mean this could be before I might just be looking at the wrong article um trade falls through that's what I want trade falls through outfielder Peterson strippling I think it was just Peterson and strippling ah no no while the Angels would have also received Prospect Andy pz you were right so the Angels [ __ ] up again look at that they could have an Andy pz and jock Peterson right now what are what is you doing Angels what are you doing come on yeah D that L out dude a couple years ago they would have had sh they would have had Mike Trout joh they would have had Andy pz whoever else was on the Angels at the time that that was also big [ __ ] jock energy at that time too that was like jock at the peak of his powers when he was like playoff jocktober you know what I mean that was when he was like it was big [ __ ] jock time they [ __ ] up big time well we can end it there [ __ ] on the angels we can end it there uh is there anything else you got that's I'm I'm I'm spent I me I got all my takes out of the way I'm happy we did this I feel like this one went well I talked a lot I apologize I talked a lot yeah you you had a lot you needed to get off your plate and I appreciated it it was fun it was fun to pick up what you were putting down there um we haven't talked in two weeks man I know dude I missed you I freaking uh I'm sorry I've been under the weathering haven't um no I think uh I think we F we hit it all but you know there's baseball to be watched and there's story lines to be uh to to be had still but I think uh I think I got a little something I'm pulling on the old thread on it's going to be a little more on the collisional side of our pod but nothing quite yet but some some fun in the in the works and um hey man baseball's baseball's hot I got some housekeeping that we can just do really quick Blake Snell was moved to the 15-day iil um he's having some issues he was off to a very very bad start that deal is looking terrible for the Giants right now um it's looking really bad for Scott Boris did we cover that in last episode it's um I think we touched on it but since then Cody's gone on the ilil um he's not off to the hottest start um I do think Montgomery had a good start or two I know he's a Boris client um and I also think um oh man third baseman um uh Chapman Matt Chapman I thought I think he's got off to a slower start but has settled in a little bit I believe yeah just a bad look for Boris I do want to get into more depth about that but I I don't I want to hold my judgment until we get a better look maybe like midseason we'll do an update on it just see where their numbers are at of the bore four of all those Boris clients because they're this is essentially contract years for them again you know because they they all signed these like sort of like uh one in-one deals a little bit like opt out deals which is essentially like you know they're basically just oneye deals yeah unless they're terrible and if they're all terrible they're going to be taken the option for the next season so um another one yeah Jackson holiday we talked a little about him and his struggles he got sent back down to Triple A uh for the Orioles and I am not concerned about it at all I was talking about it I think that uh best they were pretty I liked how the Orioles uh ownership sort of uh took some ownership of it and said hey you know we we rushed him up it's really hard to know when this guy when these guys are good these top prospects are good but you know it sounds like they want him to struggle in Triple A a little bit because he Str he's never struggled before struggle at the big league level on the biggest stage send him back down to Triple A I think what they're going to I was listening to Dallas Braden talk about it actually your buddy Dallas and he was saying how what they're what they're probably gonna do is like they want to encourage him to like get himself into more 0 andone counts more o and two counts one and two counts and how he handles it because he's been so good where he's just like wrecking the ball he's not putting himself into a lot of tough situations so they want to test him in more tough situations in Triple A and see how he responds to it so I think that's that's what they're going to do so because the orals are [ __ ] good man yeah he'll be he's going to be fine it's uh there's a reason why you don't see a lot of kids coming straight out of high school or you know even break on the scene at 19 and 20 it's hard it's there's some there's some full grown dudes hurling the ball and you know they can uh they can figure you out quick and it's all right dude kids kids gonna bounce back dude give them a give him a good old year or two yeah he was he gonna be insane I also don't want him to be that good yet because the Orioles being that good scares the living [ __ ] out of me you know this Dodger window that we have is we're probably gonna have to face them in the world series at some point if we make it if we're lucky enough to make it we'll probably have to play that team that's scary when that team don't disrespect the Boston Red Sox in that division dude they're not dead yet talk about no they're not not bad talk about pitching staff Tanner ha that dude's been awesome he's been awesome like to make a trade for that guy dude yeah Brando this was fun it was a blast Jess throw an absolute pleasure love talking shop with you um yeah got some fun stuff in the works I'm looking forward to doing this with you again uh get your deferred on people deferred collusion pod tell your friendss look for us on Sundays if you watch the whole way through we're going to be Sunday nights most likely and we'll get we'll get some merch you know what I mean we'll get some uh we'll get some you know MP3s that you can buy off of iTunes you know maybe heyo burnt copies of our EP after the show yeah uh$ five we have venmo and PayPal it's you know we're a real Indie DIY power slash uh Urban Grime type band we've overstate our welcome Brandon yeah dude anyways let's get out of here dude all right the fre CL I'll talk to you later dude love love you buddy all right right