The MLB Clubhouse with The Jimmies
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The MLB Clubhouse with The Jimmies
MLB Clubhouse's Opening Weekend Drama
Baseball season has roared back to life, and the MLB Clubhouse with the Jimmies has you covered with a comprehensive breakdown of an electric opening weekend that set the stage for an unforgettable 2025 season.
The Yankees immediately established themselves as an offensive juggernaut, launching a staggering 15 home runs against Milwaukee while sparking league-wide conversation about their legal "torpedo bat" design. Meanwhile, pitching dominated other series, with Mackenzie Gore's 13-strikeout masterpiece for Washington and the Padres bullpen's incredible scoreless performance during their shocking four-game sweep of Atlanta standing out as signature moments.
Rookies made immediate impacts across the league. Jack Leiter secured his first major league win for the Rangers, Wells made Yankees history as the first catcher to hit a leadoff home run on Opening Day, and Kameron Misner connected for his first big-league homer with Baltimore. The weekend also featured statistical oddities, like Tyler O'Neill's sixth consecutive Opening Day homer and Rafael Devers' unfortunate record of 10 strikeouts in the first three games.
We explore surprising outcomes from Miami's three walk-off wins against Pittsburgh to Arizona and Chicago's offensive explosion, while examining early trouble signs for Atlanta after getting swept. The Dodgers' star-studded lineup delivered as expected, prompting early speculation about their potential to challenge the single-season win record.
Whether you're tracking your favorite team or following league-wide storylines, our breakdown covers all the essential developments from baseball's thrilling return. Join us weekly as we continue tracking the evolving narratives of the 2025 MLB season!
Hello baseball fans and baseball lovers, Good day. You are listening to episode two of the MLB Clubhouse with the Jimmys. We are here today with the Patterson trifecta Wendell Pops Patterson, adam Patterson and Josh Patterson, and our good buddy, the Slay Dude, justin Slay. This is an episode of our opening weekend recap. There was a lot of exciting baseball, a lot of good stuff out there, a lot of home runs and a lot of really nice pitching performances, so we're going to jump right into it. We've got a lot to cover today, adam. We're going to start with you covering the Yanks and the Brew Crew. So the Yankees popping off 15 homers in their opening day series. So what did you see? What did you like? What didn't you like?
Speaker 2:I mean, these guys just came out swinging. We talked, pops brought up where's Judge going to be at after the playoffs and all that and how that ended for the Yankees and he came in.
Speaker 2:He is clearly not affected by any means by how that ended. Dudes just absolutely coming, coming up swinging, and you know the new torpedo bats, whatever shenanigans that's going on. But I mean the guys got four bombs to start up opening the opening series. I mean that's just that's insane. You know four bombs. The guy's got four bombs to start up the opening series. I mean that's just that's insane. You know four bombs, 11 ribbies in three games. You're not going to that guy's no chump. Pretty good three games. Pretty good three games. You know the crazy stuff with Wells. You know making some history there. First time a catcher's ever let off with a home run, their first time a catcher's ever let off with a home run, first time in Yankees history that they've gotten a leadoff home run on opening day, which is kind of crazy, right.
Speaker 2:It's a crazy stat when you look at what the Yankees have had in their history, and Well, you just think about how many catchers just lead off in general.
Speaker 4:Right, I mean you could probably count them on one hand. Well, yeah, I mean the catchers are lead off in general. Right, I mean you could probably count them on one hand. Well, yeah, I mean. Yeah, for the catchers are what makes it unique obviously right the catcher lead off that out.
Speaker 3:I was like I can't think of a damn one that ever did that. So that was a good catch there, adam yeah, but that was.
Speaker 1:So. That wasn't just the first catcher to ever do it, that was the first yankee to ever lead off opening day with a home run. And they've had some. That's. That's a crazy stat. You think about the teams that they've had. You know, um, especially, I mean, you know, back in the old days when they had the really good teams, you know, lead off guys were still lead off guys. They weren't big boppers but, um, you know, I mean, they had ricky henderson right, and that guy, that guy used to lead off home runs all the time. You know. So it was a pretty surprising stat. When Adam told me that I had to go back and double-check it, the catcher one made sense, but when he told me the first Yankee ever to lead off opening day with a home run, that was pretty crazy. So what else?
Speaker 2:I mean pretty nutty seeing, you know, these guys going back to back to back. You know, goldschmidt, bellinger, judge, just you know it's just showing that what these guys have, it's showing clearly their pitching is not going to be the concern, it's going to be just all right, we've got the bats behind it. Can these guys, you know, when we get to the later end of the rotation, okay, can you know, three, four, five, keep us rolling and let the bats do the work and hope and keep us alive. So I mean the Yankees are definitely looking the way this started, you know, like it's first series, right, and Milwaukee just didn't look good.
Speaker 3:They're not looking good to go right now already, but you know that tells you the Yankees are going to be the team to beat in the East. I think that's what we're looking at right now.
Speaker 1:I think, adam those back-to-back-to-backs were on three consecutive pitches as well, weren't they?
Speaker 3:Yes, they were. That's pretty nuts yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, really, it only took Nestor Cortez one pitch to give up the World Series game one, so you know he got three pitches in there, you know, but yeah, that's pretty crazy, Three straight pitches to lead off the ballgame. Goldie, Billy and Aaron judged nuts. What were you going to say, Pops?
Speaker 4:They had two leadoff home runs by two very nontraditional leadoff guys, Goldstein and the catcher. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting, guys, right, and the catcher, yeah. Yeah, it's interesting the way the way coaches or managers are doing their their lineups nowadays. You know, with I mean goldie he when he was younger he had some decent legs on him but you know you'd never look at him as a leadoff guy.
Speaker 3:But yeah, the.
Speaker 1:Way these managers have turned their lineups around. It's just, I think, probably Goldie's going to be hitting like fourth against righties and then leading off against lefties, and then Austin Wells will be the leadoff guy against righties. It's crazy to think about. It was nice to see Wells go oppo home run in the first inning that same game off a lefty, that's a. That's a pretty good sign for a young lefty hitter to take the ball the opposite way like that. But yeah, so all in all, you know Rodon had a good start in game one. They need him to be consistent, though I think that's been kind of the Achilles heel for Carlos Rodon in his career is he'll look like he did in game one and then he'll go out in the next start and give up seven runs in an inning and a third, you know. So consistency is going to be key for him. But I mean, if their bats do what they did in that first series, then I don't think it really matters a whole lot how good or how bad their pitching is. But let's talk about those torpedo bats for a minute, because that got a lot of press, a lot of media attention over the weekend and a lot of people are, oh they're cheating, but really they're not. And you know it's but, but really they're not.
Speaker 1:It is a legal MLB bet. It's not the first time they've been used. Francisco Lindor was using one. Lots of players have tried them out. Some of them like them, some of them don't. I think we need to talk more about just how bad Brewwer's pitching was. I think that's more the story. When you throw it where Cortez was throwing it, judge could probably hit it out with a wiffle ball bat. You know that's pretty much what it boils down to. If you don't want to give up three home runs on three pitches, don't throw three fastballs down the middle. Two, three um very, very good hitters in the yankee lineup. I think that's really what that boils down to how do?
Speaker 1:y'all feel about the torpedo bats?
Speaker 3:I think the same thing and I want to say something about what pops said last week on our first episode is aaron boone being just a jackass, I mean, in my opinion, I mean it's worked. But hey, we had the first ever leadoff home run history, the first ever catcher to have a leadoff home run, and we're going to make someone else the leadoff batter the next game. But you make a good point of the righty-lefty matchup. Okay, that's fine. Maybe that's not something I think. I think it's goofy that you're going to change that up after the workout. So well for you early On. The torpedo bat thing, I'm with you. I mean they were talking about it on the ticket this morning. Every speck on it, the length, the width. You know the biggest part of the bat can be so big. They're within MLB rule, regulations and, like you said, no one would have cared about it if they didn't hit nine home runs, which is another Yankee record for as long as they've been playing and you're talking about some guys like it, some guys don't.
Speaker 3:I remember Giancarlo Stanton, I think, tried it last year and I think he had an elbow injury. And I think he attributed it to the torpedo bat.
Speaker 3:So there you go. I mean, that's what I got to say, but I mean, if it's legal, do it. You know what I mean. Mean, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Like you said, play better and things seem to work out for themselves and there could be a lot less complaining. And, lastly, there was one guy I don't know who it was on the Brewers tweeted out or something, like you know. I don't really care if they're using them, do I think it's fair? Maybe not, but the MLB just going to overlook it because it's the Yankees, and the Yankees are going to be under my scope no matter what, and I hate the Yankees, but I don't think there's a dang thing wrong with them using those bats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's throwing a little shade there at the end of that comment. I heard that over the weekend too and I don't think they're going to get away with it because they're the Yankees, or it's going to get swept under the rug because they're the Yankees. I think it's a non-issue because it's a legal bat. It's a non-issue because it's a legal bat. So, you know, I just those comments were. You know, at least that last sentence in that comment was kind of unnecessary. But you know it kind of reminded me of Pops. You remember when George Brett hit that homer off who was the lefty for the Yankees, the pine tar bat.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:Was it Guidry.
Speaker 4:Maybe yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't remember.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, when George Brett hit that home run off, I'm pretty sure it was Ron Guidry hit that home run off of him, and oh, the pine tar is too high up on the bat, even though that's not legal. That's kind of what it reminded me of. You know what I mean. So I think it's a non-issue. You're probably going to hear about it for a while, especially as long as the Yankees are dropping bombs like they did, but I think we can kind of move on and chalk it up to people jealous that they don't have a Yankees lineup. All right, so next series we're going to take a look at Mr Slaydo taking a look at the Mets and the Strohs, and this, for me, was very different from what I was expecting. And this, for me, was very different from what I was expecting. You know, I was expecting to hear a lot or see a lot of Mets hitting, and it was just a lot of Astros pitching. What did you see, slade?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I agree. 1,000% Unfortunately hurts my ranger heart. You know I'm happy we went 3-1 in opening weekend, but they took 2 out of 3 from the Mets and every single one of them, like you said, low-scoring games 3-1 Strohs, 3-1 Mets, 2-1 Strohs. And what I'll say is the pitching on each side was phenomenal. The bullpen pitching on each side was even better.
Speaker 3:The one highlight that I'm getting out of game one, you know, or there's two, I guess, unfortunately Valdez for the Astros, seven shutout innings. Who did you mention earlier? Josh? It was the pitcher that you're talking about. No, the pitcher for the Yang. He can give you seven shutout or he can give you seven runs, yeah, in an inning and a third. I think that's Valdez. Maybe it's because I watched him in the inning and a third. And I think that's Valdez, and maybe it's because I've watched him in the playoffs and we've fortunately been able to play them in the playoffs and multiple times in the regular season. I think the Rangers just dominate him. I don't know if we're in his head, but there's no doubt he's amazing.
Speaker 3:What I was happy to see was the one run that the Yankees did give up was Hader, their closer, who struggled immensely last year, but I think he ended up getting the next then to save that day and the next day. So you know, second game was great too. You know, again, it was a close game, 3-1. Only four of the runs, all four runs, were given up by starters. So the bullpen in each of those games was absolutely phenomenal. And then again obviously it was the last game a 2-1. Strong pitching, awesome bullpen. I think Altuve had a very good series and that pains my ranger heart too. I don't know how this guy keeps on doing it. He was the cornerstone of their rebuild and obviously they had one of the most epic runs getting to at least the American League Championship Series. For what? Six or seven years in a row. So at least we took them down.
Speaker 3:Good pitching great bullpen play. Altuve did great, I think Soto hey, that dude's got a ton of pressure on him. I mean I would love to be in his shoes, to be making that much money to have that pressure on me, but it looks like he showed up well. I was super surprised that the series was so low, scoring even from both sides, even though the Astros did lose some key pieces in Tucker and Bregman. I think they're still going to be able to hit, especially in that little league ballpark that they play in. But promising for the Rangers that Astros only scored that many runs. But I mean starting pitching off some bullpen even better for both teams in that series. Can't really say too much about the offense but I guess a little surprised by the outcome. But I mean I think it's two good teams, two good teams that will compete this year and we'll kind of see where it goes from there.
Speaker 1:All right, good deal, yeah. So the Strohs taking two out of three from the Mets, a friend of Valdez, seven innings pitched, four hits, no runs, two walks, four Ks, four K's. And Spencer Arriguetti six innings pitched, one hit, one run, two walks, five K's. A couple of really nice turnouts for the, for the Strohs there, against, at least you know, one through three. A really strong lineup and you know you go on down to the six hole and you've got some guys that have put up some good performances in the past. Maybe didn't have it all last year, but good outings nonetheless. From the Strohs, starting pitchers Pops, you're going to be up first with maybe the most exciting series of the weekend the LA Angels and the Chicago White Sox Race to the bottom.
Speaker 4:So in a classic case of somebody has to win, right, so the Angels take two out of three. You know, you look at the Angels and we commented about this in the text thread and they lose game one and they have an eight to one and their third pitcher is their backup first baseman. He gets the last out and was the most effective pitcher of the day. They go on to take the next two. Yeah, I think the interesting thing about the Angels is what do they do with Mike Trout? So he's 33 years old. Do they try to get him hot and move him? Uh, and try to get some pieces? Um, given the fact that they let they fiddle, farted around and let ohtani go and got nothing for that for that guy, um, so you know, I think that's kind of their, their hope, right, and try to move, move trout, get, have him have a good first half of the season and get him moved on.
Speaker 4:You know the interesting thing about the White Sox. You know we talked about this in the chat too. After winning opening day. That was the first time that they'd been over 500 since opening day of 2023. Since opening day of 2023. And that was the first time that they'd been at 500 or better since game six of 2023. So that's a lot of bad baseball and they're just going to keep going in that direction. So you've got to feel bad for any White Sox fans out there. Of course, the Cubs dominate that market, but some of the 20 years ago they won the World Series right and had some pretty decent ballplayers out there. But this version's pretty brutal Benintendi and Jankowski.
Speaker 3:Oh, I didn't know, they got Jankowski.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so you know that's. It's a paycheck, right? I mean, you know we would all trade an MLB paycheck for the White Sox as opposed to sitting here, right I?
Speaker 3:don't know, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 4:But yeah, you know Trout, you know trout, one for 10, just just not much going on there. Obviously he didn't play very much at all last year, so hopefully he's going to get his, get his swing dialed in and they'll be able to get him somewhere where he can have some fun. Maybe, maybe when, uh, at least get into the playoffs. I don't do something with the rest of his time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel I feel like if they moved Trout before, before a walkie or something like that, I feel like that would be the death of their franchise, even if you could get some decent prospects or or you know some guys who have proven themselves for a year or two in the bigs. He's been the face of the franchise and that is I pretty sure, he's the only reason people, the franchise, and that is, I'm pretty sure, he's the only reason people go to angels games. Now that Otani and Pujols are gone, he's the only one you know drawing a crowd. So I feel like that would be the death of the franchise. But also, unless trout has a really good, you know, all the way up through June and he stays healthy, there's a lot of wear and tear on that 33-year-old body. Right, you know, that's an old 33. He probably played center field because he plays hard, he works out hard. I mean I'm sure you all have seen some of the videos that he's released. I mean this guy was a beast and I think I heard on another media outlet that his trainer, actually he was like hey, we're getting older, we got to. You know we can't go for so big. You know we got to trim it up and cut you up a little bit for longevity's sake. So that's a hard 33. It reminds me a lot of Ken Griffey Jr, you know. He had a really hard 10 years with the Mariners and then just couldn't quite get his legs right for a full season once he moved over to Cincinnati. So good information there. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1:I thought now, you know, take it with a grain of salt because you're pitching against teams that are not known for hitting the ball very well. But there were a couple really good pitching performances in that. Sean Burke was one, jose Soriano in game two and Cannon for Chicago. Both pitched really well. But again, it's you know who are they pitching to right? They're still big league hitters and you still got to be able to get them out. They got there for a reason. So you lay one in there. They're still going to be able to hit it, but still thought they had some good performances there.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, adam, we're going to talk about Colorado and Tampa Bay. Really, not a whole lot, you know, jumps out at you in this one. The big thing that I took away from this one was Kyle Freeland in game one looked really good for Colorado Six innings pitch, two hits, no on runs, no walks and seven strikeouts, and that Tampa Bay left 19 runners on base. Those were the big things for me. Twelve of those were in game. I believe it was game two alone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, going through into game two, that was rough. I mean, to put up 12 hits and score one run, I mean you're especially in that ballpark, right, it's just kind of brutal. You know we sit there, you look at what happened in the game one. You know Meisner gets the walk-off home run and you kind of look at that and you see it where. I mean it's what is it? 315 there in right field, something like that. You know you're in a minor league field, really really short right field, and he just hit it on a line out and you're thinking, okay, this could be a lot of what we see for the rest of the series and it just turns out, nope, tampa Bay just couldn't get their bats rocking and rolling the rest of the way. And, like you said, 12 hits and to put one runner across the plate, that's pretty, that's pretty nutty when you think about it. You know the guy Meisner hits that walk-off bomb. It's kind of some fun things. First, career home run for the guy.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Congratulations to Cameron Me. Fun things first career home run for the guy. Yeah, congratulations to Camden Meisner. You know only the guy's second hit ever in the pros yeah, he's got one. Yeah, you know, 15 at-bats total in his career. Seven of them are for this year. So I mean the guy, he's not an old guy. He looks like he's in his 40s but you know, I think he's like 24 years old. I'm watching that post-game interview and it's like who's this 40-year-old man on the TV screen right now?
Speaker 1:That's how they used to.
Speaker 3:Modern-day Otis Nixon.
Speaker 1:But look Rod Beck, when he was 27 years old looked like he was 48. Y'all remember, Rod Beck, the old closure for the Cubbies, Matt Stairs, Ron Kruk Come on, look at these guys. They were drinking a case of beer and smoking a pack of Marlboro Reds before every game and probably in 17 years.
Speaker 3:It's called living the dream buddy, living the dream.
Speaker 1:I know those are my real heroes, all right.
Speaker 2:I think game three kind of the big hurt there. You know, rays win game three 6-4. Bullpen gives up four of the six.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you're kind of going through. You know we see this going on and we see the starters not getting quality starts. You're not even getting to six innings. You're in the five innings five and a third, something like that. You know their starter. They got two runs out of five innings pitched and then here come the bullpen and you've got another four and a third. Four innings to go and you're bouncing out four runs there. You know you're not going to win games there, so Rocky's got to get their bullpen under control for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Rocky's got to get their bullpen under control for sure. Yeah yeah, Rocky's not known for their pitching anyway, but Tampa Bay takes two out of three there. Congrats to Cameron Meisner on your first career home run. In on the walk-off. Slay Dude, what do you got for Braves and Padres?
Speaker 3:This one was a big surprise. Yeah, looking through everything, I couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure they picked Atlanta last week to probably win the East. Yeah, well done. I mean, what happened? Their offense? Well, we'll see.
Speaker 3:I mean we're all going to have some, I think, good and some pretty shitty ones here, when game 162 rolls around. But Braves, what happened to their offense? I mean game three, game four of that series. They got shut out and the last one won distinctly nothing and wasted. You know, a really great performance. I mean each starter right. So you know you feel bad. I can't even pronounce Atlanta's pitcher's name. They're Schwellenbach. Schwellenbach, yeah, okay, I got it right. But now six innings scoreless.
Speaker 3:But I think what's hurting it I think it's a trend around the league is, you know, if your starter makes it five innings, everyone's pumped and getting excited, you know. And then you got to go and put trust in the bullpen. But speaking of, you know the exact opposite. What adam's talking about with the bullpen, I believe from tampa. Uh, looking through everything, I don't think the padres bullpen gave up a single run that entire series, which is unbelievable, and they had seven total pitchers. The Padres did in game one and they took that one down. So it's just crazy. Game two, you know, merrill had three RBIs. Tatis is being Tatis, I tell you. He had a great series and I think we unanimously picked Shohei to win the NL MVP. If anyone's going to have something to say about it. I think it's that guy Tatis down in San Diego.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a dark horse.
Speaker 3:They may be a sleeper team. Now we're four or five games in, but I think we said if anybody's going to challenge the Dodgers, that's going to be the team that may be doing it, but I think that the biggest takeaway is dear Lord, is Atlanta? Is their offense that bad? And as I'm saying that they're, they're losing to the Dodgers 4-0 right now in the third inning. So they're getting shut out again. So maybe it's just the opening series, opening season yips for them. Tatis and Merrill were absolutely wonderful for San Diego, and again that San Diego bullpen, in a four-game series, gave up zero runs. That's pretty damn impressive, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very, very good pitching performances. Big surprise that the Braves get swept in opening day series. That was crazy. Jackson Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr Jackson Merrill's just, he's one of those we were talking about. Elie de la Cruz, some other guys on the podcast that just Bobby Witt Jr that are just built different. They're just built different and I think Jackson Merrill falls into that category. This guy came up as a shortstop. He's playing center field at a high level. It didn't look like he quite robbed a home run, but he did make a jumping catch at the fence I think it was game one and then batted over 460 for the series and Tatis, I think, did the same bet at over 400. So you know, it's a good showing for those two guys. But I think when we talk about the Achilles heel for the Braves, I think a big part of that was Nick Covetta and Randy Vasquez. I mean, those two guys just got after it, especially Nick Covetta Seven innings pitch, one hit, no runs, no walks, 4ks, seven innings pitched and only 82 pitches Very Greg Maddux-like.
Speaker 3:And they take him out and don't put him out for the eighth. What's going on with the MLB these days? Sorry, I just think that's absolutely stupid. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1:I think so early in the season, I think you draw a fine line between you know, do we try to give this guy a shutout and get him the full nine innings? You know, or this guy's done his job, let's give it to the bullpen the last couple innings, you know, or this guy's done his job, let's give it to the bullpen the last couple innings and save him, for you know, save his arm for later on. It's a playoff contender, right? So you don't want to. You know, start putting those things before the team this early. We'll talk a little bit more about it when we go on to start talking about, like Alcantara and Jacob deGrom and stuff like that. But I agree with saving a few innings now so you don't have to save it when it's crunch time at the end. You know what I mean. Still 82 pitches, you know what I mean, and that's probably they were probably going more pitch count versus innings um 82 pitches, 57 of those strikes. So, um, you know, that's, that's a big thing. That's what always got glavin and maddox and those kind of guys uh, going into the eighth or ninth inning. Um is because they didn't waste pitches. You know what I mean. They weren't two and oh three and oh, you know what I mean. Um so, uh, I think that's what's going to save these guys' arms.
Speaker 1:But great series from the Padres Braves. You know, schwellenbach did something that's pretty hard to do in and of itself. You know, six-inning pitch one hit against a pretty stacked Padres lineup too. So good job to those guys, but Padres, sweep it too. Good job to those guys, but Padres sweep it. With the Braves Pops, we got the Twins and Cards up next. This was probably a little bit surprising for a lot of people too. What did you see? Pops, yeah absolutely.
Speaker 4:We talked last week about the Cards probably coming in fourth, if not fifth, in the in the central. And you know I was not as bullish on the twins as some, but I know that somebody here on this podcast picked them to win the central. I'm not going to say who that is, but they did um, but uh, but yeah. So three, three solid pitching performances out of the Cardinals, from their starters, led by 35-year-old Sonny Gray, and then Patty is their number two starter and then the third guy in the rotation younger guy, he's 26. So we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 4:But at the end of the day, when it comes to baseball after 162 games, most of the time you are who you are, and so we'll see. If the Cardinals are able to, you know they are able to outplay their paper. You know, from a Twins standpoint, you know Buxton and Correa were one for 23 with one RBI in three games, and if that's what those guys do the rest of the year, which probably won't be the case then they may be the White Sox this year. But pretty dominating performance by the Cardinals overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really liked seeing Arenado get off to a hot start. I think he batted over 400 for the series. Got a home run. Yeah, I like Barron.
Speaker 4:Newt Barron led them in RBIs. He had four from the leadoff spot. He had four RBIs for the series, newt Barron, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So Aaron Otto, you know that's one of the things. He was kind of a hot topic. You know lots of trade rumors and things like that in the off season. You got to kind of think cause cause a lot of people were saying, oh, he's passed his prime and you know he's, he's on the decline, that's why they're trying to get rid of him while he still has a little bit of value.
Speaker 1:So I feel like our auto is the kind of guy who's going to take that kind of heat and put it into his bat. If you know what I mean. He's not going to sit there and bitch and moan about anything. He's going to be the guy that's like I'll show you what I'm capable of. So I think that's. He kind of showed that a little bit in this series. I know it's opening day weekend, but I'm pretty excited to see what Arnauto turns out this year in St Louis. And the Twins just got to do everything better, right, if they want to have a shot at all, they have to beat the weak teams and they have to compete At least go 500 with the better teams. They can't get swept by the cards. You know what I mean. They just they got to be better than that if they want to contend this year. Okay, adam, pirates and Fish this was a lot more exciting series than I thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty nutty. Three walk-offs for Miami, that's just kind of ridiculous. There, pretty nutty Three walk-offs for Miami, that's just kind of ridiculous. There you get the opening day win out of Skeens. That's really about all the excitement you get. For Pittsburgh, you get five and a third out of them, two earned runs, seven K's.
Speaker 3:Otherwise Miami just kind of know where he went to school, right?
Speaker 4:LSU with the gymnast girlfriend. Yeah, she's okay you know, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, sorry. So you know, alcantara, two earned runs, seven Ks, four walks, and doing that in four and two-thirds. You know good showing A couple hat tricks on both sides. Got a couple hat tricks there in game one. Game two actually got a quality start out of a pitcher. So that's one of the rare occurrences, quality start. So six innings, one run, four Ks and a walk. And then, you know, did their darndest to kind of make these games close, Like I said, with these three walk-offs going into one of the games, a walk-off wild pitch there in game four. Kind of a silly way to end it, especially when you talk about how that was going. I think our only extra innings for the MLB this week. Is that right?
Speaker 1:No, I think the Phillies and Nats.
Speaker 4:The Phillies and Nats, I thought the Tigers and the Dodgers Mookie won it in the bottom of the 10th right.
Speaker 2:So one of few. You know, 12 innings, 12 innings, walk off base. Sit there. You know 12 innings, 12 innings walk-off base. Sit there. You know Miami just kind of doing their thing. I think we kind of thought they were going to be at the bottom, you know. But like you said, pops their you know first series. Who knows what this is going to look like? But I didn't expect a 1-3 start for Pittsburgh and three walk-off losses to be how they, how they start their series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the, the big takeaways that I saw. I mean, obviously I think we can all agree that the Marlins are not going to continue at this pace, but the big things that I saw really Alcantara and schemes were the biggest deal going into this series. I thought it was going to be no, like it wouldn't have been outrageous to think that we see a no-hitter on opening day from Skeens or even Alcantara, because the Pirates and the Fish just don't hit enough. They weren't really the story of the games because they didn't have lights out stuff. But I'll tell you a couple of things that I saw that I really liked.
Speaker 1:Shelton left Skeens in to try to finish it out, right. He basically said you're my guy, and this is, you know, reading in between the lines. He went out there and said you're my guy, I'm going to give you a chance to get out of this. And that tells me that Shelton has is looking at Skeens as his workhorse, and he should be. You know, the. The big thing with Skeens and a lot of these really good pitchers that you've seen throughout history is they are big, big boys and Skeens is six, six, 250 pounds and he's only 22 years old, right?
Speaker 1:So he's he's not even done growing yet. Um, those big guys Brad Penny's, josh Beckett's, nolan Ryan's, randy Johnson, those big, big guys those are the ones that, um, can really be your workhorses and do it for many, many years because their body can just take it. When I see guys like Tim Lincecum or Marcus Stroman, you know these guys that are 5'9", 5'10" on the mound and they look like they weigh 140, 150 pounds. And don't get me wrong, lincecum had some amazing years with the Giants right, but look at how long did he last right. They can do it, for they can have four or five really good seasons. Stroman's first few years in the bigs were really good too. He was looked at as one of the top pitchers in baseball.
Speaker 1:But these guys in there with that stature, I think they just can't. They don't have the ability to really do it for a long period of time. It's too much work on the little bodies and you get these big guys like Skeens and we'll talk about a couple of other pitchers that are just beasts out there. But they went out there and said you're my guy, I'm going to give you a chance to get out of it. He didn't and that's okay. They still got the win guy. I'm going to give you a chance to get out of it. He didn't and that's okay. They still got the win, but that to me Shelton's saying you're, you're my guy.
Speaker 1:The other thing with Alcantara is he did not have great command, which I think typically you would see someone who hasn't pitched in as long as he has because of the Tommy John surgery. What I noticed about Alcantara was his stuff and his stuff was nasty. So I think that is a a big plus for Alcantara and I think that's a big plus for the fish, because I think he's going to be dealt and be able to draw quite a bit for him going out there. Okay, don't want to spend too much time on the pirates and Marlins because they're the pirates and Marlins, so we'll, we'll move on, says the guy wearing a pirate's hat, got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's the T-ball team dude which you know might be what the pirates look like on occasion. So, slade, you got the cubbies and the Snakes man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and looking through our notes, I don't know if I'm just that lucky, but I've got to be the only one between the three of us that four of my five series were four-game series. Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you lucked out dude.
Speaker 3:So thanks for the extra research there. Cubby Arizona they split it 2-2. A little surprised by the Cubs' offense Thought it was a lot better than I thought it would be scoring, you know, ten runs in game one and then six runs in the fourth game. But both teams showed that they can hit, which was nice, and that's something that we haven't talked a lot about is a lot of good offense.
Speaker 3:I'm surprised by that. You know Hop had a homer in game one. Presley, you know, was a closer. He came over from Houston this year. See how that works. I was surprised at Gallin's performance for Arizona. It was a loss for them Gave up four runs in four innings and this guy was, you know, two years ago in the World Series against Texas. Fortunately game five that we won but I think, didn't give up a hit until the seventh inning. That guy's a true stud. I think anybody's lucky to have him. Game two is a nice bounce-back starter. I think that Merrill Kelly for the D-back showed, you know, poised to show what they needed had seven innings, one unrun. That was awesome. Tough start for I think it's. Is it Talion or whatever for the Cubbies? Six runs and only four innings. Game three roll around and Justin Tucker gets the first home run in a Cubs uniform. That had to have felt good for him.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was a close call, kyle Tucker.
Speaker 3:Yes, but it was just a great. Justin Tucker is the guy who's been going to massage parlors as the kicker for Baltimore, so we'll talk about him in another podcast, but Kyle Tucker, yes. So the first home run was a good 4-3 game. I think the best part about that probably one of the highlights of the weekend was how that game ended. The tying run was on second base two outs. Swanson gets one in the hole at short, fakes the throw to first and chased down the potential tying run at third base to end that game.
Speaker 3:What a heads-up play. As a former shortstop with tons of experience, you know had that one semester at Odessa Junior College. So that's just a heads-up great play. I could see why the guy from third was going to be aggressive and why the third base coach would be aggressive. But what a heads-up play. And then fourth game just a lot of runs.
Speaker 3:So the D-backs had an 8-1 eighth inning in game four. It was crazy. They trailed 6-2 going into that game. So obviously tough bullpen performance by Chicago. But in summary, I think both teams showed they could hit. Swanson's play was awesome. They both showed they could pitch. I mean they had a couple high-scoring games, a couple low-scoring games. That eight-run eighth for the D-backs I think is going to be competitive. I think it maybe is a little indicative of what is going to happen this year, the Cubs but be able to split, you know, going on the road, 2-2 against what I think is a pretty good Dimeback team. I think you know first series of the year and there's a lot of Cubby fans out there, like Pop said earlier. I think that you know, hey, promising series. Good for them. 2-2 on the road against probably one of the better teams in the NL, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think the big takeaway from here was both teams hit a little bit. For me, though, I want to see the young guns for the Cubbies If they're really going to be successful this season. You've got to see it from PCA, you've got to see it from Bush, you've got to see it from Shaw. I want to see those guys hitting a little bit more. They didn't do a whole hell of a lot this series Opening weekend. Young guys. Matt Shaw is touted as one of the top picks for rookie of the year this year, so I think for the Cubbies to have a chance at doing this thing, their young guns got to get in there and get it done. But yeah, series two to two, tying it up Cubs and the Snakes Pops. What do you got for the Giants and the Reds? Your pick for the NL Central?
Speaker 4:You know, not very much exciting happened here. Two on Giants I don't think either team hit a whole lot. Delacruz had a couple of hits, no stolen bases, a couple RBIs. Yeah, you know, just the Reds. A couple of hits, no stolen bases, a couple of RBIs. Yeah, you know just the Reds as a team hit 221. They hit 1,220 tonight. So they're making up for it. But you know it just. I guess we'll see. You know what the Reds do. Like you said, I picked them to win the division. So three games in we'll see how it goes. But, like I said, just wasn't much going on on either side in this series and we'll see how they go from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my big takeaway is Hunter Green looked really good. One mistake to Elliott Ramos, but other than that his stuff looked nasty. I think he has kind of promoted himself to one of the certainly one of the top pitchers in the NL and I would say definitely ace material for the Cincinnati Reds. Elliott Ramos hit a couple of home runs in the series, so he had a good series. Verlander looked pretty good five innings pitch, six hits, that's right, I forgot, that's where that dude landed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the ageless Justin Verlander, future Hall of Famer, so congrats to him. Another solid start, adam. What do you got for the Orioles and the Blue Jays?
Speaker 2:You know Baltimore decided to come out swinging. They're in game one. I mean a lot of contributors there. You know they had six home runs in that game one. You know a lot going on there O'Neal six straight opening day home runs. That's just insane to think that people that that's going on and it's not even a record Right.
Speaker 1:That's what's crazy about it too.
Speaker 2:You look at game two, jackson Holiday made something happen, got himself a home run. Yep, toronto's ended up with a five-run fourth inning, to kind of put that one to them. Game three the bullpen, I think, did a lot of work there. When you kind of look at that, it was a fairly close game and the bullpen came in and just shut it down. Three hit for four innings. So when you kind of go into that you're like, okay, bullpen's doing some work, we can make things happen. Mad Max did not have the same luck as Verlander did with his new team. Yeah, mad Max.
Speaker 1:Thumb injury huh Huh, Thumb injury, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really yeah, mad Max Thumb injury huh yeah. Two bombs in three innings. I mean just not going to happen, plus the injury. I mean I don't know. It seems like it's just kind of turning into the story for him. You know, he'll get you a few innings, who knows how many times, and then he's hurting his thumb or he's hurting a finger or whatever. Father time is catching up to him really hard and quick, was it?
Speaker 1:nine starts last year, something like that. Yeah, and for a guy who was the top pitcher or, you know, arguably the top pitcher in baseball for so many years and had such a good career, I hope it's a quick recovery. I don't want this guy to end his career with okay, he made, you know, nine starts and then four starts and then eight starts and then that's kind of the last three or four years of his career. You know, hopefully he can get out there and give it one more good, you know, 140, 150 inning go and right off into the sunset. So hopefully he recovers. But yeah, o'neal, six straight opening days with a home run Up next he's got to do it two more times because that's who holds the record with eight Adam Dunn. Who is that, adam Dunn? Y'all remember him cincinnati reds washington nationals.
Speaker 1:He played for a bunch of teams but big home run guy, strikeout guy, walk guy uh, he had eight straight opening days. So did ken griffey jr and frank robinson. So that's who's up next in the windshield for Tyler O'Neal. My big takeaway is from because, if you all remember, when we did our division winner picks, I was saying that the Orioles were a little lefty heavy. A lot of their lineup is either left-handed or switch hitting, so I'm worried about them going up against some of the tough lefties in the American League. Jordan Westberg and Tyler O'Neal had a pretty good series and those are going to be two big right-handed bats for them that are going to have to come through for them to be able to hit the ball, especially against left-handed pitching. So good job to those guys.
Speaker 1:Jordan Westberg had a couple home runs. O'neal, of course, the opening day home run he did good. I think he had another home run in one of the other games. But all in all, series splits two and two. I think the Jays, if they can stay 500 against these really good teams and then beat the bad ones, I still don't think they're making the playoffs. But I think you can look at this as if they can, if they can beat up a little bit on some of these, some of these, you know, playoff contending teams, then that's a little extra incentive for maybe a Boba shed or a or a Vladdy Guerrero jr To maybe stick around and see what they can do and see if they can pull one out with the Jays. All right, slay, you've got the A's and the M's up next.
Speaker 3:I've got the A's and the M's, both of R, yeah, just the athletics. No city or state association with them, they are simply the athletics. But I think for two or three years right, maybe three, before they build on the old Tropicana website there, our website site there in Vegas did pick them to get third and fourth respectively, I believe, in the division. The Angels and the Cellar Know a little bit more about these two teams and probably the other ones we've talked about, just because I watch them 15 times a year, because I'm a psycho and I will try to watch at least 162 Ranger games a year. But the craziest thing is it's a split series, 2-2, maybe the best outcome for my team, my favorite in the Western Rangers but in game three the Athletics won 7-0. Keep in mind there was a shutout and that was the most combined run scored in any of the four games. So it's just pretty nuts, it's super low scoring. I would say that I was impressed by the pitching for Seattle and for the athletics. Excuse me, but I think it was more attributed that both these teams just don't have good offenses, especially Seattle. Example game two the Mariners were one for six, with runners in scoring position, with 13 strikeouts, by the way, and I hope that trend continues. This was a really big trend for the Mariners. Game three, one for 10, with runners in scoring positions and 12 more strikeouts so crazy.
Speaker 3:Our old buddy LeClerc, unfortunately. I love him. He closed out the. He was our closer. He did wonderful in that World Series that we won, but in game one he gave up three earned runs and he only got one out. So he's kind of back to his old ways. Kostrom, he's good. Two RBIs he had up two RBI home run. Polanco had a big game three for three with the homer. Biggest takeaway is, like I said, I just don't think most of these guys have hit In game three. Mason Miller that guy's an absolute stud struck out the side in the ninth. It's just crazy. And then let's just finish it out with a good old 2-1. I would expect nothing more out of these two teams. Bullpens looked amazing, all series for both of them, but again, I just don't know. I don't attribute it to great pitching as much as I do. Just two bad offenses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I I will say we did see some good pitching performances. You know numbers wise, you know the ace pitching, the starting pitching, combined for three earned runs in all four games. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's you know. And Louis Severino was a little erratic, I guess you could call it effectively wild. Jeff Springs also had a really good game nine strikeouts, three hits, no runs. And then, of course, logan Gilbert and Brian Wu, for the Mariners did what they pretty typically do, especially in Seattle. So lots of pitching, not a lot of hitting. I think we kind of knew that going into that series, but all in all, tied up at two and two. So that's good news for Rangers fans. Pops up next you've got the Guardians and the Royals. I was expecting a little bit more out of this series, a little bit more excitement.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a couple of teams that should both everybody expecting both to be pretty, pretty good. The Royals just did not know that team era was 4.8. They batted 218. Bobby went junior at a couple of hits and an RBI. Stephen Kwan continued his trick to be the greatest state off hitter since. Ricky Henderson hit 500, had a home run, scored four times a home run, three RBIs. So you know, I think, all in all, pretty much a toss-up series that the Guardians came out ahead of. You know the Royals got well denied. They got the Brewer so they put 11 up on the board, so probably 14 home runs. Who picked Milwaukee to win the Central? I don't know. The same guy that picked the Tw, I think it was me, I'm just I don't know.
Speaker 1:I got the notes for that one.
Speaker 4:I don't know, I don't remember but uh, yeah, you know, I mean uh again, not uh. You know, I don't think that there was a whole lot happened in the series, other than ste Kwan had a pretty decent series, and then we'll just kind of let the season play out from here with the Royals and Bobby Wood Jr and such.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And Kyle Manzardo had a good series too 5 for 11, 2 homers, 6 RBIs. Remember me telling you guys that the Royals had two starters finish in the top five Cy Young last year, cole Reagans and Seth Lugo. Both and both pretty mediocre starts All things considered. And Michael Walker, who I'm a big fan of. He was a former Cardinal, great, wasn't he? Was he Cardinals?
Speaker 4:He was on the on their 13 world series team yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So a big fan of that guy, um, but really all in all, pretty, pretty mediocre performances from, though from those guys um, compared to what they were doing last season. So, um, guards, take that series two to one um with a division rival um, adam, you got the phillies and the Nats.
Speaker 2:Bryce Harper against Bryce Harper. According to me, yep Bryce Harper versus Bryce Harper. I don't know.
Speaker 3:It was always a toss-up there.
Speaker 2:So looking at that one, I mean some good pitching performances. So Mackenzie Gore, you know six innings pitched, one hit baseball. I mean that's just kind of crazy 13 K's We've talked about this Throughout with just kind of when the starters are going Getting a quality start, getting a quality start with 13 K's. Not too many guys are doing that Right now, or the coaches or the managers aren't letting it happen Whatever. But to see an outing like that kind of tells you what to hopefully what you can expect from this guy.
Speaker 1:And that's not an easy lineup, by the way. Yeah, to strike out 13.
Speaker 4:The Phillies lineup is pretty solid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, mitchell Parker, you you know kind of similar quality start.
Speaker 2:Obviously you know, as far as the success, just not as many, just not hitting the k's, um, but you know six and a third, no run baseball hitting five k's.
Speaker 2:I mean, once again, you know, going through you're, you're getting good games out of that and that's what's going to be what matters for you. And you know we talk about saving innings early going a quality start for me, six innings. You're talking about saving an inning or saving three outs or whatever. You know, looking at that right now you're doing, you're going to do the same thing for your bullpens, right? You know, if your bullpens are, if you're going and using four or five, six guys in your bullpen on the first day, you know you're, you're, you may be saving that, that arm, but you're not saving your bullpens arm as they're trying to go through and work that through just the same. So both these guys were able to kind of shore up their bullpen and you know, maybe one guy pitches to one guy pitches one, but you're not forcing four or five guys to come in and finish it out for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they the bullpen did blow it for Mackenzie Gore did not end up getting the win, so that one sucked. As soon as they took Gore out, bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber returned to normal. So this kind of it kind of begged. The question for me can the Phillies hit left-handed pitching? The question for me can the Phillies hit left-handed pitching? Now, mackenzie Gore was touted as the new Clayton Kershaw, right, so I understand he's very highly touted prospect.
Speaker 1:But can they just not hit lefties? These guys are obviously in their division. You've got Chris Sale with the Atlanta Braves, who's obviously can strike. It doesn't matter if you're left-handed or right-handed, you just can't hit the guy. Then you've got Sean Minaya, who will eventually come back for the Mets.
Speaker 1:You've got some pretty serious left-handed names coming into a Phillies lineup. That's you know. You've got Marsh, you've got Stott, you've got Harper, you've got Schwarber. You've got a lot of lefties in there, and if they are not able to at least put a few runs on the board against somebody, even somebody like McKenzie Gore, then they may struggle this year, and a lot of those guys are on the wrong side of 30 now. So that's one thing that we need to keep an eye on, but all in all, phil's still take the series two to one, they take two out of three, so they're in pretty good shape. Slay, I know you have been itching to talk about this one, as we all have, because our boys, our boys, our Texas Rangers taking three out of four from potential playoff opponent Boston Red Sox. Man, that was a good series. Tell me what you saw, slade.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I will keep it brief. My goal is to spend as much time on this one as I did on the other one, so I don't want to be too long-winded on it, but I probably have some more insight in the other. But you know, I thought that there was a great series and very surprisingly unlike tonight we got smoked 14 to three, no-transcript pretty damn awesome Of all the big game. Nate came out there, struck out the side twice, including in the sixth inning, before Oaks took him out. And Josh, you made a good point and I just I think a little bit too much old school and it's a long season. It was four, 100s, Grom and all them come out for longer than five innings. Evaldi thinks he's the only one, yeah he went six.
Speaker 3:You'll see me, sorry, I think my. We can see you, okay, sorry.
Speaker 4:You're buffering a bit, but you're all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, evaldi went six, yeah, and then Leiter went five, DeGrom went five and Molly, I don't think made it. Outvaldi went six, yeah, and then Leiter went five, degrom went five and Molly I don't think made it out of the second half, he went 1.2.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which is about the same as the rocker went tonight. That's exactly correct. So it was a real good series. And I didn't realize it, because I think I don't know if all four of us picked Baltimore, but I know that at least two or three of us did, but Vegas actually had the favorite, and the East being Boston, yep. So, like Josh said, if we're taking three out of four from the potential NL East winners, that's a yeah, boston was my pick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Okay, okay, boston was my pick.
Speaker 3:Yeah and okay. And Adam, thank you very much for giving me the props and the group text when so? Yeah, but then I'll eat crow and I'll be happy to eat crow all season yeah, we're losing you a little bit slow dude season.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we're losing you a little bit slow, dude. Oh, you got me. Yeah, yeah, we're getting to that. Right now.
Speaker 1:There we go. Oh my God, Look at that face, dude, Okay so Beautiful, I'm the one most excited.
Speaker 3:Dang it. Sorry I'm not getting the best reception out here on the porch.
Speaker 1:No, you're good. Well, I'll talk a little bit about the Rangers, if you want me to, while you kind of get it fixed up there. But big takeaways for me of all these six innings pitched, three hits, two runs, no walks, nine Ks. It sucks he didn't get the win and that we didn't win the ball game. More importantly, game two Jack freaking Leiter. I think that's exactly what we need to see out of our young guys. Obviously the exact opposite of what we saw out of Kamar Rocker tonight. But five innings pitched, five hits run, one run, one walk, four strikeouts and then Jonah Heim coming up with two big hummers in that game. Jack Leiter, I mean that was an impressive start against what will probably be one of the top offenses in baseball.
Speaker 3:A couple of things I think I'm back now, oh yeah there you go, I'm going to hit my points, if y'all can hear me now. Everybody good now. Sorry about that. No, you're good. No, but exactly I mean I think Jack Leiter. I didn't realize it because he would have maybe made six, seven, eight starts last year. That was his first big league win on Friday. Yeah, congrats to Jack.
Speaker 1:Leiter.
Speaker 3:Good on Boach to put him in at home. Good on Boach to put him in at home. Good on Boach to make him the number two starter in this very early rotation. So super excited about that, really impressed by our bullpen, but again I think I was cutting out. But what I'm most impressed about is my Cy Young pick for the.
Speaker 3:Al DeGrom came up on Sunday and gave us five great innings, one unearned run, multiple strikeouts and he ate up what we needed him to do. Now we still had to get, obviously, four innings out of the bullpen, but he did what we needed to do, exactly what Rocker didn't do today. But I think Boach kind of kept him in there as a sacrificial lamb today, which he needs. But I think it makes it pretty easy between him and Molly right now, who's going to get replaced when now we're one time through the rotation. So this is overreaction Monday for me, but who? Who John Gray and Cody Bradford are going to be replacing when they come back into into the rotation? But hopefully, like we talked about, I hope Rocker has a bounce back, molly has a bounce back, we have a decision to make and maybe we put Gray in the bullpen.
Speaker 3:But a couple of my big takeaways. You know us taking three or four not a lot of offense, pitching Seager and Simeon not a good series. So I will say much. I pat myself on the back for my Cy Young pick. Seager is my AL MVP pick, which Adam told me Vegas didn't have it to be too bad at the time, but that guy's going to figure it out. That guy's nuts. He's amazing. He's a ball player. Yeah, josh Young lands on the aisle again with a neck injury. That guy cannot catch a break, but he's a good young talent. He's going to be a cornerstone. Hopefully he comes back. Luckily Josh Smith was playing tonight. I think that guy's awesome. He's the only silver slugger on the Rangers from last year. Keep his butt in the lineup as much as we can. He's a pretty dang good defensive utility guy, so at least he's back. Oh, let's also not forget that there was some history made as well on the Boston side. Devers was the first ever player to strike out 10 times in the first three games of the season.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's unbelievable. He looked just completely uncomfortable in the box the entire series. Even the couple of balls he did hit were either weak rollover grounders to to burger over there at first base or he got jammed on a little, uh, ground ball. I think it was over to seager, um, but like those are the only times he put the bat on the ball. Now, is that going to continue? For rafael devers probably not.
Speaker 1:I'm glad it happened when he was in tex, but that was just, you know, an abysmal performance really. But just watching him, I don't know how much y'all really were paying attention during his at-bats, but it just seemed like, you know, he's kind of he's way wide open, which I think he's always had that open stance. But he's got the big leg kick too, you know, and that's kind of a timing mechanism and when he, if you kind of go back and look at some of the bats, he's just he's not real sure when to pick up his leg and start that high leg kick. And then I mean he was behind on 90 mile an hour sliders, you know what I mean he's not just missing fastballs, um, he, there was a slider. I think it was from degrom, might have even been molly um, but there was a slider, uh, that was up in the zone that you know. A normal rafael devers would have hit 430 feet um, and he didn't swing until it hit the catcher's glove. So he he was off all season.
Speaker 1:I don't expect that to start. I don't think it's. Oh, it's because he's DHing now. You know what I mean. I don't think that has anything to do with it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think he just didn't get as many at-bats as probably he wanted or needed in spring training, and you know spring training is going a little long for him right now. But that guy will figure it out. No matter how bad he is at playing third base, the guy can swing it. So he'll figure it out. A couple of takeaways for me. Josh Young was a big one. I mean, do we, I guess? Does it scare us if he has the same, what did he? He played 47 games or something last year. If he has the same season as last year where he plays, you know, 30, 40 games, are we worried about that? I mean, obviously he's a big boost to his lineup. Like you said, josh smith was a silver slugger. He was a silver slugger at a utility, super utility, right. So it's not like an everyday position player, but he did play 150 games for us last year.
Speaker 1:He did too with all the injuries, yeah, at multiple positions, and I like Josh Smith in that role. I don't like him as an everyday third baseman Doesn't mean he won't perform, but I think we need Josh Smith to be playing shortstop and second and third and wherever the hell we need him, kind of a thing. For me, seager did not start on Sunday and he did not play shortstop on opening day. He was the DH, so that was a little concerning, and Seager's not that old. I know he had the little issue with his calf, right, but you know, if these guys are going to be banged up right out of opening day, you know it's a little bit scary. You know where. You've already got Seager a little banged up and young. We don't want to see a repeat of last year.
Speaker 1:Another thing is El Bambi. As he goes, the Rangers go. I think we can pretty much all agree on that at this point. If that guy is hitting like we know he can, like he did in the playoffs all year in 2023, like he did the entire playoffs if he's hitting like that, then we're going to win a lot of ballgames. Whether Seager's got a calf thing, young's got a neck thing, josh Smith has a thigh bruise. You know what I mean. When that guy is hitting, he amps up our lineup big time. I'm with you on that.
Speaker 3:I had those in my notes when I was cutting out. But, yeah, you know Haim and El Bonby having some good series and we talked about that last week that was two guys that really had down years compared to our 2023 championship year and if those guys bounce back. Oh, and I was really impressed by however you pronounce her backup catcher's name. I thought he did great. It's nice to know when we put him in there, that number one, he's going to be okay. On defense, we had some problems with Boston on Sunday stealing pretty much any base they wanted against him, but from an offensive standpoint, he's good.
Speaker 3:It's nice to be able to plug him in. Give Haim the rest he needs, I think, to allow him to have that bounce back season. But Devers 10Ks first three games, 12ks for the series. And how many times was it heard on the radio today that you were actually excited when Devers was coming up? Because you're like, all right, we were actually going to get an out right here and it tells you how bad of a series he has. Do you know when Bochy took Molly out of the game?
Speaker 4:After he struck out Devers.
Speaker 3:After he walked Devers with the bases loaded, so he got the only arm break out.
Speaker 1:He was like you're out of here, dude.
Speaker 3:But I think, having the bounce back from the offense, I think, hopefully, if the pitching can perform unlike it did today, because our offense hasn't hit their groove and we all know that that offense is going to play. So if the offense can hit their groove and the pitching can be decent, I think we're going to be okay. But, all in all, encouraging, very encouraging first season for our Texas Rangers against a very, very good Boston team.
Speaker 1:Yeah all right, good deal. Yeah, we'll see what happens if our closer is going to be Martin or Jackson, or if we like either one of those, or if John Gray makes it back in eight to ten weeks or whatever. But the Rangers take their first series three to one Pops last but certainly not least, you got the Dodgers and Tigers.
Speaker 4:So a series that was contested between two pretty good ball clubs and one ball club made the other one look like they weren't very good. Detroit team ERA of 6.75. Uh, they, they hit 238 to 238 for the series. Uh, the interesting thing about the dodgers they only hit 224, uh, but their ops was 818. They had uh, and and this is so. This is season to date, so that that included the two games with Chicago and Japan, but their season OPS is 8-18, with 12 home runs as a team, as a team, as a team. So you know they're doing all the analytics stuff right? Yeah, mookie Betts, he did not play in Japan, he played in this series. He had 500. He was four for eight in the two games that he played, with two home runs and four RBIs, including a three-run bottom of the 10th walk-off, walk-off job Game two. And then the Dodgers setting out the Braves tonight. Maybe they will go 162.
Speaker 1:They're still on pace, by the way.
Speaker 4:On pace, I don't know. But just a little side note the White Sox shut out the Minnesota Twins tonight behind one, martin Perez.
Speaker 1:Yeah, former Ranger great, former, Ranger great.
Speaker 3:He's still going, still going. He's only like 33. He's still going.
Speaker 4:Still going. He's only like 33.
Speaker 3:He's 33 years old, he feels like he's been elite for 20 years. Well, they get him pretty young down in Central America.
Speaker 1:He could be 45 according to his birth date.
Speaker 4:And then there's that right, you never know the validity of his age. But yeah, I mean, you know, doctors just continue to be dominant and we'll see if somebody can even just hand one. Give them one loss, it's gotta be, I'll come on the back end of the rotation right At some point somebody or whatever yeah, we'll walk a bunch of guys and yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so we'll talk. I mean not a whole lot to talk about there. The Dodgers were the Dodgers. Did y'all see the oppo home run from Otani? I believe it was game one going oppo at Dodger Stadium, dude, that is. That is nuts hitting the ball that hard. The opposite way, at Dodger Stadium, this guy's just, he is something else. But a couple of things that I took away from the series.
Speaker 1:Dave Roberts was asked you know backup plans? You know if whoever Snell doesn't work out or Sasaki doesn't work out or whatever, because Sasaki looked even worse in his start against Detroit than he did in Japan. An inning and two thirds, three hits, four walks, two runs, two strikeouts, 61 pitches in an inning and two thirds, only 32 of those for strikes. So yeah, out 61 pitches in an inning, in two thirds, only 32 of those for strikes. Um, so yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:So how long of a leash do y'all think this guy has? Um, he's young, what is he? 23 years old. Um, he's he. It's obviously his first year in um major league baseball. Um, I honestly think he's got a super long leash. I think they're gonna let him just go and go and go until he figures it out, because I think they've got. Uh, you know, yeah, so we lose one out of every five games. No biggie, right, you know? I mean what? What do they really have to be concerned about? What do you? What do you guys think? How long are they gonna let this guy go before they say, okay, let's go down to AAA and get you some real reps and let you figure some stuff out? Or do you think they just leave him up here all year?
Speaker 4:He's going to stay on the Major League roster. There's no way they're going to send him down to any minor league. How much he may or may not pitch is one thing, but the Padres won again tonight, so it's good that the Dodgers have been. The Padres are right there, just as undefeated. So you would think at 6-0 or whatever, that you have some runway, but at this point you really don't.
Speaker 4:But they spent too much money with this guy, the Japanese culture and whatever. He's not going to the minor leagues there's just no way that they're. So you know they'll nurse him along and protect him and you know they may turn him into, put him in mental relief or something. Let him get a couple of cleanup innings along the way if Kershaw comes back, or whatever.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's the point I was going to make. Dave Roberts was asked his backup plan. His backup is Otani and Kershaw, Two freaking Hall of Famers. Can we just get one? Can we get one in Texas? I mean, isn't Kershaw from here?
Speaker 4:Isn't he from Highland?
Speaker 1:Park. Yeah, come on, just give us one. Anyways, dodgers, I heard Eduardo Perez on baseball tonight talking about. You know, his dad played for the Big Red Machine, cincinnati Reds Tony Perez, first baseman for them back in the day, johnny Bench and Joe Morgan and Ken Griffey Sr Some guy in the roles, yeah, which is one of the teams that? If you are talking about, one of the best teams ever, that's one of the teams the big red machine. Did I say green machine? Am I going back to UNT days? Big red machine Eduardo Perez was talking about.
Speaker 1:You know, obviously we've got a long season to go, but you know he was talking about the Dodgers, this being possibly the best team that's ever been put together. I don't think it's a stretch to think that they could beat the single season win record. I believe it's 116, right, yeah, so that's a lot of wins, but I just I mean hell, if the White Sox can lose 121, why can't the Dodgers win that many? You know what I mean. I don't think it's a stretch. So I'm, you know, I'm not a huge Dodgers fan, I'm a Rangers guy, but I'm excited to see what this team can do just from stats, and you know how good are they really going to be so, but that's pretty much all I got for Dodgers and Tigers it was. I don't even know if the Tigers showed up. Were they there or was it just batting practice?
Speaker 3:They took them to an extra inning game at least. Right, there we go. Yeah, yeah, tarek.
Speaker 1:Schugel held them to four runs Last year's Cy Young. I mean, that's pretty much, I think, as good as anybody's going to do against these Dodgers man. So yeah, moving on the big thing for later on in the week, which series are you guys really looking forward to watching? Obviously, our boys against Cincinnati didn't start off great tonight, but maybe a playoff contender in the Cincinnati Reds. I'd like to see how Texas lines up with them. Who else are you all watching? Pops? Who do you like?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm kind of interested in seeing what the the Padres are going to keep, keep going. And you know you got to get a little bit in the Dodgers. And you know, obviously, playing, playing the Braves, you know, are the Dodgers going to continue to dominate? And you know the Braves, you know, I think you know, the Braves could be starting off the season 0-7 playing against two teams that are just as good as they are. They could be trying to dig out from a pretty big hole and then.
Speaker 4:I think, figuring out the again, the rangers and the reds, you know they'll, they um took knocked out rocker pretty quick. So we'll, you know, we start to put the rotation again tomorrow, right, and get back with eo and then uh and then lighter and kind of. Hopefully we can get back on track. But that's a pretty good hitter's ballpark there in Cincinnati so it'll be interesting to see. And you know, like I sent you guys in the chat, de La Cruz got himself a torpedo bat. He's ready to start. You know he had a couple of home runs, I believe in seven RBIs tonight. So I don't know, like we were talking earlier, that probably had more to do with Rocker than it did with the bat.
Speaker 3:But you know it gives the guy confidence anyway, right, I mean yeah.
Speaker 4:So, yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking at, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you said Garrett Crochet signed six years, $170 million. Yes, sir, wow, good for him, right? I guess he impressed him against the Rangers the other day.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir, that's a great. No decision by him, all right.
Speaker 1:Hopefully it works out. Adam, who are you watching this week?
Speaker 2:I mean similar to Pops. I mean I'm looking at Dodgers, I'm looking at the Braves, looking at the Padres and really kind of seeing how that plays out. You know, the Braves off to the struggles that they're off to, and the Dodgers and the Padres just doing the crazy stuff they are. There are a lot of exciting stuff going on when you talk about the top two teams in the National League. And you know, just like we talked about the Dodgers winning 121. I mean, at this point the Padres are on pace to do the same thing, you know. So we can see a lot of fun stuff happening in the National League, especially if they can own the Braves. We were looking at that being the big competition and it seems like that competition is not there. So it's exciting to watch those two teams and see what they can do, and I'll be ready when those two actually face off against each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Slade dude, who are you watching?
Speaker 3:On paper, absolutely, it would have been Atlanta and LA. But now I think I'm watching it for a different reason, like you all alluded to, to see if LA can keep it going and if Atlanta keeps going in the wrong way. Excited about Texas, essentially big homer. Hopefully we can do the same thing we did against Boston lose that first one, maybe still take the series. Excited to see Tampa Bay come in and play the Rangers this weekend as well. Cleveland and San Diego, two potential. You know we didn't pick San Diego to win but, like Wendell and Adam said, there's no runway for LA after this start from San Diego. Cleveland, potential division winner in the Central and the AL. So I think that's probably, to be honest with you, the one I'm most excited about, I think it will be the best one will be Cleveland and San Diego, but I will be watching every Ranger game. You all know that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, same here. I'm kind of excited to watch Arizona and the Yanks. I think those are. Arizona, unfortunately, is in the NL West with the Dodgers. Oh, and San Diego, by the way, yeah right, but I think I still like Arizona over San Diego, even though San Diego started off hot. I still like Arizona. Corbin Burns, zach Gallin, merrill Kelly that's a pretty solid one. Two, three. Corbin Burns got the start today.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen any or checked on any of the highlights or box score or anything but Arizona and the Yanks. I mean you're looking at. If the Dodgers aren't there, you know you've got a potential World Series opponent there. I think you've got two really good teams opponents there. I think you got two really good teams and I think that's. It's always nice watching the American League and the National League go at it, especially when you got two really good teams like that. So I think that's a series to watch this week. All right, so that's pretty much all we got. I appreciate everybody listening. Please follow the show. We greatly appreciate it. Feel free to send us a message, leave us some comments, let us know what you like, let us know what you don't like. We are certainly open to any feedback that you guys have. But thank you very much for listening for W wendell, pops, patterson, adam patterson and the slay dude. I'm josh patterson. Thank you guys very much and we'll see y'all next week.
