At The Plate with Danny Foxworth

Midseason Curveballs featuring Bryce, Shohei and the Guardians

• Danny Foxworth

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Can the rising stars of the Orioles maintain their lead in the AL East? Is Shohei Ohtani truly living up to the unanimous MVP hype? Welcome back to At the Plate with Danny Foxworth! After a brief break, we're diving into the nitty-gritty of our preseason predictions and how they’re faring midway through the season. From the Orioles' young guns lighting up the AL East to the unexpected dominance of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central, this episode is packed with surprises, heartbreaks, and some spot-on forecasts.

Meanwhile, the NL races are proving just as thrilling. We unpack the Phillies’ surge to the top, spurred by Bryce Harper’s MVP-caliber performance and Zach Wheeler’s Cy Young-worthy outings, while injuries plague the Braves. The Brewers stand tall in the NL Central, defying our Cubs prediction, and the ever-dominant Dodgers continue to crush the NL West. Tune in as I, your humble narrator Danny Foxworth, break down the season's twists and turns, celebrating our prediction hits and owning up to the misses. Whether you’re a stats aficionado or just love the game, this midseason progress report is a must-listen!

Intro/Outro music-"Sound of Speed" by @infrared_krypto

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Speaker 1:

What is good? Good people, you are now listening to another episode of At the Plate with Danny Foxworth. I am your humble narrator, danny Foxworth and bro, it has been a while, but your boy is back. Man, it feels good to be back in here doing my thing. So with this episode we're basically going to be covering midseason. It's going to be like a midseason progress report, if you will. So if you listen to the season preview episode, we made our early beginning of the year predictions and I'm basically going to go back and revisit those predictions and see how accurate or how far off I was.

Speaker 1:

So, starting with the picks for the winners of each division In the AL East, I had the Orioles winning the AL East and right now they are. They are doing it. Them young bucks in Birdland are getting the job done. They're 60, they're 60 and 39. They're two games ahead of the Yankees for first place in the division. You know Adley Rutschman, gunnar Henderson, I mean the future is bright in in in Birdland, but Yankees are not too far behind. They're only two games out and no, they can make some noise. I mean, there's a lot of baseballs still left to be played, so we'll see how that pans out. Then in the AL Central, I had the Twins win in that division and right now they are currently, I believe they're five games out. And the bell of the ball? I believe they're five games out. And the bell of the ball, surprisingly, is the Cleveland Guardians. But to everybody's surprise, except for a friend of the podcast, my dog Retro Rob, who's a diehard Guardians fan he actually picked them to win the AL Central this year and right now he's looking like Nostradamus. That one-two punch of Stephen Kwan and Jose Ramirez, I mean that's hard to beat and when you have Emmanuel Classe as your closer, good luck everybody. Then in the AL West, I was torn between the Astros and the Mariners emerging as the victors of that division and for a while it looked like the Astros were getting the ass handed to them and as a diehard Rangers fan I enjoyed that. But that didn't last long. They got hot in June and as it currently stands, they are in first place. They're tied for first place with the Mariners, which me no likey. The Rangers are currently in third place. They are five games out, but still a lot of baseball to be played. So we'll see how that pans out.

Speaker 1:

And then in the National League. In the NL East I had the Braves winning that division, but they'd just been just ravaged by injuries. I mean you got Spencer Strider tearing his elbow, ronald Acuna tearing his ACL, then you got Max Freed on the injured list, ozzy Albies he messed up his wrist a couple nights ago. Man, they just the injuries. Man, they're just hurting them. But what's also hurting them is the fact that the Phillies are currently the best team in baseball. Right now they are moving like a well-oiled machine. I mean you have an MVP candidate in Bryce Harper and a Cy Young candidate in Zach Wheeler and it's such a strong supporting cast around them. I mean sky's the limit for the Phillies. Right now I can't even hold you. Then in the NL Central, I predicted the Cubs would win that division and right now they're looking up at the Brew Crew who've been holding it down for the majority of pretty much the entire season atop the NL Central. So we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 1:

And then the NL West. I mean it goes without saying Everybody on the season preview episode predicted will pick the Dodgers to win the NL West and that's exactly what they're doing. I mean it's an embarrassment of riches down there in Chavez Ravine, I mean Otani Betts, and you got Tyler Glass now and Clayton Kershaw is making his season debut on Thursday. I mean, that's a train that's rolling right there. And then we picked player awards at the beginning of the season for the NL MVP, which again we all picked Shohei Ohtani as the consensus NL MVP and he's done nothing to make us feel differently about our pick. The man is, it's like he's basically a unicorn playing baseball. I love just his back cracks. You can't tell if it's a back crack or a gunshot whenever he goes yard. He hit one 473 feet on Sunday night. The man just wonders. Never cease with that guy.

Speaker 1:

And for the American League Rookie of the Year, on the season preview episode I picked Julio Rodriguez from the Mariners to win the AL. But he's been struggling a little bit this year and he's slowly getting his footing. But ultimately that AL MVP title is Aaron Judge's to lose. Former Charleston Riverdaw. Aaron Judge, I mean, he's just, he's just tearing the cover off the ball 306 batting average, 35 home runs, 89 RBIs. I mean, what else can? What more can you say about that guy?

Speaker 1:

Then NL Cy Young. I picked Spencer Strider to win the NL Cy Young and again tore his elbow ligament in the second career starts, in the second start this year, so that's a wash. So his teammate, chris Sale, is right now, in my opinion, the front runner for NL Cy Young. He's really been holding it down in Spencer Strider's absence. So kudos to Chris Sale. Then in AL Cy Young, I picked Corbin Burns, and Corbin Burns has been having a hell of a year for the Orioles. But that ace in Detroit, tarek Skubal, that ace in Detroit, tarek Skubal, I mean every time he approaches the mound it's just, it's just lights out, party's over, he's going to get the job done and he is. Skubal is my pick right now for the AL Cy Young Award winner and National League Rookie of the Year award winner and national league rookie of the year.

Speaker 1:

I initially picked Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers pitcher, to be the rookie of the year for the national league. But look, let's face it again, it's Paul Skeens, it's Paul Skeens. And then there's everybody else. That man, since he got called up, he's just been nothing short of dominant. That man is an ace, ace and the future is right for him. It's that one, two punch of him and jared jones, that's. That's something I'm looking forward to, moving forward with the pirates and, uh, the american. Well, yeah, already did the american league. Well, no, the american league rookie of the year I picked wyatt langford. You know, homerism aside, that the man was he, the small sample size he gave us and I was showed a lot of problems and he's been. He's been raking as of late. But I got to give American League Rookie of the Year to Yankees pitcher Luis Hill. He's really stepped in and filled the gap while Garrett Cole was on the mend. But you know what, if you chose Mason Moore, the A's closer, I wouldn't be mad at that pick. I mean, either one of those, those could be worthy candidates to be American League Rookie of the Year.

Speaker 1:

So some of the predictions were spot on, some of them weren't, and one of the predictions that I made. Well, one of the things that really blew up in my face in the season preview episode was picking the team other than the team that you root for as the team till you're going to watch closely during the season. And that team that I chose was the Miami Marlins, because I said they had Tim Anderson, jazz Chisholm and Louisa Rise and that has been an abject failure. That team is absolute dog shit. They're almost 30 games below .500. Luis Uriah's got traded to the Padres. Jazz Chisholm is holding it

Speaker 1:

down. But Tim Anderson I can't explain that fall from grace. This is just mind-blowing. It's like ever since he got his shit rocked by Jose Ramirez last season, it's just been downhill ever since. I mean the off the field stuff. The previous season kind of started that, but that accelerated the decline. I mean this is a man who in 2019 actually won the AL batting title, then hit over 300 in 2021 and 22. And then this year he's hitting below 200 and ends up designated for the, designated for assignment and out the league. Currently it's I have. It's just I'm speechless as to how steep his decline has been. So also of hall of fame, induction ceremony was on Sunday and congrats to my guy, adrian Beltre, for being a first ballot hall of famer along with a fellow inductees, jim Leland and Joe Mauer and Todd Helton. That's a that's a strong bunch right

Speaker 1:

there. And lastly, I'm knocking some baseball stuff off my bucket list. So on August 18th I'm actually going to make a trip out to Cincinnati to catch the Reds-Royals game and to see my dog, ellie De La Cruz, play in person. I'm seriously looking forward to that, and then in September, september 7th, I will be in Pittsburgh finally getting to watch a Pirates game at PNC Park. That has been at the top of my sports bucket list for the longest time and I'm scratching that off my list and I am so excited that I'm going to be able to see this park in person and that's a good time to put this, put the bus in

Speaker 1:

park. So again, thank you all for listening. Make sure you're like. Make sure you're like download and subscribe to at the plate with Danny Foxworth. Tell a friend about the podcast. Tell their friend to tell a friend. Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can find me at Danny Foxworth. Eight, four, three. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. You can find me at DannyFoxworth843. There you can find all the video versions of all of the episodes from this podcast, as well as my other podcast, sensory Last Foot, with Danny Foxworth, as well as my upcoming new podcast called Growing Up Low Country with Liz and Danny, which is going to take off in August. So y'all be on the lookout for that. And this has been another episode of At the Plate with Danny Foxworth. I'm telling you it's been so much fun doing this podcast thing and I'm so excited to be back in the booth. You know spilling my brains with y'all. So until next time, y'all be good, three strikes. Next time y'all be good, three strikes.