Episode 44 - Mid-season Predictions and All-Star or All Wrong?

Mo and Will break down the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game and Mo sees some glaring issues. Then Mo makes his predictions for the big end-of-season awards with what we have seen so far. Also, Will makes a move to South Florida. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

MVP, the Mo Vaughn podcast, presented by Vaughn Sports Academy and Perfect Game. Will Burge here in person again with the man himself, Mo Vaughn. How are we feeling?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Well, you're here, bro. I am here. You're here. You're in the you know South Beach area now. Yep. Which means we'll be doing a lot of stuff to together. Um, a lot of platforms we'll be working on. So I'm really, really excited. I think it's really gonna up our entire game. You sit next to me and in uh and what we do. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yeah, I'm very excited too. Um, I'm technically here. If you saw the apartment, it looked like I'm a squatter, right? It looks like it's just an empty apartment. I here's the funny thing is I was I, you know, I had to go pick up furniture, have stuff ordered. So uh I was talking to this girl, and she's like, you need to just get a chair to sit in for now to work. She's like, but what you should do, so you it's something you're gonna use, is go buy a beach chair. So I'm like laid out like I'm tanning in the middle of this empty ass apartment.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yeah, I know. Well, well, listen, now you know, when everything comes in, you go down and sit by the pool. Yeah, see, you know, take it in. I always uh I always envy those guys that just have their whole job on a on a on a on a laptop and can can make it happen. So you're one of those guys. So my whole job. Oh, yeah. You could adapt. You could adapt real well.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I can adapt that part. I'll tell you, in fact, I got a little story about uh a part of my job that was not a laptop. This past weekend for Perfect Game, I went out and shot a draft day documentary with Will Brick. Crazy cool story. Uh kid was supposed to go in the first round, fell to the end of the fourth, still got the money he wanted. It's really, really good. Can't wait for it to come out. But while we're there at his workout, one of the dads, so you came up, and I was like, Oh, yeah, I know Mo. And he's like, I knew I recognized your voice. He's like, The podcast. He pulled out his phone, he was subscribed to the pod, and uh, and his buddy was subscribed to the pod. So shout out to those guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Yo, thanks you. Thank you for subscribing. Let's get more.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Let's keep getting more. Yep. Make sure you're subscribing, tell a friend about it. Go subscribe to the YouTube too. We're gonna be doing some more stuff on there and uh some more stuff out of the academy. Maybe even get out on Mo's fishing boat. You don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Listen, I'm on my way to the Bahamas uh this weekend. I'm going over to the Abacos, gonna get me four days. I'll be up in Marsh Harbor, gonna do some fishing. So I'm excited to get my um my sport fish out there.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, you know what? There's probably some guys around Major League Baseball getting some fishing in this week, too, right? A little bit of a break, get a little breather. The guys in the all-star game and the home run derby aren't, but we'll get to some of that stuff. But like all-star break when you're not in the all-star game, how welcome is it this time of year for guys?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

I think it depends how you're playing. Like, I remember some all say, like, yeah, I will maintain that in my time in the big leagues, you never knew if you're gonna make an all-star game. There were just so many great players. You know, Palmero, Frank Thomas, Jim Tomey, Cecil Fielder, Maguire, Clark, Will Clark, um, Tino Martinez, uh, just so many guys that were that were great players. And, you know, we were all slugging trying to put up our numbers. But for me, I remember a lot of the all-star breaks. That's when I was like really getting going. And all of a sudden, now you got to shut it down. Kind of shut that mindset down. The teams that are hot playing well, they want to keep playing. The guys that are hitting well, they want to keep hitting. And the guys that are not playing well want to reset. So I maintain that three days off is a long time in the big leagues. You could be hot as hell as a firecracker. All of a sudden you take those three to three days off, come back, and that that bat doesn't feel right, and you're trying to get back to that. So really knowing where you are, what you're doing, how to get prepared. Um, it's a big time for teams. I think, you know, I was listening on the MLB network, and they were saying that teams gotta, you know, these first 10 games are gonna decide whether we're gonna, you know, trade it or go for it. So that's very, very important. So the all-star break coming up, you know, that's it's very, very close. Yeah. In the in, you know, you know, on, you know, on the on, you know, the six games, you know, six games, you know, in some of these divisions in the American League with law, teams with a lot of losses are close. The wild card is is sticky.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So I think it was seven, as of yesterday, seven teams within three and a half games of the wild card.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

There you go. So there's gonna be a lot of jockeying going on once this thing starts over.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Yeah, Red Sox, Tigers, teams with some decisions to make. Uh, we know some teams that have already made their decisions, the San Francisco Giants. That's been a disaster this year. Um, but it is interesting to see guys get get the time off. But there has been some stuff going on. We had home run derby, had the all-star game last night. We're recording this on Wednesday afternoon. Um, home run derby. I just want to, there's an overarching thing here. Like, whatever. The home run derby is fun, cool. Jordan Walker wins it. That's a cool story. He comes back to win it. I heard yesterday, and this blew my mind, because I was sitting in the Vaughn Sports Academy facility, and the guys are BSing, they're talking about Walker. And then you know his rookie year, he was hitting 300 and they sent him back down because he wasn't hitting enough home runs.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Listen, we could I could talk ad nauseum about that. Um, I don't understand that process. We were talking in the car coming over here. The batting average dictates everything else. If you have a good batting average and then you got a little bit of size and size and skill and power, all of a sudden that high average turns into damage and production. Ken Griffey will, you know, I've heard him say it a thousand times, and this guy hit 600 plus home runs. I was a line drive hitter with power. I'm gonna hit a line drive. If the ball's there to get, you know, to you know, to be hit out of the park, I'm gonna hit out of the park. But you and I maintain you can't go to home plate trying to make things happen. Um those guys that were swinging the home run, all the guys that were trying to body it, they didn't make it. They got tired. Yeah. And the guy who won it, very, very smooth. Smooth swing. Smooth swing. Effortless. You can't hit home runs at max, maximum, maximum effort. It's somewhere between that 85%, 95% range where you get what you want and the ball's there, and you take a good, solid, smooth swing with the right back path and get that backspin, and the ball travels for you.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, and that was look, there was high drama at the end of it. It ended up being really, really cool. But I thought that part of the story was crazy. And then how about the fact that, you know, they sent him down, he comes back up. He was a little messed up for a while because they were trying to make him at home runs, found his way. Now he's still hitting over 300. And now he's got what, 17 jacks, 70 ribies, wins the home run derby. And Mohe made more money in the home run derby than he's gonna make this year.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Isn't that crazy? That's that's awesome. But, you know, for him, he looks like he's got that swing, and now, you know, he's gonna take that consistently. He's gonna do well. Um, any type of hardware that you get at any time gives you confidence. He stood up there at, you know, at what is it, Citizens Bank? Yes. Citizens Bank with a crowd that was was booing the hell out of him, looked them all in the in the in the in the face and won. So he's got a a great way, a great spirit, a great competitive spirit that now is putting into his total game, he's gonna be a force to reckon with moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, and then back to the first part of this conversation 15 strikeouts in the all-star game from the NL. And look, the AL pitching staff is nasty. Don't get me wrong. Like, as a Guardians fan, it was cool to watch Bryce Harper mic'd up, getting just absolutely mowed down by Cade Smith and going, that was filthy. Right? To hear it's cool to hear that, but to watch it, you're like, and Bryce Harper's not really the biggest culprit because he's not one of those guys usually like that, but 15K's in an all-star game for one team is pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Listen, the the Yankees had 34 K's in the game last week over, you know, 18, over, you know, 18 innings. Contact, contact. The guys with the size that make hard contact will get their numbers. People got to walk the home plate. I was always told personally that Mo, you gotta walk the whole plate 600 times. If you walk the home plate 600 times, you're gonna hit 300, you're gonna hit 30 home runs, you're gonna drive in your 100 runs. You gotta be there, you gotta be available. But you you but you can't try to make it happen. When you force it, it never happens. You hit a ball and go bang, oh, go, oh, oh man, I got it. I got it. That's that's how it is. You hit it, bang, oh, whoa, it feels good. You know what I'm saying? I've never gone to home play saying I'm gonna do this right now more times than not, it doesn't happen. I look at Vladimir Guerrero right now, okay? For me, he's got what, three months left? He can go out and hit five to six home runs for the next three months and get back in his numbers. That's kind of like how you gotta look with it. To me, I was trying to hit five or six home runs, six month season. If I can do that, I'm gonna have a solid year. Yeah. Compartmentalize. Cut it, cut, you know, don't try to eat the whole apple at once. Small chunks. Base it, base it, home. That's how he's got to get back in the game. But he has every bit of the talent to do that. And if he could just compartmentalize and think about it on that level, he can slowly work himself back up to where he is.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

Two guys look like they're choking on the apples, him and Cal Riley. They just, you know, I know Cal had the injury, the ham eight, um, but those, I mean, there's don't look not they don't this year has not looked like what you would expect of those two. We thought those were gonna be the guys along with Aaron Judge. The AL was gonna be ruled by those guys. Now Judge is down with an injury. It's kind of turned upside down.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

It has. Listen, Cal, even Vladdy, you know, Aaron being hurt. Those two, Cal and Vladdy took it all the way to the World Series. And Vladdy didn't win it. It had to have been devastating. Now you got to recharge. Everything sometimes doesn't always recharge like you want it to. It's you're you're trying to, and and David, you think he wants to have these numbers? He doesn't. He's trying, man. He's he's he's trying to get himself out of it. And Cal, he just was super phenomenal. He had such a great year on both sides of the plate. And that normally doesn't happen in the Switch hitter.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Usually it's that left side that does well, the right side, which you really don't hit you know often on that side, but he was equal. So now it's kind of back to normal. And I'm gonna say one thing mentally. Some of some of I've had I had a couple really good years. And those years for me were exceptional. And then you go in the next year and you're trying to always match that. And you can't match it. You understand what I'm saying? You can't match it. You just gotta take what you and then you're like, man, I'm not doing, I'm not doing what I was doing. I'm not you are, bro. You're your your your your your your solid year is a great year from everybody else.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

But if you go into the season going, I'm gonna, Cal, I'm gonna match what I did last year. Vladdy, I'm gonna match what I did. It's very hard. You got to put things in perspective and say, I just gotta be me and I'm gonna have a solid year.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah. Oh, well, speaking of the AL, let's jump into some of these awards. I want to get your prediction. We're like halfway through, I want to see who you think is ahead in some of these, because now all of a sudden things are wide open, right? And it's either wide open because the other guys went down or it's wide open because there's just so much talent, like over in the NL. Um, it looks like it's probably a two-horse race right now in the AL. The Astros are coming on strong. Um boy Dano. Yep. Um, and then you got Bobby Witt Jr. over in um Kansas City as well, who's obviously having a great year. Is there anybody else who jumps out at you? Um, you know, Jordan Alvarez, Bobby Witt Jr., you maybe could say Junior Camarero, who thank God his hand x-rays were negative last night in the All-Star game, getting hit in the hand. You never want to see that. I felt bad for that O'Brien kid out there hitting him. Um, is there anybody else who jumps out at you on the AL who could be in that race? Because it feels like those are the two guys, but the it's so wide open. I feel like anybody can come out from a dark horse and win this thing in the second half.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

I like Junior Camarero. Yeah. Um he's been nasty this year. He's been nasty. And he they're playing that type of game, that he's gonna have opportunities and guys are gonna be on base to where he can drive in over 100 and really have a good year with the batting average and the power. I think Tampa Bay plays that style of ball that is gonna give him those opportunities to have that type of, you know, the MVP season or, you know, whatever, whatever you want to call it, that great year. Kansas City, you know, Bobby Wood is a great player, but they got to play better as a team. Yeah, I'm saying, you know, he's you know, everybody knows who Bobby Wood is. He is what he is, and he's always that at the upper echelon, you know, in the league as a player, you know, in the top five. Um, but Kansas City's gotta get themselves in it. But I think Tampa Bay, the way that they play and the way they're pay they pitch and their style of play, getting guys on bait, moving guys over, I think Junior's gonna be the one to do it.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, the the fact that he's raised his walk rate the way he has this year is pretty insane. I mean, that you don't see guys flip it that drastically in one season. He's taking a lot of pitches and getting on base, and that's that's great to see in this day and age where they don't actually preach that. All right, NL side. Shohei, which everybody was said a little while ago that that was a shoe-in. There was, you know, obviously he was gonna run away with this thing. All of a sudden, look, he's probably gonna have to, and it may come to this, right? He's now out with uh with some fatigue, I think it is. So he's not pitching right now, which is gonna put him dangerously close to the Cy Young award limit, which is what he wants to do at the beginning of the year. If he's not gonna be in it for the Cy Young, you gotta imagine the team's gonna go, hey man, let's not push it. Let's have you pitch when we need you to pitch, but let's have you focus on hitting. If that's the case, all of a sudden Pete Core Armstrong might be sneaking back into this conversation too. You you like those guys? You like James Wood? Is there anybody else in the NL that jumps out of you?

SPEAKER_00 14:18

Pete Cole Armstrong, he's got 17, right? Yeah, I think so. How many RBIs?

SPEAKER_01 14:25

See. I'll look him up.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Okay, James Wood over there playing very, very well in Washington. And that's another thing. Washington's got to be a stronger team. 53 ribies, you know, sir.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

You know, Washington's got to be a stronger team and stay in it. But right now, Pete Crow Armstrong, three, three, three hundred plus, 1750 plus. He's at Texas 21 home runs. He's over 20 already. And he's over 50 ribies. Yeah, he's having a lot of money. There you go. So you so you extrapolate that out for the rest of the year. You're talking 35, 40, 100. They're gonna be in it. They might not win it all, but they're gonna be there. They're gonna have enough to compete and be there. And let me tell you something. I think that, you know, um, their third baseman. Um who's the third baseman for the Cubs? Tremendous leader, tremendous. Come on, come on. This guy's this guy was with the Red Sox last year.

unknown 15:27

I know.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

I'm um I'm blanking.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Um Bregman, sorry, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Alex Bregman.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Yeah, who the Red Sox could have used him this year so far.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Alex Bregman is known to be a leader of men, leader of young men, teaching young men how to play the game, and I think all of that is rubbing off on Pete Armstrong, you know, Pete Crow Armstrong right now. So I think being in it, he's got great numbers. This guy's a 5'2 player. They're gonna be in it, and I think he's got a a really good leader in Alex Breckman to really help him through the process.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Um, we're gonna do the Cy Young on each side before uh before we get out of here and make this a snappy one. We are in the all-star break like everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, but you're here, so so it's good.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

I know. Like we're gonna we're gonna be rolling. I know. I'm excited, man. I'm excited. Once I'm settled, once I don't look like a squatter in my apartment, I'm just worried I'm gonna call maintenance, they're gonna come in, they're gonna kick me out.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

No, you're good, you're good. Your name's on the lease.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

All right, so AL Cy Young. This one's interesting. I mean, there's a whole bunch of names you could throw in there, but I think the front runners are Cam Schlitter, Dylan Sees, and then I keep seeing a dark horse pop up. This isn't me being a Cleveland Homer with my Guardian's hat on right here, but how about the kid Parker Mesick? By the way, your boy over at the facility played with him coming up to travel, um, was telling me some inside info on him, but he's just been a dog like that his entire life. I mean, he looks like he doesn't belong in the mound, like he should be a backup catcher or something with the high stirrups and the it was built like a fire hydrant, but we got some arms in the AL this year.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Yo, you know I like them big guys. Oh, yeah. I like that. And I like his mindset. Oh, he's a dog. He's a dog. He's coming after you. Yep. Um, and that's what you need. And I think, you know, you know, you get Jose back. All of a sudden, Cleveland starts starts rolling. Um Cam Slitler, Slitzer, uh, in that whole Yankee, you know, AL East and the pressure packed. He's been pitching outstanding. They're gonna need, they're gonna need, see, they're gonna need him to go. Yep. So every start from him is gonna be, in his mind, on an elevated level. If he's got the numbers, I feel like he's got the game. It's gonna be him. Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

And then it looks like it's a one guy race in the NL right now. Uh Jacob Mizarowski is just ridiculous at the moment. Um, you could throw in, you know, Chase Burns, you could throw in there. Um, you could throw in, oh my god, I'm gonna blanket the closer down in San Diego, and they're not having a great year. He's been really good. Hell, I just heard on the Buster Only Podcast that they could San Diego talk about trading him. You know what I mean? Like, I who knows there, but it feels like it's Mizarowski's to lose over in the NL right now, even though they he didn't pitch in the All-Star game because of uh arm fatigue, too. So which you just gotta imagine them just protecting their guy because that I think they got a legit shot. If anybody, they have a legit shot of knocking out the Dodgers.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

He's gonna win two games. Yeah. You think?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Yeah, oh yeah. You know, good luck. But they're facing twice. Yeah, good luck in there.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

They're twice, he's gonna win two games, you know. So that turns that that series into that. But I think you're right. Right now, um, no injury fatigue or arm trouble, you know, Mizarowski's the guy. Yeah. And um just don't try to like I heard I was listening yesterday on uh on the MLB, you know, on Fox, and they were talking to the lefty from from the Braves. Um and he was just talking about pitching and what he learned at a as a veteran, and it's exactly right. He's he's he's figured out how to coast when he needs to, and then when he needs to get that edge, he can do it. Everything doesn't you don't have to throw it max effort all the time. It's like you don't have to swing it, swing it max effort all the time. And I think that's what we have to learn as pitchers and hitters that the snappy you are, really, the bat, the harder you swing, the slower the bat is. The harder you try to throw, you know, you choke the ball, you do something different. Things are effortless. Come out of your hand, the ball takes off. Swing is effortless. Bang, come, you know, quick contact. That's what we gotta try to do. So I just want I just hope um Mr. Roski just doesn't try to throw so hard all the time. Pick your spots in those times when you gotta when you need a little bit more, you can reach back and get it, and he'll be fine.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, especially because you get that little jump in velocity there, too, to throw guys off. Um, all right, man. I'm down here. We're gonna be doing a lot of stuff together. I got some ideas. Some of it you're gonna love, some of it you're probably gonna hate, but we're gonna do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yo, we're gonna do them.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

The content game was always moving, baby. We're gonna make it happen. We're gonna make it happen. All right, Mo. Appreciate you as always. We are here. I'm in the building, no more virtual.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Yes. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

We'll talk to you guys again next week.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

All right.