World Baseball Classic, SEC Basketball, and Georgia Baseball Breakdown

Two words can flip a stadium from noise to silence: full count. That edge—where pride, pressure, and possibility meet—runs through this episode as we dive into the World Baseball Classic, Georgia’s statement win over Alabama, and the early fireworks from Georgia baseball.

We start with the WBC and why it captures something spring training can’t. From Ohtani striking out Trout to clinch 2023 to rosters that pair MLB stars with grinders chasing a dream, the tournament blends national pride with big-league drama. We unpack the stacked United States roster, why this group feels poised to run deep, and the honest injury debate after Edwin Díaz’s freak setback. The case for the WBC holds: risk exists everywhere, but chances to play for your country, at full tilt, come around rarely—and they matter.

Then we turn to the court, where Georgia’s win over Alabama wasn’t a blip; it was a marker. Kanon Catchings took control with a smooth, ruthless shooting night, turning a tight game into a showcase of confidence and pace. We break down the bench sparks, the rebounding swing, and how matchups will shape the SEC tournament. Florida looks like the most consistent team, but in a league where styles collide nightly, the bracket could tilt in unexpected ways. For Georgia, avoiding elite rebounding monsters like Florida and Tennessee could be the doorway to a real run.

We close on the diamond in Athens. The bats are loud, the scores are crooked, and the midweek slips look more like early-season adjustments than red flags. With power surging across the lineup and pitching that flashes, the ingredients for a strong season are in place. The job now is turning talent into habit—locking down late innings, cleaning the small stuff, and letting the offense roll. Plus, a preview of our first interview: a mental health professional joins us soon to talk sports-related anxiety and practical tools for players, parents, and coaches.

If you enjoyed this one, follow and share with a friend who lives for March. Drop your SEC champion pick and your WBC dark horse, and don’t forget to leave a quick review—it helps more fans find the show.

Transcript

Opening & Today’s Game Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, welcome to another episode of Sports Takes with Nate Skates. I'm your host, Nate, and we have a lot to talk about on today's show. Um we're gonna get into some SEC basketball as the SEC tournament is about to start here uh here in just a few days. We're also gonna talk about Georgia's really big win over Alabama on Tuesday. We'll talk some of early Georgia baseball. But the very first thing we are gonna talk about today that I'm really excited about is the world baseball classic. Now, I'm not really an Olympics guy. I don't, I didn't watch the Winter Olympics, I don't really watch the Summer Olympics. I'm just not really interested in skiing or curling or a lot of these different sports that are you see in uh the Olympics. Go USA, but it's just not really my thing. The world baseball classic, on the other hand, is very much my thing. You've got countries in the world baseball classic that are really just starting to get baseball rolling in their countries, places like Great Britain, uh maybe Israel, places that you don't really think of when you think of baseball. And then you have countries like the United States, Japan, Venezuela, where these teams are just absolutely loaded with not just MLB players, but the best MLB players in the game. Uh you've got guys like Ronald Acunya on Venezuela, you've obviously got Shohei Otani on Japan, you've got Aaron Judge on the United States this season. And it's not just MLB players. Uh, Japanese baseball is another level from all other countries besides the United States, pretty much. If a guy plays in Japan, he can play with the United States generally. And you see Japan has actually performed a lot better in the world baseball classic than the United States has, by and large. And so I've seen talk about this on social media, and I find it hilarious because it's it's true. You'll have um it'll be a guy who his biggest MLB experience has been, you know, playing in AAA and he's going against Shohei Otani. Or I saw somebody talking about Australia's team today and said that um they've got an MLB player at second base, but then they've got a 39-year-old firefighter in left field. And so that's really the way that the world baseball classic is. Some of these guys are just dudes, just dudes who like baseball, they're good at baseball, and they're going out and playing against the best in the world. But then you also have countries with the very best they have to offer uh in the entire world going up against each other. You also see upsets. You would think that Japan, Venezuela, the United States, uh, the Dominican Republic would win every game and that there wouldn't be any upsets. But there are sometimes. Sometimes star-studded rosters do not necessarily always win every game in the world baseball classic. And there are incredible plays. 2023, which was the last world baseball classic, ended in the most exciting way it possibly could have. You could not have written a movie script better than the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Japan and the United States, the two baseball powerhouses, these rosters were packed with uh both Major League and Japanese stars. The game went down to championship game went down to the ninth inning, and um you had Shohei Otani in the top of the ninth pitching against Mike Trout, who was the captain of the American squad. Um these guys were teammates on the Angels at still at this time. Mike Trout was still kind of considered one of the best players in Major League Baseball, especially Shohei Otani, obviously, was these are two of the greatest players in the history of baseball. And Japan is up three to two, top of the ninth, two outs. Mike Trout's up to bat. It was one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever watched. And um, it all came down to those two. Shohei did strike out Captain America, unfortunately. And even still, I think about that game pretty often. And usually games where my team loses, I don't like the game. I don't think it was a good game. I hate it, I don't want to think about it anymore. Um, but that was a game where I've just been anticipating this. I've just been waiting for the World Baseball Classic to come back. Three years later, here we are again. And I I'm really excited uh not just to see the United States. I I'm ready to see, you know, I want to see some of the Netherlands and Nazi Albis go against uh Venezuela and Ronald Acunia. I think that's gonna be fun. And that wasn't the only time that teammates have gone up against each other in a huge situation in the World Baseball Classic. In 2017, which is the only year that the United States uh won the World Baseball Classic Championship, Adam Jones uh saved the day when he robbed his Orioles teammate, Manny Machado, of a home run. Adam Jones reaches over the fence, pulls the ball back, and Manny Machado just tips his cap to him. And those are two all-star players. Manny Machado is probably going to go to the Hall of Fame now. And those are just huge moments and the roar of the crowd. And you got guys dressed in colonial founding fathers costumes, people, it's national pride, it's patriotism. There's so much energy in the world baseball classic. And that's not just from the American side, it's not just from you typically think of some of the Central American countries being a little more energetic fans than American fans. No, it's it's everybody, and you do get to see the energy from the Central American fans who this is huge for them, but you also see it from the United States fans, and it's just awesome. I love it. So I'm definitely excited to start watching the games this week. To put it into perspective, when I was watching the 2023 World Baseball Classic, I was sitting there cheering for Trey Turner, whose heroics really started with hitting a grand slam in the seventh inning of the USA Venezuela game. Venezuela was up seven to five in that game. And uh Turner hits the grand slam, which ends up being the deciding factor in the game. And Turner didn't stop there. Uh he hit two home runs against Cuba. He ended up with uh 391 average, five home runs, 11 RBI in the world baseball classic. You can't really do it any better than that. That didn't exactly translate to one of his better MLB seasons, but it was insanely good in the world baseball classic. So I was sitting there cheering for Turner, a Philadelphia Philly who, if you know me, the Philadelphia Phillies are one of my least favorite teams in all of sports. They're certainly one of, if not my least favorite team in Major League Baseball. Largely just that rivalry between the Braves and the Phillies. However, I was sitting there cheering for Trey Turner, who has been destroying my team since he was at the Washington Nationals. But that didn't matter. And this season, the United States roster is unbelievable. Again, they have already, in two exhibition games, they already mercy ruled the Detroit Tigers and the Colorado Rockies. Uh they're loaded with pitching. Got Paul Skeens and Terek Scubel on this starting pitching roster. Logan Logan Webb is going to pitch the first game for the United States on Friday. You have Kyle Schwarber, Pete Crow Armstrong, Bobby Witt Jr., Byron Buxton, Bryce Harper, Ernie Clement, Bryce Terrain, Gunnar Henderson, Alex Bregman, Paul Goldschmidt, Will Smith, and Roman Anthony. That is your roster. I didn't read all the all the pictures on the roster, but that's who's playing for the United States. So I would say if if the United States doesn't win the whole thing, even counting Japan, Venezuela, these other countries, it's going to be a letdown. It's going to be a huge letdown. And they are just, they're really going for it. This is really important to these guys. I don't know if you saw Paul Skeens say, um, probably somewhat tongue in cheek that he had always wanted to serve in the military, and he said, well, this ain't that, but it's probably the next best thing. And I just love that mentality of this matters. And there's been times in the past where maybe you questioned whether the world baseball classic mattered, whether uh MLB players really cared that much about the world baseball classic, it matters, and they're going for it. And I'm really excited, and I really hope we get a little payback this year and are able to win the whole thing. So if you have not watched the world baseball classic before, uh, or if this is not even on your radar, I encourage you. This is this is probably some of the best baseball, if not the best baseball, you're going to see all year that you might see for three more years. Uh it's one of the most exciting sporting events you're going to see. And, you know, I will primarily be watching the United States, but uh you also try to catch some some innings of some of these other teams' games, and guys are really playing hard. There is a debate among fans, among owners, players. Some guys don't want their players playing in the world baseball classic. Edwin Diaz, closer for the Mets, um, he's now with the Dodgers. We talked about that on the show, was hurt celebrating in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. And he was out for the entire season. Edwin Diaz at the time was the best closer in baseball. And before this MLB season has even started, he's he's out for the whole year. And so injuries can happen, injuries to superstars can happen. Uh, so that's a risk. That is a big risk where ownership fans might think this is not worth it. These are meaningless games. However, I think it's worth it. I think the players think it's worth it. Obviously, you don't want to get hurt. The guys could get hurt in spring training, the guys could get hurt in an MLB game. Uh guys can get hurt in a freak accident. You only get one chance to do this every few years and play for your country. Play games that matter before the season starts. Spring training, meh, you know, you're getting you're getting geared up, ready to go for the MLB season, but the games don't matter. The world baseball classic matters. Um just ask the players, ask the fans. So I think it's a really good opportunity for guys. And you know, it's like the Olympics. It's like the Olympics. Um we a lot of people think the Olympics matters. So it's the same thing. So personally, I'm glad really good players are playing in it. I'm a Braves fan. A lot of the Braves players are playing in it. You've got Ronald Acunya, I mentioned earlier. Ronald Acunya's had a lot of injuries. He's really important to the Braves. I still want him to play. I'm still glad he's playing. So I hope he doesn't get hurt, but you know, that could happen to anybody. So um the United States has Brazil in its first game on Friday night, um, and then Great Britain in the second game. So if you don't have anything to do, or even if you do, try to catch some of the game, um, try to catch some of the highlights. It'll be worth your time. Now, transitioning to SEC basketball, which is fixing to head to the conference tournament. First, I want to talk about Georgia's win over Alabama. And I know the show has been very Georgia heavy. I'm a Georgia fan, that's the way it is. Uh, this was one of the biggest wins for Georgia basketball in my lifetime. Uh, Georgia was probably going to make the NCAA tournament anyway at this point. Uh, the wins over Kentucky and Texas pretty well put Georgia in the tournament, but it wasn't a guarantee. Uh however, they're all the way in now, beating the number 16 team in the country. They have 21 wins, uh, nine and eight in the SEC. They're going to the NCAA tournament. Uh, and I'm not going to bury the lead here. The story of the game was Canon Ketchings. This was this was one of those games you could say, this guy's in the zone. And catchings is a very smooth shooter. He's 6'9. He's very athletic. I personally think he has the tools to be one of the greatest players to ever play at Georgia. Uh, he's a sophomore right now, transferred in from BYU. I don't know what his plans are going to be after this season. I don't know if he's going to transfer, try to play in the NBA, or if he's coming back. I don't know. I really hope he comes back. I think a junior Canon catchings is going to be a superstar. He's already, he's already an excellent player. And I I love watching him play, and I really enjoyed his performance uh Tuesday night. But he had 32 points on 12 of 20 shooting, but that's not even the real story. He hit seven of thirteen threes, shot over 50% on threes, seven threes, added six rebounds and two steals. He had a sequence, um, I believe it was towards the end of the first half, where the catchings hit a three before Alabama's even really able to inbound the ball, comes in, gets the steal and a dunk, then um a couple possessions later, hits another three. He scored eight straight points without anyone else scoring. Ketchings took over the game. And it's not that there weren't other players who played well. Uh LeBair and Fylon for Alabama had a very good game. Other guys on Georgia had a good game. Canning, this was Cannon Ketchings' game. He took over the game from the very beginning and put his stamp on it, and no one was going to take this from him. He was incredible. Three other guys for Georgia had at least 10 points. Kareem Stag, who his emergence as he has matured, grown throughout the season, gotten more playing time, has been phenomenal. He had 10 points. Marcus Miller had a good game. Blue Kane had a good game. Samto Surreal had 10 rebounds. So he was really big on the glass. I thought Justin Abson was fantastic off the bench. Okay, so especially early in the second half was where he really made his mark. He came in, seven points, three rebounds, one block, one steal. That's in only 10 minutes. 10 minutes, and he put up those kind of numbers. I felt like when he came in early in the second half, Alabama is a very fast-paced team, a three-point shooting team. They did not have a lot of big guys in the game. That's not really their that's not really their thing. So the majority of the game is two teams who play very quickly, like to shoot threes. Abson is not that guy. Abson's a big guy. And so I felt like he was able to really do some damage down low, hit all three of his shots. Um, and Georgia won the rebounding margin. This time uh 40 rebounds to 30. This is a little bit different situation. They did finally win the rebounding margin against Texas on a couple games ago, but that was a lot lower rebounding numbers. So Georgia is playing far and away its best basketball of the season. Yes, uh, they started really cold shooting against Vanderbilt in Nashville, and I also felt like they really didn't handle the late game situations well in the Vanderbilt game. But this is the best stretch of the season for them. I've played four NCAA tournament teams, have won three of those games, had a close game with Vanderbilt on the road. So as the SEC tournament gets started, I do think Georgia could make a run, but the SEC is Florida and then everybody else. Florida has proven themselves all conference, all conference schedule, that they are the class of the SEC. And that it's not really that close. And it's not because no one else can hang with Florida, no one can, you know, make it a close game, but game in, game out, Florida finds a way to get it done. And I I just don't see if they're bringing it in the SEC tournament and they're really trying to win it, I don't I don't see anybody beating them. However, after Florida, you have this mass of teams that are all pretty much the same. You you could parse between who is better over the course of the whole season, but any given game, the following teams could beat each other. Uh you have Vanderbilt, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas AM, Arkansas. So just like let's just take it from Georgia's perspective. Georgia lost to Vanderbilt on the road, beat Alabama at home, uh, split with Texas, got dominated the first time, and then won pretty convincingly the second time, uh, lost to Tennessee, beat Kentucky, beat Missouri, got dominated by Texas AM, uh, lost to Arkansas. So that's just Georgia's situation there. Uh all of these teams beat up on each other. And it's not even just those teams. I think those are the teams in a big wad after Florida. But Oklahoma and Auburn can win these games. Oklahoma manhandled Georgia. Uh, Georgia had a very close win against Auburn. So anybody in this conference can beat anybody. There's no doubt about that. But so I think the SEC tournament is going to be bonkers. You don't have any idea what is going to happen. Uh tournament games are so exciting. The only SEC tournament that I have gotten the opportunity to go to was 2015, I think it was. Um, Georgia had a pretty good team that year. They were playing uh first or second day. I got to go see them last game of the night against South Carolina. JJ Fraser hit a huge last second three-pointer, won the game. It was one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever been to, and there was hardly anybody there at that time. So I had like a whole row to myself. My dad was sitting behind me with a whole row uh for him, and you basically could just run up and down the aisle celebrating. It was so exciting. So we got tickets for the next day's game, got matched up against Arkansas. I believe that was the Bobby Portis Arkansas team. Uh didn't go well. Didn't go well. A little bit overmatched against that Arkansas team. However, the SEC tournament's gonna be crazy. Again, I would expect Florida to win. From Georgia's perspective, I want to avoid Florida and Tennessee. If you get to the final two rounds, you're probably gonna have to play at least one of them. However, the way that it's shaping out right now, I don't know that Georgia's gonna have to play one of them until they reach the final. We'll see what the final bracket looks like. Those are terrible matchups for Georgia. We talked about that on this show. Georgia is rebounding a lot better than they were. They're not a good rebounding team, period. Uh Florida and Tennessee are phenomenal rebounding teams. Uh I haven't checked their stats in the last couple weeks, but these are two of the top five, top ten rebounding teams in the country. Georgia just doesn't win those games, okay? Georgia just isn't going to win those games. So the Tennessee game was really close. Georgia should have won that game, but they got manhandled rebounding. And I don't really want to test that again and see if we can pull it off. So I would like to see Georgia, I or personally, I would like to see Georgia have different matchups. I would rather play Alabama again. I would rather play Vanderbilt again. I would rather play Texas and Texas AM again than Florida and Tennessee. Not necessarily because I'm saying Tennessee is better than those teams, just because I think it's a bad matchup for Georgia. Uh other teams that I think could make a run in the SEC tournament. I mean, I could see Vanderbilt, I could see maybe Kentucky if they get going. Tennessee, you never really know what you're getting with Tennessee, Arkansas, but I think this is Florida's tournament to lose. So now on to Georgia baseball. So this is just the way base college baseball is. Uh, you are going to lose some games. To teams that would be considered smaller competition. But Georgia is having a very up and down wild season. They are run-ruling teams. They are hitting the ball all over the yard, home runs everywhere. Trey Phelps is playing like Charlie Condon played a few years ago. Somehow, despite all that, despite games where they're putting up 17, 20 runs, they have losses to Wright State, Troy, and Western Carolina, all already a couple weeks into the season. So I wouldn't say that I have no concerns about that. I do, but this early with the number of transfer players that Georgia has this season, I would not get at all overly concerned over, you know, three early losses. I do think Georgia needs to find that killer instinct in baseball. They need to get that going. I've talked about recently their struggles in the NCAA tournament the last several years, but other teams have lost games. You had other highly ranked SEC teams uh really lay eggs in some of these games against what is considered smaller competition. This isn't football, okay? So the Troys of this world are do beat SEC teams. It is not a shock uh for that to happen. And all of these games that Georgia has lost were close losses. You had a 9-10 loss to Western Carolina on Wednesday, you had a one-run loss in the 12th inning to Troy the previous Wednesday, and you had a three-run loss in your first series of the season against Wright State. That's not getting blown out. So also two of these three losses, as I had noted, came on midweek games instead of weekend series. I don't know what to tell you about that, but I would say they need to get that worked through. I've only had three midweek games so far, and you've lost two of them to Troy and Western Carolina. That kind of says to me something's a little bit off about what Georgia's doing in the weekday games, but it's a really small sample size really early in the season. So don't read too much into that. But overall, the team is playing really well. Let me read you some of these stat lines, and rather than trying to memorize them, I'm just gonna pull them up here. Okay, so your leading average on Georgia's team right now. Henry Allen hitting 436. That'll play. 436 will play. He's got an 846 slugging percentage. Let's look at the OPS. The OPS is on this team. He's he's got a 1.393 OPS. Four home runs. Okay, but I want to point out just a couple guys on here rather than getting too bogged down. Trey Phelps is the big dog, okay? Trey Phelps is the guy on this team. We knew that going into the season. Uh he's been a great player for about three years now. Trey Phelps is hitting 429, OPS of 1.445. He's got 21 hits, six home runs, 17 RBI, and 878 slugging percentage, a 567 on base percentage. Uh hard to do it a lot better than that. Uh let's see, Cole Johnson's hitting 414. Daniel Jackson is hitting 393 with 22 hits, 10 home runs. He had the only triple of the season for Georgia on Wednesday, 24 RBI, 982 slugging percentage. I'll take that. That's a lot higher than a lot of guys' OPS. Uh and let's see, a 453 on base percentage. So, yeah, that'll work. The highest OPS on the team is Brennan Hudson, who he has not started quite as many games. He had nine starts on the season. But he has got nine hits, seven home runs, 15 RBI, 1.154 slugging percentage. So what I'm getting at is these guys are hitting the cover off the ball. They are absolutely dominating uh pitch on offense. The pitching's been really good most games. So I'm not worried. I'm not worried. I think Georgia's gonna have a really good season. I do want to see them lock it down. It's really early, but we don't want another first round exit. Okay. Nobody in the Georgia fan base, and especially nobody in the Georgia program, wants to see another first round exit, especially with this kind of talent on the team. I don't think it's gonna happen. I'm gonna think positive. I think we're gonna have a great season. I really like what I'm seeing so far. And I like that even in these games that they're losing are really close. So anyway, I'm excited for this week. It's been a big week for Georgia. Uh got a lot going on. SEC tournaments coming up, the NCAA tournament's fixing to come up. We already had the Sunbelt conference tournament already started this past week. So we're into March Madness and we're into baseball. You made it, you survived January, February, early March. Here we are. So I'm hoping you're enjoying the spring weather. Hope you're enjoying a resurgence and a revitalization of sports. Uh, and I hope you'll try the World Baseball Classic if you haven't already. So if you enjoyed the show, let me know who do you think is going to win the SEC tournament. What do you think of Georgia's big win against Alabama? Give me your some of your March Madness predictions. And once the once March Madness really gets going, and I'm going to make some tournament brackets, I'll tell you who I think the most likely upsets are going to be. Uh give you my final four picks. I will tell you, not that this is impressive, because about 25% of the country picked them last year. I did pick Florida to win the national championship last year, and that was correct. So I may get a lot of things wrong, but at least I got that right. So we'll talk uh predictions. If you want to join a bracket challenge with me, that'd be great. Uh and definitely we'll talk world baseball classic going forward, talk some more Georgia baseball, and very soon we'll be able to start talking major league baseball. And I'm definitely looking forward to that. It'll be really exciting and kind of we'll kind of get in a routine there. Uh, not sure what the show schedule will be, but with games every day, pretty much, um, it'll be pretty easy to have content to discuss. And again, I said this really early in the show, but uh now that we're getting closer to baseball season, if you are not an Atlanta Braves fan, I will talk about what's going on in baseball as a whole. I'll bring up some other teams, what how they're performing, um how guys are doing. I enjoy playing fantasy baseball. I do not play fantasy football, but I do play fantasy baseball. I actually won my league last year, which has never happened. So uh if you want to join a fantasy baseball league with me, we can do that. And uh we'll we'll talk who's hot, who's not. But primarily as far as games, ins and outs, breakdowns, that kind of stuff is going to be really Braves heavy. And that's because that's my team, that's who I'm primarily watching. I don't really watch a whole lot of other games. Uh I don't sit down and watch full games of other teams. I just I just don't have time for that. But I do watch the Atlanta Braves every day. So we'll talk a lot of Atlanta Braves. If you're an Atlanta Braves fan, definitely want to tune in. Um maybe some shorter content with the nature of baseball. I I don't need to talk about one specific game for 20 minutes to an hour. We can talk for five minutes, we can talk for 10 minutes, we can talk for three minutes. So, anyway, that's kind of what's gonna come up. And I do want to tell you, I'm having an episode coming up in probably mid to late March. We'll see how the schedule with March Madness works out. That I'm really excited about, and we've been talking about and planning for for a while. I want to go ahead and kind of start laying the groundwork for that. So I have got a really good friend who works in the mental health field. He is going to be joining me. It'll be our first interview on the show, to talk about sports-related anxiety. So, this is a topic that is really near and dear to me, and I'll talk about this some more later on the show. However, he is going to talk with us about things that players, coaches, parents can do to help, especially younger people, kids, high schoolers who struggle with sports anxiety. If you're not familiar with sports anxiety, the simplest way for me to talk about it is people who get very anxious about sports, about their performance in sports, about letting their teammates down, about how they are going to play. And, you know, it's it's normal for people to have nerves in sports, but sometimes it goes a little bit beyond nerves. And so we want to talk about what can players and coaches and parents do to help with that. How can they mitigate some of those issues and not have it impact their performance on the field as much, which really makes it not as fun when you're struggling with that? So we are going to talk about that. It'll be a little bit different than what we normally talk about, but I'm really excited about it. So I hope you'll tune in. I'll give you an exact date as we get closer to that, but it'll probably be mid-late March, maybe early April, but it'll probably be before that. And I'll make sure and let you guys know about that. So if you made it with me this long, I appreciate it. Thank you. And uh, if you don't mind, give me a like, subscribe, follow, whatever. If you don't want to, that's fine. Uh, if you have any comments, please let me know. Love feedback, love talking with fans, and that's been one of the really good things about this show. Sometimes you look and say, Man, do I really want to do that? And it's but it's all worth it. It's all worth it when you get feedback and people talk to you. And that's one of the great things about sports, and that's gonna be a show uh one of these days. What's so great about sports? Well, it brings people together and people you maybe haven't talked to in a while. Uh, you get to chat about sports, chat about life. Uh, it's it's really fun, and I enjoy it. I hope you have a great rest of your week. I'll see you guys in a few days. Go dogs.