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This is Walk Off Slams with Greg's on on AM 1150.

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Well, welcome inside the AM 1150 studios here in beautiful downtown Kelowna, BC. Some people say it stands for British Columbia. I think it stands for Bring Cash. I uh got two parking tickets today. Uh one at a park, a public park. They're charging people to park at a park. Does that make any sense? I don't know. It's not that nice of a park, to be honest with you. The uh jungle gym needs a lot of a lot of work, but they're gonna charge me to park there, so my fault for not putting enough money in the meter, but uh I digress. Uh this is a show about baseball. It's called Walk Off Slams, and I'm your host, Greg Zahn. So let's get into it. The ABS challenge system is topical, like everybody wants to talk about this, and it doesn't really matter where you look for information on it, it's all garbage. It's just so substandard. This is the big leagues, and yet this ABS challenge system is Bush League. You heard it from me. Uh, it's absolutely mind-boggling how you can go from one website to the other to find out what the acceptable margin of error is. One website will say it's 0.16 or 16th of an inch. The next one will say 0.25. Uh, my next week's guest, Ted Barrett, will probably give us a different answer, former Major League Umpire. Um, it's one thing for sure is it it's definitely embarrassing umpires. You can see the look on their face every time some of these calls get challenged. And then there's CB Buckner, who is missing pitches right down the middle. Both teams are laughing at him. And quite frankly, I I actually I rarely feel sorry for people, but I do for CB. This is a guy who I came up through the minor leagues with, and I remember he completely botched a home run call down the left field line of a game. I want to think it was Winston Salem. Uh, and I and I remember being so upset with him, I told him that he was gonna die in the Carolina League, that he was never gonna get out of there because he was such a bad umpire. Well, we we know that he's a bad umpire, or at least he struggles with certain fundamental things, apparently pitches right down the middle. Um, so yeah, he's he's an umpire, he's still an umpire. Proving that the oversight is eyewash because after years of his poor performance and that of say Angel Hernandez, I mean, at least he had the decency to quit. Um, you know, these guys are still hanging around for whatever reason, and now we get to see the ABS Challenge uh and uh in all of its glory, and it's just it's absolutely ridiculous. And and one one thing I'll tell you that makes it even more obvious to me about how ridiculous it is, you have stadiums like the Rogers Center that have roofs on them. Roofs, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but you could have overhead cameras, you can have cameras to the side, and they in fact they do have cameras in both camera wells on the first base side and the third base side. But ask yourself how often are they showing a look at the pitch at the bottom or the top of the zone from the side angle? Never. In fact, during the Blue Jays game the other day, they started to show it and they quickly got rid of that particular feed because they don't want you to see how bad the ABS challenge system is. Like, look no further than the side camera, and if you have a dome stadium like Roger Center, put one on the roof. Hang it right over the home plate, use the laser that you claim is getting it right to set it up right over the center of home plate so it's dead center, then we'll know whether or not the the ball crossed home plate or didn't. Uh we know now that they changed where they're measuring the lower part of the strike zone. They've moved it back to the middle of the plate, which goes against what it says in the rule book. So, how much sense could this all make? How accurate can it be when Major League Baseball isn't exactly being out there, transparent, forthcoming with how they're measuring the strike zone? This is nothing more than an attempt to justify bad calls. They're looking for a buffer zone to help justify mistakes being made by Major League umpires. I I frankly liked it better when I knew what to expect, when I could scout an umpire back in the old days. I mean, even when the Braves were getting a foot off the outside corner in the National League, at least you knew you had to swing the bat. You knew you weren't going to have to swing it anything off the corner inside. But you knew, okay, well, Frank Pulley's behind the plate today. It's a day game, it's Atlanta. Greg Maddox or Tommy Glavin's on the mound, and basically if he hits the catcher in the chest, it's a strike. We we could plan for that. Now, ballpark to ballpark, we have no idea, as fans, as players, what it's going to look like. As I said, look no further than the fact that they won't show you camera angles above or to the side because they don't want their blessed ABS challenge system to be contradicted by your own eyeballs, your common sense. Wow, that ball actually touched the corner. And when you look at some of these pitches like sliders and you know big-time Major League Baseball sinkers, when you look at where the computer is saying that they have crossed the plate or missed the plate, they're completely, completely disregarding the laws of geometry. So you're telling me that a guy that's a right-handed pitcher with a slider or a sweeper or whatever they're calling it is going to throw the ball from the third base side of the rubber. It's going to move from his arm side to his glove side, oh, 15 to 18 inches. From the time he releases it to the time it gets caught, it moves 15 to 18 inches from right to left. And you're telling me that it didn't cross the front of the plate when it's caught two inches off the outside corner, four to five feet behind home plate. It doesn't make any geometrical sense to me whatsoever. None. And so they've moved it from the front of the plate to the middle of the plate. And so that 12-6 curveball, the Uncle Charlie, the drop ball, whatever you want to call it, that pitch in a million years will never make it to the catcher in the air because the spin rate on a major league curveball is so good that that ball's going to bounce before a catcher can get to it, especially as far back as these catchers sit nowadays. No way. So Major League Baseball, they knew. They were like, oh, we can't have the strike zone being measured. It'll be absolute chaos. It'll be pandemonium. You'll see pitches that are being scored as strikes by the ABS challenge system that bounced before they got to the catcher, and everybody and their mother is gonna go bonkers, including the gamblers. Because that's really the reason why we have this. We have legalized gambling in baseball now, unless, of course, you work for the team. You know, on the other side of the country, but we have to make sure that there is visible, tangible oversight so that if some big-time whale loses$100,000 on a ball game, he can't scream impropriety. He can't scream there's a fix. The umpire's in the bag because they're gonna be able to look at it and they're gonna be able to say, Well, it was in the buffer zone, that one only missed by 0.16 inches. Really? It missed by 0.16. So we can we can zero in a laser guided bomb somewhere in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan with a drone we can send rovers to Mars, but we can't get clear cell phone calls in the mountains. And this laser guided system is supposed to tell us within 0.16 inches whether or not it crossed the plate, nipped the corner. I don't know. I'm I'm I'm calling BS on this whole thing. You know, this this is all about all about organized gambling, and I don't have a problem with it. It's fine, but just let's call it what it is. You know, this is this is not a big deal to me, but you know, it the this this is the whole thing. So obviously, you know, we're in Canada. I gotta talk about the Jays. Let's talk about the Jays.

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Leading off the latest MLB news.

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Well, what would uh walk-off slams be without our daily or weekly dose of Blue Jays baseball? I I'm here to tell you, I I love the fact that they started off so good. But Blue Jays fans, do not be fooled by the quick start, do not be fooled by two walk-off wins against the lowly athletics of whatever city they're coming from. They should have been 0-2. All right, and I'm telling you. If if Denzel Clark does his job in game one, meaning be a center fielder in the big leagues and call off the left fielder, uh the Jays get beat 2-1 in the opener. Everybody's puckered up tighter than the snare drum because they just lost opening day with Kevin Gosman, who punched out 11 to the athletics. They should have lost game two as well. I'm sorry. They should have got beat in that series uh two games to one by the lowly athletics who are a swing and miss waiting to happen. A very unfundamentally sound ball club managed by a former teammate of mine, Mark Kate. Well, I've said for years that outfielders are the worst managers, possibly, uh followed closely by pitchers. And I watched that series, and I understand that that's you know an all or nothing ball club, but there were a lot of moves or lack of moves in that series by the A's that made me kind of you know scratch my head. Uh, you know, not playing fundamentally sound baseball, uh, the matchups coming out of the bullpen, uh runners needed needing to be in motion that weren't. I mean, we got guys on the mound for the Blue Jays that are one-sixth of the plate, and you're trying to scratch out an extra run in the in extra innings, and you're not doing you're not going anywhere, uh, made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. Um, you know, you look at that two RBI triple by Menez, and it doesn't happen if you've got a veteran center fielder who's not afraid to take charge. I mean, it wasn't even hit well. It was a jam shot. So, you know, I'm telling you, I love the fact that they won those games against Oakland. Uh, they they got the sweep, but uh don't be fooled. They're not playing fundamentally sound baseball, but because they hit the ball a long way and they strike out a lot of guys, all the sexy stuff is you know basically going to take your attention away from how poorly they ran the bases, um, you know, the pitch selection. Um I'm worried about uh Alejandro Kirk. I saw a lot of balls, him chasing a lot of balls to the backstop or off to the side. He's not blocking it well. He clanked a couple, um, did throw a guy out, but you know, the the good teams that they're gonna be facing here pretty soon, they don't let sexy happen. They pitch better, they play solid defense, and they don't get guys thrown out at third base multiple times in a series with two outs. You don't make the final out at third base in the big leagues, plain and simple. I get tired of watching it, and we're not talking about rookies. I mean, I don't even make excuse for rookies. These are things you learn in little league. We're talking about Vladdy Jr. getting thrown out by a country mile at third base with two outs to be the final out of the inning. Like, come on, dude. Get better. I love the guy. I think he's a great defender. He's obviously a great hitter, but we got to run the bases like a professional. As I said, here come the Dodgers and a bunch of other really good teams. They don't let sexy happen. All right, Kirky needs to clean it up. Um, you know, the game calling has been suspect at best, in my opinion. I'm not pleased with it. I mean, he understands how to work with a guy that's a thummer, a guy that's a finesse dude. I mean, look no further than a 160 RA last year with Chris Bassett. Well, Chris Bassett's gone. All right. I don't know if he understands how to use a big fastball. You know, in Mexico they pitch backwards. He's from Mexico. I get it. You know, it's it's eerily reminiscent of Diner Navarro and Marco Estrada. Soft tossing righty and a Mexican catcher. So I understand it. When you throw when you understand the soft game, you understand how to call the game for a guy that doesn't have a big fastball. I'm not being anything here. I'm just saying that that's the way they learn how to call the ball game. He needs to get better at calling the game, especially in big situations. Now, you know by now they lost the series to the Rockies, the Lowly Rockies, whose pitching was so bad last year that they brought in Alan Leichman. Never even heard of the guy. He never played pro baseball, unless you count the Isra Israel Pro League, which I don't. He played two years of college ball, and this guy is somehow more qualified to call pitches in the major leagues than what they've got sitting behind the plate. I'm not buying it either. It's another thing that is absolutely embarrassing, but hey, it's working so far. But trust me when I tell you, I'll be monitoring that situation really carefully. Uh, because I had it happen to me. When I was a rookie, they tried to suggest that that I was not calling the game properly for the you know the veteran pitching staff. Well, I told Kevin Malone one day when we were getting ready to start a game in Detroit. I said, Scott Erickson's on the mound today. Watch him shake his hand or watch his shake his head, see what he shakes to, see what happens. He got his head kicked in every time he shook me. So, like I said, you know, Kirky, he's a great catcher, the total package. But you know, I'm being nitpicky here. He needs to get a little bit better. Uh bullpen's off to a rough start. Hey, by the way, uh Little throws a lot of breaking balls. Hoffman throws a lot of breaking balls. Uh everybody in the league knows it, fellas. And oh, by the way, Little, we also know that when when your hair's on fire, you ain't gonna control the running game. You're basically a one-trick pony. You can't concentrate on two things at once. Uh, welcome to walking and chewing gum at the same time in the big leagues. You can't just get the wheels spinning and get a deer in the headlights look and just keep throwing balls right down the middle. They're sitting on your braking ball, and it's gonna keep happening until you show them, Hoffman 2, that you can command a fastball. Get them sped up, then go back to your soft stuff. But he picked up right where he left off, and I'm talking little. Rough, rough ending to 2025, rough start to 2026. Now, a couple other things that I'm I'm you know looking at. Uh, you know, my boy Schneider made a pretty questionable move and ended up coming out smelling like a rose when he pulls the all-world strikeout king of Major League Baseball in his first Blue Jay start in a situation where they needed a strikeout. They pull Dylan Sees and bring in somebody else, can't even remember who, probably should have done a little better research. But he got the double play, and I'm thinking to myself, you're gonna pull the the major league leader in strikeouts in a situation when you need a strikeout. Why? Pitch count? Come on. The guys get the guys getting paid$30 million. You needed a strikeout, that's where it should have gone, and in my opinion, it didn't go there. Now we know everybody in Blue Jays Nation, Cody Ponce, is going to be down for a significant amount of time. And I'm here to tell you, if anybody's ever heard a baseball player call a pitcher a non-athlete, look no further than that routine play where he injured himself. I mean, that was some of the most uncoordinated movement I have ever seen on a baseball diamond. Ed looked like a train wreck about ready to happen as soon as he left the mound. Now, and I'm here to tell you, it's not Cody's fault. It's not Cody's fault he isn't more coordinated. It's baseball's fault. Clearly, he doesn't spend any time running, bending over, or fielding his position. Because there's no way you could spend any time moving around like that on a baseball diamond and look that bad doing it. I mean, you have to practice what you what you need to do in a game. One little odd bounce in the ACL's tweaked. I mean, that's embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing. Not to mention, the second baseman was standing right behind him. I mean, had he just stayed on the mound and done what most pitchers do, which is simply throw, they don't do anything else but throw, we would be looking at a non-injured Cody Pons. Um, so like I said, I I have a major problem with baseball and their lack of oh, what should we say? Uh focus on fitness, focus on fundamentals. Ask yourself this how many times did they go out and work on PFPs this spring at game speed? I'm gonna say at no point during this spring did they go game speed. And I'll bet you they only did the other fundamental nonsense that we all hate as baseball players one time during spring training. And they're all their answer is always, well, we don't want guys to get hurt doing stupid little drills. Well, guess what? When you don't practice certain things, like being an athlete, it's hard to go out there an athlete. Coming up in the next segment of Walk Off Slams, my Sunday roast and uh oh, is it gonna be toasty? And now, the Sunday roast with grades on. When it comes to fitness training in Major League Baseball, I like what's happening about as much as I like student-led learning in elementary schools. It works for the self-motivated and already gifted, but human beings are generally going to take the path of least resistance, meaning the easy way out. Ever wonder why there are so many more injuries in baseball than there ever used to be? I blame load management, sports-specific training, dietitians, aka, gentle parenting in baseball. I also blame the teams for allowing the players to lead them. Baseball players need to run, throw, hit, bend, twist, stop, start, jump, and change directions. And I'm here to tell you, they aren't doing any of those things with any kind of vigor anymore. Players gripe about the length of spring training and yet they aren't in shape to do exactly what the game requires of them by opening day. Forty percent of all hamstring injuries in the game occur in the first two months of the season because these guys don't run enough and the teams don't make them. They love to quote BS studies about workload and sapping the player's strength. Meanwhile, they gloss over PFP, aka pitcher's fielding practice, cutoffs, relays, rundowns, and bunt defense. They might do it once in spring training, and then they wonder why teams soil themselves or players get injury when they're called upon to execute. Marathoners run distance, sprinters sprint. Baseball is a marathon of sprints, and yet the players spend zero time doing either. Pitchers used to go for a run the day after a start to flush lactic acid, and now they just take a cold bath. I understand why they're doing it differently. It saves energy and time, but taking a bath doesn't get players on their feet or get them in running shape. It gets them in tubbing shape. We always used to say you can't make the club in the tub, and you definitely can't stay on it when you're focused on spa treatments instead of fitness. A modern day hitter is likely going to take 200 plus swings in a day in order to get ready for 400 at bats. The likelihood they do four max effort sprints pregame, minimal. You almost never see position players put the pedal to the metal unless it's in a game and they smell base hit. The players are expected to be athletic, but all they really do is hit and throw. Pitchers will make 50 throws on flat ground at an exertion level of about 60% and then go into the game and try to unleash max effort, max spin because that's the way they think it's supposed to be done. Well, max effort is not the way, but let's say for a second it is. Wouldn't it make more sense to get warmed up, jump on the bump, and throw 15 max effort pitches just to dial it in at max effort? They only go all out in a game. It takes 22 pitches to retire three batters because they're recalibrating after warming up with A weighted ball and then they fire 15 to 20 pitches nowhere near the zone and run in. I wonder why they can't pitch three days in a row or why most of them are blowing out. Why do hitters hit her so much? Why do pitchers pitch her so much? Well, home run derby is fun and there are no consequences for failure. Why do pitchers waste so many bullets on the side? Well, it's fun to fantasize about how great their stuff is when there's nobody in the box with a bat in their hands trying to take food out of their kids' mouths. Why do we call them nonathletes and why do they look so uncoordinated when they're fielding their position? Why do they run it over to first instead of throwing it? Why do they airmail it to second and home? Well, it's because they don't spend any time working on it. They're one trick ponies trained to do one thing, throw as hard as they can. I was taught to do it till you get it right and then do it until you can't get it wrong. That goes for running, jumping, starting, stopping, and changing directions. Is that too much to ask of an athlete? Why are they coddling these guys? Why can't any of them play 162? Why is 200 inning such a tall order? Could it be that these guys were all raised to be showcase players who only care about a one rep max? Where have all the Cal Rippians gone, and why aren't athletes expected to athlete anymore? It's Sunday. Can you smell that roast?