Splash Considerations Ep. 9: Why Not Let it Fly?

Following an eventful three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, Justice is joined by John Shea of the San Francisco Standard to discuss the Giants unleashing some fire and passion in Cincinnati. Plus, Justice and John discuss the additions of Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert with Harrison Bader and Jared Oliva hitting the injured list, as well as how Patrick Bailey and Daniel Susac might divvy up playing time going forward.

Time Stamps

1:40: A quick aside on the Golden State Warriors

4:40: Playing with some fire

8:20: JT Brubaker's fracas with Spencer Steer

13:00: Landen Roupp drills Steer

16:05: Connor Phillips hits Willy Adames

18:30: Erik Miller vs. the World

20:50: The start of TonyBall?

28:40: Lefties off the bench

32:30: Bailey & Susac

40:50: Nationals preview with Andrew Golden

Recommended Reading

How SF Giants could divvy up Bailey, Susac’s playing time going forward

What SF Giants, Reds said about benches-clearing kerfuffle

SF Giants observations: Why Vitello liked Brubaker’s fiery moment on mound

SF Giants place Bader, Oliva on injured list, call up Brennan, Gilbert from Sacramento

SF Giants observations: Offense continues search for power, patience

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to another episode of Splash Considerations. My name is Justice Belasanto, San Francisco Giants Bee Reporter for the Bay Area News Group, San Jose, Mercury News, East Day Times, whatever you want to call it, as long as you read, as long as you subscribe. And I'm fresh. Fresh isn't the right word. I got like six hours of sleep and I got home at 2 a.m. But I am theoretically fresh off of covering the Giants' three-game set in Cincinnati. They lose to a three and here to talk with me about it. Only guy that seems to think I'm cool on this beat, John Shea from the San Francisco Standard. How you doing? Cool breeze, Mr. Hollywood. How you doing? I still I wish I like could have recorded my reaction the very first time you called me that. I think is that still my name in your context? Is that still it? I get a series of names, but is in this family-oriented uh podcast, right? This is a family-oriented one.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

I don't know if the uh the the nieces occasionally tune in, so I don't know if so we won't go over the language that was recited at the ball game the last couple of days in Cincinnati, then we won't go over what was said between the players.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I I think we might have to um there's gonna be a couple fricks, freakins. There's gonna be a a little bit of that. And it was a lot of, as you alluded to, it was a lot of tension, it was a lot of drama, it was edge, it was fire, it was passion. Before we get into that, John Shay, before we get into that, it's Friday morning. I want to talk about another sport entirely, John. Just really quick, really quick. I want to talk about the Golden State Warriors. Because Steph and Draymond and the Warriors, just we're gonna do this just really quick. Shea, they did it again. They pulled out the magic. This this might be the last time we see it, but they did it one last. If this is it, they did it one last time, and it was magical.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Last time we see it, that was Kurt's pregame speech, his spiel. He said, This might be our last game. This might be the last time we're all together. And what a thing to say before one of the most amazing games in this run's history. I mean it it uh it was kind of a downer the first half, and it said, Okay, they're down 10, oh, they're down 10 again. Oh, now they're down 12, they're down 10. And every time they were down 10, suddenly they were down two. And then in the fourth quarter, it was just bananas, and Steph was old Steph, and Draymond was Draymond times two, and then just everybody who had any kind of championship blood on that team contributed when it mattered the most. They relied on those four guys, two of them from Boston who won there, and two of them who won here, and Horford and Persingus and Draymond and Steph. It was pretty amazing. And I guess I you know, we don't root, we don't root, we're learned, we're taught not to root for anything. But what I do hope for is Steph to play as long as possible. I hope he plays till he's 50. That's what Ricky Henderson always said. I'm playing till I'm 50. And the way Steph's playing, I mean, he's not slowing down. You know, he was hurt this year, and that slowed him down for a while. But once he's on the floor, runner's knee notwithstanding, and you always wonder, boy, did he just make a move? I mean, if you look at that step back three that kind of clinched it, and the way he celebrated, he pounded his right knee down, like, oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

And if it looked like his ankle was about a turn, too, but the shoes that he was wearing, like luckily, they didn't they prevented him from turning. That's a commercial, man. That's a commercial for the shoes.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

What shoe company? He's he's he's kind of teasing them all.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

He he's a shoe. Well, he did the thing where he auctioned off all of the shoes that he was wearing as uh a shoe-free agent. Shea, if we if we go down this rabbit hole, I guarantee that this will be the entire podcast. But they played a night against the Phoenix Suns again. This might be the night, and it's against Dylan Brooks, and Dylan Brooks, he's someone historically known for getting a little nasty, being a little edgy, and I think that's a perfect transition to talk about the the latter two games of this series against the Reds. First game of the series is kind of laissez faire, two to one loss. Robbie Ray allowed two homers, uh, one of them being Nashal Stewart, who plays a role in all of this, but I just want to briefly acknowledge that. Um, but the latter two games, kind of beginning in the seventh inning on Wednesday, it was the most passion, fire, edge, nastiness, whatever you want to call it, it was the most that we've seen out of this Giants team so far. And that was kind of Vitello's defining feature at Tennessee. And we always kind of wondered like, what is this gonna look like at the Major League level? Like, these are grown men with their own personalities, and some of them kind of run cool. Like, what would this look like? So, the place where I want to start with you, Shay, what were your thoughts on the nastiness, the edginess, the fire, the passion? What were your thoughts on seeing it come out a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 5:19

My first thought was Tony Vitello absolutely loves this. I mean, this is right in his wheelhouse. This is what he stands for. This is why Buster Posey hired him off of the Tennessee campus. This is why he was the replacement for Bob Melvin, because you're right, the first two and a half weeks, it was 2025 all over again with a lower uh winning percentage. And even though Vitello kind of says, Well, I don't know what really happened there, I'm not sure. I didn't talk to anybody, I was looking the other way, I was shaking hands with the coaches. Well, deep down, and certainly afterward, when he saw the video, he couldn't be more thrilled, right? I mean, and now he's got Drew Gilbert by his side, who what do you call him? Wacky ass. That was his nickname for him. And and uh it's all these humble, kind of low-energy guys who were just even keeled, they all kind of came out at once. I mean, all the characters you mentioned were were players that maybe were not the first guys you'd consider being the first to kind of cross the line and and and become uh you know the characters that that you wrote about yesterday. So I think when Buster Posey looks at this team, he sees a lot of players, you know, like uh Adamus is kind of chill, uh Dever is certainly chill. And so when you have so many guys who are chill like that, maybe you need a manager who's who's fiery. And if you look back at Buster's teams in in 2010, I mean he and Belt and Crawford, they were all kind of laid back. And it took somebody like maybe a Pat Burl or a Romo or a Pablo, any of those guys. And then later in 12 and 14, you had Pence, and then suddenly there's a fiery team that's other teams come in and say, Hey, you know, don't tick the the these guys off because you know they might come after us, and but you know, Brian Wilson was another. And those guys were passionate. Buster Posey wasn't on the field or maybe in the clubhouse, maybe behind closed doors in private, away from the media, he was, but I never really saw that except for when it became time for Buster Hugs.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah, I think the thing with passion is that sometimes it manifests in different ways. I think the one guy that kind of comes to mind is Caleb Killian because Vitella always says, like, there's a fire there, but it doesn't necessarily show it. But these last two games, there was some guys not just with some fire, but definitely showing it. So I'm gonna kind of run through just for those of you who are not familiar, I'm just gonna provide a little bit of a synopsis. We're gonna make some pit stops along the way. This isn't just gonna be a straight-up monologue. We're gonna make some pit stops along the way. So we're gonna start with Wednesday night. Seventh inning, JT Brewbaker's on the mound. Spencer Steers at bat. I don't know if this really matters, but Spencer Steer did Homer on Tuesday. I don't think that played a factor, but he did Homer on Tuesday. Brewbaker gets ahead in the count on Steer, 0-2. Steer steps out, gets back in the box, and pretty much the second he like looks up, Brew Baker's ready to go. He's starting to fire. And home plate umpire Quinn Walcott immediately waves it off. And Brew Baker would tell us after the game that Walcott said Steer wasn't ready. And Bru Baker was not happy. He was ready to go, he was pitching well, he had two outs in the inning, and he he instantly has some words for Walcott. So then we get some pettiness, and I I noticed this instantly, and it it made me crack up audibly in the press box. It was like if you want Steer to have your time, he's gonna get his time. So Bru Baker proceeds to wait until the entirety of that pitch clock goes down to one second, and then he fires his pitch. Now, it would have been funnier if he struck out Steer. Uh, that's not what happened. And I know we said this was gonna be, you know, viewer-friendly, family-friendly, but I think there's too many cuss words involved. I'm not monetized either, so I could just say what happened. You can there's a video of Steer saying f you throw the fing ball, at least appearing to say it, from the side. He proceeds to single, then Brewbaker gets mad. Almost, I thought he was gonna get tossed. I thought he did get tossed, but he doesn't. Finishes the seventh, finishes the eighth, and then we talked to him and Daniel Susek after the game, and they admit that yes, this was they they held up the one finger. It was a coordinated pettiness effort. And the one quote from Brewbaker that did start uh stick out was uh it's one of those things where it's showing that we care. Vitello described it as one of the better moments that we've had in recent days. Shay, thoughts on the pettiness? The pettiness, the edginess. This is kind of the appetizer. Just we're gonna stop here. What are your thoughts on the pettiness of it all?

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Pettiness or gamesmanship?

SPEAKER_01 10:30

We can call it whatever we want.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

I I I go gamesmanship, and it it's all part of the unwritten rule. Don't show me up, you know, don't stare me down, don't do anything to me because you're disrespecting me and you're gonna get hurt by a teammate who's gonna throw high cheese at you. And that's the way baseball's policed itself forever. I mean, the commissioner and his his band of lieutenants or the coaching staff could step in, but mostly it's players policing themselves, and that's the way it's always been, and you know, from the beginning of time in this sport, and that's the way it played out the last couple of days. So I I don't I don't see anything wrong with that. I think it was really cool. And when you say one, that meant let's wait till one second is on the clock, and that's kind of a new, you know, pettiness or gamesmanship because we never had a clock.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah. I think in the in the pre-pitch clock era, I think Brewbaker would have just stood there until the batter stepped out because he could he could have theoretically just stood there for a minute and he wouldn't have gotten dinged.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Absolutely. He could have called for another ball, he could have circled the mount, he could have tied his shoes. There are all kinds of stalling devices. You no longer have that. So we're kind of seeing a new level of gamesmanship.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Yeah, that was it was just very funny to see. And I think as soon as it crossed the five-second mark, I think I audibly said, like, is he gonna wait? Like, or I thought I think I said like, is he gonna take a pitch clock violation just to prove a point here? Um, but if Wednesday night was the appetizer, then on Thursday afternoon, Shay, we got the full serving of beef. The full serving of beef. And again, we we've got a lot of boxes to check here. So I'm gonna try to run through this for those who didn't see it as as quickly as possible. Second inning.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

Before you continue, the full serving of beef is fisticuffs, is is that's that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

This is well, let's call it it's probably like a fancier word for what do we got? So nobody's gonna be suspended. Nobody's gonna be suspended. That I guess that would be the full serving, but at least as far as the shouting. Shay, I was writing this transition on the airplane last night. I thought it was a good transition, and you're met you're breaking up my transition. In modern times, this is a Donny Brook in modern times. In modern times. There we go. So second inning, Landon Roop's on the round, runner on first, steer comes to the plate. And Shea, Landon Roop does not throw his four-seam fastball a lot. He's a sinker guy, a sinker curveball guy primarily. And first pitch, Landon Roop proceeds to plunk Spencer Steer with a four-seam fastball. And for those of you who are wondering, Justice, how often does Landon Roop throw his four-seam fastball? Well, in his first three starts of the year, he had only thrown five. That was his sixth. And after the game, kind of slyly uh smiled and said that it slipped. Slipped so far in that it hit Spencer Steer right in the ribs. Spencer Steer wasn't buying it. Shea, are you buying that? That it slipped out of the hand.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

I mean, a four-seam fastball is meant for two purposes to go straight and to go hard. There's no break to it. It's right on target. It's the easiest way to hit a guy, drill a guy. And like you said, I think you documented that in your stories. What happened a handful of times this year, he's thrown that pitch. And it it it you don't throw a curveball and try to hit a guy, you don't throw any kind of change up and try to hit a guy, you throw a forcing fastball and try to hit a guy. And so players are taught at an early age, you know, when the media come up to you and said, Hey, was that a purpose pitch? Nobody ever says, Yeah, I tried to drill him. That's a suspension. Never, never, you know, unless I mean even Roger Clemens when he when he kept throwing at Piazza and then the bat broke, and then even Clemens picked up the bat and threw it at Piazza and then lied and said, I I thought it was the ball. I thought the bat was really all-time great.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I think it's it's somewhere in somewhere in Joe Poznansky's baseball 100. It's that incident is somewhere in there.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

So so if you ever get on politicians for lying, you know, your local uh baseball heroes uh, you know, are very good at it. And maybe they stretch the truth or maybe they exaggerate, but the fact is that was a purpose pitch. There was no doubt about it, but nobody can do anything about it because he didn't fess up, so he won't get suspended, he won't get fined. But that's his way of protecting a teammate. Like, hey, dude, you disrespected my guy yesterday, so I'm going after you today. And that's just the way it is, and then um, you know, then then the Reds retaliated, and you you figured that was the end of it, and that's just how it's done. And then they go home and go to the next series and start all over again, but they never forget this. These two teams play again, and that will be talked about in the clubhouse before game one of that series.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

They don't play again until August, so we've got some time, but we'll we'll we'll kind of see how things are are kind of going. So you mentioned that the Reds retaliated as well. Let's go to the top of the eighth inning, and I do want to quickly note that there was no warning issued after Roop hit steer, it was just play on. No warning issued. We fast forward to the top of the eighth inning. Willie Adamos is at the plate, Connor Phillips is on the mound. Connor Phillips' first pitch inside fastball. Adamus has to duck out of the way, kind of moves the shuffles the feet back, and there's this beautiful screen cap of Elliot Ramos kind of doing. I'm gonna put the microphone down real quick. He goes like he does the soy face, I think that's the appropriate term for it. Second pitch, drills him, mission accomplished on Connor Phillips' part. And Adamus was more perturbed than angry, kind of put the hands on the on the hips, took a little, took a little while to walk to first base, took the helmet off as he walked to first base, which is always kind of like uh you gonna start some stuff. And a couple a couple giants spilled onto the field, um, but it wasn't really anything mild. Phillips got ejected again. There was no warning prior issued, um, but you know, he was ejected. That was that. And I personally thought that was kind of gonna be it, but we're we're not gonna stop here. We're just gonna go to the finish line.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

We gotta we gotta finish up just you think it was odd he was ejected without a warning.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I do think it was odd. I thought that you know, at that point you would have just issued a warning, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:23

But maybe, like you said, he came after him in consecutive pitches to begin the at-bat. So uh it was two outs in the eighth inning, nobody on base, the perfect time to go after a guy. So maybe he won't do damage. You get the next guy, you're out of the inning, and your point is served. But I I just thought that Francona might have put up a bigger fight. He was out there for a couple of minutes talking, but not necessarily uh he wasn't Lou Piniella or Billy Martin or Dick Williams throwing around and saying, Why'd you throw out my guy? He's probably gonna take him out anyway. Maybe that was the reason.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, I do there were some questions that kind of popped up, like why Adamus, why six innings later? Maybe it was the fact that they were trailing 3-0. Like, again, if we had truth serum and we could give it to Connor Phillips or even even Landon Roop as well, I think we'd get better answers. But unfortunately, uh we do not got all the answers here, man. We do got all the answers here. So, Shay, let's go to the main event. These were the uh, what's the term in boxing, the lead up to them? This is the this is the title card.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

Yeah, those were the prelims.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Those were the prelims. This is the title card right here. So Eric Miller enters bottom of the ninth inning for a chance to record the first save of his career, walks a guy, but proceeds to strike out uh three batters, the last being Sal Stewart, who side note, homered three times in the first two games, including a two, two three-run homers against Tyler Malley on Wednesday. Punches out Sal Stewart, 98 mile an hour sinker, and yells, and you can even hear it on the hot mic. And again, this is this is if you if you if you got children, you might want to cover their ears for a second, but you can hear him yell, sit the f down very audibly, and he doesn't really yell it at anyone in particular. It's just he's a closer, he just recorded a save, there's a lot of emotion, and you know, he's walking towards the catcher because you know that's what happens when a game is over. And South Stewart gets mad, then Eric Miller. I think the one before before we I'm gonna stop actually right here. I think what one thing that people need to know about Eric Miller is he is a very soft-spoken guy. He is very soft-spoken. Like you gotta put the recorder like really close to pick up everything that he's saying. And he proceeds to tell Sal Stewart, f you sit the f down. And then I uh if you if you're a visual, if you're watching this, this is gonna be the best way to do this. He proceeds to like point at every single member of the red saying, f you, f you, f you, sit down. And that was pretty much like it was just an amazing moment. I it's kind of like the um the Shaq. I didn't know you had that in you. I didn't know Eric Miller had that in him. And again, that was kind of the extent of it. Like, there was no pushing, no shoving. There was some funny moments, like the bullpen ran out, and then they had to walk back to get their stuff after all of it was over. Landon Roop was in the clubhouse. He runs out onto the field when he sees stuff going down. Bench is clear, the game is over. Like, it there's no one, I don't think anyone's gonna get suspended for that. It's just it's just a baseball moment. Something always happens, as you know, in Cincinnati. It's something about that city and those two teams. But that was kind of the cherry on top of these two days of edginess, fire, passion, and Shay. I think you feel the same way. You kind of alluded to it, but I I kind of love it. I kind of love it with this team for for this specific team.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

For a team that's been so flat and to come out and show energy and and passion and drive and competitiveness, that's the perfect way to finish the series and fly into Washington. And you know, they're thinking, let's get at least two here and show that same passion. Now, if that passion all just goes away and they're flat and gets swept in Washington, then this it'll just be a little footnote and we'll forget about it. But I think I referred to uh in my story this morning that hey, this could be the start of Tony Ball. Hey, you know what? Remember Billy Ball and Billy Martin? Who what was that? It was getting the most out of a whole bunch of players who maybe weren't great other than Ricky Henderson. You know, they had Mike Norris and some really good starting pitchers, but for the most part, they turned average players into very good players by just being passionate. And there was some camaraderie and there was some emotion and there was some drive, and there were characters. And the more you have characters come out, if you recall the 10, 12, and 14, there were enough characters to kind of and and Buster alluded to this in the offseason. He said characters are good for baseball. I don't know if he was a character like some of these goofy guys. He was kind of straight-laced and he had to be to focus on working with the pitching staff and kind of being a leader in that clubhouse at a young age. But but this is good. I think this is exactly what they needed for a team that just w was underperforming like they did last year, according to the you know, GMs. They believe this team should have been better last year. That's why they made the change at the top with the manager. And now it's up to Vitello and his staff to keep this going. And it's up to the players to keep this going. And who would you rather have than Logan Webb for game one and Robbie Ray's what Sunday? So you're you're sending two of your best, you know, your one-two starters at the beginning of the season at the Nationals, and it's I mean, we're getting all excited about a three-nothing win. They they scored three runs in one inning on one hard-hit ball. And but that's okay. You know, I mean, the their best player, Luisa Rice, hasn't hit a hard hit ball all year, but he's their best hitter, and he's got a five percent strikeout rate, and Ramos is at 35%. So who would you rather have a guy hitting it hard but swinging and missing, or a guy maybe not hitting it hard but getting hits two or three every day? So I I I think that's maybe gonna wear off some of this stuff that happened yesterday and the day before. It better because you don't want to see what we saw in those first couple of weeks, flat baseball, because that's that's just training, and the fan base has had enough of that.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah, and that's the thing about those first 17 games of the season is that it was incredibly flat. It just it wasn't the fundamental baseball that you're used to seeing, especially guys like with you know Chapman and Adamas. There was just misplays all over the field. We talked about Chapman's just really bad week that he had, and and that was like a fiery moment with Schmidt, but like I wouldn't categorize that as like the ideal type of fire, kind of a friendly fire. But you know, I I asked Eric Miller this after the game yesterday and about emotion, and then the one thing that he said is like you never want to force it, like you don't want to like uh it you don't want emotion for emotion's sake, but I I do think that this is something with this Giants team where it's like okay, the can't the Pandora's box has been open now. Like we were playing, like, and I do think with Vitello in a little bit, I think you know, he's we obviously talked about a lot the 162 of it all. Like, we're not expecting him to be doing backflips and crowd surfing every single game, but you know, he is a rookie manager, he's still trying to feel his way out, and I do kind of wonder if if for him, in a way, like this allows him to come out of his shell a little bit, because this isn't to say he hasn't had like his his own little fiery moments, but I think he's contained it a little bit, and maybe that's again him trying to feel things out at the major league level. But we did see him have a moment with junior valentine yesterday as well. So if this is the you know, in retrospect, as you mentioned, like this might kind of be the start of what you deemed as Tony Ball.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

And I don't think this season is over. A lot of people are bloom and doom.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

You don't think the season's over on April, what is today, April 17th, Shay? You don't think it's over?

SPEAKER_03 25:44

What I've read by some people, not yourself or myself, but you know, what I hear on the radio, what fans are saying on social media, it's like, you know, fire this guy, fire that. And I'm thinking, oh my god, really? There was a team in the early 2000s that started 6 and 14 and they won the World Series, and they beat the Giants in seven games. I was gonna say it was the two Angels, right? Six and fourteen. What are the Giants now?

SPEAKER_01 26:14

They are seven and twelve.

SPEAKER_03 26:17

Yeah, so that's a little better than those Angels back then, and that was a good team, but still nobody anticipated when they were six and fourteen that they'd go on and win a seven-game World Series over the Giants, both wild card teams, by the way. And that's what the Giants are looking at. If you look at if you look at the standings in the National League, I think three teams are three games or more than three games over 500, and everybody else is within three games or below. So, I mean, a real good week. If you look at the other league, I think the A's are tied for first place and are one game over 500. And there are a lot of very 500 teams so far. So hardly anybody has, you know, the Dodgers are gonna win the division. Okay, so now it's there's three wild card teams, and the Padres and Diamondbacks are off to good starts. And here we're talking, we're looking at the standings in mid-mid April, but only because there is a lot of pessimism um so far with this manager, and it's certainly not his fault. Um, it's not like he's been given a lot of leads and he's thrown the wrong relievers out there, and he has mixed up the lineup quite a bit, and you know, they finally have a couple of lefties uh up from triple A, so it's a more balanced roster. But yeah, I think it's too early to to give up and and tank.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Like, I mean you don't think the Giants are gonna blow it all up on April 17th, John? 19 games into the season? 12% into the season. It's over. Let's give up. It's over. It it's all it is all over. Uh, I do to the point of pessimism, I I do want to bring this up because it is valid. Um, the Giants, as we sit here right now, currently link rank last in the majors in runs, in home runs. They're the only team that doesn't have at least 10 uh and walks. Uh, wrote about this the other day about how you know they're making rolling bases and run differentials, on bases too. It's a lot of categories you don't want to be leading or be at the bottom of. I wrote about this the other day. I'm gonna touch on this really quickly is that uh they've been making a lot of contact, but not necessarily like good contact. And like with someone like a rise, like you can get away with the soft contact, but Rafi Devers and Matt Chapman and William Adamas and Elliott Ramos, those guys need to make uh hard contact. So I'll link to that down below. You did mention the outfielders that they brought up from AAA. They hit from the left side, John Shea.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

And this was something that's that was talked about from the second that they set their opening day roster, the all-right-handed bench, and now they've got some diversity. So for those of you who need some names, uh Harrison Bader and Jared Oliva both hit the 10-day injured list. Harrison Bader, it's the lingering hamstring issue that he's had dating back to spring training with Oliva kind of a freak thing. It was in his second or third at bat on Tuesday, where it was a left ham ate fracture that's gonna put him out for a couple of weeks. Probably gonna have to go. I assume he's gonna have to go under the knife to uh recover from that. So it's gonna be a while until we see uh Jared Oliva again. Uh, Bader said he wants Matt Batts at AAA just for his own sanity. Um, because when he suffered the hamstring ailment initially, it was at the very end of spring training, and then he had like one exhibition against Sultanis, and then it's like go face Max Fried and Cam Schlittler and all these really good pitchers. Um, so we're probably not gonna see him for a bit. So in the corresponding move, we get Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert, pair of left-handed hitters. Uh, Drew Gilbert got both starts in center field. Uh, Will Brennan got both starts in left field over Elliott Ramos, back-to-back off days for Elliott Ramos. Kind of curious to see what that dynamic is gonna be like going forward. But Shea, this kind of feels like it was really overdue. I know it wasn't the ideal circumstances, like they probably didn't, you know, write up a couple of injuries happening for this to happen, but it feels way overdue for this team to get some diversity on its bench and to give Vitello more options to kind of plug and play, especially in late game situations.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

I think going in the front office and coaching staff figured, well, we don't not we don't need a lot of pinch hitters because who are you gonna pinch hit for? We have eight, nine guys out there who are regulars, who have track records, and you're not gonna you know hit for you know Chapman or or or Adamas or Devers and Bailey gives you the defense and he's a switch hitter, so he's supposedly got the platoon advantage. However, when you don't start well and then you look for a uh a pinch hitter for say a Bader or a Ramos because they're not lighting it up, there's nobody on the bench. There's nobody on the bench who could come in and be that left-handed bat um against a tough righty late in the game. So they hit for themselves and they lost games. And the only one time they did have a left-hander on the bench is when Jung Hu Lee took the day off and he came off the bench to pinch it, and we're all whoa, and he drove in a run, sacrifice flies, so it proves that it could work. And now there's a lot more balance, but um I thought they might have sent out Oliva anyway, and maybe the FA Gerard just to get those extra guys up, and Jesus Rodriguez was another option, uh, though he hits from the right side. So this made a whole lot of sense. Bring up a couple lefties, throw them in the lineup, and see where you go. And I imagine they're gonna get some more starts. Uh, what do you do with Elliott Ramos? You know, maybe you sit him down for another day or two, maybe you throw him in the lineup and see if he can just kind of come out of his shell. But it's kind of weird. Right away, they're giving these two left-handed uh outfielders at bats in consecutive games, but we haven't seen that with Daniel Susack.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

You want to get into Susack now? Do you want to transition?

SPEAKER_03 32:30

I mean, I think that was probably the lead. It's a lead on everybody else's mind. And you know, you sort of wonder, well, why don't they just play him more? Like a lot more. Well, Bailey's fantastic defensively. He had a great September offensively, but they figured the momentum of all of that would kind of morph into the season, it hasn't happened, and now you have Zusak getting two hits every start. And I say, okay, why don't you ri uh ride the hot hand until it's no longer hot and then let Bailey work in the cage with the hitting coaches for two, three, four days and go from there. It hasn't happened.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

It might start to happen.

SPEAKER_03 33:15

It might start to happen.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

It might start to happen. And yeah, Shana and I had talked about this on the last podcast that we felt it was a little premature after Susac had like two nice games and the fact that Patrick Bailey has two gold gloves. But, you know, again, it's just getting more difficult to look past the fact that Bailey through 50 plate appearances has a 308 OPS. That's not on base percentage or slugging percentage, that's OPS, which if he was qualified, that would be the lowest in the majors. And Susak is 9 for 16. That's just it's such a small sample size. He's not going to have a 1338 OPS unless he's just the catching version of Barry Bonds. Uh, but we did see him get his first start against a right-handed pitcher on Wednesday, two more hits, two more RBIs, and Bailey metrically is still an elite defender. You can't just completely overlook everything he's done over the last two and a half years, dating back to 2023. But if this offense was clicking, I don't think this is as much of a conversation. But like I mentioned, last in runs, last in homers, last in walks, last in run differential. And you can't just kind of allow these at bats from Bailey as of right now, which have been pretty empty. You gotta change something. And so we might see more of a every other day situation. I think that Bailey might be on the uh behind the plate today for Logan Webb and Susak. He he's caught Robbie Ray a couple of times, so that's Sunday. So kind of interested to see where that Saturday kind of goes. Like, do we see Bailey? Do we see Susak? And you know, it's kind of gonna be this revolving question over the next couple days and weeks.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

And right, why not start him two out of three every series? Though you have the Dodgers coming up after that at home, and it's not like it's too big of a moment for Susak. I mean, he's been in baseball his whole life, he's been in the Giants clubhouse when his older brother celebrated, you know, the the winning the pennant in 2014. He remembers being there for the Ishikawa game. So he's hit everywhere he's been in the minors. He's pretty refined defensively. He might not be Bailey, but he's certainly at least average from the minimum of times we've seen him. I don't know if you agree with that, but I think hell of an arm, too. Hell of an arm. A good arm. He he he has uh abs awareness, and you're right, he's he's nine for 16, and he just seems to barrel up balls, he gets the barrel on it, and it's not always hard hit, but he finds holes, and he's definitely good at what he does. So why not? You know, if this if this lineup is not going to wow you one through nine, you've got to make little changes along the way, and it's not like Bailey is a silver slugger and has had a whole lot of track record hitting uh 300 anywhere. So it would make a lot of sense. You're right. Um, I I I Susac has worked well with Ray, so he goes Sunday. You could you're right about Bailey probably starting uh tomorrow uh tomorrow. Um no, the the the opener of the Washington series tonight, and and then it's Saturday. And shoot, I would, I would throw Susac out there. You know, why not? Um it's not like you know, and I wrote a story a few days ago about the possibility uh, you know, talking to JT Snow about switch hitting for Patrick Bailey, something he's done his whole life, and it's really hard just to give it up. And he didn't do it this offseason. He spoke about it late last season, spoke about it in spring training, said no, emphatically, I'm I'm going to continue this. But maybe eventually it would be better if this man just hit from the left side because he's got so many pregame duties working with the the pitchers and and the pitching staff and going over the lineup strategically to just say, you know what? Um maybe it's okay if I just stop hitting right-handed. Then he can devote a whole lot more time to just focusing on the left-handed side because it's really hard for any switch hitter, you know, unless you're Mickey Mantle or Eddie Murray or Chili Davis. Even it was hard for JT Snowhead, who didn't have, you know, comparable splits. So that's why he gave it up midway in his career. And I think he became a better hitter against left-handed pitcher. So, you know, that's one thought.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Pablo Sandoval as well. Pretty good switch hitter. There was a quote from after the game on Wednesday, and this quote wasn't about Bailey in particular. It was in response to a question about Susac, but it did kind of make the ears perk up a little bit. I'm gonna read it to you. This is from Tony Vitello. It's not gonna work out very often if you don't get two or three spots in the lineup, or if you have two or three spots in the lineup where you don't get anything out of it. It could even be a 12-pitch strikeout, as foolish as that sounds, but at least you're wearing down the pitcher. You move a runner over or something like that. You could go 0 for 4, but you can't have a spot in the order where you don't get anything out of it. And the one thing about his Susac, Susac's at bats, is that there always seems to be a good approach, and more times than not, there's something of value. So that quote was not about Patrick Bailey. It was not in response to a question about Bailey, but it does, it did kind of feel a little bit like Tony was showing his cards just a little bit as far as to where this could go. And John, I'm sure we'll continue to talk about playing time both in the press box and maybe on here in the coming days, in the coming weeks. But Shay, I know you got better places to be than sitting on a sitting in your room talking with me. So, Shay, this is a lot of fun. It's always fun talking ball with you. Where can we find your work?

SPEAKER_03 39:04

SFstandard.com, baby. Been there for years. I'm starting my second season there. I love it. I uh one of the best moves I've ever made, and the people are awesome and the setup is awesome, the uh the focus is awesome, but everybody's got to read Justice. Me gotta go to his site and and read him because uh you know you know what you're doing, and you're asking the questions, the right questions. And before we sign off, I'd love to hear your interpretation because you I when I wrote read that quote in your story, it was like, oh wow, that's that's pretty powerful stuff. I mean, just to finish off in in uh 20 words or fewer.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Uh sending a message, maybe. I think that might be a little too strong of a way to say it. I like it, but it kind of felt as if if it was in in a roundabout way, it was saying, like, hey, yeah, Bailey has this defensive value, this is great. But at a point, you gotta go with somebody that can provide something offensively. And this is not to pile on the guy, but you know, in Thursday's game, he did go 0 for 3 with a grounded into double play. So it's gonna be an interesting series in DC. Neither of us are gonna be there for it, but of course we will be in the press box for the upcoming series against a certain back-to-back, two-time defending World Series champion. And we we will have a lot of spirited discussion during that series. John Shea, appreciate you for coming on as always. Thanks, Justice. And here to preview the Giants upcoming series against the Washington Nationals. I'm now joined by a sports enterprise and features reporter for the Baltimore banner and also someone who knowingly, or unknowingly rather, let me crash on his couch while I had COVID. Andrew Golden, welcome to the show. If I had known, I don't know if I would have let you crash. I want to emphasize, I want to emphasize the unknowingly because I didn't even know I had COVID. Should we provide the people with some context before we get into the actual show? So it was 2023. It was AAJA, Asian American Journalism Association. Uh, they were having a conference in DC. Uh, I didn't want to pay for a hotel, so I hit you up, you let me crash on your place. I barely saw you the entire time because by the time I get back, you'd be asleep, and by the time I woke up, you were gone. I think I may have seen you like a total of five minutes, which is probably for the best in retrospect. But the the pirates, I was covering the pirates at the time, had a series in San Diego immediately after. So I drive back to Pittsburgh from DC, hop on a flight. Long story short, I end up having to stay the night in Chicago, take a 5 a.m. flight from Chicago to San Diego in the morning. Worst flight of my life, feeling absolutely awful. I land and then the group chat's blowing up, everybody and their mama got COVID. So I'm just stuck in San Diego for three games, like right by the hotel, too, so I hear everything. Last series in San Diego went went a little better. I was actually there for it. Andrew, I hope you're doing, I hope you're doing a little better. Well, I was always doing great. I'm just glad you're doing better. That's that's that's the main thing. Well, it's funny. So you're actually, you're in, you're in my old city right now. The national the nationals are currently in Pittsburgh. How's my city treating you? How's my old city treating you?

SPEAKER_00 42:35

It's good, dog. I went I went to Pamela's via your recommendation, had some great uh crepe pancake, crepe style pancakes yesterday, so I was very impressed. Um yeah, it's been good so far. It's the Nationals have split the first two games and you know, interested to see how the rest pans out.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yeah, and I'm interested to see how the rest of the season pans out for the nationals. Honestly, the next three to five years go with this team because I was talking to Jordan Schusterman about this team in the offseason, and when we were talking about like sicko teams, like the real like the teams that baseball sicklos gotta be excited for. I thought about this Washington Nationals team, and the place where I want to start is that, and I say this acknowledging that both of us are in our late 20s. This team is run by some babies. You got the youngest president of baseball operations, the youngest GM, and the youngest manager. What has stood out to you so far about Taboni and Colombi and Butera running this ship so far?

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Yeah, I think what stands out is that I think the main thing that they're preaching is just accountability and just um communication. Like I I think I think for them it's like regardless of of age or how young they are. I know like Miles Michael is 37, so I think he's in theory older than all three of those guys. And like I think like to them, like as long as they're being communicative with the players, like I think I think what the sense that I've gotten from players and just people being around the organization is that there seems to be like a new energy um and a new excitement for ideas. Of course, that's going to Happen regardless of who takes over, right? If it was a new manager who was in the 60s or 50, it wouldn't matter, right? There'd always be a new energy and a new interest, but it does seem like the coaches are really invested in what the team is trying to do. And it seems like there's more involvement from the front office, and they're just trying to build more of a collective identity and a collective um messaging from the top down, which I think is really important. And so, you know, obviously like everything is really nice when it's been the first couple of months, and you know, you you're you're a month and a half, you're only a month into the season and you're kind of at 500. Like there's a lot of like things to be excited about. We'll see if that kind of continues as the season progresses. But um, I I think just my sense is that there just seems to be a good vibe around the team and a willingness to kind of be open to new ideas and new thoughts. And so um personally for me, like the the age thing um doesn't necessarily matter to me. Like, like I think the reality is like if you think about like any job, right? Like if you're if you're gonna hire somebody who's like if if you're gonna hire somebody who is like probably young and maybe a little bit like quote unquote unqualified for the job they've never done it before, right? Like you're taking a chance on somebody who you think can get there. It's like you're gonna hire somebody young, right? Like if or like the other options, you hire somebody older who's done it before and hasn't succeeded in that role, and like does that really help you get better? And so I I think it's a good um I I think the age thing doesn't matter as much to me. It's like, look, are these the most qualified people to do the jobs? That if they are, then like let's see what they can do.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

I I think it's pretty common that we see teams whenever they want to pivot course of direction, you kind of see the next choice being pretty counter to the previous choice. And even in the Giants, we can kind of see this with Bob Melvin being the Giants' previous manager being and being replaced by Tony Vitello, who we're not gonna get in. This is this is not this is your segment, not mine. But you know, when considering the the previous administration with that was the the Rizzo Martinez kind of ran operation there, did you expect the Nationals to go in this direction? Did it come as a surprise that they went in this direction, or was this pretty much aligned with what you thought their might their next move might be?

SPEAKER_00 46:06

I think it's a came as a little bit of a surprise. Like I I think with it the I think during the previous few years with the learners, I think there seems to be a tendency to kind of continue to look in-house and maybe not go outside. And that's not just with baseball operation. I think that goes for for a lot of decisions in the in on the business side as well. And so I think like this is definitely a a shift from the tradition, whereas like you're not going with somebody who you know this is somebody brand new, and there's there's kind of this they're fresh ideas, fresh perspectives, and those sorts of things. So I think it was kind of not a surprise. Maybe it was a little bit of a surprise at first when it came to Taboni, but I think the silly moves that have followed, it's like, hey, if you're gonna go for this, like try to think outside the box, try to do things differently. And so I think like once you have somebody who's leading something in the way that Taboni is, like, I it doesn't surprise me that they've made these changes and done things differently. Because I think it's kind of what you brought him in to do in some ways. Um, but it definitely is definitely a shift from where it was before. But I think the surprise maybe came in like the learners didn't hire somebody who you know was internal or somebody that was like, you know, had previously been with the organization. It was like we're gonna start fresh, and I think it's probably gonna be a good thing for them in the long term.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

I want to isolate to Butera for a moment. Uh I just we might get into this in a second, but I just want to do uh highlight the fact that he had his team lay down three months against the Milwaukee Brewers, and they all three of them worked. That's uh maybe we talk about that in a in a second. But in the time that you've had to be around him, he's obviously the youngest manager in baseball. He's 33. That just means we're getting day by day closer to getting a Gen Z manager, uh, for better or for worse. Um, what have you learned about him in the time that you spent around him? And what would you say is maybe I know this is a little more difficult to put on a manager, but what would you say is maybe his defining characteristic as a manager in the time that you've been around him, or maybe in the conversations that you had around people around him?

SPEAKER_00 47:54

Yeah, I you know, I I think I've only been around him for a couple of weeks, but I would say just one thing that stands out as like he just seems very intentional about being involved, like being in the mix, um, and um obviously delegating his responsibilities to other people, like the pitching coaches, the head coaches would need be, but just like even like in taking, you know, whenever they're doing on-field work or batting practice, like it's pretty common for him to be out there like taking ground balls and shortstop with CJ Abrams and talking to him, or like being at first base and like you know, field you know, fielding PFPs and throwing them to pitchers, like whatever. Like that's not something you typically see a manager do, just like you know, just out there actually pretending as if he was like the the bench coach or like the field coordinator or whatever. Like, you know, I mean like typically like the manager isn't the one in the mix, typically. Um, and so that's just something that's kind of stood out to me where I thought was kind of unique, is like Blake is like really heavily involved in like you know, CJ takes a ground ball, they're talking, and he's right there with with his glove and he's throwing, like he's throwing batting practice, which maybe isn't as uncommon, but just just in the sense of like those are typically things you delegate to your assistants, and he's like, I'm gonna be in the mix. And so um that's a little like a small detail. Like, I I can't say I necessarily know what the defining characteristic yet is of him yet, just having having been having only been around them for a couple of weeks. Um, but I do think that like that is something I remember seeing that and being like, hmm, like that's that's not something that I've seen before, which is kind of a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

Don't tell that to Tony Vitel. That man loves the man loves to swing the fungo. Oh, okay, okay. Well, I take it back then, but you know, like well, it was two young guys, because again, like you don't see it pretty often, so it is kind of interesting that two of the new managers are two guys that are willing uh to do that. Um, I I'd mentioned this, you know, right before we started talking, um, that you know, this this team is kind of like my three to five year curiosity. And another reason for that is in doing some reading of yours and other people, it seems like there's more resources that have been placed onto this Washington Nationals team. I I remember uh Young Spencer, as we like to call him. Uh I think he did he did a story on that, or I think he like even had a video about that. What have you kind of seen, or maybe some of the feedback that you've received as far as more resources, more technology being poured into this team compared to previous administration, well, previous administration?

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Yeah, I think the I think there are a live, there are a lot there's a lot more technology in involved in terms of decision making in terms of game planning and maybe how that shows up. I think obviously the biggest one is Traject. They obviously have three Traject machines, which was a big thing that they did not have in years prior, and they got them this offseason. Um, but I but I think you're even just seeing it in like little things that they're doing differently in terms of like having hitters do homework and having research, having them research opposing pitchers and pitchers research their their themselves through true media and having access to those accounts. I think Spencer wrote about that. Um I think stuff like that. I think it's just making the information more available. It's not that like it's not like all these guys just become robots suddenly, they still have to go out there and pitch. I think that's like the one of the recurring things they're like, hey, like we're not saying we're like that all this technology is gonna like we're gonna use that and make every decision based off of that, but it's giving us an understanding of what makes us good. I think with I think with the biggest difference is like they're using the technology and the information gathered from that technology to explain to players here's what you're effective at, here's what you're good at, here's how we maximize that. And so that to me seems like the biggest difference um is that they just seem to be using it and implementing the data, the resources that they have to put them to put their players in a better position to have success, if that makes sense. Um but I but I think in terms of technology, like yeah, there are there are new things for sure. Um, and there are there are you know more resources in that realm. But um I think the biggest thing is just using it to help the players improve and know what they're good at.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

So we're about 10 minutes into this conversation now. I think we should uh start talking about some of the players.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Because there's a couple players on this Washington National that I'm very uh infatuated by, and I'm not gonna go with a sicko pick here. I'm just gonna go with James Wood. He, you know, he's obviously gotten off to a hot start this season, 972 OPS, five homers since the calendar flipped over to April in particular, 326 batting average, 674 slugging percentage. And he's already been an all-star. I I think the talent is undeniable, and it is small sample size, yeah. Like a lot of guys can get off the hot starts, but when you see the quality of his played appearances, when you see the quality of contact he's making, it just feels like he is continuing to evolve as a player and is turning into not just one of the best young players in baseball, but just one of the best players, period.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Yeah, and I I think like the big thing is the first week he kind of really struggled. It was like, oh my gosh, like is James Woodgun and like, is he struggling? Is he gonna be struggling like he did last year? And then like last week he's an NL player of the week, right? And so I think like um I think the biggest thing for James uh coming into the year was like how can he limit his swing and miss? Um, not that like I mean, good player swing and miss. That's not like a bad thing per se, but how do you maybe kind of shrink some of those swings and misses to put more balls in play to generate more singles? How do you put yourself in a better position to have more success um even in those slumps to even like have you know your slumps instead of hitting 100, you're just hitting 200, right? Are there ways to like to like raise the floor of even your slumps? And so I think like I think James is gonna be an incredible player. Like, I have no doubt. Like, I mean he hit 30 homers and 90 RBIs last year. I think I think like it's really funny. Like he had a really tough second half after the all-star break, and I think it was like, oh my gosh, James Wood is like falling apart. Like he still hit 30 homers in that 93 RBIs. Like, let's not like act like he had some like horrible year. Like he had a really, really good year. I just think he's like learning. It's a second full season. He's only 23, right? So like he's young still, he's a lot to figure out, right? And I think he's just like I think what you're seeing is just him kind of learning um how pitchers are gonna approach him, how he wants to approach them. I I think he's just kind of figuring things out at the big league level, and you're just watching him figure it out. So I think you could easily see him have another slump and then have him have another really successful stretch. Like, I think it's just like any other young player, like you're you're it's just there's just there's just growing pains and there's just learning curves, right? Like CJ Abrams went through the same thing, and now CJ's having a great start to his year. Um, obviously he has a good start every April. That for him, it's like, can you can you sustain it? Um, but I think James has the potential to be like a superstar type talent. Like, and like I don't think it's a question that he will be that kind of player. Um, I think it's just a matter of just being patient and letting him figure things out. But but but just his ability just to control the strike zone, like when he's really going good, like he kind of knows that you can't beat him. Like he's gonna he's gonna watch a fastball travel as long as he needs to, he can adjust for the breaking ball. He has everything the opposite field because he has so much power, like which is so rare um for a big league put player. And so I think like I think he's just such a different type of player that people probably haven't seen before that it's hard to compare him. And so you want to you want to stress out or freak out when things aren't going well because you don't there's not a comparison for him per se. Um, but I think what he does is really unique, and I think he's only gonna get better from here.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

I do want to mention someone that Giants fans probably aren't going to see during this upcoming three game set, and that's Dylan Cruz, obviously the number two overall pick in the 2023 draft, right behind uh his former teammate at LSU Paul Skeens. I think it's pretty good player, I've heard Paul Skeens. Pretty good player. I think it's easy to forget now that time has passed, but there was a there was a time when you know Cruz was being considered for that number one overall pick before Skeens like really took that mantle. Um, obviously started the season in triple A. Again, we're probably not going to see him during this upcoming series. Just where is Cruz kind of at? He obviously made his debut last year, didn't go so great, and even in triple A right now, it's not going so hot. But so where where's Cruz just at in his development right now? And when do you think might be, you know, a timetable when we might see him in the major league level at this season?

SPEAKER_00 55:11

Yeah, I th I think the timetable, like I think the main thing for Dylan, and I felt this when he got called up initially in 2024, is that like he kind of got rushed to the major leagues, I think, in some ways. Like he never really dominated in the minor leagues. Like he had success, but he didn't necessarily show like a strong, like, you know, he didn't have a strong grasp of like the strike zone and like and and spin and break and those sorts of things. When he got to the big leagues, it just was a little bit of a adjustment period for him and he struggled, right? So I so like I I want to make it clear, like I don't think that like Dylan is like done for, like, he's a bust. Like, I I think that's a little bit overblown. Like, I think he just maybe just got rushed to the big leagues and he just needs some time. I I think what's happening now is like he's probably getting the developmental time in the minor leagues right now that he probably needed maybe a year ago, but it's just the way that it happened is maybe a bad look. But I think the difference is like this new regime is not tied to like we drafted this guy, we gotta get him here so we can like prove that this rebuild is gonna work. They're like, look, like we want to make sure that we're gonna do this right. Um, and so I in terms of when we'll see him, like maybe like June-ish, maybe maybe that seems like a good estimate guess. Like, I think he just needs to figure some things out, work, work some through some things. But I think like if it goes past June, he's still not there, like I wouldn't take it as like the oh, it's failing. I think it's just oh, he's just working through some things. Like, I think he probably was just rushed early in his career um to the big leagues. Um, I think maybe that's probably why he struggled, and I think it's maybe good to see him go down there and try to test some things out because he really struggled in the spring. Um, I think maybe it was a bit of a surprise that they actually made the move, but I think it kind of shows that the Nash was really prioritizing development, um, no matter how high of a pedigree you had. Um, and I think it was the right move.

SPEAKER_01 56:51

Andrew, the question that I want to leave you with as we wrap up here, and I pose this question to every beat reporter that I have on here Who's your biggest curiosity for the 2026 season? The player with whom you know you're very interested to see how things go, the the player with whom you're most curious, not necessarily who you think is gonna be the best, the worst. Who are you most curious about?

SPEAKER_00 57:12

Yeah, this is a this is a tough one. I was I've I've been even so we talked about this before we started recording this, and I had an idea that was thinking about it as we were talking, I said maybe I'll flip it. Um, but I am gonna stick with Seaver King. Um he was the National's first round pick in 2024, um, debuted last year and really struggled in, or debuted obviously in in he got a taste of the minor leagues in 2024, but his first full season last year struggled early on. Um there was just some some back and forth in the organization maybe about how to approach his development, some swing changes, different things of that nature. Regardless, like Arizona Fall League this year, he finally puts it all together and just has an amazing Arizona Fall League. Um, and so far, like his he's had a pretty good start to the season. Um, the biggest thing with him is like um it's his plate discipline. Like that's that's that's what I think, like not chasing, like um figuring out what are the best pitches for him to swing at and then taking advantage of those. And so far, like I think it's a sample size of 10 games. He's already walked and looking at this like 13 times, um, which is to me is a really good size, obviously a 10-game small sample size, but the fact that he's being more selective, um, is not going outside the strike zone, like he he's a 281 average, but has a 469 OBP, so like that you'll take that, like you'll take that every day of the week, right? And so um that's a guy I'm interested in. Just just just like what is the organizational philosophy for him? Um, is there more of a collective message across the organization in terms of what is the game plan for his development and then how does he maximize that? And so I'm excited to see what he can do this year. Like, I like I I think that the the group that drafted him was very high on him when it happened that was led by Danny Haas, who's now with the Orioles, but um, he was they they were very excited about what Siever could do, and I think he struggled a little bit last year. Um, but I think that like there's a reason they were high on him to begin with, and I think he's starting to show um why they valued him really highly.

SPEAKER_01 59:03

Andrew, this was a lot of fun. I appreciate you for taking the time. Where can folks find your work?

SPEAKER_00 59:07

Um at the baltimore banner.com. I don't know what the slash Andrew Golden is. I'm not exactly sure what it is. I probably should figure that out, and it's obviously a little bit new for my first month or two here, so we'll try to figure it out. But um, but yeah, you can find me on Twitter at Andrew C Golden. Um I'm on Blue Sky. I forget what my name is, but probably the same thing. Um it justice will include the links at some point. I'm sure. I'll throw it in there.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

Okay, cool. Editor Justice will throw it in there. But Andrew, my guy, I appreciate you taking the time. Uh, we are several hundred miles away from each other, so no chance of uh unknowingly unknowingly crashing in your place in uh without COVID this time. Uh, this is a lot of fun. I'll see you down the road. And uh thank you for coming on. Appreciate you having me, dog. Appreciate it.