Splash Considerations Ep. 20: A New Era? (feat. Shayna Rubin)

In Episode 20 of Splash Considerations, Justice is once again joined by Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle to discuss Bryce Eldridge's walk-off grand slam, the 21-year-old's desire to be the face of the franchise and why Eldridge has been one of the best rookies this season.

Follow Justice on Twitter/X: @justdelossantos
Follow Shayna on Twitter/X: @ShaynaRubin

Additional Reading

Face of the SF Giants’ franchise? Bryce Eldridge ‘fits that mold’

Bryce Eldridge hits historic walk-off grand slam as SF Giants erase 8-run deficit to beat Nationals

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Welcome to another episode of Splash Considerations. My name is Justice Delos Santo, San Francisco Giants B reporter for the Bay Area News Group, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, whatever you want to call us, as long as you read, as long as you subscribe. And speak of subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow us on Apple, follow us on Spotify. A lot of things in this life cost a lot of money, but subscribing and following those things remain free 99 in just a moment of your time. And I'm joined now by the superstar sports reporter for the San Francisco Chronicles, Shayna Rubin. Shayna, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I'm great. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:03

I'm doing well. It's the off day, an opportunity to finally take a step back, relax. But I don't know, Shana, I don't know if you feel the same way, but after yesterday, I I don't I don't think I've finally like, I don't think I've had equilibrium yet. I'm still think I'm I'm floating a little bit. 24 hours later, after one of the most crazier sports days that I can remember, uh still kind of floating, and it is, it's it just kind of feels I'll say this. Despite us being a little more jaded than we were when our sports fandom started, it's one of those days where you take a step back and you're like, wow, you can watch this sport all your life, but you never know what you're gonna see.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Yeah, I'm I'm hopped up on sports.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Hopped up on sports, and of course, Shana. I'm talking about game four of the finals. Gotcha. I got y'all. I'm just playing. I'm just lying. We're here to talk about Bryce Eldridge. We're here to talk about the San Francisco Giants. Although, you know what? Let's take like 30 seconds to talk about the finals. Let's take like 30 seconds to talk about game four, New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs sold it. Just a historic meltdown of historic proportions. Shane, your thoughts on Game Four?

SPEAKER_00 2:19

It's a great one. I think like uh I was covering yet yesterday's baseball game, so I got to a TV by midway through the second half or something like that. And it already been, you know, Spurs up by double multi double digits, maybe 15-20, something like that. Maybe more. No, yeah, 20-ish. And then I was like, all right, this is I missed the game to miss. So this is gonna be one of the there's always like in the finals, there's always one game, it's just a complete blowout. And you're like, all right, that's evens the score, go on to the next game. Uh, walk away, come back, and the Knicks are down 15 or something like that. And I'm like, all right, I've I've learned anything about watching MBA in the modern era and covering NBA and covering the Warriors. It's that 15 point lead is absolutely nothing. So uh and then there's also this little sort of voice in your head that says 15 is everything in the finals. So the Spurs have everything to lose, and they're not gonna surrender that kind of lead, the 29-point lead, and turned out to be just the most hype game uh you can imagine. And there's been so many hyped finals games, but that one was one of the best I've seen. And it was really fun to watch just the Knicks world, New York world react to it. I think that's been my favorite part of sort of like quasi-rooting for the Knicks. And I don't know if like, you know, I don't have a rooting interest, but I think there's a little part of me that just like excited. I always just want to see how the Knicks fandom is gonna react because they've just waited so long for this moment and and they have so much passion. And it's it's just that that's my favorite part, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

I mean, they've reacted by throwing eggs at Victor Wemanyama.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

That's well, other than that, that's the worst part of it. That's the exact part.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Other than that. So the it's funny because I was kind of in a similar position as you, and again, we're gonna get to Bryce Eldridge, we're gonna get to the Giants, but you know, I didn't leave the ballpark until relatively late last night, and I actually had a friend who was at underdogs right across the street, and at that point, you know, it's a day game, I'm already tired, I'm like I want to go home. And they were up by like 25, 20 points, whatever it was, by the time I got there. And so I was talking with him, I spent like 10 minutes talking to him just outside, kind of like side-eyeing the game. And I said bye. Told him, like, alright, I'll see you later. And literally like half a second as I took a like step towards the parking garage, I hit the hardest U-turn. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna watch this game. Let's see, let's see how this finishes out. And maybe it was the fact that it was Wing Wednesday, maybe it's just in the back of my head, I'm like, there's a lot of basketball left to be played. Maybe it was just, you know, I want to hang out with my friend. I don't know. I turned around, and being it's one of those things to watch, one of those games, but like being in a bar where people have like very clear rooting interests, it just like adds another layer to it. And I hadn't mentioned this to you yet, but there was this dude there. There was like some running club that was happening, and there was this dude there wearing like a Knicks slash Wu-Tang shirt, and he's like very clear, like from what I think is a Knicks fan. I think he's a Knicks fan. And so when they win, he is like losing his mind. At one point, he like leaves, go to the bathroom, whatever. And this other dude's like, yo, that guy's not actually a Knicks fan. That dude's a Celtics fan. I'm like, Celtics fan? Like, I don't know much about like the New York Boston allegiance, but I'm like, this feels like sacrilege. This feels like if you were a Giants fan, you caught wearing Dodger gear during during World Series time. I don't I don't know how to feel about that. Then the dude was like, it's his girlfriend. I'm like, I don't know. I feel like if the relationship was strong enough, I feel like the relationship could have endured a hate watch. I don't know. What do you what do you think? I think a good hate watch to keep the relationship strong.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yeah, I mean that's the crossing lines for your girl is super uh romantic, and that's that's real love. So I love that. Love that. I mean it is really bizarre, but yeah, that's uh it's bizarre because it's Nick Celtics. That's that's that's uh that's a unique relationship, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

But that's some real 21st century love. If we were in like the 20th century, I don't know. I don't know. But anyway, let's talk about the giant Shane. Let's talk about Bryce Eldridge. Let's talk about one of I think it's just safe to say like one of the craziest things that I've ever covered, one of the craziest games that I've ever covered. I don't know like if this kind of fits the mold for you. Just it's 24 hours later. We've taken the opportunity, we've slept on it, we've collected our thoughts. Even in that, they're still jumbled. I have all my notes here, and I'm still like, I don't know where to kind of begin or end with this. But 24 hours later, Bryce Eldridge with the swing of his career, his first all-caps moment in the majors. Just what are your thought processes? What are you thinking following one of the craziest games of this series, and quite frankly, one of the craziest games in Giants history?

SPEAKER_00 7:09

I mean, I think as sports reporters, we all have moments we have to sort of, I mean, obviously we're we're keeping it level, but we all have moments where we're sitting there and we have to react to a moment, and that was a moment where it was hard not to react, uh, just by the sheer unlikeliness, by the sheer sort of um brilliance of how everything came together into that very moment, which is you're racing an eight-point deficit, you're in the bottom of the ninth inning, the bases are loaded, and up comes the guy that's supposed to be the guy that delivers in these moments, and he does that. And it's just it was just so picture perfect that the and and the nature of the home run too was so there was, I think it was in the air for like six seconds. It was just this moment of suspense, like, is it just gonna be a you know, Zach fly? Is it gonna is it gonna bounce off the wall? Uh what's gonna happen? And the fact that it just bounced right over and was a grand slam, walk-off, grand slam was just like, oh, that's what it looks like when when when history happens or when a moment, like a true moment really happens. So it was just like a jaw, it was a true jaw dropper. Um and to witness it live was was um just like a really fun experience from a sports writing perspective and fun to to cover.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Yeah, is it's super weird in the moment because there's like something in your brain that like flips to like it's like your brain just like has a sense of like this is this is something you're gonna remember for the rest of your life. And it's funny because I was talking with Alex Pavlovich of NBC Sports Bay Area, and it's funny, he gave me a shout out on his podcast, so I'm gonna give him a shout out here, the uh far less listened to of the two podcasts. But it was like the bottom of the eighth inning, the giants were trailing like nine to one, and I think Pav said something to the effect of like the Giants are kind of due for one of these crazy games where they end up coming from behind, and you know, when you think of come from behind victories, you're not thinking eight runs. And I know we're gonna run through some stats here about to contextualize that, but it's interesting, and I'm kind of glad that you know not to get not to get not to give myself a back, not to give myself a pat on the back, but I am kind of glad that I I brought up the basketball and the Knicks game beforehand because I think now forever when you think of OG Ananobi, you're gonna think of that tip-in in game four. And the interesting thing with basketball to baseball, and I think we can both attest to this as people that have been fans of both games, is you get these types of moments more in basketball. It's a lot rarer in baseball to get like the all-caps moment. Like you can think of points in in players' careers where it's like that's like that's a cop capital M moment. And like you can kind of get them in baseball, but definitely not as frequently. Like think of Steph, for example. Like, there's a lot of places you can go, like maybe his first career triple-double. You can go like the crazy game that he had against San Antonio, like 2013. There's a lot of places you can go, or like him hitting 400 threes and to win game 73. There's a lot of places you can go, but in baseball, you don't get that as often. And we saw that, well, we didn't see it, we weren't alive for it. But like Will Clark when he made his debut hitting the homer off Nolan Ryan. There was Buster Posey in 2010 when he caught called up and instantly has this big game and is off to the races. And I think we saw that yesterday with Bryce Eldridge. To where in the moment you can say, like, this was an all-caps moment. And sure, people could say prison of the moment, yada yada yada, but you know, Bryce Eldridge becomes the star that the Giants think he can be, and they've said they believe he can be, this is going to be the moment that we look back 10-15 years from now and like, oh, that was the day that a star was born. That's where my thoughts go with a day like this. With a game like this.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, and I mean it wasn't an isolated incident either. It was surrounded by a lot of really good at-bats and really good baseball by Bryce Elders. It wasn't just sort of like, here's some lucky swing by the top prospect who's sort of just looking for a moment to feel it or get in there. He's already been in it. He's already taken, and it's not just with the power. His, and we can get into that maybe later, but this is it it comes amidst a time when he's looked like a completely well-rounded hitter overall, and more than just sort of the the headline about what kind of player he's supposed to be. And he's so that's that's what made the moment maybe even sweeter. Is it's a moment, but it also comes in in a context that it that demonstrates that it's not just a fluke.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yeah, it felt like it had been building to something lot like this. And obviously, you don't predict walk-off grand slam to cap off an eight-run lead. But to the point that you mentioned, like leading up to that moment, like he had looked like Bryce Eldridge at advertising. I don't have the numbers going into Tuesday's game, but I think he was batting 300 with an OPS around 900. And you look at Savant, and he's not qualified yet, but there's a lot of red there, and that red in the good way, and so it had kind of been building to a moment like this, to where you know he's been hitting well. It's not like he's batting like a buck fifty, like all the stars kind of aligned for him to have a moment like this, and again, you just don't get moments like this often. And like this isn't the second shot of Buster Posey in his playing career, but like I mean, how many moments did like even a future Hall of Famer like Buster, like how many moments of these did he have? It's not a lot, like you don't get these types of moments every day, especially in this sport. And so it felt like everything was kind of building, and then you get this moment right here. And again, prisoner of the moment, not to get too caught up in it, but I think that you know, knowing who he is, knowing the confidence that he has, knowing that he wants greatness, it feels like if there was ever like a welcome to the Bryce Eldridge era moment, it was this one right here.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Yeah, that's it's maybe it's a little scary to say something like that because it's just like, you know, we don't you don't know. You you have to sort of bookmark it, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

You don't it it it feels like the okay, if if if everything trends in this way that it's trending, that's the bookmark. That's the moment that you're gonna dog ear and be like, go back to this. And it's it's I mean, you don't have to dog ear it, you're gonna remember it. Um, but it does in a picture perfect world where everything with Bryce Eldridge and his potential goes the way that it's trending at this current moment, it just it feels like that's it. That's the moment that you're gonna remember. And it's what a moment.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Yeah. And yeah, to your point, there's so much baseball that he has to play. He's played, he hasn't even played 50 career games. Like, and it's not always gonna be this great. There's probably gonna be a time when he's going like one for 40 or like two for 38, something like that. Like, the slump is coming. He did slump a little bit when he started and initially got called up, but it's one of those moments where it just kind of feels like everything was aligned for a type of moment like this to happen. And again, like I think uh Bright like he's been very vocal about how the fact that he wants to be the face of this franchise, he's said he wants to be the guy here, he said he wants to join some of these legendary names, and when you start a career like in the way that he has, this is kind of the way that everything lines up for that to happen. So I kind of want to run through some stats from yesterday because when you have a game like that, there's bound to be some history made. There was a whole lot of history made, and I'm gonna let you pick which one is your favorite. We we can we can draft these however we want to go, because there there were just so many fun ones here. And I would be remiss if we didn't touch upon some of these. Youngest player to ever hit a walk-off grand slam, surpassing, oh, I don't know, Roberto Clemente. We had the first team in MLB history with a walk-off grand slam to cap off a comeback of eight runs or later. First team to win when trailing by eight plus entering the eighth innings since Cleveland in 2009. I'm not saying what they they were called in 2009. We'll not be doing that. First ultimate grand slam since this team moved to San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Why is it happening again?

SPEAKER_00 15:37

I don't know what it is. I don't know what to do. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Okay. Second team since 1900. They had seven Grand Slams in a span of 23 innings. Welcome to San 23 games. Slam Francisco is in full effect. I'm sorry, Slam Diego. Your chain's been snatched. I don't know how else to say it. And also, to kind of cap it off, first time all season that they have been trailing after six innings and they have won a baseball game. First time. It was gonna happen eventually, but it finally happened yesterday. Of all those stats, of all all the crazy ways that they made history yesterday, which one was your favorite? And also just shout out to Sarah Langs real quick. Like this, these are the types of days that like Sarah Langs was built for. She was built for days like today or yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

But yeah, she was on it with everything, and I was it was I I'm always amazed at the speed with which you can get stats like that. Um my favorite statistic is the uh the youngest to hit a walk-off uh Grand Slam, just because I mean it's a rare feat in itself, but the fact just like being the youngest to do anything of that magnitude in all of baseball history is just like whoa, like maybe that ball needs to go into the Hall of Fame type of whoa. Um, that's like the ball we hit, I mean. That's that's insane. Um and it's hard, and and and the fact that he beat out um beat out sounds like the wrong word, sort of the edges out of is best uh Roberto Clemente when by 109 days age-wise is and happened back in 1956, is is he's held that record for so long, 70 years. So that's uh that's the most impressive stat. I think the statistic that's most indicative of what's gone wrong this season, or what feels like the missing piece this season, is the the fact that they haven't come back at all or mounted any sort of comeback and and won after trailing after six innings, which by any number, by any amount of runs, which is just it's that feels very real to what's been their issue, which is there's just there's been sort of like a lack of grit and a lack of fight and a lack of a lot of their wins have been sort of they overpower other teams or they kind of barely eat by. But there hasn't really been a moment, and that's why the the Elders moment is one thing, and then the moment of mounting an eight run, scoring 10 runs and two innings in the eighth and ninth inning, that felt like that's the first time that I've seen this team do anything like that in forever. And it who knows if it's a turning point, who knows if they ever do it again, but that feels like that's a moment that and a quality that this team lacks when you try to explain like why is this team that looks pretty good on paper in a lot of respects so you know listless and flat? It's because they don't do things like that.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

And it's kind of crazy because it felt like last year's team did that like every other day. It like it felt like there were so many rewrites last year, like every other day. It's like Wilmer Flores is like hitting like a bloop, or like what what did he do last year? Like drew a walk-off make it Mason Miller with the Patrick. Mason Miller went or like like the Patrick Bailey walk-off, like take your pick of any of his walk-offs, or like it just felt like that was happening so frequently last year, and this year it again it kind of got to a point where you know, as a writer, you're always on your toes, like if they start making noise in the later innings, but if they you're down after six, you're just like you shrug your shoulders and say, Oh, I guess they're losing today, which you know, like that's just kind of been the reality. And now now instead of 0-30, they are one and thirty, or they're one and thirty. So or I guess it would have been 0-31 if they lost the other day. But it it is it's just so odd. I I don't know, like, do you kind of you kind of feel that way too, just as a as a writer, like covering this team? It's like, oh, they go down and like okay, it's kind of it. It's because that's what I'm even yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

I didn't even start rewriting until uh Bryce Eldridge actually hit the home run. I mean, you were writing, I was writing what was happening, just sort of keeping up. I guess this is sort of like a behind-the-scenes thing that we have to write our gamer. I was writing everything that was happening just because, you know, explaining the comeback and I wanted to have a log of it and everything like that. I didn't really it took until mid- the until that moment for me to actually start to be like, oh my god, I'm gonna have to rewrite. I have to rewrite. I didn't believe it until it happened. I didn't create an alternate universe in my writing in which the comeback came through because I, you know, I've never had to use an alternate. So it's it it was definitely a oh oh my god, I I have to rewrite everything right now moment that has not happened this year in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 20:26

It's usually the other way around where the Giants are getting walked off, and it happened what day was it, Saturday in uh in Chicago against the Cubs. Like the way that I always do it is like whenever that game is within like one or two runs, like the second the tying run comes to the plate, you get get the notes folder out, and it's like here's the alternate headline, here's the alternate subhead, here's the first two or three graphs, and again, it felt like I I remember Bob Melvin even was like, there was one game he was like, You guys are rewriting your game stories, huh? Like after a home game, after a walk-off, and it just hasn't been a ton of that this year. But you know, going back to Bryce, I I do want to kind of set the table here because the one thing that really resonated, because again, we talk about greatness, we talk about his desire to be great, and the one thing that really resonated from yesterday actually happened on it kind of goes back to Monday, and you were there for Monday's game. I wasn't. I was my flight was beautifully getting delayed, and I didn't land in the Oakland until like 2 30 in the morning. So I was not keeping track of that game at all. But Bryce Elders steps the plate, uh, bottom of the ninth, runners at the corners, two on, two out, down by one, and he strikes out swinging. And, you know, it's he's 21, you know, these are things that are gonna happen. You know, it's that's probably not gonna be the last time he steps the plate in a big opportunity, but you know, you were there and you know, for that game, you were there for yesterday, and he really took that moment to heart. He wasn't flippant about it either. Like, I think the first question that somebody asked him on Wednesday was what were your thoughts rounding the bases? And he's like, Yeah. I kind of lost it. Oh, by the way, let me tell you about what happened on Monday. I was still pissed about that. So I think that in and of itself kind of says a lot about you know how he internalizes everything, how much he cares. Like you can have all the talent in the world, but you don't necessarily care. And I think that's one of the things that really stuck out about yesterday is like this is the dude that wants to win. And like you can say that about a lot of guys, but they will show you. They won't tell you they will show you. And that was one of those instances where he was showing.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah. It was a nice like pee behind the curtain about how his brain works. So I think a lot of players process uh I don't want to say failure, because it doesn't that seems harsh, but the process their failure and their redemption in the same way where they're thinking about moments like that for days and months on end. Um and the thing about Bryce Eldridge as a person is that he is un uh he is not afraid to share exactly that. He's not afraid to put everything out on his sleeve and say, this is how I'm processing. I want I wanted that moment, I wanted the moment back, and I wanted to redeem myself or redeem the moment. I wanted to get right, I want to do what I am here to do. And he just says it in such a forthright way that it comes off if it maybe if you it comes off so unbelievably confident that that's sort of it's it's one of his standout qualities, is that he's the type of player, I think that if you're looking at it from an outsider perspective, it's like, all right, well, he's some 21-year-old kid, he doesn't know what he doesn't know yet. But if you're the Giants and you're hearing him talk about the confidence with which he was sort of wanting and hungry for that moment again, I think that that's exactly what you want to hear from from a someone that wants to be the future face of the of the franchise, is that someone that vocally and bravely seeks out moments like that too, because that's where they thrive. And I think that he thinks that's where he thrives. And that's the other beauty of the moment is he knew that that was for him. He was he was beyond, and all players want that moment, but he was saying it out loud. And there's something to saying it out loud.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Yeah, and he kind of had like a sneaky, funny, like post-game answer. I can't remember what the question was, but he was saying, yeah, like I'd never envisioned myself with an office job. Like, this is this is the only reaction, like, this is all I ever thought about. Like, I didn't think about doing anything else. I thought about doing like playing baseball, and you know, him growing up in Virginia, and I, you know, it is it is funny because Bryce Harper was his favorite player growing up, and you do kind of see some of those similarities from a confidence perspective. And I do think Bryce Eldritch, not Harper, he he kind of leans like a little more. I kinda I wrote this in my story, like despite him being from Virginia, like he has like a little bit of like that California cool in him. Like, he's just so confident how he like like just what like watching him walk, like this is just like strutting, like just turn practice, like that's just kind of who he is, and it kind of just feels like it's it's it's almost like anime-esque in a moment where it's like this this is what this man has been building towards, like this type of future. Um I do want to quickly just like interlude and talk about Mike Ruco.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

It's one of just the most I think it was like I think it was the most insane thing I've ever heard him say.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Like, for those of you who don't know what I'm saying, I think Dwayne Kuyper was like because they they panned, it was like the oh-0 count, Bryce's step into the plate, and you know, the tarps off is happening in center field, which I personally was like, is that distracting the hitters at all? I don't know, but tarps were off for sure. That entire like right center field section, the 415 area. And Mike, he's like, time to drop throw.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

I don't know what that means. Drop throw and hog out. Drop trout trout, drop trout and hog out. I'm like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Like, it was some I didn't even see that or hear it until like well after. It was like 10 o'clock when I heard it.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I was like, that's like upper echelon top five, top three, top two, top that's like one of the best things I've heard him say, and he said a million great things and just I don't know, just effortlessly funny and effortlessly like he's just I I'm very pro, it probably maybe it offends people, whatever. Uh I am very pro just making people laugh. I think we're so we're so afraid to say something that might um be a little bit, you know, crossing whatever. I don't know if it crosses any line, it might be a little bit meh, but uh I'm just pro him like going for the it wasn't even he wasn't even trying. It was just like an effortless, like, I'm gonna say something that everyone is gonna probably think is funny, and it really was. And everybody just does the chemistry with kype too. It's just like that's how they talk. That's that's what people, that's what people want to feel like when they're listening to a broadcast that they just ace with they almost like invented it, I feel like. Not in it in a way, that's how it feels to me. They invented sort of the concept of hey, you're just listening, you're we're at the bar with Kruok and Kype, and this is what I would overhear them saying if I was just like hanging out with them too. Or like maybe I'm part of it also. It's just like it's it's a cool like parisocial moment where you're like, that guy's really funny. I just I'm glad I got to hear him just like make a crude joke.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

I have always been partial, like it is kind of recent, but I've always been partial to the um I don't know the boardwalk with a schmag. Like that that's one of those things. Oh, yeah. Me, me and one of my friends quote that one all the time. I think this one eclipses it. It is just the most it is such an what's the term I'm looking for? It's something thoughts. It's what? It's it's what's that term? It's like something thoughts, like intrusive thought. It was such an intrusive thought, and he's just like, you know what? I'm not holding this one back. I'm letting this one fly. And it was it was just perfect, absolutely perfect.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Perfect comedic duo and timing. Absolutely. I no negative notes from me, yeah. All positive.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

And then the absolute catharsis of like five seconds later, like one of the most defining moments. Maybe the defining moment of Bryce Hell's rookie screen.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

I think they should win an Emmy for that, those 30 seconds alone.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Put them put them in the put them in the Hall of Fame. What are we what are we waiting on?

SPEAKER_00 28:30

And use that, like whatever's going on in the Hall of Fame, use that moment to really just capture the magic.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

This will be forget everything else that's happened over the last three decades. This will be the clip that gets them into the Hall of Fame. Um, so you had mentioned, you know, the hit ability, the hit ability of um Bryce Eldridge, and I want to read some stats off to you. I think I did this the last time we talked, and I'm gonna, it's another edition of Are These Stats Good, featuring Justice Delos Santos and Shana Ruben. So I'm gonna read off some stats to you. And I'm gonna tell you what Bryce Eldridge ranks among qualified rookies, and you just tell me, good or bad. That's all I'm gonna ask. 298 batting average second among all qualified rookies.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Am I reacting now?

SPEAKER_02 29:10

You're reacting now. That's that's great. That's great. On base, 385 third. Surprisingly and good. Not even surprising, it was just good. Slugging percentage. 521, that's second among rookies. WRC plus. Ooh, we're getting fancy. 153, second. Whoa! That's great. Woba. Wait, second to who? Ooh, that's a good question. It's not on my notes, Shana. I think it's more it might be more a Kami, I think. Okay. I'm not sure, but he he's he is second. Uh Woba, weighted on base average, 391. That's second too.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Tamurakami also.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Again, Shana, it's not. Alright, I'm I'm just I need to like specialized like. Second to some to somebody that's not named Bryce Elders, yes. Ex-Woba. First, 388. Wow. Walk rate, 12.8%, fourth.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Interesting. Very good.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

I'm just gonna rattle off these next three exit vilo, fifth, hard hit rate, second, barrel percentage, eighth. And I just listed off a bunch of numbers, but I'm gonna say, like, forget the numbers for a second. The one thing that has impressed me the most about Bryce, and I think he let go the same, is the quality that bats that he's been having. Because, like, again, for a 21-year-old, like, there are not many moments where I've thought, like, oh, he looks overmatched. Like, he's gonna have moments like Monday. Again, like, I'm gonna iterate that, but there just hasn't been many moments where he looks like a 21-year-old in the majors. Like, there are a lot of moments where you're like, oh, this this guy like looks like the most mature hitter on this team. And that's saying like that's not a a shot at Devers or Rise or Chapman Adamus. That's just the qual like how quality his at-bats have been. And you're again, you kind of think like, oh my god, this guy's only 21, and he hasn't even played 50 games.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah, I think maybe the walk numbers are a good indication of those at bats where you really notice. I mean, obviously it's a walk, but like a lot of the a lot of the walks that he's had, uh, especially in the last couple games that I've watched closely, um, he's going down 02, and then he there is a couple on on Tuesday and Monday where he goes down 02 and he just works it back and and and doesn't doesn't bite, doesn't chase, and and draws a walk. And you can see him calm down when he's down in the count when you can see him almost become even calmer when he's 02 and say, like, okay, I I am in charge of this moment and I know what I'm looking for, and I am not going to, you know, go out of my way. I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be the strikeout at that. Um and the the awareness and the and the discipline that he has at the plate is is probably the most the most surprising development of the uh of his current uh stretch, just given the fact that that's not supposed to be his game. He's we you you think when he came up, it's like he was striking out at a good amount, and you say, well, that's his game, and that's that's to be expected, and that's just what's gonna happen, and you'll get the power as a return on investment for the strikeouts. But the fact that that's not happening and he's really just taking his pitches, working through his at bats and processing everything the way that he is is very um probably the most um promising development of his entire call-up uh to this point.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

And I don't know if you've had this thought either, like, and I say this, he has hit two homers in his last two games. Before that, it was like two homers in 23 games. The one thought that I I've had as he's been going through this first stretch, like real stretch of baseball, is he hasn't really tapped into at least like from a home run perspective. Like he's hit, like he's now hit four, like he has four major league homers now, but he hasn't like consistently tapped into like he's been hitting extra base hits, but not as much setting it over the fence. And so you start thinking like he's doing all the right things just as a hitter, not just as like someone that's trying to slug the ball, just as a hitter. And he's probably gonna get stronger too, despite the strength that he already has. And so you start thinking, like, and again, I I've mentioned this twice now, like prisoner of the moment, you don't want to get too caught up in there. There's a lot of baseball left to be played, but you start thinking, like, if this is what he's like at 21, like I I hear a common refrain like with young players, like, this is the worst he's ever gonna be, hypothetically. So you start thinking, like, what is this gonna look like when he puts on like a little more strength, when he learns Oracle? And again, a lot of baseball left to be played. There is a slump, like it comes for everybody. There's gonna be a slump that the league is going to adapt, he's gonna have to adapt back. But I think that's been the one thing that really strikes out, like sticks out is the hit ability has been better than advertised, and he's still tapping in that power, and he's still gonna get stronger.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Yeah, and I think the fact that he's adjusted so naturally in the short amount of time that he's been up here. You I mean, you know the pitchers are gonna start to adjust to him a little bit more as time goes on, and you sort of trust his process and his confidence that you can imagine a world where it he can adjust with the adjustments pretty seamlessly too, because he's very sort of grounded in his um in the fact that he has to adjust. He's very gr he seems to do it easily, not say easily, because nothing's easy, but he seems to to be capable of doing it, period. Um, and I think that just the fact that we're seeing the evolution such as a strong and and rapid evolution in such a short amount of time, uh is is promising to all the other ups and downs that he's gonna experience in his in his big league career.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

The one thing that I'm like kind of left thinking about with both Eldridge as well as how well this offense has been hitting, and it's so weird because I haven't I didn't write down like where the offense as a whole ranks, but it's like they I'm pretty sure they still lead the league in hits, like all of major league baseball and hits, like batting average and a bunch of those stats. And you start thinking like if they had the pitching to back it up, and if there was more of an investment in the pitching staff as a whole, like what are we looking at with those two? And obviously we can't know, we can't say definitively, but you know, it always kind of felt like the lineup at some point was gonna come around. Now there has been like this crazy regression to the mean where like we go from talking about like historically bad offense to oh my god, they can't stop hitting. But you do like they're they're kind of just ending up in the middle now, as far as that regression. And you still you just kind of start wondering like if they had a league average pitching staff, a league average bullpen, what does this team look like? And you know, maybe this is you know a question we hit like the end of the season when we can fully evaluate, but it does feel like that's something that's kind of coming back to bite now that you're seeing this offense and everybody kind of in this offense really at full strength for the first time all season.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

And it's so bizarre, and I think I've said this a million times at this point this year, but like so bizarre that they advertise or they I don't advertise, they say they want to be a pitching and defense team. That's sort of the we want to play to our strengths, which is the ballpark, and pitching's always been sort of a strength in the organization, and we want to play to that. And then nothing that they did in the pre before the season started in the offseason was uh uh played to that strength. Uh, not to, you know put put too much say too many bad things about Tyler Malley and Adrian Hauser and some of the bullpen guys, but it's it it just felt it it feels like it's a little confusing how this season is playing out, partly because they're supposed pitching is supposed to be their strength, and now it's clearly the biggest thing that's holding them back. And there's really no clear answer as to why this is happening, or if they thought the pitching staff was going to be better than they are, and it feels like a lot of things would have had to go right in terms of uh coaching and and uh and an evaluation of the guys that they have to make what is on paper look better than it is on paper. Um, so that is basically what I'm just trying to say that I'm a little surprised that the pitching has been um uh a declared focus and yet their weakest blink.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

Yeah, and to the point of some of the free agent acquisitions, like Tyler Malley, he's currently on the IL. I think he's set to come back soon, but they're gonna have to figure out whether he's gonna rejoin the rotation or end up in the bullpen. And you know, obviously there's other drastic measures that they can take, but they gotta figure out what they're gonna do with him. Adrian Hauser, they might start using an opener with him, and you know, the bullpen, it's you know, Monday's game in particular, and again, I wasn't there for it, but I I was I I was texting with Joseph Dykis, Golden State Warriors writer. Um he was subbing in for me on Monday, and you know, he he had to rewrite. He he was slated for uh what would have been like a 3-1 win, and you know, Keaton Wynne, you know, blows a save. Now, granted, I don't pin down on Wynne. It's three days in a row. They had just flown back from Chicago like the night before. And again, that that kind of this kind of dives into like the territory of like when you think of the reasons the Giants are 13 games under 500, you don't pin it all on Tony Vitello, but that's one of those decisions where it's like, well, that's probably not ideal. But it kind of speaks to a larger point of who else in that moment could he have really gone to? There's just not a lot of like even when you think of last year's bullpen, like if there was a day where Camill was down and Randy Rodriguez was down, like you could kind of piece together like maybe Tyler Rogers here, Walker here, Miller here, and you don't really kind of have that here with this bullpen. The depth just isn't there, and I think we see Ryan Walker sometime soon. Uh Jason Foley was trending towards returning, it's might be a little longer now, have set back in his rehab, but you do sign it just kind of to get back to the general point, is you see where the offense is doing, how they're finally you know coming into their own. They're you know, at this rate, they're gonna end up at least being in like the top half of a lot of offensive statistics, if not at first, like their first and hits, first in doubles. But you do kind of wonder like if there was if they just had like enough pitching to get them over the hump, like this could be a playoff team, and there is no quick fix, and that just might be the thing that dooms them for the entirety of the season.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

And it's it was predictable. It's it's funny because like you know, it you walk into spring training and you say the bullpen and the pitching staff could be a problem, and what do you know it's a problem? So it it's just there's a disconnect between uh the expectations of the team and the very clear issues with the roster that have manifested in ways that um are almost worse than I expected. So, but it was expected in a way, and I'll just yeah, it seems that's what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

I mean, I wrote it, you wrote it, Pavs wrote it, Maria wrote it, Shay, Susan, Bags, like we all wrote it, and it's just kind of manifested. And again, we're not actively rooting for this to happen. Um, but it is something where where all of us are kind of saying the same thing and we're all kind of like seeing it with the same vision. It's you know, it wasn't hard to see coming. And so now it's just, you know, there is a very it feels like there is a ceiling on this team because of that. And again, it maybe maybe this gets a little more interesting about a month from now because, you know, say hypothetically this offense just continues to play out of its mind collectively, and they somehow climb and sneak their way back into like 500 range. It's at that point, it's like, what do you do? Do you start like because you know, guys like Robbie Ray, Louisa Rice have kind of just been penciled in as you're gonna trade them at the deadline, but they get to a point where you know this team is somehow in the mix, like maybe they go out and get a reliever or two. But it it at that point, it it's too hard to it's too hard to say now, especially the fact that they're 13 games under. They're still I think it's second to last or second to worst record in the NL West or in National League as a whole scene. We we've got quite a long ways until we get there. And since I mentioned Rise, I think the place where I want to wrap this up is here, because I've been kind of sitting on this question for a while. And now I'm like, I really hate have no idea how to approach this. When Elliot Ramos comes back, what does this team do?

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah, and uh Tony was asked that a little bit, uh, and by a little bit, I mean he was asked that kind of in a in a suggestion way, like, hey, have you thought about what the alpha's gonna look like when Elliot's back uh in the mix? And Tony Vantello said, I haven't really thought about it that much. And I think that's fair for a manager to say when uh the Elliot does it is, you know, he's still on the mend, he hasn't had a rehab assignment, anything like that. So it's it's a problem that he can say cross that bedroom and get to it. Um but that's that's the puzzle that's that's I mean, the reason why Bryce Eldridge is able to play consistently and get into the groove that he has been able to get into is because of the Elliott Ramos injury and that allows Casey Schmidt to play on left field that opens up uh DH so that Raphael Devers can play first base. So it it's it's uh it's something that they're going to have to confront. And who knows if what happens first, Elliot Ramos comes back or the trade deadline stuff starts to uh heat up. And you know, Buster's known for making moves whenever he wants. So uh it's and I'm not saying that to be that you should expect anything, I'm not trying to say that, but um, it does feel like they have a a puzzle that needs to be sorted out.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Yeah, and it's it's gonna be an uncomfortable decision, regardless of which way they go, because if you start thinking about possible scenarios, let's just say you put Elliot back in left field, you gotta have Eldridge and Rafi. And this kind of goes back to the roster construction as a whole, and you know, the one-year anniversary of the Devers trade is looming. Maybe well, this is something we'll get to the end of line, but like this is the roster that you have, and these are the two guys that you have at first in DH. So, you know, you got a rise, he could be traded. You got Jung Hu, who sight I think we should like briefly talk about Jung Hu. He's on like an 18-game. Let's pause this discussion. Let's briefly talk about Jung Hoo. We'll come back to this. Jung who is playing out of his mind right now. And if in if any other universe where Bryce Eldridge doesn't do what he did, we probably would have just talked about Jung Hoo for 20 minutes. But 18 game hitting streak, he's hitting 500 during the streak. I think he's up to second or third. In the majors in batting average, and batting average is not my primary metric of offensive valuation, but it does look nice when you see a batting average starts at three. Don't it say a lot?

SPEAKER_01 44:13

It does say a lot.

SPEAKER_02 44:13

So and then you got the rise up there as well. It's only been like a handful of instances when you've had multiple Giants have like finish a season above 300. And it's just more than anything, it's just been very fun to see this recent stretch of Jung Hoo because it feels like every other every other game or every single game, just two more hits to the docket.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Yeah. I mean, he and Matt Chapman were kind of driving the entire comeback yesterday. It was the the Jung Hoo has been very, he's had what five four hit games or something like that, I think, or four and five hit games. He's getting multiple hits per game. He's just on it. Um and he he's basically he's playing like the player that that came has advertised, which is he's not striking out, he's not walking, he's uh making contact, want to make contact. He he's he it's very he's barreling the uh he's squaring it up the ball. He's just exactly the type of player that was that was a star in Korea. And he says it has a lot to do with the fact that he's like now feeling comfortable in the main in Major League Baseball. Like he's adjusting to the schedule, he's adjusting to the pitchers, he's adjusting to the travel, and he's been pretty candid about the fact that that really hindered him last year. So it's nice to uh see him in the groove that uh or be the player that he's supposed to be, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Yeah, and you you mentioned Chapman. I also baseball's such a funny game, baseball's such a weird game. Matt Chapman went 53 games in between homers, the longest drought of his career by far, and he's now hit five homers in his last 10 games. Like baseball is such a weird game. And I also saw today that he's like in the top 10 of B-War among all National League players, and it's this is this is my not daily, that's not the right term. This is my pod daily, my once-a-podcast reminder that social media is not real life, and that people the people saying like Matt Chatham's like the worst baseball player ever. It's like I get it, he's striking out.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

Use your eyes, we get frustrated, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Watch, watch the games. That's that's that's just my two cents. But yeah, to see Jung Hoo come and do his own, like I kind of I did look a little into what's been different. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about some of it yet, but he has been going oppo a lot more. He has been, you know, with the line drives, it's a lot more frequent. There was another change there that I know I think he just generally against fastballs, he's been really successful. Like, I think his run value against four seam fastballs specifically, yes or going into yesterday was like eight. It's the like plus eight, like the most he's had against any pitch. And you know, he's been hitting every other pitch well, but like that's the one that really jumps off the table. So Jung Hu kind of just really coming in his own. It's been fun. And it you've seen it, you saw it in spurts last year, but this has been like the culmination of you know, like this is what he can look like when everything's clicking. And it is a kind of funny thought experiment that despite the Giants being 13 games under 500, there are three guys where I could be like, yeah, they could be all stars, and that being Jung Hu, Luisa Rayez, and Casey Schmidt, which Casey Schmidt is not gonna get voted in, and that shouldn't be a shock because he is currently listed as a DH and Shayna, I don't know if you know this, but Shoheotani is also a DH. Oh that's not gonna happen. Uh I'm sorry. Like, I I know Sho he's I know Kate there's some Schmidt supporters out there, but just not gonna happen. But you would think that if he's has like an eight, whatever OPS, you would think that Dave Roberts would be like, all right, like somebody's gonna get injured, there's gonna be a replacement needed. Casey Schmidt, come on down.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Yeah, I'd say so. I think that yeah, those are the three.

SPEAKER_02 48:05

Those those are the three. Uh so let's get back to the the Elliott Ramos of it all. And we don't have a definitive date as to when Elliott's gonna be back. Uh right quad, it was always gonna be you know something on the more serious side, just of the way that the play happened. Not like super serious, but you know, quads aren't something you mess around with. Uh, I briefly talked with him, I think it was yesterday. He said that maybe start a rehab assignment next week, and you think maybe a week or whatever of games. So sometime this month, they're going to have to confront that question. And so it's like, do you and I get, I think it's probably gonna depend on where this team is. Like, do they trade a rise to open up a spot for Schmidt? Do they move Zhung Hu back to center to have Elliot go to left and then Schmidt go to right, or vice versa? Schmidt in right, Elliot in left, which again to the pitching and defense point, that's not a strong defensive alignment in the outfield after he wanted to address it in the offseason. And they're just they're just not really a solution like that's really jumping out of available. I think if you wanted to go like crazy, I'm not even gonna go there. We'll we'll talk about that that's a that's an um, I was about to go, I was about to go. It was gonna get clipped, it was gonna be all bad. But there's just like not a solution that really like pops up immediately. So that's gonna that in the next, you know, Tony might not be thinking about it every day and you know, kind of kick the can down the road, but at some point they are gonna have to figure out how this is gonna work because Bryce Eldridge is not leaving the everyday role anymore. Like, there was kind of that weird thing initially where it's like, is he an everyday player? Is he not? What's kind of happening here? That's gone. Like he started nine and ten on the road trip. I think he's he started all three against the nationals. He's an everyday player now. You're not gonna take Devers out either. So where do you go? What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 50:00

We we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

We will see. I know Andrew Bagley hates hates the phrase, but time will tell. It has never failed to tell. Shane before we get out of here. Game five predictions.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

I think the Spurs are gonna win. Uh just because I want the series to go six or seven, and it's uh really up to me, obviously. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

It is up to you. 3-1 lead, historically the safest lead in all the sports. Just as El Sanso, Shayna Rubin, Splash Considerations Podcast. Subscribe, follow, and we will catch y'all in the next one.