Splash Considerations Ep. 27: Sweepless in Seattle (feat. Matthew Knauer)

In Episode 27 of Splash Considerations, Justice is once again joined by Matthew Knauer (@matthewk36711 on Twitter) to discuss the Giants dropping two of three to the Seattle Mariners, why Landen Roupp will be worth watching in the second half, the Giants' all-rookie catching rotation, the promotion of Bo Davidson and Parks Harber and standouts from the 2026 MLB Draft.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome to another episode of Splash Considerations. My name is Justice Delosanto, San Francisco Giants B reporter for the Bay Area News Group, San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times, whatever you want to call this, as long as you read, as long as you subscribe. And speaking of subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow us on Apple, follow us on Spotify. A lot of things in this world cost a lot of money, but subscribing and following those things remain free. And I'm welcomed again, once again, by friend of the program, most athletic pitcher on Giants Twitter. That'll be Matthew Canower. Matthew, welcome back to the show.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Thanks for having me on. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Doing well, man. Doing well. Got the first series out of the all-star break. And we were talking a little bit right before we started recording about your team, the Walnut Creek Crawdads. How's the season been going?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

It's been good. We just uh yesterday took first place in the California Collegiate League North. We have about a week left in the regular season, and uh it's fun working college baseball.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

I know that you were saying that you know a lot of the guys playing on those teams, you know, we haven't really kind of popped off on the prospects here yet. I know we're gonna talk about prospects a little later in the show, but who are some guys you know going into the 27-28 college baseball season? 27, 28, 26, 27. It's 27. What's up? Next college baseball season. Who who are some guys to keep an eye on?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yeah, we have uh we have a really talented team. Um, I'd say first left-handed pitcher, Joey Lorenzini. Uh, he spent his freshman year at Arkansas, was a big time recruit, had some draft interest coming out of high school, and transferred to UC Santa Barbara. Um, he'll probably be in their weekend rotation, a big 6'5 left-handed pitcher with a lot of pro potential. Um, we have an outfielder, center fielder uh from Ole Miss, Bryden Bull. He was a top 100 prospect coming out of high school, and it's about as twitchy and athletic of a center fielder as you're uh you'll ever see. So I'd say those are kind of the two biggest names we have. Uh some other studs, Jacob Cobran, Hudson Aber, Lucas Carlisle. Um, but like I said, I mean, it's nothing better than you know, working in college baseball, and uh it's been a fun summer so far.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I have a feeling we'll be talking about a certain uh other right-handed pitcher from UC Santa Barbara, but that's a little bit down the road here. Uh but the Giants just finished up their first season coming out of the second half. They dropped two of three to the Seattle Marriers. They are currently back to, I believe it's 15 games uh below 500. And, you know, for a team that's you know not mathematically eliminated yet, but you know, they're gonna need a really big second half surge uh coming out of the break in order to even make this conversation. Uh just not an ideal start for the Giants coming out of the all-star break. Game one, though. This is one of the best games that the Giants have played of the season. They win 7-0, and it's a complete team win. Uh Bryce Eldritch hits his ninth homework of the season. Willie Adamas hits a grand slam, Landon Rupe throws seven stout innings, Jason Foley makes his Giants debut. Drew Kavanaugh reaches base four times, and again, it's just a complete team win. Gives them three games in a row, and you know, they were once again knocking on the door of winning four games in a row. But I'm parking right here. I do want to get to Landon, I do want to get to Bryce a little bit, but we do gotta give Jason Foley a little bit of love. It had been over a year since he had pitched uh due to the shoulder surgery that he had. I think it was November 2025, and it is it is interesting because if you think about this Giants bullpen, you think about you know some of the struggles that they've had, you see what he was doing in that first outing back, and you're like, dang, like if he was here for the entirety of the season, like this this bullpen complexion might look a little bit different, but you know, they got him right now, and you know, it's it's interesting. Like, do they use him as a trade piece? Do they evaluate him for next year's bullpen? But either way, he was excited to be back on the mound. And as you know, Matthew, the the stuff when he when he's going right, it's pretty electric.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

For sure. It was awesome to see him back. I know he he had even some setbacks earlier this year. They were expecting him to be back earlier this year. So just great to see him healthy and throwing hard. Like you said, the stuff looked really good. Um, you know, it'll be, like you said, interesting to see him and some of the other pieces, Caleb Killian, you know, even Keaton Wynn, those relievers could return uh, you know, uh a nice return at the deadline, but yeah, we'll see, we'll see where they go.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yeah, kind of the the I guess irony of this Giants bullpen is despite it being as bad as it'd been for the majority of this season, you kind of look up and down the bullpen and you can see, like, yeah, I can imagine a contender would want a Keaton win, a Caleb Killian, a Sam Henches, a Jason Foley. And if Foley end up does end up staying, and even if Killian doesn't get up end up getting moved at the deadline, like I wouldn't be shocked if we start seeing you know Foley as he starts getting healthy, as he starts getting reacclimated to pitching at the Mage League level. I wouldn't be shocked if we see him in seventh, eighth, and even ninth inning situations going forward.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Not at all. I mean, late game right now, it feels like it's been you know, Killian win before he got hurt, or maybe Eric Miller, and it just felt like it was the same guys, and they were getting gassed and used, you know, every single game. So having another guy that they can hopefully rely on late inning, high leverage will be definitely very valuable for Tony Vitello.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah, and maybe that's one of those things like when we look at what we're watching in the second half, and you try to think of like who can be, and this is one of the questions I I did a piece, you know, five questions going into the second half. It was, you know, who can be part of this pitching staff in 2027 and you know, barring the lockout, obviously. I think there's only pretty much two guys you can like write in pen right now, and that's Landon Rup and Logan Webb. And so any of these guys like that can make it a conversation. I think it'll be, you know, maybe not the most interesting second half storylines, like, oh yeah, who in the bullpen can emerge as a 2027 piece, but you know, something to watch going forward. But if there were positives uh in game one, not so much uh in game two and three. They they dropped the latter two games of the series, uh, four to three on game two, and that one was you know, especially heartbreaking loss because you know, they for one, they dropped 0-6 uh with opportunities to win a fourth straight game. And I I'll say this, Matthew, like winning four in a row, like isn't necessarily a prerequisite to like being a competitive team, but given where they are, they're probably gonna need to, you know, if if they do want to get back into the race, they probably are gonna have to rattle off uh at least four in a row at some point. And today is game a hundred, and they st they still they still haven't swept and they still haven't won four games in a row.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So tough. I mean, i yeah, if if you're can't extend your winning streaks past past one series, past three games, it's it's hard to be competitive, and you know, that shows on the the product on the field. I mean, both of those, you know, game two and game three were just like depressing losses, and I feel like that's been how a lot of the baseball has been played this year.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, game two in particular, it was kind of shaping up to be you know another one of those really well-rounded complete wins because you got a homer from Raphael Divers, like the most anticlimactic homer, because apparently Rafi was the only one in the ballpark who knew it cleared the fence. Like it.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I don't know how that swing got out.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I don't know how that swing got out one. Like, that's just a testament to the strength, the the power that Rafi Debras have. But also just third, I don't remember who the third base umpire was, but they didn't catch it. And Rafi's like at first base, and he's like tapping the ears. Apparently, the only person in the ballpark was gone. Uh but then William Adamas hit another homer. He's you know, he's gonna be another guy going into the second half. You know, can he kind of bounce back from some of the subpar production he had in the first half? And then Logan Webb was cruising right along. Like he there was, you know, once we got into the sixth inning, I'm thinking, you know, Logan's gonna have his first opportunity for his first shutout of the year, but then in the seventh inning, he I believe he hits a Rosa Reina, walks Josh Naylor on four pitches, uh, did get Cal Raleigh to pop out, but then he allows a uh three-run homer to three-run game tying homer to Cole Young on a kind of weird the way they Webb described it was like a weird what was supposed to be a backdoor slider kind of ended up coming, you know, down and in, has this like weird shape to it, and then Young hits it out of the park. Uh they tie the game in three right there, and then uh Julio Rodriguez, his first game back from the injured list, ends up walking it off on a sacrifice fly. And uh Webb, as he's kind of want to do, kind of falls on the sword. He says, uh quote, I'm the dickhead who messed it up, which you know, a little harsh because you know, six and two thirds innings, three runs. You know, that'll that'll put your team in a position. But you know, to your point, it was just another one of those losses where it's like, uh, like it kind of just feels like a testament to not a lot of things going right. For the 2026 Giants and then game three, it was kind of just uh, you know, they had a couple of leads in that game, you know, they led 2-0 at one point, Bryce Eldritch hits a first inning homer, uh, Elliott Ramos had an RBI single, they tie it up after Casey Schmidt makes an error, uh, they score a run in the fifth, they allow a run in the fifth, and then Adrian Hauser allows two home runs. And that is that. And you know, it's funny, when we were talking about this before, you know, the show, you know, I was thinking about like big picture things to kind of parse from this, and you know, Landon, you know, that's someone going forward is gonna be worth a conversation. But you know, in this series, it's it's kind of not not a lot to parse from. You know, Bryce is, you know, continues to be impressive, you know, the first guy since Jack Clark to have 10 homers aged 21 and younger. And you know, there's a lot we can say about Bryce, but you know, aside from those two, it's just kind of for the most part, you know, that's it's the same brand of baseball that the Giants played in the first half.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, it is it's been pretty unfortunate. But um, yeah, I mean, you mentioned Bryce. There's a tweet that Foolish Baseball put out a few days ago that really resonated with me, and it showed Bryce Eldridge's uh like contact rates throughout the entire minor leagues, and then his first season, first two seasons in Major League Baseball, and he had consistently posted a swinging strike rate, so the percentage of pitches he swings and misses at between 13 and 15 percent, which is pretty pretty elevated, but you know, not uncommon for a power hitter like Bryce Eldridge. And that number has dropped all the way to 9.2% in the major leagues. That is unprecedented for a 21-year-old to start making this much contact. And you see his ability to do damage, he's been really patient at the plate. He's had you know really quality, strong at bats, and this is becoming, you know, I I don't see how this is not in the next few years a top 10 hitter in baseball. You know, he's he's become just well, very well-rounded, and it's been uh it's been a joy to see. And you know, like you said, what yeah, the rest of the season, you know, there's not been too much to take from it.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

Yeah, and that's the one thing about Bryce is that when you watch his plate appearances on a day-to-day basis, it doesn't seem like this kind of to quote Matthew uh what's his name, Matthew McConaughey in uh Wolf of Wall Street. It's not this Fugazi Fugazi, you know, kind of mythical thing. There's not like a crazy amount of Babip luck that he's getting. He's not like sneaking homers out on like the Yankee stadiums of the world. Like the plate appearances, like again, I kind of sound like a broken record at this point, but the plate appearances have just been phenomenal. And I was talking to has he hasn't been on the show, but friend of the program, Andrew Destin over at the AP in Seattle. We covered the pirates together. And he said, like, again, he has not watched a single live in-person Bryce Eldridge at bat up until this series. And we were talking to the press box and he said, like, his at bats are the truth. Like, he looks like the most polished hitter on this team. And you know, this is a team with Rafael Devers, with you know, well, I don't yeah, with Rafael Devers and Louisa Riots. Like you've had like some guys with that, you know, that are have that can take really good at bats, and you know, Bryce just consistently looks, you know, if not the best of the bunch, one of the best of the bunch.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yep. And then on to Landon Roop, who we mentioned just a minute ago, is kind of another bright spot. He struggled a little bit out of the gate. I know there was some bad luck involved there, but he's got to a point where it's a pretty good season out, 24% strikeout rate, ERA is under four. Um, and the big change for him this year has been a new cutter grip, which was introduced by assistant pitching coach Christian Wonders. Um, and he's very crossbody in his delivery, which can sometimes make the cutter a very hard pitch. Logan Webb has talked about it. Naturally, the pitch kind of backs up on him. And so last year, his cutter averaged three inches of arm side run. And with this new grip, it's now moving three inches of glove side. So he's added six inches of break on it, has only sacrificed one mile an hour in velocity. And we've seen a significant improvement from Roop versus left-handed hitters. So his strikeout rate is up from 19% to 24%. Expected slugging is down from 434 to 327. And so it's really been a great pitch for him when he needs strikes to mitigate damage, hit ground balls, weak contact. Um, and it's been, you know, at least uh one of the hires of the offseason, the new regime, Christian wonders, who I was really high on. Supposed to be a really smart uh pitching mind from the rays previously. Um, and it's been fun watching Landon pitch recently.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, Landon Roop is, you know, if we go back a month, you know, he was making headlines, national headlines, for all the wrong reasons, and his face was getting put out a lot of articles for all the wrong reasons. But, you know, once you it's hard to say just like once you get past that, but you know, objectively speaking, Landon has been one of the bright spots of this season. You know, this was gonna be a big season for him. He was gonna be expected to throw more innings than he's ever thrown. I believe, I think he's like four innings away at this point from eclipsing his career high. And by the time this season is all said and done, he's probably gonna be in the 130 to 140 range. And as you mentioned, that new cutter has been nothing short of a revelation for him. And I know you can't just, you know, eliminate a start. He had this really bad start against the Diamondbacks. He was like two and two-thirds innings, six turn runs, but over the last month, he has been probably the Giants' best pitcher. And again, when you're looking to 2027 and think of guys who are gonna be in this rotation, you know, it's going to be Logan Webb and it's going to be Landon Roop. And again, this is you know how he finishes out this season is gonna be really big for him just from the perspective of getting used to throwing this many innings. I I think that the next step for him is being able to find consistently find a way to pitch deeper into games like he did against the Mariners, because you do get some duds where it's the four innings, the four and dive, or like maybe goes three, um, but the pitch count gets a little high. But all in all, it has been a very it is trending to be uh well it has been a great year uh for Landon. I think by F4 he's eclipsed last year. And you know, I'm very curious to just see like how what he does, what how he takes this year and how where he goes with it.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

Yeah, and they've been in need of innings, you know, inconsistencies throughout the rest of the rotation. Um, and so I mean, yeah, like you said, him and Webb have been the the two kind of stable ones atop the rotation, especially with a bullpen that's you know also been so inconsistent. You need starting pitchers who can kind of soak up innings, and so you know, in a season where everything's gone wrong, at least you can you know gain a little bit of value there.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Well, one of the interesting storylines to come out of Seattle is that uh Daniel Susak, uh I was about to say Andrew. I was about to say Andrew. Uh Daniel Susack returned from the 10-day injury list with the lower back strain. Uh, he'd been dealing with that for a couple of weeks. And the corresponding move was designating uh veteran catcher Eric Haas for assignment that didn't come as much of a surprise, especially, you know, pitcher catcher ERA. You can have differing opinions on that, but you know, there was a very tangible difference when Haas was behind the plate, but it was hard to deny that you know this was a veteran guy, he knew how to navigate a pitching staff, and in designating Eric Haas for assignment, that left the Giants with a three-rookie catcher rotation of Susac, uh Drew Kavanaugh, and Jesus Rodriguez. And I'll kind of start here. Uh there aren't many teams I can remember just off the top of my head employing three rookie catcher rotations, at least teams you know that are going to be in concession. I ironically, one I did cover one of those teams in the 2023 Pittsburgh Pirates with Henry Davis and Eddieguez, but it is a very interesting, fascinating situation where you're handing the responsibility over to these three guys, and I'm sure you've done a little bit of digging as to you know their respective you know catcher profiles. I know Kavanaugh hasn't had a super big sample size, but you know, it is a lot of responsibility to place upon the weight of three rookies, and I'm very curious to just to see how they take this and go with it.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, um Kavanaugh's interesting, he's just mashed you know all year long triple A, and he he's definitely earned the the big league promotion. We'll see how it translates to major league success. But um, I mean I texted it to you yesterday. The post-Bailey catching tandem has just been it's been interesting, and I'm grateful for that 29th pick that we'll talk about uh with Carson Bullman. But Susek just, I mean, the the defense has been very strong so far. It's not Bailey level, but he's shown that he's certainly competent behind the plate. The hitting since his kind of hot first three weeks or so has definitely cooled off. And you know, Rodriguez is almost kind of the opposite, polar opposite, in that he makes a lot of contact and he's at times given pretty strong at bats, but I'm not sure that he'll ever play a major league average catcher behind the plate. So you kind of have three different odd profiles, and I'm not really sure they add up to a major league catcher. Um it's you know, this is a struggling team, and why not give the rookies a chance? Um, I'm not necessarily you know, they don't necessarily have a better option. Um yeah, I I'm uh I'm kind of left like just confused and unsure, and we'll wait and see what happens, but I'm not in love with the the current state of Giants catching.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah, and the one thing about the state of catching too is that they don't really have a prospect you know coming up in the pipeline. Like, you know, it's a lot of middle infielders. They didn't they didn't draft a catcher uh in this year draft, unless I missed it. I don't think they didn't draft a catcher in this year.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

They signed one uh undrafted free agent, but that was a point because they didn't draft one.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah, and you know, there there's just come a point too where you know the reality of Myor League Baseball is that's at a point you kind of just do need you know guys to be able to catch. But you know, it's you know, this was kind of one of the big questions coming out of the Patrick Bailey trade, and we're kind of seeing some of the ramifications of it here where you know you're placing a lot of responsibility on these three guys. And as you mentioned, Susac has you know been very solid behind the plate. You know, he's plus five defensive run save, plus five feeling run value. The framing has been solid, the pop time has been solid. Same thing with Kavanaugh. Uh, I was actually talking to Alex Berg about kind of this trio. Jesus Rodriguez is apparently moving to a different glove. He thinks it's given him a little more movement behind the plate, but you know, it is a lot of it is a lot of it does leave a lot of question marks as to in regards to who you got behind the plate. And you know, there's been a lot said about the Bailey trade, about the alleged relationship between you know Posey and Bailey and what maybe went into that, but you know, this is kind of the ramification, this is what they're left with, and you know, I'm just interested to see like even even someone like Posey, like he didn't initially like have this story on his plate. It was kind of playing first bass a little bit, and then once the Benji Molina trade happened, then he went behind the plate. It wasn't kind of instant like go get him behind the plate, but it'll be a learning experience regardless, and I'm just very curious to see as they get more comfortable, as they get more acclimated and learning you know, pitch calling at the major league level, and see if you know another one fun thing about you know Susac in particular is Logan Webb is calling his own pitches, but as Webb is calling his pitches, like Susac will kind of like put his hand on the pitch con and be like, alright, which what do I think he's gonna call here? And it's only gonna benefit them the more reps that I get with these guys, the more familiar they're gonna get with what type of game they want to call, and then we go from there and see what how they kind of approach this going into the offseason if they want to stick with the the two, I guess, sophomore catchers going into 2027 or if they want to add someone behind the plate.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, I mean they've kind of kind of handicapped themselves right now, but um we'll we'll see. I mean, I uh in terms of the free agent market and trade market, I'm not necessarily sure there are any clear upgrades. Um, so it's kind of wait and see. And you know, you determine this offseason which of your internal options are the best. I mean, it looks like SUSEC has a path to at least being potentially league average. The defense, like we said, has looked very solid, and you hope he's still a young hitter. The bat can come along. Um, to me, like I said, Rodriguez seems more like a utility man. Um, but I I do want to see Drew Kavanaugh continue to get some more run behind the plate. Um, because like I said, he's earned it in the minor leagues, and I'm excited to kind of see where the defensive metrics end up as he gets you know more of a sample size behind the plate.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

I feel like we're gonna have, assuming we do have a spring training next year, I think it's gonna be a very crowded catcher room. We might see some Adrian Sugaste, I think that's how it's pronounced, uh, some Zach Morgan in the mix. We're gonna see a lot of young guys uh next year in the mix, whenever that does happen. Uh and you know, to the point about adding someone in free agency, you know, this Giants team is probably not looking, even if like a Cal Raleigh was available, I don't think this Giants team would kind of be uh in position to add on another long transition player. And I just wanted to make a quick note before uh transitioning to the future, having a more positive, uh, you know, optimistic session is you know, Luisa Rise is going to be someone, you know, over these next well, he already has been in a lot of headlines. And I know this because I wrote about it this morning. A lot of headlines leading up to the trade deadline. He has said that he would be open to an extension, and you know, it makes a lot of sense because from his perspective, because this Giants team was the team that allowed him to play second base under Juan Washington. He's turned into uh a gold glove caliber defender. If it wasn't for uh JJ over in St. Louis, he'd probably be the front runner uh to win a gold glove. But you know, I was told by a source familiar with the situation that there have been no formal no formal talks about an extension. So the trade was probably gonna happen anyhow, but it just kind of confirmed in my mind that you know the trade's gonna happen at some point in the next couple of weeks, and you know, this is a very fun transition into the farm system, you know. I think depending on how these next couple weeks go, between Luisa Ryas and Robbie Ray, and maybe maybe someone like Achillion, maybe someone like a win, maybe some if even if they decide to go off Elliot or trade off Elliot, you know, there is an opportunity for this farm system to be kind of flirting with a top five status, you know, by the time this is all said and done, by the time we get a re-rank.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

For sure. And we'll get into uh some of the you know really hot prospects right now. The farm system is thriving. Just about kind of wrapping up on the trade deadline talk. You know, to me, I'd be I've been seeing stuff about Jung Hoo Lee. Jeff Passon put the odds at 50%, and there's been some talks about Elliott as well. Um, I find those rumors pretty impossible just because you know, seeing how the Giants have operated year after year after year, they're gonna go into this offseason saying that they have a chance to you know compete, that they still have a really strong core of hitters, and you know, the solution needs to be finding some starting pitching, and they're gonna try and you know compete next year because they don't want to tear the tear the frame down. And so I just don't see them parting ways with Jung Hoolie or Elliott Ramos because I think they expect to now I don't necessarily believe that they will compete next year, but I think the Giants want to you know keep fan engagement, and so I think I think you know the expiring deals, the Arise, the Rays, and potentially some of the bullpen pieces who should all nut them decent prospects. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yeah, and I think with with the outfield situation in particular, it's been like weird to like try to evaluate this outfield because we've barely seen Harrison Bader, and so we don't know like really like Harrison Bader.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

You forget he's on even on the team at times.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

Yeah, I think when I I when I when I make the 2026 Giant Sporacle quiz and we try to remember off in the 20 minute span or whatever it is, I think a good amount of us are gonna forget Harrison Bader, not because he's forgettable, just because he hasn't played a lot. And it's it's kind of again the cruel irony is that he's kind of graded out well in like the few games that he's played, but he just hasn't played a ton. It is a two-year deal, so maybe we see, you know, assuming that he's able to heal up and we see him again in the second half, we we get a little sample there. But you know, if we're looking towards the future, you know, I would be very curious once Jonah Cox returns from injury to see him get more complete run because again, it it's not you can't appreciate it as much like watching TV, but like, dude, he is so fast. It is un like the jumps that he gets, it is unreal. He can steal a base at any time, he can make Oracle Park look small with the amount of ground that he can cover. And he's just somebody that like adds a dynamic of speed that this team does not have. So, you know, looking forward to that outfield situation, it's it is kind of like one of those nebulous questions where it's like we can't really answer right now because both of them are injured, but I think that keeping Jung Hoo and keeping Elliot makes a lot more sense if you have a guy, you know, whether it's Bader, whether it's Cox, just someone that can run around the outfield and make both of them kind of better by proxy.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

I agree, because if yeah, if you're both of those guys in the corner and Elliot's shown some improvement from his kind of disastrous 2025 in left field, like you said, if there's a strong defensive center fielder, then I think both of them are just fine in the corner. But if they're kind of having to cover more ground than they're used to, then that's where and that's what we saw last year in 2025 when Jong Hu Lee was struggling defensively in center field. It kind of seeped onto Elliott Ramos and in left. Um, and so you know, like you said, Cox has been fun to watch with the glove with the speed. We'll see if the bat is major league ready. I thought he was a little bit rushed up from double A, um, given that you know Bo Davidson and Parks Harbor were probably hitting you know significantly better than he was in terms of some of the underlying data, but you know, speed and defense plays.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Speed and defense does play, and that's a good transition to talking about some of the prospects uh that have moved up the farm system over the course of the last week. You mentioned Bo Davidson and Parks Harbor, uh they were both promoted from AA Richmond to AAA Sacramento, and then as a result of that, uh Dakota Jordan, Gavin Keelan, and Trevor Cohn were all moved up from High A Eugene to A Richmond. I think Isaiah Barquette was also moved up from San Jose to high A Eugene as well. Someone to keep an eye on because he was absolutely mashing the ball over at San Jose. But I'll kind of throw the ball over to you here with you know Bo Davidson and Parks Harbor in particular. You know, these are guys, especially when you consider where the Giants are headed, you know they are I think Bo in particular is 40-man eligible this year, so they're they are gonna have to add him. You know, with the lockout, maybe there's I I don't know like what the situation is gonna be, but I think they still do have to be added to be protected from the rule five. But you know, if Bo Davidson continues to hit it at triple A and he has done so so far, I personally wouldn't be shocked if, you know, very late September, you know, once you know, assuming the Giants have been, you know, eliminated, because again, just where this is all headed, that's probably where it's headed. Uh, I wouldn't be shocked if we see Bo Davidson get a little cup of coffee at the end of the at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Yeah, and Davidson's been hitting the ball harder than he ever has. And you see that, I mean, he's he's slugging 512 on the year. His 90th percentile exit velocity is up over 106 miles an hour, which puts him in you know pretty elite slugging territory. Um, you know, the the swing and miss and the chase has taken a little bit of an increase this year. It hasn't affected his production yet, and we'll see how he fares in a little bit you know bigger of a sample size at triple A, but he certainly has all the tools to be you know a really solid major league outfielder. I'm not, you know, like you said, we talked about just a second ago, Ramos and Lee are kind of taking up the corners right now. I would love to see Bo Davidson attempt to play center field in the big leagues. I'm not sure if he has the jumps, the speed, the reads to be able to play center at Oracle Park, but hell, it's worth a shot. Um so we'll see kind of his performance the end of the year in triple A. To me, the guy who's really going to push the Giants' hand is Parks Harbor. I think he's deserved that call-up from Richmond for about two months now. Uh, I think he should have almost even started the year in triple A. This is as I mean, the most polished minor league hitter in the system. His exit velocities and impact are nothing short of elite. Uh, over 107 mile an hour, uh, 90th percentile exit velocity, his hard hit rates are elite. He doesn't swing and miss very much, he does not chase very much. I mean, it's hard to nitpick many areas in his hitting profile at all. Uh, I think he could slide into the Giants lineup right now and be one of their better hitters. Now, defensively, he's played some third base, he's played more outfield recently. You wonder where he kind of slots in with their current team, especially given that the DH spot is taken up. But, you know, if you potentially see an Arias trade at the deadline, maybe that clears some DH at bats or other opportunities for him, but I really think he's gonna mash in the PCL and triple A. And, you know, if he has a 900 plus OPS, it might be hard for the Giants to keep him down. But I mean, I've been as big of a Parks Harbor believer as there is got a harbor head over here.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

I do think I think for for the baseball world at large. I'm not saying you gotta do this if you're the Giants, but if you're the Giants, but wouldn't it be fun for Parks Harbor to Aga, this is this is this is just a joke. Please, please, please be please know this is a joke. Um wouldn't it be fun for Parks Harbor to be on the Giants when they go to Boston? Parks Harbor hitting in Boston yard. He's like they they that just has to happen. But to to the point about you know Parks Harbor, like he's just been you know, he's one of the returns from the Camilo Duvall trade. Uh him and Jesus Rodriguez, which if you know, just consider.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I'm forget about Carlos de la Rosa.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Carlos Della Rosa as well, but like when you consider how Duvall has fared as a Yankee, just the the returns on that trade have been excellent so far, especially just the versatility of Rodriguez and the fact that Marks Harbour can just mash. And you know, Bo Davidson in particular, he actually he actually had a kid in April, and so that kind of you know, between it led to a a bit of a different spring training for him, which I'll also just congratulations to to Davidson on that. But he did have a kind of a slow start, you know, as a result, presumably as a result of that, you know, first time dad uh and everything like that. But since kind of May, he's just taken off. And in June, he actually set the franchise record for double-A Richmond for the most homers in a single month at 309. I think the OPS was like 1100. So he has just mashed the hell of the ball, and him and you know, Dakota have kind of gotten this opportunity, this runway uh to play center field, and you know, with Dakota in particular, he actually didn't play a ton of center field at Mississippi State because they had another guy that got drafted. I'm forgetting what his name was. But, you know, you you're talking about two plus athletes, especially Dakota, you know, having this opportunity to play center field, and you know, it's we do gotta, you know, you you kind of think about the the potential roster crunch that the Giants are facing, especially with somebody like Harbor, and he does have to hit Sacramento. But I'm gonna be interested, you know, i I wouldn't be shocked if he gets a cup of a cup of coffee as well in September if he just continues to hit swell. But you know, if if both of them push their way to the big leagues by the end of the season, they're for sure gonna be in camp next year again. When that camp's gonna be, how it's gonna play out, we don't know, but it it is going to lead to some very interesting conversations, especially when you consider the Giants in this kind of really nebulous, what's becoming a very nebulous spot of like they have this veteran core, but the majority of like their feet their talent is young, especially when you get into some of these draft picks, and especially when you get into some of these prospects. So it's gonna be kind of a fat that I think that's gonna be the fascinating thing with the Giants going forward is for the second half, how do Davidson and Parber play and what does that kind of mean for this team going forward?

SPEAKER_00 32:42

Yeah, and you started on Dakota Jordan, who I definitely want to mention. Um, I just put a tweet out the other day about some of his exit velocity numbers, which are just like bewildering. He's uh his max exit velocity is over 117 miles an hour. And when you query that with a hard hit rate over 55%, he's only one of two players in the minor leagues uh with Bryce Rayner, who's one of the top young prospects in baseball right now as well. Um the raw tools are as tantalizing and impressive as it gets. Like you said, he's an incredible athlete in center field. He moves really well, he's fast, and he hits the snot out of the baseball. Um Richmond should be a great test for him, you know, a little bit tougher of a hitter's environment. And there were some swing and miss and chase that didn't necessarily impact his production in high A just because, again, he was hitting the snot out of the ball. Um so we'll see against some tougher pitching how he fares. Um, you know, he shouldn't really be pressured at all. He should have the rest of the season in in Richmond where he can, you know, kind of start to adjust. But I'm excited to see.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Yeah, I do have a story on the Dakota Jordan coming out either uh tomorrow or Wednesday, so be on be on the lookout for that. But I think one thing that's worth mentioning here when I had a conversation with him is to your point about the swing and miss, that is something he is very cognizant of. Like, I I think the first question I asked him was like, How do you evaluate your season? And he said, like, we don't have to run from it, we don't have to hide from it. I know the swing and miss uh is a thing, and that's gonna be the one like with me, like someone like me who's big and strong, like in order for like that to play, like I have to cut down on that. So he's very kind of self-aware uh in that regard, which you know, for a player you don't get that often for a player to be like, Yeah, I know what's happening, I gotta be better. So, you know, just I think that is very telling in and of itself that you know the the mental makeup and you know talking with a lot of people in the organization, they just rave about his leadership as well. So again, when you when you start looking at guys on the farm system and guys to be excited about, these are the Bo Davidson's, the Parks Harbors, the Dakota Jones of the World are very uh exciting. And while we do have some numbers to parse through with these guys, while we do have some Pro Bowl experience with these guys, there are 21, well, 21 guys that were drafted. But but but potentially up to 21 new young players joining the organization, that being a result of the 2026 draft headlined uh by Jackson Flora. And not all the signings have been made yet. I think you know some of them are kind of trickling in. We've seen that over the course of the last couple days. Jackson Flora signed for uh 7.9 million, that's about a million uh under slot. Carson Bowman, who you want to talk about, is currently unsigned uh as of right now, but Peyton Bonds has signed. Uh Carlos Martinez has signed. Uh, I reported that Colin Fisher signed for 300,000, which was uh goes above the 150,000 slot. Uh Caden Watchter, I think, is unsigned as well. Um I think the one person that was kind of surprising that did sign was Josiah Kemp. He did have the commitment to Oklahoma, he was a 12th round guy, uh, but just decided to start his Pro Bowl career. Now, so this is Matthew, this is kind of I'm playing point guard here. We're going we're going full Kobe, we're doing the ISO, I'm getting you the ball, I'm gonna let you cook here. So we gotta start with the man, Mr. the the Pleasanton native, foothill high school native uh himself, Mr. Jackson Flora, 1.06 ER race, UC Santa Barbara, program record for strikeouts, has a very deep pitch mix, you know, for you know, someone coming out of college, the fastball that can be in the the mid-90s, the multiple breaking balls, the kick change, playing with a little bit of a curveball uh as well. Matthew Cook.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Yeah, so I'll start. I actually got to play against Jackson Flor in high school. Not he did not pitch us, um, but we would play in a in an East Bay tournament every year um over the spring break weekend, and we played Foothill High School. He played first base against us, and I mean you could see then just the towering presence that he was. He has a brother who's a catcher who's also gonna be just an absolute stud. Um, but I mean Flora is every bit, you know, the the top five pick. He's uh he has the ace upside that the Giant system has lacked. There are some younger arms that I do like, but nothing with the frontline stuff that Jackson Flora does. You mentioned the fastball. He's touched a hundred mile 101, I think. Um, and he has it's you know, the shape is pretty solid. It's from a low release, but it's really the breaking balls and the changeup that make him kind of the prospect that he is. He has this cuttery kind of slider with some good ride and throws it really hard at like 87 miles an hour, and then a bigger sweeper at like 80 to 82 with 18 inches of horizontal break. I mean, that plays in the big leagues right now, so long as he can command it. And the new pitch this year was a kick changeup, which was his most effective off-speed offering. Over a 50% whiff rate. Yes, it's the big west, but in terms of shape, in terms of velocity, it projects as elite. And you just look at kind of the the profile as a whole from Jackson Flora, a very tall, lengthy starting pitcher who moves really well. There's definitely more to add to the frame in terms of you know kind of strength and force production. I had, you know, some biomechanics friends who said I don't, I wouldn't be surprised if he tops out at 102 or 103 miles an hour, you know, in his in his career, because you know, there's that kind of potential out of that frame. Buster Posey said it, and it's a little bit cliche, but like he looks like a starting pitcher. And you know, I I I I actually before the draft said I if it was my selection, I would have taken Drew Burris from Georgia Tech just because I really, really like Drew Burris. But Jackson Flora was right up there, and you know I'm very glad with the selection.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Yeah, I mentioned this in the last podcast with Shane. The Giants said that they weren't in the draft necessarily for need, and there's obviously, you know, we'll we'll hit on you know how the pitching depth is affected after this, but you know, before the draft, there was kind of a lack of that high-end pitching prospect depth. And what I mean, what I mean by that is just there weren't a lot of guys that were gonna be kind of ready in you know the next you know year or two, because when you think of Jacob Bresnian, who's been you know pitching the hell out of the ball in Eugene, he just had five, I think it was shutout, or I think it was five innings, two runs, seven shut uh strikeouts. Uh Candra Martinez is still in San Jose, Arjanis Kayama is still in San Jose. Just not a lot of guys that are you know gonna be ready to contribute 2027, maybe even 2028. But you know, Jackson Floor, I think the one thing that really, you know, when you get college pitchers, and we've seen it a lot the last couple of years, is these guys can just rise through the ranks. And I think Posey said the other day, you know, they're not luck not looking to just you know get him up to the big leagues as soon as possible. But you look at the last couple of drafts, you guys got you got guys like Paul Skeens, which you know, that's a one-on-one situation, but even Chase Burns, Gage Jump, Chase Dolander, like there's a lot of guys. If you are a top 10 college pitcher picked, like you will skyrocket through a system. And it is I am gonna be interested to see how much he pitches for the rest of this year, if he pitches at all, because he threw upwards of a hundred innings at UC Santa Barbara. There's obviously not a he's not gonna pitch in the majors, you know, to begin 2027, so there's nobody to you know throw him back into a situation now. But I'm curious to see if he maybe gets a couple of innings in the ACL. Maybe San well ACL's gonna be done, but maybe some San Jose innings and just kind of see where they go from there. But you know, as you mentioned, he he kind of just it's weird because like we see him on Zoom and he kind of just looks like us, like just a normal like normal stature, but then you see the highlights and it's like, oh my god, he's like 6'5, he's like gonna grow into his frame. Like he does, he kind of just does look like a starting pitcher, and that I think that counts for something.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Yeah, and you mentioned him kind of continuing through the year. I mentioned it in my original tweet. I would shut him down for the rest of the season, just given he's 25 innings over his career limit before. Is I think it was 102 innings that he threw, and the fastball shape did decline a decent amount towards the end of the season, as did the velocity, um, which not necessarily anything too worrisome. Again, he threw 100 innings, but that's showing you that you know the fatigue may be setting on. And, you know, I don't have all the biomechanical data that the Giants have access to. And, you know, he's taken a decent amount of time off since the end of the season. So, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if the Giants run him out there, but you know, this is also a top five pick that you want to, you know, take as pristine care of as you can.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

We saw it with Bryce Eldridge, and we're gonna see it with Jackson Flore. You gotta make sure you get the development right on these guys. Before getting into you know, some of the guys you want to hit on Bowman, Bonds, uh as well. Uh, I did want to kind of reiterate the point that he did sign for about a million less than his slot value. And for those of you who aren't familiar, basically every year every team gets a certain amount allocated to sign the guys that they drafted, and every every draft pick for the first 10 rounds has a certain value allocated to it. And so the amount for the number four pick, I think it was I don't have the exact number, but it was like 8.99 or something. Yeah, it's like 8.99 million, but so Jackson Flora signs for 7.99 million, so about I think it was like 99, 999,000 less, you know, just just shy of a million. And so that does give them a little more money for guys in the later rounds, guys that might be a little more uh difficult to sign. You did see, you know, as I mentioned with the 13th round pick with Colin Fisher, they signed him uh effectively to a you know $150,000 of that bonus. Peyton Bonds signed at slot. I I think the one guy that's gonna be interesting from this class is Dalton Wentz out of Wake Forest, just because he is a sophomore eligible draft pick, he can go back to school. And you know, considering he does have two more years of eligibility, wouldn't be shocking for him to go back. And I personally wouldn't be shocked by that development, but you know, maybe you know they're able to allocate more of those resources to him, convince him to sign with the organization, and go from there. So it I don't know, that that's gonna be the one. It's it's weird because like you can't, it's not like a game where you can be like, oh yeah, like we're gonna watch how this all plays out. It's like you just kind of have to wait and see how it all plays out. So Dalton wins, you know, we'll see kind of where things go from there.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Yeah, it is interesting how kind of the theory of it all works out in terms of you know where they save money and where they kind of overspend. It's not all, it's not uncommon at all, actually, for these kind of top picks to sign under slot. Typically the top five or ten will always get a little bit under those values. Even Rock Cholowski's you know record-breaking deal uh this season was this year was still under slot.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

Um I guess I thought it was Chaluski.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Yeah, I don't know. That was that was ridiculous. I don't know how you're the commissioner, major league baseball, and you can't get the number one picks right name right. But on Manfred talk for another day.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

We we digress, but anyway, one of those guys that who has yet to sign is obviously Carson Bowman. I I personally would expect him to sign. Um and is interesting going into the 2026 draft. You read a lot about Bowman, and there were some people that considered him not to just be the best prep pitcher coming out of the draft, but the best pitcher, period. Uh he is the two time back to back Gatorade South Carolina pitcher uh of the year. And again, Matthew, I'm just gonna dish the ball over to you. I'm gonna let you tell tell us.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

So another Twitter reference this time, my friend Danny Barron. Um, he's big on Padres and draft Twitter. And I think he put it just as simply and you know right as you can get. Hashtag this is what they look like. I mean, Carson Bullman looks like a frontline starting pitcher. Um, it's not that often that you see left-handed 18-year-olds who are up to 95, 96 miles an hour, a track record of throwing a lot of strikes, and three really developed, consistent off-speed pitches. The shapes on them are, you know, already big league average to plus. Um, there, you know, the reason this, at least that I've heard, kind of that he fell into the late first round, where as before, you know, like you had said, he was seen by some as potentially the best pitcher in the draft. His fastball velocity uh decreased a little bit this spring from where it had been in the prep circuit before, but I'm really not all that worried about where his velocity is right now as a 19-year-old. He'll have plenty of time to progress through the system and you know, train in a major league strength and conditioning circuit. So um, you know, this is uh this is what they look like. He's a tall, left-handed pitcher. He has great feel for his offerings, and he throws very hard. And, you know, uh the current state of Major League Baseball, it's hard for left-handed pitchers to fail. Like the average ERA for left-handed pitchers in Major League Baseball this year is almost a run less than it is for right-handed pitchers. If you throw strikes and you throw hard as a left-handed pitcher, you know, you're on a strong path to success. And I think Carson Bullman, you know, has uh has a lot of potential. And you said it, and I've heard it from people too. Like a lot of people thought this was the best pitcher in the entire draft coming into the season. And I think the Giants absolutely hit on this pick. He fell right into their lap.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

And when we're grading the uh Patrick Bailey trade five years from now, like this is kind of the big thing with that trade, is they were getting the compensatory pick with you know, as a result, you know, not just Matt Wilkinson, but this pick as well. And so this is the pick they end up getting for the Bailey trade. And if and again, three years from now, we might be looking at it like again, depending on how Susak and Kavanaugh and everything plays out. We might, you know, maybe we see Carson Bowman pitching to Susac it or a Kavanaugh or a Jesus Rodriguez, and we'll say it all worked out on the Giants. And we'll go rapid fire here, you know, three more guys before we get out of here. Uh I am I'm gonna save, I'm gonna say the most notable name for last, but we'll we'll stick with the pitches for now. Caden Watchter, what can you tell us about him?

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Yeah, uh he he made a lot of headway this spring. Um, his performance at a few national circuits, and I actually found out about him on, I think it was a Keith Law article, New York Times. He's uh just a stellar athlete. He moves really well down the mound, has a really interesting fastball profile from a low release. He still gets really good carry on his four-seam fastball, which is kind of like the modern, you know, it thing that entices the models, you know, that all these teams are now, you know, drafting based on. So his fastball shape is great. He spins the ball really well, has very high overall spin rates, and you know, it's a young prospect. It's hard to evaluate high school pitchers, but you know, he he looks like he should be a great addition with some very high upside to this farm system.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Could you envision you know Bowman Washer pitching this year or kind of in the similar vein of Flora, just kind of shut him down for the year, kind of go from there?

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Uh, I don't know their exact inning totals. High school arms definitely don't tally as many. Um, but I mean both of those are high school guys who have never seen even a you know college strength room. And so I would say, you know, bring them into your training facility, get them to Arizona, and I would have them throwing bullpins and working out and building strength, but I don't necessarily think they need to pitch in game at all.

SPEAKER_01 47:48

Go get him to Arizona and go watch Randy Rodriguez uh work his way back up and time surgery. Go how about that? Uh, one of the later round selections, Bo Bryan's. This was somebody that you in particular really wanted to hammer on. What can you tell us about Bo Bryan's?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Yeah, Jacksonville State left-handed pitcher um from a really funky low release. Um, this is another kind of kind of profile that I really like. You don't see many left-handers throw from like a sub-five-foot release height. It's almost sidearm. And he sat 95 miles an hour on his sinker. Like, again, you throw hard as a left-handed pitcher from a kind of outlier release characteristic. It's hard for guys to hit. And he threw his sinker over, I think, 70% of the time in college. So it'll be really important for the Giants to kind of diversify his arsenal. His slider has flashed, his changeup have both flashed in terms of the pitch shapes, but they'll definitely need to be more consistent. But I like the upside uh with Bryan's there.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

I like the upside with Bryan's there. And as you know, Matthew, there was quite a couple of notable names in this draft from like a lineage perspective. Obviously, Luke Nixon, who signed the son of Trot Nixon. As I mentioned, Josiah Camp he's the nephew uh of Matt Camp. I think we're still waiting to hear whether he uh ever got to meet Rihanna. That's another question for another day. We gotta talk about Peyton Bonds. We gotta talk about Peyton Bonds. Because I think some people, you know, he's a third-round pick, and I think I think it is fair, you know, just because it's it's the giants. I think some people might be like, ah, they drafted Bonds because of the name. But as Michael Holmes said the day that the draft happened, he's a giant because he's Peyton Bonds. And you know, his season ended up being you know cut a little short because of the hamstring thing, but he was you know generating some crazy exit velocities. He has been you know evaluated as a plus potentially plus defensive center fielder, and it does feel like there is, you know, for those exit velocities, it does feel like there is some power to be tapped into still, at least when it comes to the extra base hit and the home runs.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

For sure. And this is, I mean, you know, you throw a comp on the guy, it's pretty damn similar to what Dakota Jordan kind of looked like coming out of college. Um Bonds had a 120.7 mile an hour max exit velocity. Like you do not see guys hit the ball that hard. Um, and you look at his hard hit rates, his 90th percentile exit velocities, like these are elite top five, top ten in the entire draft. But he uh he's had some pretty significant chase issues, and his plate discipline has been, you know, it shows in his strikeout and walk numbers. The other thing is his swing is very flat right now. And so when he's making his best contact, it's low-line drives or hard ground balls. And so, you know, that's a it's it's a developmental project, but you do not very often see guys with that much bat speed, and you don't see guys with that much bat speed who have you know in zone contact rates above 90%. So he has the bat-to-ball skills. It's just hard for him to you know make contact when he's chasing out of the strike zone all that often. But you know, they're all the tools, like you said, the chance to be a great defender in center field, supposed to be very quick, fleet footed, and he has the lineage too. Um, I mean, I I love the shot for upside by the Giants there.

SPEAKER_01 51:01

Yeah, I think the one thing that really stuck out about you know bonds when you were kind of evaluating, or one thing that Holmes had mentioned rather is that you know, we they kind of thought that they're you know, to the point about he only had like six homers despite those like max elos, they did think that they could do some things with his swing to really unlock some of that more extra base hit, you know, additional power at of a bonds and you know he's a nephew of Barry, he's the grandson of Bobby. You know, uh there's I'm sure there have been some conversations around the dinner table at some point. And you know, if you're looking at the 2027 draft, I think I made this joke on the last podcast, but I'm gonna make it now. Uh just look at whoever Rutgers like starting, you know, outfield, like their best starting outfielder. He's gonna be drafted by the Giants because they drafted Trevor Cohen last year in the third round, they drafted Hayden Bonds this year in the third round. So just put it in pen right now. Rutgers starting outfielder. But last thing I want to kind of throw to you before we get out of here is you know, you mentioned we mentioned some of the guys that are are coming into the farm system. The fact that, you know, the Rise trade, the Ray trade, you know, there's they're gonna probably net some prospects as well. You're seeing some of the strides that bowed, you know, Parks, you know, Dakota, all the guys we mentioned. I think just overall, like it's a really fun time for the Giants farm system, and it's probably the most you know, excitement that this farm system has had since like Posey and Bumgarner were in there. It's been a while.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

And there are all these like, especially on the armed side, guys that I'm really excited about who are in the you know 15 to 20 range in their top prospect list. Like this goes beyond just the Luis Hernandez's and Josuar and level and you know the new draft picks. Like, there's some serious depth to this system. You look at Carlos de la Rosa and Luis de la Torre and you know Keener Martinez and some of these other arms. Um it's it's an exciting time, and you know, there couldn't be a stronger dichotomy between the farm system and you know the current major league roster, but I guess we have something to look forward to.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Do have something to look forward to. And if you got some time this summer, if you're in the South Bay, go out and see San Jose. I don't I don't know who's who's on their team right now. Well, that we we might see Josuar and Luis Hernandez.

SPEAKER_00 53:09

Level, yeah, and those two definitely. I mean, with the way they're swinging it and in the ACL, I wouldn't be surprised if they do what Johnny Level did last year, where once the season's over, kind of get a little bit of run in San Jose.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

And if you go out to those San Jose games, bring some cash, get the $4 chirros. They are $4, but you don't got to pay for this one because you got it, you can get it for free. You can subscribe to the podcast for free, all that good stuff. Matthew, where can we find your work?

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Uh Twitter, Matthew K36711 um on Substack. I guess something I'm still right on there. And uh yeah, that's about it. Come to Walnut Creek Crawdads in uh in Walnut Creek. That's and then I'll be working for uh UCLA baseball too uh in the upcoming year. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:57

Check them out, check out the crawdads, and of course, check out the next episode of these Blasted Rations podcast. Just as Del Sandos, Matthew Canauer. We'll catch you in the next one. Thank you.