26 Burst results for "Martin Maldonado Maldonado"
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"They did sign Christian Javier to an extension and as you noted, they've been working on Tucker Valdez, et cetera. So is this very much just, hey, this is what's worked for us in Atlanta and I want to try to do that here and then it seems like there would be a conflict between the desire to do that and then the willingness to spend what you need to in order to do that. Well, Dana Brown has certainly brought up the braves and kind of how they and Jim crane has as well about what the braves did, how they were able to go and be aggressive with their young players and lock those guys up. But there has been kind of a shift in that. It's been interesting to listen to Dana and listen to how he's presented himself his first month or two on the job. You know, his first two or three public appearances, he came out as if they were going to extend all these guys tomorrow as if it was getting done and I think he sensed tempered. I think he's since, you know, this is a guy that he's been in the game a long time, but he's still a first year general manager. And he's going to have to learn kind of the nuances and kind of how the job and negotiations go. You know, he was pretty vocal that in the context of the conversation we were having the other day about these 8 and ten year deals. You know, I did bring up that the brave signed Austin Riley to a ten year extension. They gave Matt Olson 8 years, a $168 million. And he's quote on the record was Alex was the boss there. I don't know if I would have done those deals just because I'm not a ten year guy. So maybe there is a shift and maybe this has come from conversations with Jim crane where Jim crane has made it pretty known that he has a limit and they're not going to be able to go there. But the braves model and how they did it was certainly something that appealed to Jim crane, but I do think people have to remember too that Dana Brown, he did a lot of good work in Atlanta for drafting and securing young players, but he was the vice president of scouting. I'm not sure how much he actually did to get these extensions done. He just mentioned that Alex anthopoulos was the main driver in the boss over there. So I think it's going to be a learning curve and I think it's going to be something that Dana Brown has already kind of tempered, he said a couple of days ago that, you know, look, if we don't get them done, we still have them for three years. But as I think we all know, as these guys get closer to free agency, their price is only going to go up. Kyle Tucker is about to have a full season without the shift. From brave Valdez is about to be the unquestioned ace of the staff and as they get closer to free agency, it's only going to get more expensive. It's only going to take more years and you do have to wonder if the ship has maybe already sailed and extending those two guys. So there's all of that future potential uncertainty. But when you look at the depth chart of the Astros now, there's a lot of stability in this current group, as you're sifting through camp, where are the spaces on the roster where you see there being actual position battles. It was funny. I think it was Mandy bell came on here about the guardians and she was she said, I can't believe all we have is the backup catcher battle. And Astros camp, we do have the backup catcher battle between Corey Lee and jiner Diaz, Coriolis, their final first round pick before the sanctions. He went to Cal and he certainly I think they view him as maybe the catcher of the future or a guy that Martin Maldonado can really take under his wing this year. A far better defender than jiner Diaz is, but John or Diaz just keeps hitting. He hit his way onto the 40 man last year. They brought him up in September for a brief big league cameo, but with the way this team values defense and the importance now with the limited disengagements and limited pick offs the importance of a strong throwing arm coil he's got one of the strongest throwing arms in minor league baseball for catchers. So I think he's probably got the edge back there to open camp to open the team to open the season, excuse me. As the backup catcher. And then there's another battle and center field that I don't know if we can call it a battle yet, but certainly chaz McCormack, who made the heroic catch in game 5 of the World Series and kind of locked down that position toward the end of the season. Dusty baker stopped short of anointing him as a starter coming into camp, Jake Myers who never seem like himself last season coming off of shoulder surgery, the Astros, really mismanaged his season quite frankly, they rushed him back from a minor league rehab assignment despite dusty baker pleading with them to give him more at bats and he came up to the major leagues and just look completely overmatched. And he's finally healthy. He's come the spring training. He's taken some really good swings early. He looks, he looks like the Jake Myers of old Jake Myers that really forced the Astros to trade miles straw in 2021. So there's a battle there. I think both but I think both of those guys are going to end up making the roster one as the fourth outfielder and one that's a starting center Fielder. So you can see maybe a time share there, not a platoon situation because both of them that right handed. But yeah, those are your two main battles other than that. It's kind of fun. We walk in the Clubhouse every day and it's like, yeah, I mean, they added one new major league player and Jose Abreu, and everyone else just kind of status quo. It's the same guys doing the same things kind of just kind of just going through the motions and kind of just ready for the season to start. Maybe we can talk about a few guys who are coming off of, we're dealing with injuries, so speaking of shoulder surgeries, Michael Brantley, what's his outlook? And Lance mccullers, who's dealing with an elbow issue and then I don't know if this is an ongoing issue, but you are done Alvarez was having some hint soreness, which he dealt with before. So is that an ongoing concern? I think all three are differing levels of ongoing concerns. You know, Michael Brantley was progressing very well. They were very optimistic. He was going to be able to get into grapefruit league games here in a couple of days and on track for opening day, but he's been away from camp for the last four or 5 days with what the teams describing as a family matter. So he's tending to that and that has kind of set him behind schedule to the point where Dana Brown acknowledged the other day that he may not, it may not be opening day. He may have to come back maybe that in later in that week, maybe the next week. So that family matter has set him back a little bit. Lance mccullers junior is still not playing catch.
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"Seems like a bit of a break from Luna and click. Yeah, so in the off season, they entered from what I was told they entered the off season with two names that they were gung Ho about acquiring and that was Jose Abreu and Wilson Contreras. Jose Abreu, it was a pretty seamless fit. It was a pretty obvious fit for him. They had some of the worst first base production in the big leagues last year from yuli guriel, who, while he had a wonderful postseason and was a Clubhouse favorite, clearly had declined a little bit. And they went out and they got Jose Abreu. They sent Jim crane actually sent Jeff Bagwell, bench coach Joe espada and assistant GM Bill Fergus to Miami to kind of seal that deal and sign Jose Abreu. Jim crane, about two or three days after parting ways with James clique finished a 34 and a half $1 million extension for Rafael Montero, which I'm still trying to figure out who they were bidding against to give Rafael Montero 34 and a half $1 million. Certainly an odd decision there. But one thing Jim crane said is they wanted to run the whole bullpen back. They wanted to run the entire pitching staff back. Obviously minus Justin Verlander. So that was a priority for them. And then Wilson Contreras is kind of an interesting one. They had a pretty lengthy. There was a pretty lengthy debate whether upgrading it, catcher where Martin Maldonado will never win a he'll never win a batting title, but he is so valuable in the Clubhouse. He is the one of the unquestioned leaders of that Clubhouse, you know, if they had the best pitching staff in baseball last year, he deserves a large amount of credit for that. And, you know, he's a very prideful person, and he has told me, you know, I wrote it a couple of weeks ago that he would have probably requested a trade. He would have probably not accepted a backup role in this team because he last year played through a sports hernia injury. He played through a broken hand for the final two months of the season and was a huge driving force to the Astros winning the World Series. And, you know, they talked with Wilson Contreras. They were never going to go to 5 years where the Cardinals ended up with him. But so I guess you could look at it and say they went one for two and they're off season without a GM and then it seemed like Jim crane waited to begin the interviews for his GM job until after all that heavy lifting was done. Dana Brown did not get a call from Jim crane until like the second or third week in January, I believe he told me. So Dana Brown certainly brings one thing that neither Jeff luno nor James clicked in. That's he played the game. And I think when you start getting into who are the influential factors in this organization, you know, Dana Brown has said he spoke to three people during the interview process. It was Jim crane, Reggie Jackson, and Jeff Bagwell. He did not speak to any existing member of the front office. None of the front office members were involved in the GM search as far as Dana Brown has led on to believe. So I think Dana Brown speaks their language. He speaks a language that James click and Jeff Leno just couldn't. So I think that was a selling point and then you also look at it, you know, this is a team that has not had a first or second round draft pick in 2020 and 2021. There's first and second round draft picks since 2017 have not inspired much confidence at all. This is a organization where there's going to be a lot of guys up for that are coming up for free agency here. They've got to replenish their farm system with higher end prospects because they're high end prospect capital is almost nonexistent. So Dana Brown, a veteran of the draft, a veteran of player evaluation, a veteran scout, you know, they thought that he was probably the guy to replenish the farm system to kind of get their draft in order because he's made no bones about it. Dana Brown is going to be very, very involved in the Astros draft process and procedure and we'll see how that changes because with some of these guys coming up to Kyle Tucker from reves Alex Bregman coming up for their contracts coming up here soon and Jim crane's unwillingness to do the big long deals that it may require to keep them. They're going to need to replenish that farm system with high end talent. He's going to be involved at the sort of head of that process, but do you anticipate there being any organizational shift beneath them in terms of the way that they approach scouting more generally, they obviously were on the bleeding edge of reducing in person scouting staff and opting for more in office work. But do you imagine there will be some repositioning there? I do, and I do think, you know, James click deserves some credit here too. He added 6 amateur scouts and his final off season as Astros general manager. So this thought and I don't know if it's a thought that pervaded the industry, but it is certainly a thought that Jeff Bagwell articulated at some point this winter that the Astros had gone too far into the analytics realm. James click was not this married to a computer analytic first guy. He wanted more scouts in the ballpark.
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"He was second at 13, but with the thousands more pitches. So Gary Sanchez, and to his credit and to the twins credit, Gary Sanchez did seem to become a more capable defensive catcher last year with the twins and his framing improved. It's not the first time that the twins have done that with a catcher. Of course he didn't hit that well. And he is still a free agent, as we speak, right? Carrie Sanchez still laughed there. So maybe he has this skill for anyone who's interested in signing Sanchez. So he is the somewhat surprising answer to that question. If you want fastballs only, Sanchez is tied at the top with Alejandro Kirk. So there's a tie for first. Those guys each had ten of those. So most of them are fastballs, most pitches are fastballs, period. And if you are interested in the pitcher leaders, obviously they're fewer of these because any picture is not involved in as many pitches as a starting catcher is, but the 2022 leaders among pitchers, Kyle Wright, Alec manoa, and from bravo Valdez, they were all tied with 6 last year. So I guess the larger question of is this more a pitcher skill or a catcher skill? Like when you see this when you see a hitter just completely caught looking, strike three on a ball right down the middle, do you think, oh, great pitch call, or do you think great pitch or do you think just bad decision making by the batter? Terrible guess, right, to go back to our previous question. You were just expecting something else. You got that and you were totally flummoxed. Yeah, it's almost always the latter of those. Winding it on the batter. Although I have to say, as somebody who has to watch a lot of Martin Maldonado and bats, like knowing that there's some measurable way in which he's good at defense and it's not just like nickels law giving me caught up and thinking that he is. It's nice. Yeah, yeah, no, there's something to that. So yeah, I think when a better looks completely fooled, it could be any one of the three it is sometimes it's the pitcher like even if it's a pitch down the middle, maybe there's some deceptive element of their delivery or there's some sort of tunneling going on or it looked like another pitch and you just didn't pick up on the fact or you expected it to drop or something because it looked like a breaking ball coming out of the hand or whatever so it could be still a credit to the pitcher and often it could be a credit to the catcher just completely confusing the batter or yeah it could be the better fault. So there's probably a little bit of all three of those there and I guess I would bet on the catcher probably having more of a roll than the pitcher in that the catcher is usually the one calling the pitches, although that could change in the pitch car mirror as we've discussed. So yeah, I don't think this is the best way to measure it. It's a fun little stat, but there certainly is something to catch a game calling that is one of the nuts that hasn't completely been cracked at least publicly and one of the ones where people say I wish we had a stat for this or what's one area of the game that hasn't been fully publicly quantified game calling is often one of the first answers. Yeah. All right, Alana would you care to stick around for the stat blaster past blast or do you need to go yeah okay, great. All right, so let's start with the stat blast. If I saw something like the only one I saw beyond close and then the teaser take it to discuss it at length and analyze it for us in a minute. Is to dance upon. Okay, so this step blast is prompted weird to not hear the music. Yes. Yeah,
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"And of course, it's just, it's hard to hit a pitch, even if you know which pitch is coming, but I think it wasn't perfect. They didn't have perfect information, which is part of why statistically it doesn't seem to have conferred the advantage that you would think it did. So if in this situation, you are guessing correctly, always in the back of your mind, you're thinking I might be wrong. And so you can't have complete faith in it. So I think unless you're fully committing yourself and maybe some players do, like once they guess a certain pitch is coming, they just, it's all or nothing, right? If they guessed wrong, then they will just look terrible, but if they guessed right, then they are fully committed to it. But could they have complete conviction that it will in fact be that pitch? I don't know. So I don't know that it would be a pure reflection even so of the advantage of knowing which pitch is coming. I am reminded of a story. I think it was on a one of the retrospectives about somebody badly missing on a pitch and then looking up at the scoreboard to see what kind of a pitch it was, and then turning and calling out to that was a change up. Right. Yes. So I would think that most players would not actually have a consistent skill with this. If you were to adjust for just say like whatever the non informed version of this would be, like if we were to come up with some estimator that just spit out, you know, based on the count and the pitcher tendencies, let's say, and then just randomized it within that that I think that would probably be about as accurate as most major leaguers would be, like they're taking into account. Hopefully the scouting report and some research they've done on the pitcher, although that would certainly vary by team and bi player and then of course they're taking into account the count and their own tendencies and what they're good at hitting or not. So they know all of that. But if you built a model that factored those things in, just like what the picture is good at and their tendencies with the hitter is good at and the count. I think you could probably be about as accurate as the typical big leaguer when it comes to estimating this. And I do think there would be some players who were better and maybe it would be something where you could see a different by age, you know? Savvy veterans, maybe would be better at this than young players who've just seen fewer pitches and have less of a sample to draw on. And then there might be certain teams that are better prepared that really studied the scouting reports and know the data better. And I guess there could be something to the idea that a catcher might be a little bit better prepared because they're used to thinking through pitch calling and so maybe they would have some leg up when it came to knowing what was coming, but I don't know. That doesn't help catchers be great hitters on the whole. I think you would detect some signal there if you had a large enough sample. Yeah. And I think you would also detect some signal probably on times when they guessed correctly versus incorrectly. You'd be able to tell based on outcomes of the pitch. Yeah, I think that's right. All right. And it would also be a useful thing, like if you could see that someone was guessing wrong all the time, then that might make it easy to help them improve, right? Either get better or stop guessing, because you're really bad at guessing. So just do something different, right? Or if there's a hitter on your team who's really great at guessing that maybe they could try to tutor other players and they do to some extent, I think, right? Like veterans already do that. That's part of being a good veteran mentor is imparting that knowledge to other players. So probably the players who have some skill at this are already trying to pass along that skill to some extent to their teammates. But yeah, this would be fascinating information to have. So I'm all for it. It would be a probably a further delay of game to make the betters have to contemplate what pitch is coming and then enter that. But it would be a great science experiment for those of us playing along at home. Yeah. And I wonder how bad fans would be at this too if fans could estimate this probably they would be quite bad, I would think. All right, I'll answer one more related question here. This is from Jay Patreon supporter who says, with so much recent talk about the potential robocall strike zone in the future of catcher framing, I've been thinking about another catcher skill that seems incredibly valuable, but difficult to measure, catch your game calling, catch your ERA is readily available, and there's an article by Harry Potter fleets from 2015 for ESPN about catcher game calling run saved. But another way to measure this that's maybe for fun would be the middle middle strike three called looking strikeout. This seems like a baseball event that owes as much credit to the catcher's pitch selection as the pitcher's execution. It's like a good joke, the setup is as important as the punchline. If we have to give this kind of strike out a name and we do, I'll pitch RDT, K, which stands for right down the dick, backwards K it's probably a small dataset, but here are the stat flash questions anyway, which catchers lead in RDT DKs. Do you think this is a repeatable catcher skill or is it more picture dependent, which pictures lead in RD TDK's? A fastball RDT DK is even more surprising than a big loopy curve ball that fools a better. Can this data be parsed by pitch type two? So yeah, you can look up all of this at baseball savant and I did look up some of it just to answer J and I'd just look for 2022. I didn't look to see if this is a consistent repeatable skill over time, but we have talked about this. We had Harry poppy this on the pod to talk about that 2015 article that was episode 6 86 and then more recently episode 1793, we talked to Cameron grove about his 2021 game calling research. And by the way, Cameron just recently was hired by the guardians. So another one bites the dust. Another great public. Analysts and study your baseball, who's put really fun resources out there for fans like us. Now go and behind the paywall, not the first time that the guardians have stolen such a person from us, a former staff last consultant Adam at or max marky formerly a baseball perspective and just guardians snapping up all the smart public researchers and we don't get to enjoy their work anymore, but happy for them. That they get to live their front office dreams. Anyway, I think game calling is a repeatable skill, but I think it would be tough to pick up on it just by looking at down the middle called strikeouts because you only have so many of those. But it is searchable and would you believe that the 2022 catcher leader is Gary Sanchez. Yeah, not someone you think of as a defensive specialist, but he had 14 of those. It's interesting because Carrie said just had 14 of these last year, Martin Maldonado, who you do think of as a defensive specialist.
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"A sports hernia? Yeah. And so I know that they love Martin Maldonado and Houston. And that he is, he is thought to be very good with that staff. But I just find that it's interesting that he backed up there mostly. I know that there are teams that need catchers, but I don't know, I think he might do a little bit worse than this, not from an AAV perspective, but from a year's perspective. I could see him signing a two year deal that takes him through his age 34 season for a similar AAV, but three years feels like maybe one more year than I would imagine he gets. And so I think I'm taking the under. You know? Yeah, I guess a decent amount of his defensive value comes from framing that that will matter over the course of the reasonable arm. He's not like, he's been a very good defensive catcher at times. At times, yeah. Yeah. They felt like they needed him. I mean, a great team, the asterisk. Won a World Series. They felt like he would be an upgrade. And you're right. I assume that that is partly loyalty to Maldonado and Maldonado just being the incumbent and a plan, right? Right. He doesn't catch then what value does he have? Yeah. And you're pitching staff has been so successful with Maldonado. Maybe you don't want to mess with that so much. You literally had a broken hand. So there's that. I don't know, maybe they didn't know about all the injuries he had all that time. I'm not sure. But anyway, all right, that's that pick. That's your last one. I will pick oh, and by the way, I meant to mention Contreras. Despite the some defensive shortcomings like he's got a good arm, he can throw guys out, which I think could be handy given the new pick off rules and maybe more of a running game. So there's that. Anyway, I think I'll go with the over on Brandon drury. At two and 18, I don't feel great about anyone who's left at this point. I haven't felt great about my pixels. He's kind of a one year wonder. I mean, he's been bouncing around. I think he signed a minor league deal last year, and then he had this great career year, silver slugger, right? And hit well and also like the batted ball metrics were much improved and he gives you some defensive versatility too. I mean, he doesn't play shortstop, but he played a bunch of positions and he can play second and third and first and a little bit of outfield even if needed in a pinch and I guess he stood at shortstop for four innings, but you know like between the versatility and the hitting and he's only 30. I guess I could just see him beating this by a modest amount and I just don't really like no one else is calling to me right now. I thought about that amount of eno over two 14. I thought about gosh I thought about Martin Perez over at the qualifying offer but then I read a rumor that he was leaning towards accepting the qualifying offer. Yeah, I think he really wants to stay in Texas. So that's what we got. Yeah, it was look, they did a good job predicting, or at least they did about as good a job as I would have done, I guess, because there weren't that many that stood out to me as being far from the Mark. But I like your draft. I actually, I predict that you win this one. I think I feel better about your draft than I do about mine. I never feel good about my dress. You know? Historically, that's been smart. So it's interesting. I feel like I know stuff about baseball. And I have reasonable takes and then I draft and it all. Has a part been. Sometimes it all falls apart. Yeah. Well, I hate to tell you this, but we gotta knock out this other one quickly. Do this quick, all right? The World Series odds movers draft. So again, to remind everyone what this is, we'll just do this this can be almost like a lightning round, maybe. I say that and then we can do it as a lightning round. I guess. But the premise here, we got the World Series ads as they stand today, and I don't know anything about odds and betting and games. Yeah, neither of us does. I looked up the fingers. I had to ask you what they mean? Why would you have to Google what they mean? Why would you say that? But I looked up the FanDuel ads and I looked up the DraftKings odds for the World Series winners in 2023 as they stood today Monday as we are recording and I will put that online so everyone has it for reference. I think they haven't been updated extremely recently, but that's how they stand today. And then we will see where they are on opening day and our goal here is again to be directionally correct. So we want to pick teams that will have either better World Series odds at the end of the off season than they do now or worse. And we just want to pick right, whether it's better or worse. And again, this is just the odds today and the odds then, so we are essentially betting on who has a good off season, or who is perceived to have had a good off season. And some of that obviously is baked in. So that if you expect a team to have a great off season, then add a bunch of good players, then presumably that would have been factored into these odds that these sites developed. And I averaged the two sites, but they were very close in almost all cases. So I really could have flipped a coin, but whatever. So we're just going to choose who we think will, I suppose, exceed expectations this winter. And we're defining that by them getting more likely to win the World Series. Or worse, you could pick either. Yeah, I should say we're not actually just choosing exceed expectations. It could be, it could be either. So you can choose an either direction. Just like we did with the contract draft where we can go over under, we can say that team X will be a longer shot. We'll be considered a longer shot to win or a shorter shot. Shorter shot. Yeah. So that's the premise here. And I guess, well, you went first last time. You please go first. Okay. All right. I don't feel any more confident about this one than I did about that one, but here we go. So I think I will start by taking the guardians to be better to better odds by the end of the off season. Right now they are plus 37 50. That's the average of the two. And with these odds with these pluses, because we don't actually bet on sports, I always have to remind myself what these things mean and there are all the different odds versions of presenting these things, but basically this is like, it ranges from the Dodgers at plus 5 50 down to the nationals a's and pirates at plus 15,000, and if I understand this correctly, what that means is that if you bet a $100 on the Dodgers, then you win 5 50. And if you bet a $100 on the nationals, and they win the World Series, then you win $15,000. So the longer the shot is, the more you make, obviously. And if you translate this to probabilities, I think this translates to the Dodgers have a 15.4 chance to win the World Series and the nationals and those other teams at the bottom have a .7% chance. So that's the range. So I'm choosing the guardians at plus 37 50, partly just because The Guardian just seemed too low to me. Yeah. As it is, like they're 16th on this list and that just seems too low or I guess they're tied for 15th with the Giants and I just, I think they're better than that.
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"You can just like really put the dagger into somebody's season? It's like, sorry, I couldn't get hits before I just had to crush dreams and, you know, you gotta, I don't know, Ben, isn't there some superhero that does that? There's probably some superhero that does that, you know? Like, yeah, sure. Yep, that was who I was thinking of definitely, you know. It just made that up. Like a chipmunk with this is not the right reference, but I'm picturing Ben Stiller from mystery men, his power became incredibly angry. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe The Sandman. Anyway, I do have to just give credit also to Alex and drone the Astros hidden coach who did some good hidden coaching, apparently, and I read Stephanie Epstein's story about this in SI, but apparently there was a batting cage session before the game and everyone knew that Diaz had been slumping and they looked at some video and recommended a change, I think, to his hand position and supposedly suddenly everything clicked and he was blistering the ball again, so I don't know whether it was that or whether that gave him confidence or whether this would have happened anyway, but that's what I headed coaches supposed to do. So good job, I guess. And sometimes we talk about slumps as if they're just random or they're just sort of afflictions that kind of come from nowhere, but very often, at least if you're not hitting the ball hard and just getting rubbed, there's some sort of root cause. We may never know what it is, but there was one, maybe your mechanics were screwed up, maybe you had some sort of nagging injury, whatever it was, and then maybe it might just randomly fix itself without you ever learning what the problem was, or you might actually do something to correct the problem. In this case, maybe it was the latter, or who knows, maybe it just happened. But it did sort of bring the Astros postseason full circle where you're done just destroyed a team at the beginning and the end and very painful fashion. For the opponents, not for his fans. Didn't look too hard for him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing about Alvarez's power. It's so easy. It just looks so easy. And then they added an insurance run, which they turned out not to need, really, in, I guess, the only other weird thing was Kyle schwarber trying to bunt, which is kind of that already having homered in the game. And I guess the shift was on. RIP, the shift, one of the last shifts that we will see in I assume he was trying to take advantage of that, but it was with two strikes when he. Has butted before. He's not one of these guys. Yeah. You start one of these guys who's never laid one down successfully. He has some experience doing that, but with two strikes. Yeah, it seems. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't seem like the best. Did your viewing experience of this World Series game make you think that more things should be reviewable by instant replay for instance whether someone had leaned into a pitch on purpose? Yeah, I guess in theory there's no real reason why you couldn't do that, right? I mean, if you can review to see if someone was hit, there's always like squeamishness about judgment calls. But we've already. We've crossed the Rubicon, folks. I guess that's one. What judgment calls get reviewed now? Well, no, I mean, we allow judgment calls within our umpiring structure right now. They are making the whole thing. So the reviewing them seems tough. I don't know. I also didn't think he was trying to get hit so much there. I am getting into it. Well, yeah. I don't think he is set up before the pitch to get hit. Yes, right. Well, he has a track record of doing that. Yeah. Yeah, and I know Martin Maldonado is a silver slugger finalist. Justin Troy mentioned that in his recap of this game, as an aside, and someone who has better boundaries with baseball than any of us did in the comments was like very confused and thought that Justin thought he should be a silver slugger finalist and it's like, no, no, this award just doesn't make any sense. It's fun. If you ask me in 20 years about Martin Maldonado, the first thing I will remember is that he was somehow a silver slugger fight us that one year and no one will know what I'm talking about. But yeah, he has done this before, which makes sense because he's not actually that silver slugger and also he was playing through injury as we learned. He is a broken hand. Yeah. Seems like every catcher has a broken pictures haven't broken hands. I mean, I guess it makes sense in that I understand how catchers break their hands. But then how do they keep the question? So it's not just big dumper. It was also Martin Maldonado, who broke his head in like late August? Yeah. And a sports herner on top of that. So yeah. Then I retract my statement. You get on however you. Yeah, if you're played through that much pain, maybe you're entitled to just kind of finesse your way into one. I don't think it was like as egregious as a litmus diez trying to do it in game one. And that's probably why he wasn't called on it. But clearly, he was scooching in toward the plate. He knew he was probably going to get some insight sinkers. And also, in his postgame interview, he basically copped to it. I mean, he didn't say he was leaning into it, but he said, he didn't make an effort to get out of the way, which is what you're supposed to do. And if you don't do that, then you're not supposed to keep the credited with a hit by pitch. But he's hardly the only person to do that. I know that some people have seized on that as see the Astros, they're still rotten to the core. They're still finding ways to cheat. Oh man, just wait till they sign Anthony Rizzo. Doesn't strike me. I mean, maybe if we want to talk about the discourse, this can be our transition to it. But that's just like a baseball thing to do. I don't feel like that's an Astros thing to do. Like that feels like a that's like a light hitting, you know, infields or a thing to do. Catch your thing to do, not a uniquely Houston proposition. There is just a great Davy enters post at fangraphs just running through all the examples of hitters who've been hit on pitches literally in the strike zone. And have gotten hit by pitches on them. So it's not supposed to happen, but it happens fairly often. And I think it's within the bounds of legal gamesmanship. I was actually mentioning in my piece that there was some precedent. I think it was 2010, there was a hitter who not only worked his way on via hit by pitch, but faked the hit by pitch, which is not unheard of, but he got hit on his bat and pretended that he had been plunked and went through the theatrics and log gesticulations and then admitted after the game, yeah, you know, I was just trying to work my way on. And it was actually the same home plate umpire went, spark stale, who was pumping this game game 6 and that hitter that nefarious just doing everything he can to win even if it's illegal and pantomiming hit by pitches and just underhanded dastardly deeds, Derek Jeter. Derek Jeter. Yeah, that's what winners do. It's what champions do, and that was in a mid September game too. So what? We'll see it in the playoffs. So what was the gap between when he did this and when he admitted that he had done it? I think it was postgame, I think. That's amazing. Like that piece of it feels like a strategic error on his part because like if you're gonna, if you're gonna get up to shenanigans, you can't save Ben up to shenanigans because then the umpires are gonna know that you have the capacity for shenanigans. I mean, if a hit is bad, they were gonna figure that out on replay. That was that one was unavoidable. Hey, if they institute the challenge system. Yes. And you are the catcher. Yes. And someone gets hit by pitch on a pitch that's in the strike zone. Presumably you could challenge it. Yeah. Right. Just say, hey, that was in the strike zone. So you can't be a hit by true, yeah. It would be a lot now when I'm consistency. Yeah. That's a good point. Oh, man. If it's strike zone, it can't be a hit by pitch.
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"I've seen some people calling for David Hensley to pinch hit, which is not happened since the division series or even to start a game over the options who are not hitting and one of those, as we mentioned, the webmaster Diaz just trying to get himself plunked to get on base and really that was almost a strike. It was not quite in the strike zone, probably, but it was pretty close. It was pretty close. Just to promote another fan grass post very fun post from the entrance. Yeah, just like a video review of every time. A better has drawn a hit by pitch on a pitch in the strike zone. Has apparently happened 27 times it looks like. That's right. Over the past ten years including twice in the playoffs. So it takes some guts from umpire James hoy there just to make that call and say no, he weaned into that one. We didn't do it. Very, very clearly did. But very clearly leaned into it. But still, the default is you get hit, you take your base and you see this sometimes, it happens. It happened to Anthony Rizzo earlier this year and he was upset. He gets hit a lot, and he was deprived of the hit by pitch in this case. And yeah, I respect an empire who especially in the World Series will make kind of the uncommon call as opposed to just like the default which you got hit, you get to go to first. Particularly in front of a home crowd. When they're going to say, hey, he got hit, he should take his base, and then you go, no. Should not wait for that. Diaz denied everything after the game until he was named. Like, come on, man. We saw. Yeah, we saw it. We saw it. It's okay. You know, it's funny, 'cause it's like there's no downside to him admitting that that's what he did, right? No one's going to be. We don't know. People know people watched. Can he just say, you know I was trying to get one over, see what he would do? That didn't work. Yeah, he could equivocate a little. I mean, just, you know, right. If you're an astronaut, I guess if you're an ASTRO, even if you're of a more recent vintage, you probably don't want to be like, no, I was just using guile and potential breaking to advance because people tend to not have any reaction to that at all. Measured. Of course, then just to deny it, then you kind of look even worse because we also what was going on there. It's okay. He's far from the first to try to get on Facebook. It's okay. It's a time honored tactic. You work your way on however you can in that situation. So you might even appreciate just like the grittiness of taking one on the elbow protector. Like he didn't actually get a bruise here, presumably, but still, you know, to stick an appendage in the path of a pitch, it takes a little guts, so I can't imagine it feels good even if you do have elbow protector. You're getting a bit when the elbow protector reverberates it probably is a little ouchie. I would think. Probably. Yeah. I would think so, yeah. So, you know, it's okay. You can admit it. We will accept that, I think I'd rather have him just come clean than not. So there was that. I also want to acknowledge Kyle Tucker, who hit two home runs in this case. So that was good too. He accounted for four of the rents there by hitting those two homers. So if you're really good. Robertson struck him out, I think, in the tenth, but he just didn't get a whole lot of offensive help in that game, but he did what he could. So yeah, great comeback. Great game. Like come back and lead changes and all the rest and kudos to real Muto for the big game winning shot. I think that people underestimate the degree to which being bashful and sort of koi can read in a charming way when you're engaged in something like Diaz was like, if you're just like, this trying to get on base and be bashful, then people are like, oh, oh you. And because that's how everybody shocks. And then it's fine. But yes, we should acknowledge that the Kyle Tucker of it all. The most ichabod crane looking baseball player. Yes. Coming up big in that moment. It is the two best pitchers of this generation, clay Kershaw, Justin roentgen, both burdens by lack of postseason success to varying degrees and at varying times, but that's not going to be line one of the story about them getting into the Hall of Fame, but it's something that is associated with both of them at this point. So unless Justin pitches a perfect game of his own to clinch in game 6 or something, then I guess that would get the monkey off his back and Kershaw got it off to some extent, not fully, but but really like both of those guys you can say that they are the best pictures of the generation and I think you should say that, but also there's this little, you know, it's weird. It's kind of odd so that they were not their usual selves in the postseason. I don't know that it means anything, but it's a fact. So I think it just means that everybody's tired, Ben. Yeah, everybody is tired, but not the hitters who were facing them in those games. They are tired. Who knows why? Maybe they slept better. Yes. You know, it could be any number of things. All right, and then game two kind of overshadowed by the James hoberg performance, frankly, but not a bad game in its own right. So this was kind of a throwback, I guess. At this point from briva valdes, go in 6 and a third is like, wow. Retro for a World Series started to do that. It was the first such start since Zack Greinke went 6 and a third in game 7 of 2019, which was an extremely fun outing. Yes. And yeah, this is like, this is the kind of game that I like on the whole, just like a starter going deeper and then turning over to the bullpen and it's like only a couple pin guys baby instead of several bullpen guys. So if this was great, we got another little sticky stuff watch in this game. Certainly on Twitter, you know, the Joe musgrove repeat. This was not sticky ears. This time, but any ASTRO starter or former Esther, I guess he's going to come under scrutiny for sticky stuff usage. So in this game, like farmer has these mannerisms, I think, pretty consistently, just like rubbing things and fidgeting and everything. And I think even the Phillies said as much that he looked basically the same doing these things, all these little fidgets and such the last time they faced him. So I don't know that this was out of the norm for him and I guess the kind of odd part is that he switched gloves, mid game, which is not something you see all the time. The glove doesn't break, which I didn't happen as far as we know. So anyway, look, the antennas are always up. The radar, it's always circulating, and when someone looks good, people wonder, is it too good? But yeah, no smoking gun cure as there wasn't with musgrove either. He was just good. He's a very good picture. And he was very good in this game. Very good in that game. There wasn't a smoking gun. There was a smoking bat. Yeah. Are you referring to the Martin Maldonado? Yeah.
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"Is an analyst for ESPN. He's working the American League championship series on ESPN radio and he got up early for us today and what do I really appreciate it? Well, you got it. You know, I'm an early morning guy, not as early as you, but at least I can say that I get up pretty early. Yeah, but the thing is, you know, you get up early, not as early as me, but you stay up really late. I don't even know when you sleep. Like I haven't figured that part out, right? Like, I mean, I'll get my solid four or 5 hours. I think you get like an hour of sleep a night. Well, last night it was maybe around two 33 o'clock in the morning, then I went to sleep, but I'm ready to go. I'm up. It reflects your personality too, that you do have like an adrenaline problem after games, right? Like our broadcast will end on Sunday Night baseball at 11 o'clock, and it feels like, you know, you're still going for high at like three in the morning. I mean, think about it. Pinch yourself, what we do, and we have to grow up. So I get really excited about the games that we call. I get excited about baseball period, and then you have to sort of process everything that went on, and the things that could have been done on either side to get an edge, and then also what could have been done on our side to get in that as well. Yeah. Although this round, it's probably exhausting because you know you got to carry Dan showman on your broadcast. Right? You've been there. You understand, you get me. Right, exactly. Of course we're giving. Danny's one of the all time greats. All right, so you saw Justin Berliner last night. Speaking of all time greats, the future Hall of Famers should be unanimous election. First time his name came up, comes on the ballot. And part of the reason why he's got to this spot is, you know, beyond the great stuff that everybody's seen through his career is his ability to find a way in games in which maybe he's not so great. What did you see in him during the game last night? I saw three innings of Justin Berliner, the first three innings that he was struggling. It was struggling to be able to get the swing and miss. He was struggling to be able to locate his fastball in the zone early to try to get chases and, you know, this is a guy that goes out there in battles and competes and he knows that it's a fastball. It's a slider it's the curve ball that'll work. But he's mainly been fastball slider this year and then all of a sudden the curveball was the one that was working until that's until, you know, take some D but 22 pitches in the first inning. 23 pitches in a second and 21 pitches he threw in the third inning. I mean, misses Morales by math teacher were told me, that's not a good start. But he was able to settle down. He was able to stay in the game. He was able to give them length. He was able to do what dusty baker told us during our managers meetings. Is he along with framework Valdez this year? We're able to consistently take care of the bullpen. Make sure that they didn't have to throw a lot of innings. So then he could have at least pieces for games if it's three, four and 5 of the series before his rotation came back up. And that's exactly what he did 6 settings of solid work, started striking out, guys, use the slider and the curve by found him. And that's how Justin Verlander has survived his entire career and he's gotten better with age. He's changed. He's evolved and I just think it's amazing to me that he was able to go 6. He was at 92 pitches after 5, and I looked to my left and I told Dan, he's going one more. That's all he needs one more and he'll leave with his head up high and that's exactly how it was and they got him two rubs in my bottom half because he rewarded his team with 6 and they rewarded him with two blasts and 6. You know what I loved about how he got to the finish line two was the biplane that he had between he and his veteran catcher Martin Maldonado when carpenters at the plate, the last hitter that he saw. They were clearly having a disagreement on what pitch selection was. And Martine goes out to the mound and they have a discussion and it was pretty imminent animated and I don't mean to suggest they're like yelling at each other, but they both had strong beliefs about what should take place and my read on what happened. I didn't see that Verlander addressed the question along this line afterward. My read on it was that Verlander is great as he was deferred to Maldonado's choice of throwing that slider on that last pitch down and in because as soon as he struck out the Carpenter, he celebrates for a moment and then he points at Maldonado like great job buddy. Tell me if I made did you read it the same way? I read it exactly the same way that you just described it. You know, he went out there and you could tell I loved the part that the cameras also had Maldonado walking back towards the plate and I know my team really well, you know, I managed them in the international play. I sat with him before the game just asking him questions and he goes, dude, my head today, I've got so much information going on right now. I've looked at so much video. I've studied so much of their tendencies and swing path. And I think that's what caught my attention when he said swing path. Because one
VSiN Best Bets
"martin maldonado" Discussed on VSiN Best Bets
"After they inevitably beat Detroit probably three out of four games, the stock's probably get one win out of three games against the Astros. Well, then the guardians are going to be looking great and their odds will probably move to like minus one 40 minus one 50. Maybe not that high. But who knows? Maybe. It depends what happens with the twins, right? I'm not saying I'm betting on the twins and the guardians. You got to pick one or the other. And we assume the twins would falter, I thought the guardian's offense would not last this long, but the fact they were able to do that on the road against Toronto. That doesn't sway your opinion on this team. I don't know what does. So I think I might have to pull the trigger here on the guardians at even money. It stinks to say it, but that just seems like the safe and smart call right now instead of literally, I know we are, but gambling on the White Sox to cash a ticket at minus one ten. Look, if you haven't bet anything yet, I guess you could say you could see the value in the twins at plus two 50 because of what opponents say I've coming up, if you just want pure value. But man, it's set up nicely for Cleveland now. 63% chance to make the postseason, according to fangraphs. The White Sox are at 46.6% in the twins are now at 40.4% chance. I don't know. I might have to pull the trigger on Cleveland. Again, I mean, is there anything that's making you convinced that the White Sox will wrap this up and solidify it? Absolutely not. When you're having to rely this much on Johnny cueto at this point in his career and look, cats off to him. It's just not necessarily ideal. And when la Russa's firing back at the comets, he made like shut up, Tony. You know, it's goodies said that. Someone needs to say something because you're not doing squat. All right? Everybody's had enough of your antics. But can the White Sox do enough amongst each other to rally an overcome this Cleveland team in the division? Well, it starts tonight. It starts tonight against Houston. It's going to be their toughest series to date. And they need to capitalize. I'm not banking on the fact they will, but if there's a matchup to get off to a good start with, it could be this one tonight. And that's because of the aforementioned Johnny cueto will be taking the bump this evening at guaranteed rate field against the Astros in the good news for that is that Johnny cueto, as we know, has been very serviceable for the socks as of this point, but especially against the Astros. I mean, look, he started against them once this year, but it was a stellar performance. At Houston, he went 7 innings, allowed just two hits, no earned runs, 5 strikeouts, and the socks, won that game at Houston 7 zero. And really even in other samples sizes like the Astros players have really struggled against cueto. I think Martin Maldonado and Jose Altuve have two hits against him, and that's the most. And it's like two out of like double digit played appearances against it. So Johnny cueto's had the ASTRO's number. Up to this point. And overall this year is stat line is now looking like four and 5. Two 91 ERA. One 23 whip, three 92 on his 5th, and then his Sierra gets concerning at four 39, but hey, maybe he can bounce back at home.
AP News Radio
Valdez throws 7 scoreless, AL-best Astros beat Rangers 7-3
"Farmer Valdez allowed four hits and struck out 8 over 7 shutout innings in the Houston ASTRO 7 to three win over the Texas Rangers Valdez is now thrown 19 straight quality starts and his ERA dropped to 2.73 Astros manager dusty baker You feeling outstanding game I mean he was very serious about his work and he was a very composed They had a little bit of trouble there early and then he settled down Alex Bregman finished two for two with a home run and three RBI for the Astros while Martin Maldonado added a three run Homer Adam splain Houston
AP News Radio
Verlander wins MLB-leading 15th game, Astros blank Cleveland
"Justin Verlander continued his outstanding return from Tommy John surgery by leading the Astros 6 zero shutout of the guardians Verlander allowed only a pair of singles over 6 innings to win his 7th consecutive start He's 15 and three with a 1.73 ERA leading the majors in both victories and earn run average Chasm McCormick and Martin Maldonado each home were going to have three RBIs helping Verlander get his 241st career win Cleveland rookie Steven Quan extended his hitting streak to 18 games But the guardians had just two other hits I'm Dave ferry
AP News Radio
Astros start fast, batter Ray for 3-game sweep of Mariners
"Other momentum the Mariners generated from a 14 game winning streak has died in their three game sweep by the Astros The last being an 8 5 victory by Houston The M's were down by two in the blink of an eye as Jose Altuve and Jeremy Pena hit consecutive homers off Robbie ray to start the game Martin Maldonado had three RBIs for the 9th spot in the lineup helping the Astros earn their 5th straight win From bravo Valdez improved to 9 and four and had a shutout until he was chased during a three run 7th Ray was tagged for 6 runs and ten hits in three innings I'm Dave
AP News Radio
Astros end Mariners' winning streak at 14; J-Rod scratched
"The Mariners 14 game winning streak is over following a 5 two loss to the AL west leading Astros Houston Homer three times and ending the second longest winning streak in Seattle team history Topped only by a 15 game run in 2001 Jose Altuve led off the game with a Homer off starter and loser Marco Gonzalez That was followed by a blast by Jordan Alvarez in the fourth inning and Martin Maldonado solo shot in the 5th when he pitcher Jose or Katie went 6 innings allowing one run and four hits He blanked the ems until ty France homeward in the 6th Gonzalez was tagged for 5 runs over 5 and two thirds I'm Dave
AP News Radio
Verlander gets MLB-leading 12th win as Astros beat A's 5-0
"Justin Verlander became the first pitcher to hit the 12 win mark as the Houston Astros beat the Oakland athletics 5 to nothing For lander allowed 6 hits over 6 shutout innings with ten strikeouts and he did not issue a walk The time office helped and then just kind of always searching mechanically trying to find new things and or kind of like hone in on what I want to feel and you know I think today was kind of a culmination of a couple of those things Martin Maldonado went one for three for the Astros but that one hit was a second inning Grand Slam Collected two hits and he scored a run Atmosphere
AP News Radio
Urquidy, backed by Bregman, Maldonado, leads Astros over A's
"Hose kitty worked a career high 8 innings of the Astros tenth win in 11 games 8 three versus the athletics or Katie earned his third consecutive win toss in four hit ball and allowing three runs He's pitched to a two ERA over his last 27 frames Every ASTRO starter collected at least one hit led by three from yuli guriel Martin Maldonado slammed the three run Homer and Alex Bregman hit a two run blast a starter Paul Blackburn retired the first ten before led mister Diaz in Jordan Alvarez hit consecutive one out doubles in the fourth I'm Dave
AP News Radio
Maldonado hits 2 of 5 Houston homers in 9-1 win over Angels
"Martin Maldonado club to two home runs as the Houston Astros won their 5th straight game beating the Los Angeles angels 9 to one Maldonado's power surge was part of a 5 Homer day for the Astros with Jose Altuve Kyle Tucker and chaz McCormick also going deep Altuve says he's happy for Maldonado He's doing tremendous job behind the play Calling good pieces in you know making these guys win a lot of games He obviously wants to swing the bag too and a day like today you know it's good for him Jose Archie earned his 7th win of the season for the Astros Adam spole in Houston
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"Gonzalez covers baseball for ESPN and Alan, how are you doing today? I'm doing great, buster, a little weary. Last night was very eventful. We almost got a no hitter from Tyler Anderson. So that was a lot of fun at your stadium the night before. All right. Before we get to that, I want to ask you about what happened in the Astros game last night. Two immaculate innings by two different pitchers, the first time on the same team, the first time in baseball history that's happened in oh, by the way, the retired the same three hitters in the sequence that they had. I need you to check me on this one because I got to say like when I saw it on social media, I kind of had a bit of a shrug of the shoulder. Shoulders, it remind me a lot of what our old friend boog chambi, how he feels about the hitting for the cycle. Like he kind of looks at it like, it's more of a statistical curiosity than a major feat. Am I wrong? 'cause I was like, man, this era of so many strikeouts. Striking out the side with 9 pitches doesn't seem so unusual anymore. Well, I think Martin Maldonado would tell you that you're not wrong because I think he threw the ball into Alex pregnant just as if it were normal strikeout to end inning and then he got back to the dugout and everybody kept telling him get the ball, get the ball. This is a really big deal. When I saw it, I was pretty impressed because I mean, this is more rare than a no hitter, a perfect game, hitting for the cycle, anything like that. I could see it is definitely an anomaly. Don't get me wrong. But you and I play earnings in one game. I don't think there's ever been two immaculate innings on the same day. Or in the same game, granite. And so it definitely not by the same team. It's kind of a statistical anomaly, but I think this is like, this is as rare as seeing a comet, though, coming by. I mean, just sort of based on baseball history. Okay. Well, we've got the Astros and the White Sox this weekend and Sunday Night baseball. So I'm going to talk to those guys, find out, did they take a baseball away from it? Did they collect something from and how big of a deal it is to them? Before I think I render my final judgment, I'll do that over the weekend. All right, so last night, Tyler Anderson comes close to throwing a no hitter for the Dodgers. He's one of the best stories in baseball. I feel like this year, you're getting this mid career emergence. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, and look at where were the Dodgers be without Tony Gonzalez and Conor Anderson. Imagine saying that at the start of the year. But those two guys carried this rotation. This is a rotation that came in with a lot of question marks that I'll then you have playing Krishna going on in the engine list. You have Julio's not looking quite as dominant as he looked last year. And now obviously you have the news walker builder who's going to be out until September at least. Tyler Anderson yesterday. I mean, he went back to an old changeup grip that throws the ball a little slower. That ended up being his best pitch. And it's amazing. But one of the big talking points last night was Dave Roberts, who famously removed rich hill and claimed Kershaw for perfect games when they were only in the 80 pitch range, letting Tyler Anderson go over a 120 pitches given how important he is. He said something really funny after the game. He said, look, I know I had this reputation as the grim Reaper, but I'm a sports fan too. He wanted to see Tyler Anderson get it, but he let the cutter up to Shohei Ohtani and he doesn't miss those pitches. So he had to give up his first hit with one out in the 9th inning. Yeah, I always feel like that the context is important with each of those decisions and if you're Dave Roberts, you get Tyler Anderson who's been a guy who's bounced around in his career and as we talked about he sort of has blossomed now in his time with the Dodgers and given his salary and given his service time and where he is in his career. I think he made the absolute right decision to give him a chance to finish it. Yeah, absolutely. And you know a lot of the viewers were very nervous though because between innings they kept showing pictures of they can show you snapshots of Tyler Anderson in the dugout and he kept just sort of massaging the area of his left arm, his bicep, his elbow, his form, and everybody's like, what's going on here? Is he pitching through soreness? And he said, no, this is just, he said that to the game. This is just what a guy who's been through a lot of injuries and is very high percent sensitive to his body tends to do in between innings. He felt great. He wanted and if you saw that Dodger Stadium crowd, I mean, when he came out for the main building, just sort of the pop of that stadium. Those 50,000 people there even last night. That was fun. He said it was like a playoff atmosphere. You mentioned walker buehler and the question of whether or not he's going to come back this year. What do you think? I think he can. I don't know that there's much margin for error. I mean, he talked about how he went in there on Monday and just decided to remove a bone spur that's been there for a while and the reason for that is because it's a ten to 12 week recovery. That's the same recovery. And it's just flexor stream. So what we know is it's at the very least he's going to go 6 weeks without picking up a baseball, all right? That's troubling enough. It could be 8 weeks. They're going to have a minimum at that point, and then they'll decide determine whether he can start throwing. But when he starts ramping up, it's spring training again, basically for him. He's got to build back up traditionally. He's got to go out on a rehab assignment or have the minor league seasons over by then navigate through sin games and build up a coordinate. The timeline has him back around late August, early September. But that's without any hiccups. And walker Wheeler said it himself. He's had elbow issues before. He's a really smart guy who's very aware of his body and how his arm works. He said, he feels like he can come back this year, but at this point in June, there's no certainty. So you look at the Dodgers, obviously trying to contend for a World Series championship. They can't take that for granted. They got to go out and they got to get some starting pitching before the trade deadline. That's what I was going to ask you is that the absolute priority before the deadline in a market which looks like it's going to be relatively thin and starting pitching. I would expect it to be very thin just especially because of the extra wildcards, but yes, that is their priority. Keep in mind, they didn't just lose walker because it was the most important starting pitcher on their team, but they lost Blake tried it for a long time. And he's the most important relief pitcher on their team..
AP News Radio
9 pitches, 3 Ks _ Astros twice immaculate against Rangers
"The Houston Astros rounded the Texas Rangers 9 to two to take the rubber game of their three game series ASTRO set the tone early scored 6 runs in the first off Tyson Miller highlighted by two run doubles by Jordan Alvarez and Martin Maldonado Maldonado also homered had three RBIs in the game Luis Garcia pitched 6 innings allowed one earned run fan 9 to get the win two ASTRO pictures posted in a macula dening in the game 9 pitches three strikeouts first time that's been accomplished Bob Stephens Arlington
AP News Radio
Alvarez hits 2 long homers to lead Astros past A's 5-1
"From brava Valdez tossed a two hitter with 6 strikeouts for a second career complete game as the Astros beat the a's 5 to one This is ASTRO's manager dusty baker You know he wanted it And you know we didn't think that his health was in jeopardy And so that's why we you know we're sending back out there saved our bullpen and then we can go for a bullpen tomorrow the next day and then we got an afternoon Valdez had a no hitter through 5 innings and gave up a beat off double to Kevin Smith in the 6th Jordan Alvarez hit a pair of home runs and Jose Altuve added a two run Homer Martin Maldonado with an RBI single Paul Blackburn dropped to 5 and one as he allowed four runs on 5 hits in 6 and two thirds innings Ryan lyong
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"We might pick on Jesse winker if we were inclined to because he's was, you know, someone who the Mariners wanted to the point of being willing to acquire a hohenzollern is contract. And it doesn't go on great so far. Not terrible. It's going to pay for Suarez. Yeah, that's true. And then, you know, part of this list drives home for me just so good. The Dodgers are because we could say Justin Turner or you could say max Monty, but you don't have to because it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. Yeah. And dull is off to a very slow start with the White Sox, 69 WRC plus not nice. Look, there are players who have hit worse than all of these players. Sure, yeah. Christian pace with the a's now. No one really expected him to hit, that is kind of his rep is that great glove, no bad, at least so far. The notepad part has certainly held up. He's hitting one 55 one 97 two 33. That's a 29 WRC plus, and he is with a new team and obviously was a big piece of a high profile trade. So I guess that's a little extra pressure, perhaps even if it doesn't come with the salary of some of these other players, but yeah, I mean, if you just sort the leaderboard, it goes Christian patches at the bottom and then Jonathan scope, Martin Maldonado. Again, Maldonado pace, these are very much glove first players who don't have high offensive expectations, so. Well, and like in Maldonado's case, again, sort of like with Turner and Muncie, what with low expectations of the bat like it doesn't matter, the Astros are just really good. That's a weird one. And I guess Bobby dalbec who was a couple of Red Sox on this list here. Might be something to that. And I'm struggling. Who knew? Bobby dalbec has a 48 WRC plus and he was a somewhat popular breakout pick because he had a great second half last year and I think when we had Zach cream and Bobby Wagner on to preview the AL east this year, they or at least one of them, there was a lot of skepticism about whether he actually was a good breakout pick and whether he'd be able to maintain that. But yeah, he has completely fallen apart thus far. Maybe we just thought he was a great breakout pick because of how baby faced he is. We were like oh, he's baby face Bobby dahlbeck, so he's got to be bound for breakout. I'm just like right now grappling with eugenio Torres is line and hey honey, I would like to apologize for the slander that I perpetrated. Not bad. But yeah, not bad. Get on base one 28 WRC plus. Well done. I take back some of the things I've said about your hair. Jackie Bradley junior, another Red Sox who has not been hitting again. Jackie Bradley, junior's not hitting okay, well, it's not the biggest shocker. Today is the day that ends in Y man, there are a lot of Red Sox in the system. Is there a lot of that looks pretty good right there? Yeah, it's not. It's not been good. They have struggled. So what we might say is that all of the Red Sox need a nightlife Trevor story tonight. Yeah. That might be helpful to their pursuits. See it will be contagious yet. Nelson Cruz. Finally, maybe. I don't know, I don't want to be on a vigil for Nelson Cruz's pat because I want it to be everlasting, but it has failed to catch fire thus far this season. He has a 59 WRC plus and he's obviously someone who is only there for his hitting. So Carlos Santana also down in the Whitmer field zone for the royals, but I guess I don't know, have you sailed Garcia with the morrowinds by marwin standards was a big free agent edition and he's down at a 62 WRC plus so far? Yeah. Jacob stallings too. Yeah, there are a couple here where they're waiting for it to click as it were. Yeah. Well, you can all sort leaderboards too, so. Yeah. We won't read all the names, but we hope that everyone gets their Trevor story game sometime soon. And you know, someone else who could use a Trevor story game, Tyler O'Neill, with the Cardinals, 63 WRC plus one 95 two 56 two 97, he's now on the IL with the shoulder impingement. I don't know how like all of his limbs are not just like impinged by his muscles at all times. It's like a muscle like a bicep impingement. He can not move his arms, but no, it worked well for him last year and it has not, so I don't know if this is like legitimately like his shoulder has been bothering him and that's not why he's hitting or whether it's he's not hitting and we're just IL him for a while, but something has not been right there and he's been striking out a ton too. The silver lining though is that tower O'Neill's absence has given way to a couple of promotions and collapse contemporaneous collapse of the Cardinals maybe second and third best prospects, right? So infielder Nolan Gorman, who has some swing and miss in his game, but also plenty of power, he'll be coming up and should be seeing some time at second base. And then pitcher Matthew liberator, whom the Cardinals got from the rays in the Randy arozarena trade, he'll be coming up and making the start on Saturday, and those guys are lifelong friends and teammates. Not only are they both 22 and from the same draft class and from the same draft round the first round in 2018, but they've been friends since they were 5 when they were in the same neighborhood coach pitch team in Arizona and then they played on travel ball teams and other programs later. Minor league roommates kind of amazing that it worked out that way. So it's cool for them and for the Cardinals. That's exciting to have two top prospects coming up on one team at the same time. That is really exciting. That's like lefty grove and Mickey Cochran, I think in 1925 they debuted on the same day for the Philadelphia athletics and went on to be Hall of Famers, of course. I don't know that Gorman and liberator will debut on the same day because Gorman might play on Friday, but close enough, not that I'm saying that they're going to become healthy, but just to have two top prospects. I'm sure if we did a little step last style search, we could come up with other examples of two really prominent at least hello very good level players debuting for the same team at the same time exactly the same time you're roughly the same time and that can be super excited because it's like it's all happening and suddenly you get to see them playing at the same time in the same lineup potentially so exciting times for St. Louis, but not for Tyler O'Neill. And we will take this opportunity to shout out Mauricio Rubio who you straight for baseball. That's right. Who was Nolan Gorman signing scout. So congrats now. All right, so let us bring on our guest. Well, we are joined now by Patreon supporter effectively wild listener, Aaron Hartman. I believe an original and OG Patreon supporter who has recently leveled up his support to the Mike Trout tier, which entitles him to join us on this podcast episode. I guess it was redundant to say Patreon supporter and effectively wild listener..
Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Effectively Wild: A FanGraphs Baseball Podcast
"But you're right, it's like, this is a gamer. The stakes are high, but the game's still happens like baseball does, and sometimes that means you get something really thrilling. And sometimes you get a four hour clunker and you still have to write a game story about it because it's the World Series, whereas if that game happened in June, we would never talk about it. Like Vancouver would not devote feature coverage to that. It just wouldn't happen. But it does give you it gives you fun little things along the way, where it's like, oh, you know, Jay gets to write about how many inexperienced relatively inexperienced pictures have started games like here you go with that, you know. Yeah, Devin gets to write about Martine Maldonado and like everyone's really fascinated by that stuff because it's the World Series whereas before you might be like, oh, do we need to write about Martin Maldonado? No. Usually not, except for. It's interesting that the Astros have kept a ran be given to service line and you're like, well, obviously he has some other qualities that are very positive. But just that little move and like him recognizing like, I'm probably not gonna get a hit. Right. I'm gonna try to do something else. It's great. Every single part of it is great. Unless you're in Atlanta fan, but even then you have to appreciate this is weird. Yeah, surely you can appreciate the strategy. I mean, maybe not right now, but in a couple of weeks, you'll be like, oh yeah, that Martine on the not a thing was good. I'm glad you reminded me of a rosarina stealing home because I had forgotten that. And I was so excited about it at the moment in the moment. I was like, this is the best, basically. Oh, yeah. I mean, a rosarito and hellmann game one and then luplow hitting a Grand Slam again. I had the World Series video like being edited in my head and I was like, we've got our first two highlights, and I'll tell you what, two highlights. That's the video packages. And one ball off the wall in Fenway Park. Yeah, I mean, they were they were highlights, though, at least the ball off the wall in Fenway doesn't get to be anyone else's highlight. That's something I guess, right? I strongly regret bringing that play up in the first place. I was not very happy about it in the environment. Well, Jeff, I am mindful of the time and that you have to go back to doing baseball stuff even if we won't see the effects of that baseball stuff for a couple of months. But I would say what do you have to plug but you have the rays to plug as like a franchise to root for. So instead, I will ask, is there any pop culture that you have engaged with recently that you've really liked that our listeners should consider as the off season approaches here? We just watched it follows the other day, which has been Afro like 7 years, so I'm probably not the right person to ask. Okay. Yeah, I'm like woefully behind on TV. I make time for bake off because it makes me feel happy when I have to work late. Wait, why are you so sleepy today when there was no World Series yesterday? I know there's like a full editing schedule, but I hope that you caught up on a little bit of sleep. I did. I got like I went to bed at like 9 30 last place. I would have been at 9, beat you. Yeah, I went to bed at like 9 30 last night and then woke up at like 7 15 to run the site. So I did get a full night's sleep last night, which was great and sorely needed, but it's like, you know, it's like the cumulative effect of the month, I think, is really what wears on you. And to be clear, my job, it's not like I'm not plowing a field or mining coal or anything. But I have worked probably 35 days in a row. I mean, this I'm sure is people can understand if they give it a moment's thought. Like when the cubs won the World Series and 7 games are like when the Astros beat the Dodgers and that crazy World Series 7 games, like I remember, you know, of course being in a position not unlike yours and seeing that stuff happen. And the more historic it gets, I remember just thinking like yeah. Oh, I have to work so much harder on this. Yeah. Given it's due, but just as a fan, as you're watching this stuff, take place. Just understand the media that's covering it. They're all very tired. Yeah, they're all right. It's a long month. Yeah, it's a great job and even great jobs make you tired, so, you know, we fully admit to the first thing while also acknowledging the second. And yeah, I don't know, like we'll just we'll just rest eventually, probably. We'll sleep when we're dead. I don't know. We're all trying to sleep more, but we fail pretty often. Okay, so I guess as a plug, I don't know when this is gonna go up. It's maybe before game 6 of the World Series. Those of you listening, if you could just write your local congressperson and get them to maybe submit that the rays should still be in the World Series, we could. I mean, we haven't had meetings about this, but I think it would be super. Yeah. Those of you who are feeling a little sympathetic to the cause, maybe pitch in a little bit. And together we can do this. Yeah, you want some legislative intervention. That makes sense, you'd need a couple days pause to get everyone back together because I imagine that players have gone home to their off season homes, but it seems it.
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"And now with Correa and the three spot, like, as Alex kors said during the ALCS, he likened the Houston offense to a fast break offense in basketball. He said, once they get going, it's hard to stop them. You've got to keep them down because once you they get up off the mat, they're a real problem and who would no matter obviously the knowledge for it? So after game four, you and Jess and Eduardo and I and others shared a drink and we were talking about the potential decision for dusty baker about Alex Bregman. And we were debating whether or not dusty would drop Alex struggled so much in this postseason from three to a lower spot in the order. And the natural spot that we all saw was down to the 7th spot because then you can move up the other two right handed hitters gray at a three elder to 5 or vice versa grill to 5 to three and Correa staying in the 5s. But either way, we wondered if he would do it. I can't even remember where I landed in the end because my feeling was, you absolutely need to do it. But knowing dusty in his reputation is being a great players manager, not wanting to overreact to every moment. I didn't know if he was going to do it. And in the end, it felt like the dusty did it in a dusty kind of way, going right to Alex and explaining himself. Yeah, I mean, dusty does, you know, he gets people, right? And he's a players manager and all that. So I think you and I were similar, we both felt it was the right move to make, but we didn't know if it would come off as a panic move. So was it almost too late to do it? You know, if this had happened around earlier, you can do it. Or if the change had been made a game or two earlier in the World Series, but to do it in what conceivably could be your very last game of the season to me is a little bit unusual, but I definitely think it was the right move. You know, the interesting part two is part of it had to do with the fact that the games were being played in the national league park. And if you'll remember the game where cranky started, he hit 8th. And great is probably a better hitter than Martin Maldonado, but either way, Julie guriel got intentionally walked twice in that game. The bat was taken out of a real's hands. And you can't have that. He's too good, right? To have the bad taken out of his hands. That is not as much of a factor here in Houston because tonight hitting 8th is going to be chaz McCormack or Jose Siri. But I still think it was the right move in the moment and I still think absolutely it has to be the way the lineup works. Again, tonight, I mean, they just scored a bunch of runs, Correa had three hits, guriel had three hits. You've got to leave Correa three guru 5 brigman 7 going into this game. And I think given how Bregman is going when they intentionally walk Bregman in game 5, I'm sure in the assert, they're like, great. You get something out of Bregman, and he also hit that double, which I thought was incredibly important in that moment in the second inning the other night, not only for the Astros, but for him, he's seen great relieved items. I thought of that, too. Because I know, you know, when Alex Rodriguez, for example, was dropped when he was struggling in the 2006 playoffs by Joe torney. The 8 spot, you know, that was viewed as an insult. I think where Alex Bregman was, it took pressure off. Like I think he probably was relieved. Yeah, I think so. We've all talked about how that swagger that we've all seen from Alex Bregman ever since we first saw him. It looks like it's gone. You know, Korea can be struggling as much as Bregman is, and you don't know, you can't see that in his body language. You could see it in Alex pregnant. So I think you're right. There was probably a little bit of relief. You know, it's not may where this is, you know, going to then become what it is for the rest of the season and tarnish your, this is in the moment doing what's best for the team that needs to win three games in a row to win the World Series. And Bregman said all the right things about it, dusty said all the right things about it. It was handled the right way. And if you took the names and resumes away and just looked at the numbers, he should be hitting 7th. You know? I mean, you can make a case that Tucker should be hitting higher. He's been great. He said some great at bats here, but they like obviously they like spacing out the left these two four 6. But you know the way that Alvarez is struggling right now is there a chance we're going to get to the ballpark tonight. And Tucker's fore. And Alvarez is 6, that he flip flops the lefties. I doubt it, but it's kind of a similar situation to what Bregman was going through. Yeah, I think dusty recognized the need for production from that spot and also he acutely aware of his responsibility to everybody in the lineup. So all right, Dan, I will see you at two 30. Okay, good talking to you buster. Being a small business owner requires you to wear a lot of hats. And sometimes those hats aren't always the best fit..
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
"I think that Eric neander, you know, heads up baseball operations for the raise could be an annual candidate for executive of the year. Farhan zaidi, you know, the head of baseball operations for the Giants. Team the 107 games. They could absolutely. He could be a candidate and probably will wind up winning this thing. But Alex and Douglas, who ends up baseball operations for the braves, my God, those midseason acquisitions have been difference making, not only, I think in terms of production that they brought, but in terms of keeping the flame of hope alive in that Clubhouse in the aftermath of the Ronald Acuna junior injury. Absolutely. I mean, it was all on display last night with Eddie Rosario and Adam Duvall specifically hitting those home runs. Duvall, so had the home run robbing catch. I'm not sure if it a 100% would have been a home run, but it was amazing catch. It was the least extra basis there for sure. And any Rosario has two, four hit games this postseason. And he was injured when they acquired him. He wasn't even set to play. I mean, I think it's just incredible that we watched them acquire four outfielders. Doc Peterson, Jorge Soleil, who's out right now with the COVID COVID positive test, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario to replace Ronaldinho junior, we all knew what they were doing. And we didn't understand why. Because the team was below 500 and the team was not even in first place. But to show the team that you have the faith in them, I think that that's maybe the most important thing and I think by making those acquisitions, Allison thoughtless and the entire front office showed the braves, we believe in you, we believe that if we add these guys, you guys can make a run. I think that just the ability to make moves like that and have the flexibility to make four different triggers for outfielders in a one month stand. I mean, it's just crazy. I a ton of credit goes there. And depending how far they go. I mean, I agree, I think the raise obviously Eric neander always in the conversation with the way they put together that roster. And, you know, I would have said farhan anxiety entering the postseason just for everything that the Giants did. But seeing this run that the braves have gone on, it feels like it might have to be on top of us. If depending when the voting is sealed at all of those kinds of questions. It's so funny that you said that because you just heard the ding on my phone in the background. I'd actually sent some text messages out to MLB executives saying when do you guys vote on this award? And one of the people I texted answered back as you were just answering. Oh my gosh. That vote goes in at the end of the regular season. Okay. Which means that I think you would agree with me, farhan's gonna win. Oh, absolutely. You know, he will wind up winning and it hadn't been way to if they had waited to vote until the end of the postseason. I think Alex may have overtaken him, because those guys are performing so well. You mentioned, yeah, Jack Peterson's been great Jorge. So lair tested positive for COVID and he theoretically, if this series goes to game 6 and 7 might be eligible for those games, the braves went into the series planning that he would he would probably be more likely to play in the World Series if they advanced that far. All right, Astros Red Sox last night from her Valdez was ridiculous with that sinker, Sarah. Oh my gosh. I mean, all of the ground balls there wasn't a fly ball until I should have pulled it up before him, but I don't think there was a fly ball until maybe the fourth or 5th inning. I mean, it was just incredible. And we saw length out of the starter. I mean, I know that a lot of the conversation throughout this postseason has been about pitching and we were talking Tuesday about how there's been a stark difference between the pitching so far in the American League playoffs and the national league playoffs. But even still, framber Valdez became the first pitcher to complete 8 innings in a postseason start since Clayton Kershaw in the wild card round last year. I mean, it's just incredible how long it had been. And by the way, that's in the wild card round. There were a lot of posts in games last year. So just think about how many were talking about since then. That's not as many as normal if I were saying, the NLD last year. That's even more games in between. But he was really, really good. And it was really fun to watch that. And obviously not for Red Sox fans, and I'm sure there are plenty of them listening. But, you know, we really hadn't seen a picture dominant like that. And, you know, I look at it and with him, obviously, it's not about swings and misses. He had 12, that's not super notable, and it's not about called strikes, either he had 14, but as you said, it's that sinker and getting those ground balls and it was exactly his game plan and it worked. We always, you know, we talk about yadi Molina and his ability to connect with pictures and we'll be talking about that all the way up to the time when he's inducted the Hall of Fame. I must say, it's pretty clear Martine Maldonado has an extraordinary relationship with his pictures. You know, we heard the story, the other day after they lost in game three that Maldonado and I think was Ryan Presley. I think was the other one who basically talked to the players in the Clubhouse and said, look, guys, we're not out of this thing. They got blown out in games two and three. It's in Fenway Park. The crabs have been going crazy. And Martin Maldonado is one of the guys saying, no. We're not done here. And I don't know about you, Sarah, but last night, I love to watch the body language between Maldonado, who was like a big brother to Valdez. And sometimes, you know, they would exchange little bits of body language on different pictures, pitches, and you could see Valdez three or four times laughing because Maldonado was like chastising him over and execution of certain bitches in a night in which he was great. I thought Maldonado had a great night. Yeah. He really seemed to, you know, Joe bug mentioned on the broadcast about, I think it was when they were going through the lineup and had batting averages or something and he sort of mentioned, you know, he's in there for his defense. He's in there for what he does behind the plate. And we've seen catchers like this in the past. It's a pretty common trope of a catcher who's really good defensively. We're really good with his pitching staff. So the team doesn't care when he's hitting. They don't need him to be that moment in the lineup. And especially in the American League where you have a DA to can sort of afford to have that. But he at one 72 and nobody cares. Absolutely nobody cares. And I love to see that. Because you just see the relationship that he has with all of these pictures and you I mean, I have read countless articles and seen countless quotes just about the leadership and what he brings to that team..
Yanks Go Yard: A New York Yankees podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Yanks Go Yard: A New York Yankees podcast
"The only other, the only other prudent thing to really touch on here is, oh, this is brief. Gary Sanchez, look, they're praising his defense. I can't guarantee he's going to be here. They obviously didn't guarantee him the starting job. They're going to look on the market for other options. They're not ruling out that they are going to make upgrades. But again, when that's what you say and you say, Gary improved on defense, Gary's one of the best offensive catchers in baseball, which is true. You look at who's available and it's no one. Tucker barnhart's option might get declined by the reds. In that case, we could sign someone who is a 75 WRC plus guy who is Austin romine on offense. That's who you want is your starter. If the Yankees make monumental upgrades everywhere else, sure, but I'm definitely not waving my flag around and leaping off the roof because of Tucker barnhart's extremely below league average offense. Jan Gomes, the solid backup, I'm a little scared of him if he's at the plate, but yawn Gomes is the Gary Sanchez solution. Martin Maldonado, there's nobody on the market. They should have signed rail Muto last year. Huge whiff. But if you're trying to upgrade Gary Sanchez, this off season, you're not gonna extend Gary. This is your last year with Gary. He is age 25 home run offensive catcher who was above league average for most of the year before he dipped down. I'm his friend with him as anybody, but Tucker Barton hart, I'm on the I'm on the roof, cheery, for Tucker, barnhart. He's really below average at the plate. That's just your priorities are totally misaligned. Unless you're packing the lineup with madson and starling Marte and Corey Seager, then yeah, I can save the Gary sanches money and live with Tucker barnhart, but it's only going to be like $2 million. For someone who can't hit it all. So I don't know. Don't come crying to me when Tucker Barnard's hitting one 40 with two home runs on June 2nd. Yeah. This is part of a greater problem. And it's the Yankees just not pulling plug on experiments that don't entirely work and they're afraid that their other players are going to succeed elsewhere. Like, why are they in the scary Sanchez situation? Because they probably didn't look ahead to the 2021 off season to realize zero catchers would be available. Maybe they had a plan in their head if the pandemic doesn't happen that, hey, we're gonna sign real Muto or somebody else after 2020. If Gary doesn't come along, but they didn't do that because they clearly needed to they had a goal to save money and stay under the luxury tax. So that certainly wasn't in the plans. But this is not the time to part with Gary Sanchez unless like you said you're going to stack the line up and just go for a defensive defensive minded catcher. And it's a shitty situation because Gary Sanchez technically the starting catcher Hess, but not starting in the biggest games of the year..
Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"martin maldonado" Discussed on Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"You know, it's A A shadow shadow government. It's a shadow. Regime. Dan Snyder could all do all the day to day stuff You won't know. Just as long as his wife's name is on the paychecks like that's What you're trying to accomplish here. Brighter days are I'm sure that his wife is Way better will be way better at this than he is. Right? Is she going to be allowed to be? With Dan's standing over his shoulder. Uh, 5229872. I like this one from Erin because I didn't mean I didn't want to rag on Cowboys fans like they're low, obnoxious because they don't have any real. Recent winning, they have nothing to brag about. They have been actually one of the bigger disappointments on a year yearly basis. So It is kind of an annoying fan base generally. And I say that having a brother that is a part of it. They're kind of an annoying fan base. But I'm not. I don't want to doubt the legitimacy of people's Dallas Cowboys Fandoms. That's not what it's about. Maya is the media. Hyping up this team when they don't deserve it. And I was trying to think what would be the equivalent. Of the Dallas Cowboys. Like has some history but hasn't done really a lot. In recent times to the point that you're wondering like, why do we care so much about this team? I think Erin found a good one. The Braves. The success with Maddox and Glavine in Smalls. Spawned an entire generation of Braves fans. How much success have they had sense? To make you feel like the relevant and I got to say. That's a good one. You know what I might go with. Instead, it might be the Yankees. The Dallas Cowboys of of Major League Baseball right now might be the Yankees. Into a couple of won't know because They've been deeper in the playoffs like you have to think. Like the Cowboys haven't even sniffed a Super Bowl. In decades. I haven't even sniffed it. At least the Yankees were you know, in the A. L. C s. And, um You know, we all know what happened. By the way, do you know who is second in the voting for a L second baseman? That's right. Jose Altuve got 32% of the vote. I hope and Martin Maldonado. Poor Martin Maldonado. If he is the other catcher. And he finished second to Salvador Perez by whopping 42% of the vote. Like Salvador Perez won in a landslide. Why? Because people don't know any catchers. Martin Maldonado was not on the Astros when they cheated. Guess how many fans at Coors Field on July 13th are going to know that Martin Maldonado is going to come to the plate and he's going to get booed. Because he chose to get his paycheck from the Astros in wasn't even involved in the Cheating scandal. Yuli Gurriel. Finished second. How about this Vladimir Aero Junior? And I was arguing this with somebody the other day. And maybe I was taking a little shot. But some up Somebody was telling me Max months he deserves to be an all star. I said the only way Max Muncy will be an All star is because the first base position in the National League is weak. Was it a shot? Yes, because Freddie Freeman exists and Freddie Freeman beat out Max Muncy by 14%. But when you talk about a L first baseman Vladimir Guerrero got 75% of the vote. Yuli Gurriel of the Astros got 15 in Jose Bre you the reigning L M V P got 10%. Astros finished Third among DHS, 2nd and 3rd, baseman third and shortstop 2nd and 2nd, baseman 2nd and 3rd, baseman 2nd and 1st baseman and second catchers. Now. The good news is Gourriel Bregman to vacate Korea. All of those guys deserved to be booed. For the rest of their days in Major League baseball, including at all Star Games. And this will be the first one. This is an under reported story line of the All Star Game. That the fans at course field in a week's time We'll get to boo Astros in the All Star Game. Which will be just absolutely delightful. But the Astros will have some Some pretty good representation. Just just no Going in. If you're going to the game, and you're ready to just boo the bejesus out of Jose Altuve, a Martin Maldonado. If he comes to play, he was not a part of this. He has joined the Astros sense. And you can't begrudge a guy for trying to collect a paycheck. So Nouriel Altuve, Bregman, Korea let him have it if they come to the plate. But, um Maldonado had nothing to do with that, anyway. Aaron. I like your Braves analogy. I think that that's um That's how I got it. Down this road is that Aaron said that the Braves might be the baseball equivalent of the Cowboys. I like that. I don't want to doubt anybody's fandom. The legitimacy of that I'm just saying Like what have the Braves done in subsequent years since the nineties? Where you would say Yeah, This is a team that deserves to be on national television. But part of the reason why you can't It's hard to figure out Who the Cowboys of the NBA are or the Cowboys of the NHL or the Cowboys of Major League Baseball is because they are without peer In the amount of coverage they get. Is so out of whack. With how compelling or good they are on a regular basis. There's no other team in sport that has that imbalance. Yankees have done more winning recently, Lakers have done.
GSMC Baseball Podcast
"martin maldonado" Discussed on GSMC Baseball Podcast
"But i don't know how likely that is in the al shortstop we have zander. Bogart's boba shet tim anderson carlos correa and then alberto modesty and i mean it. I mean bogart's as as a good lead on this the consistency the consistently excellent bogart's has made two all star teams and he started once and twenty sixteen. Bouchette and anderson are both trying to get their first selection. Both very young though anderson not so much. But they're still they're still a gap of almost four fourteen thousand votes between anderson in korea who started the game in seventeen but hasn't been back to the all star game since starting Like even though that one percent show like we we see one percent for the nfl all-stars but when you're when you when you are trailing by about ten thousand votes for one percent It makes it a little bit easier to try and get that one percent but when you're down by almost fourteen thousand votes between third place and at fourth place that's a. That's a very very big gap. That i think is is is able to Maybe come answer pass. But i think that since machado is so close to turner in terms of percentage that. I think that it's it is going to. It's going to come down to the wire there for sure. Now shortstops in the nl though you have fernando tatis junior. He is forty percent of the vote right now. How your your is getting thirteen percent and cory seager is getting nine percent right now followed by brandon crawford and trai turner. The nfl west is very well represented here with two of the top. Three guys being out there but with the top four coming from that division that includes tattoos who is mobile wonderkid and the fourth leading overall vote-getter. This would be the first ale all star nod and seager has been sidelined since mid may because of a fracture A fractured his right hand. But there's a chance that he'll be back before the all-star break he leads crawford who's putting together his best offensive season of his career at the age of thirty four in a race for that third spot segers vying for his first all star. Game while crawford has won a has one starting twenty eighteen under his belt. Now i would absolutely love for. I honestly i would love to see brandon crawford back back there. I in fact. I kind of want to see brandon crawford back there But i think that is the best shortstop in the nfl. Right now But i do think that he's definitely the most exciting player to watch. And so i think todd teasers is a lock for sure. But i'd like to see britain crawford to get in this game. I think that is a very very huge huge job for the a four for the fans to get this man in here but go to the outfield now. Outfield is led by. Mike trout followed by aaron judge. Then byron buxton aldis garcia Tow scar hernandez rondo. Gart rondo chick. Alex redo go randy. Rose arena and michael brantley in trout and judge have started multiple games but buxton garcia hernandez youtube for ugo and rose arena would be first time all stars brantley. Who was the american league's starting left. Fielder and twenty nineteen has made ford all star teams altogether but has a slim lead for ninth and the final spots you get into that second round of voting Then in fact he has received at the time of this record or at of this article which was written the day before. I'm re i recorded this Brantley had nine or three percent of the vote as did As did cedric mullins and andrew benintendi like trial had received fifteen percent. Aaron judge eleven and byron buxton eight. All of these votes are very very close and trout. Judge have started multiple all star games. Like i said. And i feel like they're they're locked at least to getting to the second thing. I think trout isn't going to i. It's not going to To really a move Basically if he gets the spot and the al all star in the all star team ends up taking that third wave of guys than whoever finished second Whoever was for just outside the voting would get the spot most likely But even in even so in that last by if you care for either cedric mullins. Baltimore michael brantley right now. Houston there are less than twenty one thousand votes separating those two players for that last spot right now that's not a lot of votes at all and And can easily. I think easily be made up And i say that like it's it's more air that it's less than the thirty four hundred votes Excuse me thirteen thousand. Four hundred votes that separate anderson and korea. But i think that it's it's more likely that i think is more likely that the votes come in and michael brantley gets passed for that last spot than i do for seeing brandon crawford Comeback in overtake cory seager or carlos. Correa getting either. Boba shat tim anderson spot. Like i don't really see it but in the nfl you have kunia. Junior nicklaus cast janos. In second jesse winker in third. Mookie betts in fourth one. Soto chris taylor bryce harper. Trent grisham quetzal marseille. Then jack petersen christian yelich and tyler. o.'neil aku got the star kunia. Got the start in the south center. Field in two thousand nineteen mid summer classic eastern lead the nfl's leading vote getter and fans have also shown their support for the reds powerful. Do of castile us and winker neither of whom have made an all star team before. And i mean there's an incredibly tight race for in the nine spot as well. Marseille leads peterson by twenty three hundred votes and yelich and o'neill by less than eighty one hundred like that's not a lot of votes at all in a kunia is is absolutely one of the best players under twenty five He won the rookie year. He's a two time silver slugger in twenty nineteen. He had thirty seven stolen bases and forty one home runs. He's eight absolute stud In in my ideal and l. outfield. I would have it just like this. Have a kunia. Junior in center cassius in winter in the corners. And then have your tree. Oh juan soto and chris taylor or even bryce harper your as your second rotation i think that would be ideal in in my mind at least catcher in the al salvador perez. Y'all's mighty grindal in. Martin maldonado followed by christian vasquez and christian curses. Yuki now peres missed. Twenty nineteen nine hundred two. Tommy john surgery and snacked. His snapped his five straight. All-star game streak As the royals backstop and he returned to his slugging ways over the past two years and his grabbed the number one spot among all catchers just twelve thousand votes though separate maldonado and vasquez. And oh boy. Do i want to encourage you guys to go out and vote for anybody but martin maldonado. I just cannot wash that man play baseball. I i don't know what it is But i really do like christian vasquez behind the plate. He is really fun to watch. And i mean obviously pres- is gonna get this starting spot. I don't think it's very close. But in the nfl you have buster posey's molina wilson contreras followed by will smith and will and william contraire as it's been very strong showing for the old guard in the of. No catchers with wilson contraire as yada molina and buster. Posey being the top three guys. They've combined to make nine of the past. Eleven starts behind the dish. A in the In the mid summer classic and still searching for their first all star game appearances is less than fourteen thousand votes away from taking that number. Three spot From contrary is will smith a designated hitter. You have shohei ohtani jd. Martinez your alvarez. In europe mercedes is right behind. I mean tani's two way brilliance is amazing. It feels like he were watching. Something amazingly special martinez alvarez have all rebounded from a rough and or injury. Play twenty twenty season to grab that. The top three spots although mercedes is is trails alvarez by a good amount of votes but not enough. I don't think to get him out of this spots so to speak so we'll be right back with the last segment where we're going to go over some regular updates.