Chapter 1: What is the ABS system in baseball and why is it controversial?
There's nobody who looks better, whose brand is hotter, who should feel better about themselves than Julie McWilliams, which is coincidentally the person who I'm about to say, there is nobody on the planet that I would like to talk to more than Julie McWilliams.
Man, I appreciate that. It's great that baseball's back in its original form. It's great that we're here. It's great that we have a season in front of us. It's great that Kenley Jansen's going to get 500 saves. I'm watching out for that. He's good, man. He's good. Yeah, he's going to get it this year.
Our own Courtney Finnegan caught up with him.
I saw. I saw. I saw. Yeah. He never looked happier.
I said to her, I said, how many times did he say, baseball isn't boring, baby? She said three. And I said, well, he's contractually obligated to do it since he's our chief marketing officer. He doesn't market much, but that's okay.
I'll tell you what. Your marketing is so hot in Buff's Pub. I went there. when you guys are still in Fort Myers about two weeks ago and the guy had on your hat.
Oh yeah. No Mark. Yeah. He's yeah. He's he's a, he's a loyal supporter. Thanks to the free hat.
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Chapter 2: How do players feel about the new ABS system?
I thought you were going to say, tell me before we get to whatever you're going to rant about. And also I have some questions for you. Tell me what you thought was a better accomplishment marketing wise. Adam Modavino putting the baseballs and boring sticker on the team, Italy espresso machine, which got auctioned for $15,000. Ooh.
Or Pat McAfee wearing a baseballs and boring shirt for his entire show on opening day.
I got to go with Pat McAfee. Yeah. I have to. Like the team Italy thing, I guess that's a great – that's awesome. It's great. But Pat McAfee, you know, even though, you know, it's kind of – You could – You could – Notice how I cut you off.
You could take that shirt he wore. You could probably auction it off for $15,000, much like the espresso machine. Maybe more. No, I bet. Maybe, yeah. Well, let's put it out there.
One of those bro guys would buy it, right?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, forget about the marketing aspect of it. We just embraced another person into the great game of baseball. Forget about football. Forget about that. Baseball, yay. Yay, baseball. There we go. Yeah.
They say baseball is taking over basketball for the number two sport. Is that true? I don't know. It just might be Twitter.
TV-wise, it is. You know what? I'll say it. Congratulations, baseball. Your brand has never been hotter. All right. Anyway. So I got some things. So what I want to do, Julian, I'm going to give you the option of which you want to do first. I got what, what we should overreact to what we shouldn't do.
So in other words, I'm going to give you like the top four offensive guys, top four guys doing well hitting and the top four are the bottom four guys hitting. And then the teams like the hottest team and say, which ones are going to actually be sustainable. I'm going to be in the playoffs. We could do that or we can go on a rant and, you said that you didn't necessarily have a rant.
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Chapter 3: Which players are currently overperforming or underperforming?
It won't be a surprise. It won't be a surprise.
Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. I'm going to poke the bear. Poke the bear. That looks a little better. You look fantastic.
Yeah. I'm trying to get my brain together, you know?
Man, you're in TV shape.
Hey, man. It had to happen.
It had to happen. No, I'm not. I'm really not. Your traps are popping. All right. So we've been talking about the ABS stuff and everything else. So when it comes to the umpires, do you feel bad for them or don't you feel bad for them? Like a guy like CB Buckner. Do you feel bad for him or don't you feel bad for him?
I don't feel bad for him because it's like – I mean, some of those calls he was just getting wrong. I do feel like when we're talking about like – there was a – damn, I was just watching this. I just saw it. But there was a pitch last night that John Carlos Stanton – challenged and it was 0.1 inches from the actual thing.
And according to the rule book, it's a strike, but according to the new ABS system,
it's obviously a ball like in those situations where it can go either way and you know and and they have to announce that it's being challenged and it says oh rule upheld or rule or the um you know the call is overturned that's a little bit like oh come on man like what are we doing here like you know it's like when you know i don't know like say when you're in a college relationship and
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Chapter 4: What should fans know about the impact of the ABS system on umpires?
I did feel bad for CB Buckner when it's like six of eight of the calls and the crowd is cheering.
Well, I said this too. When he didn't appeal, when the one that Cora got thrown out, he didn't appeal the check swing by Trevor Story. Like, I would be very convinced that he didn't even appeal because that's something you just do anyway. He didn't appeal it because his head was spinning from eight challenges. He's like, he's probably, yeah, it's.
I definitely think there needs to, I mean, like, just like with anything, I think there's going to be some tweaks to it. there has to be some tweaks to it, right? I mean, it just can't be where something's decided by 0.1 inches and these guys are being – I don't think there's going to be any tweaks to it. And the strike zone is – you don't? Not this year?
No, I mean, maybe not this year, but maybe – I don't know. I mean, I don't know. But, like, somebody brought up an interesting point. One of my producers from CBS, he was like – he said, how many people do you think are going to be – want to get into umpiring now? that do you think that's going to affect people saying, screw that.
It's a job where, Rob, it's one of the only jobs where nobody ever says, hey, you had a great day today. It's not a job of affirmation.
No.
No.
Yeah. That's a great point. Your producer's brand has never been hotter. Instincts are never keener. That's a great point. Like I said, this is not what they signed up for. This is not what they signed up for. CB Buckner, you can say he stinks and he's not one of the better umpires. He has been one of the better umpires in a long time. But the fact of the matter is that...
Like, still, this is not what C.B. Buckner signed up for when he got dropped in the major leagues in 1999.
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Chapter 5: How does the ABS system affect the strike zone in baseball?
In a game against – on Friday against the Pirates, he was saying that a ball came in and he challenged it. And from his perspective, he thought it was going to be – it was a clear ball. But according to the new ABS system, it was a strike. And so, you know, they lost the challenge. So people can probably look that up now and see what it is.
I'll give you one, and I'll put a name on it. Izzy, Izzy kind of falafel said this, and I think that you're, you're absolutely right. It's two different things. It's the ABS, but then along with the ABS, the strike zone is different, which I think is something people can't get their head around why it's going on. But as you go along, you realize, and here's the thing.
It's measured at the front of the plate now, too. Not in the middle of the plate. Exactly.
So this is what that person was talking about. It was measured at the front of the plate. So when it came down, it was a clear ball. I mean, when it landed, it was a strike. But when it was a ball, but when it cleared, it was a strike. So he was like, oh, dang. This is like another thing that I have to adjust to.
This is taking away the 12-6 curveball. Ooh.
Oh, story ideas, baby. Okay, go ahead.
Play the Kershaw's. That's why I retired. But Izzy, our good friend, nobody beats the Iz, wizard of Iz, kinder falafel. He said in a spring training game, he's like, he takes a pitch and And he goes back to the dugout, and he's like, they're like, why didn't you challenge that? He's like, because I thought it was right down in the middle of the plate.
But it wasn't, because the strike zone had changed. So the strike zone was a lot lower, right? Everything's lower. It's 53% of your body. And as he said... where it used to be the veterans going to get the benefit of the doubt, it's just the opposite now. The young players are going to have a better idea of the strike zone because they just went through this.
The veterans, a guy like that who's been 10 years in the league, he's going to be like, what? For 10 years, this has been the strike zone. Now you're changing it? Yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of ABS for future umpiring careers?
Yeah, I mean – but aren't there aren't there mistakes on front street anyway but not not to that degree where it's like unless you're like angel hernandez where it's like clearly egregious and like aren't there mistakes out there see that's why i'm torn by this no it's like the only like you think go ahead do you think it's like poking fun at them like ha ha you got it wrong
No, but it piles up. If a guy, listen, if a guy like gets, like you said, CB Buckner got six wrong. Six. That's six times where he had to turn. And then that obviously everyone focuses on that. And the only other thing that we had close to this was, yeah, during the TV broadcast, as it was going on in the last few years, We can look at the box on the screen. Oh, he's missing. He's missing.
Well, they'll come back and say, well, the box is inaccurate. The box is inaccurate. And then all we have to go by is the social media account umpire scorecard. And we're like, oh, did you see that? But that's the next day. It's like, okay, whatever.
I think I might – I don't have a fix to this, but I think I have the lead in that could be a fix to this is that When a base runner, it's the outer safe call, right? Where it's a call to field is overturned, a call to field stands, call to field is confirmed, right?
I think with this, there needs to be some system where it's like the call to field stands or a call to field is confirmed where it isn't confirmed like where it's absolutely where the umpire is correct and overturned means overturned stands means that like Hey, it could have gone out of the way. There needs to be some system in there where it's like, if it's 0.1 off.
Yeah, I got it. I got it. No, no, I got it. You can't say, because that's still deciding one side or the other. If it's 0.1, it's a tie. It didn't happen. Do-over.
Yeah, but then these managers start bitching about pitch counts. I don't know. You know what I mean? Derek Shelton was like, no, he didn't tap his head in time. There's going to be some problem that arises that comes out here in this. But yeah, I'm with you. Point one off, do it over. Do over pitch.
I feel like in society, we should utilize this to tap our head for things that we want replays of. when I'm in Fort Myers and I have a very well-meaning waitress tells me that she was named after somebody that was murdered did I hear that right?
do we not talk about that anymore?
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Chapter 7: Which teams are surprising in their performance this season?
I believe it's between Josh John and Josh Naylor, but I'm going to go Josh Naylor. Yeah, I would too. Yeah, he has a great hit tool.
Oh, he does?
Yeah.
What's that? What's that? Hitting the ball hard.
Yeah. Yeah. Some of your friends of the show might accuse me of bias here of choosing the guys with more melanin to have, uh, to have the better year. They pointed that out before. I just want to say, I'm not doing that here. I actually think he has the greatest, the best hit tool. Okay. There you go. I can't say the friend of the show. He's a very good friend of mine though.
Yeah. I don't know who you're talking about. Um, We don't see that sort of thing here.
Yeah, I don't see it.
Yeah. All right, Josh, are you talking because he's a Canadian?
Oh, because he's like – No, he's a Canadian. Black. Yeah. By the way, did you see – He is a Canadian, though.
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Chapter 8: Who are the standout players to watch this baseball season?
Hit everything to the right side. I know. It's incredible, the player that he's turned out to be. I mean... Really good in the field. Consistent. You know, every year I think they're going to trade him, and they never end up trading him.
Well, good for them for not trading him.
Yeah. Who knows? They might even be good this year.
We'll see. Well, I said this. Nick Martinez and Steven Matz, all-star game.
Ooh. Kyle Harrison and Quinn Priester, all-star game.
All-star. You go to the Brewers, you're an all-star. Yeah. You're an all-star. Leading the majors in stolen bases?
Who's that? David Hamilton. Yeah, well, I'm not going to go down that route.
Oh, because he's not Canadian?
That's where I draw the line.
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