Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Wayne Randazzo reflects on Edward Cabrera's outstanding Cubs debut (Hour 4)
31 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This hour is brought to you by Wintrust. It's a fly ball to right toward the corner. Hit pretty well near the foul pole. It's gone. A home run. So Mankata makes up for it there. Gets the two runs back as he hits his first home run of the season. And the Angels are on the board here in the seventh. Hakuna Mankata blast. That's the kind of power he has when he's locked in.
103 miles per hour off back on. This is about 380. Yoan Mankata taking Hobie Milner deep last night. That was the Angels' representation in the game in which the Cubs won 7-2. Now 2-2 on the season. We are honored right now to jump on the phone with the man that That had the call. Wayne Randazzo, the TV play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+.
He is also a former score host. Wayne, welcome into the program. You're on with Marshall Harris and your guy, as he called you, his guy, Russell Dorsey.
Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment from Russ. Happy to be on with you guys.
Pleasure's all ours. What did you make of last night's performance by Edward Cabrera, somebody who was calling it from the opposing vantage point, the way he looked tremendous in facing just one over the minimum through six innings?
Yeah, he carved up a lineup that was pretty hot, too. The Angels had scored a lot of runs in their first four games in Houston, and they were quieted by a guy who's really good. I mean, the challenge for Cabrera has been to stay healthy. He's been on the injured list eight different times in his career for various injuries, and he's got an incredible arm.
He's a top-of-the-line starter when he's in there, but It's been hard to keep him healthy for a full season. Last year was the first time he pitched over 100 innings in a season, so that's been the difficulty for Cabrera. He looked great last night, and I think the Cubs should be very encouraged by what they saw from Edward Cabrera yesterday. Six innings, one hit.
I mean, he didn't even really break a sweat, and he was pretty efficient, too. His command was really good. He struggled with walks in the past. That wasn't really the case Last year, and it certainly wasn't the case last night, and he actually had a good game against the Angels last year, too. He had a 10-strikeout game against them.
So the Angels have seen him a couple of times in the last two years, and he's been excellent both times.
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Chapter 2: What did Wayne Randazzo think of Edward Cabrera's Cubs debut?
And I think he's going to feast on fastballs until pitchers figure it out otherwise.
Wayne Randazzo joining us here on Rahimi Harrison. Grody, Wayne is the TV play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+.
Wayne, I'm curious as to your kind of adjustment to the latest of many changes over the last few years, the ABS and how that might affect the way you call a game because balls and strikes now have this kind of, well, it's a ball right now. It could be a strike in 15 seconds from now.
Yeah, you kind of throw that in on ones that you think might be close. I mean, you can kind of read the body language of everyone involved where they even start to think about maybe using it and then deciding not to at times when they do use it. So it comes through pretty quickly.
We had one the other day that was a game-deciding moment because the Angels were tied in the eighth inning against the Astros. Houston had the go-ahead run on third with two outs. Two strikes on the batter, Paredes. And there was a pitch at the bottom of the zone that ABS would have called a strike, judging by how it came through on the game cast that Major League Baseball puts out.
And Logan Ohoppe decided not to use the challenge there. He felt it wasn't going to be reversed when he caught the ball. Of course, the ABS showed it would have been. And the next pitch, Isak Paredes lines a base hit to give the Astros the lead and subsequently win the game. So it became a big moment that, you know, Logan didn't use the challenge that was available to him.
One pitch later, the tie is broken and the Angels are behind. When if he had used it, that inning would have been over. They would have gone to the ninth inning with the top of their order up in a tie game and a chance to take the lead from there. So it was really interesting to have that conversation there. This early in the season, especially because we don't have a lot of data either.
We don't know how many runs are being saved.
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Chapter 3: How has Edward Cabrera's health impacted his performance?
We don't know how many at bats are really changing. You know, we know that there's been a number of overturned calls and, you know, roughly 50% of the calls that have been challenged have been overturned. But we also don't know about the ones that maybe could have been challenged that weren't.
There's just a lot of data that I think is going to come out over the next few months that we don't have access to yet. And, you know, the catchers are more successful than the hitters right now in terms of getting the challenges correct. So how many defensive runs are being saved? How many offensive runs are being lost?
I think some of those things that need to be answered will help players kind of pull the trigger and remember that they can do that now when they're in the heat of the moment like that.
Now, Wayne, something kind of off of that, we've seen different changes in terms of gameplay and speeding up games with pitch clock and things of that nature, challenges being included in there. From your perspective as a play-by-play guy where you are the point guard for fans, whether it's somebody watching you and Gooby watching Angels games or you and D-Train on Fridays,
Is there something that you have had to do over the last couple years with all these different changes that have affected the flow where you feel like, okay, I need to get to Gooby on this right now because I know we have this coming up or I know the pitch clock is winding now?
Yeah, I think the biggest thing was that it eliminated some of the The deep storytelling you could do that you could fit in through an inning and weave your way through it. I think now you have to kind of decide if you feel like there's an opportunity to tell a story, you want to just jump in and go for it. as opposed to kind of feeling it out.
And then if you decide that it's too much right now, or it might be a quick out or a quick inning here, that you just don't tell it. So I think that that's the main thing that I would feel is different, is that the storytelling aspect is a little bit lessened. We have a 6-0 in the third inning yesterday, so basically Gooby and I did a podcast for six innings yesterday,
uh yesterday as well so you know that that can kind of come through on the on the days where the game is is kind of in out of out of the hands of the other team early on and like it was yesterday and you can get in some of that stuff which which is good too but i think you know it helps us keep focused on on the game when the game is in question and allows us to be pretty focused on on what's happening on the field which is probably for the best anyway
Yeah, we're getting all used to a more compact version of baseball, and I don't think anybody's complaining about it. Wayne Randazzo, the TV play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Angels and Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+. Joining us here on Rahimi Harrison, Grody Russell Dorsey alongside Marshall Harrison. Wayne, I'm curious...
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Chapter 4: What insights did Wayne share about Mike Trout's return to form?
Wayne, I'm curious to your thoughts because we heard Bryce Harper talk about it a little bit, and obviously the World Baseball Classic has been a huge success in terms of growth of the game and international interest in the game. This talk about the 2028 Olympics, do you think MLB should... have its players play in those Olympics?
Yeah, I think they should, and I think the players are going to push for that. It sounds like they're pretty interested. I mean, you can make an argument that the Team USA guys might be more interested in the Olympics than they have been in the World Baseball Classic. I think, you know, it's a smaller tournament. It won't be the full-sized, you know, all the countries involved.
It'll be, I think, six teams are allowed in the Olympics tournament. So it'll be a bit smaller, and I think that it will... for the first time having major leaguers in it will bring that continued interest that you're talking about internationally. I mean, what's a better international event than the Olympics for these guys to be a part of?
And, you know, we saw it over well over 30 years ago now when the NBA started to use the dream team and, and use their players in the Olympics and how that made the NBA a much more global sport. And then baseball has the same goals right now. So, I think it's a no-brainer. I think the commissioner wants it.
And I think they can find a way to pause the season for a week and a half and make it work.
Wayne, I'm going to ask you this really quickly before we go to break. I can tell you, you can't say Wrigley Field. You call games everywhere. What is your favorite place to call a game from just like a scene-setting perspective?
I've always said San Francisco, but I think maybe Petco Park has kind of taken that over in the last few years. It's a beautiful place. Downtown San Diego is a great setting, and the atmosphere there has been incredible. I mean, as the Padres have become a real unit in the National League, the last three or four years, that place will sell out like every game.
So between all those things combined, I think Petco Park is probably my favorite one that I circle on the calendar right now as a place to go outside of Wrigley.
Wayne, you and I have something in common. Petco is number one with a bullet on my list, so we agree on that. Thanks so much for stopping by, Wayne. Have a great call tonight. Hopefully they get this game in.
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Chapter 5: How does the ABS technology affect game calling?
Like, is it possible? Anything's possible, Marshall. Okay, Kevin. Gosh. Ray, where was I? Okay. You're explaining why you can't put that kind of language on this rookie class, but it's still a good class. It's unfair to do that to these guys because playing in the big leagues is really, really hard, right? Not only is it hard to get there, it's hard to stay there because the talent is so great.
You're talking about the best talent in the world. However, you have studs on every roster, whether it's Kevin McGonigal playing for the Detroit Tigers who – 70-grade hit tool. He's having amazing at-bats. Looks very mature in his approach. Whether it's J.J. Weatherholt for the St. Louis Cardinals. We've already talked ad nauseum about Munataka Murakami.
You have Moises Ballesteros here in town with the Cubs. You have Brandon Sproda up with Milwaukee. You have Noam Klain with the New York Mets, who's going to be a phenomenal starting pitcher. We haven't even talked about Connor Griffin, who's not in the big leagues yet, who's the number one prospect in baseball, probably going to be here very soon. Chase DeLauder, four homers in three games.
You know how talented you have to be? to have your unofficial first game in the big leagues be in a playoff game, that's what the Guardians did with Chase De Lauder. That's how good they thought he was. And he's not only playing for the Guardians, He's hitting second right in front of Jose Ramirez, a perennial MVP candidate. So a ton of talent in Major League Baseball right now.
Kazuma Akimoto, who I predicted to be the AL rookie of the year this season, already has two homers, had a 420 foot shot over the weekend. Powers there. Hit tool. He showed the defense. There are a lot of homers. talented young players in the big leagues right now game is a really good place in that regard but like we talked about with murakami it's not just him
The league is going to adjust to these guys, and the difference between players that get to the big leagues and players that stay in the big leagues is who adjusts and how quickly you adjust, right? There are going to be tons of highs and lows because that's baseball, right? It's making sure the highs, you don't get too high, you don't get too low.
It's not a sexy answer when players tell us that, but it's real. And so because of that consistency, who can be consistent? You know what's crazy? What's up? I just realized something. In my conversations about sports, baseball, basketball, whichever one under the sports umbrella, I am usually the more pragmatic one in any conversation. But I think every time I talk to you, I think...
I'm the least pragmatic one, and it's because you're just overly conservative in all the things and the ways you discuss this. I want to go back to a year ago. Do you remember a year ago when I was pounding the table for, and you were like, I don't know about all that. I said, hey, Pete Armstrong's pretty cheap right now. Maybe you should just go ahead and give him that nine-figure contract.
And what did you say when I said that? I said not yet. No, I'm going to be specific because I would have told Ray to pull it up. My what I said specifically was, quote. You don't have to yet. And at that point, he hadn't had the hot start. And then he had the hot start. And I'm still like, yo, it's probably better for Pete if he doesn't sign it right now. Yeah, that's where we ended up.
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Chapter 6: What is the impact of the pitch clock on game commentary?
Five for 12, the walk-off homer that Russell Dorsey mentioned. He's batting .417 and OPSing .1200 and was key in two Mets wins already this season. There was something that he said over the weekend. Did it sound petty to you? It did. Did it sound like it was filled with shade? I didn't think it was necessary. What did he say?
This is a paraphrase, but he was basically saying, hey, this was really fun and all the people here in the ballpark and it was really exciting and I didn't get that the last couple of years. So it was exciting to be in that environment. Yeah, you're not going to get that when your team is setting a record for most losses in a season. Yeah, when you're unavailable and hurt. That too.
And that affects it. When you're not performing the way you were supposed to or they expected you to, that's going to happen. You're on 100 lost teams, but you were part of that. That's going to happen. I just feel like... You got that team that you were talking about, traded you to a better situation. Like, let it go. Say, hey, this has been a really fun atmosphere.
I was really excited to be here, play my first home games at Citi Field in Queens. Fans were rowdy and excited, and then move on. One word answer here. Okay. Last name. Better chance of winning Rookie of the Year, Ballesteros or Murakami? Murakami. I like how you had to really work that out. I think it's a good one. I don't think either will win, but Murakami. Yeah. Okay. So there you have it.
Because of the power potential that you talk about. Yeah. Power potential, which will be realized. 40 home runs. Write it down. Munitaka. Murakami. Yeah. So that's Russell Dorsey. He's got a couple more segments with us. The Relay with Russell Dorsey. Available now. All platforms. Wherever you get your podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. And YouTube.
Anthony Rizzo, I don't know if you heard, but he's retired. He's a Cubs ambassador. He was out here doing his thing on opening day. And he also has a podcast with David Ross, The Lovable Reunion. There is a story from the Cubs World Series run. about what happened just before game seven on the field that you may find disturbing, you may find entertaining, but you will find interesting.
That's when Rahimi Harrison-Grody with Russell Dorsey in the house returns on 104.3 The Score. Rahimi Harrison-Grody. We are family here. We are family. Middays 10 to 2 on 104.3 The Score. A little bouncer slowly toward Bryant. He will glove it and throw to Rizzo. It's in time. And the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. If you're a Cubs fan, you know the call all too well.
Pat Hughes getting it done. Cubs finally winning the World Series in 2016. Welcome back to Rahimi Harris and Grody. Marshall Harris kicking it with Russell Dorsey for the last four hours. Yeah. You feel like you survived? Oh, always. Okay. I have a good time. Okay, that's all I ask is that you have a good time. Russ is my guy. He's got a whole podcast. We'll talk about that in a moment.
But I want to remind you that next Friday and Saturday, April 10th and 11th, we will be broadcasting live from Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Friday from 10 to 1245, then Saturday from 11 to 1245. Circa will have special food and beverage deals for the golf tournament worldwide. with every angle of the tournament being shown at Stadium Swim. Should be hot by then.
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