Chapter 1: What teams are currently struggling in MLB?
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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. We're in summer, people. It's the last episode of May. It's Sweeps Week. Is it the dog days for some teams? Might be here. Let's talk ball. Uh... Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Chase Miserock. Double. RBI double. Yeah.
Yeah.
Hello and welcome to Talkin' Baseball presented by Fanatics Markets where fans trade on sports. Fanatics Markets available now on the app stores. We're so back. It's Friday, May 29th. The season's afoot. The last episode in May, Trev. You're on the road. I'm back home. How are you, Big Daddy?
You know, before the show, let's just peel back the curtain a little bit. I spilled a coffee, just a really bad coffee. So it wasn't even a good coffee. All over my laptop, my keyboard, my mouse, my beautiful Lord of the Rings mouse pad. I know. But we're grinding through it, as you said. I'm good. The road's great. We're in Pittsburgh now. So I'll get to see the Pirates.
And we miss Paul Skeens, which is nice. But I'm also ready to go home and be back in my studio and be with my loving family. And that's basically the gist of it. Thanks for asking. How are you, Jake?
I'm good. I'm good. Big Monday coming up for you. No, you're middle middle. Your birthday month is coming up. I just got excited for that. Yeah, I'm doing well. It's funny, Trev. We watched you unfold over there, and Rob saw me. You don't know this. About 15 minutes before that, I walked into the office, and I was like, Rob, I need a minute, which I don't normally give them that. Normally, we...
have a little makeout session, start going. We San Francisco giants it up and then we get ready for the episode. The city got to me this morning. So I don't know. It's the summer. He is real. It might be an F or an F episode. Um, and I think if you're a bad team, I think the dog days of summer are now like it's, you're kind of looking around at each other in the clubhouse.
Like, are you still going to be here? Am I still going to be here? That, uh, Man, a couple of these teams, I can't believe where they are coming up on the actual start of summer. And a couple teams have emerged since we've fully yucked ball, Trev. We had the holiday jolly filled in for an episode. They're like, my snakes are a part of the season, like big time. The Nationals are above five.
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Chapter 2: How are the Diamondbacks performing this season?
I've got a lot of pictures I'm going to highlight later, so we are going to F or F. Let's jump in, because it's Friday. Let's do it. And we'll start out where you are, Trev. Beautiful Pittsburgh. The Steel City and the Pirates. They come out. They win a close 2-1 game. Hank Davis with the big game-winning hit. They win a blowout, 12-1. The Cubbies, everything is falling apart.
They've lost 10 in a row. Pittsburgh's finest, Ian Happ. Two massive games to help the Cubs end their losing streak and split the four-game set. Oh, the Cubbies needed that. Staying in the centrale. Bird is not the word. The Cardinals slip up. It's sweep week. Half the league got swept. And the Cardinals were part of that too. The Milwaukee Brewers in the best one-two punch in baseball.
Jacob Mizorowski and Kyle Harrison. Just the best start to a Brewers career since CeCe Sabathia, our wannabe best friend. The Brewers get the sweep on the final day. Dustin May basically no-hits the Brewers, and they still find a way to win and get the sweep. Insane. I mentioned we're playing for rings in the desert. The Arizona Diamondbacks are back, and part of the reason, Cattell Marte!
Marte is going beast mode. And the Snakes are pitching a little bit. I want to say in the month of May, the whole staff has a 285 ERA. Oh, and they played the San Francisco Giants, which, hey, I get it. You and I were like, yeah, we kind of like them. They're not performing. They're losing. We almost need to stop talking about them, even though they're still thrusting in the outfield.
They weren't because the Snakes swept them, and they're hot. Speaking of, the Philadelphia Phillies. San Diego. They sweep them. A couple of shutouts. The two lefties. Jesus Lizard and NL Cy Young favorite, Christopher Sanchez. Yeah, 8'11". By the end of this series. The fight in Phillies. Again, their record with their new manager is good. And the Padres. We're starting to get a little nervous.
A team that was nervous, still a little bit, the Cincinnati Reds. They faced the New York Mets. They took two out of three with a pair of 7-2 wins to start off. Nolan McClain, couple nasty, not nasty starts for the New York Mets, excuse me. Nick Lodolo with his first win in a while. And Chase Burns. If you're looking for an NL Cy Young dark horse, Mets salvage the set.
Juan Soto, shout out to Jalen Brunson when he's homering. Knicks fans don't want it. Dodgers sweep the Rockies, and that's obvious. Freddie Freeman, easy oppo poppo. That Shohei Otani guy leading off the game with a home run while he pitches, and he might be the NL Cy Young favorite. The Dodgers roll up on the Rockies. Sorry, Rocks. And then... The Miami Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays.
A couple tough outs is how I would describe it. Marlins took that first game. They got a lot of Canadians on their team. Liam Hicks, Owen Casey, who's getting hot. Who else? Otto Lopez. So I was going to start calling them the Snowbirds. Anyways, doesn't matter because the Blue Jays take the next two games. Not Jesus Sanchez with his first career grand slam off of Sandy.
And Okamoto, who's been in a funk tie-breaking solo home run. The Blue Jays win two out of three, beat the Fish. And that's what happened in the National League. Why the snowbirds? Because Canadian people snowbird down in Florida.
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Chapter 3: What impact is Shohei Ohtani having this week?
So if you're the Marlins and you have three Canadians in your lineup, I don't know, the Snowbird, there's something there.
Don't they go in the winter, though?
Yeah, it's a little backwards.
Snowfish. What's a snowfish? A pike?
I think that is a real fish, right? I'm not good.
I got the standings. I got the standings.
That's not my strength, bro.
If you want.
I'm a northeast soft boy.
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Chapter 4: Which pitchers are standing out in the National League?
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Again, four-game splitter this time of year is tough. But you're about to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates. I would love to know, I guess, what you're looking for and what you saw this week. And then for the Cubbies, it was an absolute tailspin. And I got slaughtered. I had the Cubbies above the Brewers in our power rankings a week and a half ago.
And Brewers fans, if they have an enemy number one, it is the Cubbies. And they were like, we're better than the Cubbies. And they are. And the Cubbies, a 10-game losing streak. And who could save them but only Pittsburgh's finest, Ian Happ?
Yeah, they really, really needed that. We ended up watching the last part of that game when we got in last night, PCA diving into the plate, all that good stuff. But I guess we'll start with the Pirates who are getting, look, The bullpen, not so great. But the starting pitching, I think, has been great, and they're adding another one. Jared Jones is going to be back.
They announced that Lajinsky is going to go to the bullpen. He had a presser that he wasn't too happy about, obviously. I think if you talk to Pittsburgh Pirate fans, maybe – and it's weird because you want all these guys as starters, and where's the other team we're seeing this happen? With the Mariners.
Yes.
You get too many starting pitchers right now, and not everyone's going off, but these guys are reliable starting pitchers, so you want to keep them stretched out. Jared Jones taking Majinski's spot. A lot of people are saying Bubba Chandler, should he be the one to go back there? He's dealt with his issues, letting base runners on walks. The command isn't always there.
The stuff obviously is, and you want him as a starter, but that's going to be something the Pirates will have to navigate through. But yeah, a split series here as far as the Cubs go. They've been a streaky team, obviously. We've mentioned that already. And for them, I think it's just staying the course. You're getting Ben Brown, who's looked great in his starts in the rotation.
And it's just like the offense just needs to get going again, essentially.
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Chapter 5: What are the latest trends in the American League?
obviously very, very tough. You have a guy go for you, Dustin May, who we've always loved the stuff. It just hasn't really panned out necessarily. He's been great for the Cardinals, and he takes a no-no into the bottom of the eighth. and they find a way to lose that game because the offense can't go in because the Brewers also have good pitching.
It's a very difficult defeat there, and yeah, the Brewers end up getting the sweep, man, taking advantage of a Mason win air after he made a really nice play earlier in the game. So it's, yeah, you got Brewers. That's it.
Yeah, and if I'm doing the math right, which probably not, but it's telling the people what I'm seeing, I think Mizorowski threw across different levels and the playoffs through about 141 innings last year. That, you know, if you're doing a natural pitching progression... You'd think a 160, 170, right? And yeah, what's the brewer's philosophy and what's he registering?
It's going to be very interesting to track. Again, if Skeens is going to throw 200, if Sanchez is never going to give up a hit again, The NL Cy Young race is one of my favorite races in a long time. And yeah, the Brewers, I did a... It's one of my weirdest things I'm obsessed with and doesn't matter, but I love doing on this date last year, just seeing what's going on.
And on Wednesday, because I'd have to check the updated, but the Brewers and the Toronto Blue Jays, who were the best records in the AL and NL last year, they were both not... under 500 on May 27th last year. So, like, and then if you remember, the Brewers got crazy hot. Toronto got crazy hot. So, yeah, if you are one of those teams hovering, there's still... There's the tweet. Nice, Bob.
There's still very much enough time in this season to get going, and we think we know something, and one of these mediocre teams is going to pop, and one of the good teams is going to die. I don't know who it is yet. I'll tell you who it's not going to be. The Brewers. They... They know what they're doing. Their recipe is there. And Kyle Harrison with another final snap.
If Kyle Harrison was in the AL, he'd be like a toe-to-toe Cy Young favorite right now. Instead, it's just like, okay, we'll catch up. Where'd they get him from?
Sorry, Boston. Yeah, Boston. Tough year. Do you want to do anything about the Uribe? Suck it. Suck it.
Yeah, man, we should talk about it. It's kind of perf. Uh, I shouldn't say it's kind of perfect. That's not where I should start. Um, Okay, it's a pitcher pitching with emotion. You'd rather it wasn't a 6-0 game. You'd rather Uribe not doing three sockets on the mound. It's a rivalry game.
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Chapter 6: How are the Padres and Rangers faring in recent games?
And I was like, yeah, he could have sold out harder than that. And, again, I think all around it shows why the Brewers are a top-tier organization in the sport. Speaking of, are the Arizona Diamondbacks big back as they sweep the San Francisco Giants? I mentioned Cattell on the way through. He has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball.
If he's not on Enfuego, then Dalton and Dalton's new intern, we're going to have a talking to because I'd like to think so. Erod. Has kicked into gear. Remember when that felt like an amazing, like, yeah, middle of the rotation bolster signing? Hasn't been that. Has in the month of May. And then they complete the sweep with Paul Seawald on the back end, Trev.
The Snakes have been playing fantastic baseball.
Well, we knew that this was going to be a stretch that they had to get it going in. 13-game stretch versus the Rockies and the Giants, and they won 11-2, which is fine. Handle your business. Handle your business. And you know what? We kind of talk about it all the time. There are teams that get other teams hot. My twins have been that for a long time.
When you start to see balls land and when you start to have these outings, you can carry at least some confidence into your next stretch of game. Does it guarantee success? Obviously not, but good vibes right now with the D-backs. You mentioned Marte has been going off. He's obviously a guy that can carry your offense, and he's done that. I talked to Dalt a little bit about that.
It's really been the starting pitching has just gotten the job done. whether you're talking about Erod or Merrill Kelly over his last four starts is really good. Soroka has been really good for them. So you're getting the starting pitching, you're getting the offense going. And this is, you know, it's, it's how you win games six and no against the giants this season.
I don't even know if we, I mean, they're the giants are just down bad.
Giants are kind of out, man. I had a shower thought this morning because I was, you know, we've, In a way, we've loved what the Giants have been doing. They tried something with Vitello. His quotes were entertainment. The outfielders and the whole Drew Gilbert experience. And then, dude, I kind of thought of the other side. I thought about being a proud San Francisco Giants fan.
And when they were winning the World Series every other year. Fast forward a decade, and I'm watching us... Lose a lot and us hump in the outfield. I could see that being a bad time. I could see that being a bad time. So, yeah, Giants are kind of out for me for now. Like, we've talked about them a lot. We thought there was going to be a little boost at some point. The Diamondbacks have the boost.
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Chapter 7: What notable performances occurred this week in MLB?
Erod Soroka and Merrill Kelly of late. Me and Dalton also had a funny thing that we went through the Diamondbacks and he's like, dude, we have a bad bullpen every year. And I was like, really? And it kind of scratched out. And then the Diamondback teams that have done something in the postseason, they had a bullpen. And they could throw the ball.
And right now, man, Taylor Clark, your guy, with a 1-9-9 ERA. Juan Murillo, ERA in the twos. Thompson, three flat. Ginkle, a nice pickoff play. They're like, they have a form. Dude, if they get Corbin Burns back, I might have to book a flight back out. Oh, no. Is Jake Snakes back? If they'll welcome me, they won't. No, we had a good thing going for a little bit. I want to get out there.
Noah Khan concert in August? Why was I looking at that? Phillies. They played San Diego. Okay, Trev, I'll Chris Rose you. Does the conversation start with the Phillies or the Padres?
Oh, Phillies, man. Come on. Okay, talk about it. The way they play ball. This is a nice start for Aaron Nola, which he needed that. You know, he's obviously struggled this year. Two lefties on the bookend game to get the job done. I mean, you got to give credit to them. I know San Diego's offense hasn't been great, but they continue to pitch the ball.
Christopher Sanchez is just like on another world. Rosados, you know, had a decent run of starts here, which is a welcome sign for them. We had a lineup toss-up. Schwerber goes back to the lead on spot. Trey Turner goes to two. I like his quote. It was like, yeah, I don't care. Anywhere like one, two, three, or four is fine with me. It's like, of course.
There's none of that back-end shit. Yeah, don't you dare. No funny business.
Game two was a great one for the Phillies. You get the homers by Harper, JT, and Trey Turner. So that's nice to get, plus the NOLA start. And then you kind of knew. I mean, Sanchez versus Buehler, even though Buehler had a decent outing, that was going to be a tough one. It's 44 and two-thirds innings scoreless in a row? Yeah. We're entering legendary...
status here if he gets up into that top three these names that we have here longest single season streak in the live ball era so since 1920 it's Oral Hershiser which everyone I mean I remember that maybe not everybody that's like ingrained in my mind yeah growing up in LA 59 innings pitch he took over for Don Drysdale who had 58 innings pitch and then the guy after that is Bob Gibson at 47 so if Chris Sanchez can go out there and throw
two and a third scoreless. His next outing, he'll tie Bob Gibson. If he can get into that top three, that's... That's something, man.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the latest MLB standings?
You worried about San Diego? Question mark?
I think if you were watching their series and what they were doing early on, you kind of understood it was magic what was happening. A lot of late inning comebacks. The pitching staff would keep the game close and we'd have a couple big hits here and there. But overall, the offense has struggled nearly all year. And the guys that you need to get going just haven't, essentially.
So that's going to catch up to you. I mean, they got... But again, it's whatever way you want to look at it. You face some really good starting pitching here or you just continue to struggle and you didn't have those late inning resurgence. So the bullpens obviously kept them in a ton of games. They're still in a playoff spot. The record still looks really good.
So I think it's a weird time to be a Padres fan. OK, like we're seven games over 500. And you could even say it as a positive. We've done all this without our guys performing. Yeah. But eventually the guys got to perform. I think that's kind of where I'm at here.
Yeah, it's going to be interesting, man. They play the Nats this weekend, and I don't know how often I'm going to be hunkered on the couch watching that series, but for whoever it is, I think you're going to see everything. I think you're going to see everything in that series.
And yeah, Oral Hershiser, man, that's one for me that when my baseball eyes are actually turning on, like mid to late 90s, I'm seeing the older version of Oral Hershiser that on the broadcast they'd be like, Oral Hershiser, like this guy all time. And I'd be watching him and I'd be like, like Cleveland, oral Hershiser. I'd be like, he's, he's okay. I don't know.
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