00:00Hey, at least should be awesome this year.
00:02A lot of power, a lot of good pitching here, and a lot of good times.
00:04I mean, last year we had a de facto tie at the top of the standings, Tom,
00:07between the Blue Jays and also the New York Yankees.
00:09Blue Jays got the nod here.
00:11Maybe it's the Blue Jays again.
00:12Maybe it's the Yankees.
00:13Maybe it's those Boston Red Sox went and spent some money.
00:16Let me start here.
00:17Ranger Suarez, Tom.
00:18Hey, that's a pretty good turn up here pitching to WBC.
00:21I look at the opening rotation for the Boston Red Sox
00:24through the first three games here, Tom.
00:25Crochet on Thursday.
00:27Saturday, it's gray.
00:28Sunday, it's Oviedo.
00:29Ranger Suarez getting some updates here.
00:32A little bit banged up to enter the season.
00:34Don't like to see that, but he was, Tom, a major acquisition to that lineup here.
00:38He was, and that's really what they need him to be.
00:41They need him to be that SP2.
00:44Sonny Gray is a good pitcher, but he's also not the same pitcher that he once was.
00:50I think he's just a middle of the rotation, serviceable guy,
00:53but you need a duo to be alongside Garrett Crochet because, you know,
00:57frankly, last year, the drop-off between Crochet and the rest of the pitching staff
01:01was just too vast.
01:03And, you know, so the Tigers go out and do the same thing.
01:04They added that second guy behind their race.
01:07And I think Suarez is going to have a fantastic year.
01:09As long as you can put him in the right spot,
01:12and obviously the ballpark is always going to be tough for pitchers there,
01:15but Crochet, Suarez, then Gray, then Brian Bale, that's the rotation I think
01:21they should be rolling with.
01:22Take a look at that opening day start at Garrett Crochet.
01:24Absolutely fantastic.
01:25They'll be on the road to take on Cincinnati, Tom.
01:28That's a minus 158 price for the Red Sox, and the Reds coming in there
01:30as a dog price at plus 134.
01:32But as we just talked about Rangers Suarez in that long-term lineup,
01:36boy, taking a little bit of the wind out of the sails, man.
01:38Like, hey, Hunter Green's going to be our ace this year.
01:40Figured some things out, maturing there.
01:42Still a great power pitcher.
01:43Down with an elbow injury that they're hoping, Tom, will be back by July.
01:47That takes a lot out of it.
01:48You want to compete with the Cubs, you've got to be healthy,
01:50you've got to be playing well, and no Hunter Green for at least a couple months.
01:53That's not a good start for the Reds.
01:56It's certainly not.
01:57And where their rotation sits overall, I think there's a wide range of outcomes.
02:03A lot of people are expecting Andrew Abbott to be due for some serious,
02:06serious regression compared to where he was last year.
02:09And he was fantastic last year, but it was a little bit smoke and mirrors, right?
02:12The underlying stuff was not great.
02:14He was getting good results, but the underlying stuff wasn't there.
02:17Chase Burns, the flamethrowing rookie that they have, who is a men's strikeout upside,
02:21also has, you know, some clear downsides with the home runs and the walks and the control
02:25and all these sorts of things.
02:26So losing Hunter Green, having Andrew Abbott, who's due for a little bit of regression,
02:31having Chase Burns, who we're still a little bit unsure of.
02:34You know, what we're getting from Brett Lauder, we're not sure.
02:37But, you know, Nick Lodolo should be a solid number two option.
02:39But you really want to measure number three.
02:41I'm interested in the Reds, but it's like, ah, they just need to be fully healthy
02:44and Hunter Green actually be himself for me to truly trust them.
02:48Yeah.
02:48And again, it's a fun team that you want to buy into, but you still get the Cubs there.
02:52That big payroll here, probably the best team overall.
02:54We'll see what we get out of the Pirates.
02:55But you just can't lose that starting pitcher early.
02:57And also, Tom, it's not as if you wait until July and he's like,
03:00oh, he's back to what his form was and high velocity and getting a lot of strikeouts.
03:03He's going to have to work his way back in.
03:05And at that time, Tom, we don't know how far back they just might be.
03:08So just hanging around there in the race in the central might be the difference here.
03:11The one guy that we love in that lineup, though, is Eli De La Cruz, Tom.
03:14Last year, 37 stolen bases, 22 home runs, hit for 264.
03:17One of the premier young players in Major League Baseball.
03:20Talking about Eli De La Cruz with maybe he gets off to that hot start,
03:24maybe talking some MVP futures, maybe.
03:27You know, last year we saw his steals really decrease in the second half of the year.
03:32He wasn't fully healthy, a little bit banged up.
03:35You know, I want to see him, A, cut down on the strikeouts,
03:38as everyone has said for a number of years for him now.
03:40They just need to get that under control, be a little more disciplined at the plate.
03:43And I want to see him really push towards 40 home runs.
03:45You know, put together a 40-40 type season.
03:48And frankly, I think he could do a 40-50 type season, a 30-60 type season.
03:52He has this immense, immense upside.
03:54So get the power going, get the strikeouts under control.
03:57And obviously, the steals will come if he stays healthy.
04:00But seeing 40 or 50 steals from him wouldn't be a surprise.
04:03It's really, to me, how the rest of the lineup does around him.
04:06Sal Stewart is a player I have my eye on this year for him.
04:09If he really does emerge as kind of being that duo to Eli De La Cruz,
04:13that's where they're going to have more power, more consistency in the lineup.
04:15Because, Donnie, as we know, it's a fantastic park for offense.
04:19It is.
04:20And Iohano Suarez back in the building there for the Reds.
04:22He had 49 home runs last year.
04:24Went.
04:24He was absolutely clocking the baseball.
04:26Struggled a little bit with his power numbers once he got to Seattle.
04:28But who doesn't outside of Cal Raleigh?
04:30We'll see if he gets that resurgence here over the first part of the season
04:32and can hammer some baseball into the seats.
04:34We'll see you next time.
Comments