00:00Good morning to everybody out there.
00:01What a great day to be a Cleveland Guardians fan.
00:07What do you mean by that?
00:08Great day.
00:09Start out season 1-0 against a team that this could be a ALCS preview.
00:16You don't want to go.
00:17Do you really want to go that far?
00:19Why can't it?
00:20I will say.
00:20Two teams expected to make the playoffs.
00:22Yes, but can I say this?
00:25I think it's obviously its position because of the possible work stoppage
00:29that's coming up.
00:30You're reading a lot of articles about the youth movement that's going on
00:33with a lot of clubs, save for like two clubs, three when you throw the Mets
00:37in there.
00:39The youth movement that's going on in professional baseball, and I'm like,
00:42well, if all these teams are going young, we've always been going young,
00:46wouldn't we have a better chance than some of all these other teams that are
00:49going quote-unquote young to youth movement, things like that?
00:52Like Detroit's a really good ball club.
00:54I don't know if they're going to build a 15-game lead this year,
00:57but if they were, I don't know if they're going to drop it this time
00:59around, but hopefully it doesn't get that swollen.
01:02But if everybody else is young or going young and we've been young,
01:07I'm like, well, if we're used to this system, then what the hell's the
01:09problem with us?
01:11Like what's wrong with that?
01:12And I still say, like, I don't think there's anything wrong with not being
01:16the crazy team in town.
01:17And I'm going, yeah, 87 wins, probably a wild card because I have to give the
01:22Tigers their respect.
01:2487 wins, probably a wild card, and I think you can get a serious win,
01:28and we'll roll the dice and see after that.
01:30Is that so bad?
01:31I didn't even give you time to give your prediction if you have one.
01:34If you don't want to give one, five.
01:36You said 86 wins?
01:3787.
01:3887 wins yesterday?
01:3987 wins.
01:40I mean, that's the ballpark, right?
01:42They had 88 last year.
01:43Yeah.
01:44What did they have the year before?
01:45More than that.
01:46More than that.
01:46And that, you know, they had dug themselves in such a deep hole a season
01:50ago that what I liked and what I said I liked about this team is they had no
01:54business after that news came down about the suspensions and your dominant
01:59closer that's just never going to be a part of the team anymore.
02:01Yeah.
02:02And you're wondering, how many guys in the club?
02:04Like, there was a moment when there was a report where we thought, was the
02:06whole clubhouse in on this?
02:08Is this going to be the biggest scandal in baseball in years?
02:11Is this like Marge shot or something like that?
02:13And in the end, no, it was pretty isolated.
02:17Just two dudes.
02:18And how they dealt with that, I thought was so interesting that that could have
02:24bogged down and basically ended the seasons for a lot of different teams that
02:28were not ready to handle something like that.
02:30And they were able to handle it.
02:31Owen's going to hate me.
02:32Owen's going to hate me.
02:35That's one for Cade Smith.
02:38That's one.
02:39Why would I hate you?
02:40Because you get mad at me for how close I watch closers all the time.
02:43Which, apparently, I should have been watching Emmanuel Klasse a little
02:46closer, shouldn't I?
02:46Well, Ken is game to game.
02:47That's my biggest problem is that you sat there and you killed Emmanuel Klasse
02:52for the wrong things.
02:53You should have been killing him for throwing pitches into the dirt on the
02:56first pitch of the eighth and a half inning.
02:58I should have been knowing that something fishy was going on with that fella.
03:02As closely as you watched him and analyzed him and said that he sucked.
03:06He didn't suck.
03:08He was just throwing games, Ken.
03:09I held it in, Owen.
03:10I should have came out here and I should have been like, listen, I think that this
03:13guy's throwing pitches where eventually he could be facing 65 years in federal prison.
03:17That's what I really should have been saying.
03:18All you've got to do is it smells like the Gambino crime family to me.
03:23If it looks like Bonanno, I mean, what are you going to do?
03:27So after last night, you're in on Cade Smith.
03:29I imagine you're in on Chase DeLauter as well.
03:32He's fine, you know.
03:34Who, Cade Smith?
03:36Chase DeLauter.
03:37Two home runs in his actual real debut.
03:40Oh, I thought you were saying, well, it is a debut.
03:45I know how I feel.
03:46Hey, I get to watch it tonight.
03:47It was his first official hit.
03:49Yes.
03:49Because the postseason hits last year did not count as official hits.
03:53No, sir.
03:54So Chase DeLauter, if he can be, it's always if he can stay healthy, if he can stay healthy,
04:00he can stay healthy.
04:01It's the same thing.
04:02I'm going to throw a name in here, which young John did not realize.
04:05And I go, oh, that's another person you got to learn.
04:09That's a Cleveland thing.
04:10That's not an everywhere else thing.
04:11Because John follows baseball very closely.
04:14And I said, and I didn't want to put it on social media because people get very defensive
04:18of this man.
04:19If Chase DeLauter can just stay healthy, he could be the right fielder, even though Lonnie
04:24Chisinau started his career at third base, Chase DeLauter could be the right fielder that
04:28we were all, or the player that we were all hoping that Lonnie Chisinau could be before
04:31the injuries.
04:33Issue is, is the injuries.
04:35If he could stay healthy, I think he has the power.
04:37I think he has the play where he can, he can, if he can obviously stay in the lineup,
04:42that he could be that player that we always hoped that Lonnie Chisinau could be.
04:46That's not a knock on Lonnie Chisinau.
04:48Lonnie Chisinau, I think by and large was robbed by his, by his injuries and the fits
04:52and starts of his, of his career.
04:54Still had eight seasons in the bigs, still had eight seasons, but by and large was, was
05:00robbed.
05:01And I brought that up and he goes, people here like Lonnie Chisinau.
05:03I go, John, people here loved Lonnie Chisinau.
05:06Like there were people in Cleveland that would fight you in the middle of the road over any
05:10disrespect of Lonnie Chisinau.
05:12There were a lot of fans that that guy had.
05:14And I look at Chase DeLauter and I go, you know, gosh, I don't.
05:18Body tie, body wise.
05:19I'm not sure if they're the same stature, but I look at him and I go, man, that guy
05:24could be, you need some pop around Jose Ramirez.
05:28You need somebody who's a little bit consistent.
05:30You know, maybe he could be the more consistent guy.
05:33Now people are going to hear me and say, well, it's one game.
05:35Yeah.
05:36But we've been talking about Chase DeLauter for the last, what, two, three years now.
05:39So if you felt that way a couple of years ago, then hopefully this is the beginning
05:44of something very nice for him.
05:46Something special?
05:46I don't know.
05:47We'll see.
05:47But I'm not trying to put too much on one game, but when you go out there and you hit
05:53two home runs in an opening day, that's a very special thing for you.
05:56And hopefully that's a sign of things to come for the Guardian.
05:58Are you like me where there are certain guys you just expect you're never going to see?
06:02And he was one of them.
06:03I mean, he was drafted.
06:04Yes.
06:04But 2022, there had been so much excitement about him and then broken foot and then so
06:09much excited about him.
06:10And then it was the toe.
06:12Absolutely.
06:12I think what?
06:13The left foot and then the foot fracture, then the hamstring, then the turf toe.
06:18And then I think even in spring training this year, he was banged up a little bit.
06:22And I'm just like, we're never going to see him.
06:24He comes out and does that and has that performance.
06:27And it's like one of those where you're like, oh, how many fingers can you cross at the same
06:31time to hope that this dude actually gets the opportunity and can stay available for
06:36an extended period of time?
06:38Because if he can, they haven't had guys over the years, especially, you know, outfielders
06:43that have legitimate pop.
06:46And I saw this last night, just one of the numbers floating around on social media that
06:51last year, the Guardians were dead last out of 30 major league teams.
06:57They were dead last in hard hit balls.
06:59Yesterday, they had the most.
07:01Like they had a bevy of hard hit balls.
07:04And that, it's nice to see.
07:06That's what an actual legitimate playoff lineup, at least the top portion of it, should have
07:13something like that in it.
07:14So it was nice to see.
07:15You've been looking for a guy to put in front of Jose for a while since Lindor left?
07:20Seriously.
07:20Yeah.
07:21It, you know, it's one game.
07:23We got 161 left, but looked pretty good.
07:26Also, the 15th straight opening day with a different right fielder.
07:30Which I didn't realize.
07:31Who was on, who was on 19?
07:33Was it the Red Sox who were on 19?
07:35And I go, oh, that's a long, long, long list of guys who have started right field for the
07:39Red Sox.
07:39I didn't realize we have, we have 15.
07:42I mean, we normally are a team that platoons like four different positions for the first
07:46six months of the year.
07:47It seems, but I guess it is a different feeling.
07:49I'm looking at the list right now.
07:50Some of the names, I'm like, that guy was on the team, but, and it usually happens that
07:54way for the guardians.
07:56There's two or three guys on the opening day roster that don't make it to June.
08:00They end up getting DFA'd and we get, we get somebody up from Columbus that makes an impact,
08:05but yeah.
08:06Which also, by the way, Zach Meisel has put this out there.
08:08Social media reactions brought to you by.
08:10Shive and Jewelers, Cleveland's premier jewelry store.
08:12It is 613, 11 seconds for those scoring at home.
08:15Uh, he is the fifth to have a home run in their first career at bat with the Indian slash
08:21guardians.
08:21John Kenzie Noel was the other one.
08:24The latest one.
08:25Kevin Kuzman off was the other one.
08:29Jay Bell in 86, Earl Averill, April 16th, 1929.
08:34So this was, this was the bummer.
08:36And I said, you know, the mistake we had is I wish we would have had somebody on from Seattle
08:39yesterday to tell us how they felt about starting a game on opening day.
08:44That late for them.
08:45I mean, it was really late for us, obviously.
08:48Um, I think the game, what ended, you know, 1240, 1240 in Seattle.
08:54Like they don't want to start opening day that late either.
08:57And what is a bummer is just a fraction of the audience got to see that all timer in an
09:04opening day.
09:05Like imagine if that would have been at home.
09:07Imagine if he had posted that kind of day at home, how nuts people would be going.
09:12If it would have been a one o'clock or something like that, it would have been a lot.
09:14Better.
09:15By the way, Zach, and reason why I was on Zach's page, uh, Tanner Bybee, there's, there's
09:19good and there's bad.
09:20There's, well, there's uneasiness.
09:22I should say Tanner Bybee left last night's game with right shoulder inflammation after
09:25the fifth.
09:26So it's right shoulder inflammation.
09:27That's your number one starter.
09:28That's, uh, that could be a bit of a conundrum.
09:31Here is Steven Vogt.
09:33I believe.
09:33Oh, who is this on this?
09:34This is Steven, right?
09:35This is Bybee.
09:35Oh, this is Tanner himself.
09:37Go ahead.
09:37I had all my tests in there and I think I was strong in a good majority of them.
09:40So I feel like, uh, I wake up to see how it feels.
09:43It feels worse.
09:44It feels better.
09:44I mean, just go see more.
09:47He seems to be fine by it.
09:49You want to hear Steven Vogt?
09:50Yes, please.
09:50I'm sorry.
09:51I got my rods and cones mixed up.
09:52My fault.
09:53Go ahead.
09:53I thought Tanner pitched outstanding, you know, a couple solo shots.
09:56You know, that's going to happen, especially against a team like this, leave a few pitches
09:59over the middle, but really outside of that, they didn't get much else going.
10:02But, you know, I thought Tanner was great.
10:03And so it's right shoulder inflammation.
10:06He's feeling good.
10:06So we just have to see how he feels the next couple of days coming out of it.
10:10But, um, definitely the right call for him to let us know he was feeling it.
10:13Threw 78 pitches.
10:15I mean, you always got to be a little bit careful about that stuff at the beginning of the year.
10:18That's probably how many you're going your first start anyway, right?
10:21Well, if you woke up and you just saw the box score, I mean, five innings, that's about
10:29as far as they go anymore.
10:30And he's the only one that they really stretched out over 100 last year anyway.
10:33Uh-huh.
10:34So it wouldn't stand out to you, but yeah, it's something we got to pay attention to that
10:39Tanner Bobby did leave last night's game with right shoulder inflammation.
10:42So I do think that, again, if, if all the guys can stay, or if we're going to do youth
10:50and everybody else is starting to do youth now, or more of them are doing it because
10:54I think they know that there's a lockout coming and I don't think that they want to be beholden
10:57to it and they want to get themselves some contracts because we don't know what the league
11:00is going to look like after 2026.
11:03I mean, you could be looking at a salary cap and a salary floor at some point.
11:05And if you do get one of those things, that means we're going to be without baseball for
11:09a while coming up in the winter.
11:11So I think there's a lot of teams just kind of holding it down where you have teams that
11:15are in major markets like the Yankees and the Mets and the, I mean, everybody's critical
11:19of the Red Sox for going as young as they have the Yankees and the Mets and the Dodgers who
11:24are probably going to go for the gusto.
11:26Good God, let's call it what it is.
11:29You can be frustrated, losing is frustrating certainly, but if I go down to the Yankees
11:36in the postseason, the Yankees are supposed to beat everybody in the American League.
11:40If I were to go down to the Mets or the Dodgers in the World Series, obviously it would be
11:46heartbreaking, but it could be understandable to some degree there.
11:49So I think that that's kind of the way you're caught into.
11:52Can I expect a World Series run this year?
11:54No.
11:55Can I expect them to make the postseason?
11:57Listen, I think expectations are there to make the postseason with this club, and if
12:01the expectations are there, then you roll the dice of the postseason and see where it
12:04goes.
12:04I understand we've used this term before, it feels very Steelers, but I'd still rather
12:10them be the Steelers of Major League Baseball than a lot of other teams where it's just,
12:15hey, let's dust it off and who really cares and that's really it, which there are a plethora
12:20of teams that they're like, oh yeah, we're going to go with the youth movement.
12:24Does that mean you're just not going to be competitive?
12:25Because the Guardians have been doing youth for 20 years, and they've been a competitive
12:29club almost every single year.
12:31Every year it feels like there's 13 teams in Major League Baseball that start the season
12:34with their fans having zero hope.
12:36This is not one of them, and you should appreciate that.
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