00:00Friday was just a disaster of a day, a disaster of a day after that comment.
00:05So let's address the elephant in the room.
00:07I am not a person that goes out of my way to make people upset.
00:12Clearly by the last segment we just had where I said that we're done talking
00:16about Miles Kerr being traded because I don't want to upset anybody.
00:20I didn't realize, I didn't realize I was going to be, because guys, I tried.
00:26I tried to sit there.
00:27The guy hits home runs.
00:28I'm looking at it going, this is a great story.
00:30I go, who can I compare him to?
00:33Because life is comparison.
00:34Pro sports is comparison.
00:36And I mean, I'm up since two on Friday going, who can I compare this kid to
00:41that is anywhere near the ballpark?
00:44And I go, you know, you got to be careful.
00:46He's played in one game.
00:49Let's be careful here.
00:50I didn't know he was going to hit a home run on Friday.
00:53I didn't know he was going to hit another home run after that.
00:56I didn't know he was going to do that.
00:57And then break up a no-hitter.
00:59So you got this player who's fantastic.
01:02He's incredible.
01:03And he did, and he's exactly right.
01:04He broke up a no-hitter for crying out loud.
01:07And the only thing I was thinking of is like, okay.
01:10Because a lot of the names that people were giving me were names that I thought of before I said
01:14Lonnie Chisinald.
01:15Hand to God.
01:16On my kids.
01:17And I thought, all right.
01:19I remember when I was in the minors, Lonnie coming up.
01:22I saw his first pro game at Eastwood Field.
01:26Place was packed.
01:27Fans were excited.
01:28I was there when he was in Akron.
01:29Fans were excited.
01:30I was actually there when he, his first homestand.
01:32And fans were really excited about the possibilities.
01:36Now, as a ball player, okay.
01:39Chase DeLotter has way more tools than what Lonnie Chisinald had.
01:45But I was looking at it going, they're both first-round picks.
01:49Okay.
01:50One guy, Lonnie Chisinald, was the number one overall prospect for the Guardians organization slash Indians organization back then.
01:57In 2011, somebody actually remarked in my comments over the weekend.
02:02I got no sleep over the weekend.
02:04Somebody actually remarked that Lonnie Chisinald was higher ranked by Baseball America than what Chase DeLotter was when he got
02:13called up to the bigs.
02:14Like, so here I am, and I'm dealing with both of them.
02:16Okay, fine.
02:17You know what?
02:17I'm not here to make anybody upset.
02:19I'll take the Lonnie thing to my grave.
02:21Fine.
02:22There's way worse things I thought I could say.
02:24Who do you want me to compare them to?
02:26You guys course correct me.
02:28I'll make a comparison, and we'll do it.
02:31Because I got so many different ones over this weekend.
02:34I finally set out yesterday.
02:36I mean, I got a bunch of responses.
02:37I said, okay, guys, I'm not there to upset you.
02:40Who do you guys want me to compare them to?
02:42Who do you want me to compare them to?
02:44They asked Jason Stanford, former Indians pitcher, on afternoon drive.
02:49He was their guest talking baseball.
02:51Who does he compare Chase DeLotter to?
02:53JP and I both come up with comps for Chase DeLotter if he can stay healthy.
02:58Is there a player that Chase reminds you of from your time watching baseball?
03:02Don't say Lonnie Chisinald, by the way.
03:04That's not a popular answer right now.
03:05Not even close.
03:07Like, look, I love Lonnie Chisinald, too.
03:09Great guy, good teammate of the clubhouse, but not even close.
03:14I mean, Chase yesterday, you watch his two home runs.
03:17He takes, like, a half swing.
03:19It looks like my golf swing when I shank it, and then it goes 500 feet.
03:25It's the best swing that I've seen right now.
03:27He doesn't have to take full swings.
03:29He's so stinking strong.
03:30And I go back to the game when they were in Arizona against the Diamondbacks just recently,
03:35the last couple exhibition games.
03:37And he hit that one to dead center, and I was like, holy cow.
03:40I was like, if everybody could swing like Chase, I mean, we'd be leading home runs all day long
03:45for every year moving forward.
03:47So in terms of somebody that is like Chase, I'm going to say more of like a Chase Utley type
03:53of swing, but Chase Utley had less power.
03:57Chase Utley had 259 career home runs.
04:00Is Chase Utley apropos?
04:01Because I thought, guys, I didn't think of Manny.
04:06I did not put Manny in that category.
04:09That's who I heard all weekend.
04:10I thought.
04:11They were jumping right to the Manny comparisons.
04:12And maybe that's it.
04:14Maybe that's the comparison I'm going to make.
04:16But if you make that comparison, I mean, Manny would be an all-time Hall of Famer had not
04:20been for pregnancy pills and God knows what in the Baseball Hall of Fame writers.
04:24I mean, you're looking at one of the better hitters of all time, one of the better hitters
04:27in an Indians uniform of all time.
04:28I got a guy who's played in four games.
04:31Wouldn't that come off a bit presumptuous if I were to do that?
04:33Of course.
04:34So I was just looking at the fan fever of it.
04:36That's all I was doing.
04:37We just talked when it came to the Browns about doing everything we can to find hope in anything.
04:42And that kind of sounds like you're knocking down the hope when you say Lonnie Chisinald
04:45for Chase DeLauter.
04:47I wasn't trying.
04:47I swear to God.
04:48I know you were trying to.
04:49I swear to God.
04:50I couldn't believe it.
04:50I go, I'm getting killed for this.
04:52And I can't believe I'm getting killed for it.
04:55I had no idea I was going to get killed so bad.
04:57Of all the crazy things that I've said, oh, in 14 years, that was what was going to get
05:02me drugged through the streets?
05:04Was Lonnie Chisinald comp fun?
05:06People are never going to look at the start.
05:08They're all going to look at how it ended, right?
05:10You are right.
05:11And I didn't see that coming.
05:12You are right about that.
05:13You're both right about that.
05:14But I thought, honestly, 2 a.m. on, I'm sitting there going, man, if I compare this guy to
05:20Joe Charbonneau, people are going to look at the injury and go, what, you're already
05:24saying he's going to be injured?
05:25If I compare this guy, who else did I write down here?
05:27If I compare this guy to Grady Sizemore, Grady was the other one I thought of.
05:32Grady was in a SportsCenter commercial.
05:34Everybody loved Grady Sizemore.
05:36And then his career was cut short, drastically short by injuries to the point where the organization
05:40loved him.
05:40They were willing to pay him $5 million to come back, and he played in a handful of
05:43games, it felt like.
05:44So I didn't know who to compare him to, but I've just seen this Herculean effort by this
05:50rookie that almost sounds like a Paul Bunyan story by the time it's all said and done.
05:54And so I love Chase DeLauter, and I'm glad that he had a great outing.
06:03I want us to have hope.
06:04I want us to actually have a bopper that's around Jose Ramirez to protect Jose in the lineup
06:10and give him something better to hit, so it doesn't feel like he has to drag this organization
06:14with him with a bunch of pups.
06:16I have a lot of hope for Chase DeLauter, and I wanted to shout it from the top of a
06:20mountain.
06:21But I only had to, for this to come off this way, but I only had a microphone and a
06:25co-host.
06:26And so I made a comparison to a player that I really, really liked and thought had a lot
06:30of potential that got cut short.
06:32That's all.
06:33What he did in the 10th inning against Munoz, who is virtually unhittable, where that ball
06:40was placed, what was it, a four-seamer that was kind of rising in a way, and he just poked
06:47it the opposite way into the bleachers.
06:50That is the type of hitting, because anybody can pull, you know, balls.
06:55These guys, so many guys, that's all they do, and that's why they strike out so much.
06:58He was, like, in protection mode in a 2-2 pitch and took it into the bleachers the other
07:04way, and you're like, that's a professional hitter.
07:08That's like, that's such an insane thing to do in extras, and I know they were already
07:13up one, but it was just so awesome.
07:15They have had no protection for Jose Ramirez in that lineup for so long.
07:21It was just a thing of beauty, and that's the type of stuff, that's why when they hear
07:25Lonnie and Chisdall, they're going to be like, man, that is, that is like Hall of Fame
07:29stuff, so they want to run and jump to the crazy comparisons.
07:32But I felt, I felt if I already came on here, and I go, and Owen knows this, in 2019,
07:40you
07:41know, I will admit, maybe life got in the way.
07:44I did not feel that was a good year for watching all the sports for me, okay?
07:48I've admitted that in the past, and when we had the, when we had the stoppage in 2020
07:53for the pandemic, I swore up and down, I'm not going to take the sports for granted
07:58anymore, I'm going to make a damn concerted effort every single night, no matter what
08:01happens in life, this is still my life, this is still our business, I'm going to make a
08:06damn concerted effort to watch every single Guardians game and every single Cavs game that's
08:10possibly out there and leave the sports on, because you forget, once it's taken away from
08:14you, you remember the drama and the storytelling that's done in just a regular game, so I have
08:20made over the last five years, now going on six, or technically five since 2021, the most
08:26concerted effort where it's like, okay, even if I can't watch it live, I'm going to still
08:30see it the morning after, I'm going to still see it later on, like, and I watched how many
08:35Guardians games, and I know we don't get a chance to talk about it very much, so I wanted
08:40to be respectful, and I thought if I came out here and I was like, oh my god, this
08:44guy's the next man in Ramirez, people go, what?
08:46Judas Priest, can't it spend one game, you're comparing him to Man Ram?
08:50I didn't realize I was going to raise such ire over a lot of Chisinal comment.
08:58I just can't get over, you know, to have the start that he had, to split those games against
09:04Seattle, and then to bring up the no-hit bid yesterday, it felt, I said earlier, it felt
09:09like another home run, even though it won't go into the books like that, it's just rare to
09:13have that kind of excitement for something that we have been so desperate for for so
09:18long.
09:19Just imagine, had you compared him to Manny on Friday morning, you would be doing a
09:23victory lap right now, instead of a contrition.
09:27And I don't want to be, I love him!
09:29I love him, I swear to God!
09:30But what could have been, Ken?
09:31What could have been?
09:35Who do you guys want me to compare him to, for now on?
09:37Babe Ruth.
09:38Mickey Mantle, I was going to say.
09:42Well, I don't know if he drinks.
09:44I can't compare him to Mickey Mantle yet.
Comments