00:00If we break this game down, it's going to be Bassett versus Ashcraft.
00:03Overnight, the Lions, roughly a slight favorite here for Pittsburgh, Craig, give or take minus 120.
00:07We're seeing those a little bit higher this morning, as high as minus 131 listed at DraftKings,
00:11and a total which opened up at 8.5.
00:13Craig, overnight, now sits at 8.5.
00:15The O's and the Buccos today out in Pittsburgh.
00:19Yeah, so interesting game.
00:21I think interesting narrative being played right now with the Pirates.
00:25And look, when the Pirates had the beginning of Paul Skeens' career a couple of years ago,
00:31there's no question, Donnie, that every time that guy pitches, it's must-watch TV or buy yourself a ticket and
00:38go to the game.
00:38But let's also be honest here.
00:41Skeens, as great as he is, Cy Young Awards, future, probably incredible.
00:46Donnie, he's not an everyday player.
00:48And Connor Griffin is.
00:50And this guy has absolutely set Pittsburgh on fire.
00:53He gets the long-term contract extension.
00:55He makes his debut.
00:57He doubles in a run.
00:58And it seems like he has literally catapulted the emotions of both the players and the fans at this point.
01:05And the Pirates are running hot right now against the Orioles.
01:08On the flip side here, Donnie, man, are the Orioles going to go through it here again?
01:13At the beginning of the season with all of the ads that they made and getting Pete Alonso 3-5
01:19to start the year?
01:20This is not what they had in mind.
01:22You can't lose the season in March and April, Donnie, but the Orioles are not off to a good start.
01:27Clearly, this will be a coin flip type game, as I mentioned.
01:29Guys just want to get out of there on Sunday.
01:31It's an early game there.
01:32But I love riding the emotion factor with Pittsburgh at this point.
01:36And what a signal toward the future of giving a 19-year-old over $140 million, plugging him in, playing
01:44him every day.
01:45I mean, Skeens and Griffin and Chandler and some of these young players.
01:48Manny, you would think that the Pirates' future is now.
01:51That's what it would be, because in the future, which means those players will be New York Yankees or somewhere
01:55spread out around Major League Baseball.
01:57We'll see how that one works out.
01:58But for today, Craig, you got some hope for the Pirates.
02:00And by the way, Ashcraft is on the mound.
02:02Only 25 batters on the early season that he's faced.
02:04He's struggled a little bit.
02:05And again, it's only nine batters from the left-hand side at 286 ISO and a 432 weighted on base
02:10percentage here.
02:11You do have a good amount of lefties in the lineup as a possibility for the Baltimore Oras, which includes
02:15Adley Rutschman, middle of that lineup, 15 at-bats.
02:18Craig going up against right in the pitching, a 250 ISO and a 451 weighted on base percentage.
02:23But if we flip it over and take a look at Bassett on the mound, who last year struggled at
02:26times with lefties, you're also going to get some decent lefties in the lineup today.
02:29Cruz, Lau, when he got Reynolds and O'Hearn, actually four of the first four batters, they're all lefties here.
02:36Craig, then Horowitz in the bottom of that lineup as another lefty.
02:38Maybe the lefties can stack today, but I'm with you here.
02:41It seems like a toss-up where maybe, hint at the end of the show, you lean towards a dog
02:46here in this environment.
02:48Yeah, it's a really tough one to call.
02:50And I know some folks will be in on the Orioles today just to think how hard it is to
02:55sweep a team.
02:57And by the way, I don't love the Pirates this season.
03:00I think they're just riding emotions of being at home and doing things differently for the first time in a
03:06while.
03:06And I do like the fact that O'Hearn, who they did sign to a multi-year contract, is off
03:10to a good start.
03:12But, you know, for one game in this scenario, I probably would back the Pirates again just to get it
03:18done.
03:18I'm not clear on what Bassett exactly is going to be for them this season.
03:22The Orioles said that they had a lot of pitching depth at the beginning of the year.
03:25They sent down one of their best starters, I thought, Dean Kramer, to the minor leagues.
03:30And so he's like their sixth guy or something here.
03:32But I haven't seen anything that resembles like this huge bounce back by the Orioles for me, Donnie, yet.
03:38And I'm not going to be a prisoner of eight games.
03:40I'm not going to do that.
03:41But in a one-game scenario today, I do think the Pirates keep it going.
03:45Yeah, the interesting part about that, too, is we always have like the fact that it's early in the season.
03:49But these games count just as much as they do in September.
03:51Same thing with a batter at the plate.
03:52Hey, you want to get hot to start the season where your batting average is 390 by the time you
03:56get, you know, three or four weeks into the season.
03:58You don't want to start the season at 190 and try to battle back.
04:01So we'll see what happens today in Pittsburgh.
04:03But also, it's one of those teams with the Pittsburgh Pirates where if they can get out to a good
04:06start,
04:07pressure starts to build on management to say, hey, the deadline.
04:10Maybe we don't spend a ton of money, but we do get some help for this lineup here for maybe
04:14a playoff or even a wild card run.
04:15And we'll see if that works out.
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