00:00And you know what? I might ask this question just to kind of kick off some baseball nuggets.
00:06Oh, hold on. That's a soccer.
00:10Oh, okay. To first pitch this baseball nugget, you gotta stay in the same sport with the analogies. I got
00:16it.
00:17Evan Grant tweeted out yesterday, and I was like, yeah, that's probably right.
00:22Do you think this is a fair assessment of the Rangers?
00:25When they play clean, they can compete. When they don't, things come tumbling down.
00:33With that highlight kind of being a great example of all of that.
00:37Yes. In the majority of the games, I do feel like if their defense gives them a chance, they have
00:45a chance.
00:48But I think that's like, I'm trying to figure out the number here. It's not 50-50.
00:54Okay, yeah. Yeah, sure.
00:55Because you have to add in the other games where they just can't compete offensively.
01:01And so that's the, like, they're good enough to keep you right there.
01:06But you're going to have more of those downsides, even in those games.
01:12Because, like, maybe you play a perfect game defensively.
01:15Yeah.
01:16And keep it clean.
01:17But then, you aren't good enough offensively to get a majority of those wins.
01:23You'll end up getting more losses just because you can't score runs.
01:27Do those losses feel particularly annoying when it's, like, 2-1?
01:32Mm-hmm.
01:32And then you're like, alright, so the defense did their job.
01:34The pitching did their job.
01:36And I think you'll get more of those with this team because of what the offense is.
01:40But you're right, Evan Grant, you cannot have the types of errors that they had in the field at all
01:46yesterday.
01:47Or non-errors, if you want to call them that.
01:51Those are non-compete games by far.
01:53By the way, do you know how many errors the Rangers had yesterday?
01:55Zero.
01:56What?
01:57Okay.
01:58The Jock Peterson one, I guess, technically is not an error.
02:02He should not have done what he did.
02:04The first one hit a spot on the wall that Jock Peterson just couldn't get to.
02:09Neither could Evan Carter.
02:11That's why Mike was asking the question of, like, at some point, does Evan Carter start cheating his way over
02:16to Jock
02:17in order to make sure that he covers the ground that he can't right now?
02:20So I understand why those weren't marked that.
02:23But you're right.
02:25There should be an error on one of those.
02:27Yeah.
02:28And then no error on the Osuna one.
02:31Because they're like, it didn't touch.
02:33Yeah.
02:33Okay.
02:34And you're like, that's still an error.
02:36But, so, anyways, that's just an aside.
02:40It is the state of baseball.
02:41To all of this.
02:41That is the state of baseball.
02:42I'll try to give you some positives about the Rangers, and then we can pretend like the score wasn't what
02:48it was.
02:49Brandon Nimmo, he continues to hit very well against left-handed pitching.
02:533-18 for the season.
02:55Ezekiel Duran, we talked about him in the opening segment, also has multiple RBIs in back-to-back games
03:01to go along with his extra base hits in four straight games, and Corey Seager has reached base in eight
03:08straight games.
03:09I think what's amazing about Zeke, I'm probably going to stick on him a lot right now.
03:14I was just going to say, that's my attempt to be positive.
03:15Yeah, okay.
03:16And I appreciate that.
03:18You know what?
03:18And if you could get Zeke and him and Young all at the same time playing well, you have some
03:25promise.
03:26Absolutely.
03:26You don't need Berger to go out there and hit four home runs.
03:30You just need those three guys to give you some competitiveness and consistency of, hey, Kevin,
03:37there was a moment yesterday early in the game was first inning.
03:40Obviously, you had that wacky first inning that kind of looked weird.
03:44But I was going to question, should Ezekiel Duran have stolen, tried to steal second when he got thrown out
03:51at second?
03:52Yeah.
03:52And here was why.
03:53You could see pretty clearly that their pitcher, Blackburn, he didn't have his control.
03:59And the walks were about to start.
04:02Now, they want to put pressure on him because they want to be aggressive.
04:04I appreciate that.
04:05I won't second guess that if you're going into it saying, we're going to be aggressive like this.
04:09But then what happens?
04:11He's still second, gets thrown out, Corey Seager walks.
04:15Josh Young immediately gets hit.
04:17Now bases are loaded if he didn't get thrown out at second and you have one out.
04:21And Jock Peterson, maybe that's a double play, but you score a run there.
04:25And so that kind of turned into one of those weird questions about it.
04:30But I do like that they're aggressive with him.
04:31But I want to stick with Zeke right now, Kevin.
04:34He's doing what they asked of him regarding the plate.
04:38Going up to the plate and saying, I'm not giving you free pitches, free strikes up here.
04:44I'm going to make you pitch to me.
04:45That's why he's successful right now.
04:47He is drawing walks because of it, but he's successful because he's forcing pitchers to do what they are uncomfortable
04:54with.
04:54I agree with you for sure on that.
04:57Now, let's get to what MLB.com has classified as the chaos factor.
05:05Okay.
05:06What do you think is the most chaotic division in baseball right now?
05:11And you can define that however you want because it can be everyone's great, everyone's terrible, this one team is
05:19in the mix to win the title that I did not think they could.
05:22What would you say is the most chaotic division in baseball right now?
05:25I mean, I think it's the NL Central.
05:27That's what I think, too.
05:28Just because the Pirates are third.
05:31Hell yeah!
05:32What an outing Skeen's had the other night, by the way.
05:35You know, he's still kind of chasing that complete game situation, and that's funny.
05:41His career ERA is 2.01.
05:43Is that good?
05:44I mean, that's incredible.
05:46Yeah, I think it is the most chaotic because everybody's so good and you don't know which one's going to
05:53come out of that thing alive.
05:55All right, so I will see your NL Central, and I will do the exact opposite and say, what about
06:04the AL West?
06:05So if the NL Central is a race to the top and everybody is above 500, keep in mind, the
06:12leading team in the AL West would be sixth in the NL Central.
06:17That is a real statistic.
06:18How many teams are in the NL Central?
06:19There's five.
06:20Okay.
06:20So you'd have to add them to be the new worst team.
06:23So you'd be eighth?
06:25The Rangers would be eighth in the NL Central?
06:27That is correct.
06:28They would be eighth, and they would already be eight and a half games out of first place.
06:33Instead, they're two.
06:35So that's good, I suppose.
06:37But what do you think about the AL West for chaos factor?
06:41Because it is similar to the NL Central just in terms of except good, bad.
06:45Yeah, and I'm looking at the run differentials for all the teams in the AL West.
06:50They're not good.
06:50The leader in the AL West is the Athletics minus 10.
06:55The Mariners are the only one with a plus run differential at plus four.
06:59I can't imagine that's high.
07:00Okay, well there you go.
07:02The Astros are at minus 37.
07:05So yes, bad chaos is what I would say is you have not a single person right now.
07:11I promise you, not a single person can confidently guarantee that they know the division winner out of this.
07:20I agree.
07:20You know what's weird about baseball?
07:22Did you know the Reds are a minus 30 and they're above 500?
07:25Yeah, they started off pretty hot and then they kind of fell off.
07:28So yeah, that's a weird thing for them.
07:30Somebody suggested from the 214.
07:33They lost their last seven.
07:35Ooh, really?
07:37Yeah.
07:37Which will drop you down to last place in that division, but still be above 500.
07:44So somebody suggested the NL West because the Padres are giving the Dodgers a run for their money.
07:51Now, this is every year.
07:52I like, man.
07:54I've already explained this to y'all.
07:54Those two teams are a combined 45 and 29, and outside the AL East, they have the best top two
08:01combination in all of baseball.
08:05So good for the Padres, which will lead to their inevitable postseason downfall anyway.
08:09Go ahead and look it up.
08:11What's the different run differential for those two teams?
08:14What's the Padres real quick?
08:16Let's see.
08:17Ooh.
08:18Plus six.
08:20Yeah.
08:20But what's the Dodgers?
08:22Holy crap.
08:23Plus 77.
08:24So you can say they're giving them a run for their money by keeping up in record, but the Dodgers
08:29are just like...
08:29And they are only a game behind.
08:30That is super weird.
08:31The Dodgers are a team that's just like, yeah, we'll turn it on whenever it's time.
08:35Like, that's what they are built for at some point.
08:38You play as hard as you can.
08:40I'll play as hard as I have to.
08:41And that's the Dodgers and the Padres' history right now.
08:44That is very interesting.
08:45All right.
08:46Who wants a mock draft for baseball?
08:51He sounds very, like, concerned about it that we might want a mock draft, doesn't he?
08:57You sound concerned that somebody...
08:59Hold on.
09:00Are you baiting me?
09:00Is it too early for mock draft season for you, Kevin?
09:03So, I just want to get out ahead of this.
09:06Oh, okay.
09:07And I'm going to give you the mock draft.
09:08But I also want to point out, people who text in and ask why we don't cover the mock drafts
09:14and stuff for baseball the same way as we do football,
09:17we've explained that that's a ridiculous comparison.
09:21And, you know...
09:22I think you've said that.
09:23Okay.
09:24I love mock drafts.
09:25Because all these players are going to make an impact in the first game of the next season.
09:31The number one pick, Grady Emerson.
09:33You won't see him for four years.
09:35And he plays in the Metroplex!
09:38Because of control.
09:39Also because he's in high school.
09:41So, that's probably it.
09:43All right.
09:44Now, I want to give you two players to keep an eye out on.
09:49Both of them have awesome names.
09:51You told us about Connor Griffin.
09:53That's true.
09:54Justin LeBron and Cameron Flukie.
09:57Those are the two...
09:59Justin LeBron?
10:00Yes.
10:01Okay.
10:02And Cameron Flukie.
10:04So, Justin LeBron is from Alabama.
10:09So, he is obviously a college player.
10:11Same thing with Cameron Flukie.
10:13He plays at Coastal Carolina.
10:16So, LeBron is a shortstop.
10:19Flukie is a...
10:20That's going to sound weird.
10:21I'm going to have to say Justin is a shortstop, right?
10:24Because or else people tune in and be like...
10:25Justin LeBron.
10:26Yeah.
10:26What the hell are you saying?
10:27And then Flukie is a right-handed pitcher.
10:31So, the thought was, going into this, that Flukie was going to be a top three starter in the class.
10:37And he had a non-arm injury.
10:40He got a stress fracture in his rib.
10:42So, like, yeah.
10:46But that's kind of dropped him down the board.
10:48That's kind of fluky.
10:49So, yes.
10:51And so, there is a possibility that they would go for him.
10:56Or you can go with somebody like Justin LeBron who...
11:00Well, there are a couple of flags on the scouting report.
11:03But, if you just look at Upside, he's got almost as much of it as anybody else in this class.
11:10I mean, just...
11:11I've seen...
11:12I've actually seen him play.
11:13He's a lot of fun to watch play, Kevin.
11:15I have seen him.
11:16And build-wise, you're just like, oh, that kid's going to grow into an MLB body.
11:20Right.
11:20Yeah, for sure.
11:21Right.
11:22And, no.
11:23From the 716, sounds like you're crushing Emerson's dreams.
11:26No.
11:27I just said he would be the number one pick.
11:29So, that would be amazing.
11:31Chill out.
11:32He goes to Fort Worth Christian.
11:33Everybody gets...
11:34This is where...
11:34People get really worked up over MLB mock drafts, dude.
11:37We've always known that.
11:38Do they?
11:40Man.
11:41Let's...
11:42We'll see.
11:42We'll see if Daniel Jeremiah wants to navigate into...
11:45I think he avoids it because he understands how hot it can be.
11:48Or he'll call in and be like, I heard your crap about LeBron.
11:52That's not happening.
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