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SportsTranscript
00:00Witt hammers it down the left field line headed for the Royals Hall of Fame and gone!
00:06A go-ahead Bobby Blast!
00:13What was so cool only lasted for so little as Bobby Witt Jr. hit the go-ahead home run in
00:19the
00:19bottom of the eighth yesterday a towering shot I think 420 plus feet to left field.
00:24Crowd was electric yesterday obviously the Yankees are in town the holiday being yesterday
00:29and what we thought was going to be a highlight to a game one of a three-game series against
00:36the Yankees was not as the Royals would end up losing it in the ninth as in typical when
00:43you're down you're down sort of fashion a broken bat bloop or whatever it was over Bobby Witt's
00:47head and then a line drive down the right field side that Jazz Chisholm knocks in the run then
00:51they score again get the odd at second the Royals end up losing four to three they're now 22 and
00:5633 nine games out of first place in their division four games in the wild card so there is like
01:01a
01:01smidge ray of hope that you can have a not so good numbered win season but somehow limp in so
01:08four
01:08games you don't want to get any further than that obviously almost at the June 1st cutoff line for a
01:12lot Vernal join us in about two hours from now but what I thought about this week end I guess
01:20I should
01:21say because they won the series against Seattle that was nice two out of three you took five out of
01:25six
01:25from the Mariners I don't know what they are that division's kind of BBL stinky as well
01:29uh the A's lead that division I don't know if they're above 500 yet or not they were 500 winning
01:34that division now it's weird um that's why the American League is kind of weird that's why there
01:38is I know there's a lot of people out there that will hate this to think that there's still a
01:41hope
01:41that you can make the playoffs you may not win your division but with that wild card being four games
01:45out and you're 11 games under 500 that's still something that's bizarre to me but what it made me think
01:50of this weekend is that we're gonna have possibly another 2009 royal season again yeah there's a
01:57good chance of that yeah and I remember 2009 like it was yesterday because I went to every game that
02:02Zach Greenkey pitched at Coffman Stadium because he was on route to win the Cy Young Award with a
02:07216 ERA had one of the greatest pitching performance seasons I've ever seen had a horrible record because
02:11the team could win right the team was 65 and 97 that year GM was Dayton Moore your farm director
02:18is your
02:18general manager now which was JJ Bacolo at the time um in fact if you want to know some of
02:23the
02:23names that were on that list Miguel Olivo was your uh catcher Billy Butler was your batting average
02:28champion at 301 um at first base Alberto Ciaspo oh he was around forever that guy and he uh he
02:35hit 300
02:36that year Alex Gordon would be plagued I believe with injuries that year he only had 49 games that he
02:40played that year so I believe the injury was an issue for Gordon that year um but Zach Greenkey obviously
02:45had
02:45the year that was the Cy Young year in 09 um his war was 10.4 that led baseball uh
02:52his ERA was 216 that
02:54led baseball he threw 229 innings he gave up 195 hits um which is amazing that year right his whip
03:02was
03:02just slightly over one it was 1.073 and that year they didn't play for anything but I remember that
03:10that was must see TV every night Greenkey pitched or if he was in Kansas City the crowd would have
03:15a
03:15spike in sales 25,000 people would just go watch Greenkey pitch because he was doing something that
03:20they hadn't seen in a long time and that's one of Cy Young for the Kansas City Royals I feel
03:24like we're
03:25having a mirror image of that year with Bobby Wood Jr because it seems guys that Bobby Wood Jr almost
03:30every game does something right whether it's a defensive play whether it's three for four with a
03:35double a single and a home run or whether it's a home run like yesterday in the bottom of the
03:40eighth
03:40inning to give your team that spark against the pinstripes where you're like all right here we go
03:44and unfortunately now I think that with this season the way that it's been played out you're kind of
03:49seeing a similarity even though it's not a pitcher it's a batter but it's like well I'm gonna watch and
03:53see what Bobby does I'm gonna watch and see what Greenkey does and Bobby Wood Jr leads all of baseball
03:57with a 3.4 war it was a week ago he was at 2.2 or 2.4 and then
04:05it was 2.8 now he leads baseball
04:07on 3.4 with war he has 63 hits that leads the American League he's hitting a cool 294 slugging
04:13a 481 and OPS of 841 those my friends are MVP numbers Bobby Wood Jr is en route to win
04:20an MVP
04:21and I feel like that's what this season is going to boil down to is that can Bobby Wood Jr
04:27win any
04:28win the MVP now we can have the discussion about how Joe Burrow couldn't have won the MVP in the
04:34NFL
04:34because his team didn't win their division and they weren't a playoff team how can you be a valuable
04:37player to that obviously he's at Greenkey one Cy Young with a team that won 65 games I think
04:42baseball is different right when you have the statistics that really drive the sport unlike
04:46football where a lot of quarterback numbers are based on wins and results whereas MVP can be based
04:51on solely numbers I don't really understand how Aaron Judge is still the favorite I mean we can talk
04:56Aaron Judge if you want but I mean his war is 2.2 the only stat he leads in in
05:02his AL division
05:04is runs scored at 41 he's hitting 250 he does have 17 home runs that's normal but the reason the
05:10Yankees are good is their pitching staff is just insane right now they're outstanding and they just
05:15got Garrett Cole back and they get Schlittler tonight that's right so be careful how you pronounce
05:20that name he's pretty damn good that Cam Schlittler and he's the Cy Young favorite right now Aaron
05:28Judge currently the favorite for MVP at minus 135 Bobby Witt Jr. at plus 350 that number is shrinking
05:37as the season goes on your other guys that are in the category are Jordan Alvarez at plus 650 and
05:43then
05:43Nick Kurtz for the A's at plus a thousand but what Bobby's doing should be watched and I feel like
05:50right
05:50now if you pulled a hundred Royals fans and said what's keeping you and entertained with this sport
05:56I believe the majority of people would say watching Bobby Witt Jr. do something that we haven't seen in
06:01quite a while and that is I don't know the last time we've seen a Royals player outside of Zach
06:05Grinke who has been individually the best player in baseball for a team that is not playing the
06:11baseball they should be playing and so I think that what Bobby Witt Jr. is doing is what we saw
06:15Zach
06:15Grinke do in 2009 what what other I hope with a different ending but what else and we'll get to
06:20that in a
06:20second but what else would people say they're watching the Royals for at this point if it's not Bobby
06:24Witt Jr. because they're not giving us anything other than Bobby Witt Jr. and Bobby is I mean it's just
06:29on another level watching the ESPN broadcast yesterday and hearing them just talk so glowingly
06:34about how great Bobby Witt Jr. is you hope the organization wakes up and tries to get him some support
06:39and some players around him so we don't end up with him pulling a Zach Grinke and saying I want
06:44to be
06:44traded in and ultimately the Zach Grinke move was beneficial obviously for the franchise and the only
06:50way that they could grow and get better as an organization was to use Zach Grinke as collateral
06:55and get players back in return and then they set up their entire world championship team I don't want
07:00to see it have to go that route here with Bobby Witt Jr. I want to see the Royals surround
07:03this guy
07:04with players and coaches that are on you know you're never going to be on Bobby Witt's level right
07:08that's hard to do like surround people that are on Bobby's level give me some people that are
07:12marginally close to where Bobby Witt Jr. is right let him see a lineup where he thinks oh we've got
07:17an
07:17opportunity to win or as of yesterday I mean like like Bobby Witt Jr. did everything he could in
07:22the manager cost of that game yesterday I mean that was a that was a brutal brutal brutal uh display
07:27of managing I thought yesterday late in that ball game by by Mac Wittreira like Bobby Witt Jr. is must
07:33see TV I mean the guy's amazing I mean he really is and I've watched a lot of baseball my
07:37whole life
07:38and the older you get the more hardened you get on things but this guy to me like we're watching
07:43the
07:44best quarterback I've ever seen play in Patrick Mahomes we're watching the best baseball player
07:48I think I've ever seen play in Bobby Witt Jr. right now not named Shohei Otani and he's in a
07:53different category you know all on his own and we we've got to do a better job of surrounding Bobby
07:59Witt Jr. because he's playing at a level that is insane it is obscene it is nuts it is crazy
08:05it's
08:05every single time he's up you're watching it reminds me of when I was in St. Louis when Albert Pujols
08:11would come to the plate I'd watch every single at bat no matter what I was doing and that's kind
08:16of where I feel like we are with Bobby Witt Jr. but the other eight guys in the lineup I
08:20don't
08:20really care to see I really don't and most of the pitching and the way that the game was managed
08:24yesterday it's it's all taking away from this amazing season that Bobby Witt Jr. is having and
08:31I'd love to see him get the MVP this year I just don't know if he's going to get enough
08:36votes
08:36if this team continues to play the baseball that we've seen for the first two plus months
08:41of this season which is just you know very below average baseball at this point in time so Bobby
08:47is just incredible guys I don't think there's enough superlatives any of us can say about how
08:52great Bobby Witt Jr. is and I think quite frankly when it's all said and done not just the best
08:57baseball
08:58player we've ever seen I think a lot of us will say that's the best athlete professional athlete
09:02that I've ever seen play he's he's quickly quickly getting into that category he's behind
09:07Patrick Mahomes at this point in time but by God man Bobby Witt is flying up the charts of athletes
09:12that I've seen play where I just go this is this is something something special man this guy's awesome
09:17yeah he just gives you a lot of like to give it a cross-board comparison gives you a lot
09:20of like
09:21Christian McCaffrey vibes like he just can do it all and at an elite level like McCaffrey could go out
09:26there and run the ball five times but have 10 catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns in the next
09:30week
09:31he could have five catches for 40 yards but then have 13 carries for 110 and the speed and the
09:36athleticism and the just the awareness of like everything that's going on and not only that but
09:42with Bobby Witt Jr. we're also seeing with the lack of runs and the lack of hitting the wasted
09:49opportunities that this pitching staff is giving the Royals this comes from the guy's voice you just
09:53heard Jay Geisenberg via Twitter the Royals rotation has delivered eight consecutive quality starts over the
09:58last nine games that excludes Tuesday's bullpen game though falter Avila and Schreiber did complete
10:04for uh the de facto with was six innings and two earned runs which is your obviously your quality start
10:11measurement uh the rotations last eight starts they've gone a 209 ERA 51 and two-thirds innings
10:17pitch only 12 earned runs and and they've won like twice I mean that's crazy right and you see what
10:23happened yesterday and I am kind of confused on the I guess the analytics of baseball when it comes to
10:29does Chisholm get a double if Cags has his arm in right field um yes you want to see your
10:36closer be
10:37like give me the ball as much as possible because I don't know which side of the coin you're on
10:40where
10:41Lucas Ersig obviously went in there on that Sunday or not was it Sunday's game against the Mariners where
10:46he had thrown like 35 pitches and it was kind of a struggle to get out of that game but
10:50he still got out
10:50of it and then it was like the very next day he got the ball again yeah I don't know
10:54if it's just
10:55hindsight that gets people mad to be like why'd you put put Ersig out there because I've heard the
10:59argument before like let your closer pitch he hadn't pitched in a while let him keep going out there if
11:03he wants the ball give him the ball the adrenaline you know what Ersig said I effing love this blank
11:07right like that's you but what he did on Sunday those were hard pitches right those were taxing
11:12pitches there's a difference between going out there and having taxing pitches versus non-taxing pitches
11:18and what he did on Sunday they almost blew that game we're sitting in the pool on Sunday watching
11:23that game and all of a sudden you're like wait a second this was like an 8-3 ball game
11:26now all of a
11:27sudden it's 8-6 Ersig's pitching close to 40 pitches those were high leverage pitches that he had to make
11:33because he had to find himself out of all of that trouble on Sunday and then and we'll get more
11:38into
11:38it and I'll break it down coming up in our next segment a little bit more but I mean to
11:42take it to take
11:43you know Lynch out of the game after just seven pitches and go back to a guy who was taxed
11:47the day before
11:48in the ninth inning I don't know how that makes any sense it just doesn't make any sense to me
11:54from where I sit especially with the lefties that were coming up and you've got Lynch
11:58who's a lefty savant out there on the mound and you got two of your first three guys in the
12:02ninth inning
12:02are left-handed batters and you're going with a guy who had high pressure taxed innings yesterday
12:06again that's managing with analytics that's not managing with feel you've got to have some sort of feel
12:11you saw your guy go through it on Sunday let's not put him back out there on Monday when we
12:16have
12:16a guy that's capable and Lynch of doing a lot of really good things and I and he was doing
12:20them
12:21eight pitches seven yeah seven max just seven pitches God forbid he goes back out there God
12:27forbid he sits back down and has to go back out there and pitch again in the in in the
12:33ninth inning
12:33when lefties are coming up right the command exactly lefties are on the way lefties are on the way
12:38God forbid he goes ahead and do something like that yeah so I mean it is what it is and
12:43that's
12:43ultimately why they ended up losing the game overthinking but I feel like like the war on
12:47analytics is hot and heavy right now in all sports man especially in baseball but the NBA as well I
12:53mean people are coming fast when it comes to the analytics stuff right now in the NBA because of a
12:58coach that's just a moron I mean it's just dumb again Bobby with junior plus 350 to win the MVP
13:04judge
13:05minus 135 that tends to be the race right now the Royals have now lost 12 in a row to
13:09the Yankees
13:10um so 2024 that game two ALDS that's that's the last one did you see but Vahe Gregorian's column today
13:19in the Kansas City Star it's actually one that I think a lot of people um need to read and
13:25it's it's
13:26going to hurt a lot of feelings I'm sure um but it's basically said 2024 is a mirage of what
13:32the Royals
13:33what we thought and and he's right about that 2024 was a mirage and we're seeing this ball club
13:39make hay beating the White Sox 22 times over those last two years and they've lost 20 of 21 regular
13:46season series against the Yankees 24 and 6 and 3 games or got blasted 24 to 6 and 3 games
13:52at Yankee
13:52Stadium earlier this season and it's a whole story about how 2024 we thought maybe that this team was
13:57getting up to that level of the Yankees but it really wasn't it ended up being a mirage that year
14:02and
14:03probably set this organization back because they held on to guys didn't make changes didn't make
14:08trades maybe you know winning got in the way a little bit as it should of you know things like
14:13that but I think we're starting to see now that this Royals team isn't anywhere near that team that
14:18we thought it was in 2024 and and we let some wins against the White Sox and a series against
14:23the
14:23Yankees in the playoffs kind of cloud the future and I think we're kind of paying for it right now
14:27at
14:27least they are paying for it right now what are you guys more over Vinny and Sal hitting three and
14:32four
14:32or Cole Reagans I'm more over Cole Reagans tough yeah I'm I'm more over Cole Reagans because I've
14:38seen Vinny and Sal do it right Sal Sal's had a hell of a career congratulations yesterday most home
14:43runs now with George at Kauffman Stadium he's getting closer and closer and closer to tying GB and
14:48passing him for the most home runs in franchise history I saw Vinny do it for two solid years right
14:54Cole Reagans has done it but Cole Reagans is always injured and again another injury setback
15:00with Cole Reagans and and those are the situations that drive me up a wall is like when we start
15:05Rishi Rice for example right we start pining for these guys that are on the injury list because
15:10we think they're going to add this spark in and they never get back to that level and I think
15:15we're at
15:16that point with Cole Reagans right now it was worth it to give him that contract extension but now we're
15:21at a point where we're seeing this and I've seen this a thousand times in my career oh it's just
15:25a
15:25little tweak to the elbow we're going to give him a couple of days ends up being years you know
15:30you
15:30never see that guy again and so I think right now from where I sit for my mental health anyway
15:35Cole Reagans I'm done I've moved on I have to move on from Cole Reagans I can't sit here and
15:40wonder if
15:40he's going to come back and how it's going to affect the team because there's a good chance guys by
15:44the
15:44time he gets back into this thing we are further out of this thing than they are right now I
15:48mean
15:48they're 10 games under 500 at this point in time and it's May 26th and so by the time Cole
15:54Reagans comes back it could be much worse and it could be a season where you don't even want
15:57to bring Cole Reagans back I think it's just to the point now where it just happens so much
16:03it's now a problem because health is your number one attribute when it comes to being in a season of
16:09baseball and it just hasn't been there for a full calendar year I know this offseason we did the
16:15Instagram video of you know would you rather have Reagans or Duran and I think it was pretty much
16:20almost unanimous that it was like let's keep Cole Reagans because you have left-handed arm he's
16:24your ace of your staff maybe last year you know we saw the way the last year ended he started
16:28you
16:29know showing that velocity back and then we hear in his rehab starting up to like 96 98 and then
16:34the next day it was like there's a setback and it's like I can only take so many setbacks before
16:40I have
16:40your back if that makes sense and like unless he can go out there and do it and prove it
16:45because
16:45the pitching staff doesn't need him right now right like I mean yeah you want your left-handed
16:49ace in there but right now the pitching staff has been great the problem is still the same problem
16:52it's been for the last two and a half years it can't score runs can't score and and and when
16:56you
16:56have an opportunity to trade from a strength and a surplus like they did with starting pitching this
17:00offseason and you choose not to do that well then here we sit I mean this is a bed that
17:05they made
17:05by themselves you had an opportunity to trade Cole Reagans or Noah Cameron or Chris Bubich you had an
17:11opportunity to move one of those three guys this offseason I know you did and you chose not to and
17:16you didn't upgrade a weakness on your team you stayed the same and and you didn't add any pieces
17:22Lane Thomas and that other guy they're not pieces that you added into the equation they're they're
17:27jags man they're just guys and that's not making your team better you replace the jag with a jag right
17:33that's just the way it goes and and the Royals didn't do anything to get better they stayed the same
17:38and and their biggest offseason move I think anyway was hope hope that it's going to turn around hope
17:44that we're going to be able to hit with runners in scoring position hope that we're going to be
17:47able to drive you know guys in with less than two outs hope that we're going to be able to
17:51get that
17:51guy in from third hope that we're going to be able to move runners over and their biggest addition
17:55was hope and it wasn't hope solo it was hoping one hand and dumping the other and see which one
17:59fills up fastest and that's what they're doing and that's why you know being a GM in any sport is
18:04very
18:04difficult and you have to make these moves that are going to piss the fans off in the offseason
18:09but are the right moves going forward and trading Cole Reagans or Chris Bubich or Noah Cameron this
18:15offseason would have been a tough and people would have been mad people would have been upset I would
18:19have supported the move because you needed a bat you needed an outfield help and the guys you do
18:24have in the outfield who's a regular everyday outfielder on this team right now I mean it should
18:29be cash well who it should be and who it is right dusty I would say yes those probably everyday
18:33he's getting close he's getting close to play but he's still not playing every day they don't have
18:38one outfielder that is an everyday outfielder on this roster at least that they're showing us
18:43is an everyday outfielder based on the way that they have put this lineup together so you had an
18:48opportunity to trade from a surplus and starting pitching to get something you legitimately do not
18:54have on this roster based on the way you do your lineups and you chose not to do that
18:58I don't understand how you could look at a surplus of starting pitching and go yeah you know what
19:03we're not going to give up any of these guys to get a starting outfielder and that's what the
19:08royals chose to do this season and and here we are it's like somebody tweeted yesterday it's like
19:12the definition of insanity the same thing over and over again expecting different results and
19:17that's what this royals offseason was they didn't do anything different they had an opportunity to get
19:22better and they chose not to be a better ball club that's their decision I know I don't know how
19:25to run
19:26a baseball team let alone even try to think about it but what I don't understand which I
19:30literally puzzles my brain every day is that this team is driven on analytics but yet the same two
19:35guys hit three and four that's right they don't move those guys so like you can't tell me that
19:40you're doing things analytically but yet the two guys that are barely hitting 200 continue to hit three
19:45and four and I know that they're the two most vocal people on your team Salvador Perez and Vinny
19:50Pasquantino said names that I'm talking about it's time for them to hit seventh and eighth if you are
19:5611 games under 500 let your future stars hit three and four or bench them or or bench them
20:03completely completely bench them I don't care I don't want to hear well who you're going to put
20:07in there that's the manager's job to figure that out right yeah and to answer your question that's
20:10what I'm more over like the Reagans thing I can least look at and be like okay well like it
20:14sucks
20:14it's unfortunate it's bad luck and all of us sat here like you said Dusty and said like no
20:18Reagans he's the ace keep him 28 years old lefty all those things and like it didn't work out it
20:23sucks it's sports like with this I'm watching it now for 50 games to your point not work I'm seeing
20:28it change something I mean at least Salvi yesterday had himself a decent enough day without him in the
20:33lineup they don't score any runs except for the Bobby home run late in that situation but but Vinny
20:39Vinny's like he and and I don't mean this in a negative way like he's showing up to the party
20:43late
20:43with a bag of melted ice like it's it's like come on man you got to bring more to the
20:47party
20:48than the melted ice at 10 o'clock you know yeah it's cold water it'll be nice for some of
20:52the beers
20:53later or something whatever but like he's got to come to the party with more he's got to be delivering
20:58more and you know yesterday you you had an opportunity to to see your young guy deliver more in a
21:04late
21:05game situation and you took him out of the lineup for a guy to roll over to shortstop again and
21:10so
21:10I'm with Dusty a thousand percent on this one you sit here and you preach the analytics but you're
21:15doing it half-assed and and that's the biggest problem in all of this it's like they're dipping
21:20their toe half-assedly into analytics and it applies to some people but not to others imagine
21:25going into your place of business every day and every single person had different rules you didn't
21:29know what what the expectation was you didn't know what the situation was going to be how it was going
21:34to present itself and you really didn't know what you were supposed to do because you look around
21:38this lineup and Kyle Isbell's going I'm going two for four every day and I'm getting benched these guys
21:42are going oh for seven with the six strikeouts and they're still hitting three and four like
21:46what kind of message is now being sent inside that organization and and that's why when when you say
21:51this stuff out loud none of it really makes much sense as to what they're doing and that's why we
21:56find them 10 games under 500 and you know nine or 10 games back in the standings at this point
22:01in time
22:02because they don't know what's going on um to give you some sort of fun light on the end of
22:08that
22:08conversation the knicks made the finals before fernando tatis jr hit a home run holy cow so there's
22:14that come up next
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