00:00Harold Reynolds joins us. MLB Network analyst. I told you about him as a player. You know him.
00:04He's on the Wise Heart Right. We Make It Right call Kyle Wright hotline.
00:07Harold, you have been, I think it sounded in the past as if you've been a doubter about the
00:14Guardians before. Are you a doubter this year or is the wide open American League makes you believe
00:19that, hey, basically anybody can do it? Where do you come out on it?
00:23It's definitely wide open. I think the Guardians are playing the best ball right now.
00:28And I said this about two weeks ago. I was worried about the White Sox because they're
00:32such a young team. And just finishing a season is tough to do. So I think the Guardians are
00:40going to win the Central. I thought Kansas City was the best team that probably, if I look
00:46back at the American League, Kansas City and Seattle are the most disappointing teams because
00:51of the talent that they both assembled and did not perform to. So no, but I think what
00:57the Guardians are doing right now is fantastic. And if they were able to survive that period
01:03where Jose was hurt and Jose still hasn't figured out his stroke yet, his hand's starting
01:08to get stronger. You're starting to see the better swings. Even yesterday, he had a big
01:13double. I think the Guardians got the upper hand right now.
01:18So Harold, we get excited for these stretch runs. Last year, they came back from 15 and a
01:23half down. Now they're starting to show some magic with Rokio and his four walk-offs all
01:27in the division. Stuff is starting to kind of fall into place. We know about their pitching.
01:33But offensively, like their lineup, I mean, it is bottom five in a bunch of statistical categories.
01:39And in the past, that's kind of where we've fallen short in the postseason. But do you have
01:43reason to believe it could be a little different this year?
01:46I think everybody's playing a little different game. The game is flipping over. It's not just
01:51power, power, power. And if you look at the Guardians, they remind me a lot of the Rays,
01:56how they play. You're going to move runners. You're going to bunt. You're going to put the
02:00ball in play. That style seems to be working right now. And I think there's more teams starting
02:07to flip over to that. So I'm not getting caught up as much in the power statistics like a lot
02:15of
02:15other people are. I think the style of play gives them a chance to win. Milwaukee, doing the same
02:21thing. Clearly, playoff baseball, you want to have that three-run home run. But if you can continue
02:28to pitch and catch the ball, which all the teams I just mentioned do, you got a shot.
02:35Harold Reynolds joining us on the show. What have you thought of the job that Stephen Bode has done
02:38here, not just this year, but over the last three seasons?
02:42Well, he's won two Manager of the Year awards in a row. I think this is his best year. So
02:49he's
02:49going to win it again for me. He's amazing. I've known Stephen for a long time. Just great quality
02:56human. But I know we're talking about just managing a team. I think the one magical thing,
03:02if you want to look at that, I heard you guys use that word a little earlier, is his ability
03:06to run a bullpen. They figured it out with the pitching. And he keeps them in games. He figures
03:13out what guys fit best. And he's just got a positive outlook. He is steady Eddie. Look,
03:20the Guardians were not supposed to be where they're at right now. Their season was wiped away early
03:24in the year. I thought when Jose went down, there wasn't going to be enough offense. They
03:29continued to struggle through. And he just stayed steady Eddie, man. Just steady at it. The players
03:35got better. The pitching got better. And here we are in the middle of October and they're sitting
03:40in first place. And I think a lot of that has to do with Stephen.
03:43Why is this year the best? I know you kind of just went over it, but my God, I can't
03:47believe that this
03:47year would be his best coaching job considering everything that's happened over the last couple
03:51of years. I mean, they were in the ALCS a couple of years ago.
03:55Yeah, I think it's the best because the player, the roster is not where it was a couple of years
04:00ago. I think the move with Joe Adele has been huge. I look at the young pitching. I mean,
04:07in years past, you always had that veteran signature guy, whether it was Bieber or whoever,
04:12they could kind of lean on. You haven't had that. He kind of had to figure that out along the
04:17way.
04:17And then the bullpen. I mean, just, just, I think this is the best deal when I look at it.
04:25No, no, that's kind of my, my take. I'd have to sit and really dissect it, but
04:31watching how the seasons unfolded, I think really tells me, but every year they've had Jose in the
04:36middle. And to me, I'm the biggest Jose Ramirez fan. There is, I think he's one of the best top
04:41five players in baseball. And when he went down, I thought that really hurt the club.
04:46He's just a guy that makes everybody around him better. And the amazing thing about Jose is
04:54there's never been a club. Like you look at the Yankees and you've got a Bellinger and you have
04:58a judge and they go get different players around their star player. Um, that hasn't really happened
05:03in Cleveland where you've just loaded up players around Jose to help him get pitches to hit.
05:09And he's always performed. I thought this year, the Joe Adele move was huge. Uh, but you've watched
05:16even younger guys come up, Bazzana doing what he's doing, but they're not supposed to protect Jose.
05:21I don't pitch to Jose. I pitch to those guys. Uh, so I think just in the way they put
05:27together,
05:27this club, um, has really made a big difference.
05:31Hey, Harold Reynolds, breaking it down as we get down to the stretch run of the baseball season.
05:36So more on Jose, not to get too technical, but that left hammock injury, you know, it's really
05:40not going to get worse now this year. And he's obviously playing through it. And you could argue
05:45maybe even came back a little too soon, but he's looking more and more comfortable. The right side
05:50of the plate, which is kind of counterintuitive considering it's that left hand you'd think for
05:55stability, he would need it, you know, as, as someone who might understand this a little bit
05:59better, what would you do in terms of somebody who's a switch hitter, but, but focusing maybe
06:05on one side down the stretch, or do you'd let Jose be Jose?
06:09No, he's gotta be Jose. Um, I know people always go, well, you know what? He's a switcher.
06:15Just do him on one side. I switched. I just couldn't do that. It's just hard to do. I know
06:20Carlos Baerga years ago with every now and then hit left-handed off a lefty.
06:25But he was a natural left-handed hitter. Most switch hitters are natural right. And then
06:31they get to the left side. Um, I find it interesting talking about the left hand, because if he's
06:37hitting left-handed, you want to use that right hand, bottom hand dominant. So you would think
06:42he'd be able to come through that a little bit better. It is a little shocking that right
06:46handed, he's able to swing the bat a little bit better right handed, knowing that that bottom
06:50hand is what pulls the bat through and that's his injured hand. But, um,
06:55no, he's gotta be Jose. It's hard to do that at the major league level to all of a sudden
07:00just say, I'll hit from one side of the plate. But people are fast to do that with switch
07:04hitters. I get it. They wanted Ellie Dela Cruz to quit hitting right-handed two years ago.
07:09Now he's hitting 450 right-handed and, uh, tearing the league up. So I think you just gotta let
07:15guys be who they are. It's really kind of two mindsets. And sometimes when you struggle
07:21on one side of the plate, it's a little easier to pull yourself out of it. When you know, I
07:26can just go to the other side, I'm going to get today and I'll get rolling. But I think
07:31Jose's gone through the toughest stretch now. I think for him, um, we'll start to see, you're
07:37seeing better swings. He's starting to drive the ball a little bit better. And really, honestly,
07:42I'm looking at Jose that happened to, um, I'm looking at Corbin Carroll who had the hammock
07:48bone around the same time. He's now starting to hit big home runs for Arizona. So it takes
07:53a couple months and these guys are really starting to fall into shape now. So I think no need
07:58to panic. I think his best days are really from here through the post season. I know he
08:03can't like re-break it cause it's a weird bone or whatever it is. And they just remove
08:09it. How much pain is he playing through every day though?
08:14I can't even imagine. Uh, just swinging a bat when your hand or wrist is sore is painful.
08:21And I can't even imagine coming back with a broken bone. And you did say one thing earlier.
08:26I think he came back early as well, but that's him sacrificing himself to play for the team.
08:32Um, I, it's a lot of pain and he's going through it every day. And so I don't know how
08:40he's getting
08:40through it, but, um, I'm sure he sees a finish line and he knows he's going to have a chance
08:45to ref in, uh, in November.
08:48All right. This pitching staff, you referenced earlier. It's what obviously is going to need
08:52to help carry this baseball team to make not only the run, but into the post season.
08:57Uh, how do you feel about Gavin Williams, Parker Messick, Bybee? And obviously they made, uh,
09:03the, the trade, the acquisition at the trade deadline for somebody who was an all-star earlier
09:07this year. Yeah. I think the main thing though, believe it or not, you mentioned all four of
09:13those guys are going about pretty good right now. Um, they're going to have their up and downs
09:17because of the fatigue and everything else. But the difference for me is the bullpen.
09:22The bullpen really matched up and they've been throwing well. Uh, hopefully your starters
09:28can get you a little more in the next two weeks, uh, deeper in the game to allow that
09:33bullpen to have a little bit of a rest. But for the most part, um, that's really been
09:38the saving grace is, is going to that pan.
09:41Harold Reynolds joining us on the show. Is it still a Dodgers and everybody else type of
09:46race or is there, is there anybody else that you think can really make a run at it?
09:52I kind of think it's a wide open field. It's starting to shape a little bit. The Dodgers
09:56are getting better. The Yankees are getting healthy. I think judge changes everything for
10:00the Yankees. Uh, plus their pitching is, is starting to get in shape. So I would think
10:06those two of the front runners going in, not just by name or cache. I think they're starting
10:12to really start to play good baseball, but they show vulnerability all year. They are teams
10:18that can get beat. That's why the conversation is so wide open and the American league. I've
10:23never seen it. The American league West is the worst I've seen it in years. And you're
10:28going to have an under 500 team or maybe at 500 that ends up winning the division. And
10:34you mean, you may end up, uh, the wild card is still wide open. We got a bunch of teams
10:39knocking at the door as well in the national league. Same thing. So yeah, I still put Yankees
10:44in, and believe it or not, the Dodgers, even though the Yankees are second place in the
10:49East, I still think they're the team to beat in the American league.
10:52Travis Bazzana got called up earlier this year. Number one overall pick. He went through
10:57a swoon coming back out on top. It seems that he's got it back together through his rookie
11:01season. We've seen a lot of guys get called up earlier. Now, a lot of young guys who might
11:06might've made a name for themselves in college just a year later, they're up in the bigs.
11:10What's the good and bad of calling guys up so early?
11:16Well, the game is so much younger. So I think if the good is there's a lot of young players,
11:23so it's not overwhelming. Uh, if you look at the sport, the veteran guy will hear about
11:29a Scherzer or on Verlander or different guys like that, that are in their forties, but it's
11:35rare now. Like when I was playing in the big leagues, guys were playing until their mid
11:40thirties. And when you got called up, it was like, wow, I watched this guy when I was
11:44a kid, you know, now it's guys getting called up and saying, Oh, I played against him and
11:49travel ball. And that's kind of where we're at. So it's your young players are better than
11:54my young players. So I think that's why we're seeing so many younger guys be able to come
11:58up and really impact the sport because it's not really that big of a divide with veteran
12:03players anymore. So that's the good. The bad is obviously, you know, you struggle. It's
12:09a learning curve. Your, your pitch more precise. They're able to dissect better. Um, guys are
12:17playing multiple positions. I think it's hard to really break in when you don't have a steady
12:22role and you're learning all that. And then the last thing, what I think happened to the
12:27White Sox is when you play 162 games and you're a younger player, you have to figure out how
12:34do I get through the dog days of summer? And they really are the dog days when you hit
12:39August, September, you know, because the two things I learned, I'll stop and let you redirect
12:45here. But two things when I learned as a young player, one was I didn't feel like eating in
12:50the summer because it's hot, you play, but you got to continue to eat to keep your energy
12:55up. So you learn that. And the last thing was the season's so long, you just start getting
13:02fatigued. So do I use a lighter bat? Do I make adjustments? Do I not take batting practice
13:07today? All those things came as I got experienced in playing. After my first full season in the
13:13big leagues, I was so tired. I went home. I thought I had mono. I was dead for about two
13:20weeks. And then I started figuring out as I got older, how to get through the season.
13:26So I think that's what's happening with the White Sox. I got so many young players and they're just
13:30running out of gas. I'm watching Colson Montgomery. I'm watching Brad Montgomery. I'm watching the
13:35whole team. They just allowed everybody to come back to the pack. And I think all those things
13:40factor in. And there's a big difference. Learn how to get to a full year.
13:45Watch this guy on MLB Network. You've seen him for years. Harold Reynolds on the Wiseheart
13:50Wright. We make it right. Call Kyle Wright hotline. Harold, thank you so much for the time. All the
13:54best to you and yours. Okay, guys. Appreciate it. Hope the Guardians get on through this. I love
13:59watching that team play. They're fun to watch. Appreciate you. Thank you very much. Harold Reynolds.
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