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Jim Duquette explains why Guardians have gained advantage over Rays in ALCS, road to World Series
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00:00The Guardians play tonight at 8 o'clock and Jim Duquette and MLB Network Radio have an on-site
00:06pre- and post-game coverage throughout the ALCS and will be live from Progressive Field today
00:11at 5 p.m. on Sirius XM Channel 89 and we bring in Jim Duquette on the Wise Heart Right.
00:18We make
00:19it right. Call Kyle Wright Hotline. Jim, good morning and thank you for your time. How are
00:24you today? Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for having me. We were on the field there last night
00:29with our umbrellas.
00:32So we started off the show today, Jim, you know, talking about Major League Baseball's
00:37decision to, one, start the game, you end up delaying the game, ultimately postponing where
00:45on the east side of Cleveland, shortly after postponement, there was about a two and a half,
00:50three hour window where there was no rain. What was your thoughts on Major League Baseball's
00:56decision and just how everything played out yesterday?
00:59I was not a fan of how they handled it. I think most of the people that were there,
01:04you know, behind the scenes felt the same way. I mean, it's a tough situation because,
01:09you know, obviously the fans are there early, right? As soon as the gates are open, they're
01:14there. Most of them were there, I don't know, 5, 5, 30. They were in the area before that.
01:19So, you know, and I felt like the Guardians fans got cheated the other day, too. Not much you
01:24could do about it, weather-related, but moving the game from six to one. I mean, that's just
01:28awful, too. So I feel like the people that have been impacted the most in a negative way
01:33have been the Guardians fans. And they showed up for game three. It was awesome. And they
01:38were there last night, too. The thing that ticks me off, to be fair, is, and this is, you
01:44know, from my executive days, too. I can't remember a game ever being called because the warning
01:50track was in poor condition. And that's really what it looked like last night was there was so
01:57much standing water on the warning tracks that it made it unsafe. And so, you know, MLB is going
02:04to take a hit, there's no doubt. But, you know, the warning track, I know, has changed in the
02:08composition there at Progressive Field. So it's a little different. It's become compacted, and the
02:15water has nowhere to go. But there's nobody there trying to, you know, they started trying to push it
02:20off. But I felt like it was for them a really kind of tough position for the grounds crew to
02:26be in
02:26because the water just, I mean, it just kept dominant. It just, it didn't stop for such a long
02:30time that the water, being able to try to push it off there was really hard for them. So I
02:35understand
02:36now, looking at it from my executive's eyes, why they had to do it. But I felt like this was
02:43a
02:43combination of MLB kind of really needing to make the decision ahead of time. Like we knew,
02:50we all knew it was going to be this way from eight o'clock. If you said show up there
02:54at the
02:55ballpark, then wait it out until there's the window. And like you said, as we were leaving,
02:59at what time we left, at 930, quarter 10, it basically stopped. It's like, we'll play the game
03:04then. You know, it was one of those frustrating moments for sure.
03:07Yeah. I think that was the complaint that we heard certainly from guardians fans this morning
03:11already this today, Jim. I want to talk about like last night is what it was, not the decision
03:19anybody wanted to see made, but how does this impact or maybe even like favor one team or the
03:26other in terms of not having a game last night and then what it means for how the pitching matchups
03:32maybe lay out moving forward and also the bullpen situations? Because now you go from having that
03:37day off on, on Sunday to having a day off yesterday and you're going to play four straight days now.
03:43And that's going to certainly put some stress on the man at both these managers to sort of figure
03:47out how they're going to navigate things. Yeah. It's a fascinating, fascinating, you know,
03:53part of the theories now that you weren't expecting is off days are really important in the postseason
03:58so that you're, you know, primarily your main starter, uh, main, main bullpen guys, uh, get
04:04at least a day of rest. Like, as you guys know, guardians, the main guys like Smith, Gattis, uh,
04:11uh, Sebrowski. I mean, those guys are pitching every single game almost. And, and one, at one point
04:16until game two, um, Gattis and Smith had pitched in every game from going from all the way back to
04:22the
04:22DS. So that is a huge factor in the postseason is do you, you know, the dominating arms in the
04:27bullpen,
04:28if you're able to get some rest, um, then, then it really helps. And this, you know, is a situation
04:34now where it evens the playing field a little bit, but I also feel, you know, the other side of
04:40that
04:40for me, I think the guardians have a more of a, an advantage because they're going to be playing
04:45four in a row in the sense that they have, I, I like their pitching depth better than Tampa's.
04:51You know, I think that Tampa's had a good season pitching wise. Um, the, both of the bullpens have
04:57been good starting rotations on both sides are good, but the, the bullpen for the raise does
05:02not have quite the swing and miss the strikeouts and all that, that, that, um, that Cleveland has
05:09and over, uh, you know, the more you see a bullpen like that, the easier it is for the offense
05:15to
05:15make adjustments and actually score some, some runs, which has been hard, as you guys know,
05:19you know, runs are, are, are, are hard to come by so far in the series. So I, my personal
05:25feeling
05:25and watching these teams now over the course of the year. And then here in the last two series,
05:30I think that there'll be a little bit more of an edge towards the guardians because of their
05:34pitching depth. Jim, I will be doing myself, Spencer, the city of Cleveland and guardians
05:39fans everywhere this service. If I did not ask you, uh, your opinion of this amazing, crazy run
05:48Jose Ramirez has been on, uh, throughout the playoffs outside of one or two games, you know,
05:54I was somebody a couple of weeks ago who called him out, Jose, you're great, but in October,
05:59you have not been so great and we need our best player to step out and these biggest moments and
06:05perform. And what an October he's having, despite having the worst regular season of his major league
06:11career. I have been impressed. I saw we, we, you know, uh, during the post season, we play,
06:18we pick a player to watch every game. And Jose was my first, uh, the guy was my pick the
06:23first
06:23two games of the series of Cleveland and the white sacks. And, you know, his struggles had
06:27continued there, uh, as well as during the regular season. I said, I said on the air, I give up,
06:32I'm not picking them anymore. If he gives you something great, but guardians are going to have
06:37to win it without him. And I don't think they can. And then all of a sudden he, he, he,
06:41uh, he
06:41heated up and, and this is what we expect out of Jose. I think the key, which we were trying
06:46to get
06:47some answers. We talked to Steven vote, uh, you guys probably know this too, but he was starting to feel
06:52healthy towards the end of the season. And, you know, when you're, when you're dealing with the
06:56handmate, like he was coming back from it early and you're in pain, you make adjustments with your
07:03swing so that it doesn't hurt. And that doesn't, that isn't always your a swing. Um, it's just,
07:09it's the protective swing, right? So now that he's healthy, yeah, it looks more like the old Jose
07:16Ramirez, the swing, the aggressiveness, uh, even, even his overall intensity, which we know,
07:22you know, there are times where he can be a little more kind of laid back and low key,
07:26or at least not as outwardly emotional. I'll say that he's, he's playing with passion and emotion
07:30too, which I love. So this is the version everybody's been waiting for. And I, he's truly a
07:38guy that you have to pitch around now. The problem is the daughter behind him has been swinging it well
07:43too. So hopefully chase will continue to swing it. Well, hopefully Jose will swing it. Well,
07:49I got to get Bazzana going, you know, Bazzana has probably been the least productive here so far,
07:53but, um, with Jose, it's completely different offense as you guys have seen over the years.
07:58We're talking to Jim Duquette on the Y start, right? We make it right. Call call right hotline.
08:02Just a reminder, Jim and the MOB network radio have an onsite pre and post game coverage throughout
08:09the AOCS to be live from progressive field later today at 5 PM on Sirius XM channel 89. Uh, Jim,
08:18for whatever reason, like this, this raised lineup is, is out of sorts. It feels like this series,
08:24they've prided themselves all season on being a team that's disciplined, doesn't strike out very
08:28much. And the guardians for some, somehow have kind of found a way to kind of get them out of
08:35sorts and just not really able to produce the way that they had and grind out these at-bats the
08:40way
08:40that they maybe had. Um, I think the top three guys in the order, you know, Yandy, Caminero and,
08:46and, and, and, and, um, yeah, that group, I think they have like six hits between them through the
08:51first, uh, three games of the series. Uh, what, what is it, what do you maybe attribute to how the
08:57guardians have kind of contained this, this raised lineup that has been very productive at times this
09:01season? It's a major, major factor why they're up to one, right? It's, you know, it's Diaz around
09:08the Caminero. They, I mean, Caminero struggled. He struck out four times the other day, game three.
09:13He's never done that all year. Yeah. You know, and, and what I was seeing with that group was,
09:18you know, uh, the guardians were able to get the two strikes and then get their hitters to chase
09:23out of the strike zone. And that's something they don't do a lot Tampa too. So, so now there,
09:28you can see the lack of success is kind of rolled over into, uh, some struggle, some pressing.
09:35Usually when you see guys swinging out of the strike zone that normally don't that, you know,
09:39they're, they're pressing and trying to, to create more offense rather than just kind of,
09:45all right, let me, let me take my walk. I'll turn it over to the next guy. So last night,
09:50Kevin cash, their manager, he changed the lineup around a little bit, right? He took, uh,
09:54took Chandler Simpson, the speed guy, hit a triple in game three.
09:57They moved him up to the three spot, moved Cameron arrow down to the four spot. They moved Mesa down
10:01Victor Mesa to see if he could jumpstart the offense, but they're not going anywhere. I Cleveland,
10:07Cleveland's going to win the series. If you know, their pitching obviously continues, but if the
10:12raise offense can't get going and, and really it's a huge credit to, um, how good the pitching has been
10:19for Cleveland so far to limit those three guys. Cause I mean, Cameron arrow is a star in our,
10:23he's only 23, 24 years old. He has zero homers in the post season. Uh, and I was, he had
10:29one hit,
10:29I think in the series so far, like there's just not a lot going on with, with any, any of
10:34those
10:34three guys. I think around is the, or yeah, around is the guy that had a hit or two D
10:39has had a couple
10:40of doubles and that's it. So if they can continue to contain him like they have so far, man, this
10:46is,
10:46I don't think this will even go back to Tampa. So, um, you know, that's going to be a key.
10:50It has been a key in my conversations in our pregame show to, you know, limit the damage with
10:56that top three or top four. Well, listen, Jim, if it ain't going back to Tampa, we're probably going
11:01to Milwaukee. I want to just kind of expand this thing a little bit, right? The Milwaukee Brewers
11:07swept the team with the highest payroll in all of baseball. As a matter of fact, if you look at
11:12all
11:12of the final four, the Rays, the guardians, the Brewers, if you put their payroll combined,
11:18it was still $55 million cheaper than what the LA Dodgers were, right? They punched their ticket.
11:24They had never been to the world series before the guardians have not won a world series since 1948
11:29Tampa Bay, of course has never been there as well. How in the heck did we get here? And you
11:35have
11:36these three teams as your final three. Thank goodness for that. Right. I mean, get the Dodgers out of
11:42there. I will say that, you know, when you build teams, like this is, you know, the art of building
11:51a roster, which I always appreciate having done the, you know, that before my, in my prior life,
11:57before broadcasting, building a deep roster, having limitations payroll wise, but finding value on the
12:06fringes, right? We'll call it. So some of the guys that maybe aren't impactful, but upgrade your
12:12roster, you know, in the, let's say the extra couple of pitchers or in a platoon type of a situation,
12:20whatever, whatever that might be, you know, or, or getting production from a PD help in, or, you know,
12:27the way Rocchio has swung in October, swung the bat in October, or, you know, any, any of the young
12:33players, like I appreciate how Cleveland's done it because they just put their young players in
12:37situations. They create an environment. They expect them to succeed when they don't, they, you know,
12:45they, they boost their confidence, but they'll also find a different player to kind of insert
12:49there if necessary. Like they, they just do it the way I think I would have imagined it. If I
12:55worked for
12:56an organization that had, you know, a really, really low payroll, like they've had, like Tampa has,
13:01Tampa has done it a little different, even though they're similar teams, they've done a bunch of
13:07trades. When they, they sell at peak value, they buy it, you know, they buy low and they're,
13:12they're riding kind of like a stock, a stock portfolio, buy low, sell high. They do that all
13:18the time with their players. So they're kind of different there. Milwaukee is very similar to
13:21Cleveland. They, they, they sign, they develop, and then they give their young players opportunities.
13:27And I think that's what I appreciate about those two teams in particular, but Tampa has been doing
13:32this for a while too. These three teams have been very, very successful with, uh, with the low
13:37payrolls, Jim, give me a player. And it can be, I guess, on either side that you're predicting here
13:45to have a big game in game three that propels, or sorry, game four, my bad that propels all the,
13:52all the changing of times and stuff has got me all thrown off. Uh, that that's going to lift the,
13:56whichever team to victory today, that's going to be a key in, in, in that team winning.
14:02Well, I think with, with Nick Martinez on the mound, he's a guy who throws the change up a lot
14:07to
14:07really good pitch. Um, lefty left-handed pitching, uh, is he's had, he's been stingy, uh,
14:14recently, but he has been prone to the long ball. So I look at some of the left-handed hitters
14:19and whether it's Ramirez, whether it's Delauder, um, that group at the top, you know, they're
14:26going to get a couple of opportunities against him. And I think that those are to me, the key
14:30matchups early in the game. So I'll stick with, I'll stick with Jose just because he's been swinging
14:35it so well. And, um, you know, pitching to him, um, is always, is always fun that matchup. So I'm
14:42looking for Jose to continue his hot hand and to deliver tonight. And then on the other side of
14:47that, you know, a lot of people were shocked by Sean Armstrong getting the nod for the
14:51guardians. What do you think the biggest key for him is, uh, as this looks like a bullpen
14:56game to at least start for the guardians, what do you think would be the biggest key
14:59for him tonight? I, you know, I think with him, it just, just go out and pitch and pitch
15:05until he comes and takes you out. Like nobody really knows how long he's going to go. It
15:10could be three batters. It could be six batters. I'd be surprised if he goes past nine
15:14batters, right. Um, they don't, they don't need him to do that. You need him to get through
15:18the top of the lineup, get through. And I think, you know, the Rays made an adjustment,
15:23you know, and put Simpson in the three hole. He's a left-handed batter to kind of, um, divide
15:29out and, and, and spread out the lineup a little bit, you know? And, and so if he can get
15:35through
15:36Camonero and, you know, the, wherever the next, maybe it's the late, whoever is in that
15:40five spot, um, and he does it well and he call it a day. Terrific. I think that more importantly
15:46for the guardians today is who's going to come in and that kind of bulk role, right? Is
15:50it Bybee who's been great, um, early in the season has been a starter, but hasn't pitched
15:56that much. And it was kind of shaky with his command. Or is it going to be Cantillo who I
16:02thought did a great job in game one. Um, you know, what's the pitching plan after that, uh,
16:07because they did it in game three against the White Sox so well and effectively, even
16:11though, you know, the, the mix was a little different. They started, you know, Spino that
16:16day. Um, I think they came in with Ken to, Oh no, they came up with Foster Griffin
16:21after that. I don't think Foster is going to factor in today. At least it doesn't seem
16:24like it. Um, and they're going to save him for tomorrow. Uh, either way voter has been
16:30really good at pushing the right buttons with that bullpen. So I don't think there's a huge
16:36advantage, um, on either side of it today. In fact, I, I like the strength here that the
16:42guardians have with the way their bullpen has been pitched. Don't forget Jim Duquette
16:46and MLB network, uh, radio will have on-site pre and post-game covers throughout the ALCS,
16:52uh, ALCS game four. And we'll be live from progressive field today at five on Sirius XM channel
16:5989. Jim, we thank you for your time today. Uh, give us a game prediction.
17:05I know what I, I picked, uh, the guardians to our women. Did I pick the guys last night
17:10to win? I think, no, actually I think the raised when I thought they, that would be the slight
17:15advantage of their last night, but now with the change in the weather and, uh, the way
17:18things have gone, I'm flipping to the guardians. So, uh, there we go, whether there we go, Jim,
17:26that's what we love to hear. Good stuff. All right, guys. Hopefully we'll see you out there
17:30if you're going. I appreciate it, Jim. Thanks, man.