transcript

Speaker 1:
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Speaker 2:
[00:32] This is the Baseball Tonight Podcast for Friday, April 24th, 2026. Today will be better than yesterday. I'm Buster Olney, working from my home in Montana. Taylor Schwenk is back in Bristol. Today on the podcast, we're going to have Paul Mbikiti. He's got a couple other guests. We're not sure if they're going to join us or not. We're waiting to hear back from some teams, but Hembo, I'm glad to get you. The other day, we had Pete McConville on. The rabid, really heartbroken Mets fan, and the way we wanted to be introducing him was he's Hembo's boss. That's what we settled on. We thought that was easier than vice president of whatever he is.

Speaker 3:
[01:13] Yes. A highly appropriate way to introduce Pete McConville. He is a VP. I am very much not. Either of those letters, it goes without saying. I am a mere researcher here looking Buster to talk some positively, I guess, about my favorite baseball team, the Philadelphia Phillies, that as we record here on Thursday afternoon, haven't won a game since the last time you and I spoke a week ago. So, look, he is representing the Mets. I suppose in some sense I and Kevin Agandhi earlier this week are representing the Phillies and we are doing a whole lot of winning these days. And although I don't love talking about it or thinking about it, I do have some rage bait for my fellow Philly fans to get to.

Speaker 2:
[01:47] Okay. Before that, though, the Mets actually did win. On Wednesday night, they found a way to win. Luke Weaver was the guy on the mound and after the game, he talked with our friend Steve Gelbs of SNY. Give a listen to Luke Weaver after the game last night.

Speaker 4:
[02:04] Luke, been a long time coming. What are the emotions, not just for yourself, but for this team finally getting over the hump tonight?

Speaker 5:
[02:15] A little bit of relief. Look, this wasn't about attitude, this wasn't about word that thick, this wasn't about a bad demeanor, there was none of that. It's about just showing up every day, giving you something to cheer about, and thankfully today we freaking did that, alright?

Speaker 4:
[02:33] And you finished it off with a flurry. One and a third, three strikeouts, including that last one against a red hot Byron Buxton. You could have pitched a round if you decided to go right after him, take us through the thought process after that discussion with Justin Willard on the mound.

Speaker 5:
[02:47] Look, people smell fear. I'm not the biggest guy in the room, but I ain't scared of nobody. And that's the attitude I try to take. And if I screw up, it's on me. But at the end of the day, I'm going to sleep at night. And I'm going to feel good about the effort I put in. And I ain't fearing nobody. You remember that.

Speaker 2:
[03:06] So I'd say this, Hembo, if you are a member of the New York Mets, if you are a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, if you are on the Kansas City Royals, I would clip that off and say this is exactly how everyone in this position should feel. Like he's not bitter, he's not mad, he's not like, yeah, the fans haven't supported us or anything like that. He's taking it all on his shoulders and he's embracing this situation. I tweeted out this morning that covered a legendary basketball coach, Don Meyer, and he would give his players a quiz during the course of the season. Give me your three teammates who are your foxhole guys. Like in a tough situation, who do you want in the foxhole with you? And it was a good way to get feedback to teammates. And I thought to myself after watching it like Luke Weaver is a foxhole guy. What do you think, Hembo?

Speaker 3:
[03:59] I think that Luke Weaver is the least likely looking person to create such an inspiring message on the field post game. I mean, Luke Weaver looks like a generic best man in a men's warehouse ad, but he spoke there like he was in WrestleMania, which we of course just had on ESPN last week. You may have heard. Luke Weaver was in his bag. Look, he is exhaling for all the players in that clubhouse and for a collection of Mets fans that have been freaking out over the last two weeks and for good reason. What that sound tells me is that those guys are clearly and obviously feeling it too in the clubhouse and they are hearing what Mets fans are saying. Of all people, for Luke Weaver, who as you know, but for the Yankees who is of course very familiar with this market, to get up there in front of the mic, not in a press conference but in front of a stadium, that's not that easy to do.

Speaker 2:
[04:47] And he was looking around to your point. He was looking around as he's talking and he's being dead honest. Like his first, how you feel? And he's relief. Because you know that's how they all feel.

Speaker 3:
[04:58] Of course and that's not easy. I mean that's like a political rally performance from Luke Weaver. I want that guy on the microphone. Any chance I get and anytime the Mets are in a pickle, put him in the ninth inning and see what happens. Because the way that he pitched last night saving his own behind obviously, and then being able to speak to Mets fans in that way, was this kind of like this guttural response that of course, every single Mets fan felt. I'm not so sure that there's anyone in that clubhouse that could better articulate it than he could.

Speaker 2:
[05:24] You played in college, I didn't. I suspect that that went over well with teammates. What do you think?

Speaker 3:
[05:30] That's going to play in the clubhouse for sure. Look, I can't tell you that there were 40,000 people at any Cedarville University game. So no matter what I did there, I certainly can't relate to this. But what I can say is that that's the exact kind of thing that a teammate would like. It could be a defining moment in their season should they turn it around. Look, Juan Soto just came back and look, he's going to have the opportunity truly to make an MVP case for himself if he winds up being able to put a really nice screen together here and help the Mets dig themselves out of this hole. And we'll look back on that night in particular and what Luke Weaver said specifically as being a sort of line in the sand for this team this season. It could be nothing or it could be something very significant. You've seen all the stats about teams to lose a dozen games in a row and how unlikely it is that they make the playoffs. I like to call those dumb guy stats. I don't think they're terribly meaningful or predictive.

Speaker 2:
[06:19] Yes.

Speaker 3:
[06:19] But look, the Mets have lost a lot of games this season and are going to have to dig themselves out of a pretty significant hole. But I think with the attitude like that and with Juan Soto coming back, they're prepared to do so. I am not counting the Mets out by any stretch of the imagination.

Speaker 2:
[06:33] Hembo, you know, this week has reminded me of just how long this season is. This morning after the Mets end their losing streak and the Phillies losing streak extends, I went on to FanGraphs, which is one of my favorite websites, and I was looking at playoff odds, because I thought that would be interesting to see where the numbers have gone for some of these teams. As you know, the FanGraphs playoff odds, it's not like they sit there on a day-to-day basis and their standard is, well, that team looks good. That team doesn't look good. It's a pure statistical model. This jumped out at me today, according to FanGraphs, with their statistical model, as of today, the Mets chances for making the playoffs are 42 percent. As bad as they've been. And I don't know if I would agree with that number, but I think for me, it's a reminder of just how long a season it is, how little of the season we've actually played, like 12 to 15 percent. You're Phillies, the playoff chances are assessed at 36 percent. The Seattle Mariners are another team that have gotten off to a terrible start. Their playoff chances, 70 percent. You know, there's three games out in the American League West. The Kansas City Royals might be the worst team in baseball so far this year. Their playoff chances, 16 percent. And if they won a couple of games back to back, those would jump dramatically. We played so little of this season.

Speaker 3:
[08:02] You're 100 percent right. I understand why fans panic because that's what fans can, should and will do until the end of time. But there are two talking points worth considering. Buster, the first of which is, we have data that say that your April record contributes less to your end of year record than any month. And that's of course no surprise considering we're at the start of every season and every team is figuring itself out. But if there's ever a time to struggle, it is right now. And the second point to make is that Major League Baseball's playoff format is such, that you can absorb these losses early in the season. All those stats about teams not reaching the playoffs after losing 12 straight games. Well, for most of baseball history, two or four teams were getting in the postseason. I'm just not here for that kind of commentary. So I believe that the Mets and the aforementioned Phillies and the Mariners are very much in the thick of it. If they were in a stretch like this in June or July or August, you know, we might bat an eye, but we certainly wouldn't have the magnifying glass on these teams and on these rosters the way that we do right now.

Speaker 2:
[09:04] In 2019, arguably the worst team in the first two months of the year, the Washington Nationals, they went 19 and 30 or maybe in 19 and 31, they had by far the worst bullpen in baseball. And then on the fly, they added guys like Daniel Hudson, who at the end of October was at the bottom of the dog pile when the Nationals won the World Series. So look, and I do think there's reason for concern with the Mets. For the Kansas City Royals with the disastrous bullpen, 6.29 ERA, worst in baseball. For the Mariners, you're going to want production now, the big dogs, the middle of the year lineup, and that started to come. We've seen Cal Raleigh, Josh Nailish start to hit, but man, it is a long season. All right. You as a Phillies fan have to be telling yourself this. We just got word as we were taping today, Taiwan Walker was released by the Philadelphia Phillies, but I know you feel like there's some issues in that everyday lineup that at some point, that needs to turn around.

Speaker 3:
[10:05] Yeah, there's no question about it, Buster. Phillies lineup is hilariously shallow, and this was not foreseeable. It was foreseen. It was foreseen by you and by me. I went back to my notes and checked, Buster, you had me on October 14th. That was five days after the Dodgers eliminated the Phillies. And on that day, I pleaded with Dave Dabrowski not to run it back. And despite his best efforts to sign Bo Bichette, the Phillies largely ran it back. And I think we're seeing kind of my worst fears be realized here in the first few weeks of the season. Buster, I wrote down two numbers that really demonstrate how shallow this lineup is performing right now. I'm going to use WRC Plus, a number for which 100 is average, as you know. The first number I wrote down is 52. That is the WRC Plus of Phillies four, five, six, and seven headers this year. Combined, of course, the lowest mark in the Major League. It's a 201, 258, 287 line Buster across nearly 400 played appearances. We're talking Adoles Garcia, Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott, and Brandon Marsh. Those are largely the four players that you might say are to blame for the Phillies struggling in the heart of their order, you might say. The second number that I wrote down is 56. That is the Phillies WRC Plus against lefties. Also, the lowest mark in the major leagues. It's a 178-264-282 line across 333 played appearances. Even more hilariously, Buster, lefty starters have pitched to a 166 ERA in 54 innings against the Phillies this season. But Buster, I could live with the Phillies hitting like this if these guys played outstanding defense, but they definitively do not. In fact, right now, the Phillies have the worst defense in the major leagues. It's 19 defensive runs saved in the minus department through 24 games. So think about it this way. The Phillies start every game down 8 tenths of a run. That's how bad their defense is performing. It's on pace to be the worst defense since DRS was a stat in 2003. And lastly, the Phillies batting average on balls in play. So this is what they allow on balls put in play is 357. The record for that number, just for some context, the dubious record, of course, is 345. It has stood since 1930. The Phillies don't just have a bad defense. It's trending towards being a historically bad defense alongside a lineup that basically half of it is borderline unplayable. Full stop. I do believe in the pitching staff. I steadfastly believe in Caleb Cotham and his pitching staff to get this thing right. But if this lineup and this defense doesn't improve considerably and considerably fast, I do think the Phillies could be in a situation as early as next month where Dave Dabrowski feels he has to make a move or two to salvage the season.

Speaker 2:
[12:53] Yeah, I was going to ask, I asked this to Kevin the other day, I asked this to Pete McConville. He, for example, being a Mets fan, I said, what would you do? And the first thing he said was move Boba Shett to second base. It's interesting because now Boba Shett might be moving to shortstop because Francisco Lindor on the day when they end their losing streak, and Lindor finally started to hit, and Juan Soto comes back, it looks like Lindor is out. We're waiting to hear about his MRI gets today. Pete talked about Boba Shett going to second base. If you were running the Phillies, what are some of the things that you would explore?

Speaker 3:
[13:27] I mean, in the short term, Edmundo Soto is going to be in the lineup every single day. I'm going to let Alec Bohm and Brayson Stott figure out amongst themselves because neither of those guys are hitting. Obviously, as you approach the deadline, you can try and get creative. My earnest hope is that Aiden Miller, who is a consensus top 10 prospect, a young player who's yet to debut, has chronic back issues, unfortunately, in his early 20s. I'm not so sure you can expect anything out of him this season. Sometimes the best solution is our guys have to hit. The solution is not always to find something from the outside. One of the reasons I didn't want the Phillies to run it back was not because that Bohm or Stott haven't proven to be quality major leaguers, it's that if you allow this team to do the same thing perpetually, complacency sets in. And if no player is pushed internally, if your job is never threatened over the course of Time Buster, that adds up. And I do think the manifestation of that is something that we are seeing this year in Philadelphia really for the first time in this iteration. Can it be salvaged? Absolutely. But I'm starting to worry that the culture has gotten a touch rotten based on the fact that so many of the same characters are back here in the big leagues for this club. They've not churned over the roster the way that I hope they're expected. And as a result, you've seen a lot of these young players especially, not improve and to me that's a developmental issue for the Phillies and the fact that they did not push these guys to be their very best.

Speaker 2:
[14:49] So we'll see if the Phillies again, it's early and we'll see if they turn it around. They get Zach Wheeler coming back and that's exciting. And I agree with you about the pitching. People have written them off. I'm like, no, the pitching is too good for that. However, if the trajectory continues, I was curious to see what you thought about my idea knowing the characters involved. Of if the Red Sox continue to struggle and the Phillies continue to struggle, you, Dave Dombrowski, do you like the idea of reaching out to the Red Sox and say, what would it take to make a move for Alex Cora, the manager?

Speaker 3:
[15:22] Buster, you're just dropping that on me cold. My first gut says, absolutely. My first gut says, I absolutely love it. And look, we as Phillies fans know firsthand what life could look like with a different manager even during the season. There was a time back in 2022.

Speaker 2:
[15:38] Rob Thompson made a huge difference when he stepped in for Joe Girardi.

Speaker 3:
[15:43] It changed my entire perspective on this exercise because typically what I do during the season is say, we can't blame the manager, of course, because the manager is not the one. What is Rob Thompson supposed to do? Call more home runs from the dugout, right? I call more strikeouts from the dugout. Lord knows the manager only has so much control in baseball. But the Phillies 2022 season is very much a manifestation of what can happen if you put the right guy in charge. Sometimes that only happens or can happen during the season. Now, obviously, the exceptions don't outweigh the rules here. Like Jack McKeehan in 2003 as an example, is something that we remember.

Speaker 2:
[16:20] The Marlins, right?

Speaker 3:
[16:20] We forget about all the guys that were fired mid-season, and their teams did not improve their plight. But I was one who was quite loudly saying after the season that I thought Rob Thompson's time in Philadelphia had run its course. I thought he did a good to great job with the Phillies, the 2002, 2023, and the 2024 seasons. But over the course of time, sometimes making change for change's sake is appropriate. That complacency word that I used earlier in respect to Boehm and to Scott, to Scott, sometimes the same voice just rings hollow. I'm not there every day, and so I can't say it with certainty. But what I can say is that I do view this as being a very pivotal month in the plight of this organization, and the Phillies decision to churn over the success of which they've had plenty over the last few years, isn't nearly as proactive as I would like. In fact, you'll remember that the Red Sox back in 2003, they brought Grady Little in after that season, after he did not remove Pager Martinez from the mound in game seven against the Yankees, and he said I would do it all over again. And not until then did they decide to move on from Terry Francona. Grady Little was a perfectly fine manager, and the Red Sox enjoyed immense success under him. But Terry Francona was the best manager for that team, and it manifested right away. Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[17:33] And by the way, and again, I want to make this 100 percent clear, and I did on the podcast the other day, 100 percent speculation. This is just me pulling stuff out of the air. There's no substance to this other than knowing the people involved, okay? And also acknowledging that these in season trades managers, like that doesn't happen. However, who knows Alex Cora better than anybody else in the Phillies roster? If you wanted a player aligned with one or the manager, a new manager aligned with one player, who would that be? Who does he have a relationship with? Probably Kyle Schwaber. That would be Kyle Schwaber from the days in Boston when Alex loved Kyle Schwaber. And I think he's right. So anyway, all right, Elly De La Cruz the other day when all of us baseball nerds were gathered in Bristol, one of the conversations we had was we're eating breakfast, was whether or not Elly De La Cruz has started to turn the corner. What do you think?

Speaker 3:
[18:29] I think that he has. I mean, you'll recall he was a fashionable pick to win the MVP last year and understandably so. He was coming off a 25 homer, 67 steal, six win 2024 season. But as we were reminded last year Buster, development is not linear. He struggled. He played through a torn quad in the second half of the season. But Buster, I wrote down three good reasons to believe that this year, 2026 is going to be his best year yet, which of course is saying a lot for someone who's already shown this much. The first thing I wrote down is he's made a big jump as a right handed hitter. He of course being a switch hitter, he is mashing from the right side really for the first time in his career. Through 32 plate appearances this season, it's an unsustainable 1279 OPS. He entered this year with a 606 OPS in his career as a right handed hitter. He's swinging the bat faster and creating better angles from the right side. The second thing that I wrote down Buster, he is showing considerably more maturity as a left handed hitter. He's widened out, he's moved closer to the plate and shortened his swing. Now the early returns there aren't that positive, but I am very encouraged by the intentionality of all three of those things, and I think they'll manifest. The last thing I wrote down Buster is his maturity as a shortstop is noticeably better. He made 29 throwing errors in the previous two seasons, the most in the major leagues, 29. He's made only one so far, and I believe he's going to keep that number small. He's still using his bazooka, but he's using it sparingly and digging into the stat-cast data. He's really saving it for relays and for double plays where he excels. Those are throws in which he's just reacting Buster because of course that makes sense, and he's just an athlete. He's a breathtaking athlete, and when he lets it rip like that, it's no surprise that it goes where it's supposed to as fast as it goes to. But I hark it back to a conversation that I had with Cal Ripken once upon a time who always said, I want to throw out the runner at first by one step, because if I'm doing that, I've got my timing down and my actions are proper at shortstop. We're seeing that version of Elly De La Cruz, a mature version of Elly De La Cruz, and it's not easy to make a wholesale change year over year, let alone three. But the context of those three changes are why I'm so encouraged that he's going to have his best season yet.

Speaker 2:
[20:36] I love that, and that sounds exactly like Cal. In terms of having watched him play a lot of games when he covered the Orioles. The other day, we had Manny Machado on the podcast. He talked about the sale price, the unbelievable sale price, because I had heard it was going to be $3 million plus, and talked to him about it at the WBC, and he just had this smile on his face. What are some of your takeaways from this astronomical $3 billion price?

Speaker 3:
[21:02] I wrote down two takeaways, Buster. The first of which is, the Padres have proven that spending does not happen in a vacuum. I mean, they certainly have advantages that other teams don't have. It's a beautiful ballpark. It's a great climate. They're the only show in town. But even so, it would have once been unthinkable for the Padres playing in a bottom 10 market to annually run a top 10 payroll. And they've done exactly that. And I think that's because they have viewed payroll as not merely a team building exercise, but as an investment and an investment into the community and the fan base and the signing of Manny Machado. I view as a light switch moment for that organization. And they have improved considerably and turned that place into a baseball heaven. That's not something I could have ever thought, I would say, about San Diego. I mean, their improvements and the popularity that they've gained is one of baseball's best success stories over the last decade. The other takeaway, though, is more holistic and it's obvious. And it's that baseball's business is booming. I mean, I will grant you that we haven't seen recent sales go as well, namely Washington or Minnesota. They don't have some of those built-in advantages that San Diego has. But even so, $3.9 billion is an astronomical figure, a billion and a half more than Steve Cohen paid for the Mets back in 2020. If you're going to sit here and tell me as an owner, that the single most important thing to me is the valuation of my franchise, and that my franchises have stagnated in relation to the three other sports. And then we're going to look at this data point from a bottom 10 market and say, this is worth nearly $4 billion as we approach a new CBA. How are you going to sit here in good conscience and say, we desperately need a salary cap because otherwise I'm not going to be able to feed my family? It's just a public relations nightmare for the owners. And this is going to be a data point, I think Buster, perhaps unfairly even, that you'll see people use over the next six months to demonstrate that the owners are full of it when they're pushing for their salary cap. What say you?

Speaker 2:
[22:52] And the players, I mean, to your point, it's going to become a refrain among the players. There's no doubt about it because that is a perfect comp. And by the way, we just got word from the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. They announced a new ballpark that they're going to build. I hope it's for 2030. It's in the downtown area, the Crown, what is it called? Crown, and I'm sorry, I don't know downtown Kansas City that well. But there's a part of me, I'm curious to see if you saw the plans on it. I must say that, like seeing, having gone to the K, right? And I can remember being nine years old when Coppin Stadium opened and hearing and reading the stories about the waterfalls and how beautiful it was and listening to the All-Star Game on that year and Amos Otis is in the All-Star Game and they're talking about that. And then the first time I went there in 1995, opening day, Kevin A. Peer pitching against Mike Messini going, wow, this place really is nice. If you're a Royals fan, you're somewhat wistful. But on the other hand, they're going to try to follow the same model that we've seen from the Atlanta Braves having with the battery that they have there, around the ballpark, it could be spectacular. For example, I was texting with Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Museum yesterday, and I said, how close is this going to be to where you are? And he said, they're thinking two miles and there might be some kind of a transportation, direct public transportation from the ballpark down to the Negro Leagues Museum. How cool is that going to be?

Speaker 3:
[24:23] Oh, I mean, Kansas City is one of the best baseball towns in America, and I say so definitively. I've visited something like two dozen of the active ballparks, and as I'm sure you're not surprised to hear, have a spreadsheet in which all of them are very systematically ranked, and the K ranks very favorably. I love watching a baseball game at that place, and I think it's a wonderful thing that they're staying near that area, in that area, not selling out, for lack of a better term, like the Chiefs. But the point about the Braves and their model is a well-made one, and I think it's going to be a sticking point in the upcoming CBA, because the Braves are a publicly traded company, we actually can see the back of the napkin, and as it turns out, they're making a lot of money, not just on ticket sales and the traditional ways by which teams have earned money, but all the things that happen in the battery and the concerts and all that stuff, right? All that stuff, all the extracurriculars, teams are still earning, and at the same time, the players are going to say, we're not seeing a representative percentage or portion of that, and teams are well within their right to make every dollar that they possibly can. Now, the other side, I think it's more than fair for the players to ask for transparency, because as we know, if owners were ever universally asked to show their books, they would never do it, and that salary cap would never happen.

Speaker 2:
[25:36] Yeah, and the thing about the battery that's such a unique experience, you go to a baseball game in Kansas City now, or you go to county, excuse me, not county stadium, but you go to, what's the Brewer's Park officially called now?

Speaker 3:
[25:50] American Family.

Speaker 2:
[25:51] Yeah, American Family, or Miller Park, or I can't even remember. But anyway, the ballpark in Milwaukee, before the game, outside people are grilling, that sort of thing, the game starts, everyone goes inside. When you go to a game at the battery, like the crowd is, the ballpark is filled, and then during the game, all the bars around it are filled. And people sometimes will go up to the battery, just to be in the proximity of the ballpark, and hang out at the restaurants, it's a really special place. All right, before you go, tell me about Shea Langeliers and the start he's off to.

Speaker 3:
[26:24] Buster, there is no list of the best catchers in baseball right now, on which Shea Langeliers is not at or near the top. And I say that definitively. Let's go back to June of last year. He missed about three and a half weeks with an oblique last June, came off the IL on the 30th, and since has played 91 games, during which time he has hit 29 homers and batted 306, 352, 610. That is a 962 OPS for a catcher that ranks fifth among 152 qualifiers over that span. So my guess is that you're pushing back in your head and saying, let's be fair, he plays in a band box, and I will grant you Buster, he does play in a minor league band box. So I looked up what he's hitting on the road during that span. His line is 309, 343, 681. That's a 1024 road OPS since June 30th of last year, during which time he has hit 20 homers, which is tied with Junior Caminero for the most in the major leagues during that time. Now, I will acknowledge he is not Patrick Bailey behind the plate, but he can block and he can throw. At 28, I think the A's should do their darndest to lock him up. For some context here, Cal Raleigh signed a 6105 before his age 28 season, a deal that is already aging exceedingly well for the club as we know. Shea is playing this year at 28 with two more years of control. So to me, doing the back of the napkin math, I think a 5-4-80 sounds approximately right. But as we know, he's a Scott Boris client and he is not dying typically to extend his players early.

Speaker 2:
[27:58] Yeah, it's interesting. There's some guys, and I've seen a few of his home runs this year, live watching games that the A's are playing. There are some hitters where they put the ball in the area like, will that make it or not? He's one of those guys, you're like, gone. He has unique power when he hits the ball, that's for sure. All right, Hembo, thanks for doing this. As always, great to talk with you.

Speaker 3:
[28:21] Later, friends.

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Speaker 8:
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Speaker 2:
[30:08] Todd Radom is the chief executive of our weekly quiz. He's a graphic artist whose work can be seen on ball fields all across America, all around the world, or you can go to a ballpark near you. Todd, how are you doing?

Speaker 9:
[30:19] Buster, I'm great. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:
[30:21] I'm doing great. Two things I want to run past today. One, we heard that the Yankees players have now formally requested to have an alternate road jersey. You being a man of style, what do you think?

Speaker 9:
[30:34] Oh my god, Buster. Oh my god. The pearl clutching, the ghosts of Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are going to rise up and rebel against this, this affruct to tradition Buster. It's no big deal. The Yankees are wearing ads on their uniforms since 2023. They've got a Nike logo. They're playing in a stadium which is not the Yankee Stadium of yore. All of the tradition and all this stuff evolved. So I think it's a big nothing burger Buster.

Speaker 2:
[31:10] Yeah, I agree. I love the pins. They will continue to wear pinstripes with their home uniform. That to me is what's important. The road ones, who cares? That's kind of how I feel.

Speaker 9:
[31:21] Yeah, I think if you're a fan, go in the Yankee Stadium for the first time, whatever the burst of Yankee Stadium may be. You want to see the Yankees in their home whites with the beautiful pinstripes and experience all of that tradition and history in a literal way. I'd say the same thing for the Dodgers, but they've strayed from tradition a little bit. But listen, I don't think it's that big a deal. It's a very Yankee-like uniform buster, and the fact is, it has been available for use as an alternate uniform since last year, just that nobody's ever talked about it.

Speaker 2:
[31:54] All right. I wanted to ask you about these plans, the Kansas City Royals unveiled for the new ballpark in downtown Kansas City. Look, I loved the K. You know, I was mentioning to Paul M. Bacchetti, he said, when I was a kid, I remember being nine years old and listening to the All-Star Game on the radio, and the announcers going crazy about the beautiful new ballpark, which opened up that spring, and then going there in 95, opening day, Royals, Orioles, and just loving the ballpark. I think it's fantastic, and I also think it's going to be great for the Royals to get to this new place.

Speaker 9:
[32:25] What about you? I totally agree. I love the return of downtown baseball to a place like Kansas City. The fact that it's going to be walkable, you could take public transportation there. The renderings, even if they're in their nascent stages, look pretty spectacular. You get the skyline view from home plate. Bring it on. I love it. And listen, everybody points to the battery in Atlanta as the model that every franchise, regardless of sport, wants to be. That works in Atlanta because Atlanta is really spread out and it's a different kind of place. I think this is going to exceed wildly in Kansas City and I can't wait to go there.

Speaker 2:
[33:05] And I think they'll do a great job knowing the organization with the closing of the K. You know, for me, and you and I have talked about this before, the standard for that sort of event would be when Memorial Stadium closed in Baltimore. I think the Royals would do it justice. And clearly, a lot of what they have in the new ballpark is borrowed from the old ballpark.

Speaker 9:
[33:27] Yeah, you've got to bring a fountain over. The big logo scoreboard is coming over in one way, shape or form. And listen, you've got to celebrate the history. A couple of World Series titles, all those years of excellence at the K. But time to move on and time to bring it downtown. And I think it's going to be great.

Speaker 2:
[33:46] All right, let's get to this week's quiz.

Speaker 9:
[33:49] I am so excited. Week one of our 2026 quiz, a clean slate for everybody involved. So here we go.

Speaker 2:
[33:57] Taylor in particular.

Speaker 9:
[34:00] I was waiting for you to chime in with something snarky and snide buster. The Dodgers, of course, are back to back World Series champions, and it's the first time they've ever done that. Only one of the following franchises has also won back to back World Series titles. Who is it? Is it A, the Giants? Is it B, the Tigers? Is it C, the Pirates? Or is it D, the Orioles? Only one of these four franchises has won back to back World Series titles. Giants, Tigers, Pirates, or Orioles?

Speaker 2:
[34:37] Taylor, you want to give it a shot?

Speaker 10:
[34:39] Let's go Orioles, baby. Come on. We're first here.

Speaker 2:
[34:43] That's the one that I specifically remember for sure. Of course, I think maybe the curve ball in the middle of this might be the question of whether or not, and I'm trying to remember the sequence. What year was it? You had a World Series, then you had a skip, right? Todd, and then we skipped the World Series because John McGraw, the manager of the New York Giants, didn't want to participate. I'm going to say it was the Giants.

Speaker 9:
[35:10] Well, the Giants are correct, Buster, but for all the wrong reasons, as opposed to what you decided, they won back-to-back World Series in 1921 and 22. Yeah. And the Yankees. You're right.

Speaker 2:
[35:22] I wasn't thinking of those years.

Speaker 9:
[35:24] So you continue to overthink things in this New Year.

Speaker 2:
[35:28] But I'm right. But I'm right in this case. You are correct.

Speaker 9:
[35:30] You are absolutely correct.

Speaker 2:
[35:32] Unbelievable. Now, maybe even if we had extended Taylor the Grace of the St. Louis Browns, that would not have been the case.

Speaker 9:
[35:39] No, it would not. They appeared in one World Series. And of course, they lost. There you go.

Speaker 2:
[35:44] All right, Todd.

Speaker 10:
[35:45] The losses keep stacking up. I'm going to have to bring reinforcements in. Maybe my fellow producers, Terrence or Key or Kenneth, anyone. Bring them on, man.

Speaker 2:
[35:55] Bring them on. It's getting late early.

Speaker 9:
[35:57] Is this what we're saying, Terry? Don't say it.

Speaker 10:
[36:00] Don't say it.

Speaker 2:
[36:01] This is like, who wants to be a millionaire? Call them in the lifelines. I love it. I'm week one. All right. All right, Todd. Thank you for doing this.

Speaker 9:
[36:09] Thanks, guys.

Speaker 2:
[36:11] Sarah Langs is a reporter and producer for mlb.com, and every week, she plays The Numbers Game. Number 3.

Speaker 11:
[36:19] Nolan McLean is the first pitcher in at least the expansion era with multiple perfect bids of at least five innings in his first 13 career starts. He's also the third pitcher in that span with two perfect bids of at least five innings in his first five starts of a season, joining 1988 Kelly Downs and 1966 Juan Marichal.

Speaker 8:
[36:42] Number 2.

Speaker 11:
[36:43] JJ Weatherholt was hit by a pitch in five straight games before finally having a less painful day on Tuesday. That tied 1903 Doc Gessler for the second longest streak since at least 1900. Only Carlos Quentin had a longer streak at six games in 2008.

Speaker 8:
[37:01] Number 1.

Speaker 11:
[37:03] Dylan Cease is the first pitcher in Blue Jays history with two 12-strikeout games in his first five starts of a season. The franchise record for a season for games with at least 12 strikeouts is six. By 1997, Roger Clemens.

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Speaker 3:
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Speaker 13:
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Speaker 10:
[39:07] Already Buster, Bleacher Tweets for a Friday. Let's go to Dan from Bangkok. He writes, great show today. Referring to the Wednesday show. We had someone else tweet in too. First of all, Buster, fun times on Wednesday with the fellas here in Bristol.

Speaker 2:
[39:19] Got to see you in person.

Speaker 10:
[39:20] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[39:21] Got to see Terrence in person. It was good to do it in person.

Speaker 10:
[39:26] Yeah. I mean, to have Kevin Agandi and Pete McConville come down and scream about the Mets and the Phillies and disrupt the workplace basically, it was a good time.

Speaker 2:
[39:36] Yeah. It was an absolute fun time. And Manny Machado was awesome. Like I've always enjoyed talking with Manny and he was so relaxed in that conversation. And I wondered how he would feel about talking about the possibility that they were going to sign Aaron Judge and he dove right into it, right?

Speaker 7:
[39:53] I just love that.

Speaker 10:
[39:55] Love a little alternate history. Could have been sliding door mode. We'll go to the emails, bleachertweets.gmail.com. Dan from Bangkok writes, Great show. It's not just the Brewers, but the NL Central is always underestimated. As of today, they are plus 25 and wins losses. The only other division is the NL West plus 13. Just look at how the Rays have fared this year. Four and 10 versus the NL Central and one and eight versus the rest of Major League Baseball. NL Central, Goat Rodeo slash secretly the best division in baseball, not so secretly.

Speaker 2:
[40:27] I'm not going to co-sign that they are constantly underrated. We've had years where the National League Central has absolutely stunk. But this year, without a doubt, you know, I do that element on social media every morning when I have the five and I tweeted about that, like National League Central is like a power division so far this year. And I was mentioning to Taylor about fan graphs and the playoff odds. He jumped out to me that the Pittsburgh Pirates, as of Thursday morning, their playoff odds 58% higher than the Mets or the Phillies. You know, the Reds are somewhere, I think they're in like the 30% range, like up and down that division. You have teams that I think are considered to be legitimate contenders and we haven't even mentioned the Cubs, who go into Thursday's games with H-Tray wins.

Speaker 10:
[41:16] Let's go to David from Malta, Massachusetts. So it's funny, I was making topic bars for this episode and David wrote in last week, we put him in the same slot, we'll bring him up again because he's abandoned his Red Sox. I guess he's a Reds fan now, but he wants to know with our ace pitcher pitching like a joker and the Red Sox functionally eliminated, are they functionally eliminated from the postseason before made one? And will they be sellers at the trade deadline? Man, harsh stuff.

Speaker 2:
[41:40] Well, and I want to say, and I'm trying to pull the number out of my head, I don't have the fan graphs number, it's around 36% to make the playoff. So the same thing applies, it's still early, but I would say this, they look terrible in that Red Sox series, terrible. They're getting completely shut down. I was texting with an evaluator, he said there's not one guy in that lineup right now that you would circle, especially with Roman Anthony out and say this guy's a problem. And there was a situation in the middle of that game, and I want to say, and this is totally on the players, there was a fly out to right field to end the inning. It was an inning in which the Yankee score runs, and it looked like at least two or three of the players forgot how many outs there were. Like they look really flat right now. And I kind of wondered after watching that game, is there going to be some fire and brimstone thing that comes out of the Red Sox because it's ugly. I mean, you can't overstate how ugly it is right now.

Speaker 10:
[42:35] Bill Simmons noted Red Sox fan, he wrote on Twitter, this is the worst Red Sox season since 2012.

Speaker 2:
[42:43] It's pretty bad to start. I mean, in that everyday line up, and you do wonder and, you know, given, I didn't answer the question, could they be sellers to Deadline? Absolutely. Because I think we've seen with Craig Breslow, he's a value guy. And he's a guy who if they let's say their playoff chances are at 8% on July 31st, he's going to sell. He's going to have players he's going to try to trade. I do wonder if during the year, Jaren Duran and just talking with folks of the teams, they wonder if the Red Sox should have traded and made a point of trading him during the course of the off season. Got to believe he's going to be a play.

Speaker 10:
[43:21] Let's go to Mark in Spokane, Washington. He writes, what do you guys make up the latest debate over the Otani rule? I realize that what he's doing is amazing and all that, but the Dodgers essentially get an extra pitcher. Makes sense to me that he should count toward a pitcher spot on the roster. Huge fan of Joe Ames.

Speaker 2:
[43:36] Yeah, I agree with that. I do think, and some of the stuff about how much time he has warming up, I think that's like nickel and dime stuff. I'm like, oh, come on. It's not a big deal. I mentioned it, MLB could formally just say, when you get a two-way player, give them an extra 15 seconds, whatever. That's not a big deal. The extra spot on the roster is a big deal, and people with other teams aren't happy about it. It wouldn't surprise me if they were to make a rule adjustment. The Dodgers have an advantage because they have Ohtani, but why should they have a roster advantage? Why should they get an extra pitcher? Because Ohtani is pitching once a week.

Speaker 10:
[44:14] Let's go to Stu in San Antonio, big Astros fan, he writes, can we start the season again, please? This time with three-fifths of the starting rotation and two-thirds of the outfield on the IL by game 25, please. At least Jordan Alvarez is raking, Stu. You got that going.

Speaker 2:
[44:28] Jordan Alvarez. Right now, if you did the voting for MVP in the American League, Jordan Alvarez would probably win it. Here's the one saving grace for the Astros start. Again, in the category of it's early, no one is running away in that division. I think the A's are in first place as we speak. They're not a dynamic team. They're not going to go off and win 95 games. So as bad as the Astros situation looks, if you were to tell me in a month that they had dug themselves out and they were hanging within a game or two, a first place, that wouldn't surprise me.

Speaker 10:
[45:00] Last one for the week, Jeremiah Avis-Rouse, he writes, Dainsby Swanson has a shot at finishing his career with the second most home runs as an NL shortstop. Does that get him in the Hall of Fame? Vandy Guy, is he going to wear the gold jacket?

Speaker 2:
[45:15] I'm going to be biased in that regard. I need to go back and look at the numbers. That is a really interesting question. Let's say the Cubs win the World Series and Dainsby starts to build that sort of legacy. Given what's going on in the Hall of Fame voting in recent years, maybe comes into play. What's so interesting to me about the Cubs, by the way, and I'm using this as a jump off point, the Cubs are the only team in baseball where it feels like every day Craig Council can line up his guys according to who's swinging well. Every other team, if Aaron Judge is struggling, he's going to stay in the two spot, right? Watching Craig Council manage the Cubs, there's some day, PCA on Wednesday's game batted ninth. Dainsby Swanson has had games where he's batted ninth. It all comes down to who's swinging well, who has a good matchup. That's fun. That their lineup is so deep that they just move parts around according to who has the best chance that day.

Speaker 10:
[46:10] Good stuff Buster. Great stuff this week. It was great to see you. I hope everyone watched and listened. If you listen and you haven't watched, I implore you. We've been trying a lot of things on video, but I thought our effort on Wednesday was really strong. I appreciate everyone coming along for the ride. Looking forward to it. We'll be back on Monday. All right.

Speaker 2:
[46:27] Well, that's it for today. My thanks to Terrence Williams and to Taylor Schwenk, and to Paul M. Bacchitis and Sarah Langs and Todd Radom. Thanks for listening. Stay safe and remember, hate and inequality based on skin color is something we need to fight against every single day.

Speaker 14:
[46:53] Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network in service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional cost. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now.