MLB Now | “Astros the scariest team in AL” — Dan Plesac reacts to Yordan Alvarez activated from IL

MLB Now | “Astros the scariest team in AL” — Dan Plesac reacts to Yordan Alvarez activated from IL

that award exists. Hey, look who’s back. Your Don Alvarez, and he’s in the lineup for the Houston Astros. This is such a big deal, ladies and gentlemen. Uh the Astros have lost six of the last 10 games. The Mariners have won two in a row. They’re a game and a half behind the Astros for first place. They don’t Dan just need him back. They need Yordon to be superstar Yordon. He he is to the Astros what Aaron Judge is to the Yankees. They in a year where they they have Bregman gone with the Red Sox. They’ve had a rash of injuries and he is he is a guy that like as a pitcher when you look at a series and you’re going against the Astros. Every starting pitcher and lever when this guy’s in the lineup, you look at this team entirely different. You look at this lineup th this is like he could be a shot of life into this. If he comes back in the next six weeks and hits, they’re probably going to win a division. You’re right. Tell you what. Okay. Um, Collins and guys, after I come out of this tape, I want you to rack back this BP cuz this is going to show you after I go through this tape while he’s figuring everything out. He didn’t have much power in the minor leagues. It wasn’t there yet. He rehab during the rehab. And here’s why. if he was shooting balls all over the field like he normally does. He was getting his hits, but he wasn’t squaring them up. And there was one swing, that one right there. I was like, “That ball didn’t get out of the park.” And I started looking at his swing and when I saw him this morning, I was like, “Doesn’t look normal.” Now, if you look at here, this is what we last saw in 22. And and this what this is what he looks like when he’s hot swinging the bat even last year. But I want to go to a breakdown and show you in a second here why his body’s turned so much in the minors. He’s not getting that load yet. All right, we’re going to continue through this 22 because it was ridiculous. But here he is in the minor leagues. See that four and the five how turned it is already and he hasn’t loaded. That was where he started from. It’s locking him off. Here he is in 24. Look at where his body’s set up. You don’t see the four and the four at all till he goes. Now you start to see it a little bit. So, he’s a little bit turned in his swing and he’s not get Yes. And he’s not getting that freedom. But look at him in BP today. All right. I started and the first thing I was looking for is okay. As he’s squared himself back up, look at him. He’s more square. You don’t see his if he had numbers on, you’d be able to see him. You wouldn’t be able to see him. So, he’s got himself back. That’s why I think the power like more square. His shoulders are square to the plate. Yes. There. Whereas Yes. He looks He was turned and he’s blocking almost like a left-handed John Carlos Stanton. Yes. Yes. So, I was looking at that and now this I’m encouraged when I see this here because the swing he was working in the minor leagues wasn’t going to give him much power and in the big leagues now it’s 99, right? You’re not getting that. Remember when we said um Shane Bieber making his debut in Miami against the Marlins was brilliant and it ended up being terrific for Shane Bieber. This is so well planned out. He’s back at home against the Colorado Rockies. No offense to the Colorado Rockies, but they’ve served up a lot of home runs this year. Why is he so imperative to the future of the Astros? The Houston Astros are in first place in a division in Major League Baseball with the lowest OPS and the fewest home runs by left-handed hitters in the sport, which is almost unheard of. Every team has left-handed power, you know, think about that. You better, this dude better be great if the Astros aren’t going to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs because bullpinning reigns supreme. And what is bullpinning? High VO, crazy spin for six of the nine innings and 90% of those relievers are right-handed. I mean, and when you think about it, with all the injuries the Astros have had the last couple of seasons, he’s been their most dynam dynamic offensive player and they have yet to have him in the lineup in 24 at 2025. And I think he’s he is a complete game changer for the Astros because that presence in the lineup, it trickles down all the way through the lineup. Again, it was a hand injury. So, he’s moving well. We saw him steal a base in his rehab assignment. He’s moving so well. He’s playing left field tonight. Altuveet Thormore, excuse me, the Nelson Cruz in 2018. Seattle Mariner fans are witnessing the greatest power season ever by a catcher. And there is a chance he’s only a few homers back, four home runs away from tying Nikki Manel for the most home runs ever in a single season by a switch hitter. Uh it’s incredible what he’s doing. Look at the Ken Griffy Jr. numbers that he’s chasing down. That’s I watch those things happen. And to see Cal doing this is absolutely incredible. Yeah. Let’s Here’s my thing. Every switch hitter, the goal is to be the same on both sides of the plate, right? He’s got 30 homers from the left side, 20 from the right. That’s That’s really incredible. Here’s number 50. He went into the winner working on trying to get the more power from the right side. Now, as I was talking about, look at the finish. And Greg, you’re going to love this because there’s left, there’s right. Not many guys through all my years of being in baseball can mirror what they’re doing from left side to right side. Here he is last year in 24 right and 24 on the left side. This is the right side. But this is this year. The little adjustment. He’s got a little bit more pop, I think, from the but the right hand is the biggest improvement. Now, here’s the thing. Here he is on 25 from the left side. You notice the hands a little bit closer to the body. Here’s who’s right-handed. He tried to do what he did on the left side right-handed. So, I want to show you something. 24. There’s what he’s doing on the left side. Look where his hands start with the right hand up closer to the face. Allows him to load and get behind the ball a little bit more. Okay, now here he is on the right side. Little bit up front. Boom. Now he sends him back. Trying to get to where he was at on the left side. I’m setting you up for something cuz I’m going to spin it. I’mma spin it around. All right. Here’s righty. There’s a flip. That’s the left side over there. Flip. Then there’s Wow. All right. Did he do the job? Look at the flip. All right. That’s the left and the right. Wow. He accomplished his goal of mirroring it. And what that does for a switch hitter, if I can take the same swing, it cuts down my work. Now, this guy, we’ve known Cal for a while now. And one of the first questions I asked him, because I was a switch hitter, when did you start? And he goes, I don’t even remember. My dad just Dad said, I threw him this way, this way. It didn’t matter. Left hand. Today you’re going to take two swings on the left side in little league. Today you’re going to take two swings on the right hand in little league. and that he doesn’t remember which is his natural side. Well, they both look natural. Yes, that’s that’s the that’s why he can do that. And his little brother doing the same dang thing. He his singular season is why Jerry Dotto is a lock to come back next year. The Mariners could fade and not make the playoffs, there’s a chance that could happen. But the fact that this guy who was given a six-year $15 million contract extension from Jerry Dotto, which is the smartest money ever spent, is now based on F4, which takes into account framing. Framing for a catcher impacts their defensive value. Regular word is not. Framing has boosted his F4 to 7.3. Why is that important? because the group think uh powers of the BBWA that is a stat that is going to hang on their mind cuz they’re not we’re going to watch the games they’re just going to look at stats and vote. So the fact that his F war is the same as Aaron Judges means this race is eerily eerily closer than people think. I know there are a lot of riders that think it’s over. Uh Judges hitting 323. Look at his OPS. His OPS is so much higher. But now that we have a stat that has the letters W in it, the group thinkers are going to have to consider Cal Ro, the big dumpers in play for the MVP. I mean, you know, the biggest difference is the average, right? And and the slug, but I mean, it’s hard to look at what he does. And we’ve talked about it at Nauseium. He plays the most demanding position in the game of baseball. Harold had a great tape yesterday. foul tips, foul balls, blocking balls, off the mask, off the knee, off the toe, off the hand, and he’s in the lineup the next day. He’s caught the third most games in baseball. It It’s not like he catches two days a week and he DHS three other days. Can I throw another stat out there that might lead to the value of Cal Raleigh? No team in baseball has scored a higher percentage of their runs via the homer than the Seattle Mariners. 49.3% of all their runs scored this year are by the homer. I if only they had a catcher who hit 50 homers before September 1st. Oh, wait, they do. Oh, wait, they do. There’s a chance the guy’s on pace for 61 home runs. Ladies and gentlemen, the alltime single season record for most homers in the American League was set by Aaron Judge at 62. The fact that a catcher could be in play to set that mark, this should be a landslide for Cal Row. No, no doubt about it. For me, it it’s it is. Now, I want to say this, okay, for all the Yankee fans and everybody else out there thinking we’re hating on Aaron Judge, we celebrated Aaron Chasing 62 the same way. We talked about him forever every day because he was doing something historic that he deserved the MVP. Cal Raleigh is doing something historic that deserves the MVP. So, if we don’t do our job in discussing this properly and fairly, then we’re wrong. He is deserving everything brought to him right now because he really is on an MVP type season. Aaron Judge, no doubt about it, having an incredible season, but he’s going to get trumped by a alltime historic for this award. More than likely, he’ll win the Hank Aaron Award, which goes to the best offensive player in each league. And there’s a chance because his OPS is higher than Cal Raleigh’s, he’ll win the Hank Aaron Award, which that’s not a terrible thing to

MLB Now | “Astros the scariest team in AL” — Dan Plesac reacts to Yordan Alvarez activated from IL

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