Should the Yankees Sign These Japanese Superstars? | 1302

Should the Yankees Sign These Japanese Superstars? | 1302

Today is November 18th and we are discussing all things Yankees baseball. Got a bevery of topics. Is that a word? Devie free awards and hot takes. Get your Yankees news from these two fine dudes. It’s time for talking Yanks. talking with old. Hello and welcome to Talking Yanks. Thank you very much for joining today. My name is Jimmy BBD behind the corner. Jake is still on vacation miscusing people all across Europe. We’ve got a ton of topics. Awards, we got to go through some of those. Yankee signed Yarby. Should they sign some of these Japanese players that are coming over? We’re going to talk to the newest member of Johnboy Media at the back end of the show. Just a ton of like little things to go over. Bes, have you ever seen Euro Trip, the movie? I don’t think I have. It predates you, but you should watch it if you’re having a silly movie night. It’s one It’s one of those that that I think they’re similar movies. I’ve seen the the I think of that the same way I think of this of the Chevy Chase movies. Uh Vacation. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they’re in my in my head they’re similar. I have no idea if they’re like 20 years apart. I think u Euro Trip has Fred Armson uh plays a character in it who just rubs up on people on the train gozi, Missoozi. Now your earlier joke is so funnier to me. Yes. I thought I thought uh I would get you with that one. I realized you hadn’t seen it because Jake just going around miscusing people. Just miscooie. Miscus. It’s pretty funny. Okay, let’s get right into it. Use code Yanks 2025 at SeatGeek for 10% off any ticket. Go to see the ballet, go to see the theater, go to see a concert, go to see some winter sports, whatever you want to do. Yanks 2025 is still active and you get 10% off any tickets with promo code Yanks 2025 at SeatGeek. All right. I think I’m going to see the Rockett this year. I haven’t seen them since I was a little kid, but I used to love going as a little boy and just like getting a crush on uh the the the dancers. And I think uh James, he’s four, but he gets crushes now. He gets very shy. So, I’m excited to watch him have the same experience. It might be time. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh if you did not know, if you are somewhere where you get no internet, but somehow these episodes come through to you, like maybe you’re in a prison and you just have like a checklist of like this is the media I want this week and that so where your source of news. Judge won the MVP. Heard it here first. To all the prisoners out there that get one source of media and they chose Talking Yanks, he got 17 of the 31st place votes. He did not get a vote from one of the New York voters. I’m not trying to vote shame anyone. I just always that’s always something I look for is because like any of the smaller markets, their people vote for them. And that’s the difference of like when they say it’s tougher in New York. It’s like in the postgame, uh, when I lived in San Francisco back then, it might be different now, all the beat reporters covered the Giants in the A’s, they were trying to write like good stories about the Giants and A’s and like give the players love like voting comes up and tiebreaker goes to their guy. And in New York, the beat reporters are trying to get like a different story or like something like, you know, because there’s so many people, you can’t just be nice all the time. I really realize the differences. And um, yeah, maybe that guy from New York is like covers the Mets. I don’t know. I don’t even want to say his name because I’m not trying to like shame anyone, but I always find it funny that it’s not guaranteed you get votes from your own city in New York. Probably other places, too. Yeah, both like both Seattle representatives went Raleigh. They did. Are you still looking at it? Yes, I’m looking at it. Yeah, I always find that funny. Um, I said this on Talking Baseball with Trev, like if it was if the MVP voting was not who had the best statistical season, which is what it is because that’s what they’ve decided they want it to be. Um, since 1988 when Gibson won it with the Dodgers. I asked uh Sarraco to look at those numbers. Have you ever seen those numbers? I’ve looked at some old NBA like when Gibson won it. Let me see if I can find it. in 19 Kyle Gibson. No, Kirk. I clicked Kyle again. He was not the best statistical player, but they they basically voted like um if without him would have been brutal. Yeah, there there’s um Strawberry. They also hated Strawberry and I guess they hated the Mets because Strawberry and Kevin Mcrenolds. Strawberry outs slugged him, out homerred him, had higher OPS than him, had more at bats. Wow. There’s um an older sports writer I he just made a Tik Tok kind of about this that came up and I’m blank on who it is because so I won’t be crediting him correctly, but he was talking about how like, yeah, awards used to be a little more fun because there’d be like surprises, but in social media era, everybody kind of talks about it all leading up and we all sort of know Yeah. Yeah. Who the best player was and you can get pretty directly shamed for voting wrong. I think war is on its way out. Not on its way out out, but on like I think in the last three years it was the end all beall and we had total like agreeance. But this was the first year that I saw other listen to other shows or heard people being kind of like questioning like but that doesn’t make sense. It should be a nuanced thing. Should be a nuanced stat not like an end all beall. So hopefully and then I was reading about how like when holds became a stat reliever started getting all these awards and and like clo uh saves um and we had like relievers getting like MVP votes and Sai Young votes and then people were like just kind of like were like all right guys like this let’s go back to being get over it. Yeah. So maybe uh on war uh uh the way I saw an article write it this year that like I’ve like the phrasing I’ve been using since was just war is more like directional. It’s like a compass like use it as like a general area. Yeah. But I think I personally only use it position to position. Yeah. Like to compare short stop to short stops or outfielders outfielders because you just get helped out by the position you play even if you’re bad at that position defensively. But um my point is I think if that’s how the award was voted on, there’s a much greater argument for Cal. It’s still close, but like you know a catcher helps every single pitch. They are involved in so much. Like the amount of chances they get to win a game is incredible. Uh help you win a game, but Judge has his four at bats and a couple plays in right field. Uh, but I mean even statistically and then if you look at like milestones like most home runs by a catcher like I’ve never really heard that said that much when Sal when Salvi did it. It wasn’t like he should win MVP. He was like wow this is amazing. It’s like most home runs by third baseman. You don’t hear that. But so I I’m out on that argument for Cal, but I’m totally in on the the catcher behind the dish helps so much way more. Like he can affect his team’s games more than Judge could in a way. I I believe that. Um, but the stat that like CC tweeted and that I realized halfway through the season talking to Jake is like, wait, he’s gonna judge going to hit 50 home runs and be the batting champ. Yeah. Which has never been done before. And like that is otherworldly to have those two skills to that level. So, congrats to the voters for not making me very mad. I haven’t gotten mad about MVP votes because I just and all those votes I’ve put less stock in them since Altuve beat Judge. I kind of became none. Um if Show beat him, I would have been mad too. But I had some emotions on the line here of anger towards the voters if they didn’t vote for Judge. Yeah. I I wonder how different it would have felt or people might have voted if Judge had gotten the one in 17 that he like should have and he already had three in the bank and because like three MVPs is like a bit of a line in the sand for people that like after that maybe they wouldn’t it wouldn’t be like oh you got to give it to Judge be like what’s the difference between four and three really I don’t know it’s crazy I mean go look at Judge’s baseball reference now because it is my goodness he didn’t get to 10 war this year which I was really wanted him to. He got 9.7 on on be war and I because it’s hard to have back-to-back seasons of 10 war and it was very small a number of players have done it. I really wanted him but my goodness I mean so out of the last four years he’s won MVP three times. The time he didn’t win he got hurt. Only played 106 games. His numbers were pretty good. his batting average keeps getting higher. Insane. Just insane. I mean, insane that what we’re seeing. Crazy. Congrats to him. All right. On the award front, uh Max Freed finished fourth in Sai Young voting, six third place votes, 24th place votes, three fifth place votes. That section in the middle of the season hurt him. U Carlos Rodan finished sixth in Sai Young voting, two fourth place votes. All right. The other Yanks that got votes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know. It’s just like voting for too many people. Uh Boon did not receive any manager of the year votes. Yeah, I find that a little odd to be honest. Do manager of the year get the same like amount of like it’s not as many It’s not as like long a list of not as many like random ass votes. I think they only vote top three and it and it kind of has become just a small market award, but there’s an argument for Boon to get some. If the Yankees all that, if the Yankees beat the Blue Jays, they would have had homefield advantage against the Dodgers in the World Series because they had the best record in the AL. The only NL team that had a better record was the Brewers, right? Yeah. Yankees had the second best record. Yeah, because they they finished tied with the best record in and it’s not like he had scrubs, but he did have to manage this year more than he’s had to in the past with the outfielder situation, with the catcher situation, with Rice, like he did have to and with the bullpen just stinking. Um, he made he made some tough moves, I think, and he agrees that he probably took too long to make them. I thought someone would have thrown a vote or two his way, but I don’t really care. And then rookie of the year, Will Warren got eighth place. Jesus, they lengthened rookie of the year balance this year. It used to also be a three, I think, and this year they went to five. And Jason Dominguez got a fifth place vote from Houston writer Allison Footer. So, thank you to Allison Footer. What were you watching? Did he have like Does she just remember his home run? Maybe. Yeah, I guess it’s more commentary just like, oh, hard to think of five good rookies sometimes being rookies. I mean, that’s awesome. Maybe she just gave a vote to every rookie. Did he like have really good series in Houston again? I don’t remember him having a specifically good Houston series. He had it’s not like he had a disaster season. We’re disappointed. And more on him later perhaps, but he they played in Houston when that umpire decided to hate to hate the Yankees. remember uh we were in Babos Houston. Houston No, he had three at bats and no hits. So maybe she’s thanking him for that. Maybe. Well, congrats on getting the vote, Jason. He went hitless against the Astros in six games, seven played appearances. But I mean, awesome. Thank you to Allison. Played the whole year. Yeah. Okay. Hey, are you a man? Do you know a man? Do they need to or do you need to improve your skinincare routine? Well, that’s where Caldera Lab comes in. They’ve redefined men’s skinincare by combining advanced science with high quality, non-toxic ingredients to create a simple, effective routine that actually works. Each product like the good, the eye serum, the base layer is formulated to support skin health and improve the look and feel of your skin. In a consumer study, men who use Calderab’s products reported noticeable improvements. 100% 100% said their skin looked smoother and healthier. 96.9% saw an improvement in skin hydration and texture. And 93.8 eight said their skin had a more youthful appearance. Skincare doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should be good. Upgrade your routine with Caldera Lab and see the difference for yourself. Go to calderab.com/yanks and use code yanks at checkout for 15% off your first order. The Yankees made their first signing of the winter. Start again. The Yankees made their first signing of the winter. Ryan Yarro, come on down. Resigned by the Yankees to a major league deal. one-year, $2.5 million contract. He can earn another 250 in performance bonuses. So, it’s up to 2.75 million total. His contract last year was 2 mil with up to 250 in unreported incentives. So, it seems like it might be the same contract with extra 500k guaranteed on top. I think he liked being a Yankee. He was the Yankees um wanted him, didn’t get him last year. He went to the Blue Jays and then didn’t make camp from the Blue Jays and the Yaggies picked him up, but he did spring training with the Blue Jays, which was interesting because we heard last winter that they liked him so much that they told him like, “We want you.” And I think he had seen and talked to some Yankees about what Matt Blake and Cole were doing with people and really was interested in coming to the Yankees. And I mean, he saved a good stretch of the season there before he got hurt. I mean, he had some absolute crazy outings. Even when Heel came back that outing in was it Boston when Heel couldn’t last long or was that Toronto and then he and then he went I think it was Toronto he went five out of innings out of the bullpen. So I like having a swing man that can step up and start guy that can be a reliever. He’ll probably end up starting a lot of games because relievers always get hurt. I don’t think this is indicative of any other move because I feel like they feel comfortable putting him in the bullpen. If he does have to be their spot start at the beginning of the year. I feel comfortable there. I think it’s just a nice major league arm to rely on, which I am in support of. Like I don’t want to rely on a rookie to do this role because you don’t you don’t know. But we know Yarro can do this role. He’s a big leager who’s done it for what, eight years now. Yeah. I think this is the eighth season he’s going to be part of. Look at me go. And I like Yarby and that funk that he’s got. So yeah, I don’t No one should really have a reaction to this besides like, oh, okay, good. Yep. Not not an amount of money that if if it goes bad, they can’t DFA. Not shouldn’t get in the way of them getting another starter. As I think everybody listening to the show would agree, they want them to go get a starter better than this. Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah, it depends on when Freed uh or when Cole and Rodon are going to come back. Like if they’re going to come back in May and you need four to five starts and you trust them, I don’t know. Yeah. Like I because I want them to do a bunch of other stuff, but Yarby right now would be the the fifth starter would be Max Freed, Cam Schlitler, Luis Heel, Will Warren, Ryan Yarro would be the rotation out of camp. That’s never that’s not going to be the case because someone gets hurt in camp always. Yeah. Even Even if you think that’s good and because one of them Cole Rodon will be back May 1st or whatever and you can get through it. Someone will get hurt. Yeah, you got you have to prepare like somebody will get hurt. So, you’d think at minimum they need another Yarby minimum. Yeah. Or a veteran guy on a one-year deal. Something like that. Uh so, congrats to Ryan Yar, bro. No one had them on their plans. Maybe I should have. Um next up, we’ve got the Trent Gisham announcement is happening today, right? Yeah, I believe 400 pm today is uh we’ll get we’ll get the tweet of all the guys who did or didn’t accept. Sounds like he will be declining, but we’ll find out for sure then. So, if you’re listening this after 4 p.m., here’s my reaction. If he doesn’t accept, okay, hopefully the draft pick doesn’t hinder Trent that much. He goes and gets his money uh from a team that where he’s going to play, be happy, and get a chance to, you know, earn his living. A lot of these players have long lives afterwards and this is their chance to cash in. So, go get that money, Trent. And here’s my reaction. If he does accept the qualifying offer, this hamstrings the Yankees if Hal really wants to stay around the 300 310 mark. He’s going to be their center fielder and leadoff guy, which is good if he can do what he did last year. But it kind of feels like an outlier season to just bank on it happening again. Uh, does this hinder Belly starter? I don’t think you can pay Trent 20 belly what he’s going to get. Uh, starter infielder. So, wow. Okay. I don’t think I don’t know if the Yankees really wanted him to accept. Yeah. Hope if if he accepted. Hopefully Yankees are willing to get back closer to like 320 where they’ve been the last couple years than Yeah. than lower. For what it’s worth, I think Cashman and Boris both had quotes saying they don’t think it would affect them, but why would either of them say otherwise affecting affecting their ability to keep belly or do other things? Yeah. Yeah. I’ll I’ll choose to believe them on future episodes, but why also why would they say otherwise? Um, in other news, the Yankees added Kevin Castro. Even weirder, Curvin Castro. Curvin. Okay. I was gonna say I saw Curvin Castro to their 40man roster. He is a pitcher from Venezuela. Signed by the Giants as an international free agent in 2015 and then the Yankees picked him up in rule five last year knowing he was going to be hurt for 2024. 2023 they got him in the minor league rule five knowing he’d be hurt. dashed him. And then he pitched last year curving Castro. Interesting. He pitched last year in Scranton Wilsburgh. So he’s I you know this could be a guy like a Johnny Lewis who kind of bounced around like this rule five picks hurt. They banked on him. He got some outings out of him. Um could be could be nothing. I guess they thought he was going to get scooped up. He he would have been a minor league free agent and like eligible to sign with with whoever if they didn’t add him. So, uh they decided to keep him around. Maybe they think he’s this year’s Yuri. Uh maybe they will just include him in a trade next week. And sure, he’s 6’1 185 according to this February 7th birthday. So, he will be 27 by the time the season starts. I mean, he had a really good year out of the bullpen for the miners. I don’t know if you need to remember this name, but you will will remember it because it’s Kervin. If he’s if he survives the spring training, he’ll probably pitch in a major league game at some point next year and you can come back to this episode. He was a catcher, converted to pitching. Um, yeah, interesting. So, they saved him. Okay. I don’t know if you need to know that, but now you know that. Uh, something they did. Yeah, he does. He’s not a flamethrower, so I’m not that into it. Low mid 90s for seaman cutter, mid 80s sweeper. Sounds like sounds like an up and down arm. Sounds like Will Warren. Um, so rule five protection is also tonight at 6 PM. Uh TJ Rumfield. TJ Rumfield came up on all my I did a I did a uh Fan Graphs report. I built the FanGrafts report based off the Yankee way book which said they want their what is it? They want their minor leaguers to have an on base percentage of Oh yeah. 360, something like that. I’ll find it right now. Uh, okay. So, they want the they want the minor leager to have, this is what they used to do at least, um, a 360 on base percentage as a standard in the minors. Um, thinking that they’re going to lose 25 points in the bigs and it would get down to 335. And then for power, they want a 420 slug as a cutoff because they get bigger, stronger, and doubles become homers. So, I did a report because I was looking at m like quadruple a minor leaguers or just minor leaguers that the Yankees should go after and Rumfield came up in it. I wonder if I can find this spreadsheet because I then I also cut it down. Yeah, here it is. I also toggled it down by K percentage. I wanted the walk percentage to be higher than the K percentage. So if I did filter by condition is greater than 359 for on base and slugging is greater than 420. I said 419 and then I wanted their K percentage to be higher than whatever it was. Um yeah, this was something I did and Rumfield came up. So like he’s kind of got the formula. I think he’s kind of blocked and he’s old and they trade away guys that have this formula. So yeah, he they didn’t protect him in the rule five last year and he didn’t get taken, but another year older I guess would make him more likely for somebody to think he can last on their major league roster. First baseman. So he’s got um he’s not fast. 30 speed. He he had a 374 on base percentage in miners last year and a 438 slug. So, he fits the bill there. And then he had a 19% his K percentage was 19. His walk was 12, which isn’t uh terrible, I guess. I was interested. I was surprised he came up. A guy they they already have. Yeah. Spencer Jones also came up, but his his K percentage log percentage is not. and real prospect. And a real prospect. Yeah, I was trying to find like diamonds in the rough. Basically, this formula, every guy I clicked on, some were like top prospects, which makes sense, like the the Detroit shortstop, who’s got the fun name Mc Mingle Gongle. Oh, what I’m talking about, McDonald or something. I feel like they have a couple names kind of like that. McGonagal. Yes. Like he came up like um a lot of prospects. Tommy Troy, he’s a top prospect or he’s not. But they were all short. Basically, it’s a short person formula. You don’t strike out. Um, so anyway, they could protect Rumfield. They could not. We shall see. Um, they will protect Spencer Jones and Elmer Rodriguez. Supposedly, no more Rodriguez Cruz. He’s just Rodriguez now. Wow. So, that’s that’s almost the biggest news here. Those two I know they’ll protect. No clue after that. Okay. Next up, Yankees promoted Dan Feroto to first base coach. I believe this guy um and Kak, who does warehouse games with us, said he’s the man, like loves him. He said I I believe he he had a similar path that Chapman had. Like I think Chapman was through the org, through the system. Um he played third base, first base, short stop, so he was an infielder in the Yankees or so. This guy’s been with the Yankees since he was 20 years old. He got what? He got drafted or he just joined. He went to Forom Preparatory High School in Manhattanville. Okay, so this is like a local kid. This is like a Vulpi story if he’s a coach and not crate. And yeah, I think according to you know Kak who we know players like him love him and he’s been with the coaching down there he coached Vulpi uh Dominguez all the will Warren wells at different points so he’ll also take on the outfield infield coordination um he was that in minor so be the infield coach yes his title and job description seems to be matching what Travis Chapman was doing which makes sense because I think everybody else besides the people we talked about stayed. So he is uh yeah, everyone besides bullpen coach. They haven’t announced that right yet. They haven’t announced it, but it sounded like either Clayborn or uh they got Desi Drew Dussel Duchelle back. One of them will be the bullpen coach, one of them will be assistant pitching coach. Oh my god. I don’t think they’ve said which one’s going to do which. So this this uh website that gives you like you know uh the profiles on every player it’s kind of like it’s behind a payw wall so usually has amazing info on everyone like any player has like tons of like anytime they’ve been quoted or their coach have been quoted just tons of info I went to Fiorto is that how you say it fur FTO sometimes they just blend it all together anyway I went to his page to see if they had you know some fun insight and this This is all it says. Uh well, first this is how they say you pronounce it. Good website. Fiorito. Okay, sure. Uh this is what they say about him. Batting one bullet point. Fiorto is an impressive hitter. Fielding one bullet point. Dan is a very good third baseman with a strong and accurate arm for the throws across the diamond. Running, nothing. No bullet points. Uh, postc career positions 2020, Dan manage the Stan Allen Yankees. Career injury report. July 16th, 2016. Further was on the DL with an injured left elbow. So, that’s all they got on. It’s all and that’s all I’ve got on them. Okay, quick break and then we’re going to talk about these Japanese stars. Hey, this episode of Talking Yanks that you’re listening to right now is brought to you by Draft Kings. They are our partners and they have sponsored this episode and in a few weeks the NBA season is going to be even more wild than it is now. NFL’s going on. They’ve got a ton for you to get in the action on. They are the official sports betting partner of the NBA where you can find whatever you want. New customers, bet just five bucks and get $200 if your bet wins paid in bonus bets. So download the Drafting Sportsbook app and use code JM baseball. That’s code JM baseball to get $200 in bonus bets instantly if your first $5 bet hits. Plus three months of NBA league pass no matter what. Wow. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is Jake. Let’s talk about some of the Japanese players that are being posted if their fits on the Yankees. First up, Munaka Murakami. Hope I said that right. Murakami. He’s the third base, first base, lefty power bat. I believe he’s shorter. I remember him from the last World Baseball Classic. I remember saying, “Wow, I’d love to this get this guy in the Bronx.” I don’t know anymore. Seems like he’s going to get good money. He’s 25 years old. Um, this is they’re the Athletic is projecting to get eight years, $158.5 million, which the AEV on that is 158.5 divided by 8 would be 19.8. Oh, that’s not that expensive, but okay. But, um, he doesn’t really have a position. They say like, is this a is this a scout court you have at the bottom? I just want to make sure I say this scout said I think he’d be an interesting fit for the Yankees given their short porch there, but you got to play him somewhere. Okay, so that’s like everyone that’s a lefty. Um, another scout said, “I don’t think his offense is going to be able to make up for his defensive issues. I don’t think third is a realistic position in the big leagues. I think first is going to be a work in progress. I don’t see left field being realistic. Kind of sounds like a Kyle Schwarber type and it took a while for Schwarber to land somewhere. is DH now, but like is this guy going to land at DH in a couple years? He can be played first. Who knows? I the scouting of Japanese players has gotten a lot better in the past. Like it’s not so much an unknown where we’re just kind of guessing. Um but I don’t know. I just don’t feel like I’d wish he fit. I wish he was a stud at first or third. Um but he also is kind of a power bat swing and miss guy. He had a high um strikeout percentage and didn’t farewell against secondary pitches. And the MLB’s secondary pitches are just otherworldly compared to other leagues. Like that’s the reports. There’s VO and it’s just it’s just a big big jump. Say from Triple A to the bigs is the biggest jump and then the same from these other leagues. So I don’t know. I don’t see that happening. There’s another first base, third base guy who’s older. Uh, Kazuma Okamoto. That’s fun. Kazuma or Kazuma. Kazama. Kazama Okamoto. Yeah. Okay. Kazuma Okamoto is probably how I’ I’d say it. Okamoto. I feel good about. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, all the countries that use the English letters, it’s phonetic. It comes out pretty Imagine if they made it not phonetic. It’s not even how you spell it in their it’s the different characters, you know. Um though, Athletic is breaking four years 78 million, which is what, like 18 million year. Uh yeah, but kind of the same per year about 18 19 less years because he’s older. All right, that’s he’s not been posted yet. Uh he missed a chunk of time with an elbow injury after a collision. He’s a right-handed hitter, corner infielder. Could be be a platoon for Rice McMahon. Has played corner positions before, but not much. Nine career starts in the outfield. Nice to know he has in his history, though. If he’s a first baseman, the expectation is he can be a plus defender at first as he continues to increase time played there, as he’s done over the last few years. Six seasons with 30 homers or more in um NPB. Um, not a big strikeout guy. 90% inzone contact rate, 84% contact rate against 94. My my thing on the Yankees is they’ve never gone besides Kiaawa was the biggest mistake they ever done. They’ve never gotten like the second when it comes to Japanese stars. It’s either they go after the top dog or they just don’t like, you know what I mean? Like people thought like the Orioles pitcher that that might have been a good fit as like a Yeah. As like a small replacement. remember Yankee source kind of saying that I think showed up people were interested but the Yankees history is kind of like we get the number one of this year or or we’re just out is what it’s been if I’m remembering correctly in my mental history they haven’t pursued that many of the like next tier guys and and maybe that’s an unfair characteristic of him like he’s a guy who is an MVP candidate in Japan and that alone might rule him out for the Yankees just because like why would he come here and pick a team that’s not going to promise him everyday run. Even if the Yankees were good at this price point, good like knew exactly how they want to use him or fine with giving him third base at bats, all of that. Yeah. Well, because because the thing is for a long long time pitchers come out of Japan, but it’s hard to find hitters that can make the jump in time. We’ve had much more recent success with Yoshida, Suzuki, and obviously Otani. I don’t even know if Otani counts because he’s just such an outlier, but you know, um Suzuki’s got uh three seasons under his belt with a career eight uh 18 OPS. Uh Yoshida’s got a um career 762, but he’s a great batting average guy. But besides that, I mean, even if you look at like play appearances recently, Jung Hu Lee is on there. Um, but he’s not really I don’t know. You You wouldn’t pay big money. I I forget if he got big money, but like looking at his stats now, you wouldn’t. Yeah, he got close to if not a hundred million out of Korea. Uh, he was born in Japan and then came out of Korea, I guess, because this is birthplace Japan. Yeah. Uh, Nori Aayoki, he’s kind of like a like a good bat, but not big money. And you got to pay big money for these guys. Um, Okamoto is one that like online people are like, “Oo, would love for the Yankees to get him.” And like obviously would love him like as a as as described, great fit, but at the contract he’s gonna get and roll and what does he want? I’m gonna watch some some highlights of him hitting. Watch a little bit of them. Uh, okay. Demolishes three-run home run against team Italy. Batani’s on second. Wow. What? It’s one-handed swing. Okay, that doesn’t count. That was a 78 mile per hour pitch. 78 mile per hour fastball. I have it on screen now. Okay. Yeah, I needed to find a not a team Italy highlight. Um, whatever. We can we can move on. I don’t He’s got a lot going on in that swing, but I watched one swing. I watched one swing and I am not an expert in any way. I just don’t think they’re going to get him. be cool if they did and it wasn’t costly and he’s like a platoon guy, but then they got to move because they have so many platoon non-costly extra pieces right now. The one that I know Dan Ror has in his plans and people are excited about is the pitcher uh Tatsua Emi, how do you say his last name? Uh, I believe is how I’ve heard the last name pronounced most often. And you have a video to watch. Athletic is saying he’s going to get eight years 190 million, which is 23 AAV. I mean, that’s big money for a pitcher. I don’t know if they’re going to do that, but people think they will. Yeah. Yes. I don’t know. Yeah. Who knows what the Yankees appetite is, but if you’re getting a guy who you think has high-end upside and it’s just a little older, so that’s how you get the discount. A little older being he’s 27 right now, not 25. You’d still get his ages 28 to 32 that you want. Can he bring his workout guy with him? Did you see all those videos of the Dodgers? M Yamamoto brought his like workout guy with him and all the Dodgers now do all of his workouts like the kinetic movement and like the it’s like whoa. I saw like the they had like the real during the World Series like showing some of it. Yeah, they’re all doing the workouts that they do in Japan for seems to be working balance and low and torque and all that. Okay, it’s a forium fastball with ride. Kind of got that Shoda lower arm slot, but a righty. How tall is this kid? I don’t I think he’s he’s got Yamamoto beat, but I think he’s still on under six feet. Wow. Nice play by Trevor Plof falling down on third base. I uh I was laughing. Okay. People I I think really like his intensity and personality on the mound. I’ve seen three pitches and I also like his uh intensity and personality. I like that delivery. All right. Well, defense helping him out. Man, that’s a nice fast ball if he can spot that. I feel like that’s got that low release point um average. What’s the leverage index that all the nerds like now? Jolly and Foolish talking about it. And I say nerds lovingly because I wish I understood complimentary. Obviously feel his position like a dog. That was awesome. Oh, I like this guy. That was Go show that pitch again. That was a splitter or or some breaking ball. Got the ground ball on it. All right, cool. Pick them up. It’s a lot of money. I don’t know how they fit that into the plans, but if they’re going to raise the payroll, that’s awesome. And like sure, if they need a pitcher, might as well get a guy who has good upside and might might be good enough to be in a playoff game and all that. Like, no, no need to mess around. 5’11 154 they say can hit 99 fastball sits 95 demonstrated MLB starter quality stamina and strike throwing for the last several seasons and he could conceivably take another step forward if even one aspect of his delivery can be polished all right dude I would love to have a Japanese player again it’s fun to have that fan base involved uh to have the different like Um, I just like culturally in the dugout like I loved when Tanaka was around or Matsui was around or Karota and it’s just like there’s just like different energy. Remember like the buddy cop of Luis Severino and Maser Tanaka like that was so fun. Um, and and you just learn from each other and all that. So I I would be excited. I guess it’d be it’d be very excited the Yankees are going and getting guys. I would hope that they I would trust them that they’re getting good guys. They just fired their international scout. Yes. Who Who that was more about like his young? It wasn’t It wasn’t like their Japanese scouting, but that’s like their like Yeah. the the international amateur scouting. Um because they they whiffed on a couple of the ones where they used their whole bonus pool on on a guy that hasn’t worked out. Um yeah, I being posted tomorrow. So, starting tomorrow he might sign. Emi, is that how you say it? I feel pretty good about Emi. First name I haven’t gotten to hear said by somebody else yet. Ei. Okay. He’s cut his walks down. Pick him up. Group of teams in. Oh, he he had a fun he had a quote people were into I think right after the World Series. They asked him about Yamamoto and stuff and I’m going to butcher it, but the sentiment was like, “Well, this is no time to be impressed. I’m trying to be the best I can be and I want to be the best pitcher.” Oh, was this the guy that said he’s getting bored of the NPB because no one’s because nobody hits homers. Nobody hits homers there and like that was it. So like the NPB is like um basically he his quote was around the lines of like no one’s trying to battle me anymore. They just try to like bunt and run or slap singles because they don’t want to like they don’t think they can. And maybe not him personally, but in the whole league it’s more small ball and he wants to go where guys are trying to like battle him. It was a good quote. It led to like, oh, this guy wants to [ __ ] compete. The the attitude he liked to hear. Yeah. So, I’m in on that. The full quote because I didn’t want to butcher it. I didn’t always dream of going to Major League Baseball, but over the past two or three years, I felt like there weren’t many hitters who were even trying to hit a homer off me anymore. A lot of lineups would just foul pitches off and run up my pitch count. I get that’s a valid part of strategy, but if I were a fan, I don’t think that kind of baseball is very fun to watch. Personally, I love power versus power matchups. Now, as a fan of a team that I want to win, I’d say I wish the Yankees did that more against dominant pitchers. But as a fan of uh competitors, I like that attitude. Yeah. But if we’re facing him in the future and he’s dominating, I wouldn’t mind being like, “Well, let’s just run his pitch count up and like hit some singles and get him the [ __ ] out of here.” Similar to what he said. I get the strategy. Yeah. All right. That ends that section of the show and now it’s time to bring in the most recent hire to Johnboy Media. I am wearing my Cam Schlitler shirt. It’s one of my favorite shirts uh the Slashline merch team produced this year. It’s Cam Schlitler. It’s Statue of Liberty. It’s everything that’s great. We’ve got tons of shirts. Slashline is the name of our merch store. They’re crushing it. We are doing awesome stuff. So, go check it out. Um, you can find your favorite team, your favorite player, your favorite moment, or your favorite brand. Click the link in the description and shop now. Okay, welcome to the show. Newest Johnboy Media hire taking over all of our cricket coverage. First, not first international hire. Peter Morland exists. Come on, she and a bunch of others. But Adam Bannon here looks like me as well. We just dead pan. Take the glass off. I just do this. If we take the hat off, how how different can we get? Okay, that’s different. That’s different. There was a day last week where you guys had the same hat sweatshirt on. We all a sudden we don’t look that alike, but we’re always wearing the same We’re always wearing hats and Yeah. One day we had the same exact outfit on and it was crazy. And my glasses are the same glasses. Really? I just wore contacts. Okay. Yeah. No, I can’t do the contacts. Got to keep the glasses up. So, um, you are, uh, hosting a new podcast brand with John Moore Media called That’s Cricket. We got the hats on with Liam. Yes, that’s Cricket. Yes. It’s a lot like the formula of our MLB show, I keep saying, where Liam is Trevor Plof and you look like me, have the energy of Jake. Yes, that’s I like that. That’s how I’ve been pitching it. Like that. It’s a good combination. So, for any baseball fan out there that doesn’t love football, doesn’t love basketball, kind of like me, and just wants to watch something in the uh winter. I’m trying to I’ve been trying for years. Yeah. But we are diving deep into the Ashes coverage this year. Yes. Um starts in two days. I’ll be joining you on the live stream. Yes. And we’re going to play a game where I give you Yankees great or Yankees players and you tell us the Australian equivalent of them. Yeah. Australian equivalent. I went I went old time. Maybe old time cricketers. We’ll see. We’ll see. I’ll get you there. I’ll get you string. I’ll get you some string, guys. Oh, yeah. You can do any all time if you want. Uh but first I How do you How do you find baseball? So, are you watching the World Series? Yes. Cuz we’re asking baseball fans to watch cricket. Yes. But you do have you started watching baseball? So, yeah. So, my first ever induction into baseball was the 2015 Mets. Okay. That was my first time ever watching baseball. So, that was a good year to watch baseball. Yeah, maybe not for you, but I mean for Mets and Jet Mets were they went to the postseason. They won the pennant. That was a f like I at that point in my life, I was rooting for those Mets. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I mean that’s how I learned. So I went when I first came to America, that’s the my family at the time. They were like they were all in on the Mets and I was like, “Okay, we’re going to watch this season.” And that’s when I learned everything about baseball happened through that season. Yeah. They’re now following along, you know, postseason here. It’s exciting. Like I was dialed in through for the World Series and I’m loving it. Like cricket I don’t think maybe the Americans audience doesn’t know this but baseball came from cricket. The founding fathers played cricket. Like we were technically British before it was like fully American. Revolutionary war kind of got rid of cricket cuz one of the things that makes cricket hard is you need to play on a pitch. Yes. And so during the war or whatever it’s hard to like you know set up a ground and bounce the ball. It’s much easier to throw the bases down and just hit and then run to the base. You know, it’s a lot easier to it’s a easier game to play from logistically. So eventually cricket kind of got worn away from American and it became baseball and now Americans kind of forget that it really was here. The first international game ever was USA Canada. Yes. Well, the history is even more than that which is why baseball and cricket hate each other. The US in promoted baseball as the national game because they want they were like [ __ ] you to England. Yes. Because what’s the saying they always say about cricket that the English used cricket as a test of civility or like a lesson in civility something like that like all the places they colonized. Yes. Um and the US when they got their freedom basically were like [ __ ] you. Which is why baseball, especially when it started, was drinking, swearing, fighting, yelling at umpires. It was ungentlemanly because cricket was the civilized gentlemanly sport. And we play cricket. We play cricket. It’s a civilized game. But still in in cricket, you don’t have any managers getting ejected. You argue with the Oh, no. It’s very big. You can’t you can’t argue with the umpire. That’s like so not to the point where like it does doesn’t happen. Doesn’t happen. No, it doesn’t happen at all. Like there’s I don’t even know what the ramifications. Can you get ejected from a match? Surely you can. You probably. Yeah. Big fines. Like even to the point like in in baseball if you turn around and just like even if you like gave that gesture of like that was a bad call in cricket, dude. Like fines like like even getting a match banned just for like even making a gesture that the umpire got it wrong. You can overrule the umpire in cricket. Oh yeah. Now so with DRS now you can go for the review. Yeah. So that’s their review system. Yeah. But if the So if I’m bowling and um and the umpire calls out, right? Like the batter’s out, but I think that there was some circumstance that wasn’t right or like I think it like they’re out of reviews. The other team’s out of reviews and in my head I know the umpire got it wrong. Yeah. The players can just be like, “No, come back, dude.” Yeah. [ __ ] the You can’t do that. You cannot overrule the the officials in US sports. In baseball. I think I saw one of your videos where you talked about like the guy touched his hand, hit the stumps and he walked himself off and in baseball if you thought that you were that you were out at home plate or out at home plate or out at first base and the umpire called you safe, you’re not just going to walk off. The umpire would say, “Get back.” You say, “Get back here, son.” Yeah. Yeah. So, in the World Series, Bo Bashette thought the umpire called ball four, so he started walking to second. The umpire didn’t call ball four. He called it strike two. So, the Dodgers threw and got Bo out because he was confused. In cricket, they would have they would not have done that. It’s bizarre. So, some people might think that’s lame if they love like the [ __ ] like grit. I I that’s the biggest difference. Otherwise, there’s so many similarities. So many similarities. And I will say nine innings of baseball is way in es and flows and in sport. It’s way more similar to the test match than the shorter versions of cricket. I do not think baseball fans will translate to the shorter version first. You reckon? I think T20 teaches you the basics of the game. Yeah. But the es and flows of a test match are way more similar to the es and flows of a nine inning baseball game. Yeah. I like to think about it more like if you were to explain a test match like it’s it’s a World Series with like the Masters or the RDER Cup kind of aspect like you’re investing in four days of watching the same teams play each other. Yeah. It’s the Masters and it’s going to go up and down. You know it day one you got to leave but day two you give it up and then you get it back on day three all comes down to the final day. That’s kind of the the vibe. Yeah. I always say it’s like the Masters like four days or five days. I’m like, “Yeah, but you don’t have to be like Eagle. I tuned in.” I think like in Australia, England when it’s your summer. It’s a lot of you watch the first hour, see what is going on, see if there’s some big wickets, and then as the game settles in, you you mow the lawn, you do the chores, it’s on the TV in the background, which is like the Masters. And then, okay, now like Tiger’s at Aiman Corner. He might be able to get some birdies here. So you sit down cuz you know this is a time I’m going to tune in and then you know okay he’s on 17 18 day two whatever I’ll just I’ll just look at the score of what he shot there. That’s what it is to me. Exactly. Especially when it’s in Australia because it starts at 9:30. So we’ll be able to watch the first two hours and we’ll be live streaming. Yes. Uh if you want to tune in and watch with us with Liam who won a World Cup for England. Yes. And and you are Australian super fan. I root Australia more than England but I I can just stay in the middle. say neutral. Yeah. But I do think by the end of a test match, if you are invested, if you watch, you walk away, especi especially good test match, like holy smokes. Like you can’t sum up the amount of storylines and matchups. The the the pinnacle of what you want for the final day is the team that’s bowling needs like three wickets in the last hour of play. The b team that’s batting has their tail enders like just trying to defend the day out. Everyone’s crowding the bat. Like everyone is within six feet, eight feet of the batter just hovering. You’re just waiting for the edge, waiting for the ball to pop up for a catch. And then you’re like watching the clock cuz it goes by time and then it goes by. They’ll give you a little bit of extra time if there’s like less than a few wickets remaining. And when you voc like when you explain that, it sounds so boring. But when you watch it, it’s thrilling because basically if you do not know, you cannot win the match unless you get it’s a in baseball. I’m going to use baseball speak. It’s um two innings. So you you you bowl, then you bat, then you bowl, then you bat. Two innings. So you get two chances to pitch and two chances to hit. But the way it works is each each batter hits until he’s out. And they do not have to run. So if they put the ball in play and there’s nothing going on, like they don’t want to risk it. They just stay still. They don’t if they swing and miss, it doesn’t matter. The only way you get out is you hit in the air and they catch it. you choose to run, they throw you out or the bowler hits the stumps with the ball and like that’s like a you’re done. Yeah. So, you have to get the other team out 20 times. Yeah. 20 wickets to win. Yes. So, what teams that are down big will do is they’ll just be like, “Well, [ __ ] that. We know we can’t win, but we’re not going to let you win.” And they play for the tie. They play the draw, which sounds so boring and like unamerican in ways, but it actually is fascinating because now they’re not trying to score. They’re just trying to protect. And the bowlers are like, “Well, [ __ ] how do we get this guy out?” So they start like, imagine you’re batting and now there’s nine guys in your face. Everyone just creeps in. Everyone Everyone creeps in. Your world’s getting smaller. It is kind of fas It is fascinating when it happens. But when you explain it or you see it without the cont like people post those clips all the time and it looks like what is a bunting cont with the context is fascinating. All right so we’re going to play a game where I’m going to give you some Yankee players current old great rookies and just some like characteristics and you have to tell us the cricket equivalent. Got it. Some you can do Australian I think if Okay. Yeah. I think most of my brain is is mostly Australian but if there’s anything out of the way I’ll get something. All right. So, we have uh Derek Jeter, later captain, clutch uh legend. Legend, retired, but he was a captain of the Yankees. He won a lot of World Series with them. Uh beloved by one, how many World Series did he win? A lot. Four. Four. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Four. Four. And good. Good hitter. Five. Five. One for the thumb. Thumb. Good. One for the good hitter. Good hitter. Uh yeah. Not a lot of power, but contact hitter. Okay. So, he has 3,000 hits, which is done by less than 10 people, right? Uh, it’s a short list. 12 people now. Okay. My first one is going to be So, captain, leader, lot of runs. I’m going to go Ricky Ponting. That’s Hunter. That’s who I thought you might go. Ricky Ponting. The alternative would be Steve War who was his the guy before him as the captain, but they’re similar. They had similar story arcs. Great leaders, great captains, a lot of runs. Uh, iconic Australian Australian cricketers. Ricky Ponting. Punter. Punter. I was I did uh play about with him and was in a two-hour car ride with him once. Just wow. Just just talking. Wow. Wild. All right. How about this? This one is a a pitcher. So, a bowler, a crafty left-hander. So, not a lot of um we would say Vo for velocity or or speed, but um you guys would say the pace. Not a lot of pace. A lot of pace. Okay. But crafty like like could manipulate, could get it done. So left-handers are a rare breed in cricket. So I’m going to go back a little bit. Crafty left-handers. Did he win many? Is he? Yeah, he was really good in clutch. Like all time playoff big moment guy. So I’m going to go bring one back for the Aussies. Nathan Bracken, left-hander. Won a World Cup with Australia. He might have won multiple World Cups, but he’s a left armor. Because I said left armors are a kind of a rare breed and uh not the high vo not a high pace guy but a lot of different variations and good good one of the best ODI like 50 over Australian cricketers ever. Didn’t play I don’t don’t know if he played test cricket ODI player very good left-hander. I didn’t know I don’t even know that name. He’s got nice flowy long hair New South Wales guy. Yeah. Okay. All right. How about this? Um, Mariana Rivera, he bowled at he pitched at the end of game. So, he was a closer. Closer. So, the alternative is death bowling. You guys say bowling at the death like very end of the game to kind of like just end it. He only threw one pitch. Oh. And he was he’s the greatest all time at closing games. Oh, wow. Closer. So, if we’re going to go Australian, we’re got to go Mitchell Stark. uh even though he’s an opening guy in the in the T20s he opens and closes the game. It’s one of my favorite things like your your best bowlers in T20, they can only bowl four overs. An over is basically an at bat. So basically they get two at the very beginning. Yeah. To kind of like take wickets and then you save them. They go play the outfield for the whole game and then come back at the death. But if I was to go all time of all cricketers, I think all the cricket nation would say the greatest closer of all time is Lassith Molinger from Sri Lanka. The big sodom action. Um, you know, he would just bowlers in a row. Um, yeah, he’s he would be the ultimate death bowler. Okay. All right. How about this? We’ve got a Jason Dominguez. He’s a current Yankee, very young, promising and talented. Uh, but has not played out to the hype yet. Okay, good. Still a lot of career left though. A lot of career left. A rookie. He started well but hasn’t finished. Hasn’t done a lot. When he first got called up, he hit a home run in his first at bat. He had big double and then now he is uh you hasn’t lived up to the hype. I got your guy. Yeah. Sam Constas. Sam Const is your guy. Sam Constess made his test to booing day test in Australia. Boxing day test is the pinnacle test. MCG Melbourne Cricket Ground got called into the squad after the the guy they had picked someone in front of him that didn’t do very well. Opening day ramps the best bowler in the world for six. And by ramp I mean like hits the ball behind him. Uh and that’s so rare to do in cricket. Never seen it before and it was just so unorthodox that first test. He got 60 runs. It was amazing daboo. Since then not a lot of runs and he just got dropped. So yeah, I made a video on that if you guys want to watch it. But uh he was 19 so he’s really young. Yes. And cricket is you don’t get called up as young. Sometimes you just Peck Cummins got a early deboo. It’s it can be really rare. You can go like you’re getting called up at 18 or like someone like Mike Hussy didn’t get called up till he was 30 and then was alltime cricketer but he didn’t start till he was 30. Okay. Aaron Judge, one of the best uh peaks of all time right now. He’s way bigger than everyone else. Insane power. Also won the batting title this year. Um good defender, captain, loved by his teammates. I think you have to go Steve Smith. So the so without the controversy without the controversy. So I probably had two names there. So he’s see coming in as captain has been captain. Uh we don’t really consider power being like the be all end all score that we’re making like are you the best batter? It’s accumulation of runs. So Smith has this third most runs in Ash’s history. He’s one of the most he’s probably going to he’s going to go to one of the greatest of all time and uh has been captain and I think he would be the guy the power equivalent would be David Warner. David Warner, big power heater, top of the order. Uh, again, a lot of Lord of Runs, uh, one of the alltime Australian batters, but he would be the power equivalent, but more like captain and and of all time, Hall of Fame. I say Steve Smith. See, I have Judge as a crazy mixture. He’s got the leadership of Pat Cumins. He’s got the power of Mitch Marsh and kind of the legend or or records of Steve Smith if you do all Australia. Yes, that’s it. Mitch Marsh is also a good power good power hitter equivalent, but but he also is a great one of the best contact hitters. Judge like he had the great batting average. So I like Steve Smith’s good. Steve Smith is just really quirky. Judge isn’t very Yes. The the batting style is not equivalent at all. Yeah. All right. Brett Gardner. He was a fan favorite. He was scrappy, speedy, strong defender. Always played hard. His fan bases loved him. Other fan bases would be like, “Oh, [ __ ] is this guy winning the game?” Yeah, like this is the guy that’s going to do this to us. Like, you know, we didn’t prep for him. Okay. Um, yeah. So, just kind of like a grinder. Scrappy Grinder. Fans loved him. Other fans didn’t love him. Okay. They were They didn’t like hate him because he wasn’t like a heel. It was just like this this guy. Okay, I think I got one. I’m going to go back. I’m going to go one of my favorite cricketers, Andrew Simons. Andrew Simons played cricket in the 2000s. He was he like wrangles bulls in his spare time. Uh and he was an infielder, one of the greatest infielders ever. He would always hit the stumps uh like quick runouts. Uh he did eventually score a test 100. He even got 150 with Matt Hayden and he was a little bit of controversy. A lot of other teams didn’t like him. Uh very outspoken, but he was a scrappy kind of guy. Yeah, I I’m going to go with Andrew Simons. I love that. All right. uh Jazz Chisum. He’s a current Yankee. Speed and power. Uh flashy, willing to play different positions. So, people wouldn’t think he’s kind of like a uh team first guy, but he because he’s got a lot of bravado and a lot of fun quotes, but he is like he plays third base because they asked him to even though he doesn’t want to. Uh he just won the silver slugger, so most power as a second baseman. Um but kind of a smaller build with a lot of power and speed. a lot of power, a lot of speed. You said he talks a lot. He’s he he makes uh Yeah. Yeah. He’s not shy. Just mind. Okay. Only thing that comes to mind is maybe Lavish Shame. I know he doesn’t uh minus Lavish Shame. He he talks a lot. He’s very He’s like a big He’s a big character. Yeah. Yeah. He He’s very like he’s like no run every time he goes to the ball. There’s close. That’s kind of works. Kind of works. Yeah. Because I was trying to think because positions he he kind of feels everywhere. He might field like it’s silly mid with the helmet on. He might go filled out, you know, in Galia or out in the boundary. And then he might even he technically may even open. He might they move up a slot for the Ashes. And he’s very just like he’s he just talks a lot. He’s the he talks a lot during the game. Uh and yeah, I think that’s probably the you know the wickets. You know who a good comp for Gardner is that I just thought of Warner. Warner would be a good comp for Gardner without like the shitheadery. Yeah. Yeah. Brett Gardner was pretty like he wasn’t uh off the field he wasn’t this way. Okay. Just on the field he was like a grinder like head down like the way Warner got it on the field and they’re both lefties and older guys. Okay. Yeah, that works. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it works. Uh one more. I’m wearing a shirt. Cam Schlitler. Okay. Uh rookie pitcher. Okay. Came out of nowhere, impressed in the regular season, but then had an all-time playoff performance. Oh, I have a good one for you here. Australian bowler. Okay. Uh the 20 Oh, what did what did you come up with this one? So you said so someone came out of nowhere. I think that when you said come out of nowhere, I’m going to say Scott Boland. Scott Boland came out of nowhere. He got thrust into the Boxing Day test. That’s in Melbourne. That’s where he’s from and he took six for seven uh in that second innings and just ripped through England and became a cult hero. the uh the commentator build him a statue. Like it was babes, you got to play you gotta play build him a statue. It’s it’s one of the most iconic moments in cricket. It’s such a good call. I wonder if I can there’s a there’s like a documentary on it that’s not going to be good, but I can there’s a short that I found. Um yeah, that’s similar that is very similar to Cam Schiller this postseason. Like he had a game that was just unbelievable like whoa. And I mean like we said there’s 10 wickets in an inning and he got six of them. Six of them and only gave up seven runs. Yeah. He just ripped through which is un like six for seven may be the greatest figures ever. And if you are just you love sports documentaries like I tried to send I remember texting my dad and my brother the episode of um what’s the test right on Amazon Prime episode of the test. the scene where this happens with all the commentary and the extra footage because he is um uh native Aber he’s indigous indigenous Aboriginal and so he had and it was his home field that he got called up on. So then there’s the crowd section and like I said when you’re done bowling in cricket you go play the outfield. Yes. So after he goes to the the outfield and now the fans are right breathing down his neck chanting his name. Yeah. And um yeah I would go watch the test. You can just skip to that scene. The whole thing I enjoy. Yeah. But that is like I don’t care what if you like the sport or not. You know, some sports documentaries just hit you in the fields and that one was crazy. But it’s one of the feelood moments in sport for sure. They put music behind it. Yeah. I wonder if there’s one. But yeah, the announcer just goes, “Build the man a statue,” which is build a statue. Bolan’s got six at the G. So six wickets at the G. Yes. Which is is the MCG. Yeah. The grounds. And that’s the thing like so getting a fifer in cricket is a pinnacle for the bowler. Yes. So it’s like getting five strikeouts or you know. No, it’s more it’s rarer than that. Well, as in like well every time you get a a wicket that’s because wickets are so rare in cricket because only 10. But it would be similar to like six innings uh pitch or seven innings pitched shut out and you walk off the cra because if a pitcher goes seven innings pitch, no runs, he’s going to walk off the mound and they’re going to get a standing ovation and he’s going to tip his hat to the crowd and acknowledge them. And in cricket, if you get five wickets, you get the ball and you show it to the crowd and they give you a standing ovation. So that’s would be the com. Yeah. And then and then the other and then the other part of it which is so crazy is just how many runs he gave up. Like seven runs is Yeah. Yeah. Insane. So rare. Like normally those figures would be like if it was it would be five for 60 or five for 80. Like it would be a lot of runs. Yeah. And babes this guy they have a starting rotation in in cricket. It’s and and for Australia they have um four quicks. No three quicks. Three quicks and a spinner. So, it’s Pat Cumins, uh, Mitchell Stark, um, Josh Hazelwood, and then Nathan Lion is a lefty spinner, but whenever someone gets hurt, he’s just a reserve, this guy, Scott Boland, but he’s so good. So, he’s there’s no dip in quality. Yeah. He just can’t get he can’t crack the others. Yes. The other one, but now two of them are hurt, so he’s two of them are hurt. So, he’s definitely a shoe in. He’s in with this test. I like watching uh test cricket bowling a lot because they’re going to throw the same ball over and over and over again and so you kind of know what they’re doing and it’s just like proddding proddding proddding. It’s you’re trying to set the batter up. You set you’re setting the batter up. So like I’m guessing like you probably use uh the tunneling in in baseball terms like you’re trying to put the ball on a length and maybe you’re trying to get the batter to to get into a certain rhythm or think a certain ball is coming and then maybe you’ll just turn the seam a little slightly in and it’ll gummy instead of going away. you take the edge. Um it’s that battle. Yeah. So, anyone still listening, we will be live uh on Thursday night, 9:30 Eastern for the first session. Uh Mitchell Stark will be opening with the new ball. If they choose to bowl, if they choose to bowl, it’s a it’s a spicy wicket. It’s a lot of green tops. See, they’re I hope so, cuz I I love watching Stark with a new ball. Yeah. If they win the toss, whoever wins the toss will probably bowl first. Yes. Yeah. So join us if you uh want. Liam won a World Cup. Adam’s a superfan. I’ll be there. We’ll be talking to the chat and kind of doing like commentary, but just also like helping people understand what’s going on. And then there will be tons of coverage. So if you have any friends that are into cricket, help us out. Pass the word. That’s cricket on YouTube, on podcast, everywhere. And you’re going to be doing social stuff the whole time. Covering all of it. That’s that’s cricket. Awesome. All right. Anything else, Bees? I think that’s it. Jimmy, one more segment. This segment is brought to you by Alex Versrod. Don’t miss Alex Versrod. Now streaming on HBO Max. New episodes Thursdays and the second of three episodes came out last week. The final episode comes up uh in two days as we’re recording this and as this will be released. Uh I brought in Dan Ror, our resident A-Rod guy who I know has been watching this doc as have I. Uh Dan, what did you think of episode two? Well, episode two I liked a lot. I just got to say for those who aren’t familiar with the hype I had going into this. This was a big deal for me, bees. Oh yeah, just to give like a quick little background. I won’t yap too much, but A-Rod, I don’t watch the Yankees without A-Rod. I am an A-Rod fan before I’m a Yankee fan. And when the biogenesis thing was going down, I think you know this story, but I was writing letters to Yankee Stadium addressed to Alex Rodriguez, having his back saying, “I know you’re innocent. MLB is railroading you.” Which they still did to a degree to be honest. Yeah. But I had his back till the federal jury said, “No, he did this.” Like I always been an A-Rod guy. And the second I realized he was guilty of majority of it, I always was saying, I need the tell all book one day. I kept thinking, one day I need the truth from A-Rod. And this when I heard about this documentary coming out, I was like, word, here we go. This is finally it. Now, episode three is where the juice is really going to No, no pun intended. It’s it seems like, you know, episode one, we got Mariners and a little bit of the start of like, okay, he signs that big contract in Texas. That’s crazy. Episode two is he he gets to the Yankees and we cover all that and it it more or less gets uh through the World Series which we’ll we’ll dive into a little more and it seems like episode three is lining up to be yes kind of where the the personal controversies and and hopefully a deeper dive on on the peed situations and all all of that biogenesis. Yeah, episode two was what I think will definitely be the least depressing of the three because episode one was, not to give too many spoilers, but I’m sure we’re talking relative open form here. Episode one really goes into the fact that his dad left him at 10 years old. Yeah, there was it was a lot of that. A lot of lot of heartstrings and early years and it’s one of those things where yo obviously you don’t want to like make excuses for somebody which I certainly am always willing to do for players that I like and A-Rod’s a prime example but man like just hearing him talk about it because you know the story that yeah he grew up basically without his dad but actually hearing the man speak on it’s like no wonder that would change your ability to be able to handle certain things in in adulthood. So, that’s one thing. That first episode I thought was fantastic. Episode two was awesome, especially for a Yankee fan to watch because it was not all like Sunshine and Rainbows. Not by any means, but it concludes almost Sunshine and Rain because 09 was the fairy tale ending for A-Rod. And he it says, I thought it was so box office the way he closed that episode and really left you on a cliffhanger. They win the World Series in ’09. Great, one of the greatest postseasons of all time. finally gets that monkey off his back and then of course we know what happens afterwards and A-Rod to conclude the episode pretty much says and I wish I retired after09 saved myself a lot of would have saved myself a lot of trouble and it almost reminds me of I won’t make any more Star Wars comparisons to this but it’s like when the prequels came out it was a story of the fall of Anakin Skywalker and you thought it would take place over the entire course of those three episodes and then all of a sudden the first two episodes come and go which Incredible. But then [ __ ] we got a lot we got to fit in episode three. We have one episode left and it is going to be this is the tell all. It’s like this is where the story is coming up. This is the part, you know, every read we’re we’re doing talks about controversy and falling from grace and all that. And this is it. Obviously there there’s little things throughout in the first first two episodes, but this episode I expect to be Yeah. And to clarify, I’m talking I’m strictly talking about like the peed side of thing, biogenesis peeds because through two episodes, yo, you get some significant stuff like the dad situation. That’s by no means nothing. That is in a way that spreads out the whole story for his like anybody your your childhood impacts. Yeah. Oh my god. The way you are as an adult and it’s not just a thing of like no matter what by default your dad leaves you. That’s awful. But he thought his dad was coming back every night. Yeah. He He said like every night I was looking out and he’d hear a car coming in and he thought it’d be his dad. Yeah. So any car went down the street, he thought it’s about to pull in. Any It’s It’s heartbreaking. It It really is, yo. And I don’t really watch I’m not the type of person that watches Hallmark movies. I don’t really get a you know, I’m not somebody like get emotional watching something, but like just nuts. And there’s so many like cool things. One more to touch on with the the dad stuff in regards to the things in the show that are incredibly badass. the series where his dad came to visit him in Minnesota that was set up by his ex-wife Cynthia. That was he was that was box office. He he said he had one of the best four game stretches of his career which hear him say that’s probably funny because it’s like he probably had that exact same four game stretch like a million times because he’s so good. But he was basically just like yo f you and they didn’t really make up. And that was one of the things I was like yo this is awesome. And in episode two, you get a lot about 09, which for me as a Yankee fan or somebody that’s so cons like I’ve consumed so much A-Rod media over the years. That was more of like the celebratory aspect of his career. Something that no matter how you feel about A-Rod, all Yankee fans will say, “Yo, thank you for 09.” No matter you don’t get 09 without him. It covers that covered his MVP years and it was and everything about A-Rod is so box office, even the bad stuff. But like09, why is it so great? Well, in itself, it’s one of the greatest postseasons of all time, but the narrative entering that postseason, it was that he’s a playoff choker and he, you know, can’t perform in the moment. There was so much so much turmoil about his career. And this is what’s so devastating about the biogenesis stuff that we’ll get into in episode three is the start of ’09 was when the initial peed revelation was coming out about the Texas Rangers stone to 03, which they touch on that, but that that’s the main story. do like the press conference, you know, admitting to that and and it’s cannot be emphasized enough like how much of a fairy tale year that was for him with the way it started and then finished because it started with that press conference and A-Rod said, “I want you to look at me from this day forward.” And if you just close it into that one year, oh, it’s the most perfect historic book ending of all time. He he gets a major injury, comes back the second he comes back season takes off. Oh, Yankees were what was I think they said they were eight and 13 or something at the time or like whatever it was a few games under. Yeah. And nothing was jelling to share Brandon Freeden signing course wasn’t hit and nothing was like really first couple starts weren’t good. Yeah. And then A-Rod not even if he had hit a homer on the second pitch it would be just as badass. But not not really. the first like that’s what A-Rod does, yo. Like he steps into the box and I’ll tell you, I had not known that how was kind of on the phone with him saying, “Yo, like you kind of rushed him back a little bit early.” I did not know that. Like may like maybe, you know, maybe maybe they did do one and and it didn’t get covered in in the dock, but like I seemed like he didn’t like do a rehab. Oh, it was just like he just like it seemed like he was like closing in on coming back, but maybe there was it seemed like maybe there was a few days left a week back, but it was just like yo, we need he starting to ramp it up and they were like, “You’re back.” Yeah. And then he comes back first pitch three bomb into left field and throughout that entire season incredibly clutch. He had the um a couple walk-off home runs in May, one of which being the the four consecutive or three of four against Minnesota. They all walked off and like that’s where the magic really started happening with 09. And then you get, of course, I’m like telling the doc myself now, but the last game of09, he’s entering the final game, game 162, 28 home runs, 93 RBI’s, has a stretch in his career that’s on the verge of ending, which was 30 30 homers, 100 RBI’s for like nine straight seasons. You figure he’s not going to get it because it’s game 162. He needs two homers and seven RBI’s. MFer [ __ ] does it in one inning. Like that was 09 for Aan. And then of course the postseason was incredible. He wins the World Series finally the monkey off his back. And that should have been the ending. Like if it just ended there, but it doesn’t. And that’s what we’re going to find out in episode three. And it’s it’s it’s it’s horrible actually. It crushes me because it’s A-Rod had so much freaking talent. And that’s something that I always knew because I heard it like you always heard people that saw him at the time as a prospect coming up. But even watching it back now, like at my age here and I’m seeing the way he looked in high school, it’s like yo, you can just tell through the TV screen seeing old footage of 18-year-old Alex Rodriguez. He’s just better than everybody. He truly probably would say this, but you can see with your eyes like the most talented prospect of all time. He didn’t need to do any of this. And like the fall of many other great men in this world, it’s thing of greed and ego, all this and that. Yeah. that we Joe and I talked about a little bit after last episode, but like truly like we hadn’t conceived of contracts that big at the time. It’s it’s like if last year they gave Sodo like you scaled it the same way. It’s like if they gave Sodto like 1.4 billion like it was it was more than double the next biggest contract in in the sport and in any sport. And you know what? It was crazy pressure. And it’s like the further away I get from that. And and the way people look at contracts now is so different that like I do almost get more than I did at the time that like the the idea that like the pressure of the contract might have been the the impetus for that, right? I um I want to touch on that really quick because this is something that really it crushed me about A-Rod’s career, which so many other things do. I wish it was just that initial stint with the Rangers because contract aside which that in its own I don’t say justifies it but you could at least like sympathize with it a little more but even just the era it was a steroid era and I know Jeter hates when people would say it but to a degree almost everybody was doing it and that was the purpose of the survey test the league was using you know like if it was just that one blip on the radar and I think the same logic goes for Manny Mirz if he hadn’t used the second time like I wish it was just at 01 to03 and I’m telling you right now if it was just 01 to 03 I firmly believe AR would be in the Hall of Fame today done. It’d be the same instance as David Ortiz who that’s a whatever he was on a survey test too. Um I thought a great line was I think Francesa said it and Francesa’s obviously box office. Uh he Mikey Mano said yo if they put this [ __ ] in front of me I’d do it too in a heartbeat you know available to him. It’s I don’t know I think sometimes we get very like is the word uh is moralistic or word or something like the we get so like caught up in the high and mighty morals of things that we forget like we’re human beings like there’s a good chance a lot of people that hate A-Rod to death would also have followed through the exact same way in the exact same way he’s not the first person not the first player athlete let’s let alone that to have an ego and to want to be the greatest and unfortunately that led to his demise but I’ll tell you man I I I understand that he’s not in the Hall of Fame and I actually understand the reasoning behind it. Maybe it’s me being a freaking back to being a fanboy, but like watching this doc, I just like I feel more and more bad for him and I’m just like, you know what? This is one of the greatest players of all time. The story is borderline tragic. Yeah. I hope I just hope it ends well for him. Yeah. I’m curious how how they’ll wrap it up in in this episode specifically when we talk about a lot of the you know he the first year he gets to the Yankees is 04 and they blow they blow the three-0 lead and Michael Kay mentions it in in the documentary like look at what his numbers were looking like in the playoffs before before the collapse. I have them pulled up here in the first seven postseason games. So that’s the through the DS in the first three games they won 37 played appearances. Uh A-Rod had 14 hits, so a 424 batting average, 486 on base, 758 slug, a 1.244 OPS. He’s doing basically what Judge did this year. He had two homers, five doubles. Um he actually does homer in game four of that series as well, you know. Uh but after that, he was like one for one for 12 in the final three games. Like it Oh, like Oh, yeah. They uh that started the stretch of what was it like until 09? He had like an RB single in ALDS against Minnesota, but before that there was like three straight playoff series. He hadn’t recorded an RBI or something like that. Yeah. Like people, you know, you get I I remember the narrative being like playoff choker and and terrible, you know, hasn’t come through in the playoffs at all, but I knew he had a good playoff career before Yankees. Like I knew he had good runs in Seattle and I and I I think I knew that he started 04 good and and all that. like looking at the game log like from game uh five of of that 04 series until 09. So it gets you three full playoff runs and finishing up 04. The those 70 played appearances. It was bad. It was bad. They were bad. Dropped to numbers. They dropped him to eighth. Yeah, he was 143 batting average of 529 OPS. like you said, just just one RBI, one home run in those 16 playoff games that like Yeah, it it it uh you know, not to, you know, comparing it to now. People were talking about how terrible, right, Judge has been and like just going to mention Judge obviously underwhelming and I and I I’ve never disagreed with like, yeah, I wanted more from Judge in the playoffs before this year where we finally put together like the full run of just great stats and and clutch moments and all of that. Um, that’s what I was talking about. But like his numbers were never this. I mean, he he just walked more is what it mostly comes down to. I was getting his walks in here, too. Um, Judge was still having like 800 OPS’s. Yeah. And like Judges had like early on he had like the the good postseason. Like this year definitely did a lot for him. And it’s a shame because they just kept going like he figured this would have been Judge’s, but individually I think it definitely it help it it helps his status for us a lot. But yeah, one thing about Judge I think about like in comparison to A-Rod is yo, I can’t speak on the mindset of the fans at the time from a first personal perspective because I wasn’t die hard by that point. 2011 was my first year. So I’ve done a lot of lure studying at the time. That’s how whatever. But dude, like with Judge, it’s brutal. Like there are parts of Yankee fandom that disregard everything that Judge does in the regular season because he had not performed in October, had those troubles in October. Oh, great. Yeah. And to a degree, I don’t I think that’s what makes us better. Like I I’m I’m not even somebody that’s disagreeing with the notion like people can be nasty about his his struggles in the playoffs relative to the alltime seasons, you know, we’ve seen. Yeah. So with that said though, it’s like I know how bad that was and it would it would get bad and for for A-Rod to go through Judge is homegrown. Judge wasn’t right after a high in terms of winning championships. Like even though A-Rod came over in 04, obviously they had gone to the World Series in 01 and then 03. So, and [ __ ] at that time, four years ago, they won the World Series. So, it’s like you’re coming off this period of, yo, it’s all clicking, everything’s working. We’re winning World Series, and you have this great core, blah, blah, blah. And then A-Rod shows up and they’re not winning. He’s not performing. He’s not homegrown. He’s brought in as like a be cliche here, but like higher gun type thing or, you know, gravy on top of what was already an elite roster and they don’t win. Like I know how bad it was already with Judge in the narrative surrounding his playoff struggles and he is in a such a better position to be beloved cuz he’s homegrown and the team before him was not winning titles non-stop or wasn’t like the best of the best. So it’s like I can only imagine how brutal it actually was. Yeah. And what really I know I’m yapping here, but like just one more thing on like episode three coming up and the biogenesis thing. It’s such a shame because the rumor has it the documented use is for a second time was he started again in 2010. Apparently he started a couple weeks before his sixth home run. We’ll see if that’s actually the case come episode 3. Yeah, what we learn about. Yeah, that was in 2010. And it’s like I wonder if there’s any way and I hope he doesn’t try to justify it. I don’t think there’s really any way to try to justify it because it’s like by that point the pressure should have been off A-Rod. Like you finally did win. You finally had that postseason. you finally were embraced as a true New York Yankee. You won. So why do you start taking steroids the next year again after already a year earlier and a year and a half earlier saying, “Look at me from this day forward.” And I said that out of love. It [ __ ] it. Sorry. It breaks my heart. It breaks my heart. But hey, he’s telling all the truth now. So I mean the documentary is fantastic and I’ve been I’ve been loving it. I’m sad it ends this week, but yeah, it’s been it’s been fun. And it’s a good time for it before hot stove season really kicks in. Um, check it out. HBO Thursday nights. Um, yeah. What up? Go Yanks. Tom Grams. Go Yankees. Go Yankees. Go Yankees. Go Yankees. Go Yankees.

Aaron Judge wins his THIRD MVP Award, and the Talkin’ Yanks crew is breaking down everything from MLB award season to the Yankees’ latest moves—and asking the big question: Should the Yankees sign Japanese superstars Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto, and Tatsuya Imai?

We cover all the latest Yankees offseason news, from Ryan Yarbrough’s re-signing and Trent Grisham’s qualifying offer to new first base coach Dan Fiorito. Then we dive deep into Japan’s best players potentially making the jump to MLB—and what it would mean for the Bronx Bombers.

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+++++
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:45 Aaron Judge Wins His THIRD MVP Award
9:45 Cy Young & Other Awards
13:45 Yankees Re-Sign Ryan Yarbrough
16:55 Trent Grisham Qualifying Offer
21:10 Rule 5 Protection Deadline
24:50 New First Base Coach Dan Fiorito
28:43 3B/1B/DH Munetaka Murakami
31:00 1B/3B Kazuma Okamoto
36:05 RHP Tatsuya Imai
42:53 What Cricket Players are These Yankees Like?
1:07:29 Alex vs. A-Rod Episode 2

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