This episode covers the latest in sports, including NCAA March Madness, MLB season highlights, and player performances. Stay tuned for expert insights, game analyses, and predictions for upcoming tournaments.
00:00:21
Hey, shrewdness fans, welcome to episode 90 something of the
00:00:28
podcast 95 Chisholm tells us. I'm Prue, Dex and Chiz here with
00:00:32
us. We have another great episode to
00:00:35
bring you this week and we're going to start off with an
00:00:38
update on March Madness. We're down to the final four,
00:00:41
including a couple of pretty exciting games over the weekend.
00:00:45
So we'll talk a little bit about that.
00:00:47
We want to go into some early baseball news.
00:00:51
The MLB season is underway. We've got for three to four
00:00:56
games under our belts for each team now and wanted to highlight
00:01:01
a few players that are off to a hot start and and really needed
00:01:05
to be after last year or the last couple years.
00:01:09
So we'll talk about a couple players in particular that we're
00:01:11
excited to see start hot this year.
00:01:14
So I'm going to throw it over to Chiz to talk us through what has
00:01:18
happened in the NCAA tournament and what we have to look forward
00:01:22
to in the next week, which will be crowning a champion.
00:01:27
That's right. It's a super fun time of year.
00:01:29
Actually, it's a great time of year for sports because you got
00:01:32
you got NBA, you got NHL, both of those headed towards
00:01:36
playoffs. You got March Madness, you got
00:01:38
opening of of baseball next week or two weekends from now, you
00:01:43
got the masters golf, lots of cool stuff going on.
00:01:46
So it's Frozen 4 for college hockey fans, right?
00:01:49
College hockey fans College hockey is heading into high
00:01:53
gear, but ball league if you're a.
00:01:55
Battle Hawks fan or whatever eighteens or whatever the heck
00:01:59
it is. I heard there's some new teams
00:02:01
this year in some new places, but I don't know the names of
00:02:04
any of them. The.
00:02:04
First game though, that's all I know.
00:02:05
It was Palooza in Saint Louis's last weekend.
00:02:08
Oh, I bet, I bet. So the last time we we had a a
00:02:12
podcast, we had gotten to the Sweet 16.
00:02:15
So I'm going to give you a quick couple results on what happened
00:02:18
there and then we're going to talk about the elite 8IN
00:02:20
specific. So so there were some pretty
00:02:22
good games in the Sweet 16 Duke St.
00:02:25
John's, which we talked a lot about coming out of the East
00:02:29
region. Saint John's.
00:02:31
We all said Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke St.
00:02:33
John's hung man, Saint John's hung a long time and we were all
00:02:37
like, wow, that like we all thought they would have some
00:02:41
fight, but maybe not as much as they did.
00:02:42
Duke had to had to play really well to win that game, but they
00:02:46
ended up pulling that out 80 to 75 to make it to the Elite 8.
00:02:49
And the other half of the bracket was a really good game
00:02:53
was UConn, Michigan State and two great cloak coaches, Hurley,
00:02:57
Izzo, we talked about that. UConn came out gangbusters.
00:03:01
They were like blowing them out. Look like Michigan State was
00:03:04
just going to get blown out the water.
00:03:05
But Tom Izzo, as always, made adjustments and when he made
00:03:08
adjustments, they slowly crapped back into that game.
00:03:11
And man, if that was not a nail biter.
00:03:14
Really good and and really evenly matched game.
00:03:17
Yukon pulled it out 6763. So that set up Duke Yukon, which
00:03:22
we'll talk about in just a second.
00:03:24
That's a tease is what that is. So let's look at the South.
00:03:29
The South. We had the unlikely corn fed,
00:03:34
Iowa, Nebraska, we all said Nebraska's clearly the better
00:03:37
team. They're going to win.
00:03:38
And so Iowa won of course, and Iowa went ahead to play Peru's
00:03:45
favorite Illinois. And shocking to Dexter and I, I
00:03:51
really did not think they could beat Houston.
00:03:52
Houston did not play a good game.
00:03:55
They only played they were horrible 55 points.
00:03:57
They were Clank fest and Illinois beat them by 10.
00:04:01
So Illinois really proving themselves, they said there'd.
00:04:05
Be a Didn't you say there'd be a 10 point winner in that game?
00:04:08
Dex? Was that the one?
00:04:10
I do think that you were right about that, Dex.
00:04:12
You were right about the 10 points, just Illinois,
00:04:17
obviously, obviously. So that set up the another corn
00:04:21
fed match up of Illinois, Iowa and the Elite 8, which we'll
00:04:24
talk about in a second. In the West.
00:04:26
We had unfortunately a blowout Arizona.
00:04:30
Arkansas was not nearly as good of games.
00:04:31
We thought basically Arkansas had no answers for Arizona on
00:04:36
defense. Arizona put up 109 points.
00:04:41
That is ridiculous. Hasn't struggled much the last
00:04:44
couple games put it that. Way they are looking really
00:04:48
spicy right about now. It's like they're speaking at
00:04:50
the right time. I would say so.
00:04:52
They put they beat Arkansas like 21, Arkansas put up 88 and that
00:04:57
still wasn't enough to even come close to him.
00:05:00
My prediction was that Arkansas would have to win like 88 to 85.
00:05:05
Yeah. And yeah, they just, they gave
00:05:07
up 25 extra points there. A.
00:05:10
Little lacking on the defensive side of the ball, so that was
00:05:14
not as good a game as we thought.
00:05:15
Arizona advanced elite 8:00 and then in the semi Cinderella, but
00:05:23
Purdue, Texas. Texas gave him a run much better
00:05:27
than I expected. Purdue ended up winning by two,
00:05:31
but man, that was a good game, too.
00:05:32
So that was 79. 77 That was great.
00:05:36
It's a really good round of 16 games going to the Midwest.
00:05:41
Then we had Michigan, Alabama, Michigan just way too much for
00:05:45
Alabama. Alabama I mentioned was streaky.
00:05:49
They streaked them the wrong way.
00:05:50
In this case, they lost by 13 to.
00:05:52
Just kind of foreseeable it was Michigan is so much better
00:05:58
talent wise than everything else.
00:05:59
It wasn't really much of A shock to anybody at all.
00:06:00
And. One of the things we'll talk
00:06:02
about and we'll, we'll talk about when we get to Michigan,
00:06:05
but they seem to be able to beat people in any way they would
00:06:08
like. So if you want to go slow, if
00:06:10
you want to go fast, OK, we'll play either way and we'll beat
00:06:13
you. So they they got to the Elite 8
00:06:17
and then they were waiting for the winner of Tennessee, Iowa
00:06:21
State. This was a massive surprise for
00:06:23
me. I had Iowa State in the final
00:06:25
four. The loss of one of their better
00:06:27
players finally caught up with them.
00:06:29
And I think Tennessee was just red hot.
00:06:31
They were that's a team that was peeking at the right time for
00:06:33
sure. So they dispatched Iowa State
00:06:36
and it was not even really close.
00:06:37
The game was never. Really close, yeah.
00:06:39
And the pregame before that game, all the, all the
00:06:43
announcers were like, pretty sure Tennessee's going to take
00:06:47
this one. And I knew I was in.
00:06:49
I knew I was in trouble because I was like, wait a second, I
00:06:52
thought. I I.
00:06:53
Thought I was there. It was supposed to be like,
00:06:55
yeah, so. They are, but their best guy,
00:06:57
the All American, was out and that's, yeah, that's a killer.
00:07:00
That's a real center too. Like that's that, just did them
00:07:03
in. But, you know, since they had
00:07:04
beaten Kentucky by 19, I was like, man, seemed to be all
00:07:08
right without that guy. But yeah.
00:07:10
Kentucky's got a lot of quid in them though.
00:07:11
Yeah, they do for sure. That was kind of like all season
00:07:14
long. Yeah, that's what they even,
00:07:16
they even highlighted that that that team, when they're prepping
00:07:19
for Kentucky, they said if you get on to them and get them,
00:07:22
they will quit if you beat them long enough.
00:07:25
And that's exactly what happened.
00:07:26
Even their first round game they should have lost to Santa Clara,
00:07:28
except for that Hail Mary 3 pointer they threw out.
00:07:31
So that was Santa. Clara had them.
00:07:34
Yeah, they had them beat. So so we we set the stage for
00:07:37
the Elite 8 and across the board the games were pretty much
00:07:41
disappointing, except for one. So let's talk about how how the
00:07:45
other three played out. I mean, they look like
00:07:47
heavyweight matchups. So we'll start with where we
00:07:49
were in the Midwest, Michigan, Tennessee.
00:07:51
Tennessee was streaking like crazy, playing great.
00:07:54
I was like, man, this could be a good game.
00:07:56
Holy. Now this was a snoozer.
00:07:59
Oh yeah, word like right off the bat too.
00:08:02
It got out of hand in a hurry. What did you say?
00:08:06
Well, that's no fun. It was just.
00:08:10
What else can I do today? Right.
00:08:12
It was just absolutely ugly. And what's on the Hallmark
00:08:17
Channel? I want anything interesting.
00:08:19
Absolutely well and if you look at the stats for the game #1
00:08:23
Yaksa Lindenborg is just a stud. Like dude is legit.
00:08:28
But Tennessee just shot God awful.
00:08:32
They shot 32% from the field, 19% from 3 point range, 53% from
00:08:38
the line. Like that is not.
00:08:43
Hitting the. Broad side of the barn, right
00:08:45
there and well. Michigan plays good D, but that
00:08:48
doesn't do anything. You don't defend the free throw.
00:08:50
No, no, absolutely not. And so you know when you looked
00:08:54
at this game at halftime, it was it was like a 22 point game.
00:09:02
It was just and in the second-half, there was never
00:09:04
really a run from Tennessee. It was like they were almost
00:09:07
just like it looked like you're watching a why game guys are
00:09:09
just kind of playing it out like, all right, you know,
00:09:13
pretty. So that easy cakewalk from
00:09:17
Michigan to the Final Four? They look like a stud team,
00:09:21
right? Now they're on a heater.
00:09:23
They're on a heater that's going to be.
00:09:24
They're going against another stud team because in the other
00:09:28
side of the bracket, Arizona played Purdue and the same thing
00:09:31
happened. Not quite to the to as much of
00:09:33
an extent, but they hammered Purdue.
00:09:37
Yep, this was a a bit of a shock to me as well.
00:09:41
I thought this was going to be a good game because Purdue is a
00:09:46
very solid team. They're consistent.
00:09:49
And here's the crazy part about this game.
00:09:51
Purdue was up 3831 at halftime. Yep, they're up.
00:09:55
That's exactly right. Seven and.
00:09:58
Lost by 15. And lost by 15, so the
00:10:01
second-half score was 48 to 26. Yeah.
00:10:06
And Arizona, they're just so balanced and they're very
00:10:12
confident. They're a very confident team.
00:10:16
What do you guys think about that side of the bracket in the
00:10:19
final four? Who do you like in in the
00:10:22
matchup of Arizona, Michigan? 2 freight trains headed right
00:10:25
for each other. Well, Charles Barkley made sure
00:10:29
everybody knew that he had been talking for at least three
00:10:33
minutes about how Arizona and Michigan were the best two teams
00:10:37
in college basketball. Yes.
00:10:39
So in his opinion, this is the Finals.
00:10:42
Right. He thinks whoever wins this
00:10:44
game, that that's it. Crown him.
00:10:46
Yeah. Yeah, he's like, these are
00:10:48
easily the best two teams in the nation.
00:10:50
I can't disagree. After watching the the display
00:10:53
they put on in this Elite 8 round, I'm I'm super impressed
00:10:58
with both. It's going to be a really good
00:11:00
game. So gun to your head, here's the
00:11:02
line. Michigan -1 1/2.
00:11:04
That's how good of a game this should be.
00:11:06
So through gun to your head. Who you picking?
00:11:11
Make the final. On my on my bracket is Michigan.
00:11:15
I'll stick with them sticking with it.
00:11:17
I can't find any flaw in their game right now.
00:11:21
I like it. OK, so Michigan coming out of
00:11:23
that side of the bracket decks, how about you Arizona, Michigan
00:11:26
match up, Who do you like? I've got Michigan as well, even
00:11:30
though I'm not as confident as I was before the weekend.
00:11:33
Arizona, I mean, I know they're good.
00:11:36
I mean, I had had them winning going to Final Four, but I kind
00:11:39
of thought Michigan would be quite a bit more favored in this
00:11:43
game. And then you see why they're
00:11:45
only a point and 1/2. So I think it is going to be a
00:11:47
great game and there's tons of ways Arizona can win it.
00:11:50
But I like Michigan still. I still think that they they
00:11:53
just have such good size and they're well coached and they've
00:11:57
been seasoned. The Big 10, it was tough this
00:12:00
year. Like we've been saying, it's
00:12:01
kind of been the Big 10 Invitational.
00:12:03
Yeah. And Michigan is.
00:12:04
Yeah. Well, the cream of the crap, the
00:12:06
Big 10, and it's just you've seen all over the place, Big
00:12:09
10's gone deep. The whole conference has gone to
00:12:12
the Elite 8. It's been definitely been their
00:12:15
tournament to shine for sure. So you're going to Michigan.
00:12:21
My head says Michigan. You guys know my heart.
00:12:23
My heart absolutely despises the Skunk Bears.
00:12:26
So we are going to go Arizona. Arizona takes the West, although
00:12:33
I think you guys are probably right, managed to probably win
00:12:35
the game, but we're going to go Arizona.
00:12:37
Arizona's going to win. So look at the other side of the
00:12:39
bracket and we had another Big 10 match up in Illinois, Iowa
00:12:45
out of the South. It was a close game for a little
00:12:48
while. It was it was it was competitive
00:12:51
in the first half and then I think what you saw was just a
00:12:55
three seed and a nine seed and the talent sort of started
00:12:58
wearing out the nine seed. Illinois stretched it out, ended
00:13:04
up winning by 12, which is a cover.
00:13:07
Good teams win, great teams cover, and they definitely
00:13:10
covered Illinois's. Pruitt's Illinois fever dream is
00:13:14
coming true. Out of that they.
00:13:18
Are. They are in the final.
00:13:22
Iowa actually had to leave this game by 4:00.
00:13:24
So it was another, another lopsided, another lopsided
00:13:29
second-half, 43 to 27. So they just ran out of gas, it
00:13:34
looked like. But Illinois is probably no
00:13:38
disrespect crew, but of the teams that are in the final
00:13:41
four, they are definitely 4th. They're not a bad team.
00:13:45
They're not a bad team and and they've they've played really
00:13:48
well. But if you look at their path
00:13:51
outside of the Houston game, which was a very big impressive
00:13:55
outside of outside of that game, they have, it's been a
00:13:59
relatively easier path. It doesn't mean that they can't
00:14:02
pull off Shocker, but they're going to have to pull off 1
00:14:04
because they're going against the winner of the Duke UConn
00:14:08
game, which may be the best ending to a college basketball
00:14:16
game I've seen in deck. Valparaiso.
00:14:20
Like maybe. Like I mean it seriously had
00:14:22
Lightener vibes to it the way this game ended.
00:14:25
Oh my God. Set the stage Duke owned Yukon
00:14:30
in the first half they're. Up it was another sniff team.
00:14:33
They're off to snooze, right? Yeah.
00:14:35
It was like they were beat them like a red headed stepchild.
00:14:38
It was 19 points at one point in the second-half. 44 to 29 at
00:14:45
halftime. 4429 halftime, they stretched it to 19.
00:14:48
At one point in the second-half, no number one seed had ever been
00:14:53
up by more than 15 points and lost.
00:14:58
OK. So has to be the first one.
00:15:00
Duke was the number one number one seed.
00:15:02
They were by 19 points. That said, Danny Hurley is 1.
00:15:08
Hell of a coach. I mean, I got a lot of respect
00:15:12
for this guy. A lot of guys don't like him
00:15:13
because he is a super disciplinarian, kind of in the
00:15:17
old school Bobby Knight. He's not abusive like Bobby
00:15:19
Knight, but some people would say.
00:15:21
Punching the kids He's not. He's not hitting kids, but he is
00:15:24
definitely not like this generation's safe space.
00:15:29
You hurt my feelings like it is not that at all.
00:15:31
It is. He is like, do your effing job.
00:15:35
That is what kind of he preaches and he's.
00:15:37
Which is super. Big into that.
00:15:39
Responsibility in a way. It is.
00:15:41
It is. Yeah, I I have.
00:15:43
A lot of accountability. Yeah.
00:15:46
Oh, he's all about accountability and
00:15:47
accountability because you owe it to your team and you owe it
00:15:49
to yourself. So when you go to this program,
00:15:52
you know you're going to be signing up for 6:00 AM workouts
00:15:55
and you're not going to be you're not going to be cruising,
00:15:58
you're not going to be Mr. You know, I'm a prima Donna five
00:16:02
star and I don't. Care come here to play school?
00:16:05
That's right, that's right. So somehow down 19 against an
00:16:11
incredibly talented Duke team, like nobody should be able to
00:16:15
really come back from 19 against Duke.
00:16:19
The Boozer brothers, Boozer Bros, I mean, Carlos Boozer had
00:16:23
a phenomenal game in this one. He is a legit player and you
00:16:29
know you can't blame you can't blame him for.
00:16:31
This NBA size and moves underneath like he takes body
00:16:35
shots and still puts it up. He really does.
00:16:38
He's a really good player. Really like watching him play.
00:16:42
But when you're up that much, you think it's over.
00:16:45
And for those of you who didn't see, I'm sure you all saw, but
00:16:48
the last play of the game was just befuddling.
00:16:51
And I just kept saying to myself, and I think I said to
00:16:53
you guys in a text, I can't imagine this happens under Coach
00:16:57
K. No offense to to Duke's coach.
00:16:59
Now he's a younger guy, He's learning.
00:17:03
But he probably didn't tell him to throw the extra pass, either.
00:17:06
Sometimes that's not coaching. That's just a young freshman
00:17:10
making a bonehead play in the excitement of the moment.
00:17:13
Yeah, I don't know. I know what I'm saying, no?
00:17:17
I, I totally agree. I totally agree.
00:17:18
But, but if you look at that, if you set up the scenario, they
00:17:22
were down, Connecticut's down three, they have A1 or two shot
00:17:25
free throw. They missed the first, they hit
00:17:28
the 2nd and you're like, well, they're screwed because they're,
00:17:31
they're down to there's 10 seconds left.
00:17:34
You got a foul, you hit one free throw.
00:17:36
The worst that happens is you is you go to overtime.
00:17:39
And so I mean, it's all in Duke's hands.
00:17:43
They call time out to get organized and and they inbound
00:17:47
the ball and it was like you saw it was like slow motion as
00:17:53
you're watching, you saw this happening as a fan, you're
00:17:56
watching it and it's like a little shaky getting the ball in
00:18:00
to begin with. And then like the whole team,
00:18:02
there's like a collective panic over the Duke team.
00:18:05
It was like get the ball. Away for real reason either for
00:18:10
no real reason the first. The inbound pass is is by far
00:18:13
the most stressful. Yes.
00:18:15
And when that happened, I was like, OK, they're great.
00:18:18
You know, two guys collapsed on Boozer.
00:18:21
He throws it back to the inbounder.
00:18:23
Yep. Who?
00:18:23
Who was unguarded? Unguarded.
00:18:26
Who could have stood there another second?
00:18:29
At least maybe 2 seconds. They're they want to foul you,
00:18:32
remember, right, They want to foul you. 10 seconds left in the
00:18:38
game, so there's no reason you have to get across midcourt.
00:18:42
No, you're not going to get a violation.
00:18:44
Right. So just hold on the ball, wait
00:18:46
for pressure and then give it up.
00:18:49
He immediately gives it up and he puts it into the hands of a
00:18:52
freshman. Yep.
00:18:54
Little booze, little booze. Who again, didn't need to pass.
00:19:00
Just stand there, hold it, wait to get.
00:19:02
Hold it and put elbows up. Make them, make them put you on
00:19:05
the charity. Strive guys.
00:19:07
And I think he saw daylight at the far end of the court.
00:19:11
To your point, Prue, I think he saw a guy streak and he was
00:19:14
like, I'm going to hit him. I mean, it wasn't a bad thought.
00:19:18
It's just you got to, it's not situational basketball.
00:19:22
Yeah, it was. It was unnecessary for the
00:19:25
situation. And every time you pass, you put
00:19:28
the ball in harm's way. Totally right.
00:19:30
And Yukon made a phenomenal play that the two guys that were
00:19:35
there on him, which means obviously somebody's open, but
00:19:38
two guys on him, he throws it. He made the worst kind of pass
00:19:42
too, which is up in the air. So it's like you tipped.
00:19:46
Sure enough, it got tipped. And when it got tipped, it was
00:19:48
like then it went really slow MO.
00:19:50
It was like, Oh my God. Dude.
00:19:53
Got it. This is what I was amazed by
00:19:57
UConn and you can tell that they have been drilled and been in
00:20:00
pressure situation and practice because a freshman Mullins got
00:20:05
the ball and he immediately like most teams.
00:20:09
Most teams in most colleges, that kid takes 2 dribbles and
00:20:12
chucks it just because like like they're like oh I know there was
00:20:16
10 seconds when the ball got inbounded, I got to get rid of
00:20:19
it right? What was it when the ball is
00:20:21
tipped? Was there like 5 seconds left?
00:20:24
I. Think it was like 5 seconds,
00:20:26
yeah. And.
00:20:26
After you got it, yeah. 5 seconds goes fast as hell,
00:20:30
right? Yeah.
00:20:31
So but he like dribbles, he immediately passes to a kid
00:20:35
who's open and then that kid 9 times out of 10, Jackson from
00:20:41
there immediately just throws it up right.
00:20:43
But he's got the presence of mind to be like, no, I'm guarded
00:20:48
going to kick it. I'm guarded.
00:20:49
I'm kicking it back to him and he kicks it back.
00:20:52
To the true freshman who hadn't made the three pointer all game.
00:20:57
Who? Hadn't made anything all game.
00:20:59
Who was standing 6 feet behind the three-point line?
00:21:03
He was at the logo. He was at the logo.
00:21:06
And I tell you, I got to tell you again, 90% of of college
00:21:10
kids when they get this ball and if any of the three of us got
00:21:13
this ball back at that point in time, our arms and legs
00:21:16
immediately just extend that We're just like everything just
00:21:19
gets like you're like get rid of the balls back, throw it up.
00:21:23
He like took a dribble. And just composed like he was
00:21:28
just like. Nah, no time, no pressure.
00:21:31
And then after he drains it from the logo, he just goes and just
00:21:37
kind of like like. He just kind of raises his arms
00:21:41
like that was pretty damn good. Just like practice.
00:21:45
I mean, I would have been like running into the crowd, like
00:21:49
ticking my. Floor.
00:21:53
Let's be honest too, I I would have probably hit the shot clock
00:21:58
maybe, or the cheerleader, I don't know.
00:22:04
And it happened so quick. You, this is one of those things
00:22:08
that makes March Madness magical is it happened so quick.
00:22:13
It was like your brain couldn't process it.
00:22:16
And then after the ball went through, you were like, Oh my
00:22:19
God. They have to leave.
00:22:24
Yeah, they're hit by 1:03. I had to.
00:22:31
I had to rewind and show my wife and my son I.
00:22:33
Did the exact same thing. I called him over.
00:22:35
You have to see. Yeah, both could really care
00:22:39
less about college basketball, but I was like, no, no, you got
00:22:43
to come and see this. Look at this situation.
00:22:45
I mean, just what a what an end I.
00:22:47
Set it up for him. I'm like, OK, here's the
00:22:49
scenario, you know, like and and then they were like, wow.
00:22:53
But I'm like, no, not wow. Like wow, you've.
00:22:58
Got to get the right wow. And I kept, I kept throwing more
00:23:01
out there like Andy hadn't made a three pointer the whole game.
00:23:06
Andy was a freshman and he was from, you know, 5 feet behind or
00:23:11
6 feet behind the arc. Totally.
00:23:13
I mean, the fortitude that this team showed, and this is a team
00:23:20
I did not think had this in them.
00:23:23
I knew they were a tough team, but like, I think they had
00:23:26
enough talent to come back from 19 points against Duke.
00:23:29
They just kept. Coming.
00:23:31
Didn't we say Duke only lost three games all year?
00:23:34
Yeah, and they lost all by double digits apparently.
00:23:36
I didn't know that. Yes, yeah.
00:23:38
Yeah, that was but three games. To find out they lost, yeah,
00:23:41
double digit weeds and that's how you lost all of them.
00:23:44
And so they, like I, I was absolutely shocked by this, but
00:23:50
what a game. This is a classic.
00:23:53
Yep, insta. Depending on how the rest of the
00:23:57
tournament plays out, this could end up being like a Tie said in
00:23:59
Missouri, which is a heartbreaker for us Missouri
00:24:01
fans. Yeah, where they go down, Tie
00:24:04
said. He goes on the floor, scores
00:24:05
with no time left, and then they end up winning the whole thing
00:24:08
that year. So we'll see.
00:24:11
But Connecticut definitely looks like one of those rare teams
00:24:16
that has that championship DNA when they do this.
00:24:19
So they are going against Prousterdamus favorite Illinois
00:24:24
now. Pru in your bracket?
00:24:26
Did you have Illinois any further than this?
00:24:28
I had them losing to Duke. OK.
00:24:31
So all right, yeah. OK, so so the Prousterdamus has
00:24:36
been fulfilled. Yeah, aside from that miraculous
00:24:39
shot by Yukon, I would have had three out of four.
00:24:43
Wow. Which is the best I've ever
00:24:46
done? Yeah, amazing.
00:24:48
That's amazing. But still, I'll take two out of
00:24:50
four. Yeah, I think a lot of people
00:24:52
had Duke. Yeah, Yeah, I think you're
00:24:55
right. I think you're right.
00:24:56
And Dex, you had, you had two out of four on this one too,
00:24:59
didn't you? Yeah.
00:25:00
Duke would have been the third one.
00:25:02
Yeah, yeah. Michigan, Arizona.
00:25:05
I didn't have Illinois. Not for me.
00:25:07
I had one out of four. Arizona, which is about what I
00:25:11
usually get. Yeah.
00:25:14
So Arizona is who I had Yukon, Illinois.
00:25:20
Where do we stand here? Is, is Yukon out of gas?
00:25:24
Did they just play their last like holy cow, there's nothing
00:25:27
after that? Or are they just that much
00:25:30
better than Illinois? The line, in case you're
00:25:33
wondering, I was shocked by this.
00:25:35
Illinois -2 1/2. Wow, I I thought it'd be small,
00:25:40
but I thought I'd be on Uconn's side.
00:25:41
Me too. I thought it'd be like a 1 1/2
00:25:43
or two so. I'll throw to you first Dex on
00:25:46
this one. Who comes out of this game?
00:25:49
I kind of like Illinois against this matchup because I think you
00:25:52
might be emotionally drained by now.
00:25:54
After UConn. You've now had two nail fighters
00:25:57
in a row, you had to hold off Michigan State, and then you had
00:26:02
a miracle of miracles to beat Duke.
00:26:05
I think at some point the magic runs out, whereas Illinois seems
00:26:07
to be getting better and better. I mean, they beat the Jesus out
00:26:11
of Houston and they kind of beat the Vegitas out of Iowa.
00:26:14
I mean, yeah, you could say they're lesser teams.
00:26:16
I don't, I don't think they're, I mean, they're all tournament
00:26:18
teams. They're all got to win a guy
00:26:19
for. Every team's good at this point,
00:26:21
right? Yeah, like I do like Illinois,
00:26:24
so I like this match. I didn't like him against Duke,
00:26:27
but yeah, yeah, I know you can't beat Duke I.
00:26:31
Know, but matchups matter. Matchups matter.
00:26:34
So, Pru, where do you land? Yeah, this is this is a it's
00:26:38
going to be a close game. I I was a little shocked too by
00:26:42
the line. I, I don't know man, that some
00:26:48
part of that Yukon come back can roll over to the next game.
00:26:52
Yeah. I you almost feel like a team of
00:26:55
destiny in some aspects. Like, yeah, it's like we've.
00:26:57
Got here based on that. If you can come back.
00:27:00
From. From that, that's yeah, I, I
00:27:04
kind of like them to. I mean, they get a full week of
00:27:06
rest, right? So they yeah.
00:27:08
So I don't know, I I think they, they may have kind of sealed
00:27:14
their faith there. And I think they take it to
00:27:16
Illinois. Can you pull it out?
00:27:19
I'm with Illinois, you know, pro Illinois the whole tournament.
00:27:22
But I think, I think I'm swapping sides.
00:27:25
I'm with you on this. And I actually like of all the
00:27:28
lines in the Final Four, I like UConn plus 2 1/2, but I actually
00:27:34
like UConn money line. I think, I think they got
00:27:37
championship DNAI think they got the they went.
00:27:40
Through the last three, I mean, Florida won last year and they
00:27:43
won the UConn won the previous two.
00:27:45
Yeah, it's they they definitely know how to win.
00:27:48
How does that go to? Win.
00:27:49
I think Hurley is just so good and I think they now believe
00:27:53
they can beat anyone after they beat Duke.
00:27:55
So I I think they win this game. I've got the final as UConn
00:28:01
Arizona U Prue had the final as UConn Michigan and Dex has the
00:28:07
final as Illinois, Michigan. Yep.
00:28:10
Going to be interesting. Big 10 final baby.
00:28:14
It's going to be interesting to see how these predictions come
00:28:16
true. But regardless, I think we're
00:28:17
going to have a really great Saturday at basketball.
00:28:20
The early games, UConn, Illinois, the late game is
00:28:24
Arizona, Michigan on Saturday night, and then the championship
00:28:26
game will be Monday night. So the next Shrewdness Podcast
00:28:29
we will talk about how it all point out.
00:28:32
Champions. Hope you guys have been enjoying
00:28:34
it. It's been a really fun
00:28:35
tournament. Even despite the even despite
00:28:38
the presence of a real Cinderella.
00:28:40
It's been a lot. It's been a lot of fun seeing
00:28:42
the heavyweights Duke it out. I'm hopeful that these last
00:28:45
couple games, last three games really are all within five
00:28:49
points or something like me. Too.
00:28:52
I hope we don't get any snoozers.
00:28:54
I hope we don't get it. Don't hope we don't get like we
00:28:55
did. I mean, we didn't have a ton of
00:28:57
great games in that round 8, so most of them were snoozers, so.
00:29:02
Hopefully we gone was not good until the last 8 minutes or so
00:29:05
and then it was like wow, there's actually a outside
00:29:09
chance now. The great thing about college
00:29:11
basketball is these kids are so like up and down.
00:29:14
You never know what's gonna happen.
00:29:16
Like, they're not, they're not pros and they they don't have
00:29:19
the emotional, you know, stability of these guys that
00:29:23
have been in, in these situations all the time.
00:29:25
So some of these guys have been averaging 20 points a game, and
00:29:28
then they show him with 5 minutes left to go and he has
00:29:30
three. Yeah, yeah.
00:29:32
We've needed you the most. Totally.
00:29:35
One bucket, you're 1. Totally man.
00:29:40
It happens. It happens.
00:29:41
In the tournament and like, you know, we talk about matchups.
00:29:44
Sometimes you get a guy, you haven't gone against the guy
00:29:47
that can shut you down the whole year and all of a sudden you're
00:29:49
going against the guy and he's better than you on defense and
00:29:52
you're like, what? How do I do this?
00:29:54
I'm used to two dribbles in a shot and I'm good and like.
00:29:57
You're trying to get the pick to get a different guy on you and
00:29:59
he goes through the pick. He's like, no, you're not
00:30:01
getting rid of me that I'm. Still here right, right and so
00:30:05
it it does make it it makes it a lot of fun, a lot of fun to
00:30:09
watch. So hope you guys enjoy this week
00:30:11
at a basketball. OK, so shift gears.
00:30:14
I'm going to toss it over decks. We're going to talk about we had
00:30:17
the MLB season kickoff love this time of year.
00:30:20
Can I just say before we go into your section decks, I have a
00:30:25
formal complaint that I would like to file a Major League
00:30:27
Baseball. I get super excited for Major
00:30:30
League Baseball all season long. I'm very excited, right?
00:30:34
Yep. I get a game and then an off
00:30:37
day. OK, hold on.
00:30:40
I got jazzed for the season, the entire offseason.
00:30:45
I get a game and if my team loses the first game I got to
00:30:49
wait 48 hours to see a second game.
00:30:52
Why do we have a day off after opening day?
00:30:55
Wait if? Later you even get to see your
00:30:59
team because they're usually blacked out or on some service
00:31:01
you don't have. They, they're not making you
00:31:03
sign up for because everything's on Apple or Netflix or, you
00:31:05
know. Oh, this is a lot.
00:31:07
Of like they are, yeah. How to you're?
00:31:10
Starting to try and ruin it. How to kill a fan base right is
00:31:14
like make it hard to find your sport.
00:31:15
But that's why local fans watch the local team that absolutely,
00:31:19
absolutely make it love watching.
00:31:21
Everyone else's teams. The blackout rules of MLB we'll
00:31:25
have a whole show on blackout rules of MLB.
00:31:28
But that that's my my pet peeve. So but anyway, Dex, there have
00:31:33
been some interesting starts the season.
00:31:35
I think you're going to lead us through some of them.
00:31:36
That's right. So every year is hope eternal
00:31:41
for both the teams and the players.
00:31:42
So they went through spring training and if they did well,
00:31:45
spring stats matter. If they suck, spring stats don't
00:31:48
matter. And but some of these guys, the
00:31:51
stats do matter. They're either new free agents
00:31:54
or like veterans coming off a bad year or younger players and
00:31:59
accountable good. And then they slipped.
00:32:01
There were a few players that desperately, desperately need to
00:32:05
have a good start for their teams and for themselves.
00:32:07
And so we wanted to highlight a couple of those guys for you for
00:32:11
their respective teams. So I wanted I told my my host,
00:32:14
my fellow hosts here, like pick a player that really needed to
00:32:18
have a good start. So there's tons of players
00:32:19
having good starts, but some were like Kristen Yelich, he's
00:32:22
having a great start, but he's also awesome last year for
00:32:25
Milwaukee and he's just doing yet another one for a an MVP
00:32:29
type player that has a good start.
00:32:30
It's not that shocking. It's cool and I'm happy for
00:32:33
Christian Yelich, but I want to kick it over to some of the guys
00:32:36
that we haven't seen excellence from them in a year or two or
00:32:40
their young kids that needed it. And I want to kick it over to
00:32:43
and just kind of highlight which guys desperately need to have a
00:32:46
good start. So Prue, I'll start with you,
00:32:48
who has started this season off really well and needed it.
00:32:53
Man, it's for me, it's Mike Trout.
00:32:57
The guy is just so talented, so talented.
00:33:00
And for years and years he's just struggled with injuries.
00:33:03
And I think a couple years ago he just got off to a terrible
00:33:06
start and got even worse and maybe overcompensating for some
00:33:10
lingering pains or whatever. But his first four games he did.
00:33:15
So he did go over tonight, his first over of the season, but
00:33:19
first four games, two home runs, seven walks, like a like a 600
00:33:26
something on base percentage, six hits.
00:33:30
I think, like I said, a couple home runs.
00:33:34
I think he scored five runs, something like that.
00:33:37
I had it pulled up and then I lost it.
00:33:39
And he's back to play in center field.
00:33:41
His old, Yeah. Like drinking?
00:33:44
From the fountain of youth, all of a sudden, that's right.
00:33:46
He scored. He scored five runs along with
00:33:49
those seven walks. Maybe the most impressive stat
00:33:53
is that he has a stolen base and he's he's had leg problems
00:33:59
forever. And like, if he feels good
00:34:01
enough to steal bags and play center field every day and all
00:34:04
that, I was super encouraged by that.
00:34:06
Let's be honest, the Angels probably aren't going to compete
00:34:09
for the Pennant. But unlike Trout's playing
00:34:11
baseball, there's something to go watch in in LA.
00:34:15
So I'm hopeful, super encourage to see one of the.
00:34:19
One of the greatest, most under reported on probably players
00:34:25
because of the fact that he plays on the West Coast and it's
00:34:27
all crazy on the West Coast. He's been loyal to a really
00:34:30
horrible franchise that has done him dirty.
00:34:32
Yeah, players of our lifetime, and I think he's only played in
00:34:35
one one playoff series. Not even a Series, A game.
00:34:40
Right one. Freaking game.
00:34:42
Yeah. So here's what's encouraging
00:34:44
about that. So Mike Trout had the best 10,
00:34:48
first ten year of a career in Major League Baseball history,
00:34:51
in history. He was the best.
00:34:53
Like he was shattering all records.
00:34:54
Everything was going to be broken.
00:34:55
He had a million MVPS and when he didn't win, he was second.
00:34:59
That's how good Mike Trout is. And just for the last few years,
00:35:01
like Fruit highlighted, he's just been so hurt.
00:35:05
Just held himself. Like batting 240.
00:35:08
This is a 300 hitter who's 3030 in his sleep.
00:35:12
I mean, he's just one of those guys and to see him not be able
00:35:15
to be what we know he can be and not even that old, like early.
00:35:19
30s. You don't expect to fall off a
00:35:21
Cliff at 3132. And so he's I think he's in his
00:35:24
age 3435 year this year, yes. And here's what I hope for Mike
00:35:28
Trout. God, I hope the baseball gods
00:35:31
help him out. Stay healthy, stay super
00:35:34
productive, get traded to a really good team that's going to
00:35:37
make the playoffs. Help that, help the angels get
00:35:41
some picks, man. And please, Angels, let him go.
00:35:44
Yes, just like Mike, Would you like to go play for, I don't
00:35:48
know, fill in the blank great team that's going to be in the
00:35:51
playoffs. Go watch last.
00:35:53
Week's episode. That's right, right?
00:35:55
Yeah. Predicted that's where he needs
00:35:57
to go one of. Those guys.
00:35:59
But I think it would be awesome for him.
00:36:01
It's just unfair for baseball and baseball fans to not have
00:36:05
Mike Trout ever. In the playoffs 1.
00:36:11
Game there's a wild card game that they lost like obviously
00:36:15
the only one game, just one of those deals the angels just so
00:36:20
they they haven't screwed them really.
00:36:22
They keep trying to get guys. They got pool holes, they had
00:36:25
Otani, they had Hamilton. Then he just kind of sucked.
00:36:29
And some of the pictures they got, they just they went there
00:36:31
and they just all collapsed. They all just struggled us with
00:36:35
out of the league. 3rd the third base when they got.
00:36:37
Anthony Rendon, that guy. Is oh man, like just a a ton of
00:36:45
ton of waste around him, which has been unfortunate.
00:36:49
You're right, they've never had a great and they've never had
00:36:51
any pitching to go with him. So it is cool to see him get get
00:36:55
off to a hot start for sure. Yeah, So that's that's a good
00:36:59
one, Mike Trout. All right, I want to go to your
00:37:02
player, Chisholm. Who do you got that off to a hot
00:37:04
start that needed it bad? All right, so here's a guy that
00:37:08
I've gotten to watch a lot because he's been in the Royals
00:37:11
division, came to the league in 2022, highly touted Louise
00:37:16
Robert Junior and Louise Robert Junior is the guy who I got to
00:37:22
say the word on the street around him is he just doesn't
00:37:25
work that hard. That is what everybody says
00:37:28
about him. If you look at the raw potential
00:37:30
on him, I mean, his second year in the league, granted he only
00:37:33
it was in 68 games, but still he hit 338.
00:37:37
He can hit the ball and in 2023 he hit 38 home runs.
00:37:42
It was third in the AL that year.
00:37:46
He's had 33 stolen bases in a season before.
00:37:50
This guy has the talent to be a 3030 guy, but he has seen his
00:37:56
his average continually go down over the last few years from a
00:38:02
peak of 338 to last year. He hit 223 for the White Sox.
00:38:07
He's seen a strikeout numbers go up and you know, he's not an old
00:38:14
guy. He's only 28 years old.
00:38:17
So you it's kind of weird to say like, oh, this was make or
00:38:20
break, but this was definitely the restart for him.
00:38:23
The White Sox finally got sick of him and offseason they're
00:38:25
like, we're done. We're done trying.
00:38:26
We're going to trade you as the Mets a couple prospects.
00:38:29
So he's a he's got a fresh start with the Mets.
00:38:32
He's one of those guys you're looking at.
00:38:34
You're like, I know the guy has talent, but if he doesn't do
00:38:37
something this year, you wonder if like that's it, right?
00:38:41
He's not going to he's not going to do it, man.
00:38:43
He's come out of the gates on fire.
00:38:46
He is. He's been.
00:38:48
Playing inspired baseball. He's in 455, he's leaving the NL
00:38:52
and RB is with 5 already through three games.
00:38:57
He hit a walk off home run in his first home run as a met.
00:39:03
Second game of the season. So very clutch.
00:39:06
That's a way to endear the new fans to you very quickly.
00:39:10
Hit a walk off home run in your second game as a Met and you
00:39:13
know he's looking like the type of guy who is inspired right
00:39:18
now. We'll see if he can keep it,
00:39:20
keep it up. He's already got three walks
00:39:23
this season for perspective and. 2030 all last year.
00:39:29
Yeah, yeah, 2023 whenever he had 38 home runs, he had thirty
00:39:33
walks total. So in fact, that he already has
00:39:36
three is showing a little bit of like, hey, maybe he's willing to
00:39:40
to take a little bit so. Maybe Soto's rubbing off on him
00:39:43
because Soto, he walks like 140 * a year.
00:39:46
Totally, totally. You can learn a little bit from
00:39:48
Lindor and Soto. There's some good batters, like
00:39:52
good legitimate Major League hitters in that lineup that he's
00:39:54
probably learning from because with the White Sox SPL Honest
00:39:58
was not surrounded by a plethora of talent there.
00:40:01
Was not a lot, not a lot of like hard working talent in the way
00:40:04
it's. Hard to play on a team is losing
00:40:05
110 games per season. Yeah.
00:40:08
And I, I feel like when you're the, when you're the guy that is
00:40:11
capable of hitting 35 to 38 homers and you're struggling on
00:40:16
a team that's struggling, there's a lot of pressure there
00:40:20
to, yeah, to, to produce. And if you're not, then, yeah,
00:40:24
it's a downward spiral. You start getting in your head a
00:40:26
little bit, start pre swinging and you end up walking thirty
00:40:30
times in the year. Yeah, and to your point too, if
00:40:32
you're if you're 30 games out of first.
00:40:36
Yeah, in June. At some point you just say,
00:40:39
screw this, I swing for the fence and see if I can get 40
00:40:42
home runs and and a big contract next year instead of like
00:40:45
working on your game and I think being out of contention for, you
00:40:49
know, all of his career. Yeah, he played through many
00:40:54
injuries too. I think he goes, man, my caps a
00:40:57
little tight. Yeah, totally put me on there
00:40:59
the seven day. Like I don't know if it's true,
00:41:02
but I've never heard of Louise Roberts toughness.
00:41:05
Ever since the most games, most games he played in the season
00:41:09
the year he had 38 home runs, he played 145 games.
00:41:13
There we. Go.
00:41:13
He could have easily gotten 40 had he played a full slate.
00:41:17
The last two seasons have been 110 and 100 so.
00:41:21
He's a maiden name, Buxton. I was about to say he'd be a
00:41:30
perfect fit for the Twins outfield, but.
00:41:33
That Buxton tries very hard. He plays you all sorts of jokes.
00:41:38
He just snaps himself because he's such a beast.
00:41:42
Don't be ripping on bucks. Bucks the beat.
00:41:44
We had it was too good for it. That's too good, you guys.
00:41:49
So anyway, Louise, Robert Junior, great start to him.
00:41:51
Let's see if he can hold it. Dex, who do you got highlighted?
00:41:56
All right, I got a guy who really needed it, so Adley
00:41:59
Rushman. So the switch hitting capture
00:42:02
from the Baltimore Orioles. So in 2023 he was press piss up
00:42:07
and this is the former number one pick overall, Adley Rushman.
00:42:11
Can't miss prospect, can't miss player.
00:42:13
In 2023 he looked at so 20 home burns.
00:42:15
Eighty RBI's, 280 That year took the Orioles to the playoffs.
00:42:20
Since then he's trended down and down and it's just been
00:42:23
terrible. And it kind of bottomed out last
00:42:26
year. 90 games with this crappy stat line, 9 homers, 29 RBI's
00:42:33
220 three O 7 on base mean good 673 OPS which is just atrocious
00:42:40
for an All Star caliber catcher. So he should be looking more
00:42:45
like Cal rally and less like fill in the blank poop stick
00:42:48
catcher. So.
00:42:50
But the other issue is that they got their top prospect in the
00:42:54
organization. So the Orioles have a they've
00:42:56
been cranking him out. But the next newest, toughest
00:42:59
bad A is Sal Basalo, who is a catcher and say, oh, no, Adley.
00:43:05
Yeah, that's not good and he needed to start off hot or he's
00:43:10
going to lose his JOB. So Adley Rushman and the the
00:43:14
team supported him. So this offseason there is talk
00:43:17
the Adley Rushman, maybe the backup catcher to Sal Basalo,
00:43:22
but the ownership and the GM man are like, no, Adley's our guy.
00:43:27
But sometimes you say that you don't really mean it's like for
00:43:31
two weeks he's. Our guy changes behind closed
00:43:33
doors. That's.
00:43:34
Right. But Salva Salo is a ton of
00:43:37
power. He's a hit tool, first catcher.
00:43:40
So he's not quite a Mike Piazza behind the plate.
00:43:43
He's better than that, but not much.
00:43:45
So he's a hit first catcher. But they want offense right now.
00:43:48
They need to score some runs and with the ABS pitch framing not
00:43:53
as important as it used to be, even though I still think it's
00:43:54
going to be valuable because you're limited so much on ABS.
00:43:57
So being able to pitch frames going to get a lot of guys.
00:44:01
Maybe it was a strike, I don't know.
00:44:03
But with this guy, he's just going to catch it wherever, who
00:44:05
cares? And if they want to challenge
00:44:07
it, whatever. Like he'll he'll challenge stuff
00:44:10
himself. But Adley Rushman needed this
00:44:12
badly. He's off to 404 out of 10, but 3
00:44:17
double S and two walks to 2K's. So he's just walked two K's
00:44:20
right there, then a 1200 OPS. So he's putting the ball in play
00:44:24
with damage and authority and he's calling a good game behind
00:44:27
the plate. So Adley Rushman was a huge one.
00:44:31
I'm really happy to see. I I'm a fan of Adley Rushman.
00:44:33
I like him. I think he had it too.
00:44:35
Just a hell of a player and I want him to do well and not
00:44:38
against Sal Basalo to be ADH at first base man.
00:44:42
So it's kind of nice. Some honorable mentions I wanted
00:44:46
to throw out. I threw out one that definitely
00:44:50
needed a hot start. So for Cardinals fans out there,
00:44:53
this guy was your top prospect in baseball, Jordan Walker, and
00:44:58
he was going to take you to the promised land with light tower
00:45:01
power. He came in and played his first
00:45:03
game at age 20 and did really well.
00:45:06
I think he started like an 11 game hitting streak to start his
00:45:09
career. So that's what maybe screwed him
00:45:12
because when he set the expectations that high, like he
00:45:14
gets on all the time. He's.
00:45:16
Hitting LeBron. He's.
00:45:20
Like this is the easiest game ever.
00:45:22
Well since then poor Jordan has sucked.
00:45:26
He's been in the minors more than the majors and last year
00:45:29
they tried to get him a long leash and it did not really work
00:45:33
out. 111 games he finished back in the minors.
00:45:36
Six home runs, 41 RBI's, get 111 games, six it is and 29 walks to
00:45:45
126 K's. Imagine he would have got 50
00:45:49
more games of K's. 2. 20 so just really, really bad and then his
00:45:55
slash like 215 two 78584 584 OPS what I didn't.
00:46:03
Know you could go that low. That's bad, and here's an
00:46:07
interesting stat on that. That is really bad.
00:46:10
He must have had a terrible Bab up.
00:46:11
The batting average of balls in Clayman killed him 310.
00:46:15
No way 10. Bab up and he was that bad.
00:46:18
That's because he's striking. Strike out so many times.
00:46:22
Well, this is on the balls of play though, yeah.
00:46:24
Once. He touched it, it was all right,
00:46:26
but he was just so bad. And then this spring, all they
00:46:29
were talking about on the radio in Cardinals Nation was like,
00:46:33
wow, he is terrible this spring. He.
00:46:36
Retooled. His swing in the offseason,
00:46:38
supposedly, and everybody was all excited to see how he do
00:46:41
this spring with his new swing. He was horrid, just atrocious.
00:46:46
I think he struck out 90% of the time this spring and the ones he
00:46:50
hit were like swinging bunts. It's not like he put a charge
00:46:53
into it and he finally striped it.
00:46:55
So everybody's like, Oh my God, what do we do with this dude?
00:46:58
I mean, he's only 23, but it seems like his ship has sailed
00:47:01
off into the distance. This kid though, first week,
00:47:05
good job. Jordan Walker, 450-5571 and a
00:47:09
1480 opiates. So 5 for 11/2 double SA Homer,
00:47:14
three walks to 1 strikeout. There you go.
00:47:17
What that is flipping the script.
00:47:19
So who knows if it's a mirage, but he couldn't do any of this
00:47:23
in spring training against AA guys and AAA guys.
00:47:27
Yeah. So the fact that he's off to
00:47:28
this start is really good for Cardinals fans and really good
00:47:31
for Jordan Walker. I mean, 23 years old.
00:47:34
You want to see these guys have success because it's good for
00:47:36
the game of baseball. You want young talent to start
00:47:39
being good? Absolutely.
00:47:41
They don't need anymore Hunter Renford signings.
00:47:44
Like, no, that's right. That scream Ted case to me.
00:47:46
Like the guys that are 23 haven't lost physically.
00:47:50
Right. Yeah, that's right.
00:47:52
It's just something in their head that's.
00:47:54
All between the ears at that point.
00:47:55
Mental block and man, hopefully he's working through it and.
00:47:59
It's like you. Said small sample size, but
00:48:02
we'll see how it translates over the next few weeks as he gets
00:48:05
going here. The confidence goes a long ways,
00:48:07
like exactly what you says between the ears.
00:48:09
Once you have confidence, the ball starts turning into a golf
00:48:12
ball and do a beat. Totally, totally.
00:48:15
Boom. That's fun.
00:48:15
You can. Start doing more and more and
00:48:17
more. That's good.
00:48:19
The other guy I want to highlight this off to a great
00:48:21
start is someone I highlighted last week that was pretty for
00:48:25
Cleveland. So chase the Lauder.
00:48:27
So right fielder, this guy has been so good when he plays.
00:48:32
Yeah, whenever he plays in the minors, he was incredible.
00:48:36
And then they wanted him to come in last year.
00:48:38
He got hurt in the minors, so he actually made his Major League
00:48:41
debut in the playoffs for Cleveland, which is.
00:48:44
Rare. They don't just usually throw in
00:48:46
the middle of playoffs like show up like hey man, go ahead and
00:48:50
start for. Christian Cologne for the
00:48:51
Royals. Yeah, something like that.
00:48:54
But so chase the lottery, listen to his minor leagues years.
00:48:58
So three years he is is minor league stats.
00:49:02
He's a 302 hitter, 384 on base, 888 OPS and Seventy walks to 80
00:49:09
KS, 20 homers, 87 RBIs. So that's pretty freaking good.
00:49:14
Yeah, it's over. It's only 130 games in the
00:49:16
minors because he's always hurt, right?
00:49:18
Right. That's.
00:49:19
Hard to say, it sounds like a full season, but it's.
00:49:21
It does. It's three like thirds of a
00:49:23
season. It is a full season over 3.
00:49:26
Yeah, it is. So for the former first round
00:49:28
pick for Cleveland this year, he's off to a start.
00:49:31
That is just madding. So he's leading the majors in
00:49:33
home runs. In four games, he has four home
00:49:35
runs, five RBIs. He's 6 for 17 with a 353 average
00:49:40
in a 1412 OPS. So chase the Lauder.
00:49:44
A good. Start, stay vertical.
00:49:46
It's kind of cool. I don't want you to do it
00:49:47
against the Royals, but against everybody else, go ahead and
00:49:50
beat on him. So it's cool to see a kid with
00:49:53
that much talent have a good start because he needed it too.
00:49:56
And if he just stays healthy, I think I said he could be in the
00:49:59
running for rookie of the year. He could.
00:50:02
And he's batting lead offered in the top third of the lineup
00:50:05
every game for Cleveland so far and he's earning it.
00:50:08
So that's he had two home runs. I think in his was the first
00:50:10
game he had two home runs. Might have been?
00:50:12
I think so. Yeah, I think it was.
00:50:13
I think it was. And it was not Logan Webb, so
00:50:16
it's not like he's going off floozies.
00:50:18
He hit one off George Kirby, then he hit one off the I think
00:50:21
they're closer. So chased a lottery.
00:50:23
Good start for him too. That's kind of the ones I wanted
00:50:26
to hit on there and I think just if we watch these guys, it's
00:50:29
gonna be fun watching the rest of the season play out.
00:50:32
That's right. So we last last week, we
00:50:33
highlighted a few rookies and we we kind of threw out our
00:50:36
predictions for rookie of the year.
00:50:38
And then immediately the season starts and JJ Weatherholt has a
00:50:43
huge first game. That's right.
00:50:45
Water has a few huge first game. Mcgonigal had a huge first game.
00:50:49
I think he's 4 for four. Yeah, in his in his debut.
00:50:52
Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:54
But yeah, like 3 or 4 of the guys that we highlighted
00:50:57
immediately started hot. So it's gonna, it's gonna make
00:50:59
it fun to watch the next, you know, see how it plays out the
00:51:02
next. Absolutely.
00:51:04
And then I gotta, I gotta highlight this too, just on this
00:51:07
surprise cuz we, we, we put up our short, if you watch it on
00:51:10
our socials about is Scubble cursed and Susan went on to his
00:51:13
long rants. And then, lo and behold, this
00:51:17
past weekend Schemes gets absolutely I'll more runs he
00:51:24
didn't get out of the first inning.
00:51:25
He gave him more runs. Unbelievable for him.
00:51:27
That start than he did his last six starts to finish last season
00:51:32
6 starts he gave six wins and then Logan Webb blown out the
00:51:38
first game against the Yankees for the Giants.
00:51:40
So one of our Cy Young favorites, he couldn't keep the
00:51:44
ball in the yard. He barely got through half the
00:51:46
game. And then Tarek Scubble saw Young
00:51:49
start 6 innings, no runs. What, 7 KS or something?
00:51:54
Yeah, the target went middle fingers to the shrewdness like.
00:51:59
Yeah, here's what I think about. Your.
00:52:01
Base your baseball. God's cursing me.
00:52:03
Here's what I think. Don't worry, I got some of the
00:52:06
back pocket for them too. I've been paying them off.
00:52:08
Absolutely, Absolutely. It's a big game.
00:52:12
Another honourable mention to another scuba like start from
00:52:16
Mr. Waka for the Royals. Oh yeah, six run or 6 innings?
00:52:21
7 KS I think, no runs. Yeah, yeah.
00:52:24
All right, Deck. So that that gives us a little
00:52:27
bit about March Madness and what's been going on March
00:52:29
Madness and a little bit of tease about what's come with the
00:52:32
baseball season, who started off hot.
00:52:34
So take us home. All right, So hopefully enjoyed
00:52:38
that preview. Hopefully your your brackets,
00:52:40
hopefully maybe even better than Pruitt.
00:52:42
So he got three of the final four.
00:52:44
That's pretty darn good. No, wait, 2-3.
00:52:47
Just two. Just two.
00:52:48
Just. 2 Because Dukes we're round up, round up to.
00:52:51
Three the. Last second, just hold the ball
00:52:55
and get found. Yeah, we had it.
00:52:57
So anyway, that was fun. As we keep going through the
00:53:00
baseball season, we're going to be kind of pivoting more over to
00:53:02
that, to baseball. We'll obviously be doing some
00:53:04
more NFL drafts as it comes up. We are doing a Kansas City
00:53:08
Royals preview episode that we already teased on that.
00:53:10
So check that one out. We'll have two episodes this
00:53:12
week 1 is just on the Royals preview, kind of what they have,
00:53:15
what to look forward to. But anyway, as we get to this
00:53:18
weekend, we got March Madness finals.
00:53:20
It's going to be awesome. Final Four, we're looking
00:53:23
forward to it. We can't wait to watch.
00:53:25
So next week we'll have all the talk and discussion about our
00:53:28
new national champion, whoever that may be.
00:53:31
It's down to four and we'll have all the fun facts for that one
00:53:33
too. So until next week, enjoy the
00:53:35
games this weekend and as always, stay shrewd.
00:53:39
Stay shrewd, everybody.

