No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:00
Hi and welcome to episode, 388 of no crying in baseball, the winter storm warning episode. My name is Patti, I'm here with a dancing Pottymouth. Hi, Pottymouth! Happy high school teacher with a winter storm warning day.

Pottymouth 0:13
And even, even, like better than that, the school system actually canceled now, like the night before, because and that, you know, means I don't have to get up with the alarm and do that stressful thing of looking at my phone with my bleary eyes and seeing the cancelation. I can go to sleep, you know, understanding that I will be able to sleep in tomorrow and awaken, apparently, to white, fluffy stuff outside.

Patti 0:37
Well, you know, thank God for that. I mean, for me, I'm for, I think, Mr. Potty mouth, that a lot of the folks we know, snow day really means, oh, you get to work from home. Yeah. No, we don't get the day off, but, um, but Yay. So we did spend some time getting our survival gear for the the storm together, which include some ice melt and some adult beverages, maybe a jigsaw puzzle, like a cards. I think we're gonna be okay. Sounds good, yeah. But no, you were preparing. Yeah. We're

Pottymouth 1:02
definitely well stocked and and actually, so for this snow day, it is indeed a snow day, the superintendent sent out a video which is mighty humorous, if you haven't seen it, which includes him kicking, kicking back and chilling with a cup of something he's blowing on it. So it must be coffee or hot cocoa, but the school system does have a new code. They like color codes. So there's a cold code purple for the future, which is, if we have a multi day predictable event, then we do go to online classes during a snow emergency situation. So we'll see if that actually kicks in, and if anybody shows up, turn on the computer in that situation. But that is not the situation for tomorrow. Tomorrow is a genuine Code Red snow day. I wanted

Patti 1:48
to set that like, invoke the purple. And it's, it sounds like a sports motto, invoke the purple.

Pottymouth 1:53
I usually like purple. I feel like this is gonna taint purple for me. Oh, that's right,

Patti 1:57
because you have to work, yeah. Like a right? Then you like the rest of us? Yeah, exactly,

Pottymouth 2:03
exactly. I'll have to wait till summer to be special. Yeah. So, oh my, my. Also caveat ahead of time. There were a couple of things that I really wanted to add to the notes that I didn't because I was running around this afternoon gathering snow gear for a Honduran family that the kids, I believe, have never seen a snowfall to the amount that is predicted and hopefully going to be happening, so needed things like boots and snow pants. And in return, I asked for the promise of pictures of the kids frolicking the snow. Yay, that's excellent. Very excited to see that. Yay.

Patti 2:40
On today's show. We've got a really picture, heavy, hot stove. We've got boyfriends in Tampa Bay and San Francisco. We've got winter ball in much warmer places. We're cross training with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Cheers

Pottymouth 2:54
back up here already. Oh, that's excellent. I haven't finished the the front loading beer. What is the front loading beer? It was the only Amber from Lone oak, uh huh. And very delicious. And so what are you doing backup?

Patti 3:07
So the backup beer that I have, I poured half of, in case you want some, is the cloud nine, half a lesson from silver branch.

Pottymouth 3:14
Oh yes, we're splitting backup beer. So yes, I will take half your cloud nine, and I will return you half of a turtle frog when the time comes and I will kick off the hot stove. I was just realizing, as I recorded your Instagram video that the unstoppable Josh Bell is still in the background because we're still clearly celebrating that acquisition by the Nationals. But I have another Josh, and maybe this is as close as we can get to joshing around. Where Josh All right, the hot stove. I you know again. The caveat is, we record on Sunday. You hear us on Tuesday. Sometimes shit happens on Monday. Not a lot. I noticed happening. Things are cooling down a little bit. But Josh Rojas was my pick with the 20 2d backs, when he was actually super hot. He had a couple of really strong years with the D backs. He might be going to the White Sox on a one year deal. And this is like, how scrapping announcers are to, like, get hot stove out there. It's not confirmed by the White Sox haven't confirmed this yet. It's two days old. Rumor by source,

Patti 4:16
sure. And what else do they have to do? Right? I don't know. So

Pottymouth 4:19
the thing that kind of surprised me about it, I guess I slept through this. He's coming off from a rough year with the mariners. So Rojas was last with the mariners. He got there in a trade at the trade deadline in 23 with a couple of prospects. It was a big trade at the time for pitcher Paul sewald, and he had had two really good years with the D backs. Um, both years averaging a little up and below 265 with 760 ops, so right in there. And like a good trade peace kind of person. And then the article that I read said that his wheels came off completely after April of 2024 started. 24 really good with the mariners. His beginning of April or end of March. You know that big part of the season was really good, but then he ended 2024 with a 225 average and 640 ops, over 100 down from his previous high a couple years prior, and he was non tendered in November. So he sounds like a perfect pick for the White Sox. He could come back. He's a big utility player in 2024 he mostly played third base, but he also played 11 games at second, six in left field, one game at first, and he pitched twice. Whoo, yeah. So that, take that immaculate grid. All

Patti 5:38
right, then. So pitching is actually all that's happening, mostly, most of what's happening in the hot stove right now, we're going to start with Roki Sasaki. Remember, he is the Japanese pitcher who has been posted by his team in Japan, and there is a window where major league teams can look at him and make offers. It's a 45 day window, which ends on January 23 nothing's going to happen until at least January 15, because because of his age, he cannot sign a multi bazillion dollar free agency contract. He has to sign minor league contract, but he can have a signing bonus, which comes out of the International signing bonus pool, which is tapped out across the board, mostly that gets replenished january 15. So nothing's going to happen until then, but 20 teams showed interest in him. Surprised. Out of 30, surprising, no one. And this, this, I'm going to call him a kid. He's young. His he made a lot of rules that teams had to follow, and I love this about him, but he wanted to level the playing field, or the ballpark, or whatever you want to call it, there were rules. Like, the meetings can't be longer than two hours smart. The meetings are all going to be in his agent's office in Los Angeles. Like, no, hey, we're taking this fancy place or that fancy place. You're all coming to us in the same room, right? No current players can be involved in person. That's fascinating. They can be in the videos, but you can't, like, bring your Shohei Ohtani to speak Japanese to your Japanese pitching prospect and and any of that. But you can have, you know, supporting documentation. So they were, they were videos, but there were so many videos that his agent called it the Roki Sasaki Film Festival. That's hysterical. There were PowerPoints somebody created like a book, like a bound book, to entice him about all the things that were possible. He did meet with some select teams. Rumors are bound. Nothing is confirmed. Who knows? But he's back in Japan. He gave every team a homework assignment. It was the exact same homework assignment. It has not been leaked as to what this homework assignment is, but that's going to be one of the ways he will be able to make these decisions. His agent said a lot of the things that people are guessing are going to be important to him, like other Japanese players or a specific city or something like that are not really on his list as much as one team can help him develop into the best picture he can be Wow. He's already one of the best pitchers in the world. But that's what that's what matters to him is, what kind of support are you going to give me? How are you going to help me be better? Wow, which I think is really, really pretty cool. So we'll know something probably not january 15. So not only do the bonuses get replenished then, but teams can actually trade for bonus funds from other teams up to like 60% it's like, right now, I think the upper end is like $7 million it could be that teams could trade other things to get bonus, pull money to up the offer to Saki. So we will find out in a couple of weeks what's happening there. Other picture news in the hot stove is Charlie Morton. Go ahead, sing

Pottymouth 8:55
it. I am so excited because I get to do the Schoolhouse Rock thing again. Mr. Martin is the subject of the sentence and what the predicate says he does. If you don't know that, look it up. It's really worth and

Patti 9:04
what he does is, as a 41 year old, he signs with the Orioles for one year for $15 million he's 41 he's a 17 year veteran. He's a two time world series champion, and and this one makes him seem not 41 right? He's one of only four pitchers with at least 30 starts in each full season since 2018 including last year, you know, his 40 year old. Wow. Season that four. That's amazing, right? So, I guess I think Baltimore is a little desperate, because, you know, they couldn't afford Corbin Burns, who went to Arizona for six years, $210 million which is the largest contract in Diamondbacks history, $64 million that is deferred into the 2030s which I think is great. Oh, yeah, you can get ten million a year, you know, for several years for, you know, not playing anymore. And I think that's just some smart shopping. And his family is set for generations, although

Pottymouth 9:58
About the Orioles not affording it . . . . I think they've been not spending money. They haven't that you'd think that they would be spending now with this new bazillionaire owner, who's very deed, you know, he should be doing something. I mean, the oils have been quiet, quiet,

Patti 10:14
yeah, and I don't like it, right? I don't like it. I wanted, I wanted, a big pitching move, right? I mean, we've got a bunch of guys getting ready to come off the IL but I wanted, I mean, and Charlie Morton, great, he's fine. But I wanted, I wanted an investment gap. Yeah, exactly. I wanted the Corbin burn six year thing, something equivalent to that, and we haven't gotten that yet. So if there's something else coming, I don't know what it is, but it seems like the moves have been smallish and weird. And if you're going to do that, then can you please do contract extensions for the kids, put the money somewhere, but

Pottymouth 10:44
make some noise. Make some noise. All right, we're gonna make some noise now with our baseball boyfriends, the guys that we pick in the off season, one guy per team, because they're cool or something special. They they just stand out to us for reasons that we'll be talking about in a moment. And we, every week, we do an American League and a national league. We started off with the teams with the worst record, and we are climbing up and Tampa Bay, I'm surprised, is so low last year, so I don't know. We'll see where they're going for next year. My theme for this week, it last year. Last week I chose Jake Fraley from the reds. And weirdly, both of my guys this week have something in common with them, each of them, something very distinct.

Patti 11:27
Let me ask you a question, yes, do you figure that out later? Like, you pick your guys, this thing happened, or do you, like, go looking? It depends.

Pottymouth 11:36
It totally depends, like, when I'm collecting stuff, like when I was collecting Garcia's or Ezekiel, like, sometimes I look for that in advance, but usually, like it sort of, you know, organically emerges from the choices. And in this case, that's exactly what I just kind of hit me like, oh, that's what they have in common. Junior Caminero, which translates to Walker, by the way, in English, Caminero third base, I'm hoping, 21 years old for Tampa Bay, young guy. And the reason why I picked him, the reason, the first reason, before the Jake Fraley thing, was because I've been dying to pick a guy that I can actually watch play baseball now. And I think that's what's gonna happen. I blew it last week. But Junior COVID narrow, not only is playing baseball right now as I speak, but he is on my land as del escogido, which is my very favorite team in lead on. And he is there for his second consecutive year. And he's actually kind of a hot shit in lead on for a young guy, in his second year, he was the number one draft pick in lead on last year, and, well last season, 23 and he managed, in that 2324 season, to hit 303, average with a 936, ops. And he outdid it in the regular season this past year, the 2425 regular season, his batting average was no slouchy 424, with a 1.003 ops, and my first glimpse of him was this Thursday night when I caught the the Leone is playing in the round robin against the Israelis Orientales, and the Leone is lost. But Junior Camero made made my watching worth it, because he had two hits. And he said when he was signed by the Leones, when he was picked, he said he's been a escogilista, which means a fan of the Leonese de escogido since he was little, and he was very grateful to be part of this family. And it turns out that his dad is also a Leones fan. His mom is not. I forget which team. I think it's a tigress, daily say, but a little bit. You know, sometimes that happens with marriages. It's mixed marriages. Yeah, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that in this

household. Oh, that'd be ugly.

So he's from Santo Domingo. He's played baseball since he was little. He's guessing, since age five. But he's not from a baseball family, per se, his dad's a truck driver and his mom's a physical therapist, but he said that his parents always had him around baseball, and he was involved in big youth teams when he was young. At age 14, he ended up coming to the US of A in an international youth tournament and went to Camden Yards. And so here's where, like, I was very invested this guy. I'm like, okay, he's a Leones fan. I'm very excited about this young he's got great hair, great QR, and his favorite player, Manny Machado. I like him even better. Now, I knew you'd appreciate this. So he's 14 years old. He goes to came in yards. He has his picture taken with Manny Machado, when he became a serious prospect, he DM to the picture to Manny, saying, like, remember this, and Manny, to give him credit, Manny has done some good things. He responded to him, and he basically said that we play this game for that right there. We want to impact different kids. So. They're in touch, and he supports him. He also played basketball as a kid, but his mom said to stop when he was signed by Cleveland at age 16 in 2019 in November of 21 he was traded to Tampa. Here's where we get to the what he has in common with Jake Fraley. In winter of 22 he didn't play in lead on this is a year before he went to Australia. He played with the Perth heat, the same team that Jake really played for five years later. And did really well there. Because of him. They made it to the championship series. He had the team high, all time high for the Perth heat in RBI, with 37 and home runs, with 14 and 39 games. So in 2023 he was in low and double A and cranked 323. Average 975, ops and from double A at the end of 2023 in September, he debuted. So skipped right over. He wanted number 13, I don't I can't imagine why he wanted number 13, but he was okay with the number one that they gave him, because at that time he was the number weight and one raised prospect and the number six overall in MLB, just played seven games that year in 23 and then in 24 did get some time in triple A. He actually said, Oh shoot. I think I'm going to get to the quote later about Oh yeah. He said. I told myself, if I'm in triple A or if I'm in the big leagues, I want to keep that joy. I want to keep that energy for my teammates, let them know that I'm here to play, and I want to have fun doing it, so I appreciate the fun loving just playing for the joy of it attitude, and that definitely qualifies him for one of my baseball boyfriends. He came back up in August of 23 and got his number 13 back. Wait, that's gonna be 24 I've got a typo there, yep, because that's the next year. He started off seven games in 23 came back up to 24 and he had, as I said before, he had good Q heart, good quality hair above replacement, sort of like these beautiful curls with dyed blonde at the end. And 10 days after his call up, when he was still struggling with the bat, they went to the Dodgers, they're in LA and Kevin cash said to him, you get more hits if you have a haircut. And he said, he said it so I had to do it. So Kevin cash, I mean, no, no Yankee situation here, but you know, I do appreciate that you got to mix it up, like if you're having a streak of bad luck, do something. Grow your hair, shave your beard, whatever. But it kind of Ouch, because he really had great hair. Did it work? Yes. In fact, it did at Dodgers first game with him at Dodger Stadium, first home run, and then 111 miles an hour off the bat double within the first three innings in the series opener. Now you'd think that this would be really big news, because he had these two major hits in, you know, few days Well, I guess, like a week and a half after his is coming up. But it was overshadowed by, you know, that guy, Shohei Otani, he got his 40th steal in a walk off grand slam that game. So there was other show, hey thing I don't know, yeah. So because of that time up in both 23 and 24 he is not eligible for rookie of the year, sadly, even though he is quite the young in but, you know, I'm hoping that Tampa keeps him around. I'm thinking that Tampa might wait before giving a young infield prospect from the Dominican Republic a big contract the last one. Yeah, so about that. So there have been lots of comparisons of him and wander Franco, and I think that he is really making a point of that he's different. I don't think this is why he got engaged, but it might be related to this spin on his engagement. So again, he's 21 years old. He was engaged to his girlfriend of many years, Francesca Nicole, this past November, did it a very like polite way, asked her parents first, and then made a lot of statements about, I know I'm young, I'm 21 but I'm purposefully getting married before, like my big MLB breakout, because he said he wanted to send A message to the young players out there that you can be calm, and if you have a brilliant future, you can still be a calm person with a family. You can have a family and be responsible young, because I've seen lots of guys who make it big, get the money and do stupid shit. Basically, I'm definitely paraphrasing with this stupid show, yeah, but, but sort of saying that, I think that he's trying to keep himself, sort of, you know, on the good path by settling down having a family, and that's going to be his image, instead of, oh, other stuff. And

Patti 19:58
I like that he wants to be. A role model at 21 for the youngins, because, you know he is, but I think that's probably more meaningful too. It's not like, oh sure, Gramps, you tell me how it is. It's like, oh yeah, you are, in fact, like me and I should be like, yeah,

Pottymouth 20:13
you and he's speeding mature, and his The good news is, and the engagement pictures, his Q heart seems to be back. Oh, thank god. Yeah.

Patti 20:22
So I asked the question about, do you look for the similarities before or after? Because mine was definitely after. Both of my guys are five foot nine, and you deliver players. Five nine

Pottymouth 20:31
is one of those popular heights for baseball players, because it's kind of like, it's so funny you stretch into five nine often, right?

Patti 20:38
Yeah. And it seems that the past couple weeks, I've had, like, way over six feet. I've had, like, really super tall guys, like, surprisingly tall for baseball players. And then I've got the five nine guys, um, I've got Jose Caballero. Now, isn't that, like, gentlemen or something? What's Caballero? Yeah, it is gentlemen. Okay, so we've got a gentleman in a walker, and they about the same initials, and that's okay too. Um, so, so Jose is a short stop and also second baseman. He's 28 years old. So he's, you know, clearly the elder statesman here. He's Panamanian. He was born in Las tables Panama. He played as a child, baseball, soccer, volleyball and basketball. Right when he was seven, he was playing on the state baseball team with 10 year olds. Seven to 10 is kind of a big difference, right there. My favorite thing about him, of all the things that I like about him, is he had narrowed it down to soccer or baseball, but he picked baseball because he really hated when games end in a tie. That's so fun. I totally get that ties are bad. Ties are stupid. So baseball better because you could just play 17 more innings if you need to, so you don't end in a tie.

Pottymouth 21:40
So it doesn't have to do with all that running.

Patti 21:42
No, it's, it's actual, well, at least on paper, it's documented, as I don't like it when games end in a tie. Want to win or to lose. When he was 16, he wanted to sign as an international free agent. As you know, we talked about a lot of these guys, yeah, who are signing it about 16 years old, but he had a horrible accident while fielding a ball, he broke two bones in his left leg, the tibia and the fibula in a fielding injury. Took three surgeries, oh, my God, to patch him back up. And so he wasn't all that marketable as an international free agent, oh, as a 16 year old, right? So regroup. Heel up. Play some more. He was he played on an 18 U team that went to Mexico for an international tournament. His hitting coach there at that tournament in Mexico had gone to school with Jeff Johnson, who was the head coach at Chipola junior college in Florida. You may have heard of Chipola junior college because that's where Jose Bautista, Russell Martin and Adam Duvall came from under this coach. So this hitting coach said, hey, you need to look at this guy. You need to look at this guy. And he looked at this guy and said, Yep, come on over. And so, so Jose went to Florida, and in 2015 he he started this junior college with absolutely no English at all. So he was learning English at the same time he was starting his junior college classes and starting with these new teammates, and apparently learned very fast. He's fluid now, but I mean, he really focused on that and learned quickly. His coach, Johnson said it's hard on day one, but you see the skills and the talent level. He was a good player that turned into a great player. So while at this junior college, they won the 2017 National Junior College championship. He was the tournament MVP for this the Junior College World Series. He led everyone in home runs and RBI. So in the draft, in 2017 he went to the Diamondbacks in the seventh round. So minor league, minor league, went to Seattle. He was traded to Seattle at the deadline in 2019 upon which he broke the ring fingers on both hands, not the same time I was gonna say that is like left hand was hit by pitch. His right broke stealing a base. He required surgeries on both. So now we've got one leg and two hands right in 2020 he tore his right ACL playing winter ball. So it so he has surgery on that at the beginning of 2021, so it wasn't able to play into until August of that year. He also had the ham eight injury, which bodes well for batting right in his left hand, in 2022 and re broke the right ring finger. So counting out with me, all four limbs, right? Including multiples, yeah, on his hands, just saying

Pottymouth 24:37
he's not gonna be wearing any rings. Well, hopefully a big ring, hopefully, hopefully a

Patti 24:41
big ring, right? But, um, that's a lot to come back. So yes, in the minor leagues for about six years, but he only played like 200 games, because he was always recovering from a freaking surgery. And he's been asked multiple times, how did you get you got through all of this and made it to the big leagues? And he said, same mentality, one goal, and that was chase my. Dream to make it to the big leagues. He played for Panama, the World Baseball Classic in 2023 he had three hits in the four games that he played him his debut. Finally, his major league debut was with Seattle on april 15, Jackie Robinson day in 2023 and when he debuted, he became the 69th Panamanian to play in the Major Leagues. Nice, that may so the next month, versus Atlanta, he hit his first home run in that same game. He stole three bases, wow, which made him the second Mariner ever to have a home run and three stolen bases in the same game since Mike Cameron did it in 2002 and not to rest on his laurels. The next day, he hit a three run homer versus the A's at his first at bat. Oh, man. So he had, you know, he had kind of a minute at that time. He, like, he took over second base from like, Colton Wong, who was struggling at the time, right? I'm gonna hand you a gift that my, um, my five, nine utility player. I'm picking San Francisco's name is Brett. Wisely hit me. So you picked wisely? Yes, I did. And you think that's the only pun we're gonna have today, you would be mistaken. Here we go. Brett wisely is 25 play second base and shortstop from he was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the youngest of seven brothers in two different articles, his family was returned to was was referred to as a Brady Bunch family, but I didn't find any documentation that maybe it was a second marriage and both, you know, came in with kids, I don't know, or they're just saying it because there were so many

Pottymouth 26:27
kids as well you get, I guess if you don't have Alice, you can put that there,

Patti 26:32
but we can't do without Alice. Yeah, there's so 12 years separate the oldest and the youngest. Bread is the youngest, right? All of them played baseball. God bless those parents. For you know,

Pottymouth 26:42
too bad they didn't have two more. So

Patti 26:45
okay, stop. Stop with your math, I have things to say. Okay, so he says, when it remember, he's the baby, right? He's the baby of all of these kids. When it was time to take out the trash, everybody would look at me. So we set up a competition. If I beat you at ping pong or pool or whatever you had to do it. It made me a competitor. I had no other choice. So that's where his drive to win came from. Was not wanting to ever do the chores, right? Both of his parents were air traffic controllers, so his seven kids, so, okay, right? So his dad at Jacksonville airport, his mom was an air traffic controller on aircraft carriers for the Navy. How freaking cool is that. That's amazing, right? And Brett actually considered that as a career briefly, but he says he's, quote, pretty happy with his choice. But here were all the jokes in multiple articles where they referred to it. There were references to scrambling the Jets directing the traffic on the field. What's on the radar. We're in a holding pattern, safe landing. It was excruciating. It was excruciating. And I do love a pun, yeah, so I started out really happy about it, and then, but there you go. There you go. So not just choosing wisely, but choosing the puns. He went to Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville. He was the times unions all First Coast player of the year as a senior in 2017, okay, so as a junior, right? He hit 357, but then as a senior, he went up to 515, as a senior, they turned him into a two way player, because, gosh, they needed a pitcher, and he had pitched a little bit in travel ball, and his travel ball coach said, I pitch him if I were you. So they pitched him. So he he had an area high 11 wins. He won the first 11 games that he pitched, plus he got a save. He had a 1.25 era. He had never, he had never before pitched at varsity inning until his senior year, when all of this happened, right? He also had no home runs till senior year. He was like a good like batter for average, but not for power, and he hit six and had 25 RBI his senior year. So when he went to Gulf Coast Community College, he went in as a two way player for the two years he was there, including pitching six complete games in 12 starts. That's not bad. I remind you, he is second base and shortstop. He doesn't pitch anymore in 2019 the draft, the rays drafted him in the in the 15th round, right? So pretty late. His brother Alec, who's two years older, also got picked up that draft year later on, in the 34th round by Cleveland. So two, two guys, that was the last day of the draft, right? They both got drafted pretty low. Alex taking out the trash. So Alex, take out the trash. And unfortunately, he didn't last too long. He has a couple years with Cleveland and then, and then he was since released, but he's, he's still his brother is sort of informal batting coach, when, when Brett like is feeling like he's in a writer, whatever. He sends videos to ALEC like, watch this. Watch this. What am I doing? What am I doing? Sweet. He played all four in field positions in the minors. He was a 2021 minor league organization, all star, right. In 2022 he finished with the Durham bull. He was the southern league postseason, all star. And then, okay, so he woke up. Wait a minute, I think I did this in the wrong order. So in November 15, 20 Oh, I think it was 2022 actually, I had, I had a very weird thing 2022 he had a premonition that he was going to get traded even after winning this, like, also, you know, like, the suddenly posting all star, and his mom's like, don't be silly. Don't be silly. You got a weird dream? Nope, he did. He got traded that very day to the Giants. So he told his mom before he got traded. Yeah, he woke up saying, I feel like I'm gonna get traded, but I also think this is what's gonna get me into the bigs. Hey, so it's like, weird and then good, right? Yeah. So, in fact, he did get traded to the giants, and he debuted opening day in 2023 he was a defensive replacement, but he didn't have any at bats, right? And he kind of went up and down with Triple A Sacramento, a whole bunch. He did very well in the minors. He didn't do so great in the majors. Hence the going back and forth a lot. And here's where we get to click bait, right? Curse you the athletic who says there's, there's an article that's Brett wisely bears all, Oh, hey, right. So click on, we click on that, and what we learn is to get out of a slump at the end of that year in the minors, he decided to try batting without batting gloves. I don't think that's really bearing all, but okay, bearing hands, but it's bearing hands, right? But he said it makes me want to catch the barrel more, because if I don't catch the barrel, my hands are gonna ring. If I break the bat or catch off the end, it's gonna hurt when I hit it on the barrel, my hands don't hurt. So he kind of taught himself to be more selective, to be careful, to get the barrel on the ball a little bit better, and then he went back to wearing gloves when it got too hot and slippery. But anyway, he started 2024 at triple A Sacramento, 32 games in triple a hit, 311, eight, nine. EOPS, four homers, seven doubles and a triple. Great, good start. Got called up on May 11. So on May 29 the Giants have this game against Philadelphia. He's playing shortstop, which is kind of newish for him, because he's been doing mostly second base, right? This is his third major league start at shortstop. He's still new at this and they go through in detail this amazing play he made about reading the field and inserting a whole bunch of air traffic control jokes here about how he played like a veteran shortstop and was able to get this out. Was crazy. Bob Melvin, the manager, said, more than anything, the guy who stood out here has been wisely playing a position he doesn't play right? Wow, he looks like a shortstop at this point in time. Spencer Howard was pitching that game, and he said he's got a baseball IQ of a million, right? All right. June 28 you know, month later, he had, he had a two run walk off versus the Dodgers. Beginning of July, in a seven to one win over over Minnesota, he was a home run short of a cycle, and he had another at bat, and he could have been switched for the fences, but that's not what they needed. So he worked a walk. So he did not get that cycle, but he got that walk right. He had, he had two, two out RBI. He scored a run. It was a second, three hit game. It was a season high, four times on base, plus he had really sexy defense. He had a catch at shortstop that saved two runs. He caught air, he caught air, and he said, right now, it still doesn't feel real. It feels like I'm living a dream, which, in a sense, I am, because this has been my dream since I was young. So here's what you know. He's got some very nice QR. He's got some nice natural wave happening here. He's got very sexy D and he's got customer service skills, because in the off season, 2022 23 he worked at Lululemon in Jacksonville as a side gig. So there you go. So you can call him for the complaint department. We're going

Pottymouth 33:54
to loop him in. Okay, so yoga pants out of this. I would appreciate it. You

Patti 33:59
can try. Yeah, next week we're talking about Boston and the Cubs. Oh,

Pottymouth 34:02
hey. So one more thing I want to say about your guy Wisely, that one of the wise things about you picking this week like the Tampa San Francisco overlap. It's sort of like kismet, right there. It's kismet, how about that? And Boston, Chicago? Oh, boy, that's actually cool that we're doing them both together because of their historic parks. I have my Boston pick, which you guys will find out about next week because of a promise that I made during a baseball game where I said, Please, please, please, please, please, if you get this home run, I swear to God, I will pick you as my baseball boyfriend. And Mr. Pottymouth said that is a promise. I'm like, fucked. I gotta pick the guy. Are you okay with your pick? I am okay with the pick. He's a good guy, but I think it's gonna be hard to find dirt on him, because I've had a hard time in the past trying to find out about his background. I don't

Patti 34:51
want dirt. You want only good things. Oh, I like dirt. That's dirt, but dirt is what makes you say, I can't use this guy. Okay. Okay,

Pottymouth 34:57
clean dirt. You. So all right, this beer is really good. I'm gonna go international for a brief moment to the Dominican Republic. Lead on and encourage you all to watch my Leonore del escojiro, they need your good vibes. They need your support. They're starting off a little bit behind in the Round Round Robin, but everything is really tight at the time of recording. Right now, as we're recording, Johnny Cueto is starting for the Leones. How about that? Jose City might be on the roster, I am not sure. And Pedro Severino is also available. So all that said, you know some of these guys, I think watch this round robin playoff action happening. If that's not enough for you, we have a lot of past baseball boyfriends on the estrellas Orientales, including Robinson Cano, who is ranking like four and older gentleman. He's doing really well. Magnus Sierra, who I picked in his brief time in MLB, is also on the estrellas viral broojan, also a pick of mine, and Ramel Tapia, who I also picked, Miguel, and ducar is on the tigrays. So at this point, things are super tight. Teams are either two and one or one and two, and today's games are happening now, so it's definitely time to tune in to lead on. If you want to go a little further south, Venezuelan ball, my Cardinals de Lara are knocking it out of the park. They are kicking butt. They are six and Oh, in the round robin, nobody is close to them. And this is the first time that the franchise has started off so fine, and the fourth time in Venezuela in history that a franchise has started off six and Oh. So I'm hoping that I'm not cursing them like, knock on any kind of wood that I have around here. I think the floor, the table right here. There you go. So the D backs are lucky to be getting il de Maro Vargas. I am very sad that he's not going to be with our nationals anymore, because he is part of the key for the Cardinals in the round robin. So far, he's batting 429, with a 996, ops. Congratulations, Arizona. You can catch Venezuelan ball for, I think it's like 20 bucks through the 17th of the month, and then it goes into the finals. So you can catch it through all of January and only one year. Now that we're in 2000 we're in 2025 right? Holy fuck, one year until the World Baseball Classic of 2026 and Puerto Rico has announced General Manager. I don't understand how these positions go, but Carlos Beltran might have heard of this guy, General Manager of Puerto Rico for World Baseball Classic. Stay tuned.

Patti 37:38
We're gonna cross train with with the government, with the feds, yesterday, okay, so, so we record on Sunday. So yesterday, on Saturday, um, that President Biden presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to many, many people, including some you may have heard of, right? So the Medal of Freedom is the quote, nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors. First on my personal list is the baseball one, yeah, David Rubenstein, owner of the O's, who can please, please, would you sell the damn Magna Carta and spend money on players? So he was these there because of his philanthropy and, quote, generous support for the restoration of historic landmarks and the country's cultural institutions. He was on the board of the Kennedy Center, the zoo, the zoo put money in the shore again, you know, he did, in fact, buy the Magna Carta to give to the National Archives. So it's not really his to sell anymore. It was a gift. So I don't think we can get, you know, 16 years of gutter Henderson for that Magna Carta,

Pottymouth 38:43
what a great trade. I would be willing. I would so

Patti 38:45
to do that. So we're gonna cross train a little bit here, because Magic Johnson also is received their award yesterday. He was, you know, five time champ with the Lakers, very well known for his HIV, activism and all sorts of philanthropy through his Magic Johnson Foundation. Lionel Messi, all right, the most decorated soccer player in the world. It was honored. He has done a lot of philanthropy around health care and education worldwide, not to mention, oh yeah, that soccer thing's pretty good. And a couple of other people we have mentioned on the show who are not, in fact, athletes, Chef Jose Andres of the world central kitchen, who has done a lot of amazing work feeding people in places where there have been gigantic, horrible disasters, and Bill Nye, the Science Guy who mentioned pretty recently, also got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Because who doesn't love bill, not the science guy so does why I had COVID? Never mind. Never mind. Never mind. Bill Nye, yeah, okay, yeah, the occasion of his winning ended up with me getting COVID. Oh, yeah, we don't go any further than that. That's all I need to know.

Pottymouth 39:47
Boy, well, go do some experiments, folks. In honor of Bill Nye,

Patti 39:51
That's it. Hey. So I, while we were recording, I got the news that I too have a snow day tomorrow. I think an actual snow day. The city government is closing.

So, yeah, right. So there's that spiked hot chocolate for everybody, right?

I hope you guys are you won't hear this till Tuesday. So hope you are digging out if you're in most of the country, which is supposedly getting hit with this giant snow storm. So other than, like, snow, does this stuff? What do you have going on?

Pottymouth 40:17
Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I guess I'm going to be watching some lead on playoffs for sure. And in a couple of weeks, we'll be doing this remotely, because I'm going to Massachusetts to get the fuck out of DC for inauguration weekend. And yeah, and, and other than that, I am not sure, what do you have going on. So

Patti 40:41
I'm on, I'm on ov watch. I'm cross training with hockey. Alexander Ovechkin has scored in four of his last five games since coming back on the ice from his broken leg. He's 23 goals away from the Great Ones record. I'm pretty excited about

Pottymouth 40:56
that possible. Yeah, I'm very sad, because the Bruins have been tanking. But, you know, and the Patriots can't even fucking lose, right? Win, right? They had a shitty, shitty season. They won their last game, which puts them out of the first round, the number one draft pick. So, like, they've had a shitty season, they can't even lose, and then they, they can't even win. Well, I don't know. They can't do they can't do shit well, anyway, yeah, we can do shit well, because we are very inspired by our new Patreon friend, Carl. Thank you so much, Carl. We have looked into the transcript situation, and I think we've solved the issue, and we're gonna have transcripts to make our podcast even more accessible, which is, I think that was what Carl's words were when he joined our Patreon. There the transcripts will be posted on Patreon, but I'm gonna post them under the free level, which means anybody can access them, and y'all can thank Carl for that. So more on that in just a brief moment. Yay.

Patti 41:59
So please give that a try tell us how you are spending your snow day. If you have ideas for boyfriends, well, for me, for Boston, because potty mouth clearly already has one. Or for either of us, for Chicago, or if, of course, you want to contribute to the Corrections Department, you can find us on social media. Sure

Pottymouth 42:14
look to the blue sky or that dark X place at NCI bead podcast, Facebook and Instagram are no crying and B ball. And then you can join the aforementioned fun Patreon page, which is really starting to sort of blossom, shall we say, in this in this dark of winter, that's p, A, T, R, E, o, n.com/no, crying and B ball. And you can buy us our next round, and we would super appreciate that.

Patti 42:43
Hey, if you're in a place where it's snowing and you are able, please shovel out your elderly neighbors, because it's the right thing to do, along with fighting the man and you know, and getting your boosters and sending your game balls to Meredith and until next week, say, Good night. Potty mouth.

Pottymouth 42:55
Good night Pottymouth.

Patti 43:13
I love that we said oopy doopy. And haven't even really started the show yet. We're already on oopy doopy, yep.

Pottymouth 43:18
Front loading the oopy doopy. You.