No Crying In Baseball

Patti 0:18
Hi and welcome to episode 439 of No Crying in Baseball, the Drown Out the Noise episode. My name is Patti. I'm here with my friend, Pottymouth. Hey, Pottymouth. How are you?

Pottymouth 0:25
Hey, long time, no see - sort of we've just been to lands afar since we last saw.

Patti 0:30
Yeah, we've both gone to the frozen north, but different parts of the frozen north.

Pottymouth 0:34
My co teacher was going to Florida. I was like, Oh, my God, that's the right. Well, I mean, except for Florida.

Patti 0:39
But like, that's true, wise, that's not a bad thing. Yeah. Did you guys have a white Christmas?

Pottymouth 0:43
We did. So did we we did

Patti 0:44
it was mostly our drive on Saturday. Could have been very treacherous, but everything was stopping and getting cleared right before we reached that part of the region. Oh, nice. So it was the right kind of the snow on the grass and the trees and not on the road, so it was kind of a lovely thing. And we got to my in laws house, we're like, Oh, someone's driven up here. No, you know what those tracks are? That's the snow blower. Very even parallel snow blower lines all up and down the hill, of the of the of the parking, the um, the driveway was very

Pottymouth 1:13
nice, yeah, so that you could get in without squishing stuff down. We felt that's really good. We we didn't have any snow driving up. We didn't think we were going to have any snow there. There was snow on the ground for Christmas, and then Friday night, we went out. The forecast said zero, 0% chance of snow. Went to a restaurant, went to our friend's house, came out of friend's house, and everything was covered with snow, and snow was falling, and we had to drive up the highway back to my dad's. So that was fun, but because it was Massachusetts, they their plows were out. They treated everything, and everything was clear by nine in the morning, where we had to leave again.

Patti 1:50
Hey, why don't you pass me your glass while we're chatting? And happy end to road trip season. I'm pretty happy to have road trip season.

Pottymouth 1:58
Oh yeah, it's good to be home. It was great to visit. Lovely to see everybody, right? Miss lots of folks, but it's good to be back home.

Patti 2:05
Can you tell our listeners the delicious first beer we had, our starter beer, which was so very good,

Pottymouth 2:10
yeah, our starter beer was a rye IPA from tree house brewery, the

Patti 2:15
famous Treehouse brewery. To me, that's what I felt like, because, you know, I like a rye PA.

Pottymouth 2:19
Yeah, it was we had you in mind when we bought it, because there were just so so many decisions. Tree House is really, really good, and what I'm super sad about is I left a smoked I think it was a hellish smoked beer, oh, my dad's refrigerator, who will be there to greet us at our next visit. But that was also from tree house. All right, now we're going to dessert.

Patti 2:41
We are so from my travels last weekend, from Great Lakes brewing out of Cleveland, Ohio, I have the cookie exchange milk

Pottymouth 2:48
stout. Wow, does it smell like cookies, yeah. So it's

Patti 2:50
very festive, yeah. And it's not necessarily holiday specific. It's kind of holiday specific, but it's cookie exchange cookies. I gave you cookies. We exchanged cookies. Now we're exchanging cookie beer, so many cookies, but we're only having half each, because Stout's like a meal.

Pottymouth 3:05
Yeah? And then we'll have dessert to our dessert. Yeah, we will. All right, fun stuff

Patti 3:11
on today's show, we've got boyfriends featuring a chicken dance, possible cultural appropriation ballers and something nice to look at. A weird end to a once and forever boyfriend truth in campaign colors, international baseball and cross trading with hockey and labor.

Pottymouth 3:27
Cheers, cheers. I was before I looked at the notes after I looked at your your thing on today's show, I was thinking there was a once in forever boyfriend with cement shoes or something like was this tragic. And I think there's been too many like real crime stuff on,

Patti 3:43
yeah, no, this is tragic in a disappointing kind of way. So way back in the beginning of time when we started the podcast and we decided we could have forever boyfriends and again. So the boyfriends are the guys that we pick in the off season every year in profile from every team, and we pick a new guy every year for every team, but we allow ourselves to carry over one player. So he's our forever boyfriend, and you can, we can carry him over indefinitely. And my original forever boyfriend was Anthony Rendon at the time with the Nationals, and he was great. He was a good player, and he was funny and he was friendly, and he was nice to look at, and he was a lot. He had a lot of things going on when he was with the Nationals, when he was with the Nationals, and then they won the World Series, and then he went to the angels, and everything went to hell. Before that, there was the White House Trip, right? And that's when things started going downhill. But he has not played a full season with the angels the entire time, either because injury, Injury, injury, Injury injury, or a couple of suspensions, he just didn't have it together. So the angels have finally decided, okay, we're just, we need you to go away now. Yeah, he's got one year left on his multi year contract, dollar contract, and so, yeah, so what's left is a $38,000,000.04 Or his last year, and they've come to an agreement that they're going to pay that out over three to five years to free up payroll space so they can go after some people who might actually play during the course of the season, and get this he's going to technically remain on the roster, but he gets to go home and live in Houston. Wow. I don't know how all this works. He recently complained that there's just too many baseball games when he just wants to be hanging out with his family, so it seems like a good time for him not to be playing baseball anymore, although I think, you know, possibly right after the World Series would have been a good choice. Because again, I'm so disappointed. I really, really enjoyed him so much, and then all of a sudden, was like, what has happened to you, my friend?

Pottymouth 5:41
Yeah, I feel bad for angels fans, because that was such a big deal when he went there

Patti 5:46
and oops. Okay, so now you're scowling at the can, are you not? You're not

Pottymouth 5:49
enjoying Oh, no, no. I was not scowling. I was trying to figure out what kind of cookie it was, because this tastes very cookie like, and it says, treat yourself to our seasonal milk stroke stout brewed with a special, rotating cookie inspired flavor. So I'm like, well, what's the rotation? And I'm rotating the can, but I'm not figuring out what the cookie flavor is.

Patti 6:08
I mean, is it a sugar cookie? Is it a gingerbread cookie? I don't know. I mean,

Pottymouth 6:13
it's it smells, it's really yummy.

Patti 6:16
But also, I'm really glad that we split one, because this is how I am with stouts. I like the flavors, but if I have more than half of one, that's it

Pottymouth 6:23
for the day. Yep, yep. All right. But we have so much baseball to talk about. We do now. It's time for our baseball boyfriends, these guys that we pick in the off season, and at the end of the off season, we will have a stellar fantasy team. Just you wait and you can play with us. Stay tuned for more on that. And so we do two guys a week, each of us, one, Al, one, no, and we're going to start off. And I almost said it with the athletics, the homeless athletics, the Sacramento athletics, are they? They're officially Sacramento. This year,

Patti 6:54
they are playing in Sacramento. They are not the Sacramento athletics. You're not, right.

Pottymouth 6:58
Call them, yeah, but aren't they have a shirt that says Sacramento. They get very itchy. Yeah, yeah, they, it's not gonna be. It's not an official title, but I think they're like, repping it more than Yeah,

Patti 7:09
they may be, but yeah, hands get slapped, yeah, when that is said, you know, in a formal

Pottymouth 7:14
way, oh, boy. It'll be great when they're in Vegas. Um, anyway, they have really, it might be, I don't know. They have some really hot young players, and we have a couple of them to talk about. So I got in the skilled way, absolutely, that's that's exactly what I mean. Because they are young, mighty Young. Jacob Wilson, shortstop, 23 years old, and I love his character, and he's just a little bit of beating his own drum here, because he says in when he was interviewed for an article, kids are going to love this one. Parents are going to hate me. I'm a big believer in video games, and he convinced me that video games absolutely have value, and I've known that. I mean, I like video games, and that's what I did in Vegas, is we went to the pinball Hall of Fame, and I played old school video games because that was fun. But according to him, and I think this tracks, it trains fast decision making, you got to react really fast in a video game, you got to react really fast when you're a shortstop. It took some convincing of his high school coach slash dad. So dad, Jack Wilson, you may have heard of spent 12 years as a shortstop in Major League Baseball from oh one to 2012 mostly with Pittsburgh, but also a little bit with Seattle and Atlanta. And so dad's take on this was all right, as long as you do your homework. Kids, if you're reading, do your homework. So he came around to the video game thing, but you know, on its due place. So I think Dad can also be a baseball boyfriend. Dad has the fifth most defensive wins above replacement since 2000 right behind angelton Simmons, Yadier, Molina, Adrian, Beltre and Kevin kiermeier, I think those are all previous baseball boyfriend picks of mine. I am 99% sure somebody can believe they are. I think that's true. Yeah. So, hey, not, not bad company by miss Dad. So he grew up playing a lot of baseball. You know? This is the kid, Jacob. They actually had an infield in their backyard, regulation size infield, and dad there coaching him, not only off season, but in high school. So junior year in high school, young Jacob, did not strike out at all. Senior year was the covid year shortened. Also did not strike out when he was at Grand Canyon. So this is not striking out for the whole fucking season. That's amazing, especially for a high school kid. When he was at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, he was recognized, recognized twice by the western athletic conference for the hardest hitter to strike out in his three years in college. He batted three, six. 6022, homers in 154 games, only 31 strikeouts. So he did strike out, but not a heck of a lot. His swing was a work in progress, and I feel like his dad was kind of like the sculptor, and he was like the kid who had to keep tweaking, because dad had a lot of guys that he knew well and respected and learned from their swings. So there was a little bit of Miguel Cabrera influence there and into Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and so what it came up with is, quote, a little chicken dance, a little Cabrera trout Pujols, sure, fan graph actually, actually has a great article that we need to link because there are way too many funny lines for me to quote, but I'll give you a couple. They said that Wilson is leading the league by a mile in the all important category of most fun stance, and he doesn't look like he's riding a horse so much as he looks like he's pretending to ride a horse. Oh, that's beautiful. Lower half is bouncy, but things are Herky jerky upstairs. So you've got to see the video.

Patti 11:07
It's, I want to know how you parse out bouncy from Herky jerky? I bouncy maybe is more of a smooth Yeah, I don't know.

Pottymouth 11:15
Yeah, I that. I think that's it. You got to check the video. There's to go to the video for sure. There's one article, and I don't know if I included it that like tracks his stance over the years, because it wasn't always bouncy and Herky jerky and some from high school to college to Pro. It was definitely a work in progress. And dad must have been like poking the bear and saying, Okay, a little bit more jerk or HERC or whichever way you're gonna go. So last year, oh, so he got picked six in the 2023 draft not too long ago, and then debuted the following year, July of 2024 only to 24 No, 28 Yep, 28 games in 24 but he was ready to break out in 25 and he got the opening day start. He didn't strike out until April 7. So he started on opening day. After 33 plate appearances, he finally struck out. The really weird part is he didn't walk either. So 33 plate appearances, didn't walk, didn't strike out, and he hit a lot. He was batting 364, during that interval, he hit in the first 15 games in a row of 2025 four of those games were multi hit games. So regarding the no strikeout thing, and going back to the previous season, he had 55 MLB played appearances consecutively without a strikeout. And yeah, and and he only whiffed twice, so he only swung and missed twice. So he's a big contact guy. Huge contact guy. He ended up starting shortstop for the all star game. Not bad for your rookie season, he was the first rookie starting at shortstop in the All Star game since Ron Hanson in 1960 and the first fan elected rookie shortstop starting ever. Not only that, but they were the first, the only father son combo, so both he and dad did shortstop all star games. So there's a really cute little clip of that him, them both being miked up during the game, which is really sweet. Carlos Rawn said, so Yankees pitcher, you know, upon facing Jacob, it's not fair. What do I do with a guy like this? You're not going to strike him out. So what do you do? Things were going really well for Jacob, and then he gets hit by a pitch on his hand, July 8, and he kept playing with some days off, not realizing how bad, bad it was, but went into a slump the next 38 game, 38 played appearances. He went four for 38 and in July, 25 left the game early, got an MRI and realized it was a left forearm fracture. Oh, dear. So this is where it's like, you know, you gotta slow down. He said, I played through it, trying to manage the pain, just because I wanted to be part of the team and play the game I love. But sometimes, when something's bothering you to the point it's affecting your play, you just have to take the time off to get healthy. Or if something's bothering you and it's gonna end up affecting your play, you should just take time off. So there goes Rookie of the Year. He did come in second to segue to,

Patti 14:26
hey, let's talk about Nick Kurtz sure from the athletics first base, 22 years old. He basically followed exactly in Jacob Wilson's footsteps, because he was drafted and then got called up immediately the next year. Wow. So it was very close to that. In fact, when he got his call up, they they had him chat with with Jacob for a while, like, okay, just, just talk him through what this is like. So it was really kind of cool. So, okay, so Nick hurts, otherwise known as Big Amish first baseman, 22 years old, is not Amish. I'm going to say this many, many times he is not Amish. This is important, not Amish, right? I know I'm going to say it a few more times. Um, so he grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is largely Amish, right, right. Okay. His greatness started very, very young, when he was 12, which, if you don't have a kid or don't remember being 12, it's like seventh grade. He was the winning pitcher on the the USA is 12 and under national team, which won the freaking gold medal in the World Cup that year. He was the pitcher. Wow, he doesn't pitch anymore, yeah, but he was that good. Okay, so this was it in Taiwan. He started three of the nine games he won, two and there was like no decision on the other one, that the wins included the first game that he pitched was a complete game shutout over Japan, which I hear is very good at baseball. All total over this, this whole tournament, he pitched 14.2 innings, struck out 15 batters, allowed one Earned Run. Also, he hit 333, and it was a home run. So he kind of started early, and thankfully, he did not peak early. He just kept going. So although he initially grew up in Lancaster, he ended up going to high school at the Baylor school in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he lettered four years in baseball and three in basketball. We love a little bit of cross training. Yeah, went to Wake Forest for College, where he was named All American. His freshman year, first team all American as a sophomore year, he left Wake Forest as their all time leader in walks. Put a pin in that. We're talking about walks in just a minute. Okay, glad Sunday blocks 2024 draft, the athletics picked him in the first round. He was like the fourth pick overall and signed for $7 million hit. The scouts at the time were comparing him both hitting and defense to former A's player and former boyfriend, Matt Olsen, now with the hammers, so I he was pretty flattered by that. I'm pretty excited about that, because I'm a big, big Matt Olsen fan. He was not on the opening day roster in 2025 which wouldn't be a surprise, because he was just drafted last year, yeah, but this becomes important later. So also another pin. Remember not he wasn't on the opening day roster, but after only 32 minor league games, both in 2024 and the beginning of 2025 he had his debut at the end of April, April 23 2025 he had an RBI single off of Kumar rocker in his very first at bat. In his debut, it was the hardest hit ball that day for either team, which is pretty exciting. His parents were and friends were, of course, in the stands. And apparently, his dad got teased for playing third base coach, because he was waving in, like, shaylan Lee was on second base, and he's like, waving him in because, you know, because, like, Nick's ball was on the opposite. Come on,

Pottymouth 17:53
you guys should see Patty waving this. Yeah, really impressive. Yeah. Just like a dad would

Patti 17:57
just, like, I can, like, I can do a dad doing third base coaching from the students like crazy. So after the game, Nick said, my whole family being here was awesome. It's not just my dream, it's our dream. It's what we worked together for my whole life, after the countless things they've done for me to get me this point, it was awesome to share at that moment with them. So this was, this was April 23 it took him till May 13 to get his first major league home run, and that kind of started to open the floodgates. On June 16, he hit a 447 foot two run walk off Homer, which was the longest by an athletics player in the stat cast air longest walk off home run by an A's player. Again, the stat cast error, which I'll say a couple times, started in 2015 so that that's where, that's when they were tracking these very specific statistics. So he kind of had this whole summer thing happening. He was the player, the American League Player of the Week twice in July, twice. He's a rookie twice in July. He was the Rookie of the month for the American League in both June and July, and he was the American League Player of the Month in July. That's a lot of things. Let me tell you why some of those things happened. We talked about this when it actually happened on July 25 he hit four home runs in one game versus Houston. Overall. In the game, he went six for six, and he tied the Major League Baseball record for total bases in a game with 19. That's insane, so crazy. He was the first rookie in 150 years of Major League Baseball to hit four home runs in a game, the 20th in Major League history total. Like, not just rookies, but overall. And some of the other ones that did this were like Lou Gehrig and Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt were the other people who hit four home runs in a game. So he's in, like, super good company. So what. Happened when pitchers realized, oh, hell, he's a power hitter. Immediately after this game, he was pitched differently and also walked a ton intentionally walked, or, you know, the sort of fake intentionally walked, when the pitches are clearly all going to be balls before that game, before that six for sixth game, the four home run game, his walk rate was 10.3% after 18.3% which was the highest rate in all of Major League Baseball for this season, because no one wanted to pitch to him anymore. Sometimes you have to pitch to a player. So in September, the athletics had loaded the bases, so the Cincinnati pitcher had to throw a strike. Nick knew a strike was coming, because everyone knew a strike was coming. Because what are you going to do? Walk in a run? No, you're not. You're going to you're going to pitch to Nick hurts, and you're going to watch the Grand Slam. Yeah, go 493 feet, right, which was the longest home run in the big leagues since 2023 who hit that in 2023 Shohei Ohtani, so okay, if you little upstart rookie, you're gonna be like, like somebody else. Okay. Ohtani is not a bad person to emulate. It was the longest Grand Slam in the stat cast era. So they were playing, remember, there, as you noted before, they were playing in a minor league Park. This happened when they were playing in Sacramento. So the parks are smaller around the outside, and the height is lower, and there are parking lots nearby. So his teammate, Lawrence Butler, said, after this 493 foot home, I was like, I'm gonna go out there and hope there ain't no ball in my windshield.

Pottymouth 21:38
That's my pick from last year. Yeah, right.

Patti 21:41
So he was, in fact, the unanimous pick for American League rookie of the year. So thank you, potty mouth, for allowing me to scoop up both rookies of the year. You could use a matching season, right? I do like to complete a set. He was also the American League Silver Slugger at first base for this year. He hit 36 homers over 117 games he had. He finished the season with a 1.002 ops and a 5.4 wins above replacement. Now, remember he started late. He did not start on opening day. He didn't start in the first couple weeks of the season. Do you remember our vocabulary from last week? Do you remember the tricky thing I talked about last week, the PPI? Oh yeah, the prospect promotion incentive. So the A's failed on that Nick won this because, because he got Rookie of the Year, he gets automatically a full year of service time because he won this award. So they should have brought him up. If they had brought him up, they also would have scored a draft pick, yeah, but they didn't do bad, and so they, they, they did not win that. But Nick is that much closer to free agency or to arbitration, you know, and then free agency. All right, we have to talk about the nickname. All right. So big Amish. He is very tall. He's six, five. Whoa, that's very tall, yeah, if you remember when he was hitting, when you had that six for six game, I talked about his mom saying, We really like it when he just gets, you know, a hit early, because then we can relax and not worry about him being in a bad mood. Let's get hit. And then they realized, Oh no, he's a triple short of the cycle. He can't hit a triple. He's too big to hit a triple, right? Because he's like, six, five and like 200 and whatever, pounds, and he's not ever going to hit a triple, all right? Triple. All right, we grew up in Amish country, so one of his teammates is like, Oh, hey, big Amish. And he's like, you know, this isn't the first time that somebody made like an Amish, you know, a nickname involving the word Amish about me, but he's a good sport about it. He said, I think it's funny. I lean into it, for sure. I'm proud to represent, which is funny, because he's not Amish. What is he representing? I don't know. He's representing people who are good sports, sure. My question about cultural appropriation is this, I think it probably doesn't come up like that. Phrase doesn't come up when we talk about the Amish all that often, his his like, his little celebration, his little Sally, when he gets like a, you know, like a multi base hit or a home run, is a churning butter, right? Yeah, like, kind of, like, is that, is that just kind of fun and kind of cute, or is that cultural appropriation? Discuss among yourselves, I don't know.

Pottymouth 24:10
Yeah, I'm not sure. I guess the Amish aren't the only ones who churn butter, although, sure, either they're known for it sure and and probably most, at least youngins who are watching the game are gonna have no fucking clue what that actually is,

Patti 24:25
yes, yeah. And also he, he really had this, this nickname sort of thrust upon him, so I think he's, like, just trying to, like, lean into it and say, okay, they're gonna call me this anyway, but yeah, but that question remains, so please let us know what you think about that. I'm really excited about him, though, because he's, like, a good guy, he's pretty funny, he's tall, and he hits the ball hard, and that's kind of fun, too.

Pottymouth 24:45
Yeah, oh, that's awesome. And we'll see if the Selly continues. Yes, all right, we are on to the Cardinals, St Louis, and I am super excited about Ivan Herrera, catcher, slash. DH. Maybe outfield, 25 years old, and I swear to God, I picked him before we got an email from our friend Anna. Thank you so much, Anna. We always say, like, if you have guys to fix us up with, if you know the team well, please contact us and let us know. And Anna emailed saying quote, he's very nice to look at. I swear to God, really, Mr. Potty mouth, you know that I picked this guy before we got that description. He is from Panama, and he is going to be playing the World Baseball Classic for Panama this March. And his mom is a teacher. He almost quit baseball as a kid because he was teased for being, quote, too chubby instead of quitting, yeah, but he turned it around. So instead of quitting, he took it upon himself to just show them and get into the best shape he possibly could. He started going to the gym three times a day, starting with the 4:15am bus. And he said, I think that's where my work ethic really started. I remember taking that bus into the city every morning because I didn't have a car and I didn't have money. The sacrifices I made then helped me to get where I am now, and it still makes me want to get better. He signed with the Cardinals at age 16 and 2016 despite having better offers from other teams because of Yari or Molina, because he idolized Yadi as a catcher, and he wanted to play for yadi's team, sure. So he debuted in 2022 in May, and didn't have too much time that season, just 11 games. Didn't do much in 2023 when he was back down to triple A, he was the Cardinals minor league player of the year, up for 72 games in 2024 and made that count, because those 72 games he batted 301 with an 800 ops. So in 2024 he actually excelled at both levels, both at AAA and his 72 games in the majors, but he lost a bunch of time for back tightness. Unfortunately, his minor league 27 games was 288, 75 ops and five home runs. He did make the opening day roster last year, but again, with the injuries, I feel like I have this sort of really unfortunate theme of guys who had a lot of injuries last year, but I'm really hoping that they're gonna move beyond it this year. He played us 107 games last year, and 25 mostly. DH, so I know with our fantasy league, that's not great, but he counts as catcher, so I can still put him in, as long as he keeps that catcher on the label. So he DH, 89 games last year, 14 catcher. Your guy last year, Pedro paques, is much better defensively, although my guy, Ivan Herrera, has the bat. He also played four games in left field. So I'm wondering like catcher to left field. I don't know how common that is. I usually think it's captured, right? Yeah, but he played two games against Miami and the end of July, and then one against San Diego, one against Colorado, no errors. So after that first game where they stuck him in left field on July 28 he said, I saw the ball, and one second later, my heart exploded. He said, after, after catching it, yeah, after catching it, I remember touching my chest and feeling that my heart was going out in orbits. But I just laughed, and I was enjoying being there in the cardines Quiero in the left outfield, left left field, left garden. For the first time in my professional career, he had four home runs in his first seven games of the season, three of them were in one game that made him the first Cardinals catcher ever, including his idol, Yari or Molina, with a three home run game, unfortunately, then his knee got inflamed. So here's another one where they're all different injuries. So I think I like either I just have another really accident prone guy, or there's hope. He was out April 7, back may 9, and then injured his elbow, June 20. But in that time before June 20, he was up to a 320, average, eight home runs, 36 RBI. After playing only 42 games, he was back July 13, and ended up with 287, on the season, with 837, ops. And I really like his reflection on his sort of humble upbringing. And is that the right word? I'm almost at the end of this milk stout, and it is very yummy. Yeah, it is. He said, growing up, I didn't have any money or anything, and now being able to accomplish these things, it means a lot for me, for my family and for my country. A lot of Panamanian kids see me as an idol the way i. Saw Molina. I'm just trying to be an example for the guys coming up from Panama. Nice. So he wants to be what Molina was for him,

Patti 30:07
and he knows that at a young age, which is pretty impressive, yeah, because a lot of times like the the general feel is go out, do your stuff for yourself when you're young, and then as you become more of a veteran, then you can start paying attention to the guys coming up or the outside world or kids or the neighborhood or whatever it is, but, you know, focus on yourself first. It seems like more and more these kids, these kids, these younger players, are starting to give back earlier and pay attention to, like, what they what they are, as a role model earlier. That's really impressive. Yep, good point. Okay, this is my first guy who's not yet rostered. So that's, that's, that's a thing. Yeah, right, okay, but there's hope. There's a lot of hope. So JJ, weather, hope is short stop and second base, sometimes third base. He's 23 and there's a lot of noise right now in the Cardinals about possible trades of veteran infielders. And one of the reasons that might happen is this guy is kind of ready to come up. And if they can make an advantageous trade to build up their prospects and then make a path for JJ, they might do that.

Pottymouth 31:12
So if they could make that trade to the Red Sox, I would super appreciate, yeah, Donovan second base, yeah,

Patti 31:19
okay, all right, so they're excited that weather hold, in fact, can play a lot of infield positions. So he's Korean American. He was born in Baltimore, but grew up near Pittsburgh. I think it's a little hilarious that he says, I was never a pirates fan, but I would go to PNC Park to see the visiting teams, but also because it's a great park. But, you know, so he lived in Mars, Pennsylvania, population, 14 143 which is we, which is very we, but because it was like 20 miles from Pittsburgh, a lot of the guys that he played baseball with and against growing up were children of pirates players, even though he was didn't care for the pirates all that much. So he went to West Virginia University. The coach there said, JJ weatherholt, has changed West Virginia in baseball forever. He was a big 12 freshman all American, big 12 player of the year as a sophomore and unanimous First Team All American. He finished his career there with a 449 average, 16 home well, actually, that that year, I'm sorry, his sophomore with a 449 average, 16 home runs, 60 RBI, 36 stolen baseball and a 787, slugging percentage. He was also a finalist for the dick Houser trophy, which is like the National trophy for college player of the year. So, pretty good, pretty good. After, after the draft. He was also after the end of his college career, where they kind of had a disappointing finish in, you know, in playoffs, he stopped by the baseball camp that his Mars high school coach was running with some professional players from the pirates. He just popped in. The kids didn't know he was coming, but the kids, like, they were like, you know, stars in their eyes for these professional players. But JJ was a big deal at the coach. And Andy Bednar said it was just incredible, because not that long ago, JJ was one of those campers there, so he was just that close, that that like that the see, it, be it. Thing was was so immediate for the kids, and they were like, absolutely following him. So a quick bit about Andy Bednar, the coach of this tiny, little high school team and person who ran this camp. He's the dad to pirates.

Pottymouth 33:37
Closer. David Bednar, I was like, That name sounds familiar.

Patti 33:41
His son Will was drafted in the first round in 2021 by the Giants. So he's got two professional ball players in his family. And JJ is like the soup is absolute eyes on him, up and coming guy. And so this article that I read about this camp and focusing on this coach like that, the general feel about how he coaches and how he like you know, what his effect is on these kids who are good at baseball is all are not only superior players, but fun, intelligent, friendly people who are secure in themselves and their accomplishments, but not overbearing or taking it too seriously. He's building boyfriends. That is what he's doing. He is somebody to do that. He's coaching these kids to become exactly the kind of thing that we look for. Great, you know, kind people, good at the sport, fun to hang out with, give back all of those things. So that's very, very cool. So in the 2024, draft, he was drafted in the first round by St Louis. He signed for $6.8 million he was the seventh overall pick in the draft. He was, the outlook on him was somewhere in the top 10. Some people were saying, Oh, he might be the first round draft pick, but he had been recovering from a hamstring injury and so like, so some teams were like, and the Cardinals were like, yes, thank you. Thank you for still being there. When it's our turn to pick, because he could have gone sooner, and they really, really wanted him. So as it's done, you know, the they interview the players as they are drafted, right? How are you feeling? What's going on? What should we know about you? And JJ says, this is like, this confidence. I love this conference, like they're getting a baller. Man. I can do it all. I can do a little bit of everything. And I'm a learner. I'm super excited to see what the Cardinals can do to make me a better player. So you can turn that around. It's like, I'm excited I'm good. I'm happy that they saw that. I'm good. But also I want to work and see if I can, you know how to get better. Impressive. So I kind of like that. So he started 2025 at double A playing the futures game was in triple A immediately beginning of July. So by the end of the season, he was not only baseball America's double A all star. He was also their triple A all star. Wow. So he played 109 games this past season in the minor leagues. He hit 306 over those games, 17 home runs, 23 stolen bases. He was also the Texas league most valuable player this year, the International League top MLB prospect award, and he was the Cardinals Minor League Player of the Year for this year. So there's a lot of people pinning hopes on him, hoping he doesn't crack under the pressure, but they're all looking at him like, okay, bud, you're coming up, and we're all looking at you. So what he says is, it's easy right now to get caught up in you're almost there, you're almost there, you're almost there, but you don't go work at things with the same hunger that you've always had before I was here, like when you when you hear that stuff, said, I just want to continue to work hard. If you work the right way, it'll come So that's been my focus. Drown out the noise and enjoy this process. So he seems kind of mature about how he's looking at this, shutting down, the fact that everyone's like, Oh, dude, you're coming up and you're gonna like, you know, you're gonna be our hero, and all this, like, I'm just gonna do my best. So back to being Korean American. His grandmother's from South Korea. His grandfather was a US soldier stationed in Korea. He married his grandmother, they moved to the United States. He says he'd like to play for Korea in the World Baseball Classic, I don't think he's going to get to it seems like they've got their roster already. And interestingly, on that roster, Tommy Edmond is the only non Korean born player on that roster. You know, like they're, yeah, every country has their own rules, like if your dad or if you're a mom, or if a grand, like, whatever the rules are, and Korea is like, every single person listed is born in Korea, except for Tommy Edmond. So, you know, I think maybe they'll just keep an eye on him this year, and maybe next time, he'll be the only one, depending on how he does this year. Next week. We're all Florida all the time, Tampa Bay and Miami. Oh, hey, so we'll talk about warm places that we are not ever going to

Pottymouth 37:46
go to. Yeah, folks, definitely. If you have suggestions for Tampa Bay and Miami, let us know.

Patti 37:52
Do you want me to pour our next beer?

Pottymouth 37:55
Sure, sure it's you're not done yet. I will be. Yeah, I was

Patti 37:59
just talking to our next beer. Oh, the best beer. Yeah,

Pottymouth 38:02
we're going back to October. Well, you

Patti 38:04
know, we're spending some time, a little time you want me for Manor Hill brewing. Very nice. We have

Pottymouth 38:08
a bunch of that because it was so good. So, um, you may have heard that New York's getting a new mayor January 1, and it's a really big fucking deal. Zoran mandani is going to be sworn in on January 1 by a combination of Bernie Sanders and Leticia James, and there's going to be seven blocks worth of block party, and there is going to be a transition team. So one thing I've noticed throughout ma'am Danny's campaign is his campaign colors. They're Mets colors. So, ma'am, he's from Queens, so I think he comes by it honestly, but it's really, I mean, Mets colors you don't find in the wild. You know, they're, they're pretty unique combination.

Speaker 1 38:50
They are school colors, for sure, they look like middle league or like a high school team.

Pottymouth 38:54
So he's embraced that, and all his campaign stuff is in Mets colors. So maybe appropriately, on his transition team is going to be Katia regero Lindor. You may have heard that last name Lindor when it comes to something to do with the Mets, but she is being billed as the UNIP, the unapparent. I keep saying uniparran. It's not like one parent unapparent, unapparent podcast. That's it just Lindor, the unapparent podcast. She's, she has a bilingual podcast. Her podcast is actually really good. It's been, I think she's got like, three or four seasons. It's bilingual, and it's focusing on healthy sort of attachment parenting. In her bio on Instagram, she says, breastfeeding plus home birth plus social justice advocate her hubby, Francisco Lindor. You might have heard of him. He shows up a lot on the podcast. And one thing that she did in this past season, which is super cool, is there's a lot of couples visit, couple guest, and they talk about parenting as baseball players. So she had Jessica and Carlos Beltran, Danielle and. Masnido Kara and Shane Bieber, Donna and Gio ursella, Marcy and Mark conja. And, of course, Kike and Mariana Vincente, they were actually on a lot earlier. And her very second podcast ever, episode two, is with just her and Kike, his wife, Marianna, and it's Spanglish, and they go back and forth. And forth. And I think I talked about that when it when it came out, because it's really, it's really fun to listen to, um, her topics, huge range. She goes from everything to deal with parenting, from infertility to co sleeping to mom burnout, so much stuff. But she has really dedicated herself to being a voice, you know, beyond, just being a wife, she's also a renowned violinist. She played the national anthem on the violin this past season, but she's also played in all sorts of play, you know, I think it was with shoot. Who is the and I shouldn't just go off cuff here, the Yankees musician Bernie Williams, the two of them had a concert. I think it was Carnegie Hall someplace like that, New York City. She is super talented, so she's on this team of 48 with people who are playwrights, novelists, actors, musicians, comedians, and then also, you know, folks who are involved in a variety of organizations. This is the transition team. Yeah, yeah. Not, not the podcast or the or the playing music. This is the transition team. That's the team of 48 or the Mets. They don't have 48 either. So she has been outspoken on her especially her Instagram stories, so you got to catch it while it's out there, over the course of the campaign. And very much supporting Mamdani and she said, quote, supporting politicians who fight for immigrants, artists, workers and everyone who deserves a dignified life isn't against my interests, even if I'm in a different, different economic, economic position. PS, your enemies aren't the immigrants, they're the one percenters hoarding the wealth while leaving you without basic needs. Oh, Rock on, yeah. So the new you know, I had a hard time finding an article about this that wasn't slamming her, including the New York Post and one of the New Jersey papers and Fox News, because they're basically using that and then saying, Well, you also are a millionaire, and who are you to speak out against The one percenters while you're very wealthy. But I think it's important that the only way that the whole mandani concept is going to work is if the very wealthy stay in New York City and pay their taxes, because you need the money from somewhere. She and Francisco just bought a $21.2 million penthouse on the Upper East Side. So she's saying, I'm willing to stay here and pay taxes. You know, the whole line is that all these rich people are going to flee New York City, and then it's going to be a fucking mess for Mamdani, because he's not going to have any money. But the reality is, there are a lot of very wealthy people who are fine with staying in New York City and paying their fair share. They're not going to be destitute after this. They're just paying their fair share, and things hopefully will be better for everyone involved.

Patti 43:09
What are you doing with that money? I mean, there are people who say, I'm buying yet a bigger yacht with this money, or there's, I am supporting people who don't have this kind of money in ways that make their lives better. Yeah, I'm creating better policies and better structures and better organizations to serve people who need a little extra help that I don't need I can spare it

Pottymouth 43:28
exactly, exactly. And the New York Press is also sort of magnifying the whole rumor that this is why Nimmo left the Mets is because there was this political kerfuffle between him and Lindor. It said that Nimmo is of the Maga, Maga pro Trump variety, and Lindor, apparently is not. And just, who the fuck knows? I don't know. Just, I'm just glad that catches out there doing this. Let's cross

Patti 43:51
train with hockey and labor, because there's never anything controversial in a conversation about labor or hockey. So both the H A, H A, H L, and the E, C, H L are negotiating CBAS. These are basically, like the version of minor leagues. Okay. I was like, What is this? So the AHL is right below the NHL, so it's basically triple A, okay, if I'm going to translate it to baseball terms, thank you. And the ECHL, which used to be called the East Coast Hockey League, is now just the ECHL is kind of like double A. It's just like, there's like two steps from the NHL. So the wow, my voice just went away. So give me a sec. It's okay. I know more

Pottymouth 44:29
beer, more beer. That's gonna help.

Patti 44:33
Okay, see, I'm back. There you go. All right. So last week, the ECHL went on strike. 41 games weren't postponed. They had been bargaining for a year, since last January, and getting freaking nowhere. So they said we're going to go on strike and to quote, to protect the integrity of the bargaining process, because they are alleging that there is ongoing unfair labor practices by the League. Yeah. So the their their players union, is the phpa, the professional hockey players association. Their executive director, Brian Ramsey, gave some examples about the things that they are bargaining around. And I'm just going to say these to you so you can get a feel for just how crazy they are, the crazy things that they're asking for these minor league players. This is a league that has taken almost a year to concede that we should be entitled to choose helmets that properly fit us.

Pottymouth 45:24
Oh, my God, are safe that fit.

Patti 45:27
This is the league that still supplies our members with used equipment. This is a league that shows no concern for players travels, and, in fact, has said the nine hour bus trip home should be considered your day off. Wow.

Pottymouth 45:41
You know, as somebody who just did a nine hour car trip, that is not a fucking day off, that

Patti 45:45
is not a day off, that is work time. Yeah, that is work time. It's not like you could do anything else during that time. He said, we've had members this year spend 28 hours plus on a bus to play back to back games on a Friday and a Saturday night, only to be paid less than the referees who work those very Oh, my God, games. So clearly, they're outrageous. They're outrageous demands. Wow. So the strike apparently was enough, and the attention that the strike brought to these issues, you know, allowing the union to say, here's what we're talking about. They They settled there. A new agreement was ratified today. In fact, we're recording on Tuesday. The new agreement was ratified today. The CBA is going to be in effect for five years. The details themselves have not yet been made public. I'm curious about what happened there, like, what, what is, what they agreed upon. But that strike worked.

Pottymouth 46:39
Man, that's, that's insane. I would hope that some, I was gonna say major league players, whatever you call hockey players, who play for big money, would get behind that. Like, holy shit. Safety. Like, just safety, safety.

Patti 46:54
Oh, here, this helmet covers most of your head. It'll be fine. It might fly off, but you could put it back on.

Pottymouth 46:59
You can't even do that in high school, like that's just not okay.

Patti 47:03
It's true. It's so true.

Pottymouth 47:06
All right, I'm going to go south of the border with a series of serious I think I left the this hanging a little bit last week. We weren't sure what was happening between the Serie A del Caribe and the serie de las Americas. And if you haven't been listening, seria the Caribe is sort of the most known. It historically has been the competition of the winners of the different winter leagues, predominantly Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Mexico. And depending on what year it is, there have been others involved. Cuba was actually one of the original countries, but they've been in and out for a variety of reasons anyway, with the whole, you know, Venezuela situation, and Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico saying we're not going to Venezuela, there was a lot up in the air as of last week, especially because there's another serie, the serie de las Americas, which started last year with a whole bunch of other countries. So Venezuela, once they got dissed by Caribe, put out the offer, hey, why don't we host the serie de las Americas here? So this is what has solidified in this past week. Both of the series will be happening at the same time, February 1 through seventh. Serie de las Americas will be happening in Venezuela, not Panama, as it was originally planned. And that will consist of Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Curacao, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela, a lot of countries. I think that's exciting. Like, I think if you're going to have a regional series. It should be really regional. The serie del de del Caribe is going to be happening in Mexico with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Mexico, Verde and Mexico Rojo Mexico gets two teams. Yeah. So they were using it as a placeholder, thinking that maybe Venezuela would show up. But Venom was like, Venezuela was apparently, like, fuck that we've invested so much. And this is where my mind is spinning a little bit like the amount of work that you need to do to host an international competition. You're talking about, like hotel rooms and where all the other teams are gonna stay, and getting tickets and all this shit. And how do you like this is happening beginning of February. We're almost at the beginning of January, a month away. How do you spin that on a dime? So first of all, for Venezuela, they're trying to make up the loss from losing Caribe, but now they have to host a shitload more teams, so I don't know how they're going to pull that off. And then Panama saying, Oh, actually, Venezuela, it's okay if you host it, and we're not going to host at all. So I don't understand Panama at all, because apparently they were already planning to play in both, and they were planning to play in both with their championship team, because both were happening at different times. The serie de las Americas, which are. Was originally supposed to be in Panama at the end of January, and then they were going to trundle off and go to the serie de cribe, right across the ocean in or just, you know, go around the corner if you want to go buy land in Venezuela. So Panama is now not hosting. I don't know how they're dealing with that kind of lost income. Also not coming is, I don't know if you remember last year the Japan breeze was in the Caribe. Alex Ramirez, who is Venezuelan, but lives and play coaches in Japan, had pulled that together. Apparently, that didn't go so like the Caribbean part of Japan, right? It's got the breeze. It's got the Caribbean breeze. So they're not in anymore that they lost terribly, by the way, and there were some deals made, but I think that's as far as it went. Panama last year, won the first serie de las Americas with their league champs, the aguiles metropolitanias in Nicaragua. So right now, their new plan is that their national team is going to go to the serie de las Americas in Venezuela, and their league champions are going to go to Mexico. Phew. So they were last in this they weren't in the serie de Caribe last year. They were last there in Miami, the Venezuelan Liga de venezuela baseball professional president, is a little pissed off, to say the least, and he sent a very formal letter to the serie de Caribe organizers saying, We would like a date in Venezuela before 2030 because they've been, you know, I mean, they've lost them before, also because of political instability. He said, while acknowledging the fraternal relationship that unites the members of the assembly of presidents, because those are the core serie de Caribe countries, theoretically, I want to convey to you, once again, the sense of frustration and likewise, of desolation that the lvpp teams are experiencing after the decision was made to deprive us of the Gran Caracas 2026, Caribbean series. So it's a prestige thing. There's a lot of folks we know playing in Venezuela right now, and they're all playing for their winning team to go to the serial de Caribe, and they're not going to go. So there's prestige, and then there's the economic situation. So right now, the serial de Caribe is supposed to be in Mexico again next year, and then three years in Miami. So three consecutive years, yeah, and we don't have a team like the US doesn't have outside of Puerto Rico. It doesn't have a team playing. So I'm not quite sure what kind of deal. I mean, they played in Miami last year. Maybe it went really well, and it's got to be some sort of economic thing behind it, but Venezuela would like one of those years instead of my money. But you know, you know, according to the news today, we clandest, clandestinely, clandestinely, I don't know how you make that an adverb, but in a way that people weren't supposed to know, bombed some sort of actual port in Venezuela two weeks ago, and the President talked about it, and wasn't clear whether we're supposed to have talked about it. Nobody can find where the bomb actually was. It's all so many shades of fucked up. And yes, I mean, there is good evidence of drugs from running through Venezuela, but a lot of other fucking countries. And what's happening in Venezuela now is just it's not necessary.

Patti 53:25
Also, separately from that, how can you count on Florida hosting international teams for three years in a row, traveling for sporting events is clearly kind of fucked right? Now, you can't count on the visas, right? You know, getting into the country in order to play, and you're just like, oh, sure, it'll be fine for the next three years. We promise, right?

Pottymouth 53:48
If you keep it down to Mexico, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, you know,

Patti 53:51
countries that we like, right, or countries that we already are, right,

Pottymouth 53:57
maybe the answer is, oh my gosh, that's it, yeah, well, that'll go over big. That's the way the government's going. That's for fucking sure. Um, by the way, you know baseball is happening in Venezuela, and it's so exciting that tiburones, which is where Ronald de CUNY Jr was, is out. And apparently he's out despite a lot of rumors of him being in their reinforcements for another team, the Leones del Caracas, where Salvador Perez wanted to get his first ever championship. They're also out the caribes and suata. He got eliminated in the wild card, but my card knowledge de Lara ended up number one. Number one. Yeah, congratulations. I'm so excited, and much, much of that is thanks to Louis on Hill baby Acuna. He is the only player in LV BP history with 10 or more home runs and 30 or more stolen bases in his first two seasons playing. And whose boyfriend was he last year? That with you, very good pick. And also he his time down there has been split between shortstop and center field, which might make. Him more playable for the Mets because their infield has gotten very crowded. You know, shortstop is taken by Lindor. Is second base, Simeon now and so, you know, center field, he's getting some some reps in there. The navagantes by Guyanese, were being coached, managed by Yadier Molina. Might have heard of him. He last was with them in 2122 and got them all the way to the round robin stage. They were eliminated this like semifinals, you know, the top four. And then the two years after he left, 23 and 24 the navagantes tanked under 500 this year, the navagantes started out the season with an eight and 15 record, and their coach was fired, and Yadi came in and saved the fucking day. They were last place eight and 15. He took over. They ended up in third place with a 29 and 27 average. So so many of those wins under Yadier Molina, his team included brudnon odor, who apparently was the like star of the team, especially coming down to the wire, Sandy Leon and Delton Simmons to capita Marcano, who is not playing anymore in MLB, but hey, he's playing In Venezuela because he didn't gamble there. Ya Puig, and as of three games ago, Justin sing Garcia, my new pirates boyfriend. So things are happening in all over, actually, in winter leagues, as far as getting to those finals. So Venezuela is going to the round robin. Lead on Dominican Republic is in the run round robin. Round Robin.

Unknown Speaker 56:43
That's what happens,

Patti 56:48
okay, until

Pottymouth 56:53
the 17th of January, round robin in lead um in the Dominican Republic consists of my Leones, which, at the time of recording, are the only undefeated team in the round robin, the Aguila sivana's, the torros de la state and the gigantes de Salado. Raimal Tapia, who was a former pick of mine, I should, I think when he was with the Blue Jays, I don't remember he was with the Red Sox before. Anyway, he is now reinforcing Leones and reinforcing them well, they also have other former baseball boyfriends of mine, Frenchy Cordero, Jorge Mateo and Pedro Severino Tigres, Ely say, got eliminated before Juan Soto could get there. So that's pretty that's kind of sad last winter league team, Puerto Rico, my twins. Guy who I talked about a few weeks ago, Emmanuel Rodriguez, led the league in average. So let's hope, hope, hope. This means that he makes the twins, you know, opening day. And for more than that, he batted 348 he was also number one in hits with 49 and third in RBI with 21 but he's not playing anymore, because his team, from my voice, is not moving on that complicated wild card scenario that I talked about many weeks ago happened. So what I had said is, if the fourth and fifth place team were were one game apart, there would be a wild card where they would play not one, but potentially two games. They would play one game if the fourth place team won, and then the fourth place team would go on. But if the fourth place team had lost that first game, they would have played a second wild card game, and then that would have determined who goes on, because the fifth place team would have had to win both to move on anyway. Fourth place won. That was the Criollo, so it was almost that situation, my egg was number five. They didn't do it. So that's it, and that is the winter league at this point. So many playoffs coming, so many series coming. It is. It's getting exciting.

Patti 58:54
Sure it is. And I think things are going to be kicking up in Major League Baseball, basically the hot stove as soon as we get past New Year's Day, which is in moments, it feels like, Yeah,

Pottymouth 59:05
happy new year everybody. Yeah, you guys are gonna be getting this. Yeah, we're a daylight late again, not $1 short. I am definitely caught up on this beer. This is really yummy, but you'll hear this on New Year's Eve, maybe, or maybe you'll celebrate with us on New Year's Day. I don't know.

Patti 59:20
I don't know. So the rest of the week I have some museum trips planned. I'm hoping, hopefully, sleeping in a little bit, and the big thing is trying to remember to go back to work next week, because this is the first time I've taken two solid weeks off, and I don't remember how long, and I'm really kind of digging it. Maybe I'm test driving retirement, I don't know. I mean, I'm not in any time soon, but I'm like, it could work. It could work. I would like this with like, 40% less road trip.

Pottymouth 59:47
Yeah, absolutely Museum. Sounds cool. I think I'm gonna just settle in for just a bit before. So let us know

Patti 59:56
if you have any hopes for the new year that you want to share with us. If you have ideas. For those crazy Florida teams, Tampa Bay and Miami, for players we should profile. Please let us know. The best way to find us is on social media. Potty mouth.

Pottymouth 1:00:07
You can find us on blue sky at ncib podcast, I'm looking at Twitter once in a while, just because there's crazy shit on there. Anyway, so it's the same NCI podcast on Twitter ncib, I cannot enunciate anymore. No crying in your dog B ball is Facebook and Instagram or join the fun on Patreon. P, A, T, R, E, o n.com/no, crying in B ball. And I put Santa's butt on there. I put lots of stuff on Patreon and and it's a really easy way to connect with us efficiently, and most importantly, for $1 a month, you can rest assured knowing that you are contributing toward this podcast continuing, and we super appreciate our Patreon pals. Yes.

Patti 1:00:52
Thank you all so very much. All right, well, please get boosted. If you still can, please fight the man. It's the right thing to do now more than ever, send your game balls to Meredith and until next Week, say goodnight. Potty mouth, good

Unknown Speaker 1:01:11
night. Potty

Pottymouth 1:01:22
mouth, you all right, let's hear it for holiday magic. Good enough. All right, that's what I want to hear. Good enough. My starter beers almost gone. Important too. What are we? Are we gonna stout and then light was that? That's what we

Patti 1:01:33
said we're gonna do. Yeah? Yeah, for sure. Let's do that. Okay?