World Baseball Classic highlights & HOFers playing right now - Ep. 651 - 3.9.26

After no walk-off home runs in the world baseball classic, we're suddenly at three as an exciting round of the group stages continues. We're going to be talking about the WBC, how it's been going so far, and all the Hall of Famers you may be watching both in the WBC and this season. Well, the United States took care of business last night. It was a very, I don't want to say perfunctory win, but very, you know, by the numbers until, know, I mean...

The game, even if it was close for a while, it never really felt close. And it was actually it was one. Great Britain had a one nothing lead in the fifth inning. And so I would think that as some of the people are going, what is going on here, guys? You know, we've batted four times and we haven't scored. That's not supposed to happen. But at the same time, watching that team, you just sort of know eventually Great Britain is going to put a guy on the mound, which is what happened. They just simply could not get these guys out. And we were watching the Dominican Republic.

play today and the same thing happened in their game. Eventually, they had to put the Netherlands had to put a guy on the mound that he might have pitched like in the minor leagues three years ago. Right. Right. He was in the Atlantic League last year and he wasn't good. Right. So he got hammered. And the know, the run scoring the late innings by the two favorites. And there's probably three favorites, I would say. You know, would you would you put Puerto Rico in there as the third favorite? No, I Venezuela is really those two. It's like about Japan.

I think it's the U.S., Japan and the Dominican Republic. the three horses. And of course, Shohei has already been doing Shohei things. Everybody's been, you know, hitting home runs. I think we've seen a big play. Judges at a home run. Schwabers at a home run. Soto's hit multiple home runs. Kim and Eros at multiple home runs. Vladdy hit a home run. Everybody's hitting home runs. Well, not only home runs, you know, who has two home runs and is the leading hitter through two games in the world baseball classic, the power slugger Luis Arias.

I was going to guess Stuart Fairchild for two homers. He's batting 625 with an opposite 2.292. Now he's only played two games, but still for Luis Arias to have two homers and two games is like, what's going on here? But I think regardless of the quality of the competition and how close the games are, because we're starting to see some run rule games, a lot of the games haven't felt particularly close or even that competitive.

Almost Cooperstown (02:23.277)
That's okay. I don't think we're we're not looking for that You can clearly tell how much this matters to everybody involved because look at the guys on Panama last night And how much that game meant to them and between them in Puerto Rico? You know and and the fans are so into it So into they get into it and in San Juan where they're playing the games I think you know they've played the same they played every night You know so they're bringing the fans into the ballpark for the Puerto Rican team

And which is, you know, running a little short because they don't have Francisco Lindor, who would be a heck of an addition. They don't have Javi Baez. Like that. So, you know, that hurts their chances a little bit. But, you know, it's fun to have that sort of hometown crowd sort of bolstering your team. And just the the atmosphere is just so exciting. And don't think this is it having an impact on baseball development in these other countries? I think actually appeared in twenty twenty three. And since then, youth baseball participation has doubled. Right. Because because

I mean, I was probably going from like 24 to 48 guys, but it didn't help them because they are ousted now of the tournament as was, you know, don't think the fans from these countries are going there expecting they would. They're looking at it the same way Americans look at the World Cup for soccer. They're not expecting their teams to go there and win. They would be like, look, OK, we want to see them win a game. We want to see them start competing. And all of a sudden, maybe.

a world baseball classic or two from now, Brazil is like, OK, hey, we want to make a dark horse run at getting out second in a group now or getting so if you go back and because I'm obviously so much older than you, the way that basketball was in the Olympics for the US and at the time back in 1972, the Soviet Union, but the US had won every gold medal in the Olympics. And they were playing with their amateur players. They were playing with college players, didn't have professionals. Right. They still were good enough to beat everybody in the world.

72 when obviously the Soviet Union won that disputed game, which still pisses me off. Even I was a kid later years later. The point is, is that you can see over the years how the other nations took in the development of the sport to be competitive with the US now where there is no cake. Well, even look, go back and look at 1992 when they send out the dream team and they absolutely obliterate everybody off the face of the planet. It was the best NBA players and it wasn't close.

Almost Cooperstown (04:39.735)
But now, we're sending the best NBA guys every year, and they're just games. Right, and this year, have, know, some people have called this American team the dream team, but if you go over and you look at the Dominican Republic team, at least from a lineup perspective, it's just as much of a dream to say that that's pretty much a dream team too. So you're seeing this sort of a change go over, and those other teams, as you so correctly point out, right, I Columbia actually is.

is facing now relegation. lost their third game today. And if you lose all your games in your pool, you actually then are in relegation and you have to compete to get into the World Bowl Classic baseball classic next time. Which I think I like that. I like that, too, because it gives other nations that are trying to get in a chance to get in. And don't think that these games don't matter, because I know for a fact that this Dominican Republic, Venezuela game is really meaningful because the loser is going to have to play Japan in the quarterfinal. And if you lose that game to Japan, you might not make the Olympics.

Right. well, don't know. that what it is? Yes. Wow. So that's how important these games are. These are hugely important because they influence the world ranking for the Olympics. So it's really interesting to see how this is going to have big ramifications, which is why it matters so much to all of these teams and these fans. And we were watching here on Sunday, we were watching the Dominican Republic and they, you know, they went through a few pitches against them for Columbia.

and they came out and those in other in the Netherlands. Excuse me. You're right. The Netherlands. Didi Gregorius had a home run for the Netherlands, but I think it was the third of the fourth pitcher came in and everything he threw got hit a million. It was really interesting watching me. He comes in and I forget. I think it was Soto he pitched to first, but I'm not on. Right. But but watching. No, no, no. So we thought Soto hit a home run and he missed it. Right. And.

We were talking about it because it was really interesting because he laid off on the first pitch. He laid off on a slider. That was a good sinker. It was a good looking sinker. And then the guy throws a slider and Soto almost tees off on it. And so he goes back to second. He's talking and he something. He said he says something of Vlad is Vlad is coming up to bat. Vlad lays off the sinker, lays off the sinker slider, crushes the thing. I think it's still going. Cam and Arrow comes up.

Almost Cooperstown (06:47.309)
A couple batters later because he walks some guys and he throws a slider, crushes a They could clearly tell that, okay, not only we can hit this slider and we can tell it's coming and just lay off the other stuff. And then the pitcher who gave it the home, the second home run, the inning went to the first one, the ground, the second to Caminero. He just hangs his head in the mound going. And then the manager thankfully comes out to take him out of the game. it was Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones managed to get Albert Pujols, by the way. We got to see crazy things like that 17 year old kid from Brazil getting out Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge. Right.

And we see Manny Ramirez as kid, you know, hit two home runs Lucas Ramirez And so that's why a lot of these double-a guys are choosing to go and participate in the world baseball classic because if you're a minor leaguer and you have a Performance here at the world baseball classic and you show something even if your current team Maybe isn't that interested in using you some other team is gonna be watching you like let's say you're some guy and let's say Lindor was there on team on team Puerto Rico and there was some unheralded minor leaguer pitcher

on Team Puerto Rico that end up doing really well and he's in some other organizations. am sure David Stearns. Right. You don't think Lindor is mentioning him to David Stearns at some point and saying like, you should take a look at this guy. I think he could be really special. I totally believe stuff like that is happening. On the other hand, on the pitching side and watching the U.S. and the Dominican pitch in particular, there are even the pitchers that you don't necessarily think are the most dominating pitchers in major league baseball.

having a pretty easy time of it getting through unless it's one of the really good Unless it's literally the first batter of the Brazil line, mean, yeah, line gets a whole round. Same thing happened to Scubal. Two days in a row, US was up one nothing after one, down one nothing after one But the first batter, right? It was interesting to But after that, they just pretty much can dominate the hitters. Logan Webb cruised. Clay Holmes cruised.

Terrence scoobal cruised once. Yeah, gave up. It struck out six. Right. It was literally the first batter and it was like, almost wonder if there's a bit of like, sometimes if you notice, I've watched baseball games and the batter, like the first pitch of the game, there's a lot of batters that just kind of like take it in such a manner where they were very clearly always intending on taking that first pitch. And so I wonder if pitchers like scoobal

Almost Cooperstown (08:53.453)
kind of get used to grooving it occasionally because they know there's a subset of guys that are just going to take... They're nervous. I'm just swinging at it. Right. Exactly. You don't do that as the first pitch of the game. And I think, you know, we talk about minor league players. The U.S. has zero minor league players on its roster. I don't know if another team has zero minor league team that I could think that would qualify potentially for that would be Team Japan. I could... Playing in the Right. Because they would have a bunch of guys that are coming from their professional league.

And like, don't know, Korea could have some minor league guys because they have could have minor league guys in our systems that they bring. There isn't a lot of trouble, by the way. They're right there. They're trying to. Well, they got a huge loss to Taiwan. And that's what we want to see. That's going to be the biggest thing. I really am rooting for Taiwan to come out of that group, because that would be really big for the world baseball classic to be like.

OK, we've broken the mold. The non favorites can get out of the groups are not a four non favorite can get out of the room. Maybe somebody somebody we expect when we look at the groups and we look at the eight teams that are coming out of them. It's not guaranteed. We know which eight are coming out before we play. would be pretty awful if it were the case. And it's been kind of close to that. So having this happen is a great thing, I think. And, you know, pitching wise, you know, you just if you're you're trying to pitch against these really good teams, the Japan All-Star lineups.

And so, you get out your pitcher and after a while, what I see the pitchers doing when they have less stuff is they start walking people because they're afraid. Right. They know they cannot leave. They're like, if I throw in the zone, this guy's going to hit it. So let me try to get him to go out of them. They're like, well, I'm not going to swing at that out of the zone. And the guys are like, the US is like 17 walks. Right. Because all of these guys have such good eyes and none of the stuff is so good that's going to trick them into swinging and.

They're just going to sit there and go, OK, I'll wait till you throw a pitch in the strikes. It make the games a little anticlimactic because basically, you get a walk, you get a walk, you get a walk, you got to sacrifice a fly, you get another walk, get a big round ball, and it comes in. All of sudden, you've got three runs, but you don't have too many of these big players. Hit after hit after once in a while, you're going to score nine runs.

Almost Cooperstown (10:58.957)
You mentioned Schwab to what before we honor Schwab's two run homer. Bryce Terang had a big hit in the first But there was a lot of boring runs. There's a run on a wild pit. are accumulating runs it looks like. is the way it looks to me. So I think in the group stage here, the pool stage here, I don't expect any surprises to come out of there in terms of the teams we think are going to. There hasn't been enough of an upset.

ahead of time for me to think that the top two teams in it's really only the Taiwan-Korea situation that's like that. Right, if Taiwan were to make it and Korea were to not, I think that would be a huge... That would be huge upset. Yes, yes. And it made me think about the Taiwanese, you know, Taiwan little league wise has got a very rich history of being very successful in winning little league championships. There's not that many people in Taiwan. There's a lot.

you know, but I don't think there's 30 or 40 million people at the most on the island and all that stuff. For them to be able to be dominant in Little League baseball and it just can't compete. They have professional leagues in Taiwan. think Ching Ming Wong of the Yankee pitcher is the greatest Taiwan player I think ever made it to the major leagues. I can't think of another one that had that kind of an impact. So it's interesting to me that they can't compete. I think it's just simply a question of population. Well, I think it's at a 12 year old level.

coaching and drilling and not making mistakes can get you so much farther because the relative level of cap on the skill is so much higher. Like when you go into the best of the best 12 year olds playing baseball, it's hard for any one of them to be that much better than the others that it's going to dramatically impact the game. Whereas when you get to the major league level, those differences and because you see it in the major leagues like, yeah, there's a lot of major league baseball players.

But Aaron Judge being on your team is a difference maker. That's a really good point because you played on some teams and when you played youth baseball and you had a couple of really good coaches and one in particular that we I think we both know and and his attention to detail had you guys play at a level probably better than you might have simply because you had a reason for doing everything on the field. So you got.

Almost Cooperstown (13:06.145)
a lot more out of your abilities. Not everybody coached like that. Right, right. And there's a big difference because there's a lot of arguments that you can make that coaching like that is not good for development. you're holding. You're kind of coaching to win at a youth level. win at a youth level, which is probably coaching to do certain things and take advantage of certain things that just would not be you're not going to be able to take advantage of that forever. Because eventually when you get to a certain level, either guys are just too good to be caught off guard by that.

or it doesn't work because nobody's left that falls for that kind of stuff anymore. Right. But it was fun to watch because I learned stuff about baseball from from somebody exploiting what the other, you know, parent coaches might not have known, you know, to do and was able to, you know, get the most out of his players, even if they weren't the most talented players on the field all the time. So exactly. That happens in youth baseball. It's a very good point that that's why a place like Taiwan can, you know.

thrive there but when you get to the talent level being that much higher for everybody else going I'm sorry man if Schwerber is gonna hit the ball 400 miles it doesn't matter you know how much training you have. Right you can't train having guys good enough to get Kyle Schwerber out. So the innings limit you know is going to play a role because I've already noticed the managers trying to sort of you know play around with the guys because you can only get a certain amount of pitches and you can only get

You know, pictures over a certain amount of days. And trying to plan around where the game is ending because of the run rules and stuff makes it also not easy. Run ruling a team is hugely beneficial just because it saves you so many pitches. And we haven't seen any injuries to speak of that I can think of in this. Knock on wood. Which is great. I've seen guys get hit. And every time you see a guy get hit, saw Junior Kamen Arrow get hit in the elbow today. And he was, you was, you know, in pain and pain and all that stuff until he came up two innings later and hit a ball to the moon. Stack came came up with

an lame arm for team Israel like you said but that was with now he's going to have a thoracic right he had he had a bigger problem right right that we would have known so we can't really say that was a WBC specific injury that would have come up in spring training just to say and speaking of injuries outside the WBC it was a hunter green who came up with elbow the hated elbow tightness during the week and boy would that be horrible news for the Reds if in fact that turns out to be

Almost Cooperstown (15:20.287)
something that you don't want to know. he's a guy that already doesn't doesn't start a ton of games last year. That was one of the things that 19 started that held him back from being really in Cy Young intention just because he didn't start enough games. And so I would say that, you know, any chance that the Reds have to do something in that division is directly related to Hunter Green being Hunter Green. And I'm just going to say, you know how you know it's not good. They already named him drew Abbott opening day starter and I haven't heard.

since. Yeah, that's not a good sign. The fact that they're already two weeks out. No, he's not going to be opening day starter. That's got to be scary if you're a red fan. And we watch the Netherlands. We mentioned play today and we saw a pro far out there, but it wasn't Jurgsen profile. And we won't be seen Jurgsen profile for the next hundred and sixty two major league games as he has been suspended again for and he basically got pulled out.

before he was about to go on the field with the Netherlands to play with his brother in the world baseball class and they went nope nope nope you're done and not only you're you're done for Major League Baseball too so the Braves who signed him to a pretty big contract last year. a brutal contract. That's a brutal contract and it hurts more now than it even did before so you know.

I don't know how on a team that did not have a ton of outfield that no, no, we're going to do our season preview in a couple of weeks. And that's that is that place. You did not think that that would be a thing that you would think would affect your opinion of the Atlanta Braves. But they feel more like a house of cards than they looked at the beginning of this offseason. I had already begun to have my doubts about the Braves and I'm no different than that. And I always respect the talent there.

and their ability to beat the Mets because that's what they do. Right, but it feels a lot more like, know, like instead of looking at a dragon, I'm looking at one of those like Chinese puppet dragons at everybody that they all dance around with and wear like you're now I'm seeing that I'm like, wait a second. That doesn't look like the real dragon. I remember it being no more Bobby Cox, right? More Brian Snicker. It's Walt Weiss.

Almost Cooperstown (17:20.543)
Somehow I'm not as shaken to my voice with Walt Weiss being the manager there. that you're not a of the name Walt. Except on Walt Clyde Frazier. So we do have a lot of Major League future Hall of Famers that are playing both in the World Baseball Classic and we believe that will be playing in Major League Baseball this year. Right. We really I mean I think you could argue that you have at least one for sure Hall of Famer currently playing on Team USA. Arguably two.

just because I think that because there's a and then there's a bunch of guys that are going to be Hall of Famers that actually aren't there for Team USA right now. And that would be that are for sure Hall of Famers. And think if I'm looking at the there's like six guys in my mind right now in Major League Baseball that are guaranteed Hall of Famers that if they all stop, they all died in a plane crash right now, you know, literally not them each. They're all flying up, but planes just crash into them. They would all be Hall of Famers. And I wrote an article a few weeks ago where I teared up

Right. players. And I think we should go through that because I think people don't realize like, OK, wait a second. You're going to say there's really six guys. And I'm like, yeah, there's six guys when you think about it. There's actually seven. Seven. You pointed that out to me before that I left off Mike Trout. Right. And Trout is his last few years haven't been great. But Mike Trout's a Hall of Famer and we all know it. Freddie Freeman is a Hall of Famer. And we all know. He's seen he'd be playing for Canada and they probably could use him. Probably could use him. But yeah, he's a guy that.

Would be is a guaranteed hall of fame. He's a no doubt. You look at the crew. We talked about it a few weeks ago when we were kind of comparing him with the other first baseman for this era. He stats out better than all of them. He's a really good defender and most critically, he shows up when it matters. Yes. Yes, that means a lot. And as we've always talked about on his World Series in playoff, performances are purely a bonus. And for Freddie Freeman, are they a bonus because he was so big in some of these World Series for both the Braves

and the Dodgers and he's had so many big pro season hits for the Dodgers since he's come over there that I don't know how he's just not. And when you look at him, you know, his teammate is his teammates also Hall of Famer and Mookie Betts. think so, too. And I'm actually surprised. And maybe it's a good thing for Mookie, who's played so much baseball the past few years to not play in the WBC. I think the Dodgers are thrilled about that. I think so, too. I think, you know, he's he's in his early 30s right now. Like like you said, he's a he's a future Hall of Famer.

Almost Cooperstown (19:39.695)
But it's you know hard to keep going a hundred and twenty miles an hour the whole time So taking a little you know Brett rest after two World Series championships He's entitled to that as is Freddie Freeman for that matter Will Smith however can play with the US team There's guys for it and the other guy on team USA obviously is Aaron judge He's played 10 MLB seasons his like five or six year peak is

pool hose Ian when you look at how insane it is. Because the pool host, when you look at the seven year people host puts up, I don't think there's almost anybody that compares to it in terms of just the sheer staggering ridiculousness of how good it is. And judge is maybe the only guy that's going to outdo that ever.

Right. And so you put guys into that category and Shohei Otani once he plays the 10 years because he hasn't yet. Right. That's why he's a Hall of Famer too. And that's why Otani is not in there because there's enough that could happen that could stop Otani from being in the Hall of Fame purely on just that he gets injured and doesn't play enough seasons basis. Unlikely, but he's just far enough away from that where you can't put him in as a bona fide for sure Hall of Famer yet. But I mean, there's other guys. Manny Machado. Yeah, he's a Hall of Famer. He's a Hall of Famer, everybody.

There's a lot of third basemen right now that are of Famers. That's a good point. Nolan Aronado, I think, is a Hall of Famer. I have him in tier one and because his recent years have not been so good, some people are going, know, really? He's a Hall of Famer.

He's all of it. Right. He's got three hundred fifty three career home runs. And more importantly, everybody gives Machado so many flowers for being a great defensive third baseman. Nolan Aronado has 10 gold gloves. He beats him every year. Right. Right. So that's why, you Manning Shaddo doesn't have more gold gloves because he plays in the same league with Nolan Aronado. Exactly. And another guy who doesn't win gold gloves, but I think is he's underappreciated by you and me. But I think to a lot of fans, Jose Ramirez to non.

Almost Cooperstown (21:29.026)
baseball, another third base, not big baseball fans. I think if you're just a fan that you really only follow your own team and when they're good, you probably don't have an approval. But if you're a baseball fan, you have an appreciation for how good Jose Ramirez is. And it's too bad that, you know, for the the guardians that they were not able to find a way to keep Francisco Lindor because what a left side of the infield that would have been. of Fame left side of the infield. And obviously we talked about position players here. We don't want to leave out the pitchers because you do have Scherzer and Verlander out there and Kershaw.

who are all retired. we think he's not going to play this year. He's going to play in the WBC. I think at some point he's going to make it. They're to let him go out there and throw a pitch or two. Right. Right. They're to do very much more than that. But he's retiring Scherzer and Verlander. And those guys are all obviously slam dunk Hall of Famers. Agreed. I don't think individually.

The more into discussion is not which one of them is Hall of Famers, but which one is the best, because I honestly don't know how you pick which one of them is the best out of that group just off the top of your head. Yeah, yeah. And I think Scherzer, you know, has done some things that Verlander hasn't and Verlander has done some things that Scherzer has. And Kershaw has done some things that the others haven't. They've all won. They've all won World Series. They've all had differing levels of success in the postseason. They've all won Cy Young's. It's a really interesting group because you very rarely have three guys.

like that are this good all pitching at the same time, all retiring in similar years to one another. And because he's such an iconoclast, Zach Greinke, who hasn't officially retired yet, although he hasn't pitched to Major League Baseball in two years. Yeah, where does he fall in your tiers? He would be a tier one Hall of Famer for me, but I consider him sort of he's not going to play this season is why I didn't include him. Right. You're going to get there, watch him play Major League Baseball. I don't know what you think. mean.

Everything about Zach Ranky screams Hall of Famer to me. And in an era where it's hard to pick starting pitchers, harder and harder to pick starting pitchers who are going to be Hall of Famers. You know, the only thing I will say is you do have Craig Kimball on your list because he's here in tier two. Guys that are played the requisite 10 seasons and they're pretty likely to be included. There's no guarantee Craig Grimble is making an MLB roster this year. Well, he's trying to make the Mets at this point. And I put all of the closers there.

Almost Cooperstown (23:39.116)
Chapman, Aroldis Chapman, and Kenley Jansen, all of them have the 400 career saves or more, and they have been dominant at what they do. And I, for one, personally, value closers higher than most because I think pitching under that pressure.

is undervalued by fans. And let's put it this way, Hall of Fame voters, you have actually a really easy thing here because you could just slow roll putting each of them in one year after another. And that way you can save yourself. And you have you're like, oh, we don't have anybody great to put in this year. You can just stick in Kenley Jansen. Nobody's really going to argue. And because because of the way relievers are used, I can't think of another major league closer who's even on the radar. Edwin Diaz would probably be the closest. And he's a long way away from the Hall of Fame. Right. Me.

I didn't include Salvador Perez and then Tom Stone who we had on a podcast a few weeks ago, the writer. He was always says, I'm surprised you didn't put Salvador Perez there and I thought, yeah, I probably should have put him in tier two. I think I just neglected to include him at all. It's hard to keep a catch who's got 300 career home runs and nine gold gloves.

out of the Hall of Fame because you got to some criteria. Right. Right. Right. OK. Well, how many other catchers are better than that? There's not a lot. And so he's not playing at a Hall of Fame level now, and he hasn't been very good over the past three years. So he's going down the same road that Nolan Aronado is. Is that because his recent histories and so we forget how good he was, right? How good the guy is. But there's still a bunch of guys playing right now. You you've got Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, Francisco Lindor, Al Tuve. All of those guys are.

pretty much guaranteed to be Hall of Famers at some have them as probable Hall of Famers. Right, right. There's a universe in which, you know, it might take them longer to get in there. It's not like the other guys are all kind of almost guaranteed first ballot names. Each one of these guys, they could take a year or two to get in or maybe a little longer. You got to have some. I have a tier three here. And I guess the most controversial people will personally put in there was Xander Bogarts.

Almost Cooperstown (25:37.743)
And and you know aside from the I guess yeah, this is where this is where awful salary I guess you might think cuz he got paid so much money and it has he not lived up to it I think you might I think this is kind of interesting because this is where you get into a lot more controversial of picks here because you're basically saying these are guys that have played the requisite ten years because that's a hurdle that a lot of guys ever fail to clear is just playing ten major league seasons so all of these guys clear ten major league seasons, but like

Almost Cooperstown (26:17.326)
Zander Bogart said, is Garrett Cole a Hall of Famer yet? He could be, but I know if he is yet. He's somebody that could be in a lot of danger where he loses a season essentially to COVID. He loses another season to arm injury and now he could lose next season to a lockout. And so he's a guy whose career statistics could be heavily impacted by things that are really outside of his control. Whereas Chris Sale is further down the road and Chris Sale has 2500. I noticed he has got 2500 strikeouts the other day.

It's conceivable he could pitch two years or more and get that three thousand strikeout, which would, think, guarantee it. But he did the pitch three to get there. But he can't have a lockout. Right. You can't afford that. think sale is somebody I would feel comfortable moving up into tier two just only because we look down on him a little bit because of the other guys of this generation. But once those guys are all youngs go a long way. Right. Exactly. Exactly. I have Carlos Correa in there. It's another one that makes people wince going.

Yeah, but when you look at career numbers for Correa and where he's at and the position he's played, he needs to do more, but it's possible for him to do that. Right, the same way with Corey Seeger and Zach Wheeler. They're young enough, they've played enough, and they've put up good enough numbers. sure I feel the way about Zach Wheeler, though. I don't know. look at that resume he's put up now, there's not a lot. When you get past sale...

He's kind of the best guy in this era in terms of it. There's not a lot of guys that have been as good for him as as many seasons as him now. It's tough as a Met fan. you're not going to put in Zach Wheeler, you know, then what is your criteria at this point? Right. For a modern pitcher, for a non Scherzer Verlander type pitcher. So I've got a tier four and I would say would be Hall of Famers. They've got the 10 years, but they got to do more than the tier three guys. They need more than just, you know, a little resume padding and all that stuff. And I lead off with Jacob deGrom there.

Right. I think to Grom is such an interesting case because because he doesn't have the arm length of some of these guys in terms of the amount of wear on it because he came up so late as a pitcher and he's missed so many so much time due to injury that even though he's 37 turning 38 he could maybe pitch another two three years at a decently high level. Not getting injured and he certainly has.

Almost Cooperstown (28:26.286)
I don't know if they learn, but he's adapted to not throwing 101 miles an hour all the time. There's a definite concerted effort to hold back on him, which has helped him get through the 25 season. And if he could pitch another, well, if you want another Cy Young, he's in. Right. Right. If he won one Cy Young. And there's no guarantee that's going to happen. But if he had another two quasi de gram like seasons when they talk about the whip and the strikeout. Right. Right. He's getting closer because.

Because what the wins right but the Graham has something that's really important. He has a legendary season even though we didn't pitch all of that season that run he went on with that Mets that one year and he's got to say on but that run that's like the Bob Gibson sixty nine season.

68 68 season where it was just so it was anybody that was watching baseball at that time remembers what it was like watching to ground pitch batters and there was a certain level of specialness that when a guy hits that sometimes that's enough where everybody's like look yeah he might not have had the career stats but ask anybody that watched baseball in the 2010s in the 2020s.

Jacob DeGrom is a Hall of Famer. It might be that kind of thing. I have Gene Carlos Stanton in that same category, mainly because he's gonna probably have 500 home runs, and I can't not include a guy who has 500 as like, I don't know, is he?

His career ops is really good. he was the guy that never played the final. I know. He's an interesting case. just can't include him. Alex Bregman needs to do a little bit more. is probably the worst thing. 11th season now. Yeah, probably the worst thing for Stanton is that some of the guys behind him are doing what he does, but they just do it better. Well, 500 home runs is, you know, there's no. Right. But as a nonoffensive, non-defensive player, the problem is as a DH, as a DH, competition. If Schwab were his 500 home runs, does he, is he a better?

Almost Cooperstown (30:12.75)
contributor than I think his career OPS is better. It may be, but he doesn't have and he's going to have played a lot more games. He's going to have played a lot more games than Stanton did. That's that's for sure. Trey Turner, I think, is an interesting name you've got on here. Yeah, I just I've always really liked that player. And he also has played 11 seasons. I just think that, you know, he's he's a guy who, you know, kind of went.

down a little bit for a few years, but had a very good season last year. Needs another two good seasons, and I think I might be ready to say he's that kind of a guy. Agreed. And Bregman too. Same, yeah. They're close. They're guys that are starting to trend up. Those are guys that could be in that tier two category of guys that are probably going to be Hall of Famers in a year or two. So guys that I do think that haven't played the 10 years but are going to be a Hall of Famer, that all they got to do is make it, like you say, to the finish line, besides Shohei Otani.

One soda one soda. Yeah, he's played eight years by the right audience. The terror league at the right. It is this why you'll think soda is turning 28. Yeah.

Yeah, he's going to torture people for a long time. He's just destroying people. It's going to be what Soto's career statistics are going to be insane. Like the number of walks he's going to have in his career when he's done, he's going to break. He might break the all time walk record for a career. I think that's Babe Ruth's record. Right. I wouldn't just in terms of the number of walls. The only way you're to keep him from right. Setting some career numbers. Exactly. And let's be honest, Shohei is going to be a Hall of Famer. And how about Ronald Acuna Jr.? He's I think that's also got eight.

years in the major leagues while he's had some injury problems as well. And he's the guy I think has that you have the most to worry about with injury because he's got a he still has to have we still have to look at him and go, okay, he's been so good over the seasons. It's hard not to see him, you know, get good being that way, but he's missed so much time due to injury that we can't be 100 % sure we're going to see the Ronald Acuna Jr. That we all expect to see all the time. I think we will. I think I think he's

Almost Cooperstown (32:15.918)
He's closer than some of the other guys that haven't played 10 seasons. So I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to name a few of those guys and that will including Fernando Tatis Jr. who's played only six seasons. So he's got a long. And so they got we'll Vlad Jr. He's played seven. He needs to go do more. Jordan Alvarez. I don't know what to make of Jordan Alvarez. He needs to have a season. Yeah, he got to need carries the Astros on his back for a whole season. And then I'll go, you know what? He's getting closer. But he you know, he hasn't he's played seven years. So, you know, three seasons of

Prime Jordan, well Jordan, he's gonna be in the running there. Devers, I don't feel like that guy's a hall of fame when you look at his numbers though over nine years. They're good, but I think he's slipped back from where he was two years ago. He had a better chance than he does now, if you ask me. So that didn't help him. And then the young Bucks, and Bobby Wood Jr., I think, he's only played four years, but I think I would not be alone saying that all he's gotta do is just.

keep doing what he's doing for six more years. And I think he's going to be on his way to the Hall of Fame because he's that dynamic a player as is Julio Rodriguez. Right. And so he's only played four years, which really surprised me. Same as Bobby Witt Jr. He's averaged five and a half war over those four seasons. OK, so guys don't average five war for their careers very much without being a Hall of Fame. That's for sure.

And Jayrod's season last year, which started out very poorly, ended up with 35 homers and 95 RBIs. And he plays center field. And oh my goodness. Yeah, you start looking at that, you're like, wait a second. So I think he's a guy. And maybe we forgot a couple of guys here. But you think about all these guys that we're talking about. It is pretty amazing that there's that many guys who could be future Hall of Famers that you're watching play right now.

So there's a couple of guys that we hope are going to be Hall of Famers, we're not going to talk about those guys. We'll save them for another day.