MLB Salary Cap and CBA Negotiations

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Thanks for joining me on this Cleveland baseball morning. The final from Progressive Field in Cleveland. It's the Guardians losing another home series this time to the Boston Red Sox. Two games to one with the finale on Sunday being the Red Sox 9, the Guardians 4 . I'm David Barris, lifelong Cleveland baseball fan, and I want to talk about the actual game on the field. The thing I enjoy watching baseball being played. And it started out okay. It started out with four runs in the first inning against the Red Sox of Friday night's game, and it just it wasn't enough from the offense and the bullpen, which held up great Friday night, falters on Saturday and Sunday, and uh the Guardians, I think, let a very winnable series get away from them in this one. So we'll get into it. We'll get into the details of this Red Sox series. We also have to talk about uh the um the the proposal made by the MLB owners. They've started conversations, they started negotiations on the new CBA contract, and there's a big, big uh interesting proposal out there by the owners. Uh what else do we have to get into on this episode? Uh oh, it's the end of the month. We need to check in on the ABS challenges and see uh the Guardians still one of the worst teams in baseball. And that may have a direct tie to Sunday's loss. So uh let's get into all of that fun conversation. We are, unlike last episode, we are gonna start with the actual game on the field. Let's start with this Red Sox series. I don't blame the starting pitching. Do not blame the starting pitching in this one. That's kind of my top storyline of this one . You get well, an okay star from Slate Taconi. You get okay starts from the starters in all of these. Uh nothing lights out, nothing uh you know, nothing that's gonna uh uh blow you away here in the numbers, but you get okay starts from the starters. None of this is their fault. In fact, none of the starters, I don't believe a single starter figured into a decision uh on this one . Uh, I think all three starters take, yeah. Festa took the loss on Saturday. On Friday, the win goes to Holderman. And then on Sunday, the loss goes to Holderman. So yeah, uh none of the starters are involved in any of the decisions of these games. So you got Slate Siccone. He goes four and a third. Can't get out of the fifth inning. Seven uh seven hits, three runs. He gets blown up in the fifth inning for three runs. Uh so they gotta get him out of there. No walks from Sacone. He was attacking. Three strikeouts. He only threw sixty-nine pitches. So if that inning hadn't completely unraveled on him , uh, maybe, maybe he gets to stay in there and uh pitch longer. Uh he's only hard hit five times, so not terrible from Slate Taconi , but uh the Guardians do at least are are at least able to get out of that fifth inning with a 4-3 lead preserved. And then the bullpen goes to work. Holderman, who came in to finish off that fifth inning, ends up going an inning in the third to collect that win. Uh nothing. No hits, no walks, one strikeout from him. Tim Heron then follows that up. He finishes off the what would that be the sixth inning? Uh or sixth and into the seventh inning. Sharon Armstrong then finishes off the seventh inning. No hits, no walks, one strikeout, seven pitches. Very efficient from Sean Armstrong. Gaddis in there in the eighth inning as the setup man. He gives up two hits, but he's able to get out of it without giving up a run. And then Cade Smith, despite giving him a hit, strikes out the side. Three strikeouts for his 20th save of the season. He did exactly exactly what I talked about. He had two series left in the uh in the month of May, and he gets a save in the Nationals one. He gets a save in the Red Sox one. Of course the two Guardians wins both are save situations because why would the Guardians play anything besides absolutely absolute nail biting, teeth grinding, uh nervous sweating type wins, right? Well, why would we win any other way . So uh Kate Smith picks up his 20th save. He's he's the the best closers and one of the best closers in baseball right now. I believe leading the league in saves. I believe he's on pace to challenge. We talked about this clearly for the Guardians franchise record. He's on chant on pace to blow that away. And then maybe challenge for the MLB record for saves in a season. So again, something we will continue to monitor all season. So uh yeah great job by the bullpen finishing up for Slate Zaccone there. Uh that that that is a recipe for success when the bullpen could do that. I would have loved for the offense to have supported them a little bit, given them a little bit of support here. Four runs in that first inning and then zeros the rest of the game. Brian Bello comes in with seven shutout relief innings . Now one of the emailers here, I guess we'll just stick with uh I was gonna kind of bounce around between all the games, but I guess we'll just stick with uh Friday's game here . Uh who got in here and asked about I think it was Brent . Yeah, Brent from Portage County. Uh he said he emailed in after that win and he said, Hi Davy, is there anything better than sitting on your lawnmower on a cool summer evening with Tom Hamilton on the headset? What a fun way to open the series. Do you have any additional info why Boston used such a peculiar pitching setup in game one? They trotted out a relief pitcher who got knocked around in the first inning before bringing in their starter. What advantage does that bring Boston? Is that club's rotation uh is that club's rotation in that bad of shape? He said I finished mowing in time to come inside and watch the final inning. Very cool to see Smith record save number 20. Earlier this season I emailed in my doubts about Cade Smith, but I'm happy to eat crow on this one. What a gem we found in our closer. Excited for the rest of the series, Brent in Portage County. Now, Brent, you don't have to worry. Emailers, you don't have to worry. I'm not holding receipts, okay ? If you did dog on unless you're like uh Marlon and uh who we got an email from Marlon, everyone. Uh Marlon's been quiet all season. He emailed in uh he was there every series last year, but uh this year Marlin's taking a a little bit more of a a backseat approach to the season. But we got an email from Marlin here about the uh MLB salary cap proposals. But uh you know Bob has been email ing in consistent every episode. So uh unless you're one of the ones that emails in like every single series, I I'm not I'm not saving receipts. It's okay. It's okay if you dogged Cade Smith earlier in the season, Brent. Uh you you're're good, good in my book. Um, but Brent has the question here: why? Why did the Red Sox do this? The theory behind the opener is if you can bring in a really good reliever. Uh, you know, Cade Smith a few years ago, right, would have been a perfect example of this when we had Emmanuel Clase closing and Cade Smith was just floating around the bullpen. I don't think we ever used him as an opener , but if the top of the lineup is what you're worried about, getting through the first three hitters in lineup, which Cleveland's lineup is still, you know, as good as Angel Martinez has been, and Schneeman has been all right, although he's cooled way off in the month of May. As good as Brian Rocchio has been in the nine hole, you're still probably worried about Bazan or Ramirez and Delauder before you're worried about anything else. So if we have a guy that we have faith in or matches up well against those guys . Let him pitch the first inning. Then you bring in your starter in a more comfortable situation in the second inning, right? Some hitters, some some easier hitters to face in the second inning after your hopefully your your opener has gotten through the first three. And uh and then you set your your starting pitcher up for success because of that. Cause now he's only got to face the top of the lineup maybe two times while he's facing the rest of the lineup three times. So yeah, that's the theory. In practice, does it work out that well? No, it doesn't always work out that well. And uh Tyler Sam aniego is the perfect example of this. He gets blown up in that first inning. Six hits, four runs, no walks. It was all hits, two strikeouts. Yes, he finally strikes out Brian Rokio to end it on 22 pitches. He's hard hit three times. We rock that guy in the first inning. And then yeah, Brian Bello comes in. It gives you seven shutout innings of relief. Uh, four hits , no runs, no walks, five strikeouts on sixty-three pitches. He is hard hit nine times. Uh so it's not like the Guardians bats were quiet after that, but they couldn't push across any more runs. Conuld't put anything together after that. So yeah, Brian Bello pitched really good, but in relief after Tyler Samanayago got blown up. So it did, I don't know. I I don't love the strategy. Uh your starter should be able to face the top of the lineup. Like, come on. What what are we who are we hiding here? Who are we hiding from? You can't you can't hide in major league baseball. It'll find you. If you struggle against that top of the lineup, guess what? They're coming back around. I I so I don't know. I I don't I don't love the opener thing . I don't feel like we've seen it have a lot of success. Sometimes that opener does pitch fine, but then when the starter gets into the game, uh it's trouble, and I don't know. I just we I haven't personally seen it have a lot of success, so I don't love the strategy, and it doesn't work for Boston. Although Brian Bellow does it works for him and he pitched fine. So yeah, the Guardians with uh maybe the best rally I I've seen them have all season to start this game. Uh, you know, they get out of uh trouble in the first inning. Duran had led off with a single, but a double play, and then Abre u strikes out. And then a Bazanna actually strikes out. So Samanie go looks okay to start things. He gets uh Bazanna reaching on an outside pitch to strike out to start things. And then here come the bats. Ramirez ropes a single. He pulls a single through the left side at 103.6 off the lefty. Then you got Chase Delauder left on left. He gets absolutely jammed 29.9 mile per hour exit velocity. In between a pair of 100 plus mile per hour exit velocity singles, Chase the Lauder gets one at just under 30 miles per hour per hour. He just hits this little bloop, this little flare, uh past the pitcher's mount. Doesn't even make the I it's in the infield grass. Um, so yeah, so he he gets a lucky single there. But then Reese Hoskins comes up, he rockets one at 106.2. Ramirez is able to come in a score. Manzardo gets one just over second base at 81.3. I think everyone had a hold, so everyone only moves up one base on this one. They had to make sure it got over his head. So everyone moves up one base. But then Anhel Martinez with a two run. Did they give him two RBIs in this one. Let's see here. For I'm on the wrong game there. Let's jump back to Friday's game. Because the ball kind of gets bobbled uh when it's returned to the infield. So that's what allows Hoskins to come in to score. So no, they give Arnho Martinez one RBI and then the other run probably scores on an error, right? Yeah, the Boston is credited with one error. So uh yeah, Ano Martinez either way rockets won into right center field at 107.1, the hardest hit ball of the inning. Um and uh the first one comes in a score. This is the ball gets bobbled uh as it's being brought back into the infield. And that's what allows Reese Hoskins to scamper home as well. So two-run score there. Schneeman then delivers a single where everyone moves up one base. They reload the bases for Patrick Bailey, who does the dirty work and gets the job done with a sack fly outright? Everyone advances before Brian Rokyo, for some reason, swings at everything thrown at him and uh strikes out on a really bad high pitch. So I don't know what Rokyo was up there doing just, hacking away. But we usually have seen a better eye from him this season . So yeah, the Guardians bathed through the lineup and are able to put across four runs in the first inning. I don't think we have ever seen a rally where we've had one, two, three, four, five, six singles in a row. I don't remember a rally like that uh this season. I don't remember a rally like that in a long time. Uh so very impressed with the Guardians offense. And then yeah, they go quiet. They go quiet. You get a leadoff single from Mazanna in the second, but they don't do anything with it. They go one, two, uh, a lead-off single from Anzardo in the third, but they don't do anything with it. Schneeman hits into a double play to end the inning. Uh you get a leadoff double from Patrick Bailey in the fourth, and you can't do anything with that. Uh Ramirez with line out at 106.4, but still a line out . Uh Chase the Lauder with a leadoff single in the fifth. I did not realize this when I was putting this episode together. The how many leadoff hits they got. Every inning they had a leadoff hit except for the first. And that's the inning they score all the runs, and then all these leadoff hits turn into nothing. Schneeman finally uh uh breaks the streak with a ground out in the sixth. They go one, two, three in the sixth, uh, one, two, three in the seventh, and one, two, three in the eighth. So it dries up in the uh sixth inning there. But uh yeah, uh for a while there, lead off four innings in a row, or the leadoff uh man, second, third, fourth, and fifth inning, the leadoff man gets on with a hit, and he can't do anything with it. So it's it's up to the bullpen to hold up, and they do. They do. Uh so you get the win there on uh Friday. And uh again, Kate Smith, that 20th save. Unbelievable. So then the starting pitching continues to be not the problem on Saturday. Parker Messi goes five innings battling Sonny Gray, gives up five hits, but only one earned run, two walks, four strikeouts, and keeps the ball in the ballpark on 93 pitches. He's hard hit eight times, but one earned run . You know what? Before we get too deep into this Saturday game, I do want to mention a defensive play from uh uh from Friday because we had the Angel Martinez play. Uh they almost sc ore in the uh let's see what inning was that in. Uh they almost score in the uh top of the second inning. They had a runner on second, two outs, but uh a a ball that's hit to Schneeman's right and he kinda O lays it. Uh it looks like he's trying to uh snag a w a hopper there and he oh lays it, lets it go under his glove, go lets it go off to his side. Something you definitely don't want to do as an infielder. You gotta get your body in front of it. But I know it's not always the easiest thing. Easier said than done, right? But uh he he kind of lays it off to the side and it rolls out to Anna Martinez in left field, and he comes up firing and nails Mickey Gasper at the plate. So uh that game could have been worse for Slate Ticone. Uh who knows what the Red Sox would have done if they scored there. Uh but definitely a huge defensive play. Martinez throws a rocket. Ano Martinez throws a rocket from left field to nab him at the plate. So uh I you know we defense slips through the cracks sometimes on this show because I'm s we, you know, I got the stats the box scores in front of me, and the defense doesn't show up in the box score very often. So we want to make sure we get that play in there for uh Friday night before we move on to Saturday. Because really that was the I I think that was the top defensive highlight. Um there is the play where uh uh Ramirez throws back to second base. They the throw comes in from the outfield, the third base, but they don't get the lead runner at third base, but then the trailing runner going to second. Ramirez throws back to second. Bazanna makes a great lunge for the ball and tags the runner and also gets like absolutely hammered in his on the inside of his arm forearm or elbow. I didn't look like he got spiked. It looked like he got just like caught a knee to the arm or something like that. At first I thought that's what it was. At first I thought I mean at first everyone thought, oh my God, what happened 'cause he's rolling around in pain. But then he pops up and runs off and I thought maybe he got spiked um in the arm. But no, it looked more like a knee or an elbow or s some somethinghing caught him. Somet hard caught him right in the arm as he's making that tag. So sounds like he was fine, though. Um Yeah, so uh uh so there were some there were some defensive plays, but uh those are the two that stand out the most I think I don't think there are any like incredible outfield catches uh okay totally random side note there there was a great outfit uh outfield catch in the I think it was the Tampa Bay Rays ser ies where the wall cuts down in the left field corner and it comes down really short and uh it's like a little party area apparently there in St. Petersburg where uh they have like a whole buffet of food set up and the it's pressed up against the outfield wall, so you have to like walk up to the outfield wall to get your food. And uh the outfielder uh leapt at the wall, stole a home run and brought it back. But it looked like this home run ball was destined for the buffet. Like it would have crashed right through the buffet. So not only did they save a home run, they saved dinner for everyone partying in the party deck there uh at at the Tropicana Field. So uh I I don't know that just popped into my brain and I wanted to make sure I shared it with you because of all the all the defensive plays this weekend, that one definitely stood out uh for me although I did not I didn't you know I didn't go through all the games this weekend. Um so yeah okay let's get back to the Guardians. Let's get back to the Saturday loss. Let's get back to Parker Mesik. 'Cause he be he's very strong. Five innings. I know it's five and fly, but very strong. He sets things up for the bullpen. Math esta comes in and immediately gives up the lead. Uh gives up a run in the sixth inning there to make it a two-to-one game. Uh Cody Hewer comes in to finish off the sixth inning and then pitches okay in the seventh. Then Sharon Armstrong's out there. Armstrong still not , you know, kind of what we wanted, what we thought we were getting in, you know, another really strong setup, man. He's not able to get the job done in a two-one game. He gives up a couple of hits. He gives up the lead in the eighth inning or or or the Red Sox extend their lead I should say in the eighth inning . Uh it's a counter full off a single and then it's a Durban double that uh uh Kawong had grounded out. I'm guessing that moved counterfalafa up. And then Durin, Durbin doubled and drove him in. Uh and then in the ninth inning, things just absolutely implode. So he figures, well, I'm down th threeree to one. I'm not gonna waste one of my good bullpen arms. Let's put Will Dion about there, and Dion absolutely implod es. Gives up six runs, only two earned on two hits , but uh also on uh two walks in there as well. And I mean things just absolutely unravel for uh the guardians. It starts with a walk, then a hit by a pitch, then a fielder's choice, then another walk. So they've now loaded the bases without anybody getting a hit. He strikes out Connor for Leffa. Connor Wong finally with single, driving some runs. Caleb Durbin with ground out. He thinks he's gonna get out of it, but then Jared Duran with a three-run home run. Duran is uh absolutely on a tear right now. He's had uh after Sunday, nine home runs. He hits a lead-off homer on Sunday. He's up to nine home runs, I think, for the month of May, they said. Um, yeah, before uh Rafaela finally strikes out to end things. But a six-run, just absolutely clear the ballpark out kind of inning, right? Everybody's heading to the exits uh after a six run top of the ninth inning to make it a nine to one lead. That was kind of a brutal I mean you're thinking three to one we still have a chance in this game and then Will Dion comes in and gets absolutely obliterated. I I can't imagine Dion's gonna stick around after that. Like, what are we doing here? You got Franco Aleman, you got Daniel Espino, you've got other arms in triple-A. I know they're not long relievers. I know Will Dion here is supposed to be giving you some length, but come on. There are arms we'd much rather see from Columbus pitching right now than Will Dion . So uh yeah, that's that was pretty rough. So again, Parker Mesek does nothing wrong. And the Guardian's offense also gets absolutely uh shut down by Sonny Gray. He goes six innings, four hits, one on run, three walks, seven strikeouts on ninety-two pitches. He's only hard hit four times. And then their bullpen, uh, yeah, doesn't have to work very hard. Uh, especially after they uh they can sit down their closer with a nine-to-one lead. So yeah, uh I mean uh Travis Bazanna does have two doubles in this game. Uh him and Ramirez combined for back-to-back doubles to score that first run. That's a nice way to start the game, but that would be it. Bazanna's two doubles. Uh Delater goes 0 for 4. Manzardo Reese Hoskins combo goes 0 for 3 with a Hoskins does have a pinch hit walk. The Martinez, Stuart Fairchild combo in left field goes 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts. Martinez leaves the game with foot inflammation. And I thought for sure this guy's heading to the I.L., but they did an MRI on it, and no, he's just day-to-day. So uh Martinez , uh yeah. Fairchild is here because uh Kwan is on the uh bere avement list. I hope Kwan is back for this Yankee series. Uh that's gonna start on Tuesday because fairchild looked terrible looked ter rible in this uh in his guardians debut he ends up going 0 for f ive5 with strikeout s. I do not need to see any more Stuart Fairchild on my TV. I know he was kind of a hero for uh Chinese Taipei in the world baseball classic. I know he's been hitting okay for triple A Columbus, but that's world baseball classic pitching. That's triple A pitching against major league pitching. Stuart Fairchild. He's got nothing. He's got absolutely nothing . Um so yeah, uh please, please send him back down when Quan comes back. I I get why you used him. DFA him if you have to. Maybe that's why you used him. Like instead of in instead of wasting uh a trip for Valera back and forth, I I don't know. Why not? Valera, you've already used the option on Valera, so why not send Valera back and forth? Why not? Um but I mean in theory it was just supposed to be someone here to ride the bench and uh they give him the start on Sunday and it's a disaster. So no more Stuart Fairchild for me, please. Um so yeah, so you really got nothing from the rest of this lineup. The Schneemann Frey combo goes 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. Finally, P.D. Halpin delivers some hits in the seventh hole. He goes 2 for 4 with a double. But they can't drive him in a score. And uh Hedges and Rokyo don't offer although they get on base, Hedges got on base twice with a hit and a walk, Rokyo over three with a walk, um don't offer anything. You get nothing from the bottom of the lineup. You score that one r the f first two batters of the game, you score a run. Like that 's what it looked like all we could do. We'd score in the first inning, and then we couldn't do anything else. Uh finally on Sunday, we actually score in multiple innings in this one. We don't score in the first inning, two in the second, two in the fifth, but once again our bullpen absolutely implodes. Tanner Bibe pitched very well. Six innings pitched, six hits, three earn runs, one walk, five strikeouts. He does give up a solo home run to start the game. My my three-year-old nephew clearly heard me and my brother talking because uh about how bad Tanner Bybe was because uh Bybee gives up the home run and then I think it was like a home run in the walk were the first two batters of the game . Uh let me double check that. Uh no, a home run in a single. Sorry, home run in a single to Mickey Gasper, although it doesn't turn into anything else. He's able to strike out Yoshida and Connor Falafa to get out of But after the home run in the single, my three-year-old nephew turned to my brother and said, S end him down to the miners. Like get Tanner Bibi out of here. So I think he heard us over overheard us talking about that this we ekend. But even three-year-olds are calling for Tanner Bybe to be sent, you know, for something to be done with Tanner Bybee. But he actually pitches okay in this one. It's you know, it's considered a quality start, six innings pitch, three runs or less. So it ain't the prettiest start, but it's definitely not the worst. However, the guardians are at their worst when Tanner Bibe is pitching. I went over to his game logs, and not only is Tanner Bibi now 0-7 on the season. Remember, no decision in this one. No starter took a decision in this one. So he's still 0-7 . But the Guardians are 2-11 when he's on the mound. We won opening day 6-4 , uh, despite him getting the no decision in that one after going five innings, giving up three runs. The three was it three solo home runs on opening day? I forget these things. I've I some of the other Guardians podcasters, I give them credit because they have things like that on lock. They have those things memorized. That's just not the way my brain works. It is not sticky like that for uh for for what happened in baseball games uh you know two months ago three months ago so um yeah uh they don't win a single game that he pitches in April they don't win again until they face Detro it at the end of May. And uh they win in extra innings. They win in ten innings in that one. Uh he went that's the game where he went eight innings, one run. That was the game I was begging us. Can we please get Tanner Bibi a win? And no, he he gets absolutely blown up by uh Washington in his next start and uh falls to a seven and then he loses this they they lose this game, so their record is two and eleven when their opening day starter, who's supposed to be their ace , they're two and eleven with that guy on the mount. That is brutal . Brutal. Uh let's see, just out of curiosity, what are they with the other guys on the mouse? So let's check Gavin Williams really quick here. Uh da da . You're gonna have to bear with me because I gotta run through everybody's game log here. All right, 2026 season for Gavin Williams. The Guardians are nine and three when he's on the mount. He has Gavin Williams has an eight and three record and the team is 9-3 when he is on the mound. Let's check uh Parker Mesek as well, because obviously Mesek has also been one of their best pitchers. Now the team did lose on Saturday with him on the mound, but let's see how they are over all. Uh Parker Mesek, let's go to his 2026 game logs. Uh right . They are for a pitcher who is overall on the season six and one , the Guardians are nine and three when he toes the rubber. So yeah, uh with those guys on the mound, the things have been going well. With Tanner Bibi on the mound, things are not going well at all. Um , so uh Suarez on the other side uh does despite 10 strikeouts, they do get four runs off him. Five index pitch, eight hits, four runs, two walks, ten strikeouts, a 93 pitches. He's only hard hit five times, but it's enough. They get the job done. They scratch across two in that second inning. Uh it comes on a Reese Hoskins walk. David Fry would double. Uh Manzardo would be hit by the pitch to load the bases. Stuart Fairchild would strike out. Did he strike out twice with the bases loaded, or is this the one where he challenged? Um Let me see here. Stuart Fairchild came up with the bases loaded again. Well, he strikes out every at bat. I think this is the one where he wasted a challenge. Um no, no, I'm sorry. He wasted the challenge in the fifth inning. Okay, so he did strike out twice with the bases loaded. That's great. That's just great. Why is Stuart Fairchild in the game? So uh Austin Hedges though delivers. He delivers a two-run single. Uh drives in both those runs. Austin Hedges, especially off left-handed pitching, he is uh been very good this season off of left-handed pitching . So uh uh let me call up the splits actually here. Just let me give you the numbers on Austin Hedges. How good has he been off left-handed pitching, Davey? Well, the answer is the answer is he's hitting three oh six off left-handed pitching, three sixty-six on base, four forty-four slugging. It's good for an eight ten OPS off those lefties. His one home run has come off a lefty. Five of his six RBIs have come off left-handed pitching. So yeah, Austin Hedges has done very well off those lefties. He's only hitting 167 with a 469 OPS offrigyht. So definitely platoon him and Patrick Bailey. But when a lefty is out there, and I know he's gonna be out there, Hedgey's gonna be out there for every Parker Messix start still, right? Was he in there on Saturday for him? Yeah, he was. Um he actually don't came that one. That was then when he had a hit and uh and a walk. So uh yeah, Hedgey's gonna be in there off any lefty and when Parker Mesek is pitching. So uh yeah, anyway, so the Hedgey knocks in those two runs in the uh second inning, gives the Guardians a two-to-one lead. They would uh Bybie would drop two runs to them in the top of the fifth inning. Uh they would uh let's see here. Uh single from Mayer, a double from Connor Wong. My god, he hits the Guardians well. Uh after a strikeout, Navarez, Duran would walk, and then Mickey Gasper with a sack fly. Uh Willi ar Abrau, this was the double. This was the one where they threw him out at second base, where he uh you know blows through Travis Bazanna's elbow and uh uh but but is thrown out at second base. So uh it could have been worse. It could have been more off Bybie, but they get out of it. Then uh Rokio with a leadoff double in the fifth. Uh Bazanna would strike out, but then Ramirez would double him in. Uh this is the one uh I believe this is the one that gets lost in the sun. I believe this is the one out to uh Yoshida in left field. I mean he's miles away from this thing. He really loses this thing in the sun off the bat. He had no clue where that ball was. But we'll take it. Chase Delauder then rockets a single at 100 point 101.8. Um drives in Ramirez. So two runs are in. Reese Hoskins would then double. Delauder gets the third. David Fry would draw a walk to load the bases. Then you got left on left with Kyle Manzardo and uh Suare z. And Manzardo would strike out uh and then uh again ten strikeouts. He was Swares was loading up on the strikeouts, and then uh Stuart Fairchild with the bases loaded has a chance to be a hero here and he cannot get the job done . Going to the matchup here. He swings at a slider down at his knees. It wasn't strike zone, but he swings through it. Then he swings through a cutter up at the letters, up at his armpits, and swings through that one high above the strike zone. Then it's uh three curveballs in a row in the dirt that he lays off to uh to uh uh put up put it into a full count. And then it's a curveball on the outside edge. It just clips the outside edge. You saw it on your TV screens. You knew this was strike three. He puts the hand to the helmet to challenge it. And I can't tell you how many times the Guardian's hitters put their hands to the head and challenge and you're like, don't, just don't. You're not gonna get it. You're you're wrong. You're dead wrong. And instead of taking the bat off his shoulder, like he should in a full count with the bases loaded. Look, if that pitch is elevated,, if that pitch is up unless it's in the dirt like the last three were, if that pitch is elevated, you swing at it, Stuart Fairchild. Try to put the damn thing in play. But no, he strikes out and uh and then waste a ch allenge. And then waste a challenge, and that would all come back to haunt the guardians. Would all come back to haunt the guardians. Ramirez would waste a challenge too at some point in this game on like a low at-the-knees pitch that he challenges like right away, but I you knew he was wrong too on that one. So I uh with the with the strike zone being shown to us on the screen, it's there's no mystery to us, the TV viewer. I mean, I'm sure it feels like that way for the hitter, but there's no mystery to us. We we know either going to be right or right or wrong. I've never been surprised by one of these challenges. So uh so yeah, Ramirez waste one. And then in the seventh inning, when we need it, the Guardi ans are protecting another four-to-three lead. Holderman is out there. Uh, he gets into trouble. Um, so they bring in Tim Heron in this seventh inning . And uh just when we need it most, we are out of challenges. So uh uh mayor had flew out to start the inning, Wong draws a walk, Navarez with a single, Duran also draws a walk. Now the bases are loaded. They strike out Mickey Gasper. Willi or Abreu is up there in the seventh with the bases loaded. Let's go to the matchup against Tim Heron. Uh where are we at here ? Uh Will Arbre u Tim Heron. First pitch is a high and tight fastball. I almost hit him uh for ball one. Then he throws him a slider in the dirt. It's not looking good for Tim Heron. He's really wild to start things. Does get a fastball up and away on the outside edge, an area that would come back to be very important in this at-bat. This one definitely catches. This one is definitely in the strike zone. Uh, so he gets it to a two-to-one count, then throws him a high and tight fastball on the pla uh catching the corner of the plate in the strike zone that he's got a foul off. So now he's worked it back to a- 22 count after being wild. Tim Heron is back in this half bat. Throws him a curveball at the knees that he fouls off. Tries to him another curveball down and away. Thinks he could bury one in the dirt and he'll chase it, but he doesn't. So now it's a full count. And so changing eye level, changing speeds. He just threw him two curveballs down, one in the dirt. He's gonna come back with a high fastball at the top of the strike zone. He's going for that outer edge, that same one that got called strike uh the third pitch the F-Bat. This one is a little bit more outside, but does catch the edge of the black, and it's called a ball. And I mean uh Austin Hedges is walking off the field. He's already into his fist pump. Tim Heron is walking off the field, and the umpire does not signal strike three. And both guys can't believe it. They both instantly realize they don't have any challenges because they're hitters, wasted all their challenges, and nothing can be done. The guardians give up the lead, and then this inning just impl odes. I mean, just implodes. After that, it gives up singles to Yoshida, singles to Connor Falefa. Caleb Durbin triples and clears the bases before Mayer finally grounds out. They bat around and mayor grounds out to end the threat. So six run inning for the Red Sox. I mean that was the big theme of this weekend was the Red Sox unloading on huge six run innings to just absolutely bury you late in games. So the bullpen implodes. Cody Hewer has to come in to try to finish things off in that seventh inning. And then actually Will Dion gets back out there for two more innings, and he actually pitches fine. Two innings a shututo baseball. But at that point, uh there was no way the Guardians were getting back in this thing. Uh not off of uh yeah, they they had a chance off of uh , I think it's a very good thing. In this at Stanford Medicine, we know discoveries change lives, and advances made right here lead to better health for patients everywhere . It's why our world class school of medicine and adult and children's health systems work together, pioneering treatments, teaching the innovators of tomorrow, and delivering the best possible care today. Stanford Medicine, advancing knowledge, improving lives Series. Uh man, if that challenge was available, who knows how that changes things? Oh my god, the domino effect that could have had. Stop challenging just stop you are one of the worst hitting when the batters the batters you're one of the worst batting teams at challenging in all of baseball you're third worst twenty-eighth in all of baseball . Only the Angels and Rockies are worse than you. Uh when it comes to so this is net the overturns versus expected or something like that. You're you're a negative six point a six point one . Third worst in all of baseball. When it comes to just success rate, like how many challenges have you won? You're third worst in all of baseball with the Braves and the Brewers. So three uh first place teams are all the worst in baseball at challenging. I believe the brewers are in first, right? Are the Cubs? Is it the Cubs or the Brewers in first there? It is Milwaukee in first. Oh no, the Cubs are falling way back. Um yeah, Milwaukee's got a nice four and a half game lead there in the NL Central. And the Braves are crushing in the East. They're the best team at baseball. 40 and 20 on the season. But uh you have the worst success rates of ABS challenges. Now, here's the thing: the number of challenges. Uh Milwaukee is barely challenged, only 38 times. In fact, their hitters have challenged the least amount of any hitters in baseball. Your guardians, meanwhile, are the second most and you have the third worst success rate. Stop champ- I'm sorry. It's been two months. We said we're not going to do this every episode. We are gonna do this every month. Stop it. Stop the letting the hitters challenge. Just stop. Tell them vote. Just tell them straight out. Hitters, you're done. You're done for. No challenges. I don't care if it's three feet out of the strike zone. No more challenges from our hitters. Let's save them for the catchers. Let's save them for the pitchers. The catchers are at least doing okay as far as the fielding team goes. Uh the catchers, which has mostly been the catchers. I haven't seen pitchers go for the challenge. They're they're overturns versus expected. They're a plus 5.2. It does put them 22nd in all of baseball, but at least it's a positive number. 5..2 Only three pitching-catching tandems have been bad at this. The White Sox are a minus 10, so their catchers can't figure it out. Uh the percent one . Uh again, your Guardians catchers, they're not at the top of the league. They're 22nd in all baseball, but they're a 52% success rate. Okay? They're a 52% success rate. They're not, they're in the middle of the pack for the amount of challenges. They're 15th in all baseball for the amount of times they've challenged. But at least they're winning at least half of them. Okay? They haven't been great at it, but they're been way better than the hitters. And they'd probably have a better success rate if they hadn't the hitters aren't wasting all them. So let's stop. My god, hitters. Let's stop. I did not think we were gonna be this bad at this thing, but we are that bad at it, especially our hitters. Um so yeah, there's your ABS update and how it directly impac ted the Guardians losing on Sunday despite yeah, 11 hits for the Guardians, but only four runs, 12 hits for the Red Sox, and they convert nine that into nine runs. By the way, they won four challenges in all that chaos. Uh so yeah . Uh can we get Tanner Bibi a win? Nope. Still cannot do it. In fact, we could barely win when he's on the mount. All right. Uh I know we didn't go through all the like the pitching the player breakdowns and stuff like that, but that's about all I can rant and rave about this uh series. I mean, I thought Sonny Gray was one of those guys that always killed us. I looked at his splits for his career. Um and no, there there are some teams that he uh uh he has more success against but he has seemed to pitch against us a lot . For some reason, uh Sonny Gray has 20 starts against us . Uh the only team he started against more is the Milwaukee Brewers. I I didn't think we'd seen uh apparently Sonny Gray just always comes up in the rotation when he's uh when he's facing us . Uh who has grey pitch for he's pitched for so many teams in his career. Um let's see here. He pitched for Oakland for a long time, then New York, then Cincinnati, then Minnesota for two years, then St. Louis for two years, and now with Boston. So it's not like he's been in the AL Central for a long time, but for some reason Sonny Gray has pitched against the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cleveland Guardians more than any other team he's ever faced. And he's pretty good against us. He's seven and five with a three point two ERA. I mean, he's owned the Kansas City Royals. That's the team he's really owned. He's 10-2 against the Royals with a 1.74 ERA. Ooh, man. Strikeouts per nine. Uh the Cubs and the Brewers. He's over double digit over double digit strikeouts against them. He doesn't strike us out a ton. He's actually we've uh we've done pretty well against him when it comes. Where is it? Against striking out. Only 8.7 strikeouts per nine. So yeah, uh, he doesn't absolutely own us. His whip is, I mean, he pitches pretty good against us, but uh actually one of the lower whips for any team he 's ever uh he he's faced in his career. Uh where are we at here? Ah, middle of the pack. Middle of the pack. Um so yeah, so I thought Sunny Gray was one of those guys that kills us. No, apparently he's just a guy we faced a ton. Uh now, with that being said, Connor Wong is a guy that kills us. Uh what does Wong go in this finale? He goes uh one for three with uh double and a walk and two runs scored . He goes Connor One goes two for five with a double and three RBIs and a run scored in the uh middle game of the series. And in the first game of the series, he's not in there. But Wong absolutely does uh destroy the Cleveland Guardians. Um he is batting 43 5 against the Cleveland Guardians with a thirteen uh over thirteen OPS, one point three one eight OPS over a thirteen hundred OPS. By far and away the best he hits against anybody in baseball. The Angels are next with a 10-14 OPS. Uh batting average-wise, uh the he does hit over 400 against the Mets, but that's in four games. He's faced us in 14 games. Uh started 12 of them. He's got four dou bles, five home runs. Uh, not the most, yeah, the most home runs than against any team he's ever played. Um, RBIs. The Baltimore Orioles is the only team he's had more RBIs against . So yeah, he uh he absolutely uh for some reason Baltimore just walks him constantly. Uh but yeah, 435 batting average against us. Connor Wong absolutely destroys Guardian's pitching. So I thought that was that was a little bit interesting there. So uh okay. I think that's everything from the series. MVP on the series. Oh boy. Uh do I have to pick one ? I I really I really not sure I got someone who is consistent across all the games. I guess we can go with Travis Bazanna. He did have a bunch of doubles in this one. Um Ye no, he goes oh for five in the finale with three strikeouts. I don't have one. I'm I'm there the I don't think there is an MVP on this series. Friday go three for four with a double and a run uh but no RBIs in the finale and a walk, so he was on base four times and five at bats for David Fry. There was nobody who was consistent across the three games. There no's starter who was fantastic. I guess we'll go with Cade Smith for getting his 20th safe. We'll go with Cade Smith as MVP on the series because there's there's really nobody who put together a nice offensive series. Uh Delauder maybe del uh Delauder goes 0 for 4 in the middle. He then goes three for 5 in the finale. So Delauder did have five hits in the series, which is nice to see, but it didn't turn into much offense. He only had one RBI. He had no runs scored in that finale, although he would have three hits. So yeah, five hits in the series and only crosses the plate once and has one RBI out of it. So just not enough production there. So alright we'll go with Cade Smith as MVP on the series in In the most uh you know I got nothing for this category choice. Um all right, so let's get into some more of your emails and let's get into some more of the big MLB news. Thank you, Brent, for the email. So uh Marlon, again, Marlon checking in. Um honestly, Marlon, I was a little bit worried about worried about you . We hadn't heard from you in so long. I'm not gonna lie. It had crossed my mind. But glad to see you back in the email inbox. And uh the the the whole whole beginning of negoti ations between the MLB Players Association and Major League Baseball owners got Marlin ready to email in, got him fired up to email in. So he really has a big breakdown here of what the MLB owners counter' proposal was to the players, and they are proposing both a salary cap and a salary floor, much like you see in the modern day NBA, and it's a 2 45.3 million cap and 1 7 1.2 million floor. Wow, that is way higher floor than I thought we were gonna get. Which means the guardians would have to figure out how to spend like 80 or 90 million dollars more than they're currently spending. This is the thing that intrigues me so much about this proposal from MLB. The teams like the Guardians and the Miami Marlins and the Tam pa Bay Rays that would have to figure out creative ways to spend all this money. I I think you'd instantly see contract extensions for like a Travis Mazzanna and a Chase DeLauder and a Gavin Williams and uh who else? Cade Smith in there? Like who else can we extend, right? To make sure we're spending 171 million. Now, part of this is also how arbitration would change. Uh uh, the minimums would change for guys. So if arbitration changed, and that's one of uh uh Marlon's first points here. So he said uh in my opinion there should be three things added to this that would create public pressure from fans to the players to accept a cap and floor . And one of them would be players reaching arbitration after the first year instead of three. So, yes, when you come up as a rookie, you'd be at the rookie minimum. Uh, he also would like to see the rookie minimum minimum increased. Uh, he thinks that might increase to one or one point two million from where it's at now, which is seven hundred and eighty thousand. So that would increase that floor for the Guardians. But then if guys like Bazanna and Mesic could earn as Marlin says between five and ten million next season in this hypothetical situation, that's definitely going to force the Guardians payroll up there closer to that 171 million floor. So things like that changing as well as putting in this cap in this floor would force the Guardians to spend more money just making those adjustments for their arbitration players and the rookies and things like that. Um so yeah, so uh that would be interesting. He would also like to see um ebbs and flows to arbitration. So right now, arbitration numbers only go up. Players only go up. They do not go down. And in this case, he'd love to see them go down. Uh if you had a really great look at uh Kyle Manzardo right now, right? Uh he goes from a twenty home run guy to a guy who can uh uh is absolutely struggling this season. And so Manzardo would be a perfect example of a guy whose arbitration numbers could have gone up from last year , but then having a terrible season right now could bring those numbers back down . Uh so we'll see if we get the ebbs and flows and arbitration. These are all these negotiations are gonna negotiations are gonna take a long time . Don't think this is gonna be solved uh you know by uh by the all-star break okay this is gonna go for a long time the other thing you'd like to see is relievers arbitration salaries tied to leverage usage . Uh so when you're pitching in high-leverage situations, as Marlon points out, this would apply to the you know Cade Smith, Gay uh Hunter Gaddis, uh Sabrowski, basically anyone pitching in the back end of the Guardian's bullpen because they're always pitching in one-run games, which creates high-leverage situations. Uh, so he'd like to see that reflected in their salaries. Um , yeah, so he said we've heard the top one percent will always be taken care of and, negotiations are for the other 99% of the players. This deal is sweet for those 99% of players, but we'll see if they care about everyone in the union as a whole or only the elite 1% with their 3$00 to $700 million contracts. What do you think about this, Davey? Marlin in Birmingham. I I think that we do need a salary cap in Major League Baseball. The way the Dodgers and the Mets have been able to spend, and it's not even the Yankees this time, it's it's the other team across New York . It's just and the TV contracts. The TV contracts are really the big thing. Like the fact that we can't get anyone to carry the guard And I know Robert is always uh Robert our other emailer, Bob and Highland Heights is always quick to defend the Dolans here, but look, you can't deny that uh, you know, one or two extra free agents couldn't help this offense out. You can't deny that as good as Bazanna and letting Bazanna and letting Chase the Lauder play'.re st Thillere definite holes in this offense. And this offense is still weak. It's been a problem that's been uh nipping at their heels since 2022 when they made their first run of this current era, what are we gonna call this? The the Jose Ramirez runs the team era? Cause you know, Jose Ramirez was there since twenty sixteen, but now it's his team, right? Are we called the the Tanner Bibe era, the Gavin Williams era? I don't know . Uh uh yeah, but uh ever since twenty twenty-two when they made that great playoff run, they struggle in twenty twenty-three, they make another great playoff run in twenty twenty-four, they make the run to reclaim theed division in twenty twenty-five, although falter in the playoffs. And uh and now they're running away with the division in 2020. Well, not running away with the division, actually the White Sox are one game behind them. So uh, but they've been in the lead in the American League Central . Uh, and they're they're they're doing it with a mediocre too bad offense in every one of those seasons. There hasn't been a season where they've been just elite, just absolute masters offensively. It's always been on the strength of their pitching and their bullpen and handling those high-leverage situations and pitching in close games. That's been the identity of the Guardians. And you gotta admit, if they had the kind of TV contract that the Dodgers had, maybe that wouldn't have to be their identity. Maybe they could get a few more bats in the lineup and actually give themselves some breathing room and just win without it being so stressful. So and and and obviously not having enough offense to go deep in the playoffs. Like not just not having enough to match up with the biggest with the Yankees, frankly. Uh the Yankees is the team that we seem to run into that always gives us trouble. So uh yeah, so I I I would love to see this go into effect. I would love to see the money spread around major league baseball a little bit better like it is in the other sports. And uh I I'd like to see, yeah, more more even though those smaller market teams have found ways to compete . Uh, and they're having plenty of champions, you know, in major league baseball that have come out of nowhere and won one. Uh, it just it feels like those seasons are just magical seasons that