Carson Benge On Fire, Big Pitching Updates, and the World Baseball Classic is Great | 536

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1:00Want to drive? CarMax. This is Julian Edelman from Doods on Doods with Gronkin Jules. Alright, real quick. Take a look at yourself right now. Why? What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. You look like a guy running on three hours of sleep. In vibes. Okay, yeah. I'm tired. Kind of cranky. Very thirsty. Congrats. Those are some of the potential signs of mild dehydration. And I bet your last bathroom break showed you another sign. Your body might be throwing you a penalty flag. So what's the play call? Liquid IV hydration multiplier. One stick in water helps hydrate faster than water alone. Okay. But where's the proof? Liquid IV's clinical studies. Not just a guy I know. Real science results you can trust. Take a look at me now. Liquid IV is officially part of my daily hydration routine. Pass the fire cracker, popsicle flavor. Stay hydrated like a pro.

2:00Not like Jack before this. Stock up on Liquid IV. Hydration multiplier at liquid-iv.com. And use the promo code nut house for 20% off your first purchase. What is up, Mets fans? Welcome back to another episode of The Mets The Podcast. It's been a minute. Miss you guys. There's really not that much Mets stuff going on. I don't know about you, Jay. Well, actually, I do know about you. And I don't know about the viewers at home, the listeners. I'm just so focused on the WBC right now. I know that there's a lot of Mets fans that are listening to this. I hate that I'm saying that. But man, do I feel like the World Baseball Classic is so much more interesting when watching Mets Spring training right now. Well, we're going to have a whole WBC segment. The end of this episode. If people that want to stay on just hear us talk about WBC because it's been one of the most funs I've had a long time watching baseball presented by Fox one, of course.

3:00But there's plenty of stuff in the Mets World talk about right now. I know. I know. We got Christian Scott. We got Carson Benj, who's like, I'm just going to be the right field or opening day france school in door news. David Stern spoke everybody on Twitter thought that it was going to be gloom and doom, which I don't know why that's become a thing. All of a sudden that the replies of David Stern's announced there's being a David Stern's press conference. And everyone's like, who's going to be out for the, what the fuck is that? That's crazy. I hate that shit. I think too many Mets fans are conditioned to bad news. And I think that we've had some executives in the past that didn't have that much FaceTime. And Stern's has really had this much FaceTime over the last two years. I think the fact that now we're seeing him like every week or so through the entire off season is kind of nice. So I think it's nice that he gave a press conference. It was super chill. Should we start that? I was going to say start there because I think that'll lead into Carson Benj. Because Stern's had a lot of interesting things. I think the most interesting thing was specifically about Benj where it was asked specifically. It's like, is he going to be opening day right field or basically? And he was like, did the David Stern say no decision yet? But he's saying, we're seeing what we expected out of him

4:00and that he's taken competitive at bat. He's a tough out. He plays really good defense in right field. He's making this a very difficult decision for them as to whether or not he'll be their opening day or no matter what. They expect him to contribute to the major league team this season. No matter what. Exactly where it's expected him to contribute to our team this year. There's no question about that. I think the way he's developed throughout his professional career indicates that he is reaching that level, whether that's on opening day or not. I don't know. I mean, the way he's playing. Again, it's the similar conversation that I feel like we have at times to a less to a stronger degree when I like joke about the final bullpen spots and it's like it's quite good. Really better than some of the other like live young arms that we have. But I mean Carson Benj is mashing. He's hitting nearly 400. I know batting stats don't particularly matter in spring training, but the quality of that bats of his are extremely high. This is a guy who is going to have a competitive at bat. I feel like pretty much every single time he steps in the box and it seems like every other at bat he's going up against a lefty and still having good at bats, which I love to see. He had a great one too in the game on Tuesday.

5:00I think a lot more people talking because it was I think a two RBI triply and three RBI's in that game against the Marlins again. Spring training stats do not matter, especially because right now Benj is opponent quality on Tuesday night. So before baseball reference updates for Wednesday, 7.0, which is double I. Yeah, but I mean that is kind of like standard. Yeah, definitely. But he hit that triple off of Tyler Phillips, who's a major league reliever on the Marlins, who's famous for you guys know him for slapping himself in the face before he comes in the game. The guys are great. They psyched up. We love that jersey. And yeah, jersey boy. Yeah, forgot about that. But it was the way that Benj took his at bat and it's kind of echoes love, which Stern's talked about, which I think is the most the confidence building thing we have with Benj right now. He took an O2 curve ball that was below the zone, but still caught too much of the plate. And it's the way that Benj seems like he's going to find success at least early in his career. He went right with that pitch into the left center gap. Like it was nothing hard hit ball buzzed around the base to get a triple on it. Not easy to get a triple to ball in the left center gap. No matter who's playing the outfield. And just again, seeing him be composed of two,

6:00he's worked some good accounts his entire spring. I think that's going to be the biggest thing about him. Like Stern said tough out competitive at bats. Just look professional against a major league reliever. I think that's the biggest indication that in general, not that exact swing, but that is just he feels pretty ready for the show. Yeah, I've kind of, I know we always like preach pulled flyballs on this podcast, but I'm kind of coming around to the idea of being a more balanced hitter to the point when when you make good contact, like good quality contact, you have the ability to hit the ball wherever it's pitched. You can take the ball the other way because you're not, you're giving up the quality still. You're not going to hit it as hard as if you pull it, but you still are making good enough contact where you can do damage the other way. And it feels like with Benz, that's good. Now there's obviously guys you don't want to see that from like, you want to see Luis on Helacune, do damage. You want to see him pull the baseball like that's the common. Luis on Helacune. I'm just saying that kind of player. I know he's not on the meds. It's me. It's 1 a.m. we're recording this. We've recorded like seven videos today just for context for you guys. I'm losing my goddamn mind. But like the idea of like Benz is a good enough hitter where I'm not going to force him

7:02at this exact moment to have to become a fly ball hitter to the pull side. Whatever is going to make him comfortable, whatever is going to help his development at the major league level this rookie season. That's what we want to see from him. And it does seem like the natural hitter that he is, he's going to take the ball to all fields. And he showed that he can drive the ball to that left center gap, which is huge. Michael Conforto, like I'm going to drop another name. There we go. And something that we talked about in the last episode we gave you guys, we just talked all things met's prospects. So my idea is that the meds seem to be a team that lets these prospects get to know themselves more than anything else. And you can't really play one size fits all baseball players. Everybody has different skill sets. Everybody's more comfortable with different things. And a guy like Benz, he seems to have a lot of comfort going it opposite way. And we talked about this in one of the many videos we talked about today. A guy like Zach Neto finds all of his success, shortstop by the angels with getting out front yanking his pull fly balls. Aggressive. Ace win. Just go, ah, crazy in the first two pitches in that bat. Benz seems like a guy who's going to be very much the opposite of that. But there's something you can kind of pull there where Neto, he goes crazy early in that bat.

8:02But once he gets to two strikes, he protects very well. You love talking about this. How much he shortens his leg. How much he shortens up his swing. If we can just have Benz hunting for the power early accounts, then tighten up and like Dave was saying, be competitive at bat. Be a tough out. For now, as he gets his feet wet in the major leagues, and as he gets stronger and as he gets better and more experienced, the pulse side power probably comes. But just seeing all of these things happen while right now is nice. Yeah, and like Benz is going to be hitting a third ninth in this lineup. Played to the scoreboard, played the situation. It seems like he can do that. It's a great way for a rookie to come into a lineup that should have no problem scoring runs this season. I love the fit there again. You can't convince me that Mike Talkman should be playing right field on opening day over this guy. Like Mike, it was nice. Nice knowing you. We'll see in Colorado and what a couple weeks later when we go there. The people are going to be mad. The people love Mike Talkman. You can love Mike Talkman. There's a better baseball player on this roster. His name is Carson Benz. Also, MJ Melinda is in the ball well when he hits the baseball. So like, I don't know. We're holding Mike Talkman for two weeks to give Carson Benz the extra two weeks. I'd rather see Carson Benz play honestly.

9:03I don't disagree with that take. But I think the big date again is that two weeks. Yeah. Something that fans now were. It's kind of becoming a little bit competitive because again, that's fans love Mike Talkman. They're talking about Mike Talkman on Twitter. Get a guarantee 50,000 impressions. Anyone trying to try to get some eyes on their Twitter account right now. But you just, there's MLB did a good thing. Players union did a good thing in the last CBA where if you call up that rookie in the first two weeks and you give them that full year of service time and they place for rookie of the year in the rookie year or they place an MPP award, pre arbitration or say young, you get a draft pick for it. Yep. It's a very important incentive. And you know what? If the meant to call up Carson Benz on like May 17th and you've lights little league on fire and he still places top the rookie of the year, he still gets himself that first year of service time. And then I don't even think we get the PPI if he comes up that late. So you're just, if you think the player is ready, you're incredibly incentivized to get him on this team ASAP. I really, I think we're moving in that direction. No matter how well Mike Talkman is hitting the ball. To talk about some of the other things that talk man, talk man implies that there's a quiet man as well.

10:05Silence, man. To talk about other big things, Francisco Lindor seems like he's on track for opening day. The biggest thing that I heard besides the fact that I began playing catch, you started swinging the cage already is that his first competition will not be opening day. So if we don't see him playing great fruitly games, he will not be playing on opening day. They want him to get his reps in game before opening day at city field. But it does seem like all signs are pointing to that Francisco Lindor will be completely on track to be there. Which is nice. I still I'm so curious about that because there was also a later on that. Sterns want to die a trap just about the ports of opening day. And he kind of admitted he was like, we know opening day is a little bit different. We know how much it means to these guys. We recognize that it's just a significant day. And there's a level of importance for these guys kind of alluding to bench. And also applying a different Cisco Lindor that you just, if you're going to be there, you want to be there. And Lindor wants 162 every year. I mean, I don't know if you guys again are taking in the WBC concept. When Puerto Rico, Darrell and I sat that walk off home run a few days ago to give Puerto Rico.

11:05I think that clinched them to reach the knockout round. Yes. And then you kick your hand as facetimes Lindor. And he's like, show me. And I just screaming to him on the phone. Kathy was posting the videos of him, like jumping up and down in their living room with his kids. Yeah, with the kids, like just freaking out. Like again, to see how much the tournament means. But it seems like he's at least in good spirits and progressing in the way that we hope he would be progressing. The other thing that stuck out to me too was talking about Boba Shettin, where a Polanco obviously playing new positions. And David Sterns gave the political answer of they're both working really hard. There's nuances. They're learning them. They're not perfect. But I'm pleased with what they're showing and how hard they're working so far, which I mean, it's great. It's great. I think again, Corey Polanco's looked a little more comfortable at first base than Boba Shettin looked at third base. Yeah. And I think that was expected. Yeah. One of those positions much easier than the other. Five also watched one of the guys play shortstop. He's not very good at it. Hey, like third base was always going to be a little bit of a stretch. I think we just know that Boba Shett's going to make some not so good throws. It's just going to be what happens this year.

12:05Just mash. If he mashes, it's okay. And you know, and if it's that bad, Brett, maybe we'll just play. Yeah. Simply. And Boba Shett will go to D.H. If that happens, whatever. There was another port of that Staviferous press conference where we had some not political answers. Where they talked about the pitching staff last year. Basically, like guys don't throw a hundred eight, 200 endings anymore. How do you get to the full season workload? And how that affected the club last year? Sterns had a comment about the injuries taking a toll on the team mid-season. But then fatigue set in at the end for certain guys. And he talked. Oh, yeah, a specific line to stuck out to me that some of these guys need to learn how to train year round, how to fix their body to go through the whole season. It seemed like a shot at someone. David Peterson? Kodai? Like, I don't know. It seemed like it was not a political statement for a guy that usually is very cut and dry. I guess more so about the being ready to be year round thing. Feels like Kodai, just based on what we know from our time. But the being ready to be good all year long. Feels like David Peterson, because you literally can find the exact pitch where the season completely ended.

13:07And it may be also like giving some credits to another guy in clay homes. It seemed like he has conditioning ready to go where he did take the mid-season dip. It's still kind of fought the route for the last few starts. Yeah, he got he clay homes was our guy. Can't forget about clay homes ever. And it also looked so good in the WBC. Nasty. He gets team Brazil. So you know, take with the greatest salt. But still, he's. He's great. And team great pretty. They go against team great Britain. The guy could be a really good believer, right? I don't think he pitched against Brazil. I think he pitched against great Britain. It was a great bridge. I really thought he pitched Friday night. But we watched that one together. We were having some fun. Yeah, we were. It was a good night. But anything else from the David Stern's press conference before we talk a little bit more Mets and then go into our WBC coverage. Yeah, quick one. Few more little comments he made. One he said. This is a crazy quote. Someone asked basically like, what's the feeling around the team this spring training? David Sterns. David Sterns said the guys are getting after it. Let's go. We're hearing that said to leave his mouth. I was like, what? And then talked about the prospects looking good mentioned a conversation. He had an Andy Green. He said that day on Monday being like, if we're doing our job well, there will be exciting young players and camp every year. And I think that was just alluding to again.

14:07Benz looks great. AJ Ewing looks electric. Really good. Bouncy. Bouncy. Love watching that dude play. And then he kind of scoffed at some questions about the overall team defense being like, we expect to be a good defensive club, we want to share our outfield. We think it's been much improved compared to last year. Everyone in the club has knows how much we're emphasizing defense. I mean, we heard Juan Soto talk about it. He's like, I got to play better defense this year. I'm going to show you that I can play better defense. Don't look at what he didn't WBC one game, but I trust Juan Soto. At least trust the rest of the guys. Everybody plays good defense besides Juan Soto in the public shed. Probably still decent defensive team. They get a pass. Texting privacy policy in terms of conditions posted in texting terms. Texting rules you for occurring on a media text marketing message. You're supposed to get a reason to apply or play stopped out. Is it ISSA online for details? Tired of the nine to five grind? Looking for something different that's flexible, fulfilling, and pays well? How do you like to get paid to work out? Now you can, with ISSA, the global leader in personal fitness certification. There's a huge demand for certified personal trainers right now. And once you get ISSA certified, they guarantee you'll get a job.

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16:11Based on the February 2025 Nielsen Report. This is Julian Edelman from dudes on dudes with Gronkin Jules. All right, real quick. Take a look at yourself right now. Why? What's wrong? Nothing's wrong. You look like a guy running on three hours of sleep. And vibes. Okay, yeah. I'm tired. Kind of cranky. Very thirsty. Congrats. Those are some of the potential signs of mild dehydration. And I bet your last bathroom break showed you another sign. Your body might be throwing you a penalty flag. What's the play call? Liquid IV hydration multiplier. One stick in water helps hydrate faster than water alone. Okay. But where's the proof? Liquid IV's clinical studies. Not just a guy I know. Real science results you can trust. Well, take a look at me now. Liquid IV is officially part of my daily hydration routine. Pass the fire cracker, popsicle flavor. Stay hydrated like a pro.

17:11Like Jack before this. Stock up on liquid IV hydration multiplier at liquid dash IV dot com. And use the promo code nut house for 20% off your first purchase. At least again, if you could have a 900 OPS, whatever about the defense may bow at 850, but still that's that's an end last thing. I think everyone's really. Pins and needles for extension talks because this is like kind of when they get going last two weeks spring. And we saw Haysu's Luzardo sign a big extension with the Phillies, one that John Heyman apparently thinks means that. It thinks that for the Peralta is going to make significantly more money in the Luzardo, but we'll say one plus one equals fish. He's like, if you make 27 million, this guy's going to get. 35. Okay. Is it Peralta's not a Boris guy, right? No, he's not. That's why it's his chance of this. Yeah. That's why there's a chance and also Heyman is the Boris puppet. I think he was a, he was a public, right? If I remember correct? Yes. No, he's, um, he's the one that is in Queen.

18:14Aces, Aces. Yeah, Aces. Yeah, Brooklyn. Yeah. Good stuff. But we're hoping we hope we can get that extension done, but if it's going to be 35 million, like Heyman thinks for some reason, probably won't add up. Also just to keep talking about for a Peralta now, George Lombard crushed one off of him mid-sentences. I was talking to my dad about how I don't know if I've seen a highly rated prospect that hits as little as George Lombard, but yeah, he crushed that one. Good spring. Spring trading. Fred, you still got electric stuff. Good spring for George Lombard. Really shut in both of us up specifically. Yeah. Spring trading staff don't matter in the specific scenario. Correct. Also, of course, of course, the best one was spring trading set. Only one battle ball over a hundred one miles per hour. I think actually a second as of Monday, but just nothing to keep an eye out with badges. We just try to figure out where his power ceiling is. All right. So now two battle balls over a hundred. One hundred two, one hundred one. Two hundred ten. One hundred ten. This mic has dropped me crazy. I got to find an Allen key to tighten it up. It's dropping on me. Yeah, hold it up there. We got a little more to go here. I got some fun pitching notes. Got just some fun pitching notes. Yeah. I mean, we saw Christian Scott. We saw Sean Meniah. We saw Kodai Sangue give us some fun pitching notes.

19:14All right. Got the skinny on all these guys. So Scott first first game appearance in so almost two calendar years. Yeah. Really, really happy to see him. And we just saw a lot of this stuff kind of a first inning where Christian Scott looked a little just trepidatious on the mount. It looked like he was still kind of like remembering how to pitch in a game. I bet it looked like there was a butterflies because the VLO was good because it was kind of all over the place. Second inning got within himself by the third inning. So it was a 50 pitch outing which I think is interesting to know where Scott's work was compared to some other guys here. He got the velocity turned down but just the fact that he was a coach of 95 96 early still had that great fastball shape. Show the new splitter too. That was much better than the old split change he used to throw. It looks like he just again find the anything that could work against the lefties. Good know from our body Rob Rob Cologneer right and for metzmer eyes now that new knows everything that new splitter had less had more depth. Then the old split change had a lower spin rate. So splitters are always better when they're spinning less and pulled a great quote from a Christian Scott talking to Will Sam and back all the back in October.

20:14They didn't even see his article read through it was like this was this snuck this one in during the NLCS. Scott go in the in zone percentage wasn't good enough of that split finger before I got hurt. I just being able to have a pitch in the zone a little bit more moves a little bit better and theories going to help me get more out against the left hand of batter. So again, like we always talk about with our with our guy Justin Willard be nasty in the zone. And if Christian Scott's in the zone the stuff is nasty. So it it's just going to play it's really that simple. Another guy trying to be more in the zone Sean Maniah a lot of people freaking out because I was one of them. Yeah, he went right on Friday. He was throwing 88. I was like, Oh, no, but what good Saturday. Once we the day that actually look kind of good. You know, anytime one of our major leaf starting pictures who's making any amount of money is throwing his heart as the checks. Like I get very nervous when he's throwing his heart is the again, shot my dad electrician. But as as hard as the electrician that plays for the Czech Czech Republic, I get worried. Yeah, we would recall that Aussie velocity for Sean Maniah from the afternoon. I like that. He just seemed like he was taking the easy. I'm going to tell myself that until we see him again.

21:17It was a short outing. It really looked like he was just working on pitches and trying to hit spots. And while the fastball is rolling 88, he was keeping those leather high top of the strike zone, which is nice. We want him to be there. We want that to live there. And he was really experimenting hard with a new color that we didn't see at all last year. We saw it like a teensy bit of smidge in 2024. Most thrown pitch net outing 10 of them in 33 total pitches. The old one used to blend a good bit with his tight slider. This one had a little bit more lift, a little bit more of the glove side break, kept it high and tight in the righties. It again, similarly was through miles per hour slower in this spring outing than it was in 2024. But I just think he's going to be able to build up some Velo. And I think again, it could be a good weapon for him because right these, which he needs one of those right now, try to sink or try to change up. This is just much for pitchers or try out mode right now. I think that's nice. Yeah, I would just like to see that Velo up a little bit. Yeah, I mean, we're just get back and I do want to sell the extension for two weeks out. You know, I'd like to see 90s here. Again, you only do 33 pitches, which is why I was like making that comment about Scott or the hitting 50 in Sanger. I was about to talk about got to 50 as well.

22:17And when fingers get 50 every single time, it's like, he's a dog. How many showmen I am throwing that last week of March? If I'm March, I think that was what March 70 made that game March 6th. He's still only throwing 30 pitches. He might be a sneaky IL for the first month of the season. At least maybe sneaky, like be the long man to bias Myers, like those two piggyback on one another. That's talk about. Talk about different arm angles. piggyback those two. Be like, what the fuck? Be looking at those two guys pitch. That'd be fun one. I think it could be somebody to see that happen. Kodai. 97 miles per hour. That's all I got. That's all I got. That's all I got. Yeah, got his height. Be a palipature. That's all that matters. Just get crazy. This is the slowest pitch it through his 95. That was above his average last year. That's all I need. He's at his best when he's throwing hard. And those were 98 mile per hour fastballs in the zone. Not chaotic. Almost a 60% zone rate. The Velo zone porn. He got a sweeper up over 80. That was below 80 last year. Velo is not only important for the fastballs. Important for everything. And Kodai needs to so bad. Yeah. And we know that goes forks going to be nasty.

23:17Everything going a little bit faster. Makes you have to be a little bit quicker. And that makes the goes fork. Here goes my mic. Makes the goes fork. It's stronger. And he still tried to throw like seven pitches in this. So we'll see it again. But if you could throw 97 do whatever you want. I really do not care. And then I love Jack Winninger too. That's going to be your guy. I mean, it's just he's a fun pitcher. Like it talked about a guy who I'm just going to be so confident. It would be like a 3-4 forever. Yeah. Like see if it all gets back together. Like he he pitched the last three innings in that game on Saturday. That Kodai started against the Cardinals. And like he didn't have close to his best command. Like the splinter was kind of all over the place. A lot fluttered. Slider was here and there. But like he just he just kitchen sinks every single guy. It's hard to get a grip on him. Yeah. He's I don't want to say crafty because I think that that's undermining the actual quality that he is crafty. I feel like no less than crafty. Yeah. Like crafty. I feel like almost means like you're you're gimmicky in a way. Like you're you're trying to fool people. You're trying to trick them. We're Weddinger. Winninger. Winninger. Winninger. Yeah. Just is good. The stuff is the stuff is good at all plays.

24:17It may not be frontline ace level quality type stuff. But you don't not everybody needs to be the number one starter. You can make a hell of a career being a 3-4. It's the kind of thing too where like we're seeing him get so much better in such quick succession where if he just if he gets like a half tick on his command grade every single year like eventually it'd be like a Jack Winninger. So you are too. Like it's like the the last mean thing I'll say about Sean and I right now because I hope he does have a great season. But like having a guy like Winninger get good and be able to be at 3-4 stops you from paying guys like Sean and I at $25 million a year when you don't have to. Definitely, which is nice that we were getting more of these guys popping up every single which way. Hopefully he's the one that he's like it's consensus top 100 prospect now. It's amazing. You see what's got himself and we'll just yeah we'll see if that gets there. And then last pitching note definitely was messing around with some stuff that goes left. So either a cutter. It's just every single wrinkle the guy can get. I like that the matter of experimenting this spring. This is what this is for. These games do not count or matter. Warm up. See what you got. That's what we want to see. Try stuff. Guys never try stuff anymore. Try something.

25:17Guys are a little skittish sometimes. But I like to see that Justin Willard got them right. Anything else or is it time to talk about some WBC? Let's get some WBC stuff. All right. Don't forget all of our world baseball classic coverage is brought to you by our friends at Fox 1, which is live stream all your Fox favorites together in one place, including all WBC games over the next few weeks. After that, the best and will be action all season long. From WBC through the World Series to the World Cup to NASCAR and Indie car with Fox 1, you get it all live. Start your seven day free trial today. All offers are subject to change. Download Fox 1 today and stream the World Baseball Classic live now through March 17th. Go to Fox1.com for complete terms and conditions. Fox 1 streaming now. World Baseball Classic is awesome. Again, we might have just lost 75% of our audience. I know that. This is divisive in the Mets World. But me, this is our podcast. I want to talk about it. And the WBC is, it's getting way better than when I even started loving it years ago. It's peak right now. Well, we're hitting 20 years of WBC this year, which is nice.

26:18And while this is 23 year, the WBC, it's been Hercu Jerky every time. It's never like the regular four years apart that it was always intended to be. It's got some threes, got a six in there, got a couple fours. But this is, it's hitting a whole new peak in level right now. And I think that's because this time, a lot of the great USA players were going to, we're like, we're soothing up. Got Aaron Judge. Paul Schienz looked outrageously good on Monday. I had friends and group chats who don't watch very much baseball being like, Paul Schienz and Bobby Whit. Look at these guys. Like, no shit, Sherlock. But tell me what city they play in. Yeah, right. To like one of my friends, like, I get skins on the Yankees one day. I'm like, I hate you. And then I think especially the Dominican Republic team has captured the harsh and souls of everybody right now. It's impossible to watch that team play and not love baseball. More than I think you did before you did it. We talked about it a little bit. I think it was last week. Did we get talk about the exhibition game? Did we sneak down into it? We did. Yeah, the Dominican fans were just going ballistic for an exhibition game. And they were pimping home runs. And it's the vibes are unmatched.

27:18And obviously this can never happen over major league baseball season. Of course. It's not possible. But wow, if we could do this for the playoffs, I mean, I really think that's how baseball would get to the next level for growth. It's just there's a joy when these other Latin American countries are watching baseball. Like the Puerto Rican fans were losing their minds over a group stage game but they'll walk off home run. And they, again, the Puerto Rico definitely got a little bit screwed by injuries and insurance stuff. He's his WBC. They do not have the same caliber of team they've had in years past. But they point every single game they played. If they get a lead, their bullpen is clamping down on people. They're playing good defense. Team fans as well is also looking really good. Like you're going to be advanced well at Dominican Republic on Wednesday, which is like, there's going to be a scene and down in Miami. It's just like a world series of its own. It's fun to watch a guy like Junior Caminero, who for us, and you guys who take in a lot of baseball, if you guys take in a lot of national baseball, not just the meds, we know that last year he said that's being a star. But to see him now become like a dude who everyone on the Internet is talking about like, this Junior Caminero guy is electric because he is.

28:18And the fact that there's like a cool supply of many, but childhood being his childhood idol and he's hitting behind him in the lineup and they went back to back in the exhibition game. And he's driven him in a few times. They're dancing and doing handshakes together. It's so much fun. I mean, Juan Soto and Vlad Jr. are doing press conferences, which by the way, oh, Vlad would have been our first baseman if he had an agency. Oh, man, he would have been our first baseman. But like him and so are doing the press conference, getting rid of the Shohei Otani green tea. That's on the podium. No free promos. Love it. Like there's, there's so much pride for all their countries and like for the teams that they're on. And I don't want to say that there's like an animosity building nationwide because it's never really going to happen that way. But like even just a little bit of the games, we've been ship stuff of like not shaking hands with the guys or Jack Perkins. Yeah. Rob Perkins. Jack Perkins is a picture of the reliever. Yeah. Like Randy Rosarena tonight in the Mexico USA, a game went to go shake Cal Raleigh's hand, Cal told them no like obviously they're probably joking about that. But like just the idea that these guys are so, so, so locked in for these games and they care. And I think that's what makes it even more fun to watch

29:20is that even like the bad teams that we're talking about, like the Czech and Nicaragua and Brazil, they've all massively improved even great Britain massively improved from the previous world baseball classics that they featured and were even for their first time. The quality of competitions getting really good. And I think from the world stage, it's very cool to see that baseball is becoming more of a world game, even at the lowest of levels. Dude, Chinese Taipei, Taiwan has had about four or five guys that are pumping Nicarague high 90s with nasty stuff. Like there's a group of guys that are going to come over from Major League Baseball from that league that that would have never happened in previous years. Stuart Fairchild looks like he's a quadruple, like 30-year-old, he looks like a star. We're seeing some ascending young talent, the team like Korea, young men on, and he looks gross, and don't you have to guess the other names? No, it was don't you on camera. Well, young men on won the rookie of the year in the KBO last year. He looks like he'll be a Major Leagueer in a few years and looks like he could be a guy that's an impact bat when he gets here, just with a little bit more growth. These teams are fun.

30:21Also, what you're talking about, a team like Australia. I know I've talked about them a few times a while ago. They're basically a national league that's growing tremendously year over year. The Aussies love baseball right now. It's one of the fast-growing sports in their country. And these guys came to play in WBC and they were got it to lose the advancement on a run. I mean, on a run differential going into the last inning, like heartbreaking. Travis Bazzana hit a run to go ahead to make the run differential go back in the Australian way. So you got them celebrating even though they're losing because they know what the stakes are. These games are awesome. I can't wait to see more of it. We got no McLean going up against Italy today when you guys are listening to this, which can't wait. I mean, USA is through. But for Italy, if they win, they're through. They automatically punch their ticket if they win that game. Or actually, do they automatically punch their ticket? They might not. I don't think so. Because Mexico wins. Because Mexico wins. They can still. But those teams playing on Wednesday. Whoever thought that you would say a baseball game between Mexico and Italy would be almost must-watch on Wednesday night.

31:21We know Italy is with little asterix. Everyone's basically American. There's a bunch of Venezuelans on that team too. But like, it's really cool. I love the World Baseball Classic. And I think this year's World Baseball Classic has by far been the most successful. And I can't wait to see what happens when we get to the knockout round. But it's also nice to see a team like Italy who are really buying into, like, being Italian. Like, Vinnie Pasco and Tino is the captain of a team Italy. Rocking the C on this chest. So it was a captain of a team Colombia. But Italy's now doing a tradition. I think was sparing a little bit last time by manager Francisco Sirvelli, where if you were the home run, Shava Spresso. Yeah, most of them were spitting it out right after. But like, you can't play, because you have three shots of Spresso. It was really hard to play baseball. But one, it's the perfect level. But I think it was Desenzo. And JJ Derazio, who made an error in the first ending of that game of past ball against Graper and Andrew Fischer. It was Andrew Fischer and Derazio went back to back. And they were ripping the shots of Spresso. Dante Nori had a little league home run. He's been ascended. He looks like a dude. I like Dante. No, he's Philly's system, right? Philly's, yeah.

32:21He was a Philly's first round pick a couple of years ago. And like, that's why this is also fun. Because you're seeing prospects who didn't have a lot of critical acclaim, especially on Team Brazil, on Friday night. Come out of nowhere. Yeah, nowhere. There's, there's three guys in total that really stuck out to me that have not been like part of the Asian countries. But from Team Brazil, Lucas Ramirez, who was Manu Ramirez's son, not a highly touted prospect at all, had like 700 OPSs, like a 19, 20 year old, I think at low or high A last year. In one week, he's hit a home run off of Jake Degram, Logan Webb. And then went lefty lefty again, Skabe Spire, which is pretty insane. Honestly, and threw a guy out from right field at third base, I believe. So like showing that he's a well-rounded player. Also, man, he's going to be a good baseball player. Jose Contreras' son, 17 years old, pitching on the mound for Team Brazil. Joseph Contreras. Yeah, Joseph Contreras. Gets Aaron Judge to break his back, ground out into a bases loaded double play, get out of the inning. Like, are you kidding me? You're 17 years old. I know he's going to Vandy, and he's a top stud prospect in the high school ranks. 17.

33:2117. But he's 17. That's crazy. And then even to talk about Team Gray Britain for a second, like Harry Ford's had another moment where like, okay, this guy is a good ball player going up against good competition. And Najair Victor, who is a guy who legitimately was complete hot ass as a 24-year-old in a ball last year for the Angels, went up against Team USA, and was untouchable. The stuff was electric. Like, do the Angels just now put him in the bullpen? What do you do? I mean, to think that's fun too, because a lot of these teams that we're mentioning, they don't really have the same talent as a lot of these other teams that we're talking about at the top. There's a clear six good teams and the rest of them are all kind of just fighting to be seventh and eighth. But the fun thing about the teams are fighting at the bottom. If you win one game in the tournament, you get yourself guaranteed to the next tournament. Not necessarily. You just have to avoid being in the last place. That usually means winning one, because like, they're going to not win a single game. So like, Gray Britain goes up against Brazil, and Gray Britain dogs him. They probably now get to be in the next tournament, which is like,

34:21it's just fun that these teams can like have something to fight for every single level. And I don't think the Glucosmiris has another hit after... Might not. That might not be the same run after that. Yeah. But still, like, you've just got like that to get a little bit more prospecturing, a little bit more critical to claim. Like, it's just, it's such a fun tournament to watch. It's been great. And Wansoto hit a walk-off home run. So I'm happy. And Wansoto, the walk-off home run. So, quick and medium Marvel, Wansoto, saying the most fun years of his career, 2019, 2024. Yeah. Some people freaked out about that. Fair. Of course they did. Fair, fair, fair. Now, James something would happen in those years. Went to the World Series. Went to the World Series. The guy likes winning. I don't know if anybody has noticed this, but he's happy when he wins. That's what the meds have to do. He looks happy. He looks happy. He looks happy. He looks happy. He looks happy. He looks happy. He's happy. He's a team Dominican. He meant that these are doing dances again. That he's doing the Caballero and the locker room. Should you come in there? It's like swinging his hips when he hits home runs. Like, it's... It's a lot of us around where Dominican's watching some of these games. Like, I am glued. Everyone else is, you know. Everyone else is, you know. Every single time they play, I can't stop watching.

35:21Oh, new crews. I've never... I've barely ever seen him smile before. I didn't know I actually had emotions. I thought he just played baseball. And then also for you guys were maybe not super locked in. The managers of these teams. The managers of these teams. The mid to sick. The making of Republicans' pool halls. Puerto Rico's Yadi. Venezuela's Miggie. I think it's real. Well, Miggie's a hitting coach. I think he's a hitting coach. He's a hitting coach. He's a hitting coach. Is Ryle, Kevin Euclis is on the staff. Any peทerco is hittingKinsle or, I think. Any peทerco is hitting him. Yeah. Any peทerco is hitting Americans. I was supporting Mark DeRosa, like, he this go DaniAs is a team Italy. To Italy. Yeah, I've betcha that one before. One guy not having great to uh uhm, uh, well, baseball classic, Mark Fientos. But that's, yeah. Whatever. I mean, we kinda knew that. Yeah, he just dosnee Over tteokbokki lanes. Heini is some kind of... Watching the manager of Nicaragua. Brother Dixon Banker is though big. Gotta shoot on right now, he's rocking the sk... Like it's a font. Nicaragua's played close games. Is he right now? I think so. I guess we get junior downs who's never played at the majors basically. Oh, there's me on the moon gear. Nice game. Yeah, but you didn't have a nice game.

36:22You know what? Shout out him. Yeah, it's just, it can't. It's like seeing these guys who are like, like seeing guys like Harold Ramirez down in the salon, like pop up. Just watching these, I mean, I like to Ramirez because watching these guys play baseball is like cool. It feels fun. Yeah, the world baseball classic is fun. And we hope you guys are enjoying it. Again, check out Fox one. They are streaming now. You can watch all the world baseball classic coverage. There. I also forgot. I want my Rupert Haada had a gate. Go ahead. Hit the other night. He's been on bass like crazy for Panama. So it's got 900 OPS in this tournament. And also guys, our friends at File Territory, they're doing post game shows after these big world baseball classic rounds. So definitely check that out too. Check that out. Big shout out to Fox one. Big shout out to you guys for listening and watching this episode of the Metzda podcast. Make sure you're subscribed. Not just on YouTube, but if you're listening to his Apple podcast, Spotify, Google, drop a rating. Drop a review, download and subscribe. You can follow James on social media at James. I know. I'm draft Nick Mark. Thank you guys for watching. We'll catch you on the next one. Peace out. Peace out. Let's go meds.

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