Podcast – Kenny & JT Show Thursday Opener

0:00That's pure automotive joy. I'm Peter, the owner of Muscle Car Junior. It started as a hobby, then I started posting about it. Before I knew it, I built a business for storing muscle cars on Facebook Marketplace and the community of car lovers on Instagram. Today, new customers send me what's that message is from all over. Not bad for a hobby. Learn how meta helps over 35 million American businesses, like Peter's Grow at meta.com slash community. The Kenny and JT show is brought to you by Roosters, Wings and More. Be fun, be casual. So here we go. These guys have a lot to say and they never stop talking. If I'm here and you're here, doesn't that make it our time? This guy is the limit in space of the place. Oops. Yeah. Mive from News Talk 1480, WHBC. It's a house on nine. You understand, mate. Kenny and JT. Check it out. Have a great show. Come and see you live in the corner of Sixth and Market of a downtown kid. No, I have 75 degrees right now in the Hall of Fame city.

1:02And it's opening day. Hit it. TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL. TAKE ME OUT TO THE GAME. Why me? To something that's ain't crack or jacks. I don't care if I ever get back in this one. Two, three at the ball game. Stand up in here. And it's one, two, three strikes here out in D.O. ball game. Got to miss that guy. That's Eddie Ghost, the late great. And this is the Kenny and JT show. Nice shirt, kid. Thank you, you too. But here's what I'm wondering, right? For those of you watching on Facebook or on our YouTube channel, isn't that a manual class to say on one side? And who's on the other side of our shirt? It looks like you men as who plays for Toronto now. So I don't know if this is a good thing that we're wearing

2:02these, or we should have wore something else. But hey, it's opening night for the Cleveland Guardians. Actually, opening night for baseball was last night, the Yankees beat the Giants. Seven to nothing in that game. But for the Guardians, the first of 162, and you'll hear them right here on NewsTough 1480WHBC. And going to try and stay up for tonight. What the heck's wrong? We're there and judge. You went over last night. Hey, over five, struck out four times. Yes. Up. Three, two, three. Strike her out. It's two at the back. We're three. Up. Three. Back up. There you go. Hi, the Golden Supri-Roll for Aaron Judge. An opening day. Holy cow. unbelievable but the greatest thing that came out of that game yesterday did you see the video of the national anthem from that game yesterday JT I saw it it looked like fireworks or how did they do that with the flag they had their

3:05calling it the smoke flag and somehow some way they shot something up into the air I don't know how they did it and it was all different colored smoke and it formed the American flag it was one of the coolest things I've seen for a national anthem in many many years I blame it on Bigfoot okay something had to be in the bottom of this I don't know what it was that in that amazing though yeah drones and fireworks and what they can do with all of them to create you know visuals and everything so very cool tonight Seattle I don't know what they're gonna do is the roof open is it closed is it raining or they get in star bucks coffee for everybody tonight I'm not sure but I do know this Tanner Bobby for the good guys and Logan Gilbert for the bad guys tonight he's a right-handed pitcher so there's Tanner Bobby 12 and 11 last year with a 424 earned run average he'll get them all tonight and hopefully get at least five innings if not further than that and then we should see a lot of left-handed

4:08bats in the lineup tonight because Gilbert is a right-handed pitcher according to what I saw online and that's all we have is left-handed sticks Gilbert last year was six and six 344 ERA but they said I was reading this on CLE Guardians.com his best performance was the opening game at Seattle T-Mobile Park where they faced I believe the A's and the dude was outstanding he just gave up a few hits I think he only gave up one run and struck out eight all right well let's hope he doesn't do that tonight let's hope our guys can swing the hot bats the guys that won't be playing tonight for the Guardians are Jay let's see here George Valera Hunter Gattis Andrew Walters and Carlos Hernandez they're all on the DL or out and our guy Austin Hedges the backup catcher listed as day-to-day with that hand broods from getting hit by a pitch you asked me if I'm staying up to watch this one I'm excited to see Chase the lotter over the last 14 spring games he slashed 455 with five doubles three homers six walks and only struck out four times stay healthy well that's the

5:13biggest thing right I put a list together JT okay I was sitting here today thinking all right what are we going to talk about on opening day with the Guardians and I said all right I'm going to put together some keys if they're going to win their third straight AL Central Division Championship make the playoffs again give Stephen Vota chance to win his third straight AL manager of the year these are some of the keys that have to happen and the first key the biggest key to me JT is Chase the lotter needs to stay healthy and if he does he needs to perform at a rookie of the year pace and I started thinking all right what is a rookie of the year pace what what what what can be a realistic year for Chase the lotter that A would help the Guardians out right and B give him a chance to win rookie of the year tell me if if you agree with this I put down a batting average around 250 or higher okay 20 plus home runs 70 plus RBI's is that is that fair 20 home runs in your chase the lotter you might be an

6:17MVP well on the team yes not in the way but for this team but yeah 20 20 home runs 70 RBI's and around a 250 batting average is what I would think would have him in the running for rookie of the year and give the Guardians a big offensive boost well that's exactly what they need and they need a boost from either him and is he going to be a daily player we don't know yet I told you yesterday that Manzardo and Ramirez come by for 57 dingers last year you need somebody else pick up the slack now how many times can we use the excuse we're one of the youngest teams in baseball I can't think of too many teams that are young like this they really have a guy that you're going to rely on 20 home runs in a rookie and if that's the case that would be great for this team and that would give them the chance like you said if that's the key to winning the division so be it because somebody else has got us pick up the slack and it's got to be somebody like a bow nailer bow nailer needs to hit 20 to 25 dingers and if he gets anywhere over that man would that be nice are you okay if the

7:20batting average is like 210 for him if he gets that many home runs because I don't think he's ever going to be a high average hitter but if he provides power then I can live with the lower batting average from our good buddy from the great white North good day a happy opening day a I'm bone nailer and I'm gonna hit 20 or more home runs what do they say hope springs eternal every year you start wishing and hoping that they play their best ball and from what we heard from you know a lot of the talking edges of the fact that bow nailer this could be a breakout year for him but you're gonna say that coming into spring you're gonna say that you know before the opener before we get into 20 games into the season it's still early well it's not that early anymore the guys barely over 200 I mean we need to get to a hot start and maintain it all right some other things that I have down as keys JT no injuries to their starting rotation because the depth isn't as deep as in years past with starters it's Gavin

8:20Williams the ace I know Bobby gets the start today I'm sorry Gavin Williams is the ace Tanner Bobby Slade Sikone Bigfoot Parker Messig and Joey Cantillo are you're starting five for now that I need at least four of those guys to make 30 plus starts to help this team win you've got Logan Allen down on the farm we thought he was gonna break camp with this team and he was gonna be one of the starters he's not so that's another arm it's gonna be interesting to see the strength of this team over the last couple of years maybe not as much last year as the year before is your bullpen and I thought they'd win with a super bullpen well gone as a manual class A and now Cade Smith is your closer and he gets to settle into that role from the get go I don't know that it was fair for him last year he was good at times he was really bad at other times with their most part if this guy's a bulldog you know maybe he's a Hirsch Heiser type at the end of your bullpen instead of being you know one of the best starters because if you can get to him you got a good shit chance yeah

9:22here's the thing with the bullpen they went out and that's where they spent their money not a lot of it but for the Guardians it was the most money spent in free agency on their bullpen they go out and they get Sean Armstrong one year five point five million dollars Connor Braggden one year nine hundred thousand dollar contract and Colin Holderman one year one point five million now so those are the guys that have been added to be the the the length guys in that bullpen the hold them or Holderman guys in that bullpen for who for Cade Smith who now is going to for the first time in his career JT he's going to be the closer from the start of the season and we hope all the way through the end of the season and you hope that he's up for the challenge because last year he went 16 for 22 in save opportunities after the manual Kwasay got right you know sent down or sent packing and is being investigated for cheating and that

10:23can't be because he was your setup guy and it's a totally different role you said hope a couple of times there and I said hope springs eternal let's get real here realistically where are the runs going to come from how can they come how can you protect Jose Ramirez he's in the three spot you've got two legitimate hitters that we know of for right now Juan and Ramirez where are the runs going to come from because if it's anywhere like last year think about how crazy of a season that was that they came back from what was it 15 and a half games down to not only win their division I mean that was insane when you really consider it and there's no offense yeah yeah JT here's where those runs are going to have to come from all right Kyle Manzardo is going to have to duplicate if not do better you know based on what he did last season okay so at least the same amount of numbers and let me see his exact numbers Manzardo last year hit 234 like to see that go up a little bit okay 27 home runs 70 RBI's so if he can duplicate that we mentioned what we'd like to

11:23see chase the lottery and that's a big if he's got to stay healthy first of all to have a chance to put up those numbers but if he does stay healthy and they you know platoon him right he left he's going to face a lot of right handers not that many left he's probably because he is a rookie and then you mentioned the catcher he's going to have to give us some power numbers and we're talking about good day a bone ailer right and then who else how about this guy they signed him late in camp he was out there as a free agent why I don't know I still haven't been able to figure out why nobody had picked him up but on the cheap Guardians Way they signed Reese Hoskins to a contract I think that could pay him 1.5 million dollars JT so deep dive this morning on Reese Hoskins you ready for this here we go Reese Hoskins last year in Milwaukee played 90 games bad at 237 12 home runs 43 RBI's not bad right for 90 games so I said to myself

12:25road man dig deeper what can you find out about this guy well how about this this guy okay when he's played 107 games or more JT he's averaged about 240 batting average 28 home runs okay and 80 RBI's if Reese Hoskins can come in and come close to those numbers 240 25 to 30 homeers 70 to 85 RBI's that might be and it's a big if that might be where they get some of that offense if he can stay healthy and show that he's got something left in that bad of dude there's no telling what this team is thinking you know in the offseason when Nolan Jones got a two million dollar contract and then I just looked up Nick Castelanos who was with the Phillies he was on a 20 million dollar contract they let him go they're responsible for most if not all of that contract he signed a one year deal with the Padres for $780,000 he couldn't be your right

13:26fielder man so my point is this okay when you start looking at some of these veterans your guess is as good as mine who comes down the pike who's available who's not available maybe he looks at it says hey Guardians don't even off for me because I'm not considering you I want to go to a contender maybe that's part of the deal I don't know but if that dude was sitting out there I mean he was good enough to play him in Cincinnati why not Cleveland yeah fair point right but I think they're going to tell you this we need to get a look at our young players we need to see what C.J. K.F.S. can do we need to see what Chase the Lotter can do we need to maybe leave something open in there for a Travis Bazana mid to late in the season they're gonna tell you that they believe within their own system that they have the bats those kids just need the playing time right you know it's so weird though it why would they offer Nolan Jones a two million dollar contract in the offseason only to put him down to

14:29triple A and basically leave him there who was a center fielder that's what Toronto now that used to be with the Guardians my old side out of mind my old straw my old straw comes to mind because it was the same type deal my old straw is being wasted away on the farm getting paid five million dollars a year then all of a sudden for whatever reason here came Toronto and then he he was you know I'm not going to say instrumental but he played in that series all the way through to the world series with the blue jays why would you I wouldn't you learn something from what you did with my old straw and not have signed Nolan Jones I mean a team that doesn't like to spend money tell me why they spent two million on this dude my guy I don't know is it fully guaranteed is what I need to know okay I don't know if Nolan Jones contract is fully guaranteed or if it was based on making the major league roster right so that's something we would have to look into to see if that they owe him that now maybe they knew ahead of time JT that they weren't going to have to pay Emmanuel

15:30Claus say this year that they weren't going to have to pay Luis Ortiz Jr. right that frees up right there roughly like seven million dollars all right so maybe it was worth taking a shot on Nolan Jones in their mind since they drafted him and he again he looks pretty up there right he looks like a big league player nice swing and everything just he's not any good he looks good but he's not actually good you listen to what you're saying though they had to know they had to imagine that they weren't going to have to pay Emmanuel Claus say it was just a bay at what point in time is it going to go through to where as major league baseball is going to step in before this guy goes to court and everything else in that entire court case got pushed back and then I think it was like last week or something they came out and said they wouldn't be on the hook for the six or seven million dollar contract this year but it rises up to 10 million the next two years now that is a team option so they're going to decline that they don't have to worry about it at all so that that's no issue whatsoever but and Brian

16:33throw that picture it chased a lot of up there again so it all comes back in my opinion right to this guy you met his parents we're going to hear from Chase maybe later in the show right this guy who we've heard about for the what the last two or three years in spring training top prospect hits to crap out of the ball the exit velocity is over a hundred miles an hour he's a power hitter middle of the order guy he is craziest this sounds and you would think oh the pressure is on Jose Ramirez to carry the team well yeah that's you know the norm but really it might be more pressure on chase the lottery it's gonna be a lot of pressure on a young guy like that but I mean this guy's been a winner his entire life we expect great things from because from what we've been told we should have no other reason not to think that he won't be able to deliver at the big league level the problems got to be this you just hope that he's not another one of these slapping duty type guys I mean how do you feel about Kyle Manzardo when you made the deal and you brought in Kyle Manzardo in the trade with the Tampa Bay race he was still considered pretty

17:35much a prospect he's still not there yet and he's been here for two years already I mean last year when you look at Manzardo we almost hit 30 home runs on the Guardians that's you're a stud got sent down 30 home runs you're a stud on this team you got sent down to the minor leagues which I okay I get that we did the same thing with Jose Ramirez but you know you have to take it with a grain of salt because we expect a major league baseball to go out and sign veterans and not have to rely on up he's prospect Kyle Manzardo at first base well he's prospect chased a lot or any outfield up he's prospect George Valera wherever he's in the outfield up we don't know who our second baseman is but we've got Travis Bazonah down on the farm what is he he's a prospect I mean how many teams can bank on that and get to where we want to be that's the Guardians way that's the Dolan's way hasn't been you have to accept it I I don't agree with it but you have to accept it because they have a 70 million dollar

18:37payroll according to USA today the lowest in baseball then I saw them at 80 and 90 somewhere they're gonna have one of the third three lowest payrolls in all of baseball that shouldn't surprise any of us that's the Dolan's way I get it but I don't recall the Dolan's way being based on this many prospects well next year isn't a given JT next year there might be a workstoppage so again I'll go back to what I've told you all off season long and that is the Dolans are trying to save as much money as possible this season because they know there's gonna be a workstoppage come to second first and they're trying to prepare for a year of no baseball half a year of no bit whatever it is with the workstoppage that's why they didn't go out and sign any free agents that's why they're you know not going to take a chance you know on giving somebody a contract extension extension not named Jose Ramirez well it's probably one of the reasons why a team like the Pittsburgh pirates who are notorious for being

19:39cheap and I will use the word cheap in this situation did spend a little bit of money because they know that eventually they're gonna lose their ace if that's case we're not waiting for 26 and beyond or 2027 and beyond whenever or if ever this workstoppage happens but the guardians are maybe going in a different direction and anticipation of that because if not why wouldn't you go in a little bit and say maybe this is our year or you look at it and say we have no chance in hell of competing with the likes of the LA Dodgers well that too right there's no chance to guardians win the world series this year so let's see we don't have a chance to win the world series especially with the way it set up for 2026 we had a couple of guys that are being investigated for gambling or not gambling rigging games right let's see what else do we got here we got a lot of prospects gotta find out about them so you know what maybe this is and they won't ever say this maybe this is a throw away year and whatever happens

20:41happens we're okay with it we'll save money and then we'll see where it goes from here yeah because if there's a dangerous team in the American league anyway you can always look at the New York Yankees probably the highest paid payroll in American league I look at a team like the Detroit Tigers who had a tumultuous you like it when I use that word tumultuous to say the least off-season and what they were gonna do at Tarek's Scooble raining Saiyong pitcher now he's a member of the Tigers this year it's gonna be interesting to see does he end as a member of the Tigers because if they're good enough they could win the American league and they could challenge the likes of the Toronto Blue Jays the New York Yankees and maybe make their way to a world series and then let him run off into the sunset because they don't know what to expect moving forward either maybe they don't want to pay him the big money the Tigers to me or the team to beat in the division even though the Guardians have won it the last two years Tigers should have won it last year they choked Guardians caught him won it but then the Tigers beat the Guardians in the playoffs so the Tigers

21:43are the favorites a lot of people love the offense from Kansas City but are questioning whether or not they have the pitching a lot of people love the Guardians pitching but are questioning whether or not they have the offense right so those are the next two teams and that's it I don't think the twins or the White Sox have a chance so it's a three-team race in the AL Central and I have the Guardians I wrote it down I'll pull it up and show everybody that's watching on Facebook and on our YouTube channel that's what I have the Guardians doing this year I have them under 500 at 78 and 84 is my prediction for this season and not making the playoffs you know it's nice about 78 and 84 what that would probably guarantee a winning record at home if that's what you're happy with okay for me it means you're under 500 and you didn't make the playoffs and you didn't win a World Series again the last time you did that was nineteen and I get that and that's reason for concern but you know what else at 78 and 84 at least it's not one of the worst records in

22:44baseball I want to be able to go to some of these games enjoy myself not get beat up every time I go to a game and that's a loser's mentality because that's what I've grown to know my entire lifetime rooting for that team whether they were the Indians or the Guardians and I'm not accepting losing but I would take that record with this line up yeah you know what I you know me you win a World Series or you don't you're the World Series champs or you're the losers and the Guardians have been losers since 1948 okay and so for me I'm not how about this I'm going into this year expecting really nothing from this team because they did nothing in the offseason so if they're not gonna spend money and do anything in the offseason I'm not gonna get all worked up and you know invest myself in the team and watch all 162 games well you can't and the thing is this and I understand your point they haven't once it's 1948 I get that but the difference is this how are you gonna compete with a guy like that like the Dodgers with a 400 whatever million dollar payroll

23:48even the Yankees are pissed at that yeah maybe the work stoppage is exactly what major league baseball needs because we do want parody in this league or at least if you're a team like the Guardians in a smaller market you do want parody you want a chance to have a fighting chance yeah but there better be not only a ceiling but a floor where you have to spend X amount every team has to spend a hundred and twenty five million dollars that's if you don't spend that then you know what you're gonna lose draft picks you're gonna pay a luxury tax for not spending a hundred and twenty five million on players and that'll force the Dolans or what's there in the system right in the room if he takes over to spend that amount of time with that is we can complain about have it not having a floor all we want to and we would still look at it and say well there's a floor but we still didn't spend enough money like right now 70 million dollars let's say the floor was a hundred that's thirty million dollars that's two really good players three average to above average players that

24:52could make your team better and so hopefully that's what will be put in place if there is a work stoppage and they put together a new collective bargaining agreement oh yeah you have to consider the fact that Jose Ramirez is your high-paid player and it pales in comparison to where he'd be making elsewhere it's not even close well by the way I'm just looking at this right now you mentioned the pirates okay Paul skein started today for the pirates opening day starter for the buckos against the New York Mets you ready for this yeah lasted two thirds of an inning pulled after two thirds of an inning please don't say New York Mets today please don't say injury don't say injury on the heels on the WBC and that's what I had to hurry up and go find the story to see if it was an injury pirates ace Paul skeins pulled in first inning of season opener and it wasn't because of injury he walked the first batter there were a couple of fly balls that were lost supposedly in the sun other runs scored so they just yanked him uh in the first inning and the pirates

25:57right now are trailing the Mets in New York the score is seven to four his final line is this for Paul skeins in his opening day start two thirds of an inning four hits five runs all earned two walks one strike out he threw 27 or checked that 37 pitches oh yeah so yeah so I have to that how about this Aaron J. Joe for five Paul skeins out before the end of the first inning where did they play damn UWBC there you go so maybe it's good we didn't have any starters of key players in the WBC for the Guardians it's Kenny and J.T. on W.H.V.C