Alex and Bobby discuss whether or not it’s time for Tipping Pitches to hang ‘em up now that the minor leagues are unionized, before determining when is the best time to start getting excited for the playoffs. Then, they answer some listener questions about revising the triple crown, useless merch, and their team’s most evil fans.
Links:
Songs featured in this episode:
Blink-182 — “What’s My Age Again?” • Beyoncé — “VIRGO’S GROOVE” • Booker T & the M.G.’s — “Green Onions”
Episode Transcript
[INTRO MUSIC]
Tell us a little bit about what you saw and, and, and being able to relay that message to Cora when you watch Kimbrel pitching and kind of help out so he wasn’t Tipping his Pitches. So Tipping Pitches, we hear about it all the time. People are home on the stand, what Tipping Pitches it’s all about? That’s amazing! That’s remarkable.
BOBBY: Alex, listeners don’t know this. But you and I just spent quite a bit of time wringing our hands over what we would talk about on this podcast.
ALEX: Yeah, it’s been a bit of a slow news week,
BOBBY: A slow news week, yet, as host of the Tipping Pitches Podcast, we care about our listeners. We’re not just gonna come on here and talk about BS for an hour and a half.
ALEX: God forbid.
BOBBY: We’re gonna talk about–
ALEX: We would never.
BOBBY: We’re gonna talk about important things. And that’s why it was so difficult for us to come up with subjects to talk about. Because we care so deeply about putting great content out into the world. But because it took us so long, I have to pose the question to you to start the show out. Are we cooked? Are we done? The Minors got unionized. Are we finished? Kaput? Can people unsubscribe now?
ALEX: I mean, it is a little telling that. I mean, the Minors unionized this week, that did happen, it kind of officially.
BOBBY: Right. Card check agreement.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Done.
ALEX: Yeah, they’re, they’re unionized. And we’ve obviously spent a few weeks kind of breaking down all of that. To the point where now that them the bow is kind of tied on it. But what is there to say at this point?
BOBBY: Well, no, that’s what I’m asking you, dude.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Are we cooked?
ALEX: Yes. No, I don’t think so. I think we, I think we’re a little Adam Wainwright. You know, we still got a little juice left in the tank.
BOBBY: Okay, so we’re gonna go get Tommy John surgery
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: And we’re going to come back–
ALEX: Get some time off.
BOBBY: Are we’re going to be throwing harder than before we had Tommy John?
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: So what’s the next mission, dude? If, if our shirts have the power to predict the future. Then what’s the next mission?
ALEX: Are, are we nationalizing baseball?
BOBBY: I don’t know. Maybe we’ll talk about that in just a second.
ALEX: Maybe we will.
BOBBY: We have a bunch of listener questions to answer at the end of this podcast. We’re going to do some housekeeping at the beginning. I want to ask you a question about the playoffs, Alex. And maybe we’ll even talk a little bit about the MVP. But before we do all of that, I am Bobby Wagner.
ALEX: I am Alex Bazeley.
BOBBY: And you are listening to the washed up Tipping Pitches Podcast.
[2:38]
[Music Theme]
BOBBY: Thank you to our new patrons this week. Those folks this week are James and Aaron. Alex, let’s start with little housekeeping. We have a live event on Tuesday, September 20. This podcast is coming out on Monday, September 19. So if you’re listening to it, that might, might still be in your future. And if you’re a patron, you’ll be able to attend this live event. Who knows maybe we’ll just tweet this link out and say fuck it. Anybody come join come watch the game with us. It will be for Blue Jays versus Phillies 6:45pm. Eastern. And it will be occurring on Playback, which is a place that we have hosted one live watch along, you can create a Playback account for free. Hop in, watch the game along with us. Turn the broadcast levels up, turn them down. Listen to us talk, come on the stage, ask us questions. It’s a lot of fun, you’ll, you’ll understand it a lot better once you, once you join that. So if you’re a patron, watch out for messages through Patreon or we’ll obviously be posting that in the Slack as well. I’m really excited for that one. Hopefully the Phillies can stop being a joke of a franchise and help the Mets out. Although I guess be beating the Blue Jays no longer helps the Mets. So–
ALEX: Yeah, I guess not really. But it’ll be a fun game between two teams who can’t really decide whether or not they actually want to make it to the playoffs or not.
BOBBY: I think the Phillies will be in. This is the best Phillies team in over–
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: –a decade.
ALEX: Yeah, no, they’re they’re good.
BOBBY: Good for them, congratulations to all of our friends from Philadelphia. The other piece of housekeeping. You alluded to it already. We’re making new shirts. We are making new shirts. Those shirts are going to say Nationalize Baseball. Because we might as well if we pulled up and hit our half court shot on Unionize the Minors, we might as well step a little further back, you know.
ALEX: We’re, I mean, we’re, we’re batting 1000 on shirts right now.
BOBBY: In terms of like action items?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: That have made on to our shirts. Yeah we have others to do too.
ALEX: To do list.
BOBBY: I don’t think that we’ve gotten any elephants to sit on top of any of the owners yet.
ALEX: No, not yet. Although I, I don’t know, owners have weird kinks. So like–
BOBBY: Well, we actually we are batting 1002, because they, they instituted the pickoff limits. So steal bases are back! Steal bases, not wages.
ALEX: Yeah. Here we go.
BOBBY: Same time as the minors unionizing. So we are going to be creating new shirts that say Nationalize Baseball. They will be in the same style as the Unionize the Minor shirts. Meaning that they will be inspired by the color schemes of perhaps some professional baseball teams out there in the world. Only this time, as part of a perk of being a patron, you will get to vote on those designs. So we will put up a poll on our Patreon, that’s patreon.com/tippingpitches. And we will allow people to vote on the three designs, we’re doing three new ones?
ALEX: Yeah, sure. I mean, I guess it kind of depends on what people vote for.
BOBBY: This is just like all the votes come for two. So that’s very exciting stuff. If you’re interested in the evolution of the Tipping Pitches merch, I will say it’s not just Nationalize Baseball stuff coming, some more stuff coming down the pipe.
ALEX: Oh my gosh, Bobby.
BOBBY: How about that for a tease?
ALEX: Oooh.
BOBBY: How about that for a tease? Here’s my question for you about the Major League Baseball playoffs, Alex.
ALEX: Yes, they’re coming. Are we talking real baseball right now?
BOBBY: We’re talking real baseball. When do you start getting excited for the playoffs? Because I found in struggling to come up with topics for this here episode. I thought to myself, shouldn’t this be the most exciting time to be talking about baseball? So when do you start getting excited for the playoffs?
ALEX: I start getting really excited, I think probably the last two weeks of September. Because that’s when a lot of the playoff races are really coalescing, and things are coming down to the wire. If, if you’re, I mean, it’s situational, too, right? If your team is in it, that probably makes a difference as well. I know that like, for example, for a team like the New York Metropolitans this in theory should be an extremely exciting time to be watching them make their playoff push. Although I know that it’s been a bit of a struggle, lately.
BOBBY: It’s been fine. They’re fine.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Ship is righted.
ALEX: Yep. Yeah.
BOBBY: Four game series against the Pirates, cures what ales you.
ALEX: So it’s usually around the end of the month. And, and it’s also because you have divisional games that are, that are back, right? That’s usually how the season sort of ends is playing teams that might also have something at stake or have the ability to like stand in your way. But what about you? I’m curious kind of how you approach things. I say that as an A’s fan, who’s like, whose team has been out of it since the offseason, you know?
BOBBY: Yeah, I mean, I think I’m ready now. That’s why I asked you, I’m ready for the playoffs to start. The, the regular season is dragging a little bit. People often talk about August as being the dog days of summer as well as the dark days of the baseball season. I, I kind of feel like September is the like least memorable month of the baseball season and maybe that’s just because oftentimes that’s the month that the Mets are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: As opposed to just eliminated in spirit, which is usually midway through July and August. That’s usually when my, my spirit gets broken. But and this is not just because the Mets are hanging on by a thread to the division lead that I want the the regular season to be over. But I’m, I’m ready man, I’m ready for the playoffs to start. The weather has started to cool down here on the East Coast, here in the greater New York City area. And I feel like I’m itching I have that, that postseason itch back in a way that this is probably all colored by the fact that the Mets are very good. But in a way that I, I don’t think I had last year. I’m really excited for this year’s playoffs. There’s, there’s some new, there’s some new skin in the game. It’s not just all the same teams, although you know we already made mention of the Phillies. Although a lot of the same teams are still in it you know, like the Astros are going to cross 100 wins. The Dodgers have already crossed 100 wins. The Yankees are back in it again. I have the thing that I haven’t given much thought to is the way that the new playoff format is gonna play out and how that will make the viewing experience play out. But we, we have plenty of time for that as a, as part of our like playoff season preview. Which I think we’re hoping to do in full I think we’re hoping to talk about the real baseball and not just because the Mets are making it.
ALEX: Yeah. I, I kind of agree with your point about September being the month drags for me a little bit. August is kind of fun because the trade deadline has just passed. And there’s a bit of a honeymoon period with these, like players on new teams that you can get really excited about, right? Maybe your team just traded for Juan Soto and you think you’ve got the division locked up or at least you’re gonna, you’re gonna slide right into the playoffs.
BOBBY: Yeah, I know.
ALEX: Things might be different a month later.
BOBBY: Are the Padres gonna make the playoffs?
ALEX: No, no, I don’t think they are.
BOBBY: It’s gonna be quite a discourse cycle.
ALEX: Oh my God.
BOBBY: If and when they don’t.
ALEX: Yep.
BOBBY: I don’t know if we’re fully prepared for that.
ALEX: No, I’m not- and like Soto has been bad.
BOBBY: Like bad, bad or bad by his standards?
ALEX: Bad by his standards, right? He fells at .375 OBP.
BOBBY: It’s pretty damn good.
ALEX: So it’s pretty, pretty fucking good. But he’s still lugging .319 which is–
BOBBY: Yeah, not, not ideal.
ALEX: Not what you, not what you like.
BOBBY: Well, let me ask you this aside from the Mets, do you have a team that you are starting to develop an affinity for, as we head into October? Like a playoff team, maybe in the American League? Because I don’t, I don’t want you to have to sit across from me and tell me that you’re growing, that you’re developing a crush on a National League Baseball team that might have to face the Mets before the World Series.
ALEX: That would be tough, yeah. I mean, I would love to see the Mariners make push. They’re obviously a division rival, so to speak, to the A’s. But that doesn’t even, I don’t even think that counts and matters.
BOBBY: I think, ever been good at the same time. Well, I mean, obviously 2001. But other than that.
ALEX: Well, right, it’s been, it’s been a while. And they’re fun team, they’re fun franchise. I like rooting for the teams that kind of just make it in on the fringes. I think I’m, I’m equally, I’m equally rooting for the Yankees to not make it, I think. Like my affinity for the Mariners is probably the same as, as my desire to watch a bit of an implosion.
BOBBY: It’s a delicious idea that the Mariners might come into Yankee Stadium and eliminate the Yankees. It’s very tantalizing. Very intriguing.
ALEX: Yeah. But more than anything, I am really interested to kind of see how the new playoff format plays out. The sort of, especially with regards to the third wildcard spot. And the sort of weird incentives that it draws for teams to go for the last wild card spot, as opposed to the first wild card spot or vice versa. Because of how you will be matched up against certain teams heading into the, into the playoffs.
BOBBY: Right. Like, for example, in the NL side, if you got the last wildcard spot, and you were able to win, win your wildcard round series, you would avoid the Dodgers–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –until the National League Championship Series.
ALEX: Right. Which is pretty, pretty good.
BOBBY: Yeah. I just, you know, they’ve been talking about that a lot in the Mets booth. Because their division race is the closest in baseball right now, the closest among good teams. All respect to the AL Central, I guess. And the Mets obviously have two generational starting pitchers in, in deGrom and Scherzer. And so if they ended up in the wild card round, you would feel pretty good about that in a three game series about having those two pitchers going in those first two games, you’d lined it up. And they’ve been discussing the various strategies of how far should you push these guys in the regular season in order to try to lock up that first round by. And I feel like we’re, we’re all maybe collectively underrating this first round series going three games, who’ve never had this in our lifetimes. Of course, we had the one game elimination for the, the actual wildcard entrant into the playoffs. But, but that was an entirely different thing, that was not two teams that really fully played a whole season and earned their way into the playoffs. In the way that a division winner might be forced into a three game series in the first round. Like it, I know we complained about it when it happened. And then we said that this setup is going to take som,e some getting used to. But I recall having the same feelings in the 2020 shortened season playoffs. Where at least it made more logical sense that the first round would be a three game series. Because you only played 60 games and so you had less time to sort out sort of who deserved the buy. And who deserved to actually even make it into the playoffs when they had 16 teams in that playoff round. I don’t know, I, I feel like some fan bases and some teams who get bounced in a, in a three game series are going to have a decent case to feel wronged. And then and I, I were maybe putting the cart in front of the horse here because we didn’t even know who’s going to end up in that round. But I don’t want to like have all these hand wringing conversations like when playoff baseball is actually on. Because I want to be able to enjoy it, and talk about the games and the exciting storylines that develop. Because as we both said, we’re excited, really excited for October this year. But as we start to like visualize the strategizing that’s going on for where you’re going to end up in this playoff bracket. It does feel a little bit unnatural that that first round is going to be three game series. I feel like that’s poor planning.
ALEX: Yeah, it again it kind of creates these strange incentives for teams which have become not uncommon in, in baseball. Where you are somewhat incentivized to think longer term about how well you actually would like your team to do.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: You know, the the kind of thing that we maybe have tried to stamp out from the sport of disincentivizing winning. All that to say I think that this time next year we’re not going to be talking about this. Like, I think the playoffs are going to happen. And they might feel a little weird at first and a team’s fan base might feel slightly maligned. And then, and then things will go well, and the good team will win the World Series, and then–
BOBBY: Yeah, prob- probably.
ALEX: –we’ll just watch baseball next year.
BOBBY: That’s true, although this time next year, we’re going to be complaining about how the pitch clock is creating a ball four situation because someone didn’t deliver it in time.
ALEX: I mean, there’s always–
BOBBY: In the middle of October–
ALEX: –there’es always gonna be something.
BOBBY: –in game seven of the DS, wherethe team with the best record gets eliminated because they had an extra ball or something like that, because they couldn’t hear the PitchCom. And so then they didn’t get the delivery often. That is definitely coming, by the way. I tweeted about this this morning. But you know, this Mets game that we’re watching off to the side, as we record this podcast right now. Because it’s a tight one, between the Mets and the Pirates, they’re having all kinds of trouble with PitchCom this game. No one can hear it, they’ve had to replace it three or four times on both sides. deGrom just stop using- stopped using it halfway through his start. There have been multiple step offs. Like all of that stuff is going to be illegal in six months. You’re not gonna be able to step off to reset the pitch clock. So no matter what the reason for your step off is if it’s because of PitchCom, there’s no way to prove that you can actually hear it or can actually hear it. So I’m kind of curious to see how that plays out next year.
ALEX: Yeah, me too. I’m so excited, man.
BOBBY: You’re excited?
ALEX: Oh, this is gonna be so much to complain about.
BOBBY: And you’d like that? You’d like having more to complain about?
ALEX: It’s why we get on here every week, isn’t it?
BOBBY: Yeah. But usually we don’t complain about actual games.
ALEX: No, I know.
BOBBY: We’re not, we’re not those type of fans.
ALEX: No, but we do talk about the mechanics of the game, right?
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: And, and how well or not well, it goes off. I mean, it wouldn’t be the Major League Baseball postseason, under Rob Manfred if there wasn’t something to–
BOBBY: Some extremely avoidable controversy?
ALEX: Right, exactly. If we weren’t weren’t having some more, some moral panic conversation.
BOBBY: That’s exactly right. Speaking of moral panics, the MVP debate. Just kidding, I don’t want to talk about that. Let’s take a quick break, and then come back to listener questions.
[17:13]
[Music Transition]
BOBBY: All right, Alex, let’s do listener questions. This, this first question is a voicemail.
VOICEMAIL 1: Hey, guys, it’s Becca. If you had to redo the Triple Crown award with any three statistics, what three would you choose?
BOBBY: Becca later clarified in Slack that she would like us to give a serious answer to this question. Just funny that she had to specify that, as well as a sicko answer. So anything of our choosing. It might be easier to start with the serious answer. What do you think for replacing the Triple Crown?
ALEX: I mean, I actually think that two out of the three stats that compose the Triple Crown are fine.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I think batting average and homeruns are actually a pretty decent indicator of how good of a year you add, especially when combined together.
BOBBY: What do you think about if you hit 58 home runs? Is that a good year?
ALEX: Nope!
BOBBY: No?
ALEX: No, it’s not.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Yeah. I’ve seen it before, I’m just saying.
BOBBY: You know, you haven’t seen before as a starting pitcher who hits.
ALEX: Wait, why is that? Is it because pitchers aren’t really good hitters generally or? I was, I think–
BOBBY: You know, I never really no sell you entirely. I should start doing that more.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Just radio silence to what you say.
ALEX: Yeah, exactly.
BOBBY: We’re not, we’re not on the radio. We’re not gonna get fined by the FCC for dead air. I’ll leave dead air in here. fuck it! You’re pissing me off. I’ll just, I’ll just ghost you.
ALEX: That’s fine, we’ll power through. I mean, the first answer that came to my mind is stolen bases.
BOBBY: Oh, interesting.
ALEX: Because it rewards three really unique skills in the game, right?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Contact power and speed.
BOBBY: So like the, basically like the three hit tools?
ALEX: Right, exactly.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Now, I think we’ll probably never see another Triple Crown winner, if that’s the case. I don’t remember the last time that the home run leader lead in stolen bases as well. It was probably Trout. But that’s obviously just not the way baseball is played anymore. The guys who hit the most home runs are usually not the ones who have a propensity for stealing dozens of–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –bases. But man, it would be insane when someone actually wins that.
BOBBY: Of the people who could do that, I think it’s Acuña, Trout, Tatís, although I don’t think he could hit for that much average.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: So anyone else?
ALEX: I think Julio has a similar case to Tatís, where–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –where he’ll get the home runs and stolen bases, I think. And probably could get there with average, a little more seasoning.
BOBBY: Maybe. Although I don’t know how you lead the league in home runs, while trying to hit [20:03]–
ALEX: I know.
BOBBY: –for average like that.
ALEX: Yeah. Well–
BOBBY: Which if the original Triple Crown–
ALEX: –I mean, that’s, that is kind of what’s the Triple Crown is about, right?
BOBBY: Right. Well, that’s kind of what Aaron Judge is doing right now, except he’s not pitching. So–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: When Mike Trout led the league in home runs and stolen bases, you know, his team’s record was?
ALEX: Stop, stop!
BOBBY: Sorry, sorry. Okay, if I, my serious answer is that I would replace the batting average with on base percentage, I would keep home runs. And I sort of love your idea of stolen bases. I’m trying to think of there’s something better. Because we, we already have like, 40/40, right? I mean, if 30/30. And that is sort of rewarding an all around thing, in a way that I think the Triple Crown is designed to reward just the best all around hitter. And I don’t think stealing bases has much to do with that. Like, I think the best hitter in baseball should be able to win the Triple Crown every year. Like should have a shot at it. And I think the best hitter in baseball right now is the best, the two best hitters in baseball right now are Aaron Judge and probably Juan Soto, in terms of just pure hitters. And I don’t think either of those guys would ever have a shot at stealing enough bases to win that award. So you’re right, it would just eliminate the Triple Crown as a thing, and slightly shift the perspective on what, what that award is. Or what that accomplishment is because it’s not really an award.
ALEX: RIght.
BOBBY: If you don’t get the, here’s the Triple Crown award at the end of the year. I don’t know man. Converted runners on third with less than, less than two outs?
ALEX: Is this, is this your sicko answer your real answer?
BOBBY: That’s my real answer. Give Jeff McNeil the Triple Crown motherfuckers. Yeah, the RBIs is the hardest one to replace, because it’s the one that already sucks. And if there was an obvious candidate for replacing it, more people would just talk about that.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Name some stats, dude, name some other stats.
ALEX: Well it’s–
BOBBY: Highest average exit velocity? Brave fans would be so into that.
ALEX: I mean, so this is an interesting question, because it’s asking what are the stats that are the simplest distillation of a player’s talent, right? Like if you had to evaluate a player based on three stats alone, what would those stats be? And I’m inclined to lean towards results based stats, you know? Like, like for awards that are, awards or, or achievements that are based on how well you performed in the year, I’m less interested, right in like, exit velocity, or your FIP, or whatever it is. Which says, this is how good you should have been–
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: –this year.
BOBBY: The tricky part is finding something that is not inherently already influenced by the first two categories.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So like, you know, like the, the sabermetrics Triple Crown, so to speak. Which I think is what you and I are trying to reach out a little bit, if not exactly land on. Would involve things more like on base percentage, on base percentage, slugging percentage, or OPS, I guess. And probably some combination of either wRC+ or WAR, basically.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But to me, wRC+ is already answering this question that we’re trying to ask, which is who is the best overall offensive player? So I guess leading wRC+ is interesting enough, in and of itself, that putting it into one of these categories. It feels like a little bit unbalanced. It feels like the, the other two categories are already being factored so much into wRC+ that it’s like not that interesting to lead in those three categories necessarily.
ALEX: Right. I mean, that’s kind of interesting about the Triple Crown, the way it exists now is like, the statistics are somewhat distinct from each other.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: I mean, obviously home runs feed into RBI and–
BOBBY: And batting average.
ALEX: –and the little bit into batting average as well.
BOBBY: Famously, home run–
ALEX: Does counts as a hit.
BOBBY: Counts as a hit. Uh-huh. Don’t tell that to Alex Rodriguez.
ALEX: I mean, you know–
BOBBY: You ca- the tricky part is like WAR is the thing that we’re missing in this conversation. But like, no one talks about just offensive WAR.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You talk about a player, you talk about their WAR overall. But to factor in defensive WAR, is not what we’re talking about here, is not what the Triple Crown is trying to answer. This is, I mean, this is part of why the Triple, Triple Crown has so much staying power. And it’s why people tip their cap to Triple Crown winners, even though it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the best offensive player that year. As it didn’t when Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera were having that very famous MVP race in 2012.
ALEX: Right. Do you think that, with the caveat that it would take some explaining to do to fans and maybe even to myself as to what it is? What do you think about including like win probability added? So it’s like a situational stat that takes into account the various factors of the environment that you’re in, right?
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: And says this is how much you benefited your team in that moment, right? So it’s a little like RBI, in that it is a more holistic representation of like, how you impacted your team? But it actually is a little bit more descriptive than RBI, which is just kind of luck.
BOBBY: I like it. It’s, it’s threading the needle between what you were talking about, which is expected outcome. And what actually happened, which, which I think RBI skews too much that way.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You had an RBI, but what did that mean? Did you have a poke single to the right side in a 10-run game? Did you come up with infinitely more opportunities to make an impact? Like, I think RBI, the problem that people have with it is that it’s so situational. It’s, it has almost nothing to do with the person who’s up, up to bat. And that’s not to say that it cannot be descriptive about how well a person hit all year. If you, if you have 120 RBIs, that means you got a lot of hits, you know. Like that’s at least 120 hits more or less. Unless you’re just hitting a bunch of multiple run home runs, which is also a good thing.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But I think win probability added is a much more even playing field. Like you have the opportunity to add win probability, basically, every time–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –you got up to bat. And I guess good, I think it’s pretty good. So we would say what? OBP, home runs, keep home runs in there, because–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –they’re, they’re cool.
ALEX: Because they’re cool.
BOBBY: And–
ALEX: I like the stop–
BOBBY: –WPA.
ALEX: –actually like C.
BOBBY: And WPA I like it, gets that–
ALEX: I think that’s pretty good. Yeah.
BOBBY: We nailed it.
ALEX: Okay, so that’s the real answer.
BOBBY: Make us the presidents of Sabre.
ALEX: What’s the sicko one? I want outfield assists.
BOBBY: Outfield assists, for the offensive Triple Crown? Outfield assists avoided.
ALEX: There you go.
BOBBY: Outfield assists that you forced the other team to fail, to convert. Obviously, one of them is hit by pitches–
ALEX: Right. Yeah.
BOBBY: –obviously, obviously.
ALEX: Uh-huh. What about like pitches seen, you know. Just like ability to work the count.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: It’s like one of those like, real baseball players numbers.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: It’s like this guy just goes up and he has like a, like–
BOBBY: I got–
ALEX: –[27:24] professional about
BOBBY: –one better for you.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Pitches fouled off. Yeah. Because I don’t want to reward people just for taking wild pitches. I want to reward people for staying in it.
ALEX: Wow! This is participa- participation, trophy culture.
BOBBY: Well, I just want Luis Guillorme to win something.
ALEX: So you want him to wi- he can’t even get a hit. He just, he can’t even hit the ball fair.
BOBBY: He’s batting .290, all right? He’s batting .290, take it down a notch. Ted Williams famously said, you fail seven times out of 10 years in Hall of Fame. Okay, wait–
ALEX: Fouled off–
BOBBY: [27:57] pitches–
ALEX: –is really funny because they’re mostly strikes like most of the time.
BOBBY: Yeah. Hit by pitches, foul tip.
ALEX: Foul tips? Like strike?
BOBBY: Foul pitches.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: Foul pitches, not, not foul tips back into the gloves.
ALEX: It was like, alright.
BOBBY: What else, what’s the third one? I love converted third base with less than two outs. But that only happens like 15 times a year for each batter.
ALEX: Right. So you’re talking about like, like, runners in scoring position? Like RBIs?
BOBBY: Specifically on third with less than two outs.
ALEX: Is it like getting a hit and bringing them in?
BOBBY: Either, either any way shape or form.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Zach fly, wild pitch, doesn’t matter.
ALEX: Yeah, just what, what could you do with that? Yeah.
BOBBY: Wild pitches seen? Well, we’re not, we’re not thinking big enough, I think.
ALEX: I don’t think so either.
BOBBY: I think Becca wants us to answer, if I know Becca, which I feel like I do. After all these calls and all these questions and all this Slack interaction. I think she wants us to think of stats that don’t exist.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: Like sunflower seeds spit, that’s my Triple Crown.
ALEX: Right. Radius of the dip in your mouth. I mean–
BOBBY: Radius, I like it, not circumference, radius.
ALEX: Not cir- yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: You’re gonna have to get a real small measuring tape–
ALEX: We are, we really are.
BOBBY: –for radius.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s–
BOBBY: That’s good.
ALEX: –going to be hard, it’s going to be a really close race.
BOBBY: We need scientists. It’s gonna be a really close race. How about uhm, fans high fived. We’re, we’re here to grow the game.
ALEX: So these are, these aren’t even players anymore. These–
BOBBY: Or layers who high five the most fans.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: You know high five meet introduce any of that.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Most positive interactions we call it MPI. You like that one, don’t you?
ALEX: Is that, so is that like a kind of like a win probably- probability added thing?
BOBBY: Right, team chemistry, dude.
ALEX: Where like, where–
BOBBY: Trying to–
ALEX: –someone is kind of making a judgement and saying this added 10% joy to this–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –fans experience.
BOBBY: Yeah. I’m all qualitative, less quantitative.
ALEX: Right. So is it a cumulative stat over the year?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: Cool.
BOBBY: And guess who’s winning? Francisco Lindor.
ALEX: That’s actually true.
BOBBY: Everyone loves this man.
ALEX: He does, yeah.
BOBBY: They love him. Most tweets liked, I want someone online. Unfortunately, Marcus Stroman wins that every year.
ALEX: Like most tweets of someone else’s who they’d like?
BOBBY: Yeah, like to prove that you’ve really been doomed scrolling.
ALEX: So it could be, so we could have a lurker winning. Someone who doesn’t even tweet.
BOBBY: Exactly.
ALEX: Which is just on there all the time.
BOBBY: I would prefer to have a lurker winning. That’s like the person who has the most WPA.
ALEX: It’s representation right there.
BOBBY: That’s the person who has the most WPA who you’d never expect.
ALEX: Yeah, these are good. I like the direction we’re going in. Bats thrown into the stands, maybe a little O’Neil Cruz action.
BOBBY: Yeah, here he threw two bats into the stands in one game.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: That’s dangerous.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Can we get something in there that’s like real Tipping Pitches core. Like to represent like the most based player something. Like most organizing calls made to the minor leagues.
ALEX: Most money donated to progressive politicians.
BOBBY: I’ll tell you one thing that’s easy to win.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Anyone can–
ALEX: Super easy to win.
BOBBY: –win that overnight.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: It’s not a high bar to clear.
ALEX: I know accountability is important to you as well, which is why–
BOBBY: I think–
ALEX: –I’m glad you’re broaching this subject.
BOBBY: I think it is important to me. I think that he may be just like us, he may be a little ship postie. Like when–
ALEX: One of us, one of us.
BOBBY: One of us. Spencer, brother, if anyone wants to play this for you, and you’re listening to this right now, after the tensions between the Mets and Braves have sort of simmered after the season is over. You want to come on? You want to talk about Bernie? Wanna talk about feeling the burn? You wann talk about unionizing the minors? Want to talk about whatever! Cinema?
ALEX: Whoever’s running in 2024? God.
BOBBY: I actually knows–
ALEX: [32:39]
BOBBY: –sorry, I can’t talk about that. Open invite, open invite. Okay, so our sicko Triple Crown, way back. What is the answer? We have to settle on three things. I think it’s MPI, most positive interactions.
ALEX: It’s okay.
BOBBY: So now you pick another one, and then we’ll collectively pick the third.
ALEX: How about, butt slapped?
BOBBY: But slapped!
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Good one. Is that too similar to most positive interactions?
ALEX: Well, but they are interacting on a different level, right? Unless–
BOBBY: Physical.
ALEX: –I had, I had thought–
BOBBY: An intimate level.
ALEX: –well, I had thought you were saying most positive interactions with fans. So there’s–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –a fan kind of–
BOBBY: No butt, butt related said–
ALEX: –your, yeah, pleased, I hope that’s not going on. So there’s a fan element and then there’s like a teammate element as well.
BOBBY: Good. Okay, so this is the third one has three vibes related to we’re vibes guys here.
ALEX: Right..
BOBBY: Radius of the dip, so funny.
ALEX: Like, most time playing Spotify in the clubhouse.
BOBBY: Mm, mmm.
ALEX: Like a good vibes curator?
BOBBY: Yes. Highest approval, highest playlist approval rating. It’s over, it’s a wrap.
ALEX: That’s it.
BOBBY: Those are the three. Congratulations to us for coming up with a great answer to that question. And congratulations to Becca for asking it.
ALEX: So we’re gonna get started on running those numbers. It’s gonna take a little while because we will have to rewatch–
BOBBY: We got–
ALEX: –every single baseball game.
BOBBY: We got a lot of data people–
ALEX: But we don’t [34:13]–
BOBBY: [34:13] community.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: It’s not just us. It’s a group effort.
ALEX: I cannot I, I–
BOBBY: It’s not me, it’s we, brother.
ALEX: –refused to believe that we’re the first person to think about this. So the numbers are out there.
BOBBY: All right, next question.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Next question comes from Nick. It’s a pretty similar question, honestly. Nick says today, Rawlings announced that they would be be awarding a Gold Glove specifically for utility players. If you could create a brand new award for MLB players, what would it be? Nick, I feel like we answered your question already.
ALEX: I think so.
BOBBY: Thank you for asking. To the extent that your question might have inspired Becca’s question. Sorry that she stole the show. She called the voicemail. Were just much more likely to answer voicemails. It’s more fun to play them on the pod, make love you the best. Next question from Austin, friend of the pod. Austin says, is there any piece of baseball merch more useless than a foam finger?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Austin, stop writing questions that you know the answer to. But it’s an interesting question, what are the most useful and useless pieces of baseball merch?
ALEX: Well, useful? I think it’s pretty easy.
BOBBY: The glove.
ALEX: Just like the–
BOBBY: The ball.
ALEX: –yeah, I mean or a shirt. It’s like, that’s how you spell you with that one.
BOBBY: So you’re talking about like, in your day to day life?
ALEX: Yeah, or just broadly speaking, or to a baseball game. I mean, generally like a hat, for example. Great use value.
BOBBY: I agree.
ALEX: You can wear it to the game. You can wear it not to the game–
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: –and everywhere in between.
BOBBY: And it’s there for, it’s there for you when you need it.
ALEX: It is.
BOBBY: Which I think, an important element of this.
ALEX: Right. So yeah, I–
BOBBY: Like when I had, when I haven’t showered yet, and I need to run out to the bodega, I need that hat. You know, what I don’t need is a fucking foam finger.
ALEX: Foam finger, yeah. They’re pretty, they’re pretty, like you’re not using it around the house.
BOBBY: Low use value. Like signs, you know, like all those like man cave style signs they sell–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –like ballparks?
ALEX: Yeah, yeah.
BOBBY: I have a lot of pictures of you in front of those just from various games that we’ve gone to. You know, like, real men wear blue and orange.
ALEX: I, I think pennants are pretty useless. That’s just why I’ve never really gotten the appeal. I’m like–
BOBBY: What’s the fucking deal with like, millennial aesthetic, you know, and penance?
ALEX: Is that a millennial aesthetic?
BOBBY: I, I feel like it is, you know, I feel like brands love to put up pennants.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: You know, like, yeah, you walk into like a pop up shop, and they’re like, they have the logo of the brand on a pennant hanging up. And you’re like, what–
ALEX: Yeah, what is it? What are you doing?
BOBBY: –why, why, I guess, what is happening? You know, I have pennants all over my childhood bedroom. Because when when I would play on sports teams, and you could buy the pictures from Picture Day. One of them is like a pennant with a team photo and then your photo next to it. I think that’s pretty cute. But in terms of like Major League Baseball pennants, there’s only one pennant. Except for that time that those Boston guys stole the pennant. And then they had to make a new pennant. But the original guys who stole it, were trying to sell it back to the team.
ALEX: Oh, man, we just don’t get news like that anymore.
BOBBY: We literally don’t. And you know what if we did? We wouldn’t have had to spend the first 30 minutes of this pod fucking talking about the playoffs.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Forcing ourselves to talk about the playoffs, which we didn’t want to do.
ALEX: So is, so is are we just in agreement with Austin on this? Are there other things that feel somewhat useless to you?
BOBBY: Swarovski Crystal Ball with the team logo on it.
ALEX: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
BOBBY: The feels.
ALEX: I stare at mine every single day.
BOBBY: No, well, you sleep with it.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Holding it.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: But it’s wrapped in foam. So it doesn’t break. I’ve seen this with my own eyes.
ALEX: It is true, yeah.
BOBBY: Nah, I feel like we have to peruse the MLB website, if we want to really think of the answer to that.
ALEX: Yeah. I mean, there’s, they sell a lot of like, you know, home goods, and like, office supply stuff.
BOBBY: That sounds pretty useful to me. Like, it depends on what you’re asking, like, is it useful that it’s made by the team or is it just useful in life? Because the foam finger is neither.
ALEX: Right, right. Okay, that’s true. Yes, there are. There are things on here who maybe I wouldn’t go to mlbshop.com to purchase. But were in my day to day life, I might, I might employ the use of–
BOBBY: Right like right now, I’m looking mlbshop.com/mets for $31.49, only till, till midnight tonight though, Alex. So if you’re listening to this pod right now, you fuckin’ miss out. Till midnight you can buy a New York Mets blue sofa protector.
ALEX: Whoa!
BOBBY: See, that’s useful.
ALEX: How, how much is it?
BOBBY: $31.49.
ALEX: That’s easy.
BOBBY: Should we buy it for this couch that you’re sitting on right now–
ALEX: Yeah, we should.
BOBBY: –for the studio?
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: We’ve been talking a lot about studio decor recently.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: As we acquire various bobbleheads of New York Met’s announcers. But that’s, it’s useless that the team makes it but it’s useful in life.
ALEX: Some person will find use of that, yeah.
BOBBY: Yeah. I’m in the lawn and outdoors section now.
ALEX: Uh-hmm. Find anything good? This week–
BOBBY: There’s a lot of signs. Some garden gnomes, I think that’s useful.
ALEX: I think that’s useful too.
BOBBY: New York Mets Spirits Series, three piece barbecue set.
ALEX: They’re doing a lot, they’re doing a lot of sets on here. They have like a, like a tailgate set and like–
BOBBY: Oooh, I got one.
ALEX: –a fan set.
BOBBY: I got one.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: There’s a New York Mets Tiki Totem, $52.49. Not only is it insensitive, it’s useless.
ALEX: Wow. That, wait, what is–
BOBBY: And it’s worth–
ALEX: –what’s on there?
BOBBY: It’s worth, mmm, let me describe it to you.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: Appears to be Mr. Met on top.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: It appears to be an angry looking baseball player? With his face made out of wood.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: And then there’s a block that just has the Mets logo. On the very bottom it appears to be sort of like a Mr. Met Jack Skeletor crossover kind of vibe?
ALEX: I really wish I was in the planning meeting for this.
BOBBY: Do you?
ALEX: Kind he- yeah.
BOBBY: You can get this for 20, you can get the sofa protector for $20 less than this.
ALEX: Okay, so here’s the thing, you can also on the official MLB Shop. I mean, this is, you know the pods in a good place when we’re just reading out different items on the MLB Shop. You can spend $4,639.99–
BOBBY: I love your energy of sorting by most expensive.
ALEX: Yeah, I’m always curious.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: So no Swarovski Crystal Baseball–
BOBBY: They got rid of it
ALEX: –unfortunately, they got rid of that. I think it’s sold out [40:46].
BOBBY: [40:46] they bought them.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: They’re all lined up behind you as you speak.
ALEX: But you can get a 14k gold money clip with your team’s logo engraved on it.
BOBBY: The money clip costs $4,000?
ALEX: Uh-huh. Well, it’s, did you hear me say that it’s 14 karat?
BOBBY: But like, I feel like you could get a nicer money clip for not $4,000.
ALEX: But, well, you can get a Yankees 10 karat one for 3000.
BOBBY: Ohh! Wait, so the Yankees one is cheaper?
ALEX: There are two, there are two, they made [41:17] a couple options. In case the, again, in case the 4,600 one was too high for you. They made one for the, the layman.
BOBBY: I’ve, I’ve one for you.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: This is no longer about use, this is just about discovery.
ALEX: Okay.
BOBBY: I have discovered a New York Mets Stars and Stripes. We’ve just–
ALEX: Wow!
BOBBY: –we’ve just shit all over the United States flag.
ALEX: Amazing!
BOBBY: Just the Mets logo and their stars and those strips–
ALEX: Thin blue and orange lines.
BOBBY: –blue and orange. And you know what? You know what? I bet that all of the people who have glared at you over the years for sitting during the National Anthem. They wouldn’t even bat at fucking eye in this.
ALEX: Oh, no. They’d say that’s patriotism right there.
BOBBY: They don’t go, they don’t go comment on this. It’s almost gone, Alex, it’s almost gone! Because everybody’s buying it.
ALEX: Uh-hmm.
BOBBY: Shameful. We live in a shameful country. All right, next question. Next question is also about merch, it’s almost like it planned it this way. This comes from Josie in the Slack. Josie says, I don’t even know what the question is here. But Ben just sent me a picture of Jared Kushner and a dumb expensive Mets hat. And now I want to know who the most evil person you’ve ever seen wearing a piece of your team’s merches?
ALEX: The owner of the A’s?
BOBBY: Steve Cohen. That was my first thought. I don’t even have another answer.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I, I mean, it helps that Jared Kushner was wearing a Mets hat, so that’s also–
ALEX: Right. So that’s kind of the right answer. Yeah.
BOBBY: Jared Kushner doing his, his PR recovery tour by wearing it Aimé Leon Dore Mets hat.
ALEX: You think he talks about the Mets in his new book at all?
BOBBY: He has a book out?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Oh my God, we’re gonna have to do that for the Tipping Pitches book club.
ALEX: That’s- oh, shit, you’re right!
BOBBY: Talk about Patreon content.
ALEX: Uh-huh. I hear it’s really good too.
BOBBY: Who do you think his favorite Mets players?
ALEX: Brandon Nimmo?
BOBBY: So like Kushner is not that kind of conservative. Kushner doesn’t like people from Wyoming. He’s a fucking New York real estate baron.
ALEX: Well, yeah.
BOBBY: Heir to a New York real estate Baron. He hasn’t actually done anything.
ALEX: Right. But like, who do you think it would be otherwise? Are there’s no like white collar conservatives on the Mets. Are there?
BOBBY: Max Scherzer?
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: Strike Just kidding, Jacob deGrom?
ALEX: I think he and deGrom would probably have a fine conversation.
BOBBY: Yeah, I think they would. Honestly, I think his favorite Met is Pete Alonso. Namely, because he can only name about four Mets. And because they both seem like incredibly corny, white guys.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: So regardless of politics, which honestly, I don’t even think you need to set aside politics. Because I think Pete and him would do fine in a conversation about politics. I think that they would just see eye to eye. This guy is being dudes, Jared and Pete. I’ll give them that pod, I’ll produce it.
ALEX: I mean–
BOBBY: It’s gonna be Tipping Pitches Thursday’s going forward hosted by Jared Kushner and Pete Alonso.
ALEX: But I, I have no idea where their conversation would go.
BOBBY: I think it might be good.
ALEX: I believe I have seen a photo of Barack Obama wearing A’s hat.
BOBBY: So he’s a fake White Sox fan?
ALEX: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, no, he has a real–
BOBBY: Maybe he just knew–
ALEX: [44:28] but–
BOBBY: ==years ago that the White Sox were gonna hire Tony La Russa, again, you know. He put that plan into motion by wearing an A’s hat. So you- your power ranking Obama above John Fisher? I mean, just by sheer volume–
ALEX: I mean–
BOBBY: –is that more opportunity.
ALEX: Yeah, I mean, if we’re going by body count, you know.
BOBBY: Oh my God!
ALEX: I’m just saying.
BOBBY: Next question. Next question, everybody. Thank you for asking Josie. Comes from Franchesca, whom I have to thank on the pod Because Franchesca sent me, a Los Angeles Dodgers hat from Italian Heritage Night that has the Italian flag on the side, underneath the bill. And on the back in script writing, it says Italia. It’s the most beautiful piece of clothing that I own. So thank you to Franchesca. Franchesca’s question is, how upset would you be if the Cardinals won the World Series this year? But they only did it because Albert Pujols was impossible to get out. Somehow starts mashing against righties the way he’s been killing lefties. Wins NLCS MVP, wins World Series MVP, and completely carries the team. So it gets on like a scale of 1 to 100, Cardinals win the World Series but it’s all because of Albert. Where are you at?
ALEX: As the Adam Wainwright a podcaster is I’m in on it!
BOBBY: I thought we were both Adam Wainwright.
ALEX: Well, yeah. Or–
BOBBY: [45:54]
ALEX: –Adam and is one of us Yadi.
BOBBY: I thought you’re gonna say it’s one of us Adam and is one of us Wainwright. That’s gonna take the cake for worst joke you’ve ever made, dude. Neither of us are Yadi.
ALEX: No.
BOBBY: No, we’re both soft as shit.
ALEX: Uh-huh.
BOBBY: Yeah, Yadi [46:10]
ALEX: Yeah, no gold gloves in this room.
BOBBY: What’s not about gold gloves, dude, it’s about most positive interaction.
ALEX: Right. That’s right. We’re, we’re getting those positive interactions up. I just want to say we were at, we were at a Mets game last night and then to a couple Tipping Pitches listeners. And it was a, always a joy to talk to folks.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: So you know, we’re, we’re putting in that work too.
BOBBY: We are.
ALEX: Don’t rule us out.
BOBBY: Uhm, just like Adam Wainwright, we thought that the union should have just kept the last CBA.
ALEX: Yes.
BOBBY: Famously, were exactly–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –like Adam Wainwright.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: 1 to 100, how mad Albert Pujols gets his ride off into the sunset? Just like when he left the Cardinals in 2011 and goes out on top.
ALEX: I’m kind of not mad about that like at all. I, like I’m–
BOBBY: Thank you everybody for listening to the last episode of Tipping Pitches. This has been a lot of fun to do. I have a Cardinals apologist in the room with me and I can no longer podcast.
ALEX: I guess these days, I just don’t find them like to be any more pernicious of an organization than like a dozen other teams–
BOBBY: I know.
ALEX: –you know.
BOBBY: They’ve been lapped.
ALEX: Like they kind of have been lapped.
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: They got to, they need to pick up the slack a little bit.
BOBBY: Right. They’ve been passed by all of the obscene tanking teams. They’ve been passed by the Astros.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Passed by the Braves, for sure. Honestly, pass by the Yankees is I can’t stand how.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: Like at least when I was in Georgia it was like, yeah, you’re actually spending and winning.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: And you’re just not spending and not winning.
ALEX: So like, I think I’m good with this. But again, I want it to be because Albert Pujols–
BOBBY: Right, but that’s the question.
ALEX: –is, is the guy.
BOBBY: Obviously if he like gets hurt, and you have to watch fucking Nolan Arenado not be able to go to Toronto or something. That kind of sucks.
ALEX: Right, put Albert at third, maybe?
BOBBY: I’m like Albert at third. Wow. You know, he has a couple of games there in his career?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: Didn’t look pretty. So like, okay, if the Cardinals won the World Series, I’m at 100 in a normal year. It’s all because of Albert, all because of Albert. And everybody just bends the knee and acknowledges what a wonderful career, and what a wonderful lasting, everlasting impact his had on the game. I’d say I’m like a 98.
ALEX: What?!
BOBBY: I hate the Cardinals, dude! I don’t think you understand how much trauma in my baseball life is because of the Cardinals. It’s not just that they beat the Mets in the 2006 NLCS Game 7 at Shea. It’s not just that, but it’s everything that happened to the Mets after that, I blame them for it. It’s their fault.
ALEX: Oh.
BOBBY: So, yeah, no, I’m never going to be under a 95 if the Cardinals win anything important? I hate them.
ALEX: Would–
BOBBY: And I really like a lot of players on that team now.
ALEX: Yeah, I know. Would you interchange at all if the Mets were out of contention this year? Or no, you still wouldn’t stomach it?
BOBBY: If they’re not, baby, best record in the NL, let’s go Mets! It’s all about the Mets. Would my answer change if the Mets route of it? Yeah, I’d probably go down a little bit. Down, down to like the barrel which was bottom of the barrel, which is like 95.
ALEX: All right.
BOBBY: You’re telling me that you want to watch all those Cardinals fans get rewarded again? Again?! A frickin’-gain? Come on!
ALEX: Look, I don’t but what are our options? Our options are watching Yankees fans get rewarded.
BOBBY: And all the Q on people are gonna be like this is because Paul Goldschmidt didn’t take the vaccine. This is why they won.
ALEX: Yeah, I’m ready for that. I will, I welcome it.
BOBBY: Yes. Yes. I have to say though, they’re not the team that I would want to win least.
ALEX: Who, who is that?
BOBBY: Braves by far. Back-to-back Braves [49:50]
ALEX: That would, that would lead har- really hard to stomach.
BOBBY: Just such a punch in the gut, you know?
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I think it was Braves, Yankees, Cardinals. No, you know, because I root it for the Yankees in the 2009 World Series. So I have to put the Phillies above them. So maybe it goes Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, Yankees.
ALEX: So–
BOBBY: Core four right there.
ALEX: –but, but you would be at like a 95. At, at best if th, or you would be at like a 95 at worst if the Cardinals won. So does that mean you will just be at like a 100 if like a third of the teams in the playoffs win?
BOBBY: Please do not underrate my capacity for rage.
ALEX: I, oh, I would never. I’ve seen it firsthand.
BOBBY: You didn’t live in the same city as me last year–
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: –during the World Series?
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: I was like real, like seed, you know. Like, like, when people are trolling online and they’re like, seed, that was actually that–
ALEX: Yeah, that was you were coping hard!
BOBBY: I was [50:46] coping. I was like, I was rooting for the Dodgers like I was Bernie Sanders in 1940, you know. Like, I was going hard.
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: I was going to bars. I was hanging out with Dodgers fans. Was like, come on, let’s get after it. Lifelong Dodgers fan right here.
ALEX: It’s a real tough beat.
BOBBY: So yes, Braves are 100.
ALEX: Same with the Phillies?
BOBBY: 99.
ALEX: Phillies are 100.
BOBBY: 99.
ALEX: They’re 99. Cardinals are 98.
BOBBY: Right.
ALEX: Yankees like 95.
BOBBY: You don’t, you’re not, you’re not as much of a team hater as me.
ALEX: No, not in recent years.
BOBBY: You don’t get like furious about that stuff that like you’re not directly related to?
ALEX: Yeah, I just don’t have the capacity for it anymore, man.
BOBBY: So were you like hot when the Astros won in 2017?
ALEX: Nah.
BOBBY: No?
ALEX: No. That was a fun World Series, man.
BOBBY: This could not be me. It just could not be me. I mean, the Astros are not really like a rival of the A’s. They just came to the AL within the last 15 years.
ALEX: Right. I mean, they’re–
BOBBY: They’re not, they haven’t been really good at the same time.
ALEX: No, although that kind of mid 2010s run is kind of when the Astros really start to come into their own, right? So there’s [52:00]
BOBBY: [52:00] Prevented the A’s from winning the division like–
ALEX: Right exactly. And, and like Verlander killed the A’s when he’s on the Tigers. And then he killed the A’s when he was on the Astros. So like there’s like–
BOBBY: It’s not personal, he kills everyone.
ALEX: I know, he does kill everyone. But when he’s like single-handedly eliminating us from the playoffs like three years in a row. That one, you take that one to heart a little bit.
BOBBY: That guy is 41 with a sub 2.
ALEX: Yeah, that’s ridiculous, that’s just stupid.
BOBBY: Cannot be me, cook the 26–
ALEX: Yeah.
BOBBY: –can’t even do a pod anyone more.
ALEX: Cannot be us.
BOBBY: So who was like your number one? Who’s enemy number one? Is it the Yankees?
ALEX: Like in the playoffs or just broadly?
BOBBY: In the playoffs. I suppose broadly too.
ALEX: I think it’s probably the Yankees or the Braves. Braves are pretty bad I mean, a Bra- like as far as just–
BOBBY: They’re despicable.
ALEX: –watching an actual game featuring them like at their ballpark?
BOBBY: Yeah.
ALEX: It’s hard, it’s really hard. Yankees I just think. I mean, again, God willing, I won’t have to not root for them in the playoffs because they won’t be there.
BOBBY: Yankees are not missing the playoffs, dude. Unless you know about some change to the playoff format again.
ALEX: Yeah, dude.
BOBBY: In which case we gotta go back and re record the–
ALEX: There were moving–
BOBBY: –first 30 minutes of this pod.
ALEX: –the third one.
BOBBY: Okay, that does it for another episode of Tipping Pitches. Thank you to everybody for listening. Once again, live watch along on Playback, Tuesday, September 20th, 6:45pm Eastern. Please come join us, it’s gonna be a lot of fun. The link will be sent out if you’re a patron. And it might be tweeted out if you’re not, who knows, we’ll see. Just check our, check our socials around that time. Thank you to the five members of our Alex Rodriguez VIP Club tier on the Patreon that is our top tier is $12 a month. There are so, so many of you. We are so, so grateful that we shout out five of you at the end of every episode. Those five members this week are Justine, Neil, Kyle, Tony, and Lisa. Only 20% of those birds do. It’s good. And only 20% of those people are a friend of ours who has a great podcast called Big Screen Sports where we just talked about high flying bird just last week. So if you’re interested in film, if you’re interested in labor, go check out Big Screen Sports. Check out our episode with Kyle Bandujo. Anything else to leave the people with Alex?
ALEX: I mean, there’s now where we talk about Ke’Bryan Hayes and his sunflower debacle at third base against the Mets the other day.
BOBBY: I didn’t tell you this, but I actually did a 90-minute solo pod that I put on the feed already. I know you don’t listen.
ALEX: Oh, fuck. Okay.
BOBBY: So–
ALEX: I just–
BOBBY: –alright–
ALEX: –go back and listen and just kind of talk out loud as you do it.
BOBBY: That’d be a really roundabout way to do a pod. Please do talk out loud when you listen to this podcast. Yeah, so it’s the right way to be consumed. There’s a way that we want you to consume about.
ALEX: There is a nonzero amount of people who have said they sometimes involuntarily, just kind of say their responses to our conversation while they’re listening.
BOBBY: Those are our friends, man.
ALEX: They are.
BOBBY: Those are our friends, friends of the pod. Know now is the time where we talk about Taylor Swift’s album that doesn’t exist yet.
ALEX: Ohh.
BOBBY: Just another–
ALEX: Theories, one of the theories.
BOBBY: –32nd takes at a time.
ALEX: It’s, it’s going to be 13 songs.
BOBBY: I have a question, how are we programming around that? Because like, you know, not everybody listened to this pod cares about Taylor Swift.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: But enough people listening to this pod care enough to it’s not like we can’t talk about it.
ALEX: Right.
BOBBY: And we want to talk about it.
ALEX: I mean, is it going to be a Patreon exclusive discussion?
BOBBY: I think Taylor says for the people, man, I think it should be free.
ALEX: She is for the people.
BOBBY: Just like your concerts are so affordable and easy to get to.
ALEX: I don’t, or maybe, maybe we do like a, like a live listen, you know. Like a debut kind of listening party.
BOBBY: Well, we’ll need to do that for Taylor Swift’s album, because we want to iron out the kinks for what our actual important live listen along is. Which is the set- the CD that you purchased of Cowboy Joe West’s album. So yeah, I like it. Live listening along.
ALEX: Okay, we’re–
BOBBY: [56:03] Taylar Swift.
ALEX: –we’re working on the production calendar. But rest assured there’s a lot of, it’s just music like analysis coming.
BOBBY: That’s truer and truer by the day. Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of Tipping Pitches. We will be back next week.
[56:17]
[Music]
[56:27]
[Outro]
ALEX RODRIGUEZ: Hello everybody, I’m Alex Rodriguez, Tipping Pitches, Tipping Pitches. This is the one that I love the most, Tipping Pitches. So we’ll see you next week. See ya!
Transcriptionist: Vernon Bryann Casil
Editor: Krizia Marrie Casil
Tipping Pitches 
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