The Craig Way Show

Gene Watson

Gene Watson, our resident MLB insider and Director of Player Personnel for the Chicago White Sox, joins the show to talk about the latest storylines in baseball including the performances of Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, and Jacob DeGrom for the Texas Rangers. Plus, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers are making their playoff push.

Duration:: 17m
Broadcast on:: 30 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Yes, I know it's a big football weekend. Clearly, it's a big football weekend. However, it is very, very important to keep track of what's going on with Major League Baseball, because here it is the last weekend in the month of August and we're about to get into the importance of the tenant races, the wildcard races, and of course also the division races as well. And then there's some real interesting and fascinating individual things as well to help us sort through it as always, our good friend, from the Chicago White Sox front office is none other than Gene Watson. You know, you're such a huge football fan for folks who didn't know. Gene Oh is going to be in College Station for Notre Dame and Texas A&M tomorrow. So I know what a big college football fan you are. And you get grief from your Major League Baseball buddies about all of this. But I know also that you have to, by way of profession, keep an eye on what's going on with baseball. How different is the mindset for teams and for guys, for pitchers, catchers, position players, going now as the calendar turns to September and getting ready for those postseason chases. Well what's so unique about the season and good afternoon guys is that there's been so much turnover with the pitching at the Major League level and you look yesterday and just a high volume of players put on waivers by teams to potentially give those players an opportunity to get pick up and play in the playoffs. And really it's just there've been so many injuries on the pitching side and there's been so much turnover. Like you can turn on a TV one night. A guy's pitching in Seattle and the next week he's pitching in Miami. It's just been crazy with the number of injuries and attrition to the pitching that those pitchers, those veteran relievers especially that are out of options. They come in and they help the club for seven to 10, 14 days and then they're on waivers and they're doing it for somebody else and so that's kind of been the way of the world from a pitching standpoint. Physically it's just so incredibly hard to hit right now. There's just there's no night off anymore. Every arm is 94 to 97. Every arm has a breaking ball. You don't have any of those fifth starters that are 86 to 92 with the change up. I mean it is incredibly hard to hit and so really it is like right now it just turns into a health aspect and really you know giving your app that up for the team and trying to go out and and win every night that you can because for a lot of teams it's getting down the crunch time now. All right so speaking of pitching pitch pickups for the rosters is is Rich Hill older than you. I mean I'm just kind of wondering about this. This dude is just Methuselah. He keeps turning up and he keeps winding up all major league rosters and then he keeps pitching effectively did so again for the Red Sox. Yeah it's really the opportunity and you look at Johnny Quato pitching in LA right now at 38 years old. There's just such a shortage of arms at the major league level that when you get a guy like Rich Hill or a guy like Johnny Quato one you know that they're going to know how to make pitches they're going to throw strikes they know how to manipulate the quadrants from the strike zone. You know they're going to be prepared and you know they're going to compete and so in a world where you know it's giving it's putting a young kid on the 40-man roster earlier than you probably should be versus you know running a veteran guy out there that you know what you're going to get I think the teams are leaning toward those veteran guys more than anything right now. Let me get your thoughts since we're talking about pitching and the difference between Major League and Minor League. Pretty exciting I guess for for Ranger fans and for that Matt Around Rock Express fans to see Kumar Rocker have the type of outing he had the other night on the same night that Yoshinobu Yamamoto was making a rehab start for the Dodgers for the Oklahoma City Ball Club against Round Rock. It was all at Dell Diamond and it was a lot of fun and very entertaining for fans but first of all for for Rocker and for the Rangers I mean it's a good harbinger for the future isn't it. Oh my gosh they've got to be so excited with the Kumar and Jack Lider and that was really by design when you took them out of the draft and and I sat on both of them in 2021 extensively for the Angels and you know Jack has kind of been what he he was you know just a well above average pitch ability guy with a plus breaking ball and and a top of the zone fastball. It's kind of been a little bit tougher for him to adjust from the minor leagues to the Major League level but Kumar coming out of the draft there was so much polarizing opinion on him and what he was going to be but he's done such a tremendous job of staying in shape and that rehab from Tommy John may have actually been a blessing for him because the rehab is everything in the Tommy John he's an incredible shape it kind of gives your mind and body a rest and just to lower the expectation level and watching Kumar in the fall eight two years ago you could see a different animal and right now he is very dangerous and Ranger fans for his disappointing as this season has been coming off a world championship they should be super excited about next season NPS Bruce Boatt in San Francisco skip the year every year between world championships so that is something to lean on. That's a good way to to think about it for Ranger fans talking baseball machine Watson here on sports radio AM 1300 the zone you brought up a point right at the start I want to go back to it and you talked about how difficult it is to hit right now here's exhibit a for you last night obviously as a Dodger fan I watch a lot of their games and they're playing Baltimore's great series between the two and three good ball games and the Dodgers I think had 14 hits in the game now they while the police scoring five runs in the contest or six in the contest so they they held on for the win but they have 14 hits in the ball game none of those hits were from show Aotani none he was the only Dodger not to get a hit now this comes on the heel uh heels of him getting his 42nd home run at two more stolen bases to get to 42 but it's an example of even the best players can struggle on certain nights and can have an over night even even a guy like Otoni no doubt you know he's carrying a 990 OPS with 42 bombs and I think that I think that when you look at that team and you go Oconni and Betts and Kiki Hernandez and Tommy Edmond Miguel Rojas I think a lot of teams as we move into you know early mid-September and into October I think a lot of teams you're going to see because Otoni just does not chase he doesn't and I think that a lot of teams are going to say you know what we're just going to pitch around him and if he if he walks he walks but we're not going to let him be the guy that beat us and that puts a little bit of more pressure on Mookie and Kiki and so it's going to be interesting to see how teams tend to navigate through that as the race comes down to the finish by the way did you ever have a dog like Showee's Dog Decoy to be able to to scoop up a ball off the mound run the home plate and drop it therefore delivering the first pitch of the game. You ever see a dog do anything like that? No that but that's a whole nother level of training and it's big still Otoni and the way he goes about his life too. No doubt about it. Do you know I want to get your thoughts on some crucial series this weekend. One of them began in Houston last night with the Astros beating the royals and what what an incredible season Kansas City a ball club that you and your your staff and a lot of the guys helped put together there in Kansas City. They dropped the opener last night but they get ready with Seth Lugo against Farmer Valdez tonight. That's a one that is one huge series. The other one obviously is Los Angeles in Arizona. It's a weekend wrap around four game series, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Those are two huge series I think and there's other important ones as well but that's certainly those two come to mind. How about let's start off with Kansas City in Houston. Get your thoughts on that. Well I'll be out there tonight. I'm going to go out and see the boys that I haven't seen really since I left Kansas City so we're really looking forward to going out there and spending some time with them. Again and we've set up you know in weeks past like Minute Maid Park I don't think people realize how difficult it is to go into that ballpark and win. Is it the environment it's second to none the music Bob Ford on the mic it's just it's an incredibly difficult place to play and while the royals you know are a playoff team right now I think that they strive to be more and this is a statement series and while if you come out of it you know you're still you know you're in the playoffs and you strive to do more in October but I think that just like they did going into Cleveland and taking three out of four I think they're trying to prove the longevity of this club and the and the you know how real that they believe they are so this is a big series for them if they don't you know if they don't win at all there they're still going to be in pretty good shape but they're trying to get through a gauntlet of a schedule where 17 out of 20 or first or second place teams and the huge blow last night with any past Latino hurting is his wrist and Lucas Erse getting hit in the hand with the ball you know that's got a lingering effect potentially from morale standpoint but I do think this is a an incredibly big series to continue to prove to the industry that you are a real playoff contending team and you know I don't think I've talked about anything more this week than what a tremendous tremendous job that Houston Astros have done to to go to seven straight American League championship series you're working on potentially number eight in an environment what look at Texas they win the world championship and they're nine and a half out now a year later it's just for your crew core group to have the mental mindset that they've had and then to bring in the complimentary players around them that just were the expectations drive the results and I I compare what the Astros are doing right now to the late 90s early 2000s New York Yankees where you know there was just this level of expectation that was not going to be compromised and that's what Jim Crane and Dana Brown have created in Houston it's incredible so I think Kansas City would really like to go in there and maybe not win every game but but play extremely good baseball throughout the weekend that other big series I mentioned Los Angeles at Arizona they start a four game series tonight at Chase Field the Dodgers are up four games on the Diamondbacks and it's Clayton Kershaw against that gallon on the mound today yeah and you know Arizona they're four out and this is a chance and they did it last year this is a chance they've won seven of their last 10 this is a chance for them to do what they did last year and make that late push and and you know they're they're going to be in the playoffs potentially they're they're three up in the wild card but again another statement series to show the Dodgers that you know even if you don't win the series if you split it to let them know that hey it's not going to be as easy in October as you think and and and they've kind of for you know they kind of hold the advantage because they're going to the World Series last year and how late this series is this year I feel like it Arizona could cut this thing and happen the rest of the way and you think it happens so it's going to be a great series the Mets come off taking two of three from the Diamondbacks in Arizona they play your ball club weekend series in Chicago here the Mets asked you a couple of weeks ago are they a contender for a wild card and you said yes but they're kind of on the fringe and that's what it looks like two weeks later right now they're three games back of that final wild card spot chasing Atlanta and and even your cross town pals the Chicago Cubs are five games back Cardinals had a good series against Padres are six back even the Giants six and a half I mean there's still time and still hope in this day and age of the wild card race isn't it? No question but they got to beat the Braves when they play them but got it they've got to narrow that gap and you got to hope that Arizona and San Diego when they play that they don't split those games you got to hope that one or the other beats the other significantly and that's how you pull back in this thing and I I mean the Cubs have just kind of you know been back and forth all season long and here they are on August 30th five games out they've won seven of their last 10 three in a row and it's just like it's crazy to think for everything that they've been through they're two good weeks away from from being a wild card team and so I think that the head to head they've got to hope that that San Diego and Arizona when they play that that one team beats the other significantly they've got to take care of the Braves when they play them and they got to keep continuing to play the baseball that they played the last two weeks Baltimore's only a game and a half back of the Yankees in the division race and they're on top of the wild card race like I said it was three hard fought games against Los Angeles the Orioles took one of the three you still see them as a real viable contender to win the east yeah very much so very much so it's going to be you know the Yankees are going to have to continue to hit they've got a young kid will war and that's going to have to has it pitched especially well that they're going to need to you know have a good month and and really anchor that starting rotation but but Baltimore in that ballpark they're just so dangerous they just they just hit and they they've kind of learned how to play well together collectively so it's going to be a great race final thing final thing here Gino you're going to be at Notre Dame Texas A&M tomorrow evening will a camera a television camera catch you in the stands hands arms on fellow Aggie shoulder swaying back and forth will it will a camera catch you doing that tomorrow night there there's a zero percent chance of that and the other thing that I would say is that our tickets are so far up I may see if I can ride in a good year blimp to be closer to the stadium okay hey listen uh have fun tonight safe travels over to the Brazos Valley tomorrow and we'll do it again next week all right great thanks so much all right that's Gene Watson from the Chicago White Sox at Gino is the big Notre Dame fan at a big University of Texas fan so that's what I was kidding him about there being a Kyle field all right we're going to hear more from coach aren't coming up when we continue on sports radio am 1300 the zone Hey it's Ryan Seacrest life comes at you fast which is why it's important to find some time to relax a little you time enter Chumba Casino with no download required you can jump on anytime anywhere for the chance to redeem some serious prizes so treat yourself with Chumba Casino and play over a hundred online casino style games all for free go to chumbakocino.com to collect your free welcome bonus sponsored by Chumba Casino no purchase necessary vgw group void where prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready determine a competitive rent price market the property schedule the showing screen tennis draft at the least at a rent collection handle maintenance request maintain communication who sound complicated runners warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list qualify tenants check rent collection check maintenance coordination you got it go to runners warehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for or call 303 974 9444 because from now on the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runners warehouse chevy has the s uv's you know and love and now there's one more the first ever all electric blazer ev with the latest tech incredible range and easy charging this head turning electric vehicle is motor trends 2024 SUV of the year when you're ready to go ev chevy's got you get all the exciting details on the 2024 chevy blazer ev at your colorado chevy dealer today and learn more about ev tax credits and take advantage of current offers going on now. 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