← The Windup: A show about Baseball
The Windup: A show about Baseball
Starkville | Jon "Boog" Sciambi talks about the Cubs breakout season
00:44:45
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- [00:00]
Capital One Bank Guy
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- [00:28]
John Shambi (Boog)
Does.
- [00:28]
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- [00:58]
John Shambi (Boog)
Group health plans are limited to a single carrier and a few plan options, but that doesn't fit everyone's needs. Now a new form of employer coverage called an ichra allows employees to choose any plan from any carrier. Learn more at ambetterhealth.comichra. greetings and welcome to Starkville Baseball hall of Famer Jason Stark. And then the robot said, strike. That's why you're going in the hall of Fame.
- [01:30]
Doug Gl (Host)
Inside the park over on Doug Gl, Mike trout his coffee at Starbucks with a double latte.
- [01:37]
John Shambi (Boog)
Skinny Doug, are you ready to make some podcast magic?
- [01:41]
Doug Gl (Host)
I am ready. Bring on the magic wand. Let's do it. Greetings and welcome to St. Starkville. And you'll notice that typically the introduction is done by my friend and colleague, Jason Stark. He has teleported into vacation mode. And that's okay. He didn't leave me a message, but that's, you know, I'm waiting for a postcard, at least from the edge. But keep in mind, Starkville is everywhere. So even though you're on vacation, you're still in Starkville. In fact, if you're in the Milky Way, you were in Starkville, so we're not worried about that. But Jason is taking a little break here and well deserved as we go into the September push. And so we still have an exciting show for you. I think there's a couple things I want to dive into and we'll get the feedback from Jason at a later date. But, you know, one thing I always like to consider is the Travel this past weekend I got to go to Philadelphia, the old stomping grounds, the college town, family, friends. And was part of a on the call with the Phillies Braves. And that was. And by the way, Drake Baldwin, if you have not seen this kid, he's a catcher for the Braves, left handed hitter, hits a home run off Jose Alvarado who threw his like 100 from over the top and he hits an opposite field. So that was already mind blowing as it, as it is. But he's making waves. I think he's going to be quite in the conversation for National League rookie of the year. You know, just a real calm, mature approach at the plate and something that a lot of the opposing teams recognize. But his, his own coach, Brian Snicker of the Braves was very impressed with what he's done so far. So just keep that name in mind because that was impressive to get that game winning home run against, against the Phillies. Then we actually got on the plane and the next morning we flew to Milwaukee. And I know Milwaukee out there, I know you're not getting a lot of love, not enough love because you have the best record in baseball, you have the best run differential, you're leading National League in all kinds of categories. And everybody's still like I don't know, maybe because maybe it's the payroll, maybe it's whatever questions. Maybe they're not the household names we come to know. But these guys are flat out good. I mean they run pressure baseball first to third, they got some power. I mean it's pretty impressive like how balanced this offense is. But it's good. And they did not win last night against the Phillies. However, they were a team that you knew was going to always punch back. And Pat Murphy, their manager kind of embodies this. The spirit of it in terms of worrying about fundamentals and just playing the game, you know, in a way that sort of minimizes mistakes. So you could put pressure on the other team. But to the Phillies credit, they had a great performance to Bryce Harper. We have to see the Miz. Right? Mizaroski. Wow. This guy. You talk about 100 miles an hour. It's 100 miles an hour. And early in the game it was, he was blowing people away like Kyle Schwaber, which is hard to do. So that was a lot of fun. It was a lot. Yeah. Chock full of just the future. Chock full of the future. So very excited about that. And so, you know, travel calmed down at that point. So you know, today I'd just like to get into some other interesting tidbits. And one thing I'd like to jump into is the pesky pole. I don't know if anybody saw the pesky pole play. Big Christmas from the Guardians. Goes after a ball down the right field line. Trevor Story hits the ball. It's kind of slicing away towards that pesky pole in right field. So you're talking, you know, it's about 300, barely 300ft away. And I don't, you know, I'm not sure I've seen this because where else could you see it? There's only a couple parks you could. This could actually happen. But Noel jumps. It hits his glove as he's about to hit the pole, as he's about to hit a kid in the stands, as he's about to hit the wall. So there's a lot of as is about to. So Noel jumps, it seems like it hits his glove, then hits the pole, then goes back in his glove, then he hits the kid, then the ball comes out of the glove, then it rolls on top of the fence, then he picks it up. Trevor Story is completely befuddled at second base. He's like, do I run? Is it foul? Do I go back to the dugout? Do I break into a trot? You know, he had no idea.
- [06:03]
John Shambi (Boog)
Is one for two with a walk, fly that one down the line, that one heading near the pesky pole. And that ball is Noel up against the wall. And it's going to be a foul ball. Story stopping at second. Oh, here we go. Whoa. Did that hit the glove or foul pole first? That's what we got to see. Wow. I think. Oh, it would hit the glove first.
- [06:30]
Doug Gl (Host)
Nobody had any idea. Quite frankly, even Noel describing it later was actually completely wrong or not at least partially wrong because he thought he hit the kid first. And then, you know, I don't know. But nevertheless, they do go to instant replay. And this is something Alex Core and the Red Sox celebrate because they figured out the right call, the right time to use the challenge and get the call right. And so once you go to challenge, the whole body of evidence is considered and they look at it and they determine that hit the glove, then hit the pole. And since the poll is a home run, that's what happens. So the most interrupted delayed trot, maybe in baseball history, after review, the call.
- [07:12]
John Shambi (Boog)
On the field is a home run. The ball hit the foul play. Trevor Story home run. And the crowd goes nuts.
- [07:23]
Doug Gl (Host)
I don't know if that's accurate, but I'm going to go on a Limb and say that it's up there in the top 10. I mean, you know, that's the thing about instant replay. I appreciate it. I really do. I understand we got to get the calls right. But one thing I'm a little concerned of is like the interrupted glory. I mean, that should be a term, the I.G. you're interrupting Glory. I mean, you hit a home run, you want to go into a trot. Why are you going to wait at second base for 10 minutes? And then what? Then you lost. It's anticlimactic at that point, you know, So I don't know. You got to come up with something. Maybe you should be able to take the whole trot step at home, then reset at second base, you know, but you can't interrupt celebrations. And I know it could be bad if you celebrate a walk off home run, everybody goes on the field, you pile on the team, walks off the field, you pour Gatorade on the home run hitter, everything's great. And then they go to instant replay and they overturn it. Yeah, that's problematic. I agree with that. But you know what? Don't interrupt the celebration. Just let. Let them play. Let them have fun. You know, I think it's important to think about these rules and the objective of instant replay is to get it right. But then the fascinating thing about that is I learned a lot about the rules and hitting your glove and hitting the pole and going back in your glove. Pretty cool. So pay attention to this play. Now, you know, I have all these ideas about the instant replay, about pesky polls, but you know what? I want to share these insights with our next esteemed guest and get his take on it. Well, this is a treat. I get an opportunity in Starkville without Jason Stark to hang out with my buddy colleague, often partner not in crime, but partner in baseball. This is John Shambi, and I call him John, but he can be called boo by many of those wonderful fans out there. But John works for me. There is no H in John, just so you know. So, John, really appreciate it on your day off too. And you know, you don't want to be like that movie Fridays where Chris Tucker gets fired on his day off. So we can't have that. So I want to be responsible. Good. I want to be responsible for that. So how you doing, man?
- [09:34]
John Shambi (Boog)
I'm good. What's happening with you? It's good to, to see your face. I like it better when we're doing it in person, but, yeah, everything's good.
- [09:41]
Doug Gl (Host)
Yeah, it's, you know, so where are we now? Like how many, what's, what's the Chicago Cub? Many years has it been?
- [09:48]
John Shambi (Boog)
This is year five for me with the Cubs. 21 was my first year. And this, yeah, this has certainly been the most fun. It's. It's been the year where they've had the most success and it looks right now like they're headed towards the playoffs.
- [10:04]
Doug Gl (Host)
Is one of those things where you can see or sense that this year could be different. I mean, I know you have a strong relationship with Craig Counsel, a good history. Was there ever a feeling of like this team is going to be really good right out of the gate?
- [10:17]
John Shambi (Boog)
I thought they were going to be good and I thought that it would be an underperforming division. So I thought that they would have a really good opportunity. I don't know that I thought that they would be, you know, at one point they were playing to 97 wins and I didn't think they were going to be that. I'm not even sure that I thought they'd be a 92 win team, but I thought they'd be pretty good, you know, and then they just came out and I think the thing that really just took us all, you know, a bit off guard is just how good the offense was at peak. It was, you know, for a good chunk of this year it's been the top run scoring offense in all of baseball. And that's, you know, that's gone back. And it's also worth considering, whatever you think about Wrigley Field, since the start of last year, it's played as one of the more severe pitchers parks in all of baseball. So, you know, they were doing it in this really unique way, scoring runs where at home in general because the wind does not blow out very frequently. They were stealing bases and hitting, you know, timely homers and on the road they were really slugging. So, you know, for the first three months of the season they put on quite a show. But I don't think I saw it coming that they would be quite this good.
- [11:31]
Doug Gl (Host)
And I remember spring training just seeing Craig Counsel kind of literally go on the field. Right. You know, just kind of walking through some of the fundamentals and you see some teams starting to have a resurgence about let's get back to basics, you know, Milwaukee Brewers a good example. Have you seen that play out, you know, sort of in Cubs land in terms of the day to day attention to detail?
- [11:53]
John Shambi (Boog)
I mean, look, Craig Counsel is a big attention to detail guy. I think as a general idea, the Cubs have A pretty high IQ team. They have the combo of high IQ and they're athletic. So, you know, defensively, you know, depending on whether you're looking at Drs or outs above average. I mean, the Cubs team wise are right there in the top three or four, you know, teams defensively, you know, and it starts up the middle, obviously, with Horner and Swanson, who have won Gold Gloves, Pete Crowell, Armstrong, who is going to win a Gold Glove, I think probably a platinum glove too, this year. And it's a good base running team to boot. So I think it's a, it's a high IQ athletic team and that's a good and also fun combo.
- [12:38]
Doug Gl (Host)
Speaking of fun, you know, we, you know, we got to ask about Pete Crowe Armstrong here. I mean, you know, you hear a lot of things about metrics and the metrics support, you know, the versatile way he adds wins. Right. It's not just, you know, swinging the bat. It's everything that stood alone anyway, even statistically. But you hear a lot of coaches talk about the eye test, you know, and of course that immediately there's a lot of bias in the eye test. But there is something to Pete Crow Armstrong and how magnetic he is where not only the experts who are evaluating him have an eye test that sort of evokes something positive, but it's like the fans. You can't take your eyes off this guy when he's playing this game. So, you know, what have you seen over this whole season? Just watching his show that's on the road and at home.
- [13:26]
John Shambi (Boog)
I mean, in terms of what's happening at the most current moment, he's come off a really tough August of qualified hitters. I think he had the lowest OPS in August of anyone. And yet even still, yeah, you can't take your eyes off him. I think that is the phrase. And I would say on the road, man, you don't get road players. The Cubs travel well, but you don't get road players that get the type of applause and cheers that Pete is already getting. And look, it's deserved because he's just to watch him run the bases, you know, he scored from first yesterday and just to watch him run is a sight. And then watching him patrol center field, I think he's as good a defender as there is at any position. I think he's going to end up as one of the better center fielders we've seen in the last, you know, 25 years thereabouts. And he plays with joy and he's 23 and still learning, but he also has a real grounded nature to him and he's thoughtful to talk to. He's one of those guys where I get a chance to be around him and get to know him a tiny bit. And I see on the outside how people fall in love with what they're looking at. But I can tell you, getting a little bit of a glimpse behind the curtain, man, I get it. He's a special kid. He's a really special talent, and it's been fun to watch. I mean, look, the offense is the part that I don't think we really saw coming. I mean, now that it's happening, you get it a little bit. Look, he's twitchy, as they like to say. And he has. He's strong man. You know, like in terms of slugging, he's led the Cubs in slugging for most of the year. And even though he chases and even though he swings a ton, if you throw it in the zone to him, the biggest change that's made is he's usually going to do damage. And so, you know, and doing it in what's funny is the classic way, pull in the air. His pull in the air rate has increased. That's led to the slug. And it's just funny because, Dougie, you think about. Look, in a somewhat similar way, he profiles as you did. And they would have told that guy 20 years ago, kid hit the ball on the ground and outrun the baseball. And that's not what he's doing. And I would say he's maximizing his value.
- [16:00]
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- [16:28]
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Doug Gl (Host)
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- [17:25]
Doug Gl (Host)
Let'S talk about the sort of today's game and specifically to Pete Crow Armstrong. So you have a left handed batter, okay? So that puts them in a different place. And left handed batters, you know, have this growth curve sometimes where it's like, well, we're going to play them only against righties and we're going to try to ease them in. But because the way the minor leagues are constructed, the talent kind of shoots through the system. So you don't get that like, hey, you're going to get 500 at bats in AAA for two years or whatever and you're going to just, you know, figure it out. It's a lot of like development at the major league level. So how do you sort of reconcile how to take, you know, Pete Crowe, Armstrong, Michael Bush, some guys that are like, okay, we're giving you some at bats against lefties now, but at the same time, you're a team that, you know, has to win now and there's platoon advantages that you can't ignore.
- [18:12]
John Shambi (Boog)
I'm glad you brought up Michael Bush and those two guys because look, they both really struggled against lefties. Pete's delivered a little more slug than Michael. Michael's been pretty well neutralized by lefties. But the thing is, let me, you know, sort of put a bookmark and let people know if you want to understand, like why have the Cubs, you know, outperformed expectations? Michael Bush is one of the reasons, folks. If you want an understanding of the Cubs and their success, they've had probably one of the six best first basemen in baseball since the start of last year. I mean, Michael Bush since being a full time rookie last season, I mean, yeah, he struggled, but not like some unbelievable stretch. You know, he's basically been one of the more valuable first basemen and he's doing it for league minimum. Okay? So that said, the difference between Bush and PCA is that even against lefties, neutralizing Pete at the plate, the value of the defense, and if he gets on base, what he's capable of doing in terms of stealing bases is still more than Likely going to net you something plus or at least neutral. So the answer to your question is in Bush's case. Yeah, it's. Craig had a stretch where he gave at bats to him and it didn't go great. And now they're back against lefties. But you're talking for the most part, you know, I think going down the stretch, Pete's day off, days off are going to be against lefties. But I would still say it's the defense that gets him, you know, gets them out there all the time. And it's just one of those things to take it the next step. Yeah, you just, you got to learn.
- [19:57]
Doug Gl (Host)
And speaking of learning, I mean it was interesting talking to Craig Counsel early in the season about Matt Shaw. And he was saying, okay, look, you know, this is our best option. We come out of camp, you know, Matt Shaw is the guy obviously had some struggles and they kind of hung in there, hung in there. And part of the thought process is, well, okay, he might struggle. We have enough bandwidth offensively or other ways to kind of hold the ship. And then second half he's kind of gotten it right, which kind of has played out a little bit. Right. So what is it about sort of the environment today that says, okay, we can take a guy that may not hit for a little while at the major league level and work our way through to have a team constructed to hold that and then like bank on some future return. I mean, what is it about the game today that sort of allows that to be a model?
- [20:50]
John Shambi (Boog)
It's sort of a two part question. There, there's, I think there's something team specific in each case. But I get where you're going in terms of the league. I do think that one of the big changes is I don't think that the competition level at Triple A is what it used to be. So I don't know that teams feel like sending a guy to Triple A is helping all that much. And that's anecdotal, so that's one thing I would say. But then it becomes team specific and team specific in the first half. And just overall, the Cubs offense, even when it's not performing well, is it a well above average offense match? Shaw can't sink this offense, you understand, I'm saying, so like this offense is not dependent on whether Matt Shaw hits. They can tolerate Matt Shaw not hitting. They did all the time, you know, the whole stretch. They were first to the majors in runs per game. He wasn't hitting. I think the one part of the Matt Shaw sort of story arc that's been interesting is this is a guy that played shortstop in college and then in the minors, played second until they decided, okay, it's probably going to be third base as the landing spot. But it was a position he did not know in spring training. It looked a little dicey, to be honest. And when I tell you this guy has made strides at third base, he's been to the eye test and to DRS, one of the better defensive second or third basemen, I would say, since June 1st in the game. Crazy athletic, good feet, good hands. So that's been a big deal. And then he started to do the thing he. Where he takes the ball out front. He's got some juice. He leads the team in slug in the second half. He leads a team in extra base hits in the second half. So they didn't need Matt Shaw to even be a league average hitter to begin the year. He was hitting ninth for them. So again, specific to the Cubs, I think that they knew that they could, you know, if everybody did what they were capable of. And for the Cubs, most of the year, most guys did more than they were capable or projected. It was fine for him to struggle. It did not adversely affect the team.
- [23:14]
Doug Gl (Host)
Well, you know, just backing up a little bit to the trade deadline and, you know, into the Matt Shaw story. There was a Juanio Suarez out there, right. Everybody wanted Suarez. Right. And I know that through words like regression, he might not have the second half, but you kind of look at, you know, it's like, oh, here's the third baseman. Here's the one spot in the offense that we could probably do a little more with. Right? But they did go get very specific relievers. Right. You know, it's like maybe you're trying to get more ground balls. Maybe, you know, you've seen this over so many years. Like, what has been your take at the trade deadline splash versus the specificity of what the team needs?
- [23:49]
John Shambi (Boog)
I would tell you that the trade deadline and trades in general are fascinating to me. It is something. God, I have so many opinions on it. It's something I really dislike. It's a funny one because if they were ever to allow me to like, hire the people to run the team, I certainly have an analytics bent. To me, I enjoyed learning that stuff back in the day with Rob Nyer and Bill James and I understand the advantages that were created. You know, now your. Your space for finding inefficiencies is way smaller than, you know, when the Red SOX were grabbing OBP monsters in the early 2000s. What I don't like for the sport, and I get it, is you have all these smart guys and they just behave so conservatively and they hoard prospects and they talk about it like it's the stock market and talk about asset value that they assign to guys who've never played in the majors. They just behave so conservatively. What I'd really like is this at the deadline. I just think it's just so boring. Number one, nobody does challenge trades anymore where it's, I'm going to trade my shortstop for your left fielder because you need a shortstop and I need a left fielder. Nobody ever does that anymore. And I think that stinks. And then I think the other component is there's just this fear of with two months to go in this season, we're not going to be able to project. I mean, I get that part. I mean, think about it. You trade for a reliever for two months, you're basically trying to project 22 innings. I mean, if you want to project that, let's call it 20, the next 20 innings, who is the lowest era in the majors? The final, the. The last 20 innings of the year, you're going to see some names on that list that you're going to be like, huh? So I get it. What I would say to the analytics people and the smart guys, go sit in a room. Go figure out how you can find a way in a small sample to improve your odds, because that'll make this way more interesting. Because what they end up doing is they sit there and cross their arms and say, I'm just trying to give us a chance. It's like you're running a race and all they're trying to do is not drive the car into the telephone pole. Most guys will tell you they're just trying to give their organization a chance at it. I think that they lose sight of the idea that the goal is to win the World Series. That that's going to be the most memorable thing. Now, what they would argue is what I'm going to give up to change my percentage chances by such a small amount. I just think taking those risks or figuring out how to make those risks pay off will make it way more interesting. Because ultimately, on the one hand, prospects are the lifeblood of teams succeeding to get high production, high level production for low cost. And yet, if you sat there and could go to Vegas and bet futures against prospects, you could be a billionaire. I think trading a top hundred prospect for Shane Bieber, like, if it's somebody who's like 87th. Yeah, man, take a shot at it. Take a shot at it. So that's my thought. I, but I, I, I don't like where it is. I think it's boring and I understand the arguments. I think it's boring. I don't think it's good for the game. I also think the other problem that you have here is these guys as a general idea, if they're, you know, if you're looking at 30 teams and this is loose, but 20 of them look at it the exact same way and all the good ones look at, like, they all look at it the same way. So they're just, no, everybody's just banging into each other and it makes it boring, man. And this is a sport that with the pitch clock is fixed, a little bit of the boring. And I'm not offering solutions here, so I'm just being complainer guy. But I, but I, it's, it, I hope it changes. I think, again, what I would advocate is somebody, you know, go figure out how can you gain a little bit of an advantage in a small sample. That's what you should be tasked to do. Figure out how can you gain the advantage in the postseason as opposed to all these guys still in some way, shape or form are quoting Billy Beane from Moneyball and saying, my doesn't work in the postseason.
- [28:38]
Doug Gl (Host)
I go back to once wild card expanded to a third team. Right?
- [28:44]
John Shambi (Boog)
Yes.
- [28:44]
Doug Gl (Host)
I kind of thought it would be like, oh, my goodness, like all these more teams. Right. Are in it. And then you realize, like, the go for it aspect of being in it is very different between Seattle and New York and Texas and Philly. Right. It was a very different mindset. And now you have, like, less sellers. Right. More buyers, and they're like, well, I'm not going to pay that price. You know.
- [29:07]
John Shambi (Boog)
That's right.
- [29:08]
Doug Gl (Host)
And then it's just, then there's a staring contest.
- [29:10]
John Shambi (Boog)
Yes.
- [29:11]
Doug Gl (Host)
I think globally, the sport around risk aversion. Right. It's just a thing.
- [29:15]
John Shambi (Boog)
It's just risk aversion. And it's, I mean, again, it's easy for me to say because my job's not dependent on taking those risks. But there's got to be some way to change it a tiny bit to make it a little more interesting.
- [29:31]
Doug Gl (Host)
Yeah, I mean, you know, it could be in the trade. You know, it could be what you get in a trade. It could be, I don't know. I mean, it's fascinating because I, I thought about that you mentioned, like, give Me, a shortstop for your left fielder, Right? Just like never happened.
- [29:44]
John Shambi (Boog)
Think about when we were growing up. Big leaguer for big leaguer. I was jokingly saying on the air one day that I think it should be mandatory. The team should have to make at least two big leaguer for big leaguer trades every year.
- [29:55]
Doug Gl (Host)
Oh, and then I would stir the pot for sure.
- [30:01]
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Doug Gl (Host)
See capital1.com for details.
- [30:31]
Capital One Bank Guy
Did I talk too much? Can I just let it go? Thank you so much.
- [30:40]
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- [31:01]
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- [32:03]
Doug Gl (Host)
So September, right? So I mean, I go back to, of course, the day of my day when it was a big deal that you could call up the entire roster basically, right? So you had 12 guys on the bench. Nobody you know can't fit in Wrigley Field. So. But you would do it, right? You had an opportunity. Now, of course, it's sort of Capped or there's a position player and a pitcher and so on. As we've gotten to this point, we're at the push. We heard Rob Thompson talk about it in Milwaukee yesterday. We're at the push. I guess I'm curious your insight, maybe using the Cubs as an example of what are some of the tangible things these push teams are doing differently, you know, than they would during the, quote, regular, regular season. Right? Because I know it's like, okay, Nick Castellanos is getting taken out for defense now in Philly. Right. I mean, there's this. They're bunting more. The, The Milwaukee brewers hit and run the other day. Like, have you been seeing anything that indicates, like a shift in culture to start getting ready for this sort of push?
- [33:00]
John Shambi (Boog)
I mean, I think that you're just looking for every single advantage in of where optionable talent factors in and you're, you're looking for all the available arms. And then, you know, even with the Cubs, I mean, Owen Casey is their top guy and yet he just doesn't have a, a route to play, whereas Alcantara can play center and he's right handed and that's more of the need. So, I mean, again, I think you're, you're just, you're looking for these small advantages. I think is a general idea. You know, where teams are doing it is in the bullpen. You know, you're just looking to try and gain, you know, every possible scenario where you can get collect outs. How do we collect outs? How do we use what's down there? So, I mean, yeah, September is not what it used to be. You know, when Buck Showalter was in his heyday and utilizing, you know, 9 million guys and there was no three batter minimum and all that stuff, I think it's better this way. I do understand that it's a little unfortunate. There used to be the cool part of, hey, you just had a good season, let's reward you and you can even come up and just sit on the bench and then maybe you get your first big league at bat. And it was ceremonial to some extent and definitely a really cool thing. But it also. So that's the good and then the bad was it completely changed the game in the most important games of the year where, you know, some team now has five lefties in their bullpen and they're not that good and they're neutralizing all these hitters in the late stages for a team that's trying to get to the postseason. So I do think, even though there's some sadness to the ceremonial portion of guys not getting, you know, their call up the way they did. I think this is better.
- [35:16]
Doug Gl (Host)
You've seen mostly a whole season at this point, hitting September now in our stride, I guess what's, what's been your takeaways about sort of the game, the state of the union, about things you like, things that you're concerned about. I mean, just sort of broadly. I mean, I've had, I've gotten to see a lot of teams this year, but Saturday and Sunday games and so it's, you know, it runs the gamut. But it's. On one hand there's a lot of young players that are flying through the minor leagues. Roman Anthony, and you're like, okay, this guy's a dude. And on the other hand, sometimes you're like, what's happening with, you know, Christian Campbell? And is he playing center? Is he playing. So, yeah. What's been your sort of perspective?
- [35:58]
John Shambi (Boog)
There's a ton of talent. What's funny is this has always been something that people said, even when it wasn't true, that the players are getting to the big leagues faster now. It is true, but they were saying it 20 years ago when it wasn't actually true. So, yeah, I think, you know, you're seeing players who are not polished, who are learning at this level. They're not going backwards. Right. But I don't know that the extra playoff spot makes it better necessarily because of what we, what we touched on. I think in the game. I think the ball still needs to be in play more. I still think it needs. I still think the pitch clock's been great. I still think it probably needs to move a little faster. I don't think anybody's that good this year is the one thing that, like, there's no team that I'm like, man, and that surprises me a bit. But I, you know, again, I think that it's, it's one of these things that you realize the nature of the sport is just different than at least football and basketball. When the best team plays the worst team 10 times in football and basketball, the best team is going to win 90% of the time. And in baseball, it's probably closer to six and a half, seven. You know, it's just different. So, look, I think the sports in good shape. I have worries about, you know, the CBA and going forward, but I mean, heck, the idea of the Yankees and the Dodgers technically still on the fringes of are they definitely going to make the playoffs? And we're talking about that we need a salary cap. I mean, this year it's been pretty even, and the brewers continue to do their thing, and, you know, the Rays continue to hover around being in a spot and so does Cleveland. I think the sport's in good shape. I think that I would just advocate for, you know, continuing to lean on minds like Theo Epstein's. I know he's not in league office anymore, but growth. What are the things. What do you want it to look like in six years? What do you want the sport to look like in 10 years? What are things you'd like to see happen, and is it realistic? I. I think that those are the types of ideas we need to be contemplating and what, you know, what we want from the sport, what we want to appeal to in terms of the fan base. But I think the sports in, you know, in good shape. I just think you've got to continue to think in terms of, is there stuff that we could do in the next couple years that may not yield results immediately? You know, so have some patience and we'll net you. We. What you think will be good results in, you know, five years or something like that, whether it's financially or whether it's just entertainment wise. So I think, you know, the other. One other thing I would say as an aside, my editorial comment. Yeah, we need more access. Like, I would say that there's. There needs to be time to connect with the players more and have their, you know, their stories told more. But I think everybody's a little less interested in that. So hopefully that's something that can change. I hope, you know, Tony Clark and the Players association would look at that, because I think that's something that's. That's very important, is just. There's just less and less time. The players hide more. I don't think that they recognize that they have a responsibility to talk to the media. I mean, I just think it's about being accountable. So, you know, that's one of the things going forward.
- [39:32]
Doug Gl (Host)
Well, and you look at these, the new locker room, the Lou clubhouses. It's.
- [39:35]
John Shambi (Boog)
Oh, my gosh, Cleveland.
- [39:37]
Doug Gl (Host)
My. You know, it's like I was in Cleveland and I'm like, walking, said, oh, where's the visiting clubhouse? So they send us in the hallway. And I passed. I think I passed, like, four security guards before I finally got to the end. And now, like, I'm at the docking section, and then the rightful corner, there's their locker room door. I was like, oh, my goodness. Like, is there a monorail? So it's, it's, it's amazing. So you've more places to hide, by the way.
- [40:00]
John Shambi (Boog)
More places to hide.
- [40:01]
Doug Gl (Host)
Oh, my goodness. So, yeah, I've been having fun with that. Well, let's think about this. Is it year one, I don't know, year one of the sort of AKA Glanville rule where they changed the running lane to include the dirt on in fair territory. Would you say that was revolutionary? Or.
- [40:15]
John Shambi (Boog)
You know, I love that rule. I just feel better with that. With that rule. They still, I mean, we could sit there. They still need to do more in terms of just eliminating stupid rules and just have clarity on the rules. Because so frequently the managers are coming out to argue and what they're really arguing is whether the rule makes sense or not. Not arguing what actually. Like they're trying to argue common sense on a rule that's stupid. You know, like the one simple one is if a guy has the ball behind his back and he drops the ball, that is not a balk. It's just a dead ball. No one's deceiving anyone. So stop that. There's stuff that can be fixed.
- [41:05]
Doug Gl (Host)
Okay, so here's, here's something. Instant replay. I'm just, you know, a little tangential. But do you agree or. Look, do you think there's value in having some sort of possession of a base? You know, like, okay, you step on first, you overrun the bag. Because it's like the intention of replay. I think it's safe to say it wasn't that the guy could hold the glove on your leg for and actually. And then put maybe and push you off the base and then instant replay. Eventually you're gonna have the technology gonna put a laser and say, his spike came off one millimeter. He's out. You know, like wondering about. Yeah, like, I don't know. It's.
- [41:36]
John Shambi (Boog)
It's one of the unintended consequences of replay. I think that if everybody gets together, they. It's something that they can fix. I totally agree with you. When, when you like, that is not what the point of replay was that a guy pops off the base after, after, after being safe, possessing the base for a second and his hand pops off for half a second and the tag stays on him. That's not the point of, of replay, but I think that that one is, is fixable. It does, it does feel a little. It does feel a little silly.
- [42:10]
Doug Gl (Host)
So now we have. Where we at now. So four weeks or so, you know, left is a. I guess. What are you most looking forward to? I Mean, what's, what's exciting you about this race?
- [42:20]
John Shambi (Boog)
I'm super curious to see if the west ends up being a real fight in the National League. I'm not sure. I don't. I think the Cubs, it'd be really hard for them to catch the brewers, they don't play them again. And, you know, I think that it just, the way everything is set up to play out what the matchups could be. I mean, you're talking about a wild card round. You could have Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, Cubs, Padres. I mean, that is loaded. Holy cow. I think it's just going to be fun because it seems like there's a lot of parody and it's pretty, it's pretty balanced out.
- [43:01]
Doug Gl (Host)
Cool, man. Well, John, I appreciate your time. We'll keep you on your, your day off. And, you know, we're all, you know, ramping up here. So as you have a playoff push, we have a playoff push. The weekends are going to be bananas. Definitely looking forward to that. I'll be, I got, I go to Cincinnati for a day and then I got two Boston Yankees.
- [43:20]
John Shambi (Boog)
I'll be there for, for the Yanks and the Sox in Boston. So we'll see you there.
- [43:24]
Doug Gl (Host)
Absolutely, man. All right, partner. Well, I'll let you roll. Thanks so much for taking the time today and always a pleasure to see you, brother Dougie. Thank you. So, you know what? I want to introduce a new segment. It's not really new, but I'm just going to expand it and then, you know, sell it for 30 more dollars a month because that's how it works. Right. So I'm going to call this the Dugout Plus. Let's go to the Dugout Plus. So that plus is very valuable because I just added it on and I don't know if this is plus, but it's better than minus right now. And minus. Speaking minus. Jason Stark is not here and we will. The show must go on. We know that. So moving on with this, I, you know, I've been thinking about this a little bit because it's a different culture now for the 40 man roster. And so 40 man roster used to be the idea of, wow, all these guys could get called up and they literally could all get called up at the same time. That was September, the 40. You would expand the rosters in September and you could bring up everybody and their dog. It was great. And of course, at Wrigley Field, that was problematic because the dugout only held like 12 people. So we were sitting in layers and rows. It Was a little bit uncomfortable at times. And if you jumped up for a home run, you hit your head on the cement ceiling. That was a bad idea. So putting that aside, the honor of getting called up in September is a big thing. And I think it was nice to give people an opportunity to get a taste of the big leagues just for a split second. I think it was a great thing to give people a taste of the big leagues, even if it was just for a slight cup of coffee. You know, guys that ordinarily didn't get called up, they got called up. They got a taste. And the other thing that was cool about it is, you know, you came up often in the minor leagues with a lot of these players, and they became brothers, roommates, friends, family, all these different ways that we connected. And then it was nice to celebrate together. You know, you kind of, like five of you go up from AAA and you're just like, yeah, you know, you just kind of. You don't feel alone. You have a chance to kind of bond over a common accomplishment. I always thought that was a really cool thing to. To get called up with a group and to have that shot. So now, of course, it's capped and they call up a position player, they call up a pitcher, it's usually a catcher, and it's kind of thin. So of course it's great for those players. But at the same time, it was nice when you could call up a group en masse. And I realized it was a ton of work for the traveling secretary. It was a ton of work for a lot of people involved, you know, just arranging travel and hotel rooms. So this is not easy. And, you know, we have to tip our cap for all those that make the operations go smoothly. But at the same time, it was really cool to have everybody up there. So I kind of missed that. I kind of missed the idea of everybody getting called up. And a lot of the times you shared, you know, you go to dinner together and you just kind of enjoy it and celebrate it with all the people that you might have been in the minor leagues for five years together. I mean, that's something. And I think the other thing is you just get. You can reward players for just small things. You know, hey, you want to, you know, not small really, but you won a batting title in double A. You did something that's milestone worthy, that you just want to say, you know what, let's call this guy up. He's not going to play a lot, but we just want to give him that reward at the End just to say, hey, you made it. You really had a great season. And we're honoring that. You know, let's give a toast to the old 40 man expansion in September. Even though, like, we couldn't fit on the bus, even though we couldn't fit in the locker room, even though at Wrigley Field as a visiting team, we had to change in shifts and shower in shifts. I understand. But that's okay because we ought to be in the big leagues together. It was a great moment. It's a great time to celebrate. And at some point, I will rally to bring this back. At some point because I know people can just get an extra bus. No big deal. That is going to do it for this week's episode of Starkville. I know we're missing Jason right now, but Jason will be back on the next episode, or should we say in the next episode, because Starkville is a place. But on top of that, thank you so much for my good friend and colleague John Boog Shambi. I call him John. The world calls him Boog. I am entitled to do that. Great insights. Very much appreciated. I know he's busy doing a lot of the Cubs games, but he always has some deep thoughts and he's, you know, very much in tune with what's happening in the game. So a great voice of our game. Of course, the fearless mayor. We're calling him digital, we're calling him virtual, but that means he is ubiquitous. The ever present Brian Smith. We are thankful for all your work in handling the technology and as Jason said, putting up with us and our madness and nonsense at the same time. We'd like to think genius, but we don't want to pat ourselves on the back because we don't know. Only time will tell if Starkville will be around centuries from now, which we hope not the one in Mississippi, by the way. And then of course, if you want to send some more questions because we want to get back into our trivia groove. We were on fire last week, absolute fire. I consider that a dynasty. A win of one. And then, Jim Perkins, if you're out there, man, we're gonna call you back. You keep shutting us out, but we're gonna keep coming at you until we get it. So that's right. I'm coming for you, Jim. And then Starkville. All of you want to send questions, it is starkville, starkvilleathletic.com just. You can title it whatever you want. Stump, Stump, Stump, hope, whatever you want to call it. But we appreciate all your trivia and I think we'll wrap it up here. So that's gonna do it. We will see you next week, Stark Mill. Okay. I did that on myself, so I was definitely in sync because I only had to sync it with one person. Sayonara. Ready to order?
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John Shambi (Boog)
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Doug Gl (Host)
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