Jackson Merrill's Impact and Shifts in NL Rookie Odds
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00:00The Padres did get on the board in St. Louis against the Cardinals.
00:08It is now 2-1, and that would be courtesy of a solo homerun from Jackson Merrill, who
00:14of course has really been on a tear the last six weeks, two months.
00:20Tons of game-tying homers, game-saving catches, go-ahead, walk-off hits, everything you could
00:25ever possibly want to make guys like me, Joe, that have Paul Skeen's NL Rookie of the Year
00:31tickets super happy and excited for Jackson Merrill, that he's having all the success
00:36now and basically ripping the money out of my hand while I was sitting there with it
00:42for Skeen's.
00:43So Skeen's pitches yesterday, goes five, only gives up two runs, leaves with a lead.
00:48That was an early afternoon game.
00:51Pirates completely blow up after that.
00:52They lose the game to the Cubs.
00:54Here's where it stands now, and this is of course before Merrill even homered today.
01:00Merrill has now stretched it out to minus 400.
01:05He was 15-1 not even a month ago, Joe.
01:09Not even a month ago.
01:10This guy Skeen was minus 3,000 at the beginning of August.
01:15And now I'm starting to feel I don't even have a shot anymore, Joe.
01:19It's over for me.
01:22I'm sensing a bit of sarcasm about wishing Jackson Merrill all the best here.
01:30But you know what?
01:31Lesson learned here, Carver, because out of sight, out of mind.
01:35That's the difference between being a position player for that award and being a starting
01:41pitcher that if you're not starting, you're forgotten about here.
01:45But the record that was set, that was broke last night, it is the first time I believe
01:51this year, 0-376 heading into last night where a team entered the seventh inning down, what,
02:00more than seven runs and still managed to come back and win the damn game.
02:04So leave it to the Pirates to somehow be able to lose a game that they had no business losing
02:12in any way, shape, or form and setting records with it.
02:16And again, another spot where nobody's talking about Paul Skeens after that, are they?
02:22Well, that's the problem, Joe, because Skeens had nothing to do with that.
02:27Zero.
02:28He wasn't out there to give up the ten runs and the seven run lead.
02:33He gave up two runs in five innings.
02:36And I don't know if you want to say, well, that's part of, they're only going to pitch
02:39him five innings now every time, which they've kind of pretty much said, hey, you want us
02:44to keep using him?
02:45Well, we'll keep using him, but now he's only going to pitch five innings every time he
02:49goes out there.
02:51I don't know what to think, Joe, because I understand why the odds board moves the way
02:55that it does with betting action, things like that.
02:58But I still believe that if you polled the actual guys and girls who are going to vote
03:04on that at the end of the year, who have the vote, so vote for the NL Rookie of the Year,
03:10I still think a lot of them would lean Skeens because there was all that, started the All-Star
03:15game, doing stuff with first year pitchers ever done.
03:19I still think this is going to be one of those ones where the odds, and we've seen
03:22this in the past a few years with some of these awards, the odds are moving one way,
03:27but the 30 people that are going to vote on it, I think are going to have a different
03:31view when they actually get in there and turn it in.
03:34I think that they're going to look at the entire body of work and some of the accomplishments
03:38that Skeens had this year.
03:40I think a lot of that is going to depend on, can Jackson Merrill keep this up?
03:45Do they lock up a post-season berth?
03:52It's all to me about what have you done for me lately with this?
03:57If you would have taken the votes a month and a half ago, it's not even a question.
04:02But now all of a sudden he goes five, we're talking about the Pirates being on a historic
04:07loss.
04:08Nobody's talking about that he was hitting triple digits on the gun consistently through
04:1382 pitches.
04:16Nobody's talking about that.
04:17I think perception is reality, and it really is what have you done for me lately?
04:23I hate hearing you say that to me, Joe, it makes me very upset that that's what you're
04:28coming with.
04:29But hey, just like they just said, we said the beginning of August he was minus 3,000.
04:35That could swing fairly quickly in the month of September.
04:38It could swing just back the other way.
04:41Maybe Merrill misses a couple weeks, Gaines has a couple great five inning outings, and
04:47suddenly maybe we could push it back over to that side, which would be very helpful,
04:51Joe, if we could do that.