Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Then welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Great.
00:02It feels like we've made Buck Showalter
00:04like a annual visit here on the show
00:06to get his insights on what's going on
00:08in Major League Baseball.
00:09Of course, he's been fantastic to us through the years.
00:12I personally am still waiting to get Buck
00:15back there in the dugout.
00:16I think that's gonna happen again, in my opinion.
00:18I don't know, maybe we'll get Buck's thoughts
00:20on that at some point.
00:20But first, I would love his thoughts
00:22on the first 10 days or so, or seven days or so,
00:25of the Major League Baseball season.
00:26Buck, great to have you back here on the show once again.
00:28Thanks for making some time for us.
00:30Hi, Craig.
00:31Nobody's that busy.
00:32Oh my gosh, let me see if I can work it in my schedule.
00:36You know, we're not that important.
00:37But no, it's fun talking to you guys.
00:38Hey, we're talking baseball, right?
00:40So, you know, the season's starting.
00:43Yeah, it definitely has.
00:45I love your insights on that.
00:46So, you know, I'm very hesitant.
00:48You know, Donny, Don Mattingly taught me a long time ago
00:50to be very careful on April.
00:53I was with Donny for a long time,
00:54with the Marlins, of course.
00:55And he would always tell me, Craig,
00:57don't go crazy out there, don't say anything nuts,
00:59because April will make you look really foolish
01:02if you throw some things out there
01:04that are not really going to be sustainable
01:06over the course of the season.
01:07So we're about a weekend.
01:09Here's what I'm seeing, Buck.
01:10I'm seeing a lot of runs being scored.
01:12I'm seeing this new park in Sacramento,
01:14a lot of runs being scored there.
01:16More home runs, a lot of velocity chasing as well.
01:19I don't know if I missed anything there.
01:21But at least that's my initial thought.
01:23I generally don't see 15, 20 run gains
01:26in the first week of April.
01:27I feel like there's been a lot thus far.
01:31Well, I think 20, 30 years from now,
01:33if you're trying to project
01:34what ballparks are going to look like,
01:36you know you're being old.
01:38You know you're old when ballparks you remember as new
01:41are being torn down.
01:42That's where I am in my life.
01:44Some of them are on their third,
01:45Texas on their third stadium.
01:47But I think you're going to see people cover their fields
01:50and not let the elements affect it.
01:53We all know it rains at four o'clock every afternoon,
01:55it seems like in Florida.
01:56So you better have a good indoor cage in Tampa.
01:59Sacramento with the elevation,
02:01you know, I was in Utah
02:04and Salt Lake City's being talked about
02:07as a possible expansion or relocation.
02:10And I don't think people realize
02:12that it's not too far behind Colorado.
02:14That ballpark will be very conducive to offense.
02:18And the top three elevations are Colorado, Arizona,
02:23and a lot of people don't know Atlanta.
02:24That's why they call it the launching pad.
02:26So the elevation plays a lot
02:28into how you put the club together.
02:30But I think with Sacramento,
02:32it's, you know, we see all these trends.
02:35I've always gone by the adage
02:37that never judge a player in the spring or the fall.
02:41You know, you judge them over a track record.
02:45You know, the first thing I look at
02:46when I look at stats of a player
02:48and think about acquiring them
02:48is I look at games played.
02:50Can they post up?
02:51Can they play?
02:53You know, and, you know, with off days
02:55and load management and all the things going on,
02:57the guys that can post up, you know,
02:59that's what's so valuable about Lindore.
03:00He plays 155, 160 games.
03:03So you can count on it.
03:05You know, his 90% is better
03:07than the 100% of the guy you replace him with.
03:09But, you know, it'll be interesting to see
03:12how the Dodgers and the Braves play out in the long haul.
03:15But that's, what's different, Craig,
03:17is we play a sport every day for seven or eight months
03:19to roll the dice in October.
03:21And I think October's more of a roll of dice
03:23than ever before.
03:25But I just think that you gotta trust
03:29the length of the season and play the long game
03:31while people around you are in full panic mode.
03:34Yeah, that's a great point.
03:36And, you know, I went into the season
03:39and a lot of people were asking me,
03:41we'll go to the Dodgers here.
03:42A lot of people ask you about the Dodgers.
03:44And I was a little bit effusive with it.
03:47I was like, come on, there's no super teams anymore.
03:50I know they're really good and they're gonna win 100,
03:52but, you know, in the end,
03:54they're not gonna win 120 games.
03:56No one does that.
03:57115, no one does that.
03:58And Seattle had that incredible year several years ago.
04:01But, Buck, I gotta tell you, man,
04:03like I'm sort of regretting that a little bit here
04:06and I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself,
04:08but they're finding different ways to win every single night.
04:10This is as close to a super team as we have seen.
04:14I don't know that we will see one in a couple of years
04:16with the new CBA coming,
04:18which is a story for another day here.
04:19But Otani on Thursday, you know, hits that walk-off shot.
04:23Their pitchers just throw five innings
04:25and then they got these guys throwing sweepers
04:27and sliders at 98, 99,
04:29and they don't even need their guys
04:30to go deep into the game.
04:34Is this as close to a super baseball team
04:38as we've seen in a while?
04:39I'm a little scared to see these outcomes here.
04:42Well, seven games into the season,
04:44but the thing that would scare me
04:46if I was the opposition, not scared,
04:48would make me go, wow, this may play out,
04:50is their depth.
04:52You know, the quality GMs are always saying, what if?
04:56What if Otani goes down all year?
04:59What if Freeman goes down all year?
05:01We used to say, J.J. Hardy in Baltimore
05:04breaks his leg in spring training.
05:05What are we gonna do?
05:06Because the season doesn't stop
05:07and the other teams don't allow you to catch up
05:10until your player comes back.
05:11But what is challenging,
05:15because you're gonna have some issues along the way,
05:17is their depth and their rotation, their bullpen.
05:22That one would get my attention.
05:24I'm like, they are so deep.
05:26They're gonna be able to sustain something.
05:28You know, there are teams that are built,
05:29like that Mariner team, you remember,
05:32they were built for the regular season.
05:33There's really four times you manage as a manager.
05:36You manage in the spring, you manage in the regular season,
05:39you manage in September baseball, that's a different cat,
05:43and then you manage in the post-season.
05:44There's four different approaches.
05:46And unfortunately for the opposition,
05:50I think their team is gonna be able to stand
05:52all four of those quadrants.
05:54All right, and so Buck, now on the flip side,
05:56let's go to the Braves here,
05:58who, you know, had a pretty quiet off-season,
06:01but they did extend a bunch of their players
06:04a couple of years ago.
06:05I know they'll get back Strider
06:06and they'll get back Ronald Acuna Jr.
06:08And, you know, you certainly saw your fair share of them
06:10when you were the manager of the Mets.
06:12No team's ever made the post-season.
06:13I was shocked to see that after starting 0-7.
06:16Braves rebound, Buck, in your mind?
06:19I wouldn't bet against them.
06:20If I was a betting man, I would bet for them.
06:22I just think they've got a nice, calming influence
06:25with their manager and, you know, a guy that's been,
06:28when I look at managers, I look at their path.
06:30You know, the managers that have a path of experience
06:33in the minor leagues and winter ball
06:35and instructional league and different things
06:37that have actually been through the ups
06:38and downs of the season.
06:40I think Snicker does that very well.
06:43And they're going to get, you know,
06:44the Cavalry's coming there.
06:45You know, their catcher went out on rehab, Murphy.
06:48They're going to be okay.
06:50I, yeah, nobody wants to start out 0-7
06:52and have to answer all those questions.
06:54But if you look at the pure percentage
06:56of what part of the season seven games is,
07:00I would not bet against them.
07:01Just like I wouldn't bet against the Dodgers
07:03sustaining a really top flight season.
07:07All right, I would agree.
07:08Buck, always great to catch up with you.
07:10We'll look forward to catching you on the television
07:13and also, I hope, at some point back in the dugout.
07:15Thanks again for coming on.