On this week’s episode, the fellas look back on a so-so week from the Kansas City Royals, take a closer look at a few pitching prospects and what their hot starts say about the player development, and preview this week’s games.
Plus, Mike explains how he injured his coccyx (it’s not how you’d think)!
04:05 – Weekly review
28:12 – Spotlight segment (hot start for pitching prospects)
45:20 – Preview of this week’s games
50:35 – Just a bit outside
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Welcome back to Royals Weekly.
I am your host, Marcus Mead, and joining
me as always, a legendary tambourine tech
for the Little River Band, my brother
Mike.
much that pay being the old tambourine
tech for the little river band?
I’ll take it.
I don’t know what it is, but I’ll be it.
They got they got they got a huge
following, especially in probably Utah, I
imagine.
Who knows?
Like, what does being a tambourine tech
entail exactly?
so much, you know, you got to make sure
the tambourines are in order and they’re,
you know, you got to give them the right
one for each song.
Saturday night I was dreaming of you.
Oh, Little River, LRB.
I always got some LRB queued up.
I knew you’d take it there.
I knew you’d take it there.
Yes, Mike, fantastic tamper in tech.
If you’re looking to go out on the road
and you’re a soft rock band, then give him
a shout.
He’s he’s all over the tambourines on this
week’s episode.
We’ll look back at a fairly strong week at
like an even week, a very even week for
the boys in blue discuss a fiery start
from the Royals Minor League pitchers.
Something’s happening down on the on the
farm with with the pitching development.
We got to talk about it.
And then we’ll preview this week’s games
against the Blue Jays and Tigers.
It’s a continuation of this homestand to
start the week here.
But first we have another review
everybody.
It’s all happening for us in terms of the
reviews.
And so we’re very excited about that.
This one might be a bot.
I’m just gonna throw that out there.
This one might be a bot.
Here’s just like a little review writing
tip for those of you out there.
If you want us to think that you’re not a
bot, put an actual name where it says
name, okay?
Not like a series of numbers, okay?
Because this is just a random series of
numbers.
One nine eight, so.
Reviewer one nine eight two five six seven
four three that That whole you know that
that that old shit that person that person
we all know from high school Yeah Who?
Their title of their review just says
great which you know, that’s great.
Thank you One nine eight two five six
seven four three.
We really appreciate that And they gave us
five stars and said truly great Royals
podcast so much insight and useful banter
Thank you
it, we love useful banter.
you are a bot or this is just the first
step of AI taking over, whatever, we
appreciate that review.
So thank you very much.
We appreciate it.
We’re still gonna take it to heart.
We’re still gonna let it sink in and feel
good.
So thank you.
Royals Weekly is brought to you by Eric
Ocsher of WestUSA Realty.
Phoenix has all of our favorite things.
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We’ve known him for 30 years and trust him
far more than we even trust each other.
I spent a year trying to have Mark
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on a Good Sense punch card that he had
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that’s, yeah, Mike’s real into that, that
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Are you a baseball player or parent who
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Eric knows the golf scene like Mike knows
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Find Eric online at ericoxure .com if you
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It’s E -R -I -C -K -A -U -X –
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Even if you’re just curious about what he
can do for you, he’s 100 % no pressure,
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and he never tries to take third with one
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the heart of the order coming up.
Never.
You can tell who I was writing that about.
We’ll start our review of last week with
roster news like we always do.
There’s a little something to talk about
here, which is pretty nice, right?
Like, lately we’ve been completely devoid
of roster news.
It’s been wild.
But Michael Massey was reinstated from the
injured list last week, which of course
created a little conundrum for the Royals.
They had to send somebody off the 26th
man.
They chose Nick Lofton, sending him down
to AAA.
Mike, what are your thoughts on the idea
of sending Lofton down, getting Massey
back and all that?
Love getting Massey back.
That’s awesome.
We need to really get, you know, it’s a
big important year for Michael Massey.
He came out, got a couple of hits in that
first or second game back.
Can’t remember which one.
Tough spot for Lofton, though, because you
felt like he was kind of filling the role
that Nick Lofton is meant to fill very
well early in this year.
And then he gets sent back down.
And so that sucks for him.
You know, there were other there are other
guys, possibly, you know, Garrett Hampson,
Adam Frazier, who you might think.
Well, they’re not contributing as much.
Well, they don’t have options.
And so, you know, when you get when you’re
in that situation, you’re a younger
player.
You have options left to give.
Generally, you give them for your team at
some point, especially if you’re a player
like Nick Lofton is who’s kind of a
utility guy to begin with.
So, yeah, tough for him.
I’m sure we’ll see him back up here at
some point, but good to get Massey back.
And hopefully, Lofton goes down there and
keeps doing what he’s been doing at the
Major League level.
Yeah, the Massey thing is something I
think we’re kind of losing focus on.
It’s great to have Massey back, right?
Like we need that bat in the lineup right
now, especially because the Royals are
struggling so much offensively, or at
least to be consistent offensively.
They’ll go out and score nine in a game
and then they’ll get blanks like they did
today, right?
Like it’s a real up and down offense and
they could use one more bat in that lineup
that just lengthens it so we don’t have a
trip through the, you know, six, seven,
eight, nine holes that was like today.
Today it was Hampson, Frazier, Renfro,
Isbell.
His bulb was later, he pinch hit, but we
had a trip through the six through nine in
our lineup was a real desert of a, of a
trek through the lineup there.
And we need to lengthen it.
We need guys and those who are going to
provide quality of bats who have the
ability to drive runners in and that sort
of thing.
And he’s going to be that for us.
I, I, I think Massey has a decent chance
to be that Lofton.
I just, it’s hard for me because you can’t
say, Hey, our division’s weak and we’re
going to make a run at it.
And then send a guy like Lofton down
because he gives you.
the best chance to win games.
He is better than whatever rotation
they’re gonna have with Massey and
Frazier.
He is better than whatever they’re gonna
get from Garrett Hampson.
Nick Lofton is just a better baseball
player and he gives them a better chance.
I understand that he doesn’t play center
field like Hampson does, but the question
I start to really ask is what is Frazier
doing that Nick Lofton can’t do and then
some?
I know they paid Frazier and I know that
they’re trying to get as much value out of
that contract as they can, but.
guess what, you have a bad problem, which
is that Nick Lofton is now better, right?
Like, and so it’s a good problem to have,
but you know, it’s one of those things
where it’s like, every fan can see what’s
going on right now.
It has nothing to do with putting the best
team on the field and you told us you’re
trying to compete.
It’s a little bit of a mixed messaging
there.
My thing is there’s there’s other aspects
to you know, how much better is Garrett
Hampson at centerfield than Dairon Blanco?
Is he that much better that you can keep
him and send Lofton down?
You know, and if he is OK, maybe how much
better is is Blanco than what Nick Lofton
could give you at the end of a game?
You know, so we’ve got to start, you know,
because I know Lofton can give you second
base.
I know he can do stuff in the first seven
innings that Dairon Blanco can’t do.
And so.
Where’s the what levels are we thinking at
here?
Are we actually again, like you said,
trying to put the best 26 man together
that we can get?
Or are we worried?
Hey, we paid Adam Frazier four and a half
million dollars and Garrett Hampson to
they got to be in the major leagues.
That’s what it seems like at this point,
but we’ll see moving forward.
I mean, I think there’s a good chance that
they start looking for a market for Hunter
Renfro and Adam Frazier pretty early in
this season.
I would, because you have guys who can
probably fill those roles in better ways.
Jordan Lyles also went on the restricted
list for personal reasons yesterday, and
so that’s something he did.
They brought up Anthony Veneziano to
replace him, and he got to pitch in a
couple games so far, I think.
Mike, what are your thoughts on Lyos with
the restricted list and Veneziazo up to
replace him?
Well, hopefully all is well for Lyle’s and
his family.
That’s the first thing you think of is I
hope it’s nothing tragic.
And then the other thing, you know,
Vinesiano comes up.
He looked pretty good in his first outing
on Saturday.
I think he pitched a little over an
inning, maybe maybe two innings even in
that game when it looked like the Rojas
were getting blown out and then they ended
up coming back and making it a really
close game.
And then I think he gave up a run in
today’s game, if I’m not mistaken, two
hits in one run.
So.
I like him.
I think he looks good.
I think he could fit in a bullpen in a
couple of different ways.
I think Vaneciano could, which is always
good.
And then you could always start him if you
need him to too.
And I think he’d be okay there.
So happy that Vaneciano is going to get a
shot.
Not so happy that it came at the expense
of Lyle’s possibly having some personal
issues in his family.
Yeah, we hope everything is going great
for him or we hope everything is, you
know, getting back on track with those
issues and nothing too terribly bad
happened.
But at the same time, it was interesting
to me that it happened when it did because
that thing happened for Lyles.
He goes on the restricted list and the
very next game, Cole Regans gets blown up
after one and two thirds innings or
whatever it was, right?
One and a third, one and two thirds.
And it’s like, oh no, we need a long man
now.
And so yeah, we need a Jordan Lyles,
right, for that game.
And he would have definitely pitched in
it.
had he not been on their Extricate List.
And so it’s creating this odd situation,
because the Royals are in the middle of a
long stretch of games without a day off
right now.
And so they’re not gonna have a day off
until the end of the Detroit series after
they’ll play the Blue Jays four games,
they’ll play Detroit another three, and
then they’ll get a day off after that, I
think.
And so that will put them like something
like 14, 13 games in a row without a day
off.
It’s easier for them in some ways because
their starters have gone so deep and that
sort of thing, but they started to get a
little bit tested in that second Baltimore
game where Reagan’s blows up and so they
don’t have somebody they have to sort of
string a whole bunch of relievers
together.
Now they’ve used a bunch of guys multiple
days in a row.
And so it’s gonna be a little bit tougher
for them to figure out how do we piecemeal
this thing together.
It wouldn’t even surprise me if Lyle stays
on that restricted list.
if they end up cycling Vanezziano down and
bring someone like Bolin up to just fill
some innings, fill some time, you know,
that sort of thing.
Or Will Klein, maybe somebody like who’s
on the 40 man, just filter them up so that
they can fill some of those innings.
on the field last week, the Royals went
three and three to bring their overall
record to 13 and nine.
That brings them to second in the AL
Central.
They were able to grab two of three from
the White Sox, which was nice to see, but
a lot of people were hoping for a sweep of
the White Sox who are one of the worst
teams in baseball, one of the worst teams
I’ve ever seen, honestly.
And so we were hoping for another sweep
from them.
And yeah, what I’ve seen a lot of, I
watched the Royals last year.
I watched every game, you know, like I’ve
seen some of the worst of the worst, okay?
They’re really, really bad.
But hoping for a sweep, weren’t able to
get it because the bats kind of went cold
in that last White Sox game.
They come back home, Baltimore comes in,
we grab a great win on Friday night.
I went to that game, that was a blast.
It was UMKC night at the K, having tons of
fun, home runs, lots of fun.
The offense looked like they were coming
back.
And then Baltimore comes out, destroys
Coleragons yesterday.
They hold onto the lead, hold onto the
win, and they just went out and beat
pretty soundly the Royals today.
Like, what are your thoughts on how the
week went last week?
think it’s about as we would have expected
it.
It just didn’t happen.
Maybe the way we would have expected it
put it that way.
Baltimore is a great team.
So losing two of three to a great team is
not that big of a deal, but you don’t
expect for Cole Regans to blow up like
that and you still to have a chance to win
the game in the late innings and they did,
you know, Kyle Isbell doesn’t get thrown
out at third there.
We probably tie that game in the eighth,
you know, possibly giving, you know, who
knows after that, but.
say if Salvador Perez doesn’t allow that
past ball earlier in that like a inning
before that which is just a ball that
literally went in and out of his glove you
know oh it broke his glove okay well I
didn’t know it broke his glove I can’t
can’t really can’t really call him out for
that then okay see some days all the
breaks just go against you right like
and so that was a tough one, even though,
I mean, great job rallying back.
He hit that great.
I mean, he had two massive hits in that
game.
Salvador Perez did.
But yeah, it ended up about how you
thought it would.
You ended up with a three and three week
winning a series against a bad team and
losing a series against a good team.
That’s.
kind of, well, I think what we’re figuring
out what these Royals are, kind of like
the 2013 Royals were.
They’re the kind of team that actually
beat up all the teams they were supposed
to and then scrapped with the good teams,
but didn’t always come out on the winning
end.
And that’s what it kind of feels like this
team is right now.
Yeah, that’s a great way of putting it.
I see a lot of people after the Baltimore
series who were expressing like, oh,
here’s the Royals record against teams
over 500.
Here’s their record against teams below
500.
And of course they’re killing the teams
below 500, not doing great against the
teams above 500.
And it’s like, yeah, because they’re like
a 500 team.
They’re like a in the middle team.
Like that’s what they’re going to do.
They’re going to beat bad teams.
They’re going to struggle to beat good
teams.
And that’s sort of what middle of the road
teams do, you know, like, and so that
doesn’t surprise me.
There were a couple of missed
opportunities.
I think the thing that gets people,
is that they’re in all of these,
especially Baltimore this year.
Like the two Baltimore series we’ve had,
they should have at least split the season
series.
We’re now done playing Baltimore all year.
We should have at least split the season
series, right?
Maybe even gone four and two in the season
series because we had bullpen blowups and
all these sorts of things that were like,
ah, I think that’s the thing that gets,
it’s like, we don’t have to have a really
bad record against the good teams.
If we could have just not made this one
mistake or this one bullpen guy blew it up
or you know, whatever like that.
It’s just that this close, this close to
maybe being that little bit better of a
team than we actually are.
Some people played like the people who
were good enough to be that little bit
better.
Mike, who is your strong performer for
this week?
Salvador Perez has been not just for this
week, this year.
Looks like he’s twenty seven again.
You know, it looks like he’s back to being
youthful captain, but with the power that
he’s had in the last five years.
And so he went five for 16 with two home
runs, five walks, five walks in a week for
Salvador Perez.
You got to love it.
And seven RBI and like every one of those
hits felt like it came in the most
important moment of the game.
And so, yeah, he’s just amazing.
You know, a royal’s legend doesn’t even
doesn’t even really touch what what
Salvador Perez has done.
He’ll get a statue someday.
And, you know, if he keeps if he continues
to play this year like he has so far, not
I don’t expect the numbers to stay where
they are.
But if he continues to be very, very good
this year, who knows?
You know, who knows?
He may get in the Hall of Fame on kind of
a lifetime achievement thing where it’s
like, hey.
You want a World Series, you were the best
catcher in baseball for a long stretch and
you were the best hitting catcher in
baseball for a long stretch as well.
That’s, I think you got to look at them
that way.
If this continues for three to five more
years, you’re talking about in my eyes, a
hall of fame.
Yeah, if he can play like this for three
to five more years, there’s a decent
chance he gets over 300 home runs and over
300 home runs at the catching position
playing in Kauffman, having the defensive
accolades that he has, being a winner like
he was, you know, being the heart and soul
of one franchise.
All of those things will, I think, help
his Hall of Fame case.
I think, you know, and I don’t think it’s
outside the realm of possibility.
Like, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed
this, but like there are numbers out
there.
His defense has been significantly better
this year than it has been the last few
years.
And that’s another thing, like a testament
to how hard he’s worked to keep his body
in shape, to get better at the little
deficiencies that he had that started to
develop over time, especially the framing
and stuff like that.
He has gotten so much better at those
things and he is now a very, very good
defensive catcher again, as well as being
an offensive stalwart right now for this
lineup.
It’s really amazing to see and a testament
to how much he loves baseball and what a
great professional he is.
I’m talking about a young professional who
looked really, really good this week and
that’s –
I looked obviously the offense, there
wasn’t a lot of hot performers last week
to choose from.
So I went to the pitching and there were a
few guys there, but I wanted to pull out
Matt Sauer as my strong performer this
week because I was thoroughly impressed
with what I saw from him in the game that
I went to.
And then they asked him to pitch again
this week because they’re so sort of hard
up for pitching in the bullpen after that
Reagan’s blow up.
And I thought he’s just held his own very
well.
You know, he went three and a thirds
innings pitchless week or last week, zero
runs, two hits, two walks, two strikeouts.
You don’t love the same member of walks
and strikeouts, but he’s doing enough to
get out and to sort of be what this
bullpen needs him to be that you really
got to applaud it.
Cause you’re talking about a guy who went
straight from AA to the majors.
Really tough to do and didn’t have that
much time in AA, I don’t think.
Like he didn’t pitch that much last year.
And so really, really tough transition to
make.
It seems like he’s figuring some things
out.
I don’t think he’s all the way there.
I don’t even think he’s as good as it’s
going to be this year.
because I think they’re going to continue
to work with what his pitch mix needs to
be.
They’re going to give him a pitch that
might help him generate more ground balls
because he’s a real fly ball pitcher.
And I think that worries some people, but
seeing his slider be effective against
major league hitters has to help him.
And he was out there pumping 96, 97 in
relief on Friday night, which makes me
think he’s normally a guy who sits 94, 95
as a starter.
He might be able to increase the velocity
on that fastball in short stint relief
rolls, which is really cool.
Mike, not everyone was Perez and Sowers
-esque this week.
Who was your weak performer coming into
this week?
Will Smith did not get jiggy with it.
OK.
Will Smith, three innings pitched four
hits, four earned runs, two K’s and zero
walks.
He tried to give away that Baltimore game
that they won on Friday night.
Will Smith, you friggin kid gives up a
grand slam to Adley Richmond to put him
back into the game.
Yeah.
So and somebody on Twitter, there were
multiple people on Twitter and threads who
were putting this out there.
When can you ask him to pitch now?
When do you feel comfortable putting Will
Smith in?
What leverage situation, what role does he
have?
And right now it’s like, well, we feel
comfortable putting him in when we’re up
by seven or down by seven.
We already have three guys that do that.
We already have three guys that fill that
role.
We have Sauer, we have Lyles, and you
might argue we have Zarpa for that too.
So I don’t know.
on a pitch to clean innings today.
So apparently it’s when you’re, I don’t
think they were down four runs maybe at
that time or five.
And so, you know.
we paid money for this summer.
Over the winter it was.
Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong.
And that’s why I feel completely fine with
them immediately shelving him and pushing
him to the back.
But the problem there is we’re now getting
a large inventory of mop up guys in our
bullpen.
We can’t do that.
If you want to win games, you can’t have
three mop up guys.
Yeah, it is tough because you do not trust
him to pitch in any game where anything is
on the line, right?
Like you just can’t do it.
Like and so.
What’s interesting is in that Friday
outing, he was throwing a bit harder.
He was throwing.
I saw a lot of 92s on the on the on the
gun at Kaufman, and so he was throwing a
little bit harder.
He came out today and he got some outs and
stuff like that.
It’s tough because Will Smith is in a
position where you’re right, he’s not
walking anybody.
He’s just very, very hittable right now.
And I don’t know what the solution for
that is.
You can’t build him a time machine.
You can’t like say, hey, go back and get
younger and have sharper stuff.
Like it’s just time is undefeated for a
reason, right?
Like, and so this may just be the twilight
of Will Smith right here.
And that’s, that sucks to say, but you
know, we’re going to have to find a
solution because you cannot carry this guy
the entire season.
If you’re hoping to do something, you
can’t carry a guy who’s your fourth mop up
guy, essentially can’t be done.
My week performer, I chose to go with a
guy who all of us love and think is
amazing, but had one bad outing this week
and that’s Cole Regans, right?
And I wanted to, because I wanted to talk
about that out again, I wanted to talk
about Regans.
Regans went one and two thirds innings in
his sole outing this week, gave up nine
hits, seven earned runs, zero walks and
four strikeouts.
You saw a whole bunch of things coming out
afterwards that are like, hey, sometimes
people have days like this, you know, this
happens occasionally.
And that’s 100 % what this is.
I don’t want anyone to be like, oh,
Reagan’s is broke too.
Reagan’s, oh no, like don’t do that.
Like a lot of those nine hits were very
weakly hit balls that just found grass.
Baltimore had a really good plan against
Reagan’s and I don’t know that Reagan’s
had a really good way to respond, right?
Here’s what they did.
They took his fastball to right field.
They fouled off a ton of pitches.
on two strikes and then they just blooped
hits in where they could, right?
Like that was a big part of their game
plan.
And so they fouled off so many pitches and
then just found ways to put them in play
and hope for the best and the best to
actually happened, right?
On a normal day, that’s not the case.
On a normal day, Reagan’s gives up like
three or four runs in this game, probably
goes five innings, keeps the Royals in the
game.
Did not happen on this day.
It’s not anything I’m concerned about.
The only thing I’m concerned about is the
Royals left him in to throw 42 pitches in
one inning.
That concerns me.
The fact that he could be hurt by that,
something like that, a guy off two Tommy
John surgeries, that really concerns me.
I hope that they monitor his pitch counts
very closely for his next few outings
because it scares me that he threw that
many pitches in one inning.
So I’m going to say two things here.
One, you and I saw a team do this to Cole
Regans in spring training.
And I think it was the Colorado Rockies at
Salt River Field.
Every time they threw he threw a fastball.
All they wanted to do was put it into
right field and they they beat him up
pretty good.
And two, you know, in boxing, sometimes we
say styles make fights.
This is the kind of perfect kind of lineup
to go against a Cole Regans.
If you want to.
divide, you know, if you want to come up
with a lineup to go against Cole Regans,
one that when they get two strikes are
going to be very difficult to put away
because they’re just willing to foul off,
foul off, foul off, foul off, and then
dink one out there to right field.
This lineup is all okay with that.
They’re very good at it.
And so, yeah, it doesn’t surprise me that
Baltimore was the team that kind of do
this to him, but he does need to come up
with a counter to that.
I mean, he’s got to, he’s got to come up
to it with a counter to what do I do when.
You know, I’m not getting those
strikeouts.
They’re fouling off so many of my pitches
when they’ve got two strikes.
I’ve got to have something I can do.
And it’ll be interesting to see that next
evolution of Cole Regans when he starts to
see other teams do that to him, because
they will.
Oh, they will.
Every team is going to see what Baltimore
did and that will be the game plan from
now on against Cole Regans.
Mike, looking back at this week, a week
that the Royals went three and three,
which you can’t call bad or good really.
What is your theme for the week?
Oh, I went to a great OK.
And we all know it.
If you’ve ever seen the movie any given
Sunday, the speech that Al Pacino gives in
any given Sunday is legendary.
It’s a legendary speech, whether you’re a
football fan or an Al Pacino fan or
whatever.
What is that?
I think that’s an Oliver Stone movie.
Is that right?
That that’s a great line from it.
I best you ever loved me that that speech
right there.
I went to this this part.
I went to the essence of it.
And here it is.
Here’s my theme for the week.
It’s a little longer than what my themes
usually are.
The inches we need are everywhere around
us.
They’re in every break of the game, every
minute, every second.
And that is because of those that
minuscule stuff that makes you lose a
White Sox game that you should have
probably won and and a Baltimore game in
that second game that you had a chance to
come back and win.
But Kyle is well get thrown out third and
Salves glove breaks and you get all this.
stuff that doesn’t doesn’t break your way.
That 2013 Royals team, they couldn’t they
couldn’t find those inches.
And as they got older, they got better at
it.
I think this team will do the same thing.
I think this team hopefully will continue
to figure out those little inches.
OK, we’re going to take a piece here.
We’re going to take a piece here.
We’re going to take a piece here.
And that’s going to add up to five wins in
a season.
But that’s the difference between a wild
card spot and no playoffs at all.
or a wild card spot and winning the
division.
And so the inches.
Thanks Al Pacino.
You’re fucking awesome, man.
We fight for those inches.
Love it.
I love it.
Go go watch that that monologue right now.
I’m sure it’s on YouTube go go take a look
at it.
It’s great My theme for this week is from
a great song by the great songwriter Colin
Hay and that song is the title I believe
is the same as my quote from it and that
is I’m waiting for my real life to begin
the interesting thing about the Royals
this week and I think this week especially
right is that like I
you wanna peg down what kind of team this
is and what kind of team this is gonna be.
Like, are they gonna be able to compete
with the Baltimore’s and the Blue Jays and
things like that of the world?
Are they gonna just be good enough to beat
up on bad teams but not good enough to
really do anything special?
I’m waiting for that to happen.
I feel like I can’t begin my real life
until I know what these Royals are gonna
be.
I think we get more and more definition
all the time.
And I think we’re learning more and more
that it might settle along right in the
middle.
but I’m waiting to sort of see what
they’re gonna become.
We’re waiting to see what begins because I
think you’re right, Mike, this team could
eventually learn how to take those inches,
in which case we’re really gonna slam the
throttle.
We’re really gonna get excited about
what’s happening, but I’m just waiting for
it all to begin.
I think you’re going to get a much clearer
definition of what this team is when they
start playing the Detroits and the
Clevelands and they see the twins again
when they really dig into the central.
I think you’re going to be able to tell
how much this team can compete in its own
division first off, but also maybe for a
wild card as well.
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We’ve all watched in wonder as the Royals
rotation has transformed itself from a
waking nightmare last year into one of the
best units in baseball so far this season.
But it’s actually been an organization
wide phenomenon as many of their best
pitching prospects are off to really hot
starts as well.
Mike, I want to talk about some pitchers
specifically and then tackle the broad
questions related to this pitching and
pitching development.
Do you have any thoughts on the origins?
I’m gonna start with Ben Guderna.
Do you have any starts?
or thoughts on the origins of his insane
start this year?
Because in my mind, he’s been the most
impressive pitching prospect that the
Royals have had so far.
He has gone what?
How many innings?
14 and two thirds innings with a 1 .23
ERA, a 0 .75 whip, 19 strikeouts and only
five walks.
What are your thoughts on what’s spurring
Kadirna’s hot start here?
Well, I haven’t had a chance to see him
throw yet.
So I don’t know about added pitches or
changing of how he throws stuff.
There’s lots of talk about how good the
change up is still, which is fantastic.
You know, that gets him a lot of his
strikeouts, but he’s increased his K rate
in this time, which is big.
You know, he’s over 10 % for a strikeout
rate right now.
He’s avoided the home run.
Okay, because I was gonna say 10 % is not
an impressive strikeout rate.
rate is much higher than that.
No, strikeouts per nine is like 11
something, I think.
Now it might be more than that even.
I can’t remember, but it’s high.
He’s doing very well striking people out.
His ground ball rate is also over 50
percent, which is very good for him.
And he’s not giving up home runs.
And so that’s a great recipe for, you
know.
dominating, especially where is he at high
a low a is he still he’s in high high a
high a hitters, which is fantastic.
You know, he’s still young.
I think he’s 21 years old.
Yeah, to see him take this leap forward
right now, it looks like he needs to be in
double a and that would be huge.
Now, I’m going to talk a little bit more
about this later, but he kind of looks
like the poster child for revamped
pitching development right now.
High rate of strikeouts.
starting to improve the ground balls and,
you know, walking as few as he can.
He’s still walking a little bit.
You know, you still expect that from a guy
who’s that young.
But so far he is, I think, the poster
child for revamped Royals pitching
development.
Yeah, and I’ll tell you, I’ve gotten a
chance to watch a few of his games or a
couple of his outings.
And I can tell you that the, it looks like
an increase in sharpness on all of his
stuff.
Like the slider last year was not an
impressive pitch for him.
It’s pretty good now.
Like, and he’s commanding it very well.
So the command has actually ticked up as
well.
And so you’re seeing just a level of
sharpness from his arsenal that we did not
see last year.
And it’s completely out of the league of
most high A hitters.
So I watched his last outing the other
day, yesterday maybe, and all I could
think was these guys have no chance.
Like the guys he was facing had no chance.
It didn’t matter if they were right
-handed or left -handed.
His change up was too much for them.
He could locate his slider for strikes in
the zone early and counts.
His fastball wasn’t being touched, even
though it was only going 93, 94.
So I imagine the shape on it is pretty
damn good.
And so he is somebody who it looks like
has,
taking a step up in terms of his arsenal.
We were talking last year and Alex Duvall
has said this multiple times that like he
thought, well, maybe Kadurna will be like
a pitch to contact guys.
He looks like a backend starter kind of,
you know, workhorse kind of type.
Doesn’t look like he’s going to strike out
too many guys.
Now he looks like he might strike out
quite a few or at least at least like his
arsenal can get him up to the higher
levels of the upper miners will have a
chance to continue to refine things.
Previously, the downside risk for Kadurna
was always would he miss enough bats?
Is his stuff actually good enough?
It looks good enough at this point.
Mike, we’ve talked about Bolin as like a
possible depth for the starting rotation.
Two other guys who are having really great
years so far, Noah Cameron and Mason
Barnett look like they might be ready
before too long.
They’re both in double A.
Do you think that there’s any chance that
Noah Cameron or Mason Barnett get time in
Major League Baseball this year?
I don’t let me put it this way.
I think it’s unlikely because of guys like
Jonathan Bolin and Daniel Lynch and Andrew
Hoffman and other guys in triple A, you
know, and Anthony Viniciano and possibly
Jordan Lyles.
Like you’re talking about them going
through a list of guys that are probably
ahead of them to get starts in Major
League Baseball.
And though I think Mason Barnett,
especially.
shows a lot more promise and I do like
Noah Cameron too, then some of those guys,
I don’t think they’re going to rush Noah
Cameron and Mason Barnett to get them to
Major League Baseball unless it’s an
emergency.
Now, if you’ll remember, my hot take
before the year started was that Mason
Barnett makes a start in Major League
Baseball.
So don’t get me wrong.
I would love for that to be accurate so I
could rub it in your face.
That would be fantastic.
Okay.
But I just don’t see it happening.
The line in front of them is just too
long.
And with
the way that the rotation looks now, it
doesn’t look a whole lot like
ineffectiveness is gonna be the reason a
lot of these guys get out of there.
And so, yeah, you know, and it also looks
like you’ve got Lugo and Waka guys who you
like to think can stay relatively healthy.
Singer’s been pretty healthy his whole
career.
Alec Marsh has never had huge injury
problems.
So, you know, I just don’t see a path for
those guys this year, but boy, their
promising start has been fantastic to see.
especially for Mason Barnett, because he’s
got a fastball profile, I think that’s
maybe a little different than just about
anybody else in the organization in that
he can throw his fastball for strikes and
get quite a bit of swing and miss, which
is fantastic to see.
You know, Alec Alex Duvall will tell you
when he drafting of pitchers or signing of
international pitchers, what’s the one
thing he always looks for?
Can you throw your fastball in the strike
zone and get swings and misses?
And Mason Barnett can do that.
Yeah, he’s really interesting.
And one of the reasons that’s one of the
big reasons he’s our number two prospect,
I think, or something like that.
He might be our number two prospect when
we did our our prospect rankings before
the start of the season.
And a lot of people thought we had Barnett
too high.
And I was like, or a lot of people thought
we had him higher.
We shouldn’t have had him higher than
Chandler and stuff like that.
Champlain.
And I was like, no, Barnett’s got
something special.
And he’s showing that again this year.
And it’s something about his fastball.
It only goes about 95.
But guys do not see it or do not hit it or
something because they’re swinging.
right through it in double A right now,
somehow.
Add to the fact that he’s got three other
pitches that he can do quite a bit with
and he looks like a guy who’s gonna have
good success.
I think there’s a chance that he gets to
the major leagues this year, but I think
it would be in a bullpen role.
I think that maybe they would, maybe, this
is a long shot too, but maybe have him
like finish the year in the bullpen for
them to kind of like wind down the number
of innings that he’s gonna go for or
whatever and say like, okay, we need help
in the bullpen because we’re chasing a
wild card or a division.
Let’s get Mason Barnett up here and see if
he can do us some good, especially once
the trade deadline passes, they won’t
really have an opportunity to go after
guys.
To give you a sense of how good he’s been,
2 .35 ERA, 0 .85 whip.
That’s incredible.
21 strikeouts, only five walks in 15 and a
third innings.
Noah Cameron has also been very good, 1
.84 ERA, higher whip at 1 .36, but 18
strikeouts and five walks.
I watched his start the other day was…
thoroughly impressed with what Noah
Cameron was doing could look.
Well, he added a cutter, right?
He added a cutter this off season and he’s
throwing it a bunch early in counts and
his four seam fastball is playing really
well off of it.
So it’s four seamers up for him and
cutters in under the hands of right
-handers.
It is working so well.
It is such a good combination, allows for
some great sequencing for him because he’s
got that good change up.
He’s got that good curve ball and they’re
all coming in at different velocities.
It’s like 90, 91 on the cutter under
hands.
It’s 92, 93 on the fore seam.
And then it’s a 78 mile an hour curve ball
and an 81 mile an hour change up or
something like that.
It’s really, really good to see him
throwing four distinct pitches that he can
all put in the strike zone.
And the guys have a ton of trouble with.
Mike, one more question about a specific
pitcher.
We saw Mazzucato having a good year this
year.
He hasn’t thrown that much.
He’s only thrown nine innings, I think,
but he’s given up no earned runs in that
time.
He’s got a 0 .67 whip, 12 strikeouts and
four walks.
What are your thoughts on seeing stuff
like that from Mazzucato?
Do you think that those numbers are any
indication of what his progression is?
That doesn’t tell me anything on his
progression because we already know that
he can get strikeouts at that level.
You know, is he is he at high A too?
OK, so I feel like high A, he’s going to
get strikeouts like that.
And that’s mostly due to the big curveball
that he’s had since he graduated from high
school.
So it’s not like that’s progression to me.
What I want to know is, can he command the
fastball?
OK, you talked about how overtime.
It’s likely the velocity will gain in
that.
Maybe that was in our midweek episode we
were talking about it.
You know, he’s still not throwing the ball
all that hard, his four seam fastball, and
that’s going to have to go up before he
gets to those higher level of the minors.
But the big thing to me is can he command
that pitch?
And maybe we’ve seen a little bit, you
know, the walk rate hasn’t been really
high or anything like that.
I think in his last outing, he went five
and walked one guy maybe had eight
strikeouts, but.
Can he be more pitch efficient is another
question that I have.
You know, even if you’re not walking guys,
are you throwing 85 pitches in three
innings?
That’s not going to work.
Okay.
What else can he do if the curve ball
isn’t working that day?
Does he have another pitch that he can go
to to put guys away or to get soft
contact?
So I’ve got a lot, still a lot of
questions with Mazicato.
You know, he, he’s not a high school kid
anymore.
He’s not that 19 year old kid.
So I, I,
I guess I would have liked to have seen a
little bit more progression on the
fastball than what we’ve seen so far, but
it is early in the season.
It is, the reports of him throwing 86 to
88 though are a little bit troubling to
me.
Yeah, for me, I love that he’s off to a
hot start.
I think that’s better than the
alternative, right?
But I’m pretty convinced that the only
thing that really matters right now is an
increase in velocity and his ability to
throw more strikes.
That’s what the whole ball game rests on.
I don’t care that he’s like striking out
15 guys per nine down in high A.
I think it is what it is.
When he moves to double A,
That’s not going to be enough.
Guys are going to just lay off a lot of
the pitches he’s thrown out of the strike
zone right now.
And he’s going to struggle because if you
don’t have velocity at all, they’re not
going to really struggle to hit what
you’re trying to get into the edge of the
strike zone.
If he does a fastball on the outer third
at 88 in AA, somebody’s going to just park
it, right?
Because, you know, the outcomes for
fastballs on the edges in the upper miners
are a lot better than they are in the
lower miners.
And so, you know,
He’s the type of guy that velocity’s gotta
go up.
He’s gotta learn how to throw strikes.
And if you’re looking for a little bit
more on this, on what they’re doing about
it, Preston Far, Royals or Farms, Farm to
Fountains put out a fantastic piece on
some of the tech that they’re using to
help Mazicado, the specialized mound that
they’re using.
Was that him that put that out?
I thought that was him that put that out.
Yeah.
And basically it’s a mound that measures
how you’re landing, you know, and then it
combines it with some other stuff to say,
okay, this is when you’re releasing the
ball.
You know, how, what’s the pressure like on
your, the back of your foot on the back of
your lead leg and all this other stuff.
And hopefully that will, it’s basically
designed to make your delivery more
efficient, right?
More efficient means better command and
higher velocities.
And so hopefully that works out.
It’s the, the big thing that Preston put
in there is it’s what Paul skeins used at
LSU and he throws harder than shit.
So, uh, hopefully Mazicado can get some
benefit from those things and get some of
the inefficiencies out of his delivery.
so that the command gets better at the
very least and hopefully the velocity as
well.
Yeah.
Looking at this group as a whole, and I
want to talk about some other guys too,
because I made this whole list of guys who
are off to hot starts here.
We’ve talked about a few of them.
Blake Walters has been okay as well.
He hasn’t been allowed a hot start, but
he’s been pretty good.
Jonathan Boland has of course been very
good.
He’s got a 2 .57 ERA, a 1 .1 whip.
This is a triple A mind you, with 21
strikeouts and five walks in 21 innings.
So he’s been very good.
Steven Zoback, my boy.
He’s got a 1 .20 ERA, check this out, a 0
.67 whip for Steven Zoback so far this
year.
13 strikeouts and only three walks in 15
innings.
He’s a guy who looks like he’s gonna have
that profile of, yeah, I won’t have a ton
of strikeouts, but I’m also gonna walk no
one, right?
And Mike, I know you love that profile.
What are your thoughts on what this
performance among a lot of minor league
pitchers says about the team’s pitching
development and where it’s at compared to
where it used to be?
It’s a plan and it looks like a real plan
to me and that’s fantastic because I went
through and I looked at a lot of those
different guys and there was some glaring
things that were like well, yeah, you can
see they’ve been working on that stuff and
it was this almost every one of those guys
has increased their strikeout rate their
ground ball rate or both okay, and so
that’s if that’s the formula if that’s the
archetype if that’s the
Hey, this is what we’re going to be
working on.
This is what Royals pitching is going to
be up.
This is my golf clap to you.
JJ Piccolo, Brian Sweeney, Paul Gibson,
who I was very critical of early on Mitch
cheddar.
Yes.
Very good.
All it’s all those guys.
Uh, but yeah, Justin Friedman.
Yeah.
I’ll give credit to all those people
because for years we asked for a plan.
You know, we asked for a plan and Royals
pitching development.
and never got one.
We never got outside of the, we’re going
to get them to establish a fastball in, in
low a and high a and double a like, no,
what are we doing?
What, what does a Royals pitcher look
like?
And now it seems like we have an idea of
what that is.
Yeah, it’s amazing to see, it’s amazing to
see what kind of success a whole bunch of
guys can have.
It’s amazing to see how quickly and how
definitively a system’s pitching can be
turned around in a short period of time
when it’s given a direction, when it’s
given a modern way of thinking about
pitching development, which is like work
on arsenals, make pitches better, like
help these guys learn these, or help them
learn, like teach them how to actually be
better at this.
Like…
a plan before the winter starts.
Yes, give them information that they can
use to make their pitches better, right?
Like that they can use to make themselves
better as pitchers.
Like these are all huge things.
Give them an individualized plan.
Like we’ve heard the pitching prospects
talk about this in interview after
interview, what they’re actually getting
now compared to what they were getting
previously.
And it is night and day and it’s done in
such a thorough way now that I think
you’re seeing the emergence of a pitching
factory of sorts.
built on a solid philosophy and approach.
So is it all the way there yet?
Of course not.
We still need to see these guys transition
to Major League Baseball.
And we’ve saw some of them.
Alec Marsh is a good example of somebody
who looks like he’s found what will be his
footing in the major leagues.
And Jonathan Boland looks like he’s on
deck next.
And some of these guys are looking like
they’re almost ready.
But you look at this slate of guys who’s
gotten off to a really good start this
year, and you start to say, wait, are the
Royals now what Cleveland was with the
ability to sort of turn out
a bunch of guys who have a really good
chance of contributing at the Major League
level as pitchers.
Because if they do, that is huge for them
as a team.
And the really exciting thing is they
haven’t really scouted and drafted with
this in mind yet.
Not that much anyway.
They haven’t gone to Latin America to find
guys that are going to fit what they’re
looking for yet.
They haven’t drafted for what they’re
going to look for yet for this type of
pitcher and this type of development.
Think about how good it could be when they
start doing that.
So when that draft comes this summer, I’m
going to be extremely interested to see
the type of pitching that they take.
because I think you’re gonna see either
one, it’s somebody who already fits into
this mold or two, it’s somebody that they
think, hey, they have this, imagine what
they’re gonna be when we add this to them.
When we add their ability, we add this
pitch, which is gonna get them to get
ground balls, or we add this pitch, which
is gonna help them strike out more
hitters, whatever.
That connection between the scouting side
and the scouting drafting side and the
international signing with that pitching
development.
could be huge, it could pay huge
dividends.
The Royals finish off their home stand
with four games against the Toronto Blue
Jays before hitting the road for Detroit
to end the week.
Mike, we’ll play Toronto in seven of our
next ten games, so we need to get very
familiar with this Toronto team.
Help us out and let us know what this
team’s all about.
I’m going to drink 12 Mulsons and eat some
french fries and gravy right now.
OK.
Or wait, Mulsons.
I don’t know what they drink up there
anymore.
Is it Mulsons still?
The bat blue used to be a thing.
I don’t know either.
Real Canadians are out there just
lambasting me right now because we don’t
actually drink Mulsons.
You idiot.
Sorry, Canada.
Sorry, Canada.
The Toronto Blue Jays are 12 and 10, which
is good for fourth in the AL East.
It’s a good division.
The first game will give us Brady Singer
versus Yusei Kikuchi, a 32 year old left
-hander out of Japan, 2 .08 ERA and a 1
.15 whip.
So he started the year nicely.
He’s got a four -seam fastball in the mid
-90s, a curve ball, a slider, a change up.
He throws the fastball about 50 % of the
time.
And generally speaking, his outings go as
his fastball goes.
So if his fastball is good that day, he
has a good outing.
If it dips in velocity that day, he can
get hit around a little bit.
In that second game, it’ll be Michael
Walker versus Kevin Gaussman.
33 year old righty out of LSU.
Boy, 8 .16 ERA for Gaussman right now.
1 .74 whip, not having a Kevin Gaussman
like season.
Four seam fastball averaging 94, the
splitter and the slider.
He’s known for the splitter, but guys are
really hitting his four seam fastball
right now, which he throws about half the
time.
Has it dipped a little in velocity?
I remember him throwing harder than that.
Yeah, it has and there, you know, people
are wondering like, is it going to come
back?
And if it does, he’ll probably be better.
In fact, I saw a start he had fairly
recently.
I saw some numbers on it.
It looked like he was getting some of that
velocity back.
So we’ll see if he has it when he faces
the Royals.
And that third game, it’s going to be Alec
Marsh versus Yerrile Rodriguez, a 27 year
old right handed pitcher out of Cuba.
Two point three five era in a one point
three whip.
He’s got a four seam fastball averaging at
ninety five slider split finger curve
ball.
He’s got an expected era that’s over six.
So he’s probably been lucky so far.
He gets hit very hard at times, but he
also can get a lot of strikeouts.
That gives me a real.
Carlos Hernandez five when he used to
start by the way.
So I could see that being maybe keep that
kind of in the back of your mind.
And that last game, Cole Regans will try
and get back to being Cole Regans versus
Jose Barrios, 29 year old right handed
pitcher at a Papa Juan, the 23rd high
school in Puerto Rico.
He’s got a.
stumble over those Roman numerals I put in
there.
Okay, all right.
I’m gonna have to, bubble ones.
fan here.
Is that is that Pope John the 23rd?
Is that what that means?
Like, OK.
Anyway, he’s got a Jose Barrios, the old
twin.
He was with the twins for a long time.
Point eight five era one point zero one
whip.
He’s had a good nice start to the year.
He’s a little different than what he
started out with with Minnesota.
He’s a sinker, 93, 94, slurve, four seam
fastball changeup.
He throws the sinker and the slurve about
75 % of the time and generates a lot of
ground balls.
He’s kind of a ground ball guy.
He used to be more of a power strikeout
guy.
So yeah, that’ll be an important series.
Really need to get at least two, I’d say,
out of that series.
Maybe let’s say three would be even
better, but you know, I don’t want to be
greeny or anything.
would be dope, I would take three, but two
is fine if they want to just get two.
After that, they head to Detroit to face
the Tigers for the first time this year.
Tigers were one of those teams that a lot
of people thought might be dark horse
candidates in the AL Central as well.
They’ve done pretty well so far.
They’re at least hanging around.
They’re not in White Sox territory or
anything.
The Tigers are 12 and 10, which is good
enough for third in the AL Central.
They’re struggling offensively, having
trouble scoring runs.
They’re 25th in weighted runs created plus
as a team.
Riley Green is hitting, Mark Kannaw is
hitting, and Kerry Carpenter is hitting,
but other than that, everyone else is not
hitting.
And so guys like that they were really
counting on like Spencer Torkelson has
something like an 84, 85 weighted runs
created plus right now as a first baseman,
that’s not great.
They have a whole lineup full of guys who
just really aren’t hitting that much
except for just a couple.
Their staff is pretty good.
They’re pitching staff, their rotation
especially.
It’s good, not great, I would say.
Tariq Scoobal is great.
He’s been really good this year.
Reese Olson is having a pretty good year
right now so far.
We’ve seen him a couple times in years
past.
Jack Flaherty, their free agent sign.
And Casey Mize, their former first overall
pick.
They’ve both just been around league
average.
So something like four, two to four, four,
something like that in ERA right now.
Real average from both of them.
Kenta Maeda has been a train wreck for
them.
He has been awful.
And so hopefully we run into him.
But we’ll see when we head to Detroit.
We’ll finish this week’s episode at the
end of every episode with our Just About
Outside segment.
I had a lot of choices this week.
I had a whole bunch of stuff to talk
about.
I had to narrow it down to one and I’m a
little disappointed about that.
But Mike, you get to go first.
Tell us what’s been interesting in your
life for the last week.
I started watching a new show and I
haven’t done that in a long time, but and
at least liked it enough to continue
watching it.
And so I started a show called Colin from
accounts.
It’s on.
I’m watching on Paramount Plus, actually.
Her mother has Paramount Plus, so I steal
her her log in info for that.
But it’s I think it’s an Australian show.
It’s a comedy.
But when you watch it.
You absolutely.
And this is weird because like I’m all
about comedy sitcoms.
I don’t want to watch drama.
I don’t want to watch relationships
unfold.
None of that crap.
But I was like so into the relationship
that was going on in this comedy.
I was like, I want you guys to make it,
you know, and it’s basically about this
guy.
It’s basically about this guy who and this
girl who meet when she flashes him on the
street, walking across the street.
And he as a result, he hits a dog with his
car.
And they both feel so bad about it that
they basically become like parents of this
dog, but they’re very different people.
You know, he is much older than her.
They live different lifestyles and kind of
the working is in and outs of this.
And it’s I mean, the first season is
essentially them falling in love, which
that’s not my kind of thing, you know.
But my wife and I were my wife and I were
watching it.
And I’m like finding myself rooting for
these two to get together and like
laughing and it’s.
It’s just a very interesting story and an
interesting style of comedy.
So even though it seems like the storyline
is one like, okay, sitcom storyline that
that checks the box there.
The way that they do it is very different.
And I like that a lot.
It was really good.
And it turns out the two people who are
like the main stars are actually married
in real life as well.
And yeah, it’s just really good,
interesting sitcom television.
So.
It’s only eight episodes for the first
season.
It’s been renewed for the second for a
second season, but Colin from accounts,
check it out.
That does sound cool.
I love an Australian TV show.
And I don’t know if I’ve told you about
this show that’s on Netflix called Fisk.
It’s like an Australian comedy.
It is so hilarious and so funny.
Well, it starts a woman.
She’s a lawyer.
Oh, you’re thinking of Rake, which is
another Australian show where he’s a
lawyer.
Yes.
But Fisk is another Australian TV show
where she’s a lawyer.
A lot of lawyer shows in Australia,
apparently.
But she’s a probate lawyer.
And it’s just a hilarious, hilarious show.
If you ever get a chance, Mike, and you
wanna watch it, it’s called Fisk.
It’s on Netflix, it’s really good.
But anyway, I’m gonna check out Colin from
accounts too, because I love love.
I love a love story.
I’ll take it.
I’m talking about something else that is
good, but we always talk about it like
it’s bad, right?
Monday of last week was tax day.
And interestingly on that day, I saw a
tweet from Mark Cuban, where he talked
about how much he had to pay in taxes this
year and why he was happy to pay it.
And I started thinking to myself like,
hey,
Here’s what we should do.
We should start changing the image on
taxes.
Cause nothing annoys me more.
So my, my, just a bit outside this week is
taxes are good.
Okay.
Nothing annoys me more than a person who
complains about taxes without any
understanding of how taxes work, what
taxes are, anything about taxes.
They’re just generally embedded with the
notion that like, Oh, government taxes me
too much.
Taxes are bad.
And it’s like, okay, shut up.
because I just heard you complaining about
potholes like a second ago, right?
Like the people who like sort of have no
internal logic of like, I want the
government to spend all this money on
stuff that I want, but I also don’t want
to pay taxes.
It’s like, what are you talking about?
Where is your brain?
Like in your ass?
Like it doesn’t make any sense.
How are we going to have to spend money on
something?
We don’t have any taxes.
It doesn’t make any sense, right?
Like, and so I want to sort of think about
taxes in a different way.
Why don’t we just say, hey, no wait, taxes
are good.
Right?
Like taxes pay for a bunch of stuff that
all of us utilize like roads, parks,
schools, so many other things, right?
Like they are an essential to running a
country, a society, right?
Like now you might say it is every, every
place pays the, every place has them,
every place pays them.
Every place uses that money to make life
better for everyone.
Okay.
And you might say, oh, they mismanaged the
money though.
They spend $400 on a toilet.
Yeah, maybe, maybe, I don’t know.
Like I’m sure the government spends some
money wastefully, but you also have to
remember that they’re not in charge of
just giving you what you want.
Okay, like they gotta think about what
everybody needs and what everybody wants,
right?
Like, and so it’s not just about you.
Taxes are a good thing because they
represent the ways in which we live
collectively, which we have to do in order
to have the best version of our lives.
And so, yes, I went to public school,
taxes paid for that.
I drive on roads every day, taxes paid for
those.
I’m using the internet right now.
Guess what?
The internet was developed by DARPA, which
is a government -funded program.
So all these things that you have and are
utilizing that are in some way supported
by taxes, you probably don’t even realize.
Just be grateful.
And yes, the American tax system is stupid
because it forces people to like…
guess what their taxes are basically, and
then like, you know, you get in trouble if
you didn’t guess right, but then that’s
really stupid.
But the general base sense of like paying
taxes, it’s a good thing.
Give yourself a pat on the back if you
paid your taxes, probably went to a good
cause.
I once heard a I won’t say his name
because people are going to have might
have some very strong feelings about him,
but a very famous intellectual make this
argument like if if we actually understood
taxes, we we would probably celebrate the
paying of our taxes.
But he’s like, you know, the advertising
is much better off for the other side.
He’s like, you know, it’s just like a car
commercial.
You think about a car commercial like.
They don’t ever like the last thing they
put on the screen is the price.
Instead, everything before that is crap.
You will never actually do with a car.
Taxes are kind of the opposite of that.
Nobody really understands well what they
do and how much they benefit from them.
All they see is the upfront money.
It’s like the money comes first.
I don’t ever know or see all the ways I
benefit from it.
And so, yeah, that’s this this other
intellectual was was talking about that.
I thought it was kind of funny.
a lot of people are, it’s just like an,
it’s almost a part of their ideology.
It’s not even like, you know, it’s like I
grew up hearing my dad talk about how
awful the taxes are and how bad the
government is with money, all this sort of
stuff.
And so that’s what I believe.
And it’s like, have you ever just thought
about all the stuff that you get as a
result of taxes?
Like it’s insane.
It’s insane.
Right, it is, it is.
Right.
I understand that.
-taxation.
understand that, but we have moved far
enough away from that now to use our
reasonable logical brains and reconsider
the notion of taxes and be okay with them.
That’s all I’m saying.
That’s all I’m saying.
Taxes are okay.
You know what else is okay?
Winning baseball.
So let’s hope the Royals do a lot of it
this week.
We will be back next week to talk to you
regardless of if they win or lose.
Until then, be good to each other.
And go Royals!
1 Comment
Kudrna will be the Roayls ace in 2026, mark it!