For Marlins, Three's a Crowd | Flip The M Ep. 8

What is up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Flip The M podcast sponsored once again by our friends at Price Fix. Just be sure to use that code five. That's F I V E to match up to one hundred dollars on your first deposit. And this episode today is a very special episode because we are going to be having trivia throughout this podcast. We have three different trivia questions going on. So at any point, we'll go ahead and we'll list out the trivia questions. And when we post it, if you comment down below the correct answers, you have a chance to win $30 in Price Fix funds. I think that sounds like a good deal. It's an easy way to win money. But let's go ahead. And let's start with that first part. The first question for trivia coming from me. So let me go ahead and pull up and make sure it's all official. Let's get this. So back in back in 2018 for the Triple A team of the Toronto Blue Jays, our resident speedster John Birdie was playing there. What other current Miami Marlin teammate did he play with in Triple A in 2018 in Toronto? All right. That's question number one. The other three. The other two will be scattered throughout the podcast. So just be sure to listen through. And then at the very end, collect your answers, put them on Twitter. And you have a chance to win $30 in Price Fix funds. All right. So for starters today, we're going to talk about the baby goat, the young phenom Yuri Perez in his time up, I guess, down in Miami. And he is completely exceeded expectations. Kev, what do you where do we even start with this kid? Yeah, I don't I don't really know. Really at a loss for words in a way, in the best way possible. He's been everything phenomenal in every sense of the word. Better than anyone expected. And literally the baby goat. I mean, we've never seen anything like this before. You know, new new career high in pitch counts in a game. He hasn't hit that innings mark yet, but I mean, the innings don't seem to be phasing him at all. His last outing against a really good Blue Jays lineup, even though they're a little cold, really good Blue Jays lineup. He looked absolutely dominant and won and run in his last 27 innings. I mean, what more can you say? I just beyond grateful that I was able to be there for his major league debut. And I like I'm. There's there's no limit as to what he can reach. He's so, so good. And I can't wait to see what the rest of his career is going to look like, because I mean, the dude is 20 years old. For all we know, he might be six, nine and two years. I mean, like it's crazy. It's crazy. He's so young, so good. Just enjoy it while we have him. Yeah, Uri has, as you said, completely exceeded every expectation that we had from him, which is insane to think about when you're talking about somebody who is a number seven prospect for the major leagues. You look at somebody who's that high up. You're like, all right, this is going to be a stud. And then you're comes up and he's further than a stud. He's the he's the ace of the staff for the past eight starts. You know, as you said, I saw a tweet earlier. You know, he has the third lowest ERA of I believe anybody in their first 40 innings or something like that is what I saw from Marlins Communication, which is so insane to think about going dating all the way back to the early 1900s. You know that that's how phenomenal the start is. It's it's unheard of. It's unprecedented. And he just he hasn't shown any fear. You know, one run in 27 innings. It's it's ridiculous. But we're at such an odd position with Uri because you look at his minor league numbers and he has never exceeded 78 innings in a single season. Right now, Uri is at 72 innings this season, six more innings. And he's reached his limit, you know, and in comparative to his prior seasons. So the Marlins are at this really awkward spot where they have this kid come up and he's absolutely crushing it and absolutely, you know, tearing apart the major leagues, doing more than we can think of. But how much longer can we have them? And can we morally and ethically keep him up and throw out his arm? It's such a weird position. Joseon, what is your what's your take on that? You know, it's an interesting position to be in. Right, because your best starter is your 20 year old who had never pitched above double A, right? You were coming into the season believing that, you know, Cueto was going to have his experience and be an anchor of the staff. We were never expecting him to be a Cy Young, but to hold it down. And obviously we had the reigning Cy Young. We have the reigning Cy Young on our team. And you we all thought that Sandy was going to be that sure thing. So for our 20 year old pitcher to be our best pitcher, it was something that's unprecedented. So how you manage him, it's tough because the mind is dealing with injuries of their own. And when it comes to that pitching rotation. So do you send down your best pitcher? I mean, that's definitely an interesting dilemma. It's hard to say. Yeah, it's something that that it's a problem that's equally great to have and equally terrible to have. You know, it's great to have a problem to where somebody is forcing their way onto the roster. But it's bad to have when it's such a young player who is such little experience in going pitching for a long time in a season, you know. So you kind of got to balance how often you use them for the rest of the season, especially with us being in this hunt right now for the postseason, which is, again, something that we didn't expect going into the season. You know, we were looking for a 500 record. And here we are, nine games over 500. I'm happy with that, you know. But it's something that we didn't expect. So it's a lot of unexpected problems that are good to have to be like, oh, my gosh, it's great that we're in this position of success and it's great that we're in this position of, you know, having such a young stud on our team, a baby goat, you know. But where do you go from here? So Joseon gave kind of his thoughts. Kev, what do you what do you think on this? If you were in Kimming and Skip Schumacher's shoes and you see, you know, you're reaching his innings limit. Where do you go from there? It's rough. Yeah, I, I I don't envy them. I mean, that's that's a tough position to be in. And either way, you like either way, they make their decision. They're the bad guy because you send them down and fans are like, what are you doing? And then you keep them up and, you know, you got a portion of people that are going to be like, he's 20 years old. What are you doing? You can't hurt him. So me personally, throw myself in that position. You got to you got to push his limits a little bit. You know what I'm saying? He can't be with a career high of 78 innings his entire life. So I think this is the year that he surpasses 78. I mean, I think that's a no brainer. You got to push past it. You know, whether it's get him to 100 and then kind of from there, go move forward. I think that's what I would do personally, try and see if he can get to 100. And then when he gets to 100, you know, sending him down to pitch in the minor leagues, that's just wasting innings at this point because there's no reason for it. He's got nothing left to prove down there. And if he's just going to throw more innings, why not just throw him at the major league level? So I don't know if you shut him down for a little bit. And then, you know, if we're still in this hunt comes late September or, you know, early September and we're fighting for that playoff spot, you bring him back up and it's like, hey, this is our last push. Like you got 30 more innings in you. Let's see what you got. You know, a lot of people want a six man rotation once either Trevor or Johnny Cueto come back, which, you know, that could be another option. I don't really know. I personally would push him down to 100. I think shut him down, honestly. I'm throw pens, have them throw some maybe simulated games, live babies. Keep them fresh, at least not just, you know, bullpen, bullpen, bullpen and face hitters. And then, like I said, if we're still in this thing come September, bring him back up and it's our last like throw, throw everything on the table, put all your chips in, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, I'm completely with you, it's the hardest thing about the situation is, as Jose was saying, you know, you came to the season having to expect this solid rotation, this healthy rotation, this pitching depth. And here we are, you know, if you had told me before the season started that in the second month of the season, Yuri Perez would have been up here. I would have laughed at your face. You know, there's no way that we'd be bringing up a 20 year old ace at two months into the season unless it's like panic mode. So for us to have done that, there's a lot not going right with our staff. You know, you have Sandy who's been struggling mightily and granted, luckily, lately, it has been, you know, a majority good outing minus one bad ending. So at least there's some progress there. Whether or not it continues to progress forward, who's to say? But then you have, you know, Eddie Cabrera going on the aisle. You have Johnny Cueto pitching a singular inning and going on the aisle and hasn't been seen since. You know, obviously, they're having in Pensacola and Jackson in Jacksonville right now, but you haven't seen him since. You have, you know, Trevor Rodgers going on a 60 day aisle. All these things going down with the staff and it's minimizing your options. You know, it's it's do you let Yuri pitch and push himself or do you start in this situation, start having spot starts by Brian Hoeing or Devin Smeltzer or Archie Bradley, who he stretched out in minor leagues or teaching Gonzalez or Dan Castano or Dan Castano whenever he's back from his injury, you know, it's kind of like, what do you do there? I know right now with with Eddie going down, we're kind of having Brian Hoeing stretch out and go, you know, four or five innings and turn it into a bullpen game of some sorts. But it kind of messes with Yuri and what our plan is with him. I'm kind of on the same path as you kept where it's like, get him to a certain point, send him down, keep him active, doing simulated games, doing live bullpens, whatever it needs to do to keep him throwing and then bring him up for that push. Obviously, that's not going to be a popular opinion throughout fans. It's really going to divide, really going to upset a lot of people. But it's tough because it's probably what's best for the for him and for the team in the future. But it's all dependent on the health of the staff. You know, we're pushing for that playoff spot. But if nobody else is healthy, you can't really say you're trying to win and then send down Yuri Perez and then no offense to the players. But have Devin Smeltzer throw every five games or have Chichi Gonzalez throwing every five games. That's just a slap in the face of the fans. So to add to your point, John, coming into the season, we believe that the rotation was going to be our strong, our strong team. And having to scramble for pieces this early on into the season, we're not even halfway through yet. And we're wondering what's going to happen. So definitely it's it's a tough situation to be in, to say the least. I think dependent on, you know, the health of the rotation, I would not put it past Kiming and her team to go out and get a rental starter, a one year starter, which is, again, you look back and if we had Pablo, we wouldn't be in this situation. But, you know, trading Pablo, we got Luis to rise, which luckily is a great transition to our next topic. But before we go to the next topic, we have our trivia question number two from Kevin. Kevin, go ahead and hit us with that trivia question, OK? All righty. So obviously, Marlins are coming off a series where they just took on the Toronto Blue Jays. Now they're about to jump into a series where they're about to play the Pittsburgh Pirates for four games. So my trivia question for all of you is which two active players played for Marlins, the Blue Jays and the Pirates? Two players active in Major League Baseball right now played for all three teams. Who are they? That is question number two. It's a tough question. One of them is a deep cut, so just be ready for that. But moving forward to our next topic, we have Luis arise, who is not a problem, but a wonderful addition to the team and wonderful necessary addition to the team who is currently batting in the high three 90s, nearing the 400 mark, which will be one of the highest batting averages in a long time. I don't know off the top of my head, but Tony Gwynn's record was, but he's nearing there and he might hit it, which is ridiculous to say. Right now, our Luis arises on pace for a 245 hit season that is unheard of in this in this day and age of baseball. You know, you look at him, he he gets on base. He walks more than he strikes out. He plays pretty good defense. Not great. Not bad. Right in the middle. Pretty good defense. We knew that we were getting a pure hitter coming to the Marlins. We didn't expect this level of pure hitter. Oceana, are you are you kind of surprised by this revelation from him? Surprised? I wouldn't say surprised, because, you know, since the moment he got to the big leagues, all he's done is hit. But I am taking, I guess, a little back at the fact we're halfway through the season and he's still hitting 400, basically. It's this day and age where power is valued so much. The long swing is preferred over a contact hitter. To see Luis arise, have that old school mentality where I'm just going to get get wood on the ball and spray it to all fields. I'll take my hit, give my team a chance. You know, it's it's refreshing to see, especially on on your team. It's it's crazy. We know how hard it is to hit 400 at any level. And he's doing it in the major leagues. It's it's absurd. Yeah, his highest at any level prior to this was back in 2019 when he combined in double and triple play at three or sorry, back in 2016 at low a he was batting 347. That's his highest he's ever hit. And here he is. You know what? A third of the way through the season and he's batting 390 something. That's ridiculous. One thing of note is it's something that you wouldn't you kind of expect the opposite. But Luis arise last year with the Minnesota Twins, who were a fantastic team in every facet of the game. He only had 49 RBI eyes, even when he's batting 316 and was the hits champion of that of that league. Only 49 RBI eyes. Now you look at this year when he's on the Marlins, who are not known for being a hitters team, and he has 35 RBI eyes already in 68 games and half the amount of games he's on pace right now to hit 83 RBI eyes, which would nearly double his previous career high of 49, which was set last year. I'm not used to having somebody improve their offense coming to Miami, especially their their run production. It's wonderful to add to the team. It seems like every time that there's a clutch hit or clutch game, Luis arises found right in the middle of it, which is awesome. And a much needed, you know, solid bat in the offense, like a fixture in the offense. The Marlins haven't had anybody close to this in a long time. Kev, what's kind of your take on Luis's production in Miami? It's it's been unreal. I mean, everyone's saying it, even the mainstream media, every everybody. When's the last time we saw a guy hit close to 400 this far into a season? You know what I'm saying? It's it's it's unheard of. And kind of like what I said with Uri, what more can you say? Besides, it's been phenomenal. It's crazy. And, you know, everyone wants to know, is he going to hit 400 come season's end? You know, it's hard to say yes, because I mean, Ted Williams is the last guy who did it in what, like 1940 something. I mean, so who knows? But I will say it looks really, really, really sustainable, which is crazy to say for a guy hitting near 400. But yeah, his production's been awesome. The RBI's are definitely a little bit of a shocker, especially because he's been I think a majority of his games he's been hit in the leadoff spot. So it's not like he's like in the meat of the order driving in runs. He's in the top of the order. You know, we have Gene Segura and Jacob Stallings at the back of our order who are hitting below 200 and then Garrett Hampson usually rounding out the lineup. So it's kind of shocking to see the RBI's where they're at, considering that once you get through the order, at least once you got those three guys, most of the time kind of rounding it out. It's like, well, guys are still getting in a position for him to drive them in. And I mean, it's like every single time there's a guy on base, he does it. It's like you never have a doubt if there's a guy in scoring position. It's like, yeah, that runs coming in. If Luis Reyes is coming up, it's been awesome, awesome, awesome. And it's so fun to watch. Yeah, I credit I credit the high RBI numbers just to the fact he's hitting so much, you know, you bring down you bring down the 400 to 300, maybe he has instead of 40. He has maybe like twenty nine, twenty five ish. So the fact he's getting so many hits is definitely allowing him to bring some more runs in for sure. Absolutely. Especially with two homers. It's like, well, he's not driving himself in. So it's like he has two moms. So, I mean, hey, I do want to point out real quick. He has 24 games batting leadoff in 34 batting and third in his 24 games batting first. He is hitting an absurd 448 with a 1027 OPS from the leadoff spot. What more can you ask for a player than to have him get on base half the time when he leads off? That that is what you need at the leadoff guides insane. Wow, man. Could you imagine if he had a little bit of speed? Oh, my God, man. And it's still early. Sorry. Sorry, John. It's still early, but the MVP race is shaping up to be crazy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Arise, Acuna, what he's doing, Corbin Carroll. Like we're going to have we're having three unique seasons. And it's like what the rule changes, man. I guess they're working. It's awesome. I'll take it. I'll take what I can get. If the rule changes mean that we're going to have a player hit 400 for the Marlins, I will take that any day. What what are the rules you want to change, man? For let's let's talk. Let's talk. All right. Before we move to our next topic, Lucian has our third and final trivia question of the podcast. Let's go ahead and let us hear that. That question you got for us. Of course. So as Kevin mentioned earlier, we're about to open up a series with the Pirates, so I wanted to touch base on a little bit of Pirates and Marlins history. So last season, when the Marlins played the Pirates, they were in the middle of a scoreless inning streak. My question is, how many how many innings were they scoreless in? And who was the person that broke the drought? Good question. Good, tough question. Fun fact. All right. I was at that game in Pittsburgh. Well, there is a little hint from Kevin right there. A little hint to help you out. So our third and final topic of the day is we're looking at the current roster construction of the Marlins. Obviously, we touch on a little bit with with the Uri Perez situation to see kind of what to do there. But there's a lot of injuries that are kind of coming to a close right now with the Marlins. And you don't really know what to do with them. You have just who just started his rehab in AAA. Should be back by next week. Fill up that centerfield spot. You have Jeanne Segura, who is on the aisle. Personally, I think it's going to be a while, but I know it's good. Schumacher said he's expected to be a short, minimum stay for Jeanne Segura. We'll see how that goes. You have obviously Garcia, which is a bit of a confusing case because I know that he was rehabbing out in Pensacola, I believe. And then all of a sudden you see him back in the dugout of Miami. And there's not really been an update since he's run a couple of times. But that's about all you see. So I don't really know what's going on over there. Then you have Johnny Cueto, who just reached his AAA part of his rehab. You got the question that a lot of fans are asking. Do the Marlins keep them? Do they bring them up to majors? Do they release them outright? Oh, you know, a lot to think about there. And then you have Trevor Rogers, who is still a little bit away from coming back. So a lot of different moving pieces on the Marlins for a team that is very much in the groove of things right now. You know, you have just Chisholm come back. Who are you going to send down? Jacob Maya, you're going to send down Jonathan Davis after you just traded Brady Allen for him. Are you going to send down Garrett Hampson? You know, I don't know what's going to happen there. When Segura comes back, you have to imagine there's going to be either a Hampson or a Maya, you know, subtraction from the team. But then when you have Johnny Cueto come back, as I mentioned, a lot of people are calling for the Marlins to just outright release him after signing an eight mil contract and only pitching one inning for the Marlins this year. Personally, on my own accord and own opinion, I wholeheartedly disagree, disagree with that. You know, his rehab has been less than stellar, not the results you're looking for coming through. And just not a lot of good reports coming out about him lately, which is really not good for a team that is in need of starting pitching. When you're when you're in the spot that you're at, where you just need somebody to eat innings, need somebody to come in and pitch and you sign this guy to an eight million dollar contract. Are you just going to release him after a singular inning and an injury? It just it doesn't make sense to me. Jose, what are your thoughts on the Marlins roster construction coming up? I think the person that is most likely to be sent down is Jacob Amaya, just because he was just the most recent to be brought up. But like you mentioned, right after him is Garrett Thompson. So definitely those two, I would say, are the favorites to get moved around with Segura and Jazz to come back. As for Queto, I don't think the Marlins should cut him at all. I mean, what's the point of cutting your losses if he's rehabbing anyway? I mean, you don't do yourself any favors by getting rid of a pitcher that you most likely would need, you know, their services. So I just think they need to be patient with Queto. If he comes back around the second half, you can give us a late push. Maybe, you know, that that can help the Marlins into playoff contention, to stay in playoff contention. As you mentioned, Trevor is still a ways away, so we would deal with that once it gets there. But as for Queto, I just think they got to ride it out with him. Rehab has been up and down, to say the least. But he is a veteran and he only pitched one inning. But like you invested eight million dollars into him. It's a one year deal. If you don't, if if it didn't work out, he walks at the end of the season anyway. So you you gain nothing from just cutting them. Yeah, I completely agree. I don't think that just outright cutting them is doing anything for the team. I think it'd be different if, you know, Eddie was healthy, if Trevor was healthy, then with the emergence of Brax, you're at a different situation and a different crossroad. But I think with all the injuries, especially with all the injuries, you can't afford to just outright cut a man after a singular inning in a rehab stint. It just doesn't make sense to me. Kev, are you on the same page as us or are you contrarian to us today? No, no, I agree with you guys, especially I think something that's that's a lot of people aren't taking into consideration also is with Sandy's struggles, too. You know, you don't I can't believe I'm saying this, but you don't know what you're getting with him. And we don't know if there's something wrong with him, too, that maybe he has to go on the aisle or I mean, I've been saying it on Twitter for a while now. I think they need to shut him down, at least like a physical mental reset. Just like say, hey, take a little bit off, throw some pens. Don't even face hitters. Just throw some pens. Just relax. Shut down until the second half starts and then go from there. But yeah, I mean, you can't you can't. You gave the guy eight million dollars. You can't just cut him after one inning. We have a 20 year old who we're going to have to shut down soon. I mean, realistically. So cutting Cueto and then saying, oh, yeah, we're shutting down Yuri. You're pitching death. Just there is no death at that point. You know, so I think cutting him would be a mistake. You know, is it going to work out if he comes back healthy? Is he going to pitch good? Well, sorry, I you know, I don't know. I don't think anyone knows. But you got to at least give him a shot. And you know what? If if you see that he's hurting us more than helping us, then you make a decision later on after one inning where it wasn't even really a healthy inning. You can't you can't be cutting him. There's just it doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense to me at all. For better or for worse. You know, I guess we'll see later on. But right now, when he's healthy, he'll be back. And I think he's much needed, at least numbers wise. We need another guy that can come in and give us innings. That's not Brian Hoeing. Shout out him. He's been great. But yeah, you know, just someone that's that's like that's done this before. And I just think cutting him would be a mistake. For sure. Yeah, I'm completely with you. Hopefully he comes back. Hopefully he turns into the equator that we all know, the equator that we love with the energy that we love. You know, his his walk out after his signing announcement is one of my favorite things to watch. Brought the energy there. We need that energy to the team, especially in this push right now. Going to going to contention. You want people who bring the energy to the team. So hopefully he comes back. Hopefully he brings that energy. Hopefully he brings some good stats, too, and some good innings. But, you know, we won't know until it happens. So we'll see when he comes back. We'll see how he does. But that is all we have for this podcast today. Sorry. Well, that I mean, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. We're also talking about Johnny Quito, a guy who people forget. Pitch the 2013 wildcard game with the Reds is a World Series champion with the Royals. So, you know, yeah, he knows playoff baseball. He knows what it takes to get there. At the very least, if he's not going to start games for you or give you many innings, at least you have that veteran presence and a guy who's been in the playoffs and knows what it takes to get there around a team that looks like they have a chance of getting there. You know, so I think at the very least, that's a very valuable thing that you can add to this roster right now. So. Yeah, I completely agree. I've been on the Quito train before we before we signed. He's always been one of my favorite players. So seeing him struggle is not a great time. Hopefully with his new short hair that he has, I think some more. I was just about to say that, hopefully the haircut restarts him a little bit. I always say the same thing about Sandy's beard. So, yeah, I mean, sure. We'll see. We'll see. He'll turn it around. I have faith Sandy will turn it around. Second half, Sandy's going to be crazy. I'd book it. I promise. Keep the receipts. Listen to this podcast. Keep it on. But as I said, this is all we have for today's episode on the podcast. We always appreciate you guys listening out. But as we mentioned with all of our trivia questions, you're going to comment them in the comments on YouTube, on Twitter, wherever you see our podcast, comment them there. And then on Sunday night after the series finale of the Pirates, Ocean and I and potentially Kevin, if he's available, are going to host a live stream covering the homestand against the Pirates and the Blue Jays. And on that homestand live stream, we will then go ahead and do a drawing for which lucky one of you guys is going to win $30 in prize books, funds, a great time, hopefully a great time after the Pirates series. Hopefully we're not down in the dumps, but it's gonna be a great time regardless, because you guys get $30 somehow. Until next time, guys.