2GTB Goes to College

Subscriber-only episode

Get ready for a baseball bonanza as we celebrate another thrilling week of the sport, featuring everything from major league updates to the excitement of college ball. We'll kick things off with "Who You Reppin'," showing off some slick new baseball gear, including a Durham Bulls throwback jersey and a Tennessee Smokies 4th of July cap. We'll also reveal some awesome dugout mugs gifted by Brian's wife, Ashley. We'll reassess our early-season predictions for the American and National League champions and MVPs, reflecting on how things have unfolded so far. Plus, we'll discuss the curious case of the National League Player of the Week curse.

Then, we're joined by the voice of USA Baseball, Darren Vaught, for an in-depth look at the MLB landscape. We'll review our preseason picks and talk about the Yankees' domination, the Angels' struggles, and the tight competition in the AL Central. In the National League, we'll break down the Dodgers' recent woes and the Braves' resurgence. Darren will also help us explore the peculiar "curse" that seems to be plaguing the National League Player of the Week, with a special focus on Hunter Green and Paul Goldschmidt.

Finally, we'll turn our attention to college baseball, where Darren Vaught will guide us through the standout performances and surprising upsets in the playoffs. Teams like the Tennessee Volunteers, Notre Dame, and Texas have been making headlines, and we'll spotlight rising stars like Brock Jones, Connor Nolan, Peyton Graham, and Kevin Parada. We'll wrap things up with a heartfelt thank you to our amazing listeners for their continued support and engagement. This episode is packed with baseball insights and compelling stories that you won't want to miss!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:39

Hey.

Speaker 2: 0:40

What a great week for baseball it was.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Every week is a great week for baseball and this week was no different. I'm excited about today because we talk a lot about the majors, because you're heavily emotionally invested in the Cubs Right Likewise me with the Dodgers we watch every day. Likewise me with the Dodgers, we watch every day. It's the majority of our baseball time. But through this podcast we have tried to broaden our horizons a little bit. And today 2GTB is going to college because we're going to talk a lot of college ball later in the show and I'm excited about that, despite the dreaded ping of an aluminum bat.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Well, I'm pretty excited about it too, also because I'm not as familiar with college as I am the pros, so I'm hoping that I can learn something here today. I think we both will.

Speaker 1: 1:35

That's the point of going to college right to learn.

Speaker 2: 1:37

Well, I remember my college days and let me tell you what it was about. It wasn't about learning anything Book learning. I did wrestle a bear in college, though.

Speaker 1: 1:48

Yeah, yeah, I don't remember much of my college days for some of the same reasons. So, anyways, enough about our philandering and shenanigans. Back in the day. We're going to get things started with a segment we do every week called who you Reppin', and what we do with who you Reppin' is tell you about what we're wearing, who we're sort of sporting. You know we like to take advantage, like Brian's going to do here in a moment, to promote and plug certain things on who you Reppin'. So, brian, since you have something special today, I'm going to go first.

Speaker 1: 2:26

I went no cap this week. It's real hot. We're in Tennessee, it is hot in the South right now, so I didn't want to do a cap, but I am wearing something I just recently got in the mail. It is my Durham Bulls throwback Thursday jersey. It is commemorating the 25 years that the Durham Bulls have been an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and, of course, at the start of that 25 years, the Tampa Bay organization was the Devil Rays. So the Bulls came up with this great concept for a Devil Rays throwback. They wear it on throwback Thursdays, which is, I think, all Thursday home games this season and to my knowledge, brian, they are undefeated wearing these jerseys this year, and I think there's a reason for that because this is slick, it's very slick this is a cool-looking jersey, I've got to say and it's very comfortable.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Jerseys are comfy, folks. If you're not on the jersey, train for comfort, especially when it's 95 degrees where you live, like it is here. This is where it's at, because I mean, you got, you got it's. It's breathability, it's light, it's. It's just a good thing to wear in the summertime. I mean, there's a reason that this is what they wear on the field, because it's super comfortable. So, anyways, that's all I've got. Really, for who you repping this week? Brian, brian, the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: 3:47

Well, this week I am to start out with my hat is the Tennessee Smokies 4th of July commemorative hat from a couple of seasons ago. A very nice hat that you could only get on 4th of July.

Speaker 1: 3:57

A lot better looking than this year's July 4th caps. By the way. Those things are monstrosities.

Speaker 2: 4:03

Yes, by the way, those things are monstrosities. Yes, and I am wearing my 2GTB jersey that we sell in our store. More about that later. A very comfortable, fine jersey.

Speaker 1: 4:14

You're repping us for the third week in a row.

Speaker 2: 4:17

I am.

Speaker 1: 4:18

I'm getting a little predictable with that I'm repping us Just a bit.

Speaker 2: 4:22

But my wonderful wife for Father's Day got us both a present.

Speaker 1: 4:26

She sure did.

Speaker 2: 4:27

And I want to show these. These are dugout mugs. They are made out of aluminum bats. You can get them at dugoutmugscom and they are very, very cool. They're 20-ounce tumblers with a screw-in top. I absolutely love it. I appreciate Ashley getting these for us and she got these for us so that we could have them for the podcast and wouldn't spill stuff everywhere.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Well she's. She's certainly concerned with the spillage possibilities and I actually, when, when you sent me the post like, hey, this is what Ashley got us for father's day Um, my first I wasn. First I wasn't terribly excited. I'm not a big mug guy, it's just not my style. But I got to be honest. I'm really digging this and I think, if for no other reason, it will be useful for the podcast. Obviously, brian has the Cubs on his. I've got the Dodges on mine as I hit my microphone like a professional broadcaster, photographer yeah, I'm my microphone like a professional broadcaster, photographer.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Yeah, I'm a professional photographer.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Nice, nice.

Speaker 1: 5:28

So yeah, that's who we're repping this week. So let's take a look at the lineup. This is what we're going to be chatting about. We're going to lead things off looking back like a month because it was about a month into the season we made our predictions of who we thought would win the American League and National League, as well as the MVPs in each league. There's been some developments on those picks and what's going on in Major League Baseball, so we're going to kind of take a brief look at that, just to kind of check up on our picks, see how we're doing, talk about some things going on as far as the standings. Excuse me After that, quick hits Big news in quick hits is always the curse of the National League Player of the Week, dun dun dun.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Interesting developments there. Small teaser I think we're cooked. I think the curse is doomed. More on that later. Then segments three and four will be going to college, and going to college too, electric Boogaloo, because we had a really great time earlier today speaking with Darren Vaught, who is the voice of USA Baseball. He covers ACC Baseball. He covers ACC baseball. He's filled in and done some broadcasts for the Durham Bulls as well, and he is my younger brother so I can pull some strings and get him on the show, and that's what we did, because he is very, very knowledgeable and passionate about the college baseball world and we got quite an education today. So we went to college today and that's, uh, that's what we're looking at as far as the lineup. So, yeah, first things first.

Speaker 1: 7:14

We're going to look back at our season picks. So, uh, first off, brian, a reminder. Your picks were the dodgers to win the national League, the Angels to win the American League, Mookie Betts as NL MVP and Shohei Otani as the AO MVP. My picks were the Dodgers in the National League, the Blue Jays in the American League, nolan Arenado as the NL MVP and Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Guardians as the AO MVP. So let's you know, we talked at length last week about sort of this epic fall from grace that the Angels are on. So your AL pick unfortunately not looking as good as it did a month or so ago. And here's the thing good as it did a month or so ago. And here's the thing. As far as the aog is concerned, even if the angels stayed at the pace they were at, I still don't think it would be looking that good just because of what the yankees are doing well, the yankees are crushing it.

Speaker 2: 8:19

um, I mean I, the angels, have totally let me down and they are hurting over there. They need some serious help, but the Yankees are just they're killing it. I mean it's unbelievable what the Yankees are doing.

Speaker 1: 8:36

The Yankees are 50-18 at the time of recording. They're in a division that has four teams over 500 and not just like a game. Four teams well over 500 and they still have a 12 game lead in their division. That is unbelievable, just insanity. What the Yankees are doing right now, and they're doing it.

Speaker 1: 9:00

You know, I think most of the publicity they get is from the offense Aaron Judge, giancarlo Stanton, they picked up Matt Carpenter and he's been just killing it, but the pitching has really been there for them too. You know, guys like Nestor Cortez are sort of these all of a sudden household names. In addition to you know, garrett cole, who you expect to pitch well, but they're, they're, I mean, they're just, they're performing in every aspect of the game. And I, I, you know it's hard to look right now at the american league and think anybody's even got a shot other than the yankees. Now we know that's not true, because they still have to go out there and play the games and anybody can lose a series if they don't show up, if they don't bring it. But man, I mean the Yankees are just, they're trying to run away with this thing right now.

Speaker 2: 9:59

Well, and can they keep it up? I mean, the key is their offense. Yes, I think the offense will stay there, but will the pitching hold up? Will I mean we're still early in the season?

Speaker 1: 10:11

yeah, we're not. We're not quite halfway, so we there's a lot of baseball left so how long before the league figures out their pitchers?

Speaker 2: 10:18

and then is it a different game yeah for sure.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Um, elsewhere, you know, in the central, the guardians have come on lately, you know, I think they've won like 16 of their last 20. They're really hot. So they've tied the Twins at the top of that division. You know, the White Sox are sitting there at 500 and I think they might still figure it out. So that one to me is a little wide open.

Speaker 1: 10:42

And Houston, the Astros are doing what the Astros do they're running away with the West. It's just the way it goes in that division. Texas is in second place but they're under .500. They're just not, I don't know that they're going to even be. I mean, with when you've got four teams in the al east, the caliber of the yankees, blue jays, red sox and rays, it's hard to even crack that wild card, even with the extra team. Absolutely so, um, you know, that just sort of is what it is. We both picked the dodgers in the national league. That still looks, you know, like a decent pick, I think. You know, and again, I'm biased, I like to put that in there anytime we talk about the Dodgers, you know. But the Dodgers have been kind of struggling the last two, three weeks. There's been some, you know, I think the Dodgers have gotten exposed a little bit. I think there was this thought that maybe there weren't a lot of holes in the Dodgers as a team, and if there were, it's not.

Speaker 2: 11:55

It was thought that those holes were elsewhere than they actually are, but it's hard for you to discuss them, losing, isn't it?

Speaker 1: 12:01

I'm not used to it. It's been a long time since the dodgers weren't good, uh, and they're still good. I mean, we're still in. First, place.

Speaker 2: 12:08

Yeah, they're still doing good. They just had an off week yeah, it's just been.

Speaker 1: 12:12

It's been a little rocky lately. But you know, um, I think the big story in the national league right now is the atlanta braves. You know, when we talked about it they they kind of struggled out of the gates, but we talked about it a month ago, they were going to figure it out and they figured it out. I mean they're you know they've gotten the Mets lead in the division down to five and a half, which is pretty impressive. And you know Atlanta's going to be there. I mean they're going to be in the playoffs. So you know, and the Phillies too in that division, the Phillies.

Speaker 1: 12:45

There was a lot of hype with the Phillies coming into the season because they added some big bats but I didn't think they had it in them to really be all that good overall. But they've come on lately too and they're making it really interesting in that wild card race. So it's going to be interesting race. So you know it's, it's gonna be, um, it's gonna be interesting there. I mean, there are, you know, right now you look at the nl east, there's three teams that could win it the central, there's two teams that could win it, and in the west there's two. There's three teams that could win it. So that's eight teams essentially vying for six playoff spots as we sit right now.

Speaker 1: 13:24

So you know I still feel good about the Dodgers. I really do. I think it's just. You know, I'm hoping that it's a case of I'm glad we're getting it out of our systems in June so that we can get through the rest of the summer, get into the fall and be good to go, be good to go, um. But the fact that the dodgers have fallen off like we have and no one has just completely overtaken us in the division is mind-boggling to me really well.

Speaker 2: 13:53

No, exactly, I mean they're still in there that they had a bad week. Uh, kimbrough is not that good. I don't want to talk about craig kimbrough we, we had him. I know for sure he's not that good. I don't want to talk about craig kebrell we, we had him. I know for sure he's not that good. And now you guys are stuck with him and I think that's a lot of your problems this week I don't know how stuck with with him we are.

Speaker 1: 14:15

The trade deadline is still to come and pass, so andrew friedman might work some magic there. But yeah, it's, it's been bad. Kimbrough has been disappointing to, to put it nicely well, I mean, he hangs his arm nicely.

Speaker 2: 14:32

I mean I think that's the problem. When a guy says I don't know where to put my arm and he's a pitcher, I think that's right. There's red flag number one. I'm gonna do the rest of the podcast like this. Please don't.

Speaker 1: 14:43

Oh, come on so, as far as our mvp picks um, you know you had mookie in the nl. You know he's he's on the shelf right now, but it doesn't seem to be something that's going to keep him out for a long period of time. I think you're, I think you're in pretty good shape there. Um, you know, I had n Nolan Arenado and he's not even the MVP of his team because you know Paul Goldschmidt, who we will talk about again in a little bit, has been absolutely tearing it up. But you know, I think you're in pretty good shape in the NL MVP situation with.

Speaker 1: 15:19

Mookie. You know, I'm confident that you know, once he gets over this cracked rib in a couple of weeks, hopefully he'll be back in there doing mookie stuff.

Speaker 2: 15:28

I mean, a cracked rib is very painful, but it does heal quickly, so it's not the end of the world. However, it probably feels like it right about now.

Speaker 1: 15:35

Yeah, Bruised, cracked, hurt ribs is miserable. Yeah, you can't breathe, but spare ribs are yummy. Spare ribs is miserable yeah, you can't breathe, but spare ribs are yummy. Spare ribs are delicious, that's true. As far as the AO MVP, you had Shohei, which I thought was a good pick Still could be. He's a historically good player. I think it was last night he had eight RBIs and the Angels still lost RBIs and the Angels still lost. But you know, defending MVP, still really doing MVP type things I had Jose Ramirez. I think he's got an outside chance. You know he's just a quiet guy. He's not a guy that's real flashy, he's just consistently good. And Aaron Judge is you know we talked about the Yankees Judge is is just killing it right now. So I think he's kind of the favorite. I mean to me um for AL MVP. But uh, jose Ramirez still has a shot. Shohei Otani still has a shot, you know, I think we're both still in it there, um.

Speaker 2: 16:42

I mean, but if we were picking today? I mean you got to go with judge yeah, 100, I mean, yeah, just monster, monster stuff he's doing, it's just uh, just unbelievable when I, like I said in previous episodes, when I saw them, I mean they're just monsters, they just look like they're so much bigger than everybody.

Speaker 1: 17:01

Yeah, they're nfl linebackers yeah, hitting, you know, 100 plus off the bat, 400 and some feet just over and over again.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Yeah, at will just doing whatever they want yeah.

Speaker 1: 17:13

So you know, I still feel good about the blue jays, though I think the blue jays are a team that you know. They I don't know that they're capable of doing what the Yankees are doing, but they're still right there. They're in second place. They're going to be a wild card team if the Yankees this is assuming the Yankees continue this for the rest of the season and win the division. And I think they've got enough belief in themselves to really perform in October. And they've got the stars Vladdy Jr, george Springer, guys like that. But they also have guys like Alejandro Kirk, who we talked about a lot last week when we picked our all-star picks, who are stepping up and doing things that maybe weren't quite as expected. So you know, I think once we get to October, the Blue Jays are going to have something to say about it. So I still feel pretty good about my picks. But yeah, I mean, I guess you know again, if we had to pick it today, it'd be the Yankees and the AL. That's the safe bet.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yeah, without a doubt.

Speaker 1: 18:28

You know, and Aaron Judge is the MVP. But if you were picking today, would you stick with the Dodgers in the AL.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, I think they've got the. I mean they're going to have trouble with the Braves, and by trouble I mean it's going to be a good series. But I mean, yeah, I still go with the Dodgers.

Speaker 1: 18:47

Well, it seems like over the last five, six years, it always comes down to Atlanta and the Dodgers. Just seems like that is a path that, just you know, a collision course, I guess, is what I'm trying to say every year in the NL playoffs. But look, ever since 2016, the world series has gone through the dodgers, because, because, in order to win the world series, everyone, since 2016, has had to beat the dodgers. So, you know, unfortunately, la's only won one in that time, but you know, one is better than zero, absolutely, and 2017 is what it is, and we can leave that discussion for another day. So, yeah, so we'll keep the Dodgers in the NL and kind of keep an eye on the AL. Speaking of which, are you any closer to picking an AL team? You've been talking about this for weeks.

Speaker 2: 19:46

Well, I'm further away than ever because everybody I keep picking are just at the bottom of the barrel. So you know, I'd like to pick a winning team. For one, you picked the.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Yankees, and this podcast is our pick.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Oh, I can't. No, I can't take the Yankees, that's not even going to happen at all.

Speaker 1: 20:04

I mean just, no, oh my goodness, all right at all. I mean just no, oh my goodness, all right. So that was our look back at our picks for the season, and now we're going to get into some quick hits. I've only got a couple this week. Brian, are you ready? I am ready, all right, first things first. June the 17th, your chicago Cubs were on a 10-game losing streak and they were playing the Atlanta Braves, who were on a 14-game winning streak. Yeah, and we all kind of thought we knew how this was going to go until the Cubs won 1-0. And it was the first time since 1999 that a team with the team with a double-digit losing streak beat a team with a double-digit winning streak.

Speaker 2: 20:55

Oh, it was amazing. It was a great game. You know a nail-biter, but it was a good game and man, the Cubs really pulled it out. Where was that team on all these other nights? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:09

Well, well, it's just proof that on any given night, anybody can beat anybody, without a doubt. It's why it's why there's not single elimination in baseball. Um, you know, anybody can, anybody can lose, anybody can win. It's just the nature of the game. And it was, uh, you know, it was good for the cubbies, you know, and and shut them out, no less. You know, only scored one run, but that's all they needed. So you know, that's what's important. So, uh, a good, good for, uh, good for you and good for the cubbies, and you know, um, we'll take it.

Speaker 2: 21:42

Yeah, man we need it, yeah, and then we went on to play pitt and it was bad.

Speaker 1: 21:48

Yeah, well.

Speaker 2: 21:49

It was real bad, but you know, 12 runs, seven runs. We just don't have the slugging man. We need better slugging.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Well, we'll see what the Cubs get out of the Wilson Contreras trade.

Speaker 2: 22:01

Yeah, oh, man man, that's tough, that's tough.

Speaker 1: 22:08

I kid, but not really All right. So let's check up on the curse. Brian, when we last left you, we told you that Hunter Green was the new NL player of the week and we have mixed feelings about pitchers winning the award. Sandy Alcantara may have broken the curse, but who knows really Well? The curse, for all intents and purposes, is intact this week. Hunter Green started once as the reigning player of the week, went five innings, gave up four runs on four hits, two walks and a couple of home runs.

Speaker 1: 22:51

not player of the week caliber stuff nope not at all, from the fireballing rookie in cincinnati. So you might say, well, you guys must be excited because the curse is still intact. It's, it's, it's, it's still going. This is gonna keep, yeah, but now they have named paul goldschmidt of st louis as the nl player of the week and I gotta be honest with you, we're in trouble. We are in big, big trouble. This guy has not let up. All season was the player of the month in May, just crushing baseballs, I mean just killing it. So I don't know, man.

Speaker 2: 23:36

But this will be the ultimate test.

Speaker 1: 23:38

This will be the ultimate test. I mean, listen, we said the same thing about Bryce Harper. Yeah, we said the same thing about Francisco Lindor emphasis on Dor.

Speaker 2: 23:46

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 23:47

And so you know this curse has been through some of the best in the game, absolutely. You know, and in both of those previous instances, harper was dealing with an injury and missed time, and Lindor we totally ignored his stats because of the incident with the door in the hotel room. So you know, maybe Paul Goldschmidt will stub his toe or something.

Speaker 2: 24:12

We can't wish that upon him. I didn't say that. I just said maybe it will happen, but it would be nifty if it happened.

Speaker 1: 24:18

Well, you know, I don't want the curse to go down like this. We've had a good run, we've had a great run and, brian, we even have a T-shirt to commemorate the curse of the National League Player of the Week.

Speaker 2: 24:31

Where could they get a T-shirt like that?

Speaker 1: 24:33

Well, if they go to 2GTBStorecom, they can get that shirt, which I love. I just wore mine for the first time the other day. Very comfortable, very comfortable, very nice shirt. But we have an array of products over there. Tell everybody about some of the stuff we've got.

Speaker 2: 24:48

Oh, we've got our official jerseys, we've got hats, we've got several T-shirts, women's wear with their T-shirts, our puppy products with leashes and bandanas and little puppy jerseys, and we have a little bit of something for everyone over there. Just check in and take a look at it for everyone over there. Just checking in and take a look at it. But the beware of the nl player of the week curse shirt is uh, it's, it's a, it's a keeper yeah, I like that a lot.

Speaker 1: 25:16

You know the bluetooth speaker, you know um the, you know, just like you said a little something for everybody and that's the best way to support what we do here at 2gtbB Throw us a bone, a couple of bucks, help us out and, more importantly than that, put the logo on your person, on your clothing, so you can tell everybody out in public what it is, why you like it. You know, spread the word for us. So we certainly appreciate everybody listening and anybody who even just takes the time to go over to 2gtbstorecom and take a look. It's free to look, you know, doesn't cost you a thing to peruse and, honestly, if there's something that isn't there that you think we might want to offer or that you would be interested in if we did offer, just let us know. Yeah, you know, we're always looking to make our listeners and viewers happy with the products that we offer. But for all of your 2g tb, two guys talking baseball needs apparel and the like phone cases.

Speaker 1: 26:24

Phone cases you know all the good stuff anything you could ever want.

Speaker 1: 26:29

We hope so and again, if not, let us know. Yeah, 2gtbstorecom. All right, so the meat and potatoes of our show today, as I mentioned earlier, is the interview that we conducted earlier with Darren Vault, who is the voice of USA Baseball, and a lot of other things that I will mention in the interview. So I guess, without further ado, let's go to this great education that we got on college baseball from Darren Vaught. Well, folks, we are so thrilled today to be joined to talk some college baseball, an area where Brian and I, admittedly, are not as sharp as we are in other baseball areas. We are joined by Darren Vaught, who he's the voice of USA Baseball. He covers a lot of baseball in the ACC. He's done some Durham Bulls games but, most importantly, for the sake of our listeners, he's my little brother.

Speaker 3: 27:35

Darren, thank you for being here to educate us on college ball today yeah, for sure, always happy to talk college baseball because it's uh, it's a particular sect of the baseball world that's that's near and dear to my heart. As you mentioned, I cover a lot of it, I've always loved it, and what a great time of year to do it with things taking place in Omaha literally as we speak.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Yeah, I've got the game that is going on between Arkansas and Ole Miss. I've got that to my right to be up to the second on all that. But before we get to Omaha let's talk about. You know, we're here in Dandridge, so we have a very close proximity to Knoxville, tennessee, and you know Tennessee all season was this team that just especially around here, there was all this buzz and all this talk that just especially around here, there was all this buzz and all this talk. I mean, jj Cooper every day is throwing up these statistics that makes that made Tennessee such a powerhouse this season and they get knocked out in the Super Regional. So just talk to me a little bit. I know there's precedent, even for this last season, but talk a little bit about Tennessee and what made them so good and then maybe what where they came up short in the Super Regional.

Speaker 3: 28:52

Well, I mean, look, they were the number one overall seed going into the NCAA tournament. It was with good reason. They had arguably the best lineup in the country at that point and the best pitching staff in the country at that point. And you know, if you can hit the ball and score runs and you can pitch it pretty well, you're going to be successful in the game of baseball. You guys know that.

Speaker 2: 29:17

For sure it doesn't make you a genius.

Speaker 3: 29:20

Tennessee has a starting rotation of three guys who are all going to be with the collegiate national team in about a week or so. So that is indicative of how good they are. I mean that's insane that the same team would have all three of its weekend starting pitchers compete for Team USA in a given summer. And that's not even including the guy that clocked a pitch at 105.5 miles per hour, the fastest ever recorded in college baseball earlier this season, ben Joyce. I mean, he's a reliever and he's not included in that group. That's going to play for Team USA and you know, for much of the season they led the country in home runs as well offensively. So it's just, it's a, it's first off.

Speaker 3: 30:11

It's a heck of a job Tony Vitello has done as their coach to to sort of build the program, and I think what rubs people the wrong way is he.

Speaker 3: 30:19

He allows his players to embrace sort of the bad guy role. They, they have this chip on their shoulder and they love being the villains, to the point of I mean, we've seen the videos of the bathroom. You don't, you don't even have to look as near as this season for the bat flips. Remember there was drew gilbert, one of their star outfielders, the guy that got ejected and suspended for a game controversially in this most recent postseason Last year he had that grand slam and the video went viral because, well, he had that home run trot that probably took I don't even remember I would have to see the video, but it probably took a good two or three minutes for him to get around the base paths because it was largely spent celebrating. It was largely spent celebrating. Um I. They're polarizing and I think if you asked maybe some some old head college baseball fans, they would explain it as the baseball gods got them right they constantly were showing up other pitchers or opposing pitchers.

Speaker 3: 31:28

I think it's more of look, it's hard, it's difficult to win constantly in college baseball, and when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it and you get to a field of 64 selected, the truth of the matter is any of them can win a couple of games. Any of them can lose a couple of games. Any of them can lose a couple of games. And you mentioned the precedent Last year it was Arkansas. In their shoes, the number one overall seed. Arkansas was coming out of last season having had one of arguably the greatest regular seasons in college baseball history. They had the eventual Golden Spikes Award winner, kevin Copps, who was the first reliever to ever do it, and they got bounced in the Supers by NC State, who then, of course, as most know, did not get to finish their trip in Omaha, controversially. But you know that's now three consecutive NCAA tournaments in which the number one overall seed has been knocked out in the Supers. We didn't have one in 2020.

Speaker 3: 32:36

In 2019, it was UCLA, and that was a really, really good team that got knocked out of the Super Regionals. So I think, more than anything, guys, we've got to stop, or we we got to change how we approach looking at this tournament going forward, because everybody, this year it was Tennessee versus the field, it was Arkansas versus the field. Last year UCLA wasn't quite as dominant as those other two, but they were really good and a lot of people liked them to get to Omaha and get to the College World Series and even get to the final and win the whole thing. But again, three in a row number one overall seed has been knocked out prior to Omaha.

Speaker 3: 33:18

It's what makes the sport and the format great. It's just it's. It's so fun. And now we've got you know, you've got Ole Miss on your, your screen. They're playing for a chance to be in the College World Series final and I didn't think they should have been in the field of 54. I mean, they were a bubble team and I'm glad they're in there because obviously they delivered, they got hot at the right time and Mike Bianco is going to be the collegiate national team manager this summer, so I'd much rather see a happier version of him when I call their games in a week or so. But it just goes to show that you just got to get hot at the right time, that's it.

Speaker 1: 33:59

Yeah, I mean it is such an interesting format just because, as you mentioned, I mean any team at any level in the game of baseball can lose twice. I mean it's not that far out of the realm of possibility, no matter how good you are, um, especially when you're, you know, in a situation where every team you face, like you, is trying to get to the pinnacle of what you do, getting out there bets guys is the thing too.

Speaker 3: 34:32

In a Super Regional. It's a three-game series which for a lot of teams, looks even different than a typical three-game series in conference play looks this time of year we always see it even different than a typical three-game series and conference play looks right. I mean, this time of year we always see it. I mentioned Kevin Copps for Arkansas. Last season he started a game against NC State in the Supers and again primarily used as a reliever. So everybody's emptying the cupboard at this point. Right point, right. So if you're, if everybody's on for a given team, that team, as reason would stand, is going to outperform their best so far that season. So it's about. It's about sort of getting the right machinations of players and matchups in these postseason moments and then the guys executing. So you know it's and anybody can right. It's just it. These, these are all good teams. They're all deserving to be there for a reason and it's about who shows up and who doesn't yeah for sure.

Speaker 1: 35:37

And, and more over to that same point, I think, once we got to Omaha and you look at the eight teams that were there, I think a lot of people imagined we would be looking at a Texas-Stanford final and neither one of those teams won a game in Omaha. They both went out after two games. So talk a little bit about that sort of the. You know obviously you don't want to beat a dead horse, but you know sort of the shock and awe of Texas and Stanford both coming up way short of the expectation once we got to Omaha.

Speaker 3: 36:20

Yeah, and I told you this prior to play beginning once they got down to those eight, I liked Texas and Stanford as well. I thought another one that you couldn't ignore was Notre Dame, because they knocked off Goliath. They were the team that beat the number one overall seed and that should not be slept on. Notre Dame has been a top five or ten offense and pitching staff type team all season long, so sort of a Tennessee light in various ways. But yeah, I liked Texas. They were the preseason number one.

Speaker 3: 36:57

So before we all sort of knew and embraced that Tennessee was going to be the new number one, texas was there in the preseason. They lost their ace, tanner Witt. He just recently had Tommy John surgery so they were without him and all things considered that's a pretty impressive job. They had another guy who's an All-American type pitcher, aaron Nixon, who was just kind of not himself for most of the season. So again, all things considered, I mean it's a great season for them just to get to Omaha.

Speaker 3: 37:34

But they also have who I think is going to be the eventual Golden Spikes Award winner, ivan Melendez, who broke Chris Bryant's single-season home run record. You guys know Chris Bryant, of course. In his collegiate days he was in san diego and he hit bombs. So, uh, melendez surpassed 31 home runs, which is obviously a new record. He's really good. They refer to him as the hispanic titanic. It's fun to talk about, but um no, and stanford's just great all around um dallas. You and I texted about brock jones, who I got to know a little bit yeah um, who's just fun.

Speaker 3: 38:11

It's an insanely intelligent guy, as you would imagine to be at stanford. Uh, they've got a freshman two-way guy named brayden montgomery who was at the mlbine last year and I got to interview and talk to pretty extensively. That I really like as well. Scouts love that kid, by the way. He's from Alabama. The total package. Somehow he ends up at Stanford. But he pitches, he hits, he fields his position in the outfield really well too, and they've got him for a couple more years at least. So Stanford's a really good all-around team.

Speaker 3: 38:50

That again they didn't show up right and somebody else put it together on a particular day when they didn't, and that happened twice, which is not the craziest thing to happen to a baseball team. We know plenty of great, all-time great baseball teams that can lose on consecutive days. So it's been wacky right. I mean those SEC West teams, four of the eight teams in a division within the preeminent baseball conference. I think we can say in the country. It's a division that was, early in the season, viewed to be kind of down. Texas A&M just got knocked out today. That might be the biggest turnaround in college baseball. Virginia Tech certainly is up there in terms of great stories. Virginia Tech was not picked to be outside of the bottom two of the ACC and there they were. Texas A&M is under a first-year head coach, jim Schlossnagel from TCU. They didn't even make the SEC tournament last year and had this kind of success that they did, so that program's in really good hands.

Speaker 3: 40:08

I think that was sort of a one-story line for Omaha. This year it's program turnarounds with Virginia Tech and Texas A&M and then, other than that, it's experience Ole Miss Arkansas playing right now. I mean those are two of the most experienced teams in the country. Arkansas I mentioned number one overall seed last year. They got a lot of guys back that were on that squad that have a second chance now and, you know, are getting hot at the right time and have been hot at the right times this year. So I love to see the themes play out. Yeah and and obviously home runs is one of them. I mean the college baseball season saw way more home runs than it's ever seen, especially in the bb core era. Uh, the college world series has seen close to a record number of home runs. I mean they certainly were on pace after the first game or so. So that's another one I just love to see all these things play out, and the better teams, the expected to be better teams.

Speaker 1: 41:15

losing early has been something of a theme, yeah, and one of the things that makes baseball so great and so interesting is that it's such a platform for storytelling. I mean the way that baseball kind of plays out and allows things to happen that you couldn't write in a fiction. So, yeah, I definitely agree that there's some, and talking about the home run thing and Melendez getting the record, it wasn't that long ago on this very show, brian and I were talking about Tommy White because we thought after the run NC State made in the ACC tournament, they were going to get in and that was going to give him the platform to go after that record after he broke the freshman record. So we're definitely seeing the home runs and one of the home runs that I got to watch I saw Stanford's opening game in Omaha against Arkansas. And that's when I texted you, darren, about Brock Jones, because I remembered you talking about him last summer. But man, that guy, you know because I'm nearly 40.

Speaker 1: 42:31

When I watch college sports I'm looking at these guys going oh my God, they're 12. Like, they look like children, but Brock Jones comes up to the plate and he looks like a grown adult man the way he handles himself, his approach and he did a lot of good things. Even in that game that kind of got out of hand score-wise for Stanford. I saw a lot of him doing what he could as one person to give them a chance to win. You know, lead off home run to tie the game after there was some traffic and a run scored in the top half. And then you know Connor Nolan, who I want to talk about in a minute as well. You know pitched a gem and was super efficient and Brock Jones was one of the only guys in Stanford's lineup that was able to put some pitches on him. So just talk to me a little bit more in depth about what it was about Brock Jones that impressed you when you got to know him a little bit last summer with the collegiate national team.

Speaker 3: 43:36

The first thing that jumps to my mind, allison, when you talk about a guy sort of looking the part, looking like a pro. If anybody watched the ECU Texas Super Regional, they saw a guy for the Pirates named Bryson Worrell who was an outfielder, made some diving catches, hit some big home runs for them. He's somebody I put into this category as well. I had ECU a couple of times early in the season and mentioned to Cliff Godwin, their coach. I just I just said it plainly as I could. I was like it's amazing that you've had him for five years because that guy's a pro. And he said well, what, what do you mean by that? He goes. I know why he laughed. He was like I know he is because I see him practice every day and but he was just interested in my perspective and half the battle to me. When I see a guy like that.

Speaker 3: 44:29

Obviously the physical tools is one thing, but it's confidence. And Wuerl, no matter what was going on in a game, he stepped into the batter's box from either the left or the right side and um, because he's a switch hitter. But he had the same, the same demeanor, the same. You could tell he's he's never phased by anything and he's even a little less, um, outwardly confident than somebody like Brock Jones. Brock's got a great sense of humor. He's just an incredibly affable guy, gets along with everybody, always sort of talking everybody up, and I think the summer baseball vibe sort of contributes to that. Right, guys come out of their shell a little bit if they can get past the not putting too much pressure on themselves to deliver in these, in these games, where they're against the best of the best and playing with the best of the best, because for the collegiate national team it draws a lot of scouts right. So and these guys are used to that the, the, especially the big conference guys, they, they've, they've played in front of lots of scouts before. It's not their first rodeo, but Brock took that to a completely different level. I mean it's the reason we used him for so much content for USA Baseball. I mean that's part of my responsibility, right, get the best stuff out of these guys.

Speaker 3: 45:56

And anything we were doing, I was like, all right, we've got to get Brock involved. We've got to get Brock involved. I mean he got bored over quarantine in 2020 after their season was cut short and, um, he, he started a TikTok and obviously you can imagine somebody with the personality, the spark. He's a good looking dude. That helps, um, he just gained this massive following on tiktok for nothing in particular. He would just whatever the trend was that day. He's like all right, are we doing a dance today? Cool, I'll do it. I'll get up and do it. Um, you know, whatever, whatever the video trend was, he was participating just to kill some time, um, and he got a pretty big following out of it. So you know, that's just another way in which he's used to being seen and used to making himself vulnerable in ways that a baseball game can do to somebody.

Speaker 1: 46:58

But he's an incredible athlete aside from that. When he got to Stanfordford he started as a two sport athlete, played football as well, defensive back. You can imagine, if you see his stature, he probably would make a pretty good football player. Yeah, had he dedicated as much time to it.

Speaker 3: 47:19

But he man, he cares. He cares so much about his craft as a hitter and it shows right that home run you're talking about, the leadoff bomb is. It's the opposite field. I mean, he's, he's a complete hitter and um, I think he's going to be a hell of a pro. I can't wait to see him at the next level. I don't think, you know, he's projected's, projected, I guess. Late first round, early second round. I don't think it'll take him long, especially with the way minor league contraction has sort of shortened the trip from college to the major leagues For a lot of these guys. He's that caliber. I don't expect it to take him long. So I'm excited to see him get to the big leagues.

Speaker 1: 48:00

Yeah, me too. So I'm excited to see him get to the big leagues. Yeah, me too. I mean, you know just that first impression for me seeing him, you know, come up to the plate and just again the approach and the maturity level and then just the all-out, his acumen and skill to do what he did. You know, in that at-bat where he homered to tie the game.

Speaker 1: 48:24

But you know a later at-bat where he put eight, nine ten, he struck out but he put eight to eight, nine, ten pitches on Nolan, which Stanford wasn't doing, and there was a lot of like two-strike, you know, fighting pitches off and just man, I was really impressed. And just watching his body language and shots of him in the dugout I kind of got a Quique Hernandez vibe. Yeah, 100%, the guy just has a complete grasp of the moment. You know, when it's time to cut up and have fun, he's the class clown. But when it's time to get down to business and put the game face on and pump everybody up, he's that guy too. And you know, in talking about the TikTok stuff, scouts probably aren't looking at that, but front offices are looking at that because that's he's terrible, exactly.

Speaker 3: 49:24

Right If he performs on the field. He's a front office's dream, and I'll say this to your point about sort of knowing where the funniest guy, the most outgoing guy on the collegiate national team I was so impressed in his opportunistic eye with that in mind, because a first time Team USA coach was former MLB all-star Troy Tulewitzki, andulo was was on staff with the collegiate national team last summer. I mean, that's a as big a name as they've ever had, as as a collegiate national team coaching staff member, especially one that is not already established as much as a coach. But Tulo, on staff at Texas now for a few years, got the chance with Team USA. He embraced it and I think it's just, they shared a mindset. He and Brock hit it off in a way that was complicated. They had a couple of moments where Brock realizes some of these games are exhibitions, you're playing against other members of the collegiate national team and Tulo is, you know, he's very old school, right, and he jumped on Brock a couple of times for maybe just being a little bit too loose, and these are moments that we could catch from from press boxes, wherever we were. Um, we barnstormed the Appalachian League, so we were a little bit of everywhere in addition to the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, um Durham Bulls Athletic Park, uh, truist Park in Truist Field, rather, in Charlotte, uh, home of the Charlotte Knights.

Speaker 3: 51:19

But but it was an interesting evolution because these teams essentially it's a college all-star team and it's microwaved in this fascinating way because we will have it early next week. The team is formed and they first meet. Some of the guys probably play travel ball together and that's typically the case. A lot of them are conference rivals, so they're familiar with each other. They don't really know each other, but you're just, I mean again, you're microwaving this team for international play typically, which we get to resume this summer. The team will go to the Netherlands. It's it interesting to see a quick evolution from the beginning of a two or three-week stretch to the end.

Speaker 3: 52:13

And there were these little micro bumps along the way for Tulo and Brock Jones, but I think that was the closest bond between any you know player coach combination that was there and it's it's partially because, again, brock's a smart guy. He realizes this guy has done it at the highest level. Where I would like to do it, um, I'm gonna do everything I can to pick his brain and man, he was a pest to too low. We would be in. You know, hotel conference rooms is where they would have like all the snacks and stuff for for players whenever we we weren't on our way to vp or to play the game or whatever, um, so there was like a breakout room and their coaches are always huddled up at one table or another.

Speaker 3: 52:59

Brock was constantly, constantly in between two of the coaches asking questions, sometimes more specific, about what he was doing and his approach, sometimes just about. You know, hey, tulo, who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced, stuff like that. He took advantage to the utmost of the opportunity and he does the same thing with opposing players too is the thing you know. He was trying to get better over the summer and obviously he did. He picked up a lot. It turned him into. I think he's going to be a first-rounder and, you know, an All-American-type season again.

Speaker 1: 53:38

Yeah, I feel like I'm just repeating myself over and over again. I was super impressed with the guy. I mean just, I mean the the text conversation you and I had when I heard he was projected late first round and then my like you know, my, my whiskers started tingling of like man. What I wouldn't give to see that guy in dodger blue one day was just um, he's a.

Speaker 3: 54:02

West coast guy, I mean right already at Stanford. It makes sense, it would be it would be a fit if it's there.

Speaker 1: 54:07

Yeah for sure. So so let's, let's move on before we wax poetic any longer about one guy. Um, so I mentioned his performance in that opening game. Uh, which also impressed me a lot a ton was the efficiency of Connor Nolan from Arkansas. So tell us what you know. Anything you've got on Connor Nolan.

Speaker 3: 54:30

Yeah, I mean another, I think, former two-sport guy. I don't think he plays football anymore at Arkansas, but he went in as a quarterback for the Razorbacks, so just somebody with immense arm talent. Um, I don't think he got to 10 appearances last season, so he's a relative newbie to their pitching staff. Um, and it's been really, really good for them this year and he's been. He's had some big moments in this postseason where again the Razorbacks needed to fill a couple of voids from last year's team, the exiting players, such as Kevin Copps, golden Spikes Award winner. They needed to fill a couple of voids within the pitching staff and it's okay if those didn't quite come to full fruition earlier in the season. They're hitting the stride now and we know Arkansas has got a chance to get to that finals, that final rather, of the College World Series against Oklahoma. But Nolan was sharp in that game. He's been good at other points this year.

Speaker 3: 55:38

It's just the Razorbacks putting it together at the right time and, no, they needed it. It's a solid team. I really liked them from the jump because of what they went through last year and I think it's a bit of a sort of a revenge tour for them. I know everybody wanted the NC State revenge tour. That ultimately didn't happen. This season, I think Arkansas is on a bit of one. We'll see what happens against Ole Miss.

Speaker 1: 56:08

Right now, as we speak, it's bottom five. Arkansas just went up 2-1. Things could get a little interesting there. As we keep an eye on that game, they've got a fun major league tie on their roster too.

Speaker 3: 56:25

By the way, um starting middle infielder robert moore for those again unfamiliar, he's the son of dayton moore, who is the general manager of the kansas city royals.

Speaker 3: 56:36

Oh wow, dayton was around a lot, uh, over the summer last year. Obviously he's, I Obviously I don't think he actually was working, he was there at all in a working capacity. Again, he's got area scouts for that. But you know he's a baseball mind. He's the general manager of the Kansas City Rose. He sees things right. He's not just going to go watch a baseball game and not be working in a way, because you know the future talent of the next couple of drafts were right in front of his eyes.

Speaker 3: 57:09

So that's a cool major league tie that we've got with Arkansas and Rob Moore. God, he's such a good player. He's gritty man, he's tiny, he's an interesting projection to the next level. Um, and I think there's there's some dissension amongst scouts and in terms of exactly where he fits in. The pedigree of having a father who's a major league gm certainly helps, right, he's never gonna not know what to work on or not know how to to work on it. Um, because one, the one of the few people on planet earth who is tasked with evaluating such things is, uh, somebody in his, in his close inner circle. But, um, no, but Robert Moore couldn't go unmentioned for sure.

Speaker 1: 57:58

Yeah, and by all accounts, dayton Moore is just a dude, just a solid guy yeah, I enjoyed.

Speaker 3: 58:06

I didn't get to speak to him much last summer, but obviously when you recognize that he's around you do your best to sort of say, hey, introduce yourself, but maybe talk to him a little bit about, about Robert and um, you know, hey, what do? What are you seeing here with this guy who's pitching or something like that? Just to try and make it a narrow conversation, not try to. You know, if you make things too broad for those people, that's when they get annoyed.

Speaker 1: 58:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 58:39

Especially, you never know how somebody's going to act. He was there as a dad, so you don't want to talk about work per se too much, but no, he seemed like a good dude.

Speaker 1: 58:51

I enjoyed the few interactions I had with him. Well, oklahoma is waiting for whoever comes out on top between Arkansas and Ole Miss. And Oklahoma has another guy that really impressed me again just from a general vibe and maturity level, and that's Peyton Graham, who I know is another guy that's being looked at to be a good pro one day. So, darren, what can you tell us, if anything, about Oklahoma's Peyton Graham? Yeah, I mean a complete player.

Speaker 3: 59:23

He just again, with the confidence he exudes it, he looks the part when he settles into the batter's box. I love his resolve. He's not necessarily he had 20 home runs, has 20 home runs this season. So I hesitate to say he's not a power hitter but he doesn't approach hitting like one and he struggled a little bit in that Virginia Tech super regional. Only four hits in the three games.

Speaker 3: 59:54

I know that's wild over a hit per game is not really struggling, but for Peyton Graham it is and he bounces back and it has been pretty good. You know, all postseason long since the NCAA tournament started, four of his 20 home runs have left the yard. Um, just it. It just goes back to. He's a five-tole guy in a power five program, right, and none of these teams that make it this far are going to have question marks at that shortstop position. Peyton's really good. He is and he's for much of the season. He was a little off of my radar just because of the Big 12. Obviously he'll be in the SEC soon with Oklahoma, you know, or the Sooners will. Obviously he'll be in the SEC soon with Oklahoma or the Sooners will. A Peyton Graham-like player will be in the SEC soon, as Texas will as well, which makes this College World Series field just even more bananas.

Speaker 1: 1:00:52

Yeah, crazy.

Speaker 3: 1:00:56

When you look at it with the four actual SEC teams and the two that are soon to join them. But Peyton Graham's really good man, david Sandlin, had a heck of a pitching performance to get them to that them. But Peyton Graham's really good man, david Sandlin, had a heck of a pitching performance to get them to that final. He looked really good as well, and what was a bounce back for him? He had struggled sort of in this NCAA tournament before that. Oklahoma sort of snuck up on me. I can't lie, they did. That's a really good, well--rounded team, as is to be expected at this point yeah, for sure, brian you still with us over there.

Speaker 2: 1:01:29

I am fascinated. This is uh great information. Um, I'm loving the knowledge on all these players because I'm not familiar with the college game as well as I should be, but uh, yeah I, I am right here on the edge of my seat.

Speaker 1: 1:01:43

Do you have any follow-ups to anything, anything you want to know before I move on to the Golden Spikes?

Speaker 2: 1:01:47

No, let's move on to the Golden Spikes. That's what I've been waiting for the Golden Spikes All right.

Speaker 1: 1:01:51

So the Golden Spikes Award, which is sort of most commonly referred to as the baseball version of the Heisman, will be awarded just in less than two days, really, friday, june the 24th. Darren already mentioned Ivan Melendez from Texas and pegged him as the favorite, but there's two more finalists, darren in Georgia Tech's Kevin Parada and Oregon's Cooper. I don't know how to pronounce that last name, is it Erp? Erpe, herp, yeah, herp. Okay, that just felt wrong to call him Herp, if I didn't know if that was right. So you've obviously seen a lot of Parada at Georgia Tech, so let's start with him. Tell us about Kevin Parada.

Speaker 3: 1:02:39

Yeah, he's man. I love Parada and he's another one of those guys like Brock Jones who just a great personality Parada's way more laid back. But he's also a West Coast guy, originally from California, which makes Atlanta sort of an interesting fit. He was on a collegiate national team last year and I saw him before I actually was on the ACC and X-Call of his collegiate debut with Georgia Tech. I had their opening series against Eastern Kentucky and his first hit at the college level was a double which just was perfect to me. It was apt because the guy has gap-to-gap power and he's a great doubles hitter and he built onto that and turned himself into a really good home run hitter this season. I didn't get a great feel for how he was behind the plate last summer I'd seen him in the ACC, but really just to sort of match him up against everybody else and bear in mind too, again, he was a freshman last season unlike a lot of the guys on the roster Usually it's the majority of the collegiate national team guys are sophomores.

Speaker 3: 1:04:04

Parada happens to be a draft-eligible sophomore this year so he's able to go and be drafted. He's a projected first-rounder as well after a couple of seasons and he's improved a lot. He was already a really good and all-ACC type player but I think he gained a lot from the collegiate national team experience and he caught a lot of games for Georgia Tech. He was mainly a designated hitter for the collegiate national team because he was one of about seven or eight catchers. It felt like kyle teal from virginia, um, hayden dunhurst from old miss uh, who else was there? Logan tanner from mississippi state, uh, I mean there were daniel susack from arizona, of course. I mean a lot of really good draft eligible this year catchers were on the collegiate national team and there were only so many innings and so many reps that you could get at catcher. So I got a good look at him as a hitter, got to know him pretty extensively. Again for content features, I wouldck jones was always the first name that we went to and then parada was probably second.

Speaker 3: 1:05:28

Um, just another confident guy. He's been around, uh, really high level baseball over on the west coast. He's played really really competitive travel ball well prepared for the ACC and I'm excited to see how he projects to the next level. Everybody knows he can hit. He's going to get drafted relatively high because he can hit. There's talk of potentially moving him from catcher, which is interesting. It's not that he's not a capable athlete. I mean, he's got great hand-eye coordination, which obviously you need to hit too. But there's talk of him, and there's always this with the good hitting catchers, right, even the guys who are exceptional behind the plate, like with Adley Rutschman, for instance. There was even talk of him like, okay, do we move him to the outfield permanently so that we can get more years out of his back?

Speaker 3: 1:06:27

yeah um, it's, it always comes up with catchers, inevitably, and for a combination of reasons. I think it's been deemed to make the most sense for Parada. We'll see what team takes him and has that opportunity, that privilege. I think it'll ultimately be to develop him and turn him into whatever he's going to be. So that's the most interesting thing to me about Kevin Parada at the next level. But and I didn't even again, I hadn't even really thought about all of these guys in conjunction until you're asking about them but he's just another one of those guys where the confidence is is clear, right, and um, they, they, they approach everything the same way. Uh, even practice cuts, bpp. That's just telling, right, it's. It's very telling when you get a guy like that. Okay, this is why they're good, because reps are reps and swings are swings. But you got to treat them like they're swings, right? You can't just going through motions, it's, it's.

Speaker 3: 1:07:44

You can't just go in through motions. Seemingly you're not even getting that practice. But Parada takes a lot of pride in hitting and it shows he emerged big time this year. I thought he was going to be all ACC. I was like, okay, all-american at catcher is going to be tough, but man to blast, what did he have? 25, 26 home runs. I mean he crushed the baseball. He was in a great lineup too, so he was well-protected. I'll say that he and Andrew Jenkins, first baseman DH type for Georgia Tech, were one and two in hits in the conference, so that that matters. That goes a long way. Georgia tech had a basically a major league lineup this year. They just couldn't put it all together with the pitching staff, um. So he had, he had his opportunities to drive in runs, but it matters that he capitalized right, you gotta, you gotta deliver. Um, deliver on those opportunities before sort of you know it deflects the okay. He was in a stacked lineup and had a ton of projection criticisms.

Speaker 1: 1:08:53

So he's a good hitter man. He's a good hitter Big tacos guy. I learned that Brian is currently a huge tacos guy.

Speaker 2: 1:09:03

Yeah, I'm on the taco bandwagon here lately.

Speaker 1: 1:09:07

I got here today and probably the first thing I said was I need to eat and Brian was like you want tacos again. And I told him if I saw another taco that soon, I would throw it at him. So that's where we're at on the taco train with Brian right now.

Speaker 3: 1:09:23

Well for Parada. It's been maybe more of a struggle for you guys there to find good tacos in Atlanta. I hope he in a second year as a student at Georgia Tech sort of found his way and figured it out, but he went into detail about his woes trying to find a good taco in atlanta because, again, he comes from california, so there's a stylistic preference there that he was looking for.

Speaker 2: 1:09:49

That I don't. I don't think the deep south quite quite met at that point. Yeah, I don't know if hot atlanta is known for their uh taco well, abilities.

Speaker 1: 1:09:59

well, there's an, there's an elitism with tacos in California. Yeah, I didn't want to say it because I like Kevin.

Speaker 3: 1:10:09

But yeah, that's kind of what it came off as All right.

Speaker 1: 1:10:13

Well, so let's you know another team. We talked about Tennessee, obviously with our proximity here to Knoxville, but Oregon was another team that had some buzz and some hype this year that didn't end up making it all the way to Omaha. But let's talk a little bit about this, Cooper Herp. Tell us what you can about him and the season he's had.

Speaker 3: 1:10:37

Yeah, just I mean God he's. And honestly, being a West Coast guy that wasn't a collegiate national team player or somebody that I got significant time with, again he's a little off my radar, but just a tremendous season, really good projectability. I think a lot of people like him as a pro. And I mean I've got these taco notes on kevin parada. Unfortunately I can't have those on everybody right yeah, well, you're slacking.

Speaker 2: 1:11:07

Next time you better have them I'll do my best.

Speaker 3: 1:11:12

I'll do my best to figure out what, what the hell he's eating well, darren, we really appreciate the time.

Speaker 1: 1:11:20

This has been quite an education. You know, over the last couple of weeks, as we, you know, the postseason for college ball has been ramping up. We get to Omaha and you know it's an exciting time for college baseball. We realize we didn't have the spoons, the gumption on our own to cover this topic, but I think you have helped us out. Tremendously is the word I'm looking for, tremendously.

Speaker 2: 1:11:45

Tremendally. We can make that a word. It'll be all right we have the technology.

Speaker 1: 1:11:48

We have the technology.

Speaker 3: 1:11:49

Words are whatever we want them to be. It's fine.

Speaker 2: 1:11:54

That's right, they get added to the dictionary officially every year.

Speaker 1: 1:11:58

Yeah exactly, exactly. But what I'm trying to say, darren, is we appreciate your uh help today, covering some college ball and your insights as we are recording still 2-1 arkansas. So probably by the time anyone hears this, that one will go final and we'll be really close to getting down to two teams left in omaha. Darren, who you got, who you think is going all the way now that we're down to three teams?

Speaker 3: 1:12:27

Yeah, I mean Oklahoma being in the final and the only team of the three that's in the final sort of handicaps it a little bit at this point. But man, I really like both Ole Miss and Arkansas. Yeah, you know what I both Ole Miss and Arkansas. Yeah, you know what I'm going to say. Arkansas I think Arkansas gets into the final and they beat Oklahoma and the Razorbacks get it. That's my point.

Speaker 1: 1:12:51

All right.

Speaker 3: 1:12:52

Which could be for, not by the time anybody hears this the revenge campaign.

Speaker 1: 1:12:58

Darren's going with the revenge season. Well, darren, thanks again. It's been a real pleasure and we will. I am sure we will do this again about something else sometime, because, well, you're my brother and I'm gonna call in favors if, if I want to for sure, no doubt about it.

Speaker 1: 1:13:14

No, this was a lot of fun guys thank you for coming in, man, I appreciate it yeah, for sure, no worries well, brian I, I don't want to speak for you, but I think that that interview was exactly what we needed to bring not only ourselves, but everybody listening and watching up to speed on some college baseball.

Speaker 2: 1:13:33

Yeah, I mean I was riveted. I was sitting on the edge of my seat. Your brother is very knowledgeable. You can tell that he has a passion for the sport and he really gets in there. I mean, he's got his hands on and really knows these players, knows his game and, like I said, I was hoping to learn something and I did.

Speaker 1: 1:13:54

I learned a lot about these players and I loved having him on. He'll have to come back. Yeah, I'm sure we'll have him back at some point. He's a baseball guy. He know he does some other sports, you know I mean there was one year pre-pandemic where he did like 14, 15, 16 different sports in a calendar year, just calling. You know games and matches and things. You know he's very well-versed, but you know he's a baseball guy, you know, first and foremost. So I'm sure we will have him back on at some point. But we definitely appreciate him coming on and talking college ball. And I'm going to keep an eye on the rest of this College World Series because I've gotten really wrapped up in the he called them the themes, the storylines, the things that are sort of happening and unfurling right in front of our eyes with this College World Series. It's been riveting, it's been a lot of fun to watch, you know, and I've surprisingly tolerated the ping of the aluminum bat.

Speaker 2: 1:14:54

Ping.

Speaker 1: 1:14:55

Yeah, just I prefer the crack of a wood bat. Well, yeah, I prefer that also. Yeah, but a great talk with darren talking some college baseball and, um, yeah, I don't. I think that's all we got this week, brian. Anything else you want to get off your chest before we say so long.

Speaker 2: 1:15:12

No, I just enjoyed our guests this week. I've enjoyed sitting down with you. It's been a great week of baseball. I'm looking forward to another one and I'll see you at the field, all right?

Speaker 1: 1:15:21

folks. Well, uh, if you want to keep up with us and say hi, we're on Facebook and Twitter mostly, but if you go to 2gtbcom, you'll see links to all of our social media channels, as well as links to everywhere that the show is available as far as the podcast apps, and a link to our YouTube channel where you can watch us and see who we're repping every week. But, yeah, that's going to do it for us this week. Thanks so much, everybody, for listening. We really appreciate it. We've seen the numbers grow a little bit and that just makes us smile, man.

Speaker 1: 1:15:57

We talk about it a lot every week when we start to see the downloads and the views on YouTube. It means a lot to us because this is something that when we started it, we talked about, that we weren't doing it for the views and the downloads, we were kind of doing it for fun, just because it's something we wanted to try, and the fact that you know as many people are listening and viewing as as you are, it means a lot to us and we hope that you will continue to support us and and tell your friends and your family and anybody you run into who's into the game as much as we are and uh yeah, we can grow those numbers even more and hopefully continue to bring you lots of cool stuff. So with that for Brian Logan, I am Dallas Danger. Happy baseball, everybody. We'll see you next week.