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00:00Always an honor to bring in our next guest on the River Islands guest line.
00:04It's none other than the voice of the Giants, John Miller.
00:06Hey, John, how you doing?
00:09Hey, that's a good question.
00:11There it is!
00:13Yeah!
00:13There it is!
00:14This interview is over!
00:16John, thank you for coming on!
00:18Yeah!
00:20Congratulations, yeah.
00:23Yeah, boy, I gotta go call my parents now, and Dibs can do the rest of the interview.
00:29Man, I can't follow up that question.
00:31I mean, I've got nothing but baseball chatter, John.
00:34I mean, other than how you doing, are you...
00:36Wait, that's a good point.
00:39Yeah.
00:39I mean, are you doing as well as the Giants currently?
00:43I mean, you're doing well, but are you doing that well?
00:47Well, I hate to admit it, but as the Giants go, so go I.
00:53This has been like one of the great weeks I've had since I can remember, so wow.
00:58Wow, I'm doing really well, yes.
01:00Well, I mean, John, you're so good at the historical reference of where everything sits, so I wonder
01:08what kind of perspective you think of when you see something like this, six consecutive
01:14one-run victories.
01:16Well, I mean, I think that maybe the Giants have never done that before.
01:24I've never seen a team, the Giants or otherwise, do it.
01:27I saw a note today that the Angels did it just, what, 36 years ago?
01:32Well, but no big league team had done it since then until now, so I think, you know, at one
01:40point you think, well, there are some good breaks that go your way when you win any one-run
01:47game, or some breaks that went against you when you lose a one-run game.
01:52It's that kind of a game.
01:53You know, a broken bat bloop can turn into a game-winning hit, or, you know, Wilmer Flores.
02:00And, you know, Wilmer has been just incredible this year at being the guy who gets the big hit.
02:07And, you know, we used the phrases about, you know, just trying to put the ball in play
02:13and get a ball into the outfield to get those runners home, that sort of thing.
02:17And then Wilmer did one last night that even for Wilmer was a little out of the ordinary
02:22because he hardly hit one at all.
02:25He hit it so badly, so poorly, that he beat out an infield hit.
02:30And when's the last time he did that?
02:32Now, there's a good question.
02:34It might be, yeah, when it was like 12 or something, you know, so.
02:38And I love how you work the stat cast.
02:40The kind of things you need.
02:41Yeah.
02:41And you work the stat cast into the broadcast, and that one was 49.3 off the bat.
02:47And it traveled two feet.
02:48So, I mean, those are the ones, like you're saying, that you definitely remember in the opposite direction.
02:55And I guess the real positive takeaway for me was Willie Adamas maybe finding something
03:00that he hasn't had for the majority of the year.
03:03Well, I'd like to see it happen.
03:05I think, you know, Willie, and he's a great guy, and he's a great guy in the clubhouse,
03:10and everybody loves him.
03:11But I think, you know, he may have put a little too much pressure on himself to deliver.
03:19And even if he didn't actually do that, I think that it still comes out because the thing goes
03:26deeper and deeper, and you're like, man, I'm just, I've got all this money, and I'm doing
03:31nothing.
03:32The fans gave me a great welcome, and I'm not driving anybody in.
03:36And made some throwing errors, and, you know, just everything seems to be going bad.
03:42And who knows, you know, it might be hard to sleep at night, and these things can trouble
03:46a player.
03:48So, anyway, but I'd like to see him have some more success there at Coors Field because
03:54it's a great place to have success when you're a hitter.
03:57And sometimes ills go away.
03:59I remember Rich Aurelia, he'd go and have a little trip to Denver, and he'd be a new
04:04man for the next several weeks after that.
04:07And Pablo Sandoval, same thing.
04:09So, hopefully it keeps up for him tonight and tomorrow in the afternoon game, and then they'll
04:15have a few guys who are rolling into L.A. on a hot streak on Friday.
04:20John Miller with us here on Withered and Dibs.
04:23John, I wonder if you could shed some light on something we were just discussing, because
04:26I don't know what they're going to do.
04:28Like, Justin Verlander comes back ready.
04:32Does he jump back into the rotation?
04:33And if so, who's out?
04:37Yeah, I think I know that they've discussed maybe even going with a six-man rotation for
04:43a while.
04:44And if they're going to go with the five-man, I think then you could well be talking about
04:50Kyle Harrison going back into the bullpen, give him an extra lap.
04:55You know, because that's another area where the Giants are a little bit short.
04:59They've only had the one lefty in the bullpen most of the year, Eric Miller.
05:03And that's when he first came up to the big leagues this year, was Kyle Harrison for the
05:08first time being a bullpen guy.
05:10So, that would make sense.
05:12And, you know, they'll need probably a little bullpen help when Verlander does come back,
05:18because he probably won't be ready to go six, seven innings yet, at least the first couple
05:23of times out.
05:24So, anyway, we'll see.
05:25But I think they'd like to get him back.
05:27Even though he kept, you know, it was newsworthy, I guess, that he didn't have any wins.
05:33But we're in an era now where wins are kind of irrelevant for a starting pitcher.
05:38It's about how often does he give you six strong or seven strong and keep you in the game?
05:43And after that, it's kind of out of his hands whether he gets a win or not.
05:49And he had some games where he not only should have gotten a win, but I think there were some
05:56relief pitchers because they love him.
06:00And he's a guy who holds such great respect in the clubhouse that they might have even
06:04been trying a little bit too hard to secure those wins for him.
06:08And so, anyway, I think everybody's anxious to get him back.
06:13And he started the season, John, and I was looking at the numbers.
06:16He was maybe going to be the final pitcher ever to get to the 300-win plateau.
06:22And now having no wins through the first couple of months, it doesn't look like that he and
06:27not many people behind him will have a chance to get there.
06:31Do you think they'll ever change the qualifications?
06:33Maybe you only need to go four innings to get the win, or is the 300 club going to go the
06:38way of the Dodo Bird?
06:40Well, I think that that's been something that's been said for a long, long time, that we may
06:47not ever have another 300-game winner.
06:50And when I was a kid, we had Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry with the Giants, both on their
06:56way to the Hall of Fame.
06:57Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale with the Dodgers.
07:00And these guys would make 40 starts a year.
07:04So number one, they would start every fourth day, and not every fifth day, as they do now.
07:11And they might get 25 to 30 complete games every year.
07:15The idea was not to have to go to the bullpen.
07:18You only went to the bullpen for those guys, especially when they started showing signs
07:24of losing it.
07:26You know, all of a sudden, yeah, he looks a little too tired.
07:28Let's, we better get somebody up in the bullpen.
07:31So a win was really a, not only coveted, but it was an important accomplishment that
07:40you were going out there to finish what you started.
07:43Earl Weaver once told me that he said, you know, the best closer I ever had was Jim Palmer.
07:48And that was closing a two-to-one victory.
07:53There was no way he was going to give it up in the eighth and ninth innings.
07:56I wouldn't even think about going to the bullpen to relieve him because he was finishing it
08:01and he was going to win it.
08:03So it's about a different time, different era.
08:06And now if you go six or seven, and let's face it, you know, Logan Webb has become one
08:12of the, not just top starters in Major League Baseball, but a guy who is a workhorse.
08:20You know, and he, he might average six and two-thirds, six and one-third innings a year,
08:27or, you know, per start for a year.
08:30So he'd give you 208 innings, 210 innings.
08:34And that's, that's the workhorse.
08:35And it is, it is in this, this era of baseball, but how many times does he give you the ninth
08:43inning?
08:43Not very often.
08:45And, and I think that's the, you know, the best thing for him, the best thing for the
08:50team.
08:51And it's the same on, on every staff on, on all the teams.
08:54So there's always stuff that is out of his control as to whether he gets that win or not.
09:01And I think the baseball writers who are the ones who vote for the awards, like the Cy Young
09:06award, you know, have, have done the right thing in terms of discounting wins for starters,
09:12because they're not as important as how well did the guy actually pitch.
09:18So, and, and the innings pitched are very critical to help keep the bullpen fresh.
09:23And that's a primary value of Logan Webb is that, you know, the, the day after he pitches
09:31most of the time, the bullpen is fresh and ready to go.
09:36They only may have gone a couple of innings in his stead the day he's out there.
09:42So anyway, it's just a whole different thing.
09:44So wins, I mean, I'm not, I'm not banking on Berlander getting to 300 wins and I don't
09:51think it will matter in the slightest in terms of how he gets voted into the hall of fame
09:57and, and, and when John Miller with us with it and dibs, John, how do you see the Matt
10:03Chapman injury in terms of the giants ability to fill in for a presence like him, both in
10:10the lineup and in the field?
10:12Well, it's really cool to me that they have Casey Schmidt because, you know, it wasn't so
10:19long ago that we were hearing about Casey Schmidt that, and we have a young guy and
10:24you know, Matt Chapman wasn't with the giants.
10:25He was with the blue Jays and before that with the A's and whatnot, but we kept hearing
10:31man, there's this young guy.
10:32He's a third baseman.
10:33He's, he's, you know, he's young and he's still developing.
10:36He's still learning and all that, but he has the similar skillset.
10:41You would compare him to a young Matt Chapman.
10:43And that's what he was.
10:45He was a great arm, great range, quickness at third base.
10:49He's got some power.
10:51And now to get him to the big leagues, he had to learn some other positions and become
10:58more of a utility guy.
10:59So I think it's, they're probably in pretty good shape with him being the guy to fill in
11:05for the real Matt Chapman for a couple of weeks or however long it takes.
11:09I think Matt himself indicated that he's on the 10 day injured list, but it's probably
11:15going to be more than 10 days.
11:17So anyway, it's a great opportunity for him to play his natural position and to, to show
11:24people a few things and, and to get hot because especially last year for the last, what, several
11:31weeks of the season, he wore out left-handed pitching and he didn't face that many right
11:36handers.
11:36So now I think for a while, he's going to have a chance to play against all righties
11:41and lefties and his first night and perhaps a sign of things to come.
11:46He hits a home run in Coors Field and it would be cool to just seem, keep that up.
11:53And, and, and, and I think he would look forward to being able to play his position that he's
12:00always played where he signed and all that kind of stuff.
12:03So, uh, I think the Jacks are in good shape of him.
12:05That's, that's my little, uh, my little prediction.
12:08I like that, John.
12:09And I was thinking about this and Mark and I were talking about it before about Buster
12:13Posey.
12:14It seems like he's going to be aggressive ahead of the deadline to try to help this ball
12:19club.
12:19Does the injury to Matt Chapman maybe move the timeline for an offensive acquisition?
12:25Does it move that timeline up in your eyes?
12:28Well, I, I think that there's being aggressive and, uh, you know, making the calls and inquiries
12:36and fielding calls, things like that, and looking for trades and trying to fill needs and that
12:42sort of thing.
12:43But, uh, I think those kinds of things also tend to happen whether you're aggressive or
12:47not, those tend to happen in their own time.
12:51Some teams just don't want to make a deal until right near the deadline because they feel like
12:56that's the only way to really maximize the return.
13:00You know, and I'm talking about teams that are looking to sell some, uh, some of their top
13:05talent or young talent in exchange.
13:07So, and that goes on the other side where, uh, if you're Buster Posey, you, you're talking
13:13about a deal and you, you also kind of think maybe somebody is asking for too much in return.
13:20Maybe we need to, uh, let that calm down for a little bit and find out, uh, if that, uh,
13:27asking price goes down a little bit as time moves along.
13:30So, so whether or not that happens quickly, uh, I think there's a lot more to it than just
13:35whether you want to make it happen.
13:37Quickly and, and sometimes you could make it happen quickly if you're just willing to
13:41overpay and give away too much of your future, your, your young talent.
13:46So, um, anyway, so I will see.
13:48And, and I think the, uh, the giants, uh, are still the main thing that the giants have
13:54going for them is their pitching staff.
13:56Uh, I saw a note yesterday or today, maybe that, uh, you know, somebody was saying that it
14:04looks to them like the best one, two punch in anybody's rotation on any major league team,
14:11Robbie Ray and low and Logan Webb or Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, but put it in whichever order
14:16you choose.
14:17So, uh, I mean, those guys, they, they go deep and they're, uh, the team is confident with
14:23them and the giants are on a, on a roll and having an excellent first, even though their,
14:29their offense has, has been subpar.
14:32So, uh, I think, uh, because there's a feeling that I, I think has gone through the clubhouse,
14:39uh, and, uh, and around the game in general, but this team is a much better hitting team
14:45than they've shown so far.
14:47And, and I think that, uh, the pitching though is what's kept them there and they're right
14:52there.
14:53What are they, uh, half game back of the Dodgers going into play today without much offense.
14:58The Dodgers have been just sort of the opposite.
15:00Uh, they're hoping that they get some injured pitchers back pretty soon and, and that their
15:07pitching picks up because they have all kinds of offense, but their, their pitching has
15:13been really, uh, uh, um, a sore point for them.
15:16And they had just so many guys who were hurt, so many injuries.
15:19So anyway, uh, uh, that that's always kind of interesting.
15:23And sometimes in baseball, you go, you go back over the years, you have a hard time.
15:27The team that hits the best is also a team that's a little suspect with their pitching
15:32and, and, or vice versa.
15:34So, uh, uh, that's why the Dodgers, I think everybody was.
15:37Unanimous that the Dodgers were the team to be, but it looked like they had a little
15:41bit of, of all that, that plenty of offense, uh, deep bullpen, some big time starting pitchers.
15:48And yet, uh, as deep as they are with starters and relievers, uh, look how many of them are
15:54injured, right?
15:55It's, it's incredible that the number of injuries they've had.
15:59John Miller is with us.
16:00Voice of the giants, uh, on Willard and dibs 95, seven, the game.
16:03Yeah.
16:04I wonder kind of how you see that dynamic playing out.
16:07We always hear, and we know the giants are built pitching and defense is what wins in
16:13the post season.
16:14But how, how far does that go, John?
16:16Like, I mean, obviously you gotta be able to offer something offensively.
16:21So do you see the giants as having enough, even though the pitching staff is clearly ready
16:27to roll?
16:29Well, I, I think the, uh, um, the one thing that the giants, uh, that we have seen from
16:36the giants so far is that they're, uh, you know, not quite half the lineup, but a very
16:42large chunk of the lineup is way below what their track record has been.
16:48Uh, I mean, Patrick Bailey has not been around that long, but he has been around long enough
16:55for us to see him, uh, hit and hit well, you know, how, how many times did he get clean
17:01up last year or even the year before a lot?
17:03Uh, now he maybe didn't keep that thing up that he kept going for the first half of the
17:10season offensively, but, uh, because he, he really wore out his rookie year, the second
17:15half. And he admitted as such. And then, and then last year he went into a, uh, an all
17:21time slump. And, you know, at one point, what was he, he had eight hits and 90 at bats or
17:25something in, in August and into September. And, uh, he, he had been a vital cog in the
17:32offense up to that. So he has an it Lamont Wade jr. Who's been so reliable about getting
17:37on base and being a power threat besides, and he did nothing. And now he's, he's with the
17:43angels. They traded him because they, you know, they just felt like, well, it's not
17:49like he got hot for a while and now he's gone into a slump. He never got hot at all. It
17:54never happened. There were just some, some hard line drives, uh, uh, occasionally where
18:00you thought, well, he's, he's, he's hitting into some bad luck, but he's, he's starting to
18:04make hard contact, but that's about it. So, uh, so there were several of those guys that
18:10were not hitting at all. And then of course, Willie Adamas is sort of at the top of that
18:16list. So, uh, so I think that that's something where you think these guys are all, they've
18:21all shown that they, they can do a way better than what they have done. Uh, you know, Tyler
18:27Fitzgerald, he had a hot scratch just before he got hurt. And then he went on the injured
18:33list and he has not been driving in runs and the, you know, the best hits for him or the,
18:39like the Wilmer floor is hit last night. If he hardly hits it at all, because he got
18:43great speed. And I think half the hits he's had since he came back have been hit very
18:49sorry. What did you say? 49.3 miles per hour last night. That's been a, a prime time
18:56kind of a, uh, contact for Fitzgerald since he got back. So, so these are all guys, I
19:02think that have a lot more to show offensively than what they have up till now.
19:07Yastrzemski went five weeks without an RBI. What are you kidding me? He was like one of
19:13the guys carrying the team all through the whole month of April. And he had like a 400
19:19on base average. He was hitting the homers and knocking in run. And then he didn't knock
19:23in a run for five weeks from what may the 4th until just a few days ago. So, and now he,
19:29all of a sudden he's looking like himself again. So there's been some, some bizarre things
19:34that have been going on. And, and I don't anticipate, uh, that it, it's going to have
19:38all of those guys, uh, for the rest of the season. I think they're all about going to,
19:43uh, show that they, the same things they've been showing us in the past.
19:48Well, thanks to you, John. I now geek out on stat cast around the clock and just a little
19:53more on that Wilmer Flores, uh, moonshot negative 72 degree launch angle. And the hit distance
20:00was two feet. Well, that's the two feet off the bat until it hit the ground.
20:07It went further than two feet. It eventually traveled to some 30, 60 feet.
20:12Exactly. And then boy, Wilmer picking them up, putting them down.
20:19That's right. And that's the tying run. That was the tying run that he knocked in.
20:24Right. So yeah. Expected batting average on that one 60.
20:27Yeah. It just, you got me all over. He may not get another one of those the whole year. Yeah.
20:34That may be the only one he gets all year. Uh, John, just wonderful to have you, man. What a treat.
20:40Thank you for doing it. We look forward to the next one already.
20:45The, uh, and the Dodgers beat the Padres. Yep. And so now the, the Dodgers don't play again until
20:52the Giants get there. Is that it on Friday? That is an accurate statement. Yep. Yep.
20:56How they write, write this schedule, but, uh, and the Giants need to beat the, let's face it, the,
21:02the, the Rockies and the Rockies feel like they should have won last night. And, uh, I watched that
21:08night thing, uh, you know, cause I'm on assignment right now. Yes. As soon as I heard, uh, like you guys
21:14wanted me on your show, I said, okay, well, I'm not going to Denver then. Um, I'm just watching
21:19it on TV and I was trying to do this. Yeah. This was the assignment. So you, you, you, you,
21:24you got an A on the assignment. Beautiful, beautiful. And, uh, but that, you know, they had
21:31some great and they're not official at bats. When you get a walk, it's not an at bat, but I thought
21:38those walks, they got to set up that inning. Those were gritty, determined at bat. Nobody was swinging
21:43at bad balls. And, and they, they, they, they picked up this guy. Cause that could have had
21:49a lot of success for the Rockies is, uh, Agnos. And, uh, uh, and, and yet they, they coaxed
21:55three walks out of them and that's how they set it up. So, uh, uh, and Hey, let's face it.
22:00If he'd thrown more strikes, it's Coors Field. They might've, uh, uh, done a lot more hitting
22:06in that inning, but, uh, uh, I, I just was really excited to see the way they do it because it
22:12was against that bullpen and the bullpen had shut them down until that ninth inning.
22:17Right. It's like there was nothing there for them last night. And all of a sudden they
22:21get four in the ninth. So pretty cool to see. And, and I wouldn't mind if they went ahead
22:25and won the game tonight, Brian, you know, two runs or three.
22:31Oh, whoa. Whoa. Yeah. That's a lot of runs, John. Sheets. Uh, we'll see. No, it's a,
22:41it's a crazy run and a fun to chat it up with you about all of it, John. Thank you so much.
22:47Hey, uh, we're getting toward mid season. The pennant races are taking shape and it's,
22:53it's a pretty good pennant race going on in the national league West so far. I'm,
22:58I'm kind of into it. So it's very good. Yep. No, thank you, John. We appreciate it.