Konnor Griffin Mania Continues + Barco Making a Real Case for Pirates 5th Starter

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What's going on, everybody?

Welcome to the North Shore 9 podcast presented by Fandoo.

I'm Jim and with me for the first time in a week is Denardo.

Denardo, welcome back to Florida.

Thank you.

Even though you live in Florida.

But welcome back to Bradenton.

It's good to be back, Jim.

Yeah, yeah, it's a little bittersweet for me.

Today's my last day here.

I fly out tomorrow morning, but we're doing a little bit of a shift.

Tyler left yesterday.

I leave tomorrow, but you're here.

Nathan's here.

Cody's here.

Doug's here and Neil is here.

That's right.

That's right.

Some new blood.

Some new blood coming in next week.

We got a little wild week this week.

Like you said, you leave tomorrow.

Cody's still here, but he does leave on Wednesday.

And then Ryan comes on Wednesday.

So we have like a pseudo third shift.

And also that's coming about.

But yeah, I'm excited for this week.

Again, you guys have laid the framework.

You guys, honestly, Jim, I want to hand something to you.

Like you guys have killed this week.

Well, thank you.

Now, there's a little bit of competitive spirit in me.

As I think some of us know, but regardless, like,

I want to do better.

Good luck.

Oh, little Paul skiing's action on me, huh?

Now, good luck.

But no, you guys have killed this week.

We're here to continue that.

If not try to do better, he's a little bit different.

People here involved, though actually be one more of us.

There's five this time, but again, like, I'm excited.

But it's a little bit different aspect too,

because you're having guys leave to go like WPC this week.

Yeah.

You had Antoine Kelly pitched today, probably his last outing

for a while.

You have Kyle Nicholas going away.

Spencer Horwa was going away.

Nick Gonzalez going away.

Paul skiing's obviously going away.

Santana, so it'll cruise.

A lot of players are going to be playing in the WBC

this next week.

So I'm interested to see what the lineups look like.

Interested to see what sort of pitchers get utilized.

May see some more prospects this next week.

Get some playing time.

So yeah, should be an interesting week.

None of the games were on TV this weekend.

I know.

But the pyres just kept winning yesterday.

They won in a rain shortened game against the Houston Astros.

They won five to two and six innings.

Yep.

And then today, a six one victory against St. Louis.

So both of those games on the East Coast of Florida,

kind of far away.

We didn't get to go to those.

But today's game, I just want to talk about this again.

Someone who we've hardly mentioned all week.

Connor Griffin with another home run today.

Is that with a C or a K?

Yeah.

His third Homer of the spring leads the pirate so far.

And he's he actually hasn't had a hit on a ball

that's been put in play right now.

He's a zero babbip, but three homers for Connor Griffin.

And another guy who I said, I've been kind of hyping up all week.

What I've what I've just loved what I've seen from him.

The password.

Josephson's in Garcia.

He gets his first Homer of the spring today as well.

So I said, I wish we could have watched the game.

But a lot of good stuff happened this weekend.

No, I mean, absolutely.

You know, that's why I like having us to on here because like

you're kind of passionate towards you've been here.

You've seen it.

I give the perspective of like what I'm anticipating,

hoping to see.

And like it's certainly those players.

I mean, Connor Griffin has made some noise down here nationally,

locally, wherever everyone saw about Connor Griffin.

And then once again, another home run today.

That's three on the year.

Like he's mentioned leads the pirates.

And that the times that he's not hitting a home run

or getting hit in general, it's still very hard-hitted baseball.

You know, the guy, sorry, again, the kid, the child still looks

every bit of a really top, you know, top prospect,

a really good player.

So I'm excited to see him.

But again, like I don't want to diminish like what Garcia has been

doing this off season.

Into the spring.

You know, when the trade happened,

that was one of the things we talked about.

Like if this kid is going to be good, you know,

a difference maker, the thing about the trade itself was,

you know, this isn't a guy who you're expecting like,

okay, this is who's going to make the pirates good this year.

They need to add on which they did, right?

But the ceiling of Garcia is a guy who could certainly help

this team this year if he does it.

The thing is going to have to do, though,

is connect with the baseball.

There's a lot of whiff in his game.

So far, two straightouts on the year, three walks.

He's, I mean, today actually it was deemed a straightout.

He challenged it and ended up being a walk.

Yeah.

And then again, like he's hitting the ball.

He's hitting the ball hard.

He's going to, so again, I know a small sample is about 13

that bats.

I think it is, but so far what you're seeing is the stuff

that you wanted to see from him this year.

And that's all you can ask for this one of time.

Yeah, OPS was pushing right around 1400.

Again, first week of spring,

but we would much rather be talking about these guys having

a lot of success the first week as opposed to struggling.

So yeah, he got on the board with a homer,

Jared Trio, though with two hits today.

But the story for today really was the pitching,

the Pirates pitching staff only gives up one hit

on one unearned run against the Cardinals.

Hunter Barco, three scoreless innings,

didn't give up a hit.

He struck out three, walk two.

I think he generated 11 swings and misses today.

His ERA still hasn't given up an earned run all spring.

So Hunter Barco continuing to look at,

he talked a little bit after the game about how his goal

is to win a job on this team.

So his goal right now is to go out there and push

for that fifth starter spot.

And he's looked really good.

Yeah, and it's the discussion, the fifth starter spot.

Is it Hunter Barco?

Is it Jose or Quidi?

I mean, there's options there.

I think it might make sense for Hunter Barco

to go like the Paul Skains, the Bubba route,

where maybe he's getting like maybe two to three innings

per start and triple A to ramp up

because he doesn't have a whole lot of innings behind him.

You know, if this team is gonna make the playoffs,

Hunter Barco could be part of that rotation.

So, you know, you don't want him running out of innings

in August and September, you wanted to be available

when the game is really matter at that point of time.

So it's like it makes sense

that I could expect him to be in triple A regardless.

But the attitude you're gonna have is I want to win a spot.

And he's doing everything you can right now to prove

I'm here.

And even if he doesn't win a spot,

he's doing everything that you're asking for to be confident

that, you know, hey, when we do call you up in maybe late April,

mayor, whatever it might be,

you're gonna be a difference maker.

And like this is the true form of this rotation

that teams are scared of.

So, you know, you mentioned about the swing and miss.

I'm in the fastball today.

17, 17 swing and misses on 15 swings.

He threw the fastball predominantly today

and like they couldn't touch it.

This wasn't the secondary stuff.

This is like, here, hit this.

And they couldn't.

Yeah, it's one of those game.

I really wish it would have been on TV

or we could have been there because I would have loved to have seen it.

But it looks like he had a really good outing today.

Antoine Kelly, Christian Curtis, both of them also in the mix.

Kelly with three innings didn't go up in our run.

Give up the one on our run.

Christian Curtis and inning and two thirds of hitless baseball.

So, yeah, I mean, overall a really good weekend.

Again, it's hard to talk about it.

We're not gonna spend too much time dissecting those two games

just because there was no way to watch them.

But good, good weekend.

I mean, we went to the East Coast.

You traveled kind of with a skeleton crew

and you came out with two wins.

The pirates are now eight and two in grapefruit league play.

I don't know if they're ever gonna lose again.

You know, I recall one NS9 live gym that I fainted.

I caught the buck of fever and fainted live on air.

That's true.

It didn't have you and Tyler were making fun of me.

I'm just saying, maybe, you know, I'm over it now.

I'm better.

Yeah, but I think the buck of fever might be spreading

and it's a real live epidemic.

Yeah, it really is.

It's running rampant all across the state of Florida.

Right, right.

I don't know if the team will ever win or lose.

I don't, what are the odds for them

that make like the win the world series?

I don't know.

I don't know.

But I do know that after today's Homer,

Connor Griffin's rookie of the year odds on Fandall,

plus 250 now.

He's still, I mean, the odds on favorite plus 250

to win rookie of the year.

I mean, he just keeps, he just keeps being impressive.

I know this isn't a thing they're going to put out,

but I wonder the odds on opening day starter

because again, he's shooting now, now also to add in there,

like, you know, Nick and Zollis is going to go.

Yeah, like this is the thing too.

When we talk about players going to WBC,

that's going to see less of less of a people.

Connor Griffin is going to be here.

Like, Nick and Zollis is going to be gone.

And I guess the Connor even more opportunities

at the play you would expect.

Even some other guys like tomorrow and whatnot.

We're like him and Jared Trill, you know, a lot of run

and spring this week, next two weeks, potentially.

So it'll be nice to see that too.

But again, also to talk about Jared Trill,

he had a couple hits today as well.

Yeah.

You know, he's looked pretty solid so far with spring going.

But yeah, man, like Connor, how do you just not grin,

ear to ear, just saying his name?

Yeah, I mean, one of the fact that they're at home,

like all this week, I'm pretty excited for you guys.

You'll have the chance to get to watch him for home games,

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

Yeah, I guess tell the folks what you got planned

for this week.

Yeah, so again, like we're kind of passing it off.

You guys did a tremendous job.

You guys were live at the cut on Wednesday, eight o'clock

to do NS9 live.

That kind of came like in prom too.

We're going to continue it.

So, but I won't say first, of course,

we will have Buckebrew tomorrow morning.

It looks like it's going to be Neil and myself on seven o'clock.

Of course, Buckebrew, tune in.

You know the deal.

We'll have our normal noon post or podcast,

as you say, it's not a pre-game.

It's a podcast, but it's before the game at noon.

Well, how about going on with all four games?

What's cool is Tuesday.

They play Columbia.

You know, it was a WBC exhibition.

That's kind of cool.

It's interesting.

It's different.

Yeah.

But, you know, we'll have a wrap-ups Wednesday.

We'll go back to the cut.

So, we'll be back there again.

So, if you are in the area, make sure you come out there.

The cut, eight o'clock, Wednesday, we'll do NS9 live.

The whole crew will be out there.

And, like I said, there's now five.

Well, actually, Cody had gone, Ryan will be coming in.

So, there's still be five of us.

And then Thursday, Friday, you know, we do it.

The normal stuff.

We're out of here on Saturday, unfortunately.

I wish we could stay longer.

Yeah.

Well, it's been two weeks.

It's been two weeks.

It will be good.

We, as the brand, as Norsher and I are here for two weeks,

that's pretty sweet.

Yeah.

I'm excited.

So, excited for you guys this week.

Curious to see how you guys do.

It'll be, I said, three, probably three shows tomorrow.

Mondays will be the big day with the three shows.

But, yeah, we'll have stuff for you all week long.

Yeah, see what kind of maybe, maybe one up us on the interviews.

The one person we weren't able to actually get on camera this past week

that we really wanted to talk to was Connor Griffin.

So, that's my challenge to you.

Oh, I thought you were going to say Libby.

Okay.

But, see if you can get Connor.

See if you can get Connor for a couple of minutes this week.

We'll try for Connor.

I know it'll be tough.

Connor's pretty occupied going through.

Yeah.

He's everyone in the world who wants to talk to him right now.

Yeah, literally right now.

But, if we can, yeah, that'd be awesome.

But, again, you guys, I want to shake your hand, Jim.

You guys did a tremendous job.

You Tyler, Cody, Doug.

Awesome stuff.

This week, we have myself.

We have Doug again.

Two weeks for Doug.

People can't get enough of him.

Voice of the people.

Yeah.

So, myself, Doug.

Cody will be here till Wednesday.

Ryan comes in to replace Cody.

And, of course, Nate and Neil.

So, I'm excited.

I'm really excited.

We got some really, really cool stuff.

Maybe some surprises.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, anyways, we'll see you tomorrow.

Bucko Brew, 7am live.

Other than that.

You got anything else to add?

Let's go Bucks.

Real series, baby.

Let's go Bucks.

Peace out, guys.

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