Our Best & Worst MLB Predictions So Far in 2026 | Wax Packs & Warning Tracks #31

Before we jump into today's episode, quick shout out to our sponsor, ebay Live. If you think ebay is just a marketplace, you're missing a whole side of it. Ebay Live is where real time excitement means rare, exclusive, hard to find cards and collectibles. You can watch live auctions, catch exclusive drops and buy directly from trusted and quite frankly the best sellers like myself. Well, it's all happening. It feels like a show. Not just shopping with great hosts, the aforementioned me creators and streamers. Plus everything's backed by ebay's protections and authenticity again, guarantees. To check it out, download the ebay app, tap the ebay live button right under the search bar. Make sure you follow. Obviously sports cards nonsense. Let's get back to your show. What's up everybody? Welcome back to Waxbacks warning tracks, Moo Breaks Baseball card podcast. Cody and Bubba, back with you. We're off last week cuz there was a lot of Bowman to rip. But we're back to talk about Bowman. Yeah, that's right. We're wearing the Bowman. If you're watching this, let's go. We did not plan the color coordination, but you know what, it worked out beautifully. So we got the Bowman shirts on. We are going to talk about some early sales data for Bowman and one thing that I think we kind of clocked it on our last episode of like this might be something to watch is we may have a rare Bowman release where the number one guy is not a first Bowman chase and not a traditional first Bowman chase. So we, we'll get into that. Plus we are reaching Memorial Day weekend. Hope everybody has a great holiday weekend. Safe. Happy holiday weekend and Memorial Day. Always a time in the baseball calendar where you kind of, it's like the first marker of the baseball season where we can kind of look and assess. If you're good at this point, you're probably going to be a good team, but there's a few that fall off if you're bad. Well, might be time to start thinking about who's going, who's selling and all that. And we'll look at some players that we were right about, that we were wrong about and see how they're going to play for the rest of the season. Yeah, there's a lot of teams that I thought were going to be really good and are not. Overall, just this is before we get into Bowman, the baseball landscape overall for the teams I feel like there are, I could probably count on one hand the teams. I feel like this is a great team that's going to be there till the end of October, and then the rest is just a big pile of. Just a big, giant shrug. Like, there's some really bad teams, but I feel like, for the most part, every. Like, every other team from, like, maybe eight down, if you're going on the power rankings, is just a big shrug to me. I don't know. How do you feel about it? Am I. Am I off here? No, there's. You get that feeling. I look at, like, divisions. Like, if a little divisional breakdown. Like, one of the best divisions right now in baseball is the NL Central. Like, for some reason, I probably point to a lot of, like, young talent there that's stepping up and showing up that maybe, like, baseball writers and. And whatnot weren't taking. Weren't giving full credit for or. I don't know, because some of those. Some of those lineups don't really make sense. And you look at their record and you see, like, who they're marching out there. They're starting nine every day. It's like, yeah, somehow they're getting it done. Yeah. The Cardinals, I think, is the top of that list in the center. Yeah. A team that was fully in sell mode. Now we need to respect Alec Burleson, too, because he's been doing it for Burley. This is now, I think, is going to be his third year where he's like, the dude in that lineup. Yeah. Maybe Arenado going to Arizona re enter provided an opportunity for him to step up, not only at the plate, but I was talking to Aaron for a second, like, both ways. It worked out because Aeronauto looks like he's back to kind of his old self right now, which is awesome. Which is awesome. How about Zona? Quick segue. Five in a row just walked off. Corbin Carroll, at the time of recording, swept the Giants. Yeah, like, yeah, that didn't go well. He took one off the dome. Yes, he did. That was wild. He had a grand slam in that series. Took one off the head. I've never seen that actually, like, that. That play I had never seen before. Yeah. But no. So, I mean, yeah, the Cardinals at the top of that list. And then like, a division where I personally coming in the year I thought was going to be a lot more competitive. And even my al. AL pennant pick, the Rangers, that AL west division is abysmal. It is so bad. The A's are in first place right now at 26 and 24 and a negative run differential. As we sit here today, the Rangers and the Mariners have been disappointing. The Astros are Maybe the biggest disappointment in all of baseball. And the Angels are truly abysmal right now. Yeah. So there are, like, clumps of teams. Like, there are divisions that are, like. They all kind of look the same to me. So I think that's providing for, like, some, I don't know, ambiguity, I guess, as we. Yeah, Memorial Day is like, a good marker of, like, a good progress report, a good progress check. Yeah. We're probably a good 35% into the year. Right. 40% into the year. About like a third of the way into the season. And right now, here, I'll tell you the teams that. I would say these are elite teams. The Dodgers, I'll put the Padres on that list. The Padres are good. The Braves, the best team in baseball, as by record. The Rays, Surprise, surprise. The Yankees. And then I know people are going to get mad at me for, like, oh, you didn't include the guardians. I guess I'll pull. I'll throw the guardians on there. You don't have to. Yeah. And then the NL Central is good. I just don't. I don't know about the Cardinals. I'm not. I don't think this can last. The Pirate. Yeah, that's. This is where I'm at. So, yeah, like six teams, maybe, where I'm like, okay, these are the teams. Right. The rest of baseball, I just don't know about. I'll throw the brewers in there. I think I'll put the brewers in there. I feel good about that. What the standings want you to believe is, like, what? Like, I just. I just don't think is going to be true, like, in 100 days. I just don't. Yeah. I'm not buying that the NLC is going to have three playoff teams. No. Well, the one. The one that already, it's turning around. The Phillies. At this point, the Phillies looked so bad to begin the season. They're now sitting at.500. I know they've lost two in a row, but they're sitting at.500. That's a team that. That's where they're going to be on the up and up. There's just too much talent on there. There's too much pride on that team, and it's already showing. And the way they have played basically since Rob Thompson got fired, it's been completely different. So, anyway, just something that I was kind of thinking about, and I think part of it, too, is the wild card stuff. Expanding the wild card. Yes. You're inviting more teams into the dance. But, like, this was always my Fear is, like, you do kind of water down the product, and you get this kind of big mush in the middle where it's been the last few years, where the elite is so far and away above all these other teams. And then right in the middle, everything is just kind of squishy and the same. And, like, you know, a team that feels like they should be completely out of it still is. Like, well, we're, you know, like the whole al. Like, the Tigers are. Have been a disaster since Derek Schoolball got hurt. So the Astros. And yet they remain five games out of a playoff spot. That's not that far out in this early in the season. Like, that seems a little. The Twins and The Mariners sit three and four games under.500, and they're a game out of a playoffs early. It's super early. And we've been talking about how bad the Mariners have been all year. It's like, they're a game out. They're a game out. The Rangers are under.500. They're in a wildcard spot again. But still, yeah, like, I. Let's just say, like, the standings and, like, the. The game. The game differential and, like, doesn't look too much different come All Star break, and teams are starting to put trade packages together and starting to bolster their teams for the stretch, the final stretch. I feel like those elite teams that you're speaking of, that short list of 5, 6, 7 teams, they're going to make their moves. They have, like, I think all those teams probably have good, very good prospect pools. Um, I feel like they're gonna make their moves no matter what. There's a limited supply always of, like, the elite talent that's available at the trade deadline. Like, it's always a scarce supply. Some of the teams that are in contention today, I think, will throw in the towel and we'll be like, you know what? Like, we might be. You know, I don't. I'm trying to think, like, I'm looking at the nlc. I'm thinking, like, it's not out of the question that the Pirates are selling, right? That the Reds are selling. I don't think the Cubs would sell, because I think the Cubs look at themselves, and they're like, we're probably the best team in this division. The brewers are probably not going to sell. No, the brewers are good. The brewers are good. Brewers are really good. Shout out to Kyle Harrison, who is going to be an All Star Problem, dude. He's got, like, a 1.7 ERA or something like that. That's pride of San Jose right there. What could have been. But, you know, we'll talk about a guy who might be your scion contender later on. I think. I think some of those teams, some of those fringe cusp. Mush teams that you're talking about will kind of remove themselves from the conversation. They'll make a trade. I think not to bounce around too much. I think school ball's probably getting traded. Yeah. That's. I mean, one shock that he might be back a lot sooner than we expected. Saw he was throwing a bullpen yesterday. That's crazy. Yeah. Just had elbow surgery. Yeah. That's pretty nuts. One speaks to. You know, not to use cliche, but truly, he's got that dog in him and maybe speaks to. The surgery wasn't as evasive. Maybe as a. I think right after he got it. I forget who it was. Someone else, like, it was like a position player went in and had loose bodies removed out of their elbow. So I think this. Dr. Neil Elatrach, that's just like the best. Yeah. Surgeon. Sports surgeon in the world. Dr. Neal. I think he figured it out and that might be like the new. Like, wave this, like, loose body removal. Yeah. Be back on the field in like a month. I think I got loose bodies, dude. Yeah, let's do it. I think I got them. Yeah, we need to get. Yeah. We're going to be out on the IL for about a month. Loose bodies. But we'll be coming back throwing 98. No problem. No big deal. Yeah. It's. Now with the Tigers falling out of it again, a lot can happen. You mentioned, though, they're five games out. They're five games out. If school ball is back, there's a ton of talent on that team. Maybe then they're like four games out. Three games out. That's a team that makes it traditionally, historically, would make a deal at the deadline. Would bolster because they're like, we're right there. We're in the hunt. But now. But we might have 12, 15 teams. And it wasn't that long ago. Remember two years ago is when the Tigers had that crazy second half where they went from kind of being in this position to a playoff team. So. And vice versa. Right. Where they were like the best team in baseball. And then what happened? Everything collapsed. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll. We will monitor that. Of course, things are going to. By the end of June is when, you know, it's. It's all up in the air still. Right. Exactly. Exactly. All right, let's get into some Bowman sales data. We've had Bowman for about a week out there now. We've been ripping it for a week. We're still ripping it. Motorbreak.com we got boxes available here at Mojo Break Shop as well. We kind of touched on this when we were talking when we were doing our Bowman preview a couple of weeks ago there. Like, oh, if. If the super fracture for Ethan Holliday and Minotaka Murakami hit the market at the exact same moment, like a month after release, which one would sell? Which would be the bigger sale? I think we can put that conversation to rest right now. Yep. Murakami. Yep. It is kind of remarkable how much he is outpacing the rest of the Bowman crop of prospects. A good crop of prospects, I should mention. Ethan Holiday has started performing is. Is actually looking very good. Like the moment the product came out had some highlight reel moments. Yeah. Edward Florentino, the, the, the hype is very strong for him. There's a lot of other great guys that we even mean that we're not mentioning that are still selling very strong. But I'll just throw this sale out. This was from two days ago. As of this recording. May 20th Redemption Chrome Rookie Orange of Mutataka Murakami 14K. If you want to get in orange now this is not a direct one to one, but an orange of Ethan Holiday. I believe it's an X factor orange as I get the card up right now. $2,500 for an orange X factor auto of Ethan Holiday. Edward Florentino, a traditional orange first film and auto 3800. So again, it's not even close. It's one card but go just look down. Just keep looking and looking. And I mean there's another redemption gold $7,700. It's a double. Another one 7, 600 dollars. The black refractor anime at 7, 500. The gold at 7, 100. It goes on and on and on. This is. And there is. And even if you want to go, okay, well, there was a May 17th sale of an orange 6500. That's still outpacing the other two. He's the guy. And it's. It's crazy to see. It's the first time really since 2018 where the best chase in a Bowman set is not a first Bowman prospect. Yeah, it's. It's going to be like, like we were talking about a couple weeks ago. It's going to be like Ohtani's Bowman where it's like his agreed upon best card. His best autograph, so. Because he'll have a Topps Chrome rookie card. Rookie Auto. But I think that the Bowman chrome or the Bowman Auto Chrome auto will do better. And it's an interesting case where it's like a de facto first bowman for him, but somehow he has a head start because he's already in the majors. So he's like, I see it as like it has a first Bowman tag on it, but he's in the majors, just dominating too. So he's just like better than. Better than all the first Bowman guys. Yeah, exactly like. Yeah. Ethan Holiday's having a. Having a nice start. And those are respectable sales too for those cards for the Florentino for the holidays. A guy I was talking about a couple weeks ago, Song Joon Kim selling in the 6, 700, $800 range for some of those true blue autos and into the four figures for some of the golds and oranges as well. But yeah, Murakami's legit, man. He just met Ichiro the other day. Did you see that? That's cool. I feel like he's just like getting validated and everyone's rooting for him and it's a. The hobby. The hobby's on fire right now because of Murakami. Like it's, it's sick. So good call. I would not have, I wouldn't have thought that. And I don't. I forget if I'm on record on, you know, on the podcast of saying as such, but yeah, I mean I, I did not see this huge Murakami wave in terms of the prices. Yeah, I thought it'd be big, but not this big. It's pretty crazy how it is. It is now a full on sensation. I think it was just like, I feel like the top scroll and black stuff when I was seeing that cell. I'm like, huh, that's, that's really high for top scroll and black stuff. And I get it, it was the first one. But this just kind of like, all right, I need the full confirmation that this is real. This is happening. This is the guy. This is the. We are getting a sensation here. And I think the, the early Bowman sales data confirms it. All these things we've been talking about, we've already mentioned on previous episodes, like, oh, what if he's in the Home Run Derby? What if he does this like he's doing it all. It' it's all happening. He. He is second in the league right now in home runs only behind Kyle Schwarber. It's cool. To see. Sky's the limit right now. Truly. Sky is the limit. I was going to look up his red redemption because I think I said something that was pretty wild to you off air where I'm like, I think these are like 300, $400 cards, these redemptions. You're like, what? I thought two. Because that was like Rookie of the year. Yeah. I was gonna say, I don't think it can go any higher than that. I thought I saw some crazy. It can go higher if he wins like MVPs. And Stu. Okay, I'm. I'm definitely wrong. It's about 100, which is still great. Oh, they've come down to 100 bucks. Okay. They're about 100 bucks. So that's still pretty damn good though, for what, you know, what's essentially a. A nicer version of a base card. Yeah. Because it's not a lock yet for Ricky of the Year, right? No, not technically. That's the only. That's the only reason those cards would like that are just like. You could justify the price of those cards. Yeah, I would say to win Rookie of the Year. Exactly. The thing that was holding it back probably was the performance of Kevin McGonagall, who was still performing well, but has come back to earth a little bit as of the entire Tigers lineup and team. But that was probably holding anyone back. But now I think you can pretty much say, all right. If there was any doubt, Murakami kind of feels like the leader in the clubhouse for the AL Rookie of the Year for sure. As we stand right now, the far and away front runner. Yeah. Can still make a case. It's McGonagall. We'll see. But it's going to be a good race between the two of them. Yeah. Be a very good race. I just, I feel like the home run numbers, we see it with MVP we've seen with other awards. Like that's. That's going to win you the award. The flash and pizzazz of. Of a big home run year. You're right. And doing it in, you know, it's just all. All the above. There's a lot of X factor. Hey. And yeah, if McGonagall keeps. Keeps it close, that means he's going to have a heck of a year. So. Yeah. Pretty cool. Another reason why Detroit, you know, circling back to that, why they could. Don't give up. Stay in it. Healthy school ball and McGonagall being, you know, Rookie of the year contender. I mean, they got a good squad over there. Rally Green's you know, playing pretty good ball still too. So. Yeah, I think I told you before we went on there, I'm like, don't forget my World Series pick was the Mets and the Tigers. Yeah. Two orange teams. Yeah. Not looking, not looking great right now. Although the Mets are like kind of slowly but surely trying to climb. They're gonna be fine. Soto is like, he's having maybe his best year since. Yeah. Yeah. Since he signed. Well, it's only been two years, but he's having, he's, he might be on pace for his best year. He's picking up where he left off in that crazy second half last year. He had a little bit of a calf strain to slow him down this year, but he's. His 162 rates are MVP. Yeah, he is performing at Juan Soto levels. Shocker. He's doing just as great as he always has. If we knew more about our sleep, what would we do differently? Would we go to bed at a consistent time or take steps to reduce interruptions to our sleep? With sleep score, Apple Watch measures your bedtime consistency, interruptions and sleep duration. Then every morning it combines these factors into an easy to understand score from 1 to 100. So you'll know how to take the quality of your sleep from okay to very high. Know your sleep score with Apple Watch. IPhone 11 or later required. Introducing Taco Bell's new Jalapeno Citrus salsa with bright citrus, real red jalapenos, guajillo chiles. Usually you add sauce to the food, but when the sauce is this good, the food is just there to get the sauce to your mouth. That rolled quesadilla. Not a rolled quesadilla anymore. Now it's a sauce shovel. Taco Bell's Jalapeno Citrus salsa. Get it with any item on the Cantina Chicken menu while it's here. The participating U.S. taco Bell locations for a limited time only while supplies last contact store for availability. Yeah, so let's talk about some guys we were right and wrong about. Speaking of some off season predictions as we have reached Memorial Day weekend again, this is that line of demarcation, if you will, where we're like we're about the third of the way through the season. Who were we most right and most wrong about? A few guys maybe that we've already talked about and a few guys maybe we haven't brought up. Let's start positive. I was going to say let's start negative, but no, let's start positive because I want to talk about a guy that I was super, super high on. And I don't even know if it was me going out on a limb, but I was really high on him, not only for Cards, but for every fantasy baseball draft. I was like, he's. If he is at this position, I am. I am going to overdraft on him. Someone else had that idea in one of my leagues, unfortunately, but I did get him in another. Ben Rice of the New York Yankees. Nice. I was so high on Ben Rice, but I think a lot of people were because the outlying sets, the advanced stats were just like off the charts of like, man, if this guy just gets regular playing time, watch out because he also is a swing built for that ballpark and everything. And it's happening. It's totally happening where he has taken that starting role and he's running with it. I think he's got 16 home runs right now as the primary first baseman for the New York Yankees. All of that talk, they were going to platoon him with Paul Goldschmidt. I was like, give me a break. No disrespect to potential future hall of Famer Paul Goldschmidt, but come on now, this is the guy. Yeah, Goldie's had some nice at bats off the bench, too. I mean, they're. They're a complete team. And I think he's just. Goldie's probably just happy to be there, although he could start for a lot of teams. Keeping on the Yankees here. Ben Rice. Yeah, he got taken early in my fantasy draft. I'm in a unique total points league where we give two points for every double play turned, so. Oh, so first baseman is big. We limit rosters to three first basemen, but you can get around it if you. First base is not the first position listed. Catcher. Yep. So, like, he's a hot commodity. There are a handful of guys there where they play first base anyway. My league's lit, by the way. 13th season. It's sick. Nice. I think I'm in about, like 10th right now in my league. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, those are the best leagues. Yeah, they are. Go Seeger Beavers. That's my team name. There you go. You can probably guess who one of my three keepers are, so. And we'll talk about him in a bit here. But we're keeping it positive. I love that Yankees pick Ben Rice is the guy, probably. I mean, I'm going to be careful with my words. I'm not going to say build around. They have Aaron Judge there and he's not old yet, but Ben Rice Seems like, yeah, total. Totally built for that park. Is he from New York? I get the New York. Yeah. I was going to say he's a New York guy. Yeah. Like, he's just. That's. I'm. I. I can't stand the Yankees. Right? Who can? Who can? Like that. That's like a great baseball story. And like, that's like, that's so good for the game. That is so good for the game. It's actually a Massachusetts guy, by the way. I believe he grew up a fan of the Yankees, a trader. He must be in that, like, spot where it's like, you're not close enough to. Yeah, maybe like the, you know, like the black sheep of the family, you know, just the traitor. It's interesting that anyone. Anyone who's got Massachusetts knowledge here. This I need to get, like, you know, I need to get a shout out to. To Mike Geo over at scn. I need to get him on the horn and be like, hey, Cohasset, Massachusetts. Is this, like a thing where they're not into the Red Sox? They're not like, what's going on? Like, why did Ben Rice. Why is he like, a Yankee guy? And it's like, nobody bats an eyelash about it. Okay, here you go. This is. This is from his Wikipedia. So with a grain of salt, grew up a fan of the New York Yankees despite many of his friends supporting the rival Boston Red Sox. So, yeah, he was just a kid. He was that kid. We all know that kid. He was annoying as a kid. Well, I was going to say, right. Dodger fan growing up in the Bay Area. You could probably relate a little bit. I can relate a little bit. The caveat to my story is I was born in Southern California. That's different. But live was, you know, raised in Northern California, so. So yeah. Yeah. And I was that annoying guy. Like, why are you a Dodger fan? You know, it's like, dude. Cause, like, my family is, you know, and like, that's like, my baby clothes were that. And like, my first jersey was that, like, you know, like, I wasn't picking out my gifts and like, I wasn't picking out my team. But, like, God bless my parents and God bless the Los Angeles Dodgers. Like, they picked. Right. Hey, you had three and five, right? We got three and six. Sure, you can have that. We'll take it. But like, that is interesting about Ben Rice and very cool for Ben Rice that it worked out. How about how funny would have been if he. If he was, like, drafted by the Red Sox and It's like I I was born in Boston or I was born in Massachusetts but I grew up a Yankees fan and now I'm back and I you know like right. Either way it's all cool. It's still a great story regard. Yeah either way great story. Late bloomer too. He's 27 which is the thing I think that was always kind of hold I didn't realize that so this was, this was the thing about his market of why I'm like I understand why it wasn't despite the fact that he had a breakout year last year why it didn't like catch fire. It was because 26 year old rookie took him a long time to get up to the major leagues didn't have a position really yeah catcher they were like he's not really a catcher but we also Paul Goldsman at first what are we going to do? Easton Wells was playing really well. Exactly. There was like there's not really a clean fit for him and because of all that no prospect height doesn't have a Bowman. He does not have a first Bowman auto. Yeah Topps chrome was where his first yeah Topps Chrome which you know what at a certain point though the talent wins out, the player wins out and he just cannot deny it. And there's all these other X factors we just mentioned if you look at his first bowman or excuse me his tops Chrome PSA 10 base auto sales his rookie auto back in November. $244 for that card now $676. Wow. Not a bad come up right now for Ben Rice. So yeah at a certain point the the player wins out. I think I saw his debut patch has sold twice over the last couple months. It took a big dip on the last one but it still sold for 29,000 for a guy again that didn't have a position didn't it was a 26 year old rookie. Who knows if this guy's ever going to make it. It's quite the story. It's an amazing come up he leads all of baseball and ops as of this recording. Even in my wildest dreams where I was like this guy's going to be a star. I think he's an all star. I didn't see this coming. I didn't see him OPS leader of major league baseball. Yeah. That's wild. Hey for my keep it positive pick one that I got right same team Cam Schlitler. Oh man. Yeah. Cy Young favorite right now. Yeah so I spoke about him on the podcast at the start of the Year and took him in all my fantasy drafts. I put my money where my mouth was and. Good stuff, good stuff. I'm happy I did that and I'm happy. Cam Schlitler's a dog. And it's not Fluky. It's not like, oh, he's this every fifth day, schedule lining up. He's beating good teams, he's dominating good teams, he's not walking guys. Really a lot of strikeouts. Yankees got to get him some run support. There have been a handful of outings now where he's either gotten no decision or like one run or two run loss. That's just fantasy bitterness there. But he's incredible. And I think for a team that, you know, can put to it, put it together offensively, they were without Garrett Cole to start the year. I think Garrett Cole is pitching today. Yes, he is. At the time of recording today, he's pitching for a guy like Cam Schlitler to step up and do what he's doing. Yeah. Be the AL Cy Young favorite. I mean, that's, that's. You cannot have asked for more. And yeah, like, I shout out the Yankees, man, they came into the year like with that, like, I think of that meme where it's like the kid, like the yearbook. It's like the two yearbook pictures and they're like the same thing. It's like the people are giving them crap for just rolling out the same roster as last year. It was a good roster. It's a good lineup. It made playoffs. Yeah, it's a good lineup. And Jazz Chisholm's having a really good year and they're having a lot of clutch big moments and there's a lot of opportunity in that division. The Rays are really taking advantage right now and I think, you know, between. I think it's Yankees and Rays at the top. Blue Jays, I don't know. Did they run out of steam? Who knows. But they're going to get some guys back in that rotation. Especially where I think they're going to be fine at a certain, like, I just think they're getting another one where there's too much talent. The pitching rotation wants to get guys healthy. Yeah. Terrible about Cody Ponce, who was like, looked like what a great story and he looked good in his first couple starts. And then. Yeah, that was, that was awful to see. But the rest of that rotation is going to be healthy at some point and should be fine. Yeah. So like there's, there's opportunity and Cam Schlitler's rising to the occasion. Ben Rice Is rising indication. Judge is Aaron Judge with an exclamation mark. Still, Jazz is playing well. Cody Bellinger is playing really well. Yeah, they look good. They're a good team. They're. Well, look. And why did they feel the confidence to go. Let's just run it back. Is these two. I think a big part of it is the two guys we're talking about right here that were, like, they didn't get the full Runway of, like, we don't know, like, we want to see what they can offer us. Essentially. You know, they do the whole, like, oh, we made our trade by calling a guy up. But, well, really, this was their offseason. Like, our off season was saying, cam Schlitler's part of this rotation. He's locked in, and Ben Rice is our first baseman. Like, those were things that were not this going into the 20, 20, 2025 season. The fact that they've made those moves as paid off has paid off in, you know, in dividends. It's been huge. I'm looking right now at a first Bowman Prospect Auto PSA10, or your first Bowman base auto of Cam Schlitler. 2025 Bowman Chrome is where you'll find him. $909 for that. There's not that many of them out there, frankly, of that one, the pop count's really, really low. So that's another guy where, the way the market has moved on pitching the last few years, a Yankee 25, potential Cy Young Award winner. It's. It's got kind of the perfect formula of like, if you were maybe saying, yeah, I like the Schlitler guy and he had some height behind him, it's going to pay off big time. I think the market's going to be very, very healthy for him throughout the season. All right, Guys were wrong about. Let's be negative. Sort of negative. Yeah, you go first. I was very wrong and not. I was wrong in a good way in for this one. So I am still being positive. I was so sure that Jacob Mizorowski was not going to. I thought he would be good, but I'm like, man, oh, man, I've seen that body before. I've seen that wiry frame. I've seen it fall apart. I have only because again, I go from my experience as a Giants fan, I watched him. Let's come one. And this is maybe where I made the crucial mistake. I saw Tim Lidscombe do things I'd never seen any pitcher ever do, look as good as any pitcher I've ever seen. And then Fall apart because everybody was like, well, he's a small, wiry guy. It's going to fall apart one day. And it happened. Yeah. But there were three years there where he was undoubtedly the best pitcher in all of baseball. That's the part I neglected when it came to the Jacob Mizorowski comparisons. He still has a Runway to be one of the best pitchers in baseball. And guess what? He might be your favorite for the National League Cy Young Award. As of right now, he leads all the baseball and strikeouts. He's still, I, I, I think, I think him and kins are like 1 in 1A when it comes to most electric pitcher in baseball. Like those are the two guys when they're on the mound, I'm locked in. Yeah, I would, I would say electricity, electric. I would give that to Mizarowski. It is like a spectacle. Watching him pitch Skiings is more like, like, seems like you want to see like a, a pitching master class. Yes. It's from start to finish just like, it's like a novel with like a, with like a storyline. Like just, it's, it's, it's a beautiful thing. You like Paul Skeens? He had that eight inning outing just maybe a start or two ago that was just like. If you could describe a pitcher as Dickensian, it would be Paul Skeins. There you go, dude. It's, it's like watching a movie. Like watching when he's locked in and he's just, he's cruising for 95, 100, 110 pitches. Like he, it's nuts. Mizarowski is more like a thriller. If we're like a movie, it's more like, I don't really know what's gonna happen. I know we're gonna get our peaks and our valleys, but like there's potential for this to be like, yeah, like the movie of the year, the thriller of the year. Like there's so much unknown and I think maybe like kind of like a little credit toward what you were saying early in the year before the season started. Like your skepticism was like, he's such a wild card. His delivery, his frame, the. What has historically made a good pitcher. What does that look like even? It's like he does not check a lot of boxes. Even within the organization there was the, I think they viewed him as like, oh, he's a late inning guy because yeah, that's not going to last for a full, you know, we can't get 30 starts out of that frame. It's been totally proven wrong so far. Again, it's early in the season. There's still time but and here's the part that excites me the most is the last three starts I think have been maybe his best starts. Against the Yankees he goes 6 innings nowhere and runs 11. Case against the Padres he goes 7 innings nowhere and runs 10 Ks. And against the Cubs in Wrigley in a crucial early season series, 6 innings, no runs and 8 Ks, he's doing three of his best starts against are. You can make an argument those are three of like the seven or eight best teams in all the baseball right there. And yeah, I've just been totally proven wrong. This guy has got the juice. He's super exciting again. His long term prospects I still don't know and I have seen some sales that kind of indicate that maybe some collectors were feeling the same way. Where we know what the sales were last year where they were just astronomical out the gate like his first Bowman autos going for 12, 1500 to $2000 almost. Those have leveled off a lot. I think they were sitting around 500 to $600 going into the season. They're back up though. Yeah, I think I saw there was a sale that was at 8. That was 799 for a Pixie 10 base first Bowman. So I think there's a lot of people who maybe were like me were like ah, this isn't going to last. And now that it's is still happening it's like well I. I get. Keep going, keep going. Strike while the iron side I guess. Yeah like it again. You had a 23 year window where Tim Lince nobody could touch this guy and he was the most exciting pitcher in all of baseball. He's the thing with Missourowski is that yes the wire reframing all that but he's 6 foot 7. He's a lot bigger than Lincecum was. Yeah, like maybe it lasts longer because of it. Ubaldo Sanchez, very tall, kind of thin. I don't know. Different delivery or you both. Jimenez. Did I just say Sanchez? Yevaldo Jimenez. Shout out to. That was a guy. God, if you caught him in like the two month period in like 2010, good luck. Did he. He didn't throw a. No, no I don't. He was just torn like cgs left and right. That is one in a. In a. At Coors Field. He was throwing like CG shutouts. Yeah, I want to say it was. Yeah, there it was. It was 2010. He went 19 and 8. He finished third in CY voting that year. Look I'm sorry if I'm going to take a trip down memory lane. I, I, I'm happy to. I, that's where I kicked the can. So this was, there was a run where yeah, it was like beginning of the year where he, his er. Lince era. Yes. It was the same year as Lin. I remember the NL west was awesome. It was Lins Kershaw. Yeah. At his insane. It was a. God, it was a good time. It was a fun time. Linsk was coming off two straight years of Cy Young's and so it was kind of like, all right, he's going to get this guy's just unstoppable. And then here comes your ball to him. And as he just shoves for two months this was the start. I remember In San Francisco, nine in he had a complete game shut out with nine strikeouts. He was hitting 100 easily. His ERA dropped a 0.78. Oh my gosh. Two months into the season with the Colorado Rock. It was after that start. Yeah. Everyone was talking about like, all right, what are we, what are we witnessing here? What is this straight arm, back lock arm? Like he was, he was a dude. I mean if you were on the wiffle ball field or even like in a little league or on any field, if you didn't try that lock arm at least once. Right. You're, yeah. You're joking. Yeah. 13 Ks against the Padres earlier that year. He was, he was lights out and I don't, I just, I threw him, I mentioned him because I perceive him to be kind of of similar frame. Six, five. Yeah. Six five, two. 21. Misarowski a little lighter. 67201. So all right. Yeah, but that's not, that's a pretty good call though. That's, I like that, I like that comp. Unique delivery Ubaldo couldn't sustain. He bounced around a little bit. I think he ended up in Baltimore to end his career. Yeah, couldn't. Yeah. But I don't know. I, I, I'm kind of like indifferent or like just like don't have much of an opinion on, on Mizarowski. I don't really know what I'm seeing when pitch, when I watch Skeen's pitch, I'm like, this is a pitcher I wouldn't doubt because even like Roki not talking frame but just like results wise like Roki has shown signs of brilliance typically out of the bullpen in super high leverage situations. So it's like I don't want to like, you know, so it's like Those are like, you know, credible, good innings, like, worthwhile. Worth. Talking about innings. Mizarowski was talking, you know, he's bounce back between. Between bullpen and not. I think of a guy like Dustin May, too, with a very dynamic delivery that he also has been teased in the bullpen. And these guys that are just so good and that their talent is undeniable, they're always going to have. Have a spot. Back to what you were saying earlier, Just keep going. Mizorowski, like, because I think if he wants a big contract too, you got to be a starting pitcher, right? Yep. Exactly. Did he already. He didn't already get paid, did he? Nope. Okay. Nope. Milwaukee. Not unless it's like right out the. I think they give Cheerio that big contract extension, but especially for pitching. That I don't. They don't like. I don't. They don't like to handle those big contracts for pitching. Okay. They didn't want to pay Burns. Huh? Didn't pay Corbin Burns. I mean, they wouldn't have paid. They wouldn't have paid Woodruff. He got hurt and said that's the only reason I think he came back. He bailed them out of it. Yeah. Yeah. So no, they, they do not like paying for Freddie Peralta. Didn't really get big money. Yeah, exactly. Before they had to pay him, they just shipped him off. So this is the way they do things. So that's interesting to track, too. Let's just say it all works out for Mizarowski on the mound. What does that look like for his career? Where is he pitching in three seasons? That's why I kind of go back. And again I go, I, I go back to these guys we mentioned. The Jimenez is the Lincecums, who have the same sort of build where a lot of those teams, like the Giants, very famously balked at giving him a huge deal he wanted. And it worked and they were right. Yeah. So Milwaukee's a very, very smart organization I think right now, obviously, hobby wise. Again, like I said, strike while the iron's hot. Things are going up again. I might even wait it out a little bit because I think, I think he's for real this season. Like, I don't think there's any doubt there. Right. Mizaroski is here. You're going to get a few years of. At least a year of elite pitching. This guy might start the All Star Game as well. Like, there's, there's a lot to love for the next year with Mizarowski. And I think if by year's end. If we're like in September and it looks like, oh, it's tracking to be either him or Skins for the Cy Young or Ohtani forgot to mention him. The way he's pitching right now, if it's like that. I think regardless of the result, the potential of a Cy Young season from Mizaroski will be baked into his market. And I think that you could see potentially things getting back to, you know, summer of last year. Prices for Mizarovsky potentially maybe doesn't reach those astronomical heights, but I think it could get close. Yeah, I agree with all of that. I, I, I hope he doesn't start the All Star Game. I want to see Ohtani start the All Star Game. Yeah, I mean, look, it might be one of those things where Mizaroski deserves it, but just for the spectacle, the things you. That's an interesting one, though. How about. I like this. Mizarowski deserves it this year to start, but he doesn't because Ohtani is like the, the more marketable start the same way Mizarowski did not deserve to be an All Star last year, but made the roster because it was the more marketable approach to have him there. This is the makeup one, by the way. So it helps him last year, but it hurts him this year. But he's still an All Star. Either way, if there's Philly fans listening as we're like, oh, he might be the Cy Young guy. Speaking of that, Chris Sanchez. Christopher Sanchez is like having another fantastic year and is like, he, I believe he is close to, he's, he is not quite the ERA leader. No, he's the ERA leader of the National League right now. So what is that? Yeah, sorry. He's got a one eight two right now. Yeah, he does. He's really good. He's going to be an All Star this year. And actually, if we had to throw a bone to Philly fans, it's in Philadelphia. Christopher Sanchez. I know it's not Ohtani and Mazeroski starting, but that's the guy who maybe should be the starter just to throw him a bone. That's fine. Yeah, I'm okay with that. That's fine. It'll be a great story for Philly fans. But then you go Ohtani and then you go Mizarowski and that'll be fun. And then Skeet boy. Golly, think about that. Mason Miller to close and make. Gosh, that's not even fair. That's not even fair. No disrespect to the American League. Probably Schlitler but it is such a funny group of names for the American League right now. Yeah. Nick Martinez, Anyone could have had him. He's second in the league in era. Davis Martin of the White Sox looking like a dude. They have a couple guys over there in Chicago that are putting together a year. Funny. Funny. Anyway, all right, your guys that you were, you were wrong about. Yeah, the Rangers, more or less. Corey Seeger, batting under.200. I think like a buck 85 on the shelf right now with, with a bad back. I think he's probably been playing hurt all year. You know, that's just part. Of course. Yeah. And the, you know, the Instagram comments are wanting them to hang him up. And for the first time in my fandom, I'm not like a full, I'm not in full disagreement. That's a different. That's a conversation for a different day. Is he. Wait, so, gosh, I just. That would be a bummer to see that first of all. But, like, because then we start talking, like, Pedroia stuff. Would he entertain the idea of just like going Dh for, I mean, 32 at D becoming a full time Dh at 32 is a little early, but, you know, for sure, he. I think he, I think he would entertain. I think he would do that. And I don't know, man. Like, you get a bad back from swinging the bat too. Like, he's had. You get a bad. You get. He's had hamstring stuff, you know, running the bases. Actually, like, he's notorious for getting, for pulling hamstrings and straining hamstrings while, like, rounding second after, like, score, like having the hardest hit ball of the year off the wall. And it's like, nice, healthy Corey Seger is like an mvp and it's like, well, healthy Corey Seger strains his hamstring running around second base, like, inevitably, which sucks for all parties involved. And mostly Corey Seger. So, like, you know, I just think, like, I see these comments year over year over year, and I'm like, you know what? Maybe that aside, he's not the only one bringing down the Texas Rangers. Wyatt Lankford just also not healthy. So it's like, you know, it's like you don't want to, you know, kick a guy while he's down. But even when he was healthy, not hitting the ball and they traded Marcus Simeon for Nemo, for Nimmo Nimmos now hurt or he was dealing with something, he was. I think he's fine. Okay. Yeah, he's. He's playing, having a good Year. Marcus Simeon's having a good year, too, I think. Sorry. I. I think. I think right now, if the Mets could redo that deal, I think they'd say, yeah, let's hit the reset button and maybe not do that because Simeon is batting.225 and has a. Has a zero wins above replacements. He is the definition of a replacement level player right now. All right, well, I thought. Okay. I thought Nimmo was still dealing with something, but. Yeah, no's doing well. Nimmo actually having. Is a. Is a bright spot right now for the Rangers as he. As he is year in and year out where he's just old reliable. Brandon Nimmo, he just does it. Yeah. Plays great defense. And Jacob deGrom sort of like, you know, a little, like, bad sandwich. We'll. We'll. We'll put a little. A little more good in there. Jacob deGrom's looking really good. He's looking very good. He's looking really good. There are things to, like there. They're just not hitting the ball. I think they were. They. They're just like, there. There's not the swagger in that lineup. And really, in a division that's like, wide open, like, just waiting, screaming, waiting for someone to just run away with it. And no one's doing that in that division. And that's maybe the. That could be the. Maybe the bright spot here is that you get Wyatt Langford back whenever that may be. The back injury for Corey Seeger is a little worrisome. Like, that could be a long time on the shelf. Yeah. Hopefully it's not very long, but you get these guys back, you tread water in a weak division. You got to do it quick because I think the Mariners are poised to, like, take advantage of this because they are healthy and they have guys who are performing. Like, J. Rod is off to a great start this year. Yeah. For like the first time ever. Right. If they get Cal Raleigh back. When they get Cal Raleigh back, there are signs. Yeah. I mean, he got hurt, which is crazy for. I think that was. I think the Raleigh thing. What's happening here. And the injury just kind of confirmed. It is like wear and tear of just a full season behind the plate of almost played almost every game. He caught almost every game and then went to game seven of the ALCS and was catching. Cut every game and was in. When he wasn't catching, he was DHing because he was just too valuable. So I think there was just fatigue. Like, he's never played that much baseball and catching Every single game and playing at that level, it's a lot on you mentally and physically. So, yeah. They're not wearing knee savers. No. In the mlb. No. So I don't. He's not. No. That. He seems poised. He seems poised to. That tc. Poised to like, strike. So, again, the Rangers have a lot of good talent. Langford's a guy I've believed in for a long, long time. He was my dark horse MVP a couple years ago. He was a lot of people's dark horse MVP this year. Yeah. He's still just 24. I. I still really like him if he can get back healthy. He's also the kind of guy who's a second half guy the last couple of years where you kind of look at the stats at the end of the year, go, hey, wasn't that bad. Yeah. What, what gives me a little anxiety about leaning on Langford and counting on Langford. I'll just. He's also on my fantasy team, a guy I took early, you know, so it's like, just like from a handful of different perspectives. Like, his injuries have been muscular, they've been forearm, they've been quad, they've been what's right here? Your obliques. So, like, I don't know. And like, I think of Mike Trout, I think they have a similar build. I think they play some, you know, they play both outfielders with similar builds. And Mike Trout had just like playing baseball injuries, you know, like. Right. And I just think, dang. Yeah. If Wyatt's half the player Mike Trout ends up, you know, is that like, you know, he's lucky. But like, from an injury standpoint, like, I just, I fear that we might not have him on the like, enough to be able to consider him or count on him. I think, you know, exhibit A. You know what we're. What? And it's not the first time he's been hurt either. No, he's been dealing with injuries, I think since he's been up literally every year. I think he's had an injury since 24. Right. It's. It's been every. It's now a recurring issue where you do have to take a step back and go, I don't know if it's, if he's just going to keep getting hurt. I will say right now, May 19, the first Bowman Auto Base raw, 83 bucks for why Langford. That is a steep, steep fall of what he was. Is it at a point though, where you're like, you know, I'm buying, I'm buying under A hundred dollars. Right. I'm buying under $100. Like I'm still rooting for the guy. And he's. When he's had like 10, 15 game stretches that were like, whoa, this is sick. Where you see the guy we all were expecting. Yeah. And just remember all that hype he had going in where it's like, wow, he's not going to see any time in minor. In the minors. Yeah. There is a very, very, very short list of guys who see that little time in the minor leagues and most of them become dudes. So that is always why I will have the hang up of like. But look at. But that's crazy that he did that because that doesn't happen. It never happens. Yeah. So I'm a buyer. Under 100 bucks, probably at the 80, 80, whatever dollar price point. But like, that could be a $60 card next week. It might be. If he's not. If he. Because he's had setbacks too. Yeah. Yeah. In his road to recovery. Why are we rooting for you? Get well soon, dude. Exactly. Rangers need some life and it just seems like they need to get healthy. We are fans of White Langford. We are unabashed fans here. All the podcasts of White Langford. So, yeah, I am definitely for him as well. I want to see it happen. I want to see everything sort of come together and yeah, that, that, that division's up for the. Up for grabs. The A's are not going to win that division. No disrespect to the A's, but they are not winning. No, it's. It's the Mariners before it's the A's. Yeah. And. And it should be the Rangers right there. It should be the Rangers right there. Rangers should be right in the conversation. Closing notes. How about something you're looking forward to for your Giants or something? Oh. Oh, gosh. Win games, please. It's. It's early enough. It's 50 games into the season. This is one of the most disappointing, maybe the most disappointing start I think I can think of as a Giants fan. Everything about it breaks my heart because Buster Posey, it. This was supposed to be. This was the risk. This was the risk of having Buster Posey in this position. This was supposed to be his victory lap. He's going to the hall of Fame next year potentially, but I think he will. He's going to hall of Fame. Oh, yeah. First ballot. It's. Hey. Oh, it's a 15 year anniversary for a World Series. Let's get everybody back and have a Good time. And he took on this role and God bless him, because it probably was, he knew it was probably going to be a thankless job if things didn't go well. This was the nightmare scenario of he has to go on local radio and face really get grilled and like, face fan frustrations and like, it's a bummer, man. It's a bummer. That said, minor league system looks really good right now. So. Yeah, like, is there, is there a version of like a year from now we're doing a podcast in a year from. Or how about two years from now from space we're doing our podcast or something, you know, and where, like, you know, that was okay, that little thing he did there. Like, you know, I will say this has actually been the thing and we'll, we'll wrap it here because, like, I'm, I'm like a, I'm not a Giants hater. Obviously, I don't root for the Giants, but like, there have been like, I, I find myself trying to justify and like, I don't feel like I sound crazy sometimes when I'm like justifying some of these moves. They. They're not playing well. Yeah. And their bullpen is. I don't know, what is it? A bullpen. I don't know what it is. The bullpen's been a huge issue. And it was. And this is why it's so frustrating because everybody could clock it. They all looked at that bullpen went, don't know about that. And lo and behold, there's this remarkable stat of like when they have a four run lead, the bullpen is like a sub two era. When they have, when they're trying to protect a three run lead or less, their ERA is like five. I mean, it's just right there. It's right there. It's just they don't have the guy at the end of the, at the end of the game who can shut things down that they can be confident to say, let's, this is our closer or this is our. Or two or three guys where we feel confident giving them the ball. You don't even have to have a closer. The, the Dodgers didn't have a closer last year. They won the World Series. The Dodgers, when it came down to it in the World Series, that when they went to the bullpen, they only went to starting pitchers that were in their bullpen. Right. Well, it also helps. Yeah. When your starters are like the, you know, all star starting rotation. So I'll say this, but this is the, this has been the Thing rattling through my brain of, like. And we actually talked about kind of go full circle. We talked about the Cardinals being this really interesting surprise team, that they went full cell mode, and yet they're competing. If you want to look at the blueprint of, like, how do we get out of this mess? I think the Cardinals are actually a great team to look at where they. They had been patching a sinking ship for a long time, where they were like, oh, what if we. What if we put a Nolan Aeronauto here? What if we stick a Sonny Gray here? What if we put a Wilson Contreras here? And none of it worked and the bottom fell out last year where they're like, oh, now they're just bad. And they decided, okay, fine, we'll trade all these guys, and Brendan Donovan, the one guy who's got a few years of control, will get you some big value. A lot of prospects will. Will swallow our pride and trade him, too. And they went full rebuild. Yeah. And. But they also had a bunch of prospects. They had a good enough farm system where they were like, let's just give these guys plenty of time to play, and it's working. I'm not saying that's going to happen, like. But the Giants have a very solid farm system, probably the best they've had in a very long time. They have some really interesting prospects. They have a lot of big contracts and some guys that, even despite their big contracts, might be desirable to a lot of teams. I won't name names of, like, who maybe I've been tinkering with, but is Logan Webb a Giant? That's. That's kind of one of the names where I'm like, I don't know what they do. Or, is he a Yankee at the end of the year? Is he like a Cub? That's a guy who gets you some big prospects. There's a few guys on expiring contracts who can net you a few prospects. And then you look at next year where we're like, well, let's try Bryce Eldridge. Let's try some of these young pitchers. Let's try, you know, a few of these other outfielders who have been making noise, and we've got a few shortstops and stuff in the. In the minor leagues who we could stick a second or stick a third or whatever. That, to me, is maybe the blueprint of where you look at what the Cardinals did and you go, well, it's not that far away from being a reality. Yeah. Devers is like, your. Your guy. Yes. You build Dude, Casey Schmidt is legit. Casey Schmidt, again, you like, he's like your bird. He's like Burleson, like for that Cardinals team. Like, just a guy you can count on. He's going to hit in the high two 80s. Dude, Schmidt is legit. Dude. He's been very good. He's on my fantasy team. That dude, another one. And I've loved Luis Arise. But all off season I went, boy, if they, you know, spent a big on a pitcher and spent big on an outfielder, I could deal with Casey Schmidt at second base. I can, I could deal with that. And then if it doesn't work, you handle it at the deadline. Well, they didn't do that. And now Casey Schmidt is there and there's a log jam and you don't have a position for him and you're using a guy who is a Gold glove defender at D8. But I digress. Thank you for giving me a moment to. To vent there. I knew you had it bottled up. I just, you know, I had to ask before we. Before we signed off today. Yeah. So, you know, we'll see. Again, things are going well in the minor league system. I can't complain there. But until next time, again, make sure to go over to Mojo break dot com. We're still ripping Bowman. We're still ripping all the latest baseball products. There's going to be more coming up. Still kind of, kind of a desert for a couple of weeks until we get some inception and other products coming out in a few weeks. But we will be ripping plenty of baseball, plenty of Bowman, Mojo Break fanatics, live whatnot. All the above. And coming to the coming to Mojo brick shop as well to yourself, a box for Bubba. I'm Cody. We'll talk to you guys next time on Waxbacks and morning tracks. See you. You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's Omnishade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer@columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome, Columbia. Engineered for whatever.