Out of my dead, lost in the dark, waiting for that other shoe that come down hard.

I cannot communicate like I wish I could.

I do not deal with my problems like I know I should.

I am out of my dead, I am out of my league, watching everything to slip away from me.

Hello and welcome to episode 1227 of Effectively Wild, a baseball podcast from Banggrass presented by our Patreon supporters.

I am Ben Lemberg of the ringer joined by Jeff Sullivan of Bang Drafts and Vote.

Hello, it's a draft episode, sort of we will be talking shortly to Dylan Higgins, our editor and Kylie McDaniel, prospect coverer for Bang Grass.

We'll be breaking down the first couple days of the draft and the big storylines kind of on a level that you and I,

people like us who are not in the weeds with the draft can understand and be intrigued by.

But before we get to that, wanted to banter about a few things.

First of all, recent Effectively Wild guest, Johnny Ventors, is the latest quote-unquote opener.

He is starting Wednesday's game for the Tampa Bay race and his arm is still attached, still functional and his stats are still impressive.

He's been in 14 games now, 10 in the third innings, still has a sub one ERA, not that that will continue, but he has a 72.4% ground ball rate.

So somehow he has I think increased his record career ground ball rate and he has gotten that elusive strikeout.

He hadn't gotten a strikeout when we talked to him, but he has actually gotten six of them.

So things are still working out well for Johnny Ventors and now he will be a starting pitcher for the first time in his career.

And maybe that's an opportunity to have him back on the podcast.

I don't know how well the, I haven't run the numbers to see how well the opener thing is actually working for the race.

I know is that they're doing it, the Dodgers have also now dabbled with it.

I know that the race just lost Anthony Bonda to Tommy John's surgery, which means they are now down Bonda and Honeywell, the other one.

Daily own, daily own, who I'm forgetting Nathaniel Valdey is back, he nearly threw a no hitter in his first start, so at least there's something there.

Also, I would like to give a shout out Wilmer Font, who is now pitching for the race.

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