Takeaways From the First Quarter of the 2025 MLB Season w/Joe Sheehan
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 873 Ratings
🗓️ 13 May 2025
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joe Sheehan joins Eno and DVR to discuss dropping the skepticism around the Tigers as AL Central frontrunners, where credit (and blame) belong with the 2025 Giants, over-performing teams they expect to see fade from the playoff picture over the course of the season, and under-performing teams they believe will find their way into the playoffs. Plus, the lack of top-end results from Jordan Walker despite top-end bat speed, and a few selections for summer breakouts.
Rundown
5:30 Should We Believe in the Tigers?
12:41 The 'Bustarhan' Giants Are Pretty Good
21:18 Best Teams Today That Won't Make the Playoffs This Season
25:15 Is the Guardians' Pitching Development Fading?
30:57 2025 Playoffs Teams with Worst Record on May 13th?
39:41 Why Are Teams Reluctant to Make 'Early' Trades?
46:12 Jordan Walker: Top-End Bat Speed, Without Top-End Results
53:32 Who Is Your Favorite Breakout On Tap This Summer?
Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social
Follow DVR on Bluesky: @dvr.bsky.social
Follow Joe on Bluesky: @sheehannewsletter.bsky.social
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Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris
With: Joe Sheehan
Producer: Brian Smith
Executive Producer: Derek VanRiper
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to rates and barrels. It is Tuesday, May 13th. Derek and Riper, Ino Ceres, here with you. |
| 0:17.0 | joined by a special guest, Joe Sheehan, joins the show today, author of the Joe Sheen newsletter. |
| 0:21.9 | Joshean.com. If you want to be a subscriber to that, get in on that ASAP. Joe, thank you so much for joining us. Guys, I listen to every show. I'm really excited to come on and talk to you today. It feels like it's long overdue, man. This is like year seven of the show. I can't believe we haven't had you on before, but we're happy to have you today. |
| 0:20.1 | As you know, Eno loves games, trivia of any kind, and I want to be a game show host as a kid, so I will lean into Eno's fears as much as I possibly can. It will start today's show with a game, but I think I'll give you guys the option. Would you like to play collaboratively? |
| 0:55.0 | Would you like to play against each other? |
| 0:57.0 | I have massive issues with competition. I'm hyper competitive in a very bad way. |
| 1:01.0 | So maybe if we did this together... |
| 1:03.0 | Let's go collaborative. |
| 1:05.0 | Let's go collab. |
| 1:06.0 | Good call. All right. So here's what I'm looking for. |
| 1:08.0 | I'm looking for teams with a run differential of plus 100 or better and minus 100 or worse |
| 1:16.7 | since last year's trade deadline. |
| 1:18.4 | There are six on each side and we'll go until you miss three times. |
| 1:23.9 | We'll see how many of these teams you can get. |
| 1:25.6 | You can go to the top and go to the bottom. Order does not matter. |
| 1:29.5 | Who do you think qualifies for top six or bottom six in run differential during that span? |
| 1:35.3 | The Rockies are the easy answer, right? |
| 1:37.2 | Yes, they are minus 203 since July 30th last year. |
| 1:42.1 | Okay, you get the rest, you know. |
| 1:44.2 | Dodgers are easy on the inside. |
| 1:45.8 | Plus 120, their third best. |
| 1:48.1 | Tigers? |
... |
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