The end for Albert Pujols in Anaheim, John Means business, and digging into pitcher injuries
Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball
The Athletic
4.7 • 874 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eno, Britt & DVR discuss a tough exit for Albert Pujols in Anaheim, his dominant decade upon arriving in the league in 2001, John Means' ascent to the top of the Baltimore rotation, pitcher injuries as a result of sitting too close to max velocity, and DVR faces the music in the wake of V*ctor Robles' slow start.
Rundown
1:15 Albert Pujols Doesn't Really Fit on Another Team
5:37 On Deserving a League-Wide Parade into the Sunset
11:07 The Machine's Greatness & Humble Beginnings
15:49 John Means Business
20:54 Pitcher Injuries & Sitting Too Close to Max Velocity
36:53 DVR Eats Crow
41:27 Who/What Do We Collect?
49:19 Congrats, Britt!
Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris
Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli
Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Rates and Barrels, presented by Tops. Check out Tops Project 70, celebrating 70 years of Topps baseball cards. |
| 0:22.5 | Derek Van Riper, Bridgeroli, Inoceros, here with you on this Friday. |
| 0:26.9 | And on this episode, we will discuss the possible end of a great career for Albert Pujols, |
| 0:32.1 | as he was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Thursday. See, I'm going to be very proper |
| 0:40.1 | with this name. John Means threw a no-hitter earlier this week, so we'll talk about what he |
| 0:44.9 | has done to reach this point. A little bit of a victory lap, I think, for Eno on this one as probably |
| 0:49.8 | the biggest John Means fan that I know outside of John Means' actual family. |
| 0:55.3 | We had a great question come in about pitching at Max's effort and injuries in the wake of what happened to Dustin May. |
| 1:01.2 | So we'll tackle that. |
| 1:02.3 | We've got a few other questions we'll get to as well. |
| 1:03.9 | And I'll probably eat some crow about the slow start of Victor Robles again, which is becoming sort of a daily thing on this show. |
| 1:09.9 | So really excited to get the milk out, pour it all over the crow, and shovel in some more crow. But let's start with Albert Pooholes because the first thing people started to do yesterday when that news came out that he was getting designated for a time by the Angels was let's jam Albert Pooholes on another team. And I just thought, no, let's not. |
| 1:28.9 | He's just not, he's not Albert anymore. |
| 1:31.3 | He's not the machine anymore. |
| 1:32.6 | And it was really cool when he was, but he's not that player anymore. |
| 1:37.2 | He wants to play first base, doesn't want to be a DH, which narrows down the number of teams |
| 1:41.8 | to like one or two maybe, and those teams shouldn't do it. |
| 1:46.9 | So can we please, please, please just celebrate Albert Pooleholz, the amazing player, the most feared |
| 1:55.2 | hitter of the decade, pretty much from the day he entered the league in 2001, until about the time you went to Anaheim, |
| 2:02.0 | he was still good for a little while there. Can we just celebrate that guy for being a first |
| 2:05.6 | ballot Hall of Famer and just being awesome? Yes, except he's too hit shy of the most ever for |
| 2:11.0 | a first baseman, right? Like two hits. Play again. And also, selfishly, I don't know about you |
... |
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