Hey everyone, and welcome back to Caught Looking.

Joining me tonight for episode 10 are Ally and Michaela.

How are you tonight, ladies?

Hello.

Hello.

All right, so the first.

I didn't be here.

I've been here in a couple weeks.

It has been a minute since we've seen you, Ally.

I'm happy you're able to join us.

So the First things first, about like 15 minutes after we stopped recording last week, they announced that Craig Albernaz, our associate manager and Stephen Votes, right hand man, has been hired by the Baltimore Orioles as their new manager, which is super exciting for them.

I'm really happy for the Orioles actually, but also just a huge bummer for us.

That's a big loss.

I'm going to miss the Gods Ball.

God's ball.

That joke not going to be as funny anymore without his accent.

It's really not.

But I think this was inevitable.

I mean, he went, if it didn't happen this year, we were going to be hearing rumors about him interviewing for jobs every single offseason until it happened.

And I'm glad it's to a team that I can tolerate and not one that I despise so.

I agree it sounds like the Orioles had a really tough go of it when I was.

I was in Cleveland for a week and basically attended the entire Orioles series and we unfortunately for them, fortunately for us, just walloped on them.

It was not a pretty series by any stretch of the imagination for them and everything I had heard being semi local to Baltimore, they were not pleased with their season this year.

Can't blame him for that.

No, no.

So I'm interested to see how Craig works with them.

I'm sure I'd like I said as I I always knew that Craig was was out the door at some point.

He was not going to be on our bench for many years to come.

But I did not expect it to just be two years.

I really thought he had at least one or two more years left and I'm here the the Orioles or sorry.

The Orioles are like a young team though, so I feel like you actually would be a great choice for like another young team to come in with so.

That is true, yeah.

This past two years with the with the guards.

I'm happy for him.

I'm I also like the Orioles, so I'm optimistic that they have a good season next year.

I mean, they had so much potential or they had such a good season like two seasons ago, right?

Like not.

Yeah.

The 2024 season was so impressive so I feel like I feel like it was actually a good choice and I'm happy for him.

He will be missed and I'll never forget the meme of him.

Or not the meme, but the video of him throwing the central receipts during our 10 games losing streak.

I think about that a lot, so thank you for that.

Their relationship was fantastic and I know Vote's going to miss him too.

I'm not sure who's out there who can fill his shoes.

I was talking to the ladies earlier and we were talking about various coaches and such, and the fun thing about baseball is that especially for coaching, you really only need a manager and then you kind of make up everything else as you go.

You don't really.

You can just take anyone, say hey, I'm going to make you a coach and you make up their name for them and you just go on with your life.

You might not need to hire a new coach because you could have just thrown someone on the staff last season that didn't have a real job and now they do, so it could be nobody.

Like what is Corey Kluber's job title?

I.

Honestly he's just here for the vibes apparently.

Pitching vibes, yeah.

Not that he needs to be our bench coach.

I'm assuming he's our pitching coach in waiting, but there can be anyone like that.

Yeah, so we'll see.

We'll and as soon as we hear news, we'll be on here to discuss it.

Next topic is the World Series is over.

Baseball is officially over for the year.

The 2025 season is done and the Dodgers won.

That was the greatest World Series I've ever seen.

It was the entire playoffs was I'm normally not into the playoffs if the guards aren't in it.

I normally don't watch.

I'll watch maybe like a little bit of World Series, but I was locked in, especially on that Jays Mariners series.

My God.

That was good baseball.

It was really good baseball.

And I didn't watch last year's World Series because I just Yankees and Dodgers is the most boring outcome.

There's no storyline to be watched there.

This one was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed watching it, even if it didn't end the way I would have liked it.

And if this outcome gets us revenue sharing or a salary floor or a minimum percentage of revenue that should be put back into player salaries, I will take it.

100% I do think, yeah.

So I hope I'm optimistic.

So I think like I think a lockout was coming in 2020.

Oh yeah, right, 'cause the, so the, the, the what's it the player association contract thing?

The CDA.

The CDA?

That's what I was thinking.

I was like, I don't know what it's called and it's December 1st, 2026.

So I'm we'll see what happens 'cause I think a lockout was eminent and there's no way.

There's just no way.

We don't go for a floor.

I don't think you need to ceiling and I don't.

I don't.

Yeah, I mean it's.

Like what baseball needs, but a floor.

I know we're going to do a probable a whole episode on the CBA negotiations and potential lockout, but you look at the revenue and I mean, the Guardians could put 100% of team revenue into player salaries and they still would not be able to match the Dodgers.

So yes, our ownership acts a little broke sometimes, but they also are just broke relatively.

Like that's not entirely a choice.

It's not that they're just not choosing to spend money.

And I don't know, we can get more into this in detail on that episode, but it's not as simple as some teams choose not to spend because that's not what's happening.

Yeah, it's definitely our situation is much different than the Dodgers situation because they also, they're not just, it's not just Los Angeles, which is first of all, a massive, a massive viewing area anyways that has a ton of dollars pouring into it.

It's also like the entire Asian coast.

It's Japan, it's Korea.

You know, it's it's all these countries that, you know, they're pulling guys from and they're getting because they're West Coast team.

And you know, those those players probably want to stay on the West Coast more so that's easier to get back to, you know, their home and Japan.

So it's a much different revenue stream that those guys are seeing that those teams are receiving than us in Cleveland.

But we might have Australia coming up here next year.

That's.

What I was thinking.

We got it.

I mean, we, we, I feel like we did take advantage of it when Dellavedova was making a name for himself on the Cavs.

I feel like the Cavs and Australia made some inroads to advertising and streaming are showing this getting getting Australia involved for their player so hopefully.

I wonder if that plays a role in roster decisions in any way.

What other countries you can attract via?

Like would we be less inclined to manipulate service time if it meant we could draw Australian viewership for an extra 3 weeks or so?

Who knows?

I mean, we'll have to see what happens with Bazanna next year.

If I mean, if he makes the big league club out of spring training, which again, I don't believe is going to happen, then I have a feeling that that might have a that who knows, Like that could be something that they're thinking about as like, OK, he looks good enough to get onto the field and we want every single penny of that, you know, potential money that there is so.

Well, and I don't know enough to know that this team has ever manipulated service time for the sake of manipulating service time, but I'm hoping the the consequences of twiddling their thumbs with Chase De Lauder this season taught him something.

And we won't have to have fake press conferences about why guys who are Major League ready are not in the major leagues.

Honestly I am still surprised that they brought the Lauder up in the play offs.

Pleasantly surprised.

But I'm, I'm curious if that is going to continue into next year, if that was like a one time thing to like placate people or like they're actually going to put the Lauder on the starting roster next year and keep things moving and pull up more guys as they near that, as they get basically immediately to that Major League ready line instead of holding them down like they have been doing.

Yeah.

And that that's a whole other conversation, but I do.

There's just that added extra layer of incentive that you have a whole country that is also maybe waiting for this promotion.

It's not just Cleveland.

It's going to be mad at you if you do this again.

It's going to be a whole country.

And those Aussies can get mean.

We might need them too.

Please Australia, get in on this.

Join our war against the Dolans.

That sure was a tangent.

Well, I mean also was great.

Oh, that's what we're talking about, the World Series.

I am heartbroken for the Jays, in all honesty.

Last night I was talking to one of my friends who lives in Canada and she was just breathing into a paper bag the entire time.

So she was devastated.

And I feel so bad for our guys, our our old guardians there.

Yeah, it was it just the Blue Jays honestly outplayed the Dodgers the basically entire series.

I thought in my opinion, I was really impressed with everything that the Blue Jays are like offense was just like so impressive the whole time.

The last by the last game was hard because as soon as as soon as π has caught that ball over kike, I was like, oh, that's it.

Like as soon as that happened, I was like I was like, Oh no, the the tides have turned.

Like I knew it is that one before.

I was like, oh, this is this is the Dodgers game now, because you can't.

The Dodgers are unfortunately too good to give them that that many opportunities.

Yeah.

And it was, yeah, you only could you only have, you only have so much you can do.

So as soon as that catch up.

And I was like, Oh no, this is it.

Yeah, going into extras is hard to like.

It's just they're emptying the tank.

They're putting every single guy on that mound you got.

I mean, Bieber came in like he he pitched what, two games ago or something like that?

Yeah.

So you have to like, I realize that.

Yoshinobu or Yamamoto Yoshinobu just literally had what, pitched 137 pitches?

Oh yeah, 'cause he had a complete game like game.

He well, he had a complete game earlier in the in the in the series and then he pitched again on like game six and then he pitched again and Game 7.

Christ.

Yeah, which is why I was actually really happy for him.

I feel like he's a really enjoyable person to root for, so I'm happy that he got the MVP and stuff.

As much as I want the Dodgers to not win like I do, they have some very rude players that are like easy to root for.

I was on Twitter and I saw someone post some silly means of memes of Kiki Hinaris Hernandez.

Not memes even just photos, just silly photos of him.

And he seems so fun and goofy and silly and I'm like I want to be able to work root for this man but I cannot right now while he is on this team.

Like it just makes me sad in my heart.

They're they're the West Coast Yankees to me at this point.

I'm just like, I can't do it.

I can't root for either.

They're just two Aura list teams anchoring the country on the East Coast and the West Coast.

I'll give the the Dodgers are a little more fun.

I think they enjoy playing baseball, which is not something that I think I'm observing when I see the Yankees play.

So I'll give them that.

I do believe that the Japanese pitchers, they look like they love each other.

Like, I do think there is some personality to the Dodgers.

And I won.

I I saw someone say that Shohei took the easiest possible path to A championship.

And maybe that is true.

But he also played for the Angels for what, 5-6 years next to one of the best hitters of all time?

And that team sucked.

Yeah.

And I when I think about the fact that the first five to six years of his Major League career was pretty much a waste, I don't blame him for taking the easy way out because it should have been easy there and it wasn't.

So I don't blame him for that.

And then I don't blame any Japanese pitchers for joining him there because he looks happy and it looks like the organization has taken care of him and why wouldn't you go play with somebody that shares your culture and your language?

And so I don't blame them for that.

I do think they have some personality and I think, you know, I, I believe that their culture plays a a big role in why they win.

But did they have a little bit of a cheat code that other teams don't have with their revenue?

Yes, they did.

It's probably.

More with the, the front office that I have my gripes with and the way that they're manipulating their, the contracts and all the deferred money and all the.

Stuff deferred money is is rough.

It really is.

Yeah, I I mean, I agree with Ali like mostly like it's a they're without looking at all the front office stuff.

Like the team is actually pretty easy to root for.

I mean, Shohei is like seems like.

Shohei is adorable.

He's so cute and he's so just like happy to be playing baseball.

And I think I, I'm very impressed with him.

I know I got, I got, I got got some backlash on Twitter 'cause I made like a joke about putting him on a card.

And I just want to say like, I love Shohei Otani.

I think he's the greatest baseball player of all time.

And I do in like indefinitely root for him at all times.

So I'm happy that he's getting heavy on all the success.

Honestly, I feel like it's cool to have the greatest player of all time also win championships.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I will, I do.

I don't think anyone will agree or disagree with you that Shohei is probably going to go down as if not top 3 top absolute top best baseball player to walk this earth in history.

So we are blessed to watch him and just what a ridiculous human he is and also just be adorable and sweet and.

Oh yeah, he was so high and he was so excited for Yoshi yesterday.

It was just so cute.

He's just, I just really like them.

I really do.

I don't want the Dodgers to win against the Guardians, ever.

But I do like, I do like watching good baseball.

And then this, as much as I it was a really, really good series.

They both fought till the very end.

And because there was no, there's a Dome, there was no rain delays.

It was just pure fights until the end.

There was no godly well, except unless you count the stuck ball godly interference, which that's a discussion for another time, I think, but I do think they made the right call there.

All right, well, congratulations to the dodges.

I guess we'll see what happens next year.

So moving on.

Speaking of next year and also kind of like the play offs and the lead up into the play offs.

The Guardians played around this year starting in September with a six man rotation, which I think turned out really, really well.

I think they're pitching thrived when they moved into that six man rotation.

I know Ali wanted to chat a bit about this, so I'm going to go ahead and throw it over to her since I think she had some notes on this.

But six man rotation in bullpen use.

Should we do this next year?

So what I wanted to look at is a little bit less related to the six man rotation, but I think that that did play a role in the Guardian success and we'll get to that.

What I really wanted to look at was it felt like towards the end of the season, maybe the whole season, Cade Smith, Hunter Goddess, Matt Festa and Eric Sabrowski were pitching every single day.

And I don't that is not the case, but it did feel like our bullpen was pretty heavily taxed.

They were always pitching in high leverage games and just felt like we were seeing them a lot more often than I recall seeing relief pitchers in the past.

And I think there are a couple of changes in baseball that have led to relief pitchers being used more that we don't talk about very much.

And one thing.

So the rule changes that happened after the 2019 season, I think played a huge role starting pitching pitchers don't go deep into games anymore.

We know that that has played a role.

I think the three batter minimum rule and that pitchers have to stay in longer plays a role because they're having to.

You're not bringing pitchers in for three or four or three or four pitches anymore.

They have to face 3 batters before they can be removed.

So what I wanted to look at is appearances by relief pitchers in the past couple of seasons and the number of innings pitched by relievers in the past couple of seasons.

And I think the rule changes had a lot to do with that, but some of it is a little different.

So I looked at stats.

I picked a couple of years within the past 20 for specific reasons.

But within the last 20 years we have seen an increase in the number of relief pitchers who've made 50 plus appearance per year.

We have seen an increase in the number of outs recorded by relief pitchers, which that one is probably a direct correlation to the rule change that requires them to see more batters.

And we have also seen an increase in the number of pitchers that a team uses in a year.

Does that make sense?

I think it makes sense.

And I think that all of this is happening because we are seeing relievers be responsible for a bigger chunk of innings than we have in the past.

And what I noticed while I was doing this research is that while other teams are requiring more pitchers per year to get through a season because you're putting a lot more pressure on the pitchers on your roster, the Guardians are usually towards the bottom.

And the last couple of years they've been towards the bottom in different pitchers used so they are below league average.

While other teams are having to make roster moves and switch their pitchers out, the Guardians are doing that less.

And I think that that is why it felt like we were seeing those guys so often.

And I don't know if that is a testament to the success of our bullpen in general or if that is a testament to our guys being able to stay healthy.

But at a time where I think bullpens are more important than ever because your starters starting pitchers are not going as long into games, the Guardians bullpen has been very good.

And where it feels like our pitchers are constantly being put in these high pressure situations, it's because they handle them and because we can trust them to do that.

So I thought that was just something that was really interesting to look at and maybe that's why we did end up with a six man rotation because there just isn't room for all of those guys out there.

I know there was a lot of backlash for some reason against Festa this year but when you actually like look into his numbers he was pretty decent in his actual appearances from what I remember seeing.

Like people were like weirdly upset by him always being on but then honestly he really didn't have that many screw ups.

Yeah, I don't.

I think he might have had maybe some rough outings early because it wasn't towards the the end of the year.

The end of the season is really when I was like we should be nicer to him.

He's not bad.

Yeah, exactly.

There was a big he.

Blew some games in the beginning of the season.

Probably why it was sour.

Taste in everyone's mouth, you.

Know.

Which a lot of things blew a lot of games in the beginning of the season, which is how we ended up where we were.

I mean, that's magnified things.

Yeah, I mean, I would also say that obviously losing Class A too changed the change the way the bullpen usage because it used to be what it would be.

Heron Gaddis, Cade, Class A we had and I I would, I would be interested in seeing, did you look at last year compared to this year to see what and Heron was down for a little bit too.

They sent him back to the minors for a minute.

So obviously his usage is going to be different from last year to compared to this year.

And obviously Cade's is going to be more because he basically took over for Class A So I guess I would be curious as to Gaddis's usage between last year and this year and see if that shifted significantly.

Yeah.

I didn't.

So.

I didn't look at individual chairs specifically, but I did make this note that I find interesting because my eye test was just so very wrong that the Guardians led the MLB in innings pitched by starters.

Our starters covered 388 innings this year.

That's crazy.

Yes.

I would not have assumed that at all.

No.

And that's I that's, I wanted to look into this because I really thought our relievers, it felt like they were being overused, but our relievers threw the fewest innings of any bullpen in baseball.

That is honestly mind blowing.

I'm freaking out.

Michaela Good attributes everything to Stephen Quan.

Doesn't matter what it.

Is no.

I'm assuming he won a Gold Glove.

Is that?

Yeah, he won a Oh, I'm so sorry.

Sorry.

I couldn't keep it in.

Oh, sorry.

OK.

Steven.

I'm so sorry.

No, no.

I love it.

Thank you.

Congrats to Stephen Quan on your 4th Gold Glove in Four Seasons.

That's that's I would die for you.

Holy shit.

I.

No, I love the raw reaction.

That's beautiful.

I honest to God thought you were attributing our bullpen.

It seems to see me quiet.

I mean, probably technically in a way.

His outfield prowess has assisted in less pitches by the pitchers and keeping us in games.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Oh, I'm so excited.

As you should be.

He's fantastic.

Hashtag extend Stephen Kwan.

He's going to be expensive now.

He is going to be expensive now.

He always was.

But that's, I mean, yeah, exactly.

Regardless, he was going to be expensive.

And honestly, he should be.

Get that money, Sir.

Anyways, bullpens.

Congrats, Stephen Kwan.

We're very excited for you.

Unfortunately, we did see earlier that Hosey did not get his his golden Glove, which is a bummer.

And neither did.

Ernie.

Ernie didn't get his.

No, Santana, thank you, Santana.

That's because I was trying to think of specifically the Guardians players that were.

So we're holding out hope for Schneeman.

Schneeman for utility, though.

I think Ernie's going to win that one.

I can't even be mad for anyone.

No, truly, I can't.

I'll take that.

I'll I'll accept that as a as a good win.

I would love obviously for Schneeman to win because he does does absolutely deserve that Gold Glove, but it would be cool for anyone too.

So, bullpen usage.

Yeah, some other stats that I pulled that kind of did back up what I was seeing.

The Guardians ranked top they were #2 in relief appearances on 0 days rest.

Only Seattle had more pitchers come out of the bullpen on 0 days rest.

I can see that.

Those are two good bullpens though, so whatever works.

And we were 4th overall in pitching in general.

So that didn't that wasn't really impacted by bullpen or verse starting rotation use.

So I guess all I really wanted to look at was did these rule changes put more pressure on bullpens across the league and how did the Guardians stand out compared to other teams?

And it really it didn't.

It did in a sense, but it didn't.

I think bullpen ERA across the league has gotten better year to year regardless of those rule changes.

Innings pitched by relievers has gone up expectedly.

So just with starters doing less pitchers, relief pitchers individually are expected to get more outs than they ever were before.

They are throwing more pitches on average.

And that, I think that's just because they have to.

And the only thing that's really changed is that it's just taking more pictures to get through a season than it ever has before.

So you're seeing all that up and down.

I wonder if because of that, and also now I did a quick Google and they're saying that Tommy John surgeries are not up as much as we think they are.

But I do feel like this year, it was a lot like the past two years.

I feel like there have been a lot of Tommy John surgeries.

I'll have to look more into that and see the exact number.

I'm curious if at some point here over the next, I don't know, 5 to 10 years.

I'm not expecting this to be a, a thing that's going to be implemented next year or whatever.

But if they maybe during the CDA negotiations, if they decide to expand the bullpen and allow each team another bullpen arm like they do because we get two players September, right, September call UPS two players, I would be interested if they permanently expand the bullpen.

Well, that's what I also wanted to look at because that two player expansion in September is new since 2020.

Before that you could pull up any guy on your 40 man.

And yeah, and so that would lead to games in September.

I mean a pitcher you've never heard of straight from AA throwing garbage innings.

And so I feel like I remember years ago seeing like 40 dudes in the dugout.

Yeah, and it feels like just a spring training game because you can put anywhere.

And so I thought that would contribute to this.

I really thought it would, but it looks like it hasn't as much.

I because I thought really what I thought I was seeing with my eyes was that the number of appearances per year would be way higher.

And that has not changed.

It's just that more pictures are appearing more times.

You don't have as many specialists out of the bullpen as you used to, which makes sense again, because you just can't do that.

You can't come in and face the batter and leave.

Yeah.

So a lot of what I thought I would be seeing based on just the 40 man rules, even the ghost runner.

One thing I want to know that I could not find anywhere is did the addition of the ghost runner lead to a specific reduction in innings total?

Like I would think yes, because you're not having games go 18 innings anymore except for World Series game what, 3?

Well, no good runner in the playoffs so.

Yeah, exactly.

And that's not happening in the regular season.

And maybe there were enough of those games to really matter, but that was 1 stat I couldn't find is if there are just less innings to be pitched in general and if that's contributing to some of the things that I'm finding.

Could I would be interested to see prior to the ghost runner role how often you went like above 1112 innings and extra inning games?

Because I know obviously there were several long games in the past, but I don't know how often exactly that happened.

Yeah.

And if that even is I, that number might be small enough that it's negligible and looking at how many innings you need covered per season, which is really all I was trying to find.

But yeah, that number was a little bit harder to find that I thought it would be so, but yeah.

That is interesting.

I'm I'm really surprised honestly, about the fact that the Guardians were top in bullpen usage or or like.

Bottom and bullpen usage.

There we go, bottom.

That's what I meant.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, Top and I guess they didn't.

Smallest number, I guess that's kind of what I was thinking, that they would be put at the top.

But yeah, that that is honestly surprising to me.

It'll be interesting to see then over the next season if that changes at all or how it evolves.

Well, and I, I think the answer to the original question has to be that the six man rotation, I mean it, it had to have contributed to that.

I mean guys were pitching on more rest, which the MLB stat page looks like it has an option to let you sort guys stats based on how many days rest they had.

But then when you click it, nothing comes up like it won't load.

So they're trying to track that.

They're just not tracking it successfully.

But I don't know if that I don't, I would assume that plays a role.

And if we look ahead to next season, I think we have to keep a six man rotation because we have, I'm scared to say it, but it's too many starting pictures.

We do have a lot of starting pictures.

What?

I would never say that.

And also, Shane Bieber is coming back, so yeah.

You know, I keep seeing people ask for that and I would love it so much, but what a terribly inefficient use of money that would be.

I can pretend.

And you just stop being realistic.

You're I want a dream.

I want him to come back.

Someday I don't.

Care how he fits, I just want him in Cleveland.

In the future we are going to have exclusive streaming rights to the whole country of Australia, we are going to have David Blitzer's money and we are going to pay Shane Bieber.

Exactly.

It's beautiful.

See, we I don't know why are we This is why we don't This is why we are not in charge of a basically no.

No.

I think we should be.

Can Shane Beaver hit?

We got show Hey too.

Get in the get in the cages, Shane.

See what you got.

Yeah, I do believe I was saying this at the end of the playoffs and like during the playoffs, that I really do think a six man rotation specifically for this team would be a good idea.

I would be really, I would be interested, I would like for them to start off the season with a six man, see how it goes and see if we can't make that work.

Because I really do think the starting pitcher specifically thrived on that six man and being able to have just that extra day of rest in between each of their starts.

So yeah, I would.

I'll be interested to see what 2026 brings and if they keep that going.

We ended the season with obviously 6 starting pitchers.

They have a decision to make on John Means and whether or not he comes back, but Lively presumably returns.

I don't.

I don't know if there's a decision to be made there.

I don't.

Know he is so actually they just released the official free agency list since free agency started today and Cleveland has two official free agents right now they have Jacob Junas and Lane Thomas.

Those are our only two official free agents.

So we the Lively is still in that arbitration limbo.

OK, so they've got the 6th.

They ended with decision on John Means, Ben Lively.

Daniel Espino looks like he's still warming up to be a pitcher and you don't.

We could go nine man rotation.

Why not?

But realistically, realistically, some of these guys are probably not going to be in the organization when the season starts.

We can't bank on all of them being healthy, but I like where they stand and I think that a six man rotation makes a little bit of sense.

Yeah, I agree.

All right.

I think our next topic of conversation was going to be, I think what we're going to now called Michaela's Card Corner.

I need AI need a theme song.

We want a logo.

Michaela's card corner.

Yeah.

So we there are two pre-orders that go on go up this week and then I want to talk about the update series that drops on November 11th.

So the first pre-order that is tomorrow.

So when this drops that today I guess is Alan and Ginter.

It's I don't either of you are really into cards, but Alan and Ginter is the weirdest project in the entire like it's just the weirdest baseball card that exists.

Alan Ginter.

Alan and Ginter, yeah.

Alan and Ginter got it.

Yeah, and it's so they're like they.

Make it look really old.

I just googled it.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Yeah.

And so like they so like they have like inserts that just have like fossils in them and they have like one year they had like George Washington's hair in it.

And it's so weird.

They would just put weirdest things ever.

But then it's also like baseball players or you can get like Drewski's Otto is in is in 2025.

Well, I also see it looks like they had Chuck Norris.

Yeah, it's just the weirdest product that exists.

No, I love it.

This is fantastic.

It's one of my absolute favorites.

I have to convince myself to not buy like thousands of dollars worth of it tomorrow.

It's so much fun and it's so much fun to open because you're like open and you're like, I don't know any of this is the issue is that there's no checklist out, which is one of my pet peeves of tops is when they release a card set, they do a pre-order and there's no checklist out.

So like I could be right, because like I said, they collect Stephen Kwan chances of him being in this car.

And this is like slim.

I feel like guardians.

I don't usually get lucky, but the the weird Don checklist sets, like whenever I spend like a lot of money chasing Quan cards, he's like never in the set then.

But one of the answers they're doing this year is the lighthouses, like famous lighthouses.

And I'm so I grew up.

I grew up in like not in Cleveland, but like out towards Marblehead Lighthouse.

So there's a Marblehead lighthouse.

That would be cool.

I would be really excited for that.

So that that would that would forgive the Stephen Quan not being in.

It So I just googled it and I looked up an athletic article popped up saying our favorite cards from the 2024 Allen and Ginter set.

They have a bunch of Westminster dogs winners.

They had a scratch and sniff card that was cinnamon rolls.

I.

Pulled a grass one last year.

I scratched and snitched grass and it literally just smelled like fresh cut grass.

It was awesome.

That's beautiful AX rays of random animals.

Awesome.

Why not?

This is silly chicken tenders.

One of the, one of the and a.

Bee.

Just a bee.

Oh my God, I bought, I got the whole set.

I got I completed the bee set and I sent it to my sister because she keeps bees.

That's beautiful.

I love that for you.

I.

Was like here you can have this on your bee farm.

I love this bee one is actually really nice.

It says buzzing.

Yeah, it's so cute.

I That's amazing.

So much.

I might just need to get a pack of this for shits and giggles just to see what I get just because it's so ridiculous.

To get for shits and giggles like that's exactly what it's meant for 'cause it's just like so weird.

And you can't ever get mad because, oh, you're like, oh, I have a, you know, a Wince Mr.

Dog card who care?

Like, you know, like you, you're not, you're not getting the cards for like giant chases.

You're getting it for the whimsy of it all.

They did a whole series on girls, girl baseball players.

Yeah.

That's cool.

They also did one that's just called Girls and Children.

And now I'm scared.

I'm on their Wikipedia page now I'm I'm.

I'm deep now I'm.

So glad.

Oh my gosh.

Welcome to the world, Ellen and Ginter.

It's so.

Weird.

It's yeah, it's so much fun.

It's so much fun to RIP too, because like, you never know what you're going to get and it doesn't matter what you get.

Like I said, I got a grass card and I was like, this is awesome.

That's beautiful.

Yeah, they also like said, they always have like a fossil insert.

They always, which is one of my favorites.

There's some place to do so many fun ones.

But the other thing that's coming out this week is tops black and white baseball, which is really cool because it's the whole side.

It's like all the base cards are literally just black and white.

And then the color parallels are like they just put like a nice little filter on them.

There's no, there's no pink, unfortunately, but they always have like.

Green.

Red.

And purple I know right?

They should there should be more pink cards.

There is a topless available for taps black and white.

And so that pre-order is on Tuesday at noon Eastern.

But Stephen Kwan has a has signs in it and so does on Hell and John Kenzie both have bass and autos.

And then Jose, he's also in it, but he just has bass.

He doesn't have auto.

But I'm excited for that.

I was.

They're always like gorgeous pictures and they try to make them more like photography based.

But the biggest 1 coming up, which was supposed to originally release on October 29th, which has a lot of issues with it is now releasing November 12th and that's the 2025 tops update series.

So this is like the right where they have like everyone who debuted, they have all the those those players in there.

So for us.

If we have.

Doug Mckayzie, Nick Enright.

We have Zach Kent.

Will.

Wilson and.

That type of list the blasters like.

The value boxes though are always holiday themed so the holiday theme though for update is always Halloween.

So we will be opening Halloween cards on November 12th.

Why not?

We missed the missed the deadline a little bit there.

It's fine.

But yeah, so our overall checklist isn't great.

I would say like I probably won't be spending a lot of money chasing our normal checklist we have.

So there's Jose and Steven have a joint card like a veteran combo.

Oh, that's interesting.

I know.

So that's probably.

I'm excited to see what that is.

But then we have Doug, Nick Hazy, Nick Enright, Jonathan Rodriguez, Carlos Santana, Gabriel Arias, Zach Kent, Will Wilson, Eric Zabrowski, Logan Allen and Nolan Jones.

Not.

I'm here for Zabrowski.

I'm not.

Super in love with that checklist.

I feel like we could have done better, but we have a really, really good autograph checklist like Kyle men's auto signs and a bunch of stuff.

So Steven Qantas oh cool, different auto cards.

I will be chasing all of them.

Oh my God, Jose Ramirez has like the own the name relics where you can get like the card of it's like each of the individual letters in the back of their jerseys.

So.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah, you could like fill me out.

Yeah, those are those are crazy.

People, I was gonna say, those are probably nuts.

Yeah, they're so crazy because you have to get like 6-1 of ones.

Yeah, I could have done Quan.

I guess I only have to do 4 letters then.

But people who do like really long names are power to them.

That's crazy.

I would like to see Crow Armstrong.

I would like to see Kiner Falafa.

What's the Reds guy who has the really long name isn't there?

Oh, anchor I see on Strand.

Oh, that'd be a good one.

I don't think they put him in the own the name.

They'd be like, no, I'm so sorry you actually, But yeah.

And then Jose has a heavy lumber relic auto.

So it's like a literally a piece of wood is the card and then on the card is a piece of the wood from his bat and then he signs the piece of wood on the bat and they're short printed.

They're only there's only about like 10 of them usually.

So we'll see.

Steven had one last in the last set.

So he has one in this set, which I'm really excited about, but then there's so many.

He also has a real ones golden mirror auto, which is a new set for this exact, which is well, sorry, it's like a new parallel for this set.

It hasn't existed before.

So there's always like golden mirrors, which are basically image variations, but the back of the card is gold.

And they call they're called golden mirror, but they've never had autographs before.

So this year they're gonna have or in this set, they're gonna have autographs and Jose Ramirez has 1.

And I think the autos like the auto box is going to be black and then they sign in gold sharpie.

So those are that's a new car that's coming out for this set, but.

Nice.

Ultimately I would say like our actual checklist isn't isn't great, but I'm really excited.

Our autos and inserts are really enjoyable so I am looking forward to that.

I think I only ordered one of those boxes though like I said cuz so so the the pre-order for that has already passed but the street release date is November 12th.

Awesome.

Oh, and Sneeman or Clement didn't win the Astros Guy won.

Utility Gold Glove.

Mauricio Duban, Whatever.

Lame.

All right, so I guess Kwan's the only our only Gold Glove winner.

I can't complain.

We probably should have played better collectively.

I'm glad Kwan won his Golden Glove.

I mean, sure, the Royals won too.

OK, maybe we didn't need to play better.

Michael Garcia and Bobby Witt, each one for theirs.

That's fine.

Whatever.

All right.

Next year.

All right.

Well, thank you, Michaela.

So I don't have much else for cards.

Today, Oh no, you're fine.

That was I'm actually honest to God, I think I might be buying a Allen and winter set just because they're so goofy.

They're so.

Goofy over that?

I'm so sorry.

For.

That if they have a Marblehead lighthouse, I will be taking my little because they're like mini cards.

I will be taking my mini card and driving my ass over to Sandusky to to get a picture.

With do a little do a little photo to.

Introduce the Yeah, I like taking the car.

I'll introduce it to its dad.

Like this is this is Papa Lighthouse.

That's so cute.

Fantastic.

All right, well, one last thing before we say goodnight.

Unless there's anything else anyone had to say about anything else pertinent to the Guardians or baseball or cards or bees, maybe.

I don't know.

No.

All right.

That's live.

Survived the World Series and next season starts now.

Yes.

How many days until pitchers and catchers report?

Why hasn't the spring training schedule released also?

So I think that I think it did.

Actually, I think no, it's not.

Released yet?

Cuz I'm trying to go what I.

They're a World Baseball classic this year, maybe.

Oh, in March?

Yeah, in 2026.

Yeah.

So I don't maybe that's throwing some people off, but there's also that.

Oh yeah, no, it just says fall 2025.

Look at that.

Tickets are especially.

Releases in August and I was gonna I'm going to I was going to go this year.

Weird.

When do I go?

I went in.

I went this past year.

It was a lot of fun.

The the ballparks are very intimate.

I only went to Goodyear.

I didn't go to any other ballpark, but I saw three or four games there.

The vets aren't super excited to or super willing to sign things.

Oh yeah, that's.

Fine, I went to the Grapefruit League last year.

I it was a ton of fun.

I I just like baseball a lot.

So yeah.

But it was cool seeing, you know, they, they played for the first half of the game and then the the kids played for the second-half.

So we got to see Bazzana a lot, which was fun.

That's.

Cool.

But yeah, highly recommend anybody, whoever has the opportunity to go check it out and get out to Arizona or even Florida.

It's, it's just a fun experience.

The ballparks are very intimate.

They're very small.

You literally, if you're like over at the bullpen, you're standing like 3 feet from the from the guys, like watching them warm up.

That's where I would post up.

I would watch the guys, I would watch the starting pitcher warm up before each game and you're just like really just there, just like right next to him.

So it's a cool experience.

So if you do ever get a chance, I highly recommend you check it out.

So one last thing before we shut down.

Our first giveaway was this week we were giving away one of the Tops cards, the AL Central clinch, right Michaela?

Yeah, black foil out of 10.

Yes, it was a good one.

It's a really, those cards are really, really nice.

I got Barbie's.

Was it Barbie's complete game?

I think I got one of those specialty cards and they're they're hefty, they're really nice and.

They had like the cute little like the little logo.

The little case.

Yeah.

I was very that was my first time ordering one of those.

So yes, it's.

A weird, it's a weird time.

They're like, it's like a weird product.

I just bought the the the World Series set.

One day I'm going to get an Otani autograph and then I can just retire is what is my plan?

That's my entire retirement plan.

So.

Is the is that autographed Otani?

Yeah, it's like in, it's a kanji autograph.

It's all I need and then I'll retire.

It's a good one to have.

It's a good, good retirement card.

But we're excited to announce that Ben at Cal under score cards on Instagram is our giveaway winner.

So yay congratulations Ben.

We will be sending the card out very soon, hopefully this week and you should receive it soon.

He's.

Gonna get a caught looking stickers.

Fancy lucky, lucky guy.

Yes, we're very excited.

We do have some.

We finally have like some mini merch if you will.

So we will be handing those out also at the first Her Hobby Trade Night coming up on Saturday, November 15th.

Michaela's going to be there.

I think Sarah's going to be there.

I think a couple other ladies are going to be there.

So come check out Support the Hobby Saturday, November 18th from 3:00 to 7:00 at Brune Nuts on Detroit Ave.

in Cleveland.

Highly recommend.

You've got cards of all sorts, whichever ones you want, not just baseball, Donuts and beer.

What could be better?

Nothing.

I think that is going to wrap up episode 10 of Caught looking.

Thank you so much, Ali and Michaela for joining me tonight.

Oh.

Thank you for.

Having us yes, and thank you all for tuning in and supporting the show.

Make sure to follow us on social media and subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode.

Whether you are here for the hot takes, the heart breaks or the home runs, don't get caught looking.

Go guards.