 What's going on guys? Thanks for tuning in to the app. Yes, app for a little, it's clearly like a cleanup session. We did our episode on Easter, we did our midweek episode and we kind of said, we didn't talk about Michael King enough and the important role he has on the team right now and he can have moving forward. Jake, you had some numbers. Jim. That you'll share with the people. BBD, everyone in the app. What's going on people? Thanks for coming to join us here. And yeah, you know, let's be honest. He wasn't the most exciting week in Yankee land. We normally see the birds on the schedule and we think dubs, that's not exactly what played out in Camden yards. What did play out and continues to be a highlight early on in the season is our guy, my King, my King. Michael King, Yankee fans are familiar with him at this point, parts of 2019, 2020, 2022, 2021 as well. That's another year in there. I guess I could have just attached all of them. He was a quick riser through the system, Boston college kid. We had him on our show talking to Yankees. Go check that out when you get a chance. And he was awesome. He almost said too much. We're like, dude, hey, like to reel it in. And one of the things he said is that he learned a clue ball, the Corey Kluber curveball slider that he didn't like to label. And we saw that develop last year. And the other thing that's been developing is my King out of the bullpen. He's pumping heaters. The fastball's got to take up and he has looked gross to start this young season. And he could be a massive swing piece for the bullpen or just the future of bullpens, multi-inning guys out of the pen. I think his eyes will still probably be to starting and maybe he can go there. But the arsenal he's using right now, which is mostly the sinker, the two seam fastball, which I've always loved. It's like a little like slingshot pitch. You show it to any baseball fan and you're like, yes. That's fun. And then he's breaking off that clue ball. Now a lot of the Yankees are using what they're calling the Whirly, but his is a little different. Really cool. I tweeted out the images last year because they said it that him and Kluber have like the same delivery. And I posted the side by side, they do. And Kluber picked up on that and told him, hey, you have the same like release point and motion as me. Try this grip and this, whatever the cues were. And that's where he learned the clue ball while he was hurt last year. So it's been a good pitch. I just like that he comes and pounds his own. And I like, this is why I am not, I don't go gaga over strikeouts because I actually like pitchers are like, no, I just throw strikes and get you out on the ground or in the air. A ground ball to shortstop on the first pitch is more of a win than a strikeout. Much more of a win. And that's kind of what Kinger does. And when they brought him into the base is loaded situation a couple of weeks ago or last week or whenever you're watching this against the Blue Jays. I tweeted out, double plays are gonna come because he just puts, he gets guys to put the ball on the ground. It's a big tool and it allows him to eat up innings. Like you can't have an innings eater if they don't pitch the contact really, especially on the bullpen where you're just trying to do that. Like Sessa they tried, but he's a strikeout guy really. He's like that slider pitch, which is swing and miss. Kinger goes for that. That being said, his pitches are starting to get like nastier and nastier and his fastball ticked up. Yeah, Jim, you know, I'm a pretty basic cat. In 2020, my King's average fastball, 93 miles per hour. 2021, 94. This year it's at 95. So we're going up one mile per hour every year. I like that. And then, yes, it all ties back to the slider curveball whatever you want to label it. Baseball, savant so far this year, they're labeling it a curveball. And it's an 82 mile per hour curveball, which, whoa, modern baseball is getting pretty gross. But I think that's important because we talk about variance in pitch speed and sometimes you'll see it where a guy, if their pitches are too close together in speed, hitters can just sit back and kind of wait on that. And then you can look for one pitch and if you really need to, you follow off that other pitch. But you're looking at that same timing mechanism. With the curveball being 82, I really think that is so disruptive for the hitters because the fastball is 95, the curveball is 82 and the changeup, Mike King's changeup is 88 miles per hour, which, if those were Mike King's only two pitches, I don't know if there's enough speed gap in there to trick hitters, but with the third pitch, and this is probably why at some point he should be barking to get a chance in the rotation, he has three pitches. Have you seen, now he's only thrown 16 changeups. He hasn't pitched a lot this year, but the swing and miss on his changeup is 60%. And I think- That's pretty wild. I'm gonna pull up some videos. I don't know if we can put them on the app to be completely honest with you, but I'll show you, Jake. Sure. So you can see them. And Jim, hey, I know we're starting to dream about our guy in the rotation, which is pretty cool stuff, but the changeup, and you know, this is kind of normal stuff, the changeup should be a lefty neutralizer for King. Yankee fans remember Tommy Kainley and how disgusting he was against lefties with that gross changeup. If that changeup can be his lefty outpitch and that slider can be his righty outpitch, I mean, you got all the fixings right there. Looks like your Easter spread all over again. He's throwing the changeup 16 times, 10 to lefty, six to righty. So he's generated swing and miss to righties, and it's a cool change. It's not a Tommy Kainley changeup. It's not gonna have that sharp break. It's kind of more like the deception, not the break is what does it. You know, sometimes people can throw changeups, and even if you're sitting changeup, it's so much movement on it. This is a deception pitch, because it's just, it's very similar to the two seamer, but it's just slower. No, and that's a, Jim, you'll remember some old talking yanks. I originally thought the changeup would be the pitch that would unlock Michael King because of that his arm action, because his two seamer has so much run, that changeup, in theory, I thought would have that much run. You're right, I don't think the run is crazy, but I still think coming off of his power fastball, it can be a wipeout pitch from two, along with the clue ball. I mean, it's all there. It's there, and did you give your stat about the innings and Seve and Monty and stuff? Cause that's the good stuff. So, our Yankees, we know they came into, with the short spring training, they didn't fully stretch out their starting pitchers, which we hope pays off down the line. Most Yankee starters were in the 60s for their first start, and then that second start, they got to 70s, 80s, and hopefully starting this week, they'll be in the 90 approach in 100 range. Mike King is a massive part of that. Mike King, in his four appearances this year, he's thrown 7.2 innings. Severino in two starts, eight flat. Monty, 8.1. So, Mike King over these first, what are we at, two weeks into the season? He has done essentially the same workload as Severino and Montgomery, so that's definitely something to track as the year goes on. Who's eating those innings? And again, Michael King, is he staying in a multi-inning relief role? If he continues to perform, is there gonna be a time this year where we need or want to stretch him out? I don't know, but right now, he's eating innings like a starting pitcher for the Yankees currently is. I think that's eye-opening that he has that many innings already. And it's a huge role because we've seen that this iteration of the Yankees don't blow teams out. They are in close games, nonstop. And the bullpen gets gassed and used. And we lost King halfway through the season last year after he had what, six shutout innings from a relief pitcher, is like the best relief pitcher ever. It looked like he was breaking out. And then he got injured and then he came back. So hopefully he sticks around and eats up these innings in this role and gives, because if you cannot get a guy that we trust, like I trust him in a close game. I trust him to put the ball in play, have the defense work for him, throw some nasty pitches. I think he'll generate strikeouts as well with his new arsenal. That's a big role. My King, my King. My King, my King. Yeah, I'm interested because the other side of that equation, I know we've talked about, my King has a history of being a starting pitcher and he was stretched out. You know, our guy, Johnny Laza, who broke out out of the bullpen. Remember how quickly he began to earn trust as he was good in 2021? My King could be on a similar path that way. My King could be so good out of the bullpen that he can almost take himself out of starting pitching conversations, which, I mean, hey, let's look back at the past couple of years. Chad Green. Chad Green. Johnny, like, those roles, that multi-inning to inning reliever. And I think, you know, Johnny Laza was being used as a starting pitcher. They cut back on that. Chad had been kind of cut out of that role up until that point. My King through last year was training to be a starting pitcher. So, yeah, it's gonna be funky. I mean, for him, if he continues to be this good, he's gonna be pitching in eighth innings, trying to finish a game when the bullpen's tired. So, that dynamic, if my King continues to be good, which way do the Yankees push him? Do they try to stretch him out, or do they get him in more high leverage spots? The first injury in the rotation. Is King right now the guy? Would they give him starts? Clark Schmidt in his outings. He looked fairly solid this year. Your call. And he doesn't, as of right now, he hasn't performed like King has, that he would play his way into higher leverage bullpen innings. He can, if he continues to pitch really well. But he's more stretched out currently that if they needed a spot start, it's probably Clark Schmidt right now. I think after Clark, you'd really have to consider King because right now Davey's still figuring it out. Louis Heal is also stretched out. So, I don't know. I mean, Kinger could be pegged for the pen. If it's a true spot start, I think it's King. Like, if it's like a one week injury, I think they give the ball to King. Like one start? Like if it's like a schedule break thing. We're like, oh, this guy needs a day and there's too many games. Like a double header comes up. And they'd be like, oh, it's King. King and Clark split this game. Clark and King even. But they probably keep King coming out of the bullpen because it's been working. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to watch. So, hey, you know, the Yankees pitching itself has been a bright spot this whole season. Mike King has been one of the brightest spots of this Yankee. It's going to be fun to see where he lands this year. Mike King, Mike King. Nice guy. He's a nice guy. Like some of our Instagram posts. Pay attention to his walk up music. His sister wrote a song specifically for him called King of the Hill, right? That's pretty cool. It is cool. I've got a sister. She hasn't ruined me ever walking. She painted you pictures though. Yeah. Thanks, guys. See you later.