Halford & Brough in the Morning - This Blue Jays Bullpen Is Cheeks

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), plus they chat yet another Blue Jays ninth inning collapse with Sportsnet's Shi Davidi (28:06). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough You're listening to Halford and Brough. Ground in, throw the basset, McLeague scores, cradle home, throw from left is Gladex win! celebrating as a team because I think that's way more intimidating than a quarterback doing his six-shooter guns and going up in the crowd and doing all that other good morning Vancouver six a one on a Tuesday happy Tuesday everybody it is halford it is rough it is sports net 650 we are

coming to you live from the kintech studios and beautiful fairview slopes in vancouver jason good morning good morning good morning to you good morning laddie good morning to you as well hello hello Alfred and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear, and orthotics working together with you and step. You can really tell that we are back. Now we're really back.

Last week we were back, but this week we're back back. You know how I know? Seven. Seven what we learned submissions. ready prior to 6 o'clock into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Listeners are fired up. It's the first day back at school. Maybe many of you are returning to work.

It's cold in the morning now? It's cold in the morning now. It's a little bit cold. It's dark. It's dreary. Yeah. But it's exciting here. We have a big show today on a Tuesday. It's a three-guester. We have a lot to get into over the long weekend. A lot of guests on the horizon as well.

Shy Davidi is going to join us at 630. Our MLB and Blue Jays insider for Sportsnet. Another game, another blown save for the Jay's bullpen on Monday. This time, my favorite closing duo, Greg, of Tommy Nance and Brendan Little. That's who you want to trust. Nance, man. What happened? I had so much confidence in Nance.

Another ninth inning collapse for the Jays. You know, you thought when the calendar turned from August to September, things would change. No, no. We'll talk to Shai about the bullpen problems for the Jays at 6.30. Hoffman got booed in our kitchen. oh yeah in the in the in the in the two home run brough sent a text yeah sometimes we'll go a couple days without speaking and then you'll get a text and you have to contextualize what it means

so I didn't hear from you for a day and then all I got was Hoffman's getting booed in our kitchen I'm like what is he talking do people get booed in your kitchen often I was the whole family was doing Hoffman I wasn't watching the boy was like bow I wasn't aware Pedro booed I wasn't aware of Pedro was barking at him no Senator Hoffman no I didn't know that the Jays were even playing at the time So I'm like, what's a Hoffman?

Why is he getting booed? Who's kitchen are you in? Dustin? Yeah, he's such a nice guy. Anyway, watching Rain Man, he does not care for him. We're going to talk to shy of Eadie at 630 about all things, Blue Jays. 7 o'clock, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone substacks going to join the program. We are now just two, two days away from the start of the NFL season.

We actually haven't spoken with Mike since the big Micah Parsons to Green, trade. Maybe we can get some early week one pick some predictions from Mike. Maybe, I'm sure he watched it last night. We can get his thoughts on Bill Belichick's collegiate coaching debut from last night. Spoiler alert, if you didn't watch it, it went

horribly from the Belichick and the University of North Carolina. Did you see the background of Belichick's press conference after? It had like it had obviously the UNC stuff. Yes. But it had like balloons as well. Oh, I didn't see that. You've got to see a picture of it.

I'll take a look later. It looks like he had, like, you're a brand new papa as well. You're celebrating your birthday. Also at 48 to 14 lost to TCU. Okay, that's at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock, Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. Softie's going to join the program, one of our favorite guests. Very busy times in Seattle sports.

The Mariners are clinging to their playoff lives. The Seahawks open at home on Sunday against the 9th. How about the Sounders? They beat Messi in Miami and won the league's cup on Sunday, and then they got spit on. Everyone see that? Crazy times in Seattle. A lot of good Seattle sports stories there,

so I'm excited to talk to Softie at 8 a.m. Hawk Tua. Yes. There's got to be like a Spanish version of that. Why? It'd be great. Anyway, Softie's going to join us at 8. Mike Tanier's going to join us at 7.

Shai Daviti's going to join us at 630. There's a lot to get in to on the program. So without further ado, Laddie. Tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies

of best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca. We got about five or six different things we want to run through in the first half hour of this program. in what happens. So we'll try and get to him rapid fire. But we are going to spend a fair amount of time here leading off and talking about the Toronto Blue Jays, who on Monday had another game for the annals. It was entertaining. It was wild. The ninth inning was crazy. But we're going to fast forward all the way to the bottom of the ninth. The Jays, after taking a two-run lead

in the top of the ninth, looked as though they were going to be in decent shape to come out with a comeback victory in Cincinnati. But everything fell apart thanks to the afore. mention closers. Here is the game-winning hit from the Reds. We're going to play the Reds call because there's a real sense of excitement here. Noel de Marte, as we work on our Spanish here on the Halford and Brough show, game-ending two-run single. Reds win, J's lose. Here's what it sounded like.

Grounded. Throwing. McLeague scores. Freedle-home. Throne from left is. Black Reds win. Marte rises to the moment and the ranch come up off the mat

and gave it away they take it back from Toronto 5'4 I will say this for the Jays they always make it entertaining yesterday was wildly entertaining and there were about eight different stories to take away from this thing

but at the end of the day it's the same story that we talked about throw it almost all of August, this team has serious issues in the bullpen. Serious, underline, underline, underline, underline serious issues in the bullpen. It's not like there's a total team collapse right now. If you look back, you know, they, well, it's not. I mean, they won. It's a bullpen collapse.

Yeah, it's a bullpen thing. And it's not totally taking down the team. They won two of three against Miami. They won two of three against Minnesota. They took one out of three against Milwaukee, but, you know, to be fair, Milwaukee is a very good team. and they've only played one game against Cincinnati so they could easily win the next two and still take this series

but it's like it's just a major issue I mean they're not they're not going anywhere in the playoffs if this issue continues to the extent that it is you can't win the world series with a bullpen that you cannot rely on

whatsoever the crazy part is that in the playoffs this might follow the scum script where the Jays do most of the, if not all the things right, up until the ninth inning. And then it, the continue. Or up until like, but the problem is, is up until like the, even seventh inning or something, you know? Well, here's the issue right now, as I see it, is that they're getting good contributions from everyone else. And even yesterday in a game where they had a hard time generating hits, Boba Shett comes up

with a monster game, right? So sort of the same script for the J's, they get someone to step up when they need it. This might not be like playoffs past where they were either outclassed or made a bunch of mistakes along the way. One of the scariest things, J's or other market otherwise, is when you get to the postseason and you have to hang your hat on a closer that you have no faith in. We've seen it happen before with teams where you know you're looking at Schneider in the 8th and he's already chewing his nails down to the nub and he knows that right now they have

to go with Hoffman. There's not another choice. You can rearrange the deck chairs and put them in different order and try different guys in different spots, but they've got what they've got and they have to roll with it moving forward. What if they just hyped up Hoffman more when he came in

from the bullpen? You know how some teams have, or some players have like a really cool entrance? Yeah. I play Enter Sandman or something like that. Could they just pretend that he's amazing? Why can't we be friends?

No, no. Why can't we be friends? Slow walk out to the map. That's what it is right now. Yeah. But if they could, I mean, just like, you know, like fake it till you make it kind of an idea with Hoffman. He might pick it, like it pumped up. He's like, oh, people are pretty pumped up for me to come in, you know? It's just drowning out the booze of him.

Oh, yeah, that's another thing, right? Bring up the music. Bring up the music. Yeah. I want to play some audio here from Ben Nicholson Smith after the game yesterday because the other J's, one of our many J's insiders at Sportsnet, but he's not even really trying to dance around the issue. anymore in talking about this? You just acknowledge like, this is the pen, this is what

they're going into September and October baseball with, and they've got to try and figure it out. Here's Ben Nicholson Smith from SportsNet after another blown saved by the Jays on Monday. Such a frustrating day for the Blue Jays that went to Tommy Nance and Brendan Little to close this one out after a big comeback

and then just couldn't get it done. Now, this was a day where Jeff Hoffman, Sir Anthony Dominguez, and Louis Varlane were not available, partly because those guys have been used so much. And their results haven't necessarily been effective to the extent that the Blue Jays would have wanted but when they are down

it even puts more strain on the bullpen with guys like Nance and then Brendan Little being thrust into big spots and it just didn't work so they need results these are the guys that they're going to have to depend on one way or the other there is no question of you know turning to different names you can put them in different

orders but one way or another they need this group to turn it around so just in case you think that we might be overstayed or overblowing the narrative here Just to put this in perspective, little's blown save yesterday, which was the first day of September, new month, new calendar, all that stuff.

That was the idea was, let's put August to bed because August was a month in which the Jays relievers had an MLB worst 14.2% walk rate. They also had one of the worst bullpen ERAs in baseball

at 476, and they blew five saves in the month. So you're not talking about, that's crazy. You're not talking about a pen that's kind of underachieving. You're talking about the worst bullpen in baseball on a team that's going to the postseason. You can understand this from the Rockies, the White Sox or so. Hey, these guys can't close

games. They're terrible. But this is a team that otherwise is on its way to playing good quality caliber playoff baseball. Can we talk about another team that people watch pretty closely in this market that is going through some tough times in the Seattle Mariners? They're quote-unquote ace got hit pretty hard yesterday in Tampa. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers won their six straight. The Mariners only have a one-and-a-half game lead on the Texas Rangers now for the final playoff spot. Yeah, Castillo got roughed up pretty good, five runs and six hits and four innings.

Ten two loss to the raise. And one of my favorite pitchers, Shane Baz, Shane Baz, Laddie. It was, the boss. It was, uh, they also have a, a guy named Jake mangum, one of my favorite names as well. What flavor is that gum? Uh, anyway, I, I would be, and we're going to talk to Softie about this at eight, right? Because this would be, really taste the man. Yeah, it was an older guy.

Keep going, eh? What? Anyway, uh, we're going to talk to Softie at eight about this because, while the J's are, granted, the J's lead in the division is now down to two and a half. We didn't mention that. We were going through after the loss to the Reds. But the Mariners being down to a one and a half game lead,

again, the numbers, and if you play it out and you extrapolate it over the final, I think they've got 24, 25 games left in the season. Statistically and percentage-wise, they're still more likely to make it than not, but it is not exactly the most confident baseball that they're playing right now. This would be a special kind of pain.

because of what they did at the deadline because, you know, they, you know, Depoto answered everybody's calls and was like, we're going to do it, we're going to go on, we're going to get Josh Naylor,

we're going to bring back, Eugenio Suarez, you know, neither have been great. We're going to win 56% of our games. Yeah, the magical 56% number. They were going to hit it. And lo and behold,

they are now just one and a half games up on the Rangers. I would be, I'm going to be very curious to talk to SoftD 8 and see like, are they still got the confidence because it is a good lineup and they do have the talent

and Cal rallies having this monster year? Or has this sort of traditional Seattle fan experience seeped in where they're like, we're going to blow this. And this is going to be another year of disappointment for the M's. And it looks like we're going to have to watch some tennis this week. I watched. This I paid attention to. So here's the thing.

Last week I actually watched a fair bit of tennis because they were the late night games and I was watching them while I was working. I was kind of, I was like, okay. While you are working. Working's a very, very gratuitous term, right? Like, it's doing a lot of heavy lifting. but I was working. So I'm watching the draw unfold

and I watched the Zverev meltdown when he got knocked out and I was kind of paying attention to the top season and then going into this weekend I was like, this is great. Talk about an opportunity for the Canadian players. Shapo is going up against the world's number one in Yanik's Center and I think more importantly

in the aftermath of course. Felix Oje Aliasim has got a road now. He's got Zverev followed by a potential matchup with Rublev, although historically he'd done very poorly against the both of them. He went out and got a pair of victories over the weekend to catapult him

into the quarterfinals of a grand slam for the first time, I think, since 2021. Not only did he beat guys that he traditionally has not had a lot of success with. He beat him pretty emphatically. The four-setter against Verav. Straight sets against Rublev, and now

you're looking at a guy. This is going to be another tough match like the previous two for Felix going into the quarters. He's got de minar. I think I pronounced that right. I think it's more like OR. I think it's a minotaur. It's not minotor.

What's a minotor, Andy? It's a cow with a human head. The spaniard de minore is going to take him on. Is he retired? Retired cow with the human head. Not quite, yeah. But yeah, the weekend was awesome for Felix. And he's now carrying the Canadian flag at the U.S.

Open on the men's side. 756364 over number 15C Andre Rublev of Russia Let's play the winning point Because one of the things That a lot of the announcers That the Open are coming away with For isn't just that he's winning matches

But it's just how dominant And how effective Felix looks In these victories Felix OJLASIM 756364 over Rublev This weekend to advance to the quarterfinals Of the U.S. Open Thank you very much

Regis to Love 7-5-6-3-6-4 Any coach in the world would be proud and happy at the effort that we just saw from the 25-year-old Canadian in straight sets Felix Lerjeet Ali Assim is in the quarterfinals

So Felix has been further in the U.S. Open before because he made the semifinals back in 2021. Yeah, that's his furthest run. But the funny thing is, is like 21 and 22 when he peaked. Seems like a long time ago. It does feel like a long time ago. He actually mentioned it in his post match remarks. Because some people are trying to say, like, it's Felix 2.0.

And he's like, no, no, no. Like I learned some things when I had that early run. And he's come back incredibly strong this time around. Again, the thing that I kind of was most intrigued by, It wasn't that he was just winning the matches, but the emphatic nature in which he was doing. Now, it's a tough road from here, as you would expect getting into the final eight of a Grand Slam.

He's got Deminor next, and he's on a crash course with Sinner, who is blowing away the competition in this tournament. Chapo took a set off Sinner over the weekend, which was actually a victory in itself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Sinner's last win over the weekend. You should have been like, this is a one set match, right?

Chapo could have patted himself on the back with him taking a set off. Yeah, because Sinner won his last match and I, forget the opponent in the moment, but he won 6-1-6-1-6-1. So, I mean, we're talking about a dominant performance from a guy that's at the top of his game right now. If Felix can get there, and that, of course, would be in the semifinals. It would be a great accomplishment and a great achievement, but it's a tall order to try and get through. The sinner, after he lost his shop, he's like, oh, what? I forgot to take my steroids.

Time to wake up and take some steroids. Do you worry? Okay, yeah, what? I watched a bit of CFL over the weekend. You were very excited about the Canadian Football League. Well, it was, it was, I wasn't very excited about the Canadian football league. You were very excited about the Canadian football league. You tweeted on Labor Day, supposed to be a day of rest, right?

But you were out there working. It was an incredible finish in Laddie's hometown of Hamilton because the play and I'm sure a lot of you saw it. Either you were watching or you saw it on Sports Center or sports center or sports. or SportsNet Central. Yes. The better of the two highlight shows. Wow, this is a TSN thing. So anyway, as I dig a further hole.

Dig up, Steve. So Brissette, the Argo's receiver, was one second away from having completed the dumbest play in Labor Day history. And John Arbuckle, I mean Nick Arbockle Not Garfield's owner But Nick Arbuckle

Was like he was he said He said he didn't think His receiver Got out of bounds in time And he was like so mad He was unbelievably mad But the replay showed That even though he was trying

To go for a touchdown And he admitted after he was like Touchdown or nothing I was like that's the wrong play buddy I should have got out of bounds But he did just, and then the Argos pull it off with the field gone. The Argos had been awful in those types of situations, like, you know, game decided in the last three minutes of the game. And I think they were like 0 and 6, so they finally got it done.

So, yeah, it was an exciting finish. And it was a CFL Labor Day game. And still, I am almost 50 years old. Every time I flip on the CFL Labor Day game, I get the back to. school feeling. Yeah, that's what it's there for. I mean, also the football. You're almost 50 years old? Yes. I'm almost 50

years. You're almost 50 years old. I am not. Yes, you are. 19 over there? 40 years away. You want me to give you the cold slap of reality? No, I don't want that. You're closer to 50 than you are to 30. Hey, you've got to stop talking right now. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Hey, dog, you're closer to 60 than you are 20. Oh, dear, Lord.

And I've seen your diet. Yeah. Hey, I don't eat healthy cereal now. What you're more closer to is dead. I'm on the sugar-free count charlieu, okay? That's good. That sounds really well. It was a very, I'll admit, so for those of you that want the full recap of the game,

the Hamilton Tiger Cats looked through though. They had won that game. They were up 33 to 32 with 12 seconds left after a Bo Levi-Mitchell touchdown light. And that's what you were talking about. It was another one of those instances where the Argos lost the game or seemingly lost the game in the dying moments. But then the Argo's got a nice kick return that put them at the 44-yard line

with 12 seconds left. The play that Brissette made was kind of, it's inexcusable. It shouldn't happen, right? He went up and made a nice catch, for sure. He did it in traffic. But the ability to come down

and then scamper the amount of yards that he made. And as you pointed out of balance, just get out of bounds. He made the wrong play. The step out of bounds was inadvertent. He wasn't trying to step out of bounds. He said, I was trying to go for a touchdown.

But it left the, them with, it was actually the perfect play, an 11-yard field goal attempt after that, and boom, through the uprights. Argos win, Argos win. What a wagon, by the way. They've almost put up 90 points in consecutive games, because remember, they put up 52 against the Lions. So the Argos coach, here's a, here's a quote.

Is it Ryan Dinwiddie? Yeah, yeah. He goes, I was screaming, get out of bounds. That's a tough situation to teach going into it. No, it's not. Pretty easy. There's one instruction. Just get out of bounds.

You've got time. You know what? I take issue with that, Ryan did what he? I feel like it's a really easy thing that you could do. Okay, finally, because we're up against it for time. We managed to get through everything in what happened, which is very good. I do want to pass along what happened on Sunday between Inter Miami and Seattle. Now, normally, I don't really care and you don't really care.

None of us really care about what happened with MLS games outside of Whitecaps games, right? But this one was interesting. So Osazi de Rosario, the son of former Canadian international Dwayne de Rosario, what proved to be the eventual match-winning goal on Sunday in the League's Cup final down at Lumen Field in Seattle. Seattle got to host the League Cup's final. They sold out, it was 64,000 people in attendance, and that crowd pushed them to a very emphatic 3-0 win

over Lionel Messi and Inter-Miamy on Sunday. Messi's like, I hate the Pacific Northwest. Can't win here. Can't do it. It's too, I don't know what, but he can't do it. And Inter-Miami couldn't get any kind of result from the Pacific Northwest this season. But the difference between this match and their loss in BC place earlier this summer was that they completely lost their minds in the aftermath.

Punches were thrown, headlocks were gripped, and the Inter-Miamy players were about as poor a losing group as I've seen at the professional level in quite some time, especially given the caliber of players. Like if you've won titles, you know, Champions League and the League of titles with Barcelona, I don't know why you're getting still bent out of shape out of losing the league's cup in Seattle. Yeah.

You feel like you'd be like, okay. That's just who Suarez is, though. So this is the key part of all of this is that Luis Suarez, the very controversial Uruguayan striker, who is most famous for the biting incident at the 2014 World Cup spit very clearly on a staff worker

for the Sounders. Now, it is of digging. That guy actually is their head of security. He's a former cop. He's a former Seattle PD and he has been with the club since 2009 in the director of security capacity and they've not made him available for public comment when still in the shower right when he was walking past the mix zone he made a real brief joke about how he thought that he was going to get bit instead of spit right that was like huh that's clever but did you see what swaraz did though he stepped on that guy's foot yes to keep him there i haven't seen that movie

before the old step and spit. It's rare because of how incredibly dirty as a human you have to be to do it. Yeah. But think like, I just got to step on the guy's foot so it doesn't leave so I can spit in his face. I have a fair bit to say about this because this is a bigger picture story with this is the dark side of what MLS has done with Miami. Is that they've kind of seated everything to them without any sort of like punitive. Like they can do whatever they want or they have done whatever they've wanted for a long time.

now without any sort of punitive things. It's disgusting. It's disgusting. It's disgusting behavior. It's just so bad and so embarrassing for the league. It's pathetic. Have we heard anything about a potential suspension? They are they are yes they are reviewing. He got a shouldn't even be be able to play a game for for a long long time if ever in MLS. He got a he got a four month ban four months for the biting incident and that was over a decade ago combined with what we know I mean I you know it's funny like in Rex soccer, I know that after COVID, the punitive for spitting went off the chart.

Yeah, yeah. Right? It went from being like a pretty egregious penalty to like, you're going to miss an incredible amount of time. So I'm really curious because this is a flashpoint moment for MLS. If they suspend and have one of these gargantuan and appropriate suspensions, it's going to draw a lot of attention and it's going to draw the eye of Miami without question, right?

So I'm going to be very curious to see. Even Miami though must be kind of like, oh, they've thought. Come there knows the league so many times. Yeah, I know, but... I don't know. That's an embarrassing moment for the franchise, and if... I agree. You know, if I'm the owner there, it's Beckham, isn't it?

It is Beckham. Yeah, like, even Beck's must be like, ew. Do we want this guy on the team? Very gross. And it's pretty old, anyway. Yeah, I know. I mean, they might never solve, like, a couple problems here. Totally.

Think about it. Anyway, we're way up against it for time. We've got to go to break. When we come back, more Blue Jays talk. Shai Davidi, our MLB and Blue Jays insider from SportsNet is going to join us to talk about the bullpen woes in Toronto. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. Looking back, I don't think Little made bad pitches.

You know, I thought Marte had a hell of a bat. And, you know, I'm never going to doubt the guys. You know, hopefully this kind of resets us a little bit going into tomorrow, but I'm not going to doubt the guys. And, you know, they're going to continue. you need to step up for us. 633 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody.

Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates, B.C.'s first and trusted choice for that help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. That audio you heard coming back from break, Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, he's on the television here in the Sportsnet Studios. He's everywhere. Talking about the issues that the Jays have closing out games

and the issues the Jays have with their bullpen right now. If you thought August's woes were a thing of the past, uh-uh. September didn't start great either. We're going to go to the phone lines now, the Power West Industries hotline for more. Shy Davity, Sportsnet, Jays, NMLB Insider, joins us here in the Halford, Embrough show on SportsNet 650.

Morning to Shy. How are you? How's going? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So I know Schneider's saying all the right things and even the teammates are the guys in the bullpen like Chris Bassett. They're all saying the right things and they're trying to be supportive and they're trying to say that and we can do more and we can take less off their shoulders. But removing all of that, how big a problem is this Blue Jay's bullpen right now? You know, it's obviously an issue, right? but like I don't it to me I don't see a five alarmed fire here because I do think part of this

is circumstantial in terms of you've got a cluster of close games you've got a heavy workload you had a period changed a little bit last few games but where the starters weren't necessarily getting as deep and that was transferring a lot of innings on them and that that's coinciding with a bit of a down spell. You've got a mix of reliever. Some are in new roles for the first time. Some are in the big leagues for the first time or experiencing pennant race this deep in the season

for the first time. And, you know, there are going to be some bumps on the road. The thing is you've got a bit of a perfect storm right now. There isn't a ton of runway for things to correct. And that's exacerbating things and really putting a magnifying glass on everything. but, you know, I do think the point that Bassett made, you know, that get the starters to go a little bit deeper,

you get the offense to score a little bit more to put some more breathing room out there, all of a sudden that takes some of the pressure off and allows guys to correct as well. So the Blues are really in it right now, in a situation where, you know, they aren't able to give the relievers a lot of margin for error, and that's making it harder for them to correct

what they're going through at the moment. Is it a dangerous game to play? play to push your starters if you've got a five-man rotation and ask them to do more, pitch more, pitch deeper into games, or is that the solution to this whole thing? Well, I don't know if it's necessarily

pushing, right? It's just a lot of times with, especially with this rotation, if guys are coming out early, it's because you know, the performance isn't there, the situation is demanding of it, right? So if you have guys who are just having great out, it's, you know, like Kevin

Gosman on Saturday, it would be a great example. Like, you know, he, facing a really good Brewers lineup, it's seven innings, it's one run, you know, obviously that's a lot to ask for every turn through, but, you know, if you get one of those from somebody, every turn of the rotation, that's, that's taking a few innings off the board. And if you get someone else who's going, you get a couple other guys who are going, you know, six and three or whatever, then all of a sudden that's a lot less, those are a lot fewer innings for the bullpen to cover. And then the offense is just opening up a few games as well, then that changes the dynamic. So, you know, it is, it is partly on the rotation. It's on the offense, too, just to open up some games. And it's reminiscent of a little bit of what the Blue Jays were going through in April and May, you know, where they were in so many close games and then the bullpen started going through a bit of a rough patch.

When you're constantly using those guys, there are periods where it catches up to them. And I think to some degree, that's part of what's happening right now. So what is John Schneider's plan to attack this situation? Because even if it's not a five alarm fire, it's probably a three alarm fire, maybe four? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. And really, we're out of the point in the season where there aren't really anything that you can do except, you know, work with the guys before games to try and figure out better ways to correct.

and to get to get to a better result. And then trusting them in a moment, right? The trade deadline was July 31st. The deadline for adding, for making external additions and having them be a postseason eligible was yesterday. Bluej just don't have any real options in the farm system. I mean, Trey Savage is interesting, and that's a whole other discussion. But there isn't anybody just sort of waiting there saying,

hey, we're going to solve your problems. So they're going to have to resolve this internally. And so the bludgeoning are going to be in the situation that they're in right now where they're giving the ball to guys and trusting that they're going to get the job done and hoping that they turn the corner. Is Hoffman capable of the role? Because, you know, he has, look, he has 29 saves this year. He has 41 career saves.

So it's not like he knows this role really. well and you can be like wow don't worry he's been doing this for a year for for years um you know he'll be fine in the pressure situations yeah i mean for me uh i i look at at hoffman and i think like he's got everything you want in a closer you know he's got stuff he's got repertoire he's got the mentality he's got the mental toughness he's got the ability to bounce back he's got the desire the motivation. I don't look at anything. I don't question Jeff Hoffman's ability for the role.

I think that he's going through and he's experiencing it for the first time. And he's also a guy who you can point to workload being a factor. I think especially you think about the first month of the season that he had in April where he was just obscenely dominant. And then he had a stretch where he had, had three two-inning outings. I think it was like 12 days or 14 days, something like that.

And those are the kind of things that catch up to him. And then it was right after that or shortly after that that he went through his first hiccup. And so the problem is I think that the Blue Jays would love to be able to better balance out some of the workload. And, you know, the thing that doesn't get talked about, it just kind of just these things happened. and you turn the page from them.

But Jimmy Garcia's loss and the fact that Chad Green ended up struggling as badly as he did that he had to be released, you know, that really took away to what the Blue Jays expected to be pillars of the bullpen sort of supporting some of the other guys. And it's forced, you know, a Yeriel Rodriguez, a Brandon Little, more recently like a Tommy Nance, a Louis Varland just acquired. at the deadline into more prominent roles than the otherwise might be in, had those guys been okay and competitive. So, you know, I think that that's sort of the forgotten dynamic of all this. But I do think Jeff Hoffman is capable. I do think he's deserving of the trust.

And I don't think, you know, there have been some blips, but I think it's been a little bit, some of the reaction to it is perhaps been more extreme than it should be. We're speaking to Shai Daviti Sportsnet, Blue Jays, analysts here on the, and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Let's turn our attention to the starting end of the pitching staff here. Shane Bieber, what have your thoughts been through his first two starts with the Blue Jays? I mean, especially when you consider that he's coming off Tommy John surgery and that

guys go through ups and downs and hiccups, it's really remarkable how strongly he's returned. Like, this is, it's not like super unusual, but. This is the top end percentile of outcomes for guys coming off that surgery and coming off the rehab. So it's looked exactly as the Blue Jays could have hoped. And I thought it was interesting. And I can understand sort of the both ends of it, but maybe pushing him back to Friday for the opener against the Yankees. But then also moving him onto a regular routine. So I think Wednesday is going to be an interesting look for him.

how does he fare on normal rest for the first time post-surgery? That's a significant milestone for him to achieve. But, I mean, he's really just looking like himself. And I think for the Blue Jays who made a pretty significant bet on him returning as himself, you know, right now it's looking pretty good for them. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that decision

because, I mean, look, I know there's still two games left in the Red series, but everyone is looking forward to that Yankee series because it's huge, it's massive, goes without saying. What did you think of the decision? Because right now it lines up, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's going to go, Gossmann-Sher-Bassett against the Yankees, and Bieber's going to finish against the Reds.

What did you think of that decision to line up the rotation like that? Well, I think the Blue Jays have been trying to figure out what's the best thing for everybody in the rotation, right? And, you know, if you push Bieber back, then everybody's getting, like, you know, maybe two extra days with the off day. And I think that you're, you're disrupting some pretty well-established routines

for some veteran guys who have been doing this for a long time. And so you have to balance that out. And then, you know, the bullpen could use a little bit of extra help. Eric Lauer going down there, he can pitch in a number of different roles and maybe be more useful in that role than starting right now. so I think you put it all together I can sort of see the case for that but on the flip side you also look at it and say

well you really kind of want Bieber for that Yankee series and running it that way but I do also think they want to just get back to the normalcy so I think the normalcy over the final 20 whatever games it is trumped the one outing versus the Yankees in that spot Hey shy I think I ask you about Beau Bichette's future every time we have you on

but it's still very much up in the air. What do you think is going to happen there? And how much do you think he's going to get paid? It's a really interesting question in terms of how much he's going to get paid. Because, you know, the – and I've said this, and I probably mentioned this on the show before, but I thought all along the Jays and Bichette are going to need the market to help them frame what the number is going to be. and I still think that's the case. And I do think there's going to be some eye of the beholder with Bichette there, right?

Like, there's no doubt he's one of the best hitters in baseball, you know, leading the majors in hits. He just, he hits good pitching. He's able to do so many different things at the plate. It's just, I think, I wonder how teams will, I think different teams will value him in pretty different ways. I think some teams will definitely value the average and the fact that. he does get hits and his ability to make contact and some teams may take a chunk out of that

because it's not consistent power you know he's just he's not one type of hitter and I think that may lead to some confusion and then the defensive piece is the other one you know how long do teams see him as a shortstop is he someone who's going to have to move

off the position in three years is he someone have to move it after five years is someone has to move it after a season or two that's the other piece that will impact how you're looking at it or how teams are looking at it so I think for the Blue Jays that number

his value is probably highest to the Blue Jays and to other teams just because they can't replace him in that lineup there'd be very tough to replicate his production on the market but will another team value them in a different way

and change the outcome this off season. I think there's just a lot of remains to be seen out there because he's such a, in a lot of ways, such a unique player. Shy, this was great, ma'am. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the remainder of this Red Series. And of course, it goes without saying, enjoy the Yankees series that's coming up. It should be a beauty. Yeah, it should be fine. Appreciate it, guys. Have a good week. Yeah, you too. Thanks. That's Shai Daviti from SportsNet here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We touched on this earlier on the program. I just wanted to circle back on it real quick because

I know college football doesn't get a ton of play, especially locally, but the Belichick story is it's got real, real car crash potential. So for those that missed it yesterday, the college football schedule, this was their, I know they had a week

prior that was week zero, but this was the opening week in college football. And it all led in a lot of ways to Monday night football, which isn't a common thing for college football, but last Last night, the marquee game that was splashed across ESPN, and the entire country was the University of North Carolina hosting TCU. Two unranked non-traditional power teams, although TCU's been pretty good.

TCU went to the title game, but they didn't go well for them. Both unranked going into the season. The reason this was such a Ballyhooot affair was because it was Bill Belichick's collegiate coaching debut. First time he's ever coached at the collegiate level, UNCC, debut. Unc goes out, scores the first touchdown of the game, and then proceeds to lose 48 to 14 in a game that was maybe more, even more one-sided than the 48 to 14 score suggested. Brough was watching it. I was watching it. Another buddy of ours was watching it. We were texting

back and forth. It was tough to watch. And part of the reason it was tough to watch is because I didn't find it tough to watch. I found it. hilarious to watch from a football um like if you were to watch it as a football match and not a spectacle it was tough to watch they were bad bad they were outclassed at home the line going into the game was three and a half and they lost by 34 to give you an idea of how big a disappointment this was but that's not all in attendance for this game were all of the university of north carolina legends and they have some pretty prominent ones including michael jordan lawrence taylor Roy Williams

All of them there All of them splashed over the screen Belichick's girlfriend Jordan Hudson was there For some reason Randy, I know Randy Moss and Belichick are type But Randy Moss did not have any association

North Carolina Maybe he just likes it there I don't know I just wanted to hang out That's cool I think that Whether you like college football or not I think this story

Has the potential to be one of the biggest ones of the year because this has such amazing train wreck potential and there seemed at times yesterday that Belichick was going through a oh my God, what have I gotten myself into moment? My legacy!

This is, to give you, again, for those that are unfamiliar, Belichick took over a program that was just sort of, mead, if the kids would say. Well, North Carolina is a basketball school. Yeah, it has football. A lot of good players that have gone to the NFL. Not quite cheeks. Somewhere between cheeks and buns.

Countless players have gone to the NFL, Julius Peppers, Lawrence Taylor, we've mentioned. But recently, they haven't been a power school by any stretch. He came in, and because of the transfer rules and everything else, brought in 70, 7-0 new players and brought in a whole new coaching staff, and he brought Mike Lombard to be the general manager of the team and everything. What he found out yesterday is that you're still dealing with kids. You're not dealing with professionals.

You're dealing with a lot of guys that after their four years at school aren't going to be going to the NFL. They're going to be trying to get a junior position at Merrill Lynch or something. That's the reality of what he's dealing with right now. If this goes badly, and it's already off to a pretty bad start, we're on to Charlotte. There's a few. And I think Charlotte got smoked in their first game. So a win is on the horizon. But I wonder a few things.

If you're Bill Belcher, you consider. quitting early? Do you consider as being like, this was a man, guy, hey, go look at his history. Go look at his history in the NFL. He has left jobs in a hurry before. If there's one. After week one?

Yeah. There's been jobs that he's left where he didn't even get to week one. He is a guy that is very, very acutely aware. Say hello to Miguel Sanchez. Senor Belichick. He's my stand-in for the remainder of time.

give it to his son. But I do wonder where, because here's one thing that I know, wonder where this is going to go. Right now, a lot of networks are like, well, we can't put that on TV. Again, like that was a tough, tough second half yesterday. The guys that were calling the game were left to like really sort of pithy anecdotes. Herb Street brought his dog into the booth in the fourth quarter. Like, yeah, it was a slog to watch it go down.

And they don't, for a team that was that hyped and to put them on the platform they got put up. Even the dog was like, you have to wonder about Belichick's future after this. Right. Who's he going to start a good? He's very well spoken for a dog. The dog was like, who's going to start a quarterback next week? Like, they got real problems there. Can I tell you what I enjoyed the most about the game?

Do tell. Was people doing the comparison of the point differential in the game to the age differential between Belichick and his girlfriend. Yeah. I think there were some betting lines on it. When the score got to 41.7, I think that was the age gap. That was like when... Well, it was 41 to 7.

Yeah, someone said, yeah, when Bill was 41, his girlfriend was 7. Correct. And I thought it was a joke. And then I looked it up. It was not a joke. It was very, very, very accurate. And yeah, well, that's the other part of this. I had someone kind of wander into the room, we're all sitting around watching someone

wander into the room. And they were like, oh, what's going on with Belichick in his personal life? I said, well, his girlfriend's there, Jordan Hudson. She's up in the booth and watching and everything. And then they had heard the story from the sort of like celebrity gossip side for this, you know, septuagenarian being led around by his 24 year old girlfriend. And all the questions came about about like, how is this still happening? And then someone asked in the room, they're like, well, does this family know about this?

I'm like, yeah, sons on the coaching staff. Like, he sees it every day. And it seems like business as usual. I did watch Belich. weren't there some issues with the with the family like they're not a big fan of some members of the family wasn't it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't it a son's wife or something like that yeah and there was concerns raised as you would expect um but i watched the pre and post game interviews not so much about the girlfriend they were like unc are you sure it's more from basketball school did you see who your

quarterback options are um he had it was he had his fastball his bill belichick basketball in his pre and post game interviews. Yeah. I felt so like it was. Honestly, you got to take a picture of the press conference and all the balloons. I got to see this. It looked like there was going to be a gender reveal at some point. Maybe.

It is, it is incredible. Would that not be an amazing turn? I saw. Would that not be an amazing turn for this whole thing? I saw a reply to the picture of the press conference. And it was like, I will give you one guess who designed that. All right. We got to go to break.

We got a lot more. to get to an hour to the program. NFL talk on the horizon. Mike Taney or our NFL insider from the two deep zone substack. We are two days, two glorious days away from the start of the NFL season,

Thursday night between the Cowboys and the Eagles. We'll talk to Mike about that. We'll look back on the Mike of Parsons trade, all that stuff. 7.30, for those of you dying, when are you going to put on the Canucks game? We're going to have an entire segment

dedicated to the Vancouver Canucks. It's the predictions. They're starting to make their way. They're starting to roll in. Yeah. Yeah, predictions are happening. And the predictions that have the Canucks making the playoffs, that's a good quantitative model. Those are good.

The ones that have them missing the playoffs, they don't really understand that you can't just use totally numbers to describe the Vancouver Canucks. Those are wrong. Those ones suck. So we're going to get into all this in the 7 o'clock hour of the program. Mike Tanier followed by some Canucks talk. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.