Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Has The 'Championship or Bust' Mentality POISONED Baseball Fandom?

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Is winning the World Series the only measure of success for the New York Yankees,  the Los Angeles Dodgers or really any team? This episode challenges that notion, exploring the idea that a "perfect season" in MLB might be more about providing fans with an exciting summer.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Trade CoffeeRight now, Trade is exclusively offering our customer 50% off your one-month trial at drinktrade.com/LOCKEDONMLB. Wonderful PistachiosGet snackin' and get crackin' with the snack that packs a protein punch. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more! Supply HouseJoin the TradeMaster program today at SupplyHouse.com/TM and start ordering plumbing, HVAC, and electrical supplies with just a few clicks. Plus, use promo code S-H-5 for 5% off your first order. That’s SupplyHouse.com! Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONMLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The perfect season. Is it a World Series championship? Some say no. We'll tell you why on today's Lockdown MLB Squad. Step up to the plate. It's the Locked on MLB Squad show, sponsored by game time. From the Dodgers to the Astros, the Mets to the Rangers, and everyone else in the league, with the experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bringing you the most comprehensive breakdown

of all the action around the horn. We're coming in. Lights up, no hurt feelings allowed. So squad up. Squad up indeed. Welcome into the Lockdown MLB Squad show. Hi, my name is Jeff Carr. I am one half of the Lockdown Reds podcast. I'm also the channel manager for the Lockdown MLB channel. And we got us a big group here today to talk about Major League Baseball. We got Boone from Lockdown A's. We got Stacey Gottsuels from Lockdown Yankees. We got Jeff Snyder from Lockdown, Dodgers, Brett Chancy, Lockdown Astros, Jeff Ellis and Justin Lata, both have. of Lockdown Guardians are with us here today. Chuck Freeman, Lockdown Brewers, and of course, Sully, the man from Lockdown MLB. And Sully has a plan, or at least he has a scoreboard that he keeps every summer called the summer score. And if it were up to Sully, the championship, the World Series ring is not the ultimate goal of an MLB franchise.

guys, we were going to discuss that and so much more related to how this baseball season has gone because we've hit the Memorial Day checkpoint. So we know everything we need to know about everybody already. So we're going to get into that on today's lockdown Moby squad show. Thanks so much for joining us. And Sully, the summer score sets up who had the best summer. So why is it not who won the World Series? Okay, well, let me just let me make sure that I clarify this. Yes, is the great goal for all teams to walk away as a World Series champion. That is obviously what you want to have happen. But I believe a Major League Baseball team has no obligation every year to win a title for their fans.

I think that should be a goal. That should be something great. But the thing that every Major League Baseball team is obligated to do is to give their fans a summer. A summer of entertainment, a summer to show up to the ballpark, a summer to remember. I grew up in New England and between, in my first year of following baseball really, he was 1979. From 1979 to 1985, the Boston Red Sox played exactly zero postseason games. So those years, I loved those teams.

I rooted for those teams. I put my heart and soul into those teams. And I refuse to live in a world where there's one fan base. had a successful year, and 29 fan bases look at it as a failure. What a team owes baseball is to paraphrase the mayor in jaws, and you should never take the side of the mayor in jaws, but he had the line, we need summer dollars. This is a summer entertainment.

It is something to do during the summer. It's something to follow during the summer. And a team owes their fan base a summer, a summer of fun. a summer of fun. And when you have a team that when you wake up in the summertime and you look at the standings and you say, hey, we're a playoff team, especially after Memorial Day, every day that a team is in a playoff spot, I give points of a summer score because those fan bases wake up and go like, oh, wow, there's a reason to follow this team.

We could do something. Obviously, once you get to the playoffs, you want to see your team win. But the team doesn't owe you a title. The team owes you a summer. They owe you entertainment. And that really gets on those franchises that don't put an effort to give their fans a summer and fun. And a reason to go to Corse Field or go to Rate Field or go to Sutter, Bank, ballpark, whatever the hell that thing is in Sacramento.

You know, there's some fan bases that seem to have something fun every year. Although the Yankee summer score in 2023 wasn't very good. Right. You know, there's years where, you know, nor was the Red Sox last year. But that's what a fan base is owed by a franchise because the ball can bounce to swear that Nelson Cruz may not leap at the right moment. You know, a championship could be determined on a slight. The other team might even cheat to win, you know, just hypothetically.

Okay. I know her feelings allowed. It said it in the opening. Wow. I didn't. I wasn't even going to go there. But you know what? The Dodgers fans had a great summer that year.

Yeah. And so that's what they're owed. And if you're looking up and your team has not had a good summer score for a few years, and you should be really mad at your ownership. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I thought you were telling me to stop. No, I was just saying.

I was just saying, I was just saying, I was like, I thought I offended someone. I thought I may have a lot. No, no. And you know, and you know, solely that, I mean, you make a,

you make a great case because, you know, um, the Astros are, are on a nine year in a row run. They just ended their run of, um, ALCS appearances for World Series two titles.

And it has been fun summers since, since 2017. There have been some unfun summers in Houston, non-competitive summers. And we've all experienced the dregs of, of the dog days of summer. And when I was thinking about this earlier, yes, you want your fan base and you want,

you want your team to say, we're going for the title this year. But does anybody really believe that the White Sox or Rockies came into the season thinking they were going to win a World Series? Absolutely not. I think it depends on what stage your team is in. I think it depends on where your team is in developing your talent. What draft picks you've picked up in those lean years.

like the pirates are they ever going to keep someone like a paul skeins and build around around you know like a paul skeins and become a powerhouse or you know i mean you just look around the landscape of major league baseball and i think there are a lot of fan bases that feel like their owners don't think of them as much as they think about their bottom line and i then that then you say shame on those ownerships and take a look at the san diego padres who play in small market who are who are boxed in and they seemed to find a way and they had a great summer score last year of 286 and do you what they're also doing owner who is dying it in they're packing it in they're drawing fans more than they did when gary coleman was the manager in the made for

tv movie the kid from left field and the fact of the matter is is shame on those ownerships are doing that and by point is they're teams like last year the minnesota twins and the The Arizona diving backs missed the postseason altogether. But they had a really high summer score. If you're a twins fan or diving back fans, yeah, you're frustrated with how it ends. I'm frustrated by how a lot of things end. But they had a fun summer. They had a reason to go to the ballpark.

I look at this even from a more practical standpoint, which is that you can't win the World Series until October. And all you can do right now, even, you know, Dodgers are the reigning World Series champions. They spent as gazillion dollars in the offseason again. right now all they can do is win the games that are that are in front of them right now there will be plenty of time to stress about the postseason but yeah like like sully said what they owe me as a fan right now is let's have a fun summer let's you know win as much as possible play good games have you know put on an exciting show and then in october we can stress about

that but i've always been a huge proponent of baseball October is totally different but the thing I love about baseball is the six months of I get to watch baseball almost every night, my favorite team, the guy's wearing my favorite uniform, and then in October, I'll stress about it. April, late March until late September, it's just I love watching baseball. And I just want to make this one quick point that I'll keep a trap shop for a bit. But we have here on this whole sort of panel we have, we have hosts from two of the teams, or the Yankees and the Dodgers had perfect summer scores. So did the Brewers.

So did the Guardians. Every single day, a Guardian fan woke up last year or a Brewers fan woke up after Memorial Day. Their team was in position for a playoff spot. And if you're a Brewers fan, there was always a reason to go to the Don't Call Me Miller Park. And if you're a guardian fan, there's always a reason to go to, please don't call me the Jake. and there was always a reason to say, did Brewers and Guardian fans think they were going to win the World Series? If I put electrodes on them and under duress,

they probably would have said no, but there was always a reason, there was a fun reason to go to the ballpark, and I believe that's all a management owes their fan base. I do want to get some thoughts on that from Chuck and from Justin and Jeff. And I also want to ask, Stacey, we know who Mr. October and Mr. Nova, are do we know who Mr. July is? That's coming up next. You know, sports watching can be a hungry

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Wonderful Pistachios. Find out more about them at wonderfulpastatios.com. This is the Lockdown MLB Squad Show. We cover Major League Baseball every single day. Your favorite team has a podcast. Sully's got you covered league wide every single day. Got Matt and Dom covering fantasy baseball every single day. Make sure you check out your favorite team's locked on podcast. And we were kind of making the point there, like the central divisions of both the National League and the American League, house the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cleveland Guardians, two teams that have seemingly at least held their own against their divisions for the last few years, but maybe not necessarily gone as deep as they wanted to in the playoffs. But when they look at the season, I mean, Justin, Jeff, Chuck, were they failures?

Well, I'll say this. In Milwaukee, you're not going to find too many professional sports teams that championship-wise, as pathetic, honestly, as the Milwaukee Brewers, 55 years. No championships, only been to the National League and American League championship series three times in 55 years. So that's a bad track record. So Mark Athanasio, the brewer's owner in February, he holds a press conference, talks to the media, usually first couple of days of spring training. And he was at, and he said very stable. He goes, is it my job to win a World Series for the Milwaukee Brewers or to provide a summer full of fun and entertainment for the families? and it drew a rage among Brewers fans. No wonder why you're not spending any money.

We're going into the ballpark, getting our bobblehead $43,000 on a Saturday or a Sunday against the Pirates. But we might go to the playoffs, but everybody's going home happy. They're singing along the scoreboard, roll out the barrels and all that, doing all the gimmicks that they do. Take your mind off a bad baseball team.

And it kind of struck a quarter. with a lot of Brewers fans. It's like, what? We're not in this to win this. So as a franchise that has never won a World Series championship, been to won a World Series. That didn't go over too well here in Milwaukee among the fans. I can tell you that. Yeah, I mean, I live in Milwaukee, and then I talk about the Guardians. I feel like I can see both sides of it. You know what I'm talking about, Jeff, right? Yep. Yeah, in Cleveland, we've had to have this conversation a lot in Cleveland over the last

several years. I mean, a lot of people will sit there and say the fan base is so to the people that are interested anyway is that, you know, it's a loser's mentality to not try to win the World Series every year. But like, you know, Jeff said we earlier, like baseball is a six-month grind. And you're going to be very miserable if you show up every day for six months and you think, okay, well, none of this matters until October. Why are you watching? Like, I don't want to say you're calling any single baseball fan. You can choose to enjoy baseball whichever way you want. But I would look at it as a very miserable person if I said, well, what happens on May 28th,

You know, they better win today because that means the difference between winning a World Series and it doesn't. And Jeff's right. No, it really doesn't matter. Like, yeah, you want to win the baseball game. You want to have fun. It is a six-month grind. And only one team gets to win the World Series every year. So unless you were a Patriot fan during the Tom Brady years, you're going to be disappointed almost every year.

I'm just glad that Justin and I agree that what happened today between the- the Mets. I'll even throw the Red Sox in there. Even the Red Sox haven't been great the last several years. Sorry, you chopped up. so I interrupted you, Justin. I just want to say, I'm glad to do and I agree. What happened today between the Guardians and the Dodgers doesn't matter and doesn't

get. But I think for a lot of teams, you know, Jeff, when he said that before, it was like, well, our ticket is automatically punched for October. But for a lot of us, and Jeff Carr would know this. And, you know, Jeff Ellis, our tickets thought automatically. Whose lies anyway? The rules don't count. Because we got to grind.

We have to grind for six months, just hoping and praying we're going to get it. And now we're looking up to the Chicago Cubs. And the Brewers are six and a half out. It's like, man, we have a shot at this at all? Probably not. Yeah, there's already articles being written in Cincinnati about how they should be sellers. And it's not yet June or at least. Yep, calendar says May.

Okay, just wanted to make sure. Speaking of calendars, Stacey, who's Mr. July in New York? I have no idea. You have been quiet about this. Titles are bust. philosophy. Yes. Well, I mean, I'm really the only host that has that problem, like, perpetually, because my team hasn't had a losing record since I was in high school, and I'm turning 51 in August. So August 26th. Yes. So it's, I'm one person who can attest to the whole titles or bust problem of my fandom, you know,

But who is Mr. July? I don't even know. Is it Judge? Is it Dave Raghetti? Does he do the no hitter on the 4th of July? Oh, well, yeah. During a year they didn't make the playoffs? Sure, sure.

Neither did the Red Sox. It could be. But it's interesting from my perspective because I've been alive for seven. I've been cognizant of five. So I don't really remember 77 and 78. I remember the 81 loss. and then we had that long drought and they didn't win again until I was 22. So there was, you know, like Sully said, in the 80s into the early 90s,

I just loved going to baseball games because they didn't have that championship or bust mentality. And it was just fun going to a game in the summer and eating hot dogs and just hanging out with my dad and watching the Yankees play win or lose. It was just fun to be there. And I sort of, I can't even believe I'm going to say that. But I missed that. I like, you know, in 2023, some people were very upset about the Yankees not making the playoffs. And I thought, oh, good.

Okay, my October is going to be calm now. And I can watch everyone else in the playoffs and not have to stress out. All right. That's a loser mentality, Stacey. You can't be happy that your team doesn't make the playoffs. No, not happy. But I wasn't as upset as everyone else because I thought, okay, at least I won't be stressed out in October. I wasn't rooting for them to miss the playoffs, you know.

Yeah. And maybe it's just the benefit of being elderly like Stacey. and I are. Not as old as Sully, but, you know, but it is. What is? The Dodgers won the World Series when I was 11 and then 29 years of nothing. And then they got back to the World Series and the other team cheated. You know, we don't need to go into that. But, you know, and then they, but now we're- You won two titles since then. I know. I know. 20 in this year and you still can't talk about 2017. It's just because they brought, you brought it up. You brought it up. They just put it up all right. So I had to mention.

Cody Bellinger shouldn't have swung and missed 26 times. You brought it up, Brad. You brought it up. But it did take seven games even with cheating. But anyway, my point is I've been through the bad Dodger teams and now the good Dodger teams, but it's easy to spot the fans who have only been fans during the good years and don't know what it's like to have a team that doesn't really have a shot at the playoffs. Yeah, I would love for Yankee fans, younger Yankee fans,

even the ones who were born in the 80s, who, you know, were younger when the 90s happened, to actually live through a full rebuild like I did when I was a teenager. And they never will because the Yankees will never do that to reset the team. Meanwhile, there's a bit of a correlation between myself and between Booney, who hasn't yet gotten the chance to really jump in on here because both of our teams were really good before we really watched a lot of baseball. And I mean, I was one when the Reds won the World Series in 1990. I was six when they advanced in their last postseason series.

And that's it. That's all I've got. At least Booney, you've seen some postseason success with the A's, but kind of going through the rigmarole of being a fan of a team like ours that it seems like October is a, yeah, I guess if we get there, we get there. Like, it can be a little bit of a slog, you know, going through like May and June and July when you're just struggling to be a 500 ball. Yeah, like losing 13 out of 14.

Yeah. We'll do it. Yeah. I can hear it in your voice. I agree with you. You know, and I think Sully nails it with his, with having fun in the summer. And the one thing that drives me nuts with regard to the A's and the whole saga they're going through right now is the one idea. Now you could make a point and argument and everything is valid with regard to ownership and ownership not spending 100%.

But from 2000 to 2021, the A's have been to the postseason 11 times was the sixth most in all of baseball. From 2000 to 2021, you could make the argument that they have been the most exciting team in all of baseball with who they have won with. I mean, they made a damn motion picture over it. And they have continued to win in 12, 14, 18. And so when I hear that they have not put a good product on the field, or excuse me, let me rephrase that, they have not had a good product on the field drives me nuts because that is the furthest thing from the truth from the A's.

They have been exquisite on the field. And it almost is like people are trying to erase, that memory of what happened. Yeah, ownership's bad. You're absolutely right. Last time I checked, Fisher wasn't in the starting lineup. They have been unreal as far as how they've played. So that's the only thing that drives me nuts.

And I agree. They haven't had the best postseason at success, but it's hard to win in the postseason. It is so hard, right? Dodgers won last year. Dodgers won last year with a banged up team. Let's say if they were healthy. Do they win if they're healthy?

I don't know. We don't know if they're healthy because it replaces some of the other guys, right? It's just such a chance when you get to the postseason. The bottom lines, you have to have that summer of 162 and roll the dice and see what happens in the postseason. I like where you're going with that. Let's switch gears here and let's bring it back to where we see the standings, where we see everybody sitting right now, because we know who's making the playoffs here on May 28.

Right? You can always catch your favorite lockdown MOUB show. on YouTube or on your favorite podcast app. Seriously, we're on all of them out there. Check them out today. All right. So now we are past Memorial Day or officially a couple of days past Memorial Day, almost into the month of June. The first checkpoint, as most people would say, you can finally start looking at the standings and feel like you're looking at something. You're not just, you know, looking at the exit velocity of a guy who's played three games and thinking that 95 miles an hour on average is a really good hitter. What we know is the Tigers are the best team in the American

League. They're playing like it right now. I mean, but you know, Seattle's the best team in the West and we know what they end up doing at the end of the season. They, they love winning the May and June World Series. The Astros aren't putting themselves in an 11 game hole. But I will, I will tell you, I think, is what is the most interesting division in all of baseball. And maybe we get to in a second is where the Dodgers are because you guys between the Giants, the Padres and the Dodgers, Jeff, y'all been ping pong and he going back and forth and on these streaks. And it's actually kind of a fun race to watch over here in the, you know, we're in the AOS.

The NOS is a little bit different animal. And like, I don't think anybody's going to. to take you on the division, but the Giants and the Padres just seem to make it fun every year. Yeah, and the debacks, you can throw them in there, too. They're not having a super great season right now, but they are very talented. They score a bunch of runs, and they have pitchers who have potential to be good, so they could get interesting, too. The Rockies definitely, you know, aren't quite capitalizing on their opportunities right now. We'll put it that way. But yeah, yeah, I mean, it's fun to have a race like this. I think it's more fun, less relaxing, but more fun to have a close division race.

I would still rather have the Dodgers be up by 13 games right now and up by 27 by the end of of July. But, you know, that's just, you know, for my own blood pressure's sake. And there may be no saving that anyway. But it's, it's fun, you know, and the Padres and Giants, I do think the Giants are, have played over their head so far. And I think they're going to fall off. I think the Padres are going to fall off some. And I think the Dodgers, you can make a good case that they have underperformed quite a bit so far between injuries and everything. But the fact that it is a close division, close race with three or four really good teams definitely adds to the excitement. And it'll even get more fun in June when those good teams get to start actually playing against each other, which quirk of the schedule.

Dodgers haven't played the Giants or the Padres yet. But they'll play nine games against those two teams in the next three weeks. And so, you know, that's when it really starts getting inside this intra-division matchups. Well, yeah, the Yankees haven't played the Red Sox yet. They're playing them next weekend, the weekend after the Dodgers, like a week from there. I wonder if that game might be on ESPN and if it might last four and a half hours. Of course. Of course.

I do have a fun fact for everyone. The Rockies are now nine and 47, which means they have 47 losses and the Seattle Mariners of 2001 only had 46, so they already surpassed the Mariners season loss. So the Rockies aren't going to break the all-time record for wins this year. Definitely losses. They've been eliminated. I'm hoping the Dodgers can get to 40 wins before the Rockies get to 10, and I don't think it's out of the question.

Dodgers would think that. I feel bad picking out the Rockies without Paul here to defend himself. But you know, Paul. Yeah. It's going to say this is the one night where we can say Rockies Rockies. Rocking three times. Yeah, we didn't show up. We won't see him.

Is the Memorial Day thing still true? Because I feel like that's an old adage. So he can maybe attest because he's a senior statesman here. But with all the additions of the wild cards now, like, is Memorial Day the first calendar litmus test? Because, like, we have somebody who's making the playoffs now. How realistic is Memorial Day now that we have this expanded playoff field? I think it's just, I think you kind of have to break this season.

into thirds, it's less about the playoff field and more about evaluating your team. Like, if you have a third of the season has gone by, if you're three weeks into the season, that's really, that's not enough to get even any stock of who you are. The 2004 Tampa Bay Devil Race had a great couple of weeks streak. So, like, bad teams can have great streaks. And, you know, Stacey remembers how awful the Yankees were the final month of 2000, the year they went on to win the World Series. You know, you can have a bad couple of weeks.

The Dodgers lost 16 out of 17 in late 2017. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Rangers struggled in their year. Yeah. The Ranger. I remember I did a show down the stretch called About the Rangers in 2023, where the title of the show was Texas Foldham.

And I said, well, that's it for them. And they went on to win the World Series that year. But if you have a third of, you know, I just from my mentality, the one third market can get a sense of who you are because then you have about the same amount of time to figure it out because at the end of the next two months is the trade deadline. And you've got to figure out, okay, are we going to trade or are buyers? What the hell are we doing? Because the final two months after the trade deadline, that's your team. This is a picture lock. We're going in, we're going for the final couple of months.

And so that's why I think it's this middle part for a team like Cincinnati, like the brewers, like, you know, teams that are, you know, like Cleveland, who's looking up at Detroit right now, you got to sort of say, how precious are we going to be with our prospects? Yes, I know they can grow up to be Ryan Sandberg or Jeff Bagwell, but you don't want to cling to them too much like Baltimore did in 2023 when they could have improved their team and their window of opportunity. may have slammed down. And so that's why, that's, I mean, it's slightly arbitrary, but this period of time between Memorial Day and the trade deadline is when teams have to really, I think the first thing every team should do is say, all right, who's great in our farm system right now? Are they better than what we have on the major league squad?

And I always think the, what is it now, 26 people on the roster. I'm so used to 24. 26, yeah. 26, thank you. You should always have the 20, 26 best healthy players in your organization on the major league squad. And if they're kicking butt in Worcester or Sacramento or whatever minor league team, your minor league city you're playing in,

that was a little dig of the fact that the river cats are still playing in the sharing the stadium with the A's. I think they should just move the river cats to the Oakland Coliseum and call them the Sacramento Giants for the season. Why not? Why don't I just put a complete middle finger in the face of everybody in the East Bay? but that you should, I think the next couple weeks, every good prospect should be, here you go, welcome to the show. And you saw it, like the Red Sox are doing that,

calling up some of their top process right now, and you're starting to see that. What are they doing? If they can improve the major league team, let's see what you got, because the best thing you could do is find an in-house situation. But if the in-house situation doesn't work,

then you do an out-house situation. And then, or go to the out-house. Is that the title of this episode, the outhouse situation. The outhouse situation. I did see a stat the other day. We got on Netflix. Under the current playoff format,

75% of teams that were in playoff position on Memorial Day have ended up making the postseason. And under the current format, which is only a handful, you know, three or four years. So it's not a huge sample size. But, you know, what we know so far is that by this point in the year, like Sully saying, you should be, you should be playing well.

if you think you're going to be a playoff team. And conversely, the Cincinnati Reds have a heroin statistic that if they are under 500 at Memorial Day, they have never made the playoffs. And there is no Major League Baseball team that is older than they are. So it's a pretty big sample size. Well, I can say, Jeff, real quick with the Astros and where they are, our calling card this year has been our pitching, but yet we had another pitcher go out with Tommy John. the emergence of Lance McCuller Jr. today with 12 strikeouts, but we have been getting a lot of

our hits up until lately off of singles and not a ton, like maybe extra base hits, but not a lot of home runs. And if that trend continues to go up, I think the Astros are in a good position towards the end of the season, but they're not going to be able to rely on nine or ten singles in the game. They're going to have to get more lift on the ball over the long stretch of because I think 53 to 58% of runs in Major League Baseball scored via the home run. I believe that still holds true. So I'm a lot of this to be a marker where we are just to keep improving, because if we do, then I think we're sitting pretty a lot better than last season

when we were digging a hole. Chuck, give us the last word on Christian Yellich hitting a walk-off grand slam. He did, and then he came back today and struggled a little bit, but he's hitting 2-12, but it was probably the electrifying part of the season so far. Brewer is a game over the 500 mark, and we're just thrilled in Milwaukee that we're a game over the 500 mark, and there's been so many pitchers on the injured list, and guys have not hit their weight in a lot of these guys.

There's been several over 24 slumps. I don't know. I'm thinking maybe the wild card might be a better reach for the Brewers than maybe catching the Chicago Cubs. I don't see the Cubs dip in the low 10 games over the 500 mark at all. And they're just, fat this past week on the on the Rockies some more game over 500 seems like the moon for the a's right now been there it's going to be a tough it's it's going to be tough in the national league and

i i wonder about this and i'll leave it at this with a question because right now when you look at the top 10 records in major league baseball seven of the top 10 are national league teams so that's going to make it a little bit harder for teams like the reds and the brewers to ascertain whether or not, they can actually be a buyer at the trade deadline. And that is where we will end today's lockdown MLB squad show. Thank you, everybody, for participating, jumping in on the show. And thank you for watching and listening to today's Lockdown MB Squad show. We'll be back next week in your feed, giving you all the hot takes.

And like we said, you know, coming in late, coming in, uh, and not worried about hurt feelings here on the Lockdown, Moby Squad show. Locked on podcast network.