OverDrive - OverDrive - August 18, 2025 - Hour 2

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Join Michael DiStefano and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips joins to discuss the Blue Jays' series against the Pirates, Jose Berrios' uncertain role for starters and Bo Bichette's contract outlook in Toronto. TSN Football Reporter Farhan Lalji joins to dive into the headlines from across the CFL, Nathan Rourke's leadership for the Lions and the Argonauts' team struggles in Toronto.

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apply. Five o'clock hour of overdrive off and running, Mike DeStefano, in for Brian Hayes. Dave, Fast Truck of the Toronto Star. In with me, we'll be joined by Steve Phillips in just a couple of minutes. And we've got some breaking news for the Blue Jays. Shane Bieber starting Friday against the Miami Marlins. Bexited for that? Who isn't? I mean, we're waiting for this for a while now, right? Through the rehab starts down in Buffalo, and now the guy that they made the crown jewel of their trade deadline is ready to go in the big leagues. Well, it comes out a good time because Jose Barrios has not pitched particularly well down

the stretch. He's got like a 568 ERA over his last, I think it's July 1st. Yeah. I was looking it up, a 568 ERA since July 1st. And the VLO is taking a bit of a dip. He's given up some home run. So he could probably use an extra day's rest. I'm sure a lot of these guys who've pitched a lot of innings could use an extra day's rest.

So that six-man rotation is coming in at a good time. But I'm excited for this. Like when he was traded to Toronto, there's a lot of excitement around this, obviously. And he's pitched extremely well in his three major league or minor league outings. I think he pitched like seven scoreless last week in his last outing. So he's starting to find it, right? He throws strikes. This is encouraging.

This is exciting to see Shane Bieber. And now it's getting to a point where Gossmann's on the mound tonight. He's pitched great over the course of the last five, six games. He's been unbelievable. Max Scherzer is starting to turn into Max Scherzer of old. And you bring Shane Bieber into the fold all of a sudden, like, Dave, you've got a pretty, pretty vaunted one, two, three in your rotation can playoff time. And you got a one, two, three, four, five, six man rotation in the meantime.

Rios is going somewhere, to your point, which he may be eventually, because I know the man we're about to talk to here, Steve Phillips has sort of put him forward as a potential bullpen solution for the Blue Jays in the games that matter into the fall. So, which is a possibility, right? But man, it's if it goes to plan, Al's brother, and to your point, you know, Scher is the Scherzer or a reasonable facsimile of the Scher of old. and then Bieber can be some kind of reasonable facsimile of the Cy Young Bieber of five years ago now that he's come out of this Tommy John's surgery era and appears to be quite healthy and ready to roll. I mean, it's almost an embarrassment of riches.

And some very tough choices are going to be coming here for Mr. Schneider in the Blue Jays front office that obviously has a big saying this stuff. If you had to make a bet, I'd say Fandul had a prop out there, there for which of these two pitchers would pitch more innings come post season, Max Scherzer or Shane Bieber, who would you hit your wagon to? I think he's Bieber all the way, just because he's younger, right?

I mean, Scherzer, I mean, let's be honest here. He's, you know, he's, this is a guy that's well past. He's up, he's up to like 90-ish pitches every, every outing. Yeah, I'm not saying it can't happen, but I do think, look, I mean, Bieber's just, I guess, I guess it's more of a tossa than maybe you think, but, you know, they don't want to push it too far with Scherzer, right? I mean, you've got to be careful there because every season of recent memory has ended in

not particularly the ideal circumstances for him health-wise, right? So you don't want to push that one too far. I'm sure there's a lot of research and sports science being pushed into how do we keep Max Schurzer healthy and what are the limits and the parameters that are going to keep them on the field and not on the training table. So, yeah, I mean, I'm not saying it's like, I'm not saying it's a romp that Beaver's going to pitch way more. But if I had to guess, I mean, and you had to bet, I would say Bieber's much more likely to pitch a lot more.

Yeah, yeah, I think you can make that argument for sure. Like he's coming out the injury too, though, which is why it's, well, we'll see what happens. And do you want to push that elbow, that reconstructed elbow and whether or not he'll be able to do it against major league talent, I guess remains to be seen. But the thing with, the thing with that Tommy John surgery, there's a playbook, right? And there's a ton, there's a ton of case studies, right? Like how many, like almost everybody gets it nowadays. So that Major League Baseball has so much information on how long it takes to come back and the best way to do it, there's no playbook for age.

You know, there's no playbook for I'm just old. This is true. Okay. Unless you're Tom Brady. Yeah, he's got a good playbook for that. He's the outlier and everybody else is the rest of humanity and all of us get old. So insurer looks great. Don't get me wrong.

Like, it's been incredible to watch him pitch and to watch him compete. And, you know, if he's Mad Max or anything close to that, he's in your rotation. He's in your top three. Oh, I agree. He's definitely going to be in the rotation, which is kind of wild to think about. Like, when that signing was first made, you know, like, it was definitely a signing where people were excited, right? Oh, we get to watch Max Scherzer, one of the best pitchers of the last 15 years. But then it was also met with skepticism where it's, well, how long.

are we going to get to watch Max Scherzer? And then he started out training camp with that thumb issue, the ligament problem. That doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. He's now pitching, you know, 90, pitching into the upper 90s for his pitch count. You know, he's going six, it was seven innings against, you know, over the weekend there. Great sign. Yeah, it's a really good sign to see him get going. Shane Bieber going to join the rotation come Friday.

You got Gosman on the mound tonight. So it's a good time to be at Blue J. rotation arm, that's for sure. Joining us now on the Maple Toyota hotline is Steve Phillips, former Mets GM, TSN, baseball analyst. How's it going, Steve? I'm doing great, guys. Good to be with you. Absolutely.

Well, we were just talking about how the Blue Jay is going to get a new arm put into this rotation. Sounds like Shane Bieber is getting ready to make his first start as a Blue Jay on Friday. What would you be looking for out of him in this start? You know, I think he stretched out to 90 pitches. So I think that I think it's just going to come down all the way to performance. You know, if he's able to go anywhere from 90 to 100 pitches, I let him go. And ideally love for him to get into the sixth inning or through six innings.

But, you know, I mean, the one thing about him, he's always been an efficient pitcher. He's a strike-throwing machine. And, you know, he has looked on his rehab starts like the guy who's been, you know, a Cy Young Award won a candidate. in the past. And that, you know, he's getting a lot of swing and miss, not a lot of base runners. His whip has been good.

He doesn't walk anybody. You know, he's got the courage to throw stuff over the plate, hurling in the appat to then expand the zone later in the abat. And he's been that guy on his rehab start. So, you know, I mean, my hope would be that he's going to be, you know, not necessarily Cy Young Bieber, but, you know, a guy that like the rest of this group, is a very capable, competitive starting pitcher that can get you through six innings

and leave with a chance to win. Hey, Steve, obviously a lot of great news around the Blue Jay pitching staff with this revelation that Bieber is going to be making his major league debut for the Blue Jays on Friday. Berrios is the one outlier that hasn't been really heading in the right direction. Al's brother was just pointing out the stat in his last nine starts going back to July 1st. He's got a 5.68 ERA. He got touched up for six earn runs yesterday in losing to the Rangers. What do you make of that regression from Burrios?

And does it change the way you feel about the way he'll factor into the Blue Jays plan down the stretch here? Yeah, I mean, I think right now, I mean, if it were today and they had to narrow the rotation down to, you know, three pitchers, if it's going to be a division series or four starters, if it's. to LCS, he's probably not one of those four, three or four. I think that, you know, in the ideal world, I probably wouldn't mind moving them to the bullpen as it is, not even making an issue. I'd probably go with a six-man rotation a couple times through, but, you know, my view all along is that I think he could be a weapon out of the bullpen.

I think it's fastball plays up if he comes in one inning at a time, and that slider, the breaker ball he has, is just a wipeout pitch, that's sweeper. Now, you know, he's got to, you know, sometimes that breaking ball is so big, it's difficult for him to control. And then when a hitter can then say, okay, well, you know what, I'm just going to look for your fastball because you can't see to throw that other pitch over the plate. It makes it much easier on the hitter. I think that if he's able to come in as a reliever and come in and air it out for a minute with that fastball and then expand the zone, throwing it in that same spot, throwing it off the plate with the sweeper, I think he's got a chance to be really good.

So, you know, look, the reality is that not everybody's going to be on the rotation. I suspect one of the right-handers, either Basseter or Breos, is in the bullpen with Eric Lauer, and, you know, the other four have a shot to be starters in the postseason. Kevin Gosman, another one of those guys who's vying for one of those starts. He goes tonight, taking on Paul Skeen, arguably the best. pitcher in the game right now. How how excited are you for a matchup like this to watch tonight?

No, I think it's great. You know, look, I think, you know, I think over the Latin, I think a lot of this is good preparation for postseason baseball. I mean, DeGrom of all these schemes, me, you face the best pitchers in the game, on the other teams in the postseason. You know, you're going to get

really good pitching. And so, you know, putting together quality at bats, what's the approach? Forks him to throw it over the or you work the counter enough and get them out of the game and you get into the bullpen and give yourself a chance to beat the BTF opposition later in the game. So, you know, it would be interesting to see what the Jay's approach is tonight. I think that with schemes, if it's that, if it's a fastball and it's down, it's okay, be aggressive, but if it's down in the zone and you read anything other than fastball, you've got to let it go,

whether it's that the split, the splinker that he has, the slider that he has, because generally, if he throws it at the bottom of the zone, that pitch is going to break out of the zone to get you to chase, especially if he's been able to locate the fastball early. So this comes down to what is the report, what is the approach you're going to take against the quality pitcher, and understand that it's going to be really difficult to lump four singles together in an inning

to put up a crooked number. And so you've got to take advantage of every opportunity. If there's an error, if there's a walk, If there's the ability to go first to third on a base hit, then you've got to pick up that runner. You can't waste those opportunities when you're facing an ace. And you've also got to try to get them early before they get settled in. So that approach will be interesting,

but I think it's good preparation for October baseball to face some of these aces on other teams. Steve, a lot of excitement in Toronto today, reading into the comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred about the idea that expansion could be in, baseball's future. An expansion would come in Manfred's world with realignment. And, you know, Blue Jets fans are always eager to hear a scenario where maybe the perils of the American League East

would be, they'd be freed from those to maybe, hey, compete against the Cleveland's and the Detroit's and the Pittsburghs of the world instead of the Boston's and New York's. What did you read into Manfred talking about the potential for expansion and what you think realignment could mean if indeed we saw it coming down the pipeline? Yeah, so the idea is that, you know, geographic realignment to cut down on travel and wear and tear on players, because it is a grind over the course of a season with all of the travel. The idea is to do that, you know, you want East Coast teams to play East Coast

teams, more West Coast teams, play West Coast teams more, and therefore you get more hit for the sports networks where, you know, you're going to see West Coast, you're going to have an East Coast game at 7 o'clock where both teams are East Coast teams and the viewership will be high. And then you're going to have two West Coast teams playing on the 10 p.m. Eastern time or 7 p.m. Pacific time, which will give you more impact for viewership and therefore affect ratings differently for broadcasting. Now, I personally don't see any scenario where I would think it would be reasonable

or appropriate, that you would have the Yankees, the Mets, the Phillies, and the Red Sox in one division. Like, I keep reading scenarios where, oh, this will be the Northeast. Like, no, there's no way that that would be fair or appropriate. The idea isn't to set up a small mid-market Midwest divisions to give, you know, lesser teams, you know, like Detroit, Kansas City, the White Sox, and the Guardians, a better shot of making the playoffs. I mean, that doesn't, I honestly don't think that they'll get a sign-off

on that promotership. I personally, I still like, I don't like, you know, having, you know, eight conferences instead of an American League and a National League. I still, I still want there to be an American League in National League. I don't think that the Mets and Yankees

should be in the same division. I don't think the White Sox and Cubs should be in the same division. And I don't think the Angels and Dodgers should be in the same division. I think there should be, Now, maybe it'll change, and, you know, they'll go to the, you know, the format for the MBA and try to go about it that way. But from my perspective, I think you've got to have a balance of, you know, large markets and middle markets, small markets within the conferences that you're creating in order to be appropriately fair to everybody. with Steve Phillips earlier today Mark Shapiro was on MLB network radio and he was asked about Boba Chette's in a potential extension or how talks might be going with him and he basically

said that doesn't happen in baseball we don't talk extension in August in September you know you're a man who's been in that position I guess why is that that that you know just isn't a thing apparently in major league baseball and ultimately like where you at with Bobauchet when it comes to the type of coin that he might be due for this upcoming winter? Yeah, it doesn't happen in baseball because, you know, with the way free agency works and, you know, the idea for a guy like Pichette, it's not, it makes no sense for him to negotiate right now with one team when he can go out, you know, where there's not a salary cap, there's not a, you know, a salary level or threshold for a,

a type of a free agent player where you categorize, this is the category where he makes this much money, this sport doesn't do that. And so it's an open market, unlike other sports where there are salary caps. And so, you know, it behooves the player to have eight teams come calling in interest in him so that, you know, and where the teams can't get a sense as to where the player fits on their payroll

and how much they're willing to pay. And so, you know, teams can be led by agents down a path to think, okay, I better keep putting more money in if I'm going to get the player. So, you know, at this point, the only benefit would be to the team, not the player, to try to get a deal done. We're not getting chased by other teams. So, you know, for Bichette, I think he's an intriguing guy because if he markets himself and says like Bregman did last year, I'm willing to play shortstop or second base

or third base, he could end up with 14 teams interested in him. And, you know, with what he is as a player and, you know, as a person, and, you know, he's a contact hitting guy, doesn't strike out a lot, which in this day and age of baseball is really valuable, even if it means a little lesser on base percentage, putting it in play. And, you know, when you fly out to right in the runner tags from second to third, or you drive it to the right center gap and runners on first and second,

both tag go to second and third. It seems like it's an out for the hitter, but it's a positive result. And there's no real stat that captures that, but Bichette's that kind of guy because he puts it in play. He's going to have a lot of people interested. So the number's definitely going to start with a two,

I believe, 200 plus million. And, you know, the question is, how many teams get in, how many years can he start to squeeze, and can it end up starting with a three? Steve, when you talk about marketing yourself as a multi-position player, I mean, there's always that feeling that, yeah, you could do that, but a shortstop is going to be more marketable and more highly compensated than a second basement. I mean, how do you think that works in the minds of a baseball executive?

If you're probably not paying the same price for a guy that's going to play second base for you as you would for a guy playing shortstop, are you? Yeah, I think it just depends on your team and how much you really want to get the players. So, you know, if you're the, oh, what team should I use as an example? You know, the St. Louis Cardinals and they're going to play Brendan Donovan in the outfield. They got Mason win at shortstop. And, you know, they really want that centerpiece guy around which to build. Then, you know, if it fits your team and you're competing with other teams for who are going to look at them as a shortstop,

but you really want him, then you're going to pay the price the market says for who he is because you've already got the young shortstop that you can afford, that you don't have to pay that money. You know, if you're the athletics and you're looking for a guy to build around for the future and you've got Jacob Wilson, who's going to be your shortstop of the future, well, then you've got to spend money anyways because you've got to spend some portion on payroll and you're going to go into a new place and you really think Preset's that guy around which you're going to build, you're going to pay him the premium.

So I agree with you that generally, you know, we prioritize certain positions and right-hand-hand-hitting first baseman in baseball don't get paid as much as some other players and other positions, but there are players who are the right fit at the right time that can really squeeze the money out. And, you know, Bregman was one of those guys, right? When you think about, you know, where he was going to go and now he's going to opt out and teams can look at him as a second baseman or a third baseman, and he maximized his dollar value.

So I think it's going to be interesting to see. But I think Berset's going to have plenty of suitors. All right, Steve, we'll leave it there. Appreciate joining us as per usual. We'll chat again later in the week. It's my pleasure, guys, anytime. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Steve Phillips, former Mets General Manager, PSN Baseball analyst. Steve Phillips, join us on the Maple Toyota Hotline, Drive the Built-In-Chylifficion funded drive Toyota Rav4. Gas or Hybrid Models available. Visit mapletolda.com. He's made a lot of money for himself this year, Boba Chet. Oh, yeah. I'm talking about it.

It was so funny last summer, the discourse surrounding Boba Chet. Look, I don't blame the Blue Jays for not making that investment a year ago getting ahead of it. Because, I mean, the year and a half before this was not great. No. You didn't know, okay, is this the start of the decline, or is this just an off year and a half? What we've seen this season, I think you could look at it and say, I think that was just a little bit of an off year for Boba Shet. last year. Injury riddled, head wasn't in the game, but this year, he's back to leading the

league and hits again. Yeah. No, you're right. And it's, it's, it's great and great to be Boba Chet right now. It really will be. Things could not be going much better for Boba Chet than they are right now. And he's going to get paid far more than we ever imagine last year when a lot of people were ready to run him out of town.

You bring up a good point, though, where it comes to what position is he going to market himself as? Right. Bobbushet has come out publicly multiple times saying, I'm a shortstop. I want to be a shortstop. And a lot of that is because short stops get paid far more than any other infield position gets paid. It's a more premier position. So it will be interesting to see if he decides to bend the knee there when he goes to free agency.

Is that how he gets, you know, like a seventh, eighth year on a contract? You know what I mean? Like if he's willing to be a little more flexible on his position, could that attract more teams. I think it's a worthwhile thing for him to consider at the very least. I mean, I guess like any agent would love to hear that his client is willing to say whatever the team that wants to pay him the most wants to hear. Yeah. The odds of him being a shortstop well into his 30s are very low anyway. So you're going to get moved around regardless at some point.

Right. So you might as well just come out and appease other general managers and say, yeah, I'm willing to do that. As long as you're not going to be a jerk about, you know, having to move to second base, which some guys can. be, right? You know, we saw the controversy with Devers and how he didn't want to play a ball with, with the Red Sox vision of where they wanted him to play, and it became so contentious that they had to move him out of town. Yeah.

So that can be a problem. I mean, the bottom line is, look, as Steve says, there's going to be a lot of suitors for this guy if he keeps up doing what he's doing. As there should be. And there'll be more if he is openly willing to do whatever a team wants him to do, as long as that team is the highest bidder. Yes. And as long as he continues.

this into the postseason. But I do want to play the March Repower clip that was on MLB Network Radio so we can get a sense of how exactly that conversation went and hear it from Mark Shapiro's mouth himself. So here that is. It's always important to educate fans.

There's no contracts that get done in August and September. I mean, guys get this close to free agency. They work hard to get to that point. You know, it's very possible to still resign them, but they need to go out there and understand you know, what, you know, what's the opportunity. opportunities are for them in free agency. So that would be something that Ross addresses when he puts together his

off-season plan, and though will be certainly a priority and a part of that. As he should be, as he should be. But the one part that I did find very interesting was, you know, the players need to understand what's out there for them. Yeah. And I wonder if that's like, you know, hey, we've offered him a strong deal. He needs to, if you let him go to open market, maybe he is overselling himself. and maybe that number that he's asking the Blue Jays for isn't there.

And he's like, yeah, all right, go to market, see what happens. Yeah, there's, you could definitely read that subtext in there, right? A little bit. It comes down to that, the other thing, too, like, it's, you know, Rich Griffin made the point that, you know, Vladdy would not be as valuable to any of the team as he was still a Blue Jays, right? Is Bow in the same position? That's what I'm wondering.

Like, it's always been Vladian Bo. There's an aspect of his popularity, just like there was an aspect of Vladdy and Bo. just like there was an aspect of Vladdy being the face of this franchise, Bo is 1A. Right there. In terms of the face of the... He's Robin, right? Like, Batman, like, he's been Vladdy's Robin since, what, 2018 when they both came up. And there's an attachment

there, there's a full stadium there every night right now that loves this guy. Lots of 11s in the stands. Yeah. And they love this guy in the way that I'm not sure any of the market would love this guy. At least not right now. Right. And so there's, like, there's money to even be made off that, right? There's attention.

If this is the attention economy, he gets more attention anywhere than he's going to than in Toronto, right? Like this is his home. This is his baseball home for now. And guess what? You know, sometimes I'm not sure what's popular in Toronto moves the needle in L.A. If you're the Dodgers or moves the needle in Boston if you're the Red Sox. Not that he's not a good player, but I'm saying,

I think much like Vladie, there might be a situation here where the Bluages are willing to pay a premium. for a little bit of popularity. On top of all the stats and all the other good baseball reasons, the popularity, it's worth something. But it's not just the popular. It's not just that, but it's your second best player. And if you are looking to be a competitive team, you're a hell of a lot more competitive with Boba's shed on it than off it.

He's your second best player, for sure. He might be your MVP this season. And on top of that, he is one of your most beloved players. And the beloved part, I mean, it can be underestimated. Great package for a lot of leverage if you're Boba Chet. They didn't renovate. They didn't renovate the ballpark to be a better baseball team.

They rented it to be a richer baseball team. Correct. So guess what? When you fill that ballpark or you're a big part of why that ballpark is filled, there's money to be made there. The old saying you've got to spend money to make money? Yeah. It's the old saying there.

Well, if you spend it on the field, I mean, it's a lot better than spending it elsewhere and not enjoying the outcome. And the other thing is, A, B, I think, like, a lot of things in life, like the advantage you have when you are the incumbent team that you know everything about this guy. Like nobody in baseball knows more about Bob Bichette than the Toronto Blue Jays.

They know all the good parts. They know all the bad parts. They've seen it all. They've seen down years. They've seen great years. They've seen, you know, whatever problems he's had, whatever lack of problems he's had because he's the son of a pro. He is a great pro by all accounts.

I mean, there's an advantage in that too. And because of that, you know, Maybe you're a little more willing to give them that extra X number of dollars because it's better than the devil you don't know. Right, right. Like the, I mean, it's a completely different situation, but it's also like the Florida Panthers decided to give a couple extra bucks to keep the band together. Right. And again, they won, so it's a lot easier to stomach that and do that. But for the Blue Jays, it's like, hey, we got a good thing going at least.

Like, this is the first time in the entire Shapiro and Atkinsera that they've, taken steps towards something that looks promising. Yeah. It would suck to have to blow it all up after one year of that because they were unwilling to pay one of their best players, homegrown players. Well, the other scenario is the Marner scenario where one of your homegrown guys

and they gave him multiple contracts and multiple kicks at the can. Well, no, but I'm saying that the other scenario is one of your homegrown guys goes into the playoffs, does not produce what you hope he's going to produce when it matters most because this team still hasn't won a playoff game. Correct. In the Vladian Bo era and another

playoff disappointment. It could take a little bit of the shine, not to mention a little bit of the dollar sign off of this whole scenario. Yeah, no, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. So we'll see how that all unfolds. They're in action tonight at PNC Park, taking on Paul Skeens, Kevin Gosman on the mound. We'll have our fan dual best bets in a little bit. Farhan Lulgi coming up next here on Overdrive of Mike DeStefano with Dave Feschuk live on TSN 1050, TSN2, and on YouTube.

Overdrive continues on TSN 1050, live up on TSN2, and on YouTube live. Mike DeStefano, filling in for Brian Hayes, got Dave Feshock of the Toronto Star with me. Far on Lodge, you can join us in a couple of minutes here. Pretty cool story, though, coming out of the NFL involving a Canadian quarterback, Taylor Algersma, who's down in Green Bay Packer Camp, actually played. for Wilfred Laurier of the U-Sports. And it's not to, actually, it just doesn't happen where a Canadian-born-bred-played university quarterback

gets a shot in the NFL. Taylor Al-Gurzma getting his opportunity. He was an undrafted free agent, but getting a chance, played about a quarter and a half against the Colts this weekend, went seven for 11, 109 yards, and led to three scoring drives. So pretty cool story for the young Canadian.

It's an incredible story. I mean, this guy won the heck Greaten Award as University Player of the Year in Canada and he's a massive human being 6-5-227, so the measurables are there but to your point, the legacy of Canadian quarterbacks

that play in U-Sports what they used to call in our day, I was brother, my day, the CIAU or the CIS. Minely CIS. Yeah, it's been named many things over the years but it's U-Sports now. I mean, U-Sports get no look. from NFL teams in general

and this guy goes down and not only does he get a look I mean he shows some stuff turning some heads a little bit and now Naylor you know Dave Naylor was down there for TSN our good colleague and Naylor's making a point that this guy could be making a run

at the number three spot for the Green Bay Packers like third on the depth chart which is you know pretty damn unprecedented well I mean if he sticks with the Packers right even if it says as a practice squad like that's a story That is absolutely a story.

You get a kid from a Canadian university who went against Canadian university talent somehow gets his opportunity to go down to the states where he's now playing against the best in the world in the National Football League and wins a job with an organization as one of the top 60 players they feel necessary to sign and put onto their roster. Yeah. It would be a story. It would be a great story.

And it's, hey, it could be only the beginning, right? I mean, this is, I mean, the idea that if you're hanging around and they're giving you a chance to learn and to do all the stuff you need to do to become a real NFL quarterback, a guy that gets played on in a regular season game and not just a preseason game, which is a ton of studying, understanding playbooks, understanding situations. I mean, Matt Lafleur, the coach of the Packers had a lot of nice things to say about Elgrisma after the game, but he also did point out, yeah, he put the ball in jeopardy a couple of times. He's got to be careful with that. but by all accounts like Elgrzma seems like the type of kid who's willing to learn, willing to understand that there's improvements to be made. He didn't

throw an interception, you know, like he threw for a lot of yards, did not throw an interception. I mean, you know, engineers three scoring drives. I mean, this is impressive stuff. It's a long way to go obviously. Right. It's exciting. I don't make, I don't think

Jordan Love is worried about his starting spot when it comes to Taylor Elgrzma. We're not in that territory, obviously. I'm not saying you're suggesting that. But even if he can latch on to a practice squad spot, it'd be historic in terms of what that means for Canadian football and what that could possibly do in the future, you know, giving opportunities to players coming up from the U-Sports level,

which, you know, it's very few and far between when it comes to that. Like, I'm trying to even wrap my head around a couple of guys. There's someone in Chicago, there's a lineman in Chicago who's in a kid. camp right now. He played at UBC, I believe, and he's gunning for a roster spot. I've heard good thing. Speaking to Chicago, Caleb Williams looked pretty good yesterday. His preseason debut finally got in action in week number two. And it's funny because all of a sudden, you know, people are starting to say, oh, yeah, Caleb Williams, huh? Look pretty good. Meanwhile, a year ago, everyone's sitting there calling him a massive bust. I know. One preseason game is going

to change everyone's mind, apparently. No, it won't. No, it's just the overreaction that happens because people are starred for football analysis this time of year. And you can see that the real stuff that you can actually analyze is only a couple weeks away now, and people are kind of, they're really hurting for it, Alas, brother. And I know you're number one on the list of people that just cannot wait

for regular season games to begin. I cannot wait for the National Football League to kick off, kick off in a couple of weeks. I'm gearing up for it. I'm surprised you're even able to make the show, because all these fantasy drafts you've got to study for, like, where do you fit in the time? I heard you're talking about

how you're involved in what, no less than four fantasy leagues? Yeah, I got four on the go right now, but I feel like that's the most that I'm capable of doing. A couple of years ago, last minute I got asked to join another one, like a buddy from university, they needed an extra guy, and I was like, all right,

sure, I'll get in there. And I felt like it was just too much. There was just one, too many leagues, so for me, I think the perfect number is four. Okay. But, But, yeah, I'm a big fantasy guy. I love fantasy football. I find that it consumes a lot of my life, that's for sure. But, yeah, I'll, I'm getting set.

I'm drafting. I'm pre-scouting. I'm getting ready. Well, Hazy B was on here. He was very happy to hear that you were diving deep into the tremendous fantasy information. Yeah, yeah. Getting ready. Getting ready for another season of great handicapping.

Exactly what I've been up to. And, of course, Luke, did you hear, Luke Wilson bleep talking you on the show last week? I didn't what was you saying? Oh yeah he says he's got he says he's got startling recordings of you saying unflattering things about a certain

captain of this show. Oh really? All right well I can't wait until that comes to light. That sounds like fake news. Sounds like fake news to me. I'd love to see these CDs come out. A.I. generated. That ain't very well could be. Sounds like it. Sounds like it.

Join us now is far on or TSN CFL and NFL reporter. How's it going for, Ian? Good, Mike. Dave, thanks for having me, guys. Getting closer and closer to that time, aren't we? It should be fun.

Well, we are, and we're actually talking about Taylor Algersma, who had an opportunity to start to star for the Packers this weekend, ended up playing just over a full quarter, ended up throwing for over 100 yards, and leading the Packers to three scoring drives. Like, how great of a story is this to have a U-Sports, a Canadian-born-bred developed,

quarterback kind of make some noise down south. Yeah, I think it's a fantastic opportunity. It's something that all of U-Sports and the Canadian development system can really take a bow for, right? And look, at the end of the day, you

can't make the exception to norm, right? Like, this isn't a case of every U-Sports kid can play in the NFL, but it does speak to the fact that there should be no limits. And if you are good enough and you meet the physical profile and you have all the measurables, no one should be able to say you can't.

Whether it's in the CFL or the NFL, you should at least be able to get the opportunity. And it's interesting because I've always felt that I don't know how seriously the CFL took Taylor Algorithma until the NFL took him seriously, but what he's doing right now down there is fantastic. You know, I was texting a bit with Larry Justinus, who spent some time coaching when he was younger, and, you know, Larry did the Football North program and is now primarily in in Texas and just a number of people that have kind of had their hands around this guy and mentored him

and I think all of them should feel pretty good right now about how he's playing because as we went from the big all-star game that he played in and the senior bowl and then eventually his first pre-season game and now this every step has been bigger and in every step he's looked more comfortable. Barhan I mean you look at his chances of

remaining on that roster or maybe the practice squad. I mean, you know, we all understand there's very little patience in the NFL for anybody that isn't right aboard at the right spot of the learning curve. I mean, in your experience, like, you know, kind of what are the odds here? I mean, he's had one really good preseason performance. He's got another chance in one more preseason game at Lambo to make another strong impression.

But if you had to sort of handicap the chances of him landing on a roster, on this roster, how do you see it? Well, look, it's going to come down to the Packers' desire to carry four-quartered. right? And Sean Clifford's got some pedigree because he, you know, he comes out of Penn State, he's been there for a year, and really that's who he's battling for, right? He's battling for the number three spot. And even though the NFL allows for a third quarterback to be active, right, and not all of them want to do that, right, because you've got to make an inactive, which means you're elevating them above the practice roster, right? So you go from practice

starts out of inactive and they can dress a quarterback who's on the inactive list. And most teams just don't carry four, right? You either have, they still, even though they've got that opportunity, most teams will still have two on the game day roster and one more in their building, right? Generally, a practice roster player. The odd team will put three on the active roster or, you know, or take the flexibility of the league now forward. So very few have four.

And so can Taylor-Eldgizma get past just a guy that's got a better resident? May, you know, because it's pretty clear that Malik Willis is going to be the number two behind Jordan Love, so they're battling for three. So, you know, see what it looks like. You know, I haven't followed Clifford, his preseason as closely. For everything I've heard, you know, they're pretty even across the board in practice, but, you know, the team has a year of investment in Sean Clifford. So, you know, we'll see if they see enough potential, but it's not going to be easy. You can't just look at what happened yesterday and say he's a lock to make the PR because that might mean carrying four, and I don't know what their desire is to do that.

In conversation with Farhan Lulogy, Nathan Rourke, who had a cup of coffee down in the NFL, a couple of practice squads, really starting to heat it up now with the BC Lions. I think his last six games, averaging 352 yards per game. How great is it to see him kind of finally hit his stride since returning to the CFL? Yeah, it's been good. And, you know, we've seen flashes of it all season. I'm not sure that Nathan is still consistently accurate as he was in 2022, but he's still accurate enough to be an exceptional quarterback in this league, right?

So I was really impressed with the second half of this game against Montreal, and that defense, even without Mark Antoine, a couple of pieces, is still a very good defense. And in the second half, he was 10 of 11, really 10 for 10, because the last one was just kind of a throwaway at the end of the game. for over 200 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. And in the first half, he was really just managing first down. But in the second half, he was pushing the ball down the field consistently

and looked really good doing it. So, you know, that part of his game is now there. So it's all there, right? And he's shown it in flashes, and now he's putting more and more of it together. You know, watching the way that Nathan navigates the pocket right now is also really, really impressive because there are some quarterbacks that just scramble and look to run around, whereas, He's okay just kind of stepping up in the pocket and sliding and knowing exactly how much time he has on every move.

Okay, I've stepped up inside of this guy. I know where the blocker is. I know where the next guy is coming from. I've got a half second. Waits for that guy to come, sets up the next block. Like it's so calm that it makes him pretty difficult to deal with right now. Hey, Farhan, obviously the Argos have been a lost cause, it seems. They're two and eight now after losing to the Elks.

and now this kind of insult to injury, this story that emerged last week about how next year during the World Cup they're going to have to play so-called home games that won't be home games at all. They'll be in Hamilton and Winnipeg and Regina. What did you make of that and what do you make of the fact that the Argos

have gone from being champions to being such a mess so quickly? Well, as far as the decision on games next year, I can't say I'm surprised, right? I just, you know, MLSC is just not wanted to make an effort for this team. And I can't, I can't imagine them doing what a Mardoman's going to do, and let's build a temporary facility and play a couple of games there. They're going to want to choose the path of least resistance. That's what we've seen thus far. And, you know,

it shouldn't surprise you. We've seen Touchdown Pacific take away Argos, or Touchdown Atlantic, take away an Argo's home game and put it in Halifax, right? So they maybe feel that they're going to lose less money by taking a game on the road, and they'll get more fans in Saskatchewan, and that'll be worth the additional travel cost that they've got to So I don't know what the government appetite is to help. Like here in B.C., the provincial government is going to help the lions relocate. Because ultimately, it's not the lion's fault this has happened. And when you take a lion's game and put it into another place,

they're going to bring significant economic impact because if they go to Vancouver Island or the Okinawagans, they're going to sell out. I don't know what that looks like for the Argos, but if I'm them, I would take them to a youth sports facility, take them to London and play at Western, take them to Guelph, take them to Queens, wherever, and bring some additional stands in

and try to grow the audience in those parts of the province. But that takes effort, and it's pretty clear they don't want to do that. And as far as the team is concerned, you know, a lot of people expected the Argo should take a big step backwards a year ago when they had tons of free agent losses on defense and a Chad Kelly issue at the start of the season. And they didn't, right? They kind of hung on, Chad got back,

and they wanted to, you know, having a pretty good finish to the year, and they wind up winning a Great Cup. And so I kind of think they felt it was going to be that easy again, and it's actually gone the way many expected it to go a year ago where the defensive roster turnover is a disaster. And ironically, like, you can't blame Nick Arbuckle. Like, I'm not necessarily the biggest Nick Arbuckle fan as a player. I love him as a person.

So if you would have asked me at the start of the year, this would be their record. I would have said, okay, I'd buy it, but I would have assumed it was going to be an offensive issue. The fact that the offense is actually doing reasonably well, you know, coaxie has been. exceptional all season. They've done a lot of good things. And for it to be a defensive and a special team's issue, that part of it surprises me. Farhan, it was great to chat as usual. We'll do it again soon.

Take care, guys. Talk to you. Absolutely. Farhan, Lulogy, TSN, CFL, insider, NFL reporter. Yeah, I mean, such a fall from Greta. Like, you go from winning a championship to being a two-and-eight team. It's tough. It's tough. And, you know, to his point, I think a lot of people expected the step back, especially, like, the defense got gutted, right? Chad Kelly. But the problem is, Chad Kelly was almost supposed to be out six games.

And now all of a sudden, you're starting to wonder, will we see Chad Kelly in 2025? Doesn't feel like it. Like, even if they, even if he gets healthy, do you, do you want to put him out there to re-risk injury and then next season is up in flames as well? I feel like that's a conversation that they're going to have to have internally. Do we bother? Do we just shut him down for the year and punt to next season? That's the thing. When you're 2 and 8, I mean, it's just hard to imagine there's any coming back from this, right?

I mean, even if you run the table, you may not, you may not be a factor. The problem is the CFL, it's like, it's not as difficult to make the playoffs after a 2 and 8 start, but you'd have to see signs that you could run the table. And this team has shown none of those signs. Oh, I know. They can't win a game, let alone win all the games. Brutal. And they're going to have to win most of them if they're going to have any semblance of a shot. So, yeah, it's shocking to me.

the way it's happened. And then, you know, like, I got a lot of people in my life who love this team. And I can't tell you how dispirited people were by hearing that decision that they're going to take three games on the road next year. Yeah, that's, that's tough. Like, I remember Hamilton had to do that. Yeah. Years back when they rebuilt Timmy's field over top of old I ever win. Right.

I don't remember it going very well. Yeah, no, they played at Guelph. At Guelph. Yeah, they played for the Griffins at Guelph, which it was, it was during, the time when I was at university, so I had some buddies who were there, and they thought it was cool. They're like, oh, yeah, you know, sharing, you know, some digs with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. They got to watch practice, go to games and all that. And the Guelph Griffin thought it was great.

I would imagine that a lot of the tabbies who were playing at the time didn't enjoy that. And I don't think the Argos are going to enjoy that either. You wonder what that could do for free agency and how difficult it would be to bring in some high-level free agents to try and get this team into a much better situation next year. I'm not sure they're going to have much success with that pitch point that they're going to lose out on a bunch of a bunch of home games. You might leave that out of the initial push. Yeah, that's going to be a good follow-up for any agent out there, though. And question for the GMs, if any players are talking to them.

But, yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens. All right. Ross Tucker still to join us at 605. Get into what's going on in the NFL and Lawrence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada, to join us at 630. You listen to Overdrive on TSN-1050, live on TSN2, and live on YouTube. Overdrive continues on TSN-1050 and live up on TSN2. Mike DiStefano, Dave Festchuk here, filling in on a Monday.

Just looking at the worst Toronto sports trade bracket, which you can find on TSN 1050 in their Twitter page or X, whatever you want to call it. And looking at Muggan to the Leafs. And I don't know if you heard, but do you. Dubus was recently on a podcast. I think it was Cam and Strix's podcast. Yeah. And came out and said, like, pointed at that specific trade, the mulligan for Marchment as, like, one that he regrets.

It's like, that's the one. I know. I thought it was kind of comical. A dad of all moves that he made here in Toronto was the one that he decided to circle. In a previous interview, he said his biggest regret was screwing up the contracts of the three big young guys after given to, Averis $77 million. So, you know, who knows what his biggest regret is. He's got a number of them, I think, Al's brother.

Yeah, I thought I heard actually. It looks like Pittsburgh might be looking to sell, uh, sell off the Penguins looking to sell. I thought I saw Fenway is looking to move that franchise again after, they bought it, what, like two, two, three years ago? You have, yeah, it doesn't, I don't quote me on that, but it doesn't feel like that long ago that they bought it and, and hired to do this.

Yeah, there's the rumors that Maryland you may be in line to get back in there. And who knows? That'd be good. That'd be good. All right, second hour, over, third hour of Overdrive continues. Seasoned gamer, or just video game curious, this weekend gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games, from basics to beyond. The hottest gaming news, insight, and industry leaders, and more weekly.

Join me, Naomi Kyle, and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates. Even if you're a total newbie. stream this week in gaming on the free iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts