OverDrive - OverDrive - August 22, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Join Jim Tatti, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 3 on OverDrive! GriffsThePitch.com Columnist Richard Griffin joins to discuss Shane Bieber's debut with the Blue Jays, transitioning back to the majors with a new team and John Schneider's imperative impact coaching. TSN Golf Analyst Bob Weeks joins to dive into the CPKC Women's Open, Tour Championship buzzing headlines and Keegan Bradley's captaincy choice at the Ryder Cup and the FanDuel Best Bets. 

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apply. And today at the final hour of Melon Friday, Jim Taddy Dayfest Chuck and strutty with you. Overdrivers brought you by Fandul, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. We're going to have weeksie at the bottom of the hour talking about golf and shortly Richard Griffin talking about baseball. Shane

Bieber tonight, debuts for the Jays. And I just want to update the CPKC, LPGA, Stop in Mississauga. Aki EY has the lead through the second round at 9 under. Henderson had a better day today, finished at 500, sits at 500

for the tournament, and a T6, and dang, the 15-year-old had, he was what, two over today? Yeah, two over. Yeah, so since it minus 3 and a T-14, so plenty of action left in that weeks, he will flesh it out for us. I'm starting, I should have

brought this up earlier. We had Trent Frederick on, and he signed the nice eight-year deal. Yesterday, Nazar, 6.6 for seven years. And Marco Rossi today, three years, an average 5 million for 15 million. I think it goes 4, 5, and 6, something like that to get to 15 million? Yeah, obviously, it seems a bit of a dicey negotiation from a distance, at least.

And now the Minnesota is in a little bit different position with the money that's come off the books with the two guys they bought out, Parisi and companies. So now they have a little bit more money to work. They still have some other big deals to kind of work out in the future or coming on the books. I like Mark Rossi. I think that he's a guy that can continue to grow as a player and get more points, but they need, like they need as much talent as they can in that top six, and he's one guy to have their done.

It just seems that, you know, for the RFA category, the comparables aren't as etched in stone as they are for the UFAs. There's different ground here, isn't there? Yeah, I mean, it's changed a lot, right? Remember, years ago, you'd get your qualifying offer and they'd want to grind you down to nothing. And now that's, you know, they're pretty comfortable trying to lift guys up, you know, quickly on their second contract that we saw with Chicago yesterday. Yeah, yesterday with Nazar. So I think it's a little bit tricky.

Then players have to decide, do I want to sign long term? Do I want to have shorter deals? Then even, you know, your point was Malibated earlier. Tats said, no, there's no more eight-year deals after this. So, you know, does that extra make a difference to you? Do you want to have that security, or do you want to, you know, quote-unquote, roll the dice a little bit. So it's all a little bit up in the air, and I think each case is a little bit individual. But I think if I'm feeling really comfortable about a young player, I would definitely want to sign him as quick as I can to the longest deal possible because that kind of locks in my costs.

Now, there's a risk, obviously. Like is Nazar going to be worse, $6.5 million moving forward? I think so. But there's always a risk. But most of them do come through, Festchuk. Yeah, you got a hope, right? I mean, and this is where you have to trust your executive team and your internal scouting. I mean, nobody should know your players better than anybody else in the league, right?

You should be, you should have an intimate knowledge of what makes your guys tick, how driven they are to get better, what are the odds they're going to get better because of that. Yeah, that's the judgment call you have to make as an organization. And sophisticated, good organizations are pretty, have a pretty good batter average on that. But this Marco Rossi one is kind of intriguing to me because, is this is a guy who was, you know, at times, I think, demoted down to the fourth line, you know, for the wild, there's been some contention about where he should be in the lineup

and now they give him a three-year deal and some pretty good money. Again, it comes down to your trust of Bill Guerin's judgment of the situation that this guy is going to produce at that level. Yeah, when you look at, like, I think that the risk is always the term. It's not the number, right? So, you know, three years on him at $5 million, this isn't going to kill you, right? If you go longer on a player and it doesn't work out, now you've got a big problem. No, but if you've got $5 million guys on the fourth line, that's not optimal.

Yeah, but I think he was north of 50 points, wasn't he? Yeah. I don't see him as a fourth line. I mean, I guess maybe there was some times he wasn't there. But I see him as a 50-plus point player, and I think that for $5 million, if you get 50 points on a year, maybe he wasn't his best, I think you're pretty satisfied as an organization. It is interesting, you know, with the different sort of currencies, length of deal, term, and dollar figure.

And some of these guys were rumored to be trade bait because they thought there'd be trouble. Certainly Rossi was. And you go back to when we broke after July 1st, there was supposed to be another wave of a free agent frenzy that never really happened. I haven't seen it. There was supposed to be RFAs that were moved and traded that really hasn't happened. It's been a really, yeah, you said it. It's been a quiet summer.

I guess there are shoes that will drop eventually. I guess a lot of GMs are out there playing golf, strutty. I mean, I don't know if they're in Europe and Scotland, playing the links courses over there, and they're out of reach of decent cell signals, but there are a lot of guys still available out there. And it does feel like teams, there are a lot of teams that you would think have to still make some moves.

So where's the next pressure point? You know, we always talk about the trade deadline or July 1st or the draft, maybe another one. there so now where's that next pressure point is it is it when you have to submit your roster a couple days before it's season starts got to be that's the next one yeah like to start at training camp that doesn't feel like a pressure point to me no i i agree with you i think it's probably when you declare your roster but the problem with that is everybody has the same problem they have too many players i mean there's not even a lot of guys on pTOs is there i mean there's there are

some but it's it's not widespread they'll be more soon i'm sure yeah as as training camp approach us here. And my favorite is when, you know, every team's fan base goes through this. We can't put this guy through waivers. We're going to lose them. We're going to lose them. Like, whatever it is. Jason Stratt, we'll lose this guy for sure.

And then another markets are like, who is this guy? I never even heard of this guy. Why are we picking this guy up, right? Like, and so that game was always interesting because there are a few waiver pickups for sure. But I think every fan base really agonizes over their, you know, their sixth defensemen or seven defensemen. When reality, everybody has those guys already.

Absolutely. Well said. Let's return to the lead story. Shane Bieber goes tonight for the Jays. They're in Miami for the weekend. Come home and play Minnesota and then Milwaukee. And the starting line up is Springer leading off. Barger, Bichette, Kirk, Varsho, France, Lucas, Clement, and Clement and Jimenez, and of course, Vladdy not in. And let's get further, I guess, thoughts on this big moment for the Jays and for Major League Baseball. Griffith is here. Richard Griffin. Griff's the pitch.com is the website and exit philosophy is the podcast. Griff, welcome. How are you today? I'm good, boys. How are you guys? We're getting through this. So Shane Bieber debuting with the Jays. You've been around this game for a long time. This debut, where does it rank for you? I think you could compare it to David Cohn when he came in in 1992,

and they went on to win the World Series because David Price is a different story. He was one of many who came at the trade deadline, so it wasn't like there was one guy, and he was the savior moving forward. But in this case, you've got a guy. David Cohn came in, made his first start for the Jays on August 29th, and then had seven more starts. His first two starts, he gave up 14 runs or 12 runs in 12 and 2 3rds inning, so they were not a great success. I'm not saying that Shane Bieber is going to be like that, but that's the closest comp I can get is David Cohn arriving, and it really stirred the clubhouse up in terms of, wow, this organization, this team,

this front office is really trying to win, and they brought a former Cy Young winner in David Cohn in, and I think that's the best comp. So obviously another former Cy Young Weiner in Shane Bieber, Griff, and we just had Jim Duquette on, and he was saying, look, it could be really exciting, it could be really intriguing, but, you know, Jim as a longtime baseball executive, has a measure of skepticism that a guy who hasn't pitched in 507 days

and has been through Tommy John, and no matter how good he's looked in the miners, there may be some growing paints here as he gets back to the major league level. I mean, what's your expectation on that front, Griff? Well, I think that the things he's got going for him getting to this point in Miami is that he's going to have better defense and he's going to have adrenaline. And I think those two things together,

in his last start at Buffalo, he had pitched six innings and 75 pitches, and that should have been enough for the Blue Jays to shut him down and get him ready for Miami. But he talked his way back out for a seventh inning through 15 more pitches, reached 90s. And I think that's a realistic goal for him here. I mean, Tommy John's surgery isn't the giant shadow that it used to be over a player's career.

And even though Tommy John is still the all-time winning his pitcher post-Tommy John, the surgery has improved and he's been 16 months between Major League starts. I think we can expect the Shane Bieber of 2021-22 before his elbow started fraying too badly. As a pitcher, when he joins a team, obviously you've got to get comfortable with the surroundings and all that stuff,

but how long does it take for a pitcher, especially at this level, to get comfortable with his catcher and the flow and the pace and the rhythm that he's trying to help all the things. the pitcher make his calls? Yeah, I think the fact that he's really spent 22 days with the organization, and I know he's gone down and made some starts, but he comes right back up to the dugout, and he talks,

you see him on the rail talking with Max Scher and talking with Chris Batchett and talking with Jose Burrios, and I think that the comfort level with Alejandro Kirk will be easy because he steals pitches at the bottom of the strike zone. He commands the framing, and I like to call it presentation, not framing, because if you present it to the umpire with respect, you'll get more calls that way, rather than those guys who jerk the ball back to the middle of the plate and look over their shoulder to see if the umpire fell for it. But I don't think that Alejandro Kirk will have difficulty dealing with Shane Bieber. He's caught him in the pen. He knows what he throws. they go over a game plan for the Miami Marlins.

I think it'll be great. I expect good things for 90 pitches, and if he gets to six innings, it'll be a success. Graf, I really like your David Cohn analysis or comparison, just because it brings me back to where the Jays were back then and like a two or three-year build into eventually winning back-to-back World Series titles. Would you, aside from the obvious pitcher, Bieber, and Cohn, would you equate what the Js have

and the rest of their roster to what they had back then? Yeah, I really, you know, offensively, I think it's hard to match up 92 and today's team when Vlad's healthy and probably a good thing that they're giving them an extra couple of days' rest. But I think that the pitching staff, the starting rotation, in 92, David Cohn was joined. joining Jack Morris, Juan Guzman, and Jimmy Key.

And so the starting rotation then was veteran. The starting rotation now is veteran. I don't think it's a big issue that Eric Lauer is going to the bullpen. I've studied the rest of the schedule, and you can get four of your start. If you go to a modified six-man rotation using the off days for, like, sitting Eric Lauer on a turn through the rotation like they've told him and he's available in Miami. If you do that, you've got four guys making six starts, two guys making five starts, including Eric Lauer.

And I think that that will benefit the Blue Jays pitching in October more than having guys going every fifth day. And to say that, oh, they have a routine and they need to be on their five-day routine, I don't buy that at all. I talk to Jose Burrios, who is the – the bell cow in this regard, and if he gets the 32 starts, which he will, under this modified plan, if he gets to his 32 starts, which amazingly would be the seventh full season in a row that he's hit exactly 32 starts, I asked him the question, and he smiled broadly,

and he said, yeah, that's good with me. So even though they say they want the ball every fifth day, I think that extra day will benefit the team and will benefit the bullpen as they go deeper into games. Another guy turning heads down at Buffalo Griff is Trey is Savage. Eight strikeouts in his most recent outing with the AAA Bisons, just walking a couple,

hitting 93, with the fastball. We've seen this guy rocket shipped through the minors this season. What's your sort of Jerry's percentage that he finds himself in the major leagues playing a significant role down the stretch or into the playoffs for the Blue Jays?

Well, there's a guy who's a better comp to David Price than is Shane Bieber because David Price with the Tampa Bay Rays was drafted out of Vanderbilt came up as the first draft pick first overall pick

and then as a rookie starter he came up and helped them out in the bullpen in the final month and through the playoffs on their only World Series appearance and there's a better cop I think Yosavich has a chance

to be that guy who can come up and log some innings in the postseason when we've all seen for the last 15, 20 years that the bullpen's become ever more important, the deeper you go into October. So he could be that guy who comes in in a big situation. They need him for more than three outs,

and he goes out there and he has great stuff and is able to get the strikeouts or ground balls, and that's a better comp to David Price. Outside of, you know, the starters going longer to help out the bullpen, Is there something tactically that, you know, that Schneider and the pitching coaches can kind of help the bullpen with to get kind of feeling good about themselves that they head deeper into this season and the playoffs?

Yeah, that's probably the biggest concern for the Blue Jays heading down the stretch is the fact of Brendan Little, I don't know if he's just breathing or working on fumes, but his command of the strike zone, he needs hitters to chase, And the better teams that you face, the fewer faces you're going to get. So there's your number one left hand. And if you can't throw strikes, if he can't get ahead in the count,

that becomes a problem when it comes down to crunch time against the best teams. And Sir Anthony Dominguez, same thing. He has some command issues that he needs to iron out. Louis Varland, he goes right after hitters, which can be dangerous because he's given up a couple home runs. And I know Fet Shuck was talking earlier about home run. being the Achilles heel of this pitching staff. And that's pretty accurate. I mean, how often can you walk justice or Aaron Judge?

How often can you walk Aaron Judge in the playoffs so that he doesn't damage you with a home run ball? And, yeah, so the bullpen is an Achilles heel, and they're going to have to have guys step up their performance if they're going to go deep. Yes, the judge is justice. Now, Griff, for context, you and I can remember when Tommy John had the surgery and then got the surgery named after him. So when we talk about Shane Bieber tonight, what are your expectations?

I'm just looking for command and control and obviously there's a pitch count. Well, they gave him the full allotment of starts on his one-month injury rehab. I was surprised that he made that last start in Buffalo because I thought he was ready to go. but then that would have to do with the fact that they've got five legitimate starters and they didn't really need him at that point. So the fact that they gave him that much time, the fact that he's had 16 months since Tommy John's surgery, which they say 12 to 15 is how much a pitcher would need normally.

So he's beyond that. And that extra month was taken working on his command at AAA in both the Guardians and the Blue Jays organization. So I think he's ready to throw 90 with command, throws 93, 94 miles an hour, and if he can locate it, then he should be – it'll be interesting to see because, like I said, about David Cohn, his first two starts were shaky because he was with a new organization and maybe was having trouble adjusting, and it was a shock to him going from the Mets to the Blue Jays. But in this case, there's been time to prepare. There's been time for Bieber to be ready, and I expect the best. Hey, Graf, we had Jim Duquette on. We were talking about a lot of things.

And a point he brought up, you know, in a moment like this, we're talking about pitchers and we're talking about hitters. We talk about players an awful lot. But when the playoffs arrive, we often start talking about managers and managers' decisions and why did he pull this guy? Why didn't he pull this guy? And Duquette sort of gave the nod in his assessment of the, American League, if he was sort of picking strategists in the dugout, he thinks AJ Hinch may have

an edge over his competitors. How do you sort of handicap the American League managers, and where does John Schneider fit into that hierarchy? Well, I think it also helps the guys who are standing beside you in the dugout, and I think that that helps John Schneider. I know that the fan bases in New York and Boston are not very high on that. their own managers, but I think you're right, AJ Hinch is the best of that

lot, but I think among the contenders that John Schneider might rank behind him, not close behind him, but between him and Aaron Boone and Cora. Well, what areas would you see that, you know,

that he'd have to bridge that gap? What does he have to kind of maybe rethink or just to revaluate the way he's doing to kind of get closer to the top manager in the league? Well, I think that a lot of that has to do with your game planning, you're pitching through the course of one game. You see the opposing lineup.

You say this is ideally how we're going to attack them with our pitching staff, with our left-handers. And if it doesn't go right, if there's a blip on your plan, then you look like an idiot, and the fan base gets on you. And I think that if the bullpen straightens itself out, that's the sort of thing that would make John Schneider look better because he's got it planned. It's just that the best laid plans, as some famous writer once said.

Let's go back to when we started the story in spring training. Santander was supposed to be a big factor. Obviously not. Will he come back? What's his status? Well, I don't think he'll come back. it wouldn't be any factor this year but when you think about it

there are two there are two things that save the clubhouse for the Blue Jays and the fan base basically one of them was signing Vlad to a 15 year deal and that became the face of the franchise

that showed the clubhouse that they were ready to compete that they wanted to compete they wanted to win now and the other one was in the off season trading for Soundtendare nobody knew he was going to be hurt. Everybody knew that he hit 44 home runs, and that was an aspect of the game

that the Blue Jay's offense was missing. And the fact that guys like Nathan Lucas have stepped up, but Miles Straw has surprised that doesn't take away from the fact that they needed to make an off-season move. That was Santander. He's got four more years on his contract.

So I think they're looking forward to next year and beyond to see what they have. Griff, we were making a little light of the fact that maybe the biggest factor tonight is how the Blue Jays conducted themselves in two free nights on South Beach heading into tonight's game against the Marlins. But you've been with the club on the road, Griffin. I don't know how many of these secrets you're saving for your memoir, your tell-all memoir of your life in baseball. But, you know, what's your experience with how teams actually

handle a couple of free nights in a great city? Well, I was there in the last time that the Jay's went to Miami. I was the PR guy, and, yeah, they had a night off and a day off. So the same scenario, and it's at the Fontainebleau, the Fontainebleu, or however you pronounce it. And there's a golf course on site, there's bars on site, but there's a giant pool, and everybody had their families there. So I think the families may be the savior of the sanity of the players in terms of, again, getting enough rest and moving forward to the three-game series.

But I didn't have my family there, so I was a bit groggy for three straight days. I love it. You know, that's an interesting part of baseball that you don't see in other sports. Because the teams camp out in the city for two, three, four days, their families will fly in and stay with them, essentially, for that time to see them because a lot of the families don't move to the community they play in because they're never there. Yeah, it's a different, you're right, it's different, even for the athletes traveling. I mean, you can even put your stuff in a drawer in a hotel room if that's the way you roll.

But, yeah, the family's definitely on trips to Chicago, on trips to San Diego, West Coast, and New York, and especially Miami. They all fly in with young kids. I mean, most of these players are around 30 or in their 30, so their kids are like, around 10 years old and yeah it's a different experience it's a different athlete and I think that they will be ready to play tonight I don't think there's too many of those wild livers anymore in the in the game I'm a throwback to the 70s and 80s and 90s with a different game back then we call that old school griff yeah yeah that's the way it was right thanks very much grip appreciate it all right guys enjoy Richard Griffin uh the exit

philosophy is the podcast, griff's the pitch.com is the website. So my experience has told me that in the old days, if you really wanted to know who enjoyed the road trip, you would watch how he fielded the ground ball. And if it went through his legs, he had a successful night the night before. It's that simple. That's a pretty good indicator. There's a famous Blue Jay moment that I'll tell you off microphone, where that was certainly backed up.

Well, Stratt, I mean, having lived most of my adult life, if you want to call it that, kind of walking through locker rooms you get sometimes you can also smell it oh yeah absolutely i mean you know what i got to say when i when i played there weren't many times and i i couldn't do it right i wasn't good enough to be to go out the night before games but there weren't many times where i saw guys go out the night before games now if we played saturday night and we didn't play again until monday it's a little different story right you're probably going out on that Saturday especially if you come into a lot of those you know like a Toronto i mean there's so many guys that are from that area and all their buddies around like come out my buddies are here and you're like okay i'll come for one

and then ends up being a pretty late night but um yeah i think it has changed too like social media has changed so much you just especially if you're not playing well everybody has a camera yeah and everyone oh i saw whatever player x he was at the bar didn't seem like it cared that he lost tonight or whatever and and you know you got to give sometimes players need a chance to blow off steam or get together as a team so i i hear a lot more where teams are you know renting out bars and they're with their family and friends and kind of having private parties, right? Where they're not going to bars as much

because it's just can't hide. Up next, Bob Weeks Talking Golf, Mailed in Friday, brought you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree aside and a drink and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston Pizza. Overdrive, TSN2, TSN-1050, and live on YouTube.

Overdrive. Second Studio, Struddy in the Man Cave. Get a beer over to golf now. Is he with us? Not there. Of course not, because Doogie was in here chatting with us. That's right. Burn the entire commercial break. Smells good, though.

Oh. Are you kidding? Does it smell nice? Yeah, when he came in today, I had a sinus problem. Cleared it right out. Clear it right out. Oh, man. Grady, I'm not telling him, he's telling the truth. He's had this nasal drip thing going, and Doogie walks in, and it's like, it's smooth, smooth sinuses.

Yeah. What brands are you wearing today? Oh, it's it's never, it's never one. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a concoction, right? Oh, it's, but it smells expensive, strutty. It doesn't smell like your, your, your skin bracer, your, your, your old spice, your sort of drugstore. This is, this is not drugstore, this is like boutique cologne. Yeah.

It's high end. It's big. I have to say, we're walking down the hall, and there were two ladies walking the other way, and they looked back and it went, must be the cologne. Must be the clone. It's a cent-free building. I mean, it was probably offensive. Let's talk about some golf now.

Bob Weeks is here, Golf Talk, Canada, and TSN Golf Analyst. Weeksie, how are you? I'm doing very well, just on the shuttle heading out of the Mississauga, beautiful Mississauga Golf and Country Club. Well said, and Brooke Henderson was the star. Best round of the day, five under, sits at 500 for the tournament in a T-5, so nice day by her. Yeah, great day.

Something she's been looking for for a while, I think. She's talked about how it was a little bit of a moment. At the end of her round yesterday is propelled into today's round. And she did, I mean, she hit a whole bunch of fairways. She had a whole bunch of greens. The putter has probably been the key for her so far, 26 foot yesterday, 28 today. She put a new putter in the bag just before the weekend. You know how that goes, right?

The putter will work for a little while. Hopefully it will keep working for. When I get a new putter, it works for about 18 holes. And then, of course, I've got to go buy a new one. But she's playing some great golf right now. And you can see it, you can kind of see it in her emotion and her face that she's, she's super happy right now because it's been a long, sort of frustrating year for her. So what did you make of Aphrodite Deng, Weeksie?

She, obviously, she turned a lot of heads with a five under 66 in her opening round at age 15. She won the U.S. junior. Today it doesn't go quite as well. She's had a ton of birdies, also, you know, a few bogeys and a double and shoots a 73-2 over par to sit at three under, but still tied for 15th at age 15. What have you made of this performance so far? I mean, she's playing some pretty mature golf for a 15-year-old. That's kind of what comes out to me.

I mean, yes, she had a bumpy road today, but she fought back. She didn't kind of let it get completely off the handles, as you said. She's in 15th place. I think that, you know, to watch her play, she doesn't really show any emotion on her face. She's a quick player, really quick player. She hardly waits for the other person to finish marking their ball before she's putting or taking her next shot or something along those lines. So she's got a real enthusiasm for the game.

And again, she's smart. She's playing smart golf to the best of her ability. I think today the biggest key was she didn't keep the ball in the fairway off the tee a lot. So she was sort of scrambling out of the rough and trying to play defensive. She ended up a few bunkers. She missed getting up and down three times. So, again, you know, you sort of lose track of the fact that she's 15 when you watch her play because she is such a mature golfer for her age and in this field.

I mean, she's certainly not out of place here. Bob, sir, go back to Brooke. I watched some of that competition this morning, and just off the tee, she looks so confident. And I know when I'm playing while I hit it, I'm like, yep, that's good. I just walk off. She was doing that and hitting a lot better than I do. So do you think that her game, the way she's playing, the conference, confidence she's showing in many moments, including that one.

Does she have the ability to kind of push through and make up the rest of the ground for Sunday? Yeah, I mean, I mean, there'd be nothing she'd love more, obviously, than to do that. You know, let's not lose sight of the fact it's been a long. She's now two years in without a win. She's struggled for consistency. She's found, you know, sometimes it's her putter, sometimes it's her iron. Not very often her driver.

Like you say, you know, a lot of times she'll tee it off. she'll hit it and pick up the tea right away and go away. And there's actually something about that. She knows that she's hit it well, but her eyesight is not good enough that she actually can't pick up where the ball is. So she doesn't know where it's going. She's because I know I hit it well, but I have no idea where it's going.

So I'll let my sister, who is her caddy, Brittany, look at it and find it for me. So there's a little bit of something to that. But yes, I do think she can carry this forward. There's a good crop of players ahead of her right now on the leaderboard, and they're not going to go away. but I think with the crowd behind her that she's using to her advantage now, you know, it can be plus or minus when you've got a big crowd like that following you. If you start to slip, you know, you want to force it a little bit more.

That's what Brooke has said in the past. So I think she's comfortable with the game right now. And in a lot of ways, this may be the best golf she's played all season. So, I mean, you've witnessed two rounds there. We're at the halfway point. In terms of how that course plays, in terms of how the field of players looks, could you make a forecast for the weekend? You know, it's pretty tough right now.

I will say that QI, who's at the top of the leaderboard right now, is coming off a win last week, and she doesn't seem to be letting up. And there's sort of a big bunch of players right now. This is, of course, I think, where, you know, if you don't, if you slide just a little bit, I think you can get yourself in big trouble. So if you start missing fairways, if you start getting it into bunkers and things like that,

I think it's often tough to try and play catch-up on this course, I guess. Now, Brooke did it today, but that's, you know, the best round of the day. She's moved herself back into contention. I think that the leaders are probably amongst the top 20 or so that are on the leaderboard at this moment. But this is a course that I think is going to show its teeth even more as it dries out a little bit. There may be a little rain for Sunday for what we're hearing,

but it was soft to start with. It's getting firmer as we go through the week and could be tough. But I think you're going to see some pretty good scoring here from the guys, from the people you expect. Let's put it that way. So the men's tour, obviously, Bob down in Atlanta at the Tour championship. And breaking news, Scotty Sheffler looks somewhat human today. Only shot one under par 69.

And so it is Russell Henley and Tommy Fleetwood. Top 10 Tommy, second place Tommy, who share the 36-hole lead. I mean, we probably asked this question to you, like, I don't know how many times, Bob, over the years. But can Tommy actually get it done on the U.S. soil for the first time in his career after his illustrious history not winning on the PGA Tour? Well, this is event number 164 of his PGA Tour career. So to say he's overdue might be the understate.

Yeah, I think the other 29 guys in the field would love to see Tommy win one other than obviously maybe themselves or something. But Tommy Flewitt was a super popular guy. He's had his chances. Look, he had a chance to win that playoff that Nick Taylor eventually won at the RBC Canadian Open a couple of years ago. He had a chance in Memphis a couple weeks ago, and you could just kind of see him coming unglued down the stretch. So there's things that are in his golf bag and there's things that are in his head that have been keeping him from winning. on the tour, and I think that at one point it's going to happen. He's too good a golfer, and maybe this is the week.

It would be kind of fitting, right? The guy who hasn't won in 164 starts, but he's now he's your FedEx Cup champion. I think it would be kind of neat. Third and fourth in the last two playoff events. So some good stuff for Tommy Fleet. The only time they're not going to like him is probably in a couple of weeks on the opposition for the Ryder Cup team.

I would say that Scotty Sheffler gave it one of the best two-handed sand slammers I've ever seen. Man, he took his club and just dug it into the sand today. I'm very unexpected to see Scotty Shepler doing that, but it goes to show you a little bit about what a perfectionist he is with his golf swing and his golf game. And I wish I could shoot a one under and be upset about it. You know, that would be a really good feeling to have, I think.

But I don't think he's gone away, and he's five back. He was four back with one round to go last week, and he won. So don't count them out yet. Yeah, Bob, that's where I want to take you. So, you know, they've got some separation a little bit on that leaderboard. But, you know, we saw a minus seven today, a minus eight, I believe. Does it, is it too late for some of those guys or maybe minus three, minus four, knowing the way the course is playing?

Yeah, you'd have to put together two really spectacular rounds. It's not out of possibility, I guess, but, you know, I think you're going to look at some of those guys at the top. I mean, Russell Hanley might be the most underrated PG-2 player there is right now. The guys won once in either get nine top. 10s this year. And I mean, he's in the top 10 in the world, and I don't know if a lot of people really know a lot about him. So he's a guy to watch. Obviously, Tommy Fleetwood, as we talked about, you can go down the list here. I mean, there's not really any weak names in there,

but I do think, you know, at some point, you're going to have to realize that, okay, I'm eight back. How am I going to make that up unless I'm Scotty Sheffler? I think I'd love to see sort of maybe, you know, Schaeffler and Henley and Fleetwood and a few of those guys who were up there battle it down the stretch. You give us a good finish to the season because that would be a nice conclusion for this event. And I'm sure Scotty Schaeffler is sitting there going, I wish I had my 10 strokes from that starting strokes thing that they used to go with last year. So, you know, the new format I think is proving, and it's only probably going to be a temporary one, but without those starting strokes, I think it's a much better competition. You've had lead

changes. You've had a lot more people closer to the lead. So we'll see what happens as we get to Saturday and Sunday, but I think it's going to be a dog fight down the stretch. These guys are pretty good. Well, I'm glad you brought up the new format. So where are you on that? I mean, I guess I could be converted either way, but

I didn't like the carryover thing because it just too much work to remember how it was. Yeah, I mean, you sit there and, you sit there and try to figure out. What is this guy's what does this guy score? Is it 8-100, 9-under? I can't figure it out. Or, you You know, like if you were, yesterday, if you were Russell Hanley and you shot 61 and you're still five shots back of the lead or something along those lines, it would be kind of a kick in the teeth.

Now, from what I've heard talking to some people in the last couple of weeks, you know, this is a temporary format. They're going to come up with something different next year, something that is not starting strokes, but might give an advantage to, say, the top four players who finish at the FedEx Cup. There's a lot of minds thinking on this, and that might be a bit of a problem because of that. But I think by this time next year, you'll see a different kind of format. Maybe match play. TV doesn't love match play because it can in quickly or can be with two players who aren't, say, let's say, marquee players. So they'll figure something out, and hopefully they'll have it in place before next year.

Hey, Bob, you talk about the pressure on Tommy Fleetwood to finally get it over the line. But if I'm sort of handicapped in this field, it feels like nobody is more stressed at the Tour Championship than Keegan Bradley. who's, what, he's at minus six, he's seven shots off the lead, but he's sort of like the guy under the microscope because he is the Rider Cup captain for the United States. He sits in 11th place in the Ryder Cup standings. Of course, the first six guys in those standings get automatic bids to the team,

and it's the captain's job to pick the next six. And he has called, you know, the decision whether or not he should be a playing captain or just a captain and pick six guys, not including himself, the biggest decision of his life. What do you make of all the hand-wringing here, and how do you think it's going to turn out? Well, yeah, it's, look, he's in an awkward place, and most of the guys who are in that first top six

and some of the ones that are, you know, more or less locks for the rest of it, are saying, you know, you've got to have him on that team. One, he's playing great, and two, he is like a feisty guy that goes well in these kind of competition. That's probably why they named him as the captain. on the other side is I think it's too big a job to be the captain and to play on this team. I mean, I know Tiger did it at the President's Cup a few years ago, but the last guy in the Reader Cup was with Arnold Palmer right back in the 60s.

So it's a big job. Now, he's got a pretty good group of assistant captains, including Jim Furik, who has been a captain before, which is always good. But I don't know. I think this, he's going to have a hard time turning this down just because I think the other players see him as an asset more as a player than as a captain. So, you know, we'll find out next week when he makes his picks. And I'd be surprised if he didn't pick himself.

Bob, whose decision? Is that solely his decision? Or is that kind of a group choice with maybe some of the other assistant coaches? At the end of the day, it's totally up to him. But I can assure you he's going over it with all sorts of people. And, I mean, you know, he's looking at it with his captain's assistance. He's looking at it through the analytics department. The guys, they have deep research on all their players.

And, you know, sometimes it's someone, if someone, you pick someone who pairs up, they might not be the best player, but they pair well. I mean, you know, Scotty Sheffler and Sam Burns are great friends, and they play great golf together. So that might be a reason why Sam Burns gets picked other than the fact that he's had a pretty good season. But those are the kind of decisions that have to be made. But it's totally up to Keegan Bradley at the end of the day. He's the guy who's got to make the phone call.

And I guess he's going to call himself and tell him when he's on the team. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't among the six-named guys. And it wouldn't hurt for him to have a good finish this week that would boost him up a little bit. Bob, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Okay, take care. Bob Weeks, Golf Town, Canada, CSN golf analyst covering the CPKC in Mississauga and, of course, the Tour Championship. Tons going on.

I'll tell you what, you know, Rory is set up this beautifully because, you know, Rory to plant the seed that he could never be the playing captain of the European team and he's been asked and he would never even try it, I think is added to the stress of Keegan Bradley strutty because all the Europeans are saying you'd be crazy to do that. And yet, as Bob points out, it probably makes sense for him to pick himself because he is a fiery guy who's performed really well in these team events, but it seems like in some ways he can't win unless they win. This is what I think.

I think that it's hard to be responsible for your own. game and everyone else's game at the same time. I think it's a lot to ask. So if it was me, I would remove myself from playing, even though I want to play. But I think it's just too much. You can't worry about everybody all the time and your own game and be efficient in your own game. I would add the provisal of the American team because the expectations are so high.

Yeah, you're not supposed to lose on a home soil. No. Yeah. And Rory's gone out there and said, hey, the hardest thing to do is win on the road at the Ryder Cup and we're going to do it at Bethpage. So it's great drama. It's a lot of fun. It's a great soap opera.

But I'm, see, I'm on the other side of it, Struddy. Like, I think he knows deep in his heart, he's one of the, you know, he should be one of the guys as a competitor. He knows he would add to the value as a player more than he would as a captain. I think that's in a really tough spot. Yeah, the energy, the energy for do that for that long, watching everybody else, making those choices, late night decisions, and playing with energy. he's not Tiger Woods That's true

Who is Nobody is Well who knows how much sleep Tiger was actually getting there So at that time Another show Mail it in I got to do this

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same game parlay in seconds on the Fandul's sportsbook app. Doogie, what do you have? Anything surgical? All right, fellas. Bieber fever has landed in Toronto. And you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. So we're going with the Toronto Blue Jays on the money line

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Cameron Moore is on the board today, replacing JP who's on holiday. And this is Cameron's last day with us. So Cameron, it was nice working with you on the Leafs games, nice doing these shows with you, and all the best to you. I'm going to miss you guys. You know, being up here with the booth in the Raptors games, certainly this job has afforded me opportunities that I could never dream of. I was able to attend Vince Carter's retirement ceremony,

the Jersey retirement ceremony. That was fun. And those things, when you're a kid and you go and join this industry, I know, Dave, you've been to the Masters and been to the Super Bowl and all those events. When you're a kid, you want to get in this industry, you think of those events and being able to work along you guys, work alongside the athletes that have had, the hosts that I've had, Dugie next to me, Owen as well, made tremendous friends, and it's just been a great opportunity to work for a company that I watched growing up as a kid. So it's been an honor, and I'm excited for my new opportunity.

well said and congratulations to you on your new opportunity and what he said there is absolutely true attending those events that we all that we all go to what an honor that is well congratulations cam other than the fact that the Vince Carter retirement ceremony was a disgrace to the raptors organization oh I wish you all the best geez pause on the Friday wow saying that's what it was it was oh wow okay well we're in the franchise really hired his number okay week move well okay We've got 30 seconds. Help me out. Recover it.

Pull us back up. One thing I will say, though, is that I'll be Cologne-I'll be Cologne-Free. Because I'll have to sit next to doogie in this box. Unneeded shots here, fellas. Let's go on a break. Yeah, I'm going to be Cologne free in 15 seconds. So, Cameron, thanks very much. You guys will be back next week.

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