OverDrive - OverDrive - July 7, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Join Jim Tatti and Dave Feschuk for Hour 3 on OverDrive! London Knights Forward and Maple Leafs Prospect Easton Cowan joins to discuss his development camp experience, winning the Memorial Cup with the Knights and gearing up for the season. Foul Territory Host and Former MLBer Erik Kratz joins to dive into the Blue Jays' winning streak, Alejandro Kirk cracking the All-Star Game lineup and Toronto's trade deadline priorities. 

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The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeartRadio app Oh, yes, guy our number three overdrive on a Monday Jim Taddy Dave fest check with the Toronto Stars something for the regulars who are long gone They've Adios they're gone

On many a golf course two of them and noodles who knows what he's up to scattered there's a theater yeah that's right popcorn yeah for a run yeah what what is your favorite offseason to me I sort of lean towards the NBA there's just all kinds of fireworks so where are you on that well there's always drama in the NBA I mean the players make sure that they you know LeBron's doing his drama as usual talking about how he wants the Lakers to understand that his competitive win knows now, as if the Lakers don't somehow understand that. And yeah, we just saw today, hey, Kyle Lowry's coming back. How about that?

Good old Kyle Lowry, man who many believe should have his number seven retired in the Rafters here in Toronto. He's going to go back to Philly for one more year, his 20th year, Jim. I would not have bet the over on Kyle Lowry over 19 years in the league. So these are the fun things. I think you'll agree with me that when you cover sports, so you see Kyle Lowry in game one of the championship run blanked. Remember that? Did not score a point.

And I remember 90 seconds into the game, Kyle had a manner about him where if he wasn't there that night, you would see him argue more. And 90 seconds into the game, we did that game. I turned to, I think it was Dwayne Watson I was working with and said, not going to happen tonight for Kyle. And it didn't. But from that moment on it did. But that's a guy going from good player to franchise player in the span of one game.

Well, and we were just talking about Masai Ujiri and I think you gotta give Masai a lot of credit for that too because that was, remember that year, it was a really trying year in some ways around Kyle Lowry because obviously there was discontent with the DiMarte rosentree. His running mate and pal was traded out of town. Kawhi Leonard comes in.

He's not Kyle's pal. Not that they're not friends, not that they didn't get along, but Kawhi came in with the man. It was out low. They coined a whole new term, load management for this guy. And I think if that team wouldn't have won the championship and wouldn't have done as well as it did, I think there would have been more public discontent about the special treatment

Kawhi Leonard got around his health. And other guys were probably saying, hey, what about me? I'm grinding away here. He delivered. I can't tell you how many times I would look down and see the Raptors down by 10 in the third quarter. And this guy would either make a defensive stop or go down and drain a three or two and stop that lead from continuing on and

and would cut into it and that was a turning point in a lot of those games yeah he did it he backed up what he did well and look but there was a moment in that season where Messiah Jir was seriously considering moving on from Kyle Lowry and they had this not the first time as well yeah not the first time obviously got a little lucky on another time when they nearly had him and moving on from Kyle Lowry. And they had this- Not the first time. As well, yeah, not the first time, obviously. Got a little lucky on another time when they nearly had him traded to the Knicks. We all know that story.

But that one, the story about Masai Ujiriya having the real, got a pre-trade deadline, heart to heart with Kyle Lowry saying, hey listen, are you in or are you out? You wanna be the guy here, challenged him, demanded more from him, said, look, I can make a trade, I'm trading for Marc Gasol, I could throw in Mike Conley who can also play point guard and you can go somewhere else if you want. And that was a real option that was put on the table.

And in the end, Masai Ujiri again, a great communicator, a great sort of injector of enthusiasm into situations. I think he put a little bit of a jump into Kyle Lowry's step from then on, and we all know how it turned out. So he's going to the Sixers on a one-year deal. Norman Powell goes from the Clippers from the Clippers to the Heat three-team trade.

Nixire Mike Brown is their new head coach and Tyler Johnson in hockey announces his retirement. I just want to just go back to Kyle Lowry before Easton Cowan joins us. Do you think now he gets a statue because of the change at the top? Good question. I mean, look, I was really against them kind of beginning their franchise tradition of retiring numbers with Vince Carter. I mean I look I was I was really against them kind of a Beginning their their franchise tradition of retiring numbers with Vince Carter I didn't think that had anything to do with winning and if you if you want to have franchise standards and want to say what? Your franchise is about to me under Masai Yajiri. It was about winning. It was a was and so You know Vince Carter had nothing to do with winning. Obviously didn't win anything as a raptor had a sub-five hundred record as a raptor

kyle larry was the heart soul of the new one and so his number seven to me should should have been the first number up there uh... it won't be now he will go up there now statues is another matter they had like the leafs have all their legends rowan good on brennan shanahan for paying homage to

demanding that the franchise pay homage to those guys after many many years of neglect as you as you as you know well that man that this franchise really did not respect its heritage for a lot of years. Turned their back on it had acrimonious relationship with their greatest all-time player and Dave Keon and many others so yeah I think the Raptors probably will get into the statue business at some point, but then again, the only statue, we know now we have an ownership change,

we have the Rogers Corporation running things. The only statue they've built outside of the ballpark is one of Ted Rogers, Mr. Rogers, the original Mr. Rogers, a great guy who obviously bought the team. And so they haven't been statue guys over at Rogers. They're running all of MLSC now, so who knows where it's heading. We don't. And getting there will be all the fun. Let's go back to hockey. Easton Cowan is with us now. Easton, welcome. How are you today? I'm good, thanks. Thanks for having me on. Our pleasure to have you and it'll be great to explore the conversation. We'll get to the horse in mere seconds, but before we get there,

I mean you're a multiple attendee at a development camp. So as a development camp veteran, what do you sort of take out of all this? Yeah, I mean, any days in Toronto there around the facilities will help you get better as a person and a player. So being able to go there again and just being able to, you know, work out there with their development staff was huge for me and everyone there. Okay, let's get to the horse, okay?

You said we, that was the big story at a development camp, at least for some of us. And it's kind of funny Easton We had Marty Baran on our great analyst former NHL goaltender he loved the idea because he's a horse guy and he was he was telling us great horse stories and and Many of the other kind of leadership development opportunities he had as a player that he really enjoyed there were a little bit outside The box then we had former coach Bruce Boudreaux on last week And he called it the dumbest idea he'd ever heard of bringing you guys out to see a horse

trainer training a horse. Where did you lie on the, on the experience? I mean, I liked it. Uh, you know, I live on the farm. Uh, we don't have any animals here, but being able to see how fast, you know, the horses caught along and, uh, how, how they train them was pretty cool. And, uh, you can kind of take that and bring it over to the hockey side of things I guess.

And in terms of the other experience at developmental camp, we know they brought in a bunch of different speakers and other sort of people that were trying to relay messages to you. What stood out among that roster? I mean, obviously a lot of, you know, old NHL players and talent talking to us. So it was pretty cool, but definitely Mark Giordano's story. How he was undrafted and went over to Russia for a year and then signed a deal with Calgary. Ended up being the captain there and winning in Norris. But yeah, just it was so cool to hear his story and no matter you know if your draft or not it just kind of showed that he just stuck with it and uh good things came and he had a great career. So let's wrap up your junior career and first of all

congratulations on a great junior career and I want to circle around this stat uh first player since 71-72 and that's Giela Fleur by the way the lead the memorial cup in scoring two years in a row that's you uh... congratulations on that uh... and and you got the job done with the memorial cup win this year so i think it a year ago last fall everybody's talking about willy beyond the leaves what's the point of sending them back to junior what did you get out of that year with the london nights i mean i would be trained camp

you know i i tried to make the team, wasn't ready yet and came back to London and obviously under the hunters organization, you're gonna learn no matter, you know, no matter how old you are during junior. So came back with a positive attitude, learned a lot, got better and now I'm sitting here today and I'm definitely a better player this time,

this year than I was last year for sure. Easton, obviously you've made no no secret of the fact that you really admired and idolized even Mitch Marner as you were developing as a player as you continue to develop as a player. What was your reaction when you heard that Mitch Marner wouldn't be a fellow colleague with the Toronto Maple Leafs going forward? Yeah obviously you know he helped me out a lot ever since I was drafted to the Leafs. Him playing in London, I feel like we had that connection, so obviously it sucked, but you know, I'm happy for him and his family. You know, I hope he does very well over there, and yeah.

So as you get set for training camp in the fall, obviously there's a roster spot there for you. How do you see yourself fitting in and what do you want to work on? I mean, I came back to junior this year to work on managing the puck and I felt like I did a great job of that. So I'm just going to bring that to camp. Obviously camp's still a couple months away. So how much is it going to take day by day now, keep getting better, keep getting

bigger, you know, faster and stronger. And I feel like I'll be on the perfect path, but not too worried about camp right now, but when I get there, obviously there's a job for grabs and I'm willing to work for it. Easton, I was wondering about, you know, your workload. The Maple Leafs have talked about how they didn't want you to go on the ice at developmental camp because you played such a heavy schedule this season. The last thing you needed was more ice time

at this time of year, but between now and camp, I mean, do you get any downtime? Like, how do you approach that? I mean, I took a lot of time off. Took a month off of skating. It was my first day back on the ice today and been working out for this will be my third week now. So just getting back into things.

It's been good, you know, obviously time off, but now you're getting to almost the middle of July. So now you got to start kicking things into gear and just excited to keep training and keep pushing myself each and every day. I mean you're at that point where you look back to junior and it's going to seem like it was a year ago. You set that point record 56 game point streak surpassing Doug Gilmore's OHL record. What was that like? Yeah obviously that was super cool. I mean I've played on so many good teams here in London, so wouldn't be able

to do that without my teammates and everyone you play with on the team, you know, just saw they super well and we gelled very well. So, yeah, obviously it was super cool to have my name and the same sentences, Gilmore. You talked about getting bigger, Easton. I mean, what's the sort of, what's the feeling about where you're at physically and where you need to get to, to be at your best at the NHL level? I told my trainer today, actually, that I've never felt this good in my life. I feel super healthy. And, you know, I

feel strong and fast and, you know, as big as I have been so far in my life. So I just got to keep pushing myself, get to the weight I want to be at and still be able to, you know, use my speed to my advantage. So I just got to keep going. The fall comes fast, Easton. Thanks very much for your time.

Really appreciate it. All the best. Thank you guys. Easton Cowan, Maple Leaf Prospect is the title, but I think there's a lot of assumptions here that if he could do a Matthew Nyes over the next two years this franchise would be in a better spot. Oh without a doubt to have him roll in there and say you know what you know that top six forward you're looking for I'm that guy I mean

he's obviously got the skill level to do it you don't you don't become what he's become at the junior level without the skill. Some of the other components like the puck management skills that he's been working on in that year in junior, the physicality that he's going to have to endure to play an 82 game schedule at this level, those are question marks but there's no reason why he can't answer them in the positive. Well he's going to get a long look, that's for sure. Oh yeah, without a doubt. Barring a trade Jim which we're all we're all hankering for I know. Because when you look at the roster you

just go okay so so you know what has to come in but you don't know what goes out. Right and you know we talked about hey wouldn't it be great if they get something for David Camp and Cali Yarncroc but I don't think you're getting no prime materials. Those are sort of filler parts of the trade maybe I make a dollar thing work although there's a number of teams that have all kinds of space I don't know how relevant that is yeah it's hard to know but I mean the easiest answer to the question would be hey listen let this kid wow us let this kid come into camp and absolutely make it an undeniable fact that he he belongs

on the roster and he can play on the on one of the top lines I mean, I don't know how likely that is. I don't know what the Jerry's percentage on that one is Yeah for me. It's probably if I if I had to put it I mean, I it's probably like 30% maybe 25% not high No, but I started get stuck when I when I have a make-believe Conversation because I just I go back to the cold hard fact they have to be better than they were last year that's a hard thing to do in a hundred and two points walks out the door yeah and a really good penalty killer and power play guy

at the same time i mean that there was a lot of tools in that box uh... so uh... you know obviously well there's sort of the twelve million bucks walk out the door but then you have to find the three guys to fill in. I'm not saying they can, and when they do, it'll be a different configuration, but I don't know that that makes them better.

You're right, that's the question. That's the bottom line here, Florida didn't get worse. No. You know? No, they did not. So, that's the scary thing right now. The only thing you can hope for is, hey, Florida didn't get worse, but they did get a year older.

You gotta think, eventually they're gonna get tired. I mean we thought that last year It didn't happen some people said that in the first round this year. Yeah, they're gonna run out of gas Well, they did really go down Oh two and nearly go down Oh three. So it did look like they were sorry That was the second round Yeah, when you go back to that game and the Leafs had two two-goal leads and lost it in overtime go back to that game and the Leafs had two two-goal leads and lost it in overtime, who would have understood at that time that that was actually the door opening to a Stanley Cup win even though the Leafs still had a 2-1 series lead? That was the door opening, wasn't it?

Yeah, I mean look, I think a lot of people at the time said the Leafs are going to kick themselves for letting this one get away. Yeah. The idea of a... It woke them up. I mean it was just, it just felt like, like I remember sitting in the press box in that game thinking like, are they really doing this?

Like they're gonna, they're gonna go off three nothing on the defending championship champions. Like- They could have. Could have. Yeah. Should have. But didn't. Did.

It actually had some past game seven orders about it, didn't it? Yeah, and game five. Oh, wow. I mean- When you get into game five and game seven, those it, didn't it? Yeah, and game five. Oh, wow. I mean. When you get into game five and game seven, those are like, what? And then, of course, it had the punctuation mark

of Brad Marchand doing it to him, right? Oh, well, that's sort of a normal ending. Exactly. But man, that was the moment, right? In a lot of ways. That was the moment where, no matter how much Florida kicked it into gear, if they would have been down to a three,

I just can't imagine they would have won the series. So, the Leafs would have been into the conference final for the first time. Brennan Shannon had still been the team president. Or would he have been? Oh, he would have been. You think so? He probably pretty much said as much.

They basically set the bar at conference final. Okay. So, I think you probably, I mean, my guess would have been think some probably pretty much said as much that he had that they basically set the bar at conference final Okay, so I think you probably I mean my guess would he would have been I would put a high Igerius percentage on Shanahan being back if they would have made a conference final for the first time under his Shanna plan they would have resigned him Yeah, I don't know for how long they wouldn't give him like he had 11 years Guaranteed to that point. I don't think you would have given them another five or six maybe the given up to three uh... low with with shanahan i mean

how do you get the the six-year guarantee after the five-year guarantee none of us every configure that one out but so i would never underestimate his powers negotiation in a in a boardroom of the bunch of people who are charmed by his hall of fame credentials in his Stanley Cup rings and is just general knack for you know understanding how to sell yourself in this world because he's really good at but

Yeah, everything would have been different Jim I mean who know you who even knows of Mitch Marner would have had a change of heart if Suddenly the feeling was well this team was moving in the right direction rather than oh It's the same old team that can't play in the big games. That's always a question, especially in this marketplace, what happens if, and we never get to the if because it doesn't happen. So what's your Jerry's percentage that Easton Cowan plays top six at one point next season? I got to go, like, I think that that's a really, I'd go 80 on that. Oh yeah, they'll showcase that at that level. They'll give him some chances. You got to figure out if he can do it. Yeah, I'd go 80 on that oh yeah they'll showcase that at that

level they'll figure they'll give him some chance yeah you got to figure out if he can do it yeah I'd go even higher like I think it's I think it's a lock that they'll do that unless he really unless he really disappoints at camp like he comes in I don't look at that I don't see that like this is a kid he's back training today back to skating today he said he had enough time off he says his body's feeling good he's he's put on the mostly want to put on yeah this kids a gamer and by like that's the thing is all the scouts that i've talked to the watches kid much more closely

than most of us have they just keep saying it's got a motor yeah and i had a my show it would have said starts in the bottom six and works his way up but but i mean there's there's all you've got an opening on the right side at as we as we talk right now opening the right side of the top line opening the left side of the second line and there's like and ship people around and you talk about the the matthew niles sort of precedent

you know what if you're gonna bring a kid and you really believe in the kid you've invested resources in the kid in the form of You know, whatever you've invested in Put him in the best possible spot right out of the gate see how he does Let's see what you have. Yeah, like I mean they did that with nice in a lot of respects That's what I mean. They worked out pretty damn well Yeah, they played them up and then dropped them down and played them back up again right, you can always drop them down, but you expose them to

Where you want them to be and see how he does Like it's the young man's league in a lot of ways and we've seen obviously Florida Panthers are telling us there's also some value in having old guys too. If you have the right collection. Right, yeah. So look there's a whole different, there's many different ways to build a team but bottom line is we've seen plenty of 20 year olds come in and play really well at this level this level at the top six level contributing offensively question is will you be able to trust them down the stretch in big moments and big games well let's get there first fuck

management yeah get there first see how he does for the first handful of games but I'm a hundred percent like I would give it a night like outside is something really weird happening like he's injury plagued or he's just not you know he's just not doing it for some reason. That would probably be an off-the-ice concern, largely due to injury. I just can't see him not getting an audition in a top-sex role.

I don't know where you are on this, but for me, you'll see announcements, and I'm gonna preface that by saying, Dustin Schwartz won't return as the Oilers goalie coach. You see goalie coaches change. When the Leafs brought in Curtis Sanford that made a big difference. They had they struggled with goalies for a number of years brought in a different goalie coach changed goalies and and all of a sudden it works. Now I don't know that the goalie coaches is the problem with

Edmonton but I think that's the place you would you would start. Yeah look if I'm an Oilers fan that kind of worries me right this idea that you're gonna change your goaltending situation by changing the goalie coach well you start there okay start there but maybe change the goalies at some point I think they have to don't they I don't know how they they could personally but they seem to feel otherwise they've been doing this for a while right well they really don't address it so they don't feel as strongly as the rest of us about it obviously so

i wouldn't be shocked if they came into the season with those two guys again i mean i guess their argument is saying we made the cup final two years in a row what's what's the problem here we've got to get over the hump they lost a number of forwards then they've got some work to do and i guess they can make the case look if you want to if you want to defend their status quo there obviously they don't have a lot of cap rooms an issue and those two guys are cheap and like it's not like they've got something

they have an option to get a guy who's just better than Sergei Bobrovsky right like oh we can get a better goaltender than Sergei Bobrovsky they would love to have one but you know maybe maybe maybe changing the coach makes some sense I mean obviously. Current cap space is 175k. Yeah good luck with that. Yeah. But, you know, maybe changing the coach makes some sense. I mean, obviously... Current cap space is 175K. Good luck with that. Yeah. Obviously they'd have to move some pieces around

to accommodate superior, more expensive goaltending. But yeah, I mean, the goaltending coaching thing, man, it's, you know, for any of us pretending to understand how it works and why it works, I mean, I'm not even sure. I'm not even sure a lot of GMs understand or really care to understand how and why it works. They have $175k to spend. Their goaltending combined is $3.6 million. Combined. Right. That's got to be a leap goal. Good value at least. Well, it is, but... I mean, I guess so they can make the case look we've we've won the western conference two years in a row

with that coltan you know you tell us you got a better idea you know we'll see uh... sac hyman what we want to do there we want to play that clip again okay so he's got he said that like his charity golf tournament uh... talking about his wrist injury in the question is will he be ready to start the season with the Oilers? He's still hoping to be available for the start of next season? Yeah I don't know what the timeline is to be honest but that's definitely not

out of the question so I haven't set a date or anything like that. I've dealt with it with the ACL once you set a date you get disappointed if you don't't play on that date. So I hope to play on opening night. I don't know if I will. We'll see. They'd love to have him back for sure. Well, they'll need him back. You got to take it slow on an injury like that. Wouldn't be shocking if he really eased into the season. What's the point of like, you know what? You look back on the way the Leafs handled Austin Matthews mystery injury.

I'm not sure what the rush was to get him in the lineup on opening night if he was hurt in training camp. And if I'm the Oilers, I don't see any rush to get Zach Hyman in the lineup on opening night if it's gonna impact his season. Like he's gotta be 100% back. That wrist has gotta feel like, you know,

before it got hurt. And if it doesn't, sit out, make sure it's good. Look, the Austin Matthews injury, whatever it is, it'd be nice to know so you could sort of deal with it. And that's an internal thing, that's the way they chose to handle that. But it's just a little, kind of a question mark, isn't it? Like what was that and how do they fix that and how do you feel confident i know i know the team has to deal with that but everybody on the outside would like to know that well exactly it's a big question mark because the question is this if austin matthews

is right about what he said at the end of the season which is that the month's rest in the offseason will be enough to get this thing right a few months off in the offseason be enough to get this thing right why do you think a few months off in the regular season and get a right for the playoff and put him put him on the long-term entry list and bring in somebody else the very good question is it not insured is i mean only relevant nobody cared that he got thirty three goals in the regular season all anybody care about the fact that he was in particular effective in the

plow the season all anybody care about the fact that he wasn't particularly effective in the playoffs. Yeah I agree with you. And so I don't I'll never understand it and nobody's nobody's given us an explanation. I think the problem with the NHL right now is the way they kind of deal with you know choose your own adventure injury reporting you know you you can report or you don't have to report you don't have to you can tell us something you can tell us nothing I mean it's just it's just a bad it's a bad family shins move fans deserve to know a little bit about what's going on with the the guy who made the most money in the league i agree with that's my opinion and all the age of the scene is shared no i

don't totally agree that's kind of a big question mark that sort of hangs over the team i will do a blue jays were in chicago tonight eric kratz will join us up Fowl Territory podcast host, former Major League Baseball player, had some time with the Jays. That's next. This is Overdrive on TSN2 and TSN1050.

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Oh yes, guys, fun and laugh hour for Overdrive on a Monday. Jim Taddy, Dave Fest, Chuck from the Toronto Star, reporting for duty. And the Jays are off to Chicago, three against the White Sox. Day off, three in Oakland against the A's, all-star break, which will push them to 96 games. Not in Oaklandland by the way no sacramento as yes that's right so they're not the oakland athletics and i don't sacramento athletic the a there just the athletic the a's here beloved

yeah that in the tapas story with the of what we understand why that happened interesting times right lately yeah well they get through it so the bottom line is uh... will will deal with that what happens with the j's at ninety six games where the all-star break which means but mass sixty six left after that we'll see where they are over drivers brought to my fan bill bring you everything from the opening line

to the final score of the spread here at kratz now and would you draft pick in two thousand two host of the foul territory uh... podcast inform and former NBA player as well. Eric, welcome. How are you? Former NBA player? That would be awesome.

Did I say NBA? I said MLB. Sorry. Sorry. MLB. But I would love to... Well, so would I. If you want to fail as an NBA player, I bet I could definitely make a three-pointer at

some point if I kept shooting. But don't forget I was also a minor leaguer too so that's a big part of it. Yeah probably wouldn't be wasting your time with us if you were an NBA player. Is that how it goes? Well there'd be more money and let's put it that way. So in terms of the Blue Jays winning streak you know we're all thrilled here different looks on different nights different people are heroes. What's your take on that? I mean, isn't that what you want as a, one, as a fan base, but two, as an organization.

Like, if you have to go out and buy every single one of your players, you're never going to, you're never gonna have sustained success. Now something that the Blue Jays have had a tough time doing is maybe living up to expectations, but a lot of it was surrounding the guys coming up from their minor leagues. You know, Gavin, Gavin Vigio, you had Bo Bichette, you had Vladimir Guerrero and there was a lot of pressure on those guys and they reached the playoffs which was like okay here we

go this is the time and then it's kind of fallen it kind of fell back I mean it was it was bleak no offense those guys were the guys that you know the reason they went out and got all that pitching so when you say the Blue Jays are winning games from everybody contributions from Tyler Heineman contributions from Ernie Clement from Davis Schneider you're like okay I kind of can get behind this and as a fan base you're like I love this because Davis Schneider is one of us you know Tyler Heineman is one of us you know working a working-class hero who gets an opportunity to do something cool in the big leagues and taking advantage of it

together as a team it's so fun to watch so Eric one of the amazing things about this run is no Vladimir Greer Jr., the $500 million man, has not had great power numbers this year. He's hitting the ball hard and getting on base a lot and scoring runs. And of course, Anthony Santander, the big off-season power bat they brought in, hasn't been a factor in this run at all. It was, you know, the Blue Jays real upturn in their fortunes coincided with Santander sitting down on the IL.

What do you make of that? The idea that Vladdy hasn't really caught fire yet and Santander hasn't given him anything. What does that mean to you as they approach the final 66 here? You guys aren't on, you guys don't have any Yankees fans that listen to your show, do you? No, not at all.

Because that means the Yankees are cooked. If that's the case, if they're doing all this without those guys, that is a great thing for Jay's fan. That is a great thing for this team. Now, are some guys going to regress back to the norm, to the mean? Yeah, absolutely. But that doesn't mean it's going to happen right when those guys get back. Look, a three game lead right now is nothing to sneeze at. I always laugh on the show when people are like, oh man, you're not giving them enough credit.

You know, they're only four games back of the wild card. And I'm like, what? Like four games back after like a three game sweep of a team and you expect your team to be doing good? The Jays are three games ahead of the division right now. And to me, if you're getting those guys back, are three games ahead of the division right now. And to me, if you're getting those guys back, they're going to hit. They're going to hit Dingers.

Maybe Fladdy's not gonna hit Dingers, but he's kind of a chameleon. He needs, he does what is needed. If he needs to hit a ball to the gap, he'll do it. He needs to hit the ball to right center gap, he'll do it. He needs to hit the ball to right center field. He'll do it. It's not just all or nothing dingers or, or nothing. We got no chance, that kind of thing.

But you sit there and you go, Tom Tondare is going to come back. Even if he has a down year, he's going to end with 20 homers. I'm sure you can find 20 homers to help a team win. Like that is, that's guaranteed. And it's not, you know, he's up and down. I don't think, I didn't expect 40 homers from him just because he did it before. Like you say, all right, you know, if he has up and down years, we can deal with when he comes back, finishing the season out with 20 dangers, like this team's riding high, if that's the case. But the team is building defense and pitching and they've been doing that without Dalton Varsho. That's

my biggest. When Dalton Varsho is back and fully healthy, that's my biggest person that's going to come back to bolster what this team's already doing. There's just so many things that are working well for the Jays. The one that we talked about was they seemed to have a two and a half year run where they couldn't score a run when they needed to and now all of a sudden it happens at a nightly basis. How does that turn around?

Believe me, if I knew, I would said you said NBA NBA guys make a lot of money I knew that I would be making a lot of money that is for sure I wouldn't be selling hot air like my like my dad says I do being on being on our show but it's it's one of those things that if I'm gonna lean towards something it's really based on your stars. I mean, when George Springer's in and out of your lineup, it creates an inconsistency that you can't find somebody to take the level of success that you need from George Springer. Like what he's doing just adds a fear in the lineup for pitchers.

And pitchers would never, they would never admit to it. But they're like, I don't care, I'm just throwing one pitch at a time. The reality is, if you have George Springer hitting like he's been hitting, not just clutch, but driving the baseball. You're, you're more apt to say, okay, I know it's four batters away. I'm facing the eight nine spot, but I can't lose Tyler Heineman.

I can't lose Ernie Clement. I can't lose Andre Cimenez. So they have to kind of give into those guys a little bit because of who is behind them. And it's really your stars. George, Bo, Vladdy. Those are the guys that make the other guys better. And they've been doing that all year so far. Eric, another guy that's an all-star this year for the Blue Jays, Alejandro Kirk. We've had people on this show making the case that he ought to be the Blue Jays MVP, given how if you really want to take the MVP literally, he's valuable because he's hard to replace. To find a catcher that can hit like he's hit to have it You know be among the leaders on the team and OPS and a lot of other key stats

He's been indispensable. You've been a guy who's you know crouched behind the plate and tried to make a living as a hitter at the Same time. Oh, what do you make of Kirk's? Kirk's season today I What do you make of Kirk's season to date? I mean, if you really dissect the numbers, you'd be more impressed with the fact that, of what he's doing. Like his bat to ball skills are an anomaly in the game right now.

Like the other strike out, puts the ball in play, and now he's starting to do damage too. Yeah, there's a lot of doubles, but he's hitting some dingers that you're sitting there going, Oh wow. Like didn't, didn't think he was going to hit a Homer in that spot. And he's not hitting a lot of homers, but they're big homers and he just has a knack for putting together at bats.

Unlike guys in the game put together at bats right now I sit there and I go who makes lineups turnover that's different than aircraft carriers who make pitchers afraid who makes lineups turnover and I look at guys like Max Muncie in LA, if he can ever have the highest numbers, the highest OPS, no, can he get really hot? Absolutely. But what they do is they don't swing and miss. They don't give hitters. They don't give pitchers too much of a, you know,

an area to breathe. Alejandro Kirk right now, I'd still take Vlad E, but Alejandro's park right now is a close second place for if you're in game seven of the world series with runners on with bases loaded and all you needed to hit Alejandro Turks, the guy, like if you need to get off a deserted Island, I don't know how I got to the deserted Island, but if the only way off is somebody makes contact for me It's Alejandro Kirk the fella does it and I was kind of I was kind of skeptical of giving him an extension Because his defensive numbers went down last year a little bit but

He's worth every penny and they got a steal but he's worth every penny and they gotta steal. A lot of people in this marketplace have already gone to the end of July. It's the trade deadline. How do the Jays approach that? By taking, I don't know if you guys have ever played poker, but I feel like when they signed Vladdy, they said, you know what?

We have a big bet here we got a nice hand we're gonna push it we're gonna push some of our chips in time to push them all in I couldn't be more of a I am NOT in a Ross Atkins or Shapiro corner at all and I'm not fans of them I don't think they've handled things very well since they've been with the Jays I don't think they've handled things very well since they've been with the Jays I don't think they've handled people very well but this is their chance if they want to keep this job that I don't know how they've kept it this long it's time to go all in it's time to go all in and you not only bolster your strength so when you go to pick guys up, you go pick defense up.

That's bolstering your strength. I think that'll cost you a lot less than getting that power back. Bring the long lost son home. Josh Naylor needs to be a Blue J. I get it, they already have a first baseman, but how can you get Left-handed power with quality of bass Josh nailers

Walk rate has gone up and his strikeout rate has gone down this year. It's a concerted effort for him to Improve that and you say oh, well, you can't you can't replace Vlad. You know, listen This is two months rental plus a month for the playoffs. If you go get senior Josh nailer, this team, this fan base that's already behind this team will flourish because I've never heard anything bad about him as a clubhouse guy, you're bringing the native son home for two months and like to me it's a no-brainer to me that's where they go and obviously everyone's gonna everybody says the same thing starting pitching and relief pitching right I don't think

you guys really needed to hear that everybody knows that's what every team wants but you bolster your defense and you go and get Josh nailer that's fascinating stuff hey we wanted to get your defense and you go and get Josh Naylor. That's fascinating stuff. Hey, we wanted to hear your take, Eric, giving your background as a catcher, the interesting MVP debate in the American League with obviously Aaron Judge, the perennial candidate. The perennial candidate. And Cal Raleigh, the catcher with Seattle Mariners who's having a hell of a year, leading catcher with Seattle Mariners who was having a hell of a year leading with 35 her months to judges 33 33 where do you stand on that debate? gosh darn it I knew you guys would ask me this we had a I had a big argument I

had a big argument on our show with AJ Przezinski and I said, the question was posed to is the first half MVP. And I said, it's Aaron judge. Aaron judge is the first half MVP because one there's no such thing as a first half MVP. Right. Two, he hasn't, Cal Raleigh has not broken any records yet. He hasn't done, and I am the strongest proponent of catchers getting awards,

because catchers, one, are underpaid. Two, they are underpaid to they are underappreciated and so I'll stand up for him but what Aaron Judge is done he's a first-half MVP if Cal Raleigh continues to do what he's doing he will be the MVP of the league so maybe I'm talking out of both sides of my mouth but to me, I think you guys are sponsored by Sandal. That's what it said when I came on. I think Cal Raleigh is coming out at like plus four 50 some places plus six 50.

Yeah. I would say go and get some Cal Raleigh stock because this man has done nothing but historical things. And I think the way the season's is gonna go. He'll end up winning the MVP which will be a huge upset over judge Having another ridiculous ridiculous here Eric will leave on that. Thanks very much. Appreciate it You're welcome. Thanks for having on boys Eric Kratz foul territory host and former

Major League Baseball player. There's a couple of notes here. Minoa is throwing the live hitters again tomorrow in Florida, simulating two innings and John Schneider says that after that he'll either throw one more live session to his own hitters or move into his first rehab game. So could be an interesting ramp up there. Yeah. An arm on the way. Gonna be intriguing. That would be an interesting reconfiguration. Certainly would be. Yeah. Certainly would be. Would be a great redemption story or a nice comeback story. Well the Jays have done that before so we'll see if it happens again. We certainly hope it does for them.

Interesting stuff from Eric Kratz. they're talking about trying to repatriate Josh Naylor Mississauga's own Josh Naylor that's a headline isn't it I like that idea a little bit outside the box because you know he plays first base and all but but yeah he made a pretty good case this is the year go for it yeah hey man another power bat fascinating you had that on your shopping list. That's right Yeah, it's a fascinating three weeks You know obviously things will get into a lull next week with the all-star break But after that should be all kinds of trade talk and we'll see where that goes and then of course the deadline

Roll the dice and be good Well, and as as Eric Kratz mentioned, you know push the poker chips into the middle of the table rolling yeah well they told us it was going to be twenty twenty five and that's where we are so why not what i like the president all last year's twenty twenty five always get any younger no no guy no guy that

uh... this is overdrive your listening to us and ten fifty in watching and tsn to biggest songs in the world This is Overdrive, you're listening on TSN 1050 and watching on TSN 2. behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, final segment, Overdrive on a Monday. Jim Taddy, Dave Fishtuck from the Toronto Star with you.

Soon, Dave Doogie will have the best bets. Doogie, yes, guy, wow. Injury updates. Yvette Garcia back in Toronto continuing treatment on the respective ankles. Guerrero's foot is okay. The quote is, foot is feeling better. Varsho ran bases, repeat on Wednesday, so not back yet, of course. Santander not hitting yet.

Manon, another two-up live tomorrow, as we detailed earlier, and Francis has thrown one side in Florida, I mean, that's a pretty big list. It certainly is. Yeah, they gotta hope the, you know, things are on the up and up, and most of those guys are heading in the right direction. So I just hope they don't say the trade deadline. Everybody's healthy now, it's like acquiring new players.

That could be the case, right? But that's not what you wanna be doing. No, absolutely not. All right, Dugie, time now for Best Bets. Take it away. All right, boy. It's time for today's Best Bets powered by a FanDuel MakerPix and assembled same game parlay in seconds on the FanDuel Sportsbook app.

It's Dugie's Surgical Bedtime. Say that again. Say that again, Dugie. It's Dugie. I'm missing out my own words here, but let's go with the Blue Jays on the money line to kick off our parlay. They're going for nine in a row. I can see it happening against the White Sox. Jose Barrios, five plus strikeouts. That's an alt line. He's hit this hole in three of his last five games and Addison Barger has been on a tear coming off a walk-off win on Saturday I like him against a righty

Let's go Addison Barger to record two plus total bases that parlay totals plus 421 on the FanDuel Sportsbook app Today's best bets are now powered by FanDuel the first inning meets as much as the ninth when you bet baseball on the FanDuel Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly, 19 plus, and physically located in Ontario. Doogie, you know, when we put this show up, just edit that out and edit out my NBA reference to Eric Ratz. Wow.

How about that, though? Doogie's surgical bets on the front page of FanDuel. He's got the big display. Man. Is he holding a bottle of cologne? He's well, that's my question is they got the picture of the overdrive guys the a team Hayes noodles in the o-dog It should be a picture of the doogie with a bottle cologne. That's what I'd be. Yeah, just yeah for sure I was actually kind of surprised you didn't use a cologne reference. Yeah, I know in the title of these bet That is very true. But as you see on the screen right now, I want to mention this, norther

on the SOP. Blue Jays ranking first in the active winning streak with eight across majors. The record after win, first, 32 and 19. One run win since May 22nd, 12th, and they're now first. And record since May 28th 26 and 10 also first so a notable run for the Toronto Blue Jays. Do we want to guess what happens over the next six games? Oh I mean why wouldn't we guess I mean the bottom line is like these teams these bad teams at the bottom the standings they usually win

one of three right? Yeah. It's just that they win one for three basically so you got to think you take two or three from both and maybe you sweep one, you take two or three from the other. I'm gonna go five and one. Okay. With the one, the loss tonight. I'll go six and oh just to say, carry a 14 gamer into the All-Star break

and the town will be apoplectic. It will. It'll be fun. Yeah, and just soak that up over the entire All-Star break and then launch into those finals, 66 games they always called the the first half and second half but it's a little up top heavy on the first half but even though the second half is actually a half it's

a lot more important well they will be back again tomorrow to do this all again and talk about the jays all again and talk about the Jays at 4pm. We'll chat then. Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.