OverDrive - OverDrive - June 17, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Frank Corrado for Hour 3 on OverDrive! Longtime Head Coach Rick Bowness joins to discuss his perspective of the Stanley Cup Final, the Panthers' winning pedigree and how Edmonton can seek success against them. MLB.com Blue Jays Reporter Keegan Matheson joins to dive into the Blue Jays turning the page after the tough ending to the road trip, Bowden Francis landing on the IL and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. righting the ship at bat and Bryan gives his FanDuel Best Bets.

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Some restrictions and exclusions may apply. See participating stores for details. Final Hour Overdrive continues powered by FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Rick bonus here in a few moments Keegan Matheson later in the hour. Jay's Diamondbacks tonight. It's a dome open kind of night if there's ever been a dome open kind of night. 30 degrees here sunny beautiful beautiful I love it man I love the heat like it's

we're more than halfway through June and it's just now Become hot. Yeah, we got your hair man away from somebody saying I can't stand the heat I know which to me bothers me so much because you're you're you're not wrong by the end of the week Someone will stop me and say I can't do this anymore Like guys it was cold five days ago. It was ten degrees at night guys it was cold five days ago it was 10 degrees at night just relax people four days ago downtown like Lakeshore Royal York area winter jackets puffy coats at seven in the morning oh yeah it was cold man I we were out where was I was that my daughter soccer or something like that the Sun was going down it was like

legitimately cold out and that was four or five days ago so spare me the up the heat is just too much I just can't do it anymore yes you can we're just getting started yeah let's just let's keep it rocking here Rick bonus will join us here in a few moments ahead of game six cup final tonight I guess tomorrow we'll have picks for the travelers it's a great event great course great field McElroy's in it. Scheffler's in it. JJ Spahn is in it, as he should be. And together with Scheffler, he has the US Open, he gets the heater pairing. I like that man. I kind of like

that. Like Scheffler's gonna have everyone all eyes on Scheffler, but you win the US Open, you should bask in that for a while. Absolutely man. Right? You want to go out there and play well. You're like, I'm the guy that won the US Open, you should bask in that for a while. Absolutely, man. Right? You want to go out there and play well. You're like, I'm the guy that won the US Open. The thing is, those guys go so low on that golf course, they make it look like a pigeon putt. Yeah. Like, Furek shot a 58 there, didn't he?

He might have, yeah. It was a 59 for sure, but I thought he had a 58 at Travelers. Like, I think there's been a few, didn't Jake Knapp have a 59 there last year? He might have. I think Patrick Cantley might have blew a 61 at that place as an amateur. Yeah, like it looks like a great course, but clearly these guys just destroy it, which is such a wild, that's why golf is crazy. Last week these guys are pulling their hair out, can't shoot anything, freaking out, can't hit greens, can't, you know, nothing. And now this week the winner is going to be like twenty

eight under even if you hit the green last week you're like praying that you don't three jacket yeah the size of the greens the undulation like i saw them today from oakmont whereas zero point six handicap played the members tease not even the tips like championship flags and blew a 93 at it. Yeah.

0.6 handy. Yeah. That's crazy. I'm happy the US Open is done though. I don't enjoy watching that other than one week. I think that's it. You hate it? I hate it, period.

I don't know if you... The big thing is we want to identify the best players. Give me the top 20 in the leaderboard. Did you really do that? No. I don't know if you did. No, I don't think you did. I just... I don't like to see guys squirm all over the course and they're in their own heads. It's not... there's a happy medium between guys, you know, after four rounds shooting minus 22 and what we just saw last week. I want to see guys hit great shots.

These are the best players in the world. Now, Oakmont was an extreme example. It's, you know, a lot of those guys said, this is the most difficult course on earth. Like, this is as tough as it gets. You can't make it tougher than this. So, you know, there have been US Open's where you're like, it's gonna be so tough,

and then the winner's like 11 under, and you're like, that doesn't seem right either. Right. But JP did confirm it. Like, Furek shot a 58 at the Travelers. Jeez. Like that's a pendulum. No one should ever shoot 58 on tour.

Like it's a cool story. You know, it's kind of like a perfect game, but 58? Yeah. Like that guy, what kind of round is that and Jim like I know he's hitting it Jimmy was sick though he Jimmy had that inside out outside in slayer and he was ripping hybrids at the flags I guarantee you he hit a few five irons into par fours. Dude I guarantee you he hit hybrids into par fours I would guarantee you that. Hybrids. And he had no shame doing so. Well obviously

not a shame. Can you imagine the analytics on that? My buddy played with him down at Sawgrass all the time and I said how far does this tee ball go and he'd say 265 max out. But he knows exactly every time every time he grabs a four hybrid and puts it to 10 feet every time and rolls the rock and i'll bet you like he's not hitting a four hybrid man he's definitely got a four iron i don't know i think he's a big hybrid guy yeah like oh call you will shred for hybrids like no other that's like very couples not memory he had the he had that ego at august it was a six hybrid he hit six hybrid is outrageous there's

no way bones as a six hybrid in the bag i bones is a purest you don't think so chance you make a good buy safe i had bonus carries it to wire you think he's got that's a sign of an old school the aneur golfer this is a purest without a purest as someone with a two iron years long-time nhl head coach

and allegedly has to learn in the bag rick bonus joining us here on overdrive how you doing rick i'm good but for that to all the three to two man. I just don't chance I'd get that in the air. Yeah. I had one though. For sure you had one at one point. Yeah, I think I did a long time ago. The swing speed is not now what it used to be, so yeah. We do go to the hivers, but I do have a fly iron in the bag, but I have a 22 degree utility

club. I use that as my forearm. I like that, man. I have the same setup it's a beautiful setup I will proudly say I got a four hybrid and I love everything about it but yeah you're right like just looking at a two iron would be terrifying man like how you possibly can get that off the off the ground I don't think it's possible I really don't. Well I played golf with my son Ryan last week in Ottawa and he hit a driving iron and I hit that a couple of times because it's on a tee, so you haven't got a chance

of getting the thing in the air. And actually, I didn't mind that at all. It's a nice club and he hit a great one. I hit it good a couple of times, it's worth a try. Yeah, the driving iron, I have seen it. I think you hit one of those, Frankie, don't you? I've seen you motor one of those around. I'll put it in and out of the bag. I'll switch it out with the three hybrid every once in

a while. Depends how I'm feeling. Okay. And the chorus and the setup? I started slashing that driving iron and it came right out of the bag, back to the hybrid. Yeah. You got to be flexible with that. You have to be. So, Rick, what do you make it tonight? We've spoken on both teams a lot over the last couple of days. Who do you believe will dictate the pace of the game, the style of the game tonight? Is it more likely to be Florida or the desperate Edmonton Oilers? I think, I'm going with Florida. Listen, I just think Florida's a better team. If you

break it down to goaltending is better the top four D Are better the top nine forwards are better. We'll see Edmonton is missing Hyman. I just think Florida is a better team I don't and they able they've learned they don't want to run the risk of going into game seven now you give Edmonton It's kind of credit because you know, they're going to come out hard and they're gonna can we come coming after them I think it's if you get to that first time out and Florida's got things under control and they're going to feel pretty good about themselves. Edmonton has to come out of the gate heart. But the biggest thing for me with Edmonton, man, they've got to play whistle to whistle.

They got to get away from these scrums and all this other thing. You are not going to intimidate the Florida Panthers. You're just not. You have to play whistle to whistle. The whistle blows, get out of there and get focused and get ready for your next shift. You get into all these scrums and push and shoving and face washes and everything, you're playing right into Florida's hands. So they've got to be desperate, but they've got to play with controlled emotion. They can't let the emotion get out of hand and get into those scrums.

But I do believe that Florida is going to persevere simply because they've been there, they know what it takes and they know they do not want to go again into the Prairie Game seven. So I'd go with Florida tonight. Rick, a lot of head coaches I talk to say the conversations with starting goaltenders are very minimal. Like it's between the goalie coach

and they kind of filter things back through the head coach. Would that be the ultimate case tonight for Stewart Skinner and Knobloch? Like what could you possibly say? I'm sure everybody knows what's on the table. He picked him. He's just got to go out and do a job Yeah, I would say that's a conversation between the three of them and the head coach should be in there with the goalie coach and and Stewart and he he's there supposed to be their their guy he's supposed to be their number one guy he's bounced back from bad games before they're gonna need him to be at his absolute best and if they have any chance at all he's gonna have to maybe steal a ten minute for each period when things aren't going their way he's gonna have to make some

saves that he's not supposed to make he's got to make all the saves he's supposed to make but I think that's a conversation the three of them have. But again, he's supposed to be the guy. And that's up to the head coach and the goalie coach that can, you are the guy. We have total faith in you tonight. And that's why we're going right back with you. So again, those conversations are crucial.

And they have to lay out all the cards on the table. But again, as you said, they all know, listen, you lose it's it's over so uh... everyone's well aware of it uh... i think a little pat in the back from the coach and the and the goalie coach is gonna help them but it's all gonna come down to Stewart and the way he handles himself in his preparation for going into today's game and that being said he's gonna need a little help they can't be giving up some great aides early they can't be getting in the penalty box early and get in Florida. So a lot of momentum Bones how frustrating would it be for you as a coach if you know You have to prepare your team for the Florida Panthers, but there's no surprises

Everyone knows what the Florida Panthers are all about Like how do you kind of go about that and what do you you're preaching to your group at this point? You know to try and get something more out of them in such a crucial game? Just to focus on what we mentioned earlier just that whistle to whistle you get out there puck drops be ready to go your names being called be ready to go and and get away from all the other extra-curricular things focus on the game you have to play and be the best version of yourself you can be.

They have to have the best version of each and every player going into tonight's game. And you do that by getting your preparation and the way you get ready for your next shift. And it'd be innocent. Every shift's not going to be Picasso, right? It's just not. You have a bad shift, get back to the bench, figure it out, and get ready for your next shift. And your teammates are going to be relying on you to do that.

They're going to have to have a consistent effort. And if you have a bad shift when it doesn't go well, make sure the next line up is ready to go and gets momentum back. But you really, really want to focus on just being the best version of yourself. Get away from all the extracurricular activities. Whistle to whistle as hardy and as smart as you can and as together as you can as a line or as an offensive pairing as a five main unit. As far as that momentum goes, you have two great weapons if you're Chris Knoblock.

You have McDavid and Dreisaitl. How early into this game, are you kind of pushing that button saying, I got to get these two guys together because I can maybe feel the game swaying in one direction. And I want to capitalize on that. You won't be able to hesitate tonight. Yeah. I love the way you can back after every power and penalty kill or these come right back with them and gives them a couple of shifts together to get

momentum back on their side. So I don't think he'll hesitate. And, you know, icing's come into play here. He was right. We rate the Florida ice at the puck a few times. You throw those guys out for the ozone face-off. So you obviously Florida can't change and icing's come into play a little bit here because every ozone face-off's a potential

scoring opportunity should you win the face-off. So those little things are going to come into play, but I think if things aren't going well and he's got to get momentum, then he's got to have to put them together. Now that being said, a lot of that depends on the health of Nugent Hopkins. When Nugent's playing like he has been and he's able to do that more because you come right back with Nugent as your second line center. You have dry sailing with David out there, you've got to have a second line center coming in there.

Nugent and Hopkins is the perfect guy. Still a lot will depend on how he's playing and how he's feeling. And if he looks fine and he's feeling 100 percent, then you can do it more often. If he's struggling, then you're not going to be able to do it as often as you would like rick at the panthers pull this off tonight where do you what do you think would mean for paul marise and his standing amongst the coaches it would be four trips to the finals back-to-back cops it's pretty impressive stuff

well it is a much-needed list of new nothing but total respect for police had a great career had a great career and he's a great coach. And obviously that's, you know, he's, like you mentioned, four times to the Stanley Cup finals. You get back to back to Stanley Cups, man, you're doing a lot of good things. And I give Bill Zito a ton of credit here. Listen, and John Eason, right? Like don't ever underestimate what Bill Zito has done for that hockey club. And it goes back when you picked up Matthew Tichuk. And all of a sudden you go get Bennett and all of a sudden you go get Marshy. And Seth Jones, this is the best I've seen him

play. Like it shows good players need to play with good players. And Seth Jones has been a perfect fit for them. So Bill Zito has done a great job, but certainly Paul is a listen one of the coaches. He's right up there He's a great coach. You couldn't be happier for him. And if you get back to back, oh, Santa comes you're doing a lot of good things Yeah, there's no kidding when it comes to that front and I mean everything Florida's done has worked He mentioned obviously their head coach Maurice being a big part of that Bill Zito being a big part of that their GM And he acquires Jones he acquires Brad Marchand and you're familiar with Brad and the way he's playing Like there are there are some making the argument. This is the best he's ever played in his career

Where do you stand on how much Marchand has popped since he's been in Florida and how much he? Evidently still has left in the tank in terms of being an impact player throughout the rest of his career. Well, he's loving it right now. Yeah. He's loving the attention he's getting, but let's go back to 2011. We lost game seven against the Boston Bruins

and Marci was great that whole series. So that was my first real, you know, watching them play up close on every second night and realize what a great player he was. It really is. And right now, listen, he's in a perfect role. And he is. He's on that third line. He's given them a lot of energy. He's not on their number one power play, but he gets some power play time. He's a huge part of their penalty kill. So I love the role that Paul's put him in. And he's been a perfect fit. Because I know when he first got traded there and they had a lot of injuries, they were

having a tough time. Okay, where are we going to play Marshy? Who's he fit with? But with all the injuries they had, uh, they had, it took a while to get them in that right role and with the right people and his linemates. So that third line is man, that's, that's a dangerous line. They can play against anybody. They can vote there against David and dry settle and then check them that's a dangerous line. They can play against anybody. They can go there against Dave and the dry side of them

and then check them and do a great job but then make it hard for them to play. So I love the way Marsha's playing. He's, listen, he's an unrestricted free agent. He's, but he's enjoying every minute of it out there and he loves being the rat. He loves the attention he's getting on the haste from Edmonton.

And I couldn't be happier from it. He's a Halifax kid as we all know. We got to pump those guys up. Yeah, of course. Right? Right? We got to pump those guys. But I couldn't be happier for him. And listen, that was a great trade. He's a perfect fit for what they needed and he's the perfect fit for that role that he's playing right now. And he's taken full advantage of it. And if I had to have a vote in that constant night, right now it's Brad, because he's,

of the timely goals he scored. It's not, yeah, he's got a lot of goals, but man, he's scoring some very timely, timely goals. In the overtime and the first goal in the games. And like those things are huge for momentum to this routine. So he would get my vote as going into tonight, he would get my vote for the

Cotsnake. Bones, you've obviously, like you've been in the NHL for what seems like a lifetime. You've been on so many different teams, great teams, and you know you look at this Florida Panthers team and everyone seems to fit perfectly. Like you're not force-feeding guys into situations where you may be asking too much of them. Like over all your years, like how rare was it to find a team or to coach a team where it's like all the pieces of the puzzle just kind of fit perfectly and I'm not asking too much out of this guy or that guy because that seems to be the case for the Florida Panthers.

It's just it's a perfect fit for seemingly everyone involved. It is. They're all playing the perfect roles. And they have, you have Seth Jones playing behind Echblatt, you have Marci playing third line, you know Sam Ben to find a better second line center in the league, he can't. So the roles are, they're all perfectly fitted

for the roles that they're being, and the minutes that they're asking. They're like, that's just as important. You can have all the rules you want, but the minutes are important and they're all playing the right amount of minutes and just, uh, you know, Nate Schmidt, a lot of credit, look how well he's fit in there and how well he's playing on that third pairing D. Uh, so it is, it's, it's, it's, so I go back to Bill's even then that's a perfectly constructed team. Uh, they can be you any type

of game you want to play. They can beat you at it. You want to play nasty? Okay, we'll play nasty. You want to play fast? Okay, we'll play fast. You want to play physical? We'll play physical. Like there's a perfectly built team and there's the rules and the minutes that they're being asked to play. And it's, again, it goes back to being a very well coached team by Paul and, but you're absolutely right That's a team has been a lot of thought been into that a lot of effort went into that and building that team But it's a perfectly constructed team and it can been again It can beat you any gate in any way you want to play. They'll find a way to win

Rick you mentioned Sam Bennett. They're not being a better second-line center in the league Like how would you value him moving forward? We all know how valuable he is in the playoffs, but one of the biggest debates in the last month and a half with watching his success on the ice is, he's great in the playoffs, but are you going to pay upwards of 9 and 10 million for a guy that doesn't get 60 points? How would you view that if you were approached about the proposition of bringing aboard Bennett to play second line center? Because I know my approach would be you pay him whenever you can.

Well, exactly. Listen, so if your approach is, okay, we're going to do this year, we want to win the Stanley Cup. That's the bottom line. We want to win the Stanley Cup. We have to improve here, then you go get it. And when it costs that much, then it costs that much. You know, we get into the playoffs, he's going to help you win a Stanley Cup. And then I was convinced that from the bottom line, every player you look at, you're saying, okay, can we win the Stanley Cup with this guy playing in that role? And that applies to pretty much every, every player in the league. So now you look at every team around the league. And if you're team around the league and if you think you're that close to the Stanley Cup, okay, we can really improve, upgrade our second line center.

And again, it's all those nasty ways he plays, the face-offs, the penalty kill. He does so many things that help you win. So you look at him, he helps us win the Stanley Cup. If you have to overpay him, you have to overpay him. If your goal is to win the Stanley Cup, then you have to overpay him and that's what you have to do because man, you do win with guys like him. You love how he competes, you love what he brings and you love the consistency of how he plays. It's every night, it's every shift. He's in your face. He's out there to win every shift and that's what I love about the guy.

There's no shift off in the playoffs. Uh, yeah, you have to get in the playoffs first obviously, but there's no shifts off and he's in your face and he's coming to play. And like, you know, as coaches, we talk a lot about grit, grit, grit. One of the things I keep talking about lately is nasty. You gotta be, you also gotta have to be a little nasty out there, man. And because that's what,

that's the intensity and the passion around tough. You wanna win, you gotta be a little bit nasty. He brings that to the table and he drags everybody else into the fight because he's not the biggest guy out there, right? So you gotta remember that. And now you got this guy out there and the way he plays, he drags everybody into the fight,

which makes you a better team, which improves your chances of winning the Stanley Cup. Well, he's on the verge of possibly winning a second one tonight. And if it doesn't happen tonight, maybe it's on Friday, game seven. I'm pulling for a game seven, we all are. I'm sure you are too, Rick.

Why not more hockey? But it's on Edmonton to pull their weight. We'll see how it plays out It's always great catching up with you. Thank you for doing this My pleasure guys Frankie because the CM engine doing great job of there keep it going. Thanks bones. Appreciate you man You guys thanks. You got it. There's a Rick boys are doing good too Rick. Thanks a lot Yeah, now you now, you know how I feel years ago when these guys, when we started, I used to tell these stories all the time. We'd have their teammates on and at the end it would be just like that. Oh, noodles. Great. Great chat with you guys. Like what I didn't chat.

Those were the worst. They'd be like, Oh dog noodles. Great to chat. Or they did would just be noodles or Oh dog. Yeah. It would just be like, ah,, noodles, great to chat. Or they would just be noodles or oh dog. And it would just be like, ah, that was tough for me to listen to. It was cringe-worthy stuff. Yeah, cringe. And you just pulled that on us. You came on here and Rick Bonus basically told Owen and I that we're two losers and nobodies.

And this is the Frankie Carrotto show. I did not intend for that to happen. Although he is an unbelievable guy and a great coach It was nice to talk to him Yeah You talk about a coaching lifer man more games than anybody in terms of head coaching and assistant coaching He's been everywhere more games and also like more approval rating from his players than any coach You could possibly imagine like I don't know what the number would be

2500 3000 players 2500 players players maybe played for Rick Bonas. 2499 love him. Like you know what I mean? Yeah. He's one of those guys where guys love playing for Bones. Yeah. He is, he just had an unbelievable career. And he mentioned his son Ryan, he's the new assistant GM down with the Islanders. Ryan Bonas, he was with the senators for the last few years. And now he's down in Long Island, assistant GM with the New York Islanders. So maybe joins like Shinnecock or something down there. Hey. Wouldn't that be, that'd be a pretty good setup. Do you think if you're the AGM or the GM of the Islanders you have to camp out to play Beth Page? It's a public course, so I don't think so. Like Beth Bethpage is like Torrey Pines.

Yeah, but people camp out. Is that how it works? Yeah, like you go, you put your name in, you sleep in the parking lot, and then they call you to the tee. Oh, I didn't know that. You've got to go at like 4 a.m. Okay, and that's specifically for Bethpage Black, because there's multiple golf courses. Maybe it's just the Black course. Yeah, I think so. But I wonder, like, if you got that kind of shade. Nah, I don't think so. Like, I don't think bonus. I don't know if it's a black course yeah i i i was so like if you're if you got that kind of now i don't know if you know i don't think so i got a big bonus i don't think patrick was sleeping in his car to play beth page and they i think someone makes a phone call but generally those like community places if you if you're if you live in

that neighborhood it's like really cheap for you that's on california like tori pines it's like thirty five bucks to play tori pines if you have the zip code yeah, if you're in the zip code same thing with st. Andrews is what I've heard if you're if you're a a Constituent of the town then I believe you can play it for free I wonder if they have certain tee times blocked off for residents Man, that would piss me off if I flew over to st Andrews and some guys played the course 400 times, dude I don't think you can play it for free if you live in the hood. I'm that's my understanding

Do you look that up? There's no way in hell It may not if I've hung a pop for everyone else and guys With a potbelly and suspenders on we in work boots Yeah, he was out there for free because it's a community run in owns operation like it the whole town revolves around the golf course absolutely not no way know how I'm I don't know look at up I might have I might have bad information seems excess at a minimum access to the club at a good at a cut rate guys trip and it's just held up on the fold Tom Morris's grandson's gotta come out there.

Go ahead. Beg these out there just snapping on people, Seamus and the boys. Who's just a puddle. He's just been pounding pints. And Seamus shows up and goes, I'm from here and I'm playing. Playing the old chorus today.

Where's Hornswoggle? Yeah. William Wallace. William Wallace's great great great-grandson just motors over there. Just give me the big stick I'm playing. Look that up Doogie. Find out the details of playing St. Andrews. I believe the locals have a minimum access. Pretty sure that's the case with Torrey Pines. Might be the same with Beth Page. They gotta have... It's about cash. You think they're gonna say no to somebody that wants to pay 500 American if it's still

that? They don't need cash though at St. Andrews. It's like Augusta almost. They're like, we don't even need you. What, you don't think some other guy's gonna call up and say, I'll take that time? You know, like there's always, I've never played it, but- Doogie, just get to the bottom of that. What do you have, Doogie? Do you have- He's got like, it's I've never played it but just get to the bottom of the way do you have to yeah he's got like do you sending him

do you sense Wikipedia links or stuff like this he types it in on I already know he goes chat GPT yes and then he copies and paste it and so are you plagiarizing chat GPT chat not a chance GP Doogie it sounds it's not some of the texts that you send would suggest to me that you might be plagiarizing we might have to file a complaint on Doogie what's the HR policy on Doogie possibly plagiarizing anyway St. Andrew's University students who they still pay a lot of money oh no look at this St. Andrews university students pay and annual rate of three at four hundred twenty five american

for unlimited play on all seven courses that four hundred twenty five american for an annual you can play with as much as you want whenever you want to wait and that's twice a summer you're not you're not we'll have a very day at eight a m and saying sorry mighty scottish residents can enter a drive initiative lottery for about fifty three american to play the old course fifty three cash but there's not going to come down and say this is not step

aside i'm playing get off me t box i kinda love that idea but it's an institution we should have that here. We should be able to play like great places where you just make a phone call and say I'm from Toronto. Well, what do you got? I want to play this course. If you live in Durham Region, call up a Durham Region course. I'm the maybe I'm all over the back streets of Durham Region, okay, running over Luke Wilson and

yeah I'm coming to Tia. All right, all right, my my bad i could have been some tunnel vision fake news i thought i heard that i keep math is in coming up on the jays plan when it comes to the rotation bound frances on the i l mac sure is making another uh... rehab stints what happens here moving forward and a big series with arizona down there a good team game over five hundred there a good team diamond backs in town for three starting tonight overdrive continues TSN 1050 and up on YouTube live Alright best bets coming up later in the hour on game 6 cup final

Watching noodles up on SportsCenter black suit gray shirt black tie Really put on my surprise face There's never color on this guy, ever. Like he is in South Florida, it's 90 degrees and we're basically in summer. Yeah. And it could not be a more dark on dark on dark vibe. Yeah, and if it was this morning at morning skate,

he had his black Nike pants on and his goalie golf shirt and a goalie hat. Yeah, I've seen that goalie golf shirt and a goalie hat yeah i've seen that only call it a bit of a i love it i love his style man he's got his look and that's how it goes uh... i keep in mafas and coming up here in just a moment

so mac sure sir will make another rehab start with the bison's i believe is that later in the week maybe on friday uh... and then if all goes well there the the presumption is to is that later in the week maybe on Friday and then if all goes well there the the presumption is he'll return to the team next week. Bowden Francis is on the IL today with what are they calling it a shoulder impingement I love that basically they throw a dart at the board and say what are we gonna call this so that this guy can disappear for two weeks you know like what are we get what are we gonna do here so that he can find a way to not

be around. So he's on the 15-day IL, he's gonna miss, you know, three times through the rotation, right shoulder impingement. But it's the right play. You can't have France's pitch again. He's got to reset. I would guess after this he probably makes a rehab start. That would be my plan with him. And then you gotta make a call at that that point also Eric Swanson designated for assignment that's a tough one man like he was obviously straight up for Teosca Hernandez one for one not a deal that worked out well clearly he was a disaster last year very barely pitched for them I was almost surprised he was on the radar this year and in the end he really wasn't because he didn't pitch well enough and they've basically, well they have, they've designated him for assignment. Yeah, not a good

trade in retrospect. Here he is from MLB.com, author Keegan Matheson. What's happening Keegan, how we doing? Doing well fellas, how's everything going? Well we're doing all right, we're trying to project how this five-man rotation is going to work for the Blue Jays. Look in your crystal ball let's say 20 days from now maybe even 30 let's let's go a month a month from now you presume health Gosman's there Bassett's there Barrios is there who else is pitching in this rotation? I think Scherzer's there I don't know if he's gonna be throwing six seven innings at a time but I think he's there in a certain sense. I'm interested to see if they push him up to a full hundred pitches or not,

because the further you go, the worse that thumb tends to get is my impression so far. So his rehab, the more is a big one guys. This is not a normal rehab where you're just trying to build your pitch count up. It's rehabbing and hoping a little bit. So we'll see. But after that, you have that group of Bowden Francis and Lauer and Schultz and Turnbull that's kind of messy. And I think a month from now, July 17, we're talking about who they can trade

for frankly, to fill the back end of that rotation. Alec Manoa won't be back yet. Tre Savage will be enticing. But every one of these names as a question mark next to them and for a lot of years jays haven't had those question marks it's it's a new new ground for them keegan as far as bad in france's how does he go from being borderline elite last year where he was stunning and he was ton of strikeouts and really impressive starts how does he start from scratch and find his game like in in the we've seen it

with goaltenders have any to break and they got to do whatever they got to do in hockey but as far as a starting pitcher in major league baseball how does he start from scratch and kind of look for his game and find his game yeah he got figured out plain and simple i think at this point and what does that mean i don't read it is for the average guy driving around what does that mean you got figured out plain and simple. I think at this point and what does that mean? I'm Francis for the average guy driving around. What does that mean? He got figured out. They just knew what he was throwing

Yeah, they knew what was coming and there was not a dominant pitch coming the way the comparison I use guys I think is valuable would be Kevin Gosman if Kevin Gosman sucks for a month. He's still gonna go back out and do the same thing He's gonna throw his splitter low, his fastball high, because a splitter, when it's good, is one of the best pitches a starter has in Major League Baseball. I don't know what that pitch is for Bowden Francis, and if you are relying on mixing and matching and really hitting your spots, you've got to be perfect. And late last year, he almost was, guys, he was incredible, But once the rest of the league wakes up to that and really starts paying attention

You need to counterpunch and he has not counterpunched That's why we see lots of guys come up and they can have success like Easton Lucas earlier in the year He looked great for two starts and then looked brutal for two starts because the rest of the league Spent more than five minutes looking at video. That's what's happened in a bigger sense to Bout and Francis now. So this I think for Francis should be a more complete reset. Maybe that involves some time in Dunedin at the lab really bringing it down to the roots but finding out what he's good at. What's his thing going to be right now because when you get caught chasing things trying to make these micro adjustments from start to start, you're toast.

If you're trying to play catch up in the middle of the season, in June and July when hitters are hot, you're toast. So I think a reset's great for Bowden right now. I still believe in him as a starter in this league, but man, he's got to get his feet back under him because these past couple of months were pretty tough. Well, you mentioned Alec Manoa, who is still rehabbing. And again, I don't believe, you know, projects to be available until August. well you mentioned alec manoa who uh... is still rehabbing and uh... again i i don't believe you know projects to be available until

august you know as a last i heard i don't know if you've heard anything else uh... but what like the the transition from the info of being out of the limelight here for the better part of a year year and a half like i will say this the dust is settled on that disastrous, you know, six weeks he had, eight weeks, whatever it was. I mean, it was, and it was really the carryover of the year before that.

But the idea of this front office, with everything on the line, the team's playing pretty well, they're above 500, they're in a wild card spot. Like selling to people that Minoa is gonna find a way to transition back into the scene almost seems impossible to me. Like I don't want to sound pessimistic but I guess that's what I'm willing to sound like. I just I can't picture Minoa as a Blue Jays anymore. Where do you stand on this and what are you hearing on the

rehabbing and the likelihood that he ever could you know reclaim his position on this team? Hey man pessimism is important in baseball. I think especially when you're looking at starting pitching like this. Right now kind of August 1st is the ballpark idea from Inoa. In the Blue Jays dream world, he comes back and does what Hun Jin Ryu did a couple of years ago. When Ryu came back from Tommy John,

had those 10 or 11 starts down the stretch, three and a half ERA helped them into the playoffs. Everybody's happy. Everyone's beautiful. I don't know if that's going to happen this year. It's been a few years since Alec Manoa was an effective major league starter. That's just the reality that we're living in right now. And when you go back to 22 and his years coming up as a prospect, yeah, like he looked like

a modern frontline starter who was not just good but could do it for 200 innings. Now if he gets back to that, it's going to take even a couple of years from now, even where his workloads at. Can he give them something down the stretch? Maybe but I don't think you can plan on it. I think if the Blue Jays are sitting there at the trade deadline and they're counting on Minoa to do something, that's a mistake.

That's risky at this point. Let him pleasantly surprise you. If he kicks the door down, fantastic. And he's a guy who's going to embrace that opportunity. He's going to love trying to be that player and that character. And if he does it, great. But I don't think the Blue Jays can be betting on that right now. When you look at last year, the year before, how this has gone for them. I think this is more about 2026 and beyond. With Alec, if you can get back to close to who he was, but it's been a while.

And if you're being a serious playoff team, you can't bet on that. You need to have that be the extra. How close is the kid they drafted in the first round last year, Trey, you savage? It sounds like the stuff is good and they're kind of moving him up. Is that any kind of option at some point this year? That's the fun one, man. That's where this

gets fun. And I think back to when Aaron Sanchez in 2014-2015 debuted as a reliever. He didn't have enough innings left to fully be a starter. And Yesavage right now, about 100 innings last year in NCAA ball. He's on track to be at about 120, 130 this year. And that's probably a comfortable spot. I don't think Yesavage is going to come up and be throwing seven innings outings as a starter. But if the Blue Jays find themselves stuck, guys, in this what do they do with the fifth

spot situation, which I think they're still in, why not? Yesavage has the upside, man. He is polished. I think he is awfully close to being MLB ready. And if they don't find an answer and if they don't nail that fifth spot by August, you've got to entertain it. And I did not think we'd be having that conversation this year, but his stuff is legitimate. He is a grownup on the mound.

He's mature and that matters you can say that about all prospects right away but he's uh... he's the x-factor man he's the fun the fun idea in all of this and there's little edge the savage to man i think people are really gonna fall in love with that guy was up keegan how important is it for these guys to kind of rebound after that

pumping in philly and kind of let the fan base know here in toronto that they're not going to get tortured for the best twenty or thirty games like it's kinda they got to tell everyone it's just okay here were were the guys that you saw before the with that philly series it's important as the believes that don staley comes about to be over everyone's gonna be watching baseball this is the time to grab a fan base they did a good job of that a week ago

sweeping the Cardinals starting out that road trip you need to grab the fan base back because it can slip quickly there's a lot of other stuff to do in the summer even if there's nothing to watch at night so these are big games because they have separated themselves from 500 they were stuck to 500 for two months it was boring baseball they're finally getting away from 500 they were stuck to 500 for two months. It was boring baseball They're finally getting away from 500 and especially guys We are six seven weeks away from the trade deadline every conversation We have for the next month and a half is going to be about the deadline whether they win they lose somebody gets hurt

Hot or cold it's all about this deadline, man This is where it gets exciting and if they go on a bit of a run here, start to get six, seven, eight games above 500, then you're buying, then you're aggressive no matter what. And that's the best place to be for a team, but also for a fan base. You have a little bit of hope there. But if they start slipping, you get back towards that 500, this starts to look like an in the middle team, which a lot of folks feared it would be going into the year. So they need to stay away from that 500 mark.

It's been a bit of a magnet this year. With Keegan Matheson, I also think this is where the spotlight really starts to shine on Vladi, who, you know, he's had a good year, but it has not been a great year. Like his numbers, you know, he's hit eight home runs. He's got a 790 OPS. Those are not $500 million numbers, numbers you know to put it lightly and

this is where you know he's been waiting for this they've been waiting for this they've committed to him outside of this most recent series in philly there's been a lot of winning kirk's been on fire barger's been outstanding bichette's playing well Springer's kind of regrouped after a bad four to six weeks. For me, it's Vladi. What do you see and what are you hearing from Vladi? Where it was around this time last year. I was going to say this is his heater period. It's go time.

Exactly. It's go time. Do you anticipate that could be the case again this year with Vladi? Needs to be and I think it will be, honestly. I really think that's coming for Vladdy. I haven't noticed him lately guys I for better or for worse I just haven't noticed Vladdy lately in these games and that's not a good thing. You're paying him half a billion dollars he's the face of a team

that's playing really good baseball but that's why this team has made no sense. I mean Varsho's down, Santander is down, Scherzer's down, you're getting contributions from players I didn't expect. And you're seeing the bottom of this lineup at times carry the Blue Jays, but not Vladi. And Vladi is capable of stealing games. Like, he can go out and have a performance that turns a 5-2 loss into a 6-5 win. And those are the types of things that are going to keep the Blue Jays separated from 500 They're not a dominant team right now, but they have a player who can be dominant by himself and take over some games It's got to happen. It needs to happen now and I think he's close but Vlad E can't just be good a good season from Vlad

He is not good enough. He's here to be great. I think he's capable of that But right now he's kind of stuck in that 2023 ish range of just good and we know he's a lot that. But right now he's kind of stuck in that 2023-ish range of just good. We know he's a lot better than a good ballplayer. How's the book going, Keegan? How are you feeling about things? So far so good. A little well-timed winning streak helped out the marketing.

That was okay. So I enjoyed it. Treated myself to some celebrations on the road. So it was nice, but it's going well so far. No great scandals or mistakes have been uncovered yet from it, so it's already exceeding expectations. That is a beautiful thing. And the book is out, it's available wherever you're going to buy your books, right?

The franchise, Keegan Matheson, MOB.com, and esteemed author. Esteemed author. love catching up with you buddy thank you for doing this you got it fellows we'll talk soon there he is Keegan Matheson I wish we could write a book Duffy's got another book out yeah Duffy's got a book coming out again you could write a book I don't know man I think I need a ghostwriter well yeah everyone has a ghostwriter Duffy's got a ghost does Duffy I don't know Duffy does he I'm not sure I don't know what he's like does all that writing he's a hard-working guy duffy yeah he actually

writes it? come on some of those stupid songs that we do for video like he makes a puck over glass bad for bedard he will literally he's so good he'll write that on an hour plane ride back from Ottawa and then we're meeting the next day and just blasting it out. Like that's what we're talking about where some other person would have a cramping brain for weeks, he'll write it in 10 minutes on a plane ride home. That's impressive. I thought everyone...

Writing a book is different than writing a mock song. Oh, I get it. But a book I look he does that with ease as well The guys like he just I see him on his computer and I can tell when he's up to something like that I'm pretty sure that element would come with ease Yeah, I just always assume guys like that aren't writers have a ghostwriter I don't know if like yeah, go to school for writing who says we can just pick up a right like I got a Like, you go to school for writing. Who says we can just pick up a soft word document and write it?

I'll tell you stories, but I'm gonna need someone to probably formulate all that. Call Fez. Yeah? Yeah, Fez to write. Okay, but what am I writing? What book am I gonna write? Brian Hayes, A Lifetime Behind the Microphone.

Yeah, A Lifetime Behind the Mic. Yeah. Okay. From My Microphone to Your Car, the Brian Hayes story. Wow. What kind of numbers do you think we do on that? You do big numbers. I don't know. Locally. Pretty isolated market. What about this? Brian Hayes, Toronto Sports, my way. That I like. Alright. Come on. The wheels are in motion. Yeah, the last 20 years of Toronto Sports the championships That's what it is. That's your book right there. Yeah you Chronicle all the major dive into Toronto sports

Yeah, and how you experience them and how you approach talking about them the next day Really have like who did you interview back in twenty thirteen on the show you like i remember interviewing so and so and this is what i thought about what we talked about well that's something there are a man you gotta have the jake delong clip though you gotta have an audio version in the jake delong clip when the crappler absolutely soared us man was that a jam job that was at that ready j p were playing it when we come back it's the loan

all right now we'll try to play that day plumber has a god that's not going to know get it ready j p yeah come on j p best bets in the loan next right best best powered by fando make your picks in a sample of same game parlay in seconds in the phantom sportsbook ab fortunately i'm on florida tonight

i'm worried that the that the orders aren't sure they can even beat these guys like i'm worried about their mentality going into this game time let us a tough one to get out of your brain yes like florida has led the series the whole time Yeah, other than 30 minutes. Yeah 30 minutes of lead time for the Oilers. It's almost a miracle We're in game six. Yeah, like it really is Panthers moneyline Verhage anytime goal scorer Carter Verhage three plus shots on goal. I just feel Verhage

He's got that clutch gene man. I think he's gonna be in it tonight He was already messing with them this morning at the morning skate best bet's powered by FanDuel from puck drop to the final horn every Stanley Cup playoff game is available on the FanDuel Sportsbook app please play responsibly 19 plus physically located in Ontario play it here he is back on overdrive longtime NFLer we haven't had him on in a couple years is always great to have on here is jake plumber what's happened to jake is below not plumber you want to read

you know that it that's great yeah i i've never heard the whole thing in years i i am mortified that that happened the i have to by and so far as i have ever heard in sports radio that i'm sure it's a worst thing I've ever heard in sports radio that a big snake it was a back there thank you remember like how we were talking how cool Jake

plumber was like oh my god slinger and he was awesome here he is Jake plumber it's getting old alone not plumber what an awesome guy he was you might want to start you know I would have hung up so quickly and yeah like screw you guys you're losing he said if you want to take a second to reset we were like sign of the cross uh... all man i love jake the loan my favorite guest ever take the land and the crapper just soared us so badly anyway all not long the world

uh... that it do you don't ever pull that move please please we gotta play that every Tuesday there was a Tuesday tradition moving forward All right. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes except for the Grappler And everyone for tuning in today TV radio podcast web and of course up on YouTube live every hour every show up on YouTube on TSN's YouTube channel Frankie good senior. We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at before the football season my part see myself you and Al's brother on a short track bike yes done a race I love it 4 p.m. we'll chat then hey this is Ruby Carr the host of the podcast encore you know how some artists grow to kind of

hate their big hit this is one of those, but I promise, still a likable one. Tune in this week to Encore, the stories behind the songs you love, or the incredible story of Vanessa Carlton's 2002 hit, A Thousand Miles. I recorded the episode while riding a piano around New York City. Not really, that would be cool though. Listen to Encore on the iHeart app or wherever you get your podcasts for stories behind all the songs you love.