OverDrive - OverDrive - September 30, 2025 - Hour 1 - Steve Phillips

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O’Neill, and Frankie Corrado for hour one of OverDrive! The guys get into both teams losing their Monday Night Football bets and Tyreek’s Hill injury before Hayes tells a story about why his fries and gravy order at a rink on the weekend went sideways. They are then joined by TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips, who discussed the start of the MLB Playoffs.

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All right, here we go, Overdrive, off and running. TSN 1050 on the TSN app, your home smart speaker, and up on TSN4, Brian Hayes, Frankie Corrado, and the O'Dog, Jeff O'Neill. How we feel in this afternoon? Good to be with you, boys. I noticed my partsy last night, that idiot. He was like, taking the bangles. And then he said, dude, he said on SportsCenter, that's the worst performance he's ever seen by an NFL team ever.

How do you make that pick against Denver? Here's the issue I have. We pick the Jets. I mean, I don't have an issue. Like, he made the pick. He just tried to get creative. He tried to make the pick. But my God.

Well, Jets pick not much better. The Jets pick is brutal. like we broke al's brother and i broke the number one rule in gambling because what you do is you get caught up in a lot of times in the number you look at the line you get caught up in who you're betting against the first rule of gambling is know who you're betting on who are you betting on first what do you mean by that so we got caught up al's brother of course fins are frauds Miami stinks lines only two and a half so we were focused on that you know what we forgot it's the jets the jets suck they're awful they're the jets

they're the biggest losery franchise right now it doesn't matter if it's fields rogers they just suck like they just lose they're losers man glen is the coach like it just they suck it doesn't matter they're deeply entrenched in just being awful that's who they are and like you could bring back could you bring back tom brady in his prime just drop him into the new york Jets, he couldn't do a thing about it. No, they lose. He's a loser. Yeah, he's a loser. Tom Brady's a loser if he's a New York Jet. Peyton Manning,

Joe Montana. I don't care who it is. Hayes, that's a guy, you just mentioned a guy, that they need to go and get. Like, a Peyton Manning as president of football operations or something, something like that, where it's like the nonsense has got to stop. I think that

is a very valid point, and it comes down to ownership. The thing is, in the NFL, everyone knows the owners to make so much money, what is the excuse for not turning over every possible rock to look to see what's under it, to see if it's successful, including offering Peyton and Eli. Now, Eli wouldn't do it because he's a giant. Giants could probably use some help, too. You give him the right amount of money, both of them, and say both of you guys are the head of football,

and you guys are going to make the decisions. Because it seems like that owner is pretty hands-on, too. What is Woody Johnson? And also, like, you've also seen other coaching changes happen where, like, Pete Carroll goes to Vegas and Harbaugh goes to L.A. and you're like, Jets could have, like, if they wanted to, they could have had those guys. They're just watching an hour ago, Frankie. A.J. Hinch is in Detroit. Detroit was the Jets. They were garbage forever, forever. And A.J. Hinch got there and all of a sudden things started to turn around. That's right. That's a big part of it. It is, man. Who is running the operation and what. What kind of front are they putting up? What kind of shield are they putting up?

And what kind of culture are they going to establish? And, you know, I'm not going to blame Aaron Glenn for them being 0 and 4. But I don't know if they got the right guy. And I don't know if Justin Fields can win. In fact, I think there's probably enough sample size to know that he can't. But the Jets were an awful pick. The Bengals were an awful pick. Like the thing is with the Bengals is they gave all this money to Jamar Chase and T. Higgins.

and no one can throw him the ball because Burroughs hurt. Like Jake Browning can't play. What the hell are you going to do? What are you going to do there? Browning can't play, but he's also getting chased everywhere. Like that O-line is so bad. Terrible. It has been more glaring when Burroughs not there.

It's been awful for years. Yep. The O-line's been terrible. The defense has been terrible. Think of having that golden nugget in Burrow and not having the O-line protect him for that amount of time. That is insanity. Crazy.

Complete insanity. That's exactly what happened. But they bottomed out. They got a great year to have the first overall pick as Joe Burrow was sitting there waiting for him. The next year they take Jamar Chase, I believe it was the next year, and you're off and run it.

Like you've got one of the four or five best quarterbacks in the league, one of the two or three best wide receivers, that's your action, right? You got Chase Brown in the backfield. You kind of stumbled into that. Awesome. You got T. Higgins. You've got weapons, but that's the thing about football.

It's about the trenches. It's about who's tougher. who's more physical, who can protect, who can get after the quarterback, who's the coach. Doesn't that sound like the dolphins as well? Like the, you know, when Tua got there and Tariq is there and you're like, weapons, man, like this could be an explosive offense. What did they not have? They just don't have that like muck and grind in the trenches for a while.

They couldn't win in cold weather. Now forget about it. Like that Tyreek injury is so nasty and ugly. And to see him, to see him smiling on the cart after on his, That was doing things to my head because I'm thinking, like, obviously he's in a lot of pain. He knows the road ahead of him is very tough, but is he, like, just happy? And it's crazy to think this. Is he happy that he doesn't have to be out there taking snaps anymore this year?

But that was all-time gross stuff. That was. I mean, you guys can speak to it. I don't know. Like, you suffer a gruesome injury like that while you're playing. Is it adrenaline's running? Is it that I don't know. I don't know how to explain that because, like, a dissonable.

He's located knee, tore ligaments, he's done. Who knows when he'll play again? It won't be in Miami. No, God, no. He'll never go back there. No, he's not going to back there. I'd never had Frankie, you might have, but I'd never on the field, ice, never had, like, a major injury happen.

Oh, buddy, I left my ACL in Rochester. It's still there. It's right around the blue line. He's got to go back and pick it up. So, what was it like? Were you screaming? Like, were you an excruciating pain? Excruciating pain?

And what happened? The guy fell on top of you? No, is my own teammate? The puck, like, kind of squirt. worded out in between us and my D partner and I collided at the last second I saw him. I tried to get out of the way and he tried to get out of the way and we went knee on knee

and I just felt like the most excruciating pain ever and I'm just on the ice and I'm like I physically can't get up so like I'm kicking my leg around and I'm screaming and then eventually that's it like they blew it dead they helped me off the ice and that was it awfully difficult not to hate that guy's

guts the rest of his lot like you know what I mean like accident or whatever but when it's your own teammate you're like I actually hate your guts like you on my own team made yeah and you did that to me and i hate it i know yeah i know and he's my partner he's a great guy and it's just it was the worst thing ever and then like to add insult to injury like you get the call in like july yeah we're not going to qualify yes you see him get the nice the 15% raised on his deal yeah yeah he's moving up he's in the show now and you're battling through an ACL and all i can think of like we all

experienced it as kids too is like don cherry yelling at us and if you can get up and get off the ice you got to get up and get off the ice like remember that is like cherry that was one of his big thing and cherry had a million of them and what about your old man did your old man not lean over the glass my dad like my brother was a known faker where it would i don't know why he did it dude he just put on these three theatrics where it was just like like trying to draw call or something no just like i i don't know like he was just sometimes you're hurt but sometimes he just seemed to want attention and that's what my dad thought anyway and there was one time i think he was actually hurt and my dad was like

the mascot in calgary like hanging over the glass saying like get off and i think that that one time he was actually hurt and they came to blows i think there was exchanges yeah but that was everybody's dad in Canada. Like, get up. You got to get up. I don't think it's like that now, dude. If you went to a minor hockey game, I don't think it's get up at all. Now it's like get the ambulance out there.

Now it's yell at the ref, yell at the poor 14-year-old who's trying to make $25 in ref because he didn't threaten him. Yeah, like you didn't call a five-minute major or who knows, but like that's what it is now. It's a totally different world. I just experienced somewhat of a throwback, and I'm concerned that I've been labeled now. Like, I've been labeled as maybe not fully committed because generally, like, practices, my oldest is playing rep this year, very exciting stuff.

And I'm there and I'm watching. Like when I can be at the practice during the weekends or during the weeknights, I'm there and I'm watching. And they have a fairly standard routine. Like every practice in Canada, first 10 or 15 minutes, they're skating, warming up. So I had a growl on over the weekend. And I went for a fry and gravy because I was so humble. hungry and she got hurt while I was getting the fries and gravy so the parents are like where is this guy you know like I thought you I thought you said you were a coach I thought you know I thought

you were going to tell me you snuck a fry and gravy into a track suit like as an assistant coach wheeling around moving pucks and then digging into a fry and a gravy inside your fit like a Andy Packers. Dude, I would have possibly tried that. With my youngest, I am on the ice, and there are times where I'm like, I would do anything for a bar right now. Like, sneak on a granola bar. I'll go over into the corner, pretend to push a puck, and I'll mull a granola bar. But here's the catch.

She's okay. Everything's all right. She's going to practice. Everything's fine. So it's not, it was totally surface-level stuff. I had just got the frying gravy. So I know what you're going to say, no matter how. injured, I'm getting into the frying gravy first.

I walked it back into the ring. You're damn right, you did. I'm not throwing that out. And you did a nibble in a walk. I did a couple of nibbles with a walk. You had to, man. And someone judged you. In your head, you're like, my child might have an ACL injury.

Honestly. But I am getting down and dirty with this. I had the frying gravy. I had the frying gravy because I'm like, I just got it. I'm so hungry. I think she's okay. One of the mums, who was amazing, came and found me. They're calling me.

I'm flushing calls because I don't have numbers in the Rolodex. I answered it finally. She finds me. I'm like, okay, is everything okay? And again, totally fine. I got in there. I noticed she's fine. She's okay.

So then the frying gravy was in big, big trouble. But the ultimate conundrum just got it so hungry. I'm missing the 10-minute warm-up skate. Like, I'm not missing anything. I'm going to get after a frying gravy and then go into the rink and watch everything once the pucks come in. and now I think I've been labeled as frying gravy guy then dad who doesn't care

not paying attention and I'm sure there's whispers did you see that he actually brought the fries and gravy with him he actually took a few bites uh yeah so I'm a little bit concerned about that but the frying gravy at a rink dude it's as good as any cuisine anywhere in the world

dude anything with a fry a fry with like the vinegar the hockey the hockey the hockey Ranking fries. No, the snack bar fries and the smell of it is just, it's incredible. Yes. So can I throw one more your way?

Like, I love the hockey rink fry, the gravy. But if you throw like a battered French fry, you know what I'm talking about where like it's battered in something and there's a little crispiness to it? That's like, that's fries on another level, man. Yep. It's on crack. It's fries on crack. Like it's just, it was, it was so intoxicating being in that rink with the smell and I was so hungry.

I hadn't eaten anything. anything. I've been on the ice for a couple hours in the morning. Anyway, so I've got to go walk back in there, you know, during the next practice, and I just know it's coming. Like, hey, next time, maybe, you know, pay attention. Yeah, pay attention to your child. No, you're going to get, like. You're going to get like, the whole team's going to get an email, just a gentle reminder to all parents that you should be watching your kid while they are on the ice, and it's

clearly addressed to you. Yes. Although, again, they won't mention your name. You think about when, when I was a kid, like, I'd get. it dropped off. I don't know where the hell my dad went half the time. I don't know where he went. I don't know what he did. Went to get a coffee. Oh, dude. I still see guys, like, I'll run into guys

from minor hockey back in the day and they go, oh, Sal's still smoking cigars? Because my dad would drop me off and light up a stogie outside of Westwood and Chesswood, and everyone would walk in and just see him like chomping on a coheba. Min is 15.

There's rumors of dads. They didn't have this in King City, but those rings down to not downtown but chestwood westwood like dads would just be getting piled there oh they have bars there in the one let's have some like rum and coax and watch some two-on-ones here all day all day yeah and chirp the coach for a bad practice plan anything yes but anyway speaking and then it would be like get in the car let's go let's exactly exactly which it's much better you just you hope you didn't have a Bad practice.

You're kidding. We're living in a better society now from that standpoint. But anyway, yeah, fries and gravy, it is what it is. And I'll go back because I love them. They're so good. And anyway, we're tracking the baseball today. Incredible finish with the Tigers. Steve Phillips in 15 minutes.

Tigers win game one. Terrick Scoobel goes 8 and 2 thirds, 14 strikeouts. And that's why a machine like that scares you. That's why a machine like that terrifies you, man. They terrifies you. Garrett Crochet is the same thing in Boston. We just saw him here at the dome about four or five days ago. He's going tonight at Yankee Stadium.

So Phillips on that in 15 minutes. I heard you last night saying, like, that's why you want the Yankees because you don't want that guy. Exactly. I have no interest in Garrett Crochet, none. And I know it's likely going to be game three, I guess, although I think he could go game two. He might be able to go two and five on short rest. You face him twice in a divisional series. That is so dangerous.

and, you know, talk to the Guardians about what that's like today. So, Phillips on that in 15. We've got MJ coming up just after five. The Leafs are up in Muscoca doing the trip. You used to love that with Pat Quinn and everyone, just great to see everyone getting together back in the day. He just did not care about anything up there. Right. Like, you could be just sitting in the lobby bar, which in the NHL was forbidden.

Don't, whatever you're doing, you can't be in the lobby bar. I don't know why. Maybe because the coach is. wanted to be there and he would just walk right by and just nod and be like great to see you guys bonding everyone having a good time up in viscoka yeah um so kiro caprisov sign this is an incredible negotiation i got to find out who his agent is because i i need to shake that guy's hand um about two weeks ago it was reported that he had turned down eight years at 16 million million per 16 million per season that would have been the largest contract in

NHL history and he turned that down and at that point I thought okay he wants out of Minnesota clearly you know clearly this can't be a negotiating tactic turns out him turning it down and putting his feet up and flushing Bill Guerin's calls for two weeks found him $8 million because he actually is making 17 million a year like could you imagine I can't imagine because it's happened 16 million a year. No, not happening. Don't call me back until you rebuff your offer.

And Bill Garan, I'm not going to say he crawled back, but went back to Capri Sov and said, fine, we'll add 8 million total. And he's got a $17 million cap hit. Dry Settles the highest in the league at 14. That's how high this guy is gone. Don't you think that makes him sick Dry Sidel to not kind of hang on for any kind of bridge or something? like i would think so i thought two things when i thought saw the deal the results of the deal incredible negotiation by caprice off and the agent and i thought of how excited i'm all

mac david's going to pass that he's going to say whatever that guy has mine's going to be more whatever ikel connor talk guys that are going to be up how excited they are but what i also thought about was the colorado avalanche not wanting to pay miko ranton and 12 no kidding yeah no No kidding, because they got Macar coming up. Yes. Right. Like, they must be looking at Miko Rantan and saying, we didn't want to pay him 12 and the Minnesota Wilde gave Caprisoff 17.

Is Capri Soff $5 million better than Mika Rantan? Not even close. The answer is no, but the difference is the discrepancy between Caprizo and the rest of his team is huge. And the market, they had no choice, Frankie. The market said, you know what? it's tough to get guys this is not a destination place we need a guy and we need this guy and he could have said he could have like Hayes just mentioned he put his feet up he could have done more he could have asked for more I don't know what he could have got he got more than that no what do you

do if you're Billy Garron though think about it you're Billy Garron you've got this this team that is a playoff team every year can't get out of the first round and your star player is you know going to make a lot of money you have to give him the money because the alternative is you're packing up shop and you're not a playoff team anymore. And who knows how many years it's going to take you to get a player like that. And then once you do get another player like that, you're faced with the same situation in however many years. And guess what?

You're going to have to pay that guy just to get back to the same spot? Billy Garon had no choice. It was a blank check and he had to give it to him. Well, he did. And you mentioned Ranton in. I think you could throw Marner in there. Marner just signed for 12. Caprice's not $5 million more a year than Mitch Marner.

I don't know if he, like, is he even better than Mitch Marner, period? I think they're in the same ballpark. Yes. I think if you had a comparable, I don't think it would be crazy for either one of them to say, if that guy gets that amount of money, I want the same. Yes. I don't think it would be crazy. No, I agree.

I think Ranton and Caprisoff, Marner, like, those guys are in the same level. I think I'd put, in terms of wingers, I'd Coutraub ahead of them. I'd put Pasternak ahead of them. But Pasternak's close, you know, but there's that. Billy's not that far. No, there's that next level. Like, there's centers in defensemen, and we know who they are. You know, is McDavid, Dry Settle, you know, McKinnon, Matthews, Barkoff, you know,

their center, and then McCar and Quinn Hughes, like those guys, number one centers, number one D, and then they're scoring wingers, Kutraub, Pashtunat, Capriess, Marner, guys like that, Willie's in there, Rantanin's in there, Matthew Kuchuk when he's healthy, and they're all kind of in the same boat. Like, this guy's a scoring winger. that doesn't play 82. I don't think he's ever played 82. I think his highest is 81, where he did have 108 points that year.

He's brilliant, his second year in the league. He's a great player. He's an immense talent. He played 41 games last year. 41. Imagine playing 41 and saying, I want $136 million. $36 total. And you can do it because if Carrillo Caprizov was a Colorado avalanche, he couldn't get that deal.

That's right. a Minnesota Wild, and that's why you could get that deal. You didn't get qualified in Roch, and that guy got 138 million. Dude, it was Billy Garon. Billy Garon. I got the call, like, yeah, we're not going to qualify him. Bill Garen was the one that didn't qualify you, and then just gave Capricea have this money. Yeah, he gave him my money from Wilkesbury.

I would email him tonight and say, you bastard, you couldn't qualify me back in the day, but you just gave him that money? Left my ACL in Rochester, and now you're giving all the money to Carrillo Capriza. But here's a legit question. Can Minnesota ever win then? If they're this far behind the eight ball, like it's such an imbalance. Far behind the eight ball with what? Well, in terms of what Frankie just said, and he's right, if Caprisoff is in Florida, he signs for 11.

If he's in Colorado, it's like, we can't give you more than 12, 6, or 13. If you're overpaying this guy $4 or $5 million, how can you win in Minnesota if it's that much of an imbalance? Well, what the hell are you going to do in Edmonton if McDavid tops it? Then you've got 14 and whatever McDavid gets. You talk about the core four in Toronto for all these years. If you've got two guys, there were a bunch of years where we were like, can a team with a guy making 10 win a cup? And now we're going to be talking about two guys making 18, 17, and 14 or whatever the hell it is.

And it's barely happened. It's barely happened because I think isn't Barcoff 10 or like 105? I don't think it's 10. I believe Ikel was the first one at 10. You're right. Yeah, you are right about that. You know what's crazy now? Like, McDavid can sign his deal, let's say, let's say it just comes in at $17.5 million.

The narrative will be driven that Connor McDavid left money on the table at $17.5 million because he only took $500,000 more than Carill Caprisoff, and he's probably worth $2 million more than Caprisoff. Is that not like, that's a reasonable explanation now if McDavid, comes in at just, you know, 500 grand more than Caprice off. It actually sets up beautifully for McDavid to play that line and play that narrative. Hey, I'm charitable. I gave back, man. I'm making the same as Caprice of.

That's how much I care about the Oilers winning a cup. Here's another couple King Daddy Toppers in Edmonton, just a couple scrubs below those two guys. Bouchard in the hut at 10.5 and nurse at 925. It's the new core four. It's the new core four. By the way, like Minnesota, Minnesota is going to have to do this. They're going to have, they've got like a really good prospect pool. Those guys on entry levels are going to have to come up and they're going to have to contribute. Like, it's going to be the young guys, the next wave of guys that help them, plus Caprice off.

But they had no choice, man. They had to do it. And as far as like Edmonton goes, now they are, like, this is the interesting thing about McDavid. He's going to have his buddy dry sidle. He's going to have two D-Men locked up. You're, you know, we'll see what Matthias Eckholm. is you still don't have a goaltender. Like, I guess

the number's been set for McDavid and now you're going to top it, but nothing really changes within the team. The questions that are there are still there. And we'll see, because maybe signs a shorter-term deal, right? And that seems, with the cap going up so much,

year over year over year, that's what seems to be happening here is it's either, if you're going to give me eight years, you've got to give me a massive deal. Or I'll take a short term and I'll punt and I'll re-re-up in two or three years. All right, Steve Phillips coming up on Yankees, Red Sox tonight, also the J's and what they're going to do with the rotation.

Kingston P tweeting in calling me Gravy B. Gravy B. I like that. I like that. I can live with Gravy B. Gravy B. That was me 12, 13 years ago. That's a monster haze walking into the rink. Yeah. Like, Gravy B has got to get to that snack bar.

I thought when you were telling us that story, I thought you were going to say that you scarf down a fries and gravy, and you had to, like, go onto the ice, and they wanted you to start demo skating drills after that sitting in your boiler. No chance. Do some edge work for us with a fries and gravy. Bagscape with a fries and green. Can you imagine if you're a 10-year-old kid

and your assistant coach was trying to explain a drill, and he fell down and a fry and gravy wheeled out of his jacket and squished on the ice? like if it was like a monster coach and you're like this guy probably likes to feed and you had no idea he was feeding during practice and he tripped up and he went down and just a bag of skittles and a frying gravy go flying everywhere you're the hot you're the kid and you're watching that and you're like there's no way that little blade is holding up this monster right now there's just no way that doesn't make sense it can't happen two of those can't happen a hundred hot plate inside the jacket quad xl showing the boys how to do crossover drills all right steve phillips coming up mike johnson confirmed denying an hour overdrive continues tsn 1050 and on tsn four overdrive continues powered by fan duel bringing you everything from the opening line

of the final score brian hayes the odog jeff o'neal frankie carrato mike johnson and just over half an hour his take on the caprice off contract in minnesota what it means for other attending UFAs or upcoming UFAs, and the Leafs again are up in Miskoka for a few days as they try to work out exactly what their lineup's going to look like come opening night. And the Jays are, I guess, sit back watching baseball, and the Tigers beat the Guardians today. So they're up 1-0 in that series, and we've got Yankees Red Sox tonight at Yankee Stadium. Garret Crochet Max Fried. Why wouldn't the Jays, I mean, we can bring in Steve and ask him, like, can't, what,

I know they're like inner squad or whatever at the dome, but couldn't you get like some kind of like their own guys in their system or I don't know. How could you do that? Just get into somehow another team, something. It's a good question. Like how you stay, how do you stay sharp? Yeah. I want to play a simulated game like some other team.

Right. Yeah, exactly. Like if you're Vladigrrrrrr, you don't want Pete Walker lobbying pitches at you trying to get out of a slump here. You get Savannah bananas. Call the Savannah bananas. Think about them getting the job done with him playing the way he was playing. It's remarkable. He did nothing down the stretch for the most part.

Nothing. They won the American League of the Guise. He might come up later in a few questions, and I'll have an answer for that. Big time. All right, joining us here on the Maple Tite of Hotline. Here's our TSM Baseball Insider, Steve Phillips. Steve, if you're Ross Atkins, Mark Shapiro, or I guess John Snyder, what's your plan here to keep the J's sharp over the next four or five days?

Well, you know, if anybody knew the against, exact answer about what was the right way to do it, they would bottle it and sell it. It's just that everybody has tried everything, and sometimes you come out of it feeling like you're ready to go, and sometimes you don't, and I don't know that there is an exact way to do it. So, I mean, ideally, you want to play simulated games. What they'll do is they'll have their own pitchers pitch to their own hitters, and play situations. They'll play a game, they'll play, you You know, you'll set up situations about how they want to set up and do it. And, you know, you can never recreate the energy of a playoff game.

It's just not possible to do it. And so you do the best you can trying to replicate what it is like, knowing that you can't perfectly do it. And so, but every team has tried different things. Some have given some days off. Some have grinding it out. And some have played games. Some have called him minor league pitchers to pitch to the guys. but I personally would want Major League pitchers, pitching to my hitters, my own guys,

which is good because it at least keeps you, you know, seeing 95 to 100 mile per hour fastballs, but it's not the same release point, it's not the same look, it's not the same pitchers as the guys you're going to face, and it's not the same energy level. It's going to be empty stadium, you know, even if you let people come in, it's not going to have the same feel to it. So you do the best you can, but you don't know whether you did the right thing until you realize if you did the right thing. Steve, me and Hayes mocked the term internal improvements for a long time

because we thought it was just a sham. It was just an excuse. But is that going to give a bunch of GMs around baseball a hall pass because of what the Js have done this year? Because that's what they preached. They're like, you know what? Internal improvements, internal improvement. If we get it, we can do it.

And that's exactly what they got. They did. Now, you know, they also changed hitting coaches. and a different message, different approach, different philosophy. And sometimes it's a different voice saying the same thing. All of a sudden, the light ball goes on. Yeah, some drastic improvements, though, Steve. Like, guys like Springer, Bichette, Kirk, like, massive.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Bichette's health was a big thing. You know, Kirk had the setback in spring training the year before. It did not get off to good family. There's a story for everybody. But I'm with you. I think the other thing is some of the young players matured at the right time. time. I mean, Ernie Clement took his game to another level. I mean, Nathan Lucas, dude's got

65 RBIs this year, and what he gave them. And, you know, Davis Snyder had a bounce back year where that patience was there, but he sort of lost his approach last season, and he replicated what he had done previously. And so I'm with you that, that, you know, sometimes guys just, it clicks, sometimes it clicks for one player because it's, it's happening. for everybody else, and they sort of jump on the bandwagon. And look, I don't know if there's any guarantee that the same guys are being productive this year will be able to be productive out of the gate next year because it's just baseball that happens, but it does feel like it was contagious, and their approach this year.

They strike out the least out of any team. They force pitchers to throw it over the plate, but they're aggressive when it is in the zone. And that approach is the one that style is what has won over. over the last couple years in the World Series. Steve, maybe you can provide some context for this, but out of the 28 players that were on the field, you know, taking the picture and celebrating, nine of those guys started this year in the minors.

And obviously they were key contributors, guys like Barger. You know, obviously that's good progression from those guys, but is that a lot? Is that a little to see from a team that has had that much success and, of course, wins the ALEC to have nine guys that started the season in the minors, now be, you know, part of that, Trayasavich, you know, key contributors at this point? Yeah, no, I think it's a good thing to notice.

You're right. It is telling about the player development system, that one, that there are players there to do it, and that the players in the minor leagues were prepared to get to the major leagues and be productive. And so, you know, there's so many franchises where young players have come up and they've not been ready to get it done. And even for the days at times, that has happened. But, you know, many of them came up prepared, or when they went down, they got put back together again.

Andre Jimenez, one that was able to do that and have, you know, he's given some quality at bats right now. And, you know, I just, I like him with somebody on base or a runner's score position because they feel like he's going to, if he makes an out, it's going to be a productive out. And so, yeah, it is an excellent job. You know, when you have a winning team with 94-95 games, you know, the notion of it takes a village, that it's not just a 25, 27, six-man roster at the big league level. It's, you know, it's the players at the minor league level, the coaches at the minor league level, the development staff, your scouts, your training people, your performance improvement people, all of them have some level of impact.

And that's really what you've seen this year. This is, they've won because they're a team. Because it never felt like everything was great for them. It never felt like, you know, they're. the best at any one thing. They just really played good baseball for nine innings. And, you know,

it wasn't always the best starting pitching. It wasn't always the best bullpen. But when you put it all together, you know, it actually worked on a lot of occasions. And so, you know, they won as a team where it's not stars that are leading the way, but quite honestly, you can make a case

that it was the complimentary players who pulled the stars along with them to get them going. With Steve Phillips, ahead of the ALDS, we've got to get through the wildcard first, and we'll get to Yankees' Red Sox in a moment. You mentioned you Savage a second ago, Frankie, and I think it goes without saying.

We know Gosman and Bieber are going to be a part of this ALDS rotation. I'm curious in terms of how you might approach games two and three. One of Bieber or Gosman are starting game one, clearly. Don't you consider the kid Hayes? I think he's that good, man. He's looked really good, hasn't faced either of these teams. game three is so pivotal, especially in a five-game series, and game three is going to be at either Yankee Stadium or at Fenway.

Do you consider that, Steve? Let's say it is he Savage. Let's say they know their three guys are going to be Bieber, Gosman, Yassavich. Is it a Locke Bieber and Gosman go game one and two, or would you consider you Savage possibly game two to take away the bright lights of Yankee Stadium or Fenway game three and put a veteran in that situation? Yeah, so it's interesting. They're a complicated team to think along with right now as to what to do with the rotation.

We know Beaver and Gosman are in, and I think Yosevic has to be in. I don't want to pitch Max Scherzer. And he just felt way too hitable to me, and his stuff was flat, that if Chris Bassett is going to be eligible and healthy and able to participate. I might actually pitch him in game two and Bieber in game three and Yosevich in game four

because Bassett's home road splits are rather dramatic. Like he's sub three ERA at home and he's a five plus ERA on the road. And I don't and Bieber, I'm with you on game three could be such a linchpin guy in three and then I think

Yosevich to put it away in four because I think you're going to need four because it's game one, two, off day, three, four, off day, game five. And so your game one starter will pitch with an extra day's rest because of the off day, but you're going to need four starters. And so I'm not bringing anybody back on short rest. So I would exclude Scherzer, but I'd have to know what Bassett's health status is,

and I might play with him pitching at home in a game two only because he's been twice as good at home as he's been on the road. How tough is it? I mean, Scherzer probably knows it the way he's performed, but just to kind of tap him and say, you're awesome, you're a Hall of Famer, you're great, and take a seat for a bit. It's awful.

I mean, I would send my assistant GM to go have that conversation. So, no, I mean, it would not be a fun conversation because you know how competitive he is, and his belief is, well, it will be better this time. And the way I look at it is that I have to avoid, avoid a clunker. And, you know, and so I can't afford a seven-run first inning. Yes.

Or a three-run first inning where I'm going to the bullpen right away. And so I don't know that I trust that I won't get that from him. I feel better about Bassett if he's healthy and about Yassiz if he's healthy, then I do Scher. And it's not so much that Scher can't dial one up. It's just that I can't afford him getting knocked. out in the second inning and then trying to figure out what to do for the next seven-plus innings with my bullpen.

Well, we'll find out starting tonight, you know, Yankees or Red Sox, who's going to be coming up here on Saturday? If you had the choice, if you're the Blue Jays and you could pick, either the Yankees or the Red Sox, who would you choose? Oh, definitely the Red Sox. Definitely. I mean, Crochet is great, but he won't be able to pitch in game one or two, probably, and maybe two, but

he'll only make one start. And, you know, it's not like they, you know, the Yankees have freed and Rodon and Cam Slittler, where Lucas Gialito is shut down for Boston right now. And so Brian Bezos, their number two starter, and

their number three starters, Connolly early, the rookies made four major league starts, kind of their version of Yosevich, but they don't really have, their four starters, is Kyle Harrison, who they got in the deal for Devers from the Giants. So I don't, the depth of pitching is different between the Yankees and Red Sox. I'd much rather play the Red Sox.

Plus, I'd rather not see Judge and Stanton because I think they're likely to really come out of the gate swinging the bat. Now, that was my question about Aaron Judge, because it just hasn't gone well for him in the postseason. What makes you think this time around everything's going to click for Aaron Judge? Is it just, you know, a lot of averages, you're back there again, it's bound to happen? Yeah, so part of it is he's swinging the back great at the end of the season. You know, he and Stanton both were really locked in. And Judge, you know, really turned it on as the Yankees were winning 10 out of 11 or 11 out of 12 to wrap things up. He was at the center of all of it, hitting for average, one of the batting title, hitting over 3.30, you know, 50-some home runs.

And so there's that. I also, you know, my belief is, Jimmy the guy who keeps getting me to the playoffs and sooner or later, later, he's going to hit in the playoffs. Bonds, you know, Barry Bons, though he thought, oh, Bonds can't hit the playoffs, can't hit the playoffs until he did. A-Rod can't hit in the playoffs until he did. And so, you know, I think that if Judge is going to do it,

he has certainly set up right now to be successful because he is swinging the bat very well. Well, you look at what happened earlier this afternoon. The Tigers end up beating the Guardian. Scoobel goes 8 and 2-thirds, 14 strikeouts. just a legendary outing, and, you know, that's what scares. Automatic win. Automatic win when you can get a performance like that.

Basically, you know, it doesn't hurt that Jose Ramirez, you know, takes off on a dribbler to the mound in the ninth, which was not an ideal play for the Guardians. But, I mean, having a guy like that, what else can you say? I mean, Scoobel, is he kind of, is he by himself at number one? Like, is Crochet close? Is there anyone close, or is it the last two or three years? It's just Scoobel and then everyone else. Yeah, Crochet's close.

I mean, you look at the, you know, their numbers. You know, the ERA, scoobles about, you know, four-tenths of a run better. But Crocee has more strikeouts, a few more walks. But Scoobo got the better win. Scoobo is a Cy Young Award winner. I think it should be unanimous, and maybe somebody will get a vote to Crochet. But scubal is unbelievable. And look, even though, I mean, Gavin Williams matched them, they just made two blunders defensively behind Gavin Williams,

one in the first inning, the right-fielder Rodriguez booted a ball, allowing to run to score. And then Genji Noel lost where first base was, his foot slipped off the base that led to, you know, runners on, and then ultimately a safety squeeze to get the run in for the second run. But, I mean, this was a game where they were nickel and diming each other. I mean, it was, you know, death by a thousand cuts, just trying to find ways to score. It was going to be, who could get the most infield hits to score runs in this game? Because they were both great pitchers in that matchup. And tonight, look, I think Crochet and Freed, I mean, Crochet is 3-0 against the Yankees this year,

and it's four starts, and they won the other start. And Freed is 6-1, like a 170-R-A, and his last 7 starts. That's going to be a great duel as well. should be awesome we got baseball it's cooking now steve we made it to the playoffs it's going to be a lot of fun basically every single night so enjoy the games we'll do it again later in the week okay thanks so much you guys steve phillips our baseball insider joining us here on the maple toota hotline drive the built in canada fuel efficient fun to drive toyter rap four gas or hybrid models available visit maple toota dot com yeah it's when you got a horse man and if he's if he's on that day and

he's cooking it it's tough to beat yeah it's not automatic win but you just have a damn good chance yeah it's just a guy that's gonna have throw up 14ks or whatever the hell he did today is like the tigers manufactured two runs and they won like that's pretty incredible yeah um so yeah we'll see tigers are a crazy story because they blew it 12 and a half game lead in less than a month and they blew it to this team the guardians but now they're up one nothing in the series. Dude, what about the turnaround from the Guardians? They had two pitchers lost to, like, gambling stuff.

Right. Didn't they? Yes, like a really good pitcher, too. Like, Claisset's, like, like, it was heat. They trade a Bieber. Yeah. They're like, forget them. Just trade them. Get whatever we can. Yeah, it's... And to turn it around and get, like, it was incredible to turn around. That's actually kind of crazy. You did all

the heavy lifting on Shane Bieber's like return to play, and then it's just like, yeah, well, actually, someone else will see it through. Like, we did all the heavy lift. Here you go. And it's in the same league as you. Well, also the whole salary cap thing where you got Cleveland, Detroit's not a huge spender. Seattle's kind of a spender, not really. Milwaukee's not a huge spender. You know, like you got all these teams in the playoffs that, like, some of them are big spenders. The Yankees are there again. The Dodgers are there. Red Sox, Blue Jays spend

money, Philly spend money. But there's a real balance. It's kind of half big spenders and half Well, you know, pinching pennies and someone's going to win a World Series. And, yeah, and the Mets love to spend. They're in on everyone. Exactly. And they are not there. How about Pete Alonzo? And I think that got ugly there.

30 seconds after the season saying, I'm opting out. And I believe that's a Boris client. Like, that's Boris that would have a seat. He didn't have a hat. I don't believe he had a Boris hat on. What was his reasoning? This wants a bigger deal. Yeah, I guess he was pissed at them for,

You know, they, remember last year they were kind of low-ball-in-signing. Yeah, and he was like, well, I want to stay. Do you want to keep me? And Cohen was talking publicly. And he had a great year. And then they missed the playoffs. So he was like, I'm out. Like, I'm opting out.

I think he's basically saying, if you want to keep me, you got to really pay me this time. Are you talking about having a U-Haul packed? That's like the ultimate U-Haul right there, 30 seconds after the game. But it's Boris, man. That's Garrett Cole, that's Soto, that's him. Like right after the game, I'm out. Give me the Boris hat. Where's the Boris hat?

Like, it's just, it's a crazy way of negotiating. Very different sport. All right. Mike Johnson, in 15 minutes on Kareil Capri Soff, moving the, the pictures coming in of me with gravy. People have got to stop. Now, the Jofa one is insane. That picture is insane.

The Jof? Why do I have a Jof on eating fries and gravy with my day one shirt? Please stop. All right. Mike Johnson. Affirm with the night coming up. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN4.

Mike Johnson in about 10 minutes. Confirm with an eye coming up. We might have to play some audio from the L.A. Clippers Media Day. Damn right, we too. Yeah. Lawrence Frank. You remember the story about Lawrence Frank was always in Toronto, always following Kauai Leonard.

Wherever the rapids were playing, Lawrence Frank was there. Dude, that's the biggest. tampering of all time. Yeah. Like every game? Almost every game. There was always someone representing the clippers the year he was up here.

Every single game, I believe someone was there. And I'm fairly certain Lawrence Frank was there a lot. And that wasn't to get to Kauai. It was probably the Uncle Dennis, wasn't it? Well, exactly. And we'll come back and play what he had to say about Uncle Dennis. But the guy, he's an uncle. Like, you know, he's basically saying, well, of course,

Uncle Dennis knows the rules. Why would he know the rules? Yeah, he's the guy's uncle, man. He probably, like every other guy's uncle, likes to drink and smoke darts and go to a bar. I want more money. What does he know about who's CBA? Why would Uncle Dennis know all the rules? It's also crazy, like how much the clippers put into this whole thing, all the money, and what did they get out of it?

They got nothing out of this whole thing, this whole operation. No payoff. Just a pain in the ass all the time. Yeah. That's it. Wise comments were no, they were kind of goofy, too. Not helpful. He was like, did they pay all the money?

And he was like, no. It's like, yeah, they did. They paid basically the amount of whatever that extra year was going to be, the Raptors could offer, almost to the penny. And then he was basically like, any more questions, can you just ask the ownership? Yes. And then he had a weird thing, like, click, we got to play it.

It was like click bait or. news media and he just wanted to get the hell out of there he's in a weird place man he's awkward anyway you put a massive controversy around him it's going to be extreme awkwardness dude you know what's crazy is this seventh year there as a clipper yeah he left in 2020 i guess going into yeah 2019 2020 was his first year so yeah seven years as a clipper crazy they haven't done anything nothing um all right more on that johnny coming up confirmed than i coming up overdrive continues TSN 1050 and up on YouTube live. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fanduil.

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