Rates & Barrels - Finding baseball joy in the playoff race, the Field of Dreams game, and hoping for better days for minor leaguers

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss the baseball things bringing them the most joy as the second half of August approaches, the remaining intriguing playoff battles for the stretch run -- including the NL East, the AL East, and the AL Wild Card spots -- plus, the Field of Dreams game, continued frustration with living conditions for minor leaguers, and a few of their favorite Project 70 cards from this year's set.  Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels presented by Topps. Check out Topps Project 70, celebrating 70 years of Topps baseball cards. Derek Van Ryper, Bridge Rowley, Eno Saris here with you on this Friday. At least this podcast is for Friday, even if you're listening to it late on Thursday night. On this episode, we're going to discuss the things that are currently bringing us joy in baseball because those things still exist and we will talk about them even though there are things that bring us anger and frustration and sadness. Even though we are curmudgeons. We will bring joy. We will talk about the things that bring us anger and frustration and sadness. Even though we are curmudgeons. We will bring joy. We will talk about the things that make us happy.

Because there are things that make us happy. Even though there are times when people say, do you guys even like this? And it's like, well, of course. We love this. That's why we get so angry about the things that are bothering us. So we're going to dig into all the things that bring us joy. We'll talk about the Field of Dreams game and some of the related stories to that. So lots of ground to cover on this episode.

And good to have the whole gang back together again since everything was a mess with me moving and being gone last week and the trade deadline. We've had a chance to actually take in a couple of weeks of games since teams made moves. And we're getting some stratification, I think is the correct word, in the standings. There aren't as many battles division to division as we would expect. There are, I would say, three, maybe four, four that are still actually up for grabs. Both of the East still up for grabs, both of the West. The Centrals are pretty close to decided at this point with the leads that the White Sox and Brewers currently hold over Cleveland and Cincinnati, respectively.

So it's an open-ended question to start today. As you look around the league, you've got a whole wide-open canvas of everything going on in baseball right now, Britt. And you can look at any level. It doesn't have to be the big league level. What brings you joy right now? Oh, boy. So many things. The Field of Dreams game brings me joy, though I think that movie is highly overrated.

I think it's fun. And it's fun that we're going to have big league players playing among cornfields. Fernando Tatis not being out for the season. If he does, in fact, come back and they do put him in the outfield, that brings me joy. The fact that we are almost in September, which is when it really gets to be exciting. To me, that's almost when the pre-playoffs start, right? Every game becomes a must watch for a lot of these races. So, you know, I appreciate the people on iTunes who leave us reviews like, does Brittany even like baseball? But I do. I do do like baseball i do enjoy watching baseball in your defense i mean like some of the some of the work of journalism is to like delve into these topics that nobody really wants to delve into i mean right like you gotta like you're you're fielding calls about a certain situation in la that's just just, you know, it's not fun.

Right. It's not, it doesn't, that's not great, you know, and we have to, we've had to write about injuries with the ball and, and perhaps mismanagement by the league and stuff. So like, I mean, the part of our job is to kind of poke at those things and, and figure them out, but you're right. I mean, it's it's, it is going to be a great time. And, um, I, I think I have a fun story coming up on, on, uh, next week, uh, about fan interaction. That should be fun. I, uh, I got a lot of joy out of it, actually talking to players about talking to fans in the outfield. So, uh, I hope there's enough little nuggets in there that people

will laugh. Uh, it's not my typical story, But I'm also out here watching these geriatric giants every day. And they bring me joy because I am old myself. And so I enjoy seeing Posey go hit tanks to dead center. He looks rejuvenated. Brandon Crawford. I mean like the, one of the best seasons of his life and Brandon belt is swinging it well too. I mean,

this is what year is this? Um, so I, I, I kind of liked it like to, to stop the juggernaut Dodgers. It's going to take like the 2010 giants core, you know,

like what? Yeah. Um, not the script that any of us would have wrote back in the spring. Yeah. And then there's always, like, when you're kind of covering baseball from a national standpoint, it's not easy to have, like, unfiltered joy. Because there's always sadness with joy, like, when you're covering from the top. And here's my explanation.

The NL East like uh there's gonna be sadness for two teams like it's I think it's only gonna produce one team for the playoffs um and you know there's always like the LOL Mets crew that you know I used to write for Amazing Avenue I've lived in New York for 10 years like I've been a Mets crew that, you know, I used to write for Amazing Avenue. I lived in New York for 10 years. Like, I've been a Mets fan. And so I feel that, like, sense of impending doom that, like, a lot of Mets fans might feel right now. But they're the best

team on paper. And then you've got the basically a three-way tie right now with the Phillies and Braves. That's super exciting. So from, like, a sort of baseball national level, that's super fun. Within it, though sort of baseball national level, that's super fun. Within it, though, there's going to be some sadness. Yeah, a lot hinges on Jacob deGrom as pertains to the Mets,

probably more than you would think for just one pitcher. And I think it's the potential for things to snowball. It is the potential for the lol mets mindset to creep back in right if you get bad news on de grom it's not just the fan base it's it's players that have been around this organization i know they've had a lot of turnover but it's still sort of the uh here we go again like this this could have been our year this looked like it was going to be our year we were spending money we brought in a lot of talent we made the trade for lindor we made trades at the deadline to add javier baez like we're doing all the things we possibly can

to win right now and now we're going to be fighting to the very last day of the season to make the playoffs I mean I do agree with what you said you know I think the Mets are the best team on paper of the three teams still in the mix in the NL East. Do you agree with that assessment, Britt? Or do you actually see more? It's not in Philly. I know it's not Philly. I can pre-rank Britt's three teams in the NL East with Philly at the bottom.

No, all of our crap talking, Philly's going to win it. Maybe. Maybe. But if I were ranking just through the lens that Britt is ranking them, I know the Phillies are third. I don't know who she has first and second, though, in the division. Yeah, I'm going to say the Mets. Here's my issue is the Mets are the best team.

And I don't think that's debatable. But they haven't performed. They've underperformed all year. So could Atlanta sneak in there? Absolutely. But did you guys know that the Mets are on pace for some crazy historical records? They have 11 sacrifice flies all year. Like, what?

How? You know, you look at that lineup offensively, and every single player pretty much has underperformed. Underperformed. They don't have an offensive war over two. How? How? It honestly, so, like, do I think they're the best team? Yes. On, do I think they're the best team? Yes. On paper, I think they're the best team.

Atlanta's had just too many injuries to really top them. If the Braves were healthy, I think they'd be running away with this division again. I think it wouldn't even be a question. It would be like their fourth in a row in the NL East. But when you look at it, I think despite all the Mets injuries, they're still the best team. They just need guys to step up. They can't have Jonathan Villar and Kevin Pillar be everyday players. That is just not how this team functions.

Michael Coforto, like it's August. It's time to wake up. Like Dom Smith, time to be better than you are. I think when you look at this lineup up and down and people have pointed to the pitching and yes to Grom being out is huge but to me all year people keep saying this lineup's gonna hit this lineup's gonna hit well guess what the lineup didn't hit the lineup hasn't hit and I think it's fair to wonder this winter what will Steve Cohen do because to me this is on the front office it's not on the manager they didn't go out and get JT Romito which would have been excellent they didn't get George Springer they didn't really get that big bat.

And do you guys remember when Steve Cohen was like, we're going to be a destination for free agents. And they didn't sign any free agents. They got Lindor via trade. So they haven't really done what we thought they were going to do. And I know I'm getting way off topic here with the Mets. I probably talk about the Mets too much because I go on SNY. And I feel like, you know, if you're a Mets. I probably talk about the Mets too much because I go on SNY and I feel like, you know, if

you're a Mets fan, you've been in that like, oh, woe is me for at least a month here. But I think if the Mets get past this little Mets, not Mets, this little stretch here where they play Dodgers-Giants, Dodgers-Giants, if they get past that and, yeah, and they're not totally obliterated,

they have a chance. Because then they get people back and hopefully some of those bats get right. Yeah, I just feel like they're still the best team. As unfortunate and ridiculous as that sounds because they haven't played well all year, I don't know how you can make the argument that Atlanta or Philly are a better team, especially if the Mets get back Lindor and they get back to buy his play yet today. I knew he wasn't starting, so I'm not certain if he's actually available or not.

If they get back to Grom, obviously that's a division race changer right there. Yeah, there's some dysfunction in New York that's still simmering under the surface. I've heard some grumbling about the fact that Sandy Oleson's kid was promoted. There's some people in the organization not super happy about that. Then you have Zach Scott, the GM, going out there right now saying that players are not following their injury protocol or whatever. I forget who I saw somebody on Twitter do this.

I'm stealing the joke, but maybe you can forgive the players for not following the Mets injury protocols because the Mets injury protocols have not necessarily worked out well in the past. I mean, there's a dude out here, Jed Lowry, who is like, I followed the Mets protocols and it did not work. It was interesting to see Marcus Stroman super dehydrated today, but he got it through there.

They did what they had to do. I look at Baez and I see an oblique injury, but they keep talking about a hip and a back. He looked really uncomfortable on that swing. I could see him ending up on the IL. That's just the LOL Mets in me. But there's so much talent there. The one thing I will say is when you build a team like this, where you build it with veterans, this is what happens.

And you need to have really good depth. So do think vr and pilar are good depth but you don't really want luis guillorme uh starting at shortstop very long and that's been a bit of a problem for them yeah that's definitely an issue but lindor tracking back toward a return i think we could also see a much better version of Lindor once he comes back than what we saw prior to the injury. Lindor hitting.228,.326, .376 on August 12th. I never

would have predicted that. If someone said, well, that's going to happen, I would have said, oh, he's only played like 20 games then. He had 20 bad games and he got hurt. He's played 88 games. He's had some chances to turn it around. Hasn't done it yet. Brandon Nimmo... There were some glimmers before he got hurt. There played 88 games so he's had some chances to turn it around hasn't done it yet you know brandon nimmo some glimmers before he got hurt there were there were some signs brandon nimmo on a per game or per plate appearance basis is a good offensive player probably an underrated one in a lot of circles you know jeff mcneil probably won't ever be the guy we saw a

couple years ago over a full season again he's a good player like you can kind of you can talk yourself into this lineup. And I think the thing that the Mets have compared to the other teams battling it out in this division right now, I like the back-end pitching for the Mets just as much as I like anybody else's. The Phillies really tapers off after, I would say, their first three when Eflin's healthy, maybe the first two without him, depending on how you feel about Kyle Gibson.

I think Atlanta is comparable. I think the key for Atlanta is the health of Ian Anderson and Waskery Noah, because if both of those guys are healthy and effective, you're not relying on Drew Smiley for a lot of high quality innings, right? You're kind of moving him down in the pecking order and you're getting guys that are closer to what you had in that rotation last year, right? So for as much as gone wrong for both the Mets and the Braves, it's pretty amazing that they're still right here on equal footing with each other and that the Phillies haven't been able to do enough to open up a lead on them.

Yeah. Yeah, it's almost like a prize fighter has taken a few punches, you know? And you're wondering, are there a few more, you know, and you're wondering, is he, you know, are there a few more punches and he's down or is this when he kind of like rallies, uh, and,

and gets back. So, you know, Tyler Medjel has been good, but the last two starts have not. So, you know, if he's,

if he's going to falter, you, you really would love to be like, Oh, right. As he's faltering swap for DeGrom. Yeah. That would be a really nice swap to me yeah you know while we're talking about joy though what's great as you know mentioned is this

is i don't see any of these teams breaking away right we're in for a race maybe down the stretch maybe down to the last day and that's exciting as long as you're not a fan of any of those teams, in which case you may be physically ill. Even if you are. Yeah. Watching those kind of games as a fan is just the worst. Like the range of emotions is so stressful. When you're neutral and you're a reporter and you don't really care who wins, it's much different, right? Than sitting there yelling at the TV. Content. Yeah, exactly. But it should be good. It should be really fun because there's not going to be that many races that you can count on. And I think we'd all be shocked on this podcast, right, if someone went on a run and all of a sudden was 10 games up in the division. Yeah. I don't see that coming out of the NL East.

I would say the AL East will also be a fun race. But I think the thing that makes the AL East maybe a little more compelling is that you can get multiple teams in, whereas the NL East, probably only the division winner gets in because of the way the NL West has played, and even if things were to get closer, the Reds have a better record than those NL East teams. They would be ahead of all of those teams for a wild card berth. You look at the Rays, the Red Sox, the Jays, and the Yankees, there's a very good chance that at least one team that doesn't win the division gets in. A lot hinges on how well Oakland plays. My argument here, though, is that because the Angels have not delivered on expectations, they traded some players away at the deadline. Rendon's out for the year. They're not going to make a run at this point. They've faded. The Mariners, I think, were just waiting for the

fade to come. I think Oakland's path to at least get to the wild card and possibly keep putting pressure on the Astros makes things really interesting in the AL because then you still only have one of those AL East teams likely to get in that doesn't win the division. So there's a lot of pressure on the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Jays, and the Rays. And I think it's going to make that race just as fun, if not more fun, than the NL East

one, even though two of those teams will probably get in. Yeah, it is a little bit weird where you have this like, well, we didn't get the division, we'll get in, you know? But the second wildcard race, in or not, I think could be big because you see some teams there. I don't know if this describes oakland but the yankees and blue jays um if they get in i think they're pretty dangerous because then you've got they they may not have the best fourth or fifth starters but if you're talking about their first

two starters and you're talking about like a five game series or shortening it. You know, Barrios and Ryu, like Cole and Tyon or Kluber maybe. You know, I would take those guys over, I think, Minaya and Bassett. So, you know, you're talking about teams that would get better in shorter series. So that whole like toggle between in or not is kind of exciting. So I think second wildcard is right there with the AL.

Second wildcard is right there with the NL East. Yeah, I agree. In the NL West, it's like a pecking order thing. They're all three are probably in, unless the Padres just really poop the bed. Yeah, and that wildcard game is going to be out of control. Just think about like a Dodgers-Padres wildcard game. How exciting that would be.

I'm here for that. I would love that. And E here for that. I know. I would love that. And Eno brought up a good point. Like the wildcard teams are going to be dangerous in both, I think, both AL and NL. Because how many times have we seen a wildcard team that just all of a sudden turns the tables? I mean, we've seen wildcard winners in the World Series. We've seen it happen.

It's not a rare occurrence by any means. You get that momentum and all of a sudden, like, it's an old baseball adage. Like, the best teams make it to the postseason. There's no Cinderella's. This isn't, you know, basketball. This is 162-game season. Everybody there deserves to be there, right? They don't stumble in on a hot streak.

But once you get there, it's a total crapshoot. It's who has a hot week or two, right? That's literally what ends up happening. Injuries too, like who's feeling good or not. I think on the rundown it says, like, you know, who's the best, who's the scariest wild card team? And, like, you know, I think the easy answer is the Yankees or the Dodgers, right? But the thing is, what if Kershaw's still hurt?

You know, what if Bellinger's little four homer burst here is actually just a little burst and he's actually still hurt, too? You know, like I think that's where a lot of the chaos comes in that Britt's talking about. That sort of anything can happen in October is like who's feeling good, like who's physically feeling good. Right. And, you know, know you know some of those wild card teams uh i think that rest can help and so the dodgers are i mean the giants are out here like gabe kapler is talking about a first place team out here and he's fielding questions about sitting people and what he's going to do and he says from our research like rest and uh that and sort of systematic rest is a really great way to keep people healthy.

I mean, that's great and all in practice. But it doesn't matter if Belt turns the wrong way on that knee again in September and he's out. Right. You know? It doesn't matter if Posey's finally wearing down after the year off, you know? So, like, i think injuries are like the hugest amount of chaos that and maybe like pitching but yeah and and that's gonna change a lot about we feel about these potential wild card teams between now and the time that the

playoffs actually begin i kind of look at the the jays as a team that they're just better than we all have realized all along. It's really clear. And healthy George Springer is an underrated player, even though we know he's a very good player. I think getting him healthy and in that lineup takes a very good lineup and makes it an excellent lineup. But top to bottom, one to nine, is there a group of hitters in the American League other than the Astros

when they're firing in all cylinders that you'd be more fearful of. I don't know if there is. I think that's the sort of offense the Jays have built, but it's not just that. They've done so many other things well. Ryu is the signing from last year. He's good atop the rotation. Robbie Ray, not walking guys. Really good. Alec Manoa continues to pitch really well. And then, as Eno mentioned, they added Barrios. That's a great playoff rotation. It's really good.

Bullpen is solid. Offense is really good. They have all the ingredients to be the kind of team that, yeah, they just squeaked in. They're the last team in. But they could be – any team can do it. But they could be very dangerous in October with the way they're built. Yeah, I agree. And the thing is, is they kind of like languished early on.

I think getting Springer back was as much of like a mental boost almost for that team. Like it kind of like was a shot in the arm, right? They're playing how I thought maybe some people thought they could be at the top end here. And Vladimir Gurar Jr., like if it wasn't for Otani, he'd be running away with AL MVP. He doesn't get nearly as much press, and I understand why, because Shohei Otani is a generational talent. But you look at the Blue Jays, and what amazes me, guys,

is they do get in. They're a dangerous team. They're built for the long haul here. They're not built to have, like, a one-and-done kind of season. They're going to be a really scary team, health permitting, for a long time. And the moves they made at this year's deadline show that they kind of know that. They finally, for the first time in forever, the big knock on Toronto was they overvalue their prospects. They're not willing to part with guys. They parted with some top guys to get Berrios.

They know the time is now. This could be the beginning of a very long window for the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah, I think they'll supplement with that sort of one-year veteran strategy on the pitching side next year to get the back end. Another Robbie Ray type situation

where they're looking for some values there to supplement it. But, you know, my point about how things get shortened, I think the Blue Jays look way more dangerous in a short series than they do necessarily over the course of the season. Because over the course of the season, some of those issues in the bullpen, back in the

rotation, can kind of get a little bit iffy. Like, maybe you don't like Steven Matz. Maybe Rafael Doliz is too wild. Whatever you think, you know, all that stuff, it matters over the course of a season. But dude, think about the Blue Jays in a short season. You're only going to pitch four starters, right, if that. But if you're only going to pitch Manoa, Ryu, Ray, and who am I missing? Barrios. Barrios. Barrios.

Then you're pitching a really legitimate starter every night. And then think if, like, if Merriweather comes back, I know that seems like a crazy idea right now because he just seems like he's like, he doesn't work anymore. But like, what if he's, this is why I'm talking about like health as a thing.

What if Merriweather is healthy? Now you got Merriweather Romano, a hand at the backend with Simba is the funk. I mean, that's like a legitimate, like you could pitch only those guys. What are the nationals teach us? Like you just need eight or nine pitchers. Like, right. Like, like it doesn't matter if they're starters or relievers, you just need, just need enough pitchers. And to me,

that group, you could pitch nobody else in the post season. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You could pitch those nine pitchers and that's it. and nobody else sees them out unless you're losing or losing by a lot i think that would that and then the jays are like a six or seven runs a night kind of team sometimes so can you guys talk me into the a's because i i do think they are more along the lines uh they're more along the lines of a team that did its thing to be good enough to get to the playoffs. This is where they're tracking anyway. And we all understand, like, as you get to the postseason, you rely less on depth and you need top-end talent to win. Or you just need good timing, right?

You need guys to come through in the right situations. You need your ho-hum relievers to be unhittable. Or you need a lot more balls in play to just find their way to the fielders. All those things can go your way. This is the old, you just got to get there and you got a shot. That's why teams play this way. Can you cherry pick nine pitchers in Oakland that you feel good about? I know compared to the Jays, you don't like Minaya and Bassett and Montas

as much as the first three in Toronto. But that's a good three. And James, how do you feel about Kaprillion? Do you think Kaprillion is okay as a four? I think I would try not to start him. I think I would try to have him as a middle relief.

So you've got four there. Good. 14 starts this year. 322 ERA, 114 whip, 83 Ks, and 78 in the third innings. That's really good. Well, let's throw them in our... What's our magic number? Eight or nine? So let's just throw them in. We've got four. Let's just say eight. It takes eight

good pitchers to win the World Series. We've got four starters. We've got Deakman. Deakman. Trevino. Trevino. I think this is why Puck is meaningful. AJ Puck just came up and he's sitting 99 from the left. And he dropped to the Randy Johnson arm slot. So if you legitimately have a Randy Johnson-esque reliever,

that could be the thing that they need. Because I'm struggling. I guess Romo is for Romo, Chafin, Petit. They've got some depth in the bullpen. Yeah, but those are... This is where

the Trevor Rosenthal injury hurt them a lot. Out for the season. You were kind of counting on that guy because he had such a resurging area of Kansas City to be that guy. And here's the issue with teams like the A's is they don't have the depth often,

like more often than not, right? They don't have the depth of some of these other teams. Or also just the stars. That too. And like for- Like Scherzer, like they couldn't go get Scherzer. Right. You know, they couldn't.

Yes. And forever, like A's fans have complained because they get in the postseason and then they lose. And that's the issue. The issue is like when you get to the postseason, like it's your best against the other team's best. And you're right. You know, very often the A's front line just doesn't compare. They win by being pesky and by beating people down. And, you know, people looking up and saying like, oh, the A's have won seven in a row.

By the way, did you guys know the A's had won seven in a row? I didn't. I'm watching the games. I mean, they, you know, Jed Lowry has been a huge for them. They've had some timely hitting. If they do it, it's because, you know, you know one thing that Olsen jokes about,

Matt Olsen jokes about the fact that him and Matt Chapman are never hot at the same time. Very true. And it just seems like that's kind of true. Olsen was in the tank, then Chapman. Let's say that for once, out of some sort of

brilliant luck, Olsen and Chapman are both hot at the same time. Now you've got two force guys in the middle of the lineup. You've got guys like Lowry and Marte. Now you're four or five deep in the lineup. That's pretty good. I would still, that eight, I would take the Blue Jays eight or nine over

that A's group, and everyone's talking crap on the Blue Jays pitchers. So it's like, I don't know that there is a playoff eight or nine that I would take the A's eight or nine pitchers over. Okay. eight or nine that I would take the A's eight or nine pitchers over. I can level with that, but then my natural follow-up question is, is the gap that wide or is it really just like... How big would the gap

be to... If the Reds made it, it wouldn't be that big of a gap. I think I would take the A's group over the Reds group. I think I might, yeah. But then the Reds might not make it either. Well, yes. You would take the A's group over the NL East winner,

whoever that is, potentially, depending on who is healthy enough. That's probably not. I mean, if it's a healthy Mets squad, not. Yes, yes. But if it's the Phillies, they stumble in. Yeah, I'd take it over the Phillies group. I might take it over the braves which is an interesting thing to say because you know i got killed for not putting the braves in

my top five rotations uh going into this season i was just saying you know i don't know there's a lot of uh a lot of regression here that could be coming from freed and anderson and uh and soroka and the group and uh i mean it turned out to be pretty nitpression, but as they are now, I think I might take the A's group, yeah. Here's the other team that's a probable wildcard team. We haven't talked about them a lot in a while because when they're not doing slam Diego things,

somehow we kind of just like, we'll talk about it when they become more interesting. And are they LOL Mets-ing? Yeah, what's happening with the Padres right now? When you look at their best eight or nine, bigger names, obviously Darvish is great. Joe Musgrove is having a great year. Blake Snell is not the Blake Snell that we're used to,

so that needs to be accounted for. Paddock's on the IL right now. Ryan Weathers has been getting hit lately. Pomeranz is hurt. Pomeranz never liked him. Yeah. Is Pomeranz on the IL? Pomeranz is hurt. Stop Plus never liked him. Yeah, I mean. Is Pomeranz on the IL?

Pomeranz is currently on the IL again. He has been on and off the IL. It feels like all season long forearm inflammation this time. So Paddock's out. Pomeranz is out. They could both be back in a couple of weeks. They added Daniel Hudson. They got Pagan. Melanson's been better than we all expected so far.

How many other relievers do you like there? That's a little soft around eight or nine. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They're not quite the Padres team that we expected because when they went out and made moves to get all that pitching, at least I expected a little more from Paddock than we've got so far.

And I certainly expected a lot more from Blake Snell. And I don't know how much I trust him right now. Morohan going down was bad for them because you kind of thought Morohan, Gore, Weathers. Maybe not all three of these guys are going to be good, but one will be. Yeah. And right now, you're kind of looking at Morohan hurt, Weathers, you know, falling apart, and Gore, like, they're not calling him up. So, I guess Gore's not working out.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, Tatis has kind of been the heart and soul of that team, too. So I think every time he's out or he's hurt, it leaves that gaping hole. Putting him in outfield, I mean, as a way to stay healthy, it's innovative. Will it work? I don't know. It just seems like that shoulder is going to continue to nag him kind of no matter where they put him.

Maybe to be a little less irritated. But wasn't it mostly what he was doing at the plate that was kind of bothering him right with the like you know letting go with one arm oh yeah he started yeah he started changing his uh yeah he's changed his follow-through yeah so like i mean manny machado has had a really good year kind of quietly i feel like which honestly he doesn't really do much quietly but i feel like the teeth and everything that's gone has kind of overshadowed his year and his season. He was a late add to the All-Star game, but if you look at his numbers, he kind of deserved to be there.

So he's kind of been the ship that has kind of kept them afloat here a little bit. But every time I watch them, guys, like they lost to the Marlins. You can't be losing to the Marlins at this juncture, right? Like they did the other day. You have to, in that NL West, beat the bad teams or you're not going to have any chance of getting to the top of that division. So you're right. They've been not as good. And some of the, I feel like, initial early

season excitement has kind of tapered off on them on a national level as well as a result. After the trade deadline, AJ Prellis said, I could have have gotten an arm but why would I do that if we have 4 or 5 good starters here if they don't pitch we're not going in are you guys shocked? that's crazy talk I was just waiting after the Dodgers

got Scherzer and Turner for Preller to go nuts that last day and I was just really surprised that he didn't thought he would get Berrios or Sandy Alcantara or just have some crazy trick up his sleeve. Yeah, just weird. Eventually you run out, I guess. Their upcoming schedule,

they'll play the D-backs by the time most people hear this pod. Four game series with Arizona, three on the road against the Rockies, a day off next Thursday, and then they've got the Phillies for three at home and the Dodgers for three at home before a couple against the Angels and a couple more against the D-backs.

So not a terrible stretch of schedule, but the two home series next week are important. They possibly have a good schedule. The one thing I will say is that I think that it's possible their player development is not as amazing. And that's kind of crazy to say when you produce somebody like Tatis, but I think Tatis is a scouting win.

I think their scouting a scouting win. I think their scouting is among the best in the big leagues. AJ Preller is a magic scout. Yes. I mean, I think he's proved that. Like when I looked up how many major leaguers came from each team, it was the Rangers that had the second most in the big leagues. Why?

A large part of that was AJ Preller, you know, and I think that he's doing a really good job signing guys and knowing for a large part who to trade away. However, if you have a really good player development thing, you have some pop-up guys. And I would say that like between Weathers, Gore, and Morohan, you're like sort of waiting for that pop-up guy, the depth starter that you're like, oh, hey, you know, like Josiah Gray. Like you think about the Dodgers, right? They were like, oh, our depth is being tested. Well, I guess it's time to start Josiah Gray, you know, and everyone's like, yes, finally,

you know, all the like scout people are like, yeah, finally get to see Josiah Gray, you know, you're kind of, they don't like the Padres aren't really, don't have that ace All the scout people are like, yeah, finally get to see Jai Gray. The Padres don't have that ace in their back pocket sort of deal. That's a great – that's a good point. They might have more useful bullpen arms than some of their playoff teams. More guys you'd be willing to throw the sixth or seventh than a lot of other teams. Their A bullpen might not be one through three. Tim Hill is underrated, though. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Tim Hill, Pierce Johnson, Craig Stammen's been fine. That group, that's a lot of useful arms. And if your starters are struggling. Do you want the bitching tie game, eighth inning, wild card game? That's kind of what they were doing. I mean, think about how they were just limping to the finish line in the postseason last year, right?

Bullpenning the hell out of it. They might be doing something similar again this year, which is just so hard to believe after adding Darvish and Musgrove and Snell. That is so hard to believe that this team may have to use that same recipe. But you know what it takes to add those guys is depth. Right. And now we're saying they don't have quite enough depth at the big league, near big league level to fill in.

Plus the injuries on top of those trades have put them in this really, really difficult spot. So I hope for their sake they are healthy. I hope we see them in the postseason again because it was fun. If it takes them falling kind of close to Cincinnati to just give us one more playoff race in the NL to make that exciting, I could live with that, but I'd still rather see the Padres in than the Reds. I think they are a clearly better team. Speaking of joy, though,

let's talk about the Field of Dreams game. How do you feel about this? Is this something you guys are looking forward to? It hasn't been played yet, even though we're recording this on Thursday afternoon. We'll get to watch it tonight. Were you excited when you heard about it? Do you even like the movie? I just find this whole thing to be kind of

random and fun, the kind of thing that baseball should do, but I don't really like the movie that much, so I wonder if that's tempering my enthusiasm for this game. I haven't seen it. I don't know. I've seen it. I've seen it once. It is a little random, a little hokey.

I think it's fun. I agree with you. Baseball is a long season. You want to play in a cornfield in August to break up the monotony? Go for it. I'm fine with that. You want to wear different jerseys? I'm fine with some of the stuff they do in season.

That part I'm fine with. I You want to wear different jerseys. I'm fine with some of the stuff they do in season. That part, that part I'm fine with. I actually, I love the shots of the place. You know, I love the, like what it looks like. I love the idea of like corn being in the background. I even like their innovation where they have a little bit of a fence,

but you can see the corn through it. Like I, there's a lot of it that I like. Yeah. So I think, I think it's fine. People that are like kind of complaining about it are just going to complain no matter what i feel like who cares it's one game if you don't like it don't

watch that's how i feel i'm going to watch because i think it's also going to be is it just one game it's not the whole series just one game right i thought it was only one game yeah just thursday yeah it's just one game i don't like that it's such a rich man's thing have you heard there's the prices on stububHub are starting at $1,400. Yeah, I agree with that. I wish they found a way to bring the local community of Iowa in maybe a little bit more or little

leaguers. They tried to have some events around it. They had some little league games or some kind of travel ball type games on it before. I'm sure they'll use it once the MLB is gone. Some parts

of this don't hit me right. I'm not super excited. I guess I'll watch it. I don't know. Here's my real hot take that exposes me as a weirdo curmudgeon. I don't love sports movies.

Really? Elaborate. Here's what I love about sports. And I was thinking about this at the game the other night. I think we're all waiting at a game to see something we've never seen before. I think we're waiting to be surprised. I think... Okay, so even if we're not waiting to see something we've never seen before,

we are waiting to be surprised, right? We're waiting for something that we can go home and tell our friends about. We're waiting for, you know, there's no way that you want to know the ending. That's fair. Usually, usually in a sports movie, this is probably why the arc fails you so many

times, you know what's going to happen. Usually. It's so obvious. Nine out of ten times, you get the positive outcome at the end. You win the big game. Do you think the team is going to lose at the end? Usually. Here's my one caveat though. When it's a true story,

and you still know the team's gonna win like miracles one of my favorite sports movies yeah like that's just cool like it's cool no matter how many times you watch it because the u.s had no business beating russia so that i mean i love that movie because it was so cool i'd say they're like rudy right another great movie because you're like how the hell did this guy with no talent finally get to play a Notre Dame? So I like the true stories because even though I know how they end, I'm like inspired because I'm like, okay, this isn't like some Hollywood, you know, guru penning some ridiculous ending. This actually happened. And like people were chanting Rudy, the guy played, you know, the miracle, the US did actually win that game.

So I agree with you on most things. I think baseball movies in general are not well done um really there's so many bad really at all like not all done trouble with the curve i just watched like 10 minutes and was like please stop the best one is a league of their own which again based off true events so i just feel like for me anyway those are the most palpable ones. Here's a funny thing, given your recent reporting. One of my favorites is sugar. Depressing as all hell.

There's very little baseball in it. There's more about social issues and actually kind of about minor league housing crisis and stuff like that. Like, I mean, it's about this kid coming, uh, from like the Dominican Republic and, and trying to like, you know, make sense of America and make it as a baseball player. So, uh, and he has his host family and it's, I think it's actually super relevant to anybody who cares about baseball on all sorts of levels.

Um, but it's, it's not very uplifting. Uh, and, uh, it's not like a, a one where they show a lot of baseball, but it's not very uplifting uh and uh it's not like a one where they show a lot of baseball but i've also just recently seen like um space jam both of them oh you've seen the old one and the new one now they're piss poor dude there's just awful awful movie making just awful i think even my kids were like and my kids are starting to be a little bit critical i'm happy about that uh my kids recently saw a pokemon movie my older one was like you know what it was a little overdone it's amazing finding holes in the plot he was like i liked i liked uh i liked detective pikachu a lot better than that one and And I was like, yeah, yeah, so did I. So, you know, I don't know.

I find them overdone. I find the acting, you know, I find it cheesy. I found, you know, a lot of the movies, baseball movies I've seen, I find super cheesy. So I like the ones that are like comedies or dramas that have enough going on else, you know, outside of the baseball scenes. I just base like the, the sports scenes.

A lot of times they don't even do it right. They look terrible doing it. You know what I mean? Like, like I thought there were parts of trouble with the curve. I was like, did you ever play baseball before you started to play baseball on screen for this movie?

Cause it doesn't look like you know how to do it. That is one of the things that's always weird about sports movies. And then you get random shots of professional games in movies sometimes. Those always look pretty weird because they're clearly filmed differently in a lot of situations.

Here's the thing, though, just kind of tying this all back to the Field of Dreams game and that movie and all this. The idea of growing the game by playing a game in dyersville freaking iowa in august that is a good idea right at its core like if you think about it like you connect the dots and say let's go let's go play a game in iowa the game among rich old white people that's the problem that's that's what i'm saying it's

it's the execution that is woefully inadequate. Terrible. Not even close, right? But the concept, the idea. Let's play games where there aren't normally games. Okay. Okay. That's what I'm saying. I see. Like this sort of top level concept.

Yes. This specific one seems very old and white. No, no. I'm saying the idea of playing a major league game in a place where you black out like six to eight major league teams. I think it's at least six, right? They have a sign on the way in where they're like, please stop blacking out the games, Manfred. You're like, whew. That's not great optics.

I mean. I love it. I tweeted like if they want to grow the game, just get rid of blackouts. And it's going to. It got like 15,000 likes. It's easily going to be the best tweet I've ever tweeted. Because everyone feels the same way. You could run for office on that. ever tweeted because everyone feels the same way on that i know everyone feels the same way like the best way to grow the game is to involve the

people like me who have cut the cord and allow them to watch every team right or how about this yeah how about this even uh the a's had a night where tickets were free. What? That works. Really? That gets people in the door. That's amazing. Zero dollars. Zero dollars to go see an A's game. That's amazing. Sold out. Don't you think that grows the game?

Yes. Yeah, because people who wouldn't ordinarily spend the money to go or don't have the means to go are going to go and watch it and they're going to like it. What grows the game? The $1,400 ticket game? Right. Or the $0 ticket game? Yeah.

No, you're right. It's a good point. And you're right, Derek. They should, you want to take all these states that don't have baseball and play in them. I'm all for it. It doesn't even have to be tied to a movie. Take these states and these areas where you really have no fans or it's tougher to

retain those fans and have games. But like Eno said, make them free. Do giveaways. Hit the school-aged children. There should be sections of Little Leaguers in Iowa. That's who you want to hit. The people who, when they leave Dyersville, Iowa, by the grace of God, and go on with their life, they're baseball fans, right? You don't want the guys who are closer to death than they are to their baseball ticket-buying season. Maybe they're doing some of that.

I don't know. Maybe they have to pay for it. They definitely spend a lot on this thing. Maybe in year two or three, they'll have more community outreach. And they are allowing the community to play catch. But it's the old field.

I don't know. No one's allowed on the MLB field right now because it's all hush-hush before the game starts. I don't know. No one's allowed on the MLB field right now because it's all hush-hush before the game starts. I don't know, man. It's cool. It's all right. I just think we've seen plenty of examples from the league. Yay, Joy!

This is supposed to be the episode of Joy. The Joy in baseball. That's why we started there. You know, it took a big old poop on it. Yeah, thanks. One star. Would not listen again took a big old poop on it. Yeah, thanks. One star. Would not listen again. Thanks for killing the podcast reviews.

If you are still enjoying this podcast, please take a moment to leave us a nice rating and review. We got to push back on the haters of the show who don't like the negativity here. I thought the story that Britt wrote about Zach Britton's Feel of Dreams cleats was really cool. I thought the cleats themselves are really awesome. Then I got a little furious

because I thought, oh, so now we have to turn this into a charity. We have to use charity from this game to make sure that minor league players have enough money to pay bills for housing and food. The absurdity of that is just it will never cease

to make me angry. And I continually feel powerless to actually do anything about it, which I think is what makes it worse. Yeah, it's just the system is broken, right? And I think, you know, I wrote a few weeks ago, I talked to 30 minor league players, and I think it's important to realize that outside of the Houston Astros, which are providing furnished apartments for all their players at all the different levels, outside of the Houston Astros, which are providing furnished apartments for all their players at all the different levels, outside of them, like no other team

is really doing anything but the bare minimum, which is essentially nothing, to help their minor leaguers. And I guess, you know, people's counter argument all the time is, well, they're minor league

baseball players. They're chasing the dream. You know, they're making minimum wage. Pick a different sport. Yeah, and I have... Pick a different job. Like I have a couple points to that that maybe people don't realize. They're're making minimum wage and pick a different yeah and i have pick a different job like i have a couple points to that that maybe people don't realize they're not making

minimum wage when you do it out hourly many of them are making below minimum wage if you're a minimum wage if you're a minimum wage worker no one's asking you to pick up and move to another city not at not in your control and then secure housing for five months. Good luck. And train on your own. Right. You don't have to train to do a minimum wage job on your own. You're not spending your own time on it. Nobody is telling you that.

It's insane. There are some very old things we've talked about with player development, and the minor league system in general is one of them that just don't make sense at all. And the carve-outs that enable this to be possible, brought to you by Congress, are obnoxious because what the Astros did, Britt, what they're doing, paying for the housing for their minor leaguers,

that is a thing that every single team could easily do, and it would not hurt them, and it wouldn't make tickets cost $180 each for every single person in every single stadium at the big league level throughout this country. It wouldn't turn it into that at all. It's doable. And I still, the thing I cannot understand, how can you as a team trying to develop players not realize that to maximize the value, again, this is even removing the fact that these are people and you want to take care of people because they're people. How do you not realize that someone who is not worried about housing, someone who sleeps comfortably and eats well is going to perform better on the job you're

paying them to do? How is it not even just that, that spurs teams through the right thing? I think that might be a big part of why the Astros do it. The Astros are all about player development and performance. Weird, huh? The weirdest thing of all, and you brought this up before and it was in the story, they kind of keep that on the down low because it's a competitive advantage for them. Isn't that silly? I mean, this is common sense stuff that every organization should want to do. And we've got a lot of Twitter accounts that, that keep relaying stories like this too. I mean, the story you wrote was fantastic. It's all, it all comes to light because of, of people finally being more comfortable in talking about this thing. That's it's been happening forever. This is, this is not new. Like this has been

minor league baseball for probably since the beginning of time, but forever. There is something a little bit new, Britt, in your reporting, have you heard anything about host family programs being restarted or something? I mean, that's some part of this, right? That that stopped during COVID? Yes. And that used to be kind of a stopgap for a lot of people that they would live with a local family.

That's part of it. But what's unfortunate about the host families is sometimes host families charge players, which I didn't realize. I talked to multiple guys who paid to stay in a host family's house. And it's often not like, hey, here's my spare bedroom, Derek. Come stay here. This is your bedroom and bathroom.

It's families who have like 10 guys and they're all sleeping like next to each other in basements. So it's very there's great host families and there's not great host families right so and here's the crazy thing of course i don't know why i never thought of that because i've met host family parents that seem like the nicest people in the world and like you know they they had they gave their kids their kid went away to college and they gave their kids like you know bedroom to the host and the host and the kid and the players like i love this host family but of course they're a bad host yeah

there's good and bad and so but why is them as a billion dollar team are you entrusting these random people again with with lodging your players and you mentioned san diego and i'm glad you did you know because they seem to be some of the worst offenders at the double and triple A level, which is crazy because they, I had a guy who said, listen, multiple top 30 prospects are sleeping on floors, multiple. That's horrible. Those are people you'd expect to come up and help your team soon. Yes. And they're in San Antonio and they're in El Paso and these are expensive. The problem too that I mentioned in my reporting was, I mean, you guys know what the real estate market is like right now. I'm trying to buy a house. Derek, you just moved. Eno, you live in one of the most expensive places in the country.

Now what's happening though, is these mid-market cities are getting expensive. Your Columbuses, your Louisville, your Indianapolis, your Nashville, San Antonio, because people have left the big, big cities, right? So the rental rates are through the roof in a lot of these places. And they are these small cities that don't house a big league team, but they house a minor league team. So finding rent in these places is absurd. And also the restructuring that was happening this winter, when they got rid of 40 teams. They moved class A in the Cal League to California. So you're talking about expensive. These guys are making like $500 a week and they are supposed to live in Southern California, Northern California. They're supposed

to live in these ridiculous areas. Lake Elsinore, dude. Lake Elsinore is in the middle of Orange County. Yes. And a player pointed out to me, MLB kind of said, oh, we're going to travel less. It's going to be better for everyone. Well, what they didn't point out was the players pay for their home housing. So traveling less. When they're home more. Yes, like Stockton, every time they go to Lake Elsinore or Rancho Cucamonga, those are home games. Those are commuter games.

They get on the bus. They drive there. They come back. So players have to pay for more home housing. Derek's face is hilarious if you're watching this. He's totally flabbergasted. It's this huge mess,

and it's always been a mess, but it's even worse now because of the rental costs, the host families, and this reduced travel nonsense. So now we're doing cleat things, and Dallas Braden around here, bless his heart, is doing Nuts. Well, did you see his tweet? He used to chug NyQuil because he was so hungry. Oh, that was the worst. That's a real thing. He used to chug NyQuil to go to sleep because sleeping was free.

Yeah. That's bleak. That's so bleak. Also, Stockton and Rancho, those are not – I was making a face because I was thinking about California's geography. I don't have a map of California on my wall yet. I'm going to get one so I learn where places are. It's not that close.

Those are not close. Those are not close at all. Rancho is like on the drive from LA to Vegas. It's kind of part of the desert, I think, right? High Desert and Rancho are just kind of out there, way out there. Stockton's up east of Oakland. Those are not close at all. Horrid.

That's like a four-hour drive home. Yeah. These are commuter gates. Five hours not close at all. Horrid. That's like a four hour drive home. Yeah. These are commuter games. Five hours at least. What on earth? If it's like Elsinore, it might be seven hours home. What? After the game? What? Just to save money because then the team would have to put them up on the road but at home the players are

responsible. So the players mostly pay per night in hotels and they pack up all their stuff and live out of their cars when the team's on the road so then they come home and there's been car break-ins everywhere in some of these cities because of course you know you're you you walk by a parking lot and everyone's lives are stuffed into their cars and they're gone for weeks um it's just a really sad again you could furnish these apartments you could help these players for half the year, and you can Airbnb it or use it for other

purposes the rest of the season. They just don't want to. And I know, actually, some people are trying to do something about this. David Casillas is trying to do something about this where you could do

kind of like dormitory uh type uh housing for people right like they're not expecting you to give them like a furnished apartment you know necessarily like and you could do this like reasonably cheaply even in some of these bigger cities if you went to like some of the, the kind of business park areas, right? Let's say you just went to the business park area and you took one of those, you took one of those big business park buildings and you, and you,

and you split it up into little 10 by 10s with, you know, with a bathroom for every four or something like that doesn't sound amazing to people listening, but that would be better than what's happening. And that wouldn't cost millions and millions of dollars for a team. It would be like maybe a couple hundred thousand to like renovate the way where I'm thinking. I remember my friends in New York converted a factory in Bushwick into lofts, right?

And they didn't have millions of dollars. They just like put up some stucco and put it in a toilet. I mean, none of it was really to code. If you want to look it up, there's some really cool piece about the McKibben lofts in Bushwick. My friends were involved

in that. I spent a lot of time there. It was super wild. But anyway, they didn't do it with lots of money. They did it with a little bit of stucco and some toilets. I think it's possible that a Major League team could do better than the McKibben Lofts in Bushwick.

So, on that note, I think we should get to one more happy thing. I was going to ask you guys, as people who have been listening to this pod throughout the season know, Topps has been presenting sponsor of our show going back to the spring. And they've had that Project 70 that we've been talking about where they release three new cards every day. I just thought this would be a good time to stop and say, hey, have you seen some of the designs over the course of this year?

What have you liked the most to this point? I actually bought one a while back i bought a josh gibson card because a josh gibson is amazing and b they really aren't don't make a lot of josh gibson baseball cards it just seemed like a very cool thing to have in a small collection but i'm seeing a ton of tatis of course i feel like i mentioned tatis's name and like all of those reads and a lot of them are really cool designs, a lot of stuff from the 50s, the 60s, and the 70s. I think my favorite era so far has been the late 70s and the very early 80s designs.

I think some of those, like the Chris Bryant Giants one that's up right now is probably my favorite current design. There's a Vlad Jr. one that's pretty similar, I think, from the same year, too. What have you guys seen in Project 70 that's really caught your eye so far? Some of them are a little nuts. The one that I really like

is the Doc Ellis by Matt Taylor. I just really love the design. I love the idea behind it, that he was on acid for that game. There's a story behind the card and I think they kind of nailed

that kind of trippy art but then also there's so much going on in some of these I like some of the kind of simpler ones so the other one I really liked was Lauren Taylor's Ronald Acuna and just to describe it real Lauren Taylor's Ronald Acuna and

just to describe it real quick it's just Acuna in profile celebrating and he's in black and white but his I love his yellow arm guards you know so like he's got his yellow flare on and he's in black and white

and then if you look a little closer you can see him doing a back back a bat flip kind of in his jersey like it's like a little detail um i like that better than some of the the other ones that have just like a ton of crap going on where i just i can't really focus on any one thing yeah so yeah the lauren those two are my favorite yeah there is a lot going on the The Ozzie Smith ones are cool. I think just because Ozzie Smith to me is cool. I like the one from 1982, Ozzie Smith by the Shoe Surgeon. It's got Ozzie Smith obviously front and center, but it's got the Wizard of Oz and a little bit of that theme going on.

The Yellow Brick Road. Some of the stuff from the old movie poster combined with him i think is a really cool look did you guys see as well that jesse sanchez got a tops card um mlb.com reporter he got his own he jesse sanchez if you don't know him super nice guy i've known him for 15 years now he he crushes the international um signings the international league all that stuff going on. He actually got a Tops card. I'm going to try and see if I can secure one and get Jesse to sign it for me because I don't know about you guys, but that's kind of on my bucket list someday

is to have a baseball card that's mine. Who is that other outfit that does cards of people around baseball? Alan and Ginter does people around the game. There was, I think, Baseball Brit had one made of him. Maybe Pitching Ninja

had a baseball card recently. Yeah, I want one of those too. That'd be sweet. If someone's listening, we want a Rates and Barrels card. I got a tidbit on the back of a baseball card because I think Michael Salfino writes some of the blurbs on the back of a baseball card because uh i think michael salfino uh writes

some of the blurbs on the back of tops cards uh i think he mentioned uh my stuff metric uh with regards to like zach gallen on the back of a zach gallen card i was already pretty juiced by that yeah that's pretty cool so you know these uh yeah i do want a card i'm you know anybody who's collected cards would uh ever would love love to have one of themselves. Yep. Yeah. I'm going to add that to my bucket list as well, Britt. It'd be very cool.

A Rates and Barrels card, a DVR card, anything, really. I'd be honored to have something like that made. But yeah, check out Project 70 if you haven't, because the designs are very different, very unique. It's cool to see players that you're watching now in the designs from the era maybe you grew up collecting. A lot of the late 80s and early 90s stuff is what I had. I just saw the Tatis from the 80s. Yeah, that's pretty cool. A bunch of those are really cool.

Let's see, the Jacob Rochester one. They've made a lot of cool Tatis cards. If you're a Tatis fan this year, and you've been buying all the Tatis cards on Project 70, you've built quite the collection over the course of this year. But we appreciate that. Whoa, look at that Willie Mays by Pose. Wow.

He's got a half-naked Willie Mays where he's holding the bat right in his crotch. Hello. Yeah, the Jazz Chisholm is a little too much because I feel like jazz chisholm already is a great – his big personality. Some of them do have a lot going on, but there are some really cool ones. Yeah. And you could tell. I mean, the backgrounds of the different artists are all over the place.

So you get a set that's just very unique. Lots of designs that you never could have even imagined on your own and we had alex pardee on the athletic fantasy baseball podcast earlier this season a lot of the monster designs like there's one of tatis where he's turned into a monster and yeah brian hayes is a spider like that's that's his style of art so those are those are really cool if you're into comic book art or anything like that. I just noticed that one. It's like some sort of tree monster or something. Rasta tree monster. Oh, no. He looks

like the Predator. That's what he is. Tatis is the Predator. Yes, that's awesome, actually. That's my new favorite. You can check out the archives. They're not all available because they're only available for 70 hours. The current ones are available at Topps.com. You can check those all available because they're only available for 70 hours the current ones are available at tops.com you can check those out anytime they're only

available for 70 hours before they go away for good before we go away for the weekend i want to let you know you can subscribe to the athletic for just 3.99 a month at theathletic.com slash rates and barrels you can read the stories that brit wrote that we were talking about you can read all the playoff related coverage as the stretch run continues if you're into fantasy football we're going to have that covered as well on twitter she's at brit underscore giroli he is at enos saris i assure you all of us love baseball if you love this podcast take a moment to leave us a nice rating and review don't let the haters win hit the like button if you're watching us on youtube and be sure to subscribe to the channel that's going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels.

We are back with you on Monday. Thanks for listening.