Rates & Barrels - The Red Sox Take a 2-1 Lead Over the Astros & The Dodgers Return Home Down 2-0

Episode Date: October 19, 2021

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss the Red Sox's Game 3 outpouring of offense, their opportunity to open up a two-game lead in the ALCS on Tuesday night, and the Dodgers' bid to claw back from a 2-0 deficit in the NLCS against Atlanta.  Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at 50% off for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Watch the show *Live* on weekdays at 11:30a ET/8:30a PT on YouTube and 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 here with Eno Saris and Britt Girouli. It's Tuesday, October 19th. I felt like I needed to slam the brakes on the intro, on the video, just so everyone could see the faces you guys were making, kind of getting ready for the start of the stream. That was impressive. I got to enjoy that from the behind the scenes. You guys were kind of doing the how now, brown cow, round bird kind of thing,

but just with your faces. You weren't really saying anything. So I think that was. Just trying to wake up. Yeah. It's a little early out here. Britt's been awake for like five hours. Yeah.

Britt went to the gym, but Britt did go to bed really late. I don't know why I'm talking in the third person. The game took a while last night. I'm in Boston. Of course, they always do. But, yeah, I kind of feel like I should maybe be on West Coast time. But if I don't get up and go to the gym, I feel worse. You know, guys, I need the mood lift.

And that game was over in the third inning. Maybe even earlier, it seemed like, last night. At least you guys were riding in before it was over. Yeah, yeah. it seemed like last night um at least you guys are writing in before it was over like yeah yeah the the veteran move as you know is to not write not have to sit there with a blank document after a post game because now you're talking about like one in the morning yeah um so yeah so close games are fun and exciting but if you're a writer sometimes you're like i'll take the blowout um it's all written. Just had to get some quotes. God, that game was a blowout. I saw Derek tweet the jabronis. Derek, are you taking a slow victory lap here?

Are you going to sprint it? Are we supposed to slow clap? No, no. Tell me what we're doing. I bailed on them in the Rays series anyway, so I don't deserve full credit, but I was enjoying this nonetheless. I mean, look, I think the Astros are a bit of a common enemy in baseball, second to the Dodgers. The Dodgers are

the Death Stars, I've said many times before. That's why I thought it was definitely going to be Astros-Dodgers. Yeah, that's kind of how I felt. I just felt like that was what the baseball universe was going to spit at us, and maybe, just maybe, we're going to get something completely different. I still think the Dodgers coming back i said that yesterday i'll stick with that but the red sox up 2-1 over the astros offense keeps on firing once kyle schwarber hit that grand

slam it was only six nothing and i said this yesterday houston's the kind of team that can come back from an early deficit like that they can chip away at it we saw signs of a rally when kyle tucker they get that three-run homer, but yeah, it was not meant to be in Game 3. Now, I think the couple things that stood out to me from the rest of the series perspective, the Astros at least didn't throw

Christian Javier early in the game. There was definitely some temptation, I'm sure, to try and throw Javier in there when Urquidy was struggling. If they had done that, they would have burned Javier in a game that they lost big potentially, and they wouldn't have had him available for game four. I think a big part of

what they did was just sort of mitigate the damage with their pitching staff and give themselves a better chance to win four and five and not burn out the relievers they'll need to pull it off. Still going to be a huge uphill battle, but for me, the story of this game, at least early on, was Eduardo Rodriguez. 95-96 is not normal for him. He had 13 pitches of 95 miles an hour or more all year prior to Monday night, and he had five in the

first inning. He's a free agent this winter. I think Joe Buck sort of sheepishly brought that up on the broadcast. It's okay. You get three and a half hours of time to fill. You can talk about where players might go after the season. Eduardo Rodriguez was already on track to get a nice multi-year deal, but he's having one of those post-seasons where he's probably elevating himself to either get an extra year or to be a $20 million a year pitcher because he is young, he does have pretty good stuff, and he does have pretty good command, even if that velocity we saw last night isn't his baseline velocity.

Yeah, I'd like to see him in another park. We've been ogling him in San Francisco for a while, but maybe he's gone past their price range, depending on how they act in the offseason. But what's weird for me is that on the other side of the coin, I don't think the extra velocity helped. What's weird for me is that on the other side of the coin, I don't think the extra velocity helped. Urquidy was also at the upper rounds, upper reaches of his velocity. For example, he threw his breaking ball 83 a few times. He hadn't thrown his breaking ball 83 since before his injury.

I think that it just led to kind of drifting upwards. I think he was kind of overthrowing and it was drifting upwards in the zone. And that led to bad counts, led to walks, led to 3-0 counts that led to Grand Slams. So I think they were both pretty jazzed, but Rodriguez was able to command his better and Urquidy was not. Yeah, to me, he's just a great story, Eduardo Rodriguez, right? We all know, missed last year pretty much, had COVID. No one was really sure if he was going to come back and be that guy.

And this is kind of what people thought he was when he originally got drafted or signed by the Baltimore Orioles. He was their top prospect prospect and they traded him to get 20 innings of Andrew Miller for the Red Sox and you know this seems to be kind of a culmination of a kid kind of growing up and maturing and also just finally maybe being at full strength health wise I really liked Alex Cora kind of pulling him aside after he trolled Carlos Correa tapping on the wrist um when he got him out I think it was the third time right because didn't Correa tapping on the wrist when he got him out. I think it was the third time, right? Because didn't Correa say something

about how he was going to get him the third time through the order or something like that? I love how that's become a thing. Like five, 10 years ago, third time through the order wasn't even a thing. Like you didn't talk about it at least.

Yeah. Now it's like, I don't know, in a few years, are we going to be talking about second time through the order? I hope not. Oh God. I hope not. Oh, God. I hope not.

Can our starters make it two times through the order? Right. The average starter right now in the postseason is actually averaging under 18 batters faced. Yeah. That was only the second quality start last night, Eduardo Rodriguez, that we've gotten in this postseason. The only other one is Lance McCullers, who's hurt,

so don't hold your breath, against the White Sox, which was a terrific display as well. Well, one thing that I think about that, I think why... Eduardo Rodriguez didn't, like, do a big thing. He just, like, touched his watch. I mean, I say I'm kind of a little bit annoyed at cora really yeah come on the the astros like get to do this all the time and the red sox have to oh we have to you know turn the other cheek and and just be super classy

don't come out a little like what time is it come on it wasn't even that big a deal i think the trolling's okay but what if they come back and lose that game you better be i mean unlikely sure but but generally like it generally lightens the mood and brings it up i mean think about it at that point in the game there was not much to talk about so like literally it was something to talk about yeah it was a snoozer and speaking And speaking of pitching plans, the Astros were hoping to get four to five yesterday in terms of Arkady and going deep in the game.

So not quite exactly what they wanted. Granke is going to be able to go three innings, is what I've heard. Ideally, obviously, the Red Sox will let everybody know how far Granke can go. I bet you Javier would go three. They were going two pretty regularly.

I think they'll probably get five from the two of them. But then they're going to have to use a bunch of guys they used yesterday, right? Exactly. It wasn't worst case scenario yesterday, but it certainly wasn't best case with their pitching. They're going to have to use somebody

yesterday. And then somebody might go back to back to back. But at least they didn't use Presley and Javier. Like you said, they didn't use Presley and Javier and Stanek. So between Granke, Javier, Presley, and Stanek, how many innings?

I think you can probably get seven. So there's two more innings in there you've got to find. What a miserable puzzle to solve. It was a disaster. I mean, only having Urquidy get five outs is something they couldn't afford given the state of this pitching staff right now. And why is it really only three innings for Granky? I mean, again, we talked about this a little bit yesterday in passing. As an older guy that doesn't throw hard, why even have a limit?

Why not just see how far he can go? I don't know. Yeah, I have a question about Rokiti that's sort of similar. Why take him out? Yeah, just let him go three or four, even if that's all he can give you. He threw 57 pitches. Why not get him at least to 75 or 80? Because he was getting crushed.

So what? You're already losing. You're thinking about tomorrow. I think they thought maybe we have a chance to come back here 57 pitches. Why not get him at least to 75 or 80? Because he was getting crushed. So what? You're already losing. You're thinking about tomorrow. I think they thought maybe we have a chance to come back here because they kind of came back in the last game, even though it wasn't enough. I mean, that's an interesting point. I agree with you.

The cranky thing I got from someone in the Houston organization, so I feel like it's pretty solid. Maybe if his pitch count is really low or he's cruising, they allow him to start the fourth. But it seems like there's a pretty clear. Yeah, I've seen some other quotes that he has 40 pitches in him. Which is one inning in the postseason. I actually thought the real Cobus brought this up in the live stream.

Why no position player last night is a pride thing. We've seen two position players, I think, pitch in the postseason. I was looking this up last night. Austin Romine did it for the Yankees. Cliff Pennington did it, I believe, for the Blue Jays. Anyway, those two guys are the only two position players. Last night would have been a chance to do that.

Just because you have back-to-back games still coming up. You don't have enough time to rest. I actually thought it was a good idea. I thought they should have probably planned on getting an inning from a position player just to not use Stanek, who they actually did have been throwing at the end of the game, even though it wasn't a situation where you'd

want to throw Stanek at all. Graveman didn't pitch in that game, so I guess he'll be a little more well-rested. He could go back-to-back pretty easily. Yeah, position player versus Stanek, at that point, it's like 11-3 or something. What difference does it make? Fair. I agree with you guys.

Dusty Baker looked like he wanted to go home last night. Let's not forget, he's in a contract here. They get bounced here. Do you bring him back? Do you re-sign Dusty Baker or not? Because keep in mind, he wasn't hired by James Click. He was hired by Jim Crane. He's not Click's guy.

And they didn't extend them, which is always like, you know, big sign. But if they do somehow win this and go to the world series, how do you not bring back a manager who went to the world series? Yeah. However,

the Cardinals won 17 in a row and they got rid of Mike Schilt. So what does anybody know anymore about perform? Like the performance should be the job but it seems like we as we all know it's the behind the scenes stuff that equates more to the job i don't think i yeah i just don't know i i don't think that baker is pushing back on analytics i think he's he's all in on those especially if he's an astros manager you know what i mean right but i don't know if he's i mean that's just why she'll let go. And also working for Maziliak is

not great. I heard some interesting things, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you bring him back because you hire James Click to be the GM. Doesn't he get a say in the manager? Yeah. Sure, but why would he want to get rid of Dusty?

Because that's not his guy that's how it works i know but like why won't aj preller probably hire an experienced manager because aj preller wants somebody in lockstep with the front office and we all know the guys in the lockstep with the front office are usually the younger guys who have less say my inclination is that that you keep a manager around to fire him later when you're in trouble. So that's what I think of managers. I'm sorry. I think the balance of power is way in front office's seat

and that the managers are really there to manage the personalities in the clubhouse and to enact what the front office wants in the game. I mean, I think that, I don't know, maybe I'm too far in one direction. One thing that I thought was interesting was seeing a Kevin Goldstein tweet yesterday. Somebody was saying the best managers are worth three to four wins. And Kevin, who was with the Astros, said it was much more than that. So if that's true, then I'm wrong.

And then I think Britt's right. And James will want to get his own guy in there because he'll have some, you know, some metrics on managers or he'll, you know, he'll have a preferred manager that he wants for, for his vision. Yeah. I, I, I don't know. I feel like there could be some change there. Just my gut, my gut feeling. He did what he's supposed to do, right. He was supposed to be the guy who got them out from under the scandal. But then that, then that's really, it's, it's awful. It's awful for Dusty.

I love him. And to just bring him in and have him just weather the storm and have to answer all these dumb questions about a team he didn't manage and then let him go because he got to the ALCS and not to the World Series. It's just

awful to me. I don't know if where they finish matters much, except I think if they get to the World Series, It's just awful to me. It's just awful. I don't know if where they finish matters much, except I think if they get to the World Series, they can't not bring him back. They could. They could just be that team that does things their own way. There's plenty of them with similar mindsets.

That's just sort of the way things tend to go. I'm curious if either of you are joining me on the Red Sox-Gibroni bandwagon. There's at least a few more seats here. Britt, are you in on the Red Sox-Gibbroni bandwagon. There's at least a few more seats here. Britt, are you in on the Red Sox now after that win last night? I mean, it's tough. I basically sat in center field amongst the crowd last night.

Yeah, your video of the Schwarber home run looked like you were in the stands. Yeah, it was like a throwback to my college days. No one ever sat down. Even the writers? No. I mean, the writers because you know i mean the writers were kind of like trying to find an angle um so that was interesting uh super loud there um i still think the astros are a better team but watching them boot the ball like watching

out to like watching them do some uncharacteristic things i kind of wonder if the momentum has swung in the red sox favor to a point of no return because it's not just Lance McCullers is injury, right? It's the reverberations. It's the, the ripple effect of Lance McCullers. And I think we're seeing it now and the way that they're hitting the way this Red Sox team is playing, like all these teams always have like that. Like this is what the 19 that's had like the baby shark. This team's got the shopping cart, the brace of the pearl necklace um you can't quantify these things but these teams

are hot and they believe they can win any game and so now i might be jumping on the jabroni bandwagon i just feel like the red sox could very easily win these next two games and not even make a real series out of it uh that was just an absolute pummeling last night. They were screaming at Altuve, something that rhymes with duck Altuve, for the entire evening. I just wonder if the Astros have enough pitching to hang on here. Yeah.

Because you could put the rosy sunglasses on and you say, okay, you know, Granke could kind of shove, even if it's not for a long period of time what if he gets out there he's super efficient goes like four javier goes three and then they just basically do you know graveman presley uh then they you know then they're supposedly their whole staff is fresher right who starts the next game that That's what I mean. It's just like patchwork. It's like Frambois on short rest.

And then you go Luis Garcia coming off the mat with the knee in the next game. Have I even gotten to game seven yet? Yeah, welcome to the jabroni bandwagon. It's clear you're both now on it. Fine, Derek. It's just tough to see the path, you and i have i have a similarly hard time seeing the dodgers path i think they're more talented maybe but they're exhausted and um a lot of people mentioned on twitter the fact that you two were not very nice to the atlanta braves so if you'd

like to apologize i don't think I owe them an apology. I mean, I'm sure I owe plenty of people apologies, but I don't know if Atlanta is one of those situations right now. Were we just, like, not gushing enough in praise? Because I don't remember saying bad things about the Braves. We spent ten minutes talking about the Dodgers losing until I was like, hey, guys, Atlanta won. That's also a consensus, like, reaction. It's not like a – we're until I was like, hey guys, Atlanta won. That's also a consensus reaction.

We're not like an extreme reaction. There's a lot of people talking about it. I mean, there were walk-off wins, right, where the Dodgers left a lot of people on base and made some interesting pitching decisions. We're going to talk about that. And in my defense, I would say I like that their lineup diversity. I was saying that having Eddie Rosario on there, he's not a great player, but he actually fits in that lineup in a very interesting way.

So I liked them, but I see the path of the Dodgers to come back. It's a lot easier than seeing the Astros one. If you see tonight, I say Bueller is a pretty strong favorite tonight. And then Urias at home, Urias at home, I could see them winning the next two. So then it's 2-2. Charlie Morton in the playoffs has been good. Yeah, he's great.

But, I mean, it's Walker Bueller in a slightly better bullpen. They are slight underdogs. Atlanta's a good team. I don't think anything I said yesterday implied that they're not. I think this is a great pitching matchup tonight. I really like the piece that Mike Petriello put together looking at how the Dodgers have been pitching to Freddie Freeman so far in the series because, amazingly, he's been very quiet.

They're mostly working him inside a lot more than their teams have done. He was tweeting about this compared to the Brewers who pitched him inside with righties 29% of the time. The Dodgers are pitching Freddie Freeman inside with righties 80% of the time, massive difference. I like Bueller in previous matchups works down in a lot to Freeman. You know, we'll see if any sort of adjustments are made there,

but I think part of what has made this Atlanta team so good is something Eno is getting at is that this is a, a different type of lineup. Every hitter doesn't go up there with the exact same approach. So navigating that lineup is pretty difficult, even if on paper you've got some low OBP guys sprinkled in. Those low OBP guys in a lot of cases can do damage when you make a mistake. They're different types of hitters than the guys that are high OBP guys

because they're good bad ball hitters. They bring something else different that just makes it really hard to go in there and work a consistent game plan against each hitter, top to bottom in the lineup. Yeah, I think that's a big deal. If you're just all grinders, if you had a whole lineup, this is my whole thing,

if you had a whole lineup of Adam Dunns versus a whole lineup of Vladimir Guerreros, that would suck, but if you had a lineup of half Adam Dunns and half Vladimir Guerreros, that'd suck. But if you had a lineup of half Adam Dunns and half Vladimir Guerreros, that'd be pretty awesome. You know what I mean? Like you'd have one guy always getting on base and one guy who could hit anything to the moon, you know?

Yes. I once saw Vladimir Guerrero hit a ball that bounced and hit the plate. Was that in Baltimore? I think it was in Baltimore. Yes. Was he there for it live? Yes. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen.

Did you know that it had happened when thing I've ever seen did you know that it had happened when it had happened or did you have to see the replay or no no I was I was I was watching the game and uh every time he was up like it was always like a must watch even though he was clearly past the prime of his career he would still do stuff like that um and honestly you know you yell at the TV and I do it too too, like, swing at strikes. But then how do you say that and then also see this? Like, some guys are just different. Yeah. Rosario's got a little bit of that ability, you know?

Yeah. Curious on this one. We got an email from Tim. He was asking about the Dodgers' defense in the series because of injuries and things they've had to shuffle around. They haven't had their optimal defensive configuration. The sequence he was referring to from game two was, you know, having Cody Bellinger at first base. Mookie Betts was playing center. I think they had, you know, a couple other adjustments there.

Chris Taylor was out of center playing third. So it was just a kind of a defensive. It wasn't a mess, but it just wasn't... What's the Justin Turner injury? The neck. I was going to ask, is he playing tonight? They're the early game, right? I think he's playing tonight. I think I heard he's back in. He had a neck injury.

It's Muncy's out and Turner's out. You have to cover two spots. That means Betts sometimes ends up in center and Betts is the worst center fielder out of the three of Bellinger, Taylor, and Betts, probably. Right, because they pinch hit for Lux. Once they pinch hit for Lux, if Lux comes out of the game— Because they've been playing Lux in center, too.

Yeah, which is pretty surprising. I think there's—and Tim, in the email, pointed out there's no way to be certain that Bellinger was going to catch the Austin Riley rocket off the wall. There was a thing that Betts did, though, that is very unique to Mookie Betts. And I'm curious if anybody on the stream or if either of you noticed this. As that ball came back off the wall, it went at Mookie's bare hand. And he kind of corralled it with his bare hand. It was a really difficult, good hand-eye sort of thing to be able to do.

And that actually gave him a chance to get the ball in to possibly make a play at the plate. A lot of other players wouldn't even do anything with that ball. I bet he would be an awesome gamer. I don't know if he does game, but I think he would be amazing. If we had some kind of decathlon of random other sports and activities. Yeah, man. He bowls 300s. Mookie Betts would crush in some kind of bar game slash faux athletic competition.

He would be awesome at it. He'd kill you at darts and then bowl 300. Darts, table tennis, bowling. Play pong. Players play a lot of ping pong. There's a ton of ping pong in baseball clubhouses. That's true.

JJ Hardy was Yeah, players play a lot of ping pong. There's a ton of ping pong in baseball clubhouses. That's true. It's always about it. Yeah, like J.J. Hardy was always really good at it. It's that coordination. You know, it's the hand-eye coordination. So you're right. When I saw that play, I thought of the other play that I think was during the regular season near the end where he, like, got a ball in the outfield and he, like, did, like, a 360 to, like, throw a guy out at third. He kind of got a ball barehand and 360'd and lasered to third

and got a guy out. I think that was on the last week of the season, maybe when it goes to Giants games. I mean, I think he's very good. I just think he's with the hip in the back or whatever is bothering him or just age. He just lost a step that Ballinger and Lux have on him. So if Turner plays,

we think Turner's going to play tonight? That helps. I think if Turner plays, it actually puts them back near full strength defensively, right? Because then they have two better options than Betts in center. Or even three that can play center.

I had not seen the lineup at the time we started this recording, and I don't see one in my timeline at a quick glance now. It seems like we're getting close. It's not quite early enough to have it, I guess. There are some tweets about Turner. Yeah, Turner specifically, there might be some mention, but the full lineup is at least not permeating my timeline just yet. I think even with these adjustments, though, this is not a bad defensive team.

It's just not the peak Dodgers defense that we would have throughout most of the regular season. Expected back for Game 3, Juan Toribio of MLB.com reports. There you go. So that helps a bit, too, getting Turner back into the mix. We shared the predictions for the rest of the series yesterday. I think the Dodgers are going to come back and win the series. I think both of you are on Atlanta holding on now that they have a 2-0 lead. As people on the Atlanta side of this, what gives you the most concern? I mean, obviously, Eno, you mentioned tonight, Buehler, a favorite over Charlie Morton.

Britt, is there something about this series as you look at it? You're like, yeah, I like Atlanta, and I think they are going to win the series, but if X happens, this could spin things out of control and really start to break things down. Well, it's got to be their bullpen, which I think has performed better than anybody could have anticipated for the most part during this postseason, and certainly some of that could be that they played a Milwaukee team who at times was pretty putrid offensively. But they've held their own. I know.

I was going to earmuff Derek. But you know. It's time he learns the truth. Santa's not real. Santa's not real. Toothberry isn't either. And neither is the Brewers' chances of winning. Oh, that one hurts.

So anyway, I think that, I totally lost my train of thought. I think the Braves bullpen. I mean, Max, you could also make the case that Max Fried is really essential to their success because he's pitched so well. He's probably been the best pitcher in baseball you can make a case for going back to late July to now, just with that consistency and what he's been able to give them. But I think I'm going to go with the bullpen here. It's interesting if you had told me that they don't have Acuna and Freddie Freeman can't hit it all, I would have said they're in big trouble. They haven't been so far. And I think that's because they've gotten, you know, key contributions from guys like Austin Riley and Dansby Swanson.

And we mentioned Rosario. So I think they can cover for Freeman. And if he starts hitting just a little bit, I do think the Dodgers win tonight. I think this is going to be a good series, but I still think Atlanta can find a way to win these games. And keep in mind, Atlanta has, is the upper seed, which is crazy. They have home field advantage. If it comes down to six and seven, they're going back to Atlanta, which I think we all know they're probably going back to Atlanta. So I still see a path here for the Braves. Yeah, it's interesting. I'd like to sort of combine what you're saying into like into one kind of thing, which is like if the bullpen specifically kind of blows a max read start where they're winning, that would just be kind of a combo

where you're like, dang it, I had that one in the win column. So now they come back to Atlanta down 3-2, and they burned a Max Freed start, and their bullpen got blown up. Then you're kind of like, well, now we're looking at worse pitchers. And we've still got this bullpen that we have to worry about. I could see that changing the tenor.

I kind of think that the Dodgers are going to win the next two, which kind of, then you're at 2-2, and it kind of just feels like it's anybody's series again. Speaking of weird game times, it's not bad on the East Coast. It's coast it's a 508 first pitch for atlanta and los angeles but being out here on the west coast a 208 start time that is so odd games three hours apart tonight they flip tomorrow with it being a travel day

on the alcs side if if if boston isn't just ending the series tomorrow that could obviously happen too and we could have a celebration on our hands as soon as tomorrow. But I do love these days where we get two great playoff games like this. The days where one series is traveling. Those make me kind of sad. I want... You just have to wait longer. It's like waiting for Christmas.

Yeah. And even though I was just informed that Santa Claus isn't real, I'm still excited about Christmas. It just happened. It's going to take me a little time to come back from all that, but I will do my best. Anything else on your guys' minds before we go? There's been some non-playoff stuff bouncing around.

Brian Cashman spoke to the media this morning. I was kind of seeing snippets of that flying through my timeline. It's pretty clear they're going to get a shortstop, which I don't think I needed Brian Cashman to tell me. I think that was easy to see coming. DJ LeMayhew had surgery for a core muscle injury, so he's going to miss eight weeks this offseason and be fine for his training. That was a big thing. When I saw that, that he was not going to be on that roster, I know that people were kind of like, he hasn't been hitting, but I was like, well, then there's something big going on here. Yeah, he hits. When he's healthy, he hits.

Yeah. Yeah. So Aaron Boone got extended this morning, and the Mets can't find anybody to even interview for their president's job. I think it's a failure. I think you pointed to Sandy Ellison. I think it's all on Sandy Ellison's feet. Because all these names are frankly unimaginative. You know what I mean?

It is like a wish list. It is more like a child saying, I want a unicorn for Christmas. Well, a unicorn is under contract in Milwaukee, Sandy. That mess that you've got. Yeah,

that's the thing. So they're going to end up having to hire a GM for a president role. So that team, the structure and stability and someone who's done it before is going to end up having to get like a Zach Scott guy who a GM level and make him the president. Now, how much does Sandy get to oversee things? Why does Sandy get to oversee things? He's has not proven fruitful in picking people or producing on the field. So if you ask me, I think he's almost hurting the cause right now. Like was Theo Epstein ever going to want to go work with Sandy Alderson?

Like, no, you know, like Billy Bean passed. The Brewers said, hey, no, Stearns. Do you think any team is going to let their president go to the Mets? Why would they? Anything lateral. Yeah, right. Nothing lateral is not going to happen. So it has to be a GM type.

And then to have Sandy there, you'd be like, well, is he still going to be there when I get hired? You know, and then right now it's not even clear from the outside if it's Sandy or Cohen doing the hiring. So, like, really, I think I would make it clear by saying Sandy Alston is going to retire at the end of this year. And he's done us a big service and we love him. And thank you very much. And the team has been good. But, you know, somebody else is going to come here with a fresh slate.

And then I would be all over like Matt Arnold or somebody. Give someone a hot GM that has done good stuff. And I don't think it's Josh Burns. I don't know. Agreed. You're right, though. You need to make it clear. Sandy is going to stay on one more year on the business side.

Whoever we hire is going to be able to build out. They're going to be able to hire five guys right away. They're going to be able to build out their front office. Then that's an exciting job. But the way it's set up right now, not that exciting. I'll be writing about that later, so keep it locked.

Nice. The other big story in baseball, Fernando Tatis Jr. avoiding shoulder surgery. I mean, I think anytime you avoid surgery, it's good news because... I have some inside dirt on this, not inside his camp, but inside this shoulder injury. I have a friend who has this exact shoulder injury and basically what it is, it's a weakness due to a small labral tear, right? And so, you know, you can just play, but it just keeps popping out.

Now, Bellinger had the surgery and it went really badly. I mean, not just in terms of this year, but I think that it's one of those things that you might have to just swallow as a player to be like, you know, it may not go great for me next year. But in the long run, I'm not going to have my shoulder keep popping out because every time the shoulder pops out, it tears the labrum a little more. Yep. And so there is nothing to be like, he's going to get surgery. It's just a question of when. Should have done it. Because every time it pops out, it's going to tear a little bit more and then it's going to be worse.

Yep. So I know that the Bellinger situation didn't work out. So I know that the Ballinger situation didn't work out, but this friend that I have that is dealing with this, he's gone to multiple orthopedic surgeons, and they've all said you should get the surgery. He's just waiting for his baby to get older. Does he have to hold the baby all the time? Of course, he doesn't make his wife pick up the baby for a whole year.

Your friend, not to tease. Yeah, right. Sure, sure. So those were the big news items that came by that I thought we should at least just mention at least kind of quickly on our way out the door, but two great playoff games on tap, and if you're not already

a subscriber to The Athletic, this is a great time to get in. You can still get that 50% off deal for the first year at theathletic.com slash rates and barrels that will get you the highly anticipated piece that Britt is working on that will get you everything we're doing for the postseason and other sports as well. The NBA season tips off tonight and NHL just started so we get that covered too. If you're watching us on YouTube, take a moment barrel up on that like button. Be sure to subscribe to this channel. Of course, we're back here tomorrow at 1130 a.m.

Eastern and you can find us on Twitter. He is at, you know, Sarah. She's at Brit underscore Drooly. I am at Derek Van Ryper. That is going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Wednesday. Thanks for listening..