Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 11 | August 16th | Central Races Rage On

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

The Cubs got swept by the Phillies and a walk-off grand slam by Harper. The NL Central is tied up again. The Blue Jays are going to play spoiler down the road and we're excited about it. Elevator Talk: Marlins. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's going on, everyone. Today is Friday, August 16th. We got a good slate of games this week. Some sweeps, jakes, some surprising sweeps, some big time heroic, some walkoffs. Home runs. They got involved. Let's do it. Let's talk some baseball.

We are talking baseball. Hello, and welcome. Talking baseball. I think our 11th episode. Friday episode. If you're a new listener, thanks for stopping by. Episodes come every Monday and Friday. Recap the weekend series. Recap the week series. My name's John Boy. I'm coming to you from New Jersey. And I got Jake, backwards hat on, waking up in that fresh Denver air. How are you doing? Doing well, James. How are you doing, buddy?

I'm good. I'm excited. I'm excited. I got a pep in my step this morning because the ESPN article, that our buddy Coley from ESPN wrote about us came out. And that always feels good. I'm not going to sit here and downplay it or lie. It's pretty exciting stuff. We're doing good things. So getting some recognition. That's cool.

Friday morning is exciting. And I like the Friday. I told you that yesterday. I like the Friday shows because it gives us the buffer day. A lot of these series wrapped up on Wednesday. So we get the buffer day Thursday to kind of like soak it in a little more where Monday shows they end Sunday. They all end on Sunday and it's like, bam, let's figure out what happened. So I do like the Friday shows more. I'm happy. I'm excited. How are you? Yeah, we, I'm good, man. I'm good.

Got the coffee flowing. You're right. If those of you don't know, there's an ESPN article. It's kind of based around the Yankees effing savages. And then it also gives the story of kind of John Boy Media and a little bit of what's going on around here. And yeah, Coley Harvey's our guy. He was cut. covering the Yankees beat. He's actually jumping over to Big Ten football. You're probably going to see a lot of him this fall. I think he's going to be doing the sideline reporting for Tim Brando and someone else's calls. But like the big Big Ten game. So go check out, Coley Harvey. If you don't know him, he's just a good dude. And yeah, so we're walking tall today, Jim. We're coming in at a full 5-7 today. because we it's not every day you wake up and you see yourself on ESPN which was I mean little boy Jake's dream up until the age of you know 28 or so ha ha ha ha ha a joke was made you're 29 that was the joke should we say that every time we make a joke a joke was made that's the punchline like Dave Chappelle slaps the mic against his leg

Yo, that's so bad, but it's so good. Yeah, his new special's coming out soon. Oh, yeah? They went to the Salt Flats to film the preview. We've been there. Yeah. Should play baseball in the Salt Flats. Not a ton of baseball in the Salt Flats.

Not as much as you'd like. No, no, no. Oh, dude, we should build like a baseball field in the Salt Flats. That'd be badass. That's what I was saying. You'd scrape yourself up pretty bad. Oh, yeah. Nardly scrapes.

Yeah. Yeah. If you don't know what the Salt Flats are, Google. them pretty bizarre the bonneville salt flats yeah Utah it was a dried up lake now there's a bunch of salt Jake this episode today we got a lot of people sponsoring it and we're flying all these people out to the salt flats pretty cool stuff man okay I'll let you know who what you let me know what position they're playing this episode of talking baseball sponsored by jay malone jay malone that's tough you don't want to give away a pitcher spot so quickly that's first base first base it's a first

Oh, that's a good call. You got me there. I'll give you that one. Charles K. Middleton, the second. That's a shortstop from Curisale. That feels like a center fielder to me. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So we both got them with speed. Yeah. All right. Ian Donaldson, second base. I mean, yeah, I was thinking second or third. We'll see how the other position comes out. Donaldson can play ball. Joshua Gonzalez.

That is either, that's a stud pitcher or a stud like DH. Yeah, I've got. I've got them either middle relief or right field slash DH. So we'll go right field slash DH for now. Caleb Summerhaze. Summerhays is a pitcher. You're wacky reliever. Yeah.

Yeah. All right. Christopher. Speaking of. Christopher La Genus. Actually, you know what? I think we're throwing him at short, Jim. Okay.

Yeah. Johnny Flores. That's a, that's a corner outfielder. I mean, come on. It's a corner outfielder. or Zach Williams. Zach Williams. You skip John Jammel.

Oh, John Jamel. That's a DH name. I'm sorry. I was going to say catcher. It's a big bat. Okay. Yeah. Zach Williams.

Zach Williams. Zach Williams. That's a pretty versatile. That's your utility guy. That's your Zobrist. Paul. That's the manager. Paul.

So I've got Paul. Did you see Shane Green? When they came out, they just put Shane as his name. They didn't say the green part. So that's a new, that's a new closer trend I want to start. Nice. That if you're a closer, you get to go by one name. Josh Mozzoli.

That's a catcher right there. Yeah. Mozoli behind the dish. Colin Armenda. Armenda. I don't know what you are. It's a tough one for me, Colin. I think we'll wrap it up.

That's our team. Jonathan Garcia. Haley Tasado. Eric Michelson, Jack Michaels. Wow. Michaels and Michelson. Same timing. Danielle.

Eber? Eber? Eber? Yeah. Annette Allen and Matt Tisk. Tisk, Tisk. Those are... So you're welcome to come to all of the Salt Flats and play baseball with us. Those are our most recent Patreon supporters on patreon.com slash John Boy Media.

They get early access to this show. I know Hayden Carts in here. Drew Ward are in the chat. Maybe they're at work right now. We're just chilling on a Friday and during summer. And yeah, if you guys have anything to add to the show in the chat, feel free to. Patrons also get the chance to win two jerseys each month from affordablejuris.com.

Andrew Pelham is in the chat as well. And what else are the perks, Jake? And there's going to be more coming as we are able to do more content and get some more people on the team. I do want to live stream making a breakdown again whenever I can find time. Next week sometime. And Jim, this might sound over the top. and maybe some people won't believe it, especially where, you know, you are on Twitter nowadays and all that jazz. But get involved with us, tweet at us.

Like, I know Eric Michelson, Haley Tasado, Jonathan Garcia. These are people we interact with regularly. So, like, don't, like, get involved with us. We like talking baseball, not to be too corny, Jim. That's a joke. Yeah. And we do have a lot of stickers to send out for reviews. I'll get on that.

we got a have stickers um i wanted to do we wanted to do something cool and like make each sticker unique for each team but that might we might some ideas we think of and then we think of the logistics and we're like fuck that's crazy yeah but anyway we'll we owe stickers to a lot of people in the reviews i'm not forgetting about you i'm just pushing your side for like another week maybe are we the number one baseball podcast can we can firmly say that we are on chartable which takes everything into account. The podcast one, they updated their categories, and it hasn't been, like, updated in two weeks.

Right. Like, they updated the way they do it. But unchartedable, talking baseball is number one, talking Yanx's number two. And that is, I mean, I don't need that to stay forever, but it makes me very proud of ourselves. So that's cool. Share it with the baseball friend,

because we're doing good things. All right. Let's get right into the baseball. Enough of this. none of this groundskeeping. Hey, Jimmy. Yeah. Jimmy, can you give me any inkling of what happened in the National League during the first set of games this week?

I can, I can't. And I want to reiterate again, I know we say this a lot. I love, a little behind the scenes, I love where we ended with how we wanted to deliver. We wanted to open the show with what happened last week, but we have no idea how to do it. Do we just read the standings? do we read every game result? Am I just saying it all? And it seems like a very simple concept when you get to the end.

But the way we do it now is we rotate. I have the National League this week. I had the American League last week and just kind of give a report. I love it, Jake. I love that we decided to rotate leagues. Yeah, there's a part of me. I've never known more about baseball than more. There's a part of me that feels a little dirty because I'm watching more baseball

that it's like, oh, I peaked in on some National League games. Damn it. But I know you've got more for me. All right. Well, the National swept the, oh, hold on, hold on. You know, eventually when I get my soundboard back, I want some, like, music for this. Like, do, do, do, do, do. You want me to sing the whole time you're doing this?

No, no, just some tunes. You know, like a Ken Burns dock, like some tunes. I don't think you're ready for this jelly. All right, you just talk over that. Okay. The National swept the Reds, two close games, and then a blowout Jake. Bauer got lit up in the fifth inning of the final game. Good for the Nats who are, you know, vine for a spot. The Reds aren't. The D-backs and the Rockies got together in a little NL West

matchup. I think of these teams as very similar in my brain. I think that's just the geography of it. The Rockies barely avoided getting swept by the Diamondbacks with a ninth inning comeback and walk off in game three by Aronado. Good for them. Better for the Diamondbacks. The Pirates and Angels met up. The Pirates and Angels matched up for the battle of the worst August in MLB, Jake. Two teams just plummeting. They said, let's find out who's the worst. And the Angels came out the victor by losing the first two games of the series. Congrats the Angels, you are still the worst team in August. The Reyes and the Padres met up and the Padres lost the series to the race. Cubs and the Phillies. This was crazy. This was my most shocking. The Phillies invited the Cubs

to town and then swept them right away. Cubs lose all three games getting outscored 32 to 8 in the process and Harper hitting an absolute walk-off bomb Grand Slam to end it. There's some good pitching lines in this one though, Jake. The Dodgers and Marlins, they played. Dodgers trudged down to South Beach and beat up the Marlins winning the first two games 15 to 1 and N8 to 1. Then they went to the beaches hit the town, did all the drugs in South Beach, and gifted game three to the fish. Very nice of the Dodgers. The Mets hosted the Braves and lost the first two games, then lost Jeff McNeil to the IL, then won the third despite trying their best to lose that one as well.

Gave up like six runs in the last two innings, but held on. The Brewers split a two game set with the twins. Are these teams rivals, Jake? They're really close on the map, but I've never heard or thought of them as rivals in any way. am I just completely, that's just off my radar. Another two-game interleague set. You guys know how I feel about those. Another one, the Cardinals and the Royals, they played two.

Cardinals won. Both of them, that's what they're supposed to do. Good job by the Cardinals. They lost five in a row, and then they immediately won five in a row, and life is all about balance, Jake. A's and Giants met up for the Battle of the Bay part one. The A's ditched the town, headed to the city, and split two games with their counterpart.

That is your National League report. Handings updates. Hell of a job. Standings update. Yesterday or last episode, we were saying, wow, the Cubs, not only did they get first back, then they go up three games, they're back to dead even in the NL Central tied

with the St. Louis Cardinal, Cardinals are actually one game up in the lost column, and that just remains chaotic. Milwaukee is one game out. So bad time for the Cubs to get swept, and Dodgers are clearly in front. The Nationals, they won three games, and the Braves only won two.

So the Nationals gain a little bit of ground. They're four games back in the lost column. It's closer than you might think, but the Braves seem to be holding on strong. they would need like a real bad two series in a row or something to happen. And then wild cards getting crazy. They're all in play. They're all in play.

Let's, I'm going to reverse engineer this a little bit and go, go backwards from where you start. Battle of the Bay, do we have anything to say there? You're a former Bay Area guy? Yep. Yeah, this is cool. It's fun. Like this one, it's fun when they're, like, the Mets and the Yankees split in four game sets. home and home.

It's fun. It just doesn't work out geographically everywhere. But that's fun. The A's are, I don't know. There are two teams. The A's are should be in the wild card. We'll get to that in the American Leagueport. The Giants are like hanging on, but not really.

They're three and a half games out of the wild card. So yeah. That sounds good. There's six teams ahead of them or five. So like, I don't know. Yeah, and we'll get there a little bit because they'll get mentioned briefly in the AL report. Cardinals, Royals, not much to say there. Another Midwest battle.

Good baseball cities. Royals are hurting. I think they actually got shut out in both games, and that will get mentioned briefly in the Yale report. Good for the cards bouncing back. Twins Brewers, Jim, you mentioned this in your comma, a breakdown of the NL there. These teams are kind of rivals. You're right. That upper Midwest.

And Jim, if you think about it football-wise, we're talking Packers Vikings. So yes, I mean, we've got some animosity between these two fan bases, especially they're both having good years and fighting. And this, I wish this wasn't a two-game set, Jim, because these two games were awesome. You had the hater got touched up by Marwin, caught me a Marwin. And then the next night, our guy, Trent Grisham, hits a, the rookie hits a big home run in the eighth inning to take the lead of that game. So that was really good baseball.

Yeah, it was. What else we got here? That's always weird to me. It's always something weird. I'm sure, like, for people in this area, it's going to sound stupid. Bless me, bless me, big sneeze. But when I think everyone, the country's so big.

I think everyone's got this with some way. but for some reason the Minnesota area, I never connected their teams. Like when I was like, oh, twins fans are Vikings fans. Yes. It's like, wow. So that same guy likes the twins and the Vikings. And then so like when you say Vikings and Packers are rivals,

I'm like, oh. Yeah. It's just a weird connected dots that happens in my brain. That's like one plus one equals two. And I'm like, oh, shit. But I just never like thought of it. There's got to be people that are from that area, probably have it with somewhere else.

Like what's another state that you're like, wow, that fan base and that fan base are the same? Oh, tough question. What fan bases are rivals that we don't know they're rivals? Like are, no, not rivals. Okay. Like if you live in the Falcons and the Braves, those are the same fan base.

Right. Okay. So you're, so this is kind of like, like a it's almost like a color scheme slash city association thing okay yeah like if you put all the MLB NBA NBA football teams and hockey teams on like a map and you have to like group together right like okay so Florida Panther fans are also Tampa Bay raise fans right right right no that would be the buck Tampa Bay Buccaneers the lightning yeah whatever this is a weird conversation but interesting it's an interesting avenue no i like it but yeah i think we need time to develop that more

like if you're an arizona cardinals fan you're probably a diamond backs fan but you kind of associate that because they're the arizona team well uh yeah maybe that's an offseason thing um jim a series that we were really excited for uh one of the hottest teams in baseball versus the team that i'm now swooning over met's first the braves um some quality baseball action in this yeah the Mets, they lose the first two, right? And one of those was in pretty tragic fashion. They were up to one in the seventh, kind of a couple bleeders.

Seth Lugo, our guy, who was on Enfuego last week, a couple dribblers. He gives up a couple runs. So that was a tough loss for the Mets. Yeah. And I feel like, I don't know, man. Mets fans are an eye. fan base because they they just up and down two sides of the weight and I feel like you know

you see some Mets fans they lose two and oh magic is over but they're they're still in it uh but like we said the Braves are good they're not this young fun team that's excited to be where they are they're a good team and I think you and I both started on that way and now are firm like no the Braves are good So, yeah. The Mets, like, oh, they, so they were down five to one, and they, in the eighth inning, they score two in game one. So, I mean, that doesn't do much, but that still shows, like, fight. Yeah.

And, I mean, that's what the Braves showed in the last game. Oh, my God. I flipped over to that. Mets were up 10, 4 in the 9th, and I was like, should I even watch? And I was like, you know what, I'll throw it on just for shits and giggles. and then they hit three home runs. It's 10-8. They have to pull Gagnon, and they put in Edwin Diaz with two outs.

He walks the first batter on four pitches. Tying run comes to the dish, and what was a 10-4 game, and then he strikes out the next batter. And honestly, at this point, because we don't really root against any guys, Jim. You know, I kind of hope that sparks Edwin Diaz, man, because when he was good, he was so good, and he's been so bad. And that's also one of the beauty of baseball things.

Like, what if that one out, like, kind of gets Edwin Diaz going? That would be huge for the Mets. But it was a crazy night. The old chop was going in Atlanta. But Braves just hold serve again. It's what they do. That's game three you're talking about, right? Yes.

So I was going to note that in game two, the Braves were up, one nothing, right? Going into the seventh inning, the Mets take the lead to make it two to one. Then the Braves score five. Just make it five or six to two. And in the top of the ninth, the Mets put together a two-run rally.

Now it falls short. And for a lot of people, you might say that that doesn't mean anything. But I think to the clubhouse and to the morale of the team, the fact they lost the first two games, but they put up runs in the eighth and ninth inning, the Cubs can say, hey, we lost, but like, we kept that same energy and momentum. And, like, we were right back giving it to them.

So I think it's nice to work to make note of that. And then they do have the close game where they try to lose it. Third game. I'm still on the Mets. I'm not saying, like, I still think the Mets put up a good effort. The Braves are just a good team. Right. And body language does matter.

And there's been good stuff amongst the Mets. and you do have to take a step back. Yes, you want to keep your crazy street going, but you're at Atlanta. You're still seven and three in your last 10. You're doing good things. So, yeah, the House of Cards hasn't collapsed on the Mets yet. Jim, I think Dodgers Marlins, I've got one fun note from that.

Edwin Rios, he hit his first Major League home run, got the silent treatment, which I know you're getting away from. But the cool part. I think it's brutal. Celebrate with the guy who just, hit his first career homarer. That dude wants to unleash and go crazy. And I'd much rather watch that than him be like,

damn, this sucks. Wish I could celebrate with you guys. Right, but that's the beauty of the silent treatment. You let that moment boil for just five more seconds when they come in the dugout and then you all celebrate with them. I like, my favorite silent treatment thing is when the guy, like, comes bombing into the dugout and he's like, fuck, I don't care.

I'm celebrating with you and start grabbing them and like shaking them, you know, because he can't. Yeah. He can't, like, fake that, like, oh, okay, this is a whole home. And that's a good moment from the silent treatment, yeah. But Edwin Rios, he hits his first career major league home run. He's like, this is so fun. I'll do it again.

It's his first two home runs in the same game. So that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. Let's see. Cubs, Phillies. I think that's kind of, that might be the series of the week. Should we make that a segment, Jim? Are we dumb?

I mean, do we just say it? Is that how it works? That's a series of the week. That's a series of the week. Okay. And we did it. Good segment. I don't know.

Are we going to save that for kind of like a main topic or do we want to go in now or what? No, there's some things that like fall into other segments down the line. But this was huge for the Phillies and bad for the Cubs. And like I said, there's some good pitching performances in this. And the way the third game ended, I mean, wow. I'm going to do a breakdown on later. If you haven't watched it, it's fucking, it's awesome. Yeah, and it's so funny how many stats there are.

are nowadays and, you know, people, people were kind of down on Bryce Harper's year. I think he's got top five win probability added in his at-bats or something like that. So like Bryce is still kind of doing his thing. And Bryce, he's now, this is kind of the second year in a row. He started a little slow and maybe he's putting together a big second half. That would be huge for the Phillies. They bring in Charlie Manuel, their former manager, which that's pretty cool. He's their hitting coach now. And he's got these old man vibes going on. but they're technically undefeated since he's there, so you can kind of rally around that as a team.

And Jim, on the other side of this, our cubbies that we've been kind of hot to trot on, Jim, something big we kind of missed on the cubbies. And, you know, as we start going into October, well, we'll get to September first, I guess. But you're looking for kind of holes in these teams. And I think it's funny when you think about matchups in sports, you normally think football, oh, that left tackle.

tackle can't handle that defensive end. That's going to be a nightmare. Or they can't guard that wide receiver. Basketball seven games set. Same thing. We don't have a matchup for that guy. The Cubbies, man. I mean, every team, you know, every team's got their problems,

whether it's bullpen starting pitching hitting. Dude, Jimmy, the Cubs on the road this year are 23 and 38. 23 and 38. Is that good or bad, Jake? That's so bad. And, like, that's, I'm sorry. the Cubbies but unless you show me something the next month and a half like I have I can have no belief in you because you're not going to do anything on the road why do you think that is I wonder

I mean I don't know that's that's like too in deep for me to like have a grip on that but cubs fans who watch every day is it just I mean the cubs put together a good product as a fan like as a crowd and a fan in the environment but the cubs don't have a huge park factor right Jim the Pittsburgh Pirates are 26 and 38 on the road. They're better. I mean, Cubs fans come tweet at us at John Boy at talking Jake if there's something we're missing. For me right now, it jumps out as like just a mental hurdle. Like you just go on a road trip now and you're like, damn, we struggle on the road, hope we can get one.

And then that one bad thing happens and you're done. Yeah. That is pretty brutal. But you, Darvis, talk about him later. There's a lot of little things in that series that fall into other segments. Yeah. Yeah, well, we're not done with that series yet. Series we are kind of done.

Well, I'll mention it briefly. Raise Padres, man. You'll see it in the AL report, but I was like digging for something to talk about because I didn't want to be rude to the Raisin Padres, but it's kind of a whole lot of... Did you hear what I said about that one? Yes.

Yes, and I was laughing because I'm kind of on the same note. So if anyone doesn't remember, and if you're a Patreon, we post our notes and I posted them before the show today so you can follow along. I am adding some things right now you won't get. But I had like, you know, little lines about each series and for the Rays and Padres,

as I said, the Padres lost the series to the race. Because there was like nothing, there was no good standout performance by a batter. So there might be things that happened, but the line scores are brutal. I know that Kinsler pitched a scoreless inning and then hit a home run, but that's not really, I mean,

that's not really indicative of play. It's just a nice Luis Urius RBI double, but that's tough to work in sometimes. Let's see, Pirates Angels, another one that's, I mean, that's kind of tough right now. Both those teams are doing pretty bad. They're both waiting for next year. Those fan bases are pivoting to the NFL and they're allowed to. Yes, that's a good, that's a great call.

That's pirates. That's pirates and, like, Chargers season now? Who do Angel fans like? See, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. This is the game. Angels fans. Steelers and Angels fans, you probably get a lot of Raiders from their time in L.A.

Do they, like, goff? Are they Goff God people? The young kids might have taken on the Rams, and then you might get a lot of raiders, because the L.A. still has the big Raiders. Right. It's probably Dodgers Rams. who thought we'd circle back on that talk. D-Backs Rockies, again, Rockies are scrapping for whatever they can.

The Aeronauta walkoff was pretty cool, really turned on one off Archie Bradley. We like that. That's a good pitcher versus a good hitter. I think everyone hates Archie Bradley, but I don't. And I like Dodgers, but I know Dodgers fans hate Archie Bradley. And if I was a Dodger fan, I probably would too, because he's always mouthing off and talking. He's bad. Something about Archie Bradley I'm, like, drawn to for some reason.

Yeah, a lot of beard, a lot of emotion. That's like you. I mean, you have less beard and you're emotional in different ways, but okay. Okay, we danced around it. It was close. And yeah, only series we've missed so far, Reds and the Nats and your Nats sweep. Jim, know how we like looking forward to a certain series. we got juiced up for the twins Indians.

I need a Braves National series soon. Isn't that happening soon? I mean, it's got to be, right? Yeah. They don't have that many games left. If I remember, I was, like, upset because the twins and the Indians had a ton and I was really excited. I think they have two series left against each other.

Yeah. So the Braves host the Nationals for four games in early September. And then the Braves go to Washington. Okay. So we've got two series. I'll take that. If you're the nationals, right? Your season starts on September 5th.

Four games against the Braves. And how do you want to be in punching distance by then, Jake? Right. That would be their goal. So they have a series against the Brewers, then four against Pittsburgh, then three against the Cubs, Baltimore, Miami Mets. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, eighteen, eighteen, eighteen games.

Right. Brewers at home, you got to win the series. Sure. You almost have to sweep Pittsburgh, which you can't really count on, but I think you have to in this situation. If you're going for the division, you got to sweep Pitt. In this time of the year, yeah. So that's two wins, four wins. at Cubs. We know the Cubs are good at home.

I'll allow them to just win one game there. So we're at seven wins. Then Baltimore comes to town for two. You have to win both of those. That's nine. Miami comes to town for three. You have to win all three of those. So that's 12 games out of 18.

And then you got three against the Mets and the Mets are coming to you. You have to win two of those. I need the Nationals to win 16 of their next 18 games. I think I did the math at the end wrong there. They need to take advantage. They need to go into that series in Atlanta on September 5th with four games or less. Jim, I think I've got one thing for you to be super excited about, and I've got one thing that you're not going to be excited about.

What do you want first? Not excited about. Not excited about a really important series, the final series of the season for the Nationals. is at home versus Cleveland, which might be really important for both of those teams. And it's kind of one of those quirky interleague matchups that you're like, okay, that's a little odd.

So it's at nationals are home? Nationals are home versus Cleveland. So let's see how that will fuck Cleveland. Who's their DH right now? Yeah. I mean, Carlos Santana, who we might hear about later, has been D-Hing a lot for them. And Fran Mill Reyes, actually.

So that's not a, that's not crippling because Carlos can play a little first base. Yeah, I mean, if Carlos and Fran Mill are hot and you have to sit one of them because you're ending your season and that sucks. That sucks. Yeah. Okay. But I have good news for you, Jim. You're right.

That was not exciting. Because I know you don't like that. But I have good news for you, Jim. What's the good news? Before that, the Phillies come to Washington. For a five-game set, it was a four-game set, but they're doing a doubleheader. So we're going to get five Phillies national games the week leading up to the playoffs, which could decide so much.

Need that to matter. Yeah. And I think it will. If we get to that five-game set and it doesn't matter, that's going to be so disappointing. Holy shit. The Phillies have a nice little schedule here. San Diego Padres, Boston, Miami, Pittsburgh. I mean, you have to win every series if you're the Phillies.

I mean, you just swept the Cubs, but if you're going, you're hosting the Padres and then the Red Sox, Miami, Pittsburgh, all non-contenders. I mean, I'll allow you to lose a game, but you need to win every series. Red Sox fans aren't going to like you calling them non-contenders after this week, Jim. Okay. Well, they are.

I mean, they might be like, if they're climbing like out of a ditch, their fingers may have hit the top of the grass or whatever, you know? Right. And that's about where they are. That still doesn't make them a contender. But their fingernails have seen fresh air. They still got to pull themselves out of a ditch.

Well, let's get some of that AL fresh air, huh? Yeah, let's go to the AL report. Jake, Story Alley, with your A.L. report. Bam, baram, baram, ba'am. Jimmy, in the American League, the New York Yankees devastate the AAA

Baltimore Orioles winning four games in three days. 16 straight. That's not a typo. 16 straight wins against the Baltimore Orioles, sad times and B. Moore. Glad the Yankees

totally didn't get killed by Cleveland last night because we only talk about the first series of the week. Speaking of the Indians who totally didn't wreck the Yankees last night because we only talk about the first series of the week, they hosted the Boston Red Sox. Oh my God, the socks took two out of three. Scrapping and Klon, Jim, scrapping and Klon.

Pueig was suspended, half credit. The Rays, they were in San Diego. They win two games before dropping the final gym, as we talked about. I just highlighted who homered. Choi Meadows Garcia and Fam homered. That's it. San Diego Tampa. Sorry, guys.

Views from the 6th as Toronto hosted Texas, the Blue Jays devastate the Rangers, Jim. Game 1, they win 19 to 4, and then they shut out Texas game 2. So, okay, you almost give up a 20 burger, then you get shut out. Brutal, Rangers are covered. They win the final game of the set.

In the Central, you heard about the Windians, Lusian to Boston. Minnesota, they've played two of the more fun games this weekend with the Brewers. You heard about that rivalry between the Vikings and the Bears, some good late-innings heroics in that one. The White Sox, Jimmer Ferdat. The White Sox hosted the Astros for three games in two days after a rainout. They split the double header. Then the White Sox win the rubber match on a James I'm not Brian McCann, Grand Salami, to break up a nine-nine tie in the eighth. Awesome action.

the south side. The Royals get shut out and back-to-back games against St. Louis. That's tough. Tigers host the Mariners. Big shout out to everyone who went to those games. Holy Toledo. Mariners take two out of three. Jim, who got the win for the Tigers in the one game they won? Edwin Jackson. Hello, darkness, my old friend. Illegal. In the West, you know Houston got beat by the lowly white stocks. You know Texas got bullied by the Blue Jays. You know Seattle beat the Tigers. You know Oakland split in the Baywood San Fran. And you know the HALS lost two out of three in the pirates. Everyone in the West got covered. Not the best week for the AL West. Ooh. Wow. So like that. So Jim, in your in your American League standings, yanks are up nine

and a half on the raise. Twins are up a half game on the Indians. They're trying to fight through without Nelson Cruz right now. Houston is up eight and a half on the athletics and in the wild card. Currently, Cleveland is up two games on Tampa, and Oakland is a game and a half back. Oakland, not getting nervous, but maybe getting nervous. I think right now at this present moment, people like to lock you into thoughts forever.

Sure. Reserve the right to change my mind next episode. Right. This episode, I think the Indians and the Twins have division and wildcard locked up. Both of those teams are making the playoffs. That's what my brains tell me. Rais and A's are going to have a battle. And the Raises and A's don't play each other again this season, which really disappoints me.

Right. What do you feel about that? Yeah, I think, because I think I mentioned this last episode, I think Minnesota has the easiest schedule the rest of the way. So they're not going to go anywhere, I don't think. And the Indians are playing incredible baseball. Again, they totally didn't wreck the Yankees last night because we're only talking about the first series this week. But the Indians are playing some of the best baseball in the league, so it's hard to picture them just hitting the off switch. Especially after the trade deadline, they made their lineup so much deeper.

So, yeah, it feels like the A's and the race are racing each other. And, yeah, you wonder, I mean, can one bad series dictate things? is it an injury or, you know, are both teams just going to keep pace? And the A's, I don't want to say they get screwed, but if the Rays just keep, you know, winning most of their series and keep trucking on, you wonder if that game and a half is just tough to make up. I want them all to be in there. Not true.

Not true. As an A.L. East fan, a Yankee fan, I don't want the Rays to make the wild card. And that's just petty, spice. Like the Rays are a good team. I don't think they don't deserve it. It's just more fun to say you're the only team from your division that got into the postseason. That's a more fun thing to claim. You can't get mad to me for that.

Yeah, I guess the other side of the shoe on that, is that a saying? Would be that if the Rays make the playoffs, the Yankees can say their division was that much better, you know? Oh, that's a nice spin. Yeah. Two spins. Great. We got two good things to say whether they make it or not. Spin cycle.

Yeah. You know what I actually, what my brain jumped to first here, Jake? Where'd your brain jump, Jim? That the Blue Jays won? Is that what you said? Yeah, so the Blue Jays, Jim, and I thought you were actually going to like this, because, dude, they won the first game 19 to 4,

which I know 19 doesn't overly impress you because you start getting to pitchers that don't deserve to be in the game. Once, yes, yeah. When you win that first game, 19 to 4, and you come and you shut them out the next day, that's about as tough as it gets. I'm interested to see how much this Blue Jays team can play spoiler.

They're so young, and they're the hungriest team that's out of a race, I think. Ooh, I might like that moniker. Hungliest team out of the race. Out of all the teams that are playing for nothing right now, the Blue Jays are the hungriest. Like, I don't, you see that they're, yeah. They're looking at their future where other teams are looking at their season kind of end.

Yes. So I'm looking at the Blue Jays schedule. They host the Mariners. That's whatever. They go to L.A. I mean, that'd be cool if they can give them a series, the Blue Jays. And I think they might be able to. The Dodgers are so good.

So I'm not trying to insult Dodgers. I'm just saying the Blue Jays are out to spoil seasons. And they can't spoil the Dodgers season. but I'm interested to see Vladdy, Bichette, Kevin, they're baseball players, and now they get to go to Los Angeles and play against the Dodgers in like kind of a big stage for them. That's going to be exciting.

Tay Oscar, yeah, and Jim, I think the only other team that I think would give them a fight would be Cincinnati because they made the Bauer trade and they're trying to build up towards next year too. Yeah, but they're not doing much. But, yeah, they're not super young kids either. And that's Toronto, the thing for them, Jim, is they're starting pitching.

If they can get a decent start, their bullpen is still good, and they've got these kids that are absolute players. And again, like the Dodgers could ruin your starting pitching real quick. So it'll be interested to see if the Blue Jays do make something on that because those dudes are good. So like the Blue Jays, all right, if you are a fan of the Nationals,

the Blue Jays can help you out. They have four games against the Braves. So this is what we're doing. I'm labeling the Blue Jays as my. team that's going to spoil and help your team. So these are the teams that need to get down with the Blue Jays the rest of the way. All right. So if you are a Nationals fan, you're a Blue Jays fan for the rest of the season.

You need them to beat Atlanta twice, all right? You don't play them if you're the Nationals. So you're rooting for the Blue Jays to beat Atlanta. Jim, I don't want to slam the brakes on you. I think this is an incredible segment we might have to say for another episode. Well, let's write it out right now. Okay. We can, we can, it's cool like what.

I think when, I think if we sink our teeth into this, we can really like make some fan bases line up. And I think that's a lot of fun. Okay. All right. If you're an A's fan, you're a Blue Jays fan. They have seven games left against the Tampa Bay race. Now that's a real one.

Like that's awesome. If you are an A's fan, you are a huge Toronto Blue Jays fan the rest of the season. A's and Jays. Yeah, that's big. One of our graphic designer listeners write out J's in the Blue Jays letters, but make the A's the athletic symbol. Yeah. So if you're a Yankees fan, the Blue Jays play three games against Houston. So you want them to win that.

But also, if you're a Yankees fan, you really got to cover your own butts because the Yankees play six more games. So really, Houston fans, you are Blue Jays fans for that best record of baseball. We can find another team to do this. and who needs to align for like next week. But yeah, that's something cool that I stumbled into. A's fans are huge Blue Jays fans. A's and J's. Unite.

Someone tweeted us, John Boy, talking Jake, and we need one A's fan and a Blue Jays fan on the internet to become friends. That's your goal for this weekend. But I did also want to make a note, and someone in the chat, Jim Montgomery pointed out, because we have been kind of like saying

this race, Padgers games was boring. Tatis is exciting man. He had a triple and then he had that snag. Did you see that where he jumped and basically then got air after getting air? He's awesome. Yeah. He's awesome. I'll label him the most exciting rookie in baseball right now because he's a five-way player.

And he's so young. Five-way. Five-tool. Special teams, offense, defense, pitching, hitting. Five-way player. Shut up, dummy. Be cool. I do think Alonzo is going to win Rookie of the Year, though, just to, I don't know who I'd vote for, but I mean, I just, I think home runs are more impressive and a contending team's more impressive.

And the way that Alonzo has become, like, kind of the leader of this team. And the problem with Rookie of the year is we did this last year with Otani and Andrew R. There are, there are no stipulations on what it means to be the rookie of the year. Like there's no like it means you had the best statistical season that doesn't say that anywhere. Otani didn't have the best statistical season, but he was the best story. He was like, hey, which rookie was talked about the most? Which rookie, you know, that was his rookie year over anyone else's and he got the vote. It's kind of shitty the way they do it.

But because I thought Otani deserved it last year because he was like, it was like, fuck. Yeah. No one's done this before. So I'll, I'll say this. I'll backpedal a little bit. I think you're right. I mean, just pure storyline, because they're having almost equal years and a lot of different metrics.

It's tough, tough comparing the speedy shortstop to the kind of meatball polar head first basement in a lot of ways. But, Jim, I'd say the next month and a half. I mean, if the Mets slide and Alonzo is meh, I think Tatis could snag it very easily. If the Mets stay in it the whole way and Alonzo is a big part of it, I think you're right. He would get it because of that. And I think because it's not strictly not. numbers and it's more storyline and everything, the home run derby blooms large, which Padreys

fans will tell you that should not be taken into consideration when saying the best rookie of the year because who cares about an exhibition game. But I'm telling you, it's voted on by story. That's like how a lot of guys do it. So reprepared. It doesn't mean Tatis didn't have a fantastic, fantastic season and you're not set up for the future. So there you go.

That's my thoughts on that. Anything else in the AO? Jim, I think the only thing we haven't really touched upon that needs to, the Yankees dominate the Orioles, that was unfair. Jim, the White Sox, they take down Houston, man. And I know you and I on talking Yanks have been pretty big on that the Yankees are now racing Houston for the best record. That's a tough one for Houston. And a huge Grand Slam tied at nines in the eighth inning, James McCann,

who's having a really nice year. but that's the only thing that really jumps off the page. Yeah, well, good for the White Sox. I'm not going to say anything for fear that it comes slapping right back in my face because the Yankees just lost game one to the Indian. So the Indians are better than the White Sox. But still, you know what I'm saying like this happens. I mean, dude, the Astros had won, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight in a row.

and now they won and one win in their last five games. Yeah, and I think they're having some bullpen troubles because that's what clipped them in the start of our Oakland series coming up, but that'll be Monday. Oh, I wanted to check on something, and we wanted to make this a segment as well. Check on something. We haven't.

When are we going to do the official? Is it going to be at the end of August? We'll do the official pieces that got traded. how are they doing for their teams, their new teams? Yeah, I like that. I think, Jim, what we're stumbling into right now is that major storylines aren't always a thing. So where we have the major storyline segment,

we should do a segment like which fan bases should team up or trade deadline checkout something like that. I have an idea that this should be a behind the scenes meeting idea, but we always pretty transparent with how we operate. Curtain open. I think that we should. should make those major segments separate episodes, like just a 20 minute,

what fan bases should align episode. So that... Maybe. Not a full episode, so it's not crazy work, but like at the end of August, we do like a 30-minute show, all the pieces that get traded. I think those will do really well as like YouTube videos

and then we'll give them to the podcast audience. So this is very back behind the scenes. Okay. Look at that. If you think that's a good idea, otherwise we mix them into this show and hour 15 becomes, hour 40 probably.

A little column B. All right. So what spawned that is I want to see how Granky's done since being moved over. Two games, six innings pitch, torn runs both times. Good job, Zach Rankie. Woo. All right. Are we done with the reports?

I think we're just going into the second half of the show, which is segments, right? Yeah, man, I think so. And I think there's no major storylines unless we want to say something else about the, like, the Phillies bringing it and the Cubs dropping. I think those are the major storylines, but we kind of hit that. Yeah, we talked about that. We need, I need my damn soundboard.

I think I just need to buy a new laptop. Because I want, it feels when we're done with the reports and the storylines to move on to the segments, we need like a sound effect or a breather. What sound do you want, man? I'm made of sounds. Yeah, give me, I'm Googling, like, moving on.

Quotes from shows. Like, here's one from Parks and Rack. Wow, what a terrible sound bite. Whoa. Terrible. Trying to do like, oh, here's a Jeopardy one from SNL. Okay. This might be good.

Hold on, guys. Stay with me. This is terrible. It's tough. It's tough, but I've already dug in, and that's the problem. I know. That's tough. And it makes you more upset, and now the page isn't loading.

But this is Will Ferrell doing Trebek. Okay. Moving on. I like that one. might use that one. All right. In the future, when I get my soundboard back, which won't be forever. Moving on.

I like it. To the segments, Jake. The segments, and we open up with standout performances. Standout performance gym. We went into standout performance without having strict guidelines. Like it can be a team. It can be a bullpen. We're kind of finding that this is one game only.

It's what we're kind of finding, right? Yeah, I like, I like to, because you can, if someone has a good series, you could go in Fuego. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, who, who, who, who, who had that Jim? Well, I have two here and I feel like I should pivot to the second, but I wrote so many notes on the first. So I'm just going to give both and you can shove it up your butt. All right. Sure. I've been Nova. I know that he's not pitching for anything, but I gave him the standout performance like two episodes ago and then I gave him in Fuego. Another complete game with zero earned

runs, Jake. He's on an insane run. And this one was against the Houston. Astros. He only allowed four hits. It was the second game of a double header. So saving the pen was pretty huge. And actually, I checked the next game, Jake. The White Sox won again. They used five guys out of the bullpen. Would they have been able to do that if Nova didn't give them a complete game the night before? Who knows? That's the domino effect you have with pitching in bullpens. He goes nine innings, one unearned run. It was a guy went to hit a single. went to second on the throw and then the next guy hit a single and that guy scored so he wouldn't have scored six one two three innings versus the astros that's impressive in his last five starts

ivan nova is five and oh with a zero point four nine era and a 159 batting average against in 37 innings he's allowed two earned runs he's like a really impressive stretch i've been no fun very very much being Ivan fun. Very fun. And Jim, he's, I mean, he's probably got seven starts left this season. And as you just mentioned, his past five have been incredible. 37 innings pitch of 0.49 ERA. That's insane. If my dude can string together seven, I mean, not even necessarily great, but serviceable starts,

Ivan Nova's a free agent this offseason. Home, he might get paid. Dude, how awesome would it be if Ivan Nova, was putting together this stretch. And he didn't change anything mechanically or grip or like pitch mix. It's just like, well, I don't know. It's fucking working. And then he goes into the off season and the agent just spreads like wildfire.

I know he's got this new grip. He changed a bunch. Like this is going to be continued success. This is a new Ivan Nova. He changed something. And he gets a huge contract. But it's like really was just five lucky as fuck games. Well, and that's a, I mean, Jim, again, five starts ago, his ERA was.

5-8-6. I mean, almost a 6-E-R-A. And now we're here today. It's down to 4.5-1, which isn't great. Jim, I'd say the only thing. And, you know, I haven't watched all these games and he has been really good. His BABIP is 168 right now, which, you know, normally that number is a lot higher. But, hey, ride it out through the rest of the season, Ivan, because you could get paid, man. I mean, and the likelihood, likelihood is that he is, like, more healthy now, or he did change something. because he's stringing together a lot of good results, first good clubs too. But I think it's funny if he was like,

they were like, Ivan, what did you change? Like we want to like start selling you to teams. And he's like, oh, nothing. I was just,

I was just getting real lucky. Yeah. We're going to tell everyone that you changed a grip on your slider. Yeah. It's working. The other guy that actually deserves it more because we should promote, we should promote players that need to be promoted.

I haven't know of a dozen. He's past that shine. And you don't know. We don't know. We changed the grip. Devers. Rafael Devers went six for six, Jake, with four doubles against the Angels. And, I mean, talking about a guy who owns a game.

That's probably the most owned game this week. I looked up. I wanted to see the counts. I don't know why. I'm always interested in what counts. The hits came on. So the first one was a 2-2-RBI double, then a two-strike lead-off single, then a two-strike lead-off double.

then a two-strike RBI double. So the first four hits all came with two strikes. I think that's impressive. And then the fifth hit, also two strikes, one, two, single. The sixth hit was a one-oh fastball. But four doubles, and five of the hits came on two strikes. Is that impressive to you? Is that something worth sharing?

No, that is impressive, Jim, because I know Gio Orchella, who's been swooned around the league lately for our Yanks. You know, I think he's leading the lead in two-strikes batting average, and he's approaching 300. So right there, you just said that there's five at-bats to start that Devers had two strikes and he ended up getting a hit. That's insane.

So because I think the MLB average, if you have two strikes on you, is hitting like 170. Yeah, I know. Yo, so if you're the pitcher and the catcher and the coach and he comes up in his first at bat and he hits a two-strike RBI double, right? Then in his second at bat, you get him 0-2.

You're like, all right, cool. let's get this guy out now uh-uh two strike single now he comes up and he's 30 like fuck this guy got me the last two times i don't know with the same pitcher but then you get like every time you got him two strikes i can just imagine myself when i would play like intense whiffleball games versus you and my brother and like two strike hits crippling me oh yeah and now i just compared i will compare my wiffle ball games it was duct tape wiffle ball sure to MLB for the rest of my life. So if you plan on listening to a podcast where I talk, you're just going to have to accept that. Yeah, Jim, and he was the third youngest player to ever have six hits in a game.

That's insane. Joe Morgan and I think it was one of the Alu's. I think it was maybe Felipe Alu. And Jim, the other thing that's crazy is, Jim, this was the game that went into extras with the Indians. You know, and this, you know, this essentially decided the series. So, yeah, He had the big hit in extras. It was a bullet to just one of those liners that ends up getting to the wall that you're like, oh, my God. That was two feet over the second baseman's head, but it one hopped the wall. We had a good note. Another good note from the chat.

Hayden Cart watching live, Patreon, appreciate the sport. He gave me a good note. Rafael Devers in his last two series versus the Angels and Indians, 464, average 535 on base percentage. And Jim, we're going to have to dig into awards because I know they don't get us jazzed up as much as other people. Just because, like you said, with the rookie of the year, like a lot of it's arbitrary, blah, blah, blah. I wonder if Devers is in the running for most improved player because he leads the league in hits, doubles, RBIs, and total bases right now. And, I mean, he had a 731 OPS last year. So I'm excited to kind of sink my teeth into that because I, I don't know.

Just off the top of my head and watching him. He's so improved. So I think I'm pretty locked in. I mean, I'll get your candid answer to the mini episodes. And like a rookie of the year discussion will be a mini episode come the end of September. Because the recap episodes Monday and Friday are going to be so full of shit. Yeah. When it's really coming down to the end.

So idea we had on the show. And when you have those, you guys hear about it. and we kind of are more to have to commit to it, which is why smart people do it behind the scenes. So full of shit. Okay, Jim. Nice standout performances. Who's your standout?

Sorry, I did too. I had to. It's okay. I appreciate it. I want Devers in Enfuego, but he can get it. He can get it. I'm proud of him. Two Strike Thing is cool, Jim.

Halacious research. Thank you. By you. Thank you. Jim, my standout performance. and this one pertains to a game, it pertains to a series, it pertains to a season. Glaibor Torres, the middle infielder for the New York Yankees, mostly second base when Dede's around, but he has played a lot of shortstop this year, too.

Jim, another 22-year-old, by the way, Jim and his one game that would be a standout performance. He went three for four with three runs, two homers, six RBIs, one walk and one intentional walk. My dude got the Barry Bonds treatment. And Jimmy, do you know why he got the Barry Bonds treatment? I know you do. 17 games started versus Baltimore this year. Glaber Torres, the 22-year-old middle infielder, has 13 home runs, 394, 4667 on base, a 1.512 OPS.

And Jimmy, I started writing down the accolades because there was a lot of them. But I just brought up a whole article that, listed them because that's a lot easier work for me. Jim, 13 homers. 13 homers. Credit the article writer. Let's credit the article. Sarah Langs. She does great stuff. Sarah Langs. So this is on MLB.com, but Sarah Langs. Jim, 13 homers versus the Orioles this season, most by a player against a single opponent in the divisional era since 1969. 13 homers versus the Orioles tied for the second most by a player against a single opponent in MLB history. Lou Gehrig is number one.

You remember how he torched Cleveland in 1936. It was embarrassing. Taurus is the first player since Roger Maris in 1961, first the White Sox with 13 homers against a single opponent. Torres' five multi-homer games versus the Orioles are the most by a player in a single season against an opponent ever, ever. And by the way, his 50 career home runs are the third youngest by any Yankees player to reach that mark. And he's, I mean, Jim, I'm skipping some.

There's like five more, but I'm already killing it and I don't need people coming at me with the Yankees pies. And I get it. The Orioles, as I well admit, are the worst pitching staff. So minor league, minor league pitching staff. We gave last week we gave no one credit for hitting off them. So, like, it's no. You don't get too much. much credit, but no one has put up the numbers

Glaber has. So of all the people that have done well against Baltimore's pitching, Glaber is the top of that pile. Of all the people that have gotten a feast on any bad pitching ever, Glaber Torres has set a lot of the record. So, and again, the fact

that he's a 22-year-old middle infielder who's improved on all of his numbers from last year. I know Yankees fans were getting mad because MLB Network posted that graphic of all the young good players in baseball and it was like Vladito, Acuna, my guy, how have I not mentioned Acuna yet? He had an incredible series. Did you see that home run he robbed? Anyways, 40-40 club ESPN on the sleeve.

Jim, Glaver Torres is one of the best young players in baseball, not Yankees bias. Check him out. He's a lot of fun. And I know something you and I enjoy is he's totally the team's little brother, like to an incredible degree. Like he came back from injury at the end of a baseball game and he walked through the dugout. And it was the most little brother moment you've ever seen. He's just giggling and smiling, like everyone's punching him on the way by. And the other thing we like is that he is 22. He kind of wears his emotions on his sleeve, even though he doesn't want to.

So if he makes an error, he looks like a sad puppy dog. And if he does something good, he's like a happy puppy dog. He's a lot of fun to watch. It sounds like a reach. Like everyone's happy and sad at times. And everyone, like, the puppy dog is just like a cliche. No, no, no. It's, it's, it could be on like the how cute is this puppy dog Instagram feeds.

And you'd be like, is that a human or is that a dog? Right. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. All right. So that's your standout performance? That's my standout performance, James. Good for you, man.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm updating. I've updated as I've went in this episode. So I'm updating the notes for the patrons.

And some people said they liked them. But next up, Jake, are you ready? Next up. All right, we got a slump watch here. Dude, did you see the breakdown of Seattle Mariners, the ump? He was like the most miced-up hump you've ever heard yelling at Seattle bench coach. I did not. You love his accent.

Sounds like Porky the pig. What's that? It's a real hump. It's a human being in 2019. What's that? It was crazy accent. I really liked it. All right.

The Red Sox have been on Slump Watch. They won a series versus the Indians. They took two out of three after being walked off in game one. So they won it the hard way. Good job, Red Sox. You are off. Against a really good team, too. Good job, Red Sox.

So you're off Slump Watch. Okay, Jake, this one's so interesting to me. Adam DeVall has been on Slump Watch. And we said he needed one more day. We said he was off Slump Watch today. Right. It was either he goes off slump watch because he did good or he goes, you're just not that good watch. And his line in the two games he played is so confusing.

One for three with a walk and a hit by pitch. So three for five is the on base percentage. Jim, this is easy for me. This is a positive he gets off slump watch because Jim, there's a lot of different. ways you could get off slump watch. Taking one for the team is definitely one of them. So that hit by pitch is huge for me. I've got them off in a positive way.

I'll be leaned into it. Obie give the old Roger Dorn try. I didn't see it. I'll be leaned into it. Really like that. Good job. Just reaches out, catches the ball, throws it back, takes his base. You don't get a clap, but you get off on a high note.

You don't get like the Don Draper nod, like. Yeah. Okay. Good job. Good for you, kid. John Lester did not play. D&P, I think he stays. Miguel Sineau.

And I put Sanoe on here last week because he had a bad series, but I said he will be off soon. Like, I'm not worried about him. It's just like we're watching. And he had two games against the Brewers. He went two for eight with a home run and two walks, 400 on base percentage. Suno is off.

And it's like a golf club. Yeah, that's a big series. They ask him to hit home run. runs and he got one of those. Home runs and walks. Daniel Murphy was on Slump Watch last week. And in his three games this week, he went two for 11 with zero walks. In his last nine games, he's still at 094, 1-21 batting average, 094 slugging.

He's on. He stays. Yeah, you stay, Murph. Sorry, dog. Josh Donaldson, Jake. Yeah. Another one that we didn't think would be lasting, but out of bad series. No.

Two games. What are we calling our big frozen fish again? Oh, someone messaged us, sent us an email. I know where I can find it pretty quickly. Something with a Whopper? Oh, yeah. So Wopper is like a big... I'll talk through Donaldson a little bit, Jim.

You find that. There's two games. He went four for six with two walks. So 667 batting average. That's pretty good. A 1.1.417 OPS. Jim, and I think we might have, whatever the new term is, do we have it?

So Wes Newton emailed us and he says, he thinks when we get a big fish on slump watch, we caught a big, I think I can beat we caught a big frozen fish, which was the leader in the clubhouse. Which I'm glad you can't. Easily beatable. A good player is a big fish equals a whopper, a bad performance equal taking a big dump,

aka a plopper. So when a big name hits a slump watch, it should be known as the wopper plopper. Now, Wes from Frederick, Maryland, thank you for the email. We love the engagement. You beat the wopper plopper beats we caught a big frozen fish. Absolutely. But I'm still searching for something to beat wopper plopper.

I'm not satisfied. Shame to flame, not looking for any alternatives. Yeah, shame to flame nails it. And Josh Donaldson is going on shame to flame with his performance. But yeah, I think a wopper plopper is good. Might stand. And a couple other people reached out. Someone tweeted about me.

It's like there's a fish that lives in cold water. It's like a macaca or something. I don't know. Sorry if that offended anyone. But yeah, I don't know. We're going to leave the door open on that. Well, Donaldson was a wopper-ploper. But in his two games, he goes four for six with two walks.

So that's six for eight on base percentage. It's only two games. so I don't think it's shame to flame because I don't think four for six and two games gets you on Enfuego especially with the back the backlog the three games before he was over

so it's not shame to flame but Donaldson good job good job you get claps you get claps and then you put Dallas Kikel on here Jake yeah he got rocked his previous start against Miami Jim 3.2 8 earned runs and if you combine that with his previous starts, which weren't too flashy. The numbers look bad. But he goes six-inning shutout against the Mets. Again, a big series, seven strikeouts. And Jimmy, I, you know, I don't like

digging up old tweets, but so many people were like, oh, especially Yankee fans just because they want to feel better about themselves. Wow, we're so biased. A bunch of Yankee fans are two now. Wow, Dallas Keikle. How about a 483 ERA? Dallas Keikle in 11 starts has one bad one. The rest are good. Dallas Keikle has been good for the Braves and he, I mean, he shoved against the Mets, man. Yeah, really good outing.

We clapping for? We clapping for him? I'm clapping. Good job, Dallas. All right. Now, who's replacing these folks? That means we only have two leftovers, all right? Yeah. We need to add some more people to slump watch. Looks like we got six coming in.

I think that's a good number. I think we like being in that like seven to ten range. Yeah. All right. So, my first ad, Jake, I don't know. I think Twins fans would want us to say this is a whopper plopper, but the rest of the league, they're not having that reaction. No, he's not.

He's not a wopper plopper, huh? Max Kepler. Yeah. Oh for, this is weird. Zero hits in his last 14 plate appearances. Now, he does have four walks, so he's O for his last 10. He only has six hits in his last 10 games. It's not terrible.

It's not terrible. But he's a big part of this team, which Twin Sands will tell you. He's got, he's been good, right? Yeah, he's having a really nice season. He can play a couple outfield positions. I think they can move him up and down the lineup if they want to. He has been a big part of their success this year. And, yeah, I think we can put him on slump watch.

It's just a watch. He can easily get off. Just a watch. It easily get off. Yeah. I mean, 866 OPS on the season. Pretty good. But yeah, it's just, you know, some big series coming up.

Twins are starting to bite their nails a little bit. And you don't want that. So he's out. Shinsu Chu. Shinsu, too. Oh, 411 this week. Hasn't had a hit in five calendar days. And his month of August is rather bad, Jake.

He has a three-hit game in August that saves all of his averages. So you're like, oh, the average isn't that bad in August. but in 10 games, he's went hitless in seven of them. Yeah. And he has only got five hits and three came in one game. So. And Jim, we've got a, we mentioned them briefly. Definitely something to watch for the wheels falling off.

The Rangers dropped below 500. They're 60 and 61. So they're a couple bad series from the wheels fully coming off the wagon. I mean, they're, do they care? The seasons? I think a little bit, Jim. I think this season they can still, if they end up above 500, they're like, wow, this is a lot better year than we had.

Like Houston and Oakland were really good and we still did this. Lance Lynn, Mike Minor coming back next year. So I think that's what they're going for. So, yeah. All right. Oh, so then I have Aaron Judge on here. Wopper plopper, babe. That's a big wopper plopper.

Yeah, he's, we're so. You're so biased. He had a bad series versus Baltimore. And he had not been hitting the two series before him, but he had been taking walks. So it never looked as bad as it was. But he just hit rock bottom. I believe the strikeouts are looking way too easy for Judge. He's coming off a huge oblique injury, grade three, which usually requires surgery. Carlos Beltron, who's an advisor for the Yankees, said he would never be the same the rest of the season.

And Judge says it's not the oblique. He's just in a slump, just baseball. But since July 1st, 37 games, he has a 238 batting average, which is bad. The on base is 366. So that's what we're saying. Good. That's good. But then the OPS is 765, which is pedestrian.

And Judge is not supposed to be a pedestrian player. For one of the most feared power hitters when he's right, he's just not doing that right now. You want to take this next guy or you want me to? Oh, you could take them because I got two lined up after that. All right. I got Josh Hader. Yeah. And this was tweeted at me.

I forget who. But he has given up an earned run in every outing so far this August, Jake. Four outings, an earned run in each outing, three blown or saves or losses or whatever, you want to say. Three point two innings pitched, five earned runs, three home runs and four outings. And, and man, I think we're going to talk about it in Fuego a little bit. and just how crazy and beautiful the game of baseball is because everything they're saying out of Milwaukee is that haters kind of his stuff is still there.

It's just not happening the same way it was when he's dominant. And Jim, I mean, think about all these players. Aaron Judge, like, you know, in baseball, it can change so quickly. If Aaron Judge struggles, but the two weeks leading up to the playoffs, he's hot. I mean, he's the biggest threat on the Yankees. And, I mean, you can almost say the same thing about Hater. He could struggle and if Milwaukee were to make the playoffs. And if he goes the one week before the playoffs and he goes like seven-inning shutout with 14Ks,

it's like Hayter's back. So baseball, I mean, it's part of what makes it the best sport. Hater, I think when he's bad, like you're saying, like it's just a home run. It's kind of weird. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a couple guys that got that going on this year that they, I mean, Edwin Diaz. he had his streak where it was just a home run.

Like there was, it wasn't, it wasn't let's slap a couple doubles. It was just like, no, it's a home run. Yeah. All right, who do you got? Who do you got? Oh, no. Well, Jim, there'd be people that want him as a wopper plopper. He's a rookie wopper plopper.

Jordan Alvarez, he's won for 15. And Jim, again, how the beautiful swings of baseball. Is this people getting a second? Look at Jordan Alvarez. Is this a slump? You know, how extended is this going to be? Is he going to be in Fuego next week? I mean, you know, coming into the Houston Astros playoffs, you know, if Jordan Alvarez

struggles for a month, what are they going to be saying about him? Or this could just very much be baseball and he could be shamed to flame next week. I would bet that with Jordan because he has been so good. and Jim, my last guy, I feel like he's a pitcher when things go south, things go south quick for him. Cole Hamels, his last two starts, five innings pitch total in those two starts, not good, 12 earned runs, 21.6 ERA if you're into that thing, and Jim, what's scary about it, opponents batting 548 against him. Das a no good.

I want someone, I know we asked for tweets in this show. Jim, I want someone to tweet at me. Don't tweet at Jim. Tweet at me, talking Jake. What's going on with the Cubs starters? Because we've got a couple guys struggling and a couple guys doing crazy things. So if someone could let me know what's up with that,

that'd be great. Dude, can I tell you what happened with Cole Hamels in my life recently? Sure. My girlfriend, Katie, was watching with me. Cubs game was on. We were talking. It was just on in the background. Cole Hamels walks off the mound into the commercial break, you know?

And she just looks up and she goes, oh, that guy's old. Yeah. And I was like, whoa. Cole Hamels was like Mr. Hot Body Pretty Face in the MLB. Like he was, he was,

his wife was on like the reality TV show. They were like the baseball and Barbie couple. You know, he was the MLB like pretty face. I still think he's a decent looking man. But I was just like, whoa. Yeah. Cole Hamels.

Like Casey was old. How old is? He's going to be 35. He's not that old. No. She's dating a 30-year-old. He's like, come on now. Yeah, I had one of those weird moments this week, Jim,

because we talked about Glaber being the little brother, and you and I have some laughs, because, I mean, we look at ourselves at age 22 and where we are now and we're like, holy smokes. But imagine C.C. Sabathia and Glaber Torres, they share a locker room, and they traveled together. I mean, Glaber's closer to one of Cici's kids' ages. Yeah.

And it's just so wild that dynamic. I don't know. You don't think about that too much with baseball. But, I mean, especially I was digging through some of the old baseball references and seeing like old Jorge Posada was on a team with Romine. And now Romine's on a team with Glaver Torres and Gary Sanchez. You're all playing a connection game like that. It's the connection game is wild.

But, yeah, it is so funny. Like, picture those dynamics. You are in such different places in your life. from age 22 to even 35 with Cole Hamils. Whoa, we have, I know those are your last two slump watches. We have a user submitted in the chat. Late user. And it's worthy, Jake.

So Steve Peralta is in the chat, Patreon live chat. I told you, you'd be part of the show if you're in here. Yeah. Because it's impossible to see everything. And this is a whopper, dopper. Mani Machado in his last nine games has, three hits. 086 batting average.

Oh. Wow. That's slump watchworthy. Yeah. Nice. And that's what we're saying, people. Patreon slash Johnboy Media, right? Patreon.com slash Johnboy Media.

He is. Wow. Three for his last 39. 0.86. Batting average, 0179. on base percentage. Ooh, 0.114 slugging 294 OPS. Now, I mean, this is Slump Watch.

It's only nine games. May I'm a Chattel. He'll be out of it soon. Nice. Good call. Thank you, Steve. Good call. I think we got to keep it moving and shaking to dirt nasties and fuego, Jim.

It means off fire, baby. Who you got? Speed read some for me. I'll speed read some, Jim. And this goes back to my Cub starting pitchers. Who, darn? You Darvish, our guy. Jim, I'm going to lock in on one stat because I know you and I are both impressed by this.

His last four starts, 36 strikeout, zero walks. That's nutty. So I want to throw you on there. And man, I mean, he's kind of had a giant fall from grace, man. He was respected as like one of the toughest pitchers in the league. He goes to the Dodgers in that World Series, gets knocked around, gets the big contract with the Cubs. and then he gets hurt and he pitches poorly. When he's right, I mean, you Darvish can end seven innings for you real quick.

So I wanted to put him on there. It looks like he's figuring things out, even though the Cubbies blew the games. And this guy's not on there, but Jim, just wrapping up my Cub starters thing, Jose Cantana had a 14 strikeout game. So Darvish and Cantana are going nuts right now while the old lefties, Hamils and Lester, are struggling. Did you see who Cantana went against? Did you say that in there?

What do you mean? Did you see who he was facing? Well, wasn't it against the, um... Philly's. Yeah. Fagas. Farg. Oh, who he pitched against.

Yes, yes, yes. Him and Vargas had a little pitchers duel. Our guy Vargish, uh, yeah, there's some, there's some Southpaw and Southpaw action. Jimmy, I wanted to get a couple Metz you wouldn't expect either. How about Wan-Lah? Ligaris and Ahmed Rosario. Ligaris goes 8 for 13. Rosario goes 9 for 16.

Not a lot of pop, but hey, if those guys can bring it for the Mets, that's huge. I mean, those guys are kind of in there for their defense, to be completely honest. I'll keep cruising. Carlos Santana, Jim, he's been hot. I'll be honest, you're spoiling a little bit. We're going to talk about him later. And Maddie Chapman, he's getting hot at the right time. The guy I want to talk about before passing it to you.

Jim. Jose Ramirez, and I did put the F word in there, uh, fuck, because he just did some stuff against the Yankees, but Jim, and this goes back into my baseball being the best. Jose Ramirez from June 6th, from the start of the season to June 16th, 69 games, nice. 203, 298 on base, a 599 OPS, Jim. That's not pedestrian. That's not bad. That's like awful. And this is Jose Ramirez. Jim, since then, 49 games. He's hitting 302 with a 344 on base, a 964 OPS, 13 home runs.

So less games. He's already got basically 10 more homers. And Jim, I think this is the best part of it. What did he change? Nothing. When he was slumping, he was just like, I'm not changing anything. Like, this is what works for me. Something's just not happening right now.

And now all of a sudden he's in Flago. He can't be stopped. And that is baseball. What you don't know is that his wife changed all his boxer briefs to whittie-tides. Oh, he's going whitey-tides on us, huh? He didn't even know. He gets dressed in the dark and doesn't have a good feeling in his upper thighs. Yeah.

He's like, okay, cool. So, yeah, watch out for that. Yeah. Kyle Seeger. You tied him? You got him. Kyle Seeger. Crazy head.

Three home run day. One home run was a pop fly that landed in the White Sox glove and went over the wall. Yeah, the White Sox helped him out on that. But hey. Yeah. Yeah. I did want to put in Aristides, Aquino, because he's not in Fuego, so this isn't in Fuego. But Reds fans are going to say, like, you need to keep talking about him because he did

it two more home runs. Nine home runs and 13 games started very, very impressive. but he went three for 13, so that's not in Fuego, but he did hit two more home runs, so that's impressive. So it's like, I'm mentioning him for you guys, because he deserves to be mentioned. We talked about him last week, but he's not in Fuego. Three for 13.

Yeah, I think the nine homers in 13 games, I think that was some sort of record. And Jim, I think, you know, a little icing on the cake, my favorite segment in a segment, who'd the Orioles get hot? You heard about Glaiber Torres. I mentioned Gio Orchella briefly. and essentially the whole Yankees organization.

Yeah. And some last additions from the chat. Brantley 500 average 538 OPS, 1.538 OPS. I said OPS twice in his last six games. So thanks Hayden Kahn for that. And Lorda Scuriel Jr. is 10 for his last 20. It says Jim Montgomery. Didn't fact check those.

But we can't mention everyone. There's a lot of guys hot. But I was saving Brantley because he got two home runs in that Homer Festival in Oakland, Houston. last night, but that's going to be talked about on Monday. All right. Next up, this one's a quick one today. Who got mad? Who got mad? Who got big mad?

Ned Yost, you know him from Verizon commercials. Coach Yost! Is it Verizon? Yes. Ned Yost has a Verizon commercial, and half the world doesn't know that he's a baseball manager. Taking out my son. He's getting beat like he stole something, mister? Shut up. Anyway, Ned Yost got mad about an interference call. He was wrong. And the umpires kind of just laughed at him.

Like, that's always been the rule. He was like, you guys are always changing the rule. The rule is that, and I know this rule because they always tell you, if you're like, so if the guy's running down the line and he's in the grass, right? You need to hit him in the back with the ball. Then they can call interference because it does not matter if he interferes with the throw. What matters is if he interferes with the catch. So the catcher tried to throw it way to the left of the runner

And the first baseman could have caught it It just missed his glove It's a weird rule they have So he didn't mess up to catch But if you throw it at him and it hits him And they're like hey we would have caught it if it wasn't there Then it's right So Ned Yost had that wrong

He got ejected And Tim Laker Mariners hitting coach got ejected By the ump that sound like Porky the Pig So no there might have been some other like Quick Mad Strz Stroman yelled on the mound. He was mad about strike calls, but nothing else really.

See you. See it. Tim Laker. See ya. Big Tim Laker podcast these days, huh? The Ump said, uh, the ump was like, who are you? You don't get to yell at me. I've been working here 40 years. You know who doesn't get to yell at umpires?

Rookies making their debut. And that's what you call an expert transition to call up watch. It's a transition. Segwe. Call up watch. Call up watch. Joshua Rojas. Rojas.

Drafted by the Astros in the 26th round. Part of the Granky trade. He immediately gets called up for the Diamondbacks. He got a single in his third at bat, and he went four for nine on the series in all three games. So not bad. Good job, Joshua Rojas. Good job.

Joshua Luke Rojas for your. And Jimmy's a local boy, Glendale, born in Glendale, Arizona. Now he's playing for the debacks. That's fun. Oh, his family had to love that trade. Oh, yeah. That's awesome.

Huge. Brady Lale and Adonis Rosa made their debuts for the Yankees. A couple big ones. Because they were playing the Orioles and they're like, we can throw anybody. Who cares? Adonis Rosa, two innings pitch, one and run at the end of the game. Brady Lail has been bouncing around the Yankees organization forever. 18th round pick in 2012, guys.

He's been in AAA. for like four seasons and never got the call, which is very bizarre. Not a good outing per the box score, Jake, but some memorable moments for him. He came in to a jam and induced a double play right away, then pitched a clean inning after that.

If that was the end of his day, we'd say, what a debut. They did throw him out for another inning. He went to walk single, home run to the first three batters. So kind of ruins, it ruins the moment. Brady Joe Lale. That's fun. Yeah. In that same series,

the Orioles debuted Chandler Shepard whose numbers in the minors were god-awful like a 7.44 ERA and a losing record but the Orioles had bad pitching so he got called up and he didn't do that bad in the MLB. Yeah. Who do you got? Yeah, I mean Adonis Rosa

he got thrown for the Yankees too another relief pitcher that they basically just called up to use against the Orioles because they could. He had a nice inning there and then he gave up a solo shot. So yeah, we've got three relief pitchers making their debut. Yankees Orioles. Strap in for call-up watch people.

Jim, this is the fun one and this is the winner, I think. Dom Nunez. Home run in his fourth at bat on a 2-0 pitch. Yon Lopez. 24 years old out of Elk Grove, California, my man. Ooh. Good for him. Oh, this dude, Randy Arazerina.

he made his debut, and I didn't even write for what team. I think it was the Cardinals. It was for St. Louis, but I'm trying to see, was it the next series? I don't want to sneak him in too soon. Or no, he made his debut against Kansas City. He counts. All right, so what's fun about this one, Randy Erazirina. He went 0 for 2 in his first two at Batstake,

and then in his third at bat, the Cardinals had put together five singles in a row and upsteps Randy Erezarina, who hasn't had an MLB hit yet. And he's like, fuck, I don't want to ruin the single streak. This is a lot of pressure. And he gets a single. The Cardinals put together six singles in a row. Good for him. Good for him.

Got to score at least three runs. That's math. Math. All right. That's it. Those are your rookies. No, no, no, uh, major players got called up. Yeah.

No big time has got the call. Jim, maybe we'll, we should be seeing a couple big timers. I mean, at least come September. So that's exciting. Yep. Awards. We get to go first. Jim, you go first.

My award is, don't vote for Pedro. Don't vote for Pedro. Do not vote for him. I won't. Two pitchers did not record an out. There's actually three, but I'm admitting the other one. Two pitchers did not record an out this week, Jake, in their outing. They had an outing in which they did not record an out.

Pedro Strop and Pedro Baez. Connection? Tough time to be a Pedro. Don't be a relief pitcher named Pedro. No one's voting for you. Two earned runs and three earned runs respectively before getting an out, got the ball taken away from them before getting an out. Tough time to be a Pedro in the bullpen.

I like Pedro Bayes, man. He's a little meatball that just hucks it up there. You'll, uh, every, every, I know, every October, you see him twirling it for those, uh, those Dodgers. What's he listed at? Because it's going to be a lie. He's listed at 6 foot 232, which means he's 510, 250. Good to know. Good to know.

So I like that. What's your award you're giving out this episode? Jim, there's, there's a little teaser earlier. and it's a team that, you know, Jake, Jake's buying stock and a team each episode. The Axeman Award, Jim. And there's one man that could play the axe like nobody's business, and that's Carlos Santana.

And Jim, he is going nuts lately. We mentioned him briefly in Enfuego. Jim, eight for 15, four home runs in his last four games. He had the big home run against Boston. he totally didn't wreck the Yankees last night. I won't talk about that. Jimmy, this offseason, he was basically a cash dump. He had a pretty bad year for the Phillies

after he signed over there. And so he ends up getting moved around a little bit. I think he ended up, did he go to the Mariners briefly? I don't think he played, but he got flipped to Cleveland. It was that crazy three-way trade going on. Yeah, so he got sent with J.P. Crawford to the Mariners for Nicosio, Opasos. and Segura. And then he was in the three-team trade that involved Yandy Diaz, Jake Bowers,

Edwin and Carnacione. Those are a bunch of guys you might see come October. But Jimmy, he was basically a salary dump. Jim, he's having the best year of his career in his age 33 season. His best batting average in his career was 268. This year he's hitting 290. His best on-base percentage in his career, which he's always been a good on-base guy, was 377.

this year it's 413. His best OPS coming into the season was 865. He's at 966. He's 100 points higher in the OPS. I mean, my guy is killing it right now. If Mike Trout didn't exist, he'd probably be in that kind of hodgepodge mix for AL MVP candidates. I guess it's the runner-up to the AL MVP candidate this season.

But Jim, he was an All-Star, and he's got more walks than strikeouts, Jimmy. 89 walks, 78 strikeouts. We don't see a lot of the guys like that in Major League Baseball anymore. And Jim, my favorite part of the Indians, when they're right, is how switchy they are, man. Carlos Santana switch hitter, Linder, Linderer's switch hitter. I mean, those are the three most feared guys in their lineup, and you're not going to bring in anyone out of the bullpen that they're going to be uncomfortable with.

You're just not. And I just think that is such a leg up when they're playing good baseball. So I'm a big shout out to Carlos Santana, man. Damn, that switch hitter thing's nuts because I believe on an episode of talking Yanks, we talked about how switch hitters numbers are at our all-time low right now. I think it's the first time in a while there's less than 100 switch hitters in the league or something like that. But all right, good award. The Axe, because of Carlos Santana the guitarist.

And guitars are called Axe. Played by Carlos Santana. four stolen bases on the year no caught stealings for Carlos. Oh, hell yeah. Think they're all trailing runner stuff? Hashtag 100, probably. I'm guessing he snuck one by himself. Okay.

Pitcher wasn't looking. All right. Next up. Ding. Ding. Bing. Going up. Elevator talk to round out the show. If you're a new listener, thank you.

This is a longer episode. Longer podcast. I guess we didn't plan on that. But I think, you know, We got a little lost in talking about how excited we are for other segments. That might even just become separate podcast episodes. So I think the people will be fine with that. Well, elevator talk, random team.

We spin a wheel. It's a team that we haven't talked about this episode a lot. And we're going to give you some fodder for when you're stuck in an elevator with someone who has this hat on and you want to impress them. So here we go where the wheel is spinning. It is spinning. Astros, we did them recently. We did them. Miami Marlins?

Fuck. Do it. Let's just do it. Come on. All right. Yeah, that's what this, that's what elevator talk is about. You get in the elevator.

You walk in there. It's Friday, 4.30. You're leaving work. Someone's got their Miami Marlins hat on. And you want to show them that you're a baseball fan. Jim, what are you starting out with? Derek Jeter is the face of the ownership, even though he's not the majority owner.

And he don't like that. like them. They're still in the middle of a huge rebuild where they're trying to be bad. I think they haven't had any month over 500. Yeah. But their first month was so bad. They only had six wins. The next two weren't that bad. So I don't know.

I don't know, man. Like, this is a team that when we do our episode of, like, who should be Marlins fans for the rest of the way. They can try to play spoiler. I don't think they're a threat to play spoiler. They do have, they're calling up rookies left and right, which I think is fun. Nissan Diaz. Yeah.

Yeah. And they have your pitcher that I don't want to butcher his name. What's his name? Yamamoto. He got roughed up recently. He's coming back to Earth a little bit, but I'm still strong team, Yami. This is one of the teams I really don't know anything about.

They got Garrett Cooper, Cooper Loop. They got near Walker. He's on the Iowa now. Two guys you're going to, Two guys you're going to love. I mean, Garrett Cooper and Caleb Smith, a couple X-Yanks. Yeah. Oh, and Curtis Granderson and Starlin Castro.

Yeah. There's a lot of X Yankees over there. Let's see. Who's having like a good year? Brian Anderson is having a good season for them, Jake. 119 games, 806 OPS with 20 home runs. And that's really the only one that you'd look at and say, this guy's having a good year.

Yeah, Brian Anderson, one of the better players in baseball. baseball that you probably don't know. Not to be rude. He's got a generic name, and he plays in Miami, so that's tough. He finished fourth in the rookie of the year voting last year. This year he's got an 806 OPS. He's playing mostly third base. It looked like he jumped in right field for a little bit. But yeah, he's played 48 games in right field, so I don't want to sell him short there. So a little third base right field combo. You don't see a ton of that. The dude's just a solid ball player. And he's 26 years old. They've got something in him. You know who else that you know what else they should know? Who should they know?

John Birdie. Fun name because sounds like Bertie. So John Birdie, he was playing in April and May and doing pretty well. Nothing. Okay. He wasn't doing that good, but he wasn't doing terrible. It got hurt, I believe, and he came back on July 31st, right? So basically he was their deadline acquisition off the injured list.

Since July 31st, John Birdie is hitting 346 with a 4th. 424 on base percentage and a 924 OPS. No home runs. Six doubles. But yeah, 14 games since July 31st, John Birdie's hitting well. So that's what you say. Hey, Bertie's getting hot. 29-year-olds. And then again, we're kind of digging. Caleb Smith has had a really good year. Talk about something. Caleb Smith developed a third pitch. We have to assume that when he was on the Yankees. He didn't have one. Jim, I think maybe. How long is Maddenly's contract? Like that's, like is Maddenly going to stay?

You think he's. Oh, is Maddingly going to stay? That's a little gossipy. Yeah, I think. And then you dig into prospects a little bit, Jim. I think Isan Diaz, he was their third best prospect in their organization. He just got the call. He had the memorable home run with his family watching.

And then I think Sixthos Sanchez, he's a big pitching prospect. He's been between high A and double A this year. So, I mean, that's your deep dive at the end to really show them. You're a fan. be like, hey, man, I'm really excited to see what Sixto Sanchez got. Yeah. Or, okay, so Bertie, he's been leading off recently instead of Rojas. So that's always the lineup order if you want to be like,

ooh, you like Bertie at lead off? Cooper's been their four-hole hitter, dude. Holy shit. Guess how many players they've had lead off this season? How many different players have let off for the Marlins this season? Nine. Nine. It's pretty high. Usually it's like, you know, five for teams that. Because lead off guy is usually like, that's your lead off guy. Right. Nine. Granderson, Rojas leads the team with 47, then Granderson with 44. Crazy. There's a deep dive. Nice. All right. I think that ends this episode of talking baseball. We appreciate you guys hanging out and listen to us, a little bit of a longer episode. But maybe we've filled up enough time in your

day. Now you can do whatever else you got to do. Leave a five-star review. Head to the store, shop.jomboid media.com. If you want to support us by buying some merch, we just put like shirts that just simply say, I love baseball up in every team's color and so many colors. And people are buying them. They like them. I want to make it a race like, yo, this is how many the Cubs are currently leading the I Love Baseball shirts. I don't know what the numbers are. And I know a couple of clubs came through. I think the Dodgers may be leading.

But, yeah. When the first Miami Marlins, I love baseball sells, we will clap for that guy. You'll get a shout out. You'll get a shout out. You'll get a shout out. All right. Thank you guys very much for hanging out with us.

We will be back on Monday. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the baseball.