Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 12 | August 19th | Acuna Pulled, Yankees Ejected, Twins back on top

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

Pete Alonso hit his 40th home run, breaking the NL rookie record. Acuna got pulled from a game after not running out of the box. The Twins reclaim first place for their own and the Cubs and Cards stay tied. 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, everybody? The third weekend of August baseball has come and gone. We had ejections galore. We had players getting pulled. We had the Little League classic. Had a lot of stuff, a lot of good stuff to talk about Jake. We had a lady that fell asleep during a rally in a brewer's game. How about that? A lot of good stuff. Let's do it. Let's talk some baseball. All right. What up, Jake? How you doing? Welcome back to the show. Everybody talking baseball, episode 12 or something like that. Every Monday, every Friday. This is the Monday episode, recapping the weekend series, some stories, some headlines.

Jake, what up? What's going on, Jimmer? I think we're, I think we're officially, this is dog days. You think so? The next 11 days or so from, what is it, the 19th, from now to the end of August. think you get a dog day exemption. I wonder if teams reach in for that. But I mean September, you're going to have some call-ups, which you know, like, I don't

know, I feel like teams never abused. Now teams are begging for those roster spots. And I just think September's a totally different vibe than August. So I think up until now, everything's been pretty lively and good. I think we might have a couple dog days coming on. Well, September is the time of the year when, relief pitchers get hurt and starting pitchers get tired. And we have a good example of that.

I think Doolittle one on the DL, IL. I mean, Hayter can't get a clean outing to save his life. All these relievers that have been used a lot lately, a lot of them are getting tired. So I think that's part of the dog days. So, I don't know.

Yeah. I'll allow it. Yeah. And I think the other, I guess the spin zone off of that is that, is that guys you know we've with a couple guys on the Yankees and a couple other players like your season's already in the books like for us Jayhap

he can only do so much in his remaining five six starts he can't really salvage the season it's been a bad year for Jayhap I think it's funny though if you're in the middle area as a player and I think he's a guy that's going to get mentioned later but someone like Jose Quintana who's turning it on lately you can reshape your whole season. Like if he keeps it up, what he's doing, and we'll talk a little bit about the Cubs later,

but if he keeps it up and he's a six-innings pitch, double-digit strikeout weapon going into the playoffs, like you mentioned Cubs fans used to not be stoked with him. He could get rid of all of that real quickly if he gets hot and he brings that to the playoffs. So there's a lot of good stuff going on, man. I need you to catch me up on the A.L. I know we'll get there in a minute, but.

We will get there in a minute, Jake. So hold your horses because first we got to thank a lot of special people. How are you doing spiritually and mentally before we get to the people we need to thank? Well, I'm good. Today, so Monday, if you're not a fan of the Yankees, which I think majority of our listenership isn't over here at talking baseball, which I like a lot. I'm loving having interaction and engagement with baseball fans around the league

in the same fashion I've had with the Yankee fans for that, past couple years. Like the growth is so cool. And it's also, it keeps me on my toes because I don't want to disappoint people and talk like an idiot. Like we hear so many. It sucks, man. It sucks.

You know, I'm so good at disappointing people and I can't bring that to this. Well, it's just because, like, I know and every baseball fan knows when you go to the playoffs, when you have national announcers, talk about your team,

and they just clearly know nothing. I have sympathize with them because it's so hard to know everything. Now, those people have teams of, you know, people that are telling them and informing them stats. You and I do not. So we're just trying our hardest to keep up with 30 teams and not sound like idiots because I don't want to disappoint a specific fan base. But whatever. I like it. It's great.

It's great. Monday is the off day for the Yankees is what I started that sentence as. Yeah. So I'm excited for an off day. And then tomorrow they're on the West Coast. trip so the game doesn't start till 10 p.m. East Coast time, which means we don't do the pregame show till seven. So after we do this, I have like a really good like chunk. I'm going to the New York, I'm going to New York City with the girlfriend. We're doing some some stuff for her birthday. I'm excited.

That's exciting. I'm excited for you. Send picks. How about that? Okay. That's fine. We talked about it. It was offered. And you are, you are, was offered declined at the deadline. Uh, Yeah, man. You are right. It's, it's so cool. Because, you know, we are deep in Yankee land because we were there for, you know, two, three years. You're on three. I'm on two, whatever it's at now. But it is so funny now seeing a tweet come across and it'll be tagged at us. And it's like, yo, check out this guy on the Braves that just made a great play. And it's like, all right, yeah. I'm here for it. I like baseball. So yeah, keep tweeting at John Boy, keep tweeting at me talking. and now let us do some mini tweets at some special people, Jim. Yeah. This episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by Sam Goravitz. That's Magic Sam. Magic Sam, friend of the program.

Friend of the program. Andrew Pelham from Pelham Bay. Was that movie good? Did you like that movie? Wasn't it like Pelham 1, 2, 3 or 321 or something like that? Taking Pelham, 1, 2, 3. John Trajolta hijacks a train. Pelham Bay.

My mom's from that area. So, like, I think I just interested. Okay. Because of that. You know, you know when like a movie's set in a place you know, you're kind of like, Right. I'm a little more interested. Oh, absolutely.

So I think that's what happened. So thanks, Andrew. Mark Kirwin. Mark, I've seen, I've seen Kirwin around, yeah. Mark E.K., Melissa Burris. Appreciate you. Mel Burr. Austin Trotman.

Trotman. What a, uh, you got to be a power hitter with that name. Have to be. A trot. his nickname is his initials are a trot that's his short hand a trot a trot his last name is literally it's trotman go trot man hit a home run jacob hernandez jacob her yeah uh alana short now she she tweeted as and said she just wanted to hear me butcher her name yeah so we think it's alana uh we might get some feedback for that that seems too

easy maybe that was the mental game on her end though Ivana. Was it somehow pronounced a V? Can't be. Can't be. Not how letters work. Ianna. Maybe a Y.

You're going to crush this next one. Yana? Tom Jenkins. Good. Dylan Neville. Sean. Another Sean. Yeah.

Sean. I think Sean signed up for Talking Yanks and for John media. And he tweeted at us and was like, I was wondering if it was me. That was me because my name's Sean. And then I checked and I didn't put my last name. So, thanks, Sean. Jesse Rodriguez.

Jayrod. Nate Quarry. Ooh, I like that name. That's a good prospect name. Nate Quarry gets you excited to see what that kid's got. What about this? Joey Yankee fan. How can you...

Joe Yankee. I mean, you got a... Talk about a birthright. Yeah, hope you're drafted to the right team then. David M. Glines. David. lines, yep. Mark Samansky.

Strong. We had a Samansky a teacher in high school. Stephen A. Sussman. Sussman. The Sussman and the Trotman. Mertaza? Mertaza. Mertaza Raza. Taza.

I mean, I know we struggle with names. If that name's real, that's an awesome name. Mertaza Raza. If you're messing with us, that's also kind of fine. Michelle Maldonado. It's a good name. John Corky. Cork. Corkery.

Corkerie. Yeah. And Luke Winters. Burr. Wow, good. Those are our most recent Patreon subscribers. It's $2 a month. Help us out here as we grow and, you know,

allows us to do other things and take care of some hosting fees and all of that nonsense. So we really appreciate you. We go to jamp. Patreon.com slash John Boy Media. You can support us there. You can also go to shop. dot john boy media.com get yourself an i love baseball shirt or some other shirts we got a bunch in the store but yeah we appreciate it you also get a chance to win two jerseys every month from

affordable jerseys.com they are majestic manufactured uh fully licensed jerseys you can choose the player and the team uh we do a raffle for our patrons and they get access to be live with the show we got some people here we got andrew pelham here we got bacon steak to go so we got a lot of people Hayden Cart, good name. So thank you. Let's get into some baseball, Jake. I have the sound board now. So I found this, I wanted to get like an old time boogie baseball sound.

Like there's a song called the baseball boogie and it's really good, but it's singing. Do you say old time boogie again? Old time boogie. God, I like that. Put that on the soundboard. So I found one. I'm going to test it out. I don't know if I'm going to like it or not.

but I think the report should have some backing. Okay. All right. Am I up first with the National League report? Are you up first with the National League report? I'm up first at the National League report. All right, Jake, the National League report. Here we go, on your mark.

Let me know what happens over there. Jimmy, in the National League, we start out in the NLEs down in the dirty, dirty, the Atlanta Braves. Jim, all they do is pass another team. test. After losing game one, they win the final two games against the Dodgers, Jim. The Braves, they just keep checking boxes, and Jim, definitely nothing bad happened involving my guy Ronald O'Cunia either, so the Braves win two out of three against the Dodgers. Really good stuff. Five and a half games back of them in the NLEs. The Washington Nationals hosted the Brewers,

and Jim buckle up after a two-to-one first game, where the nationals won. Milwaukee wins game to 15 to 14. 15 to 14 in 14 innings. Some are calling it the game of the year. I think that might have been your nap person, Jim. We'll get there. Washington follows it up with a 16 spot on Sundays to win the series. That Nat's offense has been doing things. Maybe we'll talk about that a little bit, Jim. Oh, Mama. The Phillies, they welcome the Padres, but they lose the final two games. including a one-run loss in the rubber match. Good for the Padres or bad for the fields?

The Metropolitan's get their interleague on. They win the final two games and the three games set against the Kansas City Royals. DeGrom with another great start. Yon, that's just what he does. And your Miami Marlins came to my mile high city. They get swept by the Rockies. Hey, how about the Rockies?

We've already got some crazy talk on Rockies. sports radio baby i like that a lot let's jump to the centralee jim you heard about the crazy brewers nat series the st louis cardinals are percentage points ahead of the cubbies to be in first in the n l central the cards split two of four at home versus the reds jim sunny grazy r a is down to two nine eight by the way for cincinnati speaking of those cubbies they went to pittsburgh lost on a walk-off game one but they won the following two games, including Sunday night in Williamsport, Good Times at the Little League World Series, a bunch of 12-year-olds mocking Craig Kimbril. And in the West, you know the Dodgers lost their series to the Braves.

You know San Diego won their series against the Phil's. And you know, my Rocky swept the Florida Fishies. The San Francisco treat the Giants take three out of four in the desert versus the diamondbacks, including a 10-9 extra inning win where. some guy named Yistremski hit three home runs. Geez, did he really? Yeah. That's nuts.

And maybe we won't fully deep dive on that wink, wink, nod, because he might be mentioned in a little bit. Okay, all right, important, crazy. I had some thought processes while you were giving me these reports. My first was, I was upset that the Phillies lost. They sweep the Cubs. I want the good teams to make good teams to make. powerful runs, you know?

And then I was like, yeah, but the Padres are young and fun and hungry. And then I said, okay, I've cemented it. The Padres are my spoiler team. So I'm rooting for all the teams to do good. Nice. Except I'm rooting for the Padres in the National League and the Blue Jays in the American League to spoil everyone's fun. Official spoiler crew.

I like it. My person. I'm only taking one team out of contention that I'm rooting for. otherwise I want all the races to go like just keep pushing everybody farther and farther harder but I'll take one everybody everybody gets to pick one team from each league that's out of the race that they can root for otherwise root for the good baseball yeah you can I mean you can do what you want but that's what I'm doing okay and I think but Padres will be like all right go spoil some shit the uh it's it's hard to work it into

the breakdown there but uh and I think it's funny you and I had a fun little debate about that NL rookie of the year. It sounds like Tatis Jr. is going to be out for the year. It sounds like a bad injury too. Yeah, and it's a back thing. It sounds kind of weird. You wonder how much of it is precautious because he's really young in their future and

how much of is it bad. But that sucks for baseball in general. But now you said you can root for the Padre. So that's good. And a freaking pistol pee. It sounds like he wants to go get it anyways. You're going to hear about him a couple times this episode, but.

Yeah. So the Brewers in that series. series was crazy. A lot of the home runs did you see him? Did you see like Rendon hit the home run? He threw his bat up because he thought he'd flyed out and then apologize. He's like, oh, dude, I'm so sorry. That was funny. The next home run by Soto and Devers had a home run like this earlier in the year too. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Devers and Soto. They're not home run swings. Those are the ones where like the juice ball really hasn't upset me because everyone's playing with the same ball. So it's like, whatever. Right. Now you do it. Compare your, compare.

pair people to the league that they were playing against, and it's all fair, where steroids with some were taking it, some warrant, blah, blah, everyone's playing with the same ball. But those home runs kind of break my heart. Like that Soto home run is not a home run. I don't know if anyone saw it. It's an opo swing. It's a nice, like, slap double maybe, or fly out. It's not a home run swing.

Yeah, Jim, you got the lip reading on Tito. Francona came out to the bump to pull one of the Cleveland relievers. and DJ LaMayhew hit a short porch shot. And he clearly said something along the lines of like, that doesn't get out of there last year, right? Like that's like that ball doesn't normally get out. And the juice ball is definitely showing its head. And again, I think the way you phrased it is like,

don't be mad about it because both teams are doing it. And you probably have a couple guys on your teams that are benefiting for it. But there's a couple plays in each game that you're like, okay. What did that hit? Yeah. So what did the Cubs do here? So the Cubs, they played Pittsburgh, right? They lost game one on a walkoff, which was kind of tough. Kimbril just came off the I-L. I don't think he was available for that game. And they didn't use Strop, either. I don't know if he was tired, but Pittsburgh walks off on them game one. Cubbies win the second game,

and then they went to Williamsport. So they still end up winning the series two out of three. with how badly the pirates are struggling. The Cubs were, you know, hunting for that sweep. But I don't know, two out of three. I mean, it's Major League Baseball. You're going to lose 60 games. And the Cardinals split a set, are you sad? Yeah, the Cardinals.

So the Cardinals is the one that, I mean, they split with the Reds. We know how quality the Reds can be when they're good. But it was at home for the Cardinals. So, I mean, the split there is it's a little bit of a shoulder shrug. Sonny Gray does his thing because of course he does. And the Cardinals did. They won on Sunday, which if they had lost three out of four, that is so much worse than the split.

Yeah. Yeah, but you need to win three out of four when you're racing. They stay in first place. The Cardinals stay tied in the first place with the Cubs. So it's not anything crazy, but Cardinals are actually one up and lost call. They could have been two up. if they take care of business versus the Reds,

which I think isn't unfair to say they would have liked to. Yeah, and I mean, you know, the Reds are one of the surprising teams that they still have that. Plus, they have a positive different run score differential this year. And, dude, I mean, Sonny Gray's having a great year. So you're right. I mean, you obviously want that, but I mean, the Reds can win a game when they want. You're hosting them. Cardinals, whatever.

You're still, you're up in the lost column. You're in a good place to be. And, man, the farther we go, the more these teams like the Giants and the Phillies, there are only two games out of the wild card and three and a half games out. But the deeper we get, the harder it is to entertain the idea of them doing it. We have to find, we are going to do that mini episode of like. who you should be rooting for. Yeah.

I think, you know, you're on their sister cities, I think we're going to call it like sister fans or something like that. Okay, I like that. Yeah, one of the bigger things that jumped out to me that I don't think is a storyline, but would be a storyline of the NL. The Nats are separating a little bit.

Right now, in the wild card hunt, like the Phillies and Mets are both two games back of the Cubs, Milwaukee's two games back of the Cubs. Washington is a game and a half up from them. So, I mean, when we're talking about this crowded NL and, you know, either the Central or teams chasing the wildcard, and you look at San Francisco, who's three and a half games back and you start doing this, you know, can they still be a part of it? They've seven and three in their last 10, et cetera, et cetera.

The nationals have now created a gap between the Mets and the Phillies, which, again, they're going to play those teams a lot, so one bad series and you can lose it. But the Nationals, they've taken a baby step forward to, you know, potentially being that home team in the wild card game with, and if it's Scherzer, I mean, I'm not betting against them. Hmm. Not betting against them. The Nationals are scary.

I mean, they have that rotation. And Jim, they've been putting up crazy runs lately. I'll see if I could get it up quick. and you mentioned a little juice ball, but on Sunday they put up 16. In Saturday, they put up 14 in a loss. There's the 2-1 pitchers duel before that, but the game before, they put up a 17 spot.

So in three of their last four games, they've scored 14-plus runs. So that's a... And you know what's funny? They've been doing the crazy bench-antic stuff. They've been doing the race car stuff. Yeah, they've been doing that while. Hey, that stuff looks really cool

when you're scoring 14 plus runs. I'll say that. Fun's fun. Forever and always. Fun's fun. Especially when you're putting up big numbers. Fun is fun. Yeah.

All right, let's do the A.O. Report. Then we do have some, a couple storylines I want to touch on before we're going to segments. Give me that American League, Jim. Did you hear the background music as I was going?

I did not. Yeah, I think it's low. I don't know how I like it or not. I'm going to do it. We'll just get a response. I think I'm searching for, I really want like the baseball boogie music without the lyrics, but I couldn't find that anymore.

Have you ever heard the baseball boogie by Mabel something? I feel like I, yes, you've shown me. I wouldn't have seen it outside of you. It's from the Ken Burns documentary, but it's pretty good. Pretty good lyrics. All right. Here we go. Your American League report.

The Yankees and the Indians split a four game set. The Indians winning the bread. The Yankees winning the meat. Get it, Jake? Like a sandwich? Sandwich. won the first the outside games. The Yankees won the inside games. You like sandwiches, right? Okay, cool. Moving on. The Mariners and the Blue Jays, they met up. Toronto won the first two games,

but they lost the next two. Cacucci put on a hell of a performance. More on that later. The Red Sox swept the Orioles as Baltimore does their best to reclaim the title of worst team in Major League Baseball. Red Sox get bad news on Chris Sale, but Raphael Devers remains an absolute stud. The race hosted the Detroit Tigers and lost the first game, but then won the next two via walk-off. Tigers ain't scared of Baltimore's footsteps, Jake. They stay the worst team in Major League Baseball, but that will be an interesting battle to watch as we go forward. The twins made their way to Arlington to beat the heat and beat the Rangers. They swept the four-game set. That's huge for Minnesota.

A four-game sweep does wonders. They reclaim first place alone. The Angels had three wins in all of August, and they got three more this weekend, baby. They take three of four from the White Sox. Good job. The Angels double your win total. Mike Trout passed Derek Jeter in war in like half the amount of seasons played.

Incredible. Houston went to Oakland and lost the first two games. athletics say hey we can play with you that extended their losing streak to five straight but Zach Granky ends it he shuts them down in game three and Houston hopefully for them we'll get back to their winning ways it's all wrong button got the sound got the soundboard back but uh you know still rusty haven't had it for months like it um yeah standings wise nothing nothing Nothing really changed. Cleveland fell back with Minnesota gaining ground.

Cleveland split a four game set. The twins won a four game set. So that's a shift in the central. Tampa Bay keeps winning. And Oakland and Boston's behind Tampa. Boston's six and a half games out with four, with three teams ahead of them. So I don't know.

Yeah, Jim, I'll start in the central because I think you're right. with the twins. You know, they've been going through some stuff. Nelson Cruz went down. Eddie Rosario's in a little bit of a slump right now. To win four games at Texas, who, by the way, not to toot my own horn too much, Jim, but last talking baseball episode, I said,

when they drop under 500, that is a dangerous spot for the Texas Rangers. And that's exactly what happened. I think Texas is going to start spiraling a little bit. Prove me wrong. Texas Rangers prove me wrong. But they are two and eight in their last 10 now, four-game losing streak. Jim, the other action that really jumps out is the Houston Astros, and again, this is what makes baseball great.

And this isn't shots fired. At one point, the Houston Astros lost five straight. They went through that impressive rotation a full time, and they lost five straight. If I'm an Astros fan, I'm not fazed by that at all. I'm actually, I'm playing the get it out of the way now. We've went to deep into the postseason the last two years. This team knows, you know, it's like the 90, was it the 2000 Yankees? They kind of limped into the playoffs.

They had been there the last two seasons. They're like, once we got to September, we knew exactly what we needed to turn on and get going. I think Astros, they're kind of going through that. they have the division basically locked up. All they need is health and home field advantage. And I think they can do a, like, I don't think they want to lose. But I think it's like, all right, yeah, health is important. So this, if that's what happens, that's what happens.

And if you're an Astros fan, you should be thinking the same thing. I don't think it's indicative of their potential at all. There's a nice 361 double play in the Astros game with Grinky covering. Zach Grinky, one of my favorite players to watch in the Major League Baseball, because I think he loves baseball, but he doesn't like people

watching baseball. Doesn't like crowds, no. Zach Grinky's ideal situation would be, you know, 9 v.9, line him up, and there's nobody watching. Did you hear that story about, you know, an article came out after Granky got traded of teammates, like, just like

kind of talking about how weird he is? And he's like, he's brutally honest. and oh yeah yeah yeah i forget what team it is they asked him like what's your favorite uh what's your favorite what's your favorite lake lamb what's your favorite strikeout yeah he was like i threw a change up like way out of the zone and this dude swung and missed out of like an idiot and jake lamb was like you're talking about me and he was like yeah it was you just laughed in his face he's a weird guy but yeah he covered first on a double play and like the short stop pegged it and i'm pretty sure the look grinky was giving him like, I know you peg that to turn the double play, but that like hurt my hand.

No, it was, uh, someone, someone tweeted it at me and said, can you tell me what Granky said here? And he just like, looks back at whatever, whoever player, like, maybe the catcher or someone, because Correa rifled it. And he just goes, I was fast. That's what he said. That was fast. It was kind of cool. I like him.

I like watching him. Oh, he's really good. What else is in the AL here, Jim? I don't like listening to them yell for being like super honest. Yeah, the grunts. The grunts can be tough. I get that. What else in the AL?

Is that the question? The rays, man. The tigers come into town. They're the worst team in baseball. The rays lose game one. And then it's close. They had like they walked off. I mean,

tigers traded their closer. They, they don't have a bullpen. They're bringing up rookies and stuff like that. So if you're the raise on one hand, you have to win those games. Right. And in the second hand, you did. You did what you had to do.

Two walkoffs, which actually, like, they had fun. Our dude G. Man Choy had a walk off. That's fun. And Brasso, they walked Tommy Fan to get the force. Brasso comes through. That was pretty cool, too. The Rays, man, if they get healthy, that's crazy. I mean, I'm reading, I don't know the full reports, but I'm reading that Blake Snell is expected to return at the beginning of September.

Brandon Lough is supposed to return late August. Glass now is expected to be out until sometime in September. What if Glass Now and Snell come back in September and are Glass Now and Snell? I think that it's not a 50-50 and them both coming back and being good is kind of less than. The odds are against that. But, right. A race fan should be dreaming, just like Yankees fans would dream about Severino and Patanus. And then Avicel Garcia is out right now.

Yandi Diaz is out for the rest of the season. And then Yanni Trinos is out, but he's likely to return at the beginning of September. So like Yanni, Glassnow and Snell, if they can come back and pitch for them in September, I'm sorry, but A's fans, you have to be rooting for these guys to have setbacks. Yeah, and that's, I mean, that's kind of tough. But Jim, I think the bigger thing there is, I think the Red Sox run last year will change the course of baseball. I think there's, there was always the stigma, you know, the starting pitcher.

I own the ball that day. This game is my, this game is in my hands. That's gone now. Like, it's a team do everything you can do to win. Even pitchers, who normally pitchers are these creatures of routines and habits, I think that Sox team changed everything where it's all hands on deck. And I mean, even if Glassnow is a weapon out of the bullpen, whatever you could get out of Snell, Yanni Chorinos, Yanni Chorinos,

Ryan Yarborough Jim has been incredible. Charlie Morton is in the Cy Young race. So you're right. I mean, even if you just get, if you get Glass No, Snell, Yanni Chorinos back in the fold in any fashion, I mean, that changes the shape of that team. especially when we might be talking about them in a one game wild card game, if they have all of those hands on deck, I mean,

they're just going to be tough to be. Yeah. No, definitely. I don't know. Can we, let's move on to just like the major storyline of the, of baseball right now. I don't know if this is the biggest.

I think the Yankees and their objections are big. Hey, hey, hey, you and I were a one top top news article on ESPN So maybe we're the big storyline But that was cool Acuna your boy Whoa hey oh

Wind was blowing in He gets cold So if anyone doesn't know Acuna hit a shot that he thought was a home run He fully watched it He even started making some faces Thought he got all of it It hits the top of the wall

he's not on second he's on first i gotta do a breakdown of this because my favorite part he's disappointed himself he's a stolen base guy so he's classic classic young kid move classic young kid room so he's thinking i got to make up for this and steal second and the pitcher and catcher are like he's gonna steal to make up for that so they do a pitch out and nail him i love it i want to do a breakdown this but i'm gonna be gone for the next two days so whatever he gets thrown out Snitker, is that his name? Snitker. Snitker.

Snitker somewhere else. Pulls them. Pulls them out of the game. He gets pinch hit for, I think the guy who pinch hit for him hit for him hit a home run now. I think it was our guy Duval who came in for him. Yeah. But this is, and then the quotes after the game were very much, yes, I pulled him. He can't do that.

Yeah. The team is ahead of the person and him celebrating a home run is not. nearly as important as him getting to second base for the team. And he let 24 guys down. And that's not what we're going to do. We are trying to do big things this season, not personal goals. We're trying to do a team goals and pulled him. And he's a young kid.

He's 21 years old. Do you have a problem with any way this went down? Or take a hit the grand slam after him. Thank you, Andrew Pelham. That wouldn't be the way I'd phrase it. I would say this. Brian Snickr, who his name is close to Brant Snedker, the golfer. Yeah, that's why I got confused.

Brands Nedker, V.U, go doors, Fandy. Brian Snickker, Jim, as you mentioned, like, when you think of MLB managers, Brian Snickr doesn't jump to the forefront. You know, he doesn't have a playing career like Donnie baseball that you look back on. Even someone like Dave Roberts or Aaron Bucer. that you're like, okay, you know, I saw that guy growing up, blah, blah, blah. Brian Snicker is kind of Brian Snicker. Not to be rude.

I mean, I'm Jake Storelli. I think I'd rather be Brian Snicker. Whoa, getting dark. Anyways, Jim, when you do something like this and we've met, I said it in my break, my NL report, the Braves just keep passing tests. They just beat the Dodgers, two out of three at home. So Brian Snicker, the risk here is that. that this goes sour, and you have to know who Akuna is,

and if he's going to respond well to this, one of the better things they have going for them is, Jim, a very similar thing happened last year with Cody Bellinger. And Cody Belling got yanked midgame for not hustling. And, I mean, look where he's at now. So, and I think the biggest thing, and was the risk that Snicker played, and I think that paid off huge,

is that the Braves did go on to win this game. So if you're Ronald Acuna, and he looked like he was pretty, he knew he messed up. He knows that's not acceptable, even for being a young star. But the fact that the rest of your team goes on to win without you

and your replacement hits a home run, I think that's just a little bit of humble pie that can really focus a young guy and keep him going forward. I think he respects the game of baseball and he looks at Brian Snicker as his manager and says, you did the right thing. I hope one day when I'm old,

I do that to the young guy that's coming up and it needs that. So I mean, again, I've been team Acuna, and I think it's going to work well for them. I don't know if this is a, I hate using the word take. I have some thoughts on this, I don't know if they're like good or bad

or however, I don't know if people would not like them or like them. I like that he got pulled, right? And I think I think I like that the manager was honest about it and spread the message. I don't think it was, I don't think the way his tone was in the presser was like, I'm mad at him. It was just, no, this like, I need to nip this in the bud. This is how this happens. That's how this works. I have a weird thought.

And I think, you know, one player can tell me you're fucking wrong. And I'm like, okay, I'm wrong. Acuna gets picked up at 17, right? Drafted by the, or signed by the Braves at 17 years old. His life from 12 to 17, I'm guessing is a lot of, Venezuela is a lot of showcases and tournaments

where he's trying to get scouts to watch him and he's trying to look out the best of him. You know what I mean? Like he didn't play, college or high school. Right. And even, that's not an even college and high school things.

And then at 17 in the minors, they do not care about team results that much in the minors. It's all about your individual performance. How are you doing? How are you looking against competition? This may be like, not the first, but the first time we're like,

the team matters. The team result matters more than his result. And it's not a bad, that's not in a bad way. Like from 17 to 20 when he was in the minors, his personal result mattered way more than the team result. It's getting Ronald Acuna as good as Ronald Acuna can be. Yes.

So maybe, so I'm not trying to say this in like a negative light at him at all. No. That's how the miners work right now. Yeah. So maybe this is like, hey, dude, we're not a young team just like looking to be fun. Like we have big goals. And you are part of that. and like, you know, we can't do this.

So I think there might be something to that. I have no idea. There's something I thought about like, you know, showcase. It's definitely an interesting angle. I don't think you said anything there that's really wrong or can be questioned. I mean, we don't know how true it is. I mean, maybe the Braves organization does hammer in that the, you know, the Gwinnett Braves have to be as united as they can.

But you're right. I mean, everyone's worried about their career in getting to the major leagues. So my brother. And so are the Braves. My brother was very good at baseball. as a little kid and then going into like high school and stuff. And once he left his like town team, like that was very much the team needs to win.

The team needs to win. But then he played some AAU ball. It's pretty individualized. Like I don't think the teams are that galvanized or like, hey, you know, you got to put the team ahead of you. No, I want to like go get scouts looking at me. And that's probably been a cunia and like all these kids life forever. Yeah.

Yeah. I'd say the only thing, the only thing I wouldn't want to pigeonhole them in is, you know, any team that you or I have been on. I mean, you look back at that team and you're like, that's a team. And I'm sure those guys go into the games and they still very much want to win and do good and all that. So I think that was the only twist at the end that I tweak a little bit. But yeah, no, I think it's more than fair.

And I think, you know, we see it with Glaver Torres. When he makes a bad play, he's very much 22 and he puts a sad face on. I know Acuna, I think it was earlier in that game. he almost had a crazy home run rob he got it in the glove and then it banged out the wall and it just blooped out and you wonder you know is was that you know he hits that home run ball he thinks he's got it you know maybe being young he lost focus in that moment and like brian snickers basically saying you know if that happens in a playoff game i mean think think about how much love i've been giving ronald the cooney lately if that happened in a playoff game he hits a bomb he thinks it's gone

he pimps it a little bit he's stuck on first now and then he does exactly what he did Jim he tries to steal second to make up for it and he gets thrown out you now went from runners on second and third with no outs to now just a runner on third with one out

in a playoff game he would get destroyed for that in a way this is almost Brian Snicker like looking out for him for what's coming up in October yeah I like it I'm not upset with anything I think Akuna had good quotes too like I didn't mean to do it. It's just kind of like that's what happened.

Paul O'Neill said that on broadcast. Like sometimes you just watch balls and you're not internally thinking like, let me pimp this. Right. I think he was pimping it, but whatever. A little bit. And I think the other storyline we had here was, and I mean,

I think we're going to give him love in a little bit too. But Pete Alonzo, man. I know where, I think we're going to look back at some of this stuff and say juice ball a little bit. But he breaks the end. know, rookie record for homers. And it's all around. I know it's easy to make some jokes about the Mets.

They went on their special run there, and they got away from those jokes. Man, the Mets called Pete Alonzo up to start the season instead of delaying his rookie, his rookie status time, or not his rookie status, his arbitration time. All he's done is rake for them. He's like a solid pillar on that team. I think it's funny, Jim. I know you want to see a little more personality out of Pete. But at the same time, we've talked about the Mets, the Mets trying to break that kind of Mets persona,

the little brother, the Mets. And Pete Alonzo is just this big, sturdy, stable. He's not screwing around too much. He's out there to win and go get it. I don't need more personality. His personality is fine. He just, it doesn't really have a funny bone in him. He's very serious.

Right. He's very serious. All right, let's move on to our standout performances, Jake. You got one here. Do I go first? Do you go first? I think I go first on Mondays. And I, uh, Jim, it's a spoiler. Uh, I mentioned him before. Mike Yostremski, familiar name, folks.

Uh, he is the grandson of Yaz, the Red Sox great. Uh, I'll start with his, his grandpa, who was an 18 time all star, MVP, triple crown, three time batting title, seven gold gloves. And Jim, you know this is one of the things I love. From 1961 to 1983. Think of how different those time periods are in your head. Yeah, Senior, played from almost the 50s to the early 80s. Those are different worlds in my brain.

Anyways, Jim, and the reason I want to start with that, his grandson, Mike Yistremski, he goes three for six, three home runs, four RBIs, three homer day for San Francisco. go. And Jim, know what's great about a three homer day? When all three of those homers matter, they won this game in the 11th. His third home run was the game-winning homer. And Jim, this is where it gets even better for me. A, another Vandy alum, shout out, anchor down, go doors. Jim, this is his rookie season. He turns 29 in a couple days. Mike Yostremski didn't get a shot in the major leagues until he was 28. He went from 22 to 22.

in the minor leagues with the last name Yostremski. You don't think dudes were dicks to him? They absolutely were. You're only here because your grandpa's got that last name. And guess what? He got his first chance this year, and he's having a really nice year, Jim. 74 games, a 276 batting average, 327 OBP, yeah, but an 874 OPS for a rookie, 16 homers, 45 RBIs.

Again, and that's 74 games, he's basically, on track for a 30 homer 100 RBI season if he played the full year. And Jim, I've got a little icing on the cake for you. He was traded at the start of this season. You know who he's traded from, Jimmy? No, I don't, to be honest. Mike Yostremski was traded from your Baltimore Orioles before the start of the season for minor leaguer Tyler Herb.

Jesus. So again, you and I have gone. gone on these kinds it's mostly on talking yanks that we've done these rants about how are the oriels not giving guys a shot well mike yestremski leaves the oriels he's playing on the giants who might be fighting for that wild card spot who's the guy they traded tyler her tyler herb um i don't know if he's played he hasn't played in the majors yet um in triple a this year he has a 716 er a damn i'm gonna say maybe if he's gonna be good that's still a good trade because they don't need at bats right now, but they need future pitching, but I guess he's not doing good in the miners.

Well, good job, Yaz. You know, they should, they should trade Yaz to Toronto and just call them the Toronto nepotisms. Oh, I like that. I like that a lot. And Jim, I know you got to get Pudge Rodriguez's son there too. Derek, yeah. I think the final point before going on, because, you know, we, we like to make jokes, obviously. And Bell and, but I think it's super. I think it's super, yeah, The Blue Jays could just snag Bellinger. That'd be great, huh? Jim, can you imagine six years in the minor leagues with the last name Yostremski? I don't think.

I think people are probably more interested in him. I think everyone in the minors is fighting. I think it's like from what books I've read, shows I've watched, I think it's a like a very supportive group. I think like majority of the minor league players are like in the grind with other minor players happy for him. and like just trying to squeeze out some baseball life. A little bit. It's very 1980s bullied to be like a dick to gas because his grandpa's good at baseball.

Right. And maybe there's a couple sour eggs that might have ruined it and maybe that was it. But Jim, you know, I bet when his name popped up at the scoreboard at visiting places, I bet a couple drunk fans at a minor league game got on. Oh, fans, yeah. Yeah.

So that's tough. Your grandpa is better than you. Yeah, he's really good. I know. I admire him. He's my fucking hero. My grandpa's better than you too. Better than a lot of people.

Better than almost everyone. So yeah, good job, Mike. Jimmy, who's your standout performance? My standout performance is, you say Kikuchi. I think I had him on Slump Watch a while ago. He was having a rough second half to the season. He just delivered his best outing of his career. His first complete game, his first shutout, nine innings pitch, two hits, one walk,

eight Ks. He was in Toronto pitching to the young hungry Blue Jays. He had seven, one, two, three innings, Jake, only gave up two hits. He was stronger as he went. he was hit 92 93 on the gun his last pitch of the outing was a 94 mile per hour strike strikes him out to end it it's awesome i mean kukuchi looks cool when he's on his fastball's got life and his curveballs cool i think he works like the plane the tunneling a lot so i like complete game shutouts i like that kukuchi corrected his season a little bit and it was against the team who's not winning,

but their lineup is legit. And he held them to two hits. Yeah, and we've seen those Blue Jays can be pesky when they want to be pesky. Good for him. You know, Yusai got up to a pretty good start to his major league career. I mean, through May 25th,

he had a 382 ERA. He was doing some good thing. I guess until mid-May, he had a 3-4 ERA, and then things really got out of hand. he's been hanging out in the five ZRA-wise. So he twirls a good one, a complete game shutout at Toronto, which isn't easy to do in that stadium with that lineup. And yeah, I'm rooting for him because I also want to see him be pretty good, Jim.

Because if you remember, the Mariners gave him a weird contract. Very incentive-based, right? Yeah. Well, they basically, they have a player, they have a team option, I believe. and the team option is from 22 to 25 at basically 17 million a year. So it's not like a joke option. It's not like, yeah, we'll pick him up for another year. It's like, holy smokes.

Are we going to run? If we believe in you, we believe in you. Yeah, so I guess I'm interested in that. And you're right. I mean, when we saw him versus the Yanks this year, he looked good. And I mean, any international guy that does well helps grow the game. And that's, I'm all about it. All about it.

You know what? It doesn't help grow the game, or maybe it does, Jake. Right. I got the soundboard now. If you want to do it, you can do it. Getting replaced. Tramp watch. Flump watch.

Can you hear me? Yeah. Headphones going out on you or something? It's a weird Jakey thing. I won't deep dive into it, but sometimes they just turn up to max volume. so that's a little perk I've got going on over here. All right, we got a bunch of updates on the slump watch and we're running late. And I got to be honest, I got to get out of here.

I got a big important meeting for the company. So if this isn't going to be an hour and a half episode, John Lester, you put them on here. Six innings pitched four hits, zero earned runs. So six innings pitch zero earned runs. That gets you off slump watch. I will say he walked five guys and that's a bit concerning. Jim, I actually put that in the plus column for some slump watch. because something that's developing about slump watch that I like is you do anything you can to get off of slump watch.

If you've got to walk guys instead of pitch to him, you can get out of it. So yeah, Lester, you're off. All right. Next one is Daniel Murphy. He only played two games. In one of them, he went two for four. In the next, he went oh for three. Does one, two for four get you off of slump watch?

In my mind, no. because he's still, like if you look at his last two weeks, still slumping. So I'm not taking him off. Yeah, for me, this is a tough one because, I mean, I'm assuming there's a walk in that last game, which means he got on base three out of eight times. And a two-for-four game is a pretty impactful game. And I feel like he's been sneaking towards the end of Slump Watch.

So I don't know. I leave him to your guillotine. If there's, let me see if there's a walk. No walk. the O for three. A hit by pitch. I hit by pitch. Oh.

I love a hit by pitch to get off slump watch. And okay. And the two for four game, he also had a sack fly. That's basically a three for four because you got to protect him. I'll take him off for that. He's off. The hit by pitch was huge for me. Max Kepler's been on slump watch.

Max Cupper had three hits in 20 played appearances this weekend, one home run and two walks, 176. The twins swept so he didn't hold them back in any way. 300 on base percentage, 176, but three hits in 18 plate appearances. I'm keeping Max on, but he'll probably come off very soon. Max stays and yet, Jim, if any of our twins listeners want to tweet at me talking Jake, Kepler slumpin, Rosario slumping, Cruz went on the IL, I'm shocked that they had the four-game sweep. If someone can let me let me know, like what happened. Who stepped up?

Good, good for many. Jim, we got a couple guys here. Shinsu Chu went off. Six for 14, Homer, 1.2.0.2 OPS. Get out of here. Good job. I think even a little clap. Is it shame to flame?

It's really close to shame to flame. It's a four game set with a 467 on base percentage and two doubles in a home run, six for 14. I think that's shame to flame. He's also on the Rangers. They lost all four games. Slump watch is a personal thing. Yeah, you're right. Aaron James Judge, he goes four for 13.

It's funny because we obviously watch this, Jim. His slump peaked. We saw him bottom out, but he's getting out of it. I think he's off. I think he's off because if we were not watching every at bat, and this was a different team, I'd automatically have him off because it's a 308 batting average 3.5.

in the most recent series. But as a Yankee fan, where's a Yankee fan, he's still kind of on like, we're watching what Judge does. Right. But this- Nationally no.

Yeah. Who, dude, Josh Hader blew another save, another earned run. He did get, he tied the game. He did get out of the bases loaded no-out jam, which was good pitching. But before that,

he blew another save in the bottom of the ninth and gave up another run. So five outings now with an earned run. He's full. on slump watch. Yeah, it's insane. And all of, all of his peripherals are pretty much there, except the homers. He's striking out more people per inning. His whip is pretty tight. He's just giving up double the homers he used to give up. It's pretty bizarre. We had bases loaded, no outs. And, you know, if you get a hit, you get walked off, you walk it off for the nationals.

And Hayter kind of took advantage of knowing they were going to be eager and we just went high fastballs, 97 up. And they were just swinging right through them. Like that. You put Jordan Alvarez on here last week? Yeah. He's as predicted. He was either going to stick for a while with a rookie slump or get off real quick, aka the two options, Jake.

He's getting off. He had a couple home runs. 1.139 OPS. Good job, Jordan, who, by the way, had to step up for a couple of his teammates. We'll talk about in a second. Cole Hamils with the DNP. and Mani Machado, Jim. This one's on you.

No, Steve Peralta put him on last week. Four for 13 with one double. No walks. But that's fine. No one's worried about Manny. He had his little slump. I think he's been fine. I'd take him off.

All right. That's fair. I'm not clapping for him. I mentioned Yordan Alvarez. No, no claps, Manny. You still got to be better than that. But we're just not watching you because you're in San Diego. made that decision. Jim,

a couple guys hopping on to Slump Watch. We might have a wopper plopper or two. Jim, a couple guys in Scruston. Carlos Correa, he goes hitless for the weekend, two for his last 13, and they both came in one game. Two for his last 23. Six of his last seven games have been hitless. That's pretty insane.

And Jose Altuvae, Jose Altuve. You know, normally the strength of this Astros team. Jose Al-Tuves, two for his last 19. That's a 105 batting average, Jim. And I know you like to check this in a slump. Jimmy, his OPS is technically 255. So those hits weren't very impactful.

He's just slapping and hoping at this point. So, I mean, you know, and we wonder the Houston Astros, they lost five straight for a little bit there. When those guys aren't doing what they do, that'll happen. And I think we got one more guy, Jim. Yeah, we got Austin Meadows. He's this very similar to Correa. He had a hitless weekend, two for his last 26, and they came in one game.

So seven of Austin Meadows' last eight games have gone hitless. That's not good. Especially with, you know, the race winning, but maybe they wouldn't need to win on walkoffs because they do have injuries. They need Meadows to step up. It was against the tigers. So, come on. Yeah, that's tough. That should be a pad the stat kind of weekend and it wasn't.

Yeah. Yep. All right. Let's have some fun. Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. One of the better songs you could ever possibly listen to.

Huge for the soundboard. Run it, Jim. I am opening up. Yeah, we got to go fast. I am opening up with Lucas Gialito. He had a really good first half. People were talking Sy Young. Then he plummeted for like a little.

month. He's back on track, Jake. In his last two starts, he's gone six in his pitch, two earned runs. Nothing really special there, but, but he has 24 strikeouts in his last two starts, double digits two times in a row, 13 and then 11. Should we have the White Sox pitching coach on in Fuego for Gioledo and Nova? Uh, yeah. Eh, no, but no, Ivan Nova said he wants to come back to the White Sox. Love it.

He said like he's open to her. Copac. Yeah, if they pay him the most money, he would love to come back to the White Sox. Good call, Ivan. Yes. Yes. Pete Alonzo, we talked about him.

He had a little slump after the home run derby. The All Star break. He went six for 12 on the weekend. Six for 12 on the weekend. 11 for his last 17. Two doubles. One home run is 40th. Four BIs.

His month of August. His slash line is 355, 444. 710 slugging and 1.154 OPS. Yeah. And Jim, I mean, I said we were going to mention him a few times during this show. I mean, he is just, he is so stable for the Mets, a team that's not normally associated with stability. Good for him. Jim, you had Justin Turner on here.

I mean, you got the stats. He 583, 0.1.476 OPS. I think the bigger thing for Justin Turner, and maybe this will end up being a mini episode for us, is we always like guys in the playoffs that are just a constant threat. Like Yassi El Puege, Justin Turner, whenever those guys are around the ball, they are a threat. And for me, Justin Turner, if you're facing the Dodgers, he is a guy you don't want up in a big spot. Because I just think he's going to do, he's going to win. He's going to win.

Have the Dodgers had, like, fun dressing Justin Turner and Dustin Mayup as he chose? other, two redheads with weird hair and beard? I'm not sure. Father's son portraits or something like that. They need to get on that. Yeah. Yeah. Get on that, Dodgers. Yeah.

Dude, Oscar Mercado. Yeah. He played against the Yankees this weekend, but I didn't even realize this, Jake. He had a 727 on base percentage. I was just worried about Jose Ramirez, who was crushing the Yankees the entire time. I didn't even realize Oscar Mercado, the rookie in Cleveland. 727 on base percentage. And Jim, one of the funnier phrases that gets thrown around a lot in baseball, Mercado is an athlete.

Like, he just looks like an athletic dude. They can move him around the outfield. He gives you good at bat. Like, I think that's becoming such a valuable asset in Major League Baseball. Like, Mercado is never just going to go down. Like, that dude is tough, and we saw it live all weekend. When the Indians face a lefty, they move him up in the lineup, and he is tough. Yeah.

Yeah. And Jim, I got to cut. He's not going to get a lot of rookie at the year, love, is he? I don't think so. I don't think war-wise he's going to end up there, and he hasn't played a ton of of games. But he, I don't know, maybe top five, I'd have to get in there and look. I don't know.

All right. Who do you got? Jim, I have a couple quick ones. Marwin Gonzalez, I asked my twins fans to reach. out. He's the one guy that I know he did really well this week. He went 11 for 18. But like the homers and RBIs weren't crazy. So I still need some help for my twins fans. But Marwin Gonzalez, and man, if he can get it going and get hot, dude, talk about tough at bats. Marwin Gonzalez. John Gray from my Colorado Rockies gym, he goes eight shutout. It's first Miami. I get it.

But he's also having a really nice year, a 385 ERA, a four and a half war in his last 29.2 innings, a 273 ERA. The Rockies, you know, they needed something, and John Gray has kind of been that as they, you know, either try to put some together or at least get ready for next year. John Gray used to be one of the building blocks for them. And then, of course, my Cubs pitching staff, Jose Quintana, four straight quality starts in the month of August,

26 innings pitched a 138 ERA. And like I started the show, man, if he could keep that going and pitch a couple big games for the Cubbies, he will be beloved by that fan base. Yeah. Dude, I was looking at that John Gray, John Gray outing,

eight shutout innings against Miami, but in Colorado. Yeah. How many complete game shutouts have been pitched at that stadium? That's what I wanted to look up. I didn't know how to look it up. Well, I'm actually,

I think I'm going to see Drew Kriesman tonight and do some Rocky stuff with them. So I can research that for you. Okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Next up, who'd the Orioles get hot? What sound, what sound board do you want for this? I just have the ones that come with the soundboard.

Maybe I'll get Gary Thorne moaning for this segment later in the year. Oh, that's so good. We'll just do glass break. Who'd the Orioles get hot? And Jim, this is a guy that he could have, he's been on in Fuego a couple times. Raphael Devers. Jim, he goes. seven for 13. He leads

the AL and hits, extra base hits and doubles. He's the first player under 23 with 100 runs and 100 RBI since Miggie Cabs. I mean, I've mentioned I think he might be in the running for most improved player. I

don't know what that looks like fully in the AAL. My dude's now getting into, you know, some pretty rare air this season. So good for Rafa. Good for Rafa. All right. We are skipping who got mad and call up watch because we are out of time.

Let's go to awards. We will circle back on the call up watch because we had four debuts. We'll do them next week. We're doing awards, everybody. We're doing awards and then wheel the elevator talk. All right. Jim, my first award is the Juice's Luce Award.

Woo! Yeah. Any OJ fans out there? Okay. Probably. Jim. Yeah, I think it's funny. There's like that are fans of watching the OJ stuff, but like nobody's a fan of OJ. Anyways, Jim, the juice is loose. I think it was a theme of this episode.

I thought it would be a theme, so that's why I went there. And it's a guy who still deserves a shout-out, even though we gave him a lot of love. Aristides Aquino for Cincinnati, Jim. We talked about him a couple episodes how he was, you know, breaking these home run records. He keeps going, Jim. He had two more home runs. The batting average wasn't there. I think the home runs might have been his only hits.

But Jim, let me read this list to you real quick. Fewest played appearances to reach 11 homers in Major League Baseball in a single season. Okay? Yep. Number one, Michael Jack Schmidt, Hall of Famer, 1976, 56 at-bats. Number two, Aristides Aquino, 58. After him, Albert Poulos, Alex Rodriguez, Willie Stardiel, Luis Gonzalez. But then Ted Williams.

So we've got what? I don't know, five Hall of Famer surrounding him and Luis Gonzalez, who by the way was in an era that gets remembered a little differently for home runs. So I think it's funny. Our friends, or I guess your friends, I'm making them my friends at Cespite's family barbecue tweeted that out.

And my comment was just like, well, Aristides Aquino is going to be an all-time great or he's going to be a memory from the juice ball era. I don't want to say I'm leaning the second, but it's definitely an option. I've seen most of his home runs are pretty good contact, but yeah, you never know. I haven't seen them any wall scrapers on it.

No, and I'm not saying juice ball era in that way, but I mean, the big open stance. I love it. You know, the pitchers might come around and find out his strengths and weaknesses a little more. Hey, maybe he is an all-time great. Maybe there's going to be a mini asterisk down the road. no. All right. My award is the I can't get no recognition.

Oh. Yeah. Okay. Kevin Gossman, not the best pitcher. No. Colorado. Grow up in Colorado got drafted pitching high school in that Colorado era. That's impressive. He had an immaculate inning. One of your favorite things in baseball. The immaculate inning is cooler than the cycle. Yeah. It happens. less than the no hitter. Why? It gets no love. We got to get you an immaculate inning

shirt. I guarantee we have people that don't even know what it is. It's when you throw nine pitches. Strike one, strike two, strike three, one out. Strike one, strike two, strike three, two outs. Strike one, strike two, strike three outs. Kevin Gossman with the immaculate inning. And some of them were like dirt balls

that got swung over. Yeah. So I need, it's Kevin Gossman gets it, but really I just used it as a jumping off. off point to say like, dude, why don't we celebrate that? I know it's like very trivial, but so is the cycle. Yeah. And Jim, I mean, you know, he had one start for the Cincinnati Red, so I don't want to get too hyped up.

But it was a good start. And what if, um, he's not starting for that. Excuse me. He's relieving. He's relieving. He's got the four games. I was looking at his stats for Gwinnett. Second Gwinnett Striper's reference of the episode.

Jim, since he's pitching coach, I mentioned the White Sox pitching coach. If Cincy's pitching coach can quote unquote take credit for fixing Sunny Gray, aka just leaving New York. But if he's got Bauer and he could do some good things with Gossman, I don't know, man. I'm getting excited for CINC 2020. I mean, so not only did Kevin Gossman have an immaculate inning,

he pitched two innings and he struck out all six batters. I'd say that's good. The second inning was the Immaculate inning. The first inning, it was a four-pitch strikeout, three-pitch strikeout, then full-count strikeout. Paul DeYoung, Yaddy Molina. So, good for, if he's a weapon, I don't know if he's on Sincis, so they don't really care. But maybe he becomes a bullpen guy. Maybe they DFA him and someone picks him up in his playoff hero.

Not going to happen. Who knows? Maybe he finds second life as a reliever. I mean, he's still 28 years old. This guy used to be a big prospect. Number 10 prospect by baseball prospectus in 2014, but I don't know, guys figure out things differently. Jim, bring me to the elevator.

All right, we are getting on the elevator and going up to the penthouse and you're in there with someone who is a fan of this team. Oh, I like a slightly different angle today. You're going up to the penthouse, so you're going to a party with a guy and you want to befriend them. Yep, and I just skipped the Mets. Too much East Coast bias. Mariners?

I can hit Seattle quick. Let's hit Seattle. All right. If you're stuck on an elevator with a Seattle fan, you got to make some coffee jokes. You got to first, if you move to Seattle, you got to get over the Seattle freeze. They're very unfriendly to people that move to Seattle. It's a thing. It's called the Seattle freeze.

So just get over that. They don't dislike you. They're just kind of, you know, pretty close off. Denver used to have that. They shook it. They shook it? Yeah. They got a lot of people on the injured list.

They're not playing for anything. I would like them to become a spoiler team. They just beat the Blue Jays for a spoiler team. But they're not doing good things. I mean, you could always make jokes about how much your GM loves trading people. Right. You can talk about Kukuchi. He got my standout performance.

Like, hey, did you see that Kikuchi thing? I think that might be in the right direction. I've got a couple positives that I think you want to hit. You start with the backstops. Omar Narvaez? I always slaughtered that last name. Jim, he's having a really good year. 102 games, 17 home runs, 287 batting average, 361 OBP, 825 OPS, 122 OBS plus.

From a catcher, that's really good. And by the way, the guy he's splitting time with Tom Murphy, 51 games, he's got a 284 batting average with an 882 OPS. So the Mariners' catchers, you could focus on that a little bit. The other guy in the lineup, Jim, that you want to give a little bit. pat on the ass too. It's our guy Austin Nola. We talked about him a little bit, brothers with Aaron Nola.

He's been playing good ball, Jimmy. 29 getting his chance. He's hitting in 45 games, 131 plate appearances, not a small sample anymore. 314 batting average, 362 on base, and an 899 OPS. Good for Austin Nola. Good for

Austin Nola. You know what? I was looking at their top three pitchers this season. It's Marco Marco Gonzalez. Yeah, Marco Gonzalez, Mike Leak, and Cacucci. And- What's that? Mike's gone, but.

Oh, yeah. Well, he was good. But Marco Gonzalez, his ERA is playing tricks on you because of some Albatross starts, which is. Yeah. In 21 of his 26 outings, he's got three earned runs or less. So that's something to build off. Yeah, Jim, and he's a Colorado guy, so I like him, former first round pick.

And you're right. I think he is your kind of starting pitcher. He's got a 10. He's got 1-10, 1-6, and another 6. Outside of that, I mean, he's about as steady as they come. That's really nice. So now Seattle's got to decide in this next series they're playing the Tampa Bay Rays. Do they want to help out their division foe, the Oakland A's, and beat the Rays?

or would they rather, you know, give some games to the raise so the A's lose out. If you're an A's fan, you are a Seattle Mariners fan. So maybe you're an A's fan. You get in the elevator with the Mariners fan. You say, hey, I got a root for you. Then they go to Toronto again and then New York. Who can they? And then four games against Houston.

They can really help the Yankees out there, but I'm not putting a lot of stock in them. They got six games against Houston. So if you're a Yankees fan, you're rooting for the Mariners right now. That will be on our future mini episode. Is that enough? I saw a lot of Mariners fans calling Scott Service a pussy. I don't think so.

He's had some calls where he kind of just folds his hands and goes, Jesus Christ, you guys suck. It doesn't argue. Yeah. Which I get. Longest playoff throughout in sports. Volval back looks like Chris Farley. Make that joke.

Yeah. All right. That ends this episode, guys. I do apologize that we had to cut this a little short and skip some segments. I hope you understand that as we grow, opportunities come, and I have a really important meeting to get to

that I'm currently a little bit late to, and that is why we rushed this. So I apologize. I'll make it up to you in the future. Wish me luck. Thank you very much. Go baseball.