Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 18 | September 6th | Nats Crazy Comeback & Brothers Moran

Episode Date: September 6, 2019

The Cubs get Contreras and Zobrist back. The Phillies schedule looks bleak! Brother Moran battle it out. The AL wild-card race is gonna be fun! 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.

Today is Friday, September 6th, and we've got a lot of baseball to discuss. We had brother on brother action. We had big leads getting bigger and small leads getting smaller. Let's go. What's going on, everybody? It is talking baseball. We're back for the Friday recap. Talk about the series that were.

My name's John Boy, and I got my co-host and best friend Jake. He's in Denver. I'm in New Jersey. Let's talk some baseball. You excited, Jake? Is that new intro song? Yeah, the dude, Mike Retono, who'd made the boogie. Right.

He made me, he made us two outro songs, but I like them both so much, and I'm going to use one as an intro. There you go. How'd you like it? The intro outro song. Do you like it? Yeah. Just caught me by surprise.

Well, no, it's cool. Thanks. Yeah, I didn't realize I was going to do that until like five seconds before I did it. Boom. that's how it happens sometimes. I'm good, Jim. How are you? Doing well. It's storming here in New Jersey. And if you know me at all, I'm so excited about that.

I have a sweatshirt on, John Boy Media sweatshirt, a breakdown. Go grab yourself one. I have a sweatshirt on. It's a little breezy out. Get the hell out of my face. Summer. We're into September. Getting deeper and deeper. Every day we get deeper into September.

Let's do it. I'm ready for fall baseball. I mean, I'm so ready for playoffs that September's kind of the baseball games themselves are dragging a little bit. I'm glad there's still some races to sort out. This NL Central is kind of fun other than that. And actually the AO Wild Cards kind of getting fun as well. Yeah, I was going to say, don't get too itchy for playoff baseball because you're going to have a bad scratch for the next month or so. But no, we got some good races.

There's a lot of, we got a lot of good quirks today, Jim. I'm excited. I think you and I, when we were prepping for the show, we stumbled into a lot of the same stuff, which is a good thing because I think we're both going to have a lot of fun facts on both side of it. So I don't know. I think we just kind of bite our lip and give it hell. Football is coming back.

It's good times. This is a baseball show, Jake. Not allowed to say the word football. What's that? Not allowed to say the word football. It's a baseball show. Oh, strangely disagree. Yeah. I can't get into football until baseball's over.

I just thought about watching the game last night. And I was like, I don't care at all. You're fine. You didn't miss much. You're out of the fantasy football game, right? I was barely ever in it. Right. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No.

Answer stands. I did. I like fantasy baseball. Well, there you go. That's pretty obvious. I like baseball. Like baseball. I like football. I'll get all in and do Sundays and my dad will come over and like I'll make chili and we'll do and we'll do like that. But not until baseball's over. Okay.

That's kind of how my brain works. No baseball talk on here until end of October. Yeah, people come here for baseball talk. Well, we don't know. We don't know that. We think that. Well, these are the people sponsoring today's show. Ryan Valentine, John Valentine's nephew.

that's got to be if you have the last name Valentine around Valentine's Day I mean that's a Trump card right Yeah do you know John Valentine was my neighbor I didn't know that First Grand Slam in the league play Got his bat in the Hall of Fame

He wasn't really my neighbor His parents were He bought his parents a house in Haslett, New Jersey Right on my cul-de-sac There you go Is you your favorite player John Valentine? No Do you remember him?

Yeah. Okay, cool. Sam. I was Valentin. Yeah, it is. It is. Okay. Same spelling.

You just leave off an E. But same thing. Baseball, Valentine. I'm going to think of it. Sam Scavone. What's up, Sam? Sam supported us on Talking Yanks and Talking Baseball. And Jay can't talk about it because Skavone is a very big name.

He's not related to your boss. Okay. Greg Ludwig. Yep. The Ludwig party. Matthew Riley. Riley Matthew. Ooh, that's tough.

Riley Matthew plays football. Matthew Riley plays baseball. That's a great call. That's all over it. Yeah. Justin Couson. Couson. Kristen.

Kristen, what the hell is this? Kristen, no. Shex-Nator? Kristen, reach out to us because if you married into that name, you are a doll for taking. that if it's just your regular name, I think it's really cool. I like that X. How are you pronouncing it? That's a tough way for like midway through your life or a quarter of

your life to jump into the Schneck Snyder family. Yeah. My cousin, damn, I wish I could know the last name. My cousin married into such a tough last name. I don't know how to pronounce it. I forget what it was. Whatever. William Brown. Old Willie B, baby. Bill Brown. Blastings Thrillage. That's a Metz prospect, right? I think this person's not their real name. They're just using a fun Met's prospect name. Having fun.

Blastings Thrillage. And Chris Braza. Braza. Hey, yo. Thank you. Those are our most recent Patreon sponsors. We appreciate it. You get a chance to watch a show live right now. You get a chance to read the episode notes, if that interests you.

So you can see what we're about to say. You get a little inside access. And you get a chance to win two Jersey. each month. The August just cleared. So some people try to join Jake and then leave before the $2 actually clears.

So I have to wait it out. And people are always like, what are you going to do it when you're going? I wait it out. Can't be giving away. We're not as think as you dumb. We are, you know? Yeah. There you go. But those are our most recent Patreon sponsors. We appreciate it very much. Jake. How are you doing?

I'm good, man. I'm good. you and I both kind of had one of our kind of last off days for the season. The Yanks were off. We had a lot of busy, crazy stuff going on. We had some fun stuff in our talking Yanks world. We had a Joe's McFly, popular character in the Yankees world. So a lot of good things there. And yeah, man, it's kind of this September.

I don't know. Like, when's, I guess this is the question, Jim. Like, when can we act? actually be like, yo, the playoffs are almost here. Is it like the last week of the season? Yeah, it's really close. That's tough. Yeah.

It's far away. Because like playoff baseball is so good. But yeah, man, I'm generally well. I'm very excited for. What are you very excited for? Not having the team I root for being the wild card. And do you know who I give all my blessings to? whatever team has,

whatever fan base has a team in the wild card. Besides the Red Sox, just because I don't like you guys, and you're not going to be in the wild card anyway, so who cares? Right. Having your team, maybe this is like a conversation.

This probably goes, I don't know. Having your team in the wild card game, Yankees has done it last two years is, if you think you have a chance to win the next series, it's painfully. The anxiety is painful because you want to, to set your lineup for a real playoff series and like get a chance to lose a game and have it not kill you

but you have this fucking wall that you have to burst through first of the wild card game and you're like well if we if we win every conversation if we win the one game if we win the run game crapshoot we did it two years if we win that one game crapshoot then and it's like oh my god anything can happen in a one game crapshoot and i the wild card. I love it as a not a fan of the team in it. It's like, boom, game seven right away. This is playoff baseball. I think it's a, I think it's really good. I like it. It's a great entrance into the postseason, but when your team's in it, it's a motherfucker. Yeah, Jimmy, you and I usually try to dodge these stereotypes because we're silly guys naturally. So people are like, oh, are you drunk?

Are you high? It's like, no, we're silly. We like to have fun. I think I'm going to get hands. hammer during the A.O. Wildcard game this year. Well, if it's in the trot, you have to. I, like, couldn't do it the past couple years. Like, you get, you're so, like, nervous and on edge. Like, that would make it worse. Even the NL Wild Card game, like, that would normally be before the AOL Wild Card game. And I'd be, like, I'd be nervous that day.

It's a whole whirlwind. Good luck to all the Wild Card teams this year. And if you're a fan of one of those teams, know that it's a hellish, like, 48 hours. The Red Sox have never done it. So we have Red Sox friends because we're lived in Connecticut. And they don't really know like what hell it is. They're like, yeah, it sounds shitty. But they're not going to know this year either because they're not in it.

And if they were in it, they just don't have much hope, the fans that, the friends we have. But yeah, man, it's having every thought process say, if we win this one game, which in baseball is not. reliever could have a bad day and you could ruin your whole season. Yeah. Your best reliever could have a bad day and it could ruin your whole season. Wild card game's a nightmare. Good luck, everyone. Good luck.

Let's go on to the National League report, which is brought to you by our friends over at Roosevelt shirts. Jake, I have all of our Roosevelt shirts right here. I'll open one up for the live viewers. This one is already open. It is Major League, the movie Major League, and it's got the Indians, If you're an Indians fan, this is kind of a cool shirt.

I mean, if you're not, I still bought it for myself. I'm not an Indian Shins. But they got like really comfortable, funny conversation starting shirts. That one is Major League. Jake, you got a Major League one as well. We got a whole bunch. We're going to wear them to some events.

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They're blowing up. They're doing big things and they're kind of integrating themselves into the baseball world. So hop on, be a part of it and listen to the National League report. Yeah? Could you tell me what happened in the National League because I didn't watch a game? Well, Jake, the Mets took two out of three from the Nationals, which is really good for the Mets.

They won the series. The problem is the one loss was a seven run blowup. in the ninth inning, and that became the story. But if you zoom out, the Mets had a good week. They won two out of three. They've won four of their last six. That's good. Good for the Mets.

The Braves stopped by Canada for two nights and picked up two wins against the Blue Jays. I hate these two-game interleague play series. We've talked about this on past episodes. There was a lot this week. And with playoffs looming, I can't stand them. But the Braves, they go up there. They pick up two wins. They're on a seven-game winning streak, and they've won 15 of their last 17.

Holy shit, go the Braves. The Phillies split a four-game set with the Reds. They win the first two, then lost the next two. One for you walk-off. Not what you want to do if you're the Phillies, and you're in a race, and you have four games against a team that's not in a race. You don't want to split. You need to win that series.

They did not. St. Francis went to visit his old friend St. Louis, and Louis kicked his ass. Cardinals take three of four from the Giants. They shut them out in two games, Jake, and hold them to one run in the other. So the three games that the Cardinals won, the Giants only scored one run. Bam. The Cubs swept the Mariners in a quick two games set. But the bigger news is that they get Contreras back, who comes off the IL, and kind of made an impact right away.

and something like that can really push the Cubs, who we've been talking about, have been struggling. The Diamondbacks swept the Padres in the three-game set. The Brewers split a two-game set with the Astros. Two close games. One went into extras. Good job, the Brewers. The Dodgers swept the lowly Rockies.

Jake's Rocks are bad and getting worse, scoring 30 runs in three games, and they were not even in Colorado. Just L.A. explosion. The Nationals fall to eight games. back behind the Braves. That's not good. It's pretty damning, actually.

They also cut their wild card lead in half. They're up five games. Now they're only up two games. The Cubs gained the game on the Cardinals in the Central. They're only back two in the lost column. Brewers are seven back. And as the NO Wildcard goes, the Brewers, Cubs, brewers are in the lead, then the Cubs.

That can't be right. D-backs are three and a half games back. Phillies are four. Mets are five. Brewers are five games back. Cubs are leaving you. That's your National League report. Jimmy.

Yeah. Fantastic. Thanks, man. You got your saints involved? I know that's always big for you. A lot of people don't realize they're both saints because one's the Spanish saint and one's an English saint. But saints nonetheless.

Jim, I've got a couple of thoughts. I'll start with the main one. East Coast bias here. Dude, the Mets, the giant blown lead everyone was talking about it, bottom out of the Mets season, cancel the Mets. Our Mets buddies are saying that's it, that's all. They end up taking two out of three.

They're really close to getting the sweep. We obviously know what happened. Jim, I'm not going to say the best win of the season, but to lose that game as devastating as it was and then come back the Mets day, that's that's kind of what's different about this Mets team from past Mets teams yeah i i think they've got a lot of dudes like alonzo's a real straight shooter he's a day-to-day guy also having an incredible season todd fraser's new jersey he doesn't care yeah you got beat but that's why you play a game the next day try to get over it so i i don't know i was really happy for the Mets is that the right

statement well yeah but i think and i know i presented it my report that everyone's talking about the blown loss instead of the wins. The Mets bullpen, if you're the Mets and you go into that wild card game, they might be, some may be confident they can win a series because they're starting pitching. But I think half the fan base is saying, yeah, but like, the bullpen in the postseason is not going to be able to do a thing because they're pretty brutal. Jim, can I put you between a rock and a hard place here?

It's my favorite spot. Jimmy, I'll let me say the name of a team, and you tell me if they have a chance of making the wild card. Okay. I mean, yeah, this is rock and hard place because I don't have everything in front of me. But yeah, give me it. New York Mets, five games out. No.

Milwaukee Brewers, five games out. Yeah. No. Okay. Oh. Well, I don't know. Okay. We'll circle back to them. That was kind of the answer I wanted. Philly's four games out. Yeah. Okay. Arizona Diamondbacks. My D-backs. Three and a half games out. Yeah, I guess so. Isn't that crazy? But I don't think any of those three will. By the lay down bets. And I think the odds are in my favor that none of them will.

Yeah, I mean, that's, and that's kind of the sad part, Jim, this NL wildcard race that we were yoked for. I mean, Arizona, who we poo-poohed on a few episodes ago, they're the closest that three and a half games back right now. And I think you were right that if you had to place a bet, like if you were placing a flyer on one of those teams out of the wild card, it would be the Brewers because they've still got a lot of games, you know, in that central division. but yeah this this nl race that we were kind of gearing up for is kind of fizzled out yeah i don't i think it's cubs cubs nats if the cubs catch the cards then cards gnats who do the cubbies throw in a one in that one game wild card game i don't hot hand luster just had a good start darvish had put some together wow if they throw you out there

One of our Cubs fans reach out because Kenton has been stuck. Kyle Hendricks is having a really good year. It's probably Hendricks, right? He's got a 3-3-9 ERA. And, I mean, it is a wildcard game, so it is all hands on deck too. But, I mean, man, if the Nats can have home field and they can go like Strasbourg, Scher, Corbyn, if they really want, wow.

Damn. How come Darvish got skipped? Does he hurt? You Darvish. Let me see. Let me click on his name. Darvish missed his last outing, right, forearm tightness. He's scheduled to make his next start Saturday against the Brewers.

Yeah. It's not Hamels. It's not Cantana. It's probably Hendricks or Darvish if Darvish is healthy. But again, I'm not speaking. from a place of authority here. Yeah. Yeah, Jim, I don't know.

From the National League, I mean, the Braves win. They hold their serve. That's all they do. They're on a seven-game heater right now. Seven-game win streak from Atlanta. The Dodgers, they're on a four-game win streak. And, yeah, I think that's kind of all the stories. Well, the stories is the Cubs replenishments.

Contreras comes back. Ben Zobras comes back. This is a team that's been on again, off again, winning, and then losing. And maybe this is kind of, you know, a spark that helps. Zobras comes back, gets a hit and a walk in his first game. And then in his second game, gets three hits and two walks. And Contreras kind of the same thing. First game back, I think he had a home run to break it open,

which is just like such a shot of adrenaline. Like, hell yeah, we're finally whole somewhat. Let's do this. So I think that's kind of look out for the Cubs maybe to use this as, you know, they grew a little, they gained a little, and they're going to put it together and confidence is up and all that nonsense. And Jimmy, I just said, you know, who would the Cubs throw on the one-game wild card there? The Cubs are two and a half games back of the Nationals for what would be home field in that

wild card game, and they're two and a half games back of St. Louis, and they host the Cardinals for a four-game set. And then, so they've got seven games against the Cardinals. So Cubs and Cardinals, I think, is the new biggest story in the National League. I have a dumb question. Please. Do the Nationals throw Scherzer? I think it depends how things line up.

I wouldn't. I think what you could do is start Strasbourg and have, have Scherzer available out of the pin. Yeah, I think you can start Strasbourg and then have Scherzer Corbin as your one too. I mean, it gets really tricky though, because I mean, if you throw Strasbourg out there and he gets knocked around,

it's why didn't you start Scherzer? Yeah, but you have the luxury. How about in Jimmy, I know it's a really fun question, and I think you and I are thinking the exact same wavelength. Like, if you can have Scher to close out the last three innings of that game, I think you do it just to survive in advance. And you have him to rescue if you need him to. But Jim, you tell Max Scher he's not getting the ball in that wildcard game.

Just leave it on as a note. Text him. Max, do you read your email? Yeah. I think they would start Scher just because of how bad it looks. Like one game playoff, he didn't start the best pitcher in baseball. but if they wanted to be ballsy, they could throw Corbyn or Strasbourg

and then have Scher, Corbin slash Strasberg, in games one and two, and if that works out, you look like a genius. But if it doesn't, you look like such a putts. Yeah, I think you got to throw Scherzer, man. I do too, but it would be fun not to. It would be fun to see them try and get through the wild card game without them. And Jimmy, what we also just stumbled into there

is we had that weird intro that was all about how, nauseous the wild card game makes you, the Nats are locked in. Right now, the Cubs and Cardinals are battling. The Nats for the next month are basically brooding for the wildcard game. So everyone, if you've got a Nats fan, give them a pat on the back. That's the same place we were last year with the Yankees. It's brutal.

It's going to be an ugly month for the Nats fan. Because all you want to do, if you're a Nats fan, is talk about how good your rotation is for that first series. We can get Strasbourg, Corbyn, and Scherzer as our one, two, three, and a five-game set. Oh, wait, one of them has to pitch the wild card game. Oh, wait, we could lose the wild card game and not even get there. It's fucking nauseating. Ooh.

Anything else you're interested? The Brewers are slipping, huh? Brewers are slipping. I mean, five games out of the wild card, they'd really, I mean, I think they are now St. Louis fans, because they want to knock the Cubs off. that's their best chance. Yeah, the division's kind of had a reach for them. Milwaukee is hosting the Cubs this weekend,

so they've got this is their chance. They'd have to beat up on the Cubs and then hope St. Louis could somehow. But yeah, and that was the other, just one of weird thought that came to mind when you were doing it. Because the Brewers had another one of these weird series where it's like, damn, they went toe to toe with Houston and played two really good baseball games.

And I feel like we've said that for a little while, and a lot of weird matchups, like Milwaukee, Minnesota, they played some really good baseball games. Milwaukee Houston, like that. Milwaukee's the team that I think the National League doesn't want to get back into it if they figure out their bullpen magic and Yelich gets going and all of it. Yeah, did they face? Who'd they face? They faced Garrett Cole and Granky, too. So it was kind of two good pitchers.

Yeah, that was the battle of trade deadline. acquisitions, Jordan Liles outpitches Zach Grinky, baseball. How about that? All right. You want to move on to the American League? Let's A.L it, man. All right. Here we go.

Are we squinting? Oh, yeah. The A.L report is brought to you by Squintz Apparel. We told you about them last episode. Squints from the sandlot. They got a Wendy Peppercorn hat that I told them. It's sold out on their website. And like, I don't think I could rock that in my day-to-day life.

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He may have. But go check out the bomber jacket yourself. Squinsapparel.com or follow Squinsapparel on all social medias. Jake, can you tell me what the hell happened in the American League? Sure can, James. Your New York Yankees welcomed the Texas Rangers to Texas Rangers to Texas. First time these two teams have played this year. Wow.

Yanks lose game one on Labor Day. Who wants to work on Labor Day? Then they win the final two games. Yankees have not lost a home series since mid-April, 18-0 and 3 at home. It's insane. The race, they win their series, but unofficially lose, Jim. They took two out of three hosting the Orioles. And at this point in the season, you want that strong.

sweep against Baltimore. No offense, Orioles, but come on. The Red Sox are dealing with the repercussions of selling their souls to the devil last year. They hosted Minnesota for three games. They lose the first game by one run. They win game two. They lose the final game by one run. Game-ending play with Divers being thrown out at home plate.

Woof. Toronto lost two games to Atlanta. In the Central, you know. No, Minnesota won two out of three against Boston. Cleveland splits a four-gamer at home to the White Sox. Tough. Indians are currently out of the playoffs. Wow.

Get one hit in the final game of the series. Tough times in Cleveland right now. Kansas City defends their home turf against Detroit. No one cares. It's very much chiefs and lion season in their respective cities. In the West, you'll remember Texas lost the final two games. And they're set against New York, the Mariners got mini-swept by the Cubs. The Y'ah, Houston.

They split that two-gamer in Mila-Wa-K, like Jim mentioned. Little highlights from their George Springer, Pride of Yukon. He had an extra inning home run winner in that first game. And Jim finally, Oakland, the athletics returned to the Yeh area. They faced the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They sweep them because it's pretty much Mike Trout and a bad team for the Angels. Otani's good Or is it

Yeah Angels are baffling Red Sox are out Huh You've been You've been trying to play good cop With the Red Sox And

I mean if you don't tell me They have no chance You're a liar The steak It's like if this was a movie And like The steak was about to be driven into their chest. I think it happens this weekend. I think this is the official meltdown.

Because thinking of it, you're Boston, you're welcoming in the Yankees for four. If you could somehow dominate this series, you beat your rivals, you're just going to, you've got 17 guys in your bullpen, we're doing everything we can to drive towards the finish line. Last night was about as defeating as a loss as they come. I again, man, I don't want to say I've been fluffing them up, but it's baseball, there's a chance. I'm saying this, I think, almost being too, trying to be too not biased, because I think if this didn't happen before a Yankee series, I would be saying like, oh, they're so dead. Like, you can't lose a game like that. 17 guys in your bullpen, your team MVP this season gets thrown out at home plate to lose the game.

I think I would be hammering the table, but I think they are saying if we could somehow muster out these four against the Yanks at home. You're being such a good cop. We just said the Mets and the Brewers have no shot at the wild card and that race has solidified itself up. Those guys are five games back. The Red Sox are six and a half games back with 20 to play. They're out. I don't know. But they're the only team.

And like Cleveland's sliding. They need two teams to slide. Cleveland sliding. They need one more. Jim, I mean, I think they're 99.5% dead. But those Boston kookos, they want to start rolling. I think, like, even if the Yanks take one this weekend, like I think the dream's over.

Yeah. But they're going to pitch a different guy every inning this weekend. They're rolling out literally everything they've got trying to get these four against the Yankees, because that does mean more to them. It's a rivalry. But, I mean, no, they're as done as those NL teams that were saying, yeah, they got to be done, right?

Yeah, they're done. They're 100% out. The games in Boston coming up, if you are a baseball fan, do not watch the Yankees at Red Sox games this weekend. Oh, I've got a spin zone for that, Jim. You're wrong. Do not. I'm dreading watching them.

Pretend it's a doubleheader. It's going to be two really quick games. The Red Sox called up everyone during September call-ups. They have 21 guys in their bullpen. 21 guys in their bullpen. And they said they plan on using like, you know, all of them. Like one inning here, one out, one out, one out. They're going to be five and a half.

Bring in one of them. They're going to be five and a half. hour games. They're going to be so brutal. I'm so dreading them. Yeah. Just pretend it's two. I told, you know, my girlfriend's parents are in town and I was like, I can be in and out during these games.

Like, I'm not going to tie myself to the computer. We could get lunch for an hour and a half and it'll be an inning later. Yeah. It's going to be brutal. Other than that, the Indians are sliding. That's like the other story here, which is a bit of a bummer. It's still a really fun. wild card race.

The Indians have kind of take, no, they've taken themselves out of the Central and good for the twins. Good for the twins. They're six and a half games up. They did what they needed to do. So good job by the twins. The Indians are now in a wild card race

and the AO wildcard somehow, in my mind, is more exciting than the NL now because these three teams are good teams. In the NL, the Mets, the D&L, the Mets, the Diamondbacks, they're not like good teams. They're 500 teams that can get a shot. The Indians A's and Rays are all above 550.

And one of them is going to miss, miss out. And two of them are going to miss out of having to play a series. So that's going to be a brutal run. Yeah. And a couple teams that, I mean, this goes a little outside of baseball, Jim, but a couple teams that are, somewhat limited financially that they could benefit from hosting a couple

playoff games. These seasons are going to have a, these teams are going to have a lot of different things dictated to them. One of them straight missing the playoff, one of them only getting one wildcard game. Who knows if it's in their building? So yeah, there's some outside of baseball stuff going on there. And yeah, this is easily, unless the Cubs can catch up to St. Louis, the A.L.1, the AOL wild card is probably going to be the best story in baseball.

Yeah. And I'm really just hoping the race don't host it. That's still my biggest hope. Because then I'm going to have to get drunk as well. Well. No, I can't because then I'll be so mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, either way, you might need the volume down because it might be Vuvuzuela City in Oakland. I don't mind those. Yeah, those don't bother me at all. I know some people, like, really don't like that. Yeah, they don't. Teach their own. Yeah. I like that because it's fans cheering.

Like when they show the section and it says like, what do they call it in Oakland? The, uh, um, Blanken. There's a name for that and they give out all the instruments and they just play terrible music and I think it's hilarious. Something dreams.

Like nightmares or something like that. Nah, I can't take of it. But it cracks me up. Oakland A's fan section. Not Raiders. I know what that's called. Well, someone's listening right now,

and they know exactly what I'm talking about. This is not a football podcast. It's like bringer of nightmares or whatever. Pissing me off. I hate when I can't remember things. Piz me, right. Oh. What else you like, Jim?

I don't know. I mean, it's kind of a weird thing in baseball that, all the divisions are like locked up. Is this what happens when you have so many teams tanking that the rich just get that much richer? Yeah, I think, well, you know, Houston is obviously, I mean, a dominant, impressive team. You could say the same with the Yankees.

The one chink in the armor was supposed to be the central. The twins have outplayed their expectations. And I mean, Cleveland was with them, and then Jose Ramirez goes down. and now they are, I mean, I think if you had to, I mean, yes, they're a game back in the wild card, but without Jose Ramirez, I think Oakland and Tampa Bay are better teams right now. Yeah, Oakland, Oakland's scary. I'd love to see Oakland host the wildcard game.

Remember when they hosted it with Sunny Gray? Graydar. When was that? And then they played the Tigers afterwards. 16? I don't know. Yeah, it had to be. I mean, what was the 2014, the first wild card game?

Not good with years. Well, 16 was, yeah, I think it was. But yeah, I'm excited. I want the A's to host that. And then I want, ooh. No, I think it was 14. 14 was the first. So that was the first year then, right?

Yeah. That's cool. Oakland fans can get rowdy. Like they can bring the noise. So in Cleveland, we talk about this. Just don't put it in the first. don't put it in the trap. Don't you dare put it in the trap.

All right, Jake. Let's slide along. Do you have a slide noise? Two, are standout performances? Is that what's next? Standout performances. Bad or up, Jim. Ooh, I get to go first.

You stole the good one. I stole the good one last time. You stole the good one this time. Good job. But second. was reynaldo lopez for the chicago white socks he throws a complete game one hitter against the cleveland indians who we were just talking about sliding a little bit three walks 11 strikeouts yeah the first four innings he got into trouble a little bit the last five innings

were one two three innings but i like rinaldo lopez's story he was the second piece of the gilito trade so the nationals traded gilito and Rinaldo Lopez to the White Sox for Adam Eaton. Imagine them having Gialito in that pitching staff. Like how much does Eaton bring? I don't know how much he's a value. I just know he's kind of disliked around baseball from other players. But Renaudela Lopez is 22 years old, and I checked all of his stats, Jake.

He had only thrown nine innings before once in his entire professional career. It was in 2016 in AAA. This was his first complete game in the majors. So that's impressive. That's a standout performance of his own. And then I looked in more of this and I was like, who is the White Sox pitching coach? We talked about him earlier. But he had Geolito fixed.

Ivan Nova's doing fun stuff. I don't know if he still is. Don Cooper. Don Cooper has been the White Sox pitching coach since 2009. Two. He's one of those coaches that has outlasted every manager that comes through. He's the mainstay of the coaching staff. He's built like a house. Yeah.

I love seeing him. Yeah. Not like a pitcher at all. Yeah. Looks like a second baseman who retired. O lineman. Yeah. No football on the line.

So good job by Don Cooper. He gets Gialito and Rinaldo Lopez to work with. Lopez numbers on the whole don't look good. So I went in and looked at his game log. and tried to make pieces and see how he's been. And my stat, which is how many games did he give his team a chance to compete for the win? 18 of his 29, which is around 60%, which isn't you'd want it to be higher to brag about it. But he's not going out there and putting out a bad effort majority of the time.

So Rinaldo Lopez gets some love on talking baseball for the first time ever. Yeah, and circling up at a meeting, having a solid year for the nationals. Yeah, but how get you like, would they rather Gialito? If you're a nationals fan, would you rather have a fourth pitcher who's who's killing it? In the realm of in the realm of baseball, Gialito is a good young pitcher now, so you'd want him. But Eaton's in on all those weird celebrations and he's part of the offense and the Nats have a lot of pitching. Yeah. So, yeah.

Jim, some fun stuff here. I was going to give Reynaldo Lopez my award this week, and it was going to be the Generation Z award. Because, Jim, we live on Twitter a lot, and it's a lot of instant reaction, and I think it's part that's tough translating for baseball is that, you know, you can't have these instant reactions. You could have a terrible first half of the season. You could have an incredible second half of the season and have a good year. Baseball is a weird run. Reinaldo Lopez's start before this, Jim, 0.2 innings, six earned runs against the Braves. He didn't make it out of the first.

He didn't make it out of the first inning in his last start. He comes out his next start, nine innings, one hit, 11 strikeouts against another potential playoff team in Cleveland. That's crazy. That's nuts. And that's what, when I, when I, when I was thinking about that as an award, I was just thinking, like,

what other sports can you really see that? Like, LeBron James doesn't go out and have a four-point game, and you're like, wow, that really sucked, LeBron. Like, no, LeBron's going to get his, on his bad nights, he's going to get, like, 16 points. Yeah. I mean, it's one of the more unique things. I guess in football, you could see, like, a running back.

This isn't a football podcast. Yeah, you got to cut that out. That's out. No football here. So good for Ronaldo. Good job, Bernalto. He's young, he's 22. Reni Akes.

Who's your standout performance? Jim, my standout performance from your Los Angeles Dodgers. A guy you like a lot. Young Jock, Jock Peterson, jocke on him. Young Jock, he only played in two games, Jim, in this last series against. Colorado. It was in L.A., though. It wasn't in Cores. Otherwise, this would be suspect. You suspect. Jim, in the two games, Jock played, five for six. That's good. That's solid.

Four home runs. The other hit was a double. My guy's stat line is technically an 833 batting average with a 3.8.8.0.P.S. Obviously, extremely small sample, so you can't do that game. but that's insane. Four home runs and six at bats, eight RBIs. He mixed in a walk in there too. And Jim, I don't know. With Jock, I kind of, I hesitate around him because I'm like, I don't know. He just seems so talented.

I almost expect a little more out of him. But I dove into the numbers. And Jim, I mean, his biggest thing is he just doesn't touch lefties. Yeah, he's a straight up split. I mean, they've stopped playing him versus lefties, which is tough. And again, it kind of circles into that Dodger conversation we've had a couple times. So you're telling me it's a World Series game. There's a lefty on the bump.

You basically can't play someone who's normally one of your best players. That's brutal. But I will say this. Jack Peterson versus Ritey's has a 920 OPS, which is basically all-star level. And by the way, his at-bat before this series, was a pinch hit home run. So technically in his last seven at bats, six for seven with five home runs,

young jocke on him. How many at bat says he had versus lefties this season? I think it was something crazy small. It was like 44 plate appearances or something like that. 44 played appearances, yeah, nine hits. And I think his OPS started with what, a four? Yeah, 420. I mean, blaze it, baby, but that's so small.

That's just tough. his career his career batting average versus lefties is like 185 with a dot 5 OPS so it's I mean it's bad Jack Peterson been in the league since 2014 he came up and he was kind of like a phenom okay so that was a September call up in 14 and then 15 was phenom year I no I thought am I way behind on jock? 15 was Fian on here. Damn. I thought Jack was like a young dude.

I mean, he's 27. I didn't know he'd been getting big league at bat since 2014. I kind of knew it. I'm just, this is more of a like, goddamn time flies moment. Yeah. I mean,

Jack Peterson is in his sixth big league season, technically. I mean, one was a September call up, so fifth plus. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know why it's blowing my mind.

He still can't. He's still a platoon guy? I mean, that's the thing, Jim. And Dodger fans feel free to reach out. But I think they just pulled the plug against lefties altogether because, I mean, there's a big sample size and he just doesn't touch him. Six for seven with five home runs. I wonder if that's better than his derby appearance.

It's got to be. Ooh. Interesting. It's got to be better than one stretch. for sure, yeah. Yeah, got to be like you can probably find a worse stretch in his home run derby. Easily. That's kind of fun.

So that someone should make that video back to back. Thinking you would be the guy. I don't want to take time. Batting practice. It's not happening. You just cut up like the worst stretch of his home run derby in home run derby bat in home run in these seven pitches he had one home run. It's out there for you, kids.

All right. Good job, Jack. Good job, Reinaldo Lopez. So, would Jack Peterson take Renaldo Lopez deep? Yes. And how many chances? Five at bats. Holy shit.

Yeah. Wow, you hate Renauda Lopez. Just telling you, man. What if Ronaldo Lopez throws lefty instead of righty? Now we're talking. Okay. I don't know if he can do it, maybe. Yeah, five walks probably.

That was a good guess, Jake. No homers, though. No homers. Tromp watch. Slump watch. We had a lot of updates on Slump watch. I don't know if this is just a today only thing. Too many people on Slump Watch.

We need to make this way more limiting. Clear it. Because I was doing it today and I only added two guys because I was like, we got fucking 10 guys on here. I think that the goal was to have four. or six and three six through nine yeah this sucks but anyway Trevor bower he goes five innings pitched four earned runs versus the Phillies he gave up two home runs he gets a no decision but his team one I'm not taking him off sump watch no man that stays he's doing bad yeah I don't get it uh Ryu

Jake, another pitcher for the Dodgers, gets to face the Colorado Rockies. He goes, 4.1 innings pitched, six hits, three earned runs, four walks. He hasn't completed the fifth inning. Three games in a row now. He had never not completed the fifth inning this season, besides one start where he got taken out of the first and the second for injury reasons. So he had always completed the fifth, and now he's gotten three in a row, not completing the fifth inning.

his first three innings in this game against the Rockies were okay. They had some walks, but he held him scoreless. The fourth and fifth, he started giving up runs. He gets pulled after the heart of the lineup goes three singles in a row. It's still slumping. Can't get out of the fifth inning against the lowly Rockies. You're on Slump Watch, Ryu. And people are really starting to get nervous in Dodgerland.

And they should. And Jimmy, talk about baseball. Ryu came out of the All-Star break, and I think he toured like, seven gems like ERA under one and now he's getting roughed up it's it's a crazy sport man it is crazy um Jason Hayward I put him on here he went hitless in his two games against the Mariners that what the Cubs played yipes yeah um which took him to 0 for 26 now I believe in the next series he did get a hit but we're not talking about that one yet no so he stays And with all the newcomers,

does Hayward somehow lose out in the shuffle Or he's in there for defense anyway? It feels like, Jim, he's going to be off next week no matter what. It feels like it's decision time. Does he want to get off honorably or dishonorably? He's going to get benched. No, I don't know. He's probably defensively they need him.

Yeah, he plays a lot of games. He's important to that team. He just got a hit, so maybe he gets off. honor honor honor honor honor honorably but he's still on for right now yes so i was going through this i was like damn still got a lot of people on here now we get some people that pulled themselves up by the bootstraps said fuck your slump watch yon montcata had a really good series he goes five for 12 with two doubles and six walks 579 on base percentage yon you're off congratulations who'd they play six walks

Cleveland. Yeah, Cleveland. They scared. Yeah. Yastiel Pueig. He got it going again. Four hits in the three games. He played one double, two walks,

430 on base percentage in the series. He's off. So, golf clap. Yeah, I wasn't too worried about him. This guy is, like the next couple people on here, I don't care about him. I was researching him. I was like, holy shit, I don't care.

about these guys. Freddie Galvis played one complete game in this four game set. He started another one, got taken out, pinch hit four, and then he subbed in for defensive reasons and two others. He did get 10 at bats. He went 0 for 10 in the four games. Not good. In his last 11 games, he has a 028 batting average. So he stays on slump watch, but he's off next week either onto I don't care or you did good watch. All right, that's fair. I'm a Freddie guy, man. He could pick it at short,

and he might have 25 home runs this year. Yeah, so is my grandma. Dylan sees... That's not true. You don't know. I totally know that. You don't know. I very much know that.

I'm talking about home runs and bingo. Tell me more about bingo home runs. When you get all four, you get all four lines cross. down, cross up, or cross. She's crushing it this season. I mean, I'm happy for her. Are Googling it?

I just made that up. Well, there is something called Home Run Bingo, but it's not what you were talking about. Yeah, I made up what I was saying. So, yeah, just a lot of lies. Okay. No, go on. I just made it up.

Lying. You made up something while you were lying, yes. No lies. She's going off in Bingo. Dylan Cese. You put him on here. here last week. Dylan Seas is a rookie and he's just not good yet.

So like putting him on slump watch is a compliment to him that I don't want to give him. He's only allowed less than three earned runs twice and he goes 6.2, four and runs not he's, I'm taking him off slump watch because it's a compliment and he doesn't deserve that yet. Wow. No love for the number 21 prospect in baseball. Oh, I don't care. That means nothing. It means something.

mean something not in terms of slump watch like we've never seen him do good so how can we say he's slumping this could be who deal and cease is he had a couple good games but yeah and then Caleb smith did not pitch so he's not on there I added Chris Davis from the A's uh yeah from the A's one and he's kind of like teetering on and off slump watch all the time he keeps faking us out with a big home run and we're like that'll get him going and then nothing getting him going. He goes 0 for 0 for 12 and he just kind of always seems to find him way right

back on slump watch now. And the A's are trying to do big things and they got like imagine if he was doing what he's supposed to do how much that would help the A's in this race right now. So it's kind of rude that he's slumping at this time. Yeah and that's like a big trigger for them if they can get him going and Jim

he started getting going and then he had a kid. He went on paternity leave for three days right when he was getting hot and now he's cold again. Oh, you're blaming the kid, huh? I didn't say that, you said that. I asked if you were. I would never blame his kid.

No, I didn't blame the kid. I just, I said information, do what you want with him. Were two guys that didn't blame Chris Davis's kid then? No blame to Chris Davis's kid. Yeah, he's just, yeah. Oh, and then Jake Cave, I put him on Slump Watch Jake because I had him on Enfuego a little bit ago for the twins.

He was going off. Since he's been on Enslago, and Slego. That's a mixture. That's when you go In Fuego to Slump Watch. You go in Slego. In Fuego, since he was on Enfuego watch, he has three hits in seven games,

115 batting average. 340 OPS. So get out of here, J.K. We both have gray in her beard, so I was trying to, like, you know, be kin and nice to you and put you on Enfuego when you had a good series. And you go slap me in the face like that.

And Jimmy, if you remember the Jake Cave roller coaster on August 6th, I mean in limited time, but August 6th, he had a 198 batting average, a 612 OPS. He got real hot, Godin Fuego. He was hitting 275 with an 865 OPS. He's looking like a young promising center fielder. He's in another slump now. He's back down to 250, a 786 OPS these next couple weeks, Jake Cave. What are you going to make us believe?

man. It's crazy. Crazy. Yeah. All right. So that's the end of Slump Watch, which brings us to... Dirt nasty's on Fuego.

That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. Oh, and Fuego Watch is brought to you by House of Hoodies. Another company makes fire hoodies. They look like jerseys. These are actually really cool. So they're like hockey hoodies that look like jerseys, but they'll customize them to be any team.

any sport, any player, or I don't know of any, but they have easy ones. They have one, the throwback Detroit Tigers, Verlander one is the, for some reason, I'm like, damn, that one looks nice. I think I'm getting a Marianna Rivera Yankees one, but I go to, go to House of Hoodies, amazing MLB jersey hoodies. They also have the four other big sports. NFL is their biggest seller, but we don't talk about the NFL here. They're perfect for reping your team when it gets cold out. hint it's getting cold out

they say you can also sneak some beers underneath the hood and save some money on the concessions Jake and I don't condone that but yeah give it a shot actually I don't like Oh I condone that. Yeah I condone that I don't yeah So check them out at HO Hoodies And their website is the House of Hoodies If you use code John Boy you get 20% off your entire order

We did one breakdown Sponsoring these guys Jake and they sold like a bunch right away with our code. So they're very happy with our fan base. So I'm happy with our fan base. So thank you to the House of Hoodies. Fire Hoodies bringing you some fire players, Jake. Who do we got?

Yeah, House of Hoodies, man. They're all over my Instagram ads. And I'm like, yo, I got to get that. Are you going to get a large? Yeah. Well, I'm a large. Right. Like, for something like this,

I think I could squeeze into the medium, but kind of depends what I had for lunch. Jim, House of Hoodies, thanks. And Fuego. Jim, I've got some really fun stuff. I'm sorry. You're sorry about it? I'm just sorry.

It's just a lot of fun. Okay, let's hear. Jim, I want to start off with the throwers. You know, it's hard for them to end up in Fuego sometimes because the hitters just get so many at bats, guys. Jim, couple pitchers. Jack Flaherty has been a regular on here recently. Jim, he throws in eight innings pitched,

one hit, zero earn run. In his last nine now, last nine games started, 56.1 innings pitched, 29 hits and a 0.80 ERA. He's 23 years old, Jim. Dude, Jack Flaherty is 23 years old, and this is his third year in the league. His second year as like a full-time starting pitcher. He's not getting talked about. Soroka. we said this about the Braves not getting talked about. Now granted, I don't watch mainstream media.

Like I'd never put ESPN the channel on. I get my news from, I curate my own news basically, like just from Twitter and stuff. But I'm just not seeing these guys' names. So I'm excited that, you know, if we have other people that, that we give them their baseball info solely, like Jack Flaherty for the Cardinals, Soroka for the Braves. These pitchers are having fantastic seasons. and I'm not hearing their names being talked about as much as they should.

Jack Florida currently has a 314 ERA on the season in 28 starts. Yeah. And Jim, a lot of it has been these recent nine, because up until then he was kind of mid-fours ERA, and then he's just gone nuts. Nine starts, a 0.8 ERA. That's insane. I haven't dived into, like, if he did something different.

Like, we know for James Paxton on the Yankees, he started throwing his curveball a bunch more. I wonder if Jack Flaherty made a noticeable change, something tangible like that or not. And if you're one of our Cardinals listeners, reach out at Talking Jake, at John Boy, let us know. Jim, you keep mentioning Soroka. How about the other guy from the Braves that's known even less?

Max Freed, spelled like Fried in Atlanta. He has a very similar start. Seven innings pitch, hit zero earn run. Jim, in his last nine, the team is 9 and 0. He's 7 and 0, 50.2 innings pitch, a 3 ERA. He leads the NL and wins. Oh, wins don't matter.

They do when they're on your team, babe, because your team's winning. And Jim, by the way, he's 25. Jim, I saw, because I wanted to look up some Max Freed, because like you said, I mean, he's a name that don't know enough about. And pitch ninja actually just came out a thing with him yesterday. he's got a really nice lefty curveball, Jim, which we're a sucker for that. Yeah, big looping barrizito type curve. It's not full Zito, but I think it's kind of the revival of the curveball

because the curveball can stay on that same plane as the fastball, and then it goes away. And batters learned because the slider was so popular for a few years that just go the opposite way with that slider. They're going to shift against you anyways. So the curveball's kind of back, and Max Fried has, one of them. And Jim, here's the sick connect the dot that I think I'm going to do a video on after we're done recording. Max Fried of the Braves, Jack Flaherty of St. Louis, the two guys I just

mentioned, and Lucas Gialito of the White Sox who got mentioned earlier, they all went to the same high school. What? Yes, Jim. What high school? A Westlake in Cali? A, Harvard Westlake in Los Angeles. Is this impressive or is this some dumb high school that athletes go to? So obviously athletes come out of it. Brennan Bosch, Jack Flaherty, Max Fried. So it's those three? There's only been three other big leaguers from that high school.

So it's six all time. So I don't know if it's newer. I mean, Brennan Bosch, the other two guys I'm not familiar with, Josh Satin and Nick Turley. So I don't know if there's something fluky there Or maybe they did something new to get athletes in I saw there was one article on SI written on them But it's insane

It is I mean that's kind of cool for their coach right Like even if it is one of these like schools That can bring in whoever they want Three young MLB studs Yeah it is it's yeah it's not like a public school It's an right Yeah I'm less impressed Less impressed.

Still counts. Still pretty wild. Still cool, but yeah. It's like a private school where you pay a ton of money. So like, you know. Cool. It leads. Jim.

Yeah. All right. Next. Oh, I wanted to say Jack Flore already started throwing his, according to Dane Perry at CBS. He started throwing a slider to lefties, the off hitter, more and scrapped his curveball versus them, which helped with his splits significantly.

I like that. Thanks. Who is that? Dane Perry, I believe. Dane, Dane, Dane, Jim, for the hitters, your new favorite player. I know you looked at the stats and you got blown away. And a couple episodes, I was quote tweeting Buster Only because at the trade deadline, people didn't know what to make of this guy. Kettle Marte is having an insane year for the Diamondbacks. Do you have the stats in front of you? Jim, because I know you were right in this one and you were kind of blown away. I was looking at him. He's like, I mean, in like analytics and like result driven stats, he's like top 10 in the MLB. It's crazy.

Like 328 batting average, 9 something, 980 something OPS. It's crazy. Yeah, and they got him for Taiwan Walker, Skywalker. Wow. I haven't heard his name in a little bit. Or excuse me. He was with Taiwan Walker. for Gene Seguera, Mitch Hanager, and Zach Curtis.

Wow, D-BACs did pretty well in that trade. Kettle Marte is having a crazy year. 328, 30 homers playing shortstop, second, and center field. His war is going to end up starting with a 7. He was an all-star this year. Jim, he's one of these juice ball suspects. I'm sorry, Ketel. But before this season, his OPS career was a 7-12,

and this season it's a 9-78. So, hey, maybe you figured it out and the ball helped a little bit. You're leading the NL and hits. That counts for something. So good job, Ketel. Good job. Jim, the other hitters, I threw the Mookman on here. Mookie Betts, six for his last 13.

Three of them are home runs. He's good. Get it going, Mook. He's the only one doing stuff. Who. Yeah, so that high school is, it's really an actor. actress Hollywood Rich Hollywood High School

So I guess that makes sense But check out some of these names Jake Jason Collins MBA Right Emily Day Chanel Zoe's sister Maggie and Jake

Jelen Hall Yep There's a bunch of others John Lovitz Yes And there's some others Who's Austin Wilson Not sure

Baseball player it says So, yeah, it's a... Prospect maybe? You want... It's a money school. You want to look at nature versus nurture. Go look at some L.A. high schools and see what most people do. Nurture seems to be pretty real.

Damn. Jim, closing out in Fuego, I had a couple John Boy specials this week. Interesting. First. One of your best friends in this wide world. Tim Anderson for the White So, Jimmy. So, A, I'd lost sight of Tim Anderson because he got hurt,

and it was kind of like, damn, it was a bad injury. Tim's been playing ball for a little bit now, and Jim, he is currently your AL batting title leader because he went 12 for his last 28. I know. Like, I thought Tim Anderson was going to borderline be out for the season. He played, like, the whole month of August, and he's still raking. He's qualified?

I think he like just re-qualified, yes. What's his average on the year? He is hitting. Where's my guy, Timmy Anderson? 328. That might be wrong. Still holding 332. Damn.

Yeah. Good job, Tim. So Tim Anderson, one of your close friends. I mean, a good three weeks of baseball and Tim Anderson can be a batting champion. which is pretty insane, Jimmy, only because coming into this season, his lifetime batting average was 258. Yeah, that's interesting, man.

Libla, Libla, Tim. And Jim, final one that I had on here, Garrett Cooper, Cooper, Cooper Loop. Coop for your Miami Marlins. Jim, he had a solid series, six for 14, two homers, six RBIs. Jim, the reason that he got on the list, A, I thought I'd mention Miami for our one Miami fan that listens.

B, Jim, Garrett Cooper, you know the Yankees went out and they traded for him, what was it, a year ago, two years ago? Yeah. And he was raking at AAA. They brought him up. He kind of had a fun double swing. He felt like a little bit of a throwback player a little bit. Kind of like a righty Lyle Overbay for those at home. Jim, he got a chance to play in Miami.

He's having a really solid season. And Jim, what was fun for me, and especially with Jock Peterson before, Garrett Cooper, a righty hitter, has good reverse splits. Garrett Cooper versus Ritees is hitting 298 with a 371 on base and 833 OPS. Versus lefties, 220 with a 659 OPS. And I think it's funny, a lot of the Yankees we've seen. Yeah, I was going to say. Mike Talkman, Luke Voight, have been really good same on same.

and it looks like the Yankees try to make them good against the side they should be good against and it all kind of comes together for them. I think Garrett Cooper's in that boat. I wonder if that's a trend. Jack Peterson's not following it if it is. Come on, Jack. Tim Anderson is one game away from qualifying or a couple played appearances away. He should be able to miss one or two games the rest of the season,

but he has to get four at-bats every other game basically to qualify. But the tough break for Tim Anderson, who's a known best friend of mine, right, is I'm rooting for DJ LeMayu, so I hope he doesn't do it. That's tough. And yeah, through a couple late honorable mentions, Eloy, Real Mudo, Bo Bichette, couple good young guys, and then Schwabo and Willie, they'll, they got to keep it going through the weekend, guys. I know Willie's homered in his first two games back, but you got to run it through the weekend. and on our favorite segment on talking baseball,

who the Orioles get hot. Austin Meadows goes seven for 12 with three home runs for the raise. Tommy Fan goes seven or 15. But the Orioles get a little love, Jim. They haven't given up double-digit runs since middle of August, August 18. Yeah. And you know what else the Orioles continue to do, Jake? What's that?

What absurd. The Orioles continue to get mad, whether it's at themselves it's uh chris davis and the manager fighting blyer and the infield to coach fighting they just get mad this time it was brandon hyde who got mad about a check swing on tremancini it was pretty iffy uh the replay is kind of like well i don't know no one knows that could be either or like if anyone's like he definitely went or he definitely didn't go you're just being crazy because it's such an up in the air ruling anyway and this one was that perfect middle area we're like oh who knows um brandon hyde ran out he kicks dirt on the mound

you know old earl weaver or whatever style and they just get mad the or like i credit to them i guess for just staying so mad doing being so bad and you know instead of getting sad they hide they get mad they had been sad mad bad and sad the story of the 2019 Orioles damn tough that's a good book title we should reach out to our dude john mioli meoli he might not love that he's not an orio's fan he just covers them yeah that's such a good title it was teamwork that was a good uh what order would you put it in i would go mad sad and bad i think i'd go bad mad and sad i think bad's got to be the third because that's like the i think first well see i've got to reverse i think bad is the first thing you think of mad is the wild card and then sad is kind of like the overlaying emotion i agree so i'm going

like they're mad and sad why because they were bad oh you're crescendoing i'm i'm hitting them at the front. Rick Renterea. He got thrown out last episode. He gets thrown out again. Did you see this one? It's really funny. I did not.

Lindor, like, fouled off a ball. I really don't know. I think the ump said he didn't foul it off, but he did, or he did foul it off, but the um said he didn't. Either way, Rick Renteria yells out, you're fucking terrible to the ump.

Ump throws him out. Renteria sits in the dugout, doesn't leave the dugout, just sits there. And the um's like, Rick, you got to go, man. Go on. Rick's like, you come over here and throw me out.

And it makes the umpire walk all the way to the edge of the dugout. And when he gets there, Ren Torea's like, horrible, fucking terrible, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then leaves on his own. It's a kind of badass move. A lot of Chicago White Sox coaching staff on this episode. That's why they're here. You come to me. You want to throw me out?

Walk over here and throw me out. Imagine if the, like, to one up him, like, no, not going to walk over to you was and just was like fine you're back in the game and then who wins that match i would love if umpires could take back ejections what happened with aaron boone in toronto well he was never ejected the ump did eject him said you're gone too then didn't he say he said like if you if boon said i said something he never did the toss he never did the arm toss he did like a hand flick well you're gone too then i gotta it's got to be the over the top once the over the top's out there's no coming back from that but it was it was weird because then boon was like

i'm gone right and he was like i didn't throw i didn't run you right because he didn't do the over the arm i want to see if someone gets the over the arm i want the ump to do like the elephant trunk reverse and they can be back uh that's funny those are the only two uh you know who else got mad Lance Lynn had an interaction with the umpire who boon berated earlier in the season and the umpire was taking every ball put in play basically and just taking it out of play which is pissing lance lynn off and then woodward texas manager says like why are you doing that and the ump explains it the only ones i keep in player if they barreled and they go in the air which seemed to be what it was and uh they were talking and lanselin just yelled we got fucking plane to catch let's

go. And which is hilarious. And the um's like, what? He's like, we got a plane to catch. I was like, I can't hear you. Playing to catch. And then the ump thought he said something like we're playing here. Playing catch.

Something like that. And the ump goes, I know we're playing together. And then Lanselin responds with, no, this is our game. You're not playing. He didn't say the second part, but he did. I didn't think ump just put his mask on love lancelin i saw some people trying to because i posted the video and i saw some people trying to say like linclin doesn't even care about the game he just wants to catch the plane like his mind's already out of it and it's like no no no he had a good one liner it was

just a good one liner to let the ump know hey you're slowing down the game it's pretty good we like lancelan oh yeah i like lanslin easy guy to root for personality wise Hello? You've made the show, kid. Give them hell. I pack your bags, kid. There was too many, and moving forward, there's going to be too many debuts,

especially with the White Sox debuting 21 losers out of the pen today. So this is a very tough. Jake tried to wind it down. I know I put T.J. Zook on there. Is that you say it? Zook for the Blue Jays, because he was a first round pick. So that's big news for him.

In 2016, the Blue Jays drafted him as a first round pick after college at a Pittsburgh University, I think, something like that. Four innings pitched two earned runs versus the Braves. I didn't get the start, though. He was like the bulk guy. But pretty good first outing, not terrible, I guess. Proud of you. You threw some other. Then the other guy threw on here was Ronald Bolonis, Bolanos.

And I don't know why I did. 23 years old from Cuba. He got the start. So I think that was kind of cool versus the diamond backs. And he goes six innings pitch. tour and runs. That's a pretty good first start for the 23-year-old from Cuba. Not a bad debut from the kid. Yeah, Jim, there's a lot of names on here. The guys I throw on. We got Sean Murphy, got the call for Oakland, and he's a pretty big time catching prospect.

If he has a big couple weeks, could he, like, make their playoff roster? I don't know. That's something to watch for, though. Gavin Lux, another good friend of yours for the Dodgers, Jimmy. He was ranked the number 40 prospect in baseball. He's a middle infielder, got his first major league hit. Mom and Dad in the stands getting emotional. And he's a friend of the podcast, most importantly. So that's big.

He is? Yeah. He was in on the video where the pitcher got trucked over. What one? Goldstein was texting you The guy bunts and then he runs over the pitcher Oh Oh yeah he's not a friend of the program

He'd like to tweet Whoa You gotta You gotta dial back your limits there I think you gotta loosen up your limits He was commenting on it Having a good time Okay

Gavin looks not John Boy's friend He's my friend He doesn't follow you That's not what I ask of my friends. I asked them to be cordial. Not a friend of the program. Damn, tough break. And Jim, the final name that I'll mention,

Keen Wong, Colton's brother. So that's fun. We love brothers in baseball. And Jim, that is how you segue it into awards. Award! My first award is the biggest idiot award, Jake. Good award. We had a Battle of Morounds. What was that?

A battle of morons. Say it one more time. The Battle of the Morons. I like a lot that your brain jumped here. Go on. It was Brian Moron versus Colin Moron. It's brutal. It's brutal.

It's Moran. Okay. Okay. Okay. The real name, the real pronunciation is Moran. Two brothers faced each other. Brian, I believe, is the older. I might get that wrong.

If Brian's the older, he made his debut a lefty sidearmor, sidewinder thrower out of the pen for the Marlins. He's 30 years old. He got caught. This is sad. Brian Moran got called up to AAA at 23, Jake. Probably thinks, okay, I'm two years away from the big. Seven years later makes his MLB debut.

Faces his younger brother, who's 23. years old, the same age he was when he made AAA, and they face off in and at bat. It's pretty fun. It goes 2-0. Then breaking ball for a strike, 2-0. Gutsy pitch from older brother. Then it went 3-1. Big swing at the fastball.

Then Brian dropped a nasty curveball to get him at the knees. Strikes out his younger brothers. Second player he's ever faced in the MLB is his little brother. This was a lot of fun. the video the dad and the mom are in the crowd. Melki Cabrera is laughing like you're going to go deep. You know, home run off the brother. But a lot of the announcers are saying stuff that's just not true. They're like, oh, they probably played against each other all the time. Seven years difference when, no, when, when Brian was off. And Brian, I watched an interview and they're like, yeah, no, we like never did this.

Like they did some wiffle ball in the yard. He's like maybe with a yard when he was seven and I was 14. It's not like we've never really competed on the same level because by the time I was off to college, he was 12 years old. So it's still very cool. Do you would you say you've competed against your brother? Yeah, because when he was like 18 and I was 28, we would play wiffleball. It was very intense. They never did that because they were never playing professional baseball. They were playing professional baseball, yeah.

A bunch of losers. Yeah. So he's like they never played like baseball against. but that's kind of cool. Yeah, my glass is a little more half full on this. Yeah, it must have sucked those seven years in the minors a little bit. He was still playing baseball and he did make it to the show. That's all that counts.

First MLB strikeout is against your baby bro. There's a, it's not a last laugh, but it's a laugh. I know. I also think it's kind of like, I love the stories when like, oh shit, my first strikeout is Mike Trout. My first strikeout is Aaron Judge. My first strikeout is Cody Bellinger. And it's like, my first strikeout is my brother. It's kind of like, wow.

Oh, see, I think, oh, no, I've got a, your glass is half empty on that. My glass is half full. I mean, that's, that's amazing. Yeah, whatever. It's a cool video. I'm going to make a review of it. I got like chills and stuff because the dad was kind of crying and the stands and stuff. Between you, me and the wall, nobody else listening to this.

do you think there's any chance that baby bro threw the at bat he did wow it wasn't he threw the at bat it just wasn't an MLB at bat like the the the brother was dropping pitches he wouldn't normally throw in two oh three one counts because he was like i'm not walking him like we're not going to have a walk 3 one pitch was a ball four but he swung at it fouled it back. It was like we're not like there's going to be in a result here. So they're both swinging and pitching differently than I think they normally would.

So that's why I'm thinking it was like an exhibition at bat. I'm glad I asked. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. If it was like bases loaded big moment, it's fucking Pittsburgh versus Miami. The crowd is dead silent basically playing in a library and clearly like not a big moment. So it's very fun.

I don't want to take that. and I got chills from it. So you called them morons. Well, I was best. You said little brother, big little brother threw the at bat and it was an exhibition. That's a tough award. I don't think he's, well, throwing the bat's word, they both pitched, they both acted differently than they would in a real app bat. I had a friend in middle school whose last name was Moran and we all called her, you know, moron.

So it's tough. Bullie John boy. Yeah, well, the Morans, they're really. Moran. It's really an Irish last name. But they were so scared of the British that they were like, we got to hide our identity. So they scrapped the O and just turned.

So the O'Brien's hate Morans? I'm a little like, oh, my God. I'm not James Bryan. Like, my ancestors weren't little bitches. Proud of our Irish heritage. This has been a tough award for the Moran family. Big a idiot award goes to both Morans. Oh, my God.

Well, well, congrats on the award. Congrats. Bigot City Award. Congrats, guys. Damn, that's a tough act to follow. And Jim, I wouldn't say it's a cop-out award. But it's going to be a quick hitter. My award is the Bold Type Award, Jim. And many of you may be a fan of the TV show on Freeform and Hulu,

The Bold Type. Katie Stevens, a girl from my high school is in it. Whatever, she's a friend. Jim, the Bold Type Award, as I mentioned, I originally had my award ready for Rinaldo Lopez. I was looking for something that jumped out, and Jim, I found one thing that jumped out. Jim, the Bold Type Award goes to Michael Trowell.

Oh, wow. One of the most prestigious awards he's ever won. We have, this is a baseball podcast. It's not a football podcast. How many times do we have to tell you, Listen. Don't come here for your NFL takes. Jim, it sucks that every episode, basically we just say,

hey, the Angels lost. Mike Trout's really good, huh? Yeah. That's pretty much our Mike Trout report every episode. Jimmy, I clicked on his baseball reference page. And when you are a leader in a category for a season, they put those stats in Bolt. And it's awesome.

When you look at Barry Bonds' baseball reference, when you look at Babe Ruth's baseball reference, you see these pages that are just covered in bold font, and you're like, wow, that dude was the best. Jim, Mike Trout is currently leading in home runs, walks, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, OPS plus, hit by pitch. Ooh, intentional walks.

So, yeah, I clicked on his page. I saw all the bold. Mike Trout just needed to be mentioned. So there it is. Who do you think is the second in, like, leading the league and stuff? What's the question? Who do you think has the second most leading the league? Maybe Devers?

Devers is having a pretty crazy year. Bellinger Yellich. But you would have to look at the stats that Mike Trout doesn't lead in and then find who's good at those. Devers is leading in doubles, RBIs, and total bases. So that's three. That's probably pretty good. It's pretty good. Let's see.

Yelich is leading OBP slugging in OPS. But that's different league, right? Yeah. Yeah. Bellinger, OPS Plus, and total bases. So, yeah, I think. It's crazy. I mean, Trout.

He's the best. What about Kettle Marte? I think he's leading ANL in anything? Hits. I know he led the NL in triples last year, Jim. I'm not sure. He's leading in hits this year. Leading in hits.

Look at that. Good job. Cattel. Cattel. Next up, we're doing elevator talk. Going up. You like elevator talk? Love elevator talk.

I feel like we haven't had a good team in a while. All right. Damn. Not good by skill in baseball. Good by like fun to talk about. Here we go. You ready? Let's get one.

The Phillies? You want to do the Phillies? We didn't talk about them much on this show. They're in the race. We can do the Phil's, yeah. Why not? They got Bryce Harper. Did you hear that?

I did hear about that. You know what you can say? You can say, hey, we might not be winning the division, but the TV ratings are through the roof. Because I think they are. I think they went up a bunch because stars run everything. It's pretty nuts. You can always do the John Carlos Stan kind of. or slash reasoning if you want to have the conversation about Bryce Harper,

who's got an 869 OPS, which is still pretty good in his third highest OPS or fourth highest OPS as a big leaguer in eight years. But change of scenery is somewhat real. He stayed in the same division. So that's actually hurts this argument. But like Stanton, John Crowell, Stan said when he came from the Miami Marlins to the Yankees, like just the fact that getting from the stadium or getting from his apartment to the stadium was like new and he had to like figure out directions or figure out or get an Uber and then you know where he eat lunch and he was like I'm such a creature of habit and routine and it took me a while to find it and it sucked so if you want to use that excuse for Harper you can kind of say it if you want his season's really not that bad though in comparison to what he is Yeah, he's having a pretty decent second half.

He's been going shot for shot with Bellinger. I mean, he's going to end up with like 30 plus home runs, 100 plus RPI's. A couple good weeks, it's going to be a high 880 type OPS. And that's kind of what you expect from Bryce Harper a little bit. Jim, I think, and this is a tough one, A, what you just said about staying in a division. I mean, you see a lot of the same pitchers the same. I mean, you see half your season is against the same team and in the same ballpark. There's just such a comfort level there.

Jim, bringing it back to the Phil's, this is a little harsh, but I think you bring up in the elevator, like kind of where the Philly season went wrong. Is that too aggressive for the elevator? I mean, David Robertson kind of hurt their bullpen, but where did it actually go wrong? Do you have an answer? Yeah, so Jim, I was looking around the All-Star break. Or maybe it was, no, it wasn't the all-star break. They just had a double off day in the middle of the season.

That's odd. But Jim, they had a one-and-nine stretch. They were 38-29 on June 11th. And then they had a one-and-nine streak with a double-off day mixed in. And so they went from 38 and 29, which is a really strong record, to 39 and 38. They went from like 10 games above 500 to 500 like that. And I don't know. I can't remember what happened during that streak.

But if you're a Phillies fan, I would circle that and say, even if we played 500 ball, we'd be in the wild card right now. Yeah. Aaron Nola, they've lost his last three starts. That's tough. Nola bounced back from a slow start. He's having a solid year. It's not really his fault.

The rest of the starters, man, not there for the Phil's this year. Vargas? Come on. Zergish. Smiley, Velazquez, Eflin. Yeah, it's not really like, you don't look at that. Where's Arieta? Is he hurt?

It says Arieta. He's on the 60-day I-L. He had a 464 ERA before going there. Yeah, it looks like they just didn't have the arms because Hoskins is having a solid year. Real Mudo's having a solid year. Well, Hoskins went dead in the second half. Kingery having a solid year. Yeah, I guess Segura didn't really take things to the level they were hoping for.

But, yeah, I mean, the offense looks like it was pretty much there. I think Cory Dickerson's been a solid boost for them. But, yeah, it looks like they didn't have enough arms in the race. Bummer. What do they got left? I mean, we both, like, Philly's fans still are watching games as if they're going to catch someone, right? Right. Get some magic going.

They got the Mets in football. town tonight and then they have the Braves then they have Boston then they have the Braves again then they have Cleveland then they have the nationals fuck that holy shit Phillies I'm sorry you're not doing you're not making the wild card yikes that might might be a tough end they're 72 and 67 if they slip up they could end up closer to 500 than not Jake they got the Mets who will give him a run then they have the Braves who who won 15 of their last 17 and haven't failed a test yet.

Braves just win, yeah. Boston. I'll give them the two games against Boston, but likely they split them. Then they have the Braves again at Atlanta. Then they go, it's a long-ass road trip. Then they go at Cleveland, who's going to be fighting for that wild card spot. Then they go five versus the nationals at,

at Washington, and then they close it up with three games against Miami. that is a brutal rest of the way for the Phillies. This elevator ride has gone south tower of terror, dropped, plummeted Phillies. I'm so sorry. You have zero hope. And I apologize about it.

And that ends this episode of talking baseball. We appreciate it. We like you. Jake, any final words? Tough episode for the Phillies and the morons. we thank you leave a review buy something see ya