Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 183 | Dylan Bundy Shoves, 7-Inning Double Headers, Blue Jays Mix-Up

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

Jomboy & Jake catch you up on everything that happened on the field this week in baseball. We got our first look at 7-inning double-headers (8:00), Dylan Bundy makes Jake look like a moron (29:25), Aaron Nola carved up the Yankees (33:40), and the Blue Jays and the umpires had a mix-up (52:10) 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.

Welcome to Talking Baseball. We've got a whole slew of series to recap. Let's do it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to Talking Baseball. My name is Jimmy. Sit next to me is Jake. Behind the plate.

Let's get up. Behind the plate. We got producer BBD. We're coming you live from the Roosevelt Studios here in the Bronx. It's Friday morning. There's a lot of games. We got four game sets, two game sets. Even some three game sets, Jake.

A lot of baseball has been played. did you enjoy it? I did, Jim. I did. Baseball was back this week. We only had one team out, well, one series out with COVID stuff. The Cardinals and the Tigers were out. Knock on wood, if you're with me.

The Cardinals are supposed to play tonight. We should have a full slate of baseball. And we essentially did this whole week. Again, think about where we were last week in like mass hysteria. Baseball is getting canceled. every day. This week, the biggest stories were, I mean, Mike Trout's a dad, congratulations. That's huge. That is huge. It is huge. Life-changing event for him. Literally a life-changing event. And all Dad Trout does this is at homers. We had the Ohio Cup, as we got yelled at for calling it

the Ohio Bowl all week. Which sounds cooler. Who cares? But that was actually. That was actually some fun baseball. And yeah, man, baseball's back in a big way. It feels normal, right? It feels like we're just playing. It feels so normal. It feels like we're just middle of the season. Things are happening.

Marlins are rolling. Even the empty stadiums. I'm completely used to it. I'm just enjoying the games. drone watch. So this is your first time listening to talking baseball. Thank you for joining. These are the series recap shows.

Just to recap. All the big topics, all the big storylines. We'll be discussing those with Trev. We have some interviews coming up. We have voicemail apps. We're doing a lot, but today we're just going to let you know what happened, what you may have missed. It is impossible to follow all 30 teams.

It is impossible to watch 13 games every single night. Jake didn't watch every single game. I didn't watch every single game. We did some research. We did some studying. We looked up some stats for you, try to let you know what's going on. As always, you know more about your team than we know about your team.

We're not trying to trick you there. So call into the voicemail up. Leave a comment on YouTube. Leave a tweet. Let us know what we missed. what we got wrong and what we should know about your squad if we do not because that's what we like you bring us the knowledge it's a community here you help us we help you blah blah blah blah for the patrons that are listening live we won't have the backing music because the soundboard just

won't work right now so jake can you tell us what happened in the east oh we're doing it no patrons or anything we're bumping i don't have the list all right well we didn't appreciate you patients Those are hard to prep for. Let's do it, baby. Let's get it. Are we just going? No baseline music? So I just said, yeah.

Okay. In the East region, the New York Yankees played the Philadelphia Phillies in a weird home-and-home kind of series. The Phillies, they were one of the teams coming off COVID. They looked pretty good. Good for them. They had a tough first matchup. Garrett Cole, welcome.

Yanks won that one, 6-3. Urchella with the big home run. Brett Gardner. goes opposite field, his first career, opposite field, out of the park home run. Maybe we'll talk about that a little bit. Then we played two, a couple seven inning games. Zach Wheeler looked pretty good for Philly. Philly wins 11 to 7.

They were up 113 at some point. Yanks had a little bit of fight. Jayhap looks terrible. Second half of the double header. Aaron Nola looks great. Looks great. But the Yankees trio of Cashman Pieces out of nowhere, Voit Sockman and Urshella.

Yankees win that one, three to one in the last inning. And then Philly bounces back. They split the series 5'4. Afflin looked good. Real Muto with a big three-run, home run. Miami versus Baltimore. Miami's back. The team everyone was mad at, and guess what?

They're still hot, baby. Pablo Lopez with a really nice pitching performance. They win the first game 4-0. A little John Boy special, Servian Aguilar, with homers in that game. They come back, double-header themselves. Eliezer Hernandez, my guy, he pitches really well. Brian Anderson hits a home run, the only run in the first game of the seven-inning double-header, and then Miami comes back, and they win two to one.

They win both parts of the double-hatter, and then just bring the broomsticks, babe. Miami-8, they win 8 to 7, excuse me, over the Orioles. They went 24-inning shutout on the O's at one point this series, so Miami's out of their minds. They're a great team, apparently. Atlanta versus Toronto. Atlanta blows out the first game. A young, thick Austin Riley hits a bomb.

Dick dropping tour continues for our guy, Max Freed. Toronto bounces back Ryu with a really nice start, Jim. Toronto wins 2-1, and in the rubber match, Marcaquas with the walk-off. Tuki Toussaint out duels, Nate Pearson, and Kakas walks it off. He's back for the Braves, baby. Good series win for them. Nats and Mets, they split a couple.

Nats win with Corbin on the mound versus Mats. He's back. He has a four-hit day. Mets win the next one, three-to-one. Porcelo shoves. Rick Purcello making us look bad. We talked smack about him. He played really well.

Scher walks off in the first inning, a little hamstring. Worrisome. And then in the final two-game set, another split. Tampa wins 5-1. The return of Austin Meadows big for them. Charlie Martin bounces back. He looks good. They beat Yivaldi.

And then the socks, Martin Perez. They're freaking guy. Verdugo and Chavez go, go, Yad. 5-0. Nice. Yes. That's what's going on in these. A lot of games during the week.

A lot of, I mean, two, four game sets with double headers. That was a lot of mouth jar going to get through. The Yankees are in first place in the American League. The Marlins are in first place in the National League. And it's kind of like a little more real than when they were three and one. They're six in one now. They had four wins. They had four wins.

Four wins and zero losses. I mean, the Braves are nine and five. so as soon as it should even out. Yeah. But go Marlins go. Go Marlins go. Let's have fun with it. Again, everyone's looking for the 60 game chaos.

Maybe the Marlins can be it. We'll see. Donny Baseball is now the most winningest manager in Marlins history. Would you look at this? So the Marlins are rolling. They've got some young, decent pitching. Again, it does feel like a lot of smoke and mirrors with the lineup. But keep winning games.

Become a problem. How do you prep for the Marlins? Marlins right now. Can't. New guys every day. Can't. No idea. The nationals are losing. The Phillies have a losing record. Again, a little unfair. And the Mets are in the last place. Yeah, the Mets, they obviously had the whole Cestbitist thing happened, and they're still kind of recovering from that. The Nats, they won the first game. Shurzer gets hurt. That's scary. I don't know if we got an update on him, but they... I think we did and it wasn't that bad. I mean, it seemed not that bad. I mean, you know, hamstring injury is one that a lot of

people see. Tweeted hamstring. He said he's not concerned. Good. He knows his body better than I do, unfortunately. But the Nats, yeah, they're still getting into rhythm too because they miss some COVID stuff. And Soto's back for them. So that's pretty huge. Do you want to talk about seven-inning double-headers? Because we had two in this region. I do. We watch the Yankees. Yankees one since we're Yankees fans and like, you know, watch both ends of one. So I'm sure Marlins fans and Orioles fans can also relate. Yeah. Here's the thing.

Yeah. These are coming. Yeah. And that's why the MLB players didn't want to accept a lot of these things when they were negotiating because everything that they put, I think, is coming. I think we're going to get a runner on second base in like the 12th inning. We did a whole two episodes in that so we won't do more. all of the players and managers after these games said they loved it.

Yeah. Said it was much better. Mike Tockeman on the Yanks said, I'd love if every Sunday was two seven-inning double-headers and every Monday was an off day. That would be a much better schedule for baseball players than playing every single day. I didn't like it as a fan.

I have been trained to think things will go nine innings. Seven innings feel so short. Because at the fifth inning mark, in a nine-in-game, you're halfway there, the starter's still in. You still got four innings, three innings a bullpen to go through. And a seven-in-game, you're at the end. Like, you get to the bottom five. You're like, fuck, we've got to get going. We've got to get going.

So, I mean, that's a mindset thing. But I didn't like them. I've been trained my whole life not to like them. So I don't see why I have where these players have been trained their whole life to play seven-inning double-hatters. That's what they do in the minor leagues. That's what they do in college and high school. and stuff. So, I don't know. Do you have any thoughts on it? It's less time at the office for them. I mean, you kind of have to think of it that way.

I didn't love it. I told you this, you know, I almost didn't prep myself because I was like two seven inning games. That's just like one game. Oh, that's like one really long baseball game. So I was kind of getting wonky a little bit. I think the bigger problem for me is just the state of baseball right now is that every team is going to bullpen these. the Orioles and the Marlins did too looking at the box score. So with seven innings, you're right. I mean, every team, you know, has a back end of their bullpen.

They've got high-leverage guys. That's, you know, it's a cornerstone of building a team at this point. And every team has throwers that they don't want to let through a lineup twice. So, you know, you do that in a seven-inning game. You got two guys and then you're to your good bullpen. So, yeah, it doesn't feel right. I'm very much fine with it for this year. You're probably right.

It comes down the line. I don't know how soon. Could it be soon? Yeah. I could also see it not because it doesn't feel right. That doesn't necessarily always move decisions, though. So we'll see. Don't love it.

Fine with it for this year. Definitely fine with it for this year. Yeah. Yeah, okay. You want to just move on to the Central? It's kind of everything we got going on. We'll talk about some awards and some stuff. Central's hot right now.

Purcellus shoves. How about that? I'll kick it to you midway if you don't mind. Yeah, let's go. One, two, three. There it is. That's what I was looking for. The Cubbies versus the Royals.

Royals. Cubs dominated. I'll stop that. Cubs win the first game, 2-0. Your guy, Alec Mills, Jim. Having a great season. Alec Mills train. Watch out.

Hendrix. He looks good in the second game. Cubs win 5-4. Kimbril. Oh boy, Cubby fans. How's that working out for you? The third game, Ho-Darvish. My guy, you, he looked nasty. Big time, nasty. They win 6-1. Kansas City gets their revenge at the end.

13-2 blowout win. Chatwood blows it for the Cubs starting pitcher. Pitching that has looked really good. And then the White Sox versus Milwaukee. The White Sox take the first two games, Milwaukee, coming out of COVID times. Abraeu and Moncada have homers in the first game. Gialito versus Woodruff in game two. That's a sneaky fun pitch and matchup right there. Gamal and Eloy Jimenez both hit two-run homers.

Abrae who gets the game winning RBI in that one? White Sox, you're going to put the pedal down? I think they won seven straight up to that point. No, Milwaukee fights back. Adrian Houser versus Keikle, a one-nothing game. Uh-uh, Miss Sogard? Eric So-Gard, the only RBI in that game, 1-0-0 Milwaukee.

And then they come back. They take the fourth game. 8-3. Lin-Bloom looks solid. Yelly with a fun inside the park, home run. And Jerko! Yabo! What else in the Central, Jimmer Ferdat?

Got the Twins against the Pirates. This game, this series kind of had everything. The Twins took three games of the four. This series, Jake, had a drone delay. Never seen before. We had a debut of a starter, getting his first Major League start. We had a nice pitching duel in Dobnack. And who did he go against?

Our dude, Tyler Williams. Trevor. Trevor. We're a Trevor pod. My bad, Trevor. We're a nice pitching duel. We had a co-tuck bomb. Another friend of the program.

We had a walk-off. Pittsburgh avoids the suite by walking off the last game, which had a bunch of home runs. A lot of the other games didn't have home runs. I went to see how many home runs during the series. I thought it was going to be a lot. The other ones didn't. So twins win three of the four.

They are the first team in the American League to get the 10 wins. Cubs are the first team in the National League. 10 wins. The Central is providing some talent. And then the Ohio Cup, the much talked about Ohio Cup, it was a fun pitching matchup. Red starters went 21.1 innings pitched and only gave up five earned runs. The Indian starters also only gave up five earned runs, but they combined for 26.1 innings pitch. That's five more innings. So the Indians starting pitchers outlast them. The Indians team wins three since he won the first one. Indians win the next three. Lorenzen blew another one.

for the Reds, so him and Kimbril are just having zero fun whenever they take the bump. Ramirez got hot for the Indians. He popped some home runs. Cleveland, still coming for the twins. They're eight and six now. White Sox seven and six in the National League in the Central. It's all cubbies. Yes, sir.

Jim, let's start with the Ohio Bowl Cup. Yeah. Because that was a lot of fun. and I'll give myself one ad this show, Wake and Jake, which I've been doing in the morning, just hit the podcast apps today if you like sports, check it out. I went in surprisingly hard on Cincinnati because, dude, this is Cincinnati.

They won the first game. Sonny Gray is still doing special stuff, and then you come back and you lose the final three. You get a couple good pitching performances. And I just think it comes back to this start of the season where we said we need to see it to believe it. Since he had the most talent in the NL Central, and we had to see it, and right now we're not.

Like every series for Cincinnati feels like it's gone this way. They get the nice performances, but they don't get Ws. Meanwhile, the Cubs are running away early. Yeah, I mean, Lorenzen and Kimbril are doing the same thing, but Kimbril's not hurting his team as much as Lorenzen is. He got into the 13-2 game, by the way. Who did? Um, Kimbrel.

Oh, good. To get him some work. Gave up a run. Yeah, he's giving up a run in every single outing. Yeah. Lorenzen has one outing where he hasn't given up an earned run. Yeah. But, I mean, it's bad either way.

Yes. So, let's see. I'm trying to see this. Lorenzen has come in, they've been ahead. He gave up the lead. He came in a tie game, gave it up. He came in down three. He exited down five.

He came in a, ahead one, exited ahead one. That's his only good time. So Lorenzen for the Cubs is blowing it. The starting pitching's been good. I think there was another one in the last game. You'd go like eight earned runs. Who's that?

Oh, a reliever? Yeah. I think it was Leone or something? Yeah. De De De DeLione or Ponce de Leon, some like that. And yeah, dude, again, the names you normally think of, Tyler, Molly, Maley, we're not sure how we say it. We're not sure how we say any name.

He had an awesome start for them. So, I mean, they're getting really nice starting pitching, but the offense has to do a little more. And, like, Cincinnati never scored. Jose de Leon. Cincinnati never scored more than three runs this series, which, hey, but Cleveland can pitch. This game, Cleveland can pitch.

This series was, besides the last game, it was like timely hits. Like Votto hit a timely home run. I forget who it was in game two. Fran Mill got a timely home run. You know, it was all, it was like almost, I didn't watch the games, but the way the box score reads, good starting pitching, timely hits. The first three games read like playoff baseball.

Yeah, they read, I don't know, and watch them, but the boxer reads like playoff baseball. Good pitching, timely hitting, so. Yeah, man. Just saying, like, you know, it's, yes, is it still early in the season? Sure, but it's a short season, and you got to start winning. Well, who the Reds go to next? Sense a... Cincinnati, not sure.

The Brewers. So that's a kind of a fun matchup because both of those teams have five wins right now. And the Brewers missed, what, a series? Yeah, Brewers are three games back. Yeah. So, yeah, no, there's a, this is going to be a great weekend for baseball, not to get too ahead of ourselves, but I think Oakland, Houston are lining up. So that's a good one.

There's always good matchups in the Central Yankees' rays. Going to be a good weekend. Nice. All right, you're ready for the West? James. I live in New York now. Yep. Used to live in Denver.

Yeah. We're in my purple. I love baseball shirt. Yep. John Boy Media Store. You got an Isle of Baseball shirt on? Yep. I used to watch a lot of these games.

Yep. Only caught a little bit, so if you could catch me up, it would be great. Yeah, I'll keep you up. I'll start in Denver. Your Rockies keep rolling. They win three out of four against the Giants. Aronado hit three bombs in this series. Charlie Blackman stays hot.

He had 19 hits. He has 19 hits in his last 10 games. And more importantly, the Rockies pitching is getting the job done, Jake. I looked it up. I wanted to see if they were doing outstanding. They're kind of not. Like, as a whole, bullpen. starting, but they're getting the job done.

They take three out of four. They stay incredibly hot. Giants, they win one game, and kind of that's good for the Giants. Don't get swept. Dodgers and Padres matched up for a three game set. The Dodgers took two of three from the Padres, despite Tatisse Jr. Stealing all the headlines and the whole show. And Dodgers fans, I don't know.

I talk to some Dodgers fans, and Jansson gets touched up a little bit. Gratigal gets touched up. They lose the Bueller game, so it's a little bit like, okay, we took two of three, but I think coming off the last two seasons, I don't know if Dodgers feel as dominant as they did last year, but they are, and they're going to be fine. They took two out of three. Close game at the end there.

What else was this? Dustin May versus Lament was a really good pitching matchup. Dustin May is becoming one of the more fun people to watch it, as Tatis Jr. is probably the most fun player to watch. She hit an absolute bomb of a home run. The Astros and the Diamondbacks, they met up, and despite Bumgarner and Robbie Ray getting awful, I'm saying awful results. The Diamond Macs won the series.

They had a nine run inning in game two off of McCullors and then a walkoff in game three. Cole Calhoun put two balls right into that right field corner off the fence. One ricocheted for, was it inside the park home run? Or was it a triple? I forget. The other one was a walk off. The Marte Boys combined for 11 hits. Cole and Peralta combined for nine RBIs.

Top of the order. The top three there, Marte, Marte, and Cole are getting it done in Arizona. Rangers and the A squared off. The A swept the Rangers. The Rangers are looking a bit like a wild disappointment. Lazzardo outdoled Lance Lynn. Although Lazzardo had a nice outing, Lazzardo just made his debut as a starter and did well. Piscotti hits a walk-off bomb in game one.

Olson hits three home runs in the last two games. Rangers look bad. A's look good. On to the Angels and the Mariners. Trout goes up to Seattle after becoming a father and does what he does to Seattle. And just we all get to say it's Dad Trout. But no, this is what Trout does whenever he goes to Seattle. It's incredible.

He homers three times. The Angels homered nine times in these three games. It wasn't just Trout. They just dominated Mariner's pitching. And Haney and Bundy combined for 14.2 innings pitched with two run runs, two starters that Jake and I did not necessarily believe in. Jake 100% didn't believe in. And they are bringing it for Anaheim.

Shout out to brother-in-law Brett. He was very mad at us for acting like those guys wouldn't be good. They've been very good so far. And that is what happened in the West. Standings-wise, the Rockies and the Dodgers now both have nine wins. And the Padres are still of a winning record despite losing two. In the National League, in the American League, the athletics are nine and four. The Astros go back.

to 500, 6 and 6, and 6, and the Angels come for them. They're 5 and 8. So, you know, A's are running away. The series against the Astros coming up, A's Astros, that's who they're playing. Is it three-game set? Four-game set? It's got to be three-game set, right? I'm assuming three-game set.

They've been doing these weird four-game weekend. Yeah, they could have a sneaky into Monday, but I don't think so. I know Fires isn't pitching. That was the storyline. Yeah, it's a three-game set. It's a three-game set. So, I mean, if Houston sweeps, They'll be up there where there'll be 9 and 6

and the athletics. Houston sweeps, whoa. That's the wildest outcome. You're athletic A's fans. I don't think Houston's going to sweep, but if they did. In Oakland. All I'm saying is Houston can take over first place. If Oakland sweeps.

They'll stay in first place. Houston will drop down. Yes. But they're within reach. That's going to be some of the fun baseball. That game starts at 9 o'clock tonight and then a couple afternoon games. That should be fun. No fire.

But again, the Oakland, the most unheard about spurned team from the whole Houston thing is them. A's keep rolling, man. And again, I said watch out for their infields that I've been calling the best in the league. Had them been doing much. Matt Olson's getting hot. I think you'll hear about him in a little bit. My rocks are rolling. My rocks are rolling.

That's a fun statement. That's what I wrote. My rocks are rolling. Let me see the rocky schedule. Who do they got coming up? They take care of business with the Giants, and they're going to Seattle. And like you said, with the pitching, you know, they were lights out to start the year, and then they went back to course field.

So when you say, you know, they're just being average, you know, I think for being at course field, they're still being above average. And yeah, man, the schedule lines up good for them. They got Mariners, Diamondbacks, Rangers. So stay hot Rockies, get as many wins as you can, because I do think there's a little bit of Cinderella Magic on. on right now. Diamondbacks bought a little stock in our Trevor Plouf voicemail episode.

Oh yeah, we did buy stock. We'll see. Just a little bit. It's, you know, high risk, high reward. I wanted to do a whole combo on Bumgarner. Okay. But I forgot. Don't buy Bumgarner stock.

Don't buy Mad Bumstock. He was getting his revenge, and he hit three Astros. Did you see the tweet about like his Velo? Mm-mm. Not good? It's like, man, I think I, maybe I screenshot it. Okay. Sometimes when I see tweets with info,

sometimes I DM it to myself, sometimes I screenshot it. Don't be surprised, though, and this isn't my tooting my own horn. Because the debacks could still, you know, stay at the bottom for a little while. But they had a huge inning. They had a nine-run inning against Houston, and then they had a walk-off win. So those are things that spark a team. Yeah, but it's not sustainable to have Bumgarner and Robbie Ray go give six earned runs. No.

Bumgarner averaged 88.1 miles per hour on a lot. is forcing fastball tonight. That's his third lowest average forcing fasto in a game in his career. The two outings with lower, his two prior starts this season. Before 2020, so he's getting better.

Before 2020, his lowest was 88.7 in September of 2009. So he has, so he needs to, I think he needs to officially reinvent himself. I think he's been reinventing himself. Well, I don't know. That's, I'm not as worried.

about Madbumb. It's not good. It's not what you want. But, you know, he hasn't been pumping gas for a little while now. That's not even close to gas. No, exactly. So yeah, we'll see with that. Padres Dodgers was a lot of fun. They started off Bueller Paddock. The Dodgers, this was their chance to kind of swing up at Big Brother, and they ended up getting Big Brothered a little bit. They were in these games. They end up knocking the wins. The one game ends with a Chris Taylor throwing out the guy at the plate grisham i believe um that's the ultimate big brother flex like yeah good game see you tomorrow over so i think you're if you're the dodgers i think you're all right i'd like to hear a little bit more from their community i mean i think belly still hasn't gotten it going

you know you've got new weapons in the pen that you're figuring out graderol trying and so you're still i think you're still excited because you're right there's a couple things that aren't clicking on all cylinders but you're still nine and four yeah Well, we'll see. The Dodgers will be fine. They're just, you know, I think whenever Jansen, I mean, he got a double play ball to help him get close it out. He had like a walk single single, so one out, two on or something like that, and one run away. They made, I think a lot of Dodgers fans are just, they might be rooting for Jansen to be as bad as possible so he loses the closer jigs.

There's a theory. There's a theory. Yeah, I like that one. Angels win game. games, dude. Win games. Games did. Where the Angels play next?

Angel's schedule. Let's see. Hey, BPD. Angels, oh, they're going to Texas, okay? So, they're going to Texas, which, you know, right now Texas is the whipping boy. It's in Texas, and again, you know, Angels end up winning that series in Seattle. I got nervous when they lost the second game where Trout hit two homers. I'm overrooting for the Rangers.

Like at this point, I'd rather the Angels go sweep them and put themselves in contention than have the Rangers win a game. Just for the fun of the standards. I'm fine with it too. We'll see. This will kind of be a test for the Angels. This is a series that probably in the past couple years they would lose. Yeah.

Well, who's pitching? They had Haney and Bundy go, and those are their studs. They're aces. They don't have Otani going. Bad news if you haven't heard. Otani ain't pitched anymore. But he hit Homer. For this season.

Moving forward, they don't, I don't know. But for this year. Yeah. It was referencing this year. All right. Let's move on to standout performance. Standout performance. Our standout performances today are brought to you by Draft Kings.

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There was only one option for me. There really was. It was very hard for me to find a second. There was only one option for me. It was Dylan Bundy. Yeah. Nine innings pitched. Ten strikeouts, complete game.

He looks incredible. He's leading the major leagues in innings pitch, batters faced. He's chewing up innings. He looks fantastic. His slider looks great. And I'm happy for him, man. You know, I want the people to send the poop at me. I'm open to it. Bring me the poop.

He looks great. And, you know, I went on my Dylan Bundy kick. I, you know, his numbers were terrible in Baltimore. And, you know, I was kind of ripping him. I had no idea why the angels traded bodies for him because I don't think they needed to. And then after that, I started having conversations with people, some people inside the game and some of our, you know,

internet friends that are now in the big pitchers community. to get the story on Dylan. Like what, you know, what should I actually be saying besides this guy stunk? And it's that his slider still raids pretty good and that he just needs to throw it more and change his pitch mix. Yeah, sure. Sign me up. So then I made my official stance, hey, Dylan, either be good, help Mike Trout and help him win a playoff game,

or be terrible. And guess what? He's chosen the latter. or the former, the former, I believe. So he looks great. He's one of the best pitchers going in baseball right now. Again, a lot of the numbers coming out, comparing him to old Dylan Bundy, are funny. But as BPD pointed out to me this morning, Dylan Bunny's still pretty young.

I mean, he came up early. He's still got a little bit of juice. He can change his whole career round. It's one of the beauties of baseball. And it looks like he's doing it, man. Does. I mean, his sinker, I'm trying to look at his pitch mix Because it doesn't really say he upped his slider.

But they don't have 2020 on here for him yet, which is interesting. But it looks like his last year, it looked like he upped his change up a bunch. Very interesting. I'm pretty sure the slider has ticked up, which. Yeah, he's throwing the slider almost the same amount of times he's thrown the fastball in 2020. Yeah, and I guess a lot of the pitching experts were asking for that. As BVD just told the chat, it's one month older than Luis Castillo,

someone you picture as a young, new ace to a degree for the Reds. Yeah, I didn't know Castillo was... Was he 27? 27 years old. I mean, Bundy came up. I think he was 22 or something. So we've seen him for a while. And like you said, I mean, hey, he was on the Orioles.

They stunk for a lot of it. People think of Castillo is young. He's been around for the same amount of time as Bundy. He's young. Young Ace. You know, a lot of Yankee trade rumors. People were excited about him. Get a lot of years.

So, yeah, man, Dylan, good for you, dude. You're absolutely shoving right now. I will drink my own tears or whatever I'm supposed to do. He looks phenomenal. Go, Dylan, go. I had a question for you. Yes. How many active Dylans do you think are in the major leagues right now?

Ooh, active Dylan. I'd guess like three. Is Dylan Covey a guy? Is that a name? Dylan Covey is one of them, yes. Okay. There's five. Dylan Bundy.

Dylan, we've got to have some Dillans in the field. There's a, Dylan on the Mariners. Dylan. Is there another C? I've got a C last name in my head. Yep, White Sox. Cease. Dylan Cise.

Big prospect. More. Bill and Moore, okay. Dylan Floro on the Dodgers. Yeah. Oh, Florio. You might be thinking about Dylan cousins, but he's not playing right now, it doesn't say. Cool.

A lot of Dylans. Yeah, absolutely. A lot of Dylans. My standout performance, Jake, and I was searching. I had one guy, but I changed him to later, and then it kind of hit me in the face and it's Aranola. Yeah. He pitched six innings against the Yankees. The Yankees team that had been hitting like crazy, and he's been in quarantine.

He pitched six innings. He got 12 strikeouts, and I watched this game, and he just carved up the yanks. His curveball is really, really, really, really, really fun to watch. He only gave up three hits. The one hit was a bomb home run DeVoyt, who probably sat curveball, got the curveball, and smashed it. But no, 12Ks in six innings. I don't know if he was on a pitch limit. They definitely, if you, he had to be on a pitch limit.

Otherwise, he should have pitched the seventh inning and went for the complete game. would have been an easy win for the Phillies. They went to Tommy Hunter. He blew the game for Nola, but Aaron Nola's performance was pretty good. We got treated to that. In a way, as Yankee fans, we watched that game. And he was special, man. That curveball was special.

They had one kind of viral thing that was going around baseball, Twitter. They had the behind-the-catcher camera shot of his curveball, and it was straight over the top, as tight as it could be, and just dropped out of the picture. Yeah, man, he was doing it old school or slash, you know, when you see Verlander, the guys do it, and they, you know, they mainly go fastball curve one time through the rotation. Then they go fastball change, and then they mix them both in there.

He looked awesome, happy for Philly fans. That was my first time getting to watch him, and it just, it goes back into both of our speeches that's like, showcase these guys. Like, you know, we do a baseball podcast. There's so much baseball out there. You know, I haven't been able to buy. Buckle in for a full Aaron Nola start.

Now that I've seen him, if I see he's pitching, I'm probably going to flip over to that game. Yeah. So get these guys in front of people because they're talented, talented dudes. Do you want them to trade with the Mariners who are trade fiends for his brother? Though his brother can catch him and you have the brother battery. I know you do. I got into this rabbit hole.

Yeah, I tweeted out that I wanted them to. I got into the rabbit hole. I forget, but there was a, I was trying to see if it's ever happened. And there was two brothers, I think Mort Cooper and Walker Cooper, who were a battery together and like, they were in the All-Star game. They're in the World Series together. They like did really good things.

Like that's pretty cool. Imagine that? Yeah. Like there's literally the same thing you did when you were eight years old in your backyard, but now you're doing it in the World Series. For them, like, they just shrug and be like, there's what we always done. What do you mean?

Of course. Baseball. Pretty nice life. Yeah. The Cooper Bros. Someone do a documentary on them. Do it. Ken Burns.

Whoever's listening. Cooper Bros. Documentary. I'm Googling it. And results, results, results. No, there's a Cooper Brothers Canadian rock band that has a documentary on them. Not interested. Check that out, too.

If you want. If you want, you don't have to. Explore the space. Dylan Bundy with a standout performance. Yeah, man. He was. he was the best pitching performance. I would have lost a lot of bets.

I, you know, I like trying to get the hitters featured because it's tough. You know, a pitcher has a good performance. They jump out a little more, but it was Bundy, man. And literally good for him. Yeah. Someone asked how many errands there are? A lot. A lot.

A lot. I would guess around 10. I'm trying to find active ones. It looks like 26. Hicks. Active? Shit. Judge Hicks,

Nola, Loop, Fagley, Bummer, Savale, Whitefield, Wade, Lopes,

Gonzalez, and I'm just gonna stop. A lot of errands. A lot of errands. How about that? That's wild. A lot of errands. Good for them.

Yes. Next up, we've got Enfuego. They're nasty. Enfuego. That means on fire, baby like wake oh who you got jake i've got one of my all-time hot boys on here and i'm happy to get him on here i put matt olson uh he got it going in a big way uh over the past four games three homers

five rbi six walks so he's seen six walks in one strikeout if matt olson's doing something like that you know he's seeing the ball really well that's a one dot six three ops uh love matt Olson, and he's got a little bit of a lip tickler coming in, Jim. Don't know if you saw that, but the mustache is coming out. And I threw Dad Trout on here. He deserves it. I mean, he comes back. He does this against the Mariners a lot, but two homer game, one homer game.

You know, Mike Trout could be on here a lot, but let's not overlook him just because of that. Let's not do that. You know what I'm saying? I got a twin that needs to be on here. Okay. And he's a real fun guy to root for because he's old, and he just hits home runs. Nelson Cruz Nelson Cruz has a hit in his last seven games

In this four game set against Pitt He just went off He opened up the series with back-to-back three hit games He had eight hits in the four games A 500 on base percentage He didn't have any extra base hits Jake Yeah, that's what's funny for me So that's really weird about Cruz

But he's just proven, okay, I don't need to do that Yeah I'm good with that I have six doubles or six extra base hits the season. I'll just beat you small ball why. Maybe they changed the way they're pitching. So, I mean, he's just still on fire. And then the other guy I got on here is Carlos Correa. Yeah. Over in Houston, 615 on base percentage this week. 545 batting average, six hits, one double, one home run, two walks, intentional walk. I think he's been hot all year for them too,

right? Yeah. He's, he's had it going for them. Bregman and Altova are trying to start to click. But yeah, Corre is having a nice year. 471 on base percentage so far. Who else you got? Jim, the, I mean, like, Bieber could live on here. It's almost getting boring how good he is. I thought about giving Herman Mercquez,

but I had something fun, Jim, because there's three names that jumped out that kind of belonged here. Adrian Houser probably should have got some love. But Jim, the Cubbies, your Alec Mills, Kyle Hendricks, soft tossing it. And then, dude, I'm fully on the U-Train.

I watched him. He was pumping 97. I forgot that he could get up there. He's featuring a cutter. He throws some wiffle ball stuff. And I think if everyone's got their A-game for the Cubbies, Darvish is the last guy you want to see. Think so?

I do. I do. I think even if Hendricks is right, like he's going to torment you, but you feel like you have a chance. when Darvish has his A plus stuff, he's got you beat. So I'm watching out for him with the Cubbies. He was a big free agent signing that never really panned out. And he's another guy that we're talking about the Houston-Oklund series this weekend.

You know, what would we think or be saying about you, Darvish, if he didn't get some funny business from Houston in that World Series series. So did Darvish do drive-line or anything? his fastball right now in 2020 is averaging a higher miles per hour than it has ever averaged in his career pump it babe he's sitting his average fastball in 2020 is 95.4 miles per hour he's never averaged 95 I mean it's not crazy jump right but you're looking at 94.1 94.1 again the year before that 94.3 you just just he bumped up a tick Which you wouldn't expect?

Maybe it's, yeah, I mean, age 33 season, you don't see that a lot. Maybe he's fresh, maybe he's healthy. I know he's had some problems there. Maybe he's got some drive-line stuff going on. But yeah, man, I mean, that's what when I looked into you the other day because he had a good start, I watched his highlights because I was like, what you Darvish and am I getting here? And then I saw 97 on the gun. I was like, oh, we're doing this, huh?

Yeah. So yeah, how about the Cubbies, man? They're pitching and winning. What's their schedule look like? Because I know they've been beating some teams they're supposed to. And Chatwood, you could have been on the list, but you blew it. He blew the whole string of great starts by the Cubs. Piss me off.

We were getting to seven. He would have been eight. Interesting. Cubs are playing the Cardinals who didn't play because of COVID, so we'll see if they're rusty at all or if, you know, the Cubs can stay good. But, yeah, they're starting to get into it. They're going Cardinals.

Indians, brewers, cards, white socks, and then tigers. So they've got some very serious series. We're going to find out a lot more about the Cubbies in the coming weeks. I'm excited to find out about them.

I am too because they've been playing well, but. Let's do the race to 20. We are getting, we are getting 20 home runs so easily. What fools. I mean so. I'm Trevor. Pluth, I've got to hit the under.

Yeah. How's my facial hair look today? I mean, how many guys do we have on pace for it? 50? 000. It's honestly like 50 at this point. A lot. Which on pace is, you know, tricky.

Right. But it's 162. It's a smaller pace. Yeah. Castiano jumps up. He's got six home runs. Moran didn't get any this week, so he's staying at five. I can see him sliding on the line, like, wow. Oh.

Aaron Judge. He hits another one. So he's at seven. He is leading the race. The Roosevelt's RSVLTS race to 20. Who's going to hit 20 home runs first, I guess, is the race? Yeah, sure. Someone's going to hit more.

Someone's going to hit more. Trevor's story, he gets into it. He's got five. He hadn't been this high on the leaderboard yet. So the leaderboard is Aaron Judge. Castiano's Colin Moran. Trevor's story. Trent Grisham has four.

Teoscar has four. There's a lot of guys with four. There's 13 guys with four home runs. And I think we're starting again. Every week we're going to see the sorting hat kick in a little more in the gear. Judge Castellanos looks great. It's two a week, right? Like the pace would be two a week?

60 games. A little less, right? Ten weeks, I just did 10 weeks season. 10 weeks times two. Something like that. So say it's two a week. We just finished week two? Two, three?

We're about to finish week. A second full week. It started on a Thursday, Friday. Tough to say. We're not a math pod. We've never been a math pod. I'm going to do this. We're two and a half weeks of the season,

so anyone with three home runs or more is on pace, and that's a lot of people. 12 times seven. That's 55 people on pace. So, yeah, I mean, Judge is on a pace to get there in 36 games right now. He's leading the league. Yeah, man. And what I'm liking is, like, I think,

the big names are going to continue to sneak up. Judge. I think Cassiano's is kind of finding it even a little more later in his career, and now he's on Sincey, and he can DH a lot. I think Cassiano's has a legit chance. Trevor Story, some of his home run numbers are spooky. Spooky. Kepler, like, he's getting involved. The young names, Matt Olson.

Tatis has four. Trout with four there. So, yeah, man, there's some real names. And you know what, kudos to the guys who are doing it. Like Colin Moran, we're doubting you a little bit. Prove us wrong, man. Trent Grisham, redemption year after the bobble in the wild card game he's got four. So a lot of good young talent.

Keep hitting yabos. Nolan's getting hot. He's at three right now. So, yeah, I mean, I think anyone at three would count right now. So, yeah, that's what I just said. So 53. And there's a good amount. So.

54, guys. It'll filter, but, yeah, someone's. We're going to get a few with 20. You think we're going to get 25? I would say no. So the rest days and stuff. Yeah, you see. We're getting 20, though.

That's nice. We're getting 20. All right, let's get sad. Slump watch. Slump watch. Yelich was on Slump watch hard. Did there run a stump watch? He's off, home run inside the park.

Double. Six walks, which is really good. Love that. Kevin Bizio, friend of the program. He stays, Jake? I have him staying two for 15. I don't think I saw a walk either, and that's kind of his game. I need a little more from him. I'm sorry, two for 15. And this was, he's a friend of the pod. I said before the season, you know, if any rookie walks that much, if I'm a starting pitcher, I'm like, let's see you hit me, kid. So he's got to get it going, so I want to leave him on there. His teammate Ryu gets off, five innings pitch.

I think 8Ks for the handsome devil. So he's gone. Matt Olson pulls a shame to flame on us. Hot boy summer in a big way. You just heard about him. This is an interesting one, Jim.

Okay. Because going back to last year, there's a lot of ways you can get off slump watch. Yeah. Carlos Santana. He goes one for 10. Not good. But seven walks.

and that's something that he does throughout his career. So I don't know, I was going to leave it up to you. I would take him off. No. Okay, that's fine. He stays. Why don't know why? Why? The first three games, he had one walk in each game.

The last game, when the Reds threw out the junk. The junk pitchers. Okay, that's fair. He had four walks. Okay. If it was two walks each game, I would say, okay, we can take him off. It's not like a celebratory off, but no, I'm not taking off. It's tough.

It's tough. Okay, I respect it. Mercado, this one gets tricky too. He's three for 13 in the series with a pair of walks, I believe. Not great, not slumpy. His last game worries me, which you just said. You just said for Santana. Oscar Mercado goes one for five, but four K's. Yeah, he's definitely still on.

Okay, he stays. You're there. I've got pro far staying, but he stinks, so I want to take him off. I'm over the pro far thing. I thought you said he was going to have a career year. I said it would be funny if he does that. He stinks. Yeah.

Just a tough kind of overrated career. I had the same for Manny Margo. He goes one for 12 again. He's never been a hitter. Yeah, I don't care. I'm not interested in him. Yeah. It's rude, so sorry.

We'll see him this weekend. And then Austin Hayes is another don't care. Yeah, and he goes three for 11. I think that would be off anyways. But, you know, Marlins just diced him up. supposed to be a young contact hitter, so he does it well. And then Robles Hansel, so hot right now. He only had one appearance, point two innings, no run.

I'll take them off. Don't really care. Don't be a disaster for Mike Trout. Help Mike Trout. Help Mike Trout. Be a good shirt. We can't put Mike Trout. Can't put Mike Trout's name on a shirt. It's the only problem with that.

Help Mikey Trouty. Help Mikey Trouty. Jim, what about some new guys? I like this. I put a guy on here that if we didn't put him on here, people would be pissed. Pist. Labor, Torres. Tits.

O for 19. O for his last 19, Jake, with zero walks. Really bad. Really bad. And it looks really bad. It does look really bad. He looks like a complete, he looks lost. He's swinging out pitches over his head and grounding out, and that's kind of every

that pat right now. Negative war right now. Very scared to put this guy on slump watch because I'm scared of him because he's kind of a badass. Tommy fan. Yeah. O for 13. Just, you know, he'll get off quick. Don't kill me, Tommy.

Rewing for you. He did get an RBI and a walk and he was pumping up his team and all that stuff. So good shit, but got to get a hit. Got to get a hit. Bummer for him, too, against the Dodgers. Padres were looking to punch. But, yeah, he'll be back. Yeah.

Anything else? I got smoke on here, one hit in his last six games. Smoke. I put Gallo just because he's the guy for Texas. So if he puts up a one for a last. 11 spot. They've got nothing. What did he do in the Mike, the Mike Bowl?

The Mike Bowl. The Fires versus Minor Bowl. I'm not sure. Because he was, the game before that, I believe he was 0 for 4 with four with four strikeouts. I didn't have, didn't have the Mike Bowl prepped. Oh for, oh for three with two strikeouts. Yeah.

He had a bad series. And then I, I put Longoria on there. Dude, he had, he had eight strikeouts in the three games set. And only one hit and one walk. So yeah, Gallo's on there. Yeah, gallo's for sure on there. And after seeing some of the guys we had on there for last week, I was like, we got to keep it the bigger names.

So I put Longoria on there. You know, obviously in the latter part of his career, but he also put a one for 11. Come on, Longoria. Don't make us have you slump next week. So we say, I don't really care about Longoria this year. Make us care about you. First four games.

He was doing well hitting like 430. having fun. Then he goes in place four against Colorado. Yeah. And they just pitch their butts off. He only started three of the four games, so. In cores, you're telling yourself you're going to have a big series, so that's tough. He actually hates Colorado, though. Hates it. Like he's got people there that just ruin his day.

Hates it. Lends at the airport has to go in disguise right away. He's got stalkers. Oh, my God. It's bad news. Scary airport. We got who got mad? Who got mad? Phil Nevin got mad? Phil Nevin got mad. Had Angel Hernandez. He's bad? Yeah.

Not a who got mad, but I believe Jason Tingler got his first manager ejection. Thank you, right. For bad calls, he's trying to protect Mania Machado, which that sucks. The Blue Jays, did you hear this whole debacle? I'm thinking I'm going to make a breakdown if I can find time. Okay. Very interesting. It's not a mad debacle, but it's a debacle worth mentioning.

The Blue Jays, was it Bigiano? It's one of the relievers. Someone in the chat. Be a genie? No, it wasn't Beijini. Who was it? One of the Italians? Wagespack.

Wagespack. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they sent Wagespack to the satellite camp, right? Right. But then, so he's not on the lineup card that they give to the umpires because he's not on the roster. Yeah. But before the start of the game and the final roster thing,

Trent Thornton gets hurt. So I think it was Trent Thornton. I don't want to speak out of term, I think it's Trent Thorne. He gets sent to the I.L. So then they're like, Wogis Pack. Never mind. You're back on the roster. Right? So Wages Puck is back on the roster, but they didn't give a new lineup card to the umpires.

Right. So they bring Wages Pack into the game. He's throwing some warm-ups, and the umps are like, you're not on our lineup card. So the umps say he can't pitch. Yeah. And Charlie Montoya and the Blue Jays just say, okay, fine. So he throws some warm-ups, walks off the mound. He walks into the dugout as if he just, like, gave up six earned runs, like none of his team.

teammates talk to them. It was kind of weird. Weird. Really weird. Get this. The umps were wrong. The lineup card that the umps get is just, per the rule book, just a courtesy. It holds no ruling or merit. And if a substitute player isn't on the umpire's lineup card, that doesn't mean he can't play. Like literally that's what the rule says. Yeah.

So they just got it wrong. Yep. That sucks. Like that one person caught it. Weird rule that, I know. But that's their job. is to know the rules. Yes. Or be able to call someone who knows the rules.

Yeah, like looking up. Like someone has a PDF of the rules and does Control F lineup card. Who gives a crap anyways, honestly. Let Waggis Pack twirl it. But yeah. Interesting development.

That's a miss. And Jim, I'm normally not a Who Got Mad segment. Lance McCullors got mad. They opened up the roof at Chase Field during the fourth inning of his start where he was in cruise control and then gave up

nine innings, get nine runs in that inning. Yeah. So he complained about the roof opening. He said it's ass if you do that. The Yanke, well, I mean, if we're going to do that, the Yankees also complained about Phillies fans using air horns and the announcers being loud. So we have a lot of pitchers, not used to pitching in silence. And now they're saying it is more like golf where one noise can throw them off instead of being a lot of noise. So I think McCullors and Hap slash the Yankees. It was Monty. It was Monty who said it. No, Monty said that Hap said it.

Yeah, I think he was just talking about during Hap's start. Yes, Monty said it didn't affect it during that. It didn't affect me, but Hap said the announcers affected him yesterday, was what his quote was. Yeah, I don't know. If you come out and you say something's ass, that you open over of mid-game. Well, you can't do that. If you lose, that's getting mad. If you lose and you have excuses like that.

Monty wasn't. Sounded like happened. The other guys were complaining. And Boone was mad. He came out and yelled at the umpires. For the fans. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, for the air horn.

Airhorn fans. But that is bullshit. Kind of. There you go. So is the roof, to be honest. Like, middle of a guy's start, change the elements on them. I don't know. Tough.

These guys are creatures of, like, intense habit and circumstance, you know, especially pitchers. So, on that. All right. What's your quote from the pitching movie? Clear the mechanism? Clear the mechanism, man. Kevin Koston. Can't be worried about the roof dog.

I think that's what's happening when it's a lot of noises. It's kind of like when you live in New York City, and there's so many noises that they all mundane. But when you live in the city and there's one cricket outside your window, it'll drive you crazy. I think that's what's happened with the air horn. There you go. A war!

Do you want to go first or I go first? I'll go first, Jim. And I think I've gotten an award that you're going to like. and I actually, I'm stealing my information a little bit, but I'm stealing it from a legend. I'm giving out the compete award. Compete. That's a good award. The compete award.

If you've heard us on this show talk about it, we're trying to figure out John Boy's compete stat. We either need abbreviated letters or whatever it is, but it's giving your team a chance to win. We're figuring out the rules around it I might just call it the Dallas-Kichael. Five innings, two runs, six innings three, something like that. It's a round a quality start, but a little different rules.

Jim, Zach Gallen on the Arizona Diamondbacks, young pitcher for them. I think they traded a young shortstop prospect for him. I think it was Jazz Chisholm. Ooh. Anyways, Zach Gallen, 25 years old, turned 25 on August 3rd, Happy birthday.

Yeah. He's from Somerdale, New Jersey. I don't know where that is. Where's that, BBD? We're not sure. We're not sure we're Somerdale New Jersey. He's been traded twice. But he's a Jersey guy, which that normally scares you when it comes to prospects.

For Ozuna and then for Jazz Chisholm. Yeah. And the Jazz Chisholm one was funky because you rarely see prospects traded for each other. Like a pitching prospect trade for a shortstop prospect. Each GM's putting their neck on the line. Jim, Zach Gallen, 20 major league starts. has not allowed more than three runs in any of them. That's really good.

Yeah. So he... I like that. Yeah, man. He's got a... Excuse me. Jake's dying on us. He's from near Philly.

Near Philly. Gross out. Gross out. Career 281 E.R.A. And this comes back to my Jordan Yamamoto theory. If Zach Gallen was pitching in a major market, I think we'd be screaming from the rooftop about Zach Gallen.

got an 11k per 9, career 281 ERA. He's doing really good stuff, and he's a name you should get familiar with. Yeah, this season, his last two starts aren't even like compete. There's good. Six things, pitch, two runs, they're good. Zach, Keiko, on the other hand, I think his first two starts were literally what I talk about. Five point one, two earn runs. Is it? If you have a bullpen and a competent offense, those pitchers can help you. Give your team a chance. And that's Zach Allen's doing that and more, so good for him. Good for him. Good for you, Zach Allen.

I'm giving out the coveted New York Life Award. Oh. Who gets it? Do you have no guesses? You're giving it out this year? Yep. Yeah, I know, I, you know, it's a pretty serious one, and I don't take it lightly. The New York Life Insurance Award. Give it to me.

Alec Mills. Wow. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Alick Mills. Big pitching. up today, people. Alec Mills got you covered. Yeah.

From 65 miles per hour to 90, just like New York life insurance. They just take care of their elderly. Yes. You're 65 and up. New York life insurance got you. They're righted the best. Love it. Zach Mills, every game.

Add. He throws a pitch, Jake, that starts with a six miles per hour. That starts with a seven miles per hour. That starts with an eight. And that starts with a nine. He's spanning four decades with his miles per hours there. Pretty impressive. He threw 28 curveballs.

They average 66.7. He's thrown 26 sliders. They average 78 miles per hour. He's thrown 34 changeups. They average 80 miles per hour. And he's thrown 87 fastballs that average 90 miles per hour. Just dancing up there. Just dancing.

And the results have been good, like you said. Two starts. Actually, I have a, he got two starts to end last season. And if you jakey butter knife those. Yes. And combine them. Going back to last year, Alec Mills' last four starts come to 22.2 innings pitched and three earned runs. I do not think this style can last.

Yeah. You're this weird, Alec, you're the Alec Mills conductor on the train. But there's a little part of you that also wants to drive it off the track yourself. No, I think, I think of it more as a roller coaster. Okay. Like this has an end point. Okay. It's not a forever ride.

Okay. 60 game season. That might be the full length. I don't know how long the roller coaster lasts, you know? But at some point, we're going to come to a nice halt where everyone's going to get off the Alec Mills train and say, you know what, that was fun. I was glad I wrote that ride.

Happy it ended. Sure. And that's what we're getting here in Chicago. with Alec Mills. I mean, how old is Alec Mills? Alec Mills. 28. Keep twirling it, kid.

University of Tennessee at Martin. Martin. Martin? Wow. Ted Martin. Yeah. Good for him. Clarksville, Tennessee. Clarksville.

AT Mills 37 is his Twitter. Is it active? Him a follow. Living my life on the edge of my seat. Wow. That's what happens. You throw 66 mile apart. Every time you drop one of those,

like, I was going to fucking sit on this. Yeah, he's got an active Twitter. Go hit him up. Good. Get on the ride. It's going to be fun. Good, good, good.

A little elevator? A little elevator talk. Only thing that I thought we'd talk about a little more. Or it's just something I'm excited about, and I mentioned it. I think this week during the pregame shows, those have been a lot of fun. Go check those out if you get some time. This A.L. Central race, I'm like, all in on. I think, I,

I think all three teams are closer than we thought to start the year. You think the twins are going to take off? I don't think so. They've been playing an easy schedule. They had the pirates. Story of the Twins. Right. But they're going to have to play these games.

I think the White Sox, they're the team I can't quit this year. I'm all about them. And I think from the start of this season, Cleveland is better than I think we thought. Yeah, I was pretty high on Cleveland. We were high on Cleveland, but, dude, they're pitching. has been another level. Oh, it's the best.

Than we thought. And I'm all in on the White Sox. So for me, I am just locked into the ALE Central. Twins haven't had an easy schedule. They've played the White Sox three times. They've played the Indians four times. And they played St. Louis twice. Just the last four games against Pits been easy.

Pirates, yeah. But, I mean, they've played the two competitors. Right. But early in the season, I mean, they went just started the year. I know. But I think if a Twins fan heard that, they'd be like, what? We've played these guys. I mean, most of it was at home, too.

They're seven and one at home right now. Yeah. The White Sox was on the road and they were two and one there. And then they swept the end. Then they went three and one. So what? They're five and two against those teams. They got the Royals coming up,

the Brewers, and the Royals. So they have a really easy stretch. Dude, all of their next games are Kansas City Royals, Brewers, Kansas City Royals, Brewers, Kansas City Royals. Familiar faces. From August 7th to August 23rd, the twins are only playing two. teams.

Furs and the Royals. That's a little bizarre. A little bit. COVID year, baby. That's bizarre. COVID year. Got an elevator team for us. Let's spin the wheel.

We're spinning. We're spinning. We're spinning. We're spinning if you are an elevator with a man with this hat on. Marlins or woman. The Minnesota Twins. You want to do it? Sure.

You know, their schedule. I mean, first thing you can say is, well, we're playing a lot of the same team. You like Milwaukee in Kansas City? I mean, I want to do math here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. The next sixteen games, all against the same two teams. Well, I guess we'll find out who the brewers are. Yeah.

That's going to test their pitching staff. Royals, good luck. Let's see. Garver's off to a slow start. Suno's off to a slow start. Araya's off to a slow start. Donaldson off to a slow start. Did he go on the IL?

Is he just heard? I don't think he's on the IL, but he hasn't played in like a week. Who's off to a hot start? Nelson Cruz, Kepler, they're looking good. Eddie Rosario off to a very Eddie Rosario start. Jim, tell them about the early innings, baby. Yeah, they're still averaging three runs in the first two innings. It might have gone up. It may have gone up.

I can find this pretty easily. I found out where to find this. If you're a Twins fan, or if you're in the elevator with one, you go to the pitching. The pitching's been good this year. second in ERA in the AL so far. Mayada looks good. Randy Dobnack has been shoving, Jim.

15 innings pitch, 0.6 ERA, 8Ks in 15 innings. I think the baseball gods may even that out a little bit. But, yeah. Did you see Dobnack is like, he grew up a huge Pirates fan? Very cool. 250 games and then he started in Pittsburgh. Very cool. It's got to be so weird.

Let me see. Let me see if I, type in inning. It should get me there. Aning. Come on. Get me there. Okay. Nelson Cruz leading the team in war. Second is Randy Dobnack. In the first inning, they have scored 19 runs.

And in the second inning, they have scored 15 runs. So we're looking at 34 runs in the first two innings over 13 games. Quick math, 26, 39. 2.6 runs in the first two innings. It's pretty good. It's really good. And then they're also good in the, in the, no, I mean, then it goes two runs,

9, 47, 3336. Like, they're really good in the first two innings. Yeah. It's crazy. Good for them. Co-opener against the twins. I guess that's your insight. If you're the Brewers.

Yeah. They're ahead of first two innings. Get funky with it. They have a 1.1 OPS as a team in the first inning. And a 357 batting average. Not bad. It's insane. That's a lot of stuff you can tell the guy in the elevator,

you'll impress them. Have you heard how good we are in the first two innings? Have you heard? Why are you talking like that? Could you please not talk like that, sir? Bob, just talk normal for once. Normal, please. Normal, please.

All right, that's the show today. That's what's going on in baseball. all, thank you for tuning in. We appreciate it. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic. And I mean it. Yeah.

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