Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 193 | NL Standings Make No Sense, Jose Abreu Homer Fest, Greinke’s Having a Blast

Episode Date: August 24, 2020

Jake's back! The Phillies made a trade, the Blue Jays have the most meat in the game, Baltimore is still in play for the Wild Card. The NL standings are an absolute mess, David Ross has a commercial, White Sox officially join the party, the Rockies collapse. We're a week from the deadline and Having fun! 6:55 East Recap 23:25 Central Recap 36:00 West Recap 50:35 Standout Performance 1:01:00 En Fuego 1:05:50 #RaceTo20 1:10:30 Slump Watch 1:20:20 Awards 1:27:40 Elevator Talk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's going on? Welcome back to talking baseball. Another big weekend full of players hitting, catching, throwing, having fun. Let's talk about it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to talking baseball. It's Monday. It is the weekend series recap episode.

My name's Jimmy. Sitting next to me is Jake. Behind the dish is BBD. And we are in the Roosevelt Studios in the Bronx. That's RSVL. a whole big weekend full of sports. Jake, how you feeling? Holy smokes, Jimmy.

I'm good, man. I'm good. I played a lot of quote-unquote sports myself, 54 holes of golf in 48 hours. Body is just reeling. Just sun becoming old and weak. A couple drinks along the way. Yeah, oh, for sure, for sure.

And so that's a lesson learned that I'm sure I'll forget. Was there anyone else in the country? true like dying with you or are they all playing like you know are they still playing? Everyone else was fatigued as well. Everyone else was like, ah, we did, we did, we doubled up. We did 36 holes in one day and that was a mistake. We never done that. Lesson learned.

And yeah, man, I mean, I know you, you feel the same sentiment and it normally ties into your speech about, you know, baseball and how it ties into society and stuff. the Yankees getting their games COVID-COVIDed out, if that's the official term. It's kind of bizarre coming in here looking at the scores from this weekend because I was, you know, checking in and looking at the highlights and things like that. But when you lose that rhythm, I don't know, it's part of the baseball season that's not there this year. So excited for the Yankees to get back underway on Tuesday.

I will say this. I mean, jumping into that the Tatis Padres game on Sunday, that was fun, and they followed that up with another good Sunday night game. So doing generally well. Legs are covered in bug bikes, but you got to play through it. You didn't have spray? You didn't have spray. Damn.

So pretty dumb. That, like, hurts me in my heart for you. Yeah. Jake is the biggest bug spray enthusiast, I know. I hate bug. Bug bites. Love bug spray. I don't feel bad.

Yeah. It's okay. I mean, honestly, the problem is bugs. annoying me and the bugs weren't annoying me. So I think they were just staying below the belt. So that's fine. I'm good. How are you doing?

Doing well. I like took the whole weekend off. I watched some other games Friday and Saturday. But yeah, Yankees got postponed. So I mean, you should have seen how much I slept. I don't think I've... How many minutes? Dude, I mean, my body sensed that it could take a weekend off and caught up on so much sleep.

Katie was like a... you okay? I was like, I don't know. I just really, I was taking, like I came home Friday night at four, napped hard. Like, Katie tried to wake me up and I, she was like, are you really high? And I was like, no. Same thing Saturday, slept in until 1130. Wow. Crazy. Katie just let me go. Yeah. And that, because I, I wake up. Some high school John boy stuff. It's crazy. Yeah. I wake up at like seven, you know. And then we went, we did a bunch of things. We went, looked at some apartments. We went to the park.

Came home. Took another, like, deep three-hour nap. Wow. Then fell asleep. Like 11 to 11 again. I didn't sleep. I don't know. I slept all week.

Good. Do you feel good? I feel good now. But I woke up kind of late today again. So now it's like, I need to re-teach my body. Like, hey, that was just the one-week-in thing. Fall in line. Stupid ass body.

Let's get back into it. Yeah. And what a better way to do that than talking baseball. And this episode is brought to you by Sean Wilson, Jack Feldman, Jake Ritaluski. Yep. Ritaluski. Ritaluski. Ritaluski is how I'm saying it.

Ian Morrison and Kyle Bowl. So thank you very much. Those are our most recent Patreon supporters. Our new patrons, they get to watch live, hang out with us. and the after show sometimes, you know, four shows a week live that you get, they get access with. Everyone else got to wait until it's edited, posted, and all that. So boom.

There's some other perks we try to throw in there from time to time as well. Yeah, we got some regulars in there right now. We've got, I like seeing this. Benjamin Philippi says, hey, catching it live. Oh, and Marcus H literally just signed up at 1026. Let's go. It's 1027. Thanks, Marcus.

So, yeah, we've got some regulars. We've got new people joining in watching live. And yeah, we let you guys correct us. So that's a huge. Guess Marcus H's last name. Is it start with an H? Yeah. Heartsburg.

Nice. I was going to go Hart. Which is D.T at the end. Artsburg. B.B.D. in the corner with the new haircut. The chat's all excited about that. So.

Bug, bug, dude. Makes me laugh. Yeah, it's good. It's a good nickname. Let's get straight into it. Who's bringing the East Coast? Oh, I did the East with Trev. Did you listen to Treve?

I did. You know, I heard Trev was in my ear a lot with the Wally Pip stuff. Mm-hmm. And again, I was... And here you are. I was looking at it more as like a Bobby Boner situation. He was the shortstop that played during Cal Ripkin's second year. And then Cal kind of came in and did his thing.

Oh, okay. No, Trev was fantastic. I knew he'd be great. Jim, I loved your, what was it, the Stanford Law experiment? What is that? Stanford Prison Experiment? Stanford Prison Experiment. That was a good comparison.

I like that. Oh, thanks. I think it was accurate. I forgot I said that. Yeah, yeah. The pitch. Have you ever heard that experiment? It just happened.

They just got the power. You got the power, and yeah, it just developed. So, no, you guys did great, but let Poppy Gordo. We tried to tell Trev that these series recap episodes is the most homework. I've never put more effort. Even my thesis paper in college, I don't think took as much time as these fucking episodes. So I hope you enjoy them. And let's see what happened in the East Jacob.

In the East, Jim, start with the big series everyone was talking about. Boston at Baltimore. Baston, they take the first two, seven to one. Bogarts and Morland Homer, Evaldi shoved. A nice start from Big Nate. And then Boston takes the next one, 8 to 5. Bogart's again, JD Endeavors. So, I mean, that's the formula.

That's how Boston wants to do it. They go up 8-0 in that game. O's fought back a little bit, but that was the Orioles 6 straight loss. Are they dead? They fight back a little bit. How about this? They win 5 to 4 and extras Baltimore Santander gets another home run in this game. They gave up a basis-loaded walk to Boston.

in the 10th inning. But Orioles score two. Severino walk off and then they win five to four again. Pilar and J.B.J. both homered in that game. So good day to be a defensive outfielder from Boston. But Rio Ruiz with the four ribbies in Eshleman with a nice performance out of the pen. He's a friend.

He said hi to him at spring training. So they split that four gamer. Miami versus Washington. Miami takes the first game. Miguel Rojas, his first game back after COVID. Remember the hot start? was on. You were you're leading the Miggi Rojas fan clubs still are.

Three run Homer. Elyzer Hernandez out duels Corbyn is three to two. That three run Homer was the decider. Next game, next day we're playing two, five to four, Washington and seven. Nats went up five oh, Marlins get a four spot in the

fifth. Scher can't get out of the inning but the bullpen holds so they win that game and then Miami bounces back. Sixto Sanchez. Might have to get used to that name. Big pitching prospect. He gets the dub. Dickerson with the big home run for Miami. Robles and Gomes, both homered for Washington. Doesn't matter. Miami gets the win. And then Washington, nine to three. Annibal Sanchez with a nice start. Sevennings pitch one run, I believe.

Trey Turner with a three RBI day. So first two sets, four gamers, everybody split. Don't love that. So let's go to a three gamer. The J's in the race. Six, five, Toronto final. after 10 innings. Lau and Yandy Diaz, both Homer, along with Teosker and Vlad Jr. Vigio with the big RBI double in the 10th, and this made it six straight wins for the Baby Jays. They were rolling, but the Reyes fight back.

They win the next day, two to one in 10 innings. Rieu versus the pen versus sledgers in the pen for Tampa. Kiermeyer with the walkoff single in the 10th, and then the Rays take the series. Teosker and Guriel both home run. in his major league debut, five innings pitch, tour and run. Ray's deep deep for arms right now, nine guys on the aisle. Ray's only scored on singles and sack flies, so how about that?

Philly, Atlanta, Philly takes the first game. Max Fried versus Nola. You were hoping it was going to be a fun duel. Not so fast, my friend, 11 to 2. Darno has a homer, and Marcelo Zuna. So nice, he does it twice. He has a two homer day. Six, five, Atlanta the next day.

Philly was up for nothing by the seven-inning stretch, home runs by Harper and McCutcheon, and then their bullpen comes into the game. Young, thick, Austin Riley with the two-run homer, then Adam Duvall with the game winner in the ninth. And then on the final game, this here's the Sunday night game. This was actually fun. Hoskins, Dede, and Bome, all Homer.

Freddie Freeman with a nice game as long with some nice mic'd-up moments. Play at the plate to finish this one. Quinn to Didi to Real Mudo. Dansby Swanson is meat at the plate, saved by Workman, so they salvage a win out of the series. And then the Yankees and Mets, they were COVID-A-Dow, as mentioned. So that's what happened in the East. Ooh. I have some stuff I want to ask you.

Please. But we have to do it quick because I think it's trade stuff, and I think we'll do it like a whole trade episode with Trev on Trev's tidbits. I like that. There's trades. The Phillies traded with the Red Sox. Red Sox are moving pieces. Phillies are gaining bullpen pieces. as Phillies also traded with the Yankees.

Are trades only going to happen within region? Is that how we should have our brain thinking about it? I know it's not like the rules don't say that, but kind of the ease of player transport of asking a player to move. Should we maybe be like, hey, what do you get in within your region? You know, there will be a trade that's not, but I wonder if the majority are within region. I think what I can add to that theory, because I don't know.

What I can add to that theory is that at least those teams will have seen those players play. Like, less concern about trading them and moving family and stuff. Because, I mean, end of the day, it is going to be like two months. So players probably aren't going to move their families for the period of time. But I think as long as they're a rental. I think what it's going to be is having seen a guy. Have you seen Brandon Workman? How's his stuff look?

You know. Well, no, it's all right. But, yeah, I don't know. Like, yeah, the chat saying, how Vogelback just went Seattle to Toronto. I think you're still going to see it. I think maybe if you do see a bigger one, it might be within division. Toronto picked up Vogelback?

Yeah. What are they just going for an all-fat team? Oh, hey. Dude, did you see, I'm sorry, but Vladdy's too big. Oh, yeah. No, I joined the train. Did you watch his triple? Yeah, I watched him play.

You can't do that. He's base to base at like 22. Bro, I'm with you. Like, he's pools. I'm 22. He's way too. Like, it's not like a funnier cute thing anymore. Like, I'm worried about his talent getting hurt by his size.

Jim. I, uh, yes. I wasn't on this train. I was like, you know, Vlad. Me neither. Gladdy's got some good meat on him, you know, let the boy rake. Hey, his stats haven't been super impressive. And that's kind of the first thing.

He's got a 750 OPS this year. He finished 772 OPS last year. Still very young. Still expect him to do a lot of things on the hitting. side of the baseball. But Jim, his triple, it's losing steam as a base runner. Like, if you're a big guy and you can move those legs a little bit, like the momentum's going one way. You're going to run out of steam. He ran out of steam rounding second. I'm trying to watch it. Like, it was sloppy. He just had nothing. And you can't be doing that at 21 years old. So I'm saying he's

base to base at like 21. It's not good. So yeah, I'm with you. I'm team Vlad. he's got a, he's got tightening it up a little bit. Yeah, I wonder what he, there's a weird question. I wonder what he looks like shirtless because Prince Fielder, someone in the chat said Prince Fielder, I don't even know what they're saying. They mentioned Prince Fielder. Sure. And, oh, he's the highest paid player in baseball this year?

Yeah, because people that got hurt had to be paid in full. Prince Fielder, I had a buddy who worked in the clubhouse in MLB. And he was like, yo, Prince Fielder isn't fat. He was like he's well built. He's the most barrel-chested human. Like he might have, like, a little bit of belly, but he's like, he's not fat. Yeah. If you saw him, I'm sure, unless you, I wonder, because Vladdy's big, dude.

And like. And Vogel back the same. Prince had that big guy momentum speed. Like, if he got going, you saw some hustle. He had a couple stolen bases in his career. But, yeah, man, Vlad, I wasn't on the train. I was like, let those, let those. You didn't even see.

There was another one in one of the games where he went from second. Right. body issue. I forgot about that. Awesome. Anyway, trades. Volga Beck gets traded. Also, Red Sox,

they've started moving people. Yes. They moved workmen and... Embry. Embris. Like more on trades later, but you mentioned Pilar and JBJ, both with homers.

Both guys that... I don't know if J.BJ wants to leave. Pilar, definitely signed a one-year contract to continue playing. I wonder if, you know, there's any interest. You'd have to just want defensive guy.

Yeah, I mean, Pilar, it's... Pilar's having a good season, I think. Pilar's having a very nice season, and he can now play, he's, like, versatile in the outfield, and he was a one-year rental. That's a... We did this the other day. I forget if it was a recap episode. For me, it's just tough to picture JBJ, like, the piece that they would potentially

get back for him for what JVJ's meant to that franchise. I just feel like both sides wouldn't be able to link up on a deal on that. I think Pilar, I think that's going to make. make sense. But yeah. Just be if you wanted a fourth outfielder and a speed guy. Right. And but I'm saying like you would be, I get what you're saying.

It's a disrespectful trade because you're sending JBJ to go be a role player on a team for two months. For a prospect that's probably like a borderline major league prospect at best. It's the same reason why Jones, Adam Jones said he didn't want to get traded from Baltimore because he was like, I'm not going to go be your fourth outfielder and defensive replacement. like that sucks for me. Yeah. Even if it is a contender. I got a nice family situation here.

Now he's in Japan, so that's crazy. Yeah. But interested, interested in all the movement. We'll do a full episode on that. As far as standings go, I'm happy that Baltimore and Boston split, actually. I don't need those two teams to be sweep or get swept. I need them to be split because just stay bad. Sure.

I don't want one of you thinking you're hot. Sure. You know what I mean? Yeah. No, I mean, I think what's interesting about this is Boston is trading away. their only usable pieces from their bullpen or borderline usable. Their season is very much in the tank. This was happening.

Baltimore is still trying to fight that feeling. And if they had gotten swept by Boston, I think we'd be sitting here saying full pumpkin, Baltimore's dead. They fight back and they win two games in the series. Make it matter. They're alive for the wild card still. Very much.

Yeah, very much. There is going to be one team. The eighth seed in the AL playoffs is going to be a very, team. I want to see where we're at right now. It's Oriole. I think the Jays are in that spot right now. But it's going to be Orioles.

Jays are like if Texas can fight back. But I mean, that eight seed in the east is going to be a bad team. So right now the top wild card is the White Sox easily. And then the second wild card is Baltimore. The Jays and Orioles are. tied in theory right now. They're both 500. So the White Sox are better than Houston, but will be seeded below them currently.

Currently. It's a dumb system. I'm figuring it out. Some guy emailed me in Excel sheet. He keeps it updated with the one verse eight, two verse seven. Huge. Because you can't just do it. It's like tricky.

A little bit. White Sox are the seven seed, but they're better than... It's a double wild card. Yeah. It's kind of silly. Yeah, Baltimore and Toronto. That would be a fun fight. I'm interested in that.

As a Yankee fan, I kind of want Toronto to be out of it because Yankees have like eight games. They finish with a lot of games against them. I want those guys to be tired and done. Over in the National League. Yep. And this division in the National League has been like putrid. Yeah.

Phillies, I made the trade for bullpen help. They're currently in last place. At least they're making trades. Yeah. I mean, I think all of these teams are going to fight until the end. I mean, if you're the Phillies, so you bring in workmen, who was really good last year? He's looked pretty eh, this year. I mean, you just hope that if he can figure it out,

and then maybe that eases up the workload on other bullpen guys, and you can have a little trickle-down effect. I mean, you know, the nationals before the deadline, they had the worst bullpen in baseball last year. They added a couple guys, and they made it useful. I mean, that's where Philly's just praying to get to. Let's be used to. Their starters are good.

So if you go into a three-game series, and you can put the two back-end guys into the bullpen, it helps out. Who would you go? You'd go Nola, Areietta, and Wheeler. Yeah, yeah. He's probably two, actually. Nola, Wheeler, Arieta.

And then who else have they had back there? Eflin? Like, who's their four-five? Godly? Last night. He's socks in. I think we are missing one guy. Let me see.

Just thinking of names that I remember from seeing in this series. Sorry, Phyllis. It's not Michael Jack Schmidt. No, Phillies are happy. We're talking about them. Let's see. So it's been Wheeler, Nola, Areietta, Eflin, Vlasquez, and they called up the kid Howard.

Oh, Spencer Howard. Velasquez stinks, so, well, I'm sorry. I use that loosely. It's not good. It's okay. Hasn't been good. Hasn't been good. That division's a mess, man.

Yeah. What's going to happen? Like now with Strasberg out for the season, They're saying that the nationals might be sellers. Who can they sell? They got a bunch of old guys on one of your contracts. Anyone want them? And then MLB Network just said Miami is going to be picking up guys?

That can't be right. They're still rebuilding. I mean, they're still there. And yeah, I mean, what's picking up guys mean? I think the bigger thing is that this division for the rest of the year, unless somebody really eats it, is going to be, if you sweep a series, you're back in it. Yeah, you got one week, though.

You know, I would be surprised to see if there's any, any, to a lot of moves with these NL East teams, because you can't sell, but also you can't sell to compete. Like, you can't buy out. Yeah. Like, if, if you're a Nats fan, you can't honestly say like, hey, let's go all in. You're 11 and 14. But if you sweep your next series, you're 500. And now you're competing.

And you're a new wild card. But they don't have Strasbourg, so you wonder at what point are they going to say? Yeah, you don't have Strasbourg, both has in Fettie. Both. I'm trying to think of where Vogelback's going to play with the Blue Jays. I think it's just to make Rowdy Tellas feel better. Yeah, has Tellas been starting every game? I mean, they platoon right now, Tellas, Shaw, and Guerrero at first base.

Shaw's been playing great. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, like, that's three guys. You're already platooning there. and then D.H. Gritchick, Hernandez, Guerrero. What are they doing over there? It's very confusing.

They don't have like an order of things. Neat. It's a big clubhouse. I mean, hopefully Vogelback doesn't get invited to the Vladdy grandmother's meals. It could be problematic on a few levels. They're too big. Too big. Someone in the chat said that Vladdy put on a lot of weight in quarantine.

Been there. I'm rooting for him No I think I would mark it down for next spring training That Vlad will be best shape of his life I mean that's the biggest layup there's ever been Needs to New diet

Yeah yeah More flexible When Sandiball came back to the Giants And he was like they showed his workout He's like running tires And rolling tires of pills and all that Looks good Looks good

Anything else on this set You want to move to the Central Let's see what else is in the east Yeah not really man Marlins, again, they're the other Stay around 500 and see how far you can get this season. Are Braves fans feeling like a little bit better? They take the series.

Freed looks great. They're hitting the hell out of the ball. I think you're still, I think if you're a Braves fan, you feel pretty good. Like you've been doing this without Akunia and Albis. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think there's a little bit like everyone. I hope there's a trickling effect like, oh, okay. It's a little bit everyone else is looking so bad in your division that you're like,

you're still not as a Braves fan. not feeling as great about your Braves as you'd like to feel. I think I said this about the Braves to Trev. Divisionally. That they're in. Like, they can kind of just get healthy. Would I say that about them? Like, I think they just have it locked up.

I think, uh... Forget. I think you may have. Yeah. All right. Let's go to the Central. Sure. Start us off, Jake.

Surely. In the Central L.A. region, the Minnesota Twins played Kansas City. That's all these teams do. of recently. Kansas City takes the first game. Duffy. Duffy was solid. Odo was not. Solair and Dozier both Homer. Dozier had a couple nice games in a series. So Kansas City takes the game 172. Minnesota takes the second game. Also 7 to 2. Dobnack with another solid star. His ERA is 1.78. Jeez. Rosario and Sineau each homer in that game. And then the deciding third game. Minnesota takes five to four. Nelson Cruz.

with his 10th home run. Casey fought back in this game after being down, but it wasn't enough. Suno and Rosario each had three hits in this game. So twins take the series. Cincinnati. First St. Louis. St. Louis takes the first game.

A three-run rally in the ninth off Raisal, Iglesias. Yadi, infield single, followed by a bulk. And then Colton Wong with the game winner. They waste a sunny gray start, six-in-pitch, two runs. Cincinnati bounces back. after blowing the game. Four to two. Good fortitude by them.

Hudson versus Descalfani, huh? Matt Davidson with the pinch hit Grand Slam. I always want to say Matt Nathanson. Come on, yeah. Four runs on two hits for Sinci. St. Louis had to be pretty mad about this game, only giving up two hits, and they had two errors. But St. Louis finishes strong.

3-0 win. Tommy Edmund 2 RBI. Harry Bader with the Yabo. And Kwang-Hang Kim, six-inning shut out. Good for him. St. Louis lays down the hands. Hammer. They win six-two. Suarez homered for Sinci.

Bader with another home run this series. You happy with him, St. Louis fans? I know you've always been looking for him to hit. And Yaddy had a four-hit day. Love that. Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs. Do you think about me now and then? I'm coming home again. 10-1 White Sox in the first game.

Six homers. Two by Abrayu. Robert, Robert, Aloy, Grandal, and Mendick Homer. Keikel with the Shove Fest. They come back the next day and win 7-4, Jose O'Brien, with three home runs in this game. LOL, stop it.

Brandaul and Roberre. Robert. I want to say Robert now. Robert sounds cooler. He said, call him Robert. But it's Robert. And they go Rodrigo Lopez to Gio, Rodrigo to Gio, and they out pitch Hendrix. And then the Cubs bounce back for the finale.

They salvage the series. Darvish continues his dick-dropping tour. Dylan Cise makes one mistake. And that's a two-run homer to show. Schwabo and that's the difference in this game. But the White Sox, they became one of the stories of baseball this weekend, taken two out of three from the Cubs, Jim. Well, Jake, I didn't know what happened with that St. Louis Reds series until I just heard

you say it and it made me mad. And this should make people mad as well. The Brewers get swept by Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh takes the first game, seven to two. Houser versus Chad. Cool. Five straight singles in the fourth for the pirates. basically sealed the deal. In game two, you had Lindblom versus Holland.

Ten pitchers were used in this game. Eight gave up earned runs. Pit wins 12 to 5, terrible pitching. In game three, and the Brewers at least win one. Brewbaker versus Burns. The brew crew has the lead going into the eighth. It won't get swept by the Pirates, the worst team in baseball. Sike. Phelps gives up a single to Tucker, our dude grabbing his dick in the outfield, then a homer to Polanco and Pittsburgh completes the sweep. You got to be kidding me, Milwaukee. Cleveland and Detroit, Cleveland needs to win this one if they want to be a contender. Fun series is with Minnesota coming up.

Fulmer versus Plutko, and they are in a race to see who can give up more earned runs. Plutko was losing, but then he gave up a grand slam to Isaac Paridis. The 21-year-old rookie from Mexico, his first career home run. It's a go-ahead grand slam. Plutko gives up seven earned run. Fulmer gave up five. Detroit won, 10 to 5. Do you have that right?

Yeah. Damn. Cleveland wins game 2, 6 to 1. Boyd versus McKenzie, and both of those guys give a decent start. So good job, Boyd. As soon as Boyd left the mound, bad things started happening, and the Indians put six across to win it, 1-0. 6-1.

Boyd walked off the mound with some runners on base but a 1-0 lead. They lose 6-1. And the Tigers, Scoobl versus Carrasco. Tigers salvage it. They win the series. Cookie and Logan Allen get knocked around, but the Tigers win 7 to 4. And that is your central.

Ooh. Baseball's frustrating me, man. So the Tigers took that series, huh? The Tigers took the series. The Pirates took the series. I don't mind. The Cardinals take the series. They're good.

The Cardinals are good, but I'm off the Reds. I don't know if you heard last episode. I heard you. I was getting mad. I'm getting mad. mad at the Reds. You can't be this good and this bad. We've kind of been saying it all along. It's annoying. In a way, we've been saying it all along. Like, you're probably the most talented team in the Central. And Trev still says, did you hear what we said? If they get the wildcard

spot as the eight seed and they go against the Dodgers, that'd be really fun. I mean, it could be a brutal three game set. I mean, they've got the arms. But at a certain point, like, I think the phrase we started stumbling into was like, hey, love to talk about you more. Get to 500. You get to 500 and we'll talk about you. And again, you know, a couple good series and you're there. But you're 11 and 15. You're worse than the Rockies. You're worse than, you know, they are, let me see, are they the second worst team in the, in the NL right now? 11 and 15. I mean, you start getting into percentage points, but yeah, basically. Tied with the Brewer. So, yeah, you expect more from the Reds, but hey, you know, the Cardinals, they're,

a traditionally well-run franchise. They missed a bunch of games. They're up to 9 and 8. They got to keep the good juju going. And, hey, baseball is still a messed up sport. I mean, the Reds, if they win the first game of that series, which they were up three in the ninth, you know, how different does the series end up looking?

But, yeah, they got to start getting wins. Are they a team that if they get to the playoffs, they have their top three, and then they put Disco and Molly in the pen? Does that help them? Have those guys been good? I mean, probably a little bit just because You can believe in them

And yeah, that's a, I feel like I was watching highlights of this game And some of the, right, Disco's got one start on here. And that, well, his ERA is killed for the year because of it. And in baseball, those five, six inning guys have now become so important And I think the Reds are missing those. I saw your guy Lorenzen had a couple, didn't give up run appearances. So maybe that can get him on the right track.

Whatever. Stop talking about it. Yeah, sorry guys. Cardinals get one game above 500. They're starting to play baseball. The Reds are supposed to be the Padres. A little bit. A version of them. Midwest version of them. Mid-Midwest version of the Padres. And right now, the actual Midwest version of Padres is the White Sox. Yeah. White Sox are bombing. They're fun. They're too swaggy for the Midwest. Cubs are the Midwest. Chicago. Cubs represent Chicago.

A little bit. White Sox are. They're a ball. Love them. Yeah. Love them. Can't quit them. Yeah, Deskos.

Lorenzen's got three in a row. But we're not talking about them. No. So I wanted the White Sox and the Twins or the White Sox and the Indians to go into this, you know, tied. Right. There was a possibility that they could go into this next series. Tide. They're not.

But if Cleveland does sweep the twins here, they will take first place. So it's within reach, which is cool. That's a fun. That's a fun situation. They got a. Three game set coming up this week, so I'm looking forward to that. Detroit and Kansas City. Just have your fun.

Dude, how about, should we be really mad at the Brewers? Yeah, I don't know what's going on. Like you guys are supposed to be a part of this dance. We should be saying, yeah, the Brewers are around 500. They get swept by the Pirates, man. Same record as the Reds, so I guess, yeah. Yeah, can't talk about you. But the Red, see, the Brewers don't have the firepower.

Is David Ross having a Jim Beam commercial weird? Uh, why? I don't know. Like, shouldn't players have commercials? Like, your manager's got the cool guy bartender commercial? He was on Dancing with the Stars. Right. He's more of a household name than players.

He's more of a household name than Hobby Baez. Right. That's like, I think that's the problem. Yeah. He marketed himself well. Yeah. Like, if I ask my sister, who's Hobby Baias, she says, I don't know. If I say who's David Ross, there's a chance.

Okay. There's a chance. Zero chance with Obie Baez. Yeah. I mean, Joe Tori still has a big Lott commercial. Right. The Yankees ex-trainer. Yeah.

Gene Monaghan has a commercial. Yeah. Isn't that nuts? Get players more commercials. I think that agents are working on getting contracts and stuff. Shouldn't it the league, like, be in, involved in that a little bit? I don't know. It starts getting tricky, but...

I don't know. Because that's definitely the MLBPA. Market your stars. And the league kind of hates them. Don't market your coaches. Could help. I like the Bigelotie commercials. Yeah. Cute. So what's going on with the Burrers, man?

It's tough. I mean, Yelly... I think Yelie still has a negative war. I think someone said that. He's got a 110 OPS Plus. which is crazy because all of his other stats are bad. I don't know. I don't know, man. The story throughout the Central is that the Cubs have the reins,

can St. Louis turn it on, and then on the other side it's, I mean the twins continue to be the twins, 12 and 3 at home, they're going to mash. And the White Sox became the story. We were the White Sox going to be able to keep pace with the Indians who dig up more arms. Tristan McKenzie, my word.

Um, the white socks are now like officially legit. Oh my God. Such a pitcher. Sling and shit. Such a pitcher body. Like a stick fell off a branch. It's not striking you out. That's awesome.

Stick fell off a tree. Branch fell off a tree. White Sox are officially in the party. Oh yeah. They've been there. They'll have that one of the, and we said this from the start that one of the wild card spots was going to the central. Makes sense.

Yeah. Makes sense. It's going to be fun. Right now they, uh, They're better than... I mean, dude, look at... The other team stink. Tigers Royal stink.

Angels stink. Mariners stink. Rangers could have some fight, but they stink. No, there's a race for the eighth seed. Right now is the Blue Jays and the Orioles and maybe the Rangers, but not even right now. They're 10 and 17. No, it's, yeah, it's great.

And we're close. Like five weeks out? We're making moves, yeah. There are five weeks after the season. Something like that. That's crazy. Yeah, white socks are in. It's just going to suck because they might get the,

if they get the eight seed, they'd be playing Oakland right now. That's a fun matchup. I don't think. They'll get the seven seats, so they'll be playing Minnesota. There's going to be a lot of changing in the rankings there. Right now it would be Oakland versus Baltimore.

Baltimore slash Toronto. Yeah. Again, I do think the one seed is going to become a little more interesting Because I do think the eighth team is going to be a serious drop-off Yeah, the seventh seed would be the White Sox, so that's going to be even the two-seat. Or can they jump Cleveland? I don't know. It's starting to get interesting. Yeah, a lot to play out.

All right, let's move on to the West. What happened, Jim? What happened in the West was Jake. Houston and San Diego scored off for a three-game set. America's Darling versus America's heel. America's enemy in a way. They're kind of getting becoming a sad enemy, in my opinion.

Houston was hot. San Diego's hot. San Diego sweeps them. They win four to three in game one. McCullors versus Richards. Richards only lasts two innings. Said he wasn't hurt or anything. God, lasted two innings.

McCullors gives up four. Padres win. Padres win big in game two. Belak versus Davies. The Padres started scoring in the first shake, and then they just kept going, and they put up nine in the second. Home runs, two of them.

One was a Grand Slam, Slam Diego, and then in game three, Granky versus Mora Home. Mani Machado homered off of Inoli Paradidis, second Paredes. That made the sheet today. That's seven straight wins for the Padres. Five grand slams,

and six games or something like that. Just absolutely insane stretch that they're on. They're America's favorite team. They are bringing new fans into baseball. Texas versus Seattle. Seattle wins game one. Colby Allard versus Nick Margevicious. We had a prop bet on the pregame show involving those two pitchers.

Game two, Seattle wins 10 to 1. Justice Sheffield with another good start. Six innings pitch, one-earned run. Good for you, Justice. Liles gets roughed up for eight earned runs. And Evan White had a six RBI. game Seattle also won game three four to one minor versus done Lewis Nola Haggerty all homer for the Mariners Rangers what the fuck and then the Dodgers and the

Rockies they squared off Dodgers swept them I believe yeah yeah Dodgers swept them five to one in the first gray versus Bueller Bueller comes back to being himself he said he was sick of being bad. So I just wanted to be good again. Sixth. Things pitched one run 11Ks. Freeland versus May, Dustin May, fun to watch. Bellinger hits a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth. Didn't know if it was out or not. Kind of a fun highlight. And then in game three, the Dodgers hit seven home runs. Sensatella gets blowed up. Ten home runs total in this game. Dodgers sweep. Rockies have now lost seven in a row. A lot in a row. One in nine in their last ten.

Not good for the rocks. Angels and Oakland square off. Haney versus Fire. Simeon with the leadoff home run, which is nice, but he's kind of slumping right now. Oakland wins game one. The Angels won game two. Canning versus Bassett. Trout had three RBIs.

Good for you, Angels. Can you win the series? No. Bundy versus Montes. Bundy. 5.2 innings pitch to run runs. Kind of like a Kiko line there. Not enough, though, when you're the Angels for some reason,

even though you have the offense. Kana walks it off on a sack fly after. Chapman single to move the runner over. So Oakland stays atop. Angels stay losing. And then in a series that a lot of people don't really care about, Arizona versus San Francisco, San Francisco wins that bring up some young guys. Ray versus Webb in the first game.

Anderson versus Gallen. Tyler Gallen. Tyler Anderson, complete game. Zero earned runs. More on that later. Giants scored four in the seventh to retake the lead. In game three was Weaver versus Cahill. Alex Dickerson with a three-run homer to blow it open.

After losing five in a row, the Giants have now won six in a row. But yeah, dude, a lot of teams I don't care about in the West at this point in time. You know what I'm saying? Like the Angels, you don't deserve to be talked about. No. Mariners sweep the Rangers, which again, I'm just getting pissed off at these teams that should be winning and they're losing.

Rangers almost can't talk about them anymore Like they're 10 and 17 I don't they're they're nothing Two and eight in their last 10 Yeah this was a series Series that they should have gotten it going Against the Mariners who were really struggling And instead the Mariners turning on

Kyle Lewis is for real Seeing a lot of people asking for Kyle Lewis shoutouts in the chat I think he's hitting 368 on the year So good for the Mariners and hey They were kind of at that point of bad Where it was like Hey we we have to to win some baseball games at some point, and it happens against Texas.

And, yeah, you know, coin flip teams coming into this year. I think, you know, angels, Rangers, you know, we talked about Cincinnati a little bit. I mean, dude, the angels have the same record as the Red Sox. They were really bad. I don't get it. I really don't get it. It's confusing. The math kind of doesn't add up.

I was looking at Rendon. I think you'll hear about him a lot. I mean, his numbers are there. Grout's numbers are there. So let me try to do this. So the playoffs happened right now. Yes. One, two.

In the west it would be Dodgers one, San Diego, two. Yep. And San Diego would be the four seed. In the central, the Cubs won. They'd be the two seed. And the Cardinals. The Cardinals would be the second division winner in the central. And they'd be the five seed, which is nuts.

Yeah. In the east, it would be at Lansing. Atlanta one and Miami, two, and Miami would be the six seed. Then the Giants would be the seven seed and the Rockies would be the eight seed. So it would be Dodgers Rockies. The Giants would have the seven seed they'd be playing against the Cubs in the three-game set. I mean... That makes no sense.

It's all wrong. Yes. I think more so the statement in the NL is like, someone has to kick into gear. You know what's been, you know what's interesting is, you know, For the last couple of years, the AL has been shallow, top heavy, and the Central's been more even. It's kind of opposite this year, or the NL's so deep, they're beating each other up so much.

But like this, this standings makes no sense. Yeah, they, I mean, there's, I think, Philly is the second worst team in the National League, and Milwaukee's the third worst team, and since he's the fourth worst team, and the nationals are the fifth worst team. or six-worth team. Some locker room has to look around and say, like, hey, it hasn't been a pretty start

to the season. There's been some COVID stuff. Like, a team needs to kick into gear, man. I'm just interesting that the AL makes sense. Nats. The A.L. You're like, oh, things were normal. The cream rose to the top.

In the NL, besides the Dodgers and the Cubs, Braves, what's going on? It's weird. Mets, Nats, Phillies, Reds, Brewers, Diamondbacks, kind of the Rockies. Like, you were teams that all have expectations to a degree and you've gone off to kind of bad starts. But like two good weeks,

and you're kind of locked into the five seat right now. So, yeah, the NL. A lot of movement to be had. NL's got to pick it up. Yeah. I know what I, how about this? I can guarantee this. What's that?

Know when they do those charts that are like, over time and it just like changes so much. It'll be like home run leaders and then Babe Ruth goes out and then it just moves all around. Like I think the NL playoff standings will end up having a chart that's like that. And for the next five weeks, it's just going to be like pure chaos. Who's that dude that does all the charts? I couldn't find him. Chart dude.

He works for MLB, Stackass. His name is Dan or Dave. Zimborski? No, I don't think so. Adler? No. No, it works for MLB.com. He always does stack cast off.

Okay. It's always got the charts. The like the home run sprawling charts. Right. Can't think of his name. Giant sweet. He's gonna make one. Oh no.

What are you doing, Arizona? It's dumb. My Rockies, man, complete collapse. Same exact thing from last year. Astros to the Dodgers. And hey, they're good teams. But this all started with Colorado losing back-to-back, two to one extra inning games against Houston

and just unravels as quick as that. Darren William. It's Darren. You don't follow him? All he does is charts. I don't think so. All he does is the chart you're talking about.

A lot of charts. Yeah. Home run charts. So Darren, make the chart of the national... NL playoff race chart. Yeah. If you later's Twitter, it's just nothing but... He's a chart guy.

It's off the charts. Angels, you don't deserve to be talked about. Padres with the sweep. Pretty cool. Padres are America's darling right now. Them in the white sucks. But Padres more so because of the whole situation and the Grant slams and Tatis. I mean, first they, the Rangers out of themselves as buttheads or, you know, the Woodward did and the Padres do then. Then they go, their next stop is Houston.

They don't have anyone on their side. So it's kind of worked out nice for the Padres. And they sweep them. And they sweep them. Yeah. And that's, I mean, is Houston, Jake's dumb theories, I think the Padres are undefeated since the incident. Yeah, yeah. They've won seven straight.

Cleveland just started losing. Did they recall Cleve? Are they going to recall Cleve? I haven't heard anything. Okay. And then the Texas Rangers, meanwhile, they are winless since the Chris Woodward incident. So I had jokingly wrote in the notes for last show in Trevor's part to fire Woodward. But it wasn't because of the dumb throwing at people's stuff.

It was like, I think you just killed your team's season. Just like the energy there feels terrible. Fib killer. Terrible. Do you have the pirates from last year? Pirates. No, if I type Clevenger, it's all trade rumors. I don't know if he got called up.

Probably a couple more days to get that service time in. It should be done soon. I don't know. Met's expected to resume play. Hey, hey. Trying to find it. Yeah, man, I don't know. The Padres are really fun.

I think maybe there's more on that later. It's kind of like it's getting to the point where they're the talk of the town. They're the bell of the ball right now. I think it's, I do think that they are acquiring new fans that maybe haven't been into it. So keep rolling. Yes. And then be ready for the hands. haters. And by the way, it was a...

Because as soon as, right now, Padres have done it to the Rangers, and because of Woodward, the national fan was rooting for them. Then they went to the Astros. Like I said, there's no fans. They're coming to Seattle. Seattle's fans have probably been loving this. You're probably going to hate it now. And they go to the next team. And if they keep doing this Slam Diego, fun having tour, they will build some enemies along the way.

They might be able to go through this whole year. year. I mean, short season, you know, kind of like that upstart Yankees team from 2017 when it was so young, new, and fun. I think you might be able to get a whole season and a fun. Yeah, they don't. I got kind of an easy schedule, man. That West is weird. They go Mariners, Rockies, Angels. By the way, they ran into a hot Astros team. That Astros team had won eight straight, I think. They got five games left against the Dodgers, and that's really the only toughness on their schedule. So I think they're a lock.

I think they'll get that second spot. What are they behind the, what are they behind the Dodgers right now? Could that get interesting those five games? Could they mean anything? They're four games back. The Dodgers look so dominant. So good. I doubt it.

More on the Dodgers later. How about that? Yeah. They, uh, I mean, they've kind of been, well, no, I guess the athletics are still 20 and nine. They, they deserve to be talked about in the same ilk. Do the Rangers trade, Jake? 22 and 8.

I would. I mean, would have killed your season. I mean, Lynn's got to be wanted. Get a team's entire farm system for Lance Lynn. I wonder if they'll do that because you can only trade for the 60 guys, right? I think so. You could do the TBD thing, player to be named later, which buys you a little time, but.

Does Lynn have another year to his contract? I believe so. Yeah. We've got 2020 and 2021. So, yeah. 30 million? They were doing the same game last year. They wanted the new stadium.

It sucks. They wanted the new stadium because they wanted to give the new stadium a winner. So people would come to the new stadium and they would make a ton of money at the gate. Brutal scenario for them. If you're not going to make money at the gate this year, try to get some next year, I guess. I don't know. So, yeah, do they hang on to these guys and hope that they can put, like, a competitive team out there for next season?

Get some youth, sign some free agents. Because if you do the full rebuild, you're not going to be making money at the gate. They'll pay 40 mil for Bauer this year in free agency. What a bad time to hold on to players so you can fill up a new stadium and then COVID comes. Well, I guess if there's any spin zone, I mean, I guess Lance Lynn, like last year, Lance Lynn was, like, semi-fluky or, like, people. People were wondering if he was that good. And now it's like, oh, shit.

Yeah, I think he is. He is good. So, yeah. Shinsu, choose a free agent. Need him. I need him. You need him? Need him.

All right. You want to move on? Go get on base somewhere. Awards? I think we can move on. Awards. It's actually standout performance. Standout performance.

Standout performance. So we're switching to the next half of the show in which we do other stuff. And my name's John, Jimmy, and I'm here to tell you that there are 100 million reasons why you should listen up. Draft Kings, the leader in one-day fantasy sports is celebrating the return of sports by giving away up to $100 million in prizes to all of their customers, including one lucky winner, who will take home a $1 million cash prize. What would you do with a million dollars, Jake? God. I don't get something.

Get a house. Probably. I'd get a house. House. I'm sick of apartments. apartment on a house condo so I hope I win and to claim my share of up to 100 million

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Download the Draft Kings app now! And use promo code John Boy to claim your share of $100 million in instant giveaways and put yourself in the running for the $1 million cash top prize. That's promo code John Boy to get your share of $100 million in prizes only at Draftkings. Eligilability Restrictions apply. See drafkings.com for details. Standout performance. Someone in the chat just said Padres trade for Lance Lynn.

Get a couple of those young arms? Love that. Lance Lynn on the pods. baby. He'd look so bad in the uniform. Oh, disagree. He looks so bad. So sexy. I'd love it. Was that Heath Bell? Is he on the Padres? Similar builds, right? Yeah, but they're not the brown. Yeah. Lance and Tatis, that's, I'm here for that. Yeah. See, Trev kind of plays Lance off like he's like a red ass, like a hard ass, but he's not. No. He's not like I don't I was a picture of Heath Bell

He's not He's like a He's like a Paul O'Neill Like only mad at himself and tense guy Yeah Like I don't think he cares if he'll bat flip ball Like I know stuff He just is in his own world

He's a team dude I think he described it best When he was talking about Kluber before the year He's like I'll be that dude's hype man all day He's got Cy Youngs Yeah He's a dude

Like he would do that for the Padres I love it All right Standout performances. Standout performance. Do you get to go first? Standout performance. I'll go first.

Oh, let's take a stayout performance. This is a layup. Layup. Got to make the layups. I'm going Jose Abrae. A brew. First basement. Chicago White Sox.

Jim, he had a two-homer day. Pretty nice. Not a bad way to make the stand-out performance. Better way? Followed up with a three-homer day. And then he had a homer in the next game, too. So six homers in three days. Kind of silly.

And I think we talked about him. I think the White Sox were brewing last week. And I think on Trev's tidbits episode, we started talking about them. And Trev casually mentioned in an AL-Central fashion, he's like, man, Jose Obray is one of those guys that kind of gets overlooked as one of the best hitters in the game. And he's kind of right. you can't put them obviously with the best best dudes in the game, the trouts, the yellies, and those guys. But this guy's been a machine ever since he's come to the majors in 2014.

He's, I mean, it's a career 868 OPS, 294 batting average, 349 on base. He only has one like meh season in the majors, and he was an all-star 22 honors, 128 games. So he's doing it right now. He's currently the AL League leader in home runs and RBIs. Jim, he led the league in RBI last year. And I don't know, Jose O'Brien kind of doesn't get felt in that same ilk when you do talk about him. And everyone's excited about Luis Robert. Everyone's excited about Eloy.

I'm so excited about Eloy. Tim Anderson's doing the damn thing. Jose Abras is a pretty special dude. And he had an unbelievable weekend. So giving it to the old man of the crew slash that's why they brought Edwin Encarnassion in is to make Jose Abrae who feel young. Yeah. There was some quote, I think it was by a teammate or someone, like, was it Kikil? Did Kikov have a quote about Jose Abraeu?

Something about like, you want that guy in the box. He had one season where he didn't play 145 games. He played 159 last year. And, yeah, over 162, he averages 34 homers and 112 RBI. Like career 294 batting average with a solid on base. He's just really good. Really good. What the hell?

Trying to find it. I think Kykel had good word to say. And now I'm Googling Kikl Abraeu, and now it's saying two weeks ago, Keikul aired out the team. Did we miss that? Probably. Probably, dude.

Anyway, good job by Jose Abrae. Climbing up the home run leaderboard, which we'll get to. Yeah. My standout performance shake? Sure. Tyler Anderson. Yes.

How much you know about this guy? Not as much as I'd like. I know he's left-handed. I hope. Otherwise, I don't know. Jeez, that's risky gamble to just throw out there. I mean, Tyler Anderson's such a lefty name. Yes.

Left-handerson. Thank God. He went complete game. No earned runs. One run, wasn't earned. First round pick for the Rockies back in 2015. was on your rocks for the last four years, so I thought you might know him.

Don't have the full scouting report. In 2018, I think he made like 30 starts. Yeah. And, you know, 455 ERA in Colorado. He wasn't bad. What happened to this dude was he had this crazy knee injury that sidelined him for most of 2019. And he had to get major surgery.

In the midst of that, they wave them, they release him. The Giants picked him up for a one-year deal, and the deal is ridden with incentives. and one of them is an innings pitch incentive. So I don't know how the arbitration works or what's your favorite term? Pro rated. Because before, if it was a regular season, he was going to get $125,000 for if he stayed on the roster for 60 days and then it climbed. And then he was going to get $75 grand for each, each for 85 innings and 100 innings.

and 100 grand apiece if he made it to 115 and 130. So, I mean, there's got to be a way to do that math. I don't know how. But a complete game will surely like him hit that bonus. Then five innings? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I know, you know, J.Hap on the Yankees was one of the guys that went to special...

There's only three of them. Special ruling arbitration. So, yeah, if everything is prorated, it's not enough. He's got 31 innings right now. So interesting. Times 2.7. But he shut down Arizona, man. Only four strikeouts, too.

Only three hits. And I believe the run that he led up was an error by the shortstop. And one of the innings, which, come on, man. Come on, man. Yeah. Reached on E6. Starling Marte. Beat it out.

It's brutal, man. He led the league in home runs aloud in 12. 2018. Colorado. Yeah, and that's one of these weird things. He had a really nice rookie year in 2016. First round pick. You wonder, go ducks, Oregon.

You know, guys that go to Colorado, man, as a pitcher, it's almost not fair. I mean, you change a guy's whole career. So, yeah, hey, hopefully he's figured something out. I don't think some of the advanced numbers are great with them, but I'll take a complete game shutout every day. You will? Oh, yeah.

Big time. Okay. All right. I was trying to do the math, but it's not worth it. Tough. Near impossible. Yeah. Hopefully you get it.

Complete game shutout. It has to be mentioned. Yeah. Diamondbacks, what's up with them? We talk about them at all? Diamondbacks fans mad at us right now? I think they're probably happy. I mean, the D-backs, the Rockies,

they're both kind of crap in the bed right now. And I think they're just part of the speech that I was trying to give earlier that, like, there's about five teams in the NL right now that had hopes for this season have played bad but yet still have hopes. So like just turn it around. Okay. Just turn it around.

Turn around. Turn around. Every now and then Tyler Anderson twirls a complete no one runs. Turn around. Dirt nasties on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. like Waco

So besides Jose Abru, who you just mentioned Who else is on fire? I got some fun ones here, Jim. Some stars, a couple funky stat lines, and one potential trade guy. Oh. So let's do the stars first. Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman.

Cody Bellinger's gotten it going three home runs. 462, 588 on base, a 1.8-190. 819 OPS in his past 4 or so something like that he's going to go in Matt Chapman has been killing it but he's always been a fringe in Fuego like he's just never been locked in Fuego but he's just been killing it so 1.474 OPS in his past few games hitting a ton of gopher balls good good for Matt Chabin and then I've got two third baseman with some silly stat lines here yandi Diaz

went seven for 10, which, okay, that's fun. Four walks, only one double. So, I mean, he had a 700 batting average, which, okay, sure. I have one thought that jumps to my mind every time I see Yandi Diaz. Biggest tricep you've seen in a baseball uniform. You're older than him. Yeah. It blows my mind that you and I are older than him.

Yeah. It's tough. He's a man. He's a man. He's a man. And I will never give off that vibe. Like, I'm going to go from boy to old. Old.

Look at the way you're dressed. Never, man. What do you think? Like it? It's pretty ridiculous outfit. And then with that, Tony Meatball's Anthony Rendon. Jim, he's 10 for his last 20. All singles.

No walks. So I think Rendon's just giving up. I think Paul has gotten his ear a little. I think Rendon's just going to, like, win the batting title for fun. Paulus is like, you should try this base-to-base thing. Oh, yeah. It's great. So it's funny, and I wanted to see where Rendon's stats were.

Because, again, can this whole Angels thing? Someone give me a compilation of those singles. Because if there are any that can... He's just lazy. If there are any that can be a double and he's just not laking him out, that's hilarious. Very interested in that. Very Anthony Rendon, don't care. This is a shortened season.

I'm not going to hurt myself. No, it's not even business decisions. It's just straight like boring. Yeah. Just what are we doing here? Not winning. So yeah, Rendon's stat line on the year is now 319, 451 on base, and a 1.0.1.2 OPS. So you got it, Mannheim.

Your team just stinks. What's wrong with them? Good addition. And then from there, I put down two pitchers that have been our favorites this year, Keikle, eight innings, pitch, one, earn, run. His lowers his ERA to 265 on the season. Shove Fest, Darvish, another incredible start, double-digit kick. He's down to 1-7 ERA this season.

He is, I mean, he is the number one on the Cubs if the playoffs were to start tomorrow. And then Martine Perez, Jim. Guy we gave a decent amount of crap to. He's been pretty good. The month of August, 20.2 innings pitched at 261 ERA. I think a couple pitchers have been more dominant. But, you know, when we start talking trades this week, because we're, what, a week out from the trade deadline? Something like that for 31st, yeah.

It's Monday. It's a week for today. I think, you know, and a lot of fake names are going to be thrown around. This guy is a real trade possibility for you. Martine Perez. Martin Perez. Have a nice August. So that's who I got there.

I just watched four of Rendon singles. They're just singles. Just like none of them get past the outfielder. You know, the problem is Luriano's been out there. Yeah. So even if it's like a gapper that Luriano runs down, Here's the last one I'll watch. This one is to left field.

Dude, they're just. Just singling. They're like playing with a ball against your dad who's decided that he's just going to take it a little easy on you. And just kind of go, oh. Here's one. Just like finding holes.

It's giving like outfield practice. Like a coach with a fungo. I like that. That's what he, that's what all. He keeps doing that. All those singles I just watched were very much a coach with a fungo back. All right, balls.

Ball's the second display. Yeah, yeah. Left field. Coming to four. Run out. Run around first one out. Yeah. That's, honestly, that's what all of those look like.

Pretty funny. If you had told Angels fans before this season that Rendon would have a 1.0PS and Bundy would be a top 10 pitcher in baseball, what would they have told you their record would be? Good. Worst in baseball? 18 and 10. They're tied with the Red Sox. I think tied to pirates are still the worst. But.

All right. Let's move on. Fuego. The race to 20. Brought to you by Roosevelt's and John Boy Media. We have teamed up with RSVLTS to track. The race to 20 homers. Will someone hit 20 home runs this season?

We've decided it's happening unless all these home run leaders die. Oh, it's happening. And like we just told you, we had someone new. Just shoot up the leaderboard. On Friday, they had five home runs. Today, they have 11, which ties them for second place with Muki Betts, who hit two himself. He climbed up. But the leader, the first place, the leader is young Fernando Tatez Jr.

Still with 12. He's got 12 and 30 games. Jose Abrayor's got 11 and 29. nine games. Mookie Betts has 11 and 28 games. Nelson Cruz, 10 and 28. Tay Oscar Hernandez also has 10. Anthony Santander, Baltimore. Trout has 10, and Luke Voight has 10. Judge still at 9 because he had a 10-day I-L stint. So we'll see if he comes back with a vengeance. I almost first at bad. I book a home run. That's kind of how Judge operates. He likes the fuck you home runs after being hurt.

Yeah, man. this is fun Jose I like the big climbs we're having guys make like we've had Fernando Tatis climbed his way up there and like Teoska Hernandez being up there with 10

My guy Eight guys have double-digit home runs right now Mike Trout Luke Voigt Yeah it is funny seeing the hot Streaks now you know Voight was hot Last week And now Jose Abrae

You're going nut job It is a It's starting to get tighter It's starting to get a little tighter. I think... For the 20? Yeah. I do think so because Fernando Tattis is leading,

and he's on pace for 24. Yeah. But to think he'll duplicate this first half is a little heart of a task. He's been special. It's pretty crazy for him to be like, yeah, he'll just do that for the next 30 games. So I actually think, like,

I think next Friday's episode, we may be doing some... We actually have to start doing the math. Yeah, a little bit. Someone needs to start doing the on pace for math. So I can just enter the two games, home runs, and then there's a formula. Yeah. Someone's sending me that in an Excel sheet.

So the next episode, I can just type it in. We're getting close to the 30 games, so that makes it easier. But yeah, man, I think, I don't know. I think Tatis still has a series of cores coming up. Interested to see if he takes advantage of that. But, yeah, I think these guys are going to keep dancing around it again. Seeing the big names is cool. Tatis Jr.'s bet.

I mean, Nelson Cruz just... Tatis is a shortstop. Continue. Yeah, man. I know that we say this a lot in talking yanks. Grade catchers against catchers and grade shortstops against short stops. Tatis is a shortstop. Shortstops don't lead the league in home runs. No.

Not a thing they do. No. Runs, home runs. What are the other positions we have on here? First base, outfield, outfield, outfield, D.H. Outfield, outfield, outfield, first base. Castianos, whatever he is. D.H.

field-ish. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah, we need that a calculator. We need the calculator and we need there's a tier of nines with some pretty good ball players. Matt Olson, Brandon Lough, Judge, Eloy, Chapman, Castellanos. I'd like to see the nines have a nice week.

Baseball reference makes it super easy, man. I can just copy a row. I can delete all the rows besides games and home runs. And then I'll have the guy's name. the game, the home run. Those are the, you can, baseball arguments let you edit it. I'll copy and paste that into Google sheet.

Someone sends me the formula and boom, I'll have all the on pace for every show. I'm soft. You got it? You're looking like that's not possible. No, I think that'd be remarkably easy. Yeah. I just need the formula.

Yeah. I don't know the math. I got you. You know it? Okay. On page for? We got the people for that. Yeah.

Percentage and then you times it by the percentage, stuff like that. A lot of math. Yeah. It's easy. Okay. I haven't taken math since sophomore year of high school.

Bang. That's a long time ago. It's a while, yeah. That's, I was, what, 15? I'm 31 now. It's been a while. Half your life. Yeah.

And I didn't do remarkably well in any. No. Moving on, Jake. Moving on, Jake. Oh, soundboard was off. Slump watch. First, Joey Gallo watch. He went one for 12 with no walks,

no extra base hits, and seven strikeouts. I'm done with him for now. I want to keep watching. Okay. It's fascinating. He is a fascinating player. He is. I.

Say it, baby. He's like Chris Carter. Oh, hey. This season reminds me of Chris Carter, where, sure, you'll get a home run, but what do you get in between the home runs? If he's not getting walked. Right.

Normally it's walks. Normally it's walks. Normally it's walks. I mean, what are his stats for the same? season. 201 batting average, 653. So it's a bad season for him.

Yeah. I still believe he'll get it going. Oh, no, no, no. That's not his numbers. Those are Chris Carter's numbers. Nope. But see, they're so believable that it could be his.

Tricky. 201 OPS. So, like, he has an 811 OPS and a 121 OPS plus, but I wouldn't be happy with what you're getting from him series in, series out. It's tough to watch sometimes. It's very tricky as a fan. He could use some help in the lineup too. Because, you know, he, it's like a trick to get a good OPS and a good OPS plus and not actually deliver day in, day out.

A little bit. I mean, I know the analytics don't believe in lineup protection, but man, like someone, someone like Gallo could really benefit. Because, I mean, he's okay taking a walk. And I think teams are okay walking him. Yeah. I mean, he's only got two walks in his last 26 plate appearances. Not good. So he's got to be taking his walk.

Flumping. All right. Slump watch update. Austin Riley we had on here. Jake, he crawled a little bit out, but Trevor and I still wanted to watch him. Yeah. Seven for 18 his last five games. He's off.

Good for you, Austin. Young thick. And thick. Todd Frazier I threw on here because I think he had an ofer and friend. I like Todd a lot. Yeah. Two games, only one hit. He's now two for his last 23, no extra base hits.

You know, he's a clubhouse guy, and Woodward zapped all his clubhouse energy. You got to keep him on here for now? Make Todd the manager. I think so. And let me get into some Texas Ranger stats because Todd was the only guy hitting for that team. So if he's done now, I mean, well, it makes sense that they've lost seven straight,

eight straight. Jesus, Texas. Yeah, leave him on there because Jim Gallo has the highest OPS for Texas. Does he? Yeah. It's like a trick, man It's like he's pulling the wool over your eyes Kind of like, oh, you went 0 for 12

With nothing this series Oh, next series you have two home runs and two walks Now your numbers are good, it's really weird I know what you're saying But I would appreciate it more If he had a teammate that had more than three home runs Really? Yeah

That's brutal Gallo needs some help And it was coming from Todd Frazier And now that he's not sheesh That sucks What else we got? What's he got slump in check? I got Miggie Cabs was on here.

He went two for 11 with two walks. I think this is just who he is now. His numbers on the whole season are bad. I'm taking him off. Yeah. It's a sad watch. Sorry, Meg. Matt Olson, he was on here, two for 12 with two doubles.

He had an RBI double in two of the three games. So while that's the difference of Gallo in my brain. While the overall stats aren't there, he contributed two out of three games with an RBI double. So I'm taking him off. Okay. I think if you watched each game, you would be like, he's helping. Yeah. It's a complete opposite of Gala.

Yeah, I just think what's getting mixed, we've got one of the best teams in baseball and one of the worst teams in baseball. I hear you, but I mean, we can leave him on if you want. I'm interested, I mean, but I'm always interested in Matt Olson, so that might be my problem here. Oh, interesting, interesting, interesting. Hot boy. Get him a commercial. Speaking of hot, I'll skip down.

I added, Jose Ramirez, he went three for 13. He had a bunch of walks. I took him off. I forget him. Say later, Jose. Speaking of hot, Max Kepler, he had one hit in this three game set. He's got four hits in his last 22 at bats, 182 batting average with zero homers in his last seven games.

So watch him. Yeah, you stay. Well, he's, I just put him on. Trev won't talk about you enough. So you're staying, kid. you're going nowhere Marcus Simeon he did have that leadoff home run he's won for his last 161 167 on base percentage

Not good yeah Ryan Goodwin I skipped him I saw a lot of Angels fans and I don't really I saw one Angels guy that I follow saying like can we start him I don't know if they did I think they did start starting him But he's got one hit in his last five games I like him he's fun to watch Yeah

Ian Hap Friend friend sending me some calls So this is tough on Ian because he had two homers versus St. Louis and they played five games in three days. And he had two homers versus them. But this last series, and we do this by series, he did have two walks, but he's got two hits in his last 14 at bats. I think if you're a Cubs fan, I think Hap will take himself off Slump Watch very quickly. He got off to such a good start. And I think the big thing was they wanted to see him get do better from the right side of the plate.

And he was doing that. So, yeah, I mean, it had to slow down at some point. And again, a guy that with that Cubs lineup, when you start talking about Cubs hitters, you know, how many names do you say before Ian Hap? And, I mean, he's got a pretty nice career going up to this point. A 25-year-old switch hitter, he's got a 1.0. OPS this year. He can play almost every position. Ian Hap's a good ball player.

Yeah. So you're on Slubwatch. On Slumwatch. I think he'll get off. I just think. Tough love it is. Hey, not playing games, coming back, having to play five and two. I'm sure.

We saw the Yankees do that and they were like just dog tired. Yeah. Oh, my God, this sucks. You played 36 holes of golf. A lot of people, a lot of baseball fans, a lot of hardos, like to undersell being in the sun all day. Yeah. I like to see you at the beach, you know? It's exhausting.

I mean, just sitting on the beach for like four hours. Takes it out of you. We'll drain you if you're, I don't care what level of. athlete or human you are. That's why they stopped playing games on the beach. Got exhausted. Also, really boring, slow. Ground balls were tough.

Yeah. Oh, brutal. Yeah. Vick your Robles, Jake. This four games said he went one for 12. In his last eight games, he's 160, batting average 267 on base percentage. The Nats are just, you know, what's going on? Do they care?

Do they not care? Yeah. Got to be better. I think you got a yabo on the last one, so maybe that'll spark them. But, yeah, be a little better. Be a lot better. Be a lot better. Anything else?

He had Springer on here. He's got one hit in this series. His numbers are still kind of tough on the year. Free agent, George Springer. So, yeah, he's hitting two Hyundai. That's not George Springer. Not him. No, he has a, yeah.

But he had a hit in the last game, I think, or one of the games, or he got to hit the opening game. I threw him on there. Yeah. Okay. All right. Slump guys. We did it.

A couple of dark horses raised from 20 before that we missed. Bryce and Soto. Still catching up. Yeah. I officially have the on-paced sheet. On-paste sheet. How many guys do you think are on pace to hit 20? I mean, do you have all the guys?

I have everyone that- Like your Soto on that list? No, I cut it off at 8. I can get, I can go get them. Where was Soto? Like I think he's seven home run, 17 games or something like that. Okay. Well.

So there's a few like, for next time I can add him. Okay. Unless I do it real quick right now. Right now there's 11 guys on pace. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Okay. That have eight home runs or more. You know who's on pace for the most?

Aaron Judge still. It's only played 17 games. He's got nine homers. And that gets tricky too because technically he's been hurt and he's missed games. so he doesn't have. Oh, you have to do how many games the team has played. Yeah. So that makes this chart a little harder.

A little trick here. We'll fix it next time. We appreciate the chart. This needs to be how we do this moving forward, though. I think we need to. Teams games played left. We're at that point. Yeah, we're at that point now.

It's like, who cares if he has him if he's not on pace? So teams games played will not have to be the category, not the games that guy's played. Yep. Awesome. Figured it out. Who got mad? We got mad. We got mad.

We got mad. We don't have anyone. I don't think anyone got too mad this weekend. I think Madden got thrown out. And I'm like, smart. He's sending, uh, Robbie's sending that to me as a breakdown. He got ejected, but I don't care about Joe Madden. Any other ejections?

The ejections have been really weird. Tough to watch. Yeah, they're like, Joe Madden got ejected and Kevin Cash got ejected for the race. Cool. Maldonado got ejected on Friday for the Astros. What happened there? Maldi. I don't know.

All right. Award. Awards. Jake, who's your first award? I am giving out the Keep the Doors Locked Award. Oh, wow. Yeah. This one's always brutal.

Yeah. I know who gets it. Yeah. Your mom. Okay. DDD like that one. I'm giving the award to Zach Rinky. Jack.

Zach Rinky. It's funny, the live patron chat just started talking some Grinky themselves. And we've gone too long without talking about them. Because a couple things here. A, we made the joke last year that Zach Rinky would love to play baseball without fans. That's his dream. And now here we are actually doing it. And he's having a blast.

He throws the 53-mile-per-hour curve ball, which is just hilarious. And then by the way, he punches that guy out, paint-john. 89 mile per hour fastball, which next to 53 probably looks pretty, pretty quick. And then Jim was Grisham, right? Yes. He's just having a blast. He's still calling his own pitches. He's going to the dugout and he's talking to the pitching coach so giddy about it.

Like he's been smiling and laughing so much. And I don't know. He's 36 years old now. And the people are starting to enjoy Zach Rankie. to a high degree because of how ridiculous he's being. He's got a 229 ERA on the season, and we talked about playoffs and playoff seating and everything that's going on,

and, you know, the Astros have a lot of young arms that are doing good stuff. Framber Valdez, you know, Belak got off to a hot start. A lot of young guys tore on the pill for them. When it does come to playoff time, it's Grinky show. I mean, he's their one. 35.1 innings, 29 strikeouts.

It's only six walks. He's looked fantastic. He's having a blast out there. And, hey, if the Astros are going to do something this year, I mean, it's going to be on the back of Granky. And they've got a good shot. I mean, they're going to get that at least two slot in the West. Do Astros fans like them?

Like, do Astros fans like that you're like, I hate all the Astros, but I like Granky? Ooh, interesting. Because he doesn't fit their vibe at all. Right. They're like hard-ass swagger. Yeah. Look at yourself in the mirror and flex your muscles vibe.

Correa. Correa, yeah. You know. I see what you're saying. Like, he doesn't. Like Astro fans are low-key mad. Like, if we're going to be the bad guys, he's one of us. And everyone else is like, no.

I could just see them being like. He's not. Everyone would be like, I don't like that. But I do like, but I do like, fuck you. He's us. Yeah. And he's like, yeah, no, he's not really part of you. What do you mean?

He's going to leave after. this year. Does he have another year? I don't know. I might have another year. Check that out. I do like the fact that you said like Granky without fans might be the best version. And he just straight up is having a blast. So he's on the books for next year too. Okay. But yeah, man. I mean, he's just like giggling. There's the image when they were fixing the mound. He's sitting there Indian style and just, you know, he's sitting in the crowd.

Like he's having a goddamn blast out there. And when you're pitching as well as he is too, that it's icing on the cake, so. Grinky. Grinky. Oh. My award, Jake. What's your award? It's the Duck School.

Duck School. Yes. The Duck School Award. Duck School is a kindergarten school I went to, like a daycare. Okay. And, you know, after we were done playing with the toys, I liked having the blocks where you would build. We would all clean up, and we would sing the cleanup song from Barney.

Clean up, clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share. Yeah. The Dodgers. Yeah. The Dodgers scored like 20 runs in this series. Nobody had more than three RBIs. Not one player had more than three RBIs.

they are all pitching in. You like that? In this set, in this set, Betts had two home runs, three RBIs. I mean, they had 10 hitters have an RBI in this set. Now, if you go back past this series and go, I did like their last seven, so over the last week, they have had 12 players with an RBI.

It doesn't matter who's in the box. Just doing it. You can get beat by the Dodgers. They're just hitting like crazy, man. It's pretty nuts. They had eight players hit home runs in the last seven days, eight different players. That's pretty cool.

Bellinger hit four, Betts hit three, Seeger hit two, Kiki hit two, Muncie hit two, Jock, Smith, and Taylor all hit one. I mean, everyone on the Dodgers lineup is hitting

or will beat you or will help. get an RBI or score a run. I didn't even look at runs scored. 12 people scored runs. 13 people got hits. That's crazy. Everybody's doing it, yeah. Everybody, everywhere, everybody do your share.

Dodgers baseball, baby. And they, uh, you know, we, we wondered what depth was going to look like this season. So we're like, you know, I mean, 60 games, you want to have your best dudes out there, blah, blah, blah, blah. dudes are going to play between double-headers or just injuries around the league and everything. If you're available, you're going to play. And yeah, man, when the Dodgers start doing it with Chris Taylor's and Kikey and whoever they throw up there outside of their MVP-type dudes, they're nasty. They're disgusting.

And now that Bueller's figured it out, I mean, they are the easy favorite as of right now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's of August 24th. I mean, then you got to, then playoffs come and you got to see if, like, Kelly can throw the ball and Gratterall can throw the ball. Sure. Who are your top three starters? Does May go to the pen?

You know, stripling. Like, they, they're locked and loaded. God damn it. Yeah. They look. First world problems. Yeah. The only thing mess them up is they do some dumb shit, like bringing Clayton Kershaw and then leave them in instead of bringing May it in and just manage terribly.

It's really it. Otherwise, they got pretty good. Pretty good. They got it a pretty good Pretty good They got it a pretty good Do elevator talk? Elevator talk

Going up And the wheel has been spun Who is it And the team selected is The Tampa Bay Rays Jake, how many guys are on the IL? Nine pitchers on the aisle for Tampa So you just say, damn

Injury bug Injury bug And then you say, yeah, it is going around the way Yeah, you know In the no spring training, there are a lot of injuries. It's not just us, but it is bad. I don't like it. More in Chorinos, and then a lot of their bullpen arms,

I think Chaz Roe just went. So, yeah, and hey, with that, they're still 19 and 10. Second best record in the AL. They have won. Holy smokes. So they were 6 and 8, and now they're 19 and 10. So that's 13 and 2

Yeah Big Baby David is ready to come in with that math But I had it on lock So you're 13 and 2 In your last 15 games That's pretty good, huh? Mm-hmm Brandon Lau, man

That's probably the guy That you need to talk about He's got a 1.095 OPS He's playing at an MVP level He's bona fide I didn't fully believe And now I very much do. That's pretty good.

He's been killing it, man. Do they have an easy schedule? Let's see. They're going, they got one more. So wrap around series with Toronto. Is that correct? And then Baltimore or Miami. That's, they can get a pretty,

then they have three against the Yankees. So they can get a pretty big lead. The Yankees got put to the side right now this last weekend with the Mets. So instead of saying neck and neck, or at least getting the chance to, that the race are up three games because they've won 19 now, something like that. So if they take care of business with Baltimore and Miami, they can, next time they see the Yankees,

it can be a pretty nice lead for them in first place. They can push. I mean, they haven't even gotten a ton of their starting pitching yet. Snell's starting to get it going. Glass now might have fixed himself against the Yankees. Nick Anderson, their stud closer, was having a crazier. He just went on the aisle. That sucks.

9.1 innings pitched, 4 hits, one walk, 15Ks. That's probably a bigger topic. Trade deadline and all the IEL stints. Schedule those for Trevor's tidbits tomorrow. Yeah. Rays are really good. 13 and 2 of the last 15. Coming up on, yeah, Orioles.

Jay's, Orioles, Marlins. With the adjusted team games played, 11 guys are on pace to hit 20. Judge still made it. It's on pace to hit 20. How about that? Start playing, big man. Tatis on pace for 24. Teosker on pace for 23.

So it's a little closer than we think. It's tight. It's getting tight. Because you need someone who had a good first half to have a good second half as well. Getting tight. Let's get a couple of Jose Bray a week. Let's get a couple more five, six spots in a week.

Okay. All right. Thank you guys very much for hanging out with us. We appreciate you. As always, we'll be back tomorrow with Trevor to talk about some big conversational topics. That's what happened over the weekend. This was Jake and Jimmy and BBD behind the plate.

See you later.