Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 196 | Brodie Van Wagenen, Postponements, AL Central Madness, and Kershaw Still Shoves

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

BVW and the Protests 3:00 East Recap 12:10 Central Recap 28:00 West Recap 39:00 Standout Performances 47:40 En Fuego 59:05 1:04:00 #RaceTo20 1:11:55 Slump Watch 1:17:00 Who Got Mad? 1:18:15 Wrong Order Award 1:20:20 Young Money Award 1:23:40 Elevator Talk: St. Louis Cardinals 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 back to talking baseball. They played some games. They didn't play some games. Home runs were hit. Fun was had. Serious stuff was done. Let's do it. What's going on, everybody?

Welcome back to talking baseball. Thank you very much for clicking and play. Hanging out with us today as we recap the series that were and the games that weren't. My name is Jimmy. See, next to me is Jake. And in the corner is B, B, B, D, a bug, bug, dude. We're coming to you live from the Roosevelt Studios in the Bronx. Jake's wearing a backwards hat.

I'm wearing a forwards hat. BPD's wearing a forwards hat. Jake has it feel to be an outcast? I wouldn't say that. I mean, I wouldn't say that at all. Okay. I feel good. I feel non-outcasty.

I've got my Tyler Wade hat on, which is going to be confusing for the people. It is me. Yeah. It's just a hat, so don't get confused by that. I'm doing all right, man. It's one of those weird things. I mean, the world weighed so heavy the past couple days, and now that we're here, and it kind of doesn't.

Like, that also feels like a bad thing in and of itself. But, I mean, I'm excited to talk some baseball. That's what we do. You know, the stuff going on in the world, I think you made a comparison about yelling at a brick wall yesterday. Like, you can only yell and say the same stuff so much. many times. So, you know, go try to educate yourself, talk to a friend, do whatever. And yeah, I mean, we're doing this all on Jackie Robinson Day. So we're going to see what the MLB celebrating

it today. So we'll see what that looks like around the league. And hopefully the guys have a powerful message and handle themselves well. And yeah, man, it was crazy diving into the baseball because as we tell the people on this show diving in, it's a lot of research and work to figure out what everybody did. And this week, you know, between the craziness of postponing games and seeing what's going on, it's a lot to catch up on a lot. Salad. Salad.

It's a little less work because there was less games. And salada. You ever eaten one of them? No, it would be cool. Good. If they all walked out there, said we're protesting this game. We want social justice and we want equality to be the conversation tonight and not should Rojas gone to his bullpen earlier, later. You know, Ken Canoe still swing it.

Is Alonzo in the slump? We don't want that to be the conversation. We'd rather post-pone, boycott strike, whatever you want to call it, the game, and make the conversation. about equality, but what about an hour later, then we just come out and play it. Yeah, it sounds like a good idea. God. Unreal. If you don't know.

Let's see which way we can misspell Brody's name this time. That's how... Did they both misspell it? Yep. Just a reminder. Okay, hold on. There might be people that have no idea. Yeah, okay.

No idea what's happening. Okay. The Mets do their press conference with the Zoom session, and I think you can get a live pass for it. So you know, you watch the press conference and then they forgot to turn the camera off. Brody was sitting there with just two other guys. Metzzi number one.

forgot to turn the live feet off. Brody says to the two other people in the room, do you know what Rob's trying to do? This doesn't leave the room. He says just the three of us, this can't leave the room, live cameras. I want to say that's partially Metzzie, but I won't even add that to this one. No, you can't put that on Brody.

You're just having a conversation in a room. Supposed to be private. Maybe walk away from the bikes and cameras for the combo. It's half-Matsy. We won't even add that one. Brody says MLB wants us to take the field, walk off, you know, postpone, and then come back at 8-10 and play the game because Jeff says, Jeff Wilpon says the scheduling is going to be a nightmare.

One of the other guys in the room says, who wants this? And he says, Rob. Yeah. And then one of the other voices in the room says they're not dealing with reality. Which is true. True. True. And then Brody says, this is what we were talking about earlier to one of the guys.

This is what we were talking about earlier. Rob, at a leadership level, just doesn't get it. Just doesn't get it. So even if Brody may have had the facts wrong on this state, right. He admitted that he's had. prior conversations about how Rob doesn't get it on a leadership level. Yeah.

Okay. Just like the rest of it. So how do they come out? I thought I had the PR move mapped out. Yeah. You see my tweet? You went for it. I thought they were going to say, you know, Rob Manfred and say that was one of the ideas.

We floated. We floated. We didn't go with it. We were just like, you know, there's a lot of bad ideas that get floated before we choose the right one. I was kind of team that Brody was leaking this as like guerrilla marketing for himself. I think Brody was like trying to pick up his own stock. The one who left the live feed on probably got ripped apart by Brody, who got rid. Anyway, then both Will Pons, Fred and Jeff.

Now we start getting Metsy. They both release statements. It could have just been a joint statement. Right. Easily. So, like, put that in the Metsy column. So, yeah. They just, they open themselves up to say dumb things twice.

Both misspelling Brody's name. So I think we're up to three Metsys. BPD. You got to include the leaving the camera on. No, it's not directly their fault, but... We did. That was the first messy. That was the first one. That was the first one.

It was just like the conversation. That they taught. That's the one I meant. The fact they opened with it doesn't leave the room and it's so left the room. That's the one I meant. You know what I thought. I was leaving the room in lifetime. It instantly left the room.

So then, so Jeff was part of the conversation. Brody was saying that Rob and Jeff were trying to navigate this. And he said Rob doesn't get it. Jeff Wilpon takes the blame. He says, it was. It was my idea to have them come back. And our GM, you know, had it wrong and that's a mistake. I forget, what was the actual?

Taking credit for the terrible idea, though. I'm going to put that under the Metsie column. That was my idea. And, like, if the commissioner's whole job is to eat shit for the owners, Jeff Wilpon being like, no, I'll eat this shit. Don't give me credit. Give me credit where credits do. You know what, Rob?

I'll take the fall for this one. my public statement will say you know when Brody was saying that he doesn't get leadership and that he's dumb and all those things that was me he was talking about that was all me baby

that's me baby two thumbs and this guy I'm the guy that doesn't get leadership I'm the guy with the bad ideas don't give that credit to Rob oh man the Mets are so stupid so

wait so then Brody made his statement oh yeah Brody made his statement as well Yeah, had to. Both of them misspelling Brody's names and just tying some things together, people. Hey, you know, the Mets and Marlins ended up doing a really nice thing. They go out on the field, 42 seconds of silence, and they leave the Black Lives Matters shirt on the field. Pretty cool.

But with the organization, now I want you to go back and think about the Cespitas situation, where Cespitas left the team and we were wondering how it happened. And how the Mets broke it right before the start of the game and said that a person was missing. Yeah. And we said, you know, that's PR. It seems so messed up.

Like, how could you do that? It looks like they're trying to trash Cespite his names. And then look at them come out with two press releases where they misspell the GM's name, which I think was an intentional jab by them to try to be like, ha. Because otherwise it's what? Pure?

There's pure ignorance? Nothing they do is intentional. I don't know. No, they would. I don't know. They, they're just dumb. I think they thought they were going to take a shot at Brody, like they thought they were going to take a shot at Cespitus.

And they just stink. They don't deserve us to talk about them. All right. Well, that's that. There were cancellations all around the league. And if you heard me earlier, I support it fully. It's, it's, it's, you, may ask, well, they're just doing it because that city did it.

Well, yeah, because now the conversation happens with these two fan bases. So the more it had, the more, the more, the more postponements or wildcat strikes, whatever you want to call them, it just forces those fan bases. So if you're a Reds fan and everyone's canceling, but the Reds continue to play, well, you get to say, oh, they're doing that and maybe it doesn't come to your household. And maybe your little kid doesn't ask, why aren't the Reds playing? But then when the Reds and Reds cancel, now that whole. That fan base, those kids that watch with their parents, they have to have the conversation of why.

And hopefully it's not because babies, baseball players are babies. Yeah. And I- Hopefully it's a real conversation. And it ties back to leadership a little bit because it's crazy that these decisions were in the players' hands. You know, the other leagues, NHL tapped out, NBA tapped out. but MLB left it out there so it's this weird each team looking at each other before the game do you want to do this or not so I like that they let the players handle it

a little bit but then you left so many players feeling unrest like the Rockies players felt terrible they all came out with these quotes like we shouldn't have played like we feel like assholes why didn't they say not play then because they they didn't know that the other teams were doing it and it's just that's what happens there's no communication there's solidarity and that's what you kind of need but they were like an early game two days ago yeah so i don't know it's uh again if you don't get it at this point i don't know but look into it and try if you don't yep all right well we will talk about the games that did happen this episode is brought to you by lee bontekew oh turumi w dubbs joey thompson look the guinness and

And Jaime, supupe, sepulveda. Nailed it. Jamie Sepulveda. Jaime Sepulveda. Thank you. Sepulveda. You're all over it. That could be Jaime.

It's the I before the M. Could be. I mean, it's pretty rare. How do you spell Jaime? I'm just, I've seen a lot of jamies that spelled that way. I know. I'm just saying it can be both. I agreed with you.

We don't know. But it's just. A lot more rare. In the States. Yeah. Jamie with an eye before the M is weird anyway. That makes sense. It's an angle.

It's an angle. I goes after the M. Anyway, those are most recent patrons. Thank you very much. I have the East Coast today, and I will be telling you what happened. Are you ready, Jake? Please catch me up.

Because guess what, Jim, I couldn't watch all these games. Impossible. Are you not a real fan? Impossible. It's a miracle. She's alive, damn it. The Marlins played the Mets, the very Mets we were talking about. Marlins win the first game, 4 to nothing.

Castano versus Pustelo. Marlins win the second game, three to nothing. Mets didn't score any runs. I think these were double-header day, double-headers, so seven innings. Games Lugo versus Rogers. Mets forgot to score any runs on the day. Two games, a lot of chances. They didn't score any.

I don't know why their problem. is. But DeGrom comes back, faces Pablo Lopez for game three, and they put on a nice little display of pitching. DeGrom out duels Pablo. I think this is the second time they've matched up, and Pablo has a good start ruined by a better DeGrom start. The Mets bullpen came in, Patancis and Edwin, and they tried their best to blow it. They go like single walk here, hit by pitch to bring in the one run. They bring Diaz in. He walks the guy to bring in the tying run. But Conforto wins it for the Mets with the go-ahead ninth inning Homer.

Good job by them. They do the wildcat strike. They do the 42 seconds of silence. Game four did not get played. The Phillies and the National squared off for a three-game set. Again, the third game did not get played. The Phillies won eight to three in the first game. Arieta versus Fetti.

Real Mudo with a three-run Homer. Areeta with a nice, nice, compete outing, five innings pitched one earn run. Plus the Phillies bullpen goes four innings pitched one earn run, which is like miraculous for them. So congrats. The game two, Phillies win again. This time they only won by one run.

Great pitching matchup. Nola goes seven inning pitch two earn runs. Corbyn goes six innings pitch two earn runs. Will Harris blows the save for Washington, while Workman gets the save for Philly, his first clean outing. as a Philadelphia, Philly. Good job. Workman is third, outing his first claim.

The Red Sox and the Blue Jays squared off. They played two games postponed or boycotted or Wildcat Strike the third. Kyle Hart versus Chase Anderson in game one. Miles and Miles of Hart can only go three and a third while giving up six earned runs. But the Sox exploded for six runs themselves in the sixth inning off of Wilmer Font and A.J. Cole. Sox take game one, nine to seven. Blue Jays make a trade for Taiwan Walker. They're doing the damn thing.

They're trying to lock up that eighth seed. They win game two. Nine to one. The bullpen, the Jay's bullpen held the socks to one run over nine innings. The socks, they went with the deadly combo of Brewer, Weber, and Bryce. BR for Brewer. Weber. Brewer.

Brewer. Brewer. Get it. Bryce. You get what it's going? Brewer, Weber, Bryce. They each gave up multiple earned runs combining for nine. Telez saw that they grabbed Vogelbacks,

said I'm the only fat first baseman around here, so he hits two home runs himself. Good job, Rowdy. In there. Orioles and Ray's squared off. They didn't play the third game, and the Ray's won the first two. Mill won, 5.1 innings pitch to run runs versus Glass now.

Who put on another display. He's rocking and rolling. Seven innings pitch, touring runs 13Ks. Renfro and Margot went back to back with Jackson the second, and that kind of was the game. Asherwo Jukowski versus Trevor Richards in game two.

Michael Perez takes Michael Givens deep in the 8th to win the battle of the Michaels and the game for the race. Yankees and the Braves squared off for two games. It was two seven inning games. One day a baseball double header. making his MLB debut in Anderson. One hits the Yankees, has a no-hitter into the sixth.

Voight pops him for a home run to ruin the no-hit bid and the shutout. Very impressive debut for the young kid from the Shenandoah area in New York. Shenandoah? Shenandoah. It was versus Cole. Also of note, Acuna comes back. Pops Cole with a big home run, first step back coming off the IEL. Garrett Cole has one of his worst starts in a long time.

Give up four home runs and five earn runs, something like that. Three or home runs, maybe, five earn runs. In game two, Tanaka pitched really well. Max Fried pitched really well. Really nice pitchers duel. Yanks are up one-nothing. Yanks go to their bullpen, and Freddie Freeman hits a two-run homer to take the lead for the Braves. They win the game.

Yankees lose. They've lost five in a row. Braves are doing well. And that, holy smokes. is your East Coast. Wrap up. Holy Somolians. That's a lot in the East, baby.

A lot of double-deckers. There was a tough day in New York. The Mets got shut out through 14 innings. Against the Marlins. And then I think it was the next day or the same day. The next day, the Yankees, the Braves held them to one run in each game. The Yankees are shell themselves. If you guys want to hear us, be sad.

Go listen to a talking Yanx episode from a couple days ago. Lineups a shell of themselves. Judge going back to the IL after five innings. That's brutal. DJ LaMayhew hopefully coming back this weekend. Glabers out. Drink the tears, man. Drink Yankee tears.

Good for the Braves. Yanks and Braves end up splitting their four-game season series. Mets, oh my God. Trying to blow that to Gromsar is what it is. Philly is rooting for them to get going. I think we're both on the Phillies. We're looking for that second team in the NL East. Could be anyone if you have a nice weekend.

And then, yeah, man, razor rolling. Razor rolling. I think the Glass Now Fix was like he moved his foot to the middle of the mound or something. It's one of those like just slid his foot over on the rubber and now he's fucking dynamite again. You think it's really the fix or it's kind of like in, um, Tin cup when he's like, put your keys in your other pocket. It very well could be. Very well could be.

Because, yeah, now he's doing his silly act on the mound again. What else? Jays have been nice of late, and they get Taiwan Walker, which, again, isn't a game-changing piece, but he's an MLB starting pitcher, which is nice to have. We talked about this on the pre-game show with Trev. If the Blue Jays, you know, and they are contenders, they got young guys, and they brought in pitchers,

and they're trying to win. and making moves bringing in Volga back. He hasn't even played yet and probably maybe won't. But I do think it's like maybe a message to tell us, maybe a message. And also the Taiwan Walker grabbing him is just a message. And we said this if the Orioles want to trade guys, if they fall apart, which is very, very, very likely, the AL is locked up. Yeah.

The only team that maybe can still make a push for the A spot is the Tigers. and I don't see that happening either. So I think the eight playoff teams in the AL are locked up with four weeks to go. Yeah, and that's, if you're the Orioles, because we did this, and again, that's conversation's been cycling through my head. I mean, you got to think you got to sell because you can't be, the Orioles could be a week after the deadline, and you could lose five, six games in a week pretty easily.

And then you're going to be sitting there saying, like, No, get some, I mean, if anyone wants Cobb, if anyone wants Givens. Yeah. And I really like your big boy theory with the Blue Jays, because Tellez, he got it going, and Vladdy Jr. has been getting it going. Flattie's getting hot, which is going to be interesting to see

because we just got tough on him after him and tried to hustle out that triple because he looked, it looked like an old fat man. Yeah, yeah. And he's 21. It's tough. 21. You think he's got Voigt beaten a race?

Yes. I do. You do? I do. You think Vladie's faster. We know they're home to first time. Luke Voigt just can't move his legs fast. B'Bi, do you know, is there an easy way for you to find Vlad's home to first and Void's home to first?

Does Savant have base running stats? Give me five. Yeah, yeah, at any point, if you can just chime in with that. And either way, the baseball savant numbers on Luke Voight aren't accurate. Why? Because it... I still got eyes. Like, know how you say, like, the pitching strike zone?

Yeah. Like, you can't get everything, right? Oh, the bullshit one. It doesn't get it right. ESPN. I don't know if he zigzags or something. But he doesn't go forward at the pace he's supposed to. I do think that hitting a stopwatch here and then, like,

like, I could get their sprint speeds by pulling up two sprints. You know, like, those numbers are right. Someone gave me a sprint speed that said, Aeronado and Voight are similar, and I just can promise you they're not. That's all I need the people. But that's not. When ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball puts up that 3D graphic two seconds after the pitch is thrown, and they're like, this is where it was.

If you think that's actually tracking device and not a human being touching a screen and be like, I think it was right here, and then the pitch comes to the spot that human being touched. Like, you're going to get the nerds, man. They use the tennis technology. We've done this so many times. The tennis technology is like they have the cameras all over. ESPN's not installing all these high-tech cameras everywhere they go. It's the most bullshit thing.

They use it like it's absolute science. And they make the announcers be like, oh, it looks like it. Did clip the outside a tiny bit. It's like that's bullshit. Stop using that as if there's authority. Anyway. What's going on in the NL East? Atlanta is just going to run away with it.

And then it's a shit show, man. I hope the Phillies, they're right now. They're in third. They're 12 and 14. Miami's 14 and 12. One of those two teams, I guess if the Marlins want to get hot and claim the two seed in the NL East,

I'm fine with it. I just like someone to run away with it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I think we're like Phillies fans, right? Yeah. Quentin says, I'm pretty sure the tennis cams are spot on.

The tennis cams are. They like set up high-tech cameras. And it's everywhere. You think there's someone in a room that clicks a screen where they think the pitch is. Yes, I don't think the ESPN broadcast. They don't do that. There's an article in front of me right now. I'll send it to you.

The ESPN broadcast isn't setting up high quality cameras before every game. That does that. I think they are. Okay. You think that's accurate? Yes, I have an article in front of me right now. I'll sell you a bag of shit tomorrow. Yeah.

So trying to think I want to phrase this. Okay. So Luke Voight is 375th in baseball with a 4.21 seconds, 90 foot sprint speed. Vladie, what would you guess? So Void's sprint speed is 4.21? 4.21. 90 foot. Home to first. 4.21. Vladdy is 4.28.399 cooks.

He cooks. He's 4.4. which is 318th in baseball. So, like 60 people are between them. So Vlad's got Voight beat. Yeah. But they're both very bad. That's unreal.

I mean, I'm just... I know, I believe it, because Voight's slow. But, like, how can Voight look at Vlad and be like he's fast? I don't like believing my eyes. I normally do not want to trust my eyes. But when Luke Voight runs the bases... And by the way, yes, this is pretty Yankee heavy. But also, Luke Void's been one of the best hitters in the A.L.

So also remember that. I mean, if you're Voight and you look at Vladdy and you say that dude's faster than I mean a first, how do you even understand that? He just doesn't have speed. It's just not. I don't know if I've seen a baseball with less God-given speed. They're 10-foot sprint speeds. Voight hasn't beat.

Look at that. What are you talking about 10-foot sprint-seat? His acceleration. He got every five feet labeled. They have every five feet labeled. Yeah. So Vladdy takes him over after the first 10 feet. I can find the point.

Does Vladdy have him from there from 10 to 90? Give me a minute. That's funny. All right. Do you care about anything else in the East Coast? Let's see. I don't think so. We're worried about our Yankees.

They are a shell of themselves. The Yankees are not currently the Yankees. Yeah. Well, yeah, they're hurt, and then the injuries, they probably won't be able to get healthy in time. It'll be very hard for them to get healthy in time. You know, Judge is going to have... It's going to be an interesting seven games.

One of the New York fan bases after this weekend is going to be having a very bad time. That's Yankees for five. Yeah, Jesus. Yeah. It's going to be fun series. All right. What's going on in the Central?

I'll start us off, Jay. Tell me, Dad. The twins and Indians, they squared off. That's a fun matchup. Fun matchup alert. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. Twins win the first game. Kenta goes five innings pitch, one earned runs.

Savali goes six innings pitch, three earn runs. That's a Kikl and a quality start right there. Those starts have names. Sineau hits a go-ahead, Homer to give the twins the lead. That would be the only game they win in this series. Game 2, Rich Hill versus Shane Bieber. Bebbs with another good one. Six innings pitch, two and runs, 10 K's.

Lindor, homers in the 6th that take the lead. Indians win 4 to 2. And in game 3, Burrios versus Clevenger. Another premier pitching matchup, Clevenger makes his return from timeout. He goes six innings pitch, tour and runs. So a grand return for Clev. Romo blew it in the 8th. Didn't trick them.

Tyler and A. Quinn with the go-ahead. Double Indians take the series. And they don't make up any ground. They're half game back. They're not in first place. Wish they would have been. Cubs and the Tigers square off, and you think the Cubs got this one.

Wrong, Jake. Cubs win the first game, 9 to 3. Alec Mills versus Casey's size. Mills has a bounce back start. My dude, seven innings pitch. Three earn runs. But Jake, they threw them back out there for the seventh inning. And he goes first batter walk, second batter home run.

So it really, it should have been six innings pitched, one earned, if they would have just given it to the bullpen right away and been like, you did good, Alec. So I'm mad at them for ruining Alec Mills start and also himself. Mize, he didn't do well, but shrug. He's super young. Bodie with 4 RBI's in this game. Tigers win game 2.7 to 1.

Spencer Turnbull gives it hell. 5.1 innings pitch, three hits, zero earned runs for him. Chatwood, the opener, isn't good. But Jose Quintana makes his return, his debut on the season as the bulk guy in this game. Also not good, but who cares? The fact that he made his return is bigger than any results he got. The Tigers also won game 3, 7 to 6. I forgot to take any notes because I did this yesterday and I didn't update it today and I didn't realize that it was blank.

So I don't know what happened in this game, but Tigers won it. Congrats to them. Maybe I'll find out after the fact. I'll give it to you. and then I'll take it back. Okay. Pirates versus White Sox. White Sox win game one, four to nothing.

Bralta versus Gialito. He did something kind of cool. I kind of forget. And then the White Sox also take game two, 10 to three. Trevor Williams versus Dallas Keikle. Kikle, Kikles, six innings pitch,

Tour and runs, even a little better. That's a good start. Trevor Williams gets blowed up. Mendick, Edwin, Eloy, and Abraeu all go deep. Jake, what else happened in the Central? In the Central? What else happened?

was the Reds played the Brewers. Brewers take the first game 4 to 2. Good mental 4 to 2. Anderson out duels Bauer. This was the Bauer beer game, if you'll remember that. Smoke and Narvaez, Homer for Milwaukee. Casale and Suarez, Homer for the Reds, but it's not enough. Brewers take game 1, 4 to 2. Then they take the second one, 3 to 2. Woodruff Castillo. Nice little pitching matchup, although Castillo now drops to 0 and 4. He had a good start, but Luis Castillo, O'N 4, that's baseball. talking baseball celebrity Ben Gamble with a big RBI double. And then in the double Dick, Sunny Gray dropped some five-innings pitch shutout. Castellanos Homer.

Winker with two home runs. Jesse Winker, get used to that name. Cincinnati wins the first game, 6 to 1. Then they win the second game 6-0. Wade Miley with a nice start. And Suarez with another home run. Royals versus Cardinals. St. Louis takes game 1, 9 to 3.

Jack Flaherty, our friend, he's back. five innings pitch shutout. Goldie home run, Paul Day Young, couple RBIs. Kansas City takes the second game five to four. McBroom and O'Hern, our guys do it. Stallmont, nasty in the pen. He gets the W. Deserved a shoutout. But St. Louis takes the final game, 6'5 with a four-run rally in the ninth, including a Molina hit by pitch to bring in a run, an O'Neill single and a Colton Wong walk to win the series. Two games to one. Any final notes on that Tegra's match?

Yes, yes, the game that I forgot to take notes for, the Tigers won seven, two, six. John Lester with a five innings pitch, one earned run outing for the Cubs. Michael Fulmer goes three innings pitch, two earned runs. They get him out of there pretty quick and go to a heavy bullpen. Tigers hold on barely. Buck Farmer gives up three earned runs as the Cubs try to come back. Kimberl had another clean inning,

so that's really good news for the Cubs there. So even though the Cubs lose this series, they have some good news, notches. Kintana back, Kimberl stays strong, offense is getting going. So good for the Tigers, not terrible for the Cubs. IMO, that's your central wrap-up. That's good.

Thank you. Thank you. Not sure if it counts as a central, but Tim Melville just had a good tweet. Dreams do come true, and it's him in the Taiwan Baseball League, and it's him and a bunch of mascots. Oh, he's over there? Yeah.

Yeah, so we might have to get an update from him at some point. Had some good content during his quarantine time. He's a good content guy. Yeah. It's a good content guy. I love your Cubs spin zone. Don't worry about the series. Kintana's back.

Yeah, I mean. Timberle-Truitt. It sounds like you're still sleeping on the Tigers, which... Yeah, I mean, the Cubs have first in that division locked up. So, I mean, it's three games. So that's not like locked locked, but I think they do. So if your Cubs, you're just looking for positive signs, really. Milwaukee and the Reds piss us off.

They split the four. We said sweeper be swept. Cincinnati takes the double header, and their offense is starting to do something. So Cincinnati, with a big weekend, you could get me talking about you in a good light again, but unfortunately not going to do that. And then the Cardinals, this one is tough

because they did play a double header. with the pirates yesterday and they lost, but technically that's their next series, so it can't really talk about it. But they had a really nice comeback to win the series against the Royals. And Jack Flaherty, with a good start, is he's still building himself back up. So that's kind of the NL update. Yeah. Nothing else stands out.

Pittsburgh. They won three in a row. Cole Tucker. Shake that dick. Ooh. The AL Central is really fun. I mean, it will stay fun. White Sox and Tigers have the same exact record right now.

19 and 12. They're both half a game out of first place. So, like, that's, they're all, they're all tied for first. They're there. They're there. White Sox are 9 and 1 in their last 10. Cleveland took the series against the twins, right? So they're a half game back.

Man, it's, uh, Jim, I think we can almost, You've been schedule watching a decent bit. I think it's almost time to jump towards the back of that schedule and see who's wrapping up around each other because those are going to be the games to watch in baseball at whatever point they happen. Just really fun teams. The Cleveland are the Cleveland.

Cleveland's known for their pitching and a couple of their stars. The White Sox have the young fun lineup in baseball with a couple pitchers, one you might hear about in a minute, and then Minnesota's with, you know, the lineup. White Sox and Cleveland play a four-game set second to last series of the season. So that'll be probably a fun one to watch.

Like that. That'll determine some playoff seating. I wonder who Cleveland plays after that one. I wonder. Who wrote the Book of Love? Did you write the book of love? Does God have faith in tennis clubs? No, no, the answer to that wasn't exciting.

Tigers are 7 and 6 on the road, so road warriors. Minnesota doesn't play. Minnesota ends Detroit and Cincinnati. So, I mean, Minnesota's got the easier path, I think. I've got something kind of exciting. Tell it. The Cubs and Reds play this weekend in Cincinnati. Four games.

Double header Saturday. Cubs, Reds, four games, double header Saturday. Cubs just lost a series. They've been a little shakier of lately, but like you mentioned, there are some wins. Kantana's back. Kimbril's looking like he might have figured it out. The Reds win a double header.

Can that be the thing that sparks them? Because their lineup has been bad, and I'm going to talk about that in a little bit myself. but Reds, if there's a time, like take three out of four. If the Reds take three out of four this weekend, I will talk about them in a good light. From the Cubs? Yes. It's not happening.

I know. That's what I'm saying. But it's in CINC, you just won two games. Like, it's time, Sincy. Honest question, I don't know. It's time. How many series have the Reds won this season? Ooh.

Winning Series by the Reds is the question. Yeah. Let's see. Did they get the royal? There's a couple splits, reds. There's so many postponements. I'm not trying to evade the question, but the website I'm currently looking at makes it really hard to find.

Baseball reference makes it really easy. I'll find it. Got one. Because I don't think it's possible for the Reds to beat the Cubs in the series in a five-game set. They've been so bad. Dude, they have so many splits because of, like, postponements. All right, I got it here.

They lost a set to the Tigers to start the season. They lost the series to the Cubs. They won series win against the Tigers. They lost a series to Cleveland. They won a series against the Brewers. They split a two-game set versus the Royals. They split a two-game set against the pit. They split the other two-game set.

So those don't count as wins. No. They lost to Cardinals, and then they just split four-game set against the Brewers. They have won two series all season. Yep. So, yeah, I don't think they're going to take a five-game set against the Cubs. Four. I mean, lining up like they'll split.

But I'm just saying, like, I, we've been pissing on the Reds a lot because they've been pissing on baseball fans because they have so much talent. their hitting's been bad. The hitting's starting to get going. Jesse Winker. Got to show you the numbers in a little bit. But I don't know. This is the first time I'm excited for a Red series. And I'm excited for the Cubs to sweep the Reds

and just go on their merry way. Let's see it. No, they won't sweep them in a four-game set, but I'm more rooting for the Cubs to fine-tune everything and become a really good NL playoff team to try and give the Dodgers a run for their money. A scare. A scare, you know, become a threat than I am for the Reds to get things together for the eighth seed. I'm over the Reds. I wanted the route for them so bad.

They don't win. They've won two series all season. That was the time. If they sweep the Cubs, they'll win me over. That's tough. Yeah. That's what I. It's a high bar. That's why I said three games. That's why I said three games. You have a little less than that?

Yeah. Oh, you want to do the West Coast? Yes. Anymark, get set. What happened in the West, Jake? In the West, the best coast. The Angels played Houston. Framber Valdez 11 strikeout game.

Sheesh. Framber's looking pretty real. This game was fun. It was 5'1 Stroes. Angels fought back made a 5'4. And then Stroes ran away, 11 to 4. And then they played two Christian Hoves. Xavier. Another solid performance. Stros were up 6-0. They win this game 6-3 and run away with it.

Angels take the final game. Belak gets hit. Angels put up a 12 spot in seven innings so they can pad their stats and Angel fans can get excited, but it doesn't matter. Every Angels hitter had a walk, except David Fletcher, we went three for five. Houston wins a series two to three. The Angels are my nightmare. Angels of my nightmare. A's versus Texas. First game was Lynn versus Lizardo and Lance drops it per usual. Texas wins three to two behind a Kiner Filafa home run in the second, and that was the last run that was scored that game. How about that?

A's bounced back and they take the final two games, the first one, 10 to 3. Mania with a solid start. That's three straight from him. Olson and Simeon, they hit home runs, and then in the final game, fires with his best start of the year, six innings pitch, zero earn runs. He's gotten it going for them. Piscotti single, their other runs were scored. a wild pitch and a hit by pitch.

So ain't that baseball. A's take the series. Seattle versus San Diego, Slam Diego. Some are saying, Seattle takes the first game, J.P. Crawford and Austin Nola home run. Marco Gonzalez gets the dub.

Another solid year from him, 8-3 win. Then they played a double header. San Diego, the Padres, with an unreal comeback. They come back from down 3-0, then 7-3. Machado hits 2.

Tatee hits one out of the stadium, over the warehouse. Over the warehouse, and then Will Myers hits the game-winning three-run homer. But guess what? Seattle takes a set with another 8-3 win. Garrett Richards couldn't get out of the first. Jimmy's guy Marmalahejos with the Grand Slam and Shed Long. My guy hits a home run as well. Seattle takes two out of three. Colorado versus Arizona.

Bring the broomsticks. Babe, my rocks win three one-run games. that kind of stuff is going to decide the NL West this year slash second place in the NL West. Castellani with another good pitching performance. Story hits a home run. Cole Calhoun, Christian Walker. They hit a couple home runs in this one.

Tapia has the winning RBI in fifth inning. The next game, Aeronado, couple RBI doubles. Garrett Hampson with the yacker. John Jay and Christian Walker again hit home runs, but again in a loss. Charlie Blackman, with the grand slam in the last game. Colorado was up. up 8 to 1 in this game.

Gigity. Final is 8, 7. They almost blow it. How about that? Rockies get the sweep and then canceled game. L.A. versus San Fran in the final series of the West. San Francisco, the San Francisco treat.

They take the first game in 11. San Francisco came back in the 9th, the 10th, and the 11th. Donnie Barrels. Donovan Solano with the two-run walk-off. Brandon Bell, two home runs in this game. And then they play two. San Francisco doesn't score a run Kershaw, six innings pitch shutout,

because that's just what he does. A.J. Pollack with the home run bonus piece for the Dodgers. That guy's a really good baseball player. And then they take the final game to nothing. Jock hits a bomb. Seven pitchers combined for the shutout for Los Dyers. What a good tune. Great job, Jake.

Oh, our update from BPD. On average, Vladdy passes Voight. At the 25 footmark. Yeah. So Voitz got him for that. Did you do the math on that? Or could you like click somewhere? They have trackers for every five feet.

They're splits. Okay. So it gives you like their total time for each one. So Vlad's gets lower at 30 or 25. So between 20 and 25 feet, he passes them. Thank you. On average. On average.

Hmm. What do you see, Jim? What's jumping out to you, kid? A dumb earlacker tweet. Yeah, that was a bad one. That just went on my timeline. That was a bad one. Is it a new one or is it the same one?

I'm assuming it's the same. Same ones from yesterday. Yeah. Not good. Not great, Bob. Yeah, the Padres are real. I mean, the West is fun. It's settled, basically.

on the American League. We told you it's going to be A's Astros. Our dear friend, Quentin Huebner, I asked him yesterday if the young pitching is sustainable. I think he said yes, Hube's. But Belak has another bad outing.

I'm really interested to see, like, I don't, I'm trying to take, like, any bias about, like, not liking the Astros in their system side. I don't think they're primed to be good in the playoffs, but neither are the Yankees. So I'm not saying that from a shots fired either. Yeah. So there, I mean, when you start looking towards the playoffs,

which we kind of did with the Yankees and you start trying to picture how a seven-game series looks, I mean, they've got Grinky, who, you know, you can get three out of him. So it's going into the pitching, it's who's next. And I think Framber Valdez could be the guy. You know, he pitched in last year's playoffs and he's starting to have a really nice season. You know, Christian Javier has been good. I mean, you just, a rookie in the playoffs is a rookie in the playoffs until they're not. So I think Framber is the guy that you're probably leaning on and saying, you know, he was there.

So who's after him? He can build on it. That's the problem. Then you start getting into the rookies. And it's Christian Javier. It's Belak who got knocked around. His numbers aren't as great. You know, could see them adding an arm.

I mean, Lance McCuller's still there. Yeah. So, you know, Houston is still, they're going to be around. It's tough to believe in that many young arms come playoff. tough time, but we'll see. Yeah. Dodgers stay top in the National League and the Padres. They're gone.

They're gone. Padres are good. I mean, Padres lost the series, but they're still going to be the second place team. Colorado. Rockies two games back, baby. Rocket, huge series from my rocks. I'll give them a little. Yeah, they needed that.

They needed that. Arizona sell all your pieces and get out of here. And again, that's where this condensed season is kind of twisted. but the Rockies win three one-run games. You know, you're a swing away from the difference maker there. But good for the Rocks. They bounce back after playing, you know, the Dodgers in Houston. And they come up and they're playing four with the Padre.

So that's kind of must watch if you're an NLS sucker like myself. If you're an NLS sucker like myself. Well. The chap brought it up, but some good MacDougal. He got the Bob Ross. I saw that, yeah. It's good content, though. Two dogs.

Two dogs. Jake, my dog is at Jake's apartment on a doggy date today. So that's what's going on. They're dating. They're dating. Anything else you want to talk about here, man? Cardinals. Right now they're in the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven spot, but they're second in their division.

Yeah, dude, I think. Which would make them the sixth seed. the NL Central is still a mess because the Cardinals are still behind. So, like, again, if one of those M. NL. Central teams can put together a good week, which what we're saying about the Reds, you could say about the Brewers as well. Like, you can't believe it until you see it. But if they do, if one of those teams has a five-and-one week, they're very much back in this season.

But it's hard to believe them doing that until it happens. But I think it's the old baseball Susan, you know? Yeah, I think that, yeah, a whole. Hold it. Hold all my thoughts. Hold all of your thoughts until we get a forum where you can properly get them out. Yeah, this isn't it. Yeah.

This isn't it. Yeah. We need a good baseball discussion forum. Yeah. Should we get into the stuff? Yeah, let's get into the stuff. Let's get into the stuff. Oh.

Oh, before we get into the stuff, Jake, can you really dance? Can you tell us in your Scottish voice? Who brings the... You wanted Scottish the whole time, huh? Who brings the things? The A's got a couple good starts, by the way. Hello, it's me, Jixterilly. Telling you, there are 100 million reasons why you should listen up to Draft Kings.

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Thank you It's a lot A lot of people that listen to this show Yeah Probably don't listen to laughs from the past Our history show Yeah Where Jake opens every

episode in an accent. Love showing off my range. Just wish I could control it. So you went, yeah. You accidentally slipped into Australian. Australian was an accident in that. And then from there, you're like, all right, we'll roll through all of them, okay? Thanks, Jake.

No problem. Thanks, draft kings. Who gets to go first for standout performances? Because you say, I'm a draft king. So here's, I'll ask you. So we normally, you're the Monday first guy. Yeah. And I'm the end of the week first guy.

but that flipped because of the ploof episode. So do we want to reset that? I don't care. Do you want to go first? I'll go first because mine's boring. Mine's kind of boring. My standout performance. That's how you reel the people in.

Well, you know, you didn't choose this guy, so my hands were tied. And my heart's not free. You don't have a guy throw a no-hitter and not make him a stand-out performance. So Lucas Gialito. Lucas G. Alito, he's lovely. Yes. He is my standout performance. No hits, the Pirates.

Yes, big time. One walk in the fourth inning. Other than that, it was great. I did a breakdown. So it was kind of cool to see that he didn't rely on his slider. Only two innings was his slider the most thrown pitch, the sixth inning. And it was really won at bat J.R. Murphy. You just went all sliders.

in the in the ninth inning Jake he went slider heavy which I think is interesting in the two ways you know either third time through the lineup so you're throwing different stuff I like your theory but that's not the case because there was other guys you know he it was really Osuna pinch hit for Murphy and Murphy was getting all sliders right so now Suna gets all sliders right those are the rules or saving the slider for the back end of the of the lineup. Maybe the slider, like, resets his forearm or something, so he's got to throw it every 30 pitches. His change-up was the pitch. The change-up was the pitch. It was the fastball was crispy, and the change-up was working off that.

And then he went slider-heavy in the ninth. I thought it was really cool. First, no-hitter with no fans. Yeah. Unless you want to make that rinse-and-repeat-repe joke about the Marlins pitcher who did it. James McCann, part of the story is pretty cool. He was yoked out about it,

and their buddies. and, you know, he, like, he came out with the quote that was like, it was always my dream to catch one. Normally you expect it from the pitcher, you just forget that that's part of a catcher's dream. They're in there, too. And when we interviewed Dale Scott, they want to call one. Right, right.

You want to be a part of something cool. That's like James McCann turns around and says to C.B. Buckner, like, good game or, like, there you go. Like, they're all part of this story, which is cool. Cool for Gialito. And I think the other, you know, important baseball meet of this is that Gialito had his breakout year last year, and he was good so far this year, and this kind of bona fides him as, like, he was their one anyways.

Like if they were going to do anything this year, they needed him to be their one. But, man, I mean, he's kind of a bona fide one now. And him and Kichel, I mean, you know, they're going to be a tough out come to playoffs. And a lot of people discredding it because the pirates are trying to, but I tweeted out the Pirates had more than four hits, more than five hits in almost every game in August. So their batting averages are low, and they were on a tear.

Yeah. The three games before. So congrats to Lucas Julito. They won the three games before. That's awesome for him. We'll see how he does that walk. I wonder how he feels about that walk. It was really weird to walk.

Four pitch. Yeah, he spiked the first one, and then he threw a change up that, like, it was a ball, but I think, you know, he thought like, oh, that was a good pitch. I think it was, you know, try to get the swing. What did you think, because I mentioned to you, you said you had missed it, that first pitch of the ninth,

the high change-up? It was a good jitters pitch. Yeah. It was a good you're feeling it a little bit. But he came back. He liked. He did. He looked good. Congrats, Lucas, future friend of the pod slash already friends with Ploofy.

How's your standout? My standout, man. I put two names in here back and forth, back and forth, and I landed on the old dog because he deserves the love and I think the other guy's going to get some more love when I normally look for the Enfuegos and standout performances for pitchers

I like sorting by strikeouts because that shows how dominant it is and hey, Gialito, I mean 13Ks DeGrom you're going to have to wait until Enfuego to hear about because I'm giving it to Clayton Kershaw. Jim, this does turn, I don't want to turn it into a full lifetime award because Kershaw goes out and he does his thing.

I mean, the same thing he's done for a decade now? Six innings pitch, zero earn runs, four strikeouts, no walks. His numbers on the year improve to... What do you think his ERA is? 243. One eight. Oh, nice. 30 innings pitch.

He has a 1-8 E. So don't get me wrong. I could have put DeGrom here. There's a couple other pitchers and hitters that were up for it. Jim, the part that puts me over the edge, and we've had this discussion on here a few times now, is he is the winningest percentage-wise, left-handed starting pitcher of all time. And so I get it. If you're voting for the Cy Young, you don't really care about wins, because guess what? Wait, wait, wait, winning is percentage-wise? Yes, I mean, including... Damn, I wish it was straight wins, but... Yeah, there's a lot of guys that have played a lot more baseball, unfortunately,

but he's 173 and 75 as a pitcher. That per 162, that's a 17 and 7 record. But yeah, man, it comes back, you phrased it better than me, and now I kind of drag it along with me and slaughter it. And it's like, wins don't matter for a Cy Young, absolutely, because it's ERA, whip, K's, everything that shows how dominant a pitcher is and, you know, wins are a team stat, sure. But you care about wins when they're on your team.

And that's all Kershaw does, man. Literally the winningest left-handed pitcher of all time. And we, Trevor kind of called us out earlier this year, and I'm glad he did, because we were like, you know, he's not the Kershaw of old, and he's not, but he is. He's still putting up the same numbers. Like the strikeouts are down a little bit, but you and I are the guys that don't really care about that. As long as you're getting guys out, and you know the Kershaw playoff stuff, I get it.

You like it. I get it. I do. I mean, it shows a level of more impressive, but also Kershaw's already done that, and now he's fading, but he's still getting the same numbers. So that almost deserves as much love. So, yeah, Clayton, he gets a little bit of the lifetime kick, but he deserves it, man. And he's, you know, you talk to Dodgers, you mention everybody in the lineup,

You mentioned Walker Bueller. You almost dance nervously about Kirshah. And it's like, screw that, man. He's crazy good. Yeah. When considering Sy Young, I mean, don't even look at wins at all. And they don't. They're good now with that.

Right. They're smart with that. But as a Dodgers fan or as an Astros fan last year, hey, when Cole takes the mound, we win every time. Yeah. That matters. As if, like, you know, this is a little, as fans, we're fans of the team. That's why we were talking about Bauer the other day. Like, yeah, there might be Bauer fans, but I don't know if there's, I don't know if Bauer fans and Reds fans.

I don't know with that diagram, like, how much intersect there is. I actually think it's probably not a lot. If you take all of Bauer's fans and see how many are Reds fans, probably like, not a lot. I mean, he's only been. there for a little bit. So I'm saying. That's part of the equation. Yeah. But I mean, I think the name to mention here, and sorry for bringing it back to Yankees people, but it's like Andy Pettit. You know, Andy Pettit's got a lot of years with high wins and not the lowest ERA and people attack him for that. And, you know, his time has shown, the numbers aren't

as dominant as a 19 and 9 season. But guess what? When you have it on your team, those wins feel great. And that's the goal of every day. Yeah, your fans of teams, not individuals. At least I am, you know what I mean? So you want to win. good standout performance. Clay and Kirshaw, still doing the damn thing. 1-8. Yeah. He did start to fade. Like, I mean, he had, for him, compared to him, he had 2-7 ERA and then he had a 3, which is amazing, comparative to the league.

But when you compare it to Kirchaw of old, that is higher. But now he seems back to normal. So I think we're fine to say that. Bouncing back. Next. Dirt nasty's on Flago. That means I'm on fire. baby like wakeo

Jake who'd you throw on in fuego Jim let me uh I'll do the pitchers first normally do the hitters first but I mentioned that de Grom guy Jacob de Grom could have easily been the standout of the week seven innings pitch 14Ks Jim and we had a caller this week around two a knee that's approximately two an inning we had a voicemail call this week that was talking about de Grom being boring and we're like yeah

I kind of get it you know he does the same thing every time. It would be more impactful if they were in a playoff race or if they were a playoff team. Maybe the Mets show some fight, doubt it. And their bullpen did their best to blow the game. But DeGrom's crazy. He could be on his way to his third straight, Cy Young. And that's unbelievable. I mean, there's a couple names still up there in the NL, but I wouldn't bet against DeGrom. I'd say that much. So DeGrom stays. And then, dude, it was a bunch of the big names, so I'll wrap up with them rapid fire. A guy that just jumped out to me was Fires. Fires has gotten it going. His past three starts, 17.1-26 ERA. Again, not crazy dominant, but the A's still kind of needed those

innings up top. That was the only thing the team was missing. Him and Mania kind of hadn't gone it going. Both of them are going. So I think he gets a mini in Fuego, but it's mostly impactful for the Oakland A's in what they're trying to do this year. Because the other names are Bieber, Nola, Lanselan, Sonny. Freed. We, we, freed. We talked. talk about them every episode. And rightfully so, but can't deep dive into them anymore. So that's what I got for the pitchers. The hitters get fun, Jim.

The hitters get fun, Jim. The hitters get fun. Jake jumped off the building. Mani Machado also could have won standout performance. Birth name Manuel Arturo. I'm hoping you're on his stat page, Jim, because I'll have you read off the year numbers. But he went 8 for 13 with three homers, and my comment was crazy year.

So I don't know if you want to say the stats, but he's up in Tateasland, man. 294 batting average 382 on base percentage, 635 slugging, one dot OPS. Yeah, pretty good. I mean, one dot from Machado, excuse me. What they're doing on the left side of the infield is crazy. I put Javi Baez on here. He had a two homer game, five for 13, small series. But he was having a down season.

So if he can get going for the Cubs, that can be very, very impactful, special player. And then, dude, Jimmy, I'll send you to another stats page. Go check out Jesse Winker on Cincinnati. He's the best hitter on Cincinnati by far. Castellanos, I think, has a 9-3-8 OPS, which is good. Everyone else on the Red stinks. But, dude, Jesse Winker's got a 1-dot, like almost a 1.1 OPS, if I'm remembering correctly. He had two homers, or three homers?

No, two homers, six for 14, and he just needs to be known. Like all the big names on Cincinnati, you know Moose, you know some of these other guys. Winker is going nuts. Yeah, I don't care. Got to win. Okay.

Sorry, Jess. I'm off the Reds. 1.13 OPS. One, 1.1.1.1.1. This is what I'll say. Everyone go look at his baseball reference page and take it in, but we will not be discussing the Reds until they start winning. Sorry.

Sorry. Sorry about you. Because that just makes me more mad. Well, he's the only one doing it. That's the problem. Dude, look at their hitters OPS. It's him, Cassiano, and then everyone else is below league average. Like some good names. This was supposed to be a stacked Reds lineup.

They haven't hit. Mad Dog! The other guys I had on here, Juan Soto, he has another hit like 445 this series with a 1-4. Go check out his stats. He's been arguably the best hitter in the NL. and it's just been under the radar because COVID and the gnat stink. And then Trevor Story, my guy, last name buddies, Trevor Ploove's first name buddy, four for nine, small sample, blah, blah, he hits a home run.

He led baseball with stolen bases. He had three swipes. Didn't know Trevor Story kind of had that in him, so wanted to add him to the list. So that's who I got for a fuego. El fuego. There's a lot of guys that hit the rock. Pretty well. So sorry, sorry if your dude didn't make it. There is a lot of guys that had similar stat lines.

I got Treb texting me about Homer Traffian. I see it. I'll go get them. No, no, no. We went 0 for six, so I love, let's all get four, four guys today. Ooh. Let's have them all carryover. Interesting. We definitely should not be able to not be burning them. I'm fine with it.

Have some fun. All right. Next up, we got the race to 20. Oh, where's my sheet, man? someone so many people sent me Google sheets dude someone sent me a sheet too sent me a Google sheet that said here's how you can keep track of everyone that's on pace damn we should have prepped that for the show yeah I think I've got it okay I've got it is it up to date from today I think so Tate says 12 homers is that correct I believe so well Roosevelt's has teamed up with us

Roosevelt's and John Boy media raised to 20 Roosevelt's dot com slash Johnboy gets you percent off, race to 20. Jake looks like he's 20 years old. You guys get it? Tatis says 13. Tatea says 13. So my sheet's not up today. Let me see if I can change it. I see no changes. Well, I see our racist faces. Listen to the lyrics, people. Sorry. Okay, I'm in the sheet now. Let's see if I can change the numbers. Let's put 13 in there. Okay. But then you don't have the game's played right. Tatis is on. pace for 25 homers. That's awesome. Good for him.

That's pretty good. So he's still the leader? I've currently, in this graph, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. I've got nine guys on pace. I took Judge off. But you probably have to change Chate's games played, too. By one. Yeah.

I mean, still good. Jose Brayu. I've still got with 11. 12. 12. 12. Okay. Betts has 11.

Nelson Cruz has 11. Teoscar has 11. Machado has 11. Voitz got 11. Machado jumped up. That's the first time his name's been way up there. I feel like Manny. Cool. That's pretty cool, man. That's a... Dude. This is probably going to be like a Jason Stark or one of the King Small articles and be like,

what did we miss out on this season? And it's like if Machado and Tatee's got a full season of what they're doing right now, No left side of an infield has done that. I know Jeter and A-Rod were paired up. I guess you start bringing defense and crap into it, but I mean, they're both one dot in it right now, right? Yeah. It's been crazy. Well, let's see, like, on the home run board, Jim.

Who's looking at you? You know what I'm saying? I like that Machado climbed up there. Gritchick has also got eight. Oh, that fuck. Trout drops. That's upsetting. There was a big name that dropped. That's what it was.

Trout dropped. Trout's going to drop out of the season. Why? Why wanted he? They stink. You think he'll just... Have we had? When's the last opt-out?

Do you think we'll still have, like... It's been a while, and by the way, this got tweeted out during our show. Jeff Passon said no positive test this week. That's good. That's pretty crazy. Good job, baseball. They're starting to take it serious, huh? Yeah.

That's great. Who's going to be the first of 20? Tatis. Yeah. He doesn't stop. He just hit the best home run he's hit. Yeah. So it went over the damn wall.

I said it was a second player ever to do that. I might go Mookie. You think he's going to beat him? I think Mookie might just do it. But Mookie has, I don't know if this helps or hurts. He has a three-home or day, right? So it's like, do you, does that help your case or hurt your case? Because he's not spreading them out day in, day out.

I think it helps only because he's tied for the most three-homer days an MLB history. So, like, he could have another one in the bag. And if he has another one, then he's almost home. Yeah, that's true. Okay, I like that case. Because Cruz was like that for a while, too, where he had, like, a lot of his came in one day.

Cruz is a sicko, man. It feels like he hasn't had a good season, but he's had an incredible season. What's 19 plus 14? 23. Nobody knows that. 19 plus 14, 33. Tatis has played every game.

Good, he's 21. So is Machado. He's 28, he's supposed to. We've been living in this weird Yankee world where guys can't stay healthy and play games. Like other teams, other teams have guys play every game and stay healthy. Yankees don't have either. We sit them every other game and they're hurt. I'll scott out out there.

What the hell? Stupid. Someone had a, one of the talking heads had a pretty interesting point that, like, it's made it, it's made it tougher to keep up with baseball because. The lineups in the, yeah. Like the one, two, three, four, five aren't the same. Like, when you start talking about teams from the 90s, like, you know, the Orioles threw the same lineup out there every day.

Sir Hoff, Mike Bordick. They're talking about old Braves teams. Terry Pendleton. You know, teams don't do that anymore. No, I do think that that is the case. Like, you know, like, it was like, who's their three-hole hitter? And then like you had it. You just knew the same team for like a three, four year span.

Like it was kind of going to be the same guys. And that's okay. Yeah, it's fine, but I do think, you know, baseball has made itself a little harder for the casual fan to enjoy. That's why we're here. We're here to help you out. And the other guy that I'm just straight up rooting for always is Eloy Jimenez. Yeah?

Similar guys. We're unbuttoned the top button guys, big glasses, power hitters. They just, they just, um... Didn't he get hurt in the celebration or something? Yeah, he rolled his ankle, but I think he's fine. Because he's young and he's not on the Yankees. The interesting thing is they just traded for... Girard Dyson.

Gerard Dyson, because Eloy sucks at the outfield. That's fine. You're fine with that? Yeah, Elyle had that cool quote, though, where he was like, They were like, so Elo, you ready to DH a lot this year? And he's like, fuck that. I play the outfield. Yeah, I know.

Sub them out late. Hit two homers early and then get subbed up. Yeah, I think Dyson's going to be a pinch runner. Yeah. Defensive replacement. Oh, I think that's Eloy's dream. The White Sox outfield, if it's Engel, Dyson, Robert. What do you think?

Nothing's going to drop. That's a really good outfield. What do you think Edwin's been whispering to Eloy? Nothing. Get pinch run for. It's the best. It's the best. It's the absolute best.

You don't want to be out there in the 8-day. I know you don't want to be a DH now, but just sprinkle the pinch runs in. And then DH later in your current, it's the best. It's the best. Do you see the rays traded for Brett Phillips, the guy with the big lap, former top prospect? And I guess he's got like the best defensive rating ever, too, in the outfield. So it's him, Keir-Myer and Margot, if they want to do that now. people are saying that they're going to do a two-man outfield at some point,

which I'm excited for. That is very exciting. I want them to start doing soccer layouts. Like I want them to do like a two-one, two, two, one-one. Oh, that would be pretty cool. Shifts are fun and awesome-off. It is weird as possible, race. Eh.

Yeah. What are you going to say? White Sox have played 31 games. That's all you can do. Yeah. I'm going to get out there and keep doing it. You want to go to, Slomp Watch, race 20.

Brought to you by Roosevelt's wearing their shirt. Again, it's kind of all I do. Todd Frazier's been on Slump Watch. No. He goes one for 10 with two walks. He's got three hits in his last 33 at bats. Todd. Todd, my dude.

Do we leave him? Yeah. We believe. He gets like another week. We believe. I like Todd. Come on, Todd. Brian Goodwin, he went off.

He got a 538 on base percentage, three hits, five walks. Shame to flame. His last three games, so that's great. We have so many shame to flames. Max Kepler, he was on. He goes four for eight with a homer, a 556 on base percentage, but he did get hurt. Yeah. He's day-to-day with a sore toe.

And then he hit a home run, but he's off. Simeon, seven for 13 with a homer and a double 600 on base percentage in the series. He's off. Ian Hap, three for 10 with four walks, so he's a 500 on base percentage. He's off. Love Ian Hap. Everyone went off. Victor Robles, two games, one hit, zero walks.

His last 11 games, he's got a 147 batting average 244 on base percentage. He stays on. He's also like one more week max. Because he's not like a, you know. Supposed to be good. Yeah, I know. George Springer, he's out with an elbow bruise. God, man.

And hitting 190. Feel bad for George. But like it's like half bad because of the whole cheating thing. Yeah. The Pirates had a lot of guys that could have been on here. So I didn't use it. Like I was looking at who had one hit for the three games set, who had zero hits. And sometimes people are like, how did you not include this guy on Slump Watch?

We look at the last four games since this is a Friday show, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then I just find people with one hit or zero hits that played every game. That's the strategy. And then after that, I look at what they've been doing the last two weeks and extrapolate. Yesh, goodbye. Sometimes we miss people. Brandon, Lau, like now, you're ALMVP, dude. He's been quietly pretty bad for the last two weeks.

Not OPS, because he's still getting a home run like every three games. But he's two for his last 16. The batting average in the last two weeks is like one something. And he's a batting average guy. He's a batting average guy. And it was really high at one point. So, um, a little watch, a little watch party. We're watching.

Ramon Luriano has been brutal. And he's another friend of mine. Yeah. Dear friend. He had an O for series. He did have three walks. But in his last 18 games, his slash line is 145, 329, 226. Damn, damn Houston coach.

That God, that jerk. Ketel Marte, two for 16. in his last four games. Not good. Good. Needed you. Three one run losses. Yeah.

Just one run. Shogo for the Reds. He had an O-For series. O-Fer 10. I'm not sure it's slump watch. He really hasn't proven himself yet. Yeah. He had a stretch where he had like one hit each game.

And then Pete Alonzo. He goes Ofer. Wow. Three walks. One of them was intentional. Or three walks, one intentional walk. But he's played 28 games this season. Pete Alonzo, Jay.

He's got 14 without a hit and 14 with a hit. Because I was looking at his hit totals, and he's got like one game where he has four hits and a couple games where he's, like he's dumped him in clumps. Dumped him in clumps. Yeah. He's got five multi-hit games. I'm excited to watch him this weekend, man. Last time I saw him as infielders were testing him to the umpteenth degree. I texted our our head of.

the stat department. Yes. Katie Sharp. So I wanted to see if we have any more starting players that have more than 14 0-4 games than Pete. I did a quick look at people I know that play every day that have been struggling, and the most I found was 10. But there's got to be others out there,

but I wonder what it is. Like, just didn't do anything with the bat today. Gary. Yeah, Gary's probably way up there. I didn't check him. I checked some other. Gary Sanchez. Easy.

Are you the one Nicole Sanchez? I was reading some Mets fans' opinions on Alonzo, and a lot of them are saying it just looks like he's pressing. Something's different. It's tough, man. 60 games will get in your head real quick. Gary only has 12. No, 13.

So close, but Pete hasn't beat. How many games is Gary played? 23, which is 28. How many is Pete? Yeah. Hey, both you guys. get going. I'll make a deal with you. Oh, no, no, no. One of those for Gary is in a starting game.

Ha! Eat bugs. So, yeah. Great. Not good. Gary's season's been awful. Not great, Bob. That's slump watch. Who got mad, Tim? I don't know.

Like, Joe Madden got ejected again. Oh, yeah. It was a bad call. Saw that guy tweet at you. It's like, oh, you're going to love this. Was it just because of content, or do that guy know you didn't like, you're not Joe Madden fan. Who tweeted at me?

I don't see it. It was one of the LA beat reporter guys. I forget his name. He's actually pretty good. Fabian something? I don't know. Do you know? It starts with an A, right?

B.D. is acting like he knows. B.D. One word. It looks like. Fabian Ardia. Good follow. Okay. He treated it at me? Yeah. I can see it.

Sorry. Votto and Bell got ejected. Madden and Craig Counsel got ejected. I didn't see a lot of these. Yeah. Joe Madden. and it's not like, Gabe, you tell me Gabe Kapler gets ejected.

I'm like, this is going to be fun. Yeah. Tell me Joe Madden get ejected, it's almost like, ugh. More Joe nonsense. It's an exhausting human. More Joe nonsense. An exhausting guy.

Jake, I got an award. Joe Madden. More like Joe Madman. Ooh, madman. The way he's walking around the dugout. Yeah. What's the question? No, awards.

Awards. I'm giving out the wrong order award. The wrong order. Wow. Fuck. Again? Yeah. Wrong order.

Damn, Daniel. You know who gets it? The wrong order. Yeah. Is this like a restaurant thing? No. Okay. Then I don't know.

When you... A kid, you know. They crawl, then they walk, then they run. You have to crawl to walk. Yeah. You have to walk to run. Yeah. John Birdie got all twisted up, man.

Damn. He walks to first base. Yeah. Then he runs to second, runs to third, but then he crawled home. That's just the wrong order. Like once you're running, you shouldn't have to crawl anymore. You got it all backwards, bro. If anyone didn't see, you walked, you stole second.

He stole third because J.D. Davis and the backup backup catcher, Ali Sanchez, and his debut wasn't paying attention. Well, Ali Sanchez kind of was. Davis wasn't. And then he tried to steal home on a delayed steel on the lollipop throwback to the pitcher, and he tripped over himself. So he ended up crawling home. He still stole home. He crawled.

So just wrong order. You know, crawl, walk, run, not walk, run, crawl. Yeah. Not good. Just all backwards. That's good. That's good. I thought about giving Bertie the award.

I doubt it. Because I love a good delayed steel slash steel at home. I think more guys should do it. I don't think a lot of catchers give you that opportunity. Yeah, if you've got a catcher there that's doing the dance or you've got a third baseman that's shifting and not keeping too much of an eye on you, take a chance. Hard play for the pitcher and catcher to make.

Good job, John Birdie. John Birdie. I'm giving out the Young Money Award. Young Money. Amilly, Amilly, Amilly, Amillie, Amillie, Amillie, Amillie, Amel. Yeah, who gets that? Amillie, Amillie, Amillie. Well, A, Little Wayne re-dropped on all streaming platforms.

The No Ceilings CD today. Why? Because it's really good. There's a Kobe Bryant song in there, so that's part of it. So we release? Just a, yeah, historic CD. I don't think it was on the streaming platforms. Oh, that would make a lot more sense.

Yes. So that's the other part of it. I'm giving it to Ronald Acuna Jr. Jim. Because I guess what the award should really be is young Mani. Because, dude, the way he hits with easy power and just malicious intent when he hits the ball, it reminds me of Mani Ramirez, except with elite speed. The guy is a freak of nature.

back for the Braves. And again, that's this thing. The Braves are running away with the division. They've been without Albies and Acuna, who when I talked about the Braves, I said I was worried about the top of their lineup because they're just very top-heavy. They still won games. Their guys are coming back. Ronald's first at-bat back against Garrett Cole went 470 up top against Garrett Cole. He's a monster.

He's a bomb. Cole tried to challenge him with the fastball. And he was like, okay, cool. Just hit it. I fell in love with him last year, which brought me into Braves Nation, and now we're one with them. And Ronald's back. Don't be shocked if he goes nut job because he's a special player.

And by the way, you know, the fun conversation about a week, week and a half ago was the Cubs. Cubs are the second best team in the NL. I think the Braves are going to take that title back pretty soon. Think so? I do. NL East is still a mess. without Acuna and Albis.

What's their pitching, man? I mean, it's only been the Max Fried show, and they're hoping for some guys to get back. Ian Anderson. The bullpen's been solid. I mean, it's all young guys that are prospects. So, hey, Ian Anderson, if you think you're ready for the show, which he was against the Yankees, you're going to have an opportunity.

And again, dude, it's just the teams they're going to be playing every day. Nats haven't done anything. The Mets are as Metsy as it gets it. The Florida fish I don't know I think the Braves are going to start running hard Heard Young manny

Young manna It'd be cool if the Braves did O'Milly oh milly oh milly According to my calculations I swag The Braves will win That's what you've got right now The NL East

Can I check my numbers on that? Yeah check your numbers I love you to check your numbers. Is Hamel's coming back? They should get a pitcher. They should trade for a pitcher. Trade season. Any trades happen while we were recording this?

I don't think so. You want to do elevator watch or should we postpone it? We can do elevator quick. Quick elevator watch. I'm not even going to research anything for this elevator watch because I have to pee so bad and we're running behind. So much baseball. Yeah.

For real, for real. The St. Louis Cardinals. Ooh, okay. If you're in an elevator with the St. Louis Cardinals fan, you can be like, well, you know, do you think we're up to second place? One more win away from being over 500. Yeah. That's exciting. Yesterday was a tough one.

They lost two to the pirates. Pirates had to redeem themselves. They had to, but that brings them down to 500. So, I mean, you're just playing a dangerous game. You're the Cardinals. You're going to be playing a lot of baseball. Just got to be careful of that. 500 line. If you dip below, that's when things start getting scary.

Who's hitting? Goldie's hitting. We like that. Yottie's hitting. Brad Miller's hitting. Brad Miller? That's pretty wild. I think it was like one really big series, but looks like he's a part of that team in lineup right now. They have six bats that have, that are over 270 in the last week. Like last week they had some good ads. You know, Goldie got 10, walks in the last seven games. He's got double anyone else on the team. That's fun.

Harrison Bader's doing it. Cardinals fans, I guess tell me how real that looks, because I know you've been excited about him and obviously defensively pretty special, but he's shown some good pop, so that's good, and he's getting on base. 19 games still such a small sample. Who's pitching? Wayno's doing it. Dakota Hudson.

Dude, look at their pitching stuff. Yeah, they're pretty good. Holy crap. Flaherty. Uh, Yun Kim, look, how's that signing working out for you? 1.080.000. Did we ever talk about him coming over or him at all? I mean, a little bit.

They listed him as their fifth starter all offseason, and we just said the same thing. Like, don't know. Yeah. Hope he's good. But again, this, like, we did a bunch on as Metsy as a Getsy because they're a terribly run organization. This is a good run organization.

So I see Quang Hung Kim pitching well. and I'm not surprised at all. His last two starts. So he made his appearance, his first star was, you know, just a oneing relief appearance, which is kind of odd. And then he's been getting starts.

His first start, 3.2 innings pitched, one earned run, 57 pitches. His last two, six innings pitched, zero earned runs. So that's fun.

It's pretty good. And you got Wayno, Hudson, Flaherty. How about Wayno? How about, that's what I'm saying as I get off the L. Go check out Wayno's baseball reference.

This is a sick puppy. Andrew Miller went to the IL. 2005 till now. Yeah. 2005. Long time. In high school? 16 years.

Half our lives. Yeah. He's been a major league pitcher. BPD was born in the majority of BPD's life. 2006. Yeah. Do you hear his new song? I'm not a man.

I'm not a man by BPD. Bug Bug Bug David. Bug bug, bug dude. Bug dude. That's his rap name. It's on Spotify. With the little Wayne, no ceilings.

All right. Thanks, guys. We'll see you. Swag. I surf. See you later. Thanks, everybody. Whoa.

I'm not a tough song. What's this song about?