Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 24 | Sept 23 | And There Is Only One Race Left

Episode Date: September 23, 2019

The National league spots are locked up. Brewers and Nationals are in a battle to host the wild card. The Rays and Indians are locked up for the second wild card. Andy Green gets fired and Ned Yost Retires.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today is September 23rd. There are two series left in the MLB season, and the races are just about done besides one. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning into talking baseball, hanging out with us for a little bit on this fine Monday morning or afternoon whenever you're listening. Talk some baseball. My name's Jimmy. John Boy, you may know me as, and I got my good friend Jake here. He's in Denver. We're both wearing the same hat, and we're going to talk some baseball. Jake, how was your weekend? How are you doing? Are you excited to talk baseball? Jim, I am excited to talk baseball. Like you kind of touched on in that beautiful intro.

We saw some things come to a close, a little bummed out by it, but also also exciting times. And I think for us, like the, the best. playoff picture is now become real and we can start thinking about it a little more. There's been a lot of like, as and a lot of, well, you know, now a lot of it is signed, sealed, delivered. I'm yours. Who references that song? But I'm doing well.

Watched a good amount of baseball. Saw one of our mutual friends for the, I used to see him every weekend, extra roommate Jeff, now this damn baseball stuff. And he did a trip to Europe for like a month and a half this summer. So I've only seen him twice since like June 1st. Who keeps track of that? A lot of stats on this show ended with a little concert last night. Saw my girl, Rez. She's this Canadian just bad chika.

And I love her. She puts on an incredible show. So I'm doing pretty well, James. How are you doing? Res. What kind of music is she? Oh, she's like dark electronic. It's weird.

Man. A lot of lights. Crazy. Yeah. I'm doing well, Jake. There's not a lot of baseball left. This episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by our two most recent Patreon sponsors, Oscar Selik Pilly.

Excuse me? Oscar Selik Pilly. Oscar Silly Pilly? O SP. for short. Yes. Osp. Yeah.

And Jordan Cot. Ospin Cot, man. Ospin Cot. Sounds like some kids' playground toy. Ospin Cot. Yeah, I think I'm going, I'm combining them making it one word and it sounds like a new drug or something. Ospin Cot. Oh, you high off Ospen Cot.

Yeah. Yeah. You try that OxyContin. OxyContin. You're very close to that. Ospin Cot. Yeah. They're different.

It's got some oxy cotton in it, but it's its own. You've got some oxy cotton in you? The ospin cot does. The ospent cot. Jake, I would love to keep the pleasantries up, but everything I want to say needs a report to happen first. So the people know what happened over the weekend. Right.

I'm dying to get into the actual results of baseball. So enough pleasantries. Enough of this. Shit. Yeah. Let's get into it. Let's talk baseball. We got the National League report.

Jake's on the National League this episode. It's brought to you by her friends at the Roosevelt's fun shirts, comfortable shirts. I got a box them over there. I had one on the other day. When I know I'm going to sweat a little I've been putting it on because you still look good despite being sweaty. Yeah. Doesn't break through the shirt, which I'm sure isn't their main selling point. Their main selling point is probably that their fun conversation starting shirts with

like clever designs like we're Yankees fans so i have the yankees bobblehead uh fans of major league the movie there's a lot of good there sandlot stuff like that so go to uh the roosevelt's rsvltz dot com slash john boy they've curated a list of all the baseball shirts they have and you can buy some and use discount code john boy for 20% off they've been a uh a friendly sponsor of this program as it grows in its infancy uh you know we haven't even done six months of this. So to have them sponsoring us from the jump is fantastic.

We really appreciate it. So go check out the Roosevelt's. Get your sweat on. Jake, give me it. James, let's start out with the bravosy people as Atlanta hosted the San Francisco Giants. Mike Fultanawitz and Max Fried. My guy, both pitched winning gems

in the first two games. but San Fran does steal the game on getaway day. Nice performance for the Giants by rookie Logan Webb, Jim. Good time to be a rookie throwing the ball for the Giants this Sunday. The Nationals, they do a copy and pace to the Braves. They win the first two. They lose the Sunday game to the Miami Marlins. Game two, the Nats won an extras, Jim, the 10th inning.

They put up a sixth spot in the 10th. Don't see that a lot. The New York Metropolitan's visited beautiful. Cincinnati to play three against the Reds. Pete Alonzo got his 50th. The Mets win the bookend games. They lost the middle game, a one-run loss given up by the Mets bullpen. We've heard that a lot.

The Phil's visited Cleveland. You'll hear Jomelope discuss that in the AL report in the National League Central. You heard the Mets beat Sinci, but did you hear about this one, Jim? Wow, wow, wow, wow. The St. Louis Cardinals. visited the friendly confines of Wrigley Field where the Cubs season hung in the balance. The Cubs were the better team for eight innings in almost all four games, but alas, it's a nine-inning game.

Kimberle gets rocked twice. The St. Louis Cardinals win all four games by one run, essentially eliminating the Cubs from the playoffs. Holy Toledo, kudos to St. Louis. bad times in the windy city. On the opposite end of the spectrum, pirates have always been a little susceptible to a good barley, James. The Milwaukee beer makers, they sweep the pirates.

They essentially lock up their playoff berth. How about that, Milwaukee? And finally, in the NL West, you know the Giants weren't brave enough in Atlanta. The Dyers, they hosted my Rockies in Los Angeles. Dodgers win two out of three. Well, this is just fun. Ryu hits a home run, which sparked the Dodgers win in the rubber mat. Let pitchers hit. No way.

The D.H is coming to the NL, and it's going to make it a better sport. The Diamondbacks visited San Diego. Win two of three, Merrill Kelly with a nice start. San Diego is so snake-bitten that they fire their manager, Andy Green. So long, Andy, and that is your National League report. Ooh. Good stuff, Jake. But not good stuff from the National League.

National League, I got a gripe. Their wild card race was supposed to be the crazy one. I know. It's going to go to the finish. It's going to be wild. There's five teams in play. It's locked up. It's done.

You know who screwed the pooch, Jim, the damn Brewers. Too good. Everyone else played out the script. Everyone else did it. The Cubs came back down to Earth. That's what I had. the Mets are still hanging around. Philly half quit in Arizona.

They're still around. If Milwaukee didn't turn on this hot streak, we'd be saying this is the dream final week. But no, the Brewers had to go and win all these games and play really well, and now they're going to be in the playoffs. What a whirlwind for Cubs fans.

Yelich gets hurt and they're like, ah, here's our opening. Sike. The brewers are just going to scrap and claw and win a million games, and now all the Cubs are going to get hurt. Rizzo's out. Bryant had the same thing that Harper had a couple seasons ago.

Remember, like slipped on first base, hyper extended. I think he, they say he sprained his ankle, which isn't terrible in the grand scheme of things, like, you know, for long term. But your four games out with five or six or seven to play. It's locked up, right? I mean, I don't know the actual numbers on it, but it's done. It's, it's nationals, Brewers, and the wild card, and they're fighting for home field advantage now. Yeah, I mean, Brewers would essentially have to go one in five or something like that, and the Cubs would have to win out.

And I mean, it's just not happening. It's the, the NL has been decided. Jim, the only storyline now, which we discussed. Remember when we did sister cities? You might be going into this. No, you could go sister cities if you want. Brewer's fans are the biggest. Philly fans.

Oh, yeah. Nationals have five. Count them one, two, three, four, five. The amount of times Jake has had sex in his life games against the nationals. Jimmy, do you know how far out the Phillies are from the nationals? Five games? Six games. So they're technically dreaming in Philly.

It's not real, but the old five-game sweeper. I mean, now we're talking. Jim, where I was going, where I was going, which we talked about a little bit last week. Hold up. Hold up. I can't move on from this. This is the third time I've been trying to get this words out and you keep cut me off. What do you got?

I can't move on from that there's a fucking possibility. I mean, there's not really that the Phillies can sweep the nationals. and now the brewers are in first place for the wild card and then the Phillies can overtake like there's a chant whatever it's it's not going to happen but it's so funny like if the Phillies get hot the Nationals could be fucked no way like if if the Phillies because the Phillies are four and six in their last 10 if they're playing good ball if they had like a seven and three in their last 10 there would be a serious fun conversation about the five gamer between

Philly and the Nats. I mean, the Nats just have to win one game pretty much to shut it down. Yeah, one. I'd like to think they will. They're probably the whole five-game set. This is, wow, this is like a fake division series preview. This is the first division series. That's cool.

Who's pitching tonight? I got a five-gamer. I'm not sure. It's Sash, Bethlyn versus Corbyn. So they should just win today with Corbyn. The story is. is that the Washington Nationals, we had mentally locked them up for the game one of the wild card in Washington.

They're tied with Milwaukee. Yeah. They are, I know you're a big lost column guy because that's a control your own fate. They are one up in the lost column still. But yeah, I mean, the Washington Nationals, they kind of went into cruise control in that league. first wildcard spot. And now they could be traveling to Milwaukee with like just basically one slip up at this

point. And Milwaukee's 8 and 2 in their last 10. The Nats are 5 and 5 in their last 10. The nationals run differential is plus 119. Milwaukee's on the year is minus 2. So yeah, that is now the story. The brewers have the easier schedule. They're playing Cincinnati than Colorado.

they have six games left. The Nationals have, I think it was seven games left. No, it was eight games left. Nationals eight games left. Do you know who has the tiebreaker between Milwaukee and Washington? No idea. Milwaukee. They won the season series four to two.

So Milwaukee, they just need to tie. Yeah. To get home field advantage. So pressures on the nationals, they have the harder schedule. Philly's going to act like they have a chance. You know what? The Nationals have to win tonight, Jake.

They have to win game one so the Phillies have no reason to try in the next four games. If they lose game one, I'm almost giving Milwaukee home field advantage. Because which day is the double header? I think the doubleheader is Tuesday. But you're absolutely right. you have to nip it in a butt tonight because then if it becomes a story into the doubleheader tomorrow, now you've got problems. Tuesday's a double header. Yeah, you have to win tonight.

Corbin has to win tonight because then Philadelphia won't try and then it's going to be a good race to see who gets home field advantage in this wild card game. If the Phillies beat the nationals tonight, then you have a double header tomorrow and you give the Phillies this life like we're going to. come give them hell tomorrow. We're playing for our lives. And Milwaukee's over there. They have less games. They don't have a doubleheader against the team that's trying. They have Cincinnati and Colorado.

Who cares? And all they have to do is tie you and they get home field. Damn, that's kind of cool. If the nationals lose tonight, I think all the pressures on the nationals for home field advantage. Are you rooting for the Phillies tonight? Oh, absolutely. Okay.

Because that's a better finish. Anarchy. I don't care who hosts that game. Like I have no interest. I just wanted to go to the end. The National League, the race was supposed to be fun. People thought the Mets had a chance. Man, there are some fun stats in this.

Well, A, Jom, if we do want, we are fans of anarchy. if the Phillies do go for the five-game sweep, I know we're saying that the Phillies would bring themselves back in, but there's a chance that the Cubs and the Mets could come back in. So now I'm team five-game sweep. Routing for a five-game sweep is the same thing as rooting for me to get my 30-year-old growth spurt. It's just not happening.

Well, it's not happening. That's what you think. Jim, I will say this, and well, we'll talk less about, it because, I mean, the five-game sweep is now, like, officially happening. There's some fun stuff in the Washington, Milwaukee, if that is the one-game playoff, like I mentioned, Washington has the big run differential. It's better than Atlanta's. Milwaukee has negative.

They're minus two. They'd be the only playoff team with a minus run differential. Milwaukee is under 500 on the road. The Nats have pretty good home-and-road splits. The Nats are eight games. games under 500. So the Nats are 40 and 48 against teams better than 500. So they have a losing record against the good teams.

Milwaukee is 48 and 40. So that's, it's all over the board there. That would be a fun game. I'm trying to find out how Scherzer does against them. Scherzer's not having the best month of September. Did you know this? He's got a 494 ERA in September and four starts right now. Nobody wants that NL.

Sion. Damn. I'm trying to see how he's done against Milwaukee this year. Pull it up. I would say this. I do have to say this. I think we have to on this show say congrats to the Cardinals. Yeah.

That was like a big, that was the only division where there was a race. And the Cardinals kind of said, now we'll take it. and never looked back. So congrats to them, Flaherty doing insane things. Yeah, and it was still not getting talked about enough, I don't think. No, no. And that's a, hopefully he gets, he gets some shine in the playoffs,

maybe a little Walker Bueller 2.0 action going on. But I think the fun part about it, Jim, and doing this now since basically the All-Star break, is that we kind of jumped into that NL Central race. and I think we did a Cardinals elevator talk and it was like, what's going on here? Like, what do we need to get into? Like, I know Goldschmidt's solid.

Ozone has kind of done the same thing for a while. Carpenter had a little bit of a down here. Then we stumbled into Jack Flaherty and that's been fun to watch. And now the cards, man, I mean, talk about a dagger. Four one run wins at the Cubs. Like those teams are rivals. That's an ugly one for the Cubs. Max Scherzer. Yeah, the Cubs, that's brutal.

The injuries they can lean on the injuries. Madden's done. I think Madden's gone too. You think Girardi's going to get the spot? He turned down the Reds because he wanted to wait it out. Like Cubs is his dream job. We know he wants to manage. You know who else really wants to manage that we know wants to manage is Buck Showalter. Yeah.

Buck Showalter is going back into managing. Everyone wants these young managers. I don't know the Cubs might want one of those guys. They're good, they can afford it. They have the talent and they're really embarrassed right now. Yeah, it's tricky. Gerardi and the Cubs seems like a fit. But yeah, the new way of the manager,

like managers don't have a ton of power. Like everything is pretty predetermined. Like your bullpen usage, who's playing and all of that. So I don't know. It's kind of like a personality. thing at this point and I don't know I would I would love for Joe Gerrardi to take the Cubs job and be the Joe Gerardi we see on TV not the Joe Girardi that was with the Yankees that was trying to be like militaristic and stuff like that like that doesn't work um buck showalter I don't think you and I can

even talk about uh just because we love buck nowhere I've got buck going jim where San Diego fuck that that doesn't even make sense that's why it makes sense it's it's it's San Diego, it's like they need the old school mean baseball guy. Well, Buck's awesome. But he'll turn that on a little bit in San Diego. Like, I don't care that we're in San Diego. We could be, I could be in the warmest place in the world. I could be in the coldest place in the world.

All I want is guys who play baseball and play it well. That San Diego job is, like, dreamy. They've got the top farm system. They've got a lot of young talent. And, like, look what Buck did with the Orioles. He's friends with Machado. I'm just saying It's not a bad guess

The Machado thing's kind of cool actually That's a fun plot twist Yeah Especially you might hear Mani later on slump watch still Someone's got to get in his earhole Well I think The Padre is just completely They quit

And that's why you fire your manager Yeah I was Talk about him later I guess Or I don't know Yeah I was pulling this up Max Scher's or

against the Brewers one start this year. Six innings pitched, six hits, one earned run, two runs, ten strikeouts. The guys that got him were Gamble, double, Mustakis, RBI, single, and then Arcia double, Gamel, RBI error. Not really RBI, but you know what I'm saying.

So it's only one game, though. What you're saying? Man. That, well, A, I'm obviously rooting for the old, the five-game sweep still. But man, there's going to be some interesting dynamics if that's the one-game playoff, because you have these three dominant starters for the nationals. Are they all going to be available? And the Nats bullpen, the old, Daniel Hudson's been really good since he's come over.

Doolittle's a guy you can rely on, even though he's not having his best season. But, I mean, do you have Scherzorzorpe and Strasbourg available? Do you have two out of three available? And meanwhile, the brewers are just going to brewer. I mean, they're all hands on deck. Whoever comes out, do your job. Wow, do your job. That could be a Patriots Brewer's connection right there.

Do your job. Don't care who you are. Just do the job. All right. You want to move on to the AAL? You got anything else? In the National League, I think. I think that's it, man.

Yeah, Atlanta, Dodgers. Yeah, I'm good. Good. All right. We're moving on to the American League. The Mariners and Orioles played three games of baseball. And apparently, Jake, 10,000-plus fans showed up to watch each game. 20,000 plus on Saturday and Sunday.

What lunatics? The Mariners lost two, but the one game they won, they did it in exciting fashion, with an error, stolen baseball. and single to take the lead in the 13th inning. The White Sox took two of three from Detroit. In game two, there were 28 hits between both teams. The score was only 5 to 3, but there was 28 hits between both teams.

Every player who had a plate appearance got a hit besides Travis Demeritt, who went 0 for 4, embarrassing his entire family. Pick it up, Travis. All right, moving on to games that matter. The Astros took two out of three from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. All of Houston's pitchers had less than their usual starts. Granky wasn't great. Miley was especially bad.

He's been bad. He was especially bad. And Verlander had more hits than innings pitched, which is wild for him. Still got the win. Still pretty good. The big news for the Astros is Carlos Carrick came back, picks up his first hit since the injury. Two home runs. Pretty good.

The Yankees. lost game one and two, but beat the the Yankees lost game one, but beat the Blue Jays in the next two to take the series. They still haven't lost the series at home since mid-April. Houston is up one game in the loss column for home field advantage in the American League. They also have the tiebreaker against the Yankees. The Tampa Bay Rays have taken two games from the Red Sox so far. They finish up the four-game series today, so there's one remaining game to be played.

Tampa walked off the first two games, winning both of them five to four. Willie Adomis and Nate Lau got the walk-offs. Glass now with three more good innings. Yarbrough got smoked, and Blake's now starts today. The Indians took care of the Phillies and won two of three, keeping them tied with the raise for the second wild card spot. Bieber with the good start. Cookie Carasco, Jake, got the save in game in the first win

and then came out of the pen in the game three to get the win. Reliever win. The top four of the Indians order kind of went off. Lindor, Mercado, Santana Pueg, they're carrying the Indians right now. And the A's beat the Rangers to stay atop the AOL wildcard race. Good starts by Manea and fires more on that later. And despite a bunch of bad pitching by the twins, they take three out of four from the Royals. The only good start was by rookie Randy Dobnack. But twins are kind of playing for nothing because

the home field advantage is out of reach. The Indians aren't going to catch up to them and they're playing teams that suck. So the twins are kind of playing for nothing right now, just gearing up for the playoffs. The, uh, the rays and the Indians, man, they're tied for the second wildcard spot. We're not talking about Brewers, Nationals tied for home field advantage. We're talking about one of these teams may not even see the postseason. And there's like six games left in the season. So basically scoreboard watch times a million. If you're the Indians, you can't lose. If you're the race, you can't lose. One of these teams has to, six games left. They got to go five and one. You know what I mean? Like this is going to get fun.

Yeah, and Tampa's got some games against Boston coming up, and I think Boston put in a little effort last series. Meanwhile, Cleveland's at the White Sox. Oakland's going to L.A. Yeah, I mean, and Jim, I think the other crazy thing is, like, Oakland feels crazy safe, but I mean one slip-up, and like if they were to slip up, they could be a one-game thing.

So Oakland, they still have to lock in, although it seems they're going to host a wild card game, which is fun that that city will go nuts for that one game. I like that a lot. The A's have locked up a wildcard spot. Jim, I just think there's a chance. Like you said, all of these teams are aiming to be perfect for the next week. And I think in baseball, it's kind of funny that that's not always the goal.

It's like baseball a lot of time the goal is like, let's do, let's survive this road trip and come back home. These teams are aiming to be perfect. If the A's lost tonight and the other two teams win, it's a one game thing. And if it's one game for, I mean, the final six days of the season, that could be it. So two games, it's much nicer to have that two game lead. But one slip up with these other teams trying to be perfect and you could be good. but I'd love to see some of the nerd statistics on their percentage to be in, because the A's do have, I mean, it has to be 90% chance at this point, but.

The A's have a 97% chance to make the playoffs. Does that count a one game play in, though? Because that's the other factor here. No, it counts the wild card. Right, but a one game playoff to get in the wild card. It doesn't count that. It's a little bit of a factor. That's called, that's not the playoffs.

That's called, that's a, right, but if you win that game, you still get in the playoffs. Yeah, but there's, the, the, the A's have a 97% chance to be in the wild card game. That 3% is what it's all about, man. They're in, they have an easy schedule. They have L.A. and then Seattle to close it out. I mean, the A's are in the wild card. It'll be, the raise in Indians is going to be real fun. Real fun.

And Tampa has a game against Boston tonight. Who's playing? Who's pitching? Hulis Chasin versus, so Blake's now. Okay, so the race should win that. Chasine sucks. And the Indians are playing the white socks, man. Yeah.

I think the Rays have the hardest schedule, but the best, like, pitching. And I mean, schedule at this point doesn't matter, because, like, technically the Red Sox are 81 and 74, but they're not playing for anything. The White Sox, if you run into Gialito and you've got some young guys out there, it's really like day to day at this point.

It's who's pitching and who's in the field that actually cares at this point of the season. So this is pretty funny. Buck Johnson in the chat just said this, and it's true. That final series, Indians versus Nationals, they could fuck each other. easily. Damn.

We're going to be in Maine for that. We had a lot of five-game sweep talk. I mean, the Nats kind of know they have to take care of business this series. Yeah. Well, yeah. But then- They don't want it to come down to the Indians. They're saying, let's drive through this.

Let's win four out of five, three out of five, and we can kind of shut it down for the final series. That's true. So we said Brewer's fans were huge Phillies fans. Yeah. Indians fans are huge national fans this week. Indians fans want the nationals to five games sweep the Phillies so the nationals don't even try those last games of the series so Cleveland can try.

Damn, that's cool. I'm excited for this finish. Like one of these teams isn't seeing the wildcard game. Yeah, and I mean, I think it would be great for baseball. I mean, if it turns out to be a one-game playoff and it is Cleveland, Tampa, that would be a blast. Think I'm rooting for that at this point. Because, yeah, I mean, it's, I can't point at either of those teams and be like, yeah, you know, Cleveland's not really that deserving if they don't make the playoffs. No, they've got really good pitching.

They've got really good pitching. Tampa, they've got a lot. lot of players that can do a lot of different things and they've got really good pitching so um it it's exciting man who do you what do you get what's your guess right now what's your gut so my gut is saying one game playoff between tampa and cleveland oh that's what you're you think that's what's going to happen i think so they're locked up 92 and 64 um me i know we we did our mock going through the schedule thing but now it's they they They got to be perfect.

I don't know. I guess that's the fun game I'm playing in my head right now. If it was a one-game playoff, all hands on deck. So many young good pitchers on each side. Cleveland, I mean, Beaver, Savali, all those guys that have been twirling it for them for Tampa. Snell, Glass-No. Their bullpen, they've got a bunch of guys. I think I lean Tampa.

I think as a baseball team, I think Tampa is a little better than Cleveland. But I also like stars in one game. And I mean, Lindor jumps off the map. And we got to make Bieber a star. And baseball needs to make Shane Bieber a star. That's a great point. So Cleveland doesn't play today.

The A's don't play today. The Rays play today. So what's today's outcome Ray's Boston that makes it most interesting? Ray's loss, right? Well, I mean, I'm still in the 3% that Oakland's getting brought back into this. So, I mean, I'm rooting Ray's Cleveland.

I now have Oakland in my anarchy bucket. Oakland's in. Oh, 3%. Man, that's baseball, baby. Yeah, that's what the Mets fans were banking on, too. And the Phillies. And the Rockies. I mean that to reuse that bat man tell that to reuse homer

reuse homer I have a thought on it Is it just cultural The bat flip I don't know what you mean by that sentence I'll be honest The Asian bat flip Like even the Little League players do it the same way Where they swing and then

Higgie did it That's how they're taught Yeah it must be how they're taught or something right You see it at the Little League World Series every year? Every team comes over. Their pitchers throw slightly different. Their bats finishes are a little different. The leg kicks forever.

Yeah, that's how they teach it. But it's cool to see Ryu, like, first home run ever, and then the bat flip goes that way, and you're like, damn. Connected with one. Finally got it. O2 pitch, Oppos shot. Swings feeling good today. All right.

You feel bad for the Cubs? Only a little bit because. I was rooting for the Cubs to come back down to earth to make the wild card crazy. And now they came crashing to the earth. And the wild card's not crazy. Six games left and the National League wild cards locked up. Five games sweep. How many games are?

So there's not a lot of games today, this Monday, as we're recording this. They think there's like only a handful. A lot of people have off. So we're rooting for the Phillies. And I'm rooting for Boston to beat the race. Marlins, Mets, no one cares. Blue Jays Orioles. No one cares.

If you're going to be in the five game sweep, you should be rooting Mets. No, they're out. They can't double up. Cardinals, D-backs, no one cares. So bring it on. Red Sox. Routing for the Red Sox. I'm not.

I've got Tampa tonight. All right. You got Phillies, though? Oh, yeah. Five game sweep. Okay. Never believed in something more in my life. It would be, I mean, it has happened before.

What would the name of it be? Like, what's a cool name? Like, you know, like, you have the Boston Massacre. You got like the something beat down. You're my history guy. I mean, we've got the former capital and the new capital. Is there something to be done there? Oh, wow.

Taking back the Capitol. It's in Washington, D.C., though. You could just call it like, yeah, I don't know. War of 19. It's not 19. It's 2019. No, I don't know. We need a cool name.

It's got to happen first. It's not going to happen. Right. The five-game sweep that's not going to happen has to happen first. And then we'll name it. And then we'll name it. Once it happens, we'll name it. Yeah.

Okay. All right. Well, moving on to standout performances. Standout performance. Jake, you get to go first. Who's your standout performance? Jim, my standout performance and back-to-back stand-out performances from the same team. And luckily, it's a team I'm totally rooting for this year, the Houston Astros.

Jim, George Springer, three home. day yesterday, three for five, three Yobos, four RBIs. Jim, I have some bias here. Yep. He's a Connecticut guy. He was born in New Britain, Connecticut. That's where you and I attended college. Go CCSU. Blue Devils lost on a black punt this weekend.

Next. He played college baseball at Yukon. Yukon basketball is basically a religion of mine growing up in the state of Connecticut. So anyone from Yukon is beloved. George Springer is beloved by me. I just think it's kind of bizarre. He's having a great year, Jim. 116 games played 38 homers.

116 games played 38 homers, 94 RBI. He's slashing 292, 378 on base, and a 970 OPS. From center field, numbers like that, just didn't really happen back in the day. Now we see talent all over the field. And I just think he gets looked over a little bit, man. When you think Astros, you think Verlander, I think people jump to Bregman. I think even after that, I mean, this year it's Garrett Cole and Altuve, and even Correa.

I mean, I think Correa gets more love than George Springer overall. And George Springer, he won the World Series MVP. He's a three-time All-Star at a premium position. He's got a silver slugger. I did, and Jim, I got bad news to you for you, because you're going to be hearing a lot of this for the next six months or so. It's the per 16. The stats per 162.

So if a guy played a full season, what his stats would look like? George Springer, if he played a full season this year, is on pace for 128 runs scored, 54 home runs and 132 RBI. How many games has he played? 116. So he basically, he missed like a little over a month. Oh.

Yeah, it's not even like that much time. Yeah, he missed like a month's worth of games, basically. Cool. Cool. C.C. He didn't go to Cic. He went to Yukon, right? he went to Yukon, but he's a proud New Britain guy.

Jim, do you think what I was saying is fair that when people think Houston, it's definitely Verlander, Bregman, and Altovae. Yeah, I think Springer's up there, though. I mean, he won the World Series MVP. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice. It was him on there. Right. No one else.

I don't think he gets lost in the mix that much, but I've known his name forever. So, like, I might be biased as well. Yeah, I just, I think in the grand scheme for what he does, he gets overlooked. And it's a little bit like Garrett Cole's performance this year. If you're tuned into baseball, again, only 18th guy ever to get 300 strikeouts. So Garrett Cole deserves the love this year for sure and his upcoming free agency. He's just a stud, flat out. He got a vote for rookie of the year in 2014.

So that's pretty big. 14. That's big. Talks about that. You got one vote. I love that. I mean, that person went to Yukon. I guarantee you.

His teammate, Abraeu, oh, no, not his teammate. Jose Brayor got 150. 2014. Rookie of the year. Brock Holt also got one vote. That guy was from Boston.

So did Nicholas Castellanos. That guy was from Detroit. And Jake Oterizzi. that was a mistake damn working of the year voting is so weird dude because like it's not indicative of becoming a star at all

no Billy Hamilton got second place in 2014 Travis Derno got two votes whatever I'll get off this page I'm sorry can't stop, can't stop my standout performance shake is a blue is a little simpler

it's just Mike fires Yeah, I gave him the knot now with his facial hair award last episode or episode before that. He didn't get out of the second inning, two starts in a row, got blowed up by Houston, then got blown up by Texas, was just basically in a warground in Texas, going around Texas getting his ass kicked. They pulled him from the game. They made up that phantom injury. His fingers were tingling, the old David Price.

They're like, but he's going to make his next start. Okay, so you're just trying to cover his morale. eight innings pitched two hits really good outing against texas the same team he had to do that fake injury against the a's are in it minaya's back and he's been really good fires if he can do this that's awesome the a's each fan base of the indians and the a's and tampa have things to cling to if they win the wild card. Like, hey, we got, we got pitching. Like, our pitching's good right now.

All three of them have it. I think, like, in 2017, the twins didn't have it. I think if you asked Twins fans, they'd be like, if we beat the Yankees, like, there was no way we were doing anything else. And the Yankees in 2015, if they won the Wild Card as a Yankees fan, it was like, there's no way we're doing anything, though. All these teams have it. and I think fires throwing that eight innings pitch really,

if he threw bad again, A's fans would be like, oh shit. Like, dude, we lost him. But it's a really good outing by him, puts the A's back into the thick of things. I think they have it locked up. Jake's rooting for the 3% chance they don't. But went crazy beard, went crazy bad, recovers rather nicely with eight innings pitched.

Yeah, and it's, it is a really nice start. I mean, there's a little, you could do a little, little what's Texas playing for. It was a bad, tough couple episodes on the podcast for fires. And yeah, Jim, I don't know. I think the only thing where I do disagree with you slightly is the start is great. He's going to get one more before the playoffs, I believe. And I don't know. I just think if he has kind of a mass start or even an okay start, like when they open up the like the wild card game and fires is out there they're going to say you know in this month of september he's he had a seven five era he's not their wild card pitcher is he um i think they'd use

him they'd probably him and mania right yeah yeah so i i just thinking and say they win the wild card game and they go into the playoffs like i if fires comes out he gets hit a little bit they'll be like yeah you know he was having a great year and then September he kind of fell apart. So I'm not fully relieving him, leaving him after this one start. Okay. He should make another start. So he pitched on the 20th, which gives them so one, two, three, four. He should pitch on the 26th, which sets him up for the wild card.

One, two, three, yeah. And I mean, he's been there rock all year. Mania came back in September and he has looked great. But I think they maybe. Fires doesn't scare me. But they're going to be all hands on deck. Yeah, I think it's probably a start fires and have Mania ready, but I don't know. Twins A's would be a fun series.

I have something crazy rude to say. What I just said was half rude, but I don't think people realized it was half rude. And I'm building off of it. Okay. Yeah. I know what you're saying. If you took the Yanks in Houston out of the American League, it would be a fun playoff between Oakland, Tampa, the Twins, and Cleveland.

Those four teams are just throwing in the boat and see what happens. Well, yeah, I mean, don't talk too soon. One of these teams could shock us. Like, you're rooting for 3%. Oh, easily. But the pitching. It's like weird. I don't know.

I'm just, if I could, I'm picturing nerdy childhood Jake playing like a PlayStation baseball game that doesn't operate well. And if you could give me the four teams, Tampa, Cleveland, Minnesota and Oakland, and just do random simulations between those four teams playing each other, like I think I would do that for every weekend for five years. I need to know. what's going on with the twins pitching? And I think that is an interesting conversation.

I don't know if we want to fully dive, Jim, but you mentioned that their bullpen. You'll hear about the twins bullpen and call-up watch, which was a little surprising. All of the other teams we've talked about have so many, like, different weapons. We mentioned like fires, Mania, and then the A's just have arms they can go to.

And Liam Hendricks at the end, he's kind of a little bit of a trump card so far this year. The race, they've got all their starting pitching who will be available, and they've got a ton of guys they use out of the bullpen. Cleveland, we haven't talked about Cleveland going playoff mode for pitching because it's a ton of starters, but they can throw something together. Minnesota, if they want to do something this playoffs, they are banking on Berrios and Oda Rizzi having crazy starts.

That's their only chance. Berrios has been bad. Yeah. But I mean, he's still having a really good year. Yeah, he's got 517 ERA in his last eight games. And I'm excluding a big outlier right before that, that if I include, it's a 615 ERA. I mean, he's got. He's having a five.

He's got two good starts this month. He's got two bad starts. this month. Yeah. And in his last nine games, you got four good and five bad. I don't know. That's not like something you're banking on,

going to postseason. No, but I'm just saying, if the twins want to do something this playoffs, Berrios and Oda Rizzi have to be special. And they can, but it's tough, especially the way playoff baseball is played nowadays. Yeah.

I'm interested to see how the twins fare. I'm going to go back. 30 days, right? Sure. And who's been the best twins pitcher the last 30 days? As a starting pitcher? Yeah, as a starting pitcher. I mean, I would guess Odirzi?

The last 30 days, the twin starters, it's Perez, Berrios, Oterizzi, Dobnack, and Gibson. Barrios is five games, three and one with a four seven or four six ERA. Perez is bad. It's Dobnack is their best pitcher. In his last four starts, he's got a two, four, five ERA. Andy D. Kyle Gibson's been awful.

I guess that would be the other thing. This Minnesota team, you know, you've heard. about the lineup and those guys are legit. They have a lot of young pitchers that would be thrown into it. I mean, Zach Little. Dobbnack. Oda Rizzies, his game log is not bad. It's a lot of five innings pitch three earned runs.

Sure. Not great, but that'll win you games if you. Yeah, I mean, it's always going to be. be asked for in the playoffs or that's what all the other teams will be asking for from their starters. And doesn't Oda Rizzi when we saw him, doesn't it slider technically have like the most movement of starting pitcher or something crazy like that? I believe he's got one of the crazier ones. Yeah, I forget. Yeah. I think his name always comes up. All right, let's move on. Twins.

Jake, you were in charge of Slump Watch today. What are we got? Well, we'll start out, which is basically outside of Slump Watch, but it's Aristides, a keynote watch for Cincinnati, the young driller who we want to keep our eyes on, because we knew it was going to come down, but how hard did it come crashing down? He has an okay series.

He goes three for 11 with a homer and a walk. Jim, I've been talking about my teeter guys. I think that's the term that I've landed on. My teeter guys, where their stats the next couple weeks, going to depend how their season looks. Aquino, he's game to game right now. His OPS going into the nines or into the eights. So Aquino, but Saturday he was in the nines.

He had a bad game Sunday. He's back in the eight. So that's a little teeter watch for Aquino. Say here or Stetes. I know you like saying it. Out of Steadies. So he went three for 11 with a home run and a walk? It's okay.

Which is on base percentage? because his slugging is an outlier if we're being honest. Right. His slugging, he will not be able to keep up the slugging at this pace. So what's his on-base percentage? I'm going to, this is always the embarrassing game for us, which fans probably laugh at, but I'm going to guess, and you can guess if you want with me,

that Aristides Aquino is hitting 275 and his on-base is like 320. I would have guessed lower on both So he's hitting 260 and a 310 OBP Yeah Yeah So that's that's Talking Aristides What's the slugging like 580

575 Yeah He might be able to keep that up Yeah I mean there's In the juice ball season There are some numbers that do look like Aristides And it's not as crazy as an outlier as it would be other years. No, but you did that on base percentage higher.

Yeah, get it up, Aristides. Just draw that walk. Let's get into the real slump watch. Jim, a guy that you and I have had heated debates over. Young Dansby Swanson for the Atlanta Braves, also a vandy guy. Jim, he goes 0 for 10. He has a pair of walks, of course. He's now up to 0 for 15, and now I'm vested.

Yeah, man. What's his stats since returning? I'll pull them up. They're not going to be pretty. And we're getting up to like a lot of games. Well, and that's the thing. I defended him because he came off the aisle initially. And then he had one series where he got on base a ton, but it was a lot of walks. And now here we are. And now he's 0 for 15. And Jim, it's got to be a discussion in Bravely. Like, this is a huge week for Danesby Swanson. Dude, and he needs coming off the IL, he's got 22.

games now. He's got a 281 on base percentage, a 176 slugging, and a 457 OPS. I mean, he's been swinging a wet newspaper since coming off the IL. And I mean, he's got six games to like show you something. Unless is he a lock defensively? Like is that his is is he locked in? I mean, he's their shortstop. He's, he's a number, you know, former number one pick for him. I believe so. I mean, I think they have guys if they want them. Couldn't they swing Etchervria there? Jim, he's on the season. He's a 244 batting average. 32 OBP, a 742 OPS. Pretty average. He is solid with the leather. As long as he gets a couple hits this week, I think they're running with Dansby.

And then if they need, if he's pure ice cold, I think you consider Etchavaria or I know they had Camargo, but he might have gone hurt. But I mean, that's, I mean, that's kind of the craziness of baseball, right? Yeah. But he's a bandy guy. That's a Rie has been playing, too. He said, thank God for taking me off the Mets. Amen. Amen. And Danny's been hitting a little bit, too. So, yeah, it's definitely something to watch. Yeah, it's slide. Albie's over. I don't know. That's one of our Braves fans, our Braves, my baby Braves, reach out.

Alby sat the last two days. Rest season, baby. Braves got nothing to play for. But yeah, Danesby Swanson, you, sir, you do have something to play for. So, yeah, now I'm into that because this last week could depend a lot of his playoff playing time future. Do you know what Ozzy Alby's real first name is? Albies. Albies.

You think it's Albi Albies? Albies, Albies. That's Azanyo. Zeno, he should go by that. Actually, Ozzy is pretty good. So Dansby, we've got our eye on you, brough. Might watch you the rest of the way anyways at this point. Jim, I will say this, another guy I fought for

because I have a higher bar for him than you. Yadier Molina, catcher for the Cardinals in the series where they killed the Cubs. He comes out the first three games, six for 13, with a homer. He does go 0 for four in the last game, but still a six. for 17 series is solid. And they took the soul of the Cubs.

So Yaddi, you're coming off. And he's just going to compete in the playoffs. That's just what he does. Jose Quintana, Jim, for the Cubs. And I mean, he could come off just because maybe the Cubs are dead. But, oh, no. Jose Quintana gets knocked around again, 3.1, 5 earn runs. Jim, he was having a great season up until September 1st, a 390 ERA.

20 plus starts. In September, he's got an 11-8-5 ERA in his four games started. He's a guy that, you know, he was coming into September hot, and it was like, is Quintana the guy who gets the ball for them in the playoffs? And now, no. He's being nice. He's putting them out. He saw what's going on in the clubhouse.

He's putting them out of their misery. It's nice of him to do this. Update from the chat. Kyle Davis, who's a Braves fan, says that Swanson versus Etch is a question that's coming. up in Brave lands. I like it. I like it. So, yeah, we're definitely

keeping eyes on Dan's B. I mean, at this point, you up the bat and the glove with Etiabria. Yeah, but I mean, that could change in one game. I don't know. And in one game,

Dansby can be plus plus with the bat, and he's still good with the glove. We jump to my other guy that I've been battling for, Jim. Another heated debate between us. Cal Quantrell. the young pitcher for the Padres.

Yeah, he was having a, he was having a great rookie season. It got blown up with like four starts. He bounces back. Five innings pitched, only two hits, one earn run, six Ks versus Arizona. Cal Contral, you were coming off anyways, but you earned your way off. I'm proud of you, Cal. Yeah, so I was bouncing around in some Padres forums on the internet. I like to see what fans are saying of the team, you know?

Yeah. And there was something like they're talking about, who's our starting five next year? And basically the consensus among the podgers fans that I was reading was like, Quantrell is no part of this team. So like even they are like he's bad. No, I wouldn't read into those blogs at all.

That could be anyone that could have been my dog writing that. Well, no, you got to take the temperature of the fan base. That's how it works. Yeah. And sometimes you've said some pretty mean things about Padres fans before. I had a Padres fan.

No, I have not. He was very nice. All I said was I don't understand why they're so. angry. Yeah. Why are they angry at Cal Cantrell? That's what I'm saying. We're saying the same thing.

They're not angry at him. Quantrell's just not good. He's good. Cal Quantrell's pretty good. Kevin Kiermeyer, he is, he's got a lot going on, Jim. He is now up to one

for his last 25. His hit came in the last game and he also got a hit by pitch by Evaldi. Feel invested in Keirmeyer. That's another one that I just, we have to see how this wrap up because they're going to play them.

I mean, they love Kiermire and what he does defensively in center field is otherworldly. But I mean, he's in a bad, bad way. Yeah. He's going to play, though, because he'll play. Yeah. But have they started moving him down at all? You know, like you said, they've been playing him like he's a guy.

They've been hitting him six, seventh. I mean, I think they got to start ducking him even lower than that. Yeah. let's see he was uh yeah with sixth and then he was eight eight so okay so in his last six games he's batted or his last seven games he's batted in the eighth hole five times um so yeah they need to uh they need to get him in that nine spot or eight i don't mind eight but yeah he was like six seven for while they're lying to themselves i'm i'm in a podres for him they got Cal Quantra went in the Cy Young next year.

So pretty good stuff for him. That's a lot. Kevin Kiermeyer, you're staying. We're interested. But you kind of play when you don't hit anyway, so it's not that interesting. Jim, you threw rookie Will Smith on here for the Dodgers. He became kind of a part of the fabric of that team. He goes two for six in two games with a homer, a walk, and a hit by pitch.

The hit by pitch put him clearly off for me, but Will Smith is off. Okay, good for him. Yeah, yeah. He's not like out of his slump, but he's off slump watch for now. He's off slump watch. I mean, he's a rookie. I know you've got a pretty good rookie policy on here. He was coming off pretty much anyway, but he gets an honorable discharge.

Yeah, getting two hits in eight played appearances against the Rockies. He got on base half the time. You can spin that a couple ways. We're not clapping. They're not clapping. Okay. We agree on that. No claps.

No claps. And finally, Jim, Manny Machado. He is now three for his last 37 after going one for nine in the last series. And yeah, I mean, he's just waiting for Buck Showalter at this point. Dude, I'm such a fucking East Coast elitist. I am. I truly think, like, if you're in a bad season in San Diego, it's so much harder to gear up and play

than if you're in a bad season in Baltimore. Well, you mentioned it during your during your AL report, Jim, that the Mariners Baltimore game drew fans this weekend. Yeah. Baltimore's a beautiful stadium, so I like that. Great stadium.

I'm just saying like, Mani Machiaz is first year living in San Diego. The weather is probably still nice. Where when you're in Baltimore, like, it's baseball. What else are you going to do? What else are you going to do in Baltimore? You can't even really escape. You go to like the three bars you go to?

Raven season, baby, Raven season. I know, but that's a Baltimore fan, not a player. I'm like, man, my name of childhood. Right. You know, I'm going to go to the beach. Like, as soon as this game's over, I'm going to go to this club. I'm going to go to L.A. I'm going to go hang out with this athlete, this celebrity.

Like, it's much easier to just fucking lose focus when the season's over. And I don't know if that's like snobby or elitist or whatever, but same with like Miami. Yeah. No, I mean, there's. Distractions are abundant. Colin Coward has a few rants that are just like what you were just saying. But yeah, Machado is sliding. And I mean, he's approaching like one of his worst statistical seasons.

He did switch leagues and all that. Like I would, I think man, he's going to be back next year and have a good season, especially with Buck Showalter getting rid of the San Diego distractions next year. The gate for the Padre Series, according to baseball references, still way more people showed up than the Baltimore series. How about that? See, San Diego's getting into it. Yeah, it's good for that.

I mean, that's not what I was saying at all. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, they also, I mean, they fired Andy Green. The whole team kind of quit. Hunter Renfro, that's who the Padres fan, that DM'd me LSD images like that. He gave me a full, like, he gave me his Hunter Renfro scouting report because we talked about him last time.

Proud San Diego. Get ready for Buck. All right, Jim, finishing slump watch. We've got three coming off. Yaddy's coming off. Quantrell's coming off. And Will Smith's coming off. So I got three coming on.

Ryan Yarborough for Tampa did the whole pitching thing with Tampa. They got a lot of weapons. Ryan Yarbrough for a while was one of their main weapons. a big year last year. He was having a big year this year. His last two starts, he's giving up six earned runs in each start. Through September 1st, he had a 3-36 ERA. I mean, this guy was one of the better pitchers in the AL. In September, he's got an 802 ERA, and he's now a teeter guy. His ERA is now 408. If you're Ryan Yarbrough, you got to turn it around and get it starting with that three. Because if it starts with a four, you're not a weapon. You're not a weapon.

Yerbrough. You know where it went wrong when they didn't let him get the complete game shut out? There's an asshole move by the raise and they're paying for it. I love that, Jim. I want to cut up those stats right now. I want to cut them up.

Because that was such a fucking asshole move by the raise. It's just, it's not good baseball. Like, I'm sure the numbers told you the right thing, but it's not good baseball. If anyone doesn't know we're talking about, Yarbrough was at eight, he had won, out to go to get a complete

2 shutout to get a complete game shutout and they pulled them and the next guy comes in and gets like a simple ground out and it's like and they talk about take the biggest morale boost for a pitcher complete game shut out to now he hate you and he's angry yeah it's like what what are you doing so that was dumb computers

can't measure that and he was he was the only pitcher this year that got taken out 8.2 shut out without facing the next batter. Probably the only pitcher ever, dude. What team would ever do that? Yeah, it's interesting. We'll get research on that. Jim, I've got a couple bigger names on here for my last two.

Just in slides. I've got Reese Hoskins for Philly. He's in a one for 20. I didn't deep dive on his numbers, but he's got to be careful with his low batting average. If he ends up poorly, he'll be the talk of Philly Sports Radio for all offseason. So, Reese, you got to get it going.

And then my guy, Matt Chapman for Oakland, the stud third baseman, he's in a three for 24. And it's kind of one of those things like this next week matters just a little bit more for Matt Chapman because you don't want to come in slumping. You don't want that to be a story. I'm not worried about them. I'm kind of scared of the A's bats.

I mean, they're good. But I mean, if Matt Chapman has another bad week, he's going to be, you know, six for 50, and he's going to be seriously slumping. And you just can't have that be the conversation. He's not getting on base either? No. He was sliding good.

Damn. Matt Chapman saved Marcelo Zuna from coming on Slump Watch, but them also sweeping the Cubs. But that's, hey, I know you're listening, Marcel. You're watched. Watched. All right. You want to get funky with the stats, Jake?

I love when you do, babe. So in the 10 games before the ruthless pulling of Yarbrough. Right. The 10 games before he had a 161 ERA. They were 8 and 2 in his 10 starts. They ruthlessly take the ball out of his hands. Don't let him get the complete game shut out in the in the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, in the seven games since

5.45 ERA. Put that at your fucking computer. You fucking dicks. Crunch those numbers. I know I'm joking and I am also... No, you're not. No, just to let it be clear.

I don't think he's doing poorly now because they pulled him. You don't think there's a direct correlation. I think it's an asshole move and I think if something goes, I think you lost him. Like how Andy Green lost the clubhouse. If the Ray's lost Yarbrough for a little bit,

I think that's fully on them. And I don't blame Yarbrough for being like, fuck this organization. And it's not a joke. You do believe in it. No, I don't believe that's why he's actually pitching bad. Okay. He could just be getting tired at the end of the season.

He's never pitched a lot of innings and stuff. But I do think it was an asshole move. I like the theory. Lean into it. No, you already compared me to Coward once. Can't do like two nutty hot take shits. Play the sound. What sound?

This one? Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. All right. Got some on fire bats and arms to talk about. There's a lot, dude. There's a lot of like bad baseball going on.

So there's a lot of good hitting going on. And so I just, I didn't want to do two from one team. I just tried to, I threw some on here. Carlos Correa already talked about. He had six at bats and three hits, but two homers. And this is huge because he just came off the IEL. So that's why this is worth talking about. It's not crazy.

You're talking about Chapman being in a slump for the A's. Well, the dude that hits right by him, Mark Kana, is the opposite. He is six for 12 with two homers, and he's got four multi-hit games in a row with five extra base hits in those four games. So who are they playing next? They're playing the Angels. Angels fans, not that you care. Watch out for Mark Conn. He's got four multi-hit games in a row for the A's.

Conna's having a big year, Jim. Yeah, big year. He's doing really well. Good for him. Aaron Judge, Yankees. He came off the IEL two months ago, and he didn't hit a home run for a while. He actually hit a home run in Oakland,

and that kind of opened things up. Since then, over the last 28 starts, 30 days, he has 14 home runs, which leads the MLB in that span. Also has six doubles, a 1.1-1-1 OPS. Just had two home runs in this most recent series. He's been one of the hotter hitters in baseball over the last 30 days and just in time. Yeah. And I won't give a full judge thing, but just know it when he, due to his stature and the way he plays.

When he's right, it's like, it's something I've never seen before. Let me finish in Fuego, and then we have an announcement that just happens. Miguel Sineau for the Twins, their pitching sucks lately, but they're hitting is incredible. Nelson Cruz also went off. I think he had like five RBIs in one game. But Sineau over his last 15 games has seven homers. It's like a home run every two-game pace.

That's math. 19 RBIs, Jake. In 15 games, 19 RBIs. In the four-game set versus Kansas City, he went seven for 14 with three walks. So that's a 58 on base percentage in four games versus Kansas City this past weekend. Corey Seeger, a national league guy, will throw him on there. Six multi-hit games in a row. So you thought Mark Kana was impressive with four multi-hit games.

Corey Seeger has six multi-hit games in a row for the Dodgers. and in his last eight games, he's slashing 469 batting average, 485 on base percentage, 1.266 OPS. So he's getting real hot. And a couple of these multi-hate games, Jake, were pinch-hit appearances, where he pinch hit, like, only got two outbats. He got two hits. It's crazy. And then I had to throw some arms on there, but the arms kind of get boring because the same guys over and over. Padre's rookie Chris Paddock, in his last four starts, he's got a 0-7.

7-ERA. The innings pitched, I don't think, is too impressive. I think there's a 5 and a 6, which is good. But earned runs allowed is really impressive. And then the last one on there, because I'm a Yankees fan, and I'll shove my bias down your throats. James Paxon's 10-0 in his last 10 games. The Yankees are 10 and 0 in his last 10 games.

He's got a 2-25 ERA in his last 10 games and a 167 batting average against in his last 10 games. And the cool part is there's a 2-2-5-0 in his last 10 games. And the cool part is there's a direct correlation to changes that he made. I think we've talked about this already. Like he was like, let's throw the knuckle curve more. Let's mix in the off speed. Like he changed his pitch mix and the results have been insane.

And yeah, Paxton, when he's right, he is a lot of fun to watch. He's got this weird Canadian intensity going. He has fully turned his season around. He is 10 and O in those 10 starts. And good for Paddock. I know when we initially started doing this, he was getting his second round through the league, and he was getting beat up a little bit,

but he's rebounding to finish off his rookie year. And the Miguel Sino's story, man, isn't kind of being talked about enough. I mean, this guy was sent down and was basically described as broken, and now Miguel Sino's back. He's got 33 homers. His OPS starts with a nine,

and just, some of the most raw power in the game. So the news that broke Jake is Ned Yost is retiring. No. Yeah. No. No more Yost post. Is he still going to do the Verizon commercials?

Yeah, that has nothing to do with his. That's his acting career. So now the Royals, the Giants, the Padres, and most likely the Cubs, we'll be looking for managers. Royals, man. Who the fuck they want that job? That's going to be a bench coach we haven't heard of, right? John Morosi says Mike Mathini,

special advisor to the Royals in player development, is viewed as a strong candidate. Sure. Knock yourself out, Mike. I mean, why would they want him? I mean, that's a... I think it ties into your first question. So who would who would want the job?

But like if you're going to don't hire Mike Mathini, Royals. Okay. Why would you hire a guy who managed and then isn't managing anymore? Wouldn't you, couldn't we say that about Buck Showalter? Buck Showalter and Joe Girardi are established good managers who's, I mean, Mathini's got number. He's won one pennant. He's got a lifetime 555 win percentage.

Yeah. I don't know, maybe. I don't think of him as a good manager. I think of him as having real good teams. Buck Showalter is a good manager in baseball. Like that's a known thing. He got bad teams and bad stuff. Now, you can say Joe Girardi had good teams, but George Arty's really good at managing a bullpen.

And I think he would be a good Cubs match or a good nationally manager. I don't know. Just the royals seem like they need to try and find their own, um, hinge. I think you're right on that. Like they need to find their young guy who's going to like relate and spark.

Their own identity. I think you're right on that. I think Mathini's got some decent managerial stuff out there that if, if they wanted him, good for you, royals. Yeah. Well, he's fired. sacked, as they say, across the pond. Way back up and

I don't even know. Goodbye, home run. I mean, who did the Orioles get hot? Jake, there were a lot of Mariners that had a really good, really good series against the Orioles, but a lot of them were hot already beforehand.

Yeah, the Mariners are actually kind of playing decent baseball. I was looking at their game logs recently. They're doing all right. J.P. Crawford, though, 10 games before the Orioles, he had two hits in the 10 games before the Orioles. A 0.59 batting average in the 10 games before he got to go to Baltimore and face their pitching. In the first game versus Baltimore, he went over.

But in the next two, he had four hits in a home run. So before Baltimore, two hits in 10 games. Three games in Baltimore, four hits in a home run. run. That's how it works, man. That's people helping people. Thank you, Baltimore. You know what? We only have two more Baltimore series left, Jake. Can we play a fun game where we guess who's going to get hot? Oh, I love it. I love it. Who are the Orioles playing? That's what I'm trying to pull up. We didn't prepare for this new segment.

The Orioles. This is on the fly, people. This is how you do it in the biz. Oreos are playing Oh my baseball reference Is looking nutty Yeah dude I've got that going on too They must be updating They're playing I think I can figure it out

They've got Toronto in Boston Okay Um Okay Is all of Randall Gritchick Is he cold right now He is a little chilly

Yeah Damn Okay you got Gritchick Dibs on Gritchick. Why is baseball reference down? Yeah, the game logs are coming up. The main player pages just are not functioning.

It's full squalor on baseball reference right now. Luckily, I got it. So let's see. I got Lordus Guriel. No, you know who? Jake? Justin Smoke in his last seven games has a one. 125 batting average with a 176 OPS. He's going to go off in Baltimore.

And he got a homer against the Yankees. Maybe that sparks him. Yeah, that feels like three homers from Justin Smoke. I got smoke going off in Baltimore. All right. That is so bad. That is absolutely brutal. That is unbelievable.

That is totally absurd. That's so good. That last line's good. totally absurd. Boone got ejected. Who got mad? Aaron Boone got ejected again. Joe West threw him out from the third base.

He was the third base. Boone was yelling at the home plate hump a little, just barking saying it was a bad pitch. Because it was John Carlos Stanton, who's just trying to see pitches and get at Batson, and the ump wrung him up on some borderline calls that I don't think we're that egregious. But Joe West throwing Boone out from, third when Boone's in the dugout and they're playing like a big jumbotron noise during commercials.

They were like, there's no way he heard him. Baseball's problem is, and there's another ejection here where Eric Hinski got ejected from the Diamondbacks. He's like, they're hitting coach. And the ump was just looking for someone to eject, man. Same with Dave Roberts. Dave Roberts always said it was no, that's low. And he got thrown. There needs to be like a penalty box because if the,

umps are going to react to nothing to just yelling you know like hockey is a two-minute penalty in NFL there's 10 yards you know in basketball there's a foul two shots baseball doesn't have that i've made this spiel before but the ums are getting crazy man it's fucking zero to ejection if you just simply yell which happens in every sport and all the other sports they'll be like, all right, two minutes, like, you know, fucking, you can't yell at me like that, two minute penalty, misconduct, whatever the fuck you want to call it. Two shots, technical on the coach, you know? But if the umpires are going to be ejecting people, like Dave Roberts got ejected because he said, no, that's low. Come on. That, it's so crazy to eject for that. And then

fine. So I'm over. Like, I'm kind of tired of it. Yeah, I'm done with the whole umpires association. And that sounds kind of like a lame, soft, like casual thing today. Like, yeah, the umps suck. The game is hard as hell to call. Guys are throwing harder than ever. They're throwing 99 on the black.

I couldn't tell you if it clipped the corner or not. I'm not mad at the umps for missing calls, but we need to change the guidelines. And umps also just need to be held accountable. And that's the thing. The Boone ejection was an ejection from the night before. Joe West was behind the plate and missed a horrible outside pitch on Brett Gardner. I mean, it would have hit a right-handed batter if they had a closed stance,

and it got called a strike. And so the ejection is a follow-up the next day, and Joe West gates away clean. He goes to his next series. There's no problem. There's no issue. there's just zero. I just don't know how this was set up that the umpires that run the game

have no accountability. It's crazy. None. Mike Montgomery got ejected for the Royals and he basically said that the ump was out to get him. He said he barked at him in the early innings and then he was specifically not calling his curveball strike and staring at him afterwards.

That's good for the game though. It's Mike Montgomery's first ever, objection. He's never been ejected. He's never really like had issues. It's crazy. That tells the story. Hey kid, we need a body. It's September 18th

and we're out of the playoffs. You want to come catch for us? So we've got two on call up watch this week. I'll start with the catcher reference. Davey Gruyone. That's a fun name. Davey Gruyon.

Sounds like you're about to say something badass And then you just totally trail off Who the hell put Booion cubes Davy Gruyon Philadelphia He's a catcher be a catcher's kid He does have something scary going on right now He only got a pinch hit at bat And he struck out

Damn So Davey needs the Phillies to start losing So he can get a couple starts and get a hit Oh sorry I'm rooting for the Phillies What's his age? He's younger. I think he's 24, 25. I can get there.

I just don't want this to be a Moonlight Graham situation. Right. No, I think he's pretty young. Yeah, he's 20, 23. So Davey's still got a chance. And his career minor league numbers were pretty bad, and I was going to give my whole Be a Catcher Kid speech. He's got a 7-10 career minor league OPS.

But the past two years, he's actually had pretty good number. So Dave, Dave, he'll get some more at bats. We don't have to worry about him striking out his only at bat. And the other guy who got a call, maybe he hits a big walk-off homer so the Phillies can get that five-game sweep. I'm rooting for that. The other guy who got the call is Jorge Alcala for Minnesota. He's a pitcher, Dominican.

He's 24 years old. He came up. He got two outs. And this is a fun one, Jim, because I was like, am I even going to dive into this? Because I know the twins aren't banking on Jorge Alcala. But it is kind of fun because it's just, you mentioned Moonlight Graham. And all these guys have different minor leagues path. There's guys in the Yankees minor leagues that could have had huge years on lesser teams.

Ryan McBroom is playing for the Royals right now, Jim. He's had a big couple weeks. And he was just in the Yankees' AAA all year. So it's funny seeing some of these guys' paths. Alcala was a starting pitcher in AA this year, and he was getting rocked. He had a high ERA. I want to say it was 5-8, 5-8-7 ERA in over 100-plus innings of AA baseball. Like that's a guy when you're at the double-A game, you're like,

I don't think that dude's making the bigs. Yeah. He goes to AAA and they make him a reliever, Jimmy. And he goes 7.0. he goes 7.2 shutout innings. And now the twins needed an arm. Jorge, you got the call, dude. What a life.

You think that, like, minor leaguers, like you think sometimes they're like, they feel like they can't go to the staff and be like, yo, why don't we try me out as a reliever? Because it's kind of as if they don't believe in themselves anymore. Yeah. But then, like, the staff comes to them and like, hey, man, we think we're going to move you to reliever.

We got a plan for you. Thank fucking God. Because I suck as a starter. There's definitely been one or two. I think there's a huge fear factor, I think, because if you stop starting pitching, you don't come back. But then every reliever was a once a starter. Yeah, exactly.

So, so yeah, Jorge Alcala, he might have found his Alcalling coming out of the bullpen. Good, good for you, dude. is all calling. Tricky stuff, Jake. Tricky, tricky. Tricky, trickie, trick. Let's move on to awards.

You had to go first. I'll go first, Jim, and I, you know, people love this stuff. You love laying down the law looking back. Who won? Who won the trade? Jim, I have the official best move at the trade deadline award.

Okay. Jordan Liles. Jordan Liles, you're doing fantastic. Actually, he was last episode for the beer makers. This week, Jim, it goes to Louis Severino. That's right, people. Buckle up for some Yankees talk. Louis Severino has come back for the Yankees.

James and I, as Yankee fans, we've tapered our expectations as much as we could because he was out the whole season. And it's a really tough ask for a guy to just jump into the playoffs at the end of the year. he's gotten two starts. He went four innings. He's on a pitch limit, obviously. He went four innings in the first start, no earn runs. John and I were in the stadium. And then he comes out, his second start, five innings pitched, nine strikeouts against the baby Jays. And we do our

talking Yank show. It was maybe the most elated we've been on it this season, just because it seems like there's always been an injury or just something that was like, oh, well, yeah, that that series was great, but Edwin and Carnaccion got hurt or Gary Sanchez got hurt, whoever it was. Luis Severino is like a breath of fresh air. He's addressed the Yankees' biggest need, and he's been lights out doing it. And you just, we've, blocking out the chance of Sevi coming back, we've kind of forgotten how good this dude is. He's one of the top pitchers in the AL when he's right, and he kind of looks right, Jim. Yeah, I'm scared that you brought this to everyone else.

I'm sorry, Jim, I told you. My cards are on the table. Yeah, I wasn't ready to put my cards on the table. I'm out. I don't want baseball to know that we're excited about savvy. It's like, you know, you got a big interview for a job you're excited about. I don't tell anyone. For me, it's like it would be if you didn't have a nose.

and you tried to hide your nose at a job interview or your lack of a nose. They'd be like, wait, why are you holding your hand over your nose? And be like, oh, nothing, nothing. It's not because I don't have a nose. That's where I'm at with Louis Severino. Yeah, I'm excited, but I'm, I'm, I'm, This is what I was telling you guys about Yankee fans tempering themselves.

I stopped. The lids off. Yeah, I'm, I can't do it. can't do it can't do it but uh my award yeah the uh no news is bad news award yeah and it goes to andy green because on this very show last episode i was like what's going on with andy green we don't hear anything about him he's probably the manager i hear the least about he's never really getting ejected he never really doing anything like do paljury's fans like him.

We're like, he's got an extension to 2012. That's where we ended last episode. Now he's fired. He's not the manager anymore. So Scott can't. Can't. So no news is bad news. Get ejected.

You know what? Bell for the Reds? He's a rookie manager. You get ejected left and right. Hear about him. Reds fans like him, I think. No one else is crazy. And I will link one thing to Yankee stuff.

And then I won't say, why word again. Aaron Boone has a chance to win manager of the year this year. He's been eerily similar, but he's had guys play really well. G.O. Orshella's played crazy well. Mike Talkman out of nowhere. And it's funny, when the baseball players play well, you do well as a manager. And Andy Green, Tatis Jr. gets hurt. Machado starts playing awful. We mentioned. We mentioned. I mentioned Hunter Renfro last time because he was playing bad. That's tough, man. Well, I mean, I put a correlation to managing and play a result more than you do.

Like, that's his job is to keep them motivated and playing well. A little bit. But to the same time, his job's not keeping Fernando Tatis Jr., who is the soul of that team and about to win the rookie of the year healthy. Yeah, I know, but that's the difference. We said it on this show. When Tatis Jr. got hurt. they were dead everything was dead in san diego yeah but i mean there and that's partially on green but also

not yeah i mean you just got to keep the room motivated and like playing we clearly didn't do but i mean this is this is what people said about boone and like gary sanchise last year and gary was clearly hurt yeah but this year boon's done a great job of keeping confidence in guys instilling it saying like hey you're our guy go out there do it never you oh you never you don't give a lot of credit to managers. I give more credit to managers than you do. I like a good manager, but I mean, players still got to play well. Oh, of course, but I think a good manager gets the most out of their players, Andy Green. Boone didn't make Geo or Shella one of the best hitters in the league. I think Boone creates an environment that allows Geo to come in and play better. And not just

Boone, the whole Yankees is like, I think if Geo on this very year went to the Mets, he wouldn't do that. Absolutely. And I fully agree there. And I think Boone is the leader of that room and the team meetings and the coaching staff, and he sets the tone and the message. So when people come, they're like, they feel like that. So I do think it's a lot of the manager in the room. A little bit. All right. We got elevator talk, right?

Hit it. Let's do the elevator talk. If you're new to the show, elevator talk, you get into an elevator. It's Friday afternoon. you see a fan of the team they're wearing a hat and you want to strike up a baseball conversation because you're a baseball fan.

The twins. Wow. Did a lot of twins talk. I mean, Nelson Cruz is still going off. We'll do twins, whatever. I mean, it's better to do a team that's going to be playing for something. I don't know what the twins are doing with their pitching.

Like we said, it's Berrios and Odorizzi. And then who's their third starter? Is it bullpen days? I think the twins have a lot of first. low key. I don't know how Twins feels. What's that? Paneda getting suspended was a low-key, giant blow for them.

You mentioned that in the elevator. You're like, I think we could have gone all the way if Panada didn't get suspended, right? Yeah, I kind of want to be in the elevator and find out what and how Twins fans feel. Because my perception is that they feel really confident and they're really, like, happy. And I'd be scared. And I'd be scared shitless if I was a twins fan. Because that, no, you wouldn't be scared to shitless. I was, I was trying to group this because I actually had a similar thought process to that, Jim.

Because I was thinking right now, there's what, four fan bases that think their team is going to win the World Series, the Yankees, the Astros, the Dodgers, and the Braves. Yeah. So those four teams right now, they think they're going to win the World Series. three of those fan bases are going to get crushed. The other teams, what they say is, we've got a chance. We're in the dance, and that's what we're doing right now. We're saying, Oda Rizzi, Berrios would have to go up. A couple guys have to step up from the bullpen, but our lineups there.

And I think that's what Twins fans are saying. Nice. Hey, Michael Jordan just liked a tweet of mine. It's pretty cool. Which one? About C.C. So it's not really me. It's fucking wild to see. It's cool. I doubt he runs his own Twitter. It's like the Jordan brand.

Yeah. Oh, and C.C. is part of the Jordan brand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not Michael Jordan. We'll say it's Michael. Yeah. Yeah. Again, the twins, it's really just like, can our pitching hold up?

Like, can Barriosan odor as he come through? Yeah. Nelson Cruz, 40 homers in 116 games. God damn. It's been nuts. Who's like, who's their bullpen? Like are, Trevor May, Taylor Rogers, Tyler Duffy? Twins fans, turn off your ears.

They have nobody in the pen. They have nobody in the bullpen that scares you. Ryan Harper, Blake Parker. These are the guys that got the most innings out of the pen this year. Yeah, man. I mean, they can hit the fuck out of the ball, but. Yeah. I'm trying to find a pitcher.

that scares me in the pen or as a starter. You can't find a single one. Not scary. I guess it's where I started. They would need Berrios and Odor Rizzi to be special. Yeah. They play above their means. Yeah.

All right. I think that ends this episode of talking baseball. Thank you guys very much for joining. We appreciate it. If you want to leave a rating and review, we'd like that. And we will see you on Friday, go Phillies.

Unless you are a, unless you're a Cleveland or a nationals fan, go Phillies. We'll see you on Friday. Enjoy your weeks. We'll be together on Friday and in Maine. So it'll be a little different show. It'll be fun. See you guys.