Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 358 | Cubs Freefall Continues, Bryce Harper, + Dodgers & Astros Sweep

Episode Date: July 5, 2021

Get 20% off + free shipping with the code 'TALKIN' at https://manscaped.com  Timestamps: 8:30 - NL Recap 13:45 - NL Central 18:15 - Braves 21:00 - Pablo Lopez Ejection 34:00 - AL Recap 41:00 - John Hicks 43:15 - White Sox 44:15 - Tigers 47:00 - Red Sox 53:00 - Subway Series 1:01:00 - Simulation 1:02:30 - Standout Performances 1:03:45 - Omar Narvaez 1:09:15 - Machado 1:19:00 - Slump Watch 1:25:00 - En Fuego 1:27:45 - Bryce Harper 1:37:39 - Ohtani 1:47:15 - Elevator Talk: Toronto Blue Jays Presented by DraftKings 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.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Happy belated 4th of July. America's pastime was on display, and we're here to talk about what happened. Hello and welcome to talking baseball, brought to you by Draft Kings. My name is Jimmy. His name is Jake. We got Trevor Plouffe coming from California and producer BBD behind the desk. And a bunch of special patrons bringing you this show, Ryan Wood,

Emily Feld or Feldi or Emily Feld Alberto Monceas I don't think I'm saying that one right at all Macias Macias Macias is it is it Macias? Is it Italian? Is it Matt O'Neill Andy Bresher's Tyler Beefcake O'Neill I wonder if him and Matt are buddies Jeremy Stewart, Damien Hernandez and Kyle

Manter Thank you very much to our most recent Thank you for supporting us. And hope you enjoy all the perks that come with it. Go check it out. patreon.com slash Johnboy Media. If you're interested, Trevor, how is your 4th of July? James, Jacob, Big Baby, David. I had a great 4th of July.

We hosted some people over here yesterday, little backyard barbecue. We had these sandwiches, portilloes. We had them delivered from wherever they deliver them from. They send them to you frozen, you do this whole thing. A little piece of Chicago out in Los Angeles. So we had a great night. I lit some fireworks, like the baby ones because we're not allowed to have fireworks here at all, like very frowned upon.

But it's Fourth of July, what am I supposed to do? The kids were clamoring for him, so I did it. But we had an excellent night, safe one, watch some baseball. What about you guys? How are you doing? Jacob. James, Trev, bug, bug, dude, everyone live in the chat. Happy 5th of July.

Yeah, Trev, I got nervous. I think I was looking at, well, I don't want to get off on the wrong foot. I think I was looking at Liv's Instagram story. Oh. And I saw there was like, there's like 10 little kids around a firework. I was like, is this going to be like a real firework? Like, you're very much right. It was one of the chill, like the snakes and sparklers and the kids half didn't care.

But I saw you on the sideline enjoying it. So I was happy for that. I'm good. Happy, happy fourth to everyone. Had a nice Brooklyn weekend. I ended up in Brooklyn a couple times because I'm hip. I'm cool. And yeah, I mean, baseball, other than the fourth,

baseball really provided the fireworks, Jim. Did it? I don't know. I don't know. I'm like on the fourth itself, nothing overtook it, I guess. But I'll find out. There were some weird stuff beforehand. Maddingly ejection.

the Phillips pitching. We'll get to it. All that stuff was fun. Brad Phillips. I think everyone has a great breakdowns. What an icon. Yeah, he's awesome. Maddenly.

What? We're saying you. I'm an icon. I'm an icon. We're talking about you, James. I'm doing this thing where I buttoned my shirt up all the way to help with my posture. I was just going to say, what is going on with that? But I mean, I dig it.

You look like you're from Brooklyn right now. I know. Yeah. I know. I kind of don't. like that though but I do it for a weekly dumb because it makes me sit up straight like a real news person I'm worried about my posture I think I told the talking yanks chat like put me on slouch watch and let me know my back's in shambles all the time I think it's because

I have terrible posture my mom says it's her one of her biggest regrets raising her children she didn't instill good posture in us so I got to start thinking about that I guess I'm excited how do you instill that every time your kid slouch and you beat the shit out of them. Okay. Yeah. That's one method. They don't like it anymore, though.

Oh, people, people. All right, you want to get right into the baseball? Do we have anything else we need to talk about beforehand? All-Star Week. What you guys do for Fourth of July? Can somebody explain to me your day? I was, I don't know what Jake did. Mine was shitty.

I went and played disc golf with my dad. was very fun. But it was like 60 degrees on the third. I was at down the shore at my parents' house. My brother had a bunch of friends over, so they were playing games. We played a lot of, like, card games. But then I played disc golf,

and I was going to go to the beach because I love being in the ocean and the water, and it was low tide during the day. So I was like, I'm not even going to watch the first day. I'm going to go to the beach. And we got dressed to walk to the beach, and everyone was storming off the beach. We could just see him walking because a rainstorm was coming. So then I got stuck watching the Yankees lose in terrible fashion.

And then I was like, well, let's go to the beach now. And we went and it was pretty cold and rainy still. So like, it was a weird Fourth of July. And then it got really sunny at night. But we drove home because we did the podcast last night. So I don't know. I love Fourth of July. I'm usually a big time, like go to the beach, watch the fireworks,

hang out with the little kids, hot dogs grill. But the weather kind of was weird. You couldn't do a full outside day because there was just like, a thunderstorm of a cloud would just roll through, dump on you for an hour, and then it would be 80 and sunny, but then the next cloud was coming two hours later. It was weird. City kind of blew it.

It was a heat wave the last weekend, and then this weekend was rainy, overcast and all that. I mean, the East Coast is soft. No, no. It makes me what I'm getting from this. It didn't stop me from, like, just raging in Brooklyn, bro. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Yeah. How many coffee beers did you drink? The most coffee beers. I am coffee beers. Coffee beers? Are you saying coffee beers? Is that like a Red Bull vodka? Mild?

It's just like, you know, nitro stouts and shit like that. Yeah. Hey, let me ask you a question. All three of you guys. I want your opinion on this. It seems like every year there's a sect of the internet that does firework, filming, shaming. There's always the people who are like,

just a reminder, you're never going to watch those firework videos on your phone. So don't, you know, it's like, well, Are you coming at Jake? Maybe I will. You're coming at my viral video? Oh, wait, you ended with maybe you will. So you actually support fireworks.

I'm a supporter of capturing the fireworks. Don't tell me what I can and cannot capture on my phone. It needs to be unique. Jake's that's going, King of the Internet. Is hella viral. Is unique enough because it's driving. and they were all like in unison. But I like the time lapses.

Yeah, there's a lot of the same thing. But I don't care. I'm a sunset person. Beautiful. Like if I see a sunset, I'm going to take a picture and post it on Instagram. I see one that stuns me. I'm a sunset guy.

Yeah, hashtag doesn't do it justice. Hashtag no filter. But you like. Mother nature. You filter. No ceilings. I love Mother Nature, by the way. Oh, the elements, man.

When it rains and I'm at the beach, I'm out there in the water. Like if it's raining and not lightning, I'm in the ocean. Because I'm like, let's be in this. No one else gets that. Jake and how you went in the roof during Hurricane Sandy because we were like, let's be part of this. That's why we're here. A lot of people don't.

Do you guys subscribe to like the grounding culture that, you know, the people say you need to go out barefoot and put your feet on some grass and ground your stuff? So I'm a barefoot enthusiast during the summer because I don't like sandals. So I just get my beach feet. I burn them up real quick and then I'm just barefoot everywhere. So yeah, I do think you need to touch earth a little bit. Look at us.

Hipster and hippies. All right. Let's go talk about baseball now. Who has the NL? Fine. You? You have the NL right. Yeah, boy.

All right. Here we go. Jake is going to share with everyone what happened in the National League. I truly don't know a lot of it. So tell me. There we go. Doing my best. On your mark.

Tell us. Holy smokes. Let's head over to BBD's favorite infield. And the Ily Delph, the Phillies take on the Padres. Holy cow. And the Phillies take two out of three. Nice little series win for the Phil's Wheeler versus Paddock in game one. Wheeler shoves because that's all he's done all year, 7.2 shuddy.

Whoops, that game actually goes into extras. and who walks it off, but Trevor Ploof's backyard Brad. Brad Miller with the walk-off double. Phillies show the fortitude to win the second game fortitude with Lev Zefflin versus you Darvish, but the Padres roll it in the third game where they get a special Snellogram. Blakey is back four innings shuddy for Snell. How about it?

Let's go to the nation's capital. you probably saw Joe Kelly and the Dodgers visit in the White House to celebrate their World Series. Did you see them sweep the Nats in four games? Nats! You just hooked us! And now you do this, Dodgers getting hot. Hello, 6-2-10-5-3-5-1. Dodgers starting pitchers did enough, more than enough. 386 ERA, but the reliever, 0-8-9. locking it up while the Nats relievers pitched to the tune of a 10-4-5 ERA. Max Muncie, can we talk about him more? Dodgers infield, people forget.

Starlin Caster had some hits. Schwabo went to the I.L. After he was King of the World for a couple weeks, so that's a bad time. And Trey Turner didn't play. Nats, tough timing there. Tough timing there. Speaking of timing, the Brew crew continued to go. They take three out of four from the pirates as the Pirates snag the last and final game.

Corbin Burns shoves, and that's obvious. Willie Adomas having all sorts of hits, and that's obvious. You might hear about Omar Narvaez in a little bit, my guy. Brewers won 11 in a row, and then they had their streak end to the Pirates and at Brewker or hot. Red sweep the Cubs on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Cubs have lost nine straight. Guys, we were all over this. We said this was the trip.

Are the Cubs gonna sell? We'll talk about it after this. Red sweep, sunny, gray, Papa Molly, I'm sweating. Watch out for BBD in Brooklyn one of these days. Wade just being Miley, he gets it done too. Reds win three one-run games. That is brutal for the Cubbies. Chris Bryant continuing to do it.

Reds have swept every team. in the NL Central. How about it? Los Braves, the Braves, the Braves, the men from Bravo win two out of three against the fish with arms. Braves up to second in the NL East. Watch it. How's your Max Fried pinch hit walk off?

Our boy, our guy, the king of swing. I love that. Some Mattingly ejection breakdowns. Go check that out. add. Braves do enough to win, including taking the deciding game 8-7 in 10. Cardinals at the Rockies, are the Cardinals riding the ship? No, they lose three out of four to formerly Jake's Rocks. Holy crap, Bola, the only game they win, game two in 10. But man, oh man, what is going on? Cardinals, relievers get hit a little bit. Elias Diaz with the walk-off homer in game one.

Walk-off single in game four. Rockies lead the league in walk-offs. Formerly Jake's Rocks, they don't quit, baby. And my twin fire hydrant, Tyler O'Neill, exits game with a hit-by pitch, and then he sits out the Sunday game. Hopefully he'll be back soon. And wrapping up in the National League, my snakes take on Trevor's coaching staff of the San Francisco Giants.

And you know the Giants took three out of four after dropping the first. first game. Giants hit the whole series. 538 slug and boogity, booggy-bugty, and their relievers get it done too. Buster Posey exits the game. Zach Gallen hurt too. How bad's Pose's injury? He eggs, uh, x-rays negative won't start, uh, Monday, but he should be okay. Longoria rehabbing Lestella, Grummanback. Giants getting more reinforcements. Holy smokes. Holy smokes. Some cool things here going on. What's got your eye, James? Just the whole Central.

The Cubs are now eight and a half games back. The Cardinals are now 10 games back. The Reds jump up to second place, but they're seven games back. So the Brewers have a seven-game lead in the Central. We thought that might be a two-team race, three-team race, or a slog. I didn't think it was going to be a one. I didn't think it was going to be a runaway. It's early.

The whole second half of the season left. That will change. play each other a lot. But real nice for the brewers if they can get even a little more distance going into the break. Who's on their schedule coming up? Jim, just to feed your beast a little bit there. I mean, the brewers have the biggest division lead right now.

So, yeah. Ooh, they're coming to New York. Hey, the brewers are coming to New York. Hey, Los Mets. I think they're in New York right now. Yeah. Allie's always open. Yeah.

They don't want the smoke. Brew crew. C. Rose posed this question to me a few days ago. He said, will the Milwaukee Brewers relinquish the division lead at any point during the rest of the year? And I think it's a fair assumption to say no. Might get close, though. I don't think they're going to stay like five games up the whole way. I think it will get down to two.

It'll get down. It'll get close. But I wouldn't, I don't think it's crazy. I think the odds are that they stay. I don't know. Cubies are really sliding right now. Cubs are going to sell now. Sell?

Almost like they have to. Eight and a half back? It's going to be an oddly unimportant, important week. You know, we're playing games through Sunday, and then it's the All-Star break. And, you know, if the Cubs bounce back a little bit, we knew this road trip was going to be a killer. We didn't think they'd lose nine straight.

If they can hop into second going into the All-Star game, I think that feels a lot better But if they don't, man Start shipping I have great news for the Cardinals Let's go They're 10 games out right now Yep

Cardinals have 10 games Against the Brewers In September If they could climb into Five games behind the Brewers Six behind the brew crew At least you can like You can

As a fan, you could be like, it's in our hands, man. It's in our hands. We go eight and two against those guys in September and we're there. That's a fun like nugget to a carrot to dangle for Cardinals, players and fans. We got 10 against them in September. We just got to keep it somewhat close. Well, we know the Brewker is going to do something. Yeah.

We're privy to do a little bit of info that we know there are some stuff in the works already, but there could be even more like, you know, they're looking for some impact bats. They're going to do it. We talk about this all the damn time with them. I love the Brewers. I love their uniforms. What a freaking uni they got. What about the Reds?

Staying in the Central. You think the Reds, they sweep the Cubs. You think that they are going to do anything? Who's going to be the team that scares the Brew Crew a little bit? That's what I don't know. It could be the Cardinals. It could be the Reds. It could be the Cubs.

If it gets to within one or within two games back, Like who is the team that does it? Who would you put your money on? I think I'd still put it on the Cubbies. I think it's the Cardinals. If they get healthy and they maybe make some moves, whatever it is, and they start playing some good balls or some good ball. That stretch you're talking about, 10 in September,

that means a lot. Like you have to have the ability to go and control your own destiny somewhat. You know, if they don't play each other at all, then you have to rely on other teams to do it for you. but if the card will start playing good ball, get healthy, get within striking distance. I think they have the, it's crazy to say that when you look at the standings right now,

but I think they have the best shot. Nate's. I don't think the Reds continue. I don't think. Well, what if I told you this? I think the Cubs are in herself. The Reds have four in Milwaukee before the All-Star break, and then right after the break, three.

I think we've run into this before. So seven games in a row against each other. That's exciting. That's good. Reds are scary. They can pitch a little bit, and they got the monster bats. I don't know.

Why isn't Luis Castillo good, though? Who caves first? I want him to be good. Yeah, I don't know. I want him to be good. Let's dance around a little bit. We have the Braves. They are one game under 500,

but only three and a half games back. And the East Division is still close, man. The Nats get swept. They're 40 and 42. They're four games back. Phillies are 39 and 42 They're four and a half games back Like that's for halfway through the season

That doesn't mean anything to me Like if you're within five games And we still have 80 something to go You're right in the thick of it So the whole east is still up for grabs Now the Mets are playing really good ball And they're winning games they shouldn't win And they're winning games they should win

So I'm not trying to But that's close No it's the I think the Braves You kind of circle them The Nats had their hot streak And now You know with Schwabo out

how much of the heavy lifting was he literally doing? I mean, how many times can you point to an individual player and be like, man, he really put them on their back. And he went nuts. The Braves, man, I don't know. You know, they've been having a miserable year, and you wonder if something like a Max Fried walkoff hit, if that brings everybody in the locker room,

and, you know, you kind of have that moment of euphoria and like, this is a good feeling? How about the guys that are supposed to have? have the walk-off hits do it. And maybe we'll start enjoying that. I mean, if there's, you know, last episode, I said there's going to be 10 games leading up to the All-Star break, who's going to bust out the 8 and 2,

who's going to bust out the 9-1, if you are the Braves, and I think they go Pirates Marlins, have a week, and your atrocious first half is gone. It's gumption week. It's gumption week. Oh, my God. Yeah. Gump, we.

Define gumption. Define gumption? It's the soul recognizing itself and another. Ability to to get done in tough times. Persevere. Borsive. Persevere.

What's the actual definition of gumption? Shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness. Yeah. Ooh. I like resourcefulness. Like Macfraid hit in a walkoff? That's resourceful. I think spirited.

Spirited resourcefulness. See, are they, are they resourceful? Like, they have really good players. So they're not like, I guess like the Max Fried, that's gumption. Yeah,

that's gumption. That's big time gumption. But it's gumption week. It doesn't count. Last week's not gumption week. This week is gumption week. It's gumption weekend. Yeah.

What do you guys got in the whole like, Pablo Lopez? A great breakdown, James. Great, great breakdown on that. What do you got on that? It took me six hours. Did. A lot of lips to,

read, babe. A lot of lip room. A lot of lips. I started it as soon as it happened. And I finished at 2.30 in the morning. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. People need to give you more credit, James. Hardworking guy.

I'd like people to understand that they're not easy to make. I think people think they take like 20 minutes. What I have on that is... For Jim. I'm fully on Maddoin-Leaks side. Like, I understand he gets hit first pitch. And it's a real weird optics. And a lot of them were on purpose with, what was his name?

Urania. Urania. But I don't think this one was on purpose. It looks on purpose because it's a really bad pitch, but like all the reactions. But the biggest issue is if you're going to throw them out for it, it needs to be on your mind before it happens as the Ump crew. So for anyone doesn't know he got hit first pitch of the game, they didn't react to it.

They didn't even, the umps weren't even going to huddle. They just were going to send him to first base and say hit by pitch. Snitker comes out and we like Snit and he likes us, but Stittker comes out. And I don't mind that Snicker did this either. It's gamesmanship and he's pissed off about it. And he says that's five times he's been hit now. Like, no, this is bullshit. Then the umps get together and it's almost like,

hey, is it true that's this is the fifth time he's been hit? Like, is it true? And Snit's like, and three times on the first pitch of the game. Is that true? And then they decide that because of the intel that SNIT gave them that they're going to eject them. That process of that is bad. Like if the ump would have said,

you're out of here immediately right away. You're out. Then I would have said, okay, the umps convened before the game. They said be on the lookout for this. They probably gave out warnings beforehand and it was known. They were looking for it. But the fact the umps didn't react right away and then they took like SNET's intel and then use that, I would be pretty mad just like Don Mattingly was. So, so I'm not upset if he gets ejected,

but the manner in which the ums handled, I think is, is, is, was terrible. I also don't think it was purpose. I don't think it was on purpose. I don't think it's the umpire's job to do what they just did. I mean, like you're saying, like if there's, if they talked about it before and they're like, how to plan with this and we're going to make sure they're not doing this on purpose, which doesn't make sense, and that's why they didn't do it because it doesn't make any freaking sense. So now we're just like making up excuses for them. They got together and made the wrong decision. Because then you take him out of the game. They got to go bullpen the rest of the game. Guys aren't ready to go. You're risking

injury. The next day, someone probably got sent down at it and look at the transactions. I bet someone got sent down to bring somebody else up. So now you're causing that. All because what? A fastball got away. You can't take the inner half away from pitchers. You just can't. That's not okay. What if the next guy comes in trying to work a two seamer and hit somebody? You have to throw him out too. You set the precedent. I thought it was dumb.

It actually made me really mad. And I like Dan. The crew chief there. Oh, I was like, Dan. Hyaconia? That it was? Yes. I also like Dan Rourke.

No, too soon. Yeah, I mean, that's tough. It's one of those things where you try to bring logic into it. And, you know, Jim, you showed it in the breakdown. Yeah, it's the ripple effect. It's, okay, yeah, like, it is kind of messed up the Hittaker and again, but there's nothing behind that. And, well, Snicker kind of has a point to argue it,

defending, you know, one of the most talented players in the league who, every time he sees a Marlins jersey, he shouldn't have to worry about a ball coming near his wrist. And then, uh, but yeah, processing that information and then tossing him that, that sucks. I mean, you wish there was a better way to panelize the, Marlins because if if you throw double warnings there, then the Braves are mad again because, well, he hit our guy. So what are we supposed to do?

It's almost like if they could give, if they could give individual team warnings, like could we warn the Marlins but not the brave? But then I guess that opens up a window for the Braves to peg the Marlins. I don't know. Braves fans hate madingly. I didn't know this. So Braves fans, there's a whole collection of them that think. And maybe there's truth this.

I don't think so. I really don't think so so I'm not even going to lend credence to it. They think that Mattingly has the Marlins hit Acuna and started having them hit Acuna because Acuna was about to break his lead off home run record

or something like that. Oh my gosh. So I get all the theories and the replies. So I get like notifications for all this stuff. And yeah, that's something that's out there in Braves World. Braves World just. I like Braves fans, though. I like him too.

We're great, but come on now. Don Maddeny sitting back there being like hit this motherfucker. Come on. Yeah. I want to make an apology to Luis Castillo because I said I want him to be good. And apparently I skipped over his whole June because he's been lights out. He's coming back. Hell yeah.

And the Braves optioned Kyle Muller. So he was, uh, he pitched on the third. We're talking Marlins, right? Oh, yeah, my bad. Well, Kyle Miller got a shout out. Shout out. Strong. I saw one of the mansplain girls tweeting out that Kyle Miller is strong.

So update. Yeah, the Marlins had to do a lot. They selected the contract of David Hess from the jumbo shrimp, a option Jordan Holloway down. Then the Ray's traded. Well, first, the Ray's traded David Hess to the Marlins. So they had to make a trade. I guess the raise, I don't know.

Someone's going on with David Hess. They got him. Stuff happened. Then they brought Holloway up. They sent him down and they brought him back up. And then John Curtis came back. Early Settler name from 10-day injured list, neck stiffness. The John Curtis that I know that built the damn church for the town,

his neck was stiff all the time. It was a good day when my neck was stiff. Yeah. Exactly. If his neck wasn't stiff. That's how he'd tell like he tilled enough of his land. Yeah. Yeah.

Can I talk shit about Domatting me a little bit? Sure. Okay. I like Don. I don't really know that much about him. It's like, go ahead. Well, Yankees fans. He did something that irked me a little bit, man.

What did he do? He's, uh, he's letting, I'm sure people saw the video. It's like this thing now with managers. They do this when you get called up a lot too, but he's announcing the all-star selection. Is it Trevor Rod? whoops who's that

he like tries to make a so he tries to make a joke out of it saying oh we're going to send you down to Jacksonville first because you know we want to get you 10 days and this guy's sitting there like well that sucks and then he's like oh just kidding we're sending you to Colorado it's like let's stop with the jokes man hey trev

can't tell you something I don't like you I agree completely and it's um this might be insulting to you it's the definition of athlete humor Like the most rinse and repeat Joke generator. It's basically a Hallmark card of jokes.

Same with the fucking, what do I hate? When they hits the first home run. Silent treatment. Silent treatment. Celebrate with a dude, man. He just hit his first big league home run. Celebrate right away. After the silent train.

Don't make him feel awkward and silly. And don't do fake send downs before call-ups. Just like, let them be happy in their happy. This All-Star one is bizarre. Like, I get silent treatment. I think your stance on silent treatment is fair. I'm fine with it. I think it's funny.

It's kind of welcome, and then they all celebrate him, and ah. It's the same thing, but it's, you know, tradition. You're a tradition guy. This one was weird. They were going for the social media angle, and it's like, you're a young guy that's, like, nervous. You know, I mean, trying to break out in the MLB, and he is, because Poppy Gordo was on it.

And, yeah, like, that's not. never the play. The play is to always I mean, surprise them with the boys in the locker room and have that be the social media thing. You know, have the team go nuts for him to do a the old, we're sending

you to AAA, not. Like, that's a player's nightmare. What the fuck are you talking about? I don't know what reaction they were like hoping to get from him, but if you watch the video, I don't think they got it. Where's the video? I never I haven't seen it. Because he just goes

like, oh, cool. So like, I'm not going to triple A then. Wait, where's this video? Marlins, like, Twitter. Marlins tweeted it and I think we quote tweeted it as well. So you can... Maybe if someone delivered the joke a little bit better.

Hey, Trevor, some of your family's in the hospital because of a car accident. Oh, we're just joking. You're going to the All-Star game. It's supposed to be like you tell something terrible when you deliver bad news because you're like, well, at least it's not that.

I'd like to, you can't, you know, you're like, hey, guys, mom and dad, I got arrested. Just joking, I got a D. Oh, it's not as bad as he's getting arrested. Like, that's the play. You can't be like I got arrested. Just joking. I, I graduated college. It's like, what?

The end of the thing was kind of okay, because they did, like, oh, you're from, like, New Mexico, right? You guys grow up, you go to Denver a lot, or, and then, and then, and, you're, And they're going to want your family to get there. I didn't deliver it well. But you could have just on that part said what are your plans for the weekend? Oh, no. They could have just done that part and it would have been okay. The view of this and everything?

I haven't seen this. I don't want to watch this. A little casting couch vibes. Oh, no. Oh, yeah, you'll hate that. Oh, no. Hey, for real, though, look like they're like, Dawn. We're doing this thing.

Can you pretend to send them down? and then that's it. And they just shut the door, put the camera in. Nobody was, like, prepared to do this. Don was, like, making things up. He's like, where are you from? New Mexico? And then he said, did your family ever travel to Colorado?

And the guy's like, I guess. Like, what? He's like, I think a couple times. All right. There's, uh, someone quote tweeted the video. I was looking for reactions. And he sums it up pretty well. And, uh, no likes or retweets for this guy.

But, uh, he says, This isn't that well executed or funny, but it sure does a great job of underscoring the sick-twisted service time games teams play under the guise of managing workloads. Even after being told he was an all-star, he wondered whether he was really going to be optioned. Yeah. He was like, so wait.

Oh, man. That's funny. Well done. Well executed. All right. Let's go to the American League recap, which is going to be, brought to you.

Before we fully go on, we didn't say anything about the West Coast. Dodgers are rolling. Four-game sweep of those Nats. They're a half-game back of the Giants who retake the West for now. But Jake Snakes, that's kind of it. Padres, Phillies. Did anyone watch that? What was going on there?

BPD, your Phil's? Brad Miller got a new phone number, just so you know, in case you guys were trying to text him, new phone number. That adds up. You guys didn't get that text? What? That adds up. Jake was sending a lot of lewd pictures, and I just wonder who has his old number now.

Yeah. Because they can really do damage to your reputation. They have some ammo. Yeah. Damn. Wow. Damn. Okay.

Good job by the Giants retaking first place. Pretty big, because I think I said last episode, like, if you told me the Dodgers go wall to wall from here, I'd believe it. And Giants come right back and take it. How about it? Sorry for almost skipping you. There's a lot of people complaining about me for not watching West Coast games on Reddit. I'm like, what do you want me to do?

What's your deal, man? Like, they start. Just stay up. 10 a.m. And watch all of the West Coast games. We work 9 to 5 or 9 to 9 basically. It was nuts. Anyway, the AL recap is brought to you by Manscate.

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The weed whacker ear and nose hair trimmer. It's important. A lot of people don't realize how important that is the crop preserver ball deodorant, crop, reviver, toner, performance boxer briefs. Don't both of you love their boxers? And my brother, Luke, he stole my... I wear them. They're in the mix.

I'm wearing them right now. Are you really? They're in the rotation. Yeah. My brother Luke, there was some line around the office and he grabbed him. And then he was like, yo, do you think you can get me more of those? They're really nice. So the Manscape boxers are getting rave reviews.

BD, I feel like I'm missing something right now. Okay. What are you got? Oh, there it is. Nice. Treves showcasing the box. If you showed your dick. It would be hilarious if you showed your dick.

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Escape the shrubs and weeds this summer and shine with Manscape. All right, here's what happened in the American League. The Blue Jays took two out of three from the Rays. Are the Rays losing a lot still? Are they like under 500 in their last 30 now? They got blown out in game one, but kind of won the day social media-wise because Brett Phillips pitched and he was hilarious. Manoa absolutely dealt.

He's been real good ever since he got called up. The Jays actually got great pitching across the board. Stripling was good in game two and Robbie Ray was good in game three. They're starting pitching has made a pivot, which kind of kind of makes them pretty scary now if that can hang on. So good job by Strip, Manoa, and Robbie Ray. Springer had two home runs. Vladdy had three extra base hits, and he hit his 27th home run.

For the Ray's, Wander Franco had four hits, including his second home run. So that is really fun. But the Jays do win the series. The Astros, after getting swept by the Orioles, they go on to sweep the Indians in a four-game set, Never easy to sweep a four-game set, but they do it. In the first three games, they won easily by the sixth inning. They had the lead, and they didn't give it up. In the fourth game, it went to extras.

They get the go-ahead run because Emmanuel, how do you say it, Clase? Couldn't catch a simple throw at first base for the double play. Pitchers. Not good. Three of the four Astros starting pitchers recorded quality starts. No Astro recorded five hits, but nine. had multiple hits. They're just deep and beaches so many ways. Good job by them. The Tigers hosted the White Sox and took two out of three. Those damn tigers are on fire. And the White Sox,

you know, gumption week. Because you seem like you're on a slide as well. I'm not positive about it. White Sox won the first game, 8 to 2, but then lost the next two, 11 to 5 and 6 to 5. Gialito and Keikle did not have good starts. Tim Anderson, had six hits, though. Lance Lynn in game one, 117 pitches. My dude. Grandal exited game one with calf tightness and sit, sat the rest of the series. So come on, Grandal, you're an all-star.

The Royals, another central team that's just been winning. They take two out of three from the twins. Hap, Jacks, not good for the Twinkies. The Royal starting pitching wasn't great either. A lot of bats here. The Royals won the first. to Meida versus Keller though that was a pitcher's duel in game three and the twins held on to win Donaldson exited game two with a hamstring and sat for game three. Brad Keller good start

for him. He goes 6.1 two earned runs his second time pitching into the seventh this season. Good job. The Angels played a team worse than them so they swept them. That's what the angels do. I'm actually super interested in the rest of their schedule because how many more bad teams they have? versus good teams, the Angels might go on a hell of a run here. The Angels hit, man. They had two walk-offs, Walsh, with another walk-off hit. Lagaris with a walk-off two-run double in game three. Cobb had a really good performance to them on the mound.

But Otani's the story. Hits his 29, 30th, and 31st home runs, becomes the first player to reach 30 this season. His last seven hits are all home runs. 14 of his last 19 hits are home runs. Dude is a freak. A freak. Rendon exits game three with a hamstring tightness.

He may not play Monday, but isn't believed to be serious. The Red Sox took two out of three from the A's. And every game in this series was closed, Treb. The Sox won game one in the 10th inning. The A's won game two in the 12th. And then the Sox won game three, one to nothing. So a really close series that the Red Sox end up winning. They're starting pitchers, pitchers.

really well. Their bats struggled. Devers and Verdugo both had multiple extra basis hits, Larry with four hits and a home run and a double. Kemp had a walkoff sack fly in game two. A scored three in the bottom of the 12th after the Red Sox scored two in the top. So some fun in game two. Full pension Piv had a really good outing. He outduled Caprelian. So that's just like two guys that you can root for. Mariners take two out of three from the Rangers. music stopped, so I'm not even going to tell you what happened to that one. Sorry, Mariners and Rangers. If the music was still going, I probably would have said somehow.

Mariners won the bookends. How Gibby goes 5.2 one-run runs. His ERA dips below two, which I told everyone to be on the lookout for. Maybe I would have told you that Louise Turenz had two home runs. He's got seven home runs last 13 games. Maybe I would have told you that John Hicks had two home runs. Maybe I would have asked who John Hicks is. I don't know who that guy is.

Settler's name? Jonathan Hicks? Yeah. Yes. He's a catcher. Big dude, big boy. Nice. So, uh,

who wins in a fight? Me, Jimmy and BBD versus John Hicks. The three of us? Yes. Three of us. I'm asking Treff. I would take John Hicks. Okay.

Let's just look up his stuff. The three of us. BPD is not a fighter. Okay. Yeah, we send BBD in first to tire him out. I would think the BBD would switch sides mid-fighting. realizing that John Hicks was getting you guys and he's like all switch sides.

Yeah, you send me in first. He and I'm just going to befriend him. He's 6-2.2.30. The three of us got him. I think if BVD goes in first, I think it's a bad tactic for us. Well, BBD goes in first. BD, you go to the ground early, but you stay.

Oh, I think he's going to the ground early. You stay by his feet. You just need to stay by his feet. You just need to stay by his feet. Jake and I run with the diving tabletop. Once he's on the ground. I think all three, of us go for the knees at once. Different angles. You guys talk about

you talk about John Hicks' early settler name? Yeah. He's from Virginia. Yeah. The lineage is there. His full name is John, not Jonathan. That's a little against early settlerism. Well, he shortened it when he came over.

It's cost too much for ink. I'm not going to sign my full name. Are you kidding me? John. Okay. It's my new name. What do you guys got? Good for Houston.

We covered it. What else do we want to talk about? Good for, see, Trave. Good bounce back for the Astros and like a big bounce back. They go in just four games sweep to get right back on their winning ways. The White Sox stay in first place in the Central and they still have a big lead. So I guess it doesn't really matter. Yeah, they're starting to enter like that twins territory. we talked about the last couple years when they were in top of the Central.

Like the Indians aren't a real threat at all. They're just kind of second place by default. Like the Tigers are... I'd rather play against the Indians than if there was a 30-team playoffs tomorrow when everyone was in, I think teams would rather play Cleveland than the Tigers. Maybe. Why? Tigers have been playing a good brand of baseball for the past, like, month and a half. Cleveland's.

Yeah, the tigers are six. They're sick. Tigers are 16 and 14 in their last month. I'm getting worried about the White Sox, though. And White Sox fans are going to be shocked because they don't understand my thought process here. And I don't mean to upset you. I think you're one of the best teams. Top three teams.

Wow. In baseball. Top three? Well, let's see. I thought the Dodgers and I thought the Astros. Top five. Giants, Padres. Yeah, top five, do we think that?

Close. No, I think at their best when everything's clicking. I think they have every piece. I love their team on paper for sure. I agree with that. But I don't like the way their records are starting to look. They've got a losing record against winning teams. They're going on skids here.

But it's early, and they can get out of this. But yeah, they're 16 and 24. Out of all the play, it's the twins. Out of all the playoff teams right now, they have the ones with the losing record. And that's what the twins did forever. And I always said, like, you've got to be able to beat good teams to win in the playoffs. So interesting. They got a lot of time to correct it.

Those central teams just aren't going to challenge them regularly. I have Detroit 29 and 22 in their last, you know, math amount of games. Like Detroit has been playing a decent brand of baseball for a little while now. And Cleveland, yeah, it's just the same thing. Sometimes they get pitching performances, and if Jose Ramirez goes off, they'll win. But, like, that's kind of it. Savaldi's just got hurt.

Beaver's not there. Pesak is in there. Those three guys that are healthy, like, you don't want to face this team. I'm sorry. In their last 51 games, the Tigers are playing at a 92 win pace. Mass. Plus.

Cleveland has a sneaky great bullpen. Like this is actually a scary team. I don't think we need to dive too deep into Jakes what he said. I think he's just saying the tigers are playing good baseball. A better brand of baseball than Cleveland for over a month. Cleveland finds ways to win sometimes. It's just injury bug.

And I was saying that the White Sox, I'd like to start to see them. not slide anymore. Gumpshin week. Gumpshund week. Get after it. The Red Sox do their thing. Close. See, that's what I like about the Red Sox.

They're close games against the A's. Two good teams. They're playing close competitive games. One, nothing. Good pitching at the end there. Two extra innings games. Like testing each other. Preping for postseason ball.

I like that. Do you have the Red Sox? over the White Sox in your rankings right now? No, but we're getting close because the Red Sox are good against good teams and the Red Sox are really good against good teams. They have the second most wins against good teams out of all the playoff teams. They're 28 and 19. They're good in one-run games.

They're 16 and 8. They're good on the road. They're 26 and 15. That's all the shit I look at just as like a team. make up going into the postseason. Gotta be able to win on the road. You got to be able to win close games, and you got to be able to beat good teams.

So the Red Sox are kind of doing that. I like the White Sox. I take their roster over a lot of teams. You just got to start piecing together. Again, it's halfway through. All this will change. Sox got the juice, man. They really do that.

That Oakland series was a lot of fun. I was popping over there late night. The first game goes into the 10th. Kike makes an incredible throw and the game-winning hit. Jady Martinez is playing left field in Oakland. He makes a nice play to throw a runner at the dish. Oakland ends up coming back in that game.

Boston takes the final game behind Full Pension Piv. But Jim, I wanted to, and maybe I'll send you there after this, go check out, and our Yanks have become complacent with losing. Go check out the Red Sox cut shots after they lose the Saturday night game to the athletics. They look like a team that's so bewildered and pissed that they lost. It's an energy that hasn't been around the Yankees in three or four years. And it was like cool to see. Like Christian Vasquez is standing around pissed that they just lost a road game to Oakland

where so many teams in baseball now, you know, if you can pair up a loss and a rest day, they're like, hell yeah, Boston, they want to win every day. And I know it sounds dumb, but there's not a lot of teams that do that anymore. You try to rest your dudes in the bullpen and balance it out. Like, this team is tough. They want to win every day, and it shows.

I'm curious about that. You keep bringing that up. Like, there's media stereotypes of, Red Sox and Yankees. Red Sox are this gritty, like, bearded team organization. Even though they're a very big market and, you know, like, treated very well, that's the stereotype they have. And then the Yankees is the other way. Like business like professional, like, is it too professional in Yankeville right now? Do they need a little bit of grit? Like, what's up with that? Fun, grit. It's team makeup. I mean, you know, the 98 Yankees is just like, the 98 Yankees is. had won a World Series.

They were supposed to be good. They were supposed to be the best team. And they came in every night and they hit and run. And they were deep and they beat you a million different ways. And they were fucking pissed. So I don't think it has to do with like the big picture corporate versus the other. I just think it's roster construction and lineup usage. The Red Sox just get after it every day.

Yeah. A little too much coddling there in Yankeesville. That's what I think. A little too much. So much. They coddle more than they try to win. And that's, I mean, there's guys on the Red Sox that are out trying to prove, like Devers is trying to prove who he is amongst this massive third base crop.

Bogots, you know, he's putting up some historic shortstop offensive numbers in his little career and he doesn't get a ton of respect. J.D. Martinez, people were writing him off after a bad 60 games and now he's back to being elite. Verdugo is just awesome He's just awesome Kike has been the everyday center fielder for this team After being the utility knife For the Dodgers

Like Vasquez fights for every inch He's awesome man I love that dude And yeah They just they compete They compete and they do not want to lose day and day out Let's move to the west We talked about the Central a little bit

Good job by the Royals and the Tigers I guess we didn't really talk about the Indians Well they got swept by the Astros I want to top of the Astros a little bit Sure yeah yeah go to the west The Astros big sweet by them Especially with Oakland losing two of three They're up three and a half now

I think this is the Oh shoot man They're one of the most complete teams They're like there's like three teams That are complete teams And I think the Astros are one of them I think the white socks are one of them. And then I think the Dodgers are the last one.

I'd say the Astros. I'd have Astros one, one in my rankings right now. I think so too. I think so. Starting pitching there, the relief pitching there. Lineup is deep. And when you get to the postseason, they're battle tested like we said at the start of the season.

Like they're, if they ride this out the way they are, I think the Astros would be. I'd still go Dodgers. I'd still go Dodgers 1-1, just because they, like you mentioned health before, Trev. Dodgers have been missing a lot of dudes, and now they're kind of back and they're rolling. Like, Belly's back, Muncie's back, seat. Like, those guys are, you know, top 10 MVP guys when they're right. Like, I still got the Dodgers.

Astros Dodgers probably the best team World Series we could hope for still at this point in the season, you think? That's a great matchup. I think, yeah. It's a funky way to look at it because, I mean, probably best baseball team. But, like, if the White Sox get hot in the playoffs or the Red Sox get hot in the playoffs, like those are quality baseball teams. Like, I'm fine with them. They're on the same level if they're playing at their peak.

Can I tell you a narrative I'm rooting for? Hello. Narrative season. Speaking into existence. LaRusa versus. Dusty and the CS just to fuck you

to all these new school young managers We'll get Dusty's impressions back Who Joe Tori Gets a job next year After it They're gonna be done

They're not even going to be called managers In five years There will be no one called the manager Wow I'd take your bet I mean if you want to up the years there Five's quick Jeff

Five is quick But you know, GM The roster hand or outers The lineup card hander outers Mm. You read the charters. You know what? Jake, do the I, the International League real quick

Because then Trev, I always, listen, I'm going to You've been on a cold streak with that. I always just get it mixed up. But you're a second half guy. We know that. I think we can say, be ready for me to get that wrong. I'm not complacent with losing, Jim.

you'll get better. I don't know. Trev, what happened in the I.O.? Well, there was only one series and it was in New York, the Subway Series, the Sandwich Shop sponsor. That's what Jake said earlier this week.

Mets take two out of three, my goodness, eight three Mets in game one, 10, five in the first game of a double header where the Yankees went ahead on a wild pitch. They thought it was going to be all dandy. too bad the Mets score six against overall this or six in the seventh including a two run game tying home run off whatever I don't know how many runs it was the whole apita Lonzo got it right now I'm killing this guys anyways the Mets win that one 10 to 5 was a really bad bad look for the Yankees but they salvaged the series with a four two win in game three the Mets slash 303 3809 424 in the Yankees offense

was abysmal. You say the same thing about the starting pitching and the relief corps for the Yankees. Bad series, all overall. Dom Smith, five hits, three extra base hits in a home run. Nimmo, his first series back from the IL, he missed two damn months. He had five hits in this

series. Judge Nershella, three hits in a home run, each. That was a basically only bright spot for the Yankees. Chad Green had an emaculate inning. Nestor Cortez did some things. That was nice to see. But in the end, the Mets take two or three from the Yankees.

And then to add insult the injury, Clint Frazier placed in the 10-day IL with Vertigo. The tests don't show anything abnormal, but that doesn't matter, voice. He's on the IL. Tim LaCastro is there now. And that's what happened in the IL. Mets take two out of three.

Tell me about it, guys. I want to talk and talk and talk about this. First place Mets, beat fourth place Yankees. So let me get this right. Marcus Stroman. still pitching. Those the wild pitch. Yankees take the lead. Go out,

put a zero up in the bottom of the sixth or top of the sixth. Chapman comes in for the save. It's a save situation, right? Not hot. Alonzo with the Homer, they end up scoring six runs in that inning. Yeah. I just want to get that right. Okay. Yeah. That's a tough way to lose a ballgame.

Well, it's a tough way to manage a team. Tough way to have a season. Guys got a, I mean, Chapman should have lost the job. And dude, this is very... Do you want to hear the... Do you want to hear, I'll do it quick. People hate what we're talking. I'll tell you quick, Trev, the very ins and outs of this.

It's a save situation. So, Chad Green threw two pitches. They got him loose. It's a double header. It's a double header. This is game one. Chad Green threw two pitches. They got him loose.

He came into the game through two pitches, got out of the bottom of the sixth inning, bottom of the eighth for a real game. they go to Chapman instead of just running Chad back out there. It's a double header. Instant excuse to be like, no, he didn't lose the closer roll. Chad was just hot and there's a second game, so we can save Chapman for that, right? Easy excuse because he should have lost the closer roll. So we're all ready for Boone to say, oh, we still have confidence in all this Chapman.

He's still the closer of this team. I still want to hand the goal is to hand him the ball with the lead and that's what we're going to do. Boone didn't say that. Boone said that he did lose the closer role, but he didn't go with, he didn't keep Chad in because he was saving Chad for game two. Chad throws three innings in game two and gets a save in game two.

So he literally admitted Chapman's not the closer anymore, but still used him as the closer because he was saving for Chad for game two, instead of just using the best pitcher to win game one and then figure they're so backwards the Yankees You might not need a closer in game two Exactly so if he said he's our closer we stand by him I would have been like that's fucking stupid And you shouldn't but I understand the mindset But for him to say he's not the closer but we were saving Chad

It's like so what what are you how do you the Yankees think you manage They manage two games away and don't ever manage the game they're managing. It's insane. That's how you lose a lot of games. Yeah. No, they... So wait, he came out and said. Rolus Chapman is not our closer anymore.

He said like it's in the balance. Like it's... They don't say anything. They don't ever say anything tangible. So if they say, if they say anything besides he's the closure, it means he lost a job. But yeah. Trevor Roldes Chapman, his last

eight games. 5.2, innings pitched. 11 earn runs. Hitters are getting 464 off of him to the tune of a 1.4 OPS. That was before the Mets appearance. Yeah, but credit to the Mets, man. I mean, Alonzo was like 0 for 15 and hadn't ever faced Chapman or seen him and big home run for him.

They came out in game one. It was kind of fun with Monty and Taiwan Walker for a little bit. Thanks for getting no hit. Monty was pitching well. Both pitchers kind of end up with not as good at lines as they should have had. and the Mets win that game. Get Taiwan our guide to the All-Star game, man. He looked good. He's having an incredible season.

I think with the way pitchers end up sorting themselves out with pitch schedules and routines, he should find a way in right now. Him and Scherzer not on the All-Star team, which is odd. But yeah, man, I mean, the Mets in the Mets battle, man. They had some guys at the bottom of their lineup. Nito, Giorme, giving them big at-bats. Billy McKinney. I mean, the Mets are good.

The Mets are good, man. The pitch that Alonzo, I watched the highlight of that. Decent pitch from Chapman. Slider in the zone. The problem is he can't locate his fastball right now. So hitters, Walsh, Grand Slam was a slider. People are, hitters are just sitting on the slider now. And he's not even supposed to be throwing the slider to righties

because he has a split finger now, which he got so that right, couldn't dominate a slider since it curves into their barrel. So just kind of like he lost his fastball. So now he's throwing the slider and bad counts to hitters who are fully aware of this information. Bad recipe. GTs. All right. BPD, real quick.

We forgot to do this on Friday because whenever we do episodes remote, they take longer. July, it's July 5th. Today's July 5th. The standings have not changed. Let's find out BBD's simulated, stimulated winner. Oh, wow. A's versus the Rays in the wild card game. Who's winning?

A's. Even if Glass Now is healthy? Hey. Okay, A's. The simulator, man. Okay. ALDS, you have the first play. You have Houston versus the White Sox.

So you get your Dusty versus Lurza and the D.S. Is it around early? Houston. Houston, okay? Boston versus the A's in the DS as well. Boston. Okay. In the American League Championship Series,

you have Cora versus his ex-team of the Astros. Boston versus Houston. Houston. Wow. Okay. And a wild card right now would be Dodgers versus Padres still. Padres. Ooh.

Wow. Changed in three seconds. The simulator. That's the second you got. Milwaukee versus. the Mets and the DS. Mets right now. Okay.

Giants versus Padres. Battle of the bookends of California. Giants. Okay. Giants versus Mets. In the NLCS? Mets. Oh,

oh my God. Houston versus New York in the World Series. Astros versus Matt. Houston. Houston. Wow. Bone Stimulator. Wow.

Those are two fan bases right there. Astros and Mets. BPD's the Bone Simulator. Yes, the Bone Simulator. Bones Simulator. So on June 25th in our Stimulation,

the White Sox won the World Series. July 5th, the Astros have won the World Series. Good shock. The Mets make it. Good for them. Yeah, that was a wild, that was a wild. world. That was a wild playoffs. I like that. It's supposed to happen like that, right? Making one more ad. I don't know what it's going to be.

That was wild. I was fun. You just got to feel it. All right. Let's go to the second half of the show. Awards isn't coming up yet. This is just standout performers and all the other stuff. And it's brought to you by Cushy Dreams. Wow.

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Let's go to Stand. Standout performances. Stand out performances. Jake, who'd you grab? James, Trevor. Bone simulator, BBD. I went with the guy who was on the sheet. You know, sometimes I feel like we don't give the catchers enough love on here.

And there's a catcher. We had a five-hit day. I used to love an old Yankees broadcast, Ken Singleton, he'd say, man, if you have two hits, that's a good day, three hits, that's a great day, four days, well, that's incredible day at the office. Well, hell, five's better than that, and Omar Narvaez. Man, go to his baseball reference and check it out because he's kind of only coming to the league hit. He's got a career 272-360 on base, which, again, compare catchers to catchers,

because they go through a brutal beheeding, beheeding behind the plate. This year, Omar Nevaez, how's your 301-393-852 OPS? From a catcher, the Milwaukee Brewers, he's a big part of the recipe, man. When that dude's behind the plate, especially against right-handed hitting, which guess what? Right-handed pitching, which most pitchers are in this league. He's got an 882 OPS. Who doesn't love a good lefty hit and catcher, babe? And we're talking about the Brewers,

and are they going to make a couple splashes in the lineup? Somewhere they don't have to look. Omar Narvaez, man, the guy's on that team, loam, he's starting to rack up some war. We saw him pop in in the back of a couple of our Tuesday bruise days because he's a dude around the team. And man, what a Brewer's move. This guy had a big year in Seattle two years ago.

2019, 22 homers, an 813 OPS. Again, for a catcher. That's pretty nice. They traded for him. They traded a minor leaguer, Adam Hill for him, and a supplemental pick. Okay, guess what? Brewers don't care.

Because they have their starting everyday catcher, man. So I'm giving it to Omar. Here's his first hit. My man. Yeah, I mean, you got to play the field, man. Okay. His first hit, sorry, I didn't know that was the first hit. He's got four other ones, babe.

Don't come at my dude like this. Well, the first hits a sunball. Yeah, play the field. Sun in everyone's eyes, so it just kind of dropped. Second hit was nice up the middle. Third hit. Whoops, another great hit. Almost hits the runner there.

That was odd. That was a nice piece of hitting. Fourth hit, five one game, sixth inning. That. piece of hitting. Slice down. Are they all singles? We're slapping it, babe. And the fifth hit, sliced it. Yeah, he didn't get a ball past the outfielder.

What? What are we doing? What? Just giving the hits. It's weird. What? Bizarre. It's a great day at the office, an incredible day. Didn't say it wasn't. Just coming at him. Didn't get it past an outfielder. That's... 1920s broadcaster?

Are you taking offense for him? I wasn't even coming at him. It's just weird. It's bizarre. I wanted to see what the hits were. It's not normal? It's a stud. Great piece of hitting, all of them.

That's his first five-hit day of his career. Sure is. Five hits, no joke, no matter how you get him. No. I wasn't coming at him. I was interested. I was a little bit. I was interested to see what the hits were.

When you're comment about a guy's five-hit day is nothing got past the outfielders. That's a weird angle. He was just slicing him and hitting him down. It looked easy. It looked like he was taking BP. It ain't easy. I wanted to see what they were. It wasn't on the sheet. Treve, what's your most hits in a day? You got a four piece?

Got a five? Yeah, for sure. A four piece. I don't know. I might add a five. I don't remember. I don't. Our research teams on it. Nothing comes like straight to mine, so maybe I didn't have a five. Our research teams on it. We've done like the most total bases you've had before, I believe.

and that hot stretch. Hot. Hot. Hot. My. Good stand-up performance, Jake. Thank you, Trevor. Five for five.

Five for six. Oh, what was the out? Laser beam. Hope it was a fly ball over the outfield. That's why I was asking. I wonder if the out was like a fucking robbed. You have one four-hit game in the books. That's it.

It's a 9-6 win against the Astros. You went four for six. Hell yeah. Home run. That's right. Whoops. Duh. Yeah, September 3rd, 2013.

Oh, right now. Everyone in the chat keeps saying I'm baked. I'm not baked right now, guys. They do that. This is my prop joint. Okay? It's like cushy dreams. Jared Cozart started that game for the Astros.

Cozart. My standout performer is Mani Machado. He had a very interesting day on July 4th. The Padres end up winning this game 11 to 1, but it was only 5 to 1 going into the 9th inning.

Those five runs for the Padres, a 2-run homer by Machado, and then his next at-bat, a 3-run homer by Machado. And his next at-bat, they intentionally walked him. And his next at bat, they intentionally walked him. And his next that bat, they walked him.

And it didn't matter because then they gave up six in the ninth and make it 11 to one final. But at one point, it looked like it was going to end 5 to 1 with all the runs coming off Mani Machado's bat, two run, home run, three run home run, and then the intentional walk. So he ends up having a get on base every single at bat, like a final line's two for two with two homers.

but five RBIs and three walks. So he didn't have a bad feeling all day at the plate. That's nice. It's pretty nice. And he is not, he did not make the All-Star team as a reserve. Is that correct?

Currently not an All-Star. We'll see if there's any injuries or stuff that sort out. But yeah, that a third base depth, man. He's put together a hell of a year. He got kind of screwed by Eddie Escobar. He's got nine. Eddie has gone alone, All-Star somewhere? I hate that shit, man.

I hate the All-Star game. I dislike it. Fair. He already has nine stolen bases. We're halfway through the year. He doesn't really steal bases in 2018. Yeah. Oh, I said 14 and 28th. Does he steal bases and I just don't know about it?

He had a year with 20 and a year were 14 and then no other double-digit years. obviously he's going to get there this year. I like that. I like one of the guys's sneaky steel bases. It's one of my favorite things to look at. I wonder if Padres fans reach out. You guys know your team better than us. I wonder if he's getting that I've played in the league a while, just knows when a pitcher isn't paying attention at all and just takes one. The old pooh-holes stolen base. The poo-holes. Oh, I love that, man. You see Poo-holes just chugging. Not moving anywhere, but he's going. Shit's moving around, like his arms and legs are going.

The ground is, looks still, but he gets those bags. Do you see the clip of Albert busting it down the line the other day? It's pretty nice, man. You know who my favorite guy who, like, runs, but, like, nobody ever gave him credit for it? Prince Fielder. Like, could kind of, like, go. Yeah, two inside the park homers. He could, like, go, and that's a big, big body going around those bases, man.

Trev, did you know your... Well, you didn't steal a lot. I heard a player somewhere. Maybe it was on Chris Rose, and they just casually mentioned... It was Trey Turner, I think, with... Oh, it was Miguel Rojas on Chris Rose rotation. We're talking about stealing bases,

and now Trey Turner so good, and Rojas can grab some. And Rojas was like, well, I can only steal off a 1-4 or 1-5. I've got the numbers pitcher. Like, he knew, so, you know, every first base coach is doing the stopwatch, what's this guy's speed to home? And Miguel Ross just knew his range. So, like, he gets the first and he asks the first base coach, what's this guy? And then he knows if he can or can.

Is that how it works? I never really knew that that existed. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of like it. It's, it's kind of like a general rule. Like if a guy is, you know, 1-1, 1-2 to home play, that's pretty quick. When you get to 1-3, that's like average, then you get those 1-4-15 guys. Like, those are the guys that you can do it off. You never stole that much, but did you have, like, if you, would you ask, would you say, like,

what's this guy? That's, like I said, like the 1-4-15 guys, like that's the first base coach. Like, hey, this guy's like a 1-4. This guy's like a 1-5. So, like, if you pick the count and you know an Ospy pitch is coming and maybe the guy behind the plate's not great. But that's just kind of more of like a general rule. Like, I don't know exactly.

Like, I'm sure guys that steal bases know exactly how long it takes them to freaking get to first or to second base. So then you add the time to home plate plus the pop time. And then if you can beat that. I love all those like ins and outs when, you know, so I know like guys that do steal, they get the first and the coach lets them know like, hey, one, three, one and two,

and then they have a better sense of it. That's cool. Trevor, if there was ever a speedy guy in front of you on the basis, say you're on first, they're on second, would you ever give them like a, hey, get going so I can get in on a double steal so I can get my steals up? The problem with that is I got, like they throw back,

door. Yeah, they're coming for you. Yeah, I got caught stealing doing that a few times. You think you're going to get an easy bag, but all of a sudden, you get that glove hitting your leg, and they're like, oh, shit, they threw it down a second. So they went the other way with it. And what's funny is the guy, then the guy in

front of you doesn't get a stolen base. So he's pissed. Really? Fielder's choice. Wow. What a silly sport. It is silly. Good job, Jim. Trave, who won your

standout performance. I am going to go with a guy who I really enjoy. I enjoy watching this guy pitch. I'm talking about Alec Manoa, right-hander for the Blue Jays. He's a big boy. He's 6-6-260. And he had a game against the raise.

Seven-endings pitch, 10-Ks, three hits, only one walk. At one point, he struck out, I think, seven straight, raised batters, six of them on sliders. And there's videos just like,

go to Twitter and put an Alec Manoa slider. He got Francisco Mejia on one that hit his back foot as he swung at it. But there's a bunch of videos, I think Pitchie Ninja did a bunch of them because his slider is just filthy. He makes people look really ridiculous. So he had the suspension,

five-game suspension after he hit Michael Franco yeah yeah he hit him after giving up a few homers to order so I don't like that Alec don't be hitting people man it's not clear if that was on purpose it sure looked like it was on purpose you didn't have to miss a start because they had like an off day or something like that but when you watch this guy pitch you guys saw his first start at Yankee Stadium that was really cool

and he said the blue jays look man if you could find pitching like this like maybe you'll be in it he looks like the real deal to me Like he's got swinging miss stuff. Jim, he's got gumption. Yeah, he's got a little attitude out there. It's funny. He's a classic case of if you ever see him in the dugout with his hat off, I'm older than a lot of players now.

But I saw him in the mound. He's in his element. He's like, you know, got a little bit of moxie and swagger to him. And then he went to the dugout. I took his hat off. And I was like, oh, you're just a kid. Like he just like transferred into like, oh, you look young. 23.

23 years old, yeah. 23 years old. Yeah. It was a... Some guys look different with their hat off or just the vibe changes. Nowhere he's earning an invite to? Where?

Lance Lynn's fastball farm. I mean, this guy's a perfect candidate. He's got some good meat on the bone. I could see. He's got a good... It's a good... That slider's pretty nice. Yeah, you can mix in that slide ball.

But let's start cutting it different ways. I throw the crap out of that slider. I thought it was him. But yeah, he, just fun to watch pitch. Just fun to watch pitch. I like him a lot. He threw the slider in this game more than he threw the fastball. No.

Wow. Dude, I love when pitch mixes are like incredibly balanced. Like, how did you do that on purpose? He threw 33 sliders and 33 fastballs and 29 sinkers. Just like an incredible balanced three pitch attack. And he got. A lot of swings and misses. His mechanics are really smooth, too.

He looks like a guy that just, it's repeatable. And when you have like that, like, I know they show those little like arm slot graphs on baseball. So I haven't looked, but I'd imagine he's very consistent with his arm slot. I believe you. And stay hot. You know, another starting pitcher for the Blue Jays,

like Jim said earlier. Robbie Ray has been twirling it a little bit. I mean, mats and stripling on given days are, giving them out and then, I mean, gumption week. Maybe we'll find out a little something more about the Blue Jays. Stripling's been good, man. Nate Pearson getting his groin checked out again, probably. Someone find out the date I went on Ross Stripling's podcast and then tell me if I can take credit for turning it around.

His first six starts, he got a 726 ERA. Since then, and his next seven starts, he's got a, where's ERA? Two, three, five. Stripling's been good. All right. Jay's playing some good ball. Go, go to Rano go. See you, Trev.

See you guys. Tromp watch. We had five guys on here that we were tracking. Yeah. B.D, what five guys might be added? Before we do that, while Trev's not here, I'll issue the unapology to him. He has three four-hit games.

I found the other ones. Baseball reference automatically sorts. They give you all the games he homered in, so the most he had, he'd one four-hit game where he homered as well. Nice. The guys were potentially adding. Mitch Hanigur goes 0-for-11 with a walk, two-hit by pitches in 3-Ks, Jesse Wanker,

O for 11 with a walk. Randy Aras-Rena, 0-10, 2 walks, 3-Ks. Ramon-Loriano, O for 12, 2 walks, 4Ks, and Tommy FAM is in an 0-14 slide. Holy Shmoosh. Wow, some good candidates for Slump Watch there, huh? Man. Jeez.

And then how many were taken off? Our dude, Reese got hot. It was his last time, no matter what. He went three for seven? Maybe at the end of the year we'll do the all, like you're going to get off Slump Watch team. It's Reese. It's Edwardo Escobar. Still taking some applications for the final spots.

Lendor, we gave him that treatment. Frankie. People get that for a few different reasons. Yeah. Reese's off. Good job. All three of his hits were for extra bases. One or two doubles.

Wow. Do you want to run through it? Matt Olson. My God, son. He puts up a two for 11 with three walks after an O for Niner. The base percentage ends up looking okay. This is going to be a really interesting week because there's a lot of names that could come on. And these guys weren't sprinting to get off.

Brian Hayes, one for 13. that's no good. Adelisse, in another week where it could be a conversation, he gets off. It's four for 14. You're hitting the ball. Three ribbies. You know, Adelis.

Two snaps. The real people know. And then Cody Bellinger, which I think this one was up for a discussion last week because he's kind of had a cold season. He's been hurt. One for 16. Bugety, boogity, boogity, boogity.

He might be off for, like, you got to do some good before we can worry about you slumping Cody. Yeah. Although good White Sox or good White House fit. He's definitely in like still finding it. Yeah. Watch. So he's out.

So let's see. So and Reeser's off too. So if we leave Olson and Kibrian, there's three slots. Any chance Olson's off for you? I haven't looked into what Olson's doing. I have Cabrion up and his slump. goes back, I face the damn Milwaukee pitchers. His slump goes back around seven, six games.

Yeah, I mean, he was on last week's Slump Watch, too. Yeah, but I'm seeing if Olson goes back like 10, then I would talk about. Oh, competing Slump Watch. Yes, yes, to find out, because I don't think both can stay. I don't care. I went to go see if Olson's having a year where, like, he has a low batting average because last year he was $1.95 because he had three walks this series. He was like, God, does he just walk a lot?

when he hits, he hits it. But that's not what he's been this year. He's batting 283. Yeah, he's been hitting. They're both bad, man. Brian Hayes. They can stay. Yeah?

Who are we not going to keep then? All right. We got Jesse Winker. He got found out he's going to the All-Star Weeker. Yeah. So that doesn't mean. He's just celebrating a little bit. He's out.

No. That's, so that wasn't even option. In my head, I mean, seeing Randy a Roserena, and knowing he's the best ever, makes me want him on there. How's he been performing? I feel like he's just, he's been like a low 800 OPS guy for most of the year, but that's just what my brain's been telling me. So he's, I mean, that's a dangerous area to be in.

Yeah. 112 OPS plus. His last 13 games are really bad, 196 slugging, 152 batting average. So that's tough for Randy. Mitch Hanager What are you doing Mitch? Mitch was doing really well He was competing for the old Johnboy team at one point

Yeah and he and this is just what this is I mean he was hot going into this So I like Hanager more our style Like before this weekend In the two series before this He was going off He had a one dot OPS Okay

So let's let's put him on get him right back to that You're feeling that yeah Hanager so that should help. Nice. That should help. Ramon. Come on, Ramon.

Laser show. Lays a show. Ramon. I don't know. Who do you have a lien? Let's see. So if we've got Mitch, Matt, and Key. And Tommy Fams on here, but I think before his 0-14, I think Tommy Fam was playing

really good baseball. Like I think people were sneaky saying he's got some all-staking. our type numbers around them, which I don't know, in your head, that makes him a better candidate for Slump Watch. Yeah, 1.2 OPS. So I don't know. And it's last like 15. Right.

Well, who do you want to help out more? You want to help Randy out? I want to help Luriano out. I'm in Randy and Ramon. Sounds great. Sorry, Tom. The combination of it. Randy and Ramon.

Better not see any of your three assholes next. next week. Ooh. Okay. Randy and Ramon. So we got Hanager, Olson, Hayes, Randy and Ramon. Bam.

Randy and Ramon. I'd love them in the outfield together. Ooh. All right, Trev, welcome back. Boogity. What's up, guys? Hey, Trevor. Do you hear BBD's apology?

That means I'm on fire, baby. Like, wakeo. What do you say? Well, I tried to keep it to just when you weren't here to experience it, but I found two other four-hit games. Baseball reference, when I went to sort, they were only giving me a game log by games in which you homered. So you only had one four-hit game where you homered in it.

Three total four-hick games. You knew it wasn't right. Let's go. More than four. Speaking of guys, having big days at the plate, Mani Machado, we talked about him a little bit. Four for ten, three yakers. Yep.

Otani can be on here. pretty much any given time. Three for his last 10. They're all homers. Eric Duhas. Duhas. It's just Hoss, but what an all-time song. Two homers, five for eight.

I think one of those is inside the parker. How's that song real quick? Do hoss make. Do hos make a... Du hos. Brandon Crawford, who probably also likes that song because he's around our age, so he experienced it. Seven for 12.

He's going to Colorado. How about it? Crawdady. Chris Bryant, six for 12. One of the only Cubs still fighting the good fight, trying to get traded for Trev. Speaking of Trev, Trevor Larnick. How about it?

Six for 12, that Twins outfield. People are talking. Reeser, we mentioned him. He gets hot in a hurry. Willie Adomas. Oh, my God, dude. Oh, my God. The Brewers picked up a goddamn all-star levels.

Shorts up. Jesus Aguilar, 5 for 11. Homer, some rib-ey-ey-ebys. And I can't believe my guy made the program. Tyro Estrada for the San Francisco Giants. A little four for 11 kid. Gets his first start includes a three for five or with a granny. Have a Day.

And that's Husen Fuego. Tyro made it. That's a little home cooking. It's a little home cooking. He's in the mix. He's in the mix. I think he's mostly that one big game. Is Duhas to the same song as Fire Starter?

No. Sounds like... No, Duhas is a German. There's no English in it. Oh. Those two songs are the same to me, but I like them both. It's good. Brandon Crawford likes Duhas.

Yeah. When's Gabe coming on, Trev? Did you reach out? You want Gabe Kapler on our show. We'll get Gabe Kapler on the show. We got it worked out. I want him in there. in our mouth.

Ooh. And I think that brings us to awards. Awards. Jake, you get to give out an award first. Guys, I'll try to be high and tight. Today, bat and lead off. Just want to get on base so you boys can drive me home. I'm giving out the Shower Thoughts Award.

Okay. You guys know, I mention them on here. I mention them on Talking Yanks, different places. that, you know, the shower has become a place for me, you know, thoughts run wild in there. You know, sometimes they're deep, sometimes they're not, sometimes it's life, sometimes it's nothing, sometimes it's the most nothing. Jim, I got a guy who I would love to get in the shower with and get his thoughts. Okay.

The Shower Thoughts Award is going to Bryce Harper of your Philadelphia, Phillies. Bryce has been having a... You have showered with Bryce. So that's kind of a flex. Bryce Harper having a pretty nice year. You know, 371 on base, 876 OPS, 14 homers. You know, and Bryce, we kind of have a weird mindset.

He's still 28 years old. He turns 29 in October. And the All-Star teams came out the other day. And the NL was pretty stacked this year. There was a lot of positional battles out there. Chris Taylor made the NL All-Stars. He's kind of a war guy and, you know, great utility guy bounces around,

does everything for the Dodgers. There's a discussion there. There's a guy with very similar stats to Bryce Harper this year that made the team over him. Juan Soto. And it's a little old man take a look at my life because Juan, very similar numbers to Bryce this year. year. You know, the Nationals and the Phillies, each team having their hot weeks up and down.

And it's got to be a little like, wait, Jim, everything you said about the All-Star game earlier, you know, it is what it is. You're not a huge fan of it. MLB's made it what it is. It's an exhibition game that is to display stars. Yeah, I don't say I'm not a big fan of the All-Star game. I don't like the selection process and the mindset people have. It's not, it's not celebrating the best players. Okay. And either way, Bryce Harper still thinks, you know, I'm a face of the game. I'm Bryce Harper. It was me and Trouty.

Like, you know, I got the giant contract. Now he's in Philly. They've got a losing record. We're not talking about the Phil's enough. And the All-Star teams come out. And Soto, who's got very similar numbers to you and is another guy that people are going to compare you to because he's the one that followed you in Washington. Now you don't get the All-Star nod?

I don't know. I don't know. I would love to know what's going on. I would love to shower with Bryce and see where his head's at, you know. Yeah, I don't. Treb, I could ask you if you've ever talked to Mower, the guys that are, you know, perpetual all-stars. But I know Jeter hated going at the end of his career and started opting out and got a lot of shit for it because he was like, hey, I'd rather get three days off. I kind of done that. Let the young kids do it. Kind of like in the NBA when they're like, let the young kids do.

Bryce is 28, man. Yeah, but he's old in baseball. all he's been in the league for a decade. Six allsters already. Maybe he wants to do, be there, but I would, I would lean and Bryce is like, whatever. I've been there done that. I'm just trying to stay healthy for the second half of the season. His numbers are better than Soto.

Is that because the Nationals needed a badder or something? I think they went younger face of the game instead of Bryce. Was this a fan call? Is it Rio Muto? He's the, Schwerver was there for them. So they had. an outfield already.

What? Yeah. I don't know. For the Phillies? They've got Wheeler. In Real Mudo. In Real Mudo. I think there's one more.

I'm blanking. I thought I thought I heard they had three. No. No. I mean, look, Bryce definitely is saying, shit. I'd like to be in the All-Star game. But then, like, you're saying, Jen,

he's done it six times already. I don't think he's too upset about it I think he goes and enjoys a fabulous All-Star break somewhere Like he might be one of those guys That takes a trip down to Aruba And comes back Yeah

So he's He thinks about it though I like that Jake Might be wondering Or he's like Might be wondering what the next 10 years look like He's confident He's got the bag

He needs I think more than anything This is true Like I feel like people say this About a lot of athletes and not true usually. Bryce really wants to win now. Right?

Like you leave Washington and then that happens, you miss that. And then you go to Philly and it just hasn't been there. And like now he's starting to think, like we had a pretty good freaking, they have a pretty good roster right now. Yeah, they should have. There are a couple things away from being very, very competitive.

I keep saying that and just, you know, whatever. They keep playing 500 ball. But I think he's really focused on winning. So I don't think he minds missing the officer again that much. anymore. But if it happens, he hasn't been in all-star since 2018. If he was like going off off, like he's kind of put up just right

around his career average numbers which are excellent, by the way. I don't know. I don't think he's too upset this time. But a couple more years of it, then yeah, he will be. Because he wants to be in the Hall of Fame and stuff. He's got a long way to go for that. Yeah. Is he on tracking anything to be a Hall of Famer?

What's that? What numbers? What numbers does he have? that are on pace for Hall of Fame. Does he have any? Probably the home runs are tight. He's got 246 career homers. You know, he's got... So many more years? 35.8 war. That's the thing, man. Like, you know, Bryce has what?

10 more years in Philly? 20th, 2013. So that's just what I'm saying. Like, the Phillies organization hasn't made the playoffs in a decade or something like that. Who votes for the reserves? Just fans, right? I think players. Players and... I think now it's... You used to just be coaches appoint them,

but now I believe it's a player vote. When Swisher... When Swisher made it as a reserve, it was a fan vote. There's a fine... There used to be a fine... They used to be like the fans could vote for the last roster spot, so that's the one Swisher one.

If Bryce puts together a big... Two, three, four big years with some hits and stuff, Like he's already had 1,100 hits, got 10 years left. Like, maybe he gets the 3,000 hits if he really has some big seasons coming up. Probably walks too much for 3K hits,

but at least, you know, the Hall of Fame and Linage stuff like that. I don't know. Like, hey, I hope Bryce comes, I hope you guys are right. I hope Bryce enjoys his All-Star break. He actually, with injuries and stuff, he can still get tapped in

and still get the All-Star game. But, you know, I hope Bryce comes out the second half. Because, man, he can still... Like, Trev, you said those numbers are on par for Bryce Harper. They're a little below. And Bryce still has it, man. Like, we still see it when he connects.

A little bit. Like, let's get a big second half Bryce Harper's show. After we shower. My award is the Private Hall Award. Love B-O-B. Is this Band of Brothers? Yeah.

Bang. Yep. Private Hall wasn't actually in Easy Company, which is the company that the show is about. He just landed out of the airplane when they parachuted down right next to Sergeant, or I don't know if he's a Sergeant, right next to Winners, who's like the badass? And Private Hall, Winners is like, who are you? And he's like, I'm Hall. He's like, he's like, I'm Hall. He's like, his nickname is Cowboy. and Private Winner says, so you're, you know, he tells Private Winners that I'm a radio man. You know, reporting the news, calling for hits and stuff. And Winner says, well, if you were in my platoon, I'd tell you you're a rifleman first, radio man second. So in the Braves dugout, they say we need a pinch hitter.

They say, Freed. He says, I'm a pitcher. He says, you're a ball player first. Pitch or second. So Max Fried says, wow, I never thought about that way, coach. okay, maybe I can hit. Then he gets the walk off hit. It's beautiful.

So Max Freed, Private Hall Award. Trev's Guy. Yeah. I love that. What a sweet swing that was. It's like a nice hit. I texted him this morning. I haven't heard back from him, so we'll see what he says.

Yeah. I would just rest him. Yeah. Celebrating that freaking win. And, you know, that's good because we like when our mansplain girls are happy and they were happy. The Braves' Twitter is very similar to Yankees' Twitter in the rollercoaster

of emotions. I've seen that. I don't know if they're as drastic, probably not. Similar seasons. But they're very like, they're in it. Both teams were expecting elite baseball and have seen a bad brand of baseball most the year. Who do you believe more going forward? Believe

in more going forward. Braves. Braves due to their division. What's your award, Trev? my award is the describe a sunset award now i was looking for a way to get this guy an award and then we started talking about sunsets and can you really describe a sunset if you take a picture of it or try to tell someone what it looks like you just won't be able to do it justice my favorite picture to take that nobody cares about is when you're on an airplane and you're above the clouds i just for some reason i just love looking down the

There's a bunch of clouds and you know underneath is like the world. You're above the world, blah, blah, blah. No one cares about it. You can't describe that really and do it justice. Now our guy Tom Verducci came out with an article that tried to do Shohei Otani justice. And it's on Sports Illustrated.com if you want to go read it Tom Verducci. Show Hey's birthday today.

So first, let's get some snaps for that. We've already covered him a couple different. times he's absolutely crushing the ball, doing it on both sides, as we know. Here's a couple things that Tom, some descriptors that Tom uses to try to do show Hey, Ohani justice, okay? He says, if you had to distill the amazement of Otani

to one sentence, it would be this. He hits the ball harder than Juan Soto, throws harder than you Darvish, and runs faster than Randy or Rosarena. This is one guy doing this. He leads the major, leagues and home runs and bunt hits.

Doesn't he run faster than other people? Yeah, Randy wasn't a great Why would they, why would he go with Randy? Doesn't he run faster than Trey Turner? Is he one of the fastest sprint? He's like 93rd percentile and 20, 28.7 sprint speed is pretty good. Yeah, no, I'm saying Randy

is a more impressive speed name. He said he didn't like Randy as the other. I don't like Darvish either. I will yell me, you know, Tom Breducci. I am. He is through you. Yeah. There's a couple more good. ones I want to read through, then we can kind of talk more about Shohay. Until this year, no player, even Babe Ruth, ever hit 30 homers and made 10 starts on the mound in the same year.

Otani did it in just 81 freaking games. He's the first AO player ever with 31 homers and 12 stone bases by the All-Star break. It's, it's, the hitting is what impresses me. Like, the pitching is great, like, you know, but it's one of the easier times in the history of baseball to be a pitcher. The hitting was so down. This guy's doing it on the elite side on both. and he's fast and he's fun and happy all the time. Like he is so fucking good for baseball. And think about this. Mike freaking Trout is on the Angels and people,

I know he's hurt right now, but like people are more inclined to go see Otani play. We talk about Mike Trout being one, like maybe the best to ever do it. Mike Trout's hitting and playing outfield. We've seen that from other players at times, what we've never seen. No one...

Can anyone say? Does anyone... That's the whole point of this day. We've never seen anything like this. How old would you have to be to have a cognitive memory of watching Babe Ruth play? When did Bay Ruth play's last game? Like, is anyone alive can say I saw Bay play?

The 30s? Yeah, I guess you could be... Because my grandma met him and she's in her 90s, but she met him when she was like eight and Babe had stopped playing already. His last game in general was 1935, last game as a game. 1934.

So, you know, good Babe Ruth, 1933. Listen, I mean, there's so many good tidbits. I want everyone to go read the article because it is really good. It could be a 98-year-old who said I saw him when I was 10, and I remember it. He probably could. Through the first 332 games of hitting, he's hitting better than Willie Mays did at that point. And through the first 24 games of pitching, he's doing better than Roger Clemens did at that point.

Like he's just Those are better names. Those are better names to put next to him. I think Randy at Rosarin is pretty fast. Jimmy's got a peeve or pretty bad. I think by like actual numbers and sprints be stuff. Yeah, Randy is up there. Randy kind of runs funny.

But he's not like known first. Randy runs like a soccer player. And his brother play soccer. Trev, yes. We could talk Otani every episode. It's like a debate we had before the show. how do we even deal with it now? Because it's incredible.

The hitting stuff is insane. I tweeted out the other day. I couldn't believe that... I remember there were scouts saying, like, that one article was going around. One of the scouts said, like, he hits at a high school level. And it's like, well, fuck, dude. That just shows how impossible scouting baseball is

because the dude has the most natural power I think I've ever seen. The opposite field power is just insanity. We talk about it on here a lot. And the pitching, too. It's elite level. So, dude, you know, we did this and maybe this will be an offseason episode again. And Verdugo talked about it on Chris Rose rotation. And I don't think anyone could be Otani.

But Verdugo talked about it. And he's like, dude, I, you know, I throw gas. Like, when I dial it up on mid-90s, like, you know, I could probably be a reliever if the team needed me to be. And it's like, you know what, man, I would love to find out. I'm not saying Doogie can do it. I'm not saying, but dude, that's, I said it before the season. I forget how I phrase it to you, but there's a lot of talented guys that the opportunity gets taken away from you in the minor leagues.

It's over. You're going to hit. You're going to pitch. I hope they open it up a little more, man, because they're not going to be Otani. But there can be some nice two-way dudes in this league. I mean, yeah, like, I get it. And, like, I hopefully, hopefully they will do that. There'll be more guys, you know, maybe they,

that would be sweet if someone went off of shortstop and came in to close a game out. Like that would be fun. But, you know, Verdugo is saying at those 95, so what every fucking pitcher at those 95? We're talking about Otani being a starter, doing it.

In this article, they reference his splitter. It's the most unhittable pitch in the big leagues ahead of Glass Now Slider. Like, he's just doing everything crazy. And he's in this All-Star game. Think about this, guys. First of all, I'll do whatever it takes to catch an Otani home run derby ball.

And I am not giving it to a child. Okay. If people want to boo me, you can start booing right now. So I'm not giving that ball up. That's coming home with me and going to my kids. Anyways. People never understand that people have kids at home. Yeah.

The shaming of not giving to a kid is getting... I'm putting out there now. He's gotten out of hand. Like my dad came home with a ball for me and he came home for a ball with my brother once. And he said people were chanting at him to give it to kid. And he was like, I got a kid. I'm doing it.

I told him I'd get him. We'll bring a sign. Trevor. Yeah, you should bring up a sign. Like, I got a kid at home. So you're ready for the boost. Well, that's why I'm putting out there right now. So everybody knows when they see me catch one and put it in my pocket,

it's going home to some kids. Listen, O'Tani. Yeah. He's doing the home run derby. Yes, we'll be there. He's pitching in the All-Star game. He's hitting in the All-Star game. What the fuck, man?

Think about that. Yeah. Do you think he's going to pitch and hit? Did they say he's going to do both? Well, he made the game as a pitcher and a hitter. Yeah. He wants to do both. Think about that. And it's an exhibition.

Yeah. Fucking think about that. He's in the home run derby. It's cool. He'll probably win it. Like he'll probably win the home run derby. Like put your money on him. Whatever the odds are.

BPD, can you do the odds. The odds. I think, I don't know if we have all the participants. Trave, when we were at the game, we saw like an eight-year-old boy catch a ball and instantly give it to like a seven-year-old boy. And Jake and I were like, that's such. like that kid is too young to be doing such alpha moves because the seven-year-old boy now almost can't accept it

like he's got to be like no like you're also a kid you take it you're also a child yeah you can't like you know it's like it's like an eight-year-old getting up from the kids eight-year-old getting up from the kids table and like going to the adult table like see you guys later like i don't know there comes a point in every kid's life teddy says when he's six he'll stop being afraid of the dark That's huge. A lot of people still are. Yeah.

The dark in certain places at certain times, very scary thing. I don't mind the dark. What if you were in a haunted house with a murder on the loose? I mean, what's the difference to it being a light out and dark out? You could see the murder. You can see them coming up and.

I would say that's more scary, Jim. I guess so. I guess so. Do we have a best friend of the week? We do. It's Max Freed. Ooh, wow. For everything you already said about him.

Congrats to Maxie. He's good. I think it's his first time receiving the best friend of the week. Nice. Yeah, do we have a Google sheet made yet? Do we have to know? Max has one that he's been keeping track of. I don't believe I have it in front of me.

Okay. Let's see. I don't have, no, I don't have the full list. All right. Of like times one. Chat on Lincoln, the, SI article into the chat so everyone has it. Trying to get credit where

credits do. The Verducki? Verducky article? Tom the duck. Tom the duck. Max Fried was the best friend of the week, Jake. And now we're doing elevator talk. Come out. And if you get into an elevator and in there,

before you even got in was someone wearing a hat. Wow. wearing a Toronto Blue Jays hat. We can talk about how they might be going back to Toronto. They're saying July 30th might be the date. They finally get to go home.

That's great elevator talk. That's exactly what they'd be saying in that elevator. Now, who are you guys having the elevator? Because I had like, you know, 40-year-old Rick Moranis. That's awesome. Yeah. He doesn't give a fog. It's Rick Moranus.

He's Canadian. He's a big, big. Blue Jays guy. So yeah, you open with that, Trev. And then you say, like, you know, pitching staff's kind of looking all right lately recently. Ha, the Menoa kid, Robbie Ray. Dude, look at these ERAs. I mean, they're getting a chance every day.

And with that offense, Robbie Ray, 336, Ryu, 365, strips, 406, Minoa 27. Like, you think, you say, you think we're going to get some bullpen help by the deadline? And it's really cool. They're five starters in their last, let's see, what did I do? It lasts like four starts, three starts each. Manoa, ERA below three. Strip ERA below three. Rob ERA 309.

Reuse got the highest in the last four starts at a four, five, six, which isn't great. But, man, Ray, Stripling, and Manoa are really doing it. So tell the person in the elevator that. And you know who do you want to get really adorable? You could say, everyone's talking about Vlad and he should be the MVP. But you know what? Marcus Simeon has a higher war than him. Love that.

And it's true. And then are you doing F war or B war? And then you get the fuck out of the elevator. And then you say, oh, by the way, you know who's... Sorry, Rick, I don't know you're that deep. I'm out. You know who's back and doing it? George Springer. Spring Daddy?

Connecticut boys? Yep. Pride of hard hitting, baby. As soon as I learned he had a stutter, I loved him so much more. Love you, George. CT raise up.