Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 394 | Proposed Playoff Formats & Who Will be the Next Cedric Mullins?

Episode Date: September 22, 2021

Go to https://magicspoon.com/BASEBALL to grab a custom bundle of cereal and use promo code 'BASEBALL' at checkout for $5 OFF your first order Go to https://getroman.com/TALKIN now to get $15 off your first month Timestamps: 3:30 - Who Should Stop Switch-Hitting 31:00 - AL Playoff Picture 41:15 - NL Playoff Picture 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. It is the midweek episode and I've got something. I'm looking for the next Cedric Mullins. Did a lot of research. I'll explain it. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. My name is Jimmy.

His name is Jake. We got BBD behind the dish. No Trev today. Midweek episode. We got two topics, one big, one small, one I made up, one Ken Rosenthal kind of spurred on. Jake, how you doing? Ken Rosenthal, Short King's episode. Trev getting nasty and Calabassi, BBD, everyone listening live, hey, it's going to be a good day.

It's going to be a great day. Midweek episode, Jim, your eyes lit up on the topic, and it's a real fun one. I'm excited to get in there and see what the number say. It's just juicy time of year. juicy time of year. I'm not even going to mention anything about how I got lost in organizations and that matters

and it gets away from players and stuff and then the Phillies get shut out by the Orioles and the Braves take care of business. I'm not going to mention anything like that. Phillies got shut up by the Orioles? Yep. Did it last night? Yep.

Monday night? Ooh, I didn't see that. Trying to get in. Was it John Means? I don't think so. I can look it up. Let's see. If it's John Means,

I kind of get it. He's very good pitcher. But if it's anyone else, I don't get it. So fingers crossed that, it was John Means. It was John Means. Okay. He's good. I mean, he's really good pictures.

He's good, but, you know, playoff race. He out-duled your guy, Ranger. Didn't know that. Wasn't trying to bring that up. What did Ranger do? Six innings two. Oh, I mean, that's not a Ranger's fault. Got to beat the Orioles.

I'm not bringing any of that up. No, we're not going to talk about that at all. We're not going to discuss that. So, yeah, man, it's getting juicy as, You know, the roller coaster of Yankee fandom is going on, going on. Building up to Philly accent. What'll be a big Yankees Red Sox weekend at Fenway this year. Some will be sad.

I've now started to prep my whole week around that. One of those games next week? Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Sunday night baseball, all that. So, yeah. I've started to mentally prep for that. And hopefully the Mets can help out the Yanks a little bit. Otherwise, in the baseball world, I'm just winning bets, snapping necks and cash and checks.

Chickens? What are the necks? Never snapped an animal's neck. No, I never snapped a neck. Maybe like a... No. If there's like an inanimate object, then there's a part of it called the neck, maybe I've snapped. Broke a kid's collarbone once.

You did? Yeah. Oh, dude. I got to tell you something that doesn't pertain to this episode. We'll get to the baseball. Okay. All right. We got two things here.

One, should we do the... this first or my big one first? Hey, baby, Dee. Hi, I would do the, I think I'd do the big one. The big one first. All right. So, here's how this started. Are you ready? Want to do something first? Yeah. This one is brought to you by Magic Spoon cereal. My favorite cereal, guilt-free cereal for adult cereal that you don't have to feel guilty about because it's not just candy in a box. The cereal aisle is littered with a lot of terrible things. They got Twinkies cereal now. They got s'more cereal Twinkie?

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gilfrey cereal at magic spoon.com slash baseball and use code G. Why would I say that when it's code baseball? Code baseball to save $5 off. All right, so a couple things happen. One, our friend Craig Calcatera, who runs one of the more funny Twitter accounts. You'll see it's interesting. A wild Twitter account.

It's a human that likes rabbit holes running a Twitter account. We had him on a show once, and I like Craig's a good guy. He tweeted out, I think it was a quote tweet, a link to the second oldest recorded radio broadcast of a baseball game that still exists. A game from 1934 between the Indians and the Yankees, Lou Gehrig's in it, and I was driving to work, and I was like, this sounds like it might be interesting for 10, 15 minutes. So I listened to the broadcast.

At one point, the announcer who was announcing this game in 1934, referred to a switch hitter as a turnaround batter. He said, he was a turnaround batter, which it was awesome. Haven't heard that. Don't know if it ever really existed or there's just one dude, but a turnaround batter. That made me start thinking about turnaround batters as I was driving, made me think about how they're dying in baseball. Sure.

Made me think about how Cedric Mullins was a turnaround batterer last year and pulled the plug and just hits from the left side now. Is it left side? Left side only for Cedger. Just hits from the left side. And now he's an all-star. He's the top three outfielder in the league. He's absolutely crushing it.

Cedric Mullins. So then I thought it'd be a pretty fun experiment to find the next guy that should do this. The next switch hitter whose splits are so crazy that maybe in 2022 someone advises him, why don't you just hit from that side? So I went, I did a lot of research here. I put it all on a Google sheet. You have it. It's kind of dense, like I said.

It's a lot. There's a lot going on. I just kind of figured it out. Yeah, yeah, so I have, yeah. So I took all players that had around 140 played appearances, which is kind of like I should have done a higher threshold, but there's some young guys that I wanted to talk about, so I left it at that.

140-ish plate appearances from both sides. And then I put their lefty split, their righty split, and then I took their higher OPS minus their left. lower OPS from both sides. Net OPS. And I wanted to find the guys to have the biggest differential in OPS. So really, if you don't know what OPS, it's on base percentage plus slugging. So how much do you get on base when you hit the ball?

How hard do you hit it? Now it's just my early barometer to see who had the biggest gap. Before I do that, I want to shout out Josh Bell. He's the most balanced player. His difference in OPS is 0.006. from the right side. He's got an 832 OPS. From the left side, 826.

And shout out to Josh Bell on the year in general. You know, his 2019 really looked like an outlier. There's an very easy way to say, juice balls, 2019, Josh Bell. For kind of a bad Nationals team, 27 homers and 830 OPS, same from each size. Good for him. And by the way, Bell and Schwerber,

we were like, they're going to be the keys to the national season. Yeah. Well, one click. They both kind of did. Didn't matter. Didn't matter in the end. God, and it's... NL's east.

Ugh. NL East. Hey! So that's the most even by a lot. Like another... No one else was like... Close to... Someone at the bottom here.

Danny Santana, but he only had 127 plate appearances. Danny Santana. And it was bad from both sides. I mean, just the fact that we're in this conversation, there's something I have to say. Say it. I don't know if I've ever, I've definitely tweeted this, and you've probably seen it, and you probably know.

My guy, Bernie, man, his platoon splits are pretty awesome. Ooh, what are they? From the right side, he's a 292 hitter, 373 on base, versus lefties, 308, 397 on base. A little better as a righty, but it's just really good. People understand how good Bernie Williams was. do it. A lot of times with switch hitters, whatever your natural hand is, you're hit for average in contact, and whatever you're, the other one is, is power. So you can think of a guy like, usually if you're born righty, you're righty, you are more balanced. And then on the left side,

you just kind of got a raw power stroke. That's kind of the usual, at least like the stereotype of it. I don't know, the data backs it up. So, one, you like, you like, you like, you like, this exercise? So I like finding the one. Okay. Because that's, and I think after perusing your data, there's not a lot of arguments for guys to fully shut it down. No, no, no, there's not. There's some fun intercom. There's interesting conversations. There's young guys. but yeah and the other thing I was worried about coming into this is that if your righty splits are a lot higher that kind of doesn't help

you know because the whole idea is you're seeing a lot more right-handed pitching so if you struggle against sliders away of Zeritey you might as well still bang it out as a lefty and scrap what you can if your lefty splits are way higher right that's when you have to really start considering things. That's literally what happened with Cedric

Yeah. All right. So the first one, the biggest gap isn't a guy that's going to switch for that reason and because he's not bad from either side. But it's your dude, Coutelle Marte. Yeah. Gatel Marte's difference is 430

points. He is 430 points higher as a righty hitter than he is as a lefty so far this season. He has a 7-7-8 OPS as a left. As a lefty and a 1.2 as a righty. So when he does face the lefty pitcher, he's going off. He's got 100 plate appearances as a righty versus lefty pitchers 224. His numbers as a lefty, he's

287, 353 on base, 426 slugging. So, you know, that batting average and that on base are really good. 287 batting average 353 on base. But the slugging is only 426. You'd like that to be in the fives. I mean, he slugs 758 as a righty. Ketel is interesting. On my snakes, people need to know how good he is. Over the last three seasons now, that's 268 games. 321, 377, and 923 OPS. Like, center field, middle infield.

My guy had about 45 games in the shortened season last year. Not even bad. He had a 732 OPS. That's like average. He's been killing it. He's a really talented ballplayer. More people need to know who he is. And I'll say this.

I'm okay with having a little asterisk next to Ketel. Because the numbers, like I just said, are awesome. I mean, awesome, especially versus Ritey's, that if I could tell, I'd take a couple hacks Lefty on Lefty this year. Maybe spring training. Just in the off season. Maybe spring training.

Like a bad lefty. Like you're taking some lefty on lefty hacks, just seeing how the swing feels. And it's almost, it's in your back pocket. Because as a switch hitter, you know, a 778 OPS from the other side, still good. Yeah, not bad. It's still good.

It's just. the 1.2 lefty, you're asking questions. Or if you end up in a righty slump, that's when things get loud. And not saying I'm rooting for it, but I'm interested. Spring training just... I'm interested. Go some lefty rules. All right. The next highest is a guy, I think a lot of our listeners aren't going to be fully aware of.

Abraham Almonte. Your boy. 32 year old journeyman Utill Outfielder You're a big Abraham Elmante guy He plays for the Braves this year And Abraham

But at this point So he's got a 735 Where is he His difference is 382 Unless this is messed up Yeah yeah So he's got a 808 OPS As a lefty

And a 426 as a rightie Yeah. So there's your guy. Feels like it ain't working. Feels like early on. Stop hitting from the right side, Abraham. I mean, he only gets one at bat a game right now, because he just kind of. Right, they traded for all those outfielers.

Yeah, so he just gets a pinch hit at bat. But yeah, I mean, even career, you know, 353 games, he's a 713 OPS, which, hey, you're saying that's not special. It's MLB League average Which, by the way, there's a lot of people In the MLB every year Who are below league average

So what's his career Abraham Almonte Trying to collect some more paychecks From the Hitting Ritey, it's a 587 career OPS That's out of the league And a lefty

Versus Vers Ritees Hitting Lefty He has a 713 OPS It's like league average Which is good And by the way When you play,

You can get better Yeah. So he should switch. If he's around next year, he should just switch. Ritey's over, dude. The team isn't even going to pinch hit you, Ritey. Yeah, he's just got to hit lefty. Ritey's done.

All right. So, I mean, I don't know if he's going to become a superstar. He's 32 years old, but that dude should just hit Rite. Dude, that's a, if I'm Abraham Lelmante, I'm telling my agent, hey, I only hit lefty now. I want to go somewhere where I can be the fourth or fifth outfielder on a team. And when I get my run, I'm going to go off. Yeah.

Great. I think, well, he's number one candidate so far. Next up, the next biggest difference is a 355 difference in OPS. And it's a rookie. So I don't think he's going to make any changes. But I'm interested to see his minor league splits. And it's a big rookie. It's a guy everyone knows.

It's Wander Franco. Franco. We fronk here. And this is, he's worse as a lefty. He's got a 684 OPS as a lefty versus righty pitchers and a one dot as a righty versus lefty pitchers. But this, he's got 98 plate appearances against righties and a 173 against lefty. So we're not balanced here. He's better on the wrong side of things.

You're looking for a guy that's better as a lefty to do it full-time. But big difference for him. I mean, it's a big enough gap that you start eyeballing it, right? I mean... I mean, but every slash line as a righty is good. 356 batting average, 418 on base percentage, 621 slugging, 1.0.0.0.0.0.000. I just got lost in the graph So the top is what they hit

Or versus How they're hitting As a righty versus the opposite So as a when he So Cattel's numbers on here Are opposite What why? What's Cotell when he's hitting lefty

versus right-handed pitchers So Let me get Let me get there Kattel versus lefties. So yeah, the whole conversation about Ketel is wrong, from my perspective. I thought every time you look at the statutes versus that,

you have them how they hit. Yeah. Which, as a lefty. Gotcha. So, okay, throw out all my Ketel statements. Sorry, everyone. He's not Cedric Mollins. He is not Cedric Mullins.

Yeah, that's what I was saying when we're talking about him. That's tough. Okay. So this is as they bat. I know, but if I use baseball reference, it's reverse because it says verse lefty versus righty. I would have put that in. So, okay. Lefty numbers.

Now I've got that. Yeah. This is how they hit. All right. As a lefty, yeah. Okay. I'm on it now. All right.

So all my cattel takes are absolutely reversed. Reverse them. Perfect. But you were with me on Amante. He's better. when he hits as a lefty. Yes. Yes.

I'm going baseball reference. He broke my brain a little bit. It seems like Cattel's the only time you got tripped up. Which is okay. Because I was keeping it on the reference. That's on me. Because baseball reference does, I don't care what they do when they're the same.

A lot of guys sometimes do hit lefty versus lefty, righty versus lefty, but it's when they're choosing opposite stats. So I cut out that stuff. Gotcha. So the next up is Wander Franco. He's much better swinging from the right side. Right.

Like much better. Yeah. But you face more. I'd still try it, dude. There's a lot of righties that have success against righties. The harder one is lefty versus lefty. So if you're a switch hitter and you're good left versus left, then you're probably good left versus right.

Yeah. I mean, he's so young. so talented. Hitting lefty he's bad. Okay, so let's it's 57 games, so you need to see more. He's crazy talented. Mark it down though.

Like it's of no, at a certain point you do have to say like, if this were to continue, you say your righty swing is so good. Try it against righties. But yeah, way too early for Wander. Mullen's as the example.

I mean, he was also talented he came up he did like three years before fully committing right so i wonder i wonder has anyone asked him has anyone asked him if he's regretted not doing it earlier i don't know i haven't i have not next one is uh uh established veteran marwin that tough season now back with the astros he's been much better as a righty versus lefties than as a lefty versus righties they uh The numbers are different. I don't know how much it matters, but when he steps in the batters box as a lefty,

facing a righty pitcher, you can't even play him. So he's turned into a guy that's a platoon player. What a weird career. And that's so many more at bats. It's got a 208 played appearances as a lefty, and the numbers are awful. Man, and that's crazy because career, it's pretty balanced.

Career versus right, he's 714 OPS guy. 727 versus lefties. I mean, for me, that one almost says, like, injury. Like, did you hurt your right tricep at some point? And you just can't extend a bat properly? Because they're like an oblique thing or something. Like that, that just feels not right. Or did he change his swing or what happened?

Because that's, you know, the shot at Marwin. And if nobody knows, I mean, his numbers, If you take out his numbers on the 2017 Astros, they're a clear outlier. But outside of that, his splits are kind of even. He's like a kind of average hitter. Both sides of the plate plays every position really well. That's what Marwin is. So, yeah, that one, I'm smelling injury.

Okay. I'll reach out. The only other one on here that's big enough to talk about is another rookie, Jonah Heim. He's been much better as a right. versus lefties, then as a lefty versus righties. Not much you can do there. But his numbers as a righty are good.

281, 294 is terrible. What the hell, dude? Take some walks. 500 slugging as a righty, only a 308, 304 slugging as a lefty. He's swinging big. Yeah. Which I like that. You're a catcher, man.

Hit home or follow the Zanino path. I think Hyam actually is one of five players above Mike Zanino in pitch framing. Some Jake knowledge. Big time Jake knowledge. Whoops. Whoops. Sorry about you. Okay.

I'm going to get back in the sheet. And I'm going to feel it. I'm going to put my body against the sheet. There's not much else going on if you want to look for like balanced hitters. You could do, I could run. a differential on slugging because I think that's fun. I can run that right now. Where's the pop?

Yeah. I kind of like when guys hit from different sides of the plate and they're a different hitter though. Yeah. That's fun. That was Pasada. I don't know Pasada's career numbers, but he felt like such a slugger from the left side and more of a gap to gap from the right side.

Love on it. Let's see. So slugging in my Google sheet here is AD. and A. Yeah, so this works. Some will be negative, but you just, let's find the biggest differentiator we got. He's an option.

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Oh, there's not any crazy ones. Oh, here's a crazy one. Who's this guy? Cattell Marte. Yeah. Because that's what it was. He slugs from one side.

It's all the same guys. The slugging is the difference. Did we talk about Albies and Edmund at all? No, we didn't. up there as well. Albies and Edmund are also, they had differences in the 150 range in OPS. Like, Ozzy, I love because he has the open batting stance. So his switch hitting is almost like, I just hate breaking pitches that go away from me. Like, I need him coming into the breadbasket. So part of me really respects that and likes that.

Both of those guys, Ozzy and Edmund, have the split that isn't like actionable. They're better as righties versus lefties. Or they're better, yeah, as righties versus lefties, which you face less lefties. Seems like they're within a range that, yeah, any given year you can be, that OPS split. Yeah.

But, I mean, Ozzy batting average-wise, as a lefty, 2.30, as a righty, 314. That's a huge difference batting average. And OBP, he's so much better as a righty. Well, and that's where it is. Slugging so much better. It's crazy. He, you know, you get so many more at bats. He's got 455 plate appearance as a lefty hitter compared to 167.

Yeah. So, yeah, if I'm Ozzy, I don't like, I don't, I'm taking some right-on-right hacks. Maybe it's because I could never do it. Right. That I'm just like, well, I think there are a lot of switch hitters throughout history where you're like, I don't know, man. Like, just do it. I don't know if this was worth it. Just do it.

My dad switched it for a year in college. And then the coach told him, like, stop. Just hit from the right side. I think, and that's where, like, man. I went down the rabbit hole one day of best MLB switch hitters all time. And man, it's like how thin the list gets quick. Who's up there, Mickey Mantle? Like it's Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Chipper Jones.

And then, and this isn't shots fired at anyone, but like, you know, this kind of falls into, we heard this on the broadcast, when C.C. Sabathia got his 3,000 strikeout. We were like, oh, that's cool. Mm-hmm. And then we heard he's the third lefty ever in baseball history. Was it third? Yes, I'm pretty sure.

That sounds right. That he was the third lefty ever in baseball history to have 3,000 strikeouts. And you hear that sentence and you're like, whoa. Switch hitters, man. It's almost like it's very much a... make the show move? And then ditch it. Not necessarily, like, it's a big advantage if you're really good at it.

And there's been some guys, and, hey, Yankees are close to my heart. I mentioned Bernie, Posada, they've both been brought up. Like, those guys, when they're in the meat of your lineup and you get the matchup and you're switching pitchers and all that, it's a huge advantage. But, like, this MLB.com has the best switch-hitting lineup of all time. And, you know, Lance Berkman's on there. Lance Berkman, really good career. But when you hear he's potentially a top five switch hitter all time,

it's kind of like, oh. Like they made their best at each position. Yeah, like they... It's a game we would play. Here's the greatest switch hitting lineup of all time from Andrew Simon. Last year, June 17th, 2020. So pandemic getting your article out. Tim Raines.

Roberto Alamar. Really good baseball play. Hill, Yeril. Mickey Manel, Chipper Jones, Eddie Murray, Lance Berkman, Reggie Smith, who I hate to be rude and not in my book. What position? Right field. 66 to 82.

Ted Simmons at Catcher, who like I've heard the name, but I don't really know. Like, so on each position, they have a backup of who's at that position. Like, this has the second. best switch hitting catcher of all time as Jorge Posada. And like, hey, I know switch hitting's not everything, but when you put stuff in a realm like that, it makes it stand out a little more. Andrew Simon in this article.

Shout out to my guy. I mentioned all the backup. So, like, as an example, they have the backup. So this is like all second team switch hitters. Mm-hmm. Like, number two. Yeah. Roy White is the left field.

My dad's favorite player. Frankie Frisch at second. Who's that? Frankie Frisch? I mean, that's an old school name. How are you spelling Frisch? F-R-I-C-H. I've heard of Frankie Fish, but again, like, I ain't seen him play.

You've heard of Frankie Frick. He's a Hall of Famer? Yeah. Dude, that guy, his rookie season was 1919. It's a good watch. Won the MVP in 1931. Carlos Beltran, Bobby Bonilla, Mark Tashara, Chilli Davis, Ken Singleton, Jorge, and Jose Reyes as the all-second team switchhairs.

So how many switch hitters are in the Hall of Fame? That's something I'd ask you. Switch hitters in the Hall of Fame. Oh, we got a Sporkel quiz, which means they're asking me the answers. And I'm trying to... I would just quit the quiz. Yeah. Oh, I back...

How many? I don't know. I backed out. Real quick. You backed out. Yeah. It looks like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 7, 8, 18, 19. 20.

In the history of baseball, 20. So stop doing it, Abraham Almonte, and make the Hall of Fame. Yeah, I think he's the answer here. I think we found our dude, Abraham Amante. So you go to draft kings, use promo code Johnboy. You find the player props for the 2021 season. You find Abraham Almonte, and you bet that he, goes over whatever they put as his numbers.

You know, draft Kings will have that. Sure, they will. I mean, everyone's got the Abraham Amanti player prop bet in there. So go to draft Kings. You can bet $1 on any football game, and they'll give you $150 credits that you can use to make your big Abraham Almonte bet. And it's going to be a great time.

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Gambling problem. Call 100 gambler in Indiana, 1,809. With it. With it. Kenny Rosenthal. Our guy, Short King. Put out an article that I found interesting today. He does. Oh, yeah. Every day he's doing articles. and it was about if they did approve the playoff format that the league proposed before the season started

when they still kind of were like deciding things and the union was like, no, we're not going to give you that. Right. If we give you that, then what are we even doing? We're got to see, BA it. I've got to fight more. And Kenny came to a conclusion that I'm interested to see if you agree with. I'm interested to find out if I agree with that.

This season, if we did that format, his conclusion was it would be a rather dull September. So we took the format they proposed and made standings out of it. And here's how it would be. The Rays and the Giants would be the number one seed in each league and have a buy. They just would not play in the wild card first round three game series. And I do think it deserves to be mentioned. The Rays have kind of put on the brakes a little bit. We'll see how they finish these final 10 games,

but it's most likely they're going to finish with the best record in the AL. And, hey, if they just go straight cruise control because they have such a big league on Toronto, Boston, and the Yankees, you know, there will be an argument there where this playoff format, I think it's important to note that the one seed is the big winner. The one seed gets the buy. So in the NL right now, the race between the Giants and the Padres would,

or the Giants and the Dodgers would be like the biggest thing ever. Yeah. Because you're going from buy to shit. I think it'd be the same. The same level as intensity. I mean, a buy dude. I'm a big, I'm a big buy guy. Loser gets three games, though, whereas right now.

loser gets one game. Right. So I think it's worse now or just as intense now. I am such a huge advocate of whether it's this or fantasy football, like the buy you're safe. That is the goal is to advance. And man, you know, I know that it would bring in a whole like, well, will they be rusty? They've been sitting for four days. Don't care.

I made it to the next round because guess what? In each one of those three game sets, there's going to be upsets every year. Yeah. So, like, to be safe, man. But still, second gets three games instead of one. But I still think, and that's, it doesn't. So does team seven, you know.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. But that's why I think a lot doesn't matter, which is what we're going to get to. And the AL, right now the second seed would be the Astros. The third seed would be the White Sox. fourth seed would be the Red Sox. Fifth seed would be Toronto,

six seed would be the Yankees, seven seed would be the A's. In the A, L, there's only one team that would be on the outside looking in, and it's the Mariners. They'd be the only team worried about not making the playoffs. And right now we have the A's, the Mariners, the Yankees,

worried about not making the playoffs. and maybe, you know, Boston, Toronto, they were a little bit ago, but right now they're not. But so that's different, man. That's the games, the games the Rays are playing right now and the Astros are playing now and the White Sox are playing right now are less than than the rest of the teams because they're sitting comfy and they have a lead. If all of those teams are sitting comfy and there's no risk of losing, like there's no real detriment because they're in. because below the Mariners, no one's even close. Right.

So only one team's not going to be it. So as long as you're not that bottom team, you're kind of not pressure. So that's where Kenny is saying it'd be pretty dull. You're okay. I mean, right now, one of Boston, or excuse me, Boston and Toronto are in as of today. Yankees, Oakland and Seattle are on the outset. Right now, Seattle would be the only team on the outside. They'd be a game back of Oakland.

So they're still tight And I mean those teams are playing each other right now So that would be pretty cool You know, Yankees, Toronto and Boston I don't think they'd be sitting pretty Because the Yankees are two and a half up on Seattle right now So it's still You know, you'd be nervous

But they have Oakland underneath them Right, absolutely By a game and a half who Seattle's playing So like I still think it would be interesting I think what we're in right now And we've been given Bobby a ton of respect in this area because right now

how it's set up is pretty good. Like in the American League there's going to be one and a half pretty good teams not in the dance and you know MLB would come right back and say like let's get them in there and you get more games and stuff

but yeah it would be exciting it wouldn't be as fun as it is right now. I'd love to look on the schedule and see like when that got locked up because it seems like those teams, a lot of them got like since August we've known. A little bit. I mean, I think we are underestimating how frantic the last month or so has been.

I mean, between the Yankees, Red Sox, Oakland was in the playoff mix for a little bit. They were out. They were, they dropped below Seattle. They'd be in in this. I'm saying who's below. By tomorrow they could not, you know. Who's below Seattle? I'll get to Cleveland.

So when's the last time? Cleveland was anywhere close to sniffing this. That's my question. I'd say a month and a half ago. So the last month of baseball would not have been as tight. So you're almost in the worst case looking at August and September not mattering that much to a lot of teams. You're making the playoffs, which is a lot of front offices goal at this point for, you know, all those teams except one. Because you weed out the two sides. you're going to get more teams that are comfy,

and you're going to get more teams that are out of it, and that middle team right now, we have Toronto, Oakland, Red Sox, Mariner's. Yeah. Yankees, six teams. We have five or six teams that are in that middle area, not sitting pretty, but also not out of it. So if you, when this expansion would just shove more to the sitting pretty side,

and you'd be looking at three teams for a month and a half. Right now, there's, like, Like the six teams, is that what we just kind of fighting for two spots? Right? I think it's five teams. Five teams fighting for two, either way. Yeah, five teams for two spots. It would be, I don't know, down to three teams fighting for two spots at the end?

It would be a lot less stressful. I mean, you know, there'd be a lot more seating talk. Because I think, and, you know, we were looking into the details of the playoff format. Like right now, essentially the two wildcard teams would be a heads-up series. That would be a head-up game of three. So like, you know, Yankees, Toronto, Boston, Oakland, who have all been in the mix there, you're either playing them or if you're below them.

So the Yankees right now, if they win tonight and Toronto loses, they would jump into the five-seat and they'd play Boston. Right now they're playing the White Sox. I think you could ask any GM or baseball person and you'd say, would you rather play the White Sox or the Red Sox? And they're going to say you'd rather play the Red Sox. Yeah, but you'd be a lot more seed.

Would you rather set up your line up, your pitching, and get everyone arrested, or would you rather fight for who you play and they'd say, we'll just get ready? It's true. Because that's what it used to be. No one cared. It's true. No, I mean, the point that you're trying to get home. I mean, the last time Cleveland was in conversations about anything,

the angels were in conversations about anything, which I don't know how. That affects the trade deadline or anything. We would have been decided like in August. We would know seven of the eight teams. Yeah. I guess MLB's comeback would be, well, maybe the Angels would have made a move for whatever and maybe. Tried to stay in the mix longer.

So basically. And then, I think we're still getting. If you're over 500, you're in the playoffs. There would be one AL team over 500, not in the playoffs. Where in the National League, that's still a little up in the air right. now because the Dodgers. So we talked about that. Like the one seed becomes a lot more important.

And then potentially St. Louis will get screwed because they would get the Dodgers or the Giants. But again, that goes into the one game wild card, which the Dodgers or the Giants would sign up for. They'd rather have their season come to three games instead of one. Since he would be in, San Diego would be in today. Before we get fully into the NL, which is more interesting. I've got to tell you about Roman. Tell me. Because do hard penises interest you?

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Roman ready. You're probably an over 500 team. Yeah. Roman, you're using this format. You're kind of sitting pretty. You're comfortable. Yeah, you are. Maybe it's less interesting for the spectators, but who cares about them?

You're the race. You have the confidence of the race. My spectators in the room are very interested in what I'm doing. Wow. All right. So in the National League, Brewers sitting pretty with this format, the Braves are there, kind of. They would be the three seed. That's the other weird thing because division winners get the one, two, three.

The Dodgers would be the four seed. Cardinals five, Reds six, Padres seven. And the Reds cards and Padres and Phillies, especially Reds cards and Padres, all fighting for the same spot. Those three teams cannot win their division. They're fighting for the Wild Card. The Phillies can also win their division and the Wild Card, so it's a little different. Those three teams are in a fight for the Wild Card.

and with this they'd all be two of them would be like all right yeah i mean i i guess i'm trying to relive this and and sink my teeth in you know the cardinals uh ascension good word uh wouldn't be as impressive because like you know the cardinals kind of came out of nowhere i think the number going around was they had like a two percent playoff odds and now they're at 77 or whatever so that would be as cool. The Mets collapse, however, would have been a lot bigger and a lot more pronounced. Because, yeah, I mean, if you go old, or if this was the new playoff form, and I mean, as of a week ago, the Mets would have been in it or all around it. So reliving that a little bit, that would have been bad for Mets fans, especially at 3 and 7 in their last.

10. San Diego, their current on the opposite side of that, San Diego's current collapse wouldn't matter. No. I guess if Philly jumps them, then they would be out of the playoffs. Yeah. Which is still big, and we're still giving them shit for that. And then where's the team below the Phillies? Is it the Mets? It's the Mets.

So each new playoff format, unless the Phillies or San Diego, crumbles, all of the 500 over teams except one from each division would make it in. Yeah. I mean, if they go to this, there's the Bob Costas method where the four wildcard teams do a one game elimination, like one location, it's one stadium, and they play just a bracket. Yeah. And you lose, you're out, you win, you have to win two games to advance to the Ds. I like that the most.

If they go to this, you shorten the season because nothing matters. Like there's just going to be so many empty games. Yeah. If they go to this, then you got to take 21 games off the season somewhere. But they're not going to do that because they want more games and more playoff games because that's the most money. But yeah, you're just going to get a lot of like uninteresting baseball from good teams, which I think is not the formula you want. And more so for me, and it's...

It's the best part of the Bob Costas, Jerry Reinsorff plan. Reward the three division winners. Make teams strive for that. I mean, that's how you're going to get more teams like striving for excellence. That buy win. And making huge splashes. That's, you know, difference makers. Like, that's what we like.

We like when, you know. Shurser goes to the Dodgers and they haven't lost a single game he started. Right now with the playoff format that was thrown out there, you know, Phillies, Red, San Diego, who have been disappointing to different degrees, especially recently, you know, two of those three teams are getting rewarded. And they're saying we made the playoffs, we did good. And it's like, no, man, I would have loved, you know, I would have loved if Cincinnati traded for Trevor Story.

And they were, you know, they were ahead of St. Louis. Right now they're not. You know, I wonder if, you know, who knows what the Rockies were asking for Trevor's story at the time. But if Cincinnati knew how much, how long they were going to be in this wild card, and now they're on the outside looking in, and you told them that at the trade deadline? You were a warlock or a witch, and you gave him that.

You'll be in the wild card, and then you'll blow it. I don't know. We want to incentivize the good teams each year to get better. I'm rooting for Bob Costas. Always. Always. Always. Yeah.

All right. So there you go. Abraham Amanti and Bob Costas win the episode. Huge. For both of them. Yes. I think they've ever met? No.

Two, one. No. I was delayed. Am I three, two, one? No. All right, we'll be back on Friday with the recap of the series that have been played. And then we have the rest of the season mapped out. And then, you know, we're going to be every day before you know it as these games start.

So that's going to be a ton of fun. A lot of live streams. So get excited. Be excited. Stay excited. Oh, wish it played. Jokes hopes.