Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 7 | July 29th | Stroman Trade, Bauer Throw, Slump Watch

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

Marcus Stroman got traded to the Mets, what is their next move? The Rays made some trades with the Blue Jays and the Indians. Trevor Bauer threw a ball over the centerfield wall. There were a ton of walk-offs and the wild card races are starting to shape out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to talking baseball. Today is July 29th. We are inching closer to the trade deadline. We do have some trades to talk about. We got a lot of madness to talk about, Jake. A lot of people got mad, a ton of walk-off, some standing shuffles, and a lot of good stuff. Let's do it. All right, let's talk baseball.

Jake, how you doing this Monday morning? Do you say standing shuffles? Yeah. What are those? The standings have shuffled. The standings have shuffled. Okay. I thought you were saying standing shuffles.

Like that was a new code for baseball fights or something. I did say standings shuffled because that's the standings shuffled. Right. I didn't get the S on the end of standings. So I thought you were literally standing. We'll get some hard S's going the rest of this podcast. I'm doing good, man. I'm, uh, deadline is sneaking up.

We're what, 48 hours away, something like that. And we've, we've already had some movement where we had some good baseball this, this past week, this past weekend. Dude, there were so many walkoffs just, just yesterday, never mind the whole weekend. Yeah, there were a ton of walkoffs, a ton of objections. Yeah, so it was a big weekend for baseball. we were waiting for that kind of sorting period of teams that would be the buyers and sellers. We kind of hit that. I feel like the beginning of last week, there was really no more teams in that tweener area.

And now it's just a matter of getting it done. And I mean, the Blue Jays and the Mets dropped the first bomb, but I think we're getting there in a little bit. So how are you doing, Jimmer? I'm good. I'm good. I'm frustrated because the live won't work right now. And we have a lot of patrons that,

have live access. We had some people in the chat that wanted to hang out with us live, but internet won't work. Need to go, need this to become a real thing pretty soon for my brain. I don't want to be producing this anymore, basically. But anyway, we're good. A lot of baseball.

It's getting fun. It seems like we're later in the season than we are. Like, because the trade deadline makes it seem like you have to make or break your season right now. We've got two more months of games. But it's without the waiver wire, it's you got to make your move right now. And then you got to hope you, it's crazy. You got to hope you make the right move. And as a Yankee fan, you know, all Yankee fans are saying like, we've got to do something.

We've got to do something. It's like there's two months left. There's so much baseball left. There's so much to do. But yeah, man, it was a lot of objections, a lot of walkoffs and a lot of weird trade talks that are bizarre. We'll get into all of it. I'm excited about that. do have to say that this episode is brought to you by Curtis Cop.

Yep. Or Cope. It's K-O-P-P, I think Cope. No cop. That's cool. Curtis Cop. Anthony Loscalzo. Yeah, good pies on.

Bacon steak to go, Jake. Okay. Family name. He was in the chat. Missing out. Damn. Spencer Griffin, I think he was also in the chat. Sage Gurd.

Gurdado. Gordado. Gordado. Jared Davis, nailed it. Jason Miller. Nate Killian. And Andrew S. Gregory. Nice.

Two first names. Those are our most recent Patreon. Patrons is $2 a month. You get a chance to win a jersey of your choice. Every month, two people will win one just via a raffle. And you get live access to this show. And once we get organized, I think we're going to try and do a lot more perks down the road.

Everything's kind of crazy right now, though. But we appreciate everyone that supports us. It's patreon.com slash johnboy media. That's it. Are you ready to get into the reports? Are we just heading to baseball talk? I think so, man. Yeah, I guess we're going to cover it all.

That's quite literally the goal. So I think so. All right. I need you to tell me what happened in the National League. I have zero idea. So two minutes, two fake minutes on the clock. Our promise to the people, we will not watch every baseball game. So Jim, your National League report will start at the top of the NLBs.

The Braves score 24 runs to win the first two games versus Philadelphia. They end up dropping the third, but they'll take their series win to stay atop the east. The Nationals dropped two out of three at home. First, the Dodgers, who had quality starts from Ryu and Kershaw, step right up and greet the Mets, Jim. They sweep the pirates and they sweep up Marcus Stroman. Did a trade with Toronto. We'll get there later. Your Florida Fishies, they win a series at home over Arizona, Jim.

Does that, is that the hump that broke the camel straw for Arizona to start trading? They get some good, the Marlins get some good pitching and a nice walk. off Friday. Back-to-back sack flies for the walk-off. Well, hey, Jim will jump to the Central. The baby bears, they lose two out of three to the beer makers. That's Cubs Brewer's people, including an eighth inning comeback and our guy, Heson Keura. He had a walk-off in that one. St. Louis, they lose the rubber match and the series at home to Houston, so that'll happen. But they did win game one, so that's got to be a little deflating for them as the NL Central Toytons up. Sinci gets their doors blown off game one, but Jim, then they win two pitchers

duels against, that's right, your slump watch, Colorado Rockies, and then to the NL West, you heard the Dodgers beat the Nats, you heard the D-backs lost to Miami, you heard the rocks lost to Cincinnati, but Jim, do you believe in magic? The San Francisco Giants, they take two out of three versus the Padres, including an 11th inning Pablo Sandoval home run that help them take the first game of that series. Los Tiviroiantes, stay hot, Jim. That's amazing. All right.

So there's some interesting things here in the National League that, like we said, Jake does the report, and I try to do the AOL report, so I genuinely am interested to hear what he's saying. And here's what I got for you, Jake. The Cubs and St. Louis, both losing their series and staying tied in the standings is fun. like St. Louis just tied them. So they're both, they both have the same exact record. They go to a three game set each.

They both go one and two, 56 and 49. But now you got Milwaukee, who took two of three from the Cubs, one game back. That's going to be so much fun. I'm so excited for the NL Central down the stretch. Yeah, the NL Central, I mean, outside of the wild. Actually, both Central divisions, if we're being honest. I know I'm jumping a little bit.

those are going to be the two division races this year. The wild card is always, you know, is always going to be exciting to a degree just because you got so many teams around there fighting for it. The NL Central, Cubs, Cards, Brewers, and even the AL Central, Indians, Indians, Twins, you're going to see some battles in the Midwest. And yeah, I mean, Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, those are the teams that have kind of run that division now for a little bit. With a little, the pirates were fun there for a little bit, huh? But, I mean, those are the, the three teams. You've got Yelich on the Brewers. Goldie, you might hear him later on the Cardinals and just all those young Cubs guys that, you know, Riz O'Brien. So coming down the stretch, man,

every week the NL Central update is going to be a good time. And then the other thing that widens my eyes is that the Giants did it again. Can't stop, won't stop. I get down, baby. They get the mad bum win the final game. Him and Joe West having a good time, old buddies. old angry buddies you probably don't want to drink with. But yeah, man, they win the first game of that series of the 11th inning, Sandeval. And they're just rolling, man. And they went from heart. It's crazy how much these two weeks legitimately matter on how we view players and how we view teams.

Because the Giants, again, their bullpen was supposed to be a lot of trade pieces. Madison Bumgarner's been getting traded for the past year and a half. and now it looks like everyone's going to stay. Hell, they might go out and get a bat just because they're doing the damn thing right now. They are 18 and 5 in the month of July. Yeah, that's a good way to do it. With about six or seven come from behind victories.

I will say this, Jake, they're two and a half games out of the wild card right now. Their division isn't up for grabs. The Dodgers have that incredibly locked up. But they're two and a half games out of the wild card. But they're jumping some teams. There's three ahead of them right now, I believe. Yeah, so they are right now your wild card.

Cubs, St. Louis and Washington are all tied. And then you've got Philly, Milwaukee, and then San Francisco. So there's four teams ahead of them. So it's still a climb. But I'm looking at a, they play Philly coming up. They're ahead of them, right? If they work their magic on Philly, if they win the series against Philly,

then that puts them, I mean, they're inch and closer, direct competition for the wild card. Then they go to the terrible Rockies, or the Rockies come to them. Then they play the Nationals and the Phillies again. So they kind of have their destiny in their hands. If their magic continues for another week and a half,

the Giants, we may be like holy shit. Yeah, and I think it's, well, everyone should be rooting for the Giants because it's one of the more fun stories. A, the fact that they weren't playing well, B, how well they're playing. And C, Bruce Bochian is last season as manager and they're putting this thing together. Yeah, I just, I hope we're not here in two weeks. The Giants don't trade away any pieces at the deadline and they have a brutal two weeks. That would suck.

that would suck if this whole thing flipped on them and they were like, well, those three weeks stopped us from being sellers and now we've screwed ourselves going forward by missing out on five prospects we could have added to our organization. But at the same time, I know that kind of went to negative Nancyville. They're rolling and it's so much fun. Like this is literally what sports is about. Happy for my Giants still.

happy for your Giants. All right, you ready for the... What's that? Go get a bat, the Giants. Bring Hunter Pence back. Why not? That'd be fun. I'd read for that.

All right, you ready for your A.O. Report? I think I am, Jim. What did I miss in the American League? Well, we'll start out here in the American League. East, you did not miss this. The Yankees got smoked by the Red Sox. They scored 39 runs in the first two games, took the first three.

of a four-game set. The Yankees did salvage it, not get swept by winning the last game. They are, the Yankees are still 10 games up in the loss column to Boston, but that was a chance to do damage at the Yankees. Got damage done to them.

The Reyes and the Blue Jays squared off in a series that was more about trades than games, I think. The raise took two out of three. The raise came back from being down 8 to 1 after the 5th to win game 3 and the series, but I think the Blue Jays had some other things on their mind.

Some trades are going down during that game. The Orioles played the Angels, and the Orioles almost swept the Angels in a four-game set, Jake, which that just would be super embarrassing for the Angels. Rookie Matt Thice homered twice in the final game, and the second was a walk-off to avoid the sweep. The Rangers and the Athletics squared off for a four-game set. Tempers flared.

Oakland won three games. win the last game on a walk-off walk. Always fun, but the opposite of fun, kind of. Houston lost game one, but like Jake told you, they came back and took the series from the Cardinals. The twins and White Sox matched up, and the twins took care of business, winning three games out of four. They kind of needed that because they were on a tiny bit of a slide.

Nelson Cruz went off, and Michael Pined had a nice start, an old friend. The Indians and Royals squared up for four games, a lot of four-game sets, and the Indians took care of business. They took three or four from the Royals. They stay hot in the fight. But the story now is Trevor Bauer throwing the ball over the center field wall and not the good baseball. The Indians are playing.

Tigers versus Mariners squared off in a series that no one cares about. The Tigers got swept, Jake. A four-game sweep. Seattle had two walk-offs. The Tigers are now 3 and 19 in July and have lost 12 games in their last 13. Gross. The Tigers are gross. Sorry, Tigers.

But you guys got to, like, start the rebuild. I don't even think you've started it. Anyway, the wild card in the American League is dwindling, Jake. It's really, it's really a four-team race. Boston, Tampa, Oakland, Cleveland. There you have. Yeah, Jim, I think what jumped out to me from that report, A, how bad Detroit is.

Wow, the Tigers. They're the worst team in baseball now. Like, they don't have. Easily, yeah, they only have 30 wins. Baltimore, if you're looking at the bottom of the standings, which a lot of people do, yeah, three game lead on Detroit for the worst team. The Marlins have 40 wins. Detroit has 30.

That's pretty mind-bottling for Detroit, which is a pretty proud baseball city. But you're right, they aren't in the thick of rebuilding. They're at like the tip of the iceberg and bottoming out and getting some top draft picks in. So it really jumped out to me besides that. Jim, there are going to be two good teams in the American League that miss out on the playoffs this year. Yeah. And, man, again, they're another team. They're like the inverted Miami, the Oakland A's.

We just picture them small market, pesky. We never fully give them the love or the chance. Man, they are in it. Right now they're the wildcard team. right now the rays and red Sox are out and they're going to be in the division scrapping and while Oakland's out there yeah they've got Houston I don't think they're going to catch Houston but man you're you're going to have two two teams with really high expectations that miss the playoffs in the AL and I think that's that's what's becoming the story over there

yeah the A's data they keep having comebacks they're doing stuff right now they're seeing the Giants, and they're like, hey, we want some of that Bay Area magic. Yeah, wow. Maybe that's what's actually going on here. Just the Bay Area, man. Again, some magic dustings of rain. Probably not. Man.

E40. Let's see. The A's have Milwaukee and St. Louis, and then the Cubs. They got three interleague series in a row. That's bizarre. Isn't that kind of wild? Yes. My initial reaction was you're misreading the schedule

because that would be wild. No, they play the Brewers for three, then the Cardinals for two, on the road, or, oh, no, at home, at home, and then they go to Chicago and play the Cubs for three. So they have eight Interleague games in a row. Then they have a three-game set versus the White Sox, then two versus the Giants.

So, yeah, your National League, Oakland Athletics, basically. 10 of the next 13 games for the Oakland A's or versus the National League. And not for nothing. I actually, I mean, obviously we get to this part of the season and if you break something down to 13 games, those games are going to be very important. Man, I kind of like that for Oakland. That's very Oakland days of them, for them to come in and sneak out a couple NL series wins. It's just so we look in two weeks from now, 13 games, that we look back and we're like,

yeah, the A's stayed pretty hot. They snuck up on some teams. Not everyone knows about Luriano and Seamian. I don't know. It sounds like a nice little Oakland Day stretch. Yeah. The other race is in the central. Basically, the only real race right now for division is in the central. And Minnesota took three out of four and Cleveland took three out of four. So it stays exactly where it was with Cleveland two games back, I believe. Yeah, two games back in the lost column. So good for those teams. I think that's going to be more fun. I think the twins should be more nervous than they are. Cleveland doesn't have pitching and there's talks that they're going to trade away Bauer. I don't get it at all because he's one of their three pitchers. I think

trading him away means you forfeit the season and your two games out of the division. and if you go into the playoffs with Bauer Clevenger Bieber, that's a good one, two, three. Yeah. So I have no idea why they'd trade Bauer. If Kluber can somehow get back. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's actually the financials and stuff. That's what they're talking about in Cleveland and they want to trade him while he's high.

But yeah, you're right. I mean, that's just not a message you send to a team. I think maybe that would make a little more sense if Houston were to go nuclear, if Houston went out and got Cinderguard or something like that, because then I just think you're looking at them, like, I don't think we can do anything against them. That would take a couple different shoes to drop. Man, it's, yeah, I know you and I got,

we were in the middle of Yanked socks this weekend, and the socks put on a display for a little bit. Man, it's so crazy how just sometimes winning one game in baseball can be so huge. I mean, I think if the rest of, Red Sox won that game last night. People would expect a big topic of this show to be like, the Red Sox are back in this ALE East race.

And then the Yankees win last night, and you look at the standings. Red Sox are technically back to third in the east. And it's just, it's funny the images we keep in our heads of different organizations. It's kind of what I was saying about Oakland before. If Boston had won last night, I think you could honestly come up here and say,

hey, man, some of those Boston teams get that magic going. Oh, my God. If they snag Edwin Diaz from the Mets, Boston's coming for the east. Now I think that's kind of muted all of that. I think it's in limbo right now. And next Monday show, we will tell you if Boston's in the race or not. Because currently they're 10 games back in the lost column still. There's a four game set starting this Thursday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday in the Bronx.

And if Boston takes three out of four there, Jake, then yes. they're in the race for the East. And Yankee fans should be worried. But the Yankees can still, they can take three or four in their building. And then it becomes a, what, a 13 game or it becomes a 12 game lead, 12 game lead. And then you're thinking, okay. You know, so this Yankees could have ended it. They didn't.

They get one more chance. And if they don't again, then yeah. Then I'm going to start to get worried. because the Red Sox are playing good ball. Yeah, and you know it's insane, Jim, and it's something I've stolen from you is about how quickly baseball moves. And just you were talking about next weekend's Yankees Red Sox series,

and I thought about everything that's going to take place between now and then. The trade deadline for both teams. What are each of those teams going to bring in? Are the Red Sox going to add some relief? Are the Yankees going to add some starting pitching? They each have series before they play each other. Are they going to pick up a little momentum?

or could one of those teams lose some momentum? And then what happens in those four games? And I guess that's something that we're trying to do here at talking baseball. Tell people how cool that is. Realize how different each of those teams' upcoming weeks can be. And, hey, tell your friend, check out talking baseball. How about that? Yeah, that'd be cool.

That'd be cool. All right, you want to go to the trades that happened? I think so. The storyline, some trades. the one big one jenn the derrick holland one uh i i was going so guard but uh well derrick collin got traded from the giants of the cubs for cash considerations very ancillary piece derrick holland was in their rotation got moved out of their rotation went to the bullpen cubs have a terrible bullpen might be talking about that comes slump watch uh so that's nothing uh let's let's do stroman

last the raise made some moves jake and i like these moves because they they they describe they explain the inner workings of roster construction, which a lot of people kind of aren't familiar with if you're, like, getting into baseball, and like, why would they do this? Why would do that? So first, the Rays have a lot of infielders on the IL and Joey Wendell's not having a magic season like he did last year.

So they want infield help. So they get so guard from the Blue Jays for a player to be named later. So the Blue Jays actually, they have some time to pick two pitchers from a group of four pitchers in the lower levels. So the raise said out of these four pitchers, by this date, you can pick the two.

Which is like a fun way to trade that that's like allowed. Some thoughts. The Blue Jays picked up Sogarde on a minor league contract because no one wanted him as a free agent. And he played so well that they can now trade him and get two minor league pitchers back. I like when that happens to teams. they take a chance on a minor leaguer and then they get rewarded for it.

So good for the Blue Jays there. That's fun. You need to be in a position to kind of ride out a minor leagueer to do it, but still fun. Anyway, so now the raise, they got a lot of guys on their 60-day DL, glass now, and there's someone else I'm blanking. And when they come off the 60-day DL, they need to be put on the 40-man. So they need to clear room on the 40-man roster. for Sogaard and for their injured players.

So they traded Hunter Wood and Christian Oroyo. Christian Oroo is actually on the 60 Man DL and Hunter Wood's a reliever. They trade them to the Indians for international bonus money and minor leaguer Ruben Cardanos. And yeah, that trade was basically just a clear space because Hunterwood and Christian Oroyo don't have any options left, Jake. So it's either DFAM or trade them. there's so many of these movies that go on in baseball

and you don't really know the reasons behind him yeah and uh hunter wood he'll be comfortable in cleveland he's uh he he was the king pirate for tamp out of their bullpen yeah he's he's gross pirate him and him and mikey clevenger are going to have a good time out there sharing some hair product um yeah and that's uh you summed it up pretty good man i'm there's there's the 25 man and the 40 man roster and you've got to navigate things sometimes with the option. So the rays were navigating around that.

And yeah, man, good for the Js for getting anything for Sogarde. Sogarde's 2018, man, was unbelievably bad when he was getting some run for the Brewers. He's had a nice little year in Toronto. A lot of it does look fluky to some of the advanced stats, not to be Debbie Downer. I think he's got one of the lowest hard hit rates and one of the lowest woebas. Whoa, there's an advance stat for a couple people if you want it. but yeah dude he just he's doesn't eric sogard feel like a tampa guy like they're just going to move him around a little he's going to give you some pesky at bats and you know some of them are going to end well some of them aren't i mean he is

he feels like he's future joey wendell or something like that there's uh reports that they might try to flip sogarde sure all right i get it and then the international bonus money if you're not familiar with that if we have any like, you know, new to baseball listeners. Each team is allotted some money to go sign international players, but you can trade that money to other teams. And some teams covet international bonus money. The Yankees do. And some teams don't care for it that much yet.

So the raise just got 250K of that. Yeah. Yep. Because that Christian Royal Hunter would for, money. Like you don't really know what that is all about. So it's very much just roster construction moves and not like the Indians really wanted these guys.

Hey, Hunter Wood. I've seen him throw some innings. Yeah, oh yeah. And he is going to have a lot of fun with Clevenger talking about hair. They're like, oh, what are you putting your hair? Nothing. What are you putting yours? Oh, nothing.

Oh, that's why these both look gross. We might be able to get like one of those poorly made local. commercials out of Hunterwood and Mike Clevenger, if we're lucky. Okay, I like that. If we're lucky. So that's some of what to watch for there. The big trade is Marcus Stroman from the Blue Jays to the Mets. Marcus Schroman has this season and next season on the books. So the Mets have him for 2020 as well.

They traded two pitching prospects to the Blue Jays. One is like a rising prospect. they both, neither of them are top 100, right? Like, I think anyone that says they're really good, they're like minor league lovers. Yeah, I mean, so it was Anthony Kay, former first round pick for the Mets. I don't know, he was looking really strong in double A this year.

He got called the AAA. He's getting knocked around a little bit. But is a former first round pick, Jim, out of Yukon. How about that? Go Huskies. But yeah, not listed as a top 100 prospect. He's 24 years old. I mean, there's a good, there's a chance. He's going to get a shot in the major leagues at some point.

It's what are you? I guess you could say that with any prospect. And then, yes, Simeon Woods Richardson, he's the rising prospect. He's still a kid. He turns 19 in a couple months. And he was a second round pick by the Mets. and he's the one that I think people are getting high on. He's got some high strikeout rates in the minor leagues right now,

78.1, 97 strikeouts. But Jim, all of those stats and all that information is a long-winded way of saying that neither of these two guys are highly touted. I mean, there are two pitchers that I think you can like and you can say have some serious major league potential. But one's a kid and one's close to the bigs and not a big-time prospect. so it kind of goes with your theory slash, I mean, truth that, you know, a lot of trade halls get way overblown. And this is one of them.

Yeah. Yeah. If you were like, what stromian worth, what's stroman worth, everyone was saying higher than this. And I don't know, but I was trying to tell people like, it's always lower. It's always lower than what you think. Dude, this kid's a kid. He's 18 years old. Yeah.

Wow. Just graduated high school, Sugar Land, Texas. He was a second round pick in 2018. So like, whatever. We have probably some people unfamiliar with me. I'm very cynical and skeptical of prospects. Some people see prospects as, you know, a lottery ticket. Some people see lottery tickets as lottery tickets.

I see him as a piece of trash. Oh, hello. Actual lottery tickets. Yeah, and I mean that's, oh, the actual lottery tickets. I don't see this kid as a piece of trash. You've got talent. I mean, it sounds, well, people are talking, man. No, I'm a big Simeon Woods Richardson fan.

You can't have three names and not amount to anything. Six, three, two, ten, big boy. Yeah, Jim, and it's where the prospect game gets so tricky. And lottery tickets almost works out in a good and a bad way because it almost turns into a numbers game. Like go out and grab. We've seen Brian Cashman do it with the Yankees, and now Domingo Hermann is part of that.

Just get a couple different bodies in the trade because you never know what a prospect is really going to turn out to be. I know I was digging through some old stuff the other day. Jim, you know our guy, Jordan Alvarez, who's been killing it for the Astros? Yeah. He was traded at the deadline in 2016 for reliever Josh Field. So that was Houston and the Dodgers trading.

And they got Josh Fields, who pitched a couple important relief innings, but it was Josh Fields. And now, here we are modern day. Jordan Alvarez looks like he might be one of the bigger power threats in the AL for a while. So you kind of never know what you're getting into. And that's you and I were talking briefly last night. And it's funny. Like we don't, we genuinely just don't know. Like what the Jay's top scout could have been in the room.

Maybe there's something that we would view as just people that watch the game regularly and say, like, oh, they could have got that guy and that guy for Stroman? They're pretty good. But if the Blue Jays head scout is in there, hammering the table saying, I love these two prospects, they're easily the best haul we can get, maybe that's how the decision gets made. I think you're right. The return for a lot of these trades does get overblown.

But I think, Jim, even with that hat, John, this was a little bit of a shallow return than a lot of people expected. Yeah. And big news is that Woods Richardson puts both of those last names on his jersey. So it's so many letters. It's like more than Salt-Olamachia, who I think used to have the record for most letters. It's literally almost a circle. So we are a big, big Simeon Woods-Ritchardson fan is what you're telling me.

No, I don't like that look. You guys got to do like W. Richards. and you can't have both names on there. The jersey looks ridiculous. Wow. Damn. It's a tough break, and I'm sorry about it, but your jersey looks crazy.

It's too many letters. That's tough. Anyway, what does this mean, Jake? What does this mean? The Mets are six games out of the wild card with a bunch of teams ahead of them. Are they going to flip Cindergarde? Not flip.

Are they going to trade Cindergarde and keep Strowman? Like, that's what I would think. Mets fans are like, oh, we got a rotation. of Stroman de Gromweiler, Sindeguard now. It's like you've had the best rotation on paper for the last six years.

You've had the best rotation on paper going. One of them. A top rotation on paper. You haven't done a thing with it. So like, I think they're going to trade Sindegar. Yeah, I think there's funny Buster only dropped the nuke.

And he was like, yeah. Rival Scouts are saying, you know, Marcus Stroman paired up with one of the worst defensive infields in our history with his ground ball rate. It's just like shots fired off the bat. I don't know, man. And Jim, well, I'm so excited to see this deadline play out because, I mean, a couple of things we haven't really talked about. So now that that's out on Cindergarde and the Mets got Strowman, can't teams kind of lowball the Mets? like can't they be can't they be like well you okay so you went out and got stroman which means

you want to flip cindergarde well if you're going to move them here's our offer like haven't they just lost some leverage oh i thought of it the opposite way i thought of it as now that sindegarde's available teams are going to rush there and they're going to know that every other team is rushing there and they're going to the mets are going to get like a ton of fantastic offers Like if this was proof that Sindigards available With two more years of control And this year Because if he's a game changer this year

Like even as a rental He's kind of can be a game changer Then you get two more years I took it as the Mets are going to get 10 times the offers Because now the Yankees are going to try and block the Astros Who are going to try and block the Indians Are going to try and block Minnesota

You got the Padres who are interested I mean I thought it was like I thought he's a mad dash Oh, see, I don't know, man. I mean, now that they brought them in and it's out there, I think you're right. Maybe there's a chance, I think. But, Jim, what if I told you this deadline passes

and Cindergarde is still a Met and so is Stroman? I'm not, I'm not shocked by anything the Mets do. Right. That's what I'm saying. I mean, you, that, I guess that would be my counter to you, is that you're basically saying in those words that they got Strowman and we, liked that deal because there weren't any really big prospects.

And now you're saying that the Mets are going to turn Cindergarde into this great return. I mean, just think of all the words you're saying. Those are words that just don't add up. That's me getting hopeful for the New York Knicks. It's just, it's a bad idea and it doesn't make sense. I don't, yeah, I'm not following. I think it makes, like, a lot of sense. Oh, I'm saying the Mets doing it because the Mets don't do good things like this.

Oh, you're saying the move makes sense. sense, but the Mets doing it doesn't make sense because the Mets don't do moves that make sense. Correct. I'm following now. Yeah, we'll see, man. I don't know. They should because, like I said, they've had good pitching for a while and they have good hit. I don't know what's wrong with the Mets, man.

But Buster only dropping that nuke of a tweet, like, Stroman's the biggest ground ball pitcher and the Mets have the worst infield defense. Get them, Buster. Like, historically bad. So yeah, I mean, they're, hey, Brody van GM likes the spotlight. It's going to be on them for the next 48 hours to see what they can do. And Jim, that might even be the craziest part. They're what, six games out of the wild card?

This might have been a Mets like we're going for it move, which that could even be the craziest part. The Mets going for it. Who knows? Like I said, there's two months of baseball left. If that's the message they wanted to. send to their team and their fan base. I'm not mad at that message.

Like if the Mets do say, we got Strowman and they make like another move for whatever else they need. Relief pitching, defense, offense, baseball players. Well, if they do something like that, Jake, I'm not going to be mad at a team for trying to go for it. I think you just were because you said that formula hasn't worked. No, but they need. They've never tried to get good offense.

All their moves have been so stupid. That's what I'm saying. So I don't think you can just give them credit for going against Roman with everything else you just said. No, I said I'd give them credit if they went out and got two more pieces. Right. I mean, for the New York fan base, like, that's better than selling. They may win over some Mets fans. Like our Mets fan was excited, our friend.

But what if they don't do any other moves? what I'm saying. Then that's dumb. Okay. They either need to sell Syngard for a great return or they need to go trade more. They should sell Sindegard for like,

is there a help now return out there for him? I don't think so. I mean, it depends what you consider help now and depends who you consider available. Yeah, that's such a weird move. And I feel bad for Stroman. As much as people don't want to like admit it. They're like, look at his tweet.

He's happy. like, okay, look at his tweet, okay. That's if he's going to tweet out, fuck this. They said there was a big commotion in locker room. He wanted to go to a contender, Jake. He was treating out second half savage. He wanted to go to the Yankees. Yeah, or anywhere.

Like, he was like, I mean, he's from, he's from New York. He said on R2C2, I mean, the dude wanted to go to the Yankees. Yeah, and there was, like he had liked tweets about him going to the Braves. He just wanted to go to a contender. And the Mets are six games out. And they're just an inept organization. So kind of a bummer. Kind of a bummer for him.

Sorry, Mets fans. Congrats. I'm rooting for the Mets. Good luck. Good luck. All right, you want to get into everything else of the fun stuff? I think so. I like the fun stuff.

You like the fun stuff? All right, let's go to Jake's standout performance. Jake Standout Performance. standout performance, Jake. Who had a performance that lit up your eyes? Get a little smelling salts before I say this on the air. Jim, we are such Yankee homers. It's all we do.

So there's no way that I'm making my standout performance, Mookie Betts. Jim, we got to see it. Four for five. He had a three homer game. Just popping balls over the monster. send him into Lansdown Street. Five RBI's. Jim, his batting average in July is up 20 points.

His OPS is up 50 points in July. He's slashing 366, 462 with a 1.08.0PS, a lot closer to his MVP numbers than he has been. Jim, the Red Sox shoved this weekend and they needed it. And they need this guy. I mean, man, it's kind of nuts that we've been looking at the Red Sox lineup this year. And Mookie's been there, but he hasn't been Mookie. And he's starting to show signs of that.

The guys leading the Red Sox offense are Raphael Devers and Zander Bogartz. And I think if you're on the outside world, especially if you saw what they did last year, it was so special. Betts, Ben Intendi, Jady Martinez. And then, you know, they'd normally throw someone in that four hole. If it was a lefty, they'd throw Steve Pearson there. Mulyu, but those three were so vicious to get through. And now with the year Bogart's endeavors are having, man, if Betts gets it going like he has been, Jady Martinez has been good, he's got

another gear in there, you wonder if he finds that. And Ben Intendi, he had a huge weekend. You wonder if he gets it going. But this weekend, Jim, a chunk of their season was on the line. They held serve at home. They put up huge runs. And I mean, that one performance by Mookie, you crack the level on the other side. When it's happening against your team, you're like, how can we possibly be letting him go for a third one? But special players will do that to you too. And he had a pitch to hit for his fourth home run.

He only hit a double on it. So regression happens to the best players. But I'm giving it to the Mook, man, especially if the Sox want to do this thing going forwards. Good for the Mook man Three home runs Three home run performance is good James Paxton is bad

Yeah You might hear him mention briefly later You can't do Someone tried to play that game with me yesterday Because I said G. R shell is locked in And they're like you mean Chris Sale's just bad And it's like well Not everyone's hitting the ball that way

Like James Paxon is bad But not every player hit three home runs So Mookie gets a ton of credit for being... None of them did. None of them did, yeah. But people like to play that game. Oh, yeah.

My standout performance is a pitcher, Jake. Who's your standout performance, Jim? Did one of the more fun things in baseball in present day because it's so rare. Yeah. Stephen Matt's pitched a Maddox. If you're not familiar... That's baby. A Maddox is a complete game shutout in less than 100 pitches.

And guess what? The game ended on his 99th pitch, Jake. Yeah, he had to. He was forced to. I think the hitter put it in play, which is great. 99's pitch, five hits, seven Ks, zero walks. This is where it gets weird, this performance. Great job by Stephen Matts. It's best outing of his life.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, Jake, they had a base runner in five of nine innings. Yet he still kept the pitch count under 100 in a complete game show. Isn't that bizarre? A little bit. I mean, that can end up helping you out sometimes if you get a couple double plays, but yeah. Only one. Only one double play. Yeah.

I was crazy. I was like, wait, what? How did the, like the Pirates had a lot of guys on base for a complete game shutout, under 100 pitches. But anyway, good for Stephen Mats. I don't know what his future holds with the Mets. Him and Stroman can become buddies. They're both Long Island guys, right?

Yeah, I think so Yeah, I'm sure That story will definitely leak out in a week or two That Matt's and Stroman played against each other or something Yeah, right now the Mets, DeGrom, Cindergarde, Wheeler, Matt's Vargas, and Stroman So someone's got to move Otherwise the Mets are going full six man

Which again, don't just don't be surprised by whatever the Mets do Where's Ward Melville? I wonder if they did. Are they the same age, Stroman and Mats? Because that is fun if they're like the same age from the same area, now in the same team. If there's a chance that they played together. Well, Mats is 28, I believe.

So he's older. And Stroman. How old Stro? He's got to be around there, right? Marcus Stroman is... 28. 28. Wow. He's Medford, New York.

So, yeah, yeah. So watch out for that story. Yeah, they're both from Long Island. I wonder if they played against each other in high school. They had to be at the same camps and, like, events and stuff. That's cool. AAU team, showcase. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow, Marcus Stroman and Stephen Mats. Good for them. But Matt's complete game shoutout, 99 pitches, gets the Maddix. Love me. I like Complete Game Shutouts. Like hint, if someone throws a complete game shutout, they're like jumping up my standings of like a standout performance. I'm big fan of those, especially this day and age.

How much those save your team's bullpen nowadays is insane. Right. And it's crazy how much, I mean, depending the game situation, but if the game is within like five runs nowadays, as a manager, you can get in trouble if you leave the starter out there too long. teams can put up a crooked number so quick with the rate homers are getting hit, and I mean, especially with the Mets bullpen. A lot of Mets talk. Watch out for that elevator later.

But, yeah, it's a huge game for Mats. And, yeah, the Long Island Mets. We're rolling. We like that. We like that. Yeah, I do like that. All right, Jake. What's next?

Slump Watch. We have a lot of people on Slump Watch, Jake. Too many. I think we need to limit ourselves in the future. We said that last week. Yeah, that's the tricky now that we've made the rule that you have to play yourself off. That's going to leave some guys hanging out for a while. And the first collection of guys that, Jim, they're staying, and we don't want them to stay. We're so rooting for the Rockies to get off the slump watch and they just won't do it.

Rockies, I mean, is there a point where... you it turns into the your bad watch and that's how you get off because I think that's how I think the Rockies might be off slump watch and they're onto you're just very bad watch Jim wish wish this was a baseball podcast and we had some like baseball terms like three strikes and you're off the slump watch or something like that but no who would think of that who would think of something the Rockies are off man they're just bad now they're off three strikes you're out for the Rockies you uh you you you you rode slump watch too long, you're bad.

Yep. Wow. That's tough. Yeah. This might be a brutal slump watch then. You say Kikuchi? You say, you sigh. He plays himself off, Jim. 6.2 turn runs. Get out of here, you sigh. Versus the Tigers are the worst team in baseball. But good for you. Take it. Good for you, Kikuchi. And what we got? Both Chris Davis. Both Chris Davises. Yeah, man. And so Chris Davis.

on the Orioles. He only played one game. He went 0 for three with a walk. I mean, if we're doing new bad watch rules, do we just get Chris Davis out of here? No, no, no, he's, no, he's still on for me. He's kind of a bad watch. He was, he was, last week was his first time on. He stays on for one more week. Okay. Well, he's staying with the other Chris Davis because Chris Davis in Oakland, uh, he goes one for 13. So he's staying, man. He did have the walk off walk in game four, though. stays. Okay. And then we had another pitcher.

You know, you know when you're on slump watch like that and a pitcher walks you, that's firmly on the pitcher. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That pitcher should feel like an idiot. All right. You added Homer Bailey to Slump Watch last week. Yeah. And Jim, he kicks in a good start for the A, 6.23 earned run.

So he's clear in my book. Good job. Homer, quality start. You're off slump watch. All right. Now, new additions. Yeah, so I wrote down a couple hitters here, Jim. And we'll see if both make it or if expectations become a factor here. I've got a couple guys that are in one for 19 slides.

That's one for 19. A couple outfielders, the first one, Greg Allen, for your Beliveland Indians. He's in a slide. Jim, the other guy next to him towers over him, not necessarily slump-wise, but literally Aaron Judge. And, God, my Yankee bias kicks in. Oh, keep talking Yankees. Get your Yankees on the slump watch, dude.

Good job. Big Aaron, man, and I know the bigger thing, and I hope you don't have the numbers in front of you because I don't. Aaron Judge's career numbers at Fenway at this point are getting ugly. Yeah, he did have a good postseason at Fenway last year. Yeah. but but uh yeah so last year at fenway he was five four nine jake with three runs and two rbis and two home runs so like that's when it matters most he like really played really well in fenway in the

postseason but his regular season stats at fenway are very bad yeah so but i almost don't care because of how good that postseason stats are i'll uh i mean i'll i'll leave it to you and the court of law. I mean, are they both on slump watch? Does... Oh, I don't have a say. You put them on there. They're on. Oh, no. I thought this was just an open forum where we discuss things, but okay, okay. No, they're on slump watch. And then I probably wouldn't have put Greg on there due to expectations, but you're both on. Sorry, guys. And then, yeah, Jim, the last guy, I put another Yankee. I just, I live there. I'm so Yankee-Cy-centric. James Paxton, Jim, his last six starts.

9.2 innings, a 667 ERA, and the Yankees are 1 in 5 in James Paxson's last six starts. He throws a dud against the Red Sox. He was part of that Mooky 3-Homer game. And yeah, man, Paxton is firmly there. Oh, yeah. Well, if you want to hear me lose my mind about James Paxon, go listen to today's episode of Talking Yanks. I don't want to relive it because it makes me very angry.

Yeah. Very angry. I know who I put on slump watch today? Yeah, it looks like you got a crew. The Cubs bullpen. Yeah. The Cubs bullpen. They just traded for Derek Collin because they're desperate.

They were desperate in 2016. They made a lot of moves. They won the World Series eventually. But I went over that a couple episodes ago. All the moves they made in 2016. They're bad, Jake. The Cubs have blown eight saves in July. Yeah.

In July. most in the NL and tied for most in baseball. In their last five losses, they had the lead or were tied going into the seventh inning. Every loss comes at the hands of the bullpen. Yeah. Brutal. And dude, that turns into a mental thing at a certain point.

I mean, we've kind of seen it with the Mets all year. Like, yes, it's tough not having the talent and performing out of the bullpen. but dude when that becomes a thing on your team you're just living in fear you're living in fear of that skunk that skunk and it's a it's a tough way to to play baseball man so you wonder yeah i mean Derek holland i won't say he's the solution uh you wonder what other names they're talking to right now if if this was talking cubs tweet out at us who are the cubbies going out and getting i'm sure they've got philippe vasquez rumors

Ken Giles Giles Giles Giles Dias there's a lot of relievers out there So yeah if you're if you're a Cubs fan Tweeted us let me know But yeah man that's that's just like a stink That you can't wear off Yep

Next up En fuego In fuego Dirt Nasty's Enfuego Let's celebrate some good performances Why don't we? I have some fun ones on here Jake That I was like whoa

I love I love learning new names in baseball. There's so many players. 25, really 40 times 30, whatever that number is. That's how many players there are. Okay. That can impact a season. This dude never heard of him.

I wonder if you had. Josh Van Meter, 24 years old, on the Reds now. He was drafted by the Padres. He's a fifth round pick. Shorter guy, 5-11. Whoa. He was traded, Jake, as a player to be named later. The Padres traded Luis Sopton from the Reds,

and he was the player to be named later that the Reds chose from the Padres. He got called up in May, but only came off the bench for like the whole month or two months, and his numbers aren't great. He finally gets his first chance to start consecutive games. He had never started three games in a row this season. He starts four in a row. and in his last four games, he is hitting 692, with a 733 on base percentage,

and a 2.195 OPS. He's got the highest OPS in baseball the last seven days. Never heard of him. He's had a hell of a week, Josh Van Meter from the Rets. He is in Fuego. Yeah, I'm not super familiar, Jim. I just know the last name stands out, because we've been to, what was it, Van Meter,

Van Meter, Iowa? I forget. I don't think it was Van Meter. I thought it was. Van Meter, Iowa. Yeah, I think that's the town. Yeah, that's where we went. What famous pitcher is from there?

Don Sopton. Bob Feller. Bob Feller. Bob Feller. We went to the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, Iowa, so that's why that jumps out. But no, not hyper familiar with Josh. Happy for you, young man?

I mean, dude, how many times does it feel like we hear about some guy on the Reds just putting up a big performance? Dude, they've got to have one of the weirder seasons just looking back. Like, they've gotten some really good hitting performances. They're starting pitching grades out really well. But when you look back at this Red season, it's just like, ugh. Yeah. Yeah, they, uh, their, their run differentials amazing, but they just can't win.

Yeah. Damn. Sorry, Reds. Um, good job, Josh, though. Good job, Josh Van Meter. Happy for you. Yeah. Damn.

Who else you got, Jim? Nelson Cruz, he had a three-homer game in his last seven games. He's got a 485 on base percentage with a 1.657, uh, OPS and seven home runs in his last, uh, Seven games. That's good. Speaking of home runs, Paul Goldschmidt, six games in a row with the home run, Jake. Get him Goldie. Tied for first place, Cardinals.

Goldie's going to lead the way. In his last seven, he has 13 home runs, 10 hits. 10 hits, six homers, no other extra base hits. It's single or homer. Yes, sir. Yeah, Jim, jumping back a little bit. Nelson Cruz, he is on Edwin Encarnassion's tail. for the most home runs this decade.

And I know that's kind of a, I don't want to say it's a lame stat. It's just a funny way to look at stats, like genuinely from each decade who hits the most home runs. Edwin Encanaccion and Nelson Cruz, two guys that we're going to look back and we totally respect as power hitters, but won't be remembered as, I guess, all-time greats, and I don't think that's being rude to them.

But when you look back at the most home runs hit by players per decade, I mean, you see Babe Ruth, you see Alex Rodriguez, you see all these all-time names, and one of these guys, basically whoever has the better last two months, is going to finish with the most home runs this decade. And whenever they pop that graphic, probably nine years from now, and then 19 years from now, 29 years from now, we're going to look and see that and say, wow, how about that? So I like a little old man power race in the AL. Can you tweet out, like, can you be the guy that gives me the updates on the Nelson Cruz versus Edwin Incarnacion decade homer race? I think I can. I think someone needs to give those updates. Follow at Talking Jake on Twitter for your Nelson Cruz, Edwin Incarnacion home run decade. That's all I'm doing. I'd really like you to be the guy. Every app bad of each. You need to put alerts on for Nelson Cruz and Edwin Incarnacion.

of bats and be dedicated to this. Fine. It's who you are now. Change your Twitter bio. It's my life. It's my new life. What about? I had another rookie on here.

Matt Thice. You heard of this guy? First round pick. Walk off. Got drafted by the Red Sox. He said, no way, Jose. I'd rather go to college. Then he gets picked up for L.A.

Got called up on July 3rd, did nothing for his first eight games. Past four games. Baltimore Orioles and the worst pitching staff in America comes to town. Three homers, two in one game, and one was a walkoff, 429 on base percentage. Matt Thais and Fuego. Proud of you, Matt Thice. And, yeah, I mean, technically a little preview of walkoff watch coming up. Jim, I threw one pitcher on here.

And, man, big Mets episode, Jacob de Grom, Jim. Everyone's been talking Cinderguard with the trade. Zach Wheeler trade rumors. They just go out and get Stroman. Strowman. Stromon. Stromon. Jacob de Grom.

Yeah. You're defending NL.S.I. Young winner. He goes out. He twirls a casual seven innings pitch, zero and run this week. Yeah, that's fine. Jim, in his last 12 starts, a.k.a. two months, over two months. He's only had one start where he's given up three earned runs.

every other start has been under three to the tune of a 2.10 ERA. And Jim, this month more specifically, Jacob DeGrom, 26 innings pitch with a 1.04ERA. So Jacob de Grom, again, it gets tricky with some of these DeGrom, trouts, the studs of the game, because they could be in there every week. Jacob de Grom deserved to be talk about, so I throw them in there. Well, I have a stud pitcher right behind him. Yes. I have a stud pitcher right behind.

Not in the NL East, right? Another NL East guys. These guys in their NL East bias. Biased. Here's what I want to talk about. Steven Strasberg. So he had a good outing. Great outing.

Yeah. He only allowed two base runners. Seven innings pitched. Only allowed two base runners, two hits, zero walks. Actually, I think he had a hit by pitch. Damn. So that ruins that. it was maybe two hit by pitches. So four

base runs. But one run but Jake, this was the Dodgers coming to town. This was Facing Off versus Walker Bueller. This was a big game kind of, you know what I mean? Like that was like you got to come to it. Strasbourg versus Bueller, Strasbourg comes to. He's having a great month

of July. Five starts in the month of July. One point one for ERA. They have one. They have won. Oh, wow. One, two, three, counting. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

The Nationals have won nine, no, ten of the last eleven starts. And Jim, I'll give you a stat that can help out with that. He leads the N.O. and wins this year. Well, Steve E. Strasbourg. Yeah, his last 11 starts, they have won ten games. and he has gotten the decision, the winning decision, in 10 of those 11. So it's all been him. Yeah, man.

Wow. He's been twirling it. It's the team that just, I feel the American League, I feel like right now is living in fear of Houston. Like, if Houston can drop the bomb at this trade deadline and go out and get Cinderguard, like that would just take out, that would take the wind out of everyone. sales like verlander cinderguard cole that that would just be tough to beat you're starting to get into miracle time dude if these gnats make it with strasburg scherzer and corbin

nobody wants to play them living in fear of that skunk of those gnats and i know the dodgers have good pitching too and they've got a lot of talent but you want the Nats in a seven-game set? Poppy Gordo doesn't. For those that speak don't speak Spanish, that means fat dad? It's around there, loosely. It's a loose translation. And it's your nickname for yourself since, like, you're 14 years old?

It's a loose translation, yeah. It's a, I don't know, self-fulfilling prophecy, whatever you want to label it. Jim, and I actually, I had this as the segue from Inferms. Fuego, but we can end it with it. And I forget if we, I don't know if this is our first guy to ever do it. Jim, I'm putting Jonathan VR from Slump Watch last week to end Fuego. Wow. What a transition.

What a transition? What, do we have a nickname for those guys? What's something that go, microwave guys? They get hot in a hurry. No, that's stolen from NBA. But maybe let's figure out a name from going from Slump Watch. Well, I got started from the bottom now they can hear that song about. about deaf people and cochlear implants.

Yeah, okay, we can work. We'll brain shop after this. Tweet at us. Tweeted us, if you go from Slump Watch to Enfuego, what that is. In the four games sent against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, my guy, Jonathan V.R. went 10 for 18. He scored nine runs in four games, five RBI, two home runs, five stolen bases, Jim,

a 556 padding average with a 1.563 OPS. My guy went nuts this series, so I'm happy for Jonathan V.R. Oh, yeah, you know who's not happy? A lot of people that got mad. A lot of people got mad, Jim. Who got mad? Who got mad?

Bauer's the big one, but first there was a Ramon Loriano and Samson. Adrian Sampson argument. Did you see all this? The backstory is wild. I did see all this. And there was another A's teammate involved too. Yeah.

Mark Kana. Kana. I don't know to say. Kana. Yeah. So the backstory is that Kana took Samson deep and June 8th in Arlington. And he really didn't, he watched it. He watched his ball fly through the night sky.

And then just dropped his bat. No bat, bat, flip, nothing. And Samson is one of these. he's bum gardener types, but he's bad. So it doesn't really make sense. Like, dude, you're going to get really worked up if you're upset every time someone hits a home run and admires it off you. So he's like, run!

And is it Canna or Kana? I can never figure it out. It's a Kanaanaana. Kanaana. So he's like, I'll run, whatever. I don't care. And then Samson was so mad on that June 8th game that he got Luriano out for the last out of the inning.

And Luriano says he stepped up. on his bat. Like, L'Oriano dropped his bat on the first baseline as he was running, and the dude was walking towards the dugout and just stepped right on the bat. And he was mad about that. Yeah. So,

Kana goes deep. He sprints right away out the box. He gets his revenge. And then, and then Luriano goes deep, and he looks at Samson and says, why don't you step on this one? Then Samson's mad at him.

He tells the ump, like, you see what he did? And then they get this whole, whole bench. Oh, then they hit him later on. New pitcher came in and hit him.

but I think it was on purpose, but whatever. Yeah, it was, it's going to be tough for me to go a full show without talking about Ramon Luriano, one of my favorites. He had a bomb. He had a bomb in his redemption shot, just turned on an inside pitch. And then, yeah, he pointed at him, he showed him the bat, and he said, you're going to step on it now. And the pitcher, the best part of that exchange was the pitcher and the umpire.

And you were all over this in your breakdown. The pitcher starts huffing and puffing over to the first baseline going run to first, run to first. And Luriano's just there like, dude, hit another home run. Like, get over it. And the umpire comes over and he's like, you got to calm down. Like this is good for baseball. Like, I'm sorry he hit a home run off of you. But guys enjoying home runs is what we want.

So sorry, dude. Catch the net. Yeah. And he like turns the um, he started it. It's like, dude, you're. I wasn't a fan of Samson before because I didn't know where he was, not a fan now, unless he wants to come on the show. Yeah.

Then I like it. So that was some madness. And then, dude, the diamondbacks and the Marlins emptied benches, but no one cared. Like, no one cares because it's the Marlins and the Diamondbacks.

But Christian Walker got hit twice, if we have any fans of those teams listening. I apologize that no one was interested. But Christian Walker got thrown inside twice, and he's walking down the first, baseline he's just screaming like fuck god damn it fuck not looking at the pitcher just kind of like i just got hit twice and the the diving back's dugout was started like screaming out to the field like come on blah blah barking so uh is it tayron guerrero looks at them and it's like come on you

want something come on and like starts calling them up and then it's the whole thing it's bad i mean i might do a breakdown of it but it's pretty it's like a it's real dumb sometimes i like the dumbness. This one's like so uninteresting and bad. The big one is Trevor Bauer. The biggest story in baseball, if we're being honest. Turns throws the ball over

the center field fence because he had like a see a lot of people saw the clip Jake and they didn't get any of the context. That's why when I made my breakdown, I was like I have to show why he's so frustrated. Because it had nothing to do. So if you just see the clip, people are trying to paint it.

I'm sure there's ESPN hot take shows right now, painting it as he didn't, he was refusing to give the ball to Terry Francona and like he didn't want to be taken out of the game. That is not what happened at all. They're going to try and paint it like that. He was, he threw the ball. He had a ball first and he threw it at the backstop. Then they gave him a new ball, but he didn't want a new ball, so he threw it over centerfield defense. Like, he's just mad at himself and the terrible luck and the bad inning. So I'm, I'm already annoyed with people saying like, he showed up his manager. No, he acted like crazy, immature. You can say that. He didn't, he didn't, it was not a, like,

I don't want to come out of this game. He knew he was coming out of the game. Yeah, and I think it's funny, Jim, because I know you were saving this. I'm going to flip it on you. I don't think Trevor Bauer got mad. I think Trevor Bauer was frustrated. I think Terry Francona got mad. Well, Bauer was mad. Yeah, I know. It was just a little words play to come back of you because Tito dropped a big what the fuck are you doing son on him which uh terry francona doing that is always a good time uh one of one of the best dudes in baseball but yeah i mean bowler was frustrated there was there was a swinging bunt the play before that there's a couple balls that leaked through uh so yeah a dropped a dropped fly out because the sun blinded mercato right the sun got in the way of of olivier mercado or guy um so yeah

It was just pure frustration, and if this was anybody else, they'd, like, if this was someone who wasn't Bauer, which, to be fair, it is Bauer. And he's put, when you put yourself out and you do weird stuff and you be kind of gruff with the media at times or whatever you want to be, you set yourself up for when something like this happens, they're going to blow it up on you. If this was just kind of a random guy or, you know, if this was just someone we knew as a competitor, or DeGrom or whoever it was, we'd say like, wow, I mean, is this guy frustrated or what, what a competitor. But because it's Bauer, we're like, I told you, this guy can be a troubling presence.

So I just think it's so funny how quick people can flip the script on it. And, yeah, I mean, I've got no problem with it. You fine them. I think you find Bauer because you just, you can't do that. You can't let players know it's okay to twirl balls into the stands. but I mean that should be it. Like that should be the end of it. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, there's, I was trying to say like, I can't love guys for beating up watercoolers and like being intense and then hate Bauer on this incident. But that is only talking about the isolated incidents of this because there is other Bauer stuff from the past where you're like, dude, you seem like a lot to deal with in a clubhouse and on a team. But I do like the fire and intensity. And he is really good pitcher.

but he was not refusing to give the ball to the manager because he did not want to be taken out of the game. I just want to make sure that everyone knows that because that is what the hot take and the people that didn't watch the full inning and just watch the clip are trying to portray this as. That is not what happened. Yeah. Well, I mean, the secret double reversy here, Jim,

is that Cleveland told Bauer they're like, dude, we have to trade you. you know, we just can't afford you and we have to get value out of here. So just do something a little weird this game so that we can spin that into the trade deadline and that's why we're trading you. So that's so when they trade Bauer, the fans won't get mad. They'll be like, yeah, I guess when he threw the ball, that was the last hump that broke the camel straw. Yeah.

Oh, dude, I forgot about a quote I wanted to say about the Luriano. Okay. Ejection. Did you see this? I put it to see her. Luriano was asked if he enjoyed his home run off Samson. and he said, to be honest, I don't enjoy anything. It just kind of happens and that's it.

Yeah. I mean, he's essentially my religion currently, is Ramon Luriano. He's like just a fatalist, just dead inside. It's pretty awesome. Let's rifle through walk-off watch because there were so many. There was so many, dude. You can run, man. Brewers came back over the Cubs.

The Cubs took the lead. in the 10th or something like that and then the brewers came back. Kimberl lost it. Yelich homerun to tie it and then our dude, how do you say his name? Kenton Herrero. That's Campy right. Yeah, Kestin Hira. Kestin Hira hits the walkoff good for him.

He's having a good year. Teosker Hernandez, bottom of the 12th, hit a lead off Homer to beat the race. Matt Thice hit a home run to win it for the Angels. Seattle had two walkoffs. The first was Kyle Seeger, single and Malick Smith single. The second was a Dylan Moore double and a J.B. Crawford single, both over Detroit.

Oakland had a walk off walk with Chris Davis. And the Marlins walked off with two consecutive sack flies. They scored three runs in the game all on sack flies. Again, I think that wins the least interesting series, the Marlins and the Diamondbacks. Because things happened in it. And even myself, a baseball lover, I couldn't get myself to, like, go check it out.

Yeah, and maybe a little deflating for our D-backs too. well, that's a team that's still kind of a wild card at this deadline. Are they going to move a lot? Are they going to move very little? What to watch for? Brian Cashman making trades with the Diamondbacks as the Diamondbacks come to the Bronx and play a two-game set versus the Yankees. I think he's going to be wheeling deal and ask him about Robbie Ray,

ask him about Granky. I think Cashman's going to be trying to do something right then and there. Classic Yankees move, making the Ray's play them right before the trade deadline so they could try to get their pitch. pitchers. That's so Yankees. Yeah. We had three debuts, Jake. Yeah. None of them highly touted or crazy things happened.

Jeremy Walker, relief pitcher for the Braves, made his debut. Jose Rodriguez, relief pitcher for the Angels, made his debut. Ryan Court hitter for Seattle. He got a couple hits. He played a little first base right field. Yeah, yeah. Pinch hit in his first game lined out to left. and then he got like two hits in his next game.

Hit the ball hard. Got a ground rule double. Good for him. Yeah, and Jim, I think the bigger news, because you're right, not a lot of big name prospects. Ryan Court made Major League debut at age 31. So good for you, dude. Two hits.

You have a lifetime. You have a lifetime trump card on pretty much everyone you ever meet. I did not look into that. That's crazy. Good for him. He's older than us, Jim. Take that, Ryan. A loser.

Ooh, older than us and more successful in baseball. Enjoy playing Major League Baseball, you loser. Enjoy health care for life. Ah. Awards! Awards! The awards segment of the show, Jim. I think you get to go first.

I go first, Jim. and I am giving out the Tums Award. I think I should go on Mondays and you should go on Fridays because you're more of a Friday guy and I'm more of a Monday guy. Wow. I'm actually a pretty big Monday supporter. No, but you're like a party fun guy. I'm a loser.

Well, with that mentality, you're right, Jim. That's what I'm saying. But I want you to shake that mentality, so I think it's wrong. Oh, wow. Jim, the Tums Award. We give out one of my favorite awards in baseball through the years is the Rollaids Reliever of the Year award. Jim, I think we need to start giving out the Tums Award. You know, are they competing companies?

Are they together? No, Rolades and Tums are separate, right? No idea, but I'm Team Tums all the way, through and through. You're my expert in the field on that. I never done Rolades. But Jimmy, we need to start giving the Tums. Um's award to the best field player pitcher of the year. And Jim, we had a field player made history.

Stevie Wilkerson comes in and gets the save in the 16 inning Angels Orioles game. And yeah, I mean, a field player coming in, twirling it, getting a save. That's 2019 baseball bag. Did you watch it? Did you watch it? Yeah, I saw he had some. He had the floater going. The only pitch he was throwing.

And it makes a lot of sense because, like, if you were to take a professional baseball player and throw them into a slow pitch softball game, they wouldn't do great their first two at bats. Because it's so different. And that's basically what he was doing to them. Yeah, he... I wanted to make a breakdown of it.

After he threw every ball, he got into, like, this crazy ready position, like jumped into it, like a cat, like, oh, it's going to come back. And every time they put one in play, he was looking up, like, crazy, like, we can't catch it he's like so excited and into it you would think a pitcher would just be like lobbing it and like whatever the fuck it happens happens he was like no let's get this it's pretty fun and i mean talk about i it's probably something that's going to be mentioned when uh the next cba or

or any rule changes get brought up because there's something to be said about baseball when you're having an outfielder come in and try to get a save in a 10 to 8 game it was 16 innings i get there's extraneous factors there um hey and stevie you're stevie Wilkerson, Jim, he's got four innings on the year now, 2-25 ERA. He's giving up one earn run. It was a yabo. So Stevie Wilkerson, he is my

leader for the Tums Award this season. Nice. Wow. Good job, Stevie Wilkerson. Yeah. My award is the You Got Got Award. Ooh, tough. Oh, yeah.

I've been on the end of this award. It's not a good feeling. You got got, dude. You know what goes to? Who got got? Ben Gamble. Wow. I was going to mention Ben Gamble earlier because I didn't realize he's hanging out on the Brewers now, right?

Did you see how he buys his fake tag? Oh, yes, I did see that. I didn't realize that was Gamble. Nice. Dude, it was the 9th or 10th inning. Gamble reaches due to error. Tide game. He steals second to get into scoring position.

The Cubs throw the ball in. to the outfield, Hobby misses the ball. Gamble overslides the bag. He could have very easily got up and ran to third, and now you have to go ahead run on third base,

but Hobby fakes like he has the ball in his glove. And Hobby did it so well, man, because he didn't just straight up tag him because if he did that, the yump would not call him out, you know? Right. So he, like, intentionally didn't tag him

but was trying to tag him, and Gamel scurries back to second base. Hobby doesn't have the ball. He got got. It was, it's awesome. It's a highlight that if you're listening to this and you haven't seen it, you need to look up. Yeah, I want to do a breakdown of that and of Bumgardner, not knowing you struck out. Yeah, they did the little, like, chicken dance where you're kind of, you're jukeing each other for a second.

And the fact that Javi thought of that immediately is just so good. Well, the fact, he didn't tag him, like he had to do the jukeing tag. Right. And he just, he had the self-awareness to, um, to, to do all of that immediately. And he didn't flinch at all, which a lot of guys, normally a guy would flinch and then maybe try to do that

or they wouldn't try to do that at all. And, uh, hobby, man, I, I think that's a guy. He'd be at the top of the list, I feel of if you watch that guy play baseball every day, that I think you just fall in love with him.

I agree. I agree. I wonder if he did touch him with his glove without a ball on it, if he can get called for obstruction. Probably. I know that, like, in high school, you can't do a fake tag because it's obstruction. It's automatic.

And I know that that's not the rule in the majors. Jeter used to do a fake tag all time. But I wonder if he does make contact if then they could say that's obstruction. I get to go to third. There's probably something in the rules about that. That's interesting. But anyway, Gamel, you got got.

Yeah. Saw Gamel on the brew crew. He fits in there. Yeah. He does, actually. You ready for elevator talk? Elevator talk. Favorite segment.

If you're new, two minutes will go on the clock. It's a fake two minutes, kind of. We're going to spin a wheel. It's got all 30 teams on it. We're going to try and have it land on a team we haven't discussed. If you find yourself in an elevator with a fan of this team, you will be able to hold a conversation, have some fodder. Jake and I will go to the websites that we go to and pull up some information,

some conversation starters for you to have. You ready? Let's get it. We're spinning. We're spinning. We're spinning. Houston Astros. We did them like two episodes ago.

Yeah. They're, we're pushing them for now. They're really good. Tampa Bay Rays? Ooh. We could ray out. I mean, we gave you a little bit. They just traded for SOUGARD.

They just traded for SOUGuard. So that's a big move. I think they're going to float them. I think they're in the hunt for more. they're in the race with Red Sox. They're strongly in the race for the wild card. Pretty strong. They're probably not going to win the division.

No, I think, yeah, I mean, them, the Sox and the A's, they are battling. They could use another stick, man. I mean, they, G. Man Choy at first base, an old friend of the program, but he could use a little more Tommy Fan gets hot. Austin Meadows hasn't been who he was. He's still putting together a nice year. They could use another twig or two. Travis Darnow has been doing great things for them.

Oh, my God. I don't know, Jim. This was the team that everyone around baseball was saying was going to make a big trade this deadline, and I don't even know what that would be. And the other thing you know about the raise is that their pitching has just been so good this year. Yeah.

They're not shy to use that bullpen. it's new baseball a little bit. They are still first in the AL and ERA. Blake Snell just went down for the year. That hurts them. If they can get Tyler Glassnow back, holy smokes. He was impressive early on the season. That's what I was going to say.

They got a lot of guys on the I.L. Right now. They got Jose Alvarado, Yandi Diaz, Avicale Garcia, Tyler Glassnow, Kevin Kiermire, Brandon Loud, Tommy Fan, Blake Snell, and Ryan Stannick. those are guys that are part of this team some huge some small but still have their role

all those guys have a role on the team and they're all hurt right now they need to get healthy they have a three game set coming up against the Red Sox So this is huge for them They just lost two out of three to the socks And the socks are playing good Baseball so they

They need to They need to win this series I think it's like it's a big series for them Charlie Morton's having a fantastic year. Talk about that. He was the name. He was the name I was going to say, Jim. If you're, if you see a raise fan, you give him a firm like, damn, that, that Charlie Morton signing, that's, that's one of the best signings of the offseason. He's, he's looked, his numbers

match what he looks like on the bump this year. Some of the best stuff I've watched live this season. Yep. And then you need Brendan McKay. Maybe he comes back. He's a big, two-way McKay. Two-way McKay, hitter, and pitcher. So that's really fun. Yeah. I think that's it. That's it? Oh, and they play in the terrible place.

So there you go. Oh, yeah. Make fun of the Trap. That's your way out of the elevator. And like, oh, got to get out of the Trap, huh? See you later, bro. I'd love to go to a game at the Trop, but I don't want to wait two hours in traffic to go to a stadium where the power goes out.

Ooh. Boom. That ends the show, Jake. Tough end for the race today. We'll be back on Friday, and there's going to be a lot of trades. I don't even know how we're going to do a full show. It might have to be nuts.

I thought about trying to rope you into like a half hour, 40 minute trade up Wednesday night. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. That would be fun. Yeah, we'll see what's going on in my life. We'll see. Life.

Thank you guys very much for listening. Leave a rating and review. If you are so inclined, we would appreciate that. And as always, we need help. Slump Watch in Fuego. Some people were tweeting stuff in who got mad. Oh, Robbie Canoe.

Someone wanted us to put him on Slump Watch. I didn't look into it, but I think maybe we'll have a user submission maybe in the future. So anyway, be our researchers. Thanks for listening. We will see you on Friday or maybe Wednesday. Last words, Jake. Go the trade deadline. Excited.

Be crazy, baseball. Take win a news cycle. How about that? win the news cycle. See you guys.