Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Are Teams Collapsing Right Before Playoffs?!

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Find out why Nutrafol is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at https://nutrafol.com and use code TALKBASE for $10 off your first month & free shipping!Corona. La Playa Awaits. Be sure to get yours athttps://OrderCorona.comDownload the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALLStart your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/talkin for your personalized ED treatment options.Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount  Talkin’ Jake and Coach Trev discuss if this is a bigger collapse by the Mets than 2007, Harrison Bader becoming that guy for the Phillies, Rangers being the hottest team in baseball and more!0:00 Intro3:30 NL Burn8:18 NL Standings12:34 Mets - collapsing of sorts?13:45 Mets / Phillies23:30 Reds / Padres27:20 Orioles GM becomes President29:45 Cubs / Braves30:50 Diamondbacks / Giants34:15 Rockies / Dodgers34:55 AL Burn38:50 AL Standings42:50 Brewers / Rangers47:47 Astros / Blue Jays53:20 Royals / Guardians54:00 Tigers / Yankees56:20 Cardinals / Mariners1:02:40 Standout performances1:10:05 En Fuego1:13:40 Batters who are struggling1:17:26 Injury Update1:20:00 Awards   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 Talkin Baseball. The NL Wildcard has become a scene and a new frontrunner out in the ALS. Seattle, we've always loved you. Let's talk ball. Connerly early. I struck out. I'm not lefty. Trevor Plouffe.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, present you by Seeky Code Talk in 2025. Jake Storelli here. Trevor Pluth, there. Bobby Sarat. here. We are in it. I feel like we've, I think there's a little lull. I think football comes back. I think summer ends. I think everyone kind of restarts their normal life again as we leave the throes of summer. Should I have been a poet? And now, Trev, I look down today. I can't wait for the standings. What's going on in the A.L. West is insane. What the New York metropolitan's have done to their

fan base this year with the ups and downs of their season. And the Reds and Giants holding on to some hope, uh, it feels like our final races are really, really showing their final form. So I'm excited for it, coach. How, how are you? I'm doing great, Jake. That was very poetic of you. I am excited to talk some ball here. There's some guys that are kind of stepping up just in the nick of time, if you will, but I agree, man. What are we at? Like 15 games left? Something right around there.

I mean, it's no longer a marathon. We call the season a marathon all the time. It's a sprint. And I know that's where you and Gimley son of glowing excel. Hopefully. Hopefully it's, I know what the people want. They want you to sneak as much Lord of the Rings as you can into this episode.

Very dangerous over short distances. And honestly, that's a, you know, there's a time in a young man's life when you don't want to get compared to Gimley's son of gloin. But when he dropped that quote, I was kind of out. Or excuse me, I had no argument to be out against. He's also badass, dude. Yeah. I mean, we have a lot of, I know you're Eragorn, but we have a lot of Gimley Legolas back and forth with our kill counts and everything. God, some people just came here for the best part of the baseball season,

and we punched him with this, so I'm sorry. I'm sorry to the not Lord of the Rings fans that listen. And I guess I'm super aged up for the true Lord of the Rings fans that do tune in for this. Because you got it. We got Yankees Red Sox coming up this weekend. Go on. I haven't given a what is you doing, baby, in a long time. Yeah.

I got a what is you doing baby today. so stick around for that. That's fantastic. I should give out more of what is you doing babies, but sometimes, you know, I feel like I got to be inspired to do it. And that's all I want from you. God, Houston, Toronto,

Milwaukee, and the Texas Rangers. But it is Friday, Trev. So that means we're starting off in the National League. Tight. One of the series we will, will not be tight about. The Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Metropolitan's played four in the Ilydelf.

And the Phillies, who haven't been able to win in city field, give the Mets a dose of their own medicine. They take all four games. My goodness. Aaron Nolo, it's six-shut-piece in that first game. Duran slams the door. Ranger Suarez, how's your 12 strikeout? from Trev's old Lehigh, Lehigh Valley Iron Pig teammate.

Did I get that right? Otto Kemp, add him to my list of guys that the ball goes a lot further than I thought. I thought he flew out to center. He went about 420 to deep center. Harrison Bader is destroying his former team, and Christopher Sanchez is destroying everything in his way. Jesus Lizard with the bounce back start after the bad first inning. Oh my God.

It's getting interesting in flushings. The Reds take two out of three from the San Diego Fernando. Hey, Fernando and Luriano robin balls in each corner. Doesn't get much better than that. Neither does the nice walk-off win after a solid U. Darvish started in the first game. But here come the Reds, especially late in that final game. Treves Andrew Abbott, eight innings, one, earned and the boys get it done in that eighth inning.

Ellie de la Cruz and roll those ours when you say Anduhar with the pinch hit RBI single to get it done. Cincinnati Reds alive. Snakes Giants. Not looking like snakes alive this year, but it might be giants alive. They take the first two games of this series, Logan Webb, with just another phenomenal season, six innings, one run. Jung Hu Lee with the three-hit performance.

And Willie Adomis hissed on a ball. After fouling it off himself, he deposited it into deep left field. Debex, salvage a series on that final game. Pardomo with the lead-off homer. Jake McCarthy, sure, sure. The Cubbies, they played the Atlanta Braves, and hey, the Braves and Bryce was their elder in that first game. Speaking of elders, how about Snits, 800th victory as a manager?

He's going to be his 50th season as a brave. What? After that, it was all Cubbies. Hey, there's PCA. Two RBIs, two steals. Matt Shaw with the big hit. And Carson Kelly keeps his kind of delicious season rolling, happy for him.

Cubs, two out of three. The Dodger sweep the Rockies. That might not surprise you what you need to know. Tyler Glass now. Coming back from his achy back, seven innings. No hits, 11Ks. That's pretty good. Emmett Sheehan, seven innings, one earn run.

Mookie Betts was all over this series. Tay Oscar and our guy Blake Snell, six-innings, shut piece. Big Dodgers over the Rockies. And then, did you watch Nationals Marlins? They split four. I didn't really, to be honest. Xavier Edwards accidentally hit a home run, and he didn't realize that was a nice moment.

A lot of guys I'm excited to see next year, Jacob Marcy, another four-hit game. I'm over it. That's what happened in the National League. We're going to get the standings from Trevor Plouffe, and it's all brought to you by Nutrafol. Fellas, take care of it. Today's episode is sponsored by NutraFal,

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and free shipping when you go to Nutrafall.com. Enter the promo code, talk base. Find out why, Nutrafall is the best-selling hair growth supplement brand at NutraFol.com spelled N-U-T-R-A-F-O-L.com. Promocode Talk Base at NutraFal.com. Trev, give them the standings. The National League.

By the way, Pop, nobody does it better than you. Can't believe I get to work with you three times a week, and then I get to come to the warehouse and dice you up, Pop. Blessed. Still a bone to pick with you about that. Me and Joe McFly texting. I'm ready. He and I have a

You're mad. You're big mad. That's exciting. Yeah. I am. I like that. All right. In the National League East, I mean, the Phillies, they were going to pop champagne anyway,

but what an explanation, an exclamation point to the season and the division with the sweep, 87 and 60 for them, an 11 game lead. When did they get to pop the champagne? Like, soon, like any day now.

Soon. I don't have the elimination. number up, my goodness. The Mets, 76 and 71, holding on for dear life. Marlon 68, 79, Brave 65 and 81, and the National 1686 in the Central. Brewer's also probably going to be popping champagne,

not quite as soon, but they have a five and a half game lead over the Cubs, 89 and 508, even with the L3, we'll get into that. 83 and 63 for the Cubs, 74 and 72 for the Red, 72 and 75 for the Cardinals, They were always this team, I guess. They just like to trick us every once in a while

during like a random summer month. Pirates, 64 and 83. Out West, the Dodgers, a two and a half game lead on a four game. Johnny, 82 and 64 for them, 80 and 67 for the pods. The Giants continue their push, man. 74 and 72. Your D-Bex, one game under 5, 73 and 74. And the Rocks, 40 and 107.

and Kyle Farmer, come hang out with me, bro. In the wild card, this is where things are getting interesting. Right now, the Chicago Cubs are, they're going to be the number one wildcard team, people. That's what's going to happen. They're in first place. Second place in the wildcard goes to the Padres. The third seed right now by one and a half games is the Mets, Reds one and a half back, Giants one and a half back.

And that's all I can really talk about, maybe a baby shout out, to the snakes out there, three games back of the wild card. Those are the standings in the National League. Well, I guess let's do this. Yeah, let's do this. I like doing this. The season ended today. Yeah.

That's always fun. It'd be the Brewers and the Phillies. They would get the buy. And the New York Mets come into Los Angeles and play a three-game set, and the Padres would go to the Cubs for a three-game set. Those are the standings in the National League. Thank you, Coach Trev. Yeah, the NL playoffs are looking pretty clear, man.

Well, I guess the Phillies could clip the Brewers. They're back two games back in the loss column. So the one and two seeds, depending how the playoff bracket looks and how these teams finish with the Phillies on a W4 and the Brewker on an L3. So that'll be interesting. Both those teams get the buy. the rest of it is pretty close to being sorted except that last, like the Padres and the Cubs are a few days from being like,

this is just what we're doing. And it seems like the Cubs will be, hey, big week for the Cubs. They should be hosting a playoff wildcard series. Yeah, I mean, there's still, I feel like the seating might be, around set, but that last wild card is going to come down to. And I said the Mets had like no chance. Like they were going to kind of

limp into the final wild card spot. They had, they were up too many games with two little games left, but then, you know, when you get a four game sweep and the giants are surging in the red still holding serve, taking two or three for the Padres. I mean, you just, I just

I said you can't just you can't lose it. And they're losing it. If they just played Regular old 500 ball, they'd be okay, but they're not doing that. It's been a collapse of sorts. I don't want to call it that just yet, a collapse of epic proportions, because they're not there yet. But if it does happen, I don't know what's going to happen to Mets fans this offseason.

I mean, where do you go from there? Okay, I'll just be tight about it. If it does happen, and the Reds have the tiebreaker versus the Mets. So they're, I don't want to say they're one game back, but they're, the reds are here. The Giants are playing some of the best ball and baseball while the Mets are not. And that can change in an instant. We've done this the whole year. Sure.

If things fall apart for the Mets, I think the target is going to be strictly on horses for the rotation. Like Clay Holmes was great for part of the season, but it looks like he's running out of steam. Like they, we thought they were going to be the Corbyn Burns team, which horrible example. How about Max Fried? How much would Max Fried change the Mets season this year? That, yes, their pitching thing, they have it figured out, but you need a couple horses to save your bullpen and save your rotation. Hey, I want to cut myself off because the Mets could turn around.

Maybe they just played the Phillies in Philadelphia, and maybe they're the best team in baseball, dude. Because Ranger Suarez went six innings, 12Ks. Jesus Lizard retired 22 straight after getting. giving up four in the first. Nola with Sixth Clean, like, the Phillies are the team for me, even without Wheeler,

which feels really tough to say, but Duran on the back end feels so much different than what they've had in previous years. And, like, it's one of the weird parts of baseball that you can overcome losing a great. Like, the Braves, when they won, they didn't have a cunea. And that was insane.

that we obviously losing Wheeler is crazy, but this is the team with arguably the best starting pitching depth. You know, Mariners raise your hand up and we're going to talk about them. Dude, now that like Bryce Harper feels like he's locking in, the Bader Marsh, that outfield feels like they're coming together, that Philadelphia is a powerhouse. They showed it the past four days. I think this is really funny,

and I'll get into the games, but just more like a general talk about these two teams. You know, the Mets fans love to talk about the Phillies coming into City Field. It's a house of horrors for them, and surely it has been, you know, going back beyond this year, but this year, Philly's 0 and 6 at City Field. Oh, that's great.

Here's the problem. The Mets, you went one in six at Citizens Bank Park, so you can't be talking. Yes. You know, like, it's, It's just stuff like that. It is interesting. You know, one victory for the road team throughout the entire year.

I do want to go into the series a little bit. How about Aeronola? Yeah. Because, look, Zach Wheeler goes out. How are they going to replace him? Is it as easy as just kind of saying, hey, we got other guys here? And maybe it is. Maybe you just rely on some of the other dudes about Christopher Sanchez, Ranger Suarez,

Jesus King, all those guys. Jesus King, Lizard King, excuse me. Jesus King again? I said Jesus King. Who is that? I don't know. We'll find him. I don't know.

Who wants that nickname? But how about getting Nola back rounding into form? Would that help a Phillies rotation? Sure. And there was some interesting notes here. Okay, he outduals McLean, which was awesome, right? The sinker usage was up. And it got back to like pre-injury levels.

and I don't know what happened, but as he came back from injury, he became like a two-pitched pitcher, four seam and a curveball. So the last two starts before this, 71% between those two pitches, 4.7 and 27 for both. 41 and 36 for the curveball in his last start previous step, the one before that, 54 and 23. So we're talking about a guy who's becoming very predictable. Okay? And he didn't used to be that way. He's a guy that kind of threw the kitchen sink at you, right? This start, he had four pitches range from 22 to 29%.

So it was the four seam and then the sinker at 24 and a half percent curveball chain ship. So he's mixing his pitches up. And all of a sudden, you're keeping guys off balance, keeping them guessing. Is that, can we expect that again from Aaron Norris? and all of a sudden does he become a guy that gets a start in the playoffs? Hey man, he's a guy that got paid paid a lot of money for a reason.

Like this guy's pitched a lot of really good major league innings that yeah, it's the story of these next couple weeks is who's... What happened? Why was the usage so predictable? I don't know. I don't know how these pictures operate. Why do you come back from injury then all of a sudden just start basically becoming a two pitch pitcher?

Can't do that. and the results showed it. Trev, the other thing that if you're a pitch percentage guy, if people remember last postseason, a couple pitchers, and this is the sick pitching world we live in now, like messed with their mixes a ton, and that's always happened,

but like Garrett Cole didn't really throw a sinker last year until the postseason. And with the technology we have now, like guys can do that and feel good about it. That, yeah, it's the pitcher's, The pitcher's still a step ahead in that dynamic. Treve, I'm more interested in, you know, between the trade deadline and whatever season guys are kind of having this year, you can change your narrative with a couple big games and big moments.

Or if you go 19 for 36 against your former team and your rival, Harrison Bader against the Mets this year, 528 batting out. average. 564, a 1.342 OPS. Having a great year, hitting right, he's better than left, he's got an 827 OPS on the year, 4.1B war, if you're into that kind of thing. And the other thing that's Philly Hot, which we've had a lot of debates about on this show before, and him and Bryce, I think, are the one-two on premeditated outfits and looks on the field. I saw him and Bryce celebrating the hair, the arm sleeves, the elbow pads were, it was like video game perfection.

Bader's very into the look. You know, I don't think he'd want to be talked about like he tries really hard with his look. I don't think that's the vibe he's going for, but he definitely puts a lot of effort into it. But you know what? This is one instance where look good, feel good, play good, because he's been crushing it. Has anybody done a better job at the trade deadline in this? of Phillips. Oh, interesting. Okay, Chris Rose. I'm just think about who they brought over. And I'm

even, I'm just going to go with the guys that came for my team to talk about this. Harrison Bayer's got a 942 since coming over. Solidify the center field spot, which they've been trying to do for three years. Finally got their guy. He actually makes a ton of sense to bring back to Philadelphia. I don't know if that's going to happen or not. But he does fit that like alpha male vibe that they got going on over there, doesn't he? And then you can talk about our guy, Yon Duran, who's got a one, two, three, ERA, 14 and two thirds innings pitch.

He's only given up two runs. Like they solidified the back end of the bullpen and their center field position. Like that's about as good as it gets. And do they have to give up some guys? Sure. Good. Sure. But dude, we're trying to win at the big.

big league level and you sweep the Mets. You're going to win the NL East. And a lot of it is because of these two guys right here. I don't know, man. The Phillies are kind of, Trey Turner's on the IL stinks. But they just feel they feel like they have a lot of momentum. And yeah, Trev, this is,

I forget if I dropped this one on you. I did this on a, on a wake and Jake. I think I was lost for topics and I was just, I was just hunting. Again, Playoff sample size is so small. But, man, there are only five teams this year that have a winning record on the road.

So I hope, like, and think about what you just talked about with the Phillies and the Mets. Let's say the Phillies do claim the one seed, and the Mets are the six seed, and the Mets win their wild card round. I'd like to think home field advantage would matter in a Phillies Mets series, especially this season. So I don't know. I hope we start getting to a point that home field advantage matters more as the Phillies fight for that one seed. And even the two still good.

What are we doing with the Mets? Is it just, I feel like they've been one of the most volatile teams this year. Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what to say, but let's step it up, guys. You want me to give them a pep talk right now? Let's step it up, guys. That's what you got. I mean, what are you supposed to say? I mean, you have the playoffs locked up as little as a week ago, essentially.

I told you all you got to do is play regular ball. Just don't play what is you doing baby ball. And that's what you're doing right now. Trevor, if I can call you that, their next two series, they welcome in the Texas Rangers who are 15 and 5, the best record in the best team in baseball. best record in the last 20 games, and then they play the San Diego Padres. Maybe I'll, I'd hate to elevate your speech, and I know we have some young baseball fans that like to listen to this show.

And if you're a parent, you're a parent controlling the radio, the radio, three, two, one, pick it the fuck up. Yeah. Because you got 15 games to salvage this, or we haven't had a lot of LOL Mets this year. They signed Soto. They got the richest owner. Things are changing. If they blow this one,

the LOL Mets stuff is going to get pretty loud. Pretty loud. And all of that is with the Cincinnati Reds in San Diego, which I think the next series we need to sink our teeth into. You know, we said the Mets are coming up on the Padres. Padres might be losing that flage. or a hope against the Dodgers without the tiebreaker there.

The Red Stake 2 out of 3, and it could have been 3 out of 3, Trev. God, the old dogs. You know I love me some Francona and Bochi this time of year. Padres take that first game. Gavin Sheets, you talked about trade deadlines.

I think the Padres would raise their hand with Luriano and Sheets and Fermin and Mason Miller. Like, they still have an argument. They win three straight after winning that first game. And then the Reds come back and they survive Fernando's robberies. And Zach Lattel retires 11 straight. And it's like, do we even remember that trade? And then they come back in that final game that the Reds have a certain juice that I feel like

we haven't seen since summer of 23. Yeah, I think they did a really good job. Obviously, the first game, Jackson Merrill, big hit. Talk about Gavin Sheets, kind of getting them back in the game before that 10th inning when the Fernando walkoff the second game. Look, you're facing one of the best bullpins in all of baseball. Very deep, very long, just like Jake Storelli likes to do it. I thought it was cool. You know, they were two for 26 going into the abat for Tyler Stevenson, two-run Homer in the ninth.

That was after Fernando robbed him. So, look, you got to bear down. Sometimes you're not going to get the job done, but then you have a graded bat like this. Ties the game, and they end up going ahead there. or excuse me, unties the game to take the victory. That's huge. I mean, that's what you have to do in a race like this. You're going to have to have big hits.

You're going to have to do it against tough pitching, especially when you're facing another team in the thick of the race as well. Like, you're going to get A1 type stuff. And for Tyler Stevenson to go do that, that's the kind of performance that the Reds need to continue to have if they want to, you know, to get that last and final. about. And then speaking of performance, I mean, we, that's all we do here. Andrew Abbott versus Nick Pavetta in the last game. I mean, fire me up. Abbott.

I mean, two completely different pitchers. I don't know how tall Abbott is. I'm going to guess 511, 510. Eight innings pitch, one and run. Povetta is like, I got that two seven innings pitch, pitch, zero earned runs. Just an absolute pitcher's duel right there. Love watching Abbott pitch. He's an actual pitcher. It's. awesome and then it's yeah it's your guy man Miguel and uh andue har pinch hit rbi single again against a bullpen that's been nasty like these are the games man if you go if the reds end up

making the playoffs i feel like this is a series they could look back to and say holy shit that was that was what happened we're we're putting it on the table right now and like this memorial home's been absolutely filthy this year and look it doesn't have to be the best knock in the world, but you find outfield grass against this bullpen. I mean, you've got to be stoked. You know what that knock was better than a strikeout. Yeah. Like, there

was a couple years ago, people did not think that, which is insane. And dude, Pivot, 29 starts a 273. Avet 26. He's making like $14 million this year? It's a fantastic signing. Is Preler your GM of the year? Stay tuned. Later in the

episode, Trev ranks his top 10 GM. Orioles apparently hiring a GM their GM just announced he's decided he's the president now. Because they're doing so well. Well, they've been playing better. I mean, they have been playing better.

But I don't get any of that. You're like, finally going to be the, hey mom, I'm finally going to be the GM. Oh, cool, you're going to make all the decisions. No, no. I don't get that, dude. Because the GM gave himself a promotion. So what is that?

Like the GM has to do all the legwork and the president just gives a Caesar thumb? Like, what is that? It's supposed to be like in cahoots, like a 1A, 1B, but I don't think it is. I think it's more like a 1 and a 2. I have you saying in cahoots

a lot more around Justin Moreno. I was just looking at Nick Pervetta's page, another Canadian. Look at that. Four years, $55 million. Quick math. 13 million a year. 14 million a year.

We should have... 1375 a year. Rob, tell our social team. We should post the all-country team each year. We should have the best Canadians, Dominican, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, America, Japan. Wait, this year... Okay.

Hold on. Did they do a weird thing where they backloaded it a little bit? This year, he's making 1.75. Next year, making 1975. and he has an opt-out. I didn't know that. Hmm. Okay.

That's a strange contract right there. Okay, Piv on his Avaldi late career-ish. He is my new Evaldi, yeah. Let's see. Our Cincinnati Reds coming up. This was a tough stretch. They're going at the athletics, which, okay, let's get the bats ready.

And then at St. Louis. Okay, so the Cincinnati has survived a gnarly little store. stretch for themselves. San Diego upcoming. They have Colorado and then at Mets at White Sox. So hey, maybe Padres have one last push to try to get back

in the West race a little bit. Fangraphs has it at 8.8% chance to win the division. So it's getting a little late. Again a little late. Trev, I think the last NL series and maybe more so NL teams, because I guess the Cubs

deserve some golf snaps. There's not a ton for me to add there. There's a couple players that I like to highlight. The San Francisco Giants, they are one and a half games back in the wild card. The left side, their infield as a whole is on God mode right now with Chapman, Willie Adomis, and then that Devers guy still going as well. Patrick Bailey with a couple homers. We haven't said that in a long time.

that San Francisco does more than enough to stay a part of this season. I mean, I guess we call Texas the hottest team, but they've won 13 of 16, the Giants have. That's very, very impressive. And a couple of names kind of showed up here that we haven't been hearing as of lately. Patrick Bailey.

How about Elliot Ramos? Yeah. He was like the next big thing there. It's had kind of a quiet second half. But look, how about you start getting it going now and nobody cares about it. that. And yes, up and down the lineup, they're getting much better contributions from everyone. We talked, I believe it was last episode about Chapman, Adomis, Jung Hu Lee, all starting to rake there,

which is endeavors, all starting to rake there, which is kind of what the Giants have needed all season long. Like, hey, let's just go bang the ball around. We got some good pitching, got a decent bullpen. And yeah, it's kind of what we saw in this series. Web final line. It is the four-end runs, only one earned run. And six innings, probably one of his shortest outings of the year because that's who he is. He's an absolute dog. Chris Rose asked Mr. O'Day is like, is 50 homers the coolest thing you can do like year and

year out? Like somebody's going to hit 50 homers year and year out. Or maybe they won't. But that's a cool stat, right? Okay. Am I, I like, yeah, that's cool. I think 200 innings might be the new coolest stat. Yeah, homers are sexier.

So it depends. How many guys right now? I'm going to look it up. I don't know. Or like on pace or have eclipsed 200 innings. I don't think anybody has eclipsed it yet. Eclipsed. Yeah, I don't think anyone's.

I feel like we have more guys on track than normal. Like just top of my head, crochet, scoble, web. I know there's a couple other chat innings. I mean, I know Skeen's has thrown a ton. You call them Chad innings? Chad inning eaters. A little Bailey shout out. These guys are I, why can't I?

Crochet's got 185.1. Webb's got 184.2. Then Christopher Sanchez, 182.1 innings pitch. And then Scobel 180. Skeens, it rounds out the top five at 178.0. So these guys, they all need about how many innings? About 15 innings? 15 or 20.

And they all have about three starts left. Yeah. Dicey. That's a little. Maybe you're right, Trev. Maybe you're always right, man. And got, just a reminder, Yankees Red Sox this weekend that I teased. Late night, Dodgers are hosting the Giants.

I, you know, there's so much going on. I forget that there's two giant Dodgers series the next week that the Giants could control. Giants could control a lot in the National League. That is going to be fun. I guess any Cubs thoughts quickly, Trev. I mean, they take care of Atlanta. Atlanta hasn't been part of the picture in a while. the guys I wanted to highlight

Shoda, I think it's seven straight quality starts. That matters to me. Along with Kate Horton continues to be like the best pitcher in the NL. And we don't highlight the relievers enough. Big old Brad Keller in that Cubby's bullpen. 21 innings, four hits, zero earned runs. That matters.

I think he crushed it right there. I was going to talk about Kate Horton, how damn good he's been. so Cabas fans just understand what you got there because that's a that's big time. And then I guess on the Atlanta side, I wanted to mention Spencer Strider. Like I think it's time we just, I think we shut him down for the season. It's got to be a discussion, right? Like what are we like what are we doing here?

He's got he's down so bad. He's shaving the mustache off. Like let's just give this guy a little breather, let him reset get into the off season. He doesn't want that though. That's the problem. And maybe maybe something clicks in those last. couple games. I don't know. Okay. I guess, hey, same thing with the Dodgers. I know I hit it on the way by glass

impressive. All of this is against the Rockies, but Bukies really starting to go. I guess anything else from there. Okay. Let's do a little American League baseball. Oh, hello. And it's with a kiss from the National League because the brew crew, they face the Texas Rangers. And if you heard us before, the Rams. The Rams. Rangers are in Fuego. Five-nothing win in that first game. All five RBI from everyone's favorite, Michael Hellman, coming out of a nine hole.

He hits a homer in the next game, along with Wyatt Langford with the big RBI triple to win a one-run game, and they get the sweep on that final day. Two of my favorite words, Jake Berger with the two-homer game. The Texas Rangers have entered the chat of this season. The Toronto Blue,

Blue Jays, they've been the chat this season, and they take two out of three from the Houston Astros, which is very important for the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners. The Blue Jays won that first game in 10, the late rally, IKF with the clutch two RBI hit. Tyler Heineman walks him off. Houston bounces back. Yiner Diaz gets Hoffman. Most homers given up by a reliever to take that one, but then here come the Blue Jays. again, they win 6-0.

Kevin Gossman, complete game shut piece. Hello. The Cleveland Guardians take three out of four, interested to see how much love they're going to, Trev's going to give them in the standings. From the Kansas City Royals, is that the final stake through the Royals season? Finney Pasquantino's doing everything he possibly can,

but otherwise it was Cleveland. Slade Sacconey, succondiz nuts, eight innings of one-hit ball. the defense helping him out a lot. Joey Cantillo with eight-inning shutout. That'll do it with some J-Ram love. How about CJ Kaffa stealing that final game? Mariners sweep the Cardinals, the cardiac Mariners.

They win in 13 innings in the final game. They might have played another game that didn't happen yet on this show with more of those antics. Leo Revis! What a call from the Mariners booth. Brian Wu continues to have quality. starts and Josh Nailer's three hits. They had a pretty nice deadline too.

They continue to roll. The Red Sox almost sweep the athletics, but a roll this Chapman gets got for the first time this season, basically, as the A's walk him off in that final game. Otherwise, they got shut out in the first two by carrot crochet. You know him. You might have to learn of Connolly early. Southie Boston, get ready for this kid. five innings, 11Ks in his debut. Sox take two out of three.

Ray's White Sox, White Sox take two out of three, both of these teams, leaving the story of this season. Tristan Gray hit a cool homer. That's nice. We love Chase Midroth. There's your update there.

Trev watched a lot of Angels twins. Let's see if he dares talk about it on this program. 12 runs won you the first two games for either teams. Angels get the series win. Trout and Netto. Sure. Orioles. They sweep the pirates.

They win the first two in extra innings. These birds are playing really well. And how about birds and beavers as Dylan gets the walk-off single in that second game? Kyle Bradish is back. Hope is forming in Baltimore for next year as they get the sweep. And then, oh yeah, the Tigers took two out of three from the Yankees. Tigers put up double digits in those first two games. With a kick from the Yankees bullpen.

My God. All nine tigers in the lineup scored in one inning. Hadn't seen that before. See something new at every baseball game. Yankees comeback. Cam Schlittler with a nice start. The power bats. Aaron Judge hits his 45th with 45 in attendance.

That is what happened in the American League. Hits his 45th with 45 in attendance, 47, technically. Right? And Judge hit his 45th. 46, too, in that game. Oh, you did. You're right about that. Shout out to Joe, too. I do have the standings if you're interested in something like that.

I am. All right, Jakey, boy. Great job, as always. You're a stud. Your hair looks good today. Skin looking nice. Good for you. We'll start out east.

The Toronto Blue Jays still have that three game lead over the Yankees. 84 and 62 for the Blue Jays, 81 and 65 for the Yankees. A half game back of them are the Boston Red Sox. 81 and 66. And then the raise, remember when they made it fun for a little bit? That was like two weeks ago. It was like super fun. Not so much anymore.

They're 72 and 74. Baltimore Orioles 69. Nice. And 77. The Detroit Tigers will be spraying champagne shortly. An eight and a half game lead on the Guardians. They're 84 and 63. Guardian 75 and 71.

The Royals, they can start planning the vacation. Jake. Vinnie P. Come out to L.A. Hang out with me. 30 and 100 out of boy you ain't going to the playoffs for some reason people think i hate like the yankees i hate the meds the blue jays the team i actually hate is the kansas city royals that's i don't know if anybody knows that that's the team i hate uh 74 and 73 for them 84 or 60 i wish it was 84 64 and 82 for my twins 57 and 90 for the white socks uh the astros and the mariners my gosh my gosh i guess tied at the top of the division 79 and 68 a piece the Rangers two games back they're on a heater we know that people

michael helman former twin what happened 77 and 70 for them the angel 69 78 in the athletic 67 and 80 in the wild card jake as of right now it's the yankees number one seed the red sucks number two seed and then either the astros or the mariners The Astros do have the tie breaks. We'll say the Mariners, just for the sake of this. That's the third spot. So someone's going to win the AOS and someone's going to be the third wildcard. The Rangers, two games back. The Guardians three and a half games back.

That's kind of deep for me to be giving you love. But I'll shout you out anyways because you had a nice series. If the season ended today, it would be the Tigers and the Blue Jays with the best record in baseball. Right now, Blue Jays is a half-game lead, so they'd be the number one seed. The Yankees would host the Red Sox. And this graphic right here is...

It's right. Yeah, yeah, easy. Why would the Mariners host the... Did the Mariners have the tiebreaker? Did they have that wrong? Mariners have the tie-brainer. Mariners are... They're five and five on the season.

They have one series... With a three-game set left, yes. They have one three-game set coming up, but I guess I believe in division, which we've done this a couple times. I think the Mariners currently have the nod. Okay, so we don't know what's going to happen. But as of today,

the Houston Astros will be heading up to Seattle for a series. Those are the standings in the American League, Jake. Trev, wow. Wow, I can bet on you, and I can bet on Draft Kings. And so can you people. Today's episode is sponsored by Draft Kings. Hey, football is rolling.

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Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources. See dkng.com slash audio. Yeah, Coach Trev, the best drama is out west that let's see what happens between the wild card and how the West is going to be won this year. Because all these teams play each other coming up. We're going to get Rangers, Mariners. We're going to get Mariners Astros. We're going to get everyone.

But, yeah, I do know the Mariners have the tiebreaker over the Rangers. The rest is still going to be sorted out. So with that, I think we hop over, I think Texas. I think they sweep the brew crew. And we talked about the implications in the NL with how Philly's playing that the one seed in the NL is in play. hottest team in baseball. If you go last 20 games,

the Texas Rangers are here. The names have changed, and kind of like you alluded to, it's not names we thought we'd be pointing to, but Michael Hellman, I mean, Michael Hellman won them two games this series. He did. He's been great.

Again, I'll reiterate. Former twin, that hurts a little bit. But yeah, they've had guys up and down the lineup contributing. Hellman's been the most consistent of these kind of like unsung, heroes, if you will. A couple of guys like Asuna, Freeman, you know,

they're getting the jobs done in a timely fashion, you know, when, when need be, but Helman's been the most consistent guy of that group. I like to throw Jacob Latson there as well. A guy that's kind of gone, you know, a little swing guy, some spot starts here and there. But he's just been great

all season long. So shout out to those guys. Helman, first career at Bat with the bases loaded. Granny. Not bad. That's what you're supposed to do with the base is loaded. He doesn't know any differing. He's a young kid. Don't you love it?

Don't you miss being just young and stupid, not knowing about the world? Nothing. You know nothing. Just do everything for yourself. You know, my social media has, timeline has changed, as a lot of people are now in their mid to late 30s

that I think every now and then, it's like, do I need to do a wellness check? Someone post that like, I think it's a Winnie the Pooh and Piglet meme that it's like, don't you wish when we just didn't know anything? It's like, whoa, how you doing, pal? I mean, more than ever, I just wished that I didn't know anything.

Yeah. A lot of stuff going on in our country. I got two kids that are just demanding as heck right now, but I love it. Love them so much. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else I got from this. I think it has been the story of guys stepping up for the Rangers, which is what I say,

every single season. Look, if you want to be a good team, your guy's got to be guys. And then you got to have some dudes step up, you know, from the bottom of the lineup or, you know, again, be these unsung hero type of guys. Langford, I think, can be classified as a dude who should just be a dude. I know it wasn't great last year, but he's been, he's been a lot better this year. It's been fun to watch him. But yeah, you're right. Helman won him. He wins him two games in that second game, the two run homer to tie the game in the fifth. And then game three was the Jake Burger game. Him and Rowdy Tellez. These names are reading off are hilarious. They're awesome.

Burger has two homers. Rowdy at the insurance run in the eighth. They won 14 of 17. They won series against the Brewers and the Astros. Back to back. And Trev, they're doing all of this. This is without Simeon. This is without Seeger.

I saw one article. I don't know if this is really a thing that people are calling them the little rat. If that's true, A, sign me up. But it's insane because those two might be trying to come back soon. And Trev, I've been teeing up all the matchups this weekend and the rivalry games. Tonight, in Flushings, Jacob de Grom returns against the L6 Mets. I mean, that's as much must watch as baseball gets.

and hey, maybe this has turned into a bullpen love episode, which you've always been about. You respect your bullpen brothers. On Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Armstrong, Garcia, Mayton, one of them got a hold, one of them got to win, one of them got to save. Like, that's what it takes to win those games late.

And Texas has re-entered the chat of this season. Crazy, crazy. So, you know, talking about the little rascal you know, all the post-game interviews they're talking about these guys, they're bringing the energy. And that is what you're supposed to do. When you're kind of one of the last guys on the roster,

like get in there, do your job when called upon, always bring the positive energy. That is just what you're supposed to do, especially as a young player. Like, that's what you got to do. And I think it does become contagious. And an example of that will be Jock Peterson,

bottom third, game three, hits a ground ball. Could be two, but he beats it out. He's hustling out of the box. You don't see that too often from all Jock Peterson. Maybe that is the little rascals effect. Let's see. Let me get some Jock Peterson speed metrics.

Ninth in Sprint Speed this year, percentile. Hey. He got down the line there, I'm telling you. A hits a hit. Looks the same in the box score, Coach. Treve, I think probably the last AL series that we really need to talk. We could give some Tigers love too. I got a bunch of them.

I know you do. Coach, you're different. The Astros and the Blue Jays, because the other part of all this action out west right now, and you're right. We haven't talked Seattle. The Astros lose two out of three to the Toronto Blue Jays as they keep rolling. Kevin Gossman in that final game and what he has done recently. is becoming a storyline for the postseason

as he goes complete game shutout. Astros cough up the first one late, and they are skidding while Seattle and Texas, I think they're both on six-game winners. We knew this would come just because I think the Framber situation opened a lot of people's eyes to kind of like, okay, like, what is, we're just assuming that Houston's going to coast in because the Mariners and the Rangers

just haven't done enough to catch them. Now these teams start to play a little bit better. And yeah, I don't think the Astros have it right now in them to take off. And prove me wrong, Astros. But there were some interesting stuff here in this series. I think game one was the best game of the series. Your guy Varsho, too, like incredible catches out there in center field, you know, body up against the wall, just how you like it.

Jay's end up coming back in the ninth inning. It was the IKF single, but it was a walk to Kirk, a single by Clement, Schneider walk, ICF 1-1 slider. They got a chance to win it right there. Second and third was Springer up, but he ends up KING on four pitches,

so it goes to extras. And then we highlighted this play, I think it was on Wednesday, the Vlad throwing out Altuve at third base. Yeah. And that's a play like, and he said after the game, He goes, I motioned to Barger, who's playing third base right now.

I motioned to him saying, hey, I get, this is what you do. I mean, I've done this. Everybody does this. You're at first base and you go like this, you go. Base you say, if that ball's hit at me hard, I'm coming to your ass, so get on the base. And that's exactly what happened. He got the ball, took a look and just made an absolute, I mean, he fired this thing over there. No hesitation.

Barger comes up and gets it and Al-Tube is dead in the water, man. That's a huge play. That wins the game right there. That play wins the game. And then my guy Tyler Hine him in. Put the ball and play, baby, get things happen. So that was the play of the series.

And I think, you know, kind of, you know, you can talk about the Js and they had their own little rascal crowd going on for some time. But I think they're just a complete baseball team. The more and more we see these Js throughout the year, they can play defense, they can bang when they need to, and they can pitch when they need to, back into the bullpen.

Interesting. Hoffman, non-save situation, game two, coughs it up to Diaz. So that's a tough one, because they actually, in the game two, Toronto manufactures two runs in the bottom, and the Aves ties the game. We're going to come, we're going to get it,

and then all of a sudden, Hoffman comes in, gives up the homer and the game's over. Yeah. Gospin dominates in the last game. I guess the one stat I wanted to say there was on the sheet. I don't know if you read it or not yet, but Yordon Alvarez against Kevin Gossman, 0416, 9Ks. How about that?

Okay. Some guys just have their number. Trev, since the Framber incident, the Astros are 3 and 6. They've lost three series. They have Atlanta in Atlanta this weekend, and then it's home versus Texas in Seattle. Like, that's it.

That's it. That's it. Although after that it's at athletics and at angels, so maybe they just handle their business there. But next week for the Houston Astros, we're going to find out they could bounce back and with a strong week win the division, with a bad week,

they can find themselves outside of the dance. I think a couple series go through quick and then we'll hit on meaningful one. Cleveland takes three or four from the Royals. My guy Vinnie P. I told you it's time to start packing up, getting ready, come visit me, big guy. The starters for Cleveland in that series. Slade Cicone takes a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Brian Rokio freaking, I love watching that guy play, man.

I wish him and Andres Jimenez were still together. that's a special pairing. Hey, what's that like Vince McMahon meme and they're like, Dad, tell us about Andres Jimenez and Brian Rochio and he's like crying. Yeah.

We need that back. Wow. Joey Cantillo, the next night, eight innings pitched zero earned runs. Logan Allen, Gavin Williams, a great start. So in total, Cleveland starters, 27 innings pitched,

four earned runs. That's how you get the job done. That's how you get the job done. Three or four for the Royals, and the Royals don't have a great offense. They don't. But I still think you give credit when credit is due. And then quickly, C.J. Kaffis, who Chris loves, hits the homer off of Schreiber. And I was like, okay, he's a side-slinging guy.

If you throw from the opposite arm in your side winder, like, the batterer sees you really well. If there's a lefty sidewinder, I'm going to see him really well. A righty sidearm guy, you almost never want those guys to face lefties because they just see him really well. So I was like, okay, Shriver's got to have crazy splits. This year, they're almost, they're like almost identical. It was scary to see how close they were. But then over his career, 621 to righty, 780 to lefties. So that's more in line of what I thought.

But this year, if you want to have a fun baseball reference experience, go to John Shriver's page this year, splits, see, left, righty. Wow. That's all I got on that series. And then maybe the other one that you want to touch on quickly is your Tigers against your Yankees. Not really. And this is no offense to the Tigers. Jack Flaherty and Casey Meis shut them down pretty good in those first two games. The Yankees have two horrific blow-up innings, horrific. They give up nine runs in one inning. They gave up eight runs in the last two innings of the next one. So they have some serious bullpen issues. I mean, this was Tiger ball. They kind of outlasted them. and waited for their opportunity, and when it struck, they struck significantly.

So the tigers, the tigers look great when the Yankees hit a bunch of homers. They look great, but that's hard to do sometimes. So I don't know what to do with that. We did talk in Yanks last night. So the rest of my thoughts are there if someone really wants it. If you have anything, Tiger Yanks, I'd love it. I asked Joe's McFly last night, I said, what are the Yankees on September 11th, the date? I feel like they always win.

Yesterday, President Trump in the house goes into the clubhouse says he knows every single Yankees player. Does not know every single Yankees player. I don't even know if I know every single Yankees player. I don't know if I know. The other like 40% of my games. He did guarantee a victory.

And he was right. And he got it. What was I going to say? I had something. Oh yeah, 15 and 6 since 2002 on September 11th for the Yankees. Yankees. So keep that in mind.

You know, a little extra motivation there. I kind of like that for the city of New York. I wonder what the Mets are on September 11th. It's an emotional day, man. It's a, you know, that kind of topic isn't where I'm great with words.

But yeah, man, when Judge Homer's on September 11th with the president in the stands, that feels different than a lot of other homers. When they're wearing the FDNY hats and the, it's, It's, it's, you don't want to say cool.

Because in a way, it's not supposed to be cool, but it's just like, emotional. It is cool. It, yes, what, when judge does that, it's cool, but you also can't like put that on the play. I don't know. I don't know. It has me a little twisted up. Mariners, Trev, that's the only thing that I'm, I'm feeling bad about right now. because Leo Revis, what have you done with this 13?

Let me take this one, Jake. Let me take this one. Because I got some things to say. Mariners sweep. Cardinals, again, you gave a little glimpse of hope during the middle of the summer. Now the fans are speaking out, not attending the games as much as they typically do.

But this one's more about the Mariners. I've been saying lately that the Mariners, you know, have done everything right this year. And if they don't make the playoffs, it'd be crazy. And the Mariners fans clap back and be like, what about the starting pitching, though? You know, there's some injuries at the beginning. I'm like, dude, you have no idea. They're just so blessed with starting pitching in Seattle that they don't even know what they have. If they're not number one in every single category, they think it's a bad deal.

I know it hasn't been what they are used to there, but don't talk to me about starting pitching. Don't, okay? Like, don't talk to most franchises about starting pitching, okay? Gratitude, be grateful for what you have. I tell my kids that all the time. Anyways, Wu and I start in game one, four-run, sixth inning, Josh Nailer. He's been solid for them on base percentages down,

but he's had big hits and the slug is up. So, you know, he has a great game there. Another homer in game two. And then game three was the one for me. I was watching this game, me and Rosie texting back and forth in extra innings. And I told you I was going to have a, What is you doing, baby? Ivan Herrera, what is you doing, baby? I know vacations coming up.

I understand that. But for the sake of the rest of the baseball world, what's going on? the first ball, he's on second base, line drive to Randio Rosarena, and he does not tag up. I don't know what happened there. And then you have this play that we're showing on our YouTube portion. Did he forget the outs? Stuff. Just takes off.

Easy, lazy fly ball to center field, and Julio's like, thanks for the out. Now, the Mariners don't capitalize in that inning. It takes them forever because neither team wanted that game. I thought it was funny because Mariners answer back, I have a chance to win, and I think it was the 11th or something, Julio ends up striking out. But Luke really bunts, they do the right thing. Everything is the way it's supposed to be. They don't manufacture the run. It gets into, I believe, the 13th inning.

And instead of they get the Cardinals out in the 13th without giving up a run, because the Cardinals clearly do not want this baseball. game and instead of bunting Leo Rivas who came in the game as a pinch hitter they're like earmuffs one two three fuck manufacturing a run why don't you just go up and swing it

big boy first pitch hits the slider and what was the call that's great I got a little chill so good again hey number 76 don't bun because we can't score anyway.

Like, just go do something. Turn on one. And I know that... How do you not bunt right there? Like, I'm serious. Like, I want to know what the, like, the thoughts were. I don't know. Some people don't even know how to bunt.

So I don't, I don't know. And last night, Harry Ford with the little walk-off sackfly that hasn't happened yet in this simulation. So, hey, let's, uh, Josh Naylor has his best offensive staff. this year at T-Mobile Park of any place he's had 50-plus plate appearances. I don't know. Maybe throw that four-for-60 out there, Seattle. He, um, trade for his brother.

The defense has gotten a lot better in Seattle as well, at least metrically. I saw that today. Good. I think the Red Sox are getting some love and awards, if I remember correctly, right? Yes. then let's get there. Let's go to standout performance. It's time for stand out for performances.

Stand out performances. This guy stood out for Trev. Say what? Coach? I am going to go with another one of these young pitchers that's come up and affected the races in a positive way. We've seen a bunch of. one with the Mets, you know, we just dogged on them for trying to blow the season. But they have

had some young guys come up and have success. We've kind of seen it all over the league in Boston now. They got another one. Six-three left-hander, Connolly Early, a guy that's, where did he go to school again? Virginia, UVA. No, okay, that's, I had it right. Okay, he went to UVA, but before that, went to Westport. Oh, okay. Okay, yep. You know, I love my army dudes. Okay, he comes in, has a great start. He ends up going five innings pitched.

Oh, that's cool. No one runs. That's cool. How about 11Ks? Yeah. 11Ks in your debut. And you know I love repertoires and guys that mix it up. Five pitches over 12%.

Four seamer, 31%, curve 21, change 18, slide or 17, sinker, 12 you got to love that. I don't know, man. There's just something about a young guy coming up making his debut, having success. And you can say it's against the A's. That's what you can say. But I'll tell you this much, the A's can bang.

Yeah. And that park is not easy to pitch in. And that mound sucks. Everyone says it. But here's the thing. He don't know any better. You don't know any better. He was bald.

He has a pitch in a big league park yet. Right. Think about that. Let that sink in. I love the meme when the sink is in the door, actually. A lot of memes today. You know, we don't have a ton of Red Sox fans in this office. We have a little, there's a pocket.

After the Connolly Early start, they were walking a little taller that day. They didn't have to hide in the shadows. And this sounds obnoxious for a guy that throws 97 and had an amazing first start. he just has such what you want from the lefty. Like he's kind of got a lefty. He slings it a little bit.

He's got the slider. Like it's exactly what you want from a lefty. And yeah, now they're pitching. Hey man, there's a lot of tools in the chest. And Alex Cora is one of the managers that we respect for when he has those tools to play with. He's put up some performances that as Boston heads towards this postseason, I mean, Crochet and Chapman, there's about as little question marks as you could possibly have.

And then still Bayo Gialito, what Tolly and early and they're going to have options. They're going to have options. Tully's got hit a little bit. He had a nice first start. Last two starts, not so good. Yeah, they pulled. I agree with you.

I'm still a Boston believer. I think they have the best record since, is it the All-Star break or is it the June 1st? Dude, I don't, you know what? I'm so sick of stats like that. Yeah, I know. There's just every day you go back to this team's got the best record. It's like, all right, dude.

How about we just look at overall record? I don't know. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Great, great standout, Trev. My guy who stood out, and I hope a couple Texas Rangers were mad at me a second ago because we didn't really mention them.

Jake Berger, two homer game on Wednesday to help them complete the sweep. Jake Berger was one of my favorite ads of the offseason, and I was just like, hey, man, this guy, 29 homers and 24, 34 and 23. And I'm someone that believes in lineup protection. Unfortunately, getting traded from the Marlins to the Rangers was worse lineup protection, especially for the first 120 games of this season.

He got sent down at one point. You got to be going through all the dark baseball thoughts. It's a funky stat line, but he's got 16 homers on the year in 92 games. 246, 280, a 729 OPS. So he's got a 108 OPS plus, which is actually higher than what he was at last year. he's got the power stroke in a big way, you know, listed six foot two 30.

You know, I like all that. He was a guy that coming into the season, he was slotted to be like bottom of the lineup, easy power. Things went awry. He's mashed lefties all year. And in the last two months, August, it's only nine games, so that should be illegal. He's one dotting, though, and that's a game changer. and that's everything we're talking about now in this 15-game sprint.

The stuff that analytics preach about of, oh, you know, it's a long season and things balance themselves out. They don't. Things are not going to balance themselves out these next two weeks. You just need dudes to perform in Jake Berger, who, you know, was looking like a meh, what happened? Is he a bad fit? He's now changing his whole narrative, including his two-homer game on Wednesday. He's been phenomenal for them. You did call it.

I remember you saying that in the offseason, him going there was, you know, lengthening the lineup, all these things you were talking about. But right now, I mean, he's kind of like the lineup. He was supposed to hit eighth of a team with Evan Carter

and Seeger and Simeon and it just, Jock. How bad was Jock's first half? That like, and now he's beaten out infield hits. Yeah, he can't be part of the little rascals, though. Too big. No.

Uh, Burger and Jock. Jock with the What a Burger deal? Can we work my guy in with a couple big postseason hits? Trev, there is a lot of options, but I think a lot of these options are going to end up on Enfuego. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco.

And Fuego is brought to you by Corona, the official Cervesa of talking baseball. We'll start out in Texas. We talked about this guy already. Michael Helman goes four for nine in the series. Two homers, seven runs driven in. He becomes the first Rangers player with five or more homers and 17 or more runs driven in in his first 22 games since

early settler, Nathaniel Lowe in 2021, mentioned he his first career grand slam. That was awesome. He also robbed one. Otto Kemp. Love that name, dude. What a name, Otto Kemp is. I got an auto on my travel ball team,

Otto String. He's a little shortstop, got to, the long hair, like can pick it. He's a guy. Is Otto? Otto Kemp, though. Is Otto one of the most underrated names? Like, I've never heard anyone be like, Otto, you.

Like, Otto, Otto, Slaps. You can do anything. Auto slaps. Is that Italian? Ooh, don't know. You should know. I should know, right? Or maybe because I don't know.

You keep going. We'll find out. German. Ah, Ato. Okay. Five for 13, a double two homers. runs driven in in that series against the Mets. Parker Meadows. You saw it happen, Jake. Six for 11, a homer four runs driven in for him. To you, Oscar, okay, Dodgers would love for him to get going.

Four for 13, three homers, three runs driven in on Tuesday. It was his 21st career multi-homber game and his third in 2025, but his first since August 5th. He's posted a 215 average 658 OPS in 87 games since returning from the IL on May 19th, but starting to get it going now. That's awesome. How about our guy, Mookiee, bet, speaking of getting it going for the week, 12 for 27, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 13 runs driven in.

Over his past 31 games, Jake, he's hit in 333 with a 931 OPS. That's like more like Mookie. That's what we're talking about. The hot stretch began one day after the Dodgers fans organized an ovation for him. So is this a Trey Turner type situation? Possibly.

Love that for Dodgers fans. A bunch of stats on Mookie here. He's put 16 balls in play at an extra velocity of 95 or more on fastballs over the last 14 days. That's tied for the most in Major League Baseball. He's missed on just 1% of his swings

on pitches in the strike zone over the last 14s. Day is best in baseball. So, hey, you're getting the ball in the zone and you're putting it in play. That's awesome. I saw this happen and I don't know if I want to put him on in Fuego. Okay. It's Yohan Mancada. Okay. Eight for 20, a double, a homer, four runs driven in. Number one, number one, it was against my twins. Number two, some of the most laxidaisical defense I've ever seen. Yeah. So I'm like, you're on the sheet. I'll read your name. That's all you get. Jackson Merrill, though. Eight for 26.

two doubles, two triples, two hummers. So, deuce, deuce. He was in an 0 for 16 slump. And then he did a Jake Story alley and debuted a new goatee on Saturday. And since then, he's hitting five of six games, 348 average, one dot towing it with the goat. I don't know if I love it, to be honest with you.

I don't love young guys with the goat. But sometimes you got to just do what you got to do. I feel like the goatee is reserved solely for old people. It's tricky. You either have to know it's bad, which I think Jackson Merrill knows. He does. Or I'll tell you what, the one that turned my head and I was just like, know that fits was Nolan McLean from the Mets. I was just like, wow, that is, that feels right. Yeah, because he kind of, he already like looks like he's from the 80s pitching. He came up, he performed, the goatee is full, and he's a pitcher that like, yes.

Cade Smith, five games, five innings, pitch four saves only one hit and 10Ks. Yum. He's the only pitcher to throw in five games over the last seven days. And he has a strike rate of 72% and two strike counts this season. That's the highest amongst relievers in Major League baseball. Jake, those are the guys who are in Fuego. Tell me about Corona. I will tell you about Corona.

It's about Corona o'clock over here. You know, Friday afternoon. And there's not much better than kicking back, ordering some coronas, and enjoying all of it. You know, soaking up the last parts of summer, or maybe you're ready for fall. And we're going to be ready for fall ball real soon. Games that really matter.

So whether you're watching us live stream and you got your coronas at home, however you like to enjoy them, whether you're in the cheap seats sipping on some coronas, Maybe you know Trevor Plouffe and you've got the good seats. Grab yourself some Corona, the official surveys of Major League Baseball. Squeeze in the lime, people. We're trying to adult over here. If you're trying to impress Trev, if you don't eat a normal diet and you don't take care of yourself,

that's not how you do it. Put the lime in your Corona. Enjoy America's favorite pastime with Mexico's favorite present time. Get yours. Order Corona.com. 21 plus. Enjoy responsibly. Corona extra beer imported by Crown import, Chicago, Illinois.

Illinois. Who's struggling? Some of these guys, it might be your last time to kind of pick it up as we're heading towards the last part of this season. Michael Harris-Deuce has been on this list far too often this year. He's in a six for 45. The worst OPS with runners on base this season. Lowest in the NL. Come on. You're a dude. We all know it. Trev Brooks Lee. Talk to your boy. He's in a six for 43 right now. 091 against starting pitchers the last two weeks. That's bad. Kyle Isbell, it was not your fault but mine. Is that Isbell? I don't think so. Kyle Isbell, five for 34. He's out there for the glove, but we're going to need a little more than that if the Royals want to sneak something else. Mani Machado and his first kind of funk, six for 51.

getting mowed down by the Ritees the last two weeks. So 179 OBP. And Colton Couser, milk. 5 for 40. If it's two strikes, it's over. O-71 on base with two strikes the last two weeks. So, hey, like you just talked about, Trev, the goal here is let's get these guys on Enfuego.

That's kind of what Jackson Merrill did. O4-16, grow a goatee, or don't. there's one other informative part of this program that we have to give you it's the iL and again it is a tricky year or a tricky part of the year to go on the iL because it's start doing 15 day math it gets it's really tricky 10 day alec ballm left shoulder they're saying minimum okay uh tyler locklear uh for arizona he was a big part of their Seattle trades uh should be out for the rest of the season. Sean Murphy for Atlanta, hip tear.

That'll end his 2025. Logan O'Hoppy, concussion, and his stats are not where you'd think they are. They'll see how they treat him. Daniel Palencia, the All-Storelli team, right shoulder strain. Not sure if he's going to return before the end of the year.

Circle that one. Luis Torens, with a minimal stint, he'd been really good for the Mets. Trey Turner, we talked about earlier this week. Boba Chet, we talked about earlier this week. Dustin May for Boston. Unknown.

Scary. Kyle Tucker, we talked about earlier this week. They're hoping the minimum. Luis Garcia real tough, getting a second opinion on his elbow after coming back from TJ. Reed Detmerst left elbow. Will Trev get him traded this offseason?

And Michael Waka for Kansas City concussion during an off-field accident. So that's a little weird, a little scary maybe. This is where we pick up the program. Grant Anderson and Reese Hoskins for the Milwaukee Brewers. Okay, you've got my attention. Max Muncie for the Dodgers.

We know what that does for them. Jonathan Indian, Kansas City, Michael King for San Diego. That guy with some playoff stones. Jose Siri returns for the Mets if you like some swagger. My guy. Vesia and Tommy. Edmund for the Dodgers. Everybody's coming back.

Jameson Tyone twirled it for the Cubbies. Graham Ashcraft and Chase Burns for Cincinnati. Mackenzie Gore with a comeback start for the Nationals. That is who's back. It's time to start everyone's big playoff weekend. Awards. It's all brought to you by Hymns. Who is going to be Hymns the rest of this weekend?

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restrictions and important safety information. Coach. I'm going to give my award and it is called the You're a Real One award. Nice. There are guys throughout the game who I got to play with now that I get to watch. You can just tell like they kind of

embody what you want your big leaders to embody. A guy that grinds it out, a guy that, you know, we like guys that have success. at the big league level. We like guys that overcome things. We like guys that are good and charitable off of the field. We like guys that take chances on

the field. And this guy has done it all. And he just announced his retirement. I'm talking Anthony Rizzo. He'll join the Cubs organization as an ambassador. But more importantly, he's just going to go and chill and enjoy life.

Like, hey, welcome, brother. It's amazing. You're probably your basement's a little nicer than my basement. I wonder what's in his basement. Maybe we've got to figure that out. What do you think? Quick. Golf simulator?

Yeah, probably something like that. Probably like that. Rizzo's Italian, right? He's probably got some nice Italian reds cellar down there. Yeah, definitely some nice reds. I could see like a sick bar. Like he's a dude. He's an all-time dude.

Exactly. a professional man so i'll talk about overcoming things 2008 at 18 years old he's in the minor leagues gets diagnosed with hodgkin's lymphoma has to go through a bunch of months of chemotherapy finally beats that comes back the next year in 2009 in the minor leagues has got he's got like an 840 ops so nothing's stopping him eventually he forms the anthony rizzo family foundation in 2012 which is a foundation that helps out families like childhood cancer and helps families get through that. So turning something that was very difficult for him into something that's helping out others. You love that. On the field, what can you say? I mean, this guy kind of accomplished everything.

Three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner. He also got the Plattie glove, Roberto Clemente Award winner, which a lot of people will say probably means the most to them. And oh yeah, ended an 108-year drought. No, what was it? The Cubs drought, not 108 years. That was the Red Sox.

The Curse of the Billy Go. How long did the Curse of the Billy go last? It was a long time, people. 107. You were there. I was there. So Red Sox were 108 and Cubs for 107? 71.

71. 1941. Well, okay, the curse of the Billy goat started 71 years ago. I think Rob was right on the years. It's tricky. It's tricky. Anyways, 2016 comes along. He catches the final out of the world series.

He smartly puts the ball in the back of his pocket. Everything's coming up, Anthony Ariszo. This guy got to play in San Diego, Chicago, and New York. Like, that's nice to have. 28-28 career OPS. He hit 300 homers. Just an absolute dog on the field. Nice guy. Stood really close to the plate, got hit a lot. He could bun if you needed them to. He just did everything the right way, a really pretty swing. So, you know, basically this is just the tip of the cap to a guy that I really admire and respect. He got to play against them a ton. Again, just a phenomenal person. Great career.

The one thing, though, Jake, that I love the most about this guy, and Robbie's got the picture up right now, is the way that he defended the bunt. He was nuts. Nobody does this anymore. Basically saying, you got to bun it the right way. Because if you bun it back to the pitcher or to me, I'm getting the lead out.

You don't know how much pressure that puts on the guy at the plate, trying to get the bunt down when Anthony Rizzo is what? 20 feet By the way This freeze frame we have up now The pitch is coming And it don't look like the hitter's button No

And that would happen sometimes And you'd be wide-eyed You're like, am I about to witness History in the wrong way? Rizzo gave zero fucks No, and he was great Covering Bunce because of it He didn't care

And honestly it makes sense It's like okay Especially if a right-hander's up like the like the chances of them shooting a ball at you probably not great and again just the just the pressure it put on i used to love to do this as a third baseman i didn't care man like dude i felt like my hands were good enough like if you smoked a ball at me i could at least get my glove up and protect myself right like maybe i won't make the play but you got like if you want to be good at defending the bunts you got to get your ass in there you got it you got to get in and not be afraid of the ball and if there's

one person that like understood that and the guy that could actually he was the only person that could defend the first and third bunt because of what he did so i don't know man there's just something about him fearless overcoming uh great ball player uh great stats in the world series just a phenomenal career in baseball player so shout out anthony rizzo i don't remember what my award was called but i wanted to break it down and again number one thing for me how do you defend the bunt be like anthony rizzo He, I said all-time dude, and I think people know what that means, but every box, every box, from doing things in the community to being an actual leader on the team, to performing on the field,

to offense, to defense, to base running, like all actual baseball stuff. And yeah, I'll tell you who's a guy who doesn't have a BS meter, Ian Hap. Ian Hap will tell you that Rizzo's top one of one dude he's ever met. And you can see the reaction from all the former Cubs players and a lot of the Yankees players that like, I don't know a lot of the other details, but I bet on the road that was a guy you wanted to be near.

And I bet he bought some rookie suits and I bet he bought some dinners. And I bet he did it all because he did it all. And you're right, it starts off with him getting, you know, cancer treatment to him breaking the curse. Which, Shreve, you had, it was 108. The Billy Goat didn't attend the game until 45, so that was its own 71-year-old thing.

He's a legend, he's a statue. Like, Cubs fans are debating what statue is going to be built. And it's kind of, I think it's the, him catching that Final World Series ball, but he's a statue guy. That's amazing. And people are going to point, I said he could bunt and people are going to point to,

He never sat bun in his career. It ain't a sack what I'm talking about. He was a shift beater guy. Yes. And like I wanted more guys to do that. Big shift over on him when you can still do it. Like he would just lay one down. Take the knock.

And Rob, I'll give you one last hunk because I wasn't fully sure where Trevor's going with his award, but you mentioned his bunt defense. I've never seen anyone handle getting hit by a pitch better. It was nuts. Yeah. It was all over the plate, dude.

It was a form of loom. in the nicest way. Like, the man would get hit by a pitch. He would just politely drop his bat and jogged it first. It didn't matter where it hit him. It could have hit him in the wrist. It could have hit him in the neck. Like, the guy had, okay, well, this is one he got.

Brought up one he got pretty good. So you're making me look bad here. But that's fine. That's fine. That's a World Series trining ball. I don't know. All-time dude. All-time dude.

Congrats. He's already doing media. He's, he's in. He's in. Just leave the media to me. Okay. Let me have some scraps, bro. Trev, I'm going with, and it's funny, you fake teased a name for award earlier. I'm going to take the Gun for Hire Award, a gun for hire that wasn't hired this year. You're not going to get a lot of Nats content the rest of the way. but Josh Bell had himself a massive weekend. He, let me get the stats.

He had a four-for-six game, which will take that, two homers, both sides of the plate, how much do you value a switch hitter? In the four-game set with the fish this weekend, seven for 15, three homers, 10 RBI, a 1.5 OPS. Josh Bell has been traded, I think, the last three trade deadlines. In the second half this year, Josh Bell, 43 games, 264, 360, and 845 OPS. He's one dotting in September early on. And the last two trade deadlines, he got traded.

Last year he got traded to Arizona, where he went 279, 361, 796 OPS. The year before, he got traded to Miami, where he went 270, 338, and 818 OPS. So this is another guy who, okay, war's not going to treat him great because the defense has never been there. And offensively, he kind of profiles as who he is.

But who he is is a career 114 OPS plus switch-hitting big boy, who he's had some slow times, He's had some hot times, and he's one of the most well-regarded players in baseball. We just had Nationals quotes about how beloved and how much of a dude this guy is. And I remember my Uncle Rick, big Pittsburgh Pirates fan, goes to all the spring training games. When this guy was coming up, he was like, yeah, I've met his parents, his parents are class acts. Like, this is a guy who's a guy that like, even if baseball doesn't work out, Josh Bell is going to be fine.

I don't know, man. This was another gun for hire that was out there that you probably could have had for your team's 22nd prospect. So if you're a team that right now is looking for some DH or first base love, and guess what every team's looking for? A switch hitter?

You kind of could have had Josh Bell this year and nobody went for the gun for hire this year. And I'm a little bummed out because of that, but I'm glad that he's raking to finish this year because another team will sign him this offseason and we'll do the same discussion we do with Josh Bell every year. Love that you gave him the award. I do think he is a class act, a guy that's been around for quite some time now.

After this year, he'll have accumulated over nine years of service time. So when he signs to a team, which he inevitably will next year, he'll eclipse that 10-year mark, which is awesome. In saying that, career earnings, yes. Oh, so for a little bit of a, I haven't looked yet, but a little bit of reference this year making one year six million this year. So he never got the big one. He had a big outlier year with Pittsburgh.

But again, he had some consistence. And I felt like he got a two-year deal. So I'm going to say Josh Bell 55 mil. I was going to go 51. Wow, look at us. A couple ball notes. And I'm going down. I'm scrolling.

I'm scrolling. 61 mil, 61.8. We were there. What's he got in the basement? We were there. Probably like something cool. Like something we wouldn't even think about. Like a historic book.

No way. I don't know. I don't know what Josh Bell has in his basement. Article just came out today, actually, talking about how Josh Bell changed up his diet in June. And now he's basically just eating fruit all the time. Hmm. He's a fru-tarian?

Didn't Steve Jobs do that for a while? That was apples or carrots with jobs, right? I think he ate all just the fruit, just fruit. Are carrots a fruit? Don't tell me carrots or a fruit. Oh, boy. Not in my head. That's a veggie. But like they're the most fruit tasting veggie.

If you're the person when this conversation comes up that says a potato is a legume, you should be punched. Should be punched. Don't care. They're not involved. the veggies, a carrot is the most fruit-forward veggie. A carrot's a vegetable. I think a carrot, yeah.

But like, tomatoes are a fruit. They're not. They're a fucking vegetable. Tomatoes are a vegetable. We can, you know who made that up? Some geeks. I don't think you. I think it's more like scientific.

All right. Thank you guys for tuning in to talking baseball. Watch baseball. Watch sports. How about that? Sports are good for you. believe in that. Big series, rivalries. Jake sucks. Playoff implications.

Drive, you got Jake Burger for the over 240 batting average. He's at 246 right now. I did that pre-season? That is insane. What were you doing? I don't know. He's hot. Get hot, kid. Easy pop.