Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Are The Mariners Back From the Dead?!

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's an F-R-F episode, Braves Dodgers, battling it out. Couple stars resurging, and we're in person. It's going to be physical. Let's talk ball. Look, here we go. I don't have anyone. Robert Stock.

Who is the guy's name. I'm looking for it right now. Catcher for the Phillies when I played with them. I don't know. Andrew Nap. Rafael Marchand. Hello. one single.

And welcome to talking baseball presented to you by fanatics markets where fans trade on sports. I'm Jake Storelli. That is Trevor Plouffe in the bowels of Jersey City, New Jersey. We're all in one room. Bobby Sarachi producing, Bobby Golfs, Dalton Feeley. We're getting ready for a floorball weekend. If you know, you know, if you're in our tangled web, it's a fun one, but it's a fun one. brings a lot to our weekend.

That it's, I'm labeling this a Talking Baseball Express episode because, A, dog days, August 28th. We're here. That only a couple of these series, real matter. And we have to go play literal hockey games today. So we're going to give you the high and tight, the what you need. And speaking of high and tight. It's so good to be here.

My quarterback. Yeah, man. My nine, Trevor Plouffe, nine for a different reason. What's the nine for? All right. I've gone through a lot this week, people. All right, I'm happy to be here. You have. This is kind of a crescendo of my week.

Called some games. Are the Twins dead? I don't know. I probably can't say that. Got in trouble. We'll get into it. But I'm happy to be here. I love our fans.

You said you got, if you're tangled in our web, I feel like there's a little negative connotation there. We're not spiders. We're just in our hug, our warm embrace. No, I think I have tangled in our web positively. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

I want to be tangled in webs. Okay. You know what I'm saying? That's a little Tolkien baseball right there. Yeah. That's a bad web. Yeah, you don't want to be there. Spoilers.

Samwise. Oh, whoa. The Brave. Speaking of Braves, they're probably the stars of this episode with a bit of a crescendo last night. Is he your Chris Sale or my Chris Sale? It's my Chris Sale.

I don't know. You should have seen it. I had to put a video out for Justin Verlander's return to last time in Target Field. Do you know that? No. You think he's going to be like, why is Trevor fucking ploof? Like, congratulating me.

Didn't I? Is Verlander the one who killed you or Scherzerzer? Both, but Scherzer worse. They did that to everyone. We've got some NL baseball. Cal Raleigh and the Mariners are interesting. There's some young bucks that have shown up. And I think a couple awards that you and I are excited for.

So I think with that, it's Friday. Let's talk some National League baseball. And this is probably the series of the week. It's the series of the show. The Dodgers and the Braves, they went down to the chop house, and the Dodgers got chopped. The Braves win three one-run games.

Ozzie Albies league. My size, people forget. Ha-Song Kim, where'd you go? I missed you so. I thought he was out of town. He gets the game winner, and then Chris Sale calls game. Yamamoto, Drake Baldwin gets him on the first at bat of the game, and that was the only run scored from those two freak shows.

Braves, the NL standings. Trev might have them. Might have them. Might have been distracted this morning. Debex, take two out of three from the Cubbies, a couple kind of playoff teams. The snakes, the closest wildcard team in either league, as we record today.

A little fact there. Kevin Gossman looked great. That's the good news for Cubs. Seven innings, shut piece. But then it snakes the rest of the way. Ryan Walshman, pinch hit home run.

Erod. Dominant. Dominant. Jordan Waller, Apococo. Why not us? We're saying in the desert. The Pirates took two out of three from San Diego.

San Diego, who's been the hottest team in baseball. These games were close. Two shutouts in the football. final. The only run scored in that middle game, a cruise missile off a Mason Miller changeup? Cambio Poppy? Padre salvaged the set with Randy Vasquez and a mismatch bullpen, getting it done to get through it. The Brewers take two out of three from the Mets. The Mets win that first game. Cooper Pratt, how's the bench? Francisco Linder. How's your leather? Impressive play by him.

win in the 10th, but then it's Milwaukee the rest of the way as they score eight runs in the final two games. Sorry, Robert Stock got rocked. So does Sean Mania, though, and so do a lot of teams playing the Brewers. Ms. Velo down again? Does anyone care? I think I do. Red Sox take two out of three from the Marlins. Will the Marlins be in the NL playoff picture? We'll let Trev decide the Red Sox win the first two games. This Red Sox team, man, they got a little bit of the magic dust. Siegler and Sogarde in the ninth in the first game. Jaron Duran Grand Slam in the 11th. Miami, Ariberto Hernandez.

You like him. They win 4-0. Ryan Gusto, 5.2 scoreless, sure. Orioles take two out of three from the Cardinals. This series for me was for the birds. Alonzo goes four for four in that first game. That's obvious. Plays Jordan, big home run.

He leaves with injury. Him and Kobe Mayo. Big bodies on the field. I don't know if either of those teams matter. Speaking of, Rocky's Nats, they split four. Fantastic. Giants take two out of three from the Cincinnati Reds. And it kind of needs to be mentioned because the last game,

Cincinnati trailed 9 to 3 in the 9th, and they scored 7 to win it. The Giants in games, when they led by 6 or more in the 9th, were 2,200. and eight and zero. Now there's a one. I don't know. Devers is good. Nobody else is. That's what happened in the NL. Sergio Romo, Brian Wilson, turning over, not in their graves because they're not dead, but...

No. You know what I'm saying. My haircut, buddy. Sergio Romo. I forgot about that. Oh, my gosh. He was a twin when we went down there. I got the standings pop. You want him? Yeah. All right. All right. All right.

We are going to start out east. where the Braves had seen their lead shrink down to three games. It's back up to five. They're 79 and 55. The Philadelphia Phillies, 74 and 60. My Phillies, 74 and 60. The Miami Marlins, 68 and 66. Washington, 10 games under 500, 63 and 73 and 73.

And Jolly's Mets, 60 and 74. And the Central, Brewer's doing it. Just hand him the crown already for the Central. 83 and 51. There's seven games up, Pop. The Cubbies. Yeah. 76 and 58, doing well, but just not as well as the Brewers.

Your Cardinal, 67 and 68, the Pirate, 65, and 70. Skeens put a nice Instagram post out about Mario. And he looked good. I've been on that ride before. In Cincinnati, 63 and 71, out West, Dodgers, eight-game lead over the Padres, 80 and 54 for them. Padres, 10 games over 500, 72 and 62. Dalton Snakes, right there. Controversy, who gives a shit?

71 and 64. The Giants, 55 and 79, and the Rockies, 52 and 82. The wild card here. There's some clarity. Snakes still in it. Right now, the Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies have the top two spots with San Diego, occupying the third spot, one and a half games up on Dalton Snakes, and four games up on the Miami Marlins.

I can't go any further than that, Jake. Those are the standings in the National League. I think you have it right. I think the snakes are the potential disruptor in this NL economy. You know that's how I always talk. We'll talk some say, and the Marlins, there's just a little chance. Don't let the fish get hot. There is a chance.

They're playing the Nats this weekend. Like that's schedule watch time a little bit. You're in schedule season. I like that because we don't do that a lot. We do that with NFL. Everyone's fantasy draft. Jake, why'd you take Stafford? I don't know.

Panicked. He's your friend. He's a friend of a friend. I've face-timed with him like three times. It's normally Jimmy Clausen's wife's birthday. Rick Cabo. This episode is sponsored by Seekek MLB playoffs are around the corner. And you know what that means, Treff.

What does it mean? NFL? You know anybody? You know any teams? I might be a fan of one team. The NBA is sneaking up. You're kind of, well, maybe we'll work it in. We'll work it.

I'll try. It'll be a long off season. Seatkeek is the number one. rated ticketing app. MLB's official ticket marketplace. That means every baseball ticket you buy is fully guaranteed and instantly fulfilled. And Treve, what about, I don't know, concert season? Love concerts. Festival season. Oh! I think we got to go to a country concert. I think that's what you and I are missing. Oh, really? You mean, you know all these like fun ones. You mean live in jeans shorts. And of course, I got a code for you. Talking 2026, 10% off your next set of MLB tickets at

Siki. 10% off any MLB tickets, promo code talking 26. Download the app. Have the code automatically added. Thank us. And thank you, Siki. Let's talk a little bit. I think the series we're going to talk the most about because in this National League where I'm looking at those wild card standings and I'm like, do we need to start talking Cubs and Phillies the rest of the way, playing for home field advantage in a three-game playoff? Another massive thing we need to talk about, because the conversation before this week was, are the Phillies going to catch the Braves? The Braves, with the Dodgers on the calendar in Atlanta, win all three games to now the top two seeds in the National League.

The Braves are a game behind the Dodgers for home field and a buy for that two seed in the postseason. And it's, I don't say this word. It was scenes in Atlanta. Okay. You know, like Hassan Kim walk off? And then Chris Sale and I don't know. If we got the image of his, I normally don't get Chris Rose like this.

The image of his son watching him come out. Pretty cool. He looks like Chris, something about how we all have our parents' mannerisms. Like he obviously has his dad's mannerisms and seeing his dad come out. You just don't see that because guys don't pitch this well when they're Chris Sales age, throwing a hundred again. I wanted to give him my award today, but I knew we were going to talk so much about him. It's just, this is actually great for me because, you know, a lot, they show it to us. Does he look like the slender man, too?

He's got long arms? Yes. Yeah, he does. He's going to be a great pitcher. Get ready. Is he right here or lefty? Get ready. Right.

He's lefty. This is great for me because a lot of times, especially now with the way pitching is gone, it's like, I feel like sometimes guys are able to say, well, you didn't even really face good pitching back in your day. Because the average fastball was 92, not 95, and these guys are throwing a bunch of pitchers or pitches. I would say this. I saw more pitchers back in my day, not throwers. But Chris Sale has bridged the gap for me a little bit. And now that he's still pumping 100, you know, and doing the things he's doing,

I mean, right now, is he making a late push for the Sai Young? Is that a possibility? He's around it. I mean, that Miserowski guy would have to really slip up. We keep talking about Miserowski and his Velo being down. It's like six innings pitch, two earned runs. The last time he was out was like sevenings pitch, one earned run. And we're like, oh, my gosh, you didn't look that good.

It's like, it's pretty crazy what he's doing. The broadcasts were hilarious and Mizorowski sat there. They're like, the Velo's down again, hasn't given up a hit yet. Okay. So it still works. Yeah, I mean, this is a great series. And, you know, obviously a playoff type atmosphere, a playoff type matchup.

And we get the return of Tyler Glass now, who struggled in the first inning, kind of settled down after that, which is, you know, you could be expected. And then, yeah, Hassan Kim, who was 0-4-27, his first hit since June 3rd. It's a long time. 3-0 takes a called strike, fouls off three pitches, and then gets a 97 and gets the knock for it. We love, we're Hassan Kim Pod.

Man, it's the fun and sick part of this sport. I don't know what it means for Hassan Kim. I'll tell you what, Hassan Kim isn't an 088 hitter. I don't know what he is anymore. He's had some injuries. Like, it's a tough sport. I'm glad he can have that moment, because I know he was drawing the ire of Braves fans,

because this was supposed to be their starting shortstop. Remember, he opted out and got a couple more mill? He went from like 18 to 20 or something like that. Kind of crazy. And it's the fun part of this season because as we have two things coming, A, you've got players that were struggling that are going to get hot for September, and that's going to change your team's outlook.

Or you've got young guys you called up who weren't a factor that we kind of have to do that math on the fly. I don't know if that's Ha-Song Kim. Yeah. We used to talk way more about September call-ups and we just don't do it anymore because there's only two. It's only two. You get two.

How. Yeah, Rob, this might be a tough Google. Try to Google, like, the teams that used to call it 40 players, like, I feel like the Orioles used to do it. Yeah. You would look in the dugout, and it looked like a video game glitch. Like, it looked like people were just populating in the dugouts. They stopped doing that for a couple different reasons.

And I know we're trying to go express here, but this is the big one. They didn't want to pay. Right. And then also it was just too crowded. It literally was too crowded. Like if you're not going to like really do anything and this is just you're just up here to get some big league vibes. I guess they don't think it's worth it now, especially with two people coming up. Usually it's one position player, one pitcher.

I think that's all it can be. Depending on what your roster, you can't just carry a million pitchers. The impact of that is now down, but still fun to see. Just want to shine some light. and it's one of my favorite loser games. Chris Sale, as you mentioned, he was called up in 2010. Yeah, same.

The third baseman on that White Sox team who played the most games, Omar Visckel. Yeah. That's who Chris Sale was playing with. So kind of insane that he's still doing it. He hits 100 for the first time in eight years. This has a little Yankee salt on it.

I'll admit it, but I grew up with a bunch of Red Sox fans. It was the first time my Red Sox fans had chimed in this year, and they were like, Chris Sale, traded him for Vaughn Grissom? Some Braves. We haven't talked about Braves Devil Magic in a while. Chris Sale himself is devil magic. But dude, just the matchups throughout this were such a beautiful reminder of what's coming. Whether it's Drake Baldwin and Yamamoto in the first inning, whether it's Sale in Otani, whether it's Ryssel Iglesias in that first game having to go through the heart of the lineup. This was playoff baseball light in a beautiful way.

It meant more for the Braves and they got it done. A couple things on it. I mean, yes, I feel like we never talk about Yamamoto, and that's sad because he's so good. Lead off home by Drake Baldwin, and then after that he's dominant because that's what he does. You mentioned the NL Cy Young. It's Mizorowski by a mile right now, Vegas.

Sales 2, Sanchez 3, Yamamoto 4. So you saw two of the top four starter pitchers in the NL do a 1-0-0. a one-nothing game. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. And this is important for another reason. The Braves now have the season tiebreaker over the Dodgers. So if they end up with the same record, head-to-head matters. And they could earn a buy because they took care of business.

It's big. Yeah. Could be big. Could be big. So many stars. Rokey's got a blister. Walt Weiss. Remember when he tackled Jorge Soler?

That was this year. Horace Sler is a big boy. too. Huge. Yeah, we were talking something about like managers you don't want to get, or coaches you don't want to get in a fight with because of a series we're going to get into right now with Jeff Bannister and Ryan Flaherty yelling at each other. I was like, I don't think you want to mess with Jeff Bannister.

You do not want to mess. He looks like one of those guys that has, the grip strength is out of control because he's been like lifting heavy materials his whole life. He hasn't. He's been a baseball coach his whole life. But still, I said Walt Weiss is number one because of jujitsu. Right. And then it's probably.

It might be Bannister after that. Well, Bannister, I mean, that would bring in a bench coaches and assistant coaches. I mean, Boone's a sneaky big body, you third baseman. Okay, I like to, you know. I'm happy that you gave him some credit there. I thought you might throw him under the bus. When he's a big body, you know, no shots fired, not that size matters in a fight. But, like, what was my guy?

Alburnaz is what? Oh, wow. Five eight. Throwing him under the bus right there. Who's the new Nats manager? Yeah, he's 5-8. Uterra's not a big boy. No, no, those two, those two will be fighting on the side of consolation prices.

This is why we have fighting divisions, which why we're now going to let Trev talk about Enos Cantor for five minutes. Schneider versus Boone, go. Schneider versus Boone, that would be a good one. I'd lean Schneider's. Vic. Is Boone shifty enough, fast enough? I mean, Schneider's a couple years younger and a little.

bigger. The jab, keep them away. And you Californians are soft. Oh, my God. All your good players on your team are from California. That goes for every team. Or Japan. Shout out of Japan.

It's basically the, at West, guys. Sadaharuo, a legend. Cubs DeBacks, you mentioned this started with a lot of coaches piping off. Our guy, Quentin Barry's in the mix. Our guy Lavello. I guess, I guess there's a big picture. here and then we'll do the series a little bit because these are two potential postseason teams. What's the deal with coaches?

Because it's kind of, from everything I know, coaches are in play for picking up pitches and stuff. Yeah. So, like, my take on it has always been, I want uniform personnel doing it. And you can't really stop people from having their laptop at home. So like, there's a plethora of people, especially now, that are constantly looking for tips on the pitcher or whatever you can to have the advantage. I don't love that. I'd rather be like without your laptop and you like actually or like you can use a laptop, but I want the,

I want the, I want the, I want the, I want like me and you chopping it up in the video room be like, hey, did you see this? That's right. Like that to me is the sport.

Right. It's not that way anymore. But if we're talking about a, a base coach, you know, they're on the field. Being able to see, you know,

your hands, basically, you know, you're at third base and you see this or you see this or you see the glove, whatever it is. there's all sorts of things you can see. And you're able to relay it, it's fair game. And everyone knows it's fair game.

I think the Diamondback's argument was that he was out of the box, but he wasn't. So I think even Lavello said, yeah, hey, they were doing it. So I still understand getting mad at it because you're like, you don't want that to happen to your team. Right. Right. But, you know, it's legal, it's okay.

I think Merrill Kelly said in his post-game presser, he wants it to just be players. He doesn't want coaches involved. I understand what he's saying, but coaches are part of what's going on, so I don't have a problem with this. You know what I do have a problem with, though? Okay.

Coach is fighting. Nobody's there to see you guys. I disagree. Again, Jeff Bannister. Okay, okay, okay. Coaches versus coaches. Look at this demeanor. I know.

Jeff, I mean, you laid it out there. Jeff Bannister is like, yes, if you want to fight, I'll kill you. But I don't want to do that right now. He has got grown man strength. If I'm taking Ryan Flaherty or Jeff Bannister, I'm taking Bannister. If a player, if a coach is yelling at a player, I don't like that. That's, I draw the line.

Yes, I agree. It's like even if you're a foreign player, Quentin Berry, Flaherty there, played against those guys, respect them, but you have to remember you're a coach. So if you want to go after the coach is fine, just don't do the players. In the baseball itself, again, for upcoming. postseason stuff. Kevin Gossman, looking like Kevin Gossman. As we talked about the Cubs in their trade deadline and how are they going to go about it.

Hey, they traded for a ton of pitchers. Popular topic in talking Yanksland. If you want to go check that out, we recorded last night. That's Splitter. It's obviously one of the best pitches in baseball when it's right. And then, yeah, I don't know about Snake's magic, but I know Waldschmidt with two walk-off homers against the Dodgers and the Cubs. What's that mean for them the rest of the way? I saw Catele Marte hitting a double in a minor league rehab game. I don't know what that means the rest of the way. Also, I guess what's your take on the no bulk? They kind of beefed it, right?

Yeah. They admitted it, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he got in his windup and then stepped off of the rubber. That's tough, man. That's a zero-zero game at this point. Pete was going off. Yeah. And he was right.

He runs hot. He does run hot. And I think people are starting to respect the degh which means don't kill the fuck. I think they're starting to respect that out of Pete Crowe because he's backing it up. Yeah, not this series. Hitless. Snakes pitching.

Yeah, relax. Snakes pitching. One hit late. I'm just curious. I actually don't know the rule on this. I'm assuming it's a Bach. If he hadn't stepped off and just expedited his wind up. Yeah, I think the problem is it comes off the rubber.

It's still okay to do that. Interesting. I know coming from a set, you have to. Which is. weird because I don't feel I feel like he didn't mean to come off the rubber but he did and that's the rule it's just like that is ingrained in your head step off yeah that's true um so yeah you know now that I think of it Johnny Quato guys manipulating their windups you can do whatever in the wind up you can't do that coming set you have to come set the same way every single time but in a

wind up yeah you can't speed it up so it was the step up and in real time I didn't see the step off and then um you know you started to hear Pete grow say hey he stepped up On that rewatch, I mean, the foot, that's not a normal pitcher's motion. Like, he steps it back. He comes off the mouth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's got to be a ball. And I like what he's, there's, PCA is like, there's four of you out here. Yeah.

That's four of you. That was. Shout out Alfonso Marquez. I think you saw it up shoving it down your throat. Oh. Pause. You got to find any way you can to make something happen, and that's exactly what I was just trying to do.

And I executed. Did you see Chris Rose had a similar in? incident on your show with him. We don't have to play. Did you look at Dalt when you said that? Because Dalt filled in for me, thank you. Your show with him. Jordan Lawler?

One of those players that could be different. He had a nice thin. He was out. He has a home run in the six inning that becomes the first run scored instead of the Bok or Bach. Before we move on, snaps for Erod. I don't know if you're giving him a standout or something. What are we doing, dude? I'll tell you what?

How was he not involved in the Sa-Young? I mean, for crazy factor alone, he should be there. I would just say for E-R-D, man, 5.3B-war. I know that's not our number one pitcher number. 25-E-R-A in the desert. Not a lot of snakes guys. Okay, so now are you back on me with the Sai-Young-ish? Sure, give him some votes.

Say-Young-6? Sy-Yung 7. Congrats, E-Rod. Will that be his best finish ever, Dahl? So, Syung 6 in 2019. Okay, 2019. And yeah, I'll just mention he was a WBC guy. So if you're one of those,

Oh, the World Baseball Classic ruined my player season, Seattle. Yeah, because Latin dudes play baseball all year round their entire life. They're not soft like us Americans. I've never said that line before. Wow. Don't clip that. Back to Enos Cantor. Yeah, E. Rod was great.

And I, it was, I don't like saying the phrase vintage for a player, especially Erod's like 33. He's only 33. Dude, he got called up young. He's 33. He pitched in 2015. I had it. I had a third. Is he in your book?

I don't think I fared well against him. He's one of those guys I thought I should have. He got called up right after his 22nd birthday. And yeah, Erod was always interesting for Yankee fans because we'd go into like a Red Sox series and it was like, do you fear Erod? And it was like, no, but this is what he would do. Yeah. And you'd look up at the box score and you'd be like, what?

Seven innings, two hits, nine Ks. Snakes are still around this damn thing. Today's episode is sponsored by Amazon. This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. You want to give your kids a great start to the year, but back-to-school has a way of absolutely destroying your budget. The supply list keeps growing. The clothes stops fitting, and somehow there's always one more thing.

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Rest of the NL, I think we just highlight kind of some moments from the series. Because Padres have been playing great baseball. I mean, after this first game, I think they're 21 and 8 in their last 29. They lose the final two. And that second one is one of the bigger backbreaker shockers of the year. Mason Miller, who hasn't given up a homer in over a year, gets got on a down-and-in-in-changing. up to O'Neill Cruz. One-nothing.

That's Paul Skeens' game back. Quote for Mason Miller. Pretty good. Pretty good. Humans can be idiots sometimes. Tip your hat. Good swing. Crushed it, obviously.

But I just can't be throwing that pitch in that spot. Okay. Yeah, you're right. Speed up the bat a little bit. You know, give him some grace a little bit. What was it? 73 consecutive appearances without giving up a home or 70s. six and two-thirds innings was the streak.

It's the longest active, was the longest active in Major League Baseball. I think, like you said, you tip your cap. Yeah, sure. I mean, it's because here's a thing, you're geared up for 100 and five, whatever the hell he throws. And, you know, you could be out in front of that, but he wasn't. So you tip your cap a little bit. It's F or F because you and I are in person.

Who wins in a fight again? Braxton Ashcroft or Mason Miller? From all I know about Braxton Ashcraft, was he a Texas football guy? He was. They're kind of soft. I'm more of, no, I'm just kidding. No, he's a big boy. I know Mason Miller's a big boy.

When I saw Braxton Ashcraft in person, I was like, oh, okay. And that happens a lot with me nowadays. I saw Luis Severino. Yeah. Huge legs. Huge legs. Jacob Lopez, who I had as like a soft toss and lefty, massive. Pitchers are huge.

It's another gun. Padre's bullpen. The B squad comes up big in that last game to salvage it. Pirates kind of out. Padre's still in. Padre's in, man. I want to see them in the playoffs. They're one of the teams that's like most fun to watch for me.

And, you know, Toddy getting hot really helps out a lot. Ryan Cohen going nuts is good for our company. Yeah. Yeah. He's a mental patient when it comes to San Diego. I gave him maybe the coolest hat that he'll ever own. Really? I sourced it vintage in Seattle.

It was, it's got the green bill. Okay. Under the, you remember the old school ones? Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Okay. He's got it on.

He'll have it on today. Brewers Mets. Oh. Because the, yes, Dalton brought up, I'm supposed to be wearing a Ryan Cohen shirt, but he didn't bring it in time. So on the next episode, I'll have it on. Okay.

Metz Brewers, if you would guess, brewers probably win two out of three. They do. the story from this series was Cooper Prap being benched. I know you talked about it on baseball today. I'm, and we talked about it here a little bit. You talked me into it a little bit because I was like,

damn, that's tough. But it is just Pat Murphy's. This is what we do. It's tough. The story that, who wrote the story? Can we get that up? Adam McCauvey wrote the story for MLB.com.

And it's just, it's like none of his words. It's just all quotes. And it's, It's the article of the year. If you haven't read it, you have to go to MLB.com and you have to see these quotes. We can read some of them.

I love Pat Murphy's like, after I watched the video, I'm like, oh, he didn't dogged as much as I thought he did. Like, that's great. Okay. But,

and he goes, but I think the ball that was up there that long and hit the ground and kicked away, you have to be on second. It's a culture thing. Yeah. And that's basically what a lot of these quotes were about. Yelly had a great one,

had a great one talking about, not every team is run this way. Right. And not every team could be run this way, but this is the precedent that has been set by Murphy, and it doesn't matter who you are. If you're Yelly, if you're Sal Freight, it doesn't matter. It's just what's expected.

And they're saying in the playoffs, like we need to be perfect. They need to play perfect baseball because they do. Yeah. And this is the culture they're trying to set. I mean, again, is it, was it egregious? sure, but I think there are teaching moments. And when you have a big lead in a division and you're,

I think it's the right time to do it. I actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm in on it. The other, I guess the other talking point for me is, Ms. Rowski, I know Velo is Velo and literally face the minimum through four innings. Fastball got down to 95 at one point, 958. I don't know. We're seeing a guy that's never done this.

Uh, nine of his pitches still got to 100, so it's not like the gas tank was empty, but it's, um, it's a little, it's, oh, yeah, he did have a lot of trouble with the mound and you can point to that, but also, I, I don't know. He did last start he came down to this would, if this was another starting pitcher going from 97 to 91, we would all be freaking out. He's one of the guys. So every team has to deal with this. A guy's kind of throwing more innings than they ever have. Because once you get to the big leagues, you're playing an extra month of baseball. A lot of these guys that are prospects coming up, they get babyed, coddled in their innings department. Whether that's a good thing or not, you can debate, but they do.

I mean, hey, you're only going to throw 75 innings this year. Hey, you're going to throw 100 innings this year. And they kind of try to do it that way. but what they really are looking for now, and I think this is probably better than doing the innings type thing. It is, it is VLO, and it's your mechanics. Like, are you at your baseline? Yeah, there's a lot of things they look at now.

He's still getting the job done. They ain't shutting him down, I don't think. But is there a situation because of the velocity markers that were seen from him? Do you think there's a situation where, like, hey, let's, Jacob, we know you're going to Sa-Young running right now. Right. But the best thing for us going into October is for you to go on the IL right now.

Now. And let's, or skip a start. Forget the I-L. But like, is there, you think they even think about that? I just mentioned, they're way up in the division. Right. They're way up. They're going to make the playoffs.

I know he's going for a Sa-Young. If he wasn't, I think it's a no-brainer you skip a few starts and have him ready for the playoffs. but because he's got this, he wants to win the Sy Young, I don't think you can do that. It's a weird predicament for the brewers to be in because I think if your VLO is down that much,

you really start to think about skipping a start at the very least. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. They're in a busy schedule. They don't have an off day till September 10th. You get a call up on September 1st, which we talked about. I think you keep them on a throw schedule. Can you push him a day? Can you bring a piggyback and be like, hey, you're pitching four innings today?

Yeah, but we've seen them do that. Sure, but if he goes out and he's still, he's throwing 95 still, we're talking five miles an hour off his average. That will be huge for most people. Yeah. I don't know. He's not going to get shut down. I'm curious what they'll do.

All from the top rope. Down two miles per hour total. But yeah, hey, that guy throws $1.95. Let's see. Rest of the National League, Red Sox stay hot. Jaron Duran has a quote that I texted to my talking Yanks group chat because he said, we have to win. There is no other option.

That's the identity that we've created. And I love that because that's not how my org operates. And they're about to play this weekend. So I would say Mickey Gasper stays hot on and all. off the field. People are saying, is he MLB's new number one hot boy? He's drawing comparisons to people in the media. Yeah. I think you've had the goatee at some point, haven't you? I did one for a warehouse. It's very thin. I still don't have it. His goatee. I've been looking at a lot of Mickey Gasper pictures recently. There's one of him that pops up from, I think he's still

in the minor leagues or college, and he actually does look a lot like me, and it's kind of jarring. Oh, look at this one. You're going to like this one. Okay, okay. Can you show it to the peep? Yeah. Yeah. No, well, yes and no.

Yeah. But if you keep going, there's like a minor league one. It's pretty good. You get some eye black on you. That's right here. I'll do a Mickey Gaspard Doffle. You could have been a big league catcher. Rob, if you scroll down.

Yeah, that Bryant one is a little me five years ago. We're not scrolling down. Okay. That's okay. Uh, it's... Don't show your browser history, Rob. Show it. That one works.

That one works. Oh, okay. What's on your other personal? Oh, you don't want to know. I do. I do. Pudding lessons. Yeah.

Make your chipping game. Uh, okay. I'm over. And then, yeah, birds matchup. Alonzo's hot. Cardinals dead. Rocks, Nats, no. Reds Giants, no.

Today's episode is sponsored by Fox One. MLB on Fox is now streaming on Fox. this time of year talking baseball was made for it. The race to October starts now. Fox One has your front row seat. Every walkoff matters. Every bullpen decision gets dissected. Every series against a wild card contender is a test on whether a team is built for the playoffs. Fox One puts all of it in one place. Follow every can't miss matchup from now through the postseason live as it happens. And it goes all the way Fox One is streaming. The 2026 World Series, not a highlight package, not a recap, the actual games live as they unfold.

At home or on the go, live or on demand, whatever works. The race to the World Series is on. Never miss a moment by watching MLB Live on Fox One stream now. I think we go. Let's go. In the American League, it's always been the Philadelphia Phillies. They face the Seattle Mariners. Mariners take two out of three,

and you want to talk about some head tilts in the Pacific Northwest. Cal Raleigh, not once, not twice, but thrice three for three three homers in that first night and then he opens it up with a homer in the next game we're going bonkers in seattle george kirby is nails they don't get the sweep lizardo uh shuts him down harper kind of hits his signature inside out home run uh philly's salvage trev's got some mariner's thoughts coming later yankees drop two out of three to the houston Nassaros. First game was one of the games of the year. Back and forth, Yankees bullpen blows three leads. Didn't love that part of it. Have you seen Josh Hater's stats this year?

Holy cow. Yanks win that middle game, but then former Yankee farmhand, Hayden West Neskey drops it on them. Houston, see where they are in the standings. Royals take two out of three from the Blue Jays. Blue Jays, what is we doing? It's getting late early in the boo-birds. We're out in Toronto as they get rocked in that final game, the rubber match. If you haven't seen the ball that Jack Caglione hit off a position player pitching, oh my God, different people in the league than us. Rays, not trod. Rays take two out of three from the Detroit Tigers.

If you scored more than one run, you won. The Tigers did that in the middle game, but the Rays did that in the bread games. Drew Rasmussen, absolutely, underrated. Freddie Peralta, with three. his best start as a Tampa Bay Ray. Rays get the set. White Sox take two out of three from the Texas Rangers. Is this not the Texas Rangers?

They come out in that first game. Eleven runs. Corey Seeger. Kumar Rockers look solid. They get rocked in the next two games. DeGrom gets pumped early. And Tristan Peters, a banana no more. Five straight games with a homer.

Brenton Doyle. Feeling that White Sox juice. Why not? They win that set. twins in the A's. Uh-oh. A's take two out of three after winning that first game. Cole Pepper looks good.

Zebby Matthews looks good, but it's A's the rest of the way. Carlos Cortez, all-story Ellie team. And J.T. again, nice season. Good for him. Your final AL series, and it's the team of the American League right now, IMO. It's your best Western Road Warriors, and it's Chris Roses. Cleveland Guard, dogs.

They went to Anaheim, and yeah, you expect to win. You don't know if you're going to sweep, and that's exactly what they did, including dramatic comeback fashion, down five-nothing. Jose Ramirez with a couple big games, and he hasn't been going crazy for them. We've got a Guardians win streak, their second comeback in the series in game three,

and they're kind of hot. The hottest team in baseball, Cleveland Guard dogs. They are your best Western Road Warriors. That's what happened in the AL. Chris Rose and family goes down to see him in Anaheim. A tip of the cap. Cleveland Guardians.

Gosh. Unbelievable. I have the standings. Nice. And I'll give them to you right now. Out east, my Tampa Bay raise. A four-game lead over your yanks. 79 and 54 for them.

75 and 58 for the Yanks. Boston, seven games, excuse me, 13 games. 500. I need to go back and look at where they were at in June. When did this big massive comeback start? He's on it. He's on it. Birds 65 and 69, Toronto, 65 and 70. I was DMing with Popkins. Oh. Over the week, yeah.

There's DMing. Hey, good job, buddy. The Chicago White Sox, 70 and 63. They have a two and a half game lead over the guard dogs. 68 and 66. My twins have fallen off, and it hurts. It hurts. Six and a half games back in the division. They're 64 and 70. The Tigers, they're dead.

62 and 71. The Royals playing great but dead. 60 and 75. And then out west, it's just, it's a mess. It's a mess. The Houston Astros have a one-game lead at 67 and 67. Texas, 66 and 68, one game back, as I mentioned. Seattle, 64 and 70.

They're only three games back, though, and surging. And then the A's, 53 and 81. the Angels, 52 and 82. So in the wild card, though, Jake, your Yankees hold the top spot above the Boston Red Sox. So two top spots go to the AL East. And then as of right now, it is the Cleveland Guard Dog sitting in that third wild card spot. They are two games up over Texas for it.

I mentioned there's 68 and 66. Texas two games back. Baltimore, three games back. Okay. Toronto. Three and a half games back. I'll go down. I'm going deep diving right now.

Four games back, the Twins and Seattle, and those are the standings in the American League. Thank you, Trevor Plouf. I will say, of note there, with the Guardians. And this is Jakey's 8 and 2. Normally I get rid of that in May, but with what the AL's done to us. And that's what the Guardians have done.

They've won 7 straight, 8 and 2 in their last 10. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two games into the wild card. And Treve, I think you're right. I think Detroit, it's over. I do. I think the dream's done. Your twins and Mariners are on life alert.

Eight and two could save these teams. I thought that we had to win that series in Oakland to put us like, just to stay in it. And we didn't. Spoiler alert. Oh, before we go on the series. I guess you already burned it a little bit. But yeah, I don't know, man.

I am, we called up Walker Jenkins. Hey, top prospect. Who could have seen that coming? Let's get into it a little bit. What do you want to talk about? Honestly, the big one for me is Philly's Mariners. I know we both kind of, I think we have some awards coming out of this. Cal Raleigh, looking like the guy we watched.

More on him later. It's 60 homers last year, dude. Like, God, if you're a Mariners fan, that had to have you in your fields in a lot of different directions. Zach Wheeler. Getting knocked around a little bit for the Phillies. That's, again, as we come into the final month of the season, that could be interesting.

Furious George, love that nickname. As George Kirby shoves. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, look, Philly didn't hit it all first two games. Aaron Nola has looked good. They're going to have some interesting decisions going into the playoffs and kind of what they're going to do with Nola and this pitching staff. But at least he's made it a factor because, you know, as of, you know, maybe six weeks ago,

he wasn't really a factor and he really turned it around. So that's good for him. Lazzardo pitched really well in that last game. Schwaber three-run homer off Wu, 40th Homer. Bryce Harper, a 509 on base in August would match his best month ever. Yes, that's pretty crazy. That's real crazy. They're the most, like they fluctuate in my mind more than any other team.

Like, they can look really bad at times. Like their offense can go cold. Starting pitching can keep them in there. But, like, they have the bottom and the top as far as the way they can play is the biggest gap for me. Okay. I'm about Philadelphia Phillies. They can run out and have incredible starting pitching, put it back to the bullpen.

It's great. And they can bang when everything is going right. They can play with anybody, but then there's times where they just look like they don't know what they're doing offensively. Yeah. Schwerber hits his 40th of the year. It's August. Mariners, more coming up, I swear. Yes.

And kind of in a good way, I think. Yeah. Yankees Astros, go listen to talking Yanks. We recorded last night. The bullpen is in a really interesting spot. Belly's back and he looked good this series. I think of note for me as Houston. Their, this N-L-S, A-L-W-S, excuse me,

their defense is tough. This is Houston. Their defense is unimpressive. Their lineup, they got guys. Obviously, they have the guy, but the lineup plays. The pitching, dude, if they can figure out how to get the ball to Hader, and you can even throw in Abraeu.

Brian Abraeu had a very bad first month since then. he's been Brian Abraeu. I don't know. It's obviously not the version of your royals that terrorize you in your career, but how I don't know if people know how good Josh Hader's been this year. It's, you know, I've commonly just called him the bad man because I, in my head, like when I don't look at stats and I just do like, who's the best, who's the best reliever in baseball?

I think Hater had that crown and then we've had a lot of guys come in that, oh, this guy throws a million miles per hour. Look at this gross pitch. Hater's the guy. I think Hater's the one won this year. Miller. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, look, I agree.

He's in the conversation. There's no doubt about it. Christian Walker with a good last game, he had not been hitting over the last couple of weeks. So that's a good sign for the Astros offense. Again, yeah, they're number one in the West, sitting at 500. They got to figure out kind of what's going on with the starters

because no Astro's starter. has finished six innings since West Nesky through seven on August 10th. That's 18 days ago. That's a long time to rely on your bullpen, and if they want to actually do something this season, I mean, any of these teams, you've got to have some starters go. Again, I'd pay my respects to the Reaper, Mason Miller.

Okay, you're doing this right now. Let's go for it. Reliever ERA, which it's not the number one stat. I think that might be the worst reliever stat. I think you're right, but 096 for Mason Miller, 079 for Hader. Whip, you like. I like whip. Mason Miller, 0.817.

Josh Hater, 069. I like that. No walks. Dude, I'm telling you, here's, so the Yankees have a big lefty lane in their lineup right now, and here comes Hater, and I'm like, oh boy, are they going to pinch hit Goldie, Rosario? Josh Hater versus Ritey's this year. You know, still pretty good against lefties. 5.08 O.P.S.

Against Ritees, 085, 167, a 277 OPS. That's what he's doing. So if Houston finds a way in the dance, and they somehow have a lead in the 8th, because they have the MVP on offense, like, I don't know. We can do all that. Are we going to talk about A.J. Bluebaugh a little bit? Talk about him.

Okay. Most underrated arms. You talk about the best, most underrated arm in that pen. He has 25 relief appearances of two or more innings. He's thrown a league best, 82 in a third innings already. We're in August. That's crazy. He's got a 0.6 over 11 outings since July 31st with 10 scoreless.

So if they can go Bluebaugh to a bray you to hate her, that's four innings. And he's had to do that because, as I mentioned, and they haven't thrown how to start or go six since August 10th. Almost every other pitcher, respect to Hayden Winsenske, former Yankee Farmhand shoves, almost every other Houston pitcher you were looking at like, how are they going to get through this anyway? Pitching is so weird, dude.

I know we're not going to talk. Let's just get to the A's and twins real quick because I want to mention it. Do it. Pitching is so strange because the A's bullpen has horrible numbers. But they have some guys in there. I'm like, how do you get hit? Right. Uh, what's the guy's name?

Is it, is it Dane Morris or is that, that doesn't sound right? Hogan Harris. Yeah. Yeah, Hogan Harris, that's two different people. Dane Morris. Hogan Harris is this tall, skinny dude who just throws bowling balls up there and breaks everyone's bat, but he gets raped. And I saw him throwing a bullpen. And one of my, my former teammates, Javiera, Guera.

Oh, nice. One of your favorite teammates. Former. Former. Sorry. Yeah, for sure. favorite. Sure.

Give him that. I don't know if he's the bullpen coach. I think Javi and I think. Yeah, he's one of the coaches that works for the pitchers. And he was out there so I was talking to him. And I said to Hogan, I was like, man,

you're filthy. And he goes, yeah, will you tell him that? He doesn't believe in himself. And I said, let me tell you this, dude. Nobody wants to get in the box against you. Nobody wants that.

You can kind of, you kind of like saw his face light up a little bit. Like, hey man, I needed like somebody to tell me I'm good, maybe outside of my organization. Anyways, pitchers are, it's a strange thing. It's a strange thing. I think this blue ball and going like two plus innings is maybe the most valuable type of pitching there is.

You can talk about starter, sure, maybe last three outs, but like that's so underrated. Think about your team. If you had a guy, you knew you could throw in there in a situation. You're going to get two scoreless out of him. He's going to reset the bullpen. He's going to come in, save your starter. Maybe you take him out in the fifth because you have a guy, you know, instead of going the third time, through the order and just praying, you can bring this guy in.

It could be the future. A is twins. Horrible for my twins. Yeah. Up huge in the first game. We bring in E. Andreas Gomez just because he needs work and he gets shelled, which is tough for him. That's a bad feeling.

That's why I said the ERA for closer sucks. Right. Because it's not a closed situation. He gave like three or four runs, whatever it was. But you have to get credit to the A's. I mean, they were scoring, they were hitting. Their bullpen actually did okay. They got some guys, Elvis Alvarado in the back end.

Those pretty hard. Big dude. There's some talent there. They walk a lot of people, but there's some talent. And the offense got hot. Lawrence Butler's been going off, man. He made, he, he's. He's needed it.

He is hilarious out there. He is fun. Again, I think that was my speech about, like, Root for Lawrence Butler, if you're a fan of baseball. His stats were starting to get you. And now he's. The A's, we're talking a lot about the A's right now. Too much.

They have so many people on the injured list. So many people. Soderstrom, Wilson, Nick Kurtz. You can go on and on and on about that team. Brent Rooker, like, it's Langelliers, like everybody's hurt for them. It's the top five in their lineup. Yeah. Okay.

Twins may have buried themselves, is all I'm trying to say. We've got some baseball to be played. White Sox fans, I'll apologize to you this episode. you guys probably deserve some more love, but it's a talking baseball express. Tristan Peters is out of his dome. It was an all-star, five straight games of the home run. Felt like I hit it properly on the way through in there.

This is very much the Texas Rangers for me, and this is very much the White Sox for me. They said the energy changed. And yeah, the energy changes when you have guys hitting absolute bombs and Peters. Looks locked in. I mean, some of his bats, I know, Lefties still get him. And there's, I think I, I watched a lot of Tristan Peters.

He kind of had a funk for a little bit this year. And I was like, oh, this is Tristan Peters. No, this guy is a problem. Over his last 18 games, 400, 483, 880. That's good. Yum. That's good. That's good.

Yeah. Trev, Reyes, I'm going to catch up with you in a minute. Blue Jays, you don't want me to catch up with you. The final AL team that needs to be talked about, it's Chris Rose's Cleveland guards hit him on the way through seven in a row we talked about what it meant in the standings if people don't know what stephen's been up to holy holy shirts and pants um that man is bad joe adele fitting in that uniform so well parker messick von grissom doing his best a little chrisale von grissom episode the guards are here they're inevitable austin hedges is above a league

average hitter. You got to love that for them because that's just obviously not his game. He still gets paid because that's how good he is handling a pitching staff. I like the Joe Adele edition. It has been great. It goes back to where he got traded from and, you know, go ahead RBI single in that first game. The thing that with the Guardians, which is scary. Yes, they have pitchers.

I mean, Parker Messick is great. Gavin Williams has the stuff to be one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. You can go down the line. I think they're starting pitching is phenomenal. They have started to get back into it without Jose Ramirez. He's given them nothing offensively. He got going in that second game. Three for six, three doubles,

had five runs driven in. That's okay. Like that. But entering 226, 321, 247. Only two extra base hits over 26 games since coming off the IL. So it's like, Stephen Kwan was missing early on in the year. Now he's going nuts.

I mean, since July 1st, Did you read the line or did you not? I did not read it. You can. 377, 474, 4757. Okay? And that's in like, that's real game. So it's like 40-ish.

Yeah. So you get Kwan back. If Jose Ramirez can just be 80% of Jose Ramirez, we're talking about a completely different lineup. You like, you like the bullpen, you like the starting pitching more than anything right now. And they're in a playoff spot. And I think they're going to fucking do

what they always do. And I think the Astros are going to do what they always do. And we're dummies because every year, everyone's like, you know what? It's got to come to an end sometime. Like, I don't know. Until it does,

we can't get away from these teams. Hey, I still don't believe in anything yet. Although the guards deserve more respect. And man, the scary thing is, kind of like you teed up, their playoff formula is really good. Arguably scarier than it's been. Williams to Messick to Cantica.

Nathaniel Lowe playing pretty well. Joe Adele playing pretty well. And Stephen Kwan being a 400 hitter changes thing. You mentioned Jose. Jose Ramirez. I like Jose. Jose Ramirez. Shout out Josie. Shout Josie.

Jose Ramirez playing 80% of himself. What if, like, Stephen Kwan, who is playing below his standard, what if Jose Ramirez gets hot? What if he starts playing 120% of Jose Ramirez? What if the Yanks got to play? the Guardians and Cade Smith is staring down. And here's Pee-D helping. I don't.

Oh, it's so true. Cade Smith is a freaking, he looks like they built him in a lab. I think he's Canadian. Maybe they did. Maybe they did. Canada, do they have labs in Canada? They have labs in Canada. I don't know.

100%. We got some Canadians coming down. Let's talk about it. Let's go on to standout performing. It's time for. Stand out for performances. Stand out performances. This guy stood out for Trev.

What? Standout performances. Presented by booking.com, booking. Yeah, an official travel partner of the MLB. Who do you got, Coach? I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't do this, but I actually believe in it, Coach. You know I like a young shortstop, okay?

it's tough to come up and put your mark on the game and kind of have to deal with playing the shortstop position at the Bigley level and have success offensively. Kael and Cole Pepper's done that. I think he needs to be mentioned in these episodes because I think going into next year, if you're a fantasy baseball player like Dalton Feely over here, who's had Colpepper on his roster

because he knows someone that played for the twins. No, that was before me. you're going to want to know this guy is all I'm saying. Okay, on Monday he went four for five with an RBI. He had a homer in this series as well. Overall in the season, 57 at bats. I mean, just got called up. 57 of bats, though, 333, 3-33, 3-81, 526 for the 907 OPS.

Now, again, do we want to see it with a larger sample? Yes, we do. But he looks the part. He truly does. And I was a little worried about his defense when he first came. up because we'd heard toolsy, we'd heard good arm, all these things to describe young players. I'm like, all right, I want to see what the footwork looks like. He's kind of got it, dude.

Is this the play at the middle? That's nice. I mean, he's got a great arm, and I look at footwork with short stops. He doesn't look overmatched. His feet are working at the correct pace. The steps are there, not a lot of wasted movement. Like, he's just, he's doing, look at this catch. What a catch.

He elects, the nickname him the electrician. Do you like the way he wears his uni? Sure do. Because I do. He looks good in the uni. And I saw that down and in home run that we showed a second ago on the YouTube channel. He's got lightning quick hands. I'm just saying he's a name.

I think a lot of people are going to know soon. We just call the Walker Jenkins. So the youth movement is here. It might be a little bit too late. This guy's a real deal prospect we call it. I can't wait to see him. He's starting tonight. I'm excited.

The White Sox. Joe Mower comparisons. Go Twins go. I'm obviously still rooting. What? that he plays baseball? No, the swing. He's right-handed.

No, no, no, no. Walker Jenkins. Oh, okay. Okay. I didn't realize we transition. Okay. Anyways, know the name. You're welcome, everyone.

Shout up Mickey Gasper. Hotest on the field and off-the-field player. People are saying. I'm doing another Friday double because it's two pitchers on the best team in the AL on an NL Friday. Drew Rasmussen, who we talked some, We talked about how that Braves Dodgers series, Yamamoto and Sale,

you got the two of the top four pitchers in the NL. By betting odds, the third best pitcher in the AL this year would be Drew Rasmussen. I've done some awards on him, so I won't do the whole thing. But go check out who he has been as a Tampa Bay Ray. Because, you know what, I will give you those stats. For six years now, he's been a 279 ERA. Ray. He's gross, man.

And then the other part of that, a guy that if you did a poll before the season, who's a better pitcher, Drew Rasmussen or Freddie Peralta? I bet a lot of people would be like Freddie Peralta. He'd been the Brewers ace. Now he's a Met. Not a Met anymore. He's on the raise. He got rocked.

His first two starts, Coors in Oakland or Sacramento. Fuck! Swear jar. I don't even think you're allowed to say Sacramento. I don't think you can say either, yeah. Yeah. And then he had a couple tough ones after that. He goes six-inning shutpiece. It's against a Tigers team that's maybe dying. Hey, I know what the raise can do to a pitcher. Ask Ryan Baker, ask years of pitchers that are going through there.

Fastball Freddie, six-inning shutpiece, and Drew Rasmussen, that's just what he does. So a little daily double for me, and I'm sorry to Jack Caglion again. Hector Rodriguez. Can I see this Jack Caglione Homer? I haven't seen it. I was working this week. I didn't get to see a lot of this. ball. I'm sorry to fall in love with Luis Garcia Jr. I made a comp that I can't even tell you because you'd be mad about it. Oh, it's a slow pitch softball. Position player pitching, he goes third deck. Miles Straw literally throws in and just like grenade, frag out. He's a big boy. Caglione is really like, look at that hair. Going into next, oh my God, going into next year, people should be all over

at Cagbillon. Yeah. And it was, it was supposed to be this year, and it didn't start out that way. No, but it got there. And he got there. Drew Raspison, uh, 98th percent on walk percentage. Sign me up, dude. I, yeah, hate walks. It's coming at you. I hate walks. Fill the zone up. Can I ask you who's on? No bevers. Drake Baldwin. Hey, now, thanks to our partners at booking.com, making it easy for baseball fans to get where they want to be. Booking.com. Booking. Yeah. An official travel partner of MLB, Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission. Give me some in fuego. Dirt nasty's on Fuego.

That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. Seilos, Hebedus, Huntes. He said, Hebrot, Hyantes. Well, their first baseman is Raphael Devers. He's on the list. Seven for 15. How many homers three? Yeah.

Six runs driven in for the 1.5 in the series, Mickey Gasper. My Mickey Gasper. Was he yours first? He was yours first because you were like, why is there some MFer named Mickey Gasper playing on the twins right now? And I said he was going to be future manager of the twins. And now he's my doppelganger, and he's the Red Sox best player ever.

Can you please get me the Mickey Gasper quote about Mickey Mantle? They're calling him the Mick. Things are getting nuts in Boston. This was when I fell in though with Mickey Gasper. After we do in Fuego, we'll have it for you. Four for seven in this series, two homers. That was his first multi-homer game in his career. Say the OPS again for me.

Two. That's four for seven with two homers and a double. Pretty good. Dalin Lyle National land up there You know hey you guys had a nice start to the season That was fun for a little bit right 8 for 15 two doubles three homers eight runs driven in

Christian and Carnaccio and Strand Former twin a lot of former twins on the list here Eight for 14 a homer five runs driven in On Wednesday He played the role of the hero Jake I mentioned the line four for five two doubles He started scoring with an RBI single

in the first, and then he ended the scoring with a go-ahead double in the top of the ninth. So, you know, a little book-in situation. Yeah, I like book-ins. Good day at the office. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tristan Peters, you already mentioned him. For the week, 10 for 21, two doubles,

five homers, nine runs driven. He also scored seven runs, and he stole a base. Two White Sox rookies this year. It's Peters and Murakami. They've each had a stretch of five or more straight games with a homer. They're the first team to do that since 19. 1900. That's pretty good. Anything. You know, if you were born in 1900, they say you were born

last century, which is true, but it hurts. Oh, we're getting hit with that? Okay. Yeah, that's a tough one for us. For years being born in 89 was a cool thing for me. Now not. No, they're like, what? Now old. They're like, wait, so you're Mickey Gasper's older brother? Oh, gosh. Miguel Vargas, the season of Miguel Vargas continues. Nine for 17. a double, Homer, four runs driven in. Why is he on In Fuego? Because he had 10 walks to go along. Crazy.

What is the money ball? Why do we like him? He gets on base. Speaking of getting on base and driving in runs, because we like that too. Ian Hap. Professional. Could I beat him in golf?

Maybe right now because he hasn't been playing. He hasn't been playing a lot. He hasn't been playing. I'm an eight right now. Seven for 20, two doubles, three, Homers 10 runs driven in for the 1.3. Bryce Harper, my guy. Still says hi to me all the time.

Yeah, we're friends. That's good. Would he say we're friends? I don't know. He would say former teammate, spring training 2019. Yeah. Nine for 22, three doubles, two homers, five runs driven in. He's extended his on base streak to a career best, 29 straight games.

The last time he failed to reach base was July 25th, the day before he moved back to the outfield. Luis Garcia, Jr. you mentioned him. That's your guy. Eight for 21, three homer, seven runs driven in violent swing. Pretty but violent. That's Susan Fuego. Thank you, Trevor.

Yeah, I, I'm, Louise Garcia Jr. looks really good. Do you want the Mickey Gasper quote? Mickey Mantle puts his head down and runs around the bases. Mickey Gasper should too. Yeah, he had a Homer and just didn't, you know, he didn't do a trot. He ran around the bases. This Boston team is something else. And they're coming to the Bronx for four, nervous and excited.

I'll tell everyone, okay, I'll give a mini Jake Spiel here. We've recorded a lot of content. This is Talking Yanks is on Year 10 somehow. Doesn't really make sense. I think baseball today is, are we doing our 1,000th episode? Did you guys just do it? Oh, no. Like, we're like really close to our 1,000th episode.

So, again, thanks, thanks, everyone. This is incredible. You guys are the best. No, no, no, no, no, no. Baseball today. Oh, baseball today. Yeah. That other show. That other show.

That other show. That, you know, things have changed a lot. People look at us as, like, actual media, and we're kind of like, we're not actual media, but we kind of are. Oh, gosh. You know, we're, sometimes we're careful with what we say. Sometimes we're not, and that's the game. Yeah. I had a good comp. Luis Garcia, Jr., if you do his last two years, compared to.

the start of Big Poppy's career. The numbers are similar. Two big lefty masher's. Big Poppy was looking for his opportunity. Luis Garcia was playing out of position, finding his role. I don't know. You can do a lot with numbers.

You can do a lot with numbers. That's all I'll say. Luis Garcia. First game playing with a massive chain gets four hits. Next day gets three hits. I love a massive chain. It's a big L, a lion.

and then a G. There's a lot of guys now that have chains that I don't think should have chains, but they just do. Oh. I feel like. Don't chain, Shane. I am.

I'm going to do. I think you got to have a guaranteed contract. Go ahead. Okay. Because do what you got to do. So like if you're one of those guys that got like paid before you even played a day in the big leagues, go for it. I just think you got to earn it a little bit. Okay.

Which is a horrible, like people are going to hate that I said that. Now that's old. That's old school right there. I put Miguel Snow's chain on one time. And I couldn't believe that he would wear that and try to run. But he's also twice the size of it. Yeah, he's built like work equipment. He's massive.

And I think he's still playing in Japan? Let's get on that. Let me tell you about batters who are struggling. This game comes for everyone, including Taylor Ward, New Seattle Mariner, and an 0 for 15. Tough. Jake Mangum, letting the Jakes down with a one for 16. Glaver Torres.

Come on. The Venezuelan Victor, two for 21. And then Murakami, two for 22. Luckily, Tristan Peters exists. 13 strikeouts in those 22 abats, you. For the two weeks, ah, the Cracken, El-Garie, Trev's guy, one for 26. Taylor Tremel, a really nice guy. We've met him.

Two for 30. AJ Ewing, and a six for 47. And just proof that the game comes for everyone. Trey Turner, six for 41. The goal is to get these guys on Trebs and Fuego and get them the hell away from me. The aisle, the only thing that's worse.

Willie Adomas, expect to be out for the year. Hate that. I kind of actually like it for him, if I'm being honest. Kyle Freeland and Huasca Brazo Bonn, banged up. Shane Bieber, right? Terra's, uh-oh, four plus weeks. We're running out of weeks, man. That's it.

Pete Fairbanks with some nerves. Mason Win, minor left thumb fracture, hoping for a minimum. Fernando Cruz, man. Again, everyone, we're all closer to our individual teams, and you guys know your team better than me. Really cool story. Didn't make the Biggs until he was old. He'd become a Yankees-Reliable setup guy.

UCL out for the year could be, who knows what's next. Jeremiah Estrada, three to four weeks. Senor Pugh, Adrian Houser, out for the year. Tyler O'Neill, right shoulder inflammation. Big shoulders. Big old shoulders. Rokey's got some blister stuff going. We've got to figure that out before October.

And Michael Massey, we like the swing. Concussion. Let's get him back. A couple guys who came back, Treves, J.P. Crawford. Here's what you need, Seattle. Kyle Stowers for Miami, Salon, his free licks in Milwaukee. Tyler Glassnow, our guy, the Dodgers. And Hunter Goodman for Colorado.

Huh? Wonder if we hear any more about that. Can we start everyone's weekend the right way? Award. The best. Trevor, you go. I feel like I've switched up from Tolkien baseball to Thrones. Big time.

Yeah, I'm a little darker in my old age, I think. I am going to give the Knights Watch award. As you know, John Snow, as he's known early on, is sentenced to live out his days at the Knights Watch. That's for life. It's life. That's for life. You go up there, that's for life.

And they have certain rules. They're neutral in, like, battles. They don't choose sides. Like, their job is to defend the wall from what's ever past it. Wildings. No sex. White Walker. Well, that's an ambiguous rule there, I think.

But that's, yes, it is a rule. It's a rule. It's a rule, but a lot of them break it. That's getting stopped with that. You're interrupting my award here. At one point, because John has. seen the white walkers. He enlists the wildlings. And this is show

stuff because the books are it's different. In the show, he enlists the wild wings and brings them south of the wall because he knows if they get killed by the army of the dead, that's just more people that they have to fight. So in his mind, he's like, hey dude, like let's bring these people. He falls

in love with one of them. That's a whole big. In real life, too. That's kind of crazy. Are you a crow? What are you doing? Oh, in real life. You're right about that. Kind of nuts. That's really funny. I would have thought he would have ended up with DeNaris.

He didn't. Spoiler alert. Kills her. Anyways. Anyways. It's seen as a clear violation of the Knights watch to him bringing the wildings through the wall. So they conspire, including a young man named Ollie, to kill John. John's dead.

John is freaking dead. He's out. Okay? Just so happens that Milisandre is there. And she has just lost the Battle of Winterfell. What's his name? Baratheon's dead. Stanis.

Stanis Baratheon's dead. That's her king. Dead. She's out. She's like, I'm done. The season's over, Pop. We're done. Let's start playing the Cabo vacation.

Let's get out of here. Before these white walkers come, they convince her to try and resurrect John. She's like, all right, I'll do it. She freaking like cleans them up, does all these things, tries to resurrect through the Lord of the Light, and then fails. Or so she thinks.

John ends up waking up. The big gasp, and what I love most about this is, as we mentioned, the night's watch, that's through death. Because John died, he's like, I'm freaking, I'm out, guys. I'm going to go take my place. and do what I got to do. So he is out. The very same situation is happening with the Mariners.

Yes. They were dead. They've been dead. It's been disgusting. We've wanted them to succeed all year long. And they just haven't. And the biggest reason for them this year is the guys haven't been the guys, specifically Cal Raleigh.

He just hasn't been able to find the stroke called injury. Call it what you will. But sometimes you just need a. a little bit of magic to help you get going. Or in this case, a little swing change. Get your hands up. An article came out, and I'm going to give the guy credit right now. It was done by Daniel Kramer, Dean's brother, spelled differently.

He put out an article about Cal Raleigh and his adjustment. And you just did it. Show him again, Jake. Show him how he did it. Just put your hands up a little higher, right? So he had his hands set a little lower, and then he'd have to load kind of up into the hands. I always talk about.

People have heard me. say this before, you want to eliminate excess movement as much as possible. So get to the point where you can fire as quick as possible. So then you have more time to read the pitch, make better swing decisions, more quality swing decisions, and you have more time to get to the ball. All this excess movement, hey, when things are going well, go for it, pa. Do what you got to do. You're getting the barrel to the ball.

Don't stop. But if you're not getting the barrel of the ball, that's the first thing you would do. In my opinion, as a hitting coach. By the way, we had the Red Sox hitting coach go with, like, talk with. with DeRosa and Chris Young. I thought he did a great job. Okay. But like, it's funny because we put him,

oh, whatever, next episode. Cal Raleigh eliminated excess movement, got his hands up to his fire position, and has gone off, okay? It's only been six games. It's been 24 played appearances, but what's he done? Hit five homers.

Good. He's hit five homers, and the Mariners desperately need that. Right now, I had the standings earlier. I'm going to get him back, three back in the division for them, and they are four-back in the wild card. With this team, they can still make a run.

We might be seeing a John Snow situation where, hey, guess what, guys, he was dead. He ends up finding out he's the true heir to the throne. I have the Mariners winning the World Series. They could do it still. They have to somehow get there, which is going to be tough for them. This is the first start, getting your guy who at 60 last year,

back in because when he hits homers, win games. John Snow, Cal Raleigh, Back to Life, Lord of Light, Milisandre, Sneaky Hot. Not even Sneaky Hot. Sneaky hot. Sneaky hot. She like 200 years old or something?

Yeah, when she, the magic wears off. You don't want that. That's my award. For all our Thrones baseball people, I couldn't be happier for you. If you were planning on watching Game of Thrones, sorry. It's too late now. It's 15 years. If you're never, if you don't care, well, there was a lot of baseball in there, too.

I'll hit you with some, if you're a baseball sicko, and you're like, give me more of that. Cal Raleigh tied a team record with homers and four straight at bats. That ties, our guy Mike Cameron, of course, obviously. Piceps. Rally became the first Seattle player to hit four homers over two consecutive games since Kenji Jojima. No. Yeah. No.

Yeah. So take your lady Melas. Asandra. Oh, man. Put one finger up there. Let's see. Let's see what Seattle's got, because I don't know. I'm ready for whatever, but if Cal Raleigh is a 900 OPS catcher in September,

that would be a lot different than what they've gotten. No Mariner had ever homered three times in the game at T. Mobile Park since it opened July 1999. There's only been one visitor to do it. That's Victor Martinez in 2004. Victor Martinez. Yeah. Sheesh. He could.

He had a bad case of being nice. I'll be hind tight. Mike Cameron versus Aaron Boone. Mike Cameron. My Cameron versus Zeus. Mike Cameron. I'm just going to give out the best to ever do it award. No, I'm not going back to Randy.

Oh, I thought you might. Right. Because it's been a lot of raise out of me. Me in the warehouse. Nope. Nope. We had some history, and I thought that should be shouted out. Hunter Goodman, there hasn't been a lot of Rockies talking a while, and he's been on the IL.

Hunter Goodman Homer, shocker. Hunter Goodman with the home run becomes the most prolific home run hitter as a catcher in Rocky's history. So, you know, all of our teams have different historic players. You're comparing Walker Jenkins to Joe Mower. I don't know about that. You know, I've got guys named Yogi back there. I've got Howard. I've got Monson.

Pasada. Every team in your positions and who you know, who you don't know, whatever. I know the Rockies are a limited franchise history. I know it's been bad. Hunter Goodman, a guy that a lot of us are on the deadline, were like, should we trade all the prospects for Hunter Goodman? He's the best homering catcher in Rocky's history. He deserves some credit for that.

He's just getting started. Trev eyed at first. he swings like Josh Donaldson. Josh Donaldson signs off on it. He signed it second, yeah. And if Josh Donaldson signs off on it, that means he believes in it. And there was a little bit,

we're in our warehouse, and we're about to have a warehouse weekend. And Kelsey Winger is literally the best to ever do it. She's not going to be here this weekend, and I was a little sad. I'm also a little sad about that. And she's just the best to ever do it. And that's just big fact.

So I'm glad Rocky's fans get to see her. We're going to see him at 40 homers this. Yeah. Yeah. And that was part of it. Here's Kelsey Winger getting crushed by a, what is this, a Nor-Easter? What do they call them out? Out in Colorado. Why do they like funny things always happen to Kelsey? And also scary things. She's like a magnet for foul balls. She's just the best to ever do it. So is Hunter Goodman. There's your Rockies love. Maybe for the rest of the season. It's time for us to play. So you guys are the absolute best. per usual. We love you guys. Hope your team wins this weekend.

Shout out Dalton Feeley, Rob Serocco, Jimmy O'Brien, right? James. Formerly baby James. I can't hear the music. Jake sucks. I do.

I got, you know, whenever I'm out on the town doing stuff for like twins, a lot of talking baseball fans come up. So shout out to everybody. We love you guys. Mostly they hate you.

God, you just get rid of that Jake guy.