Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Brewers are in Bad Shape | 524

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball, the Mets and the Dodgers shoe away their division rivals and say, don't care. Let's talk about it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball presented to you by Seatkeek. My name is Jimmy sitting next to me is Jake. We got Trev with three guitars over his shoulder in California. Four guitars over his shoulder. My bad. And BPD, producing away in the corner wearing his We Got Ice floorball jersey.

It is a big day, Trev. Team baggage versus Team We Got Ice premieres tonight. Winner, jettisons to the semifinal. Loser has to play quarterfinal game. That's later tonight on the Warehouse Games channel. Jake, how are you doing? James, BPD, Trevor, Trevor's Mike Stain. And what is going on, everyone.

Hope you had a good. I hope you had a nice steamy weekend. Holy Toledo. It was warm. Pretty much anywhere you were if you're listening to this show. Excited to go in, man. You mentioned the Metropolitan's off the top. That crowd with DeGrom and what they did to the Braves.

That's impactful on this season. Our yanks in a little bit of a dog day situation. And, you know, Monday up. Best up, Trev, you know? You know what I'm saying? You know I love Monday apps because a little bit of that weekend energy bleeds into Monday. I don't think people realize that. Like, there is a little bit of Sunday vibe on a Monday morning if you really believe it to be true.

I don't know what I just said. But I am back in California. It was a late night for me. I came back. Yes, my microphone stand was broken in half. So now I've fixed something that I think will work. But if my mic drops in the middle of the show, it's not because it's my fault.

I'm going to blame my children. Sometimes that's okay. James, what's up with you, man? I'm good. I'm a little, you know, I was trying to tell myself it was mid-August. And then I like check the date today because we spent four days in the warehouse where time doesn't exist.

And I was like, surely we're in the mids or not. It's only August 8th. That sucks. Yeah. So much August left. If it sucks. August isn't that? Why does everyone get so mad at August?

I hate August. It's the worst. July 4th is fun. And you got a little bit of summer left. And then August is so hot, sticky, gross. I haven't even started a daydreaming of fall yet. That's good news. But now I probably kick started that in my brain.

Yeah, you just did. some teams some teams showed up this weekend though in a very fun ways yes and I'm excited to talk about it I have the NL covered there's some good topics there

Jakey he's got the AL midfest this week American League pick your shit up he says not that great there and Trev's got the IL which has some fun stuff as well good why do you look like Howard CoSell today

Jake his hair Did you wash it extra or something? It's fluffier than usual. I did a Jakey Fluffy look today. You got to mix it up. Yeah. And you're going to go interview Muhammad Ali later today? What's going on?

Jeff Pass. Howard Coselle, a known sexual guy. Exterior. Known hot boy, Howard Cuccell. Does that just mean you think it looks like he has a toupee on? His friend is Tom Verducci a friend of the pod trip? Three, two, one. No.

Tom. I like, no. wait, hold on. Hold on. I'd like him to be. I just don't think he is. Okay, that's fair. Trev and him were in first class up in the sky. Megan loves.

No, he looked to me and it was like, oh, that's why I text you. As I had, we said mean things about Tom Verducci on this show. I wasn't sure because he gave me kind of a weird look. Jay called him Verducke once. I'm telling you. Everyone tweet at Tom Verducci and say the talking baseball guys love you. I do. I do enjoy his stuff.

He's a storyteller. Yeah. And, dude, I'll tell you this. It looks great in person. Yeah. Yeah, we were in an elevator with him once. Yes. That's nice.

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that I wore in the floor ball documentary. Oh, goodness. I bought a couple more. They're coming. Nice fit. They look good. Yeah, I agree. Not to throw Trev's whole game off.

Dua Lippa just named an honorary ambassador of Kosovo. Of where? Kosovo. Who's you replacing? I think she's just getting the knot. It's kind of like a 27th man on a doubleheader. They don't have only one honorary ambassador. I don't think so.

Okay. I think you can just pump those. She deserves everything she gets. Let's do the NL. You guys ready to hear about it? Hit it, kick it. The Braves, they're coming for the Mets. They come, they come, they come.

They lose game one. They win game two. Then the Mets win the next three. They win the double header. DeGrom pitches, Scherzer pitches, Peterson pitches, they all go off. Strider says some fun stuff at the end, making excuses, home runs, good pitching, statement series by the Mets, they say, uh, uh, uh, uh. Kuna did his first home run in a while.

I think Braves fans are hoping that leads into more. And then a similar story down in L.A., Jake. The Padres go to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers, and they get absolutely. shut down by Gonselin, Heaney, and Anderson. Shut down. They outscore them like 27 to 4 or something like that. They went 8 to 1, 8 to 3, 4 to nothing. Oh, no, Padres.

Phillies, they play the Nationals. Phillies are in a race. Nationals are not. Phillies need to win. It's a four-game set. Four-game sweeps are hard to come by. The Phillies win all four. I didn't count the amount of home runs they hit, but I wanted to.

It was something I told myself to do. 14. I just found it. They get 14 home runs, the Philadelphia Phillies. By like 10 different players, I think it felt like while I was watching. It was nuts. Good for the Phillies. They jumped the standings of the wild card a little bit, and they get contributions from some of their new guys.

Meanwhile, the Brewers win game one against the Reds, and that's good. Get back into roll of things. Uh-oh, they lose game two. They lose game three and extras. A brutal error by Brassoe. It's not on the Red Sox yet, but we'll be soon. And the Reds take two out of three from the Brew crew.

That's not ideal. The Marlins and the Cubs play three games. Cubs win game one. Cubs win game two. Marlins. Win game three. I don't got much from that series. Rockies and D-backs.

Jake and Kelsey battling it out. The D-backs win the bread games. Rockies win the middle game. Garner. Not a great start. Marquez. He says a nice start. Kelly and Cenzatella have a nice little battle in the second game. And then Davies with five shutout innings in game three to help the D-backs get the win. And there you go. That's the National League. Not that much going on. I mean, some really big heavy hitters at the top of it. But we are, uh, we are, uh, we are are going to try and we're stay as the home stretch comes here of these episodes we're attempting to

stay a little more dialed and focused on the big things so i've got the two biggest talking points from the nl for you guys and it's the met's and the dodgers statement wins i can let you guys choose where you want to start i can tell you the stuff that i find interesting i'm going to bring up the standings as soon as i can i forgot to prep those but the card the met's and the Dodgers have... It's a duo of deghs. You know what I mean? Say that again?

Dodgers, a duo of degaves, don't give a, you know what? Dodgers don't give a, you know what, about all of the Padres moves. Mets don't care about a surging Braves team. They got DeGronback. They don't care about shit. Yeah. The Mets don't care about anything.

No. And Bucks having so much fun. Jake, you want to start with the, The Mets or the Dodgers? The Mets are now six and a half up on the Braves. They were within a game. The Braves were within a game and young thick said, we're coming for you.

And now it's back down to six and a half. The Dodgers are 15 and a half up in the division after that. In the wild card, the Padres are still there. They're the third seed right now. And Atlanta is the first seed. So they're not, you know, these losses didn't, and send them out of the playoffs, obviously. But especially for the Braves,

they're trying to catch the Mets. They were trying to catch the Mets. This is a traumatic, more impactful than the Dodgers series. I mean, even if San Diego brought the noise this weekend, the division has been over, it's over. The Dodgers have the best record in baseball easily, easily. Big Dodgers up for me. Teaser.

The Mets. they take four or five against the Braves. The Braves, they had their slow start, and then they started coming, and they're the Braves. And here's Jakey organizations. I love good organizations. The Braves need more respect, man. They've been a really good franchise for 20 years.

The Mets, they've had kind of an opposite history of that. More gaffs than de-gaffs, as Trevor might say. The Mets put it on them. I'm like, if this series had gone the other way, and the Braves took four out of four, we'd be like, oh, it's happening. The Braves are here. No, the Mets fend them off again.

The Mets have fended off the Braves without DeGrom, without Scherzer. Both of those guys are now throwing the pill for them. Like, we should have already had our Mets' oh shit moment this season. Double S bombs for me today. And we have not. Buck deserves a ton of the credit. Their pitching staff deserves a ton of the credit. And, I mean, you know, I know we got.

the pleasure of seeing Peter Moyland Braves analysts this weekend. He says that they're a flawed team right now. And it's a six and a half game lead. Six and a half. They are closer to the Phillies than the Mets right now. Massive for the Mets. And like I think it's the Mets division.

Like this kind of, I thought the Braves were going to come back and roll and go. The Mets kind of fully won me over. with this five-game set. Still a lot of baseball to be played, but this, I mean, obviously it was a statement series. If you can get a statement series in August, this was it. You had the Braves pitcher Spencer Strider come out

and trying to find excuses. I talked about this a little bit with C. Rosie this morning. At first, I was like, I kind of like it because I just, I want him to feel invincible, and I want him to feel like the only way they can beat him is by, you know, a ball hitting a third base bag. or the umpire helping them get into hitters' counts because that's what he was alluding to.

But the more and more I think about it, I'm like, hey, man, keep that to yourself. In your mind, you can think that stuff. And in the clubhouse around your other starting pitchers, you can say that stuff. But when you put it out there, I don't think it's the right thing to do. Now, coming back into city field,

like he's going to hear it. And you're just adding an extra layer to an already difficult job of handling the Mets. you're adding another layer. So I'm assuming Charlie Morton or Max Fried, whoever, is going to sit down and talk to him about that. Because that's stuff that you keep in the clubhouse. Okay, like maybe he was fed some information about it saying like,

hey, these guys have been, you know, their bat up is high. And like we're expecting it to regress a little bit, whatever it may be. The actual, you just got to just keep it to yourself. The quotes that Strider said, asked him, I mean, he went 2.2 innings pitched, six hits, four earned runs. Not a good line. And he was asked about it and he said,

they seem to be having a lot of luck right now offensively. That's great. It's August. We'll see what things are like in October. I am fine with that. Not really, but if he pitches well the next time he faces them, then I look back on that quote and say, all right, kids got moxie, whatever.

Like, he's not afraid to talk dumb and he backed it up. That one doesn't upset me. this other quote is such a loser quote and like strider I'm not going to hold against you forever but like you got to know this is just such a loser thing to say I don't know he asked why the Mets are so good at grinding out of bats I don't know it helps when they're getting calls and one in one getting calls in one counts turned to two and one counts

instead of one and two counts and stuff like that like blaming the umpires is I mean anyone that plays like little league I mean you just honestly you can't do that and then he goes, when your BABIP is 3.30, 340 as a team, it's tough to get quick innings and quick outs. Dropping the other team

Babbip? Yeah. That's info. You shouldn't even know that, yet alone have it committed to somewhat memory and then share it with the media. Like it's on your mind. Like they've been getting lucky all season.

Their season team Babbup is this. So that's just, That's a tough one. The first one I like, and if he backs up both of them, that's cool, but I don't know. It's just kind of PR 101. Like, dude, don't say that. Yeah. He got fed that information. There's no doubt. He gets the packet. This is what's going on. The counts thing. I mean, it matters in a game. Obviously, like, there are statistics to back that up. You know, 1-0 to 201. It's completely different at bats on either side of the ball. So, like, I mean, there is truth to what he's saying, but this is, he's a,

Ashland came on our show too this morning and, and basically, look, he's a rookie. Like, rookie shouldn't be saying this stuff. And that's what he'll get taught to from some of his veteran pitchers. And I agree with you, James. If he comes down and shuts him down the next time, he'll be like, oh, okay, maybe this guy just got that, that vinegar in him. But I don't love it. Yeah, no. I also don't hate it.

I don't care, honestly. It's a, it's the athlete mentality, like you said. I mean, even jumping to the locker room, this kid is, hey, he's 23, he throws a buck O2, he's punching tickets like a prime or all this Chapman. This kid should think he's invincible, and he kind of gave quotes like that. Yeah, they're sore loser stuff, and in October, he's either going to look really bad or really good. If they come out and they end up locking up with the Mets and he shoves and they win, he'll look like a folk hero, and he'll,

He'll probably wear a shirt the start of the next series. It says, die babbib gods. But if you come out and lose to the Mets, I mean, there's going to be egg on a young man's face, but that's why being 23 is cool sometimes. I liked the Mets in game one. We were watching the bar at D.S. Edwin D.S. comes out for the two-inning save.

And I was watching with Peter, and I was like, it's August. And he's pitched a lot this year. And then, you know, Oh, it's the Braves, obviously. It's game one against the Braves. Let's get game one win. And then Buck said he was on five days rest, so that's fine.

He gets three saves in the series, D.S. does. He pitches a lot. Meanwhile, on the other side, the Mets were down seven runs at one point, and they came back enough to make the Braves use their good relievers. And Janssen comes in. So that's, you know, you get a guy, you get a team to, in a five-game set, you get a team to use their closer and what should be a non-save game. That's still a mini win the rest of the way.

It didn't come into play next three games, but I thought that was kind of nice. And this other note we have here that with DeGrom and Scherz are coming back, that Peterson has been told he may go to the bullpen in the postseason because he's awesome against lefties. I like that shit. You guys know I've been worried about the Mets bullpen come to postseason. And then I love what.

when teams take an extra starter and go to the bullpen. So that was like, oh, yeah. I like the Mets a lot in the postseason. That's another. Your thing about the Mets bullpen has been two-way guys, which he doesn't frame that way. Well, I don't like their one-way guys. I don't like Shreve or Juelly.

There you go. So I like, and then he can have all extra innings and he can get other guys, you know, not going to use them as a one-only guy. Yeah. So I'm into that. another move for the Braves. Ion Anderson gets optioned.

You know, he's a big part of that team last year. Kind of struggled. He's been struggling this year, obviously, and, you know, the emergence of a few guys, right and strider is kind of, I guess he's the odd man out. If they put Peterson back in the pen, does he come back?

Like, I don't. Well, Anderson, he's been, he's been struggling. And, yeah, that's, uh, you got to make some big boy decision sometimes. I mean, he pitched massive playoff games for them. That's a, that's got to be a tough one. And I mean,

you got baseball. Odo. Yeah, you got Odo, Freed, right, Morton, Strider, and Peterson. That's for the Mets. Sorry. I mean, sorry. Yeah, those five guys. So I think he sent him down, work on some stuff. Do you think he's, we see this guy back up?

Like, is he going to be part of the postseason plan for the Braves? I don't know. I was talking with Peter deep dive last night. Like the Braves bullpen on paper looks like video game stuff. He's crazy concerned about the Braves bullpen right now. I don't know how that compares across all teams across baseball. But, you know, that's something on paper that us looking from the outside in, you'd be like,

you know, that doesn't bother me at all. Like, the Braves have depth back there. They just added RISL. Baseball. I just don't know. I think the, you know, it's summer's here, the heavy part of summer, where the Braves train going to keep rolling. And no, instead the Mets, like, Matumbo, block the shot.

And here's the best pitcher ever. People in the chat are saying, I on Anderson will be back on Saturday to pitch one of the games of the double header. He's in that role now. 27th, man. All right, moving on. Let's do the tackle bell noise. a little noise whenever we need to keep the show moving.

The Dodgers just, it's a bummer because the Padres made all the moves. And the Dodgers get Heaney off their injured list. And they're like, well, that's basically a trade for us. We're going to pitch her back. I mean, the offensive numbers in this Dodgers Padre series are quite fun. If you're a Dodgers fan, they had 41 hits. Padres had 21 hits. The Dodgers scored 25 runs.

The Padres scored seven. Gonsland, Heaney, and Anderson combined for 16.2 innings pitched zero earned runs against the Padres lineup with Soto and Bell. That's such a middle finger to the Padres, or not even a middle finger, like such a big brother moment right there. And I don't expect it to always happen this way. I don't think the Dodgers are, you know, so much better than the Padres. They're going to sweep them every time. but this is, I mean, it couldn't have worked out any better for the Dodgers playing them at home after this. Like you see Tate's getting warm back up. He's playing rehab games.

But dude, you got a lineup full of dudes there. And you have essentially three guys who were at the beginning of the year were afterthoughts for the Dodgers. Enie Anderson Gonsolent. And they're just shutting out the Padres with their new look lineup with the young Ted Williams smack dab in the middle of it. It's incredible, man. What they do is, I don't get it, man. I don't understand, but here we are. Dodgers surging.

Afterthoughts is true. They're afterthoughts for every other organization. One of the first moves made this offseason, the Dodgers signed Andrew Heaney. And Yankee fans who were in a very tough spot with young Andrew after his performance in the Bronx. We're laughing. and now the dude has an ERA that starts with zero.

Tyler Anderson, who I enjoyed last year. He was sneaking into a lot of really quality starts. He had the Jomboy stat. He had a lot of five innings, six innings, low earn runs. He gave you a chance, competitive starts. Now with the Dodgers, I mean, this guy is prime Kershaw. So I don't know, man. I know we've talked about coaching staffs a lot.

And, you know, Trev, I know there's a little bit, you were dabbling, maybe looking at joining, becoming a member of the Dodgers organization. I don't know, dude. I have no idea what's going on because how could their coaching technology, information and everything be that much better that they can hunt down the heen dog and Tyler Anderson and they can do this? It's pretty nuts. And the numbers I gave her wrong because I had my fan graphs up

for Thursday through Sunday for the Mets and Braves. Gotcha. And then I just read the Dodgers off that. It's actually 33 hits to 12 and 20 to 4. I knew it was four. And when I said seven, I was like, but anyway, that's what I was going to say, Jake. Like you have the pitching right there.

You have, they traded for Clevenger. They traded for Manaya. They went out and they traded. and then they got Darvish. These are all big moves. The Padres fans are like heavy hitters going to get their guys. And it's Heaney and Anderson on the other side to one year, $8 million contracts like at the Dodgers.

And just one series. This isn't over the long haul. And I'm not saying that the signings are better than the other. But it is just kind of a big brother kicking the dick. Like, yeah. That's Treve's specialty. I do have a big brother. He never kicked me in the dick.

A lot. A lot of times he gets you right in the penis. A lot of the Dodgers success, they'll tell you, comes from, you know, the player development side and the fact that they have just more coaches. I think for every two or three players, they got a coach. So like there is specific hands-on stuff that helps because everyone has the data. You know, everyone has the numbers, but how do you apply it? How do you read?

How do you interpret the numbers and how do you give it to your players? It's like similar to, you know, when you're a parent, you start to look around at school systems. Okay, well, how many teachers per kids do you have for this grade? If it's one teacher for 30 kids, it's not great. You know, like you need more hands-on approach, especially when you're going through this information. The data is there. It could be overwhelming for players. If you have the means to be able to break it down individually like that,

I think that that's when you find guys like Heaney, who everyone knew, you know, we can talk about his spin rate and how do you, but how do you incorporate it? How do you, how do you make that so it's a weapon for him? And Dodgers have done it. Six games started and he's got to point something. Yeah. It's crazy. It's nuts.

Max Monci also opposite to me loves the month of August. In his, like five games start to August, he's just hitting the shit out of the ball, which is going to be huge for them if he can turn it around. Yeah. His numbers are shocking if you look at them right now. Yeah, I mean, these Dodgers are still them Dodgers. Like they have the best record in baseball easily. About the $700.

Yeah, I mean, they've been dominant. I think they're on like a 26 and 4 stretch in their last 30. And that's without Kershaw now with the back thing. That's without Walker Bueller. That's without Dustin May trying and Canely. Like they have their fair share of injuries pitching wise, but next guy up, Pitching for them is almost unfair.

Their lineup is stacked. If you're the Padres, this sucks like you would have loved to win a series and maybe daydream. Like, could we nip at their heels a little bit? The division has been gone. And that's okay. Get Tatea's back. Get whoever you want hot for the playoffs.

Like, get clicking. So when you get in a playoff series with their guys, that's when San Diego's going to have their chance. Like, the division's gone. and that's okay. Get in the playoffs, feel right, and be the scary video game team you have assembled. Dude, I'm looking at the Dodgers top three baseball reference war havers.

Sure. Freddie Freeman, four and a half, Mookie Betts, 4.3, Trade Turner, 3.6. These guys weren't part of the organization two years ago. Like, Mookie came over in 2020. They just got these guys. went out and fucking got these guys. And this,

they aren't part of the player development. They were talking about how good it is. And they bring people up and they can replenish. But like, they also went out and got three of the best players in baseball and put them all in the same team within the last two years. It's crazy. That's nuts.

Tatis is, uh, rehabbing. Like, he's playing in, I think they had him, they had him go to double A. Usually that's just location reasons. Batting lead off to make sure he gets at bats. I don't think he has a hit.

yet, but that, I mean, don't worry about that. He could just be working on shit. But he is on his way. They say mid-August, which I thought we were already in. Yeah. But we're not. Tough. So that's like usually, how long is it, uh, minor league's stint usually,

Trev? Week, week and a half. He's been out a while. So it might be like a spring training two weeks situation. That's long. You know, it could be a shortest three games. It kind of, you ask the player, how many of bats do you need? It typically, I would say,

it's a series in the miners and then you come up. So whether that's four games, whether that's five games, I think they do a lot of five gamers now in the minor leagues. I think that's... No spring training.

No spring training. So he... Such a slow healer. He's such a slow healer. But I think it's... The right thing to do is to get more bats in the minor leagues.

But you can't tell a player of that because he just wants to be back up in the big leagues performing. I think that's what they're going to do. As soon as you have one good game in the minor leagues, you're like, I'm ready.

And it's not necessarily the case. I think that, I think, but they said mid-August-ish, which is a great, Beaumel, great. Mid-August-ish. So that means anything from the 10th to the 20th. And you know what I was going to bring up, Trev's guy, Beaumel, because how about it? You just, you just got swept by the Dodgers. Tatis is back soon. You got Juan Soto. Look at what he's working with now. This is Beaumel season, man. Get, get the boys going. Soto looks better in a Padger's uniform than that's uniform. That's just to let you know.

I saw him getting interviewed when he's on the field. And I was like, he wears that well. Some people wear that potters uniform awful. It was that reliever. It was a big reliever, a big white guy. He just looks. No, no, it was recent. It was like a year ago.

He looked so out of place in it. Can't remember. For people that don't know, we're joking about Tatis being a slow healer. They said that, essentially. He wasn't healing on the timeline they thought he would. We're mocking them. We're mocking. I thought I had something else to say,

oh yeah, because you brought up the uniform. I saw a picture of Luke Voight in the Nats uniform. He's trying to be all swagged out with the headband and the open shirt. It doesn't play. Wow. It doesn't play with the Navy and Red like that. That's what he's always done.

Some kind of special to pull that up. Does he just have to be him, you know? That's how he's always worn it. I know, but it just doesn't look that good. But if he showed up there and he was fully buttoned, I think we'd be like, damn his spirit is broken okay do you look for i'm just saying like it doesn't look as good as it

didn't yankees or audres domingo harmon does it on the mound drives me fucking nuts i want to i want to i want him off johnson has way too many chains on right now what is going on with that it freaks me out once a series i'm like what like you're going to hit yourself in the face He has a swag level or his accessories are a swag level of like an MLB creative player that you just don't expect. Now he's got like the full gray. It feels a little off. Right before I'm about to hate it, I'm like, you know what I like it. Go Donaldson.

Be you, man. Once you win an MVP, do where the fuck you want. I know it. You know it. Jake knows it. Well, it's got, kiddo. That's all. Let's do the I.

No. Not doing any other. No. Okay. Those are the two topics. Oh. Philly swept. Well, that's tied in.

We said we're going to tie that into. Oh, we're going to do that later. That's right. Yeah, we're going to do that tied into after the I. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff. Wait for your team. It's coming. Phillies deserve to be talked about.

We're wrapping it into the whole conversation of Wild Card Central. Yes. After the I.L. Because them carders. No, Rocky's D-backs. Gerald Perdomo Geraldo You got anything

Is a stud? The Jake Storiali bowl Hopefully Yeah Me and Kelsey beefing It's hit the AL Waiting There he is

I thought there's a mad In the American League It's a midfest And I hate that word But the rays They're actually more on my Radar lately They take three out of four

but it's from the lowly sad tigers. Randy Rosarena said everyone's happy. Awesome, dude. That is huge news. Rays draw a franchise record 13 walks, most by any team since the Yankees against the Stroes last July. I'm starting to drink some raised Kool-Aid. I'm excited to talk about it with you guys. Kluber pitch.

They have a little bit of a rotation now. Again, not the names you know. But the Rays are actually pitching a little bit, and they're getting guys back. They take three out of four. Astros and Guardians, they split four. It's a four-game split-fest in the American League. Astros won the first two. Verlander reaches his 130-innings pitch Clause early August, we just found out,

as he shut them down in the first game. Guard dogs come back. They win the final two games. How about you? Saw Chris Rose this weekend. He likes his guardians. Their average age is younger than every AAA team. The guard dogs.

Stop calling them the guard dogs, dude. Nobody likes that. They split two. Again, come on, guys. I need a little more something to chew on. So I'll go to Minnesota. They're hosting the Blue Jays. All right.

Couple playoff teams. They split four. We got a couple extra inning ones. You know I love Manoa, Gossman, Vladdy broke open the first game. But yeah, we end up splitting four. Like making out with your sister again. Mariners.

Okay, we like them, Jim, right? They've been playing a good brand of baseball. Out on them for the next three days. They added Luis Castillo. They split four with the Angels, so you basically lost that series. Is that what you want to hear? Sandoval had a good bounceback start for the halos.

Happy for him. Kirby doing some fun things. Kirby rock hard for the Mariners, but they split four, so I don't really care. White Sox and the Rangers, they split four. Come on, guys, swing my emotions. Quedo tosses a complete game loss. It's kind of funny that he's still doing it for them in that fashion.

White Sox haven't lost a series in over a month, but they have so many splits that it doesn't really matter. My effect with the White Sox. still stinks right now. Royals, they are your other series winner from the AL this week. They took three out of four from the Red Sox. The Red Sox continue their death march. Hosmer, Red Sox debut.

How about that? First time him making a debut in a long time. Royals, Padres. Prado, he hits a walk-off homer. That was pretty cool. He had a Little League World Series homer. They put those reactions side-by-side. World Series is starting to go.

Good advertising by Prado. Royals take three out of four. That's kind of what happened in the American League. M.J. Melendez. That kid can hit. He's fun. Mm-hmm. Was it a midfest, huh?

Oh. I tried telling you guys, I don't... We got to stop with that word. I don't like that word. We've killed it. If I start saying something, it sucks. I left it in Cali. You got some standings.

Timbuk, too? The standing... You've got just wild cards should we do because like updates. Everything else is locked up. Minnesota kind of is. Toronto. Toronto has a two game lead in the wild card. Tampa and Seattle are tied for second place,

which means that they have the next two spots. Baltimore and Cleveland, two games back. I think that's like the same thing it was last time I did it on Friday. Yeah. Cleveland's a game out of Minnesota. White Sox are two games out of Minnesota. White Sox are 55 and 53.

So they're above 500 now. Good for them. I don't know. They go nine and seven since the All-Star break, the White Sox. Hot? Better than seven and nine. I can't talk about my white socks right now. I do.

I'd like to have a little conversation. about the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays who have casually stayed in the playoff race all season. They've had a ton of injuries. Their lineup was decimated. They made a couple moves at the deadline. Peralta, Jose Siri. Paralta, just a solid MLB guys you're going to find.

Jose Siri, a little bit of a wild card. I think Manny Margot-esque has all the skills. sometimes the stat page doesn't translate. Brandon Lau is back for them, and he's been a great power hitter in the game for a while. Whatever pitching they get back, the Ray's starting pitching, they have the third best starting pitcher ERA in baseball.

Their bullpen is seventh. That Ray's bullpen is always around, and they're getting help. My guy Pete Fairbanks is back. The Rays have really not been a discussion in this season, for a while. I think as they get a couple more dudes healthy, and they win a couple more series, and we get rumors of Glass Now throwing 99 again,

I really want to see what the Rays look like by the end of September, because I think you could have a totally different crew and a much better team than the Rays have had all year. So that starters ERA include openers? It's got to, right? Because that's a game started. I assume so. It's interesting.

We have been talking about the race, but we talk about them in the same light every single time. It's like we just expect them to be there. It doesn't matter who is on their roster. They just put them in the right places. I don't, I guess that's what's happening now. They had to make some moves. Will they score seven runs in the ninth inning with two outs or something like that? Scores seven in the ninth, all with two outs.

First two runs score on walks, then Lows, two runs. single and a rose arenas two run double that's ray that's that's getting raised you got raised that's how we usually talk about i'm raised going to ray that's a prime example of it right there starter era from what period where you're talking about i want to see if it it's just openers or how many season on the season yeah i wonder they're their average innings because yarrby's still getting an opener whenever they face the lineup with righties at the top they open for them like this they keep pitching this series but i I believe he came in in the second.

Herbs. And went four innings pitch, one run run. Interesting. I want to see him again. Have the Yankees still only played the race once all year? I think once in each place, two weeks or next week. And they played them in like one week, though.

So I just haven't watched a ton. Played the next week. Yankees post the race next week. I tuned in some of the Red Sox games when they were playing. Yeah, I got to watch. And then the team is always changing. But if they get some of those big, On the IL.

Harold Ramirez was really breaking out for them this year. He was 329 batting average and 825 OPS. He's on the 10-day. And then Wander Franco, who's had just kind of injuries all year, you know, I don't know his timing and how it would line up, but like let's not forget how special he was. Remember against the Red Sox and the playoffs last year? And then they have a ton of pitchers injured,

and I truly, I'm not close enough to raise baseball to know who's really on a track back or not. So if you're a raised fan, I mean, sound off in the comments. Wander a month ago was put on a five to eight week schedule. So he's either a month away or he's a week away. Yeah. Depending on what kind of healer he is. If he's fast, a week.

If he's Tatease level a month. Their starters are averaging four and two-thirds innings, which is probably around average. Is that without openers? So confused. It's so hard to talk about starting pitching. That's no bulk guy. It's just, like if it's an opener,

they get two innings or one inning that day. That counts as the starter. Yes, because I'm just using fan graphs starting pitching. So that's how it has to be. It'd be very weird if they, because they're just an algorithm. They're just a computer. I find that it's hard to talk about it. 501 innings.

I mean, I can do like... Two guys you need to know on the race. All teams and see if it's different. Jeffrey Springs, who has 14 starts for them this year. He has a 2.5 ERA. Drew Rasmussen, who's a part of that Willie Adamas. He's got a 296 and 19 starts. Like, the rays have a little bit of a playoff formula forming,

and they're a team that has a lot of playoff experience in recent years. I don't know. You guys know I was tough on the race when they traded Meadows to start the years. I haven't been afraid of them. It kind of has worked out well. now I'm starting to see things line up where this September's race team can be a lot different than the past three months of raised baseball. Yeah.

What about what? Do you still feel the same way about the White Sox? Because they're only two games back, like that they can find a lane and. I mean, they've been as obnoxious as they can be. It's almost the opposite. Like the race have just been in the playoff race and we've said, oh, good. Like the White Sox have pure underachieved. No, I'm not comparing to them.

I'm just wondering where you're out with the White Sox at this point. Yeah, I mean, they're the most talented team in that division by far. They haven't lost a series in a month. Houston starting pitchers average 5.8 innings pitched a game. Pretty good. They have the most innings pitched by starters in the league. The Rays have the least. Makes sense.

Yeah, makes sense. By design. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's got to be fun. Honestly, we'll get done with the Rays. talk after this, but it's got to be fun to be part of that organization and just like you're expected to think about the game differently. Where can we, where can we figure some things out

to give us some advantages? I think that's got to be just so fun to dissect the game and then put it back together the way that you want. I think it's so cool. I don't want every team to do it, James. You've mentioned that before, but like having them be that team, it's fun. If you're a fan of management and front office, so that's your team. Like the gameplay and the gamesmanship and roster construction. But it's, yeah, yeah.

And but there's there's also like culture there too. Like players culture and like what they expect out of you. I don't know if they can keep that going forever because it is kind of like a KK Longo thing. KK has carried the torch. I'm sure he's tried to pass it off to somebody else. But there, there's just something about being there that instills confidence in you as a player too.

Randy said it. They're having fun. They're content. They're happy. Everyone's feeling good. Yeah. What was he asked? How you guys feeling?

It wasn't even an interview. Go Twins Go? Just talking about it. Yeah. Tigers were dead. Go Twins go. Yeah. I mean, they split with the Blue Jays at home.

That's a Go Twins go out of you, Trev. They win a walk off. They win an extras. They lose an extras. I mean, they have the blocking of the plate call. Yeah, there's some fun stuff that happened. We got a lot of ejections, boon ejection, Kapler ejection, Korra ejection,

Rocco ejection. There's a lot of heated managers. Rocco and Kapler, Trev, those are normally your calm, composed guys. Well, Cap hat, you know he's got that, like, he's got something inside there. He tries to hide that a lot. But you know, it's there. Rock was very, you know, chill.

But he had every, right? to go nuts, dude. I guess we'll start with that, but I'm sure everyone saw the play. If you haven't seen it, Whitmerfield, trying to tag up on a ball to left field. Tim Beckham,

who was playing the outfield now, who actually had the walk-off ground ball to third base. It's always an awkward celebration when you hit a ground ball at third base. It's an air, whatever. He throws a dart to Sanchez, gets Marifold out by 10 feet. Sanchez leaves him clearly an open lane,

but Merrifield even said after the game. I know the rule. I know if I slide into him, there's a chance that they can go to New York and overturn it. And sure, shit, they did. They called him out on the field. And then, once the replay,

and Jordan Baker, I got to say his name, because we don't want him to be a nameless, faceless dude. Jordan Baker was in New York in the replay booth and decided, I guess, Sanchez moved early without the ball.

Is that we, I think that's the determination. They name the um it's like an actual it's not like a I don't know it's umpire crews go like your umpire crew goes to new york that's part of your rotation realize that that's that's not just one guy six foot eight jordan baker just sitting in a chair miserable um yes it's terrible there's a lot of screens like they got to go yeah i just they're not watching one particular game i spent all morning with it because i made the breakdown i recorded the audio uh i just need to finish editing it up

I mean, it's so silly. Gary looks down and puts his foot on the left side of the plate and sets up there to give him the lane when he doesn't have the ball. If the throw moves him towards the plate, he is allowed to move to catch the throw. He takes one step left, catches the ball right in front of his face, doesn't take that step until the ball is on its way, catches the ball in front of his face. so he moved to catch the ball and then once he has the ball in his glove blocks the plate because you're allowed to block the plate once the ball's in your glove.

I have no idea how they overturned it. Not even like, you know, they called it out and then they confirm it. That's one thing, which is bullshit already. But to overturn that, Rocco went off. And he's fucking funny because those alms are like,

dude, like we didn't, we called him out. It wasn't us. I said that like. And he looks towards the heavens. He like, look, like, Rocco, like, looks towards the heavens and go, and goes, you can fuck off and you can fuck off, like, at the press box. It's like, Jordan Baker's not there, Rocco. He just, like, looked easterly.

Fuck all. To the east. Yeah. Rocco's a guy that kind of always knows where the east is, too. So I think that worked out for him. Jim, Yor and Treves twins. They've clinched the wild card tiebreakers over the Jay's, Rays, Mariners, and Orioles. So that could be something.

It could be the A.L. Phillies, right? So again? So they have wild card tiebreakers over the Jays, Rays, Mariners, and Orioles. Jays, Rays, Mariners, and Orioles. Yes. And that's what you really liked about the Phillies, right? Who has it?

The Twins. Oh. Yeah. That's a three-team race. The A.L? Yeah. I don't think the Orioles are coming? No.

Oh. I mean, I know they traded away their relievers and stuff and I'm mad at them about it still. I think the A is as boring as it gets this year until the postseason. You don't think this is going to change at all. Wouldn't bet on it. Okay. We said this last year and then we were right at this point. Yeah.

Didn't change at all. Nope. Let me shout out. It got close to Seattle and Toronto put on like a exciting. finish, but in the end it was who we thought would be there. I'm going to shout out Nick Gordon a little bit. He's kind of come on as a player. He's played second base, shortstop, left field, centerfield, D.H.

And even got to pitch. But in April and March, he had a 621 OPS. In May, he had a 640 OPS. That's pointing in the right direction. In June, he had a 785 OPS. In July, a 7.25 OPS. in July 793 and then in August obviously small sample size a 1.1 trending in the right direction he's getting the confidence Carlos Carrillas walk around the clubhouse saying that's a bad man right there when you got the veterans in the clubhouse getting behind you like that it feels good and that's confidence and like you know a guy like Nick Gordon stepping up for him at this point of the season could be the difference of them winning that division or having to play in a while card game.

Definitely hosting it. I guess they're going to have to play a three-game series no matter what, right? Because they're not going to beat, they're not going to get ahead of the other division winners and wins lost, right? No, I don't think so. Isn't that how it goes? The last place division winner has to play the last place wild card. It's still in a three-game set, right?

Yep. And they're home. Okay. So the twins, the twins. The twins would be hosting the Mariners right now. I think the Mariners and Raz are tied. So it would be whoever, you know, whatever tiebreaker those two teams have would go to Minnesota.

I mean, that's big. Let's go to the I.L. Bong. Trev, you got some series to talk about. Oh, I got the aisle, don't I? Hold, let me get my shit together. We are going to start out in St. Louis, two of the most storied franchises and baseball going.

at it and the Cardinals sweep the Yankees. It goes four three cards, one-oh cards, and then 12-9 Cardinals. First time in franchise history they swept the Yankees, although they haven't played a lot of series against each other. Still fun to say that. The Young is coming up from the miners doing great. He had some really cool quotes after the games. Montgomery comes over from the Yankees, beats his former team. Montas makes his first start as a Yankee doesn't go well. Wainwright still throws a million pitch. Lots of stuff happens. We're going to be talking about this series a lot after I get done

recapping it. But a statement series for the Cardinals, nonetheless, they get the sweep against the Yankees. Pirates at Orioles. Orioles continue to do the damn thing. They'd won five straight before the Pirates won the last game. It went 1-0 Orioles, 6-3 Orioles, and then the Pirates won 8-1 in that last game.

They're sticking around. They gave away some of their good players. they don't care. James is saying they're not going to make it, but dang, they're rallying right now, and I like it. Orio's take two or three from the pirates. And then the last interleague series, giants at A's, two gamer, giants get the sweep. Seven, three giants, six, four giants. They threw Rodon and Webb against the A's. You better sweep the A's. They got the job done. And that is what happened in the international. I mean, if you're a betting man and you got Rodon and Webb going up against the A's, seems kind of like a no-brainer there, right?

You would think so. I would bet that. We don't really have to talk about that one a lot. The Bayon goes five and a third, one earned run, Webb goes seven innings pitch, two earned runs. Yes, it's some homers. They'd sweep. We can wrap up the NL now.

Cardinals sweep the Yankees, Montgomery pitches, and then tying it in, the Phillies, they swept the Nats and four-game set. meanwhile the brewers lost. So the Phillies and the Cardinals in the wild card and the division gets some ground on the brew crew. They use their assets that they traded for to do so.

Meanwhile, the brewers lose another one in extras without their reliefers. I mean, it wasn't really a blown save or anything. It was an error by Bruchel, but still, I mean, it feels exactly how you wouldn't want it to go over with the Brewers and you would if you're feeling. Billy and St. Louis. This was big. Cardinals, the young, I talked about some of the quotes he had.

He was in the minor leagues for two and a half months. And he, I'm just going to read the quote. Early in the year, I might have dreaded an opportunity like that, he said, but now I'm thankful for an opportunity like that after everything that's happened. And he's saying early in the year, it was the idea of, oh, no, here we go again when I was struggling, versus now me wanting those opportunities. it's like what's the situation we're down one run in the eighth and we got to score i definitely want to be up i can relate to this feeling when you are struggling and you're feeling like you almost like you don't belong to

big weeks you shy away from big moments but once you get going there you want to be up in those moments and that's what he's feeling now that's a good thing for the the cardinals he has to go ahead two and double off of your guy clay homes who's been struggling with two outs in the eighth big moments like that i think mean, tell me if I'm wrong. The series was like kind of closer than it was like three pretty decent games. I know they get to sweep, but are you feeling it that? Are you feeling it as a Yankees fan? I know I'm seeing that on Twitter, but you guys are kind of my North Star with Yankees'

gameplay. Do you feel like it was like that? Like what? Like the Yankee? Closer. I mean, they were winning the first game until Deion does that off of play homes. Yeah, the first. nothing game and the second game.

The first game was good. Yeah, I told you this, like when you were here this weekend, and no one wants to hear me say this because it's the same thing Strider said. But I mean, Rizzo has a quote there. That's like I would play, but not this time of year. It's not worth it. And they're optioning down their third best reliever who they use in like the seventh inning just because they don't want a DFA of Brayu.

And they're starting Hermann, who's not going to be part of the team eventually. And the Yankees are just doing weird. shit. But that's not to take anything away from the Cardinals. They were tracking down every ball in the outfield. That was sucked. And that's the biggest difference between the good teams and the bad teams this year is do they make all the plays and track down balls?

Because even the Blue Jays who are a good team this year, but I still think they're one level below, like the good NL teams and the Astros. Because they, Blue Jays defense can be pretty shuddy. The Cardinals were good. And I like Jordan Montgomery. and their lineups, hell. If you get someone on with then Aronado and Goldie coming up, it's just not a fun time.

So I'm not really feeling it. I'm just more mad at the Yankees themselves for like lollygagging and doing dumb roster construction and kind of admittedly putting the season on pause just because they're prepping. You know, like Cashman said, all the trades they made it for September. and Rizzo would play, but not this time of year.

And Ron Mar and Archie, well, he's going to be around when it counts, but we have to option them now because we don't want to lose a brayu, and then they use a brayu, and he gives up two runs. And it's like, what are we doing? What is, how are you, why am I supposed to care if you're outwardly not caring? It's an August road trip with a little bit of funny business, with the intention of every day not being, how can we win this game? And by the way, they've built that up a little bit.

They played so well, and they built such a big division lead that, hey, if Anthony Rizzo's healthy in October and he's a little more healthier because he didn't play an August game against the birds in St. Louis, you want that. And that'd be great. I'll give more credit to St. Louis here, man. They added two arms at the deadline. Monty is one of them shoves against his former team.

The Paul DeYoung stuff is awesome, man. They traded away at Mundo Sosa. He goes to the Phillies. The young, you know, veteran player probably wondering his role. on this team. He's injured. You know, he'd kind of been a question mark for the Cardinals in the past. He had an awesome series. The Cardinals,

they play a great brand of baseball, good defense. They have the thumpers in the middle of the lineup. De Young was kind of the backbreaker in a couple of these games. And yeah, I mean, they're, the Yankees lost, you know, Clay Holmes. He's built up enough leash that, you know,

he's earned a couple bad ones and it's tough timing. It's always tough timing. for a reliever. But it's kudos to the Cardinals. And by the way, half their lineup was getting ready to be traded for Juan Soto. And instead, they're sitting in front of a packed house, three straight packed house in a great baseball city as the crowd is going nuts as they sweep the Yankees for the first time ever.

It was awesome environment. Yeah. Game three was pretty sloppy. Yes. It was like... Beautiful match up there. Cardinals, Yankees. Brew crew losers of six or seven out of the

Playoff picture right now. What the fuck is going on, dude? What is going on with that team? I am so upset with the Milwaukee Brewers and the lack of moves. I mean, it wasn't even the lack of moves. They like took a step backwards. Yeah, man.

I mean. And now you're seeing it. It happens so quickly too. This isn't like, hey, like we made some smart moves. And it's like, no, like you did it. You made a money saving move. And I know that Hater hadn't been great for them this year, but you've got to look at the track record there,

see where you're at in the standings. And like, I know they're also trying to make moves, but you didn't make any moves. You didn't get the job done. And now you're sitting out of a playoff spot. And it's just so disappointing. And by the way, I mean, I'm upset with the Orioles returning their closer.

I mean, I just don't know if how you're in the clubhouse, how you, how you, how you, you're energized. That's, I mean, I know they're going to battle through it and they're going to have rallies and they're going to get the guys. You're not. I just have no idea how you're energized when your biggest weapon in the postseason just got traded to another team in your league. You're not energized. Who's in the same potential wild card race for you.

Like they're, they're competing for a spot. the Orioles you can make sense of it. They're the Orioles. They weren't supposed to be here. There's a lot of young energy behind it. Also, Felix Bautista, and they had other guys in that bullpen that they were cashing in on chip on what's hopefully the next run of Baltimore Orioles, and they can look back and say that helped their next teams that really have a chance.

The Brewers won, man, has stung all of us. We love the Brewers. Josh Hayter's the bad guy. He's the guy you don't want to see. him in. He's the guy that can come on in a playoff game, seventh inning runners on second and third, and you're like, this guy might bring us home. And they traded that guy away. And yeah,

it is instant. The Cardinals, packed house, two pitchers, take the division lead, sweep the Yankees, winners of seven in a row, and the Brewers feel like the ship is sinking, sinking. Like, they're debating life rafts and jumping off. Are they just going to shovel it out? I don't know.

And that's why, Jim, I've heard you say it a couple times. The chaos of this season isn't over. This time last year, the Oakland A's were a playoff team. This time last year, the Braves and St. Louis were not playoff teams. Like, we saw shakeups both ways. And I still think we're in line for that around baseball this year. It's just try to figure out who. The rest of August, Milwaukee's schedule, tough.

You got the, the top. Dodgers twice. You got St. Louis coming up after a short series, a two-gamer against the Rays. I mean, the rest of the August is very tough. They could be very far out of it come the end of August. September, it lightens up a little bit at their schedule. They've got to get through this next portion of August and tread, I mean, treading water, I think is the best they can do, which is not something I would think I would be saying about the Milwaukee Brewers in August. And that's a scary way to come to the ballpark, man. We talk about how cool it is for teams when they actually have that win-every-day attitude

because it's a grind, it's a slog, and there's some days you win a series, and it's like, let's get the hell out of Dodge. When you're just trying to tread water in baseball, that's a bad place to be, man. I mean, they're just going to need someone to straight up step up. I know someone, I saw someone in the comments, I think in Epigo, said, Yelly, since you talked about him changing his stance, I think he's been like a 300 guy. they're going to need Yelie or Burns,

someone to go to the next level that when they're on, they win and then the rest of the team can tread water until they figure something else out. You want to keep going on the Orioles talk? Birds. James, you say they don't think they're part of it. I kind of have to agree with you.

I didn't mind the moves as much as some people did. I didn't want them to trade Mancini, but I figured they are looking at a bigger timeline than this year. Yeah, I want them to do with the Mariners did last year. I want them to go the distance. The last week of the season is exciting and energized, but I don't see them really catching it.

They have a tough schedule ahead. I think they have a tough schedule ahead. But the thing is they've won these games after the deadline to put themselves in this position. So now you're sitting around being like, dude, we could probably use those guys now they're in this position. It's a catch 22, man. Like it's probably for the

you know, the next couple years that they made the right moves. But also, you're still in 2020 and your team responds this way. Now you're thinking back like, shit. Was that the right move? And you mentioned their schedule.

They got Toronto, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Boston, White Sox, Houston, Cleveland. Yeah. I mean, you know, they traded Toro last year. That was a very, similar reaction from the public. Graveman for Toro, yeah. Graveman for Toro.

And I don't know. They'd probably want Graveman back still. And they brought in Castillo. Yeah, they were doing funny business. I don't know. It's for the Orioles. It's one of those real GM look in the mirror times, right? That we try to give teams credit for that.

They are, their offense is a bottom 10 offense. Their starting pitching is arguably a bottom five starting pitching. You know, the wheels can fall off this thing quick. that they probably were real with themselves, and they said, this isn't the year, it was never supposed to be the year, that they cashed in on a couple chips.

It will feel awful if they end up in Mariner territory, and they're going to be looking at Trey Mancini, who you might hear about later doing things for the Astros, or Jorge Lopez winning the World Series with the twins? Yes. Another twins connection real quick, before we move on, my guy, Taryn Vavra. Okay, you all know,

Joe, his dad was my minor league coordinator, then he was my hitting coach. Santander, they're freaking moving around to get, to open up a spot for my guy, Vavra. They also say they want to increase his trade value during the offseason, so that makes sense getting him more defensive versatility. But Vavra's earned a spot, and that's exciting for me. Because I've seen this guy as a little kid, and now he's up in the big leagues, and I feel a little old, but I'm also very proud.

It's cool. He's crushing AAA. How about Frammell-R-Ais getting D-FA? Tough, man. You know how much I like him. I hope he lands in the right spot with the right coach, and he hits 15 more homers this year. You see, he had options left, so it wasn't.

It was like... He's too old for Cleveland, man. It's 27. I mean, yeah, you don't know for sure. It seems very much like, get out of here. on three thumbs up, thumbs down, Brett Phillips in an Oreo uniform. One, two, three. Okay.

How about it? I thought he looked good. How about it? I like the Orioles uniforms. Let's see. I don't dislike them at all. Some guys, I feel like there's, some guys wear them really well. I'm trying to think, is there, do they have an alternate that I really like?

Or an old school church? I picture Cal Ripkin. They were the white helmets. Yes, the white helmets I like a lot. I picture Cal Ripkin in that Orioles jersey, and I like that one a lot. I feel like that's a different variation from where we are today.

Oreos uniforms through the years. They're pretty classic. The birds changed a little bit. The classic O is great. How about Cal Ripkin on the cover of GQ and 85? He probably had a couple nights nights, huh? Okay. Maybe a couple bad ones, too.

Isn't that the whole story? Well, that wasn't 85. Right, but I guess we all have good and bad nights is the message I want to pass on. I like the old 60s, like Roger Maris leaves. I'm looking at those now. I just talked about Roger Maris earlier today, Barry Bonds. Why? Why'd you do it?

Why'd you do it? Chris Rose asking me, what do I think about, like, you know, that we don't really celebrate the day that bonds broke the home run record. It was like this last week was the 15th anniversary of it. He says we always talk about Hank Aaron and that day, when that day comes, we promote the crap out of Hank Aaron breaking the all-time record.

We don't really talk about bonds. He says, is that fair? And we just started talking about. I don't even know bonds records. 756, you said? I'd ask what the single. They've taken it out of our memory.

MLB. I had to take that out. Yeah, I'd ask the single season record the other day. I was like, what was it again? 70. What? Yeah. It rings a bell.

when you say it. It was 70 something. Yeah, I knew it was 70 something, but yeah. I didn't 76. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Now I'm on Bonds' sat page. If you want to just have some fun on a baseball reference page,

go to the Bayonne's baseball website. It's the cooler website pages on the internet. Oh my God. Nope. It's awesome. Nope. Nope. Let's go to standout performances.

Standout performances. BPD robot me real quick. Ooh. And how about robots you can gamble with? Draft King Sportsbook. Drafking Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. It's kind of what we've been talking about, this whole episode, people. Just $5 on any game in.

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only at Draft King Sportsbook an official sports bidding partner Major League Baseball. Minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for D. details. MLB trademarks used with parmission. Standout performance. It's a stint out performance.

I wanted to find a guy from one of the teams that didn't get a lot of coverage today, but I couldn't not talk about what DeGrom, what DeGrom did in his game against the Braves. It's 5.2 innings pitched, only one hit. I think they're still easing him into the higher pitch count. There's 70-something pitches. He was perfect through whatever. his first five innings, he threw, he got 16 swings on his slider, 16 swings and misses. That's unbelievable.

He finished his outing with 18 whiffs out of the 20 swings he generated on his slider. He threw 33 sliders. he got, they didn't put a single one in play. So the two non-wifts were foul balls. He had two for called strikes. A 90% whiff rate on his slider against the Braves in that outing. That's, if you are in the 40s, I would read that and be like 40% whiff rate on the, that's pretty good. 90%.

That's unbelievable. Crazy. that's my standout performance DeGroms slider I see Rose and I were on the plane yesterday and we were just like giggling back and forth because we had a strikeout

of DeGroms up we took a 96 mile an hour slider and I was like Rosie you you can't hit that no one on the face of this world can hit that pitch that he threw he's disgusting I didn't expect him to look this damn good

I just didn't I knew he's Obviously, we know who Jacob de Grom is, but for him to come back and throw 301 mile on our fastballs by Olson and then just throwing his slider that hard. And it looks fucking effortless too. I don't get it. I just don't. It defies all, like, things that my brain has, you know, I don't even know what I'm trying to say. Fucking Jacob de Grom. DeGrom, also, when we were doing the Phillies and the Cardinals and Brewers, we didn't really do the Philly stuff.

so I'll just share with everyone in my notes. Everyone hit a home run. Hall hit a bomb. Castiano's hit an absolute bomb. He's going off. D. Rob had two innings pitch, zero and runs. Brandon Marsh playing the outfield. He had three for ten with a run,

kind of in Slop Fest at the end. And then check out this stat. Check out this stat. You guys are going to love this. J.T. Romuto. This is what the stat said. It said he's the first Phillies catcher to Homer and triple in back-to-back games.

since at least 1901, which means ever. And also that's pretty refined. If it was first NL catcher or first catcher, but Philly's catcher, it's like we're digging deep here. I think he meant he was the first catcher in baseball,

but also the first Philly. It just said first Philly catcher to Homer and tripling back to back to game since at least 1901. Okay. I was going to talk about the Phillies a little bit. Okay, great. I have a standout from the Phillies. All right.

I like that. But it's not my turn. And I think Brad Hand got in there as well. Sorry for skipping all that earlier. We said we would talk about it with the Brooker stuff. Jake, your standout? Who? All right.

I am doing a guy pretty well liked. I am doing a guy named Trey Mancini on the here. Houston Astros. They traded for Trey Mancini. One of the more beloved guys in baseball. They hired Dusty Baker to be their manager, one of the more beloved guys in baseball. How about that?

And by the way, he's come over. He's only got four hits. Three of them are homers, and two of them came in the same game. And one of those homers was a grand slam, and it was Trey Mancini's first grand slam. Really? Yep.

He did not have one with, the Baltimore Orioles. He goes over to the Astros, and in his first week, he gets a salami into the Crawford boxes, a ball that would not have been a home run at Camden Yards. So, uh, Trey Mancini,

he is a professional hitter. It's kind of funny. Jim, you were on it early when we used to do talking yanks and talking baseball. In 2018, it felt like he was the veteran of the team, like already. Yeah, yeah. He was 26.

And, yeah, like he was he was the leader of the team after one full season, basically. This guy is a professional hitter. He's got a career OPS right around 800. And this is a guy the Astros just snagged. Another guy to throw in their lineup. And I think we were all sad that the Orioles traded Tray Mancini. I think he was a little sad. I think when he's playing October baseball, he's going to be pretty stoked.

And I think he might like those Crawford boxes, too. So congrats on the first salami. congrats on a two homer day. Tray Mancini. He looks good in that. How many grand slams did you have? John, that's why. Treve, how many grand slams?

Jake says you had two. Sunny Gray and... I don't have the other one. John Danks. John Danks. Sleckes for the white sauce. Sunny Gray was a lucky one, man. He hung me a slider three, two.

Come on a slider to me three, two. Respect. That's why. That's why. That is why. That is why. And you knew he respected you. My standout performance, because I was going to talk about the Phillies.

I know we didn't talk about him at all. Okay. Kyle Gibson. Eight innings pitch, one Ernie, four K's, two hits, one walk. He took a perfect game into the seventh. I like the quotes after the game. Like when the catcher starts to talk about you and kind of waxes poetically about the pitch, I really like that. Okay?

Especially when it's my friend, Kyle. Kyle was fun. He was a lot of fun. fun to catch. He was throwing five, six pitches to both sides of the plates. He was attacking guys, getting ahead of guys. That was the sharpest I've seen his stuff this year. It was the best I've seen it. Okay. This is when you want to be your best. Towards the end of the year here, Kyle's feeling a little bit of pressure. He wants to be in that postseason rotation. So like he's got to step it up now. I like that he talked about knowing that he had a perfect game very early.

He says, I don't know how guys don't think about it that early, which is very much a gibby thing to say. I love that. Once you make it the first time through the order and you're in the fourth inning and you haven't had a base runner, you're thinking about it. I love the just straight up honesty with Kyle and that's what you get from him.

But again, like, they brought in some guys in that rotation, Sindegarde who, like, does that bump Kyle out of the rotation into postseason? I don't know. But Kyle doesn't want that to happen. Nice start here.

Love the Phillies, what they've been doing. I'm glad you talked about him, James. Now I don't have to, but shout out Kyle. shout J.T. Romuto. We're working well together. Hoskins, Homer did four straight games. And Baum had the, Alec Baum had to play behind him in the sixth inning.

And you know if Gibby's thinking about a perfect game after four, he's thinking right after, oh shit, that's the play. That's the play. I was going to say that's the play. And it was a nice play by Alec Baum. So Phillies are fun. It's a fun series. It is the NAC.

Harper. So this is four games set against Nats. So like four games streets are hard, but they're like, crush. them. Let's go. Harper, we need you in that lineup. Replace your thumb. BBD's guy Derek Hall and the DH spot has been going nut job. Yeah, he has three homers, I think. He's being Harper.

Patrick Corbyn, do you guys see his start? He has bad. I feel bad for him. But obviously, I don't because he's making a lot of money too. Okay. Fair. Okay. Well, I just said, I feel bad for you, but obviously I don't. That's something else.

Obviously, you don't. Obviously. That's where Derrickol lands when Harper comes back. Derrick call. In a short. Dallas Baptist guy. Uh, what do we got? Slump watch?

Yes. Blomp, Blom, blom, Blom, Blom. Tim Anderson. O for 13.

Cron and Worth. O for 11. I'm guessing a lot of the Padres had some, uh, bad series. Yandi Diaz. O for 11. Four walks,

though. Would it be. Nandi, Marcelo Zuna against those Mets pitchers, one for 16, 5Ks. Yuleiguria, one for 14, the RBI, two strikeouts. Those guys be slumping, but not these guys. Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. Just talked about this guy, Reese Hoskins, four games in a row with a homer.

Yes. Five for 11 with four homers, six RBIs, three walks, and hit by pitch for fun. Jake, you mentioned this guy. M.J. Melendez. What do you think the MJ stands for? The kid can hit Michael Jordan. That's cool. Six for 14, three homers.

For him or just in like culture? Oh, is that really what stands for? No. His name's Maraville S. Melendez. So where's the J come from? I ask you, maybe a junior. It doesn't say junior, I don't know. His father is also named Marville Melendez.

I don't know if he's officially a junior. Where's he from? Daytona Beach, Florida. Yes. Wow. Okay. What's the first name? Merville.

Merville. M-E-R-V-Y-L. I can understand how MJ happened. Yeah, I mean, eventually he's like, let's just do MJ. Yeah. Derek Hall talked about him. Five for ten. Three homers.

to Ramuto, five, four, 11, two homers, two triples. Yeah. Catcher with speed. Cody Bellinger, although some people say Bellinger. No. Yeah. One of our friends says it, and then I heard it. Oh, okay.

I heard it on a broadcast. It makes sense. Five for 10, two home runs, two doubles, five RBIs. Jake's Guy Dalton Varsho, four for nine with two bombs, a double, three walks, Kyle Isbell, Royals, beating up on the socks. Yeah. Five for nine with a homer. Two triples?

Was it the week of the triple? The weekend of the triple? And then this guy, how do you say his name? Ella Hurris? I don't know who this is. Who's this? Who's Ella Eli Hurris Montero? Jake's rocks.

Ooh, yeah. Not on my radar right now. Six for 11, home run. And Nolan Aronado. Wow, he went six for 11 against the yanks. I mean, I knew he was beating him. That's pretty good. They were traded for each other.

Ooh. Yeah. Elaharis, Mervyn, Merville. Elorice, according to... Say it again? Allow Reese. Allow Reese.

On baseball reference. Oh, wow. A war. There she. Trev, you got a good award here. I'm skipping to you. Your sounds interesting. You want to go?

Me first? Yeah. My award is called the corn in your chili. Huh. Award. Now I'm going straight up ask you guys. Are you fans of chili? Yes.

Jake doesn't like hot things. A true chili. It can't be too soupy. I don't like soup. You're a thick chili guy. James. I probably like all chili. You're like, you're like me, a man's man.

We like all chilies. Yeah, I don't like it. I mean, if it's not soupy, it better have some stuff in it. It can't just like, man, where is it somewhere that I lived? I think it's Texas chili.

It's just like dog food meat. It looks similar. They're like, yeah, they don't do beans. I don't know. Texas has all these rules about chili. Guess what?

And I think those people are the most prideful of their chili, but I'm not into it when it just looks like straight up hamburger meat with a seasoning. on it like sloppy joe i like it with stuff in it beans and other shit let me tell you you can do whatever you want with your chili that chili is you can do whatever you want put whatever you want in your chili okay sometimes i put corn in my chili if i'm feeling up for it a little you know canned corn put it in there give it a little sweet pop to it i like it yeah do you tru why is why is my award called corn in your chili award we'll find out soon we'll we'll

going back to the cornfields people Thursday we're getting the Cubs Reds back at the Field of Dreams area I don't know what you call that Cornfields basically I haven't seen it promoted a lot I know they have

been promoting it but that was one of the more fun games in the big leagues last year and I've seen the jerseys they've dropped Cubs Reds like I said I wish we had a screenshot of them if you can find them BPD that'd be great these are the best uniforms I've seen. We've been putting out these

city connect uniforms. Most of them not a fan of whatsoever. These feel the dreams unies are unreal. The reds pinstripes, I guess they're going back to like a 1919 version of the Reds logo. The hats are also white with red pinstripes on them or is it black? I can't see. I'm colorblind a little bit. I love this game. I love you know, the matchups of the team's not great,

but I think that's fine because we're going to get the added, you know, fanfare because of where they're playing. I'm going to be tuned into this game, and I want everyone to tune into this game. So I thought it was great last year, and I'm predicting it'll be the same. There they are. Nice.

Look at those Reds jerseys, bro. Like that. Who are the starters for that game? Do we know yet? Love that. We can check. Anyways, we're playing ball in a cornfield. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I wish they'd do more stuff like this. I've been asking for that for quite some time. Tune in Thursday. Field a dreams game. Tune in. Says Nick Ladolo versus Drew Smiley currently. Nick Ladolo. We're going to hope for some magic from, you know, the essence of playing there, I think.

Joey Votto hits a home run, mark it down. Yeah. Mark it down. Yeah. Yeah. Your third place in the NL Central Reds, by the way, not getting the love. I got someone tweeting at me if you want to do Little Reds talk. Let me get it out for you.

You know, they started at, what, 3 and 22, I think, right? Yeah. I've got to get this tweet up, man. This guy sent it to me. I showed to Rosie yesterday. They've got a better record than a lot of good teams in the last like three months. They're 500. They're basically a four.

41 and 41 over the last however many months that is. So give the Reds a little bit of credit. Let's go Reds. Reds up. Jake, do you have an award? Red form. I can give it a Reds award. Is that your award?

Well, it's a very natural tie-in because they're playing on a farm. Okay. And Drew Smiley's a lefty pitcher. And Kyle Farmer crushes lefties. Okay. Stats on the season, not good. But he's got a 961 OPS versus Lefties this year with a 316 average, 400 on base.

Now, I don't know about neutral sites. Because I think it's going to be more of a home game for the Cubbies. But at home against Lefties, he's the biggest masher. Okay. A 400 average. So Kyle Farmer. On a farm. On a farm.

versus a lefty starter open up the Draft Kings app Use code Johnboy And just take the over On whatever his total basis is The money He's in half In those cream cubbies unies

He's probably gonna be miced up and stuff It's probably gonna be the in-hap show Yeah well there's a little bit of you And you thought you could get traded You were like oh you can miss out This is a dream scheme That's a question I'll ask Are we sending Joe's to the field

Of dreams game? That would have been just electric trick, just walking through cornfields and his jean shorts. We're telling him we are and we're sending him out to cornfield in Long Island. Oh, okay. With a ball and a bat. Telling him to play and film it. Wow, I never been to Iowa.

Nice out here. Yeah. You'd have a good time. I'm around, land. So is that your award? Yeah, beware of the farm. Award. Beware of the farm.

Man, you guys go in full preview. I was going to do like skyline. chili because Cincinnati and all that stuff couldn't really find a way to get it in I love skyline chili it's basically spaghetti I don't know why they call chili I haven't had it everyone says it's gross it seems like a really jake layup but I can't tell how it seems like just like it seems like just like something we would have made in college seems like chili on top of spaghetti it's what it is exactly what it is yeah I don't see I don't know how that could be like bad I think it could be odd I mean people talk about bad chili and bad pasta that's a bad combo it's not it's good I don't

I don't think there's bad chili or bad pasta out there's bad you were just describing bad chili earlier yeah but if you put that on pasta that's good chili now because it spreads it out I'd still eat that chili that I was talking about I would not turn it down sure but I make you guys chili one day Katie likes a chili I make I make good chili and tortilla soup I put corn in that trev yeah I think that's good it's good mm-hmm so what's your Reds Field Dreams award I can also I can find something there. I know India's got the hair.

I was happy to be back on the Cubs as well. Mine actually is related to the Cubs. Okay. My award is the used kids don't even know award. Nikki Cass? You guys know if I hang around Nikki, my Italian comes out just a little bit more. I told you guys at the top of the episode,

I said this is going to be a big Dodger. episode. It deserved to be. They swept the Padres. They have the best record in baseball easily. Tyler Anderson is pitching, is a top 10 sigh young guy. Andrew Heen Dog is mowing people down. Andrew Heaney, who got laughed out of New York harder than Joey Gallo, Andrew Heaney, six starts a 0-6-4 ERA. The Heen Dog.

As good as you can do. So I said, I need to give the Dodgers love. And I don't know if this is the right guy, but maybe it can be a historic thing for some of the kids, too. My youths kids don't even know a word. Goes to Mark Pryor, former Cubs stud, who is the Dodgers pitching coach. He has been the Dodgers pitching coach.

And Trev, you're right. I don't know where the line molds. I know every team has their pitching analysis. as coordinator and they have their assistant pitching coach. He's been their pitching coach for a while. Has he had some names to work with? Yes. Has he also made guys names?

Yes. And if you's kids don't even know, go check out some Mark Pryor tape. Because in 2003, he was 23 years old, lighting up the league. He finished his last 11 starts with a 152 ERA in 2004.

He came back and he led all starting pitchers in K-per-9. The dude was as electric as a pitcher, as you'll see on a baseball field. He was riddled with injuries like that, and it kind of ended. So, hey, maybe this guy knows how to pitch. Maybe this guy knows how to pitch, and he's passing that information along with the analytics and everything else. But, man, you got to give someone credit for these Dodgers pitching and what they're able to do.

And Mark Pryor, man, he, uh, he deserves a chunk of it. I have no idea how much. Quite the ball player. We talk about this. We talk about this, dude. You have the data. How do you bring it to your players? How do you help them understand it?

Sam Fold was like one of the first guys to do that in Philly. Prior not in the same role. Uh, and also not a Stanford guy. Unfortunately, he was just a regular USC Trojan, which is fine. Fine school, not a Stanford. for like you and I Jake. But smart. And I've heard a lot of Dodgers pitchers talk about that,

like how much he has helped them, how much he's helped them, you know, interpret that information and take it onto the field. So I think it's nice of you to mention him right there. And dude, absolutely electric. How many times do you think he says,

you know what I would have done if I had this info? Yeah. That's how good you can be. And hands them. Mark Pryor was Stephen Schenberg. Strasbourg before Stephen Strasbourg. As far as like hype and mechanics and like he just, he was the prototypical pitcher build.

Yeah. Then he get hurt a lot. Well, it hurts to throw a ball so often. Didn't pitch from 06 to 2010 when he pitched in AAA and independent ball. And then he still fought in the minors a little bit. So I always, that always hits a chord with me when, when you're still trying to fight the fight. And now he's found a second life as, by the way, very hot guy,

41 years old stud pitching coach for the Dodgers. Not bad. USC hires him as their pitching coach, gives him $700,000. He also has some Vanderbilt ties. So in a way I am connected to him. Visited there? visited there, dated Jess. I think he transferred.

He didn't. I don't think he dated. 10 years apart. Okay. Now Festus Azilli The old Golden State Center Dated Jess I don't know

They were in school together Name someone you've dated that's 10 feet taller than you're Facebook friends Tallest Tallest person you ever dated Ever dated Jordan Peck He's a nice guy I know he's a nice guy

Good ball player Pitcher. Pitcher. He pitched? Yeah. 6-8. Just too tall. It's ridiculous. Best friend of the week?

Best friend of the week. Some good candidates. Stay, some good candidates from the Phillies. But it is going to Reese Hoskins. Five for 11. Four of the five hits homers for consecutive games. Six, Ribbyes, three walks and hit by pit. How many of them, I guess, I don't, you don't have to look it up,

were first in. I know at least one was the first inning. That's a fun way to start a game. Shout out Tristan McKenzie. He's been going for a little while. I thought Tristan McKenzie was going to get best friend of the week because he went eight innings pitch year and runs eight K's. He's been.

He never been on the show. He's never been on talking baseball. He came on sequence. Yeah, but that's best friend of sequence award. We don't have, I mean, we got a really small pool to draw from that. Yeah, and it's not growing. It's not growing. Tristan McKenzie's a friend.

We played, hung out at our house for like five hours. He's a friend of the pond. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Has Ian Hap been on our show? God, he's going to hate me. Yeah, he has.

I love Ian. I know it seems like I don't, but I do. Three first inning homers, according to the chat. I thought it was more than one. And Hap has gotten this award three times. Would it be Hap? Be Hap. Walker and Jirth.

And Jordan doesn't like us or even know who we are, but Tristan McKeneman. Enzy likes us and knows who we are. But yet somehow Walker. I was looking at grounded into Doe Play right the other day. And Jazz Chisholm, he was one of the ones that had the most opportunities to ground in Doe Play and never had zero. So good job by him. Fast lefty.

Yeah, Fast Lefty. It's like 65 played appearances with a force out and less than two outs. And there was someone better than him, I think, but I don't remember. or so just shout out to jazz that's all i got to say okay elevator talk to take us home spin the wheel spin the wheel let's all play a game of spin the wheel can't wait i'm gonna guess the texas rangers it's the metz should i spin again we got a lot of chatter it's the yankees should i spin again yes yes please for the love

of god It's the Royals. Isbell was hot. They beat the Red Sox. M.J. Melendez, people. That's a pitching coach I've seen. They want fired on the streets.

I don't know if he's going to get fired. Or they did fire him, I think. Okay. Nick Prado had to walk off home where they showed the picture of him in the Little League World Series and now him in the big leagues. He looks like the same person. He's got a very evil, happy look. A little bit.

I see what you're saying there. Vinnie Paso. Did you hear the beach, California? Did you hear the, Did you hear the Granky story about Whitmerfield? Mm-mm. When he got traded, Granky, like, I guess handed him a note of all his expected numbers versus his numbers and said, like, don't worry.

You're much better than you have been. Or, like, keep your head up. You're much better than you have been. And they were like, it's actually a very nice thing that Granky did, even though it comes off a little odd because usually he's pretty blunt and brutal with his teammates. So it was a nice parting gift from Granky to Witt. Ask Witt about it, Trev.

That was a story they told. I'm going to ask, oh, Grinky, you just never know where his head's at, huh? Yeah. He's a Jake, to have any motivation. How many home runs of Salvo Prez? Off the top of my head? 16. 16.

In 67 games. 48 homers last year, 121. Bobby Witts back. Taylor. You know.