Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Cause For Concern For These Teams After Wild MLB Weekend!

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALLUse code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountGo to http://shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 35% off polarized sunglasses.Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.com  Coach Trev and Talkin Jake discuss Dodgers biggest weaknesses heading into postseason, Yankees picking up on pitches and moving 2 GB of AL East, Julio Rodriguez picking up steam and more! 0:00 Intro4:30 AL Burn9:20 AL Standings15:00 Dodgers / Orioles22:15 Blue Jays / Yankees29:00 Astros / Rangers33:12 Guardians / Rays34:53 Twins / Royals36:45 NL Burn43:00 NL Standings46:00 Mets / Reds51:00 Red Sox / Diamondbacks55:00 Phillies / Marlins55:50 Nationals / Cubs57:20 Mariners / Braves59:00 Standout Performances1:07:45 En Fuego1:11:45 Batters who are struggling1:13:00 IL Update1:17:00 Awards  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We're in the final stretch. Trev has the standings, the A-O Wildcard. The ball was in my hands. Let's talk ball. Tanner Scott. Anybody. Hello and welcome to talking baseball.

I'm Seeky Co-Talkin' 2025. I am Jake Storeeally. That is Trevor Plouf. Bobby Golfs is producing. It's September 8th. We're weeks. away, days away. I was doing some math

before about, there's like less than 20 games left in teams regular seasons. Boogity, boogity, boogity, boogity, boogity. Coach Trev, God, I missed you. God, I missed you. How are you? I missed you too, Pop. I saw you down in Barbados doing your thing. MVP, no big deal.

Player of the tournament, there was a lot of MVP. I mean, they don't give it to the bad guys, but it's fine. Fine. 18 or 19 games left, depending on who you are as a team. So yeah, it's really coming down to the wire here. Some really big series coming up. I know I was just in Kansas City calling the games.

They got some, they got crazy 10 days ahead of them. It's all in front of them. That's what Aaron Boone says. I've got some inside info from Vinny P. Jake, there's just so much good ball. I don't know. How are you, I guess? Should we just get into it?

I'm good. I'm good. We had a, yeah, you know, there's a lot of company things that, you know, will be remembered. Our trip to Barbados to play cricket, it's one of them. I mean, just pretty wild. You know, Trev, you and I are very well-cultured, former ballplayers. You forget, you know, a lot of these, we had people that hadn't been out of the States before. We had people that hadn't been. Who's that? uh zo from we got ice hadn't been out of the country um so you know that's a tracks that's a lifetime uh socials kevin uh hadn't i think he's got canada but that was it and yeah was it me cole tucker heaven it's 1 a m the rum is flowing it smells like there's a skunk someone

asked what's the meaning of life we're up to 2 a m i like that we had we had a good time um and you Yeah, cricket, number two sport in the world. Number one, baseball. You have a question. Yeah, number one baseball, for sure. No, no question, a statement. I feel bad saying that for Zoe, but when I think back, the only times I left the country growing up was for Team USA.

Right. 16 and under, I left the country for the first time, went to Venezuela. Other than that, I had not been out of the country until I think Olivia and I went to Cabo together. Yeah, man. Who am I? Hey man, everyone's different and everyone lives a different life. And, hey, try to experience the world.

But I know, like, I haven't seen a lot of it. I've fake braggadocious. Oh, yeah. And it's funny. Cole Tucker, the final thing, and we'll get into the ball because it is so good. You know, Cole Tucker's been on this life been. He's got his first kid. He's got another on the way.

Um, he's doing all sorts of stuff. He's doing content. He's, he's, everything. Drumming. He's looking into baseball job, like everything. And I was like, dude, are you like cooked right now? He goes, no, man. This is the first summer I've ever had.

Yeah. It gives you that ball player perspective, man. A lot of us live around the summer and then we wait for football to get here and it's here, which that's fun. Um, but a lot of ball players have never had a summer. so I hope everyone enjoyed it because it's almost turtle next season, Coach Treve. Oh, boy.

Turtles on the ball field? I love that. Let's get in, because you're A.L. Wildcard. I was trying to do some NL wildcard math and one of those teams would have to put together like a 17 and 3. Who knows? Crazier things have happened, Coach Trev. It's Monday.

Let's do some American League. And maybe a misprint by Dalton. here. The first series is the Guardians and Rays, but when you're talking that A.L. Wildcard, it starts there a little bit because the Rays won game one, which was their seventh straight game. The Rays were back in the mix, 10 out of 12, two games out of the A.L. Wild Card. Ryan Pepeyo, five hillous innings. After that, it was all guard dogs, though. The Guardians go on to take the final three games of the series to re-dead.

jump the raise in the AO wild card standings. Jose Ramirez is doing historic stuff with his stolen base. He goes in a second all time. In Guardians, they were formerly the Indians history, and they win the final two, one, run games. Oh, look at this. The New York Yankees play the Toronto Blue Jays, and they take two out of three. The top of the ALE East table.

The Jays rolled them in game one. Kevin Gossman, eight innings. earn run. Young Cam Schlittler gets his first taste of humble pie in the bigs. But the Yanks bounce back. Luis Heel and Max Fried both go six innings plus one earned run. And the Yankees get enough offensively slash Max Fried tipping early and the Yanks take advantage of it to stay alive in the ALE East race. The Texas Rangers, speaking of staying alive, they win a 12 inning game on Friday night, Merrill Kelly has been shoving for them.

Dustin Harris, welcome to the show, pal. 12th inning walk-off double. That brought the Rangers within a game of the postseason, or postseason current standings. They end up getting rolled in game two, Hunter Brown, and the Astros put up 11. But Texas, they win the final game of the series and the Rangers are back in the mix.

One of the wilder series of the year. The Dodgers and the Orioles Holy cow Game 1 Shohei gets the spot start Which I didn't know we were doing that But glass is banged up Samuel Bessayo

The kid His first home run at home is a walkoff The next night Yoshinobu Yamano no Oh no Loses it with 8.2 innings And then they lose the game

Another walkoff chaos in Baltimore. Dodgers come back the next night, Sho Hey, two homers, there you are, to salvage the set. But chaos in the Mid-Atlantic. The Royals, Trev was there, and he watched them take two out of three from the twins.

Maybe the bigger story. Bobby Witt Jr. with some back stuff, misses the final two games. But that doesn't stop Vinnie P., who has been on an absolute tear, two hits in each of the first two games. games. Buck Daddy doing special stuff, but special stuff to stop another twins losing streak. Sorry, coach. White Sox take two out of three from the Tigers, excuse me, baking powder.

The middle game, scoble shoves, gives up zero earned runs because that's what he does. But outside of that, you might hear about Colson Montgomery, because the kid can play. So can Kyle Teal. Hey, Benny's having a nice season. That's nice. White Sox take two out of three in your final AL series, the A's and the Angels. The A's take two out of three, because guess what? They banged. They rake, man, JJ Bladay with the big homer. Colby Thomas the Tank Engine.

And we love some Dallas Braden. He made a nice play in the booth and boy, did he let the people know he did. And good, because that's baseball. And that's what happened in the American. Like, so good to have you back, Pop. You know, Jolly filled in for you and did a nice job, but he wrote it down. I said, Jake does it live, Pop. You get your talking points and then you set up the big man for the standing.

Bam, I'm ready if you guys are. I'll start out east, Jake, where your yanks are climbing, but still two games back of those Toronto Blue Jays. Blue Jays, 82 and 61, the Yankees 80 and 63, the Red Sox going through it a little bit. 79 and 65, three and a half games back of the division, obviously still in the wild card. 71 and 72 for the raise, 66 and 77 for those Orioles in the Central. Tigers are spraying champagne very soon. I don't know. I think they can do it on the 13th is the earliest, I believe they can do it.

20 games over 500, 82 and 62. They're eight and a half games up on the Royals who are 73 and 70. Guardians, a half game behind that. 72 and 70. Then my twins. yikes 63 and 80 the white socks 55 and 89 by the way the white socks just swept my twins so there's that and then out west i feel like i've said this for the last four months the houston assholes are two and a half games up on the seattle mariners it just doesn't change 78 and 66 for them the mariners 75 and 68 the rangers a surge 74 and 70 the angels i'll be calling the game against the twins tonight 67 and 76 and 76 and 78. Now in the wild card Jakes,

I know that's what we're all here for, because this one is interesting. Yanks got the number one seed. Red Sox got the number two seed. The Mariners currently sit with the third and final wild card. The Rangers, one and a half games back. The Royals, two games back. The Guardians, two and a half games back.

And that's all I'm talking about. You don't get it raised. You were there, and now you're not. Some interesting things here. I was talking about the royals and kind of what they have in front of them. They go play the Guardians for four starting tonight. Then they go to Philly, and then they come home, and they have a set against the Mariners in Kansas City.

So it really truly is right there in front of those royals. Those are the standings in the American League. Right now, let's do that. I love when we do that. If the season ended today, get it back up. Get it back up. The Houston Astros, although they'd, win the division would still have to play in the wild card game because the tigers and the blue

just have a better record than them. So they would be hosting a series against the Mariners, and the Red Sox would be at the Yankees. That graphic is wrong. Hey, well done. Well done, everyone. Got it. We got there. We always get there. Uh, yeah, those, those divisional wildcard matchups, there's, there's still some moving and shaken, but there is some separation going. Well done, coach. I want to talk about everything, but I got to tell the people about Seekkeek

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That's nice. How about the number one rated ticketing app? That's fantastic. So if you, you're going to a game or a concert. I didn't get that summer concert. God damn it, Jake. It's just in Barbados.

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Yeah, Trev, there was a couple. This is just being a greedy, baseball fan a little bit, and it's not a reflection at the fan bases. You know, a couple of these series, if the race stayed hot through the Guardian series, there's a bigger race conversation, but the Guardians clapped back. The Giants who were kind of getting hot with Rafi Devers and we'll get there in the NL, them and the Cardinals kind of had a keep each other in check series that were hitting the point of the season three weeks left.

Like, that's nuts. that for one of these teams to really get in the dance, someone's going to have to get hot. In the AL, you know, is it a 15 and 5? I think for the Rangers, Royals, guards that could get it done. How about this? For the last wild card spot in the American League, what do you think the win total's got to be?

The last wild card spot? Last to make the dance in the AL. It's going to be something like 84, 84. 84 85. I'm thinking I had 86, 87 in my head. I feel like someone's got to get it, you know? Right now the Mariners have 19 games left,

if that's correct math, because they have played 143. So yeah, 19 games left. Okay. Now, let's just say, I guess 500 ball there gets them another. Let's just say they go 10 and 9, okay? That would put them at 85. Someone's got to play better than that.

Yeah, okay, yeah, okay. I'll bump it up. I'll bump it up to 86, 87, yeah, that makes sense. 87, I think, gets it done that for those teams on the outside looking in right now, you got to get hot. And one of them will, like, one of them will. It's just in the Mariners, or can the Mariners just be that team? Because they should be.

I mean, the offense, I mean, we're not there yet, but yeah, but yeah, they continue to hit like they did in Atlanta. and we got to start talking more about Julio and maybe everybody owes him an apology. I think you probably do. I think I might this episode. Holy smokes. All right, Trev. Let's, because all of these series have a little bit of juice.

Honestly, man, I want to start with Dodgers, Baltimore. Because my goodness, I know the Orioles are, this season got away from them, but they have been a winning record ball club since June 1st. They have an opportunity to spoil a lot of team seasons, and they showed you why with the walkoff in game one with young Samuel Bessio, the first guy they've locked up in this young court. And then Saturday, you know, and the people listening to this know,

I'm a sports loser that I love all sports. And part of the reason why is Saturday in Baltimore, Cal Ripkin honored before the game. Yes. Davy Johnson, the former manager, RIP, he gets honored before the game, which they didn't schedule those on the same day because that's not how life works. And then there they are getting no hit through 8.2, and Jackson Holiday turns on one, gets the hands in.

And then the game turns on its head that it's back-to-back walk-offs for Baltimore as they're trying to build something for next year. While meanwhile, some of these Dodgers questions keep getting louder. It's a couple different things. I think first let's give props to the Orioles. Bessio, great swing right there. One two fastball, like middle, middle by Tanner Scott, who's obviously had a lot of trouble this year for the Dodgers.

He thinks he's throwing too many strikes. Yeah, if they're middle-middle, yeah, it's too many strikes. Anything middle-middle-middle is no good, man. And there was a beautiful swing by him. We could talk about the Dodgers' offense or lack there of it. But, you know, Orioles get the job done in that game. And that's, you know, his second career homer's first one there at Camden Yards. Just an awesome, just an awesome site for Orioles fans.

Because, you know, look, this guy is supposed to be your future. Got him locked up all those good things. And to have a clutch hit like that so early, I think speaks volumes. And then, yeah, you know me. I don't bet a lot. But, and I didn't obviously bet this game, but Cal Ripkin being, remember, 30 years later for the streak. It just seemed like, hey, there ain't

no way the Orioles are going to lose on that day. And then you add in the Davy Johnson stuff and say, okay, they're going to win. And then here comes Yamamoto, who's been incredible this year. I don't think he gets talked about enough in the things he's done on the mound.

And Jackson Halliday shows up. You know, and like, hey, it was just you know, I tuned into that game. I was watching the Twins game, tuned into that game, just as that had bat went down, hits the homer, and you're like, all right, like, good for the Orioles. They don't get no hit. Trinan comes in, and then it's just,

this has been the problem with the Dodgers, man. Like, the guys they've relied on or are counting on to be guys just have not been there. Trina doesn't record an out. He goes double hit by pitch walk. They replace him, and then Tanner Scott comes in and gives it up again. Like, just like that, dude.

And that's, you know, when people always say, ain't no clock in baseball. We have a clock now. But you can't run out. clock. No. Now you can, you have to get these outs. And that's why baseball is still the beautiful sport.

You have to finish the game. And the Orioles end up finishing the game, not the Dodgers. And I think overall, again, stoke for the Orioles, but I mean, you are in last place in the AL East. I think this is a more interesting discussion for the Dodgers because we're looking ahead for them to be in the playoffs, probably going to be in the wild card round. I don't, I don't see, I don't see a situation. where they're not. I don't see them getting hot and passing the brewers or passing the Phillies

or passing the Cubs. It's just not going to happen. So what's gone wrong? I mean, like I said, like a lot of the guys they brought in to be guys just haven't been that. Back in the bullpen's been shaky the entire year that dealt with injury, sure, but it's been shaky. You're talking about an offense that, you know, for the most part of the year, it's been two guys or three guys, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, and Shohey. Mookie's actually picked it up as of late. I was wondering, you know, it looks like he had been over the last,

I guess since August 1st, 292, 354, 454. Like he's been their third best hitter, Shohei, and Freeman still ahead of him. But the lineup looks thin. The team looks old. Which is like, you said

Father Time catches up with everybody. They don't look great. But who's coming back tonight. Max Muncie. Forever plea. Max Muncie. So, I mean, you could, they've been such a better team with Max Muncie in the lineup.

Does it flip just that easily? I don't know, maybe. But right now, man, you can't tell me that this Dodgers team is, is still one of the better teams in baseball. Like, right now you can't say that. Well, Trev, this is the, maybe my favorite stat on the page today, new segment. The Dodgers are 64 and 13 when they score 5 plus dominant,

as dominant as he can be in baseball. 15 and 50 with four or less. Like with what we projected the Dodgers pitching to be before the season, and that's where I know we've done this a lot, but Glass now gets scratched before the game. Like, who is going to throw the ball for these Dodgers? And dude, you're right. they are most likely going to be in a three-game playoff.

And anything can happen, man. Anything can happen. And if you go into a three-game playoff, ask the Cardinals. Remember when they went into the three-game playoff? They had the lead, and then they had that bullpen fiasco, and then they kind of went missing from baseball for the past couple seasons. That Dodgers team is going to have the pressure on it. And we'll get to the NL projected standings,

but is that, you know, Mets at L.A. for three? I can't tell you the Dodgers are going to win that. They could easily be a road team in the wild card. San Diego's one game behind them. If San Diego ends up winning the division, like the Dodgers, again, they're two games back of the Cubs. So you might see them on the road for a wild card series, a team that we thought was ruining freaking baseball.

That's baseball in itself. They got to figure it out quick, man. I don't know what you do. You just have to rely on these guys to turn it around there in the back end in the bullpen, I guess. Maybe Max Muncie just is him. He's the guy.

He's a clubhouse guy. Had a great conversation about clubhouse guys. With CT? C.T. And just like, you know, there's obvious ones. Salvador Perez. Oh, dude. It was me.

It was Salvi. It was Vinnie P. Bobby went chopping it up in the Royal's clothes. Sal is, you know how, like, he got compared to Joe's McFly. He got compared to Joe's McFly. That's ridiculous.

I'm sorry. No. Sal is a massive human, by the way. What was I going to say about him? Gosh, you got, you just ruined my train stop, bro. You'll get it back. Okay.

Hey, let's, let's do Yanks J's tight. We just recorded talking Yanks this morning, because when we got back from Barbados, the elevators at our office were down. So we didn't record late last night. Yanks take two out of three. Yeah, man, the yanks are in this. They were beating up on bad teams, the White Sox and the Nats.

They have this streak of four straight series against playoff teams. Astros, Blue Jays. They've handled their business and taken two out of three out of those. They continue on to Detroit and Boston. They are sneaking up in the standings. They are one of, what, five teams with 80 wins? that the Yankees are getting back and there's some things to like again.

Yeah, I mean, look, this is a huge series for them, especially after losing that first game, seven to one. Gossman comes in, he struggled at Yankee Stadium, but goes in and has a really nice start. Blue J. score seven runs. I mean, the stadium on Friday was probably pretty quiet.

I said to Chris Rose, one of the things I wanted to see was the crowd at Yankee Stadium. It's a huge series. we're talking about playoff implications, A-L-East implications. Blue Jays come in and do the thing, but Yankees come back,

win the next two games, but that was awesome. It's better overall baseball from the Yankees. We saw some defensive stuff, which is always cool to see. You know, belly throws out Bowen in game two at the plate. If we have the well-strike-em-out throw-mount Bobby, I'd love to see that,

because that looked like it was a hit-and-run, a really poor effort by Miles Straw to put the bat on the ball. But the way he threw, like where he threw that ball from was awesome to see. And that, you know, that's, that's a rally killer right there. That was in game three. They take it, there it is. Look at that.

Like, just a great catch and throw by Wells. The tag by Jazz, I mean, I thought he would go up the line a little bit more. Nine-fitting one-run game. Yeah. Watch this effort by Straw that, like, the ass out swing. Come on, man. Come on, man. And then they took advantage of an air by Vladdy.

So, like, that's just better overall baseball. I guess the one thing that the people are talking about and I want to get your take on is how brazen the Yankees are with signals. Trev, I have no problem. This is the thing. And John Schneider, after the game, talking about the Yankees, like, yeah,

like they're good when they know what's coming. Yeah, no shit. And you can't really say anything because it's you that's messing up. You're messing up. The thing is, like, this stuff, that usually is not in play. usually it's, you know, hey, you know, tug the jersey,

you're taking a step one way or the other, you might look down, you might look to the left to the right, whatever it is. The Yankees are not doing that. The whole season, they've just been like, caca, caca, crazy. Me and Jom had like a mini, our brother, bicker over it because I was like, I don't get it.

Because I was like, you know, keep it hidden that you know, so Max Scherzer stays out there longer and you get seven runs off of them. and keep it going. That's kind of what it's been. He was like, oh, dude, we asked Boone

and their whole thing is that they are, they'd rather people know they're doing it than be, than think it's sketchy or think they're doing something sketchy. And I'm like, that doesn't make sense to me. That doesn't make any sense. That's a bad answer by Boone. The bigger,

the bigger thing that I think Jimmy might have, they get a lot of relaying from their dugout slash like the first base coach area. Yes. that it might be such a quick transaction that it's just be blatant. I believe that. But yeah, for me, I'm a little confused by it because, again, that's a one-running.

They'd stop scoring off Scherzer. They go no hit by the bullpen that if they lose that game, then wouldn't you had rather have Scher out there and not know he was tipping necessarily and get more runs? I think they think it's mental. I think they want the other team to know we got you.

But I don't know the answer. I'm guessing. It's hard to, if you don't have it, like if the Blue Jays didn't have obviously something on Max tipping, clearly they didn't or else they would have told him, it's hard day up during the game to figure it out. Right. Now here's a thing.

Take the signs. Everybody's got guys now scouring over the video. I've said this before. I just want to reiterate it because I want this on record because I truly believe it. some point this is going to come out. And I'm not saying the Yankees are doing this. I'm just saying that this has got to be happening throughout baseball. If you're putting video into some sort of software program to help you out with, you know, pitchers tipping, I hate it. I think it should be

illegal. And I don't know how you combat that. I'm not saying the Yankees are doing that. I'm saying eventually we're going to get to a point. You have to. If other teams are doing it, every team's going to want to do it and there's really no way to combat it. I don't think that should be part of baseball. I do not think it should a software, AI genera, whatever the hell, you know, we're not big AI guys here. We're huge AI guys. But we're not that smart. That should not be a thing. If it's somebody that you have employed picking it up with their own two eyes, great. I like it to be uniformed personnel. Again, you can't really combat that. Everyone has a left. Everyone has a laptop and access to all the video. So I just want to say, for the record, I am super against

any AI software stuff. Not saying the Yankees are doing it. I'm saying we're going to get to a point where eventually they are. But yeah, like if you got the signs, great. And I don't mind the brazen nature of it because this is my thought process is when we have it, let's use it. And let's make sure we're getting the signal across. You know, what if Ben Rice doesn't see that? What if it's subtle, he doesn't see that, then he doesn't lean back on that off speed pitch and hit a three run homer. So it's like, that's the, I think, whether it's the Yankees starting pitchers, whether whoever's, whoever's good on the Yankees at figuring this stuff out, I think a lot of it's coming from the dugout, that it's whoever's not, I can guarantee you it's not the players

right now. Try not to give away the Yankee secrets. Treve. Everybody's got dudes back there looking at it. Peters, man. No, there's a coach that everyone thinks. Yeah, there's always a couple guys. Always a couple guys. The talking baseball theme. We had swilly on, Katie Wu.

Anyways, coach, the story is the Texas Rangers who are one of the hotter teams in the American. They are. This is a really fun series. Game one in particular. Carlos Correa, big Homer in the top of the eighth inning, two-run Homer to tie the games. You're like, okay, well, let's see who's.

going to walk it off. Nobody wanted to walk it off. In the, I believe it was in the 10th inning, we had Ezekiel Duran with Kimbril on the rope, second and third one out, and he tries the bunt one-one. And like the, you know, fine. I don't think you need to do it in that situation. Again, you know, Kimbril's not the Kimbril of all, but he gets a one-one like a currubal slide or whatever it was, puts it down and the thing's got so much spin that it checks up. I mean, it lands this far foul. Camero picks it up, strikes him out on the next pitch, rowdy gets, O'Kert comes in, strikes him out.

Nobody wanted it until our guy, Dustin Harris, who was called up that morning. He'd been designated for assignment at the trade deadline, was down and Round Rock, you know, probably like pretty bummed out about just like everything. You know, getting designated sucks, especially at that point of the year. You're like, I'm going to finish in AAA.

and go home. He gets the call, hits the double. The Rangers had been 0 for 27 with runners in scoring position before that. That went back to last Tuesday. How crazy is that? You get that victory. It's an unlikely hero. But the Rangers

end up taking two of three. We got Langford having a hell of a season. We got these young guys, Cody Freeman and Ozuna, of doing their thing. Like they're, they're figuring it out and they're going on this run. And yeah, they are they, it's all right in front of them as well, Jake. Jake Berger, a couple homers in this series. He was supposed to be, you know, 30 homers selling forget it.

It hasn't been that for them. Yeah. And hey, reliving the trade deadline. Merrill Kelly, man. Yep. He has been nails for them. Houston will shrug it off and keep their division lead. It was interesting.

Framber's first start since the intentional cross-up. And they actually, they give up a run on a passball strike three that, I don't know, you know, Yiner protecting his guy. No, I'm not actually saying that. But, yeah, the Rangers are the story for me. If they get in the dance, they are a nightmare to play. A nightmare. But they have to get there.

Yeah, they face the Brewers, the Mets, and the Astros again over the next 10 days. So they got a schedule coming up, but hey, we'll find out. And the other teams that they're kind of dancing with, the Guardians Rees series that I started with, again, this isn't supposed to be shots fired, but if the raise had taken three out of four and continued on, like, a 10-game win streak, they were positioned. They were around the postseason.

Cleveland bounces back. They chopped them down. Jose Ramirez enters the record book Schneeman with a big hit in that third game. Anything you saw here, Coach? Yeah, I mean, the starting pitching showed up for the Guardians. I mean, Gavin Williams, Tanner, Bobby, and Parker Messick, who's been great, by the way, in his first like four starts.

19 and two-thirds, he's pitch, only four earned runs. And then you got Kwan and Ramirez hitting again. That's the formula. That's our recipe. In Cleveland. You mentioned Ramirez in the record books. He is now second in franchise history in both stolen bases and runs driven in.

And there's some names in that Indian guardians history. That's a team that's been around. Kim Tomey. I just can't say goodbye to me. Yeah, dad flew in from Kansas City last night, drove home from Long Beach to be with my kids this morning, got to see him for a little bit before the show. Yeah, that's the kind of dad I am.

You're different. So is Caminero, his 41st. on the year. He's going to be on some lists with young MLB guys to put up that kind of home run. Which are these teams would you, how about this? I told you pick Razor guards the rest of the way.

Who would you pick? So tough. So that's a ridiculous question. I should have said I got a Chris Rose for you. That is a Chris Rose question. I think the rest of the series are probably good. I think I got to mention the Royals. I mean, they are right there.

They're in the same boat, absolutely, and they've been winning a ton of series. They're an interesting team, man. They're very Brewers S to me. Probably not to that level, but that's kind of how they play. They got a couple guys that can bang the ball around the yard.

Vinnie P's doing it. Obviously, the Bobby Wittonoo stinks. But I don't think it's anything serious. They haven't ILed them. He was available off the bench, they said, the last two games. Mikel Garcia is still a guy. He just, like, move from third over

shortstop. I had a great conversation with him. He wants to play shortstop on Team Venezuela and the WBC. Same. We'll see. You're probably going to play third base. Andres Jimenez, probably at Shortsup or Zeke Tovar. That's a great episode that we got to do.

Let's do the WBC rosters. Yo, we should, I know Trev, not you and me strength. We should have like a meeting and talk WBC. We got to go. We got to. We got it. Me and Mikel are like this now. I didn't realize. Yes. How is Vincenzo?

The Royals are, they're like a scrappy team. Like, they're going to field the ball. They're going to freaking, you know, they got a decent bullpen. They got some starters. Like, if Vinny and Sal, if Bobby is available, like they have enough of the offense. They're a fast team, but run the bases at,

they're the worst base running team in baseball because they get picked off so much. And I think the twins picked them off like three times. So, like, they need to figure that out. Ryan Berger, who they created for, has been pretty strong for them. And they just called up one of their top prospects, Carter Jensen.

So like it feels like they need one more spark. I don't know if it's the light bulb goes off for Caglione. I don't know. It feels like if they get... He looks defeated out there. It's interesting, man. Carter Jensen, because we're not probably going to give him any love. He got his first hit, and he's from Kansas City.

And there's, like, pictures of him at the World Series in 2015. So that's kind of cool. We love that. Trev, you're right. Sorry's... Tigers, actually, you should be feeling lucky. We're not. White Sox A's Angels.

It's that time of year. We got three weeks to go. Let's talk some NL baseball. Head to beautiful Cincinnati, where Joe Burrow... No. The Reds hosted the Mets. And, hey, the Reds alive.

They take two out of three. This Mets rotation, man, Jonah Tong to the Sproke go. Brandon Sprope, in there for them. And how about Sanga gets sent down to work on stuff? What is going on with the New York Metropolitan's? I will tell you, Mark Vientos is back.

He has some of the best numbers in baseball since the All-Star break. South Stewart is up for Cincinnati homering in Hunter Green, seven innings. 12-Ks. Reds, they'd have to get blazing hot to get back into it. Maybe they will. Diamondbacks, they hosted the Boston Red Sox, and they take two out of three. E-Rod revenge game.

Six innings, one earn run. Pertomo with a four-hit day. Brandon fought in here. Six innings, one Ernie. Red Sox win. A couple sloppy plays by the D-Backs help out. Trevor Story gave one back in an earlier game, too. Red Sox salvaged this set.

The Phillies and the Marlins. Some drama off the field in this one. The Phillies take two out of three. Chris Sanchez is your best pitcher in the National League since the All-Star break in essentially every category. Max Kepler is a German. He homers, they win. That's interesting. Lazzardo revenge game.

Otto Lopez can't be stopped. Two homers in that final game. And in just an all-time Karen moment, that just kind of transcended our society and everything that comes with it. I don't know. Harrison Bader did good. The Marlin staff did good afterwards. society one. We don't need to dox the woman in ruin her life. I don't know. We'll see if Trevor Greene is. Mariner's take two out of three from the Braves. After dropping the first game,

Chris Sale doing things that almost no older pitcher has ever done before. And Ozzie Albies has been back balling out and you know we love his fischograms. Seattle bounces back. Julio two homer game. Eugenio Suarez, two homer game and Luis Castillo with his first good start in a little wild, that's nice. Giants Cardinals, I mentioned this briefly before. Both of these teams and that NL Wildcard have to get super hot to make it happen. Giants, we're doing it in a way. Devers is going nuts. Adama's homers. Get used to that in San Francisco. But the Cardinals bounce back at Jordan Walker walkoff, fends off a nice start by Verlander, and then the Cardinals take the final game to win the series. San Diego, two out of three. That's good. It is from the Rock

who shut him out in game one. Good for you, Colorado. Kyle Freeland, Hunter Goodman with the Rockies catcher home run record. San Diego takes the next two games. The Nationals and the Cubbies, they played three. Nationals took two of them. Where am I at with the Cubs? I don't even know.

But when my Lord is on the mound, I got to get religious to hit him. They couldn't do it. Nationals take two out of three. And Trev, your best West West. Western Road Warriors. They've been road warriors all year. Why don't you guys go check out Best Western Hotel and Resorts? Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. It's the Brewers. It's the Milwaukee Brewers.

43 and 29 on the road all of year. That's seven more than any other baseball team. Quinn Priester, seven innings. Two Ernie's against them. Brandon Woodruff, six innings, zero earn runs. Jesus. 18 innings scoreless streak against the pirates. And it's his show. He's Jacob Mizorowski. Seven innings, one earn run.

The Brewers. Sweep the Pirates with ease. They are your best Western Road Warriors. And that's what happened in the National League. How many memes are going to come when Brad Lord and Quinn Priester face each other? I like that. I'm just going to be off. I'm going to mute both those words on that day.

Bad puns are going to happen. I did want to mention this. Great job, by the way, snaps. We're getting to the standings. Did you see the Texas Frat Kid that won the Powerball? No. Yeah. You were in Barbados.

The rest of our country, the U.S. had a Powerball at 1.9. Billy. Two people won it. One was in Missouri. I bought tickets in Missouri. Is it me? It wasn't me.

Or maybe it was, and I'll just never tell anybody. There'll be signs, though. There'll be signs. We'll tell. Lord of the Rings. Trip, here I come. New Zealand. Some frat kid at the University of Texas, bro.

There's a video of him just, him and all his boys in their burnt orange colored polos. And 900 mil. Anyways. You want the standings? There it is. No, it's just not. I just, I can't. Do you stand?

Here's my thing. Quick. Yeah. My initial reaction is you stay in college and have the time of your life. Right? But then everyone's going to be out for you, dude. You can't go to like some party without getting your drinks. Like something slipped in your drink and some people trying to like frame you.

I think you just got to, I don't know, man. I think you just got to get out of there. Ooh, you win the powerball in college. That's interesting. You tell Archie Man to beat it. I got more money than you. I am the Texas. Captain now.

Yeah, I don't know. I was having some weird Powerball thoughts because I saw how big it's getting. It's like, what? Like, we're giving this out to one or two people. It's like, what if we divvied this up

for a thousand people and a thousand people's lives were significantly changed? Wow. I know. I'm a socialist. Do we need to start our own lottery where that happens?

Maybe, dude. I don't know. I don't know what I would do. Well, I know what I do. I don't know what that kid's going to do. Go to New Zealand, go see Lord of the Rings, whatever. Let me give you the stand. No, it was a really good one.

We had this talk with a golf crew on the way to Jolly's golf tournament. Baby Bro Luke said he's like, I'd build and open a golf course. I was like, that's actually a really good answer. Just because, like, if you have the money, you build a sick course, you play there all the time, you make like a good restaurant. You're like, I don't know. It's a pretty proven. business model. And if you just like golf and you're that rich?

I don't know. Okay. I think I would just join a few clubs and play wherever the hell I wanted. Anyways, in the National League East, the Phillies with a seven-game lead, they should be popping champagne shortly. 83 and 60 for them, 76 and 67 for the Mets. And then it's the Marlins at 66 and 77, the Brave 64 and 79. And the Nats, 58 and 84 in the Central. They should be popping champagne soon. The Brewers, I'm talking about, 89 and 55. There's seven and a half games up on the Chicago Cubs who are 81 and 62. The Reds, one game above 500, 72 and 71. The Cardinals, dead even, 72 and 72, and then the Pirate 64 in 80.

And out west, yes, it's a one game lead for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are 79 and 64. The Padres right behind them, 78 and 65. The Giants, one game over, 72 and 71. The Dimebecks, 500, 77. and 72 and the Rockies 40 and then 103 in the wild card. I don't want to say it's done. I don't want to say it.

I was going to be my question. I don't want to say it's done, but it's a lot of games to make up. The Cubs have the one spot. The Padres right now have the two spot and the Mets right now sitting in the third spot. Four games ahead of the Reds, four games ahead of the Giants, and then I'll give it to

you guys, Diamondbacks and Cardinals, four and a half games back at 500. I don't know if I see any of those teams playing good enough ball because again, they're going to have to play in the last 19 games. They're probably going to have to go 15 and 4. Yeah, that's where I landed. That's where I landed.

So I don't know if that is attainable. It could. It's baseball. I understand. Or one of these teams could just completely fall flat on their face. We will see. As it stands today, though, Jake, we would have the Brewers and the Phillies with the buy.

The Dodgers would be absolutely. or excuse me, the Dodgers will be hosting the Mets and the Cubs will be hosting the Padres, both three-game sets. Those are your standings in the National League. Those NL playoffs, I mean, I don't know. I realize we've expanded, but it feels historic. Like, those are really, really good baseball teams.

Good standing strip. Yeah, I just, I don't know. The Reds, you'd like to think they have that crazy potential in there, but we've said that for years, and you've got to be crazy out. The Giants and Debacks, I think they play, I think they have something like six or seven games in the next 10. So like, hey, if one of them dominates, then they're around it. But yeah, I just feel like all of those teams have to be kicking themselves a little bit,

that two more games along this long season, and they would be sitting in a lot better position right now. Because it's tough. I mean, the Mets are really good. I don't see the Mets blowing it. One of these teams would have to get red hot. And neither of, none of those teams have really shown them. Let's go through some of these series.

I don't think we need to go through them all. We can start, I think, in Cincinnati. Reds, you know, they take care of business here, two or three from the Mets. So that's nice for them. The Mets do take game one. They jumped out to the early lead. They're up 5-1 in the fourth.

They hold on. Viantos, as you mentioned, man. Just staying red hot. I'm happy for him because it was looking pretty dire earlier this year. And, you know, I always say this, man. You get up and you have success and, like, especially in New York, a lot of attention on you. Does that change kind of the way that you're going about things, maybe? A guy like Swaggy V, like, dude, he was eating up the attention.

and sometimes you got to remember you got to go back to playing ball in the grind. I'm not saying he wasn't doing that, but probably wasn't. Probably wasn't grinding as much as he did. That's just human nature, man. Yeah, you could very much be right. It could also just be baseball, man. Sure, sure. Baseball is tough.

Software slump, I get it. But I'm just saying I've noticed, especially around today's game where a lot of people, there's attention, there's brands that you want to build, all these different things. sometimes you just got to get back to ball. I've had these discussions with a lot of guys over the year. So go Swaggy V, Go, I'm rooting for you. And then it was, we had some great starting pitching by Brady Singer, by Hunter Green. They kind of do it.

And then that was against two rookies, Tong and Sprote, which I think that's an interesting conversation with the Mets. Like, where do they go? Sanga's down in AAA. What are they going to do with their playoff rotation? Got to get there first. But once they do, like, are we going? are we going Peterson,

Holmes, McLean, where do these guys fit in? I think that's going to be fascinating to see because you've got three rookie starters who have done pretty well McLean obviously crushing it. So where do they end up?

I did have this thought watching Hunter Green throw on Sunday. And I'm like, does he have the best stuff in the league? He's like, he's turned in. to that. The numbers are there, but when I'm watching him throw, like the ability

like the biggest difference in Hunter Green over the last or this year and like when he's really turned the corner is his ability to locate the fastball used to get nailed and now he's locating it better. I was like, does he have the best stuff in the league? And like, how do you even look that up? Then I remembered our guy, Enosaris

has a freaking stat called Stuff Plus. Stuff Plus. So I went, boom, he's nowhere to be found. I'm like, oh, shoot. Okay. Then I realized, oh yeah, he's only thrown 90 innings this year. So I toggle it down back to 90 innings. Who's on top? Hunter freaking Green. Look at you learning how to toggle.

I toggled. Hunter Green, stuff plus 124. Terrick Scoobo, 116. He's number two. Interestingly enough, I was like, okay, where the hell is Paul Skeens? Because that's the best pitcher in baseball. He's 21st at 107. Not sure what that means. So we might need Enos Staccom on and explain why he's so far down the list. Yeah, that Hunter Green changeup we just showed, that looked unfair.

So this is, it concerns itself with the following ball flight metrics, pitch velocity, vertical and horizontal brake arm angle, release extension. So Skeens has to be lower in one of those things, possibly release extension. That's where I would go. And now I'm going to go look it up. But look that up. Yeah, I think Mets are going to have a pitching chaos come to postseason that I'm excited for. And I know the Tigers kind of went famous for that last year.

I like all of their arms. I just don't know who should pitch when. And they just might see who's thrown at the best. And Reds, yeah, they have the Padres and then they have a Rodee that's Athletics Cardinals. So I don't get hot and make it matter because right now it's just too far away. And that's the same story with the Diamondbacks That like when they look right, they look right And Corbyn Carroll is as special as an outfielder can be in this league.

Yes. He crossed the 30 homers and like Erod gives them the good start. And yes. But then it's the last game is the perfect example. We could have been, been diamond backs. They sweep and they have some signs of life. And this team, we've seen them get hot at the end of a season, before a really tough pickoff play throwaway kind of loses the game for them as the Red Sox salvage.

And I don't know, I think the story from there is still Chapman is. Talk stuff plus right now. Lower it to 50 and let me know where he is. Oh, I can do that. You can toggle. Let me toggle real quick. Toggle down. Is that what he's throwing 50?

I guess stuff on my head. Let me see. Then it becomes Tyler. Rogers, number one, because that's arm angle influenced. That's challenge. Yohan Duran number two. Checks out. Then Hunter Green, then Mason Miller.

Orion Kirkring. How about our guy? You've been pretty good. I am not seeing, you know, that's different. He doesn't need stuff plus. He just blows it by you with his eight foot frame. Yeah, I don't know where I need to challenge, throw the challenge flag, but his loves.

A Raldus Chapman, who used to be famous for like, he'll let a couple guys on. He has a 0.63 whip. Drink your milk, kids. Hey, man. I could drink whatever the fuck. You could give me everything in the planet, and it's not going to look like that.

He's, what is it, 50 straight batters? 50 straight batters, 43 days without giving up a hit. He's the real deal, man. Shout out to the devac starters. 18 in a third inning, excuse 18 innings pitch, only three earned runs.

They've gotten six, they've gotten six consecutive quality starts. So that's nice. And then there was a Raphael catch in this series. We got that up. That guy. Our guy Gileito gives up a laser

to right center, and then Raphael out of nowhere comes and just snags that thing from going in the pool. He's, I mean, he's a platinum glove winner, right? Yes. Okay.

Yes, maybe. Does PCA, have anything to say about that. I haven't looked at the numbers lately. He could. Don't look at the offensive numbers. The Cubbies are in a weird. They've been better offensively, but he hasn't. Just a little weird. Trev, honestly, it was kind of the biggest story baseball's had in a wild. I know this is normally you and Chris Rose. Any Karen thoughts we need to do here?

I'd rather say shout out to the Marlins' front office. for hooking the kid up. Shout out the dad for being like, all right, diffusing a situation. Like, look, the ball doesn't mean something,

sure, but like, okay, lady, get out of here. I thought he handled it fine. And then Harrison Bader taking care of the kid

after the game. Those are all great things. As far as the Karen, not a great look for her. And like, does she deserve to like kind of feel a little bit of shame? Sure,

but like, does she deserve to lose her job, which I heard she did? I don't know if that's facts. I don't think that's real. I hope it's not. We're in a crazy spot with the internet where... We don't...

That she did... I mean, look, did she have a bad moment and like, you know, does she have the haircut? Yeah. That's the craziest part, right? I know. That's the craziest part. She should probably rethink the haircut.

Like, if we're gonna go forward, rethink the haircut. But she doesn't deserve to be like death threats or... That's not who we should be as a society. Yeah, we have this weird internet. Like, chance to ruin this person's life. And it's like, okay. It's bad.

It's horrible. And like you said, I like, Crev. Shout out, shout out to the Marlins. Shout out to Bader. Shout out to the, you know what?

How about this? This is a little hotter take. Shout out to the people that booed Karen in the crowd. She did deserve that. Yeah, she did. If you can get booed on the field for, for playing bad, you can get booed off the field for playing bad.

Other big notes. Trey Turner left with a hammy. that's tough for the Phillies. I mean, we've got to keep this team intact. We've already lost Wheeler. We cannot lose a Trey Turner. Leading the NL and hits? Yes.

So, you know, keep an eye on that. Hopefully, look, they've built up a big enough lead where, like, they can withstand two weeks without Trey Turner. So that's fine, but you got to get them healthy for the playoffs. I, uh, yeah, Trev, I guess. Dude, the one thing I'm up in the air about because I have stuff later in the show coming from Seattle and the Giants.

I'm in a weird spot with the Cubbies, man. I just kind of am. Like, I know they lose this Nat series. I know you said they're hitting Kyle Tucker missed three straight games, PCA. I just, with the Cubs in general, I'm in a little bit of a weird spot. They're limping into the playoffs.

They're limping into the playoffs. the offense had gone cold. It's been better as of late. Last time I checked, I think I got it from July 1st on, and they were like the ninth best offense in baseball. So like they're improving their first game. They did a really good job, got to Jake Irvin. Then you mentioned, you know, the offense just wasn't there in the last two games.

And I'm curious to see like what their pitching plan is going forward. It's got to involve a Cade Horton. You know, you're talking about Boyden Iimanaga and then who? I don't know. I guess the other thing that was jumping out, like Palencia, all-story L.A team this year, he's been getting knocked around. So it's like, okay, so your two studs in the outfields

are going through different struggles over the past month and a half. The good news is you have Ian motherfucking hap. Yeah. Who is hot right now. And his numbers have landed where Ian Hap's numbers land, every year. And there's less switch hitters in baseball, and he is a dude who also wins gold gloves at his position.

The other thing, speaking of hot, I don't know if he's actually fully hot right now. Let me see. Dansby, though, 22 homers. He's sneaking up on a five-war season. Like, okay, that helps. That helps. But yeah, they're just in a weird,

they're in a funky little spot. They have to figure out what they're going to do with their pitching. I think yeah, I mean, PCA and and Tuck, like, do they have to be studs for them to go far in the postseason? Absolutely. Do we have enough time

for them to turn it around? Yeah, we do. Yes. We do. Yes. Let's go to the Mariners. They're about to get a lot. They're about to get a lot. We can see, I can see a world where the Mariners in the last three weeks just absolutely go on a heater. Like, they need, they need that.

offensively you score 28 runs in the last two games. Pitching shows up as well like awesome. Can you continue that? Probably not. But again, like they have the potential to be a team that can do that. You know, Gino, let's go, big dog. Julio has been doing it. I had his stats up. Dude, I think we just got to

just say Julio is a freaking, oh, okay, sorry. All right, I'll wait. I was excited. Let's get to standout performers It's time for standout performance Stand out performances This guy stood out for Trev And Trev I'm going to cut you off at the pass Go ahead

Because I took Julio Because he went three for five with two homers Gave him 30 on the year I earlier this season, I got frustrated with Julio. Straight up. You know, his first three seasons are very good Major League Baseball seasons. He also got a little worse every year. And then he came out and he opened up this year and he went into the All-Star break

with an OPS that started with the 6. And I'm like, hey, hey, man, the way you play defense is special. The way you run is special. The hitting in the first halfs, it's really thrown. me off. Julio has turned it on. And he is now, I don't know about him turning MVP chap, but at the end of this year, is he going to be top five?

Is he going to be top three? In the second half, Julio has a 933 OPS, which this guy, when he has an OPS in the 8s, he is a star. And he's at 797 on the season. And now I have no doubt he's going to get there. and I came out earlier this year, and I was kind of on like a Julio's not a superstar. He's a very talented, good, great defensive centerfielder that has tools offensively, but I don't know if you can bank on him being a superstar.

And then Cal Raleigh took off, which was kind of part of my argument of like, well, that's, that's kind of looking like a superstar to me. And it starts getting into verbiage. Huge play there in that Mariners Braves game where he goes out and gets a ball in centerfielder that not a lot of guys go get. Who knows if we're telling a different part of this series. Julio is a superstar. He's got the look.

He's got the game. The look matters, by the way. He was all over that Seattle airport, and he should be. The guy is one of the best-looking humans I've ever seen. He has, what are these numbers? I think him and A-Rod are the only guys to be 24 years old and have 100 homers and 100 steals. he's Julio Rodriguez, and I didn't pay him the respect I should have.

I wanted to see more earlier this year. He's shown me more, and that is what I've asked. And Trev, with that, I was going to accent that Gino had a two-homer game, and over the past two weeks, he has been one of the hotter players in baseball, and his season numbers are going to land in an absolutely silly area. You're right, man, like this Mariners team, they mauled the Braves, the final two games. And it reminded me of when the Texas Rangers mulled their way to the playoffs.

And Rangers fans, for whatever reason, got mad because they were like, we pitch too. We know the Mariners can do that. They can absolutely. Randy Rosarena can win you a game by himself. Julio can win you a game by himself. The two snakes that they brought over, sounds weird when you say it like that. Naylor and A. Oh, Hennio. Those guys can win.

Big dumper. Like, yes, you're absolutely right. they should be the sexiest team heading into the postseason. They just need to do it. Because all those other teams we flirted with before, the team closest to them are these guys. They're wearing like mustaches in the, you know, the dugout now. Like bottle that up,

whatever you got going on right now if you're the Mariners and, you know, you have this big offensive explosion. But the clubhouse vibes have got to be great right now. Like instead of like clenching and like being real tight, in a certain area. Loosin it up a little bit. You've got a good team. I feel like a lot of times

you need to be reminded of that. Yeah, the big leads is hard. Yeah, you're going to struggle. It's going to happen throughout the year. But go look at your roster. What you've done this year, like you're a very good team. Go play like it.

Go have fun and play like it, man. Stop being so tight in that certain area. I, Jake, am going with Colson Montgomery. We're not going to talk about the White Sox a ton. Maybe next year, maybe the year after that. but Colson Montgomery, Indiana boy, by the way, which I love. Kyle Gibson also from Indiana. Schwartz? Did I dream that?

Yeah, I think he is as well. What's in the water? Two for four, the Homer, four runs driven in. Two runs scored in a walk against those tigers. I think that one was against my guy Flaherty right there. Who, by the way, it's like seventh in the aile and strikeouts, so go Jack Flaherty. Okay. Colson's been great since debuting.

He's a 230 av, 299 OEP. Okay, not great, Trev. Yeah, he's slugging 550. Okay, he has 18 homers in how many games? 53 games. So do the math there. He's on like a 162 pace. It's over 50 homers.

So the guy's got obviously a huge offensive potential. one of the things I also love now that we're tracking it is bat speed he'd be in the upper echelon upper 90s percentile of bat speed he averages 77 miles an hour doesn't have enough to qualify just yet but I had that up

where is that at so right now the guy's ahead of him or who would be ahead of him he'd be tied with Aaron Judge and then it's Schwarber Nick Kurtz Joe Adele who's got 30 plus homers junior Caminero and O'Neill Cruz

Like that's the type of bat speed that we're talking about. And okay, big boy, shortstop, can he hit? Can he play defense? Yes, he can. He's already credited with five outs above average. So look out, man. Southridge High School, Indiana. He was the 22nd overall pick by the Red Sox first rounder, 2021.

He's got a stud. Stud. And he swings the shit out of the bat, earmuffs. He's swinging. big. Hey, you like strength up the middle. There might be some White Sox conversations next year. Oh, Chase? Need a couple more pitchers, but Lubbob in center,

Kyle Teal and Edgar Caro, potentially behind the dish. Lenin Sosa keeps it in Homer. Little White Sox chat late. Hey, I kind of thrash this stat before, and I'd like to say it again. Julio Rodriguez, 110 homers and 110 stolen bases

through his age 24 season. Two other baseball players have ever done that. It's Alex Rodriguez and it's Mike Trout. Hmm. These guys are pretty good. That's a... That's a spicy meat to ball, my friend. Go Mariners go.

Go Mariners go. They don't want us. That's fine. I get it. Trev, there's a lot of guys that we could have talked to. I could have, oh, Hunter Goodman. Historic season in Colorado. Nick Lofton with the big day at the office.

Go look at what Yordon is doing. A lot of these guys could have ended up on Enfuego. I hope they are. Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. I looked up dirt nasty the other day. He's still acting doing his thing. Okay.

Yeah, shout out. How about we're talking about some rookies? Oh. Leading off the sheet with Washington's outfieler, Dailin Lyle. He goes six for 12 in the series, three triples. A homer, three runs driven in. His three triples are tied for the most by a player in a series at Wrigley Field. Vance Coleman did it in 1985 as well.

since July 21st, our guy, Dale and Lyles, amongst NL rookies, first with hits, first with triples, first with batting average, second with slug,

and second in OPS. So keep it going, Big Doug, finish strong. Is Chicago a triples park? I get down the line to right, otherwise. Maybe in the ivy just kind of like

gets up in there. A couple of Ivy ballers. Yeah. Kind of like you and me at Stanford. Yeah, like, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, see that.

Oh, it was the, it was the same. son, Pete, I've been there. Oh, he's fast. Holy crap. Okay. Dalin Lyle. I saw him get his hands in against Matt Boyd.

Good. Okay. Jake Bowers, old friend of the program. Sequence episode. Six for 12, a double a homer, six runs driven in in their series. They get the sweep. Brandon Marsh, finding a lot more playing time out there. Okay.

Against right handers, him and kept. Six for 11, 545 average. doubles a homer three runs driven in. He had his 50th homer on Friday. That's nice. Over his last 100 games, that's May 4th on. The slash line's nice. 831 OPS, 20 doubles, eight homers. Let's go,

Brandon Marsh. Otto Lopez, you mentioned him. Four for 11, two homers, four runs driven in. You recorded this first career multi-homer game on Sunday. He became the sixth Marlins player to record a multi-homer game this season. How about for the week? Hunter Goodman, it's

stays on Enfuego. 10 for 21, three homers, 10 runs driven in. There's 29 homers, as you mentioned earlier, are the most by a Rockies catcher during a single season in franchise history, surpassing Will and Rosario's 28 in 2012? That was not in my book.

I remember that. That was not in my book. I'm glad you had that. Vladdy, continue to do his thing. 14 for 25, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 5 runs driven in. Your Don. We've been talking about him. Obviously, he was going to get it going.

13 for 26, two doubles, two homer, six runs driven in. Since returning from the IL on August 26, yeah, he's slashing 425, 529, 700. He's 4-5-7ing it. I don't think I've ever said that before on the show. Adabooy, Yordaun. How about Wensiel Perez of the Detroit Tigers? Nine for 21, three doubles, a homer, six runs driven in. And that, Jake, is using Fuego.

I couldn't believe what Yordawn's doing, but I can. I absolutely can. That's the thing. I'm in Vlad right now. Eesh. So hot, they need a pair of shady rays. We all need a pair of shady rays. People, the final days of sunshine,

not for, I guess, drive on the West Coast, but all us Northeast people know. So go get yourself a pair of shady rays. Treat yourself. Come on. Shady rays is the best. If you watched any of our cricket content this weekend, you saw a ton of pair of of Shady Rays. If you've seen anything, John Boy Media, the past five years, you've seen a ton of Shady

Rays. They've been with us. They've got their loss or broken replacement. If you don't love your shades, exchange for a new pair or return worry-free within 30 days. And they have one of our best deals at the company. Go to ShadyRays.com. Use code talking for 35% off your next pair of polarized sunglasses. That's code talking at Shadyrays.com.

Go get yours now. Let's bring it down with batters who are struggling. We got a little mix here. I feel like I've seen this guy on this list too many times this year. Cedric Mullins, I think his bad has been bad this year. 0 for 24. I don't even need to chop that up.

I know the batting average. That's a zero. Texas catcher Jonah Heim, one for 21 and 0. 48 average. Ronald Acuna, rack them up. In 0 for 25 right now, a 3 for 39. Weird from Ronnie.

It gets everyone. It gets everyone. Taylor Ward is in a 3 for 31. Batting 115 on pitches in the strike zone over the last two weeks. That's the lowest in the AL. That's no Bueno. Yiner Diaz, a 6 for 36. Slugging 2-16 in his first played appearance of the game.

That's a funky one, huh? Per usual, with batters who are struggling, we tell them this, we tell you this, because we're going to get them off. We're going to get them on Enfuego next week. The one place where our hands are really bound. The I.L. And going on the I.L.

Nester Cortez, for those Padres, left by, Except this is also tricky time a year to be going on the IL, Trev. Yes. We got three weeks. Have you got a rehab, like minor league games or why didn't? Very tricky time of year to be getting hurt. Kyle Finnegan for Detroit. Again, they're right adductor.

They're hoping two to three weeks. Let's see. Like, that's going to be an important playoff update for. Yeah, they're going to have to do pitching chaos again. You love pitching games. They're going to have. I mean, I hate the. name, but I don't mind, like, the strategy of it.

It's not pitching chaos. It's just bullpen. No, it's not pitching chaos. If scubel gives them seven and Flaherty gives them six. The chaos is done. I am, I love playoff rotations. And like, I love to see what teams do. I'm very curious for the Tigers.

Dude, it's, I, it makes, this is so obvious and it's people an hour and a half in to listen to us talk about baseball. and we love you and we thank you. Thanks, guys. The matchups matter so much. The matchups matter so much. Number one I'm interested in is does Clayton Kershaw get a start in a wild card game? God, fire me up.

That dad bod from one to another, but he has children. Adolios Garcia for Texas. Right quad most likely out for the year. Like, that's of note. You have a Dustin Harris is here. You're right. You're right. Simply Dusty. Is there any other way? Jordan Hicks for the Red Sox, right shoulder. He'll be shut down. Nick Mears for Milwaukee. They're saying minimal stint.

Maybe that's just a little tune-up. Caleb Oort for Houston, right elbow. That's scary. Dalton rushing for L.A. He's been in the mix. They're saying minimal right-leg contusion. Yeah, he foul the ball off. That hurts. It hurts. It hurts. That hurts. You know, we always talk about hit by pitch. Why don't we track, like, foul balls off yourself? Isn't that what happened to PCA, too?

Yeah. He's banged up, yeah. Okay, that's kind of who went on the aisle. There's a couple other relief. Jeffers has, you know, he got a couple foul tips to the dome. Concussion, that's tough. Returning front of the aisle. Hey, Mets.

Francisco Alvarez. We didn't know what was going to happen there. He's back. Pablo Lopez for the twins. Here we go. Trev. Parker Meadows for Detroit. Yo hell Pozo. God, I could watch him. I watch him do anything. Austin Slater for the Yanks, Tyler Stevenson and Cincinnati. Jake Myers for Houston. That's significant. Reed Garrett in that Mets pen. DeSkelfani for Arizona. Let's start everyone's

weekend the right one. We don't know where I am, dude. We got off the planes. Shout out Kel. Shout out Kel's. Shout out Draft Kings. You guys know that other sports started. NFL is rolling. And if you're looking to bet touchdowns or anything, do it with the Draft King Sportsbook, official betting partner of the NFL. And right

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Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction, void in Ontario. Bonus bets expires seven days after issuance. Terms and Responsible Gaming Resources, see dKNG.co slash audio. Where are you going, Coach? I don't know if this is free ads, but I love YouTube TV. Okay. Yeah. The interface is great.

I don't know. Sorry. I post a lot on there, so I think we're, I don't know. Allies. Okay. I'm going with the Anheel Baroa Award. Ooh. What do you got on him?

My rookie of the year. Is in your book? Yeah. Come on. Okay. Stole the rookie of the year for Matsui. I think, so yeah, he's burned in there. Rookie of the year

in, name the year. 02? 03. Where is Anheleboro from the Dominican? You know I love my Latin ball players. No, you do. Cubans number one for me. I love my Dominicans.

I love my Venezuelans. I love my Mexican brothers. I love my Colombians. I love my Panamanians. All these dudes, man. I'll tell you why. they are coming to a different country with a different language, honestly with a lot of people wanting them to fail.

Okay? It's true. Especially when you go in the minor leagues and you're playing in some of these areas where there's not a lot of Dominicans or Venezuela's in the area. That's my own experiences, people, say what you want. I've seen it with my own two eyes. This is actually a really cool story. It starts with Anhelle Baroa.

Okay. So there's a visiting clubhouse attendant with the royals who had been there forever. His name's Chuck Hawk recently retired. In 2022, I believe he retired. Now he owns a farm. He's doing like weddings at his farm, but he'd been there forever, like some 2,000 straight games. He's an absolute legend there. He was there when I was there.

But his successor is actually who this award is about. Levi Noble, who has been about. bat boy ever since Anhele Baroa was there. And the reason he got this job, and this is like the coolest thing. If you ever go around a clubhouse, you'll notice this is every single clubhouse.

There is, I'll call it Latin food. Usually it's from the Dominicans. Sometimes the Puerto Ricans are in there as well. But there's rice and there's beans and there's some sort of protein and a shit ton of avocados. And that is in every single major league clubhouse opposite whatever else food that they

bring in. There's always going to be a Latin American food station, which by the way is by far the best food. I go there and I crush it every single time. I'm a rice and beans guy though. So this story starts with Levi's family. They were the first Dominicans in Kansas City. They came from New York. They went to, his grandparents went to Kansas City because it was a nice place to raise a family. They said, hey, your kids can go outside and play, and there's a, you know, it's just a different type of living in Kansas City. So they go down there. First, Dominicans in Kansas City, right? Back in the day, um, the food, and it's kind of still, is this way, in these major league clubhouses. The food is from some family in the area. It's not from a restaurant.

Right. Like some Dominican family is like providing the food, uh, for these Dominican players, these Latin players, and there's always some sort of community involved. Whether it's like, hey, we're going to help you find a rental. We're going to help you out and kind of, you know, before there were translators. We'll help translate for you when you're talking to, you know, getting this lease or, you know, getting your furniture or whatever. Like, we'll help out. There's this huge, awesome Latin community that gets this done.

So Levi's family started, they lived in this apartment building where some of these guys were. And so they started helping with them. They cooked meals for them. An Helbaro being the first one. Nelson Cruz, when he would go there, they'd have him over for dinner. They would host the Latin players over at their house all the time. And Levi's like, yeah, I grew up

and it was just kind of like a normal thing for me. We had these guys around. We were just helping him out. Well, he ends up getting to be a bat boy with the royals. They end up starting to pay his mom to cook for both sides. She provides the Latin food for the visiting and the home side. He works his way up. He was a bat boy when I was there.

I think he was a clubhouse attendant when I was there, like, you know, an assistant or something like that. So I have plenty of memories with him in the back, like slamming red bulls. But he's worked his way up, and now he is the head visiting clubhouse manager of the Kansas City Royals. And it all started just because it was Dominicans helping Dominicans, man. I just think it's like such a beautiful. full story, like them just coming out, helping out, not expecting anything. All the sudden,

mom's catering Dominican food. Levi's running to visiting clubhouse. And it's just like, you got, you got a root for, you got a root for the Latin dudes, man. All the things that they have to go through, like, are so different. I don't know, man. Like, so anytime you're, like, thinking about that, and you're seeing a guy use a translator and you're like, oh, I don't like to use a translator. Like, what are you, first of all, what are you talking about? Second of all, understand like just what the differences they have to go through are in baseball. And it's just, it ends up, if you really break it down and think about it, it ends up being a really beautiful thing. So I don't know, I just wanted to bring that up. I was talking to

Levi and he's just, I was like talking about how he got into it. And then he started bring up the story about how they're the first Dominicans in Kansas City. They met some baseball players because they lived in the same like area. And then the rest is history. I just thought it was really, really cool. So I'm giving the Ann El Barrella award out. Trev didn't know where it was going clearly. Some phenomenal stuff. I've got a couple things. One, I need to lead Robin to, A, because it just shocked me.

If you could go to Wylan Rosario's baseball reference page and just bring up when you put the mouse over and his pictures come up, I don't know if they had exit Velo when he was playing, but I bet that guy can hit the shit out of a ball. By the way, he, in his career in the MLB, he had a 779 OPS. He went over, he played some different things overseas.

I just wanted to bring up his picture because his picture just looks like a guy who hits baseballs real hard. No, I think he's like, I think he's like the stud out there or was the stud out there. Yes. Where did he go that he was just crushing?

I think he was the KBO. He played some winterly, this year in Mexico. Like my guy's still hammering base. I saw the picture of him and I was like, that guy crunches baseballs. It was the KBO and I remember talking, I was almost going to go over to Korea and play.

And I was asking about him, I was like, okay, how, tell me what the level of this, the KBO is. And the guy's like, oh, it's like in between triple and the biggies. I'm like, there's no way. And I think I mentioned him. I was like, how does Rosario go over there

and, you know, hit 330, 39625. But he figured it out. This guy destroys baseballs. Follow-up note. So connecting my joke about just him looking like a baller and being a baller, his first minor league town was Casper, Wyoming. I went to Casper once, and I think they looked at me as, like, minority.

They were like, whoa, that's a hell of a tan you got. that I can't imagine. I can't imagine if I was good at a sport and they sent me to, I don't even know. Like cities you don't know, right? Like, what's the Cincinnati of Columbia? I don't know. But you're there to play your sport and it's insane.

So that was a cool story. And then my final note that relates to it, I mentioned this on Talking Yanks. the Yankees have had a recent influx of Latin guys and the team seemingly having a little more fun. Ahmed Rosario is on the top step all day going nuts. Caballero having a blast. Luis Heel joined the rotation.

And guess what? The boys are bopping pregame. It's awesome. Stuff like that matters, not in an analytics binder. I'll tell you what is an analytics binder. My award is an award I've probably given out four or five times, and I think it's gone to this guy, three of them. I'm giving out the old bowl award.

I've said this before, I'll say it again. As I've gotten older, the appreciation I have for the older guys that play this sport is mind-blowing, just the wear and tear on your body, from the physical aspect to it to the travel aspect too. A lot of these guys have made money and don't need to be on the road. Or maybe they have a famous, attractive wife that they could be spending time with. Trev, I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, and I was like, Justin Verlander, is this it?

Like, is it time? Because, you know, at first he was getting no wins with the Giants this year. It took him two months to get his first win. And then you were looking at the stats and you're like, I don't know what. What's good Justin Verlander in a Giants uniform? Is this going to be one of those images we look back at in a couple years and we're like, what the hell was that?

I was watching the old bull a little bit. And JV. looked good against the Cardinals. His last start. Six innings pitched, three hits, no walks, six strikeouts. The fastball, you could hang close from it. The thing was on a line. Show that one pitch again, right? Rob. That is the Verlander signature.

Like the fastball just gets there. He's one of the more fun pitchers to watch when he's right, just with his aggressive style in the zone. And he's been on a bit of a heater recently that a cup, about a month ago, he had a 453 and what's going on. His last five starts, 28.1 innings pitch, a 254 ERA, a better FIP, a 166, if you're into that kind of thing. And I don't know, man.

The old bull, he's 42 years old now. If he still wants to play this game, I would love if he does, and I mention this every year, I so want the Roger Clemens guys to come back that if Justin Verlander says, guess what, I don't want to do the whole thing next year, but if someone wants me on June 1st, I'm in. I'm a thousand percent in.

And I'll only fly in for my starts. That part was crazy. Dude, I don't know. We didn't talk a lot of Giants Cardinals. You know, both those teams just a little too far out. And they ended up losing that game on the Jordan Walker walkoff. But Justin Verlander looked good, man. And dude, he's a start away from his ERA being in the threes.

He's made 25 starts this year. Like, in a way, that is crazy, impressive. Good seeing the old bull habit. I'm just checking one thing for Verlender. Just give me a sec right here. Old? Yeah, okay. Pass Gaylord Perry for eighth all time and strikeouts.

That's what I should have mentioned first, but I did not. I don't know if you know this, okay. But Justin Verlander, you mentioned. He's old. Okay, he's been around the game for a long time. So old, in fact, that he's, He used to wear Reebok cleats. And Reebok got out of baseball.

And he still got to wear a rebutt cleats for a while. Similar to how Puma got out of baseball for a while. And Johnny Damon was still able to wear their cleats. I used to wear Puma cleats, by the way. Anyways, on April, or excuse me, April, August 26th, he changed his cleats. I think he was wearing Adidas cleats before, and now he's back to rocking the old school Reebok.

I think I had those. I think those were my high school cleats. Jake, since he's put those back on. And Giants fans, let me know if he's worn for different starts, but I went back to the 20, his start on the 21st, and he was wearing different cleats, and then 26, 31st, and now the 6th of September, he's worn the Reeboks.

17 innings pitched, two earned runs, 21Ks for the 106 ERA. It's got to be the shoes. So, like, is he just like, he put him on? He's like, oh, that's, that's the old JV. I don't know, but it's pretty awesome. He, uh, yeah, like Rob mentioned, past Gaylord Perry for eighth on the all-time strikeouts list.

Um, and just a reminder, Gaylord Perry, uh, from 67 to 75, averaged, uh, 314 innings a season. Love that. So I don't know, man. Some of these guys are different breeds. And JV's one of them. And there's a little bit there around midseason.

It was looking like a sad last season. Now he's kind of, he looked really good. He looked really good. Hey, if we miss something, we're sorry, but we covered a lot, baby. It's a lot of ball. Because baseball's hot in the streets. It's that time. Three weeks.

Was it me and Don Trude? outside the hotel? Yeah. Sounds like it. Sounds like it. It sucks. What were we doing outside the hotel? Looking out some local herbs.

God. Yeah. Talk some ball. Anhelle Baroa won the American League Rookie of the Year adjacent to. Tantrell Willis. Look at that.

E-Train, man. It's a simulation. Go watch Juan Pierre rapping on stage in the Marlins Parade.