Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Contenders Start Faltering Under Pressure!

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's a sweep week around the league. We're back doing our recap in, hey, guys, never forget. 9-11, 25 years. Let's talk ball. Let's talk ball. George Bush. Corey Hart sends it over right down the middle.

Corey Hart's taking that pitch. Out of respect. Corey Hart's taking that pitch. Hello. Imagine this is your first step. Hello. Welcome to talking baseball. It's presented by Fanatic Sports and Casino.

Fanatic Sports and Casino, the place to do it, winning hits different here. I am Jake Storielie. That is Trevor Plouf. Rob Chiracco is here producing. Dalton Feeley has assembled a sheet with so much information. I'll be honest. We're probably not going to get to a lot of it. Seven sweeps.

I think we counted. More teams are out of it. It's Jover. But there's still a lot of stuff. that matters. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to highlight some studs. Maybe we'll run into some emotions. It's an emotional day, Coach Trev. How are you? It is an emotional day. I assume New York is kind of the epicenter of that emotion today, which is a good thing because we did vow to never

forget. I think we kind of forgot a little bit for being honest. But we are getting to the nitty gritty, if you will, baseball season. Lots of sweet. some teams put to bed. Some teams kind of getting back into it. I do think Corey Hart, out of respect for George W. takes that pitch. But if he had the green light, if he gets a second pitch,

if he gets a second look at it. Cory Hart can put him in the seats coach. He shows up. The Brewers have started doing an old's home run derby. I feel like I've seen Corey Hart there mashing the ball. It's a big boy. People forget. Country strong.

Yeah. I will we'll see we'll probably be all over the board today we it's it's been too long since we've done a recap up between our we did our warehouse games and then we were I don't know a traditional labor day you and your studio me and my studio shout out uh Rams Mcfly one of Joe's day one guys uh you know me and Joe's as we've become colleagues I'd say friends throughout the years uh you know we've kind of had a mutually agree if I introduce you to one of your boys, I introduce you to one of my boys, we're boys, that's it. We've both known friends from day one. His guy Rams, a firefighter in the city. So he gave me this shirt today, so I'm appreciative of that. And yeah, man, it's just one of those, the city's a weird, cities a weird place in general.

But on a day like today, it just hits you, whether it's just nothing going on or like, you know, one of my buddies said he was walking to work. and there was like, they were playing backpipes in the street and stuff. And you're like, when you start doing the, why are we playing backpipes in the street? And you're like, what went on 25 years ago? You're like, Jesus, man. And I know you said the epicenter of it all. And like I went through, you know, the tip of the iceberg of it today.

But, you know, the United Flight 93 and like what they did and the Let's Roll Revolt and all of it. It's crazy, dude. 25 years ago, what? I mean, I definitely remember Vivily. I don't think we're going to go into it anymore than we have already. But yes, definitely a heavy day for all of the world. Yeah. U.S. citizens mostly.

I'll get this off my chest. Yes, the Rams played bad last night. Yes, they did. Turns out flying the day of the game, 17 hours. After two years of research, turns out it wasn't the best idea. They kind of came out flat. It's okay. It's week one.

I think you're going to look back at it at the end of the season, be like, okay, we flew to Australia and played a division rival. It's not a big deal. I think you're right. I think, unfortunately, the quick travel turned into, let's get this game over with instead of like, let's win this game. And like Donald doesn't come on the trip. I'm glad you got, thank you for addressing that.

Everyone was waiting. Everyone was waiting. Is nine back? Have they gotten when's touchdown? He's probably like arrived an hour ago, I'd assume. Crazy. Let's do what we do today. And let's talk some baseball.

Trevor in the National League, it's been one team for a while with another team lurking and they did the whole dance last year. But the Milwaukee Brewers, you want to talk about coming home down the stretch. The Milwaukee Brewers sweep the Chicago Cubbies, and they do it in some dramatic fashion. We talked about it a little bit on the midweek, but Luis Lara, all story Ellie team, and what he did. Jackson Churrio, you've been covering him since February. Am I saying that right? And then, of course, Christian Yelich was going to hit a three-run homer, and I hope he's doing that in October.

As they sweep the Chicago cubbies, go look at how far. back the Cubs are from the Brewers in Trevor Plouf standings. Coming up. The Houston Astros, formerly in the NL, they took two out of three from the fighting Phillies and also some dramatic games. And Houston's starting to pitch a little bit. They get some nice outings. Hayden West, Nesky, twirls it.

And how about Christian Javier? I remember, that guy can throw it. and Josh Hayter on the back end. Perfect and save opportunities this year. They take the set from Philly. The Tambay Rays take two out of three from the Braves. They win the first two games. Atlanta avoids the sweep in a dramatic eighth inning

capped off by Ha Song Kim. Don't look at the batting average. But they'll take that win. The raise rate in this series, Junior Commonero, battling for the lead and home run. in the American League. And Treves Griffin Jacks, dialing in.

Griffin Jacks, proud American. Thank you, Griffin Jacks. The Debex, take two out of three from the Royals. And these games, a couple extra inning affairs to get it started. Scoreless through nine in the first one, scoreless through seven in the second one, back and forth in extras. And the snakes take the first two.

And then Bobby Witt, Jr. says, we will not get swept, which they've had to do in the final game of the last three series. A tough year in Kansas City. Treve, we mentioned sweep week. Padres sweep the Nats. Dodgers sweep the Reds. Meds sweep the Marlins, absolutely. And of course, the San Francisco treat, they sweep the Cardinals.

We'll chew through them a little bit. That NL. West and what's going on out there. Jackson Merrill's. Big night and big series at the office. Remember how much we used to talk about him. The Dodgers. Tay Oscar, you're going to see him a lot. Kike Hernandez is playing center field and having big games.

And that's obvious. Yamamoto's a stud. Let's see. The Mets, we're going to be talking about them probably a lot on Monday with the Subway Series going on. They've been playing better defense. You don't hear enough people talking about that. And the Giants sweep the Cardinals.

I don't know. It felt like the Cardinals season ended. Did you know Bryce Eldridge is happening? The big fellas put together a very nice year. So, hey, that's what happened in the National. Today's episode is sponsored by Amazon. This back-to-school season, spend less on your kids with Amazon. You want to give your kids a great start to the year,

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is a dollar you haven't spent on them. Quick leader in B-war for the Padres. Ooh, Mason Miller. Thai France. Ha ha, ha. Crazy, dude. What's happening right now? A fellow Frenchman.

Michael King 4-1, Thai France 4-2. I have the standings. I don't know. I was just on the Padres page. That's good. That's informative. The National League, Jake. Is that the senior circuit?

I think it is. I've never had that one right. Me neither, dude. It's the National League. That's all you have to know, people. I'll start out east where Atlanta and Philly, both lost series so that stayed the same there. Atlanta four game lead over the Phillies, 86 and 61 for the Braves, 82 and 65 for my Phillies. The Marlins, they were a part of it for a while.

They're not. They're trying to play spoiler now, and then they got swept. 72 and 75 for them, 68 and 78 for the Males. Mets 67 and 81 for the nationals. In the Central, you said, don't look at the lead. It's 10. It's double digits. Crazy. Craig Counsel said there's a large gap between these two teams, and he ain't lying, people.

91 and 56 for the Brewers, 81 and 66 for the Cubs. After that, the pirates back over 500, 74 and 73 for them, 72 and 75 for your Cardinals and Ollie Marmal. But he, you know, he's won the season because of him and Doug Eddings. That's my take. 69 and 77 for the Reds. And then out west, the Dodgers at an 11 game lead over the Padres. They're 89 and 57. The Padres, 78 and 68.

A half game above the Arizona dimebacks were 78 and 69. Nice. 62 and 85 for the Giants, 55 and 91 for the Rockies. And now the wild card, Jacob. The wild card. The Phillies and the Cubs. on a collision course for that wild card round, trying to see who's going to host it.

Right now, the Phillies have a one-game lead over the Cubs for that. And the Padres in that third spot, a half game over the Arizona dimebacks. And I will mention the Pittsburgh Pirates who are searching at four and a half games because they got over 500. Okay.

Those are the standings in the National League. Pirates, arguably the hottest team in baseball right now? We'll talk about them a little bit more in the American League because they did some big things against the White Sox. A couple updates through there. I do now have Ali Mar-Mahl's contact in my phone. Interesting. If we need to reach out. That just came through?

With that, Doug Edding's incident, Ali Mar-Mall was in Colorado where we happen to have a very strong relationship with one of the sides. sideline reporters. Kelsey! He wanted to make sure he assumed my friend Jimmy, who works at the company, had things ironed out with the video he might make. And, you know, me and Ali Marmall are just kindred spirits that have gone through this life and every life together. Did he approach Kelsey and say, I know you work at John Boy? Yes.

Whoa. Yeah. It's kind of a deep cut. She only does warehouse games. nothing's a deep cut with Kelsey Kelsey Winkner. You know? True.

She is America's sweetheart. She's just... Go America. She's that person. I feel like I had something baseball-wise, but nobody cares about that. Let's talk about the series that matters. Series that matter. I'll find what I was looking for along the way.

Let's do brewers and cut... I mean, Trev, I mean, maybe this is just a taste of the brewer. before we head towards October as they have that one seat in the NL, first team to 90 wins, pursuing 100 wins, and after the sweep, it makes it a lot easier to get there. And yeah, I do, I like that you brought that up. The cubby's eaten a little crow, you know, something that pro sports, I think, has better than a lot of places in society.

You know, when there's a lot of adults in the room playing for big months, A lot of professionals. Our guy Ian Hap, saying the last two years we've been chasing them, they've done their job, have to give them credit as an organization all the way around. Craig Counsel coming from the Brewers to the Cubs getting that big payday. And since then, they've just been chasing them. And it's Logan Henderson. It's Tru Rio.

It's the goddamn Milwaukee Brewers. They're the class organization in baseball right now. They are. They do in so many different. ways. I mean, clutch hitting, you got Truroio now just hitting bombs, Yelly getting in on the fun as well. So they have really

the starting pitching, the back end of the bullpen, the defense, they're hitting homers now. The clutch hitting is all there. It's all coming up. Brewers. You know, it's going to take a lot to stop them. I don't think this is the same brand of baseball. We saw them play last

year where the Dodgers came into town and just did it to them. And maybe they had one bad series offensively. They're just that they're a better offensive team this year. I think they can do it in different ways and they are starting to hit the long ball, which is going to help them out in the postseason. They're just, I don't know, man, name a flaw on their team. I guess the only flaw you can say is over 162 or over the regular season so far. They haven't hit as many homers as you maybe want from the number one team in baseball. But I think that's changing. And they do have the ability

to do that with that guy right there. Like he, he's going to have to carry this team to the postseason. And I think he's up to the challenge. He's 22, 23? 22. He's up for the challenge. Like he likes those moments. He's got quotes about it saying,

I've always liked being in the pressure-packed moments. That's where I feel comfortable. That's what you want your 22-year-old superstar to say. Yeah, no, it's funny. We've done it this year. We've done it last year. It's like, who's the best player on the, Brewers.

And you land on Trurio, you land on Bryce Terang. You know, you could do Misarowski if you're a pitcher's guy. We're not. We hit the ball over here. But isn't it fun? When we've compared the Brewers this year and last year, we've been like, you know,

the one thing, Mizorowski's different, dude. And by the way, he is. He had a very nice, had a nice postseason. Like, Bryce Terang and Jackson Trurio have elevated. themselves as ballplayers that instead of that Brewer's conversation of like, who is their best player? I don't know. It's like an elevated version of that.

Because you mentioned he's 22. And it looks like he has found a new level. And we've oozed over Bryce Terang since basically the World Baseball Classic. That, yeah, these Brewers are just elevate. The one thing they don't do, Trev, no grand slams. the last team to not hit a Grand Slam this season. So if you guys know baseball at all, basically expect their first NLCS game. They'll hit two or some shit like that. And yet I know this is another guy

we've just been hit on the way through, dude. Logan Henderson. He's out of his mind. He's sneaking up on that Zach Gallen. 21st career start. He's allowed three runs or fewer in all 21. It's nuts. If you're the Cubs, man.

I mean, the division was already over coming into this series. I mean, they would have had to do some, they would have had to sweep, essentially. And you get into game two, you already lose that first game. And Carson Kelly, right, you know, almost hits a grand slam, ends up getting that double. You go ahead. You're feeling good about yourself. You have two outs, nobody on. And then all of a sudden you get a Yelly coming up there for a pinch hit single.

Then our guy, to Uriot hits the bomb. It's just like those are the games that bury you. as a team. If these teams matchup in the postseason, I know changes and the brighter lights are here, but in your mind, if you're the Cubs, it's like, this Brewers team has kicked our butt all season

long, all season long. Yeah, and like we laid out a little bit, if the Brewers hold on to that one seed, they'd be lined up for the four or five matchup, which is the Cubs and the Phillies right now, and the Phillies have jumped the Cubs. We've talked about, you know, you and I have kind of been

wishy-washy on if home field will matter, and maybe we'll figure that out when we get there. But the Cubs who have been a streaky team this year, again, are kind of streaking the wrong way again, that they had a big lead on that top wild card spot, you know, as of two weeks ago or three weeks ago, and they've gone cold. And now the Phillies, let's see, August 12th,

the Cubs had a seven and a half game lead atop the NL's wild card standing. They've gone 10 and 16, while the Phillies have gone 18 and 6 that have now given them home field advantage. So as we go through these final two weeks or so of the regular season, that'll be the storyline. And like the Brewers, they're basically the only team that shut down PCA this year. And you know in those meetings, that's what they were talking about. And they figured it out. And it's, I don't know, man, everything they do on an elevated level. I remember what I wanted to tell you before, because I think you're going to like this.

the NL is the senior circuit because it was founded in 1876, 25 years older than the AL. A long time ago. The fact that's still in your brain, going back to the 1800s, I think we got to bring that back. I think we need more senior circuit.

Or the world's ending in two and a half years. What does this matter? That's true. Hopefully we don't die. into that later. Mentioned some Phillies. They face the Houston Astros. Your AL West leading Houston Astros and sneaking up on a buy, by the way.

Let's see. The game the Phillies won. Schwerber Grand Slam. Great swing. Just out in front. Ass out a little bit, but the barrel just finds the ball. And if it finds the ball and Kyle Schwabber is holding the bat, it gone. And yeah, I know I mentioned those numbers with the Phillies.

a little bit ago that they've technically been playing a good ball. They're getting further away. We were wondering if they were going to catch the Braves. A lot of people thought they were for a little bit where they were getting momentum. Four games behind the Braves and the Braves have the regular season series. So that's basically five there. Yeah, I guess interested in any Phillies thoughts from this series, although I think a lot of the combo kind of comes from Houston.

Yeah, they're starting to get it going, getting some of the pitching to line up with the offense. in that first game. Big four-run second. Christian Walker hits the homer. And Camp Smith is starting to swing the bat really, really well as well. So that's a huge plus for them. The only game that gets them, they score seven runs, but it's the Kyle Schwaburber Grand Slam game in game two.

So a little flashback to the 2022 World Series, a little Christian Javier shutting them down in that game three. That's kind of a throwback right there. But this Houston, national team. I haven't gotten to the standings yet. Oh. Three games up. Yeah. In the AOS. Like, they're making the dance again so that one year hiatus is, is just a blip on the radar. They lost it by a freaking tiebreaker. They're back. Jose Altuve, 2,500 career hits. Does that matter in the grand scheme of things? No, but you

got to shout it out. I think it does. I don't know, man. Guys don't hit like that anymore. They're going at the right time, and they're finding their stride, which is, it's just fun. I like when the Houston Nationals are good at baseball. Yeah, it's going to be very, very interesting. It was a crazy butter knife stat by Dalton that was like, you know, over the last week and a half, the asteros have had been a top three pitching staff. Okay. Okay.

And it's all going to come down to who you are in October. And dude, you mentioned Cam Smith. and I know I was watching some Texas Rangers baseball because I'm a sick puppy. But, you know, going back to, remember Evan Carter and like everything he did in the postseason? I know Cam Smith's played a lot more Major League ball, but what if the light bulb's gone off for him?

Because he's one dotting the past two weeks. And is that a different ball player come October baseball? I think so, because he's 23. And yeah, if they can get enough out of Javier, if they can get enough out of Hunter Brown, If they could get, West Nesky's been really strong for them. And like I said, I mean, I got nervous because I said it in front of you guys. And you and Rob both kind of gave like big old eyes like, don't say haters the best reliever because Mason Miller exists.

Haters 25 for 25 on save opportunities and his numbers on the year. Video game stuff. Yeah, I'm trying to think of like rotation for them going into the playoffs. It's Hunter Brown. and then after that you're going Lambert, West Nesky, and two? Like, is it Javier? Is it a mixed bag?

Who's hot type thing? Piggyback situation? I think for them it is, let's get through, let's do our best starting pitching-wise and try to bang it out. And then, yes, let our guy close the games out. That's not, I mean, I don't even know why I just said all that. That was great. That was just one salad right there.

I'm just thinking about, ways to win if you're the Houston Astros. Their bottom of the lineup brought it in one game, which that's always a cheat code. Let's keep going. This episode is sponsored by Shopify. Our merch store has grown a lot, big time, with the license MLB gear for teams all across the league,

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there's a lot of baseball like and folk that live in that area. You know what I'm saying? I think Tampa and Atlanta are very different, but very different. Yeah. I miss when those teams... What do you know about Tampa? I miss when those teams used to fight over Charlie Morton. That's what I miss. Oh,

the Seltman. The raise take the first... What about Matt Joyce? What about Matt Choice? Back and forth, Ray's Brays. He's on both those teams. Anyways, the Rays take the first two games. Freddie Peralta, who I think I'm going to talk about in a little bit. The Liam Hicks trade, as we're starting to get to that time of the year where you can look back at the trade deadline and what happened, Liam Hicks has been a baller for them.

So is Tyler Wells in the back end of that bullpen. And then, yeah, Treve, I feel like I'm on repeat a little bit, but it's things we've talked about, whether it's Junior Cominero hitting bombs, whether it's Chandler Simpson and who he's turned into in just his multi-hit games that, I don't know, I had one eye on this series because Yankee fans still have hopes of catching the division that we were a little excited on that last day,

but otherwise this race team, it doesn't, they feel like slump-proof in a way. Yeah, I mean, like they're very, like how I just talked about the Brewers, that's kind of how I feel about the race. Maybe some defensive stuff's a little bit different, but they can, they can hit homers. They have speed. They have guys that are going to put the ball and play in their offense. So that's a recipe for like, yeah, you're not going to slump as much offensively if you have all three of those things working. And then you talk about who they brought in at the trade deadline.

You just mentioned all those guys. So you have the starting pitching to go. You have the back end of the bullpen. like everything is turning into the raise and the brewers having two of the most complete rosters in all of baseball. Take that lockout. Take that CBA. Isn't that hilarious that most likely the two best records in the league this year are going to be the raise and the brewers. Go look at where their payrolls line up, people.

Interesting. Interesting to me. This was just a dominant series, to be honest, with you for the race. First two games that outscored Atlanta 14 to 3. And then, of course, you get the pitching duel of Nick Martinez and Martin Perez. Couple old docs. Love that.

And it was quick. They weren't messing around, dude. They're throwing strikes. Put the ball on play. Getaway day. We got reservations in the next city. So good, dude. Martine Perez, 131.2 innings, a 308 ERA.

is Braves Devil Magic back on? Put Cookie Carasco on the team. No. I... For vibes. For vibes. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that.

I just put him in the dugout. Just put him in the dugout. I don't know if he needs to twirl it. Who is a... I'm blanking on his name right now. Rex Beck's pitcher that kept showing up on the Braves and he was horrible everywhere else. He announced his retirement.

was it earlier this year? Oh, God. You're not talking about Jesse Chavez. I'm talking about Jesse Chavez. Okay. What the hell was that? Treb. Cove.

Would not like the way you just described it. I know. I didn't want to say Rexpex, but it helped. Trev, I kind of want to do a little NL West chatter before we head out of here. And it's not a lot about the giant sweep. It's more so Dodgers sweep, Padre sweep, D-Backs when the first two guys,

games, kind of traumatic, tight ones. And it's the Dodgers in their pursuit of the Brewers for the one seat if they care or holding off the Braves from that two seed. Dodgers aren't a seven-game win streak. I'd ooed an odd over what their rotation is doing day in, day out. Shohei does go on the IL, so I don't know if you want to talk about that a little bit. And then it's, you know, as far as best storylines go the rest of the way, it's going to be Padres D-backs.

where do you want where are we going with do some dodgers do some dodgers yeah i mean they're on an absolute heater they come in and there's some there's some good stuff happening um everywhere you look on the field you mentioned keke hernandez getting ready for his postseason heroics maybe get out of the way of andy paas later in the year check that out i don't know man this is this is you know who they're supposed to be you know you're supposed to handle a team like the reds The Reds have some good players. Ellie went off. Great.

But you need to handle your business. And the Dodgers did just that. I mean, they rolled in game three, 14 to 1. Everybody hitting homers. Good stuff. Teoscar starting to go a little bit, which is fun. Yamamoto doing his thing. I think there's more on him coming up.

Teosker, 10-game hitting streak. Even Kyle Tucker got in on the business. I know a little position player stuff going on there. But Mookie Betts had a really, good home stand. So like they're kind of finding their stride at the right time. And as far as a show hey stuff goes, you know, Dave Robert said he would be playing if it's a playoff game. I always love when people say that. And it's like, all right, dude, just relax. He needs to go on the aisle. He needs

to be right. He's not going to pitch. So get your, you know, get your leg good, better, get your neck better. All these things they were ailing him. He just needs to rest and come back. I believe it puts him in line to come back for the last two series. It's like they play San Diego at home and then end in San Francisco. I'd assume he gets, out of those six games, four,

and just see some live pitching and is ready, possibly for another break if they get that by. But that's the smart thing, was maybe to do this two weeks ago. And they kind of just try to go through it. Yeah. But now they made the right decision. Is he done pitching this year?

that's what they said. He says I'm focused as a hitter. I mean, I never rule anything out. Never rule anything out. I don't, they have enough where I don't think he even comes into play in the postseason. And yes, people, PCA is the MVP. Crazy, right?

It's been that way for a while now. And people are still texting me like, or not texting me, like hitting me up on social media being like, oh, you know, what about show him? I'm like, dude, I said show A had to have a massive month of September and he could have. wrestle it away from PCA, he's not going to have that. It's PCA all the way, man.

Like our friends could be the MVP of the league now. Silly. I've got some yummy Moto stuff coming up later. And then, yeah, Trev, the other two teams right now, as of today, the Padres would be in the postseason because of their sweep, they're a half game up on the debacks. The debacks played a couple scary ones in Kansas City. I mentioned the non-scoring affairs through the first innings of those games,

and then they lose that final one while San Diego takes care of the Nats who have been nosediving the other way. All of a sudden now the Padres have a starting pitching staff to go along with their vaunted bullpen, which is good. Say his name. Full pension pit is back. Did he get his money? Ooh, interesting question.

I think he did. I think he did. some sort of vesting option we're talking about when he was hurt they could avoid some of his contract but he's back they need him piv fits the vibe of the san diego podres i actually might try to make it out to one of those games in the last series against the dodgers we'll see what happens there uh also um jackson merrill's numbers are starting to like they're back to a respectable respectable respectable place overall uh he's been on a heater big series for him seven for 12 four extra base hits. He was hitless in his previous four games before the series. That'd be nice for them

if Jack Samarro was that guy has a two homer game in this series, which was awesome. I'm still high on the Padres. I've been saying it. Robbed Abamelik Ortiz. Yeah, I've laughed in my head for the past minute now, weird, of doing like an NL, which teams like hate and care about each other. And it's like, okay, the Dodgers, I think they, I think they still dislike San Diego and maybe they care about the Brewers. The Brewers hate the Dodgers and the Cubs. The Padres hate the Dodgers. Do they hate anyone else? Maybe the debacks. I don't know what's going on there. The Padres definitely hate the Dodgers. Yes. Other than that, yeah, I mean, yeah, They're still trying to get their foothold in the NL West.

Otherwise they're not there. Yeah. Otherwise they're not even in it. Any snakes thoughts? Crazy, crazy games up there. The first extra inning game you go in and scoreless into the 10th. You score five and you give up four holding down there. And then the next one, kind of another extra inning game.

Corbyn Burns comes back. That's nice. the ball they end up that gets them the winning run. I don't know how it fell out there in the Kansas City Outfield. I don't know. Lucky to come away with these two wins is what I'll say. It's a big outfield out there.

Corbyn's being back. Pretty cool. He's been as a starting pitcher in this league. You ever playing that, Casey Outfield? That's one of the outfields whenever I'm watching a game and I tune in. I'm like, that is spacious. I don't know if I ever played out. Obviously played there a ton.

I don't know if I ever played outfield. It is, it is spacious. It's huge out there. And it's, you gotta got, you, you have to have guys to go,

this is the play I was talking about. You have to have guys that can run it down. I mean, when the Royals were, we're winning World Series and there, they just had horses out there, dude. Yeah.

It's very similar to Coorsfield in the regard, like, it's not, like, it doesn't fly like Coors Field, but there's a lot of open space to get hits. When's the last time you saw Malibu Mike Mastakis?

Ooh, it's been a couple weeks. Okay. I think the last time we played golf maybe like three weeks ago. Okay. He's running, he's like best friends with Shibuzi, bro. What? Yeah. What?

One of his friends is Shabuzzi's manager and they just go out and they like follow him and they just, yeah, it's interesting. That's a pair. that I'm struggling with. Because Shibuzi is currently like the guy that shows up at every event because he's famous and he's got. He's the new Pit Bull. Kind of. Like if like Super Bowl, guarantee a Shibuzzi's playing one of the pregame pregame shows.

Like Ramies are on. Shabuzi. Know who's my Shibuzi? Michael Waka is putting together a year. 182.2 innings pitch. That's his career high. topping 2015 in St. Louis. And he's just putting together a fantastic season.

20 quality starts. He's unfortunately a lot of the Kansas City guys. We haven't been talking about a ton coach because it's been an awful season. You know who's my... And by the way, I mean pit bull with all due respect, Mr. Worldwide. Mr. 305.

It's a compliment. My Shibuzzi is the Pots, or excuse me, the Diamondbacks. bullpen. Okay. I was getting the job done. Just getting the job done. Game one, doing it. There's my, there's my guy, D. Law. Yeah. How about Blake, Blake Walson? Uh, yep. Uh, he's making, he made his second appearance after, uh, Tommy John. It's like, okay, everyone's talking about Corbyn Burns coming back. What about me? Uh, I think that's the NL for now. Uh, Mets, happy for you, Giants, happy for you. Your season's been over.

Let's do some ale baseball. Trev, it's September. Why not start with the curveball? Why not throw out the best Western road warriors to start the American League? Yeah, got that kind of pool. Because it starts with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mention them in the NL a little bit. They get over 500 with some impressive pitching.

There's Jared Jones. There's Lake Backer opening it up. The Pirates, they get the sweep O'Neill Cruz shows up in that last game, and more importantly for the AL, the Chicago White Sox trying to hold on to the division, trying to hold on to the two-seed. They could not do it against the Pittsburgh Pirates who get over 500. Life's a trit. Make the most of it with Best Western.

The rest of the American League. Chris Rose Guard dogs? Not so fast, my friend. The Orioles take two out of three to stay alive in it. you know Trev likes himself some Kobe Mayo, and Kobe Mayo likes when there's a lefty on the mound, and he saw lefties, and he hit the ball far. Baltimore takes the series in that final game.

An eight-run third inning to get it done. Sorry, Foster Griffin. His problem against the Orioles, lefty. The Texas Rangers, they lose two out of three to the Seattle Mariners. They won that first game. Calquantra, like his energy on the bump. But then the Mariners, they ruin Jacob de Grom's brilliant start. He comes out of the game, and Jacob Junis, a little bit of meat, coughs it up instantly.

Julio, grab the stretch, they take the final game. Kate Anderson with a nice start. Great, fantastic. The A's, take two out of three from the Blue Jays. What is going on, American League? A giant, what is you doing, baby? Love me some Jeff McNeil Wish he was doing it on a contender right now

He gets involved in that first game And then the A's shut him down in Treves Henry Bolte Talk about him more later Voltae Boltee Excuse me The Angels

Take two out of three from the Red Sox What is we doing, baby? I'll tell you what Reed Detmer's is doing Nasty work on the bump Lowest ERA in the second half Zach Netto. He hits a big three-run homer. There is some Netto-Bostin rumors that people were talking about during this series.

Angels take the final two games after Greyrod and Adley. Speaking of your Orioles, they got involved in that first game. Adley gets the better of it. The twins, Trev, 13 and 4? Well, it's going to have to be 12 and 2 as they drop the series, 2 out of 3 to the Tigers. Motor City Kitty's Riley Green in that first game. Tiger Snap a 7 series losing streak. Jesus.

I'll let you talk about it. My Yankees, they sweep the Rockies. A little bit of bringing a knife to a gunfight. Judge is back. That's important. So is Volpe. Playing second base and hit in a grand slam. George Lombard hit a grand slam in the game before that.

Cam Schlittler's going to win the Cy Young. that's what happened in the American League. No snaps for you. You're just taking cheap shot. So cool, dude. We have the best hitter in the last 50 years on our team and our rookie pitcher is going to win Sai Young. Hate you.

I got the standings in the American League. You want them? You want them? I don't know. After that, I don't know. Yeah, F or F. You know which one that one was. All right, here we go.

In the A.L. East, Tampa Bay, still leading your Yanks. five, three games, 87 and 59 for them, 84 and 62 for the Yanks. Boston sitting at 80 and 67. Toronto won game under 500, 73 and 74. Baltimore, 71 and 76. In the Central, you mentioned it. It's getting tight, pa.

The White Sox, 75 and 71, a one and a half game lead over the Guardians because, of course, of course. The Guardians are going to do it. 74 and 73 for them. It's incredible. My twins, 69 and 77, two games ahead of Detroit, 67 and 79, and the Royal 65 and 82. Out West, I'd mentioned it before. The Houston Astros quietly have a three-game lead out there. 75 and 72 for them. The Texas Rangers, 72 and 75, so a little reverse action, Uno right there.

Seattle, 69 and 78, like, what is you doing? I can't even can't even stand you guys. Unbelievable. Happy for your football team. 59 and 88 for the A's, 56 and 90 for the Angels. Now the wild card looking like Yanks Boston still going to happen unless something crazy goes down. They have the first two spots. New York has a three and a half game lead for the home field advantage in that series.

And then at the bottom, the third spot would be the guard dogs right now. mentioned. They're only a game out, a game and a half out of the AAL Central, but they are there in the third wild card spot. Toronto, one game back of them. Texas, two games back at them. Baltimore, three games back of them.

And then, yes, because I went four and a half games in the National League. The twins still there. Four and a half games back. Those are the standings in the American League. Twelve and two, Minnesota. What? You haven't seen that happen before? I've seen it. I've seen it. I've seen to.

You mentioned F or F. You got any, you got some time this afternoon? I need it, Coach. Hey, listen, I'll be in town

when the twins sweep the Yankees. Wow. That's fantastic. Are you coming? I invited you to come hang. First I've heard. Yeah. That's such a lie,

dude. It's been all year long as I got this series in September. Just fly out for a night. Oh, the series in Minnesota. No. Wow. I'm speaking on a panel that Tuesday.

I don't know. It's just whatever. I know. I can't believe I'm signing. I had a joke. I'm not doing it. You're going to be nice. Thank you for the standings.

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We make these in limited run, so if you love something, don't wait on it. heydays, check it out. The American League that's been a shit show all year, I will throw it out there. We do have potential to throw everything on its head. I mean, between the Cleveland Guard Dogs and the White Sox, Yankees fans are still having a little bit of hope of catching the raise in that West all year.

It's the same three-game lead as what's going on with the Yankees in the race somehow that we'll see if it gets jumbled. There's also a chance everyone limps in because that was the whole recap, Trev. These teams that could sneak out in seasons, I don't want to say seasons from hell, because that's dramatic. But seasons that have just felt like it's not our year. Toronto, what are you doing?

Boston, what are you doing? And I know it's been, I'll throw Minnesota in there. What are you doing? The White Sox. And I think, I guess we should start with the Central because I, White Sox fans have been made. at me because I haven't been as hot to trot on their team because I I just I see the numbers and I saw the guardians lurking and I'm like

this has a recipe for disaster it's one and a half games coach trev it's yeah I mean look the guardians are going to win their baseball games like they're going to finish you know probably if I had to guess now looking at their record um 84 And what is that? 78 then. Okay. That's the math. They're going to get to that mark.

So it's up to the White Sox to just be better than that. And like there's some things you like about the White Sox and there's some things you don't like about the white socks. Sometimes they're starting pitching is going to scare you. Sometimes their bullpen's going to scare you. But they, by and large, have found ways to win baseball games because they've had clutch hitting all year long. They almost had it here in this series. Chase Midroth with the bases loaded had a chance. I believe that was in game two.

And Jared Triollo snagged it. It was going to score three. They were going to go up. And instead of it ends up being a double play. So like they have to continue. Here it is. They have to continue getting these big hits, big moments. They have to continue hitting homers.

Some of that lends itself to being streaky. If you're talking about like winning games like that. So you see here, Pirates getting hot. I mean, they outscored them 15 to 5. They had some good pitching performances by Bubba Chandler, our guy Jared Jones. There was a little dust up in this series too with Sam Antonacci and Brandon Lau. And then who and Triolo got in on it too. So this was kind of a little testosterone driven series that Pirates said,

all three of them. Pirates, Connor Griffin is back. That feels different. Yeah. Neil Cruz had a great series. When they had all the people on the field talking to each other and O'Neill Cruz walks in, he looks different. He's seven feet tall. He's very tall.

It was funny seeing they updated Christopher Sanchez's, but you were first on that, Coach Trev, from 6-1 to 6'6. Insane. Jared Jones goes no hit bid into the seventh. Yeah, I, man, we'll see. Hopefully in a fun way, it comes down at White Sox Cleveland. That's going to start off next week. That's Monday through Wednesday. They've got the Cardinals who they also just got swept and their seasons going away.

You're right. I mean, that swinging game too could have been a big one. But also they're what, down 4-0 in that game. They lose the first game 9 to 3. The pirates kind of brought it to them. And the pirates, I say a lot of things on paper with the pirates would say they're a better baseball team than the White Sox. Yeah, I mean, yeah, their lineup all year has been a better lineup as far as, you know, runs scored.

If you look at their starting pitchers, you probably say, yeah, we're going to take them no matter what over what Chicago has out there. They added to their bullpen, brought in a couple guys to the deadline. Luke Weaver being one of them. Yeah, nine of 11 they've won. It's their first time over 500 since July 29th. first time above 500 in September since 2018. That's got to love that. And then the White Sox opposite day for them.

They've lost eight of their last 11. Their lead down to one and a half. And Dalton has a good note on here. They start slow every month and recover. June they were two and four. They finished 13 and 12. July they were 2 and 6. They finished 13 and 12.

August they were 1 in 5. They finish 14 and 14 in September. They're 3 and 6. So they got to get hot. And the team chasing them, the inevitable Cleveland Guard dogs, who are the last wildcar team as of now. And although we give them the respect, and we say every year they're going to end up there,

oh, they're probably going to win 84 games. They're a game up on Toronto, two on Texas, three on Baltimore. Baltimore takes two out of three from them. I know you're talking a little Kobe. I'll tiptoe around that. But they knock around Foster Griffin in that final game to take the series. Trevor Rogers was great in that first game.

What else? Guardians won the season series in this. So they have the tiebreaker, which I think is really important because they are close. I mean, Baltimore's three games back of where Cleveland is right now. But having that extra half game means a lot. They went out and got Joey Cantee. in that first game the Orioles did. I am talking a little bit about my guy,

Kobe Mayo, coming up. In game two, Bazana had that big two out and knock to kind of put the game away, although the Orioles started to come back a little bit. Brian Rochio, a big late inning two-run single is a pinch hit at bat.

It was not. It was an eight pitch of bat, I'm trying to say. So, like, that's kind of like their recipe, if you're the Guardians. And if you're the Orioles, When they've won, they slugged, bro, and they scored a bunch of run. So if Kobe Mayo can continue to do what he's been doing, I'm going to mention some of these stats. You're going to be pretty surprised at what he's been doing as of late. And then Pete continues to do it.

I don't know, man. Like, that's what they have to do. Bang the ball around the yard. And they did it this series. Yeah, there's just, it's a level of frustration because it's like the one of the first notes after game one is Orioles snap their six game losing streak. It's like, golly, man. There's so many of these teams I'm staring at it.

And it's like if you just, Jay's lost two or three to the A's. Yeah. That can't be happening this time of year. I don't, I don't care. The Rangers lost two or three to the Mariners. Like all these teams right there are, you know, it's a series. You got to get going. How many games do we got left?

I can't. It's September 11th. The season ends September 27. So that's 16. So we're talking 15 games, 14 games. 14, 15 games or so. Nice. Can you do that for just other consecutive numbers?

No, that was my original. I mean, you're maybe the back of your brain somewhere. Remember that, but I originally when 6-7 was happening, I was like, it would be funny if the hands just went with like any number side by side, like 14, 15. I think that's real. We held it. We're such losers. Juggling boobs.

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dude i don't really want to talk about any of this al why because it's so mid What do you want to talk about? The Blue Jays losing to the A's, the Rangers losing to Seattle, and it's over. Like, you don't want to talk about the Stetson showdown in game three between Jacob de Grom

and Logan Gilbert? Treb, I turned into this game live, and I was like, look at my Texas Rangers. Look at Jacob de Grom shoving it down their throats. 12 K's, one hit, six innings. and then it's a 3-0 game, and the broadcast got a giggle out of me

because they go, well, boys, looks like it's only going to be Jacobs on the mound today because it was going to be DeGrom to Junis to Lats. And I was like, oh, the Jacobs are my cousins. And then Junis comes in and just gets rocked, instantly rocked. Three-nothing dominant game turns into 3-3, turns into 4-3, turns into lose the game, lose the series, get out of here. It was four runs in eight pitches.

Hit by pitch, a single, Dominic Kenzon single, and then Julio hits the three-run homer. I was at the batting cages with Teddy when this happened yesterday. And the guy that owns the cage from Seattle. Shout out Josh Breckley, friend of Stephen votes. Played at Azusa Pacific with him. Wow. And we were talking to Julio, and he's a big Mariners fan.

And he's not happy with the way. things are going. He was happy with this, though. I don't know. Some more stats between the Stetson showdown. 23 combined Ks between the two guys. That's the most of any MLB starter pairing this season. It's the most in Blake Snell and Chris Sill of August 12th, 2024. They had 15 Ks through three innings that tied the most in the past 50 years. And it's the first time two starting pitchers from the same college each struck out 10 or more in the same game. That's fun. That's cool. And Stetson, is it in Texas? Florida. Okay. It's a hat brand, right? Oh, I believe so. A cowboy hat band. Yes. I don't know if they're affiliated in that way, but

there's definitely some college brothers. People don't know. There's lots of cowboys in or like, in Central Florida. It's a weird place. Central Florida, bro. You don't ever have to go to Central Florida. You don't. If you live a life and you've never gotten to Central Florida, it's okay. Alligator Alley? What do you know about Alligator Alley? I don't know.

I've been to San Antonio, Florida, which is... Whoa. Yeah. That's kind of in the middle there. And that's an intriguing place. Best Hooters are in Florida. Everyone knows that. Is Hooters still...

I don't know. I think it's done. It should be. We've been. We've been. We've been in clear water. Did that, okay. Judge me if you want, not judge me.

Judge my dad. And those parents on my travel team, like when we would have a good game when we were 12, they would take us to Hooters. I think it's like a ride of passage for young, young boys that need to like, you know, just they're starting to like girls. I don't know.

Comment below your thoughts. Maybe we edit all of this. Yeah. Blue Jay's notes, cease, gives up four earned runs, which may be close enough. Vegas thinks he's out of the side, young running, or it's going to be really tough. I guess the game they do win as the Blue Jays are out,

one game of the wild card. Jose Soriano shoved, and he was my, like, you know, a lot of people at the deadline saw Gosman leave town. Well, this guy came in with an extra year of control. Um, Okamoto's 30th Homer. Remember when the scouts told us? Not sure if he's going to have. He couldn't hit for power.

No. Um, he also has a defensive gaff in the first one. Uh, three rookies with 30 homers. Okamoto, Murakami, Miami. Am I, what? Sal Stewart. Are you asking me? No, it's Sal Stewart.

Oh, yeah, I knew it. It's kind of illegal because, like, the other two guys were professional. professional baseball players. We just don't like... Yeah. I'm interested in that. Spencer Miles, still good. There's more A's coming up later, too.

More Dettmers coming up. I just... I have one loser note, and if there's anything you want to bring up with the rest of the A.L. Otherwise, we can move on. If you remember, we did our mid-season awards, and there was a which player is most Trevor Plouffe.

We landed on Casey Schmidt. If you remember I had a young hot shot that I was like, ooh, maybe this could be my Trevor ploof. Kyle Caros. And you know what he did against the Yankees? Second deck. Wait, in left field. Second deck, Trev.

In left field? Yeah, Pop. Wow. I mean, it takes a real man to go on the second deck and left. I have a guy that looks just to... Rob, run it again. Look at Kyle Caros, clipping Max. freed here. Oh, I like that swing. Oh, I have another guy who I think looks just like me.

And gosh, who was it? Who is on the Red Sox? It's Sogard. We kind of like look like each other a little bit. He's got the Roman nose. Interesting. Yeah. Go check him out. Okay. I saw him and I was like, okay, I could see how that's a little doppelgangish for me. So Garth Red Sox have the Royals this week Oh Tough picture That's a tough pick Tough pick

The nose is there The nose You guys do have similar noses If we just clipped out the noses Okay there's a little more The way he was walking around Like I think he's like a little bit better Looking than these pictures are giving him

You know they're not doing him justice If you will Some people don't photograph well But he was in the club about us after like, I think it was the Blaze Alexander thing. And he's like, I don't know what the hell was going on right there. You know, I said, I like this guy. Me and Mickey Gasper went follow for follow on Instagram.

Oh, people should know that. I think that matters. Can you grow a mustache? I can't. I can't. You truly cannot. I truly cannot. That's insane.

Crazy, right? It's like pathetic. Like, I don't know. I could give you a speech. there was a nerdy science teacher that couldn't grow facial hair and he was like, actually, that means you're a more advanced human because evolution's getting rid of facial hair. And everyone was like, shut up, nerd.

Like, even I like that for you. Keep wrong with that. Eli White. Let's move on. It's time for standout performances. Stand out performances. Stand out performances. This guy stood out for.

Trev. Say what? Get him, coach. Just quick, I'm going Henry Bolte as my first. He had a big series. On Monday goes one for two, Homer, three walks, three stolen bases. Sometimes I give you names of people, and I'm like, hey, guys, like, check this guy

out. I think he's someone that we should all be paying attention to. It was Cater Montereau. It was Jacob Lopez. This is Henry Bolte for me. I think Nick Gonzalez was one of my first guys, too. Um, this guy is a stud. He's fast. He puts the ball in play.

Like you watch, I watched him play in person when I did the Twins A series. I was like, holy crap. Like this guy stands out to me on the baseball field. And the overall numbers are getting there as well. So go go, go check out what he's been doing rookie this year out of Palo Alto high school.

Oh. So he's already like, he's basically a Stanford guy. Yes. He's probably got investments, like seed investments in some AI tech. so he's going to be a billionaire. Take me along for the ride, Bollet, before we all die into an after years. Love this guy.

The other one's Kobe Mayo. Also on Monday, two or five, two homers, three runs driven in. I think he had three in the series. But Jake, I went back and I said, hey, like, what's, I feel like I've been seeing this guy raking for a while now. If you go back,

the last 50 games, so starting, he's played July 1st and then didn't play again until July 5th. So, like, I don't know. if there was just some like, hey, bro, like, enjoy the nation's birthday and like just chill out a little bit. Maybe go have some pops and come back after that. Because since July 5th, 50 games, 276, 340, 600 slug for the 940 OPS. Yeah. Need you, Kobe Mayo. Love when you hit the ball. Maybe this is more of who you actually are.

I believe he's still pretty young. Yeah, 24. Like, okay. Sometimes it takes guys a little bit of time. Florida guy, Parkland, Florida. Is that middle Florida? No, that's, uh, so that's like where Anthony Erizo went to high school. They actually have shooting. Yeah, I think it's outside of like Orlando.

Outside of Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale, that's what I meant. Yeah. Okay. Kobe Mayo is the best hitter against left-handed pitching this year. I believe he's the new fastest man in baseball. Yeah, there were some stats. I took down our sheet here.

There were some, like, him and Ricky Henderson's stats, which are fun. Easy. Your locker mate, Ricky Henderson. I'm going to get him out because it is a fun stat. Okay. You go on, I'll tell you after your stand-ups. Okay. What was I going to say about COVID-Mail?

Actually, let me, I want to distract you a little bit. This is always something that blows my mind. Like, my brain obviously gets it, but also my brain doesn't get it. I feel like it would drive me absolutely up a wall if I was nasty against one side of pitching, and I wasn't good against the other side. Like, I realize there's an advantage, a natural platoon advantage. But, like, for Kobe Mayo to be the best hitter against left-handed pitching, and then his stats against right-handed pitching are,

are tough. Like his stats on the year against right, he's 166, a 234 on base, a 530 OPS. He's 1.123 against lefties. That would drive me up a fucking wall. I wasn't that, my splits weren't that different.

Definitely was a better hitter against lefties. Yeah, it's just, balls moving away from you or giving him trouble. And sometimes, like, your path is just better with the balls coming into your, pool side, I guess. I don't know how to explain it. Like some guys can't figure out how to get to that ball going away from them. Yeah, I guess for me, if you have the skill set to put the barrel of that ball, barrel of the bat on the ball like that with all of the, now that the swing technology is

catching up, we can't figure out like, hey, maybe your swing against righty should be a little bit. I don't know. Yeah, it, no, it should be. It should be. And the guys that fall into those platoon splits don't have a different swing for both sides. It definitely should be a different type of swing against left-hast than- Have a different stance. Like I don't know. Yeah, it is different. My bolt-stat-stat-re-statt real quick. I've mentioned three stolen bases and a homer. It's first A's player to do that in a game since Ricky Henderson in 1991. And yes, you're right, 30.5 feet per second is tied for the Major League Baseball lead this year. Bolte, fastest guy in the league, all right.

He has a, in 2022, when he first signed with the hometown A's, he said, I like to go out and put pressure on the other team. I'm a big A's guy. So like Ricky Henderson is stealing bases all the time. I might not be as fast as him. He's a little special. So he's always had that in his mind. That's pretty cool.

I'm so out on the A's. They kind of hurt me this year. Like I just, I don't think they're going to be able to pick. pitch enough in that ballpark. It's, you've mentioned. One more year. It's worse than Coors. Me and you, I'm going to be calling games in Vegas,

and you're not invited because you won't come out to Minnesota. Stop it. We're going next year. We just had to put it on the calendar. Will there be baseball next year? That's the question. We'll put on the calendar either way, if there's no ball. When it's Brewers-Rays World Series,

everyone's going to be like, I don't know, guys, your argument kind of sucks now. That's going to be cuts to Dodger. Yankees. Trev, we've been kind of doing doubles on Fridays, which I don't hate at all. I've been falling into some pitcher Fridays, and actually one of the guys I want to talk about, you were like, oh, I actually, I got something for him at the end of the show, so he's off. The two guys I want to highlight, fastball Freddy, Freddie Perralta, on the best team in the American League.

We talked a lot of Freddie Peralta, where the brewer is going to trade him. did trade him. They traded him to the Mets. Things went wrong for the Mets and Freddie Peralta this year. He gets traded over to Tampa. Things go wrong. He's still, the stuff isn't there. Also, two of his first starts in Cores in Sacramento. Tough way to get off the right foot.

Well, since then, Freddie's been on a heater. Three straight quality starts. That matters. Six innings. It was one earned run in his last start. and Peralt, he had a slow first inning. Then he retired 16 of the final 18 batters. These are the Braves.

16 of the final 18 batters, 60 pitches over the final five innings. You're going to see this guy get a playoff start. And potentially a lot of playoff starts if the raise continue to be the best team in the American League. So fastball Freddie, who was on our radar, off our radar, might be back. He's got some nice, he has some raise high T quotes that you. would like that basically like, yeah, I got a good fastball, throw it. Okay, tell that to the Mets. And then the other guy is just a, you know, I feel as we go through our standout performers for the year, we never know if we should highlight the right guys or the studs or, oh, we don't

talk about this guy. Yoshinovu Yamamoto. It's been a Mizorowski year. It's looking like he's going to win the Cy Young. There was some Christopher Sanchez fighting with him for a while. Chris Sail popped up. I talked about how electric this NL. Sy Young is. Our guy, my friend Jimmy, and some people still know him as John Boy, he's been getting,

I don't know if people fully know this yet. He's getting into making his own stats. He's got one for hitters that he's getting deep into. I think he's talked about it on our award show, some Cisler Plus. He also has a pitcher, simple game score that he's kind of adjusted to what he likes. The best pitcher in it by far this year has been Yoshinobu Yamamoto,

because it values innings a little more, and he's like every out. His game log this year is crazy. He's given up more than three runs three times. Otherwise, he just gives you a good outing every day. And I know there was so much chaos in that World Series. what this MFer did in one of the best world series of all time is this stuff a legend.

And he's just going to cruise to a Cy Young three or four. And I guess the way I would phrase it is, by some metrics, he's been the best pitcher in baseball this year. So we asked Chris Rose this the other day. I think it was yesterday, actually. Like if you had to pick one guy to start a game in the playoffs, like I know people will jump right to Ms. but it might be Yamamoto.

Do you know how many innings he threw in the World Series last year? Did you look that up? How many innings? I have it. I don't have it. 23. 17 and two-thirds innings. 23 is insane.

23 is insane. I went big. I don't know. You did to go big. 17 and two-thirds innings in the World Series two earned runs. In the NLCS, he also threw a complete game against the Brewers. So leading up into that. For those at home, those 17.2 World Series.

series innings. That's a 102 ERA. Yeah, it's definitely a guy that needs to be talked about more. He just gets, he gets behind Otani out there in L.A. People don't watch him pitch because it's late, but when the lights, the real lights turn on, those lights

that I never got to see in my career unfortunately. It could have been a legend. Yamamoto, I think, is the guy you want on the mound. No disrespect to the Sanchez's, the Wheelers, the Mizorowski. he's the sales, even the Schlittlers this year. It's, it's, it's, it's Yamamoto.

I think he's who I'd want. You know you're going to get, you're going to be in the game. I mean, obviously people know I see the game a little differently. I mean, the guy who might give him a run for his money, I believe in postseason stats, Ranger Suarez, every time I look at those numbers. But if you're going to do that game, it's, Yamamoto career in the postseason 7 and 0 at 225. Good stand-up, Pop. Thank you.

Trev, your favorite part of the show is when I say, we could have talked about Anthony Volpe. We could have talked about Juan Soto. We did talk Jackson-Marrell and Jackson-Turio. Same first name. Danny Jansen, absolutely. Daddy Jansen. I love Luis Garcia, Jr., Kike Hernandez.

It's almost October, so it's time to talk about him. I'm hoping we're seeing. some of these guys on Enfuego. Dirt nasties on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. You got me thinking now. You know, Jackson, the name in America,

that's one of those new, like, I don't know, like frat boy white people names. Jackson Dart would be the example. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. Like Jackson and Brexton and, you know, all those tins. I play youth baseball. him all the time on the sports sheet there. Okay. It's insane. But Jackson to Uriot out of Venezuela. Yeah. That name's hot in the streets over there as well too. Okay. Anyways, let's get to Enfuego.

Well, we're going to start out with Jackson Merrill. Hey. He said seven for 12 in the series. Two doubles, triple and a double a triple and two homers, nine runs driven in. On Wednesday, he became the third player in Padres franchise history with two homers and a triple in the same game, joining some real fun names here. Ryan Clesco. And Greg Vaughn. Those are good names. Those are some Padres' 1998, early 2000s.

I did say my favorite World Series matchup this year would be Padres, Yankees. That'd be fun. Cam Smith of the Houston Ashows five for ten. Three homers, four runs driven in. He's homered in each of the three games of... It's the first time he's done that in his career. homer in each game of a series. Snaps for Cam Smith.

Okay, we're going to talk to Urio. 8 for 14, a double two homer six runs driven in. Zach Netto, kind of getting forgotten. I'm going to talk more about the Angels later. How about it, Swil Nation? Six for 12, a double two homers, five runs driven in. That's nice. For the week, though, let's talk about our guy, Ellie, on a heater.

Two doubles, five homers, 10 runs driven in. He's homer in five straight games. That's the longest by a red switch hitter and second longest, overall by a Reds player in franchise history. It's too shy of that Reds record. He's got 26 homers on the season. That's a career high. And he set the single season record for homers by a switch hitter with a 26 homer.

And he broke his own record, which was 25 in 2024. That's a lot of numbers jumbled up right there. Teo! Teo! Getting hot at the right time, baby. Yeah. What? I like, it's Bryson Stott's walk-up song,

but I like saying it with Teo at the beat. Teo, Teo, okay. I don't know. That's insane. You've ruined my segment for that. Teo! 10 for 19. A double, a triple, a home run.

How many runs driven in? Ten. Nice. You got a 10 game hitting streak raises season OPS from 692 to 761. Oh my gosh. I mean, that's like a earmuffs. That's a shit season. to a good season.

Yeah. Love that, man. Oh, my gosh. Riley Green, 9 for 22. Three doubles, three homers, nine runs driven in. A little bit too late now. Victor Mesa Jr. Another one of these guys lengthening that Tampa Bay line up there,

two doubles, two homers, five runs driven in. And that, my friends, that's who's in Puego. Ellie de la Cruz. I know it got mentioned, but my goodness. You like tools. He's probably your favorite player. And how about all the Youngbloods in there? Merrill Smith,

Trillo, to get it started. But we're going long, so who gives us shit? Ellie Day of the Cruz had the throw to throw out Teo at home. So Teo's OPS could have been even higher. And originally it was like 105.2. And so people were like, oh, my gosh, like from the outfield. And then Mike Petriello, who, you know, is a big statutes. guy.

Savant guy. He's going around now doing damage control because it wasn't the right number. It came out that way, but I guess the numbers get finalized later than the day. It was only 102. So I just saw him on X being like, actually, no, it's not. It's 102.

I did there was a side by side. Rob's got the play up now. Gets by Dane Myers. There was, Rob, you might be able to find it on Twitter. someone did like a slow-mo of the side angle of belly throwing, and they were just like its perfect form.

And it kind of was. And to see his body catch a relay throw like that and just be so... There's a couple things that I love in baseball. A good relay throw and like good footwork and just putting your body in the right position to receive the ball, but also you're already in the motion of throwing the ball. it's just it's a beautiful thing god look at that whip

dude look at the ball explode out of his hand what does the Oscar out there are times where you get behind a ball and you force him to shit out of it and you see that thing kind of like it starts to go down and then just catches and goes no better feeling than that

I don't think I ever had 105 or 102 in the bag but fun. I don't think you did either. I had a good arm, probably 90, mid 90s? 90s, I said. Yeah, mid 90s. And, you know, if I let one loose in my prime,

I was upper 90s. Like a crow hop, like running start a little bit, yeah. Yeah, I guess I'll do it. Don't even, I'm telling you. I'm not asking you to decipher whether I did it or not. I'm telling you. Let me say a couple things.

one, I'm sorry for breaking up your perfect segment with my Teo song. That wasn't professional by me, and I hand up. I will give you this, because A, I think it's right, and B, Cody Bellinger busted out a 100 the other day, and like, I love Belly's defense, and he has a good arm, but I was like, damn, like, Belly's got a hunch in the chamber just ready to go? That's insane. insane. I don't know. Let's do the bad part of the show. Hey, man. It's time to pick it off.

I feel like Dalt went easy as we're heading to the final stretch. I mean, some of this could matter a ton, a ton. I'm not even going to mention J.J. Bladay's one for 20 or Isaac Collins one for 16, because that would be rude. Two things that could matter a lot. Frederick, Freddy, Freddie Freeman in a one for 14. Okay, let's get that out of the way before the postseason. He'll win World Series MVP. Michael Harris Deuce in a two for 23.

So those impact players for big boys in the NL. For the two weeks, Croninworth, two for 37. Hate that. Let's get him out of here. Wyatt Langford in those forearms in a four-for-44. Woof. Speaking of Bryce and stop. Talk about full circle here.

He's in a four for 41. And Matt Olson, seven for 49. This game comes for everyone. Don't be surprised if you see a couple of those guys on Enfuego next week. The only list that's worse than that, it is the IL. And a couple impact ones down the stretch. Taylor Wals, hip flexor two weeks. We're running out of weeks, people.

Bryce Elder, three to four weeks. Well, okay, that's, yeah. Raxon Ashcraft, our guy, probably out for the season. Jazz Chisholm sprained his thumb. It'll be interesting to see the timeline and if Volpe Mania picks up again. Shoahe Otani, we mentioned him, knee, biceps, neck. You mentioned if the postseason were tomorrow, we'd play. Love that.

I do love that. Lane Thomas. Okay. Turning from the aisle. Robert Garcia came in to clean up Jacob Junis' mess the other day. Key Brian Hayes and Aaron Judge. Two hitters on different ends of the spectrum. Your guy, Kyle Caros.

Full pension piv. Joe Ryan. Oh, Corbin Burns? Trev, this is fingerprints everywhere. Mason win. On the field. Off the field. Pete Fairbanks.

Zach Gallin. Reinaldo Lopez. Mike Soroka, Michael Soroka, and Austin Martin for your Minnesota Twins. Let's start off everyone's weekend. Awards. Brought to you by Seekek. It's Awards. Use Code Talk in 2026.

Trev, bring us home. I'm going with the Work Smarter Not Harder. Okay. Award. People who listen to this show frequently or know that I'm the son of a pool man. who was a son of a pool man. So big time in the pool cleaning industry. And I worked a lot growing up with my dad during the summers.

It was either me and my brother. He would, we shared a room. We had bunk beds and he'd either come wake me or my brother up. And so there are times, we're like, oh, man, dad, please don't wake me up. Come on, come on. Pick Marshall, pick Marshall, pick Marshall.

And that's really mean of me because now I look back very fondly at those days and, like, I learned a lot of lessons. And, you know, help my dad. do his job man like it helped them so anyways you know he would teach me a lot about how to work smarter and not harder and if you've ever skimmed your pool out here's some less if you haven't here's some lessons if you have maybe you know these maybe you don't um you always skim uphill so you start in the deep end if you're going on the bottom of the pool and you go up towards the shallow end it keeps all the leaves and what you're trying to scoop out on

the ground if you go the other way and push it downhill they end up floating um if you go from the side and you go across only go about halfway because if you go any further than that the stuff starts to go past and go up the other side of the wall and it starts to float you just don't want the debris at the bottom of the pool to float right another lesson for you if you're pouring chemicals in your pool do not pour chlorine and acid at the same time you'll pass out it'll make you pass out oh wow yeah so you you have to kind of put them on different ends of the pool or don't pour them at the same time. So work smarter, not harder.

Another, another tip that he's given me in all of this, I just lost it right now. Gosh, darn it. Tip, pool man. It doesn't matter. You got to be able to do this. Another, another instant that's really come up into my life as of late. You know, during the summer I have all these inflatables, man. and for a while, this is insane, but I'm actually embarrassed to admit this.

I'd be like blowing a lot of these inflatables up by mouth. It's the dumbest thing you can do. You can buy an inflator for like $5 that plugs into the wall and inflates and deflates all of your inflatables. This is maybe the biggest, like, tip for parents. If you don't have like an inflator, most people have it, because maybe I'm just dumb. If you don't have one, you have to get one.

Work, smarter, not harder. I think there's something generationally there. Like, it just wasn't as prevalent as it should have been. Like, yeah, go on. It's insane if you're still blowing things up by mouth. It's crazy. Even balloons. Olivia has a balloon blower upper.

Nice. And it's amazing the work that you can get done in such a short amount of time using it. Work smarter, not harder. the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I don't think they're called that anymore. They had a pitching coach, Mike Maddox. Been around for a long time.

A lot of respect for this guy. Okay? Was with the Cubs for a long time? Some Cardinals, I believe. Maybe wrong about that. But been around the game of baseball for a long time. Of course you know the name. Came over to the Angels this year.

And we're starting to learn some things that were kind of working. harder, not smarter, during spring training, and we talked about this a little bit, but now it's all kind of like coming up and bubbling up. He took the radar guns away from like bullpen sessions and was like, oh, we don't want to do that. Let's just learn how to pitch. It's like, all right, like, this Angels team has not been a good pitching team for quite some time. And we're like, maybe you need a little old school in there. And then he started, the stories are coming out, kind of like took away Trackman and Hawkeye and all these things that like not only does every

major league team have them, every minor league team has them, every college team has them, and a lot of high schools have them. Like this is not like, this is not technology anymore. This is just like the stuff that you have around. Right. With Trackman, your pit, you're, you're, able to make adjustments like that. The pitch shape, the spin, all the metrics are right there. So it makes it so easy to make adjustments. They weren't using them, at least to their fullest extent. Well, as we know, Perrymanasian, gone, John Moseilic, in. And a couple weeks into that, he starts talking to people

and realizes they're not using simple technology, get out of here. He fires the entire staff. All the pitching guys gone. They start using the tech. and the numbers are insane. Okay, the first two weeks of August, or after they were gone, August 11th through 23rd, the Angel starters posted a 151 ERA

across 65 and two-thirds innings. As a whole, the rotation this month, as of September 9th, a 251 ERA, it led, it led in August it led the big leagues in August this is a team that could not pitch

and now all of a sudden they're doing it here's individual pitchers since August 1st a 1-5 for Redet Murs for Johnson a 167 Ryan Johnson 167 Classen 201 Urania 284 Cucche 35 even Grayson

Rodriguez got it down to a 4-3 Like they are now using this tech and finding ways. You mentioned DeMertrch has been incredible. We've been talking about him for a long time. Get him out of that damn organization and get him somewhere else and we're going to see an ace. Maybe he doesn't need to leave anymore. Maybe this is going to start bringing the angels into relevancy.

Love all of that. The pitching's been great. The offense has been the worst in baseball. So they really haven't turned him into wins yet, but a step in the right direction. The entire reason I brought them. this up. Work harder. Work smarter, not harder. The guy they brought in to run the ship, Tim Levec, Cresby High, my alma mater. I used to watch this guy pitch in high school. It went

Tim Levec to Marshall Plouffe to Trevor Plouf as far as like ace starters at Cresby High. Wow. Fingerprints all over it. Go Angels, go, go, go Swill Nation, go stand cronky. Hey, right now, look at me. Look at it. Right now. The over for the Angels 2027. I'm on it. Bro, so funny you landed with that because that was going to be my ad on.

Because, yeah, it's just funny. And I, for me, like, think about the, why are the Brewers great? Every pitcher they touch somehow gets better. And, you know, I think a lot of the secret sauce is, led from technology and some scouting. And, you know, I don't fully know. I can't tell you. A lot of the league can't.

The Brewers could. They won't. The Angels were so far behind. And it's probably the reason they haven't had a winning record since 2015. 2015. We've seen a lot of talent on that team. Like, I don't know, if you traded the Angels roster with the Brewers at the start of this season.

Be interesting. Again, it's one of those, how do sports really work? Angels, man. And the other thing I just believe in, ownership, matters so much in any company and any organization. Top down. Like, there's a reason the Angels were bad. There's a reason the Jets have been bad for years.

Sorry, Rob. I actually like their roster this year. If Gino can be league average, the Jets. But you can all find your sports teams and you can name them pretty easily. That it's like, oh, Sacramento Kings. Me just going for billionaires right now. Great job, Trevor. Yeah, I was going to highlight Redemers.

And yeah, what a sixth story that could be. Maybe if they, like, extend him and he gets a big guy contract from getting kicked to the bullpen or something like that. let's see what's next for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. I think I'm going to do a triple decker real quick. And I was going to... The first thing I was going to highlight, because we've been talking more awards than we have in past years, was you brought it up earlier.

Award season is wrapping up quickly. And a lot of that is via the Vegas odds. Cam Schlittler is over minus 1,000. If you don't live in the gambling space, that's very confident that Cam Schlittler is going to win the AL-Sai Young. Mizorowski, I think he's at minus 700. That's pretty confident that Ms. is going to win the Cy Young. Two guys, I know we brought this up the other day.

We didn't have him in our Cy Young draft. We were worried about innings. Guess what? They weren't, and it doesn't matter either way. PCA winning MVP. I know, like, you and I laugh, and we mentioned on the show, but, like, he was the sweet boy who came up to me Cole Tucker's wedding as a minor league or just being like, hey, I'm Pete.

Nice to meet you, man. Like, big baseball guy. You're not a sweet boy anymore. Oh, him and Caleb. I forgot about you and you and Stafford, him and Caleb, the rivalry. It's a big rivalry. The old dogs and the young pups. Yeah, I mean, he thinks he can get past me, but I'm like, you know, first three yards, put my hands on him.

It would be your NFC championship right there. that yeah, I wanted to talk about that. I'll put a comma on this Triple Decker Award. Two names you mentioned before. Baseball people are baseball people. There's a lot of us unks that are baseball fans that consume our jam baseball and stuff. How about the two guys you mentioned before?

Ryan Klesko and Greg Vaughn. Greg Vaughn's best season? How do you like 50 homers? Followed that with 45 tank jobs the next year. 355 career homers from Greg Vaughn. Not bad. 807 career OPS. That's good.

What do you got? What the hell is your award? The triple decker. Because I'm talking about three different things. Ryan Klesko, how's your 870 career OPS? 279, 370, a career 500 slug. 27 career war, 278 career homers. That was just, I mean, two, if you like ball, those are two guys to like.

And then, I don't know, I'll put a ball on it like we started. You know, even for myself, a silly guy that, you know, the serious stuff isn't always my lane. Go get in your feelings with 9-11. And if you're not that familiar with it, go catch up. And even if it's the big ones, if it's, if it's a red bandana, if it's, the different flights if it's, I mean, I, I, I, I googled this morning how many people passed away. And I was like, holy fucking shit, man. So, you know, Trevor and I, two proud Americans, did we, have we shown you that clip of,

of young Trevor Plouffe at the, you gave tickets to the veterans? That's so good. We'll sneak that in another episode. But, yeah, like, I'm, I don't know, my afternoon's kind of clear. I'm thinking about heading down there and just getting in my, feelings a little bit because fucking nuts, man. Fucking nuts. So, thank you, Seatkeek.

Go talk in 2026. 10% off your next set of tickets at Seekek. I hope all of your guys' teams win this weekend, unless they're facing my team. Two weeks? Two weeks, coach. See you in a week? Less?

Physical. Physical. Chicksucks. We got a travel ball tournament this week. weekend first one in a while okay how was Ted in the cages yesterday great he's like so like he wants to go every day now let's go how to hit Vila I'm like all right dude let's go what's Vlo for him right now 70s 75 okay I got that