Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Cubs Beat Up on Cincy | 697

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINVisit https://hellofresh.com/talkin50 and use code talkin50 for 50% off plus free shippingUpgrade your closet with Rhone and use code BASEBALL to save 20% at https://rhone.com/BASEBALLHead to https://factormeals.com/talkin50 and use code talkin50 to get 50% off++++Timestamps:0:00 Trevor is Inducting Joe Mauer Into the Hall of Fame3:00 E-Rod6:15 Mets Selling Thoughts10:00 Jeimer Candelario to the Cubs13:30 Angels Unique Position15:00 Who Did We Sneaky Like the Most?18:30 Debuts20:30 Giants Beat the DBacks26:40 Cubs Beat Up on the Reds33:05 NL Wildcard Race35;50 Philly Beats Miami41:15 Orioles Beat Toronto46:20 Rays Beat the Yankees50:00 Mariners Beat Red Sox54:00 Astros Sweep Cleveland, Rangers Sweep Chicago56:45 Braves Beat Angels1:02:05 Jeimer Candelario1:05:45 Framber Valdez Threw a No-Hitter1:08:20 En Fuego1:12:40 Injury Updates1:14:10 Jack Flaherty Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to Talkin Baseball Special episode post-trade deadline. Jolly Olive is here. Let's catch up. Where are we in the season? Dog Days. Hello and welcome to Talkin' Baseball. Presenting you by Seekek. My name is Jake Strombole.

I am here with Jack. Do people know your real names? I don't think they do. No, let's not. We're here with Jolly Olive. B.B.D. is here. Dahl and Feeley. is in the room. It's an exciting week at John Boy Media. We're hosting our floorball tournament was

electric last year. Got like 50K views per episode before like our warehouse channel blew up and now we got some like serious hockey influencers here. So really excited for the weekend. Excited me and Jim will excite to distract ourselves from Yankee baseball for a weekend, although two and oh. And our guy Trevor Gingham. Goof, who is in town and we had a lot of fun with, he's busy Joe Mower's retirement weekend in Minnesota. So he's out. Jolly's coming in out of the bullpen.

I wish you guys could have heard. I was talking to Trev's delightful wife, Olivia. And I was like, oh, who's heading up this weekend? And it was just a baseball reference list. I would have loved that. She was like, well, you know, the Dunsings are coming. I was like Brian Duncey. I was like, oh, my God.

You can't just, I can't hear that from Trevor's wife. She calls him Brian, which is a whole different ballgame. Yeah. So Jolly Olive, how are you? Welcome. I'm good, man. Yeah. You know, they call me the Danny Valencia, the Trevor Ploof, you know.

That's a deep cut for the fans. I'm good, man. I've done talking baseball before. Never a recap episode. Yeah. So kind of pop in my recap cherry, if you will, hey now. And it's kind of a trade deadline episode a little bit. We had first performances, which is always really exciting.

And apparently the Yankees are back. They're so not. It's a really important moment for Jolly. We have to figure out if he's Matt Chapman or Miguel Sineau. Oh, that's interesting. Similar body types. I was going to say you're heading towards Matt Chapman, and then you said the cherry thing.

Come on. Yeah, that's... You're talking to a champ right now. Hyper aggressive. Yeah, Jolly, the talking baseball people are familiar. I think the last time they saw you was the trade. deadline draft. Yeah, that was the Seattle Epp.

How'd you do? I nailed my second pick, and then Eduardo Rodriguez put his family first, which I have to respect, but it felt a little personal, the fact that it was going to be the only trade that was correct that we got. I need you to hate Erod. I'm not. No, I do. I do.

Because I think it came out, and credit to Trev, and this is some, I don't want to say, normy stuff, but it also came out that Erod was requesting things. Like, E. Rod was trying to get taken care of a little bit. I don't think we got full... I don't think we got full details, but it's funny. I think we think of no trade clause in the terms of like a Zach Grinky didn't want to pitch in a big city. So he's like, screw that.

And Erod, you know, he dropped the East Coast. And you're like, okay, like, I remember Trey Turner's free agency. Like, sure, okay. And then it did come out like, no, ERA was trying to... I can only imagine, like, Dodgers, let's do a one-year... 30 mil extent. I don't know. I guess when you have the no trade clause,

you can call your shots a little bit. So I didn't really know. That's why it's there, though. I think it would have been like going bigger than the remaining whatever's left on the deal. He had three years left or something. And it was like, I don't know. So Dodgers fans, let's, um,

I want to do a little post trade deadline. It'll be a slightly unorthodox. We're heading back to the regular stuff. We will be able to eliminate more series and teams. I think there was a, there was one bad series. What was it? It was the last interleys. Dodgers and A's, I think, right?

Oh, I mean, you know, in a way. Yeah. Right. So, but I want to do some post deadline with you, Jolly. I want to do some big series. And then we will do standout. We will do awards. Some Fuego in there and all the other good stuff.

And speaking of Fuego in there, how about hello fresh? I had a nice talk with Lorenzo D'Milia last night from We Got Ice. becoming the floorball weekend favorites, by the way. They've got a squad. Okay. He has been hello freshing and he loves it. It was like he came up and he was so happy because he is getting fresh ingredients delivered to him.

So you don't have to go grocery shopping. And he's cooking a meal and Zoe's kind of a process guy. Like Zoe's liking it. He's like, yeah, you know, some of the meals, you know, you have to actually put it in the oven and cook it. And so I was like, yeah, you know, that, that's kind of crazy. And it's like, yeah, man, that's, that's life. That's kind of how a lot of society does it.

I mean, they sent both of us care packages. We had a nice conversation about the Tex-Mex enchiladas yesterday. So I was teasing it how good it was. I made it yesterday for my own video. It was absolutely delicious. Not even a big enchilada guy. Look at that. Loved it.

So, yeah, you can kind of scratch an achievement itch. You can kind of scratch some good eaten. save yourself time from going shopping and all that. They've got a ton of different recipes. And if you go to hellofresh.com slash talking 50, I like that number on the end. Code talking 50 for 50% off plus free shipping. Hellofresh.com slash talking 50 and use code talking 50 for 50% off plus free shipping.

There's a link in the description. Jolly Olive. I like to start out wide and aim small. That's kind of where I live. That's how you live your life, too. We are now three days removed from the deadline. Something like that, too, I think. Tuesday.

So if you do Wednesday, Thursday, today would be the third. Yeah, I'm so out of it. And my next couple weeks are about to get jacked up. Jacked up. That segment got canceled. Real quick. I guess a couple days after the deadline. And Jolly, you're going to, at the end of the day,

you're going to become like a trade deadline historian. I guess so. Because now that's kind of where we're going. I guess a couple days removed from the deadline, what's the exhale from you? And I, hey, man, if you want to end up in some Mets because they did, they ended up being kind of the surprise seller this year. But a couple days removed from the trade deadline, where are you at? You know, I'll spare the audience too much Mets talk and I'll kind of make it a broad statement of a lot of teams picked a path, which is really cool. There were not a lot of stand pat teams at the end of the day.

That's not even a slam. You guys. Nice backhand, Federer. Keyes. Keenan Minleton. Let's get excited. Yeah. No, but the Cubs, they stuck to their plan.

They're buying. They're sticking with their guys. They got Jamer Candelario. The Orioles kind of went in. They dipped their toe. They get Jack Flaherty. The Padre is standing pat and, you know, adding some pieces as well. It was really cool, but it was also probably the biggest sellers market we've seen in maybe a decade.

and the Mets, I think, took full advantage of that, knowing that this probably wasn't the squad that's going to take them to the heights that they got last year. And they sold off big time, man. I mean, we talked about no trade clauses before for Erod. The no trade clauses for Verlandian Orsorzer kind of got thrown out the window because those guys, I guess, just wanted out

after hearing about what the plan was. But a lot of teams, you know, the Marlins were buyers this year, which is really exciting as well. Kim Enghead played. They did a lot. They did a lot. They did a lot. They added a couple bats.

They added to their bullpen, which I thought was really cool. cool. So it's just exciting because, you know, with this extra playoff spot, the entire landscape of MLB changes because so many more teams have that outside chance so late in the season as well. And this was a later deadline than usual too on August 2nd. So all of it, I really enjoyed. It might have been a quieter deadline compared to the last two with Soto last year and then 2021, the Cubs dismantling everything and selling off their championship core. But every trade deadline is exciting at the end of the day. And this one was no different. Yeah, I think the, when we

We were in it live and it still holds. Like the, I think the lead up, it was dead for about a week leading up. Super dead. And then it went for a week and it was cool. Shurs or Verlander. I mean, those are two all-time kind of inner circle starting pitchers. Like, you know, you could do top 10 starting pitchers all time and those guys have a pretty good argument to be in there. So the fact that they go, you know, that adds something to it.

And then, yeah, I think leading up to the actual deadline. Like we were hoping for one more buzzer-beater. And, you know, something surprising. And you don't want to put it on any team because, you know, I guess there's- It means somebody's giving up. There's two levels to it, right? It's, you know, A, Wonsoto, obviously, if something like that had happened again. But once they started buying, you knew they weren't selling pop.

I mean, this year it was going to be Shohay, and it didn't happen. And we knew that early in it. Show-hah, or even, like, if the Cardinals got an offer for an Aeronado or something at the buzzer, like, you know, there was room for one more big one. but yeah, I think the trade deadline as a whole was good. And I guess when we're doing instant reactions, we're live during the deadline and you want to react the best way you can. I've already had a flip-flop and maybe I'm biased from, I don't know,

he had eight hits in his first nine at bats. Our guy, Jamer goes over to the Cubbies. And I did this live on Wake and Jake and I was like, oh, crap. Because I sat there and I said, if the Cubs have a bad week, they could put themselves in a bad situation and then it'll be one of those I think the Giants did it two years ago where they didn't trade Jock

and they kept some guys and they like a week and a half later they were like out of it again and it was like, oh we should have. Yeah. So that for the Cubs I had to go back and check my mental math on it because do I necessarily

do I believe in the Reds or Brewers to run away with the division? No, you can't. Like I can like both of those teams. Like the Brewers had the most Brewer's deadline ever. Like, all right, here's two sticks. Here's chafing on the back end. He looks like Bernie Brewer.

Perfect Brewer's deadline. Like, you know, that's, we almost could have drawn that one up. Totally. Yeah. The Reds are kind of one of the team that sneaky didn't do. I mean, you look at the central teams. It's Reds and Twins, two big teams that really didn't do much. And the Reds definitely got, you know, kind of their ass handed to them for not doing anything.

Sam Mall comes over, so a little sign of respect. Respect people adding middle relievers. You know, yeah. No, even, you know, the Orioles Reds comparison that's been in my heart a little bit, just like talented young offenses, good backends. You know, to add Jack Flaherty contrasted to not, and I know they're going to get pitchers back

and let's not insta react to the set series with the Cubs. But, okay, so I don't believe in the two teams ahead of the Cubs. they got the juice for a little bit. You know, there's a business side of it that me and Treve like dove down to that's like, okay, you know, hey, it's Wrigley. And they just built a big Draft King's sports book outside the stadium. Okay, so if I don't believe the two teams in front of them, you got the juice. Your pieces to trade, like, I don't know what a Stroman deal would have ended up looking like.

You know, we kind of, I guess there's rumors of an E-Rod deal and he had the opt-out. So what would Stromans had looked like? And we still don't know what that trade would have been as far as the pieces going back. Cody Bellin? No, we got none of that. Cody, they kind of pull him off the table. And by the way, like, what was his value? Because former MVP is playing like an MVP again, but he wasn't that for two years.

There was a quote from Hoyer in the front office who, you know, they're talking about Cody Belanger. And he says, you know, kind of smiling. And it's a very unemotional guy. He knows how we feel about him, which makes me think they want him long term. I don't know. I know our guy Ian Happen. sign there. I know a lot of Cubs fans probably assumed it was going to be Rizzo and Brian extension or Baez.

They're building something. So, and if you look at run differential, they have the third best in the National League. They have the most run scored since the All-Star break. So I kind of, I flip-flopped myself because I was like, the Cubs have a chance to look bad in a week and a half, but that's the game. Like, that's, we're playing. Like, if you're putting your chips in, you might as well. So I ended up flip-flopping there.

And at the same time, like the Angels don't have the best week. They're now sitting in fourth place. And they did, they added, they've been adding to try to boost Shohei. And at the same time, you can't penalize them because their situation is so unique because they have, if you were playing a video game and, you know, it's like, oh, here's the new draft class. The top player, he, you know, he looks like he's going to be a top. five pitcher in the league and, you know, top five hitter in the league, you'd be like, I don't, you'd like take a picture, send it to your buddies and be like, oh my God, dude,

the game fucking glitched or something. So they were in a bit of a unique situation. So I had to do what they did. I mean, the best player in, like, he ruined the question of if you were going to start your franchise right now, what player do you do it with? Shea Oatani. So you have to build around him or else you get nothing out of it. And it is one bad week.

So we're kind of being the instant reaction pod right now. In a week, the Angels could have ripped off four out of five. and then they're back into things. But they had a tough loss last night. She's been doing everything, but he's been dealing with cramping and stuff like that. His start got limited. They did what they had to do.

I just don't know if it's going to get them there in the end. But at least this is how it should be. At least they're trying, you know. Do you have a, I guess to close it off, because we have done a lot of deadline stuff and we let up to it and we'll get to, you know, the rest of our reactions will be, you know, kind of what happens. If it works, it works.

If it doesn't, it doesn't. might be interesting if the Mariners get hot with their soft sell like you know they're they're kind of in the mix uh that one's interesting to me still i guess is there a team that you you kind of you sneaky liked what they did like there's a lot of like you mentioned the marlins in passing like they sneaky did a lot like the Padres had the soft the soft ad which i'm a i'm a sneaky big fan of because it's you know you're not really compromising anything while providing a little bit of hope, I guess of any of the teams out there, what's one that kind of stands out that maybe maybe people aren't acknowledging? Yeah, I think you nailed it with the Marlinsman.

I mean, they could have stood Pat and kind of just rolled with things and relied on the pitching to improve and instead coming in went out there and made some moves. I mean, they're required to moves. Josh Bell comes over. They deal a pretty serious prospect in Khalel Watson in that. He was a top 10 pick a couple years ago. But they get Josh Bell, they get Jake Berger. They add to their pitching staff and they ripped off, you know, they had a pretty rough series against the Phillies, but it would have been a four-game sweep had they not won that third game where their new guys come through. You know, Josh Bell gets four hits in his first game, including back-to-back homers with jazz. Like, that's a formula, you know, two big lefties in the middle of your lineup. That's something

Miami has not had in years. So, I mean, to add that mid-season probably gives them some juice. But I mean, when I look up and down the teams, I think in the mid-tier, the NL had a great, deadline and the AL kind of had a bad deadline like Boston didn't really do much and they're six games over Seattle is a season high five games over they kind of sold and retooled a little bit although people don't really like that word and then in the mid tier and no I mean Miami ads Arizona ad Chicago ads big time so I mean that's kind of how I'm judging it right now I think they're both open playing fields but one league was a little bit more cautious than the other it's interesting to start dividing things by league because I was doing a little bit of that

that on the way in today and run differential, if you're into that thing. I'm not as, I'm not, yeah, it means something. I'm, I'm not as locked into it. Win ball games. I don't, at the end of the season, if you end up with a plus 175, compared to a 75, like, in a way, in the postseason, it really don't matter. Like, that's, that's a number that gets thrown out the door quick. Like, sure, it's a sign of, you know, how dominant you could be at certain times.

The AL, I want to say it's 10 teams positive run differential. Five are not. Nice. And I think the NL is six positive run differential teams. Look at you, Jake. number one and number two in the NL, Braves Dodgers. Yeah. Number three, number four, Cubs Padres. And they added. I mean, they believe in something. That Padres number, I will say, as walking over myself, someone that's not fully locked in on run differential. Seeing their number today was like, Like, oh. If you're plus 10, if you're plus 75, it's tears to this thing.

Exactly. With tonight's games, the Padres could be the third best run differential team in the national league. And they're far out of the playoffs. That's a, if they get a little magic beans going. Yeah. Like, nobody wants to play them. They still need to get a lot of the magic beans going, but they're kind of going a little bit. I mean, this version of Snell, we saw playoff Musk Grove last year.

You know, you Darvish on top of all that. That's a three you don't want to face a wildcard series. I'm speaking from experience. Oh, sorry. The ear game. I'm limiting Joe Musgroves here. Didn't you change your Twitter to Joe Muskrose's ears for a while? You know, I would do that.

That's your burner. That's my bad. Okay. We had a lot of guys making their debuts. Very nice. On their new teams. I did like seeing Josh Bell go four for five. I was like, that's cool.

He kind of had a quiet season. I can give you two good months. And then he ripped off. I like him and Jake Burger in the middle of the lineup. I think they did a burger promotion. Yeah. They got that together quick. They have to get Seth Beer next.

That's, yes. Jolly. You're not wrong. Okay. Let's dive into some games. Because the games do matter. Hello, Yankees. They had an interesting week.

Are you real right now? They had an interesting week. Let's, before we get into the games, the games are brought to you by Roan, R-H-O-N-E. Get your swag up with Roan. They've got their commuter collection, most comfortable, breathable, flexible set of products known to man. It's pretty good. That's pretty good. I've met some men.

Rone helps you get ready for any occasion. They got pants, dress shirts, cu-zips, polos, anti-oder, technology. 100% machine washable, throw it in, put it back on, wear it again, clean it again, throw it back on. Kind of how it works, people. Head to roan.com slash baseball. Use promo code baseball to save 20% on your entire order. 20% off your entire order when you head to roam.com slash baseball. Use code baseball.

There's a link in the description. Let's do a what matters. Again, people were, I think this will sort itself more as we go. I don't think I'm going to burn again. I'm sorry for all the burn stance. It's okay. We'll be back Monday. I'll torture Trevor with them.

But, you know, we are a cron pod, and I'll go what Dalton has on the sheet. The first series I'd like to talk about in the National League, we're going out west, the Diamondbacks. Me and Dalton's Diamondbacks. They lose three out of four to the Giants. The Giants, they had a soft buy. A little A.J. Pollock coming to town. Why not?

He'll hit some lefties, worst case. The D-backs, man. They got Seawald, and that's kind of fun, although Chafin goes out. Giants take three out of four. It ends in a one-nothing game. Our guy, Brandon, fought, drops it, but it's not enough as the Giants win one-nothing,

which that's a real dagger. These were all close games. We got three one-run games. Yep. The Diamondbacks had the worst July in the National League, which, you know, my fandom, my two teams, snakes and yanks. Tough. Not the best July.

So I'm excited to put that in our rear view, but they get off on the wrong foot here. And it's a little bit of Giants baseball, man. I mean, Logan Webb, late night, Lamont, all the characters you want. And now I should have done some standings watch, but first I'll kick it back to you here. I mean, I can give you that. Giants are in a,

Giants are feeling good. We're two and a half back. We're in second place. Snakes and everything I said about the Padres, snakes are six and a half out of first now. And we need to get the train on track because it's right now it's off. Yeah. I mean,

I kind of want to give love to, both sides here because I think we can say a lot of things about the snakes. I'm going to go hard on the snakes. We need it. We got good baseball on the NL West. First on Giants, I think they're having a really interesting season because they had one of the weirder off seasons.

They miss Correa, they miss judge, they kind of add smaller pieces. And I'm looking up and down this roster and all the pieces they seem to add from the outside kind of are disappointing. I mean, Hanager got hurt and he hasn't performed that well. I mean,

they add Michael Conforto, he's been league. average and then in the rotation, you know, stripling and wood, these guys have not performed. Instead, it's the 2021 formula. It's the, it's the guys that they've acquired elsewhere. It's the veterans off the bench. It's the bullpen. That has been absolutely great for the giants in this recent run. And it's given that 2021 vibe of like, who are these guys and how the hell are they putting together these wins? And you look up and down this series, four to three, four to three, four to two, one nothing. Pretty much all of them are one run games. And that's why I want

to give some love to the DeVex, too, because I think they're playing. better ball already than they did last month. Last month, they were a tougher watch if you were tuning into those games. Just a lot of poor bullpen work and Corbyn-Carrul quieting down really cools down the entire offense. Dalton looks like he's about to punch you across the face. I'm so sorry, Dalton, because he's looking right out. He's about to punch you across the face.

I mean, Lordus Cori-L is turning it back on. They need that. They need to get Brandon fought a win, man. It's been nine starts. He's been pitching better as a late. He still doesn't have his first win. But man, Giants baseball, man, they'll kill you, especially if Alex Cobb is going and Logan Webb has a nice bounce back start, and late night Lamont leads the team in war.

How about that as well? They're both really fun teams to watch. I both think they have a really good shot to make it into that wild card because I think the Dodgers are probably going to take over the West from here on. There is a gentleman that does deserve a big shout out in this series. Patrick Bailey. How about it, man. Whoa.

Okay. You know, and this is, we don't say it as much as we should. we used to say at every show, you know your team better than us. And I'll be honest, you know, watching full Giants games, not in my everyday routine, as much as I'd like it to be, that would be tough that it's like, okay, Patrick Bailey, sure. You know, catcher, he's hitting a little, you know, the kid, hearing he's good defensively. Then you see him essentially win a game. A guy Pardomo gets that work.

that was cool to see and that I don't know man like if you're if you are locked into baseball which you're listening to talking baseball and you might be interactive on Twitter or Reddit or you know however you consume your stuff that was a okay so that's something yeah like that's that's part of the formula and Jolly you mentioned the bullpen I remember I think one of the first one of the first things I threw out to you for a Jolly out of video was the Giants bullpen because they were, I think they were first and second in ERA and whip, but they were like near the bottom in strikeouts.

And it was so on what you expect from bullpins, but that team that won, the first thing I was point out is Buster Posey because he had an MVP-ish type season. And then it's that bullpen. And hey, young catcher ball and he's not being Buster Posi and getting out like lockdownouts in that bullpen. My guy Doval on the ballpen.

Back end. That's my guy guy. Giants are real and we didn't know that coming into the season. I think it's nuts because this is not the catcher that was promised. The catcher that was promised was Joey Barrett. Was available for trade. It was available for trade at the deadline. Mets didn't get him, did they?

It sucks. We don't have a catcher, man. Oh, wait. Just kidding. Rookie of the month. Just saying. Patrick Bailey, back pick to end the game, caught stealing. Stop.

He's been great. I mean, he had a slump just like the rest of the Giants lineup in July. They were last in batting average OPS and runs per game. But when you can get six innings from your bullpen out of just a bullpen that you've crafted from the ground up, it's special, man. And it helps with a rotation that kind of is relying on two good starts every turn from Webb and Cobb and just figuring it out the rest of the way. And I want to give a shout out to the first baseball player that I ever interacted with.

humongous man just got his first career. MLB saved deep into his career. Sean Mania has been doing really good bulk work for them in the bullpen. So I want to give him some love. Giants are fun, man. Weird team, but a lot of fun. Let's, the next one on our sheet, I already gave some opinions on,

and I'm going to give some opinions later. And I think it's funny because I'll do some parallels to the series we just talked about. Snakes win that first game. They are a game back of the Giants. And it's like, right, you know, might as well win some games, get back into it, lose the next three and a tough spot. Cincinnati Reds win the first game, six five, sure, and Carnacion Strand, yes. They lose the next three to the Chicago Cubbies as they put up historic runs.

Back-to-back games, a 20 spot and a 16 spot might be able to make some Chicago bear jokes about that in a couple of weeks. And then they win the last game on a Jameson Tyone. day who you might hear more about in a little bit. I gave my speech about the Cubbies and a little bit on the Central. Ian Hap, big series, not a big deal. A friend. Heard of them. I should text him.

I guess where, if you want to start in this series and you want to aim wide for the Central, I'm open to all of that because I kind of gave my thoughts with the trade. Like, I do think it's wide open. Yeah. I mean, it's been a big Cubs love pod. but like it kind of has to be. This team was 10 games under 500 in the middle of July. There were seven games under 500 in the middle of July,

June was the other one, excuse me. And the fact that they've rebounded this way and just found a way to fire on all cylinders, especially in that lineup, it's really remarkable, man. I mean, I'm going to be honest, I was not super in on this team going into 2023. And Dansby's done his part.

Cody Bellinger has gone far and above, what he was asked to do in terms of just kind of finding himself again. Say has been reliable this past month. Christopher Morel has been great. That's like one of the guys they've developed. But I want to give some love to Justin Steele, man. I mean, a lot of people kind of kind of can't give him enough love. Sneaky dark horse on him a little bit for a while. Stroman took the spotlight for a little bit. Tione did a good start. But Steele's been doing it all season long and he's got the third best ERA in the majors now at 2.65, which is just remarkable to me. So this is a Cubs team.

that has been banging their way to wins, but to get nice quality starting pitching, especially with kind of an unreliable bullpen for them, has been really, really nice, and I think Steele's at the center of it. If you're asking me who gets that game one ball if they're in the Wild Card series, I'm giving it to Justin Steele for sure.

Yeah, and I think, you know, I know this wasn't part of the equation, but Stroman just went on the IL, or he got hit around a little bit, and he went on the aisle. So the Cubs were, there was a couple times this year on this show where I, you know, you know those cute Instagram dog videos where the dog turns their head.

Yeah, exactly. I kind of did that with the Cubs a few times because there were times where they're run differential. They'd be the only positive run differential team in the Central. They had like a one-two punch in Stroman and Steel that could go, statistically could go toe to toe with anyone at a certain point this year. And, like, defensively, there's a lot of dudes on that team. offensively.

So every now and then I do a head tilt that it was like, Cubs? Yeah. They got hot. Like at the last moment to get hot, they've put themselves in a good position. I guess with all the love that's going on, I'll still say, it's not like I'm bought in. Like, here come the Cubs. But the juice is going on at Wrigley right now. That's a city that's so thirsty for it.

Yep. And I don't know. I guess I'm happy for them. You trade for Jamer, you get eight out of nine out of the gates. Like, that's ridiculous. And I, you don't want to overreact to the Reds, but, you know, I'm sure in some Reds, Reddit forums and things like that, you know, Chris Rose in our trade draft picked Otani to the Reds because the Magic was so beautiful.

And Ellie, we all gave him a little guff. Yeah. Clickbait Chris Rose. A little bit of guff. But, you know, you walk away with Sam Moll, who is having a nice year. He's got some funk out of the bullpen for you from the left side. But, like, I don't know. Remember when Jonathan India might be the biggest player traded and then he got banged up?

I don't know. I'm not saying that should affect the Reds because they were going to play a lot of these young guys, and that's their plan, and they weren't going to compromise their future. And there could be a talking baseball coming up where it's like, whoa, Hunter Green's back and his innings are low and watch out. I don't know. I'm happy for Cubs fans. And if you just, if you're going on paper again,

I wasn't, I wasn't enthused with this Cubs team going into the season. If you put them in the Brewers and Reds, just roster resource next to each other, shrug? Yeah. I don't know. Can I add a little spice to that?

Always. One thing I love about this NL Central is that I think the records, for all three of these teams, going to be impressive by end the season, regardless of who makes it. Because rest of the way, ninth easiest strength of schedule, Cubs. Seventh, Cincinnati, 6th, Milwaukee. All of them have pretty favorable schedules going forward. And there's no reason why these teams can't go and make it a really, really fun race for

not only a wildcar spot, but also the division. I want to see more than one central team make the playoffs. I'm sick of one of them getting in in like a midfest and then just getting, knocked out. I want to see more than one of these teams because I think they're really exciting and they have a lot of fun, exciting young players. But if you ask me right now which team I believe in the most, maybe it's because I'm riding the hot hand a little bit. But the Cubs just looked really impressive, man. And they absolutely dumpstered the Reds in game two and game three. They put up 36 runs in two games. But then that last game was really impressive too because they didn't have

that crazy offensive output. And Jameson Tyone, who's finding his form again, gives them a quality start that they needed. And that's how they take three or four. That's their formula. So the Reds, they're lucky to get out with that first game. They beat Stroman, but I think not adding to the rotation, even in a small degree at the deadline, is really going going down the stretch. I do while we're in the NL, I think standing wise, I will do this. The Wild Card currently is the San Francisco Giants are in by two and a half games. Top seed. The Phillies are in by a game. The Reds are currently your three seed in the wild card. The fish are a half game out.

The snakes are a game and a half out. The Cubbies are two games out. And the only other kind of lurking team, the Padres are four out. Yeah. That's seven and a half. I've seen them blow seven with 17 to go. So it can happen.

Just saying. I guess. And, you know, when we get to the ALE, we get to the ALE, the wild card there is, I think we're in a good spot with the wild cards right now. I know. And I partially agree with.

Jimmy, because it depends how this finishes, that you don't want to, if the race for that last wild card spot becomes whoever gets 84, you're in. Yeah, I don't love that. I fully get that. In both leagues, we've got enough teams going for it that it feels like, you know, an 88 win season isn't nothing to like... I think it might be you've got to win 90 to get in. That's the number you'd love to throw out there. I feel with all these teams and how much everyone has to play that that in my head feels tough, that would be sick. Yeah. Like a 90-win team is at least this year, for sure, it seems like you got to be good to get in this year. Totally. We need a larger sample size before we start making like decisions about the format. I will. You did say Midfest

before. If we said the team's fighting for the final wild-curd spot in the NL were Cincinnati, Miami, in Arizona and Chicago, we would have said, whoa. Maybe we didn't expand it. If you said that, we weren't going to call that a midfest? Yeah. No, it's awesome, man. It's been really, really fun to watch. It's made it easier for me to, as a Mets fan, kind of accept,

or 2023, not our year, but it's made it easier to just pick up a random game at night and watch it because almost all of the games on schedule have some sort of playoff implication now. And some people are purists and they don't love that, but I just think it's better for the regular season of baseball. I'm interested to see where it lands. And, you know, the other thing that that's truly more important than that is how is it going to affect playoffs? Because I know last year we did a whole, you know, if you play in the first three games, does that give you an advantage?

Like, you know, the Phillies went from, it was Phillies Cardinals, right? Those were the road team. Philly or Cardinals defense let them down the curse of the Phillies. How crazy is that ninth inning? Nolan Aeronado. Helsley in the eighth. Hey, Cardinals fans. Adding to your season.

The last NL series that I think I want to talk a little ball about, why don't talk about my nationals more? You got to talk Philly, Miami. You got to talk Philly, Miami. And I'll honestly kick it to you because you've seen a lot of these teams this year. And I can give the same Philly Miami speech that's like, Philly so talented and you don't want that I'm in the play. Miami, they got pitching.

Is the line I'm going to figure out? Phillies take three out of four. Yeah. Hello, Phil's. The game the Marlins win is in 12 innings, survival match. Yeah. Otherwise, these are pretty close games.

These are pretty low-scoring games. We see another debut, Michael Lorenzen. Yeah, big one. Eight innings pitch, two earn runs. He's been on a bit of a heater. And again, for Phillies, we liked that because they didn't necessarily need a one. They had guys in their rotation that, you know,

it seemed like the price lined up right for Lorenzen and, you know, what, could that guy be a bullpen guy come October? Could he throw a start for you? I don't know. I guess with these two teams, Jolly, what have you seen this year, whether it's, you know, watching these teams play the Mets or just people are still obviously more skeptical of the Phillies or of the Marlins than the Phillies. Phillies went to the World Series last year, Marlins.

Yeah. So what I'll say is that on paper, these matchups should be really fun because you think of one team as the pitching team and one team is the team that banks. But the funny thing about the Phillies, man, is that I feel like a lot of their success this year has been from their pitching staff because they just haven't gotten super consistent great performances from this lineup that should be like a top five lineup. And obviously, the center of that is unfortunately, Trey Turner, our friend is just he's having a tough year.

He had a tough game in game three, which was the one that they dropped. But when you look up and down this Philly's lineup, man, you still got seven above league average hitters, and then they add Lorenzen to this rotation with Taiwan Walker, who leads the league and wins. I don't know if wins your thing, if you put that in your cup of tea, but he leads the league and wins that means something.

Where he come from? Whoa, that's tea. That's toxic. You got that foul? That's a foul. I got a lecture before the episode. Non-shooting. I'm just saying, that's a foul.

That's tea. And Lorenzen comes in, balls out gives them eight innings they desperately need because their bullpen's been used a ton recently. They're 34 and 18 since June 2nd. It's the second best record in Major League. Like at the end of the day. Circle that.

Like, Phillies are winning a lot of close games, but they're winning them, and that's the most important part. They haven't had 100% of Bryce Harper, but he's been giving them clutch hits when they need it, and that's just what he does. Castiano's had a great year, slumped a little bit,

then came up with a huge hit. They're finding ways to get it done. One guy I want to highlight, and it's a Dave Dombrowski quote, because I thought it was really interesting. The Phillies have pulled a lot of these guys from outside with money to build this team. But one guy they developed who's been raking is Johann Rojas. And Dave Domboski said in any trade, he is off the table.

We're not trading him. We like what we see from him. And that's pretty substantial to me. He's hitting 3.46 since being promoted. And he's another one of these outfielder's that has come up. Is that shots fired at Alec Baum? No, sir. Are we having a Bowman right now?

Hey, Bome's having a good year. Best hitting. with runners in scoring position since Chooch, did I see that on the sheet? I think I did. Nice stat, though. I have a friend who named their dog Chooch.

That's a good dog name. Good dog name, good baseball player nickname, not a great human name. Okay. I would eliminate it from the running. Didn't it ask for the hot takes? Sorry. Josh Bell, four for five in his first game

with the Marlins. That was cool. Homeering with Jazz. Fun series, man. Really fun series. Circle the Phillies winning a lot of game stats. Yeah. second best record since June 2nd.

It's August. That feels like a number come. If you keep up that pace, things are going to be very interesting. Jazz Chisholm's back for the Marlins. They retool the middle of that lineup with Burger and Bell. And yeah, it's a team that I think sneaky, a lot of baseball fans are rooting for. Like, it's, you know, it's Miami. It used to be Jeter.

Okay. And then he left and they're good. It's sad. That's kind of weird. It's sad on the air. Miami's really fun. I'm going to interrupt that a little bit. I mean, Burger and Bell, you can sell a shirt with that for sure if they start to go and bang.

Arise, still hitting 380, by the way, in case anyone's still keeping track of that. But Dela Cruz, they got him in a trade a couple years ago, I think, for, like, Yini Garcia. He's turned into a real player for them as well. And it's the rotation, man. Lazzardo's having a great year, Braxton Garrett. And I want to put a little finger on San Diego. Alcantra. Last two starts. 17 innings, one earned run.

Turning the corner. If they're going to go and make this run and complete it, he's got to be Sandy, and that's kind of what it's looking like right now. Brewers, I'm sorry you played the Nats. Padres, same with the Rockies, although Gary Sanchez. Crazy game there, too. Don't let that guy play. If the Rockies ever signed Gary Sanchez, just penciling 40 homers.

Where do you think Gary's OPS would rank on the Yankees right now? to the American League I was toxic Yeah that's you know I remember the time I'm a charge I was looking at Gary I was looking at Gary's answer's war the other day

And he would have been top five on the Yankees I knew you were on that page already on that I knew you knew the answer that's why I asked But he can't catch Except the guy who's going to win the Cy Young this year In The American League The series we're going to start off with

Is the Baltimore Orioleon And the Toronto Blue Jays, and this has some fun facts tied to it as the Orioles take three out of four. It ends with a J-Flare debut. Could be some stuff on him later. The Blue Jays win that third game, which it's always, again, the ebbs and flows of a series. Orioles win the first two.

Second games are a blowout. They put up a big number, 13 spot. Jays win that third game, and it's like, okay, four games set. We could win two. We're good. We're back to neutral. Jay Flair drops it on him. Ryan Mountcastle has a big series,

who I thought that was a guy they were going to trade. He just had a bout with vertigo, and now he's back, and he has a couple three-plus hit days. Okay. He was like out of their lineup, and they didn't skip a beat, really. The other thing here that jumped out

that was a Daltonian stat, eight and two. Yeah. The Orioles are eight and two against the Blue Jays this year. isn't Oakland you know this isn't cleaning up where you got to clean up like

I don't know I sometimes I will admit the Yankee fandom kicks in with the Blue Jays because they had the popcorn thing and their fans on the internet sometimes can come in a little hot you can't go 8 and 2 against the birds this year all due respect

all due respect to the Orioles because they can and they have and they're awesome but the Blue Jays for what your goals were this year Eight and two to the Orioles. Can't do that. I mean, it's even larger than that. It's eight and 23 in their own division, too.

And these are the games you got to win, especially with less division games on your schedule than ever before. And got to give some love to the O's, because have they failed any test that has come their way of this season? Because I can't recall any big series that they've lost. They've been the best team in ball for basically a month now, and it doesn't look that they're going to slow down anytime soon. And the one substantial addition that they get at the deadline comes out,

there and wins a series for them in his first start and his fastball is at 97 the fastest it's been in two years that's the definition of you guys talking about jack's wearing too much and getting some juice and i also want to give some love to hianjongen ryu came back uh made his first start off the injury les he had Tommy john last year one of my favorite players so very happy he's back and healthy um but you want to talk about your ritch springer comes back to so i forgot about that you know bobbashette goes out and we'll we'll get some timeline stuff on that. But, yeah, you know, it's, think about that.

If you told Blue Jays fans, like, Rew and Springer come back, you know, those are two of their first big free agent splashes. Like, they kind of started this entire thing, if you think about it. Whoa. But you want to talk about some Orioles, some Orioles love. I mean, last year, one of my favorite jokes with Kevin, our socials guy, was Jordan Lyles, just eaten up innings for the O's. He was the Eerie.

Now they have four innings eaters. They have four guys with over 110 innings pitches here. I don't know the numbers on how many teams have that right now, but I'm not going to assume it's a large number. And at the center of that is our guy Gibby and Braddish as well. Braddish, Dallnett of Great Studies. Pitch six or more innings in each of his past seven starts, eight of his past nine. And when you have this absolutely lethal one, two, at the end of your bullpen,

if you can get seven good innings from your starter, you should be winning every game that you get that. And that's like, you know, you think back to that Royals bullpen, that was their formula, get five or six from your starter, and then just shut things down at the end. That can work for this Orioles team that also bangs way harder than that Royals team did. It's going to be interesting to see where the innings are on a lot of those guys come year end. And hopefully Jay Flair can take some of that heat, and he will, and he did. You might hear more about him later. And, yeah, I know we've talked about him a lot, but, you know, Gunner Henderson changed the whole complex of that.

lineup a little bit and they've they got options in that lineup and they didn't for jack flaredity they didn't sacrifice anything they didn't sacrifice any part of this five-year window um that man they uh you're right they pass every test for some because they don't have the top end starter we don't give them the respect they deserve like if they traded for verlander we go oh my god the orio this is this a year let's cut that out a little bit because they've Jake, I got one last thing. They're kind of dominating the ALE East right now. Seven games between the O's and Js played in Toronto.

The Blue Jays have won one of those games. Take care of your business, Bob. At home. Speaking of taking care of your business, the Yankees hosted the raise for three games. The race took two out of three. The Yankees' offense was sleeping for a lot of these games. Don't let the two runs in game two fool you.

They were right at the end there. It wasn't full. Stanton pinch it for ICF. Worst pinch hitter in baseball. Statistically. Dude's meant to play full games. It's only a few. Are we doing this now?

Are we doing you? Me and Davis and Coach Boone, we've done this already. And honestly, honestly, Jolly, I don't want to dive into the series, not as a sad Yankees fan, but as a good team,

one, two out of three, against last place team. I mean, that can, if you, if you erase the name Yankees, I would skip this series and I, in a way we should. But I'll, I'd like, I'd like a tight minute of Ray's thoughts from you. I mean, maybe one Yankees burn at the end. I won't, I won't burn the Yankees because they, it looks like they're finally turning a corner. I don't think they're back.

You think they're back. Yankees are back, Jolly O'Live. I think they had a really bad deadline. Make one of those Twitter quote things. And they're kind of just relying on them guys. Yankees are back, Jali Lov. You could do that. The raise though. I mean, Tyler Glassnauss, he's so big for them, man.

I mean, it's very rare that we've seen him on the field. He was pitcher of the month, I think. Yeah. Okay. There's a formula there. But he looked basically unhittable in his start against the Yankees. I mean, he's just spectacular when he's right. And hopefully he stays right for the long term.

But when you go against the raise and the rays were giving you their one through three, they gave you Glassnow, Eflin, and McClanahan. It's tough to even pick up one win there, in my opinion. opinion. And if they find themselves as a wildcard team, like if the Orioles finish this run and they win the East, I think the race are still in a really good spot, man. I mean, they have a good track record with these wild card games. They have this dynamic one, two, three, when you think of them as like a bullpen oriented team, they have the starters now to really just beat anybody in that three game set. And it's the same formula as it's been. The guys that are no names that you've never heard of

are just having career years. Yandi Diaz has a 152 OPS plus. 152. Yeah, man. That's ridiculous, man. It's just, there's only so much you can say without being repetitive about the raise, and it's just the fact that they have the best front office in baseball, and they find ways to get the utmost value out of all of their guys, and it showed big time in the series.

That's a volley trade. Yeah. That one was pretty sneaky, huh? That's a real number four, man. That's some teams number two. They, uh, that's arguably one of the biggest trades. I mean, Manzardo was the biggest prospect. I mean, Savale's a good starter.

Great starting. If you want more talk on that, there's a couple of talking Yanks episodes you may want to listen to it. I have never gotten more comments from people about our interviewing with Boone, because he was disappointed in me. You guys interviewer in Boone? Go check that out. That's cool. Like the manager?

Mariners take two out of three from the Red Sox. Mariners win the bread game. Obviously the Sox win the Bayo game in the middle, undefeated this year. This was interesting when I opened the standings this morning because I'll be honest, I've obviously been a tough place with our Yankees and, you know, seeing them two and a half games out of the wild card is like, okay, you know, maybe Yankee fans do suck.

Maybe we're crazy overreactionary, like, you know, a good week or two, and the Yankees are back in the dance, and then I'll believe in Cole Rodon and anything, maybe not Rodon yet. They have the same exact record as the Seattle Mariners. Yeah. who sold off a little bit, 57 and 52. They're two and a half games back.

Trev, they're the team that he's been getting caught up on recently, and I'll give Trev some kudos when he gets hung up on a team. I don't know. He's got a decent little track record of being like, they're different than what their record says, and they were supposed to be this year. And now I'm not going to open it up yet, because Texas and Houston go out and sweep.

So that's what's going on in the Yale West right now. Seattle is six-back in the West. There's a lot more daunting numbers out there than that, or what that could be in a little bit. So that ended up being bigger picture, and I don't know what you have on this series, or if you want to taste the mariner's. I want to put some lime in that drink.

I want to put a little bit of squeeze, some lemon in there, because the Seattle Mariners have the second easiest strength of schedule left. they've got six against the A's. They've got seven against the Royals. They've got three against the Rocks. Seven against the Royals? Seven games against the Royals. 13 games against the A's and the Royals.

That might not matter to some people. That matters to me, man. Because if you can rip off a nine and four. If they rip off a nine and four, you're looking at a team that's 10 games over 500 deep into the season. That is substantial. And that's low, man. That's a low number, to be completely honest.

This series was a battle of teams that I'm kind of mad at for not going harder at this deadline. The Mariners, they did their thing. Depoto loves to trade. I think they shed some fat for sure, but I think they needed a little bit, man. They think they needed a little bit of juice because they've had really inconsistent starting pitching from their younger guys like Wu and Miller, and you can't put so much on their top three there. But they sold Seawalt, which really, really shocked me, man. I know some people expected it, but I didn't see it coming. They got a good return for him, in my opinion, but that's, that felt like a piece they kind of needed in big games going down the stretch, but they showed out this

series. They had the best record in July at 17 and 9. They're closer in the West now. And J-Rod is the big thing there because he's got a little on-base street going now 27 games. I shouldn't call it little. He needs to go. I don't know if you've seen the leverage stats from him this season, but he's come up in a lot of big spots this year. He hasn't come through in a ton of them, especially at home. If they can get him to return to that MVP caliber level and they have this really easy schedule going forward and guys like Thai France can bounce back and stuff like that and they get Kelnik back who was really good

for them too. They moved on from Wong. And they moved on from Wong and they pivoted there. There's no reason why this team can't make it. And you know who's at the center of things, Jake? Your fucking guy, J.P. Crawford. Cal Rally. Yeah, man. They were I had people

send me the receipts this weekend of like, I was like, you know, I think the Mariners can give Houston an honest run for their money. They were, one of my, like, potential takes was they, they could be next in the AL, like, very much compared to the, you know, the Blue Jays were kind of supposed to be next, or the Orioles, what kind of timeline were they on and they're looking like it, but six games back in the division, two months to play isn't, with that schedule? Take two out of three every time.

You know, the bad news with that, if I do ever get more Yankee hope, that's just another, actually, and this is a perfect time, I mentioned some of the wild card. standings there. Tampa is currently in five and a half games up. Yeah. Um, chasing the Orioles now. Houston is two games into the wild card. Okay. Makes some sense. Sure. Toronto is your last team in right now, 60 and 50. Boston, two games back. Yankees a half game back of them. Same with the Mariners. And the Angels are 56 and 54. That's, uh, that's something. Let's be careful, Halos. Let's be careful halos. As I mentioned,

Houston swept the Guardians. That's tough with, you know, Savali out of town. And I don't know. I don't know. Gosh, Bell,

Seguera, Sigura gets cut. I don't know, guard dogs. Sneaky hate the way you guys run your team. Ranger sweep the white socks. That's,

you know, not same as same as same in a little bit. You know, Scher doesn't have the best debut, doesn't. Give some equality start. Had a bad first.

sending rounded it out. I don't think he had his best stuff. 37 pitches in the first. That's tough. To grind back. That's pretty impressive. So, um, Mariners are joining the party, huh?

They, they just feel like a fun team to talk about. I mean, we got to talk about John Cox is back. Framber too, you know? You're going to hear about him in a minute. Oh, that's nice. So that's the good news for all my people in a funky town,

City where the top drop, Kelsey Wingert's in town. We love that. Let's see what the, Interleague has for us before we start moving to some of the other fun stuff. Well, here you go. And it's brought to by Factor Bing Bong. Factor meal.

Yeah, man. It's a different thing. This is more on the go. This is throw it in the microwave. Get yourself some good food. I had there, was it like a cheddar broccoli chicken the other day. It works. I'll be honest.

I was a little skeptie. And I don't like saying that word. I was a little skeptical. I was like, hey, you know, I'm getting a little older. I'm early 30s. Sure. You know, I'm about to hit that second Longoria peak. But, you know, in my 30s, like, should I be doing microwave?

With these, yes. Factors fresh, never frozen. That's part of the difference. And it's two minutes. Poke some holes on the top. Put it in the microwave. Go pet your dog for a minute and a half. Wash your hands.

Open it back up and then let it eat. I lived off a week for factor meals. And I was skeptical I could do that. And I did. So you can head to factormeals.com slash talking 50. Use code talking 50. 50. 50. Factormeals.com slash talking 50.

Click the link in the description. And if you go, get the creamy Parmesan chicken. Yeah. Very good. You're a fan. CPC. That sounds up my alley. Yeah.

Oh. Let's do a tight IL as we're coming up against. So we've got to give the room to Chris Roe. and you and me again and you again because Treves out on a lake in Minnesota. That's fine. With a baseball reference litany of, you know, dogers out there. The great state could fill. Like even like a courtesy invite would have been nice.

I'll get there. I'll get the after party. Angels and Braves. Big picture on the Braves doesn't change at all, if I'm being honest. Gialito has a second outing. He gets touched up. a little bit in this one. I don't know.

I mean, it's two out of three. Braves are really good. Halos, you're just walking that tight wire act because don't drop below 500. Don't get out of the wild card race because then it's... Then the LOL Halo jokes are going to come out, and I'll be honest.

I told people at the start of the season, I'm not going to buy into this team until they prove me wrong. I've hit that point with the franchise. Totally. And like Jimmy said, and it's genuine, like, I want to root for this. I want to see Otani and Trout in playoff games.

Like, are you kidding me? I want to support a team that added at the deadline. Totally. So I don't want to overreact to a Braves team that Matt Olson's going to hit 50 homers this year, casual. Ronald Cooney Jr. is going to win the MVP, casual. Maybe Freddie Freeman. Spencer Strider is going to break some sort of strikeout record, casual.

So I guess outside of any of that. I mean, I've been a big schedule watch guy this entire podcast. Sorry if you hate that. Upcoming for your Los Angeles Angeles. Four at home against the Mariners. Big series? Three at home against the Giants who we just gave a ton of love to.

Then they go on the road, three at Houston, three at Texas. And then three at home against the race. All in a row for like 15 games. At the end of that stretch, I think we're going to know exactly what we're dealing with with this Angels team, who has shown. That they can pull out a big win and get a big hit. And I think they realized that they needed some reinforcements to really try and make this run. Because if they didn't, I would have argued that they should sell fully, like fire sale.

And there's a lot to like. There's a lot to not like with this rotation, with this lineup up and down. But these are the series that you got to try and gut out. I know it's a tough ask to beat these praves because they are a wagon, as many, many people say. Pretty much everyone on the roster has at least 10 home runs. and you're going up against Spencer Strider. But, you know, times winding down for these angels who have had to kind of load manage show hay a little bit with how much they've been asking for him. I think, you know, I want to know what a key factor is here, man.

I think they need to get Trout back and they need to have Trout. I could see that. I could see him mattering. Two months because we've never seen Trout in the heat of a playoff race. That'd be fun, right? That's a storyline, man. If you add an MVP to your lineup out of nowhere with all the other additions between, you know, know, Mickey Moniac in the all season,

Eduardo Escobar, Mustakis, are the guys they had at the deadline. That is an X factor for me. And every other team that's in front of them feels like they have some form of X factor that is going to help give them some sort of advantage going down. The Angels need it, man.

I'm the Hope guy. I'm a big Hope guy. There's hope in Seattle. Real hope in Seattle. You might have mentioned things being in front of people. I don't know. Texas Rangers have looked pretty darn good this year.

Darn too. Potent is the word of years. Added Matt Scher. Added some things. Houston Astros, nobody's going to bet against only for their last six years of success. Yeah.

I just, where do they fit in? I don't know, man. Where do they fit in? And we didn't even talk about the ALEs. It's probably going to have at least three of these playoff spots. All positive run differential, all of that. Yeah, man. It's a tough year to buy in.

But you had to. But I'll, Mike Trout, two siggy. Sigi months? Why not? Let's make a memory before they trade them to the Yankees or Philly. Twins St. Louis. Pablo Lopez.

Pablo, congrats. My ask of the twins is figure it out because you're going to make the playoffs by default. I'm out on the twins. You should be, but they're going to be in the playoffs. They just made me not care. I cared a little bit. No, I don't care at all. I'm mad at them.

Eat it, Treve. Dodgers, Oakland A's. That series is. couple like 30 years from being good. Ahmed Rosario made his debut. Hit a home run. We love that. Miggy Rojas.

Yes. Had like nine years between Dodger homers or something. That's a little fun fact. Awesome clip. Royals Mets. They played this for you? That happened? I don't know.

Royal six in a row. It's about hottest team in baseball. Drew Waters? Does that do anything for you? No. And Pirates, Tigers. Go, Errod, go. Win the Siong.

Why not? Good for him. Let's go on to the second half of the show, and I'm good. We have a little more time than I thought that we can digest this a little bit. And we are going to stand out performance. Stand out performance. Brought to you by Don Seeley.

And the Jam Warehouse. Hell yeah. A floor ball when it comes out. Playoff time. Baggage first banner. Really bank stuff. People are hoping. I have a banner.

Anyways, standout performance, Jolly, I will kick off to you. Okay. Who would you like to talk out as your standout performer? A lot to love here. I mean, I think one of the guys I definitely want to highlight Cody Bellinger. You know, we gave him some love earlier in the episode. And I've been all on the Cubs. I'm not even like a big Cubs guy.

But the fact that they're making it abundantly clear that he is a part of their future plan and they kept him at the deadline and then he went out and he bawled out in this Red series. But you're not giving it to him. I'm not. Okay. Great. Good standouts. I'm going to give it to his teammate.

His new teammate. Former Cub and current Cub now. Jay Mercant. Wow. Okay. Tasty. Eight for nine is a cub already? Not bad.

Let's talk about it. Not the number one player that comes to the tip of your tongue at all. But, God. The Cubs add it smart. Have a season. Have an ad. Yeah. I mean, kudos to the national.

because I think they did what every team in the seller should do. Give some guys a little bit of dough. See what they can do. Flip them at the deadline. Build your franchise that way. And Condolario, I think, is the best case example of it from the last off season. He came in. He was the best hitter for the Nationals all season.

Say Candelario again. Condolario? Candelario? I don't know. You go softer on the A in the middle than I think, but I don't mind it. Okay. Sounds cool. I'm not trying to offend anybody here.

Eight hits in his first couple games with the Cubs. back home after a brief cup of coffee, and I think 16. Did he get a ring for that? You're going there? I'm going there. Let's see Condolario's ring. Great ad for them. I just think that was like a missing piece in their lineup.

And I love everything the Cubs are doing right now. And he's at the center of it. There's a lot of Cubs eligible. You put up 20 and 16. Toceman had some days. Tom's guy. The Sockman. Dan's Bay is back.

Two home or day. numbers on the year now. And you know what's funny? I saw the graphic going around the internet. I'm a sneaky big Dansby defender. Yeah. Because he was supposed to not be able to play a good shortstop because he doesn't have the arm strength. Won the gold glove. He's still doing fine out there. And go look at, you know, there's a meme going around of all the big contract boys at shortstop that went out that was, look at Xander's stats, look at Trey Turner's stats. Look at Correa's stats. Look at Javier's stats. And here's Danesby, you know, the last shortstop of the big. Crop.

Yeah. I think his number's on the year now. He's got like an 800 OPS. Pretty nice. Jake, you want to play a game real quick? No, Jolly. You don't... Yeah, I will.

Give me a percentile guess on Dansby-Swanson, out above average. 101. 100. You're pretty close. He's been one of the best fielders in baseball. I don't know. Not everything is a metric.

Yep. Sometimes. But I think that dude can still play shortstop. That's my hot take. It's like his best season. Everyone else has been Snoop doggie dog. How many guys last few years, like first year of a new contract, new team, new division? No idea.

He's an exact same OPS Plus. Crazy. He's been who they wanted him to be. And Ball's looking like it's starting to go at Wrigley. It's summertime at Wrigley. It's summertime at Riggily. InHap. I'm so, I'm very happy to sign the extension, but God, how much we would have covered Ian Hap's free agency.

It would have been out of control. We'd been able to talk to him, too. It would have been dis- Maybe that's why he did it. We would have, like, tortured him. He would have gotten texted way too much. Join the Yankees, man. I wouldn't have said that.

You like pinstriped uniforms. Oh, Uncle Steve, they're on the bag. My standout performer. You're so tea right now. That was mid-t. I took a shot at the Yankees before I took a shot at the Metropolitan. That was low-te. Give me your stand.

We're a low-ty-pop. Special tea. Uh, hey. Framber Valdez. Let's see. I'm going to read the stat line. Nine innings pitch. Zero hits.

Zero earned runs. One walk, seven Ks. That's known in the biz as a no-hitter. Chris Rose did predict it. That was a old man, Rosie was all over that one. Just had a feeling, huh? Framber Valdez.

People in Yankee land, now one of the narratives has gone to, like, is Cole going to win his Cy Young? And it's going to be a year the Yankees stink. And Cole's got a, you know, he's got a path. He's got a pretty clean shot at it. Don't sleep on Framber. That's all I'm saying. His numbers are going to end up there.

Only because they end up there every year. And this guy finished fifth in the Cy Young last year. He doesn't get pretty simple formula. He does not give up home runs. He led the league in that last year. Just a little, hey, here. Here's a no-hitter. His second complete game shut out this year.

Yeah. Those lead the American League. And yeah, man, that's, he... I don't want to say a bonus piece for the Astros, because if you follow baseball, you obviously know that's not true. But Astros, you mention a lot of other guys before you get to Old Framber, who's just one of the best, if not the best left-handed pitcher in baseball.

I mean... M. Freed. The story of it is awesome, too, because he comes off his worst month. Sure. statistically kind of takes himself out of that front runner-sought-young position. The Astros ad Verlander,

their old ace, who was always getting the game one ball over Framber. Frammer says, fuck that. I'm going to go out there and throw no-header my very next start, which is, bodes well for Astros fans. At night. Because they look like they're cooking up something special over there once again. You like this, J.B?

Next week, we update our pedals. Oh, yeah. Framber's the raining A.L. winner. Second and AO starting pitching war. First, Kevin Gossman. Fun.

Punching tickets. Kevin Gossman. Garrette Kohl, third. Punching tickets. There's your three. We'll let the pedals do the voting. I feel like they can't be doing that while we're recording. I disagree.

I mean, if they let out some Ed Beechy. Jimmy's running around now. We'll talk over it, especially in this next segment, my favorite segment of the show. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. J'all, I mean, this has been Treves Lane, because I let him taste guys.

So I don't know. You think you can handle in Fuego? I don't. I can handle it. Okay. Okay. Ooh, stacked Fuego. Am I ripping this whole thing?

Rip it. Hard and fast. I'm giving some love to Ryan Mountcastle first off. 11 for 13 in the series against the Jays. He's got a career of 1,000 OPS against the Blue Jays. He loves facing that team. Thank you very much, Dalt, for that one. Trade for him, Blue Jays.

Do a little Willie Adamas there. That's defense. Do a little Willie Adamas there. Danesby Swanson, we just gave him a ton of love. Five for 15. Four home runs in the series against Cincinnati. Why not? Your guy, Ryan McMahon, future Yankee.

Five for 11. Why not? 6 RBI's two walks. a 1.5er in that series against the Padres. Juan Soto this past week, have you heard of him? He's been pretty good. 12 for 25, three bombs, eight RBIs, a 1.4 OPS. He's leading the Padres and homers, RBIs, runs, an OPS,

four stats that I consider pretty important to a degree. Wander Franco loves the Yankee Stadium, hit an absolute bomb into second deck. He went eight for 23, three bombs, and that's set with four RBIs. And Alec Bone, had a Bowman. Had a bowman. I thought the Phillies didn't develop guys, Charlie.

We're moving on. We're moving on, 11 for 24. I never said that either, which is crazy that you're just putting that quote my mouth. That's nuts. Make a quote. Hitting 366 with RISP runners in scoring position. Good for him. Tyler Glass now.

We tasted him a little bit earlier this episode. 14 innings, two earnings, two wins in his past two starts. Sandy Alcantra already gave you the rundown there. 17 innings, one ernie. That's good. His last two. It's good for baseball. It's good for the Marlins, good for baseball.

And how about this? I did not have this in my book at all. So good on you. Enel de Los Santos, a name I am not familiar with, for the Cleveland in their pen, six in the third innings, one hit, two walks, no earnings, six strikeouts. Everyone else in Cleveland.

Get your MLB to show up with Eniel de Los Santos or beat them in the DS round every year. I just lost the entire Guardians fans. Yeah, they're out. I have two major, major notes on this. Tyler Glass now, slid into my DMs last night. Okay.

Not a big deal. He sent me the clip of Aaron Boone sitting Indian style. Whoa. Chris. And he was just like, this is so fucking fun. I was like, yeah, man,

that's like our number one. That's our number one clip of the year. There was a world where we almost didn't post that either, which is crazy. We just didn't even know. what that was. It was risky. Oh, and then. You can't be opening windows. And let me chop down Joe's McFly's Yankees really quick.

The biggest eyewash I've seen, I'm not the biggest eyewash guy. I kind of love eyewash. Okay. Kevin Keirmeyer jumping for balls, he doesn't have to. I'm all about it. Give me a little bit of eyewash. The Yankees sent their top scout to the San Diego Padres games. Hey, you want to-it-sell.

You want to know the scouting report on So. Hall of Fame. Yeah. Lefty. Kind of feels like I could have done that for them. That's eyewash. That's eyewash. Great.

Great job, Jolly. Come to the Yanks, man. Come to the Yanks. Great job, Jolly. Ryan McMahon. One of the rings. Great job, Jolly. The I.L.

Holy smokes, darling. James. Straight upgrade from Bologna. Rain, rain, go away. That's what I'm a hate to say. My pocket is. Talking baseball fans. You know, it could have been a,

could have been a different clip he sent you in the last week. Yeah. Woof. Jess was in Florida. Disappointed in me. Oh, that clip. That clip.

It would have surprised me if he sent it because we didn't tweet it. Placed on the IL. Mike Yistremski. Yeah. For those San Francisco Giants. Brendan Donovan, I didn't like that. You want to watch him play. Boba Schett.

Scary. Leading the A.L. and hits again, need to get him back quick so he can continue to do that. Griff Canning. for your HALOs Ben lively Trev's guy. Stro Show, like we mentioned. Shane McClanahan. Back to the aisle.

Second half, woes. Kind of been a thing for me. Anthony Rizzo on the IL with concussion syndromes from May 28th. Reminder, it's August. Joe Ryan for Treves' twins. I hate that. Hate that. What I do like is coming back, Jazz Chisham would love for him to get in the mix this season.

No rehab, right? That's crazy. Don't need it. Neither did Judge. Judge. Same injury. Name injury. Brendan Rogers. Sure. Let's go rocks. Enjoy something. Cinderguard for Cleveland. One start back to the IL. AJ Mint, or excuse me, he's off the aisle. I was, I get nervous in the

aisle segment. It's terrifying. Were you back like you mentioned? Minter in that Braves bullpen. They need some help. Tommy Edmund is back. Key Brian Hayes. Corey Seeger, important. Are you aware of the season that Corey Seeger's having? And it looks like the last guy in bold on this sheet to mention was Wade Miley. He's one dotting. For the Brewers. Not sure why that got in bold. I think Dalton said, who I think you said his career is over?

Is that what you said to me? I did not. I heard rumors around the office, Dalt. Congrats to Wade Miley for being back. Let's finish it off the way to start the weekend. Awards. Jolly, I'll give you the nod. That's really sweet to you.

Thank you. It's my first award ever. Yeah. I'm not going to go for anything big time. I just want to highlight a guy that I think, you know, it warmed my heart to see this guy go out there, take the ball in what I consider a big game and ball out for his new team. It's the first day of school award.

Yes. You know, you're leaving home. Big day. For the first time. New outfit. Seven years, you know? You've been home for that long time and you're going somewhere else. You're going north of the border for your first day as well,

might I add. And Jack Flaherty had some juice going. Now, I know I've listened to, I think, one or two maybe episodes of talking baseball ever. I'm not huge on it for you guys specifically. But I've heard that you guys like Jack Flaherty. You know, your fans of him, your friends with him. He's the first pitcher to go six or more innings with one run allowed or fewer in

his Orioles debut since 2017. They haven't gotten that kind of electric debut in six years. and Jack Flaherty was really the only guy they added of any substantial, you know, notability. And he comes out there and he balls out against a really, really good Blue Jays lineup. Like that's like Max Scherzer got to ease in against, you know, a lowly White Sox line. He did his job. I'm sorry, I'm saying it, whatever.

It was a nice first goal for him. Jack Flaherty, you're throwing him into the fire. You say, hey, we won two or three. We want to win this series. Keep our streak going. Be the best team in baseball. We got you to do that job. And he went out there and his fastball had more life than it did in the past

21 starts. Interesting. That's crazy. 97 on the gun. If they can have him go like that for the rest of the season, and you combine that with your Dean Kramer, your Braddish, your Kyle Gibson. Maybe they don't need a Verlander.

Maybe they don't need a Scherzer. Maybe they can go without that name value ace. And Jack Flaherty could be that guy, man. He could really be that guy. I liked Flaherty at the deadline. And yeah, there is some bias there. Treves friends with him. We did a live show with him a while.

back. And people are right. Like, you know, a normal starting pitcher, some of his starts in the past year where he had like six walks. You know, we'd probably deliver that message differently. Adrenaline is real. Yep. A fresh start is real.

And yeah, it's something to track as it goes. Because, you know, it could have been, the juices are flown. Like he said, Cardinals baseball is all he knew that, you know, maybe this is one off and the stuff coming up. Maybe he's drinking the Kool-Aid down there. Changes the scenery are always real. Even going for. From a good culture, like the Cardinals historically, I haven't, this year.

Whether you're, you know, changing companies in, you know, quote-unquote real life or whatever it is. Like, that stuff matters. I mean, Camden Yards was packed out last weekend. That's going to be a nice first time. Imagine, imagine this. Let me take you on a journey. Take me there. The Cardinals Clubhouse this year.

I told us before the show we had to limit our usage of the word toxic. I haven't said it. I'm proud. Cardinals locker room, think about the baseballism. It's like, you know, one day at a time and we got to win tomorrow, they hit a point where those were out. Yeah. And it's a locker room of dudes.

And Nolan Aronado, we saw his kind of, he had a weird presser where he was just talking and, like, clearly frustrated and not knowing what's going on. Guys that are used to success. The Cardinals thought they were a World Series team this year. It was done by June. Yeah. The vibes in that locker room were in a bad place. Yaddy's gone.

Wayno was out for a chunk of it. Heard some, not from like Jack. Me and Jack aren't that close. Sometimes we'll DM about a big sports game or something. We're not on that level. Replied to some stories. Heard the things are, you know, and just picture it. World Series aspirations, we're out.

I mean, I've lived that season for another team. I can picture. The clubhouse vibes are weird to go to the Orioles, where we're doing the sprinkler. Things couldn't be better. that also matters. And Jake, at 27 years old, he's like a veteran on this team, which is insane because it's a team full of 21 to 23 year olds who are all just bawling out in basically their first or second year. He's a leader now.

And I think that's a fun new role for him that he's probably never had before when he was the young guy with all of the Cardinals vets. Particularly among the pitching staff. Exactly. Did it in her ship in. It's really cool. I'm excited for him. phrase. Yeah, and I liked him.

I had him going to me in Dalt Snakes because I liked, he could give you two, his high end potential is high. Yeah. His low end potential is kind of low if he lost it for a little bit. He has games where he just doesn't have it. You can also butter knife his stats that since May he's been a lot better. Like, I think he's been a mid-3-ERA guy since made. We know just injuries have been a part of his story last few years.

He knows where the body's at, where the energy. It's just a perfect match for me. It's a big left field. Make them hit it out there. It's an out. Austin Hayes diving play to help save that first game. What would we have said about the three out of four? Right.

Would it just been a split? Yep. Little things matter. Right. Two teams split. Game of inches. Game split. Two good teams.

My last final word. Man, this goes to another guy I like. I'll admit there's a little bit of bias here, and I'll admit he's making me look good in a way. I'm giving the fasted dieting award. A team we talked about a lot this episode. It's going to Jameson Tyone, a guy who's been on this program,

a guy that was on the Yankees for a little bit. The Yankees were playing the Cubs, and I went on Cubs radio, and they were like, hey, buddy, like, what's going on with Tyone? Because this is tough to watch. ERA and the 6 is. He gets a taste of the best medicine, the New York Yankees' office.

defense goes eight shutpiece kind of dominant nasty um and he has now gone on a heater yeah before that start i told them i was like tyone's weird because he'll go through bad stretches and he doesn't have pitch ninja stuff like his best pitch iMO is a four seamer high in the zone at like 94 but it's a deceptive pitch not the most giffable pitcher no um but you know he throws he throws a lot of pitches there's a pitch mix stuff there and he gets a little streaky and now his last four starts, 25.1 innings pitched to the tune of a 178 ERA. So, you know, we've talked about stealing Stroman a lot. Hendricks joined that rotation.

Tyone had been bad. Has he turned the corner and got it going? To get really hot in baseball, you kind of need everything to click. Like, that's one of the secrets. Like, you need the rotation to give you an effort. You need the offense to go, and you need to do it on the back end. The Cubs are kind of getting it every which way right now, and that's why they're winning a lot of ball games.

And I'm happy for James and Thailand. Like him and Taiwan Walker were very similar free agents to me. Like that's flip a coin and see what happens. Taiwan Walker has been balling out. You mentioned leading the NL and wins? Jamison Tion had been bad. And that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth. The fans, it's hard to like that guy.

Of course. So I'm happy for JMO, and he's been a big part of the Cubs turnaround 4 and O in those starts. That helps. I'm going to give you two stats. Two stats. That really stand out to me. Those stats. The Cubs went 0 and 8 in his first 8 starts.

It's not great. That is the definition of net negative in your first year of this new free agent. And you mentioned he doesn't have that electric stuff, that overpowering pitching ninja stuff. These past four starts where he's been great. Four strikeouts, four strikeouts, five and four. But the thing is, Cubs defense behind him really, really good. Dancy Swanson, arguably the best fielding shortstop in the game right now. Nico Horner at second base.

Ian Hap in the outfield. That's a formula, and it could have been working all season. I'm glad that it's working now, because that as a bonus piece to steal Stroman and Hendricks, that's a formidable playoff rotation. Tyone's really important to this team, and he's having an awesome month. Jolly Olive, you're having an awesome month.

Thanks, Ben. Wall and play. Champs with two of them right now, BBD, Jolly. Allie. Here's Bannered up. Thank you for, for, filling in. I know you'll be doing that in baseball. Today in a second, I've got to start getting the body loose. It takes a...

First game. Takes a while to get this thing in a gear now. I'm excited to watch you play. I miss this last year. I am too. I'm excited to watch you play. Sometimes I have moments. Sometimes I don't, so I'm a little scared. Hey, thank you everyone again. Talking baseball, we've been in a... We've been in the summer spin cycle for a little bit. All-Star game deadline. I think we're getting back to a little bit of routine. I think next Friday I'm out.

But is your team out? Jake sucks. Jake sucks. We'll see you guys. We love you so much. Go baseball. John, you want to come in next Friday? Ah!

If you'll have me. Champs. The champs are here. One's in that box. One's here. Once in that box. One might be there soon.