Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Everyone's LIMPING to the Finish Line | 715

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. You're either clinching or you're clenched right now. Some teams are limping and some teams are dong bonging it. Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Present to you by Seekkeke. Jake Storelli, Trevor Plouf, David Mendelsohn. That's right.

All three names. Actually right. It's that time of year. It's September 18th. We are two weeks away from playoff baseball. And the really good team seemed to be golf clapping or enjoying a couple adult beverages as they're about to enjoy these last couple weeks. Everybody else feels like they're drowning in just trying to survive and hoping that the tiebreaker goes their way on October 1st. Trev, how are you doing my man?

I know you had a good weekend, but tell me a little more about it. Poppy. Yeah. Beavers. I'm so excited to be talking ball with you guys with our beautiful community out there on the internet. And maybe in your car, some people might be listening on the podcast version. I did have a good weekend. Shout out my guy, Jimmy Clossan, Notre Dame, quarterback, Bears, Panthers,

probably another team I'm forgetting right now. He had a pickleball neon turn. I'm sure you saw it if he followed me on IG. Lots of posts going on. A lot of fun, but I don't care about that anymore because I'm hot right now. I got to get this off my chest straight off the rip right now. These tiebreakers that we got in Major League Baseball.

Now, I'm going to try to explain him real quick, and then I'm going to get on my rant. first one is head-to-head record. I don't mind that. That's fine. I have some quips with it because you might play one team six times. The other team, you might play him 16 times, so that's just weird. And then it goes to interdivision. You might play in the A.O. Central or you might play in the NOS.

There's a lot of different things going on here. I don't like them. I don't understand the standings. I think it's ridiculous that MLB has two full pages on their website trying to explain the scenarios instead of just the standings. So I was doing research this morning. I wake up at five in the morning to prep for this show. And I'm going back and forth,

back and forth trying to figure out exactly where everyone stands. And I gave up. I gave up because there's some of these things aren't even set, Jake. It's September 18th. And there's still tiebreakers to be set. So like maybe you're a freak. And you like this. And if you do, I'm happy for you.

But dude, my brain hurts because I don't know what's happening during the baseball season on September 18th. I'm trying to figure out who's going to be in the playoffs. Who's going to match up against two? Who needs to do what? And dude, it's like when I took calculus my senior year, AP calculus. Oh, Stanford. I'd already signed to go to USC. Stanford, man.

Stanford wanted me. Right. I walked into my guidance counselor's office after the first day. This is a true story. And I said, I'm not taking calculus. It took me a whole page to do one problem. I don't want. We're just the numbers.

Dropped it. I'm dropping these freaking tiebreaker rules. Catch me on the last day of the season. And then we'll be all set. You know, sneaky, one of our biggest episodes at the end of last year was we dropped our rules committee conversation. And maybe we have to dip our toe back in there, Trev.

Because something about it doesn't feel right. Like the 163 felt kind of sicko mode, but it felt right. Yeah. That, yeah. It was a good sick. I don't know what the solution is. I don't know if it's straight up head to head

and teams play an out amount of games against each other. I don't know perfectly where it lies. But, yeah, I mean, I am one of those, you mentioned sickos. that like to live that way. There's part of me that does like to live that way. Like I, like, let's just play good ball and see who's there at the end. But yeah, I mean, some of these, it does feel like a team is going to get hurt on an interdivision

tiebreaker and we're all going to be sitting there like, that's why they're not in. They have the same exact record. Maybe they even split the head to head and now they're not in the dance. There's a lot of that going on right now, Jake. That's what I'm saying. I Feels like if Split head to hedge

Bring back 163 It's fun You can market it Sell ads I mean I was I was already looking at the playoff schedule Like we're going into November this year So like if we're doing that

Fuck it Let's go up to Thanksgiving Like let's just stretch it out Let's own it NBA's mid till Christmas Let's just dominate Trev I'm I'm glad

we both kind of tore it up this weekend. East Coast, West Coast. I had a wedding in Ocean City, Maryland. I think that's a town you'd like. It was bike week. So it was like, you know, choppers galore, like, you know, real guys, guys, like myself. Excuse me?

Like, you did not fit in right there. The town has a signature drink, orange crush. They squeeze a literal full orange in front of you and just pour it with vodka. I think they make some bubbles in there, too. But it's just a power play. The whole town's a power play.

And I do fit in. I did see what you were doing on the West Coast and, God, I think we would have enjoyed it, enjoyed it each way. And some really good baseball. The Diamondbacks, my Diamondbacks and your Cubs, the Blue Jays finding life after death. A lot of these teams are limping so hard that they might have to go on LinkedIn and find some more help.

You know, the Orioles called up their guy, Kirstad. He's handsome. LinkedIn, you're probably on there. I am. I am. I think you probably are. Trev will get you on there. I need a page.

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That's LinkedIn.com slash talking to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Royce Lewis, a top 10 player in the AL Central. Let's do some American League. Because Trevor, it was lining up to be the series we were going to talk a lot about. The Tampa Bay Rays hunting down the Baltimore Orioles and they win the first two games. Luke Rayley, tie-breaking Homer in the seventh inning, has the raise win game one.

They come back the next night. Led Zeflin. One hit through seven innings, Harold Ramirez, Escargo, Mani Margo. Ray's win again. They're coming for the A.L. East Crown. But how about the kid? Greyrod drops it on him. Eight innings.

Shut Peaks, No Walks, 7Ks, Gunner Henderson, your guy Aaron Hicks. And Baltimore comes and they win the final game two. To split the four game set, keep that distance between them and the race for now. Because, man, after that second game, kind of scary times. Orioles clinch, we got the dong bong out. GM Mike Elias is on it. one of the better videos on the internet from this weekend, and I look at a lot of internet videos.

You know what I'm saying? Twins! They take three out of four from the White Sox. Trev, we're putting up Big Boy runs. A couple 10-2 finals in those first couple games with Kenta Maeda. Ooh, I like when he's pitching seven innings to earn runs. Royce Lewis, Eddie Julian. All your guys, Trev.

Ryan Jeffers. Everyone's doing it. White Sox win that third game in a 7-6 tight one, but Sonny Gray, seven-inning shutout. Cy Young votes, Trev? I think big time. I think big time for Sunny. God, we'll talk some twins.

Eh, maybe not. Blue Jays, they sweep the Red Sox with some dramatic games. Bayo and Barrios teed off in that first one. Burrios shuts. down the socks. They shut them out in that game. Then we're playing 13 innings in that second one. Are you killing? Killing me? Wow. Whitmerfield with the game winning RBI single in the 13th. Ladito went Dong piece. Speaking to Dong piece, how about Maddie Chapman with the walkoff in that final game? He hits it off the wall. Whittier of Brayu almost gets there. He does not. After Devers opposite field,

Roics before that. Blue Jays, we were wondering if they hit their rock bottom or if there was more coming, they come back and they sweep the Red Sox. Okay, speaking of the Texas Rangers that just gave the Blue Jays the business and we're like, they're back on track, right? No, they get swept by the guard dogs? Or? Lucas Gialito seven innings shut piece adding to that free agency contract. Josh Naylor has a bunch of big games in this series. So does Bo Nailer. They're brothers. The Guardians win that two-one middle game and then we get another Rangers kind of. I don't want to say quit game, but they lose nine to two. Rangers, what is you doing, baby? Speaking of Treb, the Houston Astros have sneaky been pissing away some series. They drop two out of

three to the Kansas City Royals. The Kansas City Royals. Fortitude in that first game. Zach Granky in the opener roll, yelling at the umpire. Bobby Witt Jr. Trey Turner's little bro. He's putting up big games.

Luckily, Framber comes out in that final game. Jose at Brayu throwing his glove at the ball. That was a fun video. They salvage the series, I guess, but Houston, come on, man. In your final series, the Tigers sweep the Angels. Otani clears out the locker, my goodness. The Angels ensure another under 500 season.

Go Tigers Go. That is what happened in the American League. Poppy, you are just the best. I got the American League standings here, although as you heard from my rant, I don't really know what's going on. But I'll start in the ALEs as Baltimore and Tampa Bay both clinched postseason bursts, which is amazing.

Baltimore 93 and 56 are two games up on Tampa, but have the tiebreakers. There are actually three games up on Tampa. Tampa sits at 92 and 59. Toronto 83 and 67. The Yankees 76 and 74. Jimmy still thinks you guys got a chance. No, it's over now?

No, with yesterday's loss, that ended. Yesterday's lost town is over. Okay. The delusion is gone. It was always delusion. You can rest easy now. Boston, 74 and 76. In the Central, the twins are running away with it.

79 and 71. There's seven games up on Cleveland, who is 72 and 78. Tigers. 70 and 79. We don't need to read the rest of those standings, White Sox, Royals. Yikes. In the West.

And this one's going to be a doozy. and I don't know the tiebreakers in this one because I gave up. Houston, 84 and 66, they're one and a half games up on Texas, who got swept. They're 82 and 67. Seattle gets swept.

They're 81 and 68. Both those teams had chances to make up ground and they didn't do it. Angels, yikes, Oakland, yikes. Now in the wild card. Tampa Bay, they got one of them. They got something. They're nine games up.

Toronto holds the second wild card now. They're half a game up on Texas. And Seattle's right there, one game behind for the third wildcard spot. It's all coming down to it. All these tiebreaker scenarios are there. I don't know when we should list these off. Maybe Bieber should just put a picture of that page up on the screen because it's too much to talk about.

Trevor Standings, always the highlight of the episode. The Astros, the three teams still competing for the AL West and the wild card. They dropped two out of three to the Royals, one of if not the worst team in baseball this year, and they had the best weekend of those three teams. They gained a game. It's a stupid, stupid sport sometimes.

It's crazy, man. Trevor, one of the series we do need to discuss, and it's one of the talking points of the American League, and it's Cron Pod, so it's perfect. Ray's Orioles. Oh, baby. Rays come in. They win the first two games.

I think they tie it up for the A.L. East Crown. And then Baltimore comes back. They win the next two. They keep their lead at two games, although that's very much in striking distance. But two games they had to have and they win. And man, you know, it's that time of year. We're getting clinched pictures. videos. There's a cool picture of Clayton Kirshaw. The video of Mike Elias doing the dong bong

was pretty sick. Trev, this Orioles franchise, I will say, and I haven't, this is something I have not said a lot this year. I say spoiled Yankee fans a lot. Because, you know, this, this is our, this season is one of our worst years in 30 years. And I, you know, we're still above 500 right now. Like, we don't fully appreciate what that means. The wedding I went to this weekend, Father of the bride, big Orioles fan. Okay. Leans into my buddy who got married, Jack, congrats Jack and Katie.

Yankees guy. So the dad's speech, he's like, oh, you know, we love Jack. He's a great guy. We welcome him to the family. His only flaw is a Yankees fan. And, you know. That tore the room up. Oh, yeah.

And he's, you know, the first place, Orioles. And then there was like three more Yankees jabs. I was like, hey, Kai. You know, why don't we tighten it up a little bit? But the reason that happens, the Yankees are more or less good every year. They've been over 500 since 93 or whatever it is. The Orioles have three playoff appearances in the last 25 years. I mean, that's crazy.

So the kids who are enjoying it, and good for them, they should be enjoying it. I guess do you want to go series or do you want to go each of these teams? Let's just talk about this series I mean this was this was huge Now going into it I'm going to try to explain What was going on In the head-to-head matchup

The Orioles just needed to win one of these games To have the tiebreaker So like I said in my standings report The two game lead is actually a three game lead Because they have the tiebreaker Right Now the raise if they swept this series They would have been

Two games up with the tiebreaker So it could have been a complete different scenario. First game goes off. Luke Rayleigh, 3-1 Cutter, goes dead central, 19th Homer. It's everything the Rays want to do. Their bullpen is

ridiculous. They retired 12 straight. Like just not even a chance for the birds to do anything. So they take game one. Cursed Head pinch hit debut. Makes his major league debut in that game. Awesome. That's the young

Orioles prospect that got called up. Game two, all rays. Eflin's nasty, bullpen finishes it off again, no runs, five of six outs or Ks. They had a four run six to put the game away. Rays are feeling just absolutely great. Just an incredible first two games for then. Orioles fans have to be feeling a little bit of pressure. And then game three comes around.

And our guy, Grayson Rodriguez, Hold on one second. My Siri on my... Oh, no. Our guy, Grayson Rodriguez, comes in. And it's the best start he's had in a crucial time as a big leager. He's figured some stuff out. He was absolutely nasty, dude.

100 bills. Yeah. At the top of the zone. Then he's got the big curb all these starts over your head, but you kind of have to respect it because it drops down into it. you have the change up working. Everything's going. I mean, eight innings pitched,

seven Ks, no runs. And the bats come alive too. Gunner Henderson, I got the stats up. He goes yard. He puts about 4-0 in the second. Tide the glass down if those are curbel. It's at 428 feet, 105 miles per hour off the bat.

This guy's a nut, dude. Yeah. Like the Orioles, they have some really, really special young talent I don't know if you saw there's a bunch of memes going on about the Orioles calling up all their prospects and how they look like a bunch of like South Carolina frat boys just walking through the door. That was one of the funnier things I saw because they all kind of have that like long frat boy hair. Even Jackson Hollidays got it. Yeah. Oh, are we going to see him soon?

That's pretty funny. Okay, hold on then. Game four. Right. Four games set. And that was a back and forth one. I mean, this one had so much action in it. Tristan, is it gray or cray?

Gray, right? Gray. Tristan Gray of the Reyes gets his first hit, then hits a homer, him in Betancourt, make it 3-1 in the 8th, and then Abby Rushman hits the homer, and then there's a call overturned at home plate, and then Adam Frazier?

Yeah. It's the job done. He's on the Orioles? Just kidding, Adam, we know where you're at. That was an old-school talking, fault joke. Mateo scores Ramirez gets the job done. Rushman comes through in the 10th. And then

in the 11th, after Tampa doesn't score, the Orioles do something that I think every fan base wants their team to do in extras, and they just don't ever do it really? He punts. First sackbunt of his career.

He gets the job done. Moll and sack fly game over. Split the series. Like a crazy, crazy game. and I love that it ended on fundamental execution of a sackbunt and a sack fly. Like how hilarious is that? I want to highlight some dudes quick. Grayson Rodriguez called up to start the year.

We're excited. He gets knocked around a little bit, right? Gets big leagueed. Get sent down. Comes back. Eleven starts a 259 ERA. Grayson Rodriguez for half the year. has been a guy in the rotation.

Adam Fraser, like you mentioned, just blocks a ball down the line off of that Ray's bullpen, which, man, I've been screaming the past couple episodes about the Ray's pen, and I'm like, they're back, they're back. Like, this is part of the reason the rays have been gaining on the Orioles. Just an example. Sean Armstrong, who's in their pen, Uh, baseball or fan graphs list Sean Armstrong as the sixth man in their bullpen.

His stats on the year, 34 games, 47.2 innings. He is a 0.76 ERA. Yum. That's just a, that's just a piece for them. That's, hey, we might need some outs in the fifth kid. Why don't you get in there? Now that's not exactly true. But, and man, my guy Fairbanks is out there.

He is just an absolute menace to deal with on the mound. And all that being said, the Orioles, man, they just believe. Like, I know that sounds corny, but, like, when Hayes gets on and Matteo comes in to run and Adam Frazier's up, the whole building believes. And, like, that matters in sports because right now, if my yanks are putting together, a rally, if the socks are trying to fight back, then they don't really believe, if we're being honest. The Orioles believe they can do anything, and they can, and they have, and they have.

They have. And that's maybe the one most important tiebreaker, and I know the tiebreakers have been daunting to you, but the fact that it is a three-game lead, although it looks like a two-game lead as we head into these final two weeks, that's massive. I mean, we're running out of games. So that's massive. And the birds who, man, I feel like every team at a different point this year has let us down.

The Orioles haven't. Ooh, I like that. Let me see their record month to month. Are they one of those teams that's been good? I mean, I know the race had their bad month. I mean, there's a time when the Dodgers let everyone be in first place for a little bit. I get a 13 and 11 June, which is, if that's your worst. That's their worst month.

Unbursed by a lot. 667, 571, 542, 654, 667, 625. That's what you want, people. Gibby's a fucking media icon, you know. Are they going to win 100 games? So how many games left? Okay, wow, 149 so far, so 13 games left. to win seven of 13.

They're going to win 100 games. Yeah. Holy Stikes. It's crazy. It's crazy. And it was, you know, the conversation before the season was, you know, they took a leap last year. The pitching's kind of thin. You know, I don't know if they're going to, they made a big old leap.

Hand up. I mean, I said all those things. Yeah. Same. I think a lot of people did I don't know one person out there was like hey that that started pitching staff is going to go this year but it's done plenty

you know you add some arms to eat some innings but then the biggest thing has been Grayson Rodriguez and you know there's been a couple of guys I mean Braddish has been phenomenal and what Tyler Wells did and they're just getting the job done man and it really is funny because it has coincided with Adley Rushman coming to the big leagues

and typically you don't you don't give credit to one person for turning things around but it's it's been him obviously the emergence of Gunner and and Grayson and you know the bullpen

and what they were able to do but it's been Adley I mean he's I don't know if he's captain but he's like a captain yeah there's there's something to have in a face right like it it starts with Adley whether you're going

back to, you know, I think the Cubs with Rizzo, like Rizzo was kind of the face. You know, the first guy that kind of gets called up who's like symbolic of that next step of baseball. And it's multiplied by being a catcher that, you know, Adley's in on everything they do. And you mentioned kind of that Southern Fratbrough vibe. Like, Adleys got that with the professionalism of handling a staff and doing the work day and day out. while also having the hair and not being shy around the dong bong. Like, it's the, it's perfect for them. God, Ray's new stadium?

Oh, yeah, I saw that in St. Pete. They should stay there. I don't know. I don't know. Actually, they probably should be in Tampa. Yeah, I think everyone's saying the opposite. Yeah, they should be in Tampa. It's really hard to get there.

I like St. Pete. That's why I said it. It's like a beautiful, kind of like a sleepy town, but that's not exactly what you want when you're building a major league baseball. stadiums. Hard to get there from Tampa. Yeah, there's just one bridge and that's, it gets difficult.

Aren't they building another bridge? That would be great. I'm down for that. More bridges. And that was talking bridges. I have Dalt prep in that topic because we should have more information for that by the midweek.

No idea how they build bridges over the water. Oh, yeah, that's always one of mine. Tunnels? I learned about it when I took a, cruise to see the Statue of Liberty. They were talking about the Brooklyn Bridge. Right. And they were sending people down to the bottom,

underwater in these little metal coffins, basically. And they were getting vertigo or like they messed people up. So I don't know, man. I'm kind of over bridges, although I love them. Drove over a couple big bridges this weekend. It's always kind of like, wow, we did this. Crazy. They just work, huh?

Anything you want to close off? there's a lot of Orioles there. Do you need anything on the Rays? No, I mean, they both clinch. So now it's just kind of getting ready for what series or if you're going to have, you know, the Rays. Baltimore holds their destiny. You know, just go win some games.

But I don't know if I'm ready to call the ALE East over yet. I don't know. You can't. You can't yet. There's too much logic. And as we're about to get into everything else that's going around the league, we're like a bad sneeze away from being like,

oh, Tampa's, Tampa's got it. Because literally last weekend we were saying like, Blue Jays, whoa, man, like, could this be a final punch? Not even close. Not even close. And it's kind of- Yeah, they were out of the wild card. Now they're in the second wild card.

So I think we hit the rest of the series pretty quickly. If you want anything on Twins, White Sox, I'll be honest, I was not glued to the screen on that one. a dominating performance by the twins and their offense and honestly dude I know I'm a twins fan uh twins alum for people that forget about it

this team's got something special dude okay we talk about the young guys from all these other teams and we just like sit here and talk like they're going to change the world the twins have this too and I don't think anybody really realizes it it's like it's not a bigger it's not as big a story as some of these other teams, whether that's because they're in the AL Central or I don't know.

But like, go look at the numbers, dude. Like, Royce Lewis is a freaking star. Like a star amongst stars. Like, this guy is going to be someone we're going to be talking about for, like, years to come. Like, the twins are going to lock him up this offseason if he wants. And he's going to be the face of the twins, even with Carlos Correa there. even with Byron Bucks in there. Royce Lewis is like taking over, dude.

Yeah, I mentioned it briefly. I unfortunately am sucked into parts of Twins' Twitter because I'm close friends with a top 10 third baseman for them all time. And there is a lot of Royce Lewis is the blank listed player in the AL Central. top 10 Top 5? I don't, you know, Royce Lewis is a new name for a lot of baseball fans

but what he's doing and there's a little bit of A.L. Central talk in there. But Royce Lewis has an argument he's one of the best players in that division. He's one of the best players in the game right now, bro. I'm not kidding. First time I've looked at what he's done full season numbers. That's very real.

Yes. and don't forget, this guy's a one-one pick. Like, there's a pedigree. He got hurt. Like, his development got stalled. COVID, a couple ACLs. Like, when you got Rod Carew saying, you're special. Rod Currude does not say that about everything.

He never said, I was special. No. Never said you were special. No. He doesn't throw around words like that because he's seen a lot. He's one of the best heads of all time. He looks at this dude and says he's got something special. And if he watched the games at all and see, like, crunch time, clutch,

this guy's got four grand slams this year. Like, I know that that's kind of circumstantial, and I not mean anything in the long run, but like some of them have been at huge moments, and he just, like, he lives for it. Like, you know, one of those guys that, like, you just want up there in the moment? And I know that goes and comes it goes.

Right. But it sure looks like he wants to be up there, and that counts for something. But 915 OPS on the year, uh, 210 at bat's 51 RBI. I know that comes. that's a lot of those grand slams there.

But this guy, he's a stud. So that's it for the twins. I mean, they are looking good. The pitching staff is going. You mentioned Sunny Gray, some other good starts in this series as well. Like, they're about as ready for the playoffs as you can be as a team.

Like, they're getting healthy. Like, there's talks to Byron coming back. I don't know what his role is going to be when he comes back, which is a crazy thing to say. Treb, but, you know. I'll say some nice things. One. You know, Rod Carew may not have called us special,

but I think Bert Blyleven did. You know, I'm not sure how he was talking about it. Man, your twins second and starting pitching ERA. That can speak. And the other thing, you know, there's a lot of jokes about the twins' recent playoff history. With the way all of these other teams are just limping, like a Texas team that's right now they would play Texas

in Minnesota for three games. I don't know, man. I know we take our jabs at Minnesota whenever we, you know, joshing around a little bit. I would take the twins over Texas right now. So they might find themselves in a nice little spot this October, which normally the conversation is pretty different. I think the only other AL series, and it's more so a feeling,

Toronto sweeps the Red Sox, Toronto coming off, getting swept by Texas in four games, and how far did that bury them? Are they going to, is this the end of this, you know, this Toronto team? They come back, they sweep the Red Sox. As of today, they're back. They are the five seed. Never mind the sixth seed. They are the five seed.

They handle their business and they have a couple clutch hits and they change the whole energy around their team. Chapman delivers after getting a pinch hit for the night before. Obviously, Whitmerfield has the walk off as well. Some really good pitching performances there. I think you're probably going to hear about one in the standout performances. Blue Jays needed this in the worst way, dude. the problem is again like the teams that are around them so uh Texas and Seattle is who they're

fighting for the last two spots so right now they're in the they're in the second wild card spot Texas behind them who's a half game behind them they don't hold the tiebreaker against the Texas holds a tiebreaker against the Blue Jays Seattle um they went three and three against but interdivision record means something Seattle's running away with that. So Seattle has the tiebreaker there. So this half game that they're up, they're actually not up.

Any games. They're tied with Seattle or maybe a half, I don't know. They're not actually in the playoffs right now. Really, if you think about it. Tiebreaker Trev is my favorite, Trev. I don't get it, dude. I don't understand. It's like, maybe

it's just me and I'll shut up about it. But I just, my brain is messed right now because the two teams behind them have the tiebreaker. So if they're tied with them, they're just not in the playoffs. But they took care of business, man. Like getting swept to sweeping, that's not an easy thing to do to just flip the script like that. So yeah, this is, it's all going to come down to the last day. Which is awesome, but confusing.

Man, uh, socks have lost 10 of their last 12. Devers hit the time. home run in the last inning, but then Blue Jays answer back. And, uh, yeah, man, it's, um, hey, Blue Jays, I've been calling you out a little bit, and it's go time. And hey, Vlad showed up, you know, he hit a homer, reach base five times on Saturday, hit a homer in the first game as well. So like, I like that. I like that, Blue Jays.

Show me a little more. Um, because, God, I can believe in that team big time. Um, Other things of note, you know, Rangers, don't need to dig too much for you, you got swept. Big reason why you didn't hit, you didn't score. Seeger Simeon Lowe, 5 for 31. I mean, that's, they didn't score in this series

against the guard dogs. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the same things that have plagued the Rangers all season long that Rangers fans won't shut up about, happen. You know, the bullpen's been a massive issue for them. Without Scherzer, they, you know, they get beat up. I think it's a Bradford that has to start that game in Scherzer stead. And he, you know, three in his pitch, six runs. I think he started out okay,

but then gets hit around. Bullpen comes in. Can't do anything there either. So it's, I said, they can get away with the bullpen if guys get hot and the offense produces the way the offense can produce. And, you know, it didn't happen this game. They scored six runs total in the three games. And, you know, that's some of its baseball. Bochi has some quotes about that saying, you know, as good as we looked in Toronto,

as bad as we looked here. And sometimes you've got to tip your cap. Like, I just saw Cleveland play against the twins. They're pitching is going to be nasty, dude. Like the young guys they have, Gavin Williams is a freaking problem. And Giolito had one. one of his best starts of the year. So sometimes you do just get beat like that.

Like I think that there's most teams, you know, this could happen to any team, essentially, when you go up against that starting pitching. But, you know, the bullpen malfunctioning again and the offense not producing, you know, those are worrisome signs. You know, you're a Rangers fan. You've gone through so much. You sign Jacob de Grom, he gets hurt. You go out and make a run at the deadline, and Scherzer gets hurt.

And your bullpen's been bad, but here you are still in the, the hunt. Still holding a wild card spot right now. And let's see what they do. Hold on. Let me get this up, guys. Oh, boy. The Rangers have seven games remaining against the Mariners. But

that might decide things. They're five and one already against them. So that would mean, gosh, I do math now. If they went two of those seven, they have the tiebreak. Okay. Don't have it against the Astros. Who else do we have to even worry?

though. Yeah, I mean, they're still in the hunt for the AO West. Right. But the Ashos have the tiebreaker for that. If the Texas Rangers or Seattle or one of those three teams is going to skip the wild card round. Like Seattle's about to play Oakland. If they sweep them, they could be poised to still win the West. Or any of these teams can miss the playoffs.

It's if you like chaos, anarchy, we're there. We're there. It's crazy. It's crazy, man. There's so much going on right now. But not a great time for the Rangers to flounder. As the Astros haven't exactly been playing great ball. I believe they're five and five in their last 10. You know, you could make up some, you can make up some games there.

Then, you know, you and the Mariners both get swept. Astros just lost series to the athletics and the Royals, back to back. Mm-hmm. They play Baltimore. And then they have a Mariners series. It's going to be crazy. Trev, no, it's not crazy. Again, some Nutrafol.

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I do enjoy NutraFal a lot. It's a very good shampoo. I've been using it every day for like a month. Well, did you enjoy the Colorado Rockies, taking three out of four from the John Giants. Giants. What is you doing, baby? The rock pile in Colorado.

They've done this a couple series now. They took the first three. The game the Giants salvaged 1110 on the final day. Welcome to Coorsfield. Hey, Zeke Tovar, finish off a really nice rookie year from a young shorts up. Nolan Jones is always breaking some records. And Chase Anderson had a really nice. start for the Rockies.

Brandon Crawford, Tyro Estrada, Jock Peterson. Everyone had to get involved in that last day for them to win one game at Corse Field. My goodness. The Chicago Cubs went to the desert and they got the noise. D-backs, 6-4-76 and 6-2

on Sunday night baseball. We play for rings in the desert. How about my guy, Gabriel Moreno, 4 for 4 in the first game? Two for four with a walkoff in the second game. And then on that final day, Cattel Marte with the big home run on Sunday night baseball. We went 13 innings in that middle game. Evan Longoria, the slide heard round the world. Longest game of the season.

Cubbies, every team they've been playing has been coming from. for their throat. They've been fending them off until now. The N.O. Wildcard just get that much more messy because the Marlin swept the Braves. You heard that right. Fish with arms. But it's actually fish with runs. Trev, you're my math guy.

I think they scored 36 runs in three games. I'd have to double check the math on that. But nine... You crushed it, Poppy. 11-5-16-2. Jazz Chisham, the first ever Marlin with back-to-back Grand Slam. There's a fact for you. Jake, how's your burger?

Why don't you eat up and I'll tell you? He continues to mash baseball. O'Rise had a two-homer day. Hey, Braves kind of don't care. Marlins really do. They are back completely in the mix. Matt Olson, 52 homers. My goodness.

My goodness. Brewers take two out of three from the Nats, and that's obvious. They win the first two games, and they're making some business decisions. They just sent down Joey Weimer, one of the lead freshman kind of personalities on that team. They take the first two.

Natitude, they win the final game in extras. A little Corbyn, Patrick Corbyn, versus Brandon Woodruff pitching dual. Mark Kana, of that homer. That was sick. Reds take two out of three from the Mets. Reds are starting to win a couple series.

It felt like they were off the radar. They're back on Spencer Steer, Jonathan India homering in that first game. Mets, they end up taking the final game to salvage the set. And then the Phillies take two out of three from the Cardinals. And that's obvious. It's kind of that time oh year. Castellanos pimped one. Ranger Suarez with a nice start.

Your guy Johann Rojas with a good game there. Goldschmidt and Aeronado in the final game. And that's obvious. Hey, that's what happened in a tight NL, baby. Let's go to Trevor Plu for the standings. With that comes the NL standings. In the NLE East, congratulations to the Braves

as they clinched last week, which is insane. 96 and 53 for the best record. in all of baseball. Philly's 81 and 68, but they are firmly entrenched in a wildcard spot. Miami's surging right now, 78 and 72. The Mets 69 and 80, Washington, 66 and 84.

Milwaukee, running away with the central. They will be popping champagne this week is my prediction. Elimination Games seven. That's the magic number. They are 84 and 65. behind them is the cubbies 78 and 72 Cincinnati 78 and 73 Pittsburgh nice clean 70 and 80 in St. Louis 66 and 83 and if you would have told me that was going to be the situation

at the beginning of the year I would have called you a liar the Dodgers clinched the West because that is what they do beavers I need the standings I need I need the Padres record after they put the crying curing Shah Mimup. Oh. It's a pivotal point in the season. It was, it was.

91 and 57 for the Dodgers. Arizona behind them at 79 and 72. 76 and 74 for the Giants. Just two games above 500 now. Padres, 72 and 78. Colorado Rockies, 56 and 93. In the wild card. Phillies have a three and a half game advantage.

They're in the first wild card. Arizona, a half game up. 79 and 72 against the Cubs and the Marlins who have identical records at 78 and 72, but the Marlins hold the tiebreaker. And then Cincinnati holds a tiebreaker with the Cubs too. They're 78 and 73. So actually the Cubs aren't in the playoffs,

even though they are in the playoffs. And that is, that's the NL standings. I'm sorry for my attitude today. I'm just, my brain hurts. Trevor, thank you. And hey, it's a point of frustration for you. and I understand it. Because it's more chaos than anything we just talked about.

Like I think the AL is still lining us up for a dramatic moment. Like our last team in. The West can still be decided by a couple wins here or there. The National League is a disaster class at the bottom of that wild card. Cubbies, Elf, five. Man, have they put in so much work, and I've given speeches about their run differential

and how they're the outlier, and are they going to make one more run at the Brewers? Now they're in the mess. Trev, I believe if the playoffs happen today, which obviously doesn't make sense in games are in balance, the Cubs would technically be out. I just said. I just said.

The Marlins have that tie break. And the Reds. And the Reds. So, don't know, man, and it's one of those things. It's where does your passion for baseball lie? Like, you know, Jimmy's a pretty firm, like, hey, give me, I want the best of the best. Like, the wild card's gone too far.

I want the players being traded to the best teams. Like, let's cut out some of the riffraff. You know, we could potentially see two teams with negative run differentials in the NL playoffs between my snakes and the fish or the Reds or the Giants or the Giants. or the Giants. And I don't know. You can dream on that, and sometimes that's how you get miracle,

and that's how movies get made, or sometimes that's how you get bad baseball and teams can get embarrassed. So I don't think it's even as much about, like, bad teams sneaking, and, like, the teams at the top might not be as hungry to act, because you don't have to be as good. Like, there's several issues. I think Jimmy and I align on.

Yeah. There's something there. I agree. But Padres were 18 and 15 on crying Kershaw Day. They are 55 and 63 cents. What's the point? Like, hey, scoreboard crew. How are you feeling?

Like, let's like have this be a lesson to all the scoreboard crews. Like, if you're, I don't know if the scoreboard crews watch this show, maybe we can send them this clip. Let's just, like, be positive about our own players. If you want to talk a little bit of smack to the opposing team, I'm for it. But make it, like, funny. Well, no, you got to do the weird silly stuff. Like, the brewers do that.

The brewers put silly fun facts up there. Photoshopping Kershaw's face to the crying, like a crying Kershaw? Like, put some respect on it. And I don't, Padres, by the way, four-game win streak. Moths. God, they're finding different ways to torture their fans. Trev, I mean, honestly, I think the only series that deserves a full discussion,

it's my snakes and your Cubs, baby. Big series down in the desert, and I'll say this, I have a little baseball romantic magic in me. That Evan Longoria slide's going to live forever. he's posting on his Instagram how I loved his Instagram posts it's the reason why you love Evan Longoria so much

I'll dig it up to get some actual verbatim quotes but I don't know Trev we could have something special happening in the desert I love it I mean it's a massive series for the debacks as I mentioned the Cubs hold none of the tiebreakers against any of the teams around them so you know it's going to be an interesting time for them going in knowing that they have to

basically you know they got to get ahead i mean that sounds so stupid to me to say they got to get ahead in the standings but knowing that if you end up tied and you're just out that's got that just weighs on you mentally it's got to not to maybe it's a little bit of motivation there but they've lost, there are two and eight in the last 10, I believe. It's, it's been tough for them. But yes, I mean, this was a great series for the D-Vex. I feel like we should just give them the shine, you know, two, three-run homers in the first game. Give credit to the Cubs for at the ends, you know, hitting some homers in the ninth,

getting seawalled in. Like, that's a victory. In the first game, you're down six-nothing, and then you battle back and you make them bring their clothes in. And you still lose, but you're like, all right, guys, good. We got Seawald in. We said, hey, we can do this against your pen. Let's go, you know, let's go take back this series.

Well, it didn't happen. Shout out to Ian Hap, Sayas Suzuki, Chris Morel. All those homers were nice. But not enough. And then, yes, game two was the Evan Longoria. I mean, that was a great, just a great game. 13 innings, longest game of the year so far. Longo is funny because his speed got expected.

Dansby Swanson steals a hit from I think that was in the first game It's a ball in the hole Dan's he's like way in the hole and throws Longgo out and it's like oh shoot come on Longgo get those feet moving bro up and down up and down up and down and then I mean a head first slide into home just barely beating the throw gets the legs all up a joyous moment down there for the snakes and he's just they're living their best life I'm going to talk about the guy some of the guys I think you're talking about one of them I'm talking about another one

later in the show for the stakes but they I haven't known how to feel about the snakes all season long because I feel like they just have a few things that they do really well

but you know they have they're dynamic or they can be dynamics I mean some of the action going on in this game. Like watching those guys run around

in the outfield catching balls, whether it be, I mean, Alec Thomas is so smooth out there. It's ridiculous. You know, Corbyn Carroll doing his thing. Even Lordeus making some catches out there in left field.

Like, it's fun to watch this team play ball. So they get the sweep. They're entrenched in the second spot now. And their tiebreaker scenario is, I already forgot it, even though I looked it up already. Well, they've killed the

Cubs this year, six and one against the Cubs. So they do not have it against the Marlins. They do not have it against the Phillies, which will probably not come into play. They do have it against the Cubs. They do not have it against the Reds. So like, they're, if I was going to like teams that, like, are messed up by the tiebreaker, is the Cubs number one. And then it's the D-Bex number two.

I think the Reds hold a tiebreaker against. most of these teams. So it's just so confusing to me. We're going to get you there. Well, the Marlins are in the best shape in the tiebreaker scenario. That's what I came up with after doing all the research. A couple things of note. Evan Longoria, by the way, he posts on his Instagram. This is the reason we play the game.

This joy. Being in the playoff race in the last two weeks of the season. Hugging the brothers who I've spent seven months with, putting in countless hours of unseen work. These guys have taken us to the brink of something special. Arizona has been my off-season home for 14 years, but this year it's work and home. It's been amazing to have my family close to me, sleep in my own bed,

and come to work at a place where we're on the edge of doing something we believed, but not many saw it coming. I'm excited for the final push. Let's do it together. I mean, come on. When he signed there, I was like, hey, great for you. You get to play at home and, you know, awesome. And he's like, no, dude, they got some good young guys come up.

And I'm like, dude, everybody says that. Of course they're going to sell that to you. I said, you just want to play close to home. I get it, man. You know, we're getting up there in age long ago. You want to be able to rip your packs of cards and go to sleep in your own bed at night. But hey, maybe he wasn't lying.

Tommy Fam, this one came across the wire. We've done this with Freddie Freeman a couple times this year because we do the whole Freddie Freeman and then we go, oh my God, Andy's got this many stolen. and bases. Tommy Fam, 21 swipes. Athlete. Age 35. Is he 35? Yeah. Yeah. By the way, Longo, if our snakes can keep it going, Longo turns 38 on October 7th. So give me a longo. Give me a Longo birthday playoff game. it always bugs me that like that's like my mentor my role model a guy who I love and he's like six months older than me yeah he should be way older than me

Dalton Dalton throughout because again Dalton who does our stats he's a very genuine snakes fan mine's a little snake oily um Dalton threw out a Jake Taylor cop uh for long go yeah yeah we're talking about potential Hall of Fame or Evan Longoria not Jake Taylor bro I think it was symbolic of his run Specifically, it was in a tweet about that slide. Okay, fine. I know what you're saying now. The bunt.

Trev. I get it. Trev, if you want to do a two-minute bop, I'm kind of good. Like, Giants flunk the dunk a little bit. There are a couple games out now. Miami, vice versa, and we just talked about them. And they are now fully back in the mix with some tiebreakers. And the Red's casually winning series again.

I don't mean to be like a downer on the Marlins Braves series, but talk about catching the Braves at the right time. Travis, you kind of nailed it. They clinched. They got an off day in Miami. They had a great time. A great time. And now like none of these games mean anything to them.

And they mean everything to the Marlins. I'm not saying the Braves didn't show up and play ball because they did. I don't want to take away for the Marlins because they have shut me. up. When I say they don't have enough power, Jake Burger, it's like, I am power. Jazz Chisholm, it's like, I got you, bro, back-to-back games with grand slams. I mean, I just said that Marlins have the best tiebreaker scenario in all of this. Like, that means to me, like, they have the best chance to get in. If they don't screw up, if they don't go on a massive, like, just, just crumble here in

these last 14 games, like, they're going to be in the playoffs. And what have I been saying about this Marlins team for like two years? Like, they're scary because of the starting pitching. Now they got some offensive threats kind of coming around. Like, would it shock you if Jazz Chisholm had big playoff moments? It wouldn't shock me. Not I. Jake Berger.

Yeah. Look at the numbers. 42 games with the White Sox. 306, 362 and 893 OPS. Okay, Kim. Okay, Kim. going to talk about another one of the guys later on the show. I want to give it all the way.

But I just, you can dream upon a Marlins team that has Luis Arias. Ooh, geez, I almost choked on my water. Luisza Ryas in a big situation. You need a knock. Well, I don't know if there's a better guy in the big leagues that you want up there that's going to make contact and give you a knock. Then you got Jazz Chisholm who has a flare for the dramatic.

Jake Berger's having a great year. Josh Bell, you don't think he can hit some homers? Like, they have some guys that can get the job done, man. So as much as I wanted to cast away the Marlins last week, I apologize for that take. I think it was a wrong take. And now they sit and I think they're, if I had to take a guess at which one of the teams,

Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati or Miami, like, has the best chance to be in the postseason is the Marlins right now. I like that Tref how about I rip some IO real quick Well let me There's some other things Okay I'm sorry I just want to go quick Go quick

A lot of stuff happen man A lot of stuff happened Are you talking about Our guy out of the park At all later in the show Excuse me Out of the park Mark Mark Canna

Mark I thought you're talking about Out of the park Mark Adonacio Breer's owner Oh And that was a pretty if there is a segment best videos from this weekend, which we probably should do at John Boy Media.

I like it. Markana's home run into the lights going out. That ain't bad. LED lights have changed everything. Yeah. Our guy Calvin Savage, that's his real name, by the way. He's a professional cricket player. He DM me after he saw Johann Duran's entrance,

you know, the closer for the twins entrance. And I'm like, he's like, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen. This is amazing. I was like, dude, it's all about the lights. The LED lights. Being able to turn the lights on and off and create like that strobe effect changes the game, dude. Like when Kenna hits the homer and he's like, I think he was like thinking about what to do with his bat. He knew he wanted to flip it, but he's like, shoot, I got a lot of time here.

Like I can do anything I want. It's a grand slam. We're playing the nationals. The nationals don't really care. Lights going on and off. he flipped. And let's remember Mark Kanna was one of the first bat flippers. It's bat flipping season, baby

Mark Kana. So I wanted to make sure we talked about that. I don't know. Brewers are running away with the division, dude. They are. Awesome. Awesome for them. Six and a half up. It's over. Breaker gonna win the Central and they've been one of the better run organizations

in the sport the past few years or so. I know I know our normal complaint is go nuclear, but they like what they do and they do it well. I mean, Canna and... Sanana. Carlos Santana. They've been great.

Yeah. Like, those are Brewers and moves, and these ones worked out. I read somewhere, and I haven't watched all the Brewers games, but they were talking about how Santana's been, like, incredible at first base this year. Bebers, I don't know if you want to look up

defensive metrics for Santana, but I saw a tweet saying he's been awesome. is hilarious. First base metrics get a little messy, just like any defensive set, but he's been killing it all year. And yeah, he, um, 70 second percentile out's above average. Pretty beautiful. I don't, I don't know what else. Red's to care of business. They're sitting right there half game out. I mentioned like their scenario is, Phillies do their damn thing. they're kind of, they're so poised to go on a great run.

I just know it, and you know it too. I'm so excited to see this team in the postseason. I really am. That's what they're built for. They believe in it. That's it for me on the NL, Poppy. Let's do some aisle quick. Because the AL West fiasco we've been talking about,

part of that was driven by the Los Angeles Dodgers. You know them pretty well. Well, they swept the Seattle Mariners. Six runs got it done each time. Mariners went down to run each game. Three to one. That middle game, they lost in 11. Dodgers got it done.

Max Muncie, RBI single, and then Chris Taylor drives up the scoreboard. Clayton Kirschoff, four innings and his return to the mound. That's important for October baseball. And like I said, really good picture of him, having some suds enjoying it as the Dodgers clench. And my God, Seattle. I don't know. That whole A.L. West, you guys have had me on the line all year.

It feels like every team's trying to lose me. It's a little dramatic. Ryan Yarborough, friend of the program. Gavin Stone, friend of the program. Fan five and three and a third for his first career, save. How about that? The New York Yankees played the Pittsburgh Pirates. Garikull's homecoming.

He doesn't look great. Yankees win. Yankees win game, too. Glaber Torres is Waldo Cabrera with the series. Pirates win on the final game. Miguel Anduhar, redemption series. Clips rode on off the pole. Nobody cares.

And your Padres, they sweep the athletics. Um, in dramatic fashion. kind of. You know, a lot of big runs. Jose Sugar, Azokar with his first major league home run. Soto is patting his stats with a two-homer day. And that's what happened in the interleague play. And the interleague play was brought to you by Blue Moon. Make sure you grab yourself a Blue Moon. It's almost October. Sneaky, I think my favorite season to have a Blue Moon is October. I think there's that, with a slight chill in the air

and that Valencia orange peel that's my favorite favorite time of year to have some Blue Moon I'll probably be having some on some of the live streams we got coming up you know a couple late nights daddy gets thirsty go to get.bluemoonbier.com

slash baseball. Get Blue Moon delivered to your door. Yes. How nice is that? Yes. Get anything. Blue Moon, are you a Blue Moon can or bottle gun? I kind of like the cans.

If I'm not having it in a glance. And they've actually, they got their Blue Moon lights that are kind of in a skinny can. Sometimes I'll do that if I'm watching my figure. Get. Dot bluemoonbeer.com slash baseball. Click the link in the description. Get yourself some Blue Moon. Trev, any, any I.L.

funny business before we get into the second half? No, I mean, obviously the Mariners, it's tough. Dodgers come into town. They're still handling business. They end up clinching. But you got a salvage one here. The offense did not show up. You know, we were really interested in the Kirby start after, you know,

he mentioned he didn't want to be out there for the seventh inning. I think that got way blown, like way blown out of proportion. Not a great sound bite from him whatsoever. Totally get it. but he actually ends up going only 81 pitches. I actually texted our group chat. You know, because he started off the game, hot.

And I said Kirby's out for blood, man. And then McGee Row happened. He ends up giving up four runs and six innings pitched. So we don't get to see him go out for the seven. So kind of, it's not poetic justice. That's not what I'm talking about.

But all eyes were on that. And, you know, didn't exactly have a great. great line ending the game there. But yeah, the Dodgers are just, they're just good. You're going to hear about one of the Dodgers coming up. We can talk about all these NL teams and, oh, they're looking good, they're so poised for the playoffs and they're doing this.

And there's just the big bag Dodgers there. And they're going to be that because they've been there and they just, they're relentless. They're relentless. I'm going to tell everyone to either A, start playing. and naps or be ready to get tired. Seattle's got their get right Oakland series, three games with Oakland,

off day, and then Texas and Houston. Like this is, I guess for all of the, if you like the wild card, you don't like the wild card, all of that, I mean,

that week of baseball in Seattle, the West teams are going to decide their own fate. Like they are. I know we've gotten caught up in the tiebreakers, The N.O. Wildcard, I can't promise that. I just have no idea how that's going to sort out. One of these teams is going to rightfully win the West in the next couple weeks, and I do like that.

Yeah. I do like that, too. You got, like, an odds on favor. You're just going to easily go Houston here, just because? I don't know. No. 84 and 66 are a game and a half up on Texas, two and a half games up on America. With the game and a half up,

I was actually putting my own money on it at Draft Kings. Houston has to be the favorite. None of these teams have convinced me of anything. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. The only, okay, so the, Asheos hold the tiebreaker against the Rangers. So that one and a half is technically two and a half.

Stay with me here, people. Now, the Mariners, who are two and a half, own, well, yeah, no, they own the tiebreaker against the Astros. So the one and a half, or two and a half, is actually only one and a half. It's going to be nuts. There's three games remaining, like you mentioned,

for the Mariners against the Astros. That's probably going to decide it. Holy Snikes. And no, I don't care about the Yankees, Pittsburgh series. No, no. Or it's cold. He's going to win the Cy Young. I think so.

All the odds are very heavily favored right now. As long as there's no blowout, like just tanks a start, should be fine if he stays the course. Three starts left. Have the innings, have the ERA, have the strikeouts.

Padres, I just wanted to mention. You know, tough, tough year for you guys. Fernando Tatis Jr. has answered all the skeptics. He's answered me. I said, I got to see you, like, return to form being the guy that you were before the suspension. Some people don't like that because, you know, he did it for tape war. I'm like, okay, whatever.

His numbers on the year, although offensively not necessarily where they were. I'm going to give him a little bit of leeway here. Still has 25 homers, 77 Ribbies, 793 OPS, but his defense in the outfield has been incredible. And he's sitting at a 5-6 war season. reason because of it. This guy's values off the charts. If you have a down year offensively like this, because remember he's a 907 career OPS,

if you have a down year offensively like this, but you're still putting up 5.6, 5.6 war, like you're just a good ballplay. Matt Chapman's kind of in the same situation here. Not, I think Tateas overall is better and has better numbers and all these things, but Matt Chapman's going to get paid, even though he hasn't produced crazy offensively

this year after the first month, because his defense holds. So he has a really low or a really high floor, if you will. And that's what Tatis has. An insanely high floor and insanely high ceilings. He's like a modern house that gets built. Stand out performances. Stand out performances.

I am going with my guy from the Dodgers, part-time outfielder for them. Gold Glover, massive contract signed with these Cubs, Jason Hayward. Four for five on Saturday, three doubles. This guy has just, I mean, the turnaround has been incredible since he's come over to the Dodgers. For instance, in 2022,

he slugged 283 on fastballs. He comes to the Dodgers. He's slugging 631 on fastballs. Like, that's the kind of turnaround that you need. 2022 on off-speed pitches, he slugged 286. In 2023, he's slugging 422 on off-speed pitches. So I don't know what's going on, but the Dodgers sure seem to be able to get guys back on track.

I know Rob Van Skoiak is in there in the lab, creating great game plans, simplifying things for guys. You know I love him. You know I've been through his system. I get it. It's not easy to do some of the things he wants you to do, but one thing I will say about the Dodgers and an advantage they have over a lot of different teams

is that that dude, Rob Van Skoyek, can help you get out of a slump quicker than anybody else in the big leagues because he's got a bunch of tricks. And you talk about feels and all this stuff, and some of the new age people say, that's dumb to work on feels. You've got to have this right. It's like,

sometimes when you go up there and you feel like you've never been in the batters box in your entire life, you need the feels. And Van Skoyk's got his every trick in the book. So Jason Hayward,

I mean, it's kind of crazy the turnaround. And I don't think people, like, are really giving it enough credit, the overall numbers on the year for him.

283, 357-508 for an 866. Now I know it's only in 300 at bats, but, dude, he came in as a extra player, bench player, but I believe he came in on a minor league deal. Makes the team puts up numbers like this. It's incredible. So shout out Jason Hayward. Shout out Dodgers and their hitting coaches and everybody.

They're just on a different level, man. Trev, can I tell you something that'll excite you about Jason Hayward? Yeah. He's a free agent. It is a thin pool, especially corner outfielders, especially lefty corner outfielders, especially lefty corner outfielders that can hit and play defense. Jason Hayward, who already has 200 milly in his bank account.

You should have asked me that I would have loved to have guessed. I know he'd signed a big deal, but... I mean, I wouldn't... Don't be surprised if he gets like a one-year... 15? 18? Exactly what I was thinking. Like, yo. It's going to be, it's going to be, how many, eight figures.

It's going to be one year 10 at least. And then some sort of option, whether it's a player option, whether it's a vesting option, all these different things. He hasn't had an OPS in a full season in the eights since 2012. And here he is, 33, 33, 34 years old. He just turned 34 doing it. So. Treb, I love it. I love it.

He's been a big part of their success this year. I do think he's got some pretty big platoon splits, but if you're hitting from the left side... It's not well on the other one. It's not, well, it's a low batting average, but a high OPS, but they really don't let them see a lot of lefties.

290, 364, 871 versus righties. That's... Yeah, that'll get you paid. Find a spot in the lineup for that. Jason Hayward to the raise confirmed. Don't say that kind of stuff. Four hits, first lefties this year. Two homers and a double.

So, yep. The ones he's face, they like the matchup for one reason or another. Trev's big league of bat. Jason Hayward, do you remember? Home run. Off of? No clue. Shit was wild, though. I remember it.

Jim Wolf, the umpire. Yeah. Trev, I'm keeping it out west. I'm going, you know, you've always said you like the old, you know, the daddies with the money or you like the young kids on their way to that. Gabriel Moreno, your Diamondbacks catcher. I could tell you about the four-for-four he had on Friday night, and again, a massive series for both teams.

I could tell you about the walk-off hit he had the next day. Trev, he's played in 101 games this year. Uh, 84 starts. 84 starts as a catcher. You want to guess his war? It's high. 4.3. 4 war.

4 war in a little over half a season of starts. Now, for catchers, they're not going to play 162, so that's a little cookbooks. I mentioned this stat before, and I still don't think we evaluate the catchers. position properly. Look around baseball. Pretty much every team that's going dancing has a good catcher. The snakes really won bad part of their season. Gabriel Moreno was out and hurt.

In games, he starts, the Arizona Diamondbacks are 52 and 32. I don't know. Is there a little bit of a loophole there? Maybe. Maybe that's just some baseball God stuff. But I know the defensive metrics love him. I know he's a catcher that's got a 106 OPS Plus hitting 288. He mash his lefties.

And he's a 23-year-old catcher that they cashed in him and they have him for a bunch of years that they swapped out Varshow for in Toronto. So in a massive series, the guy had a massive series. the guy had a massive series. And I don't know, man. If you believe the catcher spot is more important than maybe a lot of our current numbers

consider them for, which I think I do. I think there's a chance that Gabriel Moreno is a sneaky, one of the more valuable players. Like, he could be a big, he could be a massive responsibility for the Arizona dimebacks making the playoffs this year. If you remember, Poppy, I gave my award to this guy not too long ago because he's thrown out 53% of potential base dealers. Yep.

53%. That matters. In a season where stolen bases are basically handed to these guys on silver platters. And we're going to have guys, how many guys are going to steal over 40 bags? Most in a long time. No, if it's a lot. I don't know if it's a lot, but there's a few. Yes.

The most we've gotten in several years. Go ahead, Peter. Yeah, it's, he's been, he's been great for them. He's been great for them. So I love that you gave him the award. I love the snakes going. I love competent catchers, man. It does mean something.

It does mean something. And I actually had that thought this weekend as I watched Teddy play some ball. So we got a new squad. New squad. Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to see him behind the plate. See him behind the dish.

Teddy ball game. Learn the game. Play short now, but. You know? I love me some catchers. I've always loved catchers, man. Always love the catchers. You want to know why?

Because they're grinders and they got to deal with those idiot pitchers all the time. Yep. Yep. Trev, there's a lot, I mean, Chiolito, Barrio, some of your favorite guys, Zach Short was on the potential standout performer list. Jazz Chisham in Grand Salamis,

but you might see some. of these guys on your favor list. It's ball, bro. Hey. You can't be throwing your glove at the ball. And they even, the umpires got it wrong too. Unbelievable. Hot take.

Get rid of that rule. Who cares? No, what do you mean? Do you want to, imagine if someone was playing left field. Right. He sees a ball going into the stands and chucks his glove up. How sick would that be? It wouldn't be sick.

It would make me sick. To have the skill to rob a home run by throwing your glove at it. I don't know, man. How do you get that wrong as an umpiring crew, by the way? And then they said, oh, we placed the runners of the wrong position, but it's not reviewable when we place the runners. Sometimes common sense doesn't win. Oh, boy.

Okay, sorry. Dirt nasty in Fuego. It's because I'm on fire, baby, like Fuego. Is that what he says? How about Detroit? It's been a catchers in the series. Jake Rogers, Jolly Rogers, five for eight. He's in Detroit.

625 average, three bombs. Rogers' next game will be his hundredth of the season. He's the first Tigers catcher to play 100 games since James Bacan in 2008. How about that? Nice. Jake Berger, talked about you a little bit, big fella,

you big boy? Never seen you two in the same room together. Seven for 14, three doubles, two homers, six, rivies for a 1.7 in the series. Lordeus Grale,

Jr., guess what? We are going to be talked to. about you, but it's all skip you. For the week of September 11th through September 17th, Juan Soto, 11 for 24, four homers, 13 runs driven in. He had his first career Grand Slam in a 776 game of his career, has the fifth most multi-homer games before turning 25 years old. He has 16 of them.

Louisa Rye has went 13 for 30 with four homers. What? I say the Marlins don't have power. And Luis Araya says, I got you. Four homers in the week. Hit his first career multi-homer game. His first career 10-plus homer season. Shut up, Trev.

You know nothing. Brian Reynolds out there in Pittsburgh, seven for 22, two homers, seven ribbies, three walks, a stall in base. Not sure why he's on this list, Dahl if I got to be serious. Love you, Brian. I think. Numbers are great.

I don't know if you deserve to be on this list. 318? I've seen better for, a week on this list. Not great. What's that? I seem better for a week on this list. Thank you. Thank you, Beaver. For the two weeks.

And this is the list you want to be on my people. September 4th or September 17th. How about Brandon Woodruff? He can't get off of this list. This list is his home. He sleeps here. Three games started, 22 innings pitched,

one earned run. 19Ks. Are you freaking kidding me? Oh, sorry, he had a shutout streak snapped at 22 and 2 thirds innings. Darn it. You sleep on this list, Woodruff. How about Burrios? I've been trying to tell you guys,

this guy's been an ace. Yeah. In training. Training wheels off. Three games started, 20 innings pitch, four and runs, 22ks for a 1.8. He beat Boston at home for the first time.

And seven career opportunities. Don't love that stat either, Dalton. I'm coming at you today. Gotta be better. Just kidding. You're the best. How about a release?

You're talking about the raise. Oh, the rays have all these relievers. How about the other team in Florida? What about Miami's relief pitcher? Tanner Scott. Six games. Oh, five saves. Seven innings pitch, no earned runs.

Only one walk with 8Ks. He's thrown a career high in innings pitch this year with 71 and two thirds. That's what I'm talking about, bro. That's why I mess with relievers. If they get to play almost every game, if you're good. He leads the National League relieving core with 90. four strikeouts on the year. Shout out Tanner Scott.

And that, my friend, is who's Enfuego? Trev, incredible delivery. As always, on Enfuego. Update on Dirt Nasty currently resides off the grid in Joshua Tree. Oh my gosh, just mushrooms every day for you? See you there. See you there. Jason Hayward's home or was off Carlos Zambrano.

I watched it. I watched the highlight. Two-0 pitch. there's a tied 3-3 game in the first. Just a laser. He ran so fast around the basis. That's my favorite thing. Watching a guy hit his first homer, he has no idea what to do.

He's just flying. Just flying. Can't control it. What about nowadays? All these young kids think, they need some dirt on their spikes. Oh, boy. The IL update as we sneak towards the end of the season.

This is sad. Oh my gosh. It's all angels. This is sad. Mone. Musak, Mousakis, and Otani, the two offensive leaders and the emotional leader of that team. Tristan Kossis for Boston, hate that as he was wrapping up an awesome rookie year. Tyler O'Neill feels like he ends up on this list too much.

Michael Fulmer in that Cubs bullpen. We'll see if that matters. Returning from the aisle, Michael Conforto for San Francisco and Ross Stripling, so they get some reinforcements. Hank Davis, Henry Davis for Pittsburgh, top prospect. Marcus Stroman for the Chicago Cubs. Hello. C.J. Crone, back for the Angels, L.O.L.

And Jorge Solair Power, back for the fish as they hit their way into the NL playoff scene. Let's start the week the right way. And awards are brought to you by the Draft King. sportsbook. If you're listening on Monday, a couple NFL games tonight. And by the way, playoff baseball is around the corner. With Draft Kings, you won't miss a moment of the action. You can score $200 in bonus bets for betting $5 on baseball. Take a crack at a sweet payday parlay at Draft Kings.

What are you waiting for? Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now. news code talking. New customers can score $200 instantly in bonus bets for betting just $5 on baseball only on Draft King's sports book with Code Talking. The crown is yours,

Trevor Plouffe, and so is the first award. First off, Kelsey confirmed will be there at the end of the season, so we're going to get coffee. Yep. Possibly, I hope. No coat tuck, though. Secondly, I'm going to give my award

that I've got to go because I am hosting baseball today as Chris Rose is calling the Browns game. Hey-oh. Chris Rose, that's his lifelong dream, he said. He's fulfilling it. So I'm very happy for him. And I mean that sincerely.

Usually I joke around Chris Rose, but I'm very happy for him. My award, I'm called the Broski Award. And if you know me at all, you know my brother had a very significant impact on my life. I have an older brother. His name is Marshall.

We used to call him Lash Ram because that's Marshall Backwards or CAF HD Webb. I cannot get into that. I think maybe I have on previous talking baseball episodes. HD Webb, what that means? I'll tell you off air. Let's just say my brother's a big guy.

He's a big guy. Big freaking guy. But, you know, he was always great with me. I'm four years younger than him. So we never went to high school together. But he left with like a nice little legacy for me to walk in and everyone knew who I was. He always protected me, is what I'm trying to say.

Let me hang out. When we were younger, we were in a bike gang, C-A-M, CASTIC Air Force, and we'd go ride freestyle, we'd go to the skate parks, and nobody would mess with me because I got my older bro. Right. And he's a big dude. He was scary. He had this thing pierced and his tongue pierced

and ears and tattoos, yeah. Scary dude. Now he's a dad. Not as cool anymore. Now he's still cool. but there's a lot of things he used to make me do to make me feel not feel comfortable actually

and to make me feel uncomfortable and I think that paved the way for me in life like for instance we used to go to the mall and just mess around kids go to the mall at least they used to and him and our other buddy named Mark would make me go dance with like I was like I don't know

10 11 12 and they'd make me to say go dance with that lady I'm like what you go dance with She's standing in line waiting by a book at Barnes & Noble. And they said, go dance with her. And so I'd go up and, like, kind of look at her and be like, and just start dancing. And I was, you know, I don't want to do it. But I knew like if I wanted to hang out with them, I kind of had to do what they wanted me to do.

So I would dance and the lady would like chuckle and then like, what do you get, like, get away, you know, what is this weird, weird kid doing? But a lot, like, it was a lot of stuff like that. I know it doesn't seem like pleasant. But it made me not. Like I was comfortable in many situations because they put me in a lot of embarrassing situations. So I owe him a lot. I feel comfortable in my own skin because of my brother. One thing that I wish that we would have been able to do together.

Play more ball together. We played wiffle ball growing up. I mean, every single day. It's one of the reasons I got good at baseball because I was always competing with him. He'd always beat me. And man, I wanted to beat him so bad. Finally, I ended up getting better than him. But I would have loved to, like,

continued our playing careers into the minor leagues, facing off against each other in the show. I always think that's so amazing when brothers get to face off in the show. Unfortunately, we did not get to have that opportunity. He did pitch some pro ball, though. He pitched some independent ball. Never made it to affiliated ball, although he should have. I don't know what happened.

So shout out Marsh, man. He's a good dude. Two brothers right now who I'm very envious of are the Guriel brothers. Now, number one, you know I love me some Cubans. Sure. Just a big Cuban fan here. I love everything about Cuba. I want to go to Cuba.

I'm in. You can go to Cuba now, right? I'm in, yeah. Let's go. Let's go. You would love Cuba. Yeah. I kind of...

If you see me on the street, like this, in this shirt, I kind of look Cuban. We talked about that. Like, your boat got stranded in Cuba? When did we talk about that? That was not too long ago. Anyways, the Guriel Bros are doing it. Right now, as we're sitting here, we have, O Lordus getting traded from the Blue Jets. Now he's on the Diamondbacks, excuse me, sitting in a wild card spot.

Then you got old Yule from the Houston Astros. He's down in Miami. He's sitting in a wild card spot. Now, Yuley has had a tough year this year. It hasn't been great for him, but he had a nice game. in this series against the Braves, which is very paramount for them to get this series. Only do they get the series, they end up sweeping the whole dang thing.

So he's kind of like, hey, man, if we get something out of Yuli, it's going to be great. Lordus, on the other hand, my goodness, dude. Yeah. From August 1st on, August 1st through September 17th, 305, 354, 556 for a 910 OPS.

So the Gurriel bros Having the time of their lives And they faced off against each other before But seeing them possibly have to play A wild card series Now that's very far-fetched Because I believe the Phillies are going to be The number one wildcard team

And then the other two won't play Or is that? Yeah, no, because the They won't match up in the wild card round But my goodness I would love to see them match up In the next round Can you imagine, man

You don't have a brother playing against your bro in the playoffs man especially when you're like on new teams and it's kind of like you know for yuley it's he's getting up there how old is yuley right now yuley's 39 he's 39 years old so he's getting up there in a's there's not a lot of time left really for yule i'd imagine i would love to see them get to face off each other just because i could imagine me and my bro doing it and how much fun that would be so they get my broski award i think it's just

so cool to be able to do that. They both have silly hair. It's become a thing. Cuba, everything. Just like, I started looking like, who am I going to give my award to? And all those things came into play. Love my bro. Love Cuba. Love, like, the fact that they're both in the wildcard race, you know, and like, maybe one of them makes it. Maybe the other one does it. Maybe they both make it. Maybe they face each other in Division series. Like, it got me fired up, man. So shout out to the Gurio Bros. You get the Bros. I'm rooting for you guys. I love it. I mean, And Lourdes has been a presence in the snakes all year. He kind of limped, I think, in and out of the All-Star break a little bit.

But that guy is a threat. And yeah, hey, Yulee, last 18 played appearances. He's putting up numbers. I trust him in a big spot. And, God, I had such respect, 39 years old to still be competing. That's sick. Happy for you, Trev. Great award.

Great award. Good luck. Love you guys. Thank you. Good luck at baseball today. Who's hosting with you? Jolly all. Okay.

Heard of them. Heard of them. Good, dude. I'm excited. I'll see everyone Wednesday. Wednesday. See you, Treff. I'll wrap.

I'll be high and tight. I'm going to give out the Billy Currington Award. You may not be familiar with that name. You may be familiar with his song. And I don't, this could be something that I've done in the passed. We touched upon it, but it probably deserved a little more. There's a lot of teams that had highs and lows this weekend.

We talked about my snakes a lot. We talked about the AL West and how everyone's kind of falling. There's another team that had a big win this weekend. Billy Currington's hit song, pretty good at drinking beer. Milwaukee Brewers, man. Trev, when he hit on Woodruff, I don't know if you saw me do a head turn. the Milwaukee Brewers are going to win the Central. They're going to host three wild card games

against a team that survived, against a team that very much survived. Milwaukee's going to be able to line up Burns, Woodruff, and Peralta. And I know I've done this before. They got their guy on the back end, Devin Williams. They also have a bullpen leading up to Devin Williams, whether it's Pai Ants, Piguero, Abner, Uraliams,

Rebae throwing 104. Like, the brewers have their formula. They're going to be set up for the wild card. And if they move on after that, right now, they'd move on to face the Dodgers. And could anything happen? I don't know. We've been waiting for that magic brewer's year.

They're going to run away with the Central. Supposed to be them and the Cardinals. That went pretty differently, huh? There's a couple other things I considered for my award, but they were all kind of in a negative light. I'll save that for another time. Brewers, you're going to run away with the Central. They've got three,

and their lineup looks a little better than you think with the Brewers. We talked about that Cana Santana deal. Milwaukee. Is this the year that we can believe a little more? I don't know, but they believe in what they do, and I'm drinking the beers for now. We will see you guys Wednesday. Enjoy your week.

God, enjoy some pseudo-playoff baseball around the league. It's getting real. Games are mattering. It's getting real. Jake sucks. Stink. I stink. Go watch something else the company puts out.

Try it. Warehouse. John Boy Jake TV. We're going to wake and Jake soon. Wake and Jake in a minute. Go read a book. Book. Boring.