Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Freddie Freeman Fires His Agent | 508

Episode Date: July 1, 2022

Go to https://www.shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 50% OFF 2+ pairs of premium polarized shades. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:00 ANNOUNCEMENT 4:10 NL Recap 10:20 NL Standings 11:00 Braves-Phillies 14:15 Harper Injury 19:00 Mark Appel 19:55 Dodgers-Rockies (Freddie Freeman Fired His Agent) 25:40 Padres-DBacks 30:55 Marlins-Cardinals 33:35 Reds-Cubs Trade Showcase 35:00 Nationals-Pirates 38:35 AL Recap 41:35 AL Standings 44:15 Twins-Guardians 51:45 A's-Yankees 56:15 Yankees-Astros 59:00 Red Sox-Blue Jays 1:05:50 White Sox-Angels 1:11:20 Orioles-Mariners 1:13:35 Rangers-Royals 1:16:10 Interleague Recap 1:19:55 Astros-Mets 1:23:50 Brewers-Rays 1:28:10 Tigers-Giants 1:29:45 Standout Performances 1:30:20 Bryan Reynolds 1:32:20 Chad Kuhl 1:34:00 Sandy Alcantara 1:37:55 Is it Double or is it Half Award 1:42:55 AL East Award 1:44:40 This Not That Award 1:52:55 BBD Simulator Stimulator 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 talking baseball. And what a week it was. Walk off celebrations, managers getting hit in those celebrations. The Braves are coming. The Astros are good. Let's talk some baseball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's presented to you by seat.

My name is Jimmy. And we got Treb in California, Jake and producer BPD in Manhattan. And we got a lot of baseball. baseball to discuss Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, a five game set in the AL and a one game set in the AL. How about that? Pretty. How about that? Jake, how are you? James, Trevor, Big Baby David, everyone joining us on what's already become a holiday weekend for most people.

Happy fourth coming up. Uh, I'm, our society has really, I think after the pandemic, people are truly taking advantage of, of holidays. The city's like already cleared out. Uh, and good. Good. Life's short. Enjoy it. So always excited to dive into the baseball with you guys.

Some of the standings are getting tight. Hello. Uh, so excited to yuck it up with you, boys. As always, Trev, you got your hot Lanna hat on from your guy. What's his name? Carl Lamar shout out Carla Marr. Some people in the chat saying you're already hung over. It's 1 o'clock Eastern.

I don't know. That could be true. Could not be true. But I'm excited to talk ball with you guys today. I do want to start the show by talking about my good friend, Tyler Skaggs. It's been three years since he passed. Always a very difficult day for me, July 1st. But I like to think about happy times with him.

And I think often about how much fun he'd be having with the angels right now. And maybe they'd be a good team because they got a left-handed starting pitcher. And him and Otani would be just best friends. And I'd be best friends with Otani. So in an alternate universe, the next simulation, that'll happen. But shout at my guy, four or five. I'll be seeing his family later today. But I don't get sad anymore because I know he wouldn't want him to be sad.

That's like the truth. So I just choose to remember the good things. And yeah, man, love you, Ty. What's up, James? It's nice. I don't know what to say. I was going to say, sorry, but I don't think we're being sad. So just touching, touching to hear.

I'm good. I didn't want to make an announcement about next week before we even really get into it for the people listening. Next week, there will only be two episodes. And the weekend series recap will be on Tuesday and then Friday at the end. same as normal on Friday, but then no midweek because it's a holiday weekend. And for the first time in five years, Jake and I are giving ourselves

somewhat of an actual holiday weekend during the baseball season. So that's nice. Still doing talking Yanks at some point. So no Monday episode. What are we going to do? No Monday episode. That's when I get my rocks off, people.

I know. And it'll be tough because there'll be Monday games, Tuesday. I think that's why we like the Monday episode. It's clean. There's no like, oh, we can't talk about that yet. So we'll get through it. It'll be fine. We find a way to do these Friday ones somehow. So I think we'll be able to do that Tuesday one.

And it'll be like Monday on a Tuesday or that much closer to your next Monday app, Trev. BPD you're the best. What to cheer me up. Oh. Wow. We want to get right into it, right into the National League. Ready. What happens?

Who's got it? Jake's got the NL today. Come on, Treff. Pito Gordito leading things off. You guys both look really nice. I'm going to say that James, the shirt fits you well, bro. Roeback. You look like you're going to go play some athletic sports.

Hey, I'm going to the warehouse after this to practice out some new pitches. Break a sweat. Training. And I just threw on my shady rays to complete my outfit today. Yeah, you did. People on the subway tried to have sex with me this morning Because I was wearing my Shady Ray sunglasses People or rats

Rats. Rats, but If you go to Shadyrays.com and use code talking, people It's Fourth of July, you're going to wear sunglasses this weekend We ran the numbers, 97% of our audience Will wear sunglasses this weekend And you might as well wear Shadyrays You look fantastic And they're giving you 50%

percent off two plus pairs of premium polarized shades. Sometimes I wish shades started with a P, so it could be premium polarized, paids, but it's shades because they're sunglasses. Shady raids, they also give you their lost and broken replacement guarantee. What's that, Jake? You lose or break your glasses? They're going to send them back to you.

These are lifelong glasses from Shadyrays. And again, 50% off two plus premium pairs of polarized. Shades. Shadyrays.com code talking. They're the shades of the summer. Dude, like, did you come up with that rule? Like, it sounds like something you would make up. Like, Jake, do you want to add anything to Shady Erase? Like, yeah, let's replace lost and stolen sunglasses. And they're like, no, that's bad business for us. Why will we do that, Jake? And you're like, no, we need that. And Shady Ray's went with it. So everyone can benefit from that. So thank you, Jake. Way did it go, man. That's nice for you. Anytime. Appreciate you, Jake.

Right out of my pocket. Big pockets. Boys, we are heading to the Ilydelf, and we were starting in the NL Beast. The Atlanta Braves are coming. People, Charlie Morton, the Saltman, his third straight, good style. As the Braves hit, game one,

Kyle Wright drops it in the second one. Braves going for the sweep, not so fast, my friend, as Derek Hall hits two homers, his first two career hits, You might hear more about him later. Teaser! That was a Nola Day. Ion Anderson got hit, but man, my guy Matt Olson,

went off in the first game with two homers. The Braves are coming. A huge June, 21 and 5 for Hot Atlanta. The Rockies, they hosted Trevor Ploofs, Dodgers, and they beat them? Oh, boy, Rockies take two out of three. They won the first two games. Chad, cool, as the other side of the other side. of the pillow. You might hear about him later as he drops a complete game shuddy against the Dodgers

in course. That doesn't happen a lot, people. It's not a pretty picture shout out. Kyle Freeland, they hit Kirshaw in game two, and then the Dodgers salvaged the series in the last game. A lot of noise about Freddie Freeman and his former agent. We'll dive into that a little bit, a little he said, she said, by the seashore. Mookie could return next week. Padres, D-backs, they split two. Padres, I'm going to start with the second game because it's a little easier. Cleve dropped it on the table. Six-inning shutout, one hit, and then Nick Martinez, a little three-inning save.

That's his second this week. Is that the future of baseball? I talked with Tom House about it on Twitter. Go check it out. The D-backs won the first game, though, pure chaos. They come back down from six-nothing to walk it off, in the ninth. Messy, messy game.

But we play for rings in the desert, so you're not just going to sneak by. A little two-gamer-s split. We don't care. Cardinals, Marlins, Cardinals take two out of three. The only game they lost was the final game of the series

as our guy, Sandy Alcantara, Alcantra. We'll talk about that, I'm sure. Huge go-ahead home run in the ninth from Avicale-Garcia, Alfred Hells Bells. He gets hit for the first. time in a while. Sandy goes complete game. Dot Cardinals won the first two games before that. Goldschmidt's always going nuts.

Yep, as cards take the series two out of three, but it's always Sandy time. Then a couple stinkers, boys. Cubs take two out of three from the Reds. Everyone was hitting because that's a series where nobody was pitching except Luis Castillo. This was actually the trade series, Jim. You like this. Luis Castillo dropped it in the first game. Six-inning shutout. 11Ks. Second game, how about Wilson Contreras?

Three hits and a two-run homer. He could be on the trade block. And in the final game, Kyle Hendrick, six innings to earn run. Where would those boys be playing come October? What accent was that? And in the final series, no one really cares about. Nat's hosted the Pirates. They took two out of three.

I will say this, it ended on a high note. My guy Brian Reynolds, a three ding-dong day to help carry them. to victory. Pat Corbyn also dropped Dick in one of these games, eight innings, 12-Ks. Let's go, Corbyn. Good to be King of the Mountain again. Nats took two out of three, and that's what happened in the National League. What did Patrick Corbyn do? He dropped what? Oh, he dropped his big old hammer on the mound, man. I'm happy for him. You pick it up? Almost my standout, but I pulled out. I'll be honest. Wow. It's a little much. It's a little much. right there. Jim, you got those standings?

Yeah, Dodgers stay in first place. Padres gained half a game on the weirdness there. Milwaukee, they stay one game ahead of the Cardinals. So the Cardinals needed that sweep to tie it, it seems. And in the east, it's the closest the gap has been since May 1st, three and a half games. The Braves are behind. Although on a different page on baseball reference, it says the Mets are up three games. So I wonder if when they use the word up or down,

they go on a different like win or loss column because that weirded me out. I had both pages open. It's three and a half on the standings I usually always look at. Same for me. I'm going to look now too. Well, if you go to like the Mets schedule because I wanted to see the last time, it was three and they have like, you know, the game log of games up and back. And it says today that they're three up.

But I thought it was three and a half. But I don't know. But three and a half. That's the closest the Braves have been since, since May 1st. And they were, the Mets had like a 12 at one point. 10 and a half was the highest it ever was. Monster Month by the Braves, 21 and 5, I believe is the number I saw. in the month. And yeah, man, they are going. Matt Olson, who got caught up in some of Freddie Freeman's

trauma this week. He has a big two-homer day. A little more of a teaser, you might hear more about him later. Something that stood out for me, the saltman, Charlie Morton, his last three starts. This one was 5.2 to earned. A good start, but it's the worst of his last three. So he's kind of figured it out after he had a slow start going on. And yeah, man, I mean, the Braves, full-blown turn it on. I mean, they're sneaking up on the Mets and I don't think they're slowing down, which I've been juiced up for the NL Central race. I think we can start talking about the NL East race.

21 and 6 for the Braves in the month of June. I think, you know, if you're a Mets fan, you're obviously feeling it, you know, you're saying, well, this happened before last year, like, is it going to happen again? Take solace in the fact that Scherzer completed this second rehab start, DeGroms, throwing a live hitters. Like, those guys are going to be coming back to you. So, you know, if this race is going to, you know, come down to the wire, at least you're going to have those two guys with you. You haven't had them basically all year. So, you know, if you want to find some silver linings and you're a Mets fan, I think you can go ahead and do that.

but the Braves have put themselves right back into this discussion, obviously, with that huge month. And if it wasn't for just a crazy offensive outbreak by the Phillies in the last game, maybe even closer. You're all right, Mets fans. What's going on with Ian Anderson? Our guy, the last ion. We were excited because it looked like he might have turned a corner, but he, a tough year, man.

15 starts a 5-3-1 now. Might have to hit up our guy on. Uncle Pete Moyland on that. He's kind of he's not an uncle. I do have an Uncle Pete. So when I when I say that name, I kind of want to say that traditionally. But yeah, man. It's an awful June for him. Spencer Shrider had a good start his last time. Not not here, but I don't know. The Phillies out of it. I mean with Harper News and everything else, are they going to try and make some? I was saying because I want, I want Gallo off the Yankees. I was texting Jake, just the brave, they should try and and see like, oh, the Braves went and they got three struggling outfielders last year and hoping

that they could tap into some, you know, rejuvenation. So I am now hoping the Phillies trade for Gallo in, in search of like a Braves type outfield to replace Harper, even though he wasn't playing the outfield. But I've been to watch a lot of the Phillies since. Is there hope, Treve? I know you've been talking to Rosie about this. I know he's been asking you. I think what Dave Dombrowski at the helm, like there is hope that they'll continue to push forward and not just, you know, let this season go. I don't think you can do that with the core that they have. Like, this is the window. And, you know, if you're hoping to get Bryce back at some point this year, you got to like tread water, right? You got to at least, you got to make the

playoffs. You got it, whether it's the last wild card, whatever it is, you've got to keep going. And they do have the pieces in place to do it. So I wouldn't surprise me if they went out and got somebody. I don't know if it's going to be a gallo. But, you know, that's, you bring in a guy like the Browski to go kind of all in. And I don't think he'd stop now with Harper out. So I think there's still hope there, you know, obviously Bryce means so much to that franchise and that team. Hard to replace them, but you can sure as hell try. And you can point exactly like you were saying, James, to last year and the Braves and say, look, the same thing happened to them. And they went and retooled the outfield and they ended up on top. So, uh, and no way do I think

the Phillies are giving up on the season. As, as it stands. right now. We talked about this a little bit earlier on this week. If you're the Phillies, I think you can kind of, you try to retool a little bit. They actually already went out and they got our guy, Oscar Mercado. So, you know, they took a flyer on them. You see what's happening. I know Phillies fans,

they want to see a little more Matt Veerling in the outfield. Yeah, you know, right now they're two and a half games out of the wild card as it stands. and by the way, in the National League, them and the Giants are the two teams on the outside looking in that kind of have a chance. After them, it's a steep drop off. You're looking at Miami and my diamond backs. So if you're the Phillies, you still have a chunk of that starting rotation. You have Kyle Schwabber leading the National League in ding-dongs. You've been waiting for kind of Castellanos Real Mudo to go-go.

You have hope, and I kind of like what you were saying, Jim, you take a couple cheap flyer pieces if one or two of them connect and you can stay above that 500 line until Bryce comes back, you're going to have a shot in September. I don't think you need to give anything up for Gallo either. I think the Yankees just want to hand them off to a safe place so they don't like ruin a man's life by DFAing him. I think if another team puts their hand up and says,

we'll try him out. The Yankees say, great. and say, what do you want? And you say, oh, no, that's good. That's enough. Clear our conference. I think you would see that. I think you would see multiple teams going after Gallo as a reclamation project of sorts.

You know, it hasn't worked out in New York for him. You know, I don't know specifically, I guess what the reason is, you know, why he's playing as poorly as he has. But I think many teams would at least go and say, hey, there's still stuff in there. We can figure it out. We trust our coaching staff to help this out. So I don't want to get into the AL, but the Mariners had an injury and they already made a trade, like of that sort to replace it.

So if the Phillies are going to do something like this, do it. You have to kind of act now. Jim, you mentioned that. Very important to note. Very important to know. Bryce Harper labeled as a fast healer. So we're all good guys.

He might be back in two weeks, bro. Okay. Yeah, he's a fast healer. We're going to be talking about. Nando in a little bit, by the way. Jimmy, and like you said, Jorge Soler last year. I mean, he had as, you know, a pretty rough 94 games, a 77 OPS plus hit in 192. He went over to Atlanta, 882 OPS World Series MVP, World Series MVP.

No, there's always a chance. Wasn't Rosario hurt when they traded for him too? Like they just went out and figured the stuff out. Get some bodies. Retool. And one with the Phillies, Gallo, would help their defense, which has been a noted issue.

Assuming he gets to play right. Ronnie Acuna, supposed to come back today. Kenley went to the aisle, but he should still be able to throw. He's got his regular heartbeat stuff going on. And, hey, I don't think anyone's talking about it, but Mark Appel, pretty cool. do? One, two, three, and the ninth. So he made, if you have no idea, former one-one overall pick,

had some brutal injuries along the way, gets the call. He's 30 years old. He was the first number one pick in 2013, 2022, makes his major league debut. Two games so far, two winnings, zero earned runs. Probably a guy, a guy that's easy to root for. Yes. I think it Got discussed on Farm to Fame that I think came out back half of this week. Check it out. A deep dive. Check it out. Next series is probably Dodgers Rockies.

I mean, we're obviously more tuned in on the Rockies. We got a really awesome performance from our guy, Chadbro. And the Rockies are still a different team at Coors Field. And the Dodgers could have been sleeping. I believe they're playing the Padres this weekend, which is a much important series to them. And man, are we doing Freddie right now? Are we going to air this out?

Because it's some of baseball's biggest drama in a long time. We can talk Freddie. It's interesting. I mean, I think most people saw what came out. Doug Gottlieb, who is like a basketball analyst, tweeted out that Freddie fired his agent Casey Close because Casey Close did not tell Freddie about Atlanta's final offer to him.

And Doug even added because Casey Close knew Freddie would take that instead of the Dodger deal, which was for a little bit less money. Since then, I mean, that caused a stir, by the way, because that came on the heels of news that Freddie was looking to change agencies or he said he was self. He was going to be, didn't have one. It was a fluid situation, whatever it was. And Doug tweets this out, so it'll cause a major stir because that's a huge accusation. Since then, Casey Close has come out and put out a statement, Excel, his company's put out a statement denying everything.

He said he'd go under oath to deny it. And then you've seen now damage control. He's had Dexter Fowler put out a statement. Derry Jeter put out a statement, basically saying like Casey's been great. And this guy has been an agent for a long time and done a lot of big deals. when I first went, I was an IMG before they sold their team sports program to CIA. So I knew Casey at that point. He's, I mean, he just had a list of guys.

So he's a very respected agent around the league. So, I mean, accusation. He denies it. We're kind of there right now. But the truth is, I think Freddie is looking to change representation. And I don't know, you know, what that stemmed from. It could be this. Could be not.

I don't think we're going to get the truth anytime soon. Fowler came out. came out and said something. He did. Because this happened with Fowler, where the Orioles reporter said that he was basically an agreement on a three-year deal. But then it got messed up because of his agent or whatever. And then he signed for less money with the Cubs.

But he wanted to go to Oregon. And Casey Close was really mad then. I don't know. I mean, I have no idea. It's a weird situation because if he didn't tell him that that would stink. but the fact that Freeman is changing representation, if that's true, means there's something he didn't enjoy about the process, but also the fact that he has like, I told Jake, and obviously we hold Derek Jeter in high regard, but if you reach out to Derek Jeter and say,

hey, can you defend me here? Like, that's a pretty big ask. Like, yeah, that's like if you got one bolt in the chamber, you've had that for a long time. Yeah, you can't do that. You can't make a fool of Jeter, you know, so and then Jeter to come out and do it. I was like, wins me over and like, okay, all right. Maybe that's true. But then, but then Freddie still firing him, if that's the case, it is something. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, you could, maybe he was a great agent for all these other guys. And like, that doesn't mean he couldn't have messed up one time. I'm not saying that it happened. I'm just saying, like, I don't know. These statements are kind of like, it's PR damage control type thing. But for his sake, look, if it's not true, that sucks because this is your,

this is your, you know, career we're talking about. This is like, you know, did you see Jeter's statement? Did you see Jeter's statement? I read over it. What do you got? Cracked me up that even like in defending him, Jeter was like very safe. He was like, we have had a lot of disagreements. Yeah. Like, I'm not saying I agree with everything he does. I'm like, all right, Jeet. What did Jee's get for that tech or that tweet? I want to know. Like, what a case you give him for that one?

Because, like, again, even if it's 100% true and he's like, I didn't do any of that shit, like, I'll swear under oath. But to get Jeter to come to his defense, I mean, there's got to be something that was promised to Derek, right? And for Derek to do that, I wonder if he got to see some of the receipts or something like that. Because if I'm Derek Jeter, I'm not just going, going out there without. any evidence or anything like that.

And it's funny, the way you guys were just talking about Jeter, one of my childhood friends growing up, dad was a very powerful lawyer, and our family always joked like, you know, that was kind of always our ace in the hole. If one of us got in some real shit, we had one bullet as a family, so nobody screwed it up. So still haven't used it, knock on wood.

But, man, that was crazy. And then, you know, staring it back to the baseball, Freddie first inning Homer the day that all of that was happening and the only game the Dodgers win in this series. But crazy stuff, man. Crazy stuff. Baseball getting in the drama game. That's not normally what we do. A lot of drama. I know. And we got to talk ball here. Eventually at some point I want to talk about the Manford article. I don't know when we can fit that in. But August 15. Let's keep going with the NL, I think. Yeah. Chad, cool.

You're going to hear about him later, like I said. And, yeah, Rockies at home. Kelsey Winger was probably at this. This is why they won. You got a two-game series split, so you boys know I can't fully dive. But the game that kind of needs to be talked about, my snakes, you know, it's 6-0 into the final inning. Padres, who have been a really good team this year. the Diamondbacks

I mean one of the messiest ninth innings of this baseball season we had two hit by pitches or it's the eighth leading into the ninth excuse me but it was a six nothing game couple hit by pitches to score runs we got two walks before that not the prettiest rally you've ever seen

but with two outs two outs in the ninth single single single Christian Walker with the game-winning fielders choice, Hosmer. Makes a nice play, but can't make the final play to do it. Kind of pure chaos. The baseball gods rained down on this one a little bit. And then, I mean, the bigger, almost the bigger Padres news at this point is their city connects are the talk of baseball today.

It looked like my shirt. A little bit. A little bit. I love the comeback by the debacks. You said down six nothing and a seven. They get, you know, double off Mania, then they just kind of keep scoring runs. You know, you got to give them credit for continuing to play hard.

Rings. When they're not in it. I don't know, man. It's hard for me to talk about teams right now that I know aren't going to be in the race. Sorry, Jake, come September. A couple good weeks before the deadline. Watch out for those things.

Club had the start, the Bob Brenley thing. There's more drama there. I don't know if you want to talk about that. Although I don't think, I think that was overplayed a little bit. We talked about it on baseball today. Brenley was just, you know,

kind of making fun of his outfit and telling him to hurry up. And Clevenger shot back at him in the post game. Although it was Brenley and his other guy. They were kind of both talking about Cleb there. He's got a history of saying much worse stuff than that about Cleve. So the Tate's comments in the Machado cons like tip to scale into not just like playful, but like kind of like some just bad thought lines but that one i don't know you're allowed to make fun

of what club does in the mound right unless it's like ticks like joey gallows over some facial ticks and and like cameras zoom in way too much for me and like guys you got to know this and they just put a picture on the post and like that's fucked up so i don't know if louis garcia clevenger if they're just doing that to get a rhythm i think it's fair game to be like that's silly man and funny. Luis Garcia does a fully fake windup before doing a completely normal baseball windup.

Cleves tapped him. I'm watching the Diamondbacks walk off right now. Yeah. And they got Walker putting the bubblegum crown on on that bald head. And like it works for him. I kind of like that. Like Diamondbacks,

if you want to continue. you like some sort of celebration, the bubblegum crown is, it's kind of working for me. And I told you, boys, I had big news. Tatis came out happy from his doctor's appointment and is expected to swing full speed in the next two weeks. So pretty huge. What? What was the second half of that?

I know, I know people think the first half is the jarring part. What was this? Is that the second half of that? Was it a real update? expected to be swinging a bat full speed in the next two weeks. That's nothing. In the next two weeks? Yeah.

James, they're letting him, they're letting him field fly balls and ground balls now too. They need to stop. So this is what the Yankees did for like two seasons. And then they stopped. They need to stop this. Whoever the Padres PR or whoever's giving these people aren't dumb. That's nothing.

a two-week timeline to swing the bat. You're just saying shit to say shit. Like tell me the day he swings a bat other than until he swings a bat, say there's no update. I don't understand what's going on there. He's going full speed off the T in 10. In the next 14 days, he may swing a bat.

He's going full speed off the T and then in 10 days from a machine. Let's see. rehab a rehab if that goes smoothly a rehab excitement a rehab assignment jeez jake come on tap into your wind horse is expected to follow that so we will see no update at this time aka they're hoping for after the all-star break for slow healer unlike bryce harper different that's it's ridiculous uh cards cards hosted the marlins for tree they took the first first two.

They had the best starter ERA in the NL this week. And Palante, he's a cool story. I was just reading up about him because I didn't really know that name. Started as a rookie in the bullpen and now getting starts. Yeah, he's kind of this. He throws weird. This year's Ranger Suarez, people are talking. And on the other side of the spectrum, how about Adam Wayno?

Just another seven shutout. Nine Ks is punching tickets. It's not like he's not out there Sergio Romo tricking him. I mean, I guess he is, but he's nasty. It's, I almost, he's also not getting my standout. Sorry, Cardinals fans. His career resurgence is insane. Like, I remember we were excited when Big Cici kind of tapped back in

and he found a new way to pitch. And it was like, all right, but, you know, Cici was good. Adam Wainwright is dominant Over the past three years 58 starts a 307 ERA And that's his current ERA in the season So

What a sicko Juan Yeppes Two homers Five RBIs I saw my guy Xavier Scruggs do a little demo on him About what he's been doing

They're calling him Pujo Sito Whoa careful with that I guess I guess Pouos has been taking him under his wing a little bit there and there's some similarities not i mean you can kind of see if you do a side by side but i love stories like that when a guy i mean that's i've been saying this for a long time you bring in those veteran hitters like that that know what

the hell's going on and have been around that can help young guys this is what happens man like think about that think about if you could just get hitting lessons from a guy like a world-class hitter like sounds like it'll help you out a little bit right This is how you're asking me for Blitzball tips. It's just not the time. I tried to steal you away from team baggage. Jimmy said that's illegal. Yeah, he asked what the price was, Jim.

I said there's no money in this world that could take me away from you. That's a lie, by the way. Oh, if there's a number. You did not say that. I didn't say that verbatim. But, yeah, the final game was pretty badass. Alkan Tadda goes for the... Just relax on Alcuncara.

Okay, fish win. Cubs Reds. Transition. That's how you do it in the biz. Everyone hit this series. Luis Castillo drops it, which, hey, hopefully he's a cool story in a couple weeks. Like I said, the trade guys, Wilson Contreras. He has a big game two.

And then Hendricks, a solid start in the final game. But, yeah, I mean, Morel went nut job this series, Contreras, wisdom, Joey Votto is making new friends and hitting homers all the time. So that's kind of what's going on. But this series doesn't. It's a trade showcase. Yeah, it doesn't matter until the deadline, really. And then, like, yeah, this is a true.

I'm looking at all these names here in our notes. They are all guys that, like, are probably going to be on other teams. I mean, Brandon Drury, you know, go ahead RBI, double in the six. Jonathan, India. Guess what, buddy? You're not going anyway. Sorry. Just kind of hang out there.

But yeah, Luis Castillo, Contreras. I mean, my goodness. Okay. There is a cool, the ballboy at Wrigley and Rafael Ortega have become friends. If you like that side of baseball, that's always a good time. Fabian. They posted some fake stats, which I liked. They said he had like a perfect fielding percentage.

74 opportunities, 100%. Sometimes life's dumb and you got to lean into it. Final series, I'll let you boys get your hot takes off. Nat's Pirates, two out of tree. Brian Reynolds deserves to be talked about, and he might be talked about later teaser. Teaser. Teaser.

Everyone needs to stop saying that about Brian Reynolds, but we can save that for later too. Yeah. I was doing my random Patrick Wisdom checkup. Yeah. Okay, bro. Yeah. What is it?

Let's go a little bit right now. 16 bombs. The on-base percentage isn't there, but what those bombs, a slugging percentage is, you got a 790 OPS. Trev, I think, you know, I know you and Patrick Wisdom

were compared facially a little bit. He might be you, a different you in this simulation where they, none of that stuff the twins tried to teach you, and they were just like, hit bombs, bro? Because he's got the most strikeouts

in the last year, but he hits ding-dongs. and I know you've got the juice. Like, Patrick Wisdom might be the continuation of you. He's a good-looking guy. That's what was important. You're right. He's played every damn position.

Third base, first base, and all three outfield positions. Sounds like me. Yeah. Me and Patrick Wisdom. We need to have a drink. Maybe I'll buy him a bottle of wine so that you didn't have. Oh, no. Patrick Wisdom, slow start there basically,

went 0 for the first week since then 850 OPS. April 15th on. Miggi Yahoo and O'Neill Cruz had fun in the first game. They were, you know, the big super prospect, O'Neill Cruz basically left the stadium. That dude's a freak show. Yahoo was part of the Tyone trade. Kintana actually has a good start this time,

and I'm not confusing him with Carlos Rodon, so that's huge. could be a trade deadline piece. And yeah, Corbyn straight up dropped it. He hittings, 12 punches. Jim, I know you like a good pitch mix. You know what he did. He threw that good pitch. He threw a slider. The high this season, 45%. So if Patty Corbyn can get it going. I don't know. I love a guy that, I love a guy searching for rock bottom. I see him in the mirror every morning. And Pat Corbin might be finding his way out of it. Miguel Rojas, 96.7% zone contact.

Just to let you know. He's different. He sat in this very seat I'm in right now. Do you know how crazy that is? It's hard. He swings at a pitch in the zone. 97% of the time he's going to make contact with it. Hot wood.

We talked about today on baseball today about how the pirates had three different players, have a three-run-home or game. or three homer game in June. So I'm like, okay, you got that going on. It's back-to-back nights because it happened last night, not in this series you're talking about. I was like, dude, are the pirates like kind of getting it going?

You got O'Neill Cruz hitting bombs? Like, is this? They're calling themselves like Lumberjack City or something like that. As I was listening to some highlights, they were 10 and 18 in June. I mean, there's some things to get excited about, I guess. I don't think that should trade Brian Reynolds. I'm with you on that one, James.

There are some guys coming up, but still tough. Winds are still tough to come by while they're in Pittsburgh. I might hear more about BR. They're having fun though. Jim, you've got... Yeah, there's some things to watch.

You've got the American League? I do. I can tell you all about the American League. I mean, well of knowledge for these three games only. Ready? The Guardians take three of five from the twins

with walk-off wins in games. Four and five. It was risky. It was scary. They could have walked away from this, given the twins a big lead, but they hang on. The twins got ten homers from nine guys.

They hit the shit out of the ball, but their defense failed them in big spots. And Josh Naler is a psycho. The Yankees welcomed the A's to the Bronx, swept them right out. In games one and two, they spotted the A's lead just to make things more interesting in one and three,

game two. They shut them out with the rookie making a spot start. Then the Yankees went on to play the Astros in a one game series. Nice little pitchers duel between two Louises. Astros end up winning two to one. There was a weird play where Tucker tried to steal home while Sevi was fixing his pitch calm and then realized it and simply threw him out. But the Astros win. Now they have the season series over the Yankees. The Blue Jays took two out of three from the Red Sox. Gossman returned to form. Vladdy hit a walk off Alejandro Kirk remains their secret weapon. Red Sox were without Tanner Hulk.

He's not vaccinated and they blew two saves in the series, but they refused to get swept. They took game three and extras. The Angels and all their suspensions hosted the White Sox and won the Bread Games with good starts from Thor and Shohei. Tepara and Iglesias both got suspended. They both appealed. They both pitched clean eight. and nine in the two games the Angels won. So good appeal.

Good appealing. Good appealing. Good use of the appeal. White Sox don't have a player with 10 home runs. The Orioles won game one in Seattle, but the Mariners outpitched out hit them in games two and three to win the series. Lots of good pitching from a lot of the starters on both sides of the ball in that one. And the Mariners all appealed their suspension to no one served it yet.

That would be tricky when that has to happen. The Rangers. won their first two games against the Royals. They were shut down by old man Granky in the third game. The trade pieces, Texas grabbed in the offseason, they all combined to kind of like put it together, Simeon, Seeger, John Gray. And for the Royals,

Ricky Kyle Isbell hit his first and second career homers. How about that? James, I like these notes. Is this all you? Yep, yep. Nice notes we're looking at right here. I studied. What are the stand?

The standings are kind of the same shit. The twins are game up. They could have really opened it up a bunch on the Guardians who were coming on a five game losing streak or four and then they lost game one. But that is a one game division right now with the Guardians behind the Twinkies. The Astros have an 11 and a half game lead in the West. with the rest of that division not mattering. Like no wild card contention right now, I don't believe. I don't know if you're going to get any.

And then the East, the Yankees are in first place. They're now 12 and a half up on second place Boston and Toronto. And the raise dropped to 15 games out of first. So that's wild. The way Boston has played and you are still 12 and a half games out. I mean, essentially, like, what Atlanta did and what Boston have done in the month of June are like almost identical, right? Maybe a little less with Boston, but Atlanta's made up a bunch of games and the Red Sox, I believe, I think even went down games. It's tough.

It is. It is. But they put themselves in a good position in the wild card. So I guess that matters. Crazy things can happen in the AO, but it's looking like there's going to be no race at all. and it's just Cleveland and Minnesota for division. I don't think the White Sox are going to come back out of this. I mean, some of the stuff they're doing is so bad.

It's really bad. The last wild card, I think, or last couple wild cards might. What happens is you get teams like the Mariners last year and another team that, like, they're like, they're not mathematically eliminated. And then they keep winning. and you but in the end like last year we called it at the all-star break what the teams would be and they were that but there was some fun in the a l the a l is looking is it seven teams or is eight teams as far as what make the playoffs now six teams per division per league

well i guess Tampa might be on the outs then Tampa and Cleveland are tied for the last wild card spot right now we'll see how how that goes. It's getting these games, bro, where do you want to start Twins Guardians?

Yeah, that was the best series. I mean, they had to play five games in four days. They had a double header. The Twins won, game one,

and then game three. And they could have really, you know, then they could be three games up and all that. And Guardians come back to win, uh,

both on walkoffs in the 10th inning by Naler, who and then headbutts, Frank, Francona. I don't know if you saw that. I think everyone saw that pretty hilarious. Like Tito put on a helmet just because he knew he was going to headbut him. And then Jimenez gets him the next day.

The twins out hit the shit out of them. The twins had 51 hits in these five games and the Guardians had 28. The twins slugged 503. I guess the Cleveland swugged 545, but it was just timely hitting. And then it was the twins defense. like I watched all the condensed games. They had two pass balls. One was called a wild pitch by Gary's passball.

His glove and the other one hit the other catcher's glove. And both of those led to runs. It led to the infield coming in and then runs. A rise was on his ass trying to turn double play. Should it ate the ball threw it into right field. That led to two runs. Correa was on his ass and then threw it to the third to try and get the out. Should it ate the ball.

That led to a run. So the twins just did themselves in with defense. pitching wasn't awful and the and the um the hitting was great they just kind of gave the guardians a chance to capitalize on bad defense and the big thing for the on the other side is the twins got to Eli Morgan three times in a row if they meet up down the stretch that's he's been a stud reliever for the guardian so for the twins to get to him three games in a row is uh he's like a nothing to them right now which is a good feeling i love that you pointed that out i think that will matter later on, you know, for both team's psyche.

Hopefully Morgan kind of gets over it, but the Twins getting to him, that definitely means something. And yeah, the defense wasn't good. Right now, Twins' Twitter is just clamoring. We need relievers. We need relievers. We need relievers.

You're putting, you know, Durel Cotton out there. You know, Thorneberg in the game yesterday. You know, I know he's a guy that goes multiple innings, but he's out there, you know, 48 pitches deep in the ninth. He's walking dudes. He's, I think, in the eighth inning,

he hit someone, walk two guys, then the Correa play happens. So you're putting base runners on, giving him free passes, and the defense doesn't work behind you. It's a recipe for a disaster. And then Jimenez hits the walkoff homer, and Dick Bremer has the all-time call. Just, what did he say something like, we cannot get out of here fast enough,

or we're sick of the Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, just deadpans it. And that is how twins, Twitter has been feeling I'm I'm deep in it right now. They're definitely calling for reliever help, but guess what a lot of teams are? That's what I'm saying. Like you want help, but you got to go get it and you got to give up a lot. So we'll see if they get it.

They need it bad. It's, uh, twins Twitter was talking about how brutal the Taylor Rogers for Chris Paddock and Emilio Pagontrade has been for them. Paddock goes down with T.J. So that stuff. Pagan, uh, I, I know my win probability added gang is with me. You know that's the part of Twitter I normally live on.

I think via win probability added, Emilio Pagan would be the fifth best player on Cleveland this year. He's blown some tough ones. So, you know, we're as we talk about our guy on Cleveland, that's been their setup guy getting rocked, Pagan was supposed to be part of the solution in Minnesota. and not so much right now. So, yeah, I still think,

I didn't chime in when you guys were talking to AL Central. I know the vibes with the White Sox are atrocious, but you still just can't in baseball write them off yet. The Braves, I think on August 1st last year, were 52 and 55. So I know it's felt awful and gross, but man, I mean, even a good week in the White Sox would be back in the AL Central.

race. So I don't get me wrong. I realize how a disgusting it is. And I'm not sure I know why Tony Larissa is still the manager besides the owner feeling bad about getting rid of them 40 years ago or whatever. But I don't know. None of these teams make me feel anything great right now. I just like Cleveland because they're young hot boys. I like Cleveland's pitching. And I like they have the highest contact rate. And then they got a bunch of young athletic guys out there. But did you, did you see this stat I put in here that the guardians comeback wins versus twins are the most in a season

since 1974 being down more than two runs in the eighth inning. Thanks, Emilio. That stinks for the twins. They just can't escape. They can't feel comfortable. And then, uh, yeah, they've actually bang the ball around too. Like, they're like top five offense right now if we're going off of,

uh, way to runs, create it plus. Or I think it's OPS plus. That's the stat I was looking at. But, it's been the problem for a long time. The starting pitching is, you know, it's, it's had its moments during the year, but it's getting exposed over a long season.

Like, that's what happens during a baseball season. It was good. This has been faltering and, yeah. And without their pitching coach now, they all said nice things about them. I mean,

not to knock that pitching coach, like, whatever, that's a rude thought. They were listing all his accolades. and they were like the twins have been 10th in war or pitchers and 14th in pitcher ERA the last decade. I'm like, those aren't good numbers. Like I'm not knocking him, but the stats they were using in the article were making me laugh.

Like those aren't, that's middle of the pack. Depends. You know, it's first couple of years that they got up there like top seven, top five, stuff like that. Last year in 2021, it's like a huge step backwards. Yeah, but I mean, for the last six years, it's been pitching, been the main issue, the twins. For a long time. But it's hard to get pitching. I know.

He might be doing the best he can with them. And Archer and Sonny Gray all said the nicest things. Like Archer was like he's, he's the best pitching coach I've ever had. And Sunny Gray said that he's retooled me. And I thought I was like, you know, done. So Dylan Bundy had a good start. So that's probably all of that. uh,

Buxton has 52 home runs in his last 162 games. And when they told him that stat, he was very impressed with himself, because he doesn't know, he doesn't count his homers. Like he didn't know he had 100. He, he's like,

I don't track. Like, I just don't keep track of myself. But then when they told, the reporter told him that, he was like, oh, that's cool.

And he could have had many more if they stopped telling to get his freaking foot down, hit the ball to second base. goodness. I too don't keep track of myself, Bucks. Birds of a feather. Yankees sweep the A's? Oh.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the A's are an interesting team to watch right now. They were just like careless because they can be. They just got they got thrown out twice and the Yankees catchers don't have like good arms. They got backpicked once. Some dumb.

They got to early leads and then the Yankees got to their bullpen. I think they're bullpens. Open's pretty brutal. Montes pitched well and his start. I'm interested to see. I think he should get moved. Elvis, Ramone, noisy, had a good, had a good series. And Oakland was one of two AOL teams to not hit a homer this week. That's a crazy stat. You want to guess the other? The Orioles. No, they had five in one game. Yeah, that's a bad guess. You'll just have to find out later. Later. It was the raise. I have a question. Yeah. Yeah. You guys, I see, you know, Chapman coming back. What role does he take right away? Are they going to ease him into something or is going straight to the ninth? Like, what are we doing?

He's not going to the nine. He's not going to the ninth. But, but he may go to the ninth if the better lane is ahead of them. And that might be how they try to sneaky it a little bit. Like they said that Clay Holmes will get the most high leverage bats, you know, if the top of the order, if it's in Bouchet, Vladdy, Springer, whatever, and the eighth. then Clay Holmes will get that lane in a close day. Doesn't he struggle in non-save opportunities?

He does. He's going to be past. He does. And his whole persona is a closer. Like that's who he is. So it's going to be very interesting. It's, he gets activated today.

And there's a couple things going on. Like he went, he did a rehab assignment, which Chappie's kind of been against that in the past. So with how good Clay Holmes has been, uh, I think Chappies kind of looked in the mirror and he sees that, the fastball doesn't sit 102 anymore.

It's going to be interesting to see, I don't know, a sixth inning or all this Chapman up four runs, is he going to be able to be the dude he's been? Or, yeah, is it going to become just straight up weird? And the Yankees got a couple weeks to find that out. Interesting. We thought he was going to come up two days ago, but they must have known Miguel Castro was going to go on the paternity list.

So they just pushed. him because now they don't lose a body because they would have had the DFA someone. So I love roster, funny business. Ryan Weber is surviving. I saw his car when he was leaving the double A rehab stint. He literally drives a tank that's bulletproof everywhere, right? Like, oh yeah, it's white. Everything's white.

Yeah. No, no, no, no, no. This is like a black, matte black tank. Yeah. With gas prices where they're at right now. I mean, maybe he's got to think about driving something else. I don't know. has a relative's Chapman made playing baseball quick.

$100 million. I'm going to say, I don't think $100 million. I think like high 80s. Well, what was his contract with the Yankees? I'd be like 50. This Yankee contract is 85. A world is closed. Chapman has made 132.

So not sure he's too worried about. Go ahead and drive a tank around, play. Not too worried about gas prices. A stink. yeah it was the best team in the AL record-wise versus the worst team in the AL record-wise and it was there any like Donaldson stuff with the A's like sometimes he likes to do that like just give a big F you today had a good series he had a big double in every game so he played but uh any any played good defense so but yeah I was kind of talking about that like he hates them

and all that shit, but he hates them. Yeah, I know. So I'm trying to. Yankees are 24 and 12 against teams above 500, which is the best in baseball and 32 and 9 against teams below 500, which is the best in baseball. Pretty insane season. 727 winning percentage.

Whoops. Yep. They did lose to the Astros in the one game. They lost to the Astros. Yeah. Astros are. good. Astros are definitely the most balanced

the best team the Yankees have played, bar none. Like, the Ray's Boston, and the Blue Jays all, at least from the times that I've seen and played against them, all a step below the Astros whose bullpen can be really good, even though the Yankees got them twice. Every spot in the lineup does something,

even though they don't really put it together that well, but their starting pitching is so good. And their defense is good. They don't make a lot of mistakes. Chris Rostat, the New York little series they had, combined the Mets and the Yankees, the Astros go 7 and 2. I believe they gave up 21 runs and 13 of them came in those two walkoff losses to the Yankees. So, like, this was a huge little test for them and they passed with flying colors. I mean, you go 500 against those two teams.

Yeah, don't love the Yankees in with the Mets. well, at the time they had the best record in the National League and the Yankees had the best record in the American League. I mean, if you told the Ashos, you're going to go seven and two in that. And that said, they'd be like, okay, I like that. I, yeah, I'm just saying it's not like they blew, I don't know what the Mets score. It's not like they blew the Yankees.

Like every game came down to the last inning. Or like, was a three-run game. Yankees went. I'm not saying they're like better than the Yankees is a great series for them. I don't feel steamrolled by them. No. I mean, they're very, they're two very good teams. Yankees went 22 and 6 in June.

Three of those losses are to Houston and five games. So, yeah, I mean, right now the Yankees in Houston and the ALE are just on a different level. The Dodgers, I think in the National League, are on another level. The Mets, I mean, especially Scherzer, should be coming back for his next start. Does DeGrom come back? And then, yeah, I think as we approach. the trade deadline, the fun conversations for me are going to be like, you know, does Toronto, are they going to make a jump or upgrades? Boston, can they make a significant move? Chris Sale rehabbing

for them. The Padres, does Datis come back and look like Tatis? Like, who can join the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Mets, healthy Mets on that kind of top tier of baseball teams? Because they really do, the eye test is kind of unreal. Like those teams are building. different. Yes. Speaking of the Red Sox, they were without Tanner Hawk,

which made headlines because he's not vaccinated. And the rays who are going to Toronto now are without two relievers as well. They lose, they blow two saves. They end up winning one of the games where they blew save.

But the other guys had to pitch so much that I hope it doesn't hinder them moving forward. like Strom had to throw a season high, 41 pitches in one in one outing to close it out. Brazier through 47 pitches in back-to-back nights. His prior high was 29. So that stinks, man. Like you just, your fucking guys are hung out to dry.

You can't go to Toronto. Toronto hit 11 doubles. That was the most in the AL. They had the highest slugging in all of the AL. Their starting pitching is returning to form. Sriplin got put in the. rotation as a six as a six starter because they're in a hectic stretch right now the blue jays and he's pitched well since returning the rotation so um blue jays take two out of three the red

socks hang tight and win the last one but i'm interested to see how the red socks do i've obviously said this they have the cubs coming up then they have just a brutal stretch of toronto Tampa new york Toronto Tampa new york and when they come out of that I think is one will know what this Boston team is. Because I understand they're better than the start of the year, absolutely. But they were doing it against lesser teams. When does Whitlock return for them? He's got to be nearing a return.

That's another great piece for them. I got it pointed out to me and C. Rose as well. We talked about this vaccination thing with Hauk. And Cora said it's definitely going to change by the postseason, an interesting take there. I will kind of get into that. But people in Toronto wanted me to make sure to let everybody know that we have the same policy here in the U.S.

So they have to have everybody vaccinated there to come play or else there be some sort of quarantine period. So they said they're at a little bit of, because I said on the show, I said this could be a huge advantage to the Blue Jays, especially come playoff times if you can't bring some of your guys. But they said, hey, think about this. We have to have all of our guys vaccinated to come play.

we have a smaller player pool to go after people at the trade deadline because we have to make sure they're vaccinated. So they wanted me to make sure because we keep saying it's Toronto, it's Canada's policy, COVID policy, but they wanted me to make sure that we have the same policy here and there are some sort of a disadvantage because of the player pool that they can go after has to be vaccinated.

So I want to make that clear. Yeah, the GM, what's his name of the Blue Jail? He said that at the start of the season. he was doing an interview, he was laughing. He was like, we have an advantage. I couldn't sign. Players I wanted to sign. You get to ask him, are you going to be vaccinated?

Can you get vacs for me, bro? Yeah. How much is a vaccination worth? I'm wondering if I could be in the season. And, you know, you got an offer from the Red Sox. Well, Trevor Story, they mandated that he'd get vaccinated as part of signing with the Red Sox. So however much money he got, it was worth that much. And by the way, Chris Sale, after making a.

his rehab appearance supposedly looked pretty good, hitting a low to mid-90s. And then after his rehab, they asked him about his vaccination status. And his response was, hey, I'm just trying to enjoy this moment. So if the Red Sox next trip to Toronto, yeah, man, I like the way you phrased it, man. Because wherever you stand on that, whatever, not even into the conversation,

but leaving your pitching teammates out to dry, you're coming in a couple men short this weekend? Fuck that. Just as a competitor. So Alejandro Kirk leading the Blue Jays in war. Whoops. He's awesome. Stripling at some good quotes.

They pinch hit him to start the ninth and he gets a hit to start the comeback. He's four for 10 as a pinch hitter. And then Vladdy called his walkoff. He told Montoya beforehand, like, hey, it's over. And Gossman owns. the Red So right now, if it, if like it ends the Red Sox would have to go to Toronto to play the Blue Jays. So are they without players? Is Gossman starting? Because he's got 21 innings pitched against him this year with only one earned run. And he looked nasty again. So two things. Everybody always promises the coach they're going to walk it off. So I always laugh when like these things come up.

Because a lot of times they don't and we don't hear about that. We definitely hear about what it happens. I'm probably going to get my ticket punched here. Don't hold it against me. Do you know how many times I told someone I'm going to hit a home run this with that? Pretty much every single time I fucking took it back. I said, I'm going to hit a home run this at that. Number two, Jason in the chat corrected me. He said, Cora said by September, things will change. So like, what does that mean? Does that mean he's had conversation? He's like, how bad did you feel leaving your team into the drive? Like, go get pricked? I don't know, man. But like, if you make that decision,

And I believe that everyone's freedom to choose for themselves. If you make that decision preseason, you're going to let a series sway your thought process? That doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't know. And I've got a little tag team around the Blue Jays that both of you lads alike. Everyone on the Toronto Blue Jays starting lineup

has OPS Plus of over 100. And part of the reason for that, Trev, your boy Maddie Chapman has started to get it going, which I know how much lead he puts in your pencil. He does. I mean, yeah, you're right. He does. Yeah. I got a man crush on Chappie. He knows that. It's probably why he keeps me in like arms length.

He's like, you know what, you're just a little too much for me, bro. Yeah. Before I move on, baseball-wise, Toronto, and they intentionally walked Dallback, I think, to load the bases. They were down by one run. And that was to end the eighth, I believe, maybe the seventh. And they got the double play to get out of it.

So, you know, risky move that paid off. And then they came up and win it in the ninth. So baseball. Good job. The White Sox and the Angels, the Angels, they take two out of three. They had to play suspension rules. let so like the relievers appealed and um the acting manager because nevin's accepting his so then

the ray montgomery has to wait because he got a game or two as well and then they'd be down to like their fourth in line um trout pointed out that the pitcher was tipping his pitches that was a storyline pretty funny trout like kind of fed up uh tonny shoved again really good start uh thor had a really good start and the white sucks don't have 10 players with a lot homer. Only two teams in the AL. Maybe in baseball that don't have a single player that has double-digit home runs, the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. If you would have told me that stat at the beginning of the year, I said you're absolutely insane. I said they're going to have 10 players with 10 home runs. It's, I'm not jumping off the bandwagon yet. I can't do that,

but my goodness. I mean, could anybody blame me if I got off right now? Yeah, I don't know what has to happen, man. It's like a lot, like a lot. For the Angels, this was the first time they won consecutive home games since May 20th. It made me laugh. That's a crazy stuff. So, HALO's over a month. Yep. And they, they, they advance to six and 12 in one run games. Not a good stat.

I see the bright side there. The show hey stuff is kind of crazy what he's done. There was a lot of tweets about it, you know, he hasn't given up a run in how many innings? A lot. Three different starts, something like that, hitting bombs the whole time. I brought up yesterday.

Shohay's probably sooner than later going to be the front runner for ALMVP. Got a lot of backlash from Yankees' Twitter about that. I want to hear your guys take. I know Aaron Judge has been a monster at the plate this year. You still think show hey is do you think show hey is going to win the MVP by the end of the year

if he just kind of continues the path that he's on I'm pulling up his stats because I haven't seen him if he can turn his last his last two starts really yeah turned it on if he continues his recent pace then then yes because he's he's two players he's an elite starting pitcher I mean I mean yes I absolutely I mean the last time we got this conversation

you know three six or maybe 3-9 ERA. It's down to 268 with his last three starts. So yes, if he's, if he has an ERA under 3-5 and then his offensive numbers are an OPS that starts with eight, two, eight, it starts with eight, then yeah, he's a, he's a lock. I just, I just, yeah, I just want, I just, I just, I like the valuable part. in that old school way. I know it's never been that way,

except when like Kurt Gibson got it in the 80s. It was truly he got it for being valuable. His stats weren't good. There's, you know, a lot of people are saying that he's just on a bad team. We have to take that into consideration. I don't believe in that.

If you go back to 2000, since 2000, there's only been one MVP that's also won the World Series. And you guys know who that is. Jake Story, or even has made to playoffs. It's out too. which people believe he stole the MVP and the World Series from.

Give me another award. Give me another award. And we're, and we'll call it this team doesn't make the playoffs without this guy. Whatever that acronym is, award. Okay. Like if you took this and if the angels were to make the playoffs, I think if you took show a off,

single hand will be the difference maker. Right. Like, if you were to take this one guy off, the odds drop from, this to this. And give me that a word, and it's totally separate.

MVP, we know it, Shohay will, has it. Yeah, I think the one thing Angels fans keep saying that makes a lot of sense

for me as far as, you're talking about value, is that Shohay is essentially two players only taking up one roster spot. So you're, I mean, you're essentially having a 27-man roster now

because he's a guy that, he's a guy that can do both sides. Invaluble. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, second most war on his team, so.

I know. No, that's the craziest shit is we're not talking about freaking Mike Trout because he just contends, he lulls us to sleep with greatness. Think about that. We're going to get Shohei Otani fatigue at some point. I don't have it yet. I know some people already have it. But Mike Trout has been so great for so long that we sleep on this dude.

Like we're like, oh my God, this guy's got a one dot OPS. He's having the best year. Go check him out. He's the next big thing. Mike Trout's like, I've been doing this shit. for 12 years. Mike Trout, I love you, bro. Angels 3 and 1 since the brawl are they galvanized?

Three at Houston coming up. Squid with his fifth home around the season. Just swing for the fences. Speaking of the brawl, the Mariners were on the other side. They lose the first game after the brawl to the Orioles. They're a little like tired and fatigue and maybe too excited. And the Orioles are scrappy and good. They hit five home runs.

they hit back-to-back home runs in consecutive innings, which is a weird factoid. But Seattle has now won seven of its past nine. They will need to go 11 and 5 in order to reach the All-Star break above 500. Jake, do you think they can go 11 and 5 in their next 16? They just won 7 of 9. After I declared them dead.

Since Trevor Plouf declared them dead, both of these teams are getting hot since the brink. brawl. Yeah, why not? You know, I want, you know, let's get a couple more stirups in baseball. Get your team hot. Oh, now that, I guess they only have, they won yesterday against Oakland, do they've, like, handled pretty easily, I think, this season? Maybe I'm wrong there. So now they have to go 10 and 5. Yeah, they have kind of a mixed bag schedule, too. They have Oakland. Then they have at San Diego. They play Toronto at home. And then Washington and Texas to end it. So it could happen.

I want the Mariners to be good. I want them to get to 500 before the L-star break. I don't think it's going to happen. I still think they're dead. The head's on the spike. Well, Robbie Ray's been good. He's got 27 innings pitch, two run runs in his last four stars.

He's been really good. He's still continuing with that sinker over the forcing fastball. Julio Rodriguez is running away with AL Rookie of the year right now. he's like first or tied for first in every offensive category and then on the Orioles side they went 500 in May and June 28 and 28 they're like a really bad April

they're better than their record and Mullins is really fun to watch sure is yes he is patrol center field Dean Kramer has been nasty since since coming back up the Rangers what's that? What's that?

that you still got another series yeah the rangers in the royals um john gray's been good his last six starts that's good news for the rangers simeon's been good ever since he got his first home run he's like a top 25 offensive player since he got that and then segar and simeon had multi-hit games in the same game for the fourth time and they both got multi-hit games and rbi's first time ever oh this is what i wanted to ask you guys about the royals cranky will he get traded he's got he came off the IEL two good starts in a row he's got postseason experience he's a free agent coming up does he want to get traded he probably hasn't no trade clause and maybe he's just not into the postseason that would be very jack granky like uh ben intendy has to get moved he

had two hits in every game this series and it's just i think going to crush it until he gets moved and then maybe continue but i didn't thought i hadn't thought about granky as a pickup up you don't sign a one year 13 with the royals and put a no trade clause in there i i don't know man that doesn't seem right to me i don't think he has one and i think that maybe he's wanted to go to the royals to figure some things out and then go to a contender that seems about right for me i i can't first of all i don't know what zack grinkie is thinking he thinks differently and no doubt about them but i don't think he's got a no trade clause i guess we could look that uh up beavers if you want to but even if he did it would just because he would want to say over where he

goes right yes i think that um god does he go back to houston do they even need him like somewhere he's familiar with i feel like what is where he'd want to go i don't know if he has enough control over that but yeah i i don't know we jack rinky the the reason we're almost tiptoeing is because nobody knows kind of what's going on upstairs he's a beautiful creature i mean he's played on a lot of teams, it's not like he was kind of this scared homebody. He talks about, I think he's openly said he's not like a New York City guy, but he played on the Dodgers for three years, Milwaukee, Kansas City, my snakes, Houston. So, yeah, I'll put Zach Grinky on Trade Watch.

I just think, you know, if you're Yankees or Mets and you start doing Grinky rumors, that's when not, that is not true. I don't see anything about a no trade. They already traded Carlos Santana, so. Play by Carlos Santano. Make your moves. It's July now, people. Let's go.

Let's get these trades going. AL complete. All right. You know who's got the IEL, baby. My people, let me tell you what happened. We kind of mentioned this already, but the Astros went into New York against the Mets and a two-gamer, and they swept them,

and this one was all Astros. Astros starting pitchers went 16 shutout innings, 9-1 Astros and then 2-0 Astros. Framber, 8 Shuddy in game 1. He went up against Cookie. Not a great start for him. Four and a third, six earned runs. A lot of it happened in the first.

Breggling with the RBI single and Tucker, Abe Lincoln look-alike, three-run Homer. Alvarez and Guriel added homers in that one as well. Verlander. Eight Shuddy. Taiwan, our guy, matched him. Seven and the third shutout. And heings, lots of nice defense in this game.

Castro had to go ahead two-run Homer in the ninth. It was his first homer this season. Guys, even after that, he's got a 13 OPS plus. A 13. That's not what you want. So Astros go on and sweep. They do the damn thing. We've been talking about how good they've been.

Moving on the Brewers, my team, my World Series victors, go down to Tampa Bay and they sweep a two-game set. 5-3-5-3. Does that showing good fortitude, Jake? Sort of like four to two, right? Nope. Woodruff comes back from the IL-5. Innings pitched 10 K's, no walks.

He hit 99-point-something. He's healthy again. McCutcheon with the go-ahead, two-run Homer and the six. Ureas also hits one in that inning. Both absolute hangers. Ray's threatened a little bit. They get it to 5'3,

but guess what? The bad man. Josh Hater comes in and puts them to sleep night-night. Ray's game two. Again, five to. three, there was some openers, but it was more the Rowdy Tellez show. Taylor Walls got the scoring going with the bloop two run double off the glove and right field for the lead in the fourth. I guess Telez had the solo shot in the second. Eureas with the go-ahead Homer and the fifth

and Wander ties it up with a double down the line and the bottom of half of that ending, but then Rowdy goes Catwalk, baby, puts them up in the eighth. Peterson with an insurance home for the ninth and Hayter does it again. This time he had a few base runners but still gets the job done. A couple notes there. Hauser is being placed on the IL. And Ashby, though, will return tomorrow. We'll talk about glass a little bit. He threw his first bullpen since undergoing T.J. last August.

And the last series, Tigers, in San Francisco, the series is split. Four or three giants in game one. Three, two, Tigers in game two. Longo, my guy, in game one. Two hits. He had a two-run single in the first. Yaz makes it two, or makes it four-n-nought thing with a two-run single. into center and then you know the tigers fight back migi sweaks one down the first baseline candelario some

cash show get rbis uh but then doval your guy jake comes in slams the door uh game two longgo does it again solo shot opo in san francisco for daddy longo let's go you know that puts lead in my pencil jake uh another crazy little play bias gets hit with longgo bat that he breaks like longgo's all over this uh yes gets the giants within one but then Gregory Soto finishes off the game and the Tigers get the split. And that's kind of what happened in the easy day for me. We do not need to do any standings lookups here, James, because you already did that. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Two sweeps. Two sweeps in a split to two gamers. Boring. Three two gamers. Yeah. Burlander's so good. Yeah, no.

I mean, we talked about a length about how good the Astros are. You know, a lot of it has to do with their starting pitching who showed out in this one. Verlander's another one of those guys like Wayne Rang, like, how do you keep doing it, dude? Like, how do you keep doing this? Framber has been a guy. Yeah, the Castro. How crazy is that? And I talked to see Rose a little bit, guys, about the Astros and the catching position.

because if you look at what's going on there, you got Martine Maldonado, and I know a lot of guys like to throw to him, and he's a good catcher, game call, or whatever, 36 OPS plus on the year. He's hitting 141. He's got a 210 on base percentage. Jason Castro, 13 OPS plus.

He's hitting 115 with a 205 on base percentage. At what point do you start to value a little bit of offense behind the plate? Like I know they, I guess they necessarily don't need it because they got other bangers in the lineup, but if you're looking for an upgrade somewhere for this team, that's one spot that you can say, well, Wilson Contreras kind of fits that spot. Kind of fits that team, like the vibe.

I don't know, man. Do you guys think that that's a move that they could make? No. They love Maldonado. They do, and it works, man. You know, it's, they don't mess with the recipe. And they love Maldonado. I guess for a little bit it drove me nuts.

that center field they kind of haven't taken to Astros level, and that's not a shot fired at Jake Myers and Chas McCormick, and hey, maybe one of those kids gets it going. I think whatever their numbers and analytics and everything tells them is that catcher in center field, you can, if you get defense from there and everybody else does your thing, it's going to work out, and it has worked out for them. So maybe still center field, like let's let me not pretend,

they're not too far away from George Springer, but I think of these Astros teams, and I think a machete, Maldonado behind the plate. They love them. I do, too. I'm just saying, like,

if you look at the offensive numbers, they are atrocious, bro. Like, this isn't even like, hey, like, we can live with this. It's serviceable.

It's like, no, you really can't live with that. You're just banking on everybody else in the lineup providing enough offense that you can overlook this. Like, this might be all-time bad for two catchers.

So teams are, are doing now. So, yeah. So, you know, Mets don't feel too bad. The Astros are an absolute juggernauts. Feel a little bad because the Braves are coming. Who, who did you say at a 13 OPS plus? Castro, the Macon Castro, which by the way, his, his home run was pretty cool. The dugout went nuts, which, which that's always cool. And yeah, like, he's a part of this Astros. team too. I know.

They got their guys behind the plate. The Mets only run. This is a nice little tid, but the only run in these two games was a James McCann RBI walk in the ninth inning of the game one blowout. So tough two games. There's two games, though, right?

I worry about that. If we're talking Wilson Contreras, I think we're talking about the other team in that series and not Houston. He fits a lot of places. Yeah, he does. I guess we can move on Brewers

like the brays of the NL. They're finding ways to win. They still have not got me my offensive upgrade that it has been promised. They just said, hey, Rowdy's going to do it for you. I think the main thing in this series is Woodruff coming back and looking as good as he's looked. I think I saw a stat.

He had like 99.6 on the gun. It's the fastest pitch he's ever thrown. So you got to feel pretty good if your guy comes off the I.L. You're always a little worried, like, you know, how's it going to look? 10Ks, no walks. And I thought the hardest pitch in my career, that is nice right there. And you get the offensive, you know, you get some homers, like your Rias is kind of like

showing up a little bit. McCutcheon hits the hangar. They don't need to score a lot of runs. We know that. But I think, you know, that we're still, we're still waiting on the move. Okay. I keep saying that. They still need to do that because you give the pitcher is a brink.

a little bit. My goodness. Tampa loses. They're 15 games back now. And did they play yesterday? I don't think they did. Did they start their Toronto series? They're five in five games in four days. Yeah, they've four more with Toronto coming up. Okay. What did they do yesterday? It cut out. I don't, I don't know. I just saw their upcoming schedule. They lost. There you go. They lost. man I think Tampa's going to bury themselves trying to tell you I just looking at it they have the least innings pitch from a starting pitcher

we know that they have like the most innings pitched by relievers but with all their injuries I don't think they can be doing that anymore you know you lose a starting pitcher you lose X amount of innings and then you replace it with a starting pitcher that might be less than you lose relievers

they got and did they blow both these games in the bullpen or late runs both times? The Brewers were kind of scoring all throughout, you know, so I think if you look at Tampa. But tied, tied going into the eighth game two. How many guys do you think they actually consider starters on that team? Like most guys aren't like typical starters. You have McClanahan, maybe Boz. Right, right now they're, right now they're fan graphs list three starting pitchers.

McClan-Bas and Clover. Oh, and Clover, yeah. So, like, they just approached the game so differently with their pitchers. And Jake, you did say at the beginning of the year that it's going to catch up to them. I said that last year, did not catch up with them last year. But I believe last year they were actually pretty normal. Yeah, they had, who they had, Glassnell, Yarby. They had Waka, Yarby, Mac.

I remember halfway through, we were like, the Rays have the most. They had a lot of innings hitched by their starters last year. This year they haven't, like none. And again, like, I still think that's not the race problem, man. They don't hit. Their bottom five in pretty much every hitting category, and they're kind of top five in every pitching category. The race find a way to get outs.

I understand there's an argument that it's not sustainable throughout a season or potentially the postseason, although we've seen it get them to the postseason. They're hitting dreadful. Yes, but they used to win all the, close games because they had the relievers, but I just think the crew they have, they can't rely on every single one every night. A lot of people in the chat yelling at me about Yelly going off and their offenses

looks good. I get it. That can happen for a few games, a week, whatever it is. If you're looking at me through this camera that I'm using and thinking that your offense is like fixed, it ain't. You need more. Yelly needs to keep going. McCutche, McCutche needs to keep.

going and then you need to add and rowdy just be in there too you freaking stud off the catwalk got to love that for him then uh i guess we'll move on um hater sorry about it two saves tigers at giants um did you guys see i mean it's kind of a it's a fun series but i i thought the long-go bat crack hobby by is like it actually mess with the play a lot of times you see those bats fly off and like it's close but they don't mess to the play like he like avoided it, but then stepped on it. It's pretty cool. I don't know.

I don't know why I like that so much. Kind of into it. Not to gang up with you on the chat, Treve. I just looked it up because I was interested. Last 14 days, Milwaukee leads all MLB in a team OPS. I agree with you. I agree with you. It's not to say to what.

I didn't realize that they were going that off. They need more, dude. Like, it's just the bottom line. There's still a lot of games to be played. Hopefully, hopefully, yell it's you know he has been looking really good that's that is probably like the best thing you can hope for as a brewer's fan like i mean 14 days colorado's up there too hey schedule watch brewers are going pittsburgh chicago cubs and pittsburgh don't get hot again milwaukee do it do it though longgo goes

off for the giants you know a nice little series then there was an article uh he's talking this might be his last year uh hope not we love long ago he's like he is the guy that you want to be if you're an infield his career, like the way he works, everything. Love you long ago. You know, I'm going to give more shout out to Longgo than everybody else. It's basically it, guys. Let's get into it. And give out some standout.

Standout. Stand out performances. Standout performances brought to you by our warehouse game YouTube channel. Big game for Jimmer for Debt tonight. If you're listening on Friday, a do-or-die game against Jack Doyle from We Got Ice winner goes on to the championship game And our whole one-on-one league

The championship is next week Three games in three days Go check that out Warehouse games And then there's some more big stuff Coming up there later this month So get excited Should I do my standout?

Yeah, get us off You guys know I'm a Vanderbilt man In a way And I'm going to a Vandie man. I'm going to our guy, Brian Reynolds, who puts up a three ding-dong Homer day to lead his merry band of Pirats. He, A, has been a topic of conversation for a while. A, a lot of trade rumors this offseason were like, I don't know, there's a lot of years, seems like he's pretty good. I was the only game they won that series. They won by one run.

They won eight to seven. Again, three homers. He had six. 6 RBI. So that's pretty impactful in winning that game. He had a slow start to the season. It kind of, it didn't get going for him for a little bit. Then on June 9th, if I'm going to butter knife a little bit, the past 22 games, he's been 1. Dot and 358, 400 OBP, 7 homers, 2 triples,

does a little bit of everything. And again, those kind of contributions from the center field position. don't really exist or slash Trouton Judge are now changing the game. But Brian Reynolds, he's a beast. I don't think he's on your trade deadline watch because he's a really good young player under control. And Pirates got a little bit of juice.

It's not winning juice, but it's fun baseball with him, O'Neill Cruz. So Vandymen, stay vandyman. What kind of juice is it? If you had to name the juice that pirates are drinking right now. Flapy. It's flappy.

It's not getting you wins, but it's diet juice. Yeah. Okay. Sure. John, you got to stand out. Nice of word. Chad, cool. Yeah.

I don't know how he did it. Complete game. Shutout. Against the Dodgers in Colorado. A lot of times when I look at the potential standout performance list, I just make sure I go see who do they do it against. and a lot of times it's the likely suspects, the tigers, the royals, the gnats. You're like, eh, I don't want to give my standout, just beating up on these guys.

And then I looked at Chad, cool, and I heard about it anyway, or saw it anyway. It's like the Dodgers in Colorado, that's impressive. He faced the minimum through six with the help of a ground ball double play. And then ends up facing 29 batters. That's actually how I sorted it. was to see who faced the most batters with the least amount of hits. And he won this week. Three hits.

I think he faced 29 batters. Chad, cool. I think it was only the third. And in your standards there, I think it was only the third shutout in Corsefield history with three base runners or left allowed. Something crazy. Like it's only the 17th complete game in Rocky's history.

And I don't think the Dodgers have been shut out by a pitcher since 2016. So Chad, cool, who by the way, could be a little trade deadline guy. He's having a good year. I think the stat was 27 individual pitchers

have done it since the Rockies came into the league and was a 90, whatever the heck it was. Yeah. So pretty rare to do that there. So shout out, Chad, and cool last name.

Whoops. I am going with Sandy and Jerry Blevins helped us out with this one again. So more Alcantra talk here. Nine innings pitched, three runs, only two of them earned. He had only three Ks, two walks. And it was the game where another time he's, Don Madeline, he's walking out there to take him out.

He's, you know, gotten to a little bit of trouble in ninth and Sandy was like, get your get out of here, bro. Like, just I got it, I got it, I got it. That's what he said after the game. He's still on 115 in the third innings through 16 starts the most since Quato and Kersha in 2016. This is the stat to James. Talk about your pencil and getting a little lead in it. He's got at least seven innings pitched and 10 straight starts. The most since Rick Porcelo in late 16,

he has a second lowest ERA, which is 195 in the NL, throwing nearly 20 more innings pitch than anybody else. Sandy is an absolute gem. Once with the Cardinals, and I'm believing that the Cardinals are going to regret this trade or already regret this one. They traded him. A couple other guys and Zach Gallin to the Marlins for Marcelo Zuna.

So Cardinals fans, I'm sorry, Sandy's turned into, you know, one of the best pitchers. In baseball, Zach Gallen, not too shabby himself. And Marcelo Zuna played for you for two seasons and put up like a 107 and a 108 OPS plus. So sometimes the prospects work out for the other team. His game log is one of the cooler things. It was Musgroves, but he unfortunately allowed six earned runs, which he bounced back all right.

But it is now Sandy's game log. Do you like awesome? Do we think he's pitching too much? Like, you think it'll affect him come the end of the, the year. I don't know, man. It seems 20 more innings pitched than any other starter in the big leagues right now.

I wouldn't go by innings. I would go by pitches because he's efficient. Most he's thrown is 117. He's thrown over 110, only four times out of his 16 starts. He's thrown under 100

six times. It never looks like he's laboring out there either. I guess that's kind of the thing. And that's the only. And that's the unknown. Like how, how's he feeling? You'd like to see them mix in, you know, if they had a blowout win and he was on the bump, mix in an 85 pitch day for me. But otherwise, I mean, let him, let him be your horse. No way. Let him go get the Sa-Yo.

In the chat says not like he has to pitch in the postseason. Exactly. Let him go get his accolades. He's not getting. He's already got the deal, though. Also, Sandy, he already got your deal. Maybe that's what he's thinking. Like, screw it. He's pitching for a Sai-Young. I wouldn't mess with that. Recent guest on toe in the slab. Yes. Sandy.

All right. How long are we? I feel like we've been super long. We are super long. Let's just skip Mifuego and all that. All right. We filled it up with a ton of good info. People got their info.

Unless you want to rip through it real quick. Can we just play the Dirt Nasty's and Fuego sound clip and move on? Sure. but all. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco.

To awards. Kelsey, bring us to awards. Awards. Yes. That's... I miss Kelsey. When am I going to see Kelsey? Should you come in an All-Star game?

Sure is. Mm-hmm. I will lead off awards. Awards are brought to you by Trevor's penis in Magnum Condum Studio. My first award, struggled with the name and it's going to be a roller coaster always is right uh is it double or is it half um not to get a little meta on you guys there's a lot of drama this week in baseball freddie casey close it's still ongoing we don't know where we stand we don't we don't have the receipts does probably

um and it was all about frederick and he really actually want to stay from alana and was an offer hidden from him, blah, blah, blah. Who's caught in the shrapnel of this, but my guy who's dating my daughter, Matt Olson, tall, handsome, he got sent over to the Braves. He signed the big extension, again, how that all ties into Freddie. In the words of Joe's McFly, if he was Matt Olson, he'd say, that's none of my business. Matt Olson, he had kind of a mid-month for him. OPS was still in the high sevens, but he'd say,

he's an elite ball player. And something jumped out with me with Maddie Olson. And, you know, he elbowed Freddie the other day, starting shit, obviously. My guy Matt Olson, he switched leagues, and that's always tough. You see a lot of new pitchers, and the more you see a pitcher, the more advantage the hitter gets and all that stuff, et cetera. His numbers are a tick down from where you'd want him to be on the season, but maybe that's first half adjusting to new teams, new stadiums, etc., like that.

one thing was blowing my mind. Matt Olson, who has bold on his baseball reference three times, all games played, so we like that. And he's currently got that this year. He has a new bold category, and it's not what Matt and Olson's known for. He has 31 doubles this year. Matt Olson's career high in doubles is 35. He's played 77 games.

games, half a season. He's on pace for 60 plus doubles. I'm interested to see how the rest of this story develops because, you know, my guy hit 39 ding-dongs last year. A couple of those doubles, I'm sure are going to start turning into homers. But I was laughing and that's where I landed on is it double or is it half because he's hitting doubles, but I think he's normally hitting home runs. Kind of wild stuff. I think a couple more of those balls are going to start leaving the yard and we'll see Maddie Olson's OPS and a couple other numbers start to climb. But I thought that was pretty wild. Matt Olson, who's, you know, got a good baseball sample size this year. It's a doubles fest, and he's normally not that guy. So I think they'll start

leaving the yard. He had a couple big games as this Freddie drama started to unfold. But a little love for my guy, Maddie Olson, date my daughter. When you have a daughter, I'm just going to just, are you going to tell her that she has to date Matt Olson?

We'll see where he's at. We'll see where she's at, you know? All right. I always took it as more of a request, not a binding. Maybe she's going to be too hot for Matt Olson. It'll be probably 60, and she'll be like 23.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Teddy ploof date my daughter. That's what you should be saying, bro. Keep your son's filthy hands away from my daughter. James? We think that's just juice balls?

No, because he's got homers during the juice ball season, or the non-juice ball seasons. Like, you know, last year he hit 39, he had 29 and 2018. So I don't know if it's just pure baseball gods Or I'll ask Braves Nation to sound off in the comments How is left center So he's got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten doubles this year

That would be homers at the Coliseum. At the Coliseum. Yep. Left center at the Coliseum bends in And he's got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven over there that are doubles, but if they was at the Coliseum, it'd be a homer. A little road home stuff there too.

Either way, just a ridiculous number. Well, I'm only looking at his home doubles. Sure. You don't think the Coliseum being the reverse. Yeah. They'll think of it as having a short part. I had an award lined up. It was just like, and then I lost the tab.

The ALE East is so hard to pitch, dude. They see the most pitches and they walk the most. And I just feel like you always hear about how Red Sox, and Yankees games take forever because there's so many pitches thrown and I was like, why is it just those two teams? And it's still an ALEC thing, which is weird to me. Why does one division value that

or like do it so much better than everyone else? I lost the tab, so I don't have the info. But it was something about like... So it's pitches seen by ALE East teams? I was looking at like walk percentage and pitches seen. and the the the Yankees the Red Sox the rays blue jays were all up there and that's been like a storyline about most of the Yankees and the Red Sox forever is that they take a lot of pitches that

make you they work to count all that shit I was like why why is why is that a geography thing across is it veteran do you think it's veteran rich the ales because that would be one explanation for You know, as you get older, you learn the strike zone better. You understand what seeing more pitches does for you. Could be that. Really good hitting teams in general. Like the Yankees are always good at hitting. Fenway, also a lot of good hitting.

And with the Js where they're at, maybe there's something there. But a lot of stadiums where you can aim for homers and kind of wait for a pitch, you can do real damage to. Something like that. Yeah. Interested. All right. My award is the this, not that award.

Now, a couple guys I just want to quickly mention, this will be the this portion of this award. Andre Semenes having a banger every year, need to see him in the All-Star game. Cleveland fans always want us to talk more about him. 355 OBP 502 slugging, 858 OPS from your second baseman, or is he playing shortstop right now? Second base.

Doesn't matter. The guy's a stud. Talk about him. Ian Hap, not happy with us. He wasn't all-JM team for June. Talk about Ian Hap and what he is doing there. Get him to the All-Star game. Two and a half war. He's got an 839 OPS. I call him nine figure Ian for a reason. He's a stud. Also, Paul Goldschman, has there ever been a guy putting up numbers like this that we just don't talk about enough? Leads the entire big leagues with a 342 batting average and a 424 on base. a lot of other bold going on there 96 hits already ops plus of 200 let's talk about those guys this and not that which being rob manfred trying to put out the fluff piece which did not come away as a fluff piece and i wonder if he regrets this because i don't know if you guys have read

the article i went through it and i was hoping that i would just get to see more it was like manfred trying to explain that he went to a baseball game with his dad and That shaped everything. He loves baseball, even though he never actually says in the article he loves baseball. He tries to imply that. But what he did say a few things. I did touch on this on baseball today, but he wants to bring the game back to the way it was. I don't think people or young people in general want the game to go back to the way it was.

We don't want the game to go back to the way it was in the 70s and the 80s. Like that's not what you should be thinking as a commissioner. Forward thinking, Rob, that's what we need, dude. I had an extended rant on this on baseball today, so go check that out. What aspects of the game was he talking about? And what does he mean by was? He's talking about pace of play, which is, you know, his MO, we get that. That's what he's saying.

Like, guys got into the box, they got back on. And I agree, the pitch clock is going to be good for the game. But let's like, that's not going to get the younger audience in. and that's all they care about is trying to get the younger audience. Hey, how about you ask us? We know how to hit that demographic, and I can give you a bunch of reasons and ways to do it. You are not putting the game in front of the kids' faces,

like the way the NFL and the NBA do, okay? Like, lots of stuff going on. I don't want to hear about Rob Bantford anymore. We heard enough about you in the two lockouts that happened in the last two years. We're over that, dude. Stop trying to write puff pieces on yourself. Like, let's just focus on the game of baseball. and the players that are playing it and the teams that are good and the awesome fan bases.

I don't want to hear the commissioner, who, by the way, admitted publicly, even though we all know this, that he's just a, he's a protective piece for the owners. He said, that's the job. And I said this earlier, that's not what I envision my commissioner. You're not just a layer protecting the owners. You should, like, be trying to make the game better. Have baseball be your number one priority, not protecting the owners for some bad PR. I don't know.

Talk about this, not that. Here I am talking about him. He, uh, yeah, I was, saw July 1st on the calendar today and I was like, damn, like how far we've come from lockout, like to now is pretty insane. And I don't know, for me, it was all water under the bridge when he got all the players, those wireless headphones.

So I'm, I'm good. That's what I'm saying. He's going around parading around the clubhouse to clubhouse right now, trying to make amends bro you can't make amends nobody want first of all meetings during the season suck and then you put rob manfred in front of you and make you sit down in the clubhouse what do you think the guys that are number one they're either looking at him with like scorn or they're just like playing on their phones like what is this bro a little too a little too little too late i have radical changes that i'd make to baseball that uh everyone that listens to this show would hate me

for that i've i've decided well that's like the thing that he's come off as in this article. He's like, oh, it's going to be on my tombstone, the guy that tinkered enough with the game before they finally threw him out. It's like, dude, like, you're not, you're not doing what you think you're doing. Well, they just, every single change they make is revenue. And what I would want to do, they would never do because I'm cutting a lot of revenue. But, and pace of play should be thrown out the window. I do agree with that, but balls in play should be the term that everyone acquires wants to do more. And that's why I like Theo Epstein saying change of strikes on to wider, not taller,

not regulate the shift. Like I'm very excited. But I'd go to 100, I'd go to 150 game season with a balanced schedule and with rigid midweek. So you'd fit. So, so you, so fans know when, so they can build a routine out of it and less with less games. you get more off days. You get more stars playing and the star pitchers playing and the star and you get, stop getting these like punt day rest lineups where your bench player has to play.

And then you get a shorter season so you can expand the playoffs a little more. But I think you need to build into a weekly routine. But there's so much money I'm cutting from there right away. And I love baseball. It's like I want less games. I just think that if you really want people to be able to sink in 162, four-hour games or three and a half our games is fucking up. That's what that's why the NFL,

it's why the NFL rules, man, like people, they own Sunday. They own a day of the week. I mean, I'd like realignment. We've talked about that a little bit on this show. But we're getting a lot of this stuff. Like we're getting the shift, which I think is going to help and we're getting a balanced schedule.

And we're getting some of that stuff. And if Theo Epstein moves the strikes on, that would be great. But if they want the playoffs to be as big as they are, then they need to cut the regular season down. And there's a lot of wins that come with that. Just, yeah. Wouldn't it be cool if all the players played 148 games out of 150 again like they used to?

I would 100% be down for no Monday games. I think players would like love that too. That's what I'm saying. 154 I think you could still do that you don't have to go down to 150. I think you do 154. Whatever it is. Those Mondays off. Yeah.

Yeah. And you have a set day off and you have set like series and shit. Yeah, because who's watching Monday like nobody's watching Monday games and like the you know football comes around they have monday night football they kind of own that day too it's like a lot of things anyways yeah my whole point is like rob bro like stop trying to like make people like you do just if you if you consider yourself like your job is to just protect the owner just go do that bro like you don't have to be likable to do that clear you've you've shown that two more teams coming soon yeah i think that's a mistake do you think i should talk to rob like

seek him out at the draft. Yeah. I think you guys would hit it off. We might. He's a seven handicapped golfer, he said, which I call bullshit on that. Okay. Maybe we'll give some time for you guys to talk.

What you don't know is you can just post any scores you want in your freaking, you know, so, and I don't know why you'd want to be a seven handicapped, then you'd golf people like, you're not a seven handicap. That's the worst thing. Whatever.

Sorry, that's it. Good golf award. Taiwan Walker, her best friend of the week. 7.1, no earned. 3Ks, 4 hits. How about you?

Good stuff. What's next? Ready for it? The sheets filled out, I am. The stimulator simulator bringing you into Friday and the weekend. All right. Oh, once again, I don't like the way this is panning out. The Twins and the Guardians play the first wildcard series.

Division rivals meeting up in a best of three set. Cleveland. Yeah, makes sense. And then the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. In this, this says it would be in Boston, but I thought I read otherwise. I think as of today, it's in Boston. Toronto anyway. Oh, wow.

Okay. So then it would be the Guardian. versus the Astros. The Astros. And the Yankees versus the Blue Jays. Yankees. Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy. On the other side, the Brewers and the Cardinals meet up.

Brewers. In the wild card. Ooh, wow. Interesting. Go brew crew. The Dodgers are waiting and sitting and hoping the Padres and the Braves. Finish soon. They want to play.

Who are they going to play? They're going to play the Braves. Dodgers, Braves in the DS, Mets, Brewers in the D.S. Mets first Brewers. Who wins? The Mets. Mm. And the Dodgers and the Braves?

The Braves. Wow. Braves and Mets. Wow. Braves Mets in the championship series. Who's going to the World Series? The Braves. Run it back.

Oh, back to back. Back to back. Yankees Astros? The Astros. I didn't hear it. Astros. Oh, wow. Last week, it was Yankees Braves.

Now it's Astros Braves. Who wins the World Series? The Astros. Oh. Astros get revenge. Oh, no. It's their second win in the Simul, you later. I'd like it. I don't. Not a fan. Go Braves. Enjoy your fourth, everyone. No show on

Monday, people. Tuesday. Tuesday, we gotcha.