Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - How Each Playoff Team Can Win The World Series

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We're doing some strengths and weaknesses of the playoff teams in a special interview, John Boy, myself, Rob Lo. Let's talk ball. Hideo Nomo. Alex Bregman, because he's a dog and going to play. No-mo struck him out, though. Hello and welcome to talking baseball, presented by Fanatic Sports and Casino.

If you're locking in your baseball bets, Fanatic Sports and Casino is the place to do it winning hits different here. I am Jake Ribbitt Storyelli. That is Trevor Ribby Plouf. Power is power. Happy Frog Week to everyone who celebrates and happy final week of the baseball season.

The final midweek episode. Wow. That'll sting you. That'll sting you. That'll sting you at the end of September. Trevor Plouf coming live from the West Coast. How are you? I thought about doing the entire episode like this, a little

line frog at, but I don't, I don't think I got it. Which is actually freaking me out a lot right now. So I'm going to take it down. You're a sneaky info guy. I need to see. You got numbers in a laptop over there, I think. Been a minute. I got a lot of stuff. My screen right now is wild because I searched our preseason rankings and I went to images and like there is just a lot of stuff. We do a lot. We put out a lot of content. That's why we're the best show ever invented. Number one. Part of that is Rob Chiracco producing Dalton Feeley,

getting us some stats and info ready for this episode. And I do have a name drop to start the episode. I'm, well, with Rob Lowe coming on later. I got a DM from a player last night. A DM from a player I didn't follow. I now do. Nolan Aeronado. No.

I mean, one arguably. the best to ever do it at his position. Yeah, he just said, what do you say? Thanks for the love, something, some short and sweet like that, because that's how I operate. Thanks, thanks, bro, for the shout-out. So, I don't know. Just a couple third basemen, me and Nolan.

When were you even talking about Nolan? I mean, I talk about him everywhere I go, talking baseball, talking Yanks, waking Jake. I talk about Nolan everywhere. And it's amazing second half. I mean, he's great. We love Nolan Aeronado. Didn't expect that.

That's not who I thought you were going to say. Might be my... Not a salty vet like that. Him and Brooks Robinson might be my 1A, 1B video game third baseman. I like... I mean, I like leather over there, Trout. Look, I love Brooks Robinson.

What do you know about Brooks Robinson? I know that glove played. I know me and him... You've seen one play. You've seen one play. Me and him at the same. nickname the human vacuum cleaner, you know?

Who's my third base, man? My guy at third base. You have a guy. I don't know if he's your... I think Adrian Beltray might be my guy. You do. That sneaks out every now and then that you're like, ooh, Beltray.

No Longo, I don't know. I love Longo. I actually still consider Longo a shortstop. That's what I think of. Okay. Shortstop playing third. Let's talk about some of the playoff teams from this year. It's time, Trev.

I mean, there's only, there's one maybe on the board in the National League. Well, unless Dalt's snakes sweep, Nolan snakes, fuck. And the Padres lose out, which they've just been winning every game, basically. The NL is set. The A.L has one team that'll be left in or left out of the dance from the American League West. I think we do some AL first. And basically we can start in the AL East because it's also one part of the bracket. So we're going to have some info for you guys.

We'll talk about what it means, what it doesn't mean, or the ones that jump out to us. So in the AL and in the AL East, which again, the Yankees are probably 99% going to play the Red Sox, and the winner of that is going to go face Tampa. Tampa who's won the division, Trev. It is fun to see some of these numbers because as many times, you and I have hopped in front of the mics and like, dude, this Ray's team and the bottom of the lineups, pesky.

You know what I like? And it worked pretty well for last year's AL team. 1,085 strikeouts as a lineup. So hitting, that is an MLB low strikeout slash the best in Major League Baseball. That the Ray's refused to strike out. And, man, as we've done talking baseball and coming from the three true outcome era, it feels like, yeah, that matters. Obviously, impacting the ball matters, too,

unless you're Chandler-Simson. Some of the other good ones, 55 and 26 at home, which they will have, 25 and 14 and one-run games. And then 37 and 48 when scoring four runs or fewer, which is actually the best in baseball, which is kind of shocking. So those are all impressive race stats.

We're kind of supposed to go through the gist of this episode. We're going to have some of these stats team-wide. and kind of say, oh, this one matters or this one doesn't matter. For the raise, and it's not going to be like this for all the teams, all of those are very, very important to what they do. They put the ball in play. Now, they don't hit a ton of homers. Do they have guys that can do it?

Yes. Obviously, Junior Cameronero has, what, 40-something homers. But with a lack, I think they're 21st overall in homers in Majority Baseball, but they steal bases. So, like, you know, whereas, you know, there are teams that, put the ball in play, hit for high average, and maybe don't steal bases, they do. So, like, there is a really compliment to getting on base and not striking out. Putting the ball in play, putting that speed on the bases, I think matters, especially during the playoffs.

When that's what we're going for, like guys out of the pen, they're the strikeout guys. That's what we're looking for. The home record, as you mentioned, they're going to have that all throughout the playoffs. And, well, I guess maybe not in the World Series, right? What do you mean? Like they will not have a home field advantage in the in the World Series. That'll go to the winner in the NL, right? No, I think it's best overall record, right?

Yeah. So that's Milwaukee or them. Oh, are the Dodgers on front of them? I mean, we got a couple games left. The Dodgers are 97 wins. Okay, so one winner. Okay, so that's still in there. Yeah.

Obviously matters, man. And you know what's really cool about that? And, you know, you can talk about teams not wanting to go there, the catwalk, the, I don't know if it's a weird batterer Zay. People don't hit well there. But it's for that city, man. Like this roof was tore off of this stadium last year.

Right. And here we are playing again. We're not at Yankee Stadium of the South at the minor league park, which is crazy to think that's where the raise were. Now they get to do it in front of their home fans at their stadium for the foreseeable future. And yeah, I don't know. That means something to the city of Tampa.

This is for Tampa, Mr. Caminero mentioned to the crowd. Yeah, it's funny. All of these pass the eye test, first and average, second insulin basin. Kind of like you said, all of these lead to, okay, close games, kind of what matters. And it's like, well, having good arms come out, having contact bats, which I still think there's something in a lot of MLB front offices that don't connect the dot between, wait, you would really want this guy up in that situation? kind of like, yeah, because I need a ball in play, especially if you're going to be coming up against the best pitchers in the world.

Because that's what all these teams get reduced to. In the wild card rounds, a lot of teams will only let four guys touch the mound. As we see it expand, especially a seven-game set, it's a little more all-hands-on deck. But it's only the best pitchers that I do think there are some orgs that are devaluing putting balls in play. Because whether it's Toronto last year, Milwaukee this year, Tampa, this year, like, that clearly matters. Well, Toronto,

and I got to look this up, I mean, they're still putting the ball in play. And their eighth and average. So, like, they're 28th and LPS. It's somewhat of what they did last year, but they're 28th and homers and 27th and stolen bases. So like, you know,

and in OBP, they're only 25th. There's no walks, contact-oriented team, but they're not really getting on base. And then when they do get on base, they don't steal. Like, that's the difference to me. If you want to be a contact-oriented team,

a laud the raise, all all the brewers, when you get on, you have to have the ability to take the extra base and put pressure on the defense if you don't have the homers in your back pocket.

And those two teams do. Well, and part of that, so for the bad for the raise, 3.76 pitches per plate appearance. That's the second lowest. MLB. I don't know. I mean, we don't do a lot of pitch count watching in the playoffs unless one starter really has a special day, which maybe they can. And I'm hoping for my Yankees. That's their storyline. What about this 97 double plays turned by the race? It's the third

fewest in MLB. I mean, what I don't know. What does your mind do with that? Because mine kind of doesn't know what to do with it. Well, they don't let a lot of people on base. They're first and whip. So like that, you know, percentage-wise, rate-wise, I'd like to know what it is. Like, do you want your team to be able to turn double plays? Yes. Do I think of the Tampa Bay raise? And when I think about them playing defense, like, oh, they can't turn a double-play. I don't think like that.

So I think it's opportunities to turn double plays. It's probably less with them. So I would throw that stat out. I think so, too. And they have clearly been the class of the A.L. Going back till about the halfway point of the season. Today's episode is sponsored by booking.com. Booking. Yeah, an official travel partner of MLB.

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They've obviously been without judge. they're going to be without judge. Maybe that's a hot topic in this office, hot topic on baseball today. Go check that out as well. The Yankees good. It's one of those, again, Yankee fans in a way should be more excited. It's the best ERA, best in MLB, a 3-2-2,

and, again, the high-end guys, when we're talking about the starting pitchers that'll touch the bump. It's, I wouldn't say historic, but maybe close. with the names-wise and how they're performing right now. A lot of the stats ripple off that. And then if you see their second in Major League Baseball and home runs, I don't know.

Like the Yankees have a recipe, but we're shell-shocked right now, to be honest. Yeah, I think if Judge is healthy and you're banking on him, it's a completely different story. The second I'm usually baseball on homers is kind of crazy because Ben Rice has 39, but then I don't know if anybody else even has 20. Are they wrong about that?

On my Yankees, let's see. They do not have 20. Jazz Chisholm has 19. There's a bunch of guys, 18, 17, 19. So you can look at it one or two ways. It's kind of crazy that they led. There's not like a, besides Ben Rice, like a true home run hitter in that lineup,

if Judge isn't there. But you can also say, hey, man, anybody can put the ball out of the ballpark on this team. So I think I take it more of that way. Like, if you go down the lineup, Like George Lombard can pop one out of there. We know Volpe can pop one out. We know Jazz can pop one out.

So like I'm more on like this. That's a good stat even though nobody is 20 or above, which seems kind of crazy. I think down the lineup they have guys again hit the ball of bar out of the ballpark, which means a lot in the postseason. Their bad is a little scary, Trev, because it's a lot of the numbers we just said we think matter. Close games. 17 and 22 and one run games. 4 and 11 and extras.

I would like to challenge that just a little bit because they're the worst team in baseball, Manfred Runner on the road. They're the best at home. And in the postseason, there is no Manfred Runner. Really, 4 and O at home? Honestly, the stats are jarring since they instituted that rule. I will say, well, let's say, 27 blown saves

tied for most among playoff eligible teams. Not a lot of those are Bednar, which, okay, that's how do you do that? The worst on base percentage with base is empty. Hate that. And then just like 28th and batting average for these Yankees that misjudged, the offense sputtered and shut down. It's been better lately, but also it was like,

hey, he'll be back and now he's not. Pitching's going to have to carry this team. There's no doubt about it. I guess let's give us 90 seconds to talk about judge. I still, and again, no inside knowledge. You guys just talked to the manager. He's not going to tell you anything unless he did.

I would be shocked if he's not on the playoff roster. Like as a pinch hitter late in the game, I know he can't run. I know he can't play the outfield, but I think giving you an bat, like with, hey man, we need a homer here. We need our guy to come through.

I would be shocked if he didn't. I guess the severity of the injury is kind of, you know, that means something. Can he rotate? so ever on that calf, but to me, I'd be shocked. Yeah, it's interesting. And every, we got an office full of Yankee fans. Everyone's got an opinion.

And is it, is it there downplaying it? So he can give it a go. Is it, he's really hurt? And they're just hoping that for a quote unquote miracle, although that, a weird way to use that word. But yeah, we will see. When the Yankees post that roster, because, you know, Giancarlo Stanton's taking swings

against some minor leaguers. Trent Grisham, who pulled this. Hamie is taking swing. Yes. So the Yankees, I don't know, man. There's a chance they pull kind of an all-time Houdini. And the other thing that it has to go with this is these Yankees aren't your, and I guess this is words that I feel like I'm going to eat soon.

They're not 09, set it and forget it. They're not those teams like half the lineup is platoon. that depending, and especially the Boston Red Sox, who are first in bullpen, ERA, and whip amongst the major league teams, the pitching staff has allowed the fewest home runs. Ah, and that's what the Yankees try to do. And they've got a bunch of lefties that, yes, the Yankees, half their lineup, it's going to be pinch hitting as the game goes on.

or it might not because they could just go totally enranger to Eric Miller to Chapman and that could be your ballgame. That's kind of what I'm thinking, end of the ball game, thinking about Chapman versus Judge. Oh, fire me up, coach. Fun, Eric Miller, another lefty, like, okay. Make the call to Uncle Rob. The Yanks need to have Judge on that roster.

I want nothing but the best for Judge. If he's truly hurt and can't do it, then I get it. I'm just... I guess that's where... I'm kind of landing in the same spot, right? Like, if he was hurt, why wouldn't they just say

Aaron Judge will be out and, like, rip that band-a? Because I kind of said... Didn't they say that? No. They said they're not... They said we're not expecting him, but we're not ruling him out.

Yeah, I mean, I want to say something, but I think it'll probably give him trouble if I say something. Okay. Nothing against Judge. I'm not... I wasn't going to say anything bad about Judge. I'm just, okay, I'll say it.

Just so people don't freaking, you know, try to dig and say, I was going to say, I was going to say something mean. Maybe I shouldn't say football players. Oh. They figure out ways to get these guys to play. Right.

Kind of that way right now. It's like, Yeah, it's interesting. You got to do. If it's not going to make something worse, do what you got to do. I think there is a version where it could. A lot of calf injuries are tied to Achilles and stuff like that.

So again, this is what we don't know. We don't know. We don't know. We're just talking. We're just talking. The Red Sox Trev, I mentioned they're good. It's a lot of the pitching numbers. That fewest home runs allowed just shook me up a little bit.

They're batting 278 and lefty-lefty matchups. That's the best in Major League Baseball. Let's see. Their bad stats don't feel bad. 225 against division opponents is what Dahlts got. I don't know. This team for me, if there's a right, on the mound and my guy Mickey Gasper's going to be hitting two and now Roman

Anthony's back and Rafael is supposed to come back today. I just, I don't know, man. This first wild card series between the Yanks and the Red Sox is going to be. I can see this, I could see this being very low scoring. Both sides have great pitching. I think I, you know, we just read some stats about the Yankees and without judge. What is that going to look like? I also think there's a world where this Boston Red Sox offense, you know, gets stymied by the Yankees pitching staff. And we're looking at like, okay, yeah, one at bat towards the end of the game is going to matter. Who can move the runner over?

Who's got a chance to steal more bases? I know the Yankees actually rank pretty highly in stolen bases around the league, but it's really it's Caboero and Chisholm. Yeah. And maybe Lombard now. I don't know how he runs. He runs fine, but those two are two of the elite in baseball. Yeah.

And yeah, will Caballero be off the bench? Jazz just came back. To me, that's what it's going to come down to in this series, is it's going to be late inning play, moving runners, getting guys in against some really good relievers. I think these starters are going to do what they do. They're going to keep this game closed. And then, yes, who executes against the bullpen? And I don't really have a lean here, to be honest with you. Like, as far as there, it's not like the, if you said that about the raise in the Yankees or the rays and the Red Sox, it's like, yes, I picked the Rays.

Like they were going to be able to execute better late in games. Between these two teams, I don't really have a lien. Yeah, yesterday was kind of funny. The Yanks and Rays played a double header. Rodon shoved eight innings, zero and runs. Nick Martinez, six innings, two run runs.

That was all the scoring in that game. And then the next game, they come out, Drew Rasmussen, who's going to finish pretty high in the Sy Young this year. He shoves seven innings. He was no hit through most of it. And Max Freed. So it's just like, it for me it was a little bit of a playoff tease and a reminder like the guys who touch the bump

um it's the different level of dudes it's you know when when the box score ends up you open it up and it's a nine to three final score and the back end of the bullpen guys got knocked around a little bit they don't touch the mount uh in these series that Yankees red sox uh we built it up before the season It didn't play out exactly how we thought, and we're going to get it for three. Meanwhile, the go, or excuse me, the raise were just better. Trev, the central teams we've had fun with all year. The story of the White Sox is still incredible. And the guard dogs.

The guard dogs, they're good. Third in MLB and strikeouts from their pitching staff. So go back to what we're talking about. They have that on fleek. 142 stolen bases at seventh in MLB and the sixth lowest strikeout. Total. So yeah, I mean, these good Cleveland stats back up everything we said when we call them Milwaukee Light or a version of Tampa or whatever it is.

Like this is what they have. I guess what those teams have going against them is not a ton of playoff success in a lot of those team's histories. They're going to get to advance to the next round. So they don't have to play the wildcar round. I'm talking about the Cleveland Guardians most likely. I mean, look, the White Sox are one game behind them. So either one of those teams is not going to have to play in the wild card around.

So there's a start for you. But as far as the Guardians go, it's very obvious that they're going to go as far as their starters take them. And they have some good ones, especially in a five-game set when they're able to line it up. That means you're going to get Parker Messick and Gavin Williams, four out of the five games, I believe, which is a pretty good recipe to move on to the ALC. Yes, if you're asking me, because they have, you know, there's guys in that lineup that can get the job done. I think they're a team that can move runners. I think they're a team that is going to play defense. So in the end, yeah, I don't think there's anything surprising about these stats.

Some of the ones we came on here, oh, that's a jarring stat. With the guardians, you know what you're going to get. They're going to have run prevent, and then someone's got to come up with a big hit. Does J-Ram turn it back on when the playoffs start? Does he become that guy again? Or are they going to rely on their compliment pieces? Is DeLotter and Bazana going to get a chance to really kind of cement themselves already young in their career as like, hey, these are the guys we're going to rely on in the future? So they're a fascinating watch.

I think, again, it's run prevention at all costs. I would say of the bad stats I've seen, and we've been joking at Chris Rose recently, 23 and 35. against teams with a better than 500 record, worst among playoff eligible teams. That's a number that rarely like, we see a lot, dude. We see a bad bullpen ends up being great in the postseason. The Atlanta Braves, the Texas Rangers,

and their postseason runs, their bullpen was their Achilles heel, and because they shortened it and they got good performances and guys got hot, a bullpen problem kind of can get overturned. It can also not. It could end your season. season instantly. If you're bad against the good teams, Trevor, it's rare that we end up at the end of

October and we're like, yeah, they were horrible against the good teams and they crushed it. I don't think they have a winning record against any of the playoff teams as of right now. One in five against Tampa. I'm only going to go in AL right here. They're two and four against the Yankees. Two and four against Houston. Six and seven against the White Sox. two and two against Boston. We're playing right now, so we'll see. Yeah, I mean, so that's, that is it, that is a troublesome stat if you're a Guardians fan, but also at the same time, all the Guardians fans I know, I guess I only know one.

He hates his team all the time, so. Yeah, and a lot of the other offensive stats are bottom five in the league, and it's a reminder, There's a lot of bad teams in this league. The White Sox, on the other hand. Six and run scored on the season, 13 in OPS. Compared to last year where they were 27th and 28th in those two stats, that's not bad. They lead the AL and run scored. So the top five scoring teams are in the NL.

That checks out. Their bullpen has thrown the most innings pitched and have the seventh lowest ERA, which I see half bad stat, half good stat there. They score a lot in the early innings, 440 runs in the first five. So as we get into this in the playoffs and whoever scores first and those kind of stats are rolling up, that's actually, that piques my interest. That's one of my favorite stats that we have on the sheet. Can you get a lead, put the pressure, especially in a three-game set.

That is paramount. Let's go out there. and you make the other manager make decisions, especially if you're using the bullpen as much as they do. You know, you're going to have to early pinch hits, especially if you're scoring first on the Chicago side. Like I said, you're going to make the manager have to make these decisions. And we'll see if Will Venable can goate whoever they're playing into,

yeah, taking some of their players out early in the game because of the platoon advantage. So that'll be a fascinating part of whatever series they're part of. They're still in the running, as I mentioned, to get that. I think that would help them a ton. You know, the starting pitching is not the strong suit of this team. But to be able to line it up at all, I think, would help them. Man, that's a lot of bullpen innings. Worst record on road this season of the eligible playoff teams.

Well, tied with the Rangers, but again, we don't know. Strikeout the fifth most, a lot of high strikeout numbers. Yes. A lot of the guys. You're going to see them strike out a ton in the postseason. There's no doubt about it. They are looking for their guys to hit some homers. And then as best as they can, yeah, hit with orange and squaring position.

Is there anything? This is dumb Jake Brain. So you can say that if it's the answer. If you are a team that strikes out a lot, is it easier to shrug off? Like, this just isn't what we're good at. Like, if you're the White Sox, you're clearly like, hey, Mooney, Montgomery. we're trying to hit ding-dongs if we strike out. Is it a little easier to process if you look up in the sixth inning

and you've got DeGrom has 12 strikeouts against you? Yeah, you're used to it, I think. Yeah, I guess so. But it still doesn't feel good. And again, I think whatever these first two rounds, whether you're in a three-game set or a five-game set, I think it starts to feel, you start to feel exposed a little bit because of, you know, teams, as you mentioned earlier,

are going to pair their pitching down so much that, it might even be more than you're used to and that could put you in a bad headspace. I'll double up with the ALS because one of these teams will be the team that misses the postseason. It's my Texas Rangers. It's your Houston Astros. Same record as we record this, 78 and 79,

and is going to have an argument of one of the worst teams to ever make the postseason in baseball history. The Rangers, 46 home runs on the first pitch of at-bats. That's the most in baseball. the old Trevor Plouf jump them. All right. They mash lefties, both the best batting average and OPS against lefties. So that's massive, depending who they run into.

And a great on base percentage on the road, second in the AL. Okay, so that's of note. Let's see, 14 and 19 when their opponents score in the first inning. 14 and 39, excuse me. That's the second worst in MLB. Anything on Texas, Coach Treve? I watched them. play. I watched this game last night

against the Mets and they it was defensive miscue after defensive miscue like in the outfield a little bit of miscommunication a couple balls in the infield Josh Young stepping on third base possibly had a double play across the diamond didn't make the throw and

these are essentially playoff games for the Rangers so that watched them play I think they got sweat by my twins pretty sure that's what happened I don't have like a great feeling when I watch the Rangers and like

again we're in that playoff mode right now and like the defense kind of shutting down on them last night has me like I don't know man that's got to be a scary thing for you heading into the place although you're seeing you've all the guy I think you had touched up a little bit last night but they're starting to get that pitching back

which helps I as of now and, you know, I'll put my, I'll put it out there. I don't have them making the playoffs. Houston has the tiebreaker already, so they control their own destiny. And if they play like they did last night, it's not going to happen. Ethos life insurance, Trev, you're maybe the number one family, man. Talk about the importance for you and your family.

You know, all you want to do is protect your family. I just got finished doing my last, like, road trip of the season, got home. And my kids just like, I feel like they're growing every day. And they need, they need their dad. They need protection. And I think one of the best ways to protect your family, your kids, and everybody involved is with ethos. Ethos, life insurance. They make it simple for you.

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and you can get it done between innings. So take the 10 minutes to get covered today with life insurance through ethos. Free quote at ethos.com slash talking. That's ETHOS.com slash talking. Application times may vary. Rates may vary. Well, Holston, Houston, with what I was going to, the joke I was going to make, because I'll hold my beer, because I'm sure Houston fans,

some of them believe, some of them probably don't believe at all. They are the worst against left-handed pitching or amongst playoff-eligible teams. The fewest stolen bases in baseball, the second-most walks recorded by a pitching staff. That's not of playoff teams. That's the scary part. Some of the good most home runs on the road this season in baseball. Sure. Road-dogging it.

And then Trev, I feel like you like this one. Nineteenth most runs in MLB, but the second most runs with two outs. So I don't, I know that's something you value about the good teams. I just, yeah, I mean, that's the momentum shifter is a two-out knock. So I do like that Houston in Seattle right now. They went in two and nine. And one last night, Yorgon kind of took the game over. And Seattle's just like, can't wait to get home and get rid of this season.

I don't know. Yeah. I, I, yeah, the actual. They're an interesting team, man. Like, I feel like they haven't gotten all of their pieces hot at the same time offensively all season long. I think they can have a pretty damn good offense. It just hasn't been that way.

And maybe it can. Cam Smith, who I think when they played the Phillies hit homers in three straight games and he was, he's on a prolonged slump. He had a great swing last night. Like, can all these guys get going together and then let Yordaun do his thing because if they're not, we're going to pitch around your Don in the postseason as much as possible. We have to have people around him doing the job.

It would make it a lot easier. I said, if they can freaking somehow get guys going together offensive at the same time, then I'm like, hey, okay, we can really see this team have a chance. Let's be done with them because it's a midweek, so it was a toss-up, probably should have just started with the NL, because it's just so much, so much better. It's reading that. That's a lot better.

Reading that stat that the top five teams in baseball come from the NL. That's insane. We go east, I'm sorry, and we'll start with the winners of the east. It's the Atlanta Braves, 92 and 65. Two-strike offense, they lead baseball in slugging and average. Wow, they're low numbers, but it's with two strikes. That's when the pitchers really driving the bus. the best batting average against breaking balls.

Okay, Dalton is mixed bag right now. In that bullpen, Trev, a lot of the numbers there are elite. The starters are better at home. The most late home runs, do you believe in clutch? 72 homers in inning seven through nine is the most in baseball. I mean, do I like that stat a ton? Does it continue to go throughout the playoffs? I don't think so, but yes.

Why not? like if you were to pick one stat and you say okay it's going to continue this way you might pick that one yeah we're going to homer late in games like yes I'll take that either you're going to add on to your lead or you're going to be able to come back so I do like that for the Braves again hard to tell if that's going to continue in the postseason but they have all the makeups of a team that can go deep into

the postseason they have the top end starting pitching their bullpen's been fantastic I think their lineup can be very very long. They kind of have it all. So I'm big on the Braves. Wasn't too sure what to make of their starters going into the season. But

Chris Sale obviously has been fantastic. Martine Perez has kind of come out of nowhere. And even with all the injuries that they had, they've been able to figure it out. So I'm big. Big on the Braves. Man, their bad numbers are

interesting. A lot of it is bad against starters and early in the game, which it's funny that they have all those great late game stats that we just got jazzy about. That is wild. And if you're a Braves fan, like, what does that feel like? I haven't watched the Braves every single game. The games that I have, I guess I haven't noticed,

like they don't score early. That's, yeah, that's, we just talked about who, the White Sox getting out to an early lead. Yeah. What does that mean? Nine inning game, Braves catchers. I don't, yeah, I don't. don't like that stat at all.

Braves catchers have only thrown out 13% of runners attempting to steal. That's the second lowest in baseball to Minnesota. We're good at ABS challenges though, so who cares? The Phillies. That's a pitcher's stat anyway. Nice, coach. Well done. Thank you.

AJ Minter not even looking at Anthony Volpe at second base. You know, you saw it. AJ Minter is in Cabo San Lucas. The Phillies. Most strikeouts by a pitching staff. Yep. Highest slugging when the pitcher is behind in the count. Okay.

So when they're driving the bus, that makes sense. Scored first in 60% of their games, that's the best in MLB in 25 and 16 in one-run games. Treff, circle that whole section. Yes. That's what we like. Yes. I didn't know any of those stats, to be honest with you.

All the scored first stuff is this is something that even if you watch games, you don't really know, and now they put all the numbers together. You need a season's worth of stats to really... First and 60% of their games, that is. Are the Braves just going to be out because of that stat alone? Yeah, well, dude, this is this not a classic game of, you know, Jimmy used to do stats that exist but don't matter.

It... This is an exercise in it. Like, hopefully we're finding things that do matter, but, you know, I think of the post-season. seasons past. Randy Rosarena, being the best player to ever play baseball. Adoles Garcia, who's not with these Phillies anymore. He had one of the most amazing postseason runs I've ever seen that you could, one guy can get rid of a chunk of these stats. 25 and 16 in one run games, I did not have that from Philadelphia Phillies. It really doesn't,

to me, doesn't match their roster makeup, but did they just like mash? I don't know. I don't I don't know what that means. Okay, I'll give you something you don't like. Lowest batting average on the road in the NL this season. Second lowest OPS with two strikes. They're relievers and lefty-lefty get rocked. That one I don't like. I feel like you've got to have guys that are able to get lefties out.

This is perfectly Phillies. Like the good numbers, you're like, absolutely. The scary ones are kind of horrifying. Opponents ahead in the counter hitting 375 against the starters. Don't like that. And then also, yeah, 823 lefty, lefty matchups. Let's just think about

some of the lefties they're going to have to face. I mean, there's a lot of them in the National League, dude. Or lefty. Maybe the only team you're not really thinking about is like the Padres. Jackson Merrill's lefty and young Ethan Salas. But if you're talking about the Dodgers,

there's some lefties. isn't there that you're going to have to get out. If you're talking about the Braves. Dustin Harris, Jake Croninworth, my podros. You love Dustin Harris and I do love my guy. The Crohn Zone.

Crohn's zone. That's a bad stat right there. I don't like that stat for the Philly. Okay, so takeaways that you and I and the listeners are looking for. Philly with the best good and the best bad, or the worst bad, I should say. Ooh, I think that one run, what's the one run stat?

Who is that? The Yankees? Yeah, they do. Oh. Can we talk about the Milwaukee Brewers? Yeah. Is there a bad stat? Oh, they don't homer, Trev.

Yeah, we know that, but they steal bases. I think. The best run differential in baseball, the best on base percentage in baseball. Let's see. 402 on the first pitch of the at bat. That's the best in MLB? What the hell is that? And they're also on plate appearances the last five or more pitches.

They have the highest OPS with basically the second best pitching stats in a lot of categories. There's a reason they've racked it up this year. They do everything well. I don't know, man. I've watched a lot of their games, and they do something almost every game. I'm like, holy crap. Like, this is impressive. It's not like the punchy brewers finding ways to win.

it's like no, like they beat teams down. It's like not, okay, that's, and I'm not a boxing guy. Oh, I like watching boxing. Interesting. But they don't, it's like the knockout punch isn't there, but they, they win, they, okay, I know I figured it out. It's like Olympic style boxing. They're winning on points every single game. Floyd Mayweather, they're the Floyd Mayweather of Major League Baseball.

They're not getting, they're not getting hit, but they're throwing a bunch of little jabs, scoring points, racking up points, racking up points, racking up points. That's what the Milwaukee Brewers do. It's all the little things that add up to the win. They're so impressive, man. Luis Lara, I said this about whoever that guy was on the Phillies a couple of years ago. He's going to have a great... Rojas, Johan Rojas.

Luis Lara will have an impact catch in the postseason. Mark my words, and that's the easiest take you're going to have of the playoffs. I can't add much more to the brewers being Floyd Mayweather. Uh, their rivals. That is really funny to think about like Yelly and Floyd Mayweather hanging out. Oh, did we hang out? I mean, I went to the Floyd Mayweather charity event. Yelly was probably there too.

Sorry. Sorry for everyone. I had to hear that. The Chicago Cubs. Wow, that's actually cool, Trev. What? It's a Floyd Mayweather signed glove. The Chicago Cubs.

Plus 69 team fielding run value that is the best among teams in the last decade. We knew they can pick it. They pick it at a special level. First in MLB and runs, home runs, OPS and slugging? Say, what? I did not have all of that. When did this have? I guess PCA and Bregman going nut job to finish the year

and the friendly confines help in a little bit, but nobody's talked about the Cubs offense that way. I knew they were doing well. I did not have them like that. And I guess we're forgetting about our one guy, Suzuki also. Doug. He helps a lot.

So right now they have Suzuki with 25 homers, PCA 45. Our guy Ian Hap with a sneaky 24, Alex Bregman 26, Michael Bush has 20, Swanson sitting at 19. Okay. All right. Sheesh. So you're banging the ball around,

and you're the most elite defensive team of the decade. Well, 228 home runs allowed by the pitching staff is the second most in Major League Baseball. So again, the wind... I think Wrigley had a big year. I think Wrigley had itself a nice season. Their strikeouts by pitching staff is the fewest among playoff teams, 26 in Major League Baseball

and their relievers have the highest hard hit average. So I think Cubs fans are nodding along at home like, yep. So our bullpen gets rocked and there's home runs at Wrigley. That's what we've been seeing all year. Yeah, in my mind,

I guess I've got to go back and think about like where I rank pitching staffs of all these teams, I think the Cubs would be not near the top. Correct. So there is that. They're going to have to score. They're going to have to defend because they don't have that show-stopping, starting pitching or bullpen, if we're being

honest. Yeah, I mean, they're going to need someone currently listed as a rotation guy to be very good in the pen for them. And they'll almost need, I hate to do this with Dalt in the room, but the 23 D-backs when that bullpen all came together and like we knew their recipe on a given night. It was like, hey, here's 6, 7, 8, 9. If this works, it works. If not, we're done. We've seen it a lot.

Yeah. It could happen where you'd come in and you're like, this is not a strength of our team. We talk about the Rangers. Rangers fans don't like when we say that, but that was true. They had no idea how they were going to finish ball games and they figured it out because guys got hot.

Again, that's where I know Cubs fans don't, like this, but with his history, if you could have Clay Holmes pitch every game for you instead of one game for you, it's interesting to me. It's interesting to me. I would, Dalt's asking how much, I'd have him be a reliever in that bullpen. So if it's 1.1, yeah. Um, because I give the ball to our guy Javier Assad and let him cook, let him chef. Uh, Zephyr John Rawlison and Palencia. How will we be talking about those guys in a couple weeks. Oh, the Dodgers. Have you seen this one?

Rob Lowe's about to talk about them. He knows them pretty good. Second in baseball, an OPS and Slug. Great average when leading off an inning, the best in MLB. Interesting. The best in MLB in hitters counts. Starters have a strike rate of 67% in two strike.

Okay, tall. That's sicko stuff. Let me give the bad to, Trev, and tell me if any of this matters, because they're obviously going for a three-ped and a special team. The most double plays, maybe I'm actually asking the wrong guy about that, most in baseball. 2.29 average with two outs this season. That's the second lowest in the NL.

And Dodgers starters have allowed 40 home runs with two strikes. That's the second most in Major League Baseball. I don't know about that. They're coming off the IL sheet is just a banger. Yeah. Like they're kind of getting healthy right at the right time. Shocker for them. Shohei comes back tonight. We'll see how he looks. As far as starting pitching goes, we know they can do that. They're getting Rokie's back. Edwin Diaz is kind of like looking like himself again, which is a big...

I'm curious to see what kind of trust he can. get back from Dave Roberts in the last five games. He's looked good. I think the last three outings have been scoreless, if I'm not mistaken, or is it just three innings? I forget. But he looked good last night against the Padres. Does he find himself in late leverage situations? I'm not sure. What do they do with Roki?

Does he become the guy at the end of the game, or is he going to be the multi-eaning guy? Like you're trying to get Clay Holmes to be? We will see they are set up. They're positioned as about as good as anybody for this. run and I've honestly like we do this all the time and people might disagree with this but I feel like we put the dodgers on the back burner until the postseason hits yeah and looking now it's like oh god like will Smith is back hitting like everything is lining up exactly how they'd want to

line up like Blake Snell is is going to throw right like he's not hurt I'm I'm a believer in baseball I want to believe every team can catch the magic every team can have the sauce and I'll throw shrapnel here, and it's a team that, like, when you look at who's going to pitch for the Dodgers, and you compare that to who's going to pitch for Houston, like, that's kind of jarring. That, yes, the Dodgers are going to be graded on just a completely different level. It's can someone short-series them? Can the Phillies, Cubs, Padres jump up 2-0 on them or something? Like, that's what everyone's going to be wondering, because I don't,

it is baseball, and Toronto almost had them in seven, but man, they also didn't. And the Dodgers won. And they make the right play, and they take the extra bit. Like, they play good baseball while having this super team of talent. Do you remember the Migi Rojas play at second base? Yes, where if he grabs a wrong scene, Toronto. How do you even field that ball, number of one? Dog.

dog makes the throw everyone's mad at i kaff or not taking a bigger lead that was that would end of the game yes pa has and kike collided oh by the way paas is back yeah sure is the best center field during baseball for about half a year um oh there's a miggie row play we should play this more oh my gosh dude how was i kaff not like more like excited like thinking he's safe. I don't, that's, I'm getting anxiety looking at the highlight right here.

I mean, remember Will Smith's foot comes off for a half second here. Like, this play could be remembered so much differently. That's, for baseball,

that is an old man. I'm telling you how that freaking play is at second base that he made that nobody talks about. All they talk about is IKF here.

Mickey Ross, I don't know how many second base, to make that play. Think about your team, not just you, Jake, I'm listeners. Think about your team. Does your second base win make that play? And when it matters,

when it matters? When it matters. I don't think I make that play. Game seven of the World Series died four to four. Was he safe? Like, what is? No, he wasn't. He wasn't.

And all of that. With the Dodgers going for. Oh, God. If he just runs straight. through the base as he's safe? There's talks about that. I mean, the secondary. With all that, as the Dodgers go chase a three-ped

and me and Jim have some Rob Lowe, and there's a lot of Dodgers in there. San Diego. The Padres, the first team where their stats, start off with a split from September 6th, first in runs, first in homers, first in average, first in OPS, first in war, 13 and 2 in that time.

timeframe. 140 runs and close and late is the most in baseball. That's on the year. Okay. That's interesting. Their catchers throw out runners at the highest level in baseball, so their pitchers deserve credit to, Trev. And we know a lot of the relief stats.

Best ERA at home, best against left-handed batters. And they also hit VLO. So this is one of the better good sections I've seen as well. what is the Velo stat? I'm going to get back to the page. A 4-10 slug on pitches 95 miles per hour greater. That's the second best in the National League. You're going to see a lot of that.

Yeah, that's a very, very good stat. I mean, yeah, you kind of know like the Padre's song and dance here. Resurgent offense, Tatis getting it going, Jackson Merrill getting it going. So they have their guys, type France, I feel like, doesn't ever get talked about. when we talk about the Padres, or at least not enough. So I do think that if you go up and down the lineup, and you're going to mention Dustin Harris, you might even talk about Smod Taylor,

but I think they have a chance to score runs up and down the lineup, which is good. To me, everything hinges on what type of starting pitching they can get. And they do not need these guys to go deep in the game. They just need to go five. Like five and dive is a beautiful term. If you're a San Diego Padres fan, I think that is the number one thing.

I am looking for and I don't think that's like some hot take or some deep analysis. Michael King, I think you look at him and you're like, hell yeah, I want him on the mound. Every other starter,

you probably don't say that. But there's been some, look, you got guys that have track records, Mize and Ray, like what are they going to give you at Walker Bueller? Is he going to play a big part in this?

That is what you look at for the podgers is what are the starters going to, going to give us. It's a fascinating case. And like, I wonder, I wonder if they get curious with that bullpen. Do you do an opener with a Bradgley to try to get it to case and like get a lead early and have Tatis Homer? Like, that's interesting. I don't know if that's being talked about in Padre Land or not. Yeah, what, I want to know what their rotation. Because, because right now, they're all locked in. And we talked about this on baseball today. Like, I don't think you're chasing the ones like the home field advantage.

I don't think you're chasing because all those three teams are locked at the same record. San Diego does not hold a tiebreaker against either the Cubs or the Phillies. In fact, I think the Cubs hold it over both of those teams. I think you line up your pitching as best you can. And again, like, I don't know what that means for them. I'm curious what the rotation will be. I'm with you on the opener and maybe they do something like that. But yeah, that's it for them.

Well, in the final bad section, they don't, second lowest slugging at home in the NL. It's a tough ballpark for that. We'll hear about the Marine layer again. But Trev, this is one there, I'm going to have to have a conversation with myself in the mirror. 28 and 42 against winning teams. That's the second worst amongst playoff teams. That was the stat.

I said you can't, you can't dodge that. the only way you could spiritually dodge it is if you truly think they are a different team come this September, which they have been. Well, they're the hottest team going into the playoffs. So that, to me, negates all of that. Like, you'd rather, if you tell me, hey, you're going to be this during the regular season against winning teams, but you're going to go into the postseason winning like 18 of your last 24 games, I'll take that.

Boom, let's go. Like, they're hot It's hot You're hot We're hot I'm hot That's a good song That was some strengths and weaknesses

Let us know below What you like What you think? Maybe Dalt missed Get salty with him And be like How did you not bring this up Dalt with a final turn

I knew about that One You didn't know this stat about my team No No No No. I don't know all the stats about your team. That's why we get on here and talk ball, so we learn about them.

We just know ball. Speaking of, we'll cut to Jimmer, myself, and Rob Lowe. A lot of Dodgers, a little bit of life in there, per usual. Life advice, Pat, it's always been. And then we'll come back because it is Wednesday. You know what's coming. Giving Instant Grades on our new glitch collection, where we just added new shirts.

Let me see what we got. Phillies. 9.5 out of 10. Yankees. 96, 9.6. Big year for them. What do we got here? The Mets?

Oh, 9.1. If we're being, sorry. Go talk to Jolly. What do we got here? Oh, the snakes? Yes. 10? 10.

What do we got here? Boston Red Sox also a 9.1. Go talk to Jack and Zoe. What do we have here? Here. Oh, Sanit Fernando. That's pretty good. I like that. 9.7. We got a couple more.

Rockies. I'm keeping this one. Also a 10. Didn't open it. Halos. Swilly, 9.4. And our last one. Oh, the Motor City, kiddies. Go check out one of our best-selling collections.

Limited quantity at shop. jomboimedia.com. Scan the QR code for an adamant 15% discount or click the link in the show notes. Get yourself or a loved one, a glit shirt today. We are joined by Rob Lowe. This is third or fourth appearance with us. And is it weird that this is the first time NFL season has started before your baseball season. Now your baseball season is about to begin.

As a Dodger fan, this is the beginning of the baseball season. We just kind of yawn and stretch and, you know, get their arms lengthened and, you know, don't pay attention until now. And now we all, we start to get it happening. It's a nice feeling. Are you as hungry for a championship as like last year or the year before? For sure. Three Pete is, I think I would be more hungry for three Pete than back to back because no one's done three Pete in the national league. I think in any pro league for 30 years or something.

Were the Yankees the last people to do it? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean, back to back, the Yankees are the last team to do that. But I think if you include the other sports league. Yeah, like Golden States and New England.

Yeah. And the Chiefs like teams. have done that, but yeah, three pipsy yanks. I think the narrative that the Dodgers are ruining baseball by spending to win, I think, is motivating the guys a lot to come out and to do that, to crush and to go, yeah, you're right. Yeah. It's also, I mean, they were one inning away from losing last year.

That's what I'm saying. It's not like they steamrolled them. No, they didn't. I mean, have we, I don't know if we've been here since, I think maybe we've talked about this, but I replay the catch in my mind all the time and go, was Kiki going to catch that ball or not? Oh, look. Oh, the ghosts.

The frogs are fighting. Yeah. The frogs are fighting. I think he was. I think I did a video on it, or at least I was spent a lot of time watching it. And I think Kiki was going to catch it. He was just going through.

It was good. They went for two different ways to go about it, which just shows how good the Dodger. They had two guys catching that. Two guys. That's right. That's what we got. Where are you at with Kyle Tucker?

because that's been one of the weird ones this year. He, he, he, he, he seems like he's turned it around. I'm knocking on wood. Yeah,

because it was, it was brutal. Yeah. Absolutely brutal. And I, you know, it's funny. I,

I get to talk a little bit to, to the, the people there who know what's going on. And I'll, every once in a while, I'll act like an actual fan and complain about somebody. And,

and there was a brutal stretch. Last year, you forget the pop. has went through, speaking of the catch. Really rough stretch. And I was like, I asked somebody, I said, what the, what is going, come on, guys. And they said, believe me, there's more in the tank. And then you saw what he did this year.

And you go, you realize, oh, yeah, I'm just a fan. I don't know anything. The pros, no. They know what's underneath the hood. They really do. I saw a video that was like top 10 balls that Tucker should have caught. And I was, my job was on the floor. I was like, there's 10 of these.

during his bad stretch. It was just like 99 catch percentile and he just dropped it. It was very odd. I wish we were stronger defensively in the outfield for sure. But listen, we're going to be fine. I mean, the notion that we could make it

to the World Series without having to pitch scuba is kind of amazing. It's also other people judged Tucker against his contract. And knowing from being a fan of the early 2000 Yankees when you really don't care about the money at all. Like, I truly didn't care about the money at all

until Hal started operating underneath the tax. Like Dodgers fans, why do you care what he's making? There's no limit to it. You know what I mean? I've never gotten into it. It doesn't matter to me. As a fan,

it's never mattered to me. Like, that guy is making X, Y, and Z. So he should be, I don't know why that's never been a calculus for me. Well, for some fan bases, their teams operate under, you know, we're giving him 70 minutes, so then we can't get this guy,

this guy. Understood. That makes perfect sense. Yankees of my youth and the Dodgers of now. So other fan bases are holding Tucker to a standard. I think even Dodgers fans kind of don't care about right now. They're like, well, if he wins in the postseason, it's all worth it. That's a nice place to be his fan.

And I always thought even when he was really struggling, I was like, this is the guy who will come up in BR. Migi Rojas in the play. He'll come up with no expectations and deliver some ginormous, you know, moment for us. How about, go ahead, Jake. Is there any N.L. Fear? Is it like, the Cubs? Okay. Why so? Crow Armstrong. Okay.

You know, that rabid fan, Wrigley, America's sweetheart, perennial underdog. Do you know what I mean? Just the storyline. We love that storyline. Midwest with an L.A. boy, kind of doing the thing. Yeah. I mean, he went, he's a son of a bunch of two actors. It's wild. It's crazy. It's wild. He's a beast. And it's not even, the thing that's, like, it's kind of known.

Like, he's having, he's having like an all-time season. Did he get 40-40 yet? I think he's one steal away as we record this. So I'll report it now. Like, yes. But he's, it's incredible. It was like, oh, if he can get on base a little bit, he'll be a great ball player. And it's like, well, he's the second best hitter and the best defender in baseball.

He's amazing to watch. I love, love, love watching. And I love the Cubs. I, I'm a fan. It's iconic. They're the Cubs, like Wrigley and all of it. They're the only ones that, look, anything can happen in baseball. And I don't love short series.

Yeah. You know, I've never, you know, seven-game series, the best team's going to win almost every time. But you can get jumped. But look, I like our starting pitching. So San Diego, there's no David and Eliath. San Diego. Can we stop? Can we put a stop to this conversation?

Done. What more needs to happen? I don't know. We have a San Diego fan in the office, so we just laugh knowing he's going to listen. And I get all riled up. Riled up. They get riled up. He's like, he's one of our like, sweetest happy go luck.

He's from San Diego. He's like a delightful guy. But if there's like, if the Dodgers get like, like Joe Davis will get mentioned and you'll see him like. Yeah. He'll have that like serial murder turn. Yeah. How could he do that to us? It's like, I don't know, man.

He calls the games. He's pretty good. I love Joe. I thought this might be very rare, Jake. We talked about this on the show. at PCA, you just talked about 40, 40, 40. Also 100 RBI's 100 runs scored. Yes.

Do you know how many times that's been done? We asked this on the show yesterday, but we didn't. One, two, three, four, five. No. Yeah. First one was Konseko in 1988, then Barry Bonds in 1996, Arod in 1998, then Akuna in 2023, and Shohei in 2024. Wow.

So that is a very special season. Well, being like the best defender, too. It's not like Konseko, I think back then before he kind of blew up literally and figuratively. He was good, but he wasn't, he wasn't. Yes, like Pete Crowe. Gold Glove. He could win the Golden Glove, too. Yes.

Yes. What a stud. That's insane. I am, I know he's not going to win Sy Young, but I have my own pitching stat that I look at. And Yamamoto is unbelievable. He is a machine. I have a breakdown starts into like was it a dud so you know did you basically lose the game for your team you know you only go two innings three innings you have five more runs stuff like that zero of his starts you could pin the loss on him and then the other is did you go basically like six innings of two run ball six I like this I like this the way that you're breaking this down that's how it should be done it sounds like to me yeah I like that better because the outliers can sometimes you can have two horrible games and I can skew things.

Yep. But also not having any dud starts is great. You know, if you only have a couple. And then 81% of his starts, I call it just like they won the game. Like maybe the team didn't win it, but the starting pitcher gave, handed the bullpen a lead or handed the team like, hey, you should win this. Score three runs you win. And it's by far and large the most in baseball.

He's, he reminds me a lot of, of Hersheiser when Oral was just, on that role because they're like not big guys and they're dominant but also have the ability to place the ball almost anywhere and he's he's so much fun to watch. Yamamoto is so much fun to watch. The investment in the Japanese players has been crazy one for like the spending and the advertising and marketing but also Yamamoto came over and then the Dodgers took all the Japanese like trainers over and they all too all like you change so much of your like infrastructure. Yeah, we're throwing javelins in the outfield now and shit. Why not?

It's working. It's working. Everybody wants to train like the Japanese players do now. You look at, I mean, the Yankees, their signature for years has kind of been like the monsters. It's been Judge Stanton and now we're going into the postseason debating if they're going to play. And Yamamoto, the 510, 170 pound guy is going to be out there. Injuries are such a thing in all of sports right now. I mean, with the NFL losing so many quarterbacks in the first.

It's like, it's, it's, and it's, and it, in, it, it, it, in. And it can end your, you know, your season. Do you have a theory? Because everyone, like, in their head does and, like, Wade Boggs will come out and be like, well, they got to drink more beers and stop lifting weights. Like, there's kind of, there's probably something there. It's probably not the game plan going forward. Do you think there's something else?

Like, are they just too big, too fast? I honestly don't know. I feel like I've heard all the arguments as you guys have heard, and all of them kind of makes some, you could, all of them make sense. But it's, it's, like, I saw the giants lose dart, and that's, it's, it's, it's, just breaks your heart for the fan base and for everybody. It's the worst. I mean, I'm knocking on wood that the Dodgers seem to be getting healthy at the right time.

But they were so smart about how they ran the roster this year. That's what they get to do. Yeah, it's the benefit of having that roster. Yeah. And knowing, and the division isn't as hard as other divisions. They make it that way in a way. But like, they can just rest pitchers and keep them healthy. The buy-in you have to get, you have to pay for that because guys are playing for the next contract.

But the Dodgers are paying you enough money that you're like, hey, you know, Snell, you're good. Why don't you just pitch half the season and be ready for the postseason? Some younger guys are going to be like, no, I need to get my 30. I need to get my numbers to get the next contract. They're like, well, we'll defer your money. So you're getting paid for the next 30 years anyway. So smart.

How much do you have to, this is real sports. By the way, this is, I love looking at you in that outfit. It's very easy for me to take you seriously. I am, you know what? I had a pretty happy moment this morning where I was like, are you really going to do this? And I was like, yeah. Fuck it again. So I think it's a little comfort with you and myself.

I love it. October's coming up. Busy Dodgers season. You're also, you have a new movie coming out, the musical. Like how much do you line up two calendars and be like, okay. I was just talking about this. I was just talking about this going, we got to start working my schedule around. The playoff schedule has not been released yet.

Yeah. The minute it does, I've got like seven different projects that I've got to now commit to dates to, but I've been holding, everybody thinks that I'm holding off because of, you know, some other actual. Some other. Mysterious. It's just the major league baseball playoffs.

That's all it is. It is hard. My wife and family are like, what's your schedule? I'm like, don't know. Don't know. I mean, they could lose the first two games.

I'm then I'm free. That's great. I'm like, no, I'll be sad. Or I could, or, you know, it could be 20 out of 25 days.

I'm very busy. Very busy. Yeah. I mean, you got it. You never know when it's going to happen. So you've got to do it. But yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be an amazing. You guys don't know the sad feeling.

When the baseball season ends, you've spent six to eight months consuming some version of baseball. And it's over. And it ends sad for 29 teams. And for you guys, it's just so. Well, he's got years of that. We've had years of it. It's true. I've had years of it.

And, you know, it's the Dodgers in the 90s and in the mid-month. 90s were just awful. And so much so that I kind of didn't even really watch for a long time. You were busy. And I was, I had some, I was, I was making movies and TV and had to do stuff.

But, um, it is fun to kind of know that, that, you know, you're likely to, you know, Lakers,

same thing. You know, we had great runs there. Yep. Well, who, do you have a pick for prediction on the AL? If it's Dodgers,

World Series matchup. I don't know. I don't have a clear favorite. Do you guys? I mean, with Judge Out, I don't feel good about the Yan. I think it opens up more. Yeah.

I think the AL is a sloppy, crazy balancing act. That's what I think. Did you have a favorite you'd want to see? Obviously, you face the Yankees. What was the difference between Yankees and Blue Jays in terms of back and forth with fan base or even stadium at least here?

Oh, it's not, come on. It's everybody in the world wants Dodgers Yankees. Everybody in the world wants that. Everybody. And with no disrespect to the Tampa Bay raise, like, I just don't even want to go to that stadium. Yeah. I mean, that same is a national disgrace. It's not for baseball.

No. It was not built for baseball. No. And don't love the uniforms. Oh. Don't love them. They change them a lot. They just busted out one of the retro ones.

Okay. It looks more like. Do you remember when they were the devil race? Yeah. And they're like, X-Nay on the Evel day. Yeah. There's too many. They literally were.

Imagine all the meetings. Too many Christians. They couldn't gain any new fans. Okay. You know what? That's not, you know what? That's kind of Tampa. You know what?

Okay. I don't like the. All right. I'm down with that. These ones I don't. The blue ones I, that does nothing for me. That is, that's your weekend beer league softball. Yeah.

This one, Jake. Oh, yeah. But when they, their record as a franchise, devil race versus rays, I believe is significant. Really? Stop being horrible. And I think it might have been right around when Kevin Cash was hired as the manager. He's the longest tenured manager in Major League Baseball, I believe. That's insane.

It makes perfect sense, but I would never have thought it. Yeah. But I don't like that stadium at all. Uh-uh. Have you gone to the temporary Sacramento Stadium? No. But I once tweeted that I thought it would be fun to watch MLB players from the berm on the hill for like a day. And basically, I got called the worst human alive.

for saying. Do you agree or disagree with that? I mean, I think it's good. The berm is great. They should have berms in professional, a lot of like the professional cricket stadiums,

they have an area that is like grass for P for like families to picnic and watch. Yeah, Little League World Series. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it should be, there should be an area at MLB stadiums, especially the teams that don't sell out and they need to have like family sections

where you can just. chill on the grass. I 100% agree. I think if, listen, there's a hot tub in one of the stadium. Jake's been in it. Arizona, yeah. How gross has that has to be? I didn't spend a lot of time in there. It was actually the World Series game they got

eliminated in. It was kind of a sad day. I hate, there are things in Major League Baseball that have come and gone that I just mourn. I like Chief, literally, what, Chief knockum homa? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Knockum.

Yeah. Homa. Yeah. Simpler. Those are simpler, simpler times. There's a really good Braves, like, documentary about what Ted Turner, how he'd like, the Braves used to be a joke, and then they had the TV channel, and it, like, all changed. And it's funny, a franchise's reputation can change in. So I also, Golden State kind of had that, like, they were just nothing. And then Curry happened.

Do the, the, as we speak, the Braves are in the hunt, right? Yeah, Braves are in. I don't like the, they're just, I don't love, I don't want to, I don't want anything to do with the Braves. The NL's stacked, which I don't know. if that helps or hurt you guys. Stacked. I guess it would hurt. I guess it would be a lot better.

Yeah. Stacked. It's going to be fun. Do you have any interest in MVP? Pete Crowe Armstrong in the National League. It's not even a debate. That's not a debate. What about American League?

Do you, as a National League fan, like I, when I was doing talking baseball, I followed the National League closely, but since I don't, I'm not in the weeds enough, I feel. I'm not in the weeds enough either. And you'd think that you would be because there's so much interdivision

play now. Yeah. Which I still, I'm not sure I love. Oh, I don't. Okay, good. Me neither. I,

I, and it's been going over how many years it feels, it still feels new to me because I'm such an old baseball fan, but I loved when you couldn't believe that you would see, you know, a national and an American league team together. Now it's just a, you know, it's, it's not special. I don't mind, Jake, we used to go back and forth on this a lot.

And Jake was always, I didn't want it. And Jake wanted to balance schedule. And then the first couple years, I was. like this is nice. We have to see every team. But now the travel restrictions, the rain delays on East Coast teams get like hampered. And you don't play your rivals enough. But I think Major League Baseball lives and breathes with regional rivalries.

Okay. So the new division they're talking about. Yeah. Is all about that. Yes. Right? Well, that's my understanding of it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, from what I've seen of the proposed new divisions, I think that that's going to be, would be amazing. That would be you guys, Padres, John. and I guess either. There's somebody really odd.

There's the actual other team I remember. They start, well, they've started dreaming because they're talking about mixing things up, that it could be like the Angels, it could be the Diamondbacks, it could be Seattle still doesn't have a team that. Yeah,

if you play more games against the Padres and the Giants, that's good for baseball. That would be fun. But I don't, I don't love seeing, I love seeing the Yankees, but it's like, you all,

it's like that should be really special. I agree. I also, I used to know a lot about the other AL East teams because you played them so much that now I feel like I know a little bit about every team. That's right. If you just watch your team every night, I want to, you know, I used to be able to tell you Red Sox, Orioles, Tampa players, because we would play them 18 times a year. And so I did know more about the league. Now I know just a smidge about every other team. That's what I would say.

Same. I think we got to start letting you make. moves because your new movie the musical. The musical's out now in theater's peeps. The word Jimmy said was audacious. It's guys, this movie, if you're, if you love comedies, this movie is a jaw dropper. It is the most politically incorrect, audacious. I can't believe they made that type of movie. It's like, it's like when I watched Borat for the first time or Team America. Yeah.

We're like, wait, what? And in a time when everything's so safe and everybody's afraid to offend anybody that this movie got made at all is a miracle. And people are eating it up. And I could not be happier with it. Were you attached to it? You read the script. I read, you read the script and liked it right away.

Oh, because I couldn't believe what it was about. And we're going to show the trailer for it at the end of this. Oh, good, good, good, good. But yeah, I mean, you're attaching it too early. I'm sure maybe helps a script like that continue. to get it had fallen apart it had it had completely the movie had fallen apart and I when I said I do it it was able to be revived for sure but I mean we made it for nothing it play it got accepted to Sundance absolutely crushed and then no one wanted to release it no they're like

we're not releasing a movie like that are you crazy and and and happily it is released we finally gets 300 theaters. It's not like a Marvel movie. But it's out there and it's doing great. When is it? I have the info here. It's out now. Now. Okay.

I was watching it on my commute in, but I ran out of, you know, the screener you get so many clicks. Yes. I would every couple stops, I lose service on the train. Did you get to the big reveal of what it's actually about? I got to a place where I have guesses. Yes. But I didn't see that yet. I ran out of one click left and I was like, I can't.

I can't risk losing it. Every time I ran out of service on the train, I'd have to refresh the page. This is why we go to theaters, young man. Well, you know. Well, you know, you've got a job. You know, you got to commute. They're nice to send the screener over.

Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, support your local movie theater. What's last one before we get you out. For you, is there like a house money aspect to doing a movie like this? Like, yeah, it's your. The win is that it got made and that it exists and that it's already a cult. favorite and anything above and beyond that is is just gravy. Yeah. And here's what when my kids, my sons who love to lamb based me and also have

immaculate taste. Oh, wow. They really do. They are like, Dad, this movie's great. I'm like, oh, okay, I did something. It's a good feeling. Yeah. For sure. All right. Only question we didn't get to ask you was ABS. So if you just want to give, do you like it? I think it's great. Okay. Here's what I don't understand. Let me just say ABS. They're, I think that teams are still figuring out how to use it.

Like the Dodgers have instituted. Like I guess Andy Pa has, so we've been talking about a bunch. He wants to have it reviewed every time, apparently. Like first inning. Yeah. It means nothing. He wants to use one of the challenges.

So they had to like kind of do their thing with him. But where do we get to the World Series and it really means something? And they go to the ABS. Yeah. It's going to be fun. I think it's going to be like opening day series is when people were scared.

I think you're going to go to some players are more reserved because they don't want to. The only thing I'll say is just as a show business person and as an entertainment person, they've missed the opportunity to do what they used to do in tennis when they first unveiled it. That might have happened in the playoffs.

Right? Maybe we could start that. It's so fast now. It's like it's over. There's no drama to it. They just show it to you and it's over. Yeah. Like there should be a,

All I need to do is put a 3-2-1 on the screen in the scoreboard. Something. Put the pitchers wind up in there. They have that technology already. Yeah. Okay. They should do that. We've got it done something today.

They didn't realize that it was going to be. They didn't realize it was going to be an in-stadium experience before the year. That's right. And then now that it is, maybe they do. They need to make it in-stadium. They need to make it a moment. Yeah. I agree.

Yeah. Well, thank you very much for joining us. Great to be on Frog Week. Yes. Ribit. All right. We are this close to the Southern California Blue Ribbon Schools list. Doug, what do we got cook up with school play?

West Side Story. Oh, Maria, Maria. That sounds like Carlos Santana. And I think it is. I was just wondering if you wanted to go out and try again and maybe get a drink. I wanted you to hear it from me first. I'm seeing. Principal Brady.

Everyone talks about the power of love, but nobody talks about the power of spite. Do we really want to do the same play that every other school does? Or do we want to do something special? We can't tell anybody what we're doing. You want us to lie? It's okay to lie if it's for the right reasons. The superpower of the theater is the element of surprise. Okay, people, let's get it.

Get to work. I have to sit in on rehearsals. What? We're talking about a blue ribbon here, Doug. We practice. Go, go, go. Why is she dressed like that? Well, we wanted to depict the diversity of New York City, and her grandmother is Middle Eastern.

Oh, smart. And that curtain opens. When they see what we've created, their minds will melt in their seats. seats. What the hell is going on? Oh, mind your own fucking business! All right, everyone go thank Rob Lo. I guess if you see him in the streets, or I don't know,

spam is social media or something. And because it's Wednesday, it's time to look at some future baseball markets presented by Fanatics, Sports, and Casino. Trev, it's the final week. There's stuff that matters. There's stuff that doesn't. The White Sox still do, and they're facing the Royals,

and boy, did they have a fun one last night, a little 14 to 11. The White Sox doing their best to cough it up. Vinnie P with the Big Night, so we always love that. What are you seeing or what are you watching for? Yeah, a little leakage. They can clinch a playoff spot with a win and a Rangers loss. That'd be great.

Incredible turnaround for them. You know, they're basically. And I'm excited to see that party that they're going to have. What's Mike Vassel going to do? Where's Chase Mydra? going to be. I'll tell you where he's going to be in the good part of the batting section. Him and Randall Gritchick last night, seven for nine, two homers, eight runs driven in. Let's get them the clinch. I want to see that.

That would be, feels like good baseball content for our social team. If the White Sox make the playoffs after what they've been through the past couple of years. The other one we're watching, of course, it's that time of year. It's DeBacks rocks. Gabriel Moreno. the single season record for hits by a D-BACs catcher. We love that. A couple young rocks trying to finish their season.

What are you watching, Trev? Aronado's not. I mean, I'm watching you and Noel Aronado on your burgeoning friendship. I don't know. Don't love that. Hey, snakes, got to keep the season alive. You got to go.

As Dalton told us earlier today, yesterday was the first time since September 5th. The Debex one of the Padres lost on the same day, which is an insane stat. They're still a glimmer of hope, and they cannot lose again, so they've got to win this game. Snakes. Show us all.

Show us all. Fanatic Sports and Casino, winning hits different here. Event contract trading is offered by Morton Street Trading Investments LLC, doing business as Fanatics Markets, a CFTC registered futures commission merchant and NFA member.

Event contracts carry risk of the total loss and changing prices, not good for all investors. See App for important disclosures. Is Nolan? handsome third baseman, is he angling for your spot? Sucking up a little bit? Is that what this is?

I don't know. I don't know. What I do know is this time next week, we'll have playoff games in the book. We'll have a night of wild card done. Can't wait. Bart Scott. One more series recap. Jake sucks.

And if you're new to the show this year, just a row. reminder or just let me tell you something. The postseason is where we do our best work. It's kind of when we start. It's kind of, we're like the Dodgers. We've been on autopilot. Let's hand up. Let's go, baby.

No, no. It's 162. It's a grind.