Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - How MLB Will Realign and Expand the League

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountCorona. La Playa Awaits. Be sure to get yours athttps://OrderCorona.com.Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/talkin for your personalized ED treatment options.Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALL Coach Trev and Talkin' Jake break down HOW MLB will realign the league, how the playoff format will work, the players who were traded who are balling out and more! 0:00 Intro3:45 Trev’s expansion and realignment  10:15 Trev wants East and West Coast rivalry18:35 Where are the expansion teams going to be?36:00 How will Playoffs work?37:40 Expansion Draft and how it will happen41:50 Jimmy critiques Trev’s realignment54:00 Since the trade deadline guys who have been playing well1:01:30 Starters who are nasty who were traded1:02:30 Relievers who were traded, how they are doing 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. We are covering some more MLB realignment, new teams, new cities, and trade deadline pieces. Who's ball and who's not? Let's talk ball. This is going to be a tough one. Jose Quintana. Augustine Ramirez.

I don't know. Pass ball. Bowball. Hello and welcome to talking baseball presented to you by Seekek. I got a feeling today, folks. we let Trev cook. It's also one of my favorite topics in the sport for the creative thoughts that go into it

between expansion and realignment. And we haven't gotten into it here. We kind of teased it a little bit during the Monday up, but we were going through the game. So I'm excited to do some of that with you, Coach Trev. And also, there was some surprises. And it's fun to kind of relive the deadline and who you wanted, who you didn't want.

So we're going to go through a little bit, who's doing good, who's doing bad. How are you doing, Coach Treb? I'm doing great, Jackie Boy. There are times where I don't love, like a Wednesday app, we're kind of like, hey, what do we got to talk about? Baseball hasn't provided us the new. But when Rob Banffrey got on, you know, the television started talking

realignment expansion, that does get, you know, my juices going, your juices going a little bit. So I've been kind of cooking on that. I'm curious to see what you think of my new. divisions and my new expansion teams because I've named them and I've come up with owners for them, which is kind of my favorite part of this whole experience. The real talking baseball listeners, A, we love you, subscribe. The ones that love when Coach Trev brings it, we got a text a couple minutes before the episode

that was, Rob, what graphic can you cook up? I've got some fan fiction ready for the people. which means it's going to be an electric campus. So I'm excited for that. And yeah, for those that don't know, or if you're low on pods this week, me and Joseph Solano, aka Joe's McFly did Awaken Jake on some expansion. And we got lost in the weeds.

And it's one of the bigger ups of the year. So a little timing and YouTube algorithm. It's one of Joe's favorite topics because he loves chaos. And he's ready for the, the whole Northeast baseball fans to hate each other, and that's part of what drives him. Because that's what we need, a little more hate in the world. Let's dive into it, Trevin, it's all brought to you by Seatgeek.

Grab a seat, because your division might be changing, your team might be changing, and it's Seat Geek. Oh, and look at this, they've changed it. The MLB Playoff Chase is upon us. It really is. I was looking at the Cubby's schedule. People, go see a baseball game. The Northeast weather has made a nice turn this week.

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with Code Talking 2025. Code Talking 2025, 10% off your next set of tickets at C. Coach, do you want to kick off? I've got some stuff I'd like to tee up, but I just am so excited to see the journey you're about to. This is Aragon and Frodo Part 10. Who's who? I think we know.

I think we know. All right. Well, I think if we're going to do, you know, We're going to expand. I think that's the main focus here, like the realignment, which is probably my favorite part. I think that Major League Baseball is into expansion more than, more than anything. I mean, there's been talks of several different cities, whether it's Charlotte, which I don't know if you know this. Back in the day, Charlotte built a stadium to try to become a Major League franchise back in like 90s when the Rockies did.

They ended up not getting it. So they had this, like, stadium. They tried, like, semi-built for majorly baseball that the AAA team played at for a while. And it was disgusting. It was, like, the grossest place I've ever played baseball in the AAA park. Now they have a nice one downtown, all this stuff. But Charlotte, we're talking Nashville. We're talking Salt Lake City.

We're talking Portland. We're talking bringing Montreal back. Like, who else? A bunch of different places. Mexico. Mexico City, which I love. That would be kind of a little. Not in my new realignment or expansion.

Ah, damn it, spoilers. I was in Coburn, and a driver that we had was from Mexico City, and he told me all about it. So look, maybe one day we get there, but not in my imagining of the expansion. Well, and I guess before you really start running, Trev, I'll tee up again because I mentioned it and it, I think the talking baseball listeners know I don't, I'll toot my own horn.

I don't normally toot it like this. I was watching the Rob Manfred interview during the Little League World Series, and he just, the commissioner of baseball, who re-upped his contract and is out by 2029, I think he said. It's, what year, it's 25? Yeah. He's on TV saying, yes, we're going to expand.

And there will be realignment. This isn't, this isn't you or me like, oh yeah, we heard some stuff at winter meetings and guys were, that's the commissioner. So this is coming. It's, the timeline gets interesting. I don't know how much of the CBA needs to be tied into it.

I'm sure it will be. But like, I would guess in the next two to three years, we're at least going to have a plan. And like, I think cities have been told to send, I think next year they're going to get like, pull out requests.

if your city is in or out. So this is literally happening in front of us. And I get more excited by an expansion draft. Like that's my internal gear that kicks in. Like, Trev, when I used to play a ton of video games, I would always do the fantasy draft and build your team. And like that is the dream GM position that I'm, this is my first pitch to whatever cities get a team

that I would like to be involved in the room. I think I can help. I've run over 100,000 drafts before. Like, I think I can benefit your team. But the realignment and the cities, I think, is what has you the most juiced up. It does. And I don't know, if you're a baseball purist, like, I'm sorry, I think.

Here we go. Here we go. But it's not like I did anything insane. And I mentioned this to Chris Rose. We're talking about this yesterday. It's like these, you know, leagues and divisions have changed. over time many times. This isn't like we've been, we've had the same, you know, set up for a hundred years.

It hasn't been that, but guys. And we've been leaking towards this anyway with getting rid of the DH, or, excuse me, adding the DH to the National League. So I think we all should just have an open mind. That's all I'm asking people. And in the end, you're still going to get ball. My realignment really focuses on regional rivalries because I think those are very, very important in sports. I don't know.

Okay. Let's just think about it. Okay. For your team, like, who's your regional rival? Doesn't have to be your actual rival, okay? But I'll say this. Playing in Minnesota, the brewers are our regional rival. And those are some of the biggest freaking crowds. Them and Chicago, when the Cubs come into town, two teams that you don't play a ton, so I get there's a little bit of scarcity there, which is nice. But those are huge crowds because of the proximity.

to each other, you're going to have fans of those teams living around you. I think that's what excites me. In Los Angeles, you're going to have Padres fans here. You're going to have Giants fans here. You're going to have probably more of those fans than Angels fans for being honest, but you have Angels fans as well, at least where I'm at. You know, go a little bit further south. You have Angels fans.

So I'm focusing mostly on that. I think we should just get into it because I'm just getting long-winded on this. Yeah, I didn't get into our franchise is. The only, I have one actual good note and I have one shot at Rosie. The first one, especially when you mentioned cities, now that the AL and NL, like, they used to not play each other. So, like, if you had two teams in a city, I could see that being kind of cool and, like, the daydream of that potential matchup. But now, now we've kind of realized that's a waste. Like, if you got two teams in the same city, like, let them play and build up that rivalry.

So I'm excited for that. The joke I was going to make, I didn't have a great spot for it. I was going to say something about Chris Rose being devastated when Philadelphia moved to Kansas City in 1965. And I just, I didn't really have something there. He knows all about like, oh, he loves it. Like when everything's changed, what year the playoff format changes. This guy is a psycho. Do you think we're going to have like a baseball historian phase?

Because I don't really see that for me. I think that's more gym and, I don't. don't know. Jolly? My memory doesn't work that way. Like when, like, when Dalt and Cohen and Jolly are on the sticks naming, like, players from 2011 or something, I'm like, what the, I don't have that kind of memory. I have a little bit of that, but they're, they're on a new level. What do you got, Coach Trev? We're ready.

American League, National League, out. Okay. Just done. Look, we love an East and West Coast rivalry. That's just what we do. Oh, you colonized on the East Coast? Sick, dude. I am going to traverse the countryside and cross the Rockies and get to the Pacific.

It's a tale as old as time, Jake. A lot of people died. A lot of people. Just so you know. Oregon Trail. The Rockies. Mississippi. Mighty Mississippi.

The Mississippi. What are you going to do? No bridges. Okay. So I'm going Western League and Eastern League. I was thinking Western Conference, Eastern Conference, didn't want to do it. but shout out the Eastern League and the minor leagues. We're stealing it from you.

Western League, Eastern. That is what we're doing. Now, I'm doing four teams, four divisions for each league. That's what we're doing. That equals 32 teams when you add it all up. The way I would do my playoffs is four division winners. Top two teams, they get a buy in those. And the other two teams that won the division,

they will host a wild card round for the two wild card team. Not three because we added the division. So now there's two wild card teams. So the two best remaining divisions, do you follow so far? That's not that hard. I can't believe you already have a playoff for it. Well, it makes sense.

I didn't really change much other than instead of three wild card teams, we have two because we added the extra division. I'll tell you, yes, I'm with you. The only thing I'm currently struggling with, and I'll see where your division is. is that when we do some of these conversations, it's really hard for me to get current, current teams out of my head.

Because obviously everything's cyclical. Like, the Phillies were bad for a chunk of time. The Phillies right now are really good. I guess I'm telling myself to try to take some of that out of my head right now. Yeah, I mean, so you're saying I might have too many good teams in one division. So that I would say, and I will say I have my Yankee hat on a little bit, that everyone's daydreaming of this Yankee hat. Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Phillies, that if we start doing two, I know you're not.

I know you're not. Close, but no. But I guess if we start doing automatic seedings from those pods, then I do. And again, I can't tell if this is my fan showing or if this is Jakey baseball coming out. But I, it's just something of note for me. But please, please go on. I think if you're thinking about this way, specifically like how teams are right now, the Phillies might be the biggest benefactor of my.

I realize. Okay. Let's see it. Let's start in the Western League. Sure. I have a Pacific division. Love that. I love a Pacific.

I see. Which is pretty self-explanatory. I have the Dodgers. I have the Padres. I have the Angels. I have the Giants. So you're keeping the Dodgers Giants rivalry alive. You're keeping the newfound Dodgers Padres rivalry alive.

Plus Angels fans. I mean, they're probably not super. super stoked ending up in that division because there's some, you know, some big dogs in there. But it makes sense. So we have all those regional rivalries there. Easy, right? Pretty.

That's, um, that area can get a little messy depending with Vegas and Arizona. But when you do look at the rivalries, which I do think there should be a focus on, I think that's what a lot of people are looking at. Speaking of Arizona, your snakes. Southwest Division. Now, I had to kind of, you know, you're going to have to read. a little bit. A little massaging.

But the Diamondbacks will be in the Southwest Division, along with the two Texas teams, the Rangers and the Astros. And then this is the one I had to pull in, but I think it makes sense geographically. Kansas City. Two different time zones here. Three, I think, depending on the time of year, with the Mountain Times.

Southwest, we go Diamondbacks, Rangers, Astros, and the Royals. Okay. To be in that division. Okay, yeah. Makes sense, right? Yeah, when you look at the map, So the Rockies are chaotic.

And if you're not even in a baseball and you're listening to this, you're someone's tortured significant other that has to listen to us. Just a reminder, look where Denver's at on a map. I lived there for four years and I was kind of shocked.

Like, what are you shocked about? You're near nothing. Like you're not near Chicago or St. Louis. You're not really near the West Coast. The Rockies in this exercise are a problem. No, it's my favorite division that they're in. Okay, never mind. So far, Pacific and Southwest

are made up of those teams I just mentioned before. And one of, I will say another controversial decision in there, you're splitting up Kansas City and St. Louis. I am. Okay. I am. I am. Because don't care about that. Okay. Good reason.

The Midwest. Yeah. Twins. Twins territory, my people. The Brewers. the Cubs and the White Sox. Now that all makes sense geographically. So there.

My favorite division in the Western League would be the Mountain Division. Yeah. So the Rockies will be in the Mountain Division. The Mariners, Mount Rainier, will be in the Mountain Division. And the Las Vegas A's will be in the Mountain Division.

Now, the one team, there'll be the expansion team. I'm putting them in Salt Lake City. Okay. I am. I'm a fan of the topography out there. I traverse to Deer Valley. Shout out Robbie. He's got a sick house that we always go to. Thank you very much. I just Utah to me is beautiful. It fits geographically. So I'm into it. Now, I'm calling my team the Utah Dinoes. And I'm open. I'm open to a, you know, maybe an all- alternate name, raptors are very prevalent. Raptor fossils are prevalent there. So I was thinking Utah Raptors, but then who's buying the team, I don't know if they're

going to want that. So I'm going to go Utah Dinos for now. Maybe leave in the comments another word. Utah, if you don't know, has some of the most, what, what am I looking for? There's so many dinosaur fossils there. I think it's only behind some parts of China and the amount of fossils, dinosaur fossils, found in the world. So the Utah Dinos makes sense.

Let me put pause on you because boy are you cooking right now. And I mean, I guess the only people, you're hated in Portland right now. Out. You're out in Portland. Not out in Oregon, sweet. You're out in Korea too because that's where my N.C. dino's play. I think that's fine. But you've been out in Korea.

Or actually, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. We make them like sisters. teams, they root for each other, there's always a dinoes game on. You're absolutely right. The Utah dynos are going to be huge players in the Korean baseball scene. So, uh, A, sorry Portland. I want to ask you a question that's going to partially derail this. Do you think MLB knows, like in their hearts of hearts, like if you gave Uncle Rob some truth serum and you're like, hey, what are the two next cities? Do you think they know or do you think

they're actually looking for the right pitch, the best deal? I mean, what's going to make the most money? I mean, that's what they're looking. Right? So I think they're thinking like that and maybe they have to be completely swayed. And there's a lot of things that go along with this when you're submitting, when you're submitting, you know, to try to be an expansion team, what tax breaks come to an owner into the league and, you know, can you get a stadium built there and what's that going to entail?

Like, there's a lot of things that go into it. Isn't the other side of this rich people with rich friends? Like, that's got to be. Okay. Yeah. It's a little Game of Thrones. It's a little like billions or whatever you want to reference that succession. Like, I feel like that's going to be the story we find out in 10 years is whoever made the most handshakes in agreements is going to get the teams, right?

Think about this. The Utah Dinoes. New teams. Okay, well, who's the owner? Well, there's already a guy in Utah buying up all the major sports franchise. His name is Ryan Smith. He sold Qualtricks to German software company Sapp, which, you know, you see that everywhere. No idea what it means.

Sold it for $8 billion. Yeah. Right? Great. Problem is this guy owns like several teams. He owns the Jazz. He owns the Utah Mammoth. Great name.

That's the new hockey team that's being put there. and he has part ownership of the Real Salt Lake, which is the MLS team. So, like, maybe the funds are kind of, like, running dry there. Maybe not. Maybe not. I don't know. So Ryan Smith is going to be one owner, but he's going to bring in somebody else that I think is going to be a game changer here. And speaking to Game of Thrones, we might see a red wedding eventually between these two.

He's bringing Steve Bomber. Oh, Uncle Steve gets involved. Look, man, like, I got a lot of teams I'm doing. I understand how the business works. So do you. You got the capital for sure. You want to get into baseball. Let's do this together.

We're both tech guys. Maybe Steve Bomber eventually just cuts him out. And you know, just super cutthroat. Love that for like our fan fiction in the future. But Ryan Smith, Steve Bomber, they got cash. They come in, Utah. And they start the Utah Dino. Now is the full team name Dinosaur's in your head?

and we just reference them as the dinoes, or is it just dinoes? I think it's just dinoes. The Utah Dinosaurus is not, this doesn't roll off the tongue as good as Utah Dino. And I'm so open to a different word for that. I was thinking like the Utah Jurassic. That was like one thought,

but that doesn't really roll off the tongue. So, you know, help me out. If you like Utah Raptors, maybe we just go with that. I wanted to mention this before. Utah is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. It's almost shocking that like, We talk about it.

Like, oh, yeah, that part of the country, Denver, Salt Lake. If you haven't been, Salt Lake even, like, when you fly into the airport, you're landing between mountain ranges and you're like, where am I? And that's where dinosaurs used to live, as coaches, as now mentioned to us. Maybe they still do. Maybe we just haven't looked hard enough. I, let's get your breaths. I can't believe you had a playoff format, which again, I'd realize you're talking about some

referencing some different sports and some fans. The owners is amazing. Steve Balmer, if baseball gets him, a rich guy who's all about it, who's about being a fan. And, you know, he's literally made a new stadium in L.A. built on fandom while sitting front row sweat everywhere

going nuts for the team. He would be fantastic for baseball. So I love what you did there. Try before we keep going, let's grab a corona. because maybe it's the Utah Dino's brought to you by Corona. You know, it's the best part about baseball. I'd say this. The sports great, too, but I'd say what's happening right now. And I hope you're listening to this with the Corona,

because it might help. I know all of Portland is grabbing one, too, for a different reason. And that's the point. Whether your team's having a good day or a bad day, it's always time to grab a Corona. relax, enjoying every unpredictable moment that baseball and life sends your way. So turn the cheap seats into your own private island with some ice-cold coronas, the official surveys of Major League Baseball, crack open a Corona, squeeze in a lime,

enjoy America's favorite pastime with Mexico's favorite present time. Get yours at orderorona.com. 21 plus, enjoy responsibly Corona extra beer imported by Crown import, Chicago, Illinois. Okay, coach, where to next? Portland, you know, they are a very craft beer. You sure are. Sorry, Portland. I don't know.

I've never been to Portland. I think you'd like it a lot. I think that cord and Trev that used to go to like metal concerts in high school and carries around a beanbag, like I think Portland would hit the nice beers. I do think your Portland chord would be struck. It doesn't Salt Lake City Pong Club. like a thing, bro? Like, I'm in. I haven't been as active in the Salt Lake City

Punk scene as I'd like. Life's got... There's a movie called Salt Lake City Punk. Life's just gotten in the way for me. But okay. Yeah, I flip-flop on those two. I think they both be great cities to host a baseball team, and I'm very interested to see, like, what goes down there because it's probably an East and a West team. If you do put those two teams over there, it makes some of the divisions a little easier. So that's my piece on that. My team is east of the Mississippi, the other one. So, okay, again, we have the Pacific Division, Dodgers, Padres, Angels, Giants, the Southwest Division, D-Backs, Rangers, Astros, Royals, the Mountain Division, which would be my Utah

Dinos, the Rockies, the Mariners, and the Las Vegas is. And then the Midwest, Twins, Brewers, Cubs, White Sucks. That's my Western League. Travel, make sense for like almost all of them. Seattle's always going to have it like tougher. Right. Here they are. I like this. Look at that graph that we cooked up. Wow. Bobby. Bobby golfs in the lab. I mean, it looks good to me right there. Is that a Dino's logo? Did you make a Dino's logo?

Okay. I almost. I thought that was like a Triceratops for a second. Okay. I won quickly. Give me, AI could do it. but carbon emissions yeah watch out we'll talk about that at the end of the show in the eastern league let's start off with I think you know what everyone we'll be talking about the northeast

division so the southwest division in the eastern now we're starting with the northeast division that has your yanks that has the Mets that has the Red Sox you said Phillies I'm keeping the Blue Jays there so Yankees Mets red sucks blue jays if you're thinking about in today's game, it's a gauntlet. But, I mean, the East has always been a gauntlet, right?

It's a gauntlet. And Toronto, again, another massive market, big budget team that I guess there's a budget financial side to this that I'm struggling with mentally a little bit. But yeah, I mean, if you put Toronto or Philly, I mean, Toronto's been better than Philly this year. So, yeah, like, that's a lot of really good big, big wallet team. Steve Bomber's going to come in and say, hey, guys, look, I come. from a league that has, you know, a cap.

So I'm going to help you guys. And then he's going to get in a league and be like, fuck your cap. I got $128 billion, you losers. I'll spend whatever I want. That's my dream. Okay. Then, since we have a Pacific division, we have to have an Atlantic division. Now, this one is, again, I think one team makes out pretty well here.

It'd be the Phillies. It'd be the Orioles. It'd be the nationals. It'd be the pirates. Pirates. I know Pittsburgh's really not on the Atlantic, but, you know, we had to make on exceptions here. That looks like poop.

That looks like poop. That's, I think there was some strategy there. That looks like poop. And again, this is, this is where it is tough to get teams out of your head. Because if we did this in 2019, you'd look at the Washington Nationals a lot differently than we currently look at them.

But they have a budget. They like, that's a big market. It's a big market. They have, you know, they're supposed to have one of the better farm systems and they're on their way up. Let's not focus on like where the teams are at right now.

Okay. And then we have what I'm going to call, since we have a mountain division, I'm calling this the Waterside Division. We need work on the name. For sure. I can't call it water. How about coastal? It's because it's not on the coast.

This is like a lot of people would call this the Great Lakes Division. Are you into that? I thought it would be cool when the Little League team was like, This is from the Great Lakes region, so kind of. Problem is, a couple of these teams aren't on the Great Lake. Okay. So water, because they're on significant bodies of water. Right.

Waterside is what we're going with right now. The Waterside division is the Guardians, Lake Erie. Never heard of it? Great Lake. The Tigers, Lake Michigan, right? I think. Sure. Shit.

Gotta be. Look that up in the background. I mean, I don't know if Detroit's on. Keep going. Okay. Waterside. Guardians, Tigers, Reds, Cardinal. Okay.

Okay, it doesn't matter. This is the Waterside. Yeah. Waterside. Guardians, Tigers, Reds, Cardinals might be my least favorite division. Am. Okay. I don't know how you feel about that?

I'm not juiced up for it. And I think it's just the Waterside name. I think if you rename that. What do you call, you know, what do you call a, Tributary. Like, what are you going to call it besides? People stop watching baseball, if you name it that. I don't know.

Let me think for a second. What did you finish this out? I would like your help. Yeah, you're on this panel. And then for the division with the expansion team, we're going to call that, it's the Southeast, right? Is that what I said?

Yeah. Yeah. Southeast. So we're going to have the Braves, the Marlins, and the Rays. I know a lot of people are like, oh, well, the Marlins and the raise, you know, they don't draw. It's like, well, they should and figure that out. Like Tampa's getting a new stadium.

The Marlins should be like one of the most fun teams in all of baseball. I know we said that all the time. Figure it, the F out, okay? And then the fourth team in that division, I'm giving a team to Nashville. Except I'm not calling it the Nashville team. I'm calling it the Tennessee team. And we're calling it the Tennessee Smokies. We're doing it.

We're stealing them. I think it's a minor league name. It makes too much sense. I don't want to go Nashville. I don't think that makes sense. I want Tennessee. Tennessee Smokies, you are my team. Now, the owners for the Tennessee Smokies,

I think this is my finest word. You know, it's a music, Nashville. It's a music city, right? Right. There's only two people I know that I'd want to own this. One of them is a philanthropist, one of the most famous country singers of all time. Can you guess?

Willie Nelson. Nope. This team is owned by two women. Wow, Dolly. Dollywood. Dang. Dang. Really?

Yes. Check out how much she is worth. It's not in the billions yet, but she's got some dough. She's Dolly. She's Dolly. She could find some people behind her as well that would like to be in with her, but she's going to be the face, almost like a Magic Johnson. Right.

He's been doing it's Dolly. But then she's like, oh, what? I know someone who's a little bit younger than me, who also comes from the country music scene, who's also making a play on sports right now, who's everywhere. You know who's buying in. Wow.

This has been your... It's welcome to baseball. It's Dolly Parton. It's Taylor Swift buying the Tennessee Smokies, leading them in the Eastern League in the Southeast Division. I didn't know how you were going to, and look at that, there they are. I didn't know how you were going to land the plane. I mean, about 30 minutes, you were cooking so hard.

The fact that you landed it with Dolly and Taylor, I mean, America's game is back. It's back. I think I'm going to fight you on the Tennessee part because I think Nashville has become such a destination. that I think presenting it helps kind of like they're going to be the Las Vegas A's, not the Nevada A's. Like I think being a destination city makes it better for like,

hey, my team's playing in Nashville. Let's go to Nashville for them. Okay. Here's, well, I'll push back on that. Always. Okay. What's like the most famous thing in Tennessee? University of Tennessee.

I mean, the people love that very much. So I think it's already built in. May I counter that? Sure. Why limit them to Tennessee? Why not bring in the whole South region? Like that's why Braves... Well, I mean, you're going a little pinhole with Nashville.

I'm trying to expand it a little bit. I'm saying with Nashville, you're allowed to bring in more. Like Tennessee, they go Tennessee strong. You could be a fan of the Nashville team in Mississippi. You could be a fan of the Nashville team in Alabama. Why would you be a fan of the Nashville team in Alabama? You could be a fan in Kentucky. Because that whole region has just been Braves country for so long

that I don't, I want more than Tennessee, Pat. Okay, well, you want to call them the South Smokies, the Southern Smokes? If Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift get the Southern smokes, I don't know. I think we're moving to Nashville, Vegas, babe. Okay, I'm into the Southern Smokes and I'm also into the Tennessee smoke.

So either one, but I want Dolly, I want Taylor. I want Taylor, probably more than Dolly, but Dolly's so historic there, I feel like she fits. Like, we'd have a statue of Dolly outside that stadium in a heartbeat. I mean, is the minor league team

called the Nashville Dolly's? I think so. Go look what Dolly Parton does. You know, she's a huge philanthropist. She has, you know, her theme parks, all these things. She's big into like books, like giving, and I've read about this a while ago. So maybe it's changed, but she likes to like make sure that kids have books to read, which yes. If you are looking for a road trip podcast or you're traveling, I believe it's Dolly Parton Saves America.

Fantastic listen. Listen through it through twice. She just, she's done the whole gambit. It's pretty, pretty wild to go through. That's it, coach. That's what I thought. Okay. And it, I, I'm blown away. Yeah, I guess for me, a couple things that come up. A, how are they going to actually decide the cities? And we don't have that answer. We think it's just. I think we just, I think we just came up with it. I think it's money and it's who wants to be involved and it's handshakes and its current picture and big picture and, you know, exactly kind of what you'd think with probably. more behind-the-scenes handshakes mattering.

Like, I think something that I would have to look back into, the whole Chargers, Rams going for L.A., that turned into, like, some game of phone's drama. I think the Chargers owner got, like, backstabbed by other owners, like, chaos. That I don't be shocked if that gets involved here, because we're talking about billions of billions of dollars. These are pro sports franchises. So the cities, I wish I had more commentary.

Nashville seems perfect. It's an electric town. They have the Titans. They have the Predators. Like, the baseball's beloved there. Mookie Betts at some point becomes an icon for that team. That like, yes, yes, yes. Portland in Salt Lake City,

that is going to be a dog fight. Because I don't know how you pick between them. here's why i think utah makes more sense it's all about land like where can these guys buy land put the stadium build around it that's more appealing i mean i'm i guess i don't know everything about portland but it's more i feel like in my mind congested than salt lake city is like you can go right outside salt lake city and there's massive amounts of land that you can build on yeah i think trev it's it's one of these things that how How does the world really spin that both of these cities have zoned off locations and they've, like, raised a lot of money that it's going to be very interesting to see the next steps in that.

I haven't fully locked into the schedule or playoff seating in that yet. Because that stuff sorts itself out. Like they're going to expand the playoffs to get another team or two in there. My only thing that I will prioritize the rest of the way, they will, Treve. you know they will. They will. You cannot add more teams to the playoffs. That's like my one sticking point.

They're going to. No. They're going to. I think you look at other leagues and you say, hell no, dude. Yes, but they're so. They've ruined their regular season. They've had to put a tournament in the middle of it because nobody cared about the regular season in the NBA.

I agree with you and I hope we have enough voice within baseball to be right about that, but they currently just see more playoff games, more dollars. You just added two teams to playoffs. I know. And that's, I think they're going to continue to expand. And my request will be that the teams that perform the best in the regular season get rewarded.

And again, I, again, playoffs can mean a lot of things, right? Like if we have two teams that just get in and play one game, I'm all right with that. Fuck around and find out. Like if you've got a, I love the one game. If you've got to. Everybody love that, except for the fans that played in it and the play. So that will be my request going forward. However we navigate it, let's take care of the teams that have the best regular season,

so that still matters more. Because that's the other thing the NBA is just missing on right now. Like it's basically just get your guys healthy for the postseason, and if you're the five or six seed, nobody really cares. And I don't, baseball can't go that route. Trev, I guess the only thing that I'll put a bow tie on this with is, because I started with it. Because your plan's beautiful.

I'm with you. I will ride with you. For me, for me, I'm so excited if they do the expansion draft, man. And I will just, again, I'll tell people to go listen to Wake and Jake because I won't give you the full hour on it. But it's just so fun.

You'd have to protect it. Traditionally, they've done you protect 15 players. And then you pick a team from, you pick a guy from each team. and round one and both teams pick back and forth. And that's just like it's, it's, it's like my dream. Um, and I think those episodes would be so fun and mock drafts and they should televise it and who teams protect and it gets kind of crazy because you could not protect

some superstars because maybe their contracts not right. But if they have their 10.5 rights, then they have to be protected. And like there's so many little things like that. And Trev, the part that really gets me jazz. We live in the prospect era. So how many teams would protect their top prospects over their starting left side of their infield? All of them. Fucking all of them.

And then if you have the keys to the kingdom with the Southern Smokies and your owner says, I don't give a damn. Give me the best roster you can put together. I think you could put a team together. The pitching, which is always the problem in baseball, probably gets tough because arms get protected. But I think you could put together a very competitive ball club. The Arizona Diamondbacks, after the expansion draft, they made the playoffs the first like three out of five years, something like that. And they won the World Series.

So for me, it's the GM dream. Like if Theo decides he doesn't want to be the next commissioner, I would not be shocked if he stumbles into one of these gigs. or maybe it's me because I'm petitioning for it, that I would be so excited for that. And then just like the different routes you could go, are they just going to, you could just pillage farm systems and say, hey, you know what? We are going to be bad for two years,

but we're going to collect a group of prospects that's never been collected. Like, I just, if that happened. Yeah, you're aged up for this big time. If this happens, you will see me. And dude, it is so shocking because you'd think, You'd think one of the other nerds would come out of the woodwork for this, like jolly or foolish.

Joe's McFly could not be more excited for all of this. And again, his angle is a little more just chaos. He wants New York and Philly to hate each other. He wants Philly and Boston to hate each other. He wants the Mets in Boston to hate each other. Like bring back rivalries. I would say the only other thing that I haven't fully faked with this, it feels like doing 18 divisions instead of the four

is just a little bit easier to get started with. But again, I don't know if that's my fandom getting in the way of that. But then like, you know, that region you didn't like the Cincinnati, Cleveland, you can pair that with another grouping and then the region feels a little more whole. Yeah, you can tweak some things. I'm okay with that. The reason I like the four-team divisions is because, you know, well, I guess it makes sense.

If you do two eight-team divisions, then the winners of those divisions would get the buy. I think, you know, if I was doing the four teams and two of them are in the wild card round, people are like, oh, they won the division. I was like, it was only 14. So it's not that big of a deal to win your division. It's 14.

Eight teams gets a little clunky, but I'd be open to it. You're a little clunky. I got Jim just walked in here to grab some breakdown stuff. He's staring at your realignment. Jim, get over here. I'd love to get some instant reaction for you. Yeah. What do you think, big Jimbo?

Hello. Hey. I don't want divisions, so I don't like this. You just want a Western and Eastern League? That's it? Yeah. I want the top eight, the top of whatever teams, getting in.

It's, I mean, it's essentially that because we're still going to have the wild card. So each, each, uh, it would be unbalanced amongst them, right? What's that? Like the royals got into the wild card last year because they picked up 10 wins against the white socks. They weren't better than some of the teams. It was more balanced. We have two, uh, two division winners will receive buys.

The other two, uh, with the lower records will have to be in a wild card. I'm all for realignment. I want more rivalry games. I heard the S&Y booth talking about this yesterday. They were like really out on it. I was against the everyone play everyone that Jake pushed for a long time. And then after a year, I liked it because you got the good Dodgers and the big games. And now I'm totally out on it.

Yankees never play the Red Sox. And that's the best way to promote is like have the podrant. They used to play like 20 times a year. They go two months without playing. Too much. It's too much 19 times a year. No, I think baseball is realizing their strength is regional. And the more you can keep the regions playing each other, the bigger you're going to get.

That's what? Did you see my realignment? It's all region-based. Yes. I understand that. But I just don't, I just want playoffs to be the top teams in the two leagues. Fine. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, Jake wanted two eight-team divisions in each league,

which is like, okay, like there's tweaks. Like, if you win your division, that shouldn't automatically mean your playoff team. If you win your division, that shouldn't mean your playoff team. Disagree. Not if there's teams that are better than you. We've had division winners in the last couple years that would have been like the third wildcard.

And then they're hosting a team that's better. That's just year by year it changes though, just depending on the strength. Because, you know, we're talking about this. If you looked, you know, six years ago and through that lens, you're going to envision this a lot differently than you do in 2025. in six years, this is going to look a lot different to our eyes as well. It's cyclical baseball.

Yeah, I'm not against changing the divisions at all. Like, I don't care if you blow up all of it and redo it. If you look through the history of baseball, a lot of change has happened in leagues and divisions. That's what we said. So I'm not like scared of change like most people are projecting they are. Can I tell you this, you know, forget all of the divisions and stuff, my expansion teams. I went, I went Utah, went Salt Lake City. We're calling them the Utah Dinos for now.

I need something dinosaur related because it's, you know, one of the biggest fossil deposits in the world that Utah is. So that Ryan Smith, who owns all the teams in Utah already, including the new hockey team, is going to bring in Steve Bomber as the one-two punch there. And then Tennessee, we're giving it to Nashville.

We're not calling it the Nashville team. We're calling the Tennessee team. We're calling the Tennessee Smokies. He could work on that as well. Pardin face of the franchise like a Magic Johnson is. She's bringing in Taylor Swift. I'm kind of against expansion, but I know you need it for realignment. I just feel like we already have teams struggling with owners that are struggling.

You're going to get 50 players that are in AAA now. Now they're big leaguers without doing anything different. And there's probably some that really deserve it. Yeah, but we cut down the draft so much. There's players out there. Yeah. If it just leads to more, no fan-based teams. I think the pitching would be real bad, but I think there's enough.

Yeah, probably. I disagree with all of that. I think there's a lot of guys who never get a shot that would be just fine in the big leagues. In fact, there's guys that will perform better if they have a shot at the big. I'm not worried about the talent level at all. We have so much talent level. The Utah dinoes are going to be in cahoots with Korea. Dodgers, you have Japan.

We'll take Korea. is Utah a big market? Yes, Salt Lake City's big. That was a genuine question because I don't know how they do in other sports where they have quite. Genuinely, you don't really know either. But like, we need big markets because I was doing a ton of research into the NHL. And like it's, it's like declining ratings over the years. And it's like, well, look at the teams that are in the postseason because they're,

they're so balanced that you have all these non-hockey towns winning all the time, which you would think is good for growth, but is actually. stifled them. Like the ratings were so bad with Arizona versus Rangers World Series. Someone posed the question to me, could baseball, like, how much would baseball be hindered if they had five years in a row of that? That's kind of what happened to hockey. And I'm like, that'd be pretty bad. Those ratings were awful. It's kind of happened. The NBA is going through that now with Oklahoma City winning with Milwaukee. So go find some big markets. No, man. I think that's not, I think that's something for the league to figure out, not saying like, we only need

markets. No, like, you need to figure out how to make this appealing to fans. It needs to be dressed up differently than it is. Or like where fans are, you can look at MLB TV. You can look at like MLTV ratings. Like are people in Nashville going to big league games? They like they love big Gilly games. Salt Lake. Same thing. Does their minor league teams sell out? I don't know the answers, but I hope they're looking at that when they choose cities, not just like, well, they're just fucking whoever pays them the most money. Well, Vegas doesn't, they don't get any fans. Yeah, I know. I'm I'm pretty out on that. Vegas is just transient.

It's transient cities like Miami and Vegas don't really work. Any expansion team, when you first go in there, like, are you going to make a mark? You have, it has to be dressed up. It has to be marketed the right way. Yeah, Arizona's built something nice. They won early. Yeah, when they came out, we talked about the expansion, the expansion draft. They did well right away.

And then, but it took them, it's even after that, it took them a long time to get where they're at now. It takes like 20 years for a franchise to develop because you need to, kids that don't understand they're rooting for a new team. Same with new league, WNBA, MLS, like, takes 20 years minimum for something to, like, pop. I brought Taylor Swift in. That's easy. She gets a team. She's from Pennsylvania.

Or the Dollars? Yeah, we can call them Tennessee Dollars. I wouldn't do that. But Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift together with, like, with a private equity firm behind them, whoof. That's an idea. Yes, it is. Who's the guy that tried to pitch a team that I've always made us laugh? He had the worst pitch ever.

The Orlando Dreamers. Wow. You're back. That was my buddy Jim. How'd he do? He's, you know, he's pretty ornery about the whole thing. He kind of like tried to papoo on my dreams, but that's fine. There's some, there's so many interesting aspects because the stuff we don't know is, like, how much, how much does you?

just having a good owner matter. How much is owning a region? Because I think like Salt Lake in Portland, we always talk about it being a regional sport. Like I think those regions are super engaged in their teams because kind of like what I said with the Rockies. Well, Denver's a great sport city because there's nothing else around. But like, you're like Broncos Sundays are incredible.

And they love their Rockies. They've just been bad since they didn't have, story, Aeronado, Tulo. You know, really good baseball players, whether they're playing an altitude or not. Like cargo. And yeah, the extra 50 players, I wonder about to. I think it'd be okay between,

like my guy, my guy, Miguel Andouhar is hitting again. That I, you know, baseball is a sport of opportunity that a couple guys, a couple guys would take advantage. No? What are you talking about right now? I'm not sure. It was all brought to you by Hymns. Boy, Trev was Hymns this episode.

And today's episode is sponsored by Hems. It can't solve snoring or blanket steam. Okay. But what about performance? What about E.D? Take care of it, fellas. It's affecting your life. I guarantee it.

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Where are you at with Tom Brady these days? So I've got a really interesting fake bet going with a buddy. There's no bet. One of my butt, I think I brought this up with you. One of my buddies was like, dude, Tom Brady's going to age horse. horribly. And I was like, you're out of your mind. Like, Tom Brady's already aged as magnificently as basically a person can. His argument was that it seems like Tom's gotten a little work done.

And he may continue to do that, which there's going to be that day when it's like, oh, this is way too much. But Tom Brady's going to look, he still looks amazing. And he's going to look great until he's like early 60s. So I just, one of my buddies said that one time, Jared. And we kind of have like a running, every now and then he'll send me like a mid Tom Brady pick. And I'm like, no, he looks, he looks great. I go back and forth with my Tom Brady take because I feel like he's too, he's like everywhere now, like almost too much.

Like Tom, just like go like, you don't need to be everywhere. He would be in on one of these teams. I would bet that easily. See, I don't want that. He's in on too many things. He's got a soccer team. He's got drafted by the expos. These card shops.

He's got a clothing. It's like just chill a little bit. For me, that's what I'm thinking with Tom. Like just like kind of go enjoy yourself. Like you don't need a YouTube channel, Tom. Like leave that the suckers like me. Yeah. It's always interesting.

You thumb for the rest of us. Because part of me loves when people that have no need to do that, just do it. Like you're giving us extra action. and stuff. I know he's not your number one pal, but, like, A-Rod just post baseball, like how-to-play baseball clips on his YouTube. It's just like, what's inspiring this?

I don't know. I know. Stop. Tom Brady's 48. Yeah, look, like, I'm not that far behind Tom Brady, which is great. I think you look great. Dude, I told you that before.

I got on, I'm back on creatine, so I'm going to get thick Grev back. And like, I might give a little TB 12 to run for his money. I think you can. I think this will just be high and tight because we put together a full epi on the expansion stuff because it is a lot of fun and you can really daydream down every different avenue.

You know, we didn't even do, for me, there's a whole, hey, if the raise ended up in Nashville and then you could give Portland and Salt Lake a team. I didn't say that, Tampa Pants. I didn't say that, although you don't have a stadium. Since the trade deadline, you know, there's a lot of, your team had a wish list of who you wanted, and you got some pieces from that wish list.

Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. I just want to go through because we're, you know, three weeks in that you've either felt the impact of these guys in a good way or a bad way, three guys that I want to highlight hitters. We'll do the batters first because that's what we care about. Ramon Luriano has continued to do it

for the San Diego Padres. In his 16 games, he has a 1.012 OPS. He's hitting everything. And Trev, I kept saying this, but I was struggling to find the words on it. Since he got traded to the Braves' last year. It was June of 20, June 15th of 2024. Ramon Luriano has the 12th highest slugging in baseball of all of these hitters.

He is a top 10 batting average of everyone. I'm talking Judge Shohei Vladdy. What he has been for the last calendar year has been one of the top 10 hitter in baseball. And he's always had the defensive side that him and O'Hern, who's been solid for the Padres, kind of like the current one-one hitter of the deadline, if not your guy, Carlos Correa, who's been killing it for Houston Shocker. Yeah, I love the addition for the Padres in Ramon, Loriano. He kind of just, like, checked all the boxes for them. And he's, I mean, I didn't know over the last calendar year how good he's been.

So nice little point right there. he's hitting breaking pitches extremely well this year on time for the fastball as well love that Carlos Correa you knew that he was going to go get rejuvenated down there in Houston he feels comfortable I think that stadium fits his swing profile probably a little bit more than target field does he wasn't pulling the ball a ton

and you can't you kind of have to pull the ball at target field so I think for Carlos To be able to go to right field and left field and Houston probably makes a big difference. Just like, you know, it's like anything. You go into a stadium and ask any big league hit or this. If you feel like you don't have to like muscle a ball to get it out of the ballpark, especially to the opposite field, man, your mechanics change.

Like you feel so much better about having a big part of the field approach. Yeah. You can't have a big part of the field approach everywhere. And sometimes, you know, you get it. into that and it's like, damn, it's like Fenway is really tough for that too because middle of the field there is huge. Like, you know, right center, juts out big time. And you have the two small sides of the field with the monster and pesky pole, you know, so a lot of guys will kind of focus on that when it's, it becomes detrimental to their swings.

So you really have to be careful at somewhere like that. But Houston is a place where like, hey, man, I just got to have, think big part of the field and good things are going to. A great point, Treve. I initially jumped to Houston. left field because obviously we talked about that a lot with Correides and Cove and everyone. But yeah, that's very interesting that Correa, that right field. Fastball away, go with it. It happens over there. I mentioned him briefly.

Everyone go check out Miguel Anduhar's stat page. He's been bawling out for the Reds. Him and Kibrian a little bit, the glove and the stick over there. the Reds community is falling in love with Cabrion Hayes' defense because they should. He might be the best in the world at it over there. Had a nice little comebacker off the flip. Yep. Made a beauty the other night.

Some guys in the middle, Josh Naylor, we talked about his power and stolen bases he's found in Seattle. He's got a 771 OPAs. I guess Yostremski deserves more love. A 905, Kansas City's been looking for outfield help. And by the way, win in a couple games. Five in a row, they're right in the think of this. I think two and a half back of Boston as we record this for the last. But the Mariners don't make the freaking playoffs.

I, we just, maybe we take them out of Seattle and put them in Salt Lake. They just get moved to Portland. The northwest goes to work. My God. If you have Cal Raleigh doing what he's doing this year, if you made and went the trades for Josh Schneeler and Eugenio Swartz, If you got the pitching staff and the back end of the bullpen, which I said, you know, I think they're a little shaky because I saw them personally be shaky,

but in reality, like they're very good. So you have a great back end of the bullpen, great starters, an MVP performance by your fucking catcher. And you made trade deadline acquisitions, and Randy a Rosarain is having one of his best seasons, and you missed the playoffs, something is going, like, what the hell? Well, I don't know how half of our episodes end up, dunking on Seattle at the end.

But you're not wrong. And I'm like, like, think about that. If you told the Seattle Mariners fan base before the year, Cal Raleigh is going to be MVP 2, which he's probably going to be because Judge is still going to win MVP. He might hit 60 homers.

And then pitching staff is going to come into form. Brian Wu is going to have 26 games straight of six things pitched or more. Randy's going to go off and you're going to get Josh Nailer and a. He knew swares at the deadline. And right now, so right now they are tied with Boston for the second and third wildcard in Cleveland and Kansas City are two and a half and three games back. BAL. I guess I could say that they're only one and a half back in the division, too. Yeah.

I mean, they're, again, Seattle, it doesn't have to be this way. And I know you guys don't want that either. And it deserves to be noted as they chew through this list. Hey, Eugenio has been on the struggle bus. I know he ran into one the other day, but 141 batting out. average 454 OPS. So that's not the guy they hope they traded for. Same with Cedric Mullins, went over to the Mets.

And he's been 167, 546 OPS. Hazu Sanchez on the Astros, we were wondering, was that going to be sleeper cell? Are they going to tap into him? Hasn't happened yet. And I'm going to lump in Willie Castro kind of with the Cubs as the whole that we're talking about deadlines, pieces and Bon Laureano and the Padres were hot until they ran into the Dodgers.

I don't know. It's just interesting to think there's a lot of baseball you can't predict. And the Cubby's in their rough part of the season so far kind of didn't get the boost from their deadline guys and they're feeling. Yeah, Willie, I don't think it's taken a walk yet. I was watching the game the other day. They were talking about that. He's made some nice plays in the field.

He's played a bunch of different positions. that the positional utility aspect is still there, but yeah, the offense has not been. On the throw-ins side, the starters, again, there wasn't a ton of starters that went. Dustin May has been good for Boston. You were first on that, Trev. Don't trade a guy that throws a nasty 100 piece just to do it.

He's the new Nathanie of Aldi. I said it, and I will keep saying it. Wow. 15.2 innings. He's just getting hit a little bit, but a 287 ERA. Zach Lattel, one of the interesting trade deadline pieces, and his three starts, 17.2, a 306. Merrill Kelly, three starts that have been solid,

Adrian Houser, slightly subpar where he'd like to be. Adrian Houser, same 517, R.A. The bullpen, and these are the ones that I think we've seen the most of, because can you imagine showing up to a new team in a new city and you're having a bad time? Everyone text Ryan Hilsley. Because it has been tough for him. And he threw a couple nice pitches at the Williamsport game

that maybe that snaps him back into it. And his 6.1 innings, five earn runs, nine runs total. And 1.254 against Halsley, if you're a hitter the past two weeks. That's insane. He says he feels good. And oh, yeah, in New York, Camilo Doval, a guy who I've, he's kind of my dream pitcher. I've seen the other side a little bit.

He's been walking guys. Also just, he's left a couple hanging sliders, which is one of those weird things. And you talked about this with Duran last year. When you have that just special arm talent, when you throw a bad breaking ball, It's just kind of like, what are we doing? Yeah. Your guy Griffin Jack's having a slow start. Sorry.

The guys that are doing well, Kyle Finnegan, we've talked about him in Detroit. 7.2 innings, zero earn run, four saves. That'll do. Duran with the Phillies was obviously a massive storyline and continues as he hasn't given up an earn run. And David put him to bed not for those Yankees

has given them a level of stability closing out games for them. And then Dalton labeled these with kind of a good, medium, and bad. The mediums are interesting. Tyler Rogers, 9.1 innings, only two earn runs, but a 1.5 whip. So he's having those reliever heart attack innings, only one strikeout. Mason Miller has been good.

Florida's got him, but that's about it. And then Kittridge for the Cubby. So I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add to that, Trab, but this was more so to be informative to the. the baseball fans. This sounds like so mean, but I played with Andrew Kittridge, I believe,

was it in Tampa? Could have been. And what he has become, like, established himself as like a high-end reliever. Shocking. Interesting. But happy for him.

Nice guy. Nice guy. Yeah, he's got the funk a little bit, that slow delivery and just. I think he's like a, put him in front of a, like the track man and they like.

Yeah. One of those guys has benefited greatly from that. So let's see what happens with those guys and everyone else the rest of the way. It is Wednesday, so that means we send the people off. With Bet the Cycle, it's time to bet the cycle. Brought to you by Draft Kings. Use code J.M. Baseball when you sign up at the Draft Kings Sports book. Trev, I'll go first because I see a guy I like.

Aaron Judge, two plus total bases versus the Reds. Sox on Sunday night baseball. Big cameras, big guy. Judge, four extra base hits, three homers in six Red Sox games this season. I'll go with a double here, Justin Verlander on Thursday versus the pads. Five plus K's. It'd bring his season total to 100. He'd become his 17th season of 100 strikeouts.

That's what I'm reading there. It took me a while to get that one. The last two starts, he's at 8 and 6 strikeouts piece. I saw a picture of him, like wearing this, like the San Francisco Giant City Connect, and it was just like, what the hell? He's had a couple, I said it, and I again, wasn't supposed to be shots fired.

He's had a couple images this year where you're like, that's an older Justin Verland. And no shame in his game. This is like hip-hop inspired San Francisco and Justin Verland wearing it. I'm like, ah, this something. We're going for three in the, Cubbies need it and they need it from their guy and I'll go, I'll take this guy any day of the

show to seven shutout versus the Brewers. Yeah, I didn't think we were going there. I don't. Okay. Okay. For the triple we're swinging. For the triple we're swinging. Seven shut out against the brewers on Thursday. Let's do it. Let's get nuts. Cubbies need it. There's one guy who just loves, loves hitting homers against the Dodgers. That's Fernando Tatis Jr. So on Friday night versus the Dodgers, I got him having his first multi-homer game since April 14. 12 career of those for Fernando.

Say what's his name? Fernando. Four of those, 33% have come against the Dodgers. The road zone. Why not, Fernando? A big series for them this weekend, probably a big series for your team, too, or they're done.

Trev, an absolute masterclass today. We got some John Bino. You were in the lab. Thank you to everyone. I hope you enjoyed talking some baseball with us today. We will be back on Friday. Big Yankee series. Oh, boy.

That's a veteran. That logo in the front. That looks out of a video game. That's what I'm saying. It just doesn't fit JV. Willie Adamas, yes Is he gonna keep rolling? No.

This is it? Tom Brady to chill out, J.B.