Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Mariners are in FIRST Place and the Padres are Dead | 707

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINPost your job for free at https://linkedin.com/TALKINGet $10 off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to https://nutrafol.com/men and enter promo code TALKBASEGambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler or visit w w w 1 800 gambler dot net. In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit c c p g dot org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. See See D K N G dot co slash football for eligibility, terms and responsible gaming resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply.+++++Timestamps:0:00 Intro4:30 American League Recap12:30 Rangers Drop 3 of 4 to Minnesota19:00 Zack Gelof19:15 Rays Beat Yankees & Benches Clear24:20 Blue Jays Lose to Cleveland and are Getting NERVOUS37:35 Astros Beat Tigers38:20 Mariners SWEEP Royals and Take First Place45:25 National League Recap52:30 DBacks Beat the Reds59:25 Cubs Continue to Roll1:05:10 Braves Beat Giants1:09:15 Brewers SWEEP and End the Padres1:13:40 Phillies DEMOLISHED the Cardinals1:14:10 Nationals Beat Marlins1:17:15 Interleague Recap1:19:35 Dodgers Beat Boston, Mookie Returns to Fenway1:24:45 Shohei Ohtani Still Hits, Angels Offered an MRI1:26:45 Orioles Beat Rockies, but Lose Felix Bautista1:30:15 Javier Assad1:34:40 Teoscar Hernandez 2-HR Game1:38:25 En Fuego1:41:40 Injury Updates1:42:40 Tolkien Baseball: Miguel Cabrera & Justin Verlander1:51:50 Freak on a Leash Award: Corbin Carroll1:55:20 New Rules Have Been Doing It Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Your Seattle Mariners are alone in first place. Mookie and Verdugo get a little revenge. Felix, are you okay, Pop? Let's talk long, Trent. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Presented to you by Seat Geek, our presenting sponsor, Code Talking.

Go to a Games. We've got some... We're almost in pseudo-playoff season. Don't tell me that Snake's Red series didn't have playoff implications. It sure did. Twins Rangers? Go to Seat Geek.

It's so easy to use it. Jake can use it. Green dots. Green means good. Huh. Red means bad. 70,000 events, concerts, sports, everything you want.

They are the number one ticketing app. And with Code Talking, you'll get $20 off your first purchase at Seat Geek. Promo Code Talking. Click the link in the description. download the app. Trevor Plouf. How are you, my man?

How is the, how is the freak end? I'm doing great. I'm excited to talk some ball. I feel like I got some stuff to say today. And a fun award. We're going Tolkien baseball at the end. So if you're into that,

stay tuned. Good neighborhood weekend. We had some backyard stuff. Nameless Jeff. Shout out. Happy birthday yesterday, big guy. Did a little sushi dinner.

for him, but you know, that's not what this show was about, Jakey boy. It's about ball and ball players. I'm going to give my standout to a ball player today. And yeah, it's a pitcher that I call the ball player. Wow.

How about that? Yeah, so we're making progress. Shout out El Segundo, Little League. Taking it home, L.A., California, just representing for the whole country. And that's what I got. How you doing, Poppy?

Sports capital of the world. I'm good. I'm good. Jess was away for some of this weekend, which, you know, that can be scary times for me. You know, went to a solo NYC dinner, you know, sat down at the bar. You know, it's a nice little restaurant. There was another couple at the bar. They look over.

They go, oh, John Boy Media. Had a nice chat with them. You know, we talked ball, we talked Yanks. We talked a little formula, uh, which I'm not very well versed in. They were, so. But yeah, and then Saturday did nothing, which I needed that after my past couple weekends. I've been away.

I actually watched a lot of ball. Watch a lot of ball. Hopped around the league this weekend. Because it's getting real, Trev. I mean, you better have your takes on the Brewers. You better be worried about. Free league, baby. Texas.

Name your dog. Hey, let me tell you something, man. Before we get into the ball, this is for everybody out there that's listening to the show. show. You need to go have a solo dinner from time to time. It's an excellent thing. Nobody's nobody, nobody's bothering you. Well, you got bothered because that's who you are. You might, you might have started it. I didn't. Okay, okay, whatever. Normally you just sit there. No one's pecking at your food, asking to try some or take some. You can order whatever you want. And it's just a nice time to reflect on

your thoughts. I would recommend it 10 out of 10. So if you're scared to do it, don't be scared. It's a very, you can feel the dad coming out of you in that answer. Just Teddy digging at your plate. Liv, throw me a little bit of that. Liv loves to eat my food. I had a nice time. And I'm a man, Trev, I mean, we're almost, almost like a month away from playoff ball.

We got a lot of stuff to get decided. And let's just do it. it. Let's do some American League because it's Monday and that's what we do on Mondays, right? Actually, let's burn it first, Bebs, and then I'll tell the fine people about LinkedIn. Trevor, we're starting out. This is what Dalton had Noamono on the sheet. It's your Minnesota twins. They take three out of four from the Texas Rangers. The Rangers stopped their losing streak, but have they turned it around? I don't know, because you know what? things. 13 innings. 13 innings innings in that final game and the twins get it done.

Seven to six. They blew him out in that second game. Sunny shut him out and the offense put up big boy numbers. Matt Walner, the Minnesota Moose, as you named him, is he starting, he might not start it. He'll finish it, Trev. That's a big boy. Man, the Texas Rangers are out of first place for the first time in a long time. And hey, the Twos, Twins, I guess they put a nice little feather in their cap. Interested to get some thoughts on this series, Ryan Jeffers, Mitch Garver, the old catching duo. Twins, Chapman, his closing numbers.

We got a lot to talk about there. White Sox, A's, maybe not as much to talk about. The A's, take the first two out of four games in this series. Shea Lane Jaliers, Dan Kenobio's guy. Your guy, Zach Galoff. He puts up a couple nice days at the office. Ryan Noda's back. He's putting together a really nice season.

Pencil him in for next year. But these White Sox have always been resilient. And they come back. They win the next two games. Yon Moncada. Four for four on that final day. Mike Clevenger, seven innings, one hit. I don't know.

These are two bad teams, as they say in the biz. The Yankees played the raise. and the raise take two out of three. The game, the race, lose. Garrett Cole, who's your favorite for AL-Sai Young, puts up a 7.2, 11Ks. The raise, Tyler Glass now holds them to one hit. Brandon Lau, four RBI in the final game.

There's a little bit of beanball stuff here, and the raise get the final F, because they are the bigger men and they are the bigger team. They take two out of three down in Tampa. Yanks won't see them again until April of next year. Whoa, one of those, wow, their season's really actually over. Go Tampa Go. Guardians, this one's a sneaky one.

Guardians take two out of three from the Jays. Jays are currently out of the wild card. They win that middle game Ryu. Flinging up 66 mile per hour curve balls. Again, on pitch ninja. Davis Schneider, man, this kid continues to hit. Where is he from? But know who hit for Cleveland?

How about throwback corner outfielders? Ramon Luriano and Cole Calhoun actually got some run at first base in the final game for Swole Calhoun. And the Guardians get it done. That final game goes 11. Cinderguard starts and gets DFA'd. Yikes. Matt Chapman leaves with injury.

Blue Jays, danger time. Danger time in Toronto. Astros take two out of three from the Tigers. I'll say this, though. The game the Tigers won. Parker Meadows. How's your walk-off homer first homer first RBI? It's a pretty good way to do it. And Matt Manning, 6.1, zero earnies in that one. So hey, maybe the Tiger Hype Train is getting going for next year. But the Houston hype train goes for the rest of this year. They put up 9 and 17.

Bregman, Altoove, Yorda, Abraeu, Pena, Tucker, Dubon, Chaz, your guy. Everyone, everyone pads their stats. They take two out of three. And then you're Seattle Mariners. They sweep the Kansas City Royals, including a 15 to 2 blowout, where Teosker has a pair of homers.

Raleigh, Ford, Rojas, they all go out. Logan Gilbert shuts him down. J.P. Crawford is back. Woo! They've got the good sauce. Seattle right now. Julio's going nuts and Luis Castillo. If anyone catches coal, it might be that guy. They sweep Kansas City. They are in first place. And that is what happened in your American league. Nice poppy. Nice poppy. Sometimes it's just different. The Baltimore Orioles.

Let me do the standing. Please, Trev. Thank you. I think I should take over stand. I love it because I'm kind of gassed after all that. Yeah, I'm always snapping. I don't get to talk for like five minutes. Oh, you know I love to hear my own voice. Good trade. Yeah, and people are sick of you. They want to hear more of me. So everyone's saying, nothing. You received the standings. Yeah. Boom. Yeah, do that the whole time too. Okay, perfect. In the American League East, which we thought was the best division, turns out it's just stinks. You think you're horrible. Baltimore. In, first place, 81 and 49, Tampa Bay Rays, two games behind

them, and then Toronto in Boston, 10 and a half and 12 and a half, respectively. I won't even talk about the Yanks, it's a sore subject here. In the Central, my twin, 68 and 63, they lead the division by six games over the Cleveland Guardians

who are 62 and 69. Beeps, nice. Tigers, 59 and 71, they're 8 and a half back, but they've won some series lately people, and there's some good young ball players on that team. White Sox, Kansas City Royals, yikes. That's what Jake would say. In the American League West, the Meritors, are you kidding me? I told people they were going to go. Gosh, 74 and 56, they take over first place from the Texas Rangers who are 73 and 57 and Houston, 74 and 58.

So in the standings, both one game back of Seattle, it's tight there. The Angels and Oakland, yikes, gross. In the wild card, Tampa Bay has the first spot. There's six games up on Texas and Houston who were tied for the second and third spots. Behind them, two and a half games out, Toronto Blue Jays, Boston Red Sox, four and a half games out. It could come down. Those teams could come back into it, Jake. But right now, it's that AOS looking proper.

Yeah, Toronto is becoming an interesting conversation. And another great standings, Trev. Those Trevor Plu standings were brought to you by LinkedIn. If you're looking for a new standing at your job, or maybe you're looking to bring in new people, LinkedIn is where you have to go. 100% certain you have access to the best qualified candidates. LinkedIn, LinkedIn jobs.

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Trevello, a tale of two cities here, the dominant Minnesota twins of, versus the Texas Rangers. I will tap into you on this one. Texas has been floundering. They end their losing streak in that third game. Mad Max on the bump. Mitch Garver and Adelisse hits an absolute nuke. Otherwise, it's all twins.

And man, oh, man, I just, that Texas locker room, the Texas dugout, the Texas flight out, like knowing that you've lost first place, knowing that it's still, you're not out of this tailspin, man. I can't imagine the emotions going through that clubhouse right now. It's definitely not a good feeling because they've been in first place,

like almost the entire year. And they surprised people. They surprised me a little bit. But have kept it going because they've just been good on all sides of the ball, essentially. And, you know, I think they're just running into a little bit a rut, you know, and at the same time that Seattle is going nuclear. So, you know, this happens, you know, this is, this is 162. This is why we love baseball. Sometimes it's daunting. Sometimes

we get sick of it. There's too much baseball. But it's like, this is why we do 162. Because through that, we're going to have these ups and downs. And you're going to like have to climb out of a valley. And then you're going to have to try to stay up top. And I think, that's where we're at right here. It's a bad stretch of baseball for the Rangers. Doesn't mean they're a bad team. Again, Mariners are hot. Mix those two together and you get this, but not a great series for them. The Twins are, they needed this series big time. You know, they lost, they got swept by Milwaukee. I think that was, was it a two game set or I don't even know what it was. It was a two games set. And they had them in playing great baseball, although, I'll keep saying

this because it's true. Like Cleveland and everybody else in the Central just gifted them the division. They hadn't really been playing great. But this series was offensively good for them. They had some good pitching. You know, they did the Bailey Ober, Dallas Kikell stack, which was worked, worked out. That's two different looks, huh? That's two different looks right there.

Yeah, just a really good series for the twins, bad series for the Rangers. but again, I just don't think that, I mean, this Rangers team is going to be there. Like, their roster is too good. Max and Montgomery have been great. Like, Max is, I mean, yeah, he stopped the winning streak. I think in his, in all his starts in Texas, he's got like a 2-9.

So they're, they'll be okay. There's a big article out on the athletic, or in the athletic, who wrote it? I'm assuming gleaming, your guy. My guy. let's see yeah it was gleaming and he's talking about the twins and the rookies and that's that really has been you know we talk a lot about their starting pitching and how it was really good you know the first half really good it hasn't been as great second half still very much serviceable but these guys have changed everything Eddie julia Matt Wallner Royce Lewis Royce has the big grand slam to answer Jonah Heimes but these guys are just they're essentially carrying the offense. You know, what offense the twins put out there,

these guys are right in the thick of it. So, you know, it's going to be an interesting month. I think the twins are going to get into the playoffs, and they're going to win the division. I think they're going to end up winning the division by 10 games. And I want to see what they do with this six-man rotation. They're trying to do. And, yeah.

Yeah, the, uh, As I look at this, you know, Texas, they're heading to the Mets and then they have a homestand. And, you know, when your relievers are getting hit, I know Chapman, his numbers in save situations aren't as good as they are outside of it. And I like this. I don't know if you know more about this because I'm just reading about this from Dalton's notes. But Ryan Jeffers for his pinch hit at bat, he was preparing in the cage for that at bat. and then he hits the two-run homer, which that changes game one of this series.

That changes the whole tone of the series, right? He's a stud. Love him. And yeah, most teams have this machine. It's a pitching machine. You can dial up. You just input the numbers, what you want. Spin rate, velocity, spin efficiency.

I don't know if I don't know what everything they do, but you can mimic pitches. You can put in Will Smith slider and be like, okay. That's what he was doing. Yeah. Yeah. I was out there. earlier in the year

they were doing Corbyn Burns Cutter and I was like, why would the fuck would you ever want to see that thing more than you have to? But then Kyle Farmer used the machine and hit a home runoff on that day. So it does work. And Jeffers has been

pinch hitting. There's a stat, I don't know. I don't think it's on our sheet, but I saw it when I was watching the game. He's a great pinch hitter. I like that. Not a ton of the bats, 20-something of the bats,

but he's, I think it's like 9 for 20 or something like that. Okay. Stud. Yeah. That was, I mean, he had the bat flip and got the boys going. Yeah, you're right. It did change momentum of the series.

Rice Lewis is back too, huh? Twins going to get it going a little bit? Twins going to get you excited? I'm not excited right now just because, like I said, they're going to win this division by 10 games and just, I'm curious to see how they start setting up for the playoffs. Yeah. Like I want to see what they're going to do with all these pitchers.

I want to see, you know, how they try to stack the rotation to get ready for the postseason. I want to see what relievers they go to in the high leverage situations. Maybe you're testing this guy out, that guy out. Rocco brought in Duran in the eighth inning in the game this series because he's like, that was the top of their lineup. Right. And then Griffin Jacks behind him. So it's, yeah, I think it's going to be a month of like, all right, we're fine tuning,

fine-tuning, fine-tuning. Next on the sheet is A's White Sox. I hit it on the way through. I don't, yeah. Zach Gell-off, you want to say his name? Gell-off, like sell-off. He's a stud. It's a stud.

We'll see both next year. Yankees race. Treb, I mentioned, you know, they win the Cole game. He's dominant. DJ LaMayhew has two homers in that game. Otherwise, offense is shut, down in the second game. Only DJ LaMayhew has hits in that game.

Two hits. That's it for the Yankees. And then the final day, we get a little back and forth. Yankees go down to nothing. Ray's come back. Our Yanks come back and then the Ray's come back again. And yeah, there's some beanball. We have the dugouts clear twice.

And Brandon Lau hits the nail on the head after the game where he's like, man, we're still playing for something. You know, we're still trying to track. down the Orioles in the division. We're in the wild card. And this team is not in it. I think the number was the Yankees have hit 12 raised batters this year and the raise of it two.

So, yeah, I'd be pissed off too. And I think there's even an exchange at home plate. It's Boone and cash. And I think Boone's like kind of like, what was that about? I think it's Boone saying like, if I was you guys,

I'd be kind of mad too. Like, didn't it like shake hands and like. It's the like not real lip breed. I did in real time was, I think he just keeps saying, I understand, I understand. One, I mean, it's true. One team, it's why when people were wondering

why we weren't tougher on Boone in our interviews, it's like the fight's over. You've won the war. Like, you know, we're not gonna, no need to really beat the dead horse. Yankees have won one. I don't like that saying. I don't like that saying.

Yankees have won one series since July 1st. Yeah. They beat the A's in June. And then it's almost September. Just the royals. Yeah, it's tough guys. It's bad. I follow too many Yankee people on Twitter.

Yeah. I've seen all the stats. Yankees are just, yeah, they're out of it. They're done. It's over. You guys wave the white flag. I did see the Mayhew's been getting hot, so that's good for you guys.

A little late on that. But you want to see it because you're still there for quite some time. A couple more years, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, we're going to have a lot of time to talk offseason Yankees, but DJ has looked like the good DJ LaMayhew from a couple years ago that Yankee fans, as of a few weeks ago,

didn't know if they could pencil him in for anything next year, and it looks like he'll at least be in a utility role and serviceable. So I don't know, as we all try to come up with our 2024 Yankees game plan, like DJ will be a part of it. And that's the kind of wins Yankee fans are looking for right now. On the flip side, the rays are 8 and 1 over their past 9 series. They had that bad run where they went 5 and 15. Now they're back doing it, looking like the raise.

They're also tinkering, getting ready for the playoffs, finding out what works, what doesn't work. No updates on the whole wander thing. I haven't seen anything. See anything, haven't heard anything. The rays don't. In typical raise fashion. and obviously they give a shit.

But they're marching on. They're going and playing ball. And hey, I know Rosie's going to be talking with you on baseball today a little bit, and our O's aren't till Kelsey Wingert's rocks in the IL. But, man, two-game lead. Like, you know, we're doing a lot right now of, like, Texas Rangers, whoa, how crazy is this, how dominant. Orioles are in a similar boat.

I mean, there was raised. you know, the rays were the story very early on, but they are within striking distance, and we'll, I'm interested to see what kind of impact missing Felix is going to do to that team because, you know, that team is also really good through eight innings. That's how they get the ball to Felix.

But I don't know. That is one of their dominant things they have that's now gone. So rays are kind of in hunt mode, and they are right there. And to not be in a wild, card, that's huge. Yeah. Foof.

18 of the last 26 after going 5 and 15. So they're going. They're going. And I love that B. Lau said that. And dude, Randy... That just shuts everybody up. Like, hey, we're actually still playing for something. They're just trying to fire up themselves. And Treve, if you

ever, if you wake up low tea one morning, which I know that's never happened to you, but Randy, Rosa, gets hit with a pitch. He's pissed. You know, everyone clears. This dugout comes out. It's always been baseball's best way to get redemption. Steal second, steals third.

Not even close. And it's like, well, okay, you guys stink. You just gave up a free triple. Go Tampa go. Now, on the other side of all of this, Trevor, and Foolish Bailey on what? Wake and Jake kind of brought this to my attention, and we are hitting a, not a tipping point, but a whoa.

The Toronto Blue Jays are currently two and a half out of the playoffs, not the division. They're two and a half out of the playoffs. And if you like yourself some Toronto Blue J baseball and like, oh, they're going to make the dance, right? Well, then you don't believe in either the Texas Rangers or the Houston and Astros, the two teams ahead of them. They drop two out of three from the Guardians,

and we're kind of hitting the point in the season where you can't do that. I don't know, Trev. What's going on? Your guy, Maddie Chapman, leaves the last game with an injury. Boba Schett also left the game, the last game. Davis Schneider's putting the team on his back when they need it. I don't know.

They win the middle game, but they lose, and it's, you know, some of the guys, Cleveland's putting out there, Col Calhoun, Ramon Luriano. There's a lot of baseball fans that probably don't know those two dudes are on that team. Who's that? Luriano and Cole Calhoun. Oh, for the Guardian. Yeah.

Yeah. The Guardians are playing some brand of baseball. Gosh, that'd be something if they gave the Twins a run for the Central. They won't, though. Very confident in that. I ask this question almost every single. To me, Toronto and the Ponsor, Padres are like the same thing.

I just don't, I don't understand. The Padres are on a way different level. I'm almost ready to declare the Padres dead. I think everyone probably has. I might be late to the party on that. I'm not giving up on Toronto. I love the roster too much. I mean, you lose the last game in 11.

So you could have won this series. Then we're talking a whole different thing here. I understand what you're saying about the standings, Jakey boy when you're talking about they're looking up at two really really good teams I just can't imagine the playoffs without them to be honest with you I haven't I haven't even thought of the playoffs without them but I guess that dang foolish Bailey brings up a good point I mean one of those three teams or the Mariners is not going to make the playoffs Toronto Houston Texas Seattle if you were to rank those teams without looking at the

records and stuff, what would you, what would you do? Pirano, Houston, Texas, Seattle. Who's at the top for you? Houston? You're scared of Houston so much. No, it, I mean, this is such mental gymnastics. I, and yeah, I'm letting recency get in there, but I'm, I would put Seattle as my one. I, me, BPD and Joe's, we did a playoff team wins draft,

which I think we did on talking baseball last year. Yeah, that was, that was a you, Jerry, and Moyland episode, I think. Wow. Replay that one. I took the Seattle Mariners, and they were still behind Texas and I think Houston at the time. I like their schedule, and I said it coming into the season, and I even think some. Some astro fans during the midway point when Seattle was still 500,

I think my quote was like if there's a team that can compete with Houston, I think it's Seattle because they've seen what they've done over these past few years and they have a young core and they made that Castillo move, which was really their like nuclear. And actually that was after Robbie Ray, who's not even a part of this, right? Like I would take Seattle one. I would take Toronto last and I have no clue what to do with Houston and Texas

because I obviously respect what Houston's been on. I think Texas has been the better team this year. But like how far are the wheels off? I don't know, man. You know what Toronto's record is against the AL East? I just did math. I know it's pretty bad. 12 and 25.

There's your explanation right there. This is a good baseball team. But they didn't take care of. business against their own division. They got what? 12 and 25? That's nuts. Yeah. Man. I mean, I'm looking at their schedule and the results and everything. They had one bad month in May. They went 11 and 17. Other than that, they've been above 500, 17 and 10 in April, 16 and 11 in June, 14 and 10 in July. They're 500 right now in August. But against the A, at least you're 12 and 25. That is, that's tough. And why? I don't know. Uh,

All of their stats have them top 10 offensively, top 10 starting, top 10 relieving. I guess their offense. Let me take a step back a little bit. They're 17th and runs, man. I mean, this is supposed to be Toronto. This is supposed to be a top of the lineup that you don't get through. The year they've gotten from Whitmerfield, I mean, what Davis Schneider has been doing recently. I don't know.

I think if they, well, how about this? We said this with Seattle to give us a little bit of credit, and more so you than me. But if Seattle had to go, Julio had to start being special, and he has. Obviously, a lot of other guys around him are. Vladito, we haven't talked about him a ton this year. He had an absolute nuke in this series off Cinderguard.

Who got designated? If Vladdy gives me an MVP September, I can start talking myself about some Js, but I need to see that. his numbers aren't even that bad though j very good but like he's also supposed to be cream of the crop it is interesting looking at his overall season he's got 20 and 76 right now like this guy's supposed to be a run producer that's so so i look at the counting numbers people so shoot me shoot him okay 20 and 76 has a big September like you're saying set i i want to 30 30

You can get the 30 and 100 with a good September. I want to stop you a little bit because we're predicting or wanting a big September. Trev, 784 OPS from Vlad. He's not supposed to be there. He's a career 846. I know. He's 24 years old. That's...

Vladdy's got to go. Slugs down a little bit. OBP's down a little bit. I wonder if the Babbup is saying something and we are going to see. a massive September. I mean, I want someone to hang around because I don't want the AL wild card to end. And Bluget, it's two and a half.

Next, by Friday, a couple things bounce your way. You're in the wild card. So I'm not saying it's over, but like, it's getting careful to slip up season. Like, you can't, the Guardians, and now they're playing the Nats, who the Nats have been one of the five best teams since the All-Star break.

Thank you, Nats fans, for straightening us out. That's why you guys know your team better than us. Trevor raises his paw. So Vladie, I know he's got the career 846. It's buoyed by the one dot year in 21. Every other year is right around 800. So, like, I don't know if it's fair to expect one dot did not, or a nine OPS out of this guy.

He's done it once. I guess, right? No, it's an interesting point. I guess the only counter I would have to that, is he's 24, like, you know, he did... Expecting to still be ticking up. You'd assume he'd still be seeing more pitches and getting better and all that stuff.

And comparing it to last year where he had an 8-1-8 OPS, offense was down across the league, so he had a 133 OPS plus last year. So right now he's at 116. So... Yeah, but, you know, 2000... I mean, I know he's young and it's all different.

I'm just saying, like, relative, like his numbers are more of what they are this year than they are... I'm not going to call it. outlier year, but the year that he went bonkers, his numbers are more of what they are now than that. I guess it's going to be a... But you're right, he's 24, what? And the Babb is kind of in line with the career. Is it? With the each year, yeah, 284 Babbip this year's 297 for his career. I like what we've landed on, because either way, this Blue Jay's team that has painted a picture for themselves

and, you know, should be in the... If the Blue Jay's... is we're a 78 win team right now, we'd be like, damn, like this team, this could be a World Series team. Right now they're two and a half out of the playoffs. This young core's been together for a little bit now. This is a big month for Vladdy, because everything you just said was right, Trev?

Like, if Vladdy just stays at these numbers for the rest of September, like, those numbers are more in line than what would turn into an outlier year. So, whoa, September, Vlad, What did you call earlier this? Playoff month. I don't know what you were saying. There's like some.

Yeah. With the added wild card. Because think about that. We just, we just added this thing in. What was it? Last year, two years ago.

Yeah. Last year, I think. Last year is the first year. And COVID. Yeah. So, in COVID, yeah.

So, dude, like there's, do you like that there's so many teams still in these races? Like, do you think it's good for baseball? I That's the talk about

you know Adding a team I've said this before I'm a fan Like if you compare The two wild cards right now Well my snakes are fucking hot I kind of do like it

I don't like it for the playoffs Like I do I have that baseball Traditionalist in me Like give me kind of the four Best teams Division winners One wild card

Roll it out Give me longer playoff series that makes more sense for a 162 season. For the regular season, so we're adding more entertainment to the regular season, and we've told people on the show before, the owners just want more playoff games, because that's revenue.

Like, it kind of works. You know, I think we're getting further away from a best true champion, but I do think the Toronto Blue Jays are a good baseball team, and right now they're not at. the dance. And I was going to counter in saying the NL, like the NL's a little sloppier, but not if the snakes, you know, the snakes are 69 and 62 right now. They're the last wildcard team. Like, whether it's them or the Reds or San Francisco, they are going to have to

earn their way in. So I'm enjoying this season. I'm glad we currently don't have the one team we're looking at like, no. Yeah, that's the thing is you just don't want a 500 team or a sub-500 team to get in, which happened in 2020. Who was it? It was the Astros. Astros. It was literally half the league, right? Like some Arlans. Yeah. Ultimately still

second year of this format, it takes a few years for us to probably really get conclusions on like, do we like this? Or some years we're going to get a bad team. This year it seems like we're not. So that's good. Baseball reference is trying to be the

bad guy. They put the skull and crossbones on the Oakland athletics. Yeah. That's tough. I saw that on ESPN, not the schooling crossbones, but... They are eliminated from the playoffs. Tough. I guess they can start just tanking now.

Just a real shot. You get the skull and crossbones. You're dead. Tough. They'd like that. Hey, baseball reference, you won't put it next to the Padres. Yikes. Their elimination... Royals have a magic number of four.

Colorado has a magic number of two. The Padres have a magic number of 13. That's going to happen like in any day, like this week. Could happen quick, man. Let's finish off the ale. We have the two other good ale West teams. Houston takes two out of three from Detroit. I mentioned the Detroit walkoff pretty cool for Parker Meadows.

That's a good southern baseball name, huh? Actually, he might be a Cali boy. I think I looked that up. Oh, let's look it up. Sounds like a kid that would be on your little team. Dude, there's a lot of tough names out there these days. Oh, you should, Jimmy was losing his mind reading. Atlanta totally makes sense.

Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah. Some of the Little League kid names, Jim, Jim was losing his mind over it. Everyone's got to be different. The other two games, Houston offense puts up big boy numbers. Yeah, a little bit good team, bad team. I know I think your award is coming from this. Yeah, we can go quickly through it.

Yeah, there's a pretty special moment that happened during this game. We'll talk about it later, or during the series, excuse me, we'll talk about it later. But yeah, I would say good team, bad team. And then Royals Mariners, I mean, for me it comes down to, you know, Mariners win those first two games. J.P. Crawford is back. And yeah, just a reminder, Seattle was 40.

37 and 48 on July 20th, and have gone on a 25 and 8 run since then. Kansas City, again, if you want to go look at the standings and where they're at, I mean, yikes. And then they hold on to win that last game, and it's just like they're entering rare air with how hot they are right now. And I mean, I think their schedule still like, like they have Oakland next. So, whoa. We talked about the schedule, and we knew that they were going to have a chance to go on some sort of run like this. But then you pair that with, Hey, Oscar getting hot. I mean, you got the starting pitchers.

They've been doing it. Gilbert's won, I think, six straight decision. Luis Castillo has been freaking disgusting. This team is just, they're just a, they're a very good baseball team. And I saw some reports that Kelnick is going to start a rehab assignment. I would love nothing more than for that guy to come back and be a part of, you know, the end of September into the playoffs.

That shit was sad, bro. His, when he was talking about it and just how dumb he felt and how he let down his teammates, that's, that was raw, real emotion. And I hopefully he, you know,

can work his way back and contribute again because that's what it's all about, man. and he was doing so well, too. There's a, there's a Mariner. I'm talking about in a little bit. So I think we, I think we can keep it moving. What are you're talking about? I think, oh, you'll see.

He's that, he is, he's one of my favorites. Oh, I know you're talking about it. He's one of my favorites. Yeah, Julio hit a bomb. Everything is, it's hot in Seattle right now. And I think, I think in Mariners fans, I know you let me know. Mm-hmm. I think we celebrated it the other day.

I think Cal Raleigh was the second fastest Mariner to 50 home runs or something like that. And it was like Griffey and Cal and we're like, oh, that's sick, that's sick. I think Julio just took first. So Cal just fell to three, which is just, that's just good fun. This is the stat here for the Mariners. It's the latest the Mariners have had sole possession of first in a season since 2003. That's not real. Crazy, man.

Like they had that good 2001 team, and then things have really been not great. 20 years basically to the day is August 24th, 2003. And like how much that city's changed in 20 years? Like, man, I'm excited for the Mariners, man. I don't know. There's something brewing. And it feels like, God, are them and the Astros going to line each other up for like...

I would love to see that series again. I would love to see that series again. Oberyn Tyrell versus the mountain type battle. You know what I'm saying? I tell you what. 11 of 12, 19 of 23, 21 of the last 26. I struggle finding things I love in this world. I love baseball.

I love people. Dogs. But like, I love dogs. Like golf. Dude, I fucking love Game of Thrones, man. I started talking about it this weekend, and I got, like, sweaty, intense, and hot. You start watching some shows?

I think I'm going to rewatch. I've been dancing around it for so long. That's a lot of time. I should save it for the off season. Off season, we should rewatch. You want to watch? We'll do some watching. Let's do it.

Yeah, let's do a Thrones rewatch in the off season. Late night. And something else, Trev. I'm not. I'm not afraid to announce this to the people. As I've gotten older, I've seen a couple of picks of myself. Actually, there was one time in the warehouse that behind the scenes Bill was zooming in on my hair

because it looked like it was thinning. It looked like it was thinning, and at a certain point, you've got to stop being proud. And I have, because I want to keep it. You know, I'm already short. I'm already stocky. if I lose what's up top, I mean, that's it. No more of me being a sex symbol.

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Click the link in the description. Fellas. Oh, Trev, you've got your hand raise. You go. Currently I am using Neutral Fall. shampoo and conditioner and it's great just regular all shampoo

but the fact that it's going to like keep these locks that I have is big because I want the dinner last night I don't mean to blow up everyone's spot that I want the dinner with I don't really know all these people that well there's a lot of bald people yeah some tough hairlines

some tough hair lines and I was thinking man like I got to be proactive about this and that's what Neutraval has done and the shampoo ball It's like a twist top. So you just squirt it out the top and twist it back. You don't have to open the flap up, which I am all about, bro.

The flaps break all the time. My kids don't close them. You don't have the problem with Neutrafall. Great bottle to go along with a great product. Let's do some NL. Neutrafal. NL. I mentioned some pseudo-playoff baseball, Trev,

and I mentioned it with the Diamond And the Diamondbacks and the Cincinnati Reds battling for that last wild card spot. And we play for rings in the desert. The Diamondbacks take three out of four. Merrill Kelly, seven innings, one hit, 12 K's. He's a dude, man. And so is Corby and Carol, who homers in that first game. Nick Martini is back and balling out for the Reds.

He has a couple big days at the office. that helps the Reds win in 11, then so does a balk. Some funny business going on there. We had a Spencer Steer had a home run robbery that was robbed by a fan. Kind of an all-time highlight. What matters, though, in the standings, that last game, the snakes get it done again. More Tommy fan, more Corby and Carol.

Snake's rotation gives them some big innings in this one. They take three out of four. The Inside the Park Home Run where Corbyn Carroll gets thrown out by Ellie Day La Cruz. My goodness, a lot of talent on display there. Speaking of the Chicago Cubs, they take three out of four from the Pittsburgh Pirates. They win that first game in extras in 10. Pirates, a little pitcher's duel. Mitch Keller has put together a heck of a season.

He out duels Hendricks. And then we've got the debut by Wix that's breaking Cubs records. and then your boy, Javier Assad. Watch out. Baseball savant, him and Bryce Elder, not loved there, but they're loved on the field. Cubbies, man. Cody Bellinger, every time you see him,

five RBI game. What? Cubs are rolling, man. That middle infield defense from Horner and Dansby, they be hitting two. God, Cubbies are a problem. But the number one problem in the NL is still your at last. Atlanta Braves.

Because Spencer Strider, we're almost bored of him because he throws up another seven innings, nine K's one earn run. Feels like every start. Maximus Freed in game two, six innings pitch, two earn runs. This is all while Matt Olson, stating my daughter and having two RBI games. In that final game, though, Sunday night baseball. The Giants, man, they do play a fun brand. Your guy Casey Schmidt runs into one, made a couple nice plays on defense, too.

Patrick Bailey get interviewed on SportsCenter after the game. And you know I like watching Camilo Duval throw a baseball. That's your guy. It just looks entirely different. It looks entirely different. I would love to measure my wingspan against his. They salvaged the last game. And Trev, the San Diego Padres are dead.

The Milwaukee Brewers sweep them. 7-3-5-4-10-6 Brandon Woodruff Rowdy Telez and Willie Adamas Those are the guys they kind of need to go And the Padres are just looking around Mani Machado Him and Gary Homer in that first game

Doesn't matter Gary Homer's in the last game Soto Homer's in the second It's all the names But they just never win, man I don't know They have the same record as the Washington Nationals Do what you want with that.

Phillies, they sweep the Cardinals. Good team versus bad team a little bit. 7-2, 12, 1, 3-0. Geez. St. Louis fans, I am so sorry. But good for Nola, Schwerber, Harper, yeah. I love Bryson Stott. I want that out there.

Casually on his way to a five-war season. How many guys on their team do you mention before him? and the Nationals take two out of three from the Marlins. Marlins, come on now. You made it this far. But did they run into a better team? The Nationals have been playing awesome baseball. Jonah Done, sick, shutpiece.

Sure, pump it into my veins. Marlins, they salvaged the last game of two-one wins. So Lair with both RBIs and that one. Shag's opening. I know you like that, Trev. And that is what happened in your national. I feel like I got a perfect game going. Trev, can you give me the standings?

Oh, I forgot I was doing that, Poppy. I'm in. In the National League, thanks for reminding me. A little behind the scenes there. My laptop did shut down right before. Boom. I was reading it, so I had to bring it up on my phone. So that's, I don't know, man.

Just throw that laptop on the floor and stomp on it with your foot. Bad emoji. In the National League. How about we start out in the East? East. That's where we always start out on Monday. It's Atlanta, 84 and 45. Sheesh. They got 12 and a half game

lead over the Philadelphia Phillies who are 72 and 58. Miami. One game over 500, 66 and 65. Nationals. Yeah, they're playing better ball. Fifth best record since the All-Star break or something like that. Way to go. I like that.

I do, man. Kids are playing. 61 and 70. They're one game above the Mets who are 60 and 71. And the Central, the brew crew who just killed the fathers. There's a lot of dark jokes to be made there. Brewers killed the fathers. Okay. 73 and 57, they got a four-game lead over the Chicago Cubs who are 69, nice and 61. Sixty-eight and 64 are the Reds, 58, 73, 56 and 75, Pirates, and the Cardinals. They are going to be eliminated soon. In the West, the Dodgers,

running things 80 and 49 they're 12 games up on Jake snakes who are 69 and 62 67 63 for the giants and then the aforementioned fathers who are dead 61 and 70 and Kelsey Winger it's Rockies 49 and 81 they have two more games to be eliminated that's going to be fun when they have the skull and crossbones I just love that so much in the wild card Philly got that one seed wild card. They're three and a half games up on the Cubs. We have a half game lead on the Diamondbacks who had the last wild card spot. Chasing them is the Giants. They're sitting one and a half back. The Reds are one and

a half back. And I'll include Miami there too. Even though they're one game over 500, they're only three games back of the final wild card spot. And that's the standings in the National League. Thank you, Trevor. And we first game on the docket. I mentioned snakes reds a few times now. Um, snakes are eight and two in their last 10. They're on a little bit of a heater since Poppy Gordo visited. Whoops. Um, and yeah, kind of like what we're dancing around before. The snakes still have a minus three run differential.

You'd, you'd really love if that final team has a big September and runs away with it. And let's be honest, with how many teams are in the mix, you're probably going to have to to get the last wild card spots. So, and the Phillies, the Cubs and the snakes, all seven and three are better in their last 10. So those final teams getting in, like the brewers who are on an eight-game winner, thank God they are. Otherwise, the Cubs would be making ground on them, but they're not.

So anyways, that was a little standing stance. Reds, snakes, Trev. Like I mentioned, Diamondbacks, we've talked about their starting pitching. a lot. They get really good efforts. All four games, or good enough efforts, I should say. And then there's sneaky, just a lot of talent all over the field, man. And that I mentioned that relay play. I could watch that on replay. Corby and Carroll out to center.

We watched that dinner last night. As fast of a runner as we have in baseball and as strong of an infield arm as we've ever seen in baseball and he gets him at the plate. That was sick. An incredible play. You're talking about just skill sets? Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's top versus top right there. And actually the debacks, they could have swept this whole dang series, a four gamer. Seawald gave it up in that third game. How were his, beepish checked his overall numbers for us since he went to Arizona. I got it, I feel like they're not. Feel like they're using him a lot, huh? We're talking about him a lot. I feel like he gets into every game.

It's a 466 ERA in 11 games, 9.2 innings, seven saves. All right. You're getting the saves. I've seen a few blown. Jumping a couple blown. Seven saves. Okay. Okay.

Our guy, what game was it that I think it was the second game where Benson hit the grand slant to make it look close. It wasn't close until that was at the game? Let me double check. While you're double-checking, Seawald has only given up runs in two of these games as a deback, and it looks like no inherited runners have been part of the equation. Yeah, Seawald's game log looks a lot prettier than... It's just been...

Interesting. I guess you just noticed the bad ones. Life of a reliever. Both times he just got got. Yeah, Will Benson is that second game with the Grand Slam. The debacks just took it to them, man. You're right. There is a lot of talent all over the field.

Cotell Marte doing his thing. You mentioned the good starting pitching performances they got. Merrill Kelly exit of the game. Is he okay? Is there any updates on him? We can look that up. Seventing's pitch zero and runs 12 freaking Ks, bro. But yeah, then he had to come out injured.

So hopefully he's all right. But yeah, they looked good. I'm not going to say that you went out and saved their season. I'm not going to say that. but they've been playing really good ball since them and for the Reds. I mean, lucky to salvage one game, really. Reds 9 and 15 in August. 9 and 15 in August.

That's a team that didn't make the splashy move around the deadline. They just kind of let the kids run out there. And I don't know. I don't know what the rest of the season has in store for them. But if it does continue to fade, people will look at that. And I don't know. Who was, oh, well, this is a very different comparison, but I know Mets fans were very frustrated, obviously, with this year.

But if you remember last year's deadline, the Mets didn't make the big move? And Mets fans this year were saying like, damn, I guess if you have a window, you really should go for it. And, hey, the Reds, they should not compromise their future. There's so much young talent. But they have. There's so much young talent.

had a lot of momentum. And now that's kind of gone. So, hey, maybe they go nuts in September, but. And you have that much young talent. It's kind of what it's for. That's the other side of the argument. You don't know what these guys are all going to be in their careers. Right.

Like, and I know you don't want to trade away someone and he becomes Fernando Tatis Jr. I understand that. But you need to strike when the iron's hot. You don't know when the iron's going to be hot again. Iron can be ice cold. next year. Yeah, I mean, I know it's hindsight to say that because they've had a tough August, but I mean, we were kind of talking about it.

I mean, this team was the Mariners for a little bit. They were hot. And look what happened when the Mariners, you mentioned a Luis Castillo trade. And I think that really has changed the direction of their franchise big time. Being able to trade for him and then sign him long term has just really given him, given them that added just they already had starting pitching

young guys coming up but then you add this guy into the equation who's a bona fide is an ace and it's changed everything and like you got sometimes you got to pull the trigger

man yeah go snakes go um Tommy fam has been really good for the snakes too huh yeah he uh I think the overall numbers aren't crazy impressive

with the dimebacks. I mean, 250, 737 OPS, but he had a 15-game hit streak going, I believe. So, like, you're contributing every night. A bunch of big hits. Yeah. And, yeah, if you haven't seen that home run play, I reference.

Well, A, you should look at Corbyn Carroll going for the Inside the Park Homer. And, yeah, a fan, a little Jeffrey Mayer situation. It's really interesting because the Steers glove is over the wall and him and the fan both with black gloves. Like they both go in together and the kid comes out with the ball. They call it fan interference,

but they were chanting MVP for the kid. And like, it was quite the scene. And I don't know, a little teaser, it gets discussed in the Weekly Dome. You imagine the Empire being like, I have to tell Tommy fam that I'm taking his homer away. Can you do it? I don't want to do that.

Not me. Not me. Trev, a little bit of a different tale, I think good team, bad team. But Cubs, they win another three out of four. It's crazy that they're not gaining on Milwaukee because they've been really good. And a lot of their formula ends up coming through here. I mean, we get Justin Steele with another good start, and that's obvious. Ian Hap in his hometown city pop.

Are you kidding me? And then I guess the thing that wasn't a part of their formula, Cody Bellinger 5 RBI games, say a Suzuki 3 RBI game, they call up a kid Jordan Wicks, who has, you know, by some metrics, one of the better debuts by a Cubs starter ever, five innings pitch, 9Ks. Great series for them. And it was a lot of the usual suspects. You mentioned Wicks came up and doing his thing.

So that's nice for them. I'm going to talk about another guy in the rotation in standout. But when you watch, you know, I was watching back some of these games since Belly's just doing it, man. And Candelario, him going over there has been so big. Belly is getting the barrel of the bat on pitches he shouldn't be getting the barrel on. He had a, I think it was a double on a pitch that was almost in the right-hand of his batters box on the floor and he got to it. He got the barrel to it.

It's been very impressive. Say Suzuki's going off. right now. You remember he got like some playing time stolen from him. Right. Wasn't happy about it. He's doing really well. Now, Nico Horner, go check out the year he's had. I think he's got 30 swipes already. Big time war year for him.

Those guys are benefiting so much from the rule changes, dude. Yeah. I don't know the, I don't know the, I mean, we can look up the equation for war. I'm on baseball reference for B-war. them. Stolen bases are huge. Because I know Nico Horner can play some defense, for sure, but the swipes are what's causing him. Right now, what does he got? I had it up. He's second on the team, I believe, to Belli. Yeah, in war. He is, Belly's 4-2, Nico Horner's got a 4-1.

Four war seasons, people. They don't just grow on trees. No. Dan's be doing it. Can I give you? Everybody. The Cubs are, I like the Cubs. Trev, sometimes we're a little old school, right? There's this, there's a stat that we dig up sometimes.

It's called runs. Yeah. Where do you think the Cubs rank? All the baseball. Overall? All the baseball. It's a lot of good offenses out there. You tick up my feather a little bit there.

Does that make any sense? But I just said no. Seven. The Chicago Cubs are fifth in runs scored. I don't know. And you look at that lineup, man. They did just have two 10-run games back-to-back. Sure. Good.

Man, they are an interesting team. They are an interesting team. Did you say that Mike, well, now I miss it. Mark Lider Jr. is your favorite relief pitcher in the game? I liked that he complimented Javier. Don't say it. Treve, you know what would be nice? I want to paint one more picture for you,

and it's not even really a part of this series. But you know, it's probably pretty cool. What's that? You know, hidden free agency at 28 years old, coming off of like a five-war season, having an MVP in the bag, having 22 career war, being really good defensively at multiple positions.

Chick still talk about this guy in L.A. And I don't get it. I don't think he's that hot. I think Cody's a pretty good-looking cat. He's tall. Tall. that'd be rich rich yeah he's all right he's a good looking kid

he's um trev he's he's about to get a back yeah what do you think that is because you just mention all the things he's 28 years old um coming off for a great year had a few down years that now he can

he really could just look back and tell people hey i was hurt I mean if he finishes off this season like he's been he gets more of a bag than Nimmo, right? What was Nemo's bag? One something? He got 6162. I think he and Rodan got the same contract.

How many years? Cody's got an MVP in the bag and is putting up another 9 OPS season? I mean, Nimmo got 8162. 8162. They stretched it a little bit. And he's 30 in year one of it. Cody's younger. he's getting 200 isn't he

Cody's gonna have a pretty nice basement he's in a he's in a favorable market to him as well do you think he gets 8 200 25 a year on the board if he finishes with these same stats yeah eight years that's a long touch I wonder if he goes like six years 150 something like that

I mean if I had told you that when he was the 22-year-old MVP, I don't think you would have been shocked. 23-year-old MVP, you know? He said sounds light. So that's going to be an interesting one this off-season. Trev, one really good team, one solid team, Braves Giants. I know you were tuned into this.

I watched last night's game. Gabe, hot. It's funny, it's fun seeing the Giants party tricks. Casey Schmidt made a really nice play A third. Tyro Estrada dropped down a beauty of a sack bunt that turned into a bump-based hit to score a run. Besides last night, it was all Braves.

So I don't, whatever you have. What do you call the Giants an okay team, a solid team? A solid team. They have been playing well as of late. But I think they're still a good team. was some interesting plays. There was the 3-1 or 3-4-2 double play they

turned. That was pretty cool. Yeah. You're right. Strider up with a great start. Logan Webb kind of gets touched up a little bit. I think this is the you face the Braves back-to-back. The teams have just played each other in Atlanta. I always love watching how guys go

when they were facing the same team in back-to-back starts. It didn't work out for Webb at this point or at this start 5 and a 3rd with the 5 Ernie's Michael Harris doing his thing and that dang guy Whenever you say Matt Olson

Date my daughter You know what I think of? What's Ashland? What's Ashland doing? She's killing it. Graves Ashland. She still runs one of the most electric accounts on Twitter.

Monday Motivation is my favorite thing she does. Eat your veggie, drink your water, be nice to people, She just posted a new one. I got to get to it. I forgot it is Monday. It's Monday.

The show of the week. Michael Harris, big game. There's a good clip going around the internet of him celebrating Ronald O'Cunia Jr's grand slam against the Dodgers in 2018 or 2019 because he was just a fan of the team. That's awesome. God, the Braves have it. Man.

Giants, I didn't know the Giants were this bad. I knew they were going poorly, but they've won six with their last 20 games, so six and 14 in that run. That's tough time to have a skid like that. But again, similar to the Rangers, I think it's just kind of baseball and you've got to figure it out. Although, although they kind of got to get it going. I just read the standings.

And they're one and a half back, okay. Yeah. The best player that no one's talking about, is Wilmer Flores. Okay, yeah. 896. All right you to mention him. 896 OPS this year.

That's a masher, man. Where's he out? Let's check this out. Let's talk some Wilmer Flores. Talk about him. Well, I'm trying to get on his page, but now my thing is... Oh, Treve, you're going to hate his contract. I'm going to go in there right now.

I wanted to see all this stuff. I was about to ask you some career earnings. Crazy. Making 6.5 this year. On the books for 6.5 next year. And then there's a team option for 8.5. You know what, though? This is what I'll say about that.

I get it. You know, obviously you don't want to give team option years and you would like to capitalize every time that you have a career year. But what's to say without that security that he would have done? Right. So. Mental game. Strider, gross, leading baseball and strikeouts by a ton.

Treb, I think the final series that really deserves some juice in the NL. Brewers sweep the Padres. Oh, boy. I'm not afraid to say it anymore. The Padres are dead. It's like we've kind of all known, but we were hoping that they had a marriage. type stretching them because it feels like they could, but they run into the Brewers at the wrong time.

Brewer's W-8 now. And, yeah, man, I, uh, I don't know. I don't know. The five-run inning from the Brewers in the first game, I think they have a seven-run inning in the second or third game. Yeah, in the third game that it's just, I mean, the vibes in San Diego, which is horribly ironic,

because it's maybe the U.S. is number one vibe city. The vibes in San Diego have to be horrendous. It's a lot of this. Huh? Yeah, a lot of shrug. What's going on? Yeah, I think you're right in calling him dead.

I mean, it's, I've really backed off calling teams dead until I need, I need something to really happen. You know, I don't just declare teams dead because the record indicates. I need, come kill him. I think the Brewers kill the Pontchus. I do.

I do. And this is what happens when the Brewers' offense gets hot. When Adomis is hitting, and you get Telez hitting some homers and Contreras doing his thing. When the Brewers' offense gets hot, I would love to see their record when they score more than five runs. I bet it's bangers.

When this team can get a bunch of guys going offensively at the same time, like line it up, like they're a problem because they have the pitching and they have the defense and they can steal bases they can do all the other things right. They're very, very solid ball club when it comes to everything else. When they get guys together, you know, performing at the same time offensively, this is what happens. This is not just the Brewers. I mean, they've been playing good ball for quite some time and they can, or excuse me, this isn't just because it's the

Padres. They can beat anybody. And it really, they are reliant on a Willie Adamas. I I did the Twins Brewer series, and I'd said that. So this team, if Adomis is hot, he can carry the offense. And that's crazy to think about that when they traded for him. Not a guy you would think of is going to carry their offense, but he can be and has been that guy for them at times. So, you know, I think Milwaukee is getting closer to securing their playoff spot. and I mean I don't think any team wants to face the Brewers in the playoffs

I just think that they have a recipe to beat any team at any given time I agree 16 and 7 in August and we've come a long way they had an 18 and 9 April like what that's mentally I lost that one but yeah and I I probably have to give some slight apologies because I wasn't saying it in a couple of complimentary way. They had a very brewer's deadline,

but they're currently getting the dividends. You know, getting Kana involved where he is like chafin in the bullpen. Well, Kana and Santana, the last, you know, whatever, during this streak they've gone on, have been really, really good.

Yeah. I mean, Santana's in the middle of their lineup. But yeah, how about Cici throw out the first pitch? Cici's like on a worldwide He's tore, bro. He's everywhere. He's loving life. This guy doesn't sleep. He's loving life.

I think that his first time back in Milwaukee? First time doing anything like that, obviously. I got to be honest, I watched the first pitch wasn't great. Burns. I've seen him throw better pitches. Burns, Woodruff, Peralta. I wouldn't I wouldn't want my team season coming down to those three guys. Not to mention.

South Freelick. Naming him. He hanging the ball all over the yard. Making plays. Like a young Vinnie Retino out there. Willie Adama's hot. Yeah. And then Cardinals, Phil, Trev, if you want anything there, I'm going good, team, bad team a little bit.

Absolutely. They demolished the Cardinals. And, hey, you just said, I don't want to see Burns, Peralta, and Woodra. Do you want to see Wheeler and Nola? No. Nor that line. And Chas and that lineup, I know. This is, I mean, dude, they outscored them 22 to 3 in a three game set.

A whooping, man. That is a whoopin. And to close off the NL, and it's a small interleague, but, hey, I tried to hit it a couple times this episode. Washington Nationals, I think it's the fifth best record since the All-Star break. I gave them a little bit of a, when they beat the Yankees, I said two, two bad teams, Nats win, whatever. And I shouldn't have said that.

So thank you Nationals fans. They now have the same record as the San Diego Padres. Yo, August 28th, a better record than the Mets. And yeah, Trev, who knows what it means? And I say that in the nicest way. Carter Keyboom is coming back in hitting balls. That's a prospect name from yesterday, or maybe that means something. Playing fun baseball means something, and they're winning and having fun.

So I'm like, I'm very happy for the team and nationals fans. I don't know what it means. It means that this group of guys is playing together is, you know, forming a nice nucleus or a bond in the clubhouse. You know, they're winning series. They're understanding what it takes to win at the big league level. So you go into next year and say, shit, you guys remember what we did? To close out the year?

how well we played, let's just start the year off like that and see where it goes. Like, you know, you've got to learn to win at the big league level and you got to learn to play together and figure all that out. How often are we talking about a team identity this year or lack of a team identity? I think stuff like this, being able to play good baseball creates that identity, creates those, the culture that you need, because that was a steep, steep decline very quickly, from them. You know, 2019, they win the whole dang thing.

They trade everybody away. Everybody's gone. Soto's gone. Turner's gone. Harper's gone. Strasbourg just retired. Yeah. Who else is there?

Scherzer's gone. Like, Rendon's gone. Like, everybody's gone. So, you know, that's, it's good for them. And on the flip side, Miami has been absolutely struggling since the All-Star break. I think they're 13 and 25 or something since the All-Star break. Luis Arise now hit three, he's gone down big time, like a lead Zeppelin.

Freddie Freeman might win the NL batting title. And think about how, how much money would you have lost if you said, a rise is not going to win the batting title. I'll give you a plus. If you took the field. Yeah, take the field. The field would have been plus money. Yeah.

So. 66 and 65, they're three games back of the wild card minus 48 run differential, about to play Tampa. Oh. In Miami made some moves, David Robertson has not been good for them. He's 0 and 3, three blown saves.

Bad contract? Hmm? Huh? What did you say? Out of the closer roll. Let's talk some Interleague baseball. You know what? I'll save this for after.

Let's do the I.L. Mention this off the top. Dodgers socks. These two teams have been connected over the past. couple years. Dodgers, they win game one. Freddie Freeman, you mentioned him, four-hit day at the office. Mac Muncie, a little thick, three RBI day. Sox. A little thick. They come back in game two. They knock around Urias. Good for them.

Justin Turner is a stud. So is Adam Duval. And oh yeah, Alex Redugo is leading off every game with a homer that leads to a rubber match and super utility man. Bucie Betts. hits his homer over the monster. James Outman catches one, two. Freddy's three hits, whatever. They take two out of three. Yeah, that's kind of just what the Dodgers have been doing lately. But yeah, a lot of people liked all the reunions that were going on there.

Angels played the Mets. My God. Kodai Sanga continues his really good season, but he gets outduled by Patrick Sandoval. Shohei Otani is hitting triples, he's stealing bases, he's breaking signs on home runs, all with the torn UCL, I guess. Freak Mets, they win the final game. David Peterson, who's kind of turned the quarter from them. Alonzo homers, and the news comes out that they're probably going to trade him this offseason.

I don't know what's that all about. Some juicy stuff out of flushing. And Rockies, oh, yeah. all one-run games, Baltimore, 5-4-5-4 in those first two. God, your guy Cole swerve and Irvin and Kyle Braddish, who's going to get Cy Young votes this year. I watched Gunner Henderson hit a left-on-left-home run in the final game, I think, and that scared me.

So look out for that, or maybe it wasn't the final game. I don't know. Good team, bad team a little bit. That's what happened in the IL. Go Kelsey. Batista. I don't have to do any standings because it's, the inner league.

Correct. What's up? What do you got? I mean, we got Dodgers socks here. You know, I saw Sox fans almost frustrated about how much people were talking about. Mookie's back, Mooki's back, Mooki's back. But, I mean, that's going to happen when he comes back playing for the Dodgers. And yeah, I think your boy, Karabas kind of summed it up.

He's like, hey, with the way the Red Sox are playing right now and the way the Dodgers are playing right now. Yeah. That's what Karabas had to say. Yeah, analytics. Now we're quoting Jared on this show. Yeah. I like him. I like him, too. Could you beat him in an arm wrestling match?

No. His guns are too big. I'm a pretty big, bad arm wrestler. Just general weakness or short arms. He's a shoulder, yeah. Yeah. Pop the shoulder. I watched that movie with Sylvester Stallone where he's a truck driver and wins that thing.

Yeah. There's no spoilers. Yeah. No, I think it was cool to see movies. Mookie go back. Why? We're not allowed to talk about a guy going back to where he won an MVP and won a World Series and all that. Like, of course, we're talking about it.

And that they handled it perfectly. They gave him a standing ovation. Mookiei showed out for them. I mean, it was a, obviously, you know, if you have the Red Sox, you don't want to lose games. You know, but this is, yeah, it's the Dodgers. The Dodgers are on fire right now. And they're working through some things, too, with their rotation, man. this is the first time in a long time

they really had to worry about that. But right now, I mean, who's their five? Like, who's their starting five right now? Ureus has been getting banged up this year. I still believe in him because of a track record. I think maybe when the lights come on in the playoffs, he's a different guy, but you got him,

you got Kershaw, you got Bobby Miller, and you got Lance Lynn. And our guy Gavin Stone, six innings. Stone coming up, Pepio's coming up. We got, you know, like Ferguson's made some spots, like some opens and stuff like that. Like it's, they're searching for that. I know you don't need it in the playoffs necessarily, but you still got to get through the season. You don't want to, you don't want to crush the bullpen too much.

So I guess I'm not worried about them, but I think Dodgers fans are a little bit. It's not a strong, strong rotation right now. And we like, I mean, that's what we always talk about. on this show. One of the things we base, how we feel about teams is the strength of your starting pitching. Now, that being said,

the Dodgers are one of the best teams of baseball and they don't give a shit. Yeah, I mean, let's caveat this a little bit. They're 21 and 4 in August, so. Insane. I know. I'm just, I'm pointing something out, and then they're saying,

shut up, Coach Treve. It doesn't matter. Max Muncie, big thick, not little thick. Yeah. And get the job done. Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are, I'm going to talk about on baseball today. Have they gotten over a Cunia for NL MVP?

Probably. Yeah. Would you have, there was an NLB network. They were talking about. Ronald McCune Jr., Matt Olson, or Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts. Who would you rather have? What is it?

Their question was, it's a very Chris Rose question. Oh, like one at bat or one, game to save your life and you have to pick one of the duos to like do it. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, or Matt Olson and Ronald de Cunia Jr. I think it's a no-brainer too. They said the same thing. Mookie Betts Freddie Freeman.

They're going to get the job done. Freddie and Mookie. And Freddie's the best hitter in baseball. You have 50 doubles. Maybe Mookie's the best right hand. I don't know, man. Freddy's the best hitter in baseball and Mookiee might be the, MVP right now.

So I'll take them. Boston, big series with Houston coming up again. You know, a team they are chasing for the wild card spot. So if they want to do something, be a good time for them. And, you know, just make sure the wheels don't come off the track. They're four and a half back. They're one of the only like in-between teams right now. But yeah, man, I mean, Verdugo with the lead off homers, Justin Turner.

This was like a reunion weekend. Oh, going back and forth between these two teams is a little fishy, to be honest with you. Ooh, okay. A little backdoor talks going on between front offices. It's like you and me. Yeah. You think they text in the Invisible ink? Invisible chat, I do.

Okay. Friedman and Heim, just like Invisible Inc. text only. Halos Metz, Rocky's Baltimore. Well, I guess we haven't talked about the big story out of Baltimore, the biggest story. A little bit good team beats bad team at the end there and a little bit of bad teams in the middle. So I'll let you go wherever you want. I don't want any part of Angels, Matt. Show Hay is still hitting and he's still raking.

I think maybe that's his plan to show people he can still hit and doesn't matter. We haven't got any update. There actually was some stuff. I know I'm not really going to go into the gameplay here. but I want to clear up some stuff because I said last episode that Shohay's to blame for this Shohay's side is to blame for this

and the angels they all have a part in it but Paramanasian I always messed that guy's name up he's like kind of caught and said like look this wasn't our fault like he had the hand cramping and they said hey let's go get a picture

on your elbow and apparently this is according to Perry Show Hay side said, no, we're good. Went out and made another start. Torn UCL. So he's trying to say, look, we've taken it easy. And he said, I'm not giving any medical update. I'm going to let Showhay side do that.

So there's a lot of people, a lot of Angels fans have pointed this out all over, you know, because there's a bunch of hot takes after Shohei got heard. They said, look, Shohei dictates what he does. There was a time where the angels had a very strict regiment for him. But then this last year, the last two years, it's been Shohei does what Shohei wants to do and they come up with everything. So, man, you kind of wish you would have got that picture on the elbow

after the hand cramping, right? It means you would have shut it down like I told you to shut it down. Oh, we're not talking about that. But yeah, his last five games, Shohei does have a 1.3 OPS going, so he'll just continue to do that. Pete Lonzo got hit in the head with a slider. It looked like it hurt.

It's a little bench clearing thing here. But we don't need to talk about these two teams. I'm sorry, guys. Roxos, I mean, do you have a statement on Bautista? They still haven't said how significant the UCL injury is. They haven't ruled him out for the year necessarily. But I don't know if that's just because they haven't gotten it scanned yet or what. But I know that's one of Chris Rose's topics today.

And it is a big time. I mean, if you looked at the Baltimore Orioles and said, what makes this team great? Canoe and Batista. I don't know if you start there, but maybe. I mean, yeah, that's been a big thing. If you can end games when you have the lead and preserve leads, that's massive.

It's mountainous, if you will. And if he's out the rest of the season, I mean, definitely puts a damper on things. I think they can get the job done still. Sure. I think Cano's can do that. He keeps the ball in the yard, which is what you want. But it's going to be, it's a massive blow for them.

Bottom line, I don't think there's any way around it. And I don't think he's going to pitch again this year. I mean, really, really, how could you? Although everyone keeps saying, like, if it's just partially torn, guys continue to pitch on it, which is crazy. Think about having a tear in your elbow and be like, ah, fuck it. Yeah, I'm good. I wouldn't that scares me so much dude

I wonder um Orioles fans didn't follow me back on Instagram which is oh Orioles fans um let me know what you guys are thinking

if you had to take someone from the rotation in the playoffs and maybe put them in the back end of that bullpen is it like Grayson Rodriguez is could we see Jack Flaherty become the bad man on the back end? I don't know.

Let me know what you guys are dreaming of, because if he's out, you need something. Jack Flaherty coming into closed games? No, he's not doing that because he's got a re-agency looming. Dark night music kicks in. We'll see, man. We'll see. You know, the Orioles, they are going to start getting ready for the playoffs.

and, you know, I know this puts a wrench in their plans a little bit. They're going to have to figure some things out, but they're going to start getting set, setting their rotation, finding what works and what doesn't work, you know, in these series. So they put themselves in a really good position. If you lose your closer sucks, but you put yourself in a spot where, like, you're going to make the playoffs. Ty Block, the really nice start for the Rockies,

and that was talking Rocks. Trev, let's get into the second half of the show. It's brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook. College football is here. How about that? Week zero just happened. Week one is here. The Domers in Ireland.

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The crown is yours. Trev's USC got on the board last week. San Jose State. Stand out performances. Stand out performance. I am going with a pitcher. Whoa. And he plays in Chicago.

Okay. And he's from Mexico. And you know I love my Mexican ballplayers. I do. I grew up playing against Mexican ballplayers. Their ballplayers is what they are. Grinders. They love the game.

Need one on my fictional roster. So now it's Cuban ballplayers. It's veterans, a couple fast guys, one Jewish ballplayer, and one Mexican ball player. And we're going to run it. We're going to run it. Javier Assad. Do it, my guy. He's been so good.

for the Cubs. In this last out, and he goes seven innings pitch, three hits, one and run, seven Ks. And this is a guy who was the long man in the Cubs bullpen

for the majority of the year, you know, going three, going four, going two and a third, like just picking up the slack, which is a very, very important role on a team.

And it's a very tough role to do. Sometimes it can be in, um, high leverage. Sometimes it's in zero leverage whatsoever. And you've got to be able to pitch in both of those situations and talk to relievers. They're going to tell you those are completely different types of pitching. Javier has been able to do it all. He got put into the rotation. He now started six games. He had 18 games before that out of the pen. Now he started six. He's got a 296 on the year. Now you mentioned earlier, baseball savant does not like, you know, his trackman numbers, his extension or his chase rate or his spin efficiency.

It's not great. A lot of blue bubbles on the baseball savant page. But if I told you a guy could have four plus pitches and run value, you'd like that. He's got a run value of four with his sinker, nine with his cutter, four with his. four seamer and one with his slide ball. Like those five, excuse me, six pitches over five percent. You get four with 20 percent. He's a guy that just moves the ball all over the place. I watched a few of his starts after choosing him for this standout.

Everything moves, and it moves the whole way. And sometimes that's not good. Like when you just see the pitch, you know, out of his hand moving. Like this curve ball is big and slow. It doesn't throw very hard. But it just continues to move. move. It just, it looks it looks like it's hard to square up, man. And he's living on the

peripherals exactly what a guy with his stuff has to do. He's pitching. Jake, this guy's a pitcher, dude. And the numbers are spectacular. And if you're the Cubs and you have this season that's, that they maybe can be magical, man. Like you're exceeding a lot of expectations to have a season like that. You have to have guys like this step up. You mentioned Wicks come up do his thing. Assad has stepped into the rotation, fortified after Strzman's went down.

Hey man. You got to love a story like this. So shout out Javier. and yeah, I know the Cubs fans are having a lot of fun. Mark Leiter on August 5th said he's like, I think he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. And I think everyone was kind of like, okay, you know, teammates. It's, you know, hype and hype in his guy.

And I'm here, Saut's been awesome. So, hey, good for him. Good for Mark Lider Jr. You know I know his one red bubble? What's his one red bubble? He's 80th percentile on average exit V-low. You're just not squaring it up, guys. And don't you and Mark Lider, Jr. have a connection?

My last professional Homer was off him. In spring training, he was with the Blue Jays. the Phillies told me to swing more in plus positive counts. There was a 2-1 count specifically. They told me to swing in more. I got to 2-1 against Mark Lider and said I'm fucking swinging no matter what hit a homer. Look at that.

So go Philly's analytical team. Thank you. Should have told me that before. Trev, great standout. I'm going with one of my favorite players. I think the word threat is always with this player. But it kind of wasn't as of a couple weeks ago. So Teasca Hernandez, on Saturday he had a two-homer, six RBI game.

A lot of Mariners did. They put up a big boy number that day. But I want to talk about the importance of Teosker Hernandez, who they traded for before the season, to be a threat in that lineup. Because that's all he's been in his career, around an 800 OPS guy. This is his contract year.

That's why they got him. As of August 14th, that's two weeks. ago, two weeks ago, Teoscar Hernandez, 242, 290, a 698 OPS. That's not Teoscar Hernandez. It's not. Over those past two weeks, 12 games, by the way, the Mariners are 11 and 1 in these games. Teosker Hernandez, 434, 456 on base, a 1.286 OPS. He has gotten his numbers up to 262 average, a 307 on base, and a 759 OPS. He's a career 808 OPS, 119 OPS plus. He's up to 110 OPS plus.

It looks like he's getting going. And he was a part if the Mariners were going to be the threat and the mariners that I think everyone is seeing now. He's a big part of that. And I think he has been, and I'm just happy for a guy in a contract year that if he trickled into the finish line, you know, we've talked about it, a nauseam that you only get kind of that one big shot

to break the bank. I like him. This guy gives me righty Eddie Rosario vibes. Oh, I think he's a little bit more consistent than Eddie Rosario. A little more of a slug, a little more of a slug than Eddie, but yeah. You know I love Eddie Rosario. I know. Shout out Eddie Rosario.

What do you call him, cat scratch fever? You need two of these guys on your team that just want to hit. Like sure the on base is going to be a little lower, but he's out here to mash the ball. I have to imagine the Mariners going on, the streak they've gone on, as coincided with him getting hot. Am I right?

Because I mentioned that before they got hot, I said, look, they got a guy Tassar Hernandez that if he starts to go and Julio continues, like he was getting hot at this time, if Tiyosker can step in and be that, Home run threat, hitting those three-run homers, you know, driving in runs and hitting extra base hits. Like, that's exactly what this Mariners team needs.

And he showed up, man. Yeah. I like Teosker a lot. Man, coming into this year, Tay Oscar, his last three years have been, there are not a lot of guys that can go toe to toe with him. And I'm glad he's right in the ship because he's a guy in free agency that could get a number.

I double check that he's a free agency, but that's why they got him, right? Yeah. I believe they got him as an expiring guy, yeah. His savant, like, kind of what you'd think. Strikes out a little too much, doesn't walk quite enough,

but everything else is a pretty deep rent. Who cares? Doing everything else, right, we live with that. We didn't talk about Joe and Adone performance. We didn't talk about Sunny Gray. No.

A lot of options. Davis Schneider, you mentioned him a little bit, three for three, the double a home or three ribbies. Alex Bregman doing this thing. Rady Tellez doing this thing. A lot of good ball being played here. But it's time to move on.

Hit it be. Dude nasties on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco. In the series, how about a Yankee? It's been a long time since a Yankee not named Aaron Judge has been in Fuego. I'll venture out to say that I don't think one has been here.

DJ LaMéger. he goes six for 12 in the series, three homers, all solo shots. Ouch. It was a seventh multi-homer game on Friday. His first since May 5th, 2021. You mentioned this guy, espresso martini, had one last night.

Nick Martini for Cincinnati, five for 11, a double two homers. He only finished two games. What? I don't know, something weird in Dalton Sheet, but it was his first homer since 2019. So you'd love to see him get back on the board. another blast from the past year

Ramon Luriano this is a great inflago five for 11 two doubles two homers six ribbies he has an 807 OPS and nine RBI over 16 games with Cleveland after he's DFA by Oakland so that's a nice little pickup for Cleveland

it's a very Cleveland move for the week of August 21st through August 27 speaking of blast from the past we were talking a lot about this guy in the first half Elias Diaz nine for 18 two doubles a homer

seven ribbies for a 1.2 over that week how about Josh Rojas coming to Seattle doing things 10 for 24 two double or she'd be a double two homers six RBI

two walks eight runs scored uh he had his third homer since being acquired by Seattle on July 31st he did not hit a homer in 59 games with Arizona earlier in the season something in the water up there in Seattle

how about Peter Fairbanks three games over the week, two saves, three innings pitch, two hits, no one run, seven Ks in those three innings. He's nasty. And then this is the one you want to be on for the two weeks, August 14th through August 27. We just talked about both of these guys. How is that possible? Oops. Should have read the sheet.

Teosker Hernandez, 23 for 54 over the last two weeks. That's a 426 average. Six doubles, five homers, 16 ribbies. I swear we didn't look at the sheet. when we picked our standout performance we should have. Because the next guy is Chicago White's Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Javier Assad. 18 in a third innings pitch in three games,

12 hits, five earned runs. That's a 245 ERA with a 0.98 whips. Whip, he's allowed two runs or less in every appearance in August. He's dropped his ERA from 335 to 296 in that span. Another blast in the past. Trevor McGill in Milwaukee, thriving, six games pitched in the,

two weeks, seven and a third innings, five hits, no earned runs, 13Ks. He hasn't allowed an earned run in August, dropped his ERA from 509 to 36 on the season. That's going to get it done. And that, my friends, is who's in Fuego. Common Brew Crew bullpen success.

Great job, Trev. Placed on the I.L. Oh. Michael Conforto for the Giants. Didn't know about that. Don't love that. My friend Jake Croninworth for San Diego, as they, maybe he's the final tombstone. Felix Bautista we talked about. And how about this? Full Circle. Eric Swanson for Toronto, who is traded for Teosker. He goes on the IL returning from the IEL. I mentioned your guy Shags for Miami.

Nolan Gorman for St. Louis, Joe Ryan. Does he get the playoff start? Zach Davies for the Snakes is there in their rotation. Your boy, Ben Lively, coming out five out of the pen. Whoops. And Mark Viantos for the Mets as they try to get any hope going towards next year. Let's start the week. Shout out Kels.

Shout out Casey. Have some kids. Let's go. Now we're talking. Love that. My award is going to be called the... I don't really have... It's Tolkien Baseball,

but I don't really have a good name for it. So I'm just going to get into it. Bilbo Baggins, you know, he has his 111th birthday party. He's setting it up. He doesn't really want to do it, but he's got to. He owes it.

to the shire to do this. He wants to have basically a farewell, although nobody else at the party knows that except for him. So he invites everyone. The whole town's there. And one of the guests that comes in, who doesn't live in the shire, obviously is Gandalf. Right.

So Gandalf has his wagon, comes in. And they have this big party. And, you know, during the party, Gandalf is, you know, they're lighting fireworks and he's doing his magic and having fun with the kids and Bilbo gives his speech and there's all those things.

In the end, it was really only Bilbo and Gandalf at that party. You ever go to a party? And it's like, you and I go to a party, right? And you have to talk to other people, but it's really about you and I there. I want to get a hold

to you. You want to get a hold of me. and we need to have some time. Everybody else is kind of like secondary to this. Like things are going on. We're having fun with everybody, but they're secondary. Bilbo and Gandalf are going to have the conversation they need to have. That's why Gandalf is out there.

You and I at these parties, we're going to get FaceTime together eventually. We might have to shake some hands and kiss some babies somewhere else, but eventually it's going to come down mono-e-mono, you and I, right? Right. We're going to look each other in the eye. We're going to have a drink. we're going to maybe wrestle a little bit.

It's going to come down. This is the Mono Emono talking baseball award, okay? Eventually it gets to the two that it needs to get to. Justin Verlander went back to Detroit. Who does he have to face? Well, it's Miguel Cabrera. A guy he was teammates with from 2008 to 2017 with the Tigers. I didn't even think that was right.

I had to check. that's a long time playing so was there a baseball game played and there was there other people involved sure but what this game was all about was Gandalf who would be Verlander in this situation

and Bilbo who's riding off into the sunset like Miguel Cabrera is they got their face time together they got monoi mono they gave the hat tip and I think a lot of people talked about this and I feel like they were giving it its due justice because

you really have to think about who we're talking about here. We're talking about I don't know. Is Justin Verlander the best right-hander of our generation? Is Miguel Cabrera one of the best right-handed hitters of our generation? Yeah.

Like we're talking about sure fire, Hall of Fame dudes who were teammates who went through a lot in Detroit together. They're locking horns. Two stags going out. They're a little older. They're a little older.

But they're sure as shit. Two alphas out there going, mono e mono. And I want to read this little excerpt from an MLB.com article, just highlighting their achievements that they accomplished together. It was a matchup of a kind that's not often seen. Teammates with the Tigers from 2008 to 2017, Verlander brought his children.

253 wins, three Sy Young Awards, his pitching Triple Crown and MVP award to the mound against Cabrera's 509, he got to 510 homers, 3,150 hits, two MVP's, an offensive

Triple Crown, and a 307 career batting average. The pair has a combined age of 80 years and 319 days and a combined B-WR of 147 point five. Together they played 39 seasons

and made 21 all-star games. This is a matchup for the ages. Now, in his career, Cabrera's 0 for five against Verlander, so Verlander has that on him. But these are just, it was a moment that needs to be appreciated. I had to give this my award.

I did get to see these guys play up close and personal. It was tough. I saw them in their primes. It was, incredible what these two mean to the game of baseball. So I wanted to give the award. And I talked about this.

Was it on the show or before the show? I said, what do you think the combined career earnings of these two are? Had Beaver's look it up, you and I are going to guess it now. Then we'll move on to your award. I mean, so there's a number that they're due to in total get. And there's a number that is earned through the end of this year. Oh, we want, we want due. because Verlinder still has another 40, right?

What these guys will end up getting? Combined. I'll go first. You go. I think we're looking at a combined $585 million. I'm going $700. You're both pretty under. 822.

I wanted to go higher, but I thought Miggie likes, I don't. What'd you just say? 822. Give me the... By the end of Verlander's current deal, there's a third year... This is a two-for-86 and a third-year option for another 18, 17-5.

So in total, he will be 429. And Miggi do for $8 million after this year one way or another. That's 393 on his own. It's a... Countries grossed domestic product. Like, I was thinking 300 for Verlander, 250 for

Miggy, and I was wrong. Very wrong. And, I mean, you know, if we cook the books this year and Migy Cabs wins MVP, he gets another 60 mil. So, I don't know, voters. We've got some friends in the media. Just screw the Tigers ownership. Yeah, McGee's deal was an 8 for 248.

That's like the contract. But I think he did before, okay. Did well for himself before. Well. Yeah. I'm glad you brought it up, Trev. I mean, these are two. These are two.

These are two legends. These are two legends. Absolute legends. And yeah, I can't believe how much time they spent together. That is a really interesting point. It's a big number. You know, I talked to Joe's on the phone a little bit yesterday, and we were jokingly saying, like, you know,

each spring training, these two, kind of like, you know, you said, I said each spring training, these two through like the cool party, they were kind of the two dudes that stood like this, like this is our team. And then we joke that they didn't talk to each other during the year. Yeah. But my question to you was going to be how many times you think they've been out to dinner together? It's a great question. It's either like unlimited or it's like seven, right? Like I don't know. I think it might be zero. I think it might be zero. I don't know. I'm not saying like they're not friends. I'm just saying like that doesn't seem like a likely

pairing, bro. You're you, I'm me. I don't know. I would love to know the answer. I'm sure they've had a few good times together. You know, wives get involved. To be, to be a couple alphas like that. Uh, and Tread just, it was one of my favorite moments when you mentioned, you know, a couple alphas linking up, you and me at a Hollywood party. Um, been there done that. Yeah. Uh, when judge broke the home run record. There was a moment after they do everything and, you know, it waves and the crowd and everything and then the game starts again. And it's Judge and Stanton in the back of the dugout just kind of like, not bad, huh? Was Roger Maris's son there? He sure was. He was there. He was there. Right next to Mrs. Judge. No comment. Trev, great award. I'm going to give out something I've given out a few

times before. I'm giving out the freak on a leash award. Corn? Corn? You know I'm a big corn. You know I'm a big corn guy. And this one's a little bit of a tribute to our guy Dalton, who puts the sheet together for us. And my snakes who have, you know, they've welcomed me in with open arms, and I'm playing on watching a lot of snake baseball the rest of the way. You guys are listening to talking baseball. You know who Corbyn Carroll is right now, right? Like, he's the fast guy on the diamond backs. He's really good. You know, Jake talks about the pop off his bat. Yeah.

Corbyn Carroll is technically a rookie this year. And he just crossed the 20-Homer 40 steals number in his rookie season. And Trev, after I finish this, I can let you talk about how insane that is. But the one stat, because I love to Butterknife a good stat. and again, credit to Dalton for laying this one out. Since 1977. You know, the game's changed a little bit since 77. I think that might be fair to say.

Since 1977, there has only been one rookie until Corbyn Carroll that put up a 20-40 season. Do you know who that is? Since 1977, a 20-40 season in their rookie year. Yep. Each row. It's a good guess. I don't think he had the 20.

The answer is Mike Trout, the guy that until he had a new teammate, we considered him our best baseball player. And Corbyn Carroll just matched that. So there's obviously some bias-nake love for how much they've been cool to me. But Corbyn Carroll, I feel like we were reminding people a lot early on. Like it was him and Acuna who got out of the gate,

crazy good, and this guy's special, blah, blah, blah. This guy's very special. And, you know, since 1977, if there's two guys on the list and it's you and Mike Trout, it's a pretty special list. So Corbyn Carroll, freak. Absolute freak. Does he get on a leash?

Do you know that about him? I don't know. I don't know. Seattle guy. Is that where corn's from? Who knows? I could see him get into some dark places. I think everyone in Seattle's got a little bit of a dark place they go to every once in a while.

I could see that at Corbyn as well. You know, he's got big shoulders. Power. I stood next to him. He's not tall. Also not short, but big shoulders. Mighty. Kind of reminds me of you.

Yeah. Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird? Not weird. Yeah. No, Corbin's a treat to watch him play. And he would have been in a stud, no matter. or what, but with these new rule changes,

we're appreciating speed more in the game. And dude, I saw pass, this is going, nice award. Thank you. Before we leave, pass and put out a tweet. Shout out King Joe, my guy. We're like buddies now. He put out a tweet that for the first time when a full slate of games has been played,

there was not one pitch clock violation. So we finally got there And he mentioned attendance up He mentioned the games being shorter And he just mentioned He mentioned how this shit has been a success And we got to give Rob Manfred his fucking praise man You hear that Bobby

Can I be on your commissioners Program list now On the most influential guy in baseball I just gave you your flowers What's up? Yeah, we, uh, I did have a weird moment this weekend where I was watching baseball games. And I was like, wait, like the pitches come through pitchcom and there's a pitch clock now. I was like, damn.

Shit move fast, huh? It did. I still don't understand pitchcom, but nobody does. Pitchers love it. Treve. I want to mess around with one. Enjoy your week. We will see everyone back here for the.

Mid-week. It's going to be September soon, man. August 28th. I suck. Oh, shit. It was about time. We did it. Bad.

I like them, but sorry.