Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - MASSIVE Sweep Week | 533

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

Get the most comfortable men’s clothes on planet earth at https://mugsy.com, and use promo code 'BASEBALL' for 10% off your entire order. Go to https://www.shadyrays.com and use code 'TALKIN' for 50% OFF 2+ pairs of premium polarized shades. Timestamps: 0:00 Julio Rodríguez 17:00 NL 40:34 AL 1:04:19 IL 1:20:12 Stand Out Performers 1:26:00 Slump Watch 1:27:04 En Fuego 1:28:40 Awards 1:38:55 Best Friend of the Week 1:39:17 Stimulator Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. An all-time sweep week. Bryce Harper's back. Are the Yankees back? It's All-Stars only today. An absolutely massive episode. I said All-Stars only. All-J-M team.

Myself, Trevor, Zach is behind the wheels of steel today. Awesome. Oh, oh! Passing. button early. Why? You want to tell a sack?

I think you guys have something to talk about. Oh, we knew this already. Hit it. Julio. Julio Rodriguez is getting paid. Trevor, right off the rip. We get some breaking news right before we get started. Part of the reason we're running hot today on Talking Baseball, presented by Seat Geek,

code talking, $20 off your first one. Julio, the kid, Trev. It just breaks. Passon tweets it. I should give the, because it was the other guy at ESPN who actually had the kind of official tweet and Passon shared it along.

Jesse Rogers, or no, excuse me, Jesse Sanchez, MLB had it first. So another young stud gets locked up, Trev. I want to know how you're doing, but dude, I know every time this happens, except I guess those Braves deal when Albi's got locked up for like 35 million. But when I see a dude with 210 guaranteed over 14 and the ability to get to 400 million, I mean, that's-

The details are out already? So we don't have all the details. We just know, I'm assuming there's escalators and options. If Julio, I'm assuming if he becomes the MVP eligible player he's going to be that he has escalators in there, but it's 2.10 guaranteed over 14 with the ability to grow well over 400 million with player and team options. So right off the rip today, a little hey, how are you? A little sip of your coffee and Julio Rodriguez is now locked up to be the Mariners star for the next decade and a half. So, I mean, Trev, I'll kick it to you first on All-Stars Only up.

where's your brain jump to? I think it's incredible for the organization. I think it's incredible for Julio. I mean, we are 420 at Bats and nice. Wow. The guy's performed. He's brought this team from the dead. They were dead.

Okay, I don't give a shit what anybody says. These guys were dead. Mike Trout buried them. When Julio started going, this team. started going and yes many other good players on that team tie france kept them afloat early on in the year Julio doing what Julio's done this year has provided a spark a jolt obviously the on field stuff too he's the face of the franchise going forward there's no doubt about it now is there risks involved for the organization of course that's a long time to have somebody locked up and

you got to keep this guy motivated throughout his entire contract but seems like he's a guy that doesn't necessarily need that. The way he plays the game, I mean, people have already started, you know, talking about the comparisons to that bad man up there

in Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr. So, like, when you're talking comparisons, real deal comparisons to him, and that's sort of like an unfair thing to put on a young guy's shoulders. Like Ken Griffey Jr. is like,

I mean, I don't know if the young kids understand what he meant to our generation, but like he was the guy. Like everyone wanted to be Ken Griffey Jr. I don't know if Julio's going to have that sort of national impact. I sure hope he does. It'll be awesome.

But this is, hell yeah, man. Fuck yes. Yeah, I mean, I'll pick up for where you left off. Hell yes. Like, dude, this kid's 21 and like you said, 420 at bats,

nice in its own way. Also unreal in its own way. Like, think about how old school baseball used to be. Like, ah, you're a kid. You know, you haven't, yeah, what have you actually proven? You know, what do you got? One decent season? It's like, no, baseball's gotten smart that this dude is going to be a stud.

His most valuable years are coming in probably the next eight years or so. So let's lock this guy up the right way. And, man, he really is a superstar. He's got 20 homers and 23 steals, Trev. Now, I think he's going to get 30 stolen bases. He'd have to get awfully hot. And he homered the other night. if he could put up a 30-30 as a rookie,

I mean, A, that doesn't matter at all. But if he can, I stumbled into this. I did Wake and Jake yesterday. And I kind of didn't know the topic. You know, there's obviously baseball's hot in the streets. I want to focus on baseball. Not time for fantasy football or any of that stuff yet. And where I kind of jump to is like,

Mike Trout has kind of been the faceless man of baseball. Like, oh, he's an all-time. great, but he's not the sexy face of baseball that baseball's been looking for. Aaron Judge chasing the home run record. He's larger than life in New York City. You know, there's something there with Judgey. Shohei Otani is kind of our international superstar of superstars, like international man of mystery.

We've never seen anything like this before. And then the third head of the dragon was Fernando Tati. Jr. Like he was as cool as it gets. Swag naturally oozing off of him in the way that swag was originally supposed to be, that now that kind of got tainted a little bit. And baseball's so proud in the Dominican and the Caribbean and in that part of the world that Tatez going down was a huge blow.

And looking around the league, I was like, who's next? And hey, I hope Tatee comes back. he balls out and it just becomes a weird asterisk in his history. But Julio Rodriguez is the guy. He's 21 years old. I mean, I said it early on, like, a good looking dude, you could get lost in those eyes. And the way he plays baseball is fun and awesome. And it's everything you want it to be.

That Julio Rodriguez has an opportunity to pick up this lion's share of becoming one of the faces of baseball. I don't know if baseball can have one face anymore or the way the NBA or NFL can, but we can have these multiple faces and use it to the sports advantage that Judge is almost this like Shaquille O'Neal type character. He's larger than life. He hits home runs at an all-time record. Shohei Otani is doing something that's never been done since the myth of Babe Ruth. And by the way, he's not from the U.S., and that's awesome. He should be this international star of stars. And then at the same time, like if you're doing sex appeal, like if you got to create your own player and put yourself in a video game,

it was kind of Tatis. And now I think, oh, Trevor Plouffe too, you want to be a thick third baseman, power to all fields. Like Julio Rodriguez is kind of that guy. And I'm happy for him. I'm happy for Mariners fans. And I'm starting to get hyped up for Seattle this postseason because that's when you can really plant the stamp.

if depending who the Mariners were to come up against, if Julio Rodriguez can be that dude come October, now you're talking about a 22-year-old face of baseball that's got some battle scars and the guys are bona fide stuff. This is awesome. I love it. I love that baseball is truly now becoming an international sport. We've had it for a while.

You know, we get players from Asia, we get players from Latin America. we obviously draw from all parts of North America as well. But to have like your stars be international, I think is great for the game. And look, I'm American. I love it when we have, you know, Aaron Judge representing us. Like, you know, Mike Trout, like these are like our boys. Like, you know, I still believe, I don't know.

It's our, I still think it's our national pastime. Maybe football's taken that. Maybe. But I'm fine with that. Because I've said this before on the show. Having, like, Latin America love baseball the way they do is so lucky for Major League Baseball. Like, if we didn't have Latin America and they were focused on a different sport, you know, we would lose so much of what's fun about the game. So I love, like, that we're getting these young guys in that not only, like, you have to be good at baseball.

And these guys are excellent at baseball. That's the one thing. You can't just be fun and look good and all the shit. You got to fucking play, bro. Like these guys can play. They understand the branding of it now. Like these young guys are getting that. Like J. Rod's got a, I hate that.

Dang it. Julio has a YouTube channel that he does stuff on. So like, I love the international aspect, really coming into play, man. I think it's great for baseball. And we're going to get the World Baseball Classic coming up, which is like getting me all excited. It's a fun day for baseball fans right now. I don't care who you are, who you root for.

You know that's good for baseball. Yeah, and it's so funny. The baseball Little League World Series is going on right now, and they've got the international teams, and that's awesome. And another thing, anytime, if anyone here's ever been to Miami, Miami is this cultural mecca of sorts. And the fact that they haven't, they haven't, we got to go.

I think we're going. World Baseball Classic. Oh, we're going. We're going. The fact that Miami hasn't had the baseball team to lean into, one day they will, and that city will love it. They just need to kind of lean into the culture of Miami. And it's also so funny thinking about where we've come on bat flips

and having fun on the field. You mentioned, you know, Dominican, Caribbean. Like, we always look at Lidum every year. And, you know, back in the day it was like, whoa, it's pretty crazy down. there. Those guys have fun. And then it's like, oh, wait, maybe we should do that because baseball is fun. That's the whole point. That's part of the reason we're successful is that it's a fun sport. You don't have to worry about getting beat up like you do in football. Basketball's pretty

fun, too. I got no qualms of basketball. Hell, I even like football. Trevor's over basketball. Trevor's over it. But it's awesome. And it's, it just continues to be a step in the right direction that we can pull superstars from Asia and from the Caribbean and from the U.S. And you know what? Soon we're going to be talking about more like Europe guys. As the Little League World Series grows and things like that, that, you know, in baseball, we start doing the London series and things like that. It's a beautiful sport.

This is obviously talking baseball, so we're a little biased. But a little, a nice way to start Friday, Trev. And we just said before the episode, hey, let's keep this one tight today. I don't give a shit what we do I'll talk for four hours about baseball Think I care Holy hey India

Yeah Step it up bro You got a billion people out there Let's go Give us some baseball Superstars You already got cricket out there Yeah

Do you know the most famous Instagram athlete is the cricketeer I like hearing you say Cricketeer There's some badass motherfuckers out there Hey give us a few of them Come on

John. Come join the world's game. John's combining the bridge there. I think you, me, Joe, Zach, go to India? Zach gave, I think, a yes. It was a noise. I don't know if you could label a yes, but I don't know. Some good news for, again, the dying sport of baseball as Julio Rodriguez, a 21-year-old kid might have just walked into $400 million.

Yeah. So actually, I'm going to call out two. Two places. Perfect. Africa and India. Let's go. Let's go, people. Do I need to go over there and start coaching ball?

Yes. I might have to. Yes. Need it, guys. Let's get into some baseball, Jake. Come on. Let's get into some baseball All-Stars-only. BPD's out?

Is he making love? Is that what he's doing? I think he's at a wedding. Oh, okay. Basically. So yes. So basically. And yeah, John,

John actually, he finally went to He went to the doctor to get his foot looked at and stuff. So hopefully there's good news there. I don't know how we label that. And guys, it was a funky week. There was a ton of interleague two gamers. You know that's our least favorite thing in the world. And by the way, they came out with next year's schedule

and they got rid of a ton of the two gamers and everybody's playing each other. Guys, baseball's kind of got to figure it out. Oh, let's do it. They're figuring some shit out. And before we get to the NL, you know who else has it figured out, Trev? My Mugsies. Oh, of course.

Mugsies are the most comfortable men's jeans on the planet. We are in the last week of August. We are in the last week of August. Falls coming. Post-season baseball? Julio, buying us dinners? In our Mugsies. Mugsies are as comfortable as they get the whole story behind

why we're partners with them now, they were the jeans Jimmy wore. And he was like, our sales team asked us like, what are you guys passionate about? I said, really good looking goatees. Jimmy said, Mugsy jeans, and that's why we are with Mugsy. They're as comfortable as they get. I, normally a hot person, I wore a pair of Mugsy's yesterday. And I did good in the August heat with them. Okay, Trev's got a question.

Mugsies. Yeah. Look great on you. I've seen you in Mugsies. Yeah, they hug me. Problem is. Okay. You got one, but then you minus one, you get zero.

And I think that's what happens with the goatee. Okay. So if you wear a mugsy jeans, don't ever have a goatee like that if you're wearing mugsy jeans. It takes away from them. I think, don't ever have a goatee like mine right now is the answer for literally everyone. I didn't flip the hair up today. This is one of those episodes. Sometimes we run the TV in our office and old episodes pop up.

And some of my looks are just a. and this is one of those days. But that is, that's my own goatee's fault. It's not Mugsy's fault. They're the best. And with promo code baseball, baseball, you'll get 10% off your entire order at Mugsy.com. Give them a try.

I guarantee you're going to like them. They're comfortable. The Mugsy guys came through the other day. We went to a baseball game with them. They are baseball fans as well. So go check it out. Mugsy.com promo code baseball. 10% off.

Like I think the percentage of time this winter that I will wear Mugsy, Mugsy jeans is probably 80%. Like four out of five days I'm going to be in Mugsy's. So that's a pretty big endorsement. My old trainer used to, he still does, he trains in jeans and like vans with no socks. I need to hook them up with Mugsy because Mugsy are essentially like an athletic pant that looks like a stylish beautiful cut pair of jeans. Right.

Like I'm, I feel like when I go out to dinner with Jess, I'm like, I've won. I've like tricked her. Ah, no. I'm wearing comfortable. I guess you did win because she's just way above your league. Right. Not bad. Let's talk some baseball.

Speaking of above my league, Trevor Plouffe, you have the ale today. I have the ale today. That means Poppy Gordito has the next. National League. Zach, let's do it. It is a massive sweep week, people. The Atlanta Braves, what did they do? They went into Pittsburgh and they swept the pirates.

I mean, are the Braves just Trev's friends, O'Darese and Max Fried? The first two games of this series, they hold the pirates to one run in each of those games, and then they blow it out on the final day. Robbie Grossman's your friend. He's on the Braves, too, by the way. He's talking about how crazy this lineup is, especially with the young guys, Grissom, three hits in one game. Matt Olson, date my daughter and take her on a trip in the Allegheny, because that's what he did. The Braves, man, this team is so, so good. Max Fried, you may hear about him later on in the program. Little teaser there. Speaking of really good teams, the first. Philadelphia Phillies, they sweep the Cincinnati Reds.

Noah Cindergarde with a big start. Aaron Nola with a big start. And by the way, guess who's coming to town? Bryce Harper is joining the boys today. Not only did the Phillies stay alive without Bryce, they kind of thrived a little bit. And Harper comes back. Nola, complete game shuddy.

the day that Wheeler's going on the IL, so you take the good with the bad there. Remaining strength of schedules, Phillies with the eighth easiest brewer's, seventh easiest, you might hear about them later. Like I mentioned, Cindergarde had a really good start for them. They four games sweep it and Schwabow. He's got 35 ding-dongs on the year. Oh, big meat. Speaking of the Dodgers, take two out of three from the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers, they win 4-0, game one, Lauer. After his quotes, they shut out the Dodgers in that first game, but oh no, that might have just pissed him off because Catterday, meow! That's a lot of Ws, Trev. That's a lot of Ws for your guy, Tony Gonsolin, and then they take the rubber match on the final day. By the way, our guy Walker Bueller gets T.J., so he's out like all of next year. That's a bummer for the sport.

We love Walker Bueller. We might have to get him involved. We know Walker's kind of sneaky. He might be in for a postseason talking baseball. Okay. Okay. I like that. Get him all he's sedated.

Andrew Heaney, six innings 10Ks. And that's obvious because that's what they do. They knocked around Corbyn Burns. The Dodgers are different, man. Cardinals and Cubs, they linked up for five. Cardinals take three out of five. This went every other game. Cards, 1-0.

Jordan Montgomery. you're going to hear about him later, I promise you. Cubs win, 2-0, and then cards blow him out in the third and the final game. Hey, Cardinals take three out of five in Wrigley. Javier Assad pitches for the Cubs. Strikes out, Poole-Hawes, says he never could have dreamed of it. Glad he got pool-hoss out because not a lot of people have lately. Paul Goldschmidt, people, we talked about it last time.

That guy's going to be your MVP. Pete. He is an absolute stud, including two homers in that final game. Dakota Hudson with the big start. And guess what? Fairly big interleague, a lot of teams in there? That's what happened in the NL. Yeah. Why'd you start laughing at the start? You started losing it right at the rip. I was waiting for you to finish. I didn't want to interrupt. There was a comment there that was just too good that just ripped on you. Oh, man. It's not about my life. I had to take a picture of it because I didn't want to lose it.

So I'm going to give you credit. Okay. You know I love the chat. Yeah, I love the chat. Nick Tholen. Yeah. Said, Jake's goatee looks like a toddler who ate chocolate ice cream and didn't wipe his face. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I mean, it's not wrong. If you have kids, you know they're always just this fucking ring around their face of food. I don't get it. Kids are disgusting. Yeah. And so are you, my friend, with that goaties. So am I.

Thanks. We love the chat. We love the chat. In the National League, again, a lot of interleague, so you haven't heard about some of these. Mets are still in first place. They have a three-game lead on the hot Atlanta Braves. Three games, though. That's starting to get real again.

The Philadelphia, Philly, 67 and 55, 11 games back. Trev, still laughing at me in my face. The St. Louis Cardinals, they have. have a five-game lead on the division. Winners of eight straight. Milwaukee, 65 and 56. The rest of that division is DED dead. And your Los Angeles Dodgers, 84 and 37.

God damn. The Padres are... Say that again. 684 and 37. It's unreal, man. That's unreal. Padres, 68 and 56. San Francisco's a game under 500.

Snakes, five-game back of San Francisco. People are talking. And your NL Wildcard, right now it's Atlanta, eight games in. They are home-free. The Phillies in San Diego are technically tied. That's fun. That's a fun one with the Milwaukee Brewers being a game and a halfback. Literally the only other team kind of in the ballpark is San Francisco,

who's a game under 500, six and a half back. They would really have to find a special gear. Otherwise, Milwaukee, San Diego, and Philly are all in the race for that last wildcard spot. So, Trevor, we started, I'll go Cronpot. I know you love Cronpot. I started with the Atlanta Braves. I don't even know how much of a deep dive in there because it feels like a lot of the same stuff. Their young guys are disgusting and performing.

They sweep the pirates, and they get really good pitching performance. Outo, six innings, one earned. Freed, eight innings, one earned, and then right, seven-inning shutout. This team is all around so good. And here's a fun one. Hey, how about our stats team? Shout out to Max. The Braves are 12 and 0 on days the Mets have lost a game dating back to July 17th.

So that's a fun one. So when the Mets lose, you are gaining ground. I like that. That's a fun one. Soroka's making a rehab start tomorrow. I mean, Michael Harris hits an Apo Homer. I don't know, Trev. Where do you go with these guys?

Are you wearing a Braves hat? Yeah, I got a new one for my guy, Carl Lamar. So shout out. He sent this one. I've been wanting this one for a long time. It's got like the neon green. The color way is just spectacular. So yeah, shout out.

He sent me a package. Thanks, bro. what I like about this Braves team we've talked about these guys a lot there's a lot to like about the Braves team the Braves lead all of baseball was 78 RBI coming from the nine hole

the next highest 65 and 56 from the Dodgers and the Giants they're on pace for 101 RBI from the nine hole which would eclipse the all-time record of a hundred that the Texas Rangers had in 1996 when everybody was just putting steroids into their heart.

This is to me is probably the most telling thing about a baseball team. How long is your lineup? What are the threats there? And I understand sometimes you can do that double leadoff guy down in the nine hole, whatever it is. But this also means that your seven and eight guys are getting on base. This means that you don't have a top five and then the rest of the guys you're just hoping to figure some things out there.

day and day out. These dudes are doing it. This is a lineup that a pitcher looks at, you're pre-game and for the series. And what you do is you look for the outs. Who are the outs in this lineup? Okay. Right now with the Braves, it's tough. You're not going to find a lot of easy outs because of what they've done with their roster construction. They went into Pittsburgh. They handled the business. I love They are Peter Moylan

is tweeting out memes of Cars wheels falling off Because they're close To catching the Mets Which I didn't think was possible I really didn't

Dude And then you got Matt Olsen Date your daughter Jake Yeah Putting one in the river Did you see the swing? I've seen it a lot man It's about as pure as you can get

And he launched that earmuffs Motherfucker Oh Oh, it's one of those swings that you just, it kind of like makes the hair on your arms stick up about like that is as pure as it gets. If you've ever hit a home run that you are like, I got that one. You know Jake, you know that feeling. I'll start. It may not be a better feeling in all of baseball.

When you absolutely just put your A swing and you hit that ball like that. There's not a, I mean, Soroka might be coming back soon. I mean, he is coming back soon. We'll see what kind of role he has. These guys are, they're on point, man. Trev, you're all over it, man. And it's whether you want to, you know, the things we like to check off when we talk about stud teams,

like, okay, do you have that brutal top of the lineup that every time you flip the lineup, you got to go through hell. Ronnie Acuna, Tansby Swanson, we haven't talked about him heading into free agency enough. My guy might get a big old bag. Young Thick Austin Riley's, an MVP, candidate, Matt Olson, has had an amazing year. And then, okay, so you got that. Check it off, top of the lineup. You got some young studs or something fun going on at the bottom of the lineup.

You tell me with Michael Harris, Vaughn Grissom, Eddie Rosario and Marcelo Zuna, they can almost be a platoon if they want. William Contreras, your guy, Robbie Grossman. You can tuck him down at the bottom of the lineup if you don't want young and sexy. How about I give you old and on base? This Braves team is deep. We don't talk about their starting pitching a ton, and that's all they got this series. Morton didn't pitch Spencer Strider, who's striking out everyone in the world didn't pitch this series.

And their bullpen, they've gotten, dude, Kenley Janssen, Ryssel, A.J. Mentor, Colin McHugh, Matzick, Kirby Yates. Dude, it's top to bottom with this team. and, you know, the Braves and the Mets, I guess that would be the, if we were doing a true sports show debate, would be, are these teams better than the Dodgers just because the Dodgers don't have one of those teams in their division? Like, Dodgers, Braves, and Mets, I have them as 1A, 1B, 1C.

I don't know how you split them up, man. Yeah, I mean, look, there's no holes on the Braves' Ross. I think that's one thing that you can say about them, that you can maybe say about, I don't even know if you can say about any other team. I don't know. I think they're one of, if not the most complete roster in the big leagues. And they take care of the pirates. I actually think I might have a pirate award coming later, so we might bottle that up. There are some talks about the standings aren't updated. I don't know where you got those standings, but I think everyone can go and just click a lot. and see where everyone's at. Oh, those standings weren't... Dude, I had two windows open next to each other.

And one was the standings from today. One was from the 22nd. So that is my bad. That is completely my bad. Let's see. Atlanta's 10 games up in the wild card. They are home free. Philadelphia, 2 and a half up.

San Diego is a game and a half up on Millwall. Milwaukee, and then let's see, what else changed in divisions there? Sorry, my people. That's a huge, my bad. Mets are two games up on the Braves. Sheesh. St. Louis, six games up. And the Dodgers are 19 and a half up on the Baudres.

My God. Unreal. Pirates, you're getting a little love later, and I don't think you guys are going to get a lot of love in that series, so we'll keep it moving. Philly sweep the Reds. I mean, hey, another team. team, another good team, another bad team, another team taking care of business here.

But we get a good Cinderguard start. We get Aaron Nola. I think he went complete game Shuddy, 11Ks, and the bad man comes back today. So again, I don't know how much of this series is the conversation or how much of it is getting Bryce back, making sure he's right and wherever they get seated in the playoffs. This is a team you've said from day one. you don't want to see this team come to postseason. Yeah, I think, you know, Wheeler goes on the I.L. With some tendonitis and his elbow, I'm hoping that is just preventative

and maybe like a rest period for them. I don't know if that makes a lot of sense. Obviously, there's something going on. Yeah. I just hope it's not serious. And they're like, hey, if we give you, if we skip two starts, you know, I think everything will be better.

I'm hoping that's what it is. They need him. They really do, because that is one of their strengths. I mean, you put those top three guys up against anyone. Wheeler, Nola, and Suarez there, and then you got some guys in the back with Cindergarde and Gibson. The second game of this series, where they walked it off, was pretty cool

because the reds to the lead in the ninth, and then Stott almost walks it off. I think it hits the top of the wall, which is like fun because you tie the game, but also you're like, dude, just like two more feet, bro. Like, I could be the hero, get all the cameras on me. and then Mayton does it. So they played a good series,

similar to the Braves against the Pirates. Phillies, you need to go take care of business when you're playing the Reds. So they did. And they did, and I think, man, with their improved standing and the right standings, you know, they are battling

with the Brewers who are still figuring it out. They are, quick math, four games up, and in the wild card, which, I mean, you're not locked by any means. There's still a lot of baseball left. There's, you know, five weeks, six weeks, something like that.

But, yeah, I mean, everything that the article say about Wheeler is that if he could, if they needed him to pitch, they could. But yeah, it looks like he's going to miss two starts. And it's, it's Phantom I.L season. I talked about this with Jerry Blevins on Wake and Jake a little bit. And it's so funny, the hoops we have to jump through a little bit. but understandably so because Phantom I.L is a really tricky thing, but also we've gotten to the point that we understand the mental sides of sports and there's also a physical side to it,

that there should almost be an understood rest for players if they do need it. But it does start to get tricky because then our team's throwing guys on the I.L. When they're not hurt, I don't know how you do it. But if you're the Phillies, I mean, it's 90% you're going to be in the playoffs and get your guys right and healthy, and you got to be excited. You know, I think Philadelphia when Harper went down was expected to be on the outside looking in,

and now that they're kind of firmly in, that's just so huge, so huge. It is, and I love the fact that Bryce was, like, slated to play this whole week in the minor leagues, and he's like, nah, dog. Yeah. Nah, I'm good. You see what I'm doing down here?

Like, I need the details on this trip. from Bryce. I need to know the pregame or the post game spread. I need to know that. That is something I am so interested in. So hopefully anybody in the chat, if they said something about that, please let me know. Um, hit up Gibby. Yeah, maybe, maybe Gibby knows. What I think people need to realize is that players don't have to go on rehab assignments. You have to agree to go on a rehab assignment. so a lot of times we get dummies that are like, no, I'm not going to rehab assignment, I'm good. But you need to go see some live pitching.

I think Bryce was like, my eyes are feeling good. And two games, I think he played two games or two days. It's funny. He's back, bro. I can't fucking wait to see him mashing baseballs. I think he might have the best-looking uni in the game when all things are considered. Because you want to know why I say that.

Why is that? Because this is analytics right here, people. When you got your own cleats with your own freaking name on them, it just takes you to the next level. Yeah. It just takes you to the next level. And he like, you know, he wears like that like, you know, the three-quarter pants look thing with stirrups and he's got everything.

He got a lot of flare, but it works for Bryce. And man, real Mudo's been hot. Alec Bome has been hot. Throwing Harper in there. Boom has been hot. Even where Castellanos was, he's been better, that Reeser's having a nice season, with Schwabo.

Yeah, man, and, you know, we're starting to get close where we can start to talk almost playoff strategy. And if they can have Nola Wheeler, and then you have Gibson or Cindergarde, and maybe Ranger kicks back to the pen, and you got D-Rob out there, like this Philly's team,

they've got Pittsburgh this weekend. I could see their winning ways continuing and they were one of the coin flip teams that we didn't know if they were going to be a part of this season and they full-blown are and Harper's back and that is awesome news. Big start by Cindergarde too. Love that. Trev, the other one with two teams that matter the rest of the way, the Cubs and the Cardinals played five and the cards won three out of five,

so that kind of is what it is. Pool holes has been one of the stories of baseball, which is insane. but the Dodgers and Brewers, they linked up for three. Dodgers took two out of three after the Brewers took the first one. And yeah, man, Dodgers, last time we were talking about them getting to Alcantara, this time they get to Corvin Burns. Like, holy, maybe I should stop comparing other teams to the Dodgers. They're a different.

They're a different beasts. The way they grind out at bats, I mean, they can do it all offensively. And with the pitching, they've been able to just like figure. it out, dude. And the guys obviously have stepped up for them. I'm curious to see. I haven't really heard updates on Kershaw. We'll see how that goes, but they're just, they're a different team. Yes. I love for the Brewers. I love Lauer. You remember Lauer came in. It's Eric Lauer, right? He came out and was talking about, like, how they were mad about the hater trade and all that stuff. And like, sometimes I'm like, dude, are you going to say that?

I know you've been pitching well. Are you going to say that and all the things are going to down, you're facing the Dodgers, he has an unbelievable start. So he kind of backs it up right there. I love that. They take game one. And then the Dodgers offense just opened up. It just opened up. Tough for the brew crew because you're fighting for your life right now.

I mean, I think this is probably what they expect. You go to Dodger Stadium. And it's bad for, I hope they didn't feel this way. But I think on the outside looking in, you're like, yeah, they're probably going to lose two or three. No, Treve, that is a good point, though, that when Lauer When Lauer says that, and then he takes the hill and you shut the team down, that's a lot different than if you go out and you get rocked the next day because then everyone can say, well, dude, team would have done a lot better if you pitched well.

And yet, for Milwaukee, you get the hell out of dodgers, literally, and then you're at home, Cubs and Pirates, and then they go and play the snakes. So, like, we've been out on the Brewers for a little bit. They're a game and a half back in the wild card. Now is kind of their go time. and they can. They still can. They still have the arms.

Got a couple of those guys in the lineup need to click, but, you know, take care of the Cubs, take care of the pirates at home. And, you know, we look around the league and there's the exciting races are kind of Mets, Braves, in the East. You know, the AL Wild Card, everyone's a little skeptical of Baltimore,

so it seems like the wild card teams are wrapped up over there. Milwaukee, if they can find it, which they absolutely can. Six weeks of baseball and a lot of talent on that team, there's going to be one really sad team in the National League. Trev, I've got my standouts coming out of the Cardinals' Cubs series. If there's anything you want there. Are you taking who I was going to take?

I don't know. Whose initials were you going to take? Well, let's just say, Okay. There's Dick in his name. Okay, no. Okay. No.

So good. So good. That's a weird way to talk about him. I'm sorry. That was really weird. In my mind, I just, I went there. That was really weird. Goldschmidt continues an MVP run.

Dakota Hudson, nice start. Aronado. They had some incredible defensive plays. I talked about a little bit on baseball today, man. Goldschmidt at first base makes all those guys in the infield so much. much better. I know those guys are great on their own, right? But to have a guy like Goldie doing what he's doing at first base makes you so confident, dude. Poolhole 693, and he ties bonds for most different pitchers homers off of. We know what Cory Dickerson did, guys. We're going to talk about.

Trev, do you want to bring us... Wait, oh, one more thing you got to mention. Just for you, just for you. I want you to go look. Tell me what Jordan Montgomery did. That might have been my standout. Oh, baby. That's why we mark it in the sheet there. Oh, you already marked it? Marked. Time for the AAL, baby. Let's hear the AAL.

Big Z, hit him. Hit him with it. My people, we are starting out with a tough one for your boy, Coach Trev. The twins go into Houston and they get swept. Four, two Astros, five three Astros, six three Astros. It's been the bats for a while for the twins. They actually had some decent pitching here, but man, you're going up against Verlander, Framber, and Garcia,

and these things are about to happen. Bragman stays freaking hot. Three hits with two home runs in the first game, a two-run home run in the first game. I think he had another homer at some point. Mancini's going off hitting a bunch of home runs. The Astros are a damn good team, and the twins right now are struggling to find themselves in identity.

They got to step it up. They get swept down in Houston. Another sweep. This will make some sense. The raise. Sweep the Angels. A four game set. Two-one raise, 11-1 raise in game two. They needed extras to walk it off in game 343,

and then they won the game eight three. The Angels are kind of spiraling downward. Jared Walsh is done for the season. What does he have, like, thoracic outlet or something like that going on? That's interesting. The rays continue. to do it. We always say Ray's going to Ray. They did that again here. The bullpen was fantastic. A bunch of guys stepping up for them. A bunch of different guys offensively two. Ray's going

Ray. They sweep the Angels in a four-game set. Another sweep. Are you kidding me? The Blue Jays go into Fenway and I think effectively end the Red Sox season. I'm probably going to put that out there my people nine three blue jays and then two extra extra inning wins three two and six five we had stripling barrios and gospin i'll go there there was some excellent defense i'll talk about that and a little bit my guy chappy the blue jays went six and one on this yankees redsox trip they're eight and one in boston this season with two sweeps romano was fantastic back-to-back nights coming in and shutting their team down blue jay are not getting talked about enough. They are a terrifying team come October. They get the sweep.

And I believe the last series that we're going to talk about, the White Sox had Orioles. A lot of playoffs implications going into this series. And the Orioles take two of three. And my oh my, it could have been the other way around. The Orioles won the first one, five to three. The White Sox won the second one, five to three. And we know what happened in that last game. Four or three Orioles, Adam Engel drops the fly ball with two outs in the ninth. Could have brought home to victory. Instead, the Orioles tie it up and they get the win in extras. Orioles take two or three from the White Sox.

And my people, that is what happened in The American. Trevor Plouffe, magnificent, as always, or is it Maleficent? I never know. The updated standings, not the standings from earlier in the week, because that's probably what you guys are looking for. The New York Yankees are atop the AL East, a seven-and-a-half-game lead of the Tampa Bay Ray's winners of six straight, and they are a half-game up of the Toronto Blue Jays,

who are seven and three in their last 10. So the AL-East baby continues to go. Even the Orioles 65 and 59, the lowly Red Sox. Holy smokes, man. Holy smokes. They are a few games back of Baltimore. down there. The Cleveland Guardians, a team I think we need to start giving more love, are four games up on the twins who are now a game above 500, Trevor, and the Chicago White Sox,

who are the same and are trying to just completely break me, and they may have. We'll talk about that. And the Houston Astros continue to dominate out west, 12 and a half up, 81 and 45. jeez. Mariners, 68 and 57, but they locked up Julio. So that's awesome for them. So your wild card is Tampa, a half game up on Toronto. Toronto, a game up on Seattle. And Baltimore is two and a half games outside looking in on those teams.

So Trevor Plouffe, where do you want to go, Big Daddy? I will start with a little bit Crompod. You know, the Astros and the twins kind of going in opposite. directions here. Twins have to put Buxton on the I.O. Which for a team that has kind of been struggling for an identity offensively, that's not great. But the Astros are just that team, I guess. You know, Framberg goes his 21st consecutive quality start. Verlander goes, six shuddy, no hit innings with 10ks. He didn't walk anyone. His only base runner was a drop third strike. And there's

There's a note here, Verlander and Framber, a combined 41 quality starts this season. That's more than 12 other teams have. Like 12 teams, and these two guys have done it themselves. I think that they're another team, like the Braves, who really don't have a hole in their roster. It's tough to go play this team. No matter where, no matter when, it doesn't matter if you catch the top of the rotation, the bottom of the rotation. This team is just damn good, man. And the twins came in, struggling a little bit.

I think they had a series loss against the Rangers. They go into here, and it's just, it's tough, man. They're so good. Mancini with the couple homers. That brings his Astros numbers back up to a decent place. I think he was in a slight skid. But yeah, man, I mean, Justin Verlander, every time he pitches, he could be a standout performer for us.

It's nuts. We talk about it. We also don't talk about enough. Unfortunately, Trev, I think the story here is you checked everything off with the Astros. Oh, they win some more. They're pitchers who have done it for a while. Do it again. We know some of the bad dudes in their lineup.

Man, you're twins. It's starting to hit. Like, it's fight or flight time. They're a game above 500. They've been playing under 500 baseball since May. It's almost September. So I don't know. man, it's not looking good for the Twinkies

as they've lost six straight. It's tough. My girl, Shaylar is in the chat, talking about facing the Astros with the AAA team, half AAA team. I mean, I don't think it'll be any different. This is, I think the Astros are, you know, in a class above the twins,

and I think, kind of shows. Prae got a nice ovation, and then, you know, the twins tried to get things going. Rocco had this meeting. He called it the Zero Fucks meeting. You told them just to go out and play and have fun, which is cool, probably a little bit too late, if you ask me.

You know, it's, it's tough for me to, like, put into words, like, how I feel about the twins, because I kind of want to go off on them a little more about, you know, kind of the things they've done. They went for it a little bit, you know, they made some moves, but, like, not aggressive enough, in my opinion. How about that? You've been got Korea. I love that move. You know, it's actually, it's been okay. I think that helped their club out us a lot.

But like, I know you want to get Molly too, but I don't think that was enough in regards to the pitching. I know they've done okay, but it's still like, it's just blah. Yeah. The best way I can put it. And I've been a part of the Minnesota Twins organization for a long time, man. And it's been a while since it's like they put out a team that you're like, holy shit.

Like 2010, I guess, probably the last time they put out a team that you probably say that about. Yeah, I mean, I got excited about the Bama squad. I mean, they were hitting a ton of homers that you were like, They weren't pitching, though. Is this different? It's true. It's true. I mean, it's, you know, it's. Even in 2010, we didn't really have that great of pitching. It's why it's piece it together. I think you and, you and Jimmy used to bump elbows a little bit when it came to the twins, because the twins, they really haven't had the fear factor. And now you're looking at a 500 twins team. And, man, their upcoming schedule, Giants, Red Sox and White Sox, it's like a midfest for them. for the next week and a half.

So that's tough. That's tough. And that's, you know, baseball seemingly always finds a way. Will one of the Mids click for the final six weeks? Minnesota, the White Sox. Boston's kind of out of mid and just bad. San Francisco. I don't know.

I don't know. We'll see if any of those. When I was in Minnesota, talking to one of my former teammates, I'm not going to say who. But he was like, you know, really, last time that twins have had like front of the line really good starters in the rotation was like Johan and Francisco Liriano. That's a long time ago. It's like 2006, bro. Yeah. And like, that's not a take away from guys. It's been some good pitchers that come through here. But like,

it's when you got that stat I just read about the Astros, 41 quality starts in a season, but out of two guys. Yeah. that shit hasn't happened probably since 2006 yeah yeah that's tough that's tough astros are really good and trev i tease this a little bit i'm not going to give myself a full pat on the back i think there's another team joining the category of really good and i think it's the raise oh you better back it up you're going to say that tell me well the rays are winners of six straight they're eight and two in their last 10. You know, their record's starting to get to a nice place, 69 and 55.

And yet, like, they had a little bit of the signs. A, they were the raise. They've never been... Think about all the conversations we've had about concerns about teams this year. We've never had raise concerns because you just don't, because the raise find a way. And now they've got some guys back, especially in their bullpen.

My guy Pete Fairbanks is back. and looking really good down there. They're starting pitching. Drew Rasmussen is continuing to put forward efforts. And they're winning ball games as they get a little healthier. So I thought it was going to be, I thought they were going to become more part of this season because I thought Wander Franco would come back

along with some of the pitching. By the way, I saw Tyler Glass now throwing to some live hitting the other day. The race, man, they take care of their business. Again, they sweep a four gamer against the halo. which is always tough. And they're in the mix. They're in the mix, and we need to talk about them more. They have, this is kind of what we talk about when we're saying,

Ray is going to Ray, because they have a lot of the pitchers, a lot of pitchers they were going to rely on this year, on the I.L. But they continue to find ways to get it done. Shane Boz, I.L. Petinos in the minor leagues. Kittridge, 60-day I.L.

Fleming, 15-day L. I.L. Luke Rayley. is not a pitcher. What am I talking about? I had another one. But they just continue to get it done. And whether that's organizationally,

they just find ways to put people in positions to succeed, which is basically what Cash was saying. But there really is no other way to put it than the Ray is going to Ray. It's the perfect encapsulation of that organization because they do like to have it faceless. They do like to have guys there that they just, they want you to feel confident. They want to put you in the right scenarios. And that's like, that's where they get the most, that's where they have the most fun.

I feel like that front office relishes in the fact that, hey, we can take these guys and put them in the right positions and teach them a few things that they do really well and tell them to go do that and we're going to be all right as a franchise. And that's what they've done. Randy's gone the last week or so, Manny Margoe, always making the, action happen. We know that's that's his MO from coach ballgame shout out. Yeah, Kluber six innings one earned. He's he's putting together a full, a full season. It's, you know, not exactly beautiful, but innings. We always talk about the Ray's needing innings, and he's doing

that. Betancourt homers, homers for them. He's done that a couple times now. So Ray's sweep, they're getting hot at the right time that if they do get Wanderback, I saw something that said he might rehab next week. The race can hit a scary factor that they haven't been there. They've just been around in this season. They haven't been scary. And a team you mentioned when you were running through these games that we thought was going to be scary and might be getting more scarier.

Kind of the AIL's version of the Phillies in my brain is the Toronto Blue Jays. The Phillies of the A. The Phillies of the Toronto Blue Jays? Kind of. They've got the scary hitters in the lineup and they have... I think they're a better team than the Phillies. Okay. Go on with your bad.

self. I do. I thought this is pretty funny, you know, because of how the second game went and the raised were up by a bunch. They had Betancourt pitch in the ninth inning. He goes two for four with the homer and a two-run single in the seventh. And then he tosses a scoreless night to close it out. He touched 95 miles an hour, Jake. And he said after the game, now I know what it feels like to be Otani. It's pretty cool. If you're up there in Utah's 95. Yeah. That's a real I like it. That's a real number, bro. That in 85. That's 95. That's forever. Love that. That's forever. Your Jay's swept the socks. J's swept the socks. They're getting it going right now. 9 3 Blue Jays in game one. This is 8 of 9 J's starters recorded the hit. The only one who didn't was Kirk and he walked twice.

That's a deep lineup. Chapman after the game said, talked about how the way they scored runs wasn't just like, hidden homers. It was like we walked, we hustle, we beat a ball out. They just really played baseball. I love when Chappi talks shit like that. Then the next game was, or next two games, extra innings in Romano, I mean, he tosses a scoreless, I believe, 10th in the second game.

And then they go to get the save. And then in the third game, he pitched two innings. He holds him in nine, then holds him in 10. and they end up winning. I think, I just think that they are, I think the J's,

because they've been pretty mid. They've been, I think I had the, yeah, I had it up here. April, 636 winning percentage. And then May, June, July, and August, they've been just right over 500. Yeah. So we haven't like talked about this like,

Jay's team going off on a run. There's still a run in this team. if they hit it at the right time, this is a team you really, really have to be looking at or scared of if you're other teams, because they could get it going in an instant because they have that type of roster. And it's, I mean, it's, it's the beauty of baseball, right?

Like, this Blue Jays team, they have guys that your best pitcher could throw their best pitch in Vlad, George Springer, Alejandro Kirk, De Oscar Hernandez, Beau Bichette. Those guys can beat you flat out. So George Springer is back. I think he was out for a little bit. And, yeah, I think part of the other reason is, you know, Vlad's season is really, really good.

But the bar he set for us last year, you know, it's a tier below that, that there's no Blue Jays. Outside of Manoa and Gossman that are having really standout, standout seasons. But as a team, you know, with a good month. And like you mentioned, Trevor, that's a really good point. for the past couple months, they have been mid. They've been above the Midoza line, the White Sox and all those guys, the Giants. They've been right above that because of that good first month. But yeah, I mean, it's one of the things of baseball.

We talk about it on talking Yanks a lot because we saw it live in the 2017 season for the Yankees, our first season getting started. The Yankees had two good months and the rest were right around 500. If you do that, you'll be a really good baseball. team. So hopefully they have their good month coming, especially as the Red Sox kind of do their final death march to finish out this season. Tough, and I know I talked about it last episode, but yeah, and by the way, this is a side note that isn't a big part of this series. James Paxton, who was dominant in Seattle, came over to the Yankees and was a really nice ball player.

man, you want to talk about the part of baseball we don't discuss enough. He was out pretty much all this year. There was a chance he was going to come back for September. He was rehabbing. He tears his lat in a rehab start and is out for the season. Man, this sport is such a grind, and we talk about guys hitting free agency at the right time. You know, he's a guy, you know,

if he had timed up his free agency right, James Paxton is like a $100 million pitcher, and he's let's hope he can come back next year for some team and look good and get the payday he deserves. Because he's a fun pitcher when he's right, man. But the injury bugs had him for a little bit. That's tough. Yeah.

A couple other cool things from the series. Talked about the Blue Jays and what Romano did. In that last game, game three, Red Sox had runners in scoring position in the 7th, 8th, and 10th. and then score any of them. So whether that's, you know, it's bad for the Red Sox offense, also good for the Blue Jays bullpen.

It's tough, man. And then this is a fun story. I want to mention this because I like when stuff like this happens. Danny Jansen, he met a kid who had survived brain cancer, and he told him that he hit a home run for him, and then if he did that, he'd point to him. Guess what he did?

Hit a home run over the monster and pointed to him. God, that's cool. I love that. God, that's cool, man. That kid feels like he's a superstar. When that happens, you see a big leaguer, tell you he's going to do something, does it, and points to you.

You feel like you're at the homer if you're the kid. That's awesome, dude. And that's got to be pretty cool for Danny Jansen, too. He's a big part of that Blue Jays team, man. I like Danny Jansen. Clubhouse guy catches a lot for them, and it always feels like he hurts the Yanks. I know sometimes the end of season numbers

aren't there for Danny Jansen, but he finds a way he's an important part of that team. Trev, closing it off because there's a lot of weird IL. O's White Sox, man. And I don't know, man, if I was going to embody both of these team seasons in one moment, it's fucking last night, dude. Like the White Sox should win this series. Liam Hendricks on the Hill. Not so much.

Kyle Stowers. Stowers? Stowers? I don't even know because it's his first career home run as they're down to their last strike in the ninth. It's for the Orioles to win the series instead of the midsox. I know the series was more than that. We had the five-out save from Batista. He's been incredible.

You know, Gavin Sheets doing his thing in game two. But I agree with you. Two strikes, two outs, fly ball to your left fielder, who is, I think you'd consider him, that's your defensive replacement. And he just zoos it, man. There's nothing like, you had to run for the ball. You know the ball comes back towards you when it's headed that way, like it's going to come back towards the field of play.

And he just overran it just a little bit. And I kind of took his eye off it just a little bit. And then you're thinking to yourself, if you're Adam Engel, fuck, I messed that up. But you're also saying, we got Liam Hendricks here, who's been phenomenal lately. He still has two strikes on this dude. Who's never hit a homer?

And then it's a homer. It's a homer. And you, if you're Adam Engel, you just want to have a shovel nearby so you can dig a hole and crawl into it. It's the worst feeling. I've been there, bro. I get it happens.

I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, but I know you want to. I'm sure you have been. But as much as it is embarrassing for the white socks, and my, oh my, they've embarrassed themselves this year. It's awesome for the Orioles. Because again, you still had two strikes on you with two outs and you're down to run against, you know, arguably the best closer in the game.

Yeah. And you did it. And then you go hold them down. Or did they walk it off? Oh, yeah. They held them two in a row without being able to score. Yep. With a runner on second, you throw up zeros twice.

And then you walk it off. I tell you, I would have loved to be a fly in the wall in each of those locker rooms afterwards because I can't imagine them being much more opposite. And Trev, I don't know if you want to do this because it hurt you a little bit, but it would be in the spirit of the betterment of this season. Can you announce the White Sox are dead, so hopefully they have a chance to go.

Oh, shit, man. I'm going to go from Oracle. Baseball prophet. This guy knows ball. Listen to what he says. I might have picked two teams to be in the World Series. They aren't going to make the freaking playoffs, bro. Currently not in the dance.

I'm a zoo now. I'm a clown. Bryce Harper would call me a clown. And then we'd get in a fight, and I probably would win. Say the White Sox are dead. Spark their season. They're not dead. I still have hope for my two teams. Damn it.

I still got hope for my two teams, man. And they're still, what are the white socks are, oh shit. Yeah, man, it's getting real. I think they're four out on the division. And five back of the wild card. Oh, boy. And the Milwaukee's one and a half back of the division, of the wild card. Call the white socks dead.

Just say the white socks are dead. Just say it. I can't. I can't. Damn it. All right. Tony LaRousse is not dead. He's walking dead.

Let's do a tight inner league Because I think there's There's three teams that need to be discussed Man, a couple A lot of two gamers I hate it, I hate it, I hate it Zach, we're going to be tight with this one I think 10 minutes

Yeah Give me the music, it'll be quick It'll be quick It'll be quick This one might not though Let's go Yankees Speaking of two gamers That matter

the Yankees show the fortitude to win both games, four to two. They take down Scherzer and then Frankie Montas, a big start for him. Yankees take both games at home in the Subway series. This was big for them. They took down Manoa and the final game. It looks like they're out of their funk. We have the bonus points of next series. The rumors have fully come out that a Pablo Lopez trade was almost done for Glaver Torres.

Those officially came out today. So I don't know. I don't know what you do with that. But Yankees, it looks like they're out of their skid. Mets, I don't know. You put your shoulders up a little bit. They took both games in City. Andrew Benintendi starting to go for the Yanks.

That's a big deal. Guardians, a team we probably need to talk about a lot more because they now have a commanding. ending AL Central lead as they take two games from the Padres. Oscar Gonzalez, this dude is thrashing. 3.43 this month. Man, Guardians take both versus the Padres. Calquantral with seven shuddy. That's big.

Clevenger six innings picks two earns against his old team, but it's not enough as the guard dogs take both. Marlins took two out of three from the athletics. I don't know if anyone watched. this although Cabrera for the Marlins, 22.2 shutout innings in four starts and coming back from the aisle. That is gross. And yeah, some good baby Jesus here, his old team. He comes back, A's win that final game in 10 innings. Nationals, Mariners, they split two folks. I don't know what you want for me there. Bob Ray, 6.21 earned. And hey,

they just locked up that Julio guy. That's pretty cool. George Curr. Herbie seven innings, one earned himself. Is that a fart? Giants, tigers, they split two. Again, I don't know what to do with this. Rodon and Manning for respective teams. They each dropped it. I can't give you too much else.

DeBacks, Royals. Oh! This was the series of the weekend. I can't say that with a straight face, unfortunately. DeBacks won the first one. Royals won. The second, man, Bobby Wood Jr. showing the bullpen some love when he rounds the bases. Does that get you excited?

Kansas City. Your guy McCarthy. Treve, you talked about his swing last time. He had the go-ahead sack fly. And Singer, I keep telling you, draft him next year in fantasy baseball. He's figured it out. Zach Gallen with six shuddy, too. And that's more or less what happened in the interleague baseball.

Thanks, Zach. Trev, we already went through the standing. so we don't need to do that again. Again, a couple two games of teams not around the playoffs, can't really do that dance. I think the two things that are important here, Subway Series, always important, good energy. Yankees look like they've gotten out of their funk.

And then the Guardians, dude, they take two from the Padres, which still, again, those two-game interleagues do nothing for me. More so it's that the twins got swept and the White Sox stay mid, that the Guardians full-blown control the AL Central. I was pretty tough to that front office. You were. I was, dude, because I loved everything they had going on. I thought they could-

But it wasn't just this year you're mad at overall how they handle things. I still think there could be a couple things here and there, which would make them even be more scary, but we need to talk about them. It looks like they're going to win the AAL Central, and a little Subway Series, too. So which one would you prefer to start with? Let's go Cronpa, let's go Mets Yankees,

which was supposed to be a cakewalk for the Mets, although they did not end up throwing DeGrom in the second game. But Hermann versus Scher, and Hermann out-dueling Max Scherzer is something of note. And then Frankie coming and doing his thing, which is nice, I'm sure, for Yankee fans to see. I think that ninth inning was really something. Clay Holmes was struggle bus.

And then Peralta had to come in and get Lindor. And I was watching that at bat. It was bases loaded, right? when he came in. Wandi. And what's that? Yeah, Peralta, yeah. So, you know, he's got a couple pitches.

Like fastball change up, those are his primary pitches. Fastball change up. He's got a little slider that's improved this year. And just correcting you from before is Clark. They were thrown Clark out there. Clark, sorry. No, you're good. Clark.

So third pitch, he goes three times in a row to endure. because they're smart. They understand. Like Lendor has probably eliminated that pitch, essentially. So they start one out as a get-me-over. He gets that for a strike. And then he throws another good one. I think Lendor swung through that one.

Those the third one, and Lendor is too good of a hitter to, you know, see three in a row, not barrel the ball. And Wondi left it up a little bit, hits it right down the line for the foul ball, ends up getting Lendor out. But I think it was a really cool series. and I like that there was at least

some pressure-packed moments there at the end and I like when different pitchers have to come in to pressure situations. I don't think Wadi's going to be at the back end of many games for you guys unless it is like a straight-up, like, match-up-based thing.

But for him to come through is pretty cool. Yeah, one of the jokes we've had on talking Yanks recently because the Yankees bullpen hasn't been what you picture the Yankees bullpen. Wandi Peralta, is their get out of jail guy. Like he's the guy you bring in the bases loaded no outs and he's got a chance to get out of it.

Like he's, I think in that situation, he's gotten like three tappers back to the pitcher. He's just, he likes the moment. He is that guy. And he's kind of been their lefty specialist this year, which if... That's what I mean, yeah. If you're into Yankees postseason,

he's holding lefties to a 119 batting average, a 357 OPS, which is funny because he originally was basically fast, ball changeup, he was kind of like a reverse splits guy because the changeup worked well on Rydies. Yet the Yankees, knock on wood, and I have the advantage of knowing what happened last night, it looks like they're getting out of their skid. And it's just a matter of how strong they're going to finish.

Huge start by Montas. If he had thrown up another stinker, especially with Jordan Montgomery doing what he's doing, which you might hear about in a minute, that would have become a thing. Oswaldo Cabrera, they call him. up the kid. It hasn't fully clicked with the bat, except last night, but we're not talking about that, but he's playing every position. Such good energy. And Trev, you know, it's one of those funny things we look at our parents and it's, you know, what traits have you gotten from your parents and some things we appreciate, some things we don't. Talk to my pops last night. It was a good catch-up,

and we talked a little bit of Yankees, and he phrased it perfectly. I can't believe it. He goes, as Waldo Cabrera, he comes alive when he's on a baseball field. And that's who he is. And you see it. You see it in his energy. Ben Intendi's starting to go has been massive. And yeah, the tune in Yankee land has changed as they start their West Coast trip. And if you're the Mets, I mean, it sounds easy for me to say on the other side of it,

but he can't be freaked out by this. I mean, it was supposed to be Scherzer-Degrom. Then it's not Scher-Degrom. Max didn't have his best stuff. stuff on this day. And more importantly, Timmy Trumpet will throw out the first pitch on the Mets game coming up Tuesday,

so get ready for that. Big news, yeah. You want to talk about the Guardians a little bit, Trev? The AL Central leading guardians. If the chat is correct, I believe Passon just announced that there are options on the Julio deal to make it 16 and 18 years.

What? But I would double-check that. I'm just reading the chat right now. Let's see. Yeah, 39 seconds ago. The option is for eight or ten years on top of the original deal, depending how Rodriguez fares an MVP voting. It can range anywhere from $200 to $350 million.

If the Mariners pick up the option, Rodriguez is guaranteed $320 million. If the Mariners don't pick up the option after year seven, Rodriguez has a player option. Yeah, I mean, we got a fancy one. So basically he could hit free agency right before his 30th birthday or he could be a mariner as long as I'm alive. What the fuck, man.

Would I love to be. I got to dive into this. We can't react in real time to this. I need to go and check all these numbers. It's still, we did our reaction. I think we had a stake with it, but. Maybe that'll be a midweek. We can follow up when we have some more numbers.

But Trev, give the guardian some love, the love they deserve as the twins look like they're dying and the midsocks continue there. their ways. I think, I was talking to Rosie about it. He went and saw him play down in San Diego and he's just, they're just pesky offensively. They have a few guys they can drive the ball. You know, we know what Jose Ramirez can do and, you know, Justin Nailor's got some pop and stuff like that, but they just wear you out as a fucking pitcher, man.

The fouling balls off, extending at bats. They just kind of play a little bit differently. And they've got the pitching too. I mean, I didn't think offensively they could hold up. I think that was the biggest thing when we were looking at this team as a whole, as a roster, which you know, you kind of have to do. Hey, the pitching can be there. We know that for sure.

But is the hitting going to hold up enough to stave off the white socks who we thought were going to be a juggernaut? And don't fucking laugh at me, people. Everybody thought the white socks were going to be good. Yeah. And on paper, they're still good. I don't know. Just call them dead.

Call them dead and we're home. There were some cool quotes. They were talking about Ramirez. Terry Francona was talking. He had his 20th career multi-homer game, and Francona said, I'm glad he's in our uniformer today because he plays the game right. He's not always going to hit two home runs,

but he shows up every day and gives you an honest effort. Quantial had some other awesome things to say about him. So you have that cornerstone there. You have a guy that you know is going to show up, and he plays both sides of the ball very well. When you have that, I think it takes a little pressure off all the other guys. He's the guy. And everyone else can just do our jobs, whatever we're supposed to do.

And that's what good organizations do. And that's what they tell players is we're on this team to be you. You're not on this team to be somebody else. Like, hey, Kwan, we don't need you to hit for power, bro. Like, we need you to do what you do well. And I think they've all kind of found roles in that offense and in this on this team. And they're rolling with it, man. and they look good and they are going to be tough in the playoffs.

Like, you know, I don't think they, again, on paper, stack up against some of these other teams, but put them in the box and have them, you know, have five, six pitch at bat, seven pitch at bats every time up against pitchers and, like, starts to wear on people for a while. So, go Guardians go. I think, I mean, I'm not declaring the White Sox dead, but the expression I like to use is one foot in the grave, one foot on a banana peel. Hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and it looks like they've, I know John wanted us to talk about their schedule a little bit. A, a funky thing coming up, they have both their Mariners series coming up. So those are two teams around the playoffs that are teeing off against each other. That could be interesting if one of those teams gets hot against each other with the Orioles in between. And then the twins, the twins have two series with the Guardians left, and the White Sox. have four games.

So when you talk about controlling your destiny, the Guardians have full control. We always think of Guardians' pitching. Their hitting's arguably been better than they're pitching throughout the year, but they get strong performances on any given day from their rotation. The back end of their bullpen has settled in.

Trevor, I forget if it's Stephen or Stefan, former Yankee farmhand, Emmanuel Class A, we talk about him a lot. It's a good team. And we've said it all year, and these teams don't deserve for us to say it, but I wonder if someone will challenge the guardians the rest of the way or the not. Currently, it looks like not. But you kind of hope the baseball gods kick in just a little bit.

Just a little bit. Everyone's telling me I need to declare the white socks dead. I'm just not doing it. I don't do that. Maybe we're saving it for awards. people, I think you guys know I love talking every team. I love baseball so much.

Rangers, Rockies, I really don't have much for you in a two-game split. DeBacks, Royals, same thing. Even Rodon and Matt Manning, shoving against each other, Giants, Tigers. A couple weird interleague ones. I think, Trev, unless you have final notes, I think what's dead may never die. Yeah.

Shout out, Kohler. 7th shot of 11 case. Swole. Swole, Irvin. Trev, let's head to the standouts because there's a lot of guys that deserve some love and we'll do it the rest of the way. And those are brought to you by Shady Ray's.

I just threw mine on. They've become an everyday thing for me. They cover up everything that's wrong with me. Everyone gives me compliments on my Shady Ray's. And people, they're giving you a real deal. at shady rays.com, use code talking. You'll get 50% off two plus pairs of premium polarized shades. I'll be completely honest with you.

Since Shadyrays has joined us, they've swept our office. Like everyone has two pairs of Shadyrays, basically because of this deal. Every pair is also backed by their lost and broken replacement guarantee. These very pair I am wearing, there is a broken pair out in the office. I put it in the middle of the office, and I said, let's put Shady Rays to the table.

They sent me these. I wear them every day. Every day. So thank you, Shady Ray's. Get some for yourself. Get some for your loved ones. And with Code Talking at Shadyrays.com, get 50% off 2 plus pairs of premium polarized shades.

Thank you, Shady Ray's. You guys are the best in the game. Good people. Go check them out for yourself or a loved one in your life. Shaddyraise.com, code talking. 50% off 2 plus pairs. Trev, I will go first on my standout. Maybe it's a multiple stand.

How about this? I'm going to give an assist and a goal. Unless you're taking Justin Verlander, he's going to be my assist. Because he goes six innings, 10Ks. Is this no hits? That can't be right. That's right?

Yes. It's disgusting. Man, it's absolutely disgusting. Yeah, six innings, no hits, 10Ks. And guess what? He doesn't even care. It's not like I'm going to go get the no-hitter. I don't care.

I've got those in the bag. Boring. His ERA lowers from 195 to 187. He's not even my standout because it's going to Jordan Montgomery. Jordan Montgomery is a guy I'm very familiar with. He came up for the Yankees in 2017. That's when we started doing everything, talking yanks, John Boy Media.

He had a really nice rookie season. And he's been good for the Yankees. He's now got a career 101 starts, a 376 ERA. It's just solid. Like his good is pretty good. Like he could shut you out on a given day. He also battled through starts. He's got a big pitch mix, so he's finding it a lot.

In St. Louis, he gets traded at the deadline. It surprises every Yankee fan because he can't have enough pitching, right? That's the old of phrase in baseball. he's gone over four starts, 25.2 innings, and he's only given up one run, and it is the cherry on top is a complete game shutout against the Chicago Cubs. By the way, a 1-0 game.

So it's not like this was a 9-0 and Monty was just out there twirling it. 1-0. You make one pitch, and it's a tied game. He only gives up one hit, 7.5. Kevin K's. I couldn't be happier for the dude. He's got the beard growing in, a classic getaway from the Yankees,

grow out the beard. And it is his first complete game. The Yankees really even never gave him the chance to do that. The Cardinals are happy. He is currently like the best trade deadline acquisition, statistically. At least there's not really an argument. And be happy for the guy.

A pretty chill South Carolina guy. You know, he turns on that mean streak on the mound when he needs it. He was kind of C.C.'s understudy on the Yanks, and the big lefty has found a home in St. Louis. He's been disgusting. And yeah, it's one of those weird things you're happy for a good guy, but as a Yankee fan, you're also like, we could use that in an August where we've just been getting rocked by teams, hopefully out of it now. But shout out Jordan Montgomery with the assist from Verlander who could get it every week.

but good for Gumby. I love it. I'm going to go with not just one game because there was more games involved with the player that I'm going to give my standout performance. Corey Dickerson, former teammate of mine, 10 for 10, he goes. He ends up going 11 for 14 with a triple,

three doubles, and two RBI, 10 hits and 10 consecutive at bats. That's nuts. Now you go 4 for 4. That's nice. You feel really good about yourself. Well, he did that on Tuesday. You go 4 before the next game.

You're 8 for 8. Wow. I'm going to get out soon. Well, no, the first two of bats of the following game, he gets to it's 10 for 10. And I love some quotes afterwards. You know, he had a calf injury. I played with Corey, this guy,

all he wants, he's a baseball rat. It's all he cares about. Comes back for the injury. He says he's trying to get just better swings off, swing with more intent, and he says, it's nice to see that I can still carry a baseball team. And it is a really good feeling for a player to have. I want everyone to go back and just look, I mentioned this before briefly on talking baseball. He is the guy that if he doesn't get a hit, he'll go change his batting gloves or his cleats or his bat wrap, like his grip to his bat. He'll go just change it. He's just one of the.

those people, that's what he does. I'd be very curious to see. I didn't go back and look to this. I guarantee he had the same exact batting gloves, the same exact cleats, and the same exact bat for those 10 for 10. And then the bat that he didn't get a hit, I bet you he changed. I'd be willing to bet money on it, people. So I love the corkiness of the whole, you know, situation. It's a very good word to describe Corey, but he's also a rat. You know, I love my big. baseball rats. You love your baseball rats. That's why you love me. Like the Cardinals fucking need anybody else doing shit like that. Yeah, right. And by the way, Tref, that was a great point. Like being able to be a guy that could carry your team through a

weekend through a series and be the dude, that's a really cool feeling. And so for him to feel that along with the rest of the Cardinals lineup, that's awesome. And I forgot to mention it with Monty. It was technically a Maddox, which people like a lot. 99 pitches. Somebody else just did that like two days before. Who was it? It's becoming sexier, man.

Baseball went from strikeout as many guys as you possibly can to like, oh, wait, innings do matter. So if you can get a quickout, that's important. Trev, good, standout. There's a lot, again, a ton of guys that could have gotten it. Paul Goldschmidt, Jesus. day. Hey, he's a joke.

Let's hammer out a little slump watch. Zach likes when I make noises. Slump watch, let's get these boys hot. Speaking of, your guy, Trev, Andrew McCutcheon, O for 11, that two will pass. That's going to pass soon. Yachty, a little O for 11, after checking on his basketball team. That was something. Routy.

What was that? What was that? Rowdy to Les. Oh, for 10. Hey, get it going. Big homestand, Rowdy. Joey Wendell. Oh, for 10.

And Cal Rally, our guy, big dumper. Big dumper. O for nine. He'll get it going. Joey Wendell, date your daughter? Um, Joe. Nice guy.

Nice guy. Joey Wendell's like a date my niece. His hands are too callous. Yeah. Get those callous hands off my daughter. Let's go to Enflago. Zach, I think you got it over there. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like Waco.

Treve, whenever it's All-Stars only, I like hearing Enfuego come from you. Oh, I'll read it, yeah. Yeah. Well, I mentioned Corey Dickerson, 11 for 14, triple, two, three doubles and two RBI. Jose Ramirez, I also talked about him. Four for seven, two homers, four, eight. RBI and a walk. Your guy, Aaron Judge, he's good.

He's two more homers. He goes four for a, yes, three RBI. Nate Lowe. God, I have to think about that every single time. Four for ten, two homers, a triple eight RBI's. That's nice. Trey Mancini, four for 11, two homers, a double, six RBI.

Jose Altuvae, six for ten. J. T. Romuto, six for 12. Alex Bregman, been hotter than the sun. Five for nine, a homer, double, three ribbies, and Christian Walker. Did we talk about him enough? Five for nine, a home or a double and two RBI. And that, my friends, Sue's on Fuego.

And Paul Goldschmidt, who is... Always. He is the son. He is the son. You mentioned Bregman in there. He's really been going lately. His numbers are starting to get to Alex Bregman what you expect them to be territory,

and that's pretty cool, because it's kind of been since 2019, since he's been full tilt there. His OPS is up to 847. Christian Walker's, good and yeah, Aaron Judge is on pace to beat the home run record people, so get in tune with that. Which brings us to...

No. Zach, there is an awards button on there. Oh, what? Yeah! I never know. I never know. It's like a shot of espresso at the end of a show that we need. We do need that.

We love Kelsey. Go rocks. Trev, I'll go first. Because, well, I went first, and then... And then I, you know, I punted in Fuego to you. And it's kind of... Hey, hey, hey, hey, just before you... Wipe that chocolate ice cream.

Oh, okay. And it's a tribute to Zach, because my guy, Zach is here. And as... People that know John Boy Media know, Zack's a little dark, you know? Oh. He's a music guy. He's a real rock cat. Check out Crooked Ways.

I am giving out the Freak on a Leash Award. Wow. Popular corn song. Yeah. Is Zach like corn? I don't think so. Do you like corn? Not a big corn fan.

Obviously not. Obviously not. But it's what they represent. Sure. No, I mentioned earlier on in the program, Trev, that there's a guy. I said I was going to give out a Pittsburgh Pirates Award. And that's because O'Neill Cruz hit the hardest ball that's ever been hit in baseball history. Um, whenever the New York Yankees play, sometimes I talk about the fans being spoiled because

Giancarlo Stanton has the hardest hit ball pretty much every year, the past six years or something like that. Aaron Judge hits balls as hard as anyone on the planet. O'Neill Cruz hit one a buck 22. It's the hardest hit ball of the stat cast era. It's the hardest hit ball of the stat cast era. Did he break his own record? I think he broke. I think Stanton had it. Okay.

But O'Neill Cruz, and it hasn't been the prettiest rookie season, the stats don't jump off the page at you. But if you remember, early on this year, he had the hardest throw of the stat-cast era. He's six-foot-seven. He's playing shortstop. This guy is unreal. You know, he's the 199 batting average.

That's not too flashy, but he's got some steals. He's got 10 homers on the year in 52 games. He is a rookie still. And he's 23 years old. Hey, guys develop up along different paces, especially when you got as many moving parts as a 6-7 guy. But this guy, you know, I always talk about it. I talk about it here.

I talk about NFL when you see Tyreek Hill run or NBA when you see someone who's, you know, Janus or whatever. that's O'Neill Cruz, man. I mean, this dude is a freak, and I hope, you know, maybe he has a strong last month to finish, but this guy can be a star of stars, especially when Pittsburgh hopefully hits their stride in a couple years. And maybe he can be a Julio Rodriguez-type guy

because his talent is scouts, you know, they grade players. This is a guy that I don't know how you grade other players compared to him because he hits, and he throws harder than anyone who's ever played the game in the infield. So a shout out to O'Neill Cruz. And hey, a little Pirates love at the end of the up, babe. He is, I guess that is a pretty good award to give him. Freaking a good way.

Oh, good. You know I'm a good freak guy, Trevor. Good freak. I love watching him play. And, yeah, you know, I get it. You know, the overall numbers may not be where they need to be. but this is a guy who's playing on a very bad team, getting his feet, you know, wet in the big leagues.

I am excited to see what he does next year, the clean slate. Right. Right. He's getting his feet wet. It happens differently for all rooks. Okay. What's your award? I'm going to give my award, and you guys got to bear with me,

because I'm more, you guys know more Lord of the Rings than Game of Thrones. Right. But I'm going to give the mountain. award. Okay. It's a Game of Thrones reference. I don't know if he has know who the mountain is. He's Gregor.

Oh, why can I say that? Gregor Clegane. Clegane. I kept wanting to put a C in there. Thank you for that. Jakey boy. He ends up battling, I think, the viper in that series. Vipers is going to kill him.

He starts slashing him down. Well, Mountain doesn't die very easily. that's one of the best scenes in all of Game of Thrones when he reaches up and pulls the viper's eyeballs or he pushes his eyeballs through his head. Excuse me, he doesn't pull him out. He pushes his eyeballs through his head. And that was when I was like Game of Thrones

is a completely different type of television show to watch, my goodness. But in the end, he gets very harmed in that battle. And Khyburn, who is C or C's like, a mad scientist, if you will, kicked out of the Citadel for performing, you know, experiments on humans. He knows how to do Frankenstein type things.

He ends up, you know, basically doing that to Gregor and turning him into just an absolute killing machine. Yeah. Okay. God, that scene when he pushes the eyeballs through us. Crave, you're speaking. I'm going to go watch that.

Speaking my love language, man. The martels, the Dornish, all they do is fight and fuck. I'm a Dornish man. You are. You'd be spinning around talking shit. Like you're going to kill the mountain and then all of a sudden he pokes your eyeballs to the back of your head. Andrew Heaney, you are the mountain. People have been trying to fix Andrew Heaney for quite some time.

There are some advanced metrics that just love this. guy. The Yankees said, I want him. Matt Blake, do your thing. Jake, how did that turn out for them? Not so well, to be honest. No, it turns out Matt Blake is not Khyber. Turns out the Dodgers are Khyber. Because this dude just went and struck out 10 dudes for the second straight starts. Yes, he gave some runs on some homers to Milwaukee in the previous start, but his numbers overall in the season are disgusting. And it was just a few little tweaks the Dodgers had to make. They figured it out. They put him in the middle of the rubber. They loved his arm slot. He has the arm slot that Hater had. The haters lost. It's that sidearm arm slot that's low that gives the effect of the rising

fastball because he's got good spin on his fastball. He's like a 90th percentile on baseball and his spin on his fastball. So he's coming from that low arm angle to the top of the zone and it just rides. as a hitter, you've seen a million pitches, and the ones that do that are just a little bit different. They don't drop down as much, so your bat path is fucked. You have to make a complete adjustment against those guys. A legitimate mechanical adjustment to hit guys like that. It's very difficult to do during the regular season. So he does those two things, middle of rubber, continues to throw at that arm slot, and then using that rising fastball, if you will. And then he does what the Yankees want them to do, turns the breaking ball into a sweeping slider. And he's just turned into another one of these pieces for the Dodgers to use, a swing man.

He can come in and make a start if you need him to do that. He can be a long guy in the pen, a piggyback situation during the postseason. And I know Heaney. And Heaney is about as far away from like a bad guy wrong side, your with Searcy type of Dude, he's like the nice guy, the guy you want to root for. But they turned him into this person, this executioner. And I love every second of it. And I think if he goes out and does what he asks to do,

the rest of the season and then the postseason, he's going to be looking at a hefty payday, hopefully from the Dodgers again or anybody. And I think it's well deserved. He just, the code needed to be cracked a little bit with this guy. And it seems like the Dodgers have figured it out. So shout out Andrew Heaney. Shout out the mountain and shout out those eyeballs, baby.

What happened to the eyeballs? I'm so happy. You realize that I am a person from Dorn, very flashy, sex and fighting, will die. And I loved how late into that you referenced Circe after about three minutes of pure baseball. That was beautiful. That was beautiful. Zach was giggling. Yeah, man.

And, hey, Yankee fans were brutal to the Hing Dog. He was very bad. I know even our guy, Sales Luke, John's little brother, had some tough words for Heney, and he wasn't that guy. And you, like, you, like, grabbed Luke, and you're like, you would love Hini. He's like a cool dude. Yeah. But it's funny.

That's how sports works sometimes. And, yeah, I hope he and he has a big postseason moment, and I hope he gets a payday. And hopefully, like you're also saying, it's with the right team. It's with the Dodgers or a raise that they can continue to tap into that so he can be successful. So I love it. A little game of those. You guys, when he would even come in the game, it'd be like, no! It was tough for a little bit.

It was tough. I mean, Zach, Zach's a Yankee fan. Zach, how tough did the Hing Dog get for just a little bit? It got scary. He was in a tough spot. but he's good now. He's good. Zach's a sweet guy, so for him to say that.

Zach, we need to wrap it up and we wrap it up with our best friend of the week, who you can announce is one of Trev's close friends. If you have it there, or do you want me to announce it? I can announce it. No, you should say. It's Max Fried. I think he's a four-time winner of best friend of the week.

Five-time. Five-time, which makes him the leader, eight-innings pitch, one-er-and-run. And then Trev, you know, sometimes these episodes we get a little wonky and sometimes we forget it's Friday and if you forget Zach is behind the wheels. Whoa. It is Zach Stimulator time, Big Z.

Hit the fucking music, Zach. Okay. Zach, you want me to tee it up for you? You can tee it up. Okay, well. I've got my sheet open here. Why don't you, Zach, just run it, baby. Who do we have in the wild card games to start it out in the American League?

Let's do that. In the American League, we're off to a great start, baby. Wild card games is the Guardians and the Mariners. And the simulator has the Mariners upsetting the Guardians. Sorry, Guardians, we just gave you some love. Doesn't matter. Our other wildcard matchup in the American League is the Rays and the Blue Jays. Yep.

An AOL East matchup. And the Rays move on. Okay. I have it up now. Ray's going Ray. J's get got. Okay, so in that scenario, in the ALDS, the Mariners and the Yankees? Yes.

Would face off, Zach. Who's the simulator have there? Stimulator has the Yankees going forward. That's huge. That matchup. That's huge for the Yankees. And then in the bottom half, who will the Yankees meet in the CS between the Astros and the Rays? Ooh, there's a little blood there.

Oh, yeah. But you know what has more blood than the Astros and the Rays? Okay. is the Astros and the Yankees in the CS. Wow. The stimulator is dialed today. Yankees and Astros and the CS. I think I'm going to leave it.

I'm going to let the people think about that one. Okay. Yeah, let that sit. We'll go to the National League. That's an easy one for me. The Cardinals and the Padres would face off as of today. Right. And this stimulator on this day has the Cardinals beating the Padres.

Okay. I like it. Cards have the good juice right now. The Braves. and Phillies. One of these teams is going to be eliminated and face each other? Wow. Stimulate.

Stimulator says Braves. Wow. Tough. Philly's. Filly's. Brutal. All right. Your division series. The Cardinals and the Mets would face off. Stimulator likes the Mets

in that location. Yeah. Mets, if they can set up their rotation. I see what the stimulator sees. and then the Dodgers and the Braves. Again, another series with a little bit of blood. See the Braves moving on. Oh, boy. Trev had the hat on.

We just gave Heaney too much love. All right, your C-S's. Yes. Yankees, Astros, Mets, Braves, Ho! Who do you have... Excuse me, what does the simulator have in the AL, Zach? In the AL, it's an upset for the Yankees. The Astros go on to the World Series.

My goodness, Zach, I shouldn't have done that corn thing. I feel like that threw it off. The Astros are going to the World Series. And the Mets and the Braves, N-L-E-C-S, who do you have? It's a rematch of last year's World Series. It's the Astros and the Braves. We were so close to a Subway series, and now we've got neither of them. The Astros and the Braves are running it back in your 20, 20,

Stimulator Champions on August 26th. Can you believe it? It's a repeat. The Braves win. Whoa. Peter Moylan is dancing. He's probably topless on TV somewhere. It's all for Peter.

Unbelievable. Hit the passing button. Passing. Passing. Tyler Glass now, one year contract extension. 25 million smackaroos. Glassie.

On you, baby. Wow. We got a link up with the big fella. Congrats to Tyler Glass now. Congrats to Julio Rodriguez. Congrats to the Atlanta Braves on winning the Stimulator. All-Star-only episode. Zach, Trev, myself.

Trev, anything else before we go? My youth team is the Scranton Railroaders. We're going to dominate the Fall League, baby. Watch out. Watch out. Shout out to my guy, Tyler Wade. All right. Thank you, everyone.

Thank you, Zach, for filling in. We will see you. you guys on Monday. Love you guys so much. Let's have a weekend, babe. Ray's going to Ray. Jake sucks. Oh, that was a big one.

Right at the end. Snuck it in there.