Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Predictions & Funerals!

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discountBook your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.comLooking for a refreshing citrusy kick this summer? Grab a Mountain Dew! Find out where at https://www.mountaindew.com/find-dewDownload the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALL  Coach Trev and Talkin’ Jake talk about the insane Wild Card race, go over our preseason division predictions, and give funerals to the teams that aren’t going to make the playoffs!  0:00 Intro6:00 AL Wild Card race coming down to wire7:40 Going over Preseason division winners15:20 NL Division predictions20:00 Final Check in on preseason bets33:00 Funeral for non playoff teams37:00 Rockies funeral37:40 Chicago White Sox38:25 Nationals39:20 Pirates40:00 Twins42:00 Braves43:30 Angels45:00 Marlins47:20 Orioles49:00 A’s53:00 Draftkings bet the cycle  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We are in person, so it's going to get physical. We are putting the other teams that are dead to bed, and we're going to celebrate the teams going to the dance. And are Buster and Jimmy O'K? Let's talk, Paul. They're not. It's like my...

Uh-oh. Oh. Oh, here. It's like my Buster-only. Jimmy O'Brien. Oh, my God. That's like... It's my brother and my uncle fighting in the yard.

Hello. and welcome to talking baseball presented to you by seat geek talking 2025. I am Jake Story Ellie. That is Trevor Plouffe. We are coming live from the anals of Jersey City. It's early. We beat everyone here. Me, Trev, Rob, Sam's here, always.

And it's live. Blitzball battle weekend as we're a week away from playoff. I don't even know anymore. How are you, coach? We're 11 games from the end of the season. That's important. I'm doing great. It's always good to be here in person with you. You always say we're going to F or F.

Neither has happened yet. Yet. It's early. But yeah, it's going to be a fun one today. We're going to go over some of our preseason predictions as well, talk about some teams in a nice way that haven't had a nice season. So I think that's going to be nice for some of our listeners. But yes, the Buster Olney, Jimmy stuff is just wild.

It's wild. Some of the people coming out of the woodwork, man. I got an Eno. Last night. We don't want, look. I think we need to become the peacekeepers. I think we are. Okay.

I don't think we have been. Oh, me? Yeah. I don't think we have. Sometimes I get mad because, you know, I understand like. Buster calls you Charmin's soft ones. I understand the context of the situation that many people gloss over. Right.

So that's where I'm at. Yeah. I don't know. I was just, I was laughing at that whole thing last night. And I hope we're going to have a nice moment. The Jimmy Buster picture. I don't know if I could do it. I thought I could do it, Coach.

I thought I could just forgive and forget. I don't think I can. It's going to be interesting to see where the next steps go. You take 11 days to call someone out. And that's two. It's not just him. It was me too. And then they reply with a pretty damn good answer that everyone's talking about

when you're calling them out about responsibility. It's going to be interesting. Baseball drama. This is what you said you want more of. Yeah. And whoever's on Buster's show as well. Well, I don't know that guy's name, but that's even worse. I know.

So, like, I'm still beefing. Okay, Rob, delete the start of the episode. I can't do this again. No. No, no. We want to make peace. We love all of our baseball family. Fine.

I also think Chapman used to aim as fastball. I'll say it. I'll say it. Buster, again, you're like, you're like a religion to us, shorthy, so we love you. Like Trev said, we dug up our, like, full preseason predictions. Division winners, wild car. winners. There's 11 games left. There's a couple that are close. Along the way, we will chip away at our preseason bets. And yes, if you have a team that's

out of it, and we haven't been talking about you a lot, I think this is the last episode. We're going to have a funeral for those teams that are out. I think there's 11 of them that are just like dead. I think it's, we just said bottom 10. Like the Cardinals didn't make the death list, which that feels weird. The last team we'll talk about is the Miami who are in 21st place. Okay. So the death to the final 10 teams, man, that last little. Sorry, Tampa Bay, you did not get a funeral.

You guys, Junior Caminero is fantastic. It's fantastic. Let's get into it. It's all brought to you also hotel mode last night. And it's also like, you don't know what channels you got and that kind of stuff. Watch some Phillies Dodgers. Yeah. And my God, that Dodgers bullpen.

What is going on? Oh, my gosh. Can we talk about this how when I said, and maybe it was on baseball today, but I said, here's what I would do to fix it. Shohei would be a reliever in the playoffs. Right.

At least for some important games. And do Dodgers fans, he's not going to be that. They're going to lose the DH. I said, they'll figure it out. What has come out today? Show Hey,'s like, I'll play the outfield sometimes. Andrew Freedman's like, yeah,

we might have to have them close games out. It's just using your baseball brain people, they don't have it back into the bullpen. got a guy that can do it and they don't want to put so many innings on him and they have a bunch of starters. Use your baseball brain. Thank you. It's a theme of the week. Use your baseball brain. You show hey. You show hey in the best way. Aim your pitches. It's all brought to you by Seekkeek. Today's episode is brought to you by Seekek, the number one rated ticketing app. Go get yourself some Y'offs tickets. Or maybe if your team's out, go see a football game. Playoffs.

Oh, I was like, what's a Y' Off? to y'all. Playoffs. They're coming. And those tickets usually tend to go up in price. And that's where you might want a discount code of talking 20, 25, 10% off your next set of tickets at Seek. Whether you've used a code before, whether you had the app or not, code talking 2025. Go see something. Or maybe if your team's out, out, go see your local football team. Me and Treve were working the waiver wire this morning. Troy Franklin, did he make the team? He did.

Let's go. Let's go ponies. It was their teammates. Let's go ponies. Yeah, Bo and Troy. They had a story. And that's how it works. And so does Siki, go check them out.

All right. The playoffs, well, each time I think the playoff, like, bracket is like, I'm like, okay, Yanks and socks are definitely going to play. You look down this morning. The Houston Astros have jumped the Red Sox. somehow the Guardians are on a five-game winner and lurking.

I know that. So right now the Ashes would have to go into New York and Red Sox would have to go into Seattle. That's the way it's framed right now. Guardians two and a half games back. I think I'm axing the Rangers at three and a half with 11 to go. Or they have 12 to go. They have 10 to go.

Okay. That's tough. It's just not going to happen. Even the Guardians at two and a half is interesting. I don't think it's going to happen either. I feel like we're set there in the National League side. The Diamondbacks one and a half games. How?

Where did they come from? I do not know. I don't know. They've won four in a row. They're 77 and 70. So they have 10 games to go as well. Imagine if they didn't have the worst bullpen to like ever. Well, they had some people hurt and then they traded the way, Merrill Kelly.

Like they traded away Josh Nail. It's an interesting season for the Diamondbacks. There's a couple. Oh, yeah, the walk-off check swing. by the lawman, Jordan Lawler. Love that. God, Corbyn Carroll, MVP? No.

So we decided to dig him up. We wanted to bring up our actual preseason predictions, and we're going to have to wear some things. Yes, we are. We'll give ourselves some pats on the back, especially after the division winners when we get to the pets, because we might have, we might have did something okay. Trevor, who were your, I guess we'll do the AL first.

It's, or what day is it? It's Wednesday. It's the midweek. So we do the IL. Let's do the AL first. Who are your AIL picks? So my AAL picks, division winners was the Boston Red Sox in the East. So I missed on that one.

My wild card from the East was the Tampa Bay Rays. So I also missed on that. Ofer to start. Yeah, in the Central, I had the twins. O for three. That's bad. They're going to be one of the worst teams in all the baseball. Huge trade, dad, then we all know about that.

And then who did I have, I think I had the Royals as the wild card from that division. Time out. It's fine. It's going to get better. I started with the bad stuff. Time out. No, no, no. Keep going.

Thank you. Keep going. Sorry. Out west, I had the Mariners winning the division with the Texas Rangers in the wild card. So I got one. Treve. There's six playoff teams. I picked two playoffs.

people. I had no tigers, no Yankees, no Blue Jays, and no Astros. Yeah, so I went two for six in my playoff prediction for the AL. You? Okay. I mean, also not great. Can I defend it after you say yours? Yes. I went the Baltimore Orioles in the East. Because I win it. I got, yes, I got all excited for them before the season. How deep are these guys? Nope. They're Houston part two. Kansas City Royals in Central. Believed in that. Yeah, no, it didn't happen. Okay.

The Texas Rangers, I love their lineup. O for three on the division winner. You were laughing at me? Oh, for three. And then wild card Yanks, Red Sox, Red Sox, should be. Yes. Are those the three wild card teams?

Yes. So I just fucked up the division winner. And okay. Let's defend ourselves. If you're someone that listens to us regularly, we're sorry. But also, it's time to defend ourselves. before our funeral.

The Detroit Tigers. Yeah. It was a huge miss for us. But I think that we had valid reasons. Okay. I guess we should have thought about the Central just not being a good division. Although at the beginning of the year, there was like four teams in the in the playoffs for the AL. That ended quickly.

Yes. But we're still seeing. Royals and Guardians had a chance. Yeah. Just a week ago to be in the playoffs. But they're probably not going to be. The Detroit Tigers. it kind of all made sense.

Hey, what's the pitching going to be like? We knew Scoob was going to be there. You know, Flaherty comes in, and we said, okay, they can't do pitching chaos again through 162. So what's going to be their calling card? It can't be the offense. And then we had a bunch of just really big offensive starts to the season. Spencer Torkelson went off.

Javi Bayez went off. Those guys have come back down to Earth. But Riley Greens had an incredible season for them. And they've just been able to play good baseball. One of these teams, Jake, that, you know, maybe we missed on the fact they were going to be the first team with the extra bases taken. Like their base running has been incredible.

They actually have had some good starting pitching. And the bullpen has been what we imagined it to be. So, you know, we missed. We missed on it. I didn't think they could do it again. Because if you remember in 2024, up until August 17th. Right.

They were completely out of it, and they went on this, they went on this magical heater, and we just didn't believe in the heat, and maybe we should have. I know war is not everything, but it's something. Detroit Tigers B war on offense, your leader in the clubhouse, Dylan Dingler, the Ding King, like Torkelson, Glaber, Carrie Carpenter, they're all in that two range. But yeah, you're right. And that hot start, I'm trying to get my best. trying to get my best stats on it.

It sounds obnoxious. Or, hey, how about this? You know, 162, every game is the same, but some teams don't treat them that way. How about the Baltimore Orioles that I just brought up? The 15 and 28 to open up their season killed them. Yes. That was it.

Like, since then, they have been a winning baseball team, but they've been completely out of the race. I know that sounds obvious, but for the Detroit Tigers, I guess I'm trying to see in their splits. I mean, they open up 18 and 9 in April, 19 and 9 in May. That's it. They, I'm doing the math right now, which, you know, give me a second.

I think they're, since June one game over 500. That's the math. 15 and 11 and 11 and 14. So that makes it 26 and 25. Then 16 and 12. Oh my gosh. And then 5. There are like two games over 500.

Yes, they're 47 and 45 since June 1st. Okay. The Guardians are one game better than them. in that timeline. So 18 and 9 in April, 18 and 19 and 9, excuse me, in May. So hot start, got them. We missed it. We missed it.

And the Central was a crapshoot. I guess we should have given the Tigers more love. Hey, if you want to believe in a playoff, I guess the Royals were in the dance too. So it was kind of which of those teams was going to build on it with your twins bias lurking. I mean, twins had a good rock. They did, and then it just didn't happen, okay?

Who else do we need to defend or snaps to? Blue Jays. The Toronto Blue Jays. This is another team that kind of under the radar became... Nobody had the Blue Jays. Well, they became a good base running team, a good defensive team, and that we kind of miss. And we said, are they going to freaking trade Vladdy?

There was a lot of uncertainty about this team. You know, the starting pitching in the bullpen, we're like, okay, they can be fine. Like they have some veteran starters. They go and trade for Hoffman. That's fine. I think Romero was there. We thought, okay, that's good.

But Addison Barger comes on. Ernie Clement comes on. George Springer has this crazy resurgent season. A lot of things went right. But I think what we don't talk about enough with them is the defensive prowess. And them getting Andre Semenis, I think, was such a smart move. I know his contract is weird, and he's getting it paid a lot. ought to be a defensive first shortstop.

But I think we're finally coming back to like, that matters. And I'm happy about that. Like we need to be able to pick the ball at the middle and they did that. So look, they just had a great season. They've had guys step up. This is what we always talk about during our TPPs. Like, hey, man, if some of these guys step up and the regulars do regular things,

like Bo was leading the AL and hits. Glad he's having a great season. But then all these other guys, Tyler Hinen was hitting 400 through the first two months. Like there's a lot of things that went right. Yeah. So snaps to the Blue Jets. I love watching them play. They have great chemistry and they're able to win in different ways.

So I'm fine with being wrong about them. I'm happy. The lefties are a great point. What Nathan Lucas has been for them, Barger, now that Varsho's back. That was kind of the missing thing. When they traded for Varsho, he was supposed to be the lefty that broke up all the Ritees,

which was kind of a big ask for a guy that had one kind of solid young ball player season. And, dude, George Springer. Like, he's going to MVP8. Do you think he, I think he's probably the most important person of this season for the boot shows. I think so for what he's, what he's been for them all year. Their bullpen was awful last year.

Hoffman had stabilized it. And, dude, have you seen your guy, Trey you savage yet? He is a savage. I mean, how do you throw that high? And a splitter from that high, too. It's just, is just kind of filthy. Yeah. Look, again, guys stepped up and...

They were projected to be last... It was them or the race. I like... Yankees went to the World Series. Red Sox, like, won the off season. Orioles were supposed to be in their young prime. I was out on the Orioles. Well, credit to you, dude.

One thing I got right. You missed every... Let's do a little National League. Yep. Because it's Friday. Sorry if that's... ruining anyone. My days of the week have been so off this. You don't know. You don't know. So up. We're in a windowless warehouse right now.

In the National League, I had the Dodgers. That's good. I also did. Okay. Look at us. I had the Milwaukee Brewers winning the division. I did not. Whoops. I had the Cubs. Okay. They're dancing. But I had Milwaukee as the wild card. They're dancing. So we're four for four there. Philly's are leading, or they've already won the NL East, excuse me. And I had the Atlanta Braves. We both had the Braves. With the Phillies as my wildcard team.

We both had the Braves, which they, has, I had a weird moment the other day because it's one of those, like, how they're so disappointing. Yeah. And again, it started off so slow that we haven't talked about them in a while. But, like, they were supposed to be a powerhouse. Everything went wrong with the Braves this year. We'll get to that. That's later in the episode.

Later. That's the funeral portion. Yeah, they're in it. So we both got the Braves wrong for the division. My wildcar team's Phillies. Locked in, won the division. Diamondbacks and Padres. Padres are looking good.

D-backs are fighting. Close. Fighting. We both passed on the Mets. Yes. You went Phillies, Brewer's, D-Backs. Well, I think a lot of the things that we talked about with the Mets ended up being true.

We can't do this with a starting pitching again. A bunch of guys who are they going to be reclamation, projects and just become studs. It hasn't really happened for them. We've had seen spurts of David Peterson. Clay Holmes has been, I would say up and down is a good way to put his season. But the thing that surprised us was all these rookies.

Yeah. I mean, that's kind of saved their season. If they're going to get in, it's going to be on the heels of the clean, the Klane, Tong, and Sprote now, who are kind of like stabilizing a rotation. I mean, that's just not on my radar. It's just not, you guys know that. but Juan Soto's been fantastic. Pete Alonzo's been fantastic.

I just thought starting pitching wasn't going to be enough. They made a big push at the deadline. The bullpen has been there. Hells he has not, but, you know, they had enough guys there. So we missed on the Mets. I just didn't think that was going to be enough starting. I didn't think they could do it again starting pitchers, and they didn't really,

but then they had some young guys kind of come up and stabilize that there. So, yes, in my wild card, I had the, who did I have? The Diamondbacks. Diamondbacks. I had the Brewers. Phillies. So I got... So we did a little better in the NL.

Yes. I had no Padres in. No Padres out of you. And I'm trying to remember exactly why that was. Did the Padres before the season weren't as sexy? Yeah, I had my reasons.

I don't know. I think it was the division and all that. So we'll see how it ends up. I didn't do great in my preseason and predictions hand up. The AL kind of cooked us both this year. Well, and that makes sense a little bit. We knew the AL was going to be a weird kind of year.

No one was standing out to us the way they did in the NL. And I still feel that way. Hey, if you're someone, if you're someone before the season had the Blue Jays winning the East and the Braves out of the playoffs, snaps for you. Sick. DM Bobby Golfs. We'll get a T-shirt. Put up a screenshot.

But you have to, yeah. Show us proof. Receipts. Receipts. That's what matters. The other thing that matters is Best Western. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western hotels and resorts. Life's a trip.

So why not make the most of it? 4,000 hotels worldwide. I'm going to be at one, a week from today. Shy City, Chicago, Riggily, we're coming back. We're doing a live event. We'll see you there. Tickets free. Anyways.

Best Western. We stayed at that one earlier in the year when we went out to Wrigley. Our We Got Ice Guys did a big Best Western road trip thrown first pitches around the country. Wherever you are, there's probably a Best Western. So go check them out. Whether you're a planner, whether you do it live, kind of like we do here,

there's going to be a Best Western. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at BestWestern.com. All right, Trev, before the funeral, I think the last thing we have to do, Kind of our final check-in on our preseason bets. It's become one of our more popular episodes every year. Because even if you're not deep in the gambling world,

it's our opinion on over-unders that have been set on different players and what they're going to do this year. We've been looking for different ways to game the system. Vegas has gotten better over the years. But, coach, we did, we're sitting in a good spot with 11 games to go. We are. I need to bookend our preseason predictions for division or playoffs. Okay. Because you were like roasted me. And now I'm going back and looking at the actual numbers. You went three for six. Yeah. In the AL, I went two for six.

Correct. Okay. In the NL. Right. I'm getting it up. Okay. I went. Math pod. One, two, three, four for six. Right. So that would put me at six for 12. And you went, oh, I got to get to it now. What did you go in the NL? You went one, two, three, four for six. So you also... Well, and we're both going to get the dimebacks at the buzzer.

So I'm seven for 12. Okay. The ale crushed us. You were flaming me. It looked real ugly for a second. Okay. It was a good recovery. All right.

Let's get to the prop bets. God, the marriage. Texas Rangers, God, I'm furious with you. Anyways, the propets, I think Bobby's got the graphic for us. And Trev, you're running hot. I'll let you go. If you guys don't know, we've tried to, before the year, we do an over and under a lock and a sprinkle.

Over and under are pretty self-explanatory. The lock is something that we're like, hey, pound the table, got to have it. And then the sprinkle is huge odds. It's something that we think could happen. We've hit a couple in the past years. I think Jimmy had the longest win streak for a team. That was a weird.

That was crazy one. I had Corbyn-Bern-Sai Young before. I don't know. It's whatever. Trev, what were your over under in lock? My over was Pete Alonzo, over 100 runs driven in at minus 120. He has 118 already. Cashed it.

reasoning being you're hitting behind Juan Soto who has a career on base percentage over 400. So that makes a ton of sense. And the only thing was can you stay healthy? And in a year where he's playing for another contract and he did stay healthy, 118. Yeah. So far. He plays every game. Plays every game.

That's the best part of it. What was his quote the other day? He felt like he was riding a dragon. Yeah. riding a drag and floating or something like that. He's electric. He's electric. Great pick, Trep.

Thanks, thanks. Your baseball acumen helped you with the pick. I mean, it's pretty obvious if you hit behind it. Yeah. Player option for 2026. Declined. Declined. My under, which is tough for me,

because there wasn't a lot of unders to pick from. So I went Brent Rooker under 260 batting average. That's going to fail. He's at 269 right now with 11 games left. he'd basically have to go oh for the season, the rest of the season, to get there. So, like, I'm actually happy about this one because I do root for Brent Rooker. They make me taken under. So I'm happy.

I think you ignored the hitting stadium that you've been on. Well, I thought the power would be there, but, you know, he'd only hit over 260 once in his career. Former twin. Yeah. Okay. Your lock? My lock was the Red Sox to make the playoffs. And like that feels good, but it's close right now.

They're two and a half games up on those guardians with 11 to play. I think the socks are in. I hope so. I got him in the World Series coach. Oh. Yeah. Losing to the Dodgers. Okay.

We'll see. And then the sprinkle, which we both kind of. Yeah. Yeah. I've had Justin Martinez to lead the NL and saves and he got hurt early on and it just wasn't going to happen. Yeah, my sprinkle was Mason Miller. to lead the MLB and saves. He is now a Padre setup man and future starter.

So that's where the sprinkle happens. My over was Alex Breggman to hit over 260 this year. My baseball math there was, hey, a lot of right-handed hitters go to Fenway and hit a lot. Alex Breggman traditionally just hits a lot no matter where he is. He did hit 260 on the nose last year. His three seasons leading up to Fenway were 259, 262. 2-2-60. So that's pretty, that's as clockwork as it gets in baseball. He has a 275 batting average this year. He has played a little less games because he was hurt for a while, 105. He should be good.

He'd have to also let go O for the season. Last night, he went 0 for 4 and it brought his batting average down three points. So you have a five-game O for a streak that you can withstand. Okay. I don't like the way you phrase that, but yeah. And his second half, 251, which, again, that's more so he was incredible in the first half. That's, that's looking good. I'm definitely in a jinx here. And by the way, my analytics, Alex Bregman, 250 batting average at home, 298 on the road.

Bad, bad analytics. Bad analytics. That's insane, dude. They do say that. A lot of people will talk about, yeah, put him at Fenway, and he's got the green monster. And when you go there as a right-handed hitter, you cannot think about hitting the green monster. Number one, teams aren't, they don't, they pitch you. Yeah. So you hit it to right center. And then if you start thinking about pulling the ball, like your swing is going to get out of whack.

That's not what Alex Bregman does. Flashlight. That's what he always talks about. Hey, the bet's looking like a win. Yeah. So let's get that negative energy. Save that for the funeral. Um, my under, I got a little freaky deaky with this one. And by the way, these are both plus 1.15. So a little extra juice for you. It was the Mariners to have less wins than the brewers. That's how it was listed on the website. Seattle is at 83 wins. Milwaukee's at 92.

I think we could call that. Seattle has won 10 in a row. Jesus. The witch. It's insane. Which is which. How about that? Good for Seattle.

Best Halloween movie of all time is hocus pocus. Not even close. Hot. Not Herbie Halloween. Hot. Okay. Never been a Sarah Jessica Parker guy except for the movie. Yeah.

I get her mixed up. She's sex in the city? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. What's the question? My lock was Cody Bellinger to hit over 260.

This one you fought me on, Trev. I don't know if you remember this, but boy do I. every night. Cody came over to the Yankees. Cody Belanger hit 307 in 20203. He hit 266 the previous season with the Cubbies. Again, I went Yankees short porch a little bit. And by the way, Cody goes to the opposite field a lot.

And the Yankees have a big left center. He's hit in 273 on the year. We're very close to being able to call it. If it was like the presidential election, it would be like, you know, you can call it. 91%. I think it would just flash up on the screen right now. He has more of bats than Alex Bregman.

So, yeah, I think you're good on this point. He's been awesome for the Yanks. And at home, so your analytics worked here at home, he hit 302 on the road 244. Look at that. And yeah, the other thing going for me was like, if you look at Cody Bellinger's baseball reference, especially after this season,

there's clearly a couple year gap where his shoulder was messed up. Yes. Like this, that's, That's going to be the stat I figure out after the season. If you take out Cody Bellinger's 2021 and 2022, that's going to take you a whole offseason to figure out? Yeah. I probably couldn't do it either.

A lot of stuff going on. Bob, do you have the graphic? Because I know Jimmy's, Jimmy has an all-time clerical error going on here. Jimmy came out of the gate with an aggressive over. Brandon Lowe, over 30 home runs. He's at 29. Yeah. That was plus 275.

He is two homers a game. The Rays were playing at the minor league field, Steinbrenner Field. He just hit one last night. So that brought him to 29. So two more Lough homers over 12 games. It's going to be tight. But that would be the juiciest bet on the board. His under, he went opposite of juicy.

Less than three teams will win 100 games. He could have up that one because I don't think anyone's getting there, right? Nobody's getting there. Nobody's getting to a hundred. Brewers would have to win, you know. Like every. Brewers are the only one I think that even can. Yeah.

I'm looking right now. Phillies can as well. You got to win out. They'd have to win ten. They'd have to win nine of ten games to get to a hundred. Brewer's at 92. They're the only teams that have a chance. Crazy.

So I guess also. No. Toronto only has nine games left somehow. I don't know how that happens. That's not. That is not true. They have 11 games. Oh.

So they'd have to win. went out. There you go. Anyways, so that one had less juice on it. That was minus 280. But hey, it was, he went big on the over. So we allowed that on the under and both, hey, a winning bet's a winning bet. Yeah. His lock, we might have to reach out to our friends at the Traff King's sports book because he's, his lock was a manual class A to record 35 plus saves. I think he was on pace. I'm going to get that up. He was. I'm going to see that. When his last series was. Do you remember the second week of the season, Class A got, like, benched?

And it was like, whoa, his class... He got benched for, like, three games, and he was back closing again. But then, in full circle, it looks like he might have been placing some cheese on the games. Allegedly. So now our Class A Buster and Jimmy all tied up in a little F or F sash? I don't even know what that means at all. His last game was July 26th. Excuse me.

On that day, he pitched in two games. Oh, my God. Because there was a double header against the Royals. He blew a save. Did they know? And then got a game. Oh, he got a save and then blew a save. So, yeah, that lock isn't going to hit.

And that's the lock. The lock is normally what we take the most pride in. Then I don't know. We're going to have to bring that to higher authorities. What was his sprinkle? His sprinkle was Lendora to lead and runs. Plus 2,500. He's fifth in the NL.

Yeah, Shohei ran away with that. I think Juan Soto has more as well because of Pete and his on-based percentage. Dece a pick. Soto and Otani were part of the reason the odds were so crazy for Lindor, because what those guys are doing every year is insane. It's insane. Shoah just hit 50 homers again. Yes.

First person to do it back-to-back year since Alex Rodriguez. It's not bad. Pretty good. That's not bad. Okay. Now, you made it through that. We thank you guys, and let's track some Brent Rooker at bats the rest of the way. Your Red Sox, a couple of those, although it seems like it's done. It's time for a few.

We try to cover the league the best we can. You guys know your team better than us. We've admitted that from day one. And when the season starts rolling, and if your team's not in the mix, it's time to say goodbye. and we're doing that with our friends at Mountain Dew. Go grab a Mountain Dew! It's a celebration of life.

And that's kind of what Mountain Dew is in a can. Do what you do with a do. Do what you do when you do what you do with a do. Mountain Dew, it's perfect for any case. It's been a huge part of our warehouse. It was a huge part of our Barbados trip. Whoops. Barbados, if you are doing something,

outside. I challenge you. Grab a do on the way. Grab a couple. Going on a little hike. Maybe you're throwing the disc around. What's your little beanbag game you play? Hagisack.

If you're hacky-sackin' with the fellas or the ladies, hey, Sarah Jessica Parker mentioned earlier, go grab yourself a Mountain Dew. Whatever you like to do, grab a do and go do it with Mountain Dew. I don't know if they want to be paired with our funeral celebration of life segment, but I think they do. Yeah. That commercial would slap.

Slapped. Usually, Jake, people wait until a funeral to say nice things. The season's not over yet. So we're trying to get that out. If you love somebody, don't wait until they die to tell them that. We need to start saying nice things to Chris Rose. Yes. Okay.

Immediately. I have a story. about Chris Rose quickly last night. We had to be up early today to do this episode. We got warehouse coming up. You started recording this at 4.30 a.m. Pacific time. We're on these coast. I'm a guy.

I show up for work. I wanted to go to bed last night. Michelle Rose says, I have some melatonin. Do you want some? I said, absolutely Michelle Rose, you beautiful woman. And so she gives me a gummy, a melatonin gummy. and I am like sleepy instantly. Oh.

And so I text wrote and said, what did you give me? Right. And it was a 10 milligram melatonin. And I said, Olivia, other text, what do we usually take if we take a melatonin?

What's the gram? She goes two. Whoa. I five-xed it last night. Nice. And I passed out. Do you sleep? Slept.

That's awesome. Slept had crazy dreams. I was all in them. Give me one of your crazy dreams. I had a whole. horse and we were, I was riding a horse on the ocean. Whoa. Yes, while fishing for like eels or something.

It was, I don't usually dream like that. Was it you and me who are talking about lucid dreams? Who was I talking to about that? I mean, I guess it wasn't. It might have been. We talk about a lot of stuff. This is the dreams are crazy. You ever wake up during the middle of dream and then go out to sleep and reenter the dream?

because that's phenomenal. Yeah, I think that is. Okay. Yeah, I think that qualifies. Okay, let's get to the future. It's like when you're in control. Okay. Hey, this will maybe be the last time you hear about these teams

till about November. So we're going to say goodbye to them, and we're going to say nice things that'll pick them up. And quickly. And quickly, high and tight, but these teams deserve a little love too. Where are we starting out first, Coach? We're going to start out with the Rockies,

and there are some decent things offensively going on there. You can talk about Hunter Goodman, the young Josh Donaldson. That's what I call him 30 home run season as a catcher or Mickey Moniac. They get him over from the Angels. He has a nice offensive season. I'm going Jordan Beck, though. 15 homers, 26 dubs, 17 swipes. 765 OPS.

I think there's room for improvement there, but a great bounceback season after a, you know, a rough 2024 for him. I like the swing. I like the attitude. And Kelsey says he's a good guy. My nice words about the Rockies As we send them on to the afterlife Hey, I'm going to throw in Jimmy Hergit, the glitch

He had the glitch. He'll put together a great relief season. And Victor Vodnick. Put together a great relief season in Colorado, which is very rare. And the fact that the glitch did it, I like that. I'm going to give a shout out to Chase Dolander,

the kid Tennessee product, him and Jordan Beck. The Rockies haven't had a lot of pitchers that have gone on to burn them after pitching in Colorado. which that is a red flag for me that it hasn't necessarily been a talent problem. Go back to the Rockies teams that won, they had a lot of talent on them. Like it's cargo, it's too low.

Cargo swing. It's Nolan Aranado. It's like, and you're like, oh yeah, that's how, that's what works. Anyways, Dolander's really talented. He's pitched really well on the road this year. At this celebration of life, we're not going to talk about the home stats. But we've got a kid with some armed talent. Goodbye, Rockies.

We said quick, geez, bro. Oh, my gosh. Well, Trev. Playing you off the stage. The Chicago White Sox. You know what I like. Strength up the middle. Tell us, baby.

And I've got two catchers right now. Edgar Caro and Kyle Teal. Both are racking up war. Teal's done it in like 60 games. We've got something to figure out behind the plate. I like both of them. And there might even be more strength up the middle. Yeah, look, I hated the,

Garrett Crochet trade. Let's just call a spade a spade. But you did get teal and Midroth in that. And I'll talk about Chase Midroth. We're getting back to middle infielders, like being good defenders and putting the ball on play. You know I love that. K percentage and Chase percentage, 86 and 87 percentile doesn't whiffs. So he's a contact-oriented guy and doing good things defensively as well. So shout out Chase Midroth, and he's the new Cody Bellinger, High, I mean. Yeah. Colson Montgomery, probably better than all those guys.

Oh, sure. All right. People know that. People know that at the celebration of life. Yeah. Your nationals? I am going Dailn Lyle. So, you know, you could talk about some other guys on the team, but 814 OPS, 129 OPS plus.

That's just an 80 games. He's fast. He's like the igniter. He is another like baseball player, man. I'm in on baseball players. I can't just have you up there trying. trying to slug. I guess this would kind of be a weird moment at the celebration of life,

but it would kind of be like if the insurance check clears. The nationals should have money. We need to bring in more dudes. Like, we already have a couple dudes. Like Abrams would. We do this every year that like, let's use that insurance check from the hand gliding accident. Let's bring in some more help.

Okay. I'm not good at funerals. I'm not good at funerals. Figure your defense out, Dale and Lyle, please. I'm too silly. I go to funerals and I want to make a joke. You want to do what at a funeral? Make a joke.

Okay. For the pirates. I'm going to go with a couple of their pitchers, not Paul Skeens. We know, look, obviously, this guy is the future of pitching. He's unbelievable. But I'm going to go Bubba Chandler and Jared Jones.

Now, Jared Jones's been hurt all year. He did start throwing in. He put an Instagram up. And so he's getting back. That's good. Don't forget how good Jared Jones can be. Also, Bubba Chandler made his debut. He had one blow-up, nine runs and two-and-thirds against the Brewers.

Outside of that, only four earned runs in 18-innings pitch. That equates to a two-ERA. If we got this three-headed monster and we can do anything offensively, which is probably the problem here, we could be looking at a better season. Spencer Horowitz is nice. I'm sorry I took the pitching. Fencer Horowitz is nice. How about this?

This is off script. Are we going to see Paul and Livy get engaged soon? Oh, what do you do? Don't put that on Paul. What? Don't put that pressure. How long have they been dating? Rob, if you can research that.

I don't know. Is Paul Skeen's going to end up being the new Derek Jeter? He was a former like military man, right? Yeah, he does like a nuclear family. Right? Yeah. So I don't know. Since August 20th.

Oh, that's kind of a while. Clock's ticking, bro. Clock's ticking, coach. And you love a married man. I do. I'm very happily married. For the twins, I'll take this one. Just sit out, bro.

They kick me out of this funeral. Luke Kishall is an absolute stud. I'm saying it right now. Watch the way he hits. There's comparisons to Mike Trout in the Bat Path. Relax, everybody. In the Bat Path. He's learning.

learning how to play second base. He's just a dog, okay? 313, 396, 4.54 in limited time this year. Remember, Kyle Hendricks broke his freaking forearm. He's back. This guy's an absolute stud. Also, Austin Martin, through some trades, through some injuries, has gotten a little bit more run.

Another baseball player, dude, he's getting on base, spark plugging it, playing all over the field. A couple guys to look out for next year. They have a decent core. Okay. Still. But Joe Ryan and Paula Lopez, who knows what's going to happen with that. How many players did you just name?

That's it. It was quick. You just named 20 guys on the fourth place A.L. Central team. All right. Take your Braves. No, I do want to say something about the Twins. No, what I do like? Buck Daddy's second most games played in the season this year.

116 right now. He's like, he's an elite baseball player. Baseball's better with that. I'm glad everyone is seeing that again. Uh, goodbye forever, twins. The Braves. Yeah. A team that kind of burnt us all.

It's an edgy funeral. A lot of people with dart eyes looking at each other. I'm going with something kind of new. And Life Springs Eternal. Ha Song Kim. Ha Song Kim hit a home run with the Braves. And you're like, okay, sure. Baseball players do that.

Sometimes. Not the short stops for the Braves this year. The Braves had zero home runs from the shortstop position. The Brave shortstop position is something we've talked about since Dansby's left, and it's been kind of the hole on this team. He's got a $16 million player option for next season. I believe he's going to show enough for the Braves to pick that up and not have their shortstop position be a question for the first time since Dansby left.

That's my hope springing a turn. Okay, I'm going to go with Hurston Waldjup. You've heard me talk about him on this show. Really nice start to 2025. he had a 1-33 in his first seven stars. Just had a blow up, which inflated his numbers into the twos. No big deal.

But another arm that you can, if we get everybody healthy next year, I mean, the Braves should be back, okay? That was a big point to their season going off the rails as injuries and things like that. So if we get all these guys back, that's a nice starting rotation. I fully believe the Braves will be back next year,

but Hurston Waldrop will be, and that splitter and his sinker, which have been great pitches for him this year, will be right in the middle of it. Trev, sometimes a funeral is expected. You know, Father time catches up with everyone. Yeah. And the angels, I think we expected to be here.

They always try to woo us into a wild card spot during the year, don't they? Yeah. I'm going to talk about Zach Netto, which I think is kind of a cheat code here because everyone knows he's good. but if you really watch him play, he's phenomenal, man. It's so fun to watch play defense,

and the guy can rake to adjustment made at the big league level, which a lot of guys have to do. Got rid of the big leg kick, started doing like an early foot down situation. 5B wore 793 OPS, 26 homers, 26 swipes. This guy's an all-around ball player. And if you don't know him, get to know him. He's like really good.

Treve, it probably should be Joe Adele having his 36 homers, and he's going to he might I think he's a free agent next year so if he puts up another 40 burger I forget I think he has two more years okay I'll look at it but either way I'm not picking him because there's one of the things I love on a baseball field is great center field defense and Bryce Teodosio yeah a Joe's McFly started calling him Teddy Oso and it makes me laugh every time and sometimes that's what we need in moments like this uh he also has nine outs above average in 39 games. He plays like when you see those college highlights of centerfielders that you're like, oh, a lot of pros bodies don't move like that anymore. Like you just got that little bit of youth

and flexibility. He goes and gets it, puts the body on the line. We're working on the hitting. Well, he had a triple against the twins. I called the game. He's very fast. Very fast. 98th in sprint speed goes and gets it in center. And I like that. Strength up the middle. Not a big body. That's why he can go get it. Yeah. Very sleek. Okay. We have the Marlins. Three more teams to go, Jake. And so let's get to the Marlins.

And I will start this one because I've been talking about this, even during this episode, but I love a middle infield duo. Yes. That, like, comes up together and, like, they're like, they finish each other's sentences. And then sometimes they look each other in the eye and they're like, do we really love each other? Should we switch positions?

Should we swap? They did. They had to. Otto Lopez comes back May 18, takes over the shortstop position. Xavier Edwards is like, hey, man, arms not there, range isn't there, but second base feels nice. These two guys together are awesome. A 3-4B war for Otto Lopez, 11 outs above average. That's 97 percentile infielding. Xavier Edwards, 280 average, 148 hits on the season, 27B war. These two together are forming a nice middle infield situation down there. in Miami. Treve, I do want to give my guy Jacob Marcy a shout out because he's come up and just been like dominant. So again, strength up the middle, all of that. What about Kyle Stowers?

He's a stud. He's a stud. I'm going bigger than that because sometimes life is bigger than that. Augustine Ramirez big? Clayton McCullough, a manager. Skip. I feel like we've changed the tone in Miami.

62 and 100 last year. They're 71 and 80 right now. It feels like there's a lot of Miami ball players that are contributing. Okay. Ariberto Hernandez. Like, you look around, there's a lot of guys chipping in that, I don't know. That's going to have to be the Marlins formula if they're ever going to be good because they're not going to have big star free agents.

They're going to have to brewers it, and you need a ton of guys to contribute. And they kind of have that going on. Clayton and I, as you know, when I was trying to work for the Dodgers, talked a bunch. Nice guy. I saw a couple of ejections this year where he was not a nice guy and I love it. Javier Sanoha.

Yeah. Shows up in the funeral, nice outfit. Okay. Never thought I would say this. Sandy's contract, there's only one year left on it. That's not something I think I would ever say or thought I'd ever say.

Like, as a good thing. Wow. Is that right? Let's move on. Okay. To the Orioles. No, we have two. Okay.

The Orioles, Jake. Where are you going with? My Orioles. I'm doubling up. Yeah, you are. I'm manager. And it's not really manager because the Orioles, since they got rid of Brandon Hyde, who I liked for the Orioles.

You did not. No, he was like tough. I liked Hyde. Yeah, when they won, you liked him. Okay. This is my funeral speech. Tony Mansellino takes over. obviously.

They've been 56 and 52, which would have them in the AL playoffs if they played that the whole year. But they started off so horribly. So I don't even know. It's not the manager. It's everyone. It's health. Health is wealth in the pitching staff.

Okay. Okay. I am going to go with Trevor Rogers. Who's had just incredible season this year. So it's kind of, that's cheating for me. Five and a half B-War, 143, ERA, a 0.8-9 whip in a hundred and two-thirds innings. across 16 freaking starts. I mean, he was elite.

Like, elite, elite. And I'm going back. His four-scene fastball this year has a 16-run value. 163 batting average against. Just last year, it was a negative one with a 250. So we're talking about a 90 points batting average decrease. The change-up was featured more this year and was a great pitch for him. Last year, it was a negative five-run-run.

This year it's a positive eight. So a couple of the pitches pitching a little bit. They're mixing and up doing it. And he was a bright spot for them. Trevor, our final goodbye. It's the athletics. And you've put me in an odd spot here. I'm taking this one over.

It's the entire offense. If you watch the A's play, you know they got that. Nick Kurtz is, we did this with Chris Rose. Obviously, it's a Chris Rose question. Where would you draft Nick Kurtz in a hitter's only draft? contracts don't matter. I said, okay, you're going to pick Aaron Judge. You're going to pick Shohei Otani.

You're going to pick Juan Soto. And you're probably going to pick Yoron Alvarez. And then after that, is it Nick Kurtz? It's very interesting. Do you know what he's done this year? 298, 392, 628 for the 1.019.177 OPS Plus. Tears just pouring down your face while you're screaming about You should have loved Nick Kurtz more.

I'm just saying he's second in weighted runs, he trails only judge. He's fourth in ISO, second in slug trails only judge, second in OPS trails only judge. That's what players with 200 played appearances or more. This guy is a dog, so gets known him. Jacob Wilson, we all love watching this guy hit. He's cooled down a little bit, but a great start

and he's going to be a stalwart there for them at shortstop. Shee Lang Joliers. I always say his name wrong. People get mad. Lang Lange Lier. 30 homers this year, 847 OPS, Tyler Sotom, 3-7B-Wore, 821 OPS, Lawrence Butler, 20 homers.

He's had a rough year. There's so much more in that guy. And then Brent Rooker, who has just stabilized them, 29 homers, 40 doubles, 85 runs driven in. They have a core of offensive players. If you look at their team overall, Jake, fifth and OPS, fourth in homers, 12th and runs, fourth in average.

Now it's the pitching that is horrible. Their pitching is what the Pirates offense is. Oh, they should combine. Yes, if they do. Oh, my God. Instead of expansion, combination. Yes. Oh, my God.

If Uncle Rob took the stage and said, I've got news people, the Pirates and the Athletics. They don't have a home anyway. If they just put all the A's players into Pittsburgh, no one would even know. Wow. Yeah, I mean, tough for me to follow that up at the funeral. Tell me something you like about the...

I would tell you the one defensive player, Denzel Clark. Mark Cotset. Same reason I like Teodosio. Denzel Clark, the way he played the outfield this year. Some all-time baseball highlights. All time. Like if you're putting together, like, best outfield catches, for the next 50 years,

I think you need to include Denzel Clark's catches. Is he going to win a gold glove, or is that Dalton Varshot? He hasn't, like, played enough. Um, he right now, let's just look at this. I'm getting his savant page up. I don't know if any of them have played out. He's got 13 outs above average. That's the 98th percent.

Oh, yeah, Varsho was also out. So he has 13. Dalton Varsho has, oh, you know who's going to win it? Raphaela. Stop bringing him up at the funeral. Um, all right. With death, there comes life. And as you guys all know, uh, death is nature's most natural Afrodisiac.

So with me, Trev, and Rob in a tight hot room, we're going to keep the cameras rolling. No, we have to send you out with one more thing. It's Wednesday. So it's interleague play. And it's Draft Kings. Bet the Cycle, it's time for Bet the Cycle, brought to you by Draft Kings.

Use code J.M. Baseball when you sign up at the Draft King's Sportsbook. All right, Trev, get them on, get them over. What do you got? Bons single. Juan Soto to record a hit, against his former team, the Nats. They come to the City Field on Friday. He's got 17 hits and 13 gains in September.

And he can bun. He can't. He can't. I synced it. The double. We pick it up as we go. Hunter Green. Over six and a half strikeouts

against the Cubbies on Thursday. In his six starts since returning, 6123, 7123, those are the strikeout number. So a little hit or miss, but that's what the double is. We're talked about Joe Adele already this. Double Joe Adele mentioned. He's going to homer on Sunday at Coors Field. He leads majorly baseball with six homers since the start of September 36 this year.

As we mentioned, career high. You got a Core Series to end the year. You're at 36 homers. Yes. We need a big weekend. Yeah, you're trying to get the 40. We need three this weekend, Joe. Lift and separate.

We need three this weekend, Joe. Our home run. This is the craziest thing we go for. Okay. NL division leader sweep on Saturday. The Dodgers, Phillies, and Burlington. Brewers all win. Okay. I like that. Actually, the odds on that end up being pretty crazy.

But the Phillies are in Arizona. Okay, so this was Dalton fading himself. The Dodgers are hosting the Giants and the Brewers are going into Bush. There's maybe some Cardinals fans that are sad we didn't host a funeral for them. But they were just a little too good. Maybe we should have. Them in the race. Should they just have a mid-off Super Bowl? That's why we didn't choose him. broadcasted by Buster and Johnboy?

I'd watch. I'd watch. And why don't you guys go check out Draft Kings? This episode, and a lot of episodes, are brought to you by the Draft King Sportsbook. The NFL season is rolling. It's the best place to go bet touchdowns with the official sports betting partner

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Bonus, bets expires seven days after issuance. Four additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. Coach Treff, we did it. Now we're gonna, is there a city night coming? Is there a city night coming? You're a two-aged up right now for me.

Is that Kels? Come on, Kels. Come on. You need to send the people off. Awards she's got bacon the music's playing yeah I mean what an end to the up how's that bacon is that good good oh we have like real breakfast yeah what yeah usually we just have muffins