Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Pujols & the Cardinals Take a Commanding Lead! | 531

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN Get $30 OFF your first order + Free shipping at https://drinktrade.com/baseball 21+ in most eligible states but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings dot com slash sportsbook for terms and resources. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. In Tennessee, call or text the Tennessee redline at 1-800-889-9789. In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). One per new customer. Min. $5 deposit and wager. $200 issued as eight (8) $25 free bets. Timestamps: 0:00 Trevor in Twins Territory 8:35 NL Recap 12:30 NL Standings 14:35 Cardinals' Hot Streak 24:50 Dodgers are Good 30:15 Mets & Phillies 37:35 Brewers Sliding 42:40 Cubs Love 44:30 Padres Need to Get Going 48:05 Pujols Quote 49:55 Reds 50:15 Check Out Floorball 51:15 AL Recap 55:30 AL Standings 57:15 Blue Jays-Yankees 1:05:05 Cole vs. Manoah 1:13:05 Rays-Royals 1:15:15 Red Sox-Orioles 1:19:10 Mariners-A's 1:21:15 Wild Card Picks 1:22:20 Rangers-Twins 1:25:05 Tigers-Angels 1:27:00 White Sox-Guardians 1:29:30 Astros-Braves 1:34:30 Johnny Cueto & Triston McKenzie 1:37:15 Dustin May Returns 1:40:15 Slump Watch 1:41:10 En Fuego 1:44:00 Iron Bank Award: Nate Fisher 1:48:15 Gymnastics Award: Kevin Gausman 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. He's not a machine. He's just Albert. There's so many good performances this week. It's players only. Let's go. Hello. Hello and welcome to talking baseball.

Myself, Jake Strombole, Trevor Plouffe, big baby, David. What is going on, everyone? Excited to get back in the lab. Monster weekend of baseball. T. Payne, you were a part of it. We had, what do we have Garden Hire ceremony in

Minnesota this weekend? We had Gardi's Hall of Fame ceremony. I went out there, hung out with all the boys. It's a really nice evening. It was him and Dan Gladden. Also, Tovar got put into the Hall of Fame. So it was kind of a little weekend there.

Had a great time. I decided to wear my twins jersey to show support for the boys today. And I realized I used to fill this thing out just a little bit better. See these sleeves? These things used to be full of biceps, people. And that was tell you something about where my life is. I'm excited to talk about the weekend it was. Maybe we'll sneak into a little preview of the Subway series.

We've got bankers doing banker things. I'm going to give an award based on that. And I'm not going to go totally. keen baseball. I'm going Game of Thrones Baseball today. You're on the pulse, man. You're on the pulse. How was Minnesota? It was great.

I knew there was going to be a lot of alumni there because Gardy had managed there for quite some time and it was all about him and dazzled Dan. He's also a beloved figure out there in Minnesota. But when I showed up, there's just so many guys from different teams,

like different generations of twins. So it was cool to see, man. All the old coaching staff was there. I was hanging out with obviously the M&M boys were there. But Jamie Carroll, who I referenced quite frequent on this show, my gritty utility info,

Jamie Carroll was there, Ryan Dome, just a lot of fun names, man. Carl Pavano, Yankee fans, remember Carl. He looks great. And that was the thing I noticed. It's like,

I feel like I'm in good, shape post baseball. Yeah. You know, so I was, I looked good. My outfit was on point, but that's to be expected. I showed up there and everyone was like in great shape and like their face looked good and their clothes looked good. I was shocked.

I was shocked at how good everybody looked. I was actually mad about it, Jake, because I wanted to be the guy that looks good. And I think you're the problem, Treve. I think you've raised the bar too high. I think you're kind of setting the tone that they're coming into the weekend and they're like, Pluffy's going to be looking good. Like, I kind of got to bring it. There could be some of that.

Yeah. And, you know, if that's the case, I'll, heavy as the head that wears the crown, I'll be that guy. You and Joe Mower. We had some nice dinners together, Joe and I. We're talking about some golf stuff. So be on the lookout for that. I'm ready. How was your weekend?

You were out partying it up in Texas. Are you like, you in Texas? are an unlikely pair. Yeah. But when you think about it, it just worked. It's like, it's like pursuit and freaking cantaloupe, bro. Mm. It just works.

Everything's bigger in Texas except little Jake. Yeah, man, we, uh, I was, I was stayed at this crazy place. It was like a compound. It was like a ranch. It's my buddy's uncle who owns it. Um, dude, I, the joke I give, it was a neighborhood. Like, it was, it had like a park in it. There was like multiple homes.

It was nuts, dude, it was nuts. It was awesome. Had a good weekend. Went into Austin for a quick minute there, but wasn't really in Austin. Played a lot of golf. Game is dialed so you, me, and Joe Mower can rip it up. So, yeah, man, it was good. I mean, it's a good little escape for me.

This is like year seven now. And every year, the fantasy football winner gets to pick the draft. We've done Austin, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Denver, Park City. Those are weird places that you just named. Yeah, it's kind of that middle of the country line. I need to win the league, and I think I'm going to drag everyone out east and do it. I haven't done that yet, but we're on the right path. So it was a nice little getaway.

I think the dog days are over, Trev. I think when we talk about these series, the baseball I watched this weekend, there was a lot of intensity and fist pumps. I feel like most of the teams went through their kind of the dog days. It's like the start of August till like middle of this last week. It felt like the teams turned it on this weekend and I'm ready to go about it. Bebs, you just get a giggle? Cade Holcomb in the chat.

Tulsa's not weird, Trev. Do you know what's funny about that, Bieber? I was just about to say, why would you go to Tulsa? I didn't say it, though, out of respect. Yeah. No, hey, the... He read my mind. I think the winner that year, I think he like just had a kid, so he kind of kept it local.

So, hey, that's like Oklahoma guys in that. Heavy, heavy is the crown, like you said. So, Trev, I think we got to get into it, man. Dude, there were so many good performances this week. I was looking at the standouts, and there were some dudes that just bald. I'm given two standouts. I'm given two. That's right.

You do have two highlighted. That's when you know. That's when you know. And I had a write-in guy that wasn't on the list. So what is in Tulsa? What are you doing Tulsa? Man, I went, I'll say it for the end of the episode. One of the craziest wedding after parties I've ever been to was Tulsa, Oklahoma.

It got weird. If you're looking to go get weird at a sporting event, a concert or wherever you want to go get weird, seat geek probably has a ticket there. So make sure you go download the Seat Geek app. Use code talking. They will get you $20 off your tickets at Seat Geek. Download the app. It's so easy to use.

It passes the JM test of can Jake use it. Yes, he can. Shout out to Bob the builder. $20 off with Code Talking the first time you use Seekek. Download the app. It's so easy to use. The green bubble, that means a really good deal. Go get that one.

Yellow and red, I don't know about all that. Go check them out. Seatkeek, they're the best code talking. Trev, you have a question. I think Garty drew you in the leadoff spot tonight. Oh, man. If Garty was managing and I was batting leadoff, be like 2013 all over again, 100 losses.

That was a good one by me. Self-deprecating humor works sometimes. Tasteful. I do want to remind the people as we get to this point of the season and maybe throughout the future, we're trying to keep the show. We don't want it to get stale. Okay, I know James mentioned this on his James-only episode that he did on Friday, which was marvelous.

Yeah. So we're going to go through the recaps. We'll get through them. We'll talk about the baseball that happened. We're not going to spend a ton of time discussing the inter musings of the series. We'll go to more topical stuff, and then we'll get into the second half where we give the awards and whatnot. So I think that's kind of the way we'll go forward with it. I think it's going to make for like a tighter, just a better show.

And then we'll still be silly, because especially on a player's only, that's really the only goal. Yeah, love, love talking, love mentioning your teams. I get it. I mean, if you're, if you're a big baseball fan, if you're a big Tigers fan, you know, a little shout out on talking baseball could go a long way, but I can't, I can't deep dive. I'm happy you guys took two out of three.

But that's the AL, Treve. We need to talk some NL, baby. And there's a, who, just, just hold on. Okay. Get your timer up, bro. Get your timer up. Is that your phone? I'm ready.

I got my phone My microphone This is my baseball today set up Your show Dueling stands I love it Trev tell me about the NL big daddy My people

We are going to start off with Jake's snakes Unfortunately They got their head chopped off by a shovel The Cardinals came into town The birds on the bat They sweep It goes 5-1-16 to 7-6-4 it was all the usual characters.

You talked about Albert, two bumbas off of Bumgarner, Aeronado with some highlight defensive plays. Paul Goldschmidt is, well, according to Aeronado, the best player on the planet, they sweep, they've been electric in August. We'll probably go into that a little bit during the topics. Dodgers take care of business against the Marlins. They sweep at home 2170-103.

They get to Alcantar. They have a menacing lineup. Guys are showing up out of nowhere. May is back. They can do no wrong. Are they going to challenge the Mariners season total wins? Probably because they're that good. Another great series, Mets at Phillies.

The Phillies. What do you say, Jake? Boogity, boogity. They don't want to see the Mets anymore. The Mets take the three or four from them. Seven to eight, two, ten, nine the Mets win. Phillies do get won the second game of a doubleheader. They win that one four to one.

There were some wild baseball played in this last night's game. Mark Kana, with a two homers. It's the best Alec Fombs, two homers. Gene Seguerra thought he was the hero. In the end, it was Kana and the freaking bat-flippet-flippant season, baby. They take three or four from the Phillies. I think I have a note. I don't know what it was.

They've won a lot of games against the Phillies, the Mets have. Okay? So they're happy that one. over. This one's another tough one to swallow the Brewers going to Chicago. The Cubs take two of three. The Brewku is falling right now and very quickly and we're going to

be talking about what's coming out of their clubhouse two. Cubs win 8, 7, 6, 5 before the brew through takes the last game. Five to two. We'll talk about some of those post game comments after this. Giants go to Colorado. They need to get hot

quick and they didn't. Rockies take two or three, seven, four Rockies. three Rockies and extras and then the Giants won the last one nine eight also in extras. I know my guy Longo went off, but the Rockies took care of business. Probably going to be too late for the Giants. We'll talk about that series of the fits. And then I believe, no, two more series left. Nationals at Padres, they split the series.

We don't like that. It was a four-gamer, three-one nationals, six-three nationals. The Padres win the last two, two-one, two-one. Musgrove has some good plays with the bare hand doing that whole thing thing. Padres need to try to keep pace. They split the four gamer with the nationals. Last series that we're going to talk about is the Reds and Pirates. Not going to spend too much on this one. Reds do take two or three, five, four Pirates.

10-1 Reds, 9, 5 Reds. I saw Moose hit a Homer. That's what we did. Go ahead, two and Homer in the third. Thank you, Moostakis. The Reds take two of three. and my friends. That's what happened in the national.

Trevor, beautiful stuff. Trevor Paul from St. Paul. In the East, the New York Mets have a four-game lead on the Atlanta Braves. Those two teams are so, so good. The Philadelphia Phillies are now 12 games back in that division. They're eight games back. The Braves for second place, it's looking like their East hopes are probably, may be sealed, but they're still very much in the wild card.

The St. Louis Cardinals Trev, this is significant, and I think it may be why they are number one in the Cron Pod today. They have a five-game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers. Whoa, they are 69 and 51, a seven-game win streak. The birds have started to go while the Milwaukee Brewers are in a little bit of a funkeroo right now. like I said, five games back. And oh, by the way, Trev, I might owe you an apology.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are 84 and 36. What are we doing? That's a 700 win percentage. San Diego is a casual 18 games back at 68 and 56. And the Giants go to a game under 500. I know Jerry Blevins was drinking a little bit of their Kool-Aid, thinking they might get back in the mix. and currently the wild card.

Your Braves are as locked in as can be. They're up eight on San Diego. San Diego with a half-game lead on Philly. That fills out the wild card with the Milwaukee Brewers a game and a half out of the playoffs on August 22nd Giants, six back. They're the only tweener team in the National League right now. Unless you count my snakes, only 11 back.

But yeah, Trev, I'll send it back. to you. I know you're a Cronpod guy, and I think we started with the birds, and they are, they're definitely one of the, the developing stories of this season. Yeah, they took care of the games they needed to take care of you. Go ahead and you beat the Diamondbacks, because that's what you do if you're a good team. They wore the baby blues there. Pujolos goes yard twice. So now the conversation becomes, does he have eight more in him to get to 700? Shit, maybe. He said he's going to keep, he said he's retiring. Which I don't believe.

No. One second. If that dude is four homers away from 700, you don't want to be like A Rod sitting there at 696. Ooh, I wonder if Rod's actually the target. If he puts him, you're good for four-thold-old-old-old-old. If he doesn't care about seven, I don't know. Let's talk about this a little bit with the Cardinals, okay?

I know Pujol's is fun to talk about, but this team has been absolutely bananas. 15 and 3 in August Jake they were four games back of the Brewers on July 30th it's August 22nd

they're five games up 15 and 3 in August and like I said in my little recap there really it's been about the guys who you'd think it's been about if you ever go watch a game or watch some highlights It's Aeronado is Goldschmidt. You're going to get the Pooho's highlight here and there.

It's Waino. It's these guys that have been around the block. Sure, we have some young talent coming up and helping, and there's been some really good performances by these young guys, which you need. But I think that, like, Aeronado coming over, I think has been the biggest difference in this Cardinals team, where we said they've kind of just been a mid-team

where it's like they're good enough to get to the playoffs, but is there something that puts them over the top? I think Aeronado and like the edge he plays with. Like we kind of speak on this from time to time here. Guys that go on the field knowing they're the best player and how that affects you, your team psyche. Like they have a couple guys that can say that. Aronado, a quote of his this weekend was that Paul Goldschmidt is the best player in baseball.

Now Goldschman's not like an outspoken guy. He's never to come say that about himself. but his numbers are there. He has had an incredible year, obviously an incredible career. But now you've got both of these guys on the corners, Aeronado and Goldschmidt, who you send out onto the field, Jakey. And these two guys alone could just win your baseball games. And if you're the brew crew, not having a good August,

you know, like you get hit with the hater thing at the deadline, which, you know, has that affected their play? Probably not, to be honest with you. He hasn't been very good in San Diego. and I don't think that's really been their problem but now you're looking up at five games in the central and you're almost saying to yourself is the division out of reach now?

Five games, August 22nd. They play the brew crew. They play two more times. No, four more times. Excuse me. They have a two and a two left. It's doable. But at this point,

you're not even in the wild card. Like, what's going on with the brew crew? can they salvage this or the Cardinals just pass them up? It's two different conversations because, A, I mean, the Brewers, you know, they've had a couple up and downs this year, but they're down. I mean, the hater stuff, I know, you know, the quotes we're going to talk about the Brewers in a minute. I know you've already mentioned those a few times to me and how impactful you think that is.

If you're saying that stuff to the media, that means it's a very real thing. And the Cardinals have gone the exact opposite direction, like you mentioned, since I think they had that Yankee series right after the deadline. They have just gone and gone. Jordan Montgomery has been nails for them. You know, Kintana, they picked up two starting pitchers. That's impactful. And like you said, I mean, Paul Goldschmidt is currently the Vegas MVP favorite at, like, minus

375? Like, you bet $10 on Paul Goldschmidt to win the MVP right now, August 22nd, you'd get about three and a half bucks back. Like, that's the year this dude has put together. He's a Hall of Famer. He's as unflashy as a guy as it gets in a way. In another way, watching him play baseball is sexy as hell, man. That Aeronado, barehand, Baltimore Chopper, that Goldie picks, that is baseball pornography, man.

Like, the way Aeronado did that, someone else did it this weekend. at third base. Wasn't Maddie Chap? No. Oh, it was your guy Longoria. Longoria had a nasty one. Longoria had a nasty one. That, yeah, man, you're getting those efforts from the corners.

Paul Goldschmidt is your NLMVP. Like we did a whole Judge Otani, who's going to win it, who's going to get it? Judge, Big Vegas favorite, by the way. Goldie is currently your NLMVP. Aronado has been incredible on the corner. Like you said, he plays with the net. It's somewhere between the line of edge and Hardo a little bit. I don't want to say that in too rude of a way.

I don't think you ever gets to that point. The story I've told Tim Melville, a talking baseball legend and John Boy Media legend, he had three good starts with the Rockies. And after his third start, Aronado went up to him and it was like, your throw day, we're stepping in. Like he was like, I got to see what's going on. Like Aronado's that dude.

Like he's baseball rap. How about that? that's a term that gets thrown out a lot. Aronado's that guy, he's special. And yeah, man, I think going back, if you have those guys as your rocks, which they are, you know, then on any given day,

I feel like I see Lars Neutbar highlights all over the internet. You know, we've talked about a lot of their young guys, Brendan Donovan, Carlson. You know, we've had a lot of Tommy Edmund conversations although I think he's faded a little bit. And then that's before we even get to the machine, Albert Poulos, who just put up one of the best,

like, week and a halfs of baseball we've seen this this year. Nine games, 27 at bats, six home runs, a 556 batting average, 1.846 OPS. Albert, this dude is having his best season since 2011. Like something in the water in St. Louis or just vibes or whatever it is. But, you know, whenever you're facing a lefty, you can put in, you know, an MVP level hitter in your lineup. Sure, that's a formula that works.

So, yeah, man, they've got the juice right now. I noticed Albert's hands were starting a little bit further away from his body. And Cardinals fans, if you're in the chat, tell me if you guys have noticed that too. but against Bumgardner there it looked like he was kind of like further out with the hands and when you do that that's more yeah he's not

he's not really he wasn't really bouncing it he was sticking with him out there and I think he's finding a good path for his hands when he's doing that and if you get him further out away from your body it becomes more of like a barrel to the ball

type of mentality instead of when you're a little bit closer, it becomes more of a path. So like your whole bat, like you're worried about the path of your bat. Obviously you want to make contact on the barrel, but when your hands get a little bit further out, it's almost like your precision has to be better.

And he's like feeling that he wants to feel like where his barrel is. Instead of just like, hey, forget about my hands. You know what Josh Johnson talks about? Like all my swing is in my legs. I don't even think about my hands. when you get your hands out you have to think about your hands in the direction they're going

and really it looks to me like he's just trying to get the barrel maybe out there a little sooner as he gets a little bit slower in age but he got the barrel second homer against Madbone the one that went to like left center was a rock

I don't know if we can count on this type of production all the way through but it seems like it right especially against lefties against lefties dude he's mauled lefties for the last like four years slash career at this point. Like he's Albert Pujols. And yeah, man, you also have to feel awesome for him because he's, I mean, think about some of the conversations we had.

I know, you know, Chris Rose said on this program, he was like, you know, is Albert Pujo is just going to go to the Orioles and try to hit a couple more dingers and call it a lot? And now here he is, like, who would have thought before this season we were going to be having like, poolhole should. come back next year, right? Because he's awesome. I love him getting in front of the media and being like, nah, just shutting

that down. I secretly hope you're right. If you're telling me I get to see 43-year-old Albert just messing with some young lefties next year, sign me up. But, hey, St. Louis, before the year, I think we even said this. They were the number one team in baseball magic with Poo-Holes, Wayne O'Ni.

And just the story. The storyline. I believe in storylines in sports. I think it's part of what makes sports special and the best reality TV show. And man, they're starting to go. And they went at this point last year. Like, remember, they were, I think they were below 500. And then they turned it on, or right around 500.

And they went nuts to finish the year. They're on another heater. And if I'm Milwaukee, I just don't know. I just don't know if we're going to find that juice because right now everything out of there is the complete opposite tone. All right, we don't have to talk about the Dodgers a ton because they're just really good. I mean, Dustin May comes back, looks good.

Evan Phillips in game one, one, two, three, ninth. He has David Roberts saying, I trust him to finish a game. Best case scenario because he had Kimbril down, so he puts this guy out. some numbers on Phillips as you know you get towards the the postseason which is they're just setting up for the postseason now that's what the dodgers do they're figuring out yeah what can the rotation be back there who's going to be

the guy that can go multiple endings who's going to be at the end of the game do we have an end of the game guy or is it going to be by committee of the hot hand i'm assuming i'm assuming that it's going to be hot hands with the dodgers unless someone comes out and breaks out and just snatches the job. But for a guy like Phillips, 11 straight scoreless outings, Jake, and he's only given up,

he's had 48 appearances and only given up a run in four of those. Yeah. So it seems like he's going to be in the mix for some back end there along with a couple other guys. They knock around Alcantara,

um, knocks them out of the, the ERA lead in the NL four. Gatterday. Yep. Tony Gonsland now at 212, Alcantara at 219. They put up, what was the final line? Three and two-thirds, six earned runs.

This is the most earned runs in a start in over a year, obviously. The Dodgers are just a, they're a truck, bro. Yeah. Something I missed, Cardinal Snakes really quick. That first night, Mike Lisk goes eight innings. That's big. And Young Henry, for my snakes. He's doing stuff, which is nice.

Who's the guy there? There's a lefty that's a nice swing. Oh, swing. Alex Thomas? No, is it McCarthy? We can get in there. Is there a McCarthy? I'll get you some snakes.

I don't know. He just looked really good to me. I like it. Trev, the Dodgers for me, you're right. Like you almost can't deep dive. It's just look at everyone's record around the league. Look where the Dodgers are. Look at they just got Dustin May back and he drops it.

You could check that box. It's like, oh, did we get a young one of the, most young talented pitchers in the league back. Yes, we did, and he looked good. Great. Hey, we're facing the guy that's probably going to win the NL. Sy Young. How do we look against him? Maldom, 3.26 Ernie's. Your guy Max Muncie is tied for the MLB lead this month with home runs. He has found it, and he's going. Like, if you're the Dodgers, you check every box. Oh, by the way, Joey Gallo comes over for, I think it was their 15th prospect, and he's one dotting, making defensive plays.

He threw a guy out. He's making diving catches. The beard is back. Confidence is back for Joey Gallo. Yeah, man, I mean, if this was a video game and it was like, Dodgers going, Dodgers playing the Marlins, here are your goals for this series. You clean swept. You swept on the field and you swept your video game goals.

It's, this kind of opened up my eyes, man, because they're the Dodgers. They win a lot of games. I told you, I was like, you know, the Mets in a playoff series, I mean, Scherzer-Degrom. And obviously, that can be a fun baseball conversation, but why shouldn't these guys get every benefit of the doubt? Because they're going to be there. And, yeah, like, should their playoff pitching does not feel as intimidating in previous seasons, and I think that's why I was there.

But guess what? their starting pitchers are first in ERA, first in whip. Their relievers are third in ERA, first in whip. Like, guess what? They're going to be able to put it together. Like, it's not like they're going to be throwing Joe Schmoe on the mound. Like, no, they have guys. You might not be as familiar with a, you know, Evan Phillips,

who closed out that game. But guess what? Dodger fans are. And that dude's ready to go. So, yeah, man, they're a problem. They are the. they are the raise with a budget. They are a different type of organization.

I don't even say that anymore. I know we coined that term. Sure. They're better than the race. It's a better run organization than the raise. And I don't even think it's close. I think the Dodgers right now, Dodgers Braves maybe are the class organizations right now.

I know Houston is doing it as well. I'm putting Dodgers Braves above them. they're obviously very close. They're the class. They do everything right. And I think it has something to do with the way that they've constructed their player development, adding all those coaches. They have so many coaches.

Coaches to player ratio is where it's at. And they have figured that out. So there's something that they're doing right. And I think that's it. They're just waiting for the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, I think our strong raise fans would say, you know, if you gave us an extra 200 mil to play with, we'd have a couple different guys on the roster.

but I don't know No, no, no. Sorry. Okay, sorry. Sorry. That's fine. Like, you guys are all right. I've been in an organization. It's all right. Yeah. All right. We'll talk about the Mets. They took three or four from Philly. They have absolutely owned them this year.

What's their record? 15 and 4 or 14 and 5 against them. Phillies are happy that they're not playing the Mets anymore. I pose this question to Joe's baseball today. I was like, do you think that matters in the postseason, like that regular season record? He said yes. I said probably, but everything starts over. You're at zero. You're batting average. Zero. Like everything goes back and I think that could change things. Although the Mets against Wheeler and Nola, 9 and 0 on the games that they started.

That's the one that jumped out to me, man. That's, that's unreal. If you told the Mets this year before the season that you'd go five and four against Nola and Wheeler? I think they shake your hand, and they're like, yeah. Because those dudes are ones. Like, I know sometimes we get caught up in aces and that whole thing. Like, look at Wheeler when he's done the past couple years. Nola, when he's right, he's one of the more fun pitchers to watch in baseball with his pitch mix and just how it comes off.

IMO a little bit. I think John's on that page. Nine and O? And dude, this last game, this is kind of, this was one of the eye-openeres this weekend. The intensity in this game for an end of August game, two teams that have seen each other a lot. Gene Seguera hits the big home run. He's fist pumping around first base so hard, his helmet flies off. And then your boy, Mark Kana, are you kidding me?

You're telling me Mark Kana has one of the. the cooler bat flips in like baseball history. He's, he's, he's been on that train for a while, man. He is, he's a sneaky guy, man. And it's,

the Mets are awesome. Um, and when it comes to the Phillies and the playoffs, like, if, if we needed to fill 24 hours of air time, we, that would be a great segment.

It's the, it's the, well, I don't know. Hey, come playoff time. Like, if they, if they do do it,

like they come out, if somehow, these teams met up in the playoffs and they win that first wheeler game, then you're right. That 9 and 0 means nothing. That's the beauty of it. But going in, like if the Mets line up against the Phillies in a playoff series, they're going to be feeling good, man. Like, I don't have to tell you, Trev, like, if you're on a team that plays another

team that much and you beat them 15 to 4, like, you're feeling so good going into that series. That, yeah, man. And, dude, the Mets, there's so many little things, and it's why I love Buck and I love Pete Alonzo. Go watch the Mark Kana Homer and look at Pete Alonzo at the top of the dugout, basically howling, basically a caveman playing baseball. But that's what makes it so beautiful that, like, he is that dude.

And this Mets team, man, they, uh, they're really. really good. They are really good. And yeah, I mean, my Yanks in a funk right now in a little subway series, Shurs are on the bump tonight. Those guys can drive a knife through Yankee fans' hearts real quick. I was about to say, look, Philly could have salvaged this and got split two-two. I mean, the last game could have went either way, kind of just stole it from them. That's one of the toughest things as a ball player. You got you got Bome who it's two homers. He puts him up 4-0, or they get up 4-0-0. He gets a 3-run homer early on. They get up 4-0.

That lead gets erased. He's all right, fuck it. I'll hit another one. Oppo this time. 7-4. I'm the hero again. Suck it. That league gets erased. And then Segura hits the homer to go ahead. Awesome. We're going to win the game. Everyone's going to be happy. And then kind of said, no, I got it. That league gets erased. Yeah. And that one was against Robertson.

And I was going to say, like, Philly is hurting right now. Kniebel's out for the season. Ser Anthony Dominguez is on the IL. But you brought Robertson, you're feeling pretty good. Like, this guy's been good all year. Kind of gets to him. It was an elevated heater. Just missed a spot by Robertson.

I think the Mets can hang their hat on that. We got to these guys. We got to their starters. We got to their bullpen. They think they're just all around a better team than the Phillies right now. The Braves, I think is a different question. for them. They match the things of the Braves. I think there's a little bit of hesitancy there. Even with all the things that they do well, I think the Braves are just kind of on a different level.

Philly's, all their quotes afterwards be like, oh yeah, well, you know, the playoffs could be different. It's like, man, you wish you were on the other end of that saying like, yeah, we beat them this season, but we're going to have to go do it again in the playoffs. They have to like make up this false bravado and say, yeah, we can still do it. And honestly, man, Mets, I think, are probably going to have the second best record in the NL, so they're going to be able to line up their pitching. And I think that's probably the biggest advantage they're going to get is being able to throw out DeGrom and Scherzer against.

And you're going to see it tonight and tomorrow as a Yankee fan. Yeah, we'll see about tomorrow. There's some talk about getting Ty Walker back in there. But yeah, I mean, that's the Mets. Man, those two Cana home runs, both up and in fastball. so he beat him to the spot. And D-Rob, he pitched, I think he threw like 30-something bullets the night before. So he comes in and, you know, we now have numbers that show you're less effective if you do that.

So that's where depth comes in and you talk about Kniebel going season ending. If you're the Phillies, you have to say those things in the press conference, obviously. You know, they had us and if we see him in October, we'll do our thing. the one guy that you circle and a dude who changes a lot of attitudes is Bryce Harper, who's supposed to be rehabbing this week, man. So, like, if you're the Phillies, again, go back to the episode where Bryce Harper went down, and we did a, basically the whole conversation was either stay alive or be so bad your sellers at the deadline. And here they are.

I mean, they are still somewhat firmly in the wild card as long as Milwaukee, that keeps playing like this. They're neck and neck with San Diego. They have a leg up in Milwaukee. And if they get the bad man back, like, you know, look at Boem Stats this year. You know, we talked about Real Mudo going for a while. If you're the Phillies,

if you're the Phillies, and we've said this for a while now, get that team to the dance so if they can throw their big dogs at you, you know, that's it. That team can win on any given day because their stars are as good as your stars, unless you're like the Dodgers.

Speak about the Braves. You want to go talk about them a little bit? Give me a little bit better. Actually, no, that's not now. I forgot. They played the Interleague series. Yeah, that's true. Can jump ahead to them.

Table that. Brewers is where I wanted to go. We'll go through this, and then we'll probably talk about the other teams quickly. Then we'll move on to the A.L. Brew crew, not doing it right now. I mentioned how far back there

of the division, they're outside of the wild card, and then after the game on Sunday, there was some quotes that came out of the locker room. And it was Eric Lauer, and basically he was saying, do I have the quotes here? I do. I don't want to misquote him. Yeah, they're...

The only thing I can think of was, from the top down, it seemed like there was a weird behind-the-scenes message that was sent that a lot of people didn't judge. with. We're doing this and we're trying to put you guys in the best position and we're trying to win right now with you guys. It seemed more, oh, he says it didn't send us the right message from the upstairs people trying to say like we're doing this and we're trying to put you guys in the best position and we're trying to win right now with you guys. It seemed more of what we're trying to develop for the future. That comes out, you know, how many days after the trade?

20 days after the trade down the deadline, they're still worried about Josh Hader and not having him. And they were talking about the moves they didn't make. I don't think that's the right way to approach this at all. I get it. I'm actually on his side with this.

I was promised the Big Brewer's move. It didn't happen. I know they were trying to do some things offensively. It didn't happen. It takes two to tango. They get rid of Hater. You know what? That move in hindsight doesn't look that bad.

because he struggle with San Diego, and he's actually out of the closer role there now. So you can't really point to that. The lack of urgency and the lack of help, I get wares on guys in a clubhouse. When you're a part of a team that's winning and you feel like you're going to get reinforcements and the front office doesn't do anything for you,

sure, it's deflating. There's no doubt about that. But then eventually, you just got to, you got to say, hey, we got the guys here and we like the guys here and we can do it. 20 days after the fact, I don't think we should be talking about this to the media. Three weeks later. No, you're absolutely right.

And that's where, you know, there's my Yankees aren't a pretty bad funk right now. The brewers are in a pretty bad funk right now. And you wonder what it's going to take to get out of it, whether it's someone going nuts, whether it's a brawl. We always look for something to be the spark or a young player getting an opportunity. for Milwaukee, I think going from that quote, and you're so right about the Hater thing. I didn't know how to phrase it perfectly,

because guess what, if Hater continues like this, which he won't, but I mean, Hater's numbers on the season right now aren't who we picture Josh Hader as. And, hey, Padre fans, I hope he clicks. I hope he goes when Josh Hater's right, that's a good thing for baseball.

You know, he's only had five outings with San Diego. So let's see what happens there. But like we talked about, three weeks later, with the Brewers, if Hayter was doing what he currently has, it felt like they were a trade short at the deadline. Like if they had added a bat or someone like that, that they could have said, if that front office could have come downstairs and said, like,

hey, guys, the Hader decision was tough. We had to make the right move for our organization. but we also added this guy and say they added someone who was hitting fifth or six in their lineup and had a little heater, then you don't hang your head. It's like, well, damn.

Maybe they had the hater thing pegged and we added this guy. It felt like they were kind of a trade short. The Cardinals are rolling. Milwaukee's in the opposite direction. We've seen how quickly the tides of baseball can turn and they need something to happen because we got a month and a half

a little less than a month of a half in baseball, you better figure it out quick. Otherwise, you're going to look up and it's going to be eight games back in the standings and then the central's gone, and then you're strictly fighting for the wild card. That's not where this Brewers team should be. Disappointing, man.

It really is. I still think they have a chance, but I don't like where the clubhouse is or this. And it might have been just Lauer doing this on his own because a lot of the other guys had better quotes on it, more quotes that you want to hear from your players. But they got to get it going, and they got to get going fast. And I don't know, if you look at the Cardinal schedule, it's pretty soft.

A lot of Cincinnati, a lot of Cubs, a lot of Washington. Like, it could be a big lead quickly in the Central, and the Brewers are going to have to be looking towards that wild card to get anything done. I want to move on to San Diego now briefly. Where are they at in the wild card? So they're up a half game for the second one. Well, you look that up just, you know, 30 seconds. I don't give the Cubs a little love.

They've won a few series recently. I love Morel. Man, that's a guy you should know if you're a baseball fan. And Stroman gave Nico Horner a lot of love. And Nico Horner probably deserves a lot of love because his defense is fun at shortstop and he's been hitting enough that, hey, good for you, Cubbies. I know we're talking about the sad team on the other side,

but, you know, they could not be fighting at all. and they kind of are. So good for the Cubs. The game two was great. We had the Wisdom game time double. And Contreras walk up single in the 11th. That was after the Brewers to the lead in the 8th. The Cubs tied in the 9th.

They both scored in the 10th. Brewer scored one in the 11th. And then Wisdom did his damn thing. Wisdom and Contreras, excuse me. So, yeah, they're fighting. I like that team too. I wish they approached the season a little bit better. with more urgency.

We didn't really understand the signings. It kind of played out how we thought it would play out a little bit. Yeah, I mean, you've got some things that you found out this year. Like, Morel, man, he's a badass. Like, you can make plans around that dude. Nico Horner. Like, you just found a young starting shortstop. That's a big development.

So, yeah, hopefully the Cubs are a really big player this offseason. I mean, even, I know Suzuki's, falling off, but there's some wins there. Ian Hap is a nine-figure guy. So, yeah, hopefully this off-season, the Cubs are the impact team that they should be. They're the Chicago Cubs. They should be that. Give me some Padres.

They're currently a half game up on the wild card. Look, I like this team a lot. I think they're going to be fine, but we've seen a collapse last year at the end of the year, right? 11 and 14 in July, 11 and 10 in August. It just hasn't been great baseball. They obviously are not going to win that division. Their half came up for the second wild card. Like, they got to get going.

Like, there's some competition down there. And, you know, having to figure out the back end of your bullpen now is probably something you don't want to hear as a Padres fan. Splitting a series against the Nationals, probably not what you want to do as a Padres fan. I don't know. I don't foresee a collapse, but I'm wondering if that Tatis News

was a catalyst for something Padres fans are not going to want. I've been on the Padres all year long too, but they just need to step it up. I guess bottom line. And I think they can't, their solutions are fairly easy. And you know what?

They got a couple off days coming up before a road trip to Kansas City, or they're playing Cleveland twice, surrounded by off days. When bullpen's a big concern for you, that's a double-edged sword, right? Because you either keep digging that hole, and it feels bad.

But they have options, man. Like, you know, Nick Martinez and Luis Garcia picked up saves the last two days. Suarez has been pitching well for them recently. And, like, guess what? Could we be sitting here in two weeks, and Josh Hader has five straight scores? those appearances easily.

That's kind of the life of the bullpen. So we'll see what goes on there. And you're right. It feels like they kind of need to get away from the Tatis news. And let's be honest, like as media, you know, Pujol's had a funny quote about the media this week. Like, you know, we talked about Tatis a lot because it was big. It was big.

That the further and further away we get from that, the better. And they need their big dogs in the middle of that lineup. I mean Soto, Machado, even the season Josh Bell is having, Drury, like, those guys got to go. And, hey, they should be happy. We're not talking more about them

because they dropped the first two to the Nats. And then they came back and they won the next two. I mean, mostly because of their pitching, 2-1-2-1, Musgrove and Mania. So, and that's where this team, that's where I always come back to this team. That's starting five. Not a lot of teams can look.

at their five and think they can get seven-in-s shut every day. Not saying you're gonna, because that's not how sports or baseball works. But they need that. And man, they have some fun stuff going on. Like the season pro far is having the catch Hassan Kim had the other day, kind of running into the stands. Like that was awesome to see. Some say it was better than Jeter's play.

That's what everyone's talking about. Hey, hey, you said at the beginning of the show, It ain't the dog days of August anymore. Don't tell that to the Padres. I think there's like three. There are some teams out there, Jake, that would heavily disagree with that assessment. I think there's three teams really in the dog days.

It's the Padres. It's the Brewers and it's the Yankees. I think those are your dog day squads. Let's end the NL discussion on my favorite, my second favorite quote of the year. My first one is still going to be Blake Snowe, when he said last year we didn't get anyone and it was sad. This year we got everyone.

Yeah. That was all-time quote. This one comes from pool holes when he was asked after their seventh win in a row. He was asked if this is the best baseball they've played this season. That's a pretty generic, easy question

and Albert decided to answer it like this. That's for you guys, the media to decide. I don't go by analytics. That's you guys. your job. It's awesome. I'm on it, Albert. I'm on it. You guys. Analytics has taken over this a meaning that, like, I don't think it's supposed to have. It's so funny, dude. I think it was Bruce Bochie or Ned Yost. Like, one of those just, like, baseball legend guys who said, like, analytics has been around for years. We just used to call them stats. That's all it is. I've been

trying to tell people that, dude. I got to figure out which one of them said that. We just got names for things now, and we can quantify a few different things that we used to not be able to quantify. We should just, like, say, oh, that happened. Yeah. Now you can describe why it happened,

but that's it. Baseball is still the same fucking sport. Things are just a little bit different. The ball jumps off his bat pretty good, is now exit fee low. Yes. You know? Got life on his fastball. High spin rate.

Spin efficiency. That's it. That's all it is, people. When people talk about launch angle and exit velo, I'm like, you guys, stop it. It's how hard you hit the ball. And we always said ground balls are out. We always said that. Anyways. Trev, let's go to the American League. Hey, Reds, Graham Ashcraft, it always seems like he has a decent start.

And Jake Fraley hits one into the Allegheny, first one since Soto did it in April. So that's pretty cool. That's forever. I mean, to say you. And moose, two-run Homer. Obviously, Malibu Mike Homer. And I didn't even need to say that. Let's do the American League.

No real ad for the American League, but I am wearing my team baggage, warm-up jersey. Trev, we face off tonight. Team baggage versus the forgotten rotten. This is the funnest game I played by far. I try not to put like the Jakey actual stamp on it because we do so much content that if I said like, you need to watch, you need to watch.

Like that would almost be unfair to people. tonight's game it's some of the best content we've done at John Boy Media I started to figure things out it's all I'm going to say you you boys are so

you guys you guys were athletes and you learned and you got better and it's an all-time John Boy Media product like if at the end of the year we did top 10 things like John Boy Media put out I think this would easily be on the list so Jam Warehouse tonight at 6

Maybe a good little warm-up before you watch your team play tonight. Let's do the AL. There's one big storyline in the AAL, and then there's a couple smaller things. So I think we can be fairly tidy with it. Go ahead. In the American League, we are starting off with the shell of my Yankees. Did Josh Donaldson save the season with their walk-off? No!

They get embarrassed at the party in the first. three games. The Blue Jays going for the four game sweep on the day they retire. Paul O'Neill, the Warriors number, and the Yankees say no. Nestor drops it on the table and Andrew Benintendi, does he join the team? Big home run in that game. Hey, Blue Jays, big series for them. They dominate. Good for them. Yankees trying to get out of them. Dole. Days. The Tampa Bay Rays took three out of four from the Royals. How about Petino? Could he be a weapon for them?

That's what Kevin Cash was saying. He pitched well in that first game. The Rays are going, man. The Rays are going. They get really good pitching efforts. McClanahan, again, Yarbies, sorry to go for them. Royals run the second game of that series. I keep telling you about Brady Singer.

Circle that one. Draft him on your fantasy team next year. He's a, it's click. It's clicked. Speaking of clicking, the Baltimore Orioles win two out of three against the Red Sox, finishing out in the Williamsport game. The Orioles put up a 15 burger the first night. Sheesh! That's a big number. Waka came back for the Sox, 5.2 shuddy. Good for him, man. And my guy for Dugo's been starting to go. I told you guys, he was too good for where his stats were at. the Williamsport game

Orioles win Bogart's Clips my guy Felix Bontea that was fun the better team won the Orioles the better team won that series speaking of not that athletics take two out of three

from the Mariners Oakland going to the Coliseum this time of year you're going to see young guys trying to make it in the bigs and that's what you saw J.P. Sears came over in the Montas Strait he pitches the last game and he out duels Castillo, A's. They take two out of three from the Mariners. That's not what

Mariners had circled coming into that set. Rangers have taken two out of three from Trev's twins. Trevor Plouf was in the building, and they're actually playing game four of this series tonight. A little wraparound series we always love that. I mean, the story is off the field. It's all the legends in the stands, the M&M boys. Dinarz Spann, taking picks with Treves, Olivia a ploof. I'll stop talking about that. How about Ariara comes back for Texas six shutout? Good for him, man. Oh, and Taylor Hearn dropped it on the table because he is that dude. Tigers take two out of three from the Halos. Angels won the first game. Sandeval. Nine shut piece, a one-nothing game. That was the only game. The Halos won. The Tigers took the next two.

even finishing it off on Otani Day. Riley Green, 448, longest home run Otani's ever given up. Ooh, go on with your bad self. What? White Sox at Guardians. They split two as game three gets postponed. White Sox went on Quato Day, and that's obvious. Tristan McKenzie, who?

He's got that dog in him. How about it? Um, Grandal, he's going to the aisle, but he avoids major knee injury. That's your news there. Uh, the AO mid is just so mid. And that's, that's kind of where it ends for me. That's what happened in the American League. What'd you say about Olivia?

Uh, there was some good stuff on social media. Her, Dynard Span, some, some, your family, friends. Um, Trev, the standings in the American League, if you don't mind. Uh, the New York Yankees have an eight. Eight game lead on Tampa and Toronto. Thank God the Yankees won yesterday. Otherwise, it would be a six-game lead over the Blue Jays. Instead, it's eight for them and Tampa.

Baltimore is 10 and a half back. Baston is 14 back. The Cleveland Guardians are in first place in the central. They're a game and a half up on the Twinkies. They are two and a half up on the Chicago White Sox. and Houston continues to dominate 11 and a half game lead on Seattle. In your AOL wild card. Treve, you're going to like this.

The boys are locked up. Tampa and Toronto are 65 and 55. Seattle is 66 and 56. They are all even, which when we start talking about the stimulator or we start talking about playoff matchups, boy, is that going to be fun to shake up? And then outside looking in right now from the mid division, Minnesota's two and a half back of those teams.

The White Sox are three and a half back, while Baltimore is 2.5 out. Trevor, how are you? How are you? You want to start with Minnesota? You want to start with Taryn Vavra? I taught to his father, Joe. The Orioles are for real.

How is Joe Varvra? He's doing well. Do you send my best? I didn't talk about you. once this whole weekend, but that's not true. Anything on you. I was busy. You know, that's a lie.

Where are we starting? Where do you want to start with the AAL? Trev, it starts with the Yankees. They hosted the Blue Jays. They are still spiraling out of control. Depending how you cut up the stats, it's one of their worst stretches in team history. It is, Trev.

It's incredible. Thank God they won yesterday, because where would we be right now? Holy smokes. Thank God for Nestor Cortez. Thank God for Nestor Cortez Jr. In a big swing by Andrew Ben Tendi. I guess there's a couple things I want to know from you

because A, the Colmanoa stuff is pretty fun. That puts a little lead in my pencil. I guess the other thing, and I'm genuinely not saying this in D-Bagg, Jake Way, but if you're on a team that's, that's in a bad way if you're losing a lot. Like, what's...

Is it as simple as, like, when it bad as a time, is it as simple, you know, does someone need to freak out? Like, what, what do you do, man? Because the Yankees called up a couple kids. I mean, they've been fun, but not crazy impactful.

Although, as Waldo Cabrera, he has been fun, which the Yankees have needed a little bit of and made some good defensive plays. But, like, what, how do you, how do you shake the tree? I mean, the easiest answer is win, win. Right.

Like, that's it. Like, that's the only thing that's going to cure it. Now, how do you get a victory? It could be a number of things. I don't think it's like intensity or, like, fire for this team. I feel like, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, I feel like everyone's kind of been playing hard. It hasn't been like a white sock situation where people look at them playing ball

and they're like, ugh, you know. So you can tell me if I'm wrong on that. It doesn't seem like that way from my perspective. I honestly think it's just a numbers game. Like we started off so hot. And I tried to tell Yankees fans that as hot as you're going to get now, like throughout the season, you're going to get probably equally as cold.

And that's where we're at now. Now you have to find a way to dig out of this hole. I think it starts with Garrett Cole. I think he, when I talk about the men, I said they're not going to relinquish. that division lead because they have de Grom and Scherzer. They're stoppers. They're never going to get swept in a series because they have those two guys.

Cole has to be that way. You might have to have him and whoever it is. If it's Montess and he's a step up and Nestor has to keep going. In these stretches, it's your starters. They have to go out and just freaking do it themselves sometimes. Or, you know, Judge shouldn't get mega hot again, even though that I guess he did and they were losing games still at that point. I think something has to happen off the field, whatever it may be.

But realistically, it's about getting your starters and having someone go seven, one-earned run. Then the next night have someone go seven shuddy. Like they have to be the guys, especially on the Yankees right now, they kind of answer the bell and stop those losing streaks and like start winning streaks. I think the Yankees path emotionally. Let's get heavy, babe. Because, Trev, you've seen this from us. At the start of August, they showed flashes that they didn't care as much about these games.

And I know you didn't really want to hear that. And hell, I'll tell you, I didn't want to say that. But just from what they were doing with their lineup and sending down, you know, guys who were performing just to keep roster space for other guys, they weren't making their best foot forward to win. From there, it went to straight uninspiring. I tweeted that out one night. Our guy Fayow in the chat just said that.

They have now left that, that you're right. They're back in. Like, there's fire. There's piss and vinegar in them. Boone slammed the table in his press conference. They scored a run in the first inning on a hit and run, and then the Jay's left fielder threw it away, and everyone was given big fist.

pumps and yells. And it wasn't for show. It was like, hey, we get it and we have to go. And, Treve, you've seen how the Yankee fan base is normally. I mean, a little unhinged, a little wired the wrong way. But when you are a 700 win percentage team in the first half, and then they're 10 and 20 in the second half, they're 5 and 14 in August, man. I mean, this was a team that was on a historic win pace for the Yankees. Like we were, you know, remember how many Eps we did where it was like they're on pace for 118 right now? So to be in a funk this bad, they're going to come out.

I just don't know if it's about to happen. They're about to face Scher tonight. That doesn't feel like a good time to come out of funk. Or is it? If you can put up a big boy crooked number against Scherzer, that would feel pretty good. or they're going on a West Coast trip that ends with Tampa. That could feel like a bottoming out. But yeah, man, I'm interested to see when it ends,

because right now it's tough to watch. Joe's McFly has made a career out of watching and reacting to the Yankees. He didn't watch this weekend. He, like, couldn't stomach it, man. It's bad. Look, when you're on a team like this, who had that success, you're mired in just a bad, month, six weeks of baseball,

you kind of got to just accept it and dive into the mud, bro. You got to dive in there and say, we got to do something and get dirty to get out of here. Like we got, you have to. In saying that, Yankee fans,

if I told you your team was another fifth best winning percentage in baseball, and you're going to be up eight games. On August 22nd, you'd be pretty happy. So I'm calling on Yankees fans to just like take a step back, have some perspective on where the season is at.

Now, do we need them to turn things around quickly? Because as you mentioned, it could have been six games last night. Yeah, we need them to turn it around quickly. But I think you're in a good spot. I think tonight's the perfect time to get out of this shit. Scher, we'll see if DeGrom throws tomorrow. You're right, Walker, Mike, it's slotted back in.

Who knows? If you face Scherzer and DeGromm and you win both of those, that's the spark you need. If you win one of those, even that could be the spark you need. These guys are top of the top, but we saw what the Dodgers did to Alcantara. The good teams can beat these dudes.

So I think they should really go into these games with a ton of intensity. I'm sure they will. That place is going to be rocking tonight. It's going to be rocking tonight. So, like, that's the thing about me is, if I'm on the Yankees, there had no chance I'm ever feeling sluggish out there

because the crowd is, you can draw energy from that crowd. You can't say that about every place in the big leagues. You can draw your energy off their crowd. So if I ever see a fucking Yankee player being all like boo-boo lip and like having no energy, I question that guy because all you got to do is looking to the crowd. They're either going to be yelling at you for motivation or they're going to be cheering your ass on for motivation. You can take it both ways.

Yeah, I know we're not ready to go to the Orioles yet, but they won the Little League game and there was big fireworks at the end. And Rushman was just looking at him like, how cool is this, man? I'm playing Major League Baseball and there's fireworks. And that's, you know, Yagy Stadium isn't that every day. But, dude, the crowd has wanted to erupt this whole homestand. And they got to a little bit yesterday. And Trev, Cole and Manoa. Manoa Hicks, Big Aaron Judge, if you don't know, first base was open.

He plunks Judge with a good one, with a good one. Isn't it hit his elbow pad, though? It was hard to tell because his pad goes under the jersey, so it either caught the pad perfectly or it got him, you know, kind of where the horse kicked me in my tricep. People... People were... People were wondering...

Oops. People were wondering if it was intentional. And, you know, Manoa and Judge, they link up a little bit and they're both big boy, big boys. And Manoa gave them like, dude, there's really no reason for me to do that. I've been missing there all day.

Like, and Judge gave him the year good. judge kind of gives the whole bench you're like, let's not, which mixed reaction from Yankee fans there. Oh, really? I mean, why? I can't believe I'm saying this. And dude, we did a whole talking yanks last night

that was deep dive into all the Yankee problems. So if you want to hear that, go check it out. I need to get ready for this. I need to get ready for this. Hold on. Trev. I cannot believe how much I've fallen in love with Garrett Cole

the bench presence and the post the post game interview Garrett Cole. You know, we've made our jokes about him. The two stags thing was an unreal one and some of the ancient warriors, some of the pre-prepared stuff, you're like, what is this? Dude, he has a fire in him that is supposed to be what Donaldson was going to bring to this team and in an intensity. And, dude, he's taking post-game pressers in games he doesn't play in. You know, you know he doesn't have to do that, but he wants to do that.

but he wants to do that. He wants to be a team leader. And he's been pissed off from this streak. And that's where you're absolutely right. If you told Yankee fans before the season, you'd have an eight-game lead on August 22nd. We'd say yes. If you told Yankee fans,

you're going to be horrible after the trade deadline or the All-Star game, and you're going to have one of the worst August ever in team history. I think everyone would say, hold up. If you're the players, that should piss you off. And that's where it's kind of the difference between what a manager and a player should do. And Jimmy hit this last night on Tug and Yanks is that when Aaron Boone does his press conference, you know, he should let out the one hit on the table.

But he should also be the clear head and say, you know what, we have an eight-game lead. Like, we're going to be okay. Like, he's supposed to give those quotes in the media. Judge, he gave a very similar one. And Judge is a stoic guy. Like, that's who he is. He's kind of the Yankee way. I mean, Cole, like Cole's about to go nuts, because he, and that's what New York likes from their players.

That's why Paul O'Neill just had his number retired because he hated losing. He hated making it out. So I don't know. I don't know. I think both sides kind of handled it fine. Manoa, after the game, says Cole, if you want to make something about it, why don't you come past the Audi logo that the Yankees have on their field? you know, being a young, tough, huge guy in the major leagues, it is what it is.

But that's, it was very Blue Jays. Like, that's kind of the Blue Jays demeanor, right? I don't know, man. I think it's, I think these two starting pitchers talking knowing that nothing's ever going to happen between them. That's just all talk to me. Garrett Cole, that's what he did is all for show. There's no doubt about it.

I agree with it. He wants to be that leader. He's being paid to be that leader. He has to be that guy. So I think a lot of things he does He knows the cameras are on him He knows he can get held back He knows all these things

But he wants to he wants us to talk about him in that light I appreciate the effort from Cole I think he is truly fired up to Because I know I've been there Like you get frustrated with times like this Like they want to win a world series dude And they're trending in the absolute wrong direction And what I said about being happy with where you're at

That's just for the fans Right Like players ain't, they're, I mean, pissed. You expect, you want your players to say, we're going to play 700 ball all year long, even though you know that that's not possible necessarily. But, like, you know, I just think that whole situation kind of got overblown. And again, Cole, like, he has to do that stuff.

He should be doing that stuff. You know, I'm fine. I'm actually, like, I've grown to respect and love Garrett Cole. Like, he just is Garrett Cole. Like, he's a little corny sometimes. but it's a hell of a pitcher, and I think he can be a leader there, and he wants to be,

which I think is the most important part. He, uh, dude, some of the post game pressers are border the line between awesome leadership and accidentally hilarious, so I've fallen head over heels for it. And I can't believe that. I mean,

remember that final Astros exit interview when he, you know, they lost the World Series and he had the Boris hat on and how weird that was and he's had a couple weird ones since. He's an interesting dude. And guess what? He should be. he's, you know, he was a guy that turned down being a first-round pick like yourself in high school,

and then he came back and he was the one pick. And, you know, this dude is just wired completely differently than you and I, and that's okay. But I've loved what he's been for this team. Where do you stand on the Blue Jays? Like, it's, we got to see more, or, I mean, are they almost Phillies-esque that this team's probably going to be in the dance, and that's when it's going to be judgment day for them?

And I'm going to be talking about Gossman in a little bit, so I don't know if we need to go there. Yeah, I mean, I think, look, they pitched well this season. Burrios had a good start. Gossman had a good start. So, White only four innings pitch, but, and then Manoa comes and he does his thing for six-nees pitch, one-and-run. So I think that was the main thing.

Springer's been really good. They're a dangerous team. 100% they're a dangerous team. Trending in the right direction. I think that's whoever they have to face. And right now, let me see, I had all this stuff up. What is it? Right now, Toronto would face Tampa.

And I would pick Toronto to win that series. Like I see them, I see this Toronto team getting into a DS series and having to play, you know, whoever they have to play. I think they're really good. That's, it's going to be so funny. And, dude, I think after. Labor Day, how hype we are going to start getting for these potential playoff matchups. Because that one's so fun because the Blue Jays,

they have their guys. I mean, Gossman, Manoa, Berrios, like, you know, they're going to get the pill and the Blue Jays are going to expect a big effort out of them. And that's where Tampa's hilarious. Because say if Gossman were to have a bad day, you know, Toronto's going to live and die by that. Where the race, they don't really care who's on the mound

except McClanahan. like if someone's not there, they're going to kick it to all their weirdos in the bullpen and try to win that. So that's funny that that's the current matchup, so much ball to be played, and those teams literally have the same record right now that we'll see when we get there.

If the Js are one of those teams, that if they get both sides of the ball clicking at the same time, they might, I mean, they're one of the better teams in all the baseball. And that's kind of what it's all about during the playoffs. Can we line up the things that we're, we need to line out. And we should have moved on from this series a long time.

We talked too much Yankees. George Springer. Dude, this was to be genuine, and some of the AAL teams don't want to hear this. That was the big topic in the American League. It kind of really is. So we should move quicker through these other ones. Rays took three out of four from the Royals. Again, not your biggest surprise there.

The game of the Royals won was in 10 innings. Singer versus McClanahan, which I think that's a good game right there. I think that's a good matchup. That's a game you circle more in the coming years. But, you know, Patino's starting to pitch for these guys. Yarborough's turned it on of late. They did get bad news. Wander Franco was supposed to start kind of figuring it out.

He has no timetable to return. I think that's a big one for them. But race don't raise, man. And like they're the race. They are the race. Yeah, Cash, you know, he said right now our goal is to win series. they won their third series in a row. We don't know how they do it all the time,

but they do find a way. The Wander News is troubling. You're banking on him to come back. He's still feeling a little bit of soreness in his wrist. Not great, but I would love. I know Patina went back down to AAA. I had, like, huge high hopes for this guy, especially when he goes over to the raise.

I thought he might, like, turn into, like, shit, what Sandy's turned into. To be honest with you, that's kind of what I thought of this guy. things haven't turned out that way but if you know maybe he gets another shot towards the end of the year

he can stick that would be cool to see but yeah three or four they're winning the games they need to win for sure and by the way Luis Petino is still only 22 so like is he really?

Yeah man so like let's like that guy wouldn't write it off yet that he'll be something because there's a lot of guys that don't get up to the majors until they're 25 or so and dude that something that's evolved

with the raise, that bullpen. Jason Adam has kind of been their breakout guy this year. Pete Fairbanks is back and throwing harder than he used to, my guy. So yeah, man, the dynamics are changing there a little bit. They're seven and two in their last nine. You know, the raise, the rays are going to raise. And Royals. Shout out Max Castillo on the Royals.

He had his big league debut. Pitch five innings, one earned run. So you always got to mention that. It's a great debut. Red Sox and O's. And this is kind of a big series for both of these teams as they try to either fend each other off or go. Orioles end up taking two out of three. And it all finishes at the Little League World Series game, which I decided I'm a huge fan of.

Man, everything around that was so much fun. The guys arriving and sliding down the hill was super cool. Even that backdrop of all the little kids sitting in the front row behind home play in that game. It's awesome. You know, it's easy to always be tough on MLB and Uncle Rob, the Little League World Series game. They kind of got that figured out. I know, you know, Orioles Red Sox this time of year

wasn't exactly the dream dream matchup for this stage, but it was also awesome. I mean, not to be rude to Orioles fans, they've been the upstart team this year and all of that. But them showing up to the stadium and getting that much love, it was almost like the Orioles deserve this. Like the Orioles truly deserve this. and they end up taking two out of three,

which for those two teams right now, that's really important for Baltimore. It really is. I really enjoyed watching them turn into the team that they've turned into. I frequently mention a couple guys in our team, Vabra and Mateo. Vavra just is because I know him. Mateo's a ton of fun to watch play.

I think the Red Sox, I know they're fighting to stay in it. They're like six and a half back now, two games under 500. I don't know if they got what it takes to turn it around. Maybe, Jake. Maybe. I just don't foresee that happening.

It's their good guys are so lovable. Bogarts takes Felix up top. That was pretty nuts. You know, I love Verdugo. You got to love Devers. It just doesn't feel like it. And, you know, you're starting to run out of time to say now or never. and there's a lot of teams ahead of them, man,

that it feels like we're nearing the end of this. And man, watching that game last night, it wasn't like, how do these Orioles do it? It was like, no, the better team won. And that's where we're at. The Red Sox are last place in the ALE East. Rushman has been, you know, kind of the reason I posed a question of Joe's early team baseball today.

Like, is he going to catch Julio Rodriguez and an A.L. Rookie of the year? He might. Vegas still has him as the second favorite at plus 300 Julio's got a sizable lead in that regard

but like if you look at the numbers like Rushman's just been like better offensively the war isn't there because Julio steals a little bit more bases but I think they both play premium positions like Rushman and if you're an Orioles fan you're just very excited about the future

and not to mention this year I think this year is still in play which is like thinking about how crazy that is for us to say, Jake. It's crazy. We all predicted them to be under 62 and a half wins, I believe. Yep. I think we might lose that one.

I think we might lose that one, man. And we know that every year there are teams that just kind of answer the bell and figure things out. And I guess last year we could have said it was the Mariners and they fell a little bit short there at the end. They're hoping the Orioles don't suffer that same fate. But they were the team this year, man. They just kind of came out of nowhere, played a little bit of different brand of base.

I guess them and the Guard. you can kind of probably say the same thing about, although the Guardians had that starting pitching that we liked, but they've just kind of done it in a different way. I feel like you can say the same thing about the Orioles. And Rushman's an absolute superstar. If you watch that guy's press conferences too, I mean, he's like happy go lucky.

He's got a little like glass now in him that he's like, you know, kind of life's bigger than baseball, but also baseball is awesome. So let's do this. He's incredible. A's Mariners. A shout out to the A's for taking two out of three from the Mariners. They take the second game in extras there.

And man, it's, you know, the A's call up Langelears, the big prospect, the big catching prospect in the Oakland trade. You know, they got J.P. Sears throwing the pill for them. He was the Yankees starting pitcher. They got back for Montas. So, you know, it's easy. Kind of like I said about the Cubs. they're in different classes.

But, you know, there's something to be said about an Oakland team in August, a bunch of young dudes doing it at the MLB level, and they take two out of three from Seattle. So bad news, Blackburn will be shut down for the season. You hate to see that. But, yeah, Sears out dueling Castillo on that final day. That's a fun one. I saw some bad stuff on the A's this morning going around on Twitter.

Sure. Chad Pinder, my guy, highest-paid. A at 2.75 mil. Oh, man. I don't know what there is to say about the A's. The Mariners, you know, they lose on a tough one in the middle game. Yeah, the chopper. You can't field the chopper.

I don't know, man. I don't know what to say about the A's. The Mariners, Swares, creeping towards his freaking RBI total, had the two homers, five RBIs. His spleen looks really good. He's still striking out a lot. But the one ball he hit was like a curve ball. He smashed into left field.

Such a pretty freaking swing, man. Go Mariners. Yeah. For the Mariners. Figured out Mariners. Same record they had at this point last year. So that's a funny one there. Isn't it really?

Yeah. Yeah. They're all jumbled up there at the end of the wild card. Like you said, 65 and 55 and 66 and 56. Yeah. What do you got on that? got on that. You're taking Mariners, Toronto

and Tampa Bay. You think it's going to be those three teams? You have Minnesota, two and a half, Baltimore two and a half, Austin, three and a half, or, excuse me, Chicago, three and a half back. Yes, I do, because I think the A.L. Central will still shake,

but I don't think one of them will get the wild card. I think those are the three best teams. Yeah, I mean, Tampa is just a really well-run organization. Toronto and Seattle have silly talent on their team, man, that, like, those teams in a playoff series can take down anyone in baseball.

That I know the National League is scarier on paper, but if Toronto and Seattle can be the best versions of themselves, dude, that's in a three-game set. Never mind a five-game set. You don't want to play those guys, man. They're really good. They're really good. Any on the field takes from Twins Rangers?

Oh, boy. Yeah, you know, both those teams kind of seem like the, like the Rangers don't necessarily have a direction. I did get to talk with Simian a little bit. I talked with my guy back here. Brad T. Hunj is mad at me. I didn't make contact with him. I was just busy, man.

I'm sorry. More on him later. Yeah. More on him later. Okay, good. All the things I'm hearing about the twins is it's the same kind of problem. We're still missing some starting pitching. Offensively, we can get it done.

We have a lot of guys kind of playing out of position. I did see Jose Miranda make a nice play at third base. But it's just, it's like there's just enough there, and you have to get everything out of every single player to win that division. And that's not what you want to have as like your, strategy. Like you understand they're going to be underperformances. There are going to be guys that maybe step it up. And like I said, they have some good players in the team. It really, to me, it just, it's all going to come down to the pitching. And I mean,

on both sides, the starters and the relievers, they have some good relievers in the back. But I just don't think that they have the guys to move ahead in the division. And then if they made the wild card, like I just don't think they have the guys to go ahead ahead. I've been trying to convince myself otherwise, but when I went in there and talked to guys around the organization, it almost feels like everyone's feeling the same way. Like, man, this has

kind of been going on for quite some time. I had some stuff that we might have to talk about off. Off being said. But it's, they got to figure out ways to develop starting pitching. Or they got to find ways to go out there and get it via trade or

agency. I mean, Molly, he went down. He's on the IL now. I don't know, man. Archer had a pretty good start when I watched them. That was cool to see. And I hate, I hate talking bad about these guys because I do know them all and I do like them all, but I just don't think, I think that's kind of where they're at. Like, they have to have everything, everything has to go perfect for them right now. And that's just not a way to construct a baseball team. Yeah, the fact, Rocko's got to answer questions about Duran starting ever again. It's like, that's, that's just not what you want to be talking about. at this point of the year. That's good that Arch had a good start while you guys are out there.

That's cool. It's your boy. He's good. Yeah, no, he looked good. They end up losing that game in extras. Fun game, but cost it. Tigers Angels, I think I'll give you 30 seconds, Treve. The thing that stand out are the performances, Sandeval, Manning,

what's his Riley Green Clips O'Tonnie. I think those performances are cool, but baseball-wise part of this season, I kind of got nothing. I love that, Riley Green Homer. Yeah, that was cool. He smacked that in that triangle out there. A lot of balls go to die out there.

His one is deep, almost to the bricks out of the center. He's talented, man. He made a nice diving catch in center field. I hope we're, I hope next year's Tigers can be a lot more fun. than this year's Tigers. Five shut from Erod. First start since May 18th. Remember that whole thing?

I mean, I don't know. You're giving an award to Sandalball? I'm not. I'm not. I feel you got to mention that performance there. He does the Maddix. Complete game shutout, 97 pitches. I got a lot of his baseball cards.

Always have to mention that. Nine K's four hits. He faced one batter over the minimum. That's an incredible. incredible start. Completely game. On the road. Complete game, Shuddy.

He's having a really nice year, and he seemed like one of those guys you circled coming into this year that if he did this, that would be really big for the Angels. Unfortunately, it is not. It is not, but a really big year from him. 20 starts a 3-1-4.

And Trout looks good. It came back. Looks good. Get the shit out of some balls, made some catches. And then tough one here, Trev. Two games between the White Sox and the Guardians. I think, again, it's more performance-based.

I think you're going to hear about one of these performances very soon. I think you might hear about two of these performances very soon. So I don't know. I don't know. I think we're coming up on my two weeks where I said the White Sox would take the division, and they're still two and a half back. So I kind of ail mid.

I think mid, some good pitching performances. I think we're going to talk about both of them. in a little bit so we can't really go into them. There's some interesting quotes by Quedo and obviously LaRusa is always something for Guardians fans. Nolan Jones gets optioned down. Palacios gets recalled.

Jones came out banging initially. Then he's just six for his last 37. So I think they're maybe saying, hey, while we can go get some reps in and then I guess they'll have to decide if they bring him back up. because it takes 10 days so they won't be able to call him back up

unless there's an injury for him to be eligible for the postseason that's an interesting one for me no you have to be on the 40 man you just have to be in the organization you have to be on the 40 man just in the organization by September September 1's the cutoff

yeah because that was the whole exactly that's what I'm saying but no if you're if you're on the you're good that's what Iglesi is for the Red Sox. He couldn't do it last year because he wasn't on the order yet. I was, I'm, oh, okay. Yeah, he'll be good. Okay. Why am I thinking that? Are you sure? It's a little bit tricky. It's a little bit of a tricky rule. It's kind of like reverse NBA, NBA, like wants you to

have late. Wait, wait, hold on, because I'm going to, you guys need to explain this to me, because previously, if you weren't up, if you were up in September, you weren't eligible for the postseason roster, you had to be up by August 31st. You have to be, I thought it was you have to be on the 40 man before September 1st. BPD is saying you have to just be in the organization. So it's. The nerd blogs I read say in the organization. I think the only reason that rule is implemented is for the Jose Iglesias situation

that if a team cuts and runs on a veteran in September, that they all can't go to the same team, kind of. I think. but again, one of baseball's trickier ones. Trev, there is one last just really good series that was the only interleague series. I don't think we need to play the tunes on it. Braves Astros, I mean, talk about potential world series here.

Two of the best teams linking up in an interleague series. The Braves take the first two, the second game. goes to 11 innings. There's some Matt Olson date my daughter stuff. Travis Darno is getting involved. Ozuna from the Braves is a situation. I'm going to defer the kickoff, man. What do you want from this series?

Shout out Kyle Wright, you know, doing his thing. He's got 15 wins on the season. He's been really good. I think that's really good for the Braves, you know, seeing his developments. That was a good game for the Braves. They kind of just took it to them. Then the second game was kind of like the back and forth type game.

You know, Matt Olson has, I love our notes talking about Matt Olson's game time double, check swing through the shift ground ball type situation. And then Darneau with the walkoff single in the 11th. It was 1-1-1 through 9. Both teams scored 2 in the 10th, and the Asher scored 1 in the 11th, before the Braves scored the two to walk it off. And then the last game was a nice pitchers duel. Or Q, he goes seven innings pitch, two in runs.

And Morton goes six innings pitch with two run runs. 11 freaking K's. And Tucker had to go ahead RBI single in the eighth. The Braves is playing really good baseball. They took three or four from the Mets and then took two or three from the Astros. Like, yeah. Five and two in those two series is like as good as you could. hope to do and if you're a Braves fan you're just like you're rocking and rolling right now i mean

everything is everything is going the Braves way right now everything your young guys are coming up it wouldn't shock me of von Grissom had a freaking contract by the time the years over some team friendly deal that locks him up to he's been like you talk about spark plugs and what as waldo cabrera has been like von Grissom has been every bit of that every bit of that the energy that he plays with his really palpable. And him and Michael Harris, the second, and then you throw in Strider there. I mean, you're talking about just incredible,

incredible performances by young guys that really just take this team to, like, the next level. You know, Kyle Wright, I think he just won his 15th game. Like, it's unreal, the youth on that team. And, man, this is just high-level baseball. I know it sounds dumb, but, I mean, just look at both of these start, I mean, Strider and Javier, both go six-in-end and, one earned.

Orkidian Morton, seven innings two, Morton six, two. Like, just a high-level brand of baseball. Two of the best teams in baseball. And you're right on the Braves, man. Like you leave that stretch, and now you're going Pittsburgh off days.

St. Louis, so that'll be an interesting one. And then they start a homestand with Colorado. Like, these guys might give the Mets a scare, and I just, I didn't think they would. And it's, they're so good. They're such a good franchise. They're in a great position right now. I mean, they're most likely, like I said,

they're going to have to play a wild card matchup because the Mets schedule just kind of allows them, I think, to keep the leading the vision. Dang, the Braves are good, man. They're good. You know who else is good? So many guys, the standout performance list was as good as it gets.

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I'm giving it to two pitchers, both from the AL mid, as Jake likes to call it. Johnny Quato mentioned him. two-thirds, shuddy, only two Ks, which I love. A lot of soft contact there, one walk, and the other guy is Tristan McKenzie, our friend, who's been doing it all year, seven innings pitched, two earned runs, 14Ks and no walks. I wanted to just give the Tristan because of that.

Cici was in attendance, and Tristan said that was, like, unbelievable to do that in front of, like, one of the guys who was his idol. He's got a sub one whip 311 ERA. Like he's turned into who the guardians thought he would turn into. And it's really cool to see. He's still skinny as all hell. So it's funny that C-C-Sy is like his idol because it's like the opposite. And then Quato gets taken out, you know, one out before a complete game.

But he has been absolutely. We talked about him quite a bit. He started the whole like White Sox need a fire thing as he went out into the media and said that. but he he's the fire yeah dude he's got 17 games started this year and he's got a 258 and a 4-1 baseball reference war johnny quato guys who is 36 years old who like was an afterthought you bring him in and you're like okay we'll see what this guy can do he's been their best pitcher him and cease yeah cees has so but him and see i mean these guys have just again both of them kind of afterthoughts I know C's had, you know, a little bit momentum coming into the season, whatever, whatever, but Quato's really held this team together.

And McKenzie is just one of my favorites. So I wanted to mention them both because there were a lot of really good stand-up performances this week. Sticks has the whip under zero, 23 games, a 3-1-ERA. And by the way, we've said it a few times, but we won't say it enough. You won't meet a nicer dude. Dude just wanted to hang out at her spring training house, and he did for hours. super friendly with everyone. There's also a funny video.

Him and Joe's played MLB the show. You can go find that for a good time. And yeah, dude, he's been lights out lately. And I mean, what's that, 14Ks? No walks. That's no joke, man. I mean, that's, you got to be pretty special to do that. I know his curveball.

It's one of the best in the league when it's right. And Quato, yeah. The White Sox would be irrelevant to this season. if not for Johnny Quato. 100%. 100%. That's insane. That's insane.

Trev, I want a different route with it. Because, again, I mean, George Springer, five hits. You can always talk about pool holes. Sandival, you mentioned the Maddox. I'm going with Dustin May because of the importance of what it could mean for this season. Dustin May comes back, returns to the Dodgers in 2022. I remember when he went down last year,

it was kind of just this damn, all around baseball, including us, where it was like, I mean, this dude's next. It feels like this dude's next, and he was going to be missing from our lives. Well, guess what? He's back, and in his first game back, five innings pitched, one hit, nine strikeouts.

No earned runs, 71 pitches. You talked about the Dodgers pitching whoever's hot, and sometimes we don't talk about the Dodgers a lot because they're so good. There's not a ton of juicy conversation to be had there. Their pitching come to postseason, there is juicy conversations they have there. And if Dustin May looks like this guy, he's going to be a guy that's pitching big postseason innings for them. And it's some of the grossest pitches in the sport to the fact that, you know,

you'll remember some of my Dustin May takes were, pretty wonky because I was like maybe his fastball moves too much. Which you did say that. That doesn't really make sense and I acknowledged that at the time. But God, man, he, uh, he's back. He's back and he may be the most talented pitcher on the best team in baseball. I don't know. We'll see.

That's interesting for the Dodgers because you have him coming back and then if you get Kershaw coming back, they're talking about possibly going to, to a six man through September, or they can get one of these guys ready for the pen, which is a Dustin May guy. You put him in a pen or do you keep him as a starter? Like, I think maybe that's the answer. I don't know.

It gets tricky because I like that, because look how good Eureas was out of the pin for them, and they used him out as a weapon. But also coming off, T.J., maybe they just want to keep him regular, that he knows when he's getting the pill. but it's going to be an interesting conversation in Dodgerland. It's kind of the only conversation because their lineup is stacked.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, they have the three guys at the top. It'll be Alexander Urius Gonsland. They'll figure out four, which could be May and Kershaw, and then I guess they can move some other guys, Heaney and Pepio to the pen and kind of, I don't know. They got a lot of options, which is, of course they do because they're the Dodgers. It's good to have options.

Bebs, these guys haven't had some good options over the last little bit. And it's slump watch. Unfortunately, we see Taylor Ward on here. Super interested to see where his season ends up at. Remember when he was the talk of the town. A couple pedals. All-J-M team for a little bit. He goes O for 11.

Havi Bias, man. Let's hope we get the real Havi Bias next year for Detroit. Luis Urius, ooh, hate to see that. He goes 0 for 10. Nico Horner, as I give him compliments. He did put up in 0 for 9. The defense is really nice. And, you know, the hitting's been pretty good this year, too,

so that'll come around. And then Lordus Gurriel Jr. He goes 1 for 13, so, hey, of everyone on this list, he's killing it. but we want to see all of those guys turn it around so there's your slump watch give me the good stuff now dirt nasty's on fuego that means I'm on fire baby

like wakeo Trev you want to tell me about these big boys you might be muted definitely muted I muted myself because Eila was in here trying to ask me some questions in Fuego we start with our pool holes five for eight two homer

we saw him against Bumgarner. He got hit by a pitch too. Paul Goldschmidt, who's like just been on this list the entire time. We should call it the Paul Goldschmidt list. Seven for 14, two homer, six ribbies. Mark Kana, we saw him. Is it Ken or a Kana? I play with the guy.

I have no idea. Same difference. Four for 10, two homers, big bat flips. Erieneos Suarez, hate that you're on this list, but love you, bro. Four for 11, two homers. Six ribbies. Say a Suzuki. Love to see you here.

five for 11 a homer two doubles two rbis uh Nate low I always have to remember which one it is Nate low 7 for 14 a homer two RBIs Anthony Santander 6 for 13 a homer two doubles

and five ribbies Our guy Adley Rushman 6 for 13 a homer a double two RBIs and then you're going to help me out with this one Edley Uhires Montero All around it yeah

3 for 13 with three Jimmy Jacks though in six RBIs, and that is who was Enfuego at the plate. If all of your hits are home runs, you get a chance to be on Enfuego. Baseball reference has that first name as Alarice, Montero. Alarice. We'll double check with Kelsey Winger, and we're about to check with Kelsey Winger.

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One per customer, minimum $5 deposit in a wager, $200 issued at $8.25-free bets. God, I'm kind of fucking crispy. Hit it, Bebs. Awards. Treve, you have the honors. Just need to hang around Kelsey Moore. Yeah, good energy.

Good vibes. Can't replace that energy. Unbelievable. All right, mine is, I don't have a good... Oh, yeah, I did. I came up with a good name for it. The Iron Bank.

Yep. Everyone knows the... What's the Game of Thrones prequel that's out now? House of Targaryen, House of Dragons. Yep. Watch that last night. Olivia tried. She fell asleep.

Yeah. Unfortunately for, I'm probably going to rewatch it today. I thought it was excellent to go check out. The Iron Bank. Everyone knows about the Iron Bank. You need the Iron Bank to be successful. And yesterday, the Mets needed the banker to be successful. Yes, I'm talking about lefty Nate Fisher.

Now, I wasn't familiar with the story until this happened. And Mark Kana, who's on his team, wasn't familiar with the story either. He comes in, makes his debut. he throws three scoreless. He has to wait out a rain delay to do it. All of his families and attendance. And the reason we're calling him the banker is, you know, he's undrafted out of the college.

He signs with the Mariners. Goes and has a minor league season there. And then COVID happens. And I've heard this story quite a bit with COVID. Where a lot of guys, the minor league season got shut down. If you weren't at the alternate site, you were just literally at home, you know, trying to figure out something to do.

So he, with all the uncertainty, took a job at a bank from one of his former former coaches, started working there. No shame in that. You know, I understand. That's how things go. Then he got the opportunity to the following year, signed up a minor league free agent deal with the Mariners again. Then this year, signed a minor league free agent deal with the Mets.

So he's kind of been working his way up. Gets the debut last night. Works around a walk in the first inning. Then the rain delay happens. But he said, fuck it. I'm going to continue pitching. There's like a 45-minute rain delay, goes out there and throws two more,

is instrumental in a huge win against Philly. And I think it's just really cool. Like he just, he did what he had to do. Like you go to work because there's some uncertainty. Then you come back and you decide you want to pitch again and you work your way back up to the big leagues and pitching a really meaningful game,

shared it with all his families and friends. And man, like, hats off to him. three scoreless with the rain delay is a pretty cool debut story. So Iron Bank, Nate Fisher, King's Landing needs the Iron Bank. Queens needs Nate Fisher, the Iron Bank Award. I mean, I love it. It's one of those, you hear a story like this in baseball. And yeah, man, I mean, put it in the Mets magic pot this year that this dude comes

and makes his debut and has that kind of performance. Passing was tweeting about it, which is really good. You know, passing, he gets really Roman ready for a story like this. And this is awesome, man. And, hey, you know, the life in the bullpen, guess what? Our friend and colleague, Peter Moylan, didn't make his major league debut until he was 27, and then he had a 12-year career out of the MLB bullpen. So I don't know.

I don't know what the rest has for Nate Fisher. I hope the story continues to go like something about something like that. But good for him, man. And that's a, that takes a lot, man. It takes a lot to leave it and then come back and still believe in yourself that you'll get that opportunity. So good for him, man. And I hope he's nails.

Go shove. And that's every team can use bullpen. Let's talk about you in October, kid. Big old lefty bang or two. Give me that. I mean, you take that up top, but that's good news for you. That's true.

You're not out there. I'm out of the league. Yeah, he doesn't have to worry about that. He doesn't have to worry about that. Jim. Oh, Jim. Geez. Treff.

Sorry. I'm going to give out the gymnastics award. I guess that's why I was thinking about Jim, known gymnast. And it has Jim in the name. Trev I know you have a passion for gymnastics Pommel horse the rings

uneven bars all of that floor routine and something you often see in a floor routine is a good split and holy smokes Kevin Gossman Kevin Gossman and the Jays we talked about them a little bit got him got him

uh Kevin Gossman the stat I had no idea for you yeah I said pick them up to put them down baby Kevin Gossman

he's thrown over 700 splitters this year 700 times he's cocked back from the mitt had that ball jammed between his fingers let it rip over 700 times only one time has it been barreled

only one time has that pitch I think I know who did it. Been barreled. Who do you think got him? I think it was on the Orioles. Am I right? I can try to double check it quick.

Oh, if you don't have it in front, you don't worry about it. Yeah. Oh, I do have it. It's my guy. Andrew Vaughn got him. How about that? Full circle. White Sox legend.

So that's one of those stats that you hear things about baseball and you're like, wuga, wuga, wuga, how does that happen? How can that pitch be so, so good that guys can't hit it? I mean, the splitter itself is an interesting pitch, but a bad splitter is a really hitable pitch. When a bad splitter just kind of comes in at 85 and sits over the middle of the plate, you need a new ball usually.

He's only given up one barrel on his splitter this year. He's impressive, man. He's been really good for a few years now. and when we talk about the Blue Jays, there's a really good chance they're going to be in the dance. There's a really good chance this guy's going to be on the big stage.

And guess what? If it's a one-two count or an O-2 count, you're in for a bad time. He leads the ale and FIPP. And yeah, I mean, he's a guy that any given day, you can bring your bat to the plate, but it just might not work. So I want to give Gossman a little bit of love.

And hopefully Toronto can continue, can get a little hot and announce themselves coming into the playoffs because that's the talent this team has. And Gossman Manoa, man, if it's one of those three games series, that might be all you see. That might be all you see. So shout out to Gossman for being a stud. Basically an unhittable splitter.

And that's kind of all I got. You got a best friend? Oh, do we have a best friend? It is Taylor Hearn, Hearn, Hunge, three perfect innings, five strikeouts, first career save. Three innings save, love that rule. His first best friend of the week award this year, he's up to 18 guys who have received it this year. Got a lot of friends. We got a lot of friends.

Yeah, it sounds like not a lot of best friends, just friends. Should we do the all best friends team to end the year? that's a good way to make enemies for no reason. That is a good. I like that. Taylor Hearn, you're on the best friend. I'm sorry I didn't reach out to you. He's awesome.

I was texting him yesterday, so sorry about it. He saw me. And I think, I sure did. I've got a really good quote from him that I think the elevator's closed today. He asked me how I'm doing. I was like, good man, busy getting through the dog days. And Taylor Hearn said, Dog days ain't meant

Dog days ain't meant for puppies And last check, Big Jake ain't no puppy So Does he want you on the Rangers? He kind of wants me on the Rangers Maybe that's your retirement manager He's seen the blitzball He's seen the tape

Check sucks Thank you everybody We'll see you Wednesday Hugh Joe Hugeo People were complaining about us saying the rays are going to ray. I want to know what that means.

It means they win. We'll tell you next step. I'll add him. I'll add him Fraser tree. Gabe Crawford.