Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Rangers Add Scherzer & Angels Make MORE Moves! | 695

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINGo to http://shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses.Visit http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.Get 20% off your subscription or try the app FREE at https://fitbod.me/talkin++++Timestamps:0:00 All the buyers are losing3:50 Dodgers Trade for Lance Lynn & Joe Kelly9:45 Justin Verlander Rumors13:00 Mets Trade Max Scherzer to the Rangers!27:10 Do NOT Ignore Jordan Montgomery31:50 Toronto Blue Jays Trade for Jordan Hicks!42:50 Nicky Lopez and Taylor Hearn Swapped46:15 Angels Trade for CJ Cron & Randal Grichuk!56:35 PROGRAMMING NOTES58:00 Juicy Deadline!1:00:20 Padres SWEEP Texas Rangers!1:07:55 Reds Beat Dodgers, Braves SWEEP Brewers1:11:45 Aliens are Real1:14:30 Giants Beat Boston1:19:00 Cubs NOT Selling Bellinger or Stroman1:27:55 Jose Abreu & Houston Went Off1:30:10 Josh Palacios Walk-Off Homer on His Birthday!1:32:15 En Fuego1:36:00 Injury Updates1:39:40 Crybaby Award: Bobby Witt Jr.1:45:40 The Fans in Attendance 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. The trade deadline is here. We had a couple big moves. Did your team survive? Wow. Hello and welcome to talking baseball. Feisty episode. Feisty episode.

Did your team survive? Are they selling? Are you buying? How about Wrigley? Let's have a summer. And coming live. from Michael Rubin's mansion

yeah Trevor Plouf how are you Michael Rubin and I are friends true no doubt about that yes we've met each other exchanged pleasantries I'm not at his mansion though

oh my no no yeah things are great here I'm excited to talk some ball like it's coming down to it the headline says it right here straight deadline is tomorrow things are getting nuts

all the teams that are buying players are losing. That's hilarious to me. Like all the teams that are going all in are losing games right before the trade deadline. You think they want to say, hey, can we just do that again? Let's not do that trade. We want to sell now. Crazy, dude. There's some funny stuff going on.

But I love it, man. This is one of the funner parts of the season. I think it goes opening day. It's like a Quran pot. Opening day is great. And then it's the trade deadline, which is, you know, second best. And then the best is September, October, all that stuff. Trev, I mean, it's so funny.

Hunter Renfro doesn't run into one last night. And I think we're destroying the Angels, like all episode. But he does. And you get to play another day. It's a sick sport. We did one of our most emotional episodes of Talking Yanks last night. And just hearing myself say that, I wanted to punch myself. But no, if they won last night, we would have been like,

Like, yanks are back. Judge is back. Like, let's go. Instead, they lost, and it's like this organization is a joke. How do they not have lefties? And it's that time of year, Big Daddy. So make sure you get your tickets from Seat Geek. Go see your team.

Today could be the last day to see your favorite player. If you're a Rockies fan and you love C.J. Crohn and Randall Gritchick, is their last time playing in that Rocky, Purple and Black, man? God, that's, I'm getting chewed up just thinking about it. What? What do you mean? Why would they still be playing in that? What are you talking about?

It was their last time playing in it. They're done. When? They're out yesterday. Yeah, you can't see them anymore in purple. You can't. So go to Seat Geek, code talking. $20 off your first purchase at Seat Geek.

$20 off your first purchase. Download the app. Use Code Talking. $20 off, go to a game, go see your Randall Gritchick or C.J. Krohn for the last time or the first time out in Anasline. Trev, like we talked about beforehand, I think we're finding something that coming up on the deadline, these episodes are different because there's just different stuff to cover in baseball. So we're diving into the trades. we are a Cronpod, the first one on the list, your guy, Lance Lynn,

and my guy, Joe Kelly, get traded to the Dodgers. How about that? Trace Thompson goes back to the White Sox, which is tough, and then a couple prospects, I think Nastrini, if I'm saying that right, I think he's kind of the prospect and the deal. But I thought this was funny, Trev, because this was another starting pitcher release,

Lever rental tag team package, and that's what we saw with Gialito and Lopez. Yeah, and again, to a team that loses the series. But, you know, I think what the Dodgers have to do is not this is not it for them. They need more pitching. Like a lot of the starters have been off, and the bullpen just hasn't been good. So I think there's more in the Dodgers, and we'll see either today or tomorrow. But, you know, getting Lance Lynn is a nice debt piece for a rotation that's, you know, been riddled with injuries, some underperformances from the young guys, some bright spots, but a lot of inconsistency, if you will. And then the bullpen has been something to, you know, that they need the shore up the whole time.

You know, Kelly comes in. He actually, he gets our buddy Benson to strike out looking on a nasty pitch. So he's a guy you can kind of like say, great. he's going to help the pen. You know that he can go on runs back there and really shorten up games for you. He has the stuff. But I expect the Dodgers, this is a first step for me.

Like this can't be the last step for them. You know, Lance Lynn is just, he's been as inconsistent as they come this year. So I see him more as an innings eater type guy, a back of the rotation debt piece type guy where I think they're going to need to go out and maybe swap one of these

young guys who's been kind of inconsistent for like a more proven veteran pitcher a la like a verlander. Like I think they got to do something. Yeah, I think this was we were wondering what the Dodgers were going to be up to. They add Lance Lynn and hey, there's some stuff you like. His K rate is higher than it's ever been. And this is a guy that's had a, I mean, this guy's had an incredible major league career. This guy's thrown almost 2,000 innings. to the tune of a 371.

Like, Lanselin is no joke. Like, I know his Cy Young years almost snuck up on us as baseball fans because we didn't necessarily have him labeled as that guy. He finished top six three straight years, fifth, six, and third. That the rumors we heard, remember there was a raise rumor. We like half talked about it that the rays were in on Lanselan. If the teams that are in on you are the rays and the Dodgers,

there's something in the tank. I think you're right. I don't know what it means playoff-wise for the Dodgers, and that's where their mind has to be. Because Lance Lynn has also been one of the worst pitchers in baseball this year. He's given up the most hits. He's given up the most earn runs. He's given up the most home runs.

So, like, I don't know what they can tap into. I'm not going to bet against the Dodgers. But at the same time, like, Lance Lynn could come over and not be a significant piece that it's kind of what you alluded to. Like, what is next? Yeah, I mean, maybe it's as simple as getting guys healthy. I mean, I think a lot of teams think that way like, hey, let's just get our guys healthy. We like him.

And sure, like right now, who's Kershaw? Obviously, Dustin May, Bueller's, I see him throwing on his Instagram all the time. There's a lot of guys there that, you know, that are on the injured list. And then you have Bobby Miller, who he gave up three runs in the first inning, but then settled down in this start this weekend. I think that he could be a guy down the stretch for them for sure. I don't know, man. It's more than ever, it seems like they really need to make a move. Usually we're sitting here being like, oh, the Dodgers could do this, you know, that.

Maybe this in years past, the Lynn and Kelly thing would be enough for them. But I just think that this year more than never, they've been tested in their pitching depth. And in my opinion, it would behoove them to really go after someone like a Verlander. Who else is out there? We're talking Lorenzen. We're talking Erod. The Padres, they're not selling. They just swept the Rangers.

So Snell is not going anywhere. It doesn't look like Marcus Schroeman is going anywhere. I mean, so there's, here's, I mean, there's flarity out there. They missed on Gialito. They got to do something then. The Dodgers don't sit pat like this, in my opinion. Yeah. I'm going to give myself a.

minipat on the back because jokingly about Joe Kelly all year I have said he's going to find himself pitching in a big inning of a playoff game because that just seemingly happens to Joe Kelly. And man, there's almost, you know, we get player fatigue sometimes. Like, if your team called up Joe Kelly yesterday and you saw his stuff, you'd be like, whoa, this guy's a sicko. Like the stuff that Joe Kelly has is gross. it's just usually a factor of if he can locate it or not and it seems like every October

he finds a way to locate it like the stuff ends up playing that I like I don't want to say I like the ad of him more than Lance Lynn but I don't know man I've just seen Joe Kelly in the sixth inning of a playoff game and like you know he's going to throw gross stuff and like we talked about with bullpins you can't, every team is trying to add a Joe Kelly right now.

Literally every team and we'll get there with Jordan Hicks, but I don't know. You think JV's happening, huh? I mean, here's what the Dodgers can do. Like I said before, they can say, let's wait and let's make sure everyone's healthy. Then you have a, you have Gonslyn, you have Urius, you have Bobby Miller and you have Clayton Kershaw, which, you know, look, that's, for most teams,

I would say they'd be happy to go in with that, more than happy to go in with that, you know. As I'm saying it out loud, it sounds to me like, dang, they could just do that. But knowing the way that they operate, I feel like there's still something. Whether that's another debt piece, like a Flaherty, I hate calling him a debt piece. I don't mean that in a negative way. I don't. I don't.

But I don't think he's a front-of-the-line type starter right now. I think that's okay to say. But no, I guess if they traded for Flaherty tomorrow in their deadline, you know, A, the reunion Dodgers are funny. They brought back Kiki. They're bringing Joe Kelly back. That's a funny storyline. But if they had Lance Lynn and Jack Flaherty,

you know, that's a solid deadline, man. I mean, those are two MLB starters, and I would bet one of them clicks. I think that's kind of what I'm leaning towards is like the depth has been tested enough this year, where I feel like they need to bring in some reinforcements for it. But again, like, is Walker Buehler coming back? Like, is he going to be here at the end of September?

And then all of a sudden, you know, he's not going to throw, you know, seven, eight innings when he comes back. But, like, is Walker Buehler coming back into some sort of like piggyback role, opener role, like, fucking reliever type role? Like, what? I love the deadline, bro. There's so many questions. Yeesh.

And Trev, the crazy part is so much. many of them aren't answered yet. Like, I, I'm obviously talking from a place of bias, but, dude, if my Yanks stand pat make a trade to buy or make a trade to sell, I mean, the amount of fire that builds either way is crazy. So, um, very interested to see the Walker Bueller part of it, our Moxie King, our Yish guy. Um, And yeah, I think you're right. I don't think the Dodgers are done. Like if you're doing this, you might as well do a little more.

And the question is, are they going to figure it out for a Justin Verlander who remember the old Los Angeles rumors with him? Like, that's very much in play. Or could it be like a Jack Flaherty and you're more so, you know, you view him and Lance Lynn as lottery tickets and one of them clicks with the Dodgers coaching staff? I don't know. I don't know. I just googled Walker Bueller

And again, I've been watching his Instagram He's throwing off a mound doing all these things He still says September 1st is his date Some people are saying that's aggressive Walker Buehler doesn't care what people say So dude if this guy comes I don't know man It changes everything if he's in the equation too Speaking of

Max Scher gets traded to the Texas Rangers. The Max Scherzer trade is brought to you by FitBod. Me and Trev have a big event coming up. First week of December. No joke got to tighten it up. Oh, yeah, for sure. Like have to.

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we've the talking baseball fans have seen you go through the ringer with this team and it's the best time ever to be a rangers fan Well, I mean, yes, because they're doing, this is a Texas Holden. You ever heard of it? It's a poker game. Do you know what this means? All in. I mean, dude, they're doing everything they have to do to win this year.

The 10-2. RIP, Doyle Brunson, right? They're doing everything they need to do. Look, I mean, I think Rangers fans were stoked at the beginning of the year. They were stoked last year. I mean, they've been forming this roster now for a couple of years. And Nathan Evaldi, right.

Big part of it. He's hurt now. Obviously, Jacob de Grum, hurt. So it's sad with those two guys, but you have a front office saying, not saying like, dang, like, we tried. We just got to go with what we got. No, these guys are like, we're going to go get Max Scher's or who's been, you know, up and down this year.

but you feel like you trust him. Like this guy obviously has a track record, first ballot hall of famer. And then not only that, but then you bring in freaking Jordan Montgomery, Stratton, like they are, you bring in two front of the line starters

because you lost two front of the line starters. This is how you want your front offices to operate. And they, like I said, they're just pushing all their chips into the middle of table saying, let's do this. Like we have the team to go do this.

We've already made adjustments to the bullpip. before this. Like they're, they understand. I think that, I think having Chris Young there makes them understand the,

really the importance of having pitching depth during the stretch run. Because, you know, it's, it's a long season. And some guys are going to, I think the importance of having depth, like real, like quality depth, I guess is what we should call it.

During this time is, you know some guys are going to be tired at the end of the year. And then you know some guys are going to get hot at the end of the year. And you just want to have enough to choose from where you can find that right mixture. And it might freaking change from the beginning of September to the end of September or maybe even one playoff series to the next. But as long as you have enough guys that are quality that can get into the zone during the playoffs and during the stretch run, and then you can pick and choose from them,

I think that is, it's so key to have that. and Chris Young, obviously being a former pitcher, I think he understands that. Like the offense is going to be what the offense is going to be. Clearly, sometimes you can ride a guy offensively, but it's more of a cohesive unit. But you know when you get into the stretcher and in the playoffs for pitchers,

dude, when it comes down to it in the playoffs, you might run two or three bullpen guys and those are your guys. That's it. Like we're not, the rest of you guys love you. If we're losing the game, you're going to come in. But if we have the lead at all or a tie game, these are our guys, I think he, I think he gets that. So they're stocking up quality, quality debt pieces to the bullpen and then obviously fortifying the rotation where they've had a bunch of injuries. I mean, they're just, they're doing what they got to do, Poppy.

Starting pitchers employed by the Texas Rangers, Max Scherzer, Martine Perez, John Gray, Andrew Heaney, Jordan Montgomery, right-handed Dane Dunning. Jacob de Grom, Nathan Evaldi, Jake Oterizzy, arthroscopic shoulder surgery this year, but I think it's important to know. Those are nine guys that have had, like, at least a good MLB season at some point, or have been Major League starting pitchers for over,

outside of Dunning, you know, over like five years? Like, that's nine guys in their rotation. And I don't know, maybe that should be eye-opening for whatever favorite team you enjoy, if you're thinking about your team's depth, them adding, I mean, those two guys. And I think the timeline is important here too.

Like for all the baseball sickos that live it live it live, whether it's on Twitter or wherever you get your info and your updates, we get the Haman, your boy. We get the Haman update that it's like, Max Scherzer trade is done. Was it Hayman? He was on a lot of this. Okay.

It was Sherzer trade was done, but he hadn't signed off on it yet. So we sat in like two hours of limbo, and then there was a little bit of like Scherzer might say no, like blah, blah, blah. Scher goes through, I'd say an hour and a half after that you find out about Jordan Montgomery. A, Uncle Stevie, we need to talk about him. Because some of the parallels here, Trevor, Something I talked about on Waken, Jake. The Mets, if Steve Cohen is your owner,

your advantage is the money. And that doesn't necessarily have to be just paying free agents. It could be trading away Max Scherzer. And I think he's going to end up eating like 36 mil or something. Or what did the number land out? It's something, it's a lot of money. I think they sent 22.5 million over. It's pretty wild.

And out of that, they get a better process. So they get Ronald Acuna Jr.'s baby bro, Luis N. Hell? Am I saying that right? I haven't checked out a broadcast of his games. But, you know, he's Ronald Cunia's baby bro. He's got like 40 swipes in the minor leagues this year. He's an infielder. That they basically paid the Texas Rangers a chunk of Max Scherzer to get a legitimate

prospect. And, hey, maybe for the Mets in a couple years, it's genius. I love, if your owner doesn't mind spending money that way, awesome. But at the same time, man, if you're the Texas Rangers, the final parallel that Mets fans turn off your ears right now, the Mets had an amazing season last year, right? You know, they won the NLEs all year except the last week of the season. If you remember, they kind of didn't push their chips in last year, Trev.

they didn't Doyle Brunson. They added Vogel back. They added Darren Ruff. Like they tried to increase around the edges, but they didn't do the all-in move. And I think it's kind of, for some of the Mets fans I follow on Twitter, it was kind of ironic that they were like,

hey, love what Texas is doing, wish we did this last year. Yeah, it's interesting. Okay, I don't want to blow this guy's spot up, but I'm vacationing somewhere in, I don't know, I'm in Montauk. Okay. And this is a true story, okay?

I'm not making this shit up. Okay. I'm standing in line waiting to like check in for breakfast. And this older gentleman, you know, 50s. Okay. He starts going like this to me, like looks to me, smiles, and gives me like this. Like the word not worthy thing. I'm like, bro, like that's just rain it in a little bit.

But how are you? You know, we start talking a little bit of ball. Did Liv C? Yeah, I mean. Let's go. Yeah, that's good for me. Nice. Points for me.

We start talking ball. He's a Mets fan. Sure. So we start talking about, or no, he's, excuse me, he's a Yankees fan. He's a Yankees fan. So we start talking about your guys team. And then we start talking about the game that I went to us. He has Mets versus Yankees.

Apparently, one of his clients is Steve Cohen. Don't, again, don't want to blow this guy spot up. But what he says to me about Steve is, we start talking about the trades. I'm like, yeah, it's interesting, man. Like, it looks like the Mets are selling. And, you know, it's, it's Steve Cohen promises a World Series in three to five years. And, and it seems like kind of weird to me. Like, I didn't think they were going to blow it up like this.

I thought that they would try to do something different. He goes, doesn't surprise me. He goes, this is the way that Steve does business. Like, if he thinks something is not working, he's not afraid to just like change, to change course and do something different. So to me, if you look at the situation, you know, they bring in the, this pitching staff of Verlander and Scherzer and Senga. And Senga has been great and he's under contract.

But if you look at Scherzer and Verlander, they're getting up there in age, obviously, not saying they can't be productive, but it looks to me, like especially if they end up dealing Verlander, which I really feel like is going to happen. I think what he's saying is, you know what?

We made a mistake. Like, this didn't work out for us. So let's go back to the drawing board, and you mentioned it already. What are the Mets have? Well, I mean, every team has owners that can spend money. Right. Is there any little secret?

Right. But Steve Cohen's like, he's actually doing it. And what you can look for as a Mets fan is sure, you're, you're punting on this season. You are. There's no way around it. Team didn't perform well. Ask Mark Kana about that. The next year's free agent class of pitching is feature some pretty good guys.

A lot of these guys that are getting traded around the league right now are free agents next year. and a guy like Julio Urias. So, you know, I think there maybe is a wish and a thought by Steve in the front office. Hey, let's go get younger. Let's just go sign these guys, get younger guys, and do that. So that could be where the heads are. The next moves for the Mets are very interesting, A, at the rest of this deadline.

And I think, you know, if you're a Mets fan and they, you know, the day they traded Scherzer, they got blown out by the Nats, like in the first inning. and it was, you know, vibes are obviously not high. I'm interested to see how hard they sell, because, you know, if they're going to go for it next year, Justin Verlander has been really good of late, and that's a guy you might want on your team next year.

So if they don't get the right trade, they might just hold on to them. Because I think what you're saying, Trev, and I believe in it too, like next free agency, we're going to be talking about the Mets a whole lot. Like, they're going to be in the Mets. And I hope like Uncle Stevie kind of becomes a legend because basically I think we're assuming like he admitted defeat, which some of us aren't great at. I've talked about a couple times. Like if you're in a front office, you only get so many chances at this to be like we screwed up.

It didn't happen. A, you got to be bad. B, you have to admit it. And they admitted it. So I'm interested to see what the next steps are. Are they going to win free agency again? Because if you win free agency again and then you lose on the field, I mean, heads will roll.

Like you have to. Well, I think it. Yeah, I mean, you're a new owner coming into a business. I think there are layers to a major league organization. If you go out and spend in free agency the way they've spent and you don't have like a good enough supporting cast or depth in your minor leagues. Then you start to think, well, shit,

we need to start talking about the development of our players. And that's a whole different thing to tackle. Getting minor league coaches, a minor league system that you think works, a scouting department that you like. I still believe, like, they don't have a GM or they don't have a baseball ops guy there, right?

Something like that. That's a whole other thing to tackle. Like, I don't know how far long we are in that, in the Steve Cohen era, like how deep he has gone into the, the organization and obviously I'm sure he's done some due diligence on it but to restructure that is a complete undertaking and something that you know I'm sure they'll work on

eventually I'm just gosh I can't imagine they're focusing on that as well as what they're doing at the big beat roster it's crazy and we need to go back to Texas we'll we'll see what else the Mets do as they unfold this whole thing Jordan Montgomery is not a bonus piece I Trev no no you can call me out if there's any bias here because Monty has his heartstrings on a lot of Yankee fans. He was innocent kid that came up 2017, the fun Yankee year, the upstart Yankees, the who are these guys? One of the first, like, real surprises of that season.

Yeah, like, wasn't a big prospect, like, on everyone, the tip of everyone's tongue? 29 starts as a rookie 388 for the New York Yankees. That's how you get heartstrings. And he's been really good. He's a career 377.7.E. over the past three years, he has been better than our guy, Jack Flaherty. And I think it's funny because even Smoltsy on the Saturday broadcast, he was hyping our guy Jack up.

I was like, let's go, John Smoltz. But at the same time, I was like, hey, like, I know Gumbie, Jordan Montgomery doesn't wear the flashy pregame outfits and maybe he's not as sexy as Jack Flaherty, but this is a guy, man. and he might get, like if Jordan Montgomery goes over to Texas and has a good, you know, nine starts with the team, you're looking at, I don't know, close to a $100 million pitcher. This guy's a big lefty who's only been successful at the Major League level.

Yeah, it's 30 years old. If you go out and, like you said, continue to have a good year like he's had, your career ERA is going to be somewhere in like the 360. there's three fives. Yeah, you're going to demand a big contract. That's a, that's a $20 million a year pitcher, probably starting point. And then just how many years you rack up from there. So yes.

Now he can't have a qualifying offer attached to him. Good for you, Monty. Yeah. He cannot. Yeah, we traded. You traded during the year. You're ineligible. So there he is.

There he is. That's right. That's right. Yeah, no, look, this is. Again, Texas is doing all the right things at their big league level right now to put themselves in a position to win the division, have a deep playoff run. The problem is also that the Astros are just coming. Yeah. The Astros get Verlander.

Like there's some talks about them being, you know, in on that. Like, they just, we talk about all the time them being relentless because they are. Because they are. You just send me Alex Breggman's Instagram post about his son having a Western. themed birthday and I love it. I did send you that. He's a good dad. I like good dads.

You know I like that. Text Bregman. I'm going to. I will just from, Hey, I think you had a great time of your son's birthday party. What's up, bro?

Tell him where you are. Like, you know, kind of like half twisted. Be like, hey, you know, glad you're sweating out in Houston. I just celebrated my son's birthday. Do your sons have the same birthday? Well, when was that post?

My son's birthday is July 29th. Just had it. We're going to have to double check that. Happy birthday, Ted. Nine? Eight years old. Hoo! High finish.

He is something else. He thinks he's so freaking smart, man. He is a smart kid. He thinks he's smarter than me already, which maybe smarter than you, not me yet. Yeah. Where does he get that confidence from?

It deserves to be said. We're a baseball show. Chris Stratton was also in the Jordan Montgomery. summary deal. And I mean, kind of a case of every team would love to add a Chris Stratton this time of year. Like, you know, the numbers don't blow you away, but this is a guy that's pitched in 280 major league baseball games. Like, you need innings to get through the season. And Chris Stratton comes over with Monty, another starting pitcher and reliever getting packaged together. Three of those? Am I missing one at this point? But that's, um,

So that's good I don't Not to be rude to the Cardinals fans But I I get pretty nerdy about baseball Reliever John King was in my book Thomas Sagacy and Tocoa Robi I don't have full scouting reports on

That's okay I hope they're studs I hope we look back in a couple years And we talk about how nasty those guys are Speaking of nasty, Trev. Well, let's, I know I'm going to break up the sheet a little bit, but it's because we're talking Cardinals. Let's do Jordan Hicks now.

Jordan Hicks took him in the trade draft. Who did you get points for? Did you have Scherzer? Was that Rosie? I had, no, I had Gialito. Gialito, that's right. Wrong L.A. I got on the board.

Jordan Hicks gets traded, makes a ton of sense. everything I just said about Chris Stratton, except with the potential to be special. Like, Jordan Hicks, I think sometimes, I kind of said this with Joe Kelly. Like, we almost get bored with guys and the way Velo's out there, like, Jordan Hicks can throw as hard as anyone who's ever played this baseball game. And he was, he's coming up, he's going to be a free agent at the end of the year. The Blue Jays are the ones that acquire him. They give up their number seven prospect, Sem Robber.

see, maybe. And Hicks has been good recently. He's going back to the front office thing, I keep saying, like if you're in a front office and you believe in your organization and you're buying, this is the guy you want to buy. This could be your eighth inning. This could be your sneaky ninth inning guy,

especially Jordan Romano just goes on the IL. Blue Jays acquire a guy with the most armed talent in Major League Baseball. Yeah, and if you're a hit, And you mentioned, he had a tough start to the year, but the last couple months, he's been really, really good. So you kind of bank on that. I always say this about the reliever position. It's so fluid, dude. Like, you can have a guy be horrible for two months.

Yes. And you want him just, nobody wants him on the mound. And then you put him in a few low leverage situations. He figures some things out. And then all of a sudden he's thrust back into a high leverage role and no one can hit him. It's just the way of the world with reliever. So that's kind of what has happened this year with Hicks. You know, he has a decent track record.

And obviously, like you said, the talent is there. And as a hitter, when you're going up to face a guy and say it's, you know, crucial spot in the game, high leverage spot, you got some runners on. He's not exactly the guy you want to see on the mount. Like other guys, you can game plan for and you can say, all right, well, you know, he's going to do this to me, he's going to do that to me. Jordan Hicks, you know what you're going to get. And it's just difficult.

like he's effectively wild I would say that and not a fun at bat so you're not going to go up there with a ton of confidence you might be able to sneak in some you know create some out of nowhere because that's who you are as a big league hitter but it's not a fun at bat and if he gets going like you're saying then yes he's a he's a high leverage guy at worst you know and at best yeah he can end up closing games out for you yeah man I mean some of you know he when he originally came up, it was kind of funny that he wasn't, he wasn't like, he didn't have as many strikeouts as you'd think. Like, he was still striking dudes out, but it wasn't like, wow, this guy throws harder than everyone, he's got crazy strikeout numbers. This year he does, and the FIP, if

you're into that thing, likes him a lot, because he has been striking out more hitters. And, you know, the thing that we've been circling up on that, honestly, Cardinals fans, we'd ask you more than we know, you know, the Cardinals defense has rated out poorly this year. So like, has been brutal. You know, and I wonder how much has that affected Jordan Hicks. Maybe it hasn't been a lot. Maybe it has. But you're so right with relievers that I think that's something that the nerds have right.

Like sample size there matters or doesn't matter. I guess I don't know how I'm phrasing it. Like Jordan Hicks could go over, Jordan Hicks could go to Toronto and have a 70RA and get lit up. and it could kind of just be shrug. He could go over and have a 20 appearance like scoreless streak. Like the life of a reliever is A, a ridiculous gig, and B, I don't know. This guy's got all the arm-telling in the world that if he does, if he gets hot,

we're talking about upcoming free agency, someone will roll out the bag for this guy and put him as their ninth or eighth inning guy for the next four years. it's so funny because you know forever relievers were just not really taken seriously and you just

you had your closer and that was about it and then there was a time where it's like relievers maybe got overvalued or at least probably maybe valued correctly that was around like 2000 like I don't know like 1617

when these relievers were getting these deals all of a sudden and it wasn't just the back end guys it was like hey bro if you if you had strikeout numbers and you missed bats like you were going to get paid. I love my guy Anthony Swarzat got his deal in that time. Swizzle sticks, love him, lottie-dottie all day. You know, I think when it comes to trade deadline,

we've seen that the relievers are more valuable than like even starters. Like they get a better return than starters just because of how important. important they are man it's just really it's why the guys that are consistent that can consistently get the job done uh edwin diaz comes to mind right away you know guys like that who can they demand big contracts now because people are starting to understand just how volatile the position is and if you can be good at that position and be consistent you're worth so much money shortening games and like if you have a lead and you got a couple guys in the back that you trust that going to go out there and mow guys down how good is that how great of a feeling is that like

as a fan as a teammate you got a guy that you're just like ha sick dude like game's over like it's it's it means something yeah and i i would love to know i would love to know the honest equation in a front office because let i i want to go back to jordan montgomery who i just oozed about and i i believe in that guy and i like him if jordan montgomery goes over to texas and let's say he has a tough 10 starts. He has like a 5-4 ERA, like he, you know, gets knocked around a little bit. You know, he might not end up starting a playoff game. Jordan Hicks, like, unless things go horribly wrong, which I don't think they even can with his arm talent, like, that guy is going to be in your playoff games. Like, that guy is, whether it's the fifth inning or the ninth inning,

that guy is so talented that he's going to get thrust into the goal. Right? Like we we've baseball 162 it sometimes it feels like we get so far away from the goal, but if you get an impact reliever Like, you know, it's the same thing with starting pitcher. We don't know what Lance Lynn is going to be now if you trade for a Snell or someone who's lights out yes, but you have to pay pay for that That getting an impact reliever could be a lot more impactful than that guy that you're just getting to eat innings I agree. You know, thinking about the Rangers and them going all in. Do you know what it cost them to go all in? What's that, Trump?

Their 14th, their 11th, and their third prospect. People, this is what I'm talking about. Okay. Let's, can not, like, how are you not, like, seeing this and being like, can't my team go all in? Can't we do that? Do you even know your 14th best prospect in the Yankees organization? Probably not.

You know, and you shouldn't. Like, that's okay if you don't. I'm just saying, like, to go all in, to get Max Scherzer, and obviously you have to pay some salary, and you can do that. Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgrimmy, two guys who you could say, those are top of the rotation guys.

And then a reliever as well. It was three prospects, your third, your 11th, and your 14th. Bro. Oh, man. Maybe I'd be a horrible GM. I might just be like the worst GM or the best. I don't think there's anyone

between. I would give up, like, there'd be maybe a few guys who were untouchable in my minor league system. But even then, if I needed something at the big league level, I will go get it. Trevor, I don't want to defend you being an awful general manager, but I will say there is a football team that one of your friends is the quarterback for that for years in the national Football League, they said, you can't trade away all your first round picks. That's how you build a football team. Guess what they did. They traded away their first round picks for NFL players.

They won a Super Bowl. So, like, I don't know. There's a chance you'd be a dog. Yeah, exactly. There's a chance, you know, if you, me, and BBD became the front office that we'd have an electric season, we'd probably have two dog shit seasons after that. But, no, man, you're right. Like the quote-unquote prospect capital going out for what came in.

It's a little shocking, I think. You know what else I would do? Let's just talk about what we would do as front of office. I would height my prospects up so much. All my statcast, my track men's at my minor league parks, I should turn the dial up just a little bit. Just a little bit. Oh, man, this guy, yeah, I don't know, 106.

I'm not really sure. He's electric. You want him? We found him throwing coconuts in the DR, and now he pumps 108. And that's another thing. Okay. By the way, quickly before we move on. If you think that's a weird reference, Bartolo Colon used to throw coconuts.

That's how he built up his arm strength. It's not a weird thing to say. I would get as much internet. international signing money as possible. Yes, dude. Like, I would trade for that. Can I have your, I will like your international signing money, please.

And I would just run it. Cubans. Veteran free agents. Couple of young fast guys. That's it. That's how I run my team. It's easy. This shit is easy for me.

I would set up a base in Cuba and just be like, listen. Come play for Papa Poof. God, picture in that place. Nice baseball field. Some mojitos flying around. Yeah. So three kids a year and see what happens. Every day you call up one kid and you have three mojitos with them,

find out who they really are. Okay, enough daydreaming out of me. What other trades do we have? I mean, I think the final one, we mention it. It's our guy guy. Taylor Hearn gets flipped again for me. Nicky Lopez. Does he get a ring if the Braves win the World Series? Yikes, man.

Did he report to Atlanta? Did he like get in the game? Got in one. Oh, then he gets a ring. He gets a ring. He helped the cause. By the way, Texas and Atlanta. Taylor Hurons. Taylor Hurons got like a 33% chance to get a ring.

Didn't think about that. Well, 34% if the Royals turn it around. get hot do you want to talk about it I don't know it is a funny line on his baseball reference that's tough

he's a left-hand of bat he offers speed the ability to get on base so you know a good bench piece depth for them talking about Nikki Lopez going to the Braves the Royals on the other hand I think this is great for Taylor Hearn

because sometimes when you're on a team like the Royals, you're given a little bit more chances at the Bigley level to, you know, sink your claws in and really, really get established. I've said many times. I don't know if I would have gotten as much run with a winning team as I did with the twins. And I was able to finally sink my claws into a starting job and a career because of it. So when you're in the big leagues, it's always a good opportunity, but sometimes those lesser teams will let you fail a little bit. more. Yeah, I'm interested Nicky Lopez.

I'll be honest, Royals fans, and let me know in the comments. Seems like the perfect role guy. You know, he stole 22 bases in 2021 with one caught stealing. He has a 604 OPS this year, but a 1.1 war. So it feels like this guy can play a little defense,

and this guy can run a little bit. that like, yeah, man, that's who you add come the deadline. Adani Etcheverria comes to mind. Where the heck is he going to play it, though? I mean, they don't need. They don't need anything. Anyone anywhere. They don't need anything.

But great to have, just in case, I guess you pinch run at the end of a game for who. Who knows? Like, does Arcea have speed at this point? I don't even know. Like it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But it almost feels like, you know,

I've watched enough baseball to know Nikki Lopez is the guy that catches the final out-of-the-world series. And that becomes the trivia question. You remember 23 breaks? They ran for Austin Riley at the end of the game. He probably scores the winning run. And then ground ball to him.

He opens up a bar and fucking buckhead. we're there calling the games um whoa trev i i guess to close this part of the episode off uh or no excuse me i i skipped i skipped a big one gritchick and crone oh yeah you did you skipped that that's why we crown pod dude that's why we cron that's why we con pro bruh um cj crone and randall grich two hitters dude yes They go from the Rockies to the Halos. Randall Gritchick has been awesome this season.

Flat out awesome. And so has C.J. Cron that we knew the Halos. They said we weren't selling Otani, bong. Now they've gone out and they've got your guy, Lucas Gialito. By the way, they traded for Eddie Escobar and Malibu, Mike, before all of this. Randall Gritchick has an 861 OPS this year. Yo. And C.J. Crohn has been like an established power hitter in this league now.

I kind of going back to 2014, depending how you butter knife it, that the Halo's, you know, big Doyle Brunson pod today. The chips are in. Yeah, it's interesting. So first of all, I didn't know Randall Gritchick was like on. a deal like he's on. So there you go. Okay. Why do you call him that?

Why do you call him that fuck Randall Gritchick again? He has, no offense. He has the most home runs against the New York Yankees in the past five years. And he's been on the Rockies for like two of those years. He just hits homers against your Yankees. Sounds like a man of my ilk. When he was,

when he was on Toronto, he was bonds. He was righty bonds. We brought him on to talking yanks when he was on. That's how much he killed us. He was killing us and we just needed to talk to him about it on that show. Nice dude.

I really liked him. I like that. Do you know that Ian Hap, our Ian Hap has seven homers against Adam Wainwright or something like that? Yeah, that's his guy. Ouch.

I love this move. I love the angels. They're still, they're doing everything they can. I mean, Taylor Ward gets hit in the face by Alex Menoa. Alec Manoa, so

you know, this moves makes all the more sense. Obviously, Grychik will probably slot into left field for him and then Cron, I'm assuming, we'll just play first base right away. Has Cronin a little bit? Has Cronin at first?

Mustak is the third. Gritchick, they have penciled into center right now. And then Mike Trout will come back and we'll see. Moniac's been great. Moniac is a he's been excellent. Yeah, this is, look, it's more depth, continuing to make up for injuries. You know, this is all stuff that happens in July and August that you got to deal with.

And the angels are doing it from outside the organization, which is great and trying to get better in every way possible. But even them didn't, what was their series? This is another one of those things. They lost two or three to the Blue Jays. Almost got swept. All these teams. Rangers get all these players. They get swept by the Padres.

Almost got swept by the Blue Jays, the Angels. Here they are. It's really, I don't mean to bring this up while we're talking about them, but it's really funny to me that that kind of happened to. All the teams that were adding was like, shit, we need,

it made an emphasis on them adding even more, I guess I would say. With the Dodgers doing it, then the Angels, then the Rangers. Pretty funny. Yeah, I mean, it's a, I open the show with it. If the Angels, if Hunter Renfro doesn't get those big country arms on a ball in the 10th inning,

I think we'd be laughing at the Angels a little bit, but one game means so much more in these two and a half weeks. It's a beautiful thing. And yeah, I can't wait to see what happens in that ALS, man, because the Angels got to be in that locker room right now, uh, adding guys. We kept Otani. We're playing better baseball.

I know they lost this series, but leading up to that, that put them in position to not sell. They're five games back of the Rangers. Like, everything we've said about the Rangers having this electric season, and now they're buying more, and how cool is it to be a Rangers fan? A bad week in the Halos are two and a half games out. Like, if this West gets full-blown messy, sign me up,

because I haven't even mentioned the Mariners yet, and they're a half game back of the Halo? Like the AL West and the AL East this year have a chance to be some of the more special. I would have to actually look into it because I don't want to speak in full hyperbole in the moment. But you might have four teams going for it in the AL West legitimately. And you might have five in the AL East. Like that's tough, dude. Your Yankees are going for it now?

They thought they were. You don't sit there and judge if you need to win games. What are we doing there, people? Trev, do not, man. He just got back from the aisle. You're going to sit him again? Trev, be careful. Be careful.

Be careful. Should I interview Boone tomorrow? Don't let the tiger out of the cage, man. I just put him in. Like, he was out last night, and I don't know. Hey, I hope we've been asking and begging the Rockies to trade, and they did. So I guess good job Rockies. We've got a couple guys they could.

Yeah, I mean, ProFar is out there. I know Justin Lawrence. There are some rumors there. Diaz. I like Gritchick and Crone. Both were drafted by the Angels. That's nice.

Reunion deadline continues. Gritchick was taking one spot ahead of Trout. Is that right? Yeah, they had both those picks. That's not important. 24, 25. No, what I think the other fun fact is, I think Gritchick and Kelsey Winger went to high school together.

Yeah. Love that. And then Kelsey was calling the game. So she says by to Randall Gritchick. Oh, so wait, the Rockies have given everyone to the Angels. Yeah. Malba Mike, Richett, Crone, just three hot boys going over to the Angels, huh? Hey, man, I, it's one of those things that I don't want to over speculate on,

but Jordan Hicks going to Toronto they also just traded for Hennesis Cabrera and I think I'm saying that right or I just sounded really douche That one's a little fake news because he was DFA'd and they kind of just acclaimed him But yes, they've linked up before.

These teams, I don't know like having a good relationship, GM to GM, you know, as a kid who grew up playing fantasy baseball, you have, clip it. I don't know. I think you have the people you trade with.

And think about how obnoxious we get about teams not trading. That if the Rockies... So you think there's some like GMs out there like, we don't F with this dude. Yes. I don't vibe with this guy, so I'm never trading with him. A thousand percent. That's a bad.

Honestly, if you're telling me that it's never worked out between the two of them. If that happens truly between general managers, I think it's hilarious. And I think that the whole. fucking Ivy League. It's all about numbers and analytics is a facade then. Because if you can't look past someone's, your relationship with someone to do business with them, you shouldn't be doing business, bro.

Well, I think it could be that. And I think that's a little dramatic. But I think it could more so be like, there's a GM that just always ask for way too much. And you're like, I'm not even bothering with this dude. Like that guy in the fantasy. Yes. Like every time I've negotiated with them, it's been non-starters.

and, no, dude, not taking Darren Waller for Kelsey. Like, stop offering that. I like Darren Waller a lot. What else you're throwing in,

though, player? What else you're throwing in? Nasty. Hey, people have said that I now look like Travis Kelsey, he's hot. Good looking dude.

And Devin Booker, I've been getting that a lot lately. There's like a picture of him on, like hanging with Michael Jordan. Yeah. And the side pro is pretty good. Okay.

Okay. I like that. But these guys are like younger and like, I need to like up my shit. Yeah. I'm on vacation right now. So like I got like sunlines. Like I'm getting beat up here.

Scruff going. Like we need to get you to the point that they think it's cool that you look like them. Right now it's cool for you that you look like them. They need it to be cool. Like they need to start saying that's who people tell them they look like. Ask me if I trade. lives with them. Like I need...

I wouldn't. You wouldn't. You love your family. I would not. You love your family. You're the best family man in the game. I am. Thank you.

Wait till they see what we do. People don't even know what we're doing Tuesday and Wednesday. You wouldn't want to get one... Actually, I don't even know what we're doing Tuesday and Wednesday, but I think after that. One day in D-Book's body and just be as nice as anyone from the planet from three? Well, you'd like to try it out, but... Well, I mean, you don't think. Don't you think he'd like to get in the box

and know what it's like to go second deck of Yankee Stadium? I had a joke run through my head that I'm not going to say, but yes, I think he would like that. I bet Devin Booker could go second deck of Yankee Stadium. We don't think Kendall Jenner ever looked at me in our neighborhood? I know Kendall Jenner's looked at you. I was like a runner and I was just running through the hood and these girls were driving.

I miss your running times. What happened? Runner Treve. I didn't like it, man. I literally ran my ass off. I didn't like it. FaceTime and you used to run and now you don't do either.

You need to get back in the gym. I'll tell you that much. FitBod. FitBod. I think I guess closing thoughts. Trev, yeah, I guess we should lay this out for the people. We have a cool thing going on tomorrow. We think Knock on Wood that's going to tee us up to be live on YouTube for the trade deadline. We're going live? I think so. That's what we did last.

Otherwise, it'll be... I've been live and forever. Worst case, it'll be... it'll be like an episode that comes out very shortly after. Yeah. Ideally, we're live. So I, knock on wood, I hope we're live for out.

Deadlines at six, hopefully we're live at like 4.30 or something like that. We'll see what's going on. We're wrestling a lot. We're going to do our best. Jimmy's talked about what the thing is on stuff before. Treb, you know,

I unfortunately do like to give you kudos when I think it's deserved. you recently, and you weren't saying this just to do it because that's not who you are, you thought this deadline was going to be juicy, and it's already been juicier than, like, the bare minimum. Like, we didn't think Max Scher's or, like, there was nothing that said that had to happen. That's already happened, and we haven't even come up to deadline day yet.

And I think it goes both ways. I think that was a compliment. I'm not sure, but thanks. if it was. Appreciate that. It could go both ways. Like, juicy doesn't mean that everyone gets traded.

Like, juicy to me is the Cubs deciding to keep Bellinger and Stroman. Juicy to me is the Padres getting hot and being like, you know what? We'll keep Snell and Hader. Like, that's juicy to me.

I hope. I hope that Snell and Hader are still. I want to see the Padres go for. Where are they yet? Did you sweep the Rangers? They're still back. I have the standings up right here. Hold on.

So Wild Card. They are. five games back to the fuck. I think they're closer every time I look at the standings. They're not. Five games back in the wild card and they are eight

games back of the division. Maybe they should trade these guys. Oh my goodness, dude. Hey man, you wondered if I was complimenting you and then you put on that display so I don't I don't want to tell you. I don't know what to think about that, man.

Where are the Cubs at? Four games back of the division. Love that for them. And the wild card, they are three and a half. Let's talk a little ball. Ball talk is brought to you by Blue Moon. I'll be honest. You could go check it out on talking Yanks last night.

Poppy Gordo had himself a nice little Sunday. I said, you know what? The Yankees are playing a night game. I'm going to have a nice New York City Italian meal. I met up with a couple fellas. I had a little, it wasn't penny alev vodka, but it was a nice vodka sauce, a little sausage in there. And I had a blue moon, and it was delightful.

And then I got ready for the Yankees, and then they went down 7-0 in the first inning. So you know what I did, Trevor? Break more Blue Moons. I had another Blue Moon. And you can enjoy Blue Moon at your home. Get.combear.com slash baseball. Find out your Blue Moon delivery options.

Get it right to your front door. What is better than that? Maybe the Valencia orange peel. Check. Or the coriander. Oh, click the link in the description. Get yourself some Blue Moon. Blue Moon in baseball.

It was literally brewed in a baseball stadium, people. Get yourself a Blue Moon. Trev, you kind of hopped into it and you hit a couple of the keynotes there. Padres have found themselves on the, a little bit of a heater. Like you said, when you check out actual wild card standings, it's still, you're playing with fire. Like, if you accidentally drop a couple games,

you're going to put yourself in a bad position. I think the two storyline teams, and let me know if, I guess, if there's the Angels, but we've already talked about them. I think the Padres are a storyline, because it seems like they have, somewhat played, at least they've played themselves mentally into, we're not selling. And the Chicago Cubs. Maybe, maybe, we don't know that with them. The Pagers are still an enigma. Like we,

it's true. Yes, they just swept the Rangers. But again, they have a front office and they have the standings as well. Right. They're looking at these standings. Be like, man, we got to jump a bunch of teams. We really got to get hot. The teams that we have to jump are very good. They're already making moves. It's they're a team that you hope they don't. I want them to go for it as I think they're a team that could get on a run and do things and be special. Like Musgrove,

I think has had nine quality starts in a row. Like they, we know what Snell's done. Gary Sanchez is like the best to ever do it again. God, I love that for Gary. All he needed was a little freaking authentic Mexican street tacos, bro. Get him that.

breakfast burrito. Bobby. San Diego's got great Mexican food. Sheesh. Miss that. Miss California. They could sell. Today, we could be talking about this right now.

This episode comes out. Then all of a sudden, bam. Josh Hader's gone. Blake Snell traded along with Gary Sanchez. I don't, it's, they have a decision to make and they have to make it quickly. Now, I don't know if it's a viable. option for them to stand pat. I think they just lost...

Well, they were saying that Hassan Kim's day to day, but I don't know if you saw the collision at home... Not a collision, but he fucked his shoulder up, sliding into home. That would be a big blow to them. Standing pat to me doesn't make sense, right? Like, you either have to add or you have to sell. I don't know where you're at with that.

Hmm. I don't know, man, because the other team I mentioned, the Chicago Cubs, like, the vibes are as high. as they come right now. They've been winning a ton of baseball games. If the Cubs lose tonight and the Padres win tonight, they're separated by a half game. So like, you know, the energies feel different. If I'm the Padres, I don't know, dude, I hate, I don't do this to be sports talk show. If I'm the Padres, I think I am standing Pat. Like, I don't know if the dudes in the clubhouse can't do it and there's a lot to like, man.

They've got a plus 63 run differential. That's better than Milwaukee, Miami, San Francisco. Those are your three wildcard teams right now. Like, I think there's a lot in San Diego that I guess my final answer would be, and this is me being, you know, I'm such an alpha. You can't sell. Like I just, everything we talked about with prospect capital, like nothing's guaranteed with prospects

to be where the Padres are right now and unless it's like a mega deal like if you're trading Soto and Hader and Snell and you're like fill in the farm and like hey this sucked because that's what I just complimented the Mets for like they paid to get Ronald Acuna Jr's little brother like if you're actually

if you're replenishing the whole farm you better go that route because if you're not then screw. it. Like, let's go. Let's ride. Let's make a memory. And, uh, good on the Padres for doing just enough to be in that position. But I don't know, dude, they have a bad series and it's almost over. Yeah, but I don't, I'm not saying if they go get, like give up your farm system, your prospect capital, whatever. You don't have to make a big splash, but like, have you looked to their bench? Like, do you know who's on their bench? Like, you won't. Even if you go,

look, I mean, there are some guys there. I mean, you know Matt Carpenter, but there's some some other guys who I think if you were to add and you're the Padres, it would be something like that. Other teams are kind of already going after these fringe type players. Like honestly, like a Nikki Lopez, like guy like that to have as an insurance debt piece on your bench would be really nice for the Padres, but he's with the Braves now,

a team that understands the importance of that. You know, like I said, if Hassan Kim is down for an extended period of time or, or, you know, somebody else in that infield goes, down, like what they have to replace, in my opinion, and I think Pajas fans will agree with me here, is they don't, that's not enough to climb, like they have to climb. Like, you need somebody that can fill in that's either on par or could possibly even give you a lift. I don't know if they have that on the bench right now. Hey, I don't know if we turn it into an actual draft or

something, but man, oh man, if there is a, if there is eight, maybe the, team in baseball that rival teams would say I don't want to see in the playoffs. I think it's a San Diego Padres. They're first in starting pitcher ERA. Yep. And go look at the top of that lineup. You think you want to see that in a three-game set? You're out of your mind.

So if this team finds the sauce, it changes the chemistry of the National League and the whole season. Maybe they can just... They could do stuff around the edges, man. It would just make them so much better. But again, like we just talked about, they need to do stuff on the edges, but they're like on the edge of... They are already on the edge.

Come back from where you're at. It's, it's... They have to go on a run. Everyone has to stay healthy. And dang, I wish they would just improve some of the bench stuff. And even, I don't know, some sort of depth starter that you need.

Treve, you're not wrong, man. Jack Flaherty added. to the freaking Polaroid gang. Don't. In that clubhouse? Him and Honeywell back at it. Trave your... Why would Honeywell and Jack Flarety be linked together?

I don't know. Honeywell's name makes me laugh. Yeah, you know Honeywell. Let me ask you this. For the rest of this episode, we're not burning, we're not going through series. I don't think so. So all that prep work I did to talk about these scenes?

serious, just gone. It's right here, though. I'll let you burn. You want to burn? No, you're the burner. If you're not going to burn, it's fine. We could talk a little bit about some teams, I guess, we could say, unless you just want to get to the second half of the show. Treve, we make some jokes, Malibu, Mike, Eddie Escobar. Those guys in Padre uniform right now would be massive. Exactly. Exactly. Those are the type of moves I'm talking about with the Padres. Reds are interesting that reds have kind of like I mean they went

They took two or three for the Dodgers Had some really good Games happen there And you look around there Infield I was just checking it out McLean's playing India to the IL Yeah and the McLean's playing seconds

Ellie's at short They have Incarnassian strand at third And steer at first right Or I might have those mixed up but a very athletic team in that infield for them, dude. And now they're back on top of the Central after they get two or three from the Dodgers. And then there was a big series for the brew crew who got sweat by the Braves.

And the Brewers hit for the Brewers. I mean, how many runs? They score 18 runs? They scored 18 runs in the three games, 7, 5, 6. typically if the Brewer score more than four runs, they're going to win the game. But the problem is, who you're facing? The freaking Atlanta Braves who are just sickos,

they're the best team in baseball. There's no doubt about it, man. And, you know, look at the guys. Like, from game one, I know it's 10 to 7, but the next thing they put up 11. We have the star performers on our sheet here. It's Marcelo Zuna. It's Matt Olson, Ronald Acuna Jr.,

Eddie Rosario, and Austin Riley. When you're able to put five dudes in that who have had multiple hits. You just know, I mean, this offense is just ridiculous, dude. It's ridiculous. So the Braves are just, they're the most sure bet in baseball right now. And I don't even think it's close.

Is there another team on that tier right now? No, I mean, Tampa was for a little bit. Texas was for a little bit. Tampa's had a horrible July. Texas is starting pitching has been really bad since, like, June 1st, which they obviously they're just trying to figure out. Teams can join them at the party.

Houston. I know, you know, some people probably don't want to hear it, but Yorda and they're really good. Like they can get to Braves level, but right now they're, dude,

I mean, like Marcel Azuna and the bottom half of that lineup, but the teams that are struggling, like where would he hit with the Brewers? Third? And they just throw him on the bottom half and they say, hey, if you give us a day,

we'll take it. like they're they're a sicko Oregon I still think they're going to do something at this deadline because they're starting pitching to be had and right now their rotation is listed as

Morton, Strider, Terinos, and Elder so like I think the Braves are very much in play for a starting pitcher. Matt Olson, well, Frie just had a rehab start. I think he's coming back like next he just finished his rehab.

Matt Olson, 35 homers, 88 ribbies. Hey, 6-6 game in the 8th on Sunday. Oh, man, Brewer's got a chance. No. I'll hit a two-run homer. We'll win 8 to 6. Last 35 games, he's sitting 320 with a 1.1. Every 7.9 at Bats, he hits a homer. I don't know if I've talked about every other game. This show, but I like Matt Olson.

Yeah. Does he just not look like how a first baseman's supposed to, a look. He's as far as how handsome he is? Just like the lefty swing and like

just everything he's about is like tall limber flexible if the aliens came down and got together with chat GPT and they made a first basement it would be Matt Olson.

I don't like that reference at all. Don't like it. Where are you at with the alien stuff? You want to do that quick or no? It's clear that And we've known for a long time that chances are we're not alone in this universe because it's infinite and there are every single star you see in the sky has a potential to have life around it. So that's fun to think about. And we can only see a fraction of stars. So clearly I think we're not alone. But then for them to be here and us capture bodies out of UFOs that aren't. human that that was said in Congress and we just kind of

forgot about it because show hit a few homers what do we do? Hey, it's cool that there's aliens here I guess but look at what show hey's doing found one or I don't know we could just go off on this whole thing I don't want to talk about it right now though. We love to see a pick

Giants Giants Red Sox is a big series Yeah one final thing about Matt Olson If people think I'm being a little dramatic the reasons why I'm really into Matt Olson. He has led, he has bold on his baseball reference. Three times coming into this season, he's led the league in games played.

162, 60 in the 2020 season, 162 last year. And now he's got three bolds on his page this season, home runs RBI and slugging. That's all I'm looking for, man. Does I put a little lead in your pencil? Does more than that. Hey. Who's climbing the rooftop this time of night? Get out of my daughter's bedroom.

What were you saying about Giants Red Sox? You need to have some kids. You need to have some kids. Will I stop those jokes probably, right? Yeah, you will. I also think it's weird when people are like, oh, man, my daughter's going to be a problem. Like, why would you say that about your daughter?

Hey, if I'm being honest, I'm probably going to be that guy. Like, my daughter is going to be a problem, dude. Don't just say, like, my daughter's pretty. Or, like, I have a beautiful little girl. You don't say, like, oh, man, all these guys are going to want to hook up with my daughter. That's weird. You don't say that. That's what you're implying.

It is a little bit. It's a little bit. So don't say that if you're a dad. I didn't have, like, a dad show. Do you ever climb through a girl's window? Yeah. Yeah. kind of quite the rush

climbed through a guy no two once we got into a fist fight um okay what do you want to talk about giant socks I mean these are a series that I think are important to at least go over a little bit

Gabe Kapler you know the giants are fighting to stay in you know the wild card right now they're they have a one game lead on Milwaukee and Miami in the National League wild card and you know like this is a series they could have been swept, but you got J.D. Davis, first pitch, Homer against Kenley,

which is awesome. You have extras, I think, is when Jock hit his walkoff. That was like in the 11th inning. The 10th inning was, you know, you pitch around some stuff, 0-0 and those two innings, or those half- endings for those teams, then Jock gets it done. I think Boston really has been going as of late. Where are they at in the wild card? So I got to look Boston is two and a half back of Toronto. Two and a half back. They're playing a lot better ball. We talked about them quite a bit, I think, on last show.

What are they going to do? The Giants seem to be like they're going to stand packed. All these things. There's so many teams that are so dang close. And there's only so many people to trade for. So some of these teams aren't going to make trades. They're not going to be willing to give what these teams want. And sometimes that could be good for a clubhouse when you're just like, hey, man, we got the guys that we need and this is all like, fuck it.

But those two teams, I mean, there's a really hard-fought series out there. And a crucial, I guess my point is, in this crucial time period right before the trade deadline, like a really good series taking place that really does kind of like, you know, like if the if the giants or whoever or the Red Sox got swept, like it kind of changes the plans. You know, two out of three for the Giants is great. You know, going on a West Coast swing, taking the first game, and then losing the next two, you know, that's kind of tough for the Red Sox. But they're in a good position. I'm interested to see what these two teams are doing.

And we have to mention Tristan Kosses again. I believe he's hit a Homer and like seven homers in 12 days or something like that. I like a swing a lot, dude. It looks like a more controlled Joey Gallo swing. Yeah, and he's six, seven, dude. He's a massive. He looks like Joey. together with back control.

With painted nails. Like he's a... He has painted nails. He's a dude. He's like a new age guy. Yeah. Dallas posted a good side-by-side of him and Otani swings at like, oh.

I see the comp. I see the comp. I don't know if I'm in on painted nails. No offense, if you do paint your nails. I think Drake paints his nails. And you're in on him. Well, I think rappers can do a lot of things that like normal people can't do.

But here I'm wearing a like a tie-dye pink shirt. So what am I supposed? Who cares? Do what you want. Can I tell you something that's sneaky cool? The fact that Drake is walking out to his concert with, I mean, baseball players and athletes in general. Like the fact that he's kind of a sports loser is kind of cool.

He like, he knows sports and he knows the internet really well. Yeah. Like he like, he like gets involved in like, kind of in like all good ways. Rare flops. Yeah, I think definitely into sports. I went to the Morgan Wallin show and he introduced his band and they had like the Chicago Bulls like opening song go on as they were being introduced. That was interesting. But yeah, he's super into baseball as well.

I like it. Dude, all musicians want to be athletes and all athletes want to be musicians. That's just like it goes hand in hand. It really does. I think the other big. biggest thing that I want to scratch. Well, A, I don't know if you could see it. I got a little heated because I think an important note to San Francisco and Boston is just momentum.

Like with this whole trade deadline and everything that's going on, like, you know, that final extra innings game, you know, one team is going to walk away with their tail between their legs a little bit. And it ends up being Boston on that night and they'll go to Seattle and play three big games for those two teams. And the other thing where I got mad about momentum is not playing Aaron Judge when you need anything, and he is your team, and what are we doing?

The team that I want to talk about that I mentioned in passing before is the Chicago Cubbies who, a la the Padres, fought off selling rumors. They've come out. They said Cody will not be traded for. Strowman will not be traded for. There's a lot to like about this team. I think talking baseball fans have heard me do a dance with this team

because the run differential has been good. Their starting pitching has been good. They're hitting has been good. There's a lot to like about this team. They just reeled off, what was it, seven in a row, eight in a row. They lose the final game to St. Louis, but they win three out of four after winning eight in a row. And the Cubs are now going to be either standing pat or buying.

I don't know, but I'm happy for the city of Chicago because all you want is hope. I don't know what if it means, because I'm not bought into this Cubs team yet. This was a hell of a series, like starts with like the Ian Hap stuff. Did we talk about that on Friday or did we not? We brushed it.

We didn't really because we were covering the trades. But yeah, that was a hot start. Hot start, Ian Hap, yeah, hits Wilson Contreras in the head. He has to leave the game. Michaelis says, hey, I don't like that. I'm going to defend my pitcher's catcher's honor by throwing at you.

I'm going to miss the first time, though. And then I'm going to throw at you again and act like it wasn't on purpose. And it's like, man, come on with that. It's funny because I kind of want to get in this a little bit. I talked about it with Chris Rose, but they have, the Cardinals have a former pitcher named Brad Thompson

that's on their broadcast crew. And he was defending it saying, The player's got to police the game themselves And this is he did it the right way It's like well no he didn't because you don't get two chances bro If this is something that you're adamant about that you got to police the game You get one chance to send your message That's it you don't get two chances

That's that's the game okay And number two Why is it always the pitchers to say we got to police the game You don't got to step in the fucking batters box bro You get to hold the weapon and then choose who polices the game. Get out of here with that. Don't police me.

Let me do what I want to do. If you want to police me, you know what you can do? Monoie Mano. If you really want to police the game and you're a big, bad, tough guy,

then put the ball down on the ground, put your glove down on the ground, walk up to a guy and say, I'm going to police the game. But for you to take a ball and say, I'm going to police you, because your back your back swings too long

I'm going to police you but the policing is you just throwing the ball of me and there's zero repercussions for you because you don't have to get in the box I'm over it I'm over it bro because you know what that's going to lead to so yeah you're going to hit somebody great

and then you might get ejected and that might be the only thing that happens to you but then guess what's going to happen a position player on your team is going to get hit and we're good with that if you're if you're such a tough guy that you need to police

why don't you get in the box and then let the other pitcher hit you no one would ever sign up for that and policing would probably be gone if that was the way things worked but it's not the way things work so pitchers want to get on their high horse say oh we got to police the game ourselves

get out of here get out of here bro trying to hit me with the ball I didn't even fucking do anything shy above standing gifts I'm sorry. It makes me mad, man,

because I've been hit on purpose and cost me a lot of money and I didn't even do anything. So that's the consequence, bro. Like you think you're being tough and you think you're like being this important part of baseball. You're not. It's foolish.

It's a lot of things I want to say, but I'm not going to. Trev, there's a couple great points there. One, funny guy, Jake. You know, there's some parallels you could make from that statement to society in the police. I'm not willing to go there and I don't want to go there. Yeah, I don't go there. I think there's some funny jokes that could have been made there.

Two, you, the number one thing you hit on the head there, boy, oh boy, I'm picturing Max Scher putting his glove in the ball down on the mount and saying like, hey, it's time to dance. If a pitcher did that to a hitter, that would be the coolest thing. the world. I respect it, bro. You know what a hitter would probably do?

Like, no, I don't want to fight. I'm good. Not really. Please don't hit me with that baseball. Yeah, it's kind of a, it's an unfair one-way policing. It really is. Like what our hitter's supposed to do. If you ground out to short, just spear the pitcher.

There's really throw your bat at the pitcher. That's happened. I know. And I don't know how we ended up here, but I'm happy for Cubs fans. How about Mike Fing? Fucking Talkman. Yes. I mean.

To win the game. To win the game. That shit is nuts, dude. That Trevor Plouf, rant, was brought to you by Shady Rays. Go get yourself a pair of Shady Rays. I've been wearing mine all episode. I wore them all day yesterday. I'm wearing them all day today.

You look great. I wear them all day. And it's the biggest flex I've ever had in my life because people are like, oh, what sunglasses are those? They're mine. You know, if you want that Jake Storelli's signature by your earhole, you can get it at Shady Ray's. And with their lost and broken replacement guarantee,

your Shady Ray's pair lasts forever. So go get yourself a couple pairs, because with Code Talking, you'll get 50% off two plus pairs of premium polarized sunglasses. There's a link in the description. Shady Ray's, we're in the hearth of summer. Trev, you mentioned how you like when Olivia likes you, like thinks you're cool. Jessica was so excited to bring my sunglasses down to her family trip to Key West

slash to visit Tyler Glass Now. And that was a nice moment for me. So thank you, Shady Ray's. Nice. Thank you, Tyler Glass Now. Thanks, Shady Ray's. You want to do the second half of the show? Like where are you at, Pop?

I know we got to get you to Chris Rose. I'm just looking to make sure we didn't kind of go over any that I wanted to talk about. Mariners, I think, took two or three from Arizona. Arizona's in a tailspin. Yeah, man. They had a really bad July. I'm about to see them with my twins who I'm going to give a, What is you doing, baby, too?

What is you doing? Yes. Baby. Twins, five L-5. You're a half game up, right? L5? They got swept by the Royals? The Royals, yes.

I'm going to be talking about Bobby Witt Jr. In a little bit, shoot, but to the Royals. They just got swept by the Yankees. Cleveland's a half game back, bro. Like twins, like, we got to do something here. Like, this is, like, their team, it's like, man, we need a right-hand of bat. bad we need like we got a surplus of left-handed hit outfielders like let's make a let's make a play here let's do something the back of the bullpen's been hurt uh they need some reinforcements

there it's decision time for them and i'm i'm gonna be seeing them in a couple days as i'm traveling to minnesota after this but uh you can't get swept by the royals bro you can't man after um but they did c j crone and randle gritchick would looked pretty good in those twins unies trev something poppy something gotta happen man because you you got it the division's right there for you man you just got to score some runs you just got to go out there and do it you know you got to you can't be giving up late leads like this like it's the starting pitching has been too good trev you can i know bailey ober got hit around a little bit You can give up late leads when you have a standout performance like you do.

Well, I'm going to change mine up because I'm going to talk about him later in the show. Okay. So we're not going to talk about my guy, even though he had a couple of different days you could talk about. I'm going to go with Jose Abraeu, who went three for three with a Homer and three ribbyes on seven. that's the day. I've been even going to that series. No. You're about to. That was Ray's Houston. Yeah. So that was the game that

Houston just freaking went off and they scored 17 runs. But it's good to have Jose O'Brien. Like, if he's doing what he needs to do, that, I mean, how big is that for the Houston Astros

to get him going? Oh shit. I had his page up. So I wanted to give it to him. I think he's been trending in the right direction, if I'm not mistaken. I'm trying to get up his splits here. But a big day for them and a big win for them because the race took the other two games

and they're in that heated race with the Rangers. So go Jose Brayu. Three for three, the homer. Nice. Dude, if he clicks in and Yordon is back, and Altuvae is back. Okay, I knew, I knew it was something. The last 14 days, 809 OPS, last seven days, 971.

Scary. Scary for teams if he gets going. Man. Yeah. Houston, we'll see what else happens at the trade deadline, and there's obviously two months of baseball. But, Treve, I was answering honestly, like the team you believe in in the AL,

right now I would take Houston. And I know they necessarily... The Orioles are tough, too. I know they necessarily haven't shown that on paper, but I guess I am factoring in, Your Don, in Altovae. And if Jose Abraeu is Jose Abraeu, my goodness. Like, okay.

If they get Justin Furlander. Might as well. Go do it. Grab Pete Alonzo on the way, too. I think I'm going to go a little off the map with my standout, Trev. per usual, there's a ton of guys. You know, you mentioned everyone on the braids.

They could have been a standout performer. You know how much I love Christopher Morel. Gary Sanchez, are you kidding me? I'm going to go Josh Palacios. Yeah, you are. Of your Pittsburgh Pirates. Playoff P gets called up on the 28th, recalled from the miners.

And on Sunday the 30th, He goes three for five with a walk-off Homer And Trev, you want the icing on the cake? It was his birthday. So, some things are bigger than sports. Josh Palacios gets called up, Hey, you're back in the show. How's your three-hit day?

How's your walk-off? And happy birthday, big guy. That's pretty nice. And we love the Palacios, bros. 100%. 100%. That's a great day. There's always a little extra juice on your birthday when you're playing on your birthday. You feel it.

Like something special is going to happen. It's that confidence you have for no reason. Isn't there a birthday like Homer guy in the majors? Is it Harper? Like someone homers on their birthday. I've hit a few, but not like something you'd say, hey, you're the birthday Homer guy. I think I have like two or three, maybe four. If it's four, Treve, you're the birthday.

a homer guy. Maybe two. I was always a Jackie Robinson Day guy. I don't know why. Oh, okay. Jackie Robinson Day. Yeah, I love that 42. You love the greats.

Speaking of great, Trev. Oh, boy. I haven't even gotten here yet. It looks like some guys were pretty Fuego. Is there anybody else we want to talk about here? A little bit of Grayson-R-Rigga. Shout out. Zach Wheeler, been the most reliable starting pitcher for the Phillies.

Hot. Braxton Garrett, Hart. Luis Castillo hot. All right, let's get into it. They're all hot and so are these guys. Dirk nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. Wow.

Wow, oh, wow. And Fuego for the series. Marcelo Zuna, how about him? Atlanta's DH, 6 for 11, 2 doubles, 4 homers in those six hits, 6 RBI's, 7 runs for a 2.4 OPS in the three-game set against Milwaukee. That's what you want. yeah somebody i'll skip this guy because i'm talking about him soon uh and then hey my pengy keeps falling milwaukee's catcher not wilson contraris but william contraris

six for 14 three doubles a homer five ribbies in the series against atl he has a one dot two f war in the month of july second amongst all catchers in the big leagues behind his brother Wilson Yeah Who is out because Ian Hap has a long Back swing It's okay Happens series

Don't police the game Don't police me One week The game's from July 24th Through July 30th How about B Lau Brandon Lau from Tampa Bay

9 for 19 3 homer 7 RBIs 5 runs A hit by pitch St.Base for a 1.4 Lars Neupar Outfitted for the St. Louis Cardinals They're Ellen.

Nine for 18. Two, a double. Three homers, six RBI, six runs. Seven walks. I'd love that. Hunter Renfro. Fuck, I love this guy. Angels outfielder. 11 for 23.

Three doubles. Two homers, five ribbies. His two run homer in the 10th inning of Sunday's game was the Angels first hit with a runner in scoring position in this series. I had that stat up and I didn't even mention it. They were hitless with runners in scoring position until that. they've been 0 for 27 and then Hunter Renfro says

I got it big daddy I'm from Mississippi my name's not even Hunter what is it again Dustin Dustin Hunter Renfro Dusty Redfro All right

For the two weeks And some pretty fun ones here guys 717 through 730 Justin Verlander heard of them Three games started 3 and 0 19 in a third innings pitch 10 hits two and runs six walks 18Ks, that's a 0.93.

ERA. He became the 49th player to reach 250 wins, so it's not for him. And the first pitcher to do it since C.C. Sabathia, my friend, of New York Yankees, did it on June 19, 2019. He's 4-1 with a 169. Nice. ERA and 6 starts this month. So JV is going off right now.

How about another St. Louis starter? Stephen Matt's. three game starties 2-0 17 innings pitch 12 hits one-earned run 14 k's for a point five three is he going to be on the move we'll see and you know i love my utility infielders john birdie heard of him miami marlins check him out he went 16 for 33 in these two weeks 485 average three doubles a triple two rbis eight runs two walks three stolen bases for a one dot one oPS this 485 average is the highest average over the last two weeks in Major League Baseball, taking a little page out of Luis Uriza's book, and that, my friends, and Susan Fuego. How about Stephen Matt? He'd been... Man, if someone's willing to take a chance, that's an interesting one.

Trev, the IL, you know, fans of the show know that shakes me up a little bit, but... Yeah, I'll be right back, you got it. But this is really important because this could affect your team. team's deadline. I mentioned Jordan Romano went on the IL. Toronto, they went out and got Jordan Hicks. How about it? Taylor Ward hit in the face. Angels, they go out and they trade for Gritchie. They succeed him quick. How connected was all of that? I don't know, but it may be connected. And I mentioned Jonathan India on the way by. What does that change for the Reds? He's on the I.

A.K. Alex Kierloff had been really good for Trev's twins. He's on the aisle. Oh, thank God, Treves away. Oh, no, he's back. Evan Longoria to the aisle. Yeah, I just texted them. I said, are you going to be there in Minnesota because I'm here with you, pot? God. Oh, I hate that. Hey, how about Nathan Evaldi? You think that had a factor in them getting a Monty or Scherzer? Yep. Jonah Heim to the aisle. We hate that. DeSkelfani for San Francisco. Does that put them more in play for a starting pitcher? Wow, what a funky time of the season.

Returning from the IL. Kyle Freeland for my Rocks, that's a guy, would love to see him on a different team, not to be rude to our Rockies fans. That's a little rude to your Rockies fans. It's extremely rude, but they might even say the same thing at this point. They already have Kelsey Winger.

How much you need? I know what you need, Trev. A little Jorge Palank. Switch hitting in that twins lineup. He's back. Oh, here's a guy we mentioned in passing. Aaron Judge had two really good games back. And then what?

It's unreal, dude. How many times you guys strike out yesterday? 19, I believe it was a Baltimore Oriole record. And Aaron Judge just watched from the bench. And you and Gibby... He's a strikeout guy, but he watched. They didn't play him. Gibby's fucking giving David Cohn

Oh my God. Do you watch that video Treve? I did. It's so good. Gibby saw your text and said make sure Jake knows that he didn't have that on his life Bingo Card either. He was pretty stoked about it. I hate.

Gibby's better at me at every aspect of life. Yeah, he's nicer than you. Like normally I can find a couple loopholes. Gibby's just got me beat. He's iron. Awesome. Iron clad. He's iron.

Airtight, bro. Like, you can't mess with Givie because he's... You'd lose. He's himself. Like, there's no secrets to Gibby. He's just a nice husband and father who just happens to be 6-5 and can twirl a little bit, bro. He could snap off a little cut fastball. Nick Madrigal came back, made a nice play at third base for the Cubbies.

I don't know if you saw that highlight, but there's a short king for you. Cleves back? Does he get traded? Brandon Crawford for the Giants. I mean, that guy's like the heart of the team. Avicale Garcia for the fish. Not back yet, but I read one guy who's rehab and coming back soon. Brandon Woodruff. Woody.

Tell me Brewers fans aren't going to think that'll matter? What are the Brewers going to do? My gosh, let's go, guys. They're adding Brandon Woodruff. They want one more bat. Carlos Santana. Can we do some M.S. F and awards.

Awards. Okay. In the Hamptons, giving out awards? I love this place, by the way. Yeah, you're about it. I'm coming back here, yeah. Okay.

All right, this one, I don't necessarily have a great name for it. I was trying to workshop some things. I'm going to call the Crybaby Award. And this goes out to all the dads out there. And maybe, maybe even to you, Jake.

A certain thing happens when you become a parent. I'll speak from a father's standpoint specifically because that's what I know. As soon as you become a parent, there is like a sense of selflessness that comes over you. You immediately know now that your life is worth less than another person's life. Right. Okay. It just happens.

Like you would die for someone. Like if you have a wife, like you already feel that way, most likely. Right. But when you have a kid, you definitely feel it that way. You're like, I would give my life for this person. And other things start to happen as well. You notice yourself like this, for me, I would start watching movies and something sad happened or like something like with a family member happened, whether it was like a joyous moment between father and son or daughter and father. and father or like a death in the family

like in these movies like I started to like cry like tear up in movies I'd never had done that and then all of a sudden you're a father and that opens up this emotional side to you it just happens okay it just there's something in you that changes gives you a perspective on life if you will on life and death So I saw something this weekend

And it happened against my twins And it happened with one of my new best friends Bobby Wood Jr. He gets a walk off grand slam against my twins Tough to swallow Because I need my twins to be winning So, you know, I get to possibly call the game When they're clinching

And I get to be down there I want to spray champagne I want to do that. So, like, you know, this is for me a little bit too, guys, right? He had to walk off Grand Slam against them. You know Bobby and I have become close now, as we're Instagram friends. Yes. Well, Ryan Atkinson on his Twitter brought his daughter to the game, and he tweeted this out.

And he said, all the way from Georgia to see her favorite player hit a walk-off grand slam. It literally brought her to tears. Record be damned. How can you not be romantic? about baseball. And if you're looking for this tweet, Bobby Witt Jr. has quote tweeted it with a blue heart and the videos on it are incredible. This girl has backwards KC hat on. She's got her Whit Jr. jersey on. Like the dad said, they went all away from Georgia to see these games and boom, he hits a walk off grand slam. And she's going nuts. And then there's another video and she's literally

crying, man. Like she's so happy for Bobby Witt Jr. and her royals that she's in tears. And I just know as a dad. Like I would have been bawling at a baseball game too. If my daughter was invested in something like that and then her favorite player freaking came through. So snaps to Bobby Witt, number one. For being you because, you know, you seem, you seem like you get it, bro, which I like. I like guys that get it.

And then snaps for Ryan, the dad for bringing the daughter out to the ballgame and snaps for the daughter. Don't know her name. Don't need to have her name. I don't need that. She's a stud. I love this whole situation. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, number one,

get on Bobby Witt for acknowledging this tweet and kind of, you know, shining a little bit of light on this special moment. Hopefully also Bobby, like send them some gear, bro. Your social team can figure it out. You got it. I just love everything about it. And I wanted to make you know

that it's okay to show some emotion. And once you have a kid, you're going to really feel it. So that's my crybaby award. shout out all the people that were part of it. One of my favorite things about sports is it garners this type of reaction and emotion. I commented on that video. That girl's got a job waiting at John Boy Media

with an asterisk if she's qualified and she has a good interview and we're hiring. But yeah, man, I mean, that passion for baseball, I don't know, man. Like that, dude, that was a fucking nothing game in Kansas City. Their season's been over for two months. And the house was packed and the place went nuts. And dude, by the way, you mentioned the Bobby Witt, Tray Turner, like kind of player

comp and you put that seat in my head. One, I loved it. Two, I think Bobby Witt is about to go nuts and he did the next game. Dude, that was 102 on his fists and he turned it around for a walk-off grand slam. I don't know where his stock is at. I think people expected him to come out of the gates a little hotter. Just, you know, big-time prospect, all that. Kansas City's been bad.

I think that guy's about to go. And man, that's forever, Trev. That's forever. And I don't know the fatherhood part yet, but to put it in baseball terms, like, you know, we talk about trading years on contracts. Those people have, they got more years on their contract, you know?

There's a, theirs are more valuable. So, great stuff out of you. Hey, thanks. I'll, uh, I'm just going to cop out, uh,

and give an award to the people. Um, because kind of piggybacking off that, uh, sports being powerful, baseball being powerful. I think we broke the attendance record this weekend.

Love that. Um, And I don't know, man. I think it's even from five years ago when we were kind of just getting all this off the ground and it was, yeah, we do Yankee stuff and, you know, blah, blah, blah. Baseball was kind of embarrassing for a couple years. Like, in the 20 teens, it was kind of like, oh, you like baseball? Like, this deadline has already been awesome. And I think it's just getting started.

attendance is up, views are up. We have a company that was kind of piggybacked off of baseball. So I want to give some love for the people that tune into this for two hours, three times a week or whatever we're doing, and you're going to games. The fact that Kansas City was packed for that game, that's kind of nuts, man. That's kind of nuts.

That team has been out of it for a little bit, but it's a great baseball town. And it's cool seeing the other baseball towns kicking a gear. Baltimore's been dead for a little bit, since he's been dead for a little bit. Seeing these cities kicking a gear for their baseball team and seeing the rule change has helped a little bit. I think baseball's also been on an upward climb that like, dude, baseball's in an awesome spot. And I'm excited to see where we're at this time tomorrow and even, you know, a couple hours after that. because I think

baseball's killing it, man. And I guess I thank the people for being a part of it. I liked it. I thought about giving that as my word. I'm going to snap to you. I thought about congratulating a bevy of people, not just the fans themselves,

but I was even going to give Rob Manfred a little bit of a shout. He got that extension. You know me, Jake. Look, I don't think anybody's above reproach. Like, if you do some stupid shit, like you should you should be called out for it. But same token.

If you do some things that are good, you got to, it's okay. You could say that these rule changes have been for the better. And whether it's really his doing or not, like Rob Banffert's going to get credit for this. Even though like other people had to sign off on it, he's going to get credit for it. And I think you have to give them credit. The changes have been awesome for baseball. It's made it much more enjoyable. So I think people are noticing that

Baseball rules the summer, bro. I love that aspect about it. Baseball rules the summer. Give that to our fucking shirts, people. Kenny? Baseball rules the summer. Oh, I do have something to tell about our shirt people with. We just put out a fire, literally a fire.

Baltimore Oriole shirt has fire on it. It says chaos on it with some of their players, right? Yeah. Guess who didn't have? Taryn Varvra. Or Gibby. Oh, that's... You gotta have one of those two guys on there.

Come on. You need the guys. Like, Gibby's hair matches the rest of the shirt. Gibby should be the fucking mascot. God, I love Gibby. Hey, Trev. Can't wait to see you tomorrow. I can't wait for you to put me in a headlock.

Hi. By the way, guys, I'm on vacation doing this. I love you people. He's different. My wife's in a bathing suit out here on the beach. And here I am doing this because I love it. God. I love it.

You know how hot my wife is. Hey, Teddy, Ila, why don't you guys run down and get some ice cream? Yeah, I would love that. Go to the kids club. Jake sucks. Unreal. Another thing you'll learn about your kids. time. They be blocking.

Get in the way. Dad's going to crack Mommy's back real quick. You can see what we got going on here. It's too bad. Ha ha ha ha.