Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Shohei Ohtani is RED Hot & Cardinals are in a Dark Place | 676

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINExperience the latest and greatest in the Harry’s razor lineup delivered straight to your door for just $10 at https://harrys.com/TALKINVisit http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://betterhelp.com/talkinbaseball and get on your way to being your best self.Join us for out All-Star Game festivities in Seattle! Event is on July 11: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jomboy-media-all-star-party-tickets-656903595337+++++Timestamps:0:00 Happy Birthday, Trevor Plouffe!3:50 Corbin Carroll4:50 A Heartwarming Story is Coming Up7:40 National League Recap11:40 Phillies Have Turned It On17:40 San Francisco Giants Have Joined the Party23:35 Cardinals are BAD28:40 Cubs Sweep Pirates32:25 American League Recap36:45 Angels Beat the Rangers45:10 A's Fans Reverse Boycott53:45 Orioles Beat Toronto59:35 The Ladies Love Drake Songs1:02:05 Interleague Recap1:07:50 Mariners Beat the Marlins1:12:35 Rockies Beat Boston, Daniel Bard's Return to Fenway1:16:00 Braves-Tigers1:1:20:15 Padres-Guardians1:23:10 Are the Reds America's Team?1:25:00 Dodgers-White Sox1:29:25 Twins Sweep Brewers1:32:10 Standout Performance: Hogan Harris1:35:15 Standout Performance: Shohei Ohtani1:36:50 En Fuego1:39:20 Tolkien Baseball: AL & NL Central1:46:30 Eury Perez 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 St. Louis Cardinals are in the pooper. A new power out west, and does Trev shoot the Central Strait? Oh, it's a big out. Happy birthday, Trevor. I'm fired up. Holt leader, Jake. Paul Tucker raking in AAA.

Don't mind it. He sent me a vid. Don't mind it. Hello. and welcome to Talking Baseball, presenting you by Seekkeek. Go Talking. First time you used it to save 20 bucks.

Some interesting stuff going on on baseball. Reference right now, myself, Davis, Trevor Plouf, off of his road trip. First big roadie of the year. He's back home. Yesterday was his birthday. Middle, middle, June 15th.

Trevor, how are you? It's back. It's back. Good to be back in the studio. MC studio. Yes, I had a great birthday yesterday. I arrived Wednesday night at about midnight back to my house.

So I guess that's really technically Thursday morning. So yesterday I was just like, hey, let's just have a nice chill day. Took the kids to sushi. Teddy had some practice, got some Thai food delivered. I didn't want to do dishes.

They didn't want to cook. It's my birthday. even though Olivia offered to make me at home cooking, I said, you know what, you just chill out. We got other stuff to do. Enjoy it with me, you know? Yeah, yeah. That's good.

How are you doing? That was a little bit of a road trip, Trev. It was fun. I had a good time. You know, the travel part sucks. Like, I want to be home with my family, but everything else is cool. You know, being around the guys and just seeing how, you know,

the game hasn't changed too much. Everyone wants to talk about how the game's changed. Clubhouse is still the same. Guys are still the same. fired up trying to figure things out. Baseball's so funny, man, because you see the highs and lows and you understand why people say,

hey, let's have like an even temperament because another game is coming, whether you want it or not, good or bad. And you've got to navigate it through the season. It's like, I see people all up in arms like on Twitter about their team. The next week they're like in a completely different headspace. Baseball's nuts, man.

There's so many games. It's like there's a really, reason people say stay even tempered have the memory of a goldfish like because you just got to it's happening too often and there's my speech trev you're absolutely right and i'll i'll throw myself under the bus a little bit because in a in a middle in a or a two game well was was mid for different reasons yankees met subway series oh that was a mid off holy god i i i i June 13th at 8.09 p.m. Talking Jake tweeted.

And by the way, like, we're like with Yes Network. We're like, we're in the circle of trust. Like, I can't. You know, I got to be careful when I let the dog eat about the Yankees. We talk to Aaron Boone every week. Like, the players are in on it. I said, Yankees are a joke right now in this organization has no idea. Might be showing the national audience.

That was at 8.09 p.m. they were down 5-1 to the Mets and they just booted a couple balls. At 8.33 p.m., I said this team is special and it feels like 98. So it's tough, man. I don't know how the dudes do it. And you know what? Chris Rose will get a lot of love this episode, as he always does. He just had his Corbyn Carroll interview this week.

And one of the great clips that I loved was Corbyn Carroll said he gained a lot of like outlook perspective from watching the game from the stands, which me and Jimmy always look back and we laugh when we were first hanging out with you, Trev, and you were watching from the stands and you looked like an alien. You were like, this is all new to me. Corby and Carroll was like, you know what? When I was in the stands as a minor leaguer, watching these star major leaguers, like struggle and have bad at bats, it makes that everyday grind and not getting caught up

in, wow, am I owe for my life? last six, guess what? Like, so was Bons. So, so is Poolews. Like, everyone does that. So, um, I guess check out Chris Rose or even baseball today. Uh, Chris, right. Check it out for me. Yeah. I have one story. I got to mix it in. We got to get into the action. Okay. But I got one, one like heartwarming story that happened to me on the road. I'll figure out a time to put it in. Okay. Okay. So mark that, babes. Make sure we don't miss that. Let's start talking some baseball, because there's a team out West that kind of won me over a little bit. Cardinals, the Undertaker might come out, man.

I'm sick of it. Things are bad in St. Louis. Things are worse than ever. No, or things aren't bad? Harry's. Hello, Harry, the sleekest razor in the game. Their innovative design delivers the same great shave you expect with German engineered blades.

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I asked Joe's son Noah, how old he thought I was yesterday. He guessed 20 years old. So it's a little bit of him being a kid. That's a little bit of me looking like a child. I wish he asked Jimmy's age. I'm going to ask him that next time I see him. Elevate your shave with the latest and greatest in Harry's razor handle lineup today. Get your $17 craft handle starter set.

So it's like it's nice, but you get it for just $10. Harries.com slash talking. Harries.com slash talking. and there's a code in the, or a link in the description. Trev, you're raising your hand. This is for Harry's. You're welcome for this. You know, clearly they send out product to us

that we're familiar with it. I use it on my face. It gets me all lined up here on the neck as well. The other day, though, Olivia was like, hey, let me look at these razors. Okay. Five blades.

Yeah. She's shaving her legs with them now, people. It's smoothest legs I've ever felt in my life. Okay. I went there. I'll stay away from it for now. I'll stay away from it for now. But happy for you, happy for Olivia, as always.

How's 37 feeling? Are you all right, bro? Any different? You know, sometimes a birthday will hit you, sometimes a birthday doesn't hit you. It was like it wasn't my birthday yesterday. 37 is a non-existent birthday. Yeah, everybody knows that.

Okay. Okay, that's a good thing. Because some of the sad birthdays, those are like, you know. Those are coming for me, but 37 was like, ah, whatever. Those will chop you down. Let's, uh, it's Friday. Let's do some National League baseball. And speaking of a resurgent team that might have just joined the party this season,

the Philadelphia Phillies are hot in the streets. They drop the first game, an electric game to my season. Snakes, 9 to 8. I mentioned that Corbin Carroll guy, triple, couple hit by pitches. Some benches clearing. We're getting the high T rolling. Well, guess what?

The Phillies kind of feed off that. J.T. Real Muto, just missed my standout, Phillies fans. He had a cycle. You know I'm a sucker for that. And I mentioned the pitching. Ranger Suarez is on a bit of a heater for those fills. Oh, Trey Turner, Castiano, Schwerber,

Yes, yes, yes, Bryce and Stott. The Phillies, they are putting it together. They're on, I think they've won 10 of their last 12. They're above 500. Let's go, Philly. Summer is here. Oh, my Gorg. The Giants sweep the Cardinals.

And it ends in as ugly fashion as it can end. Two out, two strikes, Gallegos. Oh, no. No, it's out of the park. We're going to extra innings. And in extra innings, it gets even uglier. The Cardinals get swept. We have an Aeronado in front of the media.

We've got players only. Coach Trev phoned into his boy, so we're going to get everything on that. And hey, Giants fans, little sweep. They called up top prospect Luis Matos. Okay. Hey, Treves Giants with a little juice. The Chicago Cubs, they sweep the Pittsburgh Pirates, and if they've got to go, now's the time.

Marcus Stroman does the same thing he's done all year. Cody Bellinger comes back. Jameson Tyone has been on a little bit of a heater for the boys. You know Ian Hap be hitting. The Cubbies, they get a sweep, and if they're going to go, now's kind of the team. time. They sweep the pirates. That's a high and tight National League.

Oh, I've, the blood is flowing over here. I don't know if it was the leg shaving talk. Trev. That's all you get. And that's fine. You know, my girl Jess went on the girls' room this week. I know, uh, you probably locked the bathroom and listen to that. The Atlanta Braves are in first place.

43 and 26. 38 and 31, Miami Marlins are in second place with the fight and fill sneaking up. Like I said, a game above 500. They're playing good baseball. The New York Mets are 32 and 36. The Washington Nationals, 2740. The Pittsburgh Pirates are atop the NL Central, half game above 500. They're a half game up on Milowacay, Algonquin for the good country.

Cincinnati Red. We'll get to them in interleague baseball. They're a game back of first place. The Chicago Cubs are three and a half back. The St. Louis Cardinals have the worst record in the National League. You heard that right on June 16th. Arizona dimebacks remain atop of the West, 41 and 28. The Dodgers are 39 and 30.

San Francisco's 36 and 32 on a four-game win streak. San Diego, 33 and 35. Rock Pile, 29. and 42. Trev, this is a juicy, high and tight National League. I think there's a lot of IL. So let's check it off as we normally do. Cronpod. Phillies. Benches are clearing. The snakes are hot.

You know, best record in the National League snakes. They win a close game the first night, but the Phillies rally. Crooked numbers in game two, extra innings, and then they win a one-run game in the final. and the Phillies. They got that winning feeling going. Yeah, I think you hit on the head there. I mean, they've been playing good baseball as of late.

Their bullpen has been really good for them. So they've started hitting and winning games because of that. First game, you know, the Lavello thing is an interesting topic. I don't know how far we want to go into it. He comes out defending his guy, Corbyn Carroll, him and J.T. end up exchanging some words. And I talked about this on baseball today. I really had no problem how anybody handled it.

Like, Tori, like, great job, like, coming out and putting up for your boy. All right. And then J.T.'s like, hey, bro, like, we're not hitting him on purpose. So good on JT for sticking up for his boy. Yeah. And then Rob Thompson after the game, he's like, I would never do that. So he's, like, riding his high horse. Kind of love that at a topper as well.

It was an interesting situation. But you fire, you get the benches, you know, clearing. You know what the Phillies feed on. Testosterone. Yeah. That's a high-te team. I mean, the dimebacks aren't exactly a lot. low T team, but

Philly's got that money, that bank account IT. Next day, 15 to 3, they come out swinging. You got position players pitching. He woke the Phillies up. They go on to win the next two games. I mean, Ranger does his dang thing,

seven innings. If you get Ranger Swarrest, they really get going here. And be like a guy who we all know he can be, Phillies are a dangerous, dangerous team because they're starting to hit like swarber's been doing his thing interestingly enough as much as he's been hitting

he still has a negative war on the season so yeah you know he still got room to grow and then Trey Turner hasn't even left yet so it's this Philly's team is dangerous look out did they get woken up by a little benches clearing brawl probably not

they were already awake but it didn't hurt this team looks good right now yeah there's Trev it's kind of every facet man Taiwan Walker has been great lately. Ranger Suarez has been great lately. You mentioned Dirty Craig Kimbril, his past few outings have been clean, that when you put that with,

again, I look at I look at fan graphs a lot and it gives the last seven days power rankings for the players, which I don't know, it's, I don't think it's a perfect system, but it gives you an idea if guys are playing good or not in the last couple days. In the last seven days, it has Bryson Stott as the seventh best player. It has JT. Real Mee. Muto as the 14th. It has Harper, Castellanos, Turner, and Schwaber as top 52 players. So, yeah, that's seven guys in the lineup that have been playing at a top 50 player rate in baseball, basically.

So that with the starting pitching, I mentioned. A little help on the back end, that's how you win games. That's when we talk ourselves in circles whenever in a manager gets mentioned. because basically if anyone in this talking baseball shot right now was managing the Phillies and they were performing like this, you're probably going to rack up some dumps. It's interesting because for a long time, you know, the Phillies were struggling at the beginning of the season.

We marked like June because of what they did last year, and here they are in June doing exactly what they did last year. Yeah. Going. So I don't know what it is, what they got going on. and spring training? Are they tiring everybody out? They just don't care the first two months.

I don't know what it is. But here they are now. Running. It's good to see. And Arizona, I mean, obviously, a very good team, a very difficult team to beat to keep down, and they were able to do it. And, man, part of the reason I've got the juice today,

last Friday I was like, damn, this is a juicy up. This Friday, same thing. And it's this month of June. And it's why the Cardinals, who we're going to get to in a second, are such a hot topic that, like, Okay, Phillies, you went.

You're kind of good for a little bit. They play three against Oakland, which is now a little different. But next week, I just got hype. They're doing Atlanta and the Mets. Like some NLE's shit is going to get worked out next week. And I'm excited for that. I thought it was Monday. Snakes are fine.

You thought today was Monday? Yeah, I was like, man, we got good energy for this Monday up. but it's Friday. Here, I mean, look, you talk about fire on all cylinders, 10 and 2 run. The Phillies are hitting 289 with an 847 OPS scoring almost six runs per game during it, and they're getting the pitching like we mentioned. I mean, that's how you, I think they've won four straight series.

That's how you go. And everything good we just said about the Phillies, two of those games are one-run games, one in extras for my snakes. So we're fine. You mentioned high tea both ways. You know, the snakes, they're kind of that Scottsdale bachelor party high tea. The Phillies are like Saturday, Saturday morning already mowed the lawn.

The grill is hot. They're that kind of testosterone. I'll let you. Yeah, let me marinate on that one because I'll let you think about that. You're right. Scottsdale Bachelor Party high tea for the dime bags. I like that. They're kids.

It's not too expensive. You can go out and have a good time down there. there in old town. The freaking Phillies are flying to, you know, like Costa Rica on a PJ. Okay. I like that. Trev, the Giants sweep the Cardinals. Giants, let's check the box quick because it deserves to be checked because they're

the ones that did it, right? They're the ones that, you know, two strikes, two outs. Yaz hits the homer. Tyro doesn't stop. Lamont, wait. Look what Patrick Bailey is doing this year. And man, Luis Matos, like that dude's a real prospect. So now he's in the mix for them that Giants baseball.

They're sitting there 36 and 32. You know, that's okay. This time of year, that's fine. We can do that. FanGraphs has them 53% to make the playoffs, which again, we didn't know where this giant season was heading. The whole off season, it was they missed. on getting guys.

Go look at their little snapshot. You can argue they have a top 10 offense, a top 10 rotation, and a top 10 bullpen. Like, all of them might be 10th. But guess what? There's a formula there. So a little love for your giants before we get into St. Louis. They're just stringing hits together. They're hitting the ball extremely well up and down the lineup, putting good at bats together.

You mentioned yes. You mentioned Lamont. They're just kind of having professional at bats and stringing them together. And then you get that, like we said, mix with that pitching and you're going to win series. You're going to sweep teams like the Cardinals. Mitch Hanigra kind of breaks out of a little mini slump and then he gets fucking, it's hit by my boy Jay Flair, fractures his forearm. I've been there, dude.

You're going to be all right, but it's going to be a while. That's tough because I really like watching him play. Brandon Crawford is, I think he's one of my favorite players in the big leagues. You know, I love shortstop, some partial to that, but he's so consistent. And then when I found out that he's never played another position other than shortstop, that really got me. So he's got the pitching under his belt, he had a good series here. And then Patrick Bailey, rookie coming up, like kind of being the guy that Bart was supposed to be.

no shots fired but I guess I just shot something at you you know you come up and you have someone take a job over like that it's worth mentioning and he's been a big part of why they are where they're at

and yeah with forget the offense with the pitching that they have like this is a real deal contending team you can't sleep on the Giants man like they know how to play baseball they know how to win

they're a fun team to watch. People have heard my Buster Posey rant a couple times with that 1008 win Giants team. The other thing that I always mentioned, the bullpen was so good on that team. Go look at my guy Duval's stats right

now. He's silly. And it looks like between Rogers, Brebeah Rogers. Fucking both Rogers. I forgot about that. That's so fucked. Gabe Kapler

still posting stuff on the grand. that's like, do not, he's like, do not tell your girl about Gabe. And like, also, again, think about all the managers, like standing in a line in baseball and your manager posting some of the stuff, Gabe posts on the gram, like, whoa.

Giants are going, they've got their NLS. This is what I'm talking about. They are going Dodgers, Padre Snakes. Like, fire me up for some NL West, Giants baseball is it looks like they're kind of peaking and going at the right time. And you're right about Brandon Crawford, dude. Next Wednesday, me, BBD and your boy Foolish Baseball. We did an all old MLB draft this year, 33 plus.

And guess what? Short stops, you're down to like Brandon Crawford, who not having the best year, but guess what? If he won player the month, I don't think that shocks anyone. Like he can, he still can have that. in the tank. Then you're going to like John Birdie and Jelly Wendell.

So we forget how grueling that position is and yeah, he's either at shortstoppery pitches. Yeah. We like to give shoutouts to teams that have long lineups, Jakey and a Liddellis. More good hitters you have in the lineup the better you're going to

be. It makes sense. Thank you. Go check out the baseball reference page for this lineup. I mean, there's a few guys with, you know, Patrick Bailey only has 75 plate appearances. Austin Slater only has 51 plate appearances. But even if you take them out, they still have eight guys with an OPS plus over 100. Like, this is a long lineup that can get you in a bunch of different ways. I mean, Jock is doing his thing.

How is this guy of a 923 OPS? And nobody talks about him. I guess that's our job. Yeah. J.D. Davis doing it. Your guy, young prince. Is that what you call him, Tyro? Young Prince.

Tyro, man. Dude. Up and down the lineup. professional A. B's. You mentioned about Patrick Bailey, man. Guys that win jobs, like you're not Luis Matos, you're not the top prospect.

You're not going to get, you know, two years of run and we'll figure it out. And you do it. Because Tyro Estrada was kicked from the Yankees because they were like, well, we got Glaber and we got these other, you know, we're the Yankees. I don't know about Tyro Estrada cracking the lineup.

We just got Ruegnettor for free, so DFA. that yeah it's kind of the beauty of baseball right like you're everyone's kind of you'll get a look if you get up there and if you get a look and you run with it and that's kind of Giants baseball on the other side of the field oh god the same honestly this this is where we should be short honestly yeah we talked about this team enough what what is you doing baby like what what is going on there their team defense has gone from some of the best in the big leagues to some of the worst in the league. They're tied for last with the royals,

with the A's for defensive run saved. And that takes into account positioning. They're not positioning well. They're putting guys in bad spots. Nolan Aeronado has a negative defensive run save season right now. Nolan Aeronado. It's a mess over there. It's an absolute mess.

Any way you slice it up, dude. It seems like the leadership void is real, which is crazy to me because you have some, like, Hall of Famers who have been through some shit on that team. And it's just ain't working. And that's what's so funny. A Nolan Aronado Presser the other day

is going, you know, a little viral. And, hey, like, be honest with yourself. If you're a baseball fan out there, how many times have you seen Aronado pressers? Like, you know, if you're a rock's fan, or I'm sure Cardinals fan the past couple years. You've seen some Aeronado post-game interviews, but like he's kind of not that guy.

Aronado loves playing ball. I remember Tim Melville, who Whitmerfield, reminders, instantly said is the weirdest teammate he's ever had, talking baseball's Tim Melville. Tim Melville had a cup of coffee with the rocks, and he was shoving, and, you know, we talk about locker room dynamics a lot.

Like, you know, Tim Melville can't just kind of go up to Nolan Aronado and be like, what's up, man, how you doing? You know, you kind of got to earn your keep a little bit. After his third start, Aronado went up to him and was like, hey, your next throw day. Like, I want to see it. Like, Aronado's wired to be one of the best ever. That's why he's been one of the best ever.

So, yeah, Kim getting in front of the media and talking about execution and all that. Like, he's not, that's not where he wants to be. He wants to be playing ball and winning games. And, hey, little reminder, like, he had an opt-out this winter that he turned down to stay. stay in St. Louis because they're the St. Louis Cardinals and we do things the right way and we win. He would have brought home a lot more money. The child got that extension.

Yeah. With that being said, Trev, you're right. I mean, we should only give them so much time. You did, you talked to your boy, J. Flaring. I don't know what you can discuss or can't discuss, but. I'm not discussing anything in that conversation. We talked about a bunch of different stuff. But, you know, it's, it's, the vibes aren't great.

Right. I'll give you that much, obviously. You know, so it was after the Lamont Wade Jr. thing. And he didn't really have much to say about that either. He said, look, man. I'll tell you what he's in this. I'll tell you what he said on that. Okay.

He was, you know, Lamont was kind of off the base, jumping around, doing a bunch of things. He thought he might have been relaying signs. So I don't really care about that. That's our fault if you're doing that. All he said was if you're going to go, just go. Just go.

He said he was challenging him to go to second base. Then it was a bunch of miscommunication. Then bench is cleared. An umpire got right in his face. Stuff like that's silly to me. You mentioned... But maybe they fucking need that. Maybe they need a few guys just get thrown out.

Like, let's get some fire. Travis, it's where you mentioned that level-headedness with baseball. Like, if you're the Cardinals, I think you got to go past that, right? Like, either like, let's get in a brawl or let's trade. or let's, you know, a new voice. Like we talked about that a lot of times, that if you're at this part of the season, and by the way, like, I came in here pretty gung-ho.

I was doing my, like, Arthur walk down the street. Like, I'm telling the Cardinals they're dead. I kind of can't do it. Because eight and a half games in June is nothing. And they've played the worst baseball of all time. So I'm not saying I believe, like I was being braggadocious about my little betting. ticket for a while. I don't believe in shit

like with this team. Second shit cuss word and that's not normally a go-to cuss. We got to stop. It's not normally a go-to cuss word for me. I don't know. I don't know. Cardinals like get in a brawl, trade, do something because we can't keep talking about you

because you keep losing. Why don't you go into the clubhouse and just pick a fight with somebody? Tyler O'Neill let's do it. Fire hydrant style. I mean, two thumbs. If you want your ticket to Cash, go do that. Just two thumbs bumping into each other.

Go Giants go. That was like you and Jimmy in college. Never really rasseled. Anyways, Trev, is it the final NL series? It is. It stays in the central, and I know there's going to be some other central talk. But, hey, a little bit of Cubs love, because last episode I was saying that they've been hidden

by the umbrella that is the St. Louis Cardinals, because I think they were a game up on them. Couple wins, couple losses the other way. Your Chicago Cubs are three and a half games out of the Central. And this is a team that everyone was saying, like, oh, I'd love to add Bellinger, or maybe we could trade for Stroman. Well, if they're in shouting distance, they ain't going to do that because they're the Chicago Cubs.

Yeah, they rake this series, essentially. And they put up 28 runs in three games, pitching was exactly what they needed as well and they get a sweep of the first place pirates pirates kind of like what is you doing baby you get up there you got the lead in the division and you go into Chicago and get swept this is I'm going to talk more about the central divisions

I have a Tolkien baseball award centered around the central divisions and the the reds are coming up too and they're a whole part of the conversation so let's let's table it for a little bit and let's talk Some American League Baseball and the American League sure is brought to you by Blue Moon. You know, those Yankees' Mets tweets I talked about before, there might have been a Blue Moon involved while I was letting that bad boy rip. Created in Coorsfield, literally, where the Rocks play ball.

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Blue Moon made brighter. Celebrate responsibly. There's a link in the description. There always is, man. It just always is. Can I say something about the last series before we move on? Sure. The Marcus Stroman versus the Cubs saga that's happening right now.

I'm on Marcus's side here. I think what he's doing is winning, because this is clearly a negotiation tactics on both sides, and Marcus Stroman is winning it because the way he's pitching. We're calculated. If you're performing, if you're performing, you can call out a team and say, I'm trying to be here.

The fan base is behind me. They love me. I am putting up the numbers. So what's up? And the Cubs being like, oh, we're not going to do anything. We're not changing our position. We don't comment on this stuff.

That ain't winning it, bro. Yeah. No, fans love to hear that. Yeah. A guy's like, hey, I love the city and the organization and everything that's going on.

And I want to be here and look at my numbers. I might even start the All-Star game. I mean, probably not. But, you know what I'm saying? Conversation. The city's behind you. You might start all JM team. Let's head to the American League.

And we're heading out West, Trev, and this is the series I have circled. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California that play in L.A. in Anaheim, took three out of four from the Texas Rangers, a dramatic 12-inning game to get it started. Shohay, stop it. Two homer day at the office. Your boy, Netto, I know you're all in on him. The Halos, 12 innings, back and forth, fun game. They win the first, and then they win two out of the next three,

including it ends on a show hey, start day, him and Evaldi throwing the pill. Boogity, boogity, boogity, boogity. The game that the Texas Rangers won, Tavares, Simeon, continues to go, my goodness, the year he is having. But the halos take three out of four from the big, bad Texas Rangers in the West this year. We got to talk about this one a lot, and we will a couple times in the show. Two powerhouse teams also met up out west.

The Tampa Bay Rays and the Oakland Athletics, your hottest team in baseball. They win the first two. Caprillion gives them a good start. Opener Day followed by Hogan Harris, Brent Rooker, Cheylandgeleers. These Oakland A's cannot be stopped until they get stopped by Manny Margo, Yandi Diaz. My guy Luke Rayleigh snapped the twig on the field. That's always a dramatic moment. Rays bounce back because they're the rays.

Our guy Glass Now is in there. Little John Boy Media behind the scenes. Chris Rose and Tyler Glass now meeting in person for the first time today. Chris Rose was all horned up about that. And can I be honest, so was I. Raisin A split, a four gamer. Back on the East Coast, the Baltimore Oreos. They take two out of three from the Blue Jays.

The offense goes in game one. They get to my guy Bassett and Trev, your guy. Gunner Henderson. He won't stop. He gets his first grand slam. His numbers are silly on the month. The game that Toronto wins, it's behind your other guy guy, Jose Barrios,

who's just turned it around this season. 7.2 shutpiece. He just out deals Kyle, who's being a little bratish, but the Orioles win the rubber match. Rushman, Austin Hayes. These baby birds, man, good to see them getting their mojo back. And that's what happened in the American League.

Lot of IL people. A lot of IL. Catch my breath for a second. Bad train experience this morning. Tampa Bay Rays, your first team to 50 wins. 50 and 22, a 694 win percentage, plus 142 run differential. The Baltimore Orioles are five games back of them with the second best record in the AL. That's a reminder. They've been doing that this year. Yankees are 39 and 30. The Blue Jays are a game and a half back of them, 38 and 32. Sox are a game under 500.

Twinkies run in the Central, 35 and 34. The guard dogs are 32 and 36. White socks. What are they? Five and a half games back of the twins? Tigers, okay, Royals, ho. Texas Rangers still control the West at 42 and 22. Houston Astros are 39 and 30.

Same record as the Yankees. How do you like that? The Angels are 39 and 32. Mariners, a game below 500, and the Oakland Athletics. Yeah, they had their hot streak. Maybe they'll ride it out. Better record than the Royals. Like, that deserves to be pointed out.

Everyone was killing Oakland, and they've been better than the Royals. Trev, we started out West, and this was. was the series I was teasing a little bit. Because it does matter. And I've given a couple weird jakey speeches about how big this June is because there's so many teams in it and like the Mets are still being Metsy and you can jump around baseball and feel each team's vibe. This was a massive month for the Los Angeles Angels.

And they take three out of four from the Texas Rangers who, you know, we've been serenading with them with love. and the lineup and the pitching and every way they hit you. Angels take three out of four. Shohei is going insane. And it becomes that thing of like, you talk about talent on the field, and we talked about how talented these Texas Rangers are now.

The angels have the talent we just don't believe in the laundry. And I think they're eight and two in their last 10. Like, it's hard for us to believe in the halos until they show us, and they're getting to the point that they're starting to show us. You got to explain the laundry thing to me. I don't get that one. The uniform, man, we've all been burnt by the angels. Like, they don't give off winning vibes normally.

This was your reference when you said if they were wearing a Giants uniform, this roster, you'd be so much more into us. Yes. Okay, got it now I don't want to go too much into show hey because I think you're going to talk about him later in the show and but this was the show hey show

I mean, are you kidding me? The way he's matching his sleeves with a uniform now got me going, he had the gray on gray in the first game. I mean, where he's hitting balls Apo like that. It doesn't make sense. Every once in a while you get a guy that

has you know, Apo, pop. We always say like man, that looks like a right-handed pulled the ball, a right-hander with massive pop pulled that ball. He's going Apo doing that. And what's interesting is, like, the guys, like, a couple of the guys who have the most

pop I've ever seen in the big leagues come from the Asian leagues. Bionho Park in Korea, the way he goes, or he went Apo, was crazy to me. The way Shoha can go Apo is crazy to me. And both these guys were

bigger guys, but I don't know if they're something in the swing mechanics. It's nuts, man. You have to just applaud what Shohei can do, how far he can hit the ball the other way. It's crazy. Nobody is doing that besides him in today's game. Oppo like that.

I mean, maybe Aaron Judge. Not a, it's not a bad thrower of the baseball too. No, he's, yeah. But the angels are, the angels are a problem, man. Like, they can, again, like, their lineup has gotten a lot longer. As of late, you're getting Rendon back,

what Mickey Moniac's been able to do. They're able to string together those good innings because their lineup isn't just dropping off. I mean, you have Wallach doing his thing in this series, Renfro doing his thing, even Netto coming around. They're becoming a well-rounded team, this Angels team. And this was an important series because

I don't want to go too much into it because we talk about this so much. But like this is it. Like Shohei in an angel's uniform, most likely this is it. And it could either go one or two ways. Like they kind of, they keep them and it's like a dud of a bang at the end. There's like the firework goes off, but it doesn't really, you know, reach its height. And it's just like, oh, man, like that was it. Or they keep performing the way they have been as of late and they roll into

the playoffs for the first time with Mike Trout and Shohei and even if they lose him, I think it's still like a huge victory for the Angels. And maybe that puts them in contention to keep, I don't know. But like they have to win series like that, like this for that to happen.

And three out of four for the Rangers in Texas is a very nice feather in your cap. I'm going to be soft for a moment. Hey, I was getting a little emotional shower thoughts this morning that I was like, man, I'm going to talk baseball today with Trevor Plouf. I was texting, I got pretty high last night. I was texting Chris Rose,

and Rose took pictures with his sons and, like, with Bieber and Tristan McKenzie, and I was like, A, I love how horny that makes Chris Rose. Chris Rose's sons are, like, massive sports fans, like on any scale. You know, Chris Rose is like, he might be one, one sports fan, ever.

Might be. That I was looking at those pictures and I was just like so happy for Chris Rose. Dude, the rally monkey angels times, some of the kids listening have no idea. That place was a zoo. Yes. That place was a zoo that I just got chills and this is so soft, but it's also like the reason why I'm here. If the halos get some playoff games in that stadium with Shohei and Trout, The place is going to be electric.

It's the compliments we give Toronto for being a nut house when they host playoff games. Like the Anaheim has that in the bag that I, um, whoa. Um, because dude, they've got three with Kansas City coming up. They went 15 and 13, both of the first two months. They've got a, they've got the chance to have their like crooked number month and get going. Um, sixth in OPS offensively. Uh, bullpen ERA. They are fifth.

Um, not where you normally jump with the halos, but, uh, Estevez, who was a hell of a snag for them. Davensky being reborn back there. Jose Soriano, I'll be honest, not in my book, Rule 5 from Pittsburgh, but he's been given them some. So, um, right now. they're off their formula, some offense, some bullpen. And Trev. They're one game back of a wild card spot from your Yankees,

and they're going to pass them because the Yankees are abysmal. Sorry. Okay, that felt kind of rooted. I kept saying that one good team is going to be left out of this A.L. Playoff race. Right now, Toronto's a game and a half out. The Angels are a game out. The Yankees and, as you say, they're a game back from the

The Houston Astros, who haven't been as astro-y as they'd normally been. And then, like, the computers still don't believe in the Orioles and stuff. It's messy, dude. And that's, without mentioning the Seattle Mariners that were supposed to be, like, the start of their next step, they're five games back. They're tied with the socks. So the AL, whoa. And that's, again, the part of this that I love for the halos is whatever trades on the table,

they're going to go for it because this is this is the time they called up two kids without playing minor league baseball basically um this might be the last year with show hey that i'm i'm into it i'm into it too ben joyce by the way that i guess it came back no structural damage in his arm that's which is very nice to hear that is good news that is good news and rangers fans guess what i don't think you care because like i said the astros haven't been you want to win every series you care um Corey Seeger having his best stretch as a ranger, which is a reminder. Their electric start they got off to was without a guy who could arguably be their best player. In their last 12, 429, 491, 796, almost 1.3ing.

So they'll be all right. Trev It's a little unfair to the series because the rays bounce back and they raise And that's obvious ATO We haven't gotten your thoughts on here About the reverse boycott And I

You know you talked about it on baseball today a little bit But I would love to get your thoughts As a proud former Oakland athletic Yeah getting into the series We're going to talk about this one A little later in the show second half of the show. As far as the reverse boycott,

I thought it was cool. Obviously, it's a bunch of people united together in a cause. Is it going to change anything? Did it change anything? No. But I told Chris Rose, like if you get to see that place,

you know, filled up and you get to see how loud it can be, I mean, you're talking about rally monkey angels and all these places that can really go, like Toronto. like put a good team in Oakland and watch playoff baseball, it might be the loudest place.

Those fans are nuts. So they packed the house. It was great. The A's did their thing. That's one of those games where you're like, most of the time when you have something like that where the city is rallying around the baseball team, like they're going to win a game.

And they went out and won that one. Like Luriano steals third, scores on the fielders choice, like, kind of like ASE baseball right there, if you will. I thought it was great. And, you know, I feel for the people in Oakland because it looks like it's pretty much confirmed that they're leaving. They're going to Vegas.

It was a messy situation. It's been going on since I played there. Forever, man. We're talking six years ago. They were talking about building a new stadium. And Dave Caval was kind of like new there. And he was jumping up and down at A's Fest. and he was like, we're bringing a stadium.

We're rooted in Oakland. They came out and said that. And then, you know, like, was it all BS? Like, maybe, probably. For some reason, like, Vegas has this, like, calling to these Major League sports owners. I don't know if, like, I don't know if it's going to work. Dude, Vegas is a weird town.

It's a weird town. There's not a lot of people that are from Vegas. Like, you want, you're going to be rooted in Vegas? it's a it's a it's it's funded by tourists yeah like you're gonna you're gonna get a bunch of other fans coming to the games i don't i don't know it's we'll see it's mostly has to do with real estate and all the surrounding areas then you know the name yeah i thought the boycat was great i mean for fans to be able to organize that on their own against you know obviously the a's didn't want it to happen. NLB network surely didn't want it to happen. I don't even think they were allowed to show

highlights on it. I will give one shout out to Dallas Braden, who, you know, he's the voice of the A's and, you know, for a lot of people, he personifies what they're about. You know, he's from the area. Stockton, 209 guy. He's been incredible during this whole process, you know, giving the A's fans the love that they deserve and, you know, it's just a sad time, man. I, there's been a couple nights on the couch where I've, I've wanted to text Dallas, and I'm going to do it. Because, A, it was before, he would love it. It was before this win streak, so it's been electric. But, you know, Trev, we, we're providing some entertainment to baseball.

Like, everything now has more entertainment value to it. It's our whole society. We want to be entertained that, you know, there's kind of the old joke of, like, you know, even three years ago, you'd flip over a couple broadcasts, and it would be like, oh, there's a deep, drive to right field and it's in the bullpen, a home run. That'll be two runs on the board. And you're like, come on, man. Like, wake up.

And the fact that the Oakland athletics, again, we're on a historic all-time bad pace, but they get to be entertained by the rhythmic stylings of Dallas Braden every night. That's awesome for them. And, dude, it's awesome for him that he's, he's in it and he wants to be in it. Because think about there'd probably be, okay, flashback another 10 years,

there'd be a couple broadcasters doing those games that would be like basically feel like dead ducks. Like this franchise is literally trying to lose. Like, do I want to be here? Do I even want to be associated with this? And Dallas does, which that's awesome. I got one more thing on it. Sure.

And if you're an Oakland-Aze fan, Eermost. You're not going to want to hear this. But this is just me trying to keep it as real as possible on this show. Rob Manfred comes out and says, maybe the most diabolical thing that he's ever said.

And he said, it was nice to see for what this year is like an average attendance at a baseball game for one night in Oakland. Like, I'm on Oakland's side here, but that's a hell of, of a line. Holy. Like who cooked that one up for him? That was clearly not a Rob Manfred line. Someone was like, hey Rob, do you want to really twist the knife a little bit? Let's just say

this. Diabolical by you, Rob. Yeah. He had one in the chamber there. They consult Jimmy on that one. Heesh. Chowboy media. And like is he like lean into that thing? Now that he's got the pitch clock win under his belt? Is he like just going to lean into everything else? Yeah, I'll tell you another Jakey deep track thought the other day. Sorry about starting a show just called people and just talking to people for a little bit because I like people. Who is Rob Manfred?

What do you mean? Like literally. Like I know the guy likes golf. Is he, can he be? If we played golf for five hours, could he be a good hang? No. Like, is it all just a cover? Like, it, I have no idea.

I have no idea. You're probably, you're probably never going to know, just so you know. Yeah, I know. I think you're okay. That you're fine. You're fine. Routed in Oakland. A couple guys I want to shout out quick.

Estuary Ruiz, 33 Swipes, leading baseball, the rookie for Oakland. That's awesome. He's tying some records with Ricky Henderson. so like that's always special. Oh, and by the way, the race who end up splitting this series, and we barely mentioned yet, Taj Bradley, big prospect for them, strikes out the first six batters he faces in that game.

He strikes out 11. And again, when you raise high tea, we mentioned they're a different kind of, you know, they're their own kind of high tea. We saw McClanahan pitching in a playoff game, like before he pitched in the regular season. I remember that right? I believe he's a debut in the World Series.

We saw it. Their starting pitching is starting to brew. McClanahan. Eflin's been incredible. Glass Now's back. Taj Bradley. That's without mentioning my guy, Yanni Chorinos,

and what could be the best offense in baseball. So they're still doing their thing. Pete Fairbanks with the black guy from his kid. Awesome. My dude. teaching life lessons playing pool basketball and that's kind of what life's really about it's kind of what life's really about

you ever get the pool basketball hoop trap or is it in play at all? No, I don't really... We've had one. Like a floating one, but it didn't get used a lot. Mostly when I'm in the pool with the kids I mean you're throwing him high in the air or we're doing diving catches, which is my favorite.

Yeah, that's better than pool basketball if we're being honest. I will say. some high school phases. No rules, like guys drowning each other and stuff. It was intense. I kind of hated it. Anyways, Orioles take two out of three from your Toronto.

You just saw them in person last week. For me, the story, and Trev, you touched upon this last episode, is Gunner Henderson breakout. Oh, boy, yeah. Because just because think about that, the Orioles who were upstart and good and Adley Rushman's Orioles. They now had a guy that went from being like an inconsistent rookie to being one of the best players on the team.

And A, that's got to be a cool feeling for Gunner Henderson. That's got to be a cool feeling for the Orioles. But like that, that just adds another tier now. Kind of instead of us saying like, hey, and you know, Gunner Henderson's a top prospect. And he's doing some things. Like, no, he's been one of, if not like the best hitter in baseball this month. 8.08 OPS now on the year.

Yes, he hits the Grand Slam. You said Adley Rushman's Orioles. I say Aaron Hicks's. TBD is going to be Maddie missed that, but that's okay. Oh, yeah, I think he hits, I think Aaron Hicks hit two homers in this series. I know he hit one. Yeah, I mean, look, I think the Orioles are probably happy

with where they're at. I don't think like anyone's really talking about them anymore. Before I was like, oh, my gosh, have you seen what the Orioles are doing? Can they keep it up? Are they going to continue to do it? And they just have 18 and 9 in April, 16 and 12 in May, 8 and 4 in June. Like, they're winning.

And like, get used to it, people. Yeah. So a great series win here for them. The first game is the Gunner Henderson game. Next game, Burrios comes in, shuts him down, has a no-hitter into the 7. And it was interesting on that. Adley Rushman ends up breaking it up. It's a 1-0 game.

Ball to Keirmeier. Keirmeier, I think, was like, hey, we need to win this baseball game. I could go after this, and I could maybe catch it. The sheriff's got a shot at it. But if I don't catch this ball, you know,

Adley's going to be on third base. And, you know, so for the game, I think he let up, I think you saw Jose Brutus be like, oh, man, like, can't you do that thing that you always do out there? Yeah. But a smart play by Keirmeyer,

Blue Jays end up winning that game. And then, hey, let's win the series. four two Orioles in the second in the excuse me in the rubber mansion just another notch on their belt man in the AL East taking care of business Toronto like sliding a little bit

they lose to my twins they lose to the Orioles it's uh they're doing it man another thing that just jumped out the sheet to me and by the way Keirmeyer just just missed Robin that grand slam by Henderson

which is funny because we talk about Varshot just missing a bunch of robberies lately they got a lot of that fellas Reach out. A, couple quick hitters. Baltimore in the first game, 17 hits. That's their season high. No position player pitching either.

Like that, that's 17 hits. Their 23rd comeback win of the year, that leads baseball. And Trev, a little Orioles Blue Jays, because, you know, again, these Blue Jays, you know, they're in their wheelhouse and those names and Vladie and everything. orioles are 5 and 1 against the Blue Jays this year. So, Orioles are ahead of the Blue Jays and the standings.

You guys are going to play each other six more time, something like that. They've had your number to the tune of a 5 and 1 record. The game you won is behind a burrios almost no-no. Like Blue Jays might just be the, The Blue Jays and my damn Yankees leg wrestling for a last wild card spot with the Angels, which that's crazy on multiple levels. I mean, I watch the Blue Jays,

and I think they're a very impressive team. Like, I expect them to be very much in the mix. So I'm not, I know, like, a little bit of a rough stretch right here, but they're too good of a team. They really are. Especially if... They really are. They really are.

some of the bullpen stuff i think needs to be worked out we'll have to figure that out they have some guys back there that was one thing i wasn't too impressed with but last thing on this series because we're like we need to go bro we have a lot of iL games we have the second half of the show Tyler wells yeah leading the league and whip

doing it we question the orio's pitching staff is it enough it's been enough I wouldn't call it great curious to see how they work out a series in the playoffs. But if you can get enough out of them and kick it to the bullpen that they have, that's the recipe.

Gibby, Wells, and Braddish, all with ERA pluses over 100. I mean, there's your three. And by the way, Blatista and Cano are sitting back there. Hey, reliever ERA sometimes doesn't matter, right? This matters. Cano's is 1.03.

in Bautistas is 1.11. Hope you've got the lead in the seventh. Because if you don't, it's over. It's over. Almost just fainted. Trev, is that the last American League series? I think it is. It is.

So let's get into some Interleague. Interleague is brought to you by the John Boy Media Store. Go get yourself some merch. I've been wearing too much of it lately, but that's because we've been cranking out some fire merch. Jess actually yelled to me this morning. That's why I'm wearing my cult leader shirt today.

Our MLB players shirts are awesome. What's that, Trev? No, I mean, we were trying to get that deal done for a long time. I know. It finally happened, and then we got our peeps. Who's doing the designs? I know it's... Sarah has gotten him.

Sarah, shout out. She's got some flames emojis. Our guy Matt, Blake. I think Gavin's been shipping in there. So shout out to all of them. They look, they are actually incredible designs. And the T-shirt blanks are awesome too. So, like, better than what we had in the store before.

Like, our merch is as leveled up. Oh. Oh, yes. Is leveling up still in? I feel like that was cool for a little bit. And now it's kind of out. How is leveling up not cool? That's a dumbest thing I've ever heard.

No, I think it's still cool. But, like, even, the phrase itself, like, leveled up. All right. We are better now than we used to be. Know what I put on this morning? Got the blood flow in a little bit.

Hotline bling, Drake. Ooh. Yeah. Boy, did that song have a moment. You know, Drake's a guilty pleasure for everybody. It's like kind of embarrassing to love Drake, but also like he's one of the best artists of our generation and just puts out banger.

so like how can you not? What's his most recent like, oh shit, like Drake. Oh, wake up, babe, new Drake bangers out. Almost every song he puts out is kind of like that. I mean, hey, go out to like a place that's playing hip-hop music. It's a lot of Drake. The Drake's always going to come up. And you know who likes Drake?

The ladies. Yeah. That's all that matters, people. Who cares what you like? What gets the ladies. excited. Hotline playing big freshman year college song for me so. Yeah, I mean, I mean one dance, God's plan. He moved out of my neighborhood. The

Stafford's bought all their houses. God's playing. The ladies love that song. God's clam. Let's do some Interleague baseball. How's your M's? The Marlins first. The Mariners and the Mariners. They win a set. And I'll be honest, I came in kind of angsty against the Mariners, and I was like, oh, I bet the Marlins win this, because they've been winning series and the Mariners haven't. No, no, no, don't funk with my heart, Black-Eyed Peas. Mariners win the first game.

Bryce Miller gets a bounce-back start that he's been looking for, you boy, George Kirby. Trev, I know you like him, six innings, zero earn runs. Hey, that'll help get it done for you, but they run into Yuri Perez on the final day, six innings pitch, no earn runs. Tom Murphy, Aeohenio Suarez, and you know who had a two-homer game for the Mariners and the second one, BBD? Mike Ford.

How do you like that? Mariners take two out of three. Rockies in the socks. They played three. Up at Fenway Pack. Kelsey Wingert, killing it on the sideline. So was the rain. And we had a couple dramatic 10 inning games.

to start off. And we're putting the tarp on in between at bats. We've got guys making their MLB debuts coming out during the Rain Fest. Cuckiness. Rockies win the first two. They sneak out a couple wins in Manfred Ball. Sox bounced back the final day. Whitlock, seven innings to earn run. Verdugo and Robbie Ref Snyder get it done for them. Wow. How about that? Elias Diaz, he keeps going. Wow, All-Star buzz? I did not have that on my bingo card this year. I wonder if there's some trade deadline buzz for that.

Braves, they take two out of three from the Tigers. Sure, tigers were running hot. They win the first game. Spencer Torkelson walk off RBI single. I'd love to get him back in the mix, man. Man, baseball. They'll come at you quick. Three-hit day for him, though.

Good for him. Braves, they come back, double-header day. Michael Harris, too. He's starting to go off. The Braves have been, like, hiding him at the bottom of their lineup. Basically didn't need him, go catch balls. He's starting to go nuts. Acuna, that's all he's done this year.

Albee's getting some all-star buzz going. Braves beat the Tigers, and you're not surprised. The Cincinnati Reds. self-proclaimed America's team, and I'm not fighting them. They take out the broomsticks against the Royals, who, man, they just got another just absolute gut punch. Our guy Pasquantino is going to be out for the year. That just sucks.

While meanwhile, you're watching the Cincinnati Reds having the season that Royals fans were dreaming of this year. There's young dudes doing it all over the field. Jonathan, India, Matt McLean. Like, will not stop hitting. And your guy, be lively, Trev, 5.2 to Ernie's again. The Reds have the sauce. It's something in baseball.

You can't really explain until you see it. The Reds have the sauce. They're an absolute electric factory. L.E. De La Cruz. Eduardo Perez was on Sunday night baseball saying his mom was flying out to meet him because she liked what he was putting out. And he said that matters.

So guess what? I think that matters too. Red sweep and they are in the mix. And the San Diego Padres. They take two out of three from the Guardians. They couldn't fight off the Chris Rose effect. He went to the final game with his boys. And the Guardians got it done.

They put up eight runs. J-Ram, Nailer. David Fry. Not in my book. Good for you, fella. But the Padres, their new formula. Gary Sanchez, with that. OPS in the nines. Fernando Tatis Jr. with back-to-back Homer games behind Musgrove and Waka

on the mound. Padres, they win the series. They kind of start doing that more, especially if the Giants are in the mix. Dodgers, they take two out of three from the White Sox, and that's obvious. Although I saw Dodgers fans, they're not as excited with their pitching. They're saying it doesn't feel Dodgers-S. Catter Day still works. Dodgers, they win two out of three. We got managers ejected. Wow, long on the time. Astros take two out of three from the Nationals. And this series had a little juice, by the way. Davy Martinez, he's got the receipts. Some good chaos, a great an all-time manager post game. Nats, I was watching an extra inning sports gambling, and they pull out a nice win in Manfred ball. Yankees and Mets have a mid-fest. We'll talk about

that. Twin sweep the Brewers. Let's fucking go, baby. This team is special. This team is special. And that's what happened in a big interleague. My goodness. It was rivalry week, man. It was.

It was rivalry. More of this, to be honest, that mid-off in New York was only made palatable because they're from New York. He ain't wrong, man. I mean, bad defense, bad... Is mid-off cool to say? Because you say it a lot. Tired, like, tired bullpens coming off of rest days,

just pathetic stuff. Marlins Mariners, Trev, give us your 10 minutes on George Kirby. I mean, look, you got to start somewhere if you're the Mariners, right? Play a good ball against a good Marlins team up against some good pitchers. They get to Lazzardo,

and then Bryce Miller does his thing. Eugenio does what Eugenio does. They win the first game handily, second game as well. Yuri Perez and Luis Castillo in a pitcher's duel in the last game. God, I love that. Yuri Perez kind of gets the better of them. Jorge Salar goes absolute

deep fly against Castillo and you know, I'm happy for the Mariners. Like, they always want me to pronounce them dead. Where are they at in the standards? I was going to say, like, there's a conversation there with everything I oozed about with the angels, Mariners.

Five games out of a wild card right now. Sheesh. Whoa. Hazu Sanchez, huge home run robbery on your boy, Aeuhenio would have been a grand slam. It ends up just being a sack fly, so that's a three-run swing right there.

And hey, I know we've joked about George Kirby. Great start. A couple stats there. I think it said the Marlin swung at 58% of his fastballs outside of the zone? 48%. So when you got MLB dudes chasing like that,

the sauce is real, and that's why Mariners fans make us talk about George Kirby and good. Good. Sad note from the series, Luis Arais goes 0 for 9 to drop his batting average to 382.

That's kind of fucked up. Does he stink now? No, just kidding. Does he have options? 382 middle of June. You're a freaking you're a stud. I guess it's even worse than that

because that was coming after the second game. I just read that. Mariners, what do they got coming up? White Sox, okay. And then a road trip, Yankees and Baltimore. Fangraphs has them with a 20% chance to make the playoffs. Mariners?

Yeah. Or Marlins? Mariners. I don't know, man. I mean, this is a team that this is the window. This is the window. Yeah, I mean, it's, we're talking about all these teams right now and what they're going to do, but really it, for probably like five, six, seven different teams, it's what, what are you going to do with the trade deadline? Make or break your season. I really believe that this trade deadline is going to be one of the better ones in recent years. Really? Because I just feel like, look how. close everyone is in the standings. And we have the expanded playoffs. So in theory, we should have more teams going for it. You have a couple teams that are kind of out of it that have some players

that they like to get rid of. Like it's kind of like a perfect storm here for some blockbuster trades and then a bunch of different ones. I mean, everyone's going to be after bullpen help. Everyone's going to be after starters. So who what starters are going to be made available? And there's going to just be a blood fest for these players. I think if you're a team that's like, thinking about selling or is out of it? Like, I think you're going to come out like ACEs here because people are going to be willing to pay for a lot of different things come to trade deadline.

And Mariners are no exception to that. I'll be interested to see. I don't know, again, how you measure best is always interesting. But it could be one of the most dramatic deadlines we've had because there's going to be a couple GMs that'll really have to like swallow their pride and punch that, punch that trade. because supply and demand might be in a good spot for you, but you might be telling a team that had legit world series goals coming into the season,

like, hey, you don't deserve extra help. In fact, we got to start thinking about the future. Cardinals? I mean, what? Can't add. Mariners got to hit. Offense has got to go. Kalanick has come down to Earth.

He's got an OPS of 809 right now. He's the only one besides your boy Mike Ford with no PSO over 800. That ain't going to get it done. Love when Big Mike Ford gets, leans into one. Let's hop over to the Commonwealth, Trev. We had a cool, Daniel Bard homecoming. Remember, like, the whole Daniel Bard story

that we did a few years back. Yeah, his first appearance at Fenway since 2013 How's the past 10 years of your life been, fella? So that's kind of a cool story. Some rain tied into this game too much. I almost felt bad for Boston fans. There's a couple of bats that were sucky because of how much rain there was.

And the other thing, where did I just have it? Oh, I don't know. I think this is just honest because we talked about it before the season, and we've highlighted the beauty of Mookie Bell. and what he's been able to do. Our guy Kiki got thrown kind of the shortstop gig this year, and Kiki's an all-world guy and defender. Major League leading 14th error,

because he's been playing a lot of shortstop, and I know checking in on that, I was watching that game live, some Trevor Story coming back whispers going on in Boston, that he's going to come back and be the shortstop at some point. So that's something we put way in our rear view that I don't know, clearly hasn't been a solution for Boston.

And hey, man, you know, Duval came back from the aisle. He's been struggling since he's been back. And if you're Boston, everything I just said about the Orioles and the Blue Jays, and hell, the Angels and Mariners, we start talking wildcard and an interesting trade deadline. If you guys don't want to be part of the interesting part of that, like, we're in go time. Yeah, I mean, a couple of nice victories for the Rockies here in extras. We see Nick Povetta walking in the go-ahead run.

Full Pension Piv out there. Dang, man. Nolan Jones had an incredible catch. I've been seeing his name a lot as a late, Light Tower Power, making those catches out there in right field. So I wanted to shout him out. Elias Diaz is continuing to stay hot. He's going to be an all-star, which is awesome.

Good for him. You know the story there. We talked about it. Cannical adjustment. Bam, he's raking. Love that. One thing I liked for, the Red Sox, the Whitlock.

Yeah. Outing. Yeah, seven innings. Like this is what they need. I mean, they need that to happen more often than not. And he provided a really, really nice start there. It looked really good. Other than that.

Red Sox got to go. Nolan Jones, really interesting. I mean, the guy was a top 100, top like 50 prospect for two years. the Guardians punted on them, which is odd, because, you know, I think about everything we've talked about with the Guardians. And yeah, he's 25. He's hitting for the rocks.

And the only asterisk I'm going to put on there, the Guardians traded for, like, a prospect prospect who's in the minor leagues, and he's young and he's doing really well. So, like, I wonder if it's one of those things you look back in a couple years and it's like, wow, Nolan Jones has been good. And that's like, oh, shit, here comes this kid. I don't know. Nobody knows.

That's the secret of baseball. But good for Nolan Jones. getting in and hitting a little bit. And hey, Rockies, trade, pro far, and someone else. And let's get Cole Tucker in the mix. Hot. Trev, Braves, Tigers, I think you guys know it feels like things are falling off. So I think this will mostly be Braves.

I'll give a little bit of bad news. Jesse Chavez, who our guy Peter Moylan was pushing for an all-star bid because he'd been so good out of the bullpen. has to get helped off the field after getting hit with the line drive. Another highlight for me, I mentioned Michael Harris. He's starting to go nuts and good for him because baseball can be scary sometimes when it starts going bad. He is raking.

And I will lie. I will give one Tiger's highlight, but two. Zach Short still be hitting. Mickey Cabs goes yard, and it's an electric factory. the hockey celebration and the dugout. You want to see a guy who's king of the world. Go check that out. Yes.

I wanted to give Zach Short a shout-up before you wanted to give Zach short a shout-out. So I'll do it as well. Nice defensive play at second base there. I believe in the first game, diving to his left on a big hop. Nice play. A couple knocks. I think he tied the game up before Torkelson walked it off with a nice single there. He's been playing good ball, man.

That's like, makes me. so happy. It's like probably happier than anything else that happened in this, on this sheet. Zach Short doing that. He's an incredible person. Very nice guy. All you want is an opportunity, man. And he's, uh, he's the only active. He's, no, no, no. There's two active Detroit tigers that have positive OPS pluses right now. So, and he's one of them. And guess what? Who's the other one? The Torkelson? That's a good way to get some run. Uh, Carrie Carpenter. Carrie Carpenter been hitting a little bit. Right now, Riley Green on the IL.

And was there another guy? Not really. Seventh on the team in war. Smaller sample size. Go Zach short. Braves-wise, money Mike, they've been waiting. I know the Braves, obviously, they have an outfielder in the minor leagues

that people were screaming to call up because the Braves just call up minor leaguers and they're electric. Money Mike is putting that to rest as he's been one of the best players in baseball this month. And Trevor Eddie Rosario, man, he's putting some swings on balls that, like, I... He's 31 years old.

Like, I don't know. In my head, like, it's this old, like, 35-year-old Eddie Rosario that every now and then he does it for the praise. He's 31. Like, they're so good. This is what Eddie Rosario does. He's going to go through, lightning hot stretches for you.

And if you catch him at the right time, look out. Because he can put the barrel on the ball with the best of them. Sometimes his plate discipline goes awry. But when he's locked in, it's a damn good hitter. And he'll make some plays in the outfield as well. Sometimes it'll be like, okay, what do you got going on there? But most of the time,

he's a solid defender out there and can throw people out. Ronald de Cunia Jr., the NLMVP right now. little Chris Rose little Chris Rose action for you Put you on the spot Him Corbyn Carroll Who are the other guys I gotta think of Probably Freddie Freeman

I'd say yeah Yeah I think right now Yeah him and him and Corbin's interesting He's probably got him Edged out but yeah Yeah Frederick You know who's got like

He might be leading the whole freaking place in war. He's not going to top these guys in NL MVP at all, but Hassan Kim. Yeah, he's... He checked out his stats? Tied for top 10 in war. You know,

you want to know something else that's really sick? You know who's tied at seventh right now in war? Fernando Tatease Jr. Whoa. Elite outfield defense. Hey, we just mentioned Kim and Tatis, so let's do Padres guards real quick. Oh, no, we're not a Kron pod?

We'll jump back to... Well, we'll jump back to... We'll jump back to your Reds, because we still have to talk some NL Central. Holy smokes. I don't know. I guess I just said the Tatis part. I'm about to start drinking tears online about Gary Sanchez, because God, that guy... That guy hits a cord on me, man.

And I'm happy he's having success. guard dog salvaged the series behind Chris Rose. Essentially that's what you got, man. Padre is playing a lot better ball, very similar to what the Phillies are doing. They're kind of getting hot. Kim and Tautis are a big part of that. I think they're one and two in defensive run saves

for individual performance. Kim leading the league. How about this? I think it goes Kim, Tatees and right field. And you know who's third? Gary Short King. Short King. No, this is league-wide.

lead league wide short king yeah third in defensive run saves Dalton Varsha okay he plays a fun outfield Tyro Australian um okay

go Padres go their bullpen is the second lowest ERA in the major since May 1st like how important is a bullpen dude it's like like the most important thing like starting pitching like it's still okay so second most important thing it's like starting pitching and then bullpen like everyone's going to score some runs like you're not you're not going to like get blanked

every game like you're going to push runs across that's just how the game works having a bullpen is so important and it's the hardest thing to create like you can't go buy a bullpen it's it's it's it's such a fluid weird part of our game it's the guys who are really good at the beginning of the season are probably going to stink at the end of the season. And the guys that stink at the beginning of the season are probably going to be good. It's like, it's crazy, man. Yeah. So, you know, for the Padres, you know, they're performing much better and the bullpen's doing that.

Like, it makes a lot of sense. Musgrove and Waka were good in this. Just jakey fan graphs. Last 14 days for starting pitchers. They have Blake Snell is the number one. Big stretch coming up for the fathers. Hey, if we're giving Giants a lot of love, you know, they're three games up on the Padres.

It's almost go time. They've got three versus the rays and then four versus the Giants. So this is a very big week for San Diego Padre baseball. Guardians, we'll get to you more. Trev's got some thoughts on the mids. Are the Reds America's team? Oh. And look, here's a thing.

Here's a thing. Reds, it's been incredible to watch you do what you do. I love that you're bringing up guys and they're performing. And you want to be treated like a real deal contending team. We're going to treat you like a real deal contending team. We're going to give you snaps. Okay. You swept the best team in baseball.

Congratulations. Keep it going. We like where you're at. Are you America's team? No. But like we're rooting for you. I think, I mean, if that's what you mean by America's team, I think pretty much everyone across baseball is rooting for you.

right no one no one's rooting against the wretz um until until they like pass the threshold and maybe they pass the brew crew past the pirates and when they're in first place be ready heavy is the head yeah i uh i'm about it that the energy all of the kids the fact that i look at their page and uh four of their top five prospects are on the MLB roster right now. I think I said last, it might have even been Wednesday or it could have been, could have been Monday. I said I don't think the Reds can win the Central. They can. And again, but that's more of the Central than the Reds and we have more Central talk coming. So get better. Royals drop 10 of 11. They're 0 and 3 in extra earnings and a blown a lead in 23 losses this

season. Matching who? The Cardinals for most in the majors. You want to start doing a fun game. If Eraldus Chapman is back to be in Eraldus Chapman, start thinking about his trade deadline destinations, a lot of fun. Texas Rangers, you just mentioned the Padres, they'll do anything, right? Him and Gary back at it. Dodgers, White Sox, I don't have much here, Treve. I don't know if you're still on the pulse of L.A. sports. I know you've been gone for a while. Hey, maybe I'd be given the White Sox more snaps if they won that final game in 11 innings. But, The Dodgers get it done. I guess I will say, Jake Berger,

he's putting together a season now, and he has my name and a food item attached to him. Driven by his child at home. Nice. A very Dodgers series, you know, you take two out of three, ho-hum, Gonsland gives you a good start, you bash Lance Lynn for a couple runs,

get out ahead, and you win the first game. The second game, the White Sox kind of came to play. I think they hit four or five different home runs in that game. You mentioned, did Jake Berger have two or three homers? Two, right? He had two. Two?

Two. Yeah. First multi-homber game of his career. Yeah. Kershaw is another quality start, but the White Sox can take care of business. And then the Dodgers rallied back in that last game. They're inevitable, man. You have to.

It's hard to put them away. put it that way Freddie Freeman walks him off if you're a pitcher and you have the guy in third base less than two outs and Freddie Freeman hits a long fly ball do you still want your

center field to go after it yes but even in the most laxadaisical way like as long as as Robert turned and gave a couple jog steps and he did not he just started walking in immediately but it makes sense

what he did but also it's like Oh, man. Yeah, it's just, there's some, the optics aren't awesome. You mentioned the Dodgers and some fans aren't happy they're starting pitching. They're bringing up some kid from AA to make a start,

who's been incredible. I got tagged in Twitter with that. I guess I can see if I can get up his name. He's had an insane year in the minor leagues. Let's see if I can get it. Well, you're getting that. Just people upset Jake Berger, omated from the all-j-j-m team.

His usage is weird. Half his games at third, half his games is a DH. One game at second, three games at first. Not a U-Til, not third base, not D-H. He just doesn't fit any position. He has our attention. At some point, he's got to pick a link. We like them.

Bobby Miller has done so well for the Dodgers. They're not afraid to bring guys up and just thrust them right in. And you like that one, Jake. Thrusting Emmett Sheehan. 88Ks and 53. three in the third innings in AA. That's a 14.9k per nine. Yeah, like that electric fastball with a filthy change. Here he comes. Let's see if the Dodgers can do it again.

Tim Kirkjinn said a lot of nice words about Pedro Grifal, which I don't know. I'm just going to put that in my back pocket for now because I don't know. I think we all just look at the white socks and we're like, I don't know this guy. This probably won't work. So I don't know. It's not like Kirk Jen was going to go on and say he stinks either, but he said some kind words. So I'm about that. Clint Frazier, go-ahead RBI. And Chris Taylor joins Trevor Ploose prestigious 100th Homer Club.

Only player in baseball's history to hit a homer, a grand slam for his first and his hundredth homer. Look at that. Wow. Trevi stats. Electric stuff. We got to get going here. Yeah, Chris Rose is going to yell at you.

You know what? Houston let me down on a bet on that last game. They were the only leg missing from my daily parlay. So they're out. Pop. Yankees and Mets, you guys were a midfest. Trevor's whole speech about having bullpens. You guys couldn't have a bullpen the second game after an off day.

You're both out for now. Trev, I'll give you a minute on the twins. shout out Frambervaldez. I mean, are you kidding me? Continuing to do what he did, Hunter Brown, great job. Yes, Astros dealing with injuries a lot more than they're used to, but still right there where they need to be. You just mentioned Yankees' Mets.

That's great. Twins with a nice series sweep of the brew crew. Always a good time in Minneapolis or Milwaukee when those two teams play each other. Carlos Correa, man. I got a cool video of him hitting that walkup. Devin Williams' four-run doesn't even retire an outs. Think about that. Wow.

Think about that. Five-three going into that inning, I think it was like a walk, a base hit. Michael A. Taylor led off with a Homer, by the way. He's a giant. The picture you posted of him and Morneau back-to-back was electric. He says people always say that to him. People come up to me and say, wow, you're a lot bigger in person. And he is.

He's massive in person. He's finding his power stroke again. Again, Kare is the story here. walk off incredible celebration everything and then even in the next day when they went 4 to 2 he's got showing great fortitude triple off the or excuse me a double no it was a triple off the right field wall like he's he's firing right now and that's great for the twins bailey ober the nightmare 6 9 baili ober doing his thing it was a great I mean the twins are I'm about to yell at them a little bit but you know they

salvaged a good trip for me. They started off 0 and 3 and I ended up 4 and 4, so thank you for that. By the way, Yelich looks great. Hot. Spoke to him. How was Yeli? Great.

Just same old Yali. Yeah, he's always just like, he's old. He's old school. He's old school. He's an old school, ornery ball player, and I don't know if people know that. Okay. Okay. Trev, let's start giving some more players love, although we already gave a lot of players love,

and this show is sponsored by Better Help. It's so easy to get caught up in all of it, man. My goodness. That sometimes you need to check in on yourself. That's kind of what I had last night. I was kind of like, where are we at, Poppo? Popo. And I was okay.

I was happy. It was my friend Trev's birthday. Got a nice little weekend coming up. But guess what? A couple months ago, Bobby was in a bad place. Drev saw that. I was a mess.

A lot going on at the company. It was not doing great. And guess what? Therapy can be a great tool for you to find more balance in your life and better help. It's convenient, flexible, affordable, entirely online. Fill out a brief questionnaire

and get matched with a licensed therapist. Find more balance with better help. Visit betterhelp.com slash talking baseball. Wow. Today, to get 10% off your first month, that's BetterHelp. H.LP.com slash talking baseball, you know, here's a link in the description. Standout performances.

So many guys on this list. This is probably the biggest standout performance list that we've ever had. A couple guys who didn't make it. J.T. Rue Muto with the cycle. Bryce Miller doing his thing. James Paxton doing his thing. George Kirby doing his thing. I'm going with a guy who understood the assignment.

Hogan Harris, in your book? Hogan Harris's name is in my book, not his face. First outing of the year did not go so well for Hogan. He pitched one-third of an ending, he up six Ernie's, five walks. He had an ERA of 162. Since that day, since then. He's been in four games. He's only started one,

but he's pitched 22 innings to a 24-5 ERA. And on this day, on the reverse boycott day. Yeah. Our guy does it. It goes seven innings pitch. He comes in after the opener. In the second one, he goes seven innings, four hits, one earned runs. No walks, and only two case against the best offense in baseball.

Yeah. The A's end up winning that game. Our guy, Trevor May, shuts the door. but Hogan Harris Lefty doing his thing on a day where you know

those fans needed that if they showed up and the rage just blew them out it's a lot different we don't get to hear and be as loud as they were but because of Hogi my guy

it's a storybook night that a lot of people will remember for a long time so awesome on you for understanding the assignment Huge news for Hogan Harris. I had him as righty. So he is now my lefty Dane Dunning. Oh, yeah.

So we're good. He does lefty. He's in my book forever. And dude, you're so right, and I'll tie this to Gary Sanchez in a weird way. The Padres went from having the worst hitting position in baseball to a guy on a heater.

That feels... Doubly is good. Hogan Harris, on the night of the reverse boycott against what's been the consensus best team in baseball, to do that, man, that's worth double, and that's how you get a standout. And now I know you're lefty, which is huge. And it's Hogan Anthony Harris, so just remember, ha.

Ha! I like him. Louisiana guy. He's probably in jokes. They make a different breed down. He loves crawfish oils. He doesn't hate him. Treve, a fantastic standout.

How's Berrios get missed? Ronnie and Mike, Nando. I'm just going to make the layup, dog. It's Shohei. And I, you know, hey, part of this, part of our responsibility to the people is make sure we're getting the info out. He has the most home runs in the American League. that's an impressive stat for any baseball player that's any ever played.

He has the second most strikeouts in the American League. That's an impressive stat for anyone that's ever played, and he's doing it both as one human, when normally two different humans have to do that. So I'm sorry, it's a little basic, but it's right. And I'd be doing the people a disservice if he didn't get mentioned again and again. And bring me those playoff chills in Anaheim. He's one dotting it right now.

He's one dotting it, guys. And I don't want to hear it. This guy's the best player in baseball. Stop it. Stop it. Fuck. I think you're right. I think you're right.

I mean, are you kidding me? And he's hot. Like, Max Kepler is by far the hottest guy in baseball. It just looks wise. There's no doubt about it. It's not even close. But, like, Shohei, like. I think it might be like the most eligible bachelor in all the baseball.

Like people want show hey. What are his late nights like? Who knows? What's he got in his basement? Whatever the fuck he wants. And guess what? He's about to get a lot more of it in his basement. Hit it, Beebbs.

Dirt Nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. Like wake up. Dirt nasty. and nasty and what Calabassey for the series JT our guy best catcher in baseball 7 for 12 two doubles two homers

hits the cycle gets in a fight everything you'd want in a hot boy he's on my list you know that Michael Harris's second 7 for 12 two homers five ribbies he had a 1.7 in that three game series manny margot what does coach ball game call him Jake the most most electric player in the 2020 World Series the ooze and Oz guys

Six for 12, four doubles, three RBI for 1.5 in it. He only has three homers on a season, and all three of them have come against the A's. Love that stat. For the week, June 9th through June 15, Jose Ibrahimbrayu, Cuban ball player, 9 for 27, three homers, 10 RBIs. He's reached 1,500 career hits, making him the 12th Cuban-born player in NLB history to reach 500 career hits. Zach Netto, I love it. seven for 16, two doubles, three bombs, playing an electric defense. He just got hurt.

Yeah, I know it sucks. I know, I know, I know. Trev, you should reach out to him. Oblique. Oblique injury. Young ball player. Obliq? Spencer Torkelson, 10 for 28, three doubles, two homers, one dot oneing it for the week.

For the two weeks. Let's go. This is the list you want to be on, and it's two people, I mean, two hot boys. We just talked about show hey, one. Fiving it over the last two weeks. And then Ranger Suarez. Last three games started 20 innings, pitched 16 hits, two runs, 18Ks. That's a 0.9 ERA, a 1.05 Web Ranger.

You and the Phillies are going to make a lot of people happy out there. And that's who's in Fuego? Electric Trev. And by the way, he'd been like bad. Like it's such a weird sport that sometimes, sometimes it'll just click and go like that. Trev, we've mentioned a lot of injuries throughout. That Netto thing just brought us down. How about who's back?

Buxton, your boy, Fairbanks, my guy, Joey Gallo, BBD's cat, and a couple others. But, yeah. Listen, Cruz. How about it. A couple guys banged up. Let's get to the weekend right now. Awards.

You have the honors, Treb. Now I was on a flight back to California. I did throw on North of the Rings It's the greatest trilogy of all time It's a great airplane movie People look at you like what is happening right now You're on an airplane watching a movie That came out 20 years ago

No big deal doesn't matter Was it 20 years ago? I think it was I'm giving out the Ford of Bruinen award Now After a tussle with the ring race And getting stabbed with a blade Of one of the ring race

it's paramount that Frodo gets taken to Rivendale because he needs elvish medicine. Now this happens in the books differently that it happens in the movie. I'll speak on the books quickly. It's Glorffendell who's not actually in the movie. It's him and Eragorn racing across the Fort of Bruinen. And all of a sudden the Nazgul are chasing him. There's nine of them. And the river comes up and washes them all the way.

And they don't know what happened. But it turns out Elrond was there and Gandon. was like doing his magic and he like turned the water into horses which is kind of cool. In the movies it's Arwen, which is better, I think, because there's a scene. Erdogan is like, hey, you stay with the hobbits all ride to Rivendale with Frodo and get him there. And she looks at him. She's like, no, you stay with the hobbits. I'm a faster rider than you.

Like beat it, bro. So she gets on the horse. She's got Frodo. The Nazgoula chasing. It's the best, like, the most iconic piece of film to me is when she's riding through like this, this plains area. And it's her and the nine Nazgul like riding in backup for like in a V shape. And she's just going quick. And I love she's like, there are five Nazgul approaching the other four.

I do not know where they are. And then boom, she ends up facing all nine of them. She gets to the four to Bruin. and she says one thing. She's taunting the NASCAR. She goes, if you want him, come and claim him.

And they're like, oh, shit. I don't know if I want to come near you. You're like a pretty badass elf. They're hesitant to get in the water. Then boom, the water comes down, tramples them all see you later. She ends up taking Frodo to Rivendale.

He gets saved. It's a beautiful thing. If you want him, come and claim him. if you want the division come and claim it somebody start playing some good baseball in these nl or a l centrals right now the twins and the pirates are atop of these divisions and they're both one game over 500 Toronto's six games over 500 they'd be in first place the Yankees will be in first place they're nine and a half and eleven games out of their divisions respectively the Philadelphia Phillies who are eight games back, who we talk about like they haven't even started their season, they'd be on top of

the division. The Houston Astros will be crushing it. The angels will be crushing it. Seattle will be a half game back. The Dodgers will be crushing it. The Giants will be crushing it. The Padres, who have underperformed all season will be like one and a half games back. These divisions need to go. Like clearly, someone's got to win the division, but can someone go and claim the division? Like, hey, twins, I love you. I'm falling along. I'm there trying to make these broadcasts Awesome. I want a playoff share. Let's go. Starting pitching has been there. Hitting's coming around, but can we have a sustained period of success? Can we figure out the bullpen situations there? Cleveland, what are you? What are you doing? Chicago White Sox? You're not, I mean, are you going to be part of anything ever? Like, what do we need to do to shake it up there? In the NL, Sinci, great story. You're still a game under 500. Figure it out. Milwaukee. What are you doing? We never know what you're doing. We just give you the the benefit of the doubt because you made the playoffs some years in a row. But what's going on there?

You're not hitting enough. You're not pitched enough. The pirates. You got off to the start. You've fallen back. Then you win some series. Then you get swept. Like, what are we doing?

Are the Cubs? Are you for real? Are you going to trade everyone away? We need to figure it out. If you want it, come and claim it. Please. Because I'm sick of the AL-Mids and the NL mids. Like, let's get some good baseball being played in these divisions.

it's like not fair to the rest of the league. It really isn't. The fact that I could name all those teams and they'd be on top of these divisions, but they're instead eight games back in theirs and back in the wild card too, I don't love it, to be honest with you. It rubs me the wrong way.

So this is my challenge. I'm challenging these divisions to figure it out. At least two of the teams, go start playing some good ball. One game over 500 and you're leading the division, the twins were leading the division when they were under 500. They got to go. L6 from the Brewers right now is devastating.

Your twins, I mean, run differential, they're the only positive in the AL Central, and we know that that team has more in them. The NL Central, I just don't know. The Reds have some serious juice. The only positive run differential in that division right now is the Cubs. And what are they? about. They're a bad weekend from being in a bad place. I guess they're a good weekend from being

like atop the division. So I don't know, Treve, you're right. And guess what? You know, I think people would be tween out stuff like, this, this is awful for baseball and what are we doing? Guess what? I think actual baseball loves that conversation because I think we're a couple years away from adding more teams and realigning these divisions very different. And they'll point at this. that's the water coming through there? No, that's not the water. That's the scene on the planes, what she's running,

and she's got the nine Nazgal behind her. She's in the middle. Right. And then I got one more still shot, and then I'm out of here to go talk to Chris Rose. I mean, Arwin is goaded. If you want him, come and claim him. I always want,

I always want my guy Jimmy here, but I would have loved to watch him react when you said, was it the horses turned into water or the water turns into horses? Water turned into horses. I God, I would have loved to see him reacting. I mean, you've never seen that scene?

Like, please go watch the movie. It's badass. Treve, I've seen it. And it is a great flight movie because that's a good way to basically end your flight instantly. Trev, go see Chris Rose, as I tell the people very quickly and wrap it up about Yuri Perez. And make the award.

the rest is still unwritten, Natasha Bettingfield. Listen to that this morning after Drizzy. And Yuri Perez's last four starts, 21 innings, a 043. We're seeing a lot of youth movement around baseball. You see it every year. It's why the landscape changes so quickly and so often. It's why the Reds are players right now. And guess what?

Your team might be calling up more kids. I mentioned Luis Matos before. Is he a stud? Does that change the Giants outlook? I know you guys probably all have young players on your team. Did Torkelson just click? Volpe changes stance. I don't know.

Yuri Perez is rolling. He's the fourth youngest pitcher to post a sub-2 ERA in his first seven starts since 1913. This guy was touted as the best pitcher. He's living up to it. Miami is in play. And hey, we've done this every year with Miami. Is this the one where if they get into the playoffs,

they can throw any combo of five guys? guys at you, Sandy, baby Jesus, Braxton, Edward Cabrera, Yuri Perez. It's a team and we've said it for so long that if they end up in the dance, you genuinely don't want to see them. And now think about how many teams we've talked about. Padres, Phillies, the Mets didn't really get anything this episode. Supposed to be like the Mets year. They went out and got everyone, right? Baseball is in a fantastic spot. I think. there's good bad teams right now or bad good teams or however you want to phrase it but like the Mets being under 500 yo the Padres these are the teams we wanted to root for because they spent

but right now the Marlins are ahead of them Yuri Perez is a big big part of that um and it's electric man so uh with that diesel not talking vin maybe shack DJ Diesel episode of talking baseball Enjoy your weekend We will see you back here Monday We're building up to an electric All-Star game which we'll be at We sold a lot of tickets already Links in the description to that

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