Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Teams That Are In Must-Win Mode!

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

Book your next trip at https://www.bestwestern.comDownload the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code JMBASEBALLGo to http://shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 35% off polarized sunglasses.Corona. La Playa Awaits. Be sure to get yours athttps://OrderCorona.com.Use code TALKIN2025 for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKIN2025. Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount Coach Trev and Talkin Jake discuss the 5-game Brewers/Cubs series and what it means to the Cubs going forward, Phillies sweeping Mariners, Teoscar Hernandez drama in LA, if the Padres are the best overall team in baseball and more! 0:00 Intro3:30 NL Burn7:00 NL Standings11:00 Brewers / Cubs14:15 Kyle Tucker injury21:55 Guardians / Diamondbacks22:30 Tommy PHam drama23:40 Blue Jays / Pirates25:14 Mariners / Phillies29:00 Dodgers / Rockies33:35 Giants / Padres37:55 Mets / Nationals38:35 How concerned are you with the Mets?39:40 Cardinals / Marlins40:00 AL Burn44:00 AL Standings47:10 Astros / Tigers51:00 Rangers / Royals53:55 Reds / Angels57:00 Standout performances1:04:20 Samuel Bassallo contract extension1:07:10 En Fuego1:14:50 IL Update1:16:43 Awards  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. We had the five game set. Everyone's talking about the AL Wildcard. There's a team sneaking up. It's, dog days are back, I've decided. Let's talk ball. Pure dog days. Jack Flaherty.

Roman Anthony at Yankee Stadium. That game hasn't happened yet. That game hasn't happened yet. Hello and welcome to talking baseball, presenting you by Seat-Geek, co-talk in 2025. I'm Jake Strombole. That is Trevor Goof. Bobby Golfs is producing.

Welcome to talking baseball. Dog Day's back on. It's August 22nd. Some weird energies before the show. We're all just letting it hang out here. Trev, how are you doing? I'm doing well, Pop. I disagree.

I don't think the Dog Days are here. I think a lot of teams are like making a push. We're getting call-ups. We're getting extensions for young kids. The password is up. I'm excited, man. I don't know. I keep thinking we got six weeks left of baseball.

How many weeks do we get left? Like it's five now? Six weeks. Still six weeks. I feel like I've been saying that for five weeks. So that's not good math by me. It's coming down to crunch time. Did the Cubs do enough to get back into the race?

We'll talk about it on today's episode of Talking Baseball. We'll talk about that. Some Reds love coming up. Yeah, it's a shame we can't talk. Yankees Red Sox this episode. Looked great. Nice clean game by the Yanks. Great start.

Makes you real proud to be a fan. People are really love my realignment too. Like this is, okay, this is what people need to understand about some of these shows, especially Wednesday shows. Realignment. I had Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift owning a team. Like this wasn't that. serious of an exercise.

It's like just fun, fodder, fan fiction, if you will. And people are like, this is so stupid. I'm like, okay. All of them are stupid, dude. All of these realignments are stupid.

I had a division that's spelled poop. Right. Right. So like just everyone, Cubs and Cardinals fans, not happy with me splitting them up. Yeah. And hey, you did say you were rivalry-driven,

that that's one of the loopholes. All I have to do to fix that is switch the white socks in the, in the Cardinals. Boom, fixed. Now you're Mick, now no Cubs. We're not doing this.

We're not doing this. It's all fake. It's all made up. People do love it. I've been getting, I've been getting some DMs on Instagram of pictures of dudes who are just drawing up their realignment plan. And it's like,

man, the perks of the gig, sliding in the DM. I need to start going around to all the people that also did that. And I'm just going to start your moths, shitting on everything that they do. Okay. Here we are. Here we are.

Let's just keep running down the first baseline. Kyle Tucker. Let's talk some National League. And it's talk about rivalry. Murphy, Council, Cubs, Brewers, Bears and Beers, Baby. They played five. And the Brewers took the first game.

Obviously, they shut them out. Shut them out. Freddie Peralta having an incredible year. If you were under 5'10, you had two hits for the Brewers. But the Cubs fought back. They win the next three games. They called up Owen Casey. Canadian.

Didn't know that. He gets his first hit and then his first home run the next day. Willie Castro joins the party. Okay, okay, okay. Milwaukee, they do take the final game. Yeah, again, the shorties, Terang, Freelick, Isaac Collins, all getting in the mix.

Some good quotes from this series. Kyle Tucker benched. He's got an injury going on too. I want to talk about that. And we will. That's the whole fucking show, people. Whoa! Diamondbacks, gardens.

D-backs. take two out of three from the guard dogs. Guard dogs still in the mix. CJ Cafas, again, I think he's related to someone I went to high school with, and he's having good baseball games. Snakes came back and won the next two games. I asked Dalton the Diamondbacks fan about them. He said he didn't watch, so we're there.

Del, Adrian Del Castillo with the walkoff in that final game. Great. Pirates take two out of three from the Blue Jays. Sure, pirates. They win on Skeen's Day. and they called up. Bubba Chandler. I'd like to see how he hits.

Oh, wait, another top pitching prospect. Tommy Fam is fighting the world per usual. Coming at your guy, Hiney. Heineman, two-year service time. Incredible stuff out of Tommy Fam as usual. Pirates winning, great. Cardinals take two out of three from Miami. E?

E. Alec Burleson, three hits. Great. Thomas Sejacy, the All-Pies. on team. Sandy is back to salvage the set, and he's looking kind of like Sandy. You might hear more about that. The Phillies sweep the Mariners. This is actually, this is big boy baseball, but it really was bigger boy on one side of it. Trey Turner, if you like four hits from Trey, how do you like five hits in the last game? Every starting pitcher shoved. Six innings or more from Ranger,

Chris Sanchez or Baby Jesus Lizard Lazzardo. They sweep the Seattle Mariners. The Dodgers and Rocks played for and they split them. Did you know Zeke Tovar owns Yamamoto, seven for ten against them? Warming Bernabelle mentioned. I don't know, man. Does Teosker have to catch that ball? That's what Dave Roberts and everyone's saying.

I think they're right. Freddie and the boys, they come back, they win the final game. I don't know. Padres, they take three out of four from the San Francisco Giants. Giants win that first game, Devere homers. Robbie Rye. But it's all Padres, the rest of the way, full pension Piv, Gavin Sheets, turning on both. Frando!

Another robbery by him. Is he tall or is that wall small, or is it everything? I don't know why he's always robbing homers. It's impressive. The Braves and White Sox played. Did you know? Do you care? Treves Hurston Waldrop shoved again.

Why not? Get him in the next NASCAR series. Kyle Teal four hits. Matt Olson for hits. Penitendi four hits. Great. No one cares. And the Mets played the Nationals.

They won that first game. David Peterson, eight innings. One, earned, run. The Mets are back. The Mets are not back. After winning their third straight game, they drop the next two to the Nationals. Brady House three hit day.

Sure, absolutely. Good bullpen effort by the Nats. That is what happened in the National League. Excellent job, Poppy. Excellent, excellent job. I have the standings. I know everybody wants them. So I'm going to give them to you.

We'll start out in the National League Central, big five game set. Did it change a lot? Well, yeah, two games. We're up nine. They're up seven now, 80 and 48 for the brew crew, 73 and 55 for the Cubs. Like I said, seven games back in the division for them. The Reds, 67 and 61. The Cardinals, one game under 5, 64 and 65, and the Pirates, 20 games under at 54 and 74.

We'll go to the east 74 and 53 for the Phillies. They also have a seven game lead over the New York Mets, who are 67 and 60. The Marlon 60 and 67. Bray's 58 and 69, Nationals, 52 and 75, and then out west. 73 and 55 for the Dodgers. A tiny little

one game lead. Just a little one. Big set for them against the Padres this weekend. Padre is 72 and 56. The Diamondbacks, four games under 500. That's why Dalton's not watching. 62 and 66 for them. 61 and 67 for the Giants.

That's, they have just. falling off the face of the earth, huh? Shout out J.P. Martinez, my friend. 37 and 91 for the rocks. They're only 36 games back. They are eliminated from the N.O. West title hunt. It's tough for them. In the wild card, Jake.

This is what everyone wants, okay? The Cubs currently have the first wildcard position, followed by the Padres. The Mets cling to a half-game lead for the third wildcard spot over the Cincinnati. Reds who are 67 and 61, and that's really it. You can talk about the Cardinals. They're under 500, Jake.

You know I don't mention teams like that. Not at this point in the season. They're four games back, Diamondbacks. I mean, are they kind of breathing, I guess? No. Those are the standings in the National League. Well done, Trevor. The National League standings were brought to you by Shady Ray's.

It's August. You need a pair of Sunnies. Go get yourself a pair of Shady Ray's. Our friends at Shadyrays have you covered with premium polarized glasses, shades that won't break the bank. Independent sunglasses company offering a world-class product, five stars by over 300,000 people. If your shades ever go missing or take an unexpected hit, don't sweat it. The most insane protection in all of eyewear. Every pair is backed by their lost or broken replacements.

So if you don't love your shades, exchange for a new pair or return worry-free within 30 days. one of our best deals at the company. Code talking, 35% off. Shadyrays.com. Code talking, go get yourself a pair. Now, Trev, yeah, in the National League, it's looking like in the wild card, like you mentioned, the Reds and the Mets are going to be dueling it out

down the stretch for that final spot. And then the West, the Padres and the Dodgers. And then you get some seating there, like right now, the Padres are behind the Cubbies in the wild card, but that's looking like what it is the rest of the way. So I think we start out in beautiful Chicago. Heading out there in September, Joe's McFly making the trip.

Watch out. Watch out Chicago. Anytime we bring Joe's out of New York City, I'm worried for the city he's going to. It should be. Someone going to get. The Cubs and Brewers played the five game set. Trev. We tried to tee this one up for a while. By the time we got there, like you said, it was a nine game division lead. So that took a little bit of lead out of it. But a lot of moving parts here, man.

Brewers take the bread games technically on the bookends where the Cubs get the meat. But we've got Kyle Tucker getting benched and he's hurt. I guess where do you start with all of this? Well, yeah, I mean, the nine game leads tough. And I mean, the Cubs tried to do it. If they win that last game instead of up seven or down seven they're down five right it's a big swing right there jolly olive and i talked about this on baseball today that we felt like they had to win all the games after losing the first one to really make it a race and get back into the n o central hunt i the seven games to me like i know it's baseball i know it's been done before i'm not writing it off but it's very improbable now they're going to win that division yeah the brewer is just they don't their team identity like

what they do, I feel like they're, they can't go on like losing streaks, like at least long ones. So if they do come back, it'll be a slow, slow burn and the Cubs will have to just play perfect baseball throughout it. But, you know, Brewers do enough here to basically salvage the series. I guess that's what you'll call it. The first game to me kind of set the tone, Kate Horton comes out with a blister. And he'd been one of the best pitchers coming out of the All-Star break. arguably the best pitcher out of the All-Star break. And Craig Counsel had to manage the game a little differently

because he thought he was playing a double-header that day. You know, ends up bringing in some guys. Maybe he wouldn't have brought in if he knew that that next game was going to be postponed. The Brewers have a huge eight-run innings. They just like walk and shoot the ball to right field their way to a huge lead there. And like I said, the Cubs do a good job. When the next three games and then the Brewers are kind of inevitable, it's very hard to win four or five.

Shoda does his job, you know, but the offense just isn't there in that last game. It's, I think you're at some point this episode, everyone listening, hey, we love you. Thank you for subscribing and everything you guys do for us. At some point this episode, you're going to get an old rant because I, you know, on the couch last night, watching the Yankees shit the bed.

I was laughing that the two best teams in baseball, baseball pitch and play good defense, the Tigers and the Brewers. Like they've got some good baseball players, but like what do those teams do? They pitch, they play good defense. And that's kind of what you're saying about the Brewers. In September, it's tough to picture them going on a sustained losing streak, which is what the Cubs would need to get back in the division race. Where are you at with the Kyle Tucker stuff?

The injury part is tricky to me. You know, that outfield has been so good all year and they call up their top prospect. Like, do you have to feel this out for another couple games? And if the production stays bad, do you do an IELston? Or like, where are you at with this? I do feel bad for Brewers fans a little bit here because I think we will talk more about the Cubs this episode.

I'll start with Owen Casey real quick. I think I really like this guy's swing. Oh, okay. I like that he's got that opo pop. You know, he takes that Homer to left center field, had a real nice take right before that pitch. And it just looks like a,

he looks like he's comfortable at the plate. And he had some big, I mean, this is a, what a series to come into. You know, like this is about as big as it gets in a debut during the regular season.

And he handled himself very well. So I like him. I think he's going to be good. He looks like a hitter. looks very hitterish in the box so shout out l mcasey the Kyle Tucker stuff's interesting man because they're saying he injured his uh hand on a slide on June 1st he raked in June like absolutely demolished the ball in June so basically what they're saying now is yes he knew it was hurt they got initial imaging on it they didn't see any fracture

but they knew something was up it was bothering him it was like pain tolerance issue, which that'll come up a lot when you're playing. It's like, is it hurt? Like, are you, what do they say? Heard or injured. Yeah, you hurt or you injured. Yeah, I mean, you can play through if it's hurt. If you're injured, you can't play.

And so a lot of guys will say, yeah, it's pain tolerance. Like, give me some aspirin or whatever the heck they're taken. You know, like, let me just play through it, especially when you're doing well. So he continues to do that. And then he said, you know, some of the quotes by counsel on him, we're talking about with that when you're playing through something, and even though you're having success, are you changing some something mechanical? Like a real slow change mechanically to compensate for some of that pain. I would say, yeah, that's definitely a possibility. You know, you might be seeing the ball really well, but your hand is hurting. So maybe your grip is a little bit different. Or maybe, you know, your load becomes a little bit different. You're still seeing the ball well. You're still tracking it, so you're still getting the hits. But over. over time, you know, as you compensate more and more, those adjustments can go from real small to start to get a little bit bigger.

And maybe that's what happens. But I think that it's supposedly healed now. I think a mental reset is good for him. They did win some games without him. So that's like you got to feel good if you're Kyle Tucker about that. If you sit out at this point of the season and your team loses games, you feel really bad. If you sit out and they win games, say, okay, that was the right decision. So time will tell if he's healed

And he can kind of like get the mechanics back to where he wants But I think people have made it's like an overblown situation to me Like they're blaming the Cubs for playing him while he was hurt The guy had one dotted it in June What are you gonna do? You're not gonna play him? The guy's telling you I'm fine I can play and look at what I'm doing on the field Yeah

Yeah and hey I you're right There's a couple interesting Cubs topics And how ironic is it that the Brewers win a series And it's like okay let's let's jump over over there. Bryce Terang has gone off this month, and he's a guy that we've talked about if he's a league average or even below league average hitter. He is a very plus player. He leads the Brewers in war if you're into that kind of thing. 377 with eight homers in August with the defense and the base running he provides.

My Brewer's question, there's a homa. My brewer's question for you goes to Pat Murphy. obviously, because that's where we live. Pat Murphy has a quote, I think, after the doubleheader, where I think the Cubs were called underdogs. And so Pat Murphy comes back and he goes, are they underdogs? Seriously? They're the underdogs in this series?

Look at the lineups. They've got All-Stars. They've got MVP candidates. You got veterans. You got gold glove winners. You got world champions. So, hey, that's, you know, that's obviously the Pat Murphy we know. I wanted to ask you ballplayer-wise,

when does, should it always be us against the world? Because there's two mindsets, right? It's either this, like, we're the underdogs and screw them, like look at those guys over there, you know, very Belichekian. The other side is kind of the, you know, Kansas City Chiefs when they repeated, we're like, you know, that's who we are.

We're those guys. Like, when should the brewer's mentality flip to like, hey, we're the best team. Let's go, like, let's go whoop ass. We're the best team. Or do you just stay underdogs the whole time? I don't think you think about that ever, to be honest with you. You're just trying to win a baseball game. I think the way they're thinking is, yeah, we're the best team in baseball.

Like, why would you not think that? Like, it's literally the truth. Right. Best record in baseball. Well, I guess that's what I'm saying, because Pat Murphy's like, he's given, he's given the punchy Brewers, we're the underdogs and the old milk. Milwaukee, which I don't, they might not be able to play that card anymore. First team to 80 wins.

I think everyone needs to hear this. Sometimes you answer so many questions as a player or manager. You just say some shit. Like it's not like I think people take things too seriously. Pat Murphy's saying, yeah, how are they, the underdogs? Like, it's just kind of like almost a joke. Like, yeah, it is true. On the surface level, this is a team that went out and traded for Kyle Tucker

who has signed all these big free agents. you know like this is a not this is not some underdog team i think that's kind of what he was basically saying i don't think he's saying we're underdogs but you know it's not that big of you just you get asked a lot of questions yeah and there are times where you say some stuff just because it comes to your head and whatever like this is not to me this isn't like a big deal at all no i i don't i don't think it is it doesn't really mean anything i think pat murphy was just like eating a pancake and yeah we're how are we yeah how are they the underdogs he pulls a pancake out of his pocket calls them underdogs um Daniel palenzi

i think any team should feel like we're the fucking guy like that's how you're supposed to feel right and some teams deep down no we're not the guy there's a little little more cubs action coming later uh brewers do enough to looks like they're going to cruise to the division. Let's see how they... Mizorowski needs to kind of figure it out a little bit. I think that's something to talk about. They have other guys that can step up,

but if you're talking about Milwaukee Brewers' world champions, Mizorowski has to be a huge part of that. Right. And it's going to be a fun... It should be a fun part of their season where, you know, how does Mizorowski look the rest of the way? Is he a starter? Is he a bullpen weapon that we've seen? teams tap into in post seasons that can change a series.

So first world problems for the punchy Milwaukee Brewers. God, Trev, in the NL, because you mentioned this, a lot of these have some playoff implications, but Guardians' Diamondbacks, if Dalt's not watching, I'm kind of not logged in. Blue Jays Pirates, it was more so the drama from this series. Your guy, Fam and Heimann, I know Jim was grinding on the breakdown. Do you want to put your two cents in?

Well, I mean, after the game, Heineman said, I don't even know what he was talking about. I didn't say anything to him. So I guess Pham was mad that Heineman, like a pitch before, asked the Empire, like, where that pitch was. Yeah, he gave a dramatic catcher like, ah, I wanted that. But, yeah. Heineman's like the nicest person, maybe in all of the big leagues.

And how would you label Tommy Fam? The position of Miniman and Tommy Fam is. Yeah, he's probably, he's smiling. You can tell he's smiling right there. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I don't know. This was a nothing to me. Like Tommy Fam, he plays that way, man.

He wants to be kind of angry chip on a shoulder type guy. I don't know, man. Yeah, it's Blue Jays. Scherzer has been really good out of the All-Star break. Like that's, to me, like, if we're being honest, So you're like, Tommy Pham incited this and then got mad. 100%. You got mad at the catcher for me, like, what the fuck?

George Springer turns on one down. Hey, say something nice about the pirates. Well, Tommy Fam has been great for two months, a 926 OPS. Also, the pirates have been good at home, 36 and 30 at home this year. So how do you like that? A good place to watch the game. Toronto's got to look out for the Vladdy news, the hamstring issue.

Are they saying he did it on that play that he did the splits for for Bo? Is that what it was? I believe so. Or at least that's what I tied it to mentally. But yeah, Vladdy's hamstring is going to be met. He's been one of the best players coming out of the All-Star break, like one-one. And he's kind of be, he's got a little bit of a second half reputation going now.

And when I say that, I mean a gangbusters. second half. Like he's, past couple years now, it's been a very solid, good first half, and then he's gone absolutely nuts. So, um, just inflammation in the hamstring. So we'll, we'll see what that is, but always one of the

tricky ones, you know? Uh, Shane Bieber. Yeah. Makes his debut tonight. And Eric Lauer going to the bullpen and Eric Lauer has been so good for them. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how long that lasts. That's always one of those that can, it can be very good, or, can juggle the team dynamic.

We've seen that with the Phillies a couple of years in the past where you're kicking someone out of the rotation who's been pitching well. Very first world problems, but Shane Bieber. I mean, he could be pitching in playoff games and we haven't seen him. Another team just did that,

moved them out and then straight back into the rotation. Was that a, oh, it was Nick Martinez. Martinez. Dana Gordon. And the goal of the party came right back in, yeah. Shane Bieber. Wow. Speaking of those Phillies

Trev this was another I think because this was a sweep It got pushed down on our radar a little bit But I don't know if it should be The Phillies Showed out man Every starter I have some more on them

Coming up later But also man Like the starter should be the story And that's why I'm talking about them later But when I look at every box score I'm seeing Trey with four hits I'm seeing Bryce with three hits, two homers, Schwartz three hits,

Kepler three hits, like the Phillies who I got roasted for, oh, the power rank, oh, can you believe this guy? Look at the Brewers. They kind of showed this series when they're full tilt. Tough to mess with these dudes.

I mean, the Phillies are obviously one of the better teams in all the baseball. So that's another thing. My whole, my slogan today. Okay, your slogan? slogan? Did I say that? It's a little schlong? I did yesterday.

I didn't want it. That's a behind-the-scenes story. My slogan for today is everyone just relax. Whoa. No chance, dude. No chance. Dog days, maybe. I think I'm just getting like sensitive, man.

My social media notifications have been so bad lately. It's just been tough. I know you go through that too, Pop. What were we saying? Yeah, Phillies are good. And you ranked them one in the power rankings. Oh, they're not number one. They're definitely number two.

It's like, okay, sure. Okay. All the Phillies starters, hitters, had one hit before the third inning. First time that's happened since 1963 in the first game. Bryce Harper has been a top five power guy coming out of the break. Yeah, and that's what we've kind of been saying with these Phillies. He's like, Schwabber's been in the MVP conversation, which is insane.

But we've been looking at Bryce and Trey or someone else to kind of start playing a little bit above their skis. And maybe these guys are starting to do it now. I mean, Trey's had a great year so far. Alex Bome being back, let's see how that goes for them. 54 homer since the break for the Phillies. That's the power serves, most in the big leagues in that time frame. Yeah, I mean, that's basically what this was. Now, my take on the Mariners lately has been they are,

and sorry, we haven't done the American League standings yet, but I'm going to just go a little. Oilers. They're two games up on the Royals for the Wild Card, so they're two games from not being in the playoffs, but they're also two games back of being in first place in the AOL West. What a weird time for Mariners fans. Yeah, and hey, Eugenio, Homer's again in that final game,

Julio digs one off the ground in Homer's on it, And I am very much a fan. Sometimes a road trip gets you, and they lost five straight, two and seven on the road trip. You're getting Bryce Miller back. There's, like you're saying, like the West is still very winnable.

You got to make sure that leave this on the road trip. Stress level for Mariners and Mariners fans is through the roof. Yeah. And it kind of should be. Hey, man, I'll be honest. The Yankees Red Sox series, which hasn't happened yet on this episode. I was watching very uncomfortably last night,

and it was a weird fandom moment of just like, do I like this? Like, does my heart hurt? What am I doing? Comment below how you like to watch your team. Trev, again, the rest of this NL, I think, can be high and tight. Like, Dodgers, Rocky's split in four. The Rockies are on pace to be better than the White Sox now

after they had a four-game winner and turning things around. and if you're the Dodgers, it just feels like the weird thing we've been doing with them that, okay, this happened and this sucks, and Muki's having a meeting and Teosker, beefs a ball, and what was this? But again, they're going to get judged by the end of this weekend

where they play the Padres, and every time we need to judge them, they end up doing fantastic. I think they have a decision to make, and maybe they've already made it. you know, Mookie at shortstop is their best, and TAYO and right, that's their best offensive lineup.

Right. Best defensive lineup would be, like Micky Rowe or somebody at short, Mookie out in right field and Taya Oscar and left. But I'm curious, like, if I'm them, I make that adjustment. I say we have enough offense. We can get by on our offense that maybe I want a better defense out there.

I feel like, you know, the pressure of, you know, the playoffs, you know, a lot of it gets put on the defense. Everything's magnified there. So, yeah, this is the, we're showing now the ball that Teo dropped there that allowed Tovar to get on second base. And then our guy, Warming hits the walkoff. Dave Robert said he got to be better. I said, why, I don't know, man.

People got mad at me for this, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not sensitive today. Good. should Dave Roberts have called Teo? I don't care if he called Teo out. I don't think Teo cares if he got called out. All I'm saying is you can call him out to his face.

People are like, oh, you've got to call guys out and hold him accountable. He did it to Otani. Here's the thing. You can do that. The only thing holding him accountable to the media does, it saves the manager from having to ask more questions. But now it's going to put more questions on the player. He's got to answer questions about his bad defense and the manager calling him. out. It's like, is that what you want? Like, if you're really trying to get the best out of somebody,

maybe certain guys need that kick in the ass. But like, you can call him out behind closed doors into the media. That's why when people get on Aaron Boone, I'm like, you have no idea what he's doing behind closed doors. Right. And he's, and ask him next time, next Tuesday, ask him, like, you know, why don't you call players out in the media? He's going to say, because it's just going to cause more questions for them and get their focus off the game. That's it. Yes, I think there's a difference between, like, getting through the media, like we talked about. Managers do two press conferences a day, 162 times two, one before, one after. That's kind of nuts.

There's a difference between just putting up a whole lying facade because then the media gets louder. then the media doubles down that now you've made a mountain out of a molehill. So all you got to do is say, you know, we talked about that. If I'm Dave Roberts, I say, you know, I talked to Teo about that, you know, he was no doubles,

got to get to that ball, he's working really hard. We already had a discussion about it. Yeah. That's it. That's like the end of everything, if you phrase it like that. But you're right,

similar to how we say some stuff sometimes that people are all over. us that happens for managers as well and players because you're talking so much throughout the year yeah and i just think there's something like you know who probably thinks he should have caught that ball tasker so like that's had like a 99 point something catch right yeah yeah and i but here's my other take on that is when i said this on baseball today find me a season or teo's been a plus defender right challenge well i also i feel like he's been the bangor i feel like he's been okay in left field for the Dodgers. And I don't know, dude, there's always been

something off about having Mookie not in right field when he's one of the best to ever do that. That you're right. That might turn into their playoff formation. Maybe they'll do whatever they want. Tommy Edmund play everywhere. Mookie can play everywhere. Like they will figure it out. It's Tommy Ebbin back. I don't know. Bob's on it though. Yeah, yeah, get on that. He was like a playoff to me last year. He was like a playoff here for that. him. Started hitting homers, was making great plays at short. Getting like clean up versus lefties. Yeah.

For the Dodgers. Treve, I think the other end of this spectrum is the Padres, who win three out of four of the final three against the San Francisco Giants, who we've noted the past few episodes are just swimming the wrong direction. And again, this is almost inverse of the Dodgers, like, this is very good for the Padres. They've been playing good baseball. Their judgment day is.

going to come on Monday's episode when they play the Dodgers. Yeah, absolutely. And game three here, you know, the Padres thing this whole year is we don't hit homers, which like to me, and they did in game three, sheets with a couple of them. I love the holy sheets. Yeah, how do you like that? It's a good one. That's out of the Story Ellie playbook there a little bit.

It totally is. Good for our silo bringing that to the air. Yeah. Are they just going to go off like on a homer, like, run here in September and just shut everybody up. Isn't that math? I tell you what would be cool. And, you know, we obviously have some Padres connections in this offense. If the Padres started wearing, like, if they started wearing shirts that said, like,

we don't hit homers. And then they just started hitting homers in the game, that would be pretty badass. Like, their pregame warm-up shirt is like, we don't hit homers. And then they just started gnashing. Why don't, why aren't they hitting homers? Don't need it. How is going on? Their contact. They have realized. They have realized. like the rest of the league that nobody plays defense, so if you put it in play enough, you'll just win.

I don't think that's it. There's two teams that play defense in baseball. They're the best team in each conference. No, there's more than that. You said conference, that's weird. There's more than that. There's some good defensive teams. No one thinks the Texas Rangers are good defense.

I think they're the best defensive team in baseball. They got a load another. 29th in homers? Pretty wild. That's insane. Are the names on that Rasta? I got, let me hit you with one. There is no way in hell that this Padres team ends up 29th in homers.

They are about to go off in the next six weeks. They're going to go off. I guarantee they end up finishing with, let's say, the 19th most homers, jumping 10 spots. Now I got to look up. I mean, that math could be so off. How far away they are from whatever. I like that you're putting your neck out there. I am.

Let me hit you with one Chris Rose before we get out of the National League. Actually, I've got two Chris Roses for you. One, are the Padres the best all-around team? Like, full lineup, full starting pitching, full bullpen. Sorry, holy crap, I'm just like 110 homers for them, 88 for the Pirates, then it's 120, so they can jump a lot of teams here. Okay. I like your prediction.

110, your yanks have 210. And look how good they are. Are the Padres the most well-rounded team in baseball? Holy shnikes. I know. It's a loaded question, but for me, I was just going, some of my non-in-the-weeds baseball people were texting me last night, and that was kind of one of the topics.

And for me, they have a great argument for it. Like the bullpen can go toe to toe to toe with anyone. The starters can go toe to toe to toe with anyone. We're healthy now. And now that they have that second half of the lineup, I know you're going through the power numbers, but they just have a really great argument for it. I would say if I'm ranking best, like overall rosters,

Mariners are there. Okay. I don't think they have like a weakness, really. In this exercise, you'd point to their bullpen probably is like. But they have good guys. At the second, they have good guys. I'd say the Mariners, I would say the Red Sox and the Brewers and the Padres. Okay.

Yeah. My second Chris Rose question to kind of bring us out of the NL. What's your Mets concern level? They lose two out of three? the amount of games they've been losing and now the Cincinnati Reds are one game back. Mets have lost 16 of 21. Like the NL East is out.

They were dominating that. And by the way, Trev, not to give us an early pat on the back because we know anything can happen. The Mets could be the best team in September. That's how baseball works sometimes. The Mets were the team that we had as the oddball out coming into the season that were like,

this is going to bite us in the ass. And then they had one of the best starts in team history. And now here they are. and it's it's dark my concern level is high for them i mean they're a half game up on the reds right now uh starting pitching has not been their friends uh peterson you know obviously excluded from that conversation so you're starting there and that's one of the worst feelings as a team is if your your starters are putting you you know in the hole and then offensively you have to kind of like try to find a way to dig out of that um some of the the additions to the bullpen haven't

necessarily worked out like they thought they were I thought they would, so they're having some issues there. I think that will correct itself. I think they've put together a really nice bullpen. So to me, yeah, if you can get some starting pitching going and kind of going to run there, that's your key into the playoffs for them. We're going to find out. Them and the Reds are going to be fun.

Sanga has been, it hasn't been good for him as of late. Here's the note on him, 18 earned runs over 27 innings in his past six starts. He had a one-three-nine of her as first 14 starts. So, you know, there's, there's issues there. Cards, cards fish, sorry. Cards, you got to do a little more to get us interested again. Trev's got some fish later. And Maximoa Costa, first career home run.

You get the family going nuts and the stands. One of the better clips from this week. If you need to fill your cup with some joy. Let's do it. Let's do a tight A-L, baby. And it starts off with the Detroit Tigers, baby. They went through their summer swoon, and they are back at a big way.

Claibor Torres with the walk off a 1-0 win in 10 in game two of this series. The Tigers have now won seven out of eight. They are one of the hottest teams in baseball. The Astros on the other side. Head in the wrong direction a little bit on that. Framber with a tough start walked his first two batters, weird one from him. That's kind of the biggest series from the AAL. We'll talk about that.

The other team that needs to be talked about, the Kansas City Royals have rejoined the party of this season. Let's see where they are in the standings. And a big chunk of it, Pasquatch, four straight games with a homer for our guy, Vinnie Pete. We love that when that's happening. obviously Bobby Witt's in the mix and dude Mike Yostremski

contributing from them from an area that the Royals have been looking for help for a decade that's good they take three out of four from Texas who's in the dark place the Orioles sweep a two-game set from the Red Sox

Trevor Rogers has been one of the best pitchers since the All-Star break that is important for them Samuel Bessayo two hits in some paper he gets the little team friend extension, good for him, kid. The Reds take two out of three from the Halos.

Man, Miguel Anduhar has been hitting for those Cincinnati Reds. So is Gavin Lux with his first inning home run. And Hunter Green is back. How do you like 6.1 with 12Ks? Brady Singer might hear more about him in a little bit. Hello. Yankees, they win their two games against the race, and then they throw it out the next night.

dramatic fashion the game before. Cam Schlittler, maybe get to know that guy. He had a no Schlittler going through seven. Gives up the hit, that game goes extra. Yankees hit so many home runs. It was like the most in two games ever. How's that feel today? Anyways, your final series,

it's the Best Western Road Warriors. Brought to you by Best Western Hotels and Resorts. Life's a trip. Make the most of it. BestWestern.com. The best medicine in sports, the Minnesota Twins, got swept by the athletics. And wow, are they getting hot? They've won eight out of 11, 18 and 13 since the All-Star break,

and it's led by Big Amish. Nick, Kama Kurtz. He's been one of the best players since May 20th, the best player since the All-Star break, number similar to a young Aaron judge. And don't forget, Shea. Langalears. I'll start saying it right because he has the most homers since the All-Star Brigg. The A's are your best Western Road to Warriors and that's what happened in the American

League. Oh boy. Langilears. Langilears. Langilears. Get a little selling with it. I don't think it's selling. Langeliers. Langlears. Sometimes I wish I was from the South. You would be in a lot more Camo and you'd have a lot more Actually, let me take that back. I don't wish I would have a lot more hunting and fishing stories that me and Rob would just kind of tune out for a second. I grew up Newcast Lake, the greatest bashed fishing lake of all time. I got a list today I think. A little speech impediment Friday for us. That's fine. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. We bring them all

in. Everyone's welcome at talking baseball. All right. What are we the standings for the AL? That's what we need. And I got them. We'll start out east. Oh, and that's not the right graphic. There you go, Bobby. The Toronto Blue Jays, still on top of the division, a four and a half game lead over your Yankees. Blue Jays, 20 games over 500 at 74 and 54. Yanks 69 and 58.

The Red Sox, say, half game back with a chance to go over those yanks this weekend. 69 and 59 for them, 61 and 674, the Rays, and 59 and 68 for the Orioles. in the Central, the Tigers. They've already won the division, people. Get with it. Nine and a half games up, 76 and 53 for them. The Royals on a charge, eight and two in their last 10, 66 and 62, the Guardian 64 and 62, and then it's my twins, 50 and 69, nice.

And the White Sox, 45 and 82. In the West, we talked about the Mariners, two games back of the Houston Astros, who are 70 and 58, Mariner, 68 and 60. 63 and 66 for the Rangers is their season done. They're three and seven in the last 10. The Angels 61 and 66 and the A is 59 and 70. In the wild card Jacob, the Yankees currently hold the one spots.

The Red Sox, a half game behind them in the two spot. And then the Mariners, a two game lead over the Kansas City Royals, a three game lead over the Cleveland Guardians and a five and a half game lead over the Texas Rangers. So currently, which we need to, the simulator's got to start. We're getting close. Okay, we're getting close. Currently, the Tigers and the Blue Jays would have a buy with the Houston Astros hosting the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox in a three game set. Those are the standings in the American League. It's all brought to you by Best Western. Today's episode is sponsored by Best Western. Western hotels and resorts. Go see your team.

Go get that last summer tripping. For some of you, it might be too late. It might have to turn into a fall trip. That's fine. Go see a playoff game. Go do whatever. Maybe your team gets eliminated. I'm starting to wonder,

I might have to go off the map for a couple weeks after the season because it's getting hurt by the Yanks. Life's tough. So get away or recharge. Set the tone. And whatever you're, if you need to book early, if you book late, if you want to get into the hotel late, if you need just like a hotel day, Best Western gets it.

One size fits all, so whether you're traveling solo with your friends or the entire Rasta, Best Western has you covered, pack your bag, hit the road, life's a trip, make the most of it at bestwestern.com. And this is true and off the record. We stayed there for our first Riggly trip. We're going back there, and I don't even think Best Western's in on it. We just like the hotel. Boom.

Trev, a tidy American Liga. Oh, my God. I clicked away so many pages because I wanted to look something up. I think the premiere series is the two division leaders, Houston and Detroit. Again, two teams head in different directions right now. And a little bit before this series,

but the Tigers who we started doing our, oh, I don't know, when you look at that lineup, up when you really zoom in on them. They've kind of ended all of that. They've started playing Tiger Ball again, which is good pitching, good defense, timely hitting, and they sweep Houston. The Guardians were like sneaking up on them in the division.

And the Tiger said, Jack Flaredy just shoving. Obviously great pitching performances for the Tigers in this series. I love that Hunter Brown and Scoobes ended up matching up together, pitch for pitch essentially. Scubes will look just a little bit better. Sorry, that's my Saly. Young. It's basically what he said.

So, yeah, you mentioned the Tiger's offense coming to life. The Astros offense, basically non-existent here. And the starting pitching, not too great. Framber has had some struggles for Houston as of late. You know, over his last four or five starts has not been very good. They got to fix that because right now it's like Hunter Brown and the rest of the guys doing it. And they need to fix that and kind of get back. on track there. Yeah, but the Tigers, man, when they got, when they got their guys going,

and, you know, from time to time throughout a season, you're going to have some offensive woes and maybe it happens all at once, but when Riley Green is doing it, you're getting Trace Sweeney homers, you're getting Colt Keith, you know, getting him hot. Like, it's, they can be overwhelming because you know that you, runs are going to be at a premium when you face a team like the Tigers, who can defend, who can pitch. So if they're, if they're putting up seven runs in the game, it's going to be very difficult to beat them. So they got their offensive power going right now. It's a great, a great series for them.

And they're kind of just biting their time. And they want the buy. That's that, right? They want the buy. That's what they're playing for now. They have the division wrapped up. We want the buy. 31-inning scoreless streak for Houston as a part of this series.

Ayo. And yeah, I don't know. with how much bullpens are used, it's the not so secret secret anymore in baseball that anytime your starting pitcher gives you six or seven innings, it changes your bullpen map for the next couple days that I think once you get on a roll with that, like it's so crazy how bullpen dependent we've become

that you mentioned the start of the Cubs Brewer series that Horton goes down, and that then affects like your next game. And the bullpen ripple effect that starts with good starting pitching, which when you're getting good starting pitching, that's been as true as time in baseball. But yeah, I don't know. Tigers are full back. And for a couple months there,

or for a couple weeks there, they got scary. Charlie Morton, seeing him slaying that thing up there. I think under the radar trade for, the Tigers, and just for baseball in general, under the radar, was Kyle Finnegan going there? What he's been able to do, he's through 8 and 2 thirds, hasn't get up a run yet, 11Ks to one walk, adding to an already very good Tigers bullpen.

So they have a formula, man. It's when the tigers are right, it's a lot of fun to watch. Trev, with the Yankees and Red Sox both being two game sweeps, I don't think there's too much to get lost in there that I think the last real AL series to get lost in are the Kansas City Royals, the Texas Rangers who they were kind of jousting with in the American League wild card. You know, my Rangers that I kept wanting to believe in to somehow get the fire going under, essentially just the offense, a little bit the bullpen with how good their pitching's been.

Kansas City, we hit that point two weeks ago where it's kind of fight or flight. The Royals have started to go, eight and two in their last 10, 10 game homestand. Six out of seven, Pasquintino is going. Yaz has added a dimension to the offense. The Royals, we didn't know if they were going to be in the mix in September for a little bit, and now they are. I mean, I think that's what we're seeing here right now is like their offense is starting to click.

Bobby Witt's going. Mikel Garcia, like sneaky has been great since the All-Star break. I think he's been, I was doing a search here. I think he's been the best overall third baseman since the break. Okay. We'll talk about another one coming up here later. He's 305, 382, 500 since the break. And doing it on both sides of the ball.

So you're doing that. You're getting Vinnie going. Yaz, as you mentioned, a nice trade deadline acquisition for them. So we're seeing, you know, they didn't put up crazy offensive numbers here. They have not been hitting with runners in score position over the year. But if they can kind of change that and get it going a little bit, that'll help the rest of their season as well. So I think that's kind of what we've seen is just guys clicking.

The offense has come together for them. And wins have been coming because of it. I don't know. I don't know if it's Yankees fear or whatever. I think the Royals, I still, I look at that team. I see a lot of the guys from last year that I know there's a white soccer. effect, Jimmy mentioned last episode, but everyone does get to play them a little bit. But like, I still like their form, like when their recipe is right, it's not that dissimilar

from the Brewers and the Tigers who I've been complimenting this episode that I still, if they keep this going for another week, half of a week, like, they're in the race the whole way. And I just do like that it's a fun baseball city and a fun team. I'll be there in a couple weeks. Really? Yeah. Big series, Twins Royals.

So that means they're getting some twins. Trev, the last team that I honestly think deserves to be mentioned is the Cincinnati Reds. I have my standout coming from this in a second, but I'll let you roll on it. Who is it? Last name is Singer.

Okay. Hint. Well, I didn't want to just, Step all over your toes there. Yeah, I mean, great pitching performance. Performances for them against the Angels. Hunter Green, 12Ks and six in the third innings. We get the Nick Martinez, Usaic Kikuchi battle there in the last game,

which was awesome to see. Glad the Angels won that for their sanity, avoiding the sweep there. Yeah, I think the Reds are almost one of those teams you could say is a complete team. Back into the bullpen to me, interesting. They had been getting the job done. And now we've seen Pagan kind of give up some as of late.

But I like the way they play ball. I mean, they're the NL Royals to me. Okay. Right? Yeah, I question their defense, probably more than the Royals at times. Just had to keep Ryan Hayes. Right. And he made a highlight in this series, as he does.

almost every series. So I see what you're saying. Hey, a little... A half game back for the Reds. Snaps for Yusay Kikuchi, 990 career strikeouts. Fifth all time from Japanese-born players, which I don't know, man. You know, every off-season now,

we're like, who's the new... Who's the new hot, hot item coming over from Japan, and I want to put them on my team, like... I don't know. To be from a country, be the fifth ever, like to do something. That's really cool and a feeling I'm never going to have. No, you're not. Uh, well, Noah, my Marte has been going off for the Reds. Like, they're, so they're getting some great offense out of him. I, I think that that's key. Like,

can, can they, can they hit? Can they go on a run offensively? If they do, they're going to mean the playoffs shake. All right. I want to talk to my, I want to talk about my dude. So let's get to standout performances. It's time. Four, standout performances. Stand out performances. Stand out performances. This guy stood out for Trev.

So what? Every time. Stand out performances are brought to you by Draft Kings. This episode is sponsored by Draft Kings. All-Star Break, gone. Trade deadline, gone. Dog days in between. Either way, it's playoff chase season.

Check out the standings. There's no better time to jump in with our partners at the Draft King Sportsbook. New customers who bet $5 get $200 in bonus bets instantly. So download the Draft King SportsWe gap now. New customers use our promo code jam baseball. Bet just five on any wager and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Jam baseball only at Draft King Sportsbook. Gambling problem.

Call 1-800 Gambler. In New York. Call 877-8 Hope & Why or text Hope and Y. 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for a proxinging school. Problem gambling, call 8887-8-8-8-9-77- Or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, 21-on-over,

age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expires seven days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.com slash audio. And Trev, I'm just going to keep it rolling. I'm going to stay hot because the people already know it's Brady Singer. Brady Singer, six innings, one earned run,

baseball on Monday night. Brady Singer was kind of their big off-season move, right? They flipped Jonathan India. The first half was up and down at best for Brady Singer. His last five starts. I was wondering if they were going to trade him. We didn't know how they were going to handle their kind of starting pitching depth. His last five starts, four-in-one, 29 innings, a 186 ERA.

has gone six plus, giving up one or fewer in three of his last four outings. When he's on, he's nasty. You can see why he was originally like a top overall pick. I want to say, was he top three? Let's see if we've got it. 18th. So that was a lie. But out of Florida, go Gators.

And yeah, man, this guy's been through the whirlwind of baseball, where we thought he had his breakout season in 2022, took a step. back in 2023. Here he is with the Cincinnati Reds. Pitches with anger, which, you know, when he's having a bat, when he looks good, feels good, when he looks bad, you're kind of like, what are you doing, guy? But for the Cincinnati Reds that we keep mentioning are almost in the playoffs, their starting pitching is so impressive.

Hunter Green is back. And they added Zach, they added Zach Lattel at the deadline, who he had a good start, that they have starting pitching depth, which is very rare in this game. And if they can make the postseason, you start, one of them goes to the bullpen, and that bullpen that makes you nervous. Maybe that feels a little stronger that Brady Singer's second half breakout has been a big part of this Reds run. That's interesting because his sinker was getting absolutely shellacked, this year.

Last year, it had a positive 10 run value. This year, negative 6. 6.5 dude, huge extension. I actually don't have him. Like, when you watch, I don't have him as a super tall guy. But, I mean, he... Interesting. Yeah, I probably would have gone like 6.3.

There's just certain guys that have a tall presence on the mound. The extension is there for him. A little bit of funk. You know, so, yeah, I like watching Brady Singer pitch. He's for that type of guy, 6.5. guy, he's more of a pitcher than anything, which I like. When that sinker's running, I know it's been getting, was getting hit, but when that sinker's running, it's a fun pitch.

When it's running. Who are you going? Why are we doing two pitchers? That's not a lot of this show. That's just not us. That's just not us. All right. Well, I'm going Sandy.

My guy Sandy down there in Miami had a nice performance. It was kind of like vintage Sandy, if you will. Sevennings pitch, five hits. one earned run, nine Ks to one walk. And he's had a couple nice starts in a row. He's done that a few times, a couple nice starts. So he'll have a hiccup here. The reason I chose this start, Jake, is because he threw 114 pitches.

Like this is what Sandy is supposed to do or what he's done in his career. Previous start against Boston, six innings pitch, only one and run, seven Ks, one walk. So back-to-back, nice starts from the numbers overall. in the year terrible. A 604 ERA, a 432 FIP. But, you know, when you're working back from injuries, you know, I think this year we'll call it a wash.

I guarantee going into next year, Sandy's going to be a completely different pitcher. And maybe just towards the end of this year, we'll see him turn around. It sure seems like he's finding it and feeling good. So I wanted to shout him out because for a while we were talking about him as Viga. The way we talked about Terrick Scouble, we were talking about Sandy. and then some injuries happen. You kind of forget about him. So vintage Sandy comes out.

You got to talk about him. Yeah, and you could hear it in the Marlins' broadcaster's voice, how hype they were. You know, a lot of his first in this game or these back-to-back games are from 2023. And he's made the second most starts in Marlins history. Pass Don Trell. He's sneaking up on your boy, Ricky Nalasco.

Ricky has the most starts ever? he has the most marlin starts in franchise history man send the text career earnings here we go oh rickie nalasco 85 mil i'm really in between yes i'm really in between yes i think so i know he was making like 12 or 15 a year with the twins oh i think it might be less than that i think it's like 70 i'll go 73 31.8. What'd you say? I said 85.

Oh, you're lost. Price is right rules. Yeah, I know. I always lose. That's the secret. Wait till we get to the IL. Good, we got to shout out Ricky in Alaska. And yeah, you know, for the Marlins going forward, like, okay, if they did trade

Sandy this year, it feels like his value could already be going up. Or if you bring him into next year and he looks like that version of Sandy. Like, the guy we were talking about at the trade deadline had a second. an ERA that we can talk about arm talent and the metrics and everything all you want, but I can't, I bet some of the offers they must have got for Sandy must have been so insulting. Yeah. And you get one. His value will be back next year.

He back. Trevor, I'm... Should you talk about Trevor Rogers? We can talk about Trevor Rogers. He, um, he's been one of the best starting pitchers since the All-Star break. It's been, it's, and he's the guy that they, you know, everyone was doing laps about Kyle Stowers because he's been so, so good for Miami.

Trevor Rogers is the guy they went out and got that, man, Baltimore has been sneaky, a solid team since June 1st, which is a lot of baseball. And you want to know the secret? They've been pitching. Rogers has been good. Sagano has been good. I mean, they have to be kicking themselves

that they got off to such an atrocious start. Because if their start was just, just a little better, I think they'd be in the mix. 12 starts, Jake, for Rogers. Ten of them, dominant. Ten of them dominant. Quality starts in all of those. He had one hiccup early June against Tampa

where it went two and a third. You only give up three runs, but he walks some people. I'm assuming that was a quick hook there. The other non-quality start is a five-and-a-third, two-earned runs. He's, let's just go from Okay July on Let him cook

Which is seven starts Seven starts 54 and a, excuse me Eight starts 54 in a third innings pitched a one one six Hmm Okay, go Trevor Rogers go And yeah, I guess on this This segment of talking Orioles

Samuel Bessio gets a, it's the young player contract extension. I feel like we need like a code word for that. Which was interesting. We have one resident, or we have a couple resident Oriole fans in the office. And the reaction was kind of like excited, but also, we never did this with Gunner.

We never did this. You know, with Adley, who Adley has also been in a dark place for over a calendar year now. We had some theories brewing about that. I did bring up his stats from last year's All-Star game. And it would shock you, the baseball player that Adley's been for over and year now. What are they since last year's All-Star game? Crazy.

He's got to go down to the holiday house and just hit, hit, hit, hit. Oh, that off-season story is going to be. And maybe burn that shirt. And maybe burn that shirt. maybe a ceremonial. Is everything else going on here? I like. The necklace, the hair,

the, his date for the evening. The shirt was tough. It's okay. I think at the time I said, hey, you're trying something new. Right. And that shirt, that shirt works if you're raking. If you're raking, that shirt works. Playoff Randy Rosa Rana

shows up in that shirt, and I wouldn't want to be pitching. So let's, We're rooting for Adley. We're rooting for Adley. And I'm excited for the off-season story where he spends two weeks with the holiday family and they burn that shirt. That's it. It'll be so good if they just like actually did.

They had like a seance burn the shirt and then went straight into the cage and all of a sudden he's just raking. Start the World Series DVD. Trev, I can't believe we ignored all the hitters, but I think there's a good chance that a lot of these guys are going to end up on Enfuego. Dirt Nasty's on Fuego That means I'm on fire, baby Like Waco And Fuego Oh, is brought to you by Corona

The official Cerva Of Talking Baseball We are going to start out for Enfuego with the series The guys that did well in the last series Vinnie P, our guy, six for 15 Four Jimmy Jacks, seven runs driven in That's four straight games

He's one game shy of tying the club record of five. We'll see if he gets that. Sal Perez and Mike Sweeney have both done that five games. Hitters. Those are hitters. Yeah. 26 homers this season. 15 of them, Jake,

have given the Royals the lead. You got to love that. Jerks and Pro Far, four for 13, three homers, seven runs driven in. Five for 11 for Ryan O'Hern with two homers and five runs driven. J.T. Real Moochel some big homers in that series. The go-ahead Homer in the eighth inning. I think it was

game two. Six for 12, a double, two homer, four runs driven. He's hitting 324 since the start of June 1st. That's the third highest in Major League Baseball. Can you name the other two guys? Are you looking at it right now? I'm not looking at it right now. One's Nick Kurtz. Yep. The other one is. Carlos Stan. Xavier Edwards. Oh, let's go, X. Let's go. another Philly for the week this time though. Trey Turner 18 for 29.

That's a 621 average. Two doubles, a triple, a homer, seven runs driven in. He had his first five-hit game since 2020. He was the Nationals back then. He's got six multi-hit games in his last seven games. He had a homer for his 1500 career hit. Trey Turner, go check his baseball reference page. He's looking pretty good this year.

America's short stuff. Sorry Dansby. Sorry. And also, Carlos Correa, you're also America's shortstop. It's interesting. He has some... Puerto Rico's in America. He has some versatility there.

I never understood that. Puerto Rico, come on, Twain. Bobby Witt might have the torch now. How good would our team be if Puerto Rico is also? Donner. Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I also like Puerto Rico having their own team, so it's really tough for me. Kind of baller status that they can have their own team.

How sick would we have California have their own team? team. Like the rest of the states. Ooh, Trev. I like that for you. A state off would be lit. I like that for you. That Connecticut team would hit like. What a great idea I just had. A state off. A state off baseball tournament.

And you have to lump some states together. Like California obviously gets their own team. Texas gets their own team. Florida gets their own team. Right. And then you got to start lumping some states together. Great lakes. Okay. We'll work on that. Workshop. Comment below what state would win. It's got to be California.

A's Tyler Sotom, 10 for 19 in the week. Two doubles a homer, three runs driven in. On Thursday, he recorded this first career four plus hit game. He's got a 19 game hitting streak. That's the longest streak, Jake, in all of Major League Baseball. He's hit 370 during that streak. Love it. Bryce Terrang, 13 for 13 for 30, three doubles, two homers, eight runs driven in. In August, he's absolutely raking eight homers, 20 runs driven in.

He's hitting 377. He also mashed against the Cubs in the 13 games they played against them. That's what you're supposed to do to your regional rival. Love that for Bryce to rang. Freddie Freeman, obviously, nine for 26, three doubles, two homer six runs driven in. Nueva Marte of our Cincinnati Reds, 11 for 26, two homers five runs driven in. He's got an 11 game hitting streak. He has got a five-game multi-hit streak.

He's the first Reds player 23 or younger to have a five-game multi-hit streak since Nick Eseski in 1983. I guarantee Chris Rose would have won that. Jake, that's who's in Flago. Why don't you tell me a little bit about Corona? Somewhere Chris Rose just woke up in a cold sweat. First, what I need to tell you, when you asked me that trivia question about Xavier Edwards, I wasn't listening because I got caught in a cold sweat. a, you know, I think it's a talking baseball favorite.

The Andres Gala Raga segment slapped a little while ago. Mike Sweeney is someone that definitely a lot of our listeners do not know. First base DH for Kansas City during some of their not banner years. From 99 to 05, so what's that? Seven seasons. He had a 905 OPS, 313, 383, 9.03 9.0. 05 OPS. Mike Sweeney was a dude.

And he was like the guy during that time period. It was him. Joe Randa. Those Kansas City Royals teams don't get talked about as much as the teams. He'd be on Team California, Mike Sweeney. Oh, yeah. And the other thing I started daydreaming about is maybe there's a buddy system that it's like, it's two states.

so it would be like California and Maine get paired up. And you have to have a certain amount of Maine players. I don't even know if you need that. It would just be funny that like the California Maine would not be represented. Yeah, I don't. Who's from Maine?

Bob's on it right now. You're from Maine, Micah Johnson, who's hat I'm wearing. Nice. How about Cooper Flagg? That's pretty big for the whole state of Maine. Who wants it for Maine? Doesn't help baseball so much.

Do you know Paul Bunyan's like a lot of States claim him? Does Maine also claim Paul Bunyan? I have heard that, which I thought Minnesota was just, for me, that's Paul, Pauley B. There's like Paul Bunnan statues everywhere. Kind of cool, though. Legendary. Yeah, you're Paul Bunyan, it's cool. Legendary guy. Well done, Trev on the standout performances. Let's get into who's struggling a little bit.

And the goal here is to get these guys off. And I believe in all of them. I really do. We've got a good mix of dudes on this list. We start out with one of, maybe Trev's number one guy in the show right now. Andrew McCutcheon. Cutch, a one for 27, struggling with the heater this year. Two, hitting 2-1-2 on fastballs. That's the lowest in Major League baseball.

Jorge Polanco, Treves Kai, bought him his first suit. Four for 34. That's a 118. batting average. Struggling in non-two-strike counts, which that's when you kind of got to get her done. Michael Confordo. It's been a weird year for him.

Four for 30. That is a 133 batting average. Struggling with runners in scoring position. That's when you really want the sauce. Thick-neck Josh Young. Yikes. 5 for 37, a 135. It's been a struggle bus year for him.

And Kobe Mayo, one of those baby birds trying to figure it out. Six for 39. His 19 strikeouts over the last two weeks are the most in Major League Baseball. So let's get those guys off the struggle bus. Hopefully we see them in Enfuego next week. For now, we've got the IL update, and it's a lot of names. It's more names than I'd like to admit. Texas First Baseman Jake Burger.

It's been a how's your burger kind of year for him, two to three weeks with a left wrist. Brandon Donovan left groin for St. Louis. That's not what they need if they're going to stay alive in this. Rob Reff Snyder left oblique. Send the text, Trev. Send the text. Francisco Alvarez, four weeks or so with that right thumb.

He had been so good for the Mets since we're coming back. That's really hard. A couple relievers. Anthony Bender, Brett Hedrick for Yanks. Cole Wynn, who I think Vinnie Pasquistuantino, went about 500 feet off of all to the aisle. Wheel year a Brayu for Boston with a right calf. Hassan Kim with Tampa.

It just hasn't been his year health-wise. Adley, talked about him a lot. Right oblique, four to six. Trev sent reach out. Reach out. And Tyler Stevenson for Cincinnati with a left thumb. Let's see what that turns into. This is where we start to turn things around.

Let's make a weekend out of it, people. It's a big bit. A lot of rivalries. Dodgers, Padres, Sox, Yanks, whoever your team is playing. I hope you enjoy. Returning from the aisle. Markana for Milwaukee. Do they need them?

Just for vibes? That's fine. Alex Lang back for Detroit. He could be an impact piece for them. Let's see what he looks like. Pavin Smith for Arizona, kind of putting together a nice year. Bryce Miller in Seattle. Ameda Rosario for those.

Yangs, Jameson Tyone, who had a really nice start against the crew in Jacob Webb for Texas. So with that, let's start everyone's weekend. Kelsey Winger, huge update for the award section. Kelsey Winger is caught up to the episode two weeks ago when we shouted out, Hey, Kelsey, let us know when you're caught up. She said in a text message that she hasn't listened to a song in three weeks. she's just been cranking out talking baseball ups.

She's the goat. There's a reason she's going to the hall. And that's why. Should she be the first like number of retired in the warehouse? Wow. There's been a lot of discussion about that because everyone's been looking at Joe's

just for some different reasons. I'll have the statue, obviously. I have the statue. Oh. You ready for this? Let's go. why don't you give you your award i'm going to give my award my award is called changes and you know what change is an interesting word um in the in all languages right it means a lot there's been a lot of great

quotes there's been songs you can reference david bowie he had a song called changes uh time can't change me but i can't trace time is that that this is that this lyric. Did we have a big David Bowie mix up with you earlier this season? Yeah, yeah, I'm back though. I'm back though. Okay. Time may change me, but I can't trace time. It's a great

song, cha-cha changes. Time to make the change chit-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chang. Nice. That's a great song. Gandhi, be the change you want to see in the world. That's a pretty big quote.

If you ask somebody, like give me a quote, Like, that's got to be one of the first ones that comes to mind. Be the change you want to see in the world. Also, Socrates had a nice quote about change. Heavy hitter. Heavy hitters only this up. Yeah, yeah. David Bowie, Gandhi, Socrates.

Do you know the Socrates is what I'm about to say? Dream Blunt rotation. No. The only constant in life is change. Wow. Right? Boom. Socrates, crush it.

Socrates, he found some, he found some stuff back in the day. And I was doing a little puff, puff, and then just coming up with all sorts of stuff. He was a genius. No, doubt my mind. Oh, this guy is still smart. He's like, no, actually just found his bush and like a little on fire accidentally and inhaled some of it. Really opened up the world. You know what that's what happened.

Unbelievable. Socrates. Anyways, change. Big part of what I'm about to talk about because we had a guy, Jay. And I want you to go all the way back to July 13th, okay? Right before the All-Star game, a lot of talk about the deadline coming up. And a lot of talk about the biggest piece at the trade deadline was who? Eugenio Suarez.

A lot of teams needed a third baseman. A lot of teams needed this guy's services, just crushing homers, a sure bet to, you know, plug into your offense. Bam, power goes up, run production. goes up. The Cubs were one of those teams. A lot of people were talking about, hey, you guys made this big splash in the off season. You got to continue. You got to push here. You got to go. Third base looks like you got an opening. You could use some more power. Let's go get A. E. Junio Swares. That didn't happen because the Mariners brought him back home.

Now, since that day, A. E. E. E. Hino has not been great. In fact, since the All-Star game, Jake, A. Eugenio, who played in it, by the way. A Eugenio is the 21st best third baseman in all of baseball as far as F4 goes. Point three is the value he's added. Below Brooks Lee, who doesn't really play third base anymore, Key Brian Hayes, who doesn't hit it all, just defense. The one guy that is absolutely crushing, well, there's Mikel Garcia, who I talked about. But for the Cubs, it's Matt Shaw, man.

Matt Shaw has been absolutely raking in that time period. 302, 344, 721 slug. He's been absolutely crushing it. And you're saying, whoa, what happened? What did this guy do? Well, he summoned Mahatma Gandhi. He summoned David Bowie. He summoned soccer.

He said, what are you guys talking about? Changes? He's made some changes, Jake. Some adjustments at the plate. And this is kind of been a year-long thing for him. It's been a complete overhaul of his swing early in the year. Robbie, bring the picture up. Look at on March 18th what he was doing.

I believe that was in, was that in Tokyo? Yeah. And we talked about this. What is going on? Completely turned in, foot closed off, shoulder closed off. And if you look at his spray chart early on in the year, it was a lot of rollover grounders, which means to the pool side, and everything in the air, which is what people are trying to do for slug was all to the right side of the field. There was just zero clearance.

So anytime a pitch came inside to him with that March 18th setup, you can't do anything but spin and try to get to the ball quickly. And then all of a sudden it's just roll the wrists over ground ball shortstop. So throughout the year, we've seen just slight changes, slight changes, slight changes, slight changes. So now we get this, August 20th. This is what he looks like. Open up. So that creates clearance. But the thing that I think, think means more than anything. The leg kick went down, which I love a lot. You can't, it's very hard to have a super pronounced leg kick in the big leagues and have consistent success. You're going to go through such, you know, like a roller coaster of you're seeing the ball

well, your timing's right. When the timing's right, you're going to rake. It's going to be great. When your timing's not right, it's, you're going to look terrible. So you got to get rid of the leg lift, keep it down a little bit closer to the ground. It's going to help you adjust. The biggest thing for me is the hands though. When you have your hands up like that, your elbow, it works immediately. They call it independent elbow, but your elbow will clear things out for you.

When you have your hands down here, your elbows kind of tucked away, especially when your front shoulders in, you can't do anything, but just rotate your body. Now, when your hands are up, and now obviously he's got an open stance here, the clearance is just there, and the results have shown it.

He started to pull the ball way more. in the air and we're seeing a huge power surge because of it. And this is a young guy, first year in the big league's making these adjustments. This is what you want to fucking see, people. This gets me so fired up. You got to give credit to him. You got to give credit to the hitting coaches there for making an adjustment at the big league level during the year.

This wasn't like, hey, you're going down to AAA. They gave him three days off, Jake, before the All-Star Brick. So in essence, he had a full week to just kind of like work on what. he was doing since coming back he's just been absolutely nuts for them they need him to keep going the way he is because he obviously extends that lineup a ton but i just love i love the changes i love that he did that during the year it's not easy to do it and a guy that's willing and able to have mechanical adjustments is a guy that's going to stick around the biggies for a long time so matt shaw you get the changes award you gondy socrates and david bowie just legends

Legends of Change. Bam. Masterful stuff. Yeah, the only, again, Matt Shaw has been a big part of this program this year because he goes back to day one. And I normally try not to overstep with the players because, I don't know, these guys are freaks and some of them can just do things that other humans can't do.

But yeah, I came on, we recorded right after that, and I was like, young Matt Shaw, I don't think that stance is going to stay. And credit to him for changing it. He did get sent down for a little bit in April, but that was early on this year. And, yeah, it's a game of constant adjustments, except for the rare, rare few. Like, you know, I'm sure Shohei has to make some, but also. He's made a ton.

Right. When he first came up, he had a huge leg lift. Judge changed his stance. Like, everyone does. This league is one of one. So it's frustrating when, you know, your top prospect, shortstop has been one of the worst hitters for three years and the team just constantly tells him to keep doing

his thing when he clearly shouldn't. Maybe that's your guys' team. Maybe it's not. Trev, great award. I feel like I can't even compete with that. I gave out the platoon award. You know, it's a common word in baseball. We often talk lefty-righty. Also,

military were. Platoon. Military platoon. Military platoon. Group of people. And the famous movie that's definitely not famous anymore. For me, it was a movie that was on TV a lot. And everyone's like, oh, dude, Charlie Sheen, that's one of his, like, early movies. And I was like, okay, just a young kid that would, like, throw it on and I'd not be able to stomach the actual, like, fighting scenes.

Pitching staff, they're kind of their own platoon on the team, Trev. The starting pitchers, they all sit together. They're looking for tips. and tricks and whatever. A group of lefties, which ties into platoon, banded together, Zach Wheeler went down, and it was, whoa, what does this mean for the Phillies who Jake put

at the top of the power rankings and everyone's mad about? Christopher Sanchez has arguably been the platoon leader. 194 ERA since the start of June. that is the best in baseball. The best. He might be your game one Philly starter at this point. Second best is Paul Skinnes, who we talk about a lot. Ranger Suarez, where do you think he's going to be in October?

On the mount, throwing eight pitch innings, getting your team out. He had his first ever 10 strikeout zero walk game for Ranger Suarez. And these are back to back, baby. And then they get dunked on by the Jesus Lizard, who he strikes out 12 of his own. The trio, 34 strikeouts, were the most by Philly starter in any three-game series in the modern era against the Mariners,

who we just talked about are really good, one of the most well-rounded teams and lineups in baseball now. their K differential plus 31 the Mariners this week. 46 pitching 15 batting, the second largest K differential in any three-game series by an MLB team in the modern era. Zach Wheeler went down. We still don't really know the update.

I don't know how scary it's going to be or if he's going to get back involved. If not, this platoon still has a group of lefties that are going to be powerful this postseason. And they just put together one of the best three starts back to back to back that starting pitchers can kind of do in modern baseball. So I wanted to give them some love for looking out for their guy. I mean, they're going to need to step up.

I mean, Zach Wheeler had his surgery. There's been some guys that have had something similar happen to them, and they've been out months. So, like, it's, to me, right now does not seem like Zach Wheeler is going to pitch again this year, which is obviously a huge blow for them. But they do have the depth as you're talking about with the lefties, even like Taiwan Walker. He's pitched pretty damn well. They got, they have guys there. They have depth painter.

All these guys can step up and do it. Bryce Harper and the gang hitting homers to kind of ease the transition there. So I love it. Still huge on the Phillies. I don't know if I have them second in baseball. I don't know, Jake. I know you have them first. We'll see, but those guys definitely shot.

So, nice award. I didn't, you know, I didn't really think a platoon as a military thing. I don't know why it's been out of my head. Yeah, I mean, it was Charlie Sheen? Is it Charlie and Emilio in that movie? Yes. Okay, there you go. A platoon is a subunit of a larger company-sized unit,

typically led by a lieutenant and compromise of two or more squads or sections. I don't have my military terminology downgrade. I don't either. A troop is one person. I thought a troop was like a lot of people. Rob, are you about to tell the cast of this movie? No, me, you might have to do an off-season watch party. Willem Defoe, Johnny Depp, Forrest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon,

and then it got John C. McGinley. Tom Barringer. Like the cast of this movie. There's a lot of movies like that. Like The Outsiders is one of them. Keith David, yes. Oliver Stone movie. too.

I don't know if the show knows this. I may have announced it. I am a huge Willem Defoe fan. Okay. Sometimes I just watch that creepy movie. Oh, the lighthouse? Lighthouse? Oh, my God.

You're a huge William Defoe fan. That's like his, I don't know. I won't spoil it. It's awesome. Is it really good? No, it's terrible. I haven't watched any movies, bro. I've just been watching baseball.

It's a little sad. I need to build in like a weekly movie night. the only thing I've been watching lately besides Ball is, and this is like I feel like I'm gonna get made funer for this but it's actually really good. Chief of War on Apple.

It's like a Jason Moa thing. I've heard of it, yeah. Jimmy's been watching it. It's really good. I like stuff like that, you know. I struggle with subtitles. It's a lot of, I think, I guess Hawaiian is the language they're speaking?

It's a lot of that. But it doesn't, I don't think it affects the show. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So that was good at the end. Hey, everyone, we love you. We are here.

Happy 70th birthday to William Defoe a month ago. Big rivalry weekend. Enjoy the baseball. Please suck. Jake sucks. I can't hear the music ever. Good. There it is.

Who am I? Chuck Noblo. luck. Oh, Cowherpkin Jr. Oh. Speaking of changes. Right? We should go out and a word about that, his batting stances. I know like a man of 3,000 stances or something.