Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - The Phillies & Astros are Going to the World Series | 566

Episode Date: October 24, 2022

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. The World Series is set. We had two final games of the championship series, and we will be discussing them shortly. Let's do it. Hello. Welcome to Talking Baseball, brought to you by Seatkeek. Code John Boy Playoffs, get you 10% off tickets. You want to get down to Philly, head to Houston, see some games.

Tickets are pricey. 10% could go a long way. Code John Boy Playoffs. First and foremost, we got to talk about the Phillies, beating the Padres and going in the World Series. Jake, I kick it to you to burn, my friend. Burn it, burn it. Game five in the Chiladelphia wheels up for the Phillies as they'd hope Zach would be helping punch their ticket to the World Series. But the Padres said, I ain't fucking with you starvish.

on the bump for Sandy Bego. Bottom three, put them in the freezer. How do you eat your Reese's? Reese Hoskins, man, he won't stop Trevor's guy fingerprints all over this series. It's two, nothing, but the daddies aren't going down without a fight. Oh, no, so toe. He hits a solo dung. And then in the seventh, big Josh Bell with the RBI.

Double and then Azzo Carr drives himself home on the wild pitch for some Anthony DeVos, uh-oh, uh-oh. But that man is a hearer. Bryce, Bryce, baby, Harper, that patented opposite field, juice. And it's a two-run homer. Fuck your fortitude. It's fortitude. It's fortitude. And the Philadelphia Phillies are punch.

their ticket to the world series. Ring that damn Liberty Bell. Phillies four, Padres three, and they take the series four to one final. Great job, Jake. Great job. Great job. Great job.

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They're going to bring it right to you. I guess they could deliver it wherever you want. You want it at your place of working. Yeah. Wherever you like your coffee, home, work, they use your personalized recommendations to send you coffee that you will know and love. Why don't you go right now?

They're giving you a deal. Go to drinktrade.com slash baseball. $30 off your subscription to some of the best. coffees in the country. It's drinktrade.com slash baseball. Get $30 off your subscription plus free shipping. And Trev, a good cup of coffee. That's the way you start your day.

And that's the way a lot of the good people in Philadelphia are starting their way today as their boys are going to the World Series. Drinktrade.com slash baseball. Treves, these are your guys. I hope they're not awake yet. I hope they're still sleeping. I hope they had the biggest night. of their lives last night because they deserve it, man,

to go take three in a row in Philly in front of your home crowd and to do it the way that they did it with their guy, Bryce Harper, who loves Philadelphia, who's going to be there until Jake does have a daughter that Matt Olson can date. That long. Put the team on his back, man. No, the game was crazy. We had the rain and everything like that.

was obviously affecting the game. It was nasty out there at times. And when Sir Anthony throws that wild pitch, I'm like, dude, this sucks. This sucks. I know both teams have to play in it, but like this isn't baseball. When a pitcher can't grip a ball

and can't like throw his pitches, it's not baseball. And both teams don't have to play in the rain all the time. Like it's different. It can be harder or later. Like it is kind of one of those things where one team can get dumped on while they're on the mound. And then it clears.

I'm not sure in this one, how long the rain or whatever. But it's it's it's there was just that moment where you're like, oh boy. Because, you know, we talked this, this series was evenly matched. I mean, the Phillies dominated and man, that lineup became the problem in the story of the series. And it's going to be the stories coming up when we preview the World Series. Um, but man, like you're saying, Trevor, if this got, if they were on flights back to San Diego today to play a game because the winning run scored on a wild pitch in the rain. Yeah, man.

That's when like the dark thoughts start to creep. And, you know, you, you start saying like, oh, you know, were we, were we a little rain spat away from the Phillies going dancing? And said, nah, the legend of Bryce Harper in that city goes to, my guy. Goes to another level, man. And it was perfect, man. It's, it's perfect baseball poetry when you had, you know,

everyone on the internet, like, excited for Bryce, because he's killing it. and he's a star and he this is exactly what you want this is exactly what you want and he is becoming you know where he's he's a good seven game set away from a statue now and good he should be because he's he's a stud man yeah you got to win the world series but you think he's not a statue in philly i haven't even thought about that yet you know he spent so much time in Washington it's a I understand he's not going to get a statue there, but then to get one in Philly, yeah, I mean, I guess you get it when you win a World Series and you're there that long and you're Bryce Harper.

I like that. Okay. His numbers have been great. His whole time with them came back from injury. Hey, how about like Philly should be giving hugs and kisses to the DH rule because I think if it didn't exist, Harper wouldn't have been able to come back. D.

D.H. rule, six playoff spots. That's a good year. Good year for really. Yeah, good year. I mean, his, now in Harper's 30 postseason games, he has a 997 OPS, 3.58 on base percentage. And this was the first year he played in the championship series. I mean, he did the DS in 12, 14, 16, 17, 4 times he lost in the divisional series.

And by the way, you know, Harper, obviously. Three of those went to game five. Game winning Homer. He's Bryce Harper. he's going to get the love. My goodness, Reese outslugged him. How's your 889 to 850? And Schwabo out slugged and out on base to all of them

at the top of that lineup. Remember when he was slumping? And are we going to mix up the order? No, dude. This is the Yankees? This is the Phillies, a real organization. Rob Thompson's Phillies, baby. Yeah, man.

Their dudes were dudes. You know, we love a good postseason moment where, you know, someone's name gets remembered forever for a hit up the middle or something like that. But I mean, their dudes were dudes, even Wheeler, six innings, two earned 8Ks, no walks. And their bullpen plan works, their defensive sub plan. Like, Philly knows what they're doing, man. And that's a, as we'll talk about with the Yankees in a little bit.

I think knowing your identity and knowing your roles is one of those things that you need the talent, but you need the talent to buy in and know what they're doing. And Philly has that in a big way. I want to go back to the Hoskins Homer because it's a 3-0 pitch. And it ain't a heater. It's a little slide cutter thing. And Reese is just looking middle-middle there, gets the middle-middle pitch.

And easily you could just pop that pitch up. But he has that type of swing where his path is so good through the ball. He was on it, man. He crushed it. And his home run celebrations have just been, incredible because they're natural he has the bat slam another one i saw he had like the bat like pop out of his hands like oh my gosh and then last night it was like the skippy loo performance and i mean when i watch him do that it's like that is just straight up raw emotion joy like he's feeding

off the crowd which was incredible wheeler had some quotes about the crowd after uh harper's homer he said that he was down in the tunnel or down in the training room and the windows were shaken and some of the ceiling tiles cracked. Like that place was scary. What an atmosphere. Yeah. No, I think it's kind of, besides known Philly haters,

probably Mets fans, Braves fans, I think everyone else is looking to be like, damn, that's what I want. I want to be that right now. Yes. That is nuts. And you pitch decent, like their pitching lines are pretty similar.

It's just, well, and the thing that I think we have to talk about, and I know if you're Padre Sports Radio or whatever, Bryce Harper is one of the most feared lefty hitters in baseball, right? You've got a guy in that bullpen, Josh Hader, who can get you through and get you to the end of a game, and they didn't go to him. So I know that was a hot button at the time,

and it's, you know, one of those hindsight can be 20-20 really quickly, but when you have the opportunity and you know what this game is, Bryce Harper at the plate, I don't know. I don't know. Do you want to go down with Suarez or Hater? And I think a lot of Padres fans would be saying Hater. Hater warming up was, he was like just getting up, I think. I don't know if they had time.

I don't know if they got them up in time. I'm not saying excusing it because I think you want that. But get those guys up. Yeah, be ready to go. Be ready to go. It's elimination game. It's, it's, if you look at the numbers and, and Melvin does have an explanation for why he did it.

You know, Swarrest hadn't given up a homer to a lefty all season long. But man, I've been trying to justify this in my head because I do love Bow Melon. I don't think it was like the worst decision. Like, this guy was a really good pitcher and it's fucking Bryce Harper, bro.

Right. Who had an unbelievable bat to get to that pitch and then put an unbelievable swing on that pitch. You have to give credit to him. But I mean, you got a guy out there that's like, been electric and he has a pedigree and yeah man it it would haunt me I think it's haunting

bow mel as well I know it's hindsight and he and like I said he had reasons but I feel like if you're a manager you've seen these things you've seen buck show Walter with Britain and like that's got to be in your mind like I got a guy out there I should probably just go to that guy but if he's not warm he's not up I guess that fault factors into the decision making and I guess that's the problem. Get up and get ready, dude. The urgency.

I don't know who that's on. Is that the bullpen coach? Depends on the manager. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I should know that. Yeah, it'd be a question. Yeah, I don't know the relay system there. We have quotes from them on getting to that pitch.

The one to change up. Austin Nola, the catcher is like unbelievable take. Unbelievable take. That's the pitch he swings at. And if you watch it. it is a really well-executed change-up. If you're trying to get a guy to chase, especially lefty, you're like, it's nasty, man.

And then they're like, all right, well, shit. 3-2 now. I got to be in the zone here. They go sinker and he goes oppo with it. It's just, it's good baseball. It was. Because that pitches 99 in the zone, but on the outside, you're thinking, okay, he can get to that,

but hopefully he doesn't do damage. but we've seen Bryce go OPA a couple times already. And it's, it's, uh, we talked about during the juice ball times. And I think the stat came out that opposite field homers are down like 50% from juice ball times. And Trev, you were on it. Like to go to go Apo as, as a dude in Major League Baseball, you kind of have to be a dude. Like, you know, you can run into one. But the guys that do it regularly, the, the, the Harper's, the Sotos, the judges, the Stanton's, like,

when you actually break down the people who hit opposite field home runs, my guy Chas McCormick, they are the dudes in baseball. And Bryce Harper, you know, we've seen some balls are starting to die. Like, we've seen some big exit velos this time of year not have the same summer travel. And I have a theory on that too. We'll get to that later. We'll get to that later.

But Bryce Harper doing that, yeah, you know, it's easy now to say, You know, Suarez, when he looks good, he looks nasty. You know, do you bring him in for real mood? And if he gets him out, you leave him for Harper. He got a single and have a hater. But end of the day, Bryce Harper had a seven pitch at bat that he was down, one, two in the count, fouls off two pitches, spits on a change-up and hits a ding-dong that sends the boys from Philly to the World Series.

Trev, you raised your hand. I am now mad at Bow-Mill. Okay. because the world needed to see Josh Hater versus Bryce Harper. Like we're talking, I get it, man. But like you deprived us of that situation. That's like an all-time battle right there. Yep.

What if. Love you, Belmell, just a little mad right now. Do those guys like look in the mirror and kind of see each other, Hater and Harper? Like a pitching hitting. version of each other. Physically or just like spiritually.

Like we're both like lefty. Take that necklace off. Lefty power guys. Okay. Sound off in the comments. All these quotes from you know,

the Phillies about like his teammates about him are awesome, dude. Really cool. They call him the show man. They love him. And of course, Castiano's is like hilarious.

He goes, the way that he was able to immerse himself for the moment and stay focused and calm was fucking incredible. Please use those exact words. Yeah. And the other story of Castiano's given him the last out and saying this is your moment. Like this is you? It's pretty cool. I mean

he's everything you want a long-term superstar to be. He's embraced the city. He's played. Come back from injuries. He's pumping gas with his uniform on. And homers. Going crazy. Doing the Philly thing. You know, all that shit. You know, he's

it's a good town to become a legend in can I say back in my day stuff right now yeah sure back in my day it was frowned upon to wear like your team logo anywhere outside the field anywhere I didn't even ever wear my shit in the offseason bro because it said you were billboarding that was the word they would tell us don't you billboard

yourself who would tell you that players the PA Baseball coaches fucking everybody bro Don't billboard yourself. And now it's all about billboarding yourself. Sounds like too cool for school take. Like, oh, do that work? I'm not a Philly.

It was like you don't want to be a target. So don't be flaunting the fact that you're a professional baseball player because you become a target at that point. And this is before social media. So there wasn't really like avenues like that made sense. But I love that these guys, you know, especially Bryce is one of them. But these guys throughout the league are just like they're reping their teams. That's, I feel like that makes so much sense.

but back in my day they were against that. Also it should be mentioned Padres, ninth inning. They get two walks, they go to Ranger Suarez, the Bunt. Suarez coming out. What a play.

Manola first pitch, two pitches from Suarez. Was that what was two pitches? I know it was quick, but the bunt was, you know what? I don't hate that play. I think Bommel said the same thing afterwards. The field is a mess. You have a lefty so he has to turn around

to make that throw. It wasn't a well executed bunt, but like that is a very tough way. I bet if that play happened, that's like a five out of ten times. Like it's 50-50 play right there if he makes that or not. And worst case scenario is kind of what happened. You know, you have runners on first and second or second and third. Base hit, you know,

has the go-ahead runs for. It just it looked bad because he didn't execute it right. And Ranger made a great play. I mean, Ranger coming out. One day's rest For the save? How was he ready But Hayter wasn't ready?

Because Rangers done it all He's a hero. Love Ranger. You guys would love Ranger. I like that. I do. I sing his praises a lot on here. He's the best.

Short King. Yeah. All right. I mean, for the Padres, good stuff. It would be nice to have Tatis at the top of the lineup, huh? No, they had a great year, man.

You know, a great playoff performance. They just ran into a buzzsaw. Phillies were kind of just... They've been firing on all cylinders, dude. And you run into a team that's as hot as they are. And they gave them a few punches, and this was a good series, an entertaining series. I don't know.

I don't think you are too upset. You beat the Dodgers, you beat the Mets. That's fun. It's a step in the right direction. Get Nando back. Bowmel seems to have brought a level of expectation. and peace there that, yeah, see you next. Calm, maybe.

Beating the Dodgers for the Padres is like, that's massive, dude. Like, do you have bragging rights over there? That's something. Something. All right. Well, we'll switch gears now. Head on to the ALCS where the Astros swept the Yankees in four games. Jake, you got to burn for us?

Burn, burn, burn, burn. Burn it down. The Houston Astros brought their brooms to the Bronx going for the sweep in the ALCS, the snap dragon Lance McCullors Jr. versus, are you the one they call Cortez? Nestor Cortez trying to hold up for the pinstrippers in the first junker low RBI single and then a little labor bomb. Another ribby single. It is two nothing.

and yanks make it three. Rizzo with the RBI double these Yankees. But then, oh my God, look at the size of this kid's pain you. Three run Homer to tie it up from Jeremy. And then Yuli, you lie, you know. Watch a single go. RBI single four to three. The Yanks aren't dead, Treb.

Rizzo again. Harry Bader into the seat. John called it. It's five to four. The bullpen's got a hold. Oh, boy. Yankees' defense and Yordaunt Alvarez. And then the bad man, my salsa. Alex Bregman will text him right now. That RBS single felt pretty good because it brought the Houston Astros to the World Series yet again as they sweep the yanks. A six five final in the Bronx. Great burn. Great burn of a good memory, Jake. Is that brought to us by anyone?

It's brought to us by MLB nine innings. The Yankees won't be playing any more nine inning games in 2020. Maybe they'll play this. Yeah, so maybe they'll download the, I'll send out some links. Maybe I'll tweet it out and the boys can be like, wow, does this have the best live player versus player mode I've seen in a game? I think so.

Could I do a wide variety of game modes, league mode? Yep. Maybe try to rebuild those yanks. Maybe shuffle some positions or collect the 2,000 player cards that you can collect and use in your dream roster. They've got some legends in there. The Greg Maddox, just dotting, just dotting, two seamer at your hip lefties. Randy Johnson, Mike Piazza, if you like baseball, you're listening to talking baseball,

you watch your team play baseball. there's a good chance you're going to like MLB 9 innings. Download it with the link in the description. And download it wherever you get your apps and stuff. MLB 9 innings 22. Good shit, good shit. Good ships. Astros in the World Series again, against an NLE's team again.

On the Nationals, done the Braves, time to the Phillies. I mean, this team is a playoff beast. It's crazy. Treves, something we've been talking about. a lot. I don't think we've had the discussion with you. But I was talking to someone who was talking about, you know,

the Dodgers lost and the Braves lost and five-game crapshoot, five-game crapshoot, five-game crapshoot, and then they said to me, Astros never lost a five-game series. They've always been to the CS. I think they've lost a CS twice. They've won the CS four times out of the last seven years. And this is a team that's built,

for the postseason. And a lot of other teams are built, like the Dodgers, like the Yankees, even the Reyes, to survive the regular season and have depth and win games with multiple ways, blah, blah, and then you get to the postseason and against the best in a short series, there's ebbs and flows.

There's no ebbs and flows for the Astros. They haven't lost a game yet. They're here every year. They don't strike out that much. They make contact. And when they do make contact, has pop and they can get the extra base hit. I mean, they're eight-hole hitter.

McCormick, is he hitting eight? I forget, but he has two home runs. He's got like one dot OPS. And then they're pitching as deep as shit with bullpen guys. So the Astros are impressive as it comes to me. To be able to do that, I know a dynasty, you got to win World Series, but I don't know if we'll get that again. This is crazy.

It's crazy what they do. I don't think those other organizations are far. off. I don't think there's some massive separator other than, like, I guess experience and playing altogether matters. The Dodgers have that. The Braves are getting that. Um, you know, this five game series against the Mariners, I know they swept it, but we know how close to all those games were. They could have either way. I think that's where like the experience comes into play. But they have some dogs, man, some guys that just don't give a fuck. And I love watching them play. Alex Bregman. He got that back. He didn't have that for a while. He got.

got that back. He's a dog. He's in the playoffs. He has a game winning hit here. He's playing defense. And then you're done. When you have those two guys and Yule I'll put in that category as well, those guys don't care about the situation whatever. And it's like you can almost put all the pressure onto them and then let the other guys kind of do their thing. Like Jeremy Pena is playing carefree baseball right now because he knows he's got his big bro is behind him, you know, and I mean, you're right. They're set up for the postseason, but they're set up for any kind of baseball you want to play, bro.

Like, they wouldn't beat us in blitzball, forgotten rotten, but that's about it. They'll beat everybody else in anything because they can play defense, you know, they can, they have situational hitting. Altuva kind of like running the bases the way he does. Like, I know the Yankees made a great play against him yesterday, but that's like heads-up base running play. Like, they just kind of have everything. And I think another thing that we don't talk about.

a lot with the a show is Maldonado behind the plate and kind of how he handles the game and is able to throw and curtail the running it's they're impressive i mean shit they're they're incredibly well run um you know they they set out a bunch of years ago to be the best and be better at everyone wherever they could be and you know uh when when you look at it now i mean you got five guys in the infields that are gold glove candidates. You got Kyle Tucker, gold glove guy. McCormick covers ground out there. You know, Yorne Alvarez might not win the gold glove,

but he might be the best hitter in the league. So they make that one swap. And the pitching up and down has been a factory now throughout it. You know, this was Lance McCullors, like the most ever deciding games the players ever started or some fact that you're like wait isn't like lance mccullers almost feels new to the pies he's 29 like you know going back to verlander and grangie i i mean he's been a part of it uh that yeah like you think that guy cares about a moment or anything making fizz faces before the pitches like he's these guys don't like you said trev they don't give a fuck man they're gonna play

their game and they're going to beat you because that's the formula that has worked for them the past six years. Also just know the moment, the moment, like to take advantage of it. Like, okay, this is our time. Lock in. You know, anytime the Yankees made a mistake, they made them pay immediately. And that's... I wonder who...

Yeah. Go ahead. No, no, that's just killer. I mean, it's like that killer instinct that good teams have of, oh, you just dropped that ball. Fuck that. Watch this. You guys just booted that?

Yeah, we're turn that into runs. Take advantage of. TAO. Tao. Tao. I wonder, like, where they get that, like, overwhelming sense of confidence. Like, I know it comes with going to the ALCS six straight years and knowing that you can get the job done when you need to. I guess that's probably the biggest factor in it.

But there's got to be someone in the clubhouse that holds it all together, too. Like, is it Altuve? Is it is it passed down at this point, you know? Like they've just, they have so much postseason experience that Pena probably feels like what, like, it's not on my shoulders,

you know. That's what I'm saying. But I think someone gave it to Bregman. Someone gave it to, I think it might be Altuvae the whole way. Like he's just so consistent with the way he does things. And even when he's struggling in one fashion of the game, he doesn't allow the other areas of his game.

I think that's a great example to have. I know JV's in there, but I don't know how, much he affects the position players. It seems like the position players are just absolutely locked in all the time. Maybe it's Scuriel, man. I don't think people give him enough credit either. No. The kind of baseball career he's had, someone was tweeting at me the other day. Like, go check out, like, how long this dude's been playing baseball. Like, in Cuba, like, he was playing in that league at, like, 17 or something like that. And it's just been a guy his

whole life. And when they need an RBI, what does he? do. Does he come out of his shoes? No, dude, he plays ball and freaking shoots one up the hole. Like, it's, they're so fun to watch because they can do all those things. They could get the walk-off former by Yordaun, or they can play small ball and they can move runners and run the base is the right way. It's awesome. Yulia's underrated. He's, he's been there the whole time. This is a guy that as of like three, four years ago, he played every infield position. And like, he plays first base because they have Altuve, they had Correa, now they have

Pena and they have Bregman. Like that's why he plays first. If, you know, if he was Cincinnati Reds Yule Gueriel, he might have been there shortstop and then third baseman for a little bit. Like he's, he's a stud, he's nasty, dusty. I mean, talk about one of the best

hires they could have done at the time. And hey, you're talking about kind of like leadership or where does it all come from? I think, you know, the cheating allegation, and going back to 2017, that probably galvanized them, man. When you're a group of guys and the crowd hates you every night and the other team and, you know,

we had passionate talks on here about, you know, some of the guys that got really screwed from that. Some of the pitchers that only had one appearance or guys who didn't get opportunities to play baseball because of what those guys were doing at that time, that's, you, it either galvanize you or you point fingers and rip apart, right? none of that. These guys are let's,

it's business-like, and there's no fear. Like even, you know, even when the Nationals, like, took that Game 7 World Series, you know, Howie Kendrick hits a poll,

but, like, they were there. Like, no fear from them ever, ever. Yeah, it's got to be top, top down somewhere,

but Travis is trying to ask who the top is, and I don't know. Astros fans, about to tell us. It's actually a great point you made there. So it's basically a post,

who have helped make this team what they are. And I do believe that, dude, because if you are constantly under the microscope and you're getting booed all the time, you do have to find solace in your teammates and you have to like figure out a way to get through that. And little by little, man, it's just sharpening you.

Sharpen you. So those moments come and you just, you have that resiliency. How about paying you? I mean, he gets MVP. They didn't even offer Correa anything because they were like, no, we're good. I mean, they did make an offer, but whatever they was. It was. less than because they felt very confident in Pena. And now he's as a good year.

He's a scary dude. He gets a 3-1 pitch from Nestor. Absolutely clobbers it, ties the game up. It's crazy. And Altuve gets a couple hits at the end here in the last two games, I think. So he can go into the World Series a little more carefree. And you saw him smiling a little bit about that. And he got robbed twice too when it went to replay.

He didn't come his way or the second time it did come his way. Yeah. Should we bury your yanks a little, Trev? I know there's some specific plays that we want to talk about. Yeah, we just wax poetically about those Houston Astros for about 10 minutes right there. The Yankees, I don't think we're going to be doing that. There's a lot of things that we need to talk about, or maybe this is for the offseason, but they got a lot of work to do.

Aaron Judge, I just realized that after he made that last out, not a Yankee anymore. free agent right now. It's kind of a scary thing right there. Yeah, I mean, that is what it is. You can't really do anything until you find out. The time is here now, I guess. There's all these, like, complaints from Yankee fans about the team. And then I feel like non-Yanky fans just because, hey, everyone hits the Yankees and that's fine.

Feel like those complaints are like why we lost the series, which isn't true. They lost the series because the offense went completely dead. and because the Astros were the better team tenfold. Like that's why they're a series of a loss. But why they just weren't ready or like, you know, Yankees fans make our gripes because we feel like they could have put a better feet forward to getting to that place than running out all the different lineups,

all the different short stops, all the different positions from riding Donaldson, the entire season just banking on he would come around and he was a complete and utter anchor. in the wrong way in the middle of the lineup. But to talk about it in regards to this series, people always try to act like it's an excuse. It's not.

Asgers were the better team. But yet we have our frustrations with just how they make their decisions, which is encompassing of the whole 170 games. Your tweet encompassed a lot of it. And we've been talking about this for a long time on the show, just about how like we need some consistency in the lineup. If we need some consistency at shortstop, like let's make a decision instead of like

trying to ride a hot hand that it's not, there's no hot hands. Like you're just trying to figure it out. And, you know, I think it was Curtis Granich and was talking about it, uh, pregame. It's like,

yeah, we're just trying to find a spark there. I'm like, dude, that's not the way you find a spark. You don't just, you don't put people in there and like basically tell them, if you don't perform this game,

like you're not going to play tomorrow. Like, that's not how you get sparks out of guys. dude how you get a spark out of a guy is what rob thompson did in philadelphia when he comes to the media and says i'm not moving shoreber or hoskins i'm not moving them because i believe in them that's how you get a spark out of someone dude not like not like saying hey you better perform or you're out tomorrow like i don't believe in that whatsoever and yeah it's i mean it's nuts they did they had no identity the whole way through and it's tough that's one of that's been my

complaint since you joined talking baseball because I didn't have access to players and I was like never had it confirmed and I asked you I ask every player like hey does consistency matter like does waking up knowing where you're going to hit in the lineup and what position you're going to play make you a better player and almost every single player is like yeah it's way more comfortable it's way better to stay in the same headspace to not have other things um and the yankees just have never once believed in that at all. So it's crazy. One guy they did,

one guy they were. Yeah. They were consistent with Judge, and look what happened. Judge got attacked by the pitchers. They went right at him. He looked bad. So some hitable pitches.

His swing path looked a little different. And that, you know, this series was miles apart, with also not being miles apart, It's kind of the thing that was the gap is what we have been complaining about that. And that's why it feels miles apart, like that double play ball. I know Jimmy was texting with you and we were checking out what the internet was thinking. And, you know, it's 60-40 and I'm still not sure what's 60-40.

I mean, I think ICF has to chop the steps a little bit like you were talking about. And either way, you got to catch that ball. Glaver's flip, I don't think it was a great one. I do think it was an inside of the bag and firm and flat. like you also said, but, you know, if you had a, you know, if you had instilled the trust in your middle infield, and, you know, we're now somewhat inside the Yankee walls, and guess what, if stuff gets to us,

I bet it gets to the players, and they know, they know what's up between who's, which guy is liked by the analytics team and which guy isn't, and why you're out there on that day, and should we be out there on that day? And I don't know, like, you know, Altuva, Altuva and Pena knew they were going to be out there. Same with Bregman.

Same with all the guys pretty much on that team. Except one, they were flexing in the D.H. Ooh, here's Trey Mancini. Let's try this. This is fun. Baseball. The Yankees, the part that I keep coming back to is you knew this team was going to be there. I barked on talking baseball all early part of the year.

That these two teams are lining up. Like I believe in sports. I believe in chaos. I mean, look at the National League this year. But it seemed like everything was lining up for these two teams. And the Yankees knew that, and they got swept. You got swept by the team you knew was going to be there. So, you know, there's a couple little things.

There's one pitch to Bregman in that game. There's a swing by judge that on a lot of other nights would have got out. There's a double play ball you could have finished. You got zero wins. I forgot to give my theory on the judge balls. Okay. There was a wild theory going around that there was some, some juice balls during the season,

and maybe they reversed that. He was going with heavier balls. It's a dumb theory. But he did have two balls. I'm sorry, dude. It is a little strange there. Like, there's all the measurements that you have, the exit Velo and the launch angle,

you can, you know, put into statcasts and see how many balls were home runs and how many weren't. I mean, well, the wind was crazy that one day. I mean, you could see it. They were showing them. Last night? What about that one? Cold rainy night? I don't know.

Old rainy night? I don't know, man. It's tough for Judge. She did barrel those balls up and didn't get it. I do want to speak on the double play just briefly. I know we were talking about it. I, because I've been thinking, ever since you texted me, I've been kind of like really get into it and put myself in their position. you know those two guys have rolled a lot of double plays together that's your job is a second base and a shortstop

let's roll as many as we can we have to be comfortable and i'm sure they are comfortable man like they when you play together you're your your double play partner like you understand how they move and and what their what their feeds are like and where they're going to feed it that feed does have to go to the outside part of the base you know kind of fluff is expecting it there that's a easy double play. Give me a flip to the outside part of the base. We roll that thing, no problem. Now, you can say he didn't break his feet down enough,

which is true. He was upright. You kind of have to get down there a little bit. But he is banking on a feed that he's probably got, you know, 99% of the time from Glaber. Now, Glaber's feed doesn't look bad because it's on target

and there's some pace to it and whatever. But when you do shovel like that, you know, it's a little bit firmer. it was to the inside part of the base. And if your momentum's taking you to the outside part of the base, it's very hard to reverse course that quickly and catch that ball that's on the inner half. So I think the feed was...

It wasn't so-so. It was a bad feed. It was a bad feed, but also the footwork for ICAF wasn't great. Yeah. So it's like both of them. It was just a bad play. And if they make that play...

And maybe the fact that they hadn't been playing together every single day during the postseason, had something to do with it. I don't know. Yeah. And if they make that play... Well, you know, Glaver came up the system as a shortstop, played way more shortstop, and IKF came up the system as a catcher, third baseman.

You know, if you go back to, like, minor league stuff, and neither of these guys played that position. I don't, whatever, they need to make the play. And even if they make the play, they're not guaranteed to win the game. If they win the game, they're not guaranteed to win another one. So it's an interesting play from just like an X's and O's, but doesn't mean anything in the scheme of the Yankees winning. The other two things before we wrap up,

because I'm sure some fans want to hear our thoughts on it. Utterly embarrassing some of the stuff the Yankees did. With the roof excuses and saying that in the media, it's like, Jesus, I, that was awful. And then having David Ortiz FaceTime the Clubhouse to give a pump-up speech because... I thought that was fake. Because he did it in 0-4. Would have been great if it was. And showing the Yankees, the Red Sox in 04 as, like, inspiration.

is maybe the most pathetic thing they've ever done. Our guy Gabe had the good tweet summarized the night saying, I can't believe showing the team the Yankees losing didn't help. It's almost wild. It's like, hey, guys, it's baseball. How did that get out into the media? They did this in the clubhouse? Boone just was like, hey, yeah, we pumped them up with this.

Yeah, yeah. It's almost like, yeah. it's almost like they were you know it'd be very similar to being like hey guys anything can happen in a baseball game just check out this highlight reel last night astros beat us it's crazy i know the players weren't there and they're not fans of the yankees but still it's like what just kind of an embarrassing move by a franchise it's very like if you have to show your team or you think showing your team any highlights before a winner go home game.

He's going to do anything. That's insane. These are grown men. And what's David Ortiz is going to say on FaceTime? You know, when we were down 3-0, we just kept going and won the game. Oh, great. Do you think anyone cares what Poppy has to say?

No offense to Poppy, he's not on their team. He's not in the trenches with them. Yeah, he maybe had a speech for his World Series team that he was on and part of, but what does he have to do with the Yankees whatsoever? It's on, it's... It's crazy. It's not.

But yeah, good job by the Astros. They take on the Phillies, Yankees, get swept. It's going to be a hell of a series, man. I'm excited. I'm excited. We'll have a series preview coming out later in the week. And then Trev's flying out here for game one. So that'll be fun.

A little watch party on Friday. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you. Watch party. We got shirts. Shop. Johnmoremedia.com. Subscribe.

Like. all that dumb stuff. Jake sucks.