Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - We Were WRONG About These Teams | 702

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Use code TALKIN for $20 off your first SeatGeek order. https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/TALKINGo to http://shadyrays.com and use code TALKIN for 50% off 2 or more pairs of polarized sunglasses, and use code JM30 for 30% off Jimmy and Jake’s collab shades.Visit http://get.bluemoonbeer.com/BASEBALL to see delivery options.+++Timestamps:0:00 Intro 5:20 Teams that are LOCKED6:45 Where We Were Right7:45 Cubs8:25 Cardinals9:00 Pirates10:20 Dodgers10:45 Houston Astros16:00 Tigers17:10 Angels18:50 Twins & Brewers21:00 Marlins23:15 Players' Weekend24:25 Gabe Kapler26:15 Rangers28:35 Mariners & Padres34:45 Orioles38:40 Phillies42:00 Dodgers44:15 Feeling Good About Our Picks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking to baseball. We got over-unders. We're checking in. Who's right? Who's wrong? Which teams have failed us and which have done us well? Let's do it. Hello and welcome to talking baseball.

Brought to you by Seatkeek. My name's Jimmy. His name is Jake. We got Trevor with the John Boy Media bat waving. That looks cool. Is that a mini bat or is that a real bat? It's a real bat. I'm still waiting for my pitch.

Perspective has it looking tight. in your hands and BBD behind the dish over under check-in time now treves posing he looks great he's got his nice john boy media pocket tea on how you doing trev James I'm doing great man I appreciate the shout out for my shirt because I do love the shirt's watermelon colored which is a big summer color of mine I had one cup of espresso today I wish I would have had two kind of sluggish but after checking the sheet and what we're going to be talking about I got a little pep in my step

so maybe I don't need that second espresso but everything's good man I'm happy to talk ball with you guys this morning Jake how are you love ball James Trev Davis yeah I'm excited I was juiced up to check in on this because the first time we checked in

it's one of those like you know it's surprisingly early in the season like a lot of a lot of season hasn't happened yet and then you get to the deadline and you get the actual like, oh, like, you know, if you have a team that's a little over their projection, but they traded away two tree guys, you could have flip-flop season coming. And it's just a reminder of how long of a grind this season is

and how much has changed that, I don't know. I'm excited to dip our toe in and see what other teams we need to be watching the rest of the way to dictate our final numbers. Philly's watching that already. A lot of teams have already booked their ticket, it feels like. A chunk of them. Yeah. I think we could chew through those pretty quickly.

How are you doing, Jimothy? I'm doing swell. I do like that watermelon shirt, Trev. They have the new line with the, they made one with our team made one, a new J.M shirt with the two frogs in the watermelon color. And that was almost the quickest I bought our own merch in a while. I really like that shirt. I actually didn't buy it yet because whenever I buy it without asking Katie,

she gets mad at me, so I have a cart filled. I have to ask her, do you want anything? Oh, that happens all the time. Yeah. Yeah. I get you. Yeah. Watermelon sugar.

Hi. Yeah. What's that song about? Oh, okay. So you do know. You're in. Put that knife away. And why don't you get some shady rays?

After you're done shopping at the J.M. store, go get yourself some Shady Ray's. I've got my glasses here. Jim's got his glasses there. Trev's always sunnied up in sunny California. And Shady Ray's, you people spoke. And you said, hey, you know, you guys made the cool Jimmy and Jake glasses, but they don't have a discount. So Shady Ray said, fuck it.

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Code talking if you want 50% off 2 Jam 30 if you want 30% off our signature Shades not bad man not bad Literally World Series starts today so Wooo I want to clear up something before we continue This is a pen People keep thinking it's a cigarette

Or another form of something different This is a pen people And I started putting in my hat Because I was making fun of coaches who wear it in their hat but it's just so much fun to like scratch your temple that's all i got to say okay glad you cleared that up otherwise yeah i mean i want people think i'm you know this is a marker marker this is a makeup brush makeup brush this is a fabric pen this is makeup this is makeup and this is a weed pen jake what do you have i'm penless nothing and would you like one of mine i'm without a pen uh i think you

I think you know my pick out of those pens. The weed pen doesn't work. Still take it. All right. Try to see what happens. I'll take a chance. All right. Let's see what we got here.

Do you want to just go over the teams that are basically dunzo, like the Yankees? They're over under. It was 94 and a half. That's not happening. They are going to hit the under. And Trev is going to be the lone winner there. Congrats to you, Trev. Smart.

Thank you. Smart. I never believed in them. You guys finally caught up. I mean, we, we, that wall in LA might have changed it a little. Yeah, I know, but not that much.

Any else that are significant, the Mets are also significant. We're all going to take a hit there. They're not hitting the over of 91.5 games. Crazy. The Reds are basically locked there over and we all took the under on that. They need to go two and 40 for us. to be right, which doesn't seem like it's going to happen.

Yeah, that would be a bad stretch of rents baseball. How about the A's man? I mean, Trev, another lone winner for you. It was 60 and a half games and they're on pace to win 45. Yeah. I don't really remember my exact thought process other than they're going to tank, tank, tank because of the Vegas deal. They sure did.

And they did. I think two that we can actually three two and a half that we can all accept our roses on the Baltimore Orioles who they need to win three more games to hit their over and we all had that so good on us yes the Atlanta Braves 94 and a half

that was a big boy number we all went over on them they're on pace for 104 104 105 tonight after they play the yanks and then the Boston Red So We're at 77.5. They've been solidly over 500 for a little bit that even if they have a mess spell, you'd assume their worst case is around 500, which at 77.5. We were all over on that.

So that's pretty nice. Good job on us. Good job on us. I'm doing the worst, just so everyone knows it right away. Any other locks? Because it is going to be interesting to talk about the teams that are flip floppy. but not really. Everything else is a little close

or unified locks. I think the Chicago Cubs is a lock for Jake and I. The number was 77 and a half before the year. We had to have some luck for this thing to come to fruition because we didn't know if they were going to trade everyone or not, but they played well enough. I think this is exactly what we said, Jake, was we want them to play well enough,

but they didn't trade everyone away or at least made a discussion. And now they are on pace for 83. 0.75 games. It'd have to go 17 and 27 for it not to happen. I think we could lock that one, yeah. They're playing better ball than that. I don't know if we mentioned the Cardinals.

They're a clear under. What was there? Are we all wrong on that? We were all wrong on that. You know what, but we were right. But we were right. In spirit. They're wrong.

They're wrong. Oh, man. That's going to be a fun off season. Yeah. that's the discussion has to be cardinals met's podres for like who is the most disappointing white socks could be thrown in there i guess are thrown there had in the ring oh yeah yeah let us play oh my gosh the kids the kids watch podres met's cardinals yanks at the top four disappointed mount rushmore of disappointment i'm kind of going through here again i mean the pirates

The pirates have disappointed me for a couple of different reasons. One, they got off to that really good start, and then they went down. O'Neill Cruz goes down. I would have loved the full year of him healthy and to see what happened there. Maybe they're adding at the deadline. I don't know, man.

Yeah, I think checking some more boxes just before we get to the fun ones, like the race are projected to win 96, and they're over under was 88 and a half. Like, I know they've been limping a little bit, but, you know, they should still get over that 88 and a half number. We'll see. They got a lot of stuff going on.

That's true. Guys going on in IAL, restricted list. Can it shake it up? They got two more injuries coming probably. They haven't figured out yet. Do we shout out the Nats? They're over. The Nats will be over.

And that'll be a, that's a lone wolf for, Trev there. So, yeah, that's the ones that you can really pencil in. That's kind of it. I think there's some fun ones and even a couple of the big boy teams that were a little, I don't want to say dragon ass a little bit. The Dodgers are now projected to be over. Last time we checked in on them, they were an under.

But they had their recent win streak. They're on one now. it's nine games as we record this 13 and 1 in August. That's how you change your fortune on the sheet. And I mean, for a lot of these very good teams, I think you start to rack up more wins that I think Houston's going to turn into an interesting case. What do they need to do? So they are, their over under was 95 and a half.

Right now they're projected for 92. Oh, I think they can do that. But they're winning at a crazy rate. So they would need to finish, I think, 28 and 14. They have three more against the Yankees, so that's three easy ones. I think that one is going to be an interesting finish. Let's see their schedule. Let's stay on the aster's for a little bit.

Please. We'll find some non-bouncing time, I think. They have Seattle, Boston, Detroit, Boston, Yankees, three at Texas Rangers Padres three against Oakland three against Kansas City hold up they got six remaining

against Kansas City and three against Oakland so they have nine games against Kansas City Oakland they're going to hit the over they also have the Yankees in there those are easy that's 12 even if the Yankees were having a good year

I think we'd be saying that about the Yankees series that's 12 bottom feeder teams basically are kind of easier teams for them to pick up, you know, go 10 and 2 in that stretch and you're not shocked at all. So I like the Astros over at this point, which is they're not on pace for up to this point. It's a pretty easy schedule. 28 and 14 they have to go. That's a pretty high clip.

That's like, what is that? Like 6, 6.7. Yeah, over the 6th is. Nice math by me. Yeah, but teams do that. That's not crazy. Especially like as other teams are winding down in September. and, you know, like, the Yankees were gearing up for the postseason last September,

and they played a bunch of teams that weren't, and I believe they won at a crazy, they won at a crazy clip. You basically can't have a slip-up. Yes. Like, you can't have a week and a half slip. Yanks won out of 680 clip last September. A lot of the, most of the playoff teams,

getting all their good guys going. And that's a light schedule, so. This is out of our realm for this show, but I'm just curious. I clicked on his name. Alex Bregman signed through next year. He signed the five-year, $100 million deal. It takes him through 24.

Does he stay? Is he, is he, Astro's whole life? They don't really do that besides Altuve. So what do they have to do? Is it like something to discuss this offseason? Do they have, um, do they have any top prospects that play, third base that they're excited about. Probably.

Probably, right? Farm doesn't look as juicy as you normally expect from a Houston farm. All of their farm players play four positions, three or four positions. Wow. If you look, like on Fangraph's depth chart, they're all like crazy, a lot of positions. Zach DeZenzo, uh, citizen. third base, second basement, their number five prospect, projected arrival 2025. Bryce Matthews, their number one prospect.

He's in low A right now. But he's a shortstop. They see him fast tracking and moving somewhere in the infield. I don't know. It's something to keep an eye on. I'm not really into the contract stuff with Breggy, but I'm curious because, you know, they've let guys walk before. I mean, a bunch of guys.

Springer's walked, Cole walked, Correa, walked. Yeah. They got a lot of kids. They're not in the business of that. Their third prospect in the org is also a shortstop. So they got infielders they like, but they might be a little further away than that Breggman timeline.

I think, I think Breggman, if I had to guess if you had to pick between Breggman or Tucker, I think they lock up Breggman. I think they could agree on a contract easier. I've been big on the Kyle Tucker's going to break the bank at some point that I think he, Houston would dip out where I think

Braggie's about Houston. He's got his salsa, so I don't know. Regman's going to want a pretty big deal, right? Not going to be small, but I think They came out. I would imagine he came out and said, sorry, they came out and said that they want Tucker to be an astro for life.

Click came out and said that. So that's in, we'll see, because that is going to be a massive deal. The guy's an absolute animal. Breggman, on the other hand, I mean, I don't know. Like, he is making 20 mil a year this year. So is this guy going to get paid 25 million a year going forward? Is he going to be, you know, like,

Astros don't do that. Turns in a year's, right? It'll be interesting. Go Houston, go. We're all on the over, right? Yes. Well, were we all on the over back then? I would guess we were.

Yes. Yeah. And I would believe in them. The other team that's flipped since we last mentioned and we shouldn't spend as much time on them, but are the Tigers. They're on pace for the under. They're now on pace for the over.

The Tigers are an interesting team where they beat their own division pretty soundly. They have... Yes, they own the Central. Yeah, they have a 21 and 14 record against the Central. They have a 5 and 20 record against the East. So I think you just go look at how many games they have against the East. They got four against the Yankee.

Oh, shit. Have we not played the Tigers yet that year of the Yankees? We have seven remaining. Yeah. Let us get on out. They're a feisty bunch. You know, there's some guys out there playing ball

like if Torkelson gets hot his overall numbers are just still not great but he's got a really good swing kind of looks like he's feeling himself as a late I think he hit a homer last night um Miggie goes into target field just one last time Miggie hits an absolute bomb

off of Bailey over he's still doing it man and they gave him such a silly gift he gave him like a fishing rod and a tackle box and like a floppy hat I'm like that did not make it on the plane back. State in the club out. Gifted.

Do you find that goodwill? The angels are doing you well, Jake. They were on pace for the over. Last we checked in, they're now on pace for the under. Nevin's yelling at them in the dugout. Otani's got watery eyes welling up. It's sad scenes in L.A.

Yeah, I made my stance pretty firm on the halos before this season. I'm not going to believe in them until I get proven. wrong. Yeah. Um, and it looked for a while, like I'd be proven wrong. And we'll still see.

It's still tight. It's a bit of a bummer. Um, because it's like, um, I don't know. It's kind of like you had, the troops were rallied.

The morale was high. The mark, it in an old timey voice a little bit. Uh, the troops were rally. No, that was British. Oh.

I was thinking of British. I was thinking of British. I was thinking of it as the shoes. Yeah. The troops were out. . No, that's worse.

That's worse. Churchill. Churchill? I kind of like that, though. Yeah, I have it as Churchill. The troops are allied. Morale is high. We will be marching.

And then they just march to death. Like, they take like, they're like, so, they're like, fuck yeah. Let's go for it. We got good leadership. We're a winner. We're doing it. And then like the first major crossroads,

they turn and they look to like the, their lieutenant and whatever. And they're like, which way? And they're like, oh, shit. And he's fumbling for the map. And like, oh, my. God. We thought you had this planned.

So their morale's low. We're surrounded on every side. Yeah. That's tough, man. Otani, go get him. Let's see. This team flip-flopped as well. The Dodgers talked about them.

Brewers and twins were both the under last time, and now they're both looking at the over. Trev, your Twinkies? Are you excited? It depends on what they do. They got a couple of kids. to play. And like it's been this conversation all season long. Like are you going to play Kepler? Are you going to play Gallow or are you going to play some of these younger left-handed bats? And Walner

hits a grand slam yesterday. He's a big boy who's raked at every single level. Like I think he's got to continue to play. Um, but they got it's like they have too many players, but it's not like they have like, I don't know. There's people blocking them that maybe shouldn't have been there. but like Max has been okay lately too so they have a bunch of things going on but they're going to cruise to the Central because the Guardians and I keep saying this and Guardians fans hate it but they

they gave up on the season dude there's nobody trying to win the Central except for the Twins so I don't know if that means they're going to continue to go for their over or if they're just going to cruise into the playoffs I have no idea according to strength of schedule

they have an easy remaining schedule they've had one of the more harder ones they haven't played any teams in the West yet kind of, but they do have a lot of central left on their schedule. Travis, they don't finish over that 81.5 year out.

I want them to be right around it because I'm going to be there on the last three days of the season. I want to pop champagne. I want to be straight with champagne. I kind of want them to keep the division close until I get there in Colorado. You need to be working that set. It's a fine line I'm riding on here.

I'm rooting for you. Thanks. And the guys will appreciate that rooting interest by you. Yeah. Keep it close, Guardians. Matt Walner, made to be a twin. Yeah, Minnesota guy. They love him now. I didn't know he's from Minnesota, but I also knew. Yeah, the Minnesota moose.

I already nicknamed him. It's fun to catch him. I just give everyone nicknames. They don't even want him. It's great. Hey, we didn't mention the Marlins here because we all took the over there. That was 72 and a half. I think that's going to hit.

Right now they're on pace 4.85. Good on us. Did you guys read that Loria article? I did not. Oh, he's got a book coming out. So he wrote an article, kind of like really honest, candid article about his feelings on some stuff that they, I'm sure the book has way more, but they go into kind of really interesting stuff about

the market for the Marlins. He still watches games. He was very mad at Jeter for what he did when he came in and, um, fired all the scouts and took down the art. He was very mad at him for taking down the art. Uh, the fish tank pine home plate and the art, the home run statue, like really upset about it.

And there was a really funny tidbit of Mark Burley called him. Piss to shit when he got traded to Toronto because pit bulls are not allowed in Toronto. And he couldn't bring his dogs with him. and it's such an interesting aside that you never would think of that go like you know it's always nice when us common folk get reminded that these are lives that are being uprooted um and that's just a bizarre instance that i didn't think of i 100% remember when that was going on so yeah i mean i'm kind of mad at jeats for taking away at least the aquarium behind home plate you can take the statue was you know however you feel about the statue whatever

I think university that was like the fish tank behind me play. I don't know. Why do you have to do that? Cheats. Yeah, that one I didn't know happened. That is awesome. I don't know why that was. Stadium should be covered in fish.

Yes. Whoever said to bring back the old pinstripe unis, that person's smartest out. Those are so cool. Yeah. They're like, they should be their everyday home uni. I don't know if they are right now.

Same with the diamond backs. Mixing them in. Which ones? The purple with the stripes. Yeah, I don't like the vest, Diamondbacks. Yeah, that's fine. But I like the purpose. I think we need more future uniforms.

We don't work too many throwbacks now. Let's go into the future with some, you know, some different materials. You know what I want to make sure it gets brought up? Cuts. Every now and then when they did players weekend and they dressed all the teams like painters, that has been forgotten. And it needs to be on like MLB's weirdest decisions lists every year. Just black and white.

Players weekends to celebrate the players, but they dressed them in all black and all white and voided them of any personality possible. Yeah. And guess what? Players weekend isn't a thing anymore. Yeah, why is that? Take that point.

Because they had no idea what they were doing. Like that, I would like a two-minute documentary just interviewing the person on why they chose to dress them in all white and all black. And void personality on a personality promotion day. Very interesting to hear the thought process.

It was always silly, though. Hey, what's your nickname? Let's put it on the back of your jersey. I'm like, I don't. Sledge. That's Moylands. But yes, it is silly. The nicknames.

Players weekend, whatever. Just that decision to have those jerseys was so gross. If you're doing it, that's not the way to do it. The City Connect is actually cool. People like that. The painter's outfits were bad. James, did you see my tweet last night about Gabe Kapler and his, Like, that is not a manager's uniform he's wearing.

What's what's going? No, I didn't. We were streaming all night. Without saying what he's actually wearing, Gabe Kapler wore like a JV football team gym outfit to be manager last night. And it's just, it's electric, man. And I misspoke because I said there's only one guy,

only one manager in the show that could pull this look off. I think Phil Nevin can pull it off. dude. I think he might actually wear the same uniform. Boone wears that, not multicolors, but he wears a sleeveless hoodie. A lot of them wear that. Did he rip it with his bare hands like Gabe did? No, I don't know. Probably not. Yeah, he probably is.

When Boone, when Kyle texted us, Gabe's other assistant coach who looks like Gabe, we're getting into that cult-esque area of like, from Bieber's pastor where like what's Gabe Kapler doing? Why are all of his assistants becoming him? I think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Is that a saying? I mean, Kai Correa was funny because it was like,

almost like I'm, I'm wearing the same outfit. This is funny as a mini-me situation. The other other cat is like Gabe Kamler stunt dumb. Like that was ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. Colt is a I think is a good word for the San Francisco Giants I do The Hillsong Giants

They're culty And it works San Francisco It all works Um Rangers are on the over And Trev didn't believe in them Oh Yeah I've had some really bad picks

The Rangers I'm doing the worst You're doing well But I had like some really Some ones I got really wrong Like the Rangers I got really really wrong And people know my thought process. I just wasn't sure how all of these incredibly talented veterans would gel.

What a stupid take that was. Well, that's apparently what happened in Queens. Yeah. Wrongly. I think we were all on the Mets over. Yeah. No, it's impossible to get wrong, Trev. Blue Moon.

Yeah, I knew it. I should have said it. You know, I had. drink Blue Moon because it's delicious. Makes me feel good. A little Ricky Bobby there. Why do I drink my own pee? It's sterile and I like the taste.

Blue Moon, the Valencia orange peel, it's a difference maker. That's why you can eat it for breakfast. You can have a Blue Moon for breakfast because of the orange. We've got some baseball content coming that's actually similar to that.

Blue Moon was born in the ballpark. Imagine if a player said that. It'd be your coolest player. Blue Moon was born in Corse Field. I was born. I think the holiday boys were. Imagine if tourist attractions offered that. Okay.

Like the Eiffel Tower, like once a year. It was like, hey, if you want, like, you want to be born in the Eiffel Tower. Like we sell one spot. You just got an induction date's got to land around here. Gross. Why would you pay to have your kid at Yankee Stadium if they offered one baby a year gets born on the fucking mound? I wouldn't. But some people might.

definitely somebody would. If I had the money that... The spot would sell. If I had the type of money that the people would pay to go in that submarine that exploded, then I'd probably have my kid born a Yankee Stadium. Go get yourself some Blue Moon. Get it delivered. Get.

dot bluemoonbeer.com slash baseball. Get dot blue moonbeer.com slash baseball. Blue Moon made brighter. There's a link in the description there, too. There's a real fun one at the end. But the one that Jake, you have a crazy prediction. I want to save that for the end. So I want to tie any loose ties up.

Trev said the Mariners would win 92 wins. They are currently on pace for 86. But surging. But yeah. So that's in play. I'm hoping for that. I'm hoping both of you guys get your exact predictions correct. You also said Pajors would win the N.

West. You're wrong there. Trevor said that. Yes. Trevor said that. Jake, note here, you said the Cardinals have a big trade this year. Yeah, they did.

Jack Flaherty. They made some moves. Jordan Hicks to Toronto. Toronto, sorry. Yeah, the Mariners, I think you can almost, they're on pace for 87. They're over under's 87 and a half, but they are surging and they have an easy schedule coming up

that it looks like they could get there. We were all on the over, so I'm excited for us there. The Blue Jays are. They're also right around where they are supposed to be. Good job by the odds makers there. Vegas, the over-under was 91.5. They're currently on pace for 89,

and that's a team that should be fighting until the very last day, so that could be a fun one. I'm trying to see what else. Brewer's cleared. We talked about that a little bit. Royals historically under. Sneaky getting covered up by the A's in such a big way.

for 52 wins. They're over under with 69 and a half. Unlike the A's, I don't think that was their goal. No, it wasn't. They thought this was going to be like a young, fun, punchy team. It feels like that's the second time we've had them think that and then it not work. Yes. Yes.

I don't want to bring this team up too much, but I was going over some of the statistics and we're talking about disappointments and stuff. Have you seen like some of the statistics? of the Padres players. If I just was to tell you, like, hey, Blake Snell is going to be in the Sayyung race, Hassan Kim is going to lead all position players and all of baseball in war.

Like, what would you say about this freaking team? All the guys are going to be healthy. Juan Soto is going to be back to doing Juan Soto things. You would say, okay, they are going to be on pace to win the NOS or at least challenge the Dodgers. They're on pace for 76 wins right now. Yeah. How are we wasting some of these career years? I mean, you get Hassan Kim to put up a six war through August, the middle of August, and this is where you're at. That's crazy to me. I still don't get it, dude. And if you ask Padres fans, they don't know either. It's like one run games, extra inning games. They're Ofer and extra inning games. Yeah, they're Ofer. There was a stat yesterday that came out. I'm trying to find the chart. I was reading it on the live stream yesterday. In three run games, the Padres. are awful.

So they're just not winning close games. It was like if they went 500 in three-run games, they got eight more wins, which kind of changed, like just 500. They're so bad in close games. They, uh, hey, these are fan graphs numbers. They have the Padres as still a 21% chance to make the playoffs.

If they have a hot streak, that last NL wild card spot is going to be wide open. Five and a half back of it right now. Five and a half. Part of me's ruined for it. The teams they have to catch are all struggling. Yeah. Yeah.

You can't believe, but you wish you could. Get it within three by September 1. That's my ask. But they're over under gone, gone. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy.

Really, if you look at the standings now, most of the teams that are in the playoffs are teams that we would have picked going into the year. I feel like there's a few exceptions to that. I think everyone was on the Atlanta to win the NL East. Phillies behind them, obviously far behind. I think Milwaukee and St. Louis were the choices for the Central in the NL. Obviously St. Louis just blew it up,

but Milwaukee's there. Dodgers winning the West. I picked the Padres, but it's an obvious one out there. I think the West, A.O. West was a little, I think Texas is kind of a surprise there. But Houston still could do what the Dodgers did to, or did the Dodgers catch the Giants? They didn't catch the Giants. No, the Braves caught the Mets. The Braves caught the Mets. They could do that to Texas. Still in play. Very easily.

Still in play. And then Minnesota winning the Central. That's kind of what everyone thought. and then the East, I guess, is a little tricky, but we didn't know what was going to go on in that division. You knew the East was going to be good. Yeah. We didn't know about Vegas.

Well, you know, they have money around this. They had Baltimore at 76 and a half, man. So, I mean, good on the birds for fully taking the jump this year. Best team in the AL. Similar to the Padres, how you don't know how their record is, what their record is. I don't know how the Orioles record is, but their record is. Dude, best team in the AL, but also fun.

Like bringing people to the ballpark, having fun celebrations, getting Adam Jones back, doing fun like fan stuff, keeping players around. It's not, they're going to be here. They're building around this team. It's trading just enough. They're still not ready to do crazy trades. They still want to keep even more of the young guys.

And it's that dude. It's the dude that built the Padres that they got. What's his name? The Astros, right? The Astros, sorry, built the Astros. It's, I believe, an Indian name that I'm blanking on right now. Reels, exactly. No, no, no.

He's a behind-the-scenes dude. People don't talk about him a lot at all. But he built the Astros, and he's building the Orioles right now. Elias, there is another name. No, people don't talk about him a lot. Yeah. We might find it. My Google search was awful.

I can definitely find it. No, know what I would say the Orioles have? We mentioned depth a lot. Everyone's good. Sig. Yeah. Like the Orioles bench is very talented.

Sig Medall. So his title is assistant general manager for Baltimore Orioles. You don't hear about the Skylot, but he is supposedly the brains behind the entire Asthma is rebuild and then the Orioles picked him up and the brains behind this. Making like algorithms that to project draft picks and minor leaguers and all that shit. He's, but he doesn't get a lot of public recognition, but I've heard behind the scenes, he's like a guru.

Dude. Yeah. Well, my team will use AI. We'll draft Cuban. We'll get a bunch of Cubans, a couple veterans and fast guys. And that's all you need. AIGM. When's it coming?

Oh, the first name. Yeah, you just name them whatever you want to name. You don't have to pay them anything. It's great. Wow. Hopefully soon, that's what baseball needs. Less human touch. He started with the Cardinals in 2005.

He took 22 months of data from college baseball games, ran it through an algorithm to determine the likely performance and stats baseball players would achieve. And over the next seven seasons, the Cardinals would draft more players who become big leaguers than any other organization. also created a formula to predict the risk of injury to baseball players and contributed a section of injury probability to the Bill James Handbook.

2012 became the director of decision sciences for the Houston Astros where he supported recruitment decisions based on physical tests and historical player performance. They hired him to apply an analytic-based decision tree on their player choices. It was part of the effort to revitalize the team and address performance issues in prior seasons. He created the stout system. Stat and Scout combined. It was criticized for dehumanizing players, but after trading off some players making new recruits, the Astros Farm System became ranked among the best in baseball,

and they would use all that to do everything they fucking did. And then in 2015, he went to, oh, in 2015, he got in trouble for hacking, remember that? Into another system. He hacked into his old cardinal system that he built for them to try and get the algorithm back. And then he got hired by the Orioles, I believe, in 2019 or 2020. But no one talks about this dude. But if you talk about people inside the walls of baseball, they say he's kind of the biggest fucking genius behind the walls right now.

Okay. Let's get him on the show. Sounds like an AI guy to me. Yeah. I got DMs in early 2021 about how the Orioles are going to be fucking crazy good because of this guy. I can't wait when I give my front office pitch to the Rockies to tell me. I'm doing none of that. Yeah.

And they'd say, yes, that's baseball. Guts. No, giles. You have to hit and run with a run on first base less than two outs. You need a low pulse. That's what I'm looking for. Easy. That probably goes into a shit.

Something, right? Low pulse can be tracked. Low pulse late. Jim, I think there's really only one team we've been dancing around that. has the chance to be the most fun part of this exercise. Yes, and I closed my sheet by accident, but I have it back open. Jake declared that the Phillies,

he rolled on green. He said push. Well, he said they were going to win exactly 88 games, which is the under, and they're on pace for exactly 88 games. Knock on wood. Actually,

the over under is 88 and a half, and they're on pace for 88. 80 and a half, which that's, I try to hit green. Yeah. I tried to hit green. So that's pretty nutty.

And like the recipes there, right? Like they're not going to come for the division. They obviously need to keep winning games. They want to be that top wild card spot. Have they perfected the, we're not coming? I know Dombrowski was like, we don't want to do that. We want to come for the division. But it seems like they're a little bit like,

And then after the press, they lost. After the presser he went. Yeah. Just get us in the dance, man. Just cruise. Like they're the best cruise mode. team there saving idling saving energy conserving they're they're running a marathon tray turner starting to go city loves him hot what do they got dodgers go ahead well what are the what are the Phillies have left

on their schedule i know they're playing the blue jays right now and then they have oh they got one two three four five six shit they finish with seven against the Mets and three Pittsburgh in between. So their last 11 games are Mets and Pittsburgh. That might push it. But before that, they do have seven against the Braves. Okay. Let's make those games fun.

Are they even going to be able to do that? No. No. And they don't care. Neither team cares. Either team cares, yeah. That might, that might sneaky be like, we've seen pitchers do this before they see a team twice.

That might be like a hydra trick series. Yeah, that might be a hydrax series. I agree. Wow. Nola through a lot of kids. 80% curve. What's that about? Yeah, I like that.

Hide your trick. Hide your trick. You got a trick and we're going to hide it. You guys know how all these teams are having innings limits and managing workloads. So they're not even trying at the end of the year looking at you, guards and some other teams around the league. The Dodgers are doing that, but like probably in like a real way that makes more sense. like Bobby Miller last night pitched for them. He retired, I believe, 18 straight.

The finishes, yeah. It took him out with 74 pitches. They're like, no, like, we're going to limit his workload. So he's still going to pitch for you. But you can limit his workload because you have, you bring in Yarborough who got the last nine outs and you can bring in some guys like that that you can piggyback with him.

And then guess what? You can keep guys pitching. It doesn't have to be, hey, let's run him out there from April and to, July and then shut them down. There's alternate ways to do this. And of course, the Dodgers are doing it the right way. It actually made me mad when they said that.

I was like, why aren't other teams doing it like this? Your small sample size reminder, but Ryan Yarborough, 51 innings with Kansas City, 424 ERA, 10.1 innings with the Dodgers. It's given up tour and runs, a 174. Oh, all their guys. Kike's been great. Ahmed Rosario's been great.

Lance Lynn has been great. A bunch of guys who you'd say, oh, okay, that's kind of a weird move. They've all come over and just performed. I love that the Dodgers are fully back to being the Dodgers. You do. Yeah. The Braves and the rotation looks good.

Give me Braves and Dodgers for seven, babe. Freddie Freeman versus Matt Olson. Daughters look out. Son, why don't you wear your pants a little lower? What? Lower. Is Freddy so high? Freddie wears him a little high.

Oh, is Indiana. I know he's not from Indiana, but he looks like a hoosy. Yes. You know what made me mad is they put out a, yeah, let me tell me what made me mad.

Hell yes. Tell them why you had. MLB put out a graphic, and it was like, baseball is a worldly game. It's like, yeah, we know, dude,

like we know. And had the OPS leaders and had the flag of their country next to their OPS. The OPS. And they put Freddie Freeman in Canada. Yeah. Well, he played for Team Canada.

I know that. He's not from Canada. Yeah. Well, he kind of did that to himself, you know. Smart. Marketing. He's shunning California. Oh, that's for you.

So, Calgary. A razor. Anyways. Yeah. I'm with you. I get it. Anything else to tie up here? Good job.

Jake. You're on pace for 15 correct. leading, Trev, 14, and I am on 13. All right, 11. I don't know why I said that. I'm obviously biased. I think all these numbers are going to go up. I like what I'm seeing.

Like, I think the Mariners are going to come back for us. Like, I think that's an easy one. I think Toronto has a chance. That would be a sweep for us. What was another one that looked good? Houston's got a really good shot. I think when we come back, I think there's going to be more points on the board.

Interesting. Complete bias. Complete bias, but you are excited about it. Choosing to ignore any red flag. As far as betting, how many do we need to get right to be profitable? Because you have the little bit of juice on that side. So we need to go more than 50-50. We need to go about like, you need to hit like 17 probably.

I think 17 feels like a good number. 17 or 18 to be profitable. 18 you can half brag about. 17 is like you survived. So none of us are even close to that. My bankroll in Draft Kings is as big as it's ever been right now because I hit big on a savvy giving up a home run yesterday. And I'm so tempted to take all of it on a bet today.

Yeah, that's what, yeah, that's what good gamblers do. It's usually what I do. If I get over 500 in my account, then I bet like half of it on, one bet and then I lose it and then I'd slow build it back up. It's not a bad cycle, honestly. Yeah. Only half is better than a lot of people. I'm still living off like the bonus bet money that you get after you sign up.

I've never deposited new money in. Nice. Yeah. So. I accidentally followed some gambler on Instagram. You know, like you just, you thumb something the wrong way. You follow somebody. Yeah.

Right? And it's this guy who, like, like gambles four people. Start liking all his posts. No, no. And then he hit me up. He's like, oh my gosh, thanks for the follow. Like big fan.

I'm like, now you can't get out. And so now I can't unfollow them. Yeah. So now I just have this like, he immediately, like kind of a strange gambling account that I'm following. I had a pretty,

I don't want to say low moment the other day, but I had a gambling account pop up. That was just like exactly what you think. It was this guy in Vegas. and like every other picture is him just holding wads of money. Is it the same guy? I don't know. I hope so.

Maybe that's why he got him onto my feed. But I was kind of like, I don't know, this guy's holding wads of money. Should I follow this guy? And I was like, you're literally a 15 year old boy, Jake. Follow me.

But he's driving sick cars too. I don't know. He rents him. If we're talking gambling. And gamble responsibly people. Of course. Like me. There was a guy on the early,

days of Twitter named Football Jesus. And my friends decided they were looking at his Twitter and said, this guy just crushes. This guy's our guy. Let's get picks from this guy. So Football Jesus, we sent Football Jesus a lot of cash stuffed in a bunch of magazines. We sent it to some Vegas PO box to get picks. football Jesus had us

he would throw I don't know 30 bets a day at us and wanted us to bet like off brand basketball at three in the morning and so we just never

we got scammed out of the money it just well I think it's a lot of like very obscure sports because you don't know so they're going to give you only tips on a sports that you don't know

we went back and ran his record of the picks that he gave us it was horrible horrible but he got his money but if you paid a little extra it would have given you the better ones sick of football jesus i'm just picturing you talking to kyle gibson about football jesus on twitter and givvy's like

man is am i not listening like come on chemo what are you doing that for Come to chapel. I'm like, all right, I need some hits today. I'm going. Okay.

I just opened my eBay account. All right. I haven't been here in a while. And I looked at my cart and there's something in there. It's Rochester Red Wings Trevor Plouffe Bumblehead. I guess I plan on buying. I did buy like everything Trevor Plouf off eBay at one point. It's all in my house.

Like I have a bobble head of you that sits behind me when I'm at home recording and a ton of your cards. And I think I upped. I think like people must have saw the trends. I think I put an influx in the market for Trevor Ploof shit because now this is 15 bucks. I'm not spending, I mean, you know, I think I spent like one cent on your last one. You shorted the market.

Yeah. All right, that's the show. Love you guys. See ya. Go Phillies go. Be mediocre for Jake. Be good. Boom, boom.

Phone numbers exchange. I'll text them right now. now. Jake sucks. Oh.