Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - We're Deciding Who Wins All the Awards | 546

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Our guy Kenny Rosenthal came out with a big article, and it's the end of the season. We're checking over, unders. We're giving out our awards? What? Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball presented by Seatheek, myself. Eight-year MLB veteran, Trevor Plouffe,

eight-year sex god BBD. Welcome to Talking. baseball. We are in it, Trev. As this comes out, the regular season is over in a week, singular. One week from Wednesday, the 28th. And so we almost had some housekeeping we had to do. We had to, we wanted to check in on a talking baseball favorite episode, the position draft, as we do infield, outfield, the pitchers. It's a, there's some fun. fun picks in there to discuss, and we'll give some love to some units we may have missed along the way.

Oh, big unit. I hate that he stole that nickname from you. And then our team over unders a final check-in to wish and hope to get some teams over or under the hump, so we've got something to root for. And like I mentioned, our guy Rosenthal came out with an article. They really tickled your fancy, Trev, because he was talking about the toughest, awards to pick. So we're going to pick them. Ooh. It's so tough to give an award out. Come on, Kenny. After a buck 62, that voice you just

heard was Trevor Plouf from the Philadelphia Phillies. Trev, how are you? I was doing really good. I've had a great morning, done some stuff with C Rosie, but this shirt just doesn't play on camera. I feel like it's distracting. Like people are going to be adjusting their computer screens. Is that where you watch YouTube? Yeah. You and I bold shirt game today. In Beams, we got, it's, and this was not playing. Can we not use this as the thumbnail?

Yeah. Don't, don't do that. Let's get a picture of Kenny Rosenthal in the bow tie and just be like, Ken Rosenthal on the show? That's your mark? One day we should have Kenny wear a bow tie with our faces on it. I think we could make that happen. We could do that.

It's like, in essence, we'll be on TV with him. I like that. Maybe we should have been wearing true classic, Trev, because they're the absolute best-fitting teas a man can buy, not to mention. Super Soft, aka the Story Ellie. When you're jacked, finding the right t-shirt can be incredibly frustrating. Boy, do I know it. Most T-shirts are too tight in all the wrong places or way too big and boxy. This is like, this is me so much to a T.

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They even got some boxer briefs. Hello. So go check them out. Trueclassic.com with code baseball. You get free shipping included on purchases over $100 and 25% off. go check them out at true classic true classic tees dot com slash baseball trev you're incredible i love you so much our shirts look so bad we should have planned this out a little better and you're sitting at an angle so you kind of look narrow and i've kind of looked like a goddamn box truck there you go that is better

thanks for the advice right there you look powerful Trev, do you want to do our stuff or Kenny first? Where do you want to land the ship? I want to end with Kenny. Okay. I think at the end, this is the whole thing with the Kenny article is he's saying there's some difficult decisions for the voters this year. You know, ranging from easiest to hardest, he put them. He said the easiest one, I believe, was the NL. Sa Young.

He believes Sandy Alcantara because of the innings pitched is just in the sheer dominance, really. he's the easiest vote to give. Then there are some hard ones. It's very hard to do this. And I said to Jake, what's do it? Let's do it. It's a little diffy here. We can make the tough decisions.

Well, Trev, then how about this? Let's do the position draft first. Because I think it's become a talking baseball staple. BBD got linked to the Phillies. Still is because of the draft. from two years ago. And it was our way to try to do a creative thing to highlight some of the best units and compete a little bit where we can.

And if you have no idea, we do this before the season, we do it draft style. And another one of the caveats is you can only draft one unit from one team. So if you were to draft the starting pitchers from the Dodgers, like my guy Trevor ploof happened to, and they had the best starting pitching ERA this year. That's pretty good, but Trevor could not select the infield catcher from the Dodgers, which our guy, John Bino did. And so putting all of that in the pot, we tried to assemble the perfect teams. Treve, I already complimented you off the rip.

You took the Dodgers, and we've talked about it. And it's been one of the hot topics around baseball recently, if we're being honest, because they are such a wagon. Their starting pitchers don't feel like they have the same name power. I mean, Kershaw was out for a chunk this year. Walker Bueller has missed most of the season. But the other guys, Tony Gonsel and Catterday, your dude, whether we're talking Anderson, I mean, Heen Dog.

And now that Kershaw is back, he's still Clayton Kershaw. They have the highest E-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-S. or excuse me, the lowest starting pitcher ERA in baseball. And as a regular season unit, they have been the best. Yeah, I mean, I went into it thinking about you have to have some horses at the top. I like guys' frontline starters. I like that. And then after that, I look at what kind of depth do we have because injuries are going to happen throughout the season.

And you're hoping not like in Walker Bueller's case where it's season ending, you know, but guys are going to miss some time. Kershaw miss. He's got 20 starts right now. You know, probably he's going to end up missing 10 starts throughout the year, whatever that is. So my thought process behind the pick was, yeah, we got Walker, we got Kirsch, we got Reyes, and then we have the depth.

And I saw Tony, so that was funny at the beginning of the year. But those guys, the depth that I thought actually are the people that carried this rotation and made me have a nice little victory in the rotation section here. Gonsland has been incredible. Yeah, he's missed a little bit of time. They're hoping to get him back and feeling good. But he was one of, if not the best pitcher in the National League for a better part of the season. Tyler Anderson has been incredible.

Urias has been exactly who I envisioned him to be. I spring through a little bit on an NLSI young. He'll probably finish second or third in that this year behind Alcantra. But yeah, man, this is what the Dodgers do. You know, Bueller goes out for the year and there's just depth there. And not only do they develop pitching, but they can identify what a guy does well and can bring them over to the organization

and really focus on that. That's what they're doing with Heaney. So they just have it all for me. And it worked out. Yeah, I mean, I think there's really only one other team that could have been in conversation for the best rotations. and that would have been a team that was not selected and was amiss by us. The Houston Astros, they did it again.

I mean, Justin Verlander and what he's done, we're going to talk about him at the end of the show when it comes time to discuss awards. The Mets were really good as well. Obviously, Scherzer-Degrom, Bassett, Walker, even some of their guys that filled in. The Dodgers had a two-seven-eastern. 5 ERA from their starting pitchers this year. Houston 3-flat. Third place is Tampa at 347.

So when you start to talk about that gap, and I know ERA isn't everything, but it's also the earn runs allowed up until this, you know, 154 game mark of the season. And where those teams kind of planted their flag, it's unbelievable. They are a step above and it shows in both their records. you took the brewers great choice by you but it just hasn't worked out there has been some injuries

maybe not enough depth there i think that's probably the number one issue here yeah they they ended up landing middle of the pack uh got got excited about the law firm remember how much we used to talk about the law firm and we didn't really we haven't talked about them too much this year uh bbd had taken those mats jimmy took the white socks which was a fun conversation last episode that if you told the White Sox, Dylan Sees was going to have the year he was going to have.

Never mind, Johnny Quato, I don't even know when we did the draft. He wasn't in the organization. If he was in the org, and he was really good for them. They end up ERA-wise. They're battling for a top 10 spot. So it's not bad.

And it's a team that had a lot of other issues to point at than they're starting rotation. but I think they ended up being a little under than what we expected from them this year. Some other teams that probably deserve a little bit of love that didn't get mentioned. The race starting pitching Team ERA ended up being really good. The Yankees, their pitching staff did well.

Nestor, my goodness. Talk about a season. That surprises me. The overall numbers are as good as they are. But Nestor obviously is a big part of that. He continued to shut people. up, I guess, right? Nestor, Cole. There was a while early on this thing that the starting pitching really carried them. And then Seattle and Atlanta, you know, a lot of guys there.

Giants in Miami trying to sneak into the top 10 there. Philly, surprisingly, more towards the middle of the pack than you'd expect. Same with my Padres. But I think those are reflections on the whole, the staff as a whole. Let's finish off the pitching because the- Well, who won that? Well, who won I won that. I think you win that. I mean, the Dodgers had a 275 team ERA that you really can't argue with that. I mean, even if you bring in some more innings,

which a couple rotations have, you really, Houston would be the only team that could give you an argument on that and none of us selected them. I drafted their outfield in D.H so I couldn't take the pitching. BPD's got some,

is this F-war stats? B-B-D or is it B-Wore? These are B-Wore. to one of our docs. But just looking at the sorted... Like, Dodgers are just like, they're unlike the line that shows the trend. Like, they'd be way above that.

They're off the map. Love that. They're like two above the next team. It's me. Mets was a good pick, BPD. I think they were the first pick of the draft, if I remember correctly. Yeah.

Hey, you shot your shot. A little bit of, like, what teams have? have well because you have the rules like you can't repeat teams. It's like Mets, only group I wanted, I would have considered picking from them going into the year was pitching. Right. Like Dodgers, you'd be happy to end up with any of theirs. The relievers, I think we wrap up the pitching,

because the infield and outfield gets a little more conversational. The bullpins that were selected, BPD took the Braves. Trevor took the White Sox. Jimmy took the raise and I took the San Francisco Giants fell in love with them last year. Are you still in love? I'm not still in love.

You know I love Camilo Doval. It wasn't, I thought they found the sauce last year. Their bullpen stats were there. This year, I think very middle of the pack and even that can be complimentary. Although my guy, Doval, did it. Not a lot of guys really had special seasons out of that bullpen for them.

And Trev, I guess, you know, while we're chopping ourselves down, you took the White Sox, and their bullpen was not hit this year. I don't think it was, they had some ups and downs. The one thing that I liked about their bullpen, again, was just depth. I thought everything was great with that. and I think immediately after we had this draft, I think Crochet got hurt for the year. So Liam Hendricks has had some up and downs,

33 saves on the year, 302 ERA. Gravenman's again kind of been up and down. He's had some good streaks there. And all the Lopez has been good. You know, and some guys who I didn't even know, Jimmy Lambert's had a really solid year. And Aaron Bummer, who I thought was going to be a great addition, has been good.

So I'm happy with it. I guess they hadn't racked up the same amount of war as some of the other bullpens, but I thought it was a smart decision. Then BPD and John, John's logic was pretty safe and smart. He knew he was taking from the minute the draft started.

He was going to take the Tampa Bay raise because for a position that's as volatile as one is in baseball, the rays find pitching their relievers pitched some of the most innings in baseball, which I think that should be considered. They did pitch the most inning, 650. And it's kind of funny.

The teams after the race aren't really good teams. The Cubs, the Twins, the Pirates, Texas, because those teams had to unfortunately go to their bullpen early. The Rays like to use their bullpen. So I think you get some innings credit there, and the Rays just always seem to find guys. that get out. And I think where it could be an interesting discussion a little bit is

BBD took Atlanta. Their team ERA is 305, Mr. Worldwide, which is the third best in baseball behind Houston and the Dodgers. The Dodgers just have a pitch. Both of those teams have pitching factories. Like we found the common trait. I wore Dodgers number one start. Bullpen, starting war, number two reliever war.

Pretty unreal. That's a good combo. What they do in that city. New York, Cleveland, they definitely deserve some love. I love the guys in the back end of Seattle. But just to compare, contrast, Tampa Bay Rays have thrown about 143 more innings than Seattle's bullpen. That's crazy.

and Houston, partly by strategy, and maybe this ties into everything, they've thrown the least innings pitched out of the bullpen, but with the lowest DRA. So I think there's a mix of being fresh, being available, and just being a really good organization. But Trev, I know you like to announce a winner because we are America. I think it comes down to Braves versus Ray's. Man, it's funny because the Braves have had questions about

their closer, Kenley, and Ray's are just, oh man, I mean, by B-Wore here, BBD has racked up 8.5 compared to John 7.7. So I think I'm just going to go with that. I told people not to worry about Kenley, and, you know, their bullpen will be a strong point for them. He's a streaky dude.

Yeah, and I mean, they, you know, AJ Minter deserves to be talked about, Colin McHugh And man, oh man, as we're starting to really put together our playoff picture, whoever kicks to the bullpen for the Braves, like they have the starting, they have the relieving.

Same with those Los Angeles Dodgers. And by the way, the Houston Astros continue to be towards the top of the list. It starts to make a lot of sense why we're always talking about these teams and why we're probably going to be talking about them for the next month. or so.

With that, let's go to outfield and DH. The DH, this was the first year in the talking baseball draft that we, I think we fully lumped it because everyone was going to have a DH. So the outfield DHS that were selected, BPD took his Phillies. Trevor took the Astros, Jamalama Ding Dong took the Yankees,

and I took the hands. The only Angels unit that was selected. I will defend myself at first. I said, give me Mike Trout and Otani. I'll figure out the rest. There is a bonus piece in figuring out the rest with Taylor Ward, who's put together a really nice year. He's going to be like a three war guy.

He's done. He did his part. Left field had still, that third outfield spot had been missing from the halos this year, but Trout ended up doing his thing. Otani ended up doing his thing with the T-Word kicker. Jimmy O'Brien took the Yankees and guess what? That Aaron Judge guy being at about 10 war himself, that's a pretty nice piece to the puzzle.

And they've gotten some different contributions from guys in different parts of the season, whether it's a penitendi briefly. I think Matt Carpenter got some right fields. going on. The Astros, Trevor Plouffe, you selected them. And, man, do the Astros know how to do it? Kyle Tucker continues to do it year in, year out,

Yordon Alvarez. Even they lost Michael Brantley, but he did contribute earlier in the year. And BPD's Phillies, interesting, because Harper has been good and he's been there, it turned into their DH for most of the season while he was out there. Wilson.

I just missed so much time. Kyle Schwaber hitting home runs. Castellanos got off to the slow start this season. BVD, I don't want to, I feel bad starting here, but I do think the Phillies are outgunned in this category. Seems like a clear outlier among the teams here. Even my halos, as I can defend a, you know, if we ended up drawn up lineups, which I think we could,

I would still really love to have Trout, Otani, even Ward, in there. But what the Yankees and the Houston Astros do, both these teams are right around 15.3 war, or 15 war. What do you think, Treve, if you had to look at those two teams? I remember the Matt Carpenter craze. I really liked that for you guys this season. The reason I want the Astros was Yordaun, Kyle Tucker, and Michael Brantley, their center field spot was always going to be interesting for me.

And we talked about that with the Astros. They haven't been able to fill that the way they've been able to fill the rest of their team's positions. But with the season, the judges have, I think I'll give that one to the Yankees. I think so. I think that, like, takes over for me. Yeah, it's interesting. The Astros, they traded to Trey Mancine. who's been playing some outfield.

Chas McCormick in center and a couple other guys hopping in. The Yankees, I mean, it's so funny how different elements of the season change. They, I mean, they traded for Andrew Benintendi and Harrison Pader. So that's something we obviously didn't know coming into the season. You couldn't predict it at all.

Started the year with Joey Gallo, who's now on the Dodgers. Oh, man. Right? The whirlwind that comes. can be baseball is pretty nutty. Some other teams that I saw racking up different war. I just clicked away.

Braves Outfield has to be up there. Braves with Michael Harris Jr. I mean, jumping into the equation and who he is. Let me see. The Dodgers are always good at everything per usual. Let's see. The Mets, a lot of Mets racked up war from some different positions. Toronto.

And then Seattle, I mean, Julio carried a lot by himself. But he, you know, surprisingly, Jesse Winker and Mitch Aniger out for most of the season, you know, they had guys playing out there, but compared to some of those other teams, they got outgunned a little bit. We'll give it to judge. Let's give everything to judge. Teaser for later in the episode. The way we're going about this,

I'm not sure there's going to be a clear winner here. I think what we need to do maybe is let's make some graphics here with our teams faces on them, four slides and send it out to social and say, who do you guys, what team would win? That's kind of how I'm thinking of it as far as like the winners here. I want my whole team out there. Right.

And together, whose unit is the best. Right now we're kind of going over some of the individual numbers, which I guess, you know, helps out with that. But I want people to like see the faces. It gets so messy. Like is Ben Intendi get left field for the Yanks? Can he be played out there for his 15 games? I have no idea.

I have no idea. But that's why we love sports. the final thing to calculate, infield plus catcher. BBD took the twins, Trevor took the Blue Jays, Jimmy took the Dodgers, I took the Atlanta Braves.

The biggest miss of probably this whole thing in St. Louis, you probably could have gotten a shout out for some outfield stuff too. That St. Louis Cardinals infield with Pauly Goldschmidt at first. Nolan Arenado at third. Tommy Edmund, wherever you need them. And basically they could have thrown me out there and they would have run away with this thing.

That Cardinals Enfield has put together an all-time season. That being said, interesting units here because the twins ended up in an okay place. I mean, Correa, where his season is going to land with Luis Arras. rise. Even, you know, Gio being Gio, like that, that twins infield was solid. The Toronto Blue Jays.

Your boy, Maddie Chapman, got it going at some point. I, I love, I love my Blue Jays infield, okay? Yeah. Alejandro Kirk, 131 OPS Plus, Vladdy Guerrero Jr. 819. This is a down year for Vladie. Think about that. 23 years old, 30 homers,

91 RBI, 819 OPS, down here for Vladdy. Yeah. Boba Chet at shortstop. He's got it going almost at an 800. He's at 798 OPS with a 126 OPS plus. And Matt Chapman got it going. 120 OPS plus.

I mean, these guys, this is my young unit, man. I like this a lot. That young unit. The Dodgers who Jimmy selected, I mean, Will Smith behind the dish. You've been saying lately that he is the best catcher in baseball? Best hitting catcher in baseball.

Frederick Freeman. I think you know his resume. Trey Turner at shortstop has been mostly Trey Turner. Even Gavin Lux with a kick in the infield. Max Muncie had a slow start to the season. He started to go, you know, Justin Turner, depending how you mix those bodies in there. You'd have to cut someone out.

Justin Turner, listed as the Dodgers' D.H. on baseball reference. How about that? Is that? Why is that? Yeah, they do it by the games played. I think Muncie might have passed him at third,

which slid him in there. There's a little bit, because they don't let one guy be the person on two things, just the way they auto list. And then my Atlanta Braves, you know, the catching position ended up being really good for them between Darno and Contreras. Matt Olson, date my daughter.

The numbers were in a better place. They're still in a really good place, but like you said for Vladito, I think it's slightly down for Matt Olson. Ozzie missed a lot of the season, but some of the guys filling in had been pretty good for them. Dan's Bay has had a massive year, and he's about to collect some serious money.

And how about Young Thick, man? There was a while where he was kind of pushing Goldschmidt for the MVP. That conversation, I think, has come down, but 889 OPS, he leads the National League in total basis. So I'm pretty happy with my Brave selection. For me, BPD, not to slight you again,

Jay's Dodgers-Braves feels a little bit like pick your favorite ice cream flavor, hard to go wrong. Defend myself a little. I think in the moment, because it was the final pick of the draft, said, well, let's pick, let's pick a fun twist here. Doesn't change what I picked, but I think, I think in real time I said,

like if I'm going for the best team, I'd pick, I think Cardinals were among the teams I said I'd go for. But last pick of the draft, I knew I could take the twins and have fun and twist the knife on people within field picks. But yes, you guys. I got to be honest with you guys. We went over all of our squads here. Sure.

I think me and Jimmy would have a, wow. A matchup. And you two guys are on the outside looking at. Wow. I mean, I see your argument, and I don't have a great one against it, unfortunately. But give me Trout and Otani with that Braves infield, and we'll figure it out, man. Run the simulation.

Camilo DeVall, two innings out of the pen. I need the graphic. I need it on social. Put it out. Leave your comments. Yeah. You know, the Yankees' infield ended up looking pretty good. Vino with the All-Star year behind the dish.

Rizzo, Glaver's season on the whole looks pretty good. And then Donaldson, DJ actually racked up some more and IKF at shortstop. So I guess let us know the Padres with Machado and Croninworth and Kim racked up some more. First base was a bit of a black hole for them for a chunk of the season. They never got that Tatee guy back. So I guess where we leave it, because when, well, I'll let you go as well, Trev,

but obviously there's some opinions in war and F war and B war, which gave us some different numbers along the way as they love to do. Definitely sound off in the comments when we make the graphic and on this video. Maybe some units you thought we missed. The Mets should have got some more love along the way in this between Alonzo and where you slot McNeil, Lindorich, shortstop.

They racked up some big points this year. So I don't know. Anything else you got, Treb? I think just goes to show you, especially, you know, we go over every single roster before the year. These rosters are constantly in a state of flux. And we've seen teams be pretty aggressive at the trade deadline and teams are looking different. But in saying that, it's the teams that can do both, can acquit can equate. can acquire guys and develop guys that usually end up on top.

But that's kind of what you see, you know, with the top organizations and the top positional units. It is teams that develop and acquire guys. And I, before you start yelling, there's a couple teams that I think deserve little, not little shoutouts, full-blown shout-outs. Seattle Mariners, Cal Rally, Thai France, our guy, J.P. Crawford, and your boy, A.ohenio Suarez,

put together a nice infield season this year. Who else was I looking at? The Texas Rangers, Nate Lowe, Jonah Hyde. Seeger and Simeon ended up going later in the season. And the Cleveland Guardians

between Rosario, Ramirez, Jimenez, even Naler at first. His numbers have come down back to Earth. So definitely wanted to show some love to those units. And let us know, we definitely missed a couple. Give them some love in the comments.

Another Cleveland shout out, which I don't believe we hit during outfield. They are, I. B, wore, the number five outfield. How about that? Where Bullpen's been, Cleveland's bullpen has been electric over the second half. Their pitching staff has been great.

Yeah, I mean, that's the reason. They're 10 games up in the A.L. Central right now. They were Roman ready. for this season, and I hope their season doesn't prematurely end. If you're going to the bedroom ready to play a full nine innings and you're getting banged in the top of the first and it's over, maybe you want to try some Roman swipes. And Trev, let me read to you the instructions.

Remove the disposable swipe from its discrete pocket-sized pack. Wipe on the most sensitive parts of your penis. If you do that, there's a Roman study that says, proven to increase time to owe by more than 4x. How about that? Safe, effective, and no prescription needed. I always think it's interesting. They say no scent or taste.

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Have you used it yet? I have one. I'm just waiting for the right moment, you know? You need some time. Yeah. Yeah. It's got to clear out a block your schedule. You know, there's baseball season and there's fucking season.

And we're almost there. We're almost there. Breeding season. Mine always coincide. World Series sweep, please. Trevor, let's do, and we can do this pretty tight because this is more so checking in on ourselves and we'll get the final total for everyone. but also a favorite of ours at the start of the season

is doing the team profile and projections the over unders to start the years. And with that, we all pick our over-under from draft kings. And, you know, it's just a funny exercise to see where we all line up and what smells funny, what smells off. So with that, let's, let's, go through it.

The Atlanta Braves, they are on pace to win 100. They have 196. Their over under was 90. And a half. We all took the over, and we were all right. Snaps for us a fantastic job.

Trev, where we're going to end up looking foolish for a second, your Los Angeles Dodgers, you and I straight over thought it, right? Just straight disappointing. We thought that division would be tougher between the Padres and the Giants, right? Remember, they were such a crucial aspect to this division. They did not have it this year.

We went under 97.5. Point to John Boy. Yeah, I mean, we said they're going to win 95, 96 games. They're going to win the division. We just thought, you know, back-to-back 100-win seasons like that didn't seem possible with the, you know, extra competition in the division. But it doesn't matter. The Dodgers don't care who they're playing. So that's good.

And John even said 100 plus wins. Over Underwood was 97.5. He said they're going to win over 100 games. He added a little juice to me. He was a believer. He had it. They know what they're doing over there. One that is going to be a fun one for us to track.

The Toronto Blue Jays over under is 92 and a half. They are sitting at 87 and 67 as we record this. They're on pace for 91 and a half wins. If they finish 6 in 2, they will hit the over, which we all selected. If they do any worse than that, we will be out. The Blue Jays, interesting. It just felt in the middle of the season they were missing one more win streak

and that didn't happen but maybe they're about to finish strong. They've been like a middling team, not a middling team, but a team that hasn't had that one huge month. And I keep saying they're going to find it and if they do at this time, this is a team that can make a deep postseason run.

The White Sox and Red Sox are both going to be the under. we all took the over on the white socks. We're not talking about them. You know what happened. Me and Jimmy took the over on the Red Sox. We were sniffing maybe some Boston Magic. Trevor, you took the under. You told Will Middlebrooks they'd be 500.

You were wrong. They will be under that. And you will be the only person to get a point from one of the Sox teams. This is where you're going to feel foolish. The next one here. We go to the Houston Astros. The over under was at 91.5. We scoffed at that.

Jimmy and I bet the over. And Jake, you for some reason, decided that you wanted to go under. I don't know if you have an explanation, but you're wrong. I don't. Because they are on pace for 106 wins. I think I might have even bet them on this over. So I'm a little flabbergasted at this. I know I was buying into the Mariners and maybe I bought some angel stock.

So, yeah, this was me being a dreamer and it's just as wrong as you can be. You're buying Angel's stock pretty hard preseason, plus Rangers we thought would put a cut into their, into their, they'd add a lot more wins this year. The division will get better. Shut up, Jake. That's as bad as it gets. I'm disappointed in myself. Let's see. So we have a list of teams up in the air and then pretty much everyone else is sorted.

So the Philadelphia Phillies, they have. have to go three and seven the rest of the way to hit their over under of 85 and a half. We all took the over, so let's root for the Phillies to not finish three and seven the rest of the way, which they should not. So we're still feeling good about that. If there is a Phillies collapse, we will not be happy. Just so you know, they've gone three and seven their last ten games. But they got that out of the way.

The Tampa Bay Rays are a very interesting one. They need to go six and three the rest of the way to hit their over of 89.5. Me and John were on the under. Excuse me, John was on not the over, is how he listed it. And you were on the over, Trev, so that's going to be a divisive one the rest of the way.

They're just a better than, a 90 win team year in and year out. That was my only thinking of all of this. Yeah. We will look good on the over for the Mariners. They need one more win to get over 83 and a half. John took the under. He did want it to be noted that we've been agreeing too much.

So unfortunately, that part doesn't matter when you bring up your ticket to get paid on that. So I'm happy for us. The Mariners really started. going after their slow start. They're a good ball club. The San Diego Padres need to go four and five the rest of the way to hit their over of 88 and a half. They're on pace for 90 wins.

I was the, or no, excuse me, Trev, you and I were on the over. James was on the under there, so he will be rooting for the Padres collapse. And then the team that is now, you know, a part of your dreams and nightmares and might need to do this to make the playoffs. The Milwaukee Brewers need to go 7 and 2 the rest of the way to hit there over of 88 and a half, which we all took. So it's interesting because we're recording this on Tuesday, right? So that's 7 and 2 mark.

That is the mark that they can go and Philadelphia can finish 5 and 5 in their last 10 and Milwaukee will be in the playoffs. So if they, I mean, they have to do this for. us they have to do that for themselves if philly plays 500 ball the rest of the way five and five they'll have to go seven and two so we're rooting for it or are we rooting for it i don't know anymore because i want to see the phillies in the playoffs too Craig timbre get it going milwaukee uh you're a couple of teams that have exceeded their over under total how about the new york yankies in the New York Mets.

Mets were 90 and a half. Yankees were at 91.5. Both have already cleared that. I didn't. I had both of those. Trev, you had the under on both? I did. I actually had the over on the Mets first, and Jimmy tried to convince me.

Otherwise, I end up changing it to the under, which is tough. Buck Show Walter. The other teams that have taken the over. The St. Louis Cardinals are going to clear it by about 10 wins. The Guardians are going to clear it by about, not a math pod.

15 wins or so. They were one of the breakout teams this year. The Colorado Rockies are on pace to clear. They need to go four and five. This is going to be a tight one. That's our best one, baby. Let's go. The Rockies were 68 and a half

and we all took the over. Why did we all agree? Why? Because the Rockies won games last year, and then they added Chris Bryan. Still doesn't make a lot of sense, but we did it. And here we are,

people rooting for the Rockies to go four and five. The Arizona Diamondbacks, they cleared their over-under total, and so did the Baltimore Orioles. They both cleared them by a lot happy for those teams. I mean, the Orioles are on pace for 84 wins. They're over-under with 62 and a half. have incredible stuff.

And teams that are most likely already sad. Pittsburgh Pirates under. Oakland A's under. Texas Rangers are under unless they go undefeated the rest of the way. Miami Marlins will be under. The Nats will be under. The Angels will be under. Oh, God, angels.

The twins have to go undefeated the rest of the way to hit their over. with the Cubs, we're going to assume those are going under. Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, and your Cincinnati Reds will all be under what their expectation was this year. So we will double check and get you the final numbers on who's got it right, who's got it wrong the rest of the way. But I don't know, it's funny to check in with that week left, and you get these flashbacks to, you know,

the Tigers had some young hope to start this season. And truly what the Guardians did this year. You know, Vegas doesn't joke with their money. And they projected the Guardians to be a 76 and a half win team. And they're going to win 90 probably. So that's pretty cool. It happens. And these are fun bets.

Like I think next year I'll, when this comes out, I'll take a look at the board before we do this episode. I want to pick one that we actually all go and put a sizable bet on. I mean, I locked in. Maybe those RBI total again. That was nice. Locked in St. Louis Cardinals. And I locked it in at the Draft King Sportsbook.

They still have some sports. Oh, they always have sports bets going. NFL, baseball. We're about to talk about some baseball award seasons where you can still play some cheddar. And if you want to go the NFL route, you know, Sunday, veg out, place a couple, $5 on any NFL team to win and get $200 in free bets if they do. They got their same game parlayes, which are super easy and fun to do. Download the Drafking Sports.

We have now in use promo code John Boy to get $200 in free bets. If your team wins when you plays a $5 bet on any foosball game, that's code John Boy, only a Drafking Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply. See show notes for details. Let me take this show over, bro. Yep. Our boy, Kenny Rosenthal, and we do love Kenny Rosenthal.

He's been a nice friend to us. I tend to like what he writes, what he talks about. He put out an article on September 19th talking about how there are some really difficult decisions that voters are going to have to talk about. And the way he kind of framed it was everyone's talking about Judge and Otani and the ALMVP,

but he said there are some decisions that are tougher than that, in his opinion, and he ranked them from easiest to hardest decisions to make. So I'll kind of run through what he said, and then what I challenged Jake and BBD to do was, let's take those bottom three, the hardest ones he has, and let's just do it. It ain't that hard, right, people?

So we're going to do that. The easiest vote that Kenny says is the NL. Sa Young. He talks about Sandy Al Contra and the innings that he's, the innings lead that he has on the rest of the league plus the sheer dominance. I think he has five complete games on the year, which is just incredible

in a time where that does not happen anymore. And I also agree with him. Vegas agrees with him as well. Right now he's minus 1,000 in Vegas with Zach Gown and Urias behind him at plus 2,000 plus 2,500.

So I agree with Kenny here. Do you guys have any objection to that? No, it's, you know, I was rooting for Julio to sneak back in to get you that preseason one, but what Sandy's done this year, the complete games, the innings, it's the volume ends any fun you want to have with it. The next one he talks about is the AL rookie of the year, and he says that Julio Rodriguez is the clear-cut winner. I think we're all going to agree with that. Adley Rushman did come in a little late. I believe he made his debut on the 21st, which is actually May 21st, which is actually when I made my debut, which is very nice. Me and Adle, together forever in history.

I agree with this. And I believe at the beginning of the year, this was going to be a really fun race. We heard about Julio and we're wondering, like, was it going to start with the team, ends up happening, Bobby Wood Jr. were supposed to be there. We had some fun guys also in this, not mushrooms, guys on the baseball field. Stephen Kwan, you know, put up a nice little rookie season. the twins had Duran, the reliever who had an incredible rookie year, Batista for the Orioles.

The Mariners had another guy in George Kirby that had a great year. But I think Ken is right here. Julio is the clear-cut favorite year, and we don't really have to have a debate about this one. Wish we got another month and a half of Adley to really have that combo. But yeah, it's Julio. He is him, as the kids say. and I'm a, I think I might buy a Julio Rodriguez shirzy right now.

That's where I have. Yeah. Next one, this is the NL MVP. He talks about Goldschmidt kind of running away with it. I think there is a discussion between Goldschmidt and Erinado. You know, a lot of Aeronado's war numbers come from his defense. Goldschmidt is having a crazy offensive year, you know, like leading the league and on base, slugging percentage. so he's hitting for average as well.

He's just kind of doing all those things that Goldie does. I tend to agree here. I think Goldie probably is my NL MVP. I'm open for discussion on it. Do you guys, are you Aronado Truthers, or are we sticking with Goldsmith here? There's a feel to it that still comes with this. And like we talked about with war,

whether we're talking positions or anything. B-Warr and F-Ware are different. war isn't everything. It's a nice tool. It's an all-encompassing tool. Where Paul Goldschmidt, bleep me, where Paul Goldschmidt's hitting stats are. If this Aaron Judge guy wasn't doing what he was doing,

you know, we'd be opening almost every episode with Paul Goldschmidt. I think he's your MVP. Minus 5,000 in Vegas right now, Freddie Freeman, the next at plus 3,500. Aeronado right behind at plus 4,000. So I think we're in agreements there. No, rookie of the year. Now, this is where it starts to get a little difficult.

I think we have two guys there on the same team that are neck and neck. We have Spencer Strider. We have Michael Harris. Strider now out probably for the rest of the regular season. We'll see if you can make it back for the playoffs. And then, yeah, Michael Harris coming up and doing what he's done in the outfield. I think this is two very compelling cases here. I think when you're up against pitcher versus hitter,

and Kenny does say this in his article, I agree with him, I think you've got to go everyday player here. I think Michael Harris, day in, day out, showing up on both sides of the ball. We've seen him make incredible highlights defensively. We've seen them mash the baseball.

We've seen them have timely hitting. Money Mike, man, I think has my vote here. I tell you what Like even put Michael Harris's stats next to Julio and appreciate What's going on there He's put up similar stats and almost in more than a hundred at bats less than Julio The strider injury sucks

I hate it and I it would make me sad if that is what ends up deciding this, but I also think it is because you're right about the impact of a position player every day you're out there, offense, defense, all of it, center field, which we highlight in our all-JM teams. Spencer Shrider's best chance would have been what? Two more starts for him to drop another six innings, 14Ks on us. Against the mats. And all of us take the division lead. And all of us sitting here and being like, well, maybe it is that guy. he set records, which any time you do that in baseball is nuts. Harris is special.

And how about this? I hope whether Michael Harris is having an incredible final month, like he's had incredible season. Hopefully he puts a couple cherries on top at the end of this so it doesn't feel like the injury just took strider out of it. But also funny looking at the Vegas betting sites. On May 3rd, your favorite was Sussex. Zuki from the Cubs.

He's falling out of that. And then the flying up to the top then was McKenzie Gore. And then these Braves guys just took over. It's unreal. Vegas has it minus 350 for Michael Harris right now. Spencer Strider plus 275. Everybody else, not even in the discussion. Crazy.

Well, end with two here. Two to end it. Okay. This is Kenny Rosenthal's most difficult decision. And no, it's not Judge, no, Tony. And yes, that's what we're going to end on. We're going to count to three and say who we think should be the ALMVP. The toughest decision the riders have to make right now is the AL-Sye Young Award winner.

Now, Ken talks about innings being a big reason why Sandy should be, you know, where he's at. and he doesn't like when guys miss time during the year, especially for a starting pitcher. You're only out there every five days. You've got to be there for 30 stars. Let's go. Problem is,

Justin Verlander's leading the league in everything except innings pitched. So we have a case now. Do you go with Verlander who's been dominant? Do we go with McClan who's been dominant? Do we go with Seas who's been dominant? Do we go with Framber Valdez who leads in innings pitch

and set a record for the amount of quality starts in a row? It's a lot of really good pitchers there. And I think this is pretty difficult. And I think I have my guy. But I'll let you guys go first. And I want BBD's take on this too. Babes? You know, Kenny cited a big innings difference when Snell won it a few years ago.

And when he's 30 plus, 33 and a third fewer innings than Verlander in 18. And Verlander with is not far off. from some of the other guys we've talked about all year in this conversation. You talk about McClanahan and Dylan Cesar's entered there. He's within 10 innings of them. So that's, I'm okay with that. But then we start throwing Framber in. I know Jimmy likes the every start reliability,

like however many consecutive starts without any blowups. And Manoa's just been a stud all year. And he's kind of getting to a point where, oh, well, that number of innings is out there. Who's your guy, BBD? I think I still lean Verlander, but I don't know if that's just name getting to me. I think gun to my head, Verlander's my one if we were doing a tiered vote like they do for the real award. I am Justin Verlander. I believe in ERA.

I know there's more to it than that. We also leads in whip. Yeah, sometimes you don't need to overcomplicate it. It's 182. And I know he missed a couple, but it's really, it's not a big enough gap to do that for me. I'm going JV. So I started thinking about this.

I love the idea of Framber, just taking the ball, giving you a chance to win, a very good chance to win every single time he's out there. He does lead the league and innings pitch right now, 191, Manoa right behind him at 190.2, Bebbs is up there, 189, good for you, and your guy, Eric Cole.

Been a war course, you got to love that about him. So I thought about that, and I'm like, you know, JV, you miss some, you miss some innings, bro, 157. That's not enough. But then I realized, Justin Verlander is almost, 40 years old, so you've got to cut the guy a little bit of slack. He is going to win the award. I don't think it's going to be close.

Vegas has him right now, minus 1,600. Seas behind him plus 700, and Framber plus 6,600. I love what Framber's done all year. Seas has been absolutely dominant in a way, like almost similar to Framber, where you're going to have an excellent chance to win every time he touches the ball. You say the same thing about a lot of these guys, but I think J.V. kind of has separated himself a little bit, even with the innings discretion. He has the storyline, too, you know, coming back from TJ.

He's on the most dominant team. He's playing for more. I know this is where our final argument's going to end a little bit, but, you know, Justin Verlander, he ain't empty in the tank in the regular season because he's getting ready to pitch big boy innings in October. So it's, I'm fine with it. The next crop is really nice. I do think if there's a firm, too,

I do think it is Dylan Cease when I look at all those numbers on paper. But yeah, like you mentioned, that next tier is pretty stacked, but it's Verlander, and I think he's going to remind us why in October. Last thing we're going to do, and BPD get the music ready.

It's on three. Judge Rotani. No words, no explanation. Just give me your pick. Are you ready? I'm ready. Ready. One, two, three.

Judge. No one's ever done what Otaki's done before. Don't give me the shit. I don't know if anyone's done what judge has done before. What? 65 home runs. Triple crown and play still. I have done that.