Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - What MATTERS With 10 Days Left in the Season? | 717

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Ten days left of the season. Some guys who have stood out, B.BD. Hive raise up. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, presented by Seek. My name is Jake Storelli. His name is BBD, a little Wakein' Jake episode of Talking Baseball. Trevor Plouf is on his annual camping trip. John Boy floating around a lot of stuff going on with the company.

We've got a big live event coming up at Billy's next week. Some of you understand that. Some of you don't, and that's okay. There's 10 days left in the season. There's still a lot of the same storylines. The West is as tight as a division's ever been. We got that tidbit yesterday, if you haven't heard what that's about. I also wanted to mix it up a little bit.

You know, there's probably the 10 to 90% of you guys that hate me, and that's fine, and you've already turned it off. Added a little segment of guys on playoff teams who are playing better than the guy you might know on that playoff team. So bump that in there. We'll hit the series we need to. We'll hit some standouts and some awards. David, how are you doing?

It was like the tiredest have ever been in my life. No, we're good. I'm excited. We're accidentally in matching shirts. Stumbled into Certainly one of my busiest Fridays We've had around here. Usually our lightest day of the week.

But that's all right. That's the game. It is the great game. Corbyn Carroll, 2550. Whoops. Let's get into some ball talking. Craig Council may not take 2024 off. And if you didn't know what I was saying before,

I want to tell you about Scots a little bit. And yeah, it's that Scots. You know them, number one in the lawn game forever, basically. They are helping us. We do our warehouse game stuff. You guys have probably heard of it at this point. If you haven't, go check out our Warehouse Games YouTube channel. We've been doing a Blitzball Blitz competition

that's all going to end up at Billy's. It's a bar in the Bronx. It's like the Yankees bar. We're playing Blitzball in Billy's. We're selling tickets. There's still tickets left. It's going to be crazy. It's the final day of the season.

So we might be tracking the drama live of that final day. But Scott, you guys know them. My guy, John Boy, they've got a live backyard feed of a wiffle ball game going on. Jimmy called one of the games. He was announcer and play. play-by-play. That's on the Scots YouTube channel. They're doing all sorts of stuff. They're collabing with a lot of YouTubers, which we love. We appreciate Scots for being in the game like that. And they're just doing everything. They're doing everything that can involve a lawn. I'm

seeing goat yoga. I'm seeing alien landing. But the thing that you might like, and if you're into Scots, you already know by now, but they're giving you 20% off two or more Scott's products at scots.com when you use code Johnboy. So take care of that law. And know a bunch of you got lawns. Couple months of fall coming up. Get that lawn nice, walk around, do some grounding. And I think you need to do some pre-winter stuff pending where you are.

Maybe you don't. Scots, you guys know. Go check them out. 20% off Code Johnboy, two or more Scots products. 10 days left of the Major League Baseball season. I'll burn through the games quick to give you some updates. We'll talk about what matters, and then we'll talk about more than matters.

Friday, so it's the National League. Is it the aisle? Shut up, Treb, you're not here. Brewers take three out of four from the Cardinals. They drop that first game. That was Wayno's 200th win. We love that for Waino. A one-nothing game, too.

Him and Freddie Peralta, toe to toe, nose to nose, I wish. Brewers, they take the next three, seven, three, eight, two, six, oh. They have a chance to clinch tonight. William Contreras with a couple homers in this series. Josh Donaldson. Huh? Yankees fans, Josh Donaldson playing some solid ball for the brew crew, and you know Wade was just being Miley in that last start.

Brewers, they do enough. We'll see if they can clinch tonight. Phillies Braves. Phillies take two out of three. Okay. Does it matter? Are these teams not even showing each other their best stuff? Because you might want to save it for Rocktober.

7-1. Here's a list of Phillies who homered in the first game. Castellano, Schwerber, Harper, Real Mudo, Rojas. Yep. In that second game, the Braves, Strider, Acuna, Albies. Yep. And then that final game, Nick Castellanos, two Jimmy Jacks,

and a great outfield throw to keep the game tied. Phil's winning extras. And man, that game meant a lot more to the Phillies than it did for the Braves. We'll see if that matters in a couple of days. Mets, fish. Uh-oh, Miami. Mets take two out of three. They win that first game.

It's a two-one game. Jeff McNeil, tie-breaking leadoff Homer in the ninth, crushing. Jeff McNeil, stats on the seasons aren't there, but his second half is, so maybe that's something for Mets fans to look forward to. Marlins win on Braxton Garrett Day, which you might hear more about him later. And then Sange-a-Hive, raise up, Mets put an eight-spot on the board. Vientos and Beatty, okay. Okay, Mets fans, a little bit of hope.

Speaking of a little bit of hope The San Diego Padres won't die Which is crazy because their whole season's been dead They sweep the Rockies 119 2-0 and 3-2 We get a Bogart's walk-off in it

They are four games back of the wild card I don't know I don't know What do you do? Keep winning games, I guess, and we'll see you at the finish line. Because what's made it four games, the Chicago Cubs are also losing. They lost two out of three to the Pittsburgh Pirates. 13 to 7 in that second game.

The Ian Hap Grand Slam gets him back into it, but they could not stop. Pittsburgh, Connor Joe, everyone's favorite player. Jared Triolo, Josh Palacios, talking O's. And then on the final game, they get shut down by Oviedo, and they win. And kind of a weird game, Miguel Anduhar, three hits. You know that does something for Yankees fans. Cubbies, what are we doing? And your final NL game, the debacks, they take two from Los Hippido yantes,

the San Francisco Giants, 8471. We're playing for rings in the desert. We are hot. We are safely in the wild card. for now, and the Giants are starting to do some kind of historical road losing. Saw some stats on that. They lose both games, and Giants. Giants are one game up on.

San Diego. That's where they're at. And that's what happened in the National League. So, I'll do some standings tight, babes. NL. Braves, you already know. They're knocking on the door of a hunch. Dodgers, you already know.

They're doing the same. Milwaukee is now, remember this? Remember a couple weeks ago where I said, okay, a lot of tooting myself on the back today. Tooting myself on the back? I think it's patting yourself on the back. I haven't seen a lot of toot. Well, you have, but that was pre-show.

I wasn't seeing. The Brewers and the Cubs were kind of giving each other the eyes. Like, are we going to do this? Are we going to make it a race to the finish line? Milwaukee has an eight-game lead on the Cups. They can clinch the NL Central tonight. Conveniently, in the AL, the Twins can also clinch the Central. How about that?

A double clinch. What really matters, the wild card. Philly, five games up on Arizona. They're not officially clinched. I'm going to say they're officially clinched, and they're probably going to hold on to that first wildcard seed, which would have them playing the brew crew. Did I do that right?

Yeah. Well, I think so. Or no. No, because they'd be the top, so they would host. The Phillies would host right now, my Arizona Diamondbacks, who are the second wildcard team. They are two games up on the Cubs and the...

the Marlins, who are currently tied at 79 and 74, Cubs with a plus 91 run differential, the fish with a minus fortitude. They are tied for the last wildcard spot as of today. Cincinnati is a half game back. The San Francisco Giants are now three back. Giants. And then the Padres. We haven't been mentioning them in the standing.

lately. W7 in the win column, the hottest team in baseball. They're four games out, and if you believe in baseball, if they can finish this out, I don't know if they can run the table. I think it would have to be a W-16, which we haven't seen this season. But you even wonder if they could go like one loss the rest of the way? It's baseball. I've seen a lot of tweets about the old Rockies team that snuck into the dance and basically won out. There's a reason we love this sport. But the Cubs are floundering or so are the fish. So those are your National League standings.

BPD, what matters in the NL? Hmm. Right? Do the Bout to the Padres matter? kind of. They could arguably be the number one story in the NL right now. If we get through this weekend, still mattering, it will, like, fully be the story. For this to be happening, by the way, during, like, hit piece week on them.

Right. I mean, that's kind of what I was trying to say, and I was coming off a little to defending Preller, because, I don't know, massive budget. Um, not a great track record of success, but like, I mean, even if they sneak into the last wild card on a miracle, that doesn't mean they're a perfectly run franchise. He's not, you know, saved from, from any criticism or the problems. But it has been such a bizarre season. And the fact, the fact they're stringing along Padres fans is either going to be just a disgusting,

cherry on top, like a poison cherry to this ugly ice cream Sunday of a season, or, I don't know, believe in something. I guess the story probably isn't in these series. It's in the wild card. So I think we need to talk about each of the teams that we just hit. San Diego, Bogart's hits the walk off. The players still, this sounds kind of, obvious. The players are still in.

Like when Bogart's hit the walkoff, it wasn't like, hey, we won a game. It was like, we're coming for that ass. I don't know. They're playing the Rockies. They're scheduled the rest of the way. So I did have Dalton fire up some more. Because this is what matters at this point. The San Diego Padres, sorry, I just lost my spot.

They are playing St. Louis, who you guys know what happened to their season. So could they take care of them this weekend? Sure. At Home versus St. Louis. St. Louis is starting Matt Waldron. Or excuse me. They're facing Hudson, Woodruff, and Drew Rom.com. Then they go at San Francisco Giants, who their season is falling apart quickly.

and they'll have Snell and Lugo in that series. And then they finish with the White Sox, who you know what happened to their season. It's a W7 right now in the win column. In their final nine games, if they put an 8 and 1 on the board, it's going to be tight. It's going to be tight because the cubbies are falling apart.

and the Marlins feel like they've never... Sorry Marlins fans. The Marlins have had their times this season. And they're, like Trevor normally says, they're a scary playoff team because of their pitching. You know, Braxton Garrett having a better year than Sandy Alcantara. Don't know if a lot of people know that. The Cubs test is going to be this weekend.

They are at home versus the Rockies. Rockies are starting Noah Davis, Chris Flexen. We host a talking baseball show. I would have guessed Chris Flexen's team wrong. Did not know he was twirling it in September for the Rocks. Changed hands a couple times. And then Ty Block. He's actually, he's had a couple games.

The Cubs play three at home against the Colorado Rockies. They have an off day. Then they're at Atlanta. at Milwaukee. And remember there was a time when it felt like, you know, if you played a team in those final weeks of the season that you were going to get a couple layup games, with the new wild card format,

like your game one starter for the wild card game, if you're in the wild card, that would be, I think the Friday start of the final start, series. I believe so. And your game two would be game two. So like. If you're maybe, unless you're like in a position where your team's locked up and

none of this matters. Right. If you're not. You can start your eye Thursday. But I think, I think on the other side of that, if you're one of the teams that's winning the division, it's such a long layoff that you're pitching your best guys as close as you can to the end of the season two. So.

Yeah. You can maybe get them one extra day. But if you're that good, you probably have multiple. multiple guys. You're getting some help on the back end because at that point you're just juggling relievers rest instead of necessarily trying to win games. But at Atlanta and at Milwaukee

with your season on the line is a scary place to be. Like anybody else playing at Milwaukee that last series has a better shot, but like division rival, they have a chance to end their season. That's not going to be a layup, even if all the starters are just going five and fly. Fangraphs has it listed as Woodruff Peralta Houser.

Like that's real ball. San Diego's four games back. The other team's in play here. We touched on the Cubbies. You know what's laid out for them. Miami, they're at home versus Milwaukee, burns Woodruff Peralta. So the brew crew with a chance to clinch.

uh in miami by the way which has been a popular topic on this program uh the brew crew can clinch in miami with burns woodruff and parolta miami then finishes on the road at the met's and the pirates okay those team seasons are done it's on the road Miami what do you have in the tank my snakes are firmly in as of now two games in they lose almost every tiebreaker So if they want to stay in, they're going to have to do that. They are playing the Yankees this weekend. As you know, it is not your father's Yankees anymore. My goodness, it's not.

Luke Weaver getting the start for the Yanks tonight. I'm sorry, Luke Weaver. That was not rooted at you, my man. That was, it's not about you. That was rooted at the season on the whole. You just got out here. Then they go at White Sox, off day, Houston, home, final series for the Diamondbacks. So your other teams that are really in play here, the Cincinnati Reds are a half game out,

Pittsburgh at home, at Cleveland, at St. Louis, that's not bad. That's not bad, man. Since he's going to be in this thing to the very end. I know we almost Sinti fever felt like it passed But they are going to be here To the final day of the season And the San Francisco Giants

Man oh man It fell apart quick for them Their road record The past month or so Has been historically bad They've lost five of their last six they're below 500. I think it's six of seven now.

But if I'm going to sit here and say the Padres still have some hope, the Giants have some hope too. Oh, they are playing the Dodgers this weekend. Okay. That is a tougher draw. They go Dodgers, Padres, Dodgers. So that was a lot of schedule watch.

But that's kind of where we're at. like that's kind of what you need to know. I think if you were a gambling man, God, Phillies are good. I'm going to cement that. I'm going to lock that in, Janiel. Yeah. Arizona, the only fear there is the tiebreakers.

If it does end up tiebreaker day, they're getting the short end of the stick in almost every tie breaking matchup. And then Cubs, Marlins, Reds, one of those teams and one of their fan bases is going to be pretty heartbroken. Or two of them. Excuse me. So I get it. And I am team Jimmy on this one.

Like, hey, this is kind of ugly. This is not the... Trevor and Jimmy hit it on the head. This is not the goal, but it is the goal of the wild card. This is pretty cool that since it's... Atty Reds fans are still in this, and they can ignore the bangles being 0 and 2. Monday night football.

Like packed houses, games that matter, hope. Hope is a big reason we watch sports. Oh, Jake's getting heavy. Okay. It's why people love the NFL draft. It's why we get into spring training. It's why you listen to our team profile and projections.

Because it's the thought of, what if? What if it clicks? What if this is the year? And if you told Cubs, Marlins, snakes, Giants fans, that they'd have a shot at the wild card going into the final 10 days of the season,

they would have signed up for that. They would have. So anything to add BBD, I'm going to highlight some of these players from those teams and stand out and just the new highlighting player segment I added today. But, yeah, I, uh, it is a mess. I wish, well, the Padres were just, like, good all year.

Then we'd have all these teams fighting for, like, one spot that, like, our teams we didn't expect coming into the year. So I don't know. So I'm trying to gauge how messy this really was. is we need more than two years of this format to make like full judgments on the system, I suppose. But. Well, and what's going to be fun,

which we haven't even been able to daydream about yet. Or the Mets if they were good. Yeah, I mean. I forgot. They've been so out of it, I forgot about them. Cardinals? I mean, Mets, Cardinals, and Padres had an argument to be three of the top five teams

coming into the season in the NL. They all started the season thinking, like, they were going to win their division. Different levels of how much should they have believed it, but they all, if any one of them were what they were supposed to be, and all three of them, it's weird that it ended up this way. I think... We're shit-talk in the format, much less.

We'd be trash-talking the format less, and the other thing that we're interested to see, and we're still not going to have a big sample size, but, man, that... three-game wild card, remember there was kind of some hubbub last year that playing in that kind of gave you a little bit of a leg up because he kept playing. It was like too long a break. And man, I mean, the fighting, was it the Phillies last year who played the Cardinals and basically lost? They're down in the ninth of that game one. Hellsley. Krod Booth. God.

I think that's your National League update for now. Let's burn through some American League, and the American League is brought to you by Babbel. I might be babbling this weekend. Jess and I heading up to Syracuse, New York. Meet my new nephew. And we're going to Mexico. Avocados from Mexico in December.

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55% off babel.com slash talking, spell bababble.eel.com slash talking. Rules and restrictions apply. Click the link in the description. In the junior circuit, the American League, the Baltimore Orioles, I've got a couple fun facts about them. But they took two out of three from the Houston Astros. Is this going to be a series we see in a couple of weeks? I hope so. Because that first game was crazy. Ryan O'Hern, 5 for 5.

Cedric Mullins and Gunner Henderson all over the field. The Orioles are bad men, and I say that in the best way possible. Austin Hayes, two home or day. in that second game. They put up eight, they put up nine. That last game, Christian Javier holds them through five innings. And then Mauricio DuBal

with the walk-off RBI single to win it for Houston. As they are surviving this A.L. West nightmare dream? I don't know. Is that my Bill Walton voice? Orioles, take two out of three. from Houston. The Texas Rangers take two out of three from the Red Sox. Okay, Sox won that first game, a little bit of fortitude as Cutter Crawford and some of the boys for the Sox get it done. Rangers, they come back, they win the next two, and that last

game is an impressive fashion. They go down for nothing. And in kind of early season Rangers fashion, they just put it on them. After going down four nothing, the final score of that game? 15 to 5. 15 to 5. They got Adelis Garcia back. They got Josh Young back. Evan Carter, the kid,

is hitting for them. Texas? My goodness. And I should have mentioned Marcus Simeon because he's special. Speaking of, Seattle Mariners sweep Oakland, and that's obvious.

But good on them. We've seen a lot of teams not sweeping Oakland. recently. The Mariners sweep them. They shut them out in that first game with my guy, Brian. J.P. Crawford's all over this series, obviously, and Julio Rodriguez. I think he just crossed into 100 RBI. I think that's somewhat historic. The third player, age 22 or younger, with 30 homers, 30-selling bases, and 100 RBI, joins Ronald O'Koonie Jr. and A-Rod. So, yeah, decent list. Pop. They sweep Oakland. Speaking of sweeps, Royal sweep the Guardians, I don't know.

If any Pasquentino is with Chris Rose, go check that out. Bobby Witts hitting Nick Loft and MJ Melendez. Sure, sure. Blue Jays take two out of three from the Yankees. Yankees are kind of sad. Blue Jays competing for that wild card. Bishet with the big homer in the first game. Kevin Gossman and Mike King,

just punching tickets in the second game, and Garrett Cole, eight innings, one earned. That's the only game the Yankees won. Did it solidify his Cy Young? I think so. I think so. Your last series, Rays take two out of three from the Halos.

Yandi Diaz with big games and the bread games. In the middle, the game the Halos won. Brandon Drury, two homers. Nolan Chenuel, one for two. Three runs. Nice, dude. That is nice. That is nice.

I would kill to have done that in an MLB game. Rays take 203. This doesn't matter. That's what happened in the American League. What you need to know in American League Baseball. Maybe that's what these segments should be titled now. What you need to know in the NL, what you need to know in the AL. Baltimore, a team that I am obsessed with.

They won me over. I think it was week two of the season. I watched them play. and I was just like, wow, there's something special here. There's still a game and a half up on the race, which is two games. They have the tiebreaker over the race. But anything can happen in baseball.

Baltimore does play a sad Cleveland team this weekend. Tampa will play Toronto, who is still very much battling for their season. Twins, excuse me, like I told you, Twins have a chance to clinch tonight. I'm going to call it.

The Minnesota Twins have won the ALE Central. Congrats, Trevor. We did it. We did it, Trev. In the Wild Wild West, James West, Houston Astros are on top of the division. They are 85 and 68. Seattle and Texas are both a half game back.

The same number in the loss. which becomes very important this kind of time of year. Control your own destiny, right? And this, like, hasn't happened. It's the tightest a division race has been since these division realignments in 1969. Got your attention, huh, Bebs? Oh, yeah. Saw you perk up there.

Not bad. The American League wildcard. The race are technically. nine games up and in. They have clinched a playoff spot. Toronto. The Js are 85 and 68. That same 68 in the loss column.

They have the one more win. They are currently a half game above Seattle in Texas. And guess what? Which has become one of my taglines this year. That's it. The next team outside of the wild card is our New York Yankees. So back.

Seven and a half games back. Six and four in their last ten. Pathetic. Okay. So let's break this down. I guess series-wise, I do want to... Let me taste the Orioles for a second. Their games against Houston were awesome.

Austin Hayes, two homers kind of pimping them. What Ryan O'Hern is doing is special. And you might not know that. They're just relentless. And a stat I saw today, you know, they keep track, and this is one of Jimmy's favorite stats,

is winning percentage against teams above 500, right? Like when you're playing the cream of the crop, what's your record? there are two American League teams above 500 against teams better than 500. Two teams in the AL winning records against the good teams. The Tampa Bay Rays are 46 and 40. The Baltimore Orioles are 52 and 38. They just don't care, man.

Their lineup is relentless. defense. They've got enough guys who can pitch. I'm all about them owes. I'm all about them owes. Toronto, they took care of the sad Yankees. That is what it is. In the West. And man, this is where things do get fun. So the Orioles, if you're still keeping track of the ALEs, which you should, They're going Cleveland, Washington, Boston. It's another reason I still believe in Baltimore,

who's run the table this whole, basically the whole season in the AL East. Okay. The West. And I'll try to do this as clear as possible because I know Trev's listening and the tiebreakers are still freaking him out. Houston, Kansas City, at Seattle,

at Arizona. Will those games matter for Arizona? That'll be interesting. At Seattle. Do you know Houston's record against Seattle this year, BBD? I do not. Houston is 2 and 8 against Seattle this year. Seattle's taken care of them.

Okay. So that's of note, right? Put that in there. The Texas Rangers, on the other hand, Houston is 9 and 4 against them. So Houston has beaten up on Texas. Texas. Houston has gotten beat up by Seattle. I believe they also lose the tiebreaker to Toronto.

They were three and four against the Blue Jays this year. So Houston, who we've had penned into the playoffs all season, they're losing two of those tiebreaker wars. These three games against Kansas City, they almost need to sweep. It's at home. It's Kansas City. You don't normally say that, but man, those will be important. So as you just found out, Seattle has dominated Houston, and they're going to play them for three at home.

Their other seven games are all Texas. It's Texas forever for Seattle. At Texas, home versus Houston, home versus Texas. They have seven games remaining against Texas. is five and one against Seattle. So Seattle has abused Houston. Texas has beat up on Seattle. It's a three-way hodgepodge, people.

Not talking BBD's Friday night. And they are tied with Toronto, which brings you into the interdivision stuff, which I'm not even... No, we can't do three in a row. In the words of Joe's McFly, that's none of my business, as of right now. I'll deal with that when I get there.

It becomes our business. It becomes our business. The Texas Rangers, as you may have deduced at this time, they've gotten beat up by Houston. They've dominated Seattle, and they have seven against them. Their between series is at the halos. So take care of your business there.

In Texas against Toronto this year, six in one. So the Rangers who were dominant felt like they fell off hard. They lost a lot of bodies. They just got bodies back. The Evan Carter kid, they called up. He's been bawling out.

Thank God they get another lineup option. As they get guys back. So Seattle probably dictates the West. Seven versus Texas, three versus Houston. They probably control their own destiny the most. Houston, if they can sweep Kansas City, can position themselves real well, but they're going to have to deal with Seattle

and the debacks jockeying for playoff like life. And then Toronto, the lonely birds out east. Four and three versus Houston, like I said, tied with Seattle, so that would be inner division record, which, again, I don't deal with that.

One in six versus Texas. So they go at Tampa, who are trying to catch the Orioles, home versus the Yankees, home versus Tampa. So depending where Tampa is at, lining all their stuff up for the postseason, or trying to win the ALEs till the very end,

because if that could get them out of a wild card series, it is lined up. It is lined up. Seattle would have the intra-division tiebreaker over Toronto. So there's that. What needs to be cleared up? What is still out there? I don't know.

I guess there's like a half-thought exercise that occurred to me. Like, if you're, of these three teams, would you most want to be Seattle? It is literally the toughest schedule, but like literally if they take care of their business, they're good, they're in. Right. But it is the hardest schedule of these three teams. Yeah. As we sit here Friday, September 22nd,

and there will be a stimulator later, people. I know that's why you're here. I don't know. I guess if you guys are looking for an opinion, if I had to put money down on it, I think Toronto finds a way in just because all of those West teams will be battling. And if you're Toronto, like, you gotta get in.

You have to. The Yanks died this year. The socks died this year. Like, if you're Toronto with this team, you have to be in. You have to. And their pitching's really good. So if I had to bet right now, I would say Toronto gets in. if I had to pick one Texas

one Texas team one West Coast team if Houston wasn't named Houston I think I would pick them to be out but they are they are Houston and the team that seems to have the biggest flaw still would be the Texas Rangers

I know the lineups back but they're given bullpen and pitching, it's just tough, right? They're like, the issues they have, I'm almost more concerned about for getting to the playoffs than like winning a given playoff game. I think we talked about it. There's been a few teams in the last 10-ish years that, like, we came in with question marks about their bullpen.

Two guys got fully locked in and you get enough out of the rest. guys kick. I'd be back on the train, I think, if they make it in. But they're tough. If Texas makes the playoffs, they're horrifying. They're horrifying. Right now, it's Simeon Seeger, low. Josh Young, back.

Adolios Garcia, back. Jonah Heim has been one of the best catchers this year. Back. Mitch Garver, we told you the stats a couple episodes back. He'll hit when he wants. Lioti Tavaris has had a really nice year. And Evan Carter, the kid, a top 30 prospect in baseball.

He kind of came up because of the injuries, essentially, and you can slot him in the lineup. That's without mentioning Zeke Duran, who is one of our all-util guys earlier this year. I know he's falling off a little bit. Travis Jankowski batted second for this team for a chunk of the season. He's on the bench. Robbie Grossman, how's your vet?

Like, nobody wants to see Texas. in the playoffs. I know their pitching staff has been beat up. Oh, my God. Look at DeGrom, Scherzer, and Oda Rizzy sneaky on the aisle for them. Like, that's a playoff rotation, right? They can still come at you.

Avaldi, who at times this year was one of the best pitchers in baseball. Until the main injury was... Yeah. The one being the Siong. Jordan Montgomery, who is a steady Eddie

with some playoff history. of performing. John Gray, who's John Gray? Let's find out. And Dane Dunning, if I knew which way he tossed the pill, I could give you more to take on it. And, hey, again, who knows what matters yet?

The playoffs get funky. Like, Martine Perez pitched five-inning shut out of their bullpen the other day. It sounded like he's going to be, he's going to get at least one more real start and they'll figure it out. if they get in, could he be a great option out of Penn? Could he get a start?

Like, that's when playoff baseball kicks in that... Seen him have a pedal. In a playoff series, I mean, you don't want to see any of those teams. They have real world series ambitions if any of those teams are in the playoffs. And two of them should be? Yes. Yeah. Two of them have to be.

Two of them have to be. All three could still be, if two of them have to be. Toronto doesn't figure it out. It feels like the most likely outcome is one of them is out. But sheesh. I've seen things shake out the way I didn't expect before, so I don't know. Shake it out. Shake it down.

Let's rip. There's three IL series. The music is just like a facade at this point. Just tell the people. The twins. Trebs twins. Corey Koski's Twosky's. twins, Ron Coomers twins,

Jock Jones's twins. They take two out of three from the Reds. Reds won that first game. Connor Phillips, another kid, giving them a good start. Spencer Steer doing it all year. That rhymed. Twins, they come back, they win the next two games.

Kent to my eight of five innings pitch, one hit, no earn runs. Okay. One of the more fun guys to pitch when he's on. Willie Castro, If there is an all underappreciated team this year, put him on it. Homers in back-to-back games playing center field and third base. You don't see that a lot.

Twins get it done against the Reds. Dodgers take two out of three from the Tigers. The best thing that came out of the series was Bobby Miller hitting. Was it Carpenter or was it the other lefty? I think it was the other lefty. And Bobby Miller just gave him like, dude, I'm not trying to hit you. You're the Tigers, and we do not care. J.D. Martinez, Homer twice off of E-Rod.

They might be friends, right? Oh. Sox? Yeah. That's fun. Maybe some text messages got exchanged there. And this was the E-Rod Revenge series because he did not waive his no trade rights to go to the Dodgers. How about that?

Hey, Jake Rogers, 20 homers. From a catcher, sure. Believe in it. Muncie, little thick, little hot. White Sox played the Nats, and you probably got cheap tickets at Seeky. Nationals took two out of three. The highlight from this series is Dom Smith, hitting a homer and being mad at Cleve to break up his complete game

shutout, but the White Sox still won that game. I don't know, man. It's a weird time of year. That's what happened in the I.O. Uh, yeah, I guess the only ads there, you know, we talked about twins, potential to clinch tonight. Uh, Reds are still very much in this. Uh, they finish Pittsburgh, Cleveland and St. Louis, like Reds could. Hmm.

Hunter Green's 14 strikeouts are the most by a Reds pitcher since. Maybe. I don't want to say my favorite baseball name, but there's something so. beautiful about Ron Valone? Oh my God. I really liked him 07 Yanks or 06 Yanks. 16 punchouts by

Big Dick Ron September 29th, 2000. TSA didn't exist yet. They're weird Ron Valone story, if I may. You know, before college, the time I was going at least you join a Facebook group and try to mingle with the incoming freshman and

fake become friends and you never actually talk once you get there whatever shant doodle just retired um and there was a at a school i ended up not going to but was one of the finalists uh there's somebody with the last name valone in there and he played baseball and i was like pretty sure is ron valone's kid I never fully confirmed it, but he and I were DMing a little. I didn't bridge that gap, but Ron Valone or the kid? The kid. It would have been his kid. Look him up right now.

The ages looked, looked right now. Look them up right now. Let's reach out. Valone hive, raise up. That is going to bring us to standout performances. Standout performances are brought to you by Roan, R-H-O-N-E. It is tough. I have a unique body

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Mm. I mean, I don't want to be shots fired at Rhone. You did get a nice one from the Pittsburgh Pirates team store as well. Yes, that is, those are kind of, like, my two best ones. Yeah, those are your... I've been looking for other quarter-zips besides, those two that fit me that nice. Those have been the two.

Man. Stand out performances. BBD, I'm going to do something cop-outy because this is a little bit of a funky up. I'm going to hand out two early Sy Youngs. And I actually, we laughed at an article that was, who was it? I'm not scared.

Was it Jim Bowden who wrote my way too early? award predictions like three days ago. Yeah, I'll see if I can double check a title. I don't know if it's way too early. It feels like we're right there. Garrett Cole for our Yankees, he's been fantastic this year. He kind of puts his cherry on top of his season.

If you're a gambling person, you know, the odds are, Heavily in his favor now. I think it's minus 1,800 for Garrett Cole to win the Cy Young. Probably means he's winning the Cy Young. He'd have to get lit up pretty good. Next start against Toronto, who just saw him. Did you find that article?

I did. It was published September 19th, so yes, three days ago. And he probably didn't title it. That's how the industry goes, but the athletic did title it. early award predictions for MVP Sai Young Rookie of the year and more. Three days ago. Yeah, I mean, early probably wasn't the operative word.

Garrett Cole, 200 innings pitch, 217 strikeouts, a 275 ERA and 32 starts. He's been delightful to watch. He's also become a delightful personality interview-wise. A lot of you probably have a bad taste in your mouth with Garrett Cole because Houston Yankees sticky stuff. It's a pretty big formula. Hey, sticky stuff's out, and he's about to win the Cy Young.

The dude's awesome to watch. He loves baseball. God, he loves baseball. He's been tormenting one of the Yankees young catchers this year. Ben Rort Vett Hive raised up. Luke Weaver joined the team off of the waiver wire. and Garrett Cole was talking to him about cutters on the top step for like three innings. And it's not for show.

Like I promise you. This dude loves baseball. And he's in like the perfect pitcher's body with the perfect pitchers' body with the perfect pitchers wind up. It sucks that the Yanks wasted his season. And then my guy kind of on a different end of the spectrum personality-wise, maybe, maybe not. Blake Snell, seven innings pitched, zero hits, four walks, 10 Ks, no earn runs. And again, no hits. He is an outlier.

And you know what? I want to dig up... There is a tweet from Argyne Fulish Baseball, who I think he's going to be on Wake and Jake next Monday. Um, yes, Blake Snell ZRA. When walking less than four batters in a game, Blake's Nell ZRA is 2-4. Pretty good. When walking four plus batters in a game, Blake's Nell ZRA, 2-2-3.

Some people break the mold, man. I know it can be, the walks can be tough sometimes. I get it. He's dominant. He's an ace, and he's a free agent. and if he ends up on your team, be stoked. Know that there's going to be a couple games innings. You don't want to watch.

There's going to be a lot you do. Because this guy's resume, I think he's going to be a two-time Sy Young winner. With, like, distance between him. Age 20. How old is snow? I believe he's 29. It's 30.

30. 30. So, um, we were, were you, were you in the, the office discourse out there when we were like,

you kind of all looked at each other, me, jolly, some other nerds out there. And we were like, yeah, I don't know like Hall of Fame stuff with Blake Snow. Some good playoff starts. A lot of Hall of Fame stuff gets... Not a lot of two-time, Sy Youngs. A lot of Hall of Fame stuff gets dictated in your 30s,

but yeah, you know, he had one of the... He latches onto another deep run on that next deal. One of the best world series starts we've seen in recent history gets pissed away. We were talking like, how many guys who have won two Sanyungs that weren't like within a three-year span? Like some guys have just like a crazy three years flame out or get hurt or whatever.

But it's got like six years between them. 174 innings pitch, 227 strikeouts. That helps. Electric personality. God, he leads the NL and walks in ERA. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

also hits allowed, so he just doesn't like, they don't like give it up hits. BPD, who would you like to highlight as a standout? I, a little bit of a cop out because it's a little bit stealing again from my friend Jolly, but, you know, was thinking about Cole and Snell. And then, but his name sticks out, Jose Butto. That's a funny name.

start. And Jolly says he's going to be like part of the 2024 Mets. So keep an eye out. Your name's Butto. Jose Butto? Yeah. And we'll, you know what? Let's shout out Wano.

200 wins. Yeah. Snaps for Wano. In an ugly year for him and the Cardinals would be one of those really sad baseball notes when we opened it up in a couple years. And it was, oh, 199. 199. He played that last season and got four wins. Can I say one other thing?

Humans are so dumb. The fact that actually matters in our heads, who are we? Why are we here? What does it mean to be here? What's the next life? Probably isn't one. BPD, I mentioned the whole idea of the second half of the show originally

was to highlight different players, individual awards. And so talking with BBD and Dalton last night, wanted to highlight some guys that are performing and performing better than maybe someone else on the team. And, A, I wanted to compare it all across the league at first. Dalton came back and was like, what about guys on their team? And that's pretty fun. And I think this, I've got one here that's a perfect example.

Ryan Presley, you're going to see him in October. He's going to be out there in October. He's fun, a closer with a four-pitch mix. You don't get to see that a lot. He's been electric in the past previous off-season. A guy you might have seen in the earlier innings has been dominant. Brian Abraeu for Houston. 68 games this year, a 187-e.

Opponents are hitting 179 off of him. There's a pretty good argument. He's been better than Presley. Houston fans, I know we have an interesting relationship. I don't know. Sometimes the postseason can get real, real quick. I guess is a brayu in any type of conversation to be in higher leverage out than Presley? Is it...

Or just higher leverage appearances? than we as people that haven't been watching the Astros are used to seeing them. You guys know your team better than us. Let us know. The actual first example Dalton gave us was the funniest one to me, because they're both named Ryan. The Baltimore Orioles, Ryan Mountcastle. I think if you've been following ball for the past couple years,

you know Ryan Mountcastle, got some rookie of the year votes, drives and runs. I really like him as just a pure hitter. and this year Ryan Mountcastle has been good. A 780 OPS, 18 homers, a 115 OPS plus. Really, really solid. Really solid. Ryan O'Hern, in 103 games,

309 batting average in 853 OPS. 853 OPS. This is a guy they basically got for free before the season. 21 doubles Ryan O'Hern has been in the middle of the Orioles lineup He had a five-hit game the other day And I want to check out the splits real quick

Wow He doesn't play a lot Vers Lefties 856 OPS versus righties It's an 819 verse lefties But that's in 25 at bat So that doesn't really count A few at bats he's got and he

He has performed. And they've got other dudes to plug and play if there is a lefty on the bump, and then you could sub him in later in games. Like Ryan O'Hern is going to be a big factor this postseason, and he's been a big factor this regular season. And I know we've mentioned him, but I don't know if people, you know, middle of the lineup guy for one of the best teams in baseball this year.

A couple of the names that stood out. Trev's been on this. Royce Lewis. in 58 games this year has essentially outplayed Correa. Royce Lewis has been bawling. 920 OPS. It's 58 games. I'll put a little bit of a sample size in there,

although that ain't bad. He was coming back from the ACL. But, yeah, I think, hey. It's hurt again right now. If you're talking to Joe accounting at the water, cooler and playoffs roll up and they go oh twins no they haven't had the history but they do have korea maybe that changes things you hit them right back with uh royce lewis right next to them royce lewis uh playing some third base 15 homers in 58 games korea has 18 and 135

like their counting stats are kind of similar in some spots jeesh yeah uh uh Couple of the other good ones that jumped out. I'll jump over to the NL. Because Don gave us a few of these, like even Kiermire, Varsho, if you're clicking around, Justin Topa, Andre Munoz. Seattle fans, let us know how you feel about that.

A name that I haven't appreciated how good he's been this year, Braxton Garrett, has been arguably better than Sandy Alcantara. There's an argument that innings matter, and Sandy has about 30. 30 more. But Garrett's ERA is down about a half a run. His whip is lower.

His opponent batting average is lower. He has more strikeouts than Sandy. You know, that's never been Sandy's most dominant thing about him. But Braxton Garrett, like, that's not the name that jumps. You know, we've talked a lot of Yuri Perez. We've talked a lot of Sandy. Hell, we used to talk about Sixto Sanchez, and then he kind of, The last update I saw on him, he was throwing mid-80s in, like, not a real league.

So that's, who knows what's going on there. But Prax and Garrett's a dude. A dude. And if they sneak into a playoff game, you're going to see good arms from them, man. Lazzardo's having a really good year. Cabrera, Garrett, Perez. Sounds like Sandy's going to be back, right? I think so.

We'll see on that. The other one that stood out, and this is the last one from this new segment we made up, Christian Yelich has had a great year, and he's been leading off and setting the tone, and he's really, he's leaned into kind of being an on-base guy, and the steals are back up with the new rules and stuff this year. Like, Christian Yelich, I don't know if you're seeing those, you know, the 40 Homer-type seasons from Yelie anymore. but he's become a very productive player

and he's kind of the head of the snake a little bit. We talked about Sean Murphy last episode being one of the best acquisitions of the off-season. He's been collecting pedals. He's incredible. He's Sean Murphy. He's one of, if not the best catcher in baseball. The guy who moved to Milwaukee in that whole deal,

William Contreras, he gets overshadowed by Murphy in the trade. He gets overshadowed by his big, bro who's had a great major league career. William Contreras has an 822 OPS. A 5F war season. Remember, the Brewers are kind of catcher whisperers. So they turn that defense upside down. A 123 OPS plus,

I think if you asked around and you said, hey, Milwaukee Brewers, like, who's the guy there? You know, symbolically, Yelly is. lead off Christian Yellich, big contract, former MVP. There's an argument for Craig Counsel who might be coming back after he said he wasn't coming back. Some rumors came out about that recently. A lot of chatter about him.

The best player on the Milwaukee Brewers this year has been William Contreras. And I don't know if he gets treated that way, man. And he's 25. That The Brewers getting him out of that whole deal I know they traded away Estuary Ruiz who's breaking stolen base records and stuff

But they got a slugging catcher In the middle of their lineup Just to like fill out the trade We're into Ruiz Just to fill out the trade Um So in a second half of the show where we're supposed to highlight players.

I'm glad we did. By the way, also in that trade, Brewers walk away with Pyeamps, who's been statistically great out of the bullpen. Awesome. You're going to see him in October. I know. What at all time, let's let us get involved in this.

Yeah, we'll help. Yeah, Ruiz. He can run. He plays everywhere. You know what else? plays everywhere, the Drafking Sportsbook, whether it's their daily fantasy, or if you're somewhere where it's legal, and it'll probably be legal wherever you are soon, eventually. The playoffs are here.

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we could just stimulate and get out of here. I think that might be the move. Unless you... We have an info. I don't know. Give me the sexy music. Big baby David, you have the only stimulator in the world that accurately predicts the baseball season.

And right now, it's Friday. In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers would face the Marlins. who have the tiebreaker over the Cubs, the Chicago Cubs would be out as of today, added at the deadline, didn't sell at the deadline. They'd currently be out.

The fish would be playing the brew crew. It's the Brewers. It's the Brewers. I think that's right. In Milwaukee, it's too much. This is a fun one. My Arizona Diamondbacks would be traveling to West Philadelphia.

I don't think it's actually West Philadelphia, but to play the Phillies. Auditing, auditing, auditing. Snakes. Zach Gallin, Merrill Kelly, Corbyn, Carol, I mean, it's a stimulator, people. He saw that matchup in person a couple years ago.

Brewers would face the Dodgers. Auditing? Dodgers. Dodgers move on to the NLCS. The Braves and the D-Bats. I know where the Vegas must. money is. Stimulators got the Braves.

I mean, put Gallon out there every day. Braves, Dodgers, and the CS, okay, stimulator. Let's go over to the American League, where as of today, the Minnesota Twins would host the Texas Rangers. Auditing. It's the Rangers. I think it is, man. Don't want to face those guys, man.

I think it is. Twins can pitch. And how about a little ALB as of today? The Rays would host the Jays. Oh, Tampa. Yeah, in the Trop. You don't want that.

You don't want that. And it's West Coast, East Coast, Rangers Astros. Astros. Yeah. They tend to do that, don't they? and then the Baltimore Orioles would play the Tampa Bay race. Wow.

Wow. Go O's. O's. I didn't think that's how that was going to shake out. And Stimulator likes the one in the twos. Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles to go to the World Series. It's looking like O's. There's a lot of numbers that likes it.

Dodgers brave. in the National League. Dodgers. Wow. Wow. So we have on our hand Orioles, Dodgers, World Series.

The winner is? It's the Baltimore Orioles. The Baltimore Orioles. How's your rebuild? How is your rebuild? They win the 23 World Series. Hey, thank you guys. Final week and a half of the season, it's really here.

Sheesh. Fun at Monday. Chick sucks. Fun at Monday. Fun at Monday.