Speaker 1: Hello to Waken Jake with myself, Jake's Story, Elly, Big Baby,
Speaker 1: David Mendelssohn. As we head into the second half of
Speaker 1: the baseball season, Little Friday for you. We tried to
Speaker 1: pre record for All Star Game. We got that Bailey
Speaker 1: up in and then we're like, oh, I actually need
Speaker 1: that for today, so we got a little backed up. Well,
Speaker 1: we left a banger for you this week, the Trevor
Speaker 1: Ploof episode.
Speaker 2: You guys like him.
Speaker 1: The numbers don't lie and if you give a clickbait thumbnail,
Speaker 1: you will get the clicks. And Trevor was fine too,
Speaker 1: although there was one. The comments were awesome. There was
Speaker 1: one comment that cut me deep though, was Waken Jake
Speaker 1: hosted by Trevor Ploof because he carried this episode, Not
Speaker 1: that I still think about it, not that it's still
Speaker 1: on my mind, same with my hair right now. For
Speaker 1: all the YouTubers and golf colaps twenty k subs on YouTube,
Speaker 1: thank you guys. I really appreciate that, and of course
Speaker 1: our friends over Dan Patrick. But we need to talk
Speaker 1: about baseball because it's the second half. It starts tonight.
Speaker 1: No Thursday games anymore. Out of the All Star break,
Speaker 1: they used to hit us with like three, Yeah, at
Speaker 1: least one. I'm kind of okay with it. It is
Speaker 1: a game I think that's pretty universally liked by the fellas,
Speaker 1: so maybe we support it. Maybe one game would be cool.
Speaker 1: That obviously sucks for that team, but maybe, like whoever's
Speaker 1: got the least travel. I don't know. It feels like
Speaker 1: there's a solution there.
Speaker 2: You know, if they kept that, it would be Yankees
Speaker 2: every year. That's okay, which I'm fine. I like them.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about them a little bit. We'll go through
Speaker 1: some All Star game. We'll walk you guys through the
Speaker 1: weekend a little bit, some of the highlights. Some of
Speaker 1: you like that. I guess before we get to that,
Speaker 1: we'll just do some some broad second half baseball. There's
Speaker 1: an ESPN article with second half previews, some rankings and
Speaker 1: playoff odds. Eh, we'll hop in there a little bit.
Speaker 1: I did want to check out some strength to schedule
Speaker 1: first of all, because I I would hear people reference
Speaker 1: it and I'm like, oh wow, that's a good piece
Speaker 1: of information, but i never really knew where to find it.
Speaker 1: The best place I've currently found is Fangraphs. If you
Speaker 1: go to their Playoff odds page. One of the columns
Speaker 1: is strength of schedule, and there's some interesting things to
Speaker 1: note in there. I still I'm looking for my perfectly
Speaker 1: and perfect strength of schedule analysis. That the algorithm would
Speaker 1: be something along the lines of like season win percentage
Speaker 1: and then like last ten game win percentage, and that
Speaker 1: would go into a formula because like, the Yankees just
Speaker 1: played the Orioles going into the All Star break, but
Speaker 1: did they like they played an Orioles team that, with
Speaker 1: help to the Yankees, came up against six game losing streak.
Speaker 1: But also like if you played the Yankees in May,
Speaker 1: you faced a very different team than if you face
Speaker 1: the Yankees in July or end of June. So that's
Speaker 1: where I'm still If one of the Waken Jake analytics
Speaker 1: nerds wants to get involved and give like a strength
Speaker 1: of schedule verus strength of schedule at time of playing,
Speaker 1: It's a stat that you almost can't do, but I'm
Speaker 1: interested in it. Strength of schedule. The rest of the way,
Speaker 1: I think some things to know. As I just told you,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not bound to strength of schedule, but
Speaker 1: it tells us something. And I don't know the two
Speaker 1: well actually the top three teams in strength of schedule,
Speaker 1: because I will say at four and five are the
Speaker 1: Rockies in the Marlins. Oh, if you wanted to, you
Speaker 1: could drop the obnoxious Well, they can't play them, But
Speaker 1: again those are it's one team in the rest of
Speaker 1: your second half schedule. Top three teams and strength the
Speaker 1: schedule the rest of the way the Boston Red Sox
Speaker 1: five to fourteen win percentage, the Tampa Bay Rays and
Speaker 1: the Cleveland guard Docks. So if you are into that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. The Red Sox, who have been surging
Speaker 1: lately and are becoming a well liked team in the
Speaker 1: American League, they've had a ton of injuries. I also,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to put a ton of merit in
Speaker 1: this just because the Red Sox have done a lot
Speaker 1: of their bidding to get to this point of the
Speaker 1: season against good teams. They took down the Yanks, they
Speaker 1: took down the Phillies. I think there's a brave series
Speaker 1: in there, like they They've played some of the heavy
Speaker 1: hitters and they've competed, So I'm not going to super
Speaker 1: hold that against them. That does make me worry for
Speaker 1: the race. I've been trying to buy a little bit
Speaker 1: of raise stock. The phrase I keep saying is the
Speaker 1: names are changing, like Brandon Loo, Josh Low, Randy has
Speaker 1: started to go YONDI started to go for a little bit.
Speaker 1: There Esak always going although Chris Rose traded him. Go
Speaker 1: check out the Trade Deadline Draft episode on Talking Baseball,
Speaker 1: one of the best pieces of content of the year.
Speaker 1: This makes me nervous for my race. I thought there
Speaker 1: was gonna be more coming, and maybe there is. You
Speaker 1: never fully know with them, but seeing that strength of
Speaker 1: schedule and them limping as hard as they could to
Speaker 1: get to five hundred at first, I saw their five
Speaker 1: hundred going into the break is like good for the Rays,
Speaker 1: like to say, we're at five to zero. Oh going
Speaker 1: into the All Star break. That's huge for how gnarly
Speaker 1: of a first half it was for them originally. But
Speaker 1: it seems like they'll be up against it a little
Speaker 1: bit the other team. So your top three before you
Speaker 1: get to Rockies, Marlins, Blue Jays, Cleveland guard Dogs, and man,
Speaker 1: some of the fangrafts win percentage stuff doesn't like them
Speaker 1: for how dominant they've been.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: It has the Cleveland Guardians as a fifty three point
Speaker 1: six percent to win the division, So I mean that's
Speaker 1: close to a coin flip. There's a lean there, But man,
Speaker 1: I just think the not contradiction the ESPN article that
Speaker 1: I mentioned that I think they had a bunch of
Speaker 1: writers contribute, So that's why I'm not referencing a writer.
Speaker 1: You know, my guy, Bradford Doolittle was involved. Oh but
Speaker 1: we got a ton of guys in here. Okay. They
Speaker 1: put the Cleveland Guardians in the first category of teams,
Speaker 1: the quote unquote Big Five, where they have the Phillies
Speaker 1: who deserve Big Five recognition for the first half of
Speaker 1: the season, the Yankees, which as much as we mentally
Speaker 1: have been fighting lately, sure Yankees have been great, which
Speaker 1: means the Orioles are in there, yep. The Dodgers, uh huh.
Speaker 1: And then they threw the guard Dogs in is the
Speaker 1: Big Five, which I don't know if I fully agree
Speaker 1: with that. There's some good arguments there. They clearly have
Speaker 1: a top of the lineup and other contributors throughout the
Speaker 1: lineup offensively and defensively. Their bullpen is Numero uno. So
Speaker 1: if that continues to ride, that's a pretty strong pillar
Speaker 1: of a team. But in Tier two, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: put the Brewers, I mean Brewers and guard Dogs have
Speaker 1: felt like a one A one B all year. And
Speaker 1: also the Braves they put in a tier below them,
Speaker 1: which I don't. I just can't do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe that's me being just a mental sheep time of
Speaker 1: year to talk like that. I don't know. I don't
Speaker 1: have the guards up there. Chris Rose, who watches as
Speaker 1: much baseball on it as anyone and loves his Guards,
Speaker 1: He's been trying to pump the Brakes a little bit.
Speaker 1: There's a little fear factor of their starting pitching, which
Speaker 1: has been not great all year, But you could spin
Speaker 1: that as a good thing, like they're gonna have guys
Speaker 1: that they can call up, even guys you're familiar with.
Speaker 1: Tristan McKenzie got sent down, Like does it click for him?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna do the trade? The Cleveland fans not
Speaker 1: happy with our trade deadline draft episode because A nobody
Speaker 1: cares about the rules when they see a graphic, and
Speaker 1: B I don't know what to think with the Guardians,
Speaker 1: like yes, they should trade for help, and add is
Speaker 1: it a team that feels like they're gonna sacrifice the
Speaker 1: big pieces to move to attack one year? No? Like
Speaker 1: They've never done that. They've never done that, at least
Speaker 1: in the recent since post pandemic. That feels like, feels
Speaker 1: like recent history that I don't know. Seeing the Guardians,
Speaker 1: the Rays and the Red Sox up there, I guess
Speaker 1: I've just got Red Sox blinders on where I don't
Speaker 1: feel that too much. Raising guards I feel just a
Speaker 1: little bit because I want to see who do they
Speaker 1: have who else? In the central They have the Twins
Speaker 1: at thirty eight point two percent to win the division.
Speaker 1: That's a big boy number, and then the Royals at seven
Speaker 1: and a half percent. That's tough. Sorry Royals. And I
Speaker 1: don't know. I guess if I was DraftKings spinning this,
Speaker 1: if you were a Twins believer, I think there's a
Speaker 1: nice little sprinkle to be put in for them to
Speaker 1: win the division. The Twins lineup right now is a problem.
Speaker 1: And that's saying it in al a cool, hip young
Speaker 1: guy way. I really like where the Twins lineup is
Speaker 1: at right now, between Miranda finding it, their lefty slash
Speaker 1: switch hitters being consistent. Buxton turned on that if Buckston
Speaker 1: and Ryce Lewis go, which Royce Lewis has been out
Speaker 1: like even if Eddie Julian. Imagine if something kicks in
Speaker 1: with his swing again and they call him up. He
Speaker 1: was supposed to be their leadoff guy this year. The
Speaker 1: Twins have lineup options, and you know that's what Little
Speaker 1: Poppy likes. That if you're a guardian, if you're not
Speaker 1: about the Guards and you're about the Twins, there could
Speaker 1: be a little sprinkle there. The other one that I've
Speaker 1: stumbled into that I don't believe in. I believe in less.
Speaker 1: But this is more so if you like playing the odds.
Speaker 1: So let's reverse engineer this a little bit. Let's look
Speaker 1: at the what would you say, the weakest strength of schedule.
Speaker 1: But that's a good thing, yeah, the best strength of
Speaker 1: schedule in a bad strength of schedule.
Speaker 2: The weakest schedules left.
Speaker 1: Uh bottom of the list. San Francisco Giants, Hey, do
Speaker 1: something crazy not in on them. That's kind of rude,
Speaker 1: but hey, if you're a giant's hopeful you could put
Speaker 1: that little feather in your cap right above them. The
Speaker 1: Chicago Cubs, which I don't Both of those teams, in
Speaker 1: the words of Joe's McFly, are none of my business
Speaker 1: at this point. I don't really believe in either of them.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is why maybe I need to be more
Speaker 1: of a schedule snob. Maybe for one of these teams
Speaker 1: that's gonna click great, not into it. The next two
Speaker 1: teams get me a little more jazzy fizzle. The Atlanta
Speaker 1: Braves they have a four ninety opponent strength of schedule
Speaker 1: the rest of the way, and the New York Yankees
Speaker 1: at four ninety two. So I guess the Braves. I
Speaker 1: mean that division lead is massive. The Phillies have shown
Speaker 1: no signs of fading. We've seen the Braves put together
Speaker 1: a big second half before their World Series year. They
Speaker 1: went nuts, the offense started to click. They made a
Speaker 1: couple ads that they were the best offense in baseball
Speaker 1: the second half of the season. They pretty much rode
Speaker 1: that all the way to a title. And it was
Speaker 1: without Ronald Acunya. So I don't know if you're if
Speaker 1: you're a Braves person and you think the Phillies could
Speaker 1: slip up just a little bit. Who are listed as
Speaker 1: the seventh strongest strength to schedule the rest of the way. Again,
Speaker 1: this has Philly with the highest chance to win the
Speaker 1: division right now eighty seven percent. Eighty seven. That's higher
Speaker 1: than the Dodgers eighty five point three. Then it's Brewers, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Astros,
Speaker 1: Orioles twins, and then everyone else is less than at
Speaker 1: thirty eight point two percent Orioles forty two to five.
Speaker 1: So I mean them in the Yankees coin toss ish
Speaker 1: with the Red Sox getting some percentage points. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm interested to see because I am a strength of
Speaker 1: schedule believer, especially when you see it. You know, talking baseball,
Speaker 1: we essentially live week by week, if not series by series.
Speaker 1: That when you see a team in their schedule coming up,
Speaker 1: is Marlin's Athletics tend to think a big week is
Speaker 1: coming White Sox. I think the Nationals have unfortunately joined
Speaker 1: that party. But if you see a week where a
Speaker 1: team is playing Yankees or I'll take the Yankees out
Speaker 1: of it, if you see a team playing Braves Orioles,
Speaker 1: you don't look at that week the same way. Going
Speaker 1: back to my strength of schedule thing that I'm trying
Speaker 1: to figure out before, if you played Houston in April
Speaker 1: or not April, how do you measure that. Houston's win
Speaker 1: percentage right now is not impressive, But the past two
Speaker 1: months it is so like they don't score that right,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't have the answer. I'd like it.
Speaker 3: I mean, thinking selfishly about the Yankees, they they got
Speaker 3: their Houston games out of the Webster. Some teams they're
Speaker 3: numbers slightly screwed if they have seven games left for
Speaker 3: suston who's strength to schedule number, because that's just their
Speaker 3: winning percentage is.
Speaker 2: Going to be lower than their real life what they're doing.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Someone become part of opportunity, become part of my analytics department,
Speaker 1: and we could take down all of baseball, man, I
Speaker 1: don't know, from the strength of schedule. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess those are my biggest ones there. I guess I'm
Speaker 1: excited for my Yankees, and I think that's the only
Speaker 1: reason they are favored above the Orioles by fangraphs. The
Speaker 1: rest of the way Orioles are sitting very middle of
Speaker 1: the pack five h two win percentage the rest of
Speaker 1: the way, where the Yankees are at four ninety two. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, those numbers aren't they don't feel significant enough,
Speaker 1: but they are.
Speaker 2: Ye one's literally in the middle and one.
Speaker 3: Is very close to top to be top of the line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess when you think of it, the
Speaker 1: Red Sox, who have the hardest strength to schedule the
Speaker 1: rest of the way, have five to fourteen win percentage.
Speaker 1: That's the difference between a team right now that is
Speaker 1: a orderline a fringe playoff team if not in in
Speaker 1: the National League, or four eighty seven is a team
Speaker 1: that's out and like not liked right now. Like I
Speaker 1: was just tough on the Cubs and the Giants, that's
Speaker 1: where their win percentages are at. So uh and what's
Speaker 1: our what's our what's our player comp for that other
Speaker 1: tier the Mets, which again that's another case study of
Speaker 1: when have you played them? And like the the Houston Astros, Cardinals,
Speaker 1: they they just kind of cleared that. So some thing
Speaker 1: strength the schedule scope there that I'm interested to see
Speaker 1: how much I care about it in the second half
Speaker 1: of the season. I think the other things of note,
Speaker 1: going back to that ESPN article that they tiered it
Speaker 1: out in five tiers. I told you the Big five Phillies, Yankees, Dodgers, Orioles,
Speaker 1: Guards established contenders. Was their tier two with the Braves, Twins, Astros,
Speaker 1: Red Sox, Mariners in the Royals. I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: an interesting label for them established contenders, although they are
Speaker 1: one of the only teams that has entered the trade
Speaker 1: market so far on a price tag that seems significant,
Speaker 1: so very interested to see their deadline in second half
Speaker 1: three the NLS muddled wild card race, the New York Metropolitans,
Speaker 1: the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres Man. How did they
Speaker 1: end up at fifty and forty nine? I thought we
Speaker 1: got rid of this five games over Padres That's where
Speaker 1: you should be, and you're just never there. Little limp
Speaker 1: into the break and they're missing Tatis. I think a
Speaker 1: Rise had a thumb injury that had him sit out
Speaker 1: the All Star Game. God are the Cardinals fun? We
Speaker 1: just had they were my answer to We posted our
Speaker 1: live show today from the All Star Game, and we'll
Speaker 1: walk through All Star weekend a little bit. We did
Speaker 1: the question team you're most excited for their second half?
Speaker 1: Mine is the Cardinals, and unfortunately, Cardinals fans, it's twofold.
Speaker 1: You guys have been in the playoff picture for a while.
Speaker 1: If it keeps going and you keep winning more games
Speaker 1: and maybe even play better baseball, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: room for growth Between Goldschmidt and some other ballplayers. I
Speaker 1: think it could be a really fun summer in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: I also think they have bottom dropout of the ship
Speaker 1: potential in a big way that Pythagoa and win loss
Speaker 1: record wise, it has them as the second luckiest team
Speaker 1: in baseball, which, hey, maybe that is baseball because last
Speaker 1: year no one was saying that the Birds were lucky.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I would love if their corners can pick
Speaker 1: it up Goldschmidt and Aeronato. You have to think so,
Speaker 1: but you don't know so until it happens. If you
Speaker 1: ain't know so, you ain't low. So I think that's
Speaker 1: a rap lyric fabulous comment below. Reach out, reach out
Speaker 1: in the chat. And then the Pittsburgh Pirates, who the
Speaker 1: fact that they're sitting at five hundred and the Padres
Speaker 1: are a game over, the Diamondbacks are a game over.
Speaker 1: It makes the first half a win for Pittsburgh. Uh,
Speaker 1: they do need to go out and make that transaction
Speaker 1: because they told everyone they would, and so I hope
Speaker 1: they do. Because Brian Reynolds is really good and has
Speaker 1: gone nuts. He's also he's got one of those batting
Speaker 1: stances that when you actually look at it you're like,
Speaker 1: baseball's a sicko sport. Like he is very crouched, very extended,
Speaker 1: and there's just a lot of muscles popping out in
Speaker 1: different areas. It's like cool to look at, but it's
Speaker 1: also like you picture yourself doing a batting stance and
Speaker 1: then you see Brian Reynolds doing a batting stance and
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, these two are not the same. Let's
Speaker 1: it maybe we might be able to bring that up.
Speaker 1: I forget if it was from the All Star Game,
Speaker 1: and a reminder to go check out his if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen his All Star announcement to the team. It's
Speaker 1: as not hype as it can possibly be. Sorry, Brian Vandyman. God,
Speaker 1: it's going to be an exciting break for them. Let's
Speaker 1: let's Pittsburgh get back in the mix. Let me see
Speaker 1: some playoff percentages that may interest the people, and it
Speaker 1: shows where computers maybe don't have everything figured out yet.
Speaker 1: Has the Astros at fifty seven point five percent to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs? I think everyone's leaning that it's a
Speaker 1: little higher Mariners at fifty six point three percent, in
Speaker 1: the Boston Red Sox at fifty two point eight the
Speaker 1: last team over fifty percent. All the National League teams
Speaker 1: are tanking each other's percentages. And this is where my frustrations,
Speaker 1: I guess, get acknowledged. Has the Padres at thirty nine
Speaker 1: point four percent to make the playoffs? How does that happen?
Speaker 1: That's the Giants just below that twenty six point four.
Speaker 1: Let's see what the second half has to provide the
Speaker 1: other team. That was just a popular conversation this weekend
Speaker 1: at the All Star Game, as maybe we talk a
Speaker 1: little All Star weekend even though it's not on the weekend.
Speaker 2: The week.
Speaker 1: Those Texas Rangers that hosted the damn thing, no one
Speaker 1: really knows what to do. We did our trade episode
Speaker 1: and we have some Rangers going. When you look at
Speaker 1: where they're at in the standings, them having that World
Speaker 1: Series with this front office, it turns into a question
Speaker 1: of I want to say, glass half full, glass half empty. Nothing.
Speaker 1: If the Texas Rangers did not win the World Series
Speaker 1: last year or go to the World Series, I think
Speaker 1: we would all be like, you gotta sell right. They've
Speaker 1: got a lot of rental pitchers. It hasn't felt like
Speaker 1: the season you gotta sell right with the World Series.
Speaker 1: Can see either side like, hey, we won it last year.
Speaker 1: We're getting some reinforcements back. Let's get hot and win
Speaker 1: this thing again. Or if you're the front office, you say, hey,
Speaker 1: we've got our big investments here. We did win it
Speaker 1: last year. Let's just get some assets and retool for
Speaker 1: the next three years instead of this year. They are
Speaker 1: gonna be one of the most interesting teams at the
Speaker 1: trade deadline and in the next In the next ten
Speaker 1: days or so, things are really gonna get sorted. I
Speaker 1: guess that's gonna be the fun thing to check in
Speaker 1: on in a little under two weeks is seeing the treadline.
Speaker 1: Season eight and two could change everything, where that three
Speaker 1: and seven could blow everything. So let's watch it together.
Speaker 1: Excited to yuckball with you guys. I think we are
Speaker 1: gonna have Bailey early next week. Now we'll give you
Speaker 1: the nitty gritty jamboy media behind the scenes at the
Speaker 1: All Star Game. We flew out. I flew out Sunday
Speaker 1: with beeps, safe travels in no qualms on our ends.
Speaker 1: The flight landed at its ideal destination.
Speaker 2: Remember that.
Speaker 1: Got in exciting mode? Oh my god? The Yankees game. Yes,
Speaker 1: everyone gets there and it's you know, if you've ever
Speaker 1: gone on a ski trip with friends, or you gone
Speaker 1: any sleepover party. You know you've got excitement. You're all
Speaker 1: in the same room. Trevor Plouf, Chris Rose, all of
Speaker 1: our New York City JM people. We're having a blast.
Speaker 1: Let's put on the Yankees game and record talking Yanks
Speaker 1: after a delicious moment, Ben Rice the Kid. It's a
Speaker 1: three run homer to give the Yankees a lead. The
Speaker 1: Yankees are about to sweep the Baltimore Orioles. They're about
Speaker 1: to be first place in the Ale East. Their whole losing,
Speaker 1: worst month of baseball about to be erased with one
Speaker 1: swing in one series. How nice is that? If you
Speaker 1: don't know what happened. The Yankees ended up losing that
Speaker 1: game with I think we landed on a ten to
Speaker 1: twenty percent Clay Holmes forty percent, Vulpi forty percent Doogie.
Speaker 1: You can you can change your numbers a little bit.
Speaker 1: Ground ball to short would have ended it. That Vulpi
Speaker 1: doesn't make the play on flyball to left that Doogie misplays.
Speaker 1: So it's tough for Clay. Although he has some walks,
Speaker 1: which we've talked about. Clay Holmes and that issue with
Speaker 1: him that the Yankees go back, they do win their
Speaker 1: first series in a month, but I don't know. It
Speaker 1: was lol Yanks in there literally Zoe Shelfy were laughing
Speaker 1: in our faces, and they both have boisterous content laughs
Speaker 1: that those stung a little bit. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess in my head, I've been excited for Yankees baseball,
Speaker 1: but I could also go to a dark place real
Speaker 1: quick this weekend against the Rays at.
Speaker 2: Home, against the Rais at home.
Speaker 1: So we went from all the Yankee fans being hype
Speaker 1: as heck, let's get an All Star weekend to oh this,
Speaker 1: I hate that.
Speaker 2: That was the worst loss of the year.
Speaker 1: Hey, didn't they do that in twenty twenty one when
Speaker 1: Chad Green gave up a homer to Houston to get
Speaker 1: walked off. They did so whatever. Yankee fans had been
Speaker 1: so hurt the past month that that only hurt us
Speaker 1: so month so much so that was good news. As
Speaker 1: the rest of the people arrived, Jimmy had a cricket
Speaker 1: O blow O blow, can appreciate pre abbreviate that that
Speaker 1: some of the crew went to that him and Joe's
Speaker 1: also a lot of the behind the scenes crew. Trevor
Speaker 1: goof we recorded are Waken Jake Grades episode that I'm
Speaker 1: glad you guys enjoyed and make sure you're subbed if
Speaker 1: you're not. That was a lot of fun. And then me,
Speaker 1: Chris Rose and Trev went to the Players Alliance party.
Speaker 1: I think they were allowed to part call it party
Speaker 1: because it was the night before in Fort Worth. Really cool,
Speaker 1: got C Big C. If you want to see nervous Jake,
Speaker 1: go check me out near CC Sabathia and I want
Speaker 1: to play cool because I don't know how in he
Speaker 1: is like he is in, but then there was a
Speaker 1: hesitation period and now he's been in, but we haven't
Speaker 1: interacted a lot.
Speaker 2: Amber's for sure in.
Speaker 1: I mean he's in, but I didn't. I was interested
Speaker 1: to see where the convo went. So Chris Rose in
Speaker 1: CC kind of boys because Chris Rose the Cleveland fan,
Speaker 1: and I think CC is such a sports fan that
Speaker 1: he thinks Chris Rose is kind of cool. And so
Speaker 1: they've known each other for like twenty plus years now
Speaker 1: because imagine h Chris Rose seeing a young talented lefty
Speaker 1: on his guardians.
Speaker 2: In early mid two thousands, CC and Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And that's when Chris Rose was hot in the streets.
Speaker 2: So that's the young cool guy from Cleveland.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was they were the young young Cleveland
Speaker 1: Hot Boys list. So they have a good report. So
Speaker 1: that was cool to see. Trev and CC have gained
Speaker 1: a lot of traction recently because Trev's been trying to
Speaker 1: get into like celebrity baseball, celebrity poker and golf scene.
Speaker 1: So they've mixed it up a couple times, and so
Speaker 1: I was kind of being cool. We had a nice
Speaker 1: step and then CEC and I forget who it was,
Speaker 1: but there was some there's an eighty five year old
Speaker 1: guy there that I don't know. CEC was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that dude's a legend, bro, and then he looked at
Speaker 1: me and he's like, you need to interview him. And
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, Cec, So I need to follow
Speaker 1: up in a see who that was because I couldn't
Speaker 1: hear his name at the time. And then I'd be
Speaker 1: I guess I need to interview that guy. So that
Speaker 1: was cool. Let's see players Alliance were floating around. They
Speaker 1: announced that we're gonna go into a new another room
Speaker 1: to like start the ceremony because they were honoring a
Speaker 1: few a few players, so we start drifting over there,
Speaker 1: who bops in. It's Nick Swisher, with the energy of
Speaker 1: a thousand suns unbridled. Gave me, gave me one of
Speaker 1: the nicer DAP ups I've ever gotten. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I think he's pretty plugged in.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, dude, love listening to you guys in
Speaker 1: Boonie blah blah blah. And I was like, that's cool.
Speaker 1: It's cool to know Swish listens to that. And then
Speaker 1: he gave a real like Nick Swisher looks at the
Speaker 1: Yankees as a fan but with front office connections kind
Speaker 1: of that he was.
Speaker 2: He was like, dude, these.
Speaker 1: Guys gotta figure it out, Like what are we doing?
Speaker 1: He was like, I love when you guys get a
Speaker 1: little tough with Boone because he's like everyone's asking these
Speaker 1: same questions. And I was like, that was really cool.
Speaker 1: Thanks Swish and all sorts of hyper It's insane that
Speaker 1: he's actually wired that way. Crazy. So we roll into
Speaker 1: the back room of this event where things are things
Speaker 1: are ticking up. Oh follow up, note didn't get a
Speaker 1: ton of interaction with him. Edwin Jackson, the man Joe
Speaker 1: cool himself, like, I think we all just have like
Speaker 1: vagabond picture Edwin Jackson. Sure, all right, just the dude
Speaker 1: chilling having a good.
Speaker 3: Time, part of that career arcause he's everybody knows him.
Speaker 1: Welcome in the clubhouse. I'd welcome that guy with open arms.
Speaker 1: If you can still twirl a couple, why not going
Speaker 1: to the back room. It's a little more of a
Speaker 1: scene in there. They have like the fake mechanical bull
Speaker 1: set up. Trev trying to pressure me into doing that
Speaker 1: would have probably been a tough look at the Players
Speaker 1: Alliance party if I was just bopping around riding the bull.
Speaker 1: So didn't did not walking around there. There's a gentleman
Speaker 1: who stands out because he's six ' eight if not taller,
Speaker 1: massive human, Delan Betansas. So gotta dap up with Dellan
Speaker 1: asking where Joe's was. Joe's sad he wasn't there because
Speaker 1: he was at the cricket event, but that was really
Speaker 1: cool to see how big he was. Trevor Ploof then
Speaker 1: remind me he got a hit hit off Delan. I said, oh, nice, dude,
Speaker 1: don't care bopping around. They start doing the presentations. Some
Speaker 1: of the guys that were getting awards, friggy jangs John
Speaker 1: Boy's favorite keep paper out of baseball. Mark Macklemore sure
Speaker 1: hit a lot, that's all he knows. Gary Matthews, uh
Speaker 1: one or two big seasons, and they opened with his
Speaker 1: famous catch. It's like one of the best home run
Speaker 1: robberies ever. So they gave him some love. Darren Oliver,
Speaker 1: Sure he was repping Prince Fielder. Yeah, Prince Fielder still
Speaker 1: has a big old presence to him. And I don't
Speaker 1: know what you guys think Prince's heidis. And I'm not
Speaker 1: coming at him. You know, that's not who I am.
Speaker 1: Not a tall guy. Thick was never depicted as a
Speaker 1: tall guy. But sometimes you still see players and.
Speaker 3: Athletes and you're like, oh you're you still assume, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: there's probably like six ' two, not crazy.
Speaker 1: Prince, not six two, no powerful. One of the highlights
Speaker 1: there was Trevor was trying to yuck. Yuck is yum
Speaker 1: Now I've never used that phrase, right, trev was trying
Speaker 1: to yuck with Prince's sons who were there, and they're
Speaker 1: like semi adults now, and trev like talked to them
Speaker 1: once but and I don't think he got the reaction
Speaker 1: he wanted. So he was like I'm gonna go back
Speaker 1: in and he said something about playing. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I would love playing against your your pops,
Speaker 1: and I think one of them hit him with a
Speaker 1: we know who you are. So that was Trev trying
Speaker 1: to get get overly involved. And then I had, I think,
Speaker 1: my my my coolest moment. I went to the bar
Speaker 1: to get Trevin Chris Rose a drink flex open bar
Speaker 1: and there's this dude looking like the man at the
Speaker 1: bar because it was kind of cowboy themed, which that
Speaker 1: goes a lot of different directions because I don't know,
Speaker 1: you throw on a half you can do that to
Speaker 1: different degrees. You can go stylish cowboy, you could go rugged,
Speaker 1: you could go h This person just had some black
Speaker 1: leather on like the outfit. If you saw this person
Speaker 1: on a motorcycle, you'd be like, hell, yes, roped up.
Speaker 1: As I'm walking over the bar, I only see them
Speaker 1: on the corner of my eye and I'm I'm wondering
Speaker 1: if it's like a running back, And to my surprise,
Speaker 1: the person kind of hits me on the shoulder, goes
Speaker 1: for the DAP and goes, what's going on? Man? Mike
Speaker 1: Cameron big fan of yourself. I was like, whoa Mike Cameron.
Speaker 1: Mike Cameron, I did I did like a take back.
Speaker 1: I was like, holy smokes man. Then I was he
Speaker 1: like elbowed his wife and he was like, yeah, these
Speaker 1: are some of the people I mix it up with
Speaker 1: on Twitter every night. And I was like, I didn't
Speaker 1: know we were mixing it up on Twitter every night,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad we are. And yeah, my Cameron's involved, man,
Speaker 1: roped up, roped up looks huge. Uh that I finally
Speaker 1: I was trying to find my like my line, and
Speaker 1: I hit him with the like, dude, I love I
Speaker 1: love good defense in center field and you got to
Speaker 1: some balls you shouldn't have gotten to. And he like
Speaker 1: kind of liked that, but it was it was a
Speaker 1: little kiss assy, I'll be honest, but he was awesome.
Speaker 1: Chatted with him and his wife for a little bit.
Speaker 1: His wife made a joke about moving to Spain with
Speaker 1: with because Adam Jones is moving to Spain.
Speaker 2: So update.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was supposed to ruin that,
Speaker 1: if Adam Jones was trying to keep that secret.
Speaker 2: If you just listen to that, be chill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just don't don't report that Adam Jones chill only
Speaker 1: got a little bit of them, and yeah, it was
Speaker 1: It was a really cool event. You know, travel day
Speaker 1: so everyone's a little tired, We're not putting in a shift.
Speaker 1: Let's get back. So we got back. Day two record
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff. Homer and Derby. Derby was a
Speaker 1: little lackluster this year. I think that's the consensus at
Speaker 1: this point, and then as I've zoomed out more, it
Speaker 1: would have been cool. Bobby Witt that final round was cool,
Speaker 1: and I think the goal was to try to get
Speaker 1: a more competitive final round. There wasn't a lot of
Speaker 1: like crazy long homers. That's a big part of the Derby.
Speaker 1: One of Jimmy's theories is also that the way that
Speaker 1: stadium set up is you can't it doesn't have like
Speaker 1: a long homer area. I think it does the second deck.
Speaker 1: If you caught one for ninety, I think you could
Speaker 1: like leave that, and no one did that. I think
Speaker 1: four to seventy five was the longest.
Speaker 3: The way the cameras were, they they made every homer
Speaker 3: look so long, So I don't I don't think that
Speaker 3: so on different experiences, Yeah, like looked like they were
Speaker 3: going to be way out and it's like, well shallow.
Speaker 1: Watch what I watched an abbreviated version of the All
Speaker 1: Star Game on MLB Network last night. Not sure what
Speaker 1: that's about. Its craven baseball. Let's gets hit one Thursday game.
Speaker 1: You give him Friday off or something. Derby's cool, it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty crazy where we're at now that
Speaker 1: there's a we get a lot of love and that's cool.
Speaker 1: Nicky Cass was in the building, my guy little Mazarella.
Speaker 1: There's also a really cool exchange. Well, actually it's kind
Speaker 1: of bad, but it's bad on me. We were trying
Speaker 1: to get back for the final round of the derby,
Speaker 1: so I was a run in. I met up with
Speaker 1: Nicky Cass for a minute.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to get back to the seats and
Speaker 1: this like tall guy, like six eight six ' nine young.
Speaker 1: He's eyeballing me and he starts doing the He's like engaged.
Speaker 1: He makes a move towards me. So I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: here we go. Uh. He goes, Oh, what's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: My name is Blank. I should have looked this up beforehand,
Speaker 1: and you'll see how I would be able to He goes,
Speaker 1: my mom's Jenny Finch, and I was like, wow, okay,
Speaker 1: nice to meet you. And he's like, I think you
Speaker 1: guys posted me the other day. And the guy, uh,
Speaker 1: he's a pitcher, Jenny Finch son Ace Maybe yeah, I
Speaker 1: think Ace. Okay, coolest name ever for a six or
Speaker 1: eight pitcher? What whose mom is?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 1: The most famous softball pitcher ever? But yeah, he's a
Speaker 1: real pitching prospect. And I do think we posted him,
Speaker 1: and I, uh, that nervous like interaction moment. I hit
Speaker 1: him with a I said, what are you up to?
Speaker 1: Which at the home run derby? Kind of a bad question.
Speaker 1: We're all there for the home run derby. He took
Speaker 1: that baseball wise and he goes about eighty nine and
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, we're both we both kind of
Speaker 1: missed with that one. At least yours is cool. And
Speaker 1: I hit him with a nice dude. And then Jenny
Speaker 1: was right behind him and her husband and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's so nice to meet you. And
Speaker 1: I dropped the John Boy media I didn't know. You
Speaker 1: never really know race back to the seats end of
Speaker 1: the derby. Didn't go to the CIA party with Joe's
Speaker 1: and Trev missed out a little bit, Max Free, Trey Turner,
Speaker 1: a lot of dudes there. I was tired, hung at
Speaker 1: the house. Jimmy made up a backyard golf sort of
Speaker 1: game that the ice boys and Shelfy got roped into.
Speaker 1: So I enjoyed that. And then final day our all
Speaker 1: star event. Thank you if you're anyone that came through,
Speaker 1: you're the best. One of the guys I've been playing
Speaker 1: chess with. I got to meet him, so that was
Speaker 1: one of my old roommates. CJ came through. Just a
Speaker 1: ton of good people. There's a lot of good time.
Speaker 1: Our travel day the next day was awful. Half the
Speaker 1: crew went to they took off, got diverted to Chicago.
Speaker 1: We took off, got well, we took off, thought we
Speaker 1: were going to La Guardia, got diverted to Pittsburgh. It's
Speaker 1: just the worst landing time. Everything in the airport just closed. Airport.
Speaker 1: They gave us vouchers because they moved our flight to
Speaker 1: the next day, so we got hotel vouchers, but the
Speaker 1: hotels were less than mid.
Speaker 3: The you know, they provide a free hotel. It's a
Speaker 3: money saving operation for them. They and I think they're
Speaker 3: they're like by law required to give you something, so
Speaker 3: I get how we got there.
Speaker 2: It was bad.
Speaker 1: Me and me, Beabs and Zach went to the the
Speaker 1: establishment that was open past eleven pm uh as we
Speaker 1: had to grab our bags before we We checked him
Speaker 1: and got settled into the mid hotels and then we
Speaker 1: flew back the next day. Uh and two notable guests.
Speaker 1: I guess there was three notable guests on our flight,
Speaker 1: but I only got to see two. Lad Vlad Guerrero,
Speaker 1: who took a pick with Senior, got some likes. I
Speaker 1: was very nervous about Beabs can attest me and Taylor
Speaker 1: Jackson from socials. We did a fake drive by to
Speaker 1: make it seem like it was a natural interaction, and
Speaker 1: then I was like, okay, does Vlad is vlad about
Speaker 1: that action? Like he's at the airport whatever. And then
Speaker 1: we came to the conclude he was sitting in the
Speaker 1: chair closest to the walking area that if vladd didn't
Speaker 1: want people saying hi, if he was.
Speaker 2: Gonna be like really upset by that.
Speaker 1: That chair, you can't pick that chair.
Speaker 3: A minimum, you have you he would have had his
Speaker 3: wife sitting on like the outside seat.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different ways you could to slice
Speaker 1: that or whoever.
Speaker 2: The woman that was there was looked.
Speaker 3: She looks a lot like Flatty if I'm being honest,
Speaker 3: So genetics maybe genetics.
Speaker 1: Maybe Joe Tory was on the flight. Gave him a hey,
Speaker 1: how are you after the awful, awful travel time? He's
Speaker 1: you know, he's up there, and he we were having
Speaker 1: a long travel day, so he was having a long
Speaker 1: travel day, so not a not a great exchange he appreciated.
Speaker 1: By the end, I think he was worried we were
Speaker 1: gonna linger, and I just said him, look a mister Tory,
Speaker 1: big Yankee fan, thank you so much, kept it moving,
Speaker 1: gave a nice goodbye, so I think that was his
Speaker 1: sign of respect. And then Sarah Langs was on our flight,
Speaker 1: but I didn't really see her. When we were leaving
Speaker 1: the airport for the final time I saw her, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, Sara Langs uh so at All Star
Speaker 1: weekend not weekend recap. I hope you enjoyed it. Did
Speaker 1: I miss anything? Beebes? No?
Speaker 3: And last year just small world stuff. Last year on
Speaker 3: the way to Seattle, she was on our group's flight out.
Speaker 3: So someday I'll be able to tell her we've been
Speaker 3: on a couple of flights to.
Speaker 1: Get We share flights. How nice is that? And I
Speaker 1: think the only thing else that we really share is
Speaker 1: the fact that Waken Jake is a production of Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Productions, John Boy Media, and Workhouse Media. We'll see
Speaker 1: you guys Monday,