Speaker 1: The Times a league record.
Speaker 2: Bring we will sue you to.
Speaker 3: The gunner. Welcome, hang out, Welcome to the Just Baseball Show.
Speaker 3: It is Friday, July seventeenth. That's arm Laden. I am
Speaker 3: Peter Rapple and today one burning question for every team
Speaker 3: in the American League. This is part two after yesterday's
Speaker 3: episode Part one, going through the entire National League. But
Speaker 3: we're gonna start with this recent trade deadline report from
Speaker 3: the New York Mets. A rival executive said, the Mets
Speaker 3: have informed everyone that they're basically open for business. And
Speaker 3: we're going to end with a weekend preview. And it
Speaker 3: is all brought to you by bet MGM and BETMGM
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Speaker 3: if you're looking for a home run bat, I personally
Speaker 3: like Cody Clements. Weirdly enough, my model makes him the
Speaker 3: most likely guy to hit up home run today, And
Speaker 3: I was thinking about it, like, what why is he
Speaker 3: number one?
Speaker 1: Show?
Speaker 3: Hey O Tani is facing the Yankees, Like, there's plenty
Speaker 3: of great bats out there. But then I look at
Speaker 3: Colin Ray with wind blowing out at Wrigley, and it's
Speaker 3: blowing out to right center, exactly where he hits most
Speaker 3: of his home runs. And Ray has allowed fourteen of
Speaker 3: sixteen home runs against left handers. So I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: Cody Clement sneaky has sixteen home runs, So I get it.
Speaker 3: So that would be my pick. What's your pick real
Speaker 3: quick for today? Yeah? Any any any feelings that you
Speaker 3: got on a home run guy?
Speaker 1: Well, now I just want to take another left handed hitteror.
Speaker 2: Playing at Wriggly there, I'll go Josh Bell, I'll stack him.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 3: Twins Nation before we get into anything. Happy birthday brother,
Speaker 3: turning twenty nine today, I put out a nice tweet.
Speaker 3: Five and a half years ago, we started just baseball
Speaker 3: and now you're the best prospect writer out there, a
Speaker 3: BBWAA member, and I hope to keep it going.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, dude, It's been awesome.
Speaker 2: It's crazy how much of a blur it has been
Speaker 2: already five and a half years. But yeah, this is
Speaker 2: the last year for me to be able to enter
Speaker 2: free agency and get a long term deal, Like we
Speaker 2: talked about it next next year. If I try to
Speaker 2: answer free agency I'm not getting anything more than four years.
Speaker 3: Still. One of my favorite bits from part of my
Speaker 3: take is when pft is he was turning thirty and
Speaker 3: he was like, I think it's officially time to give
Speaker 3: up my dream on.
Speaker 1: Y being in the NBA.
Speaker 3: The other like the age they were like, yeah, before that,
Speaker 3: I still had a chance. So technically at twenty nine
Speaker 3: a team could still give you a look, but you
Speaker 3: got one more year of it. Yeah, this is it.
Speaker 1: This is it.
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to make the most out of
Speaker 2: this last year, maybe get on the pep tide, see
Speaker 2: what I can do well.
Speaker 3: The Mets have certainly not made the most out of
Speaker 3: this season. We got a new recent report from Chelsea James,
Speaker 3: who's an MLB insider for s n Y, and the
Speaker 3: report reads a rival executive said the mets in informed
Speaker 3: them that everyone but Juan Soto, Carson, Bengje aj Ewing,
Speaker 3: Christian Scott, and Nolan McClain are available for a trade.
Speaker 3: And my first thought immediately goes to Francisco Lindor. Are
Speaker 3: you telling me there's a chance with Bobaschett. I'm still
Speaker 3: thinking about when Paul Hembikitis aka Hembo came on the
Speaker 3: show and floated Bashett returning to Toronto. I'm thinking about that.
Speaker 3: Clay Holmes, I know he's currently on the IL, but
Speaker 3: he should be back relatively soon. Is somebody gonna go
Speaker 3: after him? But I wonder why they didn't include Lindore
Speaker 3: on this list. Now I get it. In theory, he's
Speaker 3: owed thirty two million dollars until he's thirty seven years old.
Speaker 3: He's currently thirty two years old. He's not off to
Speaker 3: that grade of a start. However, this is Francisco Lindor
Speaker 3: we're talking about. I thought the point was marrying the
Speaker 3: two door and Soto and creating a young core surrounding them.
Speaker 3: But technically, and they've been fielding off as nothing is
Speaker 3: said in stone yet, I still think it's unlikely that
Speaker 3: he's traded. Yeah, the fact that he's not on this
Speaker 3: report was the biggest thing that stuck out to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's one of those where it's not like, oh,
Speaker 2: I guess I for you know, forgot to mention him
Speaker 2: like a you know, an omission there. There's a reason
Speaker 2: why it was mentioned. I don't think he's gonna be
Speaker 2: traded either. I think between the money and the fact
Speaker 2: that that's not gonna do it in a salary dump.
Speaker 2: So whoever it's gonna be acquiring him is gonna have
Speaker 2: to still give up something.
Speaker 1: It's gonna make it really difficult for that deal to happen.
Speaker 1: But I think the.
Speaker 2: Omission of Lindor in the names of players that are untouchable,
Speaker 2: I think and large part is because they are definitely
Speaker 2: I would be expecting them to be willing to listen
Speaker 2: because you are one hundred percent not able to move
Speaker 2: Soto in that contract. No one's gonna take that on,
Speaker 2: even though it's not necessarily a bad one. The Yankees tried,
Speaker 2: maybe maybe they could try to make it curious.
Speaker 3: Do you think nobody would take it on.
Speaker 2: I think there's three teams that can one of them
Speaker 2: he's on, and then I mean the Yankees couldn't go
Speaker 2: that high and didn't want to match that structure, So
Speaker 2: you could really say there's two teams.
Speaker 1: The other would be the Dodgers, who didn't do it right.
Speaker 2: So like that's the crazy thing is like the Mets
Speaker 2: outbid everybody for SODO services, So I just I don't
Speaker 2: see that happening. And ultimately I think they keep these
Speaker 2: two together. But I think when you have the history
Speaker 2: of you know, the butting heads that they kind of
Speaker 2: have had a little bit from even though it's most
Speaker 2: of even behind closed doors, but seemingly it has become
Speaker 2: a little bit more public, the struggles of the team
Speaker 2: are only gonna make that stuff worse. Like I could
Speaker 2: see the Mets and concerns being like, hey, we should
Speaker 2: probably maybe we want to shake this up. Also the
Speaker 2: money that would clear up for the Mets to be
Speaker 2: able to go do something else. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: who are you gonna go sign a free agency this
Speaker 2: year that's better than Francisco Indoor?
Speaker 1: Who are you gonna be able to add that's better.
Speaker 1: I don't see where that would be.
Speaker 2: Wes Lindor, with the injuries, is having the worst year
Speaker 2: that he's had really of his career so far.
Speaker 1: So it's unexpected.
Speaker 2: That said, I think the larger part of this report, though, too,
Speaker 2: is said like the Mets are one of the few
Speaker 2: clear cut sellers, and I think the Mets will be
Speaker 2: one of the first teams to trade away from their
Speaker 2: ball cup. Like, I think they're going to jump start
Speaker 2: this deadline a little bit quicker than others.
Speaker 3: I agree. I think Devin Williams is certainly going to
Speaker 3: be on the move. I think Luke Weaver might be
Speaker 3: the best reliever acquired at this deadline. Considering that the
Speaker 3: Red Sox per Fangrafts have an over forty percent chance
Speaker 3: of making the playoffs, increasingly unlikely that they would be
Speaker 3: willing to part with the role as Chapman making. I
Speaker 3: think Luke Weaver potentially. I mean, who knows what the
Speaker 3: Padres are going to do if they decide that Mason
Speaker 3: Miller is on the table. Throw out that statement about
Speaker 3: Luke Weaver being the top reliever available. But if Mason
Speaker 3: Miller is not available, I think Luke Weaver would be
Speaker 3: a welcomed edition to a lot of clubhouses. Another point
Speaker 3: on Landor, John Hayman came out this morning and tweeted
Speaker 3: out that the Yankees are not in the market to
Speaker 3: add a shortstop because when considering teams who could potentially
Speaker 3: take on the money that Lindor is owed. Again, there's
Speaker 3: another shortlist, right You mentioned the Dodgers, who of course
Speaker 3: have Mookie bets at shortstop. Could they move off them?
Speaker 3: But do they want to truly add another huge contract
Speaker 3: like that? Who knows, but technically they could bring them on.
Speaker 3: The Yankees are another team like that, and maybe the Phillies,
Speaker 3: but there's just no way the Mets are trading Lindor
Speaker 3: to the Phillies when the Phillies have Francisco Lindoor. So
Speaker 3: I was surprised to see that the Yankees aren't even
Speaker 3: in the market for a shortstop. I know Volpi is
Speaker 3: not nearly as bad as Yankee fans are calling him,
Speaker 3: but if he is on the other end of that trade,
Speaker 3: I don't understand why the Yankees wouldn't at least think
Speaker 3: about it bringing Lindoor onto this team. He would be
Speaker 3: a perfect fit. Now I know he's not having that
Speaker 3: greade of a season, but the defense is still above
Speaker 3: average when you look at the difference between his walls
Speaker 3: his ex world. But he has been one of the
Speaker 3: more unlucky hitters in Major League Baseball. But I really
Speaker 3: don't need an ex Wloba bloba equation to tell me
Speaker 3: that I still believe in Francisco Or is bad at
Speaker 3: thirty two years old. I'm just citing numbers that are
Speaker 3: happening right now where even if you're the biggest Lindor hater,
Speaker 3: you can't really deny what's in front of us.
Speaker 2: Any of injuries to explain it too, like he's been
Speaker 2: banged up all year.
Speaker 3: I think the Yankee should absolutely be exploring a Francisco
Speaker 3: Lindor deal. I tweeted last night there's no way the
Speaker 3: Mets would trade Lindor to the Yankees, right.
Speaker 2: And that's another one where it's like it's not inter division,
Speaker 2: but like I think it would be a tough optic
Speaker 2: cell as well to send him that way. It's about
Speaker 2: if you whatever is left of this year, so I
Speaker 2: guess it would be about five in a quarters years
Speaker 2: left at about one hundred and one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five million dollars hundred and seventy two million dollars.
Speaker 1: We're going to be exact if you want to.
Speaker 2: Just make it easy math like, for the next five
Speaker 2: years after this season, it's five years of one hundred
Speaker 2: and sixty million dollars roughly for Francisco Indoor Like, there's
Speaker 2: teams that will take that on, I think, but you
Speaker 2: just start to try to match it up and it
Speaker 2: gets difficult. And also again the season that he's having
Speaker 2: makes it tougher. But at the same time, it's not
Speaker 2: like you're paying him through age forty one. It's it's
Speaker 2: up to his age thirty seven season. And I think
Speaker 2: the tough cell will be When the Mets gave this
Speaker 2: contract out, a big part of it was that you
Speaker 2: were getting those prime years. You're getting age twenty eight,
Speaker 2: twenty nine to thirty thirty one. This is kind of
Speaker 2: like the last she perceived prime year, and he's been
Speaker 2: banged up physically. So most teams aren't jumping out of
Speaker 2: their chairs to take on contracts where the best part
Speaker 2: of it is already behind them, right Like, the back
Speaker 2: years of this deal are kind of accepted as the
Speaker 2: price to pay for the prime years that you're that
Speaker 2: you were paying for and what you were getting, So ultimately,
Speaker 2: I don't think he goes anywhere. And ultimately, I think
Speaker 2: like for the Mets to be competitive sooner rather than later,
Speaker 2: I think they've got to figure out a way to
Speaker 2: make it happen with Lindor and Soto and the rest
Speaker 2: of the guys that they have around them. Like if
Speaker 2: you have your everyday shortstop figured out where he could
Speaker 2: be still, I mean, when healthy, he's arguably one of
Speaker 2: the best in the game. And then you have Soto
Speaker 2: as well, Like those are two huge building blocks. You've
Speaker 2: got the young kids, You've got McClain in the rotation.
Speaker 2: Christian Scott, who we just talked about yesterday made us
Speaker 2: look great, proceeded to just shove on the only game
Speaker 2: on TV last night, and he just continues to look
Speaker 2: like he's settling in.
Speaker 1: They have the pieces.
Speaker 2: I think you trade and really reshuffle this team, But
Speaker 2: I don't think you need to trade. You know, one
Speaker 2: of the best shortstops in Major League Baseball at an
Speaker 2: all time low.
Speaker 3: So rank the likelihood of these three players getting traded
Speaker 3: Clay Holmes, Boba Schett and Francisco Lindor, and is it
Speaker 3: in that exact order I just laid out.
Speaker 2: I think it's in that order because John Hayman pointed
Speaker 2: out something really important the other day, which is that
Speaker 2: Boba's Jets contract is almost fully paid out for this year,
Speaker 2: so you get paid like a forty million dollars signing mode.
Speaker 1: So he's do we not owe anything this year.
Speaker 2: Now, it's still a little bit of a poison pill
Speaker 2: contract because if you acquire Baschett, remember it's it's player
Speaker 2: options for next year in the year after that. So
Speaker 2: if he stinks he's going to opt in for forty
Speaker 2: plus million again, he's going to opt in for forty
Speaker 2: plus million again. But now at least it makes it
Speaker 2: semi possible that if you're acquiring Bashett, you're not taking
Speaker 2: on fifteen million dollars for the rest of this season
Speaker 2: and then the forty.
Speaker 1: So that is where it gets interesting.
Speaker 2: And maybe because the Mets already paid it out, they say, hey,
Speaker 2: if he opts in for next year, you know, we'll
Speaker 2: put in a stipulation where we'll pay down ten of
Speaker 2: it if you give us like some really good prospects,
Speaker 2: which we've seen the Mets do in the past. Right,
Speaker 2: they paid down that Verlander contract. To get better pieces back,
Speaker 2: they paid down a couple of deals, I think to
Speaker 2: get better prospects back.
Speaker 1: I don't think that would be the craziest thing in
Speaker 1: the world.
Speaker 2: So I still think it's unlikely for Baschet, but the
Speaker 2: fact that this year is already all paid out, so
Speaker 2: the team acquiring him it doesn't have to worry about it.
Speaker 2: And next year maybe the Mets get paid down a
Speaker 2: little bit. I think there's a world where it's remotely
Speaker 2: possible that Bishek could be moved. And then Clay Holmes,
Speaker 2: he's already throwing. I think they said he's inching back
Speaker 2: towards a rehab assignment the second that he looks. I
Speaker 2: don't even think he needs to be on the mountain
Speaker 2: in a regular season setting for a team to say, hey,
Speaker 2: let's go get Klay Holmes. With the way he looked
Speaker 2: this year, and with how many teams are gonna need pitching.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, one more player that I want to
Speaker 3: throw at you that I wasn't shocked was not on
Speaker 3: this list of untouchable guys, but I was a little surprised.
Speaker 3: Francisco Alvarez, Yeah, Homers last night brought his ops up
Speaker 3: to seven seventy three. And this is on the heels
Speaker 3: of a twenty twenty five campaign where he posted his
Speaker 3: seven eighty six ops. And you can say, well, the
Speaker 3: defense isn't great, and I would agree with you. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, he is twenty four years old
Speaker 3: and is flashed really solid tools behind the plate. Right,
Speaker 3: He's flashed a good arm, he's flashed receiving skills. It's
Speaker 3: just kind of gone up and down with him defensively.
Speaker 3: Now I really don't know what to call him as
Speaker 3: a defender. At times I think he's really good. At
Speaker 3: times I think he's really poor. But then I have
Speaker 3: to remember in the back of my head, this guy's
Speaker 3: twenty four He's twenty four years old. Yeah, could he
Speaker 3: get better? Absolutely? Could this be an eight hundred oh
Speaker 3: ps bat behind the plate who's averaged defensively and sometimes
Speaker 3: showing flashes of above average, even elite abilities to receive
Speaker 3: the baseball?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So a good amount of teams need catchers. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think he could be a sneaky player that the
Speaker 3: Mets move at the deadline. Where we go when we
Speaker 3: see the package in return and say, WHOA, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: But then we think to ourselves, Yeah, deservedly so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say they'd have to be absolutely wowed
Speaker 2: on that one. And he's one where I'm like, I
Speaker 2: wonder if they just forgot to mention him, because I
Speaker 2: just I wouldn't.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to it didn't.
Speaker 3: Understand why they don't. Real quick, here's why I don't
Speaker 3: think they forgot him. Why they add Christian Scotty. And
Speaker 3: I love Christian scott I'm not saying that they shouldn't have.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that they did. I'm glad he's going to
Speaker 3: be a part of the Mets feature for a long time.
Speaker 3: But they picked their players on they did like this
Speaker 3: wasn't I don't really like if they said Nolan McClain,
Speaker 3: Juan Soto and Lindor and then benj and Ewing, I'd
Speaker 3: be like, yeah, I don't think they did. They didn't
Speaker 3: add specific players.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And it might be just the injury history
Speaker 2: and whatever where it's just like, hey, come overwhelm us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we really don't want to move them.
Speaker 2: But like, gum, knock our socks off, and that I
Speaker 2: guess I can understand because I think the thumb injuries
Speaker 2: have affected Alvarez is receiving because we've seen him, as
Speaker 2: you mentioned, receiveing an elite clip. But yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that's one where you'd have to just get absolutely overwhelmed
Speaker 2: with an offer. But I think the Mets are to
Speaker 2: be really savvy and just try to I mean, whatever
Speaker 2: flyer prospect you're gonna get for Viento, it's like everything,
Speaker 2: cash in every little piece that you can and see
Speaker 2: where you go. But yeah, I'm excited to see us
Speaker 2: Sterns navigates this deadline.
Speaker 3: Pry Polanco is another one, but I know he's kind
Speaker 3: of injured, but.
Speaker 1: I'm just walking about. I mean, the Viano's is hurt too, exactly.
Speaker 3: It's interesting they have a ton of guys that could
Speaker 3: potentially be on the move. I think the Mets might
Speaker 3: be the number one team to watch this deadline. But
Speaker 3: now it's time for one burning question for every team
Speaker 3: in the American League. Just want a special shout out
Speaker 3: to our YouTube live comment section. The best way to
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Speaker 3: listening here on audio, best way to support the show
Speaker 3: is by leaving a five star review. All right, We're
Speaker 3: gonna start in the American League West, so we're gonna
Speaker 3: work wet west to east, just like we did yesterday.
Speaker 3: The American League West, of course, features the Texas Rangers,
Speaker 3: the Seattle Mariners, the Houston Astros, the Sacramento A's, and
Speaker 3: the La Angels. So we're going to start at the
Speaker 3: top of the division. And my burning question is about
Speaker 3: the division for the Texas Rangers. Can they win the division?
Speaker 3: And I think it's a question that to me is
Speaker 3: the most burning in my eyes because I guess I
Speaker 3: could ask, well, will Corey Seger come back and perform?
Speaker 3: Of course, he's injured, and at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: I just I don't know. I don't know what he
Speaker 3: gives the Texas Rangers this season, so I'm kind of
Speaker 3: just assuming he's going to be back in September. He
Speaker 3: might give a little bit of a jolt. But can
Speaker 3: they maintain this lead for the foreseeable future? Because like
Speaker 3: I said at the very beginning, when I gave out
Speaker 3: Rangers plus two fifty five, I said, ninety percent of
Speaker 3: the public is on this Mariner's team. Cal Rawley's got
Speaker 3: a five eighty two ops like the Mariners have problems.
Speaker 3: This is not a perfect team. The Astros are a
Speaker 3: few games below five hundred are not perfect, But to me,
Speaker 3: they look like the best team in the division. And
Speaker 3: then I go to Fangraphs and I look at some projections.
Speaker 3: The bat X, which is my favorite projection system on Fangraphs,
Speaker 3: has the Rangers at fifty seven percent chance to win
Speaker 3: the division atc Another one of my favorite Fangraphs projections
Speaker 3: has the Rangers not quite at fifty seven, but above
Speaker 3: the Mariners. So some of the best Fangrafts projection systems
Speaker 3: are starting to put the Rangers truly in front of
Speaker 3: the Mariners. And for any of my betters out there
Speaker 3: who missed the plus two to fifty five price based
Speaker 3: on those there is a lot of value currently on
Speaker 3: BETMGM at plus one seventy five for the Rangers. So
Speaker 3: the books haven't quite adjusted yet because they have to
Speaker 3: balance all of the money that they have gotten for
Speaker 3: people betting on the Seattle Mariners to win the division.
Speaker 3: I know, I just gave the betting version, but the
Speaker 3: baseball version is this Whyatt Langford is back, Ezekiel Durant
Speaker 3: has stepped up, Brandon Nemo has been a great edition.
Speaker 3: They have six bats in their current lineup with a
Speaker 3: WRC plus above one hundred in their current rotation. You
Speaker 3: still got to Gram, You still got to Eovaldi. You
Speaker 3: have Gore, who hasn't taken the next step like I thought,
Speaker 3: but is still a fine number three, and Kumar rock
Speaker 3: Her flashes great thist at times, and Cal Quantrill's the
Speaker 3: greatest pitcher alive. Plus they're also our closer Jake Latz,
Speaker 3: and then they have that slew of guys who not
Speaker 3: sexy names, but they do a job. My burning question
Speaker 3: to you are can the Rangers win the division?
Speaker 1: Uh uh?
Speaker 2: My burning question is in regards to what can help
Speaker 2: them win the division, which is what version.
Speaker 1: Of mackenzie going to the Rangers get good?
Speaker 3: One?
Speaker 2: This is where I'm at, Like, I think the offense
Speaker 2: you mentioned it's getting better, it's healthy. The other direction
Speaker 2: I was going to go is like can White Langford
Speaker 2: stay healthy? But like I do we talk about that
Speaker 2: so often? Yeah, Gore is I think, because he's been
Speaker 2: on the mound, is the most like pivotal with aspects here.
Speaker 2: It's like, if Langford's healthy, he's gonna perform, He's gonna
Speaker 2: be good. He's gonna be a huge cool guy for
Speaker 2: this line up. But I look at this rotation, de
Speaker 2: Gram great, You'valdy really settling in and looking good.
Speaker 1: But you mentioned like some of.
Speaker 2: The other pieces, and you know, I think they're they're
Speaker 2: they've been really solid, solidly reliable.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think regular season arms, especially like what they've been
Speaker 2: able to get out of cal Quantrill actually has been
Speaker 2: quite incredible. And I think, yeah, Kumar, like with with
Speaker 2: the slider and the way that he's been able to
Speaker 2: ride that pitch to to enough success this year is great,
Speaker 2: but like he's limited.
Speaker 1: I think I think cal Quantrill's limited.
Speaker 2: Jack Rider's hurt right now, and when he comes back,
Speaker 2: we'll see, but you know that there's just been challenges
Speaker 2: for him to just.
Speaker 1: Stack successful starts.
Speaker 2: Gore is the guy to be your clear cut three here,
Speaker 2: Like he's the guy and he has a four to
Speaker 2: six three eel right. And here's the fascinating part for
Speaker 2: me is in his career, his story, Gore has been
Speaker 2: terrible in the second half terrible, and this year he's
Speaker 2: been like the surface level era looks worse than I
Speaker 2: think the underlying is. And I think he's been better
Speaker 2: than the numbers suggest, which I just wonder like, does
Speaker 2: he then turn that into better run prevention numbers on
Speaker 2: the surface, or do we see him give way a
Speaker 2: little bit in the second half and those numbers become
Speaker 2: even rougher. I don't know, but I do know if
Speaker 2: this Rangers team is going to reach their potential, like,
Speaker 2: they're gonna need a quality start out of Mackenzie Gore
Speaker 2: a lot more frequently than they're getting it right now.
Speaker 2: And then the other one is obviously Corey Seeger and
Speaker 2: I've talked about that like ad nauseum with this team
Speaker 2: right Like, this team I think really will only go
Speaker 2: as far offensively as is Seeger can take them. But
Speaker 2: the best way to hedge that is keep throwing the
Speaker 2: crap out of the baseball and Mackenzie Gore raises the
Speaker 2: ceiling of this rotation significantly.
Speaker 3: I also think that the Rangers are going to be
Speaker 3: sneaky buyers, just like they always are. Yeah, And I
Speaker 3: think when we put out trade deadline predictions or anybody
Speaker 3: does not just we, I think a lot of people
Speaker 3: just inherently forget about the Rangers. I'm not sure why
Speaker 3: they're just not floated like for example, you're hearing more
Speaker 3: about Seattle buying than you are the Rangers, and the
Speaker 3: Rangers were the team to make the shocking move for
Speaker 3: McKenzie gore. Right, They've made a lot of moves where
Speaker 3: it's like, oh, where did the Rangers come from? It's like,
Speaker 3: have you been watching the Rangers. Chris Young has been
Speaker 3: one of the most aggressive gms in baseball. They they
Speaker 3: are absolutely a team who is going to be one
Speaker 3: of the most aggressive buyers at this deadline, I believe so.
Speaker 3: So you combine that with their current team and Seeger
Speaker 3: coming back eventually and hoping that McKenzie gore has a
Speaker 3: bounce back second half, it's hard not to understand why
Speaker 3: a projection system like the bad X or ATC or
Speaker 3: my own personal model would didn't make the Rangers the
Speaker 3: current favorites to win the American League West. So again
Speaker 3: i'll throw it back to you. I know we've talked
Speaker 3: about it, but it has been like a month since
Speaker 3: we made it a prediction, and last month, I think
Speaker 3: when we talked about it, you said, I'm still going
Speaker 3: with the Mariners, but I don't feel good about it.
Speaker 3: Are you still at that point or are you starting
Speaker 3: to migrate over to my Rangers.
Speaker 1: Gosh, these teams, these both these teams, dude.
Speaker 3: Dude, what are you talking about? Rangers are two games
Speaker 3: over five hundred. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: These teams, dude, It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I get.
Speaker 2: Any time you start to think one is going to
Speaker 2: separate themselves from the other, they just crater again. I
Speaker 2: would say, right now, though, I feel better about the
Speaker 2: Rangers situation with Langford back and the Segar wrinkle is
Speaker 2: going to be important, But like, I have more confidence
Speaker 2: I think in Cory Seger, who's had a rough year
Speaker 2: even when he's been on the field coming back and hitting.
Speaker 2: Then I think I do cal Rowley figuring it out
Speaker 2: at this point. So from that lens, and then you
Speaker 2: can mention like the Mariner's pitching, but those guys have
Speaker 2: been throwing the ball all year, like it's still been
Speaker 2: a battle of all battles. It's just it's hard for
Speaker 2: me and then and Julio the concussion stuff. I feel
Speaker 2: like more and more players hitting at baseball so freaking
Speaker 2: hard now that if you have a concussion, you have
Speaker 2: like if your reaction time or just your your vision
Speaker 2: is compromised by like three percent your toast like it.
Speaker 1: I feel like all these guys are having such residual effects.
Speaker 2: I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not going to be
Speaker 2: expecting Julio to just come back and swing it right away.
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: process there.
Speaker 2: So I lean Rangers right now, but like I'm gonna
Speaker 2: flip flop on this probably every single week because these
Speaker 2: two teams are just there is frustrating as to come.
Speaker 3: I don't want to spend too much more time on
Speaker 3: the Rangers. I want to go over to the Mariners.
Speaker 3: I just think it's very important to note before we
Speaker 3: move on that I don't think that the Rangers offense
Speaker 3: is predicated on Corey Seeger's success, because we already talked
Speaker 3: about Langford and his eight ninet ops. But he's got
Speaker 3: another twenty eight year old teammate with an eight nineteen
Speaker 3: ops and his name is Josh Young, who has put
Speaker 3: together a fantastic year, rocking a two point seven four.
Speaker 3: Jock Peterson, remember last year when he was the worst
Speaker 3: header alive. He ain't anymore. He's been twenty two percent
Speaker 3: above league average. He's been a staple in this lineup.
Speaker 3: Brandon Imo has been great, Jake Berger is even three
Speaker 3: percent above average, and Ezekiel Duran was a two and
Speaker 3: a half win player in the first half with a
Speaker 3: one to twelve WRC plus. Right those are their six
Speaker 3: right now that have a WRC plus above one hundred.
Speaker 3: Then you add Corey Seeger to that lineup, of course
Speaker 3: it'll help. But I think that this team can weather
Speaker 3: the storm offensively until he comes back and ended up
Speaker 3: winning this division. So that's my take.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for the division, I think so. I think if
Speaker 2: they're going to do anything in the playoffs, say they
Speaker 2: need they need an anchor in there, they need, they
Speaker 2: need a little bit more going. I just it's it's
Speaker 2: a slightly above average offense and the pitching staff that's average,
Speaker 2: slightly above and that's slightly above average team.
Speaker 3: You really love a lot of the teams of the
Speaker 3: American League now better usters than the Ragers. I'll up
Speaker 3: say this. I'm sitting out of fourteen to one ticket
Speaker 3: for them to within the Petite too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Mariners. Uh, arm, my guess
Speaker 3: is you have the same one. Is this a lost
Speaker 3: season for cal Ralely because there's a couple there's a
Speaker 3: couple other you know, burning questions that I have for
Speaker 3: some players where I'm thinking, do we see a second
Speaker 3: half search? ARM. I don't think we see a second
Speaker 3: half search from cal Rawley. He's hitting a BUCKS sixty nine.
Speaker 3: He's got a five eighty one OPS to give him
Speaker 3: a sixty seven OPS plus. I mean, this has just
Speaker 3: been a full blown disaster at the plate. His quality
Speaker 3: of contact has dropped off the face of the planet.
Speaker 3: Thirty two percent hard hit rate this year, Arm. He
Speaker 3: was at forty nine percent last year. Strikeout rates jump
Speaker 3: to eight percent. He's chasing, he's whiffing. The baseball savant
Speaker 3: looks ugly. He's not framing well. He's got one of
Speaker 3: the slowest pop times in baseball. He's got nine home runs.
Speaker 3: And this comes to us from inside edge. Cal Rawly
Speaker 3: has chased thirty seven percent of pitches out of the
Speaker 3: zone on the first pitch of at bats this season.
Speaker 3: That is the highest Immediate League Baseball among hitters with
Speaker 3: at least one hundred and forty one total plate appearances.
Speaker 3: I can't think of a drop off like this homers.
Speaker 2: To I just think he I think he's hurt. I
Speaker 2: know that he was hurt. It's I think it's still
Speaker 2: affecting him. I really do. There's no other explanation. Everybody
Speaker 2: we've talked about, like you knew he wasn't gonna match
Speaker 2: last year, it was probably unlikely, but that stat too,
Speaker 2: where he's chasing on the first.
Speaker 1: Pitch more than anybody, or as much as anybody.
Speaker 2: It feels like to me, he looks like a guy
Speaker 2: who just feels like he's slow, Like he's slower this year,
Speaker 2: and he's cheating, and he's like, I'm not getting the
Speaker 2: barrel out as quickly as I normally do. I got
Speaker 2: I gotta decide a little bit earlier. I got to
Speaker 2: get it out there. I gotta get it out there.
Speaker 2: And it's leading to bad decisions because you're seeing the
Speaker 2: quality of contact effect affected.
Speaker 1: And I think with.
Speaker 2: That oblique and trying to play through it a little
Speaker 2: bit and come back quick from it and all those different things,
Speaker 2: I just think it's it's affecting him.
Speaker 1: I really do.
Speaker 2: There's just no way you drop off like this after
Speaker 2: what we saw from him last year, and even if
Speaker 2: the whift jumped and the chase jumped, the QOC should
Speaker 2: be there right, and it's not so I think it's
Speaker 2: injury related. The one hope you have here is that
Speaker 2: just the further removed he gets from that, maybe the
Speaker 2: All Star break helps a little bit too. He's able
Speaker 2: to just kind of get back to himself physically and
Speaker 2: start to trust himself again, because the swing decisions, to me,
Speaker 2: imply a guy that just doesn't feel like he's moving
Speaker 2: as quickly and getting the barrel out as quickly as
Speaker 2: he normally does.
Speaker 1: And it's it's now compounding the issue.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I also think that that point
Speaker 3: that you made about cal Rawly potentially being injured and
Speaker 3: not wanting to come out of the game is an
Speaker 3: important one because when you hear Lyle and TJ are
Speaker 3: friends at the Marine Layer Pod talk about cal Rawly,
Speaker 3: and you know, they talk about his leadership qualities and
Speaker 3: how he's always there every day in the locker room.
Speaker 3: And this guy, even when he's hurt, he does not
Speaker 3: want to take off days ever, Like even if he's
Speaker 3: banged up, he's like, I'm catching behind the plate. He
Speaker 3: caught one hundred and twenty games last year he bag.
Speaker 3: I think he played literally every game outside of what
Speaker 3: one or two. I think he played one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty nine games last year and one hundred and twenty
Speaker 3: of those were behind the dish, and then again this year.
Speaker 3: I know he's been banged up with injuries, but he
Speaker 3: still played fifty of his sixty six games behind the plate.
Speaker 3: This guy wants to catch every day. He knows how
Speaker 3: important it is to the Mariners arms. And I think
Speaker 3: that if he took lie detector test and told you
Speaker 3: that he was healthy, I think he would fail. And
Speaker 3: I think that's a big reason why he's having a
Speaker 3: season like this, which is a complete falloff. Yeah, I agree,
Speaker 3: So I guess maybe it was a bad burning question
Speaker 3: just I feel like, but it sold portion for the Mariners.
Speaker 2: He's everything, especially with Julio too. I mean, like Julio's
Speaker 2: heard as well. It's just can your MVP runner up
Speaker 2: that would have won MVPs in most other seasons play
Speaker 2: like a player that's not a detriment to the team
Speaker 2: like that. To go from MVP to detriment is one
Speaker 2: of the biggest Like, there's nothing a GM can do
Speaker 2: to account for that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, let's go over the Houston Astros and mine's going
Speaker 3: to be quick. So I'll just go first. Can youord
Speaker 3: On Alvarez win the triple crown? The first since Miguel
Speaker 3: Cabrera Since twenty twelve, he's hitting three eighteen. He's four
Speaker 3: points off the batting average leader boards, behind Yanni Dias
Speaker 3: of the Ampa Bay Rays. He's got thirty one homers,
Speaker 3: which leads the American League, and he's got seventy RBIs,
Speaker 3: which leads the American League. I don't know if he's
Speaker 3: going to do it. If there was a hitter to
Speaker 3: do it in Major League Baseball, his name would be
Speaker 3: Aaron Judge, but he's injured. It could be Shoheo Tawny,
Speaker 3: or it could be Jordon Aparez, right, and he's got
Speaker 3: a real shot at doing so. Right, if he doesn't
Speaker 3: do it this year, at twenty nine years old, in
Speaker 3: this week of an American League, with Aaron Judge injured,
Speaker 3: we might not see a triple crown for a very
Speaker 3: long time. So this is the opportunity I want to
Speaker 3: see if Jordon does it.
Speaker 2: And he's I mean the exact archetype of hitter to
Speaker 2: be able to do it with just the bats ball
Speaker 2: and power that he has, and would be really fun
Speaker 2: thing to watch. And also, I mean, if he's doing that,
Speaker 2: the Astros are probably continuing to be in the hunt.
Speaker 1: That's the fun part with him.
Speaker 2: He's one of the best two strike hitters we've seen
Speaker 2: in this year. I mean, this is stupid, stupid stuff.
Speaker 2: This year in two hundred and eight played appearances with two strikes,
Speaker 2: sitting two eighty five with a eight ninety four ops
Speaker 2: fourteen homers, it's a two forty nine ops plus. It's
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty percent better than league average with
Speaker 2: two strikes. That's just outrageous, absolutely outrageous.
Speaker 1: I don't think we'll really ever see somebody.
Speaker 3: Peyton put that up there. And Peyton, I don't know
Speaker 3: if he's ever gotten a stat wrong. I don't believe that.
Speaker 3: But forty nine ops plus with two strikes, it's like
Speaker 3: it's one of those numbers that does I it's so
Speaker 3: crazy that I can't believe it's true.
Speaker 2: You like, literally, with two strikes, he's still way better
Speaker 2: than the average hitter in an count. He's better than
Speaker 2: a lot of hitters in advantage counts with two twos.
Speaker 3: He almost want to get him to two strikes.
Speaker 2: It's great, well, you know, otherwise he's got in one
Speaker 2: thousand and fifty nine ops.
Speaker 1: So I don't know.
Speaker 2: He's still he's still worse than he normally, is it?
Speaker 2: It's special stuff. My big question with them is what
Speaker 2: is this pitching staff? Because it's not necessarily terrible like
Speaker 2: I thought it was a couple months ago.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: It may by production standards be terrible the rest of
Speaker 2: the way, but I can look at this pitching staff
Speaker 2: now and say I could see some things going right here.
Speaker 3: Brown just needs to starter, like entire pitching staff.
Speaker 1: Ohtarters, Like what is this rotation? Because Hunter Brown is
Speaker 1: gonna be fine.
Speaker 2: He's made seven starts this year, He's coming back from
Speaker 2: a long layoff arm injury wise, I think he's gonna
Speaker 2: be and still even with himself not looking great, like
Speaker 2: he's still got a three five seventy R, like he's
Speaker 2: found a way to prevent runs. Christian Aavier just came
Speaker 2: back off the aisle from TJ and just trying to
Speaker 2: find the zone. But like he's Christian Xavier. So if
Speaker 2: he sucks the rest of the way, I get it.
Speaker 2: But if Christian Avier snaps in and he looks like
Speaker 2: a number four starter, even wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker 1: Peter Abbert's been right all year.
Speaker 2: That guy, I trust him now, is just a solid
Speaker 2: inning zeting type of guy. Arraghetty has been at points
Speaker 2: really solid, at points really frustrating. If he's somewhere in
Speaker 2: the middle there again take it and then that too,
Speaker 2: you Ami has either been completely unusable or dominant. And
Speaker 2: that's another big one where it's just like, what do
Speaker 2: you get could he get anything.
Speaker 1: Usable from him? That helps?
Speaker 2: I just think we're not running out like and then
Speaker 2: Mike Burrows is doing with a little bit of injury.
Speaker 2: Maybe he comes back and throws a little bit better.
Speaker 2: They're gonna get Kaiwait Tang back. He can eat some innings.
Speaker 2: I just feel like with this rotation, it's not one
Speaker 2: of those where you just look at and say, oh, well,
Speaker 2: none of these guys have any shot to be decent.
Speaker 2: Like you look now and you say, well, when Araghetti's hot,
Speaker 2: he looks good. We've seen Javier be good when am
Speaker 2: I is remotely throwing that wrong.
Speaker 1: With slider for a strike. He's been good.
Speaker 2: When Hunter Brown has been healthy, he's been one of
Speaker 2: the best pitchers of Major League Baseball. So if a
Speaker 2: couple of things go right with this really wide, high
Speaker 2: variance group. With the way the Astros have been trending,
Speaker 2: with the return of Josh Hater and the bullpen, and
Speaker 2: the bullpen overall is just great.
Speaker 1: Like, I just need these guys to be five and
Speaker 1: dive and I think they can survive.
Speaker 2: That's where I'm fascinated, because I think this team's gonna
Speaker 2: weirdly still just hit en off, especially with jord On.
Speaker 1: I just I don't really know what to make of it.
Speaker 2: But with this rotation, if they're able to just be
Speaker 2: half decent, I think the Astros can you find themselves
Speaker 2: in the playoffs.
Speaker 3: The Astro's rotation is emblematic of the entire American League.
Speaker 3: And here's what I mean by that. They are wildly inconsistent.
Speaker 3: They give you performances where you think, to yourself, are
Speaker 3: you a big league arm But you're still holding out
Speaker 3: hope because there's some big names, right Like you said
Speaker 3: it yourself. A tatsu Imai. We've seen what he looks
Speaker 3: like when he's dominant. We've seen another hitter, vladimirg Row,
Speaker 3: Junior Gunner Henderson. Look no, we know what they look
Speaker 3: like when they're dominant. But they have been wildly inconsistent right,
Speaker 3: and the same can be said about Spencer Arraghetty, the
Speaker 3: same can be said about Christian Javier Right. Continue to
Speaker 3: go down the list. It's guys with talent that just
Speaker 3: haven't been able to put it together this season, And
Speaker 3: with the Nashros team in the American League where it
Speaker 3: is still wide open, it's not a bad rotation to
Speaker 3: have when you're currently in a hole and you need
Speaker 3: some upside and the Ashro's rotation can deliver it. My
Speaker 3: thinking is it's not going to be enough to dig
Speaker 3: them out of said hole, because I'm sure they'll all
Speaker 3: have their points where they show that dominant talent that
Speaker 3: they have, but they will, unfortunately also have outings where
Speaker 3: the Ashros offense cannot overcome the seven runs after four
Speaker 3: innings that all five of them including Brown currently.
Speaker 1: Can do so.
Speaker 3: But if we're just talking about plain upside, I don't
Speaker 3: want back of that rotation. I just still think the
Speaker 3: Ashros are going to be on the outside looking in
Speaker 3: when it comes to the playoffs, even if they buy.
Speaker 3: I do think that there is just too much inconsistency
Speaker 3: in this rotation.
Speaker 2: Well, one other fun variable is Ronel Blanco on his
Speaker 2: way back too, and like, go hit her. I mean, dude,
Speaker 2: Ronel Blanco would be one of the most welcome stabilizers
Speaker 2: for this team, I think, which is crazy to say,
Speaker 2: but like he's only thrown two hundred and seventy four
Speaker 2: innings at the big league level, but to a three
Speaker 2: four five R and like, that's a guy though that Like,
Speaker 2: I don't think there's that much variance with I know,
Speaker 2: you do the no hitter Blake, He's gonna go out
Speaker 2: there and give you a chance. I think he's gonna
Speaker 2: be kind of Peter Lambert coated, and like, I think
Speaker 2: the Astros would kill for another one of those, so
Speaker 2: that that helps a lot too. I just think those
Speaker 2: aspects of the rotation are fascinating to me. And I
Speaker 2: think we was Nesky could potentially come back at some
Speaker 2: point this year, and then whatever they get from Burrows,
Speaker 2: who was phenomenal in the second half last year too
Speaker 2: and just has been hurt and frustrating this year. So
Speaker 2: so much variance in this rotation that I just want
Speaker 2: to see what it looks like.
Speaker 3: It is certainly going to be fun to watch that,
Speaker 3: there is no doubt about it. Let's go over to
Speaker 3: the a's and I've gone first the first three times,
Speaker 3: so you get a run of going first a's.
Speaker 2: What you got with the a's is just can Lawrence
Speaker 2: Butler find it? You know, I think this is the
Speaker 2: season's kind of over for them, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you have.
Speaker 2: Most of the guys that are banged up are probably
Speaker 2: not going to come back, and if they do, like
Speaker 2: it's you know, there's not gonna be that much time
Speaker 2: for you to gauge too much, you know about what
Speaker 2: it's going to look like. Like Denzel Clark, if he comes
Speaker 2: back and struggles, it's kind of a last year for him. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: this year Kurtz is Nick Kurtz, and once he's back,
Speaker 2: you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: Rookers out for season.
Speaker 2: Lawrence Butler, you paid Lawrence Butler has shown us stretches
Speaker 2: where he has been fantastic and and this year he's
Speaker 2: been one of the worst players in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2: They've had to throw him out there in center field
Speaker 2: because of the injury to Clark and some other guys,
Speaker 2: So that you know, that's definitely torpedo the the f
Speaker 2: wur a little bit. But at the same time, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's a five ninety one, Oh asked from a guy
Speaker 2: that has all the talent in the world.
Speaker 1: I mean they extended him for a reason.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, it was a one thirty WRC
Speaker 2: plus and even like last year where there was some
Speaker 2: ebbs and flows, he hit twenty one homers, stole twenty
Speaker 2: two bags, and yeah, finished slightly below average by WRC plus.
Speaker 2: But I still think you looked at Larrence Butler and said,
Speaker 2: age twenty four season like this is this is a
Speaker 2: pretty good player, and this guy that can continue to develop.
Speaker 2: So for his age twenty five season, just turned twenty
Speaker 2: six a week ago to be hitting the wall that
Speaker 2: he has, Like, you go in the next year now,
Speaker 2: and you just don't really know what you have.
Speaker 1: If Lawrence Butler doesn't get better. If Lawrence Butler.
Speaker 2: Improves and you know, finishes the year on a higher note,
Speaker 2: you go in the next season and say, all right,
Speaker 2: well that's our corner outfielder, and you know everything's gonna
Speaker 2: be all right, and you know, we'll assume he's going
Speaker 2: to continue to build on on the second half that
Speaker 2: he had. But I think that's the big question and
Speaker 2: a couple of just interesting Lawrence Butler stats, he's slugging
Speaker 2: one seventy six with the pitcher behind in the count.
Speaker 2: So when Lawrence Butler is ahead and counts, he's slugging
Speaker 2: one seventy six. That's the lowest among MLB players with
Speaker 2: at least one hundred and forty one plate appearances. So
Speaker 2: he's not even leveraging his advantage counts. He's slugging seventy
Speaker 2: seven on high ninety five plus mile prior pitches. So
Speaker 2: you got the scouting report on him, just elevated fastball
Speaker 2: and he's toast.
Speaker 1: That's the second lowest in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 2: So he's not leveraging his advantage counts because Pittrick knowes, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm behind, I'll just throw an elevated heater and good
Speaker 2: luck Lawrence. So's it's a timing thing, it's a mechanic thing.
Speaker 2: He's going to need to figure it out, and hopefully
Speaker 2: he does in the second half because that makes it
Speaker 2: a lot easier for the Athletics to go into next
Speaker 2: year and know what they have.
Speaker 3: The only point that I wanted to add, well, just
Speaker 3: a few small ones. You mentioned tank to f war
Speaker 3: among players with at least two hundred and fifty plate
Speaker 3: appearances this season, he's second to last, behind Salvador Prez
Speaker 3: and just in front of Mark Fiento. So truly, he
Speaker 3: has been one of the least valuable players in Major
Speaker 3: League Baseball. And you said that last year in totality,
Speaker 3: the year wasn't that bad, and I agree with you.
Speaker 3: Like a ninety six WRC plus, like an ops in
Speaker 3: the seven ten, seven to twenty range, with a two
Speaker 3: win season, it's not bad. It's not great, it's like fine, right,
Speaker 3: But it's not a season that you're just giving up
Speaker 3: on a guy, of course not. But the thing is
Speaker 3: in the second half of last year, and I don't
Speaker 3: know this off the top of my head, but I
Speaker 3: remember watching him get beat a lot. Like I'm curious
Speaker 3: if the high fastball thing became more prevalent in the
Speaker 3: second half of twenty twenty five, where he posted a
Speaker 3: seventy WRC plus. Yeah, and then this year it's a
Speaker 3: very similar WRC plus and he's getting fed these high heaters.
Speaker 3: This might just be an area of the zone where
Speaker 3: he is simply overmatched. Could he come back next year
Speaker 3: and fix the problem maybe theoretically hopefully, But at the
Speaker 3: same time, I'm sure, he noticed this was an issue
Speaker 3: in the second half, and he should have fixed this
Speaker 3: going into this year, and it's been the same or
Speaker 3: arguably worse. That's what makes me nervous for Lawrence Butler
Speaker 3: long term, which is why my one burning question was truly,
Speaker 3: is he a part of the core? Is this just
Speaker 3: a sunk cost? Like is he worth it to trot
Speaker 3: out there every single day moving forward? Because this has
Speaker 3: been abysmal and he has a clear hole and it's
Speaker 3: not just this season, it's carried over from last season
Speaker 3: where he was also one of the worst hitters in baseball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's where like maybe it wasn't pressing
Speaker 2: enough for him to fully make feel like he needed
Speaker 2: to make a major overhaul change at the end of
Speaker 2: last year. I think this offseason, you know this is
Speaker 2: it's quite pressing, and if it doesn't get any better
Speaker 2: the rest of the year too, like I think clearly
Speaker 2: there's there's some need there and then you're gonna go
Speaker 2: in the next year with probably a shorterlyation if he
Speaker 2: continues to have the same issues for an athletics team
Speaker 2: that's gonna want to be competitive and was hoping to
Speaker 2: even be competitive this year, I think he'd start to
Speaker 2: see the rapt start to dwindle a little bit.
Speaker 3: Let's end one burning question in the Ale West with
Speaker 3: the La Angels, and with the Angels again pretty much
Speaker 3: a lost season at this point. Uh, they brought in
Speaker 3: a new GM, John mose Lac. I'm very excited to
Speaker 3: see what he does during the trade deadline because I
Speaker 3: know with Perry Manassian, the report was out that the
Speaker 3: Angels don't want to trade from any of their three
Speaker 3: studs at the top of the rotation, whether that be
Speaker 3: Walbert Orina, whether that be Jose Soriano, whether that be
Speaker 3: Re det Mers. So that's just one burning question again.
Speaker 3: But my big one is it's more of a fascination.
Speaker 3: I'm curious what does Grace and Rodriguez look like for
Speaker 3: the end of the season, because Grace Rodriguez so far
Speaker 3: this season hasn't come back fully healthy, hasn't looked like himself.
Speaker 3: He's pitching to an array above seven. They traded Taylor
Speaker 3: Ward it was only one year, so you kind of
Speaker 3: understand what the Orioles thought about him where they just
Speaker 3: didn't think he was gonna stay healthy. And when he
Speaker 3: is staying healthy, it's not gonna be anything worth much, right,
Speaker 3: But the Angels took an opportunity and so far the
Speaker 3: Orioles have been quote unquote proven right. But the thing is,
Speaker 3: you still have years of control for Grayson for him
Speaker 3: to turn it around. So my one burning question simply
Speaker 3: would be does that turnaround happen in the second half,
Speaker 3: because I would love to see it because I'm rooting
Speaker 3: for the guy. Like when he's on, he's he could
Speaker 3: be dominant. I mean, he could be a frontline starter.
Speaker 3: We just haven't seen it in a while. But I'm curious.
Speaker 3: Crazier things have happened than Grayson Rodriguez turning it around
Speaker 3: the second half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it's huge for them.
Speaker 2: I mean, you imagine going into next year, forget like
Speaker 2: not pitching prospect in baseball, Grayson. If Grayson Rodriguez looks
Speaker 2: like a guy that can throw to a high threes
Speaker 2: below fours, and you saw that guy to your four
Speaker 2: spot for your rotation.
Speaker 1: Next year, that's exciting.
Speaker 2: You got Soriano to debt Mercy Urania to just a
Speaker 2: respectable four, and then you just figure out the five
Speaker 2: and maybe you just go sign a back end guy.
Speaker 2: Maybe Kikuchi's healthy and you know you can go with him.
Speaker 2: That's where I think it's really interesting. So I'm fascinated
Speaker 2: by that side of thing. And that's a fun part
Speaker 2: about this rotation is like Kakuchi has been hurt pretty
Speaker 2: much the whole year. He's just starting to work his
Speaker 2: way back. You could start to talk yourself into this
Speaker 2: rotation a little bit. I mean, Kikuchi the previous two
Speaker 2: seasons was a four era in one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five innings with with pretty good strikeout to walk numbers.
Speaker 2: Like if that's your four and then Grayson's your five,
Speaker 2: you're in a pretty good spot. So I think that's
Speaker 2: a huge area. And for me it's you know, what
Speaker 2: is what is a selling angels? And I know even
Speaker 2: if they're not selling those guys, they're gonna sell some
Speaker 2: pieces presumably.
Speaker 1: What does that look like with John mose Lock now?
Speaker 2: And you know, I think perrym andasi AND's hands were
Speaker 2: tied to a degree, and maybe mose will be tied
Speaker 2: by what is one of the more you know, I
Speaker 2: would say overbearing and just just misguided owners and in
Speaker 2: sports and.
Speaker 3: Them that's the nicest way you could describe him, correct.
Speaker 2: And I think I'm just curious, like if Artie says,
Speaker 2: all right, well a new guy here, like, let's this
Speaker 2: guy's very experience, let me see what he can do,
Speaker 2: and like just even for some of the relief pieces,
Speaker 2: like what kind of prospects do you bring in? What
Speaker 2: does it look like? I'm just interested to see Mosaylock
Speaker 2: operate a little bit.
Speaker 3: All right, let's go over to the American League Central
Speaker 3: of a podcast Pee, let's hear from our friends at
Speaker 3: Hampton Farms Peanuts one burning question for every team in
Speaker 3: the American League. We move to the American League Central,
Speaker 3: which features the White Sox, the Guardians, the Twins, the Tigers,
Speaker 3: and the Royals will start up top even though both
Speaker 3: teams are tied. I think technically the White Sox have
Speaker 3: the better winning percentage, so we'll go that. And actually
Speaker 3: I've been going first a lot. You go first arm
Speaker 3: White Sox burning question?
Speaker 2: Can Mari Kai? Can Morikami keep it up? Is my
Speaker 2: question because this this team's identity this year in particular,
Speaker 2: is that they're gonna need to bang, like if they're
Speaker 2: gonna make the playoffs, they're gonna win the division, if
Speaker 2: they're gonna make any noise and have a strong finish.
Speaker 2: They're gonna need to bang with the best of them
Speaker 2: like they've done for a lot of this year. And
Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of reason to believe Miguel
Speaker 2: Vargus is going to continue to be Miguel Vargus. Costa
Speaker 2: Montgomery's now showed us for a pretty large sample that
Speaker 2: he's gonna be a power with guy.
Speaker 1: But the power is gonna prevail.
Speaker 2: And then Tristan Peters and you know, some of these
Speaker 2: complimentary pieces have been great. Of course, Sam Antonaci is
Speaker 2: gonna be a one thirty w RC plus I don't know,
Speaker 2: but he's gonna be above average big league bat like that.
Speaker 1: Was the whole story with him. It's just how high
Speaker 1: the floor is.
Speaker 2: But for this team to make the noise that they're
Speaker 2: gonna make, like they're not gonna aggressively buy, I just
Speaker 2: don't think that's that's realistic here. So the odds of
Speaker 2: them getting a rotation piece that's going to change things
Speaker 2: or is relatively slim. I think their staff you just
Speaker 2: kind of see if they hold serve and and the relievers.
Speaker 1: Continue to do what they're doing.
Speaker 2: I think they got a bang and Murakami before he
Speaker 2: was hurt, was giving them some of the best power
Speaker 2: production in the league. It's a nine to eleven ops,
Speaker 2: it's a thirty four percent strikeout rate.
Speaker 1: It's contact rates.
Speaker 2: That are right kind of below what typically is needed
Speaker 2: to have a consistently good season.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I mean, like, if you're at a there's not a
Speaker 2: lot of hitters that have had a sub sixty percent contact, right,
Speaker 2: Mourakami's at fifty nine point five and have been productive
Speaker 2: for the entirety of a season.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to do that.
Speaker 2: So that's where I look off the injury, just into
Speaker 2: a second half where the scouting reports are a little
Speaker 2: bit more detailed, the games become a little bit more important,
Speaker 2: things are a little bit tighter. Can Morikami continue to
Speaker 2: produce with a fifty nine and a half percent contact
Speaker 2: or can he improve that contact.
Speaker 3: Right one hundred percent? My one burning question for them
Speaker 3: is more about the deadline. I'm curious what they're going
Speaker 3: to do. This came from Ken Rosenthal this morning on
Speaker 3: Foul Territory. The White Sox are willing to be relatively
Speaker 3: aggressive and I quote on players with control of the deadline,
Speaker 3: but are not inclined to overpay for rentals, which actually
Speaker 3: I think is the exact direction that they want to go, right,
Speaker 3: You're not trying to send over big time prospects in
Speaker 3: order to get rentals that are not going to be
Speaker 3: a part of your future. So who are these pictures
Speaker 3: I'm assuming that they want to bring in with control
Speaker 3: And how far are they willing to go with their prospects,
Speaker 3: because if they know they're getting a picture, what let's say,
Speaker 3: with two and a half years of control with it,
Speaker 3: which is certainly now in this new White Sox contention window,
Speaker 3: are they willing to give up a Caleb Bonnemer who
Speaker 3: currently doesn't really have a spot, Considering Miguel Vargas was
Speaker 3: an All Star and has truly been one of the
Speaker 3: best hitters in baseball this year at third base, it's
Speaker 3: just twenty six years old, and they have Colson Montgomery
Speaker 3: at shortstop twenty four years old, could be the first
Speaker 3: lefty to hit forty home runs by shortstop, a left
Speaker 3: tended hitting shortstop. Ever, and you can't really move Vargas
Speaker 3: over to first base because again, like you said, you
Speaker 3: have Murakami at first. So could Caleb Bonnerber be available?
Speaker 3: Considering they also just drafted rock Chlowski, like, could they
Speaker 3: dangle him in a big time pitcher with control, which
Speaker 3: could end up being the move of the deadline. So
Speaker 3: I'm really intrigued with what the White Socks are gonna do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think they hold sir, but yeah, if
Speaker 2: you get the opportunity to get a controllable arm and
Speaker 2: it helps you now, but most importantly in the next
Speaker 2: two years, who knows, who knows what they could ultimately do,
Speaker 2: but I think it'll be kind of a fascinating deadline regardless.
Speaker 2: For like, I think the White Sox and the Marlins
Speaker 2: are in very similar situations where they're gonna if they're
Speaker 2: gonna buy, they're gonna be creative, and I'm curious to
Speaker 2: see how they do that.
Speaker 3: Definitely, let's go over to the Cleveland Guardians again. You
Speaker 3: go first, what's your burning question?
Speaker 2: It's just the most obvious one for me, it's just
Speaker 2: what version of Jose Ramirez do they get upon return?
Speaker 2: You know, he comes back from that broken handmate, he
Speaker 2: wasn't having a very good year before that, and talking
Speaker 2: to some of just my friends and pro ball that
Speaker 2: have broken their handmate, Not everybody has to go this way,
Speaker 2: but some kind of felt it coming for a while,
Speaker 2: like you kind of knew that it was going to go,
Speaker 2: and then it went some It just goes, but you
Speaker 2: kind of feel it wearing and getting sore, and then.
Speaker 1: It finally goes.
Speaker 2: And so I wonder if that was the case with
Speaker 2: Jay ram because a lot of the batted ball specs
Speaker 2: like he was still really solid overall, right, like he's
Speaker 2: not whipping, he's not chasing, he's still hitting the ball
Speaker 2: hard enough.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't his typical production, right.
Speaker 2: It was a one to ten WRC plus the first
Speaker 2: seventy two games ten homers. At reminder, he hit thirty
Speaker 2: nine homers in twenty twenty four and he hit thirty
Speaker 2: homers in twenty twenty five. He was on pace for
Speaker 2: you know, twenty change this year, striking out a couple
Speaker 2: percentage points more.
Speaker 1: It's split in hairs.
Speaker 2: But coming back from the himmate as a switch hitter,
Speaker 2: just how does it affect him is the biggest question
Speaker 2: for me, because if they have twenty twenty five Jose Ramirez,
Speaker 2: I mean, I really think this team is a problem.
Speaker 2: I've made my pitch on them that I think this
Speaker 2: is one of the better Guardians teams we've seen, you know,
Speaker 2: in the last half decade, and I think he makes
Speaker 2: a big difference, obviously being the guy that sets the
Speaker 2: tone for them, but he's had to set the tone
Speaker 2: for this team with much less around him.
Speaker 1: So if they have a good Jay ram look out.
Speaker 3: So my burning question actually relates to that, and the
Speaker 3: burning question is who is going to supply the power
Speaker 3: in the second half. This Guardian's team ranks twenty ninth
Speaker 3: in home runs and the leader in the clubouts of
Speaker 3: home runs is on Hell Martinez with eleven. On Hell
Speaker 3: Martinez hasn't played a full season. Chase the latter is
Speaker 3: tied with with him at eleven, but again hasn't played
Speaker 3: the full season either, right, and also has gone through
Speaker 3: some pits and valleys and hills. I don't even remember
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, but you know what I mean. Like,
Speaker 3: it's been an up and down season for Chase the lotter.
Speaker 3: So I think to myself, Jose Ramirez is recovering from
Speaker 3: a handmaid injury. What's the most common side effect of
Speaker 3: handmaid injuries? Zap's your power a little bit. I still
Speaker 3: believe that Jose Ramirez in terms of his bat to
Speaker 3: ball abilities. Is still gonna end up putting up a
Speaker 3: good season. It's just those thirty nine home runs are
Speaker 3: not going to be there. So I look around the
Speaker 3: diamond and I say, well, Kyle Manzardo, he should be
Speaker 3: hitting more home runs, but he ain't. Chase the latter
Speaker 3: should be hitting more home runs, but he ain't. Brian
Speaker 3: Rochio has been a really solid hitter this year, but
Speaker 3: you're not banking on him for power, right. Josh Naylor
Speaker 3: has been gone. Stephen Kwan is providing nothing offensively. I
Speaker 3: expect him to be better, but it's certainly not going
Speaker 3: to be because he's putting balls.
Speaker 1: In seats, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: And I think, well, are the Guardians going to be
Speaker 3: aggressive at the deadline to go get a power bat?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I just don't think it's in
Speaker 3: their DNA. Someone is going to have to step up
Speaker 3: in this lineup. Maybe it's Bizana, but it's not like
Speaker 3: his balltleball metrics look that good either. For the Guardians too,
Speaker 3: I think reach the peak that you're talking about, they
Speaker 3: got to hit with some juice. Yeah, And I just
Speaker 3: don't know who's going to provide the juice. If Jose Ramirez,
Speaker 3: his power is zapped from the handmate bone. And even
Speaker 3: if he is supplying the power, they still need more
Speaker 3: than just him hitting homers.
Speaker 2: Manzardo's got to do it too, man, I mean, Manzarto's
Speaker 2: got to be better than he's been. And I know
Speaker 2: this isn't homers, but if you're not gonna hit homers
Speaker 2: like Stephen Kwan's gotta be one of the better bats
Speaker 2: to ball guys and hitting for average so that you
Speaker 2: can manufacturer runs that way, right, So I agree, I mean,
Speaker 2: naturally you're gonna get the power back with Martinez hopefully
Speaker 2: coming back.
Speaker 1: Is he done?
Speaker 2: He's not done for the other they ten ai oled him,
Speaker 2: so hopefully he'll be back at some point.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna be interesting to see.
Speaker 2: Like this team has the pieces I think to make
Speaker 2: it happen, but yeah, they're gonna need a good Jay Rim.
Speaker 2: They're gonna need a couple of guys to pick it up.
Speaker 2: How Wise, I think the water is starting to after
Speaker 2: the rougher stretch. And yeah, I mean just simply, especially
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, gonna need to slug better than this.
Speaker 1: Have to.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Minnesota Twins, who're slugging a ton.
Speaker 3: But my biggest question for the Minnesota Twins is can
Speaker 3: this bullpen step up in any meaningful way? Because the
Speaker 3: Minnesota Twins brank ninth and ops this season. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 3: damn right, my Minnesota Twins top ten offense. They're starting
Speaker 3: rotation thirteenth of the Alright, you got Joe Ryan, you
Speaker 3: got Taj Bradley taking the next step. Zebbie Matthews has
Speaker 3: even looked okay, Bailey ober is back. It's a decent rotation.
Speaker 3: But the bullpen twenty ninth in el. I mean, they're
Speaker 3: sitting in National's territory where even if they have a lead,
Speaker 3: good luck, they could blow it at any given time.
Speaker 3: Andrew Gomez has stepped in and done an okay job
Speaker 3: as the closer. But I don't trust anybody in their bullpen.
Speaker 3: But they still have some names that you kind of remember,
Speaker 3: right like Taylor Rodgers. Yeah, there's some names there can
Speaker 3: and they've tried, like they jumped started the market a
Speaker 3: little bit to go get like Tommy Nance, and I
Speaker 3: think that's a fine, fine addition there.
Speaker 2: Like they even try to get creative and like purchase
Speaker 2: wusak go from from the from the Tigers, who was
Speaker 2: just like throwing starting to throw the ball well on
Speaker 2: trip away, like they're trying.
Speaker 3: To step up because the Twins are sitting at five hundred,
Speaker 3: I mean, and sitting at five hundred in the American
Speaker 3: League is basically ten games above five hundred. So I'm
Speaker 3: not like if they don't sell, if they win a
Speaker 3: couple of games here and all of a sudden they're
Speaker 3: two games back of the division, why would they sell?
Speaker 2: No, And it's just trending more and more towards them
Speaker 2: not And I think that Tommy Nant's move, even though
Speaker 2: it's not anything crazy, I think implies that they're trying
Speaker 2: to bolster a little bit here and for the next
Speaker 2: two weeks especially to then see, you know what they're
Speaker 2: gonna do. My question is a short term, long term
Speaker 2: thing here. But I think also what help them this
Speaker 2: year is is it finally Walker Jenkins time? Yep, Jenkins
Speaker 2: was hurt, came back, he's been producing again. Saw him
Speaker 2: at the Futures game. My gosh, that guy looks like
Speaker 2: he's thirty five years old. By the way, and I
Speaker 2: don't even mean that in a negative way. He just
Speaker 2: he looks way, way, way ahead of his years. But
Speaker 2: I also look at this team that I know Byron
Speaker 2: Buckston's on the shelf right now. But when he comes back,
Speaker 2: maybe you saw at Keishaw to a corner. You figure
Speaker 2: it out. But I also think he could also start
Speaker 2: to play in the infield again, and you.
Speaker 1: Figure some things out.
Speaker 2: Regardless, You've got Alan Roaden, who I still think can
Speaker 2: be an okay player, but you got Allen Roaden playing
Speaker 2: corner outfield right now. Walker Jenkins is one of the
Speaker 2: best prospects in Major League Baseball. Not only does he
Speaker 2: give you a blend of hit and power that has
Speaker 2: really developed, he gives you a good approach. He can
Speaker 2: play all three outfield spots, so that's able to give
Speaker 2: bucks In some days off in center. And he's just
Speaker 2: a very well rounded complete player. The only drawback of
Speaker 2: Walker Jenkins now that he has added the raw power,
Speaker 2: has been injuries. So there's nothing you can really do
Speaker 2: about that other than get him up to the big
Speaker 2: leagues and have him working with a big league training
Speaker 2: staff and have him surrounded by big leaguers and big
Speaker 2: league resources. And I'll get this team if you want
Speaker 2: an addition from within.
Speaker 1: Walker Jenkins is a guy that can make a huge
Speaker 1: difference for you. Love it.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Detroit Tigers, and I think
Speaker 3: this is a good opportunity to talk about the latest
Speaker 3: headline from Ken Rosenthal where he said the Tigers are
Speaker 3: unlikely to trade Derek Scooble at this point. Yeah, it
Speaker 3: was also reported by Bob Nightingale that Schooble badly wants
Speaker 3: to stay in Detroit. And I want to quote Ken
Speaker 3: Rosenthal directly because really what he said is there's a
Speaker 3: far less chance of Schooble getting traded than there was
Speaker 3: on June first, And I think that was his main
Speaker 3: point that over this last month and a half, where
Speaker 3: the Tigers have arguably been the best team in the
Speaker 3: American League. Right, we're not saying much, but they've been
Speaker 3: well above average in terms of their record, and they've
Speaker 3: clawed back into this race and you're still looking at
Speaker 3: a Tigers team that can compete. It's still a good lineup,
Speaker 3: it's a fine bullpen, and he got scooball and from
Speaker 3: Berre at the top, with Troy Melton really taking a
Speaker 3: step forward, with Casey Miz putting together an excellent season.
Speaker 3: I know he's been injured on and off, but when
Speaker 3: he's been on the mound, he's been awesome. And even
Speaker 3: Kaida Montero is filled in as an excellent number five starter.
Speaker 3: I mean, this Tiger's team. I'm I could hear anything
Speaker 3: if you told me that the Tigers will claw back
Speaker 3: and they could win the freaking Pennant. I'm not really
Speaker 3: gonna give you much pushback. Nobody in the al I like,
Speaker 3: really yeah, So again, it's so wide open. I totally
Speaker 3: understand why the Tigers wouldn't trade Trek Scoobel. However, it's
Speaker 3: extremely risky, yeah, because you could get back the biggest
Speaker 3: package for a rental. Ever, in a market where they're
Speaker 3: not there's not a lot of sellers. We saw what
Speaker 3: happened with the Angels and Otani and look at where
Speaker 3: they are now. It's happened to other teams in the
Speaker 3: past two so the Tigers are making a big risk. However,
Speaker 3: in this current context, I understand why they're making said risk.
Speaker 3: So again, my one and burning question is what did
Speaker 3: the Tigers do with the deadline? Smiley, I think this
Speaker 3: is a great opportunity to talk about that schoobl report,
Speaker 3: and I'll throw it over to you, what do you
Speaker 3: think they should do?
Speaker 2: I mean, the more we we just kind of sit
Speaker 2: and look at the entire situation. They got a lot
Speaker 2: of additions coming from within too, Like Labor Torres was
Speaker 2: playing really well before he got hurt and strained his
Speaker 2: oblique and I think he's already working his way back
Speaker 2: on a rehab assignment. So you add him back, that's
Speaker 2: going to be a much needed right handed bat added
Speaker 2: to the fold there to help this offense. You then
Speaker 2: look at the pitching side of things. You're gonna get
Speaker 2: Jackson Joe back at some point this You're how they
Speaker 2: decided to use him and everything. I'm not sure, but
Speaker 2: he's thrown rehab outings. You could use him in a
Speaker 2: relief role. Again, it's not something he's unfamiliar with with
Speaker 2: this bullpen. That could probably use that down the stretch,
Speaker 2: just having him in the fold. And then of course,
Speaker 2: like when you look at the combination of mis when
Speaker 2: he's been healthy, Melton returning and being great fromber and
Speaker 2: then headlined by scoobl that rotation's money. Your five is flarity,
Speaker 2: which at that point to get through the regular season,
Speaker 2: You're fine, He's just not gonna go to many important
Speaker 2: postseason innings.
Speaker 3: I wasn't looking at any names. These are just off
Speaker 3: the top of my head. Totally forgot about Flarity. I said, well,
Speaker 3: I think is better, but I did forget about it.
Speaker 2: Well, and they've got Kyder in this like long man role.
Speaker 2: He's throwing more innings than Flarherty. If Flerity sucks, put.
Speaker 1: Kyder in the fives. But I think Kyder's better in
Speaker 1: that role.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know what they do, which they've got options,
Speaker 2: so all of a sudden you've got this depth pitching wise,
Speaker 2: Kiter is like you're a long man. They just need
Speaker 2: some some leverage relief arms. But the fact that they're
Speaker 2: getting some offensive reinforcements too is what's interesting to me.
Speaker 2: Is like they really need exactly a glabor torus, and
Speaker 2: they're getting labor torres back, so that I don't think
Speaker 2: they do much.
Speaker 1: I think they hold.
Speaker 2: Serve and you'll see the classic like trade a couple
Speaker 2: crappy prospects for a couple of crappy relievers and say
Speaker 2: we bought, Like.
Speaker 1: I think that's what Harris will do.
Speaker 2: But I don't blame him for doing that, because this
Speaker 2: team is good enough if everything's going right to make
Speaker 2: some noise in a crappy American league, do.
Speaker 3: You think it's in their best interest long term not
Speaker 3: to trade school and go for it.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think at this point, if the team continues to
Speaker 2: show signs of life, yeah, because I think the one
Speaker 2: thing that may limit that the Schoople return is how
Speaker 2: expensive he's gonna be. Yes, he could be one of
Speaker 2: the most valuable rentals out He's also one of the
Speaker 2: most expensive rentals ever after you know, winning that arbitration case.
Speaker 2: So it shortens the list of teams willing to trade
Speaker 2: for him and also probably hampers the return some unless
Speaker 2: the Tigers wanted to eat money the other way. So
Speaker 2: then it's like if you're trading your ace and eating
Speaker 2: money when you're two games out of the wild Card, like, ah,
Speaker 2: it's just that's a tough that's a tough one to
Speaker 2: sell here.
Speaker 3: So here's the thing though, about the money, And I
Speaker 3: think this is important because he's the biggest rental potentially
Speaker 3: of all time, maybe outside of CC going to Milwaukee
Speaker 3: or something like that or SODO. The amount of tickets
Speaker 3: that these teams are going to sell and they're increased
Speaker 3: chances of not only making the playoffs, but doing well
Speaker 3: in the playoffs. I think they're gonna make their money
Speaker 3: back from this because again, like let's say, can you
Speaker 3: imagine Wrigley if they got Trek Scooble. Can you imagine
Speaker 3: a couple of other teams if they got Trek Scooble,
Speaker 3: maybe outside of the Dodgers, because.
Speaker 1: But they're gonna be like sold out anyway, So what's.
Speaker 3: The difference potentially, But I think there would be a
Speaker 3: certain there'd be a different energy if yeah.
Speaker 2: It doesn't hurt, doesn't hurt. I just think a lot
Speaker 2: of teams are are kind of like up against it.
Speaker 2: To take on ten million dollars for a couple of
Speaker 2: months is tough, especially if they're working with the CBT
Speaker 2: and whatever else it might be. So I just know
Speaker 2: in general, like for teams, it's gonna limit it some.
Speaker 2: But I agree with you, like he is a guy
Speaker 2: that's gonna change it a little bit to where yeah,
Speaker 2: like let's if we have a mid market team, did it?
Speaker 2: I think they'd have a few more butts and seats.
Speaker 3: For Tampa Bay Rays, did it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's gonna be a few more butts
Speaker 2: in seats for terrass Google starts.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying. Like it, this could be a
Speaker 3: particular option where yes, it's expensive on the surface, but
Speaker 3: it pays back. That's all I wanted to bring up.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Kansas City Royals. Tough one,
Speaker 3: tough one to have one burning question. It's been a
Speaker 3: tough year, injuries to the rotation, injuries to MIKEL Garcia,
Speaker 3: Vinnie Pascantino is not stepped up. Salvily is the least
Speaker 3: valuable player, every day player major League Baseball. The bullpen
Speaker 3: has done basically nothing. They said at thirty eight and
Speaker 3: fifty nine, they're tied with the Angels, ten games out
Speaker 3: of a wild card seasons basically over. So I guess
Speaker 3: my one burning question is I think we're still trying
Speaker 3: to find the robin to Bobby Woo Junior's batman in
Speaker 3: this lineup, and we thought it was Michael Garcia. But
Speaker 3: a below average season plus an injury, the door is open.
Speaker 3: So my burning question is, can Jack Caglione be the
Speaker 3: batman or excuse me, be the robin to Bobby vi
Speaker 3: Junior's batman for the rest of the season. So you
Speaker 3: have Bobby with Junior extended for a very long time,
Speaker 3: and then you have Jack hagleon at twenty three years old,
Speaker 3: and you go into next year thinking, all right, if
Speaker 3: Garcia can bounce back, if Vinnie can bounce back, which
Speaker 3: I don't think is a sentence we can really say anymore.
Speaker 3: I mean, how much longer do we have to see
Speaker 3: a one eight WRC plus bat at first base with
Speaker 3: no defense and then this or it's way worse than that. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So I don't I think that sentence should be thrown
Speaker 3: in the garbage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just kind of he is what he is.
Speaker 3: He's going to be twenty nine. At what point do
Speaker 3: we know what a guy is? I think we do
Speaker 3: at this point. So who's going to be the batman?
Speaker 3: And I'm hoping it could be Cacs? Right, you can
Speaker 3: look at again. He's another guy who, based on the
Speaker 3: quality of contact metrics, has been a bit unlucky this year.
Speaker 3: And he's just a really exciting player and he looks
Speaker 3: the part. I mean, he looks like a Greek god
Speaker 3: out there playing baseball, and he's super fun to watch.
Speaker 3: And at least he's someone who will put butts in
Speaker 3: seats and hopefully provide some protection for Bobby Wood Junior,
Speaker 3: not only for the rest of the season, but for
Speaker 3: the long term.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's pretty much what I had too, but
Speaker 2: I expanded it a little bit more, which was just like,
Speaker 2: can the young bats take their leap or make their leap?
Speaker 2: Like that's I include Carter Jensen in that good Carter Jensen.
Speaker 2: You know how much I've loved him as a prospect.
Speaker 2: And there's a guy that I thought, you know, could
Speaker 2: make a run at Rookie of the year and.
Speaker 1: Had a really slow start to the year. But I
Speaker 1: think since they've let.
Speaker 2: Him start to catch again and got Salvey out of
Speaker 2: that role and let Jensen start doing what he's been
Speaker 2: used to doing, he's been a lot better and we've
Speaker 2: seen him really pick up and I know he's kind
Speaker 2: of limped into the All Star break, but overall it's
Speaker 2: just been better overall. So I think this is a
Speaker 2: guy too, between him and Kagleion, like can both of
Speaker 2: these guys take that step forward in the second half
Speaker 2: and you just bolstered this offense to where you go
Speaker 2: into next season and say, okay, last year for Mikelica
Speaker 2: because it was just injuries, but now you have four
Speaker 2: really solid big league bats that you feel great about
Speaker 2: going into twenty twenty seven, and then you build around that.
Speaker 2: And if any Pascentino is then your your fifth bat
Speaker 2: at a slightly above average one and a half win player,
Speaker 2: then that's fine. If he's your second best bat, that's
Speaker 2: a problem. So that's where it's where my mind goes.
Speaker 2: And then of course what returns they can get for
Speaker 2: Lugo and Waka and that side of things.
Speaker 3: And podcast piece said he had a good nugget for
Speaker 3: Jack kaglion And this comes to us from inside edge.
Speaker 3: Jack HAGLIONI is slugging eight twenty one in non two
Speaker 3: strike counts this season. That is the sixth best in
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball. But with two strikes, he's slugging one seventeen.
Speaker 3: That is the lowest in the American League. Reading those
Speaker 3: two numbers, arm, what does that tell you about CAGs?
Speaker 2: I mean, he just destroys velocity. He's really good when
Speaker 2: he's you know, in his like attack mode. But I
Speaker 2: think there's still this balance of trying to limit the
Speaker 2: strikeouts being a better two strike hitter per se, where
Speaker 2: CAGs is compromising. What his biggest strength is, and that's
Speaker 2: something that it's tough because everyone tells you to strike
Speaker 2: out too much, blah blah blah blah. You want to
Speaker 2: cut down on that, but you can get a lot
Speaker 2: of pitches to drive sometimes with two strikes, and if
Speaker 2: you're focused on not striking out, you're missing opportunities to slug.
Speaker 2: And I think that's always a difficult balance with young
Speaker 2: power hitters trying to get their feet, you know, under
Speaker 2: them in the big leagues.
Speaker 3: No doubt we're going to move over to the American
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Speaker 3: Burning question for every team in the American League. We
Speaker 3: move to the American League East, which features the Rays,
Speaker 3: the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Orioles, and the Blue Jays.
Speaker 3: We'll start up top with the Tampa Bay Rays. And
Speaker 3: I know we've talked about a lot of deadline stuff
Speaker 3: on this episode. Are on with a lot of these teams,
Speaker 3: because especially in the AL, it's so wide open that
Speaker 3: you could be a buyer one week and you could
Speaker 3: be a seller the next. The Rays are solidified buyers
Speaker 3: at this point, and my burning question is are they
Speaker 3: going to make the biggest splash of any team at
Speaker 3: this deadline. They're a fascinating team. First of all, they're
Speaker 3: three games up over the Yankees in this division and
Speaker 3: Aaron Judge is not coming back anytime soon, so I
Speaker 3: don't think that the Yankees are going to be able
Speaker 3: to close the gap. But I think the Rays are
Speaker 3: also thinking about you know, not the Rays, their new
Speaker 3: ownership group that would like to spend some money and
Speaker 3: is willing to make some flashy moves. I think they're
Speaker 3: thinking this is a good opportunity to do so right
Speaker 3: before you know, we could potentially be locked out. So
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the Rays as potentially the biggest buyer
Speaker 3: at the deadline of any team in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3: I cannot wait to see what they do.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited because we've heard so much about it,
Speaker 2: like Leander will will swing for the fences when the
Speaker 2: right opportunity presents itself, and like having that maybe push
Speaker 2: of the back from a new ownership group will only
Speaker 2: help that. And then having a ridiculously good farm system,
Speaker 2: having a very good team that still has clear areas
Speaker 2: of need, and having the American League be as bad
Speaker 2: as it's ever been. I think is the perfect storm
Speaker 2: for this to be that time to just go for it.
Speaker 2: And also, you look at free agency and how weak
Speaker 2: it is, so if it's a player with you know,
Speaker 2: another year of control, I think the race could look
Speaker 2: at it that way too and say like, this is
Speaker 2: you know, an opportunity to make our quote unquote free
Speaker 2: agent addition as well, and who knows they could surprise
Speaker 2: us with that kind of That's one where it would
Speaker 2: be funny, Like we talked about Francisco Lindoor, like what
Speaker 2: if what if the Rays said, hey, we'll take that on,
Speaker 2: you know, And I don't think they would do that,
Speaker 2: but I just think that that is a fun wrinkle
Speaker 2: of like all of a sudden deals that we never
Speaker 2: really mocked to the Rays maybe because they're willing to
Speaker 2: take on some money, knowing the free agent classes ahead,
Speaker 2: and with the ownership group that they have, with the
Speaker 2: trays that they can make, maybe changes things a little
Speaker 2: bit so that I had the same question like is
Speaker 2: this the perfect storm for Neander to swing for the fences?
Speaker 1: And I think it is so with him looking at
Speaker 1: it this way.
Speaker 2: You have Junior Kamenaro having, you know, just this unbelievable season,
Speaker 2: and you have a three headed monster at the top
Speaker 2: that is just so much fun and so special. But
Speaker 2: you need to link them as lineup a little bit, uh, And.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of ways to be able
Speaker 1: to do that.
Speaker 2: So, I mean, and you'd always upgrade the rotation, but
Speaker 2: I think they they're gonna find ways to just always
Speaker 2: get outs on the mound and they've been doing that
Speaker 2: all year and you have a healthy use win klanahand
Speaker 2: and so many good things going. I just want to
Speaker 2: see a big splash And I think everything is lining
Speaker 2: up for the race to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, at first I thought, you know, and this was
Speaker 3: kind of a while ago now and now I definitely
Speaker 3: don't think it's gonna happen. But the idea to float
Speaker 3: into my brain that Jordan Alvarez could be a Tampa
Speaker 3: Bay Ray, Now, of course I don't think that's gonna happen.
Speaker 3: The Astros are gonna be buyers, not sellers. That's how
Speaker 3: fluid the American League is right now, how can switch
Speaker 3: on a dime. But I do think that if there
Speaker 3: is a team, like you said, to make the big splash,
Speaker 3: it's the Tampa Bay Rays. Anything else on the Rays
Speaker 3: before we move on, I feel like it's.
Speaker 2: So yeah, that was my pitch a month ago, and
Speaker 2: I was hoping that, uh yeah, that it could come
Speaker 2: to fruition. But I think the Astros play and just
Speaker 2: the way things have shaken out, and the Astros being
Speaker 2: vehemently against trading yourd on, I don't think that that
Speaker 2: pipe dream will ever happen for me now.
Speaker 3: And stay tuned here on the Just Baseball Show because
Speaker 3: as we lead up to the deadline, we will certainly
Speaker 3: be making predictions for these teams. But this isn't really
Speaker 3: a predictions episode. And again, if you are enjoying this
Speaker 3: episode of the Just Baseball Show, the best way to
Speaker 3: support liking and subscribing on YouTube and rating five stars
Speaker 3: wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move over to the
Speaker 3: New York Yankees, and I'm curious your one burning question
Speaker 3: for the Yankees.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the Yankees' is just what version of Gary
Speaker 1: Cold do we get?
Speaker 2: Because I think they're gonna address the offense and some
Speaker 2: guys are gonna pick it up.
Speaker 1: And I could point out a few different guys.
Speaker 2: But I think for this Yankees team, A big reason
Speaker 2: why I was such a believer early in the year,
Speaker 2: going into the year, at a lot of different points
Speaker 2: in the first half was that I was like, this
Speaker 2: rotation can go toe to toe with anybody. You've got
Speaker 2: Cam Schlitzler, it looks like the cy Young favorite, and
Speaker 2: you've got, you know, solid complimentary pieces. But Max Freed
Speaker 2: has been hurt, Carlos Rodin has been hurt, and I
Speaker 2: think you need a clear cut number two. And I
Speaker 2: think it'll be Freed when he comes back, But even then,
Speaker 2: like who's your queer cut three? And Cole has been there,
Speaker 2: done that if he's pitching like we've seen him capable
Speaker 2: of pitching in the past.
Speaker 1: This even if this team isn't hitting.
Speaker 2: If you go Schlitzler to freed to, Cole can win
Speaker 2: any damn series with They'll have to address the bullpen
Speaker 2: a little bit too. But then some of the other
Speaker 2: rotation pieces you can use in different roles and like
Speaker 2: they're gonna be in the driver's seat. But if it's
Speaker 2: this kind of subdued Cole, who I know is still
Speaker 2: pitching back from TJ, so it's going to take some time.
Speaker 2: He's fine, But that's not a guy where I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, advantage Yankees in this one. So do you
Speaker 2: have the coal that you've had in the past that
Speaker 2: helps kind of carry you to make some of the
Speaker 2: playoff runs that you've been able to make.
Speaker 3: So my burning question is kind of along those lines,
Speaker 3: and how will Aaron Judge's absence affect the Yankees' trade headline?
Speaker 3: Because without Aaron Judge, the Yankees have gone eighteen and
Speaker 3: nineteen and they're averaging about four point one runs per game.
Speaker 3: With Aaron Judge in the lineup, the Yankees are thirty
Speaker 3: five and twenty three averaging five point two runs per game.
Speaker 3: The Yankees with him without Aaron Judge are two completely
Speaker 3: different teams. And we still don't have a timetable of
Speaker 3: when Aaron Judge is going to return. It certainly won't
Speaker 3: be by the deadline. So I can understand Brian Cashman
Speaker 3: and the Yankees' front office looking at this current Yankees
Speaker 3: team and thinking, Okay, if we don't get Judged back
Speaker 3: by September, and there aren't a lot of sellers and
Speaker 3: the pieces that we need to bring in are going
Speaker 3: to be expensive because of supply and demand. If there's
Speaker 3: not that much supply, there's going to be a lot
Speaker 3: more demand. Is this really the trade deadline where we
Speaker 3: address all of these needs? Because in your statement, arm
Speaker 3: you were talking about addressing the offense, potential need to
Speaker 3: address the starting rotation, and a potential need to address
Speaker 3: the bullpen. I agree with all of those things. Are
Speaker 3: you going to send prospects for rentals, send guys for
Speaker 3: years of control when you have all these different problems
Speaker 3: and you're unsure if Judge is going to come back.
Speaker 3: It is also no guarantee that Max Freed comes back.
Speaker 3: And looks like the Max freight of aolt. There is
Speaker 3: no guarantee that Garrett Cole gets better as the season
Speaker 3: goes along, because when podcast flashed his savant profile, one
Speaker 3: thing that you notice with your eyes, and it is
Speaker 3: reflected in the numbers, is that third percentile and wiff
Speaker 3: rate Army's not getting swings and misses. This stuff is
Speaker 3: not nearly as crisp as it once was with Garrett Cole,
Speaker 3: and it makes sense he's aging. Unfortunately, he hasn't looked
Speaker 3: like Zack Wheeler. He has looked like an older pitcher
Speaker 3: coming back from a big time injury, which is understandable.
Speaker 3: But I thought he could potentially be in the Wheeler
Speaker 3: bucket where almost nothing matters. He's Zack Wheeler, He's Garrett Cole.
Speaker 3: It matters. And you look at this rotation and say,
Speaker 3: Cam Schlitzler is the man. Is he going to maintain
Speaker 3: a two o five RA? Probably not right. It's gonna
Speaker 3: go up a little bit, I'm not. I know there
Speaker 3: was a lot of quotes lately about regression and that
Speaker 3: he's watching a Red Sox podcast. Whatever. I don't care
Speaker 3: about that. But does he probably finish with a two
Speaker 3: six RA, which is still an unbelievable season. Yes, could
Speaker 3: he still win the cy on Yes? Does he pitch
Speaker 3: to a two oh five? Probably not so? And then
Speaker 3: the bullpen? You like Bennar in the closer role. I
Speaker 3: love Brent Headrick. He's committed, just been awesome for the
Speaker 3: Yankees this season. It's not a lot of other names
Speaker 3: that you're in love with, especially Camillavall. So I could
Speaker 3: understand cash Man looking at this team and saying, if
Speaker 3: Judge isn't coming back anytime soon, sorry, we're standing Pat.
Speaker 3: We don't think it's worth it to go full board
Speaker 3: with this team. And to be honest with you, I
Speaker 3: agree with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that's the biggest burning question is just when
Speaker 2: do you get your Aaron Judge back in? What version
Speaker 2: of him do you get because yeah, he takes his
Speaker 2: team as far as it's gonna go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's the he's the bright light. Yeah that they follow, right,
Speaker 3: He's the star in the night. So without him, would
Speaker 3: you add to this team? Like my burning question, would
Speaker 3: you add to this current Yankees team with Bellinger? I
Speaker 3: know he just won All Star Game MVP, congrats to him,
Speaker 3: but he has fallen off cliff since Judge left. Ben
Speaker 3: Rice is still doing his thing. Jazz has not done
Speaker 3: much of anything this season. Austin Wells has been a
Speaker 3: complete disaster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you're always going to have
Speaker 2: to that a little bit and give it the old
Speaker 2: college try, especially if you're eight or so games over
Speaker 2: five hundred and in the wild card. But you know,
Speaker 2: if Judge is ruled out for season, I think it's
Speaker 2: going to look a lot different and we're just kind
Speaker 2: of on wait and see what that.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Boston Red Sox. What's your
Speaker 3: burning question for Boston.
Speaker 2: The Red Sox, it's I don't think it's a matter
Speaker 2: of buying and selling anymore.
Speaker 1: I just don't think they're going to sell.
Speaker 2: So can they get Roman Anthony back and inform this season?
Speaker 1: You know, they shipped him out of Boston.
Speaker 2: He's in Fort Myers rehab and now I still don't
Speaker 2: really understand what is going on, and you know why
Speaker 2: the hand issue has been such a weirdly communicated thing
Speaker 2: and why it's held him out so long, But just
Speaker 2: continuing to try to figure that out and get him back,
Speaker 2: and I just think this is the guy that is
Speaker 2: a game changer for them with how bad Jaron Duran
Speaker 2: has been this year with the way that they are
Speaker 2: throwing the baseball. Like Roman Anthony, it's not just the
Speaker 2: fact that if he comes back and he's just above
Speaker 2: average bat or slightly above average, bet that'd be a
Speaker 2: huge addition for them.
Speaker 1: He also has the ability to be an all Star
Speaker 1: caliber bat. We've seen it.
Speaker 2: So for me, it's just if you get Roman Anthony
Speaker 2: back and he's even just a one to fifteen WRC plus,
Speaker 2: my gosh, that's huge compared to you know, what you're
Speaker 2: getting from Jaron Durant has been one of the worst
Speaker 2: hitters in Major League Baseball and some of the other
Speaker 2: guys that are getting a lot of run. But on
Speaker 2: top of that, you add in such a high ceiling
Speaker 2: player to the fold here, and that really could jump
Speaker 2: start and jolt this offense.
Speaker 3: It's funny, we're very aligned on this one. But I
Speaker 3: also added Garrett Crochet, and yeahause Gret Crochet is at
Speaker 3: least due to be back. And my one burning question
Speaker 3: was can this Red Tux team make the playoffs without
Speaker 3: a Roman Anthony or without a Garrett Crochet, And they're
Speaker 3: certainly tracking towards that right now. But yeah, you basically
Speaker 3: added all the context about Roman and with Crochet, it's
Speaker 3: just about rehabbing back, you know, from I think it's
Speaker 3: that shoulder that he's currently dealing with. Yeah, not taken
Speaker 3: if you could fact check.
Speaker 1: That for me.
Speaker 3: They have an offense where Durbin has turned it on
Speaker 3: and Duran hasn't. But you're getting contributions from guys where
Speaker 3: you think yourself, all right, they're hitting enough. But what's
Speaker 3: been the biggest thing about this Red Sox team is
Speaker 3: their rotation. You know, you got your three really talented
Speaker 3: young lefties and Bennett and Tolly and Early, and you
Speaker 3: have Ranger Swars having a great season and Sonny Gray
Speaker 3: having a great season. Like we talk about the Tigers
Speaker 3: rotation and how like Dak could propel them, the Red
Speaker 3: Sox rotation is just as good. And imagine adding a
Speaker 3: healthy Crochet to that. But my prediction is Crochet doesn't
Speaker 3: really give them much this here. So can they weather
Speaker 3: the storm? I'm starting to lean they can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean they have been.
Speaker 2: I mean because without Crochet, pitching has been the strength
Speaker 2: that's got them back into it. They just brought Patrick
Speaker 2: Sandoval back and off of injury, he just gave him
Speaker 2: really good four and a thirds innings the other day.
Speaker 2: They have been throwing this guy in Wardo Rivera out there.
Speaker 2: He's been nasty as well, like they've If it's a
Speaker 2: left handed pitcher, Brezlo is going to bring him in
Speaker 2: and he's going to maximize and that's one thing you
Speaker 2: cannot take away from that guy. And so they could
Speaker 2: start to funnel some of those guys into the bullpen
Speaker 2: as well. They could put Patrick Sandival for more offensive
Speaker 2: help in a more rare big leaguer for big leaguer deal.
Speaker 2: Like they're the Red Sox are in a really unique
Speaker 2: place here all of a sudden, and with the depth
Speaker 2: that they have, and that's why I'm like, you're the
Speaker 2: one thing they won't be able to do is acquire
Speaker 2: a bat of Roman Anthony's caliber, and the only way
Speaker 2: to be able to do that is to get him
Speaker 2: healthy and get him back in the lineup.
Speaker 1: And to me, that's the thing that can really push
Speaker 1: them over the top.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to the Baltimore Orioles and my big
Speaker 3: question mark for them is do we see a second
Speaker 3: half surge from Gunner Henderson? Yep, right, I think he
Speaker 3: is the spoon that stirs the drink Gunner. So far
Speaker 3: this season, he's hitting two twenty four, which is just shocking,
Speaker 3: six ninety seven ops. Ninety five ops plus he's been
Speaker 3: worth one point nine f war this season. Now, the
Speaker 3: reason it's a question and not a statement is arm
Speaker 3: there's not a lot in the data to tell me
Speaker 3: that he's going to have a second half surge other
Speaker 3: than the trust that you have in a Gunner Henderson.
Speaker 3: But this is in twenty twenty four Gunner Henderson, who
Speaker 3: put up an eight ninety three ops. Twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: Gunner Henderson was a seven eighty seven guy. Like, is
Speaker 3: that what we should expect moving forward? Do we see
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four Gunner? Do we see more of the
Speaker 3: same where he gets worse? I mean that's in within
Speaker 3: the range of possibilities, because if he gets worse, I
Speaker 3: mean Orioles, forget about it, right, forget about October. But
Speaker 3: if he looks like twenty twenty four Gunner, you could
Speaker 3: talk me into the Orioles in October. If he's twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five Gunner, I'm like, they're going to be on
Speaker 3: the precipice. So I really do think that he is
Speaker 3: the driving force, whether or not the Orioles are going
Speaker 3: to be a playoff team.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And just in general, it's just like how
Speaker 2: this day you feel about this team next year too?
Speaker 2: Is your presumed budding superstar shortstop? It really was a
Speaker 2: superstar shortstop able to look like a superstar forget superstar,
Speaker 2: all star, above average, regular, any of those. Right now
Speaker 2: he's none of those. So that was mine as well.
Speaker 2: I just can the real Gunner Henderson please stand up?
Speaker 2: Was my question, because I just don't really know what
Speaker 2: version of him this is right now. It's been frustrating
Speaker 2: to watch because of how talented he is, how funny
Speaker 2: is to watch when he's going right, it just has
Speaker 2: not been right for him all year.
Speaker 1: The approach has just been an issue. It just seems
Speaker 1: like he's in his.
Speaker 2: Head a little bit, and you know, I think for
Speaker 2: a lot of different Oiols hitters that seems to be
Speaker 2: the case. So I definitely, I definitely think it changes
Speaker 2: a lot even beyond this year, just going in the
Speaker 2: next year, if Gunnar Henderson can spread through the finish line.
Speaker 3: Because this Orioles rotation is really rounding in form and
Speaker 3: I feel like they just need a couple of offensive
Speaker 3: pieces to really lift off here. I mean, Kyle Bradish
Speaker 3: has looked better and better. Shane Boss is giving you
Speaker 3: a ton of innings at least at the very least,
Speaker 3: and he's pitched to a four to one nine era.
Speaker 3: He's been totally fine this year. Brandon Young has been
Speaker 3: an excellent story. Dean Kramer returned from injury and I
Speaker 3: still think he's a pretty talented arm. And Trevor Rodgers
Speaker 3: over the last month and change has looked a lot
Speaker 3: like the Trevor Rodgers that we saw last year. So
Speaker 3: they have this formation of a rotation. I still think
Speaker 3: their bullpen nes work, but they still have a couple
Speaker 3: of arms that you like. Pete Alonzo has ended up
Speaker 3: having a really solid season. Adley's had a good season.
Speaker 3: Taylor Ward's been twenty percent abovely gathered. Samuel Bissio has
Speaker 3: been a good bat. You're seeing Jackson Holiday kind of
Speaker 3: round into form, but that finishing blow to get the knockout,
Speaker 3: to get the Orioles to October, it's gotta be on Gunner.
Speaker 3: That's why he's just by far the biggest burning question
Speaker 3: I have for the Orioles. And we'll end it with
Speaker 3: the Blue Jays. You go first, what's your one burning
Speaker 3: question for them?
Speaker 2: Can the real vlad Guerrero Junior please stand up? Like
Speaker 2: I had to bring her to it as well, There's
Speaker 2: just no other way to go from what we have
Speaker 2: seen from him at his best versus what we've seen
Speaker 2: from him at his worst, and this has been kind
Speaker 2: of close to, if not his worst.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's just the story here.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're talking about a guy that in his
Speaker 2: career has been thirty five percent better than league average,
Speaker 2: and this year has been one percent below league average
Speaker 2: for a team.
Speaker 1: That sorely needs.
Speaker 2: Right, he's been one of the guys that's been available
Speaker 2: and healthy for a team that has been extremely banged up.
Speaker 2: You know how you weather the storm when your team's
Speaker 2: hurt all the time by your superstars, Raking, So I
Speaker 2: think this is a spot where just you need Vladgroo
Speaker 2: Junior to pick it up again. This is another one
Speaker 2: where he can maybe help you get back into the
Speaker 2: hunt here. But also just going into next season, man,
Speaker 2: just knowing that you can count on Vladdie to be
Speaker 2: the superstar that you paid him to be.
Speaker 3: No doubt about it. And this comes to us from
Speaker 3: inside edge. Vladimir grow Junior is a ground ball rate
Speaker 3: of fifty five percent on first pitch of at bats
Speaker 3: this season. It's the fourth highest in the American League,
Speaker 3: and he's averaging just three point five to six pitches
Speaker 3: per play appearance this season, ninth lowest in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 3: That is a very damning stat knowing that a lot
Speaker 3: of Laddie's at bats this year, he's not making the
Speaker 3: pitcher work. He's being way too aggressive, and when he's
Speaker 3: making contact, fifty five percent of it is on the
Speaker 3: ground when it comes to that first pitch. And I
Speaker 3: feel like that's emblematic of just what I've been seeing
Speaker 3: with my own eyes. I'm watching Vladdie swing at pitches
Speaker 3: arm that are just downright stupid. Like I wish there
Speaker 3: was chase rate and there was s chase rate where
Speaker 3: it's stupid chases where it's a two to oh count
Speaker 3: and he's swinging at a slider that was never a strike.
Speaker 1: Yeah what?
Speaker 3: Or it's a two to one count and you've got
Speaker 3: a two seamer barreling in on him and he's inside
Speaker 3: outing a ground ball to shortstop. Why pitches that were
Speaker 3: never strikes?
Speaker 1: Stupid chase rate.
Speaker 3: Bladdy leads in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1: I swear, yeah, it is.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of swing decision models that I know
Speaker 2: teams probably used that he would be, you know, probably
Speaker 2: in that in that realm there, and it's just like
Speaker 2: you're a power hitter that and a star hitter that. Look,
Speaker 2: every edge that you give the other side they're going
Speaker 2: to try to exploit. And he's hard to get out.
Speaker 2: And in the respect that like he doesn't strike out,
Speaker 2: he hits the ball hard. The area where he makes
Speaker 2: it easier to get to get him out is that
Speaker 2: he gets himself out when you can kind of get
Speaker 2: him to chase and I would say squander the advantage
Speaker 2: counts and maybe even get himself out early. There's not
Speaker 2: a lot of reasons sometimes to come into him here
Speaker 2: when you know that he's going to maybe expand even
Speaker 2: when he shouldn't be.
Speaker 3: And I think another important note on Vladdie is that
Speaker 3: you see a hard hit rate in the sixty seven
Speaker 3: percent of forty four point three percent, but a lot
Speaker 3: of his hard contact is on the ground. When he's
Speaker 3: been putting the ball in the air, that hard hit
Speaker 3: rate is a lot lower. So you could say, well,
Speaker 3: he's still hitting the ball hard like, yeah, but it's
Speaker 3: mostly on the ground. And again when he puts the
Speaker 3: ball in the air, it's floating. That's why Vladimir Grove
Speaker 3: Junior has six home runs in three hundred and thirty
Speaker 3: six abs this year. He's got to turn it around,
Speaker 3: and Springer has to turn it around too. A big
Speaker 3: reason why the Blue Jays took the Dodgers to seven
Speaker 3: was like a lot of big swings from George Springer
Speaker 3: and the fact that he was a top five hitter
Speaker 3: in all of base ball last year by WRC plus. Yep,
Speaker 3: he's seen a seventy point drop off in WRC plus yep.
Speaker 3: Can he be better than a ninety? Yeah, he's coming
Speaker 3: in there. We need it.
Speaker 2: We were the better right handed hitters in the game
Speaker 2: last year. Like, that's just they need that from him too,
Speaker 2: and they need their Without their stars performing the way
Speaker 2: they could they should be. On top of the fact
Speaker 2: that you have all the injuries, it's it's it's gonna
Speaker 2: be really hard.
Speaker 1: To hang around.
Speaker 3: We're gonna take one last break before we get to
Speaker 3: our weekend preview where we're previewing the best games from
Speaker 3: the weekend Slate podcast. P Would you mind giving us
Speaker 3: a whoahhh weekend preview going through the best games on Friday,
Speaker 3: Saturday and Sunday. And it is brought to you by
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Speaker 3: games arm and again we're using these Picket screenshots, and
Speaker 3: I think arguably the best game on the slate Dodgers
Speaker 3: versus Yankees Roki Sasaki taking on Garrett Cole, and as
Speaker 3: you can see looking at the market, it's basically an
Speaker 3: even pick them. Why Cole Roki Sasaki has been wildly consistent.
Speaker 3: That's why it's close to a pick them. But even
Speaker 3: though I'm a Yankee fan, it's hard not to lean
Speaker 3: towards the Dodgers at this price. I know Roki hasn't
Speaker 3: been great but neither is Garrett Cole. But maybe you
Speaker 3: see like Garrett Cole's best start of the year, like
Speaker 3: getting up at Yankee Stadium against the Dodgers on a
Speaker 3: Friday night. Yeah, I could see it right, And the
Speaker 3: Yankees offense doesn't scare me. I know, Dodgers Yankees. My
Speaker 3: favorite bet in this game would actually be the under,
Speaker 3: like under nine. I don't think there's gonna be that
Speaker 3: many runs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's fair enough.
Speaker 2: I think I just think Sasaki it's it's just been
Speaker 2: tough lately and you have a three game losing streak
Speaker 2: getting for the Dodgers going into the break. Not too
Speaker 2: worried about it, but I didn't think Cole gets up
Speaker 2: for this one. I do think Sasaki is gonna struggle
Speaker 2: a little bit. I think this is the one game
Speaker 2: the Yankees get out of the series.
Speaker 3: Okay, let's go over to the next game on Friday.
Speaker 3: Great pitchers matchup. I think you got the Pirates taking
Speaker 3: on the Guardians. Jared Jones for the Pirates, Gavin Williams
Speaker 3: for the Guardians. And I don't know if you guys
Speaker 3: saw I put out a pick today. I took the
Speaker 3: under seven and a half Jared Jones lately has looked diabolical.
Speaker 3: Over his last ten innings, he's given up two hits, arm,
Speaker 3: two hits, one or run with the strikeout to walk
Speaker 3: ratio of fourteen to two. I think we're getting Jared
Speaker 3: Jones ninety nine at the top and when he's that,
Speaker 3: and he could spend that slider at ninety ninety one
Speaker 3: miles an hour. Like you said earlier when we were
Speaker 3: talking about the Pirates on the National League Burning Questions episode,
Speaker 3: he could be a top thirty pitcher in the sport.
Speaker 3: And he's going up against the Guardians offense that ranks
Speaker 3: twenty first in WRC plus, Like they don't scare me.
Speaker 3: Gavin Williams on the other side, six point fifty four
Speaker 3: ops at home, opposing hitters are hitting, he keeps the
Speaker 3: ball on the ground. Pirates have the fifth highest ground
Speaker 3: ball rate against righty's. Gavi Williams does suffer a little
Speaker 3: bit with hard contact allowed Pirates ring twenty third and
Speaker 3: hard hit rate against righties on the road. I think
Speaker 3: he's set up for a good outing. I think the
Speaker 3: bullpens are both rested. I think this ends three to two,
Speaker 3: and I think the Pirates actually pull it out. I
Speaker 3: think we're going to see a really good Jared Jones outing.
Speaker 2: I think this is an awesome pitcher stool, a couple
Speaker 2: hard throwers, good heaters. I'm excited for this one. This
Speaker 2: is probably one of my favorite of the weekend.
Speaker 3: I agree. My only worry is do they play this
Speaker 3: game with the wildfires coming in from Canada. I'm in
Speaker 3: Chicago right now. The air quality is horrible. Really, I
Speaker 3: know in this area air quality is going to be affected,
Speaker 3: so I hope it doesn't affect this game. But that
Speaker 3: would be the only reason to not watch this game
Speaker 3: is if it doesn't happen because of the air quality.
Speaker 3: All right, let's move over to the next game. You
Speaker 3: got your Marlins taking on the Brewers, and it's Sandy versus.
Speaker 3: I forgot to write this one down. I know Sandy
Speaker 3: is on the mound and on the Brewer side it
Speaker 3: is Logan Henderson. No wonder I brought it up because
Speaker 3: I think Logan Henderson right now, with Kala Harrison injured,
Speaker 3: is the second best starter that the Brewers have, especially
Speaker 3: again with Brandon Woodruff injured. And as you could see,
Speaker 3: the Brewers are decent favorites, which is a little bit
Speaker 3: crazy to me considering how well that the Marlins have played.
Speaker 3: But another reason I wanted to bring.
Speaker 1: It up is.
Speaker 3: Do you like the Marlins at that price or do
Speaker 3: you see them going into Milwaukee off the break and
Speaker 3: this hot streak won't last.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've seen anytime Logan Henderson tows the rubber,
Speaker 2: you got a really good chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I love this. I love this
Speaker 1: Brewers team.
Speaker 2: I think this is a spot for them to just
Speaker 2: kind of jump out of the break here Ridy and
Speaker 2: then two lefties in the series, I think, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Henderson has been so good it's it's hard to argue
Speaker 2: against him. And I think I think he's gonna present
Speaker 2: some some some tough aps for the Marlins here it's
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: I think there's a reason why they're the heavy favorite.
Speaker 3: Me too, I'm gonna go with the Brewers as well.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to Saturday's game, and the first game
Speaker 3: that I want to talk about is the Giants taking
Speaker 3: on the Mariners. Logan Webb against Brian wu And these
Speaker 3: screenshots are from our friends at Baltpark pal excellent model
Speaker 3: that predicts basically the outcomes using you know, whether you know,
Speaker 3: they're really really good with the weather, and they have
Speaker 3: this as a very even pick them Logan Web against
Speaker 3: Brian Wu fifty to fifty exactly on both sides. I'm
Speaker 3: curious to see when the lines come out, but as
Speaker 3: of now, Arm we're flipping a coin. I tend to
Speaker 3: lean on Wo at home because on the road, Brian
Speaker 3: Wu has just been abysmal this season, but still a
Speaker 3: team mobile, He's been awesome. I love Logan Web, but
Speaker 3: I tend to lean towards the Mariners in that game.
Speaker 3: But my guess is the Mariners are going to be
Speaker 3: minus one thirty and the Giants are going to be
Speaker 3: plus one ten, and Ballpark Palle is going to tell
Speaker 3: you there's value on the Giants.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I like the Giants just because of the way that
Speaker 2: Logan Web has just continued to pitch this year over all.
Speaker 2: But and I just think he's the kind of guy
Speaker 2: that with the way that the Mariners have swung it,
Speaker 2: you just kind of blank and you're in the sixth
Speaker 2: inning and you haven't scored yet. Wu's just not been
Speaker 2: as sharp of Wit. I know that it was a
Speaker 2: limp into the break for Web but it was at Colorado,
Speaker 2: and then still went seven innings against Toronto, though he
Speaker 2: did give up the five earn. I think bounce back
Speaker 2: start for wablow scoring and a late run decides it.
Speaker 2: I don't know which way though, but I think it's
Speaker 2: gonna be low scoring. Both offenses are kind of frustrating.
Speaker 3: Love it. Next came up White Sox against the Blue
Speaker 3: Jays and two pitchers. I have no idea what to
Speaker 3: expect from in the second half, which is why I
Speaker 3: wanted to bring up this game. You got Davis Martin
Speaker 3: going for the White Sox and you got Shane Bieber
Speaker 3: going for the Toronto Blue Jays, and this one, like
Speaker 3: Davis Martin put together a really solid first half but
Speaker 3: started to kind of falter towards the end there. And Bieber,
Speaker 3: I mean, we were talking about him when we were
Speaker 3: all in the same Airbnb in Philly, and I just said,
Speaker 3: to have people been noticing how bad he's been. I mean,
Speaker 3: this has been He's been one of the worst pitchers
Speaker 3: in baseball period. He's rocking an ERA at seven, but
Speaker 3: it's still Shane Bieber, so I still want to believe
Speaker 3: that he's going to have better days ahead. I just
Speaker 3: don't know where to go with this one. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: Ballpark pal is even kind of close. Minus one nineteen
Speaker 3: for the J's plus one nineteen for the White Sox.
Speaker 3: I can't believe making Bieber the favorite, but if you
Speaker 3: believe on a bounce back from him, and Martin continues
Speaker 3: to falter, I get it. I have no idea what to.
Speaker 1: Do with this one. Yeah, I don't know either.
Speaker 2: It seems like a tough matchup for Bieber, who's been
Speaker 2: giving up a lot of hard contact to go against
Speaker 2: a team that makes a lot of hard contact.
Speaker 1: So I think the White Sox swing it.
Speaker 3: Next one up, Twins taking on the Twins are taken
Speaker 3: on the Cubs in Wrigley, and it's Taj Bradley taking
Speaker 3: on Matthew Boyd. And I found this interesting that they
Speaker 3: make the Twins the favorite, and I think they should
Speaker 3: be the favorite. Matthew Boyd has not had that great
Speaker 3: of a season, and TOAs Bradley has really beenastic. Not
Speaker 3: fantastic is a little bit too much. That's the four
Speaker 3: point three percenter in me coming out on him. TOAs
Speaker 3: Bradley has been very solid, and again the Twins can
Speaker 3: swing it but I love that Ballpark Pal is bringing
Speaker 3: this up. Wrigley Field plus eighteen percent in terms of
Speaker 3: run environment. It is expected that the wind is going
Speaker 3: to be blowing out all weekend, so I can't wait
Speaker 3: to watch this series. I'm gonna go with the Twins
Speaker 3: and our friends at Ballpark Pal. I think they win
Speaker 3: this one.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I think we get a decent one from Boyd. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with the Cubs. I think someone needs
Speaker 2: to step up wind blowing out. I also like that
Speaker 2: for the Cubs offense too. I think Boyd battles.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing with the Minnesota Twins. I want to
Speaker 3: put up, pull up exactly what their numbers are against
Speaker 3: left handed pitching, because I know they're really strong.
Speaker 1: Nur WRC well on the season.
Speaker 3: Oh it must have been lately what I was looking at,
Speaker 3: So maybe they are a little bit weaker against lefties.
Speaker 3: I swore maybe earlier on in the season. But whatever,
Speaker 3: it could be actually a good maybe. Then you do
Speaker 3: go with the Cubs, let's go to but I'm still
Speaker 3: going with the Twins. Let's go to Sunday game. Excellent
Speaker 3: pitching matchup in Boston on Sunday, during the day, you
Speaker 3: got Shane McClanahan taking on Sunny Gray, and McClanahan has
Speaker 3: looked great. But ballpark pal is pretty bullish on the
Speaker 3: Red Sox arm giving them basically sixty percent chance of
Speaker 3: winning this game. I'm sure they're going to be short
Speaker 3: favorites and likely the value side according to ballpark Pal.
Speaker 3: Do you agree with them? You think the Red Sox
Speaker 3: kind of take care of business because as we're recording
Speaker 3: right now, the Red Sox are beating the crap out
Speaker 3: of the Rays. It is eight to zero in the
Speaker 3: bottom of the sixth inning. Could this be a series
Speaker 3: where the Red Sox kind of take control here? Obviously
Speaker 3: not the division lead, but really make a statement like
Speaker 3: we're going to battle and we can be a playoff team.
Speaker 1: And Gray's been awesome and it's a one.
Speaker 2: They have a one to eleven WRC, plus the Red
Speaker 2: Sox against left handed pitching, so it's a pretty good
Speaker 2: matchup for him. I kind of get why the Red Sox,
Speaker 2: the hottest team in baseball right now, would be the
Speaker 2: favorite in that one.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, so we're both going with the Red Sox there.
Speaker 3: Let's go over to an excellent pitching matchup in Houston
Speaker 3: on Sunday, Kyle Bradish taken on Hunter Brown, the Orioles
Speaker 3: take on the Astros, and Ballpark Powell makes the Orioles
Speaker 3: ever so slight favorites at minus one oh three. I
Speaker 3: kind of agree with them. I'm gonna go with the
Speaker 3: Orioles in this one. Bradish has looked awesome. Brown has
Speaker 3: looked good, but not quite as good as Bradish has.
Speaker 3: And I think the Astros are vulnerable here. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: fade their ace and take the Orioles ace and go
Speaker 3: with the Baltimore Oriols.
Speaker 1: This is a tough one.
Speaker 2: I really want to see Brown kind of have that
Speaker 2: like statement on backstart, and I feel like we're still
Speaker 2: kind of waiting on that one. This wouldn't be a
Speaker 2: bad time for it to happen. But five walks last time,
Speaker 2: Bradish has look sharper.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. I'll go OHS.
Speaker 3: Game of the Weekend Dodgers Yankees Sunday Night Baseball, Yoshinobu
Speaker 3: Yamamoto against Cam Schlittler. About as good as it gets.
Speaker 3: Ballpark Powell makes the Dodgers slight favorites at minus one sixteen,
Speaker 3: and it's hard to disagree really with that. I know
Speaker 3: Cam Schlitzler is awesome. The Dodgers lineup is way better
Speaker 3: than the Yankees is, especially right now without Aaron Judge.
Speaker 3: I think Cam Shuler has put up a better season
Speaker 3: than Yamamoto. I think if you were to just grade
Speaker 3: them out on an equal playing field facing equal offenses,
Speaker 3: you would give Cam Schlitzler a slight edge, especially at home.
Speaker 3: But with the Dodgers, they're better bullpen, they're better offense. Again,
Speaker 3: I think the Dodgers kind of take care of business
Speaker 3: of the Yankees this weekend.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately. Yeah, I tend to agree.
Speaker 2: It's when I said, I think the Yankees get the
Speaker 2: first one and then the Dodgers take the next two.
Speaker 2: I do think Schlitler rises to this one and absolutely shoves.
Speaker 1: I think the Yankees bullpen gives it up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think it's going to be Cam Schlitzler
Speaker 3: as the reason they lose that game.
Speaker 1: I think bullpen gives it up.
Speaker 2: But we get a really fun pitcher's tool through the
Speaker 2: first six or maybe seven innings between two of the
Speaker 2: best in the game.
Speaker 3: An our forty five just baseball show. Hopefully everybody enjoyed it.
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Speaker 3: And for all those listening on audio, leaving a five
Speaker 3: star review would be very very appreciated. As we send
Speaker 3: you off into the weekend, we did a weekend preview.
Speaker 3: We went over the Schooble trade report as well as
Speaker 3: one burning question for every American league team and the
Speaker 3: recent trade deadline report the New York Mets. An absolutely
Speaker 3: loaded show, we'd really appreciate your support, and if you
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Speaker 3: episode description. Special shout out to Podcast P for brilliant producing.
Speaker 3: Once again for arm Laighton, I'm Peter Apple. Hopefully everybody
Speaker 3: has a great weekend. Last special shout out Happy birthday brother.
Speaker 3: We will see you on Sunday night for the weekend
Speaker 3: round up and until then, with that thank you.
Speaker 1: A fact