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Fair Territory: AL Wild Card Shakeup, Roman Anthony Sidelined · Foul Territory

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Thursday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
0:09
Speaker 1: Ken Rosenthal here with my friend Alana Rizzo and Alana,
0:12
Speaker 1: I can't remember which show it was, who can remember
0:15
Speaker 1: what is said and when? But I do recall saying
0:18
Speaker 1: on one of our shows that the only bummer about
0:21
Speaker 1: the season is that the races are kind of decided.
0:24
Speaker 1: We know who the playoff teams are going to be. Well,
0:27
Speaker 1: as I always say, and this is the one intelligent
0:30
Speaker 1: thing I will say, this game makes fools of.
0:33
Speaker 2: Us, all Ken. It does make us look a little
0:36
Speaker 2: bit silly.
0:37
Speaker 3: And I think it was on this very show we
0:39
Speaker 3: had that discussion. But let's look at this from a
0:42
Speaker 3: different perspective. The Seattle Mariners Ken seem to have a
0:46
Speaker 3: pattern of play at this time of year in recent memory.
0:50
Speaker 2: What's going on with the Ems.
0:52
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure what's going on. Obviously, they're not
0:55
Speaker 1: playing well right now, six and fourteen in their last
0:57
Speaker 1: twenty Remember they went ten and one starting July thirty first,
1:01
Speaker 1: the day of the deadline, looked like they were going
1:03
Speaker 1: to be in great shape. On August tenth, they were
1:07
Speaker 1: a half game out of first, holding the top wildcard
1:09
Speaker 1: spot and again since then six and fourteen, the Astros
1:13
Speaker 1: actually have gone ten to ten over that same span,
1:16
Speaker 1: not exactly burning the house down, and they've gained four games.
1:19
Speaker 1: You see the standings in the wildcard race right there,
1:22
Speaker 1: and this is what we're talking about. The Mariners lead
1:25
Speaker 1: over the Texas Rangers, a team that was left for
1:28
Speaker 1: you know what after the injuries to Siger and Evaldi
1:31
Speaker 1: and so many others. They're just one and a half
1:33
Speaker 1: back Kansas City and Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay that just
1:37
Speaker 1: swept the Mariners. They are now two and a half back,
1:39
Speaker 1: the Guardians three back. Do the Mariners have still a
1:43
Speaker 1: commanding position for the wildcard? Yes, but they are four
1:46
Speaker 1: out in the division, which is a place they should
1:48
Speaker 1: not be. And yes, Alana, as you mentioned to get
1:51
Speaker 1: to what you were referring to, this would be the
1:54
Speaker 1: third straight year that they would miss the playoffs with
1:57
Speaker 1: a really good chance. On September second, September second, right
2:03
Speaker 1: around this time of year, they're seventy seven and fifty eight.
2:06
Speaker 1: They lead the division by a game. They then went
2:09
Speaker 1: eight and fifteen, eight and fifteen. They won three of
2:12
Speaker 1: their last four, but still missed the playoffs by a game. Now,
2:17
Speaker 1: last year was a little bit different, but on June eighteenth,
2:20
Speaker 1: they were forty four and thirty one, lent the division
2:23
Speaker 1: by ten games ten and yet it still didn't happen
2:28
Speaker 1: for them. They go twenty five and thirty nine from
2:31
Speaker 1: June nineteenth to September third, play well down the stretch again,
2:34
Speaker 1: but again missed by one game in the wild card,
2:37
Speaker 1: falling short. So this is a third straight year where
2:41
Speaker 1: we've seen this swoon from them. Now their players are
2:44
Speaker 1: aware of it, they've spoken about it, and clearly they
2:47
Speaker 1: want this bad spell to end. But obviously they know
2:51
Speaker 1: this too. They need to do something about it now.
2:53
Speaker 1: The one qualifier I'll give here is that every team
2:57
Speaker 1: in contention we have seen this sea seem to have
3:01
Speaker 1: these incredible peaks and valleys. So maybe this is their valley,
3:05
Speaker 1: and maybe it'll come out of it again, and especially
3:07
Speaker 1: when they get home, because they've been a poor road team.
3:10
Speaker 1: But this is certainly not what they envisioned. Since the deadline.
3:14
Speaker 1: People talk about, well they improve their offense with Aohano
3:17
Speaker 1: Suarez and Josh Naylor. They did, but Suarez has really struggled.
3:22
Speaker 1: He's one ninety five batting average with the Mariners. Six homers,
3:25
Speaker 1: six sixty five ops. Naylor's been good, but their pitching
3:29
Speaker 1: has not been what it was what it was advertised
3:33
Speaker 1: to be, twenty fourth in the majors in e since
3:36
Speaker 1: the deadline. Kirby gave up I believe eight last night.
3:40
Speaker 1: That's where the problem is.
3:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the pitching has always been their strength, though,
3:44
Speaker 3: although I felt like this year the whole team was
3:46
Speaker 3: a little bit more complete. But Ken, it's not just
3:48
Speaker 3: the Mariners. You discussed it. Why does it seem and
3:50
Speaker 3: I know that this is not the case, but why
3:52
Speaker 3: does it seem like nobody really wants to win the
3:56
Speaker 3: Al West? They continue to jockey for position, but nobody's
3:59
Speaker 3: pulling away.
4:01
Speaker 1: I don't know the answer to that, and I don't
4:03
Speaker 1: know the answer why this seems to be a league
4:05
Speaker 1: wide problem. Now. The Astros are in a very good
4:08
Speaker 1: position right now. That was a huge win last night
4:10
Speaker 1: over the Yankees. We'll get into that. But they have
4:14
Speaker 1: been a team that has been riddled by injuries, so
4:16
Speaker 1: you can kind of understand why they have not played
4:19
Speaker 1: necessarily to their potential. Even now they're missing Hater. They've
4:22
Speaker 1: got your do on back, but it's not a team
4:25
Speaker 1: that is necessarily whole. No team is at this time
4:28
Speaker 1: of year, so I don't know what's going on there
4:31
Speaker 1: and how this is going to play out. But we've
4:34
Speaker 1: talked about the Astros all year long in this regard.
4:36
Speaker 1: Until you knock them off, they're the champ and they
4:40
Speaker 1: remain that way. They have this unique quality about them.
4:44
Speaker 1: Even with this week's Shenanigans with fromber so sure, they
4:48
Speaker 1: still look like the team that is going to get there,
4:51
Speaker 1: and not only get there, I would expect that they're
4:53
Speaker 1: going to be a problem in the postseason as well.
4:56
Speaker 3: Let's talk about the MVP race, Ken, because obviously cal
4:59
Speaker 3: Raw very much a huge piece of the Seattle Mariners.
5:02
Speaker 3: But how does it impact the MVP race with Seattle
5:06
Speaker 3: not playing as well as they should be at a
5:08
Speaker 3: critical time of year.
5:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, it would, And obviously this season is not over,
5:14
Speaker 1: so we cannot make any determination just yet, but Raleigh's
5:18
Speaker 1: chances fade a little bit in my estimation if the
5:22
Speaker 1: Mariners do not make the playoffs, if they fall out
5:25
Speaker 1: of it, that would be a problem. That wouldn't be
5:27
Speaker 1: his fault, of course, And you see the numbers right there, Judge.
5:31
Speaker 1: Still with the massive lead in ops on base percentage. Obviously,
5:35
Speaker 1: Rally's got the fifty one homers at catcher, which is incredible.
5:39
Speaker 1: But Raleigh, since I don't know, June twenty fifth or so,
5:44
Speaker 1: average is below two hundred. Batting average is not that
5:47
Speaker 1: big a deal. Its ops is seven to seventy or
5:49
Speaker 1: something like that. But he was much better before June
5:53
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, those first three months than he has been
5:56
Speaker 1: since then. You have, Judge, he hasn't been great lately
5:58
Speaker 1: since coming off the IL. I'll still not play in
6:00
Speaker 1: the field, so the last few weeks will decide that.
6:04
Speaker 3: Hen, let me ask you really quick before we move
6:05
Speaker 3: on to the AL East Judge's division. Obviously, who is
6:09
Speaker 3: the more valuable player to their respective team in your estimation?
6:13
Speaker 3: Is it Hal Rawley to Mariners or is it Aaron
6:16
Speaker 3: Judge to the Yanks.
6:18
Speaker 1: It's such a difficult question. They're both extremely valuable to
6:21
Speaker 1: their teams, and Alan I hate to dodge it, but
6:25
Speaker 1: I always dodge this question when AJ asked me on
6:28
Speaker 1: foul Territory, who would your MVP right now? A real
6:32
Speaker 1: good question to answer right now. They're both incredibly important
6:36
Speaker 1: to their teams, and certainly the catcher you can always
6:39
Speaker 1: make the case, the catcher is the most important because
6:42
Speaker 1: of where he plays. But when you have the advantage
6:45
Speaker 1: in ops the judge does, it makes the conversation a
6:49
Speaker 1: little bit more difficult, to say the least.
6:51
Speaker 3: All Right, hopefully I don't have that same type of
6:53
Speaker 3: girth that aj Pruzinski has when I ask you that question.
6:57
Speaker 2: Let's move on to.
6:58
Speaker 3: The AL East, and of course it also seems like
7:00
Speaker 3: this is a division ken that nobody really wants to
7:03
Speaker 3: win this either jocking for position. As you mentioned, we
7:06
Speaker 3: could talk about this league wide because the NL West
7:08
Speaker 3: is the same way. But the Blue Jays gained a
7:11
Speaker 3: game on Boston and New York Wednesday night. Now they're
7:13
Speaker 3: three and a half up. In terms of that springer again,
7:16
Speaker 3: Benjamin Button, much like E Roll, this Chapman is doing
7:21
Speaker 3: such an amazing job this season. Offensively, he's third in
7:24
Speaker 3: the majors in ops. But the bullpen is still problematic.
7:27
Speaker 2: What do you make of it?
7:29
Speaker 1: Well, we're going to have an interesting showdown this weekend
7:32
Speaker 1: Blue Jay's Yankees, and that's going to be something that
7:36
Speaker 1: I don't know that determines this thing, but certainly if
7:38
Speaker 1: the Yankees lose two of three or get swept their
7:40
Speaker 1: chances of winning the division become that much more difficult.
7:43
Speaker 1: And we'll talk about the Red Sox too. Their chances
7:46
Speaker 1: have become more difficult with the loss of Roman Anthony.
7:49
Speaker 1: But the Jays, it seems to me they have enough
7:53
Speaker 1: of a cushion now. The bullpen is a problem, as
7:55
Speaker 1: you mentioned Ilana and Jeff Hoffman. He's been up and
7:59
Speaker 1: down all year, on a run now of three straight
8:01
Speaker 1: scoreless I know Jays fans have seen this before, and
8:03
Speaker 1: then he implodes again. You have to hope that he's
8:06
Speaker 1: on the right track. Even a guy like Little he's
8:10
Speaker 1: been struggling. You get Louis Varlin from the Twins, and
8:15
Speaker 1: he has had his moments, but he's had his moments
8:17
Speaker 1: that have been really bad too, and they're perplexed by it.
8:20
Speaker 1: So the bullpen clearly is a huge question for them,
8:24
Speaker 1: both for the rest of the regular season and into
8:26
Speaker 1: the postseason. But they've been a pretty resilient bunch and
8:30
Speaker 1: we'll see how they fare this weekend. It's going to
8:32
Speaker 1: be a fascinating series in Yankee Stadium. But I still
8:37
Speaker 1: like the Jays to win this division because of what
8:39
Speaker 1: is going on with the two other clubs and let's
8:41
Speaker 1: get into that. Let's get into Anthony, because Anthony had
8:45
Speaker 1: been for the Red Sox such a valuable player. This
8:48
Speaker 1: dude comes up and in seventy one games, two ninety
8:52
Speaker 1: two batting average, three ninety six on base four sixty
8:56
Speaker 1: three slug eight home runs, thirty two RBIs in those
8:59
Speaker 1: seventy one games, leading off, dynamic player, a guy that
9:03
Speaker 1: we can certainly see in the future being an MVP candidate.
9:07
Speaker 1: Without him, they're not the same. And you'll see Duran
9:10
Speaker 1: will be back in the leadoff spot against the Riotyes
9:13
Speaker 1: that using Nate eight eaton against a lefty on Wednesday.
9:17
Speaker 1: It's not the same lineup obviously, and they too have
9:21
Speaker 1: some pitching concerns beyond their big three. So I still
9:26
Speaker 1: like the Red Sox, but I like them a whole
9:28
Speaker 1: lot less without Anthony. And then there are the Yankees,
9:31
Speaker 1: and we saw that game last night. It was kind
9:34
Speaker 1: of a typical Yankee game from this year. Now, granted
9:38
Speaker 1: the umpire and what was going on in the late innings,
9:41
Speaker 1: it was awful. And yes, there were calls, particularly against
9:44
Speaker 1: Devin Williams that should have gone the other way. But
9:47
Speaker 1: let's look at this game. They lead four to one.
9:51
Speaker 1: Will Warren starts the sixth inning and he's at sixty
9:54
Speaker 1: something pitches. He allows a leadoff homer to Jeremy Payne.
9:58
Speaker 1: Now a Yankee fans are saying, oh, you should have
9:59
Speaker 1: left him in for more and rather than start the
10:02
Speaker 1: bullpen carousel. No, when you give up the home or
10:04
Speaker 1: leading off the sixth that's the signal it's time, So
10:07
Speaker 1: they go to the bullpen. What happens before Devin enters
10:10
Speaker 1: the game. You see Cruise allow run, and you see
10:13
Speaker 1: Weaver allow run. And then you get to Devin Williams
10:15
Speaker 1: and he had his problems again. Yes, you could have
10:19
Speaker 1: asked the question, should Boone have lifted him with one
10:21
Speaker 1: out and the base is loaded. Yes, but he did
10:24
Speaker 1: strike out the next hitter and then Duval He is
10:27
Speaker 1: a complete mess, balk while pitch the whole thing. Their
10:30
Speaker 1: bullpen is also an issue, obviously, and they, even after
10:36
Speaker 1: that big win in the series opener, need to show
10:40
Speaker 1: they can play consistently solid baseball against the better teams.
10:44
Speaker 1: This weekend for them against Toronto, a team that they
10:47
Speaker 1: have struggled with all season. Next big test.
10:52
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this.
10:52
Speaker 3: Circling back to the Boston Red Sox for just a second.
10:55
Speaker 3: It's a two part question, two different people. They just
10:58
Speaker 3: put Jordan Hicks on the IL. Apparently can with shoulder inflammation.
11:03
Speaker 3: I'm going to go ahead and say that's because it's
11:05
Speaker 3: inflammation of lack of production. That's why Jordan Hicks is
11:08
Speaker 3: on the IL. But going back to Roman Anthony for
11:10
Speaker 3: just a second, is it fair to put the pressure
11:14
Speaker 3: on a twenty one year old to take you to
11:15
Speaker 3: the promised Land? And I'm not saying that they were
11:17
Speaker 3: putting that pressure on him, but really, is that what
11:19
Speaker 3: the Boston Red Sox are holding their hat on, that
11:22
Speaker 3: they're going to make it to the postseason because of
11:24
Speaker 3: a twenty one year old rookie.
11:27
Speaker 1: It's a fair question, Alana. And in the wake of
11:30
Speaker 1: the Devors trade, in which Jordan Hicks was one of
11:32
Speaker 1: the players they acquired, they became a different team. They
11:36
Speaker 1: actually became a better team in some ways because they
11:38
Speaker 1: were more flexible with their roster and could do some things.
11:41
Speaker 1: And Anthony emerged during this period as a potential superstar,
11:46
Speaker 1: so they weren't necessarily hanging their hat on him, but
11:51
Speaker 1: he became an integral part of what they do and
11:53
Speaker 1: the way I look at it. Any team that loses
11:55
Speaker 1: a player of this caliber at this time of year,
11:58
Speaker 1: that's a problem. And it wasn't that they were relying
12:01
Speaker 1: so much on Anthony, It's just that they needed him.
12:03
Speaker 1: He was part of why they were so good. You
12:06
Speaker 1: look at the Brewers yesterday, they lose Shelby Miller, Kristian
12:09
Speaker 1: Yelich doesn't play, he's got back trouble. There are injuries
12:12
Speaker 1: occurring all over the sport. Kyle Tucker again is problematic
12:15
Speaker 1: in Chicago with the Cubs, So Anthony is in that category.
12:19
Speaker 1: He's that important a player. The Red Sox didn't necessarily
12:22
Speaker 1: build their team around him, but the way it all
12:25
Speaker 1: played out, yes, he became a critical part of what
12:28
Speaker 1: they do. And without him, and it looks like he's
12:30
Speaker 1: out for at least the rest of the regular season
12:32
Speaker 1: with an oblique it's really difficult.
12:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, four to six weeks on the IL for the
12:37
Speaker 3: Roman Empire. Marcelo Anthony also Marcel Meyer rather also on
12:41
Speaker 3: the IL for the rest of the year. All right,
12:43
Speaker 3: coming up on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal. Get those
12:46
Speaker 3: questions in for Grill and Ken. A lot to talk about.
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Speaker 3: All right, get those questions in right here for Ken
14:02
Speaker 3: Rosenthal on Grill and Ken. The first one comes from
14:04
Speaker 3: armand we appreciate you. You know, what's going to be a
14:06
Speaker 3: met question? Armand is our met boy?
14:08
Speaker 2: Ken?
14:08
Speaker 3: Grill and Ken? Should code I Senga accept going down.
14:12
Speaker 3: It's his decision based on a clause in his contract.
14:14
Speaker 3: And for Mike Puma, we should know a decision on Friday.
14:17
Speaker 2: What is your take?
14:19
Speaker 1: My guess would be yes, if they have a detailed
14:22
Speaker 1: plan for him on what is wrong and what he
14:24
Speaker 1: needs to fix, and if it can really help them,
14:26
Speaker 1: if they're just looking for a roster spot, which they
14:28
Speaker 1: might be because it came out this morning it was
14:31
Speaker 1: reported that Brandon Sprote is going to make his debut
14:34
Speaker 1: Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds rookie starting pitcher number three.
14:38
Speaker 1: The door keeps spinning. Yes, Senga has struggled. Yes, it's
14:42
Speaker 1: been a bit of a mystery for sure. But at
14:45
Speaker 1: the same time, this guy signed a contract. He has
14:48
Speaker 1: the right to reject that assignment. And if I'm him
14:50
Speaker 1: and they're telling me to go to the miners, I
14:52
Speaker 1: would say, Okay, that's fine, but what are we doing here?
14:56
Speaker 1: What is the plan when am I coming back? Et cetera.
15:00
Speaker 3: What do you think is going on with Seinga. I'm
15:01
Speaker 3: not asking you to break down his mechanics, but what
15:03
Speaker 3: have you seen?
15:05
Speaker 1: I'm not sure? To be honest. It seems to be
15:07
Speaker 1: a command issue that the pitchers aren't going where he
15:11
Speaker 1: wants them to go. That's what command is, but I
15:14
Speaker 1: have not broken it down that closely, and I'm not
15:17
Speaker 1: exactly sure what it is. He's obviously had injuries and
15:21
Speaker 1: maybe that's taken a toll on him. But again, I'm
15:24
Speaker 1: not quite sure where they are with this and whether
15:27
Speaker 1: they think it's mechanical, whether they think it's execution, what
15:30
Speaker 1: exactly is the problem?
15:33
Speaker 2: All right?
15:33
Speaker 3: Ken, the fork ball isn't forking. We know that, Daniel
15:37
Speaker 3: Rothenberg the next question here. Thank you for the super chat, Daniel.
15:39
Speaker 2: We appreciate you.
15:40
Speaker 3: Pitchers always give one hundred percent effort on each pitch.
15:43
Speaker 3: If you signed one to a nine figure extension, would
15:46
Speaker 3: you want them to throw at eighty percent if it
15:49
Speaker 3: meant no injury? Ken, I don't think you can pitch
15:52
Speaker 3: with injury on the back of your mind.
15:54
Speaker 2: What do you say?
15:56
Speaker 1: Daniel asked an interesting question here. Now the answer to
15:59
Speaker 1: his besifif a question is no, you cannot ask a
16:02
Speaker 1: player to give less than full effort and it just
16:05
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. What I believe needs to happen,
16:09
Speaker 1: and we've talked about this a lot, is that the
16:11
Speaker 1: sport needs to put in rules to kind of prevent
16:16
Speaker 1: pictures from throwing as hard as they can at full
16:19
Speaker 1: maximum effort. And what I mean by that is this,
16:22
Speaker 1: if you reduce the size of a staff, if you
16:25
Speaker 1: go from thirteen to twelve, maybe even to eleven. Now
16:28
Speaker 1: I know it's crazy given the way staffs are used today,
16:31
Speaker 1: but if you do that, pitchers have to throw more innings,
16:36
Speaker 1: obviously because there are fewer of them available, and therefore
16:39
Speaker 1: they cannot go all out every pitch. And ultimately, that's
16:43
Speaker 1: the change I think that needs to be made. It's
16:45
Speaker 1: a change in the sport, not a team or an
16:49
Speaker 1: individual player. It's an wholesale difference from where we are
16:54
Speaker 1: right now. I know there are many, many, many problems
16:57
Speaker 1: with this idea, and there is a fear that there
16:59
Speaker 1: would be just as many injuries, maybe even more, but
17:01
Speaker 1: I don't buy that. And to me, shrink the staff
17:04
Speaker 1: and then guys automatically could not throw as hard because
17:08
Speaker 1: they would need to be available for longer.
17:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a difficult conversation to have. Everybody throws
17:14
Speaker 3: one hundred miles an hour, but the injuries seem to
17:16
Speaker 3: be creeping up. But if you don't throw one hundred
17:18
Speaker 3: miles an hour, Ken, you don't get a job.
17:19
Speaker 2: Okay, Cole Bassett's left foot, it's an interesting handle.
17:23
Speaker 1: Ken.
17:24
Speaker 3: What are your thoughts on Cardinals hitting coach Brent Brown
17:26
Speaker 3: and manager Oliver Marmle speaking out on kmox Gas House
17:31
Speaker 3: Gang Show about the struggles with Jordan Walker.
17:35
Speaker 1: I was a little surprised to see them that honest.
17:37
Speaker 1: Ali Marmle is an honest guy. But this has been
17:40
Speaker 1: going on a while with Jordan Walker, and they want
17:43
Speaker 1: him to do certain things. They want him to be
17:45
Speaker 1: a certain kind of hitter, and to this point it's
17:48
Speaker 1: not working. I think that these are probably things that
17:51
Speaker 1: they've said to him. I'm actually I'm sure of this.
17:54
Speaker 1: They have said these things to him in face to
17:56
Speaker 1: face situations, and it just seems to me that there's
18:00
Speaker 1: a frustration level here. Understandably, I'm sure Jordan Walker is
18:04
Speaker 1: frustrated too, and they need him to be better going forward,
18:09
Speaker 1: and they want him to be better, and there are
18:11
Speaker 1: certain adjustments he needs to make, and those guys spoke Honestly,
18:15
Speaker 1: I don't think they were ripping him per se. They
18:17
Speaker 1: were just kind of explaining, Hey, here's what needs to happen,
18:21
Speaker 1: and yeah, there are things that need to happen.
18:24
Speaker 2: Honestly, I appreciate the honesty. It's it's rare in today's game.
18:27
Speaker 3: We appreciate the questions you guys on Grill and Ken.
18:29
Speaker 3: We will be right back after this break with Dude
18:32
Speaker 3: and Dork of the Week.
18:34
Speaker 4: We're throwing a curveball at you this week for our
18:36
Speaker 4: Arena Club segment. As AJ has opened up a Pokemon
18:40
Speaker 4: flat pack.
18:41
Speaker 1: Did you said Pokemon flatman?
18:43
Speaker 4: Pokemon? Don't ask me to say what that card is,
18:46
Speaker 4: but we're doing with that card.
18:47
Speaker 1: I already sold it back, baby, I.
18:50
Speaker 5: Bought it, and then I got more money than I
18:52
Speaker 5: paid for the pack, so I sold us straight back.
18:54
Speaker 1: You bought it for two fifty, you sold it for.
19:00
Speaker 4: And you can go get yourself something that you maybe
19:02
Speaker 4: know how to pronounce.
19:03
Speaker 5: Yes or know what it is. I said it because
19:05
Speaker 5: I saw certain people open in Pokemon and they're making money,
19:09
Speaker 5: and guess what I got. Lucky made money off.
19:11
Speaker 1: Of it too, exactly.
19:13
Speaker 4: But of course, if you're into sports cards, that is
19:15
Speaker 4: something that you can find a ton of on the
19:18
Speaker 4: arena club marketplace. By sell slab pack trade twenty percent
19:23
Speaker 4: off your first slab pack or card purchase can be
19:26
Speaker 4: had at arenaclub dot com. Slash foul and use the
19:29
Speaker 4: code foul. That's arenaclub dot com. Slash foul and use
19:33
Speaker 4: code foul.
19:36
Speaker 3: Swing big on your next MLB parlay. Use this parlay
19:39
Speaker 3: boost oven to score a bigger payout. If your baseball
19:42
Speaker 3: parlay hits gambling problem more concern, there is help.
19:45
Speaker 2: Call one eight hundred gambler.
19:48
Speaker 6: Dude, dude, dude, okay, Ken, who is your dude of
19:59
Speaker 6: the week?
19:59
Speaker 2: Who are you given props too?
20:01
Speaker 1: All right, not to rub salt in the Red Sox
20:04
Speaker 1: wounds right now, but Rafael Devers and forget the Kyle
20:08
Speaker 1: Freeland nonsense. I don't care about that. Rafael Devers in
20:11
Speaker 1: the last month plus has been the Raffaeld Devers of old.
20:15
Speaker 1: If you remember, the trader was June fifteenth. He struggled
20:18
Speaker 1: initially and that's a big adjustment. That was a shocking trade.
20:21
Speaker 1: But since August first, starting August first to ninety one,
20:25
Speaker 1: batting average nine ninety seven OPS for the season. Right
20:29
Speaker 1: now for the season, thirty home runs ninety seven RBIs
20:32
Speaker 1: eight seventy ops. This is the Rafaeld Devers we all
20:36
Speaker 1: know and have come to admire over the years. The
20:38
Speaker 1: Giants are suddenly on the fringes of the wildcard race,
20:43
Speaker 1: like a week and a half after their manager Bob
20:45
Speaker 1: Melvin was reported to be in trouble. He still might
20:47
Speaker 1: be in trouble, but good for the Giants and good
20:51
Speaker 1: for devors In kind of finding his footing there and
20:54
Speaker 1: doing it in a big way.
20:55
Speaker 3: Due to the week, again, nobody wants to win the division.
20:58
Speaker 3: Dang it, somebody please pull away and win a division.
21:01
Speaker 1: All right?
21:02
Speaker 3: My dude of the week is a Red Sox, the
21:04
Speaker 3: newest Red Sock. In fact, Peyton Toley made his major
21:07
Speaker 3: league debut. The guy's only twenty two years old. He
21:09
Speaker 3: looks like he's thirty five. He looks like magnum p I.
21:12
Speaker 3: But what a debut for him. I love the emotion,
21:14
Speaker 3: I love the execution. He had eight punch outs five
21:17
Speaker 3: and a third innings, ended up getting three earned runs.
21:19
Speaker 2: Really one of.
21:20
Speaker 3: Those whisses, I mean, he did leave the guys on base,
21:22
Speaker 3: but Weissertin just had a terrible outing. His brother and
21:26
Speaker 3: his father were in the stands. Peyton totally lost his
21:28
Speaker 3: mom to cancer, and he had in his postgame interview
21:31
Speaker 3: said that he hurt his mom in his head saying
21:34
Speaker 3: you're still a hack. He had a laugh about that.
21:37
Speaker 3: His younger brother in the stands. He's like, I don't know,
21:39
Speaker 3: what's such a big deal about his major league debut.
21:41
Speaker 3: No big deal, the perfect response from a younger brother.
21:45
Speaker 3: Welcome to the bigs, Peyton Toley, we are very proud
21:48
Speaker 3: of you. Okay, time now for dork of the week. Ken,
22:01
Speaker 3: If you don't mind, I'm going to take honors here
22:03
Speaker 3: and do my dork of the week First. My dork
22:05
Speaker 3: of the week is a Houston astro by the name
22:07
Speaker 3: of from ber Valdez. And why this man decided he
22:10
Speaker 3: was going to throw and hit at his own catcher
22:11
Speaker 3: because he didn't like his catcher telling him to kind
22:14
Speaker 3: of step back off the rubber is unreal to me.
22:17
Speaker 2: You don't hit your own teammate.
22:19
Speaker 3: And again, this is not the first time that framber
22:21
Speaker 3: Valdez has had temper tantrums on the mound or in
22:25
Speaker 3: the clubhouse. Or on the field that's inappropriate. And you
22:29
Speaker 3: heard Eric Kratz say on fair chair foul territory rather
22:33
Speaker 3: that he wanted to punch him right in the face.
22:35
Speaker 3: And I don't know that there's a minor leaguer or
22:37
Speaker 3: a major leaguer that wouldn't want to do the same
22:39
Speaker 3: thing from ber Valdez.
22:40
Speaker 2: You were my dork of the week.
22:42
Speaker 1: All right now, Alana, speaking of poor teammates, and that's
22:45
Speaker 1: what we're talking about here. I want to play for
22:47
Speaker 1: you a clip from the end of our broadcast Saturday
22:50
Speaker 1: in Kansas City on Fox. Bobby, Congratulations, thank you, Thank you.
22:55
Speaker 1: Takes back to you, Ken, Thank you, Bobby, Thank you. AJ.
22:59
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure, Thank.
23:00
Speaker 5: You, Jason.
23:01
Speaker 2: Always fun working with you.
23:02
Speaker 5: I'm just mad they didn't get Ken rose Domo.
23:04
Speaker 1: Nice fucking he saw it coming. Now we're talking about
23:10
Speaker 1: teammates here, and we had at the end of the
23:13
Speaker 1: broadcast the situation where Bobby Wick got water dunked on
23:16
Speaker 1: him and I did slip out of the way. I
23:17
Speaker 1: don't always I did in that case, Alana, you know
23:20
Speaker 1: the feeling as well as anyone for AJ to say that,
23:25
Speaker 1: for him to wish ill on me, wish ill on
23:28
Speaker 1: his teammate. He is dork for the week. And I
23:30
Speaker 1: will say this, Alana, this is not the first time
23:33
Speaker 1: he's won the award. Like Fromber, he's a multiple offender.
23:37
Speaker 2: If a Pierzinski Dork of the Week, you.
23:41
Speaker 1: Know you are reading my mind. We are working together instinct. Now,
23:46
Speaker 1: we had the award named for another person. We ended
23:50
Speaker 1: that we didn't want to do that anymore. But we
23:53
Speaker 1: have to rename it for somebody else. We'll rename it
23:55
Speaker 1: for somebody else. Aj, congratulations, doork of the Week again.
23:58
Speaker 1: And you know what, I know won't be offended by
24:00
Speaker 1: this one because he's been called wars and two because
24:03
Speaker 1: he doesn't watch our show, doesn't watch our show, doesn't
24:06
Speaker 1: read my stories. Just wishes ill on me at the
24:09
Speaker 1: end of games, right, David.
24:13
Speaker 3: AJ Pierzinski wishing ill will and our friend and colleague
24:17
Speaker 3: Ken Rosenthal. All right, let me ask you this, Ken,
24:19
Speaker 3: before we say goodbye to our TV audience, tell me
24:23
Speaker 3: about your memory from the cal Ripken twenty one to
24:27
Speaker 3: thirty one game.
24:29
Speaker 1: Well, I wrote about this yesterday in the wind up
24:31
Speaker 1: for the Athletic. It's our daily newsletter, it's free, and
24:35
Speaker 1: I've said this forever that was the highlight of my career.
24:38
Speaker 1: That's my column on the left side that night, and
24:41
Speaker 1: it's the highlight of my career because of what that
24:44
Speaker 1: night meant to Baltimore, to baseball coming off the strike,
24:48
Speaker 1: really so the country as a whole. Both the President
24:51
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton and the Vice President Albert Gore were in
24:54
Speaker 1: attendance that night, as well as Joe DiMaggio and a
24:57
Speaker 1: zillion other people. It was such a positive, warm, wonderful event.
25:02
Speaker 1: And the thirtieth anniversary is this weekend, and I wish
25:04
Speaker 1: I could be a Camden Yards. I'm going to be
25:06
Speaker 1: in Texas for Rangers Astros, which will be great too,
25:10
Speaker 1: But that was just a special, special occasion and it's
25:14
Speaker 1: always near and dear to my heart. I've covered World Series, Olympics,
25:19
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, NHL finals, you name it, and I've done
25:21
Speaker 1: a lot of amazing things, but that night stands out
25:25
Speaker 1: above all.
25:27
Speaker 2: Thirtieth anniversary.
25:28
Speaker 3: I cannot believe it's been thirty years, Ken, and you
25:30
Speaker 3: continue to have guys like AJ Pierzinski make fun of you.
25:35
Speaker 2: You have come a.
25:36
Speaker 3: Long way in your career, Ken Rosenthal, Happy thirtieth anniversary
25:40
Speaker 3: to the iron Man. That certainly is a record that
25:43
Speaker 3: will never ever be broken.
25:45
Speaker 2: All Right, we have a.
25:45
Speaker 3: Couple more minutes with our YouTube family. We appreciate you
25:48
Speaker 3: guys very much. Ken, you just mentioned it. You have Texas,
25:53
Speaker 3: Houston and Texas this weekend.
25:54
Speaker 2: That's going to be a good one.
25:55
Speaker 3: Because it's Jacob de Gram going up against Hunter Brown.
25:58
Speaker 3: On paper anyway, that's like a pretty good preaching probable.
26:02
Speaker 1: Oh, it's a fantastic matchup. And two guys who are
26:05
Speaker 1: in the cy Young conversation, maybe not at the forefront,
26:08
Speaker 1: but certainly in that mix. Crochet and schoobl are the
26:11
Speaker 1: two leaders. Perhaps School and Crochet, I should say it
26:14
Speaker 1: that way. But Hunter Brown has had a brilliant season
26:16
Speaker 1: for the Astros, and Jacob de Kram, of course, has
26:19
Speaker 1: had an amazing comeback season one hundred and fifty innings
26:22
Speaker 1: now for the Texas Rangers, and without Evaldy at least
26:26
Speaker 1: for the time being, he's their ace.
26:28
Speaker 4: Now.
26:28
Speaker 1: What's interesting about the Gram is that, because of of
26:31
Speaker 1: course his injury history, they've cut back on his workload
26:35
Speaker 1: in recent starts. And I was around the Rangers this
26:37
Speaker 1: week and I asked about maybe extending him in this
26:40
Speaker 1: game because of its meaning. Of course, and was told, no,
26:44
Speaker 1: we're going to take it easy with him. We're gonna
26:47
Speaker 1: hopefully get what we can out of him, but it's
26:49
Speaker 1: not going to be letting him go for eight innings.
26:52
Speaker 1: He'll probably be at a five inning level, maybe six.
26:55
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to that game. I'm looking forward
26:58
Speaker 1: to seeing Texas too. This team, of all the teams
27:02
Speaker 1: this year, has been one of the most confounding, and
27:04
Speaker 1: that's saying something given all the confounding situations we've seen,
27:09
Speaker 1: sort of like the Dodgers in that they've under really
27:12
Speaker 1: all year long, especially on the offensive side, and now
27:16
Speaker 1: they're without Corey Seeger. They had one span of eight
27:18
Speaker 1: players going on the IL in sixteen days in August,
27:22
Speaker 1: including Seger and Evaldi and Simeon. They're scrappy. They're playing
27:27
Speaker 1: without these guys. They are hanging in there. I don't
27:29
Speaker 1: know if they have the offense to sustain it without
27:32
Speaker 1: the players I just mentioned, but here they are. They're
27:35
Speaker 1: just five and a half out in the division and
27:37
Speaker 1: more importantly for them, one and a half back in
27:39
Speaker 1: the wildcard race. I give them a shot. They're too
27:43
Speaker 1: talented not to be in a strong position. And if
27:46
Speaker 1: Seger comes back, which they do expect, even though he
27:49
Speaker 1: had an apendectomy about ten days ago. They expect him
27:51
Speaker 1: back maybe even next week. Then Ivaldi by the end
27:55
Speaker 1: of the regular season. Evoldi's a little bit more problematic
27:57
Speaker 1: and doubtful. Then okay, maybe they have a chance.
28:01
Speaker 3: So you're saying there's a chance before we say goodbye quickly,
28:05
Speaker 3: Ken you talked about Hunter Brown, you talked about Schoogle,
28:07
Speaker 3: you talked about Curshet. Of course, a rolled As Chapman
28:10
Speaker 3: has been unbelievable. Red Sox just extended him for next year.
28:14
Speaker 3: Is he in your cy Young conversation? Or is the
28:17
Speaker 3: only thing he gets is the Mariano Rivera, you know,
28:21
Speaker 3: reliever Award, which is great as well.
28:24
Speaker 1: I'm partial to starting pitchers in the Scion conversation simply
28:27
Speaker 1: because they have greater volume, more innings pitched. If a
28:30
Speaker 1: Roldis Chapman was pitching two hundred innings, okay, well nobody's
28:33
Speaker 1: pitching two hundred, but one hundred and eighty, then it's
28:35
Speaker 1: a different discussion. Perhaps, So the BBWAA is going to
28:40
Speaker 1: institute a relief Pitcher of the Year awards starting next year,
28:43
Speaker 1: and at that point we'll get to honor them in
28:47
Speaker 1: a way that we have not ever in our history. Obviously, Yes,
28:50
Speaker 1: there are the two awards now, the Marianna Rivera Award
28:53
Speaker 1: and the Trevor Hoffmin Award, and that's the spot for
28:56
Speaker 1: a Chapman. He has had an amazing season and actually
28:59
Speaker 1: I've got story about him and sal Perez coming to me.
29:03
Speaker 2: Oh good, look forward to that.
29:05
Speaker 3: We We are appreciative of everybody that joined us today
29:07
Speaker 3: here on Fair Territory with Ken Rosenthal.
29:09
Speaker 2: Again.
29:10
Speaker 3: Ken is on the call for de Gram and Brown,
29:12
Speaker 3: the Rangers and the Astros this weekend, and he is
29:16
Speaker 3: back on Monday with a fresh episode of Fair.
29:18
Speaker 2: Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll see you then