Latest / The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon / MLB Talk with Matt Snyder, Matt Rudy recaps the PGA Championship & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports

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MLB Talk with Matt Snyder, Matt Rudy recaps the PGA Championship & Trent's Picks presented by Circa Sports · The Lunch Rush with Trent Condon

• 0:00
  Hour number two Millery Condon welcome back Iowa Sports Radio
• 0:03
  Network. Bottom of the hour.
• 0:05
  Long time golf writer Matt Rudy will join us recap the snooze
• 0:10
  fest. Was golf second major the PGA
• 0:13
  already? Looking forward to the US Open.
• 0:15
  It's got to be better than that. Right, the bar hasn't set very
• 0:18
  high at all, unlike the Masters. It was.
• 0:20
  It didn't mean it had to be a let down, right?
• 0:22
  It was asking a ton to be even close to that intrigue and
• 0:26
  drama, but boy, oh boy. Anyways, let's talk some
• 0:29
  baseball. He's Matt Snyder.
• 0:30
  He joins us every Monday. CBSSports.com, where you can
• 0:34
  read his coverage of baseball. His power rankings are out every
• 0:37
  single Monday. And Matt Snyder joins us.
• 0:40
  Hello, Matt, Trenton, Ken, how are you?
• 0:43
  I'm great, man. You know, the Pacers are in the
• 0:45
  Eastern Conference final. It comes in first place.
• 0:47
  Let's go. Indeed they are.
• 0:50
  Indeed they are. Well, I want to start with maybe
• 0:54
  the most unlikely result of the weekend, and I'm guessing you
• 0:56
  move the way the Angels all the way up.
• 1:00
  But who saw that coming, right? I mean the lowly LA Angels
• 1:04
  taking on the behemoths across town, varsity against the junior
• 1:09
  varsity and the Angels hanging on them all weekend long.
• 1:13
  Sports, I guess, is what it comes right down.
• 1:15
  To yeah, I mean, I think that's one of the things that's a
• 1:18
  perfect illustration for why we play 162 in baseball, right?
• 1:22
  Because even in three games, you can have somebody like the
• 1:25
  Angels go in and sweep the Dodgers.
• 1:27
  And I mean, we've seen stuff in the playoffs that's funky too.
• 1:30
  Remember, the Dodgers get swept by the Diamondback 2 years ago.
• 1:34
  And so that's just how quickly and easily it can happen.
• 1:37
  And that's what makes it fun. And that's why we that's why we
• 1:39
  watch every single day. Never know what's going to
• 1:42
  happen and in baseball you're never going to make money just
• 1:45
  betting under dogs every single day.
• 1:47
  So as you look through rivalry weekend that we just had last
• 1:51
  weekend, it it was I think intriguing.
• 1:54
  It probably helped that we had a couple of games.
• 1:55
  Sevens has stunk, as Ken mentioned, the PGA stunk.
• 1:58
  But I found myself more and more invested in baseball then
• 2:02
  certainly I thought I was going to be going into the weekend.
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  Is this something that should be part of the calendar, whatever
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  it is? Second weekend in May, What's
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  that? Yeah, let's point out that not
• 2:13
  every fan has their team that just went on a 13 game-winning.
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  Streak, so they didn't have to. Watch so much more.
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  Fair enough, fair enough. But just a baseball in general
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  because it wasn't just a Twins Brewers thing for me.
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  It was I was bounced around and and got into a lot of these
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  games. Do do they have something here
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  making this a part of the calendar?
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  Maybe in May? Maybe, yeah.
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  And it's interesting, like some of them are like Braves, Red
• 2:36
  Sox. It was a fun series.
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  It's just that's not really a rivalry.
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  I guess they go back to like the Braves used to be in Boston.
• 2:44
  But good grief, who was still a baseball fan when this Braves
• 2:46
  were in Boston and still on now they who's still alive?
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  There can't be many of those. But yeah, it's.
• 2:53
  And you could line it up with different rivalries, right?
• 2:55
  Like they had the Cubs and White Sox playing.
• 2:57
  You could do a Cubs and Cardinals there, but they had
• 2:59
  the Cardinals with the Royals. There are ways to mix it up for
• 3:03
  sure. I think for many of us, the
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  Yankees and Red Sox are more of rivals than the Yankees and
• 3:09
  Bats. But it just ended up being
• 3:10
  better because the Mets are better than the Red Sox this
• 3:13
  year and the Yankees and Bats are both in the 1st place.
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  So that was a really fun series, especially a fun game last night
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  when it was 22. And then you have the whatever
• 3:21
  Pete Alonzo's attempted throw home was supposed to be before
• 3:24
  you get the the Cody Bellinger Grand Slam.
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  It was great and it's like you said, it's nice to be early in
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  our regular season during the NHL and NBA playoffs to the
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  point that if they they run into a wall in their playoffs and
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  we're a nice option to to flip over.
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  So yeah, it's always a good way to capture some eyeballs here
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  early in the season. I'll tell you what my flip over
• 3:48
  was, because I was in trying to watch the PGA, trying to watch
• 3:50
  the NBA. None of them were catching my
• 3:52
  attention. But Paul Skeens was what I mean.
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  It's just amazing how good this guy is so early in his career.
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  He strikes out nine, he gives up what three hits?
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  They scored a run. I was going to say 4th, 5th
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  inning, the only run of the game.
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  Phillies can't hit Skeens. Skeens goes pitches all 8
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  innings and it's not good enough.
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  It's unbelievable. So what's going to happen with
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  Paul Skeens? What did what should the pyro?
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  Well, we know they should spend money.
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  They won't what? What's going to happen to Paul
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  Skeens? Well, I think that he's going to
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  get traded. They'll they'll keep him during
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  his pre arbitration years. Man, I just I clicked on this
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  game logs just to see there's three and seven and it starts
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  this year and he has a 2.44 ERA. That is pathetic.
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  He has one start that was bad, one marginal and all the rest
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  are good and they're three and seven.
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  That's pitiful if you're not going to spend money to surround
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  him right now. And I know that Jared Jones
• 4:52
  injury was bad luck, but still. I went through this before the
• 4:55
  season started and it wasn't just schemes, it was Jared Jones
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  is cheap right now. Mitch Keller's locked up long
• 5:01
  term. Brian Reynolds is locked up long
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  term. Keep.
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  Brian Hayes is locked up long term.
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  O'Neill Cruz is really cheap right now.
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  If there was ever a time for them to try to surround a scheme
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  and O'Neill Cruz with talent when they already have veterans
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  like Reynolds and Keller around, right now would be the time.
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  And our biggest free agent signing was Andrew Hain, and
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  he's actually been good. So why didn't they do more?
• 5:24
  It's frustrating. As you can see from the tone of
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  my voice, I am know the Pirates. When it becomes the vision, it
• 5:30
  is frustrating to watch because they should have done more.
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  They should have done a lot more.
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  Now it feels like we're all just treading water until he gets
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  into arbitration and gets more expensive.
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  And then that's when they trade him in the exact same fashion
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  that happened with Garrett Colder the Astros.
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  Depth. So I was looking at the Yankees
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  and looking the Red Sox have pulled back Ken's Blue Jays.
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  I hear him grumbling about him from time to time.
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  Snyder's got to be the next manager.
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  Orioles, obviously, they're terrible start and then the Rays
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  just don't look like they have enough punch right now.
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  Are they just going to be able to put it in cruise control and
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  just coast? I mean, what's more likely to
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  happen, we even go into the final week with a little
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  intrigue here, or it's cruise control from the 4th of July on?
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  Gosh, it feels like it'd be in between, right?
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  But yeah, it's the Orioles are irrelevant right now and I don't
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  see how they can turn it around this season.
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  The Rays just don't look very good at all the the Blue Jays
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  and Red Sox feel like they should have enough talent to
• 6:31
  push the Yankees a little bit, but it's already 5 game lead.
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  The Yankees if for some reason Paul Goldschmidt and Trent
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  Grisham keep contributing the way they're contributing
• 6:44
  offensively, you would expect once Jazz comes back he's going
• 6:47
  to hit better than he's hit. Cody Bellinger has already
• 6:50
  turned it around after a very slow start.
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  I mean, Aaron Judge is just out of his mind, ridiculous right
• 6:56
  now. It pits around him, the other
• 6:58
  guys in the lineup for hurting him last night.
• 7:01
  Judge struck out with the bases loaded and then Bellinger hit a
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  Grand Slam and he had six RBI in the game.
• 7:05
  And again, Goldsmith's been so good.
• 7:08
  Wells has power behind the plate.
• 7:09
  He hits for a low average, but he has power.
• 7:11
  It looks like the lineup's a lot deeper than many thought it
• 7:14
  would be, and the rotation still could be a problem with Garrett
• 7:18
  Cole being hurt, but Rodon is fine and Freed looks like a Sion
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  contender along with Terex. Google of the Tigers right
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  there. So I assume Devin Williams will
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  get better at the back of the game and they'll get their Bolts
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  and figured out. Oh, Luke Weaver has been
• 7:32
  amazing. But if there are any starters
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  out there, the trade deadline, it feels like the Cubs and the
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  Yankees will be the two teams heaviest and on starting
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  pitching there. So, yeah, it it might be that
• 7:45
  was my long way. Sorry.
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  That was a roundabout way to to say, Trent, that I believe if
• 7:51
  they very well might end up putting it on cruise control.
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  There's only one team in the division over 500, and that is
• 7:56
  those Yankees. The team they were playing last
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  night signed a a huge contract, gave Juan Soto the moon,
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  essentially. Are they having buyer's remorse
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  or is it too early to be going down that road yet?
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  Because it sure seems like he's not living up to it at this
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  point. Far too early.
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  It's Surely Steve Cohen isn't worried about it because he has
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  plenty of money. Surely David Stearns isn't
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  worried about it because he's an analytical guy who would say we
• 8:26
  need huge samples here before we judge anything.
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  And look, they're in first place, so it's hard to be
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  disappointed when your team's in first place and it's an easy
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  place to look is to say Soto's OPS is fine.
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  It's not nearly as good as it was last year, but he's still
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  taking his blocks, still has eight home runs.
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  He hasn't really started to lock in from a batting average
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  perspective yet. He hasn't hit as many home runs
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  as you would expect. But the way you look at it is
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  we're in first place and he hasn't even gotten full one Soto
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  yet. And they haven't gotten a ton
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  from the bottom of the order just yet.
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  Vientos feels like he should be better.
• 9:01
  You know, Francisco and Door at the top of the order actually
• 9:03
  had a slow start for the first two weeks, although he's
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  perfectly fine right now. Peter Lonzo picked up the slack.
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  They're in the early, early. That's what.
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  That's what happens on good teams.
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  And maybe Brett, Brett Beatty's power surge is real.
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  Maybe Jeff McNeil hits the way he's been hitting.
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  They have enough pieces, they're offensively that you don't have
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  to worry so much about Soto. But then you can also point to,
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  hey, look at his track record. He's 26 years old.
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  He's probably going to settle in.
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  A lot of times after these monster contracts, the players
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  do press for a little bit. I always get a kick of talking
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  to teams that are off to good starts, their fans and poking
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  holes in them. So the Cubs overall, yeah,
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  there's individual moments, games that you look at and say,
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  oh, this is the reason I hear Ken do it seemingly every single
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  day. However, what do you take that
• 9:51
  big overview? What would be that one concern
• 9:54
  that you still have with this Cubs team?
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  That the one thing that says, you know what, I don't even
• 9:58
  think this team can win a playoff series.
• 10:00
  If you had to come up with that, what would it be for the Cubs?
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  Well, I have multiple actually, so I guess that's there.
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  It is nothing at all on the position player side.
• 10:11
  Assuming now that Matt Shaw is getting called up today that he
• 10:13
  sticks at third base. I think that third base has been
• 10:17
  the big problem. That solves it.
• 10:19
  I hope that it solves it, at least I think he will and that
• 10:22
  that makes the bench that much better with when you have guys
• 10:24
  like Bruhan and Birdie who can pinch run off the bench, you can
• 10:27
  play multiple positions and if Carson Kelly is going to keep
• 10:30
  hitting like he is, you have an extra bat on the bench.
• 10:33
  Whoever's not catching between Kelly and Amaya, I think they
• 10:36
  have a good bench there. My concerns would be one with
• 10:40
  Justin Steele out for the season and Imanaga hurt for a little
• 10:43
  bit here. The rotation depth, how much
• 10:45
  longer is Colin Ray going to be good?
• 10:47
  How deep in the season are they going to take Kate Horton if he
• 10:49
  sticks? How well is Ben Brown going to
• 10:52
  be as your what is he #3 right now it's the concern would be
• 10:58
  the rotation and who do they target from the trade deadline.
• 11:01
  Maybe somebody like Tyler Anderson is who I've had my eyes
• 11:04
  on and the lefty on the Angels either the last year and then
• 11:07
  the bullpens and they are starting to you can kind of see
• 11:11
  and this is how funny Bolton's are.
• 11:13
  Who would have thought heading into your their trusted guys
• 11:15
  would be Brad Keller feel bar Daniel and Drew Palmer and those
• 11:21
  four reliable guys. But it's Hodges up and down,
• 11:25
  Merriweather seems like. It's not going to be.
• 11:27
  A trustable guy this year, Ryan Presley seems completely cooked,
• 11:31
  so you have to find it in other ways.
• 11:32
  So it's how is the Bolton going to come together and who is
• 11:36
  going to be the acquisition in the rotation?
• 11:39
  Yeah, Dansby Swanson has been terrific, obviously.
• 11:42
  Pete Crow Armstrong. Is he a legitimate MVP candidate
• 11:47
  this year? If he had the voting right now,
• 11:50
  yes, he would finish third behind Otani and Tatis, maybe
• 11:55
  4th or 5th, but he's right he's right in there.
• 12:00
  I I would say he's going to have slumps and like especially with
• 12:04
  his strikeout rate still high his walk rate still low he
• 12:07
  swings it a lot Teams are going to start to figure out how
• 12:10
  better to work him. The book on him so far seems to
• 12:13
  be attack him and try to make him swing, but teams are getting
• 12:17
  hurt by that. I mean, it's 12 double S3 tip,
• 12:20
  triple twelve home runs. And if he gets on base, he run.
• 12:23
  You can't let this guy on base. So I, I, they're going to start
• 12:27
  pitching him differently and he'll probably have a slump or
• 12:29
  two. But I, I'm, I'm very, very
• 12:33
  certain that he's going to be an All Star and I'm fairly certain
• 12:36
  that he finishes top 10 MVP vote 8th, 9th or 10th or so.
• 12:40
  I'm looking right now at leaders in war wins, a bravo placement
• 12:44
  that for a lot of people. Isn't it like Judge and maybe
• 12:48
  Tatis are the only people in front of them?
• 12:50
  It's Judge and then second PCA, second now, Becca.
• 12:55
  Had a teeth. Yeah, I looked on like Friday or
• 12:57
  Saturday. So he passed our teeth over the
• 12:59
  weekend. Yeah.
• 13:00
  Because the Padres in scoring. Yeah, that makes sense.
• 13:03
  I want to talk about Saint Louis Cardinals who are defying, I
• 13:06
  think most people's expectations.
• 13:09
  I I thought that Marmal's not going to make the year.
• 13:12
  I would be surprised if he's not the first manager that walks the
• 13:15
  plank. They didn't Did they sweep the
• 13:17
  twin strength to start the year? I'm not trying to throw salt in
• 13:21
  the wound because your twins are playing very well right now.
• 13:23
  But the Cardinals, I mean, this is one of the good stories in
• 13:27
  baseball. Matt Snyder.
• 13:28
  Yeah, yeah, it is. It's it's interesting.
• 13:32
  They've gotten, they've really gotten things going offensively.
• 13:36
  Contreras was off to a terrible start, but he's been hitting
• 13:38
  really well the last several weeks.
• 13:40
  Nolan Naranado has been swinging a good bat, Brennan Donovan
• 13:43
  having an exceptional season. They're getting stuff from Mason
• 13:46
  Wynn and Victor Scott. And it's funny because it's a
• 13:49
  lot of the young guys and then the older guys just teaming up
• 13:53
  right there and putting things together and rotation wise, you
• 13:57
  know, Miles Michaelis was left for dead after is he had that
• 14:00
  disastrous start in Boston, but he's been outstanding since
• 14:03
  then. Betty's been really good.
• 14:05
  Liberty's been good. You know, Polante keeps the ball
• 14:08
  on the ground there and you know, in the bullpen, they've
• 14:11
  got a good back end of the bullpen there.
• 14:13
  So it's let's also point out, while I mentioned the bullpen,
• 14:17
  yeah, yeah, they got knocked around recently.
• 14:19
  But even Matt, the long reliever out of the bullpen has been an
• 14:23
  absolute X Factor for them. Once they decided to use him as
• 14:27
  kind of a length guy in the middle innings out of the
• 14:29
  bullpen. He's worked wonders for them.
• 14:31
  That's been a great move. They look really good.
• 14:35
  It's I find myself yearning for when in the world do the Cubs
• 14:40
  and Cardinals even play this? We looked last.
• 14:42
  Week. That's funny.
• 14:43
  We have to wait. Played all the way until June
• 14:45
  23rd. Are you kidding me?
• 14:46
  Get out of here with. That and then the final series
• 14:49
  of the regular season. Well, you know what I would say,
• 14:52
  hopefully it'll be close, but I don't.
• 14:54
  I would rather the Cubs have it done by then.
• 14:56
  But if we're if we leave my fandom out of that, yes, that
• 14:59
  would be amazing. If they were facing each other
• 15:01
  for the Division title in the last three games, that'd be
• 15:04
  great. Well, Ken had to throw a little
• 15:05
  salt in the wound, so let's bring them up.
• 15:06
  Those Minnesota Twins, the win streak is over.
• 15:09
  It only reached 13, but we'll take it.
• 15:11
  Still, even with a 13 game win streak, we come through the the
• 15:14
  weekend still five games back of the Detroit Tigers.
• 15:17
  The Tigers are just playing so well.
• 15:18
  They they are, but they've jumped ahead of Cleveland and
• 15:21
  Kansas City. Now they're back in contention.
• 15:23
  Sustainability. Royce is back, but Royce Lewis
• 15:26
  is not playing at a high level right now.
• 15:28
  Zebby Matthews got the start yesterday.
• 15:30
  They got some young arms. I love that bullpen if they stay
• 15:33
  healthy. And of course, it happened late
• 15:35
  in the week where Korea and Buxton ran into each other.
• 15:38
  Ran into each other. Yes, that.
• 15:40
  Sucks do you see sustainability though out of the twins that
• 15:42
  they're they're going to be there now the rest of the way.
• 15:45
  Well, it's funny, we were actually talking before we came
• 15:47
  on the air. If you would have said two weeks
• 15:49
  ago somebody's going to go on a 13 game-winning streak and we
• 15:52
  would have had like what, 15 guesses?
• 15:53
  Would we even have taken the 23? That team who did it?
• 15:56
  No way. But they're hitting the ball
• 16:01
  offense and Buxton was a big part of that.
• 16:04
  So it sucks that he had that collision with Korea.
• 16:06
  But it feels like it starts with the rotation right now and
• 16:10
  you've got the three headed Monster and Ryan Ober and Pablo
• 16:12
  Lopez. But also Paddock has been
• 16:14
  throwing really well recently. They've gotten some work from
• 16:17
  Festa in there. It seems like that Bolton with
• 16:22
  all those power arms, that's a really good Bolton as well.
• 16:25
  I think they're going to ride that pitching.
• 16:27
  And yeah, I think it's sustainable that they'll stay in
• 16:29
  contention and they'll stay in the race.
• 16:32
  Might be a tall order to run down the Tigers from five games.
• 16:35
  Not that five games is insurmountable right now.
• 16:37
  I mean, we've seen 10 games from the start of June here recently
• 16:40
  with the Braves. Ran the bets down a couple of
• 16:42
  years ago, but the Tigers just look really, really
• 16:45
  well-rounded. Not just the rotation and the
• 16:47
  bullpen. The offense looks well-rounded
• 16:49
  now. Pinch is good at pulling every
• 16:51
  correct lever. That's a good and deep team.
• 16:54
  But yeah, I mean, it's the Twins kind of what I said earlier when
• 16:58
  we talked about Juan Soto, right?
• 17:00
  As you mentioned, Lewis hasn't done anything yet.
• 17:02
  Well, you know, he has upside in there.
• 17:04
  And when Buxton and Korea get back, you know they have upside.
• 17:07
  And you haven't been heavily reliant on those guys.
• 17:10
  Offense, you haven't been relying at all on Korea or
• 17:12
  Lewis. So if you start to get those
• 17:14
  guys doing what you believe they can, then it supplements the
• 17:18
  other people who have actually been hitting.
• 17:20
  So I think there's hope here to to carve into that five games a
• 17:23
  little bit. Obviously I think you have to
• 17:26
  say the Tigers have the best chance to win the division
• 17:28
  because they have a 5 game lead right now and they look so
• 17:30
  well-rounded. But the Twins definitely have
• 17:32
  the vibe and look of the contender right now.
• 17:35
  And just like we all said, all three wild cards are going to
• 17:37
  come out of the Central Division, which is the season
• 17:40
  ended today. That's would be the case.
• 17:42
  That's just crazy, man. And I got to say, he's looking
• 17:46
  at the East teams right now. It's hard to have faith.
• 17:49
  It is like the Red Sox or Blue Jays.
• 17:51
  So then you're looking W can the Astros and Rangers carve into
• 17:54
  that? Or is it Twins, Guardians,
• 17:56
  Royal? Like there could be a lot of
• 17:59
  good races here. Meanwhile, in the in the
• 18:02
  National League, there's so many team.
• 18:03
  I mean, this is going to be such a battle for those.
• 18:05
  I mean, the good news is we got to 3/4 of the season left or
• 18:08
  whatever it is. But I do want to get to one team
• 18:11
  in the National League East that's that's not the Mets or
• 18:14
  the Phillies and it's the Braves who seemingly are turning things
• 18:18
  around a little bit that the slow start seems to be well in
• 18:22
  their rear view mirror at this point.
• 18:23
  They're looking like a playoff team to me, Matt.
• 18:26
  What do you always say? Just keep winning series?
• 18:29
  They're they're 7 and they've won seven of their last nine
• 18:31
  series. And he just that's you got to
• 18:34
  stay the path. And when they have veterans in
• 18:36
  there who have won the World Series before and who have won
• 18:39
  over 100 games before and you've got Brian snicker as manager
• 18:43
  that that's the way you ride the ship When he started 17, you
• 18:45
  don't try to get all 7 back the next day.
• 18:47
  You say, hey, this is a this is a marathon.
• 18:49
  We're going to keep winning series.
• 18:51
  And they're going to get Spencer Strider back soon.
• 18:53
  They're going to get Ronald the junior back soon.
• 18:55
  Matt Olson's hitting the ball out of the ballpark.
• 18:57
  Now they're they're they're going to be very formidable in
• 19:02
  the second-half. And if they find an opening to
• 19:06
  make the playoffs, which right now, no, they would not because
• 19:10
  they would be behind. Yeah, they'd be quite a bit
• 19:12
  behind, actually, But they're not that far from the playoff
• 19:15
  picture. And all you got to do is make it
• 19:18
  in. And and they showed that in
• 19:19
  2021. They had the worst record among
• 19:21
  all the playoff teams in 2021 and they won the World Series.
• 19:24
  And we've also seen them come from looking like the best team
• 19:27
  in the league and losing early in the class.
• 19:28
  So they know as well as anybody it doesn't matter where you're
• 19:33
  seated, just get in. And they've shown that maturity
• 19:37
  level there by winning 7 to the last nine series and just not
• 19:41
  trying to get it all back at once.
• 19:42
  Just we're going to be steady here and we're going to just
• 19:45
  continue to take two of three, two of three, two of three.
• 19:48
  Jose Alvarado for the Phillies has been suspended for 80 games
• 19:52
  for APED violation. And every time one of these pops
• 19:55
  up, you're like, I don't know. I just kind of shrug.
• 19:58
  How do you get caught or why do you do it anymore?
• 20:01
  Don't these guys know they're going to be caught anymore?
• 20:03
  Yeah, I, I have the same thought.
• 20:06
  Like how does it even happen anymore because you're taking
• 20:08
  such a big risk, you know? 2 times it's a full season, 3
• 20:12
  times you're done for life and it's like wearing a scarlet
• 20:15
  letter for the rest of your career.
• 20:17
  People go crazy booing you. This one is interesting because
• 20:22
  it feels like it impacts the Phillies more with the added
• 20:25
  stipulation of ineligible for the he's such an X Factor in the
• 20:31
  playoffs when you don't need as many relievers.
• 20:33
  The regular season, the grind, you need all 8-9 of your
• 20:36
  relievers and the post season you try to lean on three or four
• 20:39
  guys and they might even use starters in relief.
• 20:41
  But Alvarado was one of those guys who was going to be their
• 20:43
  main arms in the postseason. And now you're down to Orion
• 20:47
  Kirk ring next Matt Strom and Jordan remain.
• 20:50
  Looks great, looks great the past couple weeks, but I feel
• 20:55
  like without having that Alvarado X Factor in the
• 20:57
  playoffs, he might be the guy since you handed over the closer
• 21:01
  range to to Romano there. If if you were going to have a
• 21:06
  guy who was your put out the fires guy, whether it's six,
• 21:08
  7th, 8th and Alvarado was going to be that guy.
• 21:12
  Now he's not going to be available in the postseason.
• 21:14
  So they're going to have to scramble in July and pick up a
• 21:17
  reliever like they did with Carlos Estevez last year.
• 21:20
  It'll be interesting to see if they can come up with somebody
• 21:22
  like that. Last thing for you, Matt and I,
• 21:25
  I bring it up because of all things, Chris Chelios before he
• 21:28
  sang the 7th inning stretch of Wrigley yesterday, Shout out to
• 21:31
  Anthony Rizzo before he did so mentioned that seems like it's
• 21:35
  the end for Rizzo. I thought he was trying to catch
• 21:37
  on with the Red Sox. Is it over for Anthony Rizzo?
• 21:40
  Do you know? Man, I hope not.
• 21:43
  It feels like by now you probably would have caught on
• 21:46
  with someone. You know, there was all spring
• 21:48
  training. And as you mentioned, the Red
• 21:50
  Sox, they seem desperate to come up with something at first base.
• 21:54
  If they didn't look to him yet, I don't know what they would be
• 21:56
  waiting for. So it sure seems like it.
• 22:00
  Yeah, unfortunately, sometimes that happens.
• 22:03
  But yeah, I I miss, I miss prime Rizzo, that's for sure.
• 22:07
  It was unreal. He absolutely was.
• 22:10
  Matt. Great stuff as always, brother.
• 22:11
  Thank you again for doing this. And by the way, just I guess one
• 22:15
  more with the Hall of Fame stuff and and people realizing you're
• 22:18
  all are a Hall of Fame voter. I know you did a bunch of radio,
• 22:22
  bunch of interviews, bunch of social media stuff around the
• 22:25
  country regarding your thoughts on this.
• 22:28
  What was kind of the consensus of the, you know, the people
• 22:31
  that you spoke with when it comes to being reinstated to
• 22:35
  baseball? The obviously the guys from the
• 22:38
  Blackhawks and of course, more importantly for our discussions,
• 22:41
  Pete Rose, what was kind of the consensus of the people, the
• 22:44
  many, many people you spoke with this last week?
• 22:47
  I still, I still think that a lot of people are fine with Pete
• 22:51
  Rose being in the Hall of Fame, but are fine with him not being
• 22:54
  in two, which was very interesting.
• 22:57
  I know there's a huge swell of fans online who will yell and
• 23:01
  scream at you about how much of A travesty he's not in the Hall
• 23:04
  of Fame, but I wonder. It almost seems like a 5050
• 23:08
  split. There are a lot of people,
• 23:10
  actually, surprisingly to me, who kept saying I'm OK with him
• 23:14
  not being in. Matt Snyder, Hall of Fame voter,
• 23:17
  Major League Baseball. CBSSports.com is where you can
• 23:19
  read him. You can hear him here with
• 23:20
  Miller and Condon on Mondays. We're grateful for that, Matt.
• 23:23
  Thank you, dear buddy Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com, as we
• 23:29
  talk talk Major League Baseball. All right, let's recap the PGA
• 23:33
  with our friend Matt Rudy from formerly of Golf Digest.
• 23:36
  That's next. Before we do that, though, time
• 23:37
  to give somebody an opportunity to win $1000 in this nationwide
• 23:41
  contest. Head to kxno.com.
• 23:43
  Right now. The keyword this hour is check.
• 23:45
  Check at kxno.com, your chance to win $1000.
• 23:49
  The contest is sponsored and final week of the eve of
• 23:52
  promotion. By the way, suntan and city,
• 23:55
  Miller and Condon on a Monday, it's the Iowa Sports Radio
• 23:58
  Network. I'm Miller and Condon.
• 24:01
  Welcome back, Iowa Sports Radio Network, wherever you are
• 24:04
  listening in the state of Iowa. Glad that you are coming up top
• 24:07
  of the hour. The drive with Heather and Lucas
• 24:10
  take you until 5:00 overtime. Iowa 5 until 6.
• 24:13
  Long time golf writer Matt Rudy, he joins us to recap the PGA,
• 24:18
  which I'm looking forward to seeing the ratings.
• 24:21
  I don't think they're going to be very good.
• 24:23
  Matt Rudy, how are you? Good to talk to you.
• 24:26
  I'm doing well. It's a beautiful day.
• 24:28
  And you know, I like seeing Scotty win.
• 24:31
  I thought, I thought it was, I thought it was good to see.
• 24:35
  It's cool to see when everything is not working the way it should
• 24:39
  and yet you still persevere. I think we saw a little bit of
• 24:42
  that in the Masters, you know, where there's some adversity in
• 24:44
  the middle and you've got to push through it.
• 24:46
  I think it just reinforces how hard this is to do seeing those,
• 24:50
  those moments of reality, seeing how close, for example, John ROM
• 24:54
  comes and you know, a couple double bogeys and he's not even
• 24:56
  in the top 20. I mean that's it's amazing how
• 24:59
  quick it can go. No, no, don't.
• 25:00
  So I want to ask you this because you've told us that
• 25:03
  you've known Scotty Schuff. How old was he 10 So when you
• 25:06
  first. I think he was.
• 25:08
  I think he was 7. So you've known him for a long
• 25:10
  time, you've watched him grow up and develop his game.
• 25:13
  You covered Tiger Woods when he was at the peak of his powers.
• 25:17
  I'm not asking you to, you know who would be better in their in
• 25:21
  their prime? I hate comparing eras, but they
• 25:25
  both have something that drives them.
• 25:27
  What does Scotty have the Tiger has?
• 25:30
  And are they, you know, both on that plane being, you know, some
• 25:34
  of the immortals that we know Tiger is.
• 25:36
  But is is Scotty about to join him?
• 25:39
  Well, I think Tiger showed up and was so different.
• 25:44
  Just the, you know, the, I think to be an elite athlete and play
• 25:49
  a professional sport, you have to be this voracious competitor.
• 25:52
  I think you just have to be. But I think the degree that
• 25:55
  Tiger wanted to figuratively speaking, murder everybody, I
• 25:59
  mean, he had no, he wanted to take your heart and golf and not
• 26:05
  really seen that kind of, you know, just just elite level
• 26:10
  competitiveness mixed in with elite level power.
• 26:14
  He could hit it farther than everybody else.
• 26:16
  Scotty's a little bit different in that he's not a physical
• 26:19
  outlier like Tiger was. You know, Tiger was 50 yards
• 26:22
  past people. He showed up at the Masters and
• 26:24
  was just doing things that nobody else could do.
• 26:27
  And I and, you know, to, you know, put that on the sport, you
• 26:31
  know, kind of made everybody have to reconfigure and figure
• 26:34
  out what to do next, which in some ways makes what Scotty's
• 26:37
  doing, I don't want to say more impressive, but now they're, you
• 26:41
  know, you look up and down Professional Golf.
• 26:43
  There isn't a non athlete in Professional Golf anymore.
• 26:46
  When Tiger showed up, you could be Justin Leonard, you could be
• 26:49
  Jeff, could be Court. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:52
  You could be Corey Pave. And not to knock those players,
• 26:54
  but you could be an off speed pitcher.
• 26:57
  And you and I have talked about this a lot.
• 26:59
  Look at what Zach Johnson was able to do with his career.
• 27:02
  I mean, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame just for doing what
• 27:04
  he did while not being a physical outlier.
• 27:07
  So Scotty's ball striking is just as good as Tigers ever was.
• 27:12
  Tiger was probably the elite pressure putter of all time and
• 27:16
  he had so much firepower to be able to hit whatever shot he
• 27:21
  needed. I think what Scotty's doing is
• 27:24
  amazing. And the other thing that he's
• 27:26
  doing is Scotty is a genuinely good human.
• 27:28
  You know, he's a nice, he's a, he's a straightforward guy to
• 27:31
  talk to you. He loves his family.
• 27:33
  He has a lot of close friends. He's got the same group of
• 27:35
  friends when he was non famous. That part is the big standout to
• 27:39
  me because I've met plenty of professional athletes where part
• 27:42
  of the drive to get them where they are turns them into people
• 27:45
  that you probably wouldn't want to be trapped in an elevator
• 27:47
  with. But but Scotty would be good fun
• 27:50
  if he was at your bachelor party or if he was playing in your
• 27:52
  program group, you would, you know, he's a genuinely good
• 27:56
  human. One question about Rory and it's
• 27:59
  not about him not talking in the media or anything like that.
• 28:01
  It's it's this driver thing. Him, Xander, Scotty, all were
• 28:06
  involved with a non conforming driver.
• 28:09
  This is way above my head. Matt, Rudy, help me out.
• 28:12
  Sure it's a non issue. This happens every week.
• 28:16
  So they make clubs to very rigid tolerances that come right up.
• 28:22
  They tiptoe right up to the edge of conforming.
• 28:24
  So basically when the ball hits the face, the ball deforms, you
• 28:28
  know, it squishes and then the face deforms to a lesser degree.
• 28:32
  And that spring effect, there's a limit to how much you can
• 28:35
  have. But if you keep hitting balls
• 28:37
  with the driver, the metal on the face fatigue and it brings a
• 28:41
  little bit more as a fatigue. So just through the lifespan of
• 28:45
  a driver, it's going to get to a point when it becomes non
• 28:48
  conforming. So every single week somebody's
• 28:51
  driver gets tested and they say, oh, this one is trickled over
• 28:54
  the line and you have to switch it out.
• 28:56
  So I think what Rory was salty about, and I don't blame him, is
• 29:01
  somebody leaked that he was one of the people that had to switch
• 29:05
  their club out. And so you know that that's, you
• 29:08
  know, for a guy who used to major in early week distractions
• 29:12
  at major championships, that was 1, you know, another one that he
• 29:15
  didn't want to have to keep talking about.
• 29:18
  And Scotty's point and Xander Shafi's point, they were right
• 29:21
  on. They said why don't you just
• 29:22
  test everybody's driver and just, you know, take out the
• 29:25
  ones that are non conforming instead of testing 1/3 of the
• 29:28
  field and making people answer questions like that, that if you
• 29:32
  don't have an understanding of what the rules are, now you're
• 29:34
  going to think that there's somebody's cheating or there's
• 29:37
  something when it's nothing like that.
• 29:39
  Speaking of that and some controversy, Shane Lowry was
• 29:43
  ticked off because whoever was on the course by him was helping
• 29:48
  out with the ruling or at least explaining the ruling as his
• 29:51
  ball looked like it was pretty well plugged in there and they
• 29:53
  were not playing clean to replace.
• 29:55
  So does Shane Lowry does does he have a gripe here to to
• 29:59
  commentators the on course should they be shutting up?
• 30:02
  What was your take away from that?
• 30:03
  Because it's it's rare to see the big Irishman fired up like
• 30:06
  he was. Actually, I think it's both.
• 30:10
  He has a reason to be fired up, but I do understand why somebody
• 30:13
  would say something the whole, you know, generally speaking, if
• 30:16
  you're an on course reporter and you're a player or former
• 30:19
  player, your gear, your natural gear is to protect the field.
• 30:23
  And if you see something, you just play, you know, you call
• 30:25
  balls and strike the way you see it.
• 30:28
  And what the rule is, is if the ball embeds in your own pitch
• 30:32
  mark, you can you get relief from your own pitch mark.
• 30:35
  So if it comes down and it plugs, you can pull it out of
• 30:38
  there and play it. And if you're, you know, if you
• 30:41
  come walking up, you, you have to use your best judgement about
• 30:44
  if it's your pitch marker, if it went into somebody else's pitch
• 30:47
  mark. And what happened was, you know,
• 30:50
  the, the whoever was reporting on that came and asserted that
• 30:54
  the ball didn't land in its own pitch mark, it was somebody
• 30:57
  else's. So that that option got taken
• 31:00
  away from Lowry. And so he was annoyed by that.
• 31:04
  His feeling was that it was its own pitch mark, the one that his
• 31:08
  ball created and that he should have been able to get relief.
• 31:12
  And so I think he feels like the media should mind its own
• 31:16
  business and let the rules officials and the players, you
• 31:18
  know, decide what's going to happen.
• 31:20
  I can't argue with that. Nor can I argue if I'm, you
• 31:22
  know, if you're walking along and you see something that can
• 31:25
  prevent a potential rules violation that gets somebody
• 31:28
  disqualified, then I think you're doing actually doing the
• 31:31
  player a favor to speak up about what happened.
• 31:33
  Speaking of speaking up, that's the last thing Rory did this
• 31:37
  weekend. He doesn't make very many
• 31:39
  missteps. He came out of, well, probably
• 31:42
  about a year ago and thought and was and actually called out some
• 31:44
  players for not talking that That's what he did this weekend.
• 31:48
  And he's one of the faces of golf.
• 31:49
  He's the Masters champion, had a chance.
• 31:52
  There was only one guy that had a chance for the Grand Slam this
• 31:55
  year. How does he look today?
• 31:59
  Do you think he looks back on this and said maybe I should
• 32:01
  have said something to do We view him differently for this
• 32:04
  weekend with him refusing to speak again.
• 32:07
  He doesn't have to. There's no rule that says you
• 32:09
  have to. But I thought that that probably
• 32:12
  he should have. How about you?
• 32:14
  I think he should have, yes. But I also think that if we're
• 32:18
  judging on the reservoir of goodwill that somebody's built
• 32:21
  up in terms of talking every single time and talking about, I
• 32:25
  mean, this guy was asked every live business question possibly,
• 32:29
  you know, that could have been asked ever every single time.
• 32:32
  You know, he was pushed into a position to be the spokesperson
• 32:35
  for the PGA Tour every single Tuesday of every single tour
• 32:39
  event for, you know, three years.
• 32:40
  So yes, I mean, selfishly as a media person, I wish you would
• 32:45
  talk. I also don't know, he could have
• 32:48
  come walking off and spoken to a couple people privately in the
• 32:51
  in the clip area, right by 18 just didn't.
• 32:54
  He just didn't agree to go do the group press conference.
• 32:57
  So I've had plenty of dealings with Murray.
• 33:00
  He did the forward to one of the books I wrote with Dave
• 33:02
  Stockton, and my interactions with them have always been very
• 33:06
  professional and positive. And he is extremely
• 33:10
  accommodating for a super famous player.
• 33:13
  So even if you take this at its worst and say, yeah, it
• 33:17
  shouldn't be a quote, UN quote baby and you should talk to the
• 33:19
  media, I think everybody's allowed to have, you know, a
• 33:23
  section of time when they don't do the exact right thing and you
• 33:26
  can give them a pass. I mean, it's not like it's a
• 33:28
  pattern where he's, you know, you know, let's just put it this
• 33:32
  way. He's not Patrick Reed.
• 33:35
  He deserves more benefit of the doubt than that.
• 33:37
  Fairpoint, Matt. Rudy.
• 33:40
  Golf Digest, Formerly Golf Digest, now ghost writing, has
• 33:43
  covered the sport for literally decades straight.
• 33:46
  You got one more. Just did our last minute here
• 33:48
  with you, Matt. U.S.
• 33:49
  Open a quick preview. You know, I'm always looking
• 33:51
  forward. It's going to be, it's going to
• 33:54
  be so hard. Yes, the the the.
• 33:57
  They they can set that course up so that people will never
• 34:00
  finish. And I think part of what there,
• 34:05
  I think there's always a wrestling match within the USGA
• 34:09
  to make it, you know, more, you know, TV friendly or, you know,
• 34:13
  to, you know, reward good play or to make it super hard.
• 34:16
  And if what I've seen to be the case here in the Northeast, I
• 34:20
  mean, we've gotten so much rain and so much interspersed with
• 34:24
  sun, the grass is growing like crazy.
• 34:26
  I think we could have it AUS open where it could be a
• 34:29
  bloodbath And and, you know, it could be truly a challenge.
• 34:34
  Like we thought toward the end of, you know, yesterday
• 34:37
  afternoon when it really got to, you know, the wind got to blow
• 34:39
  in the course was crispy and it got really difficult.
• 34:43
  I think people, there's a subset of people and I know present
• 34:46
  company included that likes to see the you see the bloodbath
• 34:50
  and that it could, it could well be a bloodbath.
• 34:52
  Once a year, that's all I need, yeah.
• 34:53
  Absolutely, Matt Rudy. We'll talk to you in less than a
• 34:55
  month. This thing sneaks up on us
• 34:57
  quicker this year for whatever reason.
• 34:59
  Thank you, buddy, for what you do for us.
• 35:00
  As always, Matt, thank you. Goodbye.
• 35:03
  Yep. Take care, buddy.
• 35:03
  Matt Rudy, golf die. Just formally.
• 35:06
  But it's hard for me to break that habit after 30.
• 35:09
  Yeah, but a good guy and obviously covers the sport and
• 35:12
  wanted to get his opinion on Tiger at the peak of his powers.
• 35:14
  And of course, Scotty Scheffler, what he's doing.
• 35:16
  How about this Harris English cat?
• 35:18
  Did you see where he started? So he was 38th.
• 35:20
  If you finished 38th, it was going to earn $82,000.
• 35:24
  His rise up the leaderboard yesterday.
• 35:26
  Wait, he finished making 1.38 million in 18 alls.
• 35:31
  That was the difference. Did you?
• 35:33
  Do any good, Betty? Not did you break even or you
• 35:37
  lose a. Little bit no, because I
• 35:39
  basically my big ones were Dechambeau.
• 35:43
  Xander Shoffley. Xander, yeah.
• 35:45
  And I had Xander top 20. He didn't get there.
• 35:47
  He. Was close, though wasn't.
• 35:48
  He maybe he did, but I had Justin Rose.
• 35:51
  He didn't make the cut. I had a ton of guys that, yeah,
• 35:55
  and now Dechambeau would have won it.
• 35:56
  We would have been good. We had a top five on him that
• 35:59
  helped. But yeah, probably lost, I don't
• 36:01
  know, 60% of the bankroll. Well, overall, though, you had a
• 36:05
  winning week. Trent Condon.
• 36:06
  I did. Good to see you.
• 36:08
  Good weekend. Yeah, and you'll start your week
• 36:10
  when we come back. It's only baseball.
• 36:12
  How many games do you like? A.
• 36:14
  Handful. Well, we'll get to them.
• 36:16
  Next, there's WNBA tonight. Oh, there is a game.
• 36:19
  No, they're not playing tonight. They don't play till Thursday.
• 36:22
  They have other teams in this league.
• 36:23
  Oh, Miller and Condon, Iowa Sports Radio Network.
• 36:26
  I'm Miller and Condon. Welcome back, Iowa Sports Radio
• 36:29
  Network with you until well, in a couple more minutes, turn
• 36:32
  things over. The drive top of the hour with
• 36:35
  Heather and Lucas at the end of our show on Friday, we were off
• 36:39
  the air by the time the news broke that Brock Purdy got paid.
• 36:43
  Going rate 53,000,000 a year for Brock Purdy.
• 36:46
  I mean, don't have to remind anybody a story where he came
• 36:49
  from in the draft. Never more wrong about a player
• 36:53
  in the state than I was about Brockford.
• 36:55
  Never thought I'd throw a pass and look at this.
• 36:57
  Good for him, right? Good for him.
• 36:59
  For the best stock between him and Nate Stanley, I know you and
• 37:02
  your affinity for armed talent. Absolutely.
• 37:05
  Was more likely to throw a pass, not turn into a guy that leads
• 37:09
  his team to a Super Bowl, right? Not even that, Just throw a
• 37:11
  pass, right? We can make the Dame.
• 37:14
  And happy to be wrong, because absolutely he does.
• 37:16
  He seems like such a good guy. Yeah, easy one to roof.
• 37:20
  Yeah, no question about it. And that goes a long ways.
• 37:23
  Yeah, I I couldn't agree with you more.
• 37:25
  Well done, Brock Purdy. All right, let's get to your
• 37:27
  picks. Decent sleigh to baseball games
• 37:31
  tonight. I know your twins are going up
• 37:33
  against the Guardians. Yeah.
• 37:35
  Let's start right there. OK, well, you're taking the
• 37:37
  Guardians because that's. You can tell by voice, right?
• 37:40
  Yeah, we know what's going to happen.
• 37:42
  The Twins will get out to probably like a three one lead
• 37:44
  and then the bullpen will implode.
• 37:45
  It'll be a walk off and Cleveland will win at 4-3.
• 37:47
  That's the way this one's going to play.
• 37:48
  So we'll grab the plus 1/21 with the Guardians with pick #1, then
• 37:53
  two favorites, both that were orange, the Mets.
• 37:57
  Boston, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, singer, he's been
• 38:00
  nuts. Is ERA just a just a notch over
• 38:04
  11.01. He's been that good.
• 38:07
  Yeah. On the other side, I'm going to
• 38:08
  grab the Giants now. This is a lefty, lefty match up
• 38:11
  Robbie Ray against Buick. The Giants are a better team
• 38:14
  against lefties. Simple as that.
• 38:16
  We'll take them at home and lay the -130 Giants, Mets and
• 38:20
  Guardians. I will not be playing the one
• 38:22
  WNBA game. Good stuff.
• 38:25
  We will see you tomorrow. We'll break down some conference
• 38:27
  championships, both the NHL and the NBA.
• 38:31
  Alec Bussey joins us at 12:30. Coming up next is the drive with
• 38:34
  Heather and Lucas. We're Miller and Condon
• 38:36
  weekdays. Trent and I talk sports with you
• 38:38
  Monday through Friday from noon to two on the Iowa Sports Radio
• 38:43
  Network.