Latest / Foul Territory / Vlad Jr. said WHAT?! Ohtani returns, Judge’s complicated status, AL West mess, 200K Sale, NL WC changes

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Vlad Jr. said WHAT?! Ohtani returns, Judge’s complicated status, AL West mess, 200K Sale, NL WC changes · Foul Territory

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: There might be a better way to rephrase this, but
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: I don't want to. The further away Chris Sale gets
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from his debut with AJ Pruszynski, the better he gets.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: How'd I do there?
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Spot on.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I don't know about he gets better. He might get wiser.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Definitely wiser.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know if he gets better. I mean, it's
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: not my fault that they had him as our closer
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: at one point because they were worried about his arm.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Think about how good he would have been if I
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: would have caught him for three years.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: That's what, that's what I'm thinking. That's what I'm thinking.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: It could have been better. You could have taught him
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: how to somehow get hurt in the middle of his
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: career and then figure out how to not get hurt again.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: That's the most, obviously he's hall of fame career, but
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: it's impressed. It's so impressive. The fact that he had
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: that span where it wasn't good health was not his friend.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: And then he's like, Oh, but I'm still good. How
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: many people come back? How many people come back like that?
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I can't think of any. After he did that last night,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I can't think of any.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Verlander. Verlander was falling off and then he really found
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: it again.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but not for the amount of time. Verlander had
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that like 14-15 stretch where it was... And then he
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: went to Houston. Things got sticky and he was back
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: at it again. I felt like Sale was down for
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: like three or four years.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sale has basically four chapters, right? The AJ forcing
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: him to be a reliever chapter was one. Then he
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: was shoving as a starter. Then he was down for
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: a while, and now he is thriving with the Braves.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: The reason we're bringing him up is he picked up
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: his ninth career 200 strikeout season last night, and AJ,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I'm kidding around with him getting better, but the four-seamer
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: last night averaged 97.8, matching the third-highest average he's put
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: together with that pitch in any game as a starter.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: A mark he last reached in 2018. He threw four
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: pitches 99.5 miles an hour or harder. So some readings
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: there from Mark Bowman. And then we also saw the
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: most recent pitchers, 37 or older, with a 200 strikeout season.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Many of them are Braves. What's it with the Braves
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: here in trusting veterans to get the job done with strikeouts?
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: A.J.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Charlie Morton on this list a couple times in 22
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: and 21. And then John Smoltz back in 2006.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Because they trust veterans and let them do their thing.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: That's kind of an organizational thing is what I'm thinking.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: And also, by the way, did you think Chris Sale
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: wasn't going to get this record last night? The day
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: he heard about Don Cooper passing away, our old pitching coach,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: he knew what he needed. They let him go just
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: enough hitters. His last hitter was a strikeout in order
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: to get this ninth consecutive or ninth year of 200
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: plus strikeouts. I mean, Chris Sale wasn't coming out of
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: this game. If you watch his game, Walt Weiss and,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Jeremy Heffner were like, who's going to go take him out?
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: And they were like, not until he gets that ninth
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: strikeout or tenth strikeout or whatever he needed to get
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: the 200. They were like, oh, let's give him one
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: more hitter. No, let's give him one more hitter. Let's
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: give him one more hitter. He was getting there one
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: way or another. It's pretty cool to see.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Kratz was a little skeptical, remember?
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: I remember. I didn't think they would let him. I
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: said they wouldn't allow him to.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you also didn't know it was on the line.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I had no idea. And you proved they wouldn't
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: allow them to. And then it was one of those,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: it was one of those veterans on the mound kind
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: of thing where they go, you go out and talk
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to him. You go out and talk. How about we
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: just both stay here?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cause if they tried to go out to talk
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: to him, it would have been a little bit of this.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: It would have been a lot of that.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: It would have been a lot of that. Don't even
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: come out here.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Or as it might be seen another one times like Joe,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: don't even come out here, Joe.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. If you get the shoe from someone like Chris sale,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Go take a seat and learn your lesson from what
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: you just tried to do. So congrats to Chris Sale.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And later on, we'll talk to his teammate. We'll ask
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: him about last night. Martin Perez scheduled to join us
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: in about 40 minutes. Let's charge. Who the heck wants
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the American League West? And for the first time ever, AJ,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: we might have a team winning a division with a
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: losing record. The AL West might be one of the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: worst division performances we've ever seen.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but they're going to be in the playoffs and
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: they're going to be the three seat and they're going
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: to get an advantage. So, I mean, they got to
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: go three and one to get to 500 or whatever
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: it is just to finish at 500. It's pretty sad actually,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: that this is where we're at. We even have to
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: worry about this. This just shows you how bad the
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: AL has been this entire year. And the AL West
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: has been just as bad. And every time like Houston,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: not long ago was four or five games over and
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: you're like, okay, this isn't going to happen. Then they
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: lose four or five in a row. And then, Here
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: we are. They're both 78 and 80 with four games
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: to go. So they have to go three and one
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: in order not to finish under 500. Do we think,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think one of them will do it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I don't know which one, but one of them was
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: going to do it.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the problem is if you don't know which one,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, who wants it? I will say this. The
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Astros are about to play the A's and I know
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: the A's have had a brutal year, but they're not
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a pushover, especially against their own division for the Rangers crafts.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've been getting thumped. They got beat up
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: by the, Mets last night. I know they were in
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: it for a little, and then Beatty had the grand slam,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: but I mean, these teams are not playing good ball
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: right now. Rangers have now lost three in a row
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Astros had it. And then they crumbled a little bit
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to allow the Rangers to come back. It was just
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: one of those cases where everyone's following the Rangers game.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: They lose Astros are up for nothing in their game.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: And then they ultimately fall. And it's in extra innings
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: with hater going his second inning.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: That's what I look at from both games. is the
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: fact that they went right to Lats. After Bradford, they
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: pulled Bradford out and they got four and a third,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: four and two thirds from their highest leverage guys. And
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: then the Astros turn around and do the exact same thing. Like,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: this is, you know, they're in the playoff mode of,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: you know, Hader hasn't thrown since Thursday, so he should
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: be fresh. Well, now he threw 44 pitches. Knowing Hader,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I know he can go back out tonight again, but.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Or do they have off, actually? I'm sorry.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: They play Sacramento.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody's off anymore.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Nobody's off anymore.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: This is playoff time. This is playoff, like, style. But
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: when they both blow through their highest leverage guys knowing
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: they're going to have to pitch again tonight. Like, that's
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: the craziest part. Houston could have locked the season up
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: last night. They didn't. You can't expect it. You can't
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: expect to hate her. Like, he's been perfect. throughout the
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: season so i get it he you know a blip
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: on the radar.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: There yeah yeah they went for this game they the
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: thing was the the astros knew that the rangers had
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: already lost so joe spot is like if we can
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: win this game we go one game up because we
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: have the tiebreaker it's basically being two up with four
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: to play and he went for it unfortunately the offense
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: couldn't pick him up that was the big thing they
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: couldn't pick him up they couldn't score a run to
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: put this game away. So Hader had to go 44
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: pitches and when will he pitch again? That's the next question.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: When will he pitch again?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Tonight.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Every night.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: This is the call of the Australian rubber bird. This
• 7:36
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• 7:37
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• 7:40
  Speaker 1: It's cold.
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: And this is the call of the marathon mascot bald eagle, Max.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Hi, it's Max.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: Hello.
• 7:49
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• 7:50
  Speaker 1: a gallon with the Marathon Rewards app?
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: No.
• 7:53
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• 7:56
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• 7:59
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• 8:01
  Speaker 1: They lost a pitcher, too. They lost an arm. Christian
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Javier is going to miss the rest of the season.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: If they make it to the first round, I don't
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: think he'd be eligible yet, so. I mean, he's had
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: his issues for them. Man, he was so good when
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: they won the World Series in 2022. And many of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: us thought, oh, this guy's going to be one of
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the forces in their rotation breeders to come. Hit with injuries.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: He was good in, what was it, either his last
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: or second-to-last start that I just saw him.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Didn't he sign him to a long-term deal? Isn't he
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: signed to a long-term deal?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I think so. I will double-check while we're chatting.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I mean, you guys remember watching him throw when he
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: was elite. Like, is he, you know, I feel like
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: he's like the poster child of, ooh, here's this pitch,
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: go throw it. How many of those guys stay healthy? Like,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: is it too much of a burden on his arm,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: the fact that he doesn't, you know, he's fastball changeup? Like,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: have guys just survived on that? Is he undersized? Why
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: does a guy like that who was dominant The way
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: that he was dominant. Not throwing like elite velocity, but
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: getting by everybody. And then he hasn't been able to
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: stay healthy. This time I think it's his groin, right?
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Or was it his hamstring?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Groin this time. It is a grade two groin strain.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: And yes, he is wealthy. Five years, $ 64 million. Signed
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: in February of 2023. He's got a couple more years.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: No, it's a 27.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: One more year.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: 27 is the last year of his contract.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So that was five years, 24, 25, 26, 23, 23, December, December.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: Didn't you say December 23?
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: February.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, February.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Sorry. I miss, I miss her.
• 9:52
  Speaker 6: Sorry.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Sorry.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: I'm not here to talk about the past.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Also, I mean, do you know that? Are we disputing this?
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: You get paid on the past. For sure.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: That he's a free agent? Yeah, it's 23.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: 23 to 27. Five years, 64. I don't even see
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: any club options or anything on it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: That's common sometimes these days. It says he'll become an
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: unrestricted free agent in 2028. Team control through the end
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of 2027.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: And he'll be 30 plus after that season. So nice
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: for both sides.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I don't really worry about him individually right now. No
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: offense to him. But for the Astros, it's just another
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: arm down. And they are searching for answers.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Anything.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Anybody.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Anything. Who makes it? Of those two teams, who makes it?
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: I'm still saying the Astros make it.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Just because. Who's going to be a tougher team to
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: play in the playoffs? Who's built more for the playoffs?
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: Astros with the back end of their bullpen.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Plus Jordan.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: With two guys?
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, the Astros have.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: They have one, Lance. The Rangers have one. The Rangers
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: have one.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Rangers' bullpen's not in a good spot right now either.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So I would agree. I think my answer for all
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of this is Astros. I think Astros win the division.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I think that the Astros would be a tougher out.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I think most teams would rather play the Rangers at
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the moment than the Astros. more battle-tested crew consistently in
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the postseason. I don't want to deal with Hunter Brown
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: in the first game. I don't want to deal with
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Hayter at the back of games. I don't want to
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: deal with pitching around Jordan all series and then worrying
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that somebody else like a Christian Walker could get on
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: one of his rager heaters. So for me, Astros.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: They got some guys that can get hot. If they
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: get hot, watch out.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: That's my thing. Here's the crazy thing. The Astros might
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: win the division on the last day, as a team
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that's like two games under 500 and then end up
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: playing the somebody in the ALCS, Yankees, Red Sox, Rays.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: And I mean, Kratz and Todd talk about this all
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the time. There's a history with the Astros playing the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yankees really well in the playoffs. I know that one
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of those years was the cheater year in 2017, although
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: there's a lot going on in 2017, but Do you
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: want to face the Astros in the ALCS if you're
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the Yankees and you make it past the Rays and
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the Red Sox for that purpose? I don't think so.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: They're not afraid of the uniform. They have to win sometimes.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: They have to beat them sometimes. They can't keep losing
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to Jose Altuve's Astros. Like, they have to get over
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: that hump. So, I mean, I guess. If they can't
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: get over it this year, when are they going to
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: get over it? Agreed. Right, right.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: This is the year to kick them.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Down year, get them while they're down.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, I know that someone has to win this division,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: but gosh, if a team goes 80-82 into the postseason,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: that is just– sorry.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: That is football. That is football-esque.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Just using my scenario right now, if the Yankees did
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: get past the Rays, I'm not saying they're going to.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying if they did and they were matching
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: up with the Astros, look at the comps, right? You'd
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: have Hunter Brown– You would have Peter Lambert and Hayden Wisniewski.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: And for the Yankees, they'd be like, ah, Schlittler. Rodon's
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: so hot right now. Obviously, Cole is there. Freed. Now
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: we've got to bump a bunch of guys to the bullpen. Yeah,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the difference in arm talent there, especially on the starting
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: pitching side, would be quite glaring. It's Miller time. We
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: have some light takes presented by Miller Lite. Kevin Pillar
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: joining us right now. KP, Vladdy Jr. quotes super, super
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: viral to the point where you look quick and you're like, wait,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: can we double check that he meant that? And then
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: they checked with him and he meant that. So help
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: unlayer everything going on here with what he meant and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: how it's affecting Blue Jays fans and all of the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Canadian population right now.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say they're not happy, and I would
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: say the timing probably couldn't be any worse, considering the
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: fact that they officially got eliminated from the playoffs.
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: Yesterday, losing both games of the doubleheader.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: And I do know from my colleague, Mitch Bannon, with
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: The Athletic and who I do Bluebird with, even gave
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: him an opportunity after the comments came out and wanted
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: to make sure he really understood what he said and
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: meant what he said, because We have to understand too
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: that when English is the second language for a lot
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: of these guys, and Vladdy does speak pretty good English,
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: but you do give those guys an extra opportunity to
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: be like, do you realize what you said? This is
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: exactly how it translated. And I just think it shows
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: a little bit of immaturity, and obviously it couldn't have
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: come at a worse time for him. When you really
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: do think about it, and obviously, Kratzy, AJ, you both played,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: and yes, there is a little bit of truth in
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: what he said. A lot of times when you get
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: a big contract, you are, yes, getting paid for what
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: you had done, but it wouldn't be a great timing
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: for a player who's coming off his worst season by
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: a long shot after this team collectively went to the
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: World Series last year, Game 7 of the World Series,
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: and now misses the playoffs.
• 15:18
  Speaker 6: I just think this is just.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: Bad timing called immaturity. Um, just something that just really
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: didn't need to be said at this point in the time.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: All right. So, and there's a lot here, but at
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: least to give some people context, I wanted to get
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to KP right away, but for say the podcast crowd
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: that couldn't see the quote on the screen from Vladdy,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I want people to understand one thing. The money they
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: gave me wasn't for what I'm going to do. It
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: was for what I already did. They didn't pay me
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: because I'm going to hit 40 every year. They paid
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: me for what I already accomplished. People are confused about that,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: but I think the same way they do. Like sometimes
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I even say to myself, bro, they gave you all
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that money and you're out here doing nothing. I try.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: So he went on and on about, you know, he
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: definitely was disappointed with his season, all that. But the concept, AJ, of, hey,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: you're paying me for what I did. Thank you very much.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Not what I'm doing going forward is definitely going to
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: rub basically every human the wrong way.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing. When you sign a $ 500 million contract,
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: and again, what he said, like KP said, isn't necessarily wrong.
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: It's just kind of a slap in the face to
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: people that say, oh, these guys sign these contracts and
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: then they don't care. Now, he said he tries and
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: he knows that he's not doing what he's supposed to do.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: But when you sign for that much money, the team
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: expects you, at least for, listen, when the Angels signed
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: Albert Pujols to that 10-year deal, they knew at the
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: end of the contract he probably wasn't going to be
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: as good. But Vlade's in the second year of his contract.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: They expected him to, I'm not saying hit 40, but
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: they expected him to not have one home run at
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: home and not even hit 20 homers on the season, right?
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: So I think that that's fair. But you know what
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: they say, man? Expectations are a bitch, man. When you
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: put up years and you sign that big contract, there's
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: pressure and there's expectations. And I've seen more people, and
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I think KP and Kratz will agree with me, that
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: have a hard time living up to expectations than not
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: having expectations. If you, if you just kind of float
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: along and you'd play good, but you're not hitting 40
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: homers and you're not driving in a hundred and you're
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: not hitting 300 with an 800 OPS and you're just
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: an average player and you just get by, you're okay
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: with that. But as soon as you have that really
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: good year, people look at you and say, man, it's
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: in there. We need to see that again. And then
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: if you throw on top of that, you sign the
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: big contract, all of Canada basically is looking body going,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: What the heck happened? And no one was able to
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: figure it out.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I had a teammate of mine, a good friend
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: of mine, Justin Smoke, say the best way to stay
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: in this game for a long time is to be underpaid.
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: Because if you go out and you overperform the contract
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: that you got, there's going to be money waiting for
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: you the following year. If you don't necessarily have the
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: best year, you were paid probably accordingly. So when you
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: do go sign a $ 500 million contract to be in
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Toronto for a long period of time and you have
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: your worst year.
• 18:13
  Speaker 6: Of your career year two.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: And then you come out and say these things, it's
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: why some players probably get a bad reputation in the game.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Like AJ was saying, there's a lot of people that
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: feel like once you secure that big payday, you're not
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: going to try as hard. You're not going to care
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: as much. And yes, he did come out and say,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I'm trying my best and I'm doing this. But when
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: you do have those expectations and when you do have
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: those dollar amounts to you, People don't want to hear
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: the word try.
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: People want to get results.
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: And it's going to be very interesting, them going back
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: home for their final three games, kind of what the
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: fan base is going to be. And typically your last
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: three games of the season, aside from hoping to go
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: to the playoffs, this is a time where You know,
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: the players are going to pay their respects to the
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: fan base because the Toronto fan base has been there
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: through thick and thin this year. They've shown up. Their
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: attendance has been incredible this year. They've really wrote this
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: roller coaster with this team all year. And then from
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: the fans perspective, even though the Blue Jays didn't do
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: what they were supposed to do this year, you kind
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: of give your appreciation to the players of like, Hey man,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: like I, I know you guys didn't get there. Obviously
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: there's still some carry over from last season, but it
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: will be very interesting to see how the fans kind
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: of react to, you know, Vladdy playing those last three
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: games at home.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Two part question for you, KP. Do you think from
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: what you've seen from Vladdy that he will show up
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: and come out in those games because he's not playing
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: any of these last games for the rest of the year.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: where you think he will show up and the other
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: part is the end part of his quote where he
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: said you know how it is with fans when you're
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: good they're with you 100 but when you smell like
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: crap like we like to say nobody supports you if
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: i remember right Vladdy was the starting first baseman for
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: the All-Star game, and I'm pretty sure fans voted them in.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: So did he completely miss the fact that fans were 100%
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: behind him this year?
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think so. I mean, this is, once again,
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: this couldn't be worse timing. This is just.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: I think it's taken a lot of people that have
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: been around the team and covered the team all year
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: by surprise. And obviously this is a PR nightmare right
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: now with everything that's going on with the organization, you know,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: coming in with the.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: Highest of hopes.
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: You know, and if you sit back and you really
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: think about the Blue Jays team, you know, from an
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: outsider looking in, this is a team that got to
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: game seven of the World Series last year, four outs
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: away from winning.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: Yes, we know that.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: But when you talk about their best two players on
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: their team this year, or guys that they brought in
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: that were not part of the team last year, and
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Kaz Okamoto, who went 30-90 this year, and Dylan Cease,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: who is probably going to finish second in the Cy
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: Young this year, and you talk about this team being
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: worse off than last year, it's crazy to kind of
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: wrap your brain around the fact that your two best
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: players weren't even part of this team, and a huge
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: part of this team is returning from last year.
• 21:13
  Speaker 6: But yeah, I think it's just.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: ill-advised timing, you know, maybe, I don't know, maybe I
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: don't know if this frustration of the year for Vladdy
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: in terms of the type of season he's had is
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: all just kind.
• 21:26
  Speaker 6: Of coming out in one interview.
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: You know, you know how it is sometimes if you
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: sit down in front of a camera long enough, you
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: start kind of opening up old wounds or you start
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: talking about things and you get carried away and you
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: start saying things. And by the time it's over, you
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: realize maybe you've said too much, but for him to
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: kind of talk about the fan base that way and
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: understanding that to kind of come out and say that
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: they haven't been in support of him all year when one,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: he did start, he got voted in as the starter
• 21:54
  Speaker 4: of the all-star game. And he clearly was not the
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: best first baseman. You know, there was probably three or
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: four better, more deserving guys to start the all-star.
• 22:01
  Speaker 6: Game than him.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: And I think maybe, The fans finally hit their breaking
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: point about a month ago when they did boo him.
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: They were facing Kansas City and they were kind of
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: just really kind of climbing back into 500. They were
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: getting relevant in the playoff race again. And Kansas City
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: came in, who was playing great baseball at the time.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: I think they were on like a seven or eight
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: game win streak. And they came in and swept the
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: Blue Jays. Vlade didn't do much that series. He had
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: finally kind of Grounded out and didn't give his best
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: effort down the line. And you heard boos from the fans.
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: And I think finally they their frustration came out not
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: only on him, but on the team. But for him
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: to to say that is is pretty crazy because, you know,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: you got to spend a little bit of time there, too.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: It's a it's a very supportive fan base. You know,
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: for a long time, the expectations haven't been as high
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: as they have been because this hasn't been a team
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: who's been able to get deep into the postseason really since,
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: you know, 2015, 16. When I was there, this team
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: was a playoff team, but wasn't able to get out
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: of the first round. So, yes, expectations have been higher.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: And to answer your first question. I think especially after
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: coming out and saying these things, and yes, he's been
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: battling some injuries. He was kind of on the fence
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: even yesterday if he was going to play in any
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: of those games because he did leave Sunday's game in
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: Texas with a little bit of a back irritation. I
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: can't imagine he comes out and plays one of these
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: last three games. If I'm him, If he's truly hurt,
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: I see a reason for him not to play. If
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: he's healthy, would it be nice for him to go
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: out there and give his love and appreciation to the fans?
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: But considering everything he just said, I don't think we
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: see him on the field these.
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: Last three games.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Kevin, I know he came out and he kind of
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: doubled down on these quotes. So that took away any
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: chance of people saying, okay, he didn't understand the question. Right.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Because English isn't his first language. So that took that away.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: Does it make it worse that he doubled down and
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: didn't say, hey, I because he said, oh, his exact quote. No,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: I don't regret myself. I'm not lying with what I say.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: I understand some fans. They don't understand the way and
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: what I was trying to say specifically. But what I
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: said is the way I feel.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: OK.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: So what you said is the way you feel. So
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: then he cannot be upset with fans if they're upset
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: with him. Right. Because he had a chance to say, OK,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I meant it to maybe a little bit different. But instead,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: not only did he say, I feel this way, but
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: then he said the fans don't understand what I'm talking about.
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: So was this almost make it worse by doubling down
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: than just saying, you know what, guys, it wasn't exactly
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: what I meant. I should have just said whatever.
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: Well, first I want to say it's yes and no.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: I think it's better because it's very easy for us
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: to hide behind the fact that, no, I didn't mean
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: to say that, but if it's truly how you feel,
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: the fact that he's doubling down on it, I can
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: appreciate that because it's very easy for you to say
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: something when you're away from the PR team and the
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: team and you say this and then you realize you
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: said it and then you get with your team, whether
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: it's his own personal PR team or the blue Jays
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: team and.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: Be like, do you know, this is how it's going
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: to be perceived. This is what you said. Do you
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: have an opportunity to take it back? But the fact
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: that he doubled down, I could respect. Do I like it?
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: No.
• 25:29
  Speaker 6: Um, Because, you know, you know, as.
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: Players, we feel a certain way at certain times. Doesn't
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: mean we should always express the way we feel. Sometimes
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: you have to, you know, keep things to yourself. You
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: have to keep them internal. And the fact that. Once again,
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: he doubled down on the fact that he could have
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: used a few different crutches to hide behind and be like,
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: you know what, I didn't mean what I said. We
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: keep coming back to English being a second language. I
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: got my words mixed up, or the question led me
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: to say this, or you're only taking a snippet of
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: what the entirety was. Yeah, this is just a little
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: bit of a disaster for a guy that was– And
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: potentially still is so beloved by the city of Toronto
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: across Canada.
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: You know, you talk about.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: You know, a Dominican player who was born in Montreal,
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: who's half Canadian, half Dominican, like, you know, his dad
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: played Montreal. You know, we kind of know the story.
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: A guy that was drafted, developed by this organization, you know,
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: came up through the organization, you know, really got, you know,
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: his start with this team and slowly but surely became
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: the face of this franchise. And then to, you Do
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: what he did last year for this organization during the
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: postseason and go on this historic run individually and just.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: you know, at every turn facing the challenge and coming
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: up with a big hit where the big Homer and, and, and,
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: you know, for a lack of better terms, really put
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: this team on his back during the post season, um,
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: to double down and, and, and say those things about
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: the fan base who has done nothing but supported this guy.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: And in some ways really, really forced the blue Jays
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: front office, Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro's hand when he
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: was kind of coming up to free agency, um, If
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: you look at his numbers, and yes, you can factor
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: in his age, and you think about some of the
• 27:29
  Speaker 4: best players in baseball, is he a $ 500 million player?
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: You could debate it, and you could say probably not.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: There's probably some other players that you would want to
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: pay more than $ 500 million to, but when you have
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: that added layer of pressure of a fan base that
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: loves this guy so much, and maybe Kratzy and AJ,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: you could chime in on this. How much more money
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: do you think the fan base got him because of
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: the love and support and him being a Canadian and
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: being the face of the franchise really got him when
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: he started discussing an extension to stay in Toronto? Maybe
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: it took it from $ 300 million in eight years or
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: six years or whatever it was to the $ 10 million
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: and $ 500 million he got.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I couldn't agree more. I think that's
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: why I think players need to show their personalities because
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: fan bases can get behind players and fall in love
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: with them and help ownership, especially after a 323-396-544 season
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: that he had the year before, sixth in the MVP voting,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: and then you go into spring training and it's like,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: all right, yeah, we'll extend him before he gets to
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: free agency. My question to you, you see it. You
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: watch this team all the time. Is Vladdy against making adjustments?
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Because in a season where he did what he did,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: his swing has always been a line drive, low level,
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: just two iron rockets all over the field. And sometimes
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: he hits home runs. Do you see him making adjustments
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: or is he stubborn in his way of hitting? And
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: so how he's going to hit is going to be
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: the way he hits.
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: I'm going to answer this way. It's hard visually, and
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: obviously I'm not in the clubhouse. I'm a media member
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: who's not going in the cage with them daily or
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: even when I'm in town to watch. Is he making
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: those adjustments? When you're watching it visually, it looks like
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: the same exact swing that he's had pretty much his
• 29:36
  Speaker 4: entire life. I say that to say, if you're had
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: a swing like that, that's produced at such a high level,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: and it's been your swing for a long period of time,
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: it's probably really, really hard to first want to make
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: the adjustments to, to really actually make it look any
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: different if you are making those adjustments.
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: It was easy for me as a player.
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: To make adjustments because I never had the level of
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: success that a guy like Vlade Guerrero has had in
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: his career. I was a guy who was always kind
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: of searching to try to find more success. When things
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: were going well, yeah, I rolled out the same swing,
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: the same approach, the same.
• 30:12
  Speaker 6: Sort of things, right? But when things weren't going well, I.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: Never had this level of success that went from season
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: to season or to months to months. Like I really
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: just kind of rode you know, the roller coaster my
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: entire career. So for me, it was easy to make adjustments.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I can't imagine wanting to make adjustments if I've had
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: this like long, you know, you know, I've had this
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: swing for a long period of time and I've really
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: only had nothing but success at the major league level.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: I could understand as someone covering the team or as
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: a fan of the team, when a guy is struggling
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: and it's been a year-long struggle for him, how are
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: you not willing to make an adjustment? But I try
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: to understand it from a player's perspective first.
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: Like, you know, if.
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: You had the level of success, if you had the
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: same level of success that Vladi's had in his career,
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: are you, you know, the first sign of struggle, are
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: you abandoning ship right away?
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: No chance. No chance. And I get that. And that's
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: why when you question somebody's adjustments or something like that,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I think everybody's trying to make adjustments all the time.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: And it's not like Vladdy's 34, 36 years old where
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: he's like, bat speed's going down a little bit. My
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: last question is, is this team more of what the
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: actual Blue Jays are? Because this is what happened the
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: last previous three or four years. Was last year's team
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: an aberration?
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: Yes and no.
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: I mean, if you think about it, Vladdy just has
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: a normal year. If he doesn't have this massive regression
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: this year. I mean, if we talk about him being,
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: instead of a 680 OPS guy, we talk about him
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: just having a year, maybe an 800 OPS year with
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: 20 home runs and this team is four or five
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: wins better than they are. You know, we're talking about
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: this team, you know, not winning the division, but we're
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: talking about this team being a playoff team. And, you know,
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: if you have a healthy season, a healthy trade, you savage,
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: you know, healthy Shane Bieber, you know, you like your
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: chances in the post season because this bullpen is legit.
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: But I also talked about this, um, covering the games, uh,
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: early in the year that, um, It would not surprise
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: me at all if this was much like the Texas
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: Rangers team that won the World Series too. You talk
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: about a lot of young guys and you talk about
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: a lot of guys that don't have a huge body
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: of work and all those guys kind of hit the
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: same year. That's how you get kind of this unbelievable
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: season or go on this unbelievable run. You obviously have
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: you know, Vladdy, the face of your franchise, doing what
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: he does. You get a resurgence in a guy like
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: George Springer who kind of turns back the clock for
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: a year and was arguably their best player in the
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: regular season. Went from a guy who, yes, George Springer
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: had a ton of success before and then kind of
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: had this really big drop-off when he signed his deal
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: with the Toronto Blue Jays, but kind of has that resurgence.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: And then you talk about a guy like Ernie Clement,
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: who has a career year. You talk about a guy
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: like Addison Barger that kind of comes out of nowhere
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: and has this career year. You're talking about just a
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: Nathan Lucas, who the baseball world didn't even know about
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: before last season, goes out and has an unbelievable season too.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: It's very easy to say that this team kind of
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: fell back to earth, but I can also understand and
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: covering this team, how much this team had to go
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: through this year in terms of, you know, losing Alejandro
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: Kirk early in the season. And there was a time
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: and place where we were discussing as someone covering the
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: Blue Jays team, how are they going to get all
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: these arms into the rotation? They have this abundance of,
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: you know, starting pitching, and then you lose Shane Bieber
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: at the beginning of the year. Then Trey Savage isn't hurt.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: You know, Max Scherzer's, you know, on and off the I.L.
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: Cody Ponce, who they signed from, you know, Korea, comes over.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: makes one start in the third inning, tears his ACL.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: He's gone for the year. Jose Barrios misses pretty much
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: the entire season. You know, Eric Lauer's, you know, thrown
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: into this starter role, and then he's unhappy with having
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: to bounce to the bullpen.
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: They end up, you know, DFAing him.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: So there's a lot of reasons besides Vladdy that this
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: team does, you know, kind of– ended up the way
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: they were, you know, injuries did play a big part
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: of it, but it just felt like it was this
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: constant uphill battle for this team to one, just get healthy,
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: but to get rolling. But I don't think this is
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: the version of the Toronto blue Jays. We're going to
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: see next year. If we see baseball next year, I
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: think it's somewhere between that team that got to game
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: seven in the world series and, uh, this team.
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: I don't think they're quite this bad.
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: I just think with all the injuries, uh, Um, Vladdy
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: having such an awful year and just such a huge, um,
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: regression of, of guys this year. I think they're, I
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: think they are better than this version.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's all fair. My only counter to that is
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: if Vladdy hits like 35 homers there in the playoffs. Right.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Like if even close, that's my only counter. And I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: know you can't just play that game, but even with
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: all the pitching injuries.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: And I don't even, and Scott, I don't even think
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: it needs to be 35 homers. I think if he
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: hits 20 homers this year, I think he's at nine
• 35:23
  Speaker 4: this year with one being at home.
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: I think if he hits 20 homers.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: And like I said, if you, if you go from
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: Kevin Pillar at a, you know, 695 OPS, which was
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: kind of like where I was at. And you put
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: him at an 800 OPS, which would be below his
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: career average. But we would say, hey, regression from last year.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: If he's just a little bit worse than he was
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: last year, this team's a postseason team. And he's probably
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: not saying the things he's saying. We're probably not having
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: this conversation. It's just to have such a bad year
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: coming off the year he had and obviously being in
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: year two of an extension and then coming out and
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: saying all those things, it's really easy to point the
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: finger and blame at him.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: So from one start to the next, what I want
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: to do is just get a few more minutes with
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: KP and ask him about Aaron Judge because now it
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: seems like a saga at this point. So a quick
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: break coming up. First off, that was your light takes.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: They got pretty heavy at some point. Why not go
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: grab some Miller Lite today? Because game time is Miller time.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Must be legal drinking age. Celebrate responsibly. Give us one
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: minute to re-rack and then we'll talk Judge. Hot Corner
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: presented by Fox One. Aaron Judge playing in the wild
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: card series against the Red Sox or not? It feels
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: like the Yankees are not going to rely on that.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Aaron Judge is relying on that. He said that's what
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: the plan is. That's a direct quote from him. Try
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to get my body so I'm ready to go. They
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: even asked him about right field and he was like, yeah,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to play right field and they asked him
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: about the moderate cash drain and AJ, he was kind
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of like, well, your moderate's different from my moderate. Everybody's
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: moderate's different and he also had this quote. I don't
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: know why he used those words, talking about Booney, right?
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: He said, I've got Booney's back and all that, but
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: he was kind of perturbed that those words came out.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: So I'll swing it to you first, and then we'll
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: get KP's thoughts here. AJ, is this just a superstar
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: trying to be superhuman and return before anyone else should
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: from a pretty decent calf strain from what I read?
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: Yes, this is him trying to be a leader, saying
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: he wants to be back, and he's coming back.
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: It's just weird.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: It's just weird, Chris. You played for the Yankees. they're
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: always on the same page. They're always like, it's like,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: you know, right in step. It's like a, to B,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: to C, to D with the Yankees. And now you
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: have Boone and judge. This is not the first time
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: where they've kind of said, well, you know, he's not
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: really saying the right thing. And it's odd just for
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: me to hear this, but he wants to be back.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: He wants to play. Can he do it? I don't know.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Cause calves, we've talked about this a lot on the show.
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Calves are not easy to come back from. And every
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: time you think you figured it out, you go out
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: there and it pops up again. So, I don't know
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: if he's going to be able to do it. If
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: he can, good for him. But if I'm the Yankees,
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: I'm doing what Aaron Boone says. We're not counting on
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: it because you can't count on it.
• 38:06
  Speaker 6: That's a big calf.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: That's a big calf.
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: That's a big calf.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: And I know it's a moderate calf strain, but that's
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: a larger calf.
• 38:15
  Speaker 6: Than most people. But yeah, I mean, they're tricky.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, I played with a guy in Josh Donaldson
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: who had calf problems towards the end of his career.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: And he had a lot longer time in between some
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: of his moderate calf strains and rehab assignments and all
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: the sort of things that you would normally do in
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: order to come back. And it was just something that
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: you know, one particular movement, it would act up again.
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: And it ended up, you know, costing him a lot
• 38:42
  Speaker 4: of time in his career. And you could understand a
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: guy like Aaron Judge, you know, the captain of the team,
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: the leader of the team, a guy who's missed so
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: much time this year, who finally was able to get
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: himself back from the rib injury and then have the
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: calf strain, you know, wants to be part of the postseason,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: especially given the fact it's, you know, more than likely
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: going to be Yankees, Red Sox and the wild card.
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: You know, he's trying to play a superhuman right now
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: and get back, but it's a really difficult injury to
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: come back. I could see maybe a scenario where, you know,
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: him being a DH is probably more realistic than playing
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: right field. But it does seem like a long shot
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: for him to be able to come back so soon
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: after a calf injury.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, they could have two limping players in their lineup,
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: but one of them has to play the outfield. Giancarlo
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: is not playing the outfield and he's making his way back.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: He had took a lot of bats in Somerset. So
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: you say, if he's back, the DH spots gone is
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: judge just preparing. Did the team say, yes, you know,
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: we want to have you on the roster. Just to
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: have that scary look. Anytime there's a big spot, we
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: might go to Judge. Or we're not sure what Giancarlo
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: is going to be able to do. So we'll have
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: two backup kind of hurt guys on the roster. Or
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: maybe Judge is just like, who cares? If I play
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: through this calf injury, I'm not going to be 100%.
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: But my 80% is better than anything else we're putting
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: out there.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: Here's the thing, guys. I thought they already said Stanton
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: wasn't going to be back this year. Now all of
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: a sudden he's got a chance to be back? There's
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: some miscommunication somewhere going on here, and I don't know
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: where it is, but I thought it wasn't that long
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: ago where they said Stanton's not going to be able
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: to come back, and now he's taking live at-bats and
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: he might be back. It's crazy to me how, like,
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I'm wrong on this, but communication
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: with the Yankees has been different than I've heard in
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: the past.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: He ran. He ran the other day at the field.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: They had him running. arcs but not the traditional arcs
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: behind behind the dirt they set up cones and he
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: was running arcs not at a high speed but the
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: communication part i don't know i i mean i've seen
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: i've seen guys and talk to them when they're on
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: the bench with the yankees talking about like well we
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: have to make sure that what he said is the
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: same as what he said is the same as what
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: he said And so they do have a lot of meetings,
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: like you said, and they're usually pretty buttoned up. I
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: just think this is a guy in Judge who knows
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: every chance. He even said it. You don't get this
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: opportunity very often to play in the postseason. And I
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: think he's going to push it. And I personally commend
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: him for trying to push it because I think sometimes teams,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: even some players sometimes, don't try to push it enough.
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: And so.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: That is the goal of the captain, to be the
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: one that's like, you know what? Screw it. I'm going
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: to go out and play.
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: And Kratzy, I do agree with you. I do love
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: the fact that he's willing to push it. And in
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: that same light, No one knows their own body better
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: than themselves, too. If he truly believes that it's possible
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: because only really he knows how he's feeling. Yes, an
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: MRI could tell you it's a moderate calf strain, but
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: he's the one going through the treatment. He's the one
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: kind of feeling what's going on right now. He maybe
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: potentially woke up one morning and was like, you know what?
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: The calf actually.
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: Feels pretty good. I know the MRI says this. I
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: know the training staff's telling me this. I know Aaron
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: Boone's saying this. I know the organization's saying this, but...
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: man I'm the one living with it I know what
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: it actually feels like and if I do believe that
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: it's a possibility then maybe it's a possibility but I
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: do love the fact that whether it is or isn't
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: there's a lot of guys that would potentially hide behind
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: the fact that you know I have this calf strain
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to be able to go on play
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: you know I'm not going to be healthy the fact
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: that even if he might not be a hundred percent,
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: his willingness to want to go out there because he
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: understands how precious getting to the post season is. And
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: also being the captain and leader of that, that franchise,
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: I commend him for that.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: All right. One more while we're on star injuries. Can
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: we show the tweet on Bregman? We actually have so
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: many talented hosts on the FT network roster that we
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: actually have a resonant hit in the face, dude. I mean,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: It is what it is.
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: It happened.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: You can see KP's beautiful face is all there now,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: but he did experience something like this. So Alex Bregman,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: according to Jesse Rogers, isn't quite sure what hurdle he
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: has to overcome to play, but he's confident that he's
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: going to play for the Cubs. I think we're talking
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: playoffs at this point. Maybe he pops in for a
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: game or two before that, and he was talking about
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: how it felt like a baseball bat hit him in
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the face when it happened. Here's the quote on Jesse Rogers'
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: tweet to Bregman. There's a lot of fluid in my
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: face over there. If I move, the fluid moves. So
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: if I'm bouncing up and down, my face feels like
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: it's bouncing up and down. KP, Eric Kratz mentioned earlier
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: in the show how flying could be an issue. Take
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: us through what Alex Bregman is going through right now
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: based on your own experience with the Mets.
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, obviously there's a little bit of a
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: fear and intimidation factor, right? I mean, a little bit
• 44:00
  Speaker 4: different than getting hit in the box, right? Like, and
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: maybe there's going to be a little, you know, hesitation
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: when he gets into the batter's box, understanding that it's
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: a possibility, but really the things that he has to
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: overcome is exactly what he's talking about. I mean, we
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: know that there's facial fractures there. Those things can wait
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: to be healed and to be surgically.
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: Fixed after the season.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: The biggest thing that he has to overcome the swelling
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: in the face, you know, does it really kind of
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: move his face up and down? Does it kind of
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: change the, you know, the visual when he's trying to
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: pick up the pitch and we know how important it is.
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: Our eyes are to hitting and, and playing baseball. Um,
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: does he have any sort of blurred vision from, from
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: what's going on? Does he have swelling around the eyes?
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: I think for me, you know, the way to come
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: back was, um, you know, once the swelling went out
• 44:54
  Speaker 4: of my eyes and I could see normally, and obviously
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: we could test those sorts of things. You do a,
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: you know, a baseline test in spring training. I'm sure
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: he's going to go through those things now. He, you know,
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: I'm sure he went through concussion protocol. I'm sure he
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: cleared those things. Um, but really is, can he visually
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: see the baseball? I think that's the number one thing,
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: you know, get rid of the swelling in the face, um,
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: Are his eyes back? And then secondly, you have to determine,
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: you know, especially at the position he plays, you know,
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: are they stable fractures?
• 45:24
  Speaker 6: Are they not stable fractures?
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: I would imagine he's probably going to have to wear
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: some sort of protective mask over the cheek and the
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: nose area. But really, it's just kind of getting his
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: face to kind of look normal again so that he
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: could see normally again.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: That's great insight. super helpful. And for Cubs fans that
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: are super nervous about what's going to happen here, there's
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: KP and maybe we'll come back to you on this too,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: to see how he looks in a few days. KP
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: good stuff, dude. Really appreciate the time on the superstars
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: making noise here. Go do your thing in the cage.
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 46:00
  Speaker 6: All right. See you guys.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: See you, dude. That's Kevin Pillar with us. And we
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: were talking about judge Yankees, by the way, are on Fox.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: on Saturday and on the Fox 1 app. Go get
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: it at home or on the go, live or on demand.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Never miss a moment. Stream now. Start your Fox 1
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: three-day free trial today at fox1. com. Hey, Nassim Nunez, after
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: setting the national stolen base record last night, quote, I
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: just told my coach and one of my friends, it's
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: like if you're trying to steal candy at the candy
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: store and the clerk is waiting, is watching you. You
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: can't steal the candy, so you got to be sneaky.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not telling any kids to steal candy. And that
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: wasn't me. That's still in the quote, that last sentence.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: So clever words from a guy that we had fun interviewing, remember,
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: in spring training. AJ, I don't think we saw him
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: being a stolen base monster. I mean, he's fast as
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: can be. I just didn't know if he was going
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: to grab a starting role and run with it. But
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: that's what he's done. He's probably one of the least
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: talked about guys on the Nationals, a lot of them
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: with developed power, right? But he's been their speedster, their
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: pest all year.
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: Oh, he's been great. He's been great. Great interview. Like
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: you said, he's awesome interviewing. National stolen base record. They
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: got a bunch of guys with a bunch of stolen
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: bases this year, so somebody's doing something right for the Nationals.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: They got a bunch of dudes with stolen bases, and
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: their offense is off the charts. Except when I needed
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: them yesterday to score more than five runs, but bankers
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: can't be choosers.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good defender.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: He played enough to make the Nats say, C.J. Abrams,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: you're going to move to second base. Like, I mean–
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: He's done everything that he needs to do for a
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: guy without power. He plays his game to a T.
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: Plays it to a T.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Also, side note, I messed up at the top of
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the show. Shocker. Martin Perez is not joining us today.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: They got a run today. So we'll get him a
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: different day. Sorry, everyone. I blew that.
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: We knew that.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: He was scheduled, but then he wasn't.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: Never announced, Scott.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: AJ didn't tell me that he can't.
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: AJ knew.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: No, AJ didn't tell me.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: We all make mistakes.
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: Some of us make mistakes.
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Some are just bigger than others.
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: Trying to give you the guest list in advance. We
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: are scheduled to talk to Kevin Sklar at some point.
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: Listen, Scott, you don't get paid for what We did yesterday, okay?
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: You got to pay attention to today.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: I knew it. That was good. Yeah. I've held that
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: one the whole day too. I love that.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Don't judge me by my past. Judge me by my future.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: No, we can only judge you by your past. We
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: can't judge you by your future.
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: Don't judge me.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Everyone besides Vladdy.
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: Jr.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: Vladdy Jr. is like the one guy on the other
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: side of the Venn diagram. Like, judge me only by
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: my past. We'll get into it. We're going to have
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: a nice... long segment to cover all of that.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: So stay tuned don't judge me on that.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Oh this is easy the good the bad and the
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: ugly the good the padres the bad let's say the
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: phillies right now ugly cubs why they haven't i don't
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: lead in this series against the Marlins. They're about to
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: have the ugliest weather scenario popping up, and we'll run
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: through all of that coming up in a moment because
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: it involves scenarios that are changing by the minute. But
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the Padres have now grabbed sole possession of the top
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: wild card. So the Padres are getting closer and closer
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: to some home playoff action that is going to make
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: a huge, huge difference for them. I'm very excited for
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: what this could look like for San Diego, right? I mean,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: if you think about it, huge travel, AJ, you know
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: how sometimes we overrate the home road stuff? I don't
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: know if we're doing that with San Diego. They're 49
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: and 29 at home. And it's been like this for
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: years where they play a different brand at home.
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because every day they send an attendance record because
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: they have one more person in that big lawn outside.
• 50:10
  Speaker 3: They sell out. The crowd is banging there all the time.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: I don't think they have the tiebreaker against any of them,
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: so they have to outright win the division. I mean, sorry,
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: the wild card because I think they lose both tiebreakers. But, man,
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: the Cubs will lose two games in a row to
• 50:26
  Speaker 3: the Marlins. Phillies, gosh, the Phillies, the poor Phillies. I
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: don't know what's happening. But, yeah, look at that number, 49-29+.
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: Let's be honest. If the Cubs have to play them,
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: you have to fly cross country from Boston where they're
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: going to be ending the year, right? If the Phillies
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: have to play them, they have to fly cross country
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: to go to San Diego. Ask the Braves how that
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: went down for them a couple years ago when they
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: had to fly cross country to San Diego to play.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: You don't want to have to do that at this
• 50:51
  Speaker 3: time of year unless it's absolutely necessary. So this would
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: be huge if the Padres somehow pull this off and
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: get that first wild card and then the other team
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: has to come to them.
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Wait, before Kratz chimes in here, I just want to
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: give like the latest weather report that could make what
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: AJ said sound even worse. You were saying they could
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: end their year in Boston. They could end their year
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: in Tampa.
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: Huh?
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Jesse Rogers just tweeted this. Lots of scenarios still in
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: play for the Cubs Red Sox this weekend. Could even
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: get game one in on Friday, then have to move
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: to Tampa game two that night in game three, but
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: go back to playing them Saturday and Sunday. Right now
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: playing two on Friday, one on Saturday in Boston, but
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: some of that's in doubt. If you're confused, I'm confused.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: We're all confused. They don't know what to do yet,
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: but it's really ugly. And Craig Council's pissed about it, too.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen him talking about it.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: What can he be pissed about? Can't control the weather?
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: He wants a roof on Fenway. He wants to un-landmark
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: it and put a roof on it.
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: And then put a roof on Wrigley. How about that?
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 51:55
  Speaker 2: How about them apples?
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: You know, I saw a lot of comments.
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: There's nothing you can do. It's just crap luck.
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: AJ, a lot of fans are like, oh, play it
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: in Wrigley. They're not giving them an extra three home games.
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: They would play it in a neutral park.
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: No chance. I mean, the Red Sox aren't going to
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: be happy about having to go to Tampa before having
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: to go to New York for a wild card either.
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: They'd rather just take the train or fly to New York.
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: It's a lot closer flight than having to go to
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: Tampa and then fly back. And by the way, you
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: can't control the weather. And you know what I hate
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: most of this? If you're going to do this, make
• 52:26
  Speaker 3: the decision, fly to Tampa and play the games in Tampa. Fine.
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: But here's the thing. You know what really sucks more
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: than anything? Two games on Friday. Wild card. Two wild
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: card matter games on Friday.
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry.
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: That stinks. It just stinks. Like most teams, it's really
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: hard to win both ends of a doubleheader.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: You know that.
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: Usually split them.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: And the other teams get to see what those guys
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: have done. That's why every game on Sunday is going
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: to be played at 3 o'clock so that no team
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: has an advantage if there's an advantage to be had there. No,
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: you don't want to play a doubleheader. No, you don't
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: want to play. But the reality is these three teams,
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: when you talk about playoff implications, when you talk about
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: making the playoffs, The record against teams over 500 is
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: crazy to me. The Cubs are 40-32. So they're eight
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: games over 500 against teams with a record over 500.
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: The Padres are 28-40, 12 games under. The Phillies are
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: only one game better at 29. I say not one
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: game better, but they're 29-33. Like, Those are two teams
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: that are supposed to be in the playoffs that are
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: going to be playing over 500 teams that, yeah, I
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: get it. Wherever they play, it matters. But you've got
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: to start beating some good teams.
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: Well, no better time than the postseason to do that.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, I get what you're saying. My only thing
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: is the other side of the bracket makes all of
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: that seem like nothing to me. I mean, I know
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: we just talked about it. I know, but I'm just
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: saying like the AL West or we're putting a sub
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: 500 team out there. So even though they're not playing
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: as well against some good teams, that could change. We
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: have much crappier teams in the post season this year
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: than what we're talking about with these three. I mean,
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: these three, right? Like they're a couple of them kind
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: of stumbling in and one of them's getting hit with weather,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: but well, let's, let's phrase it this way. Crouch. Do
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: you think that any of these three teams could run
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: the table? in the National League, or is there just
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: a very clear-cut 3-3? I guess I kind of know
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: the answer to you because you talked about yesterday the
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: power rankings and how you felt San Diego should be
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: firmly involved in the conversation with the Braves and the Dodgers, right?
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: And I– after watching last night, I couldn't agree more
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: with my own statement. Yes, I think the Padres are there.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: I think the Padres are there more than– more than
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: the Cubs, more than the Phillies. I mean, I watched
• 55:09
  Speaker 2: the Phillies play live. Yeah, they didn't strike out much
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: last night, but that offense is just going to all
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: of a sudden need to find something that I don't
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: know that I've seen consistently to be able to win
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: 11 games and win a World Series. So, yeah, I
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: think the Padres are in that top four of the
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: National League, and I think the Cubs and the Phillies
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: are the bottom two in the National League.
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: What about you?
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's still a clear one, two, three.
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: I think the Padres are a little bit below them.
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: I think it's one, two, three. And then I think
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: the Padres, Cubs, Phillies, they're all kind of about the same.
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: I think the way the divisions have played out has
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: been right. And I think the Brewers are the best
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: team besides the Dodgers because they're always the number one
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: of my power rankings until they lose in the postseason.
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: But the Brewers are really good. I think the Braves
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: are much better. The Braves own the Phillies this year,
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: which is interesting. So I think one, two, three is right.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: And then I think there's a gap to the Padres, Cubs,
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: and Phillies. Even though the Padres are playing well, I
• 56:18
  Speaker 3: still think there's a gap.
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: The whole weather thing, in 2017, we were supposed to
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: play Tampa and a hurricane was coming into Tampa. So
• 56:27
  Speaker 2: I was on the Yankees and we flew back to
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: New York instead of playing the Rays. We flew back
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: to New York and played At Citi Field. That's where
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: the whole, like, this Mets fan and when Todd scored,
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: this became the thing. I remember it being like, oh,
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: this is just the craziest travel. Now the people behind
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: the scenes, it's a lot for them. But I couldn't
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: imagine doing it the end of the season knowing you
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: have to go somewhere then to play another game.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: And it's not necessarily meaningless because it could be helping
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: to decide what's going on with seeding and home field
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: and all of that, right? So it's not meaningless baseball
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: that you're going to play. For the Red Sox, it is.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: The Red Sox don't move in the standings right now.
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: No, they're locked in. Red Sox are locked in.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: It's all about the Cubs.
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: It's all about the Cubs. But you also have to
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: play the games. You can't have games missed.
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: Sorry. And you know who else?
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: No. No.
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: Can't fly as much is Bregman. They're talking about how
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: much fluid he has in his face. When you fly,
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: you obviously, anybody knows like you, you retain fluid. And
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: so I know you can't fly. Like he flew home.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, he drove home instead of flying home from
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Cincinnati when he got hit. So I don't, I don't know.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: Like that's part of it. Like with players, inflammation creeps
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: up and stuff starts to really hurt at the end
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: of the season. So that could be part of it too.
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Last minute here and then the tv crowd's gonna go
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of people going to watch a cubs game
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: on marquee youtube obviously doing its thing as usual on
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: foul territory youtube channel for the rest of the show
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: as usual um sandy alcantara is impacting the wild card
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: race for a second time this week he's a he's
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: a starter closer now it's a new hybrid thing in
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: baseball when you don't care about a player since he's
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: probably going to get traded in the offseason like i'm
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: sorry It's cool. It's fun to watch. But what is this?
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: Marlins have done a lot of funky stuff this year.
• 58:37
  Speaker 3: They're trying something new.
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, you think it's that? Like, hey, we're going to
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: always have you throw on your throw day in the game?
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: They're like, we're going to outsmart everybody.
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: Mark this date down. The 24th. Remember? They don't do
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: regular bullpens. They throw from the mound. They throw against hitters.
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: They don't do that. So maybe Sandy's like, if I'm
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: doing this, why don't I do this? And the org,
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: I commend teams for trying to do things differently. I
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: commend teams. for trying to, like, go outside the norm.
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: But are they willing to do this to one of
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: their prospects? Because Uri Perez did it the other night.
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: Sandy's done it twice. Just saying.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: Hmm.
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: Good off season conversation.
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: Old, old school junk right here. We're talking about.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That's so new school that it's old school, right?
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Throw more, throw more in games. It's one thing. Yeah.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Can you do it at the end of the season
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: versus can you do it for a full season? All
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: of that. It sounds like a very good off season segment. Hey,
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: did you guys see this news? Shane McClanahan is not
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: going to pitch in the American league division series. That
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: sucks for Rays fans. There's plenty of pitching depth. Also,
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: they didn't rule him out for later rounds, AJ. But
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the timing is suck-ass, I should say.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's definitely one way to put it, Scotty. It
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 3: is suck-ass if you're a Rays fan.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's bad.
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it stinks. This guy's always just like one thing
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: after another with him. It really does stink because he's
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: really good when he's on the mound. It's just, and
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: they tried to baby him. They tried to baby him
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: this year. If you remember, like we're going to keep
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: his innings down and we're going to watch him and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: watch him and watch him. And he still gets hurt. It's,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: it's just, it's a weird, one of those weird things, man.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: No one can figure it out.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: He was pissed about it too. He was pissed. He's like,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: this isn't like the try hard league. Like it's a cool,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: he was saying earlier, he's like, you know, it's a
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: cool story that I'm, that I made it back. He's like,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: I don't want to just make it back. I want
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 2: to be great. And you know, does he push it
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: too hard? Does he, Does the team baby him too much?
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: Who knows? But to not have him going into the series,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: I think that's why I lean maybe towards them getting upset,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: even as the number one seed in the American League.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's going to be an AL East battle.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: We know that already. They're going to wait for.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: Tampa Bay fans on line one for Kratz, not believing
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: in the Rays.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: They're already pissed at him.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: I don't believe them as much as.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: If they had McClanahan.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter already. Whatever you say, they're already mad
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: at you for your power rankings yesterday. I saw some
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: comments that were like, how dare you put the Padres
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: ahead of the Rays? We shall see.
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: They're not wrong. They're not wrong. Most people are not wrong.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: The Rays have reinforcements here and it's not even reinforcements
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: like without Shane Mack in the DS. Okay. Which is
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: by the way, a best of five series. You have
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: decisions to make with Drew Rasmussen, Freddie Peralta, Nick Martinez.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: I think Griffin Jacks might do the multi-inning pen action.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: What's your decision? You haven't said one decision yet. I mean,
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: right now you go Martinez, Rasmussen, Freddie P, and figure
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: out game four.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. What's your decision? I suppose Rasmussen.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 2: I go Rasmussen game four. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: I'm just– yeah.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: The order is whatever.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: I was just naming their four best starters.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: You have options, not decisions. Options. You have a nice rotation.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: This is not like we're searching for answers here. These
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: are some pretty good names that are involved. Obviously, there
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: will be other guys too. Very good years. Seymour will
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: pitch well for them in some type of role. Obviously,
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: Baker at the back end. The bullpen's been good. A
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: lot of people that watch this show probably don't know
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: half the names in the bullpen, but they have a type.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: We went over that in our change-up segment the other
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: day with, you know, Saris. So Mason Engler, there's, there's
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: good names here in the raised pitching core and they're
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: going to piece together outs. But with those first three
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: or four, those are good names that can carry you
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: in a game for a minute.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: True. Agreed.
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: However you want to spin it, however you want to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: play it.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Would it have helped if you have Shane Max
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: or what?
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: Padres are still ahead of them. Raised fans.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: Eric Kratz, 19, on Twitter. Boom.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: Kratz is like quadrupling down on him.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: And he's a former Ray, too.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: I know. Kratz, did you not have a good experience
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: in Tampa? I don't understand.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: I loved Tampa. As fans would say, you sucked when
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: you were there. No wonder you don't like them. I
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: sucked when I was a lot of places. But as
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: the word today was suck ass, that was me hitting butt.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: I have to choose. I have to choose a team
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: that I think is going to win. And I'm okay choosing.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 2: Not sitting on the fence like a Fox analyst. You're
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: not allowed to choose. You have to. The hell I ain't.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: Actually, somebody asked us that the other day. Somebody asked us.
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: They were like, oh, you know, does AJ show his
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: fandom or something? I was like, are you watching the show?
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: shows his fandom to the White Sox to about as
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: high of an extent as you can.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know what else I could do.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: I mean, every time we bring on a Cubs fan,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: I make a Cubs person. I make fun of them.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know what else I could possibly, Tigers,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: if I make.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: Fun of them, Twins, Guardians.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: You could put a, you could put a Cubs or sorry,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: a White Sox Pope hat on. Oh, wait, you do that.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know what else I could possibly. I mean,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: I went and met the Pope for goodness sakes too.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: to show my fandom.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know. All right, let's look at game schedules
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: for the next few days because we only got a
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: few games left. All right, where do we want to
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: take it, guys? What are we doing? Should we talk
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: AL Central for a minute here? I think this is
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: the time to do it, AJ, as the Guardians and
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: Red Sox meet up. That was a good game last night,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: by the way, with Sonny Gray shoving for six innings
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: and then Eraldis Chapman hadn't pitched in like a week
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and a half and he looked really good. That one
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: splitter was fantastic. ridiculous. The one pitch that went viral,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: that splitter, but we know who you're watching. You're watching
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: those two guardians and white socks, the rest of the way.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: And I'm, and I'm interested in this red Sox Cubs
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: debacle that looks like it could be a debacle just
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: because what are they going to do? Are they going
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 3: to travel? Are they going to, are they going to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: play in Fenway? Are they going to go to Wrigley?
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: Are they going to go to, you know, Sacramento? I mean,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: are they going to go to, they could go to
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma city. They could go to Albuquerque. They could go to,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: you know, Vancouver. They could go, who knows where they
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: can end up. So, They could end up in Orlando.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: They could be the new dreamers. They could play at
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 3: Disney World.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: Who knows? Don't go to Sacramento. Whenever they announce where
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: the game's going to be, SeatGeek will have the tickets
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: for there. Just saying. You can have the tickets. You
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: can find out where it's going to be changed to. Bang.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: Hit the code and you get 10% off. But I just...
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 2: My question to AJ is... the Guardians win or the Guardians, yeah,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: the Guardians win, they clinch their playoff spot. How hard
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: do you go in a celebration? Because obviously they want
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 2: to win the division and you need to be full
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: strength coming down the stretch here.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: Wait, didn't I ask somebody that question yesterday?
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: What do we have on? With the Guardians?
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: I asked somebody that question yesterday.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I asked them, I asked the White Sox, I
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 3: asked that question. I said, if the White Sox or
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: Guardians clinch the post-season berth, which could happen today, Do
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 3: you party like it's 2005? I don't know. I don't know.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know what you do. I've never been in
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: that situation, so I don't know. I never was a
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: wild card team. I was always a division winner.
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: Sorry. Really?
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I never was a wild card. What's a wild card?
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 2: Even the 163 game that you guys won? You guys
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: weren't a wild card? That was for the division?
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: AL Central. We beat four teams in four games. Four
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: different teams. That's a true story. We had to beat...
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: We had to play... tigers and we played the guardians.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: We had to win. And then we played the tigers
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: in a makeup game. And then we played the twins
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: in a, the one 63. And then the next year
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: we played the Royals. So we won four games in
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 3: four different days against four different teams. It was the
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: next season, but I also, you guys probably don't even
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: remember this 2000, the guardians Indians, the Indians at the time,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 3: we're trying to make the post season. We played a
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: game as the twins. They played the white socks in
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: the one o'clock game. And we played them at the
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 3: seven o'clock game on the same day in Cleveland. They
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 3: played the white socks at one o'clock in Cleveland. Then
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 3: we played them at seven o'clock in Cleveland as the twins. Oh,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: guardian Indians played two different teams in the same park
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 3: on the same day.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Doubleheader different teams.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 3: Doubleheader different teams.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 2: That is really cool. That was a steroid era. 2000,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: you said?
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: Everybody was feeling good. I think it was 2000. Half
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: the players were like, oh, I could play six. And
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: you're like, how can you play six?
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, AJ's like, AJ's like, I'm 20
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: years old. I could play. I could play six straight
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 2: between games, play the next game too. I'm 20. And
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: they're all like, I feel like I'm 20.
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: And you have some 39 year old who disappears for
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: a minute, has a bandaid on his ass. And he's like, yeah,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I can play six.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: Google it kids.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: Google it. We played, we played two, they played two
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 3: different teams on, on the same day, the same park.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: It was pretty cool.
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: That's wild.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: That's wild.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: That is wild. All right. Anyway, so went off on
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: a tangent, but if you're looking for the last few
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: games of the regular season, code TERRITORY10, 10% off MLB
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: tickets at that code for SeatGeekTerritory10, and that code's going
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: to open up again for you. If it doesn't already now,
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: it will open up in the next few days to
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: all events on SeatGeek. So if you're listening and you're like, well,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: my team's out of it next week, then we will
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: have you covered with that code. Territory 1-0. Two weeks
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: off and he's back. Shohei Otani activated by the Dodgers.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: Everybody watching him carefully to see what his at-bats will
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: look like. Josue de Paula, who was bringing it for
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: the Dodgers, ends up going to Triple-A. And some people
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: are like, wait, what? Why is he getting optioned? There
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: were other moves to make. Do you guys want me
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: to read the back and forth that Katie Wu had
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: to explain this?
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: Please.
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: So there was someone named Zach on Twitter, and he
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: said this was the most obvious move for them to make,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: but also the dumbest. If Dalton rushing is getting activated
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: this weekend, puts in parentheses, also dumb, why not let
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: DiPaolo play out this series, send down Freeland– and then
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: send DiPaola down for the last series. And our brilliant
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: colleague at the Foul Territory Network, Katie Wu, who hosts
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Dodgers Territory, replied to this commenter and said, if they
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: send down DiPaola for the last series, he won't be
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: eligible for the National League Division Series. Position players have
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: to stay down for 10 games or 10 days, pitchers
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: for 15, even if the regular season ends during that time.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: So boom, roasted. That's why he gets sent down now.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they don't send down the worst player. Newsflash to
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: all baseball fans, anybody that's ever played the game and
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: gotten sent to the bushes, I would say probably 30%
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: of the time, they're not sending down the worst player.
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 2: They're sending down the player that makes the most sense
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: for the organization.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: Yep. Always a thing. So, Shohei's back. Do you like
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: what they're doing with Him and Mookie at the top.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: So they're going to platoon. So Shohei is in the two.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: That's why, I mean, that could be part of it.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: So they're going to platoon. Shohei is going to be
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: in the two spot against left-handed pitchers, or at least
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: they're toying with it for the playoffs. That was Robbie
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: Ray yesterday. And then Mookie is lead up. I mean,
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Kyle Tucker's playing better. Will Smith's hitting. Even Edwin Diaz
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: is starting to find it a little bit like it's,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: it's crazy, AJ, but a lot of the guys that,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: I've had their ups and downs. They're suddenly finding it
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: at the right time for the Dodgers.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 3: A lot of the players that have been good for
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 3: a long time are all of a sudden good again.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 3: It's weird how that works out.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: Do you like the platoon lineup better than just doing
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: the Shohei leadoff every day? Do you like them in
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: the two spot against lefties instead?
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 3: Dave Roberts is a Hall of Fame manager. He knows
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 3: his team better than anybody. If Dave Roberts thinks this
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: will help him win another World Series, Dave Roberts is
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: going to do it. And I guarantee you one thing
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 3: about Dave Roberts, He's communicated with each and every player.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: He will talk to them. He will make sure they
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: are okay with it. He will make it positive. Somehow,
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 3: some way, Dave Roberts will make this into a positive.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: That's what good managers do. That's the way they get paid.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 2: But my question is, do you think it's less about
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: Shohei and Mookie and more about how the rest of
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: the lineup then goes down? Like what you were talking about?
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: Is it better to have... Is it better to have
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: Shohei not so close to how the rest of the
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: lineup works out? Or is it just, eh, we'll try it.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: We got house money.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: Dodgers never play. Never say that. Dodgers never say that.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 3: They have a reason for everything. Sorry. The Dodgers have
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: a reason for everything. They're not going to just be like, eh,
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 3: we'll try it.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: No, no.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: They have a reason. And Friedman and the rest of
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: these guys, they have a reason for everything. That's why
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: the Dodgers have been so dang successful. Sorry. Because they
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: have a reason and they know what they're doing.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: Do you guys think DiPaolo makes the NLDS roster? I mean,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: it was limited ABs, of course, but damn, he had
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: it going. 11 walks to 5Ks, 5 extra base hits, 323, 500,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: 581 slash line.
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 3: Depends on where everyone else is at. You can't just say, oh, look,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: he did really well for this. It all depends on
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 3: where everyone else is at for me. If rushing comes
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 3: back and makes it a little tougher, I mean, I
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 3: don't know. I don't know their organization inside and out enough.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 3: I haven't paid enough attention to think that he should or.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 2: Shouldn't make it. I think he makes the roster only
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 2: because I don't know that they're this mega platoon split.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 2: Some teams need all 14 players to be able to play.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: He adds an ability for them to have great at bats.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 2: Just the walk-to-strikeout ratio for me when he came up
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 2: to the big leagues, I couldn't even care less what
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: his batting average, his slug, all that stuff are. He
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: puts together great at bats, and I have a feeling
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: that they activate him, and he's on that roster possibly
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: getting big at bats. Where? I have no idea, but
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 2: so far they haven't really used him anything other than DH-ing,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: and that spot's locked up. So it's more of like
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: that big at-bat off the bench, and he shows he
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: can control his own.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: It's crazy.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 2: It's crazy that they have another guy that's this good.
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right away, too. There's a big gap between the
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: minor leagues and the major leagues, maybe bigger than ever,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: according to many, but you certainly didn't see it from DiPaola. Okay.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 3: Well, no, he's a bat-to-ball guy. He's a bat-to-ball guy.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: That's why you don't see it. He's a bat-to-ball guy
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: with power. Those guys usually have an easier time adjusting.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: It's weird how if you actually can hit, you can hit.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: He's got it all. People will look at the stats
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: that they always want to look at first. Oh, how
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: many home runs does he have? When I look at
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: stats of a young guy or even minor league guys,
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: I go straight to walks and strikeouts. And then I go, okay,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 2: batting average, OPS, all that stuff. Then I look, oh,
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: some people look at it and go, well, he only
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: had one home run in his time up here. You
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: watch this swing. He did this in the minor leagues.
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: And to me, a guy that controls the zone, that's
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: actually something that gets better when you get to the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: big leagues because pitchers have to come in the zone
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: in the big leagues. In AAA, you have so many
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: guys who strike out and they're like, well, it'll get
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: better once he gets. Never. I've never seen anybody go
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: from AAA to the big leagues and strike out less.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: All right, people. Ken Rosenthal on Friday's show. It's already Thursday.
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: Last Friday of the regular season coming up here. Congrats
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: to PCA. 40-40 season. It's real. It happened. It's a
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: good number.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 3: Such a good number. It's awesome.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: I like that picture, too.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 3: Especially for his first two months. After his first two months.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: Right. Incredible adjustments that he made at the plate and
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: just took off. Luis Castillo, IELD. right shoulder impingement.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: Hmm. Weird.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: Is that his first IL stint ever?
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: He's been a very durable dude, and he has not
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: pitched well. ERA close to nine, I think, with the
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: White Sox in whatever, eight, nine appearances. And I believe
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: that'll knock him out for a while. He might be
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: done for the season. They're not going to put him on.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 6: The playoff roster.
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: I heard there was a rumor they were trying to
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 3: do this a while ago, and it kind of was
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: not happening, and now it happened.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: It's been rough for Luis. Not a lot that the
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: White Sox can do to try and figure it out.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: And they took on a lot of money, and this
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: one so far is not working for them. And then
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: a little more programming for you. Aaron Boone on Dirt
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: from the Dugout. Great show. It's Justin Musil and Carl Ravitch.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: A-list guests. Booney, it's part two that's coming out today
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: at three. So in like five minutes, you'll be able
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: to watch that one on YouTube. It's part of the
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: FT Network. Booney has some good stories about the 2003 ALCS.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: Two years later, AJ's life changed forever.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 3: Right? True.
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Dude, that little time period, 2003, right, with Booney
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: and what the Yankees did to the Red Sox, then
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: 2004 with the Red Sox finally snapping, and then 2005
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: with some people, I guess, forgetting about what you guys
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: did for the White Sox.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 3: Our curse was actually longer than the Red Sox. It
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 3: was 88 years. It was way worse than the Red Sox.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 3: The Red Sox had been to the World Series a
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 3: bunch of times. The White Sox hadn't done shit. And
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 3: by the way, I know we don't have time for this.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 3: Did y'all see Joey Votto's quotes? I just heard about him.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: He said guys that hit 300 back in the day
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 3: would hit 240 to 250 now. Tell me Tony Gwynn
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: would hit 240. Joey, so that means you'd hit 240 now?
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, because he was a 300 guy.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 6: Joey, you'd hit 240 now?
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: What about Louisa rise? He gets 300 most years.
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 3: No, he said he did 400 back in, back in
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 3: the day.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: Or rise would.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: It sounds like maybe a segment for next week with
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: AJ when he's back. Sounds like an in the weeds topic.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: Uh maybe i would be on 230s yeah all right
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: so aj's back on monday todd father tomorrow we'll see
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 2: you then.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: If you've got a little sgp which is the same
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: game parlay you can get a boost token For a
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: bigger payout, and that includes a little football action, you
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: can get a bigger payout on tonight's game. Gambling problem
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: or concern, call 1-800-GAMBLER.