Latest / Foul Territory / Fair Territory: Mets & Tigers CRUMBLE, Guardians & Reds SURGE, Mariners SWEEP Astros

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Fair Territory: Mets & Tigers CRUMBLE, Guardians & Reds SURGE, Mariners SWEEP Astros · Foul Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
0:04
Speaker 1: Ken Rosenthal, here with you for the next twenty six
0:06
Speaker 1: minutes or so. And it was just a few weeks
0:09
Speaker 1: back I was lamenting I don't know if it was
0:12
Speaker 1: on Foul Territory in print, maybe just to friends, lamenting
0:17
Speaker 1: that the races were all but decided that the playoff
0:20
Speaker 1: field was all but set. Ah, so much for that.
0:24
Speaker 1: We are looking at one of the wilder weeks potentially
0:27
Speaker 1: in recent MLB history. Both wildcards are still in play.
0:31
Speaker 1: The AL Central is big time in play and the
0:35
Speaker 1: AL West seemingly closer to being decided but not over
0:39
Speaker 1: just yet. And actually the NL West is in that
0:41
Speaker 1: category as well. So there was a lot to discuss,
0:44
Speaker 1: But I want to start with the NL wildcard and
0:47
Speaker 1: the question I posed in my column today which would
0:50
Speaker 1: be more embarrassing the Tigers blowing a fifteen and a
0:54
Speaker 1: half game lead to a division opponent that would be
0:56
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Guardians or the Mets missing the playoffs entirely
1:02
Speaker 1: with a three hundred and forty million dollar payroll. Now,
1:05
Speaker 1: the column is an exploration of which is more embarrassing
1:08
Speaker 1: and kind of discusses each team's predicament. But the Mets
1:12
Speaker 1: thing is stunning, to say the least. They were forty
1:16
Speaker 1: five and twenty four on June twelfth. They had a
1:20
Speaker 1: two point seventy nine rotation era on June twelfth that
1:23
Speaker 1: was the best in the majors. The record was the
1:25
Speaker 1: best in the majors. Since then, the Mets are thirty
1:28
Speaker 1: five and thirty and fifty three thirty five and fifty three.
1:32
Speaker 1: That is tied with the Chicago White Sox for the
1:34
Speaker 1: fourth worst record in the majors. Their rotation era also
1:39
Speaker 1: ranks in the bottom five. They have essentially collapsed, and
1:43
Speaker 1: not like they did in two thousand and seven when
1:45
Speaker 1: they lost seven or when they blew a seven game
1:47
Speaker 1: lead with seventeen to play. This has been a slow burn.
1:50
Speaker 1: It's really been three months now of inadequate play. So
1:55
Speaker 1: the Reds are not exactly a team sprinting to the finish,
1:58
Speaker 1: though they've won ten of the last fifteen. It's a
2:01
Speaker 1: team that's basically a sub five hundred club. Since early August,
2:05
Speaker 1: but they've won ten of their last fifteen. The Mets
2:08
Speaker 1: have gone four and eleven, including losing two of three
2:11
Speaker 1: to the Nationals this week, and you see where the
2:13
Speaker 1: wildcard standings are right now, Diamondbacks just one game back.
2:17
Speaker 1: The Reds hold the tiebreaker over the Mets. So as
2:20
Speaker 1: we say, at this time of year, the Reds effectively
2:23
Speaker 1: control their own destiny. Of course, these things can change,
2:27
Speaker 1: and we might as well look at the remaining schedules
2:28
Speaker 1: as well, because they will be telling. For of course,
2:31
Speaker 1: all of these teams. The Reds are in a decent
2:35
Speaker 1: spot as I wrote today, three versus Pittsburgh at home
2:39
Speaker 1: and then three at Milwaukee in a time when Milwaukee
2:42
Speaker 1: probably will be really close to clinching the best overall
2:46
Speaker 1: record in the number one seed, if they haven't done
2:48
Speaker 1: it already by then. They've got a three game lead
2:50
Speaker 1: over the Phillies in that race, the Mets, three at
2:53
Speaker 1: the Cubs, three at the Marlins, who they only lead
2:56
Speaker 1: by four games right now, by the way, And the Diamondbacks,
2:59
Speaker 1: who have had a trying schedule, the most trying schedule
3:01
Speaker 1: of all these teams from the beginning. They host the
3:04
Speaker 1: Dodgers for three, and then they're at San Diego for three.
3:07
Speaker 1: San Diego by that point should have clinched and we'll
3:10
Speaker 1: see what the Dodgers come up with this week as well.
3:12
Speaker 1: So the NL Wildcard Race, as I've written, it is
3:16
Speaker 1: brought to you by the New York Mets. The only
3:18
Speaker 1: reason all of this is happening is because the Mets
3:21
Speaker 1: have stumbled in a way that no one anticipated, and
3:25
Speaker 1: it's a stumble that will be one of the more
3:28
Speaker 1: embarrassing episodes in franchise history if it indeed ends up
3:32
Speaker 1: with this team obviously missing the playoffs, if it ends
3:35
Speaker 1: up with this team getting knocked out early, the Mets
3:38
Speaker 1: are not simply in a good place now the AL Central.
3:42
Speaker 1: This is the other question I had, or the part
3:44
Speaker 1: of the question that I had the Tigers. Where are
3:47
Speaker 1: the Tigers on the embarrassment scale? Pretty high, I would
3:51
Speaker 1: suggest now they still are in a position where they
3:54
Speaker 1: have a one game lead over the Cleveland Guardians, but
3:57
Speaker 1: they're coming off an own six home stand against Cleveland
4:01
Speaker 1: and Atlanta. They're twenty six and thirty seven since July eighth.
4:06
Speaker 1: These three games against Cleveland at Progressive Field will obviously
4:11
Speaker 1: be critical, and you just wonder if the Tigers are
4:14
Speaker 1: going to be able to snap out of it. They're pitching,
4:17
Speaker 1: their rotation and bullpen has essentially fallen apart in September,
4:21
Speaker 1: and their offense has not been very good in this
4:24
Speaker 1: long stretch as well. And here are the Guardians, one
4:28
Speaker 1: of the worst offensive contenders you'll ever see. What I
4:31
Speaker 1: mean by that is they've got one of the worst
4:33
Speaker 1: offenses for a contender you'll ever see. They are tied
4:36
Speaker 1: for twenty seventh in the Majors in runs per game,
4:39
Speaker 1: twenty seventh. And as I wrote, there are only three
4:42
Speaker 1: teams in Major League history, and actually this goes to
4:45
Speaker 1: the start of the Divisional play era that have made
4:48
Speaker 1: the playoffs with an offense that bad, and two of
4:52
Speaker 1: those teams two of the three did it in the
4:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenty season, when there were sixteen playoff teams a
4:57
Speaker 1: shortened sixty game season in all of so it's almost
5:01
Speaker 1: like that doesn't even count. So it's pretty hard to
5:03
Speaker 1: do what the Guardians are doing with an offense of
5:06
Speaker 1: the nature that they have, but they're doing it. The
5:09
Speaker 1: Tigers are letting them back in. So, as I wrote,
5:13
Speaker 1: if the Tigers missed the playoffs after being up on
5:17
Speaker 1: July eighth, they were up fourteen games on both the
5:21
Speaker 1: Royals and Twins at that time and fifteen and a
5:23
Speaker 1: half on the Guardians. If they missed the playoffs after
5:25
Speaker 1: holding a fourteen game lead, it will be the largest
5:29
Speaker 1: blown lead by a team that did not win its
5:31
Speaker 1: division or league in modern ale NL history, an all
5:36
Speaker 1: time collapse. So again, which is more embarrassing, I'm not
5:40
Speaker 1: sure which is more embarrassing, but neither one of them
5:42
Speaker 1: is too good. So we're looking at a crazy AL
5:46
Speaker 1: Central race. We're looking at a crazy NL wildcard race.
5:49
Speaker 1: And in the AL West, quite interesting development over the weekend,
5:54
Speaker 1: the Mariners and Astros go into the season or the
5:57
Speaker 1: weekend series tied tied for the AL West lee and
6:00
Speaker 1: you're thinking this series is in Houston. Maybe in this
6:04
Speaker 1: particular case, the Astros will rise up again and figure
6:07
Speaker 1: out a way to hold down the Mariners. The Astros
6:10
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about them more in the
6:11
Speaker 1: Inside Dish have been a dominant team really since twenty sixteen,
6:16
Speaker 1: from twenty seventeen on, and yes, I know there was
6:19
Speaker 1: the scandal in there, but they've dominated even after that.
6:22
Speaker 1: So you always have to assume, and we've been talking
6:25
Speaker 1: about this all year, that the Astros are going to
6:28
Speaker 1: figure it out, that you've got to knock them out,
6:30
Speaker 1: and all of this stuff that they have the pedigree well.
6:34
Speaker 1: The Mariners led for twenty six of twenty seven innings
6:37
Speaker 1: in this series. They swept this series. They are a
6:40
Speaker 1: team that right now leads the Ale West by three
6:43
Speaker 1: games with six to play. They are in an absolutely
6:46
Speaker 1: commanding position. Now, is it possible things go amiss? Yeah,
6:51
Speaker 1: it's surely possible. Things can always change, But the Mariners
6:54
Speaker 1: are really looking good. Cal rally number fifty eight last night.
6:58
Speaker 1: His MVP candidacy grow by the day, grows more legitimate
7:02
Speaker 1: by the day, more real by the day. And what
7:04
Speaker 1: we're seeing here is a team that did some good
7:08
Speaker 1: things at the deadline and are benefiting from it, even
7:11
Speaker 1: though he Ajohano Suarez really hasn't been the guy that
7:14
Speaker 1: he was with Arizona. So the Ale West the Astros
7:18
Speaker 1: have another path to get to the playoffs. Of course,
7:22
Speaker 1: the path would be through the wildcard. And let's look
7:24
Speaker 1: at the ale wildcard standing so I can explain exactly
7:27
Speaker 1: where we are. The Red Sox are in this mix too,
7:30
Speaker 1: this jumbled mess of a wildcard race. Now the Red
7:34
Speaker 1: Sox have a game lead over the Guardians and Astros.
7:37
Speaker 1: It is possible the Astros don't get a wildcard either
7:40
Speaker 1: if both the Guardians and Tigers qualify, and that's possible,
7:45
Speaker 1: Let's say the Guardians win the AL Central or the
7:47
Speaker 1: Tigers win the AL Central. The other team could be
7:49
Speaker 1: the Wildcard, and the Red Sox their situation is not
7:52
Speaker 1: exactly precarious, but they have to keep going too because
7:57
Speaker 1: those two teams are right behind them. So again, it's
8:00
Speaker 1: going to be a wacky, crazy end to the season.
8:04
Speaker 1: It's the kind of season or the kind of conclusion
8:07
Speaker 1: we all kind of hope for at the start of
8:09
Speaker 1: the year. Now, if you're a Mets fan, if you're
8:11
Speaker 1: a Tiger's fan, you're not happy right now. I totally
8:13
Speaker 1: get it. But from a broader baseball perspective, you want excitement,
8:17
Speaker 1: And as I said a couple of weeks ago, it
8:20
Speaker 1: did not look like we were going to be anywhere
8:22
Speaker 1: near this kind of excitement. The Mets looked like they
8:25
Speaker 1: were a lock, the Tigers looked like they were a lock,
8:28
Speaker 1: the Astros were in a much better position, and all
8:31
Speaker 1: of these things that have happened, it didn't seem like
8:35
Speaker 1: they were going to happen. So let's look now at
8:37
Speaker 1: the ale remaining schedules. We'll close it out with this Cleveland,
8:41
Speaker 1: three versus Detroit at home. We've talked about that, three
8:45
Speaker 1: versus Texas at home. Also Detroit not such an easy
8:49
Speaker 1: go here. They're on the road for six games at
8:52
Speaker 1: Cleveland and Boston, and then the Astros. They're on the
8:56
Speaker 1: road too in Sacramento, which is not an easy place
8:59
Speaker 1: to play against an offense that is not easy to
9:01
Speaker 1: deal with the Athletics, and then three at the Los
9:04
Speaker 1: Angeles Angels. So there you have it. That's the final week.
9:08
Speaker 1: It's going to be a wild one and I would
9:11
Speaker 1: expect that most fans are pretty excited about what might
9:14
Speaker 1: end up going down.
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10:17
Speaker 4: Well, well, well, well.
10:23
Speaker 1: Time now for the inside Dish, the part of the
10:25
Speaker 1: show where I talk maybe about a story I've written,
10:28
Speaker 1: about a trend in the game, something going on. And
10:31
Speaker 1: today I want to talk about the Astros, but I
10:34
Speaker 1: want to start off by talking about the Milwaukee Brewers,
10:37
Speaker 1: and I'll explain and try to weave it all together.
10:39
Speaker 1: So back in spring training, I wrote a column basically
10:42
Speaker 1: saying that if the Brewers stumbled this season, it would
10:46
Speaker 1: be the responsibility of owner Marcott Tanasio because he had
10:49
Speaker 1: not spent hardly anything during the off season. Now, after that,
10:52
Speaker 1: they signed Jose Kintana one year, four point twenty five million.
10:56
Speaker 1: But my premise in that column was, Hey, at some point,
11:00
Speaker 1: it's going to catch up with that Tenasio. If people
11:02
Speaker 1: could leaving and you don't replace them with quality people
11:06
Speaker 1: in return, well, obviously the Brewers and Mark at Tanasio
11:11
Speaker 1: are sitting pretty right now. And I approached that Tenacio
11:14
Speaker 1: in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago and I said, listen, man,
11:17
Speaker 1: I'm never writing anything like that again. I'm done. I've
11:19
Speaker 1: given up.
11:20
Speaker 3: You win.
11:21
Speaker 1: And yet he does win. They've got the best record
11:23
Speaker 1: in the majors and he's done it his way, no
11:26
Speaker 1: question about it. So I was thinking, as I prepare
11:29
Speaker 1: for this segment, maybe I should have written that column
11:32
Speaker 1: about Astros owner Jim Crane, because look at what has
11:35
Speaker 1: happened to the Astros over the last five years. Springer
11:39
Speaker 1: gone to free agency, Korea gone to free agency, Tucker traded,
11:43
Speaker 1: Reregman gone to free agency. Those are four significant players,
11:48
Speaker 1: parts of the Astros core, part of the reason they
11:51
Speaker 1: were so successful in the late twenty tens and early
11:54
Speaker 1: twenty twenties, and now those players were essentially gone. So
12:00
Speaker 1: I thought about that, and I thought about Crane and
12:02
Speaker 1: some of the signings that they've made under him in
12:04
Speaker 1: this time. Josea Bray was not a good signing. Rafael
12:08
Speaker 1: Montero not a good signing. Both were free agents, and
12:11
Speaker 1: you wonder, okay, as the Astros sit here today in
12:15
Speaker 1: this precarious spot, seemingly facing an uphill fight for sure
12:21
Speaker 1: in the ALE West and even threatening to fall out
12:24
Speaker 1: of the playoff picture entirely because their wild card chances
12:28
Speaker 1: are looking bad too. They don't hold any of the
12:30
Speaker 1: tie breakers in these scenarios. And when you consider it
12:35
Speaker 1: all and wonder and ponder the Astros situation, it almost
12:40
Speaker 1: seems amazing that it went on for this long and
12:43
Speaker 1: what happened to the Astros this season. It took like
12:47
Speaker 1: this incredible cavalcade of injuries, an amazing run of injuries
12:51
Speaker 1: that really no team can withstand, and they've withstood it
12:56
Speaker 1: actually pretty well. And as I wrote, or as I
12:58
Speaker 1: said in the first segment, they went into that weekend
13:01
Speaker 1: series with Seattle tied. Now they are no longer tied.
13:04
Speaker 1: They are three games back, and they appear to be
13:07
Speaker 1: ready to be dethroned as ALE West champions in a
13:11
Speaker 1: full season for the first time since twenty sixteen. Think
13:15
Speaker 1: about that, they've won every AO West title in a
13:19
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two game season since twenty seventeen.
13:24
Speaker 1: That's really hard to do. And yes, I'll say it again.
13:26
Speaker 1: We can talk all we want about the trash cans,
13:28
Speaker 1: and we have and we will, but not all of
13:32
Speaker 1: this was accomplished in that fashion. So you wonder and
13:37
Speaker 1: you think about this team and where they are right now,
13:40
Speaker 1: with a weekend farm system and with kind of an
13:43
Speaker 1: aging injured corps Altuve and certainly you're don Alvarez. How
13:50
Speaker 1: do they get back and how did this all happen? Well,
13:54
Speaker 1: according to Baseball perspectives, and this was in Chandler Rome's
13:56
Speaker 1: story today, no team has lost more value to injuries
14:00
Speaker 1: season than the Houston Astros. It's not even close. And
14:03
Speaker 1: the Astros at one point had eighteen players on the
14:07
Speaker 1: injured list. This was in late July. At that time,
14:10
Speaker 1: eight starting pitchers were on the injured list. They lost
14:13
Speaker 1: Jordan Alvarez for almost three months, Jeremy Panna out for
14:17
Speaker 1: a significant time. I Zach Parade's the same, and Jeremy
14:22
Speaker 1: Meyer a pretty good I'm not Jerry Meyer. Jake Myers
14:26
Speaker 1: a pretty good center fielder, a guy who emerged this year.
14:28
Speaker 1: He too was out for a long period of time.
14:31
Speaker 1: Josh Hater has been out since August eighth, on and
14:34
Speaker 1: on it has gone. I believe it was last week
14:37
Speaker 1: when I talked about Joe a Spot being the favorite
14:40
Speaker 1: for AL Manager of the Year. Well, he still might
14:43
Speaker 1: win it, but it's not going to look as pretty
14:45
Speaker 1: now if he does. And frankly, right now, Steven Vote
14:48
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, John Schneider in Toronto, there are other candidates
14:52
Speaker 1: who are looking better. AJ Hinch was the popular choice
14:55
Speaker 1: for a while too. That's how topsy turvy this whole
14:58
Speaker 1: thing has become. The Astros. They acquired at the deadline,
15:03
Speaker 1: Carlos Carea, they required him. They brought in Hazus Sanchez,
15:06
Speaker 1: who has not been much of a contributor at all,
15:09
Speaker 1: and Ramon Urdi is the same. He has not done
15:11
Speaker 1: much at all. The biggest issue for this team and
15:15
Speaker 1: it has to do somewhat with the Alvarez injury and
15:18
Speaker 1: with the loss of pain here for a month, but
15:20
Speaker 1: not completely. The offense is the biggest issue, and this
15:24
Speaker 1: has been a perplexing thing with the Astros. Now Parades
15:27
Speaker 1: was brought in, as was Christian Walker, to improve their
15:30
Speaker 1: plate discipline, to make them less of a free swinging
15:33
Speaker 1: operation Paraders is a guy who sees a ton of pitches.
15:36
Speaker 1: Walker had that reputation as well, but it hasn't happened
15:40
Speaker 1: for the Astros, and for whatever reason, their offense all
15:43
Speaker 1: season long with Alvarez without has not really clicked. They
15:48
Speaker 1: are twenty seventh in the Majors in runs per game
15:52
Speaker 1: since the deadline, twenty seventh since adding Carlos Carea and
15:56
Speaker 1: Jesus Sanchez. That's not what they intended when they made
16:00
Speaker 1: those moves. They were trying to bolster their offense and
16:02
Speaker 1: it just hasn't happened. So the Astros, is this the end? Well,
16:07
Speaker 1: we're gonna find out over the next I don't know,
16:09
Speaker 1: a week or so. But it's been an amazing run,
16:13
Speaker 1: and even this year, it's been amazing what they've accomplished
16:16
Speaker 1: considering what they've been up against. And all teams go
16:20
Speaker 1: through this, you guys know this. All teams have years
16:23
Speaker 1: that are off years. It's just been such a long
16:26
Speaker 1: time since the Astros had one of these seasons, and
16:28
Speaker 1: it looks like this is turning out to be one
16:30
Speaker 1: of them. Even if they get in, how far are
16:33
Speaker 1: they going to go from Barvaldez has struggled in the
16:36
Speaker 1: last I don't know month or so, Hunter Brown legitimate Ace,
16:40
Speaker 1: but they don't have much out there beyond those guys.
16:43
Speaker 1: So it's been a tough season for the Astros, no doubt.
16:47
Speaker 1: It's been the kind of season with the Astros that
16:49
Speaker 1: we just haven't seen from them in a long, long time.
16:54
Speaker 1: All right back with grilling Ken right after this tod Father.
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18:04
Speaker 1: Time after grilling Ken the part of the show where
18:06
Speaker 1: I answer your questions, let's get right to them. First
18:10
Speaker 1: question from JS Big One, will Ben Sherrington be back
18:14
Speaker 1: with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I do not know the answer
18:16
Speaker 1: to that, Jay, but after six seasons and six essentially
18:21
Speaker 1: disappointing seasons, the Pirates certainly would be justified if they
18:25
Speaker 1: made a change. Now. That said, they have built a
18:28
Speaker 1: collection of young arms that is really the envy of
18:31
Speaker 1: the sport. They also have played better under Don Kelly
18:35
Speaker 1: than they did under Derek Shelton. They've had their moments
18:38
Speaker 1: since the change in managers. I don't know that it's
18:41
Speaker 1: enough to save Ben Sherrington's job, and I don't know
18:44
Speaker 1: that it should be. Ben Sherrington is one of the
18:46
Speaker 1: most respected people in the game. He's a guy everyone
18:50
Speaker 1: will tell you is an extremely high character. At the
18:53
Speaker 1: same time, the performance is what the performance is, and
18:56
Speaker 1: they have not done enough with limited resources to maybe
19:01
Speaker 1: justify him staying on as GM. You look at Cleveland,
19:04
Speaker 1: you look at Milwaukee, you look at Tampa Bay. In
19:07
Speaker 1: most years, you look at Cincinnati. Right now, these are
19:10
Speaker 1: all teams in similar markets and they're doing better than
19:12
Speaker 1: the Pirates have. So obviously this is question number one
19:16
Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Pirates when the season ends, I would
19:20
Speaker 1: not be surprised by a change, and I would also
19:22
Speaker 1: not be surprised if Bob Nuttings stayed the course. He's
19:25
Speaker 1: not exactly the most predictable owner in the sport. Actually,
19:28
Speaker 1: I should correct that. Pirates fans would say he is
19:31
Speaker 1: the most predictable owner in the sport in terms of
19:33
Speaker 1: spending money. I don't know that he's that predictable with
19:36
Speaker 1: regard to what he might do in the GM spot.
19:40
Speaker 1: All right, the next question, this one it's from Armand
19:43
Speaker 1: who asked if the Mets and Tigers don't make it,
19:46
Speaker 1: do you see coaching staff firings with Hinch and Mendoza
19:49
Speaker 1: staying that would probably be armand the way that these
19:53
Speaker 1: teams would go, And certainly with the Mets, I don't
19:59
Speaker 1: know where the the dysfunction or the problem is exactly,
20:03
Speaker 1: and I talked last week about maybe a chemistry issue
20:05
Speaker 1: being there, and that's not on the coaches. But in
20:09
Speaker 1: a situation like this, if the two teams do indeed
20:13
Speaker 1: miss the playoffs or end in the playoffs in a
20:15
Speaker 1: disappointing fashion, I would expect certainly that there would be changes.
20:20
Speaker 1: David Stearns has been pretty public about backing Carlos Mendoza.
20:23
Speaker 1: Joel Sherman had a note today in The New York
20:24
Speaker 1: Post in which Stearns said again that Mendoza has done
20:27
Speaker 1: a very good job. Doesn't mean that others below him
20:30
Speaker 1: will not be held responsible for this. Hinch two would
20:34
Speaker 1: seemingly be one of the more secure managers in the game,
20:37
Speaker 1: but they too could look for coaching changes. I would
20:40
Speaker 1: not expect if these two teams end the season in disappointment,
20:44
Speaker 1: that things are just going to remain status quo. That
20:47
Speaker 1: is rarely the way it works in baseball. All right,
20:52
Speaker 1: next question from rpg Man forty five. If you had
20:55
Speaker 1: to pick who's out in the Astros, Tigers, Red Sox
20:58
Speaker 1: or Guardians. Wow. Now this is an aj Perzinski type
21:02
Speaker 1: question the kid where you just put me on the spot.
21:05
Speaker 1: If I had to guess right now, I'd say the
21:07
Speaker 1: Tigers because they're playing the worst of these teams. Now,
21:11
Speaker 1: you could say the Astros are as well. Yeah, that
21:14
Speaker 1: would be a fair point to make. But my hunch
21:17
Speaker 1: is the Tigers just because they're gonna go into Cleveland
21:20
Speaker 1: and I don't know how that's gonna go for them,
21:21
Speaker 1: and then they're gonna go into Boston needing to win,
21:24
Speaker 1: I would presume at that point, and I don't know
21:26
Speaker 1: how that's gonna go for them, because the Red Sox
21:28
Speaker 1: also will be playing for a playoff berth in that
21:32
Speaker 1: scenario at Fenway Park where they are very good. That's
21:36
Speaker 1: my guests watch. I'll be wrong. I'm usually wrong when
21:38
Speaker 1: I make predictions of this nature. All right, let's go
21:41
Speaker 1: to the next one. Now, this one comes from foul Territory,
21:45
Speaker 1: which asks will the Orioles keep Tony Mansleino. I don't
21:50
Speaker 1: know the answer to this question, and certainly the Orioles
21:54
Speaker 1: have played better under man Seleno than they did under
21:56
Speaker 1: Brandon Hyde. Since late May, they are above five hundred.
22:00
Speaker 1: That's pretty good. Now you can say the young players
22:02
Speaker 1: have stagnated, the young hitters have stagnated, but he stabilized
22:06
Speaker 1: that team. And in addition to that, we've seen in
22:10
Speaker 1: the second half Trevor Rodgers emerge as one of the
22:13
Speaker 1: best pitchers in the entire sport, and Kyle Bradish come
22:17
Speaker 1: back from Tommy John surgery along with Tyler Wells. Not
22:21
Speaker 1: all of that, of course, as Mansollino is doing, but
22:24
Speaker 1: it's the stuff that he inherited. Now, what I like
22:27
Speaker 1: about Mansollino is what he told us in our Fox
22:30
Speaker 1: interview with him last Thursday night when we were Camden Yards.
22:33
Speaker 1: I asked him about being an interim and he said
22:36
Speaker 1: my approach was this, I was going to do the job,
22:40
Speaker 1: not to save my job or not to help myself
22:43
Speaker 1: get an extension. I was going to do the right thing.
22:47
Speaker 1: So what he means by that is do the right
22:49
Speaker 1: thing by players, make the right decisions for players and
22:52
Speaker 1: for the team, and not necessarily make decisions that might
22:56
Speaker 1: help enhance his chances of returning. I love that, and
23:00
Speaker 1: to me, that is the sign of someone who is
23:02
Speaker 1: secure in himself and someone who has a feel and
23:06
Speaker 1: someone who seemingly has the respect to that clubhouse. Now,
23:09
Speaker 1: I expect Michaelias will at least conduct some kind of search,
23:15
Speaker 1: but he might have the guy that he wants right
23:18
Speaker 1: in the dugout at this moment. All right, we'll take
23:20
Speaker 1: one more question and then we'll say bye bye for
23:22
Speaker 1: the day. Let's see what we got here. This one
23:25
Speaker 1: comes from John, who says, which do baseball fans love more?
23:28
Speaker 1: Seeing their team win or laughing at other teams or
23:31
Speaker 1: other fan bases upset with their team losing. Fans should
23:36
Speaker 1: want their teams to win more than other teams to suffer.
23:39
Speaker 1: But back in my days as a fan, I knew
23:42
Speaker 1: that I enjoyed a great deal when other teams are
23:46
Speaker 1: the rivals of the team I was rooting for suffered.
23:49
Speaker 1: So I can see both sides of it. But yeah,
23:51
Speaker 1: let's be positive here. Let's root for the teams that
23:54
Speaker 1: we want to win, and let's not just take extreme
23:58
Speaker 1: joy at other's expense, even those Sometimes that's a lot
24:02
Speaker 1: of fun. All right, that's it for today's show. We
24:04
Speaker 1: will be back Thursday our usual live show twelve thirty Eastern.
24:07
Speaker 1: Myself and Alana Rizzo have a great week everyone, and
24:11
Speaker 1: let's see what the heck Baseball has in store for us.
24:14
Speaker 1: The rest of the.
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