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White Sox-Guardians Game 4 Preview and MLB Playoff Talk with Gene Watson · The Craig Way Show

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Division play.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: In the division series. Three of the four have been
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: completed now in the National League. The one seed Milwaukee
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Brewers defeated the San Diego Padres in four games. The
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: two seed Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves in
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: four games. And in the American League, the top seed there,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay Rays, swept the New York Yankees, finishing
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: off the Yanks last night. There is one series left
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: to be contested, and it'll be game four tonight. In Chicago,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: between the White Sox, the number six seed, and their
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: division rivals, the Cleveland Guardians, who were the two seed,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: even though Chicago won the regular season series between the two.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: It's been marvelous so far through the three games. The
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Sox are up two games to one. Our MLB insider
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: from the Chicago White Sox front office is none other
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: than our good friend Gene Watson, who joins us from
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: the Windy City. How excited is the Windy City, Gino,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: going into tonight's game?
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: It's so bizarre.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: We are actually staying across the street from Wrigley Field
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: at the Zachary Hotel because there are no.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: Games at Wrigley Field. And this hotel is unbelievable.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: And with everything going on in the city of Chicago
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: right now, it was the most available hotel. So being
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: in Wrigleyville and then heading south down to Rayfield is
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: kind of unique.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: But last night was about as wild.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: Yesterday was about as wild a scene as I've ever seen.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: At a playoff game with a blackout game and the energy,
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: them not having had a playoff game in forever here.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: So it was a really cool scene and we're looking
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: forward to doing it again tonight.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I think I know the answer to this question, but
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I'll ask it anyway. I think back to when you
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: first accepted the job to go into the front office
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: with the White Sox coming over from the Angels. going
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: on two years ago, and they were coming off 121 losses.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And I remember asking you about it. You talked about
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the rebuild that you said you thought it would not
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: be as difficult to rebuild as what you had to
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: do in Kansas City, which was to build that and
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: the two pennant winners and a world champion.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But my question is this, if when.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: You first took that job, somebody said, if you take
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: this job, Within two years, the White Sox will be
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: one win away from advancing to the final four of
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Major League Baseball, the ALCS.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Would you have signed on for that by itself?
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I wouldn't have believed it, but yeah, 100%.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: It's a testimony to.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Our front office and the backgrounds of each and the
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: strengths of each individual in the front office, the track
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: record that each of them have coming from winning organizations
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: and just being selfless and pouring into each other and
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: identifying the types of players that embody what we want
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: the Chicago White Sox.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: To be about. It's been so much fun.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: We're a year ahead of schedule. I actually sat with
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: Jerry Reinsdorf last night and as you know, disappointed as
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: he was in the way we played yesterday. One of
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: the things that we talked about is how much we
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: have looked forward to, you know, going into next season.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: And so, you know, you keep your eye on the prize.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: We win a game tonight. We get to keep playing,
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: and that's the goal. But it is really exciting to
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: see what we've built here in such.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: A short time.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: Gino, I know it was more than just this one
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: thing that I'm going to bring up, but I am
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: interested in getting your thoughts on this. With the way
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: the White Sox pitched and the way the White Sox
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: hit and fielded in the first two ballgames, it looked stellar.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: The other thing they did that I thought, and I
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: remember you mentioning it, is this is a key going
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: into the series. is how they would pitch to and
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: be able to play and deal with Jose Ramirez. Well,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: going into game three, he was 0 for 6 in
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: the series, and then he went out and went 2
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: for 4 yesterday, a double, a triple, two RBIs, two
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: runs scored, stolen base. He kind of looked like the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez everybody knows and has seen all season long.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Kind of hard to keep a good man down, isn't it?
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: No question.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: He's the one guy you don't want to let beat you,
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: but I think there were two things from yesterday's game.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: our young kids had never played.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: In their lives in that type of environment.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: And I think that was a factor in the, in the,
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: the way that they approached the game.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: A little bit.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: And Jose Ramirez, it just amped him up. It, I mean,
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: he's hollering at our fans and in the stands and
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: the dugout and getting his teammates amped up. So it
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: was like a wake up call for him. Like, Hey,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: wait a minute.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: This is October. I know what this is.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: And, So I think it was kind of two sides
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: of the spectrum with that yesterday. And our, our kids
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: will do a better job today of slowing the game down.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: And again, I've never seen a crowd like I saw yesterday.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: And for a guy like Jose Ramirez, that's, That's your
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: motivation to show everybody on the biggest stage who the
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: best player is, and he is one of the best
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: in baseball.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: No doubt about that.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Gene Watson with us, joining us here on 1300 The Zone.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: You mentioned the crowd. You mentioned the environment. The White
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: Sox are trying to win a home postseason game for
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: the first time since 1906, or at least a clinch
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: a series. at home win a postseason series at home
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: for the first time since the crosstown rivalry matchup with
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: the cubs in 1906 how much has that been talked
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: about up there do you know the fact that the
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: white socks have not been able to clinch a series
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: of course when they swept the astros 21 years ago
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: to win the World Series. They finished that on the road.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: They had a chance to win it in.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: 59, lost at home to the Dodgers in that year.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: So it goes way on back all the way to 1906,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the last time they had a chance to win a
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: series at home. How much would that mean to the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: city of Chicago and to the White Sox nation overall?
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: You know, it's an organization of very rich history and
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: great players. And, you know, walking down the hallway in
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: our offices yesterday, there's Ron Kittle, there's Jim Tomey, there's
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: Harold Baines, Bo Jackson, Frank Thomas. And so it's an
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: organization with very rich history. I think the South side
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: is just super excited that, that the White Sox are
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: playing in the Cubs or not. And that has been
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: the big talk because I mean, of all the things
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: we've talked about, if you would have said in April,
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: the White Sox would still be playing in the playoffs.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: and the Cubs would not, I think you could have
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: gotten a lot of takers on that bet. But that's
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: been more of the topic, more than the winning a
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: home playoff series, is that we're still playing and the
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Cubs are not.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Jeez, Gino, I thought you were going to be old
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: school like me and talk about walking down the halls.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I thought you were going to mention Louie Aparicio and
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Nellie Fox and early win Ted Kluszewski, all of those guys, right?
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is very unique.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: You come around the corner, and Harold Baines is just
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: standing there. You're like, hey, Harold.
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: Then you make another corner, and there's Jim Tomey. And
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: you're like, hey, what's going on? It's a very, very
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: unique environment here in Chicago.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the pitching here. Parker Messick will go
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: for the Guardians tonight. Hagan Smith, scheduled to start. Now,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: at times, it has looked like sheer mastery. for Will
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Venable in terms of the way that he has been
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: able to manage it. The regular common question among baseball
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: fans is, is continuous bullpen games, is it sustainable in
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: the postseason?
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: But it looks like he's picked his spots.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: Well when he's gone with one guy and then had
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: to switch to another, even swapping out in.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: The first inning yesterday.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you have leverage and non-leverage in a game.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: And you have leverage and non-leverage in a series. And
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: a 2-0 lead in a series is non-leverage. And so
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: what you want to try to do is score runs
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: and use as many arms as you can that are
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: outside of your in-game leverage arms. And so, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: Hagen threw two-thirds of an inning yesterday.
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: He'll be the opener of the day. The hopes, what
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: I call the pathway to.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Victory would be Hagan Smith for three, Jordan Hicks, University
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: of Houston product for two, and then Grant Taylor for
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: four or five to close it out. So that's your
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: pathway to victory if things are going well. But, you know,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: anytime you've got 13 arms on a staff and you
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: use them a lot, there's no way they're all going
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: to be good every time they go out.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: You're going to have you're going to have some pitfalls.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: So what you're hoping is that your offense can score
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: some runs.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: We had a couple of opportunities yesterday where we could have,
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: you know, taken the lead or gotten back into the game.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: We played extremely poorly defensively. And so you just, you
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: flush it and you look at it like they scored nine.
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: They typically don't score nine. We got our best arms
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: going today. Our offense will be a little more, you know,
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: settled in with the crowd. And so you just hope
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: for good things to happen today.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Our MLB insider, Gene Watson, joining us for a few
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: more minutes here on 13 Under the Sun. Let's jump
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: to the other series that are now in the books. Now,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: first of all, the other in the AL, obviously, if
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: the White Sox finish this thing up tonight or if
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: they win game five in Cleveland, it's on to St.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Pete.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: It's on the Tropicana Field to take on the Tampa
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Bay Rays. From day one, Gino, you said Tampa Bay
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: was as good as anybody, if not the best. in
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: the American League. They had the best record in the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: American League, and it was methodical and quite impressive, I thought,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: what they did in sweeping out the Yankees.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: They're just so good. They're just such a great unit.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Together.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: They've got so much depth. They play to the scoreboard.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: They're very, very much like Milwaukee. They're very, very fundamentally sound.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: They love to play with each other.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: They are loose on the field.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: And, and they just, they know who they are as
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: an organization and a major league club.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: And that's what makes them very.
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: Very dangerous is, you know, they just play loose. They
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: play to the scoreboard. They bunt more than anybody. They
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: put the game in motion as well as anybody. They
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: defend well. And that's ultimately what, was the demise of
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: the New York Yankees or were those little things, those
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: little bitty fundamental issues that happened in a game. And
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: so whoever gets Tampa is going to have a tough challenge.
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I love the fact that it will be seven games
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: instead of five, because you can kind of play on
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: your depth and pitching versus their depth and pitching, but
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: you have to do everything right to beat the Tampa
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Bay Rays. You got to play very sound fundamental baseball.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: And if you get a Milwaukee Tampa Bay world series.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: You're getting two of the most fundamentally sound, uh, baseball
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: teams with great managers that do the, it'll be old
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: school baseball.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: If you get those two teams in the world series.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: You bring that up, uh, Yesterday, we had Mason Montgomery,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: the Pirates closer on from Leander, of course, the left-hander.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: And he had played flag football with my son, Jason.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: And Mason was talking about those two teams in almost
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: the same exact wordage that you talked about, Milwaukee and
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: Tampa Bay. I heard somebody talk about Tampa Bay as
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: being Milwaukee-lite. Now, that sounds like a Pilsner beer to me,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: but the two teams are close enough as we jump
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: to the National League, and let's start with the Brewers
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: since they're the number one overall seed, and how fundamentally
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: they were and had to be to fight off one
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: of the hottest teams in San Diego to win that series.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it begins and ends with their manager, Pat Murphy.
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: And they've got a bell cow starter, Jacob Mizorowski. And
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: they just do all of the little things it takes
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: to win a game.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: And they are, again, old school. They're early 80s.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: Baseball and they they don't apologize for it and and
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: what they did to beat san diego uh in in
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: the manner which they did it just speaks to how
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: very good of a roster that is they're very very
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: versatile they're athletic you saw what tyrone taylor did i
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: mean they they can beat you a lot of different
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: ways and so uh they're gonna be good.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I would i've said all along i would expect them
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: to uh.
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Game series to games six or seven to get to
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: the world series. And if they get in, they've got
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: a chance of winning. It is a very, you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Pat Murphy, who was at Notre Dame when I was
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: at St. Edwards, when I see him now and I
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: point at him, he knows he'll just look at me
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: and goes, worst, worst loss of my career because I
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: We actually upset Notre Dame when he was there. And
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: so I have a lot of fun with him, but
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: it's just a fun baseball team to watch. And, and
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: if it does get to Tampa and Milwaukee, it's going
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: to be great for baseball because in the world of
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: baseball versus analytics, you're going to have two teams that
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: are very good analytically, very good when it comes to
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: scouting and player development. And, and, I still think the
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Dodgers are kind of the frontrunner with the depth of
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: that rotation.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: But we'll see. It's going to be a great series.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Kevin Cash, the Tampa Bay Skippers, the longest-tenured current manager
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in the Major Leagues, 12 years.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: The one who was second. is Dave Roberts with 11.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: And the Dodgers had to reach down for a lot
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: of inner reserve to find a way to beat that
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Braves ball club that you talked about was real good
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: as well. I know you've talked about the Dodgers have
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: been the team to beat, but Atlanta pushed them hard.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I guess ultimately the pitching made a difference, I guess,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: for LA in holding Atlanta to single runs in games
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: three and four at Truist Park.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you keep Michael Harris down, you keep Matt Olsen down,
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: you get Dubon down, and you have a chance to win.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: And to me, that's clearly still the separator, is the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: depth of their rotation. And as you go into a
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: seven-game series, when you get the games five, six, and seven,
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: and you can turn over your rotation, and then if
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: you have to, what you saw with Yamamoto last year,
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: using starters and leverage relief situations deeper in the series,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: That advantage is always going to go to the Dodgers.
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: I think that they're going to have to defend very
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: well because Milwaukee's going to move runners and hit behind
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: runners and play small ball a little bit better. They
• 14:33
  Speaker 4: kind of rely a little bit more on the home run.
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: Andy Pah has got the big hit for him yesterday,
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: but But again, to me, this game is always going
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: to be about starting pitching, being the currency of the game,
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: and the Dodgers have it. And they don't just have it,
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: it's experience. And so as you get into a seven-game series,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: that's where the advantage for me swings to the Dodgers
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: a little bit more.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Gino, is there a better game one of a post-season
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: series matchup than Jacob Mizorowski against Tarek Skubal, which we'll
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: see on Sunday?
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: It's going to be unbelievable. Runs are going to be
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: at a premium. You've got to kind of hope to
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: get both of them early. You've got to be super aggressive,
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: and you can get scuba early sometimes. And so both
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: teams are going to have to, if you lay back
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: and you let them get ahead.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Every at-bat, you're going to be in trouble. You're going
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: to have to go up and.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Attack some fastballs early in the count and really do
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: a really good job. Whoever can jump out two or
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: three runs early.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: That game's going to have a huge advantage.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: But that'll be the first of at least two matchups
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: like that where it's going to be super exciting for baseball.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Final thing I want to ask your opinion on, Gino,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: this came out today, that Major League Baseball, this speaks
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: to what you were talking about, about how excited you
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: would be for a seven-game series for the White Sox
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: to get in against Tampa Bay in a best-of-seven.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: The Major League Baseball.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: ball's latest proposal to the players association has included changes
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: to the postseason that would revise the regular season schedule
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: to that old school number of 154 games which they
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: had prior to 1961 and then a new postseason structure
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that would allow the highest seeds in both the wild
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: card and division rounds to select their opponents and the
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: expansion of the division series from a best of five
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: to a best of seven what do you think about that.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: I love it. I think it's great.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: I think it would add a lot of drama to
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: the series because in baseball, any team can beat any
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: other team any given day.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: And the one thing that it.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: Would do is the teams that have to really, really
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: battle and use their pitching going into the first round
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: of the playoffs where you might look at it on
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: paper and go, well, wait a minute. Their first two
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: starters are better than our first two. We're going to
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: stay away from them. But if they have to use them,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: and they're not going to be available in game one
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: or two, you might take on a matchup that you
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: wouldn't normally take because of the way the pitching lines up.
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: And so I think it'd be fascinating. I don't love,
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: you know, how the matchups went this year. You know,
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: we're playing Cleveland, who we played a lot, to Tampa.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: The Yankees series is unfortunate that that wasn't a seven-game series.
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: But I do think it would add a lot of
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: a storyline and interesting flavor to the playoffs if they
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: do that.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: You weren't just now speeding, were you, Geno?
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: No, no, we're in Wrigleyville.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: We're about to get on the bus and head to Rayfield,
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: so it's a little chaotic around there.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Hey, listen, best of luck to your ball club tonight.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: We'll talk again next week. Regardless, hopefully we're talking about
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: your ball club against Tampa Bay and Dodgers Brewers as
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: well in the National League.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the time, and enjoy it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Tonight, Geno.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: Hey, need you to take care of business at the
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: Cotton Bowl Saturday. Hook them.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: That's on the list. Hook them.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Thank you. That's Gene Watson, our MLB insider. Coming up,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: speaking of the Cotton Bowl, State Fair Food Time. That's
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: our inconceivable on Texas OU Week. That's next on 13
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Under the Zone.