Latest / Foul Territory / Sizing up the American League's CHAOTIC playoff picture + A's Reality check w/Dallas Braden

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Sizing up the American League's CHAOTIC playoff picture + A's Reality check w/Dallas Braden · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: All right, guys.
0:04
Speaker 2: Every day I look at the standings, and I specifically
0:07
Speaker 2: look at the American League Wild card standings, and I
0:09
Speaker 2: am annoyed because it just seems like there are so
0:13
Speaker 2: many teams right around five hundred that are still very
0:17
Speaker 2: much in it, in the race, and it's impacted a
0:20
Speaker 2: lot of the game. It impacted the trade deadline, whether
0:22
Speaker 2: or not teams sold. I mean, the Blue Jays had
0:24
Speaker 2: to sell off they're half a game out. The Rangers
0:27
Speaker 2: did a sop cell. They didn't even decide if they
0:29
Speaker 2: were going to buy or sell until the day of
0:32
Speaker 2: the trade deadline.
0:33
Speaker 3: And I know that this is kind of what.
0:36
Speaker 2: What Rob Manford wanted when he expanded the playoffs being
0:38
Speaker 2: more competitive, and by definition, this is more competitive, but
0:42
Speaker 2: it's not exactly the most compelling baseball here. We're going
0:45
Speaker 2: to bring in Zach Kreiser in a second to talk
0:48
Speaker 2: about this, but just wanted to see your thought, Josh,
0:50
Speaker 2: especially you know you played in with Houston for so long.
0:53
Speaker 2: When you look at the standings come middle of August
0:56
Speaker 2: that look like this, what are your thoughts?
0:58
Speaker 3: The American Leagues thinks, that's my thought. I mean, you're
1:04
Speaker 3: looking at these records I mean, what else do we
1:06
Speaker 3: have to say? We cover this all the time. I mean,
1:09
Speaker 3: this is horrible to look at. I mean, yeah, when
1:13
Speaker 3: I play, we played, when I played with Houston, you know,
1:16
Speaker 3: I'd always tell the fan base here how spoiled they
1:18
Speaker 3: spoiled they were for ten years because this was a
1:20
Speaker 3: magical run. This place got to be put on. And
1:23
Speaker 3: you look all around the league and learn the American
1:25
Speaker 3: League and look how uncompetitive it really is, because yeah,
1:28
Speaker 3: injuries add up, but you know, with teams not spending
1:31
Speaker 3: the way they should be or they're supposed to be spending,
1:33
Speaker 3: you can't be competitive, as we like to call it.
1:36
Speaker 3: There's no competitiveness here. It's usually the same teams at
1:38
Speaker 3: the top of the leader board. And this year we're
1:40
Speaker 3: experiencing baseball that's, if I'm being really honest, not all
1:45
Speaker 3: that fun to watch. And in americanly, when you watch
1:48
Speaker 3: National League ball games, you feel like you're on the
1:50
Speaker 3: edge of your seat watching these guys play with how
1:52
Speaker 3: good they are. Then you come over and watch the
1:53
Speaker 3: American League. You might get a good game every now
1:55
Speaker 3: and then, but it's like, what am I looking at here?
1:58
Speaker 4: I don't know, It's like a pillow fight. That's what
2:01
Speaker 4: you're looking at. You're looking at a pillow fight. And
2:03
Speaker 4: when you look at those teams, because like you said,
2:06
Speaker 4: I mean, Minnesota's in the playoffs today. This is today,
2:09
Speaker 4: August twenty first, they're sixty three and sixty five, tied
2:14
Speaker 4: with the Rangers.
2:15
Speaker 3: I get it.
2:15
Speaker 4: But if you look at these teams, Okay, Minnesota, I
2:18
Speaker 4: never thought i'd say this.
2:20
Speaker 5: They kind of.
2:21
Speaker 4: Tried to do the most of some of these teams
2:24
Speaker 4: at the trade deadline. Okay, the Guardians went and got
2:26
Speaker 4: Joe Adell. I thought the Blue Jays trade deadline was amazing.
2:29
Speaker 4: The Tigers sold, the Rangers tried to sell. The Rangers
2:33
Speaker 4: tried to sell to Gram, who just got ten punchies
2:36
Speaker 4: last night and keeping them in it. And his quote was,
2:39
Speaker 4: you know, we hope we make the playoffs. I feel
2:41
Speaker 4: like when you listen to quotes, I've never been on
2:44
Speaker 4: a team where I was like, man, I hope we
2:46
Speaker 4: make the playoffs. And i' letna say it's anything Jacob
2:49
Speaker 4: de Gram's fault. I'm just saying, like, I know Skip Schumacher,
2:53
Speaker 4: I know what he does and what he wants. You
2:55
Speaker 4: got a grind to push it all in and I
2:57
Speaker 4: just feel like these teams are just kind of floating around.
3:01
Speaker 2: Well, let's expand on this, guys. Let's welcome on Zach
3:04
Speaker 2: Kreiser from the Bandwagon Platform.
3:13
Speaker 1: Hey, how's it going, Hello, Welcome to the show. How
3:16
Speaker 1: are you good? All right, let's see.
3:20
Speaker 2: You broke down a lot here about I think the
3:23
Speaker 2: title was the ALE postseason race is chaotic and contrived
3:27
Speaker 2: bandicapping the ALE wild Card Race. You broke down a
3:32
Speaker 2: lot of what we just talked about in depth, with
3:34
Speaker 2: much more depth with all these teams kind of hovering
3:36
Speaker 2: around in it.
3:37
Speaker 1: But I thought something.
3:38
Speaker 2: That stood out and we just briefly touched on this
3:42
Speaker 2: was you said, this is what Rob Manford wanted when
3:44
Speaker 2: they expanded the playoffs.
3:46
Speaker 1: Why is that? Yeah?
3:48
Speaker 6: I mean, I think he probably didn't want all the
3:51
Speaker 6: teams that are competing for this to be under five hundred.
3:54
Speaker 6: I'm sure that was not his goal, but it is
3:57
Speaker 6: what he wanted in that when you have six playoff
4:00
Speaker 6: teams from each league, you're pretty much guaranteed a close
4:03
Speaker 6: race every year, right, And that's what they're getting.
4:06
Speaker 1: They're getting a really.
4:07
Speaker 6: Close race every single year, but it's a race to
4:11
Speaker 6: a pretty low standard. It's to clear a very low bar.
4:15
Speaker 6: And I think the idea of a pennant race that
4:19
Speaker 6: we all kind of think about from baseball history, I mean,
4:22
Speaker 6: that's totally out the window. This is not a pennant race.
4:25
Speaker 6: This is not teams trying to be the best. This
4:28
Speaker 6: is you know, the Tigers traded away Trek Skoobal and
4:32
Speaker 6: you can still make a case that they are the
4:34
Speaker 6: best team in this race. And I think that just
4:38
Speaker 6: kind of twists the idea of what is happening and
4:42
Speaker 6: what we're watching down the stretch, even if the end
4:45
Speaker 6: result is still excitement and we're still going to get
4:48
Speaker 6: a great postseason out of it. I think the incentives
4:52
Speaker 6: have shifted for MLB that they want more inventory of
4:55
Speaker 6: postseason games, and what happens to the regular season is
5:00
Speaker 6: you know, kind of secondary.
5:02
Speaker 4: Yeah, they don't care. They just love the fact that
5:04
Speaker 4: they get more postseason games. Another company comes along and
5:07
Speaker 4: buys the postseason package for the first round of the
5:11
Speaker 4: third Wild Card Division Series. Leaders of left handed hitters,
5:15
Speaker 4: all that stuff. You broke this. You broke this article
5:19
Speaker 4: down so well. But before we get into one specific,
5:22
Speaker 4: I want you to tell me which of these teams
5:25
Speaker 4: that you talked about in the AL wild card race,
5:28
Speaker 4: you feel like, try the least to be in this
5:33
Speaker 4: spot of possibly making a playoff playoff spot.
5:39
Speaker 6: I think, I mean, obviously the Tigers did the most
5:42
Speaker 6: to trade away their best player, so there's that, But
5:46
Speaker 6: I actually I think my answer is the Orioles. The Orioles,
5:51
Speaker 6: I really don't understand how they're even here. They trade
5:55
Speaker 6: away Adlee Retchman, none of the core pieces that they
5:59
Speaker 6: have spent so much time assembling, Gunner, Henderson Jackson, Holiday,
6:03
Speaker 6: Colten Kowser. Those guys aren't doing anything really helpful at all.
6:07
Speaker 6: You can the Pete Alonzo is hitting, Samuel Bassio has
6:11
Speaker 6: been very good for a rookie catcher, and then like
6:14
Speaker 6: the third best player is Christian Incarnassio. And Strand who's
6:17
Speaker 6: been there like a month, who got cut from the Reds.
6:21
Speaker 6: Don't I don't understand how they are in there, and
6:26
Speaker 6: you know they might get it, But if you're asking
6:28
Speaker 6: me who did the least to wind up in this position,
6:31
Speaker 6: I think probably the Orioles.
6:36
Speaker 3: Zach, I mean, I'm on a transition here to like
6:39
Speaker 3: the two Texas teams, and we can talk about all
6:42
Speaker 3: the American League teams not trying, But then again, who
6:44
Speaker 3: can you try and to get when nobody's really succeeding
6:47
Speaker 3: and everybody's failing. So the trade deadline was kind of
6:50
Speaker 3: funny to watch, but look at it. What for me
6:53
Speaker 3: being able to cover the Astros and watching what the
6:55
Speaker 3: Rangers are being able to do? What is happening in
6:58
Speaker 3: the American League West?
7:00
Speaker 6: Nothing good? It's look, I still think the Astros have
7:06
Speaker 6: the inside track here because they I mean, I thought
7:10
Speaker 6: they could have gone and gotten more pitching. Clearly they
7:13
Speaker 6: need more pitching, but that was also very expensive. You
7:18
Speaker 6: saw the teams that did get controllable starters or any
7:22
Speaker 6: starters really pay a lot for the privilege. So the
7:26
Speaker 6: Astros probably looked at their position and said, look, we
7:29
Speaker 6: have just as good a shot at any of these
7:31
Speaker 6: other teams down in the dirt to win this division,
7:34
Speaker 6: and we have your Don Alvarez and they don't. So
7:37
Speaker 6: that that was probably the calculus there, and so far
7:40
Speaker 6: it's I guess you could say working. They're five hundred
7:43
Speaker 6: and leading the division. But you know, when you look
7:47
Speaker 6: at the Rangers they have does the pitching they have
7:51
Speaker 6: Jacob de Graham and Nathan Yvaldi out front, and that's
7:53
Speaker 6: a great starting point. But especially with Corey Seeger being
7:57
Speaker 6: hurt and kind of down most of this year, you
8:00
Speaker 6: can't look at any other part of the Rangers and
8:02
Speaker 6: say you have confidence that they're going to go on
8:04
Speaker 6: a big run to in the season.
8:06
Speaker 1: Doesn't mean it can't happen, but you can't. You can't
8:08
Speaker 1: look confidently at that.
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9:11
Speaker 2: All right, Zach, I'm going to ask you a question,
9:13
Speaker 2: knowing the answer might make me mad. But as we
9:15
Speaker 2: were looking at the wildcard standings, and you make a
9:18
Speaker 2: great point, all of these teams sold and it feels
9:20
Speaker 2: like they're being rewarded by still being competitive. Is this
9:25
Speaker 2: the year where we see an American League team with
9:27
Speaker 2: a sub five hundred record, as much as it would
9:30
Speaker 2: pay me to my core make the playoffs.
9:34
Speaker 6: It's certainly a better chance than we've seen in previous years.
9:36
Speaker 6: I don't think we actually will. I think someone will
9:39
Speaker 6: get to eighty two wins and stave off this problem
9:44
Speaker 6: that it would be interesting, And I don't think it's
9:46
Speaker 6: off the board that the third wildcard team could be
9:49
Speaker 6: over five hundred, but the AL West winner is not.
9:53
Speaker 6: I think the AL West might be the danger point
9:56
Speaker 6: here because the Astros do have the pitching deficiency, the
10:00
Speaker 6: Rangers are unspectacular in every way. Maybe the Mariners can
10:06
Speaker 6: put something together and get to the top of this
10:08
Speaker 6: division still, but I think when you look at some
10:13
Speaker 6: combination of Blue Jays, Tigers Orioles Twins, someone's going to
10:18
Speaker 6: figure out a way to get over five hundred to
10:21
Speaker 6: win that third wild card spot. But the American League
10:24
Speaker 6: West is a compressed race. It's only a few teams,
10:26
Speaker 6: all of which have major issues. So I think that
10:30
Speaker 6: is actually the spot where we might be more likely
10:33
Speaker 6: to see someone dip under five hundred.
10:35
Speaker 4: All right, when we talk about different teams, one of
10:38
Speaker 4: the things you wrote was the Minnesota Twins, and I'm
10:40
Speaker 4: going to pull up exactly what you wrote, so I
10:41
Speaker 4: don't for a reason to believe you said they also
10:47
Speaker 4: have reinforcements available in Triple A. Is this just a
10:51
Speaker 4: prime case of what we're looking at right now that
10:54
Speaker 4: a team that is currently holding that last playoff spot,
10:58
Speaker 4: Ye're a reason to believe is because there's reinforcements or
11:02
Speaker 4: are these legitimate superstar reinforcements that the Twins have in
11:06
Speaker 4: Triple A.
11:08
Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of both.
11:09
Speaker 6: So what we're seeing is clearly if this were a
11:14
Speaker 6: higher bar to clear, they would have tried to call
11:17
Speaker 6: up Walker Jenkins, who is their top prospect outfielder, power,
11:21
Speaker 6: speed threat.
11:22
Speaker 1: Good defender, they would have called him up already.
11:25
Speaker 6: But as it stands, they can leave him down there,
11:28
Speaker 6: and they just crossed the threshold where next year he'll
11:31
Speaker 6: still be rookie eligible and therefore they will be eligible
11:34
Speaker 6: for an extra draft pick if he wins Rookie of
11:35
Speaker 6: the Year. They haven't called him up yet, probably to
11:39
Speaker 6: get past that line, and now they can call him
11:42
Speaker 6: up and could he be a difference maker. I think
11:44
Speaker 6: maybe he's had a lot of injuries because he's a
11:48
Speaker 6: member of the Minnesota Twins, but he does have the
11:52
Speaker 6: potential to really impact this race. He's definitely the best
11:56
Speaker 6: player any of these teams can hope to kind of
11:58
Speaker 6: summon out of nowhere over the last month, and I
12:02
Speaker 6: expect they will give him a shot. They've already gotten
12:06
Speaker 6: a boost from Kaylen Culpepper, they called up to play shortstop.
12:09
Speaker 1: He's a at least.
12:10
Speaker 6: By prospect evaluators publicly, he's a much better prospect than Culpepper.
12:16
Speaker 6: Even so, I could see Walker Jenkins coming up and
12:19
Speaker 6: kind of adding to this race. They have another guy,
12:21
Speaker 6: Emmanuel Rodriguez, also an outfielder, also kind of constantly injured,
12:26
Speaker 6: currently healthy. You could see him too. He's a little
12:30
Speaker 6: less likely than Jenkins.
12:32
Speaker 4: I was so surprising, probably because the Jays are in
12:35
Speaker 4: the American League East. I think the odds that from
12:38
Speaker 4: fangrafts are seventeen percent to make it, and yet they're
12:42
Speaker 4: half a game out. So it's probably because they're tough schedule,
12:45
Speaker 4: blah blah blah, all that stuff. Who do you feel
12:48
Speaker 4: like is the key piece to that? I talked to
12:51
Speaker 4: John Schneider when I saw him at a game just
12:53
Speaker 4: the other day, and he said, if my best players
12:55
Speaker 4: play good, will make the playoffs. Is it Dylan Ceese
12:58
Speaker 4: who could win a cy Young in the American League
13:01
Speaker 4: or is it Vladimir Guerrero Junior.
13:04
Speaker 6: I mean it's got to be Vladimir Guerrero Junior. It's
13:06
Speaker 6: sort of a you know, vlad has gotten a lot
13:09
Speaker 6: of heat taken off him by Cal Raley being so bad,
13:13
Speaker 6: because if not, we'd be talking a lot more about
13:15
Speaker 6: Vladimir Guerrero Junior just not really hitting for power, not
13:19
Speaker 6: having the type of impact bat that we've come to
13:21
Speaker 6: expect from him. I know he has a head injury
13:24
Speaker 6: right now. Hopefully he's back from that quickly and can
13:28
Speaker 6: step in and kind of step up for this lineup,
13:30
Speaker 6: because you can't ask Dylan Cees to be a whole
13:33
Speaker 6: lot better than what he's been. He's giving them great innings,
13:37
Speaker 6: he's contending for the cy Young I don't think you're
13:40
Speaker 6: going to see Dylan cease, like take a huge step
13:42
Speaker 6: forward from what he's already doing. Where the lineup needs
13:48
Speaker 6: a huge step forward, and vlad is the most obvious
13:51
Speaker 6: place to get that. You know, George Springer could be
13:54
Speaker 6: better than he's been. I'm sure that's very possible. You
13:58
Speaker 6: could see a step forward from kazuom Okamoto, But if
14:01
Speaker 6: you're talking change those low postseason odds to a sure thing,
14:06
Speaker 6: the only guy on the Blue Jays who can do
14:08
Speaker 6: that is Flad Guerrero turning it on.
14:12
Speaker 1: And Zach.
14:13
Speaker 2: You talked about the Tigers, who obviously went out there
14:16
Speaker 2: and traded Trek Scougbele to the Dodgers. They waited as
14:20
Speaker 2: long as they felt like they could to do this.
14:23
Speaker 2: But they are somehow still in the race. And yes
14:26
Speaker 2: they have the American League Rookie of the Year Kevin
14:29
Speaker 2: McGonagall shortstop. But when you go out and you trade
14:32
Speaker 2: your franchise space, usually it can just demoralize the organization.
14:36
Speaker 2: They're still hanging on. How can the Tigers still make
14:39
Speaker 2: it come October?
14:42
Speaker 6: By all rights that their performance this year, they should
14:45
Speaker 6: be in the picture already. They're they're run differential. I
14:48
Speaker 6: think it's third best in the American League. But their
14:51
Speaker 6: bullpen has been a problem. To put it lightly, that
14:55
Speaker 6: they're not holding down games even when they have a lead.
14:59
Speaker 1: I think they're going to continue to get the lead.
15:02
Speaker 1: They have.
15:03
Speaker 6: Dylan Dingler has been one of the best players in
15:06
Speaker 6: baseball from the catching spot. Obviously they have McGonagall. Riley
15:09
Speaker 6: Green's hurt right now, but he's been a very good
15:12
Speaker 6: offensive force, and the rotation has still not been a
15:16
Speaker 6: huge issue. They're getting good work from Kaider Montero Jackson,
15:20
Speaker 6: job is back. I think they still have the pieces
15:23
Speaker 6: to win this particular race, but they are going to
15:26
Speaker 6: need improvement from that bullpen. I mean Kenley Jansen. You know,
15:30
Speaker 6: Kenley Janson's a legend, but he's aging. He's not holding
15:33
Speaker 6: down leads the way he used to, and they've lost
15:37
Speaker 6: a couple of games recently just because of that. So
15:39
Speaker 6: aj hinches he's got the young pieces to go win this,
15:44
Speaker 6: but he's probably gonna have to work some miracles with
15:46
Speaker 6: the bullpen to make it happen.
15:50
Speaker 3: I want to shift to the Guardians because one of
15:53
Speaker 3: my favorite people in baseball ever manages them, for one
15:57
Speaker 3: and they just seem to find ways with guys that
16:00
Speaker 3: you know not a lot of people. If you're not
16:02
Speaker 3: an intense baseball fan, you don't know ninety percent of
16:05
Speaker 3: this roster. But they just find ways and somehow make
16:08
Speaker 3: their way in. They just hide the shadows, and then
16:12
Speaker 3: the last week of the year, all of a sudden
16:14
Speaker 3: they're in like the second wild card place. And I
16:16
Speaker 3: don't understand what is Stephen Vote doing that is so
16:19
Speaker 3: fantastic over there.
16:21
Speaker 1: I mean, they always pitch well.
16:23
Speaker 6: That's one of the biggest things is they always prevent runs.
16:27
Speaker 6: And you're seeing that again. I mean the Parker Messik
16:30
Speaker 6: rookie pitching really well. Gavin Williams still pitching well. They
16:34
Speaker 6: acquired Foster driftin from the Nationals, and they obviously brought
16:38
Speaker 6: in Patrick Bailey a catcher in that kind of weird
16:41
Speaker 6: mid season trade. So I think the difference between the
16:45
Speaker 6: Guardians where they are right now and where the Guardians
16:48
Speaker 6: might be at the end of the season, possibly sneaking
16:50
Speaker 6: into the postseason is they have a lot of rookies
16:53
Speaker 6: in the lineup and they've been up and down, which
16:57
Speaker 6: is just how rookies go. They they jump out like
17:01
Speaker 6: Chase de Lauter did early in the season and hit
17:03
Speaker 6: really well, and then the lead kind of figures them out.
17:06
Speaker 6: They have to adjust. You're seeing that, You're seeing the
17:09
Speaker 6: latter go through that. You're seeing Travis Bazana go through
17:12
Speaker 6: some struggles. Angel Hanau just came up and is hitting
17:16
Speaker 6: really well, but he's not going to be hitting three
17:18
Speaker 6: point fifty for the rest of the season. Those guys
17:22
Speaker 6: and how they adjust two people adjusting to them is
17:26
Speaker 6: probably going to be the story down the stretch.
17:28
Speaker 1: For the Guardians.
17:30
Speaker 6: Jose Ramirez could always just go on a heater and
17:33
Speaker 6: power them, but a lot is going to come down
17:35
Speaker 6: to how that young lineup kind of adjusts down the stretch.
17:39
Speaker 4: One team we haven't hit on yet, Zach is the Mariners.
17:42
Speaker 4: You mentioned Cal Rowley. Obviously, the Mariners were my pick
17:46
Speaker 4: to win the West. I just didn't realize it was
17:48
Speaker 4: going to be a pillow fight to win it. Do
17:51
Speaker 4: you think they've shown enough this season? Because we've seen
17:56
Speaker 4: it all. Everybody says potential, potential, potential. Have you seen
18:01
Speaker 4: enough to make it even worth it for the Mariners
18:03
Speaker 4: to make it in and not hit in the playoffs
18:05
Speaker 4: like they did last year or like they haven't the
18:07
Speaker 4: entire season?
18:09
Speaker 6: Look, I mean, they were my pick to go to
18:11
Speaker 6: the World Series out of the American League, and it's
18:14
Speaker 6: just not been there. Certainly, if you watch the Mariners
18:16
Speaker 6: this season and you hadn't seen previous years, there's no
18:19
Speaker 6: way you'd say this team is a contender. You would
18:22
Speaker 6: not look at this team as one that's going to
18:25
Speaker 6: rise up and go get that spot. They do still
18:29
Speaker 6: have the pitching, They have the starting rotation that everyone
18:33
Speaker 6: would be envious of and was envious of coming into
18:37
Speaker 6: this year.
18:38
Speaker 1: They're calling up Kate Anderson to another top prospect to
18:42
Speaker 1: step in there.
18:43
Speaker 6: I would like to say yes, I think they can
18:47
Speaker 6: still kind of make a run and surprise people and
18:49
Speaker 6: get back to their old selves. But I don't have
18:53
Speaker 6: any evidence I've seen recently that they're going to do that.
18:57
Speaker 6: I think the evidence is all from previous seasons, and
19:01
Speaker 6: until it starts to show up on the field, you
19:05
Speaker 6: can't really say that the Mariners are hot in pursuit
19:09
Speaker 6: of this spot.
19:10
Speaker 4: Wait, could Kate Anderson hit Oh no.
19:13
Speaker 1: I don't that I've heard no.
19:15
Speaker 4: So Zach Yeah, okay, So it's just gonna be the
19:17
Speaker 4: same thing over and over again. The Mariners just have
19:20
Speaker 4: healthy pitching and they always make their starts. One last
19:23
Speaker 4: question from me. All these teams that we talked about,
19:26
Speaker 4: all that you wrote about in your great article, do
19:29
Speaker 4: any of them have a chance to win the American
19:32
Speaker 4: League or is this really just a raised Yankees and
19:35
Speaker 4: Red Sox league to win.
19:39
Speaker 6: Well, here's what I'll I would like to say no,
19:42
Speaker 6: because I don't think that teams like this should win
19:45
Speaker 6: the Pennant or go to the World Series. But so
19:48
Speaker 6: far since we went to the the six teams per
19:51
Speaker 6: league wild card schedule, unfortunately, three different teams that were
19:57
Speaker 6: the number six seed have made the World Series, which
20:00
Speaker 6: is only four number one Seeds have made the World Series,
20:04
Speaker 6: so they do have a shot. I don't think they're
20:07
Speaker 6: as good as some of those teams that made it,
20:09
Speaker 6: But could they pull the you know, the twenty twenty
20:12
Speaker 6: three Arizona Diamondbacks take out the Dodgers, take out the Phillies,
20:16
Speaker 6: make a run. It's not impossible. I think the Tigers
20:20
Speaker 6: and the Blue Jays and the Mariners they probably have
20:24
Speaker 6: the talent on hand to do something like that if
20:28
Speaker 6: things break right. So yeah, there's a chance they can
20:30
Speaker 6: do it. It just it would be weird and it
20:32
Speaker 6: might not be very satisfying.
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21:40
Speaker 2: All right, Barry is, we're bringing in former Big League pitcher,
21:44
Speaker 2: current broadcaster and Bay Area dare I see Say Norkel
21:49
Speaker 2: Area star Dallas Brandon joins the show.
21:53
Speaker 1: Dallas, how the heck.
21:54
Speaker 7: Are you.
21:56
Speaker 5: The Woda tics? What's going on? Girl friend?
21:59
Speaker 2: That's right, surprise, a little crazy Friday show, but going
22:02
Speaker 2: to be made even crazier now that you're on it.
22:05
Speaker 2: Let's talk a little a's. Let's talk a little a's.
22:08
Speaker 2: It's been a little bit of a downturn since I
22:10
Speaker 2: last saw ya in Sacktown in early June. They are
22:13
Speaker 2: dead last in an al West. We have said nothing
22:15
Speaker 2: but kind where it's about this whole show. They're on
22:18
Speaker 2: a four game losing streak, not the kind of heater
22:20
Speaker 2: you want. Fourteen games back from Houston. This team has
22:26
Speaker 2: just been derailed by injuries. Jacob Wilson probably out for
22:28
Speaker 2: the rest of the twenty twenty sixth season, but there
22:30
Speaker 2: are a lot of young core studs on this roster.
22:34
Speaker 2: When this team is healthy. How much better do you
22:37
Speaker 2: think the A's are than what we're currently seeing.
22:40
Speaker 5: I think it goes without saying that they're a lot better.
22:42
Speaker 5: And I know you use the word last place, and
22:44
Speaker 5: I understand it. I prefer fifth and thirtieth respectively in
22:47
Speaker 5: baseball last place. I think it just has a I
22:52
Speaker 5: don't like the sound, I don't like the taste it,
22:53
Speaker 5: but it is what it is. And I think the
22:54
Speaker 5: reality is that when you're unable to be healthy all
22:57
Speaker 5: at the same time, there's a there, there's a realization
23:01
Speaker 5: that you're going to have to look for production elsewhere,
23:04
Speaker 5: and there's gonna be guys that make their way to
23:05
Speaker 5: the big leagues out of a born out of productivity,
23:10
Speaker 5: and sometimes it's born out of necessity. And when you're
23:12
Speaker 5: a young player who has maybe produced at the lower
23:15
Speaker 5: levels and has maybe earned the acknowledgment and the recognition.
23:20
Speaker 5: That doesn't necessarily mean you always earn the promotion. But
23:23
Speaker 5: I think we have seen guys who have swung the
23:25
Speaker 5: bat well enough to find themselves in the big leagues
23:27
Speaker 5: and have maybe struggled early and then right at the
23:30
Speaker 5: ship and performed very well. I think about a guy
23:33
Speaker 5: in Henry Bolte, who I think maybe for a brief
23:35
Speaker 5: moment in time, it looked like there was some struggles
23:39
Speaker 5: that he was having a tough time figuring out. But
23:41
Speaker 5: we're talking about one of the best athletes that plays
23:43
Speaker 5: outfield in baseball. He's got elite speed, he's got a
23:46
Speaker 5: great arm. There's a ton of power that's there that
23:49
Speaker 5: still has yet to be really fully tapped into. I
23:52
Speaker 5: think about a guy by the name of Joshua Croda
23:54
Speaker 5: Grauer who came up and was having a dynamite start
23:57
Speaker 5: to his big league career and fortunately uh took one
24:04
Speaker 5: uh and found himself found himself with his with his
24:08
Speaker 5: feet up, if you will, for a little while. But
24:09
Speaker 5: he's he's bouncing back, and so I think if he
24:13
Speaker 5: can get that ball rolling once again, that he'll be
24:16
Speaker 5: just fine. But but I do and and look, you
24:19
Speaker 5: guys know, right, boys, you know exactly how it goes
24:22
Speaker 5: when you have a clubhouse full of studs who unfortunately
24:26
Speaker 5: start to fall by the wayside. You lose a guy
24:28
Speaker 5: like Britt Rooker early on. I mean, that's sort of that,
24:31
Speaker 5: that captain of the clubhouse, and when he's trying to
24:35
Speaker 5: battle through and grind through an injury, that a bolt
24:37
Speaker 5: that eventually finds him on the shelf for the remainder
24:40
Speaker 5: of the year. The same thing with your all star
24:42
Speaker 5: backstop and Shay Langaliers, your all star first baseman in
24:45
Speaker 5: Nick Kurtz, I mean, you'll lose Luis Severino, who's supposed
24:48
Speaker 5: to be the tip of the spear on the rotation
24:50
Speaker 5: side of things. Jeffrey Springs has battled some injury, Jacob
24:53
Speaker 5: Wilson having the shoulder issue that now could very well
24:56
Speaker 5: see him as you said and alluded to Katie off
24:59
Speaker 5: the shelf or on the show for the remainder of
25:02
Speaker 5: the season as well. It has just been a very,
25:04
Speaker 5: very tough road healthwise for the athletics, and I think
25:06
Speaker 5: frankly being in fifth and thirtieth respectively across the league
25:10
Speaker 5: kind of tell that story.
25:12
Speaker 3: Dahs.
25:12
Speaker 4: I appreciate your humor and I would say probably Joshua
25:16
Speaker 4: is going to play the rest of the games with
25:19
Speaker 4: two balls and one strike to start every at that.
25:23
Speaker 4: But that joke, if you don't know what it is,
25:25
Speaker 4: look up the video of poor Joshua and the foul
25:29
Speaker 4: ball that he took. But I'm going to hit on
25:32
Speaker 4: these injuries. This came up the other day. You watch
25:35
Speaker 4: this team at home, which is in Sacramento. For everybody
25:39
Speaker 4: who hasn't been on Earth for the last two years,
25:42
Speaker 4: is it a possibility that a field that's played on
25:44
Speaker 4: for one hundred and eighty three straight days could be
25:48
Speaker 4: associated with some of these injuries? Because rarely do you
25:52
Speaker 4: see this many young players get hurt. Josh Reddick just
25:56
Speaker 4: said earlier in the show, He's like twenty twenty four
25:59
Speaker 4: years old. I just rolled out of bed and went
26:01
Speaker 4: and played. Do you feel like this field could be
26:04
Speaker 4: associated in somewhat to some of these injuries that we're seeing.
26:09
Speaker 5: Look, I come from northern California, and I know a
26:11
Speaker 5: lot about growing grass. I know a lot about cutting grass.
26:14
Speaker 5: I know a lot about taking care of grass. And
26:16
Speaker 5: I can tell you right now, as far as the
26:17
Speaker 5: grounds crew is concerned, that's ultimately their job to I
26:21
Speaker 5: mean to boil it down to the basics, right, Look,
26:23
Speaker 5: we grow the grass, we cut the grass, we rake
26:25
Speaker 5: the dirt, we tamp the dirt. What else do you
26:28
Speaker 5: want us to do? So, if you're looking to point
26:31
Speaker 5: blame anywhere, I think that's probably the last place you
26:34
Speaker 5: can grounds crew, respectively, because they've done a phenomenal job
26:38
Speaker 5: with the task that they've been handed, which is trying
26:40
Speaker 5: to maintain a baseball field that gets played on every day.
26:44
Speaker 5: How many of us have ever grown up playing on
26:46
Speaker 5: a baseball field that's played on every single day. Even
26:50
Speaker 5: in literal league, there's fields that get rotated and that
26:52
Speaker 5: don't see the sort of action that that ballpark does specifically.
26:56
Speaker 5: So if you're alluding to, which I think you are cratsy,
26:59
Speaker 5: just the the sort of surface, the playing surface, how
27:02
Speaker 5: hard it can be. I can remember a series I
27:05
Speaker 5: think it was. It may have been earlier this year.
27:07
Speaker 5: It's all running together at this point. Might have been
27:09
Speaker 5: last year where Carlos Carea said he took a couple
27:13
Speaker 5: of bats and was like, this box too hard for me.
27:15
Speaker 5: I got lower back issues, I got an ankle issue.
27:17
Speaker 5: I'm not I'm not dealing with it. It's not comfortable.
27:20
Speaker 5: For me. So with that being said, I think you
27:23
Speaker 5: can understand why there might be some question marks surrounding
27:27
Speaker 5: the impact literally and physically of the field and what
27:31
Speaker 5: it's having on the player's bodies, their ability to go
27:34
Speaker 5: out and perform regularly with without some of those physical
27:38
Speaker 5: setbacks and to red red you know, and you're absolutely right, brother,
27:42
Speaker 5: I watched it happen. You roll out of bed, go
27:44
Speaker 5: climb a fence out in right field with maybe you know,
27:47
Speaker 5: getting more getting one of those in and yeah, sure
27:50
Speaker 5: you want to be You need a guy who hosted
27:51
Speaker 5: a third done deal. You want me to climb the
27:53
Speaker 5: wall and bring a homer back? Done deal? You want
27:55
Speaker 5: going to pop to done deal? And when that's not
27:58
Speaker 5: happening and you're not getting the ounce back, then I
28:00
Speaker 5: think it's fair to factor that variable into the equation.
28:04
Speaker 5: But I just don't know that that's all of the
28:07
Speaker 5: reason why. I think there are some things that are
28:09
Speaker 5: just I mean, the baseball related right, baseball happens, and unfortunately,
28:14
Speaker 5: the injury bug. It has been a swarm of injury
28:17
Speaker 5: locusts that have swept through the field.
28:20
Speaker 7: For the Athletics, we have pop in colors for Mack Weldon. Here,
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28:31
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28:40
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28:42
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28:46
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29:23
Speaker 3: First of all, Dallas, look at us, Look at us?
29:25
Speaker 3: Who the thought all these two guys. Yeah, I praise
29:32
Speaker 3: that ground screen because what they're going through has to
29:34
Speaker 3: be you know, heck owners so to speak, and they're
29:37
Speaker 3: their hours have to be so undervalued, underappreciated. I look
29:40
Speaker 3: at it is the dugout situation something because they don't
29:43
Speaker 3: have the facilities underneath like most you know, big league stadium,
29:47
Speaker 3: right they still have to go all the way out
29:48
Speaker 3: to center field or left field to get their treatment
29:51
Speaker 3: to stay ready. So I wonder like a lot of
29:53
Speaker 3: guys I know like to come in and get you know,
29:55
Speaker 3: the thera gun and keep lose. There's tay, there's training
29:58
Speaker 3: tables underneath, there's bikes under heat packs, the cages are
30:01
Speaker 3: at there, there's everything. There's everything you need at your
30:03
Speaker 3: disposal by the dugout. So like this could obviously definitely
30:07
Speaker 3: contribute in my opinion because as somebody who might have
30:10
Speaker 3: needed to get stretched out between innings or go up
30:13
Speaker 3: and needs, if I needed something upstairs, I could go
30:15
Speaker 3: out there and quickly access. If I don't have that,
30:18
Speaker 3: then that changes everything for me too. So I completely
30:21
Speaker 3: agree with you, Dallas, And this could be something where
30:23
Speaker 3: a bunch of young guys are just having some unfortunate lot.
30:26
Speaker 3: But there is definitely a factor to the location and
30:29
Speaker 3: the ballpark.
30:30
Speaker 5: No red, You're you nailed it, man, because how many times,
30:33
Speaker 5: I mean I can remember, like pitching an old ball
30:36
Speaker 5: park or the old ballpark in Arlington. It's a thousand
30:40
Speaker 5: degrees out there, right and I would walk into the
30:42
Speaker 5: tunnel and take my jersey off family friendly show. I
30:47
Speaker 5: would take my pants off as well, and I would
30:50
Speaker 5: sit borderline naked up against the cold or the less
30:54
Speaker 5: than hot concrete wall to try to cool myself down.
30:58
Speaker 5: And what are you able to do? Able to rotate
31:00
Speaker 5: a jersey? So you bring a jersey back down, a
31:03
Speaker 5: clean one, one that's not soaked with your sweat, and
31:05
Speaker 5: you can go back out there and you're gonna have
31:07
Speaker 5: to do it again. But that's the kind of things
31:09
Speaker 5: that are available to you to point about, stretching out
31:11
Speaker 5: a hammy, putting a heat pack on the lower back
31:13
Speaker 5: if you're dhing, instead of having to walk down the
31:16
Speaker 5: field and walk down the line, go into a clubhouse,
31:19
Speaker 5: hang out there for a little while, and even if
31:21
Speaker 5: you want to get your swings in, well, that's where
31:23
Speaker 5: you have to go. In a lot of places in
31:25
Speaker 5: the big leagues. You can go right down the steps
31:27
Speaker 5: in the dugout, right into the tunnel that's right there.
31:30
Speaker 5: You can get the heat pack on, you can watch
31:32
Speaker 5: the game from there, you can study the pictures from there,
31:35
Speaker 5: you can get your swings in from there. There's so
31:36
Speaker 5: many things that are just not readily available and readily
31:39
Speaker 5: accessible to these guys that yeah, absolutely, there's there's no
31:43
Speaker 5: discounting it. There's no discrediting that not having that stuff matters.
31:48
Speaker 5: And I know we want to downplay it to the
31:50
Speaker 5: extent that we do, to try to kind of overlook
31:52
Speaker 5: it and look past it. But it's a real factor,
31:55
Speaker 5: and it's something that I know that these players don't
31:57
Speaker 5: want to make excuses about. But that's what I'm here
31:59
Speaker 5: for now. My era is not getting any higher than
32:02
Speaker 5: it already is, and I can I can go to
32:04
Speaker 5: bat for these dudes, and I can tell them, and
32:06
Speaker 5: I can tell the people who are listening to the
32:08
Speaker 5: show that those are things that are important to a
32:11
Speaker 5: player's preparation and being able to stay healthy, stay ready
32:15
Speaker 5: is having those sorts of modalities accessible to you in
32:19
Speaker 5: the moment. And I know the training staff very much
32:21
Speaker 5: appreciates the ability to provide that to the players as well.
32:25
Speaker 3: That's just a big least for big leagues for a reason.
32:28
Speaker 4: That's right all right now, something that you know so
32:32
Speaker 4: much about pitching, Where does this team move forward with pitching?
32:39
Speaker 4: Not the not the fact that okay, this is where
32:42
Speaker 4: they're going to get their innings from. But they have
32:45
Speaker 4: the core position players we talked about the injuries. These
32:48
Speaker 4: guys are gonna be the guys that are going to
32:49
Speaker 4: move into Vegas with this team, and they are a fun, healthy,
32:53
Speaker 4: when healthy line up to watch.
32:56
Speaker 3: How are they going to move forward with pitching?
32:58
Speaker 4: Because if they're not willing to spend extra to bring
33:02
Speaker 4: like they did with Luis Severino to Sacramento for the
33:06
Speaker 4: first few years, are they able to go into the
33:10
Speaker 4: trade market to get that guy that's gonna anchor this
33:13
Speaker 4: rotation to go along and kind of make it kind
33:16
Speaker 4: of look like this position player coreps where it's like, Okay,
33:19
Speaker 4: these are the two three guys that we got moving forward.
33:23
Speaker 5: Well, I think you have some of those pieces in
33:25
Speaker 5: place already right now, with some more coming right I
33:28
Speaker 5: think about what jt. Gin has done. I said this
33:30
Speaker 5: at the beginning of the season that I watched about
33:33
Speaker 5: a four or five star stretch for JT. Gin and
33:35
Speaker 5: I watched him evolve in that small window of time,
33:38
Speaker 5: maybe more so than you see guys evolve over the
33:41
Speaker 5: course of an entire season. That dude is an absolute
33:44
Speaker 5: dog capital da WG. And I know you appreciate that.
33:49
Speaker 5: Red the other guy, Gauge Jump. I mean, we're talking
33:53
Speaker 5: about a low slot left hander with great right on
33:56
Speaker 5: the heater, has an incredible innate ability to spin the
33:59
Speaker 5: baseball working on a change up which will absolutely no
34:02
Speaker 5: doubt take his gain to the next level. I think
34:05
Speaker 5: we have other guys that have seen time in the
34:08
Speaker 5: rotation that can be weapons. I think if you start
34:11
Speaker 5: to sort of truncate their arsenal and get them to
34:13
Speaker 5: really focus on some things that make them good already
34:17
Speaker 5: and hone in on those, they can be weapons. They
34:19
Speaker 5: can be weapons either in the rotation or in the bullpen.
34:22
Speaker 5: Jamie Arnold down in Double A has had some great
34:25
Speaker 5: outings this season. Unfortunately, Wayne Lee, who is on the
34:29
Speaker 5: shelf with Tommy John, his arrival date has been pushed back.
34:33
Speaker 5: But the point that I want to make here is
34:35
Speaker 5: there's a window of opportunity where you can go and
34:37
Speaker 5: do exactly what you're talking about, Cratzy, and that's bring
34:40
Speaker 5: guys in who can start to really help reinforce and
34:44
Speaker 5: maybe even spearhead, because some of the guys I mentioned
34:46
Speaker 5: might not quite be the ones and twos that you
34:49
Speaker 5: think they're going to turn into right now and still
34:52
Speaker 5: need a little help and a little polish before they
34:54
Speaker 5: take on that sort of responsibility, because with that responsibility
34:57
Speaker 5: comes a workload that you start to expect when we
35:01
Speaker 5: talk about ones and twos. Regardless of how the game
35:03
Speaker 5: is managed today, if I'm a one or a two,
35:06
Speaker 5: my entire brain tells me it's two hundred innings or bust.
35:09
Speaker 5: Because if I'm giving you two hundred innings, there's a
35:11
Speaker 5: shalla chance I'm giving us really good opportunities to win
35:14
Speaker 5: ball games more times than not. So I think next season,
35:19
Speaker 5: next off season is really going to be the window
35:22
Speaker 5: of operation that the Athletics are looking to capitalize on
35:25
Speaker 5: because that will be the time where you go, hey,
35:28
Speaker 5: and boys, stop me if I'm not telling any truths here?
35:33
Speaker 5: Interested in coming to Vegas? How's Las Vegas sound you?
35:36
Speaker 5: How's opening up Major League Baseball's brand new gem of
35:40
Speaker 5: a ballpark sound to you? Can I entice you into
35:44
Speaker 5: that is that interested? And if you're an out getter
35:47
Speaker 5: and you don't necessarily have the body of work in
35:50
Speaker 5: terms of how this ballpark is going to play, it's
35:53
Speaker 5: now decision time for you, right And I know that
35:55
Speaker 5: agents and support staff are going to be talking to
35:58
Speaker 5: these guys about, well, is this a place you want
36:00
Speaker 5: to go? Right now? We're not sure how the ballpark's
36:02
Speaker 5: going to play. Some of those numbers might skew a
36:05
Speaker 5: little differently, your home road splits might take a hit.
36:07
Speaker 5: But I think in the grand scheme of things, when
36:10
Speaker 5: it comes to compensation conversations, those are things that are
36:13
Speaker 5: addressed readily, and those are things that are understood. So
36:16
Speaker 5: that's why I believe this next offseason's window is going
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Speaker 5: to be one that the Athletics need to and I
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Speaker 5: think likely will end up capitalizing on. When you talk
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Speaker 5: about bringing in free agent talent,