Latest / Foul Territory / Ohtani wants to play, Mattingly in/Espada out, Freddy P DOMINATES + Katie Woo & Chandler Rome join

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Ohtani wants to play, Mattingly in/Espada out, Freddy P DOMINATES + Katie Woo & Chandler Rome join · Foul Territory

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Changes, changes, a lot of changes. Bron and Kratz, AJ
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in a minute. So let's start with this. Cleveland is
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: expecting rain. The weather in Cleveland is not always gorgeous.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: So that means their first game of the ALCS will
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: start at, drum roll please, 1 p.m., 1 o'clock Eastern time.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: An afternoon game, and you can't complain about to MLB
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: or the TV networks. Direct your complaints to Madre Nature.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Jesus. Gracias. Gracias, Jesus Cristo. Para Juvio. Thank you for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: the rain. Except Cleveland, they're like, it's always cloudy here.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: At least the Browns aren't playing.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Always cloudy in Cleveland. So, yeah, that's right. One o'clock
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: on Thursday for ALCS Game 3. Also, that means... FT
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: lets you watch that game at 1. And we pop
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: on live on YouTube and TV for that crowd at
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: 4 o'clock Eastern time.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I've got to put it in my calendar. I've got
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to put it in my calendar.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Put it in your calendar right now. It's a very
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: unique time for FT. 4 o'clock will be FT. So
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: we basically serve as a pseudo post-game show following that
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: ALCS affair. And then we will still be on that
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: evening after the Dodgers and the Brewers match up. So
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: we're doing Dodgers-Brewers game three postgame tonight. And then we're
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: supposed to be doing game four postgame tomorrow night. Because
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: AJ insists that we do postgame after every Brewers-Dodgers game.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: He has supreme National League bias. He loves the Braves.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Because of his time with the Braves. Exactly. So that's that.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I think I covered it all.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: Good?
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: Got it?
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: What are you doing tomorrow? Last chance here. Give me
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: your itinerary of Being a baseball fan, okay? You wake up.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: You do whatever you need to do in your life. Okay,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: brush your teeth. That's good hygiene. At 1 o'clock, what
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: are you doing?
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I'm going to sit in front of the TV like
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: this is the best. I'm going to sit in front
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of the TV, and I'm going to maybe have some chips,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: maybe some pretzels, maybe like an ice cream Snickers bar.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Very sneaky, very sneaky. But I'm going to watch the game,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and then I'm going to tune in to FT.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: FT. And then after, right, 1 o'clock game, 4 o'clock FT,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: 9 o'clock for the Dodgers and the Brewers. You got
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: all that, AJ, for Thursday?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: No, wait.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: Sorry. My bad. My bad. I had glasses on. And
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: I don't know what happened to my Wi-Fi. My Wi-Fi
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: was good, and then Scott started talking, and it went
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: to crap.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: That's okay. We see that about a lot of things
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: in life. All right. Ready?
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Let's charge. Let's talk about this game.
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: Charge in the mouth.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Rays take game two. Kratz, Jose Ramirez has gotten them
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to this point, but made a couple mistakes in a
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: very short period of time there that ends up being
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the decider in a game where you have two teams
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: that play good ball, mostly. For Cleveland, it was not
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a good defensive game for them. And that's the difference
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: in the ballgame. That's it.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: That's the razor-thin edge of the playoffs. We're down to
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the best four teams. I don't disagree that Maybe you
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: could have said, okay, the Yankees were good during the
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: regular season. Whatever team you think should be there, these
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: are four really good teams that take advantage of opportunities.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: That's why I think over on the other side, we're
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: not going to talk about the Brewers right now, the
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: fact that they're still winning and they're making mistakes either
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: shows the teams they're playing are not as good or
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: they're better than we think they are. Jose Ramirez has
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: no gold gloves, so is he ever going to be
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: as good of a fielder as he is a hitter?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: No.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: So it's one of those bad comparisons. He's a good
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: fielder at his position. And for him to make the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: mistakes that he made, you say... Was it the moment? No,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it wasn't the moment. It just happens. It happens. And
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the Rays were able to capitalize because the Rays weren't
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: just one, two, three strikes around. One, two, three. Like
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: when those mistakes happen, you're able to put the ball
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: in play. You're still able to get something out of it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: If you just go up and you swing and miss
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: all the time, it doesn't matter if the other team
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: makes an error. You can't go anywhere if you're swinging
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: and missing everything. And the Rays did a good job
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: of capitalizing.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Trade deadlines matter too, A.J., Do they ever?
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: I mean, the Freddie Peralta looks pretty good. Joe Adele
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: looks pretty good. There's a bunch of guys on both
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: these teams that look really good. Liam Hicks got the
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: big hit last night, right? After the Jose Ramirez error,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: he was a trade deadline guy. So the trade deadlines
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: matter and you can make or break your team. And
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: by the way, this is a good, really good game
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: last night. I mean, I know that there was an
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: error by Jose, but then it was really close. It
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: was really well pitched. Freddie pitched well. Parker Messick pitched
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: really well other than the error. So I This was
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: a great baseball game, and one mistake changed it, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: it was the mistake by their best player, which is
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: Jose Ramirez, which you don't see. And by the way, Kratz,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I know you said he hasn't won a gold glove,
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: which I agree with. He hasn't. But he's been really
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: good for a really long time. And I hate when
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: people say, you haven't won a gold glove, you're not
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: a good defender. I totally disagree. You can be a
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: really good defender and not win a gold glove. It's
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: not the end-all, be-all.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, no, no. And I would never say he's
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: not a good defender. He's just not– Elite level, like
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: when you talk about so like and even the elite
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: level guys make mistakes like so mistakes happen. What I
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: want to hit on was the fact that you said
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: about the Freddie Peralta trade. Here's a here's an advantage
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: that you get in the trop. We saw it when
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: they were who was Garrett Cole was talking. They were
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: talking about throwing Garrett Cole in the trop. He has
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: more induced vertical break. We heard Vinny P talk about
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: it just the other day. More induced vertical break, meaning
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: the ball stays on plane and jumps at the end
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: in the trop. So when your ball plays up and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: then you have a guy who has ridiculous ride and
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: you need him to get back to that extension with
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: that ridiculous ride, Then you trade for them. You're getting,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: as Scott loves to say, extra surplus value. So that's
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: where a team like the Rays takes advantage of being
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: able to look outside of all the numbers and understand
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: where they're playing can be an advantage with a certain
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: type of player. And so good for the Rays for
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: taking care of that or getting that trade done.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Freddie Peralta had never gone six innings in a playoff start,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and he had eight prior playoff starts. This was the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: best we've seen from Freddie P. The velo up.
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: You know, when he.
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: First goes over the raise. But he was allowed to go.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: He was allowed to go. And also, I mean, it
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: went from, oh, he made some changes to, there's been
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: so much investigative work with different stories and reporters on
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Freddie P. It's like they basically just put him in
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a blender and remade the picture. They changed everything. They've
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: changed everything. The way he's delivering, they changed getting out
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: of the windup. They've changed the pitch mix, right? They
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: even spoke on the broadcast last night about how he
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: admitted that the approach from the Rays was good. Instead
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: of saying your slider stinks nowadays. Hey, we really love
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: your changeup. Let's use more of that. Hey, we love
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: that fastball, but we loved the way that you had
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the extension on it in the past. And then you
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: didn't have that with the Mets. Like, can we try that?
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So a little bit of psychology that clearly wasn't happening.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. For people that say, oh, the Mets knew
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: about it. Well, if they knew about it and it
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: wasn't happening, then there's still a huge problem. It doesn't
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: matter if they know or not. They weren't getting the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: best results out of him. They were getting terrible results
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: out of him. AJ, he looks like a one. And
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: they were talking about this at the beginning of the broadcast.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: It's like, this is maybe the best we've seen from
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Freddie P between the velocity. There was plenty of fastball usage, right?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: The way he uses his changeup now, just an incredible
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: pitcher and maybe the best edition of the trade deadline.
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: He's always been really good, by the way. Let's also
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: not forget, he was really good with the Brewers.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Not with the Mets.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: He went to the Mets and wasn't very good. No,
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: I know, but he went to the Mets and wasn't
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: very good. So what changed? I don't know what they
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: did at the Mets. It's kind of funny that Stevie
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: Cohen was in Tampa last night watching pitch. He was like, man,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: I should have had that version of Freddy Peralta. But
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: here's the thing. The Rays let you be you, okay?
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: The Rays are the one organization that really lets you
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: be you. And they have for a long time, from
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: Joe Maddon now to Kevin Cash. And they just are saying, hey,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: you be you, and we'll figure it out from there.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: And Kyle Schneider, their pitching coach, does a great job
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: of saying, hey, you be you. And the one thing
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: about Freddy Peralta, and I'll say this, three and a
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: half strikeouts was his prop yesterday. I mean, thank you, BetMGM.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: We love you. Three and a half. Three and a
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: half strikeouts. This dude will punch out the world if
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: you just let him go.
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: And he pitched awesome.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Yes, everyone was like, oh, no, Parker Messick, who's owned
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: the Rays, against Freddy Peralta, the bad Freddy Peralta. Freddy
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Peralta beat Parker Messick, and Parker Messick pitched pretty good.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: So this was a huge win for the Rays at
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: the trade deadline, huge win for the Rays last night. And, man,
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: this is why the Rays were the number one seed
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: in the American League, because their pitching is deep. Their
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: bullpen is good, and their lineup is better, I think,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: than people understand. Especially, they had Liam Hicks, what, he
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: hit eighth last night? Liam Hicks hit eighth. He had
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: almost 100 RBIs during the regular season.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's what a pickup. Oh, yeah, we
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: just have a Liam Hicks that we can pick up. Oh,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the Rays don't spend it. Oh, wait, yeah. Here's what
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I want to hit on, is what Scott said. You
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: can have two things. You can have an organization that goes,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: you know what we're going to do? We're going to
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: switch a lot with a player. We're going to say, hey,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: we need more out of this. We need to do this.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: A lot of teams work. And you said, oh, the
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Mets knew all this stuff. The difference with the Rays,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: and I saw it when I was there, You talk
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: about Kyle Snyder. You talk about how he talks to people,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: how everybody talks to people. It matters how you treat
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: the person because that's who's going out there and doing it.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: It's not a, hey, don't do this anymore. It's add this. Hey,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: if you feel like you're not able to hit the
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: spots on the corner, We're going to sit right down
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the middle. That doesn't mean everybody you're going to sit
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: right down the middle. There's going to be guys who
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: you sit on the court. It's very tailored to each
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: individual person. And it matters to them how each person
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: is treated. And I think that's why they get the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: most out of their players. And they get the most
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: out of a trade. They get the most out of
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: somebody they bring in. All that stuff.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And if Steve Cohen was going to be at
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: the game, shouldn't Mike Elias get an invite? Brian Baker
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: is on another planet right now. You like that, Gretz?
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Or is David Stearns? David Stearns should have been there too.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I don't know who the pitching coach for the Mets is,
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: but he should have also been there.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Right, but Cohen, I'm saying, represented the Mets contingent, AJ.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: The joke is I'm trying to transition smoothly to Brian
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Baker being maybe the best closer, or in the American
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: League maybe you could say, this year for what he did.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And he didn't have his changeup. Cade Smith's up there too.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: He didn't have his changeup.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: 41 saves.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: 40 plus saves. Brian Baker is just drilling his way
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: through the playoffs right now. He's great. Didn't have his changeup.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Hicks brought that up right in the postgame show, even
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: though the changeup for the first strikeout was the pitch,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: but it didn't look like his normal changeup. So he
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: clearly didn't have the feel for it. And here's the stat.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Players in history to allow zero hits and earn the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: save in four straight playoff games. Brian Baker, that's it.
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: History.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: And AJ, then he just pumped his heater for a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: few pitches, got two quick outs and boom, another save
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: for A guy who comes over from a division rival
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: in the Orioles. And I think Tyler Wells will be
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a factor at some point here, too. I mean, they
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: gave Wells and Baker at some point. You're going to
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: look back at the Rays win the World Series and go,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: we have to send the ultimate gift to Mike Elias
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: because our division rival is just hooking us up with
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: these great relievers since he likes to just haul in prospects.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I hope he enjoys the prospects he got for those guys.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Wasn't Caminero a Guardian originally? Wasn't Junior Caminero get traded
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: over from the Guardians?
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: That was way time, way long ago.
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: Okay, and then Liam Hicks from Interstate just down the
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: road in Miami. He was a Miami guy, right? Miami Marlins. So,
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, it all goes back to this. When the
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: Rays make a trade, everybody goes, what do they know
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: that nobody else knows? And they've figured something out, whether
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: it's the right-handed changeup, right-on-right changeup, left-on-right changeup, whatever it is.
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: Ryan Baker has been really good for this entire year
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: and good for him. Now the stat that we just showed,
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: he earned a save in four straight games. So he
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: didn't pitch in game one. So I guess, I guess
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: that still, I don't know. That stat was kind of,
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: kind of wonky to me a little bit because it
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: went from, you know, he said he earned a save
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: in four straight games, but he didn't, I guess he
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: didn't pitch.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So that's why.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I guess he didn't pitch. I guess he didn't pitch.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: So I don't know. The point is he's been really good.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: And by the way, where was Boozer? That was interesting.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: Did we ever find out why Boozer didn't pitch? He
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: warmed up, and then he sat down, and they brought
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: Seymour in to face lefties, and he's a reverse splits guy.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: So did anyone ask Kevin Cash why Cam Boozer didn't
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: pitch last night? That was an interesting play, I thought,
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: by him.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Good play to use Seymour for the two innings there, though.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: It worked.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: But the first guy he faced was DeLauder, who actually
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: lefties have better– like AJ said– a reverse split, like
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: lefties do better. And De Lauder clipped him on that
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: double down the line. And you're like, oh my gosh,
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: what is Cash doing? But I agree with you, AJ. Like,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: where was he? And there's another guy that's getting glossed over.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I played with him in Columbus, AAA for the Indians
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: when I was there, Yandy Diaz. Yandy Diaz was seen
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: by the Guardians as a guy that He hits the ball,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: you know, the other way really well. His launch angle
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: wasn't great. It was more of just like a put
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: the ball and play guy. Went to the Rays, played
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: with them again with the Rays, and they just told him.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: I talked to Chad Mottola, their hitting coach. They said, Yandy,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: we want you to do what you do, but catch
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: the ball a little farther out in front. And what
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: started happening? He started hitting some dingers. Now you're talking
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: about an all-star. Like the Guardians lost him too back
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: in the day.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: That's true. And, hey, I don't want to discount what
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the Guardians did this year trade-wise. And we talked about
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: it the other day on the show. They've made significant additions,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: role players that have helped them, right? Like Foster Griffin,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Joe Adele, Nathaniel Lowe. I think there's one more. Oh,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Patrick Bailey, right? All big, big parts of what they're
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: doing right now. I want to finish this segment with
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: this topic, and I'll go to our Florida specialist, A.J. Pruszynski,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: on this one.
• 15:13
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: A.J.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: What's going on with the attendance and the ticket prices?
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: And there's some pissed off Rays fans because they said
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: they'll buy them. And then a day or two later,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the prices are down. And they were down 8,000 people
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: from what they had in that opener sellout against the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Yankees in the DS. They're not filling the whole place here.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: And fans are complaining about how they're doing this. This
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: also draws my top point that you always hear about.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: If you lower player salaries, you will lower the ticket prices.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I'm being incredibly sarcastic. Cause it's all based on dynamic pricing.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: And that's why the pricing now went from whatever. Oh,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: your tickets, 200 bucks. And then a couple of days later,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the people who bought $ 200 tickets are like, wait, why
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: is my ticket 60 bucks now? And I can get
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: an even better seat. It's called dynamic pricing. It's the
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: only way that every team puts out pricing for tickets ever, ever.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: No matter if they play, pay a player a dollar
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: or a billion dollars. That's how ticketing works in all
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: of events.
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: And then we're playing the Yankees. Okay. So the Yankees
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: had a bunch of, fans there to watch them play
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: the race. Okay. And I'm a Florida guy. I love Florida,
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: but the best thing the race can do and people
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: in St. Pete, I love St. Pete, but it's not
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: the draw. I'm sorry. It's just not the draw that
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: Tampa is to be able. I mean, look at the bucks,
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: look at the lightning Steinbrenner field. They pack every time
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: and where the new places, it's just more of a
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: population center. And that's one of the reasons they wanted
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: to move to Tampa for years and years and years.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: And they finally got it done. So it's going to help, Listen,
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: do I think the Rays fans should come out and support? Yes,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: there's a bunch of people in Tampa Bay that still
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: come out and support the Rays, even in St.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Pete.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: But the time– you can't say the time because it
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: was an 8 o'clock game, right? So it's not the time.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: I know school's back in, but I just don't think that–
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I don't know why there was empty
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: seats for a playoff game, but there was. And you
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: deal with it. And, yes, the dynamic pricing sucks because
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: I remember– Every team does this. And I remember I've
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: been to some places. I'm like, man, why is there
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: nobody here? And they're like, well, yeah, for the Yankees,
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Red Sox, the bigger market teams, they charge like three
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: times the price they charge for a game against the
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Kansas City Royals or the White Sox or whatever you
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: want to say. And so people are like, well, I'm
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: not going to spend three times the amount to go
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: watch the good teams. But I can pay three times
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: less to go watch my same team play against lesser
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: teams and get the same enjoyment factor. So I understand why.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And they're two separate arguments for me. I know there's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: people pissed that the ticket prices that they bought then
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: change from the team a couple days later because they're
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: trying to fill up the ballpark. I mean, the day
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of the game, it's less than $ 100 to get in
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: for a playoff game. In today's world, that's about as
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: good as it gets to get into a playoff game.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: So it's not about that, too. I think the top
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: reason is what AJ is talking about is that people
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: just don't want to go to St. Pete, especially on
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: a weekday when they have to sit for hours on
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the causeway. And I'm very proud of myself. I never
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: say anything about causeway.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: Don't call it a bridge.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: It's a bridge way. AJ has drilled it into my brain.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: And this is the one other point I want to
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: make on this crats. And then you can have last
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: word here. If you've got something, thank goodness that they
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: figured out this new ballpark going to Tampa and not
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: to St. Pete. Cause MLB was working on St. Pete
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: for like 20 years. And the only reason they were
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: really working on it, let's be real is because they
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: wanted to get more government money from them, right? You'd
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: get more tax dollars from them. And that's what building
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: a ballpark is all about, but that's not what the
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: fans want. Clearly they're speaking. clearly that they want to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: be in Tampa it's worked for other teams like the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Lightning so I'm so glad that this ownership group is
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: about to get it right because for a long time
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: they were getting it wrong and it was for the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: wrong reasons.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: And I don't think St. Pete's losing anything if you've
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: ever been to St. Pete Beach like it is beautiful
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: I love going to St. Pete Beach I love that
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: whole area it's fine they can still make it over
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: to to the Rays game if you're like a local St.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Peteyan you can still make it. It's totally fine. This
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: is going to be great. If hockey can survive, if
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: hockey can do well in Florida because of the location,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: because of where the people can get to the games,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: we're going to be watching a lot of much bigger fans,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I think, in Tampa.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: So, you know, Saris put this up and so did
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: many others, right? Paul Hembo, the guy who does the
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: stats for ESPN and Buster Olney. You know, said this
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: in tandem with how terrible the offense has been this
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: postseason with a new record average average velocity on pitches
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: might have something to do with stuff modeling, according to stuff. Plus,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: he's getting into a bunch of things. I'll just get
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to the main point here. Percentage of runs scored in
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: the postseason. Do you see this chart, AJ, at the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: bottom here of i do percentage of runs manufactured versus
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: home runs and how all of the stat analytics nerds
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: and i'm not picking on eno here just some people
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: say like you can only hit home runs to win
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: i'm like oh look at the uh home run list
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: from the final four here and where they ranked in
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the regular season and how they're scoring in the playoffs
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: so we can wipe that narrative off the board now.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Good baseball and solid baseball wins and whether it's home
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: runs or not If you can hit home runs, it's
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: a great advantage. But if you don't necessarily always have
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: to hit home runs, but they help. Home runs help.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to lie because it's easy to score
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: three runs on one swing. But also, I mean, what
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: we're seeing is teams that can also put pressure on you.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: And the Guardians, the Rays, and the Brewers just put
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: a lot of pressure on you. And the team that's
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: down 0-2 in these playoffs, in this NLCS, is the
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: team that hasn't put a lot of pressure. When they
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: did put pressure, we saw the Brewers make some mistakes, right?
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: A couple of throwing errors by the pitcher. They bunted.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: They did some different stuff that they don't normally do
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: But they also haven't hit any home runs and they
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: are down 0-2 because in game two, they.
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: Got three hits.
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: They got three hits, Kratz, three hole hits.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: To me, Kratz, this is the difference between teams like
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: that and the Yankees. I think the Yankees are the
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: prime example right now of a team that's actually behind
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the curve because they're like, it's home runs. You got
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: to hit home runs to win the World Series and
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: we'll run into one. And then you're like, we'll run
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: in to run down 1-0, down 2-0. We just got
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: swept by the Rays.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: You look at some of those games, it was 1-0,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: 2-0 games, 2-1 early. And, like, you have to be
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: able to make adjustments. I would say I love homers
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: just as much as anybody. They're undefensible. You cannot catch
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: a homer when it's a homer, just like you can't
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: make an error on a strikeout. All those things, all
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: analytical things like that, I agree with. My issue is
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: teams that live and die on it aren't able to
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: make the adjustment, aren't able to say with two strikes,
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: what does my swing look like with a runner on second?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: What does my swing look like? And being able to
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: take rounds of BP that are able to then adjust
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: your swing in games. That, I think, is the difference
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: between teams that can survive, move on, and then bang,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: then they hit the homer. That's where I think if
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: they're able to make the adjustment, that's where those teams
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: that have been knocked out can make the adjustment and
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: win games.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: FT Breaking News, Joe Espada no longer the manager of
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the Houston Astros. It was painful. Chandler Rome joining us
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: right now from the athletic and crushed city territory that
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: we had to watch this happen to, who is a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: nice man, Joe Espada, and has had some success here
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: with the Astros, Chandler. What can you tell us about
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: this dragged out process that ends up going right down
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to basically the finish line of his contract?
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah, the timing is curious.
• 22:30
  Speaker 8: I don't understand why they waited 15 days after the
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: season to do this. But the outcome is not something
• 22:36
  Speaker 8: that I think is surprising to really anyone. And to
• 22:38
  Speaker 8: be honest with you, I don't think it is surprising
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: to Joe Espada either. He's not stupid. I think he
• 22:45
  Speaker 8: saw the writing on the wall, especially when Dana Brown
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: was dismissed midseason. At that time, obviously, Jim Crane said
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: that they were going to wait and table the decision
• 22:54
  Speaker 8: on Joe until after the year. They wanted to focus
• 22:58
  Speaker 8: on winning the division, which they did. They wanted to
• 23:00
  Speaker 8: focus on getting into the playoffs, which they did. And
• 23:03
  Speaker 8: then everything, obviously, in the playoffs went terribly awry. But
• 23:07
  Speaker 8: I don't think this qualifies as a surprise at all.
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: I do think, however, that this is something that– and
• 23:14
  Speaker 8: I don't know if Astros fans think this, but I
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: think this is something that– I don't think this was
• 23:19
  Speaker 8: just a manager problem. I don't think just replacing the
• 23:23
  Speaker 8: manager is going to get everything hunky-dory and get them
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: back to where they want to be. This franchise needs
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: kind of a holistic, different look at things from top
• 23:33
  Speaker 8: to bottom. And they're going to get that now with
• 23:35
  Speaker 8: a new GM. And interestingly, something that Jim Crane has
• 23:39
  Speaker 8: not done in his last two GM hires, it looks
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: like the GM is going to be able to hire
• 23:44
  Speaker 8: the manager, which James Click did not get to do.
• 23:47
  Speaker 8: James Click inherited Dusty Baker. Dana Brown did not get
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: to hire his first manager either. Dana Brown, like James Click,
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: inherited Dusty Baker. Dana then hired Joe Espada, of course,
• 23:59
  Speaker 8: but it does seem like this time around that Jim
• 24:02
  Speaker 8: Crane is going to allow his general manager, whomever it is,
• 24:05
  Speaker 8: to hire their field manager.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Chandler, it's amazing that Joe Espada, who did everything, it
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: seems right, is now out for no reason other than
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: he won the division, right? Same with Dana Brown. They
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: put him in a position to win the division. The
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: thing that frustrates me as a fan who watches, and
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I'm a Joe Espada guy, I'm not going to lie,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: I'm a Joe Espada fan, is why did it take
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: so long? What were they waiting for? Like, I don't understand.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: As soon as Dana Brown was like, oh, you kind
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: of could see the writing on the wall. So why
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: was it dragged out? And then why did it happen
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: like all of a sudden? I remember we talked about
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: this yesterday, right? Oh, why are the Astros doing this,
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: doing this, doing this? Was it because media got on
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: top of this and finally Astros were like, hey, man, sorry, Joe,
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: we're going to have to move on. This isn't a
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: great look for us.
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: I mean, maybe that has something to do with it, AJ.
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: Jim Crane has not taken questions from reporters since he
• 24:57
  Speaker 8: fired Dana Brown in August, and he's not planning on,
• 25:01
  Speaker 8: from what I understand, he's not planning on speaking about
• 25:04
  Speaker 8: this either, so.
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: We're left up to speculation.
• 25:08
  Speaker 8: Honestly, there was a thought in my head that maybe
• 25:10
  Speaker 8: they were just going to, to use a football term,
• 25:13
  Speaker 8: kind of kneel the ball out, right? Joe's contract did
• 25:16
  Speaker 8: not technically expire until the end of October.
• 25:19
  Speaker 6: So maybe they were just going to.
• 25:20
  Speaker 8: Wait it out until his contract effectively expired and then
• 25:23
  Speaker 8: just not give him.
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: And that was the only kind of thought in my mind.
• 25:26
  Speaker 8: Or it could have been a thought of maybe they
• 25:29
  Speaker 8: get the GM job hired, let the new general manager
• 25:34
  Speaker 8: come in, interview Joe, interview the existing members of staff,
• 25:37
  Speaker 8: and then they can decide whether they wanted to move
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: forward with Joe or the coaching staff. But obviously that
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: didn't happen. I think my bigger question, AJ, Dana Brown
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: was fired in August. And I do know that interviews
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: are underway. And I had one person describe the search,
• 25:54
  Speaker 8: the ongoing Astros GM search, as exhaustive. This is not
• 25:57
  Speaker 8: a situation where they have not begun interviews. This is
• 26:00
  Speaker 8: a situation where people have been in town, people have interviewed.
• 26:03
  Speaker 8: But it's now been about two and a half months
• 26:06
  Speaker 8: since Dana Brown was fired. And I don't think they're
• 26:09
  Speaker 8: any closer to hiring a GM. So I guess my
• 26:12
  Speaker 8: thought would be, what has taken so long in that
• 26:14
  Speaker 8: regard as opposed to the managers?
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Well, that's kind of what I'm kind of going to
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: get at. And then we get to the manager, the
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: new manager, whatever. Is Jim Crane looking to go in
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: a different direction? Because you look at the two last GMs. Obviously,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: people will say they were successful. He fired both of them.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Is a change of direction going to be seen? I'm
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: not saying rebuild or anything like that. Jim Crane's always said,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I'm never rebuilding. but a different type of looking organization
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: with this next GM hire? Or does Jim Crane always
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: have his fingerprint on all of what the Ashers have
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: been doing for the last, I mean, since 2015 when
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: they made the playoffs for the first time?
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: Look, Jim Crane and Jeff Bagwell are going to remain
• 27:01
  Speaker 8: very involved. I don't think that's ever going away. No
• 27:04
  Speaker 8: matter who comes in here as the general manager, I
• 27:07
  Speaker 8: certainly think that Both of those guys are going to
• 27:09
  Speaker 8: have a lot of influence. But in terms of different directions, Kratzy,
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: they've gone in different directions really with each of the
• 27:16
  Speaker 8: last two hires. James Click came from a very analytical,
• 27:20
  Speaker 8: forward-thinking front office in Tampa Bay where he was that
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: he kind of thought more modern. He was more analytical.
• 27:28
  Speaker 8: He was more technological. Certainly not married to it. I
• 27:31
  Speaker 8: think James got a bad rap in terms of being
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: too analytical. I certainly don't think he was that. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 8: then they went to Dana Brown, who was known for
• 27:39
  Speaker 8: more of player evaluation. They made no bones about it
• 27:44
  Speaker 8: that they need to rebuild the farm system, that the
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: farm system has to get better. Because if they want
• 27:49
  Speaker 8: to continue with the model that Jim Crane prefers, which
• 27:53
  Speaker 8: is not spending a ton in free agency, it's trades
• 27:58
  Speaker 8: and extensions and short-term free agent deals, You're going to
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: have to have sustainability from your farm system, guys coming
• 28:06
  Speaker 8: up to replenish what you let walk away in free agency.
• 28:10
  Speaker 8: And the Ashers don't have that right now. And Dana
• 28:13
  Speaker 8: Brown just on paper was kind of the perfect guy
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: for that, right? Scouting background, player evaluation, draft, a guy
• 28:20
  Speaker 8: that drafted very well in his past stops. And, you know,
• 28:24
  Speaker 8: I think the jury's still out on how Dana did
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: with that. They've got some very nice players. looking players
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: in the lower levels of their minor league system.
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: None of them really are.
• 28:32
  Speaker 8: Ready right now to come up and impact the major
• 28:35
  Speaker 8: league roster, but at the lower levels of their farm system,
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: they have done a decent job of, of replenishing. So
• 28:42
  Speaker 8: we may see some of the fruits of Dana Brown's
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: labor here in the next two or three years, but
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: in terms of, you know, winning now and putting a
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: winning product on the field, I mean, Dana Brown had a,
• 28:52
  Speaker 8: had a terrible winter of acquiring and signing a pitching that,
• 28:57
  Speaker 8: and the pitching staff really, fell apart this season due
• 29:00
  Speaker 8: to it, because of it. How much of that was,
• 29:04
  Speaker 8: you know, Dana Brown was hamstrung in terms of financial
• 29:07
  Speaker 8: parameters he could spend in terms of who he had
• 29:09
  Speaker 8: to go get.
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: I'm that has something to do with it.
• 29:12
  Speaker 8: But at the same time, he was given the Liberty
• 29:15
  Speaker 8: to sign or acquire six players, six pitchers, excuse me,
• 29:19
  Speaker 8: onto the major league roster. And none, and all of them,
• 29:23
  Speaker 8: three of them were designated for assignment. And the other
• 29:25
  Speaker 8: three were demoted from the rotation at some point. So,
• 29:29
  Speaker 8: It was a failure really on all levels there.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: Hey, enough key in the foul territory network. We have
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: so many shows, so many schedules, so many hosts. It
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: is really hard to stay.
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: Organized.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: That's why there's Housecall Pro. If you work in the HVAC, if.
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: You work in plumbing, if you work in construction, you
• 29:46
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• 29:49
  Speaker 4: your bill paying easy. It's all right there in Housecall Pro.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, AJ, you can have a plumbing business, electrical, HVAC.
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• 30:00
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• 30:29
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• 30:31
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• 30:33
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• 30:34
  Speaker 4: All right, Chandler, I got to ask. You mentioned Jeff Bagwell.
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: Why won't he be the GM? And also, my second
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: question is, Jeff Bagwell, he's the one that pushed for
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: Jose Abreu. That didn't work out. So why not make
• 30:44
  Speaker 4: him the GM? And then the other question I want
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: before we let you go, because I know you have
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: to go, is did the Mariners... leakage of wanting to
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: talk to Joe Espada and the Astros, letting him, did
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: that force their hand a little bit? Because people were like, wait,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: if he's your manager, why are you letting him talk
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: to a team in your division?
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: To be clear, AJ, I don't know who leaked the
• 31:07
  Speaker 8: original story because I didn't break the original story.
• 31:10
  Speaker 6: That was MLB.com. Kudos to them.
• 31:12
  Speaker 8: I don't know who leaked it there, but I don't
• 31:15
  Speaker 8: think the timing is a coincidence, right?
• 31:17
  Speaker 6: That that came out yesterday.
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: And then today, kind of the finality of the decision
• 31:22
  Speaker 8: on Joe Espada from the Astros perspective. I think it's
• 31:26
  Speaker 8: a shrewd move by the Mariners, even if they don't
• 31:29
  Speaker 8: hire Joe Espada, because I think Joe Espada, if and
• 31:32
  Speaker 8: when he gets another job, I think he's going, I
• 31:34
  Speaker 8: think he is a successful manager. I think he will
• 31:36
  Speaker 8: continue to be a successful manager, but even if the
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: Mariners don't hire him, you can do a lot worse
• 31:41
  Speaker 8: than interviewing a guy that just spent nine years in
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: the inner workings of your arch division rival. He can
• 31:48
  Speaker 8: get some recon, can get some some, some Intel as
• 31:52
  Speaker 8: to what makes them great. You know, I think that's
• 31:53
  Speaker 8: a shrewd move by the Mariners, but as far as Bagwell, I,
• 31:57
  Speaker 8: my question would be, why would he want it? Cause I,
• 32:00
  Speaker 8: cause I think he's got the perfect job right now, right?
• 32:02
  Speaker 8: He's got the ability to, he's got Jim Crane's ear.
• 32:06
  Speaker 8: We know that Jim Crane has said that how much
• 32:08
  Speaker 8: he values Jeff's opinion and he can, you know, really
• 32:13
  Speaker 8: exert his influence and exert his weight within the organization
• 32:17
  Speaker 8: without having that title. without having to do a radio
• 32:20
  Speaker 8: interview every Sunday on the team's broadcast, without having to
• 32:23
  Speaker 8: answer texts from people like me and other media types,
• 32:27
  Speaker 8: without having to worry about, is a guy, and I'm
• 32:30
  Speaker 8: going to bring Buster Posey into this, is a guy
• 32:33
  Speaker 8: on his scooter too late at night going to run
• 32:35
  Speaker 8: into an ambulance? There's a lot of different things that
• 32:38
  Speaker 8: come with being a GM that I don't think a
• 32:40
  Speaker 8: lot of people wrap their arms around. I think Jeff
• 32:43
  Speaker 8: Bagwell right now is basically got the perfect job. Like
• 32:46
  Speaker 8: he's got really the influence and the weight that a
• 32:50
  Speaker 8: GM would have without having the title and without having
• 32:53
  Speaker 8: the hassle of all the added extracurricular responsibilities.
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: So, um, I guess that'd be my retort age. It
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: would be, why would he want the job?
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: That's fair.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: That's a good answer. That's a mic drop right there.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: And then he has all the power and.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: No, he has all the power and no responsibility. So
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: When people say, oh, well, Jeff Bagwell pushed for this,
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: he can be like, what are you talking about? It
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: wasn't my call. It was the GM's call, the GM's
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: crane call, and I'm a Hall of Famer, and I'm
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: going to sit by my own plate every game and wave. So, yeah,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, I want that. Sign me up for that job.
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: Someone wants to hire me for that job. Sign me up.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: It's like all the analysts.
• 33:30
  Speaker 6: I think Jerry's listening right now, AJ. Maybe he can
• 33:33
  Speaker 6: get you to Chicago.
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: Chandler, he's not. By the way, Chicago kicked the ass
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: for his ass in the playoffs.
• 33:38
  Speaker 6: Just saying.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: They did.
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: They did.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: They did. Chandler, go do your thing. Thanks for stopping by.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Crested Territory will be all over this later on today
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: with an episode two. There it is. Chandler and Tyler
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: getting ready to put together their next episode on this
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: breaking news today. Chandler, appreciate you, man. Talk soon.
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Good question here from I Need Money in the chat.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: He said, I understand there's only 30 GM and manager jobs,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: but the Astros job has to be one of the
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: least desirable in the sport for those jobs because Jim Crane–
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: doesn't let you last very long in those positions. And yes,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: that's why AJ, if you're Jeff Bagwell, all you have
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: to do is look at the shelf life for those
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: two jobs. Plus someone like Dan Wilson, who was very
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: loved and respected in the organization, all of a sudden
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: becomes manager. And then people start to like you based
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: on decisions that actually impact the team, very front facing.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: So again, that's why Jeff's behind the scenes, but in
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: front of the scenes, do you think they might have
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: a tough time recruiting for this position?
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: No, there's 30 of these jobs, Scott. There's 30 of
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: these jobs.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: No, it doesn't matter. Remember the Red Sox got like
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: 20 nos for their job because they kept shuffling through GMs.
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: No, I don't think, I think you'll find, yeah, I'm
• 34:51
  Speaker 4: sure there's people that'll say no, but also there's, there's
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: 30 of these jobs and they're very coveted. And if
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: there's a guy that's down there that they think, Hey,
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: you can help us. People are going to have a
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: hard time. If they called me tomorrow and said, Hey,
• 35:02
  Speaker 4: we want to hire you as a GM. I'd be like, Hmm,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: let me think about this for a second.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: I'll take that job. And I have all the power. Sure.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, I understand that there are certain people that
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: have high-ranking jobs, but if you find the right person,
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: it's going to be hard for them to say no
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: to this job. Sorry.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: I would disagree. I think it's going to eliminate a
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: certain group of GM. Maybe that's not who Jim Crane wants,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: but it's going to eliminate. AJ says, I'll take that
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: job because he wants to be a GM and he
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: thinks it would be cool. AJ has zero experience as
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: a GM. Doesn't mean he's not going to do good.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: It just means you are eliminating a group like the
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Dombrowski type of, not necessarily need to be a Hall
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: of Famer, but the experienced GM who's like, when I
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: go somewhere, I want to win. I want to build
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: a program. And I don't want to look over my shoulder. So, yes,
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Jim Crane definitely, he definitely, because I know two of
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: the people that turned down the Red Sox job, Like
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: it's that group of people who are like, that's not how,
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: that's not the type of place I want to work.
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: Not the people who are like, I want to be
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: a GM so bad. And those, those people still take
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: the job. There's plenty of people that want to be
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: a GM.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: That's what I meant. People want the job. Millions want
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the job, but in the industry, often they look and say,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: there's a very short list of candidates I'm interested in.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: And when they make those phone calls, there's leverage that
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the leverage.
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: They've checked in with a lot of people though, people
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: that you wouldn't even expect them to check in with.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: They've checked into us. So as Chandler just said, they
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: have cast a wide net. And here's the thing. He
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: fired a GM that won a world series. And now
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: he fired a guy who won the division. What do
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: you have to do to keep your job in Houston?
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: I mean, I know that, uh, gosh, I forgot the
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: guy's name. Uh, who got fired for doing the trash can,
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: Lou now, Jeff Lou now, and he did some other stuff, right?
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: But then after that, it's been James Click. It's been
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: Dusty Baker. It's been, I mean, obviously Hinch got fired
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: because of the trash can, but now you get rid
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: of Joe Espada, who's on all accounts is a really
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: good dude. And you get rid of Dana Brown, who
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: is in the, they were in first place. It's not
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: like they were in last place. So what do you
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: have to do to keep your job? Do you have
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: to keep Jim Crane happy? Do you have to keep
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: Jeff Bagwell happy? Do you have to keep Jeff Blum happy?
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: Do you have to keep Todd Callis happy? Who do
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: you have to keep happy to keep this job? I
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: don't know who the, what the answer is.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: I used a reference off the show and we'll finish
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: this segment this way. What was I saying? Praying mantis
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: or something? Krats yesterday after the show.
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: Praying mantis eat their, eat their newborn.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: No, I thought that they eat their partner after they mate.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, they eat their partner.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: So that to me was like, okay, thanks for the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: world series.
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: Gobble, gobble, gobble.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Who's next?
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: You know, Thanks for the World Series, James. See you later.
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: By the way, what also is weird, he hasn't gotten
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: another job, which also seems very strange to me. How
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: does James Click not have another job, like a GM job?
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: He was a GM on a team that won the
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: World Series. Maybe he doesn't want another job.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Maybe he doesn't want it. Maybe he's got a nice
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: salary and he's part of another org. See, that's the thing.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Antoinette and Chernoff in Cleveland, there's other versions of this
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: where they've gotten offers. And there's a tandem, and you
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: might be number two in command, but the number two
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: is still making seven figures and has a long-term deal
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: and doesn't want to deal with BS.
• 38:34
  Speaker 4: Sign me.
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: Up.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Good talk.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Put your name in the hat.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and hey, the Dodgers have guys like this. They
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: bring in some very talented people that sometimes don't want
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: to leave for a while.
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: Pick Crouch. He'll do it.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Not right now. He's got soccer games to get to
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: and a baseball team to coach for a back-to-back title. Hi,
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Max the Bald Eagle from Marathon here. We asked people
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: if they could do an impression of me. Have a listen.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: You can save up to a dollar a gallon with
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: the Marathon Rewards app.
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: That last one was pretty good.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Marathon, where fun runs on full.
• 39:20
  Speaker 4: Available at participating Marathon locations. Terms and conditions apply. See
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: MarathonRewards.com for details.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Could it happen Kurt Hogue from Brewer territory? Said Brandon
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Woodruff threw a 31-pitch bullseye. session yesterday. He's ramping up.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: How's the stuff, they asked. He said, if you ask me,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: it's pretty good. Hey, isn't he their highest-paid pitcher? Pretty
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: sure he is, right?
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: He's got a pitch. I don't know that I see it.
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, their bullpen's in a pretty
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: good spot. Is he going to be a starter? You're
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: going to bring him back in the World Series? Crafts
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: tell me. I don't know. I just don't know where
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: he fits. I love Big Wu. Plays a hell of
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: a golden tee, too, by the way, in San Diego.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: He is.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: He is definitely a video man. But I'm sorry. I can't.
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: I can't. You can't tell me that if you have
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: 13 pitchers on the roster that he wouldn't be one
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: of your best 13 to be available. He's not starting.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: But it's easy. I mean, to me, it's an easy call.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: If he's ready and he can give you 40 pitches,
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: Go get him, Big Will. Go get him.
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: I just don't know where he fits, except for in
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: a blowout game. You want him?
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: You know there's somebody, at least one person, that's hanging
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: in that bullpen. Like one person. Whoever it is.
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: Which guy?
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Ashby?
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: He ain't coming out. Nariba? He ain't coming out. McGill?
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: He ain't coming out.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: He's not taking main innings. We haven't seen Chad Patrick.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: It could be Patrick or Drohan.
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: We haven't seen Patrick, Drohan. I'm saying... One of those guys, sorry,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: if Big Woo's available, I have a hard time, and
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: maybe I'm biased, and maybe it doesn't line up for
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: the lefties. They'll keep Drohan if it's the Rays because
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: they don't hit lefties very well, but you have to
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: look at it.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: One of those guys may or may not have an elbow.
• 41:06
  Speaker 7: Scorn as well.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: That's what she said.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Yep, that's what he said, presented by Lorraine Co. Here
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: comes Katie Wu from the Athletic and Dodgers territory. Are
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: you at least feeling lucky that you get the first
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: question from me and then you deal with AJ after that?
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: My question is just a nice, simple reporting question for you, Katie,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: on what's going on in the past 24 to 48
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: hours with Shohei Otani and his exchange with the team
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: on if he should be in the lineup.
• 41:41
  Speaker 7: Well, I'm caffeinated and ready to rock, AJ, so just
• 41:43
  Speaker 7: go ahead and write that down.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: We'll get to you.
• 41:46
  Speaker 7: But it's an important distinction to make with Shohei Otani,
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: that after his Game 2 performance in the NLCS, he
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: went 0-4 with two strikeouts where he looks completely overmatched.
• 41:56
  Speaker 7: He was showing bunt against Jojo Romero to lead off
• 41:59
  Speaker 7: the sixth, clearly not comfortable with whether it's physical or
• 42:03
  Speaker 7: his mechanics.
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: Just not right.
• 42:05
  Speaker 7: So the Dodgers were going to have a conversation with
• 42:08
  Speaker 7: him yesterday about where he was at. And if he
• 42:10
  Speaker 7: did not feel that he was healthy enough to play,
• 42:13
  Speaker 7: they would consider sitting him just like they did Freddie
• 42:15
  Speaker 7: Freeman in the 2024 playoffs. But as we heard from
• 42:19
  Speaker 7: both Dave Roberts and Shohei Ohtani yesterday, Dave Roberts said
• 42:23
  Speaker 7: Shohei was convicted. He was adamant that he can still
• 42:26
  Speaker 7: play through. Very convicted that he was on to something mechanically.
• 42:30
  Speaker 7: And right after Dave said this, Ohtani came into the
• 42:32
  Speaker 7: media room.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: He was not on the schedule. It was very impromptu.
• 42:36
  Speaker 7: So shout out MLB PR for getting Shohei Ohtani in
• 42:39
  Speaker 7: that interview room so he could.
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: Say it himself. And while he did not deny that he.
• 42:43
  Speaker 7: Was in pain or that his limitations, his symptoms, while
• 42:47
  Speaker 7: he said have subsided, are clearly still there, he also
• 42:50
  Speaker 7: said that he feels like he's close to turning it
• 42:52
  Speaker 7: around and can still contribute to this team. If Shohei
• 42:55
  Speaker 7: Otani wants to play, he's going to play. But the
• 42:58
  Speaker 7: Dodgers were right to have that conversation and have an
• 43:01
  Speaker 7: all-hands meeting with Dave Roberts, Andrew Freeman, Brandon Gomes, and
• 43:05
  Speaker 7: Shohei Otani and say.
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: Where are you? Can you still help us?
• 43:08
  Speaker 7: They were never going to sit him for poor performance,
• 43:10
  Speaker 7: but they were thinking about doing it if he did
• 43:12
  Speaker 7: not feel well.
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: Ohtani is adamant that he does. So he's in the
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: lineup today.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: Okay. I'll take my apology.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: I'm ready.
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: I'll take my apology because we had a text back
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: and forth yesterday, you and I, and I said, there's
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: no way in holy hell that they will sit Shohei Ohtani.
• 43:30
  Speaker 4: And you said, well, there's a less than zero chance
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: or something like that. And I said, he will play.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: And if you didn't watch our role play yesterday, Kratz
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: and Scott both said, oh, I'm this guy, and I'm
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: Dave Roberts, and I'm Andrew Friedman, and we're going to
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: sit you down. And you know what Otani said? I'm playing.
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: And you know what they said? Whatever you want, Shohei.
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: So I'll accept my apology now, Katie. Thank you.
• 43:54
  Speaker 7: AJ, I'm looking at the text, and all I'm seeing
• 43:57
  Speaker 7: after it's different than Freddie Freeman, but I don't think
• 44:00
  Speaker 7: there's a non-zero chance, was you saying, okay, that's fair.
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: Yep. But just say I was right. I agree.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: Read the first text.
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: There is no chance that they sit Shohei Ohtani.
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: For performance, absolutely. You can also say there's no chance
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: that Ohtani.
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: He's not going to say he can't play, Katie. You
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: should have watched his show yesterday. I played Shohei, and
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: I wore my Dodger blue for you to cheer you up, okay?
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: But here's the problem. He was never– I could have
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: been 20%. And they would have come to me and said,
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: can you play? I would have been like, it's the playoffs.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: Of course I can play. The problem is, as an organization,
• 44:37
  Speaker 4: you have to go to him and say, Shohei, we
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: know you're not right. We are not playing you. If
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: you ask a player, they will always say they can play.
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: They are not going to go to Shohei and say, Shohei,
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: we're not playing you. They're going to ask, he's going
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: to say I can play, and then he's going to play.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: And guess who's in the Game 3 starting lineup? Shohei Otani.
• 44:58
  Speaker 7: No, you're right about all of that. And I think
• 45:00
  Speaker 7: the whole point of having the conversation.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: I never said.
• 45:03
  Speaker 7: You were wrong about this. Oh my gosh, we could
• 45:05
  Speaker 7: do a whole show of just you and me fighting.
• 45:06
  Speaker 7: It would go for ratings for sure. But I think
• 45:10
  Speaker 7: the biggest thing about why the conversation was necessary was
• 45:12
  Speaker 7: that the Dodgers are finally admitting that, hey, this is
• 45:15
  Speaker 7: not what it should look like.
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: He's not ready to go.
• 45:17
  Speaker 7: He hasn't been ready to go since we first heard
• 45:20
  Speaker 7: about the knee flaring up in the middle of June.
• 45:22
  Speaker 7: And no one is as blameless in this situation, but also...
• 45:27
  Speaker 7: It's really hard to point fingers right now and say
• 45:29
  Speaker 7: the Dodgers.
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: Should have done this more.
• 45:30
  Speaker 7: The Ohtani should have been more honest because he is
• 45:33
  Speaker 7: the only player doing this. And for these injuries to
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: pop up, this is the first time that he's been
• 45:39
  Speaker 7: attempting to do a full year of two-way duties for
• 45:41
  Speaker 7: the Dodgers, which is much different from the Angels because
• 45:44
  Speaker 7: the Dodgers play a whole another month of baseball compared
• 45:46
  Speaker 7: to what the Anaheim Angels do. Or Los Angeles Angels
• 45:49
  Speaker 7: of Anaheim, however you want to call it. But when
• 45:51
  Speaker 7: you look at these numbers, clearly, this is not a
• 45:53
  Speaker 7: healthy Shohei Ohtani. And to me, it's not just mechanics.
• 45:56
  Speaker 7: To me, it's not just timing. To me, it's just
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: the fact that he really is in a lot of
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: pain and ailment. And Shohei, like you said, AJ, isn't
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: going to take himself out of the lineup.
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: And also, I'm not.
• 46:06
  Speaker 7: Sure the Dodgers have better options on their bench. I
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: know everybody wants to see Josue DiPaola. Rookie sensation has
• 46:12
  Speaker 7: taken three really quality at-bats throughout the postseason.
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: But I don't think you're going.
• 46:18
  Speaker 7: To trust Jose DiPaola, with all respect to who he
• 46:21
  Speaker 7: is as a player, over any percent of Shohei Ohtani.
• 46:24
  Speaker 7: If you are going to go out and put Ohtani
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: in your lineup every day, then you're going to win
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: or lose by how healthy he is. And the Dodgers
• 46:30
  Speaker 7: are willing to put their season on the line here
• 46:33
  Speaker 7: and say, this is our guy. If he says he's healthy,
• 46:36
  Speaker 7: he's going to play. We all know he's not. It's
• 46:39
  Speaker 7: just a matter of, can he find a way to produce?
• 46:42
  Speaker 7: Because we're not going to see... the Shohei Otani power
• 46:44
  Speaker 7: that we're accustomed to, right?
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: But we could see.
• 46:47
  Speaker 7: Him find a way to get on base up until
• 46:48
  Speaker 7: the game two of the NLCS, he'd gotten on base
• 46:51
  Speaker 7: in five out of six games.
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: So can he get on base and still be a threat?
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: That's what the Dodgers are banking on.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: I disagree.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: There is a percentage of Shohei that Jose DiPaolo is
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: better than. Yeah, there's not a percentage that, like, you know,
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: certain players are better than Shohei, but Jose DiPaolo... has
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: shown he can give you good at-bats. He had one
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: at-bat and he walked. It wasn't too big for a spotlight.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: My question to you, though, is we agree. I think
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: everybody agrees he's impaired. He's hurt. Are there experienced enough
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: hitting coaches on this team to help him through this situation,
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: to help a Shohei player? through this situation, or do
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: you feel like he is on his own, like he
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: is making the decision to be able to play impaired
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: on his own? I, I, it's.
• 47:43
  Speaker 5: A fair question.
• 47:44
  Speaker 7: And I think anytime an offense is a clicking or
• 47:46
  Speaker 7: a specific hitter in particular, the hitting coaches come into,
• 47:49
  Speaker 7: into question as in, you know, are they equipped to
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: handle this?
• 47:52
  Speaker 5: What can they do?
• 47:53
  Speaker 7: And I will say the Dodgers hitting coaches make themselves
• 47:55
  Speaker 7: available on a weekly, if not series basis to talk
• 47:58
  Speaker 7: about what they're working with Otani, what they're seeing in,
• 48:01
  Speaker 7: but I don't think the Dodgers hitting coaches can make
• 48:03
  Speaker 7: him feel better. And that that's ultimately where all of
• 48:06
  Speaker 7: this problems are coming from. Showing Otani might feel physically
• 48:09
  Speaker 7: well enough to step in the box guys, but on
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: the on-deck circle, he's not swinging the bat. He's taking
• 48:13
  Speaker 7: on-field BP because it's trying to find out some mechanical
• 48:16
  Speaker 7: tweaks and changes that he's making with help of.
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: The hitting coach.
• 48:20
  Speaker 7: He's making those tweaks and changes because he's so physically
• 48:23
  Speaker 7: compromised that he can't rely on his normal swing. So
• 48:26
  Speaker 7: obviously things are going to be out of sync there
• 48:28
  Speaker 7: when you have both the injuries themselves and the fact
• 48:30
  Speaker 7: that he's trying to work on different mechanical things to
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: subside from the pain.
• 48:34
  Speaker 5: It's not working.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Clearly.
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: So I don't think it's a lack of experience from
• 48:38
  Speaker 7: the hitting coaches. I think it's very much as you
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: guys have said, show me wants to play. He says
• 48:42
  Speaker 7: he's good enough to play. The Dodgers are going to
• 48:44
  Speaker 7: play him. He's certainly not helped by, you know, Will
• 48:47
  Speaker 7: Smith behind him or at this point in front of him.
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: Cause I think they're going to drop a 20 down
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: in the order again today. Who's also not hitting well
• 48:54
  Speaker 7: at all this post season. You haven't seen a lot
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: of slug this series. The best of best, ironically, this
• 49:00
  Speaker 7: entire post season have been that of Kyle Tucker.
• 49:03
  Speaker 5: So they're, Offensively, overall, they've had a hard time scoring runs.
• 49:07
  Speaker 7: That kind of negative scoring impact is only further magnified
• 49:12
  Speaker 7: because both Otani and Will Smith have been virtual non-factors
• 49:15
  Speaker 7: at the plate.
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: Dave Roberts says this a good amount of time.
• 49:19
  Speaker 7: Where he says, you still have the presence of Otani
• 49:22
  Speaker 7: in the box and pitchers are going to respect that.
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: And to an extent, I think that's true.
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: I think you can still respect that this is one
• 49:28
  Speaker 7: of the greatest players we'll ever see facing off against
• 49:30
  Speaker 7: a pitcher. But the pitcher also knows that this player
• 49:33
  Speaker 7: is not right and can maybe attack him a little
• 49:34
  Speaker 7: bit differently. all of that I think is attributing to
• 49:37
  Speaker 7: why we've seen such bad numbers in production from Shohei lately.
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: Katie, is it true? Like what Joe said on TV
• 49:44
  Speaker 4: and what Rick Krzyzewski told him to say that Shohei
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: is a slap hitter now? Is he a slap hitter?
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: He tried to bunt. So is Rick and Joe, are
• 49:53
  Speaker 4: Rick and Joe right? Or are they off when they
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: said that, that he has no power anymore? Is this,
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: is this why he's going to hit eight? Katie, is
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: he going to hit eight? Like, and be like the
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: second clean up guy and hit eighth and have to
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: bunt and, Then we're going to have to come up
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: with new stats for Shohei.
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: Kuduski is never wrong, AJ, and you know this.
• 50:12
  Speaker 7: Whether it's Dodgers broadcast or Fox broadcast, he's never wrong.
• 50:17
  Speaker 4: Except for when he forgets to put players in my
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: notes because he's busy.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know, AJ.
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: Maybe do your own notes every now and then.
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: No.
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: Why would I do that?
• 50:27
  Speaker 7: Anyway, anyway, it's actually a fair point that Joe made
• 50:30
  Speaker 7: on the broadcast, because you look at the swings that
• 50:32
  Speaker 7: Shohei's making, and he is kind of this two, I
• 50:35
  Speaker 7: remember two hits in particular, not that there's been very
• 50:37
  Speaker 7: many from him, where he's essentially been a slap hitter
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: and tried to go the other way. We saw that
• 50:42
  Speaker 7: in game one, and then in the DS, he slapped
• 50:45
  Speaker 7: one that actually ended up scoring a run, or either
• 50:48
  Speaker 7: scoring a run or he scored the run. So there
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: are ways to get on base, and it's certainly.
• 50:52
  Speaker 5: Not what you want from Shohei Otani. You don't want
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: him to be that slap hitter.
• 50:55
  Speaker 7: But His ability to work a walk and try to
• 50:58
  Speaker 7: do something to put the ball in play. There's a
• 51:00
  Speaker 7: reason he showed bunt against Romero. He's had virtually no
• 51:03
  Speaker 7: success against JoJo in his career. So doing something to
• 51:06
  Speaker 7: get on base is better than nothing, obviously. But there
• 51:09
  Speaker 7: are reasons that we've seen Dave Roberts drop him from
• 51:11
  Speaker 7: leadoff to two-hole to clean up to now potentially batting
• 51:15
  Speaker 7: six against Robert Gasser. It's just to try to put
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: Shohei in as best a spot as possible, but also
• 51:20
  Speaker 7: to not have him be a rally killer. It is
• 51:22
  Speaker 7: so hard to score in the postseason, especially this year.
• 51:26
  Speaker 7: The last thing the Dodgers need are an unproductive Shohei
• 51:29
  Speaker 7: Otani and Will Smith back-to-back in the middle of the order.
• 51:31
  Speaker 7: So if he wants to go ahead and shorten that
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: swing up, slap to the other side and try to
• 51:35
  Speaker 7: get on base, it's better than striking out.
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: All right, you're in Alana's Dodgers. Need to turn it
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: around right now. They're home, which they haven't been... Elite
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: at home, they were better than a lot of teams
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: on the road, but they're down 2-0. Does their lack
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: of ability to, they're essentially one game over. 500 on
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: the season against teams over.
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: 500.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: Is that shining through in this series, or is the
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: fact that they're home, they're ready to go, they have
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: Blake Snell on the mound who, not sure exactly what
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: you're going to get. turn the tables for the Dodgers?
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: Or is there legitimate concern that maybe this team isn't
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: quite in a spot to take this series back?
• 52:20
  Speaker 7: I think there is legitimate concern, but mostly because of
• 52:23
  Speaker 7: just how intense Milwaukee has played these guys. After game two,
• 52:27
  Speaker 7: I think the Dodgers, across the board, were punched in
• 52:29
  Speaker 7: the mouth when Yamamoto made it just two and two-thirds.
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: This was not something that they had planned for, obviously.
• 52:34
  Speaker 7: You feel pretty good any time Yamamoto takes the mound
• 52:37
  Speaker 7: in October. But the way that the Brewers responded compared
• 52:40
  Speaker 7: to the Dodgers, I mean, the Dodgers did not register
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: a shutdown inning that game. And each time they scored
• 52:45
  Speaker 7: or tried to take advantage of a Brewers, honestly, sloppy
• 52:48
  Speaker 7: defense that game, The brewers came right back and kept,
• 52:51
  Speaker 7: they're like, gnats guys they're like they just they're like
• 52:54
  Speaker 7: pests they just keep coming at you and eventually you
• 52:57
  Speaker 7: don't have a defense against it and that's where i
• 52:59
  Speaker 7: thought the dodgers looked overmatched i thought they looked fatigued
• 53:02
  Speaker 7: by the brewers style of play and they haven't had
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: a lot you're right a good track record against teams
• 53:07
  Speaker 7: over 500 but the regular season to me doesn't really
• 53:10
  Speaker 7: mean anything in the postseason the bigger question to me
• 53:12
  Speaker 7: is how are these how is this matchup going to
• 53:14
  Speaker 7: go in game three and game four blake snell and
• 53:16
  Speaker 7: tyler glass now both great pitchers with great stuff but
• 53:20
  Speaker 7: kind of kind of a wild card in terms of
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: you don't know what you're going to get.
• 53:23
  Speaker 5: They both haven't thrown a lot of innings this year.
• 53:25
  Speaker 5: They both have a long injury history. They need to
• 53:28
  Speaker 5: go deep in the games, but more importantly.
• 53:30
  Speaker 7: The Dodgers need to get onto the Brewers starters because
• 53:33
  Speaker 7: that Milwaukee bullpen is disgusting. There was legitimate concern because
• 53:37
  Speaker 7: for me, the Dodgers, this is the first time that
• 53:39
  Speaker 7: they've looked overmatched by an opponent and their slack of
• 53:42
  Speaker 7: track record against teams over 500 is telling, but I
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: think it's a lesser, a lesser point to the fact
• 53:48
  Speaker 7: that the Brewers have just simply outplayed them in two games.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: All right. I got to ask how, how deep can
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: Blake snow go? Can he give them five innings? Can
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: he give them more than five innings? Will Dave Roberts
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: let him get into the sixth? Or is it going
• 54:03
  Speaker 4: to be a short start again for Blake Snell? And
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: then we're going to run to the bullpen, which overall
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: has been decently effective in the series.
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's such a fair question, AJ.
• 54:13
  Speaker 7: And honestly, something that I'm interested in finding out when
• 54:15
  Speaker 7: we get to the stadium later today, because Blake Snell
• 54:17
  Speaker 7: just hasn't thrown a lot of innings since he missed
• 54:21
  Speaker 7: that start in mid-September, or he threw one inning in
• 54:23
  Speaker 7: that start and then left with groin tightness. Then he
• 54:25
  Speaker 7: pitched just once since then in the regular season, and
• 54:28
  Speaker 7: then he makes one NLDS appearance and he throws 90 pitches,
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: but he wasn't effective in terms of length. So to me,
• 54:36
  Speaker 7: it's less about innings. It's more about pitch count. If
• 54:38
  Speaker 7: he can be effective and not nibble, the Braves had
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: given Blake Snell trouble in both of his starts, both
• 54:43
  Speaker 7: in the regular season and in that NLDS outing. And
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: he hasn't faced the Brewers this year. So maybe that's
• 54:48
  Speaker 7: going to give him some confidence going in. I don't
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: think Blake Snell lacks confidence to be clear, but I
• 54:53
  Speaker 7: think it's right to speculate just how far can you go?
• 54:56
  Speaker 7: How deep in this lineup can you take it before
• 54:58
  Speaker 7: Dave Roberts turns to what has been a pretty established
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: bullpen and To me, if he can go five and
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: keep these Brewers tame, get up a sturdy lead, and
• 55:09
  Speaker 7: it's a close game.
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: Then I think Dave Roberts goes to his bullpen.
• 55:12
  Speaker 7: But if the Dodgers can establish a lead and Blake
• 55:14
  Speaker 7: Snell looks comfortable, then I think Dave Roberts lets the
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: starter ride this out a little bit.
• 55:18
  Speaker 5: It's just really hard to predict.
• 55:19
  Speaker 7: What we can expect from Blake Snell because we just
• 55:21
  Speaker 7: haven't seen him that much in.
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: The last month.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: You feel satisfied with that, AJ?
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: No.
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: Damn it. i'm gonna have to call rick because i
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: i needed a lock and i was hoping for her
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: to give me a lock and she didn't help.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Me i had a feeling that was going on there
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: but i want to finish with this okay there we
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: actually have a guest well two big league guests joining
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: us tyler phillips is about to join us on the
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: other side here and then joey vato later on former
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: big leaguer now you had a little back and forth
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: to explain to joey what's going on with shohei and
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: i think it was nice of you to respond and
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: give him that answer, but he's following Katie. He's looking
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: at you for coverage. So it's not just AJ and
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: maybe Joey is responding in a different way. I mean,
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: he clearly is loving your coverage out there.
• 56:08
  Speaker 5: Oh, if anytime Joey Votto reaches out, you got to respond.
• 56:11
  Speaker 7: I've actually enjoyed just how open he is with his opinions,
• 56:13
  Speaker 7: just going back and forth because.
• 56:15
  Speaker 5: Yes, AJ, AJ, even you hearing the.
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: The discourse and the different opinions about baseball is actually
• 56:22
  Speaker 7: like my favorite thing about this sport, especially in the
• 56:24
  Speaker 7: post season when every single thing teams and players.
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: Do is is magnified by like 10.
• 56:29
  Speaker 7: So it's been really cool to just kind of see
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: the different perspectives, especially against all these star players. And
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: it makes actually, when I'm not doing the National League side, obviously,
• 56:37
  Speaker 7: I'm locked into the AL side just because I want
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: to see what everyone's talking about.
• 56:39
  Speaker 5: And it's been fun.
• 56:40
  Speaker 7: AJ, so you can keep sending me your opinions and
• 56:42
  Speaker 7: we can still argue.
• 56:44
  Speaker 5: It's okay.
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: You can tell me I'm right. That's fine.
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Until next time. He's not always right. I write down
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: the ones that I get when I'm wrong. I'm writing
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: a book about it at one point. It's going to
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: be called all the time. It was wrong.
• 56:58
  Speaker 5: Can I co-sign on that book?
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. 100%. It's going to be a short book.
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: It's going to be a short book for you guys.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: No, it's going to be a long book because each
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: one I'm going to say like really slowly each word.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to drag it out. Anyway. All right. We
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: got to jump. Katie's busy today. Katie, thank you for
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: the time and for stopping by. Enjoy the game later.
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: You got it guys. Talk to you later.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Uh, Katie on Dodgers territory too. You can check out
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: many episodes all week long. It's Katie. It's Alana and
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: it's Clint, Clint. I got you, Clint. And I got
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: you Lorraine co baseball fans. Time to lock in Lorraine
• 57:32
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• 57:44
  Speaker 1: FT 10 at checkout for 10% off. Oh, SeatGeek's important
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: right now where we go over schedules. This is an
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: important SeatGeek segment. Also, this is a time to strike.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: If you're a fan and you live in one of
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: those cities that has games going on, okay, clearly the
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Rays are having some issues with tickets, and then you
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: can go to SeatGeek and get them for a good price.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: So that's one lane. And sometimes if you're into the
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: last-minute wait, it can really help you out. That's one place. Two, L.A.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Ticket price is lower than usual. Dodger fans speaking with
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: their hearts right now, not feeling it the same way.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: So they're down 2-0. Easier to get into the ballpark
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: right now, price-wise. SeatGeek's got you hooked up there. And
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: then third of all, AJ, we have an afternoon game
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: on a Thursday at 1 o'clock Eastern. Just the law
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: of averages with people that can't get out of work,
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: that's a real thing. People are going to put their
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: tickets up some on SeatGeek and give you another great opportunity.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: Not that you can't get them anyway, but there will
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: be even more opportunities over the next 48 hours to
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: get Really good seats at a really good price.
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: Yeah, get your playoff tickets, especially if you go to
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: Tampa Bay and Cleveland. You can get great seats. You
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: can be the drum guy like Kratz wants you to be.
• 58:57
  Speaker 2: Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: Every time they get a guy in scoring position, you
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: can play that drum, right? But, I mean, yeah, this
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: is the opportunity. If you want to go to a
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: playoff game, go to Siki. If you want to go
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: see a game in LA, you want to go see
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: a game in Cleveland, go on Siki, get your tickets
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: and you're going to see a great matchup. And for
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: all the people out there that are Dodgers haters, you
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: got a chance maybe to see the Dodgers go home.
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: And that would make a lot of people happy except Alana, Clint, Katie, Rick, Joe,
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: how many other Dodgers fans lovers do we have on
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: this network?
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: Who's this Clint guy? Is he on Dodgers territory?
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: I don't know him.
• 59:34
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: But no, this is why SeatGeek, right now, if you
• 59:38
  Speaker 2: go there, there's green dots all over the Dodgers tickets.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: There are green dots all over the Guardian tickets because
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: things have changed. This is not where the Dodgers thought
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: they'd be. And the guards, so you're like, I wonder
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: how much other people were paying. SeatGeek's like... Green Dot,
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: great deal.
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: You know why?
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: Because this same ticket was going to be for a
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: 7 o'clock game, and now it's 1 o'clock. They're trying
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: to get rid of it. Get your prices.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: There it is. Territory 10. 10% off tickets on SeatGeek. Kratz,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: do you think that Brewers fans will travel well? And
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: you've got to be quick because we're about to come
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: off a break.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 6: No, I do not.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: They don't like traffic. That's why they live in Milwaukee.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: They will wait for the series to return back home
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: or for a World Series if the series does not
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: return back home. Seat Geeks is the spot.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: Well, if we want to go theater of the absurd
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: and we want to involve and engage the fans, well,
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: let them vote which team their team should play.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 9: Wow.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: That would be really interesting.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: Yankee fans, who do you want to play? Is it
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 3: the Guardians of the White Sox? Wow. You have 24
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 3: hours to vote, and that's.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 4: Who we're playing.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: Wow, Ravi, that is a phenomenal idea. I would have
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: never thought about that, man. That is a great idea.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Noah, there's a lot of weird things that go
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: on up here. There's a lot of weird things. I
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: don't want to throw water on the conversation, but the players'
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: response was, unfortunately, the league once again made clear all
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: of these proposals we just talked about are contingent on
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 3: players agreeing to a salary cap, a system that guts
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: player rights and compensation, as well as its other anti-player proposals. So,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: you know, you were excited about this sort of back
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: and forth. And in the end, the fire hose came
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: out and doused any flame of optimism.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: It's gone.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: John Hister from the Dugout Show. And we saw him
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: last week a couple of times on FT do a
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: great job. Whoa, fan voting. who plays who in the playoffs?
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: Players would be pissed. What's next, AJ?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: Orgs would be pissed. Yeah, but what's next? Fans get
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: to pick who starts in the All-Star game or something? No.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: Don't tell them, AJ.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: And that affects your Hall of Fame? That affects everything.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: Your Hall of Fame resume and how much you get paid?
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: Because the fans get to vote on it? No.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: They got it.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: That's not something like that.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 2: Neither. We're going to do neither.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: Rob.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: Uncle Rob's going to pick. Rob Manfred is going to pick.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 6: That would be amazing.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: Let's do that. Super happy with them.
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: That sounds good. Just like what, what, what's next? The
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: commissioner is going to get to pick a player that
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: gets to play in the all-star game.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 2: That would never happen. Scott, come back to reality.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Scott, you're so far off.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: This is such an off season topic. Well, the Phillies
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: said Alex Cora on line one. Alex said, I don't
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: want to be on line one. I want to go
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: on vacations. So then they hung up and then they
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: went to line two and there was Don Mattingly and
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: they said, all right, cool. Uncle, you're back. Two-year deal. Kratz,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: the temperature in Philly about not just Donnie. I mean,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: Donnie's had a lot of success, actually some underrated success, right?
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: In terms of taking this team that was looking like crap.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: And I don't think it necessarily all had to do
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: with Donnie. Of course, they just started out playing like crap,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: but Remember the Marlins season he had where he took
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: them to the playoffs? But what about the process, too?
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: Did they do a lot of homework? I mean, we
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: didn't hear really about sit-down interviews or anything. So was
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: it Cora won on the list, Mattingly two, cool. Cora
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: said no, Mattingly two, and we're done.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: So what you're saying, what you're asking, Scott, is did
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 2: they go outside of the organization to get info suck
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 2: like the Seattle Mariners are doing when they're interviewing players?
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: over 20 people for their managerial opening. They don't think
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: that many people, they don't think however many people they're
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: interviewing are actually good candidates. They're just getting information from them.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: What are we missing? And if that's what you're asking,
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: if that's what you're suggesting the Phillies should have done
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: or they didn't do, we don't know about it, whatever
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: it is, you think Dave Dombrowski is really asking a
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: lot of questions about what's going on? He has run
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: his Hall of Fame career and he's run the teams
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: the way that he wants to, I think he's confident
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: in his abilities. Doesn't mean he doesn't ask from other people,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: but I think he's confident in this team. I don't
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: see Dave Dombrowski going, I don't really think we're that good,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: but I'm just going to keep my job. I think
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 2: he thinks he has a lot of the things right,
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: and he also, like it's not, to me, I don't
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: think it's that big a deal that he doesn't hired
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 2: anybody else besides Don because Don has definitely done everything
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 2: you asked and more as a manager I think it's
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 2: just an opportunity when it's open to get some information
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 2: from the Braves hire you know maybe interview their bench
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: coach okay Padres they have a they have a culture
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: thing going out there let's just see what they're doing
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: you find out information from teams and then you can
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: still go back to Don and be like it was
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: you all along Donnie baseball.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my thing, AJ, is do you like the
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: info suck or would they have felt it's disrespectful to
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: Don if they start calling a bunch of other people?
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a back and forth there that makes sense.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: But I do think, you know, if you don't use
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: this opportunity sometimes when you have an opening to at
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: least have some conversations and get a bunch of information.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: To me, it's like you're a surgeon and you're the
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: best in the biz, but then you don't go to
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: any of the conferences and learn anything new. You're just like, no,
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: my technique's the best. That might change, bud.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: No, but I think Don was someone that Dave is
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: comfortable with. I think Preston Mattingly, his son, who's the GM,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: is comfortable with him. Mr. Middleton, who is the owner,
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: is comfortable with Don Mattingly. And he did a good job.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: Let's not forget, he did a good job from where
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: they were with Rob Thompson to where he took them.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: And I think the players, I don't know this, but
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: I would assume the players maybe had a little say.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: And once Dave went to Alex Cora and he said no,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: they're thinking like, can we get someone better than Don Mattingly? Like,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: can we really find someone better than Don Mattingly? I
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 4: don't know that they could. And so they said, hey,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: let's get Don Mattingly in here. Let's give him a
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: two-year deal. And let's let him see what he can
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: do with this group that's supposed to be in their
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: window that could be closing. But they like what they
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 4: saw to Don Mattingly. And listen, he's had a really
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: nice career as a manager. And he was a really
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: good player. He should be in the Hall of Fame
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 4: as a player. But I don't get that vote. But
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: I don't think they could find someone better. I don't
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 4: think they thought there was a better candidate than somebody
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 4: that already knows the organization inside and out.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: I would agree. I was asked plenty of times around,
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: who should be the next guy since Don's out? And
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: my answer was always, I think Don's back. But here's
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: my question. And it's the word that AJ repeated twice
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: in his first two sentences. Comfortable. Are you comfortable where
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: the Phillies are at? Just squeaking into the playoffs. Not
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: quite getting it done in the postseason the last few years.
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 6: Are you comfortable?
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 2: Because if you're comfortable, comfort... does not create winning. Comfort
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 2: creates an opportunity to win and you have to have
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: somebody to go out there and get it. And what
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: does that mean? I don't think there was a better
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: candidate out there. But I would hate to hear we're comfortable.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: This is definitely... I don't think Philly fans want to
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: hear they're comfortable. I don't think... Marlins want to hear
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: they're comfortable after being, you know, a below 500 team.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: I don't think Astro fans want to hear we're comfortable
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: even though we won the division and we are a
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: 500 team. Like comfort gets you into the playoffs. A
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: little sense of urgency, which I think the Phillies need,
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: which I think the Mariners need. And both are getting
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: new managers or both had an opportunity to get new
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: managers this year. We'll see which one pushes those right buttons.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Phillies have to do something different. We've been
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: saying it for years, some early exits here that's just
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: not working for them.
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: What are they going to do different? What can they
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 4: do different, though?
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Got to try something.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: What?
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, they can make a couple changes to the roster.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: They have the team locked in. Yeah, most of the
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: guys are locked in, so it's not going to get torched.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: Because I remember whatever the quote was from Bryce after
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: the loss, where it's going to look very different. I
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: don't think it's going to look very different. I think
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: you can only do a couple tweaks, but you've at
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: least got to make those tweaks impactful.
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 9: Say because I'm not in the clubhouse every day, but
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 9: there are things that happen. You wonder like, is someone
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 9: saying anything? Like you said you would have did the
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 9: same thing over again. No, you can't do the same thing.
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: It didn't work.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 9: Some of the base running cues, all the sliding over
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 9: the bases, like someone's got to say something.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: Enough is enough.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 9: And sometimes though, a player needs to be sent down
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 9: and like have a wake-up call and say, look, you
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 9: need to do this better. I think it happened with
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 9: Anthony Bowlby. I think he was better when he came
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 9: back up because he got sent down and said, hey,
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 9: I can't keep doing what I'm doing. It's not working.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 9: And the other thing that I see other teams, I think,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 9: do is they understand their role really well. Like, you
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 9: look at Tampa. The first four hitters don't bunt. They
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 9: play big boy baseball. But the next five guys absolutely
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 9: know what their role is. My role is to get
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 9: on base, is to steal a base, is to sacrifice,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 9: a safety squeeze. It's not to hit the ball out
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 9: of the ballpark. And I'm not going to try to
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 9: hit the ball out of the ballpark. I think the Yankees'
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 9: bottom half of the order could do a better job.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 9: Imagine if Jazz had a. 350 on base percentage, how
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 9: many bases he would steal. It would be off the charts,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 9: and it would really help the team win.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: That was a good analysis there from Joe Girardi. Former
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: Yankees manager, World Series winning manager. Happy birthday to Joe.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: What did you think of the passion there?
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 4: He's not wrong, and I agree with what he said.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: But teams don't do it like that, and teams are keeping–
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: here's the problem. You can say, Joe, if Jazz had a.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 4: 350 on base and didn't try to hit 50 homers,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: he'd be a better player. But you know what Jazz says?
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: I'm going to get paid more if I hit 25
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 4: to 30 than if I hit 10 to 15 and
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: have a. 350 on base. And that's going to be
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 4: his argument back. So until players start getting paid for
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 4: something other than home runs– You're going to see every
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: guy keep trying to hit home runs. And by the way,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: Anthony Volpe did do a nice job when he came back.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: So let's also acknowledge what Volpe did.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think some people were like, oh, Girardi's ripping Boone.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: I was like, I think he's ripping the front office
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: and roster construction. You know, like, oh, Boone's going to
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: sit there with Jazz and tell him to change who
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: he is as a player. To me, that's the industry
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: and that's the front office, not the manager.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: It's their career. It's their career. It's a player's career.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: Front office could tell me, you need to do this
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 2: all the time. I need to make the decision to
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 2: do this. I need to make the decision to be
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: able to. I think Jazz chased his 31 home runs
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: last year. I think he went 31 and 31 the
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: year before. I think his stolen base percentage was a
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 2: little bit suspect. But he stole 41 bases in his
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: platform year for free agency. He's going to chase those numbers.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: And part of being a good player, you've got to
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 2: be stubborn, but you also have to be able to
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: be stubborn to get the W for the team.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: This gets pointed out all the time, sometimes on broadcast,
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: like it's a new concept, but it's not. AJ, can
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: you walk us through this chart for the crowd that's
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: just listening?
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: Allowing opponent, this is from Travis Sawchuk, allowing opponents to
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 4: face a reliever too often in a postseason series can
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: be a big problem. No kidding, Travis, because you get
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: to see him five times in six days or whatever
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 4: it is, five times in seven days. Yeah, you get
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: to see these guys over and over, and you just
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: get to get more timing. You get to get everything settled.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: It doesn't look as odd. When you face a reliever
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: one time in a series and you play that team
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: one time a year, you can look kind of silly,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: but the more you get to see someone, the better
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: the hitter has a chance because they know where to
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 4: look for the release point. They know what their pitches do. So, yeah,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 4: when you get to see a guy five times in
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: a five-game series, your odds should go up as a
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 4: hitter if you're decent.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 6: It's easy.
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: It's easy. Been saying it for a long time. I
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: was a bad hitter in the big leagues. If you
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: let me see the exact same pitch over and over
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: and over again, which a lot of these relievers have,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: they're not throwing four pitches up there. You let me
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: see it multiple times, I'm going to get you. And
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: I wasn't very good. What do you think some of
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: these other dudes are doing? I mean, this is the Brandon,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: what I always call the Brandon Morrow theory. The dude
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: threw like eight times in seven games. And they finally
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 2: got to him. He was nasty. But they just threw
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: him too much.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: And he broke too. But that's a whole different story.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 2: He didn't break that series. He was breaking.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 7: No, no, no.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 4: He didn't break.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: They were breaking him slowly.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: Killing me softly.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel bad. Although, I mean, he had a
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: good run.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: He had a good run.
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: And you can swing big on your. Same game parlay
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: with an MLB SGP boost token. You've seen a lot
• 1:13:16
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• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: problem or concern?
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 6: Call 1-800-GAMBLER.