Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 99 : Schwarbombs And Topps Chrome Release

Transcript

Ep. 99 : Schwarbombs And Topps Chrome Release · Cards & Categories

• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome everybody to episode ninety nine of Cards
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and Categories. I'm Mike Coolard from Rasball, joined as always
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: by my very good friend Jeremy Burr, also from Rasball.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: How you doing tonight, buddy? This is kind of like
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: our second anniversary. This our first pod two years ago around,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: came out right around the All Star Break, and now
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: we're doing again. So having nostalgic feelings here.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Tonight a little bit. It's crazy to think we've been
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: doing this for two years and so thanks for all
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: that are actually listening for two years straight. We appreciate you.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: A great, great time and great content of you to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: your anniversary. Talking about the All Star festivities, I don't
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: about you, but it was very festive. It was very fun.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: That's probably one of the most fun All Star Break
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: times I think I've had in a few years. This
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: has just been This was just a fun few days
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: for baseball. So excited to be here, excited to talk
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: about it. Less news than usual because we had the
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: All Star Game, but that's okay, that's fun stuff.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes it a lot easier to digest. I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: look back on our first episode. We actually did like
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: both Cards and categories and it's been a long time
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: since we've done that, so it's it's quite the lengthy
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: topic if you want to go that long, But I
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: can see why we did it off the bat because
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it made sense. With the All Star break, we were
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: so excited. And I'm gonna fight through some All Star
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: blues because like this today, like is a day of
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: like maybe a little bit of rest. Tomorrow, I'm not
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: gonna lie I get like a little bit of like
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: kind of depressed because there's no baseball on just like
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the deluge, when you get that extra day, it's a bummer.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: But like you said, we had a great All Star
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: weekend to wrap up. If you want to stick around
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: for the second topic, though, we will get in some cards.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: We're gonna cover twenty twenty five Tops Chrome. That's gonna
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: be our main portion of this pod to this week
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: as we're recording on July sixteenth. But before we get
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: to that top Chrome, let's talk about the All Star break.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: So we'll sum up what happened last night, and we
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: had our first ever bat off swing off between the
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: NL and the ALE, the NL and AL to be
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: able to decide the game in lieu of extra innings.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Kind of the ghost of Bud Selig has been buried
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: here in terms of not having to go through an endless,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: endless march and in terms of using the pictures. Using
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the bench allowed the managers to really empty thing out,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: everything out. But obviously the biggest moment of last night
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: was Kyle Schwarber hitting homers on all three of his
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: swings in that swing off between the Ale NL. If
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you don't know how it worked, it was actually kind
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of like a penalty shootout for soccer, I would say,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: more so than hockey, where the managers picked each of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: their three players and then those players. It was kind
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of classic home run derby style back in the nineties,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: where they each got three outs, three swings to be
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: able to work with, to be able to try to
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: hit homers. The NL ended up winning that because of
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Kyle Schwarber's three homers on three swings. It was fantastic, right,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Like just watching Schwarber. What a perfect person for this
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: swing off.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was fun. I mean a little bit like
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: the managers almost I think forgot about this as a possibility,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: like they were I feel like they were just winging it,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: like Kyle Sowers like I just got told this thing.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't know this happened. Like I'm like I did
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Dave Roberts just walk down the bench, get you like
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: you're swinging. But Schwarber was the ideal guy in the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Polar Bear Alonzo I think was also right, you know,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: right there to take glory if needed. But you know,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: pulling off three homers and three swings, you know, after
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Rooker went up there and put two out of three,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: you know, no small feet and that like that's that's
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: a big, big challenge. But he was the right guy
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: for the right spot. And there's no question once he
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: did that, assuming that they won, he was the MVP.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: He he absolutely earned it. And I I thought I
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: was gonna be like, ah, this is kind of a gimmick,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: this is kind of fun. I thought it was amazing.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I thought it was so fun to watch, you know,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: a little, you know, I've I've grown, I think over
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the years and start to enjoy the the All Star
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: festivities in the game and how they've merged the actual
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: like announcing and interviews and things during the game, like
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: they interviewed each hitter before they even went to the plate,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: like they were really in there and you got to
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: hear every little bit of piece and the players just
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: loved it. They're in full support. The only thing I
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: want to know is, like, was like Otani and Judge
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: like already at the hotel rooms like like like I
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: think it was Treek Schooble on the side on the
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: by the dugout in like street clothes because they were
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: all like didn't think this was a thing, and so
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: it was just interesting to see like who has still
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: had their cleats on and that's who were sending them
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: up to the plate.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, that's That's exactly what happened, is that Otani
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and Judge were already changed and ready to go. They
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: were already doing media availability and had to get on
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: their flights. It's kind of like maybe the one benefit
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of being a super Duper Star and being voted into
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the All Star Game is that once you get removed
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and you know you're not going back in, most of
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: those guys get early charter flights to you know, maybe
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: take a day off like they you know, when you
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: are able to charter flights like that could at least
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: like go to the Caribbean for a day, especially out
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of Atlanta. I wouldn't be surprised that there's a decent
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: number of players that did that. In terms of the
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: game itself, it was great to also see the players
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: wearing their just normal home and away jerseys and also
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: like without all the city connect stuff. I know, this
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: is going to sound like one of my most old
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: man yelling to get off your long takes that I have,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: but like every team's uniforms from both a home and
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: road perspective are so crisp and so clean that like
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it's really fantastic to see them all in them again
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: because they it just kind of really does bring back
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the nostalgia of like the game when we grew up
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: watching it in the nineties, and you know, back when
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: there wasn't the ubiquity of MLBtv and even MLB Network
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that I mean, I didn't even have ESPN for a
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: long time growing up, so like you only got a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: few games a week plus all the Cubs games you
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: could handle. Yeah, lots of braves as well, but because
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of just the inability to access seeing these different stars
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: that we saw in our baseball cards constantly and seeing
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: them in pictures of newspapers, magazines, books, but you can
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: see them Live harkened back to that and I really
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: love that. So I really appreciate seeing them back in
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: their normal uniforms.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: What about you, Yeah, I absolutely did. I think that
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: was that was fantastic, you know I I think it
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: helps the fans connect better. And the biggest thing for
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: me is their home run Derby uniforms were just got awful.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: The univers were fine themselves, but the logos on them,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: the AL and n A logos, just ruined the entire jersey,
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: which I feel like that's always how it is with
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: All Star Game Derby jerseys. They're just questionable at best.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: But these were just those were those were bad. So
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I was excited to see the regular jerseys there. The
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: other thing I loved, did you I don't know if
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: you got a chance to, you know, I'm sure you
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: were like me. We got watched most of the game,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: but not all bits and pieces. But did you get
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: to see the Kershaw interview? First of all, I loved
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: the Dave Roberts managing to send off Kershaw and Freeman.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Like Kershaw, you know, is whether he should have been
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in the Ultar game or not, it's a different discussion.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: But Freeman, you know, getting a standoff, a send off
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: back in Atlanta. I loved that, But I loved the
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Kershaw interview while he was pitching. I don't know if
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: you got a chance to see and experience that, but
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: like that just brings these guys down to earth. It
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: was almost hilarious the way Kershaw was like, I'm old,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: I can't throw hard anymore. Like here's the best I got.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Let's see what's what's gonna happen, And you can just
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: see what was going through his mind the whole time.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And the fact that he's able to compete at that
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: level while literally talking to the you know whatever, billions
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: and millions of fans at the same time. That's impressive.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I did like that moment. I also
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: liked the hot mic when Kershaw was coming off and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: high fiving in the dugout and telling cal Rowley to
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: suck it, which was great. That was right up my
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: right up my alley. I appreciate that. I don't know
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: if I was quite as enthusiastic about the interview uses
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: you are, like, I like them here and there, but
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the first one in the in the top of the
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: inning with Twek Schooble and cal Rowley when they just
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: let them go and like cal Rawley's wearing a mask
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and can't talk. Slashes like behind this guy who's trying
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to hit one hundred mile our gas from Twek Schooble
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and Treek schoobl is trying to talk and actually like
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: make sure he doesn't hit anybody in the face with
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that hundred mile in our gas. It didn't really resonate
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: with me that I don't mind the interviews, but I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: think they needed to let the game breathe a little more,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: especially when you think about, like I know, MOLB is
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: trying to push these guys, get them to be bigger
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: marketing forces. And you can see this especially with like
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the strange kind of like red carpet stuff that they've
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: been doing too, where you're like they're like, what are
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you wearing and what fashion things you have in Listen,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: these ballplayers no no offense to them overall, but they're
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: not exactly like mainstream fashionistas are kind of like the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: TikTok stars that like MLB wan them to be and
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: just let it happen naturally. It feels kind of forced
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: when they're doing it and trying to like generate with
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: these interviews where I think I missed a little bit
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: more of like letting Joe Davis cook and tell stories
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: about the players. Especially this is a big national stage.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: You think about the casual fans that are tuning in,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the kids that are out there that you know, maybe
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: they don't have access to MOLBTV, and they actually are
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: getting some of the first taste of these players the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: way that we were when we were young. So it
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's almost like too naval gayzy in
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: terms of like the broadcast, Like I loved it for
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the interviews and picking the players' brains because we love ball,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: but like in a more general kind of story telling way,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: it doesn't work I think as well for me. And
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: then I mean maybe part of it too is just
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: like John Smoltz will not shut up Willy, Like I'm
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: watching these clips from these clips from last night's game
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: where like the A was rallying back and tying the
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: game against the bullpen, where I mean, also, you want
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: to talk about a big brain move, Dave Roberts letting
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: padres relievers like melt down in the All Star Game
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: very smart, But John's most is just like expounding upon
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: like if you make contact. That's what happens, Dotty Dotty don.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: It's like John, nobody through this type of stuff when
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you were playing, and like you have to understand, like
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: long balls win games. It's the best way to play baseball.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Sorry that they're not making contact, but this is an
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: all star game, man, Yeah.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: It's it's it's all fun. Like, I you're right, like
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: they did try to make it a very big production.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: I think they've done so much better than over the
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: over the years. Yeah, I like Pat McAfee announce you
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: guys and stuff like that, like yeah, like there are
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: some misses too, Like I'm not going to go too
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: too deep into those, but yeah, it wasn't all you know,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: rainbows and butterflies for sure. But what how did you
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: think about the derby? What was your thoughts on the
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: on the home run derby? Did you did you enjoy that?
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Did you call cal rally winning the derby here? Or
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: did you have Rooker by by an inch?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I mean that is I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: that is my number one conspira conspiracy now from here
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: on out. When people ask you, like, what's a conspiracy theory?
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: You would believe I would believe that MLB rigged it
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: so that cal Rally made it past Brent Rooker, my boy,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: kind of our boy. Yes, I love Brent Rooker, and
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I mean he's also a pretty dynamic and fun dude.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: But obviously cal Rally is the story of twenty twenty five.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: They made sure to give him that extra What was
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: it like a tenth of an inch or whatever?
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: In terms of it was it was not it was
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: like it was.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: It was not much. It was it was. It didn't exist, Yes, exactly,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it was totally made up. And so that is who
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: won the home run derby was cal Rally. I mean
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: it fits in terms of the narrative of the year.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: You also look at he had his dad pitch to him,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: he had his brother catching, which was a great little
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: story and fun. But yeah, and he went switchy too,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: just like yeah, the Rutchman back and forth. Impressive, impressive.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Well yeah, Like I feel like he just said at
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: that point, it was like I did, every little thing's
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: gonna check all the boxes. First catcher to win, I'm
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: gonna just switch hip for a little fun. My dad,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: my brother out here. Let's like it was the Hollywood
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: story type of thing and he absolutely absolutely earned it,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: you know. And to be fair to Junior Kivinyiro, I
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: think he got completely thrown off when the kids stole
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: the round of the home run. Kudos to that kid,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: like he, I know, like he because it didn't actually
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: impact anything from a true totals perspective, that kid is
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: just getting like notoriety going back to high school or whatever.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: It is, like everybody's gonna be talking about him. It's
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: it's it's awesome. But that threw Commonyerow off so bad.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: He was like steamed that he lost a home run
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: from that and everybody's like it's fine. They counted like,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: don't worry about like it, and he was just convinced
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: it didn't and he was thrown off. And honestly, like,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: I don't know what would happen if if that hadn't occurred.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: But after that, in the way he reacted like he
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: was done, he didn't. He did not have the mental
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: fortitude to continue at that point with the way he
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: needed and he he got very aggressive in his pitching.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: His picture was uh humming him in there a little
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: little bit more, you need to. He didn't have his
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: brother to control the pace no, he didn't.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I mean Cal did get beamed by his dad, which
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: was also I think a first in the home run Derby.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe not, I feel like I've seen that before from
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: other dads and guys who aren't throwing BP very often.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: What did you think about the format? I did like
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I thought it maybe dragged a little bit. Like part
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of this too is like I've noticed this in the
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: All Star Game too, like some of the pageantry made
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: it longer and just kind of obviously all the relief
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: pitching like that is not exactly like something I missed
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: about the old school game. But I'm used to a
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: pretty breezy, like two two and a half hour baseball game.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: So both events did feel like they dragged a little bit,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Like they did tighten up the home run derby just
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a tick where they in the second round gave them
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: fewer balls and they capped the number of balls that
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: they had in each round. I think they're close. I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: think in that first round they might need to cap
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that at twenty seven as well, which also feels right
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: right in terms of like you get twenty seven ounce
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: in a baseball game. There's this base of three in baseball,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: like why not just use it.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it feels like they were pretty much there in
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the derby. Now, yeah, I still get a little thrown
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: off because all the bonus stuff and like it, like
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: everybody gets bonuses. But then you don't like it. It's
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: got a little get I wish they could tighten that
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: up just a little bit more Like I want the
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: guy who's gonna win the derby and hitting the home runs.
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: I don't want the guy that uh managed to finagel
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: his way around get one extra switch set of wings
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: or something like that, like like, let's put them on
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: the even playing field. I feel, speaking of both his
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: mouth with again, rally got it by an inch. But
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: and and then I think you're right. From the actual
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: All Star game perspective, it's just it's so tough with
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: trying to get all the guys in and out, and
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine trying to manage that, like it's probably
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: a blast, but like that's probably harder to manage than
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: an actual major league game because you try and trying
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: to figure out how to get all the guys in
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: hit all the right moments, not like overtax the staff
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: not leave, you know, you know, Shane Smith, the bullpen
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: like you know, it's it's I think it's probably quite
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the challenge to do, but it does that does cause
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: it to drag on a little bit. So either way,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: I I thought this was one of the best All
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Star breaks that we've had in some time. I didn't
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: get to watch like the Celebrity game or anything like
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: that either, but it was it was all good and.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Fun, yes, exactly. And the other event, I mean, obviously
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: there was the Futures game that happened. I didn't get
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a chance to watch that yet, so I don't know
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: if I had really any great takeaways there. I've focused
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: more so on the draft in terms of that's the
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: other big event that they've run over the weekend. So
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: we had a number one pick of another former major
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: league player, not the guy you're thinking about in terms
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: of Ethan Holiday. It was Eli Willits. If you do
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: remember his father, Reggie played for six years for the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Angels from two thousand and six twenty eleven. I mean,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: especially in the fantasy realm, I'm sure people remember that
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven season where he kind of came
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: out nowhere for the twenty seven stolen bases and seventy
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: four RBI with a two ninety three average that probably
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: won a few leagues out there. Back in the day,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Reggie Willits never hit a home run, so that his
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: claim to fame over his one thousand and fourteen played appearances.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Now he gets to watch his son, Eli, a switch hitter,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: come through the Washington Nationals, which was kind of a surprise,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: but not a huge surprise because, like Willets, was the
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: guy to really target if you want to go for
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a below slot deal, and Willets was willing to take
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: i think a little less money than some of the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: big arms in terms of Kat Anderson, Liam Doyle who
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: seamless Cardinals look out everybody because somehow they keep just
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: winding up with some of the best players in these
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: past two drafts. But the surprise in this draft was
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: certainly the Angels taking Tyler Bremner in the number two
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: slot when you had Kate Anderson, Ethan Holiday, Liam Doyle,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Seth Hernandez and even I've an Arquette, I haven't actually
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the first time I've said that name out loud. He
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: fire Kret and.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: So Jamie Arnold, Jamie Arnold, let's do it. He really
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: dropped it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you, exactly. So what are your thoughts here on
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the draft, especially with Willetts and the angel was biffing
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: it and our Cardinals really coming through strong again.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think Willits is one of those
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: that has the you know, he he was the youngest
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: in the draft. He reclassified to get into this draft,
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: and he's probably got some of the highest upside in
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: this draft. So it's probably it's not a shocker that
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: he he went number one. The only thing I'd say
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: for the Nationals is like I I feel like their
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: windows slowly starting to open over the next few years here,
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: and he's he's gonna be, you know, four or five
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: years before we're really talking about will It's maybe not
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: four or five, maybe three or four because he's he's
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: got to develop away.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I thought it was a little bit of a tumble
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: for for for Holiday that said, landing with the Rockies
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: probably could not be any better, uh, just from a
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: reminiscent perspective with his father Matt Holliday being a longtime
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Rocky and then like I said, the big Arms, the
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: big Lefties and Kate Anderson, Liam Doyle kind of going
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: where where we expected once the Angels through their cur
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: ball with Bremner. Give them credit, they know what they want,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: but it was kind of like this, we're taking a
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: local guy trying to get blow slot. Like it just
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: felt like such an Angel's move when you had guys
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: on the board with I mean ace potential, like both
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Anderson and Doyle. They're not only high upside their high
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: floor guys. They have multiple pitches, they have the power.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: They they could be at worst middle mid rotation type guys.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: At best, they are not just frontline guys. They are,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: you know, top of the league, top ten type pitcher
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: guys as they develop. And the Angels just decided to no,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to go there. I go so that
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: that it was a little a little bit interesting. So
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I thought it was good top of the draft. I
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: did think it uh pretty quickly after like the top ten,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I felt like the talent level did drop off quite
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: a bit, and so I think this was a slightly
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: hop top heavy in the top five to ten, and
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: then I would say it did feel so relatively deep overall,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: but like the overall max talent level dropped pretty quickly
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: in the probably the ten to fifteen rangement held that
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: way for for a few few rounds, so lots of
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: good names out there. It'll be interesting to see. I
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: feel like we've seen a shift in minor league development
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: over the last few years of like, if this guy's ready,
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: we're gonna rush them through. So Doyle, you know, Anderson, Arnold,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: you know, guys like that were not It's not too
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: far away, even our cat. I think some of these
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: guys are gonna be knocking the door just next year.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think absolutely that. Like especially you look at
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: those teams that took Anderson and Doyle between the Mariners
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and Cardinals. There both teams and win now mode that, Like,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I think those guys they're gonna be pretty heavy targets
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: if you're talking dynasty first year keeper stuff that uh,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: you know, Anderson and Y'll probably move to like one
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: two out of this draft in a first year player
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: dynasty draft, just because of how quickly they'll move. You
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: just look at what Chase Burns did flying through the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: minor leagues. I think both Anderson and Doyle will be
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: doing that. So I'm sure we'll talk a little bit
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: more about this draft class when we get into Bowman
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: Draft in a couple months. When that product comes out.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime, good luck Tyler Bremner holding together
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to twenty twenty six. Bowman release.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: The tops is sitting there just face palm like, oh
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: my goodness, Like we have the strategy, but the number
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: one guy in the in the winter. We put the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: other guy in the spring and it was Tyler Bremner.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: So you so you have to ex expect Ethan Holliday
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: getting held out Doyle.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I could see Doyle getting held back to twenty six
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: One of those two is probably getting getting held back
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: till till twenty six.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, well let's get into some news and notes.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: As you noted off the top, it's it's a most
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: much more limited list this week because we only had
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: a half week of actual baseball. We're gonna kick off
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: with the big promotion that happened. Kind of a surprise
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: one because you don't see too many promotions right before
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: the All Star break in terms of just trying to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: get players into the swing of things, and it just
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: really makes sense post All Star break to start moving
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: them further up the ladder. But the Houston Astros did
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: promote infielder Bryce Matthews. He's most likely just shortstop eligible
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: in most of your leagues out there, but should pick
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: up second base soon or maybe has because that's where
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: he was mostly playing down at Triple A with sugar Land,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and it's been a pretty solid season for him after
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: he was drafted in twenty twenty three on Nebraska. Put
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: up a two eighty three four hundred and four to
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: sixty seven slash line at Triple A there twenty five steals,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: ten homers. But the swing and miss is the big
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: bugaboo here for Bryce Matthews, striking out more than thirty
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: percent time percent of the time at a thirty percent clip,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of held strong no matter where he's been.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: He is a grip it and rip it type of player.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: To get to that homers, to those homers, I think
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: he's got more ability to hit for average, but he
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: chooses not to. This is a guy who I've liked
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: because of just the plate skills have been solid outside
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: of the strike strikeout rate, because of the power speed,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Combo knew he was going to be a quick mover
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: like the system. Just lots of great intingibles like that.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: So what do you do with Bryce Matthews The rest
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five and beyond for dynasty and keeper leaks.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you call it the right things. I
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: think for redraft leagues. He's kind of a dart throw
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: right now. And he's the kind of dart throw I
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: actually really like because he's either going to be great
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: or terrible, you know, and you won't have to wait
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: long to figure it out. Like is the strikeout kind
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: of rate too much to hold up? If it is,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: he's back in the miners in a few weeks and
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: we're we're not talking about it. If he can, you know,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: get a little bit of hot start, which you know,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: through two games he was over seven uh with and
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: struck out I think five times, So not the hottest
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: start here. But he is very toolsy to your point.
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: He he runs, he hits for power. He's going to
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: score some runs, like he's gonna hit doubles like he
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: he's very toolsy, and so that if it hits, can
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: be extremely valuable. Like it wouldn't be a shocker to
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: be talking about Pryce Matthews here in a few months
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: of like how he just tore up the league in
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: the last two months and he's now going to be
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: you know, in high consideration for an early round next year.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Like it's not out, it's not hard to see that happening.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: Is it the likely outcome? No, that's not the likely
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: outcome with his swing and miss. But he has that
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: tools the ability that if he kind of things click,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: it's going to be extremely valuable from a fantasy perspective.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I think he's just higher, higher risk, and I do
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: think long term this is the kind of player, like
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: you just don't know which way it's gonna grow. Is
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: is going to go to the Eli de la Cruz
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: type route where he is high ris hygh reward but
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: all fill in the statue's absolutely worth it. Or is
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: he gonna be one of those guys that he, you know,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: just hacks a little too much and therefore he can't
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: use his tools.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: He's probably one of the best systems for him though,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: with that without profile, so long term I like him.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Short term, I'm taking a gamble and we'll kind of
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: see what happens, So that's your point. I was a
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: little surprised to see the call, but hey, let's let's
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: see what we got. And I think maybe that's what
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Houston's doing here is that they know this. The profile
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: is what it is. He's matured enough, let's figure out
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: if he's something that we can rely on long term.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, I think if you're also looking
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: for a comp Marcus Simeon actually lines up pretty well.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Where he struck out a lot at the beginning of
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: his career, but then was able to balance the contact
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and the power. That's I think the next level for
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Matthews is that, especially if you see him start kind
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: of cutting that k rate, that's kind of look out.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Make sure that you start scooping them out up. If
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: he can get that k right down to like twenty
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: five percent instead of thirty percent at the big leagues,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: that's when he turns into a superstar that could go
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: like top couple of rounds in our fantasy drafts out there. Okay,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: let's move on to injuries after that promotion, because we
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: still had some even though we had the short week.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: First one is it's back to Raffie Devers talk time.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: As news has come out, we actually kind of skipped
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: around the rumors of there's been some like back and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: forth with some of the Boston talk radio guys that
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: have been trying to like say that Devers showed up
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: well Clark and didn't come to a training session, And
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: maybe I shouldn't even actually say some of this because
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I might get libeled, you know, with our huge dissemination
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: platform on rasball dot com. But now we're talking about
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Devers having a lower disc injury in his back, so
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: this one is kind of cropped up out nowhere. But
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you can also see in the stats. I mean, you've
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: got to take a them with a little bit of
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: grain of salt because he's getting used to a new
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: environment and certainly isn't a worse environment for the home park.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: But since joining the Giants, Devers has hit two oh
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: two three three point thirty three twenty six. That's a
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: ninety one WRC plus to go at that slash line,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: two homers in one hundred and nine played appearances, and
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: it's even gotten worse over the past couple of weeks.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: In July that's down to a two oh five three
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: point fifty three two eighty two slash line eighty six
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: WRC plus. But the k rate has also been climbing
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: back up, so there's been some games where you know,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: he's been going hitless with a couple of k's and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: kind of flailing the way he was at the beginning
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of the season when he is battling the shoulders. So
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: is it officially time to start worrying about Raffie Devers again?
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a hard one for me because I
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: feel like this is more of an adjustment period. I
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: feel like the back's an excuse, to be honest, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like I feel very much like at the
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: beginning of the season, which like there's things just don't
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: look right, but at the same time as Raffie Devers
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: and he's always come through, Like, does it feel a
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: little bit Anthony Rin, don't esque like go to a
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: new place and fallen apart? Not yet, But I'm generally
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: not too concerned here. That said, I also didn't move
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Devers incredibly far back up the rankings after I dropped
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: him initially because I've been a little hesitant that I
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: feel like he has taking a little bit of a
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: step back overall this year. I mean, this is a
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: guy that's been like he yes, he's just twenty eight,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: but like twenty eight, but you know, seventeen seasons or whatever,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: it feels like he's been playing in the league right
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: He's been around for a while, so I think there
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: is some good wear and tear on that body. Since
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: he was playing at twenty in the majors, so o'bviously
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: got him in probably a top three round kind of
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: talent for the rest of the year, you know, maybe
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: squinting at the top two rounds. So probably the top
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: twenty to thirty bat is where I have him, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: I'm probably not gonna move him to terribly much with
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: this concern unless we start to hear like some her
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: needed disc or something like that, which this feels like
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: it's just a he's a little banged up. He's got
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: to take a little time to right himself. He'll be back.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's all fair. Okay, let's move on
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to another injured third baseman, as Austin Riley. This actually
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: happened in the Cardinal series right before the break. He
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: suffered a strained intercostal on his abdomen, so he's going
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to be down for a few weeks. I mean, but
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: these are tough injuries because they're likechobliques. I mean, it
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: pretty much is an oblique in the abdomen that you know,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: maybe it's just a little more center cut for Austin Riley,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: but after his first three full seasons in the majors
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: with where he put up, I mean, I guess twenty
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: twenty was also a full season. Fifty one cames out
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: of sixty, but I'm looking at twenty one through twenty three.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: We're looking Austin Riley averaging thirty five homers a year
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: with five plus war seasons. Now in twenty four and
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: twenty five, when he's been ages twenty seven to twenty eight,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the injuries are starting to crop up here. So last
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: year was an injury riddled season. This year is too.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: You can see it's coming across in the WRC plus
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: numbers where it's more in the mid one teams as
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: opposed to pushing one forty. This is not exactly the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: type of trend I like to see somebody like Austin Riley.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: Are you worried about him as well? Yeah?
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: I think just like it's like caution is what I
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: would say. Like, you know, the SATs this year look
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: better than they probably should. He's had a little bit
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: of luck this year, and that's kind of reflected your
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: point in the WRC plus only being a one thirteen
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and yeah, well that's the same time. This this is
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: a profile that generally lasts longer into a career. It's
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: not a speed profile. It's a little more of plotter
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: type of thing here. But it's now two years of
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: injuries and so I haven't it's not like like it's
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: been a trend. It's not been like consistent back issues
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: or the same oblique or hamstring overall. So I'm I'm
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: cautiously optimistic that, you know, he's just had some bad luck.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: The whole Braves team has just been a little bit
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: off all year, so definitely knocking him down, Like I
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: feel like I got him endeavors like almost like neck
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: and neck kind of in rankings at this point. Both
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: of them have warning signs, but both of them still like,
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: you know, it's full season run here.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: For for.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Riley, he's he's a twenty five to thirty homer guy
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: with ninety RBIs like it's it's not that far off
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: of that. The production he had it is lower, but
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: it's nothing underlined has changed that dramatically, except for he's
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: been rusty and had some injuries. So I'm willing to
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: give Riley a little bit more more time here. But
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: still he's kind of slipping down to more of that
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: top thirty ish kind of bat. When full healthy, he's
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: probably a top fifteen ish bat. So there's still some
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: caution built into that price.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's all very fair, all right.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Next injury we have is the annual trip to the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: IL for Brandon Lao to be able to there's no
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: bleaku injury. He has one of the funniest transaction trackers
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: on fangrafts. It's just him being activated, placed on the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: IL and transferred to sixty data. IELs here and there,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: because I mean, that's all he does. He had that
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: career high of one hundred and forty nine games six
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifteen played appearances back in twenty twenty one,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: has never come close to touching it. So you obviously
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: knew this was coming if you had Lao on your
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: roster anywhere. But I mean, when he's in there, it's great,
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: fantastic work he's up to. He was up to a
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: two seventy two three twenty four for eighty seven slash
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: line this season with nineteen bombs had clocked in. Oh,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: he just got passed by jose L Tuva and r
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Player Raider for season long second base value, so he's
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: gonna be probably top five. His second base has been
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a god awful position. It's been terrible because we haven't
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: had some of like the guys we've expected, like Jordan
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Westberg and others who have kind of really fallen apart
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: this year. So is this a situation where, honestly, like
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: with Law two, because of the injuries, he cycles a
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: round a lot on waiver wires and leagues where there's
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: limited Iel spots, they might have been booked up at
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: this point in the season. Are you putting one of
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: your benches their precious bench spots? Are you dedicating it
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: to Brandon Law possibly to be able to hang on
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: to see what happens on the other side of this
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: oblique injury Iel Stent, Yeah.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: I would like to, but I'm not rushing to do so.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: And that the talking about both sides of my mouth here.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Lao is like, we know exactly who he is every
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: time he's playing. He's a platoon bat with tons of
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: power and produces almost the exact same line every single
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: time he plays, and when he plays for extended period time,
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: like it's almost comical looking at his his career numbers
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: because it like the ratios of homers to bats to games,
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: Like it's just like in the strikeout rates and the average,
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: it's almost just like the exact same. If he get
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: this guy plays, this is what he does. But if
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: he plays, And so that's why I'm like, there's value
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: in stashing him because when he comes back, you know
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: what he's gonna do. It's gonna be what he's been doing.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: The problem is it's Brent Lao who's always hurt and
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: this oblique might be two weeks, it might be two months.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: Like that's just also who he is. So like that's
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: why I'm like, if I've got an open spot and
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not really doing a whole lot with it, sure
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: I'll throw him on there, but I'm also not I'm
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: not counting my chickens here. I'm absolutely looking for another
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: alternative and not expecting that he's gonna be back. And
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: that's probably the harsh reality that we have here for
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: the Rays. Maybe it's a little more plain time across
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: the rest for the rest of the team. That's all
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: the silver lining here for this century.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean I would also say too, like
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: this might also let me see how he's been doing
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: over the past like a month or so. I've been
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: checked in on Carson Williams of late, but the Rays
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: are currently putting Taylor Walls at second base. That's not
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Walls's best spot to be playing every day. But Williams
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: has looked better of late down in Triple A, hitting
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: two seventy three over the last month with seven homers.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: It would be pretty easy for the Rays to slot
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Kim over Hunts Hassan Kim over to second base and
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: bring Carson Williams up. So just a little nugget there
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: to keep an eye on Carson Williams if you want
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: to catch a little bit of lightning in a bottle,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: might be a two hundred average, but it also might
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: paste to like a thirty thirty season.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: You know, yeah, you actually call out like Hassan Kim
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: might be the best place to look right now, because
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: I you know, you talk about guys with injury issues
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: but also produced when they're healthy. Hawas On Kim's there,
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: So maybe you just need the tandem of Kim and
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Lao and we'll see what happens.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, very fair, Okay, next injury we have is another
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: mid trunk rotational muscle injury, this time to another guy
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: who always undergoes these Lars newpar outfielder for the Saint
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Louis Cardinals, and he had been it's been a better
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: season for him. I do got roasted, like right when
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Zach Netto came back and like came off the eye
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: out real quick, and nobody was really expecting it. On Reddit,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: that's when like Lars was kind of rolling and I
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I rolled with Lari's newpar over Zach Natto,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: and I regret that. Sorry, I've read it, but it
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: has been a up and down season where actually I
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: haven't checked in on his line a little bit, but
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Lars was actually down to a two twenty seven three
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: point thirty two three eighty one slug that's the slash line,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: but did come with twelve homers fifty runs because he's
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: just on base a lot with that with that walk rate,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: and it's another case of where the barrel rates always
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: look good, the hard hit rates look good, but he
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: just can't put it all together. And I watch a
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: lot of Lars Newbar games and I'm still confounded by it.
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping maybe you might have the key to unlocking
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: what Lars Newbar is and do you think he's twenty
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: seven now? So do you think there is a possibility
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: he ever gets to where the actual stats marry up
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: with the X stats.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that they do. And I think
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: that I'm gonna give you the reason, and I think
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: it's because Lars Newbar is a platoon bat playing in
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: a full time under in disguise. Like, I think that's
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: really what's taking place here, because if you've seen, like
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: if you look at Lars in totality, they the Cardinals
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: don't treat them like a platoon. They play them all
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: the time, but they picked their spots, and so they
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: really seem to try to play him into the past
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: years when he hasn't had full playing time, he's getting
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: better spots for Lars to be successful. And this year,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: when he's playing against pretty much everybody full time, it
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: seems like he's been a little bit exposed in some
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: of those because if you look across his career, he's
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: got two hundred and forty four games against lefties, He's
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: hit eight homers in those games, and so it's you know,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: and that's a one o three WRC plus he's just
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: league avers versus right he's his one to seventeen WRC
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: plus he's got forty nine bombs in four hundred and
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: forty games, so not even double the games, but definitely
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: like about two and a half almost three times the
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: at bats. So they're like, you can tell that, like
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: they're slightly picking their spots against lefties for Lars, but
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: not fully. And this year they've just let him run
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: for the most part, just fled and play, and it
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: feels like at the end of the day, he is
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: a platoon bat. So this is Trevor Larnich, this is
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Carrie Carpenter, this is that that kind of profile, but
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: with not as much power, And so if he was
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: going to be a full time player, could handle righty's
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: lefties and do what he'd been doing the last few
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: years of like those underlying stats, that's where the breakout
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: was going to come in. That's I honestly, I saw
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: I was buying him going to this year. I thought
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: he could, he could make this breakout. But I think
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: that's really what we've seen is that they've been so
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: good at picking the right spots for Lars that now
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: that they are trying to rely on him more, he
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: just it's just not quite there. Still a great player,
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: still a solid major leaguer, still a starting outfielder, still
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: has value and fantasy, but it's just the breakout that
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: we were hoping for is just not going to be there.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: And then let's add on a core injury here and
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: not gonna work.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, it's not really. It doesn't look great because
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: especially when you look at how this lineup pieces together,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: the Cardinals to get Ivon Herrera back, who isn't gonna
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: huge anymore, Yeah, they're really only going to d h him.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: But that then allows Donovan just to play left field
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: all the time. And honestly, this is JJ Weatherholt. It's
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: going to be here in a couple of weeks, I think, right,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and playing second base for the Cardinals, I think so.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, the guy looks looks strong, and
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: you know, I luckily for the Cardinals, Gorman's been playing
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: better as of late, but not necessarily what you need
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: and so and Pa Hayes is picked it up behind
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: the plates, allowing them to do a little bit more
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: with Herrera. But it is a pretty strong lineup up
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: and down. Like you've got Mason Wynn here at seventh,
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Victor Scott in the nine hole. Like it's it's a
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: pretty strong lineup, but it just doesn't have the star power.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: And I think Weatherhole like fits in right at the top,
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: probably like a two hole type of thing here behind Donovan,
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: no questions asked. He's going to play great defense, and
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I don't think it's too long. You know,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: you're in a league with me. And I picked him
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: up kind of as a flyer in a minor spot
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: because I just I just see it coming, like this
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: guy's gonna be here before you know it. And this
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: Cardinals team, they've hung around a lot more than they expect.
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: And so unless they go on a full tailspin here
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: and try to sell it the deadline, yeah we're talking
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: weather whole time and no time.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's possible they could because they keep
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: running Mike List and Fetti out there, and this team
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: is definitely going to miss the playoffs by the number
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: of like blow ups Mike Lists and Fetti have. So
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be frustrating from that perspective, especially when you've
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: got Michael McGreevey and Quinn Matthews, who's been better but
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: still has been battling walks down in Triple A. Those
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: guys are all kind of like hanging out, just ready
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: to go, and you could easily make a move or
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: two for a cheap starter and the Cardinals will be
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: right in it. They've got plenty of gunpowder down in
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the minor leagues to trade.
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: So here Lance Leyn and Kyle Gibson are so available.
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: They are still Is Kyle Gibson still available? Is he
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: hanging out in somebody's uh Triple A? Thought?
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: I thought he got released, But let's see.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: Where he's at right now. He is no longer anywhere. No, no, no, no,
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: He's down a triple A with Tampa. So he's actually
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: absolutely shredding. He's got a point five to two ERA
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: or seventeen and a third down in Triple A for Tampa.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: At Durham, they obviously unlocked something by Kyle Gibson. Not
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: surprising with the race.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Cardinals exactly.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, we got one more injury to get into.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: And this is a cheeseball one because I think you
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: know where I'm teeing up this conversation because the Kansas
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: City Royals, well, first they made a trade just today
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: for Adam Fraser. That brought Adam Fraser back home. I'm
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: sure that will pull them back to within. The Tigers,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: actually it kind of might. Second base is kind of
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: disaster for them, So Adam Fraser is a huge upgrade
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: to whatever the Royals are running out there. But Michael
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: Lorenzen went down with the strange O bleak lots of
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: obliques this week, and he was pitching pretty well. And
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: it's kind of surprising that the Royals have kind of
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: gotten this deep without having to dip too far into
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: their minor leagues. But you know who's sitting right.
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: There, Kyle, Oh sorry, Dick Mountain, My man.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: They need to do it. If he comes up, he
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: will tie Edwin Jackson for most teams played for all
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: time at fourteen. I think the Royals, come on, baby,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: let's do it.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: We can only hope it's him or leunder a villa
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: like I don't know.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I was hurt since late May. Otherwise I think he is.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I thought he was, Oh yeah, he did hurt.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I thought he was still hanging out there, but no,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: he's just not on the official injury report here on Fangrafts.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: But yeah, let's see some Rich Hill. I think that's it.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: It's time and is even tearing up the miners as
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: was like Kyle Gibson style as well.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: No, he's been awful actually, like he's I think a
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago the Royals because he's got a
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: clause in his contract where like the Royals were like, yeah,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: rich if you find somewhere else that'll take you and
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: give you a major league job, you can go and
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: hasn't happened.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the perfect scenario for the for the
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: call up for one start and then release a strategy
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: that you see seem to see gets it called up.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's designated the next day, even after he
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: goes like five innion scoreless, like this is what's gonna happen.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he could be Dallas Kykeele. They did sign Dallas
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Kykeel within the last week former Cy Young picture that
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: we could be seeing him in a Kansas City Royals
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: uniform as well. He's starting to almost enter rich Hill
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: territory in terms of the number of places in uniforms
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: that Dallas Kykee's put on over the past few years.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you want to fund fangrafts, just go to
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: rich Hill hit Minor League so you can get all
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: the detail, and then you can scroll from about three
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: pages back, going all the way back to two thousand
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: and five and seventy million teams that he's played on.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, Kikle's got a good one too. He's been
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: It's not Richell. Yeah, I know it's not Rachel, but
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: he's He's also eight years behind Chill, so I have
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: faith in Dallas. Okay, Well, check out the show notes
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: here for the Baseball card release calendar because we did
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: have one addition since we talked last week, August eighth,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: Top's Finest has been added to the schedule, so we
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: will actually August twelfth. Sorry, I was looking at the
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: one above that for Penninia Boys this summer, but that
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: will be a pretty big release, so we'll cover that
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: in further depth when we get to it. But until
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: we get there, we're going to cover TOPS Chrome right
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: after this break we're gonna take so stick around because
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: it is an expansive set. We've got a lot to
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: talk about, all right, Welcome back, everybody. We are going
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: to talk about the release of twenty twenty five TOPS Chrome.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: So usually we're talking about this and recording on release
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: day when we do these and then the pod drops
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: like the next day, so there's a little bit of
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: a lag, but also allows us to see lots of
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: the great variations and kind of different cards that are
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: being ripped and posted. We're a week early here, so
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: if anything, it might actually benefit you listeners out there
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: to kind of know what you're going to be looking
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: for when Tops Chrome hits shelves next week on July
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: twenty third. And so what we're looking at here is
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: a three hundred card set. Roki Sasaki is being featured
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: on all of the marketing materials. He's on the boxes,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: he's on the packaging which wamp womp a little bit,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: and I think this is going to be a very
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: very expensive set too. Where I've been starting to fade
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: further and further out of tops Chrome actually after we've
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: both kind of gotten into the hobby further during the
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: COVID years because Chrome was just kind of a fun
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: place to get back in. Couldn't afford it as a kid,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: was starting to get fun during COVID to be able
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: to pick it up. I think it's starting to get
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: back to the place where I was as a kid,
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: where this is some expensive stuff to be picking up,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: and you've got lots of different options between jumbo boxes,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: hobby boxes, retail boxes, fat packs, megaboxes, breakers to lights,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: but all of it is significantly more expensive than we've
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: seen by maybe a tick of like ten to twenty
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: percent across the product from last year, which was already
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: getting a little pricey. Then you later on, we'll get
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: into it. It's got a lot of fun inserts, a
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: lot of fun short prints and autos.
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: But.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: The checklist is a little lacking. Because Rookie Sasaki was
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: supposed to anchor this, James Wood will be a featured
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: Rookie card, and we'll also have Christian Campbell, but outside
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: of that, it's a little more limited. So I know
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: I'm teed it up to be a little bit of
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: a disappointment there. But brew, what is your excitement going
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: into the release here of twenty twenty five tops Chrome?
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably a few things. First of all, this design
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: of the cards actually just works really really well with chrome.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is about it, but compared
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: to the last few years, I really like this design
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: in the chrome finish, and so I think that's just
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: the first thing is like I think these auld be nice,
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: nice cards. I think the second thing is, you know,
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: we can only speculate, but we have to assume that
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: MVP buybacks will be back and things like that. And
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: I feel like that's still relatively wide open this year,
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: which in past years, which I like, just be clear,
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: it's not fully wide open like it appears to Judge
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: no Tani or the leaders in the club how type
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: of type of thing. But Cayle Radley's you know, doing
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: his thing. You know, you're gonna have a number of
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: guys that are you know, threatening, uh to go there
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: like this Pete Crow armstround and get some some ghosts
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: schoogle try to slip in and do something crazy, you know.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Like I think that there's a little bit more of
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: a question out there at this point in time, and
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: so I think that there's be a little bit more.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Chase to it.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: And then the other things. I do think that they
• 50:32
  Speaker 2: they continue to kind of add in more and more
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: high end chases, which they are impossible to get, but
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: it adds a little bit more like, you know, incentive
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: to kind of play in the ripping game if if
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: if you want to. So I still think there's a
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: little things here and there to to enjoy and and chase.
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: But overall, I do think it's gonna be a challenge
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: to really get your value out of Tops Chrome, and
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: if you're not really chasing a certain rookie or something
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: like that, it's it's gonna be a challenge to find
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: the ultimate value to get your money back with these
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: types of cards. So good set. Always love Chrome to
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: your point, probably something I'm avoiding ripping this year unless
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: I just happen to, you know, walk into Target or
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: Walmart or something you just have to see like the
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: lone last boxes. You can't leave the last box. That's
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: just a cardinal sin here in the hobby community. But
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: otherwise I'm probably gonna be just this is a card
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: show dream after the about two three weeks after release
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: day because everybody's ripped so much of the stuff and
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: they've like just trying to unload it because they don't
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: know what to do with themselves. So that's where I'm
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: gonna that's where I'm gonna.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Have some fun. Yeah, and I think you did nail
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: it in terms of I think if it's gonna be
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: a very gorgeous set, it's gonna look great, but It's
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: going to be something where if you want to play
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: this economically and you don't have money to light on
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: fire the way that you would at a casino, stick
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: to the singles here because I think the bang for
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: your buck is going to be really limited. And the
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: one thing that we also don't know as we're discussing
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: this a week later, a week before release date, is
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: that TOPS is a little facetious about what is actually
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: obtainable in the Breaker's Delight boxes versus not. So this
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: is more of like an FI because we've seen this
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: with especially the autos that are going in for the
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: Legends that again we kind of if you want to
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: go back to some of our prior conversations about TOPS Chrome,
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: you do get one autograph for a hobby box, three
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: autographs for a jumbo box are guaranteed. But the issue
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: with TOPS Chrome is a lot of those are coming
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: from the Rookie Auto checklist, which is brutal, like you
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: can hit James would, you can hit Roki Sasaki, But
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: there's also a lot of middle relievers, backup infielders, guys
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: who actually are never gonna make the show that are
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: in the Stops Chrome Rookie Auto checklist and those stuff.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: A lot of those products as they push some of
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: the more high end chase cards and autos into breakers
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: to light only boxes to allow like the breaker community
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: to have actually excitement and cards to go through. So
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: keep that in mind when you're looking at this checklist
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: and you're like, wow, this is actually there's a lot
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: of cool stuff that they're gonna be talking about. But
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: what can you actually obtain in your everyday hobby box,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: your everyday retail box. It's a lot more limited. So
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of these details. Like I said,
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: we've got three hundred cards here. We've got some of
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: your standard short prints, your super short prints, but we've
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: got a couple of new variations. We have the return
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of the lightboard logo variation of the cards. So I
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: don't think we have a complete checklist there, but generally
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: it's been every card, so hopefully that comes back. Same
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: thing with we don't know what the Murakami variations are
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: right now, So this is they had a recent release
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: with Murakami as well, the artists from Japan who kind
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: of mixes a lot of flowers and cartoons and surrealist things,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: and they had like an entire just set of cards
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: of his own. But now they've got variations here into
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five tops. Chrome have to assume it's
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: going to involve Sasaki, Yamamoto, Otani Tho's gonna be huge chases.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: But we'll see what other variations there are there. And
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: then we've got a new one here Award Winners variations,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: which aligns with the award winners from twenty twenty four.
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Don't know what those look like, but they should have
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: some sort of special variation to them. What do you
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: think brew excited about any of these new variations the
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: short prints that they're embedding in the product.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: Well, I, first of all, you just ruined the Murakami
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: variations for me because I went to the BBM, I
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: went to the Japanese Baseball thought I'm going to Taka Murakami.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: Original first Japanese player.
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: I'm like, actually, like, yes, I went elsewhere, and so
• 55:12
  Speaker 2: you just ruined it for me. It was it was
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: just artists. So well that that's that's that's no longer fun.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I think to this point, I've I've been surgery.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: I haven't found a lot of the actual imagery for this.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: I know tops have been like slowly leaking through Instagram
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: and things like that, like different visuals Twitter things like
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: that of some of the cards, So you're seeing some
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: of the chases, but you're not seeing some of these,
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: like I said, mid level inserts. If I'm if I'm
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: to guess clearly, the SSPs and things like that, you're
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: golden mers all those are still not golden meers for here.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: But your SSP variations on the chromes are always really
• 55:52
  Speaker 2: really hot. Uh. And the lightboard logos are just amazing
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: cards and are really really hard to find, really sought after.
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: So I think that that is probably gonna be the
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: one here for those invariations. It's going to play really
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: well Award winners is It sounds like a great thing,
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: But it's the thing I don't like about some of those.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: It tends to be the same checklist of like every
• 56:11
  Speaker 2: other insert set, and so like here we go again
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: with Otani and Judge, and so you don't have as
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: much variety if you want to be kind of collecting
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: your players that you're you're looking for. So that's at
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: the end of the days. They're good options, but we'll
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: have to kind of see where they really ultimately land
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: as far as the visuals on these cards, because we
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: haven't seen some of them before, Yeah.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: I think that's all totally fair. So I am fascinated
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: to see what the Murakami checklist looks like, because I
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: wonder how many cards are involved and kind of what
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: the actual design is. It'd be really cool if it's
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: like very extremely varied, where it's like it's a lot
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: of different cards and you've got lots of different designs
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: that have come across from Takahashi Murakami. But if it's
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: more limited and it's kind of like the same design
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: every time, that's not quite as much fun. So hopefully
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: they do it right here at tops. I'm gonna let
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: you take a little bit of time to chug some
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: water because you're gonna need to warm up those vocal cards.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: My man. I'm letting you do the refractor run down
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: this time. I added them up before the show. I
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: actually prepared a little bit for the first time, as
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: opposed to trying to count themselves live. It's this is
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: just like flagship this year. We're gonna start pushing like
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: triple digit variations at some point as we're recording these podcasts,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: this year for tops chrome, you're looking at forty five
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: different variations, and that's only not even counting like each
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: of the different planting plates as one. So once you
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: count Cayenne yellow, magenta black, you're looking at a total
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: of forty eight different variations if you want to do
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: a full rainbow of any of these cards. I'm also
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: not including Murakami variations, lightboard logos, award winners, and those
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: sps and SSPs. So if you're trying to do that
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: for somebody of the likes of like James Wood, well,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: hopefully you're a billionaire, because that's the only way you're
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: probably going to be able to do it. You got
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the checklist ready to go? You ready to run through
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: all forty five parallel variations here?
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: I am. I am ready to go through this. I
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: had to do a little research here on the first
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: one just to make sure I understood the odd pack
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: ods on this. But I'm ready to go. Let's get
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: Let's get this runner and godspeed, all right, I appreciate it.
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: Starting with your unnumbered refractors here, First of all, the
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: one that threw me off, the geometric, which is only
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: available in Breakers Delight, is a pack odds of one
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: out of one third packs that it implies that you
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: get three in each pack of from a Breaker's Delight,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: which is a different kind of pack, So it took
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: me a second to understand the print run on that one.
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: Usually don't see the odds that way. You also have
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: your negative refractors, one of my favorite refractors of the set,
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: pink refractors typically and blasters only, prism refractors, ray wave refractors,
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: refractors only, just base refractors here sepiar refractors, and X
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: fractors which are one in one point seventy five megas
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: but generally pretty soft after as well. From a numbered perspective,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: we have your teal refractors. You have your purple ray
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: waves out of two fifty, purple refractors out of two fifty,
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: Aqua Lava out of one at nine Aqua raywave one
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: h nine Aqua refractors out of one ninety nine. You
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: got your blue Lava raywave and refractors out of one fifty.
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: You have your TOPS refractor which has the logo Tops
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: logo and it only available in your Breaker Delight one
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: out of point seven packs. I'm loving these Breaker Delight odds,
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: Green geometrics one out of two. Those in breaker Delight,
• 59:50
  Speaker 2: those are not out of ninety nine. Those pairwlell with
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: your green lava ray wave and refractors and green wave
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: in green geometric. Yeah, it keeps on going. There's like
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: five different versions of green. So call that out of
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 2: ninety nine, called out of four ninety five. It's up
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: to you. Gold geometrics out of fifty, gold lava, gold
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: ray wave, gold refractor, and gold wave, all of them
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: out of fifty. Orange geometric, Orange lava, orange ray wave,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: orange refractors, and orange wave all out of twenty five.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: Then we get to your blacks out of ten, black
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: geometric lava ray wave, pure black, true black refractors out
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: of ten, got your reds out of five, get your
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: geometrics there, your red lava, red ray wave, red refractors,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: true reds, and your red wave. Then you got the
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 2: always popular out of negative five frozen fractors that will
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: be coming as well. And then finally we get to
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: the end. You got your printing plates, you got your
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: one on ones, you're signed Magenta's yells, you're blacks, and
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: you're one of one super fractors, don't you worry pack.
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: God's on a superfractor in a hobby box. One out
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: of twenty and forty five sot pretty simple, only needed
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: by about seventy thousand cases.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's pravo. You did it. Congratulations you made
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: it through. I'm impressed by how quickly you multiplied ninety
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: nine by five there on the fly.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: It was questionable at best, and there's only I only
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: picked one, so do that with Yeah, yeah, good, you know,
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: I'm that was an interesting choice compared to the out
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: of fives or out of tens.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: But yes, that is an expansive list of refractors there.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: I think the one thing that makes me worry about
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: this is it just kind of goes back to what
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: we've constantly been talking about in terms of what tops
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: and fanatics are doing here in terms of just extracting
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: every dollar out of the consumer that they can, and
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: that is I think this is the first time that
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: we've had in chrome specific refractors only for the breaker's delights.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: So if you want to put together one of these
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: full rainbows, which people do of their favorite players out there,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: or I know, especially like on Reddit, there's like a
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Justin Turner guy who like He just does this every
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: year with Justin Turner, where if you want to get
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: the entire set, you're gonna have to somehow finagle some
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: of those through breakers that are breaking the breaker's delights
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: because it's not easy to get your hands on them yourself.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if you can. They used to
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: where you could buy them from tops dot com, but
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: I think they're pretty much distributed only through like tops
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: and fanatics affiliated breakers now, so you have to buy
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: those on the secondary market or buy into enough different
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: breaks to be able to try to find some of
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: those geometric factors. So it's just kind of another nail
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: in that coffin that we're talking about in terms of
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: the vertical integration of the entire hobby and kind of
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: cutting out just the normal collector.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and your point, it does. I feel like this
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: is the first I'd have to go back and look.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: But we now have five wide on them. Gority of
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: these refractors, so you have your geometric slavas real waves,
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: pure in waves true in they're pure true everyone to
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: look at it. So five wide is I think this
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: is the first time we've seen it. It's been three
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: or four the last few years and so that it
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: again it it's a different way to kind of dilute
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 2: the pool of the rips that you're going through. It's
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: not the old days of you know, back in the nineties,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: when you got a car out of one hundred, like
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 2: there was probably no other cars number below that, Like
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: it was truly that was like the most rare card
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: in the set. You gotta have one hundred. Now you're like,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: there's probably there's two thousand cars lower number than this.
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, although also good for us Cardinals, reds
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: and Red Sox fans are out there trying to get
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: our hands on a five refractors, So there's more of
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: them this year. You've got there's hope, Yes, there is.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: There's twenty five of those total refract red refractors. You
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: just got to find one of your favorite cardinal red
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: size red players out there. So there is that factor,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: I guess in terms of bright sides. But that is
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: the main checklist. Like I said that all the three
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: hundred cards will have all those forty five forty eight
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: if you count all the printing plates parallels, So good
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: luck putting that together. If you're a rainbow hunter out there,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: let's get into some of the inserts, because I think
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: this is where TOPS chrome is really shining this year.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: I love a lot of the inserts that they've got.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: We've got some of the standards where you're just doing
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: a rehash of the thirty fifth anniversary designs from the
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety which we don't have. We haven't seen that
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: very often, I think in a chrome finish, So it's
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: going to be fun to see the nineteen ninety TOPS
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: design in a chrome finish. We've got your future Stars,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: we've got Youthquake back, We've got some of the throwbacks
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: from the nineties that they're bringing back and have before.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: In terms of the power players, Fortune fifteen, which is
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: the first time we're coming back, but that's where it's
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: got like Top fifteen players, all etch which came back
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: last year is back again. So any of those kind
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: of standard and throwback inserts really popping out to you
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: this year more than anything else, or any fond memories
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: maybe of Fortune fifteen back in the year and it
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: coming back.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's actually was going to go is
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: I think Fortune fifteen from back in the day, is
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: that in ninety nine or something. I can't remember exactly
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: when that when that really hit, but those were always
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: really just cool, cool cards, and so I'm interested to
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: see how that looks when we kind of bring it,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: bring it full circle with those refractors. You know, it's
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: kind of you know, we both were collectors of the
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: nineties and just the cool refractors doing a little too
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: much on the cards, but just always whenever I see
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: those nowadays, like, yeah, there's just they just they did
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: something different in the nineties with inserts, and I want
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 2: to see what those look like on the twenty twenty
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: five cards and what comes back. Again, we don't really
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: know these are out yet, so you can't find the images.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: But if you want to look back to the nineteen
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 2: ninety nine tops chrome and they had the refractors that
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: really just absolutely pop. So I'm excited for that checklist there.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: How about you, Is there anything that jumps out at
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 2: you besides the nineteen nineties.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the Fortune fifteens are going to be
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: cool with just the like magic ball that's in it.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to find the right word and it's hard
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: to do live on the podcast, but you know the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: globe globe that you know psychics and stuff use that's
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: what they're using in the Fortune fifteen and so that
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: is just kind of cool with the double photo and
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: they should, i think, all be in a refractor finish,
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: which really is what made the nineties version pop, and
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: they just do that all the time now with these
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: inserts nowadays. So that'll be cool seeing that. Let's get
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: into some of the short prints because also harkening back
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: to the nineties, they haven't brought this back in a
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: while as hobby Masters, and those are going to be
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: super short printed. Those are going to be really huge
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: chase cards, I think because of just the checklist itself
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: and it not being around for a long time. But
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: in terms of other short prints, we've got other returners.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: In terms of radiating rookies, the Ultra Violet All Stars,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: which is kind of like a cartoony slash psychedelic vibe,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: which has been very popular and people have liked. The
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: helixes are back, then, the home field advantages are back,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: and we've got I believe, some new ones in terms
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: of expos a let's go insert cards which we haven't
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: seen the design of that, but they are super short printed,
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: so that's going to be a tough poll out there
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: if you're looking for those. We have Shadow Etch Lightning
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Leaders and World Series at Night, which, if there's one,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: I have to dog with the World Series at Night ones.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: They're short printed. I'm not really into them. What it
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: is is they've released a photo of the one of
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: Aaron Judge where it's just kind of like a gray
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: scale picture of Aaron Judge and then an overlay on
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the city of Manhattan, New York City at night, just
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: the grid. It just doesn't really do it for me.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: It's not enough like cool factor and just like it's
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: kind of boring more than anything else. We also have
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: numbers Live Forever, which is going to be of twenty five,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: a piece of players that were famous twenty fives. So
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: we've got Barry Bonds, Jim Tomey, and Jose Crusior, which
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: is which is a funny collection of three. Those Arry
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Bonds ones are going to be big, big, big time
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: chase cards, just given that twenty twenty five is the
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: first time Barry Bonds is back in products again. So
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: that's kind of the overview of the short printed inserts.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: What of those are really standing out to you between
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: all of your things that I just listened off because
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: that was quite a few.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a few of their home field advantage.
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 2: I think it's been a great card the last few years,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 2: really maintains the value and just it's a cool showing
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: of the local flavor for each team. I think the
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: explo we have seen some pictures of those. There's a
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: show ta Imanaga. It's kind of floating around out there
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: as far as the picture, and those those seem to
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 2: be pretty pretty clean cards, and so I kind of
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: like the view of them. They kind of got a
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: called a way ocean wave finished behind the player, so
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: I think those will be fun as well. And you know,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: for me, I'm kind of with you. The World Series
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: at Night just isn't isn't doing.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: It for me.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: But of all those the radiating Rookies, there's something about
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 2: those cards that just jump off the play the page
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: and I absolutely love those. So getting a James Wood
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: or Jacob Wilson Radiating Rookies is you know, it is
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: probably up up top a mile list of something that
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: I'd want to see from this this insert set, So
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 2: it'll be fun. Glad they're finding something for the numbers
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: live forever with the twenty five. To your point, stretch
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 2: the list a little bit with the bonds. Told me
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 2: that the cruise senior on this one, but that's okay.
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: It's great to see bonds back in tops.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly, and a lot of these inserts too. I
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: will put pictures of them in the related post on
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: rasball dot com. Go into the show notes to find
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: that where you can just look at pictures of all
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: these cards that we've been discussing all one. Go on
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: rasball dot com because I think you're gonna want to
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: see some of these that we're talking about. The inserts
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: are super ninety, super nineties, tastick here for twenty twenty five.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: I actually, I guess it's probably like a throwback to
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: like two thousand, Turn of the century more than anything
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: else as opposed to the nineties. But lots of great designs,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: lots of color, it's going to really pop, and refractor finishes.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: So I think this is the one area where, especially
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: if you want to go into a singles hunting putting
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: together some of these sets of the non short printed ones,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: or maybe even some of the little bit more attainable
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: short printed ones, would be a fun set to put together.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: Because I think that's also where the TOPS quality control
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: will come through, is that, as we've seen with the
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: past couple of years of release with Chrome, the high
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: print runs, especially given the MVP buyback programs that the
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: chops quality assurance on regular Chrome that hasn't been so great,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: But they have been focusing on the cards that are
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: short printed and the refractors and stuff, so those will
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: always pop and look great. All right, With that, let's
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: move into some of the autographs. I hinted at some
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: of the Chrome Rookie Autograph checklist and just kind of
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: how interesting it is. It is. It's a fun one.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: What is maybe the most random name that you can
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: pull from that rookie checklist? Because it is an expansive
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: checklist we are looking at I've got to find it.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: I just had it and lost. How many there are
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: in there? We have a one hundred and sixty six cards,
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: so that kind of gives you a view of how
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: many different autos we're looking at. In terms of the rookies.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: It is great because you're getting an on in card
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: rookie auto, but you're also getting somebody like who'd you
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: find Forrew? What's a great random name? You just found.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: Orlando Ribulta from the Washington Nationals. I'm trying to look
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 2: him up right now. I've never heard of him before.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: I that is wow, you found somebody. Wow. Yeah, I've
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: never heard of him either. And but yeah, you've got
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: players like that. You've also you know, got Eric Yang
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: of the Cincinnati Reds. Just like all sorts of players
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: that are going to be woven in and out of
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: the rookie Sasaki's the Nick Kurtz is in this pro
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: is in this checklist, So that's going to be a
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: big chase one as well. To go at James Wood.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: Kevin al Contra is also the Cubs prospect who that
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: means he's going to be an update which will be
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: pretty interesting. But it is a pretty ho home checklist
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: outside the big guys, what'd you find out about our boy?
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: Or Orlando is a twenty seven year old righty reliever
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: six seven forty five. He's a big boy. He as
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: a total career eleven innings with an eight one eight ERA.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: He was a twelfth twelve round draft pick of the
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: Nationals back in twenty nineteen. So yeah, yeah, Orlando big
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 2: big chase cards. This year. He's had a full seven
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: two thirds innings uh in twenty twenty five across four games.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so just be careful out there because I'm looking
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: on eBay most of these hobby boxes just for a
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: hobby box with one auto is going around three hundred bucks.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: Pretty good chance you're gonna pull our boy Orlando and
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: not James Wood. So kind of keep that in mind
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: as you're going out and determining what is the best
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: product to purchase of tops chrome if you want to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: rip it. But let's get into some of these other
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: autographs because we've got some other cool ones. We've got chromographs,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: which is actually another harken back to the early nineties
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: and two thousands. It was first hockey auto insert and
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: then especially it becoming bigger in basketball like the Lebron James,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: like Rookie chromo autos are huge. So they're trying to
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: I think collect some of that hypeier tops with especially
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: you're looking at James Wood and Rookie Sasaki being in
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: those chromographs and it's been I don't know if there's
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: actually ever been chromographs of baseball autos, so it'll be
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: the first opportunity for us to get those. We also
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: have World Series Champions Autos, which is just a list
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: of various World Series winners over the years that are
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: in there. So I think those are also let me
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: check it before I state one way or the other,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: but those are in hobby jumbos and Breaker Delights, so
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: those will be I think more obtainable because usually they
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: haven't been including those legend autos in anything butt breaker
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: Delights boxes. So if you are looking to try to
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: chase a Frank Thomas of George Brett something like that,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: the World Series Champions autograph would be the way to go.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: And here's the other big chase I think of the
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: entire product is the Gold Logo Man Autos, which I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: know that you talked about this when Opening Day kind
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: of rolled around, because what Tops did is they teamed
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: up with MLB, and I think this also goes back
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: to the Awards Winners variations cards that we saw in
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: the base set where the cy Young, the MVP, and
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year. So those six players, each
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: of them from the AL and the nl wore gold
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: logomns in the back of their jerseys during I believe
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Opening weekend, and so those cards have made their way
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: into autographs here for twenty twenty five Tops Chrome the
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: way that they've been doing the MLB debut patches that
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: make it their way into Tops Chrome Update. So one
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: of one's only six of these cards, one of them
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: is Otani, one of them is Judged. Those are probably
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: are those probably the two chase cards out of the
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: entire product.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. These, I mean they're won in
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: two point seven million packs. Like it's it's hard to find.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: And did you say six cards, because there's only five
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 2: on the checklists that I'm looking at. They cut Louise Heel. Wow.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know if maybe they didn't do it or
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: he hasn't played yet, that's what it is. He hasn't
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: played in a twenty twenty five game.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 2: That's fair, and so yeah he did not make the checklist.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's Judge sales schemes of Tani Scooble, and yeah,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: they're absolutely gonna be the chase cards of this entire set,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: and they are going to I mean, these are big,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 2: big money cards. You pull one of these there, they
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 2: could be life changing type of cards, especially the Judge,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: the Otani, but even the Skeins there, they're gonna be like,
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: these are gonna be the cards again, haven't seen. I
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 2: do believe I saw a few days ago that there
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: was a post about them on I would say tops Instagram,
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: but I haven't found it recently. But they, from what
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 2: I can tell, just like any demand card across any sport,
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: they're gonna be in very very high demand and they're
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: gonna look absolutely, absolutely gorgeous.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we will see as those kind of get ripped,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: because thus that's such a high level card that like
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure Tops will catch wind of it and post
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: it on their socials as well, So that'll be cool.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: We will bring that up once we see that come
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: across any of the other kind of autographs really interest
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: here between the World Series ones, the Legends, the dual autographs,
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: there's a Dual Autographs checklist as well. And then pretty
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: much all of the short prints that are not short prints,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: all the inserts that we just covered, they have some
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: sort of autograph variation, and I think a lot of
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: those end up being sticker variations, but some will be
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: on card. We'll kind of see as the product rolls out.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the one that I'm very intrigued with
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: and I hope tops did it right, is the World
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: Series Champions autographs, because the names on this checklist and
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: the iconic mode for some of these players, if they
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: did this right, it could be absolutely amazing. You're talking
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: about Joe Carter, You're talking about Albert Pooholles, You're talking
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: about Derek Jeter, You're talking about some of these big names,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson, guys that had big, big moments,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: and if they did the thing and they captured the
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: moment on the card in the photo with the autograph,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 2: it could just come off amazing. Now, they also did
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: go little rogue here with a few names like Tommy Edmund.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: I love Tommy Edmond, don't get me wrong. And he
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: doesn't have any autos out there, but like in the
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 2: group here, like you're talking Ryan Howard, Roley Fingers, you know,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: Paul Molcher, Ki grif you and then you hit Tommy
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: Edmund and Marcelo Zuna and let's see, there's a few
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 2: other oddball ones in here. Bert Blyleve and I'm sorry,
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: you just always get the get the short and the
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: stick on on these things. It's just like it stretched
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: just a little bit on a few of them, but overall,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: I think this has an opportunity to be incredibly, incredibly
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: cool looking cards.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I wonder if they'll also be in the
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: design of twenty twenty five tops too, you know, like
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: they put that World Series moment on the twenty twenty
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: five design or not. But like, I think that is
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: one thing that I've liked about the twenty twenty five
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: design compared to especially to twenty twenty four, where it
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: felt a little futuristic with the neon lettering and stuff.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: That the twenty twenty five design has been much more classic,
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: So I think it would fit with some of these
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: motifs from the seventies and eighties better than some of
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: the past few years of designs from TOPS. So yeah,
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: it'll be fun to see what pictures that you've actually
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: used for those autos.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: And then I think the one other I would call out,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think you mentioned it was the dual autos,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: some really really strong dual auto is one of the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 2: ones that I have seen the pictures come out is
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: the King Griffy Junior Ichiro and it is just amazing.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: It is absolutely amazing, And they've got a few of
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 2: those in here. They have the Acunya brothers that did one. Uh,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: they have the the Josh Young Jace Young. I don't
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: know if you've seen that one, but where Josh actually
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: signed and criticized his brother. I think we we we
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: do we call that out last week.
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: I can't remember we didn't, but it's great Bad at Fortnite,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Like there's an arrow up and says bad at Fortnite, Yes, exactly.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: So there's some really really cool ones. And the dual autographs, uh,
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 2: Mike Trout, Nolan Ryan like they're they're David Ortiz, Paper
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: Martinez like they did a really really good job with
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: with those ones. I feel bad for the volpage. Jason
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: Dominga's one just doesn't feel like it quite fits.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: So no, not as much, but I mean Diminus has
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: been looking much better of late than like could take off.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: I also like the cruise would one the Dylan Cruise.
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: James would double rookie cards, So that'd be cool if
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: you're a Washington Nationals fan out there. So yeah, I
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: think the last thing that we have really to cover
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: is the buyback program. So you entered at it a
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: little bit in terms of the twenty twenty five going on.
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: So we haven't gotten the price levels back, because I
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if it's changed a little bit, especially
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: looking at what Tops did with the Bowman Red Rookie
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: logos from just a few months ago. In terms of
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: making that a little bit of like a longer term
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: buyback program. I think this will still probably be a
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: one year thing. But maybe they changed the levels of
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: the of the variations, and I mean there's gonna be
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: so many different parallels. Maybe they actually like lower the
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: prices on some of the parallels out there. So that'll
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: be interesting to see what Tops does. But the cool
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: thing about the MVP buybacks from twenty twenty four is
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: they're recirculated now in the twenty twenty five product where
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: they've been stamped and will be you know, have the
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: different variations, the different parallels, some of them are autographed
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: by Otani and Judge, and so we've seen that these
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: have become pretty popular cards as well, just because like
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: I also like the the kind of rigormarole of Tops
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: made these cards, sent them out, somebody opened it out
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: of the pack, they took them back to the LCS,
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: the LCS collected them, sent them back to Tops. Tops
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: then put a stamp on them, put them back into cards,
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: or put a stamp on them and handed them out honey,
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: or judge had them sign the cards, then put them
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: back into cards. It's just like a lot of like
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: back and forth and what the hobby is about in
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: terms of like how the cards, especially you look at
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: like vintage cards and stuff too, Like the owners of
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: the cards always shuffle around like it's a piece of art,
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean in terms of it can
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: just always be passed back and forth, and it's kind
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: of like an in animated object in terms of it
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: being real. So it's just fun. So what do you
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: think You're looking forward to the buyback program again?
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've really kind of loved the buyback program at
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: which the MVP rio is, Like I said, we're a
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: little closer this year, but we'll see Kyle Rally and
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: Aaron Judgment making it interesting. But also the fact that
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: you can still get the cars from last year. I
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: think they've done a really good job with them. This one.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: It was a gimmick, but it wasn't so gimmicky that
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 2: it still plays pretty gush darn well. So enjoying the
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: buyback program I'm not sure who's to be chasing this
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: year right now. I think Judge Otani, like I said earlier,
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 2: have the kind of the the jump start on folks.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah, yeah, you can probably go after maybe
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: a Sodo or a Kyle Tucker or maybe you know,
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 2: Jose Ramirez or somebody like that that might have a
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: strong second half maybe bring you know, bring their team through.
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's it gives a little bit of extra
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 2: spark to collecting TOPS Chrome.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, even Bobby wit Junior too. I think Bobby wit
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: Junior is a little bit of a dark horse if
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: you can lead the worlds back. But I also want
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: to state for the record that this pod will never
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: forget where the buyback program came from. It's because Tops
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: butchered the rollout of twenty twenty three Tops Crumbs so
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: badly they had to do something to make it up
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: to all of us, So never forget. Okay, Well, that
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: wraps up TOPS twenty twenty five Chrome as it's going
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: to be released next week. So if you have any
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: great polls, make sure that you tag us, reach out
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: to us on social media. We'd love to see them.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: Can hit us up on Blue Sky at cards Categories,
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: or if you want to email the pod, you can
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: do so at cards Categories at gmail dot com. Brew
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: let everybody know where they can find you and read
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: your work.
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 2: Yep, find me on Twitter x, Blue Sky, Jabrewer one seven,
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 2: find me on the weekend's resp ball Top one hundred hitters,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 2: hitter profiles, come out, have a chat. Let's let's see
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 2: how the rest of the season goes cooler. Worrek from
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 2: Folks find you.
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can find me on Blue Sky at mCOL
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: seven and you can find me writing on the weekends
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: doing those waiver wires over at Rasbee where I suggest
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: players to pick up and their bid levels, as well
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: as as the season gets on, it gets a little
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: delirious around the waiver wire columns, so we'll get a
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: little fun. We'll have a get into a little the
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: creative writing here and there. If you're also wanting to
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: support the podcast, you've been listening to us as we're
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: rounding the corner to triple digits next week, make sure
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: you check out the show notes. Look at what we've
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: got in the store for purchase. We've got hats, we've
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: got t shirts, we've got mugs, lots of cool stuff.
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: Also check out rasball dot com get subscriptions to help
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: you out for the rest of the season to win
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: those leagues using some of the just world class tools
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 1: there that can help you grind out proto points make
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: sure that you do well in the finish of those standings.
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: So if you are checking out this podcast and haven't
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: done so, please rate, review us wherever you're listening to us.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: It just really helps us build our audience and get
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: us into different ears, get us connected to different suggestions.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: So we really appreciate you checking out, checking us out,
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: and we will be back, same time, same place next week,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: and there's going to be another digit in front of
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: that episode number, so stick around.