Latest / Rosters to Rings Podcast / September Scandal & the Road to October

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September Scandal & the Road to October · Rosters to Rings Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. Alongside Chet West, I
0:09
Speaker 1: am Thad Levine. Today we've got a great show for
0:12
Speaker 1: you today. We are going to break down the American
0:15
Speaker 1: League and National League playoff pictures with one week left
0:18
Speaker 1: in the season. But where we're going to start the
0:20
Speaker 1: discussion today is at the intersection of amateur athletics and
0:25
Speaker 1: them being professionalized in the scandal at UNC football.
0:30
Speaker 2: All right, Ted. So here's the deal. I went back
0:33
Speaker 2: and I took a look and I remember when Bill
0:35
Speaker 2: Belichick got hired on at UNC. So we're going back
0:40
Speaker 2: to December 2024. Okay. And all you heard about was
0:45
Speaker 2: his girlfriend at the time. She's like 25 years old.
0:47
Speaker 2: I think her name's Jordan Hudson or Jennifer Hudson. I
0:50
Speaker 2: think it's Jordan Hudson. She was a former cheerleader, a model.
0:54
Speaker 2: And this was the big thing. And she had a
0:58
Speaker 2: big online presence. And there's a 50-year difference between the
1:01
Speaker 2: two of them, right? So this thing started off with
1:04
Speaker 2: this kind of salacious, who is Bill Belichick dating and
1:08
Speaker 2: why is she always in the forefront of everything? I
1:11
Speaker 2: think eventually she got banned from the facilities at UNC
1:14
Speaker 2: to start things off. But let's just take it from here.
1:17
Speaker 2: Bill gets hired December 2024. The girlfriend stuff gets out
1:22
Speaker 2: of the way. Michael Lombardi, he brings Michael Lombardi in
1:26
Speaker 2: as his general manager. He's a longtime NFL associate. I
1:30
Speaker 2: think Lombardi started off in scouting or something like that
1:33
Speaker 2: and maybe had one little side gig in college at
1:36
Speaker 2: the very beginning as a scout somewhere out west. I
1:40
Speaker 2: think it was Fresno State, UNLV, something like that. At
1:43
Speaker 2: any rate, he's an NFL guy from there on. Various
1:46
Speaker 2: scouting departments worked his way kind of all the way
1:48
Speaker 2: on up. So he's kind of one of Bill's confidants.
1:53
Speaker 2: Bill brings him in as the general manager and eventually
1:57
Speaker 2: installs his son, Steve, as the defensive coordinator. So you
2:01
Speaker 2: can kind of see what he's doing here. He's kind
2:03
Speaker 2: of surrounding himself with people that he trusts. Their whole
2:07
Speaker 2: goal in this thing was to take this NFL organizational
2:12
Speaker 2: model and apply it to college football. They were going
2:16
Speaker 2: to be, they even joked about being the 33rd NFL team.
2:20
Speaker 2: I think Lombardi even joked about that on the air.
2:23
Speaker 2: How do you think that has gone so far, Thad?
2:27
Speaker 1: Well, Chet, I think we got to add a few
2:29
Speaker 1: names to this list. So not only is Steve Belichick
2:32
Speaker 1: signing a two-year $ 2. 7 million deal, Brian Belichick, brother Brian,
2:36
Speaker 1: also son of Bill, is on the coaching staff making
2:39
Speaker 1: $ 500, 000 a year. The whole family. Yeah. Mike Lombardi's son, Matt,
2:44
Speaker 1: is the quarterback's coach at a $ 600, 000 per year clip.
2:49
Speaker 1: At the confluence of all this is also what we
2:52
Speaker 1: would like to call nepotism. Most other organizations we all
2:55
Speaker 1: work with would not allow for any of this, let
2:58
Speaker 1: alone at such a blatant level. To your point, we're
3:03
Speaker 1: bringing in a professionalized coaching staff and front office that
3:08
Speaker 1: is probably very adept at at the NIL, the kind
3:11
Speaker 1: of payroll management that you see in the NFL. They're
3:14
Speaker 1: good at the talent acquisition in the portal. But what
3:18
Speaker 1: we're finding is that group far outpaced the compliance management
3:22
Speaker 1: and governance on the other side. And they started running
3:25
Speaker 1: this like a pro shop, which inclusive in which was
3:29
Speaker 1: a culture that was very misaligned with the academic setting
3:33
Speaker 1: and certainly with the standards that UNC has set throughout
3:36
Speaker 1: their universities.
3:38
Speaker 2: So this was a five-year deal he gets signed up for.
3:41
Speaker 2: I think it was $ 50 million, $ 30 million guaranteed over
3:44
Speaker 2: the course of the three. It's $ 10 million a year.
3:46
Speaker 2: Year one does not go well, right? I mean, they
3:50
Speaker 2: go four and eight. Fairly embarrassing. A lot of reports
3:55
Speaker 2: coming out about Lombardi's not a people person. He's hard
3:59
Speaker 2: to work with. Things start to spiral a little bit.
4:04
Speaker 2: Some HR complaints.
4:06
Speaker 1: Lombardi gets eviscerated by the NFL teams because he's holding
4:09
Speaker 1: them out of their practices. He's not allowing teams to
4:12
Speaker 1: come scout the UNC football team, inclusive in which was
4:17
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots scouts famously were being held at
4:20
Speaker 1: the door and not allowed to participate. So he was
4:23
Speaker 1: putting up guardrails that a lot of other universities are
4:26
Speaker 1: not putting up. And for somebody who had come from
4:28
Speaker 1: the NFL life, I think that was a real off-putting
4:31
Speaker 1: factor to the NFL. And it had left a lot
4:34
Speaker 1: of people rooting against UNC and rooting against Mike Lombardi.
4:38
Speaker 2: Very much so. And it's, you know, when you start
4:40
Speaker 2: hearing these things start to snowball out of control, some
4:45
Speaker 2: of the, you know, they had poor roster construction, poor
4:48
Speaker 2: communication problems. You had organizational dysfunction. You've got this, like,
4:53
Speaker 2: we are going to be this NFL factory. We're going
4:56
Speaker 2: to produce players that end up in the NFL. UNC
5:01
Speaker 2: has zero players selected in their first draft in 2026.
5:05
Speaker 2: I look back that every year, almost every year for
5:09
Speaker 2: the last decade plus, UNC has had a significant player
5:13
Speaker 2: or two and significant meaning you've seen them on NFL rosters.
5:17
Speaker 2: I've had them on my fantasy squad get selected each year,
5:20
Speaker 2: but they got nobody this past draft in 2026 draft.
5:25
Speaker 2: So that's, that's a slap in the face. If you're
5:28
Speaker 2: trying to be this NFL factory and I get it,
5:30
Speaker 2: they had one season so far. But he did a
5:33
Speaker 2: great job in his recruiting. I mean, he had a
5:35
Speaker 2: huge recruiting class that he signed, just didn't produce anything.
5:40
Speaker 1: And, Chet, let's get to the allegations here. There's been
5:42
Speaker 1: an investigation, an internal investigation so far.
5:45
Speaker 2: The meat of the story, if you will.
5:47
Speaker 1: Yes. Well, according to the rumors, at least 60 people
5:51
Speaker 1: were interviewed, current and past coaches, current and past players,
5:55
Speaker 1: staff members. The UNC itself has announced that certain actions
6:00
Speaker 1: demonstrated disregard for Carolina's values and standards of conduct. But
6:04
Speaker 1: then they quickly qualified it and said that this was
6:08
Speaker 1: an isolated in scope and not a systemic failure. When
6:11
Speaker 1: I read those things, Chet, when schools take it upon
6:14
Speaker 1: themselves to investigate and levy punishments to themselves, it seems
6:18
Speaker 1: to me that there's another shoe that's about to drop.
6:21
Speaker 1: And that usually comes from the NCAA. which will come
6:24
Speaker 1: in and they don't necessarily take the universities at face
6:27
Speaker 1: value and say, oh good, you did the investigation, all
6:30
Speaker 1: is well. Now let's just let this sweep under the rug.
6:34
Speaker 1: My guess is the NCAA will follow because the allegations
6:37
Speaker 1: here are pretty prominent. And there's allegations of drug use
6:41
Speaker 1: that may have involved Steve Belichick, both consuming drugs and
6:44
Speaker 1: potentially sharing them with players. There's sexual misconduct allegations that
6:50
Speaker 1: have been levied. regarding a member of the female member
6:53
Speaker 1: of the recruiting staff, maybe having sexual relations with players
6:57
Speaker 1: and or other coaches. And then there's some, it sounds
6:59
Speaker 1: like some cultural issues, as you referenced earlier, that was,
7:02
Speaker 1: you know, levied on Mike Lombardi and that the culture.
7:07
Speaker 2: All allegations, mind you. Right.
7:09
Speaker 1: Yes. But those were very antithetical to the UNC policies
7:13
Speaker 1: in HR and governance of their players. So, This is
7:18
Speaker 1: significant right now.
7:19
Speaker 2: And this past July, Lombardi gets placed on leave due
7:23
Speaker 2: to the HR allegations. They put him on some paid
7:27
Speaker 2: administrative leave. University began their investigation immediately after that. Two
7:34
Speaker 2: weeks later, Steve Belichick takes medical leave, which this starts
7:39
Speaker 2: to look a little fishy. You've got your general manager
7:42
Speaker 2: taking leave. You've got Steve Belichick, your D coordinator, taking leave.
7:48
Speaker 2: University investigation still ongoing. One month after that, the very
7:53
Speaker 2: beginning of this season, September 3rd, Lombardi resigns. Says he
7:57
Speaker 2: basically just wants the team to be able to focus
7:59
Speaker 2: on football. The UNC, they don't stop this investigation. It
8:03
Speaker 2: keeps on going. And now recently in the last couple
8:07
Speaker 2: of weeks, it has been said that Steve Belichick will
8:10
Speaker 2: be resigning upon the end of his medical leave. So
8:14
Speaker 2: now we've got dominoes beginning to fall. I did notice
8:18
Speaker 2: a very interesting hire that Bill made offensive coordinator. Bobby
8:22
Speaker 2: Petrino was brought in. Ye of the motorcycle men here.
8:26
Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember what happened at Arkansas
8:29
Speaker 2: with old Bobby, but he had some, he had some,
8:32
Speaker 2: some skeletons in his closet from the past and his
8:35
Speaker 2: coaching gig there. So he gets brought in as the
8:38
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator. He replaces Freddie kitchens who had been there with, um, with, uh,
8:44
Speaker 2: the previous Mac Brown staff, I believe it was, prior
8:48
Speaker 2: to Belichick. So it's not like we're bringing people in
8:52
Speaker 2: that are going to help us clean up our image
8:56
Speaker 2: at this juncture. I'm sure Petrino's a great coach, fine.
8:59
Speaker 2: But at this point, Bill doesn't seem to really want
9:02
Speaker 2: to clean the image up. I'm curious to see where
9:05
Speaker 2: this goes, but are we just on the cusp of
9:09
Speaker 2: this is kind of what college football is going to become?
9:12
Speaker 2: sort of this, we're trying to run a business here
9:16
Speaker 2: like the NFL, but at the same time, you're doing
9:19
Speaker 2: it with kids. There's a lot more variables that they're
9:24
Speaker 2: going to have to juggle in this, right? I mean,
9:27
Speaker 2: this isn't the same. I bet you guys deal with this.
9:30
Speaker 2: I bet baseball and minor leagues, I bet there's a
9:33
Speaker 2: separation there a little bit because you're dealing with such
9:36
Speaker 2: young kids in the minors. Is there something you have
9:39
Speaker 2: to afford them that Maybe the professionals don't need. How
9:43
Speaker 2: does that work in your game?
9:47
Speaker 1: I think when you're an executive of a professional sports
9:50
Speaker 1: team or a head coach, you're governed by the league rules.
9:54
Speaker 1: But by and large, what a lot of front offices
9:57
Speaker 1: spend time doing is figuring out how far they can
9:59
Speaker 1: push information. the gray before they reach the black. And
10:02
Speaker 1: we've talked about this on rosters during several times, this
10:05
Speaker 1: notion of are you, what are you prepared to do
10:07
Speaker 1: to win? And I think what we're learning from the
10:10
Speaker 1: Belichick and the group that he's brought in, that they're
10:12
Speaker 1: prepared to go to great lengths to push into that gray.
10:15
Speaker 1: I think the challenge and the distinction between the professional
10:18
Speaker 1: world and the college world is when you are just
10:21
Speaker 1: dealing with the, the league rules and mandates, which are
10:24
Speaker 1: plenty thick on their own, but in college, you've got
10:28
Speaker 1: the public university, which UNC is, they've got state policies.
10:32
Speaker 1: You have to, uh, uh, here too. You've got HR policies,
10:35
Speaker 1: you've got academic oversight, you've got Title IX guidelines, and
10:39
Speaker 1: these things are unforgiving. This isn't the first transgression or
10:43
Speaker 1: controversy we've seen in college sports. I just wonder if
10:46
Speaker 1: it's a whole new brand. As much as we saw, Chet,
10:48
Speaker 1: over the last couple of years with gambling becoming such
10:51
Speaker 1: a partner with the pro sports leagues, not surprisingly, we're
10:55
Speaker 1: seeing scandals in the NBA, the NCAA, Major League Baseball,
10:59
Speaker 1: a that are materializing, that are gambling rooted. I think
11:03
Speaker 1: we're going to see a whole slew of these things
11:05
Speaker 1: happen as these universities who used to be run by
11:10
Speaker 1: athletic departments are now being run like professional front offices.
11:14
Speaker 1: And I think we're going to see the modernization of
11:17
Speaker 1: how they're being run, outpacing the governance with which they're
11:20
Speaker 1: supposed to be run. And we're going to see some
11:22
Speaker 1: of these gaps take place until these things are regulated
11:24
Speaker 1: a little bit more closely.
11:26
Speaker 2: You know, and Bill hasn't, he's had no penalties so far.
11:29
Speaker 2: So He's kind of built this staff, as my understanding is.
11:34
Speaker 2: This is kind of all his people, obviously, that he's
11:37
Speaker 2: bringing in. Confidants.
11:39
Speaker 1: Literally, mostly his sons.
11:41
Speaker 2: His family, for crying out loud. His entire family is there,
11:45
Speaker 2: for the most part. I think his girlfriend would be
11:48
Speaker 2: in the building if she didn't get kicked out in
11:50
Speaker 2: the beginning and they didn't want her around. I'll be
11:53
Speaker 2: curious to see what happens. They've got three ranked teams.
11:55
Speaker 2: Three ranked teams are going to have to play coming up.
11:57
Speaker 2: The ACC is... No cakewalk this year. You're going to
12:00
Speaker 2: get Notre Dame. You're going to get Miami, both top
12:02
Speaker 2: 10 teams. You're going to get Louisville outside of the
12:05
Speaker 2: top 10. I don't know that I see, based on
12:08
Speaker 2: the first two games of the season already, they're one
12:10
Speaker 2: and one right now. They did beat TCU, and that
12:13
Speaker 2: shocked a lot of people. I don't know that I
12:16
Speaker 2: see them having a successful run this season, or at
12:19
Speaker 2: least enough success to cover all this up.
12:22
Speaker 1: Well, and Chet, I look at Bill Belichick. There's been
12:25
Speaker 1: so much made of his legacy this It's undeniably won
12:28
Speaker 1: the six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, all
12:30
Speaker 1: with Tom Brady, and won two Super Bowls as a
12:33
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator for the Giants. But one thing I look
12:36
Speaker 1: at as a legacy for him is he's had 11
12:39
Speaker 1: assistant coaches go be head coaches elsewhere. Their combined record
12:43
Speaker 1: is 228 and 341. That's a 401 winning percentage. Only one,
12:48
Speaker 1: Bill O'Brien, has a winning record in his career, and
12:50
Speaker 1: that's 52 and 48. They've only played in nine playoff games.
12:55
Speaker 1: And now you add this to his legacy. It just
12:57
Speaker 1: seems to me a guy who was clearly a Hall
12:59
Speaker 1: of Famer has done a lot to tarnish his reputation
13:02
Speaker 1: ever since that run he had with the Patriots and
13:06
Speaker 1: with Tom Brady.
13:07
Speaker 2: And do you think that that run he had with
13:09
Speaker 2: the Patriots and Brady was more him or more Brady?
13:13
Speaker 2: Don't answer that.
13:14
Speaker 1: Probably for another segment. Stay with us on Rosters to Rings.
13:18
Speaker 1: We're going to break down the American League playoff scenarios next.
13:30
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Roster Syringes. We are going to talk
13:34
Speaker 2: about baseball now. We need to give everybody a little
13:36
Speaker 2: look into the postseason. We're going to start off with
13:39
Speaker 2: the American League. What I want to do first, though,
13:42
Speaker 2: is kind of look at what the predictions were at
13:46
Speaker 2: the start of the season. I was curious to see
13:50
Speaker 2: just who was supposed to make the playoffs, the postseason,
13:55
Speaker 2: from day one. So I went back. I pulled up
13:57
Speaker 2: some fan graph stats. I know you did, too. I've
14:00
Speaker 2: got some numbers here. Some of them not shocking. Some
14:04
Speaker 2: of them terribly shocking. I will say fan graphs kind
14:08
Speaker 2: of got the American League right in the aspect that
14:11
Speaker 2: it was a complete toss-up. I mean, anybody could have
14:15
Speaker 2: had it, and they kind of nailed it that way.
14:17
Speaker 2: They didn't give anybody an overwhelming percentage to make the playoffs.
14:22
Speaker 2: But they got a few really wrong. And I'm going
14:27
Speaker 2: to start at the top here. With the Tampa Bay Rays,
14:32
Speaker 2: let's just start there. We'll pick a spot that seems
14:34
Speaker 2: like good a spot as any. Rays, 95 and 60.
14:39
Speaker 2: Preseason playoff odds, 28.9%. Not the bottom by any measure,
14:45
Speaker 2: but they're in. They're 100% in now. They got nothing
14:48
Speaker 2: else to do. We don't have, I don't believe we
14:51
Speaker 2: have seeding quite yet. but their preseason World Series chances
14:55
Speaker 2: were 1.1%. Now they're at almost 11%, which is fairly high.
15:01
Speaker 2: They're not a fluke in terms of those results. They've
15:04
Speaker 2: got a plus 83 run differential. They're 37 and 25
15:08
Speaker 2: against teams 500 or better. I think they're probably one
15:11
Speaker 2: of the better candidates going into this. They're hot right now.
15:15
Speaker 2: They're 8-2 over their last 10 games. What are you
15:18
Speaker 2: looking at with these guys that maybe concerns you in
15:22
Speaker 2: regard to the Rays?
15:23
Speaker 1: Well, looking at the raise, the 29% is, as you said,
15:28
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the 30th percentile within the American League.
15:34
Speaker 1: Just for the listeners to understand a little bit better,
15:37
Speaker 1: most teams that end up winning their division have a
15:39
Speaker 1: playoff odds somewhere around 50% to 60%. So very rarely
15:41
Speaker 1: is it 100%. So 29% while low is not significantly low,
15:48
Speaker 1: but they were picked to finish last in their division, Chad.
15:51
Speaker 1: And it was supposed to be as it often is
15:54
Speaker 1: one of the best divisions in baseball. I think the
15:56
Speaker 1: thing that's so remarkable about the Rays is that they
15:59
Speaker 1: basically have led that very vaunted American league East for
16:02
Speaker 1: the majority of the season. They also, as you referenced,
16:05
Speaker 1: are doing well against teams above 500. They're also doing
16:07
Speaker 1: well against teams in their division and they're dominating at home.
16:11
Speaker 1: So I think the things that have really stood out
16:12
Speaker 1: to me about that team are We've talked a little
16:14
Speaker 1: bit about the Milwaukee Brewers in the past. I think
16:17
Speaker 1: the Rays deserve a lot of the same consideration. It's
16:19
Speaker 1: very good pitching. It's very good defense. They can do
16:23
Speaker 1: dynamic things offensively. Yes, they've got guys who can hit
16:25
Speaker 1: the ball out of the ballpark. Junior Caminero is a star.
16:29
Speaker 1: But most, by and large, what they're doing is they're
16:32
Speaker 1: just beating you one through 26 in their roster. They
16:36
Speaker 1: also have one of the best managers in the game
16:38
Speaker 1: in Kevin Cash. They have one of the best front
16:40
Speaker 1: offices in the game in Eric Neander, a Andrew Friedman
16:44
Speaker 1: leaves them to go to the Dodgers. And I think
16:47
Speaker 1: the biggest compliment you can give Eric Neander and his
16:50
Speaker 1: team is they have not missed a beat. This team
16:52
Speaker 1: is very formidable. So I think this is a team
16:55
Speaker 1: you would never count out. Now, the flip side of
16:57
Speaker 1: that conversation, Chet, and getting to your actual question of
17:01
Speaker 1: what concerns me is, can they win in the playoffs?
17:04
Speaker 1: This is a similar conversation we're having about the Brewers.
17:07
Speaker 1: The numbers don't lie. These bottom payroll teams in the
17:10
Speaker 1: Rays would be not only a bottom 10 payroll team,
17:13
Speaker 1: they're a bottom five payroll team. For them to excel
17:16
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, we just haven't seen it recently. And
17:19
Speaker 1: part of the reason is because these teams that do
17:22
Speaker 1: an excellent job throughout the season of mixing and matching,
17:24
Speaker 1: they're feasting on other teams' fourth and fifth starters, the
17:27
Speaker 1: underbelly of their bullpens. You just don't face that in
17:31
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Everyone's one, two, three starters are pitching. Their
17:34
Speaker 1: four best relievers are pitching. And so you have to
17:37
Speaker 1: be able to bunch hits together or hit home runs
17:39
Speaker 1: off of the best pitchers in the game And what
17:42
Speaker 1: we've seen out of those bottom payroll teams is they
17:44
Speaker 1: just don't have the star power to excel in that.
17:47
Speaker 1: I am personally sitting here very hopeful that you could
17:49
Speaker 1: see teams like Milwaukee and Tampa excel to the. to
17:53
Speaker 1: the world series. I think the game needs that. I
17:55
Speaker 1: think it would be awesome, especially in a collective bargaining
17:58
Speaker 1: agreement season. But until that happens, I guess that has
18:01
Speaker 1: to be the shade we're throwing on teams like the
18:03
Speaker 1: Rays that can they do it, but they're doing the
18:06
Speaker 1: regular season. Can they actually do it in the playoffs?
18:09
Speaker 2: I think you're comparing the Rays and the Brewers and
18:11
Speaker 2: we'll get to the Brewers here in a little bit,
18:13
Speaker 2: but I don't personally, when I watch those two teams,
18:17
Speaker 2: I feel like the Brewers have the horses to compete
18:20
Speaker 2: in the postseason and They have the position players who
18:23
Speaker 2: are dynamic, who are playing great baseball. They have a
18:26
Speaker 2: pitching staff that is hard to beat right now. I
18:29
Speaker 2: don't see that so much with the rays. It's like
18:32
Speaker 2: the rays are like the brewer's light or, or they're
18:35
Speaker 2: just fitting that, um, Great regular season team, postseason team
18:40
Speaker 2: that's probably not going to see anything past a division
18:45
Speaker 2: series or something along those lines. I just don't see
18:48
Speaker 2: them getting to the ALCS. They don't quite have the firepower,
18:51
Speaker 2: in my opinion.
18:53
Speaker 1: Well, and Chet, I'm sure we're going to dive into this,
18:55
Speaker 1: but I think one of the biggest challenges, and this
18:57
Speaker 1: is just the way the American League sets up this year,
19:00
Speaker 1: is the best three teams are going to be sitting
19:03
Speaker 1: in the one, four, and five seats. because they're all
19:07
Speaker 1: three in the American League East. So what then will
19:10
Speaker 1: transpire is the four and five seeds, which will be
19:13
Speaker 1: the Red Sox and Yankees, will play in the first round,
19:16
Speaker 1: the winner of whom will play the Tampa Bay Rays.
19:18
Speaker 1: So the good news for the American League East is
19:20
Speaker 1: one team will be represented in the American League Championship Series.
19:24
Speaker 1: The bad news is only one can be. And the
19:26
Speaker 1: bad news for baseball fans is the three teams are
19:29
Speaker 1: going to cannibalize each other and beat each other up.
19:32
Speaker 1: That's also bad news for the Rays. If you were
19:35
Speaker 1: truly sitting in a dynamic where the number one seed
19:38
Speaker 1: got to play then a subordinate second round matchup, they
19:41
Speaker 1: would be on the other side of the bracket. But
19:43
Speaker 1: they sit on the same side of the bracket with
19:45
Speaker 1: the two other best teams in the American League. And
19:47
Speaker 1: nobody wants to face teams like the Boston Reds. and
19:50
Speaker 1: Yankees in the playoffs because regardless of how they perform
19:52
Speaker 1: in the regular season, these are extremely hostile places to play.
19:56
Speaker 1: And these are very good teams and they're very playoff tested. Now,
20:00
Speaker 1: the good news is the Rays have done well against
20:02
Speaker 1: these teams and they've done well over the years. So
20:05
Speaker 1: they're less phased by this, but it's still a tremendously
20:08
Speaker 1: tough road for them to hoe to get even to
20:10
Speaker 1: the ALCS, let alone to excel and advance to the
20:13
Speaker 1: World Series.
20:14
Speaker 2: There's an interesting stat with the Rays that I'm curious
20:18
Speaker 2: to hear. We've talked about run differential a little bit
20:21
Speaker 2: this season when we're kind of breaking down teams and
20:24
Speaker 2: their performance. So the expected record based on run differential
20:31
Speaker 2: is only 86 and 69 for the Rays, yet they're
20:34
Speaker 2: actually 95 and 60. Does outperforming run differential tell you
20:39
Speaker 2: something about an organization's ability to close games or suggest
20:43
Speaker 2: postseason regression? Is it they're winning close games? What does
20:48
Speaker 2: that tell you exactly?
20:50
Speaker 1: That they have a better relationship with Joe Boo than
20:52
Speaker 1: the opposing team most often.
20:56
Speaker 2: You're not pulling anything down from that. Okay.
20:59
Speaker 1: You just nailed it. Typically, when you see a team,
21:02
Speaker 1: quote unquote, getting lucky and outperforming their run differential, it's
21:05
Speaker 1: because they do well in one run game. So think
21:08
Speaker 1: of a series in which you lose 10-1 in the
21:11
Speaker 1: first game, but then you win 2-1 and 3-2. Your
21:15
Speaker 1: run differential is significantly negative, but you're 2-1. So I
21:19
Speaker 1: would suspect if we dug a little deeper on the Rays,
21:22
Speaker 1: they probably have done well in close games and maybe
21:24
Speaker 1: gotten blown out a few times. But I do also
21:28
Speaker 1: think that that indicates they have been a little bit lucky.
21:30
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, when you have to advance
21:33
Speaker 1: in a highly competitive 30-team league, you not only have
21:37
Speaker 1: to be good, you have to be healthy, and you
21:39
Speaker 1: have to be lucky. So if that's something they can sustain,
21:41
Speaker 1: power to them. But my expectation is that means they're
21:45
Speaker 1: just managing games at the end a little bit better
21:47
Speaker 1: than most teams. And they're getting a little bit fortunate
21:50
Speaker 1: at the end of games where their performance with runners
21:53
Speaker 1: in scoring position is probably a little bit better than
21:55
Speaker 1: league average. And that usually year over year is not
21:57
Speaker 1: something that's perfectly predictive. That leads to a lot of
22:00
Speaker 1: one run or two run wins. And my guess is
22:04
Speaker 1: that's kind of the lifeblood of how they've overachieved a
22:06
Speaker 1: little bit this season.
22:07
Speaker 2: It's quite a bit different to have a one run
22:09
Speaker 2: lead in the postseason when a lot of pressure and
22:11
Speaker 2: lots on the line. versus having a one-run lead in
22:15
Speaker 2: game number 95. I mean, I do believe there's more
22:18
Speaker 2: at stake there, and the pressure's amplified, the environment is
22:22
Speaker 2: ramped up. It's great that they won a lot of
22:26
Speaker 2: one-run games during the regular season. Can they hold on
22:28
Speaker 2: to win those during the postseason, I think is kind
22:30
Speaker 2: of what we're wondering, correct?
22:32
Speaker 1: And also keep in mind, this is going to be
22:34
Speaker 1: a very different dynamic for the Rays. Unfortunately, they play
22:38
Speaker 1: half their games at home in front of a very
22:40
Speaker 1: light crowd. Now all of a sudden you're in the
22:42
Speaker 1: playoff scenario where accountability is high. No one views them
22:46
Speaker 1: as the underdog anymore. They're going to be the number
22:49
Speaker 1: one seed. There'll be huge expectations heaped on them. And
22:52
Speaker 1: I think that's where you start leaning into your coaching
22:54
Speaker 1: staff and your manager and none better than Kevin Cash
22:57
Speaker 1: to be able to manage those expectations for his team
22:59
Speaker 1: and get them ready to win.
23:01
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the other two that have clinched a
23:05
Speaker 2: spot in the AL right now. One of them, not
23:08
Speaker 2: really a surprise. The other one, a surprise based on
23:11
Speaker 2: how their season had gone in the beginning. So you
23:14
Speaker 2: got the Yankees, they finished 89 and 66, uh, preseason
23:18
Speaker 2: playoff chances were 78.8%. Probably the second best percentage predicted
23:25
Speaker 2: in the American league. We'll get to number one here
23:27
Speaker 2: in a little bit because it's quite the story, but
23:30
Speaker 2: the Yankees are a team that had 137 run differential.
23:34
Speaker 2: That would have been a 92 and 63 expected records.
23:37
Speaker 2: So they were the, they were the opposite. They kind of,
23:40
Speaker 2: flip-flop that a little bit i mean it's it's not
23:43
Speaker 2: a huge margin but tampa has the actual better record
23:48
Speaker 2: with the lower run differential um i they're probably the
23:54
Speaker 2: yankees are probably headed in the wild card round despite
23:58
Speaker 2: playing like one of the al's strongest teams statistically and
24:01
Speaker 2: guess who they're going to play against that the other
24:03
Speaker 2: team that got in the boston red sox so we
24:05
Speaker 2: are going to get another yankees red sox wild card
24:08
Speaker 2: series best of five How does that settle with you?
24:12
Speaker 1: Well, you know, there used to be a rule that
24:15
Speaker 1: was implemented almost exclusively to avoid this very situation where
24:19
Speaker 1: you could not face a team in your own division
24:21
Speaker 1: in the first round.
24:22
Speaker 2: Really?
24:23
Speaker 1: I didn't know that was set up. That was not never,
24:25
Speaker 1: it was never stated, but it was set up in
24:28
Speaker 1: our estimation so that the Yankees and Red Sox could
24:31
Speaker 1: always advance because they weren't playing each other. Well, now
24:35
Speaker 1: here they are playing each other and, and it's actually
24:38
Speaker 1: a three game series that they're going to play. And
24:41
Speaker 1: it will all be in one ballpark.
24:42
Speaker 2: Excuse me, three games. My bad.
24:43
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so I think real quick things to hit
24:46
Speaker 1: on on these two teams. The New York Yankees are
24:49
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable in the sense that I want to say
24:52
Speaker 1: they are carrying the most payroll on the IL for
24:55
Speaker 1: the course of the year. Now, a lot of that
24:57
Speaker 1: comes in the shoulders from the very broad shoulders of
24:59
Speaker 1: Aaron Judge. They also are experiencing the biggest drop off
25:03
Speaker 1: of any player in war year over year in Aaron
25:06
Speaker 1: Judge due to the fact that he's been hurt. A
25:08
Speaker 1: lot of people talked this year about Cal Raleigh and
25:10
Speaker 1: what's happened in Vlad Guerrero because they've actually been on
25:14
Speaker 1: the field and not performing quite as well as they
25:16
Speaker 1: did in 2025. Well, judges' services haven't been available to
25:20
Speaker 1: the Yankees, and they've also had injuries with Max Fried
25:23
Speaker 1: and Carlos Rodon and Garrett Cole, but somehow they're still
25:27
Speaker 1: lurking in this position, as you referenced, with such formidable
25:30
Speaker 1: playoff odds and significant World Series odds. They also have
25:35
Speaker 1: that same road to hoe that the Rays do, except
25:38
Speaker 1: they actually have to play an extra series. They're going
25:39
Speaker 1: to have to play the Red Sox to get to
25:42
Speaker 1: the Rays, to get to whomever is going to come
25:45
Speaker 1: out of the weaker side of the bracket for the
25:47
Speaker 1: American League to get to the World Series. But I
25:50
Speaker 1: think all the Yankees are hoping for is if we
25:53
Speaker 1: can get healthy, if we can get healthy, what could
25:56
Speaker 1: we achieve? Unfortunately for them, Judge goes back on the
25:59
Speaker 1: aisle with another calf issue. it seems as if his
26:02
Speaker 1: services are really up in the air. Credit to Aaron Boone,
26:07
Speaker 1: the manager there, and what they've done to keep that
26:09
Speaker 1: team as competitive as they have been without not only
26:13
Speaker 1: an MVP candidate, but a generational talent in Aaron Judge.
26:19
Speaker 2: So I'm curious about something. I want to know your
26:22
Speaker 2: take on this. How hurt do you think Judge is
26:25
Speaker 2: right now, or is this more keeping him fresh for
26:28
Speaker 2: the postseason?
26:29
Speaker 1: What do you think is going on there? I think
26:32
Speaker 1: this is kind of a little bit of a interesting
26:35
Speaker 1: controversy that all of us are starting to think about
26:37
Speaker 1: in baseball. That are these competitive teams with massive payroll
26:41
Speaker 1: starting to kind of.
26:43
Speaker 2: It's kind of like the Dodgers light, right? Like it's good.
26:46
Speaker 2: They don't have quite the firepower to rest their entire
26:49
Speaker 2: starting staff or whatever, like the Dodgers do, but they're,
26:53
Speaker 2: they kind of feels like it's happening in a way
26:55
Speaker 2: with guys like judge. Like they don't want to push
26:58
Speaker 2: them too hard.
26:59
Speaker 1: Look no further than the teams that have carried the
27:01
Speaker 1: most payroll on the IL. A few of them are
27:04
Speaker 1: teams like Toronto that just were trying to compete and
27:08
Speaker 1: have just been decimated by injuries. The other few are
27:10
Speaker 1: the Dodgers and the Yankees who seem to be poised
27:13
Speaker 1: to strike in the postseason. And I'm not sure they're
27:15
Speaker 1: looking at it quite as much as a disadvantage as
27:18
Speaker 1: potentially if everything falls right, it could be an advantage
27:21
Speaker 1: for them heading into the postseason. Now, it seems to
27:23
Speaker 1: me the injury and the commentary that Aaron Judge himself
27:27
Speaker 1: had coming out of that game the other day against
27:30
Speaker 1: the Twins, I believe it was, spoke to the fact
27:33
Speaker 1: that he was really frustrated and he felt like he
27:36
Speaker 1: was not delivering for his team. That felt very authentic
27:39
Speaker 1: to me. So I think it will be really interesting
27:41
Speaker 1: to see if he's able to come back for the
27:43
Speaker 1: first round and if he can, in what capacity. Because
27:48
Speaker 1: one of the biggest challenges, I think, in managing a
27:50
Speaker 1: roster is Aaron Judge at 100% is one of the
27:53
Speaker 1: best players in the game. Aaron Judge at 80% is
27:55
Speaker 1: still an excellent player. Once Aaron Judge gets down to
27:58
Speaker 1: about 50% or 60%, they may actually have better alternatives,
28:01
Speaker 1: but they're going to feel a lot of pressure to
28:03
Speaker 1: play him, and they're going to probably play him until
28:05
Speaker 1: they see that he either can go out there and
28:07
Speaker 1: play nine innings or that he's going to be compromised
28:10
Speaker 1: because he means so much to that team.
28:13
Speaker 2: The other side of that matchup is the Red Sox.
28:16
Speaker 2: They are a 60.8% preseason playoff odds. They got this right,
28:20
Speaker 2: but the path to get there was not what 60.8%
28:25
Speaker 2: playoff odds looks like. They had dropped, I believe it
28:28
Speaker 2: was a month into the season, it dropped off to
28:30
Speaker 2: something like 15%. It was 20% or below. We covered this.
28:36
Speaker 2: They fired the manager. And all of a sudden, they
28:39
Speaker 2: go on this tear, this absolute crazy 14, 15-game win streak.
28:43
Speaker 2: I actually got to see, I think it was the
28:45
Speaker 2: 14th game in person. Fenway was electric. And from there,
28:50
Speaker 2: they didn't stop. They kept pushing through. This is like
28:56
Speaker 2: MLB's dream is to have these two teams, in my opinion,
28:58
Speaker 2: matched up in the playoffs. I think it makes the
29:00
Speaker 2: postseason far more interesting to have a rivalry series like this,
29:05
Speaker 2: even if it is only three games. They'd probably love
29:07
Speaker 2: it if it was pushed down more to the division series,
29:10
Speaker 2: get a few more games out of it. But again,
29:12
Speaker 2: they had 60.8% chance to get in. The American League
29:18
Speaker 2: gets very interesting when we start talking about the other
29:21
Speaker 2: teams that have potential to get in. They're not in
29:24
Speaker 2: yet because their divisions are so bad and they're still
29:27
Speaker 2: fighting for a spot. Although I think one or two
29:30
Speaker 2: of them are just a game away from that elimination
29:34
Speaker 2: game and or that succession game that pushes them through,
29:38
Speaker 2: that qualifies them. You got the Guardian. preseason, 15% chance
29:43
Speaker 2: to make the post season. That's amazing to me because
29:46
Speaker 2: it's the guardians. I would almost automatically just give them 35%
29:49
Speaker 2: right off the top. They just always seem they're like
29:52
Speaker 2: a cockroach. You can't kill this team. They always seem
29:55
Speaker 2: to be there at the end of the year. And
29:57
Speaker 2: we've got the white socks and then we've got, uh,
30:00
Speaker 2: It's either going to be the Rangers or the Astros,
30:02
Speaker 2: one of the two. They're both in a tussle right now.
30:06
Speaker 2: The White Sox, they had a 1.1% preseason playoff chance.
30:11
Speaker 1: 1.1%.
30:11
Speaker 2: The only team worse was the Rockies. And the Rockies,
30:15
Speaker 2: it was like a joke. It was like 0.6% is
30:17
Speaker 2: basically saying they have no chance at all. The White
30:19
Speaker 2: Sox had a 1.1% chance. What do you make of it?
30:22
Speaker 2: What do you think is going to end up happening
30:25
Speaker 2: with these four teams here?
30:27
Speaker 1: So, you know, let's look at the AL West first.
30:32
Speaker 1: The mediocrity of the Central is only dwarfed by the
30:35
Speaker 1: mediocrity in the West. You've got five teams, none of
30:39
Speaker 1: which have a run differential that is positive. The Rangers and.
30:43
Speaker 2: The Astros are, yeah. You've got a 500 record and
30:46
Speaker 2: a losing record that could potentially make it.
30:49
Speaker 1: And if you want to compound it even more, one
30:51
Speaker 1: of the Rangers and Astros, potentially both, will make the playoffs.
30:56
Speaker 1: Against their own division, both those teams have losing records.
30:59
Speaker 1: The three teams below them actually have done well against
31:01
Speaker 1: the AL West, as has almost everybody else. So they're
31:05
Speaker 1: not even performing well against some of the worst teams
31:08
Speaker 1: in the league. It is a staggering figure. So just
31:11
Speaker 1: as a point of reference, Chet, six times in the
31:13
Speaker 1: last 10 years has a team with a negative run
31:15
Speaker 1: differential made the playoffs. As the Cleveland Guardians sit today,
31:19
Speaker 1: I think just two or three runs above their run differential.
31:23
Speaker 1: there's a chance that two in the American League will
31:26
Speaker 1: actually play. And we just talked about how challenging the
31:29
Speaker 1: one side of the bracket is with the three teams
31:31
Speaker 1: from the American League East, the Red Sox, Yankees, and Rays,
31:34
Speaker 1: is as anemic as the other side will be as
31:38
Speaker 1: you have some combination of the Rangers, the Astros, the Guardians,
31:44
Speaker 1: and the White Sox. One of those teams is going
31:46
Speaker 1: to make it to the ALCS this year. One of
31:49
Speaker 1: those teams is going to get a bye in the
31:51
Speaker 1: first round, when there's also a possibility that that very
31:55
Speaker 1: team that could get a buy could actually fall out
31:56
Speaker 1: of the playoffs in the next six days. It's a
31:59
Speaker 1: remarkable thing. It's a remarkable thing to witness. The White
32:03
Speaker 1: Sox deserve a ton of credit. You know, one of
32:05
Speaker 1: the best turnarounds for a team that had three consecutive
32:08
Speaker 1: years of a hundred plus losses. Will Venable has done
32:11
Speaker 1: a marvelous job there. Chris Getz has put together a
32:13
Speaker 1: very exciting dynamic team and let's call it like it is.
32:17
Speaker 1: You have to play the schedule that's in front of you.
32:19
Speaker 1: So no one's apologizing the central or the West. for
32:22
Speaker 1: the fact that getting above 500 probably almost guarantees you
32:25
Speaker 1: a playoff spot. The White Sox have certainly done that.
32:27
Speaker 1: And I couldn't agree more with you about the Cleveland Guardians.
32:30
Speaker 1: As somebody who had worked in the American League Central
32:33
Speaker 1: for eight seasons, you absolutely never can count them out.
32:37
Speaker 1: This team has a resiliency that is bar none. But
32:40
Speaker 1: if you look at some of the underlying numbers for
32:42
Speaker 1: that team, it's not very good. They are two runs
32:46
Speaker 1: above their run differential. They also have not performed particularly
32:50
Speaker 1: well against teams above 500. They're 13 games under against
32:55
Speaker 1: teams against 500. Those are the teams you're playing in
32:57
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So this will be an interesting team if
33:00
Speaker 1: they can make it to the playoffs, how they're going
33:04
Speaker 1: to excel, because they may get a bye, and that
33:05
Speaker 1: can be very beneficial. Chet, before we get out of
33:08
Speaker 1: this segment, do you have picks? We got the three
33:11
Speaker 1: teams from the East that are locked. Who are your
33:13
Speaker 1: other three playoff teams?
33:16
Speaker 2: I got to go with... I'm going to go with the...
33:20
Speaker 2: I'm going with the Guardians and I'm going with the Astros.
33:25
Speaker 2: I don't know why, but I just feel like the Astros, again,
33:27
Speaker 2: are like the Guardians. They're like the cockroach. You can't
33:30
Speaker 2: kill them. They're always showing up for that postseason. And
33:35
Speaker 2: I guess I'd say Chicago, maybe. Can they even get
33:39
Speaker 2: in there if those two teams get in?
33:41
Speaker 1: I think the math works out. Yeah, they would have
33:43
Speaker 1: the best odds. They would have the best odds. Yeah,
33:45
Speaker 1: I'm going to leave you with... I'll leave you with
33:47
Speaker 1: one stat. There are only four teams in the American
33:50
Speaker 1: League that are above 500 against teams that are above 500.
33:54
Speaker 1: That's Tampa, New York, Boston, and Houston. So for that reason,
33:58
Speaker 1: I'm also going to pick them. They just ran into
34:00
Speaker 1: a buzzsaw in Atlanta, but I think they've got a
34:03
Speaker 1: real chance. They're facing Seattle and the A's down the
34:07
Speaker 1: stretch here. A lot of these other teams have a
34:10
Speaker 1: lot more difficult road to hoe. I think the Houston
34:13
Speaker 1: Astros will come out on top. which is amazing. They
34:16
Speaker 1: fired their general manager a couple of weeks ago. It
34:19
Speaker 1: turns out that they fired their general manager, Philadelphia and
34:24
Speaker 1: Boston fired their manager. All three of those teams may
34:27
Speaker 1: end up making the playoffs. Stick with us through the break.
34:30
Speaker 1: We got the NL on the other side on rosters
34:32
Speaker 1: to rinks. Welcome back to Rosters to Rings. Hey, Chet,
34:44
Speaker 1: before we dive into the National League, I think we'd
34:46
Speaker 1: be remiss and not at least touching on the two
34:49
Speaker 1: teams that played in the American League Championship Series in 2025,
34:51
Speaker 1: the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. Blue Jays
34:55
Speaker 1: advanced to the World Series and by all accounts were
34:57
Speaker 1: one out away from winning the World Series. We didn't
35:00
Speaker 1: even touch on those two teams in our segment. And
35:03
Speaker 1: I think it's worth noting, you teased it, but we
35:05
Speaker 1: never really dove in, that Seattle Mariners actually started the
35:08
Speaker 1: season with the best playoff odds in the entire American league.
35:12
Speaker 1: Number one, they were at 80% chance of making the place.
35:15
Speaker 1: They had a 60% chance to win their division, which
35:18
Speaker 1: just for people to understand the only team that had
35:21
Speaker 1: a better odds to win their division was the Los
35:23
Speaker 1: Angeles Dodgers. And here we are, the Seattle Mariners are
35:26
Speaker 1: 10 games under 500 with a week left to play.
35:29
Speaker 1: They're technically not dead yet. Uh, As Monty Python would say,
35:34
Speaker 1: they are not dead yet. They still have an elimination
35:36
Speaker 1: number of two because the American League West is so
35:40
Speaker 1: dilapidated that they still have a chance. They're still breathing
35:43
Speaker 1: out there. Highly unlikely that they're going to make it. Chet,
35:46
Speaker 1: what is your make of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto
35:48
Speaker 1: Blue Jays here?
35:50
Speaker 2: Fangraphs are giving the Mariners a 0.2% chance of still
35:53
Speaker 2: possibly getting into the postseason right now. As you said,
35:57
Speaker 2: an elimination game of two, thick Kind of got to
36:00
Speaker 2: run the table from here and have everything else go
36:03
Speaker 2: their way.
36:03
Speaker 1: It's about the same level of chance Jim Carrey had
36:07
Speaker 1: in Dumb and Dumber, I think.
36:09
Speaker 2: About the same level of chance. Putting that into perspective
36:13
Speaker 2: here real quick, which is crazy. They give Seattle an 80%
36:17
Speaker 2: chance of the playoffs. They gave the White Sox a 1.1%
36:22
Speaker 2: chance of the playoffs. The White Sox now have a 96.2%
36:26
Speaker 2: chance of getting in. They still have a little work
36:27
Speaker 2: to do. There's another team in here. There are two
36:30
Speaker 2: more teams in here that we should talk about. Toronto.
36:33
Speaker 2: Toronto was just down the list of ways there. I
36:36
Speaker 2: think they were like fifth. They had something close to
36:38
Speaker 2: a 60% chance, something like that. They've been out for
36:43
Speaker 2: a little bit now. I don't know what happened to
36:45
Speaker 2: the Blue Jays. I'm pretty sure it wasn't letting Bo
36:47
Speaker 2: Bichette go. What do you think fell apart there for them, Thad?
36:53
Speaker 1: So I think Toronto's a really interesting study because a
36:57
Speaker 1: lot of things unexpected took place here. So on the surface,
37:00
Speaker 1: they're 13 games under 500 against teams above 500. So
37:04
Speaker 1: they're really struggling against the good teams of which they
37:08
Speaker 1: play quite a few in the American League East. I
37:10
Speaker 1: also think they are, you know, the byproduct of three
37:13
Speaker 1: teams in the American League East being so good. And
37:15
Speaker 1: we still have an inbound schedule. So they're playing them
37:17
Speaker 1: more frequently. I think red flags that you see now
37:20
Speaker 1: and maybe more clearly than you did at the beginning
37:22
Speaker 1: of the season. Their starting rotation this year was supposed
37:25
Speaker 1: to be Dylan Cease, Jose Burrios, Kevin Gosman, Max Scherzer,
37:29
Speaker 1: and Bieber. The average age of that group is 33
37:32
Speaker 1: years old. They've pitched like it. They haven't been healthy
37:36
Speaker 1: as a group. Cease has been a borderline Cy Young candidate.
37:39
Speaker 1: The other four guys have had significant injuries or poor performance.
37:43
Speaker 1: The other thing, we mentioned it very briefly in the
37:46
Speaker 1: other segment, is just what has happened to Vlad Guerrero
37:49
Speaker 1: this year. When you look at the quartet, their start,
37:52
Speaker 1: have not shined this year. So the quartet of Springer, Guerrero, Bichette,
37:57
Speaker 1: and Kirk last year accounted for 17.6 war. As you mentioned,
38:01
Speaker 1: Bichette's gone. The other three have accounted for 4.9 war
38:04
Speaker 1: this year. So it's a team that I think their
38:07
Speaker 1: stars shined last year, but they also had tremendous complimentary players.
38:11
Speaker 1: The complimentary players, while a few of them have different
38:14
Speaker 1: names than they did last year, are still performing very well.
38:17
Speaker 1: The stars are not shining. And in a division which
38:19
Speaker 1: demands your stars to shine, The Toronto Blue Jays have
38:23
Speaker 1: not gotten that level of performance from their team. They
38:26
Speaker 1: fell from having the fourth most runs scored last year
38:29
Speaker 1: to the 29th this year. They're averaging a little bit
38:32
Speaker 1: over one plus runs per game less this year than
38:36
Speaker 1: they had last year. That is a staggering figure, Chet,
38:39
Speaker 1: when they didn't really have wholesale changes offensively. As you referenced,
38:43
Speaker 1: Bichette's gone, but that doesn't account for all that decline.
38:47
Speaker 2: No, and I'll tell you, there is one interesting... corollary
38:53
Speaker 2: here between Seattle and Toronto. Cal Raleigh, the big bopper
38:57
Speaker 2: in Seattle, had a fairly awful season this year in
39:00
Speaker 2: comparison to the previous season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the big
39:04
Speaker 2: bopper in Toronto, had a fairly awful season, a very
39:06
Speaker 2: bad season this year. Is that catalyst in your lineup,
39:10
Speaker 2: a guy like a Vlad, a guy like a Cal Raleigh,
39:14
Speaker 2: is that integral to a team's offensive success when one
39:17
Speaker 2: of those guys goes down that does all the damage?
39:20
Speaker 2: You know, the Yankees lose judge for most of the season.
39:23
Speaker 2: They keep motoring on. So why is it that Toronto
39:26
Speaker 2: and Seattle, is that just because they don't have the
39:29
Speaker 2: wealth of other hitters? that the Yankees have around judge
39:32
Speaker 2: to fill in those gaps?
39:34
Speaker 1: I think this is where payroll matters. So the Toronto
39:37
Speaker 1: blue Jays are actually in a similar payroll band to
39:40
Speaker 1: the Yankees behind them, but they're, they're pretty wealthy as well.
39:42
Speaker 2: They're up there. They're up there.
39:44
Speaker 1: Yeah. But, but, but they've carried $ 73 million on the
39:46
Speaker 1: IL this year. So It's not just Vlad Guerrero's decline
39:51
Speaker 1: in performance. It's all those starting pitchers who got hurt
39:53
Speaker 1: for them. That has really been, I think, the Achilles
39:56
Speaker 1: heel for them. I think in Seattle's case, their payroll
39:59
Speaker 1: is much junior to the Yankees. So when they lose
40:02
Speaker 1: a player of the caliber of Cal Raleigh, who is
40:04
Speaker 1: playing every day but just not playing at the same level,
40:06
Speaker 1: it just hurts them so much more than when the
40:08
Speaker 1: Yankees lose Judge. And also, I think we should give
40:11
Speaker 1: the Yankees a little credit here. When you lose a
40:14
Speaker 1: player who is that good and still perform well, it
40:16
Speaker 1: just speaks to the championship caliber of And Jerry DePoto
40:20
Speaker 1: is one of the most creative GMs in the game,
40:23
Speaker 1: in the Seattle Mariners. It has been a Rubik's cube
40:25
Speaker 1: to put together offense in that ballpark. The dynamics are
40:29
Speaker 1: very favorable to pitching. He's built exceptionally strong pitching staffs.
40:33
Speaker 1: It has faltered a little bit this year. It's not
40:35
Speaker 1: quite as dominant as it once was. Offense has been
40:38
Speaker 1: a challenge. Last year at the trade deadline, they famously
40:41
Speaker 1: went out and got Naylor. He got a Rosarania in
40:45
Speaker 1: a trade. Those guys really helped jumpstart their offense offensively.
40:49
Speaker 1: He hasn't gotten the same level of productivity. And I
40:51
Speaker 1: think the league as a whole is a little bit
40:53
Speaker 1: surprised as to the offense that Toronto and Seattle put
40:55
Speaker 1: out there. Everyone was expecting alongside Fangraff's. Fangraff's accuracy in
41:00
Speaker 1: these things, just so you know, since they started doing them,
41:02
Speaker 1: is about 79% accurate, which is to say about two
41:05
Speaker 1: teams in every postseason make it who weren't expected and
41:10
Speaker 1: two don't make it who were expected. This season, it's
41:12
Speaker 1: a little bit more jumbled up, predominantly in the American League.
41:16
Speaker 2: I've got to give some attention to my tigers. They
41:20
Speaker 2: definitely did not live up to what fan graphs thought
41:22
Speaker 2: they were going to do. They had the fourth best
41:25
Speaker 2: odds to make the post season at the start of
41:27
Speaker 2: the season. And they have been eliminated officially this past
41:30
Speaker 2: weekend in their series against the white Sox. I said
41:33
Speaker 2: to the beginning of the season, the white Sox were
41:35
Speaker 2: going to be a pesky team. They were going to
41:36
Speaker 2: be a problem. They, they overachieved where, where, where I feel, um,
41:42
Speaker 2: But the Tigers, if any team underachieved, it had to
41:45
Speaker 2: have been the Tigers. They had one bad month, very
41:48
Speaker 2: similar to the Red Sox, but they just never got
41:50
Speaker 2: themselves out of that hole. You can't win a championship
41:53
Speaker 2: in May, but you can definitely lose your chances to
41:56
Speaker 2: play for one in May, having a bad month like that.
42:00
Speaker 2: Should we move on to the National League at this point?
42:03
Speaker 1: One thing I just want to say about the Tigers.
42:08
Speaker 1: Before we throw too much dirt on the grave with
42:11
Speaker 1: the Detroit Tigers, I do think it's worth noting they
42:14
Speaker 1: have carried the third or fourth best run differential in
42:16
Speaker 1: the American League all year. So they have been unlucky.
42:20
Speaker 1: As we talked about some teams being lucky in the
42:22
Speaker 1: American League, they have been grossly unlucky. And it shows.
42:25
Speaker 1: They're 12 games under in one run games. That is
42:28
Speaker 1: not something that is predictive year over year, especially considering
42:31
Speaker 1: the fact that they have one of the best managers
42:33
Speaker 1: in the game. But the back end of their bullpen
42:35
Speaker 1: hasn't been as stalwart as it had been in previous years.
42:38
Speaker 1: And the stat that really jumped out to me, Chet,
42:40
Speaker 1: about your beloved Tigers, they're 18-34 against the American League Central,
42:44
Speaker 1: a division that is probably the second worst in the game,
42:48
Speaker 1: only to the American League West. The fact that they
42:50
Speaker 1: are 16 games under. 500 against that division, I think
42:54
Speaker 1: they'll look back and say, that's where we lost the division,
42:57
Speaker 1: despite all the things that went wrong for them this year.
43:00
Speaker 1: If they were just 500 in their division, they're probably
43:03
Speaker 1: winning that division or running away with it as the
43:07
Speaker 1: fan graphs expected that they would have.
43:10
Speaker 2: If they could have just grabbed 15 wins in May
43:13
Speaker 2: instead of five, they probably would be in a great
43:16
Speaker 2: spot right now playing for that division. They just didn't
43:19
Speaker 2: quite get it done. So we've got the National League.
43:25
Speaker 2: The picture was clearer in the preseason to some degree
43:28
Speaker 2: or another. There were a couple teams that were underserved
43:32
Speaker 2: in the predictive values, but we've got the obvious ones here.
43:37
Speaker 2: We've got the Dodgers. The Dodgers had, what, a 99.3%
43:41
Speaker 2: chance of making the postseason? I mean, why not just
43:44
Speaker 2: anoint them a postseason berth before a game is even played,
43:47
Speaker 2: for crying out loud? That's ridiculous. We've talked about the
43:51
Speaker 2: Dodgers all season long. They're in. The Braves were up there.
43:57
Speaker 2: Atlanta Braves are 92-64. They're getting in. The model hit
44:01
Speaker 2: on that one. They had an 89.6% chance to get in.
44:06
Speaker 2: They've already exceeded their win projections for this season. And
44:10
Speaker 2: then you've got Philadelphia, who had a 68.8% chance to
44:14
Speaker 2: get in. They've got in. What do you make of,
44:19
Speaker 2: first and foremost, the Dodgers are the team, still the
44:22
Speaker 2: team in the National League to beat at this point
44:25
Speaker 2: in time. They've got as we were saying earlier, all
44:28
Speaker 2: their guys rested because they've been out half the season.
44:31
Speaker 2: So they're going to have a fresh starting staff for
44:33
Speaker 2: the most part. You see anything different this year going
44:37
Speaker 2: into this thing that we should be keeping an eye
44:39
Speaker 2: on for the Dodgers?
44:42
Speaker 1: So I'm hopeful that I can say a few things
44:45
Speaker 1: here because working for the Brewers, I want to believe
44:48
Speaker 1: that teams can go toe-to-toe with this team. So I
44:51
Speaker 1: think one thing that you're seeing, so as you mentioned, Chet,
44:54
Speaker 1: the playoff picture in the National League is much clearer.
44:56
Speaker 1: So where are the races? One of the races is
44:59
Speaker 1: for the number one seat. So Atlanta is still technically
45:02
Speaker 1: in it. They're kind of sitting in the three hole
45:04
Speaker 1: and seemingly that's what they're going to secure. The Dodgers
45:07
Speaker 1: and the Brewers are separated by two games with the
45:10
Speaker 1: Brewers in the lead right now. The Brewers actually have
45:12
Speaker 1: the tiebreaker having won four of the seven games against
45:16
Speaker 1: the Dodgers this year, which is to say that they're
45:18
Speaker 1: basically three games up right now. So if those two
45:20
Speaker 1: teams tie, the Brewers will get the number one seat.
45:23
Speaker 1: So I think there's a hope that having that home
45:25
Speaker 1: field advantage will matter a little bit. I think other
45:29
Speaker 1: things of concern, we talked about the fact that Aaron
45:33
Speaker 1: Judge is on the IL and not clear as to
45:36
Speaker 1: what he'll be able to contribute. Well, Shohei Otani is
45:39
Speaker 1: also a little bit beat up right now. unclear as
45:42
Speaker 1: to whether he will be able to be just an
45:43
Speaker 1: offensive player or if he can actually also pitch, or
45:46
Speaker 1: is he going to be able to suit up at all?
45:48
Speaker 1: And they're going to benefit greatly from that buy as
45:51
Speaker 1: they try to get healthy, but it's a team that's
45:53
Speaker 1: a year older. You know, one of the amazing things
45:55
Speaker 1: the Dodgers have done with guys like Mookie Betts and
45:58
Speaker 1: Freddie Freeman and Muncie and Will Smith is they seem
46:02
Speaker 1: to be defying aging as well. In addition to all
46:05
Speaker 1: the other things they're doing. Well, at some point they're
46:07
Speaker 1: going to get old and at some point they're going
46:09
Speaker 1: to start seeing a decline and, And so if not now,
46:13
Speaker 1: why not now, I guess, would be the question for
46:16
Speaker 1: the rest of the National League. They have some vulnerabilities.
46:20
Speaker 1: I think it's shown up throughout the course of the year.
46:22
Speaker 1: They're still an excellent team. They're undeniably the team to beat.
46:26
Speaker 1: But with that comes a ton of pressure and expectations.
46:29
Speaker 1: And maybe some of their guys aren't clicking on quite
46:32
Speaker 1: all the cylinders from a health standpoint. I think the
46:34
Speaker 1: rest of the league has to count on that to
46:36
Speaker 1: be able to go toe to toe with the behemoth.
46:39
Speaker 2: Who is your, so out of the rest of these guys,
46:41
Speaker 2: we've got the Cubs that are, you know, they're, they're
46:45
Speaker 2: fighting for the wild. They basically locked up the wild card, right?
46:48
Speaker 2: For the national league. I believe the Cubs got it
46:50
Speaker 2: locked up. San Diego's got something locked up here. I
46:53
Speaker 2: think Philly is in the driver's seat now for that
46:57
Speaker 2: final spot. So you're going to see Cubs, Padres, Phillies,
47:00
Speaker 2: and then you're going to see, it looks like Dodgers,
47:03
Speaker 2: Atlanta and Milwaukee are, These are the six that we
47:06
Speaker 2: think are going to make it in. I think Arizona
47:09
Speaker 2: still has a shot, but like some of the teams,
47:13
Speaker 2: everything's got to go right. Do you think, I mean,
47:18
Speaker 2: I look at some of this, one of the biggest
47:20
Speaker 2: storylines from this side is the Mets. They had the payroll, right?
47:26
Speaker 2: They had, they were projected to have about 90 wins.
47:29
Speaker 2: They had an 80.4% chance of making the playoffs. 8.5%
47:33
Speaker 2: chance of making the World Series, which again doesn't sound
47:35
Speaker 2: like a lot, but is fairly high for these predictive models.
47:38
Speaker 2: It was the second highest playoff probability in the National
47:41
Speaker 2: League behind the Dodgers. I feel like it was just
47:43
Speaker 2: kind of like they spent a bunch of money. They
47:45
Speaker 2: must have the second highest probability to make it. They
47:49
Speaker 2: had an almost 20, I think it was a 19
47:51
Speaker 2: win miss from their projected wins to what they ended
47:55
Speaker 2: up with. We've talked about the Mets a little this season.
47:59
Speaker 2: What does this look like with them missing here? They're
48:02
Speaker 2: kind of the big shock in the NL, right?
48:05
Speaker 1: Well, it's the curse of the 80% fan graphs preseason
48:09
Speaker 1: playoff odds. The Mariners and the Mets both had it.
48:13
Speaker 1: Neither team will make it. The Mets, to compound matters,
48:16
Speaker 1: over the last 10 years, they have spent the most
48:19
Speaker 1: money on payroll in the major leagues. More than the Yankees,
48:21
Speaker 1: more than the Dodgers. Coming into the season, they had
48:24
Speaker 1: tallied the 16th most wins overall. This season's not going
48:27
Speaker 1: to help the cause. They're going to drop down. There's
48:30
Speaker 1: something more going on here with the Mets. I also
48:33
Speaker 1: think it's noteworthy that we've seen that Steve Cohen, their owner,
48:38
Speaker 1: has gone on publicly saying they're going to make additions
48:41
Speaker 1: to their front office. They're going to diversify decision-making. We've
48:44
Speaker 1: heard the same thing from Mike Elias in Baltimore. So
48:48
Speaker 1: these are two teams that are doing something we don't
48:50
Speaker 1: normally hear, which is the leadership of the team is saying, hey,
48:53
Speaker 1: we believe in our number one guy, we believe in
48:55
Speaker 1: our manager, but what we need to do is start
48:57
Speaker 1: bringing some additional voices, additional diversified opinions and experiences into
49:02
Speaker 1: our front office to enhance and support the lead person
49:06
Speaker 1: and help them do their job even better. So I'm
49:09
Speaker 1: very interested to see what changes are made in both
49:11
Speaker 1: those franchises, maybe more so on the front office side,
49:14
Speaker 1: because I think that will then lead to some indications
49:16
Speaker 1: of what they'll do on the field. But the Mets
49:19
Speaker 1: are a team that is in disarray right now in
49:22
Speaker 1: the regards that David Stearns has been there a handful
49:25
Speaker 1: of years. He is a brilliant person. By all accounts,
49:28
Speaker 1: people love working for him. He is putting his fingerprints
49:31
Speaker 1: on this franchise, but it just goes to show you
49:33
Speaker 1: can't turn it around overnight. And I think they still
49:36
Speaker 1: have some work to do here. It doesn't help that
49:38
Speaker 1: you're playing with the Braves and with the Phillies in
49:41
Speaker 1: your division. It's a little bit unforgiving. And then the
49:44
Speaker 1: other thing I think we can't gloss over here, Chet,
49:46
Speaker 1: as something that could really impact the playoffs, is Alex
49:50
Speaker 1: Bregman got hit in the face by a foul ball
49:53
Speaker 1: and has been diagnosed with multiple facial fractures. And it's
49:57
Speaker 1: unclear as to what he will be able to do
49:59
Speaker 1: in the playoffs defensively. Pete Crow Armstrong gets a ton
50:03
Speaker 1: of credit for probably running away with the NL MVP.
50:06
Speaker 1: The guy who has pushed him probably the most has
50:08
Speaker 1: been Alex Bregman in the second half. This guy has
50:10
Speaker 1: been exceptional.
50:12
Speaker 2: He was a good signing. He was one of the
50:14
Speaker 2: off-season signings that worked for a team for the most part.
50:16
Speaker 1: And interestingly, both those guys got off to very tough starts,
50:19
Speaker 1: and they have come on gangbusters. He is an excellent defender.
50:23
Speaker 1: He is an excellent hitter. If they're missing him, this
50:26
Speaker 1: team is going to ride in the playoffs on their
50:28
Speaker 1: offense and their defense. And I hope their pitching is
50:31
Speaker 1: just good enough. But they're going to need to click offensively.
50:34
Speaker 1: And Alex Bregman is probably one of the most professionally
50:38
Speaker 1: gifted hitters. He is playoff tested. He has some of
50:41
Speaker 1: the most advanced plate appearances in the game right now
50:44
Speaker 1: as a function of playing all those years in Houston.
50:47
Speaker 1: If they're without him for any period of the postseason,
50:49
Speaker 1: I think that'll be very damning. The last thing I'll
50:51
Speaker 1: share with you, Chet, is I think it's a dogfight
50:54
Speaker 1: for the 4, 5, and 6 seeds in the National League.
50:57
Speaker 1: And I think it really matters because in that first round,
51:01
Speaker 1: the four and five seed, whoever is the four gets
51:03
Speaker 1: home games. And when you're talking about San Diego, so
51:07
Speaker 1: San Diego has the second best attendance this year, Philly
51:10
Speaker 1: the fourth, the Cubs the sixth. These are hostile environments.
51:13
Speaker 1: There is a bona fide home field advantage when you
51:16
Speaker 1: play at those ballparks. Whoever gets a home field out
51:18
Speaker 1: of that four or five, my guess is will be
51:20
Speaker 1: a decided favorite to win. And with all three of
51:23
Speaker 1: those teams being massively talented, that would be the way
51:26
Speaker 1: I would go in terms of picking those series is
51:28
Speaker 1: whoever gets to play at home is going to have
51:30
Speaker 1: a huge advantage.
51:31
Speaker 2: You think San Diego in their ballpark is probably one
51:35
Speaker 2: of the best pitchers parks in the league. Do you
51:37
Speaker 2: think that they have an advantage to a degree because
51:40
Speaker 2: they can kind of mitigate the offense of the other
51:43
Speaker 2: team coming in? Or do you think that the Cubs
51:47
Speaker 2: may have a better home team advantage, home field advantage
51:50
Speaker 2: playing at Wrigley? I haven't seen the home field advantage
51:53
Speaker 2: for the Cubs play out a whole heck of a
51:54
Speaker 2: lot in the postseason over the years. I mean, I
51:57
Speaker 2: would be far more concerned with the Cubs' lack of pitching.
52:03
Speaker 2: I haven't seen a team excel, and it probably puts
52:07
Speaker 2: more weight on PCA's MVP nod, but I haven't seen
52:11
Speaker 2: a team excel with such a half-baked pitching staff in
52:15
Speaker 2: quite some time.
52:17
Speaker 1: Well, I think your intuition is spot on, Chet Diggs.
52:19
Speaker 1: they will finish the year with the second least amount
52:22
Speaker 1: of war accumulated on a pitching staff. Also known as,
52:25
Speaker 1: I think that may be the first time ever that
52:27
Speaker 1: a playoff team could boast the same. There's a huge
52:30
Speaker 1: correlation between the quality of your pitching and getting to
52:32
Speaker 1: the playoffs, even more so than the quality of your offense.
52:35
Speaker 1: As you look at the 10 teams that have scored
52:37
Speaker 1: the most runs this year, I think only six will
52:39
Speaker 1: make the playoffs, potentially seven, depending on how the dogfight
52:42
Speaker 1: in the American league plays out. Eight of the top
52:44
Speaker 1: 10 pitching teams will be in the playoffs this year.
52:47
Speaker 1: And that usually holds true year over year. So, I
52:49
Speaker 1: would tend to agree with you. I think it's going
52:51
Speaker 1: to be loud in all three places. I think it
52:53
Speaker 1: will be very tough for the opposing team to play.
52:56
Speaker 1: I think each of these three teams has a clear
52:58
Speaker 1: flaw that may get exposed in the postseason, but they're
53:02
Speaker 1: as capable as any team of going on a run.
53:04
Speaker 1: The Cubs have had tremendous performance against teams that are
53:08
Speaker 1: playoff caliber teams this year, more so than the Padres,
53:12
Speaker 1: more so than the Phillies. The Phillies are a little
53:14
Speaker 1: bit flawed right now. They've got great players at the
53:16
Speaker 1: top of their rotation. three starting pitchers that no one
53:20
Speaker 1: wants to face. They've got three or four guys in
53:21
Speaker 1: the lineup that nobody wants to face. The rest of
53:23
Speaker 1: the team isn't quite as deep as some of these
53:25
Speaker 1: other teams. As you mentioned, if you can hold down
53:28
Speaker 1: the Cubs offense, you feel confident you're going to be
53:31
Speaker 1: able to score against them. The Padres are doing it
53:33
Speaker 1: a little bit with smoke and mirrors right now. They
53:35
Speaker 1: took advantage. They've won 12 of the last 13, took
53:38
Speaker 1: advantage of a little bit of a soft spot in
53:42
Speaker 1: their schedule. They still have to play the Dodgers and
53:44
Speaker 1: Arizona the last six games. That's not a cakewalk to
53:47
Speaker 1: get in. I think those teams are going to be
53:49
Speaker 1: fighting tooth and nail for the four seed to get
53:51
Speaker 1: home field because that just may be the one thing
53:53
Speaker 1: that separates these three teams that are all massively talented
53:56
Speaker 1: but all walk into the playoffs with at least one
53:58
Speaker 1: question mark on their roster.
54:01
Speaker 2: Another thing to bring up here, and you brought the
54:03
Speaker 2: Dodgers up kind of aging out. When were they going
54:06
Speaker 2: to start aging out of when their veterans are going
54:08
Speaker 2: to start cresting over the hill here? We haven't talked
54:11
Speaker 2: much about the Phillies this season. They are getting up
54:15
Speaker 2: there in years, too, at this point. I mean, Bryce
54:18
Speaker 2: Harper is no spring chicken anymore. You've got Real Muto
54:22
Speaker 2: behind the plate. He is no spring chicken. When is
54:25
Speaker 2: the age going to catch up with the Phillies?
54:28
Speaker 1: They do have some young pitchers. I think we're starting
54:30
Speaker 1: to see them crest at this point. You think so? Okay.
54:33
Speaker 1: So add to that group. You've got middle 30s from
54:35
Speaker 1: Trey Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Zach Wheeler. This is a group
54:40
Speaker 1: that is extremely talented. but also starting to age a
54:45
Speaker 1: little bit. So the question for the Phillies and the
54:48
Speaker 1: viability of their future is, where's the next wave of talent?
54:51
Speaker 1: And certainly you've got it at the top of the
54:53
Speaker 1: rotation with Jesus Luchardo and with Christopher Sanchez. Those two
54:58
Speaker 1: guys can carry a team. But I think the age
55:00
Speaker 1: of that team is an issue. One thing I want
55:04
Speaker 1: to leave you with here, Chet, as you look at
55:06
Speaker 1: Tampa and Cleveland, both in the playoffs, both bottom 10 payrolls,
55:09
Speaker 1: this is exciting for the game. We haven't seen this
55:11
Speaker 1: in a long time. Tampa's payroll is exactly $ 316 million
55:16
Speaker 1: behind the Dodgers. So if you added either Toronto or
55:19
Speaker 1: the Phillies entire team to their team, they would add
55:22
Speaker 1: up to the Dodgers. Cleveland, all you'd have to do
55:25
Speaker 1: is add the New York Yankees entire roster to their
55:28
Speaker 1: team to make up to the Dodgers. That's the disparity
55:32
Speaker 1: in payrolls we're going to see potentially as the playoff unfolds.
55:37
Speaker 1: The Cleveland is at $ 88 million. The Dodgers, they're $ 342
55:41
Speaker 1: million behind the Dodgers, who sit at $ 430 million.
55:45
Speaker 2: All right, Ted. We're going to leave the fans here.
55:48
Speaker 2: We've got the playoffs are coming up. Okay. We've got
55:51
Speaker 2: another week of the season to go to wind down.
55:54
Speaker 2: But that'll give everybody a pretty good idea of where
55:57
Speaker 2: we stand at the moment. We'll probably touch on this.
56:00
Speaker 2: Maybe give everybody another little peek at the actual playoffs
56:04
Speaker 2: as they shake out and the matchups and whatnot that
56:06
Speaker 2: we're going to learn about over the next week or so.
56:09
Speaker 1: My hope for the listeners and for us as fans
56:11
Speaker 1: over this next week is that all of these things
56:13
Speaker 1: are decided on the field and it's not, we're not
56:16
Speaker 1: going to have to go to the rule book and
56:18
Speaker 1: read the tiebreaker rules to understand who maybe won the
56:21
Speaker 1: division because they were tied or who won home field
56:24
Speaker 1: advantage or who was the six seed versus the seven seed.
56:26
Speaker 1: Let's hope it's all decided on the field for the
56:29
Speaker 1: fans and the players. Cause that will be a hell
56:31
Speaker 1: of a lot more exciting. than being decided in a
56:34
Speaker 1: rule book.
56:34
Speaker 2: I could not agree more. I could not agree more.
56:37
Speaker 1: Let's all wish for that. Please join us this and
56:40
Speaker 1: every Thursday on Rosters to Rings. Please join me, host
56:47
Speaker 1: Thad Levine, and other general managers every week for Rosters
56:51
Speaker 1: to Rings on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.