Latest / Foul Territory / Red Sox-Nats deal, Trade plans for Pirates & Astros, Record-setting Miz AGAIN, PCA MVP case, Cease CG

Transcript

Red Sox-Nats deal, Trade plans for Pirates & Astros, Record-setting Miz AGAIN, PCA MVP case, Cease CG · Foul Territory

0:02
Speaker 1: We're here. I'm back to pen a minute for me,
0:06
Speaker 1: Josh Harrison with Maryfield on a Monday after you. Good
0:09
Speaker 1: to see you both and happy one week away from
0:12
Speaker 1: trade deadline season to you both. It must feel nice
0:14
Speaker 1: to not have to worry about where your family might
0:18
Speaker 1: move in five seconds. I don't know if you guys
0:19
Speaker 1: dealt with that a ton, like, wait, did you deal
0:21
Speaker 1: with that much? Yeah?
0:23
Speaker 2: I was trading once, but I was felt like I
0:25
Speaker 2: was in the the conversations every year, and so that's
0:29
Speaker 2: that was interesting. Fortunately I was I was playing for
0:33
Speaker 2: a GM that was pretty transparent with me and kind
0:35
Speaker 2: of let me know what was what was going on.
0:37
Speaker 2: But it's funny to see headlines. And I was traded
0:42
Speaker 2: three three different times, fully traded, and then just just
0:45
Speaker 2: never got a phone call to say I was traded.
0:47
Speaker 2: So it's an interesting time for people that have to
0:50
Speaker 2: go through it. But I was eventually traded one time
0:53
Speaker 2: to Toronto, and it's it's a whirlwind, it's it's it's crazy.
0:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, I can attest to that as well. I
0:59
Speaker 3: was traded twice, once in the minor leagues and once
1:01
Speaker 3: in the majors. Traded my first full season in the
1:04
Speaker 3: minors and going from Daytona, Florida to Lynchburg, Virginia, and
1:08
Speaker 3: then in the big leagues, I was traded from Washington
1:11
Speaker 3: to Oakland. And as with said, you know, my name
1:14
Speaker 3: had been popped in you know, rumors here and there
1:16
Speaker 3: for years. But so that that actually happens, you don't
1:19
Speaker 3: really know what to expect. And I'll tell you what,
1:22
Speaker 3: I don't mishearing my name and that because when I
1:25
Speaker 3: get traded, it definitely does affect, you know, the family,
1:28
Speaker 3: not in a bad way, but it's a lot.
1:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, life comes at you fast during that time period.
1:33
Speaker 1: New team move, get the fam all settled, So I
1:36
Speaker 1: know it's a lot. I know, the agencies and everybody
1:39
Speaker 1: else behind the scenes. The families of course helped to
1:40
Speaker 1: make it happen. So before we get to a real
1:44
Speaker 1: big leaguer for big leaguer trade that I think is
1:46
Speaker 1: really interesting for charge, let's just highlight the miss and
1:50
Speaker 1: what he did because he keeps setting records. So we'll
1:52
Speaker 1: just spend a minute here, guys, on what you're seeing.
1:55
Speaker 1: So Jay Hay he struck out twelve of the first
1:58
Speaker 1: thirteen Rockies that he faced, retired the first fourteen overall
2:02
Speaker 1: five ridiculous innings, and he didn't really have to go
2:05
Speaker 1: to his secondary stuff too often. Less than usual, he's
2:08
Speaker 1: about two thirds of the time with the heater, and
2:10
Speaker 1: this time he was about eighty percent on the fastball.
2:13
Speaker 1: Besse he was feeling it up in the zone. So
2:15
Speaker 1: your thoughts on what you're seeing from the miz pumping
2:17
Speaker 1: one oh three and knowing where it's going, the placement,
2:19
Speaker 1: the command this year in his first full season.
2:22
Speaker 4: Well that what you just said right there, is knowing
2:24
Speaker 4: where it's going.
2:25
Speaker 3: That's a big part of it because a lot of
2:26
Speaker 3: guys throw hard fastballs, but if you have no command,
2:30
Speaker 3: it's gonna get touched. And uh, it's pretty impressive to
2:32
Speaker 3: see what he's been doing because you mentioned pitching predominantly
2:35
Speaker 3: with a fastball. But he I think he's got a
2:36
Speaker 3: few things on his side where throwing one three, one
2:39
Speaker 3: oh four, And I think I saw a metric that
2:41
Speaker 3: says he might have the most extension from you know,
2:44
Speaker 3: the release point, So you factor that in. You got
2:48
Speaker 3: release on extension and you got one of three one
2:50
Speaker 3: oh four. I mean, you're gonna have to prove that
2:52
Speaker 3: you can hit that fastball. And he's showing it right
2:54
Speaker 3: now that even if you know what's coming, it's hard
2:56
Speaker 3: to hit if it's well located.
2:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got to be able to pitch with You
3:01
Speaker 2: gotta have a fastball. To be able to pitch, you
3:02
Speaker 2: gotta be able to command the fastball. That's that is
3:06
Speaker 2: the old verbiage, the old mentality from pitchers from from
3:11
Speaker 2: forever until as of recently, it's been more about how
3:15
Speaker 2: hard you throw it and can you spin it, So
3:17
Speaker 2: it's gone away from it a little bit. But miss
3:18
Speaker 2: is kind of bringing it back where pitch off the heater. Granted,
3:22
Speaker 2: he's got the best heater probably in the history of
3:25
Speaker 2: the game, at least as of right now, but he's
3:28
Speaker 2: pitching off it, he's locating it, and guys aren't hitting it.
3:30
Speaker 5: So why would you. You know, he's.
3:32
Speaker 2: Sprinkling something in every once in a while just to
3:34
Speaker 2: keep guys in the back of their head, like, Okay,
3:37
Speaker 2: I got this ninety eight min hour slider, I gotta
3:38
Speaker 2: think about two. But if he's gonna throw, if he's
3:42
Speaker 2: gonna sit one hundred and three and locate it and
3:44
Speaker 2: move it around and up, down and out, why would
3:46
Speaker 2: you if that's what he's comfortable with and he's proven
3:49
Speaker 2: that nobody can hit it. Why would you speed their
3:51
Speaker 2: bat up to give him something, give them a chance
3:53
Speaker 2: to put something in play.
3:55
Speaker 5: Just keep blowing their doors off.
3:56
Speaker 2: And that's what he's doing, and it's it's incredible, and
3:58
Speaker 2: it's just, uh, it's he continues to do it day
4:02
Speaker 2: after day, and guys are seem seemed to have doing
4:09
Speaker 2: a better job of catching up to velocity. You know,
4:11
Speaker 2: everybody's throwing hard now, so guys are turning around. Ninety eight,
4:15
Speaker 2: ninety nine's more, but I mean from ninety nine to
4:18
Speaker 2: one hundred and three, that's that. Think about what it is, Jay,
4:22
Speaker 2: From ninety two to ninety six.
4:23
Speaker 5: That's a big jump.
4:24
Speaker 2: Now you got different thirty nine to one oh three,
4:26
Speaker 2: one oh four, one o five, that's crazy.
4:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, one O four, one five hitting your spots with
4:32
Speaker 1: the extension. He's super tall, he's got it all right now,
4:35
Speaker 1: and he's confident. But he's also fun loving. He's got
4:38
Speaker 1: the nickname. Kids love him, I think partially because he's
4:42
Speaker 1: obsessed with Pokemon and trading cards in general. Right, So
4:45
Speaker 1: we we unleashed a shirt in his honor, as we've
4:48
Speaker 1: got the player licensed shirts that launched a couple of
4:51
Speaker 1: weeks ago. So here's one that is just fresh on
4:54
Speaker 1: the website foul Territory Shop dot com. So enjoy it.
4:58
Speaker 1: The Mizz and some beautiful r work. So check it
5:01
Speaker 1: out the mizzfoul Territory Shop dot com. New shirt just
5:05
Speaker 1: out there in honor of what he's doing lately and
5:08
Speaker 1: his hobbies off the field. All right, now, let's charge.
5:12
Speaker 3: Let's charge out.
5:15
Speaker 1: This was interesting what Curtis Mead for Connille early. Curtis
5:18
Speaker 1: Mead was a big time prospect. He's bounced around a
5:21
Speaker 1: bit and really found himself pulling for power with the Nationals.
5:25
Speaker 1: Nationals have found it with a few of their bats
5:27
Speaker 1: this year. They haven't had the pitching, so they make
5:29
Speaker 1: a swap. Paul to Bony, used to be in the
5:31
Speaker 1: Red Sox front office. He gets Connolly early. They get
5:34
Speaker 1: to control him for a long period of time. Both
5:36
Speaker 1: of these players are under control I think once for
5:37
Speaker 1: four years and once for five. But thoughts on this move.
5:41
Speaker 1: Many in the public sphere initially looking go o controllable
5:45
Speaker 1: starting pitcher who looks like he could be a number
5:47
Speaker 1: three guy. Nationals have a win there. But for the
5:50
Speaker 1: Red Sox they were publicly stating this is the kind
5:53
Speaker 1: of right handed pop that we needed some infield action.
5:56
Speaker 1: Maybe he'll do a little DH action too. Your thoughts
5:59
Speaker 1: on this one for Austin, I.
6:02
Speaker 5: Think it's I think it's a great deal for for
6:04
Speaker 5: both teams.
6:04
Speaker 2: I mean, if you look at what Meat is doing,
6:07
Speaker 2: like you said, with the pull power, what better place
6:10
Speaker 2: to go play than Finway Park. You know, it feels
6:13
Speaker 2: kind of a third base void that the Red Sox
6:16
Speaker 2: are looking to fill. You know that they're hot, they're
6:20
Speaker 2: they're adding a good bat. I think kind of juices
6:24
Speaker 2: their lineup, juice to feel in the clubhouse. And then
6:27
Speaker 2: look at the other side. I mean, the Nationals are
6:29
Speaker 2: arguably one of the best offenses in the game, and
6:32
Speaker 2: they just they can't seem to pitch for anything besides
6:35
Speaker 2: Foster Griffin.
6:36
Speaker 5: And you know, it kind of gives gives them a.
6:39
Speaker 2: Little bit a different look, a different guy to be
6:41
Speaker 2: able to throw out there when he's healthy and say,
6:44
Speaker 2: can you get somebody out because our offense is putting
6:46
Speaker 2: them numbers. We just need somebody to get somebody out.
6:48
Speaker 2: And uh so, yeah, I think it was a great
6:50
Speaker 2: trade for for both teams. You'd love to see both
6:54
Speaker 2: two teams making moves to make each other better. It's
6:58
Speaker 2: it's always always fun to see.
7:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll double down on that just a little bit.
7:05
Speaker 3: You mentioned the Red Sox worked their ways back, you know,
7:08
Speaker 3: into the wildcart the hunt and you know, once to
7:10
Speaker 3: improve their offense, and with you hit it hit the
7:13
Speaker 3: nail on the head talking Finway pool hitter, I think
7:16
Speaker 3: all those home runs have been pooled. And then you
7:18
Speaker 3: mentioned you know early who I think maybe making his
7:21
Speaker 3: way back is having a pretty good year and hoping
7:24
Speaker 3: to boost you know, a Washington National staff that has
7:26
Speaker 3: not been very good. And I think there's a familiarity
7:29
Speaker 3: with maybe the GM from the Nationals from his time.
7:33
Speaker 3: I think he was with Boston somebody there to where
7:36
Speaker 3: I think, you know, as you said, on paper, looks
7:38
Speaker 3: like both teams improved themselves, you know, you know, to
7:42
Speaker 3: to to make a chance to you know, want to
7:44
Speaker 3: continue to push towards the postseason. And obviously for the Nationals,
7:47
Speaker 3: I don't think anybody coming into the season expected them
7:49
Speaker 3: to be in this position. But I think they're trying
7:52
Speaker 3: to make smart moves without you know, tearing things up
7:55
Speaker 3: because you got two guys, as you mentioned, that are
7:57
Speaker 3: really tearing up, you know, for the nationals right.
7:59
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9:03
Speaker 1: and then that's didn't expect to be in this spot.
9:06
Speaker 1: I mean maybe they did, but nobody else did. And
9:08
Speaker 1: if you put a lot detector test against them, I
9:10
Speaker 1: don't know if they would feel as if they were
9:13
Speaker 1: within range for an n A wild card spot, but
9:16
Speaker 1: they do know long term they need a lot more
9:18
Speaker 1: pitching in this organization. Early is hurt right now. He's
9:21
Speaker 1: got the elbow inflammation. So he's been on the aisle
9:23
Speaker 1: since July one, but should be back at some point.
9:25
Speaker 1: And then on the Curtis Mead side, I'm curious where
9:28
Speaker 1: he fits into the picture here too. What you've bounced
9:31
Speaker 1: around positions in the past for Curtis, So like two
9:34
Speaker 1: pronged here. One is he just found it this year
9:37
Speaker 1: with the Nationals. How can you trust sustainability, you know
9:41
Speaker 1: when you're in a front office. I know you haven't
9:43
Speaker 1: been in the front office, but how can you trust that,
9:45
Speaker 1: Like this version of Curtis meat is going to be
9:47
Speaker 1: the version that you're buying into if you're Boston. He's
9:50
Speaker 1: got eight fifty two ops cross eighty seven games, but
9:53
Speaker 1: he was defaded by the White Sox, didn't make the
9:55
Speaker 1: team out of spring training and they moved him. He
9:57
Speaker 1: was traded for you know, a lower end, and then
10:00
Speaker 1: on the position player side, and you've got Caleb Durbin.
10:03
Speaker 1: Driver's story should come back at some point, just kind
10:06
Speaker 1: of figuring out where this all plays in with the infield.
10:08
Speaker 1: They spoke to Durbin before this actually and said, hey,
10:11
Speaker 1: we might have you bounce around to every infield spot
10:15
Speaker 1: besides first base. Are you going to be good with that? Again,
10:17
Speaker 1: he's done that in the past. He was like, yeah,
10:18
Speaker 1: of course, but just take me through all of that.
10:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean from from a is it sustainable standpoint
10:26
Speaker 2: that goes back to you have to kind of scout
10:29
Speaker 2: like the old school. You have to be able to
10:31
Speaker 2: watch him and look at him and have watched him
10:34
Speaker 2: for an extended period of time and say, yeah, this
10:37
Speaker 2: is playing. He's made some adjustments and he's he's he's
10:40
Speaker 2: touching everything. He's sitting heaters, he's sitting austy pitches, he's
10:43
Speaker 2: on the fastball.
10:44
Speaker 5: He's not chasing a ton or is it.
10:48
Speaker 2: He's gotten a little bit lucky with some some low
10:50
Speaker 2: leverage situations where he's taken advantage of lesser arms. He's
10:55
Speaker 2: you know, catching some some blop doubles. He's I don't
10:59
Speaker 2: feel what the numbers show is sustainable, and I don't know.
11:02
Speaker 2: I haven't watched him enough to know whether one or
11:06
Speaker 2: the other is true, but it sounds like the Red Sox,
11:09
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully have done their homework and believe in
11:11
Speaker 2: the kid because you can. You can't make adjustments, you
11:13
Speaker 2: can get better. It can click for you and you
11:17
Speaker 2: can find it. And maybe that's what's happened with him.
11:19
Speaker 2: So hopefully, for his sake that's the case. The league
11:22
Speaker 2: will continue to adjust to him. So hopefully he's able
11:25
Speaker 2: to continue to adjust back. And that's what creates long success,
11:32
Speaker 2: and that's what creates consistency, and that's how you have
11:34
Speaker 2: a good career. And you know, I don't know the
11:37
Speaker 2: kid at all, but hopefully that's what he can do.
11:40
Speaker 1: And also, I mean, if you've watched Boston this year,
11:42
Speaker 1: jay Hey, up until recently, they struggled offensively at home
11:46
Speaker 1: and they've all of a sudden figured it out everywhere
11:49
Speaker 1: when they had the fifteen gamer going on. But you
11:52
Speaker 1: do have to sometimes look at the player and go, Okay,
11:55
Speaker 1: curtis me not rating super well defensively, but what do
11:58
Speaker 1: we need here? We need right handed pop. That's actually
12:01
Speaker 1: one of the most difficult things to find right now
12:02
Speaker 1: in the trademarket. Usually it's a controllable starter. And the
12:05
Speaker 1: Knats claim that they weren't shopping Curtis Mead, but they
12:08
Speaker 1: were blown away by the offer of Connolly early. So
12:11
Speaker 1: how do you factor all that in.
12:14
Speaker 3: I take it as Boston doing what's best for them
12:16
Speaker 3: in this moment right now. And you mentioned the fifteen
12:19
Speaker 3: game win streak, you know, riding a little bit of
12:21
Speaker 3: a high. Everybody's kind of feeling it. And then you
12:23
Speaker 3: mentioned is just sustainable for Curtis Mead? Not really sure.
12:27
Speaker 3: I don't want to say that it's not, because anybody
12:29
Speaker 3: that's played this game, I feel if you've had success,
12:31
Speaker 3: you know, you've shown that you're able to. But maybe
12:34
Speaker 3: they're just riding the hot hand. And at the same time,
12:36
Speaker 3: things can click, and that's something where when you play
12:40
Speaker 3: this game, you know, sometimes all it takes is being
12:42
Speaker 3: in the right organization or having you know something, somebody
12:46
Speaker 3: in your corner, you know, give you something. And maybe
12:48
Speaker 3: he found that in Washington, is going to be able to,
12:50
Speaker 3: you know, take that to Boston. But I see Boston,
12:54
Speaker 3: you know, looking at it to say, you know, we
12:55
Speaker 3: want to improve right now and address the need. And
12:58
Speaker 3: Washington also saying we know early you know, might not
13:01
Speaker 3: be pitching right now, but he's gonna make his way back,
13:03
Speaker 3: and you know, we need some some some pitching help.
13:06
Speaker 3: And I saw both teams kind of looking at it
13:09
Speaker 3: to say, it's kind of a deal that both of
13:10
Speaker 3: them couldn't pass up, and you know, addressing what they
13:13
Speaker 3: want to do right now, and especially for Washington not
13:15
Speaker 3: expecting to be in this position, uh, you know, boostering
13:18
Speaker 3: you know, bolstering their their starting staff.
13:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, just to follow up on the on the Curtis
13:24
Speaker 2: media because and the is it is it legit comment?
13:29
Speaker 5: It's it can be.
13:30
Speaker 2: And the reason it can be, I mean from my
13:34
Speaker 2: uh circle of friends and close friends that I've developed
13:38
Speaker 2: throughout the course of this this league. It makes me
13:41
Speaker 2: think of a guy like Ryan O'Hearn who had all
13:44
Speaker 2: the chances in the world with Kansas City and couldn't
13:46
Speaker 2: have just couldn't it could you couldn't figure it out,
13:48
Speaker 2: couldn't figure it out, got d f A and and
13:51
Speaker 2: the whole deal, and then just went to Baltimore and
13:55
Speaker 2: just found it and is and everyone was like, oh, well,
13:57
Speaker 2: you know, it's it might not be legit. He might
14:00
Speaker 2: have just called a lightning in the bottle, but he's
14:02
Speaker 2: sustained it and now he's just killing it with Pittsburgh
14:04
Speaker 2: and he's done incredible things for the last three or
14:06
Speaker 2: four years. So it can't happen. It can't happen later.
14:09
Speaker 2: Not everybody's on the same path and on the same curve.
14:13
Speaker 5: So yeah, it can.
14:14
Speaker 2: It can be legit, and it's to be determined whether
14:17
Speaker 2: it is legit, but it can't happen.
14:18
Speaker 5: It has happened before, it can't happen again.
14:22
Speaker 1: One more point here, Craig Breslow was under a ton
14:25
Speaker 1: of heat earlier this season. That's loosened a little bit,
14:27
Speaker 1: and now they're able to try and load up for
14:30
Speaker 1: a playoff run here for Boston. You know, I mean,
14:33
Speaker 1: we were talking a few weeks ago, two weeks ago
14:35
Speaker 1: even about Sonning Gray or Aldus Chapman, et cetera. It
14:37
Speaker 1: seems like they're going to go the other way, as
14:39
Speaker 1: they should with the streak that they put together. We've
14:43
Speaker 1: been critical sometimes of like Breslow making these mechanical statements
14:47
Speaker 1: to the public, and he even talked about it, Like
14:49
Speaker 1: there's been stories where they've got to create more connectivity
14:52
Speaker 1: with the players. Here's a good start, like he was
14:54
Speaker 1: a former player. And also people are capable of changing
14:57
Speaker 1: and adapting. Sometimes you jump into a role, you're also
15:00
Speaker 1: jumping into a front office that's been in place already,
15:03
Speaker 1: Like there's not usually turnover around the Red Sox front office,
15:05
Speaker 1: which makes the job unappealing sometimes to people that want
15:08
Speaker 1: to bring in their own crew. So let me just
15:10
Speaker 1: explain the quote here from Brezlo after the trade. He said,
15:13
Speaker 1: a lot of front officers are looking at very similar information.
15:15
Speaker 1: Trying to find an opportunity to win a trade isn't
15:17
Speaker 1: as easy as maybe at another point. Instead, in this position,
15:20
Speaker 1: I've tried to shift. Our goal is not to win
15:23
Speaker 1: the trade. It's to make our major league team better.
15:25
Speaker 1: Sometimes the most straightforward way to do that is a
15:27
Speaker 1: need for need trade And with your former PR guy
15:31
Speaker 1: with the Royals, Mike Swanson. Swanie actually commented on this
15:34
Speaker 1: on a reply tweet to Mike Monico, who's a broadcaster
15:37
Speaker 1: for the Red Sox, and he said, this is one
15:38
Speaker 1: of the dirty issues I experienced while working in baseball.
15:41
Speaker 1: There's this so called competition that your job was to
15:44
Speaker 1: fleece the other club sending your crap to improve your team. Sorry,
15:47
Speaker 1: but make trades without screwing the other team. It's better
15:50
Speaker 1: for the game. I just loved all of that. Right.
15:52
Speaker 1: If we have a world right now where everybody has
15:55
Speaker 1: the same computer systems and algorithms, it's going to make
15:58
Speaker 1: and we're playing stock market game long to make it
16:00
Speaker 1: much more difficult to pull off this Ooh, I ripped
16:02
Speaker 1: you off trade. Let's just make our team better.
16:04
Speaker 3: Like Jay said, I mean that's ultimately, that's ultimately.
16:10
Speaker 4: I get it.
16:10
Speaker 3: You got to have a forest form system. You want
16:12
Speaker 3: guys that are gonna come up for the future. But
16:14
Speaker 3: I mean, realistically, you want to win at the major
16:17
Speaker 3: league level, and a need at the major league level
16:20
Speaker 3: sometimes is, hey, we just got to go get what
16:23
Speaker 3: we have to get. And when you use the word fleeced,
16:26
Speaker 3: it made me laugh because you do hear people say, oh, we.
16:28
Speaker 4: Won that trade.
16:30
Speaker 3: Hey, who's to know who wins what trade. At the
16:33
Speaker 3: end of the day, both teams are trading for what
16:34
Speaker 3: they feel is going to make their team better. It's
16:36
Speaker 3: not about winning. It's about I mean, it is about winning,
16:38
Speaker 3: but not necessarily like, as you mentioned, trying to take
16:40
Speaker 3: advantage of somebody, because that's not that's not gonna happen.
16:43
Speaker 3: That's where you get the stall pattern, where you know
16:45
Speaker 3: what we're gonna move on.
16:47
Speaker 2: Everybody's scared to lose that, that prospect that's going to
16:50
Speaker 2: turn out to be the next Wan Soto or Aaron Judge.
16:54
Speaker 5: Everybody's scared to do that.
16:55
Speaker 2: And and and they're they're not concerned about what's happening
16:58
Speaker 2: right now. It's so hard to win in this sport
17:01
Speaker 2: that if you've got a chance right now, you got
17:03
Speaker 2: to you gotta try to take advantage of it. And
17:05
Speaker 2: you never know what's gonna happen with your prospects. You
17:08
Speaker 2: never know who's going to turn out, who's not going
17:10
Speaker 2: to turn out. You might have a guy in your
17:12
Speaker 2: system right now, it's going to turn out that you
17:13
Speaker 2: don't even know, you're not even thinking about. So I'm
17:16
Speaker 2: tired of people just trying to, oh, well, I don't
17:19
Speaker 2: want to trade him because he might pan out. Okay,
17:21
Speaker 2: well this guy has pandel let's go get him make
17:22
Speaker 2: our team better right now.
17:24
Speaker 1: Well, this was what I was talking about, the outlier
17:27
Speaker 1: trade where you go oops, Josh first player in baseball
17:32
Speaker 1: this season to reach seven f four, which is Fangrass
17:35
Speaker 1: version of war Pek Armstrong. If you watch him play
17:39
Speaker 1: every day, it's been one of the best players in
17:41
Speaker 1: the sport this season. He's an MVP candidate. With Shoey
17:44
Speaker 1: Otani not really pitching much lately, and we don't know
17:47
Speaker 1: what he's going to look like the rest of the
17:49
Speaker 1: season as a pitcher. That makes this much more of
17:50
Speaker 1: a race. And I think that's the part to point
17:52
Speaker 1: out here, is that we might have a PCA versus
17:55
Speaker 1: Otani real MVP race going on here. This is not
17:58
Speaker 1: the season where Otani want as the DH fifty to
18:00
Speaker 1: fifty season. The whole thing right, Like, this is a
18:03
Speaker 1: real race in my mind. Do you agree? No?
18:06
Speaker 4: I believe so.
18:08
Speaker 3: And I'm not one that really, you know, will just
18:10
Speaker 3: run away with war and say this is what it is.
18:13
Speaker 3: But as you mentioned, you know, Toani has done amazing
18:16
Speaker 3: things the past couple of years, and with his workload
18:18
Speaker 3: being a little lesson than seeing what PCA is doing.
18:21
Speaker 3: It's like every time I turn on the TV, the
18:23
Speaker 3: little bit that I'm watching, I'm seeing him doing, you know,
18:26
Speaker 3: a highlight of something hitting for a cycle, hitting the
18:29
Speaker 3: home run, running something down, still in the bag, changing
18:32
Speaker 3: the game a lot of different ways. And obviously his
18:35
Speaker 3: f war is showing that, but I think it's a
18:39
Speaker 3: lot of intangibles too, just you know, him showing up
18:41
Speaker 3: every day, and there are things that puts pressure on
18:44
Speaker 3: other teams with more than just his hitting, his speed,
18:47
Speaker 3: his ability to change the game. And I think it
18:49
Speaker 3: does cause for a case that I mean, he's putting
18:52
Speaker 3: his stuff in the running to be the you know,
18:54
Speaker 3: the front runner right now, especially with Otani not doing
18:57
Speaker 3: as much. And I don't want to say, oh Tony
18:59
Speaker 3: not doing as much, just not as much as he'd
19:01
Speaker 3: done in the year's past.
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Speaker 1: O N dot com code f o U l hey.
20:05
Speaker 1: Another pitching performance to shout out from the weekend, Dylan
20:08
Speaker 1: ces so damn good. A complete game. Yeah, at Fenway Park,
20:13
Speaker 1: did you guys hear too? He said Fenway is actually
20:15
Speaker 1: his favorite ballpark, which is bold to say when you're
20:18
Speaker 1: playing for Toronto. But he was talking about how when
20:21
Speaker 1: he'd play in sixty four growing up, whatever baseball game
20:23
Speaker 1: he was playing, he'd always picked to play at Fenway.
20:27
Speaker 1: He had some other fun you know, little stories behind it.
20:30
Speaker 1: But what do you think of I mean, he's been awesome.
20:32
Speaker 1: That's been one of the best off season acquisitions. It's hard,
20:36
Speaker 1: right when you're betting on a starter for big bucks.
20:38
Speaker 1: This one is working out well.
20:41
Speaker 5: He's been the lone highlight of the Blue Jays.
20:42
Speaker 2: He has. He's been nails all year. And you know,
20:46
Speaker 2: I loved, I love seeing Schneider leave him in. He
20:50
Speaker 2: got to one hundred and twenty pitches, which is a
20:52
Speaker 2: ton of pitches in the year twenty twenty six.
20:55
Speaker 5: So credit A.
20:56
Speaker 2: Snyder for letting him stick in and finish that game.
21:01
Speaker 2: And so yeah, it's he's just he's been so good.
21:03
Speaker 2: He's been he's been so good for the majority of
21:05
Speaker 2: his career now, and it's it's good to see him
21:07
Speaker 2: go to a new place on a big contract and
21:09
Speaker 2: continue to to pitch like this.
21:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hit shut out twelve punches and when they
21:15
Speaker 1: told him twelve on the post game, Josh, he was like, oh, whoa,
21:18
Speaker 1: I got to twelve because he was rolling early without
21:20
Speaker 1: many punch outs, getting you know, efficiently through and then
21:23
Speaker 1: started just racking up the caves later.
21:26
Speaker 3: That doesn't surprise me. I played with Cese in Chicago
21:30
Speaker 3: and I got to see it firsthand. I knew he
21:31
Speaker 3: was nasty inn and he had I mean, I think
21:35
Speaker 3: he would perfect or whatever.
21:36
Speaker 4: Through five he had a no hitter. When I was
21:38
Speaker 4: in White with.
21:39
Speaker 3: The White Sox and he lost it to Luis Arayaz
21:42
Speaker 3: literally with two outs. So to see him do this
21:45
Speaker 3: is not a mistake and big ups to him, and
21:48
Speaker 3: as you said, with definitely you know, big up John
21:51
Speaker 3: Schnyder leaving them in.
22:03
Speaker 1: All right better than box scores. We're going to try
22:05
Speaker 1: to look at team performances and how it ties into
22:07
Speaker 1: some player availability like Sandi al Contro where you get
22:10
Speaker 1: to the A's with Shey Langliars and his injury, and
22:12
Speaker 1: then hopefully we'll get to a little schooble talk in
22:15
Speaker 1: a bit. But Josh, let's start with what we've been
22:18
Speaker 1: seeing from the Marlins. They were arguably the best team
22:21
Speaker 1: in the month of June, and now they're on a
22:24
Speaker 1: ridiculous losing streak right like they were in a prime position.
22:27
Speaker 1: They're still not out of it, which is saying something, right,
22:31
Speaker 1: They've got the franchise record twelve straight losses, but this
22:35
Speaker 1: is not looking good. And also it's often about timing
22:38
Speaker 1: trade deadlines a week away. I mean, unless they flip
22:41
Speaker 1: it and win five to six in a row right now,
22:43
Speaker 1: it just doesn't give your front office a lot of
22:45
Speaker 1: confidence about what this is going to look like for
22:47
Speaker 1: the final two months this season. So, with all of
22:49
Speaker 1: that being said, if you were running the Marlins right now,
22:51
Speaker 1: but consider all of the context. Right the Marlins have
22:55
Speaker 1: a lot of trouble in South Florida to attract fans,
22:59
Speaker 1: partially because they will cut rosters at any given moment
23:03
Speaker 1: if they have the opportunity to do so. This goes
23:06
Speaker 1: back to Wayne Heisinger early days of the Marlins as
23:08
Speaker 1: a franchise, winning and then getting rid of the whole team,
23:11
Speaker 1: you know, within a year. So in this particular situation,
23:14
Speaker 1: when you're building up and there's been a lot of
23:15
Speaker 1: good signs of progress, how much would it hurt to
23:18
Speaker 1: trade away someone like Sandy al Contra if you do
23:20
Speaker 1: get a shiny offer.
23:23
Speaker 3: Losing twelve in a row is definitely not fun, and
23:26
Speaker 3: for that to be a franchise record. You mentioned how
23:28
Speaker 3: they were in June, it definitely does flip the script.
23:32
Speaker 3: And if they get an offer for Sandy that you
23:35
Speaker 3: know they are wild by, I wouldn't be surprised to
23:38
Speaker 3: see them move them just based off of what you've mentioned.
23:41
Speaker 3: You know, they they're not strangers to you know, having
23:45
Speaker 3: something and letting it go at any moment. But I
23:49
Speaker 3: think if you're going to do that, they are really
23:51
Speaker 3: gonna be willing have to be willing to let them go.
23:54
Speaker 3: But I know you got Yuri Prarez. I believe that,
23:57
Speaker 3: you know, they they probably see somebody being able to
24:00
Speaker 3: step in and fill that void. But it's kind of
24:01
Speaker 3: hard to fill a void that Sandy's had, you know,
24:04
Speaker 3: been that main state for there for some years. But
24:07
Speaker 3: they obviously they've lost twelve, but June also showed you, like, man,
24:11
Speaker 3: they got some players, they got some guys, and even
24:15
Speaker 3: though you've lost twelve, that's that's baseball, man. That's the
24:17
Speaker 3: ebbs and flows of the game of not getting too
24:20
Speaker 3: high and not getting too low. And if they can
24:22
Speaker 3: weather the storm, they might want.
24:25
Speaker 4: To keep it together.
24:26
Speaker 3: But if they get a deal that they can't, you know, refuse,
24:29
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, Sandy's name has been
24:31
Speaker 3: dangled for the past couple of years and that doesn't
24:34
Speaker 3: really mean anything. But at the same time, it does
24:37
Speaker 3: because people are interested. So it'll be interesting to see
24:39
Speaker 3: what they do. But at some point you would like
24:42
Speaker 3: to see some continuity to where fans can know that
24:44
Speaker 3: this guy's going to be here, this guy's going to
24:46
Speaker 3: be there, but it's kind of hard. And then losing
24:49
Speaker 3: twelve straight, they might feel like they got to make
24:51
Speaker 3: some moves. And an organization has done it in the past,
24:55
Speaker 3: I don't think would be scared to do it again.
24:59
Speaker 2: It's all about way you when you win and when
25:00
Speaker 2: you lose in it. I mean, look at look at Boston.
25:03
Speaker 2: They were one of the worst teams in our league, uh,
25:07
Speaker 2: for the first couple of months, and then all of
25:09
Speaker 2: a sudden they win fifteen in a row and now
25:10
Speaker 2: they're buyers. The Marlins, I think, had the best record
25:14
Speaker 2: in Baseball or at least National League something like that
25:16
Speaker 2: in June. Now they lose twelve in a row. Now
25:19
Speaker 2: they're sellers. So it's, uh, it's all about when when
25:23
Speaker 2: are you winning and when are you losing, especially when
25:25
Speaker 2: it comes this time of year. So it's not not
25:29
Speaker 2: ideal for Marlins fans and the guys in the locker room.
25:33
Speaker 2: And but you know, they've kind of put themselves in
25:36
Speaker 2: the situation to where they're not giving the front office
25:38
Speaker 2: a ton of confidence at what they have even though
25:41
Speaker 2: they had a great a great June. But Jay's right,
25:43
Speaker 2: it's just a it's a it's an ebbs and flow season,
25:46
Speaker 2: ups and downs the whole year. What your team looks
25:49
Speaker 2: like today isn't necessarily how they're gonna look tomorrow. But
25:53
Speaker 2: having said that, the front office does have a job
25:55
Speaker 2: to do, and they got to be able to like
25:57
Speaker 2: what they're seeing on the field right now if they
25:59
Speaker 2: want to go and add and make your team better
26:02
Speaker 2: for next month. And the Marlins have a week to
26:08
Speaker 2: turn it around and give them a little bit of
26:11
Speaker 2: a little bit of hope.
26:13
Speaker 1: So in conclusion, show of hand, let's just focus on
26:15
Speaker 1: the name that's been talked about for years. If given
26:17
Speaker 1: the right offer at the deadline, and let's say the
26:21
Speaker 1: Marlins over the next seven day, whatever amount of games
26:23
Speaker 1: they have go like four and three, three and four,
26:25
Speaker 1: like they're pretty much, you know, three to five, let's
26:28
Speaker 1: say three to four games out of a wild card spot.
26:30
Speaker 1: But you get the right offer for Sandy l Contra,
26:32
Speaker 1: do you trade him or no, show of hand yees
26:37
Speaker 1: raise your hand if you would trade.
26:38
Speaker 2: Him, can I ask one question because I don't know
26:41
Speaker 2: where is he contractually? What's his contractual situation?
26:44
Speaker 1: Like one more after this season? I'm ninety percent sure
26:48
Speaker 1: and I'll double check that while we're chatting, but let's
26:50
Speaker 1: go with that for now.
26:52
Speaker 5: I would trade him.
26:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would trade him too, Josh.
26:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.
26:58
Speaker 1: Yeah. He's got a club option for twenty twenty seven.
27:02
Speaker 1: That's twenty one million dollars or two million dollars buyout,
27:05
Speaker 1: So I mean he's worth that. So yes, you're gonna
27:09
Speaker 1: get one more season out of him at twenty one
27:11
Speaker 1: million dollars. So this would be the time you trade them. Okay,
27:15
Speaker 1: good to know. It hurts, right, Marlins fans, It hurts
27:17
Speaker 1: because you felt like you were actually gonna do a
27:19
Speaker 1: little bit of buying and you're wondering always if you're
27:21
Speaker 1: a Marlins fan, when will the rebuild stop? You had
27:24
Speaker 1: the one season where they made the playoffs as wild
27:26
Speaker 1: card a few years ago, and then all of a
27:27
Speaker 1: sudden skip Schumacher and Kim Ang are gone five seconds later,
27:30
Speaker 1: and here we are again. But yeah, I could see
27:33
Speaker 1: the frustration even to say it with right, because it's
27:35
Speaker 1: it's tough and.
27:37
Speaker 5: You don't have to trade them.
27:39
Speaker 2: But I'm saying, you know, if say, say Detroit pulls
27:42
Speaker 2: off a Scoogle and now this team's in that planning
27:46
Speaker 2: almost planning on getting Schooble was in panic and they
27:48
Speaker 2: throw you a big offer.
27:49
Speaker 5: Okay, now you trade them, but you don't have to
27:51
Speaker 5: trade them. I wouldn't settle to trade them, but you
27:53
Speaker 5: know I would.
27:54
Speaker 2: I would, I would definitely, I would definitely roll that
27:56
Speaker 2: tigre down the road.
27:58
Speaker 1: IL trips over the weekend, and we learned Cody Bellinger
28:01
Speaker 1: goes down left hamstring strain for him, it's a calf
28:04
Speaker 1: for Juan Soto, so we'll start there. Actually, let's do
28:08
Speaker 1: three years, so Wan Soto's expect to miss more than
28:10
Speaker 1: the two and a half he missed last time he
28:12
Speaker 1: was on the IL, so that sucks for him. Calves
28:15
Speaker 1: can be tricky, but the Mets are out of it
28:16
Speaker 1: doesn't matter for Bellinger. That's big. And then also somebody
28:19
Speaker 1: that they were looking as a possible fill in and
28:22
Speaker 1: a number of spots. Spencer Steer. You know him pretty well.
28:24
Speaker 1: You see him in the division watching Pirates games.
28:26
Speaker 6: Jay.
28:27
Speaker 1: Hey, he just hit the injured list with a hand
28:29
Speaker 1: or wrist injury. It was just reported today that he's
28:31
Speaker 1: probably going to be down for a while. I would
28:33
Speaker 1: assume that takes him out of the trade deadline mix.
28:36
Speaker 1: And the Yankees were a team roomor to be pretty
28:38
Speaker 1: interested in him because he can play in field and outfields. Up,
28:41
Speaker 1: we ran out of time, but we'll come back to it,
28:45
Speaker 1: all right, So continuing on who's hurt. I was commenting
28:48
Speaker 1: on Sodo going down not as relevant as not getting
28:51
Speaker 1: traded and the Mets aren't going anywhere. Bellinger gets hurt
28:54
Speaker 1: for the Yanks. Short term thing, but still, you know,
28:56
Speaker 1: affects them maybe how they do things the trade deadline.
28:58
Speaker 1: And then let's start with Spencer's Josh, how he could
29:01
Speaker 1: have been moved at the deadline. I think a lot
29:03
Speaker 1: of teams would have been interested in him. It seems
29:05
Speaker 1: much less likely with what looks to be a longer
29:08
Speaker 1: term injury here that pops up.
29:10
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, for sure.
29:11
Speaker 3: I played against Spence and then a little bit of
29:13
Speaker 3: time in spring training. I got to, you know, spend
29:15
Speaker 3: a little bit of time with him when I was
29:16
Speaker 3: with the Reds in twenty four, and Spence could be
29:19
Speaker 3: an appealing right handed bat who started at their base
29:22
Speaker 3: started playing outfield I think in twenty three. But yeah,
29:26
Speaker 3: I think it takes his name off the market because
29:27
Speaker 3: I think Jim Bowden might have said something that the
29:30
Speaker 3: Yankees were you know, possibly linked to him, and I'm
29:32
Speaker 3: sure if that's not the only team, given where the
29:35
Speaker 3: Reds have gone to pass you know, a month or so.
29:38
Speaker 3: But it's definitely unfortunate when you see guys go down.
29:40
Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned Bellinger, you mentioned you know Soto,
29:43
Speaker 3: but for Spence Steer in a situation where he you know,
29:46
Speaker 3: could have possibly been part of a trade market, you know,
29:49
Speaker 3: it's unfortunate. And you know, for teams that were interested,
29:53
Speaker 3: they're probably gonna pivot elsewhere and see what they can
29:55
Speaker 3: find in the outfield market.
29:57
Speaker 1: You guys might get calls. I mean, wad Apparently nobody
30:00
Speaker 1: can find good righty offense anymore.
30:03
Speaker 2: Huh Yeah, Well, I'm pretty happy with not spending a
30:08
Speaker 2: day on the il in my career. If I try
30:10
Speaker 2: to run beat out of ground ball to first base
30:12
Speaker 2: right now, that would I don't think that would last
30:13
Speaker 2: time I'd have a I'd have a one Soto, cav
30:16
Speaker 2: Sprain have to be out for two months or whatever
30:18
Speaker 2: it is.
30:20
Speaker 4: I wish I could say the same. I've been on
30:21
Speaker 4: there too many times.
30:25
Speaker 1: But that's what teams are looking for, and clearly we
30:27
Speaker 1: just saw that with the meat trade and how you're
30:29
Speaker 1: gonna have to pay up to get a player like that.
30:31
Speaker 1: Now Steers you know, potentially off the market in that
30:34
Speaker 1: world for Bellinger too. That one sucks for the Yankees
30:38
Speaker 1: on the short term in terms of trying to take
30:40
Speaker 1: down the Rais and the division with but also to
30:43
Speaker 1: try and get yourself a bye. I mean, Judge is
30:46
Speaker 1: hopefully going to be back for them in September, but
30:48
Speaker 1: this team is lined up right now to have to
30:50
Speaker 1: fight in a wildcard series.
30:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Billy Belly's having a good year and they
30:55
Speaker 2: needed him especially right now with Judge on the shelf,
30:59
Speaker 2: and you can't just have Ben Rice kind of carrying
31:02
Speaker 2: that offense. I know, Jazz is swinging a little bit better,
31:05
Speaker 2: but I mean it's just a it's an offense that
31:09
Speaker 2: doesn't scare you.
31:10
Speaker 5: Right now.
31:10
Speaker 2: You get past Ben Rice and there's nothing, there's nothing
31:12
Speaker 2: there that's scaring you. So especially with Bellinger alt Bellinger
31:15
Speaker 2: was the only other thing in that lineup that was
31:17
Speaker 2: given any sort of fear.
31:20
Speaker 5: You fear something.
31:25
Speaker 1: Hey shout out to Seakeeek. Like we mentioned, these are
31:27
Speaker 1: playoff type feel games this week for almost every team
31:31
Speaker 1: that's kind of in the middle, and that's what eighty
31:33
Speaker 1: percent of the league these days, it's like ten percent
31:37
Speaker 1: are terrible, ten percent look elite, and then most of
31:40
Speaker 1: the rest of the league looks like you can get
31:41
Speaker 1: hot at the right time and make a nice run.
31:43
Speaker 1: So any particular series this week that you guys have
31:46
Speaker 1: your yourself circled in terms of I would say more
31:51
Speaker 1: bubble focus, Like, Hey, I don't know what these two
31:53
Speaker 1: teams are going to do and they happen to be
31:55
Speaker 1: facing each other.
31:56
Speaker 3: You got one, Josh, A big series between the Pirate
32:00
Speaker 3: to the Diamondbacks. I think they're one game separated between
32:02
Speaker 3: the Wildcard, so it's in Pittsburgh. That's one that you
32:06
Speaker 3: know we covered on Bucco Territory, So that that series
32:09
Speaker 3: is gonna be a big one being one game separating
32:12
Speaker 3: the Wildcard.
32:14
Speaker 1: That's a good call. Yeah, I like that one.
32:17
Speaker 2: Yeah for me, I think it's Detroit and Baltimore, two
32:20
Speaker 2: teams that are kind of right there on that five
32:22
Speaker 2: hundred line. Detroit obviously with the with the big name
32:24
Speaker 2: that we talked about with Scoogle, but Baltimore's got some
32:28
Speaker 2: pieces that they're trying to figure out whether what they're
32:31
Speaker 2: gonna do with So it's a big series. If if
32:34
Speaker 2: if one team sweeps the other, I think that pretty
32:37
Speaker 2: much probably solidifies it.
32:40
Speaker 5: So yeah, I think, I think.
32:41
Speaker 2: I think in terms of a bubble standpoint, I think
32:44
Speaker 2: that the Baltimore Detroit series is probably the biggest one
32:46
Speaker 2: of the weekend or the weekesh.
32:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like those the one on I'd say, you
32:50
Speaker 1: guys picked the top one on the al side of
32:52
Speaker 1: the n L side. So if you want to see
32:54
Speaker 1: your team potentially get buried or make a little run,
32:57
Speaker 1: this would be the week for it. Seek can help
32:58
Speaker 1: you out, so if you're looking for it's you'll never
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Speaker 1: go a time where you can't find something, even if
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Speaker 1: can use that discount code. It's in the description of
33:15
Speaker 1: this episode. All right, let's take rumors. Let's start with
33:23
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Pirates with Josh Harrison on today. This is
33:26
Speaker 1: kind of a consensus spreading rumors so that they might
33:29
Speaker 1: be a little bit active on the trade front. We
33:32
Speaker 1: know very clear cut they've needed bullpen help. But what
33:36
Speaker 1: do you think about how aggressive they could be. I mean,
33:39
Speaker 1: they're at least like putting out these little feelers and
33:42
Speaker 1: this interest publicly that they're going to be aggressively going
33:46
Speaker 1: after some pitching help. The offense has been very good,
33:48
Speaker 1: I would say, surprisingly better than we thought. We knew
33:52
Speaker 1: it would be better with guys like Brandon Lao and
33:54
Speaker 1: O'Hearn getting signed up. But where are we at.
33:57
Speaker 3: Definitely, anybody that follows this team or knows know they
34:01
Speaker 3: need some bullpen help. And it was unfortunate when Connor
34:05
Speaker 3: Griffin got hurt because it definitely put a big learn
34:08
Speaker 3: hole at shortstop because it's who you brung up. And
34:10
Speaker 3: they addressed that by going to trade to get Jacob Gonzalez,
34:12
Speaker 3: who's filled in played pretty well for them, But you
34:16
Speaker 3: still need bullpen help, and I see them being aggressive
34:18
Speaker 3: with that because Spencer was just on saying that the
34:22
Speaker 3: Nationals might be breaking like the blown saves record, and
34:25
Speaker 3: I don't know the exact numbers, but I know the
34:28
Speaker 3: Pirates have blown close to twenty saves themselves, so that
34:32
Speaker 3: right there is a cause for concern, which it has
34:34
Speaker 3: been all year, and I can see them being aggressive
34:36
Speaker 3: and not an aggressive where they're just talking it just
34:39
Speaker 3: from a standpoint this offseason, you know, they talked about
34:42
Speaker 3: wanting to improve this team and wanting to be aggressive.
34:45
Speaker 3: They might not have landed some of the free free
34:47
Speaker 3: agents that they went after, but you know, they were
34:49
Speaker 3: definitely more aggressive this offseason and free agency, you know,
34:52
Speaker 3: going after the likes of like Kyle Schwarber, Jorgey Polanco,
34:56
Speaker 3: offering money that they have in years past. So with
34:59
Speaker 3: them being in this position to where they're on the
35:02
Speaker 3: brink of that wild card, bullpen has not been good
35:06
Speaker 3: and it hasn't been good all year, and for them,
35:10
Speaker 3: I know they're gonna be aggressive, But how aggressive are
35:13
Speaker 3: you going to be based off of you know, who
35:17
Speaker 3: you're willing to get, who you're willing to let go.
35:19
Speaker 3: But definitely, I think those rumors are true. Even Ben,
35:22
Speaker 3: you know, coming out saying that they're gonna be aggressive.
35:25
Speaker 3: Pirates fans are definitely at the point to where talk
35:28
Speaker 3: is cheap. So I don't think that Ben is just
35:32
Speaker 3: saying that and then they're gonna not do anything. I
35:35
Speaker 3: think he's gonna be really diligent trying to improve this
35:38
Speaker 3: you know, this bullpen and trying to be aggressive. Now,
35:40
Speaker 3: if that happens that still is determined, because I mean,
35:44
Speaker 3: you're gonna have to let go some pieces based off
35:46
Speaker 3: of what you go because we know this reliever market
35:48
Speaker 3: we've already mentioned is gonna be a little than so
35:52
Speaker 3: they're gonna have to do something. But I mean, I
35:56
Speaker 3: believe Ben because we covered it on our on the
35:58
Speaker 3: podcast bucle Territory before the season. Start covering free agents
36:02
Speaker 3: and stuff. Talk is cheap, So I don't think they're
36:05
Speaker 3: just blowing smoke. So I think they're going to try
36:07
Speaker 3: to be aggressive.
36:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's gonna hurt, but it might not hurt
36:10
Speaker 1: the major league club. Josh. They have plenty in the
36:13
Speaker 1: minor league cupboard to be able to unload to get
36:15
Speaker 1: the relief pitching that they need. And it sounds like
36:18
Speaker 1: one of those situations where just one deal is not
36:20
Speaker 1: going to be enough. Sometimes that is, if you get
36:22
Speaker 1: the premier reliever arm. There's not many of them that
36:25
Speaker 1: are going to be available, right we wipe Chapman's name
36:28
Speaker 1: off the list, it sounds like Mason Miller. There's gonna
36:31
Speaker 1: be a ton of reliever movement, right They'll probably be
36:34
Speaker 1: even just on trade deadline day itself, upwards of fifteen
36:37
Speaker 1: deals involving relievers. Last year on deadline day there was
36:40
Speaker 1: thirty six total deals, and I think close to half
36:42
Speaker 1: of them were relievers. So the Pirates are going to
36:44
Speaker 1: make moves like that. But in your mind, it's got
36:46
Speaker 1: to be what probably, let's take the A list off,
36:49
Speaker 1: maybe one or two B list and a C list
36:52
Speaker 1: reliever to add in there.
36:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I don't see them being super aggressive with
36:59
Speaker 3: the A list. You're going to have to give up
37:00
Speaker 3: a lot when they've already spent more than they what
37:03
Speaker 3: they have in the past years. So with that, and
37:05
Speaker 3: it goes to what men hit on earlier. If you
37:08
Speaker 3: want to win now, you're going to have to, you know,
37:10
Speaker 3: be willing to part with some prospects.
37:12
Speaker 1: Now.
37:13
Speaker 3: I'm not sitting here saying they're gonna, let you know,
37:15
Speaker 3: for Pirates fans, not Seth Hernandez or Florentino for some
37:18
Speaker 3: of you, I get it, But but they may have
37:21
Speaker 3: to be willing to let go of, you know, some
37:23
Speaker 3: other prospects because, as we mentioned earlier, you want to
37:27
Speaker 3: win now or put put your best team forth, and
37:30
Speaker 3: you can't do that by holding on to some guys
37:32
Speaker 3: that can't help your team, right, now.
37:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think a guy who fits in
37:39
Speaker 2: perfect with what you're talking about is a guy that
37:41
Speaker 2: Robert touched on in Jeff Hoffman.
37:42
Speaker 5: He's kind of a he's a by.
37:44
Speaker 2: Low guy's he hasn't had a great year, but he's
37:48
Speaker 2: had a history of being really good late in the game.
37:50
Speaker 2: So I think it's a guy that you can buy
37:53
Speaker 2: low on, get him to change scenery and see if
37:57
Speaker 2: see if you can find lightning in a bottle. I
37:58
Speaker 2: don't think you have to give up too much for
38:00
Speaker 2: So I think that's the kind of guys they might
38:01
Speaker 2: be targeting.
38:03
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you mentioned that not to say it,
38:05
Speaker 3: but pirates in the Blue Jays, I believe, have a
38:08
Speaker 3: little bit of history one spring training being so close,
38:10
Speaker 3: so they're not, you know, that far off from doing
38:13
Speaker 3: trades with each other. And also Hoffman is in an
38:16
Speaker 3: appellate name. As you've mentioned, pirates in years past have
38:21
Speaker 3: and I don't want to call Jeff Hoffman this. He's
38:23
Speaker 3: been through, you know, ups and downs as a starter reliever.
38:26
Speaker 3: But pirates have always you know, kind of taken it
38:28
Speaker 3: upon themselves to have you know, what they would call
38:31
Speaker 3: a reclamation project or somebody being able to kind of
38:33
Speaker 3: revive their career, and I got I got a chance
38:35
Speaker 3: to play with a lot of those guys you know
38:37
Speaker 3: that you know, just had a change of scenery and
38:40
Speaker 3: it just clicked for him, you know. J A.
38:42
Speaker 4: Happ was one that we got mid season.
38:44
Speaker 3: Jason Griley was a reliever that we got just to
38:47
Speaker 3: through out a couple of names that, you know, Pittsburgh
38:48
Speaker 3: was able to you know, kind of as you say,
38:51
Speaker 3: lightning in a bottle, kind of reignite these guys.
38:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, ideally, you look at someone who's at
38:57
Speaker 1: this point probably going to be considered a list in
38:59
Speaker 1: Luke Weavery's and so good, and he can bounce back
39:02
Speaker 1: well multiple you know, go back to back days and
39:04
Speaker 1: look just as effective, go multiple innings, the whole deal.
39:07
Speaker 1: He's pitched in high pressure situations. I just don't know
39:10
Speaker 1: if they're going to fork it up because he's got
39:12
Speaker 1: another year of control, so it's going to cost a
39:14
Speaker 1: lot more. It makes sense if you're Pittsburgh because this
39:17
Speaker 1: should be the beginning of winning contention, right And also,
39:20
Speaker 1: I mean, Luke Weaver's not cheap. That's the factor that
39:22
Speaker 1: is real. We know that too, right, Bob Nottting's is
39:25
Speaker 1: going to be carefully scrutinizing every dollar that's coming in.
39:28
Speaker 1: That's always the case with Pittsburgh. But of course, if
39:31
Speaker 1: you're a Pirates fan, I would say a guy like
39:33
Speaker 1: that is high up on your wish list. Let's get
39:35
Speaker 1: to another team. Let's get to the Houston Astros. Just
39:38
Speaker 1: when you think, oh, this could be the year they've
39:40
Speaker 1: got pieces, let's go through who they could trade away.
39:43
Speaker 1: Dana Brown, who runs the front office there, the general manager,
39:46
Speaker 1: said no, we are contending, we are adding. He stated
39:50
Speaker 1: it publicly. We're a week away at this point, so
39:52
Speaker 1: you should buy into it. Chandler Rome from the Athletic
39:55
Speaker 1: and also Crush City Territory said they will buy at
39:57
Speaker 1: the trade deadline, and he said it's something that has
39:59
Speaker 1: been for a while. But Dana Brown doubled down on it.
40:02
Speaker 1: Dana's always really good with the media and being very straightforward.
40:06
Speaker 1: And he said on the Ashers pregame radio show on Sunday,
40:09
Speaker 1: the division's wide open, the wild cards wide open. There's
40:12
Speaker 1: some parody there. There's a lot of teams bunched up.
40:13
Speaker 1: I think the team that gets hot is going to
40:15
Speaker 1: be the team that takes the run, we would anticipate
40:17
Speaker 1: we're going to be buyers. Wit it makes sense. Is
40:21
Speaker 1: this the shiniest Astro season we've seen?
40:23
Speaker 4: No?
40:23
Speaker 1: Do they have significant flaws, yes? Do they have star
40:25
Speaker 1: power yes? And probably the best hitter in baseball at
40:28
Speaker 1: this very moment in Jordan Alvarez. The crazy thing to
40:32
Speaker 1: me is how Seattle has not run away at all, right,
40:35
Speaker 1: how they've really stumbled and the Rangers look mid and
40:39
Speaker 1: so you're at the A's look bad. You're putting yourself
40:41
Speaker 1: in a position near the Angel stink where it is
40:44
Speaker 1: very easy to see the Astros come out on top.
40:47
Speaker 1: In the American League West.
40:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a pillow fight with the West and the Central.
40:52
Speaker 2: In the American League is who's going to be the worst?
40:54
Speaker 2: Who's going to be the worst division in the sport?
40:56
Speaker 2: It's it's it's anybody's game. I mean maybe not. Kansas
41:03
Speaker 2: City's probably out of it in the Central, and the A's.
41:07
Speaker 5: Are probably out of it now in the West.
41:08
Speaker 2: But it's I'm Seattle's kind of doing what Toronto's doing
41:12
Speaker 2: in the East. They're just they had all these high,
41:14
Speaker 2: high expectations and they're just kind of laying an egg
41:16
Speaker 2: they're still they're still in it though there. I mean,
41:18
Speaker 2: they're just a couple of games back. They don't have
41:20
Speaker 2: a Tampa Bay that's running away with the division like
41:22
Speaker 2: Toronto does. But it's uh yeah, it's I mean I
41:25
Speaker 2: would do the same thing if I was Houston. It's
41:28
Speaker 2: you got a chance to win a bad division, go
41:30
Speaker 2: win it. You feel like you got good players on
41:32
Speaker 2: your team, and they do have good players, going going
41:36
Speaker 2: try to win because once she gets at the postseason,
41:38
Speaker 2: it truly anything can happen. It doesn't matter what you've done,
41:42
Speaker 2: which where you go, who you've played, what your record is.
41:44
Speaker 2: Everybody's zero zero in the postseason. It's who's playing well,
41:48
Speaker 2: who's hot, And if the Astros feel like they got pieces,
41:51
Speaker 2: go build around them and go try to make another run.
41:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
41:55
Speaker 3: Hey, and I think you said I believe Daniel Brown
41:59
Speaker 3: might be on the last year for contract too, so it's.
42:01
Speaker 4: Like a win.
42:02
Speaker 3: Now situation for him. So that too, was like I
42:05
Speaker 3: can't just sit here and fill my thumb. So I
42:08
Speaker 3: see a little bit of urgency is the word I'm
42:11
Speaker 3: looking for.
42:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, if your job's on the line, you're you're going
42:14
Speaker 1: to push your ownership group to buy and try and
42:18
Speaker 1: convince them that the team is better than the record
42:20
Speaker 1: that's been out there. Of course, if you're going the
42:23
Speaker 1: other way, I mean you're gone. And it's a very
42:25
Speaker 1: pushy owner, and I mean that in a good way.
42:26
Speaker 1: Jim Crane has been one of the more successful owners
42:29
Speaker 1: in baseball for a while now. He knows the sport well,
42:32
Speaker 1: uh and he gets pretty involved and it's worked out
42:34
Speaker 1: for him most of the time. When the owner gets
42:36
Speaker 1: too involved, it's a bad thing. This one's done a
42:38
Speaker 1: nice job of that. But he puts a lot of
42:40
Speaker 1: heat on the general managers. I mean this was for
42:43
Speaker 1: some other drama I guess that was going on, but
42:45
Speaker 1: James Click won them a World Series running the front office,
42:48
Speaker 1: and then they parted ways after the season because they
42:51
Speaker 1: I guess weren't on the same page. But that one
42:58
Speaker 1: will never get old exactly. So we'll see what the
43:01
Speaker 1: Astros do. Good talk on the Pirates. One other quick
43:04
Speaker 1: note in the al West, just to get it in
43:06
Speaker 1: there from the weekend. Shaye Langeliers has a pretty bad
43:09
Speaker 1: knee issue with the meniscus tear, so he might get surgery.
43:13
Speaker 1: Either way, he's going to be out for a while
43:14
Speaker 1: and that should wipe him out of any trade rumors.
43:17
Speaker 1: It didn't sound like they were going to move him anyway.
43:18
Speaker 1: It's been a stalwart, but he's been one of the
43:20
Speaker 1: guys they haven't been able to extend. So you can
43:22
Speaker 1: wipe him off the list, right, I mean maybe somebody
43:26
Speaker 1: Ryan Jeffers is likely going to get traded. I guess
43:28
Speaker 1: you could still think of an Alie Ruchman, although he's
43:30
Speaker 1: on the aisle and not likely. But Shay Langliers is
43:34
Speaker 1: a star catcher and he's probably going to start out
43:37
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven whenever it starts with the a's. And
43:40
Speaker 1: you might have yourself in any sport parlay boost token
43:43
Speaker 1: to use in the bed MGM app, so you can
43:45
Speaker 1: pair up some sports that you like and if you
43:49
Speaker 1: activate that token and win, you can score a bigger payoff.
43:52
Speaker 1: Gambling problem more concerned, call one eight hundred Gambler slappans
43:55
Speaker 1: next FT Trade Deadline Special live one o'clock Eustern on Monday.
44:10
Speaker 1: We'll take you all the way through the final buzzer
44:12
Speaker 1: and then some we always get those last minute you
44:15
Speaker 1: minutes to go trades and then we don't hear about
44:18
Speaker 1: them for another fifteen to twenty thirty minutes. You know,
44:21
Speaker 1: you try to alert the major league and minor league
44:24
Speaker 1: players whole deal. But anyway, we're super excited about that.
44:28
Speaker 1: So we are going to say goodbye, oh bye to
44:32
Speaker 1: the TV crowd and we'll continue on here. We got
44:34
Speaker 1: a few more minutes on the YouTube side, and then
44:38
Speaker 1: we will throw everyone to Dodger's Territory live if you
44:40
Speaker 1: want to go there, if you want to hate or
44:42
Speaker 1: hate watch, watch or hate watch, I should say, so
44:46
Speaker 1: let's finish with this. Two things. One, we did have
44:49
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame speeches. I don't know if you guys
44:51
Speaker 1: caught anything over the weekend, but Jeff Kent, Andrew Jones,
44:55
Speaker 1: Carlos Beltron on the writing side, Paul Hoines on the
44:58
Speaker 1: broadcasting side, Joe with I know, you know those guys.
45:03
Speaker 1: Any thoughts on the ones that got in this go round?
45:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, I thinking to see any of that.
45:10
Speaker 2: But Andrew Jones is the one guy that I've been
45:13
Speaker 2: interacted with of of the group and just just an awesome,
45:17
Speaker 2: awesome human being. Just every time I've talked to him,
45:21
Speaker 2: it has just been an incredible conversation.
45:23
Speaker 5: Just he's a genuine guy.
45:25
Speaker 2: He's just you can just tell he's a truly genuine dude,
45:27
Speaker 2: and big congrats to him. One of my favorite guys
45:30
Speaker 2: to watch growing up. Just he was He was swagger
45:33
Speaker 2: before there was a swagger in the game. So shout
45:36
Speaker 2: out to aj Yeah Josh.
45:38
Speaker 1: To me, this was a Hall of Fame year where
45:42
Speaker 1: I felt like Andrew Jones belonged a long time ago,
45:44
Speaker 1: and he was I think unfairly penalized for not being
45:50
Speaker 1: his best self in his last few years, which is
45:52
Speaker 1: called normal human biology. And then Jeff Kent, same thing.
45:56
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was missing on Jeff Kent,
45:58
Speaker 1: like he had it all. Was he the world's best defender? No,
46:02
Speaker 1: but was he one of the best second basement offensively
46:05
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. Yes, and was actually super outspoken about
46:08
Speaker 1: not doing steroids during the steroid era. I don't know
46:11
Speaker 1: what else you can ask for besides maybe he wasn't
46:13
Speaker 1: best friends with every media member anyway, I can go
46:16
Speaker 1: on and on your thoughts on everybody that got to
46:19
Speaker 1: get enshrined this weekend.
46:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, well deserved for those guys, and for some guys definitely,
46:26
Speaker 3: you know, like about time, you know Mitch Andrew Jones,
46:29
Speaker 3: even for Jeff Kent offensively was ridiculous and pretty cool
46:33
Speaker 3: that you know, I can see Carlos Beltron because I
46:36
Speaker 3: played against him, So it's cool to see somebody that
46:38
Speaker 3: you played against, you know, and he was with the Cardinals,
46:40
Speaker 3: So that's one of those things where you know, it
46:43
Speaker 3: kind of comes full circle and you know, you recognized
46:45
Speaker 3: people that you played against, and it's nice to see
46:48
Speaker 3: them get their acknowledgements.
46:50
Speaker 1: And on our way out, I just want to shout out.
46:51
Speaker 1: We showed it on YouTube like five minutes ago. Joey
46:55
Speaker 1: Vado just a piece of a really great interview. It's
46:57
Speaker 1: always great and interesting with him. On Riverfront Territory, Josh
47:00
Speaker 1: a long time rival of yours.
47:03
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, played against the rest quite a bit, but
47:06
Speaker 3: I can remember my first time getting the first base.
47:08
Speaker 3: I got family there. Joint Vodos like, oh man, you're
47:11
Speaker 3: from here, right, because he can tell the crowd.
47:12
Speaker 4: I'm like yeah.
47:13
Speaker 3: He goes, man, I'm building a house which area? So
47:15
Speaker 3: I give him the right area, like you don't want
47:17
Speaker 3: to be around people.
47:18
Speaker 4: Cool.
47:19
Speaker 3: Two years later he goes, hey, man, I'm getting ready
47:21
Speaker 3: to sell my house a little bit much for me
47:23
Speaker 3: and my dog. I'll sell it to you, it's like
47:25
Speaker 3: three point five, but I'll sell it to you for
47:27
Speaker 3: like two.
47:27
Speaker 4: Five or something like that.
47:28
Speaker 3: I'm like, man, I ain't even arbitration yet. He's trying
47:32
Speaker 3: to go on first base after I hit a single
47:36
Speaker 3: and he goes, you're from here, right, I was like yeah.
47:38
Speaker 3: He says, yeah, man, I built the house and might
47:41
Speaker 3: be moving.
47:42
Speaker 4: I'll sell it to you for interested And I'm like,
47:45
Speaker 4: I'm hey, man, if it's too much house for you,
47:47
Speaker 4: I ain't even got kids yet. You know, me and
47:49
Speaker 4: my wife we just engaged. But you know, Joey was
47:52
Speaker 4: always cool because nice swing man.
47:54
Speaker 3: You're from here right, Yeah, man, I'm looking to build.
47:56
Speaker 3: Where would you build? So it just kind of funny
47:58
Speaker 3: how you went from one thing to it other.
48:02
Speaker 1: That's really good. Hey, I mean that's I don't know
48:04
Speaker 1: what the exact percentages off the top of my head,
48:06
Speaker 1: but if he was being truthful, and he usually is,
48:09
Speaker 1: the three point five to two point five discount when
48:13
Speaker 1: for somebody right who was going through arbitration or free
48:16
Speaker 1: agency would have been a nice offer.
48:19
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it wasn't bad.
48:21
Speaker 3: It was just a wasn't in the area that I
48:22
Speaker 3: would have moved. Its been a little bit further away
48:24
Speaker 3: from a family. But it was funny because it was
48:27
Speaker 3: like the first year he asked me, I was from here,
48:30
Speaker 3: asked where to build it? Like two years later he's
48:32
Speaker 3: like from here, all right, I'm looking to sell man.
48:34
Speaker 3: I'll sell it to you before he goes on the market.
48:38
Speaker 1: That's really good with best first baseman conversation either like
48:42
Speaker 1: individual one or just player who you loved hearing it
48:44
Speaker 1: from the well.
48:46
Speaker 2: The first one it was my like my welcome to
48:48
Speaker 2: the big league moment was when I got to first
48:50
Speaker 2: base and Joe Mollour was playing first and kind of
48:52
Speaker 2: sat me on the button said, hey, wit love watching
48:54
Speaker 2: you play. The fact that he knew my name and
48:56
Speaker 2: he called me by my first name and then told
48:58
Speaker 2: me that he liked to watch me play was the
49:00
Speaker 2: first time that I really felt like I was a
49:02
Speaker 2: big leader.
49:03
Speaker 1: That's cool. Yeah, that's really cool, Joe. Cool, great stories,
49:08
Speaker 1: great day. Hopefully everyone had fun. It is one week
49:12
Speaker 1: until the trade deadline, like almost exactly one week away
49:15
Speaker 1: from the final buzzer there, so guys, hope you enjoyed
49:19
Speaker 1: this and then let me just see us we're going
49:21
Speaker 1: here on our way out tomorrow. Oh we got the
49:24
Speaker 1: aj Eric combination back and I'll try and keep them
49:27
Speaker 1: in line. Ken Rosenthal back on the show tomorrow, so
49:30
Speaker 1: if you have questions there, we'll take them live. Josh Wait.
49:33
Speaker 1: Appreciate you guys.
49:34
Speaker 4: Appreciate it.