July 19, 2024 • 42 mins
Talkin' Jake is back from the All-Star Game in Texas, looking at the strengths of every team's schedule for the second half to see who is primed to go off. Jake also gives a behind-the-scenes look into everything he did at All-Star Week
Wake n Jake is available on YouTube! Check us out HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@WakeNJake
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Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:20 Hardest Strengths of Schedule
11:00 Easiest Strengths of Schedule
16:55 NL Wild Card Race
23:00 All-Star Game Behind-the-Scenes
35:15 Home Run Derby
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello to Waken Jake with myself, Jake's Story, Elly, Big Baby,
David Mendelssohn. As we head into the second half of
the baseball season, Little Friday for you. We tried to
pre record for All Star Game. We got that Bailey
up in and then we're like, oh, I actually need
that for today, so we got a little backed up. Well,
(00:21):
we left a banger for you this week, the Trevor
Ploof episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You guys like him.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The numbers don't lie and if you give a clickbait thumbnail,
you will get the clicks. And Trevor was fine too,
although there was one. The comments were awesome. There was
one comment that cut me deep though, was Waken Jake
hosted by Trevor Ploof because he carried this episode, Not
that I still think about it, not that it's still
(00:48):
on my mind, same with my hair right now. For
all the YouTubers and golf colaps twenty k subs on YouTube,
thank you guys. I really appreciate that, and of course
our friends over Dan Patrick. But we need to talk
about baseball because it's the second half. It starts tonight.
(01:09):
No Thursday games anymore. Out of the All Star break,
they used to hit us with like three, Yeah, at
least one. I'm kind of okay with it. It is
a game I think that's pretty universally liked by the fellas,
so maybe we support it. Maybe one game would be cool.
That obviously sucks for that team, but maybe, like whoever's
(01:30):
got the least travel. I don't know. It feels like
there's a solution there.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You know, if they kept that, it would be Yankees
every year. That's okay, which I'm fine. I like them.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We'll talk about them a little bit. We'll go through
some All Star game. We'll walk you guys through the
weekend a little bit, some of the highlights. Some of
you like that. I guess before we get to that,
we'll just do some some broad second half baseball. There's
an ESPN article with second half previews, some rankings and
playoff odds. Eh, we'll hop in there a little bit.
(02:03):
I did want to check out some strength to schedule
first of all, because I I would hear people reference
it and I'm like, oh wow, that's a good piece
of information, but i never really knew where to find it.
The best place I've currently found is Fangraphs. If you
go to their Playoff odds page. One of the columns
is strength of schedule, and there's some interesting things to
(02:27):
note in there. I still I'm looking for my perfectly
and perfect strength of schedule analysis. That the algorithm would
be something along the lines of like season win percentage
and then like last ten game win percentage, and that
would go into a formula because like, the Yankees just
(02:48):
played the Orioles going into the All Star break, but
did they like they played an Orioles team that, with
help to the Yankees, came up against six game losing streak.
But also like if you played the Yankees in May,
you faced a very different team than if you face
(03:08):
the Yankees in July or end of June. So that's
where I'm still If one of the Waken Jake analytics
nerds wants to get involved and give like a strength
of schedule verus strength of schedule at time of playing,
It's a stat that you almost can't do, but I'm
interested in it. Strength of schedule. The rest of the way,
(03:29):
I think some things to know. As I just told you,
I mean, I'm not bound to strength of schedule, but
it tells us something. And I don't know the two
well actually the top three teams in strength of schedule,
because I will say at four and five are the
(03:51):
Rockies in the Marlins. Oh, if you wanted to, you
could drop the obnoxious Well, they can't play them, But
again those are it's one team in the rest of
your second half schedule. Top three teams and strength the
schedule the rest of the way the Boston Red Sox
five to fourteen win percentage, the Tampa Bay Rays and
(04:14):
the Cleveland guard Docks. So if you are into that
kind of thing. The Red Sox, who have been surging
lately and are becoming a well liked team in the
American League, they've had a ton of injuries. I also,
I'm not going to put a ton of merit in
this just because the Red Sox have done a lot
(04:36):
of their bidding to get to this point of the
season against good teams. They took down the Yanks, they
took down the Phillies. I think there's a brave series
in there, like they They've played some of the heavy
hitters and they've competed, So I'm not going to super
hold that against them. That does make me worry for
the race. I've been trying to buy a little bit
(04:56):
of raise stock. The phrase I keep saying is the
names are changing, like Brandon Loo, Josh Low, Randy has
started to go YONDI started to go for a little bit.
There Esak always going although Chris Rose traded him. Go
check out the Trade Deadline Draft episode on Talking Baseball,
one of the best pieces of content of the year.
(05:20):
This makes me nervous for my race. I thought there
was gonna be more coming, and maybe there is. You
never fully know with them, but seeing that strength of
schedule and them limping as hard as they could to
get to five hundred at first, I saw their five
hundred going into the break is like good for the Rays,
like to say, we're at five to zero. Oh going
(05:41):
into the All Star break. That's huge for how gnarly
of a first half it was for them originally. But
it seems like they'll be up against it a little
bit the other team. So your top three before you
get to Rockies, Marlins, Blue Jays, Cleveland guard Dogs, and man,
(06:04):
some of the fangrafts win percentage stuff doesn't like them
for how dominant they've been.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It has the Cleveland Guardians as a fifty three point
six percent to win the division, So I mean that's
close to a coin flip. There's a lean there, But man,
I just think the not contradiction the ESPN article that
I mentioned that I think they had a bunch of
(06:35):
writers contribute, So that's why I'm not referencing a writer.
You know, my guy, Bradford Doolittle was involved. Oh but
we got a ton of guys in here. Okay. They
put the Cleveland Guardians in the first category of teams,
the quote unquote Big Five, where they have the Phillies
(06:58):
who deserve Big Five recognition for the first half of
the season, the Yankees, which as much as we mentally
have been fighting lately, sure Yankees have been great, which
means the Orioles are in there, yep. The Dodgers, uh huh.
And then they threw the guard Dogs in is the
Big Five, which I don't know if I fully agree
(07:19):
with that. There's some good arguments there. They clearly have
a top of the lineup and other contributors throughout the
lineup offensively and defensively. Their bullpen is Numero uno. So
if that continues to ride, that's a pretty strong pillar
of a team. But in Tier two, if you're gonna
(07:39):
put the Brewers, I mean Brewers and guard Dogs have
felt like a one A one B all year. And
also the Braves they put in a tier below them,
which I don't. I just can't do that. I mean,
maybe that's me being just a mental sheep time of
year to talk like that. I don't know. I don't
(08:00):
have the guards up there. Chris Rose, who watches as
much baseball on it as anyone and loves his Guards,
He's been trying to pump the Brakes a little bit.
There's a little fear factor of their starting pitching, which
has been not great all year, But you could spin
that as a good thing, like they're gonna have guys
that they can call up, even guys you're familiar with.
Tristan McKenzie got sent down, Like does it click for him?
(08:23):
Are they gonna do the trade? The Cleveland fans not
happy with our trade deadline draft episode because A nobody
cares about the rules when they see a graphic, and
B I don't know what to think with the Guardians,
like yes, they should trade for help, and add is
it a team that feels like they're gonna sacrifice the
(08:44):
big pieces to move to attack one year? No? Like
They've never done that. They've never done that, at least
in the recent since post pandemic. That feels like, feels
like recent history that I don't know. Seeing the Guardians,
(09:07):
the Rays and the Red Sox up there, I guess
I've just got Red Sox blinders on where I don't
feel that too much. Raising guards I feel just a
little bit because I want to see who do they
have who else? In the central They have the Twins
at thirty eight point two percent to win the division.
(09:28):
That's a big boy number, and then the Royals at seven
and a half percent. That's tough. Sorry Royals. And I
don't know. I guess if I was DraftKings spinning this,
if you were a Twins believer, I think there's a
nice little sprinkle to be put in for them to
(09:50):
win the division. The Twins lineup right now is a problem.
And that's saying it in al a cool, hip young
guy way. I really like where the Twins lineup is
at right now, between Miranda finding it, their lefty slash
switch hitters being consistent. Buxton turned on that if Buckston
(10:12):
and Ryce Lewis go, which Royce Lewis has been out
like even if Eddie Julian. Imagine if something kicks in
with his swing again and they call him up. He
was supposed to be their leadoff guy this year. The
Twins have lineup options, and you know that's what Little
Poppy likes. That if you're a guardian, if you're not
about the Guards and you're about the Twins, there could
(10:32):
be a little sprinkle there. The other one that I've
stumbled into that I don't believe in. I believe in less.
But this is more so if you like playing the odds.
So let's reverse engineer this a little bit. Let's look
at the what would you say, the weakest strength of schedule.
But that's a good thing, yeah, the best strength of
(10:56):
schedule in a bad strength of schedule.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The weakest schedules left.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Uh bottom of the list. San Francisco Giants, Hey, do
something crazy not in on them. That's kind of rude,
but hey, if you're a giant's hopeful you could put
that little feather in your cap right above them. The
Chicago Cubs, which I don't Both of those teams, in
(11:26):
the words of Joe's McFly, are none of my business
at this point. I don't really believe in either of them.
Maybe this is why maybe I need to be more
of a schedule snob. Maybe for one of these teams
that's gonna click great, not into it. The next two
teams get me a little more jazzy fizzle. The Atlanta
(11:47):
Braves they have a four ninety opponent strength of schedule
the rest of the way, and the New York Yankees
at four ninety two. So I guess the Braves. I
mean that division lead is massive. The Phillies have shown
no signs of fading. We've seen the Braves put together
(12:09):
a big second half before their World Series year. They
went nuts, the offense started to click. They made a
couple ads that they were the best offense in baseball
the second half of the season. They pretty much rode
that all the way to a title. And it was
without Ronald Acunya. So I don't know if you're if
you're a Braves person and you think the Phillies could
(12:31):
slip up just a little bit. Who are listed as
the seventh strongest strength to schedule the rest of the way. Again,
this has Philly with the highest chance to win the
division right now eighty seven percent. Eighty seven. That's higher
than the Dodgers eighty five point three. Then it's Brewers, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Astros,
(12:55):
Orioles twins, and then everyone else is less than at
thirty eight point two percent Orioles forty two to five.
So I mean them in the Yankees coin toss ish
with the Red Sox getting some percentage points. I don't know.
I'm interested to see because I am a strength of
schedule believer, especially when you see it. You know, talking baseball,
(13:18):
we essentially live week by week, if not series by series.
That when you see a team in their schedule coming up,
is Marlin's Athletics tend to think a big week is
coming White Sox. I think the Nationals have unfortunately joined
that party. But if you see a week where a
team is playing Yankees or I'll take the Yankees out
(13:40):
of it, if you see a team playing Braves Orioles,
you don't look at that week the same way. Going
back to my strength of schedule thing that I'm trying
to figure out before, if you played Houston in April
or not April, how do you measure that. Houston's win
percentage right now is not impressive, But the past two
(14:02):
months it is so like they don't score that right,
I don't know. I don't have the answer. I'd like it.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I mean, thinking selfishly about the Yankees, they they got
their Houston games out of the Webster. Some teams they're
numbers slightly screwed if they have seven games left for
suston who's strength to schedule number, because that's just their
winning percentage is.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Going to be lower than their real life what they're doing.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Someone become part of opportunity, become part of my analytics department,
and we could take down all of baseball, man, I
don't know, from the strength of schedule. So yeah, I
guess those are my biggest ones there. I guess I'm
excited for my Yankees, and I think that's the only
(14:52):
reason they are favored above the Orioles by fangraphs. The
rest of the way Orioles are sitting very middle of
the pack five h two win percentage the rest of
the way, where the Yankees are at four ninety two. So,
I mean, those numbers aren't they don't feel significant enough,
but they are.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Ye one's literally in the middle and one.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Is very close to top to be top of the line.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, and I guess when you think of it, the
Red Sox, who have the hardest strength to schedule the
rest of the way, have five to fourteen win percentage.
That's the difference between a team right now that is
a orderline a fringe playoff team if not in in
the National League, or four eighty seven is a team
that's out and like not liked right now. Like I
(15:38):
was just tough on the Cubs and the Giants, that's
where their win percentages are at. So uh and what's
our what's our what's our player comp for that other
tier the Mets, which again that's another case study of
when have you played them? And like the the Houston Astros, Cardinals,
they they just kind of cleared that. So some thing
(16:00):
strength the schedule scope there that I'm interested to see
how much I care about it in the second half
of the season. I think the other things of note,
going back to that ESPN article that they tiered it
out in five tiers. I told you the Big five Phillies, Yankees, Dodgers, Orioles,
(16:24):
Guards established contenders. Was their tier two with the Braves, Twins, Astros,
Red Sox, Mariners in the Royals. I don't know, it's
an interesting label for them established contenders, although they are
one of the only teams that has entered the trade
(16:45):
market so far on a price tag that seems significant,
so very interested to see their deadline in second half
three the NLS muddled wild card race, the New York Metropolitans,
the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres Man. How did they
(17:07):
end up at fifty and forty nine? I thought we
got rid of this five games over Padres That's where
you should be, and you're just never there. Little limp
into the break and they're missing Tatis. I think a
Rise had a thumb injury that had him sit out
the All Star Game. God are the Cardinals fun? We
(17:33):
just had they were my answer to We posted our
live show today from the All Star Game, and we'll
walk through All Star weekend a little bit. We did
the question team you're most excited for their second half?
Mine is the Cardinals, and unfortunately, Cardinals fans, it's twofold.
You guys have been in the playoff picture for a while.
(17:55):
If it keeps going and you keep winning more games
and maybe even play better baseball, there's a lot of
room for growth Between Goldschmidt and some other ballplayers. I
think it could be a really fun summer in Saint Louis.
I also think they have bottom dropout of the ship
potential in a big way that Pythagoa and win loss
(18:17):
record wise, it has them as the second luckiest team
in baseball, which, hey, maybe that is baseball because last
year no one was saying that the Birds were lucky.
But yeah, I would love if their corners can pick
it up Goldschmidt and Aeronato. You have to think so,
(18:39):
but you don't know so until it happens. If you
ain't know so, you ain't low. So I think that's
a rap lyric fabulous comment below. Reach out, reach out
in the chat. And then the Pittsburgh Pirates, who the
fact that they're sitting at five hundred and the Padres
(19:00):
are a game over, the Diamondbacks are a game over.
It makes the first half a win for Pittsburgh. Uh,
they do need to go out and make that transaction
because they told everyone they would, and so I hope
they do. Because Brian Reynolds is really good and has
gone nuts. He's also he's got one of those batting
(19:25):
stances that when you actually look at it you're like,
baseball's a sicko sport. Like he is very crouched, very extended,
and there's just a lot of muscles popping out in
different areas. It's like cool to look at, but it's
also like you picture yourself doing a batting stance and
then you see Brian Reynolds doing a batting stance and
you're like, Okay, these two are not the same. Let's
(19:48):
it maybe we might be able to bring that up.
I forget if it was from the All Star Game,
and a reminder to go check out his if you
haven't seen his All Star announcement to the team. It's
as not hype as it can possibly be. Sorry, Brian Vandyman. God,
(20:11):
it's going to be an exciting break for them. Let's
let's Pittsburgh get back in the mix. Let me see
some playoff percentages that may interest the people, and it
shows where computers maybe don't have everything figured out yet.
Has the Astros at fifty seven point five percent to
(20:32):
make the playoffs? I think everyone's leaning that it's a
little higher Mariners at fifty six point three percent, in
the Boston Red Sox at fifty two point eight the
last team over fifty percent. All the National League teams
are tanking each other's percentages. And this is where my frustrations,
(20:52):
I guess, get acknowledged. Has the Padres at thirty nine
point four percent to make the playoffs? How does that happen?
That's the Giants just below that twenty six point four.
Let's see what the second half has to provide the
other team. That was just a popular conversation this weekend
at the All Star Game, as maybe we talk a
(21:14):
little All Star weekend even though it's not on the weekend.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
The week.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Those Texas Rangers that hosted the damn thing, no one
really knows what to do. We did our trade episode
and we have some Rangers going. When you look at
where they're at in the standings, them having that World
Series with this front office, it turns into a question
of I want to say, glass half full, glass half empty. Nothing.
(21:42):
If the Texas Rangers did not win the World Series
last year or go to the World Series, I think
we would all be like, you gotta sell right. They've
got a lot of rental pitchers. It hasn't felt like
the season you gotta sell right with the World Series.
Can see either side like, hey, we won it last year.
(22:02):
We're getting some reinforcements back. Let's get hot and win
this thing again. Or if you're the front office, you say, hey,
we've got our big investments here. We did win it
last year. Let's just get some assets and retool for
the next three years instead of this year. They are
gonna be one of the most interesting teams at the
trade deadline and in the next In the next ten
(22:26):
days or so, things are really gonna get sorted. I
guess that's gonna be the fun thing to check in
on in a little under two weeks is seeing the treadline.
Season eight and two could change everything, where that three
and seven could blow everything. So let's watch it together.
(22:48):
Excited to yuckball with you guys. I think we are
gonna have Bailey early next week. Now we'll give you
the nitty gritty jamboy media behind the scenes at the
All Star Game. We flew out. I flew out Sunday
with beeps, safe travels in no qualms on our ends.
(23:08):
The flight landed at its ideal destination.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Remember that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Got in exciting mode? Oh my god? The Yankees game. Yes,
everyone gets there and it's you know, if you've ever
gone on a ski trip with friends, or you gone
any sleepover party. You know you've got excitement. You're all
in the same room. Trevor Plouf, Chris Rose, all of
our New York City JM people. We're having a blast.
(23:37):
Let's put on the Yankees game and record talking Yanks
after a delicious moment, Ben Rice the Kid. It's a
three run homer to give the Yankees a lead. The
Yankees are about to sweep the Baltimore Orioles. They're about
to be first place in the Ale East. Their whole losing,
(24:02):
worst month of baseball about to be erased with one
swing in one series. How nice is that? If you
don't know what happened. The Yankees ended up losing that
game with I think we landed on a ten to
twenty percent Clay Holmes forty percent, Vulpi forty percent Doogie.
(24:25):
You can you can change your numbers a little bit.
Ground ball to short would have ended it. That Vulpi
doesn't make the play on flyball to left that Doogie misplays.
So it's tough for Clay. Although he has some walks,
which we've talked about. Clay Holmes and that issue with
him that the Yankees go back, they do win their
(24:47):
first series in a month, but I don't know. It
was lol Yanks in there literally Zoe Shelfy were laughing
in our faces, and they both have boisterous content laughs
that those stung a little bit. So I don't know.
I guess in my head, I've been excited for Yankees baseball,
but I could also go to a dark place real
(25:09):
quick this weekend against the Rays at.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Home, against the Rais at home.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So we went from all the Yankee fans being hype
as heck, let's get an All Star weekend to oh this,
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
That was the worst loss of the year.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Hey, didn't they do that in twenty twenty one when
Chad Green gave up a homer to Houston to get
walked off. They did so whatever. Yankee fans had been
so hurt the past month that that only hurt us
so month so much so that was good news. As
the rest of the people arrived, Jimmy had a cricket
O blow O blow, can appreciate pre abbreviate that that
(25:49):
some of the crew went to that him and Joe's
also a lot of the behind the scenes crew. Trevor
goof we recorded are Waken Jake Grades episode that I'm
glad you guys enjoyed and make sure you're subbed if
you're not. That was a lot of fun. And then me,
Chris Rose and Trev went to the Players Alliance party.
(26:13):
I think they were allowed to part call it party
because it was the night before in Fort Worth. Really cool,
got C Big C. If you want to see nervous Jake,
go check me out near CC Sabathia and I want
to play cool because I don't know how in he
is like he is in, but then there was a
(26:35):
hesitation period and now he's been in, but we haven't
interacted a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Amber's for sure in.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I mean he's in, but I didn't. I was interested
to see where the convo went. So Chris Rose in
CC kind of boys because Chris Rose the Cleveland fan,
and I think CC is such a sports fan that
he thinks Chris Rose is kind of cool. And so
they've known each other for like twenty plus years now
(27:01):
because imagine h Chris Rose seeing a young talented lefty
on his guardians.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
In early mid two thousands, CC and Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And that's when Chris Rose was hot in the streets.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
So that's the young cool guy from Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, so that was they were the young young Cleveland
Hot Boys list. So they have a good report. So
that was cool to see. Trev and CC have gained
a lot of traction recently because Trev's been trying to
get into like celebrity baseball, celebrity poker and golf scene.
So they've mixed it up a couple times, and so
(27:39):
I was kind of being cool. We had a nice
step and then CEC and I forget who it was,
but there was some there's an eighty five year old
guy there that I don't know. CEC was like, Oh,
that dude's a legend, bro, and then he looked at
me and he's like, you need to interview him. And
I was like, okay, Cec, So I need to follow
up in a see who that was because I couldn't
(28:01):
hear his name at the time. And then I'd be
I guess I need to interview that guy. So that
was cool. Let's see players Alliance were floating around. They
announced that we're gonna go into a new another room
to like start the ceremony because they were honoring a
(28:23):
few a few players, so we start drifting over there,
who bops in. It's Nick Swisher, with the energy of
a thousand suns unbridled. Gave me, gave me one of
the nicer DAP ups I've ever gotten. And he's like,
I think he's pretty plugged in.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
He's like, oh, dude, love listening to you guys in
Boonie blah blah blah. And I was like, that's cool.
It's cool to know Swish listens to that. And then
he gave a real like Nick Swisher looks at the
Yankees as a fan but with front office connections kind
of that he was.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
He was like, dude, these.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Guys gotta figure it out, Like what are we doing?
He was like, I love when you guys get a
little tough with Boone because he's like everyone's asking these
same questions. And I was like, that was really cool.
Thanks Swish and all sorts of hyper It's insane that
he's actually wired that way. Crazy. So we roll into
(29:24):
the back room of this event where things are things
are ticking up. Oh follow up, note didn't get a
ton of interaction with him. Edwin Jackson, the man Joe
cool himself, like, I think we all just have like
vagabond picture Edwin Jackson. Sure, all right, just the dude
(29:48):
chilling having a good.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Time, part of that career arcause he's everybody knows him.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Welcome in the clubhouse. I'd welcome that guy with open arms.
If you can still twirl a couple, why not going
to the back room. It's a little more of a
scene in there. They have like the fake mechanical bull
set up. Trev trying to pressure me into doing that
would have probably been a tough look at the Players
(30:15):
Alliance party if I was just bopping around riding the bull.
So didn't did not walking around there. There's a gentleman
who stands out because he's six ' eight if not taller,
massive human, Delan Betansas. So gotta dap up with Dellan
(30:36):
asking where Joe's was. Joe's sad he wasn't there because
he was at the cricket event, but that was really
cool to see how big he was. Trevor Ploof then
remind me he got a hit hit off Delan. I said, oh, nice, dude,
don't care bopping around. They start doing the presentations. Some
(30:57):
of the guys that were getting awards, friggy jangs John
Boy's favorite keep paper out of baseball. Mark Macklemore sure
hit a lot, that's all he knows. Gary Matthews, uh
one or two big seasons, and they opened with his
famous catch. It's like one of the best home run
(31:18):
robberies ever. So they gave him some love. Darren Oliver,
Sure he was repping Prince Fielder. Yeah, Prince Fielder still
has a big old presence to him. And I don't
know what you guys think Prince's heidis. And I'm not
coming at him. You know, that's not who I am.
(31:40):
Not a tall guy. Thick was never depicted as a
tall guy. But sometimes you still see players and.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Athletes and you're like, oh you're you still assume, like, yeah,
there's probably like six ' two, not crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Prince, not six two, no powerful. One of the highlights
there was Trevor was trying to yuck. Yuck is yum
Now I've never used that phrase, right, trev was trying
to yuck with Prince's sons who were there, and they're
like semi adults now, and trev like talked to them
(32:15):
once but and I don't think he got the reaction
he wanted. So he was like I'm gonna go back
in and he said something about playing. He's like, yeah,
you know, I would love playing against your your pops,
and I think one of them hit him with a
we know who you are. So that was Trev trying
to get get overly involved. And then I had, I think,
(32:40):
my my my coolest moment. I went to the bar
to get Trevin Chris Rose a drink flex open bar
and there's this dude looking like the man at the
bar because it was kind of cowboy themed, which that
goes a lot of different directions because I don't know,
you throw on a half you can do that to
(33:02):
different degrees. You can go stylish cowboy, you could go rugged,
you could go h This person just had some black
leather on like the outfit. If you saw this person
on a motorcycle, you'd be like, hell, yes, roped up.
As I'm walking over the bar, I only see them
on the corner of my eye and I'm I'm wondering
(33:23):
if it's like a running back, And to my surprise,
the person kind of hits me on the shoulder, goes
for the DAP and goes, what's going on? Man? Mike
Cameron big fan of yourself. I was like, whoa Mike Cameron.
Mike Cameron, I did I did like a take back.
(33:44):
I was like, holy smokes man. Then I was he
like elbowed his wife and he was like, yeah, these
are some of the people I mix it up with
on Twitter every night. And I was like, I didn't
know we were mixing it up on Twitter every night,
but I'm glad we are. And yeah, my Cameron's involved, man,
roped up, roped up looks huge. Uh that I finally
(34:09):
I was trying to find my like my line, and
I hit him with the like, dude, I love I
love good defense in center field and you got to
some balls you shouldn't have gotten to. And he like
kind of liked that, but it was it was a
little kiss assy, I'll be honest, but he was awesome.
Chatted with him and his wife for a little bit.
(34:30):
His wife made a joke about moving to Spain with
with because Adam Jones is moving to Spain.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So update.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I don't know if I was supposed to ruin that,
if Adam Jones was trying to keep that secret.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
If you just listen to that, be chill.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, just don't don't report that Adam Jones chill only
got a little bit of them, and yeah, it was
It was a really cool event. You know, travel day
so everyone's a little tired, We're not putting in a shift.
Let's get back. So we got back. Day two record
a bunch of stuff. Homer and Derby. Derby was a
(35:08):
little lackluster this year. I think that's the consensus at
this point, and then as I've zoomed out more, it
would have been cool. Bobby Witt that final round was cool,
and I think the goal was to try to get
a more competitive final round. There wasn't a lot of
like crazy long homers. That's a big part of the Derby.
One of Jimmy's theories is also that the way that
(35:30):
stadium set up is you can't it doesn't have like
a long homer area. I think it does the second deck.
If you caught one for ninety, I think you could
like leave that, and no one did that. I think
four to seventy five was the longest.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
The way the cameras were, they they made every homer
look so long, So I don't I don't think that
so on different experiences, Yeah, like looked like they were
going to be way out and it's like, well shallow.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Watch what I watched an abbreviated version of the All
Star Game on MLB Network last night. Not sure what
that's about. Its craven baseball. Let's gets hit one Thursday game.
You give him Friday off or something. Derby's cool, it's
(36:23):
you know, it's pretty crazy where we're at now that
there's a we get a lot of love and that's cool.
Nicky Cass was in the building, my guy little Mazarella.
There's also a really cool exchange. Well, actually it's kind
of bad, but it's bad on me. We were trying
to get back for the final round of the derby,
so I was a run in. I met up with
Nicky Cass for a minute.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
So I'm trying to get back to the seats and
this like tall guy, like six eight six ' nine young.
He's eyeballing me and he starts doing the He's like engaged.
He makes a move towards me. So I'm like, all right,
here we go. Uh. He goes, Oh, what's going on? Man?
My name is Blank. I should have looked this up beforehand,
and you'll see how I would be able to He goes,
(37:08):
my mom's Jenny Finch, and I was like, wow, okay,
nice to meet you. And he's like, I think you
guys posted me the other day. And the guy, uh,
he's a pitcher, Jenny Finch son Ace Maybe yeah, I
think Ace. Okay, coolest name ever for a six or
(37:31):
eight pitcher? What whose mom is?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Like?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
The most famous softball pitcher ever? But yeah, he's a
real pitching prospect. And I do think we posted him,
and I, uh, that nervous like interaction moment. I hit
him with a I said, what are you up to?
(37:55):
Which at the home run derby? Kind of a bad question.
We're all there for the home run derby. He took
that baseball wise and he goes about eighty nine and
I was like, wow, we're both we both kind of
missed with that one. At least yours is cool. And
(38:15):
I hit him with a nice dude. And then Jenny
was right behind him and her husband and I was like,
oh my god, it's so nice to meet you. And
I dropped the John Boy media I didn't know. You
never really know race back to the seats end of
the derby. Didn't go to the CIA party with Joe's
and Trev missed out a little bit, Max Free, Trey Turner,
(38:36):
a lot of dudes there. I was tired, hung at
the house. Jimmy made up a backyard golf sort of
game that the ice boys and Shelfy got roped into.
So I enjoyed that. And then final day our all
star event. Thank you if you're anyone that came through,
you're the best. One of the guys I've been playing
(38:56):
chess with. I got to meet him, so that was
one of my old roommates. CJ came through. Just a
ton of good people. There's a lot of good time.
Our travel day the next day was awful. Half the
crew went to they took off, got diverted to Chicago.
We took off, got well, we took off, thought we
(39:17):
were going to La Guardia, got diverted to Pittsburgh. It's
just the worst landing time. Everything in the airport just closed. Airport.
They gave us vouchers because they moved our flight to
the next day, so we got hotel vouchers, but the
hotels were less than mid.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
The you know, they provide a free hotel. It's a
money saving operation for them. They and I think they're
they're like by law required to give you something, so
I get how we got there.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
It was bad.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Me and me, Beabs and Zach went to the the
establishment that was open past eleven pm uh as we
had to grab our bags before we We checked him
and got settled into the mid hotels and then we
flew back the next day. Uh and two notable guests.
I guess there was three notable guests on our flight,
(40:18):
but I only got to see two. Lad Vlad Guerrero,
who took a pick with Senior, got some likes. I
was very nervous about Beabs can attest me and Taylor
Jackson from socials. We did a fake drive by to
make it seem like it was a natural interaction, and
then I was like, okay, does Vlad is vlad about
(40:39):
that action? Like he's at the airport whatever. And then
we came to the conclude he was sitting in the
chair closest to the walking area that if vladd didn't
want people saying hi, if he was.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Gonna be like really upset by that.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
That chair, you can't pick that chair.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
A minimum, you have you he would have had his
wife sitting on like the outside seat.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
There's a lot of different ways you could to slice
that or whoever.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
The woman that was there was looked.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
She looks a lot like Flatty if I'm being honest,
So genetics maybe genetics.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Maybe Joe Tory was on the flight. Gave him a hey,
how are you after the awful, awful travel time? He's
you know, he's up there, and he we were having
a long travel day, so he was having a long
travel day, so not a not a great exchange he appreciated.
By the end, I think he was worried we were
gonna linger, and I just said him, look a mister Tory,
(41:36):
big Yankee fan, thank you so much, kept it moving,
gave a nice goodbye, so I think that was his
sign of respect. And then Sarah Langs was on our flight,
but I didn't really see her. When we were leaving
the airport for the final time I saw her, I
was like, oh, Sara Langs uh so at All Star
(41:57):
weekend not weekend recap. I hope you enjoyed it. Did
I miss anything? Beebes? No?
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And last year just small world stuff. Last year on
the way to Seattle, she was on our group's flight out.
So someday I'll be able to tell her we've been
on a couple of flights to.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Get We share flights. How nice is that? And I
think the only thing else that we really share is
the fact that Waken Jake is a production of Dan
Patrick Productions, John Boy Media, and Workhouse Media. We'll see
you guys Monday,
Hello to Waken Jake with myself, Jake's Story, Elly, Big Baby,
David Mendelssohn. As we head into the second half of
the baseball season, Little Friday for you. We tried to
pre record for All Star Game. We got that Bailey
up in and then we're like, oh, I actually need
that for today, so we got a little backed up. Well,
(00:21):
we left a banger for you this week, the Trevor
Ploof episode.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
You guys like him.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The numbers don't lie and if you give a clickbait thumbnail,
you will get the clicks. And Trevor was fine too,
although there was one. The comments were awesome. There was
one comment that cut me deep though, was Waken Jake
hosted by Trevor Ploof because he carried this episode, Not
that I still think about it, not that it's still
(00:48):
on my mind, same with my hair right now. For
all the YouTubers and golf colaps twenty k subs on YouTube,
thank you guys. I really appreciate that, and of course
our friends over Dan Patrick. But we need to talk
about baseball because it's the second half. It starts tonight.
(01:09):
No Thursday games anymore. Out of the All Star break,
they used to hit us with like three, Yeah, at
least one. I'm kind of okay with it. It is
a game I think that's pretty universally liked by the fellas,
so maybe we support it. Maybe one game would be cool.
That obviously sucks for that team, but maybe, like whoever's
(01:30):
got the least travel. I don't know. It feels like
there's a solution there.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
You know, if they kept that, it would be Yankees
every year. That's okay, which I'm fine. I like them.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
We'll talk about them a little bit. We'll go through
some All Star game. We'll walk you guys through the
weekend a little bit, some of the highlights. Some of
you like that. I guess before we get to that,
we'll just do some some broad second half baseball. There's
an ESPN article with second half previews, some rankings and
playoff odds. Eh, we'll hop in there a little bit.
(02:03):
I did want to check out some strength to schedule
first of all, because I I would hear people reference
it and I'm like, oh wow, that's a good piece
of information, but i never really knew where to find it.
The best place I've currently found is Fangraphs. If you
go to their Playoff odds page. One of the columns
is strength of schedule, and there's some interesting things to
(02:27):
note in there. I still I'm looking for my perfectly
and perfect strength of schedule analysis. That the algorithm would
be something along the lines of like season win percentage
and then like last ten game win percentage, and that
would go into a formula because like, the Yankees just
(02:48):
played the Orioles going into the All Star break, but
did they like they played an Orioles team that, with
help to the Yankees, came up against six game losing streak.
But also like if you played the Yankees in May,
you faced a very different team than if you face
(03:08):
the Yankees in July or end of June. So that's
where I'm still If one of the Waken Jake analytics
nerds wants to get involved and give like a strength
of schedule verus strength of schedule at time of playing,
It's a stat that you almost can't do, but I'm
interested in it. Strength of schedule. The rest of the way,
(03:29):
I think some things to know. As I just told you,
I mean, I'm not bound to strength of schedule, but
it tells us something. And I don't know the two
well actually the top three teams in strength of schedule,
because I will say at four and five are the
(03:51):
Rockies in the Marlins. Oh, if you wanted to, you
could drop the obnoxious Well, they can't play them, But
again those are it's one team in the rest of
your second half schedule. Top three teams and strength the
schedule the rest of the way the Boston Red Sox
five to fourteen win percentage, the Tampa Bay Rays and
(04:14):
the Cleveland guard Docks. So if you are into that
kind of thing. The Red Sox, who have been surging
lately and are becoming a well liked team in the
American League, they've had a ton of injuries. I also,
I'm not going to put a ton of merit in
this just because the Red Sox have done a lot
(04:36):
of their bidding to get to this point of the
season against good teams. They took down the Yanks, they
took down the Phillies. I think there's a brave series
in there, like they They've played some of the heavy
hitters and they've competed, So I'm not going to super
hold that against them. That does make me worry for
the race. I've been trying to buy a little bit
(04:56):
of raise stock. The phrase I keep saying is the
names are changing, like Brandon Loo, Josh Low, Randy has
started to go YONDI started to go for a little bit.
There Esak always going although Chris Rose traded him. Go
check out the Trade Deadline Draft episode on Talking Baseball,
one of the best pieces of content of the year.
(05:20):
This makes me nervous for my race. I thought there
was gonna be more coming, and maybe there is. You
never fully know with them, but seeing that strength of
schedule and them limping as hard as they could to
get to five hundred at first, I saw their five
hundred going into the break is like good for the Rays,
like to say, we're at five to zero. Oh going
(05:41):
into the All Star break. That's huge for how gnarly
of a first half it was for them originally. But
it seems like they'll be up against it a little
bit the other team. So your top three before you
get to Rockies, Marlins, Blue Jays, Cleveland guard Dogs, and man,
(06:04):
some of the fangrafts win percentage stuff doesn't like them
for how dominant they've been.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
It has the Cleveland Guardians as a fifty three point
six percent to win the division, So I mean that's
close to a coin flip. There's a lean there, But man,
I just think the not contradiction the ESPN article that
I mentioned that I think they had a bunch of
(06:35):
writers contribute, So that's why I'm not referencing a writer.
You know, my guy, Bradford Doolittle was involved. Oh but
we got a ton of guys in here. Okay. They
put the Cleveland Guardians in the first category of teams,
the quote unquote Big Five, where they have the Phillies
(06:58):
who deserve Big Five recognition for the first half of
the season, the Yankees, which as much as we mentally
have been fighting lately, sure Yankees have been great, which
means the Orioles are in there, yep. The Dodgers, uh huh.
And then they threw the guard Dogs in is the
Big Five, which I don't know if I fully agree
(07:19):
with that. There's some good arguments there. They clearly have
a top of the lineup and other contributors throughout the
lineup offensively and defensively. Their bullpen is Numero uno. So
if that continues to ride, that's a pretty strong pillar
of a team. But in Tier two, if you're gonna
(07:39):
put the Brewers, I mean Brewers and guard Dogs have
felt like a one A one B all year. And
also the Braves they put in a tier below them,
which I don't. I just can't do that. I mean,
maybe that's me being just a mental sheep time of
year to talk like that. I don't know. I don't
(08:00):
have the guards up there. Chris Rose, who watches as
much baseball on it as anyone and loves his Guards,
He's been trying to pump the Brakes a little bit.
There's a little fear factor of their starting pitching, which
has been not great all year, But you could spin
that as a good thing, like they're gonna have guys
that they can call up, even guys you're familiar with.
Tristan McKenzie got sent down, Like does it click for him?
(08:23):
Are they gonna do the trade? The Cleveland fans not
happy with our trade deadline draft episode because A nobody
cares about the rules when they see a graphic, and
B I don't know what to think with the Guardians,
like yes, they should trade for help, and add is
it a team that feels like they're gonna sacrifice the
(08:44):
big pieces to move to attack one year? No? Like
They've never done that. They've never done that, at least
in the recent since post pandemic. That feels like, feels
like recent history that I don't know. Seeing the Guardians,
(09:07):
the Rays and the Red Sox up there, I guess
I've just got Red Sox blinders on where I don't
feel that too much. Raising guards I feel just a
little bit because I want to see who do they
have who else? In the central They have the Twins
at thirty eight point two percent to win the division.
(09:28):
That's a big boy number, and then the Royals at seven
and a half percent. That's tough. Sorry Royals. And I
don't know. I guess if I was DraftKings spinning this,
if you were a Twins believer, I think there's a
nice little sprinkle to be put in for them to
(09:50):
win the division. The Twins lineup right now is a problem.
And that's saying it in al a cool, hip young
guy way. I really like where the Twins lineup is
at right now, between Miranda finding it, their lefty slash
switch hitters being consistent. Buxton turned on that if Buckston
(10:12):
and Ryce Lewis go, which Royce Lewis has been out
like even if Eddie Julian. Imagine if something kicks in
with his swing again and they call him up. He
was supposed to be their leadoff guy this year. The
Twins have lineup options, and you know that's what Little
Poppy likes. That if you're a guardian, if you're not
about the Guards and you're about the Twins, there could
(10:32):
be a little sprinkle there. The other one that I've
stumbled into that I don't believe in. I believe in less.
But this is more so if you like playing the odds.
So let's reverse engineer this a little bit. Let's look
at the what would you say, the weakest strength of schedule.
But that's a good thing, yeah, the best strength of
(10:56):
schedule in a bad strength of schedule.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
The weakest schedules left.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Uh bottom of the list. San Francisco Giants, Hey, do
something crazy not in on them. That's kind of rude,
but hey, if you're a giant's hopeful you could put
that little feather in your cap right above them. The
Chicago Cubs, which I don't Both of those teams, in
(11:26):
the words of Joe's McFly, are none of my business
at this point. I don't really believe in either of them.
Maybe this is why maybe I need to be more
of a schedule snob. Maybe for one of these teams
that's gonna click great, not into it. The next two
teams get me a little more jazzy fizzle. The Atlanta
(11:47):
Braves they have a four ninety opponent strength of schedule
the rest of the way, and the New York Yankees
at four ninety two. So I guess the Braves. I
mean that division lead is massive. The Phillies have shown
no signs of fading. We've seen the Braves put together
(12:09):
a big second half before their World Series year. They
went nuts, the offense started to click. They made a
couple ads that they were the best offense in baseball
the second half of the season. They pretty much rode
that all the way to a title. And it was
without Ronald Acunya. So I don't know if you're if
you're a Braves person and you think the Phillies could
(12:31):
slip up just a little bit. Who are listed as
the seventh strongest strength to schedule the rest of the way. Again,
this has Philly with the highest chance to win the
division right now eighty seven percent. Eighty seven. That's higher
than the Dodgers eighty five point three. Then it's Brewers, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Astros,
(12:55):
Orioles twins, and then everyone else is less than at
thirty eight point two percent Orioles forty two to five.
So I mean them in the Yankees coin toss ish
with the Red Sox getting some percentage points. I don't know.
I'm interested to see because I am a strength of
schedule believer, especially when you see it. You know, talking baseball,
(13:18):
we essentially live week by week, if not series by series.
That when you see a team in their schedule coming up,
is Marlin's Athletics tend to think a big week is
coming White Sox. I think the Nationals have unfortunately joined
that party. But if you see a week where a
team is playing Yankees or I'll take the Yankees out
(13:40):
of it, if you see a team playing Braves Orioles,
you don't look at that week the same way. Going
back to my strength of schedule thing that I'm trying
to figure out before, if you played Houston in April
or not April, how do you measure that. Houston's win
percentage right now is not impressive, But the past two
(14:02):
months it is so like they don't score that right,
I don't know. I don't have the answer. I'd like it.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I mean, thinking selfishly about the Yankees, they they got
their Houston games out of the Webster. Some teams they're
numbers slightly screwed if they have seven games left for
suston who's strength to schedule number, because that's just their
winning percentage is.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Going to be lower than their real life what they're doing.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Someone become part of opportunity, become part of my analytics department,
and we could take down all of baseball, man, I
don't know, from the strength of schedule. So yeah, I
guess those are my biggest ones there. I guess I'm
excited for my Yankees, and I think that's the only
(14:52):
reason they are favored above the Orioles by fangraphs. The
rest of the way Orioles are sitting very middle of
the pack five h two win percentage the rest of
the way, where the Yankees are at four ninety two. So,
I mean, those numbers aren't they don't feel significant enough,
but they are.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Ye one's literally in the middle and one.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Is very close to top to be top of the line.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Yeah, and I guess when you think of it, the
Red Sox, who have the hardest strength to schedule the
rest of the way, have five to fourteen win percentage.
That's the difference between a team right now that is
a orderline a fringe playoff team if not in in
the National League, or four eighty seven is a team
that's out and like not liked right now. Like I
(15:38):
was just tough on the Cubs and the Giants, that's
where their win percentages are at. So uh and what's
our what's our what's our player comp for that other
tier the Mets, which again that's another case study of
when have you played them? And like the the Houston Astros, Cardinals,
they they just kind of cleared that. So some thing
(16:00):
strength the schedule scope there that I'm interested to see
how much I care about it in the second half
of the season. I think the other things of note,
going back to that ESPN article that they tiered it
out in five tiers. I told you the Big five Phillies, Yankees, Dodgers, Orioles,
(16:24):
Guards established contenders. Was their tier two with the Braves, Twins, Astros,
Red Sox, Mariners in the Royals. I don't know, it's
an interesting label for them established contenders, although they are
one of the only teams that has entered the trade
(16:45):
market so far on a price tag that seems significant,
so very interested to see their deadline in second half
three the NLS muddled wild card race, the New York Metropolitans,
the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres Man. How did they
(17:07):
end up at fifty and forty nine? I thought we
got rid of this five games over Padres That's where
you should be, and you're just never there. Little limp
into the break and they're missing Tatis. I think a
Rise had a thumb injury that had him sit out
the All Star Game. God are the Cardinals fun? We
(17:33):
just had they were my answer to We posted our
live show today from the All Star Game, and we'll
walk through All Star weekend a little bit. We did
the question team you're most excited for their second half?
Mine is the Cardinals, and unfortunately, Cardinals fans, it's twofold.
You guys have been in the playoff picture for a while.
(17:55):
If it keeps going and you keep winning more games
and maybe even play better baseball, there's a lot of
room for growth Between Goldschmidt and some other ballplayers. I
think it could be a really fun summer in Saint Louis.
I also think they have bottom dropout of the ship
potential in a big way that Pythagoa and win loss
(18:17):
record wise, it has them as the second luckiest team
in baseball, which, hey, maybe that is baseball because last
year no one was saying that the Birds were lucky.
But yeah, I would love if their corners can pick
it up Goldschmidt and Aeronato. You have to think so,
(18:39):
but you don't know so until it happens. If you
ain't know so, you ain't low. So I think that's
a rap lyric fabulous comment below. Reach out, reach out
in the chat. And then the Pittsburgh Pirates, who the
fact that they're sitting at five hundred and the Padres
(19:00):
are a game over, the Diamondbacks are a game over.
It makes the first half a win for Pittsburgh. Uh,
they do need to go out and make that transaction
because they told everyone they would, and so I hope
they do. Because Brian Reynolds is really good and has
gone nuts. He's also he's got one of those batting
(19:25):
stances that when you actually look at it you're like,
baseball's a sicko sport. Like he is very crouched, very extended,
and there's just a lot of muscles popping out in
different areas. It's like cool to look at, but it's
also like you picture yourself doing a batting stance and
then you see Brian Reynolds doing a batting stance and
you're like, Okay, these two are not the same. Let's
(19:48):
it maybe we might be able to bring that up.
I forget if it was from the All Star Game,
and a reminder to go check out his if you
haven't seen his All Star announcement to the team. It's
as not hype as it can possibly be. Sorry, Brian Vandyman. God,
(20:11):
it's going to be an exciting break for them. Let's
let's Pittsburgh get back in the mix. Let me see
some playoff percentages that may interest the people, and it
shows where computers maybe don't have everything figured out yet.
Has the Astros at fifty seven point five percent to
(20:32):
make the playoffs? I think everyone's leaning that it's a
little higher Mariners at fifty six point three percent, in
the Boston Red Sox at fifty two point eight the
last team over fifty percent. All the National League teams
are tanking each other's percentages. And this is where my frustrations,
(20:52):
I guess, get acknowledged. Has the Padres at thirty nine
point four percent to make the playoffs? How does that happen?
That's the Giants just below that twenty six point four.
Let's see what the second half has to provide the
other team. That was just a popular conversation this weekend
at the All Star Game, as maybe we talk a
(21:14):
little All Star weekend even though it's not on the weekend.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
The week.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Those Texas Rangers that hosted the damn thing, no one
really knows what to do. We did our trade episode
and we have some Rangers going. When you look at
where they're at in the standings, them having that World
Series with this front office, it turns into a question
of I want to say, glass half full, glass half empty. Nothing.
(21:42):
If the Texas Rangers did not win the World Series
last year or go to the World Series, I think
we would all be like, you gotta sell right. They've
got a lot of rental pitchers. It hasn't felt like
the season you gotta sell right with the World Series.
Can see either side like, hey, we won it last year.
(22:02):
We're getting some reinforcements back. Let's get hot and win
this thing again. Or if you're the front office, you say, hey,
we've got our big investments here. We did win it
last year. Let's just get some assets and retool for
the next three years instead of this year. They are
gonna be one of the most interesting teams at the
trade deadline and in the next In the next ten
(22:26):
days or so, things are really gonna get sorted. I
guess that's gonna be the fun thing to check in
on in a little under two weeks is seeing the treadline.
Season eight and two could change everything, where that three
and seven could blow everything. So let's watch it together.
(22:48):
Excited to yuckball with you guys. I think we are
gonna have Bailey early next week. Now we'll give you
the nitty gritty jamboy media behind the scenes at the
All Star Game. We flew out. I flew out Sunday
with beeps, safe travels in no qualms on our ends.
(23:08):
The flight landed at its ideal destination.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Remember that.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Got in exciting mode? Oh my god? The Yankees game. Yes,
everyone gets there and it's you know, if you've ever
gone on a ski trip with friends, or you gone
any sleepover party. You know you've got excitement. You're all
in the same room. Trevor Plouf, Chris Rose, all of
our New York City JM people. We're having a blast.
(23:37):
Let's put on the Yankees game and record talking Yanks
after a delicious moment, Ben Rice the Kid. It's a
three run homer to give the Yankees a lead. The
Yankees are about to sweep the Baltimore Orioles. They're about
to be first place in the Ale East. Their whole losing,
(24:02):
worst month of baseball about to be erased with one
swing in one series. How nice is that? If you
don't know what happened. The Yankees ended up losing that
game with I think we landed on a ten to
twenty percent Clay Holmes forty percent, Vulpi forty percent Doogie.
(24:25):
You can you can change your numbers a little bit.
Ground ball to short would have ended it. That Vulpi
doesn't make the play on flyball to left that Doogie misplays.
So it's tough for Clay. Although he has some walks,
which we've talked about. Clay Holmes and that issue with
him that the Yankees go back, they do win their
(24:47):
first series in a month, but I don't know. It
was lol Yanks in there literally Zoe Shelfy were laughing
in our faces, and they both have boisterous content laughs
that those stung a little bit. So I don't know.
I guess in my head, I've been excited for Yankees baseball,
but I could also go to a dark place real
(25:09):
quick this weekend against the Rays at.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Home, against the Rais at home.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
So we went from all the Yankee fans being hype
as heck, let's get an All Star weekend to oh this,
I hate that.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
That was the worst loss of the year.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Hey, didn't they do that in twenty twenty one when
Chad Green gave up a homer to Houston to get
walked off. They did so whatever. Yankee fans had been
so hurt the past month that that only hurt us
so month so much so that was good news. As
the rest of the people arrived, Jimmy had a cricket
O blow O blow, can appreciate pre abbreviate that that
(25:49):
some of the crew went to that him and Joe's
also a lot of the behind the scenes crew. Trevor
goof we recorded are Waken Jake Grades episode that I'm
glad you guys enjoyed and make sure you're subbed if
you're not. That was a lot of fun. And then me,
Chris Rose and Trev went to the Players Alliance party.
(26:13):
I think they were allowed to part call it party
because it was the night before in Fort Worth. Really cool,
got C Big C. If you want to see nervous Jake,
go check me out near CC Sabathia and I want
to play cool because I don't know how in he
is like he is in, but then there was a
(26:35):
hesitation period and now he's been in, but we haven't
interacted a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Amber's for sure in.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
I mean he's in, but I didn't. I was interested
to see where the convo went. So Chris Rose in
CC kind of boys because Chris Rose the Cleveland fan,
and I think CC is such a sports fan that
he thinks Chris Rose is kind of cool. And so
they've known each other for like twenty plus years now
(27:01):
because imagine h Chris Rose seeing a young talented lefty
on his guardians.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
In early mid two thousands, CC and Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And that's when Chris Rose was hot in the streets.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
So that's the young cool guy from Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, so that was they were the young young Cleveland
Hot Boys list. So they have a good report. So
that was cool to see. Trev and CC have gained
a lot of traction recently because Trev's been trying to
get into like celebrity baseball, celebrity poker and golf scene.
So they've mixed it up a couple times, and so
(27:39):
I was kind of being cool. We had a nice
step and then CEC and I forget who it was,
but there was some there's an eighty five year old
guy there that I don't know. CEC was like, Oh,
that dude's a legend, bro, and then he looked at
me and he's like, you need to interview him. And
I was like, okay, Cec, So I need to follow
up in a see who that was because I couldn't
(28:01):
hear his name at the time. And then I'd be
I guess I need to interview that guy. So that
was cool. Let's see players Alliance were floating around. They
announced that we're gonna go into a new another room
to like start the ceremony because they were honoring a
(28:23):
few a few players, so we start drifting over there,
who bops in. It's Nick Swisher, with the energy of
a thousand suns unbridled. Gave me, gave me one of
the nicer DAP ups I've ever gotten. And he's like,
I think he's pretty plugged in.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
He's like, oh, dude, love listening to you guys in
Boonie blah blah blah. And I was like, that's cool.
It's cool to know Swish listens to that. And then
he gave a real like Nick Swisher looks at the
Yankees as a fan but with front office connections kind
of that he was.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
He was like, dude, these.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Guys gotta figure it out, Like what are we doing?
He was like, I love when you guys get a
little tough with Boone because he's like everyone's asking these
same questions. And I was like, that was really cool.
Thanks Swish and all sorts of hyper It's insane that
he's actually wired that way. Crazy. So we roll into
(29:24):
the back room of this event where things are things
are ticking up. Oh follow up, note didn't get a
ton of interaction with him. Edwin Jackson, the man Joe
cool himself, like, I think we all just have like
vagabond picture Edwin Jackson. Sure, all right, just the dude
(29:48):
chilling having a good.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Time, part of that career arcause he's everybody knows him.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Welcome in the clubhouse. I'd welcome that guy with open arms.
If you can still twirl a couple, why not going
to the back room. It's a little more of a
scene in there. They have like the fake mechanical bull
set up. Trev trying to pressure me into doing that
would have probably been a tough look at the Players
(30:15):
Alliance party if I was just bopping around riding the bull.
So didn't did not walking around there. There's a gentleman
who stands out because he's six ' eight if not taller,
massive human, Delan Betansas. So gotta dap up with Dellan
(30:36):
asking where Joe's was. Joe's sad he wasn't there because
he was at the cricket event, but that was really
cool to see how big he was. Trevor Ploof then
remind me he got a hit hit off Delan. I said, oh, nice, dude,
don't care bopping around. They start doing the presentations. Some
(30:57):
of the guys that were getting awards, friggy jangs John
Boy's favorite keep paper out of baseball. Mark Macklemore sure
hit a lot, that's all he knows. Gary Matthews, uh
one or two big seasons, and they opened with his
famous catch. It's like one of the best home run
(31:18):
robberies ever. So they gave him some love. Darren Oliver,
Sure he was repping Prince Fielder. Yeah, Prince Fielder still
has a big old presence to him. And I don't
know what you guys think Prince's heidis. And I'm not
coming at him. You know, that's not who I am.
(31:40):
Not a tall guy. Thick was never depicted as a
tall guy. But sometimes you still see players and.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Athletes and you're like, oh you're you still assume, like, yeah,
there's probably like six ' two, not crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Prince, not six two, no powerful. One of the highlights
there was Trevor was trying to yuck. Yuck is yum
Now I've never used that phrase, right, trev was trying
to yuck with Prince's sons who were there, and they're
like semi adults now, and trev like talked to them
(32:15):
once but and I don't think he got the reaction
he wanted. So he was like I'm gonna go back
in and he said something about playing. He's like, yeah,
you know, I would love playing against your your pops,
and I think one of them hit him with a
we know who you are. So that was Trev trying
to get get overly involved. And then I had, I think,
(32:40):
my my my coolest moment. I went to the bar
to get Trevin Chris Rose a drink flex open bar
and there's this dude looking like the man at the
bar because it was kind of cowboy themed, which that
goes a lot of different directions because I don't know,
you throw on a half you can do that to
(33:02):
different degrees. You can go stylish cowboy, you could go rugged,
you could go h This person just had some black
leather on like the outfit. If you saw this person
on a motorcycle, you'd be like, hell, yes, roped up.
As I'm walking over the bar, I only see them
on the corner of my eye and I'm I'm wondering
(33:23):
if it's like a running back, And to my surprise,
the person kind of hits me on the shoulder, goes
for the DAP and goes, what's going on? Man? Mike
Cameron big fan of yourself. I was like, whoa Mike Cameron.
Mike Cameron, I did I did like a take back.
(33:44):
I was like, holy smokes man. Then I was he
like elbowed his wife and he was like, yeah, these
are some of the people I mix it up with
on Twitter every night. And I was like, I didn't
know we were mixing it up on Twitter every night,
but I'm glad we are. And yeah, my Cameron's involved, man,
roped up, roped up looks huge. Uh that I finally
(34:09):
I was trying to find my like my line, and
I hit him with the like, dude, I love I
love good defense in center field and you got to
some balls you shouldn't have gotten to. And he like
kind of liked that, but it was it was a
little kiss assy, I'll be honest, but he was awesome.
Chatted with him and his wife for a little bit.
(34:30):
His wife made a joke about moving to Spain with
with because Adam Jones is moving to Spain.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
So update.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
I don't know if I was supposed to ruin that,
if Adam Jones was trying to keep that secret.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
If you just listen to that, be chill.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, just don't don't report that Adam Jones chill only
got a little bit of them, and yeah, it was
It was a really cool event. You know, travel day
so everyone's a little tired, We're not putting in a shift.
Let's get back. So we got back. Day two record
a bunch of stuff. Homer and Derby. Derby was a
(35:08):
little lackluster this year. I think that's the consensus at
this point, and then as I've zoomed out more, it
would have been cool. Bobby Witt that final round was cool,
and I think the goal was to try to get
a more competitive final round. There wasn't a lot of
like crazy long homers. That's a big part of the Derby.
One of Jimmy's theories is also that the way that
(35:30):
stadium set up is you can't it doesn't have like
a long homer area. I think it does the second deck.
If you caught one for ninety, I think you could
like leave that, and no one did that. I think
four to seventy five was the longest.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
The way the cameras were, they they made every homer
look so long, So I don't I don't think that
so on different experiences, Yeah, like looked like they were
going to be way out and it's like, well shallow.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Watch what I watched an abbreviated version of the All
Star Game on MLB Network last night. Not sure what
that's about. Its craven baseball. Let's gets hit one Thursday game.
You give him Friday off or something. Derby's cool, it's
(36:23):
you know, it's pretty crazy where we're at now that
there's a we get a lot of love and that's cool.
Nicky Cass was in the building, my guy little Mazarella.
There's also a really cool exchange. Well, actually it's kind
of bad, but it's bad on me. We were trying
to get back for the final round of the derby,
so I was a run in. I met up with
Nicky Cass for a minute.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
So I'm trying to get back to the seats and
this like tall guy, like six eight six ' nine young.
He's eyeballing me and he starts doing the He's like engaged.
He makes a move towards me. So I'm like, all right,
here we go. Uh. He goes, Oh, what's going on? Man?
My name is Blank. I should have looked this up beforehand,
and you'll see how I would be able to He goes,
(37:08):
my mom's Jenny Finch, and I was like, wow, okay,
nice to meet you. And he's like, I think you
guys posted me the other day. And the guy, uh,
he's a pitcher, Jenny Finch son Ace Maybe yeah, I
think Ace. Okay, coolest name ever for a six or
(37:31):
eight pitcher? What whose mom is?
Speaker 3 (37:34):
Like?
Speaker 1 (37:34):
The most famous softball pitcher ever? But yeah, he's a
real pitching prospect. And I do think we posted him,
and I, uh, that nervous like interaction moment. I hit
him with a I said, what are you up to?
(37:55):
Which at the home run derby? Kind of a bad question.
We're all there for the home run derby. He took
that baseball wise and he goes about eighty nine and
I was like, wow, we're both we both kind of
missed with that one. At least yours is cool. And
(38:15):
I hit him with a nice dude. And then Jenny
was right behind him and her husband and I was like,
oh my god, it's so nice to meet you. And
I dropped the John Boy media I didn't know. You
never really know race back to the seats end of
the derby. Didn't go to the CIA party with Joe's
and Trev missed out a little bit, Max Free, Trey Turner,
(38:36):
a lot of dudes there. I was tired, hung at
the house. Jimmy made up a backyard golf sort of
game that the ice boys and Shelfy got roped into.
So I enjoyed that. And then final day our all
star event. Thank you if you're anyone that came through,
you're the best. One of the guys I've been playing
(38:56):
chess with. I got to meet him, so that was
one of my old roommates. CJ came through. Just a
ton of good people. There's a lot of good time.
Our travel day the next day was awful. Half the
crew went to they took off, got diverted to Chicago.
We took off, got well, we took off, thought we
(39:17):
were going to La Guardia, got diverted to Pittsburgh. It's
just the worst landing time. Everything in the airport just closed. Airport.
They gave us vouchers because they moved our flight to
the next day, so we got hotel vouchers, but the
hotels were less than mid.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
The you know, they provide a free hotel. It's a
money saving operation for them. They and I think they're
they're like by law required to give you something, so
I get how we got there.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
It was bad.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Me and me, Beabs and Zach went to the the
establishment that was open past eleven pm uh as we
had to grab our bags before we We checked him
and got settled into the mid hotels and then we
flew back the next day. Uh and two notable guests.
I guess there was three notable guests on our flight,
(40:18):
but I only got to see two. Lad Vlad Guerrero,
who took a pick with Senior, got some likes. I
was very nervous about Beabs can attest me and Taylor
Jackson from socials. We did a fake drive by to
make it seem like it was a natural interaction, and
then I was like, okay, does Vlad is vlad about
(40:39):
that action? Like he's at the airport whatever. And then
we came to the conclude he was sitting in the
chair closest to the walking area that if vladd didn't
want people saying hi, if he was.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Gonna be like really upset by that.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
That chair, you can't pick that chair.
Speaker 3 (40:57):
A minimum, you have you he would have had his
wife sitting on like the outside seat.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
There's a lot of different ways you could to slice
that or whoever.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
The woman that was there was looked.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
She looks a lot like Flatty if I'm being honest,
So genetics maybe genetics.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Maybe Joe Tory was on the flight. Gave him a hey,
how are you after the awful, awful travel time? He's
you know, he's up there, and he we were having
a long travel day, so he was having a long
travel day, so not a not a great exchange he appreciated.
By the end, I think he was worried we were
gonna linger, and I just said him, look a mister Tory,
(41:36):
big Yankee fan, thank you so much, kept it moving,
gave a nice goodbye, so I think that was his
sign of respect. And then Sarah Langs was on our flight,
but I didn't really see her. When we were leaving
the airport for the final time I saw her, I
was like, oh, Sara Langs uh so at All Star
(41:57):
weekend not weekend recap. I hope you enjoyed it. Did
I miss anything? Beebes? No?
Speaker 3 (42:03):
And last year just small world stuff. Last year on
the way to Seattle, she was on our group's flight out.
So someday I'll be able to tell her we've been
on a couple of flights to.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Get We share flights. How nice is that? And I
think the only thing else that we really share is
the fact that Waken Jake is a production of Dan
Patrick Productions, John Boy Media, and Workhouse Media. We'll see
you guys Monday,
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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