Talkin' College Baseball and MLB with Gene Watson and Ty Harrington

It's a Texan Tuesday on The Craig Way Show! Craig and Cameron Parker gear up for the SEC Baseball Tournament with Ty Harrington and Gene Watson!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let the postseason begin for college baseball. Postseason has been
underway for about a week in college softball, and now
college baseball has its postseason underway. Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome
to the program here on Sports Radio AM thirteen hundred
the Zone. My name is Craig Waite. Thanks so much

(00:21):
for joining us. Glad to have you with us here
on this Tuesday afternoon, a Tuesday where conference tournament play
is underway, and not just at the smaller league levels.
The Southeastern Conference tournament is underway. There's already one final
in the books that's on the Texas Long One side
of the bracket. We'll tell you about that coming up.
We'll update the game that's going on right now, which

(00:43):
is also on the Texas side of the bracket. We'll
update that for you as well, and we'll keep you
updated on the other games that are going on with that.
But there's a lot more to discuss as well, and
toward that end, there's NBA in HL to discuss. We'll

(01:05):
do that. Major League Baseball our man Gene Watson from
the Chicago White Sox front office will join us for
our weekly MLB update that'll be in the three o'clock hour.
In the four o'clock hour, our good friend and broadcast colleague,
Ty Harrington will join us for a college baseball segment
that we do every week, and we'll talk about how

(01:27):
the teams are positioned going into the postseason. When I
say we, I'm also including, of course, the producer of
this program, Cameron D. Parker. The D on the birth
certificate stands for Dallas as in his dad's favorite pro
football team, for which he ascribed his son's middle name,
and it became his son's favorite team as well, until

(01:48):
Jerry Jones started playing fast and loose with the assets
of the team and it all kind of careen down
the hill, and so he's determined not to watch it.
And unless they make the playoffs or something like that,
I don't know. But you're just kind of happy right now.
You don't even have to think about the NFL at
the moment.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Are now not even writers, not even two percent of
my brain powers being voted to the NFL right now?

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Which is good. It's liberating, feel free, no, enjoy life.
That's good. That's good. Now you're you're dialed in the NBA.
I know that, of course, your team doesn't play until
tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Right the night Okay, he plays to night seventh, the
Eastern One tomorrow tomorrow. Dallas Stars play tomorrow night. Okay,
I try. I'm trying to remember all of your favorite teams.
So you've got your favorite NBA team still playing. They're
in the final four of the Oklahoma City Thunder. You
got your favorite NHL team, the Dallas Stars still playing.

(02:44):
They're in the final four of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.
So it's a cool deal to peak your interest, especially
in an off season of the Cowboys. But I know
you're also keeping up with what's going on with college baseball.
The Longhorns.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
From your alma mater or the University of Texas will
be leaving tomorrow to head for Hoover, Alabama. I've had
a lot of people ask me why Hoover, what? What?
What was it Hoover. It's basically Birmingham, but it's but
it's off the southern edge. It'd be like Hoover's to Birmingham.

(03:24):
I'm talking geography wise, Hoover's to Birmingham like Beda is
to Austin. It's just just south, you know, uh, you
know whatever. The ten to fifteen miles somewhere. It's it's
that's where the ballpark is, Hoover Metropolitan Complex. The Hoover
met Complex will be complex there, including the ballpark there,

(03:49):
and that's where the Texas Long Orange will play Thursday
afternoon at three o'clock. We know now that they will
face the winner of the game between Tennessee, who got
a single day by the number eight seed and the
nine seed Alabama. They did finally put Missouri out of
its misery as the Tigers, who I think wound up

(04:10):
going sixteen and thirty nine and their only conference wins
was the series sweep of Texas A and M in
College Station. That for all intents and purposes, has really
derailed the Aggie season. You know, for a season, it
had all the problems they appeared to it flipped the script. Yeah,
they got swept by Texas, but turned around, they took

(04:31):
two or three from LSU, so it looked like they
were back on the road to recovery and probably would
land in a regional And then they got swept at
home by Missouri and that pretty much finished it. They
lost two out of three at Georgia over this past
weekend to kind of finalize. It's all unless they catch
lightning in the bottle and win five straight games, starting

(04:53):
tonight against Mississippi State. Texas A and M is the
fourteen seed. They played Mississippi State the eleven seed, they'd
have to win Tuesday. Then they would have to beat
let's see, the six seed Auburn on Wednesday. Then they
would have to beat you know, probably the three seed
LSU on Thursday, or they would be off Thursday'd have

(05:15):
to beat them on Friday, and then they would probably
have to beat the two seed, which would be Archets
on Saturday, and then they'd have to beat perhaps the
one seed Texas or whoever comes out of the other
side of that bracket in the championship. In other words're
gonna win five games now pretty much in there, but
the tournament itself is underway and on the Texas side

(05:38):
of the bracket so far, Chalka's upheld. Alabama did spot
Missouri a four to a one to nothing lead, came
back with fourigun answered runs, and then saw the Tigers
get the tying run, in fact, get the bases loaded
in the top of the ninth inning, but they couldn't
push anything across after that Alabama into the game only

(06:00):
double play ground ball, so the Crimson Tide, ranked twenty
third in the polls, the number nine seed in the
tournament advance with the four to one winner Missouri. Alabama
will play Tennessee tomorrow morning at nine thirty in the
morning hour time. The winner of that game will play
the Longhorns Thursday afternoon at three o'clock at the Hoover

(06:23):
met that's on one side of the bracket. Also on
that side of the bracket is the twelve seed Oklahoma
against the thirteen seed Kentucky, and right now Sooners lead
at three to one bottom of the third inning. Kentucky
had jumped out with a run in the top half
of the third, but Oklahoma's come back with three in

(06:44):
the bottom of the third, So it is a a
three to one lead for the Sooners and that game
is in the bottom half of the third inning. The
winner of that game will play the number five seed,
which Georgia, and that would be tomorrow, and then the
winner of that game would play Vanderbilt, the four seed,

(07:05):
on Thursday, the same day that Texas will play. The
bottom part of the bracket gets underway later today and
it'll be around four thirty to five by the time
they get everything ready to go. It'll be South Carolina
the number fifteen seed against fifteenth ranked Florida, the number
ten seed, So that would be there, and the winner

(07:26):
of that game would face the number seven seed, which
is Ole miss And then the winner of that contest
would face the two seed Arkansas. And then tonight approximately
eight o'clock our time, maybe a little later, will be
the eleven seed Mississippi State against the fourteen seed Texas

(07:48):
A and M. The winner of that game would face Auburn,
and that would be the case tomorrow. So anyway, that's
where things are with SEC tournament right now. Obviously, we'll
update you on some of the other tournament things that
we get to and we will also take a look

(08:10):
not only at the other conference tournaments, but there's more
regional projections have come out. Additionally, we have a lot
to discuss with regard to the NBA since those playoffs.
I'll resume this evening, and you feel good about the
thunder in this western I don't know, Craig, It's tough
to feel good.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Minnesota is such a good basketball team. All the people
I trust, media experts and whatnot. All are picking Oka
season the other think you feel a little bit better,
but it's gonna be a tough series. I think if
you're a Minnesota fan, you like the way that they
match up against OKC. But also tim Wolves have had
a pretty easy path to this point. They played a

(08:52):
Lakers team that, outside of Lebron and Luca and Reeves,
you know, a pretty weak team, and then faced the
Golden State team that didn't have their best player. So
it's hard to know how much of a challenge the
t Wolves have actually had in the playoffs as opposed
to Okac, who just finished off the best player in
the world, Nikola Yokich. Nemo Denver was not one hundred percent.

(09:15):
I think the Nuggets are tougher test and the Lakers
or the Warriors without Steph Curry. So it's gonna be
a great series. These two teams always play each other
very well, and we'll see how OKAYC will defend Julius Rannold.
This is going to be a big series for Anthony Edwards.
So we give me sitting here in three weeks talking

(09:35):
about the rise of Anthony Edwards and or we're talking.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
About his destiny, right fulfilling. It is this the week
we found out the MVP.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Hasn't even been announced yet. They have no date to
announce it. Oh, we don't know when. It's so weird
it's there's no award show. And I was talking about
with a buddy of mine, like, hey, you know, usually
it's the second round of the playoffs, so we're thinking, oh, hey,
it's gonna be either your s g A announced a
winner in after game two. Is either it's gonna piss

(10:06):
off somebody, right, some team is gonna be annoyed and
pissed off. They didn't announce it, so I'm assuming they're
gonna announce it in the Western Conference finals. I don't know,
maybe not, or maybe they forgot about it. Maybe Adam
Silver just forgot that there is an MVP award.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Looks like, oh, Jokic won it, but he's already done
for the year, so.

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Hey, he's on he's at his horse ranch drinking beer
in SLOVENI. I don't think you're gonna be able get
to Jokic. So I believe it's.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
A uh Lucas from the Slovenia. Are they bug from Slovenia?
Is it Croatia?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
In some Eastern European it's one of the Serbian Croatia.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
It's one of the Baltic states. Yeah, it's one of
the He'll be drinking beer. He'll be what this horse is.
He doesn't come with the m v petro. He's already won,
you know what, two three of those. So my guess
is she is gonna win. I mean, everyone that's talked
about it kind of eludes to Shay winning it. So
I'm assuming we'll get it this week.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
I don't know. I think he's most deserving and we'll
see if that. I think both should get it. Give them,
both of them co co MVP. Yeah, that's happened before
in pro sports, where you've had co MVPs of balloting
turned out to be deadlocked. Well, we'll tell you about
some other expert opinions so called at least expert opinions
on these NBA and NHL playoffs as well. So we'll

(11:28):
do all of that and more. As always always, we
avail ourselves to you of our text line. All you
have to do is text the word texas follow by
your question or comment to eight one five three zero.
So you text the word texas follow by your question

(11:48):
or comment to eight one five three zero Standard messaging
and data rates may apply. We'll get to those, and
we've got a lot more to get to when we
continue here on this Tuesday afternoon. I'm thirteen under the zone.
Glad to have you with us here on this Tuesday afternoon.
Before we get back to the college baseball and all
update the tournament's scoreboard for you and all that other

(12:08):
kind of stuff, I want to return back to the
NBA discussion. The combined efforts and opinions and prognostications of
the staff of the Athletic Learned writers all have put
together their head for all of this, and they point

(12:33):
out that the NBA is guaranteed to have a different
champion for the seventh consecutive season, and we haven't seen
a back to back champion since the Golden State Warriors
in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. I think that says an
awful lot about parody and pro sports. Major League Baseball
has not had a back to back World Series champion

(12:56):
since the Yankees did it. What was that, oh, eight
oh nine somewhere or I can't remember. It's no, it's
it's even further back than that. It's ninety nine, two
thousand Yankees, so it's been that long, and the NFL
it's it's different. The Chiefs were going for a three peat.

(13:18):
They couldn't get it. They didn't get back to back,
but then they couldn't get it as the Eagles throttled them.
So it's tough to do and the NBA has not
done it in seven years, and it'll be inclusive of
this year that it won't happen. Three of the four
teams remaining in the playoffs, the Pacers, the Thunder, and
the Timberwolves, have never won a title in their current locations,

(13:40):
at least now. The Pacers won ABA championships. In fact,
I think they won more than any other team. I
think they won four or five. But that's that was
the ABA, and they say it at least in their
current locations. That's a direct reference to the Thunder, who
prior to being in Oklahoma City, they were in Seattle.
As the Supersonic said, they did win one World championship

(14:01):
that was in seventy eight to seventy nine, and they
were a runner up a couple other times the prior
year to the then Washington Bullets, and they were also
a runner up. I guess when they had Gary Pateton.
They lost to the Bulls with Michael Jordan in the
early nineties. So the fourth of these teams, the New
York Knicks. This all the value a little bit about

(14:23):
how this has a new look. The New York Knicks
haven't won an NBA title since Richard Nixon was president
Spring of seventy three. I remember that because I was
a Lakers fan and they beat the Lakers in five
games at the Lakers had beaten them the year before
in five games. It said if you expected these conference

(14:44):
finals matchups, but that doesn't make them less important. Who
will advance to the NBA Finals? Who will raise the
Larry O'Brien Trophy. In June, members of the Athletic NBA
staff share their predictions. East Finals Nicks in seven. Agree
with that assessment, Yeah, yeah, I think it will be

(15:06):
in seven. But you're you're going with New York? Yeah,
leaning New York? Okay, all right? West Finals they say
thunder and six. NBA Finals thunder and six, and Finals
MVP they say SGA. Shay Gilgess Alexander said after their

(15:27):
analysis was after seeing how hard the flawed injured Denver
Nuggets pushed the Thunder. I'm not willing to rule any
of the four teams out here. Ultimately, though, the Thunder
have been the best team all year. They have the
best remaining player and the best defense. I'm not sure
which one is more susceptible. The Timberwolves have enough pieces

(15:51):
to slow down SGA, but are generally not explosive enough
to score efficiently on them. The Eastern Conference Finals feel
like a toss up to me. Give me the team
playing at home at Madison Square guarding game seven. I
assume will see mcl bridges on Tyrese Haliburton og An
Andobi on old teammate Pascal Siakam. Both of these matchups

(16:15):
should be fun, but the Thunder are better than both.
I think a healthy Knicks team has the best shot
of beating them of the remaining three teams, but I
can't get there now. That's from Eric Kren. The writer.
James Edwards has nix and seven and ease. He's got
Thunder and five in the West Thunder and six in
the NBA Finals with SGA the finals. MVP law Murray

(16:40):
has Nicks in seven in the East Final, Thunder and
six in the West Final Thunder and five in the
NBA Finals with SGA the MVP and Marcus Thompson's second
How about this, here's something going off the deal. He
has the Pacers in six in the East, he's got
the t Wolves in six in the West, and he's

(17:02):
got the Wolves winning the NBA Championship with Anthony Edwards
the MVP. His analysis was, he said, all season, I've
expected Oklahoma City to win it all, but I've seen
enough vulnerability in the Thunder to reconsider with great hesitation.
On one hand, Denver was a tough series they needed
to get through to learn how to win at this level.

(17:23):
On the other hand, they were steining more by the
will of the Nuggets than their talent. Minnesota has more
talent and perhaps as much will, including the size, athleticism,
and experience to push OKC. It's going to come down
to ant and SGA in the clutch. I'm picking aunt
Anthony Edwards, who's rested and familiar with the stage. He
just had better do it by game six. The Wolves

(17:45):
do not want to deal with Oklahoma fervor in Game seven.
So anyway, Also, John Hollinger as Pacers in six, winning
the East Thunder and six winning the West Thunder and
five win in the NBA Finals, and Will Gillery has
Nixon seven in the East Thunder and five in the

(18:06):
West Thunder and six in the finals. Everybody who's picking
the Thunder to win is picking SGA to be the MVP,
including Christian Clark. So they had their entire their entire
staff do this, and the vast majority, more than the
just consensus, the vast majority is picking Oklahoma City to

(18:30):
win the whole thing and shake Gilgess Alexander to be
the MVP. And that's just what makes Cameron Parker nervous.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
What's that just? I don't think so, you know, I'm
nervous for Friday reasons. Timberwolves, you know, are a good
basketball team, you know, but if you get to this
stage in the season, it's going to be two great
teams going at each other. I think for OKC, it
was definitely a gut check series against send for you know,
kind of had to get over some humps in Game

(19:01):
one loss. Was pretty tough. To be up so much
in that game and then to just you know, outthink
yourselves Dagnault did, and then you know they give up
the Aaron Gordon three pointer, but they came back. They
won by a healthy margin in game two or down
to one in that series on the road in Denver,
able to come from behind it and win in the
clutch in games four and in five, Denver comes right

(19:21):
back in game six, you know, a great game from
Strather and from Watson, and you get to a Game
seven against Denver, team that's won an NBA Championship, that's
played in game sevens before oka See has not. I
believe that was their first ever Game seven with this
group of young ones, and they delivered outperformed Denver. You know,
from Minnesota, I think okay See is the most talented

(19:44):
team in the NBA. I don't agree with that when
Riders saying that Minnesota was more talented and will to
win again. You know with Minnesota, they just not to say,
who have you played? But I mean you played a
Warriors team that the only game you played against Steph
Curry you were down by twenty points in and you
play a Lakers team that was very flawed. You know, yeah,
you have Luca and Lebron, but you know, you go

(20:06):
back and watch that game. Lakers didn't play defense in
that series outside of their their game two victories, so okay,
see a little bit more battle tested I think the
Minnesota at this point. But yeah, I think it's going
seven either way. It's gonna be it's gonna be so
much fun to see Anthony Edwards on the stage. But remember, hey,
last year they're on the stage and did not perform.
So maybe Minnesota has learned from that and will benefit

(20:29):
and for okay, see, maybe you know the series against
Denver is just what they needed to prepare themselves to
win the Western Conference finals.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Okay, good analysis there. Before we get to the break,
here's update on conference baseball tournament stuff. Oklahoma leeds Kentucky,
top of the fifth in the SEC tournament there in Hoover.
They lead three to one in that game. Again, that's
the twelve seed Oklahoma against the thirteen seed Kentucky. I
think it's a pretty safe bet to say that both

(20:59):
will be in a regional next week. Oklahoma for sure,
even if they lose this thing, I think they'd be
a three seed. But I think they'll be in a
regional and they probably need to win at least a
couple of games to climb off that three line and
get to the two seed line. Kentucky is almost certain
to be a three seed no matter what they do.
But if they lose, they just have to hope there's

(21:22):
not a lot of bid Steelers or it could really
hurt their chances to get in. Alabama won earlier over
in Missouri four to one. So Alabama plays Tennessee tomorrow
at nine thirty in the morning. The winner they got
that game will play Texas at three o'clock on Thursday afternoon.
The winner of that Oklahoma Kentucky game will play Auburn
tomorrow in the American Athletic Remember CAM when we got

(21:45):
to Championship Week and women's and men's college basketball. Remember UTSA,
coach by former Texas coach Karen Aston, won the regular
season and he did so impressively and then got up
said in the first round by Rice, and they didn't
get into the NCAA Tournament as a result of that. Well,

(22:06):
UTSA is playing Rice in the first day of the
American Conference. They're playing Clearwater FLOORA. That's not bad, you know,
near Tampa. Rice led almost the entire game. UTSA has
just scored too in the bottom of the eighth to
go up three to two. Now UTSA is going to
be in the field even if they lose here. But

(22:29):
teams like ut Rio, Grand Valley and Troy and some
other teams that are bubble teams do not need a
bid stealer happen and UTSA is up three to two
in the bottom of the eight, so that's good news
for those teams. Same thing also at the Big ten

(22:49):
tournament where they're doing pool play. Illinois, who Texas beat
earlier this year in Las Vegas, came from behind and
won in ten innings over Michigan six to five. Michigan
was a bubble team kind of on the outside looking
in that I ought to finish them off. Well, it
is pool play. Maybe they win two more games and
they get back in the mix, but that's pool play
going on, where you play three games against three other

(23:12):
teams in your pool, and they do it in two
pool brackets. And then the winners advanced the Big twelveth
to that years ago and it was largely panned. They're
underway in the Whack tournament Mace Arizona, ut Arlington and Tarleton,
those two both basically have to win that tournament to
get into our regional. UTA is up for nothing. They've
scored and they are still batting in the top of

(23:34):
the first the ACC is doing the sixteen team double
elimination thing, just like the SEC is doing earlier. Today,
Miami was run ruled by Cal twelve to two, so
Miami is done. And Virginia Tech leads Stanford four to

(23:55):
two in the bottom of the sixth inning. So anyway,
there's some conference baseball tournament for Tulane a six three
winner of Florida Atlantic. That was this morning in the
American Tournament. Jacksonville beat North Alabama five one in the
A Sun. Davidson beat Saint Joe's in the Atlantic ten
eighteen to three in that tabla ninth Austin p leads

(24:16):
North Florida tend to two. That's in the A Sun
in that one. All right, coming up, And by the way,
Texas State does play this afternoon in the Sun Belt
at three o'clock at Texas State. The seventh seed will
play the ten seed there and that's Appalachian State, and
that's at the Sun Belt Tournament. And they pretty much

(24:37):
have to win the tournament, not pretty much, they have
to win the Sun Belt Tournament to get into a
regional we'll talk about more of that college baseball and
the ramifications, all that coming up in the four o'clock hour.
Ty Harrington up next Inconceivable here on a Tuesday afternoon.
I'm thirteen under the zone, Craig Waye, joined by the
producer Cameron Parker. Glad to have you with us as well,

(24:59):
and as I mentioned, certainly happy to have your input
on that. Your questions, your thoughts, your comments, you know,
at least submitted in a decent or respectful fashion. And
most of you are like that, and and that's good.

(25:20):
Even even the people who get pretty upset, UH do
so with a modicum of decorum. It doesn't get too
off the rails. And if it does, that winds up
not you know, being part of it. So that's just.
But we give you the opportunity to join us via

(25:42):
text on the text line. All you have to do
is text the word texas follow by your question or
comment to eight one five three zero, So UH text
the eight one five three zero UH that texas to
UH and then your question of comment A one five
three zero. Standard messaging and data rates may apply. Clean

(26:03):
up from our number one our man c B says
Gary Clark, Junior's cover Come Together was That was from
the twenty seventeen Justice League movie soundtrack. The movie was awful.
Zack Snyder's Justice League was a million times better. That
was released in twenty twenty one, So there's a movie
review that we get there. But ceeb I'm sure you're

(26:26):
okay with Gary Clark Junior's cover I've Come Together. You
know I'm a beatlemaniac, so I'm gonna you know, I'm
gonna shade toward the John Lennon version there, But nothing
wrong with.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
That, Ceebee. What's your thoughts on the new Superman movie?
Let's get your in and out yet? Is it the
trailer's coming out?

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Each came out? Okayvile trailers? See on the text line,
Let's know what you think? Okay. My favorite Come Together
cover is Aerosmith. Okay, all right? I love that cover
with Steven Tyler. Yeah, yeah, in another color cover and
I can't And I heard it like on satellite radio
somewhere when I was over on the East Coast on

(27:06):
a vacation, and I can't even remember the artist name,
but it was like one of the best I've ever heard.
It was really really good. And then I tried to
find it, like on Apple Music, and I couldn't find it,
so I kind of gave up on it. But anyway, so, yeah,
you had a movie no Godsmack, no Geronimo, No No.

(27:30):
I might recognize the name if you said it, but
I couldn't find it when I went looking for it.
But this has been you know, I think almost a
year ago. A Cocker No No, but I like Arctic Monkeys. No.
I think i'd remember if it was Arctic Monkeys, Junkie
Excel No, that wouldn't do it either, food fighters. It

(27:54):
was a guy's name. It was a dude's name, but
not like you know, it was a name like Joe Cocker.
It wasn't Joe Cocker. I know who, of course Joe
Cocker was, but I don't. I don't remember if, like
I said, if it was a dude's name, and if
it came up, then I would think, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
maybe that was it. I can't remember. In any event.

(28:17):
College baseball tournament stuff is underway. Today's the first real
day of all that going on. Oklahoma was leading Kentucky
for one in the seventh inning. Remember a good chunk
of these tournaments are single elimination. You lose, you're out,
You're done. And I think Kentucky gets pushed toward the

(28:38):
bubble with a loss today if they lose, maybe not
off of it entirely, but I think they definitely get
pushed over. And they have to hope that there isn't
a lot of bid Steelers out of there. So yeah,
you know, hopefully that hopefully does didn't happen with regard
to them, but we'll see if it does work out.
UTSA did win their game their first round in but

(29:01):
it's a double elimination tournament in the American They beat
Rice fort to two, they rally back to win that
they're the favorite to win. If they sail through and
win that conference tournament, that saves a bid for an
at large hopeful like a ut Rio Grand Valley or
a Creighton or one of those teams that's on the

(29:24):
outside looking in on the friends trying to get in.
There's some of that, of course. Long wrns don't play
until Thursday. It'll be Thursday afternoon at three. They're going
to play the winner of tomorrow's game between the eight
seed Tennessee and the nine seed Alabama. Alabama took out
the number sixteen seed Missouri ended their year by beating
the Tigers four to one. Missouri season ends at sixteen

(29:49):
and thirty nine. They wind up winning three games against
SEC teams. They end up losing twenty five, including the tournament,
the game, tournament game today. The only SEC victories they
garnered were against Texas A and M. Those three games
played in College Station, and that's why Texas A and

(30:12):
M is really kind of pushed off of the bubble.
Other than if they win the SEC tournament, they're pretty
much have to win the SEC tournament to get in. Now,
their record isn't such that they're going to get any
kind of serious consideration. And it's mainly because of those
three losses. If they had won even two out of

(30:34):
the three, certainly if they'd swept it. But even if
they'd won two out of the three and then lost
two of three like they did to Georgia, going three
and three over their final six games, they would have
been thirteen and seventeen. And maybe, you know, they might

(30:56):
need a win at least one, maybe two, but certainly
at least one in Hoover to lock into a spot.
Now they don't even have that. They're basically going to
have to run the table and win it in order
to get in. So that's that's the situation there with
the Aggies. We'll see as it all goes forward. Of course,
the bids come out on Monday morning. I think eleven

(31:21):
o'clock in the morning is when that show airs. I
think it's on ESPN two has been in the past,
might be on regular ESPN on Memorial Day, so a
lot of you will be hanging out sitting home on
the Memorial Day holiday. We have a holiday here as well,
so the on air shows will not be on that day. However,
I will be down there with the team watching the

(31:43):
show in the clubhouse, and I will obviously on social
media on both Instagram and x formerly known as Twitter.
My handles are at Horn Voice. Will have some information
on that. You have a little video from there in

(32:04):
the clubhouse, you'll see that. It'll be on Instagram as well.
So we'll do all that sort of stuff come Monday
when selection Monday's bids come out. But prior to that,
the log Worns have the tournament and we'll see how
it plays out for them. It is my opinion, my theory.
I could be wrong about this. Because Tennessee did drop

(32:27):
two out of three to Arkansas and they need some
wins to climb back into the possibility of hosting. They've
kind of fallen off the shelf off of that on
all of the prognostications, so I would say they need
a couple of wins. But it's my belief they're not
going to start the SEC pitcher of the Year, Liam

(32:48):
Doyle tomorrow. He'd be going on two days less rest.
Even though they need the win and Alabama is a
solid team. They won forty one ball games this year.
I doubt they would start him. They would start somebody else,
try to get through it and then and then save
Doyle for Texas to pitch Liam Doyle against Texas. We'll see,

(33:09):
We'll see how it all rolls out tomorrow. Up next,
we'll talk some major League baseball visit with Gene Watson
from the Chicago White Sox front office. Get his topic,
his thoughts on some topics with regard to Major League Baseball.
We'll do that up next when we continue on thirteen
under the zone. When we're ready to talk baseball. Of course,
we're ready to talk baseball with our man from the
Chicago White Sox Front Office. The one and only Geen

(33:32):
Watson is on the road, as he invariably is at
this time of year, looking to unearth the hidden gem,
and Gino has done that a few times. Which of
our fabulous fifty states does it find you today, Gino?

Speaker 4 (33:50):
Jackson, Mississippi for the Jackson Mississippi or for the Mississippi
State Baseball Championships, which I had no idea was the
state Championships until I got here.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
You're so You're in Jackson for the Mississippi High School
State Baseball Tournament? Is that it?

Speaker 4 (34:06):
This is gonna be West Lauderdale High School versus Purvis,
Mississippi High School, and the Curtis Missippi has brothers. One
will be a very high selection in the first round
and one could go as high as the second round.

Speaker 5 (34:20):
So that's who I'm here to see today.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Interesting, Hey, I think I remember a game earlier this year.
You correct me if I'm wrong on this where you
were at a game watching I think Ethan Holiday playing
and then also Eli Willets playing. UH two, I guess

(34:43):
projected top ten picks. Ethan Holiday of course, the the
the the grandson of Tom Holiday certainly, and uh and
the son of Matt Holiday, and then and then what
Eli Willitts is the younger son of Reggie Willets, the
associated coach for Oklahoma, whose older brother, Jackson Willetts, is

(35:06):
the starting shortstop for them. Did you see both of
them in the same game.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
Same game.

Speaker 4 (35:13):
It's a very very unique year with the draft and
that I got to see Eli Willets play Jackson Holiday,
our Ethan Holiday. And then Corona High School has three
first round picks, and seth nand is Ebel and Billy Carlson.
And then today you have two top two round picks

(35:34):
in one game. So it's kind of unique that that
would happen in a particular draft year, but it's happened
this year.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
Wow, you've been able to get the daily double worked
out a couple of times. That's a good thing. Now.
I had this said to me our our good friend,
Toby Rolling, the play by play voice of the Oklahoma Sooner,
said to me last week that between between Eli Willetts,
Ethan Holiday and then Kyson Witherspoon, the outstanding right hander

(36:02):
of the Sooners, that there was a chance that there
could be three top ten picks coming from the state
of Oklahoma. He said, now that that would be big
in these parts of that is it Is there a
chance of that happening.

Speaker 4 (36:14):
There's there's a there's a strong chance of that happening
right now, very strong. And it speaks to you know,
amateur baseball in Oklahoma, it's always been very, very strong,
and uh, the youth programs there are very strong. They've
got great coaching, they've got great bloodlines, they care about
the kids, the kids playing heat a lot of times
in every ballpark I've been to there in the last

(36:36):
couple of months has just been immaculate. And the coaches
are first class and know the game, and so that's
when you're gonna read really good players well.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
And that that Willetts family, of course hails from Fort Cobb,
right and and that's where and that's where uh and
that's where Reggie has his farm out there. And the
way it was explained to me from Toby was if
you were to go to Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, he goes
to school, is just as little bitty school in the
middle of nowhere, and there's a ball field there that's
well taken care of, but it's just like a little

(37:04):
it's almost like a field of dreams thing where people
come to see come to see baseball.

Speaker 5 (37:09):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
And we went to Loan Grove, Oklahoma to see him play,
and I was with Hall of Famer Jim Tomey, and
by the time we were done, he and I were
ready to coach the summer league program in Long Grow,
Oklahoma because it was just such a beautiful setting.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Let me ask you, I know you obviously your ball
club keeps you extremely busy. How do you break down
what or at least uh the partition out what you
need to see at this time of year when you're
talking about high school tournaments. Now, this week in Texas,
as you know, is the state quarter final level. So

(37:43):
they've got they've got they've got two more weeks after that.
But so between state tournaments like what you're seeing in Jackson,
Mississippi today, and college conference tournaments are underway, the SEC
tournaments underway uh in in uh and then there's other
conference tournaments going on across the country. We've been given

(38:04):
the scores from some of those. How do you come
to the decisions that you come to on who you
need to see in what type of environment conference tournaments
from college or high school tournaments.

Speaker 4 (38:18):
Well, it all begins because I oversee the professional scouting department,
which is all the minor league and major league scouting.
It all begins with our major league club and who
are the potential trades. We don't really have a lot
of trade at capitol right now other than Louis Roberts.
We've got a couple of bullpen guys, a couple of
you know, position players that could be on the block,
but it's so early in that season that you don't

(38:41):
really have to like rush out and get out in
front of that. So I've been able to knock off
really seeing most of the candidates that would be in
consideration for our tenth pick and our forty four pick
and beyond that, Like I'll leave here Friday and I'll
head to Nashville to pick up the Yankees Triple A team,
and then then on today all go to Chattanooga to

(39:01):
pick up the Reds double A team, and then I'll
head into Chicago for an office week and be with
the major league team.

Speaker 5 (39:07):
So there's really kind of a rhythm to it based
on where.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
Your major league club is and the trade capitol, how
you have on that team, and then also centered around.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Where you picking the draft and how you see those players?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Talking Major League Baseball with Gene Watson from the Chicago
White Sox. All, okay, speaking of prospects. I wanted to
get your opinion on this. And this is because you
know we have our resident Guardians fan. He's always asking
for updates on the Guardians. But I saw the story
today about Travis Pizano, of course, the former Oregon State
stand out, a first overall pick last year. It said

(39:41):
he's going to miss at least eight to ten weeks
because of an oblique strain on his right side and
it happened after swinging when he's playing Double A for
the Akron Rubber Ducks playing in Chesapeake there on May fourteenth,
Mri revealed the strain. I would imagine Gino. It's got
to be frustrated, eating and even maddening for organizations when

(40:02):
you've got a kid like design of coming up through
the thing and then just swinging the bat, all of
a sudden the oblique goes out on him.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
Yeah, and Craig, it's really not if it's win. Nowadays,
these kids are so strong and they take so many
reps that that it's not what you're really hoping is
that you don't get the serious injuries, because it's almost
without question that there's going to be nicks along the
way that has shut players down that you know, you're
there's just the workload is so high, and even our
industry is doing a really great job of controlling the

(40:32):
workload now with management programs, But these kids are so
big and strong and fast now that it's and they
take so many reps and they play so many games,
and it's really difficult to predict.

Speaker 5 (40:45):
When something like this is going to happen.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
But just understanding that there's a pretty high percentage that
along the way there's gonna be some some nix and bruises,
and you just hope that they stay away from the
serious nature.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
And with regard to pitching, it's almost kind of a
not if but win Tommy John surgery is ultimately going
to be needed because of the emphasis on VLO these days.

Speaker 4 (41:07):
Below, pitch shape, pitch design, what the kids are doing
in the way room, the effort that's that's being produced,
and I mean it's just it's of.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
Major league rotations of all had Tommy John.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
It's it's really a sad number because we have more
information than we ever had. We got more sports science,
more data, more analytics, we spend more money, and the
injuries have never been highed. It's something that, as you know,
I've said many times on the show, they've got to
have to address at some point.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, and uh, and I'm curious to get your thought
on something else. For example, I was looking at design
as numbers today, he's betting two fifty two. This is
at double A. He's twenty two years of age. He's
batting two fifty two, four homer, seventeen RBIs eight starring
bases in thirty three ball games for Akron. I had
it said to me back several years ago that the

(41:57):
real crucible, the the fish or cup bait moment for
major league prospects really comes at double A. Now that
was back several years ago. Is it still double a?
Is it now because of the acceleration of so many
of these young prospects. Is that now triple a? Do
you look at it at at an earlier stage, What
in your mind is still where you can tell at

(42:20):
what level if you think a prospect is going to
ultimately reach the big leagues.

Speaker 4 (42:26):
Well, the key number you said right there was twenty
two in Double A, so he's typically he's technically he's
one year out of the draft, which he is, and
but most of the time those.

Speaker 5 (42:35):
Guys are at higher level right now.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
But we with the cutting of rounds and the cutting
of teams at the major league level, it's just forced
kids to get pushed quicker and quicker to the big leagues.

Speaker 5 (42:47):
To me, Triple A to the major leagues is to
the moon now.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
It's so far away, and even the good ones are
going to struggle at some point, whether it's early when
they get up there or after the league adjusts to them.

Speaker 5 (42:59):
But you just never.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Know how the players are going to form until they
get there. And there's a lot of situations where the
Triple A ballpark is either you know, heavy offense or
or or heavy pitching, and so you want to try
to avoid your better prospects, you know, like our Triple
A ballpark is a hitters ballpark, we would try to
avoid our pitchers spending very much time there. But until

(43:22):
they get to the big leagues and they go through
the first and second adjustment period at the major league level,
you never really know what you're going to get.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
How would you classify Dell Diamond more hitter friendly. Yeah,
I would classify this for surely with the.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Big home run sports and Allen left the infrastructures they
put up in the outfield right right.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
Uh talking Major League Baseball with Geen Watson here on
thirteen under the sign.

Speaker 6 (43:48):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Maybe it kind of raised my eyebrows a little bit
on this, but maybe I shouldn't be surprised by I'm
speaking of Jose Alvarado getting the eighty game ped ban
for that sort of thing that, Uh is it now?
I remember it was a lot more prolific even two, three,
four years ago? So is it is? Is it a

(44:11):
thing now where it's more of a surprise when it
happens or or do you're not you're not surprised by
when it does pop up?

Speaker 4 (44:19):
No, I think it's a big surprise because, like you know,
even as front office members and scouts, we have a
chance of getting tested, and we're constantly like, I won't
take Advilla or Tilt Hall unless I know it's exactly
Advill or Tilot all I mean it. And and there's
so much information and and your infrastructure around.

Speaker 5 (44:39):
You is so strong that all you really.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Have to do is is make sure that the people
are around you are the ones guiding you, and and
before you put anything in your body, you just make sure.

Speaker 5 (44:49):
It's you know that it's exactly what you say it is.
And you know, there's so much sports performance.

Speaker 4 (44:56):
Branding now that that it's really really shocking when something
like that as happens.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
How much has it hurt the Phillies big time?

Speaker 4 (45:04):
I mean, you know, the bullpen was an issue for
them last year. They went out got Tanner Banks from
US and others. This is one of the elite relievers
in the game, and so it's something they're going to
have to address over time. But you know, it's still
a little bit early on the trade market. I think
a lot of teams are kicking kicking the tires on
what their needs are. We're getting just passed the forty

(45:24):
five game mark, and so I think in the next
you know, four to six weeks, you're going to start
to get a stronger feel for who the who the
players are going to be in the trade market, who
the guys that are going to sit tight with what
they have.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
You have gotten to know a lot of guys who
have been around the game and are still I'm talking
about active players who are still playing, who've been in
there seven, eight, ten years. So I am curious to
get your thoughts on Colton wall announcing his retirement today.
He did it with the Cardinals, but of course last
year where he last played with the Mariners and the Dodgers,

(45:58):
but he spent eight years with the Cardinals and also
a couple of years with the Brewers. Thirty four years
of age, he says, there's no sense in chasing getting more.
What's your your thought about Colton Wong and what you
remember about him as a player.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
I just I cannot believe how fast that ten years
Lan I remember this. You know, we talked about this
guy in a number of trades with the Cardinals, and
you know, he was an undersized player that made the
most out of every ounce of his ability, was a teammate,
ultimate team player. And that was probably the fastest years

(46:32):
I can remember a player. But it just gets to
the point now where you know, your body breaks down,
especially for smaller players, your body breaks down. A lot
of these guys once they've gotten past the third or
fourth year in the major league level, they're not going
to go back to the minor leagues. And you know,
you got to congratulate him for the link of his
career because.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
That's like the top five.

Speaker 4 (46:52):
Percent of all players that play in the big leagues
get ten years, and so congratulation to him on that.
But really, truthfully, I just can't believe how those ten years.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
With no doubt. All Right, I want to get your
thoughts on. There was an ESPN article about playoff contenders,
the one at the top of the list. It doesn't
surprise me because you said it at the top, at
the top of spring training, you said, watch the Detroit Tigers,
and right now they're thirty one and seventeen. Their preseason

(47:22):
playoff odds were forty one percent, and ESPN says their
chances to make it the verdict is real. But I
know that you know as well as you know aj Hinch.
He's a guy that seems to draw the most out
of the guys he has.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (47:40):
I tested with him last week about this, you know,
and we had breakfast in Chicago in September when it
was kind of you know, they were kind of out
of it, and they just went on that late run
and were unstoppable. And they go into Houston and upset
the Astros, and you could feel that this year was
going to be a two steps forward type of year
with Jackson and the young players. They haven't Jackson, Job

(48:02):
has had. Job has had his struggles this year. But
what he's done, like what he's done with Hobby Bias,
to get the buy in as to what his role
is with the team and to get him performing again
is one of the greater stories.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
In baseball in a long, long time.

Speaker 4 (48:18):
And aj just does a great job of setting the culture,
setting the expectations, and giving the power away to the players,
especially the veteran players, and letting them, you know, control
the temperature of the clubhouse. And when he's got to
step in, he does, which is rarely when you've got
the type of culture that they have. And so this
is a really, really dangerous team when they get October.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
All right, let me ask you this. There's a couple
other teams they have listed on whether it's real or
not real, their opportunities to make the playoffs. Giants eight
games above five hundred right now preseason playoff odds, we're
twenty five percent from that. But their bullpen has just
been amazing of late. How about the Giants? How real
they are as a contender again.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
Culture, Buster Posey and zach Manassein Junior have done an
incredible job of recreating a player's culture around that organization,
and you could feel it right away in spring training.

Speaker 5 (49:13):
They knew they were going to be good.

Speaker 4 (49:15):
The scary part about the Giants is they have a
very good minor league system and if they want to
go out and add to this team, I don't think
there's a lot of things they need to do, but
there are some things they could do, maybe go out
and get an outfield that they've got the system to
do that, and Buster Posey and zach Manaski and Junior
have just set a great temperature for that culture and

(49:36):
making it again a player's culture and getting it back
to what it was when Buster was a player there.
He knows what the blueprint looks like and that's something
that he's tried to recreate.

Speaker 5 (49:46):
Right now, it's working.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
The Cardinals just finished a stretch where they went twelve
and one from May fourteenth through a couple of days ago, two, three, three,
er eight during that time. There's six above five hundred
right now, But is this a team to keep an
eye on one.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Hundred percent I was in there May one, two, and three,
and I came out of there took the Mets to Arizona,
thinking this is a very talented young team, and they've
got baseball players that play well together, and you could
start to see it kind of taking shape. They took
two out of three and a doubleheader in the series
I was there, and you know, for a little bit

(50:21):
of time, people have wondered why the team is kind
of underperformed to the skill set of the players on
the field. And now it's really starting to come into play.
And what a lot of people thought was a runaway
division for the Brewers, the Cubs have been unbelievable, the
Cardinals have played great baseball, and the Reds are trying
to keep their head above water. And so it's really
turned into kind of a dog fight in the National

(50:42):
League Central, where a lot of teams thought that the
Brewers were in a runway with that division.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Is the last team I want to ask you about,
and I know it even seems silly in the minds
of some folks even be asking about it, but it
was one of the teams listed only because they've had
some good runs. Now lately, they've dropped six in a row.
But what about the Apple What about the A's. They're
six back in the West right now. But the Angels
are as well. They just came off sweeping the Dodgers,

(51:08):
and then you got the Rangers and the Astros and
the Mariners all in there. I guess I'll repeat the
question I asked you about a week ago. How realistic
is it that multiple teams will be in the running
in the American League West throughout the course of the season.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Well, I think Seattle is certainly the class of the
organization of the division, only because they're pitching it's so good.
They've got an extremely good system that they can draw from.
I don't see them adding a lot, maybe some bullpen
pieces down the stretch Oakland, I think, for as much
as they play so well together, I think they still
kind of feel like they're in a build mode. They're

(51:46):
way more offensive than they are pitching in defense, and
then you know you're playing in a Triple A ballpark
right now. But they but they're the opening they've always been.
They know who they are as an organization. They have
a great culture. The players all play well together, and
they hit, and so I think that they'll be continuing
to build around that team and make it better for
when they moved to Las Vegas. But you know, Texas
has got to, you know, get healthy and get things together.

(52:08):
But for me, Seattle would be the class of that
division right now.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
He's Gee Watson and joins us each week to talk
Major League Baseball. Hey, enjoy the what do they call
it the Magnolias stay of trying to rammer in Mississippi
there but anyway, and enjoy Jackson, Mississippi in the state
tournament there in the state capitol. Craig, take care talking
all right, thank you. That is Geene Watson from the
Chicago White Sox front office and out there checking out

(52:34):
the Mississippi State High School Baseball Tournament prospects there. All right.
We'll update the scoreboards for you and more coming up
next when we continue on thirteen hunderd the Zone.

Speaker 6 (52:43):
This is Mark here, the world strongest man, discover the
true taste of Texas at Mom's Food, smoke House and
delic contesting.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Everything updating the SEC tournament scoreboard we mentioned earlier this morning,
and it was this morning and it finished like just
past noon. Alabama finished off Missouri season. The Crimson Tide
one four to one. Missouri season ends at nineteen and
thirty five as they or nineteen and thirty six, I guess,

(53:14):
and Alabama will play Tennessee tomorrow nine thirty in the morning.
Winner of that game will take on Texas on Thursday
afternoon at three o'clock, a game that we'll have for
you here on thirteen under the Zone. So there's that
the second game is nearing. In fact, it has just concluded.

(53:38):
Oklahoma has just eliminated Kentucky five to one. So the
Sooners win Kentucky is twenty nine and twenty four, and
you'd say, well, there's no way they they're going to
get in the turnaround. Yeah, an RPI thirty five, so
usually RPIs in that range they wind up getting in.

(54:01):
They went thirteen and seventeen in the SEC, so that
they also kind of struggled down the stretch. I got
swept by Vanderbilt at the end, but they own a series,
went on the road in Knoxville, and you know, they've
they've looked pretty good on some things, but this one
it may it may be a problem for him. So

(54:22):
Oklahoma will play Georgia tomorrow afternoon, scheduled around twelve thirty.
The Tennessee Alabama game. The eight to nine matchup is
scheduled for nine thirty in the morning our time. So
so far the tournament has held to seed the ones

(54:43):
who were expected to win or the higher seeded teams anyway,
have been able to do that, and so they've kept
it going. The next game in the SEC tournament will
be Florida and South Carolina. Florida the ten seeds, South
Carolina the fifteen seed, and that'll be coming up later
this afternoon. Other games going on in the Big Ten tournament,

(55:08):
Rutgers is on top of Indiana one to nothing. In
Texas State, the Bobcats up to nothing in the bottom
of the second Cat scored two in the bottom of
the first. Texas State is the seventh seed in the
Sun Belt and we were talking about this yesterday and
we'll bring it up again with Ty Harrington, who had

(55:28):
mentioned it was going to be really kind of important
for them to try to garner the number six seed
to give them a much more realistic shot to win
the Sun Belt Tournament, because the only way the Texas
State is going to get into a regional is to
win the Sun Belt Tournament. To win to get the
auto bid out of that, so it was going to
be important for that to happen. So you know, we'll see.

(55:52):
But anyway, Texas State is up to nothing on Applachian
State and that game is in the bottom half of
the second inning. Their UTA and Tarleton are playing in
the whack tournament. That's the sixth seed and the seventh
seed in that one. UTA is the seventh seed that
lead the six seed Charlton State five to one. That

(56:13):
game is in the top of the fifth inning. I
guess the The other thing to point out is that
teams that Texas has played this year have one today
other than Kentucky, and that was they had to head
against Oklahoma, who Texas took two of three from sou

(56:33):
so far in Missouri getting knocked out, but they were
pretty far down in the RPI. Anyway, I bring this
up because, like, for example, in ten innings today, Illinois
Michigan six to five, and that doesn't hurt the Texas
RPI the fact that that win, because it's you know,

(56:53):
what's what's happened to the teams that you've played as well.
Uts A defeated Rice four to two to win their
American Athletic Conference turn it over and Virginia Tech beat
Stanford in the ACC tournament and they're also going with
the sixteen team single elimination format just like the SEC

(57:16):
is and Virginia Tech won seven to four. They were
the higher seeded teams. Stanford has fallen off dramatically since
a couple of years ago, winning that crazy Super Regional
final game against Texas on that flyball lost in the
twilight there in Palo Alto. They finish their season this
year twenty seven and twenty five, eleven and nineteen in

(57:38):
the ACC. And that number and that record is very
similar to what Texas A and M has had this year.
They're twenty eight and twenty five and they also win
eleven and nineteen in conference play. Tougher conference to be
sure in the SEC, but still the Aggies in all
probability are going to have to win it. They're going

(57:59):
to add that the very least get I would think
to the tournament final to get some serious consideration. But
they're playing Mississippi State, who's been hot of late, and
Mississippi State ended up level five hundred in SEC play.
This was a team that fired its coach at mid
season Chris Lamonis, who coached them to their only national championship,
but they were really slumping. Of course, Texas swept them

(58:26):
in startfield, but they turned it around. They finished fifteen
and fifteen in the conference and they're thirty four and
twenty overall, so they're probably pretty safely in the field,
especially if they win the game against Texas A and
M tonight. That'll be the last game because the Florida
South Carolina game will start about forty five minutes from now,
so we'll see what happens with Kentucky, but that may

(58:47):
be a team that now is sitting squarely on the
bubble after losing. The RPI definitely helps, and the strength
of schedule and the strength of the league they play
in definitely helps, but the loss definitely not help for
them this afternoon. So that's an update on that tournament scoreboard.
When we come back, we'll wrap up hour number two

(59:07):
of the program here. I'm thirteen under the Zone. Third
and final hour of the program here on thirteen under
the Zone Craig Waite joined by the producer Cameron Parker.
Glad to have you with us here on a Tuesday
afternoon Tomorrow I'll be headed with the long Horn baseball
team Alabama. Hoover, Alabama, the site of the SEC Tournament,

(59:27):
which has already had its first two games the early session.
Already those two games are in the books, and Texas
doesn't play until Thursday. We leave tomorrow the day before.
The Longhorns play on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, and

(59:47):
Texas will be at action against the winner of the
game between Tennessee and Alabama. More on that in a
few minutes. Coming up in a few minutes will talk
from college baseball tournament style and all that other kind
of stuff with Ty Harrington. Are resident College Baseball contributor

(01:00:12):
joins us on the program each week. So anyway, there's
there's plenty to discuss on that, but I wanted to
get something else first. Cam. Are you aware of the
big significant vote that's coming down tomar in the National

(01:00:33):
Football League? The Toush Push. It's it, the Tush push
vote is coming tomorrow. It's funny. A couple of Eagles
like it's a big deal. A. J. Brown said, I
don't have any thoughts on it's only one yard. I
left tackle Jordan Malatta said they're really going to push.

(01:00:53):
I guess we'll just do it with no push. In
terms of them banning the tush push, I hate that name,
so I hope they do ban It's a stupid name,
he said, He said, But I can't control it. We
can't control it, so we don't even worry about it
right now. We're just installing our schemes, whatever their offensive

(01:01:15):
where Nator Kevin Patullo is installing that day. That's what
we're focused on, because worrying about if they're going to
ban the tush push or not ain't gonna win us
a championship. And it was the Packers who initially brought
this up at a league meeting last month, and the

(01:01:37):
Packers have since submitted a revision of the proposal that
would more broadly ban pushing or pulling the ball carrier
anywhere on the field. So they've even kind of and
so you know, the tush push itself is basically the
plane which the team lines have one or more players
behind the quarterback to push him forward in short yarded situations.

(01:02:02):
So their spring meetings start tomorrow in Minneapolis, and Nick Sirianni,
the Eagles coach, said, we'll see where that goes We're
not waiting very long figure it out. It's gonna be
public Wednesday, and you know how I feel about it.
He called it a little unfair that some teams are
angling to have to play banned because it's highly successful
for them, adding that the idea that it's an automatic
play is a little insulting because of how they work

(01:02:25):
on that. Their owner, Jeffrey Lorie, called it a precision play.
That's the way that he described it. So it's gonna
be it'd be interesting to see how this how this
comes down on this, if they if they banned this thing.
You know, it made me remember something when I was

(01:02:46):
reading about how the Packers revised their proposal and made
it a little more broad based about you just can't
push or pull runners into the end zone. Now it's
all he's been you can't pull a runner into the
end zone. And the reason why I bring that up

(01:03:06):
is because of everything that happened in the Peach Bowl
game with Texas and Arizona State, and folks have talked about, oh,
they got away with this, or they did that, or
maybe Matthew Golden didn't hold onto the ball away through
the process. If you look at Cam Scataboo's last touchdown,
he's literally being pulled into the end zone by the
offensive lineman, which would have been a penalty and would

(01:03:30):
have disallowed the thing. So my point is is that
what the packers are trying to do is make sure
there's no ambiguity about this and that there's no gray
area about this, and that if they say there's no
pushing or pulling a runner a ball carrier any way,
shape or form, then the question is will we see

(01:03:53):
it get cleaned up or is it just a matter
of how it's enforced.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
And how often do the Eagles just running quarterback sneak
or the Bills because the Bills also are a big
proponent of the touch push with Josh Shallon all the time. Now,
of course, you still got Saquon Barkley there. He still
can get.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
You have two thousand yard running back, Yeah, you can
probably get your yard probably.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Now I agree on the Eagles didn't win the Super
Bowl because of the touch push. They won the Super
Bowl because they have one of the most complete rosters
in all of the NFL. Now, it certainly it does
help them, and I think there's going to be a
couple of times throughout the season this does get banned.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
That it could impact.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Maybe a game or two, because we've seen Philadelphia have
been able to convert big time fourth downs because of
this or touchdowns, So it'll be interest to see how
it plays out.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
The reason it draws the attention that it does is twofold. One,
it's highly successful. Two, it's usually only employed in goal
line or real short yarded situations on either third or
fourth down. It's usually one to one, usually not always,

(01:05:12):
but usually employed only. In other words, the money downs,
the critical downs. So if they have found a workaround
the system by being able to use the Tushe push,
then you can understand why probably some other teams feel
it's an unfair advantage because of the time that it

(01:05:34):
comes in a game in the situation time score, situation
down close to the goal line, or needing to move
the chains for a crucial fourth down, because they do
it then as well. But it's usually either third or
fourth down when it happens, So you know that's that's why.
But the vote's coming down tomorrow on this. I don't

(01:05:56):
know necessarily that anybody's be holding the breath over this deal.
It seems like it's going to get banned.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Yeah, from what it seems like, it seems like most
of the league is on board with going ahead and
preventing this play from happening again, which is interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:06:13):
Yeah, you know what else is interesting too. Today at
those spring meetings in Minneapolis, the owners approved the proposal
for the players to participate in flag football at the
Olympics in LA in twenty twenty eight, so three years off.
Resolution needed to be approved by at least twenty four

(01:06:34):
to thirty two owners, and Roger Goodell is happy about it.
The league still needs to negotiate with the Players Association,
the Olympic officials, and national governing bodies on the specific
of letting NFL players participate, but most have said they
want to do it. Lloyd Howell, Junior, their executive director, said,

(01:06:58):
players have expressed us a great desire for the honor
of competing in the Olympics, and we're excited that our
members will be able to represent their country on the
highest international station. Let me just say this, when they
do this flag football stuff at the Pro Bowl, or
what they call the Pro Bowl these days, I could
not possibly have less interest that in the skills competition,

(01:07:21):
all that I think it's silly. This would be different though,
going up against other nations organized flag football, it doesn't
seem like it would be a throw in in addition
to skills competition, So the actual flag football competition that
I'm okay with. I'm on board with this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
This is going to be I think one of the
more fun events in the Olympics. I'm excited for the
golf because it'll be at Riviera. That'll be a real
fun test. Obviously, swimming and diving is always a spectacle
track and field, but flag football, it's gonna be fun
and it's I'm curious, Craig, how big the roster size

(01:07:59):
will be, you know what, what players will be healthy,
but you know, like mahomes hanging around throwing out to shoot,
you know, a J Brown, J Brown. I mean, it's
gonna be a lot of fun. I'm curious to I
can't wait for this.

Speaker 5 (01:08:16):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
I think the combined effort of a team USA roster
is what brings the interest because when you see it
in the Pro Bowl, it just looks like grab ass football.
It it doesn't, it doesn't. It does nothing for me,
and no one wants to win. Do you throw win?

Speaker 5 (01:08:30):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (01:08:31):
Gold medal. Yeah, different issue, different issue, Scottie Scheffler within
the gold in Paris. All right, coming up, we'll shift
back to college baseball and we'll visit with Ty Harrington
to talk about conference tournament championship week when we continue
on thirteen under the zone somewhere is that song was going?
I was thinking, you know, Ty Harrington is probably singing.

(01:08:52):
Oh wait, he's with us now on the hotline. So John,
were you singing along with that tie?

Speaker 5 (01:08:57):
Indeed? I was, you know, I was.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:09:00):
It almost seems like every time I come on, George
State's playing all time favorite love singing along. People probably
don't appreciate it when I do. But you know, when
you wake up in the morning, you're in the shower
by yourself, it really doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 (01:09:14):
So but yes, I enjoy singing along with George. He
probably doesn't appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Yeah, I dude, all right, let me get your thoughts on.
Like I said, I kind of was a little bit
reaching there. I said. It kind of made me think
about the Bobcat baseball team because all they got is
what they got on right now, meaning they got to
run the table. And when when the sunbelt turned and
they're also a good start. I know because you were
there and I got a chance to see it. It
had to be disappointing against James Madison not to be

(01:09:44):
able to get two out of three because the table
was set form where they could have gotten into that
top six. And for folks who don't understand, he kind
of explained the difference between how being the sixth seed
versus being the seven seed really does make a difference
in a tournament like this.

Speaker 6 (01:10:00):
Well, it certainly can, because you don't have to play
this extra game getting into the tournament and meaning the
sixth person sixteen tournament, eighteen tournament, so then it becomes
a double elimination as we all know as an eighteen tournament.
So it just it exposes you on the mound again,

(01:10:21):
meaning number of pitches, arms, fatigue if you're gonna try
to make a run at it.

Speaker 5 (01:10:29):
I don't think, to.

Speaker 6 (01:10:30):
My knowledge, any team has ever come out of the
playing game to win the tournament. And so it's it's
it's physically taxing, emotionally can be taxing at the end
of a season. I have to play that much on
edge baseball and that much you know today the last
day baseball to win a championship, and so there's a

(01:10:54):
lot of physical and emotional that goes into that. And
I know, you know, I know Texas State was, you know,
doing their dead level best to try to get out
of the playing game. But I would also say this,
and I think you'll agree with me on this. As
hard as it is, as tough as it can be,
as challenging as it can be, we all know baseball

(01:11:15):
to be one of the craziest things in the world.

Speaker 5 (01:11:17):
And you never know what's.

Speaker 6 (01:11:18):
Gonna happen, and you never know when the team's gonna
catch it lightning in a bottle and or put everything
together all at once, or get some yeomen you know,
you know, opportunities out of you know, pitchers that you
know that haven't been great or gone, you know, five
innings at a time before all of a sudden go eight.

(01:11:41):
And so there's a lot of things in this crazy game,
which is which makes it addictive to all of us,
uh to see how things can turn out well.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
Our our mutual uh. You know, late friend the great
Auguri Grado used to say that when you got in
the conference tournament play that someone would have to emerge
from your pitching that you didn't really count on and
give you an effort that you know would be great

(01:12:11):
to get, but you weren't necessarily counting on it. I
think in the two thousand and two national championship run,
they got beat by Texas saying him in the first
game of the double elimination tournament and had to spin
through the loser's bracket and coming all the way up,
they had to win two games on one day on
Saturday against Oklahoma, and one of those was a guy
named Ray Clark, a journeyman who had helped him in

(01:12:34):
two thousand win a game like that to get to
Omaha or win the regional out in Tempe, and he
came through again for that. Guys like that that you
might not necessarily look at and think, Okay, he's you know,
he's a guy that we didn't necessarily count on, and

(01:12:55):
look at what he's done at this point. So I
guess my point is is Bryce and Dudley that guy
right now he's gone five shutout innings, only allowing one hit,
and he's only throwing fifty five pitches through five innings.

Speaker 5 (01:13:05):
Time.

Speaker 6 (01:13:07):
Yeah, he's been there, multi purpose closer reliever type gut
all year I think they really thought he was going
to be their back end guy and for sure at
least a setup guy, because it is it's an angry.

Speaker 5 (01:13:22):
Fastball when he's good.

Speaker 6 (01:13:25):
And what I mean by that it's a ninety three
to ninety five on our fastball with a great breaker.
It's been about his elevation and command and execution at
different times.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
But to answer your question, yes.

Speaker 6 (01:13:38):
I mean, look, I would tell you, and I can't
remember if it was twenty ten or eleven for us
at Texas State, same thing. We lose game one in
the Southend tournament and then come all the way through
the loser's bracket and end up throwing a shutout on
the last day Lee Cologne, who had been in and
out and I think it was on his second time

(01:13:58):
to throw that weekend on the first game to get
us to the championship game. And then we had a
reliever come in and uh and throw a complete game shutout.
He went nine innings and uh we it just doesn't happen,
you know, all the time. But you put guys into
big moments and and all of a sudden, they they

(01:14:20):
just take it, they embrace it, and they step into
that from an emotional perspective, and maybe they haven't had
that chance, or maybe you had them in a different role,
or maybe you know a lot of things you know
transpired to that through the whole season, maybe they got
a little momentum, which is why you put them.

Speaker 5 (01:14:36):
In there as well.

Speaker 6 (01:14:37):
You know, they they started to perform better and you
gave them small increments of work and then they catch
the momentum as well, and uh and take off and
so he rose. He rows her out there in baseball,
but you got to put him in to find out
if they.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Are and they're not well toward that end, then tye
from a from a perspective of looking at it. Just
to give folks idea about this. When you get into
a conference tournament and you know you've got to win
four games or maybe five games, whatever, you've got to
win games to win the thing, do you, as a
head coach, in consultation with your pitching coach, do you

(01:15:16):
guys like sit down before the tournament even starts, or
even as the tournament's developing, and you start counting, like number,
this guy's throwing thirty something pitches this day. Maybe if
we can get through tomorrow, then we can bring him
back and maybe get thirty more pitches out of him
we're two innings or something. Does it Does it come
down to increments like that to try to stretch out

(01:15:39):
of staff throughout the course of a conference tournament.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
Yes, if you're trying to win the tournament overall, yes,
right in. In other words, if you're just trying to
to ensure one or two wins to ensure your placement
into the NCAA, that's a different thought process. If you're
just you know, trying to stay in live for some
of these teams to win one or two games to
ensure that you're gonna host, or if you're trying to

(01:16:05):
win it obviously, or to get deep uh into one.
You know, sometimes if you get deep into one, that'll
ensures that you're gonna, you know, get in the NCAA,
which is the next prize that you're chasing during this week.
And so to answer your question, yes, there is. You
stay with your your pitching guy at the beginning. Depending
on who you're playing in game one, you may you

(01:16:26):
may risk game one and not throw your first guy
because he's on short rest his third week in a row,
and in some situations at least his second week in
a row. He's on short rest, So you start to
look at the starting part and then then you sit
down and you go, Okay, this guy's throwing x amount
of pitches so far as a tournament grows, and then

(01:16:51):
by the time you get to game three, pinding on
if you got one loss or no loss starts to
determine what you know the rest of the week looks.

Speaker 5 (01:17:00):
You know, the rest of the tournament can turn out
for you.

Speaker 6 (01:17:02):
If you get into a loser situation, you're historically your
first day starter is going to come back around and
have to do something again.

Speaker 5 (01:17:12):
You know that for sure, and can he handle it?

Speaker 6 (01:17:14):
And that also goes into your decision to throw him
first and who that can be. Also, some guys are able,
because you know this, Some guys are able to bounce
back quicker than others.

Speaker 5 (01:17:25):
Some guys demand and not demand.

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
Some guys require, you know, four days, five days, some
guys don't.

Speaker 5 (01:17:32):
Some guys.

Speaker 6 (01:17:33):
I've had guys go out there on three days rest,
you know, believe it or not. We won a national
title in at Northeast such as Community College, and my
starter through three times in the national tournament.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
Wow, and I and I had. I had to get
the arm.

Speaker 6 (01:17:49):
Wrestle in contest with him on the last day to
let him know if he was gonna throw or not,
because he was beating on my door the night before,
telling me standing outside of my hotel room. The late
great Chris Pearson was sitting outside, who pitched at Texas
for a year as well, was standing outside my hotel
room with a baseball in his saying, going, coach, I

(01:18:10):
got this, and so there's a whole other, you know,
piece of that. Blake Williams did the same thing my
first hit Southwest Sex. As you remember, Blake in the
first rounder from from Texas State and also had wins
against Texas and Baylor and beat Baylor in game one
of the regional We won the first game to get
into the championship game, and it was a matter of

(01:18:32):
who was gonna throw the first game of the championship
and playing the same thing. Blake calls me in my
hotel room and tells me, coach, I'm ready. I was like, well, Blake,
you're only on two that coach, I'm ready. Just give
me to baseball. We need to win tomorrow. We don't
need to go one more day after one more game
after that, I'll win and sure enough to a nine
any game and gave up one run and we won,

(01:18:53):
and I looked like a genius. And so there are
a lot of different things that you go through as
a coach. You got it all mapped out, and you've
got it all set out with your pitching god, and
then about halfway through it, a bomb goes off in
the middle of it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:06):
Then you've got to reshuffle the deck again.

Speaker 1 (01:19:09):
Talking college baseball with ty Herington during this conference tournament
championship week, which could be the biggest taxing thing on
a collegiate team to go through this because of the
double elimination factor EVE or even in a single elimination tournament.
Which brings me back to something you said earlier, and
it brings me to the SEC Tournament now earlier today,

(01:19:30):
Alabama ended Missouri season. They won four to one. So
Alabama's going to play Tennessee See if you agree with
this assessment, I am of the opinion that Tennessee is
not going to start the SEC pitcher of the Year
Liam Doyle against Alabama tomar even though the volunteers dropped

(01:19:51):
to a three to do ar Kansas, even though the
tournament projections right now show Tennessee not as a regional host,
and they need to have a good tournament. Me not
win it, but definitely need to have a good tournament
in order to get back into that host consideration. But
when I look at this, Liam Doyle would be going
two days shy because he pitched last Friday. He did

(01:20:13):
not pitch Thursday on a day's less rest. He pitched
Friday in the game that they the first of the
two games they lost to the Razorbacks, and so he
would be coming back on two days less rest. It's
my contention that they'll try to get by with somebody else,
get past Alabama, then bring Doyle against the Longhorns, if

(01:20:35):
for no other reason because Texas has been challenged by
left handers this season. Does any of that make sense?

Speaker 6 (01:20:41):
No, it makes one hundred percent sense and probably is
what's gonna happen.

Speaker 5 (01:20:45):
I'm mean, it looks one of the true great.

Speaker 6 (01:20:49):
Pitching guys in the business, Frank Anderson, as you know,
and you've known Frank a long time too, and they're
gonna make those types of decisions that goes back to
your rival.

Speaker 5 (01:20:58):
We were talking about, do.

Speaker 6 (01:20:59):
You risk you know, bumping somebody up on short rest
to win that game, or do you feel confident you
can go after them on with somebody else and piece
it together the whole time. You know that you're in right,
you know you're in the NCAA. So you don't want
to overexpose anybody to that next week because either you're

(01:21:24):
at home or if you're on the road, if you
don't want anybody going in limping, you don't want anybody
meaning you don't want anybody exhausted. Do you want to
have everybody as fresh as you can possibly have them fresh?
And in order to do that, you know forward thinkers
like Frank and Tony Battello both they're gonna look at

(01:21:45):
that and think about, Okay, well, how do we got
to get to Omaha, not just how we're gonna do
in the SEC tournament? How do we get to Omaha
to you know, to get back to defend our title.
That's their mindset and what does that look like to them?
Not saying Liam can Brough if he did, I would
be shocked if it was more than six outs night outs.

(01:22:05):
If he did, I'm of the mindset like to you
that I don't. I think they go to somebody else
to try to keep him on some type of regular
rest in between knowing that the NCAA probably game would
be on a Friday, that he would come back again,
and trying to get him back to that six to
seven day you know, six day period at least in
between starts.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
With the understanding and like I said, I'd laid this
out front that they know they have to have a
good showing in the tournament otherwise they're probably not going
to get to host. I think the projections I've seen
one projection has him in Fort Worth, the one I
sent to you the head TC was the one Tennessee
is the two, Oklahoma as the three, and or Roberts
as the four, where that could be quite a derby,

(01:22:47):
but you know, it gets to this time of year
where you really do have to take some risks or
a gamble as a head coach in this case by
resting the starter. And I'm sure Jim Slaste and Max
Ween are looking at it in a very similar vein
with their guys, and they have obviously more capital or

(01:23:08):
in latitude because it's pretty much theorized that Texas is
going to be the number one overall national seat they're
certainly going to be a top eight, and certainly I
would say in the top two or three anyway, but
there's a good chance they're going to be the number
one seed even if they would lose to Tennessee, And
so they're therein lies what I think might happen. And
I haven't talked to Gym in the last couple of days,
but I would have to think that maybe they might

(01:23:30):
be thinking about coming back again, you know, and with
some sort of a bullpen type of game, and see
if you can get through on that. Then you get
a day off on Friday if you win Thursday, and
then you're set with Luke Harrison on Saturday on full rest.
If you get to the final, you get to the
final on Sunday.

Speaker 6 (01:23:53):
Yes, Look, they've earned they've earned the right to now
place their pitchers and their lineups as they so choose,
meaning choose meaning what's gonna give them their best opportunity
to win the next moment, And that is the reasonal

(01:24:15):
what's gonna give them their best.

Speaker 5 (01:24:16):
Moment to get to Omaha.

Speaker 6 (01:24:18):
They have an opportunity to choose to do that from
their successes and what they've done in the regular season.
And because so as you just said, they are gonna more, They're.

Speaker 5 (01:24:27):
Gonna be the number one overall.

Speaker 6 (01:24:29):
Seed, and what if they got beat in game one,
that's not gonna change that in my opinion, and I
think you might feel the same way. So they've they've
earned the right to if somebody's you know, banged up
a little bit, maybe they let them sit and give
them some time to get rested and to get into
better physical and middle uh space. I think one of

(01:24:50):
the things is probably going and again I've not talked
to Jim about this either. One of the things probably
going through his mind is well, we need to get
Max Blue as many at betts as we can.

Speaker 5 (01:24:59):
Yep.

Speaker 6 (01:25:00):
You know, if they do play, do you hit him leadoffs?
Do you hitting number two?

Speaker 5 (01:25:04):
In whatever? Right to gain more at bats?

Speaker 6 (01:25:06):
And if something does happen and you don't, you know,
if you didn't win, you go home and an intersquad
session with the guys who didn't throw, and he still gets,
if not more at bats from a practice situation, from
an intersquad perspective, and he gets to see that many
more pitches and that many more you know, opportunities at

(01:25:28):
bat wise. So and then if you've got some guys,
which they do have some guys that are probably tired
and banged up a little bit. We would do good
for them to catch their breath a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:25:39):
Uh. And they've earned that right.

Speaker 6 (01:25:41):
They've earned that, you know, opportunity, and it is an
opportunity that other programs don't have, and other baseball teams
don't have. Right now, they're pressing a little bit more.
There's quite a bit more urgency than what's going to
be involved in the Longhorn decision right.

Speaker 5 (01:25:55):
Now now that they don't want to win.

Speaker 6 (01:25:57):
I know, stimps last league on those guys that team
this year, I think you would agree that team has
showed us every time they get a chance to play,
they strap up their laces and they get busy.

Speaker 1 (01:26:07):
Yeah. I saw that in their eyes and talking to
him last weekend in Norman, they knew after winning the
game on Thursday night coupled with the Tennessee when they'd
won the SEC outright, but that didn't stop the fire
from going to They wanted to win that series to
snap out of that deal of having lost back to
back series. The other thing to your point about guys
who you might rest or whatever, I could see maybe

(01:26:30):
a guy like Adrian Rodriguez, who's hand still isn't going
to be one hundred percent healed until he can sit
for a little bit. Even though he's tearing it up,
he's swinging the bat well. And then even Jonah Williams
whose hamstring has been a little tweaky, but they've got
They've got Ethan Mendoza back at second base. Now he's
back in the field at second so that that's a

(01:26:51):
good sign. And then, like you said, could could, was
there any more obvious example what Max Blue and his
presence in the lineup means to this team than what
we saw on Thursday night. Did we lose time? We
lost time? Okay, that's right, we're up against the break anyway,
we have to do that. That was the last question

(01:27:11):
have for Tie anyway, all right, thanks to Tie joining us,
Texas stage is up to nothing. They're in the sixth
inning in that game and Bryson Dudley is still going
strong for the Bobcats. We'll continue on thirteen under the zone.
Thanks again the tie here, And he said, is his
phone overheated? You know we've all had that happen to us.
I've had have you ever anywhere, just shuts down if

(01:27:33):
he gets too hot. You know, well, I think he's
driving now, but where he was might have been outside
and overheated, so it kind of shut down on him
just to cool off for we kind of turn it
back on. That's happened to me a couple of times. Careful,
t I don't have your phone start catching on fire.
It told me that, by the way, on fire is

(01:27:57):
Bryson Dudley at Texas State. Through six innings. He has
shut out app Leach and State on one hit and
has only thrown sixty eight pitches through six innings. I mean,
he's barely above eleven pitches an inning. And that's exactly
what you have to have in a conference tournament. You've
got to have somebody, you know, just really go lights

(01:28:19):
out for you on the mound where you don't have
to burn a lot of pitching. Especially they play in game,
which is what they have right now. That's what they
have on their hands, is a play in game. They're
gonna have to have a big effort not only in
this game today, but again especially to Mark because they
would be playing the two seats Southern Mississippi, who's really

(01:28:40):
good and ranked and by the way, a team that
is projected to be a regional host at least right
now depending on what else has happened. So we'll see
on that. We haven't really mentioned too much, I mean
barely at the top of the show, but we haven't
really mentioned too much about the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs

(01:29:05):
down to their final four begins tonight in the East
Carolina and Florida. They played the Eastern finals in twenty
twenty three, and then in the West starting tomorrow night.
It is an all where's that is that one tonight too?
I ever forget Star series tomorrow tomorrow? Okay, yeah, that's so,

(01:29:27):
I had it right. Okay, So Stars in Oilers tomorrow,
which is a rematch of last year's epic series between
those two. How do you see these two playoff series?

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
It's gonna tell Craig Edmonton, I mean both, you know,
obviously a rematch of last year's Western Conference Finals which
the Stars actually at two to one and in that
series and where I think we're leading in the first
period against Edmonton in Game four and then the series
to spell apart for him McDavid, who is the top three,

(01:29:58):
top two player, whatever you want to say, say was
just phenomenal in that series, so obviously a rematch of that.
Of course, Edmonton had their hearts broken the Stanley Cup Finals.
But these are two teams that are a little bit
different from last year's Western Conference Finals. Obviously, the Stars
have added Ranton In. They've you know, have looked phenomenal.
You know, last year the Western Conference Finals, they were

(01:30:20):
carried by Jamie Ben and Tyler Sagan, and in this
Western Conference Finals it'll be different. It'll you know, have
to be Hisken in and Ranton In and probably a
handful of other players. For Edmonton, their defense has been phenomenal,
but also a deeper team to where they don't have
to rely on mc david. I mean, I think so

(01:30:40):
far in these playoffs, Craig only has three goals, which
is quite the difference from where he was at last season. Dresidal,
who was a huge part of their team last year,
he's now in the fourth line, which you know causes
all kinds of problems for opponents. It caused Las Vegas
couldn't figure it out, and it scares me for Dallas.
So I'm leaning Edmonton because I just think they have

(01:31:02):
Dallas's number now, one thing's for sure, Dallas is better
than last year's team. Oudinger is playing world class. I
think he's a better goalie than Skinner is for Edmonton.
But you know, outside of rans In, Dallas has been
missing some some key play out of you know, out
of some guys, you know Robertson, he's kind of you know,

(01:31:23):
he was a leading goal scorer in the reckless season.

Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
He's been kind of am I in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:31:27):
He's he's been banged up and then come back and
then meet him the step up and if Hayskin can
get as close to one hundred percent as possible, it
will be huge for Dallas. But you know, this one's
going six or seven. I'm leaning Edmonton at this point.
But if Audinger continues the play like he has in
the playoffs, you know, I like Dallas's chances. But they

(01:31:48):
got to get some more production on the road. They
they they've only scored nine goals on the road so far.
Have been a great home team. So the Fennjome ice
and and take game one. You know, you know, they
had that awful streak of just not being able to
win game ones dating back to pre COVID and finally
snapped at the second round the Semis and are able
to win the series in six. So defend home ice

(01:32:12):
and you know, get some goals on the road. You need,
need to need a big series. From from Robertson, I.

Speaker 1 (01:32:18):
Think you just described the Hurricanes too. They got to
defend They've they've defended home ice extremely well. Uh, they've
had some struggles on the road.

Speaker 6 (01:32:26):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:32:27):
This Florida team, to have kind of finished in the
middle of the pack of the East, suddenly realized, wait
a minute, we won the Cup last year with the
defending Stanley Cup champions, and they have played like it.
I mean not only winning Game seven on the road
at the One Sea Toronto, but rallying them winning six
to one in the final game. That's that's going to
be a tough series for Carolina, even with home ice advantage,

(01:32:50):
because Florida's dealt with not having home ice advantage the
entire preseason has been a big deal for them. All Right.
So that was a look at the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs,
which continue tonight with Game one for Carolina and Florida.
They play Game one tonight and then tomorrow night will

(01:33:11):
be Game one of the Western Finals between Dallas and Edmonton.
We'll be back to wrap up today's edition the program
on thirteen under the Zone