August 8, 2025 • 45 mins
It’s Trevor May Day! We open with this question: Are relievers like Trevor the most important position in baseball?
(3:58) Mariners sweep the White Sox and walk it off last night, but there’s some worry about Josh Naylor’s shoulder. We discuss Seattle’s game changers, including new faces, and check on competitive AL races.
Earn points on rent and around your neighborhood, wherever you call home, by going to joinbilt.com/FOUL.
(14:36) Cleveland is only 6 games back of Detroit in the AL Central, but it might not be a feasible comeback.
For 20% off your first purchase, head to FairHarborClothing.com/FOUL and use code FOUL
(17:14) Yesterday was Paul Skenes Day, to the delight of Pirates fans! His home scoreless inning streak adds to his HOF resume, and Trevor gives his pitching expertise on what he sees from Skenes.
(23:44) Oneil and Elly De La Cruz made Matt McLain feel short. Additionally, could the Reds make a run for a WC spot? Are they at a disadvantage for acquiring pitchers?
Get 20% off your first Slab Pack or card purchase by going to ArenaClub.com/FOUL and use code FOUL
(32:42) There’s a positive Chris Sale timeline update!
(34:17) José Alvarado is working his way back from suspension, and Trevor reacts to his PED apology.
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(36:59) As today is August 8th, who is the best player to wear number 8?
(39:53) Eduardo Valencia hit for the cycle in the minors and wanted the ball. In what scenarios is it okay to ask for the ball?
(41:33) Kershaw and Scherzer face off this weekend in possibly their final matchup. Also, Happy Birthday to our FT teammate Alana Rizzo!
Hosts: Trevor May & Scott Braun
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Oh, this is good. It's Trevor may Day with Scottie Braun.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You get two of us on a Friday. Let Trevor
cook all Friday long, which he does on his own
show may Day quite often.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Trevor, good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And just in case you needed a little more confidence,
which I don't think you do, but just in case
you wanted a little pump me up on a Friday.
You are the most valuable position in the ft FAM
and in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Why do I say that. How many relievers were dealt
for at the trade deadline versus every other position?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I don't know, like a hundred.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
We tried to count the number of transactions that have
in today, just in general, players that were in one
place and then went to another place. It was legitimately
over one hundred, which is incredible. What a blast though.
It was a lot of fun being on this side
of things and covering it and just having stuff happen
in real time. I was fortunate to be doing being
(01:02):
on a show with Hunter Pence and so he understood
the assignment too. We were excited, We were excited, a
lot of yelling. It was a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's good energy.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But you realize sometimes in the off season a few
relievers get paid and then many don't. And also many
relievers unfortunately don't make it to free agency. Good ones even,
but then come trade deadline time, jams go Wait, if
we're gonna make the playoffs, we use relievers in October
(01:31):
more than we use starters. Last year, I believe was
fifty two percent relievers in October versus forty eight percent
for starters. And I will say, I think they are
doing something right. Because of the volatility and you want
to catch a hot hand, it does make sense to
do the trade deadline thing, not to go too crazy
because we got a lot to cover for the day.
(01:52):
But I remember Andrew Friedman saying I want to get
all my work done in the off season. So even
loading up on relievers like kurbya, it's Tanner, Scottik, et cetera.
The problem is pitchers get hurt a lot. And then
the problem on top of that is relievers are vollatiles.
So you still might get to the trade deadline and
be like, damn, I could use a high leverage guy.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It is crazy that relievers are so valuable in a
very specific situation, namely making a playoff run, going deep
into the playoffs, and then winning a World Series. They're
like arguably one of the most if not the most
important positions to have at least covered. I mean, you
need several guys, but you can really really get a
lot of value out of that. And this is a
(02:35):
great example of how this is This plays out is interesting.
We was doing Sunday Night Baseball last week and graphic
came up about Jan Durant and Harris and Harrison Bader
joining the Phillies and it showed their wars and guess
which were those two of those guys? Which one of
those two guys had a higher war this year? Harrison Bader.
(02:57):
But if you asked anybody who would who would you
who might be playing a much much bigger role in
the playoff, they would say the opposite. So it just
goes to show you, like how relievers are valued. You
kind of have to get into the weeds figure out
if you want to do it with statistics, but there's
one consensus, and that is the best teams have the
(03:17):
best reliever cours going into the playoffs. The guys throwing
the best back there tend to get the farthest.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, if you're in the playoffs, war might not be
the right answer. I don't know if they're factoring in
relievers the way that they should regular season.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Okay, you can make your cases.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mean, war is going to reward position players at
premium positions playing every day, cool, get it. But the
playoffs are built differently. Things tighten up, including your pitching staff.
So it's a good point. You might have to tell
some of your buddies to work on something there if
they don't have it already, because really it would benefit
your brethren. So anyway, let's get to a team actually
(03:57):
that's got a pretty good bullpen. Let's charge them out,
charging about Mariners, sweep Mariners, walk off Domken's own with
the walkoff knock. For the Ems, they've been pretty damn
good since the trade deadline. I think five or six
and one since the trade deadline. I will point out
(04:18):
that Josh Naylor left that game last night early. Looked
like he was wincing a little bit. Shoulder soreness is
the word. It's the other shoulder, because I think the
other shoulder was bothering him, and then you know, this
one pops up for him. So here it is pulled
today due to a sore shoulder that was on Thursday.
And then Mary Brown, who covers the Sports that this
is something to watch out where he had issues with
(04:39):
his shoulder on and office recently as mid June with
the Diamondbacks. So you want to weigh it looks like
a hard swing there, you want away playing him making
the playoffs and also making sure that Josh Naylor would
be ready for an October stretch.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I you know, it looks like a little bit of
a tweak. I think there's certain different swings you can see,
then you can assume a certain level of maybe how bad.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It might be.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But one thing about Josh Naylor is he swings hard,
and he always swings hard. He's swinging off his helmet
pretty much every time he swings, and that's just the
way he plays the game. So you know for him
to he needs to be able to do that to
be as effective as he can. And it looks like
he just something felt a little bit weird there, But
even the subsequent swings after it, it didn't seem like
he like couldn't swing anymore, just like he just was
(05:30):
tentative about it, which gives me, you know, a little
bit of hope, and I'll be honest, we can talk
about his bad and his glove and what he's meant
and how they have corner pop for the first time
in recent history, the Mariners, that is. But I mean,
the guy's got eleven bags since he's joined the team,
which is crazy considering he's in the top bottom I think,
(05:50):
bottom ten or twenty percent in the league in sprint speed.
So I mean he's taken bags left, right, and center.
That might be the biggest loss to have if he's
not playing. So to give them a little bit rest,
we're talking. We're in the dog bays here, right, We're
in Houdust. This is the best time to get a
few days off here and there. They're coming off a
really good series. They're gaining gaining some games on that
(06:10):
division lead Astros. But you know, if you do, if
you do pass them now, you're gonna have to stay
ahead of them. So let's let's just take it one
day at a time and get make sure everyone's healthy
and we're not risking anything.
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Speaker 3 (07:21):
Go for it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We've talked about the stolen based prowess of Naylor a
lot this week, and I was thinking how coaches across
the country, youth, high school, even college, are probably pointing
to him as the post boy for why you can
steal bags and not be that fast and just a
whole baseball IQ and the fuel for the game is important.
But yeah, I want to double click on what you're
talking about with DMS within the AL West. So, first off,
(07:46):
you're out in the Pacific Northwest. How much are the
fans buying into this team. There's been frustration over the
years because they've built a really nice core, especially on
the starting pitching staff side of things, and bullpen's been
pretty good and here comes some offense for them reinforcements
in twenty twenty five. So as of right now, after
that Seattle dub you've got Houston one and a half
(08:08):
games clear of Seattle in the ALE West, and then
the Texas Rangers are four and a half games back
of first place Houston. But the Rangers in a fight
for a wildcard spot, that last wildcard spot right now.
It's like a Texas Yankees even Cleveland involved kind of battle. Obviously,
you know, Boston is still close enough where they can
get caught.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What do you think about the Ale West and the
ale wild Card?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I mean, the first of all, the sentiment up here
is they are they jump on the bandwagon quick, they
get back on the horse quick, and they love their
sports and they're they're really enjoying what they're seeing.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
They think, like for the first.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Time in a long time, really excited about moves done
in the deadline. I think that even if they ended
up not working out, that most fans will be like,
you know, what, we did the things we need to do.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It just you just got to go out and do
the win at that point.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And so Jerry Depoto is getting a lot of credit
amongst the van base that was towering a little bit
on some of the moves recently. So that's all great,
and it's the division is very competitive like you thought
it would go in especially with the top three teams
up there.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think they're all playoff caliber teams, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I think the Mariners have a great opportunity with that
starting pitching and they're scoring more runs and they've created
more of a dynamic lineup that is kind of scary
top to bottom, Like you can't really there's not like
a streak of four or five guys that you didn't
have to worry about as much as you had in
the past, and that has been closed up a little bit.
So it's big thumbs up here I got producer Henry
(09:38):
in here working with me in the office, and he
does a thing every day with his whiteboard in his
office where he writes down his sentiment score for the Mariners.
And he's been up in the eight to nines since
for the last couple of weeks, since they got nailor so,
and that continues. If we're going to go by the
Henry barometer, things are good up here and so.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yet Okay, well it could have been even better.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Why because they might have added another reliever for the
stretch run. They were close, apparently, according to a fans
Heided insider Robert Murray, who was a guest host on
Fair Territory yesterday. So I don't want to upset your boy,
because things are looking really good up in Seattle, and
you can't have it all right.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You can't go to the candy shop and pick out everything.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Jerry Depoto did an awesome job addressing the top need,
which was corner infield spots.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But did you hear about this? Let's roll the clip.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
On the hype train this morning. But I'm also thinking
they're legit. They added Josh Naylor, Ihanel Suarez and they
almost got Joean Duran, and there was at one point
that morning that he was traded that I thought he
was going to be in Seattle, but they ended up
getting the two sluggers and both of them have been
very good since coming to Seattle.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Isn't Durand's entrance with like a magenta ish kind of thing,
So that would have worked well up in that ballpark
two in Seattle. I mean, it's working for the FI
it's close enough, red whatever, but that still would have
worked up in the Pacific Northwest being at It's t
Mobile Park. But anyway, what could that have looked like
for the Mariners. It's a good bullpen, but some teams
(11:12):
loaded up super bullpens. I wouldn't say it's like.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That, no, I mean, statistically the park helps a lot. Statistically,
they're still one of the top three bullpens even this
year with Gabe Speier throwing from really great innings from
the left side, the young Vargas kid, they kind of
mix and match it and figure out the best way
to get to the back end to Andris Munos, who
(11:37):
is one of the best lockdown closers out there. It
would have been interesting to see, is did Duran then
become the eighth inning guy that conwak Kelsley is in
New York right now.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Probably usually rock with the guy you've had.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And you don't want to mess that up because that's
usually if that doesn't work out, it doesn't look good.
So it would have been great to have him. I'm
sure they would have loved it. He would have thrived
in this ballpark, probably here. But you know, you can't
get everybody, no matter how not even the San Diego
Padres got everybody, and boy did they try so. But
(12:11):
that's it's it's cool to think about. And by the way,
his walkout probably would work anywhere. And the story behind
that with Dustin Morris and the and the media team
over there in Minnesota passing it on unprompted to saying, hey,
we worked really hard on this.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Everyone here loves it.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You guys will love it too, And then of course
Philly fans being like this was a thing we could have,
like that, this is something that like this is electric here,
and of course it just took off as surprising absolutely
nobody especially.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I think you're going to see more and more
of that in the league. I mean, we are seeing
a lot of that over the last few years. I
think you're going to see even more of that because
you have a spot like Philly that hadn't experienced it before.
It creates another viral moment, another city that is loving
and honestly, I mean that can be your top memory
at a game.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I mean, they were.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Booming who were they booing the other day because Duran
had to sit down he was warming up? Oh well, Kepler, Yeah,
but the Phillies fans were booing someone the other day
because Duran was warming up. And then I think they had,
you know, a five run lead or something that turned into.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
A non same situation.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So he goes back down and so whoever came into
the game instead, they were booing that reliever as if
you know, he was deciding the fate of the Duran entrance.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But it just shows you how much it's capturing a city. Anyway,
to stay on topic for one more minute here with
the Mariners, very good team, a lot of personality too,
a lot of guys that are really fun to watch
on the field.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Naylor is definitely one of them. Gino Suarez is beloved
in Seattle. Who else Randy Rose Arena kind of fun
to watch career. I twenty third home run yesterday, So
this seems good. This seems very good. Last one here,
pop quiz at the finish line, Astros, Mariners, Rangers.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Do they all make the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
That's an I think it's entirely possible.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Someone's got to win the division for the West to
have two of the three spots. It really is dependent,
I think on what happens with the Red Sox and Yankees,
right because in order for that to happen, probably the
Yankees would have to fall out. And I'll be honest,
it's really hard to bet against the Yankees no matter
what's happening and not making the playoffs because they do
(14:23):
it every single year. But it's been dark days there so.
But can't count of Cleveland out either, So I think
it's it's possible, but inevitably kind of unlikely, especially with
how close the other two teams are.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Hey, Ale standings in the central are worth the look.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
According to Mike che in the YouTube chat today, he said,
look where the Guardians are six games back of the Tigers.
I get you might that's still a tall task. And Trevor,
it's not unfathomable. It's happened before this time of year
where teams are even close to nine or ten back,
there's been those crazy stories. So six is not like
(15:01):
off the charts wild. But Cleveland didn't add they're good.
I don't think they're great. Tigers are really solid. I
know they've gone through more downtimes lately, but it's not
like they've lost half their team. You know, if like
there were some massive injuries like schoobl or somebody's down
for the rest of the season, okay, we can make
a case, but I don't see it.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Could it get close, maybe, but I don't see it.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
Do you.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, there would have to be a combination of collapse
and a team kind of just getting hot in a
way that I think that the Guardians are especially, They're
a very grindy team. They always are, even in the
not the highest years they have. But I just don't
think like there we're gonna look at a team who's
gonna rattle off like, you know, fourteen or fifteen games
(15:43):
or something. Just they're still young, they don't quite have
the star power. And I think that Detroit is playing
about as poorly as they played all year, and that
they could very easily turn a couple of things around
and get right back to their winning ways and make
it even harder. So it would take a lot, I think,
for in either direction, for these two teams for that
(16:05):
to happen. But six games isn't insurmountable by any means.
You know, it's a sweep or two away. So yeah,
it's baseball, right, We're in August.
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Speaker 1 (17:13):
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Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was a light Thursday, but it was a Paul
Skien's day against the Reds Redserve in it. They're competing
for a wildcard spot and they got blanked. Schemes was
money as usual. He's got like a ridiculous home scoreless
streak going on. So if you're in Pittsburgh and you're
depressed because the team always stinks, you do get Skeen's
Day and it is very fun. So it's twenty seven
(17:44):
and two thirds consecutive home scoreless innings. The youngest pitcher
in live ball are to have five home starts without
allowing an earned run. I think he's fourteen to zero
this year with three runs of support. Three runs is
not a lot. That's less than the average you get
from a team in a big league game, So he's
used to these type moments. He actually did get a
little extra support in this one, but overall, just wanted
(18:05):
to get a check with mister pitcher here on what
you're seeing from Paul. He's not the same pitcher this year,
but he's just as good, if not better, with what
he's finding in terms of his arsenal little less case.
I haven't looked as much lately, but I know when
I looked about a month or so ago, it was
still way below the number that he was pumping last
year in terms of K per nine and K percentage.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Yeah, I mean, one thing that's crazy about how good
he's been. I mean, I think that we all thought
this was entirely within the realman possibility to just repeat
the results he had last year. But he came into
spring training and I remember there was kind of a
big stink, but people were excited about hearing him adding
two pitches after the season he just had. And then
(18:48):
he said pretty explicitly, I want to have enough pitches
to stay off of barrels and get early contact, and
then also if I'm going to get a strikeout, get
it quickly and assume as possible. So he's taking his three,
four or five pitch strikeouts, but beyond that, he's like
hit it to somebody like, I want to go deeper
(19:08):
into games. I don't want this like ramp up of
innings because I'm young and I don't have a lot
of experience from college, which you simply can't throw enough
innings in college to get yourself up to the ability
to throw one hundred and eighty to two hundred in
a season. He wanted to do that as quickly as possible,
and the best way to do it was use the
least amount of pitches as possible. And here we are
four and a half months in and he has done
(19:30):
exactly that, and he's still striking out a good percentage
of his hit It's not like he's like not a
strikeout guy now. He's still striking out like ten point
five for nine. He's just not the top of the league.
He could be if that's what he's going for, but
he would also probably have a lot less innings, so
it's a trade off. He knows that as a twenty
two to twenty three year old, that is wildly impressive
and I mean mission accomplished. He's doing exactly what he
(19:54):
wanted to do and it has stayed healthy, and I
mean it's just rinse, repeat at this point.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It goes against the grain a little bit. Relievers are
in a different world, right, you're in for a short burst,
swing and miss is key. But for Paul when he
is trying to extend himself in a game, it does
go against the grain of what most pitchers are taught
to do these days. Because Trever's swing and miss gets
you paid too. I feel like Skeens is on another
level in terms of confidence and knowing that, you know,
(20:24):
if he hits free agency, he's going to get paid
as the top starter of all time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
If he keeps this up.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So he can just do his thing as era as
we tweeted yesterday after the six shutout.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Innings one nine to four on the season.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But you know what I'm saying, I mean, a lot
of guys are taught obviously, v Lot's let's tunnel. Let's
make sure that we have a nice array as a starter,
and let's make sure we have swing and miss because
that limits contact, which leads to batted ball luck.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And Skeens is like, yeah, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Sacrifice a little bit of that so that I can
make sure I'm going you know, six, seven, sometimes eight
innings in these outings, and I don't think it necessarily
has to do with the Pirates, although you know, getting
the run sport and even having the right bullpen intact
is part of things, and he'd like to win more.
He's gonna have to do a lot more if he
wants to win more with the Pirates, like maybe learn to,
you know, swing a bat and spend some money for
(21:15):
his owner. Again another topic, But what do you think
about him kind of going against the green of what
most young starters are taught to do these days.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I just think he's just more advanced and he he
found his ability to have true power stuff in college.
Like there's guys who don't know how it's gonna play
at the big league level or at a high level.
Yet I take like Misrowski, for example, maybe Jase Burn,
Like these guys are a little bit more raw, and
they have really great stuff and they know that that
(21:46):
is gonna be the way that I operate, Like this
is what's gonna get me and keep me here, and
then they're learning about how to then use that stuff effectively.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Here.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
He just is a couple of steps ahead. It's just
something he's already thought about. It was already in his
on his radar, as a twenty year old and he
had elite command. He has elite command and those guys don't, right,
So that is kind of where it comes from. You
maximize your stuff because you don't have command yet, and
then you live command. That's usually how it works in
your first few years in the big leagues. He just
didn't need he skipped that. He didn't need to do it.
(22:16):
He was already there. Which is funny because we're talking
a little bit about going against screen. Another guy who
pitches like this gets his strikeouts, but very clearly isn't
going for them, and that's Zach Wheeler has not one
to cy Young yet, which is I think a travesty
at this point, but he's well on his way to
maybe getting his first one this year. It's so funny
we're talking about Paul Skins, but Zach Wheeler does the
(22:38):
same thing, doesn't walk people, doesn't try to strike everybody out,
and has more counting stats across the board in the
same way, but he does approach the same way. He
wants to go eight innings like that is his goal,
and I think we're seeing a little bit of a shift.
You just have to be more advanced and more confident
in your ability to throw the ball over the plate
and that your stuff will get your swings in this
(23:00):
whether you.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Try or not.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Like that's the switch that flips. Usually guys are twenty
seven when this happens. He's twenty two. I think that's
why it's so impressious.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, and he has the leverage in a conversation if
the front office and or coaching staff is talking to
him about being careful down the stretch, like Hey, we're
gonna limit your innings a little bit the last month
and a half, He's probably like, Yeah, we're gonna do
whatever I want to do because I'm drawing fans and
I've been doing what I want to do up to
this point and it's working out for me.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I mean no offense to Ben Charrington. You might even
be there next year, so it might be a totally
different front office working with him. Like they have him
permission to the WBC, He's going to do whatever he wants.
Right He's one of the faces of the sport, so
I think they're just happy to have him right now.
Hopefully the Pirates can figure some things out in the
off season. Let's do this on the way out. And
then we're getting ready for Gavin Williams. He's about to
(23:48):
be in the green room. We have a nice photo
here for you, Trevor. It was more of like a
surprise photo for Matt McLean, and it was O'Neil Cruz
and Elie Dela Cruz, two of the largest humans major
League Baseball, posing next to McLean.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
This is good. I love it. I love it. I
love that he's having fun with it. The jokes.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You've got to be able to take a joke, and
when you play major League Baseball, that is for sure.
So it's good to see it. But yeah, I mean
it's funny because McLean, that guy can hit. He's a
compact He's a compact power guy.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And the other guys are long levered.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Right, that's just yes, different different strokes, different folks.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I guess yeah, he's got a serious, serious size deficit
with those two, probably about a foot. Real quick, we
have a quick minute here the Cincinnati Reds. Do you
like their chances for the last month and a half
here to make a run at a wild card? Of course,
you're gonna need a team to kind of fall back,
and it's hard to see that.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Maybe the Mets.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
We'll talk about them a little bit later, but you're
gonna need a team to fall back because it looks
like that really clear top six in the National League.
I think the Reds are good. I think they'd be
a playoff team in the AL, and I like their
hitching staff. I don't think their offense is probably good enough.
They did improve run prevention with key Brian Hayes.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Will see if he hits. But what do you think
about this team? Like, I think they have a shot.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I do think a team meets to collapse though. I
don't think the Reds are going to go on a
ridiculous run. But could they be a few games over
five hundred for the last month and a half of
the season.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah. I mean it's been a while.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
We've been I feel like we've been talking about this
for three ish years. They go on a little run,
they get about a couple games over five hundred, and
then the wheels fall off again. They lose six in
a row and then they're back to kind of just
being around there. But I think the crowd, the young
guys have been there. Ellie's been there for a while.
Mcclean's been there, for a while. You know, they have
the pieces, they're healthy, they're all playing, and their pitching
(25:43):
staff has gotten better. They did add some meaningful pieces
at the deadline that should help them and improve the
defense and have some experience, like it would be great
to see a Cincinnati Reds sneak in make some noise
and maybe make a little run because we I mean,
it's always nice to see teams the scene in a
while make a playoff appearance. And the one one of
(26:04):
the benefits of having more playoff teams now is hopefully
we see this more often. So I think it's absolutely
within the realm of possibility. And honestly, it'd be really
fun to see a bunch of wild card teams all
get hot and have it go down to the wire,
kind of like I did last year. That would be
that'd be a lot of fun with just teams playing
really well, not one team collapsing and one team playing
(26:24):
really playing incredible, because that that isn't as fun in
my opinion, And maybe I'm being a little biased here
because I think we know who I am talking about.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
A j I'm on my phone right now in Arena
Club and I'm looking at the Emerald slab packs, and
I see in the grail a Bobby Witt Junior twenty
twenty Bowman Chrome.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Prospect Auto Gold Refractor card.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
Give me that, give me your phone.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I'm gonna I'm gonna get you. Well, you got to
buy it to me.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
I don't have it.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You know you have to get a slab pack. No,
I don't have that, And give me your slab pack.
That card's worth you buy new slab.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Pack, Scott, so I can get the Bobby Witt Junior
Gold Refractor twenty twenty Bowman Chrome AUTI.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Because that sounds awesome and it's worth a lot.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
It's worth a lot. He's a stud, he's not going down.
Get a grill. Get a grill. I want a grail, Scott,
give me the Holy grill.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
You do it.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
To do that, you must get yourself a slab pack
in Arena Club or if you want to get it
for a friend, you can do that too. And right
now you can get twenty percent off your first slab
pack or your first card purchase. If you're going on
there and you're just like, hey, I want a specific card.
I find it there on a grab it for my showroom.
Arena Club dot com slash foul and use the code foul.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well. Also.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I mean in the National League, we had we had
a conversation the other day about playoff projections. Unless the
Reds make a nice run or the Marlins do something
really crazy. There are six really strong teams in the
National League, so it could get very boring the playoff race.
You'll have seating, you'll have buys, but as far as
(27:57):
who makes it playoff wise, Reds do fall off a
little bit and the Marlins come back down to earth,
and you know the rest of those top six just
do their thing, it could be a very vanilla playoff
race for the last month and a half the National League.
I don't think the American League will be like that,
but National lygue could end up that way. So we'll
see if the Reds can put things together. I mean,
I like what they've done the last few years in
(28:19):
terms of focusing on drafting and developing as much pitching
as possible, trading for pitching. I liked the zach Lytel
pickup at the trade deadline because it's not that easy
for them to convince free agents to sign there, right,
I mean, you essentially have to overpay if you're Cincinnati.
I'm generalizing, but usually that's the case, and it has
nothing to do with the ballpark experience the team, Right,
(28:42):
they're competitive, they'll treat you well, but the ballpark won't
treat you well in terms of your results as a
pitcher generally. Right, they're probably in that top three conversation
among pitchers. You tell me, And I know ballpark factors
change year to year, but not every player is paying
attention to it to that extent. Don't you generally think
(29:03):
there's like three or four parks where guys say, yeah,
that's gonna take a little extra money for me.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Colorado of course part of the mix there too.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, And I think that that stuff gets kind of
wiped out though, if you have an offense that can
take them take advantage of it.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
I e.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
The Dodgers have a bottom three park, two like somehow
they get all the pitching right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So it's like but they they're like, well, we're.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Probably gonna score eleven runs every game though, So like
I'm I am okay with that. I think that I
trust that you know the pitching side of that stuff
to help me out there, and you know, to be
completely open and honest, Colorado and Cincinnati don't have that
reputation right now, so you know, it is something that
factors in and it makes it it makes it tougher,
(29:48):
uh to go and say yes when you don't know
if the team's going to be good either or if
the offense is going to be good enough to you know,
help offset some of those those problems.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
So it's possible, but.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
It's definitely one of the many factors that goes in
when pitchers are trying to figure out where they what,
what offers they want a field, and what they want
to ignore.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, like if you were a free agent right now
and you're a starter, and forget even what the cities are,
it doesn't matter, and figure both teams are competitive. If
Cincinnati gives you a call and they're like, hey, tremvor
are three years ten a year and then another team
with at least a mid range ballpark, right kind of
balanced in terms of if it's a pitchers or a
(30:31):
hitters park gives you a call. I know you're going
to factor in other things, but if you take this
in a vacuum, you're not going to go to Cincinnati
unless they pay you a little bit more right, because
I mean, it's going to affect numbers, and it could
affect your performance in your career, right like you could
fall off, guys lose confidence.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
That is that is kind of how the scales get
balanced when you're making these decisions, and it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I mean the I know, the assumption is that money
is like.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
The top of the the top of the list for
every single guy, and for it's up there top three
usually because usually it's the currency. Be like you're adding
or subtracting what you're looking for based on who is
who is reaching out, and uh, that is something that
can can make up for some of maybe the deficiencies
that aren't going to either help you in your career,
(31:21):
or if the team's not great right now but they're
gonna build or whatever, selling the dream of getting you
to come to a team that maybe doesn't have everything
figured out right now, that money is one way too
compensate for that.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So you know, of course that is the way it works.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
But in a vacuum, if you're just considering the park
and if you're gonna play, if you're more likely to
be able to get away with mistakes or not, you're
going to choose the place that at least at least
you're gonna have you can count on that, and at
the place with the better park factors, and if if
they're not willing to go above a little bit above
and make it a sweetened the deal a little bit,
(31:56):
then that's what happens. But that's just kind of I mean,
that's true in every every sport when it comes down
to I mean, there's no park factors in the other
two major sports, or.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Actually the other three including hockey.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
But you know where you're at, the area, the you know,
the the fan base, like all this stuff is going
to factor in as well.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
And that is that rings true in baseball.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
That's why if you're Nick Crawl running the Reds front
office last year, you're like, oh, everyone thinks that I
should pick Charlie Condon number two overall.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, we're good. We're gonna go Chase Burns.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We're gonna add another big arm, thank you, and then
at the trade deadline adding Lttel. You know, key, Brian
Hayes is definitely more of a pitching, you know, run
prevention kind of guy, even if he finds himself at
the plate again. Trevor Quick note here Braves one yesterday,
two homers for Drake Baldwin. He's definitely very much in
(32:49):
the Rookie the Year conversation. But I wanted to spend
a minute here on Chris Sale. He's rehabbing. It sounds
like he should be back somewhat soon at some point.
I think this month some Braves fans were freaking out
out online here he is doing some sim but some
fans were like.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Why even pitch him? We're out?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
And then I saw back and forth with some Beat
writers like you want him to just not pitch for
a month and a half just to save him for
next year. So Chris Sale's gonna go out there and
he's going to pitch, and Brave fans, you'll be okay,
it's not sacrificing next year.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, I mean, what we're resting him so that we
can rest him for four more months.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That doesn't didn't make any sense. He's a competitor.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
I think we especially coming off an injury, you want
to like see what see what's still there, maybe what
mechanical changes have come from it, because it was you know,
it was a side injury. There's a lot of rotational stuff.
There's things that he can he can pay attention to,
and you want to go but you do want to
go into the offseason feeling good, feeling strong and build
on something. And Chris Sale's one of the best in
(33:46):
the game for a reason.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
He knows that stuff. That is the bulb moving forward.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
And yeah, the season didn't pan out the way you
wanted it to, but you got to like the guy.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
His job is to pitch. He would tell you that.
He's like, I mean, don't you.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Guys want me to do my job, regardless of if
it's going to translate into me pitching into the postseason.
I think that's that's that's what you're supposed to do,
so I won't worry about it. Seeing a sharp Chris
Sale should make you excited for next year.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yes, quickie.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Two minutes here, Jose Alvarado working his way back. He's
eligible to return from suspension. I think in about a
week and.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
A half or so.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Trevor's on his rehab assignment now, and his first rehab
appearance producing inning, a hit, two strikeouts, touched ninety eight
point six with that sinker. It's going to help the
Phillies in this stretch run here, not in the playoffs,
But did you see the apology?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
What did you think of the whole deal?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He didn't go with the excuse route when with more
of the legal I did, but I didn't not legally,
but like kind of admitting it kind of deal.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah, I'd mean, honestly, something is always good when it
comes to your teammates. I've had I've been on teams
with you know, some of the stuff happened with Michael
Panada and to twenty eighteen maybe I think it was
or nineteen, and he stood in front of the team
and gave a very clear and he's a very honest
(35:12):
guy and very passionate guy, so that was.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Just his style.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
And then some guys like just the circumstances, it's embarrassment,
it's whatever. It's a little more muted, but an acknowledgement
I think goes a long way. I think that everybody
in that clubhouse understands the situation, whether it was on
purpose or not. Also, like there's a level of understanding
temptation as well, depending on whatever the situation was. I
(35:37):
just think there's no group of guys that's going to
understand where you're coming from more than other players. So
it always meant a lot to us, just regardless of
what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I played with Marlon Gonzalez after the stuff about Astros
came out.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
And he just owned it too, so it was valuable.
It's good to see him say something.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
We often talk about Hello Fresh, but we also talk
about Green Chef for your wellness journey, or if you're
a little annoying like me and you need the gluten free,
or you've got a friend that's plant based, or you're.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Like I'm going with the protein heavy approach. They've got
it all on Green Chef.
Speaker 7 (36:15):
Listen the weekly meals they come with all the time.
It's different, it's satisfying, and it's something you really want
to do. I'm a guy that needs something healthy as
I move forward. Can't be the chicken, tenders and fries
all the time. It's got to be those healthy meals
that I need as I'm getting older.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Fresh organic seasonal produce one hundred percent responsibly sourced proteins
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healthiest yet with Green Chef. Go to green chef dot com,
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(36:51):
at Green chef dot com Slash five zero te r
R I r Y fifty territory. All right, just a
little fun one for you today is eight to eight
some candidates for best player to ever wear the number eight?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Do you want me to read the list so you
can stew Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Sure, okay, Cal Ripken Junior, Carlia Streemsky, Joe Morgan, Yo Giberra,
Willi Stargel, Gary Carter other Obviously, I'm sure we're missing
a guy or two and a fan's gonna call it out.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
But at least from that list, what.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Do you like?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Whoa which? Which group of fan bases? Am I more
okay with offending?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Uh, I'll go Yo Giberra.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That's what I was thinking too.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
And it's a good list, that is.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
It's just the most iconic player from every all of
six different organizations.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Nobody deal.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, we made it pretty tough for me. We're not
doing the whole deep dive on stats right now and
playing that whole game.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
It's just like yogisms. I love those, So you could
be like that or you could be like.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean if you're a hey, I'm
an iron man guy, and I like people who show
up every day.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
The best ability is their ability blah blah blah. And
then cow's are picked.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
There.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
That's the point. But happy eight eight to all those
who celebrate. All right, So coming up next, here's what
we're gonna do. Uh, we're gonna talk about high schoolers
throwing a hundo plus and get Trevor's thoughts. We are
going to talk about the key to the Blue Jays
offensive success. And then our last guest on a Friday
here will be Tim Britton to make sure that the
(38:40):
Mets are okay. It's become my new favorite question in
the last few months, just like a nice simple at
the top when a team struggling.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Are they okay? Always produces a fun answer.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
So we'll do that.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Coming up in about a minute here, still taking questions,
we'll preview some series matchups coming up as well. And
then yeah, I'm checking out the chat a little bit
more than I have recently. So oh Jay in the chat,
weren't the ft guys part of the Yotani should focus
on hitting crowd a few months ago. I don't think
they took it that far. I think they just wanted
to see how his bat would look that. I'm not
(39:14):
going to totally represent Aj and Kratz right now, but
they were just like, I want to see what his
bat looks like. He's been hurt for a while. Like
I thought it was a fair point to bring up
on our show. They weren't like, he shouldn't pitch.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, guys, Just like
something something starts to degree, then you gotta be like,
is he good? Is he as good as he used
to be at this? Then maybe it's time to switch.
There's that time is gonna come? Now is not the time?
Speaker 3 (39:38):
He is? Uh?
Speaker 4 (39:39):
He is a difference maker on both sides of the field,
and as long as his body holds.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Up, you gotta let you gotta go with it.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I think he'll hit longer in his career than he'll pitch.
But he still got innings left. Yay or nay on
this one. Trevor minor leaguer hits for the cycle, asks
for the baseball good that.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Absolutely as a guy who did not enjoy cool stuff
enough when he played and I of course realized at
the moment i'd stopped. Yeah, how often you say it
for this, you might never do it again. I mean,
I was just flexing high school no hitters, So you should.
You should enjoy the things, and it's get the ball.
(40:22):
That might be the only thing he ever gets to
do in pro ball. Enjoy the stuff you get and
get excited about it. And I bet you nobody in
that park or in either dugout had any problem with that.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
It's a pretty cool conscious. It's not easy to do.
Don't see it every day.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I wonder.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I'm sure there's been and I agree with you, by
the way, I'm sure there's been a guy who's calling
for a baseball where you're like, what is this for?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Yeah, that happens. Yeah. Sometimes you're like, okay, all right,
well you know weird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Have you ever seen one where it's like, oh, it's
because it's his you know, eightieth hit and oh eighty
is my lucky number. I don't know, just something like
really stupid, ridiculous where you're like, why is that guy
asking for memorabilia right now in a major league game? You?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Yeah, I've never seen anything like that. Usually it's like
haven't had a hit in a month.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
You like, hey, can I get that one?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
But did they actually get it for I've seen that,
but you know, like I've seen that where they're joking, Oh,
this dude.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Just broke up. Actually throw it out. They put it?
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Oh yeah, they put it in their in their locker. Ye,
it's great gag.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
All right, let's slap.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
We're gonna continue the conversation as we're looking ahead to
the weekend matchups for the next few minutes.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And I'm with you. I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Watch some Max Sures or in Clayton Kershaw facing off tonight.
It's obviously two good teams, but also these two will
probably never face off again, just in terms of where
they are in their career. They first opposed each other
on September seventh of two thousand and eight, so Sarah
Lang said, they're the first duo in Big League history
to start against each other as rookies and then both
accumulate three thousand plus career strikeouts. So I don't know
(42:16):
if you remember, but they had that viral moment that
was brought up in the past few years. They were
both pitching in that game, replacing injured starters. In future
Hall of Famers, and the open to the broadcast, which
we often joke about is overrated. It's a few minutes,
just give me a quick preview of the game. But
that opens that broadcast will forever be in baseball history
(42:37):
and viral. Randy Johnson against Greg Maddox, I think it was.
And they're like, sorry, folks, you're gonna get these two rookies,
Kershaw and Scherzer instead. And it's like, oh, and little
did many people know that they were going to witness
again two of the better pitchers in Major League history
(42:58):
and definitely in our era.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Well, let's hope they pitch, because we don't want this happen.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
What if?
Speaker 4 (43:03):
But what if the torch got passed and there's two
rookies that came in behind them, and we're like, is
this is this an indicator of things to come?
Speaker 3 (43:11):
It's interesting to think about, but.
Speaker 4 (43:13):
I do want to see it as you do want
to kind of bookend this thing, this head to head
matchup with two to the greats of our generation. It's
crazy they were rookies at the same time. It's very
rare that two guys have careers like this and start
the same year. So two of the best to do it.
And uh, I mean, no matter how it goes, no
matter how sharp these guys look like, both contending teams,
(43:33):
both leading their divisions, it's a meaningful game as well,
So lot online we'll get to see their competitiveness, even
what they got.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
After all the time.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And back then, you know you could maybe slip through
the cracks a little bit and you would think it's
hard to do that nowadays. Jacobzaraski came on the scene,
is big dude, but no one saw the miz looking
like this so far this year, so you can still
wow people and start a run. Hey, last minute here.
Happy birthday to our FT teammate Alana Rizzo. Hope you're
enjoying a nice time in that Boston weather, which she
(44:04):
doesn't love, but this is actually the time to enjoy it,
so hopefully she's outside and enjoying a glass of wine. Also,
Anthony Rizzo, Yondi Diez, and Craig Breslow, Happy birthday and Trevor,
this was fun, man, just you and me hanging chill
session in the library.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Feel and anytime, man, I love doing this.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, go pick out a good book for me. Behind
you something good for me. Please, thank you. Yes, we'll
see you on May Day. Next Wednesday bud bip and
it also is Friday, so that means the Big Fly
Fridays continue and they now include parlays on the betmgm
(44:44):
app and at betmgm dot com. So you placed your
first home run bet of the day. If you do that,
parlays are included a minimum ten dollars bet on a
player or players. If they have the longest home run
of the day, you win your share of a fifty
thousand dollars jackpot for bonus bets. This runs through our
I guess no option necessary. Just apply that Big Fly
Friday qualifying token. It gets dropped into your account and
(45:06):
you can use it on the first player or the
first players if that's parlay for you that you take
to hit a home run every Friday. Gambling problem or
concern called one hundred gambler
Oh, this is good. It's Trevor may Day with Scottie Braun.
That's it.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
You get two of us on a Friday. Let Trevor
cook all Friday long, which he does on his own
show may Day quite often.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Trevor, good to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And just in case you needed a little more confidence,
which I don't think you do, but just in case
you wanted a little pump me up on a Friday.
You are the most valuable position in the ft FAM
and in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Why do I say that. How many relievers were dealt
for at the trade deadline versus every other position?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I don't know, like a hundred.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
We tried to count the number of transactions that have
in today, just in general, players that were in one
place and then went to another place. It was legitimately
over one hundred, which is incredible. What a blast though.
It was a lot of fun being on this side
of things and covering it and just having stuff happen
in real time. I was fortunate to be doing being
(01:02):
on a show with Hunter Pence and so he understood
the assignment too. We were excited, We were excited, a
lot of yelling. It was a good time.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's good energy.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But you realize sometimes in the off season a few
relievers get paid and then many don't. And also many
relievers unfortunately don't make it to free agency. Good ones even,
but then come trade deadline time, jams go Wait, if
we're gonna make the playoffs, we use relievers in October
(01:31):
more than we use starters. Last year, I believe was
fifty two percent relievers in October versus forty eight percent
for starters. And I will say, I think they are
doing something right. Because of the volatility and you want
to catch a hot hand, it does make sense to
do the trade deadline thing, not to go too crazy
because we got a lot to cover for the day.
(01:52):
But I remember Andrew Friedman saying I want to get
all my work done in the off season. So even
loading up on relievers like kurbya, it's Tanner, Scottik, et cetera.
The problem is pitchers get hurt a lot. And then
the problem on top of that is relievers are vollatiles.
So you still might get to the trade deadline and
be like, damn, I could use a high leverage guy.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
It is crazy that relievers are so valuable in a
very specific situation, namely making a playoff run, going deep
into the playoffs, and then winning a World Series. They're
like arguably one of the most if not the most
important positions to have at least covered. I mean, you
need several guys, but you can really really get a
lot of value out of that. And this is a
(02:35):
great example of how this is This plays out is interesting.
We was doing Sunday Night Baseball last week and graphic
came up about Jan Durant and Harris and Harrison Bader
joining the Phillies and it showed their wars and guess
which were those two of those guys? Which one of
those two guys had a higher war this year? Harrison Bader.
(02:57):
But if you asked anybody who would who would you
who might be playing a much much bigger role in
the playoff, they would say the opposite. So it just
goes to show you, like how relievers are valued. You
kind of have to get into the weeds figure out
if you want to do it with statistics, but there's
one consensus, and that is the best teams have the
(03:17):
best reliever cours going into the playoffs. The guys throwing
the best back there tend to get the farthest.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, if you're in the playoffs, war might not be
the right answer. I don't know if they're factoring in
relievers the way that they should regular season.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Okay, you can make your cases.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I mean, war is going to reward position players at
premium positions playing every day, cool, get it. But the
playoffs are built differently. Things tighten up, including your pitching staff.
So it's a good point. You might have to tell
some of your buddies to work on something there if
they don't have it already, because really it would benefit
your brethren. So anyway, let's get to a team actually
(03:57):
that's got a pretty good bullpen. Let's charge them out,
charging about Mariners, sweep Mariners, walk off Domken's own with
the walkoff knock. For the Ems, they've been pretty damn
good since the trade deadline. I think five or six
and one since the trade deadline. I will point out
(04:18):
that Josh Naylor left that game last night early. Looked
like he was wincing a little bit. Shoulder soreness is
the word. It's the other shoulder, because I think the
other shoulder was bothering him, and then you know, this
one pops up for him. So here it is pulled
today due to a sore shoulder that was on Thursday.
And then Mary Brown, who covers the Sports that this
is something to watch out where he had issues with
(04:39):
his shoulder on and office recently as mid June with
the Diamondbacks. So you want to weigh it looks like
a hard swing there, you want away playing him making
the playoffs and also making sure that Josh Naylor would
be ready for an October stretch.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
I you know, it looks like a little bit of
a tweak. I think there's certain different swings you can see,
then you can assume a certain level of maybe how bad.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It might be.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But one thing about Josh Naylor is he swings hard,
and he always swings hard. He's swinging off his helmet
pretty much every time he swings, and that's just the
way he plays the game. So you know for him
to he needs to be able to do that to
be as effective as he can. And it looks like
he just something felt a little bit weird there, But
even the subsequent swings after it, it didn't seem like
he like couldn't swing anymore, just like he just was
(05:30):
tentative about it, which gives me, you know, a little
bit of hope, and I'll be honest, we can talk
about his bad and his glove and what he's meant
and how they have corner pop for the first time
in recent history, the Mariners, that is. But I mean,
the guy's got eleven bags since he's joined the team,
which is crazy considering he's in the top bottom I think,
(05:50):
bottom ten or twenty percent in the league in sprint speed.
So I mean he's taken bags left, right, and center.
That might be the biggest loss to have if he's
not playing. So to give them a little bit rest,
we're talking. We're in the dog bays here, right, We're
in Houdust. This is the best time to get a
few days off here and there. They're coming off a
really good series. They're gaining gaining some games on that
(06:10):
division lead Astros. But you know, if you do, if
you do pass them now, you're gonna have to stay
ahead of them. So let's let's just take it one
day at a time and get make sure everyone's healthy
and we're not risking anything.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
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Speaker 3 (07:21):
Go for it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
We've talked about the stolen based prowess of Naylor a
lot this week, and I was thinking how coaches across
the country, youth, high school, even college, are probably pointing
to him as the post boy for why you can
steal bags and not be that fast and just a
whole baseball IQ and the fuel for the game is important.
But yeah, I want to double click on what you're
talking about with DMS within the AL West. So, first off,
(07:46):
you're out in the Pacific Northwest. How much are the
fans buying into this team. There's been frustration over the
years because they've built a really nice core, especially on
the starting pitching staff side of things, and bullpen's been
pretty good and here comes some offense for them reinforcements
in twenty twenty five. So as of right now, after
that Seattle dub you've got Houston one and a half
(08:08):
games clear of Seattle in the ALE West, and then
the Texas Rangers are four and a half games back
of first place Houston. But the Rangers in a fight
for a wildcard spot, that last wildcard spot right now.
It's like a Texas Yankees even Cleveland involved kind of battle. Obviously,
you know, Boston is still close enough where they can
get caught.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
What do you think about the Ale West and the
ale wild Card?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
I mean, the first of all, the sentiment up here
is they are they jump on the bandwagon quick, they
get back on the horse quick, and they love their
sports and they're they're really enjoying what they're seeing.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
They think, like for the first.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Time in a long time, really excited about moves done
in the deadline. I think that even if they ended
up not working out, that most fans will be like,
you know, what, we did the things we need to do.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It just you just got to go out and do
the win at that point.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
And so Jerry Depoto is getting a lot of credit
amongst the van base that was towering a little bit
on some of the moves recently. So that's all great,
and it's the division is very competitive like you thought
it would go in especially with the top three teams
up there.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
I think they're all playoff caliber teams, you know.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
I think the Mariners have a great opportunity with that
starting pitching and they're scoring more runs and they've created
more of a dynamic lineup that is kind of scary
top to bottom, Like you can't really there's not like
a streak of four or five guys that you didn't
have to worry about as much as you had in
the past, and that has been closed up a little bit.
So it's big thumbs up here I got producer Henry
(09:38):
in here working with me in the office, and he
does a thing every day with his whiteboard in his
office where he writes down his sentiment score for the Mariners.
And he's been up in the eight to nines since
for the last couple of weeks, since they got nailor so,
and that continues. If we're going to go by the
Henry barometer, things are good up here and so.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yet Okay, well it could have been even better.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Why because they might have added another reliever for the
stretch run. They were close, apparently, according to a fans
Heided insider Robert Murray, who was a guest host on
Fair Territory yesterday. So I don't want to upset your boy,
because things are looking really good up in Seattle, and
you can't have it all right.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
You can't go to the candy shop and pick out everything.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Jerry Depoto did an awesome job addressing the top need,
which was corner infield spots.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
But did you hear about this? Let's roll the clip.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
On the hype train this morning. But I'm also thinking
they're legit. They added Josh Naylor, Ihanel Suarez and they
almost got Joean Duran, and there was at one point
that morning that he was traded that I thought he
was going to be in Seattle, but they ended up
getting the two sluggers and both of them have been
very good since coming to Seattle.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Isn't Durand's entrance with like a magenta ish kind of thing,
So that would have worked well up in that ballpark
two in Seattle. I mean, it's working for the FI
it's close enough, red whatever, but that still would have
worked up in the Pacific Northwest being at It's t
Mobile Park. But anyway, what could that have looked like
for the Mariners. It's a good bullpen, but some teams
(11:12):
loaded up super bullpens. I wouldn't say it's like.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
That, no, I mean, statistically the park helps a lot. Statistically,
they're still one of the top three bullpens even this
year with Gabe Speier throwing from really great innings from
the left side, the young Vargas kid, they kind of
mix and match it and figure out the best way
to get to the back end to Andris Munos, who
(11:37):
is one of the best lockdown closers out there. It
would have been interesting to see, is did Duran then
become the eighth inning guy that conwak Kelsley is in
New York right now.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Probably usually rock with the guy you've had.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And you don't want to mess that up because that's
usually if that doesn't work out, it doesn't look good.
So it would have been great to have him. I'm
sure they would have loved it. He would have thrived
in this ballpark, probably here. But you know, you can't
get everybody, no matter how not even the San Diego
Padres got everybody, and boy did they try so. But
(12:11):
that's it's it's cool to think about. And by the way,
his walkout probably would work anywhere. And the story behind
that with Dustin Morris and the and the media team
over there in Minnesota passing it on unprompted to saying, hey,
we worked really hard on this.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Everyone here loves it.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
You guys will love it too, And then of course
Philly fans being like this was a thing we could have,
like that, this is something that like this is electric here,
and of course it just took off as surprising absolutely
nobody especially.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, I think you're going to see more and more
of that in the league. I mean, we are seeing
a lot of that over the last few years. I
think you're going to see even more of that because
you have a spot like Philly that hadn't experienced it before.
It creates another viral moment, another city that is loving
and honestly, I mean that can be your top memory
at a game.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I mean, they were.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Booming who were they booing the other day because Duran
had to sit down he was warming up? Oh well, Kepler, Yeah,
but the Phillies fans were booing someone the other day
because Duran was warming up. And then I think they had,
you know, a five run lead or something that turned into.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
A non same situation.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So he goes back down and so whoever came into
the game instead, they were booing that reliever as if
you know, he was deciding the fate of the Duran entrance.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
But it just shows you how much it's capturing a city. Anyway,
to stay on topic for one more minute here with
the Mariners, very good team, a lot of personality too,
a lot of guys that are really fun to watch
on the field.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Naylor is definitely one of them. Gino Suarez is beloved
in Seattle. Who else Randy Rose Arena kind of fun
to watch career. I twenty third home run yesterday, So
this seems good. This seems very good. Last one here,
pop quiz at the finish line, Astros, Mariners, Rangers.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Do they all make the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (13:59):
That's an I think it's entirely possible.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Someone's got to win the division for the West to
have two of the three spots. It really is dependent,
I think on what happens with the Red Sox and Yankees,
right because in order for that to happen, probably the
Yankees would have to fall out. And I'll be honest,
it's really hard to bet against the Yankees no matter
what's happening and not making the playoffs because they do
(14:23):
it every single year. But it's been dark days there so.
But can't count of Cleveland out either, So I think
it's it's possible, but inevitably kind of unlikely, especially with
how close the other two teams are.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Hey, Ale standings in the central are worth the look.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
According to Mike che in the YouTube chat today, he said,
look where the Guardians are six games back of the Tigers.
I get you might that's still a tall task. And Trevor,
it's not unfathomable. It's happened before this time of year
where teams are even close to nine or ten back,
there's been those crazy stories. So six is not like
(15:01):
off the charts wild. But Cleveland didn't add they're good.
I don't think they're great. Tigers are really solid. I
know they've gone through more downtimes lately, but it's not
like they've lost half their team. You know, if like
there were some massive injuries like schoobl or somebody's down
for the rest of the season, okay, we can make
a case, but I don't see it.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Could it get close, maybe, but I don't see it.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
Do you.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, there would have to be a combination of collapse
and a team kind of just getting hot in a
way that I think that the Guardians are especially, They're
a very grindy team. They always are, even in the
not the highest years they have. But I just don't
think like there we're gonna look at a team who's
gonna rattle off like, you know, fourteen or fifteen games
(15:43):
or something. Just they're still young, they don't quite have
the star power. And I think that Detroit is playing
about as poorly as they played all year, and that
they could very easily turn a couple of things around
and get right back to their winning ways and make
it even harder. So it would take a lot, I think,
for in either direction, for these two teams for that
(16:05):
to happen. But six games isn't insurmountable by any means.
You know, it's a sweep or two away. So yeah,
it's baseball, right, We're in August.
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Speaker 1 (16:38):
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Speaker 1 (17:13):
Foul better than box scores.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
It was a light Thursday, but it was a Paul
Skien's day against the Reds Redserve in it. They're competing
for a wildcard spot and they got blanked. Schemes was
money as usual. He's got like a ridiculous home scoreless
streak going on. So if you're in Pittsburgh and you're
depressed because the team always stinks, you do get Skeen's
Day and it is very fun. So it's twenty seven
(17:44):
and two thirds consecutive home scoreless innings. The youngest pitcher
in live ball are to have five home starts without
allowing an earned run. I think he's fourteen to zero
this year with three runs of support. Three runs is
not a lot. That's less than the average you get
from a team in a big league game, So he's
used to these type moments. He actually did get a
little extra support in this one, but overall, just wanted
(18:05):
to get a check with mister pitcher here on what
you're seeing from Paul. He's not the same pitcher this year,
but he's just as good, if not better, with what
he's finding in terms of his arsenal little less case.
I haven't looked as much lately, but I know when
I looked about a month or so ago, it was
still way below the number that he was pumping last
year in terms of K per nine and K percentage.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
Yeah, I mean, one thing that's crazy about how good
he's been. I mean, I think that we all thought
this was entirely within the realman possibility to just repeat
the results he had last year. But he came into
spring training and I remember there was kind of a
big stink, but people were excited about hearing him adding
two pitches after the season he just had. And then
(18:48):
he said pretty explicitly, I want to have enough pitches
to stay off of barrels and get early contact, and
then also if I'm going to get a strikeout, get
it quickly and assume as possible. So he's taking his three,
four or five pitch strikeouts, but beyond that, he's like
hit it to somebody like, I want to go deeper
(19:08):
into games. I don't want this like ramp up of
innings because I'm young and I don't have a lot
of experience from college, which you simply can't throw enough
innings in college to get yourself up to the ability
to throw one hundred and eighty to two hundred in
a season. He wanted to do that as quickly as possible,
and the best way to do it was use the
least amount of pitches as possible. And here we are
four and a half months in and he has done
(19:30):
exactly that, and he's still striking out a good percentage
of his hit It's not like he's like not a
strikeout guy now. He's still striking out like ten point
five for nine. He's just not the top of the league.
He could be if that's what he's going for, but
he would also probably have a lot less innings, so
it's a trade off. He knows that as a twenty
two to twenty three year old, that is wildly impressive
and I mean mission accomplished. He's doing exactly what he
(19:54):
wanted to do and it has stayed healthy, and I
mean it's just rinse, repeat at this point.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It goes against the grain a little bit. Relievers are
in a different world, right, you're in for a short burst,
swing and miss is key. But for Paul when he
is trying to extend himself in a game, it does
go against the grain of what most pitchers are taught
to do these days. Because Trever's swing and miss gets
you paid too. I feel like Skeens is on another
level in terms of confidence and knowing that, you know,
(20:24):
if he hits free agency, he's going to get paid
as the top starter of all time.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
If he keeps this up.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
So he can just do his thing as era as
we tweeted yesterday after the six shutout.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Innings one nine to four on the season.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
But you know what I'm saying, I mean, a lot
of guys are taught obviously, v Lot's let's tunnel. Let's
make sure that we have a nice array as a starter,
and let's make sure we have swing and miss because
that limits contact, which leads to batted ball luck.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And Skeens is like, yeah, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Sacrifice a little bit of that so that I can
make sure I'm going you know, six, seven, sometimes eight
innings in these outings, and I don't think it necessarily
has to do with the Pirates, although you know, getting
the run sport and even having the right bullpen intact
is part of things, and he'd like to win more.
He's gonna have to do a lot more if he
wants to win more with the Pirates, like maybe learn to,
you know, swing a bat and spend some money for
(21:15):
his owner. Again another topic, But what do you think
about him kind of going against the green of what
most young starters are taught to do these days.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
I just think he's just more advanced and he he
found his ability to have true power stuff in college.
Like there's guys who don't know how it's gonna play
at the big league level or at a high level.
Yet I take like Misrowski, for example, maybe Jase Burn,
Like these guys are a little bit more raw, and
they have really great stuff and they know that that
(21:46):
is gonna be the way that I operate, Like this
is what's gonna get me and keep me here, and
then they're learning about how to then use that stuff effectively.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Here.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
He just is a couple of steps ahead. It's just
something he's already thought about. It was already in his
on his radar, as a twenty year old and he
had elite command. He has elite command and those guys don't, right,
So that is kind of where it comes from. You
maximize your stuff because you don't have command yet, and
then you live command. That's usually how it works in
your first few years in the big leagues. He just
didn't need he skipped that. He didn't need to do it.
(22:16):
He was already there. Which is funny because we're talking
a little bit about going against screen. Another guy who
pitches like this gets his strikeouts, but very clearly isn't
going for them, and that's Zach Wheeler has not one
to cy Young yet, which is I think a travesty
at this point, but he's well on his way to
maybe getting his first one this year. It's so funny
we're talking about Paul Skins, but Zach Wheeler does the
(22:38):
same thing, doesn't walk people, doesn't try to strike everybody out,
and has more counting stats across the board in the
same way, but he does approach the same way. He
wants to go eight innings like that is his goal,
and I think we're seeing a little bit of a shift.
You just have to be more advanced and more confident
in your ability to throw the ball over the plate
and that your stuff will get your swings in this
(23:00):
whether you.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Try or not.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
Like that's the switch that flips. Usually guys are twenty
seven when this happens. He's twenty two. I think that's
why it's so impressious.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, and he has the leverage in a conversation if
the front office and or coaching staff is talking to
him about being careful down the stretch, like Hey, we're
gonna limit your innings a little bit the last month
and a half, He's probably like, Yeah, we're gonna do
whatever I want to do because I'm drawing fans and
I've been doing what I want to do up to
this point and it's working out for me.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
I mean no offense to Ben Charrington. You might even
be there next year, so it might be a totally
different front office working with him. Like they have him
permission to the WBC, He's going to do whatever he wants.
Right He's one of the faces of the sport, so
I think they're just happy to have him right now.
Hopefully the Pirates can figure some things out in the
off season. Let's do this on the way out. And
then we're getting ready for Gavin Williams. He's about to
(23:48):
be in the green room. We have a nice photo
here for you, Trevor. It was more of like a
surprise photo for Matt McLean, and it was O'Neil Cruz
and Elie Dela Cruz, two of the largest humans major
League Baseball, posing next to McLean.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
This is good. I love it. I love it. I
love that he's having fun with it. The jokes.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
You've got to be able to take a joke, and
when you play major League Baseball, that is for sure.
So it's good to see it. But yeah, I mean
it's funny because McLean, that guy can hit. He's a
compact He's a compact power guy.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
And the other guys are long levered.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Right, that's just yes, different different strokes, different folks.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I guess yeah, he's got a serious, serious size deficit
with those two, probably about a foot. Real quick, we
have a quick minute here the Cincinnati Reds. Do you
like their chances for the last month and a half
here to make a run at a wild card? Of course,
you're gonna need a team to kind of fall back,
and it's hard to see that.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Maybe the Mets.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
We'll talk about them a little bit later, but you're
gonna need a team to fall back because it looks
like that really clear top six in the National League.
I think the Reds are good. I think they'd be
a playoff team in the AL, and I like their
hitching staff. I don't think their offense is probably good enough.
They did improve run prevention with key Brian Hayes.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
Will see if he hits. But what do you think
about this team? Like, I think they have a shot.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
I do think a team meets to collapse though. I
don't think the Reds are going to go on a
ridiculous run. But could they be a few games over
five hundred for the last month and a half of
the season.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Yeah. I mean it's been a while.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
We've been I feel like we've been talking about this
for three ish years. They go on a little run,
they get about a couple games over five hundred, and
then the wheels fall off again. They lose six in
a row and then they're back to kind of just
being around there. But I think the crowd, the young
guys have been there. Ellie's been there for a while.
Mcclean's been there, for a while. You know, they have
the pieces, they're healthy, they're all playing, and their pitching
(25:43):
staff has gotten better. They did add some meaningful pieces
at the deadline that should help them and improve the
defense and have some experience, like it would be great
to see a Cincinnati Reds sneak in make some noise
and maybe make a little run because we I mean,
it's always nice to see teams the scene in a
while make a playoff appearance. And the one one of
(26:04):
the benefits of having more playoff teams now is hopefully
we see this more often. So I think it's absolutely
within the realm of possibility. And honestly, it'd be really
fun to see a bunch of wild card teams all
get hot and have it go down to the wire,
kind of like I did last year. That would be
that'd be a lot of fun with just teams playing
really well, not one team collapsing and one team playing
(26:24):
really playing incredible, because that that isn't as fun in
my opinion, And maybe I'm being a little biased here
because I think we know who I am talking about.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
A j I'm on my phone right now in Arena
Club and I'm looking at the Emerald slab packs, and
I see in the grail a Bobby Witt Junior twenty
twenty Bowman Chrome.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Prospect Auto Gold Refractor card.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
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Speaker 1 (26:48):
I'm gonna I'm gonna get you. Well, you got to
buy it to me.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
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Speaker 2 (26:51):
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I don't have that, And give me your slab pack.
That card's worth you buy new slab.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Pack, Scott, so I can get the Bobby Witt Junior
Gold Refractor twenty twenty Bowman Chrome AUTI.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Because that sounds awesome and it's worth a lot.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
It's worth a lot. He's a stud, he's not going down.
Get a grill. Get a grill. I want a grail, Scott,
give me the Holy grill.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
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Speaker 2 (27:11):
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in Arena Club or if you want to get it
for a friend, you can do that too. And right
now you can get twenty percent off your first slab
pack or your first card purchase. If you're going on
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I find it there on a grab it for my showroom.
Arena Club dot com slash foul and use the code foul.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Well. Also.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I mean in the National League, we had we had
a conversation the other day about playoff projections. Unless the
Reds make a nice run or the Marlins do something
really crazy. There are six really strong teams in the
National League, so it could get very boring the playoff race.
You'll have seating, you'll have buys, but as far as
(27:57):
who makes it playoff wise, Reds do fall off a
little bit and the Marlins come back down to earth,
and you know the rest of those top six just
do their thing, it could be a very vanilla playoff
race for the last month and a half the National League.
I don't think the American League will be like that,
but National lygue could end up that way. So we'll
see if the Reds can put things together. I mean,
I like what they've done the last few years in
(28:19):
terms of focusing on drafting and developing as much pitching
as possible, trading for pitching. I liked the zach Lytel
pickup at the trade deadline because it's not that easy
for them to convince free agents to sign there, right,
I mean, you essentially have to overpay if you're Cincinnati.
I'm generalizing, but usually that's the case, and it has
nothing to do with the ballpark experience the team, Right,
(28:42):
they're competitive, they'll treat you well, but the ballpark won't
treat you well in terms of your results as a
pitcher generally. Right, they're probably in that top three conversation
among pitchers. You tell me, And I know ballpark factors
change year to year, but not every player is paying
attention to it to that extent. Don't you generally think
(29:03):
there's like three or four parks where guys say, yeah,
that's gonna take a little extra money for me.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Colorado of course part of the mix there too.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, And I think that that stuff gets kind of
wiped out though, if you have an offense that can
take them take advantage of it.
Speaker 7 (29:18):
I e.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
The Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
The Dodgers have a bottom three park, two like somehow
they get all the pitching right.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
So it's like but they they're like, well, we're.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Probably gonna score eleven runs every game though, So like
I'm I am okay with that. I think that I
trust that you know the pitching side of that stuff
to help me out there, and you know, to be
completely open and honest, Colorado and Cincinnati don't have that
reputation right now, so you know, it is something that
factors in and it makes it it makes it tougher,
(29:48):
uh to go and say yes when you don't know
if the team's going to be good either or if
the offense is going to be good enough to you know,
help offset some of those those problems.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
So it's possible, but.
Speaker 4 (30:00):
It's definitely one of the many factors that goes in
when pitchers are trying to figure out where they what,
what offers they want a field, and what they want
to ignore.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, like if you were a free agent right now
and you're a starter, and forget even what the cities are,
it doesn't matter, and figure both teams are competitive. If
Cincinnati gives you a call and they're like, hey, tremvor
are three years ten a year and then another team
with at least a mid range ballpark, right kind of
balanced in terms of if it's a pitchers or a
(30:31):
hitters park gives you a call. I know you're going
to factor in other things, but if you take this
in a vacuum, you're not going to go to Cincinnati
unless they pay you a little bit more right, because
I mean, it's going to affect numbers, and it could
affect your performance in your career, right like you could
fall off, guys lose confidence.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (30:49):
That is that is kind of how the scales get
balanced when you're making these decisions, and it's not.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
I mean the I know, the assumption is that money
is like.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
The top of the the top of the list for
every single guy, and for it's up there top three
usually because usually it's the currency. Be like you're adding
or subtracting what you're looking for based on who is
who is reaching out, and uh, that is something that
can can make up for some of maybe the deficiencies
that aren't going to either help you in your career,
(31:21):
or if the team's not great right now but they're
gonna build or whatever, selling the dream of getting you
to come to a team that maybe doesn't have everything
figured out right now, that money is one way too
compensate for that.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So you know, of course that is the way it works.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
But in a vacuum, if you're just considering the park
and if you're gonna play, if you're more likely to
be able to get away with mistakes or not, you're
going to choose the place that at least at least
you're gonna have you can count on that, and at
the place with the better park factors, and if if
they're not willing to go above a little bit above
and make it a sweetened the deal a little bit,
(31:56):
then that's what happens. But that's just kind of I mean,
that's true in every every sport when it comes down
to I mean, there's no park factors in the other
two major sports, or.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Actually the other three including hockey.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
But you know where you're at, the area, the you know,
the the fan base, like all this stuff is going
to factor in as well.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
And that is that rings true in baseball.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
That's why if you're Nick Crawl running the Reds front
office last year, you're like, oh, everyone thinks that I
should pick Charlie Condon number two overall.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Yeah, we're good. We're gonna go Chase Burns.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
We're gonna add another big arm, thank you, and then
at the trade deadline adding Lttel. You know, key, Brian
Hayes is definitely more of a pitching, you know, run
prevention kind of guy, even if he finds himself at
the plate again. Trevor Quick note here Braves one yesterday,
two homers for Drake Baldwin. He's definitely very much in
(32:49):
the Rookie the Year conversation. But I wanted to spend
a minute here on Chris Sale. He's rehabbing. It sounds
like he should be back somewhat soon at some point.
I think this month some Braves fans were freaking out
out online here he is doing some sim but some
fans were like.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Why even pitch him? We're out?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
And then I saw back and forth with some Beat
writers like you want him to just not pitch for
a month and a half just to save him for
next year. So Chris Sale's gonna go out there and
he's going to pitch, and Brave fans, you'll be okay,
it's not sacrificing next year.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah, I mean, what we're resting him so that we
can rest him for four more months.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
That doesn't didn't make any sense. He's a competitor.
Speaker 4 (33:26):
I think we especially coming off an injury, you want
to like see what see what's still there, maybe what
mechanical changes have come from it, because it was you know,
it was a side injury. There's a lot of rotational stuff.
There's things that he can he can pay attention to,
and you want to go but you do want to
go into the offseason feeling good, feeling strong and build
on something. And Chris Sale's one of the best in
(33:46):
the game for a reason.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
He knows that stuff. That is the bulb moving forward.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
And yeah, the season didn't pan out the way you
wanted it to, but you got to like the guy.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
His job is to pitch. He would tell you that.
He's like, I mean, don't you.
Speaker 4 (33:58):
Guys want me to do my job, regardless of if
it's going to translate into me pitching into the postseason.
I think that's that's that's what you're supposed to do,
so I won't worry about it. Seeing a sharp Chris
Sale should make you excited for next year.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Yes, quickie.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Two minutes here, Jose Alvarado working his way back. He's
eligible to return from suspension. I think in about a
week and.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
A half or so.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Trevor's on his rehab assignment now, and his first rehab
appearance producing inning, a hit, two strikeouts, touched ninety eight
point six with that sinker. It's going to help the
Phillies in this stretch run here, not in the playoffs,
But did you see the apology?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
What did you think of the whole deal?
Speaker 2 (34:41):
He didn't go with the excuse route when with more
of the legal I did, but I didn't not legally,
but like kind of admitting it kind of deal.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Yeah, I'd mean, honestly, something is always good when it
comes to your teammates. I've had I've been on teams
with you know, some of the stuff happened with Michael
Panada and to twenty eighteen maybe I think it was
or nineteen, and he stood in front of the team
and gave a very clear and he's a very honest
(35:12):
guy and very passionate guy, so that was.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Just his style.
Speaker 4 (35:16):
And then some guys like just the circumstances, it's embarrassment,
it's whatever. It's a little more muted, but an acknowledgement
I think goes a long way. I think that everybody
in that clubhouse understands the situation, whether it was on
purpose or not. Also, like there's a level of understanding
temptation as well, depending on whatever the situation was. I
(35:37):
just think there's no group of guys that's going to
understand where you're coming from more than other players. So
it always meant a lot to us, just regardless of
what it was.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
I played with Marlon Gonzalez after the stuff about Astros
came out.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
And he just owned it too, so it was valuable.
It's good to see him say something.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
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about Green Chef for your wellness journey, or if you're
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or you've got a friend that's plant based, or you're.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
Like I'm going with the protein heavy approach. They've got
it all on Green Chef.
Speaker 7 (36:15):
Listen the weekly meals they come with all the time.
It's different, it's satisfying, and it's something you really want
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(36:51):
at Green chef dot com Slash five zero te r
R I r Y fifty territory. All right, just a
little fun one for you today is eight to eight
some candidates for best player to ever wear the number eight?
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Do you want me to read the list so you
can stew Yeah?
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Sure, okay, Cal Ripken Junior, Carlia Streemsky, Joe Morgan, Yo Giberra,
Willi Stargel, Gary Carter other Obviously, I'm sure we're missing
a guy or two and a fan's gonna call it out.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
But at least from that list, what.
Speaker 7 (37:25):
Do you like?
Speaker 4 (37:27):
Whoa which? Which group of fan bases? Am I more
okay with offending?
Speaker 3 (37:35):
Uh, I'll go Yo Giberra.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
That's what I was thinking too.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
And it's a good list, that is.
Speaker 4 (37:48):
It's just the most iconic player from every all of
six different organizations.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Nobody deal.
Speaker 2 (37:54):
Yeah, we made it pretty tough for me. We're not
doing the whole deep dive on stats right now and
playing that whole game.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
It's just like yogisms. I love those, So you could
be like that or you could be like.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean if you're a hey, I'm
an iron man guy, and I like people who show
up every day.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
The best ability is their ability blah blah blah. And
then cow's are picked.
Speaker 3 (38:16):
There.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
That's the point. But happy eight eight to all those
who celebrate. All right, So coming up next, here's what
we're gonna do. Uh, we're gonna talk about high schoolers
throwing a hundo plus and get Trevor's thoughts. We are
going to talk about the key to the Blue Jays
offensive success. And then our last guest on a Friday
here will be Tim Britton to make sure that the
(38:40):
Mets are okay. It's become my new favorite question in
the last few months, just like a nice simple at
the top when a team struggling.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Are they okay? Always produces a fun answer.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
So we'll do that.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
Coming up in about a minute here, still taking questions,
we'll preview some series matchups coming up as well. And
then yeah, I'm checking out the chat a little bit
more than I have recently. So oh Jay in the chat,
weren't the ft guys part of the Yotani should focus
on hitting crowd a few months ago. I don't think
they took it that far. I think they just wanted
to see how his bat would look that. I'm not
(39:14):
going to totally represent Aj and Kratz right now, but
they were just like, I want to see what his
bat looks like. He's been hurt for a while. Like
I thought it was a fair point to bring up
on our show. They weren't like, he shouldn't pitch.
Speaker 4 (39:26):
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, guys, Just like
something something starts to degree, then you gotta be like,
is he good? Is he as good as he used
to be at this? Then maybe it's time to switch.
There's that time is gonna come? Now is not the time?
Speaker 3 (39:38):
He is? Uh?
Speaker 4 (39:39):
He is a difference maker on both sides of the field,
and as long as his body holds.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Up, you gotta let you gotta go with it.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I think he'll hit longer in his career than he'll pitch.
But he still got innings left. Yay or nay on
this one. Trevor minor leaguer hits for the cycle, asks
for the baseball good that.
Speaker 4 (40:01):
Absolutely as a guy who did not enjoy cool stuff
enough when he played and I of course realized at
the moment i'd stopped. Yeah, how often you say it
for this, you might never do it again. I mean,
I was just flexing high school no hitters, So you should.
You should enjoy the things, and it's get the ball.
(40:22):
That might be the only thing he ever gets to
do in pro ball. Enjoy the stuff you get and
get excited about it. And I bet you nobody in
that park or in either dugout had any problem with that.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
It's a pretty cool conscious. It's not easy to do.
Don't see it every day.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I wonder.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I'm sure there's been and I agree with you, by
the way, I'm sure there's been a guy who's calling
for a baseball where you're like, what is this for?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Yeah, that happens. Yeah. Sometimes you're like, okay, all right,
well you know weird. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Have you ever seen one where it's like, oh, it's
because it's his you know, eightieth hit and oh eighty
is my lucky number. I don't know, just something like
really stupid, ridiculous where you're like, why is that guy
asking for memorabilia right now in a major league game? You?
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Yeah, I've never seen anything like that. Usually it's like
haven't had a hit in a month.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
You like, hey, can I get that one?
Speaker 2 (41:15):
But did they actually get it for I've seen that,
but you know, like I've seen that where they're joking, Oh,
this dude.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Just broke up. Actually throw it out. They put it?
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Oh yeah, they put it in their in their locker. Ye,
it's great gag.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
All right, let's slap.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
We're gonna continue the conversation as we're looking ahead to
the weekend matchups for the next few minutes.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
And I'm with you. I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Watch some Max Sures or in Clayton Kershaw facing off tonight.
It's obviously two good teams, but also these two will
probably never face off again, just in terms of where
they are in their career. They first opposed each other
on September seventh of two thousand and eight, so Sarah
Lang said, they're the first duo in Big League history
to start against each other as rookies and then both
accumulate three thousand plus career strikeouts. So I don't know
(42:16):
if you remember, but they had that viral moment that
was brought up in the past few years. They were
both pitching in that game, replacing injured starters. In future
Hall of Famers, and the open to the broadcast, which
we often joke about is overrated. It's a few minutes,
just give me a quick preview of the game. But
that opens that broadcast will forever be in baseball history
(42:37):
and viral. Randy Johnson against Greg Maddox, I think it was.
And they're like, sorry, folks, you're gonna get these two rookies,
Kershaw and Scherzer instead. And it's like, oh, and little
did many people know that they were going to witness
again two of the better pitchers in Major League history
(42:58):
and definitely in our era.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Well, let's hope they pitch, because we don't want this happen.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
What if?
Speaker 4 (43:03):
But what if the torch got passed and there's two
rookies that came in behind them, and we're like, is
this is this an indicator of things to come?
Speaker 3 (43:11):
It's interesting to think about, but.
Speaker 4 (43:13):
I do want to see it as you do want
to kind of bookend this thing, this head to head
matchup with two to the greats of our generation. It's
crazy they were rookies at the same time. It's very
rare that two guys have careers like this and start
the same year. So two of the best to do it.
And uh, I mean, no matter how it goes, no
matter how sharp these guys look like, both contending teams,
(43:33):
both leading their divisions, it's a meaningful game as well,
So lot online we'll get to see their competitiveness, even
what they got.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
After all the time.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And back then, you know you could maybe slip through
the cracks a little bit and you would think it's
hard to do that nowadays. Jacobzaraski came on the scene,
is big dude, but no one saw the miz looking
like this so far this year, so you can still
wow people and start a run. Hey, last minute here.
Happy birthday to our FT teammate Alana Rizzo. Hope you're
enjoying a nice time in that Boston weather, which she
(44:04):
doesn't love, but this is actually the time to enjoy it,
so hopefully she's outside and enjoying a glass of wine. Also,
Anthony Rizzo, Yondi Diez, and Craig Breslow, Happy birthday and Trevor,
this was fun, man, just you and me hanging chill
session in the library.
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Feel and anytime, man, I love doing this.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, go pick out a good book for me. Behind
you something good for me. Please, thank you. Yes, we'll
see you on May Day. Next Wednesday bud bip and
it also is Friday, so that means the Big Fly
Fridays continue and they now include parlays on the betmgm
(44:44):
app and at betmgm dot com. So you placed your
first home run bet of the day. If you do that,
parlays are included a minimum ten dollars bet on a
player or players. If they have the longest home run
of the day, you win your share of a fifty
thousand dollars jackpot for bonus bets. This runs through our
I guess no option necessary. Just apply that Big Fly
Friday qualifying token. It gets dropped into your account and
(45:06):
you can use it on the first player or the
first players if that's parlay for you that you take
to hit a home run every Friday. Gambling problem or
concern called one hundred gambler
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