Tough Cover Show -- 5/11/24

Mark Henry Jr. and Jeremy talk #Phillies/#MLB, #NBAPlayoffs, Drake/Kendrick, #WWEBacklash, and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Time to get ready for the daysaction from the sides to the totals and
everything in between. Nobody does itbetter than the top cover with Mark Henry
right here on the Gambler the SalitHello and welcome to the Tough Cover radio

(00:46):
show. I am your host,as all is Mark Henry Jr. You
can follow me over on Twitter atMark Henry Jr. Underscore. To get
involved with the conversation on social media, you can follow at Fox PHL Gambler.
Go give I'm a subscribe on YouTube. Check out what they're doing on
Twitter, Instagram. All that jazzbecause Luke Garcaney has been absolutely killing it

(01:10):
over there on the socials with clipsabout this Phills team. And my first
question that I'll lead off the showand I'll ask my producer Jeremy back in
the studio on the ones and twos, who let the Phills get hot?
Ranger Suarez has always been the answerto that question, Mark, come on.

(01:33):
Ranger Sware has been playing phenomenal.He's a one point five eer.
Right. That was eight starts sofar. First, I think I believe
I saw this on the TV.Actually, the first Phillies pitcher to win
seven out of the first eight games, Uh in a season. He's playing
absolutely penmen. Even though I'm nota big wins for a pictuer stat kind
of guy, But man, howmuch fun is Ranger Suarez been to see

(01:56):
pitch? Yeah, we have alot of r to talk. I mean,
this is you might as well havenamed this the Tough Cover Ranger Show,
because that is what this show isgonna be. We've got one of
our absolute favorite guests on the programtoday. We've got Bob Wankle joining us.
You can follow him on Twitter atBob Underscore. Wankle does great stuff

(02:17):
over with Crossing broad the Crossed UpPhillies podcast, and he has I mean
the Best Day the Red October Philliesnewsletter. The nuggets that you get from
that make my job as a radiohost so much easier. I mean,
stuff like the stat Jeremy just threwout. Bob has so many stats like
that that he throws out there thatare really really fun, and he does
a great job over there. Everyoneif you're a Phillies fan, goes subscribe

(02:40):
to that. So we're gonna talkto him at noon, and I guarantee
you that Ranger Suarez is going todominate that conversation, We've got a lot
of Ranger Suarez to talk about.We will talk a little bit about the
NBA Playoffs. The Denver Nuggets bringit to or I guess both series last
night, the Indiana Pacers and theDenver Nuggets bring it back to a two

(03:00):
to one series, so they atleast bring it to within now it's competitive.
It's not two to Oh, we'renot gonna get a sweep, you
know. Now they're they're back inthe mix. They can even it up
in Game four. We have afantastic, fantastic game to preview today at
three point thirty with the Oklahoma CityThunder in the Dallas Mavericks. That series

(03:20):
is tied one to one and Ithink is by far the most interesting series
of the four series in the inthe NBA playoffs right now. We'll also
talk a little bit about the NHLPlayoffs. I think the NHL Playoffs have
been an absolute blast. In thesecond round, so many overtime games.
Edmonton and Vancouver have played two ofthe best hockey games I've ever seen,

(03:44):
to be quite honest, So reallyreally fun hockey going up there in Canada.
So we're gonna talk a little bitabout that at some point in the
show might even might even talk aboutw W weeks. I had a hot
a couple of hot takes from backSlash last week. Backlash happened, I
believe right after, right after thisradio show last week, because it was

(04:08):
over in France. So we're gonnaI have a couple of takes. I
don't think Jeremy's gonna like it allto give. I'll save that for the
end of the show. We'll burythe wrestling talk so we can give you
the baseball talk up front. ButJeremy talked about it. I'm just gonna
start off this Ranger Suarez conversation witha tweet that I sent in twenty twenty

(04:31):
one, and it was on Julyfourth. I was in Ocean City,
Maryland, and I asked, whatif Ranger Suarez was the answer all along?
And I would love to tell Julyfourth, twenty twenty one, mark
where we'd be in May twenty twentyfour, because I think you guys know

(04:56):
on this show, I can getwrapped up in guys, I can fall
in love with certain figures in sports, whether it's from a draft angle,
whether it's from a gambling angle,I mean, we all know the Jalen
Hurts anytime touchdown streak, the JoshAllen anytime touchdown streak. And there's no
secret that I defend both those guysagainst criticism. So I love, you
know, backing a guy almost evenmore so when I have to defend them

(05:17):
against criticism. I've never been moreright to latch onto a sports figure than
I was in twenty twenty one withRanger Swarez. And at that time when
I sent that tweet, what ifRanger swars? Was the answer? All
along? That was about the closerrole. That was about whether or not

(05:38):
we finally had a good reliever becausewe had went years without a single good
reliever that we could rely on inthe bullpen. And little did we know
that Ranger Suarez would turn into,I mean, at this point, one
of the best starters in baseball.I mean, it's truly amazing. I
there are two progressions on this Philliesteam that I think are more interesting than

(06:00):
anything else going on with the team, and it's obviously Ranger Suarez and Alec
Boom two. The difference there isI think Ranger Suarez has given us more
reason to believe that this could happenthan Alec Boom. The Alec Boom improvement
is unlike anything I've seen in Philadelphiasports. That is truly a guy that

(06:23):
I gave up on improving to thelevel that it seems like he has.
Ranger, We're talking about a guyin twenty twenty one that had a one
three six ERA. I mean evenin twenty twenty two at three six dra
a rougher year. Last year alittle bit more up and down. He
had a four to one ERA.He was a little bit banged up,
had a late start to the season. But he's been so fantastic in the

(06:43):
postseason that we've known this is inhim, and we've known this is possible.
Now, did we know he'd havea one to five ERA through eight
starts? I don't think. Idon't think that. Did we know he
was gonna be he was gonna gofrom being plus thirteen thousand to win the
NLCY Young to being plus thirteen hundredto win the nl SY Young. And

(07:04):
I'm gonna sit here and tell youthat I think that's a good value.
No, I didn't expect that.So I expected Ranger to level up at
a time I thought it would happenin twenty twenty three. I thought it
would happen again this year. Nevercould I have expected that he was going
to become the nlsy young front runnerright now. Yeah, he's been one

(07:27):
of the best pitchers in baseball.And you know it's something that I don't
I don't like going to this veryoften, but like like the MLB page
posts, like their power rankings ofthe top ten pitchers. They do it
every single week. Zach Wheeler hasbeen on there for two or three weeks,
he's he's been the number one pitcher. But Ranger Suarez, it's just
cool seeing him, Like we finallysaw him at number ten a couple of
weeks ago, and he's slightly movingup and I'm hoping that he's becoming more

(07:49):
of a I don't know, Idon't know if I want to say household
name, but more of a Peopleare gonna show more respect that Rader Swarez.
This isn't just like a little spurt. Ranger sware is the real deal.
I think he is so fantastic andI don't know he he might turn
out to one day be as goodas a pitcher as Zach Wheeler. Every
time he's on the mound. It'sit's a must watch game. He hasn't

(08:13):
had one bad start this year.I hope to see it continue even more.
I can't believe that he is thePhillies third pitcher in the rotation,
sitting at a one point five rhas is Is there any other third starter
in the league on a team thathas anywhere close to a one to five
yr I'll save you some time beforeyou look it up. There isn't one.
That's not a thing you don't hearabout that. Ranger Suarez is taking

(08:35):
such a big step, and it'sit's going to just get better and better
and better. I fully believe that. Yeah, I have trust in and
we're gonna talk about Alec Boom withBob Wlankle as well. I buy both
of these progressions. I just reallybuy that Ranger Suarez has taken a level
up. I fully buy that AlecBoom has taking a level up. We're

(08:56):
talking about a team that's on paceto win one hundred and twelve games right
now, and I know that they'veplayed a really easy schedule and I know
that it's going to get harder.I think they're probably a team that I
expect to win one hundred plus gamesat this point, and that's I think
it's crazy to say this. Andthis could be like so old takes exposed.

(09:18):
They win one hundred games, you'realmost like what happened? I mean,
they at this point, it's sonice. When you start the season
you almost had like you play fivehundred baseball. The rest of the way,
you win ninety games like and ninetygames at this point would be a
massive disappointment if you win only theamount of games you won last year.
With how good this start is,they're the best record in baseball right now.

(09:39):
And I mean the Atlanta Braves,they're they're losing their mind online,
the Braves Twitter. I see NickPecoon, he's all in the mud.
Yeah, I mean they don't evenknow what second place feels like. It's
been so long, they're like,wait, what is this? I thought
we were just supposed to dominate everyyear and no one's supposed to compete with
us. But I I think thedays of that are over. I think

(10:01):
the days of us, you know, screaking by and getting the ninety two
wins, ninety wins and getting inthe playoffs and then taking them down.
I think that's over. I thinkthat this is a team that's going to
continue to win upper nineties games ormore for the rest of this kind of
prime that we have this and youknow, there is some concerns. Hopefully

(10:22):
like Trey Turner, we still haveanother month plus probably without Shrey. Kyle
Schwerber exits the game last night,says he's not going to play today,
probably with a sore back, Sohopefully that's not an issue. But I
mean, they just go out andthey take care of business. They are
just there's nothing about this team tome that feels unsustainable. You look at

(10:46):
the Alec Bohm thing, and I'lljust get into it now actually because I
was gonna say it for later,but the Alec Boom thing to me,
and he's cooled off with just ajust a tad over the last couple a
couple of Still he's fine. Yeah, yeah, of course it was.
I think it was like three sixtytwo or something crazy, So it's it's
it's cooled off just a but he'sstill been fantastic. But if this was

(11:09):
the situation where Alec Boom it justhad like a crazy two weeks or a
crazy power surge or whatever, thecase may be, I would be like,
you know what, let's let's waitand see till the All Star break.
Let's see if he can continue it. Go look at and this is
gonna be like Gibberius to some people, But go look at Alec Bolm's Baseball
Savant page. It has these sharksand these metrics like and these these two

(11:31):
things I want to draw people's attentionto. His home run percentage is actually
down while his OPS is up liketwo hundred points. Why that is is
because his chase rate has been cutin half and his walk rate has more
than doubled. He has become somuch more patient at the plate. He's
looking for his pitch, which meansinstead of grounding out so often like he

(11:56):
has in the past. He's neverbeen a high strikeout guy, so it's
not like he's improved crazy on thestrikeout numbers. But he grounded out so
often because he was singing at thoselow pitches and because he was chasing pitches,
which put him in a two strikehole, which puts you in a
little bit of a defensive position.He's been in less two strike counts.
He's getting his pitch because he's beingmore patient, he's seeing more hitters counts,

(12:18):
he's seeing more two zero starts whereyou know that next pitch is going
to be right on the money.So I think Alec Bohm everything I'm seeing
from him, and I've been skepticalon Alec Bohm in the past. I
have not always been the guy who'sdefended Alec Bohm, because to me,
I'm a guy who wants my hittersin the lineup to either hit for power

(12:41):
or walk. And Alec Bohm andNic Castillanos for a long time, the
reason that I got frustrated isuse Ithought there were batting average Warriors where if
you're not hitting three hundred, there'sa problem because you're not driving in those
runs in terms of hitting the ballout of the ballpark, and you're not
seeing pitches and you're not getting onbase. But by walking, all I
ever asked for Alec Boom is todo one of hit for power or walk.

(13:03):
And he's on pace probably to hitthat same twenty home run mark this
year as he was last year,but his ops is on pace to be
like two hundred points higher. Thereason that is is because he's being so
so so much more patient, andI hope whoever helped Alec Boom this offseason,
whoever gotten Alec Boom's year, whoevertrained with him on the Phillies staff,

(13:26):
please please talk to Nick Castianos.He's getting he's had some swing.
Well, it took a dog dying, so I mean it, it had
to have a tragedy to happen.Now that's the horrible thing to joke about.
But Nick Castiano's dog did did die. That story came out on the
Athletic and they mourned him. Theyput him down in the morning, and
then he goes out and hits ahome run at night in honor of Tiger.

(13:50):
That's awesome. I it's classic NickCastillans with the tragedies. But you
know, as a dog lover,there's nothing worth so it's absolutely you know,
it's awesome that you can feel likeyou honored his memory, and that's
absolutely great, and I hope that, you know, I think we've had.
Wasn't it the one year that Nickkind of got going in Miami?

(14:11):
They went down there and he hada crazy series, hit a couple of
home runs and it got him hotfor a couple of weeks. Would obviously
love to see that happen again.Yeah, I mean, it's pretty crazy
that the team has started the waythey have, with Nick being as bad
as he has for most of thisyear, and with Bryce struggling at times,

(14:31):
especially early on in the year.Schwerber had a struggle early on in
the year as well, So it'spretty amazing. I just again, I
want to repeat, I don't thinkanything that's going on with this Phillies team
that has them on pace to winone hundred and twelve games, that has
them in the driver's seat of thebest record in baseball, is at all
unsustainable. Yeah. You know whatI see is the end of last year

(14:54):
kind of hinted at this too.You know, Trade Turner played extremely well,
Brandon Marsh to hit a little bittowards the end of the year,
and then we come into this yearand Brandon Marsh works on his swing.
He looks fantastic. Brandon Marsh hasbeen so good this year. Alec Boom
so good this year. So justlike you were saying, whoever's been working
with Boom, I think he's beenworking with a lot of them. Trey

(15:16):
Turner, we know he's a superstar, one of the best players in the
league, but did we see himhitting three forty three and being an MVP
candidate like the way that he wasbefore he got injured? John Jansen did
I know? He wouldn't stop talkingabout him from the end of the year.
So I'm sure we'd hear about that, But I don't think a lot
of people was like, all right, Trey Turner's about a beat three fifty
and he's gonna be one of thebest players in the league. Again.

(15:37):
He's doing it. Alec Boom,Brandon Marsh three guys that when Bryce Harper
and Colle Swarbur and Nick cas Damersaren't playing well, you'd hope that they
could play even decent. And they'vestepped up so big, and you know,
now the Phillies hold the best recordin baseball and obviously the pitching's doing
what they're doing. I totally agreewith you. I don't see how this
can slow down. I think thisteam is actually this good. I get

(16:00):
it. Schedule not the hardest schedulethat you've seen. You only get to
play the teams that are put infront of you. And it's not like
you were It's not like the Philliesare just being the teams. You know,
three to one, two to one, close games. A lot of
these games it's eight to two,like last night, it's it's it's nine
to one, ten to one.These are beat downs. These are what
good teams are supposed to do tobad teams. And it feels good see

(16:22):
that the Phillies can actually do that. Yeah, I totally totally agree.
And on the other side, wegot plenty of Phills talk to go.
We've got the Phillies Guy, BobBlankle our Phillies plug the baseball bro.
We've got plenty of baseball to talk, and we're gonna dive into that at
noon. But on the other side, I guess it's still baseball. We're

(16:44):
giving out our picks for the day. We're gonna open it up all sports.
Sometimes I like the segment the picks. Here's the basketball pick segment,
here's you know, the baseball picksegment. But let's just throw it all
out there. Me and Jeremy gonnatry to make you some winners. So
fun story before we go to breaks, so I don't have to tell it
on the other side. Twenty fourand ten from uh I from Sun or

(17:04):
I guess Saturday to Thursday last weekhad a great, great gambling week in
Nashville, and then the first dayor two that I was back in Philly.
Last night, I went, oh, in seven, let's just get
it out. Let's just get itout there. Let's hey, I'm willing

(17:25):
to announce it. I didn't haveany like big unit plays. It didn't
kill me. So it only likechopped into like half of the winnings that
I had had from the previous sixdays. But she sh she she sh.
But there's no way I go foragain. No sho, you didn't
have a stinker again. I gotthe stinker out of the way back on

(17:45):
the other side with winners talkout radioshow. Right here on the Gambler spreads
totals and all the prop that's inbetween. It's the Gambler, Welcome back

(18:18):
to the tuft Cover radio Show.I had to bring it back with you
know. Obviously, I think it'sthe I might be my favorite beat in
the history of music, so CanterDrake beef. Obviously I think it.
I guess the last song came outon Monday, Sunday something like that.
All those days ran together when Iwas in Nashville, so I'm not sure

(18:40):
which day it was, so it'sbeen a while, but I know Jeremy,
my producer back in the studio.I guess this will be like the
fourth straight week we talk about this, But I think I think this is
a I think it's one of themore interesting like stories and entertainment that I
can remember. It's the most interestedI've been in rap since I was in

(19:03):
high school, to be quite honest. So I've been diving in reading the
rap genius lyrics and stuff, andit's been a blast to follow it.
I'm a fan of both guys obviouslygoing into the beef, so I'm it's
tough for me as a fan.As I've talked about on this show.
Sean Bernard went kind of in onit the last couple of weeks, so
I wanted to give Jeremy a chanceto give his takes before we get back

(19:25):
to picks real quick. Oh jeez, this entire beef. Drake should not
have spoken a word. He shouldhave went with the J Cole route of
apologizing after the first disc to seewhat Kendrick Lamar would come back with.
Drake has had too much on theplate. There is too many things known
about Drake that he should know notto get involved with someone like Kendrick Lamar.

(19:48):
It's not like you're getting in abeef with the Weekend. You're getting
involved with Kendrick Lamar from Compton thatis not afraid to say anything that he
wants to say. And now witheverything that has been said about Drake,
Drake is just oh, I don'thave a daughter. Though I don't think
anyone's worried about the daughter thing anymore. There's a lot bigger subjects that I
don't think we didn't even get toget into on this radio show that are

(20:12):
absolutely crazy accusations on Drake that hassome proof, and it's a little bit
scary for Drake. I kind ofhe really should have just kept his mouth
shut. I don't think there's anyway to respond anymore. He drops the
heart part five. I don't knowwhy he even did that. It didn't
do anything that was I wish itjust ended off on not like us.

(20:36):
But you know that that was justhim saying I don't do that stuff.
That was It was like him sayinglike not me. It wasn't great.
But I think Kendrick Lamar, Idon't think it's even close. I mean,
Drake had some nice dishes in there. You know, he tried his
best, but Kendrick Lamar is juston top. It was pretty bad.
Yeah, I actually so, Ithink Drake. I think the coverage of

(21:00):
the beef has always been unfair,to be honest, and it's always gonna
be slanted towards Kendrick just because it'srap. And Kendrick is like the lyricist
that everyone loves and he's the guythat the rapp community embraces more for that
reason. And Drake is obviously themore the pop star and goes all these
different genres and routes, and he'sa little bit faker I think in their

(21:21):
minds, so that that's a wholeother conversation. I do think it gets
exaggerated at times. Kendrick Lamar wonthis obviously. I do think Drake's responses
have been better than people are willingto give him credit for. The problem
is he's going against a madman.He's against the bookyman like as he called
him like and and Kendrick is justyeah, I see him. Punk told

(21:45):
Dwayne the Rock Johnson, your armsare just too short to box with God,
And that's what this feels like.Like Drake just he got got by
the wrong guy. It feels exactlylike it's not like like like Family Matters
was actually was actually pretty right beforeKendrick dropped Meet the Grahams. I think
that was actually a great disc It'sjust that Kendrick responded in thirty minutes Mark

(22:10):
Kenry Junior. I actually think FamilyMatters might be better than Meet the Grams,
just like listening to it. It'sjust that the chess of it all
has been so like Kendrick is dominated, like having that so fast, referencing
Family Matters, having the odzempic withDrake reference there's obviously like a mole inside.

(22:32):
So it's pretty incredible stuff. AndI don't want to like get too
far into this because I'm not.I'm sure there's people that are so much
more qualified to speak on it thanI am. I'm just talking about this
as a fan of both guys who'skind of jumped back into rap. I
mean, I was a die hardfan of rap my whole life growing up,
but I'm an old man now.I'm not hip anymore. I'm not
hot in the streets. I'm followingthe same I'm following guys like Drake and

(22:55):
Kendrick because these are the guys thatI fell in love with fifteen go,
so I'm not up on the newguys. That's why I'm so interested in
this beef because it involves all thenames I know, you know, Future
is involved, and the weekend's gettingthrown around, and you know, there's
all these interesting things and obviously getsless interesting with the shooting that happened to
Drake's, which you can argue wasthat because Kendrick put the address out.

(23:18):
Was that a weekend related thing?Because there was some some beef with Ovo
and and the weekend, So reallyinteresting. But hopefully no more of that,
and hopefully there's another Hopefully there's moresongs. I mean, Kendricks chopping
an album. There's no way Kendrick'snot going to reference this at least like
maybe not with a full diss,but it's gonna get I don't think it's

(23:38):
over. Everyone thinks it's over.I don't think so. So maybe we'll
have more to talk about. Let'stalk picks though, Let's make you some
money, and let's not go ohnseven today. That's my that's put that
on the wall. Slap it.Let's not go oh and seven I've got
eight bets, so I can't gooh and seven. Now I can go
on eight, but hopefully I don't. Let's start it off with the best

(23:59):
game of the day across sports inmy opinion, and I tease that already.
And it's the Oklahoma City Thunder andthe Dallas Mavericks. And I'm in
the this stance on this game whereI can't lose. I'm Mac from always
Sonny. I'm playing both sides sothat I come out on top. Because
the Oklahoma City Thunder, I havemy preseason bet. They were my preseason

(24:19):
pick to win the NBA Finals,to win the Western Conference obviously, so
I have I get I think it'sI don't I don't remember the exact number,
twenty five to one to win theWest and sixty to one to win
the title. So I'm a Thunderfan, Like I actually think I'm gonna
get an SGA shirt potentially, SoI'm a big I'm fully in on the
Thunder, especially if they win today. And I'm going with the Thunder plus

(24:41):
three and normally you know, ridingwith the Thunder. And I said,
like, going into Game two,I was like, man, whoever wins
this game? It feels like winsthe Thunder mav series. And because if
the Thunder would have won and gogo up, go two to zero,
I don't think Dallas would have beenable to come back from that. And
at the time pre game I waslike, man, if Dallas does that,

(25:02):
I don't know if the if Okaccan go to Dallas and steal one
of the next two. After watchinggame two, I didn't walk away like,
oh wow, Dallas really got theupper hand. I just think what
Dallas did was was unsustainable. Oppositeof the Phillies, PJ. Washington shot
seven of ten from three, Lucamade his first three threes of the game.

(25:22):
Tim Hardaway shot sixty percent. Dudeshoots like forty percent. Dallas shot
eight more free throws. Okac generallyshoots more free throws than Dallas on a
regular basis. Chet went four fortwelve from the field and one for six
from three, which means he wentlike three went fifty percent inside the arc.
Jalen Williams went five for thirteen frominside the arc on two point shots.

(25:44):
I think they found out in thisgame that Josh Getty's unplayable in this
series. He was a minus twentyand eleven minutes they benched him for the
whole second half. I didn't go, okay, see realized that. I
think it's a benefit. I thinkthey got they figured that out. And
it seems like so many how manySixers series have we seen over the last
five to six years where it's soclear that a guy's unplayable hint, Tobias,
hint, and they just keep throwinghim out there for thirty five minutes.

(26:07):
Props to Mark Dagnall and the Thunderfor realizing like, oh, we
can't play this guy in this series, even though he was really good against
the Pelicans, and I think theyrealized that. I don't think he's gonna
play much, so I think that'llonly help them. But ultimately, Dallas
shot forty nine percent from three,Okac shot thirty percent from three. Okasey's
been the better three point shooting teamthis season. I don't think that that's

(26:30):
a sustainable thing. I don't thinkthat any of the balance of power in
the series shifted. I actually weirdlywalked out of that game thinking, you
know what, Okase's still gonna winthis series in seven and that's where I'm
still at right now. And towin it in seven. They got to
win one of these two in Dallas. I think it's today, and then
I think Dallas gets game four toeven it back up before they go back
to Oklahoma. So give me theThunder plus three. Do you have anything

(26:52):
on that one? Jeremy had theexact scene, bet as you. I've
been on the Thunder. I think, say, Gilles Alexander, it might
be my player to watch basketball rightnow. I think he's so much fun
and I want the Thunder to continueso I can continue watching him play basketball.
That is why I want the Thunderto win. I also love watching
chet Holmgren, so I actually dohave them at plus three as well.
I think that I have them winning, but with how the odds were,

(27:17):
I just think I'm gonna be reallyupset if they lose this game by one
or two points. So I decidedto go with plus three for the Thunder.
But I mean, I'm not afraidto go to the money line either.
I think I think Thunder has thisone. It's it's such a fun
It's gonna be such a fun series. It already has been, and I
cannot wait for three thirty. Yeah, best game of the day. I
can't wait. To be quite honest, I've been a little down on the

(27:38):
NBA Playoffs this year, and Ithink part of it is a lot of
the series have either been quick orthe long series that the Sixers weren't involved
in haven't been all that interesting.I don't know if anyone was captivated by
CALVS Magic, Like I don't thinkanyone was interested in that Bucks Pacers.
When Lillard and Giannis were like outfor parts of the series, like that

(28:00):
was weird, like the Clippers andthe MAVs, even Kawhi was out for
part of it. It just feltlike there's been a lot of barriers from
getting fully invested in a series thatI fully bought in that was close and
could go either way, kind oflike Minnesota Phoenix I thought was gonna be
fun, not at all, evenMinnesota Denver. Obviously Denver gets at the

(28:21):
two to one last night, butI hate both those teams kinda so it's
tough for me. Like it's abad I have some bad Anthony Edwards tweets
that I hope no one finds,because man, I was not a fan
of his coming out of the draft. I was not. I kind of
thought he was being overrated when Minnesotawasn't winning games but he was putting up
numbers. I thought he was overratedeven parts of this regular season. I

(28:41):
will say, I remember, Iwill say I still think SGA is like
better than ANT, and I feellike ANT is getting like the face of
the league and all that. Like, give me SGA seven days out of
seven over Aunt. Just being honest, I fully believe that see seven days
out of seven. Yeah, absolutely, SGA is getting I mean SGA had

(29:03):
a far better season. I meancame in second for MVP. He had
a far far better season statistically thanthan ANT did. And you look at
the playoffs stats, I'm sure i'dhave to buy I'd have to really kind
of crack it down and look atit. SGA has been unbelievable in the
playoffs though, So I don't thinkit's been like, oh wow, Ant's
been so much better in the playoffs, but he's gotten way more attention.

(29:25):
And I get that's because they beatPhoenix, whereas okay, see beat New
Orleans. No one cares about thePelicans, so that's what that's gonna be.
So I but give me SGA,and I think SGA is getting like
thirty percent of the notoriety that Antis getting and schooler An dunks on people,
whereas SGA just like cooks you andgets open and gets his look.
SGA shot like fifty five percent thisyear from the field, Like, I

(29:48):
just don't think people really like Idon't know if we've had a super I
was trying to think about how toword this, and I think Tim Duncan's
the answer. But you can helpme if you if you have something.
I don't think we've had a superstaras good as SGA is right now,
with as little talk about them andas little like notoriety and like relevancy.

(30:11):
And I know he's playing in OklahomaCity where like Applebee's is like the biggest
place in town, but he's unbelievableand no one talks about it. I
think Tim Duncan is actually perfect likereference there. I can't really think of
anyone else either. I think TimDuncan, you know, because he was
called boring or whatever, he's sucha phenomenal player, And same thing with

(30:33):
SGA and hopefully again I'm a bigfan of like when someone's playing so so
well, like I want I wantthis to be nationally known like I want
everyone to know, Like I wanteveryone to know that Rangers a top pitch
in the league. I want everyoneto know that Sga he is one of
the best basketball players in the league. I agree with you. I would
take him over Anthony Edwards right now. How old is shake Gildas Alexander.
I know Anthony Edward is twenty two, but I'm just curious. You know

(30:55):
how old Sga is Off the topof your head, It's gotta be like
twenty five if I know he's onhis second contract. Let me take a
look here. This is great radiotwenty five. I got it, I
got it right, Okay, twentyfive cool? Yeah, twenty five.
Yeah, that makes sense. Let'smove on to baseball real quick. Let's
shift over to my best bet ofthe day. At seven point fifteen,

(31:17):
I've got the Cincinnati Reds on themoney line minus one fifteen at the San
Francisco Giants for four units. Iwatched Mason Black pitch here in his hometown,
right here in Philadelphia last week andhis debut. He absolutely stunk.
That guy's got no stuff. Iget it. The Reds have lost eighth
straight, but I think this isa perfect day to get off the schneid.

(31:37):
I'm a Nick Lodolo guy. He'shad three great starts out of his
five this season, with one goodone mixed in one at like his worst
starts five it was like five innings, four hits, four walks, four
runs. Yeah, not good,but it's not like a blow up or
anything like that. He has twoseven to ninety RA ranks in the top
five percent, and WITHFT rate,he strikes out nearly a third of his
batter's one of the highest rates inbaseball for darting pitchers. Giants great out

(32:00):
as the bottom ten offense against lefthanded pitching. Their best hitter against lefties
is sol Air and he's out.He's on the injured list. I think
the Reds have the better lineup,I think they have the best hitter,
and I think they have a massivepitching advantage in this game. So give
me Cincinnati. They have an aggressiveoffense that runs the base is extremely well.
They should cause a lot of stresson the rookie. There's no BVP

(32:22):
data for either pitcher with them bothbeing so young, but I love the
Reds here. They're gonna get offthe schneid. My favorite bet of the
day I've got the Brewers minus oneand a half. It's a small play,
one unit play against the Saint LouisCardinals. It's a fade of Kyle
Gibson. The BVP numbers are kindof similar for Gibson and Peralta, but
I think the Brewers have the waybetter lineup and I think Freddy Peralta is

(32:44):
the far better pitcher. I expectthe Cardinals to just continue sliding. They
are one of the worst teams inbaseball, which is a shame. Sorry
to to my future father in law. He's a diod Cardinals fan. I
know he's probably listening right now.He's I think they're ready for a tear
down and saying Lewis Jeremy is itis getting ugly out there. So I

(33:05):
think there's a chance, you know, Aeronado, Goldschmid, some of these
Sunny Gray, some of these oldernames, I think they could be up
forbidding at the deadline. Seam ofthe Brewers minus one and a half.
My last baseball player of the dayis at nine to thirty eight. I've
got the over at eight runs andthe Royals and Angels. I know Cole
Reagan's and Tyler Anderson have both beenreally good this year. The BVP numbers

(33:28):
kind of both lineups have had successagainst both pitchers. So I'm gonna go
with that and go with the overin that one. I skipped a basketball
one at eight thirty. I've gotthe Celtics minus seven and a half at
the Cleveland Cavaliers at eight thirty.I think that's just an obvious get back
spot. I don't have much datahere. Cleveland shot the lights out,

(33:49):
Donovan Mitchell went nuts. I don'tsee it happening again. I think Celtics
shoot it better from three, andI think they'll shoot more threes in this
game, So I think the Celticswill light them up in Cleveland. They
win by like twenty plus tonight.You could even go alternate line potentially,
but give me the Celtics minus sevenand a half. What do you got
over there, Jeremy, I gotthree bets, one of them actually being

(34:09):
a player prop. I would likeplayer props so far this year, mostly
on the pitching side, though notreally hitting as much. But what I
got so far, I'm gonna betthe Phillies minus one and a half.
We still don't have who the pitcheris I don't care. There's no one
on that Marlin in that Marlins rotationto where I'm gonna say, oh man,
I don't know if the Phillies gnavebeen a win by two today,

(34:29):
the Phillies are gonna win by overtwo runs again. They are so on
fire. I'm sure that I'll messit up somehow, you know, maybe,
but I'm gonna have a little bitof fun with it. Make this
Phillies games, the Phillies game alittle bit more interesting for myself, and
bet them at minus one and ahalf. They are such a good baseball
team. Chicago Cubs money line overthe Pittsburgh Pirates. I think I can't
even say his last name correctly.Paul Skeens is that is it Skeens Skins,

(34:52):
then Skeens Skeens, right. Ithink he's fantastic. Do not get
me wrong. They are valuing himso heavy right now in this game.
I think the Cubs are a muchbetter team than the Pirates. I think
that Paul Skins will probably be ona little bit of like like they're gonna
watch him. He's not gonna goseven eight innings, He's gonna go about

(35:14):
five innings. They're gonna see whathe's got and then hand it off to
the bullpen in Pittsburgh, which isnot great. The Pittsburgh Pirates have not
been great recently. Chicago Cubbs havebeen playing, you know, not the
best baseball, but better baseball thanthe Pirates. It's a pick them at
minus one ten. I'm taking theCubs as much as I want to see
Paul Skeans pitch well, because he'sso He's so so good. He's pitched
twenty seven and a half innings inTriple A and he has a point nine

(35:36):
ERA. He is absolutely incredible,and I'm sure he'll be fine. It's
just I don't see him going morethan five or six innings. So I'm
gonna take the Cubs on this one. And my player prop is actually he's
also so much fun to watch.Detroit Tigers is Tarik Scoogle. I still
struggle to say his last name too. I'm looking like Mark Henry Jr.
Right now, but I have himat over over eight eighteen and a half

(36:00):
outs. Two out of his lastfive games, he has hit over eighteen
and a half outs. In thoseother three games, he's had eighteen outs
on the dot and it's at plusone forty. With those odds, I
know that he's going up against theAstros. Astros are two and four in
their last six games. Have scoredtwenty one runs in those six games,
so that's averaging three and a halfruns per game. Threek scoubl is one

(36:22):
of the best pitchers in baseball.He's a one point nine ERA and it's
going to continue. So I havehim at over eighteen and a half outs.
I like that. I like that, and yeah, there's a chance
I add the Phelies. I waslooking at the Cubs. I think the
Cubs is the right play there.I'm just I don't it's so unknown,
like I'm just gonna stay away.It does feel like the Pirates are getting
a ton of credit there for PaulSkins, for Livy Dunn's boyfriend getting on

(36:45):
the mound there. But yeah,I didn't have a you know what,
I'm going to add it to thecard, add it to the car because
I saw the play from Action Network. I don't know who who it was.
I don't I don't like taking picksfrom other people. I like coming
up with everything on my own.But I'm not as big of a prop
guy as you know, I didn'thave any baseball props I like today for

(37:07):
the hermost strong prop of the day, but I found the basketball prop.
It was from an Action Network article. I'll give out. I'll tweet it
out to give the guy credit.I don't know who it is because I
took a screenshot. Shake Gildess Alexanderover twelve and a half rebounds and assists
in two games in this series,Shay is averaging eight and a half assists

(37:29):
and ten and a half rebounds,so and he's had eighteen and twenty rebound
and assist performances, so that's wellover that twelve and a half and a
big part of why is because ofGiddy's minutes decrease, which Giddy's an on
ball guy. When he's on offense, a lot of times he'll take the
rebound up the court. I thinkit's giving SGA's the use trade has been

(37:50):
way higher. Hit the balls justin his hands more. He's taking it
up every time. I like thisa lot. I think there's potential you
could probably maybe even single out theassist. I don't know what the where
the assist market is for him,but maybe take a look at that I'll
but I'll give that out as myhermast strong prop of the day for Shay
Gilds as Alexander over twelve and ahalf rebounds and assists. I like that.

(38:14):
I liked that a lot. Ididn't know that he was canting how
many rebounds a game. I knewhe probably had the assist pretty locked down.
But he's averaging ten ten and ahalf free mins. I think you
said that's incredible the last two.Yeah, in the series, in this
series, so it's still early on, but yeah, it's gonna be interesting.
And yeah, let let's just Iguess wide view on the NBA playoffs
here, mister crock So, actuallythis gives me something the yellow belt.

(38:37):
This gives me something to yellow beout. Mister Krockbot dives best food I had
in Nashville. He also asked earlyon in the show, best food I
had in Nashville. So I wasat a conference, so so much of
what I had was catered by theMusic City Center. I had pulled pork
at one point. That was phenomenal, incredible pulled pork. Yeah, I'll

(38:57):
go with pull pork. I'll gowith pull pork. I don't know exact
actly where it was from, though, so I'd have to look it up
and get back to you. ButI have a rant to get on this.
This is a perfect way to getto kind of to bridge the gap
here. The Oklahoma City Thunder iseverything we wanted the process to be.
Dodge said, here's the difference betweenwhat the Oklahoma City Thunder had the opportunity

(39:20):
to do and what the Philadelphia seventysix Ers had the opportunity to do.
The Oklahoma City Thunder started out theirprocess with two Hall of Fame players that
they were able to trade for liketen first round picks and Shake Oldess Alexander,
like the Oklahoma City Thunder had RussellWestbrook who they were able to give
to Houston. Houston gave them likefour first round picks and they were able

(39:44):
to bank that then just because KawhiLeonard wanted to go to the Clippers and
was like, hey, Clippers,you need to get Paul George. Only
because of that reason is Shake CochesAlexander on the Oklahoma City Thunder. That's
the only reason. And they luckedinto trading for Shay Gilders Alexander and a

(40:05):
bunch of picks. If they didn'thave Shake Gilders Alexander, they'd be like
what the Pelicans are, kind oflike the Pelicans had a bunch of picks.
They still have a bunch of picksgoing forward. For trading Anthony Davis,
trading a couple of those guys,trading Drew Holliday. But if they
didn't have Sga simply because Kawhi Leonarddemanded Paul George be traded to LA,
they'd have Chet, they'd have JalenWilliams. They'd be good. They'd probably

(40:29):
be like a play in team.But they loucked into an NBA superstar and
Shay Gilders Alexander in a way thatI just don't think anyone ever has in
my lifetime. You think about likeall the great NBA superstars, and they
either got drafted somewhere or they signedin free agency where they got traded after

(40:52):
demanding a trade. Like this wasa guy getting given up on in his
second or third year despite showing aton of ton of potential simply for the
reason that a superstar wanted to playwith their superstar friend and he was their
only tradable asset. So Oklahoma Citydid a great job Sam Presty. Obviously,
the Jalen Williams pick is incredible.They nailed the Jalen Williams pick in

(41:15):
the in the late lottery. Butoutside of that, they just they got
extremely lucky and nailed the Shay GildersAlexander thing. So h, let's take
a quick break because or maybe maybenot a quick break, a little bit
of a longer break. But onthe other side, coming up at noon

(41:35):
is our Phillies plug, the baseballbro our guy Bob Wankle, who you
can follow at Bob Underscore Wankle onTwitter, and you can check out all
of this stuff over at Crossing broadand check out the Red October Phillies newsletter.
On the other side, Bob Wankletells you why you need to bet
on Ranger Suarez to win the CyYoung Right now, back after this on

(41:59):
Fox Sports The Gambler, Welcome backto the Tough Coover radio show. I

(42:23):
Am Your Go with bark Evy Junior. Second hour here on The Gambler twelve
o'clock and we're bringing on one ofour favorite guests. It's been too long.
We've got our guy, Bob Wankle. You can follow him on Twitter
at Bob Underscore, Wankle's coach havecrossed up over on Crossing Broad and he's
putting out the Great Red October Philliesnewsletter. I know Jack Fritzen has been

(42:46):
mentioning on high Hopes a bunch,and I mean it's an absolute godsend for
guys like me who you know,you go one place and you get all
your stats, all your nuggets likethat. Bob, it's great to have
you back on how you doing,ah Man, good to you. I'm
a little busy, but that's good, right. And things are going well
here with this Phillies team. There'sa lot of interest and I think we're

(43:06):
gonna have a fun few months here. Man. Yeah, it's looking like
it. I mean, it's beena fun couple of years and hopefully,
you know, we don't have towait for October for all the fun this
year. And that's that's what itseems like, because I mean, man,
it's been there's so many fun storylinesto lead off with. But obviously
I DMed you after we were talkingabout having you on, and I said,

(43:27):
you know, it was before lastnight's game. I said, you
know, hopefully we have another funace Ranger start to talk about after the
game, he said, you know, we got just that the comments coming
in about Ranger Suarez world. Wejust live in it, Bob how I
mean, how unbelievable is this RangerSuarez development from being this guy who we've
seen this every postseason, but Imean we're now seeing it on a game

(43:50):
to game basis here in the regularseason too. It's as good as anybody
could have possibly expected. I mean, we know that he's a big game
pitcher. We hear Rob Thompson talkall the time about how has a steady
heartbeat and a slow heartbeat, andthat's great, but he to this point
had not been able to really piecetogether consistently, month after months, start
after start above average production. Andnot only is he doing that right now,

(44:15):
this is elite level production. Yougo and look at where he's at
among other National League starting pitchers inalmost every category, he's either at the
top of it or in the topthree or four. He's been remarkable.
And I'm sure it's been said,you know a number of times, but
you see it. How many guysin Philly's history, through their first eight
starts have started out seven to zeroin the ra under two. It's been

(44:36):
done once Steve Carlton. And whenyou start finding yourself in comparisons to Steve
Carlton and you're in pretty good company. Yeah, that's I know. My
dad had already sent me some Carltonstats this morning, And anytime my dad
is referencing Steve Carlton with a witha current pitcher, that's always a good
thing. But I kind of letoff the show. And obviously, do
I expect, you know, Rangeas far as to have a one five

(44:59):
ERA this year? Probably not.Do I expect Alec Bohm to be an
MVP candidate, Probably not. Butfrom what I've seen from both of these
leaps, I think they're at leastsustainable to the point that both of these
guys have leveled up and both ofthese guys have improved. This isn't just
a hot month. I guess I'llform it like this, which of these

(45:19):
kind of jumps between Alec Boom andRanger Suarez are you kind of buying into
and believing more or are you buyinginto both of them? I guess to
answer that question, I would putit this way. I would rather I
would rather bet on Ranger Suarez towin the cy young than I would Alec
Boom to finish in the top sevenof the nl MVP conversation. And I

(45:39):
don't mean that as a slight toBoom. I just don't think that he's
going to be able to hit threepoint fifty have an OPS around one thousand.
Don I don't see that. Butwhat I do see is a guy
that when it's all said and donethis season, will probably hit north of
three hundred, not just on theheels of the hot star. I think
that there's enough consistency there. Heapproached his ability to use all fields,

(46:00):
and he's driving the ball a littlebit more, he's starting to hook the
ball a little bit more with somepop, and he's just going to have
so many RBI opportunities. And forthat reason, I think the stat line
at the very end will look reallygood. But in terms of what Ranger
Suarez has done, the thing thatI would point to is that you see
a correlation between his preparedness and whatis happening on the field right now.

(46:23):
He just has not in years pastbeen ready to start the season for a
variety of reasons, whether he's hurt, whether he's laid in the camp,
because of passport issues, there's beena variety of things that have sort of
slowed him up from hitting the groundrunning, and now that he's had that
full spring and he was ready togo, I truly believe you're just seeing

(46:44):
a guy that is fully prepared.He was ready and is just pitching as
well as he possibly could at themoment. Yeah, and I mean another
guy who had been pitching as wellas he possibly could, and now it's
kind of up in the air.It's Spencer Turnbull and I think that's been
one of the fun kind of earlystorylines of this season. And now we

(47:04):
it's the only thing that you know, sports radio has to like debate it
all or be like, oh,what are they doing here? Because obviously
best team in baseball so far.But I'd be lying if I said I
loved how how this has been handled. Just inserting Walker back in, and
I think that's who's starting today here, and man, it's tough to believe
how good Turnbull was. I guesswhat's your assessment of how they've handled it

(47:28):
and how you think they'll handle itgoing forward. Yeah, it's it's great
for sports talk radio. It's theonly thing that any of us have left
if you're doing podcasts or you know, what else do you have to complain
about right now? I mean,heck, even Nick Castiani's The Last seven
Games is sitting two ninety six,so you don't even have that one to
reach back to you right now.So look, I mean, I don't
think it's ideal. There's a fewdifferent ways that you can look at at

(47:51):
first, from the Phillies perspective,you're talking about a guy that has not
thrown very much past couple of seasons. There is real data and real science
behind the idea of a guy that'sbeen throwing fifty sixty innings a year ago,
jumping up and possibly making thirty thirtytwo starts eclipsing one hundred and fifty
innings pitch. You are putting aguy potentially in jeopardy at that point in
terms of his overall health and howproductive will he be. Can he maintain

(48:15):
a level of quality or even elitelevel productivity. The answer to that,
based on the information that they haveis probably not, So you want to
protect the player a little bit.That being said, I think that there
are considerations with this. Does SpencerTurnbull understand that probably, but here's a
guy that's thirty one years old.He's never had this level of success in
his entire career, and as acompetitor, you have to kind of be,

(48:37):
I would say, somewhere between disappointedand furious that you've been removed from
this rotation as well as he's goingthis is an opportunity for him to possibly
parlay his performance into a multi yearlucrative deal moving forward, and they're taking
him out of the mix in themidst of an all time heater. So
that's a tough pill for that guyto swallow. From the clubhouse perspect you

(49:00):
want to win games. You wantto feel like that your best five guys
are going out there every time throughthe rotation. But that being said,
as a clubhouse that has a lotof veteran guys and good dudes in it,
you also understand that Tywan Walker isa pro. People here might not
love him, but he's a pro, and he's a guy that is a
good teammate and you shouldn't lose yourjob to an injury. So it's really

(49:22):
complicated in a lot of different ways, But the bottom line is is that
you have a guy that has beenexcellent for you and you don't really have
a defined role for him, andit might be the piggyback with Christopher Sanchez.
But we've seen Spencer Turnbull once inthe last ten days and it was
in the ten to one game.Is that really where you want to use
that guy? And so it createsa really uncertain situation and it's why every

(49:45):
time Taiwan Walker takes the ball,it's a big game for the Phillies,
it's a big game for him becauseyou just wonder, like how much margin
for error is there, how longdo they allow him to go where it
becomes obvious that he is not goingto be as per ductive Spencer Turnbull.
So it's very interesting. Yeah,it is going to be interesting to see

(50:05):
how maybe if Turnbull ends up beinglike a high leverage reliever, like maybe
that's kind of something that they couldfigure out a role for him. But
that feels a little funky. Itdoesn't feel like a perfect fit for that
in terms of his stuff. ButI mean, the bullpen at one point
I think had been a concern andit seems like you're they they have kind
of turned it around here as oflate, especially over the past I don't

(50:28):
know a week and a half orso. I guess I frame it this
way. If the Phillies are goingto go out and be aggressive at the
deadline, it feels like we're pastthe point of that being a starter.
I can't imagine the Phillies being aggressiveand trading for his starter. And you
look across the diamond that kind ofpositions to upgrade, unless of an injury,

(50:49):
and unless you go out to tryto platoon someone, there's not a
lot of positions that you could justgo out and trade for someone and be
like, all right, they're takingover the spot one hundred percent from this
guy. Is the only spot thatthey can really go out and add a
real impact guy the bullpen or wouldit be in the field. My number
one area that I would address rightnow is probably a high leverage, late

(51:13):
inning right handed reliever. Look SirAnthony Dominguez, shows flashes, batter to
batter, pitch to pitch. Yousay, that's the guy. I remember
that, that's the guy that helpedcarry them to a pennant two years ago.
But then you blink and it's threepitches in a row outside the zone,
inability to locate hanging slider, andso he has I think here about

(51:37):
two months to kind of prove thathe can regain that form on a consistent
basis. But even if he does, I still think that they could use
a little additional help from the rightside. Even with Kirkering. You know,
I think he's a guy that weall feel pretty good about, but
there have been some struggles there.You know, It's like they want him
to throw the fastball a little bitmore. He kind of falls in love
with sweeper a little bit too muchat times. It gets a little bit

(51:59):
predictable, and as teams adjust tothat, if he's unable to make an
adjustment, there could be a littlebit of a vulnerability there. Beyond Jeff
Hoffman, who I think everyone feelsreally good about. The other area that
you could obviously address, just issomebody else that could you could add into
the mix with your current outfield group. Does Nick Castiano sort of stabilize here?
There are some encouraging signs the pasttwo weeks or so. You have

(52:22):
to, I think evaluate that.But is it gonna be somebody that comes
in and knocks him out of themix entirely? Certainly not. And then
Johann Rojas is the guy that Ithink that everybody talks about and I've had
some mixed feelings there and some mixedevaluations of what we've seen. You know,
he gets off to a dreadful start, and I give him a lot
of credit for overcoming that. Youstart one for twenty two in a situation
where you're in a win now modeand a big market like Philadelphia, and

(52:44):
everybody's basically saying, myself included,I'm not sure that this guy can hit,
and so for him to be ableto stabilize under that circumstance, I
think is really impressive and says alot about him as a kid, a
lot about him as a competitor.He sort of buys himself some time,
gets hot for a couple of weeks, but then we see him sort of
go back into another lull. Andit's not can Johann Rojas play or does

(53:06):
he deserve a part on this teamor is he part of the future mix.
It's just it feels like you haveto strike now. You have to
get this done and finish the dealin twenty twenty four. And are you
absolutely certain even with the plus defenseplus plus defense, are we positive that
you want to go into August SeptemberOctober with him taking the bulk starts in

(53:30):
center field, and so I thinkthat's one thing that they will keep an
eye on here the next eight toten weeks. Yeah, that's probably the
spot that if they are going toit's gotta be someone to get in the
outfield mix. But kind of goingoff that question, and I know that
the other thing that they give sportsradio to complain about, and I'm guilty
of it, is the Stott Marshplatooning, and it seems to me I

(53:52):
get myself in trouble sometimes with theMarsh people because I love Brandon Marsh,
but I get more frustrated with theStott side of things because you look at
his splits over his career. Hisops is thirty three points higher against left
handed pitching, and they're sitting himeach time there's a lefty. It feels
like even more than it felt likedown the stretch last year. At times
it feels like he's taking a seat. I know wits around, but now,

(54:13):
especially without Trey, it feels evenless you know, reasonable to me
that he's taking a seat for whileSosa and Wit or in the lineup.
It feels weird. I guess what'syour stance on is it ridiculous that stops
being platooned? And then marsh Onis the other end of things. Is
marsh just so elite against right handedbats that you almost owe it to him

(54:34):
to see if he can kind ofdo what he did last year against left
handed bats and the limited opportunities hegot, Or what's your stance on the
stop marsh platooning. Yeah, soit's it's a pretty interesting dynamic. I'll
start with Bryson Scott. I wouldsay I'm more surprised at how they've handled
stop because a year ago it's sortof felt like, Wow, this is
a guy that's really taken the nextstep. He's a complete player. He's
an everyday guy in every sense ofthe word. So he's going to start

(54:57):
one hundred and fifty games for you, and right now now, they've actually
decreased his start usage by about tenpercent year over year, So it's been
a pretty significant decrease in the amountof games he started. And I know
that he hasn't been quite as good, but he's starting to progress. He's
starting to show signs of life andkind of be that guy you expect them
to be. The only thing Iwould say in this particular situation. This
weekend, they see lefties. Ibelieve over the next three games, if

(55:21):
I'm not mistaken, it's all leftieswith the Marlins, and then they'll see
a left hand or I believe inNew York to start next week. So
there's going to be opportunities for theseguys to get at bats against left handed
pitching. But I think the otherpart of it is is that you sort
of are in evaluation mood right now. It's like, what do we truly
have here? And so I thinkthat they want to try to balance it

(55:43):
out where everybody is getting opportunities earlyon. They're winning a lot of games.
It's sort of hard to argue withwhat they're doing right now given the
success that they've had. But Ido find it to be a little bit
curious that Scott is a has notbeen a put his name in and just
let it sit there. And Idon't know what exactly that's about. To

(56:04):
be quite honest with you, yeah, I don't either. I really don't
get it. I think Scott,I mean, even just like watching it,
I don't think he's I think he'sas good against lefties as righty's even
from the eye test thing and thenthe Marsh thing. Marsh is such an
interesting conversation because you look at howgood he's been against righty's over the last
couple of years, and it seemslike he's he's earned his opportunity to show

(56:29):
that he can devel If he's developedthis much against right handed pitching, he
at least deserves the opportunity to seehow much he has developed against left handed
pitching. And I do think hisOPS was much improved last year against left
handed pitching. I think it waslow sevens last year against left against lefties.
But the Marsh thing, I atleast can understand a little bit more.

(56:50):
But what's your stance on him aswell? Get getting kind of sad
a lot. Yeah, So,I mean Brandon Marsh against left handers this
season is four for twenty seven witha three eighty five oh PR. Right.
So now here's the question, though, is that enough of a sample
size to say we don't think thisguy can really do it on a consistent
basis against left hander So we're goingto protect him a little bit and then
use that opportunity to get other guysin the mix. You could make an

(57:14):
argument that his progress against right handedpitching has been such that it does warrant
more opportunity to demonstrate that he simplycannot do it. But again, this
is less about player development and moreabout winning games. And I think that
right now they feel like with themix that they have and the depth that
they have on this team. Whileyou want to give a guy who has

(57:35):
such great energy and is so likableand so productive against right handed pitching like
Brandon Marsh more opportunities, I thinkthey picked their spots like he's going to
start some games here this weekend againstlefties. But has Brandon Marsh been good
enough to warrant four straight starts againstleft handed pitching? I say no,
And I don't think it's absurd howthey're going about it. Yeah, that's
definitely fair. And I guess thatI wanted to ask about Trey Turner and

(58:00):
just to see, like, Ifeel like the news on the injury has
kind of been all over the placea little bit. It seemed like it
was like, oh, it's like, you know, just a couple of
week thing. And then Trey Ibelieve, came out and said it was
he expected to be it would besurprised if he was back before six weeks
is as you have you heard anythingyou know more recently about that, or

(58:21):
what's kind of your expectation for whenyou expect Trey back. I think you're
looking at probably like a mid Junereturn if everything kind of progresses as is.
There's there's again. And I don'twant to kind of be repetitive in
my talking points here, but thisis a big picture thing, right Like
this is about winning a championship,and so I think you have to absolutely
err on the side of caution witha the injury in particular just being a

(58:45):
hamstring in the nature of hamstring injuries, and then be his impact and what
he can do for this team.I just think you have to protect him.
So if he's talking six weeks,I don't think that's an unrealistic timeline,
but I could even see that maybeextending out another week or two beyond
that, maybe seven ten days beyondthe target, just to ensure that there's
not going to be you know,a relapse or a reinjury in this situation.

(59:07):
So it's disappointing because the start thathe had was simply phenomenal, and
I know he struggled and there's beensome inconsistencies defensively, but you know,
you're hitting north of three seventy,you can kind of forgive some of those
defensive shortcomings. I mean, he'sthat was the guy you thought you were
getting. And it's a shame becausehe was headed for an All Star Game
slam dunk. You know he stillcould get He still could get to the

(59:28):
All Star Game. It'll probably haveto he might have to get voted in.
But yeah, he was just sogood to start the year. And
I guess the I now that we'retalking it out, I guess there is
more sports radio topics than I thought. There is the shortstop topic with Trey
and do you like not expect?But what's your take on kind of the
argument? Like there's the one sideof the argument that says if Stot's better

(59:50):
at short and you know, Trey'splayed all over the field throughout his career,
you know you could you could stickhim at second if it does improve
the defense. Or are you onthe Ruby Tomorrow side of things where he's
just like he's playing shortstop. Youdon't ask the question, there's no conversation.
Yeah, it's tough, so Imean, certainly, when you look
at Trey Turner's athletic capabilities and whathe brings to the table, you expect

(01:00:12):
the guy to be able to playa quality shortstop. And it's just I
think there's a mental component to it. I think he has been in his
own head at times. We've seenthat on the offensive side of things,
for sure, so I think it'sfair to wonder that if that kind of
plays into the defensive part of itas well. I think long term,
Trey Turner is going to play secondbase for this team. I don't think

(01:00:32):
it's going to happen this season though, And I would point out, and
this isn't really a knock on BrysonStott. You know, Monday, he
plays in that finale against the Giants, and he saves a run early and
potentially more damage. He goes tohis left, makes a diving stop up
the middle, starts a key doubleplay and keep Zack Wheeler scoreless through that
first frame, and who knows wherethat game goes if he doesn't make that

(01:00:54):
play. Later on in the game, he makes a nice running catch out
in the left field chowl left fieldon a pup and you're like, all
right, this guy can play alittle bit. His rookie year, he
played eighty three games at shortstop.But if you believe in advanced defensive metrics,
like he had negative five defensive runsaved at shortstop as a rookie.
Now it was his rookie year,and you can get better. And I

(01:01:14):
thought overall, he acquitted himself prettywell there. But it's not like you're
talking about Ozzie Smith coming over toplay shortstop either, you know. I
mean, I think you're talking abouta guy that might be a little bit
more shorthanded than Trade Turner. Butjust where this team's at as well as
it's played veteran guy swinging the bat, well, I just don't know that
I would mess with that mix allthat much. But for the time being,
you'll see a lot of Bryson Stottat shortstop. I think you'll see

(01:01:36):
a lot of Whit Marrifield at secondbase. Yeah, no, I think
it'll be interesting. And Witt isa guy who I think a lot of
fans kind of gave up on earlyin the year because of how bad he
looked. What have you seen fromWit since he's kind of stepped into a
bigger role here, yeah, kindof what you expect to see from him.
He's not gonna blow you away statistically, he's not gonna hammer the ball
into the gaps on consistent basis.But he's a guy that can do a

(01:01:59):
bunch little things really well. He'sa quality defender, he can run when
he's on the bases, he canget on base on a consistent basis.
So I just think you're seeing asolid player. And look, and Unos's
has done a pretty nice job,But I think he's a guy that we've
seen in the past. The moretime he gets, you run the risk
of sort of over exposing him andsome of those weaknesses become a little bit
more pronounced. So I think thatthe Phillies are handling this right. You

(01:02:22):
see Sosa maybe twice a week.You probably let Marrifield take the rest of
the starts and with stot Over ashortstop. And I think when you pay
a guy, a veteran guy whowasn't All Star last year despite the way
his season finished eight million dollars,veteran type, that's why you brought him
here in case something like this happened. So he is going to get the

(01:02:42):
bulk of playing time so long ashe continues to do what he's done here
the last few weeks. Yeah,and then in terms of that, we
obviously Drake Ranger Schuarez is the bigstory in the rotation, and that's Caleb
Coffin. Everyone's going to talk about. That's you know, that's all him.
But another guy who kalb CoV thisyou know cooked up here is Christopher
Sanchez. And last year, obviouslyhe was the breakout story. But I

(01:03:06):
think there was plenty of Phillies fanswho came into this year, like,
you know, we saw Bailly Faltertwo years ago have a have a nice
second half of the year and thenbe kind of a gas can when he
showed back up the next year.And I think we all knew Sanchez was
a bit more legitimate. The stuffwas a bit more real than it ever
was with Falter, but there wasstill some kind of concerns where, you
know, could he keep this up? And it's almost flown under the radar.

(01:03:29):
He's obviously sitting here with a threetwo two era a little bit a
little bit higher of a whip thanyou'd like, But what have you seen
from Sanchez? And kind of howreal was the end of last year and
how real is some of the theelite starts. Obviously, his last start
against Toronto was fantastic after a coupleof rough ones. Where are you at
with Sanchez? Where I'm at withSanchez is it's just all about the change

(01:03:52):
up. It's an elite pitch.When he has a feel for it,
he can go to it time andtime again. Opponents know it's coming,
they still can't do anything with it. When he doesn't have a feel for
his change up, like he didnot against the Angels, he really he
just kind of avoided it all together. That's where he gets into trouble because
the sinker is very straight, it'sup a lot, it's very hittable,

(01:04:12):
and opponents have had a lot ofsuccess against it this season. But when
he's digging into that change up,he's a guy that I think can really
kind of get you through five sixinnings effectively. I think the knock on
Santez is always going to be cancan he kind of clear that fifth inning
hurdle and consistently gets you into thesixth consistently maybe give you seven innings.
I don't know that he's that guy, But when you're talking about a number
four, number five type starter.To get five really quality innings from a

(01:04:35):
guy like that, I think isa huge bonus. So I think what
you've seen from him so far isbasically what you can expect. You'll get
that occasional elite start, and thenyou'll get that start where it's sort of
five innings, three four runs andyou're like, all right, well it
wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. I think that he kind of just
flips back and forth between that,is there any more there in his game?

(01:04:56):
It's gonna take an evolution with thesinker, like he's got to throw
more a active sinker, has tohave a little bit more tumble late.
But you know, I think Ithink what you're seeing from him is overall
been pretty real. And then onelast question because I totally agree with you
mentioned earlier on if they're gonna ifthey're gonna go out and kind of add
at any spot, I think ithas to be right handed reliever, and

(01:05:16):
I think that there's just you lookaround at the bad teams, You look
around the teams that are going tobe selling this is this look. It's
shaping up to be a pretty terribletrade deadline market, and I get that's
kind of the what the MLB wantswith the UH the change to the more
playoff teams. They want more teamsnot selling at the deadline. That's going

(01:05:38):
to hurt the trade. You know, the hot stove. I mean,
guys like a manual Class A,they're not gonna be on the market.
Cleveland's too good. Like it feelslike every good reliever, every good closer,
is on a good team this year. You know a couple of the
names that you know, Mason Miller'son Oakland. It seems like they might
want to get rid of him.He's got a lot of control left.
You probably have to give up alot to get him. Is that something

(01:06:00):
you would do? Would you kindof give up a lot of prospects for
a reliever? Where we see relieversyear to year, it's it's tough.
I mean, gol you mentioned itearlier the twenty twenty two postseason, the
Phillies bullpen that they got through it. It was a lot of Sir Anthony,
a lot of Andrew Bilatti, alot of Connor Brogden, And where
are those guys now? It's likeit just seems year to year it's hard

(01:06:21):
to buy in on bullpen or wouldyou rather kind of go for the Tanner
Scott ken Lee Janssen kind of low, low risk kind of guys. I'd
be surprised if the Phillies invested agreat deal in a late inning guy,
because they feel like the combination ofHoffman and Alvarado can finish games, and

(01:06:41):
maybe even in time Kirker and canbe a guy that can finish games.
So I don't know that there's likea dead need for here's a guy that
gets us the last three outs.But you talked about it. I think
what makes it even more complicated isjust the lack of teams. There's just
not that many teams that look likeclearcut sellers. I mean, if you
look at the standings, and againthere's plenty of time. We have more
than two months and things will change, and we know that. But right

(01:07:03):
now, I mean, you lookaround, like the Angels will sell.
The Astros are ten games under,but I see I could see a world
where they get back into it,and they're a team that has some good
veteran guys that just don't think they'dbe real quick to sell. The White
Sox obviously, but that's kind ofit from the AL. And then you
go and look and obviously you havethis Marlins team, are there the Cardinals

(01:07:24):
a seller, I don't know,and then the Rockies. Those are the
only teams right now that you knowfor sure are going to sell. And
look, there is another team inthis mix in the American League East who
I think is going to win theAL if they can rectify one issue,
and that is closing baseball games.And their problem has been a very familiar
problem to us, and that's CraigKimbrel in Baltimore. And you look at

(01:07:47):
how stocked that O's minor league systemis and whoever the main guy is out
there, I feel like that theyhave more than enough to get that deal
done, Whereas we know that thePhillies are not quite as deep in their
minor league system, where if youtrade an elite level prospect for a guy
that's an impact reliever, can reallyhave a negative impact long term. So

(01:08:08):
I don't think that the Phillies aregoing to necessarily have the AMO to get
that type of deal done, butthey'll be in the market for somebody,
for sure. I know the clubsand the Dodgers have had some some bullpen
concerns as well. They're also obviouslygoing to be looking for help, and
it just feels like it's gonna bethree or four guys for you know,
six or seven teams that are reallyaggressively looking. So I almost think the

(01:08:29):
price for these guys, I mean, we saw them in the off season.
I think was it Robert Stevenson thatwent to the Angels, got like
four years, fifty million or somethingcrazy immediately got hurt. Like the market
for relievers has just went so crazy, and I think it's going to be
just like that at the deadline.Unfortunately, looks like that's the position we'll
be looking for. But you know, I think, uh, there's not
a lot to complain about when whenwe're finding, you know, what relievers

(01:08:50):
are going to be available to bethe complaint because obviously Phillies twenty seven and
twelve and Bob seems like we're gonnahave a lot of opportunities to talk some
Phillies based this year. We'd loveto have you on and every one should
go follow Bob on Twitter at BobUnderscore Wankle and check out the Red October
Phillies newsletter. Check out crossed Upand check out all this stuff over at

(01:09:11):
Crossing broad Thanks so much for comingon, Bob. Thanks man, I'll
talk to you soon. Thanks forhaving me for sure, for sure.
And there he is, Bob Wankleand his last tweet. By the way,
I I should have got into it. We mentioned it obviously. I'm
not telling you Ranger Suarez will winthe cy Young, but I can confidently
say it's wild. Nine guys havebetter odds in the moment. You can
go get Ranger at plus sixteen hundredto win the NL cy Young. And

(01:09:33):
I'm right there with Bob. Ithink there's only three guys who should have
higher odds than him or better oddsin him, and it's Wheeler Shoda and
maybe Dylan Cease. Maybe you couldargue Sonny Gray. But besides that,
Ranger is absolutely in that cy Youngmix. And on the other side,
we're gonna we're gonna do a littlebit of a grab a grab bag with

(01:09:53):
me and Jeremy, maybe a littlelittle NBA talk, maybe a little Marky
Pucks. I think Marky Pucks hasa couple of picks he wants to give
out on the show, and Ihave a couple of backlash. Hot takes
a couple uh w W takes fromlast weekend pay per view in France.
I don't think Jeremy's gonna like him. So on the other side, Tough
Cut Radio Show back after this onthe Gambler. The Gambler, Philly's Home

(01:10:17):
for all things sports gambling. I'mout of space. I okay, okay,

(01:10:38):
when how does he trouble come thatway? I mean the I know,
okay, okay, Hey, theprison busy him in the reel that
Hollis, let me take him out. Welcome back to the Topcover Radios.

(01:11:02):
Technical difficulties meeting. I had mylaptop muted. There. That's there.
There's that's the technical difficulties on thisside of thing. Mark every junior coming
at you remote, finishing up theTough Cover Radio Show before I go go
move into my new place. That'salways fun, right folks. Moving,

(01:11:23):
that's that's always a blast to moving. Yeah, I didn't even know that.
Yeah, it's a slow process.We've been it's a whole thing.
I don't even want to get toofar into it. Moving over to Plymouth
meeting so I'll be closer to thestudio, probably less less remote trips or
less remote shows. I should saymore trips into the studio to see my
guy Jeremy. So uh, that'llthat's good news going forward. But let's

(01:11:45):
do a little bit of a grabbag. We got a lot of just
like I got a lot of littletopics like I didn't. I didn't want
to do a full segment out ofthese things, but just a couple of
little topics I wanted to bring upand get Jeremy's take at the people's take.
Maybe by the way, a coupleof comments here throughout that Bob interview.
I just wanted to just wanted togive a little give a little shine
to we got my guy. MikePraznowski chiming in on Twitter, the praz

(01:12:09):
Master. My guy's a big Cubsfan. He has a comment if you
could pull it up on the screen, Jeremy, he said, you guys,
ever see Steve Carlton's nineteen seventy twoseason. He went twenty seven to
ten with a one nine seven ERAon a Phillies team that only won fifty
nine games. To Mike, ifI could tell you, if I had
a dollar for every time my fatherhas told me a story about Steve Carlton's

(01:12:33):
nineteen seventy two season. I'd bea billionaire, not just a millionaire,
I would be a billionaire. Iforget the exact amount of games he won,
like thirty two, thirty two oftheir fifty seven wins or whatever it
was. He was the pitcher inthe game. So it's truly one of
the most incredible I know he onlywon twenty seven technically, but it's one

(01:12:54):
of the most incredible sports seasons ofall time. If you dive into the
stats, it's right up there withsome of those like prime Barry Bonds hitting
season. It's one of those funBaseball reference some of those Pager seasons as
well in the early two thousands whenthe average ERA was like four. And
then another comment from mister Kroc potRanger, Suarez's fielding is hilarious. The
swagging confidence he has on comebackers andground balls his next level. Yeah,

(01:13:15):
everyone in the city's made the CliffLeague comparison, and it's so it's so
apt. He has so much CliffLee and the lefty that sits ninety three
ninety four has so much swagger,such a cool it's such a slow heart
beat. As Topper would say,and the fielding is incredible. He's my
favorite athlete in the city. It'snot even close. I've got two Rangers
Suarez jerseys, and every time Iwear it to the stadium, people were

(01:13:38):
like, whoa Suarez jersey? I'mlike, everyone here should be in Ranger
Suarez jerseys. And hopefully I wasjust talking to someone about this. Hopefully
this. I think he's gonna becomea popular jersey. I think we fans
love him. I mean, yousee the reaction he gets when he comes
off the mound for these starts.We absolutely love the guy. I mean,
we've been on these runs. Inthe postseason, I think you start
to see more Suarez jerseys popping upthroughout since bank. I don't think I'll

(01:14:01):
be alone any longer. But realquick, we talk professional wrestling on this
show quite but to the point wheremy friend Nikki the Good on Twitter,
big Music, barstool producer. Hehosts a wrestling podcast called The Meat Pop
Express with the guests we had ona few weeks ago, Big Trouble Ben
Bishop, who's six foot twelve.I forget what, I forget the whole

(01:14:27):
it's half a metric ton, orI forget what all his whole his whole
tagline is but Big Trible Ben Bishopis the man. He's an independent wrestler.
Those guys hosted the podcast. Nikkithe Good has been harassing me to
come on this show to talk wrestling. I was like, all right,
we'll do Clash at the Castle.So the Clash of the Castle preview,
big that's like a month away,but we're gonna have Nikki the Good on
to preview Clash at the Castle.And that comes up. I'm sure probably

(01:14:49):
a goother, No goother's the Berlinone. It'll be interesting to see what
they push going up to that show. But that plays into my point.
I gotta be honest with you,Jeremy, gotta be honest, Gotta be
honest with the people. I'm sickof the sick of the foreign shows.

(01:15:11):
You're ridiculous. I'm sick of theforeign shows. This this strategy of we're
going to do the Big Four inthe in New York, Philly, in
Vegas and the big cities, andno, Milwaukee's never getting a pay per
view again. We're never We're nevergetting a We're never getting a pay per
view in in you know, inwherever you want to say, why do
you want a pay per view inMilwaukee. We're never getting a pay per

(01:15:33):
view to Cincinnati. The people peoplein France and Berlin haven't had a pay
per view ever. They really hadlight of live events. Guess what the
WW is an American company. Iget that, we don't. I get
it's global, but let's let's notoverdo. I loved when they went to
Montreal and there was like a perfectstoryline playing in and you wrapped it up

(01:15:55):
with Sammy. When they went toAustralia and you had Rhea and you had
that person who can be the faceof it. You went to Wales and
you had Drew be the face ofit. I love that. But when
you go to France and you don'teven have like a French guy like that,
they just didn't do it for methis time. And I think we're
gonna have more of this where it'sjust we're going to a random place.

(01:16:16):
We're going to a global place.The fans go into business for themselves for
three hours and AJ Styles and CodyRhodes main event. I didn't watch the
show live. I had to watchit act. The fact I heard all
this praise for AJ and Cody andeveryone talk about how amazing the match was.

(01:16:36):
That was a raw match, likethat was a They could have had
that match as the main event onRaw and no one would have batted an
eye. I don't think it wasa special match at all. I think
AJ Styles has lost a step.I've said that on the show before.
I don't think he's the same workerhe was when he was having that series
of feud where he was carrying JohnCena seven years ago. I just don't

(01:16:57):
think he's that guy anymore. Andhe's not interesting character. I wasn't in.
I don't know what the feud waswith Cody and aj go AJ one
the number one contender match that was, that was what the feud was like.
And for that to be the mainevent of like a foreign show,
like I thought they struck out onthat, and I thought the reaction to
the match being so amazing. Ididn't get it at all. I didn't
people just like the crowd, andto me, I think the crowd took

(01:17:19):
away from that match. We're singingthe national, the national anthem or whatever
it is. When we're trying todo big spots. We're not even reacting
to one two like false finishes likeI hated it. I hated the show.
I gotta be honest, I absolutelyam one the total opposite spectrum.
I think I think that if thatcrowd wasn't a part of Backlash, I

(01:17:44):
think that I I think that wouldhave been a horrible show. I think
that I think what made this showis the crowd. You know, it's
it's a B level show. It'sjust backlash, you know, not the
biggest things are going on. Butthis crowd. These type of crowds are
what make it feel like it couldbe in could be an A tier show.
Cody Rhodes versus AJ Styles, Iget it. It wasn't the absolute

(01:18:06):
best match. That's probably like athree and a half star match, like
if it was on Raw or SmackDown, right, I think that crowd brought
it up. I think that's whatmade that match actually a lot better.
I think that if we were inMilwaukee for this match, we wouldn't have
even been talking about this event onthis Saturday. I just feel bad for

(01:18:26):
the people of Milwaukee, the peopleof Cincinnati, the people of San Francisco,
like the people the people that goto Milwaukee and Cincinnati, people that
travel thirty thirty miles or three hundredmiles to go to the show. No
one in Milwaukee's really caring about isn'tcaring about it as much as people like
in France, people are driving fromall around the country because they haven't seen
a show like this and they didn'tlose energy at all like that. I

(01:18:48):
think that's one of the best everywhere. So everyone's gonna get to see the
show. It's not even gonna bespecial in like three months. Like hey,
there's just so many foreign shows comingup. It's all foreign shows.
It just feels like we're we Ithink the market's been deluded. I think
it was more fun when we didthis like twice a year. I'm not
even counting Saudi. That's like awhole other conversation. But that's yeah,

(01:19:10):
that's the whole other thing. Butit's yeah, I had to get it
out there. I thought they wentinto business a lot for themselves. I
think the other crowds, like theMontreal crowd, was engaged in the show
and they were incredible and insane,but they weren't going to the business for
themselves and like missing false finishes todo like songs. I don't know,
it was just a little weird tome. I didn't think it hit the

(01:19:32):
same as this like some of thecrazy crowds have recently. But a couple
of Twitter polls I've been I've beengetting in the Twitter poll game. I
think it's always fun and I'm I'mworking on some quarterback rankings. Me and
Shane Half doing our podcast over onELP Sports. By the way, go
check out what Shane Half has goingon. He's starting a new Eagles podcast

(01:19:55):
network kind of to replace the BGNRadio side of things. A lot of
people lost their jobs over at BGNRadio. We had a podcast with BGN
Radio that was discontinued after the draftbecause Vox Media has cut down in general
on all those not just BGN,but all of those team sites in general
throughout kind of the industry. It'spretty sad stated journalism. But go check

(01:20:19):
out what Shane AT's doing because stufflike this is what makes kind of journalism
and stuff like that go around.And he's creating that Eagles podcast network and
hopefully bringing in a lot of thesame people and a lot of the people
we loved from BGN, like JohnnyPage. He's doing on the Shane Page
over there, with Shane Still.I think chalk Talk will probably end up
over there as well. The podcastShane and I do and our BGN Draft

(01:20:43):
pod when it's time will be overthere as well. So that's just a
quick plug. Go check out theShane Half, Go check out his Twitter,
Go check out his new adventure he'sdoing. And always check out mister
Crocbot. He's been chiming into Twitter. Check out everything he's doing over at
EOP Sports, where chalk Talk isand I will continue to be one hundred
percent. So I just wanted togive those guys a couple of shout outs
there. But I was talking toShane Haffen. We're working on our off

(01:21:08):
season plan and top We always doour quarterback list kind of early on in
the off season, just as afun kind of episode while there's nothing going
on. So I'm working on myquarterback list, and I'll throw this to
you, Jeremy, without without givingany idea of where I landed, without
you breaking out a quarterback list totell me you know who's better than you.

(01:21:29):
When I say the name Kyler Murray, is he top ten, is
he top fifteen, is he toptwenty, or is he none of the
above, I would say probably topfifteen if I ended I think top fifteen
is probably where without looking at aqbulas, without trying to go through too
much of my head, I wouldsay probably a top fifteen QB. That's

(01:21:54):
interesting. I think that's probably whereI ended up as well. I think
I had him right around twelve whenI went through it and did the list
on my own. That it getsinto an interesting like would you rather have
Kyler? Would you rather have JaredGoff? Would you rather have Kyler?
Would you rather have Kirk Cousins?Like That's kind of where it gets interesting,

(01:22:16):
Like right in that fringe top tenrange, right after the top ten,
and I put Trevor Lawrence and JustinHerbert at ten and eleven, and
I feel like after that is whereI had Kyler slotted in, ahead of
Golf and ahead of Kirk, becauseI do think the upside is probably still
just a little bit higher. Imean, when we saw Kyler like they
started what like ten and one,eleven and one that one year, like

(01:22:40):
when we saw him at his peak, it was it was pretty darn good.
And it seems like now you've gotMarvin Harrison Junior there maybe you can
start to see him get back tothat. The other quarterback, and it's
a fellow Oklahoma, a fellow formerOklahoma quarterback. And I put this poll
out there and I actually was unsurewhich quarterback would get more support, And

(01:23:01):
the other one I did was BakerMayfield. And I put Baker Mayfield,
is he top ten, top fifteen, top twenty, or bottom twelve?
And thirty nine percent of people saidtop fifteen, forty four percent of people
said top twenty, and only sixteenpercent of people either said top ten or

(01:23:23):
bottom twelve. Baker's a tough onefor me. I had him come in
at nineteen. That's probably what Ihap him. Around two. I was
gonna say top twenty. He barelyfit in the top twenty for me.
And I had some people chiming andsaying he's fringe top ten, and he's
definitely top fifteen, but closer toeleven or twelve. I think people are
going a little nuts on this BakerMayfield. I I'm ready to finally plant

(01:23:48):
my flagger. Tampa is gonna havea big regression season this season. I
think we've seen with Baker. It'san every other year thing we've seen with
Baker, but you know, it'swhat it is. He's been incredibly inconsistent,
whether you want to blame that oninjury situation, he has not been
able to string two good years togetherback to back, and I struggle to

(01:24:13):
see why he'd be able to again. I know that they have a lot
of the same team, a lotof that same team's older. They've lost
their offensive coordinator who I think wasa huge help for Baker there. I
think Tampa is going to be,at best the third best team in that
division. I don't think they're goingto be as good as Atlanta. I
don't think they're going to be asgood as New Orleans. I think they
take a step back after winning threeor four straight divisions. I don't think

(01:24:35):
they win it again. I thinkBaker takes a big, big step back.
And then my last one i'll throwout there. I haven't even put
this poll out there. Jalen hurtstop five, top seven, top ten,
or top fifteen, top five.He's number five for me, he's
still number five. If you wantedto say he's number six or seven behind.

(01:24:57):
I think it was Dak and Staffordthat I had him ranked right in
front of. If you want torank Dak or Stafford ahead of him.
I won't go nuts. I willsay, like to the Dak point,
I think, like, whatever youwant to use against Jail and you could,
you could easily kind of you couldkind of flip it and use against
Dak. So yeah, this Staffordthing, you want a super Bowl.
So that messes up the conversation.But just wanted to throw a couple of

(01:25:20):
those, a couple of those outthere. I think putting Dak above Jalen
Hurts is absolutely lucrative. I don'tthink. I really hope there's not.
I'm cres your poll. Yeah,I'll put it up. I'll put it
up. But you said lucrative,it's ludicrous, ludicrous. He's tired back
there in the studio, Jeremy,but he's talking on mute. Now.

(01:25:42):
Look, I really am getting tired. Don't worry. We only got like
five minutes left. But we dohave a friend who likes to come on
the show, and uh, he'sgot some picks on the show today,
and I think than I gotta golet him in. So, Jeremy,
if you could, if you couldvamp in and intro our guests, that'd

(01:26:03):
be great. Guys, we havesome really special guests that always calls Mark
some pretty bad names. So let'sget ready to hear him Marky Bucks.
What's up your hoser? Hey,I told your name Colin instantly, Hey,

(01:26:25):
I'll call you names. I'm notfair, I'm not worried to call
you names. You want to,you wanna fight, hoser, I'll bring
it out right away. Seven o'clockCarolina going down North Carolina. Sorry to
say the New York Rangers are awagon plus one thirty two. I get
there's a dead cat bounce game expecteddown three to zero. Rangers are the

(01:26:45):
far better team. Give me plusone thirty two there to take care of
business against Carolina over five and ahalf, three and one to the over.
Sorry in the last four for nY five and two in the last
seven, three and one to theover in the last four for Carolina.
Sorry to say they're seven and infour to the over in their last eleven
a and then my last one ofthe day, My last, my last
bed of the day. When itcomes to the hockey. Ten o'clock Colorado

(01:27:09):
Avalanche team total over three and ahalf goals against the Dallas Stars. They
just their absolute wagon when it comesto score, and the puck in the
net, pucks on net all daylong. You look at how many goals
they've been scoring as of late,they got they'd been scoring a ton of
goals. They got five plus goalsfor of their last five games. They
scored three goals last game in theloss. They're bouncing back well in here

(01:27:30):
A sorry, I lost my accentthere. I'm out of here, yo,
hozer, I told your name conInstantly the accent goes all over the
place. I don't know. Yeah, I think that guy's really losing it.
Did know that Marky Pucks was aPhillies fan. I saw him when
the Phillies have backwards earlier. Hewent ohing three last night. He doesn't
even know where he is. Imean he's like, uh, the hockey

(01:27:53):
been, he's been good on thehockey, yeah, I mean he was
like eight and three going into theinto that out the win though, so
he's he's just sleeping. He's gonnabe singing with the fishes if the if
the Rangers don't win, or ifthe if the Avalanche don't score goals,
whatever the case may be. He'sgot the Bruins to win. The Stanley
Cup. They're down to one.Now he's got the Canucks to win the

(01:28:15):
Stanley Cup for for a nice littlechunk of change. They lost in the
overtime last night, blew a leadagainst the Oilers. It's a shame.
It's a shame. That series hasbeen incredible for anyone who hasn't been following
Edmonton and Vancouver. Vancouver fans arenuts and this is the first time they've

(01:28:38):
seen playoff hockey in in uh inVancouver since like twenty fourteen. So the
one year they made the playoffs wasthe COVID year. So it's been a
decade since they had playoff hockey infront of them. They have been going
nuts. The first two games theycame back from down four to one and
won the game five to four atthe very end. And then in Game

(01:28:58):
two they blow it and they losefour to three in overtime. But now
it goes back to Edmonton. Theseare two long suffering kind of teams.
All the candidate teams are long suffering. The Vancouver Canucks have never won a
Stanley Cup. I didn't know that. I feel like all I just assume
the Canadian teams have all had alot of success in the past. The
Canucks a little bit newer than theother the other Canadian teams. I think

(01:29:18):
they came around in the seventies,so Canucks never won a Stanley Cup.
I'm really pulling for them. Ilike the logo. I bet the plus
fourteen hundred I think it was,so I hope they can. They can
figure it out and take care ofbusiness there. So I'm going with the
Canucks and the Bruins. I'm givingup on the Panthers are way better than
the Bruins. That series is over, it's gonna be Panthers Rangers, and

(01:29:40):
hopefully it's hopefully it's Avalanche and Canucks. That's that's what I'm hoping for.
But any anything else that we're leavingon the table here, Jeremy, Well,
you got something, I do gotone more thing, and you have
seats tonight. It's it's it's apretty boring card, even even the main
event, and that's the one betI have today. It's a little bit

(01:30:02):
of a throwaway, but Derek Lewisis in the main event with Rodrigo.
I'm not gonna act like I knowwhat it's what was it? I know
Derek Lewis Derek Lewis is fun,big dude heavyweights. He's so fun to
watch, but he likes getting firstround knockouts a lot. That is what
he does. He is the favoritetonight, but I'm gonna do Derek Lewis

(01:30:24):
to win by ko slash tko inround one for plus two hundred odds.
I just see him winning by nine. You could do by knockout regardless,
but that's only about plus one twentyright now. It's it's just bound to
happen. He's he's probably going towin this fight. But if it's not,
if this is gonna be a fiveround fight and Derek Lewis cannot go
very far, if Rodrigo can survivethree rounds with Derek Lewis, he might

(01:30:47):
win this fight by decision. I'mnot really sure. I don't see Derek
Lewis not knocking him out that fast. But if it does go past round
three, I don't know. DerekLewis might actually lose this one. But
I'm gonna bet Derek Lewis first roundknockout at plus two hundred odds. Like
it. Like it. I nailedmy my combat sports pecks I gave out

(01:31:08):
here last week Aldo one won hisfight in UFC and uh Canealo the Canelo
one by decision. I think thatwas the what I gave out on that
one. So Canelo won by decisionand Aldo one. So I'm you know,
I know fights. That's that's yeah, that's what it comes down to.
Mark. I always say this.We watched some of it at a

(01:31:30):
bar in Nashville. I always saythis. I'm not I'm not a genius
or an expert when it comes tocombat sports. But it takes about like
three or four fights of a payper view until you're just like, oh,
that guy's got a nasty left andyou know the the reach advantage,
and you start talking like your TeddyAtlas Joe Rogan. It's so funny.
But that's part of the fun ofgoing out and watching these pay per views.

(01:31:54):
But that's gonna do it for theTough Cover radio show on the other
side, back to Fox Sports Radionext week. We will have a fun
one for you. I'll hopefully beback in studio. We'll have a lot
to talk about. That'll be headingtowards the conference finals at that point,
and hopefully Phillies will still be thebest team in baseball. So that's for
Jeremy back in the studio. Formarket you care. Follow me at Marke

(01:32:15):
r Junior Underscore. Follow the Gamblerat Fox PHL Gambler, subscribe on YouTube,
follow them over on iHeart. That'sgoing to do it tough cover country,
Let's Ride,