It's our job to talk about the Cardinals, so we're going to talk about the Cardinals, but holy cow is this painful. Other teams, however, are actually holding our interest with some big time series around the league.
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Episode Transcript
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It's over time now for high noons. So good with Nate Lucas and Bob
Ramsey man ought to do what hethinks is best on five ninety the Fan
and five ninety the Fan dot com. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Happy. What is today? Wow? It's Thursday and that brings us a
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day closer to the weekend, whicheverybody is looking forward to. Always a
good thing, always a good thing. Yeah, because we got a big
series against the Royals to watch.That's it. Yeah, the Royals and
Cardinals, two last place teams.Uh, but that's in Kansas City.
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Yeah, it's definitely in Kansas City. I know that. I was about
to say, you want to knowsomething I don't know. Come on,
you're supposed to know everything, man, But look, we're at the point
in this season it's Pirates zone inthis city. Okay, it is August
and September where you're looking around,like, who's in the lineup, who
are we playing? What was thescore last night? I don't know.
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The good thing is, uh,the Saint Louis Rams pick up. You
know they're in training camp right now, so they play their first preseason game
this week. Oh, the Ramsdo the Rams. Oh, but they
relocated in Los Angeles. I guesstechnically the Kansas City Chiefs. Are you
know who play their home Missouri Missouri'steam, Yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs.
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So I assume that in the rareinstances when the Cardinals were not playoff
contenders in August and September, thatthis would be training Camp Central this time
of the year on the radio.Yeah, getting excited about another one in
fifteen Saint Louis Rams team. Oh, I gotta tell you, I think
something's gonna be different with Scott Nahanthis year. Yeah. People in the
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Lenahan era actually showed up with paperbags over their heads. Oh that's how
bad that guy? They pulled theAnts move. Yes, that's correct.
I've seen a few out in Detroittoo. I feel like the Lions have
had their fair share of paper bags. Hey not this year for the first
time in ford Field history, whichis two thousand and two, sold out
season tickets in Detroit, Is itreally? Yeah? They are buying in.
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They are all in this year inDetroit. Let me tell you,
I will be betting against the Lionsfrom a week one on. And you
know who they played a week oneyour favorite Jacksonville Jaguars. No, they
played the Kansas City Chiefs. Oh, well, that's a good start.
And when that line opened, Ithink it was like six, maybe even
less. And I am going Ithink the Chiefs are gonna absolutely hammer the
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Detroit Lions. So yeah, that'sin what four weeks or so from Yeah,
yeah, previo week one betting linesfour weeks out. That's what the
Cardinals are doing to us. Butyou know what, it's okay, Oh
the Cardinals are so bad. Theywon yesterday. Why are they even trying
to win games? I mean literally, at this point, they should be
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trying to lose every game so theycan get the best draft pick for next
June. Well, then you haveto tank the lineup. Now. You
want everybody who's on the field actuallytrying to play hard, you want that,
but you just want them to playhard with a very specific subset of
the roster. So I mean,what are you gonna do bench Nolan Arronado
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and Paul Goldschmith That does make anysense. Can't do that? So the
way to do it if you wantto tank. And by the way,
I'm not even really in on tanking, because do I think that having the
sixteenth draft pick is all that differentthan the twelfth draft pick. I don't
really care, because whoever you draftin the MLB draft you're not gonna see
for three or four years anyway.So after the fact, are we gonna
be talking about, oh man,they really should have lost those last ten.
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No, we never do that's athat's a foot all discussion. We
don't do that in baseball. Yeah, but it's been so long since the
Cardinals had a top ten pick.Yeah, that it is. I mean
it's the most intriguing aspect of theremaining however many games they've got what forty
games left or so thirty seven Ithink I think they're one fifteen in.
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There's a forty seven there. Therereally is no other interesting element to this
baseball team to me. And untilthat's it, it's Mason win. When
Mason Winn comes up, who Isaw I was dealing with maybe some growing
tightness and it's not played. Uhin the last week, they're saving him,
say, resting him. Yeah,it's like before the All Star Game,
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all the All Stars all of asudden have like a blister on their
finger or something like that, andthen weird, they're they're pitching in in
an exhibition game in the All StarGame. Funny on that works. They're
resting the Mason Winn for August nineteen. That's definitely, you know, something
that I'll be intrigued by when hemakes his way to the big leagues sopefully
sooner then later. August nineteenth isthe date that is expected to be whatever
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contractually makes the most financial sense forthe cheap ball club. That's when Mason
Wynn will likely come to Saint Louis. And I'm also intrigued by a boy,
poor Wilson contracts. This guy justcontinues to get beat up. You
see, last night he took apitch and he has a move to the
hockey style mask good, which isgood, you know, after he got
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hit in the head on a kneeand a hat backswing. However, last
night a pitch bounced up and gothim in the throat. Caught him right
apple. He didn't have the littleplastic dangly thing hanging down. Sure didn't.
Oh no, yeah, yeah,the ball sack of the catcher's masks.
That what you're talking about. Yeah, excuse my French. I was
a catcher growing up, so Irelate to just you get nicked. It's
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a weird angle, it's a foultip. It's the ball bounces in front
of it. It's a fifty eightfoot curveball that bounces too high and it
catches you above the chess guard.So I completely understanding, simpathize with any
catchers who get beat up. Ohit's a brutal position. It's thankless job,
I know. And for a guylike Yadya Molina to do it as
long as he did, I mean, Stephen Vote was a catcher, then
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he wasn't and then went back tocatch England his old age. I'm like,
dude, like you got to dothe Joe Mauer plan. You're a
catcher and then you're a first basemanfor a long time. I'll never become
the new position. Forget a gamewith the Springfield Cardinals. Luke Voight,
who caught at Missouri State, bigboy, Yeah, whoa all right?
Well, the Springfield Cardinals were alight, little light at the catcher position.
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I think somebody got promoted to TripleA and they had a catcher,
and a catcher got hurt. Nowhe didn't get hurt bad enough to have
to leave the game, but hegot hurt and they didn't have a secondary
catcher, so the emergency catcher wouldhave probably been Luke Voight. And after
I guess it was maybe the nextday or something. I went to Luke
and I said, were you gettingready to, you know, go put
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your gear back on? Maybe itwas back in the Missouri State clubhouse,
not the Springfield Cardinals clubhouse, whichare adjacent right next to each other,
and he goes, Buddy, mymind was racing. I did not I
when I took that gear off forthe last time at Missouri State, I
never wanted to put the catching gearback on. But he definitely was the
emergency catcher if whoever got hurt.I can't remember all the names, but
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didn't actually have an emergency catcher.You never know who's going to be when
your mom was Taylor Motter. Somepeople love it, though some people who
don't do it often no, itsounds like he was a full time catcher
at Missouri State. But the peoplewho don't do it often love it,
like, oh, I'm gonna getback there and kind of experiment and it's
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cool. I loved playing catcher becauseyou can see the entire field, so
I felt like I was playing andwatching the game at the same time,
and so I kind of loved likequarterbacking in a little bit. I could
be vocal and stuff like that.But yeah, I didn't enjoy the part
where the pitcher was throwing the ballin the dirt and I had to let
me move. I wasn't very skilledat that tough job. And I see,
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I see if some of these Isee major leaguers do it. It's
like a ninety five mile an hourfastball in the dirt, and these guys
are like perfect timing getting their bodyin front of it. I'm like,
I don't even understand how you're readand react can be that quick to know
exactly like a ball, a ballthat is going to be just barely above
the ground that you can just kindof backhand, versus a ball that actually
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is going to go in the groundand you have to dive over and get
your entire body in front of Howcan you read it that? Well,
never understood it. But these guysare wizards. They must have that is
beyond what I'm looking at. Icaught a little bit, but it was
bizarre because I was left handed,but growing up playing at right up the
street, at Saint Genevieve du Bois, CYC. We had a kid,
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Chris Pacongo, who could really humit. This kid was a pretty good
pitcher, and I guess I wasthe only crazy one that was brave enough
to get back there and catch theman. So whenever he would pitch,
I would. We had to findlike a left handed catchers mint, which
I'm sure I still have somewhere parents'garage or something like that. But that's
a rarity to find a left handedcatcher's mint. Yeah, no kidding.
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And another reason why as a minorityin this country, it's very difficult.
And your mitt is somewhere at playedagainst sports somewhere somehow passing it on to
the next generation, because there's onlyone left handed catcher's mitten. St.
Louis. The were the absolute worstwas when you were umpiring and there was
a catcher behind home plate who wasnot capable, and you are you are
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essentially now the catcher, whether yougot the big pillow, which I preferred,
and because the catcher had no opportunityof catching the ball, and every
single pitch would go right past thecatcher. So then you're just kind of
doing the best you can to blockthe ball from going all the way to
the backstop, so you could speedit up a little bit. In brutal
Saint Louis head in a summer wheremaybe you know you had a few pops
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the night before, so you're sweatingout a little bud heavy and man,
and then the kid in front ofyou can't make the catch. It's like,
good lord, do you guys haveanybody on your team that can catch
the ball. Instead, you're puttinga little Tommy back here. Yeah,
Tommy. The shin guards don't evenfit Tommy. They're sliding off his legs.
Find somebody to catch the ball.No, I noticed that a lot
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of Major leaguers, if not allof them, don't use knee savers on
the back of their shin guards.Yeah, those are those like outlawed.
I don't know, because why wouldwhy would you not use those? You
can just like sit on them.They're awesome. Is that the purpose of
knee savers? Well, no,you're supposed to be more active and engaged
in the game than just just likesit there and be lazy. But they
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felt better. They'd rather do thatthan do the like one knee on the
ground, one leg kicked all theway out, because I feel like you're
begging for an injury if you're justexposing your groin like that. Well,
here's another little problem with those kneesavers that catchers use on the back of
their shin guards to rest their thighsor knees or whatever, take a little
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weight off their their legs, andlike C y C ball, you're constantly
chick changing positions. So that means, you know, maybe another catcher has
his own shin guards and you gotto take those knee savers off and put
him on his shin guards. Andthen it's like, let's go. And
then the picture hasn't warmed up.It's like, where are we on this
time clock? Are we at ahunt a minute or an hour and forty
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five seconds? Because I'm calling itthe second we get there. We gotta
move this thing along. Hustle in, hustle out. Boys. What's the
YC stand for? Ah, that'sa good question, Christian youth something something.
Yeah, I really don't know.I should know, considering I played
a long time. So Cardinals dowin yesterday and it didn't go all that
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well for Dakota Hudson, but eitherway, they win the ball game against
the Rays. And as much asI think that the Rays are a good
team, I gotta tell you it'snot that inspiring to watch. Well,
maybe it's because the Cardinals are justawful, but it's just not like a
place where on the road you're sogung ho about watching, like, Oh,
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Cardinals are at Tampa Bay, Igotta watch this game. It's just
they're just not that interesting of ateam, I suppose. And when they
use an opener, which they didyesterday, that did not go all that
well for Jalen Beaks. He wasthe opener for Tampa Bay. Two innings,
three hits, two runs, awalk, not great. And then
the cat that came in after him, mister Kelly. Kevin Kelly, who
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has pitched well this season for theRays, was not very good either.
Two innings, five hits, threeearned runs. Cardinals Dakota Hudson got the
win. Five innings, seven hits, three earned runs. He walked one
and struck out two, but gaveup two bombs and both of those came
off the bat of Siri, whoI liked that kid man. He's a
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good center fielder, Jose Siri andhis bat been a little week this season.
But all you need to do isgo up against Cardinals pitching to reinvigorate
your offense, I suppose. Andhe hit the ball out a couple of
times. But yesterday newpar hit ahome for the Cardinals. He's twelfth of
the year and pretty well routed effortsix runs on nine hits for Saint Louis
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and they got it done yesterday sixto four against the Tampa Bay Race.
So rubber match set forth today andthat'll go. I do actually kind of
like the five forty start time.You do have some day baseball going on
right now. Houston and Baltimore tiedat one, and Atlanta in Pittsburgh,
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with Atlanta leading that ball game fourto nothing in the top of the third.
Cardinals and raised tonight at five fortyCentral time. And the storyline,
if you read the paper this morning, is that Matthew libertur is going to
get the ball for the Birds.And of course Libertory came over in the
trade from the Rays, former firstround pick by the Tampa Bay Rays,
and the left hander who has hadmostly down season one and four with a
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six point nine three r in ninestarts this season for the Cardinals going up
against his former clubs. The quotesin there there are a couple of interesting
ones. I thought Adam Wainwright,who was a former first round pick by
the Atlanta Braves, was dealt overto Saint Louis and the JD. Drew
trade. He referenced, how youknow it can be tough on a young
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pitcher, like, not really understandingwhy. I mean this organization they thought
so highly of me, they tookme in the first round, and now
I'm going to an organization I don'tknow anything about blah blah blah, So
there can be a learning curve there. And then I thought that the quote
from Oli Marmel was intriguing when hesaid, we're just trying to unlock what
we know is inherent. With aguy like Matthew Libertour, who's got a
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nice fastball, you should have goodsecondary pitches. But as I even think
about his best start of the yearfor the Cardinals, which was his initial
start way back against the Milwaukee Brewersabout two months ago. In fact,
let me pull up for the actualdate of that start against Milwaukee. It
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was on May seventeenth, where hewent five innings, three hits, and
struck out six and you're like,oh, man, all right, maybe
Libertory is finally gonna turn the cornerhere and start pitching. Well, well,
that didn't really last because the Dodgershad their way with him, and
then Cleveland had their way with him. Texas, San Francisco, the Mets,
the Cubs, the Yankees, andMiami did a number to him.
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And in his last start five earnedruns over five and two thirds against the
Minnesota Twins. And remember that wasthe day after Hudson pitched a pretty darned
good game against the Twins, andlibertur had a chance to come out and
win the series against Minnesota and hegot beat around. So and when you
add in two walks, that's anotherthing. In fact, the Libertor has
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not had a game this year inwhich he has not walked a batter,
So that's concerning. And my originalpoint about going back to that May seventeenth
start against Milwaukee, you look atthe breaking ball pitches that Libertore throws,
and they're just up in the zone. And there's not a pitcher in the
big leagues that can throw a curveballthat stays up in the zone and doesn't
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have enough ben do it that majorleague hitters aren't going to absolutely tee off
on and so you know, he'sgot to get those secondary pitches refined to
the point where they've got enough bitewhere he can work off his fastball,
but then obviously mix in his secondarypitches to be effective and whatever that means,
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unlock, unleash whatever internal capabilities thatthis organization believes Matthew Libertory has.
We're gonna need to see it overhis final handful of starts here in the
remaining games left of the regular season, because Matthew Libertory at this point has
done absolutely nothing to prove to methat he deserves a spot in the rotation.
And he's done really nothing other than, you know, prove that he's
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an arm in the organization, that'sbeen very underwhelming. And when you get
to spring training next March, ifhe is a guy that the organization is
looking at to be in the rotation, which we know has plenty of openings,
and they've acknowledged publicly that it's goingto take more than the guys the
horses they have in the stable rightnow. But if you look at history,
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you don't feel all that good aboutwhere the organization is going to go
to to try to bring in someof those external assets, so that that's
the concern, and I've got toI'll play some clips here coming up.
I thought Bernie Michel has had abombshell opening monologue from yesterday in which I
think you should go back and listento all forty minutes of it, because
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he just tore down the entire strategythat has not worked for the Cardinals since
this season began. And I maintain, and I know this is kind of
like crying over spilled milk, andI suppose there's no way to truly prove
this, but you could see thebreaks in the foundation, the cracks in
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the foundation, even going back tolast season. But the Cardinals defense last
year was much better than it wasthis year. In fact, Bernie brought
the numbers to prove that their defensiveratings have slipped to one of the worst
in Major League Baseball. And thenyou combine that with the balls the batting
average on balls putting play by opponents, and the Cardinals are dead last this
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year in the big leagues from thatstandpoint. So when you combine a worst
defense with a pitching staff that doesn'tmiss bats and you're relying on good defense
and that's not the case. Andthe average against Cardinals hitters on balls putting
play is over three twenty. Thatis like a terrible mix. And you
don't have to be a genius tofigure that out. It's like two plus
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two equals four kind of thing.And apparently this organization was just blindsided by
the movement in Major League Baseball thatif you don't start acquiring guys that miss
bats and can find the strike zonerepeatedly, you're going to be behind the
eight ball. And that's how thewhole house of cards collapse on the Cardinals
to the point where they are rightnow with a forty nine and what is
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their record forty nine and sixty fourI believe after last night is that what
it is part of me sixteen fiftyand sixty five, fifty and sixty five
for the Cardinals. Rays are sixtynine and forty seven. So that's the
case with the Birds. I alsocaught a little bit of Jack flaherty start
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yesterday with the Houston at or withthe Baltimore Orioals against the Houston Astros and
missed opportunity for the Rays. Now, yesterday I came on here and said
that I believe the Rays are gonnapull back and win the American League East,
and right now they are just twogames behind Baltimore, but they had
a chance last night to gain evenmore ground on the Orioles, and I
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think the Orioles are slipping in abig way again. They blew a six
two lead into game on Tuesday nightagainst Houston, and that was abysmal.
Their their bullpen collapse, which hasbeen a pretty stable spot for the Baltimore
Orioles all season long. But thenyou add in what they did to that
broadcaster and how they're getting all sortsof negative headlines, and really it's just
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been a bad week or two weeksfor the Rays. If you go back,
or part of me the Orioles,if you go back to the trade
deadline. A lot of people didn'tthink that they did enough at the deadline.
They didn't go out and get aSurezer or Verlander, knowing full well
that they had all the assets inthe world to make a trade to improve
their rotation tenfold, and they didn'tdo that. Instead, they relied on
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going out and getting a Jack Flaherty, which you know everybody in the media,
I'll refer back to that fascinating littlepanel on MLB Network where Dan o'doubt
sat there and went, I thinkthe Orioles just took a massive They just
made a massive mistake. And everybodywas like, well, why, I
mean Flaherty, you know he's gotpostseason experience. They lean on his unbelievable
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second half of twenty nineteen in whichhe guided the Cardinals into the postseason and
didn't have a great postseason, butthe Cardinals still went to the NLCS and
that debacle against the Washington Nationals.But the Baltimore Orials did not make a
impact trade for their rotation at thedeadline, and here they are playing Houston
and they blow the game with asix two lead on Wednesday or Tuesday,
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and then last night they get blownout by the Houston Astros and Jack Flaherty
five inning, six hits, threeruns, two walks, and he did
strike out eight. So that's aline that is a very reminiscent of what
he did in Saint Louis, givingup the long ball, walking a couple
of batters, spreading around six hits. And in his debut with the Orioles,
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you might recall that he pitched decent, but he worked self out of
trouble in the sixth or seventh inningthat he pitched against the Toronto Blue Jays
where he loaded the base but thenutilize some strikeouts to get him himself out
of trouble in that first game thathe played with the Baltimore Orioles. So
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the Houston Astros right now are turningit on. And imagine that. You
know, it's the top of thatline up yesterday that continues to just pummel
pitching across the big leagues, ledby Jose Altuve, a three hit day,
he drove in three runs and scoreda pair. And then Alex Bregman,
who Luke Gregorson once told me.I asked him, you know who's
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the engine on that ball club?And without a shadow of a doubt,
he sat there and literally didn't wasteone second before he uttered Bregman. And
I saw Bregman come up through theAstros organization. This kid is a winner.
Clearly he is doing great things withthe Astros, and he produced yesterday
with a three hit day as well. So if Houston's gonna get those types
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of performances by Bregman and Altuve,look out and then the kid who's having
a great season. It's a littlebit overshadowed because you've had some remarkable years.
I mean Otani what he's doing withthe Angels, he got a kuno
with the Braves. But do notlook past what Kyle Tucker has done this
season for the Houston Astros. Thisyoung man hitting two ninety five, he's
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played in one hundred and fourteen ballgames, and he does a little bit
of everything. Twenty one home runs, twenty eight doubles, he's driven in
eighty four and oh yeah, bythe way, he's also stolen twenty four
bases in twenty seven attempts. SoKyle Tucker is just a great player for
the Houston Astros, who they convenientlyslide into their lineup hitting clean up this
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year. And another two RBIs yesterdayfor the young outfielder mister Tucker with the
Houston Astros. So people, youknow, I think the American League race
is as intriguing as I can recallit. It was only wasn't it last
year that the American League race Thelast two years, basically the American League
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race was all but wrapped up divisionleaders and all of that by the all
Star Game. That is not thecase this season where you've got Baltimore leading
by two games, But I'm predictingthat the Rays are going to come back
and steal that division and take itaway from Baltimore. I think Baltimore is
gonna make the playoffs. I haveno doubt about that. But again,
their lack of impact picture at thedeadline, I thought it was a mistake.
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And I think this whole fiasco withKevin Brown and the announcer is such
a distraction from what they've done allyear long. And maybe I'm overplaying it,
but I don't think so. Ithink this ball club got all sorts
of good hype. They were agreat story, they won a lot of
games, and now all of asudden, they're being asked about things that
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have nothing, and I mean nothingto do with the product on the field.
That has to do with their announcer, who was outrageously suspended by a
very insecure front office and ownership misterAngelos, who didn't lie the way that
Kevin Brown stated a fact about howthey hadn't won like sixteen straight series down
at Tropicana Field against the Race,and then you parlay that I saw they
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haven't even come out and publicly acknowledgedthat they were completely wrong about this.
They've stated they leaked that Kevin Brown, I suppose, is going to be
back in the booth on Friday whenthey go to Seattle. But here's the
thing. Now, the word outof Baltimore is, oh, the owners
actually didn't like the polo shirts thatKevin Brown was wearing. Apparently he was
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wearing the wrong Baltimore Orioles logo onhis polo shirts that I am sure the
team or MSN, which is thesports regional network that the Baltimore Orioles are
broadcast on, the owner saw that, and he is now using that as
a scapegoat to try to I guessa race. His public acknowledgment of embarrassment,
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Kevin Brown made a comment about afact that the Orioles have sucked against
the Rays in sixteenth straight series.So that man continues to be a disgrace.
The thing he should do is comeout and just acknowledge that he's screwed
up. He shouldn't have suspended thebroadcaster and move past this. Instead,
he's like doubling down and now he'smaking another excuse about a polo a polo
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that the kid was wearing. Imean, how clueless do you have to
be? It's amazing. Guys gotall the money in the world and here
he is making a complete buffoon ofhimself while his team is clinging on to
first place in a very tough AmericanLeague Geese in which all five teams are
above five hundred. Yankees are inthe seller at fifty nine and fifty six.
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What a tear. If you're aBaltimore Royals fan, you have suffered
a lot of losing seasons. Youfelt good about your team all year long,
and now everything that's being talked orwritten about your ball club has nothing
to do with their seventy wins onAugust tenth. That has to do with
the broadcaster that bad, bad,bad bad. So I think Baltimore is
in for it. There in theAmerican League, Central Minnesota sort of got
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better by the rest of the divisionbeing awful. Cleveland traded away Savale,
They traded away the outfielder Candelaria tothe Chicago Cubs. So Cleveland continues to
slip their three and seven over theirlast ten ball games and a Minnesota twins.
Right now, it's sixty and fiftysix likely to win the American League
Central. The other three teams inthat division are so pathetic they're not even
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worth wasting an ounce of breath on. So in the American League West,
Texas playing good baseball. Max Scherzerhas come over and immediately had an impact
on that team. He's pitched wellin two straight starts now for Texas,
And who didn't see that coming?Bringing in a future Hall of Famer and
plugging him into their rotation. Andthat guy is a stud. He gets
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out of the armpit of New Yorkand he works his way to Texas for
a first place team, and nowhe's pitching like everybody remembers the great Max
Schurz are being capable of doing.But Houston right on their heels as well,
both of those clubs playing good baseball, and Seattle they're playing good as
well. Nine and one over theirlast ten. They've won seven straight games,
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but they can't buy any ground becauseTexas and Houston keep winning. So
all of a sudden, the Marinersare ten games over five hundred, but
they've made no ground in the AmericanLeague West, with Texas at sixty eight
and forty seven and a two gamelead. Over the Houston Astros, who
have won the first two against theOrioles, and they've got a day game
right now in which they're tied atone in the early innings of that game.
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So that's what you got from theAmerican League. Now, just looking
at the wildcard real quick, becausewith Seattle jumping into the fray here with
seven straight victories, they are chasingdown Toronto and Toronto currently ahead of them
by two games in the wild cardrace, but Tampa Bay, Houston,
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Toronto, so Seattle really the onlyteams right now that are vying for postseason
spot. Boston has slipped three andseven in their last ten and they are
five games back of the Toronto BlueJays for that second wild card spot,
and the Yankees. Quite frankly,the Yankees can do whatever they are doing
in the entire season. I willnot consider them a postseason contender until I
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see an ounce of that starting rotationbe able to do anything. And I
just saw they put Carlos Rodon onthe injured list again, so he missed
all of basically the entire first halfof the season. Now he's back on
the injured list, and that isa big contract that they're paying to the
former San Francisco Giants and Chicago WhiteSox pitcher, and the left hander just
(29:44):
has not been able to stay healthyfor the Yankees, So that's a problem
in that lineup, of course,has seen all sorts of different figures,
with Judge spending a significant time onthe injured list all year long. In
the National League, Atlanta cruising inthe National League East, it's seventy two
and forty Milwaukee ahead of everybody inthe National League Central, and I'll have
(30:07):
more on that in just a second. But Milwaukee at sixty two and fifty
four. They had a brutal collapseof their bullpen yesterday against the Rockies,
but they were able to come backand secure that. Actually, Adrian Houser
had a terrible start for Milwaukee andit was the bullpen for the Rockies,
Lawrence who gave that up yesterday.Justin Lawrence was awful in that game.
(30:29):
And Milwaukee comes back and puts tworuns up in the bottom of the tenth
inning to win seven to six overthe Rockies. So they take care of
business there. So they've got thelead in the National League Central, and
then in the National League West,you've got the Dodgers with a six game
lead over the San Francisco Giants,who are fading as well. Now sixty
two and fifty three. They've playedfive hundred ball over their last ten,
(30:51):
but the Dodgers man. And imaginethat the Dodgers go at the deadline and
they pick up a couple of guysthey weren't sexy picks Zario from the Guardians
and Kik Hernandez from the Red Sox. They got the bad news that EDWARDO.
Rodriguez was going to invoke his notrade clause, thereby essentially nixing a
(31:12):
trade from Detroit to a first placeDodgers team, which remains one of the
most intriguing decisions of all time thatI've seen from a pitcher out in Detroit,
which is not going to the playoffs, and the Dodgers are cruising there.
They are twenty one games above fivehundred. So just like that,
the Dodgers making their case to beone of the best teams in the National
(31:33):
League. Then the wild card Philliesat sixty three and fifty two, and
what a game yesterday by Michael Lorenzen, their free agent are part of me
a deadline acquisition. He throws ano hitter against the Washington Nationals yesterday seven
ZIP and Lorenzen was absolutely terrific inthat no hitter. Nine innings. He
did walk four guys, but workedaround that with five strikeouts and he posts
(31:57):
the no hitter for the Phillies.So they're in first place in the National
League Wildcard San Francisco at sixty twoand fifty three, two and a half
games up over the Miami Marlins,who have done a number to the Cincinnati
Reds yesterday beating the Reds five tofour to get their sixtieth win of the
season. And my team that Ipredicted and they did it for a hot
(32:19):
second, but then had a horribleseries in New York lost again yesterday.
Are the Cubs, and my goodness, the New York Mets doing it to
the Cubs four to three yesterday.So the Cubs sort of stuck in limbo
as well right now outside of theplayoff picture, a half a game behind
the Miami Marlins. Now here's mytake on the Cincinnati Reds, kind of
(32:39):
like the Baltimore Orioles. And leadingup to this deadline, everyone that we
brought on to talk about the landscapeof the postseason, the question was are
the owners in Miami, Cincinnati,and Baltimore gonna do enough to match what
the owners in say Texas, Houstonand LA. Are they gonna match what
(33:04):
those guys are gonna do? AndI think the answer was no. Cincinnati
literally did nothing at the deadline.They did nothing. And so by doing
nothing there I guess you can lookat this two ways. One, you
didn't disrupt anything, but you certainlydidn't give any confidence to that club that
hey, we're gonna come to yourrescue. We're going to be the parachute
(33:27):
and we're gonna get some guys whohave had postseasons experience into the rotation to
try to bolster what's been a terrificyear. They did nothing. And so
Cincinnati, who's lost two straight gamesnow to the Miami Marlins. I don't
know where that team's going, butit's sixty and fifty seven and two and
eight over their last ten and thatis not a good sign for the Cincinnati
(33:50):
Reds. And the Arizona Dbecks continueto be a disgraced fifty seven and fifty
eight, one and nine over theirlast ten games, and they've lost eight
straight games and they are fading quicklyin the National League wild card race.
So that is where things stack uphere on August tenth in both leagues,
the American League and the National League, as the teams are proving that the
(34:13):
ownerships that did the most of thedeadline are starting to play their best baseball.
And these are teams like Eddie Astros, like the Dodgers, like the
Braves, that have had postseason experienceover the last five years, and all
of a sudden, these teams thatare starting to have their first taste of
success, maybe getting a bit wideeyed in terms of what they have in
store going up against very good teamsacross the league. So there you go.
(34:37):
That's how things look. All right, let's get to a time out.
Bob Ramsey is making I believe he'llbe here at some point. He
had something that he needed to takecare of, so he will be in
at some point when we come back, though I didn't have time to get
into it yesterday, but Barstool Sports, which had sold previously to Penn Gaming,
(35:00):
huge deal broke late a couple ofdays ago in which Penn is now
going to align themselves with ESPN.ESPN has already launched a new betting platform,
and they sold Barstool Sports back toDave Portnoy for a dollar. So
I've got some thoughts on this,where Barstool could go from here and if
(35:22):
this is a lifeline for ESPN interms of trying to restore that brand before
it goes completely bankrupt under the Disneyumbrella. So stay tuned for all of
that. Eight five two eight twoeight two five five is the text line.
Be happy to discuss anything you'd likein the world of sports with coldbar
temis. I'm Nate Lucas. Thisis high noon on five ninety The Fan
It's over time now for high noons. So good with Nate Lucas and Bob
Ramsey man ought to do what hethinks is best on five ninety the Fan
and five ninety the Fan dot com. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Happy. What is today? Wow? It's Thursday and that brings us a
(00:34):
day closer to the weekend, whicheverybody is looking forward to. Always a
good thing, always a good thing. Yeah, because we got a big
series against the Royals to watch.That's it. Yeah, the Royals and
Cardinals, two last place teams.Uh, but that's in Kansas City.
(00:56):
Yeah, it's definitely in Kansas City. I know that. I was about
to say, you want to knowsomething I don't know. Come on,
you're supposed to know everything, man, But look, we're at the point
in this season it's Pirates zone inthis city. Okay, it is August
and September where you're looking around,like, who's in the lineup, who
are we playing? What was thescore last night? I don't know.
(01:17):
The good thing is, uh,the Saint Louis Rams pick up. You
know they're in training camp right now, so they play their first preseason game
this week. Oh, the Ramsdo the Rams. Oh, but they
relocated in Los Angeles. I guesstechnically the Kansas City Chiefs. Are you
know who play their home Missouri Missouri'steam, Yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs.
(01:41):
So I assume that in the rareinstances when the Cardinals were not playoff
contenders in August and September, thatthis would be training Camp Central this time
of the year on the radio.Yeah, getting excited about another one in
fifteen Saint Louis Rams team. Oh, I gotta tell you, I think
something's gonna be different with Scott Nahanthis year. Yeah. People in the
(02:05):
Lenahan era actually showed up with paperbags over their heads. Oh that's how
bad that guy? They pulled theAnts move. Yes, that's correct.
I've seen a few out in Detroittoo. I feel like the Lions have
had their fair share of paper bags. Hey not this year for the first
time in ford Field history, whichis two thousand and two, sold out
season tickets in Detroit, Is itreally? Yeah? They are buying in.
(02:29):
They are all in this year inDetroit. Let me tell you,
I will be betting against the Lionsfrom a week one on. And you
know who they played a week oneyour favorite Jacksonville Jaguars. No, they
played the Kansas City Chiefs. Oh, well, that's a good start.
And when that line opened, Ithink it was like six, maybe even
less. And I am going Ithink the Chiefs are gonna absolutely hammer the
(02:52):
Detroit Lions. So yeah, that'sin what four weeks or so from Yeah,
yeah, previo week one betting linesfour weeks out. That's what the
Cardinals are doing to us. Butyou know what, it's okay, Oh
the Cardinals are so bad. Theywon yesterday. Why are they even trying
to win games? I mean literally, at this point, they should be
(03:14):
trying to lose every game so theycan get the best draft pick for next
June. Well, then you haveto tank the lineup. Now. You
want everybody who's on the field actuallytrying to play hard, you want that,
but you just want them to playhard with a very specific subset of
the roster. So I mean,what are you gonna do bench Nolan Arronado
(03:35):
and Paul Goldschmith That does make anysense. Can't do that? So the
way to do it if you wantto tank. And by the way,
I'm not even really in on tanking, because do I think that having the
sixteenth draft pick is all that differentthan the twelfth draft pick. I don't
really care, because whoever you draftin the MLB draft you're not gonna see
for three or four years anyway.So after the fact, are we gonna
be talking about, oh man,they really should have lost those last ten.
(03:58):
No, we never do that's athat's a foot all discussion. We
don't do that in baseball. Yeah, but it's been so long since the
Cardinals had a top ten pick.Yeah, that it is. I mean
it's the most intriguing aspect of theremaining however many games they've got what forty
games left or so thirty seven Ithink I think they're one fifteen in.
(04:20):
There's a forty seven there. Therereally is no other interesting element to this
baseball team to me. And untilthat's it, it's Mason win. When
Mason Winn comes up, who Isaw I was dealing with maybe some growing
tightness and it's not played. Uhin the last week, they're saving him,
say, resting him. Yeah,it's like before the All Star Game,
(04:42):
all the All Stars all of asudden have like a blister on their
finger or something like that, andthen weird, they're they're pitching in in
an exhibition game in the All StarGame. Funny on that works. They're
resting the Mason Winn for August nineteen. That's definitely, you know, something
that I'll be intrigued by when hemakes his way to the big leagues sopefully
sooner then later. August nineteenth isthe date that is expected to be whatever
(05:02):
contractually makes the most financial sense forthe cheap ball club. That's when Mason
Wynn will likely come to Saint Louis. And I'm also intrigued by a boy,
poor Wilson contracts. This guy justcontinues to get beat up. You
see, last night he took apitch and he has a move to the
hockey style mask good, which isgood, you know, after he got
(05:24):
hit in the head on a kneeand a hat backswing. However, last
night a pitch bounced up and gothim in the throat. Caught him right
apple. He didn't have the littleplastic dangly thing hanging down. Sure didn't.
Oh no, yeah, yeah,the ball sack of the catcher's masks.
That what you're talking about. Yeah, excuse my French. I was
a catcher growing up, so Irelate to just you get nicked. It's
(05:47):
a weird angle, it's a foultip. It's the ball bounces in front
of it. It's a fifty eightfoot curveball that bounces too high and it
catches you above the chess guard.So I completely understanding, simpathize with any
catchers who get beat up. Ohit's a brutal position. It's thankless job,
I know. And for a guylike Yadya Molina to do it as
long as he did, I mean, Stephen Vote was a catcher, then
(06:11):
he wasn't and then went back tocatch England his old age. I'm like,
dude, like you got to dothe Joe Mauer plan. You're a
catcher and then you're a first basemanfor a long time. I'll never become
the new position. Forget a gamewith the Springfield Cardinals. Luke Voight,
who caught at Missouri State, bigboy, Yeah, whoa all right?
Well, the Springfield Cardinals were alight, little light at the catcher position.
(06:34):
I think somebody got promoted to TripleA and they had a catcher,
and a catcher got hurt. Nowhe didn't get hurt bad enough to have
to leave the game, but hegot hurt and they didn't have a secondary
catcher, so the emergency catcher wouldhave probably been Luke Voight. And after
I guess it was maybe the nextday or something. I went to Luke
and I said, were you gettingready to, you know, go put
(06:56):
your gear back on? Maybe itwas back in the Missouri State clubhouse,
not the Springfield Cardinals clubhouse, whichare adjacent right next to each other,
and he goes, Buddy, mymind was racing. I did not I
when I took that gear off forthe last time at Missouri State, I
never wanted to put the catching gearback on. But he definitely was the
emergency catcher if whoever got hurt.I can't remember all the names, but
(07:19):
didn't actually have an emergency catcher.You never know who's going to be when
your mom was Taylor Motter. Somepeople love it, though some people who
don't do it often no, itsounds like he was a full time catcher
at Missouri State. But the peoplewho don't do it often love it,
like, oh, I'm gonna getback there and kind of experiment and it's
(07:40):
cool. I loved playing catcher becauseyou can see the entire field, so
I felt like I was playing andwatching the game at the same time,
and so I kind of loved likequarterbacking in a little bit. I could
be vocal and stuff like that.But yeah, I didn't enjoy the part
where the pitcher was throwing the ballin the dirt and I had to let
me move. I wasn't very skilledat that tough job. And I see,
(08:01):
I see if some of these Isee major leaguers do it. It's
like a ninety five mile an hourfastball in the dirt, and these guys
are like perfect timing getting their bodyin front of it. I'm like,
I don't even understand how you're readand react can be that quick to know
exactly like a ball, a ballthat is going to be just barely above
the ground that you can just kindof backhand, versus a ball that actually
(08:22):
is going to go in the groundand you have to dive over and get
your entire body in front of Howcan you read it that? Well,
never understood it. But these guysare wizards. They must have that is
beyond what I'm looking at. Icaught a little bit, but it was
bizarre because I was left handed,but growing up playing at right up the
street, at Saint Genevieve du Bois, CYC. We had a kid,
(08:43):
Chris Pacongo, who could really humit. This kid was a pretty good
pitcher, and I guess I wasthe only crazy one that was brave enough
to get back there and catch theman. So whenever he would pitch,
I would. We had to findlike a left handed catchers mint, which
I'm sure I still have somewhere parents'garage or something like that. But that's
a rarity to find a left handedcatcher's mint. Yeah, no kidding.
(09:05):
And another reason why as a minorityin this country, it's very difficult.
And your mitt is somewhere at playedagainst sports somewhere somehow passing it on to
the next generation, because there's onlyone left handed catcher's mitten. St.
Louis. The were the absolute worstwas when you were umpiring and there was
a catcher behind home plate who wasnot capable, and you are you are
(09:26):
essentially now the catcher, whether yougot the big pillow, which I preferred,
and because the catcher had no opportunityof catching the ball, and every
single pitch would go right past thecatcher. So then you're just kind of
doing the best you can to blockthe ball from going all the way to
the backstop, so you could speedit up a little bit. In brutal
Saint Louis head in a summer wheremaybe you know you had a few pops
(09:50):
the night before, so you're sweatingout a little bud heavy and man,
and then the kid in front ofyou can't make the catch. It's like,
good lord, do you guys haveanybody on your team that can catch
the ball. Instead, you're puttinga little Tommy back here. Yeah,
Tommy. The shin guards don't evenfit Tommy. They're sliding off his legs.
Find somebody to catch the ball.No, I noticed that a lot
(10:11):
of Major leaguers, if not allof them, don't use knee savers on
the back of their shin guards.Yeah, those are those like outlawed.
I don't know, because why wouldwhy would you not use those? You
can just like sit on them.They're awesome. Is that the purpose of
knee savers? Well, no,you're supposed to be more active and engaged
in the game than just just likesit there and be lazy. But they
(10:33):
felt better. They'd rather do thatthan do the like one knee on the
ground, one leg kicked all theway out, because I feel like you're
begging for an injury if you're justexposing your groin like that. Well,
here's another little problem with those kneesavers that catchers use on the back of
their shin guards to rest their thighsor knees or whatever, take a little
(10:54):
weight off their their legs, andlike C y C ball, you're constantly
chick changing positions. So that means, you know, maybe another catcher has
his own shin guards and you gotto take those knee savers off and put
him on his shin guards. Andthen it's like, let's go. And
then the picture hasn't warmed up.It's like, where are we on this
time clock? Are we at ahunt a minute or an hour and forty
(11:15):
five seconds? Because I'm calling itthe second we get there. We gotta
move this thing along. Hustle in, hustle out. Boys. What's the
YC stand for? Ah, that'sa good question, Christian youth something something.
Yeah, I really don't know.I should know, considering I played
a long time. So Cardinals dowin yesterday and it didn't go all that
(11:39):
well for Dakota Hudson, but eitherway, they win the ball game against
the Rays. And as much asI think that the Rays are a good
team, I gotta tell you it'snot that inspiring to watch. Well,
maybe it's because the Cardinals are justawful, but it's just not like a
place where on the road you're sogung ho about watching, like, Oh,
(12:03):
Cardinals are at Tampa Bay, Igotta watch this game. It's just
they're just not that interesting of ateam, I suppose. And when they
use an opener, which they didyesterday, that did not go all that
well for Jalen Beaks. He wasthe opener for Tampa Bay. Two innings,
three hits, two runs, awalk, not great. And then
the cat that came in after him, mister Kelly. Kevin Kelly, who
(12:26):
has pitched well this season for theRays, was not very good either.
Two innings, five hits, threeearned runs. Cardinals Dakota Hudson got the
win. Five innings, seven hits, three earned runs. He walked one
and struck out two, but gaveup two bombs and both of those came
off the bat of Siri, whoI liked that kid man. He's a
(12:46):
good center fielder, Jose Siri andhis bat been a little week this season.
But all you need to do isgo up against Cardinals pitching to reinvigorate
your offense, I suppose. Andhe hit the ball out a couple of
times. But yesterday newpar hit ahome for the Cardinals. He's twelfth of
the year and pretty well routed effortsix runs on nine hits for Saint Louis
(13:07):
and they got it done yesterday sixto four against the Tampa Bay Race.
So rubber match set forth today andthat'll go. I do actually kind of
like the five forty start time.You do have some day baseball going on
right now. Houston and Baltimore tiedat one, and Atlanta in Pittsburgh,
(13:30):
with Atlanta leading that ball game fourto nothing in the top of the third.
Cardinals and raised tonight at five fortyCentral time. And the storyline,
if you read the paper this morning, is that Matthew libertur is going to
get the ball for the Birds.And of course Libertory came over in the
trade from the Rays, former firstround pick by the Tampa Bay Rays,
and the left hander who has hadmostly down season one and four with a
(13:52):
six point nine three r in ninestarts this season for the Cardinals going up
against his former clubs. The quotesin there there are a couple of interesting
ones. I thought Adam Wainwright,who was a former first round pick by
the Atlanta Braves, was dealt overto Saint Louis and the JD. Drew
trade. He referenced, how youknow it can be tough on a young
(14:16):
pitcher, like, not really understandingwhy. I mean this organization they thought
so highly of me, they tookme in the first round, and now
I'm going to an organization I don'tknow anything about blah blah blah, So
there can be a learning curve there. And then I thought that the quote
from Oli Marmel was intriguing when hesaid, we're just trying to unlock what
we know is inherent. With aguy like Matthew Libertour, who's got a
(14:39):
nice fastball, you should have goodsecondary pitches. But as I even think
about his best start of the yearfor the Cardinals, which was his initial
start way back against the Milwaukee Brewersabout two months ago. In fact,
let me pull up for the actualdate of that start against Milwaukee. It
(15:00):
was on May seventeenth, where hewent five innings, three hits, and
struck out six and you're like,oh, man, all right, maybe
Libertory is finally gonna turn the cornerhere and start pitching. Well, well,
that didn't really last because the Dodgershad their way with him, and
then Cleveland had their way with him. Texas, San Francisco, the Mets,
the Cubs, the Yankees, andMiami did a number to him.
(15:24):
And in his last start five earnedruns over five and two thirds against the
Minnesota Twins. And remember that wasthe day after Hudson pitched a pretty darned
good game against the Twins, andlibertur had a chance to come out and
win the series against Minnesota and hegot beat around. So and when you
add in two walks, that's anotherthing. In fact, the Libertor has
(15:46):
not had a game this year inwhich he has not walked a batter,
So that's concerning. And my originalpoint about going back to that May seventeenth
start against Milwaukee, you look atthe breaking ball pitches that Libertore throws,
and they're just up in the zone. And there's not a pitcher in the
big leagues that can throw a curveballthat stays up in the zone and doesn't
(16:07):
have enough ben do it that majorleague hitters aren't going to absolutely tee off
on and so you know, he'sgot to get those secondary pitches refined to
the point where they've got enough bitewhere he can work off his fastball,
but then obviously mix in his secondarypitches to be effective and whatever that means,
(16:30):
unlock, unleash whatever internal capabilities thatthis organization believes Matthew Libertory has.
We're gonna need to see it overhis final handful of starts here in the
remaining games left of the regular season, because Matthew Libertory at this point has
done absolutely nothing to prove to methat he deserves a spot in the rotation.
And he's done really nothing other than, you know, prove that he's
(16:53):
an arm in the organization, that'sbeen very underwhelming. And when you get
to spring training next March, ifhe is a guy that the organization is
looking at to be in the rotation, which we know has plenty of openings,
and they've acknowledged publicly that it's goingto take more than the guys the
horses they have in the stable rightnow. But if you look at history,
(17:18):
you don't feel all that good aboutwhere the organization is going to go
to to try to bring in someof those external assets, so that that's
the concern, and I've got toI'll play some clips here coming up.
I thought Bernie Michel has had abombshell opening monologue from yesterday in which I
think you should go back and listento all forty minutes of it, because
(17:38):
he just tore down the entire strategythat has not worked for the Cardinals since
this season began. And I maintain, and I know this is kind of
like crying over spilled milk, andI suppose there's no way to truly prove
this, but you could see thebreaks in the foundation, the cracks in
(17:59):
the foundation, even going back tolast season. But the Cardinals defense last
year was much better than it wasthis year. In fact, Bernie brought
the numbers to prove that their defensiveratings have slipped to one of the worst
in Major League Baseball. And thenyou combine that with the balls the batting
average on balls putting play by opponents, and the Cardinals are dead last this
(18:22):
year in the big leagues from thatstandpoint. So when you combine a worst
defense with a pitching staff that doesn'tmiss bats and you're relying on good defense
and that's not the case. Andthe average against Cardinals hitters on balls putting
play is over three twenty. Thatis like a terrible mix. And you
don't have to be a genius tofigure that out. It's like two plus
(18:44):
two equals four kind of thing.And apparently this organization was just blindsided by
the movement in Major League Baseball thatif you don't start acquiring guys that miss
bats and can find the strike zonerepeatedly, you're going to be behind the
eight ball. And that's how thewhole house of cards collapse on the Cardinals
to the point where they are rightnow with a forty nine and what is
(19:07):
their record forty nine and sixty fourI believe after last night is that what
it is part of me sixteen fiftyand sixty five, fifty and sixty five
for the Cardinals. Rays are sixtynine and forty seven. So that's the
case with the Birds. I alsocaught a little bit of Jack flaherty start
(19:27):
yesterday with the Houston at or withthe Baltimore Orioals against the Houston Astros and
missed opportunity for the Rays. Now, yesterday I came on here and said
that I believe the Rays are gonnapull back and win the American League East,
and right now they are just twogames behind Baltimore, but they had
a chance last night to gain evenmore ground on the Orioles, and I
(19:49):
think the Orioles are slipping in abig way again. They blew a six
two lead into game on Tuesday nightagainst Houston, and that was abysmal.
Their their bullpen collapse, which hasbeen a pretty stable spot for the Baltimore
Orioles all season long. But thenyou add in what they did to that
broadcaster and how they're getting all sortsof negative headlines, and really it's just
(20:12):
been a bad week or two weeksfor the Rays. If you go back,
or part of me the Orioles,if you go back to the trade
deadline. A lot of people didn'tthink that they did enough at the deadline.
They didn't go out and get aSurezer or Verlander, knowing full well
that they had all the assets inthe world to make a trade to improve
their rotation tenfold, and they didn'tdo that. Instead, they relied on
(20:36):
going out and getting a Jack Flaherty, which you know everybody in the media,
I'll refer back to that fascinating littlepanel on MLB Network where Dan o'doubt
sat there and went, I thinkthe Orioles just took a massive They just
made a massive mistake. And everybodywas like, well, why, I
mean Flaherty, you know he's gotpostseason experience. They lean on his unbelievable
(21:00):
second half of twenty nineteen in whichhe guided the Cardinals into the postseason and
didn't have a great postseason, butthe Cardinals still went to the NLCS and
that debacle against the Washington Nationals.But the Baltimore Orials did not make a
impact trade for their rotation at thedeadline, and here they are playing Houston
and they blow the game with asix two lead on Wednesday or Tuesday,
(21:26):
and then last night they get blownout by the Houston Astros and Jack Flaherty
five inning, six hits, threeruns, two walks, and he did
strike out eight. So that's aline that is a very reminiscent of what
he did in Saint Louis, givingup the long ball, walking a couple
of batters, spreading around six hits. And in his debut with the Orioles,
(21:48):
you might recall that he pitched decent, but he worked self out of
trouble in the sixth or seventh inningthat he pitched against the Toronto Blue Jays
where he loaded the base but thenutilize some strikeouts to get him himself out
of trouble in that first game thathe played with the Baltimore Orioles. So
(22:08):
the Houston Astros right now are turningit on. And imagine that. You
know, it's the top of thatline up yesterday that continues to just pummel
pitching across the big leagues, ledby Jose Altuve, a three hit day,
he drove in three runs and scoreda pair. And then Alex Bregman,
who Luke Gregorson once told me.I asked him, you know who's
(22:30):
the engine on that ball club?And without a shadow of a doubt,
he sat there and literally didn't wasteone second before he uttered Bregman. And
I saw Bregman come up through theAstros organization. This kid is a winner.
Clearly he is doing great things withthe Astros, and he produced yesterday
with a three hit day as well. So if Houston's gonna get those types
(22:52):
of performances by Bregman and Altuve,look out and then the kid who's having
a great season. It's a littlebit overshadowed because you've had some remarkable years.
I mean Otani what he's doing withthe Angels, he got a kuno
with the Braves. But do notlook past what Kyle Tucker has done this
season for the Houston Astros. Thisyoung man hitting two ninety five, he's
(23:15):
played in one hundred and fourteen ballgames, and he does a little bit
of everything. Twenty one home runs, twenty eight doubles, he's driven in
eighty four and oh yeah, bythe way, he's also stolen twenty four
bases in twenty seven attempts. SoKyle Tucker is just a great player for
the Houston Astros, who they convenientlyslide into their lineup hitting clean up this
(23:38):
year. And another two RBIs yesterdayfor the young outfielder mister Tucker with the
Houston Astros. So people, youknow, I think the American League race
is as intriguing as I can recallit. It was only wasn't it last
year that the American League race Thelast two years, basically the American League
(23:59):
race was all but wrapped up divisionleaders and all of that by the all
Star Game. That is not thecase this season where you've got Baltimore leading
by two games, But I'm predictingthat the Rays are going to come back
and steal that division and take itaway from Baltimore. I think Baltimore is
gonna make the playoffs. I haveno doubt about that. But again,
their lack of impact picture at thedeadline, I thought it was a mistake.
(24:23):
And I think this whole fiasco withKevin Brown and the announcer is such
a distraction from what they've done allyear long. And maybe I'm overplaying it,
but I don't think so. Ithink this ball club got all sorts
of good hype. They were agreat story, they won a lot of
games, and now all of asudden, they're being asked about things that
(24:45):
have nothing, and I mean nothingto do with the product on the field.
That has to do with their announcer, who was outrageously suspended by a
very insecure front office and ownership misterAngelos, who didn't lie the way that
Kevin Brown stated a fact about howthey hadn't won like sixteen straight series down
at Tropicana Field against the Race,and then you parlay that I saw they
(25:08):
haven't even come out and publicly acknowledgedthat they were completely wrong about this.
They've stated they leaked that Kevin Brown, I suppose, is going to be
back in the booth on Friday whenthey go to Seattle. But here's the
thing. Now, the word outof Baltimore is, oh, the owners
actually didn't like the polo shirts thatKevin Brown was wearing. Apparently he was
(25:32):
wearing the wrong Baltimore Orioles logo onhis polo shirts that I am sure the
team or MSN, which is thesports regional network that the Baltimore Orioles are
broadcast on, the owner saw that, and he is now using that as
a scapegoat to try to I guessa race. His public acknowledgment of embarrassment,
(26:00):
Kevin Brown made a comment about afact that the Orioles have sucked against
the Rays in sixteenth straight series.So that man continues to be a disgrace.
The thing he should do is comeout and just acknowledge that he's screwed
up. He shouldn't have suspended thebroadcaster and move past this. Instead,
he's like doubling down and now he'smaking another excuse about a polo a polo
(26:22):
that the kid was wearing. Imean, how clueless do you have to
be? It's amazing. Guys gotall the money in the world and here
he is making a complete buffoon ofhimself while his team is clinging on to
first place in a very tough AmericanLeague Geese in which all five teams are
above five hundred. Yankees are inthe seller at fifty nine and fifty six.
(26:44):
What a tear. If you're aBaltimore Royals fan, you have suffered
a lot of losing seasons. Youfelt good about your team all year long,
and now everything that's being talked orwritten about your ball club has nothing
to do with their seventy wins onAugust tenth. That has to do with
the broadcaster that bad, bad,bad bad. So I think Baltimore is
in for it. There in theAmerican League, Central Minnesota sort of got
(27:07):
better by the rest of the divisionbeing awful. Cleveland traded away Savale,
They traded away the outfielder Candelaria tothe Chicago Cubs. So Cleveland continues to
slip their three and seven over theirlast ten ball games and a Minnesota twins.
Right now, it's sixty and fiftysix likely to win the American League
Central. The other three teams inthat division are so pathetic they're not even
(27:29):
worth wasting an ounce of breath on. So in the American League West,
Texas playing good baseball. Max Scherzerhas come over and immediately had an impact
on that team. He's pitched wellin two straight starts now for Texas,
And who didn't see that coming?Bringing in a future Hall of Famer and
plugging him into their rotation. Andthat guy is a stud. He gets
(27:52):
out of the armpit of New Yorkand he works his way to Texas for
a first place team, and nowhe's pitching like everybody remembers the great Max
Schurz are being capable of doing.But Houston right on their heels as well,
both of those clubs playing good baseball, and Seattle they're playing good as
well. Nine and one over theirlast ten. They've won seven straight games,
(28:15):
but they can't buy any ground becauseTexas and Houston keep winning. So
all of a sudden, the Marinersare ten games over five hundred, but
they've made no ground in the AmericanLeague West, with Texas at sixty eight
and forty seven and a two gamelead. Over the Houston Astros, who
have won the first two against theOrioles, and they've got a day game
right now in which they're tied atone in the early innings of that game.
(28:38):
So that's what you got from theAmerican League. Now, just looking
at the wildcard real quick, becausewith Seattle jumping into the fray here with
seven straight victories, they are chasingdown Toronto and Toronto currently ahead of them
by two games in the wild cardrace, but Tampa Bay, Houston,
(28:59):
Toronto, so Seattle really the onlyteams right now that are vying for postseason
spot. Boston has slipped three andseven in their last ten and they are
five games back of the Toronto BlueJays for that second wild card spot,
and the Yankees. Quite frankly,the Yankees can do whatever they are doing
in the entire season. I willnot consider them a postseason contender until I
(29:22):
see an ounce of that starting rotationbe able to do anything. And I
just saw they put Carlos Rodon onthe injured list again, so he missed
all of basically the entire first halfof the season. Now he's back on
the injured list, and that isa big contract that they're paying to the
former San Francisco Giants and Chicago WhiteSox pitcher, and the left hander just
(29:44):
has not been able to stay healthyfor the Yankees, So that's a problem
in that lineup, of course,has seen all sorts of different figures,
with Judge spending a significant time onthe injured list all year long. In
the National League, Atlanta cruising inthe National League East, it's seventy two
and forty Milwaukee ahead of everybody inthe National League Central, and I'll have
(30:07):
more on that in just a second. But Milwaukee at sixty two and fifty
four. They had a brutal collapseof their bullpen yesterday against the Rockies,
but they were able to come backand secure that. Actually, Adrian Houser
had a terrible start for Milwaukee andit was the bullpen for the Rockies,
Lawrence who gave that up yesterday.Justin Lawrence was awful in that game.
(30:29):
And Milwaukee comes back and puts tworuns up in the bottom of the tenth
inning to win seven to six overthe Rockies. So they take care of
business there. So they've got thelead in the National League Central, and
then in the National League West,you've got the Dodgers with a six game
lead over the San Francisco Giants,who are fading as well. Now sixty
two and fifty three. They've playedfive hundred ball over their last ten,
(30:51):
but the Dodgers man. And imaginethat the Dodgers go at the deadline and
they pick up a couple of guysthey weren't sexy picks Zario from the Guardians
and Kik Hernandez from the Red Sox. They got the bad news that EDWARDO.
Rodriguez was going to invoke his notrade clause, thereby essentially nixing a
(31:12):
trade from Detroit to a first placeDodgers team, which remains one of the
most intriguing decisions of all time thatI've seen from a pitcher out in Detroit,
which is not going to the playoffs, and the Dodgers are cruising there.
They are twenty one games above fivehundred. So just like that,
the Dodgers making their case to beone of the best teams in the National
(31:33):
League. Then the wild card Philliesat sixty three and fifty two, and
what a game yesterday by Michael Lorenzen, their free agent are part of me
a deadline acquisition. He throws ano hitter against the Washington Nationals yesterday seven
ZIP and Lorenzen was absolutely terrific inthat no hitter. Nine innings. He
did walk four guys, but workedaround that with five strikeouts and he posts
(31:57):
the no hitter for the Phillies.So they're in first place in the National
League Wildcard San Francisco at sixty twoand fifty three, two and a half
games up over the Miami Marlins,who have done a number to the Cincinnati
Reds yesterday beating the Reds five tofour to get their sixtieth win of the
season. And my team that Ipredicted and they did it for a hot
(32:19):
second, but then had a horribleseries in New York lost again yesterday.
Are the Cubs, and my goodness, the New York Mets doing it to
the Cubs four to three yesterday.So the Cubs sort of stuck in limbo
as well right now outside of theplayoff picture, a half a game behind
the Miami Marlins. Now here's mytake on the Cincinnati Reds, kind of
(32:39):
like the Baltimore Orioles. And leadingup to this deadline, everyone that we
brought on to talk about the landscapeof the postseason, the question was are
the owners in Miami, Cincinnati,and Baltimore gonna do enough to match what
the owners in say Texas, Houstonand LA. Are they gonna match what
(33:04):
those guys are gonna do? AndI think the answer was no. Cincinnati
literally did nothing at the deadline.They did nothing. And so by doing
nothing there I guess you can lookat this two ways. One, you
didn't disrupt anything, but you certainlydidn't give any confidence to that club that
hey, we're gonna come to yourrescue. We're going to be the parachute
(33:27):
and we're gonna get some guys whohave had postseasons experience into the rotation to
try to bolster what's been a terrificyear. They did nothing. And so
Cincinnati, who's lost two straight gamesnow to the Miami Marlins. I don't
know where that team's going, butit's sixty and fifty seven and two and
eight over their last ten and thatis not a good sign for the Cincinnati
(33:50):
Reds. And the Arizona Dbecks continueto be a disgraced fifty seven and fifty
eight, one and nine over theirlast ten games, and they've lost eight
straight games and they are fading quicklyin the National League wild card race.
So that is where things stack uphere on August tenth in both leagues,
the American League and the National League, as the teams are proving that the
(34:13):
ownerships that did the most of thedeadline are starting to play their best baseball.
And these are teams like Eddie Astros, like the Dodgers, like the
Braves, that have had postseason experienceover the last five years, and all
of a sudden, these teams thatare starting to have their first taste of
success, maybe getting a bit wideeyed in terms of what they have in
store going up against very good teamsacross the league. So there you go.
(34:37):
That's how things look. All right, let's get to a time out.
Bob Ramsey is making I believe he'llbe here at some point. He
had something that he needed to takecare of, so he will be in
at some point when we come back, though I didn't have time to get
into it yesterday, but Barstool Sports, which had sold previously to Penn Gaming,
(35:00):
huge deal broke late a couple ofdays ago in which Penn is now
going to align themselves with ESPN.ESPN has already launched a new betting platform,
and they sold Barstool Sports back toDave Portnoy for a dollar. So
I've got some thoughts on this,where Barstool could go from here and if
(35:22):
this is a lifeline for ESPN interms of trying to restore that brand before
it goes completely bankrupt under the Disneyumbrella. So stay tuned for all of
that. Eight five two eight twoeight two five five is the text line.
Be happy to discuss anything you'd likein the world of sports with coldbar
temis. I'm Nate Lucas. Thisis high noon on five ninety The Fan
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